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Thousands of anti-Morsi protesters spend the night in Egypt's Tahrir square
Today's Headlines
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Home Front: Politix
Now Obama wants your 401(k)
Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie.....or else....
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 11/25/2012 18:53 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336092 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Je suis l'état.
Posted by: Iblis || 11/25/2012 23:19 Comments || Top||

#2  They have been wanting to do this for a decade. Now with Obumble at the helm and no reelection coming, they can.

Enjoy America!
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/25/2012 23:36 Comments || Top||

#3  It's World Net Daily, so salt to taste. They do break stories, but they also get excited.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/26/2012 0:01 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Motorcycle lynch mob Israeli spy
Badawi was a member of the Islamist group Jaljalat – Thunder – which takes its inspiration from Al Qaeda and is more hardline than Hamas.

He had been in prison since 2009 when he was arrested on terrorism charges. It was alleged he was one of several fighters planning to launch attacks on Hamas.

Badawi’s family claim that while in prison, he was tortured until he confessed to being a traitor.

‘Ribhi was a proud Palestinian. He loved his country with a rare passion and he was more opposed to Israeli occupation than Hamas is,’ said his widow Kholoud.

‘To see the body of my dear husband dragged through the streets like an animal is truly terrible. The men who did this were wild.’


Posted by: tipper || 11/25/2012 13:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Car bomb kills at least 5 at military church in Nigeria
At least five people were killed and dozens injured on Sunday when a car bomb exploded at a church inside the Jaji military barracks in Nigeria's northern Kaduna state, a military source said.

"I saw five bodies and scores injured," a military officer who witnessed the bombing told Reuters, asking not to be named.
Posted by: tipper || 11/25/2012 09:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under:

#1  up to 11 dead now
Posted by: Frank G || 11/25/2012 15:50 Comments || Top||

#2  My heart-felt sincere sympathies go out to all African Christians, they must feel like they've been sold a pup, when time is wasted voting against women Bishops, etc, and not enough calling to account the whole of Islam by Christians with balls, and that probably includes a few wimmen.

Civil(?) war in Nigeria avoidable? Only with the total kinetic destruction of Boko Haram. Bring back all the Nigerian Hard Boyz living abroad on Oil Money, (giving the nation a really bad reputation as well, btw), and tell them to do something useful for a change and go and kill some mutants....
Posted by: Solomon Protector of the Texans5923 || 11/25/2012 16:50 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
The money behind the method
The widely held assumption that terrorists are merely violent fanatics might be accurate for many of the terror organisations' low-level operatives. Nonetheless, a terror group's leader sees subsequent acts of terror as a way to impress their financial patrons and their ensnared populations. On a day-to-day level, terror groups are primarily financial organisations, expending the bulk of their efforts to raise, invest, allocate and transfer money. These violent groups are just like a drug cartel, and it is therefore a misunderstanding to believe that terrorists need funds just to make cheap bombs. The creation of a terrorist is a long and expensive process.
Posted by: tipper || 11/25/2012 08:44 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Report: Satellite detects Iran attempt to smuggle Fajr rockets to Gaza
The Sunday Times reports that while ceasefire was being negotiated, missiles were being loaded onto cargo ship docked at an Iraninan port. Israel: We will attack and destroy any shipment of arms
British newspaper The Sunday Times reported that Israeli spy satellites have recognized a cargo ship, docked at an Iranian port, being loaded with missiles presumably bound for the Gaza Strip.

According to the report, a cargo ship docked at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas was being loaded with rockets and other weapons and munitions. According to analysts, the shipment is in all likelihood heading for Gaza through the Red Sea, Sudan and then Egypt (which shares a border with Gaza).

The cargo, it seems, was prepared approximately one week ago, around the same time the ceasefire agreement to bring to Operation Pillar of Defense to an end was being decided on.

Israeli intelligence sources believe the weapons-laden cargo ship will pass through the well established Iranian weapons smuggling route to Gaza, through Sudan and the Red Sea. Sources told the British newspaper that they believe Iranian ships stationed in Eritrea will escort the ship from the moment it enters the Red Sea. "Regardless of the ceasefire agreement, we will attack and destroy any shipment of arms to Gaza once we have spotted it," an Israeli defense source said.

It appears that the ship's cargo includes Fajr-5 missiles, which terrorist groups have already fired at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during Operation Pillar of Defense, and possibly Shahab-3 missiles, which can hit deep in Israeli territory.

In Sudan, according to assessment, the Fajr-5 missiles are broken down to four or five parts so they can be conveniently smuggled to Sinai and then brought into Gaza through tunnels.
Posted by: tipper || 11/25/2012 02:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336090 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sink it.
Posted by: Jereque Threrert8033 || 11/25/2012 10:35 Comments || Top||

#2  lot of dangers at sea. Disappear it
Posted by: Frank G || 11/25/2012 11:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Mr. Bond to the white courtesy phone.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/25/2012 12:08 Comments || Top||

#4  The sea is a cruel and unforgiving environment. There are many dangers - shoals, storms, rusty hulls, wire-guided active-homing torpedoes.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/25/2012 12:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Can you imagine the secondary explosions?
Posted by: tipover || 11/25/2012 12:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Whiskey, bad pilots, whiskey, wymens, pirates, whiskey, worm holes, the Aden triangle, storms, poorly ties knots, Godzila any and all of these things might conspire to ARCLIGHT imperil a small ship carrying whiskey arms ah ha.

Posted by: Shipman || 11/25/2012 15:44 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm in favor of unleashing the dreaded Jewphin. (SouthPark reference)
Posted by: Charles || 11/25/2012 16:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Here be dragons
Posted by: European Conservatives || 11/25/2012 20:12 Comments || Top||

#9  Shipman, you left Insh'Allah maintainance off your list.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/25/2012 21:18 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
The real root of terrorism-Darwinism and materialism
Muslim perspective.
Posted by: tipper || 11/25/2012 02:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The random dropping of two atomic bombs ... by the United States? Didn't know it was random. :/
Posted by: Spogum Henbane7455 || 11/25/2012 7:29 Comments || Top||

#2  "It's not us, it's THEM!"
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/25/2012 9:04 Comments || Top||

#3  This proves something vets from the Iraq War told me: Muslim logic is no logic at all.

They still have to work on the cause & effect thingie.
Posted by: Frozen Al || 11/25/2012 16:11 Comments || Top||


Arabia
‘Brotherhood tried to tarnish Kuwait govt’s image’
Posted by: tipper || 11/25/2012 01:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under:


Down Under
Men arrested after mosque 'threat'
The joys of multiculturalism.
Two suspected Muslim extremists have been arrested at a mosque in Sydney's south after threats were allegedly made against worshipers.

Police say two men are in custody after an operation at the mosque in Arncliffe, in Sydney's south, on Sunday afternoon. They said one man was removed from the mosque around 1.15pm by "members of the congregation" before being arrested by police stationed outside.

Another man was arrested outside the mosque, police told AAP. They did not specify the nature of the arrests.

A witness at the mosque who does not want to be named, said he saw members of the congregation drag a man wearing Islamic clothing from the building around 1.00pm (AEDT). The witness said worshippers hauled the man out of the mosque and took him "down the street", before police arrived and apprehended him.

He said the man appeared to be an Anglo-Saxon Australian and said he thought he may have been a Wahabi extremist.
Posted by: tipper || 11/25/2012 00:55 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336064 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Montana GOP Rep.: "Pay Me In Gold Before Dollars Have No Value"
Posted by: tipper || 11/25/2012 00:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
Debate rages over Sudan's Bashir after "plot" arrests
[Al Ahram] Sudan's information minister had one clear message after security agents moved in to arrest their former spy chief - that a plot had been uncovered, the culprits caught and the situation in the country was now "totally stable".

Khartoum did appear quiet a day later on Friday - but on the desert city's dusty streets the detention amplified a debate about the future of the country's leader, and posed new questions about who might one day unseat him.

President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir has kept a near quarter-century hold on this African oil producer, drawing support from its all-powerful military, security services and large parts of the devout, overwhelmingly Mohammedan population.

His speeches regularly referred to threats from outside - from the West, from Israel and from the International Criminal Court
... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
, which has indicted him over charges of atrocities in Darfur.

But the man locked away
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
on Thursday on charges of plotting to "incite chaos" was Salah Gosh, once one of the most powerful figures in Bashir's inner circle, together with several other senior figures from army and security.

"He [Bashir] would always be worried ... that the opposition groups would be involved, but now it's coming from inside. There is a categorical difference there," said Magdi El-Gizouli, a fellow at the Rift Valley Institute.

Gizouli said there were signs of frustration inside the military, where many who had fought Bashir's wars in Darfur and the south were itching for the old guard to move on. "Inside the regime and army are many who want jobs. They are not young anymore. It's not about reforms. It's about power," he added.

Public unrest has also been growing over rising prices and growing inflation after South Sudan split away as an independent nation last year, under the terms of a peace deal, taking most of the country's oil reserves with it.

Diplomats and analysts in Sudan told Rooters they doubted those tensions had built up into an active military coup attempt.

The detentions were rather a warning shot to those inside the army, security and services and ruling party who might even be considering searching for a replacement for Bashir, they added.

"This is a power struggle inside the regime. It was a preemptive measure," said Faisal Mohammad Saleh, a prominent journalist. "I don't think the arrested people had planned anything yet. Maybe they made some phone calls or met, but this was an early stage."

Quieter questions were already circulating about Bashir's future after an official from his ruling National Congress Party said last year, in the wake of Arab Spring protests, he would not seek re-election in the 2015 presidential election.

Speculation mounted after officials were forced to announce Bashir underwent throat surgery in Qatar in August when people in the street started wondering why he had stopped holding his famous public rallies.

Officials insist Bashir is healthy after undergoing a second operation in 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...
. But a reduction in his public appearances has kept people talking.

At an Islamist conference last week Sudan invited Mohammedan leaders from Egypt, Tunisia and further afield, but Bashir's seat was vacant for more than one hour at the opening ceremony. When Bashir finally came, officials interrupted a speech to declare "the president of the republic is here."

The startling arrest of Gosh and the other officials, opened up another dimension in the speculation. "You cannot stop the succession debate anymore. It's there and people wonder how fit their president is or whether he wants to run again at the next elections," said a Western diplomat.

"[Vice President Ali Osman] Taha has many supporters in the NCP but there are others in the army and NCP with ambitions, too."

While details of the plot arrests remain unclear, analysts say the trigger could have been worries that once-loyal Islamists would stage protests after hopes for reforms were dashed at the Khartoum conference last week.

In papers circulated in mosques before the meeting, many had demanded to discuss fighting corruption or reforms at the forum of the Islamic Movement, a quasi-official organization meant to guide the NCP.

But hopes for changes were dashed when the government managed to push through its candidate, former minister Al-Zubeir Al-Hassan, as new secretary general.

"He is not a historical Islamist leader, he doesn't really have Islamic credentials," said Harry Verhoeven, a long-time Sudan watcher.

Thousands of mid-level army officers heeded calls by Mohammedan leaders to fight southern "infidels" during the country's decades-long civil war with South Sudan. Many of them were furious when the peace deal that Bashir secured to end that conflict opened the door for southerners to secede from Sudan last year.

Former "mujahideen" have organised themselves into groups such as the "Saihun," or travelers in Arabic, to vent their anger against the government. "I went fighting as a young man and I feel this government has run the country aground with their corruption. We have ministers who are not competent," said an Islamist, speaking to Rooters before the arrests were announced.

After the arrests, Islamists uploaded pictures of one of the army officers incarcerated
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
alongside Gosh - Wad Ibrahim, a civil war hero respectfully called "Emir of the Mujahideen".

Shops opened as usual in the morning before Friday prayers. At one mosque visited by Rooters the preacher did not mention the arrests.

Many Sudanese, used to political upheavals, wondered what will happen next. "Who is ruling this country," wrote a user on the "Saihun" website on Thursday as rumours were swirling around. "I don't think they tried to stage a military coup," said 55-year-old Ibrahim Idriss, a food merchant in central Khartoum. "I'm not interested in it anyway. I worry more about corruption and officials who steal people's money."

Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Home Front: Culture Wars
North Carolina town split over sheriff's treatment of Latinos
GRAHAM, N.C. -- In this southern mill town, tortillas and bolillos are as common as Carolina barbecue sandwiches. Spanish-language advertisements tout Latino-owned restaurants, garages, churches and used-tire lots, and banners lining the downtown streets proclaim, "Preserving our heritage -- promoting our future."

But protesters who gathered downtown last month in Court Square, near the statue of a Confederate soldier, delivered a different message: "We Want Respect" and "Terry Johnson Stop Lying."

Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson's approach to fighting illegal immigration has raised tensions among Latinos in the community. A two-year investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, released in September, found that Johnson and his deputies had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by engaging "in a pattern or practice of discriminatory policing against Latinos."

Federal officials recently canceled a federal-county immigration policing program, and the standoff is further dividing a community already split by the area's shifting demographics. Alamance County in 1990 had 736 Latinos, and whites made up 80% of the population. Latinos now number 17,000; whites have dropped to 66%.

Latinos have been drawn to Graham by its low-cost housing and its proximity to construction and service-sector jobs in Raleigh, Durham and Greensboro.

The Justice Department report said Johnson supports "an egregious pattern of racial profiling." It said he referred to Latinos as "taco-eaters," ordered deputies to arrest Latino motorists in instances when other drivers only got citations, and once said Mexicans don't mind having sex with 12-year-old girls. Latinos have since held news conferences and rallies and faced off against residents who shout their support for the sheriff.

Johnson, 62, a larger-than-life lawman prone to bombastic statements, denies using the slur and says his comment about 12-year-old girls was a reference to Mexican criminals who ran a prostitution ring.

In a brief statement, Johnson denied any profiling or racist remarks. "The Obama administration has decided to continue to wage war on local law enforcement," he wrote.

Johnson is not giving interviews because of "a threat of litigation," said his lawyer, S.C. Kitchen, who sent a letter to the Justice Department accusing it of "a libelous political attack" that is "full of factual inaccuracies ... based on newspaper articles, rumors and gossip."

Kitchen cited 2011 county statistics showing that Johnson's deputies arrested only 64 of the 466 Spanish-speaking drivers they stopped. Of the others, half got citations and half received verbal warnings. The Justice Department said Johnson's deputies were 4 to 10 times more likely to stop Latino drivers than non-Latinos.

Rosalba Santiago Sagrero, 29, an illegal immigrant in Graham, believes she was targeted solely because she is Latino when she was stopped by a deputy in March and led away in handcuffs to face possible deportation. She hired a lawyer, and an immigration judge dismissed a charge of driving without a license, ruling that the sheriff's order for her to appear in court was "improvidently issued."

