Hi there, !
Today Fri 01/25/2013 Thu 01/24/2013 Wed 01/23/2013 Tue 01/22/2013 Mon 01/21/2013 Sun 01/20/2013 Sat 01/19/2013 Archives
Rantburg
531687 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 70 articles and 194 comments as of 10:05.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Main Page
French seize control of Diabaly, Douentza
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
19:21 3 23:47 JosephMendiola []
18:54 1 20:02 JosephMendiola [] 
18:07 0 []
18:00 1 18:11 swksvolFF []
17:53 1 00:12 JosephMendiola [2]
17:27 4 21:55 tu3031 []
17:04 0 []
16:24 10 22:11 SteveS []
16:18 13 23:57 Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division []
15:54 0 []
15:25 4 19:22 Uncle Phester [] 
14:29 1 16:06 lord garth []
14:10 1 19:01 JosephMendiola []
13:58 11 21:08 JosephMendiola [1] 
12:35 1 14:25 Rob Crawford []
10:53 0 []
10:07 8 23:32 Zhang Fei []
09:22 2 19:09 Raider [2]
09:20 1 12:23 Procopius2K []
05:52 5 16:26 Angairong Spaiger6091 []
04:11 0 []
03:01 13 20:05 Zhang Fei []
02:49 7 19:47 Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division []
02:33 2 09:32 gromky []
00:30 12 22:01 USN,Ret. []
00:00 1 01:47 Besoeker []
00:00 1 21:21 Northern Cousin []
00:00 0 []
00:00 8 20:00 Glenmore [] 
00:00 0 []
00:00 13 19:16 Zhang Fei [1]
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 4 18:50 swksvolFF []
00:00 4 10:50 bman []
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 0 []
00:00 2 15:49 Shipman []
00:00 0 []
00:00 2 19:43 lotp []
00:00 0 []
00:00 1 05:45 Glosh Smith8260 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 2 21:19 Pappy []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 1 00:29 JosephMendiola []
00:00 3 21:31 Northern Cousin []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 6 23:46 JosephMendiola []
00:00 7 16:28 Iblis []
00:00 1 06:57 Besoeker []
00:00 7 19:54 SteveS []
00:00 23 22:03 rjschwarz [1]
00:00 7 21:41 tu3031 []
Afghanistan
General John Allen cleared over 'inappropriate' emails
The top US general in Afghanistan, General John Allen has been cleared of misconduct by the Pentagon for emails sent to Florida socialite Jill Kelley.

His nomination to Nato commander in Europe had been put on hold amid reports the emails were inappropriate.

Gen Allen is due to relinquish command of his Afghanistan post in February.

Harassment complaints by Mrs Kelley led the FBI to unmask an affair between CIA chief David Petraeus and his biographer. He later resigned.

Defence officials told the Associated Press that the White House had not decided whether to go forward with Gen Allen's nomination in Europe.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said the defence department "was pleased to learn that allegations of professional misconduct were not substantiated".
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 19:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perhaps he used the 'Manti Te'o' defense.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 19:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Nah, he agreed to be interviewed by Oprah next month.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/22/2013 21:22 Comments || Top||

#3  The Zipper held.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 23:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
LGBT Obama Inauguration Reactions: 'Pure Euphoria'
During the Inauguration, Meghan Stabler, a transwoman and a member of the Board of Directors for the Human Rights Campaign, was standing on the northwest side of the Capitol steps with a bunch of gay and lesbian people. "We were all waiting for the word gay to come up, and then we heard Stonewall and a few of us had tears in our eyes," Stabler said on Tuesday, her voice breaking up again recalling the moment. "Then we heard gay," she added, "and we just lost it."
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 18:54 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Loved it when FLOTUS Michelle dissed poor ole' GOP Fascist = mere or lowly "Limited/Liberal Communist" John Boehner, i.e. "Thank you for supporting my Husband + Big Govt + "Spend, Spend Spend", etc. but we've decided to purge or destroy your Stupid-for-Trusting-Us RINO Menshevik Ass anyway - get out + stay out while you're Chicken Little PCorrect ass is still alive to do so".

The DemoLeft + anti-US Globalists are riding high - they're getting or achieving everything they want be it domestically or as per anti-US OWG-NWO "Globalism", + ARE DOING SO WID THE HELP OF MANY MANY ELECTION-SCARED OR SPECIAL INTEREST RINO-CINO GOP-RIGHT POLITICOS.

NOT UNLIKE POTUS WILSON + UK PM CHAMBERLAIN, THE WORLD WARS HAPPENED ANYWAY NO MATTER THE ORAL OR WRITTEN PROMISES + AGREEMENTS MADE.

The anti-Tsar Bolsheviks are gonna purge or eliminate the anti-Tsar Mensheviks, the Commies the Fascists, the Globalist-Socialists the Globalist-Nationalists, the Totalitarians the Authoritarians, .....etc.

OWG NAU starting in 2015, hence 2014 [State(s) secession?] as dependent on what occurs in 2013 [US-World Econ, China, Iran].

[1960's = 1980's MTV JANET JACKSON'S "1814" here].

SSSSSSSHHHHHH, DON'T TELL MADONNA!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 20:02 Comments || Top||


Britain
Al Qaeda bomb plot gangs were handed £30m in legal aid to fund their defence
Trial of attempted July 21 bombers cost taxpayers £7.1million in legal aid
Terrorists who plotted to blow up planes given £12.2million to fund defence
Justice Secretary plans to hire junior lawyers to cut down on costs


Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 18:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Feeding pork to cats
The tins of cat food include pork. Is it permissible to buy them for cats?

Praise be to Allaah.

Praise be to Allaah. We put this question to Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen, may Allaah preserve him, who answered as follows:

If you buy the tins, then it is not permissible, because it is not permissible to pay for pork and buy it. But if a person finds it by chance and feeds it to his cat, then there is nothing wrong with that. And Allaah knows best
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 18:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dear Allaah,
I was once nearby a western infidel who stated, "It is raining cats and dogs." Does this mean that I am being punished, or can I just avoid the dog rain drops and allow only the cat drops to feed my soul's oasis?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/22/2013 18:11 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Netanyahu's Likud party wins slim majority
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing party alliance have won a narrow majority in parliamentary elections. His Likud-Beteinu grouping has won 31 seats in the 120-seat parliament.

The right-wing faction received the most votes in Tuesday's election, but was weakened by a strong turnout for the centrist Yesh Atid, according to television exit polls.

Figures released by Israel's three main television stations showed that Netanyahu's Likud-Beteinu appeared to have 31 seats in the 120-seat Knesset - 11 fewer than the 42 they had in the previous parliament.

In a victory speech, he said that preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power was to be the priority of any new government he will aim to form.

"The government we build will be based on three main principles. First of all, military strength in the face of the big challenges we face. The first challenge was and remains preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons."

The secular Yesh Atid followed with 18-19 seats, the center-right Labor party with 17 and the far-right religious nationalist Jewish Home with 12.

Once results are finalized, Netanyahu will be on course to secure a third term in office.

Despite the win, Netanyahu's party still faces the uphill battle of pulling together 61 members of parliament to form a majority coalition.
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 17:53 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  PM-Reelect Benji is repor proclaiming that he will prioritize Iran not getting nukes.

Just as in NE Asia vee China, POTUS Bammer = USA stands between a rock + hard place.

Both Russia + China have warned the US + Israel NOT to unilaterally attack Iran, + the latter has said that any attack by Israel will treated both as approved by the US = US-NATO, as well as an attack by the USA itself, either of which invites "justified" Iranian military retaliation + Iran-sponsored TerrorOPs agz the US-Israel + Allied. IFF THE BAMMER DOES NOT ATTACK IRAN, HE + USA WILL LOSE ADMIN + GEOPOL CREDIBILITY WID BOTH ISRAEL + ANTI-IRAN/SHIA SUNNI MUSLIM STATES [KSA, etal. = also read, SUNNI OIL STATES = OPEC, APEC].

US-VS-RUSSIA-N-CHINA NUCLEAR CONFRONTATION OER IRAN, VERSIES LOSS OF US CREDIBILITY WID REGIONAL MUSLIM + NON-MUSLIM ALLIES.

Iff Iran = China = does NOT back down, GOOD FOR ANTI-US OWG-NWO + ANTI-US GLOBIES; iff Iran concedes or makes compromise, BAD FOR ANTI-US OWG-NWO + ANTI-US GLOBIES.

2014 = US State-Local Secession as per Events, Outcome of 2013 = YEAR OF "NATIONALISM'S" + "SOLE SOVEREIGNTY'S" GREAT SURVIVAL; OR THE YEAR OF SAME + FREE AMERICA'S END.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/23/2013 0:12 Comments || Top||


Europe
Italy: Paki Asylum Seeker Attacks Italian Girlfriend Because She Takes Name of Allah in Vain
It happened in Ragusa, in Sicily, a city classified as part of global heritage by UNESCO thanks to its baroque architecture, and which distinguished itself especially in history by chasing out the Arab occupiers in 1090, with the aid, according to legend, of Saint George descended from the sky.

On Wednesday night, a woman, described by local journalists as "a 32-year-old Ragusan" received a visit in her home from her "fiancé", Amran Jhah Syed Ali, a 23-year-old unemployed Pakistani asylum seeker. The Paki had arrived with a friend from Chad to watch a film on the television. They took advantage of the opportunity to empty a bottle of vodka between them.

This touching scene of multi-ethnic fraternisation was brutally interrupted when the Italian woman pronounced the name of Allah in vain. Her "fiancé" then attacked her after having broken the vodka bottle in fury. The Chadean, who tried to calm him down, was injured in the hand.
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 17:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All I said was "that halibut was good enough for Jehovah Allah"
Posted by: flash91 || 01/22/2013 18:17 Comments || Top||

#2  To be fair, she was gurgling the vodka.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/22/2013 18:36 Comments || Top||

#3  ship his ignorant unemployed ass BACK
Posted by: Frank G || 01/22/2013 20:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Hey, an unemployed, asylum seeking, drunken Pakistani Muslim fanatic who beats wimmen.
Looks like ya picked a winner, hon...
NO ASYLUM FOR YOU! TWENTY...NO, THIRTY YEARS!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/22/2013 21:55 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Dr Susan Gratia-Hupp - Survivor of the 1991 Kileen TX Lubys Shooting Massacre
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 17:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
The car that runs on air: Peugeot Citroen unveil new 117mpg hybrid
Peugeot Citroen invents technology for air car ready for the market by 2016
'Hybrid Air' engine system runs on petrol and air, instead of electricity
Company predicts 'Hybrid Air' to achieve 117 miles per gallon by 2020

Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 16:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...and it's as ugly as I thought it would be.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/22/2013 16:47 Comments || Top||

#2  That one is tu3031, but
The revolutionary system will be able to be installed on any normal family car without altering its external shape or size or reducing the boot size, provided the spare wheel is not stored there.

Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 16:59 Comments || Top||

#3  runs on gasoline

uses compressed air for energy storage

similar systems have been tried in the US- a major problem is that to avoid rupture of the containment the compressed air vessel ends up with a lot of steel and thus adds weight to the
vehicle
Posted by: lord garth || 01/22/2013 17:37 Comments || Top||

#4  What's the difference?
The govt will just raise the gas tax up to $40 a gallon if we cut our usage down 90%.

It will still cost just as much to drive as it ever did, maybe more with the GPS mileage unit on your dash billing you for every mile you drive.
They are already crying about collecting less taxes as fuel efficiency improves.
Posted by: Sheart Poodle7011 || 01/22/2013 17:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Until the gov reduces safety standards cars will remain heavy and gas mileage will be a challenge.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 01/22/2013 18:05 Comments || Top||

#6  I was looking for some psi ratings as well; because the sudden rupture of a highly pressurized gas storage is very exciting.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/22/2013 18:07 Comments || Top||

#7  You certainly have a way with words, #6 swksvolFF. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 01/22/2013 19:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Exciting to watch, maybe. Not so much if you're the one riding the torpedo.
Posted by: gorb || 01/22/2013 21:02 Comments || Top||

#9  They wanted to use lithium-ion batteries but Boeing bought them all.
(at fire sale prices)
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 01/22/2013 22:00 Comments || Top||

#10  (at fire sale prices)

Ouch! That one stings.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/22/2013 22:11 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
James Taylor: Let’s sacrifice a little liberty for safety
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/22/2013 16:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty. - Benjamin Franklin
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/22/2013 16:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Of course, he doesn't mean him...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/22/2013 17:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Thing is, when agents of a foreign power came to the US and murdered thousands of people in the span of a couple hours, we couldn't go ten minutes without hearing that Franklin quote.

But TWO nutjobs shoot 50 people over a 6 month period and the people who were Franklin devotees THEN are suddenly eager to apply White Out to the Constitution.

Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/22/2013 17:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Put him on "The List".


Off to the FEMA camp with you James Taylor!
Posted by: Sheart Poodle7011 || 01/22/2013 17:53 Comments || Top||

#5  When the Founding Fathers wrote the 1st Ammendment, they had no idea mockingbird would be created.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/22/2013 18:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Hell No!
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/22/2013 18:40 Comments || Top||

#7  "Hell No" again to James Taylor. He needs to read a little American history.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/22/2013 18:42 Comments || Top||

#8  Yokay, I'll say it, YO JAMES - YOU FIRST!?

Unless I've missed something, UTAH SHERIFFS [also read, MORMONS] BELIEVE THAT PRIVATE GUN OWNERSHIP + POSSESSION IS THE CRUCIBLE = FINAL ARBITER IN THEIR PERSONAL + COLLECTIVE SELF-DEFENSE FROM HISTORICAL, OFTEN VIOLENT + REPRESSIVE A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N ANTI-MORMONISM.

And iff these Utahns = Mormons have done their homework, they may already know that Commie-Socialists only use alternative groups to help atain political power, + THAT ONCE IN TOTAL POWER THEIR BELOVED COMMIE-SOCIALIST IDEO + COMMAND ECONOMY SAYS TO REMOVE, PURGE, OR OTHERWISE GET RID OF THEIR ALTERNATIVE ALLIES DUE TO THE THE VERY SAME OF SCARCE DOLLARS THEY USE TO JUSTIFY + EXPAND BIG GOVT + WELFARE-NANNY STATE, TOWARDS THE FUTURE POLICE-ARMY STATE.

IOW, PRO-GUN CONTROL/BAN LEFTY MINORITY GROUPS ARE ONLY BUYING THE PROVERBIAL ROPE THEIR BELOVED BIG GOVT + SOCIALISM IN FUTURE WILL USE TO HANG THEM WITH.

Sowing + watering the Seeds of their own Destruction.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 19:19 Comments || Top||

#9  You can "sacrifice" all your liberty you want to, Jimmy.

Keep your goddam hands off my liberty.

Fool.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/22/2013 19:20 Comments || Top||

#10  Then move to Russia, James.
Posted by: gorb || 01/22/2013 21:03 Comments || Top||

#11  I think Carly Simon called it a 'restraining order'.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/22/2013 21:23 Comments || Top||

#12  You first Pr0zac boy...
Posted by: badanov || 01/22/2013 21:57 Comments || Top||

#13  Let's sacrifice some liberals for freedom instead.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 01/22/2013 23:57 Comments || Top||


Britain
Sarkozy's plans 'to dodge new 75% French tax rate by moving to London with wife Carla
setting up £1bn private equity fund
Fraud police found details of move and business plan in raid on home
Sarkozy is under investigation for corruption in France
He will be latest Frenchman to escape potential top French tax rate of 75%
Couple would become London's most high profile Gallic celebrities
Sarkozy would hope for fund support from French entrepreneur Alain Minc


Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 15:54 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Let elderly people 'hurry up and die', says Japanese minister
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/22/2013 15:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's called rationing. And since there is only so much the very shrinking work force can pay....
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/22/2013 16:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Wew... Glad I'm still tubeless.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 16:17 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll believe the Japanese government is serious about this when they issue single shot pistols engraved with "Do your duty" to each Japanese elder.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/22/2013 16:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Coming soon to a country near you.....
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 01/22/2013 19:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Obama’s CIA Pick and His Romance with Islam
What do we know about Brennan? He held several important posts in the CIA, including station chief in Saudi Arabia from 1996-99. His academic background includes the study of Arabic and Arab culture; he received a B.A. in political science from Fordham University, including a year abroad at the American University in Cairo, and an M.A. in Government specializing in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. He speaks Arabic ‘fluently.’

Now there is nothing wrong with having this kind of background. After all, insofar as the threat of terrorism is a major concern, and the fact that almost all terrorism today emanates from the Arab and Muslim world, the CIA director can’t know too much about it.

But on the other hand, there is the phenomenon of the ‘Arabist’ — the Westerner who studies Arabic and is so taken by the culture that he adopts the Arab worldview and politics. T. E. Lawrence is probably the most well-known, but contemporary examples abound (for example, the academic Juan Cole).
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 14:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Brennan has worked for Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama. He probably has bought into the ROP narrative to the same extent as his bosses.

What's interesting is that he is essentially pro 'enhanced interrogation' and 'rendition' and very pro drone warfare. It is the lefties that should be on his case.
Posted by: lord garth || 01/22/2013 16:06 Comments || Top||


Europe
Paris murder suspect 'has no links with PKK'
Doubts emerged today about the background and motives of a man accused of the murder of three Kurdish separatists in Paris two weeks ago.

French police believe that the murder could have been provoked by internal rivalries within the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is fighting for a separate Kurdish state in south eastern Turkey.

