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Rockets Fired on Peshawar Airport, Five Dead, Dozens Injured
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
18:34 1 19:17 JosephMendiola [336100] 
18:14 1 19:04 Mike Kozlowski [336095]
13:39 5 19:04 DarthVader [336102]
10:25 20 22:56 Raider [336121]
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Home Front: Politix
Black box 2014 bypass of congress.
Posted by: Dale || 12/16/2012 18:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336100 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Plus the Govt repor wants to record any + any conversations in school buses = public transportation???

AMTRAK? Greyhound? Airlines? Elderly,Local Disabled Shuttles, .....???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2012 19:17 Comments || Top||


Europe
Depardieu 'Shrugged'
Posted by: tipper || 12/16/2012 18:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336095 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...Gotta believe that en Francais, that sounded freakin' awesome.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 12/16/2012 19:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Clackamas Man, Armed, Confronts Mall Shooter
Nick Meli is emotionally drained. The 22-year-old was at Clackamas Town Center with a friend and her baby when a masked man opened fire.

"I heard three shots and turned and looked at Casey and said, 'are you serious?,'" he said.

The friend and baby hit the floor. Meli, who has a concealed carry permit, positioned himself behind a pillar.

"He was working on his rifle," said Meli. "He kept pulling the charging handle and hitting the side."

The break in gunfire allowed Meli to pull out his own gun, but he never took his eyes off the shooter.

"As I was going down to pull, I saw someone in the back of the Charlotte move, and I knew if I fired and missed, I could hit them," he said.

Meli took cover inside a nearby store. He never pulled the trigger. He stands by that decision.

"I'm not beating myself up cause I didn't shoot him," said Meli. "I know after he saw me, I think the last shot he fired was the one he used on himself."

The gunman was dead, but not before taking two innocent lives with him and taking the innocence of everyone else.
How many more would be dead, if the killer hadn't seen a gun staring him in the face? One wonders.
"I don't ever want to see anyone that way ever," said Meli. "It just bothers me."
Posted by: Sherry || 12/16/2012 13:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336102 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I believe that young man has a promising career in law enforcement ahead of him, should he decide to go in that direction. I salute him!
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 14:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Law enforcement hell, give 'em 14 years, that's leadership material.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/16/2012 14:54 Comments || Top||

#3  I suspect that is the last thing on his mind right now.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2012 14:57 Comments || Top||

#4  No doubt Steve.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 15:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Either way, this guy made a good decision under duress and he should be shown as an example of what a normal citizen with a concealed permit can accomplish.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/16/2012 19:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Holder Wants to Discuss How to Ban Guns in a Responsible Way
Daniel Greenfield is a serious rock star of a writer. Moved to Opinion...
From TFA:

Attorney General Eric Holder made remarks a short time ago on the tragic school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, where a 20-year-old gunman killed 20 children and six adults. Holder appeared to suggest the country's gun laws may need to be looked at more closely in the wake of the latest mass shooting.

"As a nation I think we have to ask ourselves some hard questions. We gather too often to talk about these kinds of incidents. We need to discuss who we are as a nation, talk about the freedoms that we have, the rights that we have and how those might be used in a responsible way."

Please, by all means, let's have a discussion about how the Second Amendment can be used in a responsible way from a man who ran a gun candy store for Mexican drug lords.
Posted by: badanov || 12/16/2012 10:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336121 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anything coming from this man and this presidency I will immediately reject.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/16/2012 10:44 Comments || Top||

#2  I should be able to own and responsibly use the same quality and quantity of weapons as Holder sent to the Mexican Cartels!
Posted by: Frank G || 12/16/2012 11:01 Comments || Top||

#3  As a nation I think we have to ask ourselves some hard questions...

Absolutely.

1- What the hell are we going to do about a $16T national debt that grows at over $1T a year?

2- Who is responsible for the Mexican and American deaths caused by Fast and Furious?

3- What happened in Benghazi?

4- In words and phrases that Americans outside of the Beltway can understand, how exactly will Obamacare change things?

5- Why is it so hard to get straightforward information from our public employees in Washington?

Etc.
Posted by: Matt || 12/16/2012 11:08 Comments || Top||

#4  And by the way, Mr. Holder, your question about the rights we have has already been discussed in some detail by experts on the subject.
Posted by: Matt || 12/16/2012 11:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Hear, hear, Matt!
Posted by: Barbara || 12/16/2012 11:28 Comments || Top||

#6  No guns were used on 9-11, nor in OKC bombing. Jim Jones used Kool Aid. It's not about guns. Evil will find a way.
Posted by: crazyhorse || 12/16/2012 11:34 Comments || Top||

#7  It's not about taxes or fairness, nor is it about guns. It's about control.

Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened. –Winston Churchill
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 11:37 Comments || Top||

#8  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rtrLBYwIOZs#!
Posted by: crazyhorse || 12/16/2012 11:54 Comments || Top||

#9  Something about the color of pots and kettles...
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/16/2012 12:00 Comments || Top||

#10  Let me see if I have this straight. The government that attempts to clandestinely ship guns to AQ and MB elements across the globe, arms selected drug cartels in Mexico, and turns a blind eye toward urban, gang firearms murders in America...... now wishes to disarm law abiding US citizens ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 12:02 Comments || Top||

#11  Right. And they'll give gun-law waivers to union members and their own bodyguards.
Posted by: Matt || 12/16/2012 12:17 Comments || Top||

#12  Discuss all you want.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/16/2012 12:19 Comments || Top||

#13  First disarm the Military, all of it, then talk to me.

Until you do, you're not serious.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/16/2012 12:41 Comments || Top||

#14  Matt has it right.

Instapundit has been asking what kind of guns Rupurt Murdoch's and Michael Bloomberg's bodyguards carry.

I have a more basic question as a citizen: why are their lives worth more than mine?

You want to freeze all this stupid blabber about taking away guns, pass a law saying that the bodyguards of the rich and powerful have no more rigs than you and I have for concealed carry. Argument will be over in a New York minute.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2012 15:02 Comments || Top||

#15  Don't ban guns. Ban TV cameras.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/16/2012 15:30 Comments || Top||

#16  Thanks, Rantburgers. I knew I could count on you. I needed a little bit of balance for all the crap that's been coming from the media these past few days. I've been avoiding the television as much as possible but sometimes it still finds me and they only hard questions they are asking seem to be about finding a way around the Second Amendment. Of course, if you're Eric Holder or Barack Obama, you don't need no stinkin' Constitution.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 12/16/2012 17:06 Comments || Top||

#17  D *** NG IT, AMERIKA, ITS FOR THE CHILDREN = OWG NAU!

2015 or ASAP afterward.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2012 19:19 Comments || Top||

#18 
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/16/2012 21:10 Comments || Top||

#19  We have fire alams, fire extinguishers, fire escapes, and so on to protect our kids from fire in a school. But violence in school affects far more every year than does fire.

Why then are the leftists who mandate all the things in the school systems so adamant about not having armed and trained teachers/staff, or police officers present in the schools?

We have armed personnel guard the government buildings and the politicians judges and bureaucrats who are in there - are our children and school buildings any less important?
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/16/2012 21:44 Comments || Top||

#20  I'm a parent with 2 kids in school. I will be suggesting to the school principal that we implement a policy of 100% searches for ALL people entering the school. And this policy may also require the presence of a full-time armed guard to deal with high-risk offenders. I don't believe changes in the gun laws will alter the risks of school shootings in any measurable way. We will have to change safety & security at the schools themselves.
Posted by: Raider || 12/16/2012 22:56 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Almost nothing
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/16/2012 06:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336071 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sent to Breitbart:

Please help.

An article on Breitbart's Big Journalism titled "As CT Story Unfolds, Media Struggle with Facts" has this paragraph:

"At first, authorities said Lanza had used two pistols (a Glock and a Sig Sauer) in the attack and left a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle in the trunk of a vehicle. But by Saturday afternoon, the latest information was that all the victims had been shot with the rifle at close range."

Then, the VERY NEXT ARTICLE titled "Dereliction: A Constant Stream of Media Misinformation in Conn. Massacre" has this to say:

"Also from the beginning, the murderer was reported as having strode through the school with a .223-caliber rifle, often referred to by the media here as an "assault weapon." This also turned out to be untrue. In fact, he only had handguns with him in the school, not any "assault rifle." He did have a rifle, but it was reportedly left in his car and not carried into the school."

Which fact is FACTUAL? What is true?

Please help. And correct the incorrect statement.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 12/16/2012 7:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Almost nothing ?

Our little children should be our most prized citizens, our prodigy, our hope. Send selected teachers away for two weeks of paid firearms training in the summer. Deputize them, make them wear appropriate concealment clothing, give them a police radio, make them re-qualify each year, and pay them special duty pay (SDP). This shi* should taper off dramatically.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 7:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Hardin the fok'n target!

Build new schools adjacent police stations or police stations adjacent existing schools. Bring in FEMA trailers to begin the transition.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 7:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Something like this, Besoeker?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/16/2012 9:10 Comments || Top||

#5  As one of my old mentors used to say, "don't just do something, stand there."

Mass shootings have declined over the past decade and are less frequent now than twenty years ago. Each and every one is a tragedy; each death is especially a tragedy.

But before we either try to grab all the guns (liberals) or turn schools into fortresses (conservatives), we should take a deep breath and analyze the situation for what it is.

It's about alienated, deeply disturbed, psychotic young men who in their early twenties are no longer able to handle their inner demons. They erupt and bring evil to innocents.

Now when you can figure out how to stop that, you let me know.

Until then, don't just do something, stand there.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2012 9:43 Comments || Top||

#6  I know how to stop it and we should do something.

These people do not erupt out of nowhere. They have been erupting for a long time. Their families know it but can do nothing about it. They need help.

These are people who cannot function effectively in modern society. They need to be set apart from that society in a place where they can do no harm to themselves or others. Leaving them alone until they have their final eruption is barbaric.

Bring back civil residential mental institutions.

And the mass shootings have been declining because we began incarcerating these folks instead of institutionalizing them. See this. I can't believe the worst institutions will not be better for these pathetic folks than prison.


Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/16/2012 10:48 Comments || Top||

#7  I can't believe the worst institutions will not be better for these pathetic folks than prison.

Well, since you raise the point, Titicut Follies profoundly influenced the process of de-institutionalization.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 12/16/2012 11:08 Comments || Top||

#8  And the prisons of 50 years ago were a lot worse than the prisons of today. Incarceration is not to be p[referred to institutionalization. Any system run by humans will be imperfect. Our choice is which is least bad.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/16/2012 11:12 Comments || Top||

#9  Steve, rather than mental institutions let's have jihad. Then we would be morally obligated to ship these mental patients off to some place like Ossetia and let them shoot up other peoples' schools.
Posted by: rammer || 12/16/2012 11:40 Comments || Top||

#10  If properly trained, have absolutely no problem with teachers carrying a Galil g(r)om. Absolutely none at all.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 11:46 Comments || Top||

#11  Agreed Besoeker. If a teacher has a Concealed Carry Permit, they should be able to carry it on school grounds. Or at least have it in a lockbox with a key they carry, to access in a couple heartbeats. A single teacher with good aim could have ended this before he reached that classroom.

That being said, our CiC is visiting the victims today. And decided to shed a tear in the press conference over the tragedy. I really wish I could spit at his feet to show my disdain, but I'd get arrested probably.
Posted by: Charles || 12/16/2012 12:05 Comments || Top||

#12  I share you disdain Charles.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 12:14 Comments || Top||

#13  A very useful link, Nimble Spemble. A girlfriend of mine has a son recently diagnosed with schizophrenia. He is 22, about the right age for that to blossom into severe disability. He was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome at age fourteen, but she now suspects it was a misdiagnosis of early signs of the other. He has no tendency toward violence as such at this point, merely a fondness for burning paper and playing with kitchen knives; it is her assessment that, at this point, he is more likely to kill the entire family by accident than deliberately.

She's been trying desperately since his diagnosis to get him medicated and in some sort of sheltered home situation, as she is completely bedridden and living with her elderly parents, one of whom is developing Alzheimers. However, as her son is of legal age and convinced that he and the angels that talk to him are perfectly sane, the law thus far prevents either the family or the medical professionals who fully accept the diagnosis from forcing him to accept either medication or hospitalization.

She is terrified because, as she points out, when schizophrenics break toward violence, they generally kill their mothers first... and he deeply resents that she has appointed herself Keeper of the Knives. Her other fear is that her parents will refuse to live with the situation any longer, and the lad will end up on the street, where he is more likely to quietly die curled up under a Pittsburgh bridge with no idea of why than obnoxiously begging from passing strangers.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/16/2012 12:17 Comments || Top||

#14  And Here's what it looks like to the Mom.

When I asked my son’s social worker about my options, he said that the only thing I could do was to get Michael charged with a crime. “If he’s back in the system, they’ll create a paper trail,” he said. “That’s the only way you’re ever going to get anything done. No one will pay attention to you unless you’ve got charges.”

On the intake form, under the question, “What are your expectations for treatment?” I wrote, “I need help.”