Suyapa Mejia-Guevara, a legal U.S. resident, said she was humiliated when a deputy recently stopped her and suggested her driver's license was invalid because the photo didn't look like her. The license is valid, said Mejia-Guevara, who was not charged.

"There's a very clear pattern of [Latinos] getting targeted and arrested for minor traffic violations," said attorney Marty Rosenbluth, director of the N.C. Immigrant Rights Project, who has represented Latinos arrested by Johnson's deputies.

Alamance County Atty. Clyde Albright said the only motive the Justice Department and immigrant rights activists have is to embarrass the sheriff and end the immigration policing program.

"The sheriff has always been a figure who draws the bait," said Madison Taylor, editor of the local Times-News. In a recent column, Taylor wrote: "He's a white Southern sheriff prone to saying things every so often a white Southern sheriff shouldn't say."

Johnson, a former state investigator, is serving his third term. In his first campaign in 2002, he ran an ad that featured "Twilight Zone" theme music and railed against "aliens": "They've filled our criminal courtrooms and invaded our schools. They sponge off the American taxpayer by clogging our welfare lines and our hospital emergency rooms."

That same year, Johnson arrested more than 100 Latinos at a local Division of Motor Vehicles office and accused them of using phony documents to obtain driver's licenses. In 2004, according to Hannah Gill, a researcher at the University of North Carolina, Johnson proposed that deputies visit the homes of people with Latino surnames to root out voter fraud.

In 2007, the Alamance County Sheriff's Office joined a federal program that extends federal enforcement powers to local police to target illegal immigrants accused of committing serious crimes. The program was terminated in Alamance County the day the Justice Department report was issued.

Johnson has created a "climate of fear" among Latinos, said Chris Brook, legal director of the state American Civil Liberties Union. He said Latinos are afraid to report crimes for fear of harassment or deportation.

The sheriff has vigorous support from many longtime residents. David Vaughn, the retired athletic director at a local high school, called Johnson "as honest and fair a man as I've ever known, and one who upholds the law."

Vaughn added: "Ninety-nine percent of the community stands solidly behind Sheriff Johnson."

The Alamance County commissioners, all white, also strongly back the sheriff, praising his hard-line stance against illegal immigration.

At the Sheriff's Office, where a portrait of Johnson greets visitors, his spokesman, Randy Jones, said the department had not changed in the aftermath of the investigation.

"We're doing everything the same way as before," Jones said, "because everything we've done has been completely legal."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Some say brevity is the soul of wit.

(in other words, dont post the whole thing - just a few of the good bits, otherwise there are copyright issues)
Posted by: OldSpook || 11/25/2012 4:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Looks like this article got a 'double tap'.
Maybe its a black Sunday 2:1 offering.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/25/2012 6:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Mexicans don't mind having sex with 12-year-old girls
Neither do certain prominant religious prophets. So what's Johnson upset about?
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/25/2012 9:41 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria rebels attack govt in Aleppo, Islamists clash with Kurds near Turkey
[Al Ahram] Syrian rebels attacked army positions in the northern province of 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...
on Saturday while Islamist fighters clashed with Kurdish militias on the border with Turkey, residents said.
Insurgents also attacked troops guarding the strategic Tishrin dam, located on the Euphrates river between the provinces of Aleppo and Raqa.

The rebels have surrounded the area, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the town of Manbij, local resident Abu Mohammed told AFP.

Opposition fighters already control one of the main routes to Raqa and the Tishrin dam would give them a second passage, connecting a wide expanse of territory between the two provinces, both of which border Turkey.

In Aleppo city, the commercial capital where fighting has reached stalemate after five months of deadly urban combat, festivities broke out near an air force intelligence building, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Insurgents earlier this week captured Base 46, just west of Aleppo. Nearly 300 soldiers were killed in the sprawling army garrison, according to the rebels, and a large cache of arms and ammunition seized.

The rebels are aiming to also seize Sheikh Suleiman base, also west of the city, that they have encircled for nearly two months, to give them full control of a swathe of northwest Syria from Aleppo to the Turkish border.

In Hasakeh province, northwest Syria, Ras al-Ain saw its fiercest violence since the town near the Turkish border was captured by rebels two weeks ago, a resident told AFP.

"There are so few people, most have left. There is no electricity, no water and no mobile coverage," said Ali, a farmer in his 40s, who fled with his family on Saturday.

"The fighting has been non-stop for five or six days now, but in the last 24 hours it has gotten worse ... The Kurds are bringing reinforcements from Derik and other nearby villages," he said.

Two main Kurdish groups have joined forces in a standoff with hundreds of beturbanned fascisti, a Syrian Kurdish representative and an activist said on Friday.

Hundreds of fighters loyal to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) -- which has close ties to Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- have been locked in fierce battles with fighters of the jihadist Al-Nusra Front and allied Ghuraba al-Sham group in Ras al-Ain.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa North
Morocco dismantles cell sending 'jihadists' to Mali
[Al Ahram] Morocco's Interior Minister says that security forces have dismantled a bad boy cell sending young men to fight for organizations linked to al-Qaeda in northern Mali.

The statement issued Saturday said the cell had inculcated more than 20 Moroccans with al-Qaeda ideology and sent them to northern Mali after smuggling them across the closed border with Algeria.

Once in Mali they joined one of the two al-Qaeda linked organizations operating in the north. One man was caught trying to sneak back into Morocco to perform acts of sabotage, the statement added. Morocco frequently announces dismantling small cells planning terrorist attacks inspired by al-Qeada, but the terror network is not believed to have a real presence in this North African kingdom of 32 million.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Woman Rushed To Hospital After Drive-By Pumpkin Attack
[Sacramento.CBSLocal] The hunt is on for the suspects behind a bizarre and brazen attack in Stockton. The dangerous weapon used was a pumpkin.

Police say the woman was pummeled by the pumpkin in a drive-by assault.

Remains of the pumpkin that the suspects threw at a woman can still be seen on the ground. Her injuries were so serious that she had to be rushed to the hospital.

It was a scary and frightening situation as the 51-year-old woman took a Thanksgiving stroll on Wilson Way near Roosevelt Street, only to be victimized during a senseless attack.

"It's rude and immature," said one man.

Stockton police say the culprits hurled a pumpkin out of a fast moving car, and aimed it right at the woman. It hit her in the middle of the chest.

The injuries and the pain so severe, paramedics took her to the hospital. People who live and work in the area say, unfortunately, violence in the area isn't all that surprising.

"Right here on Wilson Way, it's the worst that I've seen it," said the man.

Investigators are trying to figure out why, and who would do this on a day centered around being thankful.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336064 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Pumpkins are coming, the Pumpkins are coming!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/25/2012 2:43 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Puntland forces seriously wound two protestors in Qardho city
[Shabelle] Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
forces have reportedly opened fire on protesting crowds in the town of Qardho, wounding seriously at least two protestors.

On Saturday,Hundreds of demonstrators, including women and kiddies carrying banners erupted into the streets in Qardho city, the scenic provincial capital of Karkaar region, northeast Somalia on Saturday, to show their fury against the visiting Puntland president Abdirahman Farole.

"The Puntland forces loyal to Abdirahman Farole have today opened fire indiscriminately on crowds who were marching a peaceful protest in the city, injuring two demonstrators," a witness said.

The victimized innocent civilians were admitted to a hospital in Qardho, where they are now being treated. However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
Puntland officials have not yet released any comments on the incident.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Nuggets From The Urdu Press
These nuggets are culled from the Urdu press. They are summarised here without comment. Absurd or ridiculous, tft takes no responsibility for them

Drones behind Malala tragedy!
Drones are the answer to every question, dear Reader.
Writing in Dunya Rauf Klasra stated that some TV anchors and columnists were busy connecting the attack on Malala to America and to the rise of cursed secularism in Pakistain.
This is the other answer to all questions, unless it is the Dread Hinjoos or Mossad.
Some commentators have raised the cry that after the attempt on Malala it had become more urgent to start talking to the Taliban. What kind talks can we hold with the Taliban? Should we concede if they demand that Pakistain be handed over to them just as Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
was?

Qazi Sahib's argument
Writing in Jang ex-Amir Jamaat Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmad
... third president (1987--2009) of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. Qazi was also head of the Muttahidah Majlis-e-Amal until his ego became bigger than the organization. Qazi is what is known as a fiery preacher, which means he has lots of volume, a good delivery, and not a lot of reverence for coherence. He was the patron of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Rasool Sayyaf and Osama bin Laden during the war against the Soviets. He used to recommend drining camel's urine to maintain good health before his kidneys started to go...
opined that we often complain about Taliban elements attacking Pakistain Army and doing other terror activities in the country, but it is difficult to explain to the Taliban that if fighting America in Afghanistan was jihad then how can we say that attacking the allies of America in Pakistain was terrorism?

Qazi Sahib on Malala
Quoted by Dunya ex-Jamaat Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmad stated that Malala has been attacked to facilitate attack on North Wazoo. Qazi Sahib said that girl Malala had once said that President B.O. was her hero. And the NGOs were active on cue after Malala had been built up.

Munawwar Hasan on Malala
Talking to Ausaf Jamaat Islami chief Munawwar Hasan stated that those who tried to kill Malala were the very people who had supported attack on South Waziristan. He referred to a video tape that showed a girl being flogged by Taliban in 2009 and said that it was a fake video. He said youths will have to unite to stop America from interfering inside Pakistain.

Infidelity of journalists
Columnist-anchor Nusrat Javeed wrote in Express that after the Supreme Court let the PM off the hook in the NRO case many journalists praised law minister Farooq Naek for winning in the case and denigrated the former law minister Babar Awan for not winning. Nusrat remembered that when Babar Awan was pleading the case the journalists used to praise him too.

Malala attackers were from Orakzai
Reporting in Jang Tahir Khalil stated that the faceless myrmidons who tried to assassinate Malala Yousafzai in Swat were from Orakzai tribal agency and had headed back to Orakzai after shooting her. According to sources there were differences of opinion among those in charge. One source wanted to attribute it to America by saying that the attackers had come from Afghanistan. KP said they did not know who the attackers were and had therefore set a reward for their identification.

Khairpur killer found in South Punjab
According to Ausaf the killer who killed 6 and maimed 18 at a political rally of the PPP under MNA Nafisa Shah - also daughter of Sindh CM - was found and placed in durance vile
Please don't kill me!
in Bahawalpur. He was a professional religious killer called Azizullah alias Kafan (shroud) who carried a head money of Rs 25 lakh. Bahawalpur is the centre of a famous jihadi ally of Al Qaeda.

Story of two Malalas
Writing in Jang Saleem Safi stated that Pakistain's Malala Yousafzai had become famous because of her bravery but there was Malala Joya of Afghanistan too who secretly educated thousands of girls while the Taliban ruling the country were busy destroying girls' schools. She was influenced by Shola Javed liberal movement but was soon critical of the post-Taliban government dominated by warlords. She attacked a warlord in parliament and was thrown out by Afghan parliament. Under attack, she finally left Afghanistan and had recently published a book about warlordism.

Greater Taliban alliance
Columnist Amir Khakwani wrote in Dunya that among Taliban leaders - apart from Baitullah Mehsud - no one fought in Afghanistan. The Mehsuds gave shelter to the fleeing Al Qaeda Arabs plus Chechen and Uzbek warriors. Later Fazlullah of Swat and Punjabi jihadi elements joined them. All together they started attacking Pakistain Army on the directions of Al Qaeda. Tehrik Taliban was given the fatwa that fighting Pakistain Army was first priority. Later a lot of criminal gangs too joined the Taliban forming a network of arms smuggling with money looted from banks and ransom collected from kidnappings.

General Beg's pearls of wisdom
Famous former army chief General Aslam Beg
...occasionally incoherent retired four-star general who was the Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army, succeeding the creepy General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, after the latter was rubbed out died in an air crash in 1988. The general was involved up to his hairy ears in the Mehran bank scandal, shuffling millions in public money to buy or lease politicians, and is believed one of the prime movers in the sale of Pak nuclear technology to Iran. He ranks second only to Hamid Gul in the volume and flavor of his anti-Western vitriol..
facing charges of extortion and embezzlement told Dunya that people who recommend attacking North Wazoo are implementing the American agenda in Pakistain. No one including the US and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
can defeat the Haqqani network. Zardari has been told by Americans that he is of no use and the next turn is Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
's to serve the Americans. He added Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight...
was now lifeless and could win only two to four seats in parliament.

Lal Masjid holy man attacks chief justice
Daily Jinnah quoted Lal Masjid naib khateeb Maulana Amir Siddiq as saying that chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was busy putting the state structure at risk to save the skin of his son. First the judge swore that he would be honest in dealing with his son's case then he withdrew from his oath. Now he must get Arslan's accounts investigated by such neutral personalities as Aitzaz, Asma Jehangir and Aleem Akbar.

'I will shoot myself!'
Quoted in Jinnah PPP leader Senator Faisal Raza Abidi told the Senate that if he was stopped by anyone from speaking out against the Supreme Court he would shoot himself on 10 November 2012. He said there was a judicial martial law in the country and he was within rights to criticise it. He said he was a citizen and had the right to speak about the judiciary and yet was wrongly taken to a cop shoppe. He said if he was a liar there should be contempt proceedings against him. He would neither appeal nor ask for review of punishment if he is awarded one.

Pak women not safe
Columnist and TV anchor Javed Chaudhry wrote in Express that no woman was safe in Pakistain and only those who were paid attention became Mukhtaran Mai after the outrage. He said Pakistain did not care for its women until they became Mukhtaran Mai and were supported by foreign NGOs. He favoured honest treatment of girls like Malala who was targeted by the Taliban but the other girls who were maimed with her were not cared for to the same extent.

Khar 'in trubbel'
Reported in Express Mrs Nilofar Khar went to court asking for her Haq Meher from Mr Ghulam Mustafa Khar, renowned politician and ex-CM of Punjab. She said she was driven out of home after a beating (maar-peet) after which she was sent a talaq in writing. She said she still had the right to haq meher (bride money).

Wait till Justice Chaudhry retires!
Quoted in his own newspaper Jinnah property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain stated that till the retirement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in 2013 he would get no justice. He said it was his constitutional right to get a fair trial and the Chief Justice knew that he would not get it as long as Justice Chaudhry was in the court. Mr Hussain had petitioned the Court that he should be given a fair trial in a contempt case and that it was not possible at the present time.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336064 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Arabs Attack Drivers, Police Watch
A new video showing police inaction in the face of Arab rock attacks has caused anger among residents of the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem.

The video was taken as an Arab gang attacked Israeli drivers who were stuck in traffic. A massive traffic jam forms daily between the Adam junction, just minutes north of Jerusalem, and the Hizme checkpoint at the entrance to the city.

“We just sat there and got hit,” related one of the drivers. “We had no way to respond.”