But the uncle of the suspect and Kurdish leaders said today that Omer Guney, 31, was not a Kurd and had no direct connection with the PKK. Kurdish separatists claimed that Mr Guney, who was acting as driver for one of the dead women, might have been a mole working for an extreme Turkish nationalist group.

Mr Guney’s uncle, Zekai Guney, said: “Neither he, nor any of us, have the slightest sympathy for (the PKK)… My nephew is sick, He has a tumour on the brain. He can’t remember what he is doing from one hour to the next,” he told the Turkish language version of CNN.

Turkish community leaders in the Paris said that Mr Guney had joined one of their associations over a year ago. They said that he was ethnically Turkish, not Kurdish, and had no connection with the PKK.

Mr Guney was formally accused on Monday of “murder in association with a terrorist organisation”. French investigators say that he may not have been the only person involved but there is “no shadow of doubt” that he was involved.
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 14:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Erdogan is demanding to know the details of the relationship between Hollande + the alleged PKK Babes, NOT the Babes' killer.

just sayin.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 19:01 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Presidential inauguration: Obama throws down challenge to Republican right
President's uncompromising inauguration address sets out liberal agenda for second term - gun control, climate change, immigration reform and gay rights - as he also vows to protect America's social safety net.

His left hand barely removed from the two Bibles chosen for his ceremonial swearing-in, Barack Obama used his second inaugural address boldly to urge his fellow citizens to make the most of the new hour - the end of two wars and the start of an economic recovery - to honour a shared vision of prosperity, peace and equality.

"My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it, so long as we seize it together," Obama asserted in a speech that echoed the beliefs he campaigned on last year, ranging from protecting the poor and disadvantaged to gay marriage, from healthcare and immigration reform to climate change.

As such, he threw down the gauntlet to Republicans - there will be no backing down from the principles he believes in.
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 13:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So the rest of the middle class will be decimated and the already wealthy will be catapulted to never before dreamed of wealth. The takers will forever outnumber the makers and have now discovered how to simply vote themselves more benefits.
Four more of the same, nothing to see here.
Posted by: Sheart Poodle7011 || 01/22/2013 14:21 Comments || Top||

#2  So the rest of the middle class will be decimated and the already wealthy will be catapulted to never before dreamed of wealth. The takers will forever outnumber the makers and have now discovered how to simply vote themselves more benefits.
Four more of the same, nothing to see here.
Posted by: Sheart Poodle7011 || 01/22/2013 14:22 Comments || Top||

#3  But, but, but that was the PLAN !
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 14:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Damn! I missed Obama's screed. I got interested in a show, "How It's Made", and learned all about making Corn Flakes and Pitted Prunes.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/22/2013 15:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Washingtonian's Sophie Gilbert writes, "To press seated just below the podium, in front of the 'President's Own' Marine Corps Band, it was evident that the band wasn't actually playing during the song—even though band director Colonel Michael J. Colburn was conducting energetically and the band members mimicked blowing into their instruments". Appears Beyonce Lip-Sync the Star-Spangled Banner?"

Fitting and appropriate I'd say. A fake performance all around.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 15:11 Comments || Top||

#6  "My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it, so long as we seize it together,"

All this moment seizing sounds a lot like inappropriate touching.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/22/2013 15:37 Comments || Top||

#7  My fellow Americans, we who were made for such a moment, will now seize whatever we can, as much as we can, while we can, until the system seizes up!
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/22/2013 15:41 Comments || Top||

#8  Ignore. Mock. Get on with business.

No other response is needed or appropriate.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/22/2013 16:29 Comments || Top||

#9  Obama: God Commanded Us To Fight Global Warming…
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 17:18 Comments || Top||

#10  Bite me, Barry.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/22/2013 17:29 Comments || Top||

#11  Taken from the "LEFTIST/LIBERAL MANIFESTO", as ascribed per FOX NEWS + FOX Pundits this Guam AM.

Iff there was any doubts about the Bammer being Far Left, Leftist-Radicalist, or Leftist/Commie-Anarchist, IT ENDED TODAY VEE HIS OWN REELEX INAUGAURAL SPEECH.

FNC'S "THE FIVE" Segment > FEISTY ANDREA = Didn't get the entire segment, but IIUC Andrea argued that the Bammer's speech IHRO showed his covert but real personal desire for International or States-Diplomatic
"Collectivism" + State-led, State-decided, State-controlled/Managed EQUAL OUTCOMES IRREGARDLESS OF THE CAUSES OR MERITS. THE GOVT- STATE, + ONLY THE GOVT-STATE, NOT THE PEOPLE OR THE VOTERS OR INDIVIDUALS OR FREE MARKET FORCES, ETC. MUST CHOOSE + DECIDE + CONTROL + MODIFY???

There is No God, Life, or Existence save for the State.

US CONSTITUTION???

POTUS Billary hinted at it, but was too PCorrect to affirm it, POTUS BAmmer has now publicly semi-affirmed 1990's "This is Amerika, NOT America".

2017-2025 > POTUS 3rd, 4th, ???-Termer BARACK "DON'T CALL ME FDR OR STALIN" OBAMA OR OTHER PRO-OWG, NAU ANTI-US GLOBALIST-ANARCHIST POTUS SUCCESSOR = D *** NG IT, WHAT PART OF "THIS IS AMERIKA, NOT AMERICA" DID WE ONCE AGAIN N-O-T UNDERSTAND"!

The Bammer, DemoLeft, LeftMedias + anti-US Globies are NOT going to give the GOP-Right any chance to turn the clock back towards anti-Socialist, anti-OWG/Globalism, "Nationalist/Sole Sovereign" US in 2016 or after Jan 2017.

Lest we fergit, 1990's CLINTONISM > "THE US-N-ONLY-THE US MUST BE RESTRAINED AND CONTROLLED ..... THE US-N-ONLY-THE-US MUST ACCEPT OWG + SOCIALISM, OR THE US WILL BE DESTROYED".

And thus Virgina, we learn once again the Left likes Gun Control - EITHER NO ONE HAS GUNS, OR SSSSHHHHH .....CCCCCC ONLY THE LEFT HAS GUNS.

[ROSIE "NO ONE CAN HAVE A GUN UNLESS THEY'RE A FAMOUS HOLLYWEIRD CELEBRITY LIKE ME " O'DONNELL here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 21:08 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Some of the loons reponsible for our ME oil and energy dependency
Seven affiliated with the RAMPS campaign (Radical Action for Mountain Peoples’ Survival), MORE (Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment) and Mountain Justice are locked down to a 500-pound small potted tree in Arch Coal’s third-floor headquarters while a larger group is in the lobby performing a song and dance. Additionally, a helium balloon banner with the message “John Eaves Your Coal Company Kills”, directed at the Arch Coal CEO was released in at the Arch Coal headquarters.

Seven protesters locked down outside the corporate office of Arch Coal.

“We’re here to halt Arch’s operations for as long as we can. These coal corporations do not answer to communities, they only consume them. We’re here to resist their unchecked power,” explained Margaret Fetzer, one of the protestors.

Arch Coal, the second largest coal company in the U.S., operates strip mines in Appalachia and in other U.S. coal basins. Strip mining is an acutely destructive and toxic method of mining coal, and resource extraction disproportionately impacts marginalized communities.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 12:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Drag the potted tree out into the parking lot and "water" it.

The ones not handcuffed to the tree can be herded out with the help of a dozen or so 12-gauges.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/22/2013 14:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Chuck Norris: Israel: America’s Model for Reducing Violent Crime
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 10:53 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
US Agrees to help French fly troops to Mali
That didn't take long.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 10:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Parachutes extra.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/22/2013 11:26 Comments || Top||

#2  I hope they're subcontracting to Spirit
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 01/22/2013 11:43 Comments || Top||

#3  But do we agree to pull them out after shit goes south and they are under fire?
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/22/2013 15:16 Comments || Top||

#4  As I understand it, regional militias like the French army (yeah, that's mean!) may be capable fighters but lack the airlift to go anywhere in force outside the home country. Hence the reliance on Uncle Sugar. Maybe someone who actually knows can comment.

And just to be clear, major props to the French for stepping up and trying to do something about the rotten nonsense going on in northern Africa.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/22/2013 15:33 Comments || Top||

#5  SteveS, that pretty much describes all of Europe's fighting force.

Most of them are really good, they just can't get anywhere without the US Air Force. Hold over from the NATO/WARSAW Pact days. The US agreed to supply air transport/supply and the other countries beefed their military up on the ground as much as they could. Now it is kinda hurting them and they can't afford to buy extra aviation transportation.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/22/2013 16:14 Comments || Top||

#6  Once violent Jihad begins in NATO-EU, widout the Royal Navy the French Foreign Legion, Gendarmes, + Elites will have only the wily dastardly finicky Propellers of the FNS CV CHARLES DE GAULLE to save their collective Menshevik butts in case the Theo-Bolshevik Jihadis overrun the country or region like Rommel + 7th Panzer.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 18:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Not to belittle the French effort, I have to wonder where is the mighty EADS ( Airbus military) A400M transport? according to the website (airbusmilitary.com) there are 179 on order. pre-production versions are flying.
if a real war developed, i fear airlift capabilities would be a huge shortfall; our C-17's can't do it all, the -141's are all gone ( or soon will be) and the C-5's are too few as well.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 01/22/2013 22:53 Comments || Top||

#8  As I understand it, regional militias like the French army (yeah, that's mean!) may be capable fighters but lack the airlift to go anywhere in force outside the home country.

Cheap bastards could always charter passenger aircraft. Basically, their stance is that Uncle will provide.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/22/2013 23:32 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon nabs 'high-paid spy for Israel'
[Ynet] Lebanese army arrests local man who was paid $600,000 to pass on intel on Hezbollah and military to the Mossad, Al-Manar TV reports

The Lebanese army has tossed in the calaboose
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
a citizen suspected of collaborating with Israel, the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV reported on Monday.

Ali Taufiq Yari, a former member of the Baalbek City Council, was branded as the highest paid spy to date, as he was said to have received $600,000 for his service to the Jewish state.

According to the report, Yari began working with Israel's Mossad in 1990, and had undergone intelligence training that taught him to use invisible ink, concealed radio devices and other means of communication.

Various reports in Leb have claimed that several Israeli spy rings have been uncovered in recent years, including a major one that consisted of dozens of agents. Israeli espionage equipment was also periodically "exposed" in the country.

According to Monday's report, Yari had visited Israel more than once using a fake Paleostinian passport. The alleged spy was also said to have travelled to Europe and Asia to meet with his Israeli handlers.

He purportedly provided Israel with intelligence on Hezbollah hubs and its communication network. He further reported on the Lebanese army and top members in the Shiite Amal movement.

The significant information he managed to pass on to Israeli intelligence officials during the Second Leb War prompted the Mossad to hold a ceremony in his honor, the report said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/22/2013 09:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We'll be sending you some new leads g(r)om. Box up the contact reports, you know where to drop them off.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 9:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Heaven help these people. He should have kept a loaded revolver in the draw of his desk.
Posted by: Raider || 01/22/2013 19:09 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
VP candidate Paul Ryan endures classless booing at inauguration
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 09:20 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, when the debt bomb results revealed, Maury will have to say "he's not the father".
Posted by: Procopius2K || 01/22/2013 12:23 Comments || Top||


Africa North
What Every American Should Know About Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood – Lecture
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 05:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Diversity in the extreme possibly, but the presence of MB members within the current administration is no mere coincidence.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 7:13 Comments || Top||

#2  "All our [American] most highly credentialed experts think they're pragmatic moderates."?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/22/2013 8:21 Comments || Top||

#3  The Global Caliphate marches on g(r)om.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 8:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Not where I live, Besoeker.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/22/2013 9:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Yeah but, zero still gives them $2.6B in aid per year. STOP THE INSANITY!
Posted by: Angairong Spaiger6091 || 01/22/2013 16:26 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Mali conflict: Rewriting the UN's best made plans
It took La Belle France the better part of a year to craft a UN-backed plan for dealing with the Islamist takeover of northern Mali that would avoid a French military intervention.

It took only a few hours to turn that project on its head.

The lightening deployment of French troops to stop an unexpected Islamist offensive left UN diplomats scrambling for answers and analysts scratching their heads.

"This is an amazing example of how a diplomatic process at the UN can take on a life of its own without any real reference to what's happening on the ground"
"I think this is an amazing example of how a diplomatic process at the UN can take on a life of its own without any real reference to what's happening on the ground," says Richard Gowan of the New York University's Center on International Co-operation, who followed the talks closely.

The UN resolution outlines a months-long process of national reconciliation between the authorities in the capital Bamako and Malian Tuareg rebels in the north who cut ties with al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

...preparing it to join an African intervention force to take back the north from the extremists who now control it, sometime around September...
In parallel, European military trainers were tasked with rebuilding the Malian army - which collapsed in the wake of the northern rebellion last year - preparing it to join an African intervention force to take back the north from the Islamist bully boyz who now control it, sometime around September.

Despite some scepticism from the Americans, the resolution passed unanimously in December.

But now, admits one Security Council diplomat, "some of the assumptions will have to be rethought".

But now, admits one Security Council diplomat, "all some of the assumptions will have to be rethought
Key among those is the role of the Malian army, which to the alarm of diplomats here evaporated last week in the face of the advancing beturbanned fascisti.

Some Malian soldiers have since rallied to fight with the French, but the question is whether these can form the core of a reformed army, or whether "we move over and have the Africans in the lead rather than the reverse," said the diplomat.

Another flaw was that the initial assessment of the gangs underestimated their capability as what a senior French diplomat called a "well armed, equipped, trained and determined" force, which apparently tried to hold ground in terrain usually defined by skirmishes and ambushes.

Even the political process was miscalculated.

The idea was to split the Tuareg rebels from foreign terrorist groups by addressing the political and economic grievances that had fuelled their rebellion, with the suggestion that the Islamists amongst the Tuareg, the Ansar Dine, would be willing to negotiate.

"The big question was about Ansar Dine," said another Security Council diplomat.

"The Algerians were saying it was possible to negotiate with them... so it was a shock to Algiers that Ansar Dine was part of the offensive."
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 04:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Havelock: Who lost Afghanistan?
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 03:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who Cares.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/22/2013 4:45 Comments || Top||

#2  The question assumes it was ever ours in the first place.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 01/22/2013 5:38 Comments || Top||

#3  "Losing" pediculosis pubis merits discreet celebration, but more importantly future.... CAUTION !
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 6:33 Comments || Top||

#4  To RedNeck Jim

Who cares?

You. You when radical Islam gains still more impetus. You when an American city will dissolve into a nuclear mushroom.
Posted by: JFM || 01/22/2013 7:45 Comments || Top||

#5  It's sort of a Versailles Treaty, an unfinished mess that kicks the can down the road. The whole 'nation building' crock needs to be exorcised from the play book till its understood the enemy has been completely beaten (and acts accordingly) or has been isolated to specific geographic parameters from which it can be effectively contained. The next best option is to employ others to keep the miscreants so busy staying alive that they have no time to meddle in others' affairs.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/22/2013 9:09 Comments || Top||

#6  DOS and the CIA fr allowing that corrupt fast food puppet to get elected.

Between Obumble and Karsai, not much chance any kind of coherent plan would get traction.

Otherwise the only solution would be to do the Babylonian thing and export all of the locals and resettle with loyal subjects...of course if you can find loyals that would go there except at the point of a gun.

There are some good lessons on solidifying your military advantage in ancient history, too bad no one wants to look much past WWI. Tiglath Pilester, Von Moltke, and Patton are all you need to know about solving Afghanistan.

The key lesson is terror works both ways and until we understand you can't make nice and win with stupid ROE and understanding, we'll never win in that awful rock heap.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 01/22/2013 10:35 Comments || Top||

#7  About nation building. Both in Germany and Japan the Allies forced a change of software: they ensured Nazism and the "Deutechland über alles in der Welt" for Germany, and the cult to the Emperor and the "spirit of Yamato" would be cast into darkness. In Afghanistan the West has helped to rebuild mosques and to has allowed its aid money to be squandered in Saudi Arabia. About as stupid as as if the Allies had paid for printing and shipping a copy of Mein Kampf to every post-WWII German.
Posted by: JFM || 01/22/2013 10:46 Comments || Top||

#8  Our involvement in Afghanistan was (I say again was) important to the Champ for at least two or three very politically motivated reasons:

1. It was the "GOOD war" vs President Bush's bad war in Iraq.

2. It was a launch platform for the kill/capture of Ben Laden.

3. Champ was and remains deeply enamored with the power and decision making process extended him via persistent surveillance and "Drone Zapping". Of all the possible motivations, this one concerns me most.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 11:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Whatever idiot has decided Afghans need democracy.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/22/2013 15:59 Comments || Top||

#10  You and I both "need" 4 bedroom, seaside villas in Rishon Lezion. But I simply don't see it happening.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 16:12 Comments || Top||

#11  Muhammad Ali Jinnah

What do I win?
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/22/2013 17:34 Comments || Top||

#12  The crucially important question is how long after the US and NATO forces leave before Karzai et al are in Switzerland and how many billions they have on deposit there. I seem to recall the last go around at a major power leaving had a Karzai-like dope swinging from a lamp post about 6 months in...Perhaps a Rantburg Poll might add some interest.

Buehler...Buehler...
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 01/22/2013 18:54 Comments || Top||

#13  I seem to recall the last go around at a major power leaving had a Karzai-like dope swinging from a lamp post about 6 months in.