I am sharing this story because I am Adam Lanza’s mother. I am Dylan Klebold’s and Eric Harris’s mother. I am Jason Holmes’s mother. I am Jared Loughner’s mother. I am Seung-Hui Cho’s mother. And these boys—and their mothers—need help. In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it’s easy to talk about guns. But it’s time to talk about mental illness.


Much more at the link.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/16/2012 12:27 Comments || Top||

#15  He did have a rifle, but it was reportedly left in his car and not carried into the school."

Which fact is FACTUAL? What is true?

It appears he had two rifles, one was left in his car.
Posted by: tipper || 12/16/2012 18:30 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
The Hermit Kingdom, China, and the Muslim Brotherhood
United States intelligence agencies recently uncovered a covert deal between North Korea and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood government to ship Scud missile parts from North Korea through China to Egypt.

The shipment of Scud components is scheduled to be sent by air cargo transport through China and on to Egypt, according to U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports. The shipment would be the first by the North Korean regime to the new Egyptian regime headed by Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood-backed president.

China has repeatedly violated the U.N. sanctions on North Korea by providing goods and technology to the communist regime in Pyongyang, according to U.S. intelligence officials. The Obama administration so far has failed to challenge either Beijing or Pyongyang for the violations. The most serious proliferation activity, according to the officials, was China's recent transfer of road-mobile strategic nuclear missile launchers to North Korea. The transporter-erector launchers (TELs) were spotted in April during a military parade in Pyongyang carrying the new KN-08 ICBM, a road-mobile ICBM capable of hitting U.S. cities.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/16/2012 01:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under:

#1  HHHMMMMM, HHHHHMMMMM, so NOKOR is playing both Iran + Egypt???

Sniff, sniff, is there no love = DPRK SCUDS/Missles for Bangladesh???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2012 23:34 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Six witnesses, including Mark Siegel, summoned in Benazir murder case
[Dawn] An anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi has summoned six prosecution witnesses, including late Benazir Bhutto
... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in...
's friend and lobbyist Mark Siegel to record his statement in the former prime minister's liquidation case.

The ATC was hearing the case at Rawalpindi's Adiyala Jail premises on Saturday. During today's proceedings, counsels for the prosecution and defence concluded their arguments over two witnesses, Magistrate Ahmed Masood Janjua and police officer (SHO) Aijaz Shah.

Following conclusion of arguments, the bench issued summons for American Mark Siegel, who was also the Bhutto's friend, to appear before the court on Jan 5 to record his statement.

Bhutto was assassinated in a public gathering in a park in Rawalpindi on Dec 27, 2007. Siegel is a key prosecution witness in the case.

According to Siegel, former president General (retd) Pervez Perv Musharraf
... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ...
had threatened Bhutto with dire consequences if she returned home before the 2008 general election.

A statement, recorded by Siegel in the US, says Bhutto received a telephone call from Musharraf at a time when she was with Siegel. In the conversation that followed, the general allegedly told Bhutto that he would not be responsible for her security if she returned before the election.

Siegel also alleges that the former military strongman knew of the plotting of the liquidation, was aware of the timing and personally ordered the destruction of evidence.

The court further issued summons to the other five witnesses, including Professor Dr Musadiq, Rescue 1122 In-charge, Dr Abdur Rehman, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Yaseen Farooq, and Superintendent Police (SP) Ashfaq Anwar. The hearing was subsequently adjourned until Dec 22.

Meanwhile,
...back at the fist fight, Jake ducked another roundhouse, then parried with his left, then with his right, finally with his chin...
the prosecution agency, the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA), has also asked the Interpol to arrest Musharraf -- a request that has been turned down by the world police stating it was moved under political pressure.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Home Front: Politix
Brand USA Scandal Deepens
[Free Beacon] KTS Business Consulting's recent audit of Brand USA--the government-subsidized corporation created by Congress to promote United States tourism that has been dogged by allegations of cronyism and waste--obtained by the Free Beacon shows a company without vision, motivation, or oversight.

The audit found "a majority of the staff did not have any idea what the mission" of Brand USA was and that "all staff was in limbo as to what type of organization the Brand USA is."
Hmmm... Maybe they could deliver mail?
They can make sure Julia gets her monthly contraceptives...
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Contact Brand USA for details. Tug Toner cannot be bought in stores.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 3:49 Comments || Top||

#2  They can make sure Julia gets her monthly contraceptives...

And the rest of the stuff promised from cradle to grave by the video. I can only imagine what kind of a people such cradle to grave societal benefits would create--scary. Of course, such benefits could never be delivered--no society could ever afford this. Attempts to do this would destroy society as we know it.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/16/2012 10:36 Comments || Top||

#3  ROLOL re "Brand Tug Toner."
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/16/2012 10:38 Comments || Top||

#4  I've gotta save that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/16/2012 12:51 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria troops press assault on town near Damascus
[Al Ahram] Syrian troops shelled a besieged town near Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
and clashed with rebels on the outskirts of the capital on Saturday as the country's conflict entered its 22nd month, a watchdog and activists said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fierce battles as the army sent in reinforcements and tried to storm the town of Daraya on different fronts.

Army artillery gunners were pounding the town, southwest of Damascus, the monitoring group said, after activists reported that troops had used rocket launchers and heavy artillery on Friday.

"This is the 28th day the criminal Assad forces have attempted to break into the town," read a statement from activists in Daraya.

Soldiers have focused their assault on the embattled western district of Mudamiyeh but the "Daraya Martyrs" battalion, a unit of the rebel Free Syrian Army, has kept them at bay, the activists said.

"The city remains isolated from the outside world due to a communications and power cut for the past 37 days. With ongoing fuel cuts, there is an urgent need for supplies to be restored as winter sets in," they said.

Clashes also erupted in the Paleostinian camp of Yarmuk in the south of the capital on Saturday between rebels and troops backed by pro-regime Paleostinian fighters, the Observatory reported.

Overnight, the watchdog said, two kabooms were heard in the southern Qadam neighbourhood, several mortar rounds hit the Barzeh district in the northeast and army artillery targeted northeastern suburbs.

In northern Syria, fighting broke out around the air force intelligence branch in the Zahraa district 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...
city, according to the Observatory, which relies on a nationwide network of activists and medics.

And in the southern province of Daraa, where the anti-regime revolt was born 21 months ago, rebels and troops clashed in the towns of Sheikh Maskin and Izraa, as villages and towns came under army shelling.

The Observatory said 92 people were killed in violence across Syria on Friday, a third of them in and around Damascus.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336096 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Refugees protest UNRWA dismissals
[Ma'an] Refugees continued to protest UNRWA cuts in West Bank camps on Thursday, burning tires and forcing staff from their offices.

Demonstrators shut down the UN agency's offices across the West Bank for the second day in protest over the dismissal of 130 employees and cuts to services.

In Bethlehem, dozens of protesters forced staff from the UNRWA center and burned tires, carrying signs condemning the decision to fire workers.

Sameer Attallah, popular committee member in Aida camp, said demonstrations sent a message to UNRWA's administration and that protests would escalate. He said the cuts were the first stage in withdrawing services to Paleostinian refugees.

UNRWA is heavily dependent on voluntary contributions, which it says have not kept pace with the increasing needs of a growing refugee population.
A Ma'an reader commented:
Burning tires causes additional CO2 emission and increases global warming/greenhouse effect. Palestinian refugees should stop increasing their numbers, may be the best way to limit number of refugees is to eliminate UNRWA. Because in fact those people are not refugees - they are palestinians living in Palestinian state. They cannot be refugees in the own state, recognized by UN General Assembly. At best they are internally displaced persons, and only those who were actually displaced in 1948.
Actions always have unintended consequences, which always seems to startle the Palestinians.
The Palestinians were simply Arabs back in '48. Their 'brother Arabs' could have taken them in but didn't. Since then they've lost a bunch of wars, alienated everyone in sight, and in general have behaved badly. Their penalty is to have to depend on the U.N. for crumbs. Enjoy.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now if there'd been a UNWRA employees union...

it'd have been the same thing, but they'd have gotten much better press.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/16/2012 10:16 Comments || Top||

#2  "The Palestinians were simply Arabs back in '48. Their 'brother Arabs' could have taken them in but didn't. Since then they've lost a bunch of wars, alienated everyone in sight, and in general have behaved badly. Their penalty is to have to depend on the U.N. for crumbs. Enjoy."

Well said, Dr. Steve! Winning comment of the day!
Posted by: Barbara || 12/16/2012 11:20 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Initial results for Egypt's constitutional poll begin trickling in
[Al Ahram] 01:10 According to Al-Hayat television, in Egypt's Nile Delta Gharbiya Governorate, the "yes" vote has reached 337,955 (52.15 per cent) and the "no" vote has reached 310,181 (47.85 per cent) after votes were counted in 610 out of 820 polling stations.

01:02 The Muslim Brotherhood states on its English-language Twitter account that votes are have been counted in 1875 out of the 6376 polling stations.

"Yes' votes are 64.5 per cent and 'no' are 35.4 per cent," the Brotherhood's official Ikhwanweb site reported.

12:47 According to Al-Hayat television, in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Aswan, the "yes" vote has reached 10,458 (86.58 per cent) and the "no" vote has reached 1,620 (13.42 per cent), after votes were counted in 21 polling stations.

12:30 According to Al-Hayat television, in the Egypt's Nile Delta Gharbiya Governorate, votes have been tallied in 488 out of the 820 polling stations. "Yes" votes are currently at 260,525 (53.66 per cent) and "no" votes are at 224,934 (46.34 per cent).

12:15 The Muslim Brotherhood says on its English-language Twitter account that votes had already been counted in 1385 out of 6376 polling stations in ten governorates.

"'Yes' votes are 65 per cent and 'no' are 35 per cent," the Brotherhood's official Ikhwanweb site reported.

12:00 Al-Jazeera television report that 83.9 per cent have voted "yes" and 16.1 per cent voted "no" after 50 per cent of the votes were counted in the Sohag Governorate in Upper Egypt.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336103 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Egyptian voters have just reaffirmed the decision from the elections held months ago. The Pew Polls were not a fluke - the vast majority of Egyptians really are troglodytes. Will Egypt follow in the footsteps of the policy of Sunni Islamist adventurism adhered to by the Taliban that resulted in 9/11?
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/16/2012 16:24 Comments || Top||


I kept my disciples from using automatic weapons against protesters: Imam Mahalawy
[Al Ahram] Alexandria's most renowned imam, Ahmed El-Mahalawy, revealed that Friday's festivities at Qaed Ibrahim Mosque, which lasted for hours and left at least 23 injured, could have turned uglier if he had allowed his ''armed' supporters to intervene.
Which they were itching to do...
Mahalawy, an ultra-orthodox Islamist and a staunch supporter of President Mohamed Morsi, earned the wrath of some worshippers as he called for voting 'yes' in the constitutional referendum during his weekly Friday prayers sermon.
"Yes, brethren and sistern! Allen will strike you deader than a rock if you don't vote 'yes'!"
Scuffles later broke between supporters and opponents of the fiery
...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob...
preacher, and media reports suggested that Moslem Brüderbund supporters held three opponents hostage inside the mosque and assaulted them, thus escalating tensions.

"My sons [supporters] gave me a call and said that they are on their way to save me with automatic weapons, but I told them to wait for my instructions," said Mahalawy during a presser held at his home on Saturday.

Several vehicles were set ablaze in the ensuing violent festivities, and on-the-scene videos suggested anti-Brotherhood protesters destroyed cars carrying the logo of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.

Anti-Mahalawy protesters, angered by the reported attack by his supporters on the three men, held Mahalawy hostage inside the mosque for hours until police managed to escort him out in the late evening hours.

"I would like the Islamist groups all over Egypt to be on stand-by and unite, but we also need to exercise self-restraint," Mahalawy added.

"I am over 87-years-old, but God helped me maintain my composure," said the preacher, who was banned by Mubarak before the January 25 Revolution from delivering sermons for years.

Clashes between anti and pro Mahalawy forces ended in the early hours of Saturday morning, before the voting on the constitutional referendum started at 8am.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Salafists

#1  OK, so they only used semi-auto weapons, big deal.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/16/2012 12:20 Comments || Top||

#2  They're still HOLY,(Dead) so what.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/16/2012 12:26 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Addressing the "Au revoir..." comment. That seems to hold with just about any western/civilized government, the USA included. The troops are far better than their 'betters'.
As I type this, I think to/of myself "Bitter, much?" A resounding yes.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 12/16/2012 6:33 Comments || Top||

#2  just a reminder. If you're shopping Amazon, and click through Fred's link down the right side of the page, he gets a little boodle at no expense to you
Posted by: Frank G || 12/16/2012 10:35 Comments || Top||

#3  That can't be said often enough, Frank.

Anytime a Ranter wants to buy something from Amazon (or even browse), go to Rantburg first and click on the Amazon link to go shopping. It's a piece of cake.

(And as much as some of us buy from Amazon, hopefully it helps Fred a little too.)
Posted by: Barbara || 12/16/2012 11:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Birthday Gam Shot

Gail Harris [English][Filmography](age 48)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/16/2012 11:28 Comments || Top||


Sri Lanka
Free Syrian Army top commander killed in Syria's Aleppo
[Al Ahram] A top rebel commander in the northern Syrian 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...
was killed in a major battle for a military academy on Saturday, his brigade said.
"It is with pride that Liwa al-Tawhid (brigade) announces the death in combat of the hero martyr, Colonel Yusef al-Jader (Abu Furat)," the brigade said on its Facebook page.