The video showed that it was not only the drivers who found themselves silent in the face of the aggressive assault, but also police. An Israeli man at the scene caught police on video doing nothing to stop the assault or disperse the attackers.

When he asked repeatedly why they were not taking action, he was told, “We don’t have the equipment” and “We’ve called a squad.” One officer told him, “For each camera you have, they have ten,” hinting that the inaction was motivated at least in part by fear of reprisals if the officers were portrayed as aggressors by the rioters.

Benny Katzover, head of the Samaria Residents’ Council, said, “Unfortunately, this video clip exposes the face of the Israeli Police and the factors that security forces have in mind when they are asked to take action against Arabs.”

“It is truly humiliating to sit in a traffic jam and get hit with no ability to act,” he added. “This traffic jam is not only a nuisance, but a security risk, as we have warned dozens of times.”

Rock attacks in Judea and Samaria have caused injury and death in the past. Most recently, a 60-year-old woman suffered serious head wounds on Tuesday when an Arab gang attacked as she and her daughter drove south of Jerusalem.

A Border Police spokesman responded to the charges that police did not assist drivers under attack. The police officers in question were not equipped to deal with a riot, he said. “The officers called active-duty teams to the scene who responded… and dispersed the rioters,” he stated.

The incident is under investigation “and lessons will be learned if needed,” he added.
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under:

#1  According to some additional reports, these police were "administrative cops" and had little to no training regarding operational methods regarding the correct way to respond to the rock throwers.

So they did not respond out of fear that their response might further fuel the violence of the Islamic protesters and other Muslims in the area, especially in view of the fact that a mere cartoon can cause hundreds of Muslims to go on a killing rampage.
Posted by: Herb B. Hayes5834 || 11/25/2012 22:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Good find, Herb B. Hates5834. Thank you.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/25/2012 23:57 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
What a Way to Go
A buxom woman has been accused of trying to kill her lawyer boyfriend... with her double-D breasts. Franziska Hansen, 33 from Germany is accused of 'attempted manslaughter with a weapon' after her boyfriend claimed she tried to smother him with her breasts and pretend it was a sex game of motorboat.
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
She denies the claim saying it was a sex game and he knew what it was all about.
Nothing like bobbing for boobies.
Tim Schmidt told the German court that although they had had a difficult relationship, until then everything in the bedroom had been normal.
One person's normal is another person's kinky.
'The incident happened in May -- we were having sex,' he said. 'She was sitting on me naked and I was kissing her breasts. Suddenly she grabbed my head and pushed between her breasts with all of her force.
Heaven
'I couldn't breathe any more, I must have turned blue. I couldn't tear myself free and I thought I was going to die.'
What a way to go.
He said that with his last reserves of strength he had managed to extricate himself from the woman's vice-like grip and fled naked to a neighbor and demanded he called the police.
Mr Schmidt said when they met four years ago, the couple had been completely in love.
So he says
He said: 'Everything was great between us -- and I would have done everything for her. But it started to go wrong when I got my first job as a lawyer and we moved to Unna.
'She could not hold down a job and just had one part-time job after the other. And the better my career went -- the worst it seemed to be for her.'
He said Franziska tried to kill him after learning he was planning to leave her.
The wrath of a woman scorned.
'It is clear she wanted to kill me,' he said. 'She even admitted it to me on the telephone. I asked her why she wanted to smother me to death with her breasts and she told me: "Treasure -- I wanted your death to be as pleasurable as possible."'
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OH my, I can see the warning labels on the directions now.
Posted by: Dale || 11/25/2012 7:56 Comments || Top||

#2  I opened up this article and just couldn't quite get to the text. What's is about?
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/25/2012 17:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Skid, a woman tried to smother her boyfriend with her boobs.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 11/25/2012 17:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Skid - it helps if you hold your hand over (I mean OVER) the photo so you can't see it.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/25/2012 18:25 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Morsi's Blackmail, Iran's Threats, And Turkey's Fears Play Out In Gaza
by Spengler
In which David Goldman proposes another possible reason why Hamas allowed the rocketing of Israel just now. A taste:
UPDATE: The protection racket seems to have worked with the ceasefire. Mohammed Morsi has emerged as the hero of the hour--for persuading his Muslim Brotherhood comrades to stop firing rockets at Israel. Morsi is now a legitimate player, Hamas achieves de facto recognition (and can claim victory for assaulting Israel with impunity), and Israel's security is impaired. This is the first poisoned fruit of Obama's re-election.

A couple of nights ago I ran into Dan Senor, a prominent Romney campaign foreign policy advisor, at CNBC's studio, before my interview on the U.S. economy. Host Larry Kudlow asked Senor, now a director of the Foreign Policy Initiative, how Israel could negotiate with a Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, given that Hamas is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Senor replied,

The Egyptian economy is in devastating shape. The last thing the Egyptian government wants -- even a Muslim Brotherhood led government -- is a war on its border. The West has considerable leverage on Egypt.

Senor got it backwards, I believe: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi encouraged Hamas to attack Israel as part of a protection racket, directed at Saudi Arabia as well as the West. In return for putting out a fire he helped to start, Morsi wants the West and the Gulf States to bail out his crumbling economy. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States (with the exception of Qatar's radical ruler) consider the Muslim Brotherhood a subversive organization and a mortal threat to their regimes and sent Morsi away empty-handed after his mid-August visit to Riyadh. Morsi is hoping that Gaza will shake money loose. "Nice little country you've got here. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it."
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let's not forget the benign monarchy of Jordan insulating the Saudi peninsula from this mess of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza and Egypt.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/25/2012 9:15 Comments || Top||


Deposed Egypt prosecutor-general blames police for inaction on killing of protesters
[Al Ahram] Speaking at the extraordinary judges' general assembly on Saturday, the ousted prosecutor-general Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud attempted to rebutt accusations that his office was slow or ineffective in prosecuting those who killed unarmed protesters after the January 25 uprising by pointing fingers at the ministry of interior for not referring any suspects to his office.
Mahmoud slammed the ministry of interior saying that it failed to provide the prosecutors with evidence or suspects in the violent attacks against the anti-SCAF protesters in 2011.

"The ministry of interior has never referred any suspects to the office of the prosecutor general in the Two Saints church bombing in January 2010, Maspero massacre October 2011, Mohamed Mahoumd festivities in November 2011 and the cabinet festivities December 2011."
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Thousands of anti-Morsi protesters spend the night in Egypt's Tahrir square
[Al Ahram] At least Ten thousand people are spending the night in Cairo's Tahrir square to protest the constitutional declaration President Morsi issued on Thursday. Two dozen tents are set up in the square's central island.
Tens of street vendors serve food and drinks to the protesters.

Clashes between protesters and the Central security forces continue for the six night in a row on Qasr Al-Ainy Street. The health ministry has not issued any estimates of the injured on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336088 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Bloody puzzle, simple solution
[Dawn] A FLURRY of kabooms targeting Muharram congregations and the army chief's statement may have pushed 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...
off the agenda but it won't stay that way for long.

In any case, the ferocity and frequency of Shia-targeted attacks was also a reminder that a challenge posed by a toxic ideology cannot be wished away. Neither, perhaps, can it be negotiated to oblivion. It has to be acknowledged as an existential threat and dealt with head-on.

As you read these lines, you must be among the untold number of Paks who are hoping that over the Ashura period more innocent blood isn't shed. As it is, if it weren't for the valour of our unsung heroes, the police, many, many more would have perished in the attacks.

One's usual scepticism towards the police takes a back seat when foot constables throw protective cordons around large Muharram gatherings, processions, knowing fully well the dangers, as was demonstrated by the Rawalpindi bombing where coppers who intercepted the attacker also died.

I have seen what sort of hate material is being used to provoke anger against the minority Moslem sect. This is available on the Internet but, more significantly, being waved around at 'religious' congregations, meetings. Inflammatory enough to instantly ignite minds primed with hate for years.

Like the overall slide in the security situation because of the absence of a national consensus on how best to deal with it, the anti-Shia violence has also steadily gathered momentum with no visible sign of a counter-strategy by the state.

The large Muharram congregations present meaty targets to the terrorists. And, in the absence of an effective effort to strike at the root of the problem, huge resources are once again being deployed to deal with the symptoms, at best, on a temporary basis.

If a strategy isn't evolved and deployed soon, there are fears that the whole situation could spiral totally out of control as some recent killings in Bloody Karachi have demonstrated. Here, it is believed, members of the community generally at the receiving end took matters into their own hands.

This paints a sufficiently nightmarish scenario on its own. Superimpose this religious intolerance and the toxic, hate ideology on troubled Bloody Karachi and who'd blame you for never sleeping a wink again. Any amount of anxiety is justifiable and none enough.

In a recent TV interview, former military ruler Gen Pervez Perv Musharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
was asked how he was able to keep Bloody Karachi relatively peaceful and quiet. He said when he came into power there was "gang warfare between MQM (A) and MQM (H)".

"We dealt with it by talking to the leadership of A and H. We also used force where needed." He was firmly of the opinion that the puppeteers had to be controlled in order to control the puppets. Dialogue and force were both needed and it is "up to the government to reach the right mix".

The current situation, the general said, was more complicated and needed to be identified as such as "MQM's jhagra is with the Pathan; it is MQM against Baloch and Sindhis in Lyari
...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot....
and there is also the ANP and Taliban" in the frame. He didn't name the PPP and probably missed the Sunni Tehrik
...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities...
Like his successor who threw cold water this week on those demanding an army operation in Bloody Karachi, Gen Musharraf also warned against "overusing the army" and felt the Rangers were fully capable of backing the police.

The picture he painted of Bloody Karachi seemed pretty close to how one independently assesses it. Agreeing with his diagnosis, however, doesn't mean for a moment one has to endorse how he dealt with various challenges when in power.

His regime took 'dialogue' with various parties such as Taliban and other religious beturbanned goon groups to mean capitulation, a complete abdication of the state role and writ over areas controlled by these groups allowing them to eliminate any opposition and achieve complete domination.

The ground lost to the bully boyz as a result of, for example, the 2004 Shakai and the 2005 Sararogha agreements hasn't been regained even seven to eight years later despite the soldiers writing a shining chapter with their blood sacrifices following Gen Musharraf's exit.

Sadly, even this effort is now stalled because of a lack of political consensus in the country which appears as much rooted in ideological factors, as it is in fear and political expediency, allowing breathing space to the bully boyz as evident in their renewed attacks.

It isn't a cliché that being the business and commercial capital of the country Bloody Karachi is like its jugular. This is now being bled in no uncertain terms. The Musharraf years saw peace in Bloody Karachi but the regime's blanket support also allowed the MQM to greatly enhance its physical punch.

This of course meant that other competing groups started to play catch up. With the decline in the power of the MQM (H) which was crushed, Sunni Tehrik also started to emerge as a street power, enjoying all the perks and benefits of its part domination of a rich city.

The military's discipline meant that while Musharraf was in charge his Bloody Karachi policy went largely unchallenged. After his exit, those in the establishment who were beginning to get concerned about MQM's might, started to look for a 'counter' force. The Lyari 'gangs' were born, empowered.

In an ironical twist, many of the players involved in this bloody conundrum also enjoy mass support, are represented in the assemblies and contribute to the existence of a delicately perched government. Anything that may tip this balance won't happen.

Everyone who calls for 'fair and even-handed' action against the 'criminals, the hit mans' also takes this to mean immunity from the law for their own cadres. In what they see as a zero-sum game none of the players seem to have the vision and maturity to abandon this policy.

Till one player or more take the initiative and shift their reliance solely onto electoral power and politics of service and delivery, Bloody Karachi will continue to bleed.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: East Turkestan Islamic Movement


Blast in Defence apartment building in Karachi
[Dawn] A blast occurred in an apartment in 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...
's Defence Housing Authority late Saturday, due to pre-mature ignition of kabooms. However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go...
no loss of life was reported.

The incident took place on Khayaban-e-Bukhari in Phase 6 of DHA, according to DawnNews.

The inhabitants of the apartment fled immediately after the blast, while one suspect was caught by the police.

According to eye witnesses, a few suspected individuals had moved into the apartment four days ago.

After hearing the blast, when the residents tried to enter the apartment they were stopped and told that the blast occurred due to an kaboom in the geyser. Suspecting otherwise, the residents forced their way in and found an injured man. Explosives-making material was also found in the apartment, according to the eye-witness accounts.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Africa North
Morsi's 'coup'
[Dawn] BUOYED up by his success in effecting a ceasefire in Gazoo, President Mohamed Morsi has acted the wrong way -- he has given himself sweeping powers in a move that the opposition calls "a coup against legitimacy". The new decree issued on Thursday says decisions taken by the president cannot be overturned by any authority, including the courts. This negates the very spirit of the Arab Spring. Already, the president had enormous powers, because there is no legislature and he himself makes the laws. By pre-empting a judicial review of his actions, the president has armed himself with absolute powers. No wonder opposition leaders, who include such names as former 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...
secretary general Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
... who was head of the Arab League for approximately two normal lifespans, accomplishing nothing that was obvious to the casual observer ...
and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei
Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee.
, allege that the president has anointed himself "Egypt's new pharaoh". More menacingly, there is a hint of witch-hunting in his moves, because he has decided to reopen Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
's trial and sacked chief prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, a Mubarak loyalist. The charge against him was that he failed to secure adequate punishments for pro-Mubarak demonstrators who had attacked the security forces. He had earlier withdrawn his decision to fire Mr Mahmoud under pressure from Egypt's
powerful legal fraternity.

An acute and dangerous polarisation could grip Egypt, because Moslem Brüderbund activists have demonstrated in the decree's favour, while the opposition has begun street protests and attacked Moslem Brüderbund offices. On Thursday, shortly after the decree was announced, Moslem Brüderbund activists staged demonstrations in front of the main court building, demanding that the judiciary be "purified". This is a disturbing development. Unless such demands for purges are discouraged in time, the country could head towards authoritarianism. At present, Egypt has no parliament, and a Brotherhood-dominated assembly is still drafting a new constitution. The absence of any constitutional and legal checks on a head of state who already wields executive and legislative powers could throttle democracy, strengthen totalitarian tendencies and dash the populist hopes for which the people of Egypt had launched a valiant struggle against a despotic regime. As an opposition leader said, the anti Mubarak stir was not launched "in search of a benign dictator".
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Bouyed up by his success in effecting a ceasefire in Gazoo, President Mohamed Morsi has acted the wrong way -- he has given himself sweeping powers in a move that the opposition calls "a coup against legitimacy"

He was going to do it sooner or later. This was the perfect time; essentially cutting the White House off at the knees.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/25/2012 10:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Or perfect timing, depending on your point of view. It's best to get the change in reality out of the way now and by the end of the next four year cycle it'll be old news.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 11/25/2012 11:15 Comments || Top||

#3  SM is right. Do it now before the idea of democracy really takes hold and it will be a 2hr. story.

