#1
In fact there are three freely convertible currencies in the Galaxy, but none of them count. The Altarian Dollar has recently collapsed, the Flainian Pobble Bead is only exchangeable for other Flainian Pobble Beads, and the Triganic Pu has its own very special problems. It exchange rate of eight Ningis to one Pu is simple enough, but since Ningi is a triangular rubber coin six thousand eight hundred miles along each side, no one has ever collected enough to own one Pu. Nigis are not negotiable currency, because Galactibanks refuse to deal in fiddling small change. From this basic premise it is very simple to prove that the Galactibanks are also the product of a deranged imagination.
#2
IN RIGELIAN, #1, FTLG + BIKINI-CLAD ROMULANS IN THE QUEEN'S RIGELIAN!
lol.
Meanwhile, back on Earth Prime, IMO the only reason for the US Cookie Mint to produce such a Trilyuhn-dollar coin is that the baseline US economy is much much bigger than Washington is formally admitting, hence can routinely support use of such a coin in free-market + inter-Govt. trade.
India accused Pakistan of a "grave provocation" on Tuesday night after the "ghastly" death of two of its soldiers at the hands of Pakistani troops in Kashmir, amid claims that one of them was beheaded.
In the second clash in three days between soldiers from the nuclear-armed rivals, an Indian patrol found Pakistani troops about half a mile inside Indian territory, an army spokesman said.
A firefight broke out and two Indian soldiers were killed. Indian army sources claimed that one of the soldiers was decapitated and his head taken away by retreating Pakistani troops. His body was found "badly mutilated" in a forested area of the Himalayan territory, said Rajesh K. Kalia, a spokesman for the Indian army's Northern Command.
A spokesman for the Pakistan army denied that its forces launched an "unprovoked" attack and dismissed the claims as Indian propaganda.
Salman Khurshid, India's minister for external affairs, described the incident as "unacceptable, ghastly" and "short-sighted" on the part of Pakistan. He said any response would be "proportionate".
India's ministry of defence issued a statement denouncing the incident as a "provocative act" and said the government would take it up with Pakistan.
Moved to Tuesday for further snark... I love the smell of Schadenfreude in the morning...
Sometimes, watching a Democrat learn something is wonderful, like seeing the family dog finally sit and stay at your command.With President Obama back in office and his life-saving "fiscal cliff" bill jammed through Congress, the new year has brought a surprising turn of events for his sycophantic supporters. Jeez, it's almost like he...lied or sumthin.
"What happened that my Social Security withholding's in my paycheck just went up?" a poster wrote on the liberal site DemocraticUnderground.com. "My paycheck just went down by an amount that I don't feel comfortable with. I guarantee this decrease is gonna hurt me more than the increase in income taxes will hurt those making over 400 grand. What happened?" What happened? You're a friggin rube! That's what happened...
"I know to expect between $93 and $94 less in my paycheck on the 15th," wrote the ironically named "RomneyLies." Lousy friggin Romney! It sucks that he won!
"My boyfriend has had a lot of expenses and is feeling squeezed right now, and having his paycheck shrink really didn't help," wrote "DemocratToTheEnd." Sounds like the "end" may be closer than she thinks...
"BlueIndyBlue" added: "Many of my friends didn't realize it, either. Our payroll department didn't do a good job of explaining the coming changes." Lousy bastids in payroll!!
"Bake," who may have been trolling the site, jumped into the thread posted Friday. "My paycheck just went down. So did my wife's. This hurts us. But everybody says it's a good thing, so I guess we just suck it up and get used to it. I call it a tax increase on the middle class. I wonder what they call it. Somebody on this thread called it a 'premium.' Nope. It's a tax, and it just went up." What do they call it? They call it "fuck you, pay me!"
Some in the thread argued that the new tax -- or the end of the "holiday," which makes it a new tax -- wouldn't really amount to much. One calculated it would cost about $86 a month for most people. "Honeycombe8," though, said that amount is nothing to sneeze at."$86 a month is a lot. That would pay for ... Groceries for a week, as someone said. More than what I pay for parking every month, after my employer's contribution to that. A new computer after a year. A new quality pair of shoes ... every month. Months of my copay for my hormones. A new thick coat (on sale or at discount place). It would pay for what I spend on my dogs every month ... food, vitamins, treats." As our pygmy governor up here always says when he screws us, "It's only a cup of coffee a day"...
"Really, how am I ever supposed to pay off my student loans if my already small paycheck keeps getting smaller? Help a sister out, Obama," wrote "Meet Virginia." "Nancy Thongkham" was much more furious. "F***ing Obama! F*** you! This taking out more taxes s*** better f***ing help me out!! Very upset to see my paycheck less today!" FORWARD!
"_Alex" sounded bummed. "Obama I did not vote for you so you can take away alot of money from my checks." Christian Dixon seemed crestfallen. "I'm starting to regret voting for Obama." Starting? Wow, and he hasn't even been sworn in yet...
But "Dave" got his dander up over the tax hike: "Obama is the biggest f***ing liar in the world. Why the f*** did I vote for him"? What are you f***ing asking me for, you f***ing moron? I didn't f***ing vote for him...
Of course, dozens of posters on DemocraticUnderground sought to blame it all (as usual) on President George W. Bush. "Your taxes went up because the leaders need to dig us out of this criminal deficit hole we are in which has been caused because taxes were too low during the Bush years. Everyone has to help by spreading the wealth around a little. Power to the correct people!" posted "Orinoco." Ah, the "correct" people. Could you point them out to me, Orinoco? I'll bet goddam Bushitler isn't one of them, right?
#1
It's good to face reality, Obama takes, when you realize it, there's a new Republican.
So, does reality hurt, Yup?
Does it hurt Obams, Nope?
That's reality, sooo what're you gonna do?
Realize Obama LIES (Gasp), well we told you, and you wouldn't listen, Suck it up.
NOW (Maybe) you'll listen, we in the South have great experience with (Call him what you want, it's still the same) and we told you.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/07/2013 17:07
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#2
but hey, you get free birth control
Posted by: jan at work ||
01/07/2013 17:41
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#3
The amusing thing about our current predicament is that the one thing that would revive the GOP is a series of hefty tax hikes. All the liberals who whine about the rich not paying their fair share will end up with sticker shock once they find out that they are rich and the fair share they were insisting upon somebody else paying is a significant chunk of what they thought was hard-earned cash that belonged to them. Bottom line is that things have to get worse before they get better. Remember the line about people being liberal until they get mugged? Thats what liberals need - a good mugging by the IRS.
#4
ZF: It wouldn't take a whole lot of work for the GOP to come up with something that a) Zero would have a lot of problems arguing against, and b) would hit the NE Corridor and CA disproportionately hard. That the GOP hasn't done this is testament to either their stupidity or their lack of imagination. Or maybe their duplicity. Certainly the taxation-via-inflation that Zero really wants to engage in after his token 'soak the rich' rhetoric will be much more damaging to the poor than the rich, unless the rich have been setting up Scrooge-McDuck style swimming pools for their money.
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/07/2013 22:22
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#10
Do they take SS out of welfare checks? I've never been on welfare, so I have no idea.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/07/2013 22:51
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#11
Do they take SS out of welfare checks? I've never been on welfare, so I have no idea.
Plenty of Obama supporters work. The majority of able-bodied blacks and Hispanics work. They just like getting the racial/ethnic preferences that give them a leg up in college admissions and recruiting. Checking the black/Hispanic box is a lot like being born a Bush, but even better, because even a Bush needs personal connections - people who know other people, whereas any black/Hispanic automatically "knows" people in every little nook of these United States because of the disparate impact court judgments that require colleges and other institutions to favor blacks/Hispanics in academic admissions and hiring.
#12
I had a liberal friend that was a huge supporter of Obamacare. Later, she was bemoaning the fact that her premiums went up by $60 a month. I mentioned that she needed to support those that Obamacare expanded to support. She was working and had a little more to spread around.
Needless to say she wasn't amused and doesn't talk to me any more.
#16
A carbon tax would be another good way for people to see why leftism has wrought
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/08/2013 6:52
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#17
Did any of the complainers say they voted for the wrong guy? Wished for Mitt? That would be to suggest they made a mistake in voting for 0.
It's still somebody else's fault, and it always will be.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/08/2013 7:56
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#18
Your taxes went up because ... taxes were too low during the Bush years.
I'm sure all the readers understood that to mean their taxes went up because Bush didn't tax the rich enough. It never occured to them that Bush cut their taxes, too.
Besides which, isn't this the re-instatement of somthing 0 temporarily cut as part of the "Stimulus"?
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/08/2013 8:05
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#19
I'm disabled (Real, Stroke,) and Over 65 so I'm waiting untl the 22nd of this month to see WHAT I get.
We shall see, I'm hardly rich, but I do have some cash in the bank, but I don't mind paying my share, as long as others pay too.
Now IF the others DON'T pay, hell no.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 8:49
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#20
Paycheck, Obama voter? Guess there must be some but i had assumed the bulk came from the idle rich and the leach classes. These are probably Loyal Union guys realizing they were used.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 12:01
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#22
"doesn't talk to me any more"
Lucky you, Darth. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/08/2013 12:12
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#23
"Your taxes went up because the leaders need to dig us out of this criminal deficit hole we are in which has been caused because taxes were too low during the Bush years"
The "deficit hole" is because GWB and Congress spent too much money.
One of the great lamentations of the Left about the days following 9/11 is that the President "didn't do enough to rally the nation", meaning that he didn't propose more taxes and fees to pay for 'homeland security'. Whether or not he should have, Washington still went on a spending spree. I don't recall the Left being too upset about it (except for miltary spending).
#24
I'd say to these Obama voters who are having trouble with this, "You made your bed, now lay in it, STFU and quit whining. Better yet, take it up with the guy you voted for."
#26
Needless to say she wasn't amused and doesn't talk to me any more.
Sadly, this is becoming more and more common as we try to talk sense to family and friends. I believe lotp has commented on it at length.
Class warfare *sounds* like big fun - hey, let's tax the rich guys 'cause they've certainly got more money than me! But as pointed out elsewhere, they don't have enough money and arithmetic always wins in the end. Expect a lot of tears and whining as Obama voters slowly figure out who the rubes actually are.
The United States, a decade after Al Qaida strikes in New York and Washington, has opened its doors to Saudi nationals.
Diplomats said the administration of President Barack Obama has removed most restrictions on the entry of Saudis to the United States. They said the percentage of visa approvals for Saudis has reached unprecedented levels.
The United States aims to raise the number of visas that it issues annually, particularly to Saudi nationals, who represent an important group, Joseph Hood, U.S. consul-general in the Saudi city of Dhahran, said.
Hood cited economic reasons for the easing of restrictions on Saudis. He said Saudi businessmen and students have been allowed to enter the United States in record numbers, with a 60 percent increase since 2010.
They form a large segment of travelers to the United States, while they also represent an important economic factor, Hood said. In addition, Saudi Arabia also sends a large number of students to the United States, and the number of Saudi students in the United States rivals those from India.
The U.S. consulate in Dhahran reported issuing 100 visas per day to Saudis. In 2012, the total number of visas reached 21,000, nearly 30 percent of which went to Saudi students or their relatives. About 15,000 Americans were reported to be based in Saudi Arabias oil-rich Eastern Province.
The administration decision came amid a series of incidents in which Saudis were implicated in criminal and security offenses. In February 2011, a Saudi student was arrested on charges of plotting to bomb the home of former President George Bush in Texas. Diplomats said more than 70,000 Saudis were registered as studying in the United States.
h/t instapundit
... Hagel's willingness to accept rogue states as legitimate players on the international stage on par with our friends. For instance, he voted against designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, opposed renewal of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act and opposed the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act. He has advocated direct, comprehensive negotiations with Iran's government, along with Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria.
...Hagel's willingness to subject the United States to the whims of international organizations. He supports the Law of the Sea Treaty, for example, which would undermine our sovereignty and require American businesses to pay global royalties for oil and gas development.