Abu Furat was killed during battles pitting troops against rebels trying to "liberate" a major military academy at Moslemiyeh, just north of the embattled city of Aleppo.

Abu Furat once headed a tank brigade in the Syrian army, but defected to join the rebels after putting his wife and children in a safe area of the war-torn country.

After joining Liwa al-Tawhid, a rebel brigade linked to the Moslem Brüderbund, Abu Furat became commander of military operations in Aleppo.

He frequently fought on the front lines of key battlegrounds such as Salaheddin and Seif al-Dawla, in the city of Aleppo.

Sharp-witted and friendly, Abu Furat was loved by his supporters.

"I propose that the Infantry Academy be renamed 'Martyr Abu Furat School'," one person wrote in a commentary posted on Liwa al-Tawhid's Facebook page.

Abu Furat welcomed and provided cover to several AFP teams covering Syria's conflict in Aleppo.

On Saturday, rebels came close to scoring a significant victory as they captured large parts of the military academy, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"This is one of the most important military academies in all of Syria," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Elite Republican Guard troop reinforcements were deployed by helicopter to try to push back the rebels, said the monitoring group.

According to the Observatory, a large but unidentified number of soldiers and rebels have been killed in fighting around the academy.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336114 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Another jihadist bites the dust.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/16/2012 16:45 Comments || Top||

#2  "I propose that the Infantry Academy be renamed 'Martyr Abu Furat School'," one person wrote in a commentary posted on Liwa al-Tawhid's Facebook page.

No rush on the naming of streets and schools. You've got some rough sledding ahead yet.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 16:52 Comments || Top||

#3  No evidence whatsoever, but I suspect the Gulf kingdoms have been buying off Syrian government figures. The longer the government stays in power, the more difficult it will be to lure them away will the promise of money, which is probably not a lifetime stipend and attached to ephemeral promises of high office in a post-Assad Syrian government.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/16/2012 19:04 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tunisia busts Qaeda recruitment network: Ministry
[Al Ahram] Tunisian security forces have broken up a network that recruited fighters for Al-Qaeda in North Africa, the interior ministry said on Saturday.

"A terrorist network which was responsible for recruiting radical Islamists and sending them to strongholds of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been dismantled," a ministry front man said, quoted by the official TAP news agency.

Seven people were locked away
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
and were to appear in court on Thursday.

Two of them, enjugged
Youse fought together and now youse are jugged together!
one kilometre (0.62 miles) from the border with Algeria on December 6, confessed to being part of the network. The rest were arrested in the days that followed, and a gun was seized from one of them.

Other members of the network were being sought in the region of Jendouba, in northwestern Tunisia.

Security forces were also still hunting for gunnies who killed a policeman near the Algerian border on Monday, front man added.

Clashes, strikes and attacks by hardline Islamists have multiplied across Tunisia in the run-up to the second anniversary of the start of Tunisia's revolution, which will be marked on Monday.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
UN, EU urge more Syria aid as conflict enters 'new phase'
[Al Ahram] EU and UN aid chiefs called in Beirut on Saturday for urgent funds to help internally displaced and refugee Syrians, foreseeing a new phase of a "brutal conflict" that has killed tens of thousands and affected hundreds of thousands more.

In Damascus
...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations...
, meanwhile, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem called on the United Nations
...When talk is your weapon it's hard to make yourself heard over the artillery...
to push for an end to Western sanctions, which he said were causing suffering among the Syria people.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told news hounds in Beirut that "this is not a conflict like many others. This indeed became a brutal conflict in the context of dramatic humanitarian tragedy."

He called on the world to step up financial support for countries hosting Syrian refugees, saying they require "massive support."

The UNHCR says the number of refugees in neighbouring Leb, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq has now reached more than 500,000, and is projected to jump to 1.1 million by June.

EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Kristalina Georgieva said her agency is trying to provide assistance to Syrians inside their country "so they don't need to flee to neighbouring countries.

But that "is becoming increasingly difficult, and in some parts of the country impossible," she added.

The two officials spent Saturday morning in Leb's eastern Bekaa Valley, visiting refugees, a third of whom are hosted by Lebanese families, according to the UN.

"While all the refugees we talked to prefer to stay in their home country, they are reporting atrocities and fighting of a magnitude that pushes them out," said Georgieva, adding that "unfortunately the conflict has entered a new phase."
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336086 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  The Arab Spring just seems like a shakedown. Pay them more money for more Muslim Brotherhood governments in the Middle East. Not interested.
Posted by: American Delight || 12/16/2012 5:16 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Nuggets From The Urdu Press
Imran Khan hijacked by rich politicians
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt Vice Admiral (Retd) Javed Iqbal stated that he had left Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
's party Pakistain Tehrik Insaf because it was hijacked by rich but failed politicians, just as earlier the party's face was blackened by Imran Khan's support to Musharraf. He said the main reason why he quit the party was his criticism of Air Marshall (Retd) Asghar Khan which Imran Khan did not allow and asked him not to discuss party views on TV. He said the party was finished as an ideological entity because of the new entrants at the cost of old faithfuls.

IJI saved Pakistain from disaster
Famous retired politician and former IJI interior minister Nasim Ahir told Nawa-e-Waqt that he was proud to say that he together with Hameed Gul was the organiser of the IJI against the PPP because the latter was conspiring to change the country's direction by disarming it and rendering it weak. He said he was repository of great state secrets and was certain that the same conspiracy against Pakistain was afoot by the same party with changed faces.

25 jihadi groups enter Karachi
Karachi is a large and tolerant city, welcoming the colourfully violent with open arms in numbers that would destroy a lesser place
.According to Jang 25 jihadi groups connected with Al Qaeda and Taliban had entered and taken positions 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...
which had become a battlefield between the law enforcement agencies and the terrorists. This was reported by the state security agencies as incidents of killing, kidnapping and bank robbery touched a new high in the city.

CNG consumption becomes alarming
Reported in Awaz Pakistain had become the world's number one state consuming CNG with a growth rate in this consumption of 25 percent counting the CNG stations being opened despite warnings of depletion of the scarce gas. The status of top country consuming CNG was in respect of motor vehicles running on gas.

Decline of the West
Famous intellectual Orya Maqbool Jan wrote in Dunya that those people who think Pakistain is lowest of the low and that Iran and 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...
were exemplary should also accept lack of democracy there and learn to live without uttering a world against the government as was the practice in the two states. Some people also praise the system in India but Orya's experience while travelling in Orissa was that there were women lining up on both sides of the road trying to sell their bodies because of poverty. Paks also praise the West where in fact the scattering of the healthy family system was destroying people's lives who were crying over this decline.

Justice Jawad Khwaja in trouble?
Reported in Dunya one Mohsin Beg Jamil had filed reference at the Supreme Judicial Council against sitting judge Justice Jawad S Khwaja for putting undue pressure on him by openly passing personal remarks against him and asking him to change his lawyer. Mr Jamil was facing a contempt appearance.

Mufti Munib attacks Saudi Arabia
*gasp!*
Unofficial Grand Mufti of Pakistain who decides the Eid moon, Mufti Munibur Rehman told Ausaf that people in Pakistain were wrong to defy the consensus of the Learned Elders of Islam on Eid moon and observe Eid one day ahead to follow the example of Saudi Arabia. He said if they were so keen to follow Saudi Arabia they should also accept the kingship of the Saudi Kingdom. He said 90 percent of the people of Pakistain followed the ruling of his committee and observed Eid normally.

When Quaid-e-Azam was stabbed
Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that in 1943 some Mohammedans aligned with Congress were pressuring Jinnah to join Gandhi against British Raj but he refused. As a result he was attacked with a knife by a Mohammedan fanatic Rafiq Sabir Muzangvi who belonged to Khaksar Movement and who later accused the Quaid of being ignorant about Islam. Today Pakistain was under threat from the same kind of fanatics.

Ending death sentence is against Islam
Quoted in Dunya chief of Sunni Ittehad Council Sahibzada Fazal Karim that it would not be acceptable if the government tried to abolish death sentence since such abolition would be against the Koran which lays down the punishment of death. He said his party would also oppose any amendment in Blasphemy Law to render it ineffective.

Tahirul Qadiri extremely rich but...
Writing in Express Asadullah Ghalib stated that Allama Tahirul Qadiri lived like a poor man and in his house. While his guests drank in beautiful glasses he used only an earthen pot for his drinks. In La Belle France and Germany and England he was often greeted by his votaries with gifts such as expensive watches, priceless properties like houses and plots of land because of his sacrifices for the religion of Islam.

Reactions to Army Chief's statement
According to Dunya PPP's information Qamar Zaman Kaira said the statement was good but he was not prepared to comment on it. Retired generals Hameed Gul and 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..
welcomed the content of the statement. Columnist Ayaz Amir said the statement seemed an expression of anger. Salman Ghani commented that the counter-statement of the Chief Justice indicated a possible long-term caretaker government. He said there was a possible lack of confidence between the institutions. Mujibur Rehman Shami said just a few generals had been accused of wrongdoing but that did not mean that the Army had been insulted. The lawyers defending the Chief Justice supported him by saying that in this day and age the strength of the state was not in armament.

Arabs in Tablighi Jamaat congregation
Reported in Ausaf for the first time there was a big number of Arab delegates to the annual congregation of Tablighi Jamaat
A group of itinerant Deobandi preachers who form one of al-Qaeda's recruiting arms...
at Raiwind in Lahore. The Tablighi Jamaat is an internationally active organization with a large number of delegates participating from all over the world in its annual meeting.

In praise of Aslam Beg
Writing in Express famous columnist Asadullah Khan Ghalib warned those who were criticising the government (fauj say dur bash). He stated that America and Pak media were both criticising Pakistain Army (ragaid aur lataar). Everyone is piling accusations on generals Hameed Gul, Aslam Beg, Asad Durrani which is an old conspiracy. No one accepts the honest service of Aslam Beg that he did not impose martial law but he is being pilloried for accepting the medal of democracy. No one praises him for keeping the Army away from politics. He used military exercise Zarb-e-Momin to achieve this but no one admires that. No one appreciates the fact that he kept the Army away from Iraq.
Iraq was in danger of invasion from Pakistan? That would have been interesting.
It was because of him that President Ishaq took oath from Benazir. Therefore it appears that his biggest fault was that he refused to be General Yahya but handed over the government to elected politicians.

Army Chief addresses judiciary
Daily Dunya in its first headline announced that that the Army Chief gave the following message to the judiciary and the media: that institutions should remain within limits and that the Army will not tolerate efforts to create a gulf between officers and the ranks. No one should attach criminality to an accused person, and that no one person was entitled to decide what the national interest of Pakistain was.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Hildebeast fell down, went BOOM! Cannot testify on Benghazi now.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336087 views] Top|| File under:

#1  a likely story
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/16/2012 0:04 Comments || Top||

#2  As the Church Lady used to say "How conveeeeeeeenient!"
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/16/2012 0:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Gross indignation of the House of Representatives. Drag the Marxists/Communists/Socialists before the Representatives of the American people by any means necessary.
Posted by: Dino Shomomp7692 || 12/16/2012 1:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Another broken high heel?
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2012 1:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Tried doing the 'bump' at the disco...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2012 1:13 Comments || Top||

#6  Preggers wid twins like the Princess Middleton???

Either that or Vulcan mind link wid Mubarak.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2012 1:37 Comments || Top||

#7  All of those long hours, domestic chores, and Christmas shopping for Slick. I'm watching developments closely for some sort of.... "Splendid Deception".
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 2:55 Comments || Top||

#8  Delayed shell shock?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/16/2012 6:07 Comments || Top||

#9  How about we get the suddenly ex-Admirals and ex-Generals to testify?
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/16/2012 11:32 Comments || Top||

#10  Offer to pay their salary, but not restoration.
That ought to oil their tongues.

Or offer "Conditional" restoration, then don't.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/16/2012 12:34 Comments || Top||

#11  Right from the plot of a bad made-for-tv movie.

Hey, maybe she could phone it in!
Posted by: SteveS || 12/16/2012 12:40 Comments || Top||

#12  I wonder if I could use that trick sometime.
Posted by: gorb || 12/16/2012 13:22 Comments || Top||

#13  "Help! I've fallen and can't get up testify!"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/16/2012 13:36 Comments || Top||

#14  suffering from a stomach virus, fainted, hit her head, which caused the concussion

Whenever does such a catalogue of errors ever happen to a normal person. I smell bullshit.
Posted by: Nero Tingle7396 || 12/16/2012 18:55 Comments || Top||

#15  The dog ate my self-respect.
Posted by: Slitle Angoluling3666 || 12/16/2012 19:39 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Strip Search Of 10-Year-Old Prompts Complaint Against Elementary School
[Charlotte.CBSLocal]
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When I saw the headline, I assumed it was at some madrassa in Pakistan, not in a public school in North Carolina.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/16/2012 0:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Why didn't any of the reporters ask the teacher if she was a democrat? And was she breathing hard? show her some naked pics of children and see if her eyes dilate.