Everyone in Egypt will forget that there might have been a difference quickly enough.

Well maybe the Copts won't but they won't be around much longer.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/25/2012 13:38 Comments || Top||

#4  I wasn't talking about the Egyptian elective cycle alone.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 11/25/2012 14:14 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia to Conduct Open Skies Surveillance Flight over US
MOSCOW, November 24 (RIA Novosti) – Russian military inspectors will begin a survey flight this week above the United States under the international Open Skies Treaty, Russia’s Defense Ministry has said.

Russian experts will conduct the survey flight over the US territory in a Tupolev Tu-154 M/LK-1 aircraft during the period from November 25 and December 3, a spokesman said.

The flight will start from the Travis Air Force Base, California. Its maximum range will be 4,250 kilometers (2,600 miles).

During the flight, Russian and US specialists will operate surveillance equipment on board of the aircraft as set out in the international Open Skies Treaty.

This will be the 36th survey flight this year made by Russian specialists over the territories of the Open Skies Treaty member states. Russia ratified the treaty in May 2001.

The Open Skies Treaty, which entered into force on January 1, 2002, establishes a regime of unarmed aerial observation flights over the territories of its 34 member states to promote openness and the transparency of military forces and activities.
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336096 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We're on the lookout for North Koreans, aren't we???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/25/2012 2:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Straight from the Department of State:
Open Skies Treaty
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/25/2012 6:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, here's the beginning of Red Dawn. First you surveil the "militias". Then you can bring the Feds to "inspect" them (IRS, BATFE, Black Panthers, etc.).

Then .....
Posted by: AlanC || 11/25/2012 9:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Just think what neat stuff will follow o's meeting with Putin! ,now that o's all flexible and stuff...
Posted by: F(r)an gallo || 11/25/2012 14:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Did you know -

President Dwight D. Eisenhower presents his "Open Skies" plan at the 1955 Geneva summit meeting with representatives of France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union.

Google it. The Soviets rejected it which lead to U2 flights which lead to SR71 and satellite recon.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/25/2012 19:32 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt's Morsi promises democracy as protests rage
[Dawn] President Mohamed Morsi insisted on Friday that Egypt is on the path to "freedom and democracy" after granting himself sweeping powers, which sparked festivities between his supporters and foes and raised concerns abroad.

"Political stability, social stability and economic stability are what I want and that is what I am working for," he told a gathering of fellow outside the presidential palace.

Morsi opponents began a one-week sit-in in Tahrir Square -- the symbolic heart of protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
last year -- and called for a mass protest on Tuesday.

Clashes erupted between police and protesters near the square, with demonstrators setting fire to a police truck, witnesses said.

And violent confrontations erupted between Morsi supporters and foes in the canal city of Suez and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, where protesters ransacked the offices of the Moslem Brüderbund, from which the president was elected in June.

Under a declaration read out on television on Thursday, the president "can issue any decision or measure to protect the revolution... The constitutional declarations, decisions and laws issued by the president are final and not subject to appeal."

The move is a blow to the pro-democracy movement that ousted Mubarak, and sparked fears that people will be further ensconced in power.

It also raised international concerns, with the United States calling for calm and urging all parties to work together.

"The decisions and declarations announced on November 22 raise concerns for many Egyptians and for the international community," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

"One of the aspirations of the revolution was to ensure that power would not be overly concentrated in the hands of any one person or institution," her statement added.

In Brussels, a front man for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said "it is of utmost importance that the democratic process be completed in accordance with the commitments undertaken by the Egyptian leadership."

Rights watchdog Amnesia Amnesty International slammed Morsi's new powers, which "trample the rule of law and herald a new era of repression.
Is it because Morsi's actually trampling the "rule of Law", or is it because the current U.S. administration is backing Morsi?
"Morsi's backers, led by the powerful Moslem Brüderbund, gathered outside the presidential palace in northern Cairo in a show of support for the president's move.

"The people support the president's decisions," the crowd chanted.

On Thursday, Morsi undercut a hostile judiciary -- which had been considering whether to scrap an Islamist-dominated panel drawing up a new constitution -- and stripped judges of the right to rule on the case or to challenge his decrees.

The decision effectively places the president above judicial oversight until a new constitution is ratified.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Iran president congratulates Hamas on 'victory'
[Al Ahram] Iran's President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad congratulated Gazoo's Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, Prime Minister Ismail Haniya for their "great victory" over Israel in a phone call on, the two sides said on Saturday.

Haniya in turn "thanked Iran for its support," they added, days after Tehran confirmed it had supplied military aid to Gazoo.

"The Iranian president congratulated the people of Gazoo and the (Paleostinian) resistance facing Zionist aggression ... on their great victory," Iran's news agency ISNA reported.

Haniya's office said Ahmadinejad called late on Friday to praise Gazoo's "victory after eight days of Israeli aggression," following the declaration of a ceasefire ending Operation Pillar of Defence on Wednesday.

"We stand beside the Paleostinian people," the Iranian president added.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani on Wednesday said Iran had supplied military aid to Islamist movement Hamas, which controls Gazoo and fired missiles at Tel Aviv for the first time during the eight-day conflict with Israel.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Africa Horn
Darfur rebels 'seize' Sudan army base
[Al Ahram] Sudanese rebels have seized an army compound in the Darfur region, the faceless myrmidons said on Saturday, as the Red Thingy reported the release of three soldiers captured by rebels.
The pre-dawn attack came on Friday about five kilometres (three miles) northeast of Kebkabiya in North Darfur state, said Ibrahim Al-Hillu, front man for the Sudan Liberation Army's (SLA's) Abdelwahid Nur faction.

"We captured the compound and all the equipment inside, with five on our side maimed," he told AFP from his base in La Belle France.

Hillu added that the rebels then repulsed a government counter-attack and are now "counting their bodies".

Sudan's army front man could not be reached for comment.

Kebkabiya is about 150 kilometres west of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state where violence has surged.

Separately, the International Committee of the Red Thingy said it assisted in the transfer on Saturday of three armed forces members freed by the SLA's Minni Minnawi faction.

"The released soldiers, two of whom needed medical care, were handed over to the Sudanese authorities in North Darfur," an ICRC news release said.

"The SLA-MM and the Sudanese authorities asked us to assist in the transfer of the soldiers in our capacity as a neutral intermediary," Jean-Christophe Sandoz, head of the ICRC in Sudan, said in the statement.

Rebels announced on November 10 that they captured some government troops, along with an armoured vehicle and other military equipment, in a battle south of El Fasher.

Escalating violence "has become a matter of grave concern", 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...
-United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said this month.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Home Front: Politix
9 More Iraq, Afghan War Veterans Joining Congress
As Tammy Duckworth sees it, her path to Congress began when she awoke in the fall of 2004 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. She was missing both of her legs and faced the prospect of losing her right arm.

Months of agonizing therapy lay ahead. As the highest-ranking double amputee in the ward, Maj. Duckworth became the go-to person for soldiers complaining of substandard care and bureaucratic ambivalence.

Soon, she was pleading their cases to federal lawmakers, including her state's two U.S. senators at the time -- Democrats Dick Durbin and Barack Obama of Illinois. Obama arranged for her to testify at congressional hearings. Durbin encouraged her to run for office.

She lost her first election, but six years later gave it another try and now is one of nine veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who will serve in next year's freshman class in the of House of Representatives.

Veterans' groups say the influx of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is welcome because it comes at a time when the overall number of veterans in Congress is on a steep and steady decline. In the mid-1970s, the vast majority of lawmakers tended to be veterans.

For example, the 95th Congress, which served in 1977-78, had more than 400 veterans among its 535 members, according to the American Legion. The number of veterans next year in Congress will come to just more than 100. Most served during the Vietnam War era. In all, 16 served in Iraq or Afghanistan, not all in a combat role.

"We're losing about a half a million veterans a year in this country," said Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America. "We are not going to be in a world where a significant plurality of people spent some time in the military, so to have 16 men and women who fought in this current Congress is incredibly significant."

Tarantino said he recognizes that the 16 Iraq and Afghanistan vets have wide-ranging political views. But at the end of the day, he said, their shared experiences make it more likely they'll put political differences aside on issues like high unemployment and suicide rates among returning veterans, or in ensuring that veterans get a quality education through the post-9/11 GI bill.

Their election victories also provide a sense of assurance to veterans.

"The biggest fear we have as veterans is that the America people are going to forget us," Tarantino said. "When you have an 11-year sustained war, the fight doesn't end when you pull out."

Duckworth carries the highest profile of the incoming vets. She was co-piloting a Black Hawk helicopter in Iraq when a rocket-propelled grenade landed in her lap, ripping off one leg and crushing the other. At Walter Reed, she worried about what life as a double amputee had in store. But during her recovery, she found a new mission -- taking care of those she describes as her military brothers and sisters. That mission led her to a job as an assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs during Obama's first term.

"Had I not been in combat, my life would have never taken this path. You take the path that comes in front of you," Duckworth said from a wheelchair last week as she and her fellow freshmen went through orientation at the Capitol. "For me, I try to live every day honoring the men who carried me out of that field because they could have left me behind, and they didn't."

Duckworth is one of two freshmen Democrats who served in Iraq or Afghanistan. The other is Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who served near Baghdad for a year and was a medical operations specialist. Gabbard said she hopes the two of them can be a voice for female veterans and the unique challenges they face.

About 8 percent of veterans are women. They tend to be younger on average. Nearly one in five seen by the Department of Veterans Affairs responds yes when screened for military sexual trauma.

Seven Republicans served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Most had backing from tea party supporters who share their views that the size and scope of the federal government should be curtailed.

--Ron DeSantis of Florida was a judge advocate officer in the Navy who deployed to Iraq as a legal adviser during the 2007 troop surge.

--Brad Wenstrup of Ohio was as a combat surgeon in Iraq.

--Kerry Bentivolio of Michigan served in an administrative capacity with an artillery unit in Iraq and retired after suffering a neck injury. He also served as an infantry rifleman in Vietnam.

--Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma was a combat pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan.

--Scott Perry of Pennsylvania commanded an aviation battalion in Iraq in 2009 and 2010.

--Doug Collins of Georgia was a chaplain in Iraq.

--Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Harvard Law School graduate, was an infantry platoon leader in Iraq and then was on a reconstruction team in Afghanistan. In between, he was a platoon leader at Arlington National Cemetery.
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Four Die, Nine Injured in Attack on Shiites in Northern Yemen
[Yemen Post] At least four people were killed and nine others injured in a kaboom that targeted a ceremony organized by loyalists of the Shiite Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is "God is Great, Death to America™", Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews" ...
Group outside Yemen's capital Sanaa Saturday night, security sources said.

Bombs or other explosives were went kaboom! at Shiites who gathered at the Zahrat Al-Madayen party hall in Al-Geraf district, the sources said, adding an exchange of fire was also heard after the kabooms.
Local sources earlier said a suicide kaboom targeted a group of Shiites while marking the da of Ashura in the district.

The Shiites sadly observe this day on which Al-Hussein bin Ali was killed to commerate his death.
In recent years, the Shiites in northern Yemen have been targeted during their ceremonies with tens killed and injured, sometimes in suicide attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda.

The situation is now tense with many armed people from the Houthi Group and other tribes spreading all over Al-Geraf and shops closed, according to the local sources.

No group has grabbed credit or has been accused of being behind the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Bangladesh
Oops! Kingpin survives 'shootout'
[Bangla Daily Star] The police early yesterday announced the death of Parag kidnap kingpin Ameer in a "shootout" at Tongi. But a drama unfolded three hours later, around 7:00am.

Doctors found the man alive soon after law enforcers took the "body" to Tongi Upazila Health Complex.

After he regained consciousness at the health centre, he claimed himself to be Moktar Hossain and said the police had shot him at close range after blindfolding him.

But his wife Beauty confirmed to local journalists that he was Ameer.

Monirul Islam, inspector of South Keraniganj Police Station and investigation officer of the Parag abduction case, filed two other cases yesterday. One was against the couple for possessing firearms and ammunition and another against Ameer alone for attacking police.

Beauty was in the custody of Tongi police along with her four-year-old son Abeer and domestic help Rubi as of 9:00pm yesterday, sources said.

Ameer was shifted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with bullet injuries in the chest and head.

Around 4:55am yesterday, Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman of Dhaka Metropolitan Police sent a text message asking this correspondent to contact DB Inspector Saidur Rahman.

Contacted within minutes, the inspector said, "Ameer was killed in an encounter when we raided a house at Tilargati-Singpara of Tongi around 3:45am.

"After a tip-off, a joint team of DB and Keraniganj police raided a house at Tongi and an incident of shootout took place between them and Ameer."

The law enforcers repeatedly knocked on the door and broke in when nobody responded. Ameer, sensing their presence, opened fire, forcing them to retaliate, he added.

Later, police found Ameer lying in a pool of blood in the room and considered him dead as two bullets had hit him in the chest and head, Saidur added. They sent the "body" to Tongi Upazila Health Complex.

Tongi Police Station officer-in-charge Ismail Hossain said, "As doctors found Ameer alive around 7:00am, they suggested taking him to DMCH."

Police also picked Beauty, her son and domestic help, who were in another room during the "shootout".

Sanwar Hossain, a senior assistant commissioner of DB South, who led the drive to arrest Ameer, said, "We thought Ameer had died in the shooting."

During the shootout, three coppers -- Inspector Mejbah Uddin Ahmed and sub-inspectors Azizul Huq Miah and Mominul Huq -- suffered injuries as they bumped into stairs and walls while trying to dodge bullets.

Police said now that 42-year-old was alive, he was shown incarcerated
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
along with his wife Beauty Begum, 32. They also claimed a seizure of two pistols and 85 bullets from the couple's possession.

But according to Rajbari police and Rapid Action Battalion officials Ameer was arrested Tuesday night along with his accomplice Al-Amin at Goalanda in Rajbari. But till yesterday, the police kept on denying the arrest.

Sources said after unofficially keeping him for interrogation, Ameer was taken to his Tongi residence for recovery of his illegal arms. He was shot after the arms and ammunition were found.

On the morning of November 11, an armed gang kidnapped Parag after shooting the kid's mother, sister and their driver when they were getting into their car for school.

Three days later, the boy was freed at Atibazar in Keraniganj reportedly against a ransom of Tk 50 lakh.