Sand. Its the one truly rare thing in the Middle East because its so very rare. And while theres no word on whether the feared Mossad Sharks and IAF vulture had anything to do with it, they probably did. Sinai used to be known for its sand, until the Jews stole it all to build massive sand castles with which to oppress the Palestinian people.
In December of 2011 Egypt sent the United Nations a report detailing the reasons for which Israel owes the government of Egypt $500 billion for damage sustained by the Sinai Peninsula when it was controlled by Israel between 1967 and 1982.
The report notes that former president Hosni Mubarak did not introduce claims regarding any of the stolen goods or physical damage throughout his time as ruler.
This isnt really a serious claim. But it allows the Muslim Brotherhoods government media to begin screaming that the economy is bad because Israel wont pay the $500 billion it owes for destroying Egypts economy by beating it in a war over 50 years ago and stealing all its sand. And when the Muslim Brotherhood gets around to declaring war on Israel with all those tanks and jets that Obama is giving them, this will be in the list of causes.
The 750 page report describes the plethora of ways in which Israel shattered the local economy. It asserts that Israel destroyed the fishing industry and 40 percent of the coral reefs; took valuable oil, gold, and gems, leaving only worthless rock behind.
Those cunning Israeli bastards. Why didnt they take the worthless rock and leave the valuable oil, gold and gems behind?
It goes on to say that maritime trade through the Suez Canal was disrupted between 1967 and 1975, thus depriving Egypt of millions of dollars worth of revenue
A disruption which only happened because Egypt blockaded the Suez Canal in preparation for a war.
Israel stole just under $50 billion worth of sand
Looks like Israel took the worthless rock too. How is there even a Sinai left?
and Israel obliterated the Egyptian Air Force in 1967.
Is Egypt seriously asking for compensating for the destruction of their air force in a war that it started? Looks like Israel took all the sand, but left the chutzpah.
This story begins to sound even more obnoxious because it would appear that the Egyptian Foreign Ministry put this forward to counter a claim for compensation by Egyptian Jewish refugees who were forced out of the country.
#2
The late Anwar Sadat deemed Egyptian honor avenged or restored by the 1973 Yom Kippur War, due both to initial Egyptian successes agz Israel + Sadat's decision to NOT follow the warfighting advice of his Soviet mentors in all things, i.e. "EGYPT FIGHTS FOR EGYPT" NOT THE USSR.
Mubarak was an Egyptian Air Force General = Top Egg/Air Camel for Sadat during the 1973 war.
h/t instapundit
A friend and admirer of Senator Hagel called the other day to ask whether wed ever met the nominee to be secretary of defense. We expressed our regrets that we hadnt. Our friend wanted us to know that Mr. Hagel does not dislike the Jews. We said we were delighted to hear it, but we also tried to convey that the Sun doesnt care one way or another whether Mr. Hagel likes the Jews. His private views are not what we care about. What we care about is the policy line to which Mr. Hagel would hew were he to get a chance to run the defense department and advise the President.
I see discussion of changing weather patterns, but climate is over a little longer timeframe. The original study which is the basis of the report.
Climate change is already altering life in European countries--bringing deadly heat waves and drought to some areas and severe coastal and river flooding to other areas--and these changes threaten to create socioeconomic challenges on the divergent continent, according to a new report released recently by the European Environment Agency (EEA), an agency of the European Union tasked with providing independent information on the environment to guide policy makers.
The report, Climate Change, Impacts and Vulnerabilities in Europe 2012, is the third such document generated by the EEA since 2004. The report examines current and predicted climate change as well as the effects of those changes on both the environment and socioeconomic systems, and identifies vulnerabilities.
"Climate change is already occurring, and its effects can be seen everywhere in Europe," said Hans-Martin Füssel, Ph.D., a project manager at the EEA, and the coordinator of the report. "We observe increases in temperature and changes in precipitation across Europe, but with important differences across seasons and European regions."
A parallel report to be published in early 2013 will discuss adaptation strategies and will review current adaptation efforts across Europe.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/08/2013
13:09 ||
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Palestinian factions in Syria called for a cease-fire Tuesday after fighting flared at a refugee camp in the capital, Damascus, highlighting a split among Palestinians as the civil war intensifies.
The Yarmouk camp has been the scene of heavy clashes in the past, but the battles subsided last month after Syrian rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, battled loyalists there to a standstill.
In Tuesday's fighting, five people were killed on Yarmouk Street, four of them when a shell exploded and the fifth in sniper fire, according to The Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights that relies on reports from activists on the ground.
The group said intense clashes were taking place on the edges of the camp, where the Syrian troops are positioned, and the nearby Hajar Aswad district.
In a statement, representatives of 14 Damascus-based Palestinian factions called for a cease-fire and a halt to all military operations to enable medical teams and food supply trucks to enter the camp. They urged gunmen to withdraw from the camp "in order not to bear the responsibility of the continuing displacement of (Yarmouk's) residents."
#2
g, who says these are good people? (I'm assuming I missed the tag)
Just more of the same gimme gimme mentality that you see from leftists and thugs everywhere. The Arab states should tell them to get off their lazy asses and build some businesses to support themselves!!
The Turkish government and the jailed leader of a Kurdish insurgency have agreed on the framework for a plan to end a war that has killed 40,000 people since 1984, envisaging rebel disarmament in exchange for increased minority rights, a newspaper said on Tuesday.
The Radikal daily said senior intelligence officials had held meetings with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) chief Abdullah Ocalan in his island jail near Istanbul, yielding a four-stage plan to halt the conflict.
Previous negotiations with the PKK were highly secretive and appeared to have run aground. The open acknowledgment of the latest contact has raised hopes for a renewed peace effort, including from the main pro-Kurdish party in parliament.
"Meeting with Ocalan...is a correct step, it's logical and appropriate," Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) leader Selahattin Demirtas told members of his party in the assembly in Ankara.
Russian security forces in a restive North Caucasus province on Sunday killed three militants suspected of planning attacks on church services during the Russian Orthodox Christmas holiday, authorities said.
Security forces tried to stop a van in the Kabardino-Balkaria province on Sunday but its occupants opened fire and were killed in the ensuing battle, during which the vehicle caught fire, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement.
It said that explosives, guns and ammunition were found in the van and that the men who were killed had been planning attacks on churches during services marking Russian Orthodox Christmas, which is on Monday...
Deadly exchanges of gunfire between police and suspected militants at road checkpoints are common in Russia's North Caucasus, a string of provinces hit by an Islamist insurgency rooted in two separatist wars in Chechnya.
Kabardino-Balkaria, west of Chechnya, is mostly Muslim but has a sizable Christian minority.
The pieces fall into place for Champ as the place falls into pieces...
Esther Duflo is one of those people who are taken seriously by the sort of people who eat up TED talks with a silver spoon. Her big number is how to help people in the Third World up from poverty, which is a surprisingly profitable branch of economics when you consider the sheer number of NGOs and billionaires interested in getting into the aid business.
But there's one particular billionaire at Duflo's back. Abdul Latif Jameel.
Esther Duflo is one of the co-founders of the Poverty Action Lab at MIT, more commonly known as J-PAL for the father of Abdul Latif Jameel aka Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, a Saudi billionaire with a net worth of approximately 5 billion dollars.
Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel owns the world's largest Toyota dealership and sits on the board of Coexist as well as a number of other organizations. And Jameel provided 3 major endowments for J-PAL. Around the same time the Abdul Latif Jameel Group sued the Wall Street Journal for reporting its presence on the list of accounts monitored for funding terrorism.
Mohammed's brother was sued by victims of Al Qaeda on accusations that he helped fund its terrorist activities after his name was found on a list in the offices of Benevolence International Foundation, an Al Qaeda front group started by Bin Laden's brother-in-law.
Now Obama has chosen Duflo to serve on the President's Global Development Council which will shape American global development policy worldwide.
#3
This Global Development Council is essentially window dressing. Presidents (not just this one) appoint cronies, friends of cronies and friends of friends to them all the time. The crony gets some prestige, the President gets continued praise, lackeydom, etc.
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/08/2013 19:51
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A laser weapons system that can shoot down two drones at a distance of over a mile has been demonstrated by Rheinmetall Defence.
The German defence firm used the high-energy laser equipment to shoot fast-moving drones at a distance.
The system, which uses two laser weapons, was also used to cut through a steel girder a kilometre away.
The company plans to make the laser weapons system mobile and to integrate automatic cannon.
The 50kW laser weapons system used radar and optical systems to detect and track two incoming drones, the company said. The nose-diving drones were flying at 50 metres per second, and were shot down when they reached a programmed fire sector.
#5
Lasers energy can be made to pulse and chip away the mirror until it is blasted away a piece at a time, if the material even looks like a mirror to the laser energy.
Top Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan leader Wali Ur Rehman, in a rare video appearance, has pledged to send fighters to Kashmir and wage a struggle for the implementation of Sharia rule in India
The United States had earlier announced a $5 million reward against Wali Ur Rehman for his involvement in the murder of seven Central Intelligence Agency officials in Afghanistan in December 2009.
Rehman, along with the TTP chief Hamikullah Mehsud, is believed to have said this in a rare video:
"The practical struggle for a Sharia system that we are carrying out in Pakistan, the same way we will continue it in Kashmir, and the same way we will implement the Sharia system in India too. And this is the only solution for people's problems," said Rehman, according to the translation provided by the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor of Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
The video in Pashtu, with Urdu subtitles, has been produced by Umar Media, the broadcasting arm of the TTP.
The video is titled The False Propaganda of the Dajjali Media Revealed. It was released to internet on January 6.
According to MEMRI, TTP's official spokesman Ehsanullah Ihsan can also be seen in the video, which devotes a section on Kashmir.
Claiming that the Jihad launched by the Pakistani government inside Kashmir has failed to yield the desired result, the TTP says that it will launch its own jihad in the valley and talks about sending its own jihadi forces there.
"Allah willing, the mujahedeen of Tehreek-e-Taliban will arrive in Kashmir and as per the Islamic Sharia will help the Kashmiris get their rights. As our ancestors sacrificed their lives for Kashmir and got Kashmir liberated by force (in 1947-48), the same way their progenies, walking in the footsteps of their forefathers, will get Kashmir liberated (from India), and will help them get their rights," Rehman said.
Which I've always heard related as 'if only the Czar knew' but Stalin was the Czar of his day... and it's been a phrase I've been thinking of a lot as I've watched the Hagel Controversy unfold. Alan Dershowitz's belated realization that he's been swindled would have been funny if it were not so tragic. He writes that Chuck Hagel's nomination as secretary of defense "risks increasing the likelihood that Iran will develop nuclear weapons. It poses that risk because Hagel is well known for his opposition both to sanctions against Iran and to employing the military option if necessary." In this he is undoubtedly correct.
The burden is now on Senator Hagel to persuade the Senate, the American people, and the leaders of Iran that he is fully supportive of the President's commitment not to contain a nuclear armed Iran, but to prevent such a catastrophe from occurring, even if that requires the use of military force to achieve that commendable goal.
But as to causes he is completely wrong. Dershowitz's statement ignores the obvious. If the president were so committed to preventing a nuclear Iran, then why did he nominate Hagel in the first place? The president could have selected any qualified candidate. That he chose Hagel can only indicate that is the true policy he wants to implement.
Words may be true or false, but actions rarely lie. And Dershowitz recognizes the danger, but not the truth. Not yet anyway. His problem is not with Hagel, a mere creature of Obama. The problem is with Obama himself. This must be obvious to a man of his intelligence. But to admit this would be to concede a fundamental error in judgment on his part. It would mean eating not just a little bit of crow, but four courses of it.
Dershowitz supported Obama. He now laments that:
Those of us who voted for President Obama and who want to be certain that Iran is never allowed to develop nuclear weapons, as the President promised, have legitimate concerns about this nomination. We hope that these concerns can be allayed by the President and his nominee, but if they are not, it will be the highest of patriotic duties to oppose Senator Hagel's nomination.
It's kinda late for that. There's also a digression with the shocking... shocking! idea that Generallissimo Franscisco Chavez (who's still not dead) really didn't care what Noam Chomsky thought was right or wrong.