Ask her if all round obvious legal rights give you the authority to strip HER in a corner and search her for the money. Be sure and get her to bend over and get several witnesses to watch so nothing "bad": happens to her.

Would it be against the law to post her address and telephone number? That would be legal wouldn't it? No law against giving her name and address, surely. refresh me on that law.
In fact it is indeed against the law to do that. So don't.
How about giving strangers on the street directions to Dairy Queen?
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 12/16/2012 7:49 Comments || Top||

#3  ......ah, a future with the TSA for someone.
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/16/2012 8:32 Comments || Top||

#4  "Within her legal rights to do so".
NAME those "Legal Rights".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/16/2012 8:53 Comments || Top||

#5  ......ah, a future with the TSA for someone.

Who, the teacher or Threater Flusoper?
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2012 9:52 Comments || Top||

#6  The Teach. Maybe she'll 'progress' to doing the kids in wheelchairs next week.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 12/16/2012 10:59 Comments || Top||

#7  I expect she'll wait until 4-5 of them are post-pubescent.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/16/2012 11:59 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Samjhauta Express blast: Indian agency nabs a key suspect
[Dawn] In a major breakthrough in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blast case, the Indian authorities on Saturday placed in durance vile
Please don't kill me!
Rajesh Chaudhary, suspected to have planted bombs in a Pakistain-bound train, Press Trust of India reported.

Rajesh Chaudhary alias Samundar was arrested from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. There was a bounty of Rs 500,000 on his head also.

The blast, in 2007 had left nearly 70 dead and 100 injured -- most of them Paks.

The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has already charged Aseemanand, Sunil Joshi (now dead), Lokesh Sharma, Dange alias Parmanand and Kalasangra for hatching a criminal conspiracy which resulted in blasts in the Samjhauta Express near Deewana railway station in Haryana's Panipat district, about 80 km from Delhi.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria copter crash kills state governor, five others
[AFP] A helicopter operated by Nigeria's navy crashed in the southern part of the country on Saturday, killing a state governor, a former national security advisor and four others, officials said.

A statement from President Goodluck Jonathan
... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
said the governor of the northern state of Kaduna, Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, and ex-national security advisor Owoye Azazi were both killed along with two aides and the two naval officers operating the helicopter.

"President Jonathan has ordered an investigation into the cause(s) of the crash," the statement said.

The navy said the helicopter was headed to the oil hub of Port Harcourt and went down in the Nembe area of oil-rich Bayelsa state at about 3:30 pm (1430 GMT).

Emergency workers who deployed to the scene have completed the search-and-rescue operation, the National Emergency Management Agency said.

The operation "led to the recovery of the bodies of the six passengers on board the helicopter," NEMA said, adding: "The bodies have been deposited in the mortuary."

Jonathan expressed "utter shock and sadness" over the crash that killed the governor of the embattled state along with a retired general and former security aide who was considered one of his top political allies.

Religiously divided Kaduna has seen a series of festivities between Christian and Mohammedan residents that have left scores dead this year.

The state has also been among the hardest hit by radical Islamist group Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
, which has repeatedly attacked Christian churches with suicide kabooms in and around the state capital Kaduna City.

The fallen governor "demonstrated an unyielding capacity in wielding together varying fragile interests," the ruling Peoples Democratic Party said in a statement.

"Even in the face of daunting security challenges, nothing came close to compromising his iron-cast resolve," the party's condolence message further said.

It was not clear how Yakowa's death would affect the precarious security situation in Kaduna.

Azazi, a prominent figure in the both political and military circles, also played a role in trying to manage the Boko Haram insurgency, which has killed hundreds in Nigeria since 2009.

Jonathan sacked him in January, following the group's deadliest ever attack, which claimed at least 185 lives in the northern city of Kano.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran shuts down 40 plants over air pollution
Tehran authorities forced to temporarily close dozens of factories over pollution violations; MP projects daily loss of 800 billion rials
Pollution or perchance limited fuel for power?
Tehran authorities were recently forced to temporarily shut down 40 industrial facilities, including cement and tar production plants due to alarming level of air pollution.

Deputy Head of Iran's Environment Protection Organization (IEPO) Ali-Mohammad Shaeri told the Mehr News Agency
...And if you can't believe Mehr News Agency who can you believe?...
that as part of the measures taken to control the situation, Tehran's main cement factory was allowed to use just 40% of its capacity until further notice.

One MP projected that the daily loss to the Iranian economy stood at 800 billion rials (roughly $65 million).

The extreme pollution levels also prompted the temporary closure of schools, universities and government offices in the Iranian capital last week.

Hospitals and banks remained open, but were placed on alert.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hospitals and banks remained open, but were placed on alert.

Pollution, global warming, bank and hospital media "alerts"..... all very familiar to us, here as well. :-(
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 3:28 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Activist detained for tearing-up ballot paper
[Al Ahram] Activist Aida El-Kashef has been arrested after she tore up her ballot in protest of the constitution referendum, at the Nasser Girl's School polling station in Cairo's Manial district. The judge supervising the polls filed a report against her and she was consequently transported to Misr Al-Kadima police station.
Where she is currently being groped felt up searched...
...after which she'll be beaten to a pulp and tossed into an alley somewhere...
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Mubarak falls in prison shower, suffers head wound
It seems he isn't brain dead, after all.
[Jpost] Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
on Saturday was injured when he slipped in a prison shower, Al Arabiya, citing Egypt's official MENA news agency, reported.

According to the report, Mubarak, who is serving a life sentence for his role in the killing of protesters during the uprising that toppled him last year, was treated for a head wound and bruising by medics in Tora prison near Cairo.

Mubarak, 84, ruled Egypt for three decades before a popular revolt removed him from office on Feb. 11, 2011.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336096 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow, he's still alive? Thought he died of despair some time back.
Posted by: gromky || 12/16/2012 4:27 Comments || Top||

#2  If you get tired of playing cards in the duty room you can always go down to the bathroom in the cellblock and give old Mubarak a quick and dirty "shower".
It sure gets boring smelling the camels and drinking this cold coffee all day
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 12/16/2012 7:22 Comments || Top||

#3  I guess that it's better than having that prison malady, Milošević Disease.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/16/2012 10:09 Comments || Top||

#4  he and Hillary. Same story
Posted by: Frank G || 12/16/2012 10:55 Comments || Top||

#5  The Hildebeast allegedly falls and injures her head while NOT incarcerated. Strange irony that, and proof there really is no justice.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 11:49 Comments || Top||

#6  The old "slipped on the soap in the shower" gig. Works every time.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/16/2012 18:29 Comments || Top||

#7  I remember when Madoff fell out of bed.
Posted by: KBK || 12/16/2012 18:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Too easy.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/16/2012 19:03 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Bloody Zacatecas: 15 die since Thursday

For a map, click here. For a map of Zacatecas state, click here

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of 15 individuals have been killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in Zacateceas state since Thursday, including eight armed suspects according to Mexican news accounts.

A news report posed on the online edition of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily said that eight armed suspects died in an exchange of gunfire with Mexican Policia Federal (PF) and Zacatecas state police forces that started around noon in Genaro Codina municipality and ended at around 1500 hrs Saturday.

According to reports, the gunfight was a series of encounters including pursuits that involved as many as 22 PF vehicles including an number of Rinoceronte or Rhino armor vehicles.

Eight armed suspects were killed and another five were detained at the scene. A quantity of weapons were also seized but the details were not disclosed.

Genaro Codina is about 30 kilometers south of Zacatecas municipality.

Seven other individuals were killed in ongoing drug and gang related violence in Zacatecas state.

  • Two armed suspects and a female passerby were killed in an intergang firefight Wednesday night in Sain Alto municipality. Margarita Monserrat Vazquez Araujo, 19, from Guanajuato was travelling with a male companion on Mexico Federal Highway 45 when she was struck in the face with a stray bullet. She later died while receiving medical attention. Mexican security forces found three abandoned vehicles which had been shot up, presumably during the gunfight.

  • Three armed suspects were killed in an armed encounter with a Mexican Naval infantry road patrol near Jerez municipality. The military unit was on patrol near the village of Organos when marines came under small arms fire. Marine return fire killed the three suspects. The El Sol de Zacatecas report said that the number of armed suspects firing was undetermined, so apparently a number of them escaped. A total of four more armed suspects surrendered.

  • One unidentified armed suspect was killed in an exchange of gunfire between armed suspects and a Mexican Policia Federal road patrol in Calera municipality Thursday. The army unit attempted a traffic stop of several vehicles in Lauro G. Caloca colony, but were instead fired on during a brief pursuit. Army return fire killed one suspect. Two other suspects were detained at the scene.

  • A Mexican Army unit detained four suspected kidnappers in Fresnillo municipality Wednesday. A unit with the Mexican 11th Military Zone received a complaint from an unidentified female kidnapping victim from Plan de Ayala neighborhood in Fresnillo. An army unit dispatched to the address rescued one other female kidnapping victim and detained four suspects at the scene. Soldiers also secured two Norinco brand AK-47 rifles, 10 weapons magazines, 539 rounds of ammunition and one Nissan Altima sedan.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
Domino's sues feds over new health care law
[My Fox NY] The founder of Domino's Pizza is suing the federal government over mandatory contraception coverage in the new health care law.

Tom Monaghan, a devout Roman Catholic, says contraception is not health care and instead is a "gravely immoral" practice. He's a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court, along with his Domino's Farms, which runs an office park near Ann Arbor.

Monaghan offers health insurance that excludes contraception and abortion for employees. The new law requires employers to offer insurance that includes contraception coverage or risk fines. Monaghan says the law violates his constitutional rights, and he's asking a judge to strike down the mandate.

The government says the contraception mandate benefits women and their role in society. There are similar lawsuits pending across the country.
Breitbart adds:
Appeals Court Oral Arguments Signal Trouble For Obamacare HHS Mandate

Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Try their new recipe, the crust is much, much improved. Something of a throw back to their early '70s version.

Posted by: Shipman || 12/16/2012 5:59 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russia denies it is switching support to Syrian rebels
[Independent.Co.UK] Russia denies that it has changed its position on Syria, despite remarks by a senior diplomat suggesting that a rebel victory is possible.

The remarks, made by the deputy Foreign Minister and Middle East Envoy Mikhail Bogdanov, were greeted by the US and its allies as a sign that Russia was edging away from its support for Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
, but Russia now says that he was misinterpreted.

Mr Bogdanov touched off speculation about a possible change in the Russian stance by saying an krazed killer military victory was conceivable, but had added that this would not happen for a long time and would ruin Syria.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said yesterday that Mr Bogdanov's words had been misunderstood and taken out of context. It reiterated Moscow's view that any resolution of the conflict in Syria must be political and not military, and that Mr Assad's departure from power should not be a precondition. "We have never changed our position and we will not change it," Foreign Ministry front man Alexander Lukashevich told a news conference in Moscow.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Syria dissident group set up 'to protect state institutions'
[Al Ahram] Syrian opponents announced in Amman on Saturday the establishment of the new Free National Gathering aimed at "protecting state institutions" should the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's
Terror of Aleppo
fall.

Chief among the gathering's constituents was defected prime minister Riad Hijab, who fled to Jordan with his family in August.

"We have set up this gathering in order to protect 1.5 million people employed in Syrian state institutions," said former deputy oil minister Abdo Hussamedin, who defecting to Jordan in March.

The leadership of the new group brings together seven opposition figures, and will be based out of Doha, with Hijab slated to hold the top post.

Some 30 opposition figures, including key Syrian National Coalition members, attended the gathering's first meeting.

The group aims to "effectively contribute to the (opposition) National Coalition's project... which we are all working with in order to bring down the regime," said former MP Ikhlas Badawi, who defected in July.

The National Coalition, founded in Doha early last month, has been recognised by dozens of states and international organizations as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

Badawi also said the new Gathering would help "build a democratic, diverse and modern state."

"We work to support state employees who are sympathetic to the revolt (against Syrian President Bashir al-Assad) and to safeguard state institutions and peace, now that the fall of the regime is imminent," a first blurb said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Africa North
Polling stations close in several Egyptian governorates before 11pm deadline
[Al Ahram] Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Electoral Commission Zaghloul El-Balshy says he has "no information" about preliminary polling results.

"Nobody informed us of any results. If there were any electoral violations, the commission will convene and take the appropriate steps," El-Balshy said in a phone interview with the CBC television channel.
Did he used to work at the U.N.?
Meanwhile,
...back at the sandwich shop, Caroline was experimenting with ingredients of increasing volatility...
Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website reported that the polling station in the Omar Ibn Al-Khattab School in the Nile Delta's Sharqiya governorate had announced - before 9:50pm - that some 70 per cent of votes cast had endorsed the draft constitution.

The Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice Party, for its part, has already announced some of the results before polling stations have officially closed.

Preliminary results have been announced in several governorates - including Sharqiya and the Upper Egyptian governorates of Assiut and Aswan - before polling stations had officially closed at 11:00pm local time.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Karachi wears deserted look as businesses remain shut
[Dawn] Life 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...
remained at a standstill on Saturday as businesses and offices remained shut and traffic remained off the roads as fear and panic that had set in on Friday evening lasted today, DawnNews reported.

On Friday, routine life in Bloody Karachi, Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas had come to a halt following intermittent firing by unidentified youths who wanted to ensure a complete closure.