Police and Rab so far arrested 11 persons including Ameer in connection with the kidnap.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Uh-oh...could this be the end for the golden age of the RAB? I can't live without my weekly shootout stories...not enough snark in my life.
Posted by: gromky || 11/25/2012 3:49 Comments || Top||

#2  police found Ameer lying in a pool of blood in the room and considered him dead as two bullets had hit him in the chest and head
Double tap gone bad.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/25/2012 6:42 Comments || Top||

#3  considered him dead as two bullets had hit him in the chest and head

Shoulda considered him *mostly* dead.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/25/2012 12:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Wow, really munsoned the hit.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/25/2012 13:32 Comments || Top||

#5  finish him and plant a gun on him. It's the RAB way
Posted by: Frank G || 11/25/2012 13:32 Comments || Top||

#6  In every RAB catastrophe cloud a silver liner.... Beauty Begum, 32 yep. It wuz Beauty what done in that beast.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/25/2012 15:35 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Sunday Morning Coffee Pot: Humberto Moreira's exculpation

For a map click here
To read about Moreira and his resignation 51 weeks ago, click here


By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

One year ago Humberto Moreira Valdes was at his lowest point politically when he was forced to relinquish his position as president of Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) after near constant attack from within his own party as well as from several others from the outside.

The problem for Moreira was during his term as governor when Coahuila had acquired the heaviest per capita public debt load of any political entity in Mexico. Correspondingly, Coahuila had some of the most lavish income transfer schemes, including income supports of the elderly and medical care for students.

Through the auspices of this massive spending spree several of his cronies including a communications business man, Vicente Chaires, enriched himself further with business contracts in the state.

Moreira himself has done well while governor of the state. It is rumored he owns a rather expensive home in San Antonio, Texas.

Even as much as he fought from relinquishing his position as president of the PRI, the upcoming election of 2012 and with pressure from many others in PRI leadership spots, Moreira was forced to step down. The charges dogging him were many, including hints he was in on the fraud that enabled the massive debt Coahuila had contracted.

Now, 51 weeks after he was forced to step down the Mexican Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR) released a statement that the office would decline prosecution for crimes committed by Moreira, as clear an exculpation as can be had in Meixco's legal system.

What the exculpation means now is that Moreira, a governmental administrator of marginal ability, but a political nerd, is no longer a political liability. During the weeks prior to the admission by the PGR, Moreira had spoken about re-entering politics after his exile, which was a clear signal that he wanted something in Mexico City when president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto takes over as president of the republic six days from today.

It could well be that many in top leadership spots in the PRI may owe Moreira a political favor for taking one for the team 51 weeks ago, and that includes president-elect Pena Nieto.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Shiite & Sunni students rumble at Kabul U
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The winner will have to play the SEC Champion in Miami.
Posted by: Jerelet Tse Tung || 11/25/2012 1:00 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
'Outing' Elements Behind Mumbai Attacks
Intelligence officials told a court in Rawalpindi that Lashkar-e-Taiba used several training camps inside Pakistain for the attacks that killed 166 people

After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Pakistain took steps to meet the Indian plaint about the participation of Pak elements in their planning and execution. It accepted that Paks were involved. It accepted that Pakistain-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
was involved too and started a trial against one of its leaders, Ziaur Rehman Lakhvi, and several others at an anti-terrorism court inside Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. But it denied that the ISI was involved.

This month, Pakistain authorities decided to tell the Court that Al-Qaeda-linked LeT used several training camps inside Pakistain for the attacks. This is an advance on the trend of agreeing with the details revealed by India after the attacks. The trial has dragged on at Rawalpindi with rumours that the prison conditions for Lakhvi and others were made lax. The Court has recently acquitted deserter Major Haroon Ashiq, the target-killer operated by Al Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri who was later himself killed by a drone. But the latest official admission of the terrorist camps tends to increase the possibility of linking personalities other than those in LeT to Mumbai attacks.

Daily Dawn (11 Nov 2012) reported the following: "Intelligence officials informed an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi Adiala jail that suspects in the Mumbai attacks case got training at various centres of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) turban organization, including navigational training in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...

"The suspects were trained at the LeT training centres at Yousaf Goth in Bloody Karachi, Buttle in Mansehra, Mirpur Sakro in Thatta and Muzaffarabad... additional abettors were trained at LeT centres and at sea near Yousaf Goth in Bloody Karachi's Gadap town"
"The officials were in charge of CID stations in Okara, Bahawalpur, Rahimyar Khan, Mandi Bahauddin and Sheikhupura. They said the suspects, who allegedly participated in the attacks, were trained at the LeT training centres at Yousaf Goth in Bloody Karachi, Buttle in Mansehra,
...a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south...
Mirpur Sakro in Thatta and Muzaffarabad... additional abettors were trained at LeT centres and at sea near Yousaf Goth in Bloody Karachi's Gadap town."

Does this mean that Pakistain has admitted the attacks were planned in Pakistain? No, because in 2009, Pakistain had already acknowledged the Mumbai attacks were partly plotted on its soil and announced criminal proceedings against eight suspects, including three alleged ringleaders, heeding US and Indian demands to punish those responsible for the deaths of 166 people. Pakistain was no longer in denial. Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
announced he had uncovered some training grounds in Bloody Karachi.

The media war that began between India and Pakistain after 2008 should have ended after that, with the Pak media eating humble pie, but it did not happen. After the latest revelation at Adiala jail, the Pak media should have covered the event in great detail. But it did not. Some denial is still there, at least on the part of the media. But after Geo TV's Kamran Khan unveiled the news about the Adiala 'outing' of LeT, the media was too stunned by its defeat to comment on it.

In 2008, the only Pak terrorist captured in the Mumbai attacks, Ajmal Kasab, implicated the Pak Navy and the Dawood Ibrahim network based in Bloody Karachi for providing assistance and training for the Mumbai assault team.

Documents seized from the late Osama bin Laden's compound show that the dear departed Al Qaeda master was in regular, direct contact with the top man of the LeT. The files also suggest that bin Laden and Al Qaeda had played a significant role in planning the attack on Mumbai
This is how India and the international community views LeT: "Lashkar-e-Taiba forces fight alongside Al Qaeda and Taliban in Afghanistan. It conducts operations in India, Bangladesh, Pakistain, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Chechnya. Like Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba seeks to establish a Mohammedan caliphate in southern and Central Asia. The group essentially runs a state within a state of Pakistain."

But Pakistain was not willing to admit more than what it admitted in 2009. It was not willing to accept Ajmal Kasab's confessions relating to Pak state functionaries. Then something even more unexpected happened in June 2012. A key suspect in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, Syed Zabihuddin Ansari alias Abu Jandal, was incarcerated
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
in 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...
and turned over to Indian authorities.

Abu Jandal reportedly made significant admissions implicating members of the Mighty Pak Army and ISI in the planning of the attack. The Mumbai siege, he is reported to have told Indian authorities, was orchestrated by LeT, which he described as a long-time proxy of Pakistain's military and intelligence establishment. According to the Indians, he also told them that LeT chieftain Hafiz Muhammad Saeed
...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain...
was present in the control room during the attack. The Indians say he also named two Mighty Pak Army officers, Sajid Mir and Major Iqbal, as being directly involved in the terrorist attack. Another ex-Pak terrorist, David Headley, was also connected to the Mumbai attacks. He is now under arrest in the US. He was reportedly was paid off (425,000) by Major Iqbal for doing recce for the attacks. Headley admits to have reported to Ilyas Kashmiri in Wazoo, the terrorist who preyed on and launched attacks on the Pakistain Army as well.

More damage was in store. In 2011, the Americans killed Osama bin Laden
... who abandoned all hope when he entered there...
in Abbottabad
... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden....
. Documents captured by them in Osama bin Laden's compound show that the dear departed Al Qaeda master was in regular, direct contact with the Let's top man. The files also suggest that bin Laden and Al Qaeda had played a significant role in planning the attack on Mumbai. The surveillance reports paid for by the ISI's man reportedly ended up in bin Laden's hands.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA operative and advisor to President B.O. on Afghanistan and Pakistain, based on his opinion on these documents, wrote that Osama bin Laden had been in close contact with Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the top LeT man, and helped plan the 2008 Mumbai attack. The revelation of Mr Saeed's alleged ties to bin Laden led the US to offer a $10 million bounty for information that could lead to the LeT chieftain's successful prosecution. The relationship is traced back to Abdullah Azzam the founder of both Al Qaeda and LeT, the latter born as Dawat wal Irshad in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
next Azzam's own office. A mentor of Osama bin Laden, Azzam was killed in Peshawar.

One Pak journalist who lost his life telling the truth about the Mumbai attack was Saleem Shahzad. In his book Inside Al Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11(Pluto Press 2011), he wrote that it was Al Qaeda who planned the Mumbai attack 'through former Pakistain army officers with help from LeT without the knowledge of the ISI despite the fact that LeT was on ISI's leash'. He wrote further:

'The Mumbai operation was actually the revival of an old ISI plan. The idea was to deflect the Pakistain Army away from Waziristan and get it to fight India instead. This nearly succeeded: Pakistain's turban leaders Mullah Fazlullah
...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullahs Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan...
and Baitullah Mehsud announced that they would fight alongside Pakistain's armed forces in an India-Pakistain war, and the director general of ISI, Lt-Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, confirmed this understanding in his briefing to national and foreign correspondents when he called Fazlullah and Baitullah Mehsud Pakistain's strategic assets' (p.95).

In the July 2005 issue of monthly Herald, Zulfiqar Ali described one of the terrorist camps in Mansehra where Al Qaeda had interface with our jihadi organizations, including LeT. The news in 2001 that the Mansehra camp had been disbanded was mere exaggeration. Before Osama bin Laden was finally made to live in Abbottabad, he thought he could be comfortable in Mansehra where Al Qaeda was lending a hand.

Abbas Nasir has noted (Dawn 17 Nov 2012) the sophistication of Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
(JD), the successor of LeT headed by Mr Saeed, in dealing with the fallout of Mumbai attacks. He relates this image of JD as a welfare organization to Hafiz Muhammad Saeed's interface with the establishment. Nasir quotes:

'Earlier this week, Hindustan Times carried a story that Ziaur Rehman Lakhvi, one of the key accused facing trial for the Mumbai carnage in Rawalpindi's Adiala prison, has fathered a child during his four-year incarceration. The child is said to be two years old. The report says this was disclosed to his Indian interrogators by another key suspect, Abu Jandal, who was extradited from Saudi Arabia. Abu Jandal is reported to have said this good news was given to him by Lakhvi himself in a phone conversation'.

Monthly Naya Zamana (Oct 2012) quoted the BBC as saying that federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the visiting Indian foreign minister SM Krishna that Pakistain was helpless to do anything against a popular leader of Jamaat-ud-Dawa because the court had let him off the hook. Rehman Malik explained that after the government arrested him in the wake of Mumbai attacks and produced him before the Court the judge let him go because his lawyer had been a teacher of the said judge. The Court adjudged him as unconnected with LeT.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336095 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba

#1  I do wonder what influence Beg and Hamid Gul still have in the Pak army/ISI.
Posted by: Punky Big Foot3318 || 11/25/2012 14:15 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Pentagon Developing Underwater Sub Drones
Surveillance drones in US airspace is soon to be inevitable, but what about unmanned vehicles patrolling the seas? The Pentagon is working hard at perfecting a stealth underwater drone for maritime monitoring.

Science Applications International Corporation of McLean, Virginia was recently awarded a contract from the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, valued at over $58 million. With that funding, researchers have already begun working on an underwater vessel that will take the surveillance abilities that make aerial drones such a hot commodity and use it to send an unmanned submarine to sweep the sea for potential hazards.

According to DARPA, enemy submarines are being built right now with competing technology, allowing America’s foes to perhaps find a way to sneak unmanned vessels of their own around US bases across the globe. That’s why the Pentagon has contracted a team to work on an Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel, or ACTUV, which they say will be able to address a serious emerging threat.

“The growing number of adversaries able to build and operate quiet diesel electric submarines is a national security threat that affects US and friendly naval operations around the world,” writes DARPA.

Still in the early days of testing, the Science Applications International Corporation is now in the midst of stages two through four of the process, which involve design, construction and demonstration of a submarine that can spend months underwater without requiring a single human operator on board. If their prototype proves successful, software will need to be scripted, a finalized ship will be built, and the drone sub will begin supporting at-sea government testing. DARPA predicts the ships will be ready to go underwater for their first test runs in mid-2015.

In addition to scoping out any underwater adversaries interesting in attacking the United States or its bases, these drone subs could also be deployed to search for any other vessels that could compromise America’s interest. Earlier this year RT reported on the growing number of stealth subs used to move narcotics from Central America into the US, and just this month it was reported that a nuclear-powered Russian attack submarine sailed to within 200 miles of the United States before it was first spotted. Sending subs into the sea to search for these types of hazards is already an option, but deploying unmanned vehicles in dangerous situations might soon be the norm.
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Doing the job seals and porpoises PETA won't. So long and thanks for all the fish.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/25/2012 12:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Lemme know when they come up with an anti-swimmer version.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/25/2012 12:50 Comments || Top||

#3  As I recall, many warships have a built in anti swimmer device called sonar. Since active sonar has a range of miles, if you ping every few minutes, any swimmers near by will be severely affected.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/25/2012 14:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Explains all the whales washing up on the Atlantic side of Florida during WWII, well, that and the random depth charges.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/25/2012 15:39 Comments || Top||

#5  As I recall, many warships have a built in anti swimmer device called sonar.

Some ports, notably foreign ones, also take a dim view of sonar pinging. It creates difficulties for them. Places like Bahrain already have problems with Shiites. Imagine Shiite fishermen claiming that active sonar is driving away fish and killing their livelihood. May or may not be true, but it does put the host in a difficult situation. Other places might allow US warships to dock, but don't want attention called to that. Active sonar kinda draws attention. Not a good idea to piss off one's hosts. Especially when there are so few of them left.

Sometimes it's better to quietly slip in a few anti-swimmer units into a harbor. It's quiet, low key, and effective. The host nation can exercise plausible deniability. It doesn't call attention to the visiting warships.

Seems there a word for that also starts with an 's'... oh, yes. 'subtle'.

Look it up.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/25/2012 15:52 Comments || Top||

#6  sharks with laser beams on their heads - that's what we need
Posted by: Frank G || 11/25/2012 16:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Seems there a word for that also starts with an 's'

I was gonna guess shand grenade. Yeah, the 's' is silent.
Posted by: SteveS || 11/25/2012 17:39 Comments || Top||

#8  We have one, caller a Torpedo.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 11/25/2012 20:15 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas rejects Gaza arms halt
[Al Ahram] The talks between Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Israel are being brokered by Egypt, which also helped forge a cease-fire deal that ended eight days of Israel-Gazoo fighting earlier this week. The truce went into effect late Wednesday and has largely held. Residents in Gazoo said Israel has begun easing some border restrictions, allowing fishermen to head further out to sea and permitting farmers inspect land in a former no-go zone.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy to Hamas' top leader in exile Khaled Mashaal, said to the AP on Saturday that talks on a further easing of restrictions are to be held in Cairo on Monday. Hamas and Israel do not meet directly and the indirect talks are held through Egyptian intermediaries.