It is not as if one could oppose Hagel because he could conduct an independent defense policy. He cannot. The only logical basis for objecting to his nomination must that in him the administration has concretely manifested its actual intentions. Thus, Hagel is just the beginning 'the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to you year by year unless, by a supreme recovery of moral health you wake up and smell the coffee' because he is an indicator of where Obama wants to go. There's more -- much more where that came from.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
01/08/2013
11:42 ||
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Posted by: Barbara ||
01/08/2013 19:16
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#9
Again, unless SHTF between the Sunni GCC Govts + local Shia populations, Iran as times before will remain on the strategic defensive in 2013 - in Iran's view = strategeery, the burden remains on the US + Israel, etal. to attack Iran first.
POTUS Bammer = USA could be facing military crisis between April-June 2013 vee both Iran + China, of which the most dangerous will be CHINA.
A US-VS-CHINA MIL CRISIS CAN BEGIN IN NE ASIA, BUT OVER TIME CAN SPREAD DIRECTLY ANDOR INDIRECTLY TO THE WHOLE OF EAST, SOUTH, WEST, + CENTRAL ASIA + MIDDLE EAST, ESPEC AS "POST-US", "WORLD #1" WANNABE CHINA ATTEMPTS TO PERMANENTLY SETTLE VARIOUS STRATEGIC ACCESS ISSUES VEE DIFFERENT NATIONS + REGIONS AT ROUGHLY THE SAME TIME.
IOW, US-VS-CHINA MILITARY CRISIS = ultimately come down to CHINA'S GEOPOL EXPANSION + US ROLLBACK IN POWER-N-INFLUENCE ACROSS THE WORLD.
Suits the ANTI-US, PRO-OWG-NWO GLOBALISTS JUST FINE. Ditto as per OWG Caliphate-happy Rising Iran + Radical Islam.
ONCE THE US STARTS GOING DOWN, IT'LL BE TIME FOR THE OWG NUCLEAR? JIHADIS = ISLAM-SPECIFIC THEO-SOCIALISTS/THEO-GLOBALISTS TO START BEHEADING THE OWG SECULAR COMMIES-SOCIALISTS-GLOBALISTS.
'Tis NOT good for GUAM-CNMI or even HAWAII.
Lest we fergit, 1960's GUAM TAOTAMONAS = "AS THE US RETREATS ACROSS THE PACIFIC IT WILL DESIRE TO DENY ITS ENEMIES USAGE OF KEY OR STRATEGIC ISLANDS ..."
[HUGO CHAVEZ + US "LAND/ISLAND-SINKING" TECTONIC = EARTHQUAKE BOMBS here].
Whats that you say - youse like WATER, NOT LAND?
* IIRC TOPIX, WORLD NEWS, MIL FORUMS > US, NEW ZEALAND DEVELOPED/TESTED "TSUNAMI BOMB" DURING WW2. "Project SEAL".
[MOSES-VS-WHAT-HAS-GOD-DONE-FOR-US-LATELY-ANGRY-ISRAELIS IN THE DESERT here].
The release of an Egyptian blind sheikh, jailed in the United States for the 1993 World Trade Center attack, will be urged by Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi during his upcoming visit to the U.S., the leader said on Monday.
No.
The announcement follows his pledge, during his presidential campaign earlier this year, to free Omar Abdul Rahman. The preacher is currently serving a life sentence and the planned request for his release appears to be gesture, by Mursi, to Gama'a al-Islamiya, a Salafi group.
Hell no.
Sheikh Rahman is the spiritual leader of Gama'a al-Islamiya, which was involved in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat but renounced violence in 1997. The group has entered mainstream politics since former President Hosni Mubarak was toppled.
In September, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland stressed there was no plan to release him following his trial and conviction.
But that was before Champ got extra flexibility...
Mursi told CNN in an interview aired Monday that he was hoping to travel to the United States before the end of March 2013, and he planned to raise the case of Sheikh Rahman with U.S. President Barack Obama.
"There is no set date yet, but it will most likely be before the end of the first quarter of this year," Mursi said.
#5
The release of Sheikh Rahman will coincide with some other event which the Champ will wish to camouflage via media swarming.
Interesting how the weekly 'crisis de jour' have relocated Benghazi as well as Fast & Furious to the rear burner. If he ever leaves office, Champ could easily be retained as a guest lecturing senior psychological operations planner/mentor at Fort Bragg. I must admit, while painful, it is indeed instructional to watch this administration in action.
#5
The left thinks war, civil or otherwise, is a video game. The right, with almost universal personal, familial or community experience with real war, knows it is not.
#7
Yet as an economic and social enterprise, government creates nothing.
Reminds me of an expression I learned on the pipeline years ago. The back end of the pipeline eats up the front end of the pipeline. In other words, the costs becomes prohibitive to stay in business. The costs of government make it prohibitive to continue. It appears that it is not too big to fail. Hell, it already appears to have failed. It does little well except tax and spend. We have created an elite political class that is unresponsive to the people.
#8
The first Civil War was a Constitutional issue over States' Rights widin the US Federal Union of States, among other - so will be the Second Civil War, BUT NOW ALSO UNDER VEE OWG + OWG NAU I.E. "GLOBAL FEDERAL UNION".
* IRONY > USA = "GREY/CONFEDERATE ARMY"; PRO-OWG ANTI/NON-AMERICAN WORLD NATIONS = "BLUE/UNION ARMY"???
IOW, ANY US-SPECIFIC "CIVIL WAR II" = JUST THE BEGINNING OF A LARGER "NATIONALISM-VS-GLOBALISM", "GLOBAL-CONFEDERATISM-VS-GLOBAL FEDERALISM", SOVEREIGNTY-VS-ANTI-SOVEREIGNTY CRISES OR CONFLICTS FOR CONTROL OF THE PLANET FOR SPACE???
The pressures or agendas involved are MANY, DYNAMIC, + DIFFERENTIATED, + WID MUCHO "GREY AREAS/LINES".
E.G. NEW YEAR 2013 = THE DRIVE BY US POLITICOS TO IMPOSE OVERT SOCIALISM [OWG, "Globalism"] ON AMERICA + AMERICAN SOCIETY, + OUTSIDE OF THE US CONSTITUTION OR NATIONWIDE POPULAR REFERENDUM(S), IS NOT LIKELY TO STOP IN 2013 IRREGARDLESS OF WHETHER THERE IS MAJOR US-VS-IRAN ANDOR US-VS-CHINA MILITARY CRISIS OR WAR THIS SUMMER.
Whatever the "pecking order" was for $$$, resources, + influence, etc. before OWG + OWG NAU, it'll be MUCH WORSE, NOT BETTER, for all World Govts-States, Societies, + Individuals under OWG + OWG NAU, etc. related.
IMO, iff US State-Local Govts are going to demand formal secession from the US Fed in Washington, events which must occur any "Civil War II", it will begin in 2014 as determined by what happens this year in 2013 vee both the US-World Economy + espec FOREIGN POLICY/AFFAIRS AS HISTORY SAYS THAT DOMESTIC ECON MORASS OR CHAOS BY ITSELF IS USUALLY NOT ENUFF TO INDUCE ARMED REVOLUTION = CIVIL WAR.
A Tunisian court has ordered the release of Ali Hamzi, a man suspected of involvement in the deadly attack on the US consulate in Libya last September, according to his lawyer Abdelbasset Ben Mbarek.
The ruling came after Hamzi was interrogated by four FBI agents and a translator in Tunisia last month, without the presence of a defense lawyer.
According to Sharia law, a kaffir may not sit in judgement over a Muslim.
Mbarek called the methods used during the interrogation of his client "scandalous." He said, "He has returned to his family. If he had been implicated in the attack, he would not have been released," adding that his client remained under judicial control because he was still charged with belonging to a terrorist group.
Hamzi was detained while trying to enter Turkey after the attack on the US mission in Benghazi. He was deported back to Tunisia in October, where he was charged with belonging to "a terrorist group based abroad."
He had refused to be interrogated by FBI agents. Tunisia's justice ministry has defended its right to full cooperation with the United States in combatting terrorism.
[Ynet] Some 50,000 Hezbollah members have recently crossed the border from Leb into Syria to join Bashir al-Assad forces in fighting Damascus ...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy... rebels, the Alwatan Newspaper reported.
The operatives have reportedly reached Syria last month and have been responsible for the deaths of some 3,000 people in the last few days. The report was not corroborated by any other source.
#1
Is it possible that the fellow at the controls of the conveyor belt of death is a Russian? Is there some grand Russian plan in play here? If so, to whom do we send thank you cards ?
Russia, + by extension also read the Russian, Greek Orthodox Churches, want to keep Radical Islam isolated AMAP AFAP ALAP. Their priority is to keep Baby Assad in power, i.e. the "Status Quo" aka "Working wid the Devil You know", even it means appearing to side wid Iran.
DESPITE ANTI-US, WESTERN RHETORIC TO THE CONTRARY, RUSSIA WILL NOT TOLERATE ANY NUKE-ARMED HEZBOLLAH OR ISLAMIST SHARIA PROXY OR "ROGUE" STATE IN SYRIA. IMO Russia will militarily invade Syria first before it allows such to happen.
[Ynet] Stanelia Karadzhova is fired for revealing key details about investigation without clearing her statement with supervisors
Bulgarian officials on Monday dismissed the leader of an investigation into last year's kaboom in the coastal city of Burgas that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver for revealing sensitive information about the probe to the media.
Last week, Stanelia Karadzhova told Bulgaria's 24 Chasa daily that one of three suspected snuffies who carried out the attack at the airport of the Black Sea city in July has been identified and that all the suspects were foreign nationals.
The office of the District Prosecutor in Burgas said in a statement Monday that Karadzhova was removed because "she spoke to the media without clearing her statement with the supervising prosecutor."
Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov refused to comment on the details provided in the interview, saying "they are a matter of national security." The ministry's chief secretary, Kalin Georgiev, cautioned that any comments about the investigation at this stage would be "dangerous."
On July 18, 2012, a bomb destroyed a bus that was carrying tourists from the airport to their hotel in the seaside resort. Two weeks later, Bulgarian police released what they described as a computer-generated image of the suicide kaboomer involved in the bombing.
Israel has claimed that Iran and Hezbollah played roles in the attack. But six months after the attack, no one has been jugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in the case, and Bulgarian officials had remained tightlipped about it, saying they would not point a finger at anyone without solid evidence.
Suicide attack?
That changed on Thursday when 24 Chasa quoted Karadzhova as providing key details about the probe.
She said three suspected terrorists, all foreign, carried out the attack with no known local accomplices. She said one of those suspects has been identified by authorities and is being sought with an arrest warrant. "We know his country of origin and that he has not lived there for the past six years," she was quoted as saying.
Karadzhova said new evidence suggests the bombing was not a suicide attack, as previously believed, because the bomber's moves ahead of the attack indicated he did not intend to die. Karadzhova said the bomber either pushed a button on the explosives by mistake, or somebody triggered the blast remotely.
She said the three suspects carried similar fake ID cards, had never been seen together, and may have used phones or laptops to communicate with one another. Another common factor, she said, was their "identical way of life with just few needs, very ordered and simple, like in the army, which suggests they had the same type of training."
She said Bulgaria's Sherlocks will re-enact the attack by blowing up a bus in search of more details.
The announcement of her dismissal as the lead investigator in the case came after Georgiev, accompanied by senior police and anti-terrorist officials, departed on Monday for a three-day visit to Israel. An official statement about the visit said the investigation of the Burgas attack is one issue that will be discussed with Israeli officials.
Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev also has called a meeting of the National Security Council on Jan. 17 during which results of the investigation are expected to be discussed.
[Ynet] Shin Bet report for 2012's end shows marked rise in terrorist attacks in West Bank and Jerusalem: 111 in December, compared with 28 in August
A Shin Bet report released Monday reveals that the last two months of 2012 have seen a significant rise in terrorist attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem. In December, 111 attacks were reported, while 166 were reported in November, during which Operation Pillar of Defense took place.