Najibullah was no dope. But he was handicapped by an economy run along Marxist-Leninist lines. He hung on for 3 years after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. Ultimately, he lost because Yeltsin ended Russia's multi-billion dollar annual stipend to the government, even while Pakistan continued to support the mujahideen. Karzai's Afghanistan is more or less a market economy. If we hand him or his successor a few billion dollars a year, he'll hold it together, because Pakistan's economy is such a shambles now, due to the Talibanization of the country's economy, that it really doesn't have that much money to hand to the Taliban.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/22/2013 20:05 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Essay: The other answer to global terrorism
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 02:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh, I was hoping for the Vlad the Impaler option.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 01/22/2013 5:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Sorry, the bowing to the KSA will continue for at least another 4 years.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 7:01 Comments || Top||

#3  "If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to."
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/22/2013 14:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Sibrick, Mugsy, my choice as well. Running for office soon?
Posted by: Angairong Spaiger6091 || 01/22/2013 16:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Environmentalists will fight any clean energy invention because a clean environment is not actually their goal.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 01/22/2013 18:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Having said that Bush should have pushed through a dozen nuke plants in the aftermath of 9/11. Excuse them from the usual environmental paperwork. The things would have been online ling ago and the world would be a better place.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 01/22/2013 18:13 Comments || Top||

#7  No, no public office for me. My wife has vetoed me gaining that sort of power, something about Evil Overlord's being targets and refusing to be the wife of a target like that.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 01/22/2013 19:47 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Resorts to Hangings in Public to Cut Crime
An eerie silence filled the air as a crowd of around 300 gathered Sunday just before sunrise in a Tehran park. They awaited the arrival of two young men who were about to die.

The condemned stood shoulder to shoulder, motionless, in front of two police trucks with two nooses hanging from extendable cranes, about 15 feet high. Black-clad executioners were inspecting the remote controls they would use to hang the men, both in their early 20s, who were convicted of stabbing a man in November and stealing his bag and the equivalent of $20.

From behind a makeshift barrier of scaffolding, the crowd jostled for position. “Let’s move to the other side,” one spectator whispered to his wife, pointing to the spot where Iranian state television cameras had been set up. “I think we will have a better view from there.”

Although every year hundreds of convicts are hanged in Iran, a public hanging in a central park in Tehran is a rare event. Most hangings take place inside prisons, according to Iranian judicial officials and international human rights
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 02:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's a start.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/22/2013 5:38 Comments || Top||

#2  They use the upwards jerk instead of the trapdoor drop.
Posted by: gromky || 01/22/2013 9:32 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Dearbornistan: McDonald's settles lawsuit over Islamic diet rules
McDonald's and one of its franchise owners agreed to pay $700,000 to trial lawyers members of the Muslim community to settle allegations a Detroit-area restaurant falsely advertised its food as being prepared according to Islamic dietary law.

The lawsuit covers anyone who bought the halal-advertised products from the Ford Road restaurant and another Dearborn McDonald's with a different owner between September 2005 and last Friday. Since that would be impossible to determine, Daklallah said both sides agreed to provide money to trial lawyers community-based charities that benefit trial lawyers members of this group.

The money is to be money to be shared by Dearborn Heights resident Ahmed Ahmed, a Detroit health clinic, the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn and trial lawyers.

Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/22/2013 00:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In the off chance you might have had any questions regarding the Arab American National Museum's outreach programme and it's targeted audience.

Klik

Smithsonian Federal Funding request for 2012. Yes, the Arab American National Museum is a Smithsonian affiliate organization.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 8:26 Comments || Top||

#2  ..yes, but we have no place to cut the spending, except Defense.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/22/2013 9:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Seems like those McDonald's stores felt their market warranted halal food, and they advertised it as such. If it was not, then they violated a 'contract' with their customers.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/22/2013 10:11 Comments || Top||

#4  I will dine at McDonald's when Jay-Z smiles.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 10:14 Comments || Top||

#5  I think I ate breakfast at one back around 2005
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/22/2013 10:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Jay-Z was smiling yesterday; that was his wife center-stage at le grande soiree. Probably had nothing to do with the $1million champaign fundraiser.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/22/2013 10:38 Comments || Top||

#7  What? They didn't realize the McRib was pork?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/22/2013 10:44 Comments || Top||

#8  The McRib is meat?
Posted by: Shipman || 01/22/2013 15:55 Comments || Top||

#9  Yah, it's made out of the parts of my people _not_ used for Yeti Coolers.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/22/2013 15:58 Comments || Top||

#10  Ah yes, USING THE ACLU AGZ THE ACLU [for the ACLU agz the .....?]TO IMPOSE SHARIA + ISLAMIC COURTS [stratified = "Special Courts"]IN FUTURE ISLAMERIKA.

What the "Universalism" = "Stratification" happy Secular Socialist DemoLeft has done for Minorities it can do for Minority Theo-Socialist Muslims + Islam in America = Amerika - IFF THE DEMOLEFT DON'T OR WON'T, DATS A JIHAD + A' BEHEADIN + A'HAND/LIMB-CHOPPIN FOR BEING ANTI-KOMRADELY + DARING TO LIE, DECEIVE ALLAN + ALLAN'S HOLY SOCIALIST WARRIORS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 19:32 Comments || Top||

#11  D *** NG IT, GOOD SHARIA LAW, COURTS IN ISLAMERIKA IS GOOD BIG GOVT.!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 19:34 Comments || Top||

#12  Didn't know Mickey D's sold cat food......
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 01/22/2013 22:01 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Poor governance, political instability responsible for terrorism
[Dawn] Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
would continue to bleed owing to militancy and the growing terrorist threats would be difficult to overcome without improving governance and achieving political stability in the country, according to experts.

As per the first ever Global Terrorism Index (GTI), released on December 4, last, Pakistain was the second most affected by terrorism in 2011 with 1,468 deaths and 2,459 injured persons in 910 terrorist attacks, highest after Iraq.

"Yes, we can very rightly be adjudged the second most affected by terrorism because we have been inflicted fatalities and destruction by an adversary or non-state actors, who don't have any ethics as they don't believe in any principles," said Brig
(retired) Mehmood Shah, a former secretary security of Federal Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), when contacted.

'Global Terrorism Index: capturing the impact of terrorism for the last decade,' prepared by the Institute for Economic and Peace with its offices in Sydney and New York, is a ranking and comparison of 158 countries over a ten year period from 2002-2011. It analyses a dataset on terrorist activity with over 104,000 cases of terrorist attacks suffered globally.Idrees Kamal, a 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.
-based civil society member, when contacted, said Pakistain had resorted to counter faceless myrmidons by forming peace lashkars (peace committees involving armed volunteers), which was against Article 256 of the Constitution.

"State is responsible to maintain peace and protect people's lives and properties," said Mr Kamal, adding the state had shifted its responsibility to peace committees that had added to the problem.

As per GTI, Pakistain has also been ranked the number two among the 158 indexed countries where the impact of terrorism increased the most from 2002 to 2011, according to the IEP report that summarises changing trends in terrorism as well as analysing its different dimensions in terms of geographic activity, methods of attack, organizations involved, its national context in terms of economic development and governance.Iraq has been ranked the most affected and Afghanistan the third most affected as per GTI that has describe the United States in a list of 10 countries where terrorism's impact has decreased.

The IEP report points out that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain and its associated terrorist groups, in the case of Pakistain, carried forward the agenda of terrorism and destruction, whereas globally 'Taliban is the organization that is responsible for both the most incidents and fatalities.'

"The Taliban can be given the dubious titles of having caused the highest number of fatalities," according to IEP report that pinpoints that terrorism is connected with low political stability, human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
violations and low levels of inter-group cohesions.

Brig Shah agrees with the IEP's findings, saying that Pakistain had been suffering from weak political stability and poor governance and the lack of an effective decision making on the part of the country's politicianship.

Afghanistan, said Mr Shah, suffered less fatalities and injuries as compared to Pakistain because the coalition forces, particularly the USA, did not carry out major military operations there, whereas in Pakistain the strategic concept of sealing the country's border with Afghanistan eroded.

"There is no implementation of laws and illegal cross-border movement remains unchecked," he said.

He said Pakistain would rank the first most affected by terrorism if an index identical to GTI was developed for 2012. According to GTI, Pakistain experienced a massive increase in the number of people killed in terrorist attacks, recording the figure of fatalities going up from 96 fatalities in 2002 to 1468 in 2011. Two thirds of the terrorist attacks were carried out either in the form or bombings or kabooms followed by the fatalities inflicted by using firearms.

Among the cities that suffered the largest number of attacks included Peshawar, 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...
, Quetta, Dera Bugti, Khyber Agency, Mohmand Agency
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar...
, and Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...
, according to the IEP.

The report points out that with its continued internal struggles and external tensions Pakistain is the country that has suffered massive increase in GTI score after Iraq. Attacks on educational institutions in Pakistain, according to the report, account for 13 per cent of all attacks recorded.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Atari U.S. Files for Bankruptcy to Break from Parent
[An Nahar] Video game maker Atari's U.S. operations have filed for bankruptcy protection in an effort to separate from their French parent company, which is filing a similar motion separately in France.

In a statement, Atari says the move is necessary to secure investments it needs to grow in mobile and downloadable video games.

Atari, which turned 40 last year, was a videogame pioneer with games like "Pong" and "Centipede," but has changed ownership several times amid financial problems.

Atari's U.S. operations have shifted to focus on digital games and licensing, including developing mobile games, and they have become a growth engine for its owner. France's Infogrames Entertainment first took a stake in Atari in 2000. It acquired the remaining stake in 2008 and changed its name to Atari S.A.

But the U.S. operations have been performing better than the rest of the company. In fiscal 2012, digital and licensing revenue both grew significantly and contributed 70 percent of revenue, while sales in bricks-and-mortar stores declined.

In December, Atari S.A. said a credit agreement it entered into with investor BlueBay -- its main shareholder and only lender -- would lapse at the end of the year and the company was seeking other ways to raise capital. It added that it expects to report a "significant loss" for fiscal 2012.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just rediscovered playing "Pong" + "Pacman" + "Frogger".

The "oldies" prove to be more refreshing + fun than the new or contemporary games, espec on PC.

NO "PLANETOID" THOUGH AS YET - WHY, D *** NG IT, WHY!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 0:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Unfortunately most games these days have fallen into a predictable and cookie cutter type of pattern.

That sells, I guess but you played one first person shooter you played 'em all (there are wonderful exceptions of course but I'm talking generally).
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/22/2013 9:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Battlezone, Red Baron were keepers.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/22/2013 10:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Asteroids,
Defender
Super Cobra
Posted by: bman || 01/22/2013 10:50 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican Army bags 4 bad guys in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila

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

A total of four armed suspects were killed in an exchange of gunfire in Ciudad Acuna in northern Coahuila state early Monday morning, according to Mexican news reports.

According to an article posted on the website of El Diario de Coahuila news daily, a group of armed suspects had encountered a Mexican Army road patrol, and had fired on the soldiers. The ensuing firefight and pursuit lasted through two neighborhoods, San Antonio and Las Alamedas ending in Lazaro Cardenas colony.

In the firefight two unidentified soldiers were wounded and were subsequently evacuated to a base near Piedra Negras.
Posted by: badanov || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


6 die in Zacatecas state

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

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of seven individuals have been killed or found dead in ongoing drug and gang related crime in Zacatecas state, according to Mexican news accounts.

A report posted on the website of El Sol de Zacatecas news daily said that three unidentified individuals were found shot to death Monday in two separate incidents in Zacatecas and Guadalupe municipalities.

In Guadalupe municipality police found the body of a taxi driver who had been shot to death on Calle Tulipanes in Villa del Sol colony. A message with left with the body which blamed Los Zetas for the killing.

Two unidentified individuals were found in Zacatecas municipality also on Monday morning. The victims were found near the village of Ojo de Agua near La Piedrera. A message left with the victims mentioned an ongoing intergang fight involving gangs in the area. The report also said that the two male victims had been tortured and were dumped at the location.

Three other victims of drug or gang violence were found in Zacatecas state since last Friday.
  • Saturday evening an unidentified man was found shot to death in Zacatecas municipality. The victim was found near a mine on a road that connects the villages of Vetagrande with Sauceda de la Borda. The victim was shot several times abut four days before the discovery of his body.

  • An unidentified man was found shot to death on a road leading to Moyahua Juchipila in Juchipila municipality Friday. Authorities had determined the victim was killed near a nightclub and was dumped at the location he was found.

  • An unidentified man was killed and four other men were detained in an armed encounter with a Policia Federal road patrol in Valparaiso municipality Sunday. Policia Federal operatives secured an undisclosed number of rifles and a fragmentation grenade following the encounter. The report said that the four detainees were originally from Guatemala.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hanus as it is, apparently the Zacatecas State school system equips the murderers with the ability to leave messages. Unheard of in Chicago.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 6:57 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Chad PM Resigns, Successor Appointed
[An Nahar] Chadian President Idriss Deby on Monday appointed chief of staff Djimrangar Dadnadji as the country's new prime minister following the resignation of Emmanuel Nadingar, state radio announced.

"I have the honor to hand in... my resignation as prime minister, head of government, three years after you appointed me in this post. Today I have come to the end of my mission," Nadingar wrote in a resignation letter read out on the radio.

The radio also announced Dadnadji as his successor.

Nadingar, in office since March 2010, was re-appointed following disputed April 2011 re-election of Deby, who has held power since 1990.

Government reshuffles are a frequent occurrence in the landlocked African desert nation run with an iron fist by Deby, and premiers rarely last more than two or three years.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Diane Lane [Filmography](age 48)



Intelligent Design


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/22/2013 1:02 Comments || Top||

#2  I'll take two
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/22/2013 1:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Sling loaded I see.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 1:40 Comments || Top||

#4  B(oYo)bies!
Posted by: gorb || 01/22/2013 3:02 Comments || Top||

#5 

Bubba checks out Taylor Swift
Posted by: Beavis || 01/22/2013 8:59 Comments || Top||

#6  I think that's kelly clarkson.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 01/22/2013 15:41 Comments || Top||

#7  The more intelligence the better says I.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/22/2013 16:28 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Minister Says Nation Will Defeat Conspiracy
[An Nahar] Syria's Defense Minister Fahd al-Freij said on Monday that the country will defeat a conspiracy against it and overcome "terrorist gangs," state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.

"Syria is the only country that works for the liberation of Paleostine and the occupied Arab states, therefore an Zionist and American-led plot has been hatched with the financing of some Arab regimes in favor of Israel," said Freij.

"We are now tackling this conspiracy, which will fail, and we will defeat each of these schemes and plots against our beloved Syria," he said during a military formation inspection.

"For the last two years, the army has inflicted massive losses on the armed terrorist gangs sent by the conspirators and their scheming hosts inside Syria, and we will continue to pursue these gangs throughout the country until the final victory."

The minister praised the high morale displayed by the army in its fight against the "terrorists".

Since the outbreak of the 22-month conflict, Syrian authorities have used the word "terrorist" as a blanket term for those who oppose the rule of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa Horn
Eritrean Troops Besiege Mutineers in Asmara
[An Nahar] Eritrea
...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age. ...
n army tanks besieged the information ministry in central Asmara on Monday after some 200 mutineers seized the building to call for political reform, diplomatic and diaspora sources said Monday.

No shots had been fired and the rest of the city appeared calm, the diplomats added, although very few details were immediately available.

"The ministry of information is under siege," a diplomat said.

Amanuel Ghirmai, an Eritrean journalist in Gay Paree for independent Radio Erena, said that around a 100 army mutineers stormed the hill-top ministry -- which towers over the capital of the Red Sea state -- early on Monday morning.

They reportedly ordered news readers at the government-run television and radio station -- the only source of media for the authoritarian state -- to read a statement that they will implement the country's constitution.

The statement also reportedly ordered the release of prisoners of conscience.

"We do not know who is leading the situation... everybody has been put into the same room (in the ministry)," Amanuel said, adding that he had spoken to sources in Asmara.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
MNLA supports African force in Mali
[MAGHAREBIA] Mali separatist group National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) on Sunday (January 20th) offered to join army forces from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Le Monde reported.

The secular Touareg rebels are ready to participate in the International Mission for Support to Mali (MISMA), MNLA spokesperson Ibrahim Ag Mohamed Assaleh said.

Meanwhile,
...back at the comedy club, Boogie sadly admitted that he was a better peeping Tom than he was a comedian...
French troops on Sunday consolidated gains in Mali's Islamist-held north, AFP reported. Canada, Germany and Russia offered vital aid for the offensive.

Ansar al-Din fighters and their al-Qaeda allies were reportedly abandoning some of their positions and converging on the mountainous region of Kidal, near the border with Algeria.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Regime Builds New Paramilitary Force Aided by Iran
[An Nahar] Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
's regime has put together a new paramilitary force of men and women, some trained by key ally Iran, to fight what is now becoming a guerrilla war, a watchdog said Monday.

The force, dubbed the National Defense Army, gathers together existing popular committees of pro-regime civilian fighters under a new, better-trained and armed hierarchy, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The popular committees were originally formed to protect pro-regime neighborhoods from rebels.

"The (regular) army is not trained to fight a guerrilla war, so the regime has resorted to creating the National Defense Army," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Most of the new fighters are members or supporters of the ruling Baath party, said Abdel Rahman. "They include men and women, and members of all the sects."

The new force is not connected to the pro-regime shabiha militia, which the army and security forces have deployed ever since the outbreak of an anti-regime revolt to help it suppress dissent across the country.