An Israeli security official has said Israel would likely link a significant easing of Gazoo's border blockade to Hamas' willingness to stop arming itself. Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment Saturday.

However,
you can observe a lot just by watching...
Abu Marzouk rejected such demands. "These weapons protected us and there is no way to stop obtaining and manufacturing them," he said in an interview at his office on the outskirts of Cairo.

Hamas officials in Gazoo have said they have developed a local arms industry. Mashaal said earlier this week that the group has received weapons from Iran since Israel's last Gazoo offensive four years ago.

Hamas smuggles such weapons into Gazoo through tunnels under the border with Egypt.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Abu Marzouk rejected such demands. "These weapons protected us and there is no way to stop obtaining and manufacturing them," he said in an interview at his office on the outskirts of Cairo.

"It's who we are. It's what we do. Oh, and tunneling. We do that a lot too."
Posted by: Frank G || 11/25/2012 11:01 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon army seizes men suspected of bomb plot against Shi'ites
[Al Ahram] The Lebanese army said on Saturday it had tossed in the clink
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
five Syrian men found with explosives and suspected of planning an attack on a Shi'ite Mohammedan procession on Sunday.

The war in neighbouring Syria, pitting majority Sunni Mohammedan rebels against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
's inner circle of Alawites - an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam - has widened rifts in Leb, still politically divided along sectarian lines deepened by its own 15-year civil war.

Leb's Shi'ite bad turban group Hezbollah has sided with Assad and anger is growing among Sunnis and other groups sympathetic to the Syrian opposition.

The arrests in the southern town of Nabatiyeh followed an army raid on a house where 450 grams of explosives were discovered, the army said. The men were believed to have been planning to attack a procession in the town on Sunday to mark the Shi'ite festival of Ashura.

"The five Syrians have been living in Leb for years. They are thought to have been planning an attack on Shi'ites," a source said on condition of anonymity.

Shi'ites across the country hold rallies during Ashura but Nabatiyeh is one of the few places where Shi'ites observe the tradition of drawing blood by self-flagellation.

Ashura marks the killing of Imam Hussein bin Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the battle of Kerbala in Iraq in 680, in the culmination of a power struggle that ushered in the Sunni-Shi'ite divide which still shapes the Middle East's political map.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  next event on the islamic calendar is the Arba'ein which is 40 days from Ashura (about Jan 3 2013)

shi'ites make a pilgrimage to Karbala and millions circle it much as the circling of the Kaaba

this really ticks off Sunnis (even more than Mohammud videos actually) and in recent years there have been dozens of mass killings of Shia during this period
Posted by: lord garth || 11/25/2012 1:18 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Al shabab briefly take over a key border town
[Shabelle] Somalia's hard boyz Al- Shabaab on Saturday briefly seized a strategic town in the southwestern of war-wrecked horn of Africa nation before they were pushed back by pro-government soldiers controlling the area, an official and residents said.

The rebel fighters from Al-Shabaab
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
launched their attacks on the town of Belad-Hawo town in southwestern Somalia province of Gedo, which is controlled by Somali troops.

The radical group of Al-Shabaab took over the town following fierce battles with army who were forced out of the town, but government troops regrouped and launched a counter- attack on the hard boyz in the strategic town of Belad-Hawo on the key road linking to the border zone with Kenya.

"We managed to push them (Al-Shabaab fighters) back. We are now in hot pursuit of them,"Diyad Abdikalil, military commander of Somali forces in Gedo, told Shabelle Media by phone from the town, adding that they have killed at least 13 Al shabab combatants during the raid.

Witnesses said the fighting has been heavy with both sides exchanging artillery and machine guns.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas: Ties With Hezbollah At Stalemate
[Ynet] The civil war in Syria has resulted in a stalemate in the relations between Hezbollah and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, Osama Hamdan, a Hamas representative in Leb, told Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency Saturday.

"Ties between Leb's Hezbollah and Hamas are currently at a stalemate as a result of the Syrian crisis," Hamdan said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336062 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Africa Subsaharan
Regional leaders call for Congo rebel withdrawal as humanitarian impact deepens
[Telegraph.CO.UK] Following a summit in Uganda's capital Kampala on Saturday, several heads of state from the Great Lakes region urged the M23 armed group to "stop all war activities", but also pressed the Congolese government to listen to the rebels' grievances.

M23 rebels seized eastern DRC's largest city earlier in the week, swiftly moving on to capture another key town. At a rally in Goma last Wednesday, the M23's commander vowed to "liberate" the country, prompting fears of a return to wider conflict in Congo's restive east.

The Great Lakes leaders also agreed to deploy a composite force within the next 48 hours in Goma, comprising of both Congolese army and M23 troops and a neutral African force, while Congolese President Joseph Kabila indicated his willingness to talk to the rebels.

The Kampala summit, which was the fifth meeting of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), went ahead without Rwandan President Paul Kagame, considered a key player in the crisis.

A United Nations panel of experts has twice accused the Rwandan government of providing logistical support and troops to the M23 rebels, a claim Rwanda strongly rejects.

Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336064 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
Clashes in Somalia's port city of Kismayo,charcoal export resumed
[Shabelle] Armed festivities reportedly broke out Saturday in Somalia's southern port city of Kimayo, a town formerly held by Islamists about 500 Km (310 Miles) south of Mogadishu.

Witnesses said heavily armed unknown militias have stormed bases manned by Kenyan forces in the heart of the city late on Friday night, causing unconfirmed human losses.

Local residents reported that the attack raged on for several hours and the Kenyan army managed to fend off the assault from their positions.

Since the city fell to Somali forces together with Kenyan army serving under 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...
peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), such attacks against the coalition troops have been on the rise.

On the other hand, locals have resumed charcoal export from the port of Kismayo. UN Security Council and Somali government both banned charcoal export, a move that was intended to impose financial sanctions on Al shabab.

Residents in the southern port city of Kismayo, which local Somali militia and Kenyan troops with the AU force wrested from the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab in September, said boats have been shipping out charcoal
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab

#1 
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/25/2012 17:37 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Eight killed in blast near DI Khan Muharram procession
[Dawn] A kaboom killed eight people Saturday near a Muharram procession in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
's Dera Ismail Khan
... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ...
district despite a security crackdown, the latest attack on Shias during the holy month.

Four boys were among the dead and 30 other people were maimed when the remote-controlled bomb packed with ball bearings went kaboom! on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan, police said.

Police said a 10-kilogramme bomb was hidden in a dustbin on the procession route and its powerful blast could be heard several kilometres away.

According to a Dawn.com correspondent, a bomb-disposal squad personnel confirmed that eight to ten kilograms of kaboom was used in the blast.

Seven people, including the four children, died soon after the blast and a man died later Saturday from his wounds in hospital, hospital officials told AFP.

"Two are still at death's door," said doctor Azhar Ali, deputy chief of Nishtar Hospital in the central city of Multan.

Akhtar Nawaz, another official at the state-run district headquarters hospital said three children were dead on arrival.

City police chief Khalid Suhail said the dead children were aged between six and 11 years. "They were young boys," he said, adding that two of them were brothers.

Political leaders, including President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
, have condemned the blast.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under: TTP


#2  Kids these damn days, so lazy, get up off your upazila and turn the trigger yourself.
Posted by: Shipman || 11/25/2012 15:37 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
We're living the dream; we just don't realize it
We've finally emerged from the season in which Americans were asked by the pollsters and politicians: "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" But sometimes it's important to contemplate the question of progress from a longer view: How are we doing on the scale of a generation?

To answer that question, take this brief quiz.

Over the past two decades, what have the U.S. trends been for the following important measures of social health: high school dropout rates, college enrollment, juvenile crime, drunken driving, traffic deaths, infant mortality, life expectancy, per capita gasoline consumption, workplace injuries, air pollution, divorce, male-female wage equality, charitable giving, voter turnout, per capita GDP and teen pregnancy?

The answer for all of them is the same: The trend is positive. Almost all those varied metrics of social wellness have improved by more than 20% over the past two decades. And that's not counting the myriad small wonders of modern medicine that have improved our quality of life as well as our longevity: the anti-depressants and insulin pumps and quadruple bypasses.

Americans enjoy longer, healthier lives in more stable families and communities than we did 20 years ago. But other than the crime trends, these facts are rarely reported or shared via word-of-mouth channels.

Many Americans, for instance, are convinced that "half of all marriages end in divorce," though that hasn't been the case since the early 1980s, when divorce rates peaked at just over 50%. Since then, they have declined by almost a third.

This is not merely a story of success in advanced industrial countries. The quality-of-life and civic health trends in the developing world are even more dramatic.

Even though the world's population has doubled over the past 50 years, the percentage living in poverty has declined by 50% over that period. Infant mortality and life expectancy have improved by more than 40% in Latin America since the early 1990s. No country in history has improved its average standard of living faster than China has over the past two decades.

Of course, not all the arrows point in a positive direction, particularly after the past few years. The number of Americans living in poverty has increased over the past decade, after a long period of decline. Wealth inequality has returned to levels last seen in the roaring '20s.

Today, the U.S. unemployment rate is still just under 8%, higher than its average over the past two decades. Household debt soared over the past 20 years, though it has dipped slightly thanks to the credit crunch of the last few years. And while the story of water and air pollution over that period is a triumphant one, the long-term trends for global warming remain bleak.

We are much more likely to hear about these negative trends than the positive ones for two primary reasons.

First, we tend to assume that innovation and progress come from big technology breakthroughs, from new gadgets and communications technologies, most of them created by the private sector. But the positive trends in our social health are coming from a more complex network of forces: from government intervention, public service announcements, demographic changes, the shared wisdom of life experiences passed along through generations and the positive effects of rising affluence. The emphasis on private sector progress is no accident; it is the specific outcome of the way public opinion is shaped within the current media landscape.

The public sector doesn't have billions of dollars to spend on marketing campaigns to trumpet its successes. A multinational corporation invents a slightly better detergent, and it will spend a legitimate fortune to alert the world that the product is now "new and improved." But no one takes out a prime-time ad campaign to tout the remarkable decrease in air pollution that we have seen over the past few decades, even thought that success story is far more important than a trivial improvement in laundry soap.

That blind spot is compounded by the deeper lack of interest in stories of incremental progress. Curmudgeons, doomsayers, utopians and declinists all have an easier time getting our attention than opinion leaders who want to celebrate slow and steady improvement.

The most striking example of this can be seen in the second half of the 1990s, a period in which both economic and social trends were decisively upbeat: The stock market was surging, but inequality was in fact on the decline; crime, drug use, welfare dependence, poverty -- all were trending in an encouraging direction.

With a Democrat in the White House, you might assume that the op-ed pages of The Washington Post would be bursting with pride over the state of the nation, given the paper's center-left leanings. But you would be wrong. Over the course of 1997, in the middle of the greatest peacetime economic boom in U.S. history (and before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke), 71% of all editorials published in the Post that expressed an opinion on some aspect of the country's current state focused on a negative trend. Less than 5% of the total number of editorials concentrated on a positive development. Even the boom years are a bummer.

I suspect, in the long run, the media bias against incremental progress may be more damaging than any bias the media display toward the political left or right. The media are heavily biased toward extreme events, and they are slightly biased toward negative events -- though in their defense, that bias may just be a reflection of the human brain's propensity to focus more on negative information than positive, a trait extensively documented by neuroscience and psychology studies.

The one positive social trend that did generate a significant amount of coverage -- the extraordinary drop in the U.S. crime rate since the mid-'90s -- seems to have been roundly ignored by the general public. The violent crime rate (crimes per thousand people) dropped from 51 to 15 between 1995 and 2010, truly one of the most inspiring stories of societal progress in our lifetime. And yet according to a series of Gallup polls conducted over the past 10 years, more than two-thirds of Americans believe that crime has been getting worse, year after year.

Whether these biases come from media distortions or our human psychology, they result in two fundamental errors in the popular mind: We underestimate the amount of steady progress that continues around us, and we misunderstand where that progress comes from. We should celebrate these stories of progress, not so we can rest on our laurels but instead so we can inspire the next generation to build on that success.
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336094 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The public sector doesn't have billions of dollars to spend on marketing campaigns to trumpet its successes.

:)
Posted by: Shipman || 11/25/2012 3:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Who should I believe, CNN or my lying eyes?
Posted by: James || 11/25/2012 10:02 Comments || Top||

#3  How many years does it take the average worker to own the average property?

It it's taking more years you're getting poorer.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/25/2012 16:01 Comments || Top||

#4  high school dropout rates, college enrollment

It's called penciling it in. We're not taking qualifications but administrators and 'professionals' milking the system for protected employment and money over producing a citizen with usable skills. Here's a stat - one quarter of all applicants for the military are academically unqualified and another quarter are physically unqualified. Someone's been cooking the books.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/25/2012 22:13 Comments || Top||


Scientist makes bold prediction that war is on the wane
It may be difficult to believe, but according to research published next month a world without war may be getting nearer.

Futurologists from the University of Oslo in Norway and the Peace Research Institute Oslo have predicted that global conflict will halve in the next 40 years.

Their study claims the combination of higher education, lower infant mortality, smaller youth cohorts, and lower population growth are a few of the reasons why the world can expect a more peaceful future.

That will mean in the next five years the current conflicts in Libya, Tajikistan, Syria, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Iraq will probably be over, the research suggests.

As the risk of war decreases worldwide, by 2017 it will be greatest in India, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Uganda and Burma.

And by 2050, as the number of countries at war falls from one in six to one in 12, the risk of conflict will be greatest in India, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia and Tanzania

The conclusions were made by Håvard Hegre, a professor in the university's department of political science, who has devised a statistical model in collaboration with Oslo's Peace Research Institute.

The model, it is claimed, is capable of telling us what is likely to happen in the future.

'The number of conflicts is falling,' said Professor Hegre. 'We expect this fall to continue. We predict a steady fall in the number of conflicts in the next 40 years.

'Conflicts that involve a high degree of violence, such as Syria, are becoming increasingly rare.

'We put a lot of work into developing statistical methods that enable us, with a reasonable degree of certainty, to predict conflicts in the future.

'A conflict is defined as a conflict between governments and political organisations that use violence and in which at least 25 people die. This means that the model does not cover either tribal wars or solo terrorists like Anders Behring Breivik.

'In the 1700s it was normal to go to war to expand your country's territory. This strategy has passed its sell by date. But, demands for democracy may be suppressed with violence and result in more violence in the short term. As in Libya.'

His research has found there has been a decrease in armed conflicts and the number of people killed since World War II and this trend will continue.

'War has become less acceptable, just like duelling, torture and the death penalty.'

Infant mortality, calculated by the UN up to 2050, is one of the key factors in Professor Hegre's model.