By comparison, 70 attacks occurred in October, 67 in September and only 28 in August. The incidents in December included 98 Molotov cocktail attacks (29 of which in Jerusalem), six bombings, three grenade attacks, two light arms shootings and a stabbing.
The December monthly report mentioned that three security service men were maimed in the attacks; two were run over in the Shomron and one in Jerusalem.
The Shin Bet's information does not mention the dozens of rioting incidents that took place around the West Bank last month. In these events 20 Israelis were lightly maimed.
December and the first week of January have seen no rocket fire from the Gazoo Strip into Israeli territory. Nevertheless, two Gazook mortars landed in Paleostinian territory.
Officers with the IDF's Judea and Samaria Division said there are as yet no signs of an imminent third intifada and that coordination with the Paleostinian security services is maintained at all times, with Paleostinian officers present in many of the urban riots.
According to security sources, the number of Islamic fascistitossed in the slammer Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! by the Shin Bet and the IDF in the West Bank has increased over the past few weeks. The arrests were meant to prevent the establishment of a terrorist infrastructure and to stop prominent agitators from instigating riots.
Last month, due to urgent intelligence, security forces made several arrests in broad daylight inside Paleostinian communities, including Jenin and nearby Tamoun. These arrests were followed by violent festivities with the Israeli forces, which responded with crowd control measures to contain the riot.
The military makes the distinction between the Paleostinian population and terrorists, and despite the unrest, no unilateral actions such as the installation of road blocks, common during the second intifada, were taken. Nevertheless, sources in the Judea and Samaria Division said that the Paleostinian Authority has been turning a blind eye to Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,' unusual regrouping efforts in West Bank cities.
#1
Outstanding article. When will America awake from its slumber?. The leadership and the will are asleep at the wheel. Better to reach for the stars than this death of complacency.
JERUSALEM - In his first visit to Israel, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is calling for a gradual reduction of American foreign aid.
Its an unlikely place to deliver the message, since Israel is among the largest recipients of American assistance. But Paul said in a Monday meeting with reporters that the U.S. cant afford to keep sending money overseas, even to allies like Israel. He says it would be harder to be a friend of Israel if we are out of money.
The Kentucky Republican, a longtime opponent of foreign aid, acknowledges hes expressing a minority opinion and doubts Congress will cut aid. He insists Washington should first cut aid to countries with strained ties to America, such as Pakistan and Egypt.
Israel gets about $3 billion a year in military aid.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Tie it to a TOTAL aid reduction to Saudi, that'll stop it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 0:58
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#4
some of the military aid to Israel is probably wasteful
however, a lot of it results in real time, real target, tests of weapon systems, both defensive and offensive, which could not be done anywhere else and which is of enormous benefit to the US DOD
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01/08/2013 7:11
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#5
Washington should first cut aid to countries with strained ties to America, such as Pakistan and Egypt.....
#6
$3 billion/year? We spend almost that much on Obama per year. Cut aid to Obama--fewer golf games in Hawaii and fewer perks. No more expensive trips for FLOTUS, don't take the kid to Mexico for a trip, cut the pay of the dog handler--it is about #102,000/year. Let the kids take care of the dog. It is good training for them. Obama can use Camp David more--it is closer to D.C. Pull the kids out of Sidwell and send them to public school. Obama has said how much he thinks of public schools in public statements. I'll bet we can get that $2 billion down to a range of 1/2-1 bn.
[Dawn] A cousin of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain's chief Hakimullah Mehsud was among nine suspected gunnies killed when US drones attacked compounds in the Bobar area of South Wazoo on Sunday.
According to sources, the drones fired 10 missiles, destroying three compounds in the area close to the Frontier Regions of Tank and Lakki Marwat.
One of the destroyed compounds belonged to Punjabi Taliban leader Qari Imran ... the Qari Imran training camp is located in South Wazoo. It is named after its commander, Qari Imran alias Hakeem Nasir of the Mehsud group. Dawn describes Qari as an al-Qaeda controller, and the camp specializes in turning out boomers. 10 to 15 bad boyz were dronezapped at the camp on September 11th, 2008... They said the dead included Wali Mohammad Toofan, a cousin of and close aide to Hakimullah Mehsud. Toofan had been recently elevated to head TTP's 'Fidai wing' after its leader Qari Hussain died in a drone strike in Mirali, North Waziristan.
Another victim of Sunday's drone strike was identified as Sailab.
Most of those killed belonged to the Mehsud tribe.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again... security forces resorted to intense mortar shelling on suspected hard boy positions in Sheen Nari, near Bobar.
Helicopter gunships also shelled the locality between 9am and 3pm, the sources said.
AFP adds: A security official in Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... , the main town in North Waziristan, said "at least 12 gunnies have been killed and several others were maimed" in the attack that took place near the Afghan border.
Local people said that gunnies had cordoned off the area and were looking for bodies or the injured in the debris.US drone strikes had last week killed Mullah Nazir, the main hard boy 'commander' in South Waziristan.
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#1
Another one bites the dust, Who's left?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 1:33
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[Dawn] At least four Islamic fascistiwere killed and four others maimed Tuesday when a US drone fired missiles at a bully boy compound in North Wazoo, security officials said.
The missiles struck a bully boy compound in Haider Khel village, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of Miranshah ... headquarters of al-Qaeda in Pakistain and likely location of Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Haqqani network has established a ministate in centered on the town with courts, tax offices and lots of madrassas... , the main town in the North Waziristan tribal district, a stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda-linked bully boys.
"US drones fired four missiles at a bully boy compound. At least four Islamic fascistihave been killed," a security official in Miranshah told AFP.
Another security official in the northwestern city of 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. confirmed the attack and casualties. Both officials said the identity of those killed was not yet known.
The covert US drone strikes are publicly criticised by the Pak government as a violation of illusory sovereignty but American officials believe they are a vital weapon in the war against Islamist bully boys.
Legal lobby group Reprieve estimates that up to nearly 900 civilians were among the 2,621 to 3,442 people killed by drones in Pakistain since 2004.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Dawn] A row over an unpaid restaurant bill in a western Indian city escalated into a riot between Hindus and Moslems that left four people dead and 175 injured, police said on Monday.
The unrest broke out in Dhule in Maharashtra state on Sunday, special inspector general Deven Bharti told AFP. Four rioters were killed by police firing while 113 coppers were among the injured, he said.
Bharti said investigations were still under way, but it appeared that a quarrel over a restaurant bill had provoked a mass brawl that left shops smashed, cycle of violences burned and glass strewn across the streets.
Previous riots between Hindus and Moslems in Dhule, which has a population of about 400,000 and is located 330 kilometres (205 miles) from Mumbai, broke out in October 2008, leaving 10 dead.
"The restaurant owner was from one community and the customer from the other," Bharti explained, declining to name the parties involved.
"The customer went and took 50 people from his community and assaulted the restaurant owner, and people from the owner's community also gathered and started arsoning and rioting," he said.
Bharti said the police had used sticks, tear gas and plastic bullets before resorting to live ammunition to quell the trouble.
The area was put under a curfew that continued on Monday and was "peaceful and under control", he added.
Hindus make up about 80 per cent of India's population, while some 13 per cent are Moslem.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Trash enough and there won't be a next bill.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 1:10
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[MAGHAREBIA] The 2007 Algiers suicide kaboom trial was postponed to January 17th, due to the absence of one of the defence attorneys, APS reported on Sunday (January 6th). The Algiers court will try seven of the 13 defendants in absentia, including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb leader Abdelmalik Droukdel ... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb....
The December 11, 2007 twin car kabooms on the UNHCR office in Hydra and the Constitutional Court in Ben Aknoun killed 26 people, including 17 UN workers, and injured 177.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[An Nahar] A top aide to President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad who has been incarcerated ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... since September was replaced on Monday as the head of Iran's state Islamic Theocratic Republic News Agency (IRNA), it and other media reported.
Ali Akbar Javanfekr, who is being held in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, was succeeded by another Ahmadinejad advisor, Majid Omidi Shahraki, who led the president's Political and Security Affairs office, they said.
Javanfekr was tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! on September 26 -- just as Ahmadinejad was giving a speech in New York at the U.N. General Assembly -- and is serving a six-month jail term in Evin.
He has been convicted of publishing material offensive to Islamic codes and public morality by allowing one of the state newspapers under his control to run articles questioning Iran's strict Islamic dress code for women.
Javanfekr and other Ahmadinejad aides have long been targets for Iran's hardline judges and ultra-conservative politicians who see them as attempting to undermine religious principles.
Ahmadinejad became locked in a public row with judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani over getting access to Evin prison. He eventually was able to see Javanfekr last month when the aide was briefly taken to hospital for what reports said was a "heart condition".
The Islamic Theocratic Republic News Agency (IRNA) has a network of domestic bureaux and several correspondents in other countries.
Omidi Shahraki is the fifth IRNA head to be named since Ahmadinejad took power in 2005.
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Azerbaijan, Baku -- More than 8000 projects in Iran are facing a budget deficit and remain half- finished, IRNA quoted Iranian Industry, Mine, and Trade Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari as saying.
Ten per cent of the National Development Fund's assets have been projected to be allocated to meet the financial needs of domestic production units, he noted. To date up to 30 trillion rials (about $2.5 billion) worth of projects has been introduced to the banking system to receive financial facilities, he added.
The Iranian administration has allocated 1150 trillion rials (about $94 billion) for completing half-finished national projects, Iranian First Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi said on Friday.
How many trillion-rial coins is that?
In December 2012, the Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade announced it had completed 2000 half-finished projects through investing 40 trillion rials (about $3.3 billion), IRIB reported.
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[Ynet] A senior politician says Iran's revenues from oil and gas exports have dropped by 45% because of sanctions over its suspect nuclear program.It was a clear admission that the sanctions are having a severe impact, but Iran refuses to reign in its program.
Iran is under UN sanctions and Western oil, banking and trade restrictions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, which is a potential pathway for nuclear weapons development.
The announced Sunday Morning Coffee Pot feature failed to materialize Sunday partially because the author was and is still sick, plus Monday, a Firefox restart killed all 1,500 words.
NEW YORK - Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal said Monday he backs the White Houses drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan slated for 2014, but added that the U.S. owes Afghans some sort of enduring security presence to support them.
We have an emotional responsibility, McChrystal said of Afghanistan in an interview with The Associated Press. He commanded forces there before resigning over a controversial magazine article.
We created expectations after 2001 in people that the U.S. would be there to keep the country from sliding back into the chaos of the Taliban years, McChrystal said.
No we did not. Europeans, academics and Democrats did, and like a fool George W. Bush listened to them. One of the bigger mistakes he made. The original goal was to destroy al-Qaeda and gobsmack the Taliban so that the Northern Alliance and friendly Pashtuns (is there such a thing?) could run the place. But George got conned into 'nation-building', and here we are.
His comments come ahead of a visit by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to the White House, as the two nations try to craft a long-term plan for Afghanistan that will include a U.S. military presence whose size and scope have not yet been decided. The Afghan war commander, Gen. John Allen, has offered White House planners a range of troop numbers to choose from, from 6,000 troops, who would be devoted mostly to hunting al-Qaida, to more than 15,000, enough to continue much of the U.S. training mission and also back Afghan troops in the field with intelligence and logistical support.
I choose option A, perhaps A-minus. We really need 6,000?
McChrystal said Afghans dont want an occupying army, but they fear the U.S. will withdraw completely.
Really? When did they say that -- when they were practicing green on blue?
Like a teenager, you really dont want your parents hanging around you, but...you like to know if things go bad, theyre going to help, he said. McChrystal added that the Afghans are not children, but they need to know they can trust America.
The retired general insisted the strategy known as counterinsurgency worked, saying the Afghans are much better able to stand on their own.
If you had tried to bring big American forces in and do search and destroy, or do just raids, it would have been pointless. The Afghan people needed to buy into this, he said. They needed to believe we were there to protect them...and we werent just using Afghanistan as a place to fight our enemies.
He called the looming drawdown of U.S. forces inevitable, and said that while Afghan troops still needed to mature rapidly, being forced to work on their own would help.
You are never ready to do something by yourself until you actually do it, and then you are surprised you can, he said.