In Bloody Karachi, the areas of North Bloody Karachi, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Malir, Jahangir Road, Nazimabad as well as Saddar remained closed and the localities gave a deserted look.

Most public events scheduled for Saturday in the city were postponed and shops and businesses remained closed. Moreover, public transport was scarce and in several areas absent from the roads.

Furthermore, the annual elections of the Bloody Karachi Bar Association, scheduled for today, were postponed to Dec 19 as lawyers could not reach the city courts' premises to cast their votes.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You could really be empty for all I care.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/16/2012 12:24 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria's foreign minister blames US, EU for suffering of his people
[Al Ahram] Syrian FM calls the UN to condemn the sanctions imposed on the country's people by the US & the European countries and to work toward lifting them
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336082 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian Cops Clash With Islamists In Hebron
[Jpost] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, supporters on Friday clashed with Paleostinian Authority coppers who tried to stop them from attacking IDF soldiers and settlers in Hebron, eyewitnesses reported

The clash erupted following a Hamas rally in the city marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Islamist terrorist movement.

Similar rallies have also taken place in the past few days in Nablus, Kalkilya, Ramallah and Tulkarm.

The eyewitnesses said that dozens of Hamas supporters began marching toward the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron immediately after the rally.

PA coppers tried to stop the protesters from approaching an IDF checkpoint, they added. At this point, the Hamas supporters hurled stones and empty bottles at the Paleostinian coppers. No one was hurt.

A PA security official in Hebron denounced the Hamas supporters for attacking Paleostinian coppers.

The official said that the coppers had been deployed in the city to maintain law and order.

According to the official, the PA coppers received orders to stop the Hamas supporters from marching toward the IDF soldiers and Jewish homes "so as not to give Israel an excuse to invade our city."
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336079 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  PA coppers received orders to stop the Hamas supporters from marching toward the IDF soldiers and Jewish homes "so as not to give Israel an excuse to invade our city."

Arabs grasping the relation between cause and effect? Neh, gotta be another explanation.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/16/2012 4:48 Comments || Top||

#2  The West Bankers are less tightly tied to their fantasies than the Gazans, for some reason. This goes back to Classical times, when Alexander the Great had to raze Graza City in order to calm that corner of the world, as I understand it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/16/2012 12:58 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran sortof Threatens World War if Turkey deploys Patriot system
General Hassan Firouzabadi, the Iranian armed forces chief, said Iran wanted its neighbor Turkey to feel secure but called for NATO not to deploy the Patriots in its easternmost member state, which also borders Iran.

"Each one of these Patriots is a black mark on the world map, and is meant to cause a world war," Firouzabadi said, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency. "They are making plans for a world war, and this is very dangerous for the future of humanity and for the future of Europe itself."
Iran is, oddly enough, neither a Germany nor a Japan of 1930s provenance, however much the mullahs fancy themselves Allah's Chosen. And even so, both Germany and Japan lost their war.
Posted by: lord garth || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336115 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wouldn't it be nice?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/16/2012 6:03 Comments || Top||

#2  I can't help but note the increase of boasting by Admirals and Generals about their particular services, and the lack of public posturing by Assman Johnnie.
Seems like the empty suits are setting up defensive perimeters.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/16/2012 11:20 Comments || Top||

#3  World war + a threat to Europe.

* ION TOPIX > NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL [Anders Rasmussen] OFFERS RUSSIA AGREEMENT ON MUTUAL NON-AGRESSION GUARANTEES.

Because the 1939 Pact between Hitler + Stalin worked out so well???

versus

* SAME, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > SOVIET STYLE DISINTEGRATION AWAITS US: GORBACHEV.

Lest we fergit, SEND THE MESSAGE TO GORBACHEV - TORA, TORA, TORA!

Vlad-proposed, US-alleged "Soviet-esque" Eurasian Union versus North-South American Union dominated by "SOviet Amerika"? = OWG TRANS-REGIONAL GOVT, UNION???

WE DON'T EVEN 2015 OWG NAU OFFICIALLY YET + WE'RE ALREADY PLANNING EXTRA/POST-NAU???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2012 23:13 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
TSA Detains 'Explosive-Laced' Girl In Wheelchair
[DFW.CBSLocal] A 12-year-old girl who suffers from a bone disorder and uses a wheelchair was detained for nearly an hour at DFW International Airport after TSA agents said they found explosive residue on her hands.

Shelbi Walser was traveling to Florida for medical treatment with her mother when the incident occurred last weekend.

Her mother, Tammy Daniels, says that TSA agents pulled her to the side after a test revealed explosives residue on the girls hands. However, Daniels believes that TSA agents never used common sense during the ordeal.

"Through all of this, no common sense ever kicked in," said Daniels.
"Through all of this, no common sense ever kicked in," said Daniels. "No one ever tested her wheelchair."

Daniels acknowledged that wheelchairs are "like the bottoms of shoes", which are nasty and exposed to any and everything on the ground.

Other passengers reportedly spoke out in Shelbi's defense, and her mother recorded the whole incident on cell phone video. Shelbi was mortified during the incident and feared that TSA agents were going to separate her from her mother.

At one point, agents called a supervisor in to deal with Daniels, who is very angry about the way she was treated.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All inquiries regarding the incident and it's filming are now being referred to the firm of Goldstein, Roth, and Silverman.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 3:21 Comments || Top||

#2  You mean Gettum, Gottem and Goode, or Wilwe Cheatem and Howe, don't you
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/16/2012 11:19 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
The Mysterious Death Of General Patton
Posted by: Grunter || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336115 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Quite difficult for deceased war heroes or those bedding with their biographers to enter politics, always has been.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 3:38 Comments || Top||

#2  "He wanted to start World War III by fighting the Russians."

He wanted to finish WWII properly. And he would have. Imagine the welcome American troops would have received in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Baltics, Ukraine...
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/16/2012 4:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Imagine the welcome the Soviet Steamroller would have provided the Americans. They had, what, 50 artillery pieces for each kilometer of front?
Posted by: gromky || 12/16/2012 7:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Run over and crushed to death by a heavily laden manure wagon I heard. What are the odds it was just an accident.

And the Soviets of the time were ..how shall I say it...quite capable of that sort of thing. A lot of talent out there.

I remember a guy named Dubcek too. Whatever happened to him?
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 12/16/2012 7:56 Comments || Top||

#5  @gromky
Yes the Soviets had the artillery, but Americans had the air power.
Also loudly announcing that the Baltics, Belarus and Ukraine would be made free sovereign states would have faced Soviet artillery with another problem.. being shot in the back.
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/16/2012 8:06 Comments || Top||

#6  But quantity had a quality all its own.

Americans did not want to be in Europe in 1941 and would not have been if Hitler had not been so stupid as to declare war on us. Staying there was not something we wanted to do either, but Stalin was equally stupid in playing his hand so clumsily. Now we have been the world's policeman so long no one remembers when we didn't want to be entangled in foreign alliances. Another gift from the anti-American FDR.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/16/2012 9:08 Comments || Top||

#7  Supposedly it was an accident that Patton himself covered up because he didn't want the guy who ran into him to have his life ruined. Supposedly.

Personally I think we're all looking for a conspiracy where there is none. Shit happens in wartime. All the rumors are just a coping mechanism that someone with so much damn potential and, in hindsight, vision died like that.
Posted by: Charles || 12/16/2012 11:57 Comments || Top||

#8  Isn't this a little self-promoting?
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/16/2012 12:01 Comments || Top||

#9  Woodring, slow down damn it! Listen closely, I can almost hear that Cadillac engine and over there is Neckarstadt, and....
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 12:13 Comments || Top||

#10  Another gift from the anti-American FDR.

Nobody ever talks about his war on the hobos, either
Posted by: SteveS || 12/16/2012 14:27 Comments || Top||

#11  Soviet archives supposedly had it down as a hit ordered by Stalin himself.
Posted by: 3dc || 12/16/2012 17:19 Comments || Top||

#12  Adolf didn't war wid the USA in 1941 - thats why he was upset at Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor + locked himself in a room. IHO Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor made war wid the USA inevitable now - Nazi Germany's declaration was just a simple technicality.

Even presum that Nazi Germany didn't declare on the USA after Pearl Harbor, Japan as Germany's ally wanted German assistance, i.e. $$$ + arms + Troops, etc. to help defeat China. STALIN = USSR VERY LIKELY WOULD NOT HAVE HAVE TOLERATED NAZI GERMAN TROOPS IN CHINA UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, + DESPITE THE RUSSO-GERMAN NON-AGGRESSION PACT.
In addition, it is also highly likely that to secure its desired Oil-Rubber,etc. resources in SE Asia Japan would still had attacked the various Euro Colonies throughout East, South Asia - Brits [HK + Singapore + Malaya], French [Vietnam + French Polynesia], Netherlands [Indonesia], India, + Australia.

HITLER WASN'T STUPID - HE JUST WASN'T POLITICALLY, MEDIA = PR CORRECT [Fatalist?] IN HIS DECLARATION OF WAR AGZ THE US AFTER 12/07/1941.

As for Soviet Artillery, always remember that it was STALIN himself whom said that the USSR + Europe, in sole or combined, could NOT defeat Nazi Germany widout the USA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2012 19:50 Comments || Top||

#13  Gromky, 2 words: Atomic Bomb. Game Set Match.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/16/2012 21:39 Comments || Top||

#14  "IHO Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor made war wid the USA inevitable now - Nazi Germany's declaration was just a simple technicality."

Actually it wasn't. There was no treaty with Japan requiring that. After all Japan had attacked the U.S.

What is more Japan had actually let Germany down earlier when Germany attacked the USSR. The Japanese didn't even need to attack Siberia but only let the Soviets know that they could do so anytime. Thus Stalin would not have been able to bring in so many divisions from Siberia, which may have made the difference when the Germans could already spot the cupolas of the Kremlin cathedrals.

Hitler may not have been "stupid" but he certainly was delusional. His generals certainly didn't want war with the U.S. For good reason Hitler assumed supreme command over the Wehrmacht.

The U.S. would have reached Moscow within a few months. And yes, the bomb would have made the difference, but it might not even have been necessary. US air power would have been the decisive factor plus cooperation with Eastern European troops.
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/16/2012 22:30 Comments || Top||

#15  @Gromky and EC

Marshall Zukov said that 80% (eighty percent) of Soviet Union's gunpowder was provided by the Allies. On the other hand don't dismiss the Red Air Force who was mopping the floor with the Luftwaffe.

About properly finishing WWII, I remind both of you the Allied armies were about one third the size of the Soviet forces. That meant that for a war with Soviet Union they would have required allying with the people who made Auschwitz. And forget about the "pure and innocent Wehrmacht": the Allies bugged the cells of German war prisoners and what they heard was pilots boasting of having shot strollers or strafing garden parties in England, of mass murders and rapes in Russia (rape was not punished in Russia). I repeat: they didn't lament, they boasted. It's true WWII was not properly finished: half the Wehrmacht should have been shot for war crimes. But both sides forgave "their" Germans because they needed them.
Posted by: JFM || 12/16/2012 23:36 Comments || Top||


Europe
Croatia decriminalises possession of drugs
Great idea! Now the long-term unemployed youth won't care.
I agree completely with this. Small amounts of marijuana or qat should indeed be de-criminalized, though they shouldn't be legal. If you want to stone your life away, so long as you don't endanger anyone else it's no skin off my fore...
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] EU-bound Croatia decided on Friday to decriminalise drugs possession, introducing fines instead of jail terms for users caught with small amounts for personal use.

Under amendments to the country's penal code, possession of drugs for personal use will no longer be a criminal offence.

"Now youngsters caught in a park with a joint will not go to prison, but pay a fine," Justice Minister Orsat Miljenic told lawmakers.

From January 1, those found in possession of drugs can be fined up to 2,680 euros ($3,503), be sent for rehabilitation or ordered to do community service.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336096 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I didn't know there were democrats in Croatia. There on Holiday from Colorado, were they?

Good point on the "yoots" not caring about being unemployed. Just break into a few cars and presto we sell the stuff for a days boo.

As the French say, "manger les Riches." They will fit right in to the EU. Right at home.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 12/16/2012 7:32 Comments || Top||

#2  One way to de-criminalize drugs.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/16/2012 11:21 Comments || Top||

#3  "If you want to stone your life away, so long as you don't endanger anyone else or steal from normal people or expect those of us who work to support your sorry ass"

FTFY, TF.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/16/2012 11:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Agreed, Barbara. I would add "or push to my young kids" to the list.
Posted by: lotp || 12/16/2012 12:41 Comments || Top||

#5  cops will now start giving tickets to stoners who sit through green lights instead of running red lights.
Posted by: airandee || 12/16/2012 20:50 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Rick's Café Américain piano sold at Sotherby's for over $600k
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336104 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Did it come with two transit visa?
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/16/2012 1:31 Comments || Top||

#2  We certain be certain just yet EC, but Major Strasser over at Abwehr-G believes a man who goes by the name 'Richard Windsor' was the undisclosed buyer.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 2:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Signed by General Weygand. Cannot be revoked. Cannot even be questioned!
Posted by: gromky || 12/16/2012 7:21 Comments || Top||

#4  You must remember this, a Kiss is but a Kiss ... ... Play it again, Sam!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2012 19:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Is it to late to rename PAULA "YOU GOT TO REMEMBER" ABDUL as "SAM"[Samantha]???