'Countries with a high infant mortality rate have a high probability of conflict. Infant mortality is now decreasing everywhere.'

The UN has also estimated population structure up to 2050. The population is expected to grow, but at a slower pace than today, and the proportion of young people will decrease in most countries, with the exception of countries in Africa.

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna has extrapolated the level of education up to 2050.

The simulation model is also based on the last 40 years' history of conflicts, of all countries and their neighbours in the world, oil resources and ethnicity. The conflict data were collated by the Uppsala University

'Economic changes in society have resulted in both education and human capital becoming important. A complex economy makes political violence less attractive.

Posted by: Au Auric || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I would agree... if everything stays on the current trend.

However, if the world economy collapses I predict that these scientists prediction will go right down the toilet.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/25/2012 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  "Scientists"?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/25/2012 2:20 Comments || Top||

#3  They probably said the exact same thing during the fading years of the Roman Empire. "People are so 'enlightened' now that war is no needed.".

We saw how that ended.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 11/25/2012 2:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Will the JudeoChristian US-West includ Russia accept on par a large number of Islamic nuclear powers???

OTHER > IIRC TOPIX, WORLD NEWS = MARITIME DISPUTES IN EAST ASIA RUN DEEPER THAN ECONOMICS.

"Manifest Destiny", territorial claims, and historical ethno-political rivalries.

In the 5000 years of recorded/known human history, Mankind has known only a few years of peace.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/25/2012 2:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Until such statistical models demonstrate the capacity to accurately predict the past, I have no confidence that they can predict the future. The same claims were/are made for global warming, after all.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/25/2012 6:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Good idea Darth. They should print that prediction on toilet paper. AH, Capitalism. Call it operation clean sweep.
Posted by: Dale || 11/25/2012 7:50 Comments || Top||

#7  The thing that irks me the most about this type of BS is that I know better. With degrees in Political "Science" (I know, consider my curriculum choices as a casualty of Vietnam) and Computers with 30+ years of experience, much of it in modelling, GIGO!!

There is no way any model truly works given the quality of input that this shite (and AGCC) gets.

Figures don't lie, liars figure.
Posted by: AlanC || 11/25/2012 9:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Got that 1938 feelin' all over.
Posted by: no mo uro || 11/25/2012 9:28 Comments || Top||

#9  If you bought the statistical analysis of The Population Bomb, a book written by Stanford University Professor Paul R. Ehrlich, we'd all be living from one starvation to another on this planet by now.

Even after the apogee of the Roman Empire things didn't disintegrate immediately. The core of the empire still had a good 'peaceful' period, before the rumblings along the borders made themselves known outside the walls. If you were a patrician inside those walls, the world looked certainly more civil than during the time Hannibal was running rampant throughout Italy. It'd be a few more decades later that it would be Vandals instead.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 11/25/2012 9:50 Comments || Top||

#10  Mods should add the Pollyanna pic to complement the confidence meter.
Posted by: PBMcL || 11/25/2012 10:34 Comments || Top||

#11  these people are living in a bubble.
I suggest that they move their investigation team to some cozy "failed state" in the third world. then give the research another go. :-)
Posted by: Raider || 11/25/2012 12:16 Comments || Top||

#12  Actually Raider, the data has validity. The amount of conflicts has been going down over the years. Internal state kills have been about the same, but armies going at each other has been going down. I would argue that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the stabilizing presence of the US has helped tremendously.

Now that the US is starting to retreat from the world stage, the "hot spots" that have been simmering for decades are starting to come alive again. If the US continues to withdraw, or has Zero bumble more policy then more conflicts will erupt. Add global economic collapse and the shortage of food, medicine and goods and the amount of conflict will skyrocket.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/25/2012 13:42 Comments || Top||

#13  "If the US continues to withdraw, or has Zero bumble more policy then more conflicts will erupt. Add global economic collapse and the shortage of food, medicine and goods and the amount of conflict will skyrocket."

Works for me, Darth. The "world" has been complaining about the U.S. for decades (while taking our money); let 'em find out (again) what the world is like without Pax Americana. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 11/25/2012 16:59 Comments || Top||

#14  Like battle plans no prediction survives initial contact.
Posted by: JimK || 11/25/2012 17:36 Comments || Top||

#15  I know Barbara, the temptation is there (I know I've said it many a time). But the last couple times we withdrew from the world two world wars erupted. With the EU crumbling, debt everywhere and no stabilizing influence, another Hitler or Stalin WILL show up on the world stage. We've been down this road before and it is covered with hundreds of thousands of dead Americans and millions of dead people around the world.
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/25/2012 18:28 Comments || Top||

#16  And there's the one little catch about being an 'island nation' - at some point there is no where else to go, and your beaches are being stormed.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/25/2012 19:47 Comments || Top||

#17  I will agree that war will end soon - but only if the Mayan calendar people are right. War will exist until man dies out; it's in our DNA.
Posted by: Glenmore || 11/25/2012 21:21 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt's ElBaradei demands Morsi rescinds 'dictatorial' decree
[Al Ahram] Prominent opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei
Egyptian law scholar and Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. After stepping down from his IAEA position ElBaradei attempted to horn in on the 2011 Egyptian protests which culminated in the collapse of the Mubarak regime. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. Soros himself serves as a member of the organization's Executive Committee.
said on Saturday there could be no dialogue with Egypt's president until he rescinded a "dictatorial" decree that he said gave the Islamist leader Mohamed Morsi the powers of a pharaoh.
The presidential decree issued on Thursday by Morsi, elected in June with the Moslem Brüderbund behind him, expanded his powers and caused fury amongst his opponents, prompting violent festivities in central Cairo and other cities on Friday.

Judges, angry at measures seen as undermining the judiciary, have threatened to strike if the declaration was not revoked and the opposition has called for more protests, with one planned for Tuesday.

"There is no room for dialogue when a dictator imposes the most oppressive, abhorrent measures and then says 'let us split the difference'," ElBaradei said in an interview with Rooters and The News Agency that Dare Not be Named after talks with opposition figures.

ElBaradei, who said he expected to be coordinator of a new opposition National Salvation Front, said Mursi's declaration threatened Egypt's troubled transition to democracy and actions were needed to stop a "cycle of violence".

"How are we going to do that? I do not see any other way other than through Mr. Morsi rescinding his dictatorial declaration," he said, adding the decree created a "new pharaoh".
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Home Front: Politix
Jesse Jackson Jr.'s Resignation Could Cost Taxpayers $5.1 Million
Jesse Jackson Jr.'s resignation from the House could cost Illinois taxpayers more than $5.1 million, according to the state elections board.

Jackson, Jr. offered his resignation today to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Jackson has been absent from the Capitol for months while undergoing treatment for bipolar disorder at the Mayo Clinic. In addition, his use of campaign funds is being investigated by federal authorities.

Looking at two special House elections held in Illinois in recent years - those to replace GOP House speaker Denny Hastert and Democratic congressman Rahm Emanuel - the Illinois State Board of Elections calculated those elections cost $2,700 to $4,000 per precinct. With 590 precincts in Jackson's 2nd Congressional District, an election would probably cost around $2,575,000, the state board told ABC News.

Illinois will hold two special elections to replace Jackson, a primary and a general, and the state board projects that replacing Jackson could cost $5.15 million total.

That's just a projection, and it assumes that the 2nd Congressional District will hold the special elections on their own days. State law will likely allow for the primary, but not the general, to be held alongside already-scheduled votes for state and local offices.

Jackson hasn't officially won re-election yet, as the state won't certify election results until Dec. 2. Officials are unsure of whether that will affect how Gov. Pat Quinn handles Jackson's resignation, an official with the state elections board said. Jackson handily defeated Republican lawyer Brian Woodworth with 63 percent of the vote, according to the still-unofficial results.

Quinn, a Democrat, must set a special-election date within five days, under Illinois law. The election must be held in the 115 days after that.

Jackson may have cost taxpayers extra by resigning so suddenly.

To save money, the 2nd District could hold its special election on Illinois' consolidated election schedule at the same time as lesser races throughout the state.

But that doesn't seem possible under Illinois's statutory special-election timeline. Illinois primaries will happen Feb. 26, but the April 9 general-election date falls outside the 115-day special-election range. Counting Thursday as day 1, March 21 is the earliest the 2nd District special election could be held.

Had Jackson waited until Dec. 15 to resign, Quinn could have scheduled the general special election for April 9, along with Illinois' other general elections.
The cost of the special elections will be borne by the counties in Jackson's district, as well as by the state.

Holding a statewide special election to replace governor Rod Blagojevich cost the state between $90 million and $100 million, according to estimates, the state elections board said.
Posted by: Beavis || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336106 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Send him the bill.
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/25/2012 9:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Actually, maybe they should have Jesse Jackson, Sr. appoint his son's heir in the seat. That would save the trouble and confusion of an election. Then the state and county could send a "contribution" of a (large) portion of the saved money to Rev Jackson in gratitude.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 11/25/2012 14:03 Comments || Top||

#3  I'd say it'd be worth it to get rid of him except that if the voters in that district were stupid enough to reelect him after all that was already known about him there isn't much hope that whoever replaces him will be any better.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 11/25/2012 17:41 Comments || Top||

#4  tribal politics writ on someone else's checks
Posted by: Frank G || 11/25/2012 17:42 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Where are the Yonatans ? Where are the Sayeret Matkal ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336098 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This fact does not give Israel the right to kill innocent non-combatants, not even unintentionally.

Where did you find this ethical worm, Besoeker?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 11/25/2012 2:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Yona-what?
Posted by: gromky || 11/25/2012 4:07 Comments || Top||

#3  “Three years ago by a little reflection and patience they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well.”

“You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out.”
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 11/25/2012 7:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Where did you find this ethical worm, Besoeker?

The author's background.

That it appears in a Russian news blog is richly ironic.
Posted by: Pappy || 11/25/2012 10:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Even Sayeret Matkal occasionally needs to usebug spray when there are too many flies for a flyswatter.
Posted by: badanov || 11/25/2012 10:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Murder is not unintentional when it is inevitable.

She would have you crawl three days through dog crap to disarm the bad guys by shooting the rifles out of their hands using nerf balls, which is great in comic books and martini, hippy circles.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 11/25/2012 11:49 Comments || Top||

#7  When no one from the UN or US or so called international community call the Palestinians out for putting rocket launchers in schools and hospitals or marking vehicles as press or medical or use ambulances as transports. Then maybe there is no such thing as non-combatants.
Posted by: Airandee || 11/25/2012 18:12 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Jamaat-Shibir at it again
[Bangla Daily Star] At least 19 people including six coppers were maimed in separate festivities between police and activists of 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...
and Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
in Chapainawabganj and the capital.

Police tossed in the calaboose
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
25 Jamaat and Shibir men in Uttara and placed in durance vile
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
16 in Chapainawabganj. In another drive at the capital's Malibagh, they detained six activists.

The clash at Uttara erupted around 4:30pm when police intercepted a procession of 60-70 members on Road 7, Sector 4, witnesses said.

They hurled brick chips at police when the latter marched forward to stop them. Police and the activists chased each other for about 10 minutes.

Police fired eight rounds of teargas canisters, 18 rounds of rubber bullets and baton-charged the supporters to disperse them, Deputy Commissioner Nisarul Arif of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Uttara division) told The Daily Star.

Police arranged primary treatment for three activists. No coppers were maimed in the incident.

The procession was part of Jamaat and Shibir's ongoing demonstrations demanding release of their leaders facing trial for crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War of 1971, police said.

In Chapainawabganj, 16 people including six coppers sustained injuries during a clash between police and Jamaat-Shibir men at Nachole Bazar yesterday.

The injured police personnel are: Officer-in-Charge Firoz Ahmed, Officer-in-Charge (Investigation) Sayed Iqbal, Sub-Inspectors Abdul Momin and Saiful Islam and Constables Mamunur Rashid and Helal of Nachole cop shoppe.

Firoz was admitted to Nachole upazila health complex and the others were given first aid. Police arrested five leaders, including upazila unit ameer Yahia Khaled, secretary Yakub Ali and Nachole union parishad Chairman Mawlana Rais Uddin.

Police said the activists brought out a procession without the local administration's permission around 3:45pm and attacked them with brickbats and sticks. Police retaliated with teargas shells, rubber bullets and baton charge.

In the Malibagh drive, six Jamaat and Shibir supporters were picked up from Educare Coaching Center around 5:00pm, following a tip-off, said Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Shah Alam of Ramna Police Station.

Since November 5, Jamaat and Shibir members have repeatedly attacked police across the country and left many of them injured.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Home Front: WoT
3 Reasons to Kill the Dept. of Homeland Security
[Reason] 1. It’s unnecessary. In the months immediately following September 11 attacks in 2001, President George W. Bush initially resisted calls to create a new high-level bureaucracy that would be laid on top of current activities. He was right to recognize that coordinating existing agencies would have been smarter and better. Unfortunately, he caved in to pressure to create a massive new department.
To quote Heinlein: "There's nothing more permanent than a temporary emergency." Parkinson: "Bureaucracies grow, they don't shrink."
2. It’s ineffective. To read the titles of Government Accountability Office (GAO) analyses of Homeland Security is to be reminded constantly that DHS is never quite on top of its game. Recent reports include “DHS Requires More Disciplined Investment Management to Help Meet Mission Needs,” “DHS Needs Better Project Information and Coordination Among Four Overlapping Grant Programs,” and “Agriculture Inspection Program Has Made Some Improvements, But Management Challenges Persist.”
I can remember the days when flying was an enjoyable experience. You showed up, checked your bags, got on board, and took off. Once aloft you could smoke and the stewardesses would give you dinner and sell you beer. There were no cattle pens involved in the boarding process, and honest citizens weren't frisked like criminals.
3. It’s expensive. Last year, Homeland Security spent a whopping $60 billion, a figure that will doubtlessly increase in coming years. The construction of its new headquarters – the single-largest project ever undertaken by The General Services Administration – will cost at least $4 billion and is already years behind schedule since breaking ground in 2009.
Bureaucracies, by their nature, consume resources. They go beyond Potemkin's dictum ("That which ceases to grow begins to rot") and manage to continue growing while rotting -- becoming less efficient (if possible) and more corrupt -- almost from day one. The very first TSA arguments were over whether to use government employees (unionized, naturally) or existing civilian security screeners. Naturally they went with the less efficient of the two options. Big Sis has become a national joke at the same time her screeners are universally hated.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336064 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought the biggest reason was, "THE DHS HAS NOT CAUGHT A SINGLE TERRORIST"
Posted by: DarthVader || 11/25/2012 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Meh, for me the biggest single reason is its Commie/Soviet-style name.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 11/25/2012 2:32 Comments || Top||

#3  TSA---Thousands Standing Around
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 11/25/2012 13:41 Comments || Top||

#4  "Bureaucracies grow METASTASISE , they don't shrink."
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 11/25/2012 16:10 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Fatah: We also fought against Israel in Pillar of Defense
[JPost] Gaza-based armed groups tied to Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party claim they fired 516 rockets at Israel during recent conflict; Fatah Central Committee member praises Hamas, Islamic Jihad, says Abbas was not against the "resistance."
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336063 views] Top|| File under: Fatah


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria rebels ready final assault on Sheikh Suleiman base
[Al Ahram] Rebels who have besieged Sheikh Suleiman army base for nearly two months are confident it will fall in days, giving them full control of a swathe of northwest Syria from 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...
to the Turkish border.