They can mature tomorrow, or not. The point is to make sure they understand that if al-Qaeda returns, so will we, and we won't be happy about it.
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They are legendary smugglers, dope and gun runners, dancing boy buggerers, and tribal bandits. It's still 400 AD in Afghanistan. It's where they want to be, they love it!
Sadly, the general (like many others) remains in denial. Stumping his new book, My Share of the Task: A Memoir, on Sean Hannity last evening, he admitted he voted for the Champ. It could all be attributed to a bad landing and a bunp to the head on Sicily Drop Zone, more likely kindred narcissism.
#3
"We have an emotional responsibility," McChrystal said of Afghanistan Stan, you can try telling it to the COC--again. The COC doesn't take input very well.
#5
They hosted al Qaeda, they grow opium and after we leave they will welcome the Taliban with open arms. They deserve whatever they get and we don't owe them squat. Well, maybe a few more arclights.
#6
I almost forgot, their soldiers and cops shoot our soldiers. We have an emotional responsibility to let them rot in the hell that they will most certainly create for themselves.
#7
The Afghans of liberated Afghanistan are SOBs but certainly not our SOBs. They're SOBs whom the Western political class has led to believe that Western nations are their prison b****es servants.
There might be a good, strictly realpolitical argument for engaging them but Gen McChrystal's 'emotional' diatribe doesn't put forward such an argument.
[An Nahar] Yemeni authorities impounded 500 illegal cycle of violences in a three-day campaign to put an end to hit-and-run shootings which killed dozens of security officers last year, officials said on Monday.
"The campaign has succeeded in stopping 500 unlicensed motorbikes and 72 cars without number plates, some of which are suspected to have been used in liquidations," an interior ministry report said, adding that 50 weapons such as Kalashnikovs and other firearms were seized during the crackdown.
"Motorbikes have become a headache for security forces as jihad boy groups use them to assassinate security officials," General Abdelrahman Hanash, a high-ranking interior ministry official, told news hounds.
The interior ministry says that 40 members of the security forces and four non-combatants were killed in 2012 in hit-and-run shootings by gunnies on motorbikes.
Sanaa security chief, Omar Abdelkarim, said that "terrorist groups" have used the unrest in Yemen "to reorganize their ranks and launch a series of hit-and-run liquidations."
There are over 200,000 motorbikes across Yemen, most of which are unregistered, according to Sanaa police.
Some 103 police patrols took part in the campaign, which began in Sanaa on Saturday, according to the ministry.
Residents said that police checkpoints were set up across the capital at which vehicles and motorbikes without number plates were stopped.
Passersby were also searched for unlicensed weapons in the country where gun ownership has long been a key part of culture.
Yemen has an estimated 60 million firearms in private hands, roughly three for every resident.
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been blamed for most of the killings although it has not grabbed credit for any of the liquidations.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
You might as well consficate guns, have the exact same effect.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 1:27
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[An Nahar] Seven alleged criminals who were being transferred to a Malaysian court seized the opportunity to hijack the police van carrying them in a daring escape on Monday, police said. Ooh, ooh! I think I seen this movie!
The van's driver had pulled over when a commotion burst out among the detainees who were being taken from jail to their court proceedings in the northern state of Penang, Abdul Rahman Ibrahim, a district police chief, told Agence La Belle France Presse. And then they shot up the car that Brad Pitt's girlfriend was in, see?
Seven of the detainees then overwhelmed the driver and two coppers, forcing them out of the vehicle along with two other detainees who did not take part in the hijacking, he said. And the whole thing's a plot to get the bad guy out, see?
The truck was later found abandoned in a village. Police have launched a hunt for the missing hijackers. So they pull the van over on this country road and then the bad guy's men shoot all the other escapees!
"I think they just took advantage of the situation," Abdul Rahman said. The cops, naturally, don't know whether to poop or go blind, except for this one police lieutenant, see?...
"We are still combing the area, looking for them," he said, adding that they were believed to have escaped into an oil-palm plantation. But Brad Pitt, he sets out to get revenge for his girlfriend...
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Hat tip Instapundit. Justice is wonderfully poetic at times.
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is dying of cancer in Havana, in a live demonstration of Cuba's vaunted socialized medical care. He went there instead of Brazil because he wanted to make a political statement. What irony.
As party cronies hover at his bedside, Cuban officials bark orders to the government in Caracas, and red-shirted Chavistas hold vigils, all signs are pointing to an imminent exit for the Venezuelan leader who controls a huge part of the world's oil.
He's going out exactly as he wouldn't have liked -- helpless and at the mercy of doctors, a far cry from the blaze of heroic socialist glory he might have preferred.
Most galling for him: It didn't have to happen this way. His expected demise will be entirely due to his gullibility to leftist propaganda and bad choices that came of it.
"In July 2011, during (a)... summit in Caracas, Brazil's President, Dilma Rousseff, told a few of her colleagues -- in private -- that Chavez was likely to die as a result of 'his excessive paranoia rather than as a consequence of his serious -- yet treatable -- cancer,'" wrote Venezuelan consultant Pedro Burelli in a newsletter.
"What she meant to say," Burelli added, "was that by choosing secrecy in Cuba over medical competence at the Sirio-Libanese Hospital in Sao Paulo (where she had been treated successfully for lymphatic cancer) Chavez had condemned himself to a shorter life."
Burelli noted that it corresponded to his own sources, who told him that Chavez's chosen successor, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, flew to Brasilia to meet with Rousseff and her oncologist. He presented the diagnoses from Caracas and Havana and the Brazilian specialist "considered it treatable under world-class protocols available in his center."
Maduro signaled interest. But the Chavista regime then demanded to pretty much take over the 400-bed hospital, which the Brazilians rejected. "From that moment on the patient was doomed," Burelli wrote.
According to a 2011 report in the Wall Street Journal, Chavez chose Cuban medical care over the world-class treatment in Brazil for "political" reasons.
"While Mr. Chavez often lauds Cuban doctors, switching from Cuban to Brazilian care would have suggested the Cubans aren't capable of world class care."
And that's pretty much the nub of it, the incredible desire of Chavez, common to all the left, to defend the myth of Cuba's top-down health care system as superior to health care in free markets.
Praising CastroCare was a prominent feature of Michael Moore's 2008 phony "documentary," "Sicko," which provided a shot in the arm for efforts to set up a socialized health care system in the U.S. -- including the costly monstrosity known as ObamaCare.
Thanks Mike. Perhaps you yourself will one day enjoy Cuban medical care, though I suspect you're a big enough hypocrite to go to Cornell Presbyterian instead...
As Chavez suffers through four surgeries in Cuba, it's instructive to note it was the Brazilian hospital -- a teaching institution with top-of-the-line tomotherapy equipment, 2,000 doctors, and a record of success for beating cancer -- that cured Rousseff as well as then-President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay. But it gets no recognition from the likes of Moore, who still promotes CastroCare on his Web site, while ignoring the private U.S. hospitals the Brazilians model themselves after.
Who knows, had he done so, Chavez might have lived.
Cuba by contrast, remains substandard, with average Cubans forced to bring their own bandages, water and sheets to hospitals that haven't seen repairs in years.
Recent reports say Cuba cut medical spending from $209 million in 2009 to $190 million last year -- "bending the cost curve" by giving less care. Sound familiar?
For wealthy foreigners like Chavez, Cuban officials often misstate their abilities to cure, according to Cuban dissident and top neurosurgeon Dr. Hilda Molina, while left-wing sites such as MRZine praise CastroCare because it doesn't invest in fancy equipment.
It's called, "lying"...
As Chavez dies, Cuba itself may go down too if Venezuela's energy subsidies end. Cuba's regime, ironically, might be the last victim of its own foul health system.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2013
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#1
Yup, Cuban medical care, AVOID IT.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 1:16
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...Cuba's regime, ironically, might be the last victim of its own foul health system.
[Dawn] A Pak man accused of taking part in an international al Qaeda plot to attack targets in the United States and Europe pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to terrorism charges during his first US court appearance Monday in New York.
Abid Naseer, 26, was extradited on Thursday from Britannia to Brooklyn, New York. He is facing up to life in prison on charges including providing material support to al Qaeda and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction in connection with an alleged plot to bomb a city center in Manchester, England.
The charges against Naseer are also connected to an alleged al Qaeda plot in 2009 to bomb the subway system in New York City, US prosecutors said. Two men, Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay, have pleaded guilty to planning the attacks and a third man, Adis Medunjanin, was sentenced to life in prison after his conviction last year for taking part in the plot.
During a brief court appearance in Brooklyn federal court, Naseer, wearing a bright blue t-shirt and black sneakers, pleaded not guilty to the charges through his court-appointed lawyer. The judge ordered Naseer to be held in detention without bail. His next court appearance is scheduled for March 7.
Naseer is one of a dozen men, mostly students from Pakistain, who were enjugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in Britannia in 2009 on suspicion of plotting to bomb a city center in Manchester. British authorities conducted daylight raids on the suspects' homes after Britannia's most senior counter-terrorism official was photographed openly carrying details about the operation.
British authorities said they found large quantities of flour and oil in the suspects' homes, as well as highlighted surveillance photographs of public areas in Manchester and a map of the city center.
Naseer and the other suspects were never charged, but British and US authorities said Naseer was part of a broader al Qaeda cell bent on staging attacks in the United States and Scandinavia.
Naseer was indicted in Brooklyn federal court in 2010, along with Medunjanin and other individuals alleged to be linked through a multi-national al Qaeda conspiracy.
US prosecutors said Naseer and Zazi coordinated their plans through emails to the same Pakistain-based al Qaeda controller, "Ahmad," using similar code words to discuss explosives and the timing of their respective plots.
Naseer was re-arrested by British authorities in 2010 after a US warrant was issued. He fought extradition, saying he feared he could be sent from the US to Pakistain and subjected there to torture. Naseer's appeal was rejected last month by the European Court of Human Rights, paving the way for him to stand trial in the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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#1
Extradited al Qaeda suspect pleads not guilty in US court
May he hang, shortly and violently.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 17:03
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[DETROITNEWS] The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing new rules to require minimum sound levels from electric vehicles, hybrids and other quiet cars to warn pedestrians.
NHTSA's proposal -- required by Congress in 2010 -- sets minimum sound levels for hybrid and electric vehicles to help make all pedestrians, especially visually impaired people, aware of approaching vehicles.
Electric and hybrid vehicles do not rely on traditional engines and at low speeds can be very difficult to hear.
NHTSA plans to phase in the new rules starting in the 2016 model year over three years. It expects the proposal will cost the auto industry about $23 million during the first year.
NHTSA estimates the cost of adding a speaker system to comply with the requirements to be around $35 per vehicle.
The new rules would also apply to electric motorcycles and heavy-duty vehicles.
NHTSA estimates the odds of a hybrid vehicle being involved in a pedestrian crash is 19 percent higher compared with traditional gas- or diesel-powered vehicles. For a bicycle crash, it's 38 percent higher.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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#1
I wonder if this will be like the fleet mileage standards - some vehicles can be nearly silent just as long as enough others are really, really loud.
#3
Not a bad idea. I have seen several new hybrid, 4 cylinder and electric cars that have been so quiet, if I wasn't watching I wouldn't have known they were there. After which I have always wondered why they didn't have those things make more noise.
On a related topic, good police and military vehicle to sneak up on a target building.
#5
Now while I reeeeally don't like the idea of data-recording devices being required by the Feds, the idea of a noisemaker on a Toyota Prius or Nissan Leaf electric drive makes sense. There are a LOT of these things on the streets of Seattle where I walk to & from work daily, and I've learned to make a special effort to look for them, especially when walking from the office during the fall & winter.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
01/08/2013 2:00
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[An Nahar] Bulgarian officials have removed a senior investigator from a probe into a tourist bus kaboom that killed five Israelis, after she revealed sensitive information to the media, BTA news agency reported Monday.
Stanelia Karadzhova, head of the regional investigation unit in Burgas, where last July's attack took place, had been taken off the case, the state news agency reported.