Members of the paramilitary force, like the popular committees before, will focus on fighting in their own neighborhoods.

On Friday, Moscow's Russia Today reported on its website that the new National Defense Army was being set up to "defend districts against gunnies".

"The Syrian authorities are set to create ... a National Defense Army, parallel to regime forces, so that the (regular) army is freed up for combat," the website reported citing an unnamed official.

Abdel Rahman, whose Observatory relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground, said Iran was involved in building the paramilitary force.

"The paramilitary force includes an elite fighting force trained by Iran," Abdel Rahman told Agence La Belle France Presse.

"Iran has provided training to the paramilitary force's commando fighters."

Iran, Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
' key regional ally, staunchly backs Assad and in September 2012 said its elite Quds Force, which is tasked with carrying out operations outside the Islamic republic, was giving Damascus "counsel and advice".

On the ground, an activist said the new force was already active in the central province of Homs.

"The number of regime fighters in the province has swelled in recent days, as the National Defense Army has started to come into action," anti-regime activist Hadi al-Abdullah told AFP via the Internet from the rebel-held town of Qusayr.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Turkey is repor not a happy camper.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 0:39 Comments || Top||

#2  See also TOPIX, WORLD NEWS > IRAN'S AHMADINEJAD SEEKS ALL-OUT SYRIA TIES.

"Mahanist" + "Blue Water" minded Rising China = "Mahanist" + "Blue Water" minded Rising Iran = gotta save Syria-Lebanon for MilBases + "strategic access" to the Med???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 1:03 Comments || Top||

#3  JM your spot on "Rising Iran = gotta save Syria-Lebanon for MilBases + "strategic access" to the Med???".
Posted by: Dale || 01/22/2013 9:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Turkey has, or more accurately had, a long-standing ally that shares a border and historical animosity with the Assad dynasty. You'd _think_ they'd want to cultivate that relationship instead of going dumpster-diving in Gaza.

Their unhappiness is of their own making.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/22/2013 15:57 Comments || Top||

#5  "How to deploy your new VX gas grenade:..."
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/22/2013 16:18 Comments || Top||

#6  WORLD NEWS > ASSAD OVERTHROW "RED LINE" FOR IRAN: SUPREME LEADER'S AIDE.

Call me when 1960's = 1990's Archangels "draw lines in the sand" like DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM - Bush 41 only thinks he dev + said it on his own.

versus

* SAME > NEWT GINGRICH TRASHES OBAMA'S
"HISTORICALLY WRONG", "DANGEROUSLY MISLEADING" INAUGURAL REFERENCE TO IRAN.

* SAME > OBAMA IS STILL SEARCHING FOR THE RIGHT TONE IN EXECUTING "ASIA PIVOT".

ARTIC > "CHINA" is likely centerpiece of POTUS Bammer's 2nd-term Foreign Policy agenda.

"CHINA" = read, N-O-T IRAN. Good enuff for Iran's Nucprogs???

Iff China does NOT back down in NE ASIA = US-CHINA NUCWAR OR MORE LIKELY ANTI-NUCWAR US CONCESSION(S) = GOOD FOR ANTI-OWG-NWO + NAU 2015. Easier for the anti-US Globies.

* FYI BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Global Times] INDIAN POLICE ISSUE SAFETY GUIDLEINES FOR NUCLEAR WAR IN INDIAN-CONTROLLED KASHMIR.

RELATED SAME > [Dawn.com] OFFICIALS WARN KASHMIRIS OF POSSIBLE NUCLEAR ATTACK.

Read, US-CHINA MILITARY, NUCLEAR CONFRONTATION IN NE ASIA WHICH DEVOLS TO INCLUDE NUKE-ARMED INDIA + CHINA, TALIBAN BFF NUKE-ARMED PAKISTAN???

Iff China DOES back down in NE Asia = NO US-CHINA NUCWAR NOR ANTI-NUCWAR US CONCESSION(S) = BAD FOR ANTI-US OWG-NWO + NAU 2015. More difficult or protractive for the anti-US Globies.

ADVANTAGE = RISING IRAN + GLOBAL JIHADIS, whom have no qualms iff non-Muslim, "Infidel/Un-Believing" World Powers or "Great Powers" militarily destroy one another + clear the path for Caliphate.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 23:46 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Govt not "delusional" over Pakistan's sovereignty, Khar tells NA
[Dawn] Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Monday, while speaking during a National Assembly session, said the government was not "delusional" to the challenges confronting Pakistain's illusory sovereignty, DawnNews reported.

She said the government was resorting to available mechanism in response to recent ceasefire violations by Indian troops at the Line of Control (LoC).

The fragile line of control, that divides Pakistain and India, has become center of attention after the recent killings of soldiers on both sides, in one of the worst flare-ups in violence in the disputed Himalayan region in a decade.

In the past two weeks, three Pak and two Indian troops have died in festivities on the heavily-militarised border, drawing harsh words from both Islamabad and New Delhi.

"Pakistain acted responsibly. We suggested engaging 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...
Military Observes Group for third party probe," Hina Rabbani Khar told the house in a policy statement.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
ECOWAS seeks Maghreb support for Mali action
[MAGHAREBIA] African states are stepping up efforts to rally support for their Mali intervention, by inviting Maghreb countries to participate in the war.
It's starting to look like the ECOWAS strategy is to keep talking until the Frenchies drive AQIM out, then hold a victory parade. Betcha their troops can make it for that.
The Economic Organisation of West African States (ECOWAS) and its international counterparts seek to support the Malian and French forces that have been on the ground in northern Mali since January 11th.

One way is to bring in more help from the continent.

"I call on both Mauritania and Algeria to participate along with African and international forces in order to eliminate terrorist forces in the north of Mali," ECOWAS Chairman and Côte d'Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara
...the current president-for-life of Ivory Coast. He actually beat his predecessor in an election before having to eject him from the presidential palazzo....
said Saturday (January 19th) in Abidjan.

"I think that the In Amenas incident in south Algeria is enough to make the participation of Algeria and Mauritania in this war both justified and required," he told the gathering.

He praised Mauritania's decision "to close its borders, and to allow the international force to use its airspace to strike gangs".

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that African troops should deploy as soon as possible, as French troops cannot fill the role of African countries.

Africans have not eliminated the option of trying to find a political solution to the Malian crisis.

Ouattara called for "continued efforts of Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
to find a parallel and deep solution to the roots of the Malian crisis in the north through encouraging dialogue".

"The negotiations with gangs should continue in parallel with military action in Mali," Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibril Bassolé told Sahara Media.

"The African forces deployed since this weekend, starting with the Nigerian unit, still need more co-ordination and support," commented journalist and expert in African affairs Yacoob Ould Bahadah.

"I do not expect an actual deployment of African forces on the ground before the donors conference scheduled for January 29th in the Æthiopian capital Addis Ababa," Ould Bahadah told Magharebia.

The European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
last week decided to allocate 50 million euros towards supporting the deployment of African forces in Mali, in addition to a grant of another 250 million euros to support development programmes and the democratic transition in Mali.

The EU agreed to send a European military training mission to Mali starting in mid-February and consisting of 450 members, including 200 trainers.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Is Qatar fuelling the crisis in north Mali?
[FRANCE24] Oil-rich gulf state Qatar has a vested interest in the outcome of the north Mali crisis, according to various reports that have been picked up by French MPs, amid suspicion that Doha may be siding with the rebels to extend its regional influence.

Since Islamist groups exploited a military coup in the Malian capital of Bamako in early 2012 to take control of the entire north of the country, accusations of Qatari involvement in a crisis that has seen La Belle France deploy troops have been growing.

Last week two French politicians explicitly accused Qatar of giving material support to separatists and Islamists in north Mali, adding fuel to speculation that the Emirate is playing a behind-the-scenes role in spreading Islamic fundamentalism in Africa.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and Communist Party Senator Michelle Demessine both said that that Qatar had questions to answer.

"If Qatar is objecting to La Belle France's engagement in Mali it's because intervention risks destroying Doha's most fundamentalist allies," Le Pen said in a statement on her party website, in response to a call by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani for dialogue with the Islamists.

'Cash from Doha'

The first accusations of Qatari involvement with Tuareg separatists and Islamist groups came in a June 2012 article in respected French weekly the Canard Enchainé.

In a piece title "Our friend Qatar is financing Mali's Islamists", the newspaper alleged that the oil-rich Gulf state was financing the separatists.

It quoted an unnamed source in French military intelligence saying: "The MNLA [secular Tuareg separatists], al Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine and MUJAO [movement for unity and Jihad in West Africa] have all received cash from Doha."

A month later Sadou Diallo, the mayor of the north Malian city of Gao [which had fallen to the Islamists] told RTL radio: "The French government knows perfectly well who is supporting these terrorists. Qatar, for example, continues to send so-called aid and food every day to the airports of Gao and Timbuktu."

The presence of Qatari NGOs in north Mali is no secret. Last summer, in the wake of the separatist takeover, the Qatari Red Islamic Thingy was the only humanitarian organization granted access to the vast territory.

One member of the Qatari humanitarian team told AFP at the end of June that they had simply "come to Gao to evaluate the humanitarian needs of the region in terms of water and electricity access."

Deeply entrenched

Regional geopolitical expert Mehdi Lazar, who specialises on Qatar, wrote in French weekly news magazine L'Express in December that Doha's relationship with predominantly Mohammedan north Mali was deeply entrenched.

"Qatar has an established a network of institutions it funds in Mali, including madrassas, schools and charities that it has been funding from the 1980s," he wrote, adding that Qatar would be expecting a return on this investment.

"Mali has huge oil and gas potential and it needs help developing its infrastructure," he said. "Qatar is well placed to help, and could also, on the back of good relations with an Islamist-ruled north Mali, exploit rich gold and uranium deposits in the country."

Qatar's foreign policy is also motivated by religion, wrote Lazar, and success in Mali would "greatly increase the Emirate's influence in West Africa and the Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
"If the Qatari influence in the current situation in Mali turns out to be real, it must be seen in the context of two branches of a global competition," he wrote. "Firstly, competition with Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
to be the centre of Sunni Islam; secondly, in terms of competition between the Sunni and Shiite branches of the Mohammedan faith.

"It would be an extension of the effort Qatar is already making in Egypt, Libya and in Tunisia."

Lazar does not believe, however, that Qatar will get directly involved in the conflict unfolding in Mali, however, and that rather than getting its hands dirty, Doha will try to position itself as mediator in future negotiations between the Malian government, the various rebel groups in the north of the country, Algeria and La Belle France.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  Are all the trendy media types still pronouncing it "gutter?"
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/22/2013 11:06 Comments || Top||

#2  The Saudis save that pronunciation for Kuwait.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/22/2013 21:19 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russians start to flee evacuate Syria
From the two-letter news agency, so just fair-use abstract here.
MOSCOW (AP) -- The Russian government says it is sending two planes to Lebanon to evacuate Russians from Syria, the first such effort since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad began in March 2011.
More planes to follow. Guaranteed. I personally am hopeful of images of Russian transport helicopters landing on the roof of the Russian embassy in Damascus...
The Emergency Situations Ministry said two of its planes will fly to Beirut on Tuesday to carry more than 100 Russians from Syria.

Monday's announcement appears to reflect Moscow's increasing doubts about Assad's ability to cling to power and growing concerns about the safety of its citizens.
Since Pencilneck himself is living on a Russian houseboat...
Russia's Foreign Ministry has said that it has contingency plans in place to evacuate thousands of Russians from Syria.
Along with the tons of biological and chemical weapons Syria has been storing on behalf of Saddam and the Russians from 2003...
Russia has been the main ally of Assad since
they turned on Israel in the 1950s...
the start of the conflict, using its veto power at the United Nations Security Council to shield the Syrian strongman from sanctions.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They also knew when to leave Afghanistan.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 1:47 Comments || Top||


Syria Warplanes Raid Damascus Province, Blackout Eases
[An Nahar] Syrian warplanes on Monday launched raids on two towns east of Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
, a monitoring group said, as a total overnight electricity blackout in the capital began to lift in the morning.

"Warplanes staged several air strikes on Irbin and Hamuriyeh in Damascus province," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers across the strife-torn country to compile its reports.

The Observatory said that early on Monday the army shelled and deployed new reinforcements to the rebel-held town of Daraya, as part of its bid to quell the insurgency in the outskirts of Damascus once and for all.

The Britannia-based watchdog said that violence was reported also on Sunday night when helicopters strafed the town of Tabaqa in Raqa province, in northern Syria, killing eight civilians.

Among the victims were three children aged five, six and eight years old.

Monday's violence came a day after at least 127 people were killed in violence across Syria, including 49 civilians, the watchdog said.

Among the civilians who died on Sunday was a 14-year-old boy tortured to death by regime forces in the southern province of Daraa, said the watchdog, which has reported more than 3,500 child deaths since the outbreak of Syria's revolt in March 2011.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Senate, Odius Sepulcher called for war against the Visigoths...
on Sunday evening Damascus was plunged in a total blackout that lasted through the night, after a key transmission grid that supplies the capital was hit, said the Observatory.

It is unclear what caused the blackout, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman. "Some activists have blamed an air strike."

But state news agency SANA blamed "terrorists" for hitting the main transmission station, using the regime's term for rebels.

"The whole city was affected...the situation was strange because it was the first time it ever happened," an anti-regime activist who identified herself as Leena told AFP via the Internet.

By Monday morning, the blackout started to ease, with power gradually returning to the capital, an AFP journalist said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
When Hell Freezes Over
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Also known by midwesterners as "winter".
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/22/2013 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Late in January, 1976, in Chi-town, I woke up to 29 degrees below zero with a chill factor of 74 below zero. The train was two minutes late and I took a bus, instead of walking across town.

That was before global whatever made everybody soft and tender. Today in DC, it has not been so cold for TWO YEARS! Poor babies.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/22/2013 6:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Just think of what the Super Bowl will be like next year in Giant Stadium
Posted by: Beavis || 01/22/2013 9:01 Comments || Top||

#4  "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."
-- Mark Twain
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/22/2013 17:31 Comments || Top||

#5  I was kind of hoping global warming was real. Wouldn't have to spend the money to go to Florida.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/22/2013 18:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Here in NH we were supposed to get 6 inches last night. Snow. Got 1/4 inch. Big miss by NOAA and Acuweather.

Too cold to snow. -2 tonight. -7 Thursday.
Posted by: KBK || 01/22/2013 21:23 Comments || Top||

#7  Nuthin here. It..."went out to sea".
Currently 13, projected low, 4. Wind chill, -12.
Sunday, I had the windows open for awhile.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/22/2013 21:41 Comments || Top||


Africa North
'Mali refugees have seen rebels cut off hands'
[FRANCE24]
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Europe
Suspect charged in Kurdish activists murder case
[FRANCE24] An associate of three female Kurdish activists rubbed out in Gay Paree has been charged with their murder, a French prosecutor announced following an indictment hearing on Monday.

The 30-year-old man was one of two ethnic Kurds nabbed
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
last week by a specialist anti-terrorist unit in connection with the January 9 slayings.

He has been charged with carrying out the murders as part of a terrorist group and conspiracy to commit murder as part of a terrorist group.

"We believe he is is likely to have been the killer or one of the killers," Gay Paree prosecutor Francois Molins told a presser.

The other man detained last week was earlier freed without charge.

The suspect accused of the murder was an occasional driver for one of the victims, according to police sources.

The three women, one of them 55-year-old Sakine Cansiz, a co-founder of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), were found dead on the morning of January 10 at a Kurdish centre in the French capital.

They had all been repeatedly shot in the head.

The killings came against a background of tentative peace talks between Turkey and tossed in the calaboose
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan aimed at ending three decades of conflict which have claimed 45,000 lives.

Turkey has suggested the murders could be the result of an internal feud within the PKK between opponents and supporters of the negotiations with Turkey.

Kurdish groups suspect Turkish snuffies with links to the security services were behind the Gay Paree slaying, which they say is part of a pattern of recent attacks on Kurdish activists.

French police are examining the possibility of the killings having been linked to extortion rackets used to raise funds for the PKK from the large expatriate communities in western Europe.

Turkey and its Western allies regard the PKK as a terrorist organization while the outlawed movement defends its armed rebellion as a legitimate struggle for self-determination.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Polio Virus Found in Egypt Linked to Pakistan
[An Nahar] Pak health officials Monday called for infants leaving the country to be issued 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...
vaccinations at airports after virus samples linked to a southern Pak city were discovered in Egypt.
Whoops!

Two sewage samples from Cairo were analyzed and found to resemble a recently discovered strain in the Pak city of Sukkur, a joint statement by health officials, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF said.
And there has been a serious vaccine shortage in the Land of the Pharaohs for about a year, a bad combination
. "To reduce the possibility of spread of the polio virus beyond Pakistain's borders, the government's Monitoring and Coordination Cell is advising to set up permanent vaccination counters at the international departure lounges of all airports," it said.

The statement recommended that "all children under five years leaving the country are vaccinated against the polio virus."

Though Egypt has been polio-free since 2004, authorities there have ordered the immediate vaccination of all children under five years of age in the areas where the samples were found.
Umm... that vaccine shortage mentioned above: won't that interfere with this plan? Or will the government give up spending money on food imports to pay for a shipment of vaccine?
Polio cases in Pakistain have risen sharply in recent years, hitting 198 in 2011 -- the highest figure for more than a decade and the most of any country in the world, according to the WHO.