D *** NG IT, WOMAN, SHE'S NOT BEING NAMED
"SAMUELA", + I DON'T CARE IFF "SAMUEL" IS A MAJOR NAME IN THE BIBLE!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2012 19:57 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Govt to accept 'genuine' demands of VC's captors
[Dawn] The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
government is ready to accept genuine demands of abductors for safe release of Islamia College University (ICU) vice-chancellor Prof Ajmal Khan, said Provincial Minister for Information and Culture Mian Iftikhar Hussain while addressing a function in historical Khyber Union Hall of the university on Friday.

The VC was kidnapped from Professors Colony on University Road in September 2010. Mr Hussain said that Prof Khan was the benefactor of this land and strenuous efforts were underway for his safe release.

"We love peace and hate violence, and it is our utmost desire to see book and pen instead of gun in the hands of our new generation," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Home Front: Politix
Pro-Union Activist Threatens Michigan Governor: 'We'll Be at Your Daughter's Soccer Game'
[Weekly Standard] A speaker at a protest against Michigan's right-to-work legislation said that Republican governor Rick Snyder will "get no rest" from pro-union activists if Snyder signs the bill into law.

"Just know one thing, Rick Snyder: You sign that bill, you won't get no rest," said Rev. Charles Williams II at the Tuesday rally in Lansing, according to Michigan Capitol Confidential. "We'll meet you on Geddes Road. We'll be at your daughter's soccer game. We'll visit you at your church. We'll be at your office."
The only problem is that, according to Instapundit, the girl doesn't play soccer.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336086 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That is about par for the union thugs. What was that symbiotic relationship between the prez., the left and the unions?
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/16/2012 10:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Ah, a "reverend"...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2012 11:23 Comments || Top||

#3  "We'll meet you on Geddes Road. We'll be at your daughter's soccer game. We'll visit you at your church. We'll be at your office."

"Fill your hands you son of a bitches!"
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 11:25 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm sure the police, and other parents, will be happy to meet them. With guns. After what happened Friday I look forward to them trying this.
Posted by: Charles || 12/16/2012 12:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Police are unionized, Charles.
Posted by: lotp || 12/16/2012 12:46 Comments || Top||

#6  I was once hassled over "Open Carry" not by the cops(They were Pleasent enough) But by a Mc Gonalds employee who called the cops, it was literally nothing, nd the Police appologised.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/16/2012 12:49 Comments || Top||


Congressmen Confront EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Over Use of Alias 'Richard Windsor'
[Weekly Standard] Two members of Congress sent a letter to EPA administrator Lisa Jackson over her use of the alias "Richard Windsor." The congressmen, Fred Upton and Cliff Stearns, want Jackson to explain her actions.

"In recent weeks, questions have been raised in Congress and among public interest groups about the use of one or more secondary email accounts and aliases by you and potentially other officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)," they wrote in a letter addressed to Jackson. "Given your reported use of at least one alias email account in your conduct of agency business, we write to ask that you describe fully the nature and extent of this practice."

The letter contains a detailed list of questions, including:

"According to press reports, you have a government issued email account under the alias 'Richard Windsor.' Is this accurate? Does this email account still exist, and do you use it?"

"According to press reports, on November 20, 2012, EPA issued a statement indicating that '[f]or more than a decade, EPA administrators have been assigned two official, government issued email accounts: a public account and an internal account.' How many email accounts have been assigned to you at the agency? What are the email addresses for these accounts?"

"To your knowledge, are there any other heads of Federal agencies that are assigned an 'internal' email address? If yes, which Federal agencies?"
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336125 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Given your reported use of at least one alias email account in your conduct of agency business, we write to ask that you describe fully the nature and extent of this practice."

....such things as the use of this, or other aliases for the application of foreign student loans, checking accounts, passports, mail boxes, that sort of thing.

Please be sure to share with us (as best as your memory will permit) the true identify of these other rather nondescript people found in your e-mail accounts.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 3:11 Comments || Top||

#2  It's part of the transparency thing. It is very nuanced.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/16/2012 10:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Expect her to faint and sustain a "concussion" directly.
No visit to the doctor will be necessary, but considerable memory loss will be the result.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/16/2012 11:36 Comments || Top||

#4  OOOOOOOOOO, is that Banana Pie, or Custard???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2012 20:00 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
No breakthrough in suicide attack probe
Does no one round up the usual suspects anymore?
[Dawn] The joint team investigating the suicide attack on a Muharram procession in the Dhoke Syedan locality of Rawalpindi has failed to make any breakthrough in identifying the suicide bomber, it has been learnt.

The fingerprints of the bomber, who had been described by the police as a teenage boy, could not be matched with the record of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).

Four samples taken from different body parts had been sent to the laboratory in Lahore after the suicide bomber hit the procession on November 21 killing about 20 people.

The joint investigating team is also unable to trace the place where the suicide bomber had stayed before hitting the procession.

The JIT, comprising officers from the counter-terrorism department and police, has been investigating the incident on different lines.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336108 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Arabia
Yemeni court jails 93 Republican Guard soldiers
[Al Ahram] Yemen's military prosecutors say a military tribunal has sentenced 93 soldiers and officers of the elite Republican Guard to 3-7 years prison for resisting authorities and mutiny for trying to occupy the Defense Ministry in August.

A statement Saturday by the prosecution office said the accused took part in the attack by firing at the ministry's guards. The ensuing firefight left one attacker, two ministry guards and two civilians dead.

The convicted soldiers belong to Republican Guard units led by Ahmed Saleh, son of former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
. They were protesting a decree issued by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi that put some of the force's units under presidential oversight.

The decree was part of Hadi's moves to restructure the army and purge it of former regime loyalists.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336092 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Home Front: Politix
Lurch selected for Sec. of State: source
The Swift Boat Veterans may have an opinion in the matter...
President Barack Obama has chosen Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts to be the next secretary of state, a source has told Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed. His replacement as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the Sneed source said.
Better keep Robert happy with hookers, Jawhn, or your time at Foggy Bottom will be rough...
This comes on the heels of Thursday's announcement that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice had removed herself from the list of candidates to take over from Hillary Clinton. Rice said that what was sure to be a failed contentious and lengthy approval process took attention away from more pressing problems facing the nation.
She was toast and she knew it, as did Champ.
Sneed had tipped previously that Kerry is Clinton's first choice for her old job-- and that Obama is interested in U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska for either secretary of state or defense. Hagel, a Republican, is currently the top candidate for secretary of defense.
Panetta retires? Or does he move to something else?
Posted by: Steve White || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336097 views] Top|| File under:

#1  At least State and Lurch are ideologically congruent...
Posted by: badanov || 12/16/2012 0:26 Comments || Top||

#2  As soon as the official announcement is made, I plan to write each of my Senators strongly recommend that the vote against John F'n Kerry. I will point out John's history of near treason during the VietNam war.

They won't, of course, because they are both Democrats - and Senators take care of their own.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/16/2012 0:40 Comments || Top||

#3  The only upside I see here is he will no longer be a Senator. The downside is that Massachusetts will appoint someone else nearly as bad.

Lurch will be he in heaven, or rather, will be with his fellow Marxists. And his wife whatshernamerhymeswithpickles will finally be amongst her peers.

I too will write my Senators, Betty the Marxist Liar and Lurch. I am sure it will help.

Another triple martoona please, barkeep.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 12/16/2012 6:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Thought this was going to happen. Rice was damaged goods on both the right and the left. She had enemies in her own party. Lurch is no great shakes either.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/16/2012 10:30 Comments || Top||

#5  The Clown Car parade continues...
Posted by: PBMcL || 12/16/2012 10:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Why the long face, Senator?

Whiskey Mike - there will be a temp. Senator appointed by the governor, Deval 'Mini Me' Patrick. MA no longer appoints the Senator that would fill out the reminder of Lurch's turn; it's a special election to be held within 150 or 180 days of Lurch leaving the Senate. Scott Brown FTW!
Posted by: Raj || 12/16/2012 10:55 Comments || Top||

#7  Send him out to be shot, "Not my fault".
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/16/2012 11:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Hagel at Defence will be much worse than Lurch at State.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/16/2012 11:08 Comments || Top||

#9  Bet they both get confirmed 99-0. Always good to see a few of the "boys" move up in the organization.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2012 11:21 Comments || Top||

#10  Hagel, a Republican, is currently the top candidate for secretary of defense.

Doubt it. Remember, every decision from the O-Team has two equally important considerations. The first is: What’s the right choice? And second: What will cast Obama in the most favorable light? These guys won’t be able to resist the obvious two-fer – a woman and fellow Smart-Power interventionist.
Look for the “historic” nomination for Defense - Michèle Flournoy.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 12/16/2012 11:37 Comments || Top||

#11  "The first is: What's the right choice? What will cast Obama in the most favorable light? And second: What will cast Obama in the most favorable light?"

FTFY, D-Guy.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/16/2012 11:40 Comments || Top||

#12  The Kenyan light-giver needs no assistance from white mortals. He casts his own magnificent light.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 11:43 Comments || Top||

#13  Hagel's anti-semitism will be front and center
Posted by: Frank G || 12/16/2012 11:50 Comments || Top||

#14  "You ranggg"
Posted by: Airandee || 12/16/2012 13:46 Comments || Top||

#15  You Rang?
LOL
i c wut u did thar!

But srsly, this is a smallish tactical victory for rethugs and right leaning fellow travelers everywhere.

He's better LOL than Rice
Rice gets fried
Senate Seat Opens.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/16/2012 14:58 Comments || Top||

#16  ...Sadly, this will be the next senator from Massachusetts:

Victoria Reggie Kennedy


Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 12/16/2012 17:02 Comments || Top||

#17  Kinda like the American Bhuttos...
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 17:41 Comments || Top||

#18  "Kinda like the American Bhuttos"

With the emphasis on the Bhutt. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/16/2012 17:59 Comments || Top||

#19  I doubt it.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/16/2012 18:24 Comments || Top||

#20  Scott Brown FTW!

I doubt it this time, Raj. Never gaining any serious traction against Fauxcahontas at any time during the 2012 campaign has probably destroyed Brown's political brand. Per RCP, Brown's polling averages never hit 48% vs. Lieawatha, who then benefitted from a late infusion of national Quislingrat cash to cruise over the finish line.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 12/16/2012 21:17 Comments || Top||

#21  Boy, first it was Brando wid
SSSSTTTEEEELLLAAAAAAAA.., then it twas Mr. Monty Burns' SSSSSMMMIIIIIIIITTTHHHEEERRRRSSSS, then cameth his Loyal Darkness Ozzie wid SSSHHHAAAAARRRRROOONNNNNNNNN, now comes Kerry wid EEEEEELLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYY.

But strangely no TTTTTTEEEEESSSSSSAAAAA [Theresa]???

I can think of a few others but the above will do.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2012 23:26 Comments || Top||


Africa North
26 polling stations in 4 governorates lack judicial supervision
[Al Ahram] Egypt's Judges Club's referendum monitoring room said that 26 polling stations in Cairo, Alexandria, Daqahliya, and Gharbiya governorates lacked judicial supervision.

The club, which had announced a 90 per cent boycott by its members against supervising the referendum, said earlier, however, it would "keep an eye" on the voting process.

The general assembly of the club had previously taken a stance against the referendum due to a previous constitutional declaration by President Mohamed Morsi that made him impervious to judicial oversight.

The Supreme Electoral Commission had announced that over 7000 judges decided to break rank with the club and monitor Saturday's vote in more than 6375 polling stations in 10 governorates voting today.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria: Hamas Official Arrested By Assad's Forces
[Ynet] Paleostinian sources in Syria have reported that forces belonging to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
have locked away
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
a senior Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, figure in the Homs area.

The man, Abu Islam A-Shalbi, was taken to Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location after forces raided his Homs residence.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  They are killing each other. Poke 'em with a stick.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 12/16/2012 6:08 Comments || Top||

#2  An Alawite allying with Sunni Islamists in a majority Sunni Muslim country makes about as much long run sense as a mouse allying with an owl.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/16/2012 13:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Yah, but he did it, just like he and his poppa did so much to wreck Lebanon's sovereignity over the years, which we can now say didn't make sense...
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/16/2012 14:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Hell you're both right, I don't get it.

Altho it would cause maximum mayhem, which makes sense, in a ME sort of way.

Posted by: Shipman || 12/16/2012 14:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Yah, but he did it, just like he and his poppa did so much to wreck Lebanon's sovereignity over the years, which we can now say didn't make sense...

Syria has traditionally viewed Lebanon as a province, so that makes sense. Annexing Lebanon helps dilute Syria's Sunni majority. His reason for backing Hamas probably had to do with Iranian subsidies. Ultimately, I have to wonder about the extent to which Hamas's presence in Syria allowed Islamists some room for maneuver there. A real poisoned chalice. Ultimately, if Assad falls, and Hamas was a factor, Iran will have sacrificed a queen (Syria) for a pawn (Hamas) that in the long run would have been opposed to the Persian Shiites, anyway.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/16/2012 16:18 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Two bombings kill 6 in Iraq
[Al Ahram] Iraqi officials say two bombings have killed six people and maimed eight others in the center of the country on Thursday.