Karadzhova had released details of the investigation without clearing it with the supervising prosecutor, BTA reported, citing a statement from the prosecutors' office.
Karadzhova told the 24 Hours daily newspaper in a January 3 interview that Sofia had identified and issued an arrest warrant for one of the accomplices of the man who blew up an Israeli-packed tourist bus, killing five tourists, their Bulgarian driver and himself.
"The investigation has evidence implicating three people," she told the paper. "The identity of one of them has already been established. He is currently being searched for."
The investigator gave many other details on the probe in the two-page interview.
While Bulgaria's interior ministry has not officially refuted the information, the ministry's chief of staff Kalin Georgiev warned that any comments on the investigation at this stage were "dangerous".
Almost six months after the July 18 attack, Sofia is struggling to identify the actual bomber, despite having his DNA, fingerprints and a computer-generated portrait.
This has prevented Bulgaria from pointing the finger at anyone so far.
Immediately after the attack, Israel blamed Iran and its "terrorist proxy" Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia movement, for the bombing.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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[MAGHAREBIA] Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan on Monday (December 7th) appointed Mohamed Abdulaziz as foreign minister. The decision follows the resignation a week ago of Zidan's choice for the post, Ali Suleiman Aujali. The move also reintegrates the international co-operation and foreign ministries. Zidan separated the two ministries when he announced his government in October.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Dawn] COUNTING a few major attacks claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) during the last three months in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... and Fata delineate three clear tactical patterns. (It must be noted that during the same time Rawalpindi, Quetta, Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... and other parts of Pakistain were also hit).
Headlines during this period included the finding of the severed heads of a police brass hat and a soldier of the Frontier Constabulary in the Gulshanabad area of Matani in the suburbs of 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.
On Oct 26, gunniesrubbed out two members of an anti-Taliban peace committee in Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... valley. About a week later, a local leader of the newly formed Qaumi Watan Party and the head of an anti-Taliban amn lashkar (peace committee) was killed along with four other people in a suicide kaboom in Buner.
Four days later, a jacket wallahwent kaboom! near a police van in Peshawar's Qissa Khawani bazaar, killing a police brass hat, two bodyguards and two civilians.
On Dec 19, beturbanned goon attacks on polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... workers in Charsadda, Nowshera and Peshawar (besides Bloody Karachi) left several workers, including women, dead. On Dec 22, a suicide attack in Peshawar left senior minister and leader of the Awami National Party, Bashir Ahmed Bilour, and seven others dead.
On Dec 27, hundreds of Death Eaters equipped with sophisticated weapons attacked a Levies post in Frontier Region Peshawar, killing two while
22 others were kidnapped; their bullet-ridden bodies were found on Dec 30 in the same area.
As seen in the light of this narration, the snuffies affiliated with the TTP have clear targets. The first target is the police and security forces -- in their bid to take control of a state or society, beturbanned goons and snuffies always try to defeat the morale of the security forces. Through a well-coordinated and networked chain of attacks, the TTP has succeeded in inflicting heavy losses on the security forces and the police in different parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The locations where the attacks took place show that the beturbanned goon network is entrenched in almost all parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the rest of Pakistain, with a concentration in the suburbs of Peshawar. This means that beturbanned goon organizations can strike at will. This also shows that the state of Pakistain is vulnerable and too weak to provide security to its own institutions, let alone the people.
The second target are those who are under obligation or have made a commitment to help state institutions. Attacks on the leaders of peace committees in those parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where military operations were earlier successfully carried out indicate that the beturbanned goon organizations wish to demonstrate that their networks cannot be defeated, no matter how much state force is used.
This also strengthens the discourse of those political parties that claim that any kind of military operation against terrorist networks backfires in all circumstances.
The third target is the people who are publicly expressive of their ideological opposition to the beturbanned goon organizations. They are a target in order to prove that any voice of dissent can be silenced with impunity. Fascist movements around the globe have always attempted to silence all voices of dissent.
In response to the trajectory of terrorism, there appear to have emerged three patterns of thinking that are discernible in the public and in Pakistain's policymaking and political circles.
Firstly, there is a pattern of thought that holds that terrorism in Pakistain appeared after the US sent its forces to Afghanistan following the events of 9/11. This way of thinking concludes that all the losses incurred by the security apparatus, the state, society and humanity inside Pakistain -- and were inflicted by the TTP and other beturbanned goon organizations -- are morally justified and any use of force against those who unleash terror is morally unjustified. Those with this way of thinking strongly suggest dialogue and reconciliation on the terms of the beturbanned goon organizations.
This would mean surrendering the constitution of Pakistain and implementing the beturbanned goon code of life. This would definitely lead Pakistain towards isolation from the modern world. If someone wants a 'khilafat' in Afghanistan, why wouldn't he want it in Pakistain and the whole world?
This way of thinking also ignores the fact that well before 9/11, in 1992, the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi brought Malakand division to a standstill while demanding the Sharia be implemented. The first case of someone being stoned to death took place in Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... in 1998.
The second pattern of thinking holds that all terrorism in Pakistain is inflicted by foreign hands, meaning the US, Israel and India, and hence it is impossible to track terrorism and deal with it politically, socio-culturally and militarily. This also implies that Taliban- and Al Qaeda-affiliated organizations are fighting a war of liberation in Afghanistan and a war of Dire Revenge in Pakistain; hence, if military action against them is stopped in Pakistain, all terrorism here will vanish.
Thirdly, there is the pattern of thought that suggests that the policies of Pakistain's security establishment over the past four decades -- to use non-state actors for foreign policy objectives, the privatisation of 'jihad', the development of beturbanned goon ideological and military infrastructure across the length and breadth of Pakistain -- in addition to the country's legal and constitutional frameworks and an education system that glorifies war and spreads hatred against other nations and religions, are together responsible for the present reign of terror in Pakistain.
This way of thinking argues that insurgencies and terrorism around the globe have been neutralised through a coordinated policy of using force to tear down the beturbanned goon command structure, beturbanned goon networks and supply lines besides using a political mechanism of reintegration and reconciliation, as well as coordinated economic development.
It is now up to the state and society of Pakistain to make a choice.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[MAGHAREBIA] Malian Prime Minister Diango Cissoko wrapped up a two-day visit to Nouakchott on Sunday (January 6th) where he drummed up support for Mauritanian assistance to oust radical Islamist groups from his country.
After meeting with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, the Malian premier said he had a "very clear understanding" of the situation.
"I asked him for an even stronger commitment on Mauritania's part to solve all of the problems in northern Mali, which is occupied by armed Islamist groups including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)," Cissoko told news hounds.
Cissoko also pointed: "Mauritania has been sheltering more than 100,000 Malian refugees since the crisis in northern Mali began in mid-January 2012."
"These refugees feel at home, and the Mauritanian government is treating them with special care, it was important for me to come here and thank him for this care," he said.
Preparations for international military intervention are under way so that the gangs in northern Mali can be dislodged.
On December 20th, the UN approved the deployment of an international force to Mali without specifying a timetable, though it said that this would be done in stages. It also urged dialogue with those who reject terrorism and the partitioning of Mali.
Cissoko did not answer questions from journalists in Nouakchott, instead focusing on the latest demands from Ansar al-Din, the he radical Islamist group that seized northern Mali last year, along with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and other rebel groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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[FREEBEACON] President B.O. announced Monday his nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel to secretary of defense and and John Brennan to director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
The Hagel nomination formalizes what many expect to be a bruising battle for the president.
"Chuck Hagel is the leader that our troops deserve," Obama said at the event Monday.
That comment rather demonstrates the antipathy he has for the military, doesn't it?
"He is an American patriot." Obama noted that Hagel is the first secretary of defense to have held enlisted military rank and the first Vietnam War veteran to serve in the post.
Obama also praised Brennan, saying, "John knows what our national security demands." He noted Brennan's work ethic and extensive experience.
Hagel, a Republican, currently serves at co-chair of the president's Intelligence Advisory Board, a position he has held since 2009. When appointed to that role, Obama praised Hagel's "sound judgments" which he saw while traveling with Hagel to Iraq and Afghanistan during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Before becoming Obama's adviser, Hagel served two terms as a Senator from Nebraska, during which time he sat on the Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees. He voted for the Iraq and Afghanistan war resolutions before becoming critical of both wars.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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#1
...The point here is that the President is making sure that there's a Republican in charge at DOD when he starts dismantling it. That way, he can say they helped.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/08/2013 5:38
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#3
The reality's worse than that. He wants to make sure there won't be another Operation Nickel Grass by bankrupting/Weimarizing the United States. With a lot of Morgrenthau Plan thrown in. Then it doesn't matter who wins in 2016.
#4
The nomination of Hegel shows the course O takes. The senate can knock down Hegel, and O will put up another equal or worse. Every nomination he makes will be like this. O is on a roll with his socialist marxist agenda, and I don't mean Groucho.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/08/2013 16:57
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[MAGHAREBIA] Some 84 fighters from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) fled Mali for the Mauritanian town of Bassiknou, ANI reported on Sunday (December 6th)[sic]. After turning over 25 all-terrain vehicles, weapons and ammunition to Mauritanian military forces, the Touareg separatists were allowed to join other Malian refugees at the M'berra camp.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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[An Nahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... 's first speech since June showed he remains confident enough in his military strength after 21 months of conflict to thumb his nose at demands for his exit, analysts say.
Assad broke his silence after the regime weathered a storm of devastating events over the summer and autumn, said Thomas Pierret, Syria specialist and professor at the University of Edinburgh.
They included a kaboom that killed four top security officials, the rebels' capture of half of second city Aleppo and the loss of control over the Turkish and Iraqi borders.
"Today, the situation is stabilizing a bit. The regime won't win the war, but it knows it will still go on for some time," Pierret said.
"All of these developments are giving breathing space to a regime doomed in the future, which explains the timing of the speech.
"The international situation is also reassuring to Assad. After seeming to back the National Coalition and the new Free Syrian Army command, the West is again working with the Russians on a political solution though they know it is very unrealistic," said Pierret.
"These developments are a lifeline for a regime that is condemned in the medium term.
"It is the discourse of war. Assad is totally inflexible and resistant to the idea of a genuine process of political transition."
Karim Bitar, research director at the Gay Paree Institute for International and Strategic Relations, said it was likely that Assad knew that the United States and Russia were holding talks on Syria.
"And these talks will give him a respite and he should be able to cling to power until at least the end of his mandate in 2014, as he waits for what he calls the 'Arab Spring bubble' to pop," Bitar said.
But Bitar said that ultimately the human toll of a conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives, according to the latest U.N. figures, meant that Assad's blueprint was too "little, too late."
"Too much blood has been spilled for the rebels to agree to stop here. Assad's proposal is far below what could be accepted by the rebels," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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#1
Partition is being protrayed or inferred as the most likely best option for formal ceasefire - PROB IS, NOBODY WANTS IT.
Not Baby Assad, not the FSA, not the Kurds or AL-Qaeda or Kurdish Hezbollah.
[Dawn] At least two security personnel were killed Monday when a bomb went kaboom! in Pakistain's northwestern Mohmand tribal agency near the Pakistain-Afghanistan border, officials said.
The improvised bomb (IED) blew up near Albo security checkpost area in Khwezai Tehsil, some 40 kilometers west of the agency headquarters Ghalanai, injuring another security personnel.
Ghazi Nawaz, assistant political agent for Khawezai Tehsil, confirmed two security personnel were killed and one injured in the blast.
He said the bomb appeared to be have planted along the road to target security forces near Margano Jalaa area of Khwaezai tehsil, close to the Pakistain-Afghan border.
Mohmand is one of Pakistain's seven tribal agencies near the Afghan border which are rife with homegrown hard boyz and are said to be strongholds of Taliban and al Qaeda operatives.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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Top|| File under: TTP
[Dawn] Two young men were found rubbed out in Shah Faisal Colony and Lyari ...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot.... on Sunday, police said.
They said that the perforated carcass of the young man was found near Moti Masjid in Shah Faisal Colony No 3.
The police shifted the body to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities. The victim was identified as Muneeb Ahmad, 26.