Unicef's acting chief of polio unit, Michael Coleman said the incident highlighted the importance of vaccination in Pakistain.

"It reinforces the urgent need of all caregivers across Pakistain to vaccinate children under five years of age against polio through the nearest health facility or through campaign vaccination teams," he said.

Shahnaz Wazir Ali, the prime minister's advisor on polio eradication, termed the case "a stark reminder of the risks associated with active polio virus transmission in the country.

Pakistain is one of only three countries where the highly infectious crippling disease remains endemic, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Globalization - it's all about the flow of goods, capital, information, and labor. And infectious diseases. Don't forget to wash your hands.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/22/2013 0:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Its gonna keep spreading as concerned Pak Parents flee wid their un-vaccinated Kiddies overseas for shots???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 1:05 Comments || Top||

#3  No it isn't about glabalization but about Islam since in Pakistan clerics have been telling vacciantion was a Jewish-Zionist-America-Christain plot against Islam
Posted by: JFM || 01/22/2013 7:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Didn't help that much when Barry Team Six started blabbling about the doctor who was the spy. I seem to remember a number of vaccinators being murdered soon afterwards.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/22/2013 18:50 Comments || Top||


Algeria says 37 foreigners died in siege led by Canadian
[REUTERS] A total of 37 foreigners and an Algerian died at a desert gas plant and five are still missing after a four-day hostage-taking coordinated by a Canadian gunman, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalik Sellal said on Monday.

Sellal also told a news conference that 29 Islamists had been killed in the siege, which Algerian forces ended by storming the plant on Saturday, and three were taken alive. Most of the gunnies were from various states of north and west Africa.
The big question: were all of them killed or captured? Despite the pontificating, this is shaping up as a major debacle for AQIM, or at least for Mokhtar Belmokhtar. He was going to mount this big-time operation and hold 700 or so hostages until the Frenchies got out of Mali, leaving it to the turbans. That flat out didn't work.
With some bodies burned beyond recognition and Algerian forces still combing the sprawling site, some details were still unclear or at odds with figures from other governments.

The siege has shaken confidence in the security of Algeria's vital energy industry and drawn attention to Salafist Islamist militancy across the Sahara, where La Belle France has sent troops to neighboring Mali to fight rebels who have obtained weaponry from Libya.
There's some major tut-tuttery coming down the pike. Count on that.
Of the 38 dead captives, out of a total workforce of some 800 at the In Amenas gas facility, seven were still unidentified but assumed to be foreigners, Algerian premier Sellal said.

Citizens of nine countries died, he said, among them seven Japanese, six Filipinos, two Romanians, an American, a Frenchie and four Britons. Britannia said three Britons were dead and three plus a London-based Colombian were missing and believed dead. Norway said the fate of five of its citizens was unclear; in addition to seven Japanese dead, Tokyo said three were missing.

An Algerian security source had earlier told Rooters that documents found on the bodies of two cut-throats had identified them as Canadians: "A Canadian was among the bully boys. He was coordinating the attack," Sellal said, adding that the raiders had threatened to blow up the gas installation.
So the prisoners are singing. That's a good thing.
That Canadian's name was given only as Chedad. Algerian officials have also named other cut-throats in recent days as having leadership roles among the attackers. Veteran Islamist bandido Mokhtar Belmokhtar grabbed credit on behalf of al Qaeda.
He grabbed credit for a trainwreck.
In Ottawa, Canada's foreign affairs department said it was seeking information, but referred to the possible involvement of only one Canadian.
Always assuming you could call someone Canadian whose primary language is Arabic and whose culture is Arabian.
The jihadists had planned the attack two months ago in neighboring Mali, Sellal added. During the siege, from which he said they had hoped to take foreign hostages to Mali, the kidnappers had demanded La Belle France end its military operation.
And La Belle France demanded the bad guyz cease taking hostages in all former districts of Metropolitan France.
Sellal said that initially the raiders in Algeria had tried to hijack a bus carrying foreign workers to a nearby airport and take them hostage. "They started firing at the bus and received a severe response from the soldiers guarding the bus," he said. "They failed to achieve their objective, which was to kidnap foreign workers from the bus."
That shoulda been their first clue that the light at the end of the tunnel was a train.
He said special forces and army units were deployed against the bully boys, who had planted explosives in the gas plant with a view to blowing up the facility. Normally producing 10 percent of Algeria's natural gas, it was shut down during the incident. The government now aims to reopen it this week.

One group of cut-throats had tried to escape in some vehicles, each of which also was carrying three or four foreign workers, some of whom had explosives attached to their bodies. After what he called a "fierce response from the armed forces", the raiders' vehicles crashed or went kaboom! and one of their leaders was among those killed.

LIBYAN NUMBER PLATES

Sellal said the jihadists who staged the attack last Wednesday had crossed into the country from neighboring Libya, after arriving there from Islamist-held northern Mali via Niger.
Niger is not the French version of Nigeria. It is geographically the largest country in West Africa, but most of it is useless desert. Its primary function is to produce yellowcake. Its population is mostly concentrated in the south and west of the country because the rest is uninhabitable.
An Algerian newspaper said they had arrived in cars painted in the colors of state energy company Sonatrach but registered in Libya, a country awash with arms since Western powers backed a revolt to bring down Muammar Qadaffy
...a proud Arab institution for 42 years, now among the dear departed, though not the dearest...
in 2011.
"Hmmm... Look at that, Mahmoud. Those cars are painted in Sonatrach colors but they have Libyan plates!"
"Probably nothing to it but lemme call the state security forces, just to make sure."

The raid has exposed the vulnerability of multinational-run oil and gas installations in an important producing region and pushed the growing threat from Islamist bully boy groups in the Sahara to a prominent position in the West's security agenda.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
... 10th president of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's his fifth. He expects to leave office feet-first...
has ordered an investigation into how security forces failed to prevent the attack, the daily El Khabar said.

Algerian Tahar Ben Cheneb - leader of a group called the Movement of Islamic Youth in the South who was killed on the first day of the assault - had been based in Libya where he married a local woman two months ago, it said.
My guess would be that he's the not-further-identified Canuck referenced above. "Movement of Islamic Youth" sounds like it should be the Ḥarakat ash-Shabāb, or just "al-Shabaab." Everybody wants to be youthful, by Goo.
ONE-EYED JIHADIST

Belmokhtar - a one-eyed jihadist who fought in Afghanistan and Algeria's civil war of the 1990s when the secular government fought Islamists - tied the desert attack to La Belle France's intervention across the Sahara against beturbanned fascisti in Mali.
I'm not too sure what the significance is of Mokhtar being squinky-eyed. It never seemed to bother Popeye.
"We in al Qaeda announce this blessed operation," he said in a video, according to Sahara Media, a regional website. About 40 attackers participated in the raid, he said, roughly matching the government's figures for fighters killed and captured.
So there's 29 dead turbans, three in custody, which leaves approximately eight to be accounted for.
Belmokhtar demanded an end to French air strikes against Islamist fighters in neighboring Mali. These began five days before the fighters swooped before dawn and seized a plant that produces 10 percent of Algeria's natural gas exports.
That was followed by the Algerian military doing some "swooping" of its own.
U.S. and European officials doubt such a complex raid could have been organized quickly enough to have been conceived as a direct response to the French military intervention. However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits...
the French action could have triggered an operation that had already been planned.
They had lots of other things they wanted, like the Blind Sheikh and Aafia Siddiqui and ponies for everyone.
The group behind the raid, the Mulathameen Brigade, threatened to carry out more such attacks if Western powers did not end what it called an assault on Moslems in Mali, according to the SITE service, which monitors bully boy statements.
Carry out many more like this one and they'll be wiped out. Of course, they might find it harder to get volunteers for the next one.
In a statement published by the Mauritania-based Nouakchott News Agency, the hostage takers said they had offered talks about freeing the captives, but the Algerian authorities had been determined to use military force. Sellal blamed the raiders for the collapse of negotiations.

BLOODY SIEGE

The siege turned bloody on Thursday when the Algerian army opened fire, saying fighters were trying to escape with their prisoners. Survivors said Algerian forces blasted several trucks in a convoy carrying both hostages and their captors.

Nearly 700 Algerian workers and more than 100 foreigners escaped, mainly on Thursday when the fighters were driven from the residential barracks. Some captors remained holed up in the industrial complex until Saturday when they were overrun.

The bloodshed has strained Algeria's relations with its Western allies, some of which are a lot more squeamish have complained about being left in the dark while the decision to storm the compound was being taken.

Nevertheless, Britannia and La Belle France both defended the military action by Algeria, the strongest military power in the Sahara and an ally the West needs in combating the bully boys.

"This would have been a most demanding task for security forces anywhere in the world and we should acknowledge the resolve shown by the Algerians in undertaking it," British Prime Minister David Cameron
... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ...
told parliament on Monday.
Once they had the hostages across the border in Mali they could have ridden that camel for years and years. There would have been hostages dropping dead from old age, assuming there were any left when they got done chopping heads off to goad the Western govts into coughing up millions o'bucks in ransom.
The raid on the plant, which was home to expatriate workers from Britannia's BP, Norway's Statoil, Japanese engineering firm BGC Corp and others, exposed the vulnerability of multinational oil operations in the Sahara.
What isn't "vulnerable" in Beau Geste country?
However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits...
Algeria is determined to press on with its energy industry.
What're they supposed to do? Go back to Barbary piracy?
Oil Minister Youcef Yousfi visited the site and said physical damage was minor, state news service APSE reported. The plant would start up again in two days, he said.

Algeria, scarred by the civil war with Islamist faceless myrmidons in the 1990s which claimed 200,000 lives, insisted from the start of the crisis there would be no negotiation in the face of terrorism. La Belle France especially needs close cooperation from Algeria to crush beturbanned fascisti in northern Mali.
Modern day terrorism and antiterrorism were pretty much invented in Algeria. Ask any Harki.
In a reference to Western concerns that the Sahara and the dry grasslands of the Sahel to its south may become a haven for its Islamist enemies as Afghanistan was under the Taliban before 2001, Sellal said Algeria would not become "Sahelistan".

Cameron said Islamist threats to Britannia from Afghanistan and Pakistain had diminished, compared with four years ago: "But at the same time," he said, "Al Qaeda franchises have grown in Yemen, Somalia and parts of North Africa."
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  Canadian Foreign Affairs office is dragging in the Algerian envoy to assess whether the docs regarding the "Canadian" are fake or not. May not be ours after all, then again he could come from Toronto or Montreal -neither of which are really part of Canada either -just ask anyone who doesn't have to live there.
Posted by: Northern Cousin || 01/22/2013 21:21 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
The presidential inauguration and who picked up the tab
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  1459 more days.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 6:39 Comments || Top||

#2  You (US taxpayers) did --- one way or another.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/22/2013 9:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Had to suffer through inauguration not-news this morning. They were really trying to gin it up. Two segments:
1. Michelles arms looked awesome - in a dress designed by a fellow known mostly for mensware and ties. Not sure if that is a compliment...

2. 1st vs 2nd inauguration speeches and how far we have come...except that they were the same danged message just the words had been flipped around a bit. If I had done that with an English class report I would have been reprimanded and given an F.

So yeah other than that greatest celebration since Scipio Africanus defeated Libya Carthage.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/22/2013 10:33 Comments || Top||

#4  As I wrote yesterday, it wasn't an "inauguration". It was an uppity Victory Lap. Many years ago the sponsors of my hometown 4th of July parade would invite the Camp Breckenridge, KY Federal Job Corps marching band and dancers. Yesterday's event brought back those memories. (think 1950's hip-hop in colorful band uniforms)
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 10:54 Comments || Top||

#5  What? You mean you watched? Gag me with a spoon.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/22/2013 11:18 Comments || Top||

#6  I confess EU. Only brief re-broadcasts EU, only re-broadcasts, whahaha.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 11:20 Comments || Top||

#7  Michelles arms looked awesome - in a dress designed by a fellow known mostly for mensware and ties. Not sure if that is a compliment...

Well if your body
closely resembles the shape of a man's tie ....
Posted by: junkiron || 01/22/2013 19:53 Comments || Top||

#8  Somewhere I saw a photo of Michelle in a dress, juxtaposed to a Romulan in an almost identical dress. Raher remarkable resemblance.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/22/2013 20:00 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
FC sees terrorists behind Bara killings, protest
[Dawn] The Frontier Corps (FC) has claimed that snuffies killed five family members of a soldier, threw the bodies of gunnies on a road in Bara, Khyber Agency and orchestrated protest demonstration in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
to win public sympathies.

In a rejoinder issued here on Sunday, FC said that between the night of Monday and Tuesday a fairly large number of snuffies attacked law enforcement agencies' posts in Bara that resulted in the killing of four FC men and two khasadar
...a rural policeman in Pakistain or India...
s.

The rejoinder was issued five days after the incident wherein 18 persons were killed in Alamgodar area of Bara. The residents of the area claimed that the 18 non-combatants were killed by people in uniform. The incident sparked protests in Khyber Agency and Peshawar.

The FC said that snuffies also suffered heavy casualties in the attack. To avenge their deaths, the snuffies ransacked the house of an FC soldier and killed five of his family members, it claimed.

To stage a drama, the snuffies threw dead bodies including that of their colleagues in parts of Bara and also orchestrated a demonstration in Peshawar, the rejoinder claimed.

The issue, according to the rejoinder, was being exploited by vested interest groups. "The security forces take utmost care to protect lives and properties of people in Bara and other parts of Khyber Agency and shall never indulge in killing of innocent civilians in any case," it said.

The rejoinder said that the theme used by snuffies should be seen in true prospective. It said that local people should avoid falling into the trap of terrorists, who wanted security forces to leave Bara so that they could hold sway over violence in Peshawar and raise financial stakes through narco mafia, smugglers and abductors.

According to FC, Bara because of its proximity to the provincial metropolis had remained a safe haven for smugglers, adductors and drug pushers. The outlawed beturbanned goon outfits like Lashkar-e-Islam and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain had gained stranglehold of the area to maintain their finances and unleash terror in Peshawar, it said.

All the violent acts were initiated through thickly populated areas of Bara and the perpetrators sought refuge among the populace. To clear Bara of beturbanned goons, most of the areas were vacated through political administration and people were accommodated in Jalozai camps to avoid collateral damage, the rejoinder said.

It said that law enforcement agencies had engaged gunnies actively for the last few months to ensure security of Peshawar. Unfortunately snuffies used civilian population to engage security forces, it added.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
NATO: German, Dutch Patriot Missiles Arrive in Turkey
[An Nahar] Four batteries of Patriot missiles arrived in Turkey on Monday as part of a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
mission to protect the Turkish border from any spillover of the conflict in neighboring Syria, a NATO source told AFP.

A ship carrying two German Patriot missile batteries anchored at the southwestern port of Iskenderun early Monday and its cargo was being unloaded, the source said on condition of anonymity.

A second ship bearing another two Patriot missile batteries from The Netherlands also arrived at Iskenderun after a two-week journey, waiting behind the German ship to unload its cargo and 300 support troops, the source said.

NATO insists the measure is purely defensive.

"We hope the mission will not take too long," a German colonel was quoted as saying by the private NTV television at the port of Iskenderun. "If we are wanted to stay longer we will do that," he said, speaking in English.

The United States has also begun deployment of two Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries to contribute to the mission, which NATO says will be operational by early February.

Its first shipment arrived by air earlier this month at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey's southeast. Additional equipment will be sent by sea later in January.

The US Patriots "are in Incirlik still," Peter Woodmansee, missile defense chief of the U.S. European Command, told AFP.

"They will move to Gaziantep once the Turkish military finishes preparing the site. I estimate in another five to seven days or so," he said.

The Americans will be based at Gaziantep, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the Syrian border.

The six batteries of the U.S.-made missiles, effective against aircraft and short-range missiles, will be deployed in the southern city of Adana and the southeastern cities of Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, along with 350 troops from each contributing nation.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Assad Says Turkey Responsible for Syria Bloodshed
[An Nahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
stressed on Monday that his country does not need the permission of any nation in the world to deal with its internal political issues, rejecting calling Syria's current events a revolution or a spring.

"These are battles of wills first and foremost," Assad told Nasim Online news agency, adding that "the terrorist acts' aim is to destroy the country".

Assad said: "What we are going through is a regional and an international battle, and saying the festivities will end within weeks is illogical".

"We will come out victorious despite the complication of these tactic and strategic battles," he expressed.

Assad commented on some regional countries' stances towards Syria's war: "Turkey is directly responsible for the bloodshed here".

According to Assad, the Turkish people, however, were able to resist to "financial and media campaigns that tried to divert their viewpoints".

"We are trying to build and preserve relations with the people not the governments, as these will not stay in power forever," he explained.

The Syrian president added: "Some nations support Syria but are not able control the flow of weapons and logistic aid to terrorists".

"There is a particularity to the battles in Homs as fighters there are constantly supplied with weapons," Assad said, adding that another factor that makes the festivities in this city standout is its proximity to Leb.

"The presence of the Syrian forces in the cities aim at protecting citizens and the nation," he expressed.

Assad remarked: "The army is saving the country from external and internal plans, and its role conforms with the ideology and the policy of resistance that we have long adopted".
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Arab League: 'No Flicker of Hope' for Syria Envoy
[An Nahar] 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...
chief Nabil al-Arabi said Monday that Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's mission had not brought a "glimmer of hope" in ending the bloodshed, and urged U.N. action to enforce a ceasefire.