Their optimism has been buoyed by a steady stream of defectors from the ranks of the several hundred troops defending the strategic base, the last major garrison still in army hands between the border and Syria's northern metropolis.

"We have been besieging the base for nearly two months, the 300 or 400 soldiers entrenched inside are in a desperate situation," rebel commander Sheikh Tawfik told AFP.

"Many have deserted. Just this morning five more escaped -- they are with us now," beams the bearded commander, whose authority is now unquestioned in the nearby town of Qabtan al-Jabal.

The base sprawls over nearly 200 hectares (nearly 500 acres) of rocky hills about 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Aleppo.

Sheikh Tawfiq says according to the deserters, morale among rank and file conscripts is at rock bottom and it is only the officers, mostly drawn from the same Alawite minority as Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
, who prevent a full surrender.

"Every soldier in the base understands that the end of the regime is near. They are just waiting for an opportunity to lay down their arms, but their Alawite officers prevent them," he said.

"The fall of the Sheikh Suleiman base is only a matter of days," according to Sheikh Tawfik.

Earlier this week, gun-hung tough guys took control of another military camp in the region, Base 46 nearer to Aleppo. Nearly 300 of the soldiers were killed, according to the rebels, and a large cache of arms and ammunition seized.

Now rebels are counting on the capture of Sheikh Suleiman to give them full control of the countryside west of Aleppo and boost to their forces inside the commercial capital where fighting has reached stalemate after five months of deadly urban combat.

"The day Sheikh Suleiman falls, all of western Aleppo will finally be liberated. Give it 45 days and Aleppo city will fall too," said Sheikh Tawfik.

For now, the rebels are thwarted by the imposing defense system of the garrison, whose soldiers have weapons of every kind at their disposal. The base continues to be supplied by helicopter, while warplanes regularly bomb rebel positions.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a key rights watchdog, reported 25 rebels killed earlier this week in an abortive attack on the base, most by anti-personnel mines and air strikes.

The attack was led by fighters from the jihadist Al-Nusra Front, a rebel source told AFP, confirming the death of a dozen fighters.

As with Base 46, the gunners of Sheikh Suleiman have been bombarding the surrounding towns and villages to ward off any renewed assault. Twenty rockets struck nearby Atareb on Friday.

The tenacity of the defence has raised all kinds of speculation. A deserting conscript told AFP that it contained a clandestine scientific research whose purpose was unknown even to the rank and file.

The prize of the bases' huge arsenal has stoked rivalries among the multiple rebel groups laying siege, some fighting under the banner of the mainstream Free Syrian Army (FSA) and others under the flag of Islam.

Sheikh Tawfik's Noureddin Zinki battalion, and Bayt al-Ansar battalion, both fight under the the banner of the FSA but other groups, including the Al-Nusra Front, do not.
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336102 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Noel "Lois Lane" Neill [Filmography](age 92)



Well Swash My Buckles
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/25/2012 3:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Arrrrgh! There be meat on those bones!!!!
Posted by: AlanC || 11/25/2012 9:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Birthday Gam Shot

Kristin "Pam the Vam" Bauer van Straten [Filmography](age 39)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 11/26/2012 11:58 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Who Attacked Qazi?
The suicide kaboom on the former 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...
chief indicates a growing ideological divide between religious parties and the Taliban

On October 19, former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed
...the absolutely humorless, xenophobic former head of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. He was also head of the MMA, a coalition of religious parties formed after 2001 that eventually collapsed under the weight of the holy egos involved. Qazi was the patron of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar during the Afghan mujaheddin's war against the Soviets. His sermons are described as fiery, which means they rely heavily on gospel and not at all on logic. Qazi once recommended drinking camel pee for good health, but that was before his kidneys went...
narrowly escaped a suicide attack in Gandau area of Mohmand Agency
... 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 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...
. A burqa-clad woman blew herself up near his convoy injuring five.

Qazi's procession was headed to the Mian Mandi area of Haleemzai tehsil to address a gathering and open a party office when it came under attack near Ghyiba Chowk, according to Adil Siddique, the political agent. According to a witness, a woman sitting on the roadside detonated the explosives strapped to her body when the convoy arrived. Officials found pieces of female clothing and hair on the site.

The event was not postponed despite the suicide attack. Qazi told news hounds later that he had been attacked by "the agents of the US, Israel and India", and not by Moslems.

Although nobody has grabbed credit for the bombing, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain chief Hakeemullah Mehsud had released a video several months ago in which he had denounced Qazi and questioned his stance on TTP attacks in Pakistain. In the Pashto video made and released by Umer Media, Mehsud cites an April 2012 interview by Salim Safi on Geo TV. He criticized Qazi for saying that the Afghan Taliban's resistance against foreign forces was true jihad and that of the Pak Taliban against Pakistain was un-Islamic. Hakimullah argued that the JI leader was wrong.

Qazi had refused to respond to the video. "I know about the existence of this videotape, but I have no comments to make," he told news hounds.

Militants operating in Mohmand Agency are led by Omar Khalid, whose real name is Abdul Wali. A source in the police said the Mohmand chapter of TTP was involved in most of the recent attacks on politicians in the neighboring Charsadda and Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
districts.

On November 11, a bomb planted near the house of Jamaat-e-Islami Peshawar chief and former politician Sabir Hussain Awan went off, damaging a nearby house and a mosque.

Last year, police defused a bomb planted near the house of another JI leader, Shabbir Ahmad Khan. At least 27 people including JI Peshawar vice chief Haji Dost Muhammad and a deputy superintendent of police were killed in a suicide attack in Qissa Khwani Bazar of Peshawar in April 2010.

Fazlur Rehman, chief of Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam
...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability...
-Fazl, survived two successive suicide attacks in Swabi and Charsadda in March 2011.

Several activists and leaders of the JUI-F have been targeted and killed in Khyber Pakhtunkwa and FATA in the last four years. Those who died include Mairajuddin, a former MNA from the Mehsud area of South Wazoo, Noor Muhammad Wazir, a former MNA from the Wazir area of South Waziristan, and Haji Afzal Khan, former district mayor of Hangu.

These attacks are significant because JUI-F and JI are considered pro-Taliban. Some political analysts believe the attacks indicate a growing ideological divide between the religious political parties and Pak Taliban concerning the legitimacy of the Pak state.

The TTP openly denounces democracy and calls the state un-Islamic. The religious parties participate in elections and recognize the authority of the Pak state.

The March 2011 liquidation attempts on Fazlur Rehman came days after leaked US State Department cables revealed JUI-F leaders reportedly wanted to mediate between the US and the Afghan Taliban. Analysts say the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda decided to sever links with the JUI-F after that.

Serious differences had also been reported between Jamaat-e-Islami and Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi led by Sufi Mohammad and his son-in-law Fazlullah. Sufi was a local leader of the JI in Dir district until the early 1980s, when he parted ways with them and violated their policy of getting power only through elections.
Posted by: trailing wife || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  Karma is a bitch.
Posted by: Punky Big Foot3318 || 11/25/2012 14:09 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Rahm Emanuel Pontificates : How to rebuild America
Too much post-election analysis has focused on voter demographics and campaign mechanics, leaving Democrats in danger of drawing the wrong lessons from our electoral success.

Demographics alone are not destiny. There is nothing in this year's election returns that guarantees Democrats a permanent majority in the years to come. President Obama and the Democratic Party earned the support of key groups -- young people, single women, Latinos, African Americans, auto workers in the Rust Belt and millions of other middle-class Americans -- because of our ideas.

But we cannot expect Republicans to cede the economic argument so readily, or to fall so far short on campaign mechanics, the next time around.

So, instead of resting on false assurances of underlying demographic advantages, the Democratic Party must follow through on our No. 1 priority, which the president set when he took office and reemphasized throughout this campaign: It is time to come home and rebuild America.

In Chicago, our initiative of "Building a New Chicago" adopts a similar view, with improvements to areas as varied as education and physical infrastructure.

While infrastructure improvements have been neglected on a federal level for decades, Chicago is making one of the nation's largest coordinated investments, putting 30,000 residents to work over the next three years improving our roads, rails and runways; repairing our aged water system; and increasing access to gigabit-speed broadband. We are paying for these critical improvements through a combination of reforms, efficiencies and direct user fees, as well as creating the nation's first city-level public-private infrastructure bank. Democrats should champion these kinds of innovative financing tools at a national level.

If we want to build a future in which the middle class can succeed, we must continue the push for reform that the president began with Race to the Top, bringing responsibility and accountability to our teachers and principals.

Chicago has adopted its own Race to the Top for early childhood education, allowing public schools, Head Start, charters and parochial schools to compete for dollars by improving the quality of their pre-kindergarten programs. In addition, this year Chicago Public Schools put into effect a 30 percent increase in class time, which means that when today's kindergartners graduate high school, they will have benefited from 2½ more years' worth of education.

In partnership with leading private-sector companies, we reengineered our six community colleges to focus each on skills training for jobs in one of Chicago's six key growth fields. Democrats can be the party that closes the nation's skills gap by making our community colleges a vital link between people looking for jobs and companies looking for skilled workers.

The strength of these investments is proven in the number of people we're putting back to work: Chicago is first in the nation in terms of increase in employed residents, and for several months we have led the nation in year-over-year employment increases. We added 42,500 residents to the workforce in the past year alone -- 8,000 more than the next highest U.S. city.

While Republicans are likely to become less intransigent on immigration, Democrats need to push for comprehensive immigration reform to ensure that, true to our history, we continue to be the party of opportunity and inclusion. Democrats in Congress should follow Chicago's lead and develop a national "Citizenship Initiative" to provide the 8.5 million people eligible to become citizens with the information and resources they need to achieve the American dream.

Chicago's initiatives come straight out of the playbook Barack Obama put forward in his campaign four years ago and has advocated since Day One of his presidency. But there are some issues that only Washington can tackle. Democrats at the national level must execute on the president's agenda on energy and tax reform to ensure the future of not only our party but also the middle class.

By embracing the president's "all of the above" strategy, Democrats can own the policies that will begin to make the United States energy-independent in the next four years, a goal that has eluded the past eight presidents.

While reforming tax policy is not the panacea that some believe, the experience of our party shows that pro-growth, pro-middle-class reforms can jump-start economic prosperity. When Democrats led on these policies during President Bill Clinton's first term, we strengthened the earned-income tax credit. We balanced the budget in the second term, cutting spending while lowering taxes for working families, to lay the groundwork for a decade of prosperity. In President Obama's second term, we have an opportunity to do the same and narrow the nation's income gap.

If Democrats develop innovative policies that help Americans compete in a global economy, we will outperform Republicans on Election Day. It's that simple.

We cannot allow Beltway chatter to hijack what the president accomplished in this election or to demean its value. We must never lose sight of the fact that while our victory in 2012 was aided by demographic advantages and sophisticated campaigning, our party's ideas are what sealed the deal with middle-class voters.
Posted by: Au Auric || 11/25/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336105 views] Top|| File under:

#1  President Obama and the Democratic Party earned bought the support of key groups -- young people, single women, Latinos, African Americans, auto workers
Posted by: Skidmark || 11/25/2012 9:17 Comments || Top||

#2  "It is time to come home and rebuild America.
"


Translation - it is time to loot the military to pay for do-nothing public sector jobs to bribe more people to vote Dem.
Posted by: no mo uro || 11/25/2012 9:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Chicago is where the current administration learned economics.
Rahm can't fill potholes, Chicago is the murder capitol of the nation, Chicago is at least 2000 police officers understrength, Chicago has a majority 'dependant' population which devastates any budget planning, and is so corrupt it makes Monrovia look like good government.
Yet the media lap dogs just hoover this stuff up...
Posted by: Griter Crart8496 || 11/25/2012 11:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Mark my words, every job he envisions is union, every act that the second term takes domestically will involve unions in some fashion, and everything, everything, is about building a permanent, one party rule through minority wealth transfers and crony capitalism and massive massive illegal immigration amnesty efforts. The tipping point has arrived and perhaps passed my friends. Look for card check legislation this spring, making unionization and permanent dues collection for the Democrat Party a certainty. Where were the 7 million who didn't show up?
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 11/25/2012 17:32 Comments || Top||

#5  The areas of this country run for decades by leftist liberals are in total disarray and the solution is always more if the same.

Does anyone on the left realize that soon there will be no new money?
Posted by: Airandee || 11/25/2012 18:05 Comments || Top||

#6  "Does anyone on the left realize that soon there will be no new money?"

Nonsense, Airandee. They'll just run the printing presses faster/longer. That'll fix it. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 11/25/2012 18:09 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
30[untagged]
4Arab Spring
3TTP
3Govt of Syria
2Hamas
2Govt of Sudan
2al-Shabaab
1Govt of Iran
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Muslim Brotherhood
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1East Turkestan Islamic Movement
1Fatah

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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.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2012-11-25
  Thousands of anti-Morsi protesters spend the night in Egypt's Tahrir square
Sat 2012-11-24
  7 People Killed in Pakistan Shiite Procession
Fri 2012-11-23
  IDF, Shin Bet Arrest 55 Terror Operatives In West Bank
Thu 2012-11-22
  Mashaal: I accept a Palestinian state on '67 borders
Wed 2012-11-21
  'Bomb blast' on bus in Tel Aviv
Tue 2012-11-20
  Female Suicide Boomer Targets Qazi
Mon 2012-11-19
  Israeli Strikes Kill 21 Palestinians, Gaza Rockets Wound 10 Israelis
Sun 2012-11-18
  Israeli air strikes pound Gaza as death toll hits 38
Sat 2012-11-17
   Israel air strikes hit Hamas HQ
Fri 2012-11-16
  Israel Warns of Escalation After Tel Aviv Missile Firing
Thu 2012-11-15
  Gaza missiles fired at Tel Aviv
Wed 2012-11-14
  France recognizes rebel coalition as legitimate rulers of Syria
Tue 2012-11-13
  Jamaat, Shibir go berserk in Bangla
Mon 2012-11-12
  Govt. Soldiers shoot it out in Mogadishu
Sun 2012-11-11
  IDF Changes Rules of Engagement Along Syrian Border

Better than the average link...



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