He was a resident of Shah Faisal Colony. The motive for the killing was not immediately clear.
Another unidentified young man was found rubbed out in Lyari. Police said that the victim was blindfolded and trussed-up. He had been shot in the head, they said.
The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital for medico-legal formalities. Later, the body was moved to the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth for want of identification.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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[An Nahar] President Francois Bozize of the Central African Republic flew Monday to the Republic of Congo for talks with his Congolese counterpart, who will mediate negotiations between Bangui and a rebel alliance, an Agence La Belle France Presse journalist said.
Bozize "should return in the afternoon" after consulting President Denis Sassou Nguesso, a government source said. The Congolese president was due to mediate in peace talks set to open Tuesday in Gabon's capital Libreville.
The Seleka alliance of three rebel movements took up arms on December 10 in northern CAR and has since moved steadily southwards, taking a string of towns, to stop within striking distance of Bangui.
The rebels initially called on the Bangui government to respect the terms of peace accords signed in 2007 and 2011, but have since upped their demands to include the departure of Bozize.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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Police in Kidapawan City believe the improvised bomb found and detonated inside the police headquarters here on Sunday was part of the plan to rescue high profile inmates at the Cotabato City jail.
Kidapawan City police director Joseph Samillano refused to identify which inmates would be the object of a possible jailbreak.
A powerful IED of two 60 mm mortars were found at the cyclone wire fence of the city police compound.
While there are other possible motives, Samillano said the jailbreak theory was the most likely. He said the city jail was a subject of daring rescue attempt by followers of inmate Commander Lastikman, a former Moro rebel who turned to kidnapping, bombing and highway robbery.
[Dawn] Five persons, including a woman and a minor boy, were killed when unidentified gunnies opened firing on a taxicab in Jamrud area of Khyber Agency on Sunday.
The driver of the vehicle was injured in the attack, official sources said. Tribal elder Malik Sher Mir Sikandarkhel and his son Shan Mohammad were among the dead, they added. They said that the taxicab was ambushed at Shangirh area near Gudar village when it was on its way to bazaar.
Officials said that other victims of the firing incident were identified as wife of Misal Shah, a minor boy Bilal and another passenger Rehmanullah.
Officials said that the tribal elder and his son were killed on the spot while the rest of victims gave up the ghost in a hospital. The driver of the car identified as Abdul Hashim was injured critically in the attack. Reason behind the incident could not be known.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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From TFA:
Since its 2007 debut, Politico has expanded its newsroom quickly while some legacy media outlets, like the Washington Post, have scaled back. But Politico isn't immune from having to restructure in the face of industry demands, and in recent days, it has laid off some staffers.
"So, now I'm self-employed," photographer Jay Westcott tweeted Saturday. "Just got laid off by Politico."
Jess Kamen, a technology reporter for Politico and Politico Pro, was also laid off, according to newsroom sources. There are believed to have been more layoffs, the sources say, but it's unclear how many at this time.
Politico editor-in-chief John Harris disputed any suggestion that Politico is retrenching, telling The Huffington Post that "we're continuing to grow."
"I expect we'll be larger at the end of 2013 than at the beginning of 2013," Harris said, adding that the organization has a "clear mandate" from publisher Robert Allbritton to expand.
In a follow-up email, Harris pointed out that Politico has 30 more employees than this time last year and that he expects staff to grow "by 30 more in the weeks and months ahead."
#2
John Harris: ex-Washington Post (21 years), also a stay at Brookings Institute.
Politico did well eyeball-wise during the recent election coverage. Essentially it's what the Washington Post would have been had it gone digital early. Appears there has been no post-election bounce.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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Top|| File under:
#1
Picked right up on the Jeremiah Wright thing did he? Eat your watery soup Ed and quityobitch'n. Champ says you're too old and someone else needs the matzo balls.
Kerry is fine, but Hagel is a no-go? Gotta be kiddin me.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/08/2013 10:31
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#5
Former Mayor Koch didn't merely vote twice for Mr. Obama. Both elections he campaigned hard for the man, touring the country speaking in front of Jewish groups and writing opinion pieces for newspapers as far away as the Jerusalem Post, selling the idea that this man is good for America, American Jews, and Israel. In between times he occasionally wrote a piece critical of this or that action, warning that it could be seen as undermining Israel -- I've posted some of them here over the years -- but in the end Mayor Koch is first and always a loyal member of the Democratic party machine that made him.
#7
So, Obama LIED again, so what, he's known for it.
And I'll repeat each lie.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 11:55
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#8
Koch does give an explanation. His support for Obama was an act of appeasement and he believed Obama would win anyway.
I did what I thought was warranted and intelligent, he said, He was going to win! There was no question about it. I thought it would be helpful to have a Jewish voice there, being able to communicate.
#9
Koch's explanation for why he became a useful idiot does not cut it. Others have tried this route in history and it worked out very badly for them.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/08/2013 19:19
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#10
The excuse is, Ed's lost it. Comes to all of us. He said he thought Obama would do the right thing because he's "an honorable man".
Lost it but good.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
01/08/2013 20:49
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#11
"He said he thought Obama would do the right thing because he's "an honorable man"."
I want some of what he's been smoking drinking. :-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
01/08/2013 21:39
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[Xinhua] As Egypt's talks with International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a 4.8 billion U.S. dollars loan are set to resume on Monday, many consider the approval of the loan relied on Egyptian government's ability to overcome the worsening economic crisis and fulfill financial obligations.
IMF official and technical staff will visit Egypt on Monday to discuss the loan, Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Qandil said Sunday, stressing that his government will reassure the delegation about the country's economic situation and methods of improvement.
Whether Egypt could obtain the loan, depends on whether the Egyptian government could rationalize spending and increase revenues, said Mohamed Abdel Aziz, professor of funding at the American University in Cairo.
Abdel Aziz told Xinhua that the loan aims at helping Egypt deal with economic crisis, with the amount equal to Egypt's share as an IMF member, therefore there should not be hard strings attached to the deal.
"I expect the Fund will finalize the agreement without constraint," he said, noting that the IMF will ask for a program that guarantees Egyptian steps to reduce budget deficit.
In light of the economic crisis, the IMF is bound to study the Egyptian government's program carefully in terms of the volume of financial liquidity and Egypt's abilities to provide it in the future, Abdel Aziz noted.
As for whether the loan could help Egypt at this time of soaring budget deficit and decreasing currency reserve, Abdel Aziz said "the loan will provide the government with liquidity, by which it could minimize the budget deficit with its very low interest rate of 1.1 percent."
Securing the loan will help Egypt get more loans from IMF instead of other institutions, he added.
If the loan is approved, the eight biggest countries, particularly the United States, will provide Egypt with aids.
The IMF loan depends on Egyptian Central Bank's procedures to float the currency and Egyptian government's measures to deal with budget deficit and taxes, said Hamdy Abdel Azim, economic professor in Sadat Academy.
"When IMF sees effective procedures by the Central Bank to administratively float the currency, it will approve the loan," Azim told Xinhua.
Azim said Egypt should abide by the IMF's conditions, which include reducing governmental expenditures, increasing taxes and freeing local currency.
According to Azim, the loan will improve economic conditions in Egypt and push other granting countries to provide Egypt with long term loans.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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[An Nahar] Four people, including three coppers, were maimed when a grenade was hurled at a police vehicle Monday in the northeast Kenyan town of Garissa, close to the Somali border, a police source said.
"A total of four people have been injured. Three are administration police," a Kenyan paramilitary police unit, a police officer in Garissa told Agence La Belle France Presse on condition of anonymity.
"A grenade was hurled on their vehicle" while the officers were on patrol, he added.
Regional police chief Philip Tuimur confirmed the incident but refused to give further details.
"We're gathering information on what happened in the incident," he said.
The attack comes after five police were killed in Garissa in November: two officers shot down while on patrol and three others killed by gunshots a few days later while changing a flat tire on their vehicle.
Kenya has been hit by a wave of grenade and gun attacks, often blamed on sympathizers of Somalia's Shabaab Islamist fighters and sometimes aimed at police targets, since its army went into Somalia last year to flush out the Shabaab.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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#1
Whitewater rafting is DANGEROUS, for several reasons it seems.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 9:05
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[LATIMES] Thirteen people will remain imprisoned, eight of them for life, after Bahrain's high court upheld their convictions Monday for plotting to overthrow the state. The decision cements a deeply controversial case that has troubled human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... groups and the U.S. State Department.
The defendants were accused of participating in a "terrorist plot" during protests that erupted nearly two years ago as demonstrators agitated for greater democracy and a bigger voice for Shiite Moslems.
The unrest triggered a government crackdown marked by beatings and torture, according to an independent commission later created by the government to investigate police abuses.
In the year since the commission aired its findings, Bahrain has pursued reforms, such as retraining police and taking some officers to court, but activists say repression has continued. Government officials, meanwhile, say protesters have violently attacked police in an effort to destabilize the country.
Charges against the dissidents included creating an illegal group that aimed to overthrow the political system "using force and terrorist means," as well as "calling for the change of the political system by force, insulting the army openly" and other offenses, according to state media. Among the detainees is activist Abdulhadi Khawaja, who undertook a months-long hunger strike last year in protest.
Their sentences, already upheld in September by an appeals court, range from five years to life in prison. Several others convicted on similar charges fled the country and were sentenced in absentia.
Bahraini officials have defended the trial as fair. As Monday's decision was announced, Atty. Gen. Abdulraham Sayyad told the Bahrain News Agency that the convicts had been given "full opportunities" to present their case before Bahrain's highest court.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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[KVIA] LAS CRUCES, N.M. - A Las Cruces arborist is in critical condition after he was severely shocked by a power line.
Coworkers at the scene told ABC-7's New Mexico Mobile Newsroom that Craig Lucky Benavidez, 52, was trimming a tree when he came in contact with a nearby power line. They said they were all working one second, and the next second they looked up and Benavidez was dangling from the tree.
Coworkers said it took between 30 minutes to an hour for El Paso Electric to arrive and shut off the power so they could cut him down. Coworkers described that as the most agonizing time of their lives.
A spokesman for the Las Cruces Police Department said Benavidez was flown to University Medical Center in El Paso.
Witnesses said Benavidez was screaming in pain as he was placed on a stretcher. They also said Benavidez had burn marks on his feet.
A sign on Benavidez's work truck claims he has 30 years of experience.
Benavidez was attacked by Africanized bees in July 2012.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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#1
Not "Africanized" bees, KILLER bees!
Jeesuz, what kinda reporter is this guy?
#5
And tomorrow the medics carrying him up the stairs on a stretcher will hear his story and start laughing uncontrollably and drop him. And on Thursday ....
[An Nahar] Scientists and broadcasters said Monday they have captured footage of an elusive giant squid up to eight meters (26 feet) long that roams the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Mmmm! Calamari! My favorite!
Japan's National Science Museum succeeded in filming the deep-sea creature in its natural habitat for the first time, working with Japanese public broadcaster NHK and the U.S. Discovery Channel.
They spotted the squid at a depth of 630 meters (2,067 feet) using a submersible in July, some 15 kilometers (nine miles) east of Chichi island in the north Pacific Ocean.
The submarine with three people on board, including Tsunemi Kubodera from the museum, followed the enormous mollusc to a depth of 900 meters as it swam into the ocean abyss.
NHK showed footage of the silver-colored creature, which had huge black eyes, as it swam against the current, holding a bait squid in its arms against the backdrop of dark oceanic depths.
The creature was about three meters long, but "estimated to be as long as eight meters if its two long arms had not been chopped off", Kubodera told Agence France Presse.
He gave no explanation for its missing arms.
He said it was the first video footage of a live giant squid in its natural habitat -- the depths of the sea where there is little oxygen.
Kobudera, a squid specialist, also filmed what he says was the first live video footage of a giant squid in 2006 but only from his boat after it was hooked and brought up to the surface.
The giant squid, "Architeuthis" to scientists, is sometimes described as one of the last mysteries of the ocean, being part of a world so hostile to humans that it has been little explored.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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[An Nahar] Police were carrying out forensic tests Monday after a young girl found what is believed to be a human head washed up on an Australian beach in a plastic bag. "Mom! What's this?"