"All contacts (with the warring sides and international actors) made by Brahimi have thus far not yielded a glimmer of hope to end this crisis," Arabi told leaders meeting for an Arab League economic summit in Riyadh.

The head of the 22-member bloc urged the Arab leaders to call "the U.N. Security Council for an immediate meeting and to issue a resolution enforcing a ceasefire to stop the bloodbath".

He also called for an "international monitoring force to make sure that fighting has stopped".

More than 60,000 people have been killed in the conflict that erupted in March 2011 as a popular uprising against the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Terror of Aleppo ...
, according to U.N. figures.

Syria slammed Brahimi as biased and described his mission as "useless".

"It is clear that Brahimi is now out of the loop for the solution for Syria. He has taken sides, he is not a mediator," wrote the pro-regime daily al-Watan on Sunday.

"Brahimi is incapable of finding a solution to the Syrian crisis."
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa North
Egypt's Morsi Opposed to Mali Military Intervention
[An Nahar] Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi told fellow Arab leaders meeting in Riyadh on Monday that he opposes French-led military action in Mali against beturbanned fascisti.

"We do not accept at all the military intervention in Mali because that will fuel conflict in the region," Morsi said at the opening of an economic summit in the Saudi capital.
As opposed to what they have now...
French and Malian troops on Monday recaptured the key towns of Diabaly and Douentza in a major boost in their drive to rout al-Qaeda-linked rebels holding the country's vast, arid north.

But Egypt's Islamist president argued any intervention in Mali "should be peaceful," and called for funding on "development" in the African nation.

"We do not accept extremism, violence, or aggression against civilians, but also we do not want to create a new bloodbath," he said.
"So just let us have our way," he continued softly...
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


Africa Subsaharan
Pirates seize oil tanker in Ivory Coast, say officials
[FRANCE24] Armed men have hijacked a tanker carrying 5,000 tons of oil from an Ivory Coast port and taken it off the coast of Ghana, though its precise whereabouts are unknown, government authorities and maritime officials said Monday.

The Panamanian-flagged vessel ITRI was first seized Wednesday as the tanker was preparing to deposit oil at the port of Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial capital, said a statement from the Ivory Coast government - communicating for the first time on the case only Monday.

The statement said officials located the vessel off neighboring Ghana, and that authorities were mobilized.

The tanker, with 16 crew members aboard, was listed as missing, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's pirate reporting center in Malaysia. He could not release information about the nationalities of the crew, but said in many previous cases, the pirates released the crew after they had siphoned out the oil and obtained any valuable cargo.

The ship initially had trouble docking because a sand storm reduced visibility, a government statement said. Later, the ship's captain radioed the port manager to report difficulty maneuvering. Shortly afterward, contact was lost with the vessel. Then ship consignee Koda Maritime informed port officials that gunnies had taken control of the tanker.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Pirates

#1  It seems to me the easiest counter would be to Blow the tanker to hell, along with any Baddies on her.

Pity about the crew.
Boo Hoo.

There would be a GREAT lessining of Hijacks then.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/22/2013 5:01 Comments || Top||

#2  An old Korean fishing trawler crewed by a detachment of the Queen's Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment, based at Aldershot. No liberty until the coolers are full of heads. The cost should be minimal. The results noteworthy.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 6:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Couldnt dock because of a sand storm?, then had difficulties manouvering? - then taken by pirates? - With the plan that its just about the oil, not hostages. Hmmmm. Could be an inside the Bridge job.
Posted by: Northern Cousin || 01/22/2013 21:31 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
JUI rejects ANP moot against terrorism
[Dawn] Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam
...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spends more time running his madrassah. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability...
chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
has said that his party would not attend the all parties conference (APC) being convened by the Awami National Party for working out a strategy at the national level to counter terrorism.

Talking to media persons after addressing the condolence reference organised for former chief of Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
Qazi Hussain Ahmad
... third president (1987--2009) of the PakJamaat-e-Islami. Qazi was also head of the Muttahidah Majlis-e-Amal until his ego became bigger than the organization. Qazi is what is known as a fiery preacher, which means he has lots of volume, a good delivery, and not a lot of reverence for coherence. He was the patron of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Rasool Sayyaf and Osama bin Laden during the war against the Soviets. He used to recommend drinking camel's urine to maintain good health before his kidneys started to go...
at Nishtar Hall here on Sunday, Mr Rehman categorically said that his party would clean the mess left over by the ruling party in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
"The ANP has promoted terrorism and violence in the region and now the ruling party is trying to involve other parties to remove the dirt. We don't want to take the blame for the wrongdoings of others," he said when asked whether the JUI-F would attend the proposed APC.

The ANP has started contacting other political parties to participate in the conference being organised in the wake of liquidation of senior minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour in a suicide kaboom in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
on Dec 22, 2012. Several political parties have accepted the invitation. However,
there is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened...
the JUI-F is yet to receive any invitation.

Condemning the killing of 18 civilians in Bara, Khyber Agency, Mr Rehman said that there was complete lawlessness in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 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 tribal areas.

He said that governor's rule was imposed in Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
when the people staged a sit-in to protest against killings and lawlessness in Quetta, while the federal government had closed its eyes to the situation in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

He said that innocent people, including women and kiddies, were killed in the province, but nobody was taking notice.

"Our party strongly criticises this double standard," he remarked. He opposed Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
chairman Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight...
's demand that President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
should resign from the presidency before general election.

Earlier, addressing the condolence reference the JUI-F chief blamed external forces for ongoing wave of sectarianism in the country. He said that big powers were fuelling sectarianism to weaken Moslems.

The country's security agencies despite spending the taxpayers' money had failed to contain foreign interference in the country, he added.

He said that Pakistain was at the crossroads and people were killed on linguistic, sectarian and ethnic grounds. Political parties have to play their role to stop violence, he said and added that aggrandisement of Islam was their joint goal and they should
focus on it.

He paid tribute to late Qazi Hussain Ahmad who struggled for rule of law and democracy throughout his life.

He said that unity among Moslems was Qazi Sahab's top priority and for this purpose Milli Yakjehti Council and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal were formed.

Federal minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, Pakistain Moslem League (likeminded) president Senator Saleem Saifullah Khan, former Afghan prime minister Gulbadin Hekmatyar' aide Engineer Ghairat Baheer and others also addressed the reference.

JI's central general secretary Liaquat Bloch said that the death of Qazi Hussain Ahmad was a major loss for the Islamic
resistance forces across the world.

He said that the leader fought against dictatorship and served the cause of democracy.

He said that the country could not afford any type of adventurism or unconstitutional act and demanded free and fair election.

He said that honest people should be inducted in the caretaker setup for conducting elections. He urged religious parties to contest next general election from a JUI-F's no to APC Fazl blames ANP for promoting violence joint platform to defeat secular forces.

In Mansehra
...a city and an eponymous district in eastern Khyber-Pakthunwa, nestled snug up against Pak Kashmir, with Kohistan and Diamir to the north and Abbottabad to the south...
, leaders of political parties paid tribute to Qazi Hussain Ahmad and said that his services for the country and Moslem Ummah would be remembered for long.

"Qazi Hussain Ahmad struggled for enforcement of Shariah in the country and played an important role in formation of political alliances to steer the country out of crisis," said Javed Khan Swati, a PTI leader while speaking at a reference held here on Sunday.

Representatives of almost all political parties, labour unions, lawyers and journalists spoke on the occasion.

"Pakistain has been deprived of a seasoned religious scholar who laid the foundation of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal to brig people of different sects on a single platform," said JI leader Tariq Sherazi.

Besides others, traders body president Haroonur Rasheed, transport union's secretary general Pervez Khan and teachers association's president of Khalid Zaman also spoke on the occasion.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami


Iraq
Al Qaeda claims assassination of Sunni lawmaker in Iraq
[Al Ahram] Al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate said it had carried out a suicide kaboom that killed a Sunni Mohammedan politician last week as he toured a construction site in the westerly Anbar province, where Sunnis have been protesting against the government for three weeks.

Members of the Sunni minority accuse the Shi'ite-led government of marginalising them, and the wave of protests has raised fears that the OPEC country could again slide into widespread sectarian conflict.

The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an umbrella group for Al Qaeda-linked Sunni jihad boys, said it was responsible for the liquidation of Efan al-Esawi, describing him as the "dog of the Americans" and the "tail of the Shi'ites".

Esawi was one of the architects of the Sahwa tribal resistance that helped to subdue Al Qaeda-linked cut-throats battling US troops in the Sunni heartland of Anbar at the height of the conflict of the last decade.

Posing as a worker, the attacker hugged Efan al-Esawi before detonating an explosive vest, killing them both on the spot.

"He insisted on his disbelief, treachery and war against Mohammedans ... until he died at the hands of the mujahideen in his current state, to be an example and a lesson for those after him," the US-based SITE Intelligence Group quoted ISI as saying in a statement on Sunday.

The ISI also grabbed credit for other attacks in Anbar province and across the country, without giving details.

On Wednesday more than 35 people died in a suicide kaboom and other bombings in northern Iraq and Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...

Al Qaeda's Iraqi branch also voiced support for the Sunni protests and said it was fighting to "cut off the vein that is extending the life of the criminal Nusayri regime to kill your brothers in the Levant".

In neighbouring Syria, mainly Sunni rebels are fighting Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
, most of whose ruling establishment are members of the Shi'ite-derived Alawite or Nusayri sect, adding to the strain on Iraq's own delicate sectarian and ethnic balance.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq


India-Pakistan
Blast in Mohmand tribal region kills two security personnel
[Dawn] A blast in Mohmand tribal region's Dawezai area killed two security personnel and injured nine others, including three members of a peace committee, on Monday.

Assistant Political Agent Fahad Wazir said that the security forces vehicle was targeted in Kanra village of Dawezai in Pandyali Tehsil and that the vehicle was badly damaged in the attack.

"Two security personnel have died while five FC men and four khasadar
...a rural policeman in Pakistain or India...
s were inured in the blast, which appears to a remote controlled blast." he added.

The injured were shifted to the Agency Headquarters Hospital Ghalanai from where they were airlifted to 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.
via a helicopter.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Africa North
French Opposition Restless as Mali Mission Creep Fears Mount
[An Nahar] The backing President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it...
got at home for his military intervention in Mali was under increasing strain Monday as the opposition lamented that La Belle France was isolated and acting without clear objectives.
Happens just like clockwork, doesn't it?
"The isolation of La Belle France is a major problem, it is the central question," said Jean-Francois Cope, the leader of the right-wing UMP party.

With the scale of La Belle France's operation in its former colony seemingly expanding by the day, Cope demanded to know: "What are the objectives? Is it the fight against international terrorism? Against terrorism in this region? Is it to achieve the reunification of Mali?"

Hollande "must state what the criteria are for his considering that the objectives have been reached," Cope added in an interview with BFMTV.

La Belle France swept to the aid of the crippled Malian army on January 11, a day after hardline Islamists who had occupied the country's vast north since last April made a push south towards the capital Bamako.

Hollande said he had to make a snap decision to send in troops to prevent the entire country falling into the hands of Islamist bad boys.

French officials, most notably Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, initially portrayed the campaign as limited to halting the rebel advance, primarily involving the use of airpower and likely to be limited to a matter of weeks.

It has since emerged La Belle France could deploy up to 4,000 ground troops in its former colony and Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Sunday redefined the objectives of the campaign in a manner that will have exacerbated opposition fears over "mission creep."
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Arabia
Air Raid on Qaida in Yemen Kills 4
[An Nahar] Four suspected Al-Qaeda bully boyz were killed in an air raid that targeted their vehicle on Monday, Yemen's Defense Ministry announced, after tribal sources earlier said strikes by U.S. drones killed two.

"Four Al-Qaeda bad boyz were potted in an air raid today," said the Defense Ministry's news website 26sep.net, adding the attack took place on the road between Marib province, an Al-Qaeda stronghold, and Sanaa.

Tribal sources said earlier on Monday that two U.S. drone strikes targeting a vehicle killed two suspected Al-Qaeda bully boyz on a road between Marib and Al-Jawf, northeast of Sanaa.

The attack was carried out on a vehicle carrying five members of the group, the tribal sources said, adding that three had managed to flee.

"Two Al-Qaeda bully boyz were killed in two drone strikes that targeted their vehicle" in Nakhla, a town 140 kilometers (87 miles) northeast of Sanaa, one source said.

Those killed were identified as Qasem Naser Tuaiman and Ali Saleh Tuaiman.

The two had been in a prison a year ago for joining Al-Qaeda but on their release headed to the southern province of Abyan
...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues...
where they joined jihadists fighting the army, the sources added.

The latest strike against the krazed killer network comes after air raids attributed to a U.S. drone killed nine suspected members of the group on Saturday.

Monday's raid brings to at least 27 the number of people killed in suspected U.S. drone strikes since December 24.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Afghanistan
Prince Harry Ends Afghan Tour, Says Killed Taliban
[An Nahar] Britannia's Prince Harry said he killed Taliban fighters during his stint as a helicopter gunner in Afghanistan, in comments that can be reported after he completed his tour of duty Monday.

Harry, third in line to the throne, spent a 20-week posting flying scores of missions over the restive southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
Province in an Apache attack chopper.

The 28-year-old said Islamist snuffies were put "out of the game" and described life in Britannia's sprawling Camp Bastion base, where he slept in a tent and a shipping container.

Asked by Britannia's Press Association if he had killed from the cockpit, Harry said: "Yeah, so lots of people have.

"The squadron's been out here. Everyone's fired a certain amount.

"Take a life to save a life," he shrugged. "That's what we revolve around, I suppose.

"If there's people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we'll take them out of the game.

"As soon as we're outside the fence, we're in the thick of it.

"We fire when we have to... but essentially we're more of a deterrent than anything else."

Harry spoke to news hounds on three occasions during his time in Afghanistan under an agreement which only allowed the interviews to be released once he left the war zone.

The prince supported allied troops fighting the Taliban at close quarters and accompanied British and US helicopters on missions to evacuate casualties.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Talibunnies are not 'appy, not 'appy at all.
'This isn't a game': Taliban labels Harry a 'coward' for comparing Afghan conflict with computer games after he reveals he has killed enemy
Prince Harry has been accused of handing the Taliban a ‘propaganda victory’ after admitting he had killed insurgents on deployment in Afghanistan.

The third-in-line-to-the-throne was also accused of being ‘arrogant and insensitive’, particularly over unguarded comments that he had honed his skills as an Apache attack helicopter gunner on his gaming machines.

The prince also drew criticism for his unusual admission that he had been personally responsible for the deaths of Taliban fighters as a helicopter pilot and gunner.

The shadow defence secretary suggested that Harry had been overly 'candid' in discussing his role in the fighting - and experts warned he had made himself 'a prime target'.



Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 18:22 Comments || Top||

#2  The red-haired prince is, unlike Charles, not risk averse.

And his unit all get credit from him. Good.
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2013 19:43 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Exotic dancers spar over $1
[POSTCRESCENT] Two dancers on stage at an exotic dance club in Juneau got into a physical fight over $1, according to a Dodge County Sheriff's Department report.
Can you still call it "exotic dancing"? It's pretty common now, isn't it?
Officers were called to Silk Exotic around 9:30 p.m. Thursday to break up the fight.
"Hello? Izzis 911? Shay, lissen! We gotta exotic catfight goin' on here..."
"Calling all cars...Calling all cars! Stripper catfight at the Silk Exotic."
"We'll take it chief!"
"No! We will!"
"No! That's in our area!"
"No! That's us!"

A customer was trying to give a dollar to one of the dancers, but the other dancer took it, according to the report.
"Outta m'way, Shirley! That's my buck!"
"Back off, Blanche!"

"I'll cut ya, bitch! I'll cut ya!"
Both women fell to the floor, pulled each other's hair and punched and slapped each other. Other dancers and customers separated the women.
"Harry! They're at it again! Get the jello! Quick!"
"Shouldn't we break this up?.......It was just a thought."
One of the dancers involved in the fight is pregnant.
Boy, howdy! That's what I wanna see: a nekkid 11-month pregnant pole dancer with a grudge.
Both women were cited for disorderly conduct.
One of 'em was cited for disorderly pregnant conduct.
Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls said calls to the club are rare.
"Nope. No more'n once, maybe twice a week..."
"We usually have men in the vicinity. Usually at the bar..."
"I was surprised by this as we seldom receive calls for service from this business -- this is a rare exception," he said.
"Yeah. I wuz really surprised. Usually they're so ladylike. But y'gotta admit, it wuz a pretty good show for a buck!"
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ..next on Springer...
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/22/2013 9:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Get off the table, Mable, the dollar's for the beer!
Posted by: Guillibaldo Johnson4614 || 01/22/2013 12:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Never happen at the Bush Co.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 14:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Some things never fade away.
Exotic Dancers, 1890s
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 15:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Keep the lights low, the music loud and my glass full -- and you'll have your dollar.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/22/2013 16:30 Comments || Top||

#6  See:
"A lap dance is so much better when the stripper is crying" - Bloodhound Gang
Posted by: Frank G || 01/22/2013 16:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Sittin' ona curb with a pint of rosie, I seen two strippers fightin' over a dollar bill. Signs and portents, I sez. Welcome to Obamaville - coming to a city near you.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/22/2013 19:54 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Daring Prison Break Thwarted in Roumieh
[An Nahar] A massive escape attempt from Roumieh prison has been thwarted after guards found ropes linking the observation tower to the facility's outer wall, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

NNA said that the inmates had lowered four 17-meter ropes from the tower to the outer wall of the building where convicts are incarcerated.