Police officials said that the bloodiest attack took place when a boom-mobile went off in a commercial street in western Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
, killing four people and wounding eight others. In Anbar province, two soldiers were killed after another bomb went kaboom! near their observation post in the city of Fallujah,
... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids...
65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Storied Baghdad. Medics in nearby hospitals confirmed the casualties.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media. Violence has ebbed in Iraq, but thug attacks are still frequent.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336080 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq


Afghanistan
Last French combat troops leave Afghanistan
[Dawn] France flew its last combat troops out of Afghanistan on Saturday, two years before allied nations in the 100,000-strong Nato mission led by the United States are due to recall their fighting forces.

Around 200 soldiers of the 25th Belfort infantry regiment, responsible for overseeing the hastened French exit from the 11-year war, took off around 2:30 pm local time (1000 GMT), an airport official told AFP.

They are expected to return to France on December 18 following a three-day decompression stay on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
Is that where they keep the cathouses these days?
Their departure means France has around 1,500 soldiers left in Afghanistan, the vast majority in Kabul. They are due to stay into 2013 to take responsibility for repatriating equipment and training the Afghan army to take over.

After then, only several hundred French soldiers involved in cooperation or training missions will remain in the country.

At the height of its involvement, France had 4,000 soldiers in Afghanistan as the fifth largest military contingent in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), behind the United States, Britain, Germany and Italy.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It was and remains a colossal cock-up from the very beginning, but thank you for your help France!
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 11:55 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
10 shot, including 4 teens, Friday afternoon and night
[Chicago Tribune] Shootings across the city Friday afternoon and night maimed at least ten people, according to Chicago police, including four teens in three separate South and West side attacks.

Someone shot two boys, both 16, about 5:11 p.m. Friday afternoon in the 1700 block of East 71st Place in the South Shore neighborhood on the South Side. Both were taken to Comer Children's Hospital in stable, pH balanced condition with gunshot wounds to their legs.

Two other teens were maimed Friday afternoon -- a 15-year-old near North Avenue and Lorel Avenue in the Austin neighborhood and a 16-year-old near Western Avenue and Taylor Street in the Lawndale neighborhood.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Local sharia law in force. A weeping champ will not be attending these funerals.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 7:35 Comments || Top||

#2  There doesn't seem to be any deaders - just wounded. This time.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/16/2012 17:13 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Guard kills 'bandit' in North Nazimabad
[Dawn] A suspected bandit was killed in an exchange of gunfire with a private security guard in North Nazimabad on Friday, police said.

The officials added that gunnies riding a cycle of violence intercepted a car near a State Bank of Pakistain building in North Nazimabad block A. Sensing danger, the car driver sped up but armed motorcyclists opened fire on it. "The firing forced the driver to stop the car and attracted retaliation from a security guard traveling in the car," said North Nazimabad SHO Inspector Akhtar Abbas.

As a result of firing, the officer said, one of the armed motorcyclists fell while his accomplice sped away.

"The car was owned by a businessman," the inspector said.

The maimed bandit was later moved to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he died during treatment.

"We have seized some cellphones, cash and a pistol from the dear departed bandit who remained unidentified."

The police Sherlocks later found seven spent bullet casings at the scene.

Robbers kill man

In Korangi, a man was killed while resisting an armed mugging attempt, the area police said.

They added that gunnies riding a motorbike intercepted 52-year-old Mohammad Salim, who was riding home in Chakra Goth, and demanded cash and valuables at gunpoint.

As the victim resisted, one of the bandidos fired shots at him and fled along with his accomplice, said an official at the Zaman Town cop shoppe. "Salim sustained a gunshot wound in the chest and was struck down in his prime." Resident of Noorani Basti in Korangi 1-1/5, the victim was worked in an industrial unit in Korangi.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
Somalia minister resigns in protest
[Africa Review] A newly appointed Somalia Minister Mr Abukar Hassan Ali has resigned, citing clan expectations.

The resignation came a day after his appointment as Deputy Minister by the country's Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon. The PM also nominated 5 state ministers on the same day.

According to Mr Ali, his clan Galje'el deserved more than the position of Deputy Minister of Finance and National Planning.

"I consulted with the elders, religious leaders, youth and other prominent persons from my Galje'el clan. I was urged to resign," stated the resigning deputy minister.

He added that the fact that each of the ten ministries will have two deputy ministers meant that even a deputy ministerial post he was to assume was just half the position.

"Considering the influence of my clan, I cannot accept to assume the position in a ministry with two deputy ministers," remarked Mr. Ali. "There was an earlier consensus that my clan would get a state minister. Thus, this nomination must be undermining my clan's status and I would not go down into the history books as the man who accepted an inferior position for my clan," he added.

When the Transitional Federal Government ceased and a non-permanent government was established in September, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud and PM Shirdon agreed to form a lean government of 10 ministers.

However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all...
several clans that missed ministerial posts complained privately. This, however, is the first major protest against appointments in a nation where clan balance and political roles are closely linked.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336097 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
PM's relative nominated for WB post
[Dawn] The government has designated the prime minister's son-in-law, Raja Azeem-ul-Haque, as an executive director of World Bank, according to a bigwig.

Mr Haque will replace Javed Talat -- a former finance secretary who was appointed to the position about eight years ago by the Musharraf administration.

Mr Talat has completed two terms in the position and was given a one-year extension that expired about two months ago.

The finance ministry had opposed Mr Haque's nomination even though the summary for his appointment was moved by the Economic Affairs Division. Ultimately, the finance ministry had to give in to the wishes of the Prime Minister Secretariat.

The Pak nominee for the World Bank post will have to win endorsements from six other countries because he will represent seven nations and deal with billions of dollars meant for bank's programs and development projects.

The prime minister of Pakistain is the designating authority for the bank post representing Pakistain, Afghanistan, Iran, Algeria, Morocco, Ghana and Tunisia.

The posts of executive director and alternate executive directors pertaining to the seven nations are rotated between Pakistain and Algeria every two years. The Algerian alternate executive director was appointed about two months ago.

Pakistain's representative will perform duties as executive director for two years and then become an alternate executive director.

Some government officials had been critical of Mr Haque's nomination because of his 'quick promotions' within a few years from grade 18 to 21.

Normally, only bigwigs are sent on such lucrative assignments after considerable exposure to domestic, regional and global economic issues.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336073 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


My remarks on Babri mosque were misunderstood: Malik
[The Hindu] Pakistain's 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.
on Saturday tried to downplay the controversy surrounding his Friday's statements comparing the Mumbai terror attacks with the Babri mosque demolition and the torture of Captain Saurabh Kalia by the Pak Army in the Kargil
... three months of unprovoked Pak aggression, over 4000 dead Paks, another victory for India ...
war in 1999.

His remarks were taken in a "negative way", Mr. Malik told journalists here. "My statements have been misunderstood...There is no comparison, whatsoever, between Babri mosque demolition and 26/11 attacks. When I mentioned Babri masjid I was talking of inter faith harmony in our region... inter-faith is really my thought."

He further said Pakistain itself was a victim of inter-faith festivities, sectarian strife. "My intention was not to create confusion but sound caution to the both countries. So I said like the incidents of 9/11, people dying in Quetta, our Shia and Sunni people are being killed 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...
. I (had) also said incidents like Mumbai blasts, Babri masjid case... we do not want that these things should happen in any region of India and Pakistain."

Kalia's torture

Pointing out that India had never put Captain Kalia's torture by the Mighty Pak Army on bilateral agenda, Mr. Malik said: "Yesterday was first time India raised (Captain) Kalia's case officially...I only said circumstances of his death are disputed, I am asking for more information. I feel the pain of Captain Kalia's father...I will definitely look into the matter."

The Pak Minister said "if the Pak Army had tortured him, why would they have given his dead body?" He further said: "Yesterday, during the meeting from the first time I was asked to look into the matter. I promised them [Indian delegation]... please give me the detail... I will look into the matter and revert with detailed information. I sympathise with his father."

Mr. Malik said he would like to meet N.K. Kalia, father of Captain Kalia. "I saw his father's interview [on TV after the Supreme Court directed the Centre to respond to his plea to take up the case in the International Court of Justice]. It was very hard and painful... The matter has not been investigated. We should jointly look into the whole matter," he added.

Sarabjit's case

On the release of Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, Mr. Malik said once all legal remedies were exhausted, the case would come to the Pakistain President for mercy. "I will have to recommend. But I have to see what kind of formalities are required to be followed or completed if he has to apply for mercy petition."

Sarabjit's sister Daljit Kaur and daughter Sapandeep met Mr. Malik on Friday and appealed for his early release. He had invited both of them visit Pakistain as his personal guest and directed Pakistain High Commission officials to issue them a long-term visa to them.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Violence flares in Cairo as Egyptians vote
[Reuters] Islamists attacked the offices of an Egyptian opposition party newspaper on Saturday, security sources said, as people voted on a new constitution intended to pull the country out of a growing political crisis.

The newspaper of the Wafd party in Cairo was targeted with petrol bombs and birdshot, the sources said, in the latest of a series of violent incidents surrounding a divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled...
referendum designed to pave the way to national elections next year.

The attack came as officials began counting votes after polling stations closed at 11 p.m. (1600 ET).

Official results will not come until after a second round of voting in remaining areas of the country next Saturday, but conflicting claims were already emerging from the rival camps.

A front man for the opposition National Salvation Front said it had indications that 60-65 percent of voters in Cairo and other cities had rejected the new constitution, while President Mohamed Mursi's Moslem Brüderbund allies said that after 1 million votes had been counted, 72.5 percent were in favor.

Mostafa Shafik, managing editor at Wafd's newspaper, which is located next to the party headquarters, said his offices had been damaged.

"The attackers used Molotov cocktails to enter, which left minor areas burned," he said.

A Rooters photographer saw a dozen or so cars damaged inside the Wafd headquarters' grounds, their windows broken. Glass was also broken in the headquarters, but he saw no immediate signs of fire damage. Two people appeared to have been injured.

Wafd blamed followers of Hazem Abu Ismail, a Salafist preacher, for the attack, but he used his Facebook page to deny involvement.

Violence in Cairo and other cities has marred the run-up to the referendum. Several party buildings belonging to the Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice party have been burned in protests.

Rival factions armed with clubs, knives and swords fought in the streets of Alexandria on Friday. Opposition supporters trapped a Moslem preacher inside his mosque after he backed a "yes" vote in favor of the constitution.
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Arab SEIU "activists"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/16/2012 10:22 Comments || Top||

#2  In some sense popcorn with Nasserists, Arabists and ultranationalists battling two different brands of Islamists.

However, there are also a few good guys who will also likely get beat up.
Posted by: lord garth || 12/16/2012 14:24 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Jemaah Islamiah suspect gunned down by Philippine police
A man with alleged ties to Islamic terrorists militants was gunned down in the Philippines after he threatened to detonate a backpack bomb in a stand-off with local police. The suspect, identified by police as Mohammad Noor Fikrie of Malaysia, was killed in the southern city of Davao late Friday after threatening to blow up an explosive device in a rucksack, said city police chief Ronald de la Rosa.

Around 7 p.m., police received information Kahar and his Philippine wife had checked in at a hotel, bringing an "improvised explosive device to be used for a terror attack in Davao City", according to de la Rosa.

The military and the National Intelligence Co-ordinating Agency were alerted, and the hotel asked the suspects to leave their room. Kahar and his wife were checking out about 10:30 p.m. when they were approached by members of the intelligence agency and de la Rosa in the hotel lobby.

Kahar raised his cellphone, saying he would detonate a bomb if they tried to arrest or shoot him. De la Rosa quoted the suspect as saying, "If you arrest or shoot me I have a bomb. I will explode it.

"Everybody scampered for safety while the suspects went out on the road, embracing each other, with Kahar raising his cellphone as if warning the lawmen of an impending explosion."

Members of a SWAT team, trying to shoot Kahar, were unable to get a clear shot because the area was crowded with pedestrians and motorists. Kahar eventually grabbed his wife's backpack and ran towards a nearby park, but was cornered in front of a hotel, where he was shot.

De la Rosa said Kahar is suspected of being a member of Jemaah Islamiah. The suspect's passport showed he left Malaysia via Sabah on April 27 and arrived in the Philippines' the next day. He stayed in southern Zamboanga and moved to the predominantly Muslim Cotabato, where he stayed before traveling to Davao on Friday.

Authorities are investigating the woman's possible involvement with JI. Police believe she converted to Islam when she married Kahar.

Officials have said a small number of JI terrorists militants have taken refuge with Filipino Muslim terrorists militants operating on Mindanao, where Davao is located.

Kahar's death came one month after authorities gunned down another suspected JI member inside the Mindanao State University in Marawi on November 22.
Posted by: ryuge || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah


India-Pakistan
Sunni Tehrik: On Dangerous Grounds
In the first of a series of profiles of religious outfits in Pakistain, Mohammad Shehzad looks at 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...
In 1990, nine leaders of the Barelvi sect decided to get organized to protect their interests in the face of what they saw as the growing influence of Wahabism during the regime of Gen Zia ul Haq
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
. Several mosques, seminaries and shrines belonging to Barelvi Moslems were targeted or occupied with indirect support from the Zia government.