"Why, I believe it's a human head in a bag, honey!"
The gruesome discovery was made at Porpoise Bay on Sunday by the girl, who was holidaying on Rottnest Island off Perth in Western Australia with her family.
"We believe it to be the remains of a human head," Inspector Denise Grant said, the West Australian newspaper reported. "Yes. It's got a nose, a chin, several teeth, and ears. Definitely human."
"However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... we are yet to confirm this. We can't confirm it until the forensic pathologists have finished their examination." "It could be an anthropoid ape, actually. They have many of the same appurtenances humans do."
Police would not confirm what the remains were held in but reports said it was "double bagged". That was to keep it from leaking. And the bag from breaking. They're kind of heavy, you know, human heads. Anthropoid apes not so much, of course...
Authorities have blocked off the southern side of Rottnest Island -- a popular tourist spot a short ferry ride from Perth -- to carry out further testing.
Police said the remains were thought to have been in the water for some time. "Hmmm... The thing appears to be waterlogged. I suspect it's been in the water for some time."
"This item which is possibly human remains is yet to be examined today by a forensic pathologist," police front man Sergeant Gerry Cassidy told the ABC. "Doctor Quincy! Pick up the white courtesy phone!"
"At this stage the area where it was found is a protective forensic area and access to that immediate area for visitors is closed." "I'm sorry, sir, you can't go in!"
"But I've lost me 'ead! It's in there someplace!"
"Have you tried lost and found?"
"Well, okay. I'll try over there."
[blunders off]
"Crikey, Bob! That fellow had a really short haircut, dinny!"
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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#1
Anybody, anybody, anybody? Are you missing a head?
The United Nations said Monday it was "disappointed" by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's speech because it rejected a political solution to the conflict, dpa reported.
"Oh, I am just so disappointed!"
A UN spokesman said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was disappointed that al-Assad's speech on Sunday failed to "contribute to a solution that could end the terrible suffering of the Syrian people."
The speech failed to recognize the Geneva communique in June 2012 that called for a political transition and the establishment of a joint Damascus-opposition transitional body with executive power to negotiate an end to the conflict, said spokesman Martin Nesirky.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2013
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#1
Get used to Dissappointment.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 1:29
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#2
When was the last time anyone saw a UN Secretary General pleased about anything ?
[An Nahar] The Egyptian army foiled a bid early Monday to attack a Coptic church in the Rafah border town with Gazoo as the minority Christian community began celebrating its Christmas, MENA news agency reported.
"Army units foiled an attack against the Rafah church at 1:00 am (23:00 GMT Sunday) and seized an exploding car and weapons near the church," the official news agency said.
Another car carrying masked men sped away as the patrols seized the explosives-packed Toyota vehicle, MENA said.
Egypt's Coptic minority celebrates Monday its first Christmas under Islamist rule and amid a climate of fear and uncertainty for their future, although President Mohammed Morsi has pledged to be the "president of all Egyptians."
In September, residents and officials reported that several Coptic families from Rafah had fled from the Sinai peninsula town that borders the Gazoo Strip after receiving death threats from Islamists.
Morsi, who hails from the powerful Moslem Brüderbund, visited the Sinai peninsula the following month to meet with and reassure Coptic families, telling them that "your security is our security".
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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#1
"your security is our security"
He can't help himself. Even his alleged assurances bleed us and them.
Guards thought there was something suspicious about a little white cat slipping through a prison gate in northeastern Brazil.
A prison official says that when they caught the animal, they found a cellphone, drills, small saws and other contraband taped to its body.
Alagoas state prisons spokeswoman Cinthya Moreno says that the cat was caught New Year's Eve at the medium-security prison in the city of Arapiraca.
The O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported Saturday that all of the prison's 263 inmates are suspects in the smuggling attempt, though it says a prison spokesman said "It will be hard to discover who is responsible since the cat does not speak."
Posted by: Au Auric ||
01/08/2013
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#1
That's a dead cat pictured.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 1:11
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"Since Cats do not speak" > D *** NG, I KNEW IT!
[An Nahar] Syria's state media said Monday that government troops repulsed a rebel attack on a police school in the northern city of Aleppo, one day after Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... called on Syrians to fight an opposition driven by what he characterized as religious thugs.
The official SANA news agency said regime forces killed and maimed members of a "terrorist group" in the fighting late Sunday, but did not provide a number. The government and the pro-regime media refer to the rebels seeking to topple Assad as terrorists.
Aleppo, Syria's largest city and a former commercial hub, has been a major front in the civil war since July, with battles often raging for control of military and security facilities such as the police school. Rebels have recently made gains around Aleppo, as well as in the east and in the capital Damascus ...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy... , bringing the civil war closer to the seat of Assad's power.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels clashed with troops in the suburbs of Damascus, including in Daraya south of the capital. The Observatory said the army sent reinforcements there to join in an offensive aimed at dislodging rebels from the district, located just a few kilometers (miles) from a strategic military air base west of the capital.
The towns and cities around Damascus have seen relentless fighting in recent weeks as rebels try to push through the government's heavy defenses in the capital. The regime has responded with withering counterattacks that include barrages by artillery and warplanes. The Observatory also reported festivities in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, in the central region of Homs and in the southern province of Daraa, the birthplace of the uprising in March 2011.
Five people, including four members of the same family, were killed in shelling on the eastern Damascus suburb of Kfar Batna, the Observatory said.
In the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, one soldier who had defected was killed in fighting near a local political security branch office.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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[An Nahar] A 27-year-old Austrian tourist was killed in northern Æthiopia when his group was attacked during a whitewater rafting trip on the Nile, Austria's foreign ministry said Monday.
The attack occurred on Sunday near Bahir Dar, 550 kilometers (340 miles) northwest of the capital Addis Ababa, ministry front man Martin Weiss told AFP.
The victim was part of a group of 10 Austrians on an organized whitewater rafting trip in the region.
Four of the group had spent the night camping on the banks of the Nile when they were apparently attacked by robbers. The victim's three companions were unharmed in the incident.
"There were gunshots," Weiss told AFP.
One of the tourists "was mortally maimed, the three others managed to escape and called the Austrian embassy in Addis Ababa.
"The (local) authorities were later informed and we received information this morning that the three individuals were safe. Shocked but in safety," he added.
"Technical equipment was stolen, the boats were damaged. It was probably a band of bandidos."
Weiss added the attack did not seem to have been political motivated, saying: "It was just a robbery."
No arrests have been made, the ministry front man said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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DE PEEL AIR BASE, Netherlands - The Dutch military is shipping its Patriot missiles to fellow NATO member Turkey to boost its air defenses amid the escalating war in neighboring Syria.
The two Dutch batteries are part of a NATO contingent of Patriot missiles that intercept incoming ballistic missiles. Two U.S. and two German batteries are also being deployed to other parts of southern Turkey. Dutch defense chief Gen. Tom Middendorp said Monday the missiles will remain in Turkey for a year.
The Patriots are being transported by sea to Turkey. They are scheduled to become operational by the end of this month.
By sea? They can't ship by air? Wonder if this is all for show...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/08/2013
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#1
Didn't Turkey just receive a shipment of armored cars?
Target practise at our expense?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/08/2013 1:26
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#2
No, that was Lebanon. They are two different countries.
[An Nahar] Libyan Islamist leader Ahmed Abu Khattala said on Monday that a man was killed and another injured when planting a boom-mobile in a bid to assassinate him.
"One person was killed and another was maimed as they were planting a bomb in my brother's car with the aim of assassinating me," he said of the Sunday night incident.
A security official in Libya's second city Benghazi confirmed saying that "two people were involved in an liquidation attempt against Ahmed Abu Khattala. One was killed and the other maimed."
He added that the men were trying to set a bomb in a car but the device went kaboom! in the process, instantly killing one of the assailants.
The blast destroyed two vehicles, a white pick up truck in which the perpetrators reportedly arrived and a black jeep, an Agence La Belle France Presse photographer said.
Abu Khattala is one of the accused in the case of General Abdel Fatah Younes, who was killed in July 2011 along with two companions in murky circumstances. Their bodies were found in the outskirts of Benghazi.
U.S. media reports have also implicated him in the deadly September 11, 2012 assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
But, in an October interview with AFP, the Islamist leader denied any role in the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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[Dawn] An engineer was killed while three other people including a police official sustained injuries in a blast at Quetta's Sariab Road on Monday evening.
According to police, the dear departed had been identified as Nazir Ahmed Qambarani, Sub Engineer of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Development Authority (BDA) and injured as Abdul Salam Bangulzai, Sajjad Ahmed Raisani and Assistant Sub Inspector of Police Aftab Ahmed Parkani.
The injured were rushed to hospital where their condition is stable.
Bomb disposal squad and law enforcement officials reach the site and cordoned off the area.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, Harrigan had lost the feeling in his legs from the cold. I told 'em they'd never take me alive, he thought. I was right!... three more people were killed and another three were maimed in different incidents of firing in various parts of the Balochistan capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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[An Nahar] U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said Monday that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... 's speech setting out his terms for peace would not help end "the terrible suffering" of the Syrian people.
"The secretary general was disappointed that the speech by President Bashir al-Assad on January 6 does not contribute to a solution that could end the terrible suffering of the Syrian people," said U.N. front man Martin Nesirky.
Ban and U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Lakhdar Brahimi believe there has to be a "political transition that includes the establishment of a transitional government and the holding of free and fair elections under the auspices of the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... ," Nesirky added.
After the latest Assad rebuff to his peace efforts, Brahimi will on Tuesday hold talks with Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, whose country has been the only backer of Assad's speech to the nation on Sunday.
Assad called for dialogue with opposition elements he deems acceptable while vowing to stand fast against opponents he branded as foreign backed "terrorists". The speech has been widely condemned, with the United States calling it "detached from reality".
"What the Syrian people desperately need at this time are real solutions to the crisis that is tearing their nation apart," Ban said through his front man.
The U.N. leader criticized Assad for having "rejected the most important element" of a June 30 road-map agreed by the main powers in Geneva which called for a political transition with the establishment of a transitional governing body.
"The United Nations remains committed to do its utmost, in cooperation with other partners, to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people inside and outside Syria," the front man said.
"The United Nations will also continue to help the people of Syria fulfill their legitimate aspirations for peace, dignity, freedom, justice and democracy in a united and sovereign Syria."
Ban reaffirmed that there could not be a military solution to the 22-month old war and added that it was "critically urgent" for the international community to help the Syrian people build "a new and democratic Syria."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/08/2013
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Ynet] Some 50,000 Hezbollah members have recently crossed the border from 
Wazoo
cycle of violence
[An Nahar] A top aide to President 
[An Nahar] Bulgarian officials have removed a senior investigator from a probe into a tourist bus 
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
Orakzai Agency
[FREEBEACON] 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Dawn] At least two security personnel were killed Monday when a bomb 
[Dawn] Two young men were found 
[Xinhua] As Egypt's talks with International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a 4.8 billion U.S. dollars loan are set to resume on Monday, many consider the approval of the loan relied on Egyptian government's ability to overcome the worsening economic crisis and fulfill financial obligations.
[KVIA] LAS CRUCES, N.M. - A Las Cruces arborist is in critical condition after he was severely shocked by a power line.
[An Nahar] Scientists and broadcasters said Monday they have captured footage of an elusive giant squid up to eight meters (26 feet) long that roams the depths of the Pacific Ocean.
[An Nahar] Police were carrying out forensic tests Monday after a young girl found what is believed to be a human head washed up on an Australian beach in a plastic bag.
The United Nations said Monday it was "disappointed" by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's speech because it rejected a political solution to the conflict, dpa reported.
Guards thought there was something suspicious about a little white cat slipping through a prison gate in northeastern Brazil. 
[An Nahar] Syria's state media said Monday that government troops repulsed a rebel attack on a police school in the northern city of Aleppo, one day after 
[An Nahar] Libyan Islamist leader Ahmed Abu Khattala said on Monday that a man was killed and another injured when planting a 