The prisoners had also cut the iron barriers that separate the building and the tower, which meant that the escape route was open and the operation was in its last stages, NNA added.

Judge Fadi Zaenni headed to Roumieh to investigate the incident and guards launched a headcount to check if anyone had managed to escape.

Last month, guards thwarted an attempt by around 20 Fatah al-Islam
A Syrian-incubated al-Qaeda work-alike that they think can be turned off if no longer needed to keep the Leb pot stirred.
inmates to escape from Roumieh, the oldest and largest of Leb's overcrowded prisons.

They had cut iron bars at the prison's library and were seeking to dig a hole in the wall of the workshop that had been burned in previous riots when the plot was uncovered.

The military tribunal charged in November a Lebanese man and two Syrians with helping three Fatah al-Islam inmates escape from the same prison.

The three men were also charged with facilitating a prison break attempt by another inmate, who was planning to wear a black Islamic veil and climb down using a rope from bloc B where the Islamist inmates are incarcerated.

In October, a scandal erupted after it was reported that three Fatah al-Islam prisoners fled the jail the month before.

In another major prison break from Roumieh, five inmates from the terror network managed to escape in August 2011.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam


Africa North
Tunisian professor accuses imams of promoting jihad
[MAGHAREBIA] A top Tunisian academic is accusing religious leaders of supporting extremism, Tunisie Numerique reported on Monday (January 21st).

Alaya Alani, a professor of contemporary history at Manouba University, told Radio Tataouine that imams in mosques were encouraging Tunisian youths to participate in jihad in Mali and Syria.

He urged the government to put an end to this "indoctrination".
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Imams love jihad and the govt keeps the unemployment down by letting the youth go abroad.
Posted by: Glosh Smith8260 || 01/22/2013 5:45 Comments || Top||


French seize control of Diabaly, Douentza
[USATODAY] French troops in armored personnel carriers rolled through the streets of Diabaly on Monday, winning praise from residents of this besieged town after Malian forces retook control of it with French help a week after radical Salafists Islamists invaded.
It'll take awhile to knock together a few stories about French and/or govt atrocities. Be sure they'll come.
The Salafists Islamists also have deserted the town of Douentza, which they had held since September, according to a local official who said French and Malian forces arrived there on Monday as well.

The thugs' occupation of Diabaly marked their deepest encroachment into government-held territory, and Monday's retaking of the town is a significant victory for the French-led intervention.

Diabaly, located about 320 miles north of the capital of Bamako, fell into rebel hands on Jan. 14. Residents said those who fled in the aftermath were forced to escape on foot through rice fields.

"We are truly really grateful to the French who came in the nick of time," said Gaoussou Kone, 34, the head of a local youth association. "Without the French, not only would there no longer be a Diabaly, there would soon no longer be a Mali. These people wanted to go all the way to Bamako."
There'll be stooges lining up soon to demonstrate against the Frenchies. Everyone will pretend not to know who's driving them.
On Monday, all that remained of the Islamists were the charred shells of their vehicles destroyed by the French air strikes. Three of them were clustered in one location, the machine gun cannon of one still pointing skyward.

The cluster of rebel vehicles was directly in front of the home of an elderly man, Adama Nantoume, who said the French bombs started falling at around 11 p.m. the same day that the Islamists occupied Diabaly.

"I was at home, sitting like this against the wall," he said, showing how he had hugged his knees to his chest in a fetal position. "The plane came and the bombs started to fall. After that, I saw that the cars had caught on fire. And the kabooms were so loud that for awhile I thought I had gone deaf. I was suffocated by the smoke and the light burned my eyes. The gas made me cry."

Islamists had seized Diabaly just days after the French began their military operation on Jan. 11. The offensive is aimed at stopping the Islamists from encroaching toward the capital in Mali's south from their strongholds in the vast, desert north where they have been amputating the hands of thieves and forcing women to wear veils over the last nine months.

Malian military officials reported late Saturday that they had retaken the town after Islamists fled, but French officials later said Sunday that the town had not been recaptured.

On Monday, about 200 French infantrymen supported by six combat helicopters and reconnaissance planes made their way to Diabaly.

News Agency that Dare Not be Named news hounds saw French troops in camouflage uniforms take up positions in front of a Malian military camp in the town on Monday.

"With the help of the French troops it's reassuring, but we must search, and search some more. There may still be a few pockets of enemy resistance," said a Malian army commander who gave only his last name, Samassa.

The Islamist fighters had insinuated themselves with civilians before leaving, so there was a possibility that some had remained. Malian soldiers on Diabaly's outskirts set up a roadblock south of the town where they checked the identity papers of travelers.

Farther north in Douentza, local town adviser Sali Maiga told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that French and Malian forces came into the town around 11 a.m. local time to find no sign of the beturbanned fascisti.

The thugs, who captured Douentza back in September, had deserted the town last week, Maiga said.

In an interview with La Belle France-5 TV, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the air strikes in Mali had caused "significant" -- though unspecified -- losses among the jihadists, and only minor skirmishes involved French forces on the ground.

Meanwhile,
...back at the alley, Slats grabbed his rosco...
the bad turban group behind the deadly hostage crisis in Algeria threatened more attacks against foreign targets if La Belle France does not bring an immediate halt to its military operation in Mali.

In a statement, the Masked Brigade warned of more such attacks against any country backing La Belle France's military intervention in Mali.

"We promise all the countries that participated in the Crusader campaign ... that we will carry out more operations if they do not reverse their decision," it said, according to a transcript released by SITE Intelligence Group.

La Belle France has said that African nations must take the lead though it could be some weeks before they are ready to do so.

La Belle France has said that some 400 troops from Nigeria, Togo and Benin had arrived Sunday in Bamako to help train an African force for Mali. Troops from Chad, who are considered hardened fighters familiar with the desert-like terrain of northern Mali, also have arrived, Le Drian said.

A top official with the West African regional bloc said Sunday the cost of the African intervention could top $500 million.

ECOWAS Commission President Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, who gave an interview to state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
in Ivory Coast, said the initial estimate "may vary depending on the needs" of the mission and the situation on the ground.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Africa Subsaharan
G.Bissau President Says May Post-Coup Poll 'Impossible'
[An Nahar] Guinea-Bissau's interim President Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo said a general election planned for May after a 12-month post-coup transition would be "impossible".

"It was planned that at the end of the transition, there would be general elections in May 2013. That is impossible. Technically there are still a lot of things to do," Nhamadjo said in remarks published in local media on Monday.

He said the situation had been explained to regional leaders during an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meeting in Abidjan on Saturday.

"Everyone understood the difficulties we are facing and approved our proposition to push the elections to a later date," he said, without giving a new date for the poll.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Suicide Attack Kills 30 in Hama as Bomb Rocks Wealthy Damascus District
[An Nahar] More than 30 people, both civilians and pro-regime militiamen, were killed Monday in a suicide boom-mobileing in the town of Salmiyeh in the central province of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, reporting another blast in an upscale Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
district.

A high-ranking regime official confirmed to Agence La Belle France Presse that dozens were killed in the Hama attack, which the Britannia-based Observatory said targeted a building used by loyalist paramilitary fighters.

The watchdog gave an initial toll of "30 members of the armed pro-regime people's committees killed in a boom-mobile in front of their headquarters in Salmiyeh in eastern Hama province."

Citing medical sources, the Observatory said there were civilians among the dead and the number of fatalities could rise well over 50 with dozens maimed or at death's door.

State news agency SANA also reported the blast, saying that "a terrorist suicide boom-mobile exploded in the heart of Salmiyeh, leaving a number of people killed and others maimed".

It said that the maimed were being transported to area hospitals.

Earlier on Monday, a powerful kaboom rocked the upscale Damascus district of Dumar, the Observatory said, adding the blast caused an unknown number of deaths.

Dumar is one of seven wealthier districts that straddle Damascus from northwest to southeast.

The rebel Free Syrian Army has no presence in these districts, which are populated by higher income groups who fear instability and want to preserve their economic interests.

But even the heart of Damascus has not been spared the violence, having been hit by a series of spectacular attacks, mainly claimed by jihadist groups, including twin suicide boom-mobileings that struck Umayyad Square in the city center in September.

To operate in inner districts of Damascus at all, the rebels rely on rear bases in the outskirts of the city where the army is locked in a protracted battle to push them back.

The blasts came as 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...
chief Nabil al-Arabi said the mission of the international peace envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has so far not even "yielded a glimmer of hope" to end the country's 22-month conflict.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa North
Many Hostages Killed 'with Bullet to Head'
[An Nahar] Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said five foreigners were still missing and that several of the hostages had been executed "with a bullet to the head" as the four-day crisis ended in a bloodbath on Saturday.

The premier gave the final grim figures after Algeria had warned other nations to prepare for a higher body count, amid fears as many as 50 captives may have died in the world's deadliest hostage crisis in almost a decade.

He said the group's leader was Mohamed el-Amine Bencheneb, an Algerian militant known to the country's security services, and was killed during the army's assault.
Of the Yellowknife Benchenebs...
A total of 29 hostage-takers were killed and three captured. As well as the three Algerians among them, the kidnappers comprised six foreign nationalities, namely Canadian, Egyptian, Tunisian, Malian, Nigerien and Mauritanian.

Survivors' photos seen by Agence France Presse showed bodies riddled with bullets, some with their heads half blown away by the impact of the gunfire.

"They were brutally executed," said an Algerian who identified himself as Brahim, after escaping the ordeal, referring to Japanese victims gunned down by the hostage-takers.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said seven Japanese people were known to have been killed in the hostage crisis, the first confirmation from Tokyo that any of its nationals had died. Witnesses had said nine Japanese people connected to plant builder JGC were killed in the 72-hour ordeal.

One Japanese survivor was quoted in the Daily Yomiuri newspaper as telling colleagues how the gunmen had dragged him from his barricaded room, handcuffed him and executed two hostages standing nearby.

The Philippine government said six Filipino hostages were among the dead, killed "mostly by gunshot wounds and the effects of the explosions."

As more harrowing accounts emerged of the siege, a Filipino survivor described how the militants used foreign hostages as human shields to stop Algerian troops aboard helicopters from strafing them with gunfire.

Joseph Balmaceda told reporters in Manila he was the only survivor out of nine hostages in a van that blew up on Thursday, apparently from C-4 explosives the militants had rigged to the vehicle.

"I was the only one who survived because I was sandwiched between two spare tires. That is why I am still here and can talk to you," said the visibly distressed father of four.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  The only civilized thing to do here is hunt the perps down like rats at the dump. Drone strikes, Delta Force, Letters of Marque & Reprisal, hunt them for sport, whatever it takes. Hell, create a Kickstarter project if the govt won't step up. We are at war, in case you haven't noticed.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/22/2013 0:12 Comments || Top||

#2  'execute' is the wrong word.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/22/2013 0:25 Comments || Top||

#3  in round figures - I expected about 50 hostages dead. However, all of the terrorists (with the possible exception of 3-5) were also killed. this raises the stakes in the coveert war in the Sahara. "Take no prisoners" is the new call ... it's going to be a rough game from here on out.
Posted by: Raider || 01/22/2013 0:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Correct, Anguper; 'execute' indicates there was an offense for which they were killed. The correct term is 'murder.'
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/22/2013 9:11 Comments || Top||

#5  From now on, the old movie cliche of taking one or two hostage and putting a gun to their heads while demanding everyone else drop their guns isn't going to play out very well either.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/22/2013 9:19 Comments || Top||

#6  [the Johnsons load their guns and point them at Bart. Bart then points his own pistol at his head]
Bart: [low voice] Hold it! Next man makes a move, the n****r gets it!
Olson Johnson: Hold it, men. He's not bluffing.
Dr. Sam Johnson: Listen to him, men. He's just crazy enough to do it!
Bart: [low voice] Drop it! Or I swear I'll blow this n****r's head all over this town!
Bart: [high-pitched voice] Oh, lo'dy, lo'd, he's desp'it! Do what he sayyyy, do what he sayyyy!
[Townspeople drop their guns. Bart jams the gun into his neck and drags himself through the crowd towards the station]
Harriet Johnson: Isn't anybody going to help that poor man?
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/22/2013 9:54 Comments || Top||

#7  For the record, The NVA would routinely execute our wounded on the field of battle. That was why we moved heaven and earth to account for everyone and get the wounded off the field and to the aid station.

We would kill one by accident and the press has a hissy fit and they would routinely kill dozens of our wounded.

With these vermin, they are mad dogs and should be shot (but only after some aggressive interrogation to drain their brains of every last bit of information).
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 01/22/2013 10:42 Comments || Top||

#8  Also, notice the coronation of the new "monster of monsters", the "Marlboro Man", one-eyed terrorist mastermind Mokhtar Belmokhtar!

Time for a two minutes hate?
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 01/22/2013 11:28 Comments || Top||

#9  Pronounced: Möktar
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 11:36 Comments || Top||

#10  Glenmore, next line fits:
Dr Samuel Johnston: 'Hush Harriet, that's a sure way to get him killed'.
Posted by: Angairong Spaiger6091 || 01/22/2013 16:50 Comments || Top||

#11  I don't know that we have the stomach in the higher echelons of power to conduct a war with the ROEs of WWII. Many in Washington are distracted and too much in awe of what Michele was wearing to the various inauguration events. The tingling up Chris Matthews leg has returned. Fawning sycophants. Algeria hasn't gotten much attention in the MSM. They are too busy carrying water.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/22/2013 18:29 Comments || Top||

#12  Thanks, #6 Glenmore. :-D

Gawd, I miss Cleavon Little.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/22/2013 19:14 Comments || Top||

#13  From now on, the old movie cliche of taking one or two hostage and putting a gun to their heads while demanding everyone else drop their guns isn't going to play out very well either.

That is a a tired old movie trope that I've never heard being played out in real life.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 01/22/2013 19:16 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Bracken: When The Music Stops – How America’s Cities May Explode In Violence
I believe we can safely replace "May Explode" with Will Explode.
I also believe the panic buying of weapons we see today is a reflection of that fear.
Posted by: Glaling Ebbuper4150 || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Surely seems to have done his homework.

As I've said before, I'm just waiting for it to start so we can clean the mess up and get back to where we should be.
Posted by: Orion || 01/22/2013 0:45 Comments || Top||

#2  A good video is worth a thousand words.
Posted by: Secret Master || 01/22/2013 0:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Interesting theory but ignores that cell service would go away almost immediately, either deliberately or from lack of service. After that there would be no "flash mobs". Doesn't mean that things couldn't get "interesting", just not quite as described. Especially in less populated areas and Red States....
Posted by: tipover || 01/22/2013 0:47 Comments || Top||

#4  The pecking order for $$$ will be lower under "Globalist" OWG + OWG NAU than under the present "Nationalist" order.

WILL BE MUCHO LOWER OR WORSER STILL IFF THE GLOBIES + ALIGNED EVER DECIDE TO DEV LEVELS OF GOVERNANCE HIGHER THAN NAU BUT STILL BELOW OWG, e.g "Trans-Global/Continental Federal Unions".

Trans-American + Trans-Atlantic/Pacific + Trans-Hemisphere + ....

LUNAR???

lol.

AND - SURPRISE, SURPRISE - STILL NO US NATIONAL OR EVEN STATE-WIDE VOTE ON SAME.

[AL "WHAT A SHOCK [Not]" BUNDY here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 0:54 Comments || Top||

#5  I've been thinking about what's the end game for currency debasement? The writer under-estimates how bad it will be and then there is internationally. Egypt only produces half of the food it consumes. It will get very bad, very quickly in a lot of places.

The scenario I came up with is Germany, the UK, Switzerland and some E European states introduce a new gold backed currency that can be exchanged for gold on demand like the old Bank of England.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/22/2013 1:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Entirely possible Phil. When that day comes, Champ will 'go totally FDR' and issue an EO banning the private ownership of gold as well as silver. We'll get the worthless script, he'll have the new currency.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 1:36 Comments || Top||

#7  What will they call the new currency?

The Hansea.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/22/2013 2:56 Comments || Top||

#8  A good video is worth a thousand words.

Be nice if it WAS a good cideo, just whiney Country make believe.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/22/2013 4:47 Comments || Top||

#9  The sniper stuff near the end reminded me of the tactics of the Beltway Sniper. He used a car and shot from the trunk.

Posted by: BrerRabbit || 01/22/2013 6:13 Comments || Top||

#10  Interesting theory but ignores that cell service would go away almost immediately, either deliberately or from lack of service.

Get a handheld CB Radio, and/or something in the 2 meter class. Join a HAM club, get involved. I could say a lot more but why give away the farm.
Posted by: Rupert Omegum8398 || 01/22/2013 10:41 Comments || Top||

#11  Get your Danger Swag while you may.
Posted by: newc || 01/22/2013 11:04 Comments || Top||

#12  Only criticism I have is that the article assumes that food stamps would be the first to be cut. If you look at Rome, entitlement were the last to be cut. Pay for security, army navy etc. were the first to be cut(sequestering?)and security was subcontracted out to outlying barbarian tribes. When they didn't get paid they went over to the invading tribes. Rome itself had ceased to be military orientated. It's citizens had become "soft" and indulged in the new Christian concept of otherworld rewards, i.e Hope and change.
Thirty years after the fall of Rome a visitor to Rome said all that was there was brigands and wild animals.
Posted by: tipper || 01/22/2013 12:37 Comments || Top||

#13  Foods stamps are the Holy Grail of this administration. They may not be cut, but hyperinflation and shortages could make them (along with the USD) virtually worthless.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 12:46 Comments || Top||

#14  Only criticism I have is that the article assumes that food stamps would be the first to be cut.