Saleem Qadri, Abbas Qadri, Iftikhar Bhatti, Dr Abdul Qadeer, Akram Qadri, Abdul Aziz Chishti, Shadab Akmal, Waheed Qadri, and Saleem Raza founded Pakistain Sunni Tehrik with the specific aim of protecting their shrines and mosques. In the two decades that followed, they were all killed.

Saleem Qadri, the chief of the party, was killed along with his bodyguards, driver and nephew 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...
in 2002. His successor, Abbas Qadri, was among 50 other key men killed in a suicide kaboom during a public meeting in Nishtar Park. Since then, the party has been led by Sarwat Ejaz Qadri.

The Kashmire jihad was at its peak in the 1990s and Bloody Karachi was home to operatives from a number of state-backed Jihadi outfits, who were also anti-Shia and anti-Barelvi. Besides fighting in Kashmire, beturbanned goons from these organizations were also targeting Shias and Barelvis all over Pakistain.

Some analysts say the Sunni Tehrik began as an armed wing of the Barelvi Jamaat Ulema-e-Pakistain (led by Shah Ahmed Noorani). Qadri denies that. "Our mandate was to launch a legal and constitutional struggle for our rights," he said in an interview. "We held peaceful protests against the occupation of our mosques and seminaries, met local administration officials to convey our concerns, and challenged the illegal occupations in courts."

In 2002, the group decided to participate in electoral politics. Not too long after it began its political journey with a tree planting campaign in Bloody Karachi, Saleem Qadri was assassinated. The loss set back their campaign for the local elections. In 2008, Sunni Tehrik did not win a seat, but ranked fourth in Bloody Karachi, after the MQM, the PPP, and the MMA.

As the party gained influence, it was also accused of extortion. There are allegations that Sunni Tehrik takes protection money from traders in its areas of influence in Bloody Karachi. Qadri says they are false. "There is a difference between donation and extortion."

Born in Quetta on July 14, 1961, Sarwat Qadri is a son of a civilian employee of Pakistain Navy. He has a Bachelor's degree from the University of Bloody Karachi, and a diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Government College of Technology, Bloody Karachi. Before joining Sunni Tehrik, he was a member of Dawat-e-Islami, a Barelvi preaching outfit.

He said education was among the four key points in his party's manifesto. "Education is the most important thing. Without education, Pakistain will never progress." Qadri has been to Japan twice on scholarship, while he was working in the Japanese company Pak-Suzuki. "When bombs were dropped on the Japanese, they did not pick up weapons in response. They did not starting abusing the enemy. They did not start massacring people. They gave their children education and sent them to the same country for higher education that had dropped nuclear bombs on them." He is proud his children went to missionary schools.

Other key postulates of the Sunni Tehrik manifesto are faith, tolerance, and equality. Qadri admits his party has a long way to go.

Among the major hurdles it has to face is violence from sectarian outfits. The Sunni Tehrik blames Sipah-e-Sahaba for attacks on Barelvi leaders. Sarwat Qadri believes those who bomb their mosques are themselves committing blasphemy. "Those who are bombing mosques and desecrating the Holy Koran, those who are beheading innocent people, those who are orchestrating terrorist attacks and liquidations, how can they call themselves Moslems? They are an insult to Islam."

"Islam is a religion of peace," Qadri said to a question about violent protests in response to incidents of blasphemy. "It does not permit murder," he said. "It does not ordain beheading innocent people." But he does glorify Mumtaz Qadri, the man who assassinated Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer.

Like all rightwing parties, the Sunni Tehrik is critical of the US. Sarwat Qadri blames the US for terrorism and sectarian violence in Pakistain, because it backed bad boy groups during the Afghan jihad, which he says was carried out with Saudi money.

Sunni Tehrik has 350 offices all over Pakistain, and claims it has hundreds of thousands of members. But it has not been able to win even a single seat in the parliament. The reason for that, according to Sarwat Qadri, is that Pak politics are based on castes and clans. "People don't vote for a cause," he says, "they vote for a caste."

Qadri's high-security gated enclave guarded by coppers and dozens of volunteers is a stark reminder of the security problems in Bloody Karachi. The reason, he believes, is that people in the government are trying to protect their own interests.

"The government can enforce its writ whenever it wants," he said. "It knows who the beturbanned goons are and where are they hiding. When it will decide that it has to cleanse the city of terrorism, not a single terrorist will survive."

The Sunni Tehrik is known for its stance against suicide kabooms. Clerics from the party have issued an edict that says suicide attacks are not allowed in Islam. One of them, Dr Sarfraz Naeemi of Darul Naeemia, is said to have been assassinated because of that edict.

The writer is an Islamabad based journalist and researcher. His work is archived at www.pol-dev.com.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
Turkey seizes PKK marijuana stash in major crackdown
[Al Ahram] Turkish authorities sized more than 20 tonnes of marijuana belongs to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Part, whose main source of income is believed to be drug trafficking
Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  "Doood! That was for my own personal consumption!"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/16/2012 10:28 Comments || Top||

#2  That's my cousins, he borrowed my tractor-trailer last week.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/16/2012 11:20 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
New Palestinian group declares 3rd Intifada
[Jpost] Faction front man says organization to pursue struggle against Israel until it "expels occupation, liberates all of Paleostine."

Masked men belonging to various Paleostinian factions announced in Hebron on Saturday the establishment of the Brigades of National Unity and the beginning of a third intifada against Israel.

In a video posted on several Paleostinian websites, a front man for the new group said it consisted of members of Fatah, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine
... Paleostinian Marxist movement, founded in 1967. It is considered a terrorist organization by more than 30 countries including the U.S., European Union, Australia, Canada, and Antarctica. The PFLP's stated goal is the establishment of a socialist State in Paleostine. They pioneered armed aircraft hijackings in the late 60s and early 70s...
The front man said that although his group backed Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
's statehood bid at the UN, "We will not give up one inch of the land of Paleostine, from the river to the sea."

He said the group would "pursue our struggle until we expel the occupation and liberate all Paleostine."

The front man said that the new group had decided to launch the third intifada "from the heart of Hebron so that it could extend to all Paleostine."

The front man also threatened to kidnap IDF soldiers and kill Israelis if Israel placed in durance vile
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
or killed Paleostinians.

"We will strike at you with an iron fist with full force if you don't stop your aggression against the Paleostinian people," the masked man threatened.

The front man demanded that Israel remove all checkpoints and barriers in the West Bank, release all Paleostinians from Israeli prisons, withdraw fully from Paleostinian territories, release funds belonging to the PA government and reopen all the border crossings.
  • Posted by: trailing wife || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336107 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  A turd by any other name smells as foul.
    Posted by: AlanC || 12/16/2012 10:23 Comments || Top||

    #2  And why exactly? Possible answers:
    1) The previous to intifadas (intifadi?) were such astounding successes
    2) We're too stupid to think of anything else
    3) Glorious failure is a long-standing Arab tradition
    Posted by: SteveS || 12/16/2012 12:34 Comments || Top||

    #3  The front man demanded that Israel remove all checkpoints and barriers in the West Bank, release all Paleostinians from Israeli prisons, withdraw fully from Paleostinian territories, release funds belonging to the PA government and reopen all the border crossings.

    and a pony!
    Posted by: Frank G || 12/16/2012 12:57 Comments || Top||

    #4  I'll take Door #3, Steve.
    Posted by: Barbara || 12/16/2012 15:01 Comments || Top||

    #5  Speaking of the PFLP ...

    * DEFENCE.KP/FORUMS > [Xinhua = Syria] 300 RADICAL FIGHTERS [Al-Nusra Front] INFILTRATE PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMP, BATTLING LOCAL COMMITTEES, i.e. PFLP-General Command aka PFLP-GC.

    Yarmouk refugee camp.

    I'm a'thinkin the above is what caused consequent Syrian air force strikes on same.
    Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/16/2012 22:56 Comments || Top||


    Africa Subsaharan
    Zambia, Zim ready to co-host global tourism meeting
    [Africa Review] Zambia and Zim-bob-we on Friday said they are ready to co-host the forthcoming United Nations
    ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
    World Tourism Organisation-UNWTO- next year.

    "The Governments of Zambia and Zim-bob-we have confirmed their readiness to co-host the 20 session of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation -UNWTO- in August 2013,"a communiqué jointly released in Lusaka late Friday by the southern African nation tourism ministers said.

    "Zambia and Zim-bob-we have made considerable progress in various key areas essential to the successful co-hosting of the UNWTO General Assembly," the communiqué said.

    "The two governments have commissioned a number of projects in the areas of infrastructure, visa facilitation, computerisation of border posts, health and emergency care facilities."

    Ms Sylvia Masebo and her counterpart Mr Walter Mzembi however, took note of the remaining areas that need "urgent attention" among them the yellow fever alert imposed on Zambia.

    Zambian Ministry of Health has already engaged the World Health Organisation seeking to remove Zambia from the alert list to zero risk.
    Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  The only feel good part of this story is the opportunity to view the graphic and be reminded ( again) of just what a pretty bird the Lockheed Super Connie was, and that there are sveral being restored to flight worthy status.
    OTOH, Zimbob-a-way isn't even good for stripping for parts.
    Posted by: USN,Ret. || 12/16/2012 12:46 Comments || Top||

    #2  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

    Thanks - best laugh I've had all day.
    Posted by: Barbara || 12/16/2012 15:04 Comments || Top||

    #3  Paltry half-measure. Move the entire UN to Zim and be done with it!
    Posted by: Besoeker || 12/16/2012 15:08 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    Rockets Fired on Peshawar Airport, Five Dead, Dozens Injured
    [VOA News] At least five people died and dozens more were maimed in a rocket attack on Pakistain's 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.
    airport northwest of the capital, Islamabad, in a brazen assault Saturday night.

    Suspected Death Eaters attacked the airport in northwest Pakistain with rockets and a jacket wallah, leaving a trail of dead and injured. Local television showed what appeared to be the rockets landing near the airport, sending up plumes of fire into the night sky. The area was immediately put under high alert.

    Military forces surrounded and closed down the airport which services international as well as domestic flights. The picturesque provincial capital of Peshawar borders Pakistain's tribal areas where both Taliban and al-Qaeda Death Eaters operate.

    Local media, citing a Pakistain Air Force official, said beturbanned goons had attacked the airport, but had been prevented from entering the complex. The provincial minister for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
    ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
    , Mian Iftikhar Hussain, said four cut-thoats, including one suicide bomber, were involved in a failed ground attack that followed the rocket fire.

    Sultan Hassan, a front man for Pakistain's national airlines, PIA, said the airport was closed and all outgoing flights had been canceled. He said incoming flights from different Pakistain cities bypassed Peshawar and went directly to their final destination.

    "PIA flights have been canceled," Hassan said. "There were some international flights from Islamabad via Peshawar and Sialkot via Peshawar, they have now gone directly to the Middle East."

    Retired Brigadier Mahmood Shah, who spoke to VOA from the scene, said the area had been secured. He said two rockets landed inside the airport, causing no damage, and three landed in a residential area near the airport.

    Shah said it appeared to be a daring attack by either Taliban or Lashkar-e-Islam Death Eaters who are bent on challenging the government's control of the region.
    Posted by: Fred || 12/16/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336117 views] Top|| File under: TTP

    #1  so, tell us again about how the drones violate your treasured sovereignty?
    Posted by: Frank G || 12/16/2012 10:30 Comments || Top||

    #2  He said incoming flights from different Pakistain cities bypassed Peshawar and went directly to their final destination.

    Not only incoming flights, but pretty much the whole of the 20th century.
    Posted by: SteveS || 12/16/2012 12:37 Comments || Top||



    Who's in the News
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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
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    Two weeks of WOT
    Sun 2012-12-16
      Rockets Fired on Peshawar Airport, Five Dead, Dozens Injured
    Sat 2012-12-15
      Tunisian Salafists attack bar, call drinkers 'infidels'
    Fri 2012-12-14
      Coca-Cola resumes its production in Somalia
    Thu 2012-12-13
      'Friends of Syria' Recognize Syrian Opposition
    Wed 2012-12-12
      Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
    Tue 2012-12-11
      North Korea 'launches long-range rocket'
    Mon 2012-12-10
      Rebels Seize Chunk of Aleppo Base as Fighting Rages across Syria
    Sun 2012-12-09
      Mohammad Ahmed Almansoor Drone-zapped in North Wazoo
    Sat 2012-12-08
      Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Drone-zapped During Breakfast
    Fri 2012-12-07
      6 dead, 450 injured in clashes at Egypt's presidential palace
    Thu 2012-12-06
      Two Dead as Egypt Islamists Overrun Opposition Tents
    Wed 2012-12-05
      Hundreds of thousands besiege Egypt's presidential palace to protest draft constitution
    Tue 2012-12-04
      Syria FM Spokesman 'Defects' from Regime, Leaves Syria
    Mon 2012-12-03
      Car bomb in Syria's Homs kills 15: State media
    Sun 2012-12-02
      Mullah Nazir orders out Mehsud Taliban fighters

    Better than the average link...



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