Don't need food stamps for food that never shows up. Once the food stores are looted, who's going to rebuild them fast enough for restocking, if anyone is willing to drive a delivery truck to the store in the first place. Then there are the rail lines and long distance truckers that move the bulk of the food which will reroute around troubled areas.

The intricacies of a very elaborate system of the free market provide that foodstuff, not to mention that magic electrical switch that turns on and off the light, do not survive anarchy. These concepts are beyond the immediate gratification of the mob, until the days after when they have to start roving to find replenishment. They'll quickly become aware that 'free' has been funded and operated by others who don't work for free. Not that they'll care beyond their aching stomachs, because they've been told their owed it because of something that was common in all cultures over a hundred years ago. If enough cities explode, there's not enough manpower or sympathy around to alleviate such a self inflicted wound.
Posted by: Spanky Clineter1354 || 01/22/2013 13:44 Comments || Top||

#15  Spanky Clineter1354=Procopius2K

and forgive me for a finger twitch double post.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/22/2013 13:45 Comments || Top||

#16  Tipper -- the Roman government imported and distributed the food; they didn't have third parties handling the distribution.

P2k had it right -- the breakdown in food will be that the trucks won't run when the drivers are pulled from their cabs and beaten, the food won't be edible after fires bring down the local power grid, and the stores won't be staffed when the commute to and from work means risking murder.

Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/22/2013 14:23 Comments || Top||

#17  Some Korean War perspective:

Popular uprisings against Communist governments usually fail. The ruthlessness of the Communist security and counterinsurgency forces generally serves to limit the support of anti-Communist rebellions.

So it was in Korea. The Communist regime in the North, aided by the Chinese, had such tight controls over the people and their movements that operating on the mainland was extremely difficult. Identification and pass cards were constantly changed and checked by NKPA security forces. Strangers coming into an area were easily spotted and monitored. The partisans could go in and out of the coastal areas with some ease. But along the major supply lines and deep in the North Korea there were tight security controls they could not avoid. Denying people their civil and individual rights to stamp out fledgling insurgency is never a worry for Communist-controlled regimes.

In these situations concern for personal safety among the general population often outweighs the need for political change. Support of the people generally will go to whichever side offers them the greatest security and the opportunity to continue life as safely and as normally as possible, no matter what the restrictions. The great mass of politically neutral people will favor that side which affords it the greatest protection. In the case of the people of North Korea it was the Communist government.


Ben S. Malcom COL(Ret) US Army, White Tigers, My Secret War in North Korea, COL, Brassey's 1996, pp. 36-37.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 14:26 Comments || Top||

#18  I agree with tipover. Unless the whole essay takes place in a long weekend the rioters will run out of food and bullets fairly quickly, cell service will go down and the power will probably be cut to their areas as they are pacified. They would turn on each other before they threatened neighboring areas for long.

The whole thing assumes a tepid police response when the rioters have escallated everything. I just don't see that. Just watching the police in the last few decades indicated to me that overreaction is a very real possibility in many areas.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/22/2013 15:01 Comments || Top||

#19  Good point RJ. A simple escalation of the "turning on each other" taking place right now.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2013 15:13 Comments || Top||

#20  The gun check waiting time in Colorado has changed from 11 minutes, (my last purchase), to over a week. There's a message there.
Posted by: Angairong Spaiger6091 || 01/22/2013 16:18 Comments || Top||

#21  rj, I think Bracken was assuming that the police would be too badly outnumbered to handle things. Wikipedia says Chicago has 12K police. The population of the city is over 2M. One estimate claims it has 68K gang members.

If things erupted along racial lines, it would seem more likely that the white cops would retreat and attempt to protect the north district and abandon the rest. I have no idea what racial attitudes are like in the police force; the result might be better.
Posted by: James || 01/22/2013 20:25 Comments || Top||

#22  See: LAPD, 1992.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/22/2013 21:25 Comments || Top||

#23  My point is that once the food is looted those areas will tear into each other. The cops don't have to go into the rioting areas, they just need to contain and wait. The bulk of the gangbangers and troublemakers are not actual soldiers and there is a world of difference between a soldier (a lot of cops are ex-military these days) and a thug.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/22/2013 22:03 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Terror and the law
[Dawn] THE criminal justice system of Pakistain stands on three pillars: investigation, prosecution and the judiciary.
...and the pillars sink firmly in the quicksand of corruption.
In a case registered under the Anti-Terrorist Act (ATA), 1997, the trial courts are the anti-terrorism courts (ATCs).

The duty of the police as the investigation agency is to trace the culprits and collect evidence against them, and forward that to the prosecution department within the stipulated period. The latter is statutorily bound to scrutinise the report under the law and if the case is fit to be tried, send it to the trial court. The judiciary has only one duty: to deliver justice.

Terrorism has been exhaustively defined in Section 6 of the ATA, and the country's superior courts declare any "action" an act of terrorism if it is "designed to" coerce the government or to incite sectarianism etc.

The ATA is a mixture of two kinds of law, substantive and procedural. The former lays out what to do. For instance, the Pakistain Penal Code (PPC) identifies the punishment for offences -- duration of imprisonment, etc. Procedural law, however, explains how to go about it, e.g. the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), 1898, stipulates the way the to carry out these punishments, etc. The ATA, 1997, includes both sorts of law.

The provisions of the ATA contain, to some extent, substantive law, but the law is mainly procedural. The CrPC has been made applicable to proceedings before special courts under the ATA. This means that the ATA emphasises procedure which is different from a normal criminal trial, such as special courts and speedy trials.

However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
whenever the ATA is silent on procedure, the law as applied in usual criminal trials and in the CrPC prevails. The ATA is not exhaustive in nature, and thus the CrPC and the Qanoon-e-Shahadat (the law of evidence) and judgments of the higher courts are used in aid of the ATA to reach decisions.

In Pakistain, two kinds of law are applicable: general law (the PPC, CrPC, the Code of Civil Procedure and the Contract Act, etc) which is applicable to the public on the lam, and special law which is applicable in special circumstances or meant for special ties between parties (family laws, civil service laws, rent-control laws, banking laws and the anti-terrorism law).

Both special and general laws sometimes clash in their applicability and procedure, and it is a settled principle that whenever there is such a clash the special law prevails. Thus, the ATA being a special law, its provisions will always override the provisions of general law.

The ATCs are creations of the ATA. This essentially means that ATCs, like other sessions (criminal) courts in Pakistain, follow established principles of the criminal justice system evolved by the Supreme Court. Thus, when a suspect is sent to the ATC to be tried under the ATA, he is initially presumed to be innocent and the onus is on the prosecution to prove his guilt beyond any reasonable shadow of doubt.

The ATA interacts with some other laws as well. The provisions of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2002, for instance, are to be read with other laws, including the Narcotic Substances Act, 1967, and the ATA.

This means that when children commit crimes in the ambit of terrorism, they will be tried under juvenile courts rather than ATA courts. However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate...
there are exceptions. Since many jacket wallahs whose missions have been aborted are juveniles, they have been apprehended under the ATA rather than the law specific to juveniles. This needs to be reviewed.

Special courts such as the ATCs are competent to entertain a private complaint directly. A private complaint can be sent to an ATC by a complainant or a prosecution agency without first approaching a magistrate's court. However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them...
this rarely occurs in terrorist cases and most submissions (challans) to the court are submitted by the police.

It is a settled principle in the ATA that the armed and civil armed forces can facilitate the government in emergencies. Legal cover is provided to special situations such as the counterinsurgency operation in Swat.

Section 5 of the ATA gives power to police and the armed forces to use force against the bully boyz to stop them, but the same power is subject to Article 14 of the constitution, which states that the dignity of man and the privacy of his home, subject to the law, are inviolable.

An important aspect of the act, highlighted by the Supreme Court, is that terrorism is a sine qua non for applying the provision contained in Section 6 of the ATA. Terrorism can hardly be determined without examining the nature and gravity of the offence, FIR contents, the effect on society and evidence that is already on record.

Section 7 of the ATA determines the punishment of the crime committed, and it is in the hands of the police to determine -- after hearing out the complainant -- whether the occurrence falls under Section 6, and under what category of Section 7 of the ATA it will be tried.

Notwithstanding the legal problems, there is much that can be done within the ambit of the ATA to improve the functioning of the ATCs.

Perhaps some sort of judicial task force on reform and effective implementation of the ATA could be set up with a mandate to look into the flaws in Pakistain's anti-terrorism laws and the difficulties in effectively implementing them.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Speculation grows over 'French jihadist' in Algeria
[FRANCE24] French and Algerian intelligence sources claim that at least one of the hard boyz who staged the deadly takeover at the In Amenas gas plant was a French national, according to media reports on Monday, but Gay Paree says it cannot verify the information.

A French jihadist was among the bully boy hard boyz who staged last week's deadly takeover of the In Amenas gas plant in the Algerian desert and sparked a hostage situation that ended in tragedy over the weekend, according to intelligence and judicial sources in Algiers and Gay Paree quoted by a French newspaper.

Citing unnamed police and justice ministry sources, Le Gay Pareeien wrote on Monday there was "at least one Frenchie" in the Islamist group. Frédéric Helbert, an investigative news hound specialising in counter-terrorism, said Algerian intelligence sources confirmed there was one Frenchie in the commando unit and provided the alleged terrorist's name to La Belle France's DCRI domestic security agency.

The information appeared to add weight to media reports that began circulating last Friday, after hostages who survived the original terrorist siege, and two bloody Algerian operations to retake the gas facility, said some of the hard boyz spoke French and English, besides Arabic.

Helbert also wrote on his blog that a source at La Belle France's DCRI agency said the name provided by Algerian intelligence could not be found on any of his agency's files.

The source wondered if the Algerians had provided false information to lead French Sherlocks off course, citing a bitter feud between French and Algerian intelligence agencies dating back to the Algerian war of independence.

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls told news hounds on January 20 he "did not believe" there was a French jihadist in In Amenas, warning the press about relaying false "rumours".

In an interview with Le Gay Pareeien, Yves Trotignon, a former member of La Belle France' DGSE spy agency, said: "We will find out if there were Tunisians, Libyans, Chadians, but also Salafists
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
from Europe."

Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the veteran Algerian Islamist fighter, grabbed credit for the attack in a video in which he said it had been carried out by forty jihadists "from different Moslem countries, and even from Europe".

The alleged French jihadist was reportedly killed during one of the rescue missions by Algerian forces.

The final corpse count from the hostage crisis remains unclear, with Algerian authorities expected to give more information on the assault on Monday afternoon. At least one French hostage died at In Amenas, according to reports.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  Canadian Frenchie???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/22/2013 0:29 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Lal Masjid operation: Dead man blamed for sabotaging talks
[Dawn] Perhaps inspired by the proverb 'dead men tell no tale' the Islamabad administration is now pointing finger at a former official of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) for his role in sabotaging the negotiations with the Lal Masjid administration that led to the military operation in 2007.

According to the written reply the Islamabad administration submitted to the one-man commission of Justice Shehzado Sheikh of Federal Shariat Court (FSC), Khalid Khawaja, the former spy, was a close friend of Lal Masjid chief holy man Maulana Abdul Aziz and his brother Ghazi Abdul Rasheed.

He disrupted the negotiations between the local administration and the management of the mosque which led to the military operation in which 103 people, including 11 military personnel, were killed, said the reply.

"Khawaja had very strong and effective influence over the management of Lal Masjid/Jamia Hafsa particularly Ghazi Abdul Rasheed, Maulana Abdul Aziz and Umme Hassan. This fact transpired when after a successful negotiations with Ghazi Abdul Rasheed regarding handing over of the children library to the ministry of education, the local administration officials reached Lal Masjid in the evening.

All of a sudden, Khawaja along with 10-12 female students appeared on the scene and opposed the decision. His refusal prevailed upon both the brothers and the possession of the library could not be restored to the ministry of education."

The reply added, "Khawaja was also requested to intervene and resolve the issue of the children library but he responded negatively. He used his influence upon the brothers just to add fuel to the fire."

It said the district administration tried its level best to persuade Khawaja as well.

On failure, he was jugged
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
in June 2007 (a month prior to the operation) under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) and Security of Pakistain Act 1952. The management of Lal Masjid always demanded his release.

According to the reply, Khawaja was released on June 23, 2007, and after his release some Chinese nationals were kidnapped by the students of Lal Masjid.

The Islamabad administration also referred to the capture and murder of Khawaja by the Taliban and added: "Before his murder, Khawaja delivered a speech, which was also uploaded on 'Youtube' by his captors. In the speech, he admitted that he played a double role in the Lal Masjid incident. He further disclosed that during the operation he had advised Maulana Abdul Aziz to come out of Lal Masjid by wearing a Burqa," the reply added.

When contacted, Osama Khalid, son of Khalid Khawaja, told Dawn: "Because my father is a dead man and could not rebut the allegations, the administration wanted to shift the responsibility on him for the Lal Masjid operation."

He said his father sacrificed his life for a cause and the nation knew him very well.

"We don't care about any allegation but the government should bring truth before the nation," he added.

In the statement, the Islamabad administration also gave a chronology of the incident in which the Lal Masjid management and students took the law into their own hands.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Khawaja reminds me of Hank Williams' wooden cigar store Indian.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/22/2013 9:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeeeee Oweeee
Posted by: Shipman || 01/22/2013 15:49 Comments || Top||


Rahul says power is poison, but he's accepting it for the poor
[Dawn] In an emotional speech after taking over the mantle as Congress party's vice-president in Jaipur on Sunday, Rahul Gandhi told his cheering supporters that power was poison, but he was accepting it to empower the poor.

"Last night each one of you congratulated me. My mother came to my room and she sat with me and she cried... because she understands that power so many people seek is actually a poison," Mr Gandhi said.

He was speaking at the All India Congress Committee session where he was unofficially anointed as a prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 elections.

"We should not chase power for the attributes of power. We should only use it to empower the voices"
Striking a personal note, the 42-year-old leader in his maiden address as party vice-president, recalled the moments when his mother and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi walked into his room at night.

He recalled the time his grandmother, the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, was assassinated in 1984 by security guards with whom he used to play badminton as 'friends' and how his father Rajiv Gandhi, who was himself "broken inside", showed a "glimmer of hope" to the people.

The young leader received a standing ovation from the audience, which included his mother and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he said: "We should not chase power, only use it to empower others."

He said his mother could see that power was poison "because she is not attached to it. The only antidote to this poison for all of us is to see what it really is and not become attached to it. We should not chase power for the attributes of power. We should only use it to empower the voices."

Mr Gandhi recalled that as a little boy, "he loved to play badminton. I loved it because it gave me balance in this complicated world. I was taught how to play in my grandmother's house by two coppers who protected my grandmother as my friends.

"Then one day they killed my grandmother and took away the balance from my life. I felt like I had not felt before."

He recalled how he knew his father was "broken inside" and "terrified of what lay in front of him".

"My father was in Bengal and he came back.... It was the first time in my life that I saw my father crying. He was the bravest person I knew and yet I saw him cry. I could see... I was small, but I could see my father was broken. They had taken away his mother and he was broken. In those days our country was not what it is today."

Until 1984, before his father took power, India was considered to be a worthless country. "In the eyes of the world we had nothing, we were worthless.... Nobody thought about us. That same evening I saw my father addressing the nation on TV. I know like me he was broken inside. I know like me he was terrified of what lay in front of him. As he spoke in that dark night, I felt a small glimmer of hope."

He said that he realised he had a big responsibility in front of him and that people were standing behind him.

"Congress party is now my life, people of India are my life. I will fight for people of India and for this party. I will fight with everything that I have."
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
41[untagged]
9al-Qaeda in North Africa
7Govt of Syria
4Govt of Pakistan
1Arab Spring
1Fatah al-Islam
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
1Lashkar-e-Islami
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Pirates
1TTP

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
Comments Spam
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
RSS Links
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio
Sink Trap

Alzheimer's Association
Day by Day
Counterterrorism
Hair Through the Ages







On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

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

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2013-01-22
  French seize control of Diabaly, Douentza
Mon 2013-01-21
  Nigeria: Gunmen attack Kano emir's convoy
Sun 2013-01-20
  Algeria crisis: Hostage-takers 'taken alive' at gas plant
Sat 2013-01-19
  Boko Haram leader Shekau shot, escapes to Mali
Fri 2013-01-18
  1,400 French soldiers in Mali for ground assaults: minister
Thu 2013-01-17
  41 snatched by AQIM in Algeria gas plant attack
Wed 2013-01-16
  France deploys armoured vehicles towards northern Mali
Tue 2013-01-15
  Pakistan paralysed after court demands PM arrest
Mon 2013-01-14
  Famed Tunisia Mausoleum Torched by Salafists
Sun 2013-01-13
  19 Killed in Failed French Raid to Free Somalia Hostage
Sat 2013-01-12
  French commandos attack al-Shabab base, explosions, gunfire heard
Fri 2013-01-11
  France confirms Mali intervention
Thu 2013-01-10
  Taliban suspects arrested over Karachi polio killings
Wed 2013-01-09
  Indonesia Foils Terror Plot on Tourist Spots
Tue 2013-01-08
  US drone attack kills four in North Waziristan

Better than the average link...



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.
18.212.242.203
Paypal:
WoT Operations (16)    WoT Background (23)    Non-WoT (19)    Opinion (8)    (0)