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Syria Suicide Attack on Regime Kills 53
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Home Front: Culture Wars
Fashion Advice at the DIA: 'Makeup Makes You More Attractive'
Klinger is jealous.
A week after women were cleared to serve in combat, Defense Intelligence Agency employees got a different message. "Makeup makes you more attractive." "Don't be a plain Jane." "A sweater with a skirt is better than a sweater with slacks." "No flats." "Paint your nails." "Don't be afraid of color." And, "brunettes have more leeway with vibrant colors than blondes or redheads."

Men and women at DIA were given fashion advice in a presentation prepared by an employee at the agency this week. Susan Strednansky, public affairs officer at DIA, offered the agency's regrets about the briefing, which raised eyebrows among some employees, saying, "I'm not going to deny that it exists, and it was bad. It was inappropriate for sure." She added, "Neither the agency nor the leadership has condoned anything that was in that briefing."

The presentation offered gender-specific advice on how to improve one's success in the workplace through appearance. "It was an informal event that an employee put together, a briefing on How to Dress for Success," Strednansky says. "It's not directive. It is not mandatory. It is just, 'Hey, here are some suggestions.'"

In response to the presentation, DIA director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn sent a letter to employees that was provided to Whispers. In it, he apologized to employees for "the unnecessary and serious distraction" and called the presentation "highly offensive." Flynn added that he hoped the intentions were "pure of heart and intended to help... but even smart people do dumb things sometimes. That said, no one is going to be taken to the wood shed over this. They'll require some counseling (to be sure) on what it means to think before you act."
Posted by: tipper || 02/02/2013 18:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  not that you'd necessarily wanna be looking attractive - given that most of the men in the third world will be trying to grope you as soon as you get off the airplane.
Posted by: Raider || 02/02/2013 19:29 Comments || Top||

#2  And just wait until some 'makeup-enhanced' female draws an unwanted wolf whistle and files a sexual harrassment suit....
I lived through one Tailhook, and wouldn't wish that witch hunt on anybody......
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 02/02/2013 20:09 Comments || Top||

#3  "prepare your 'uncovered cat meat' disguises"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 20:23 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Israel, Unofficially: We Struck Missiles before They Left Base
Video at link
Israel explained on Friday, unofficially, what happened on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, when its planes allegedly attacked a target in Syria. It also explained why Syria gave a false version of what had happened.

Meanwhile, a video posted on a Syrian pro-Assad Facebook page apparently shows the aftermath of the IAF raid, as shown on Syrian television.
Posted by: tipper || 02/02/2013 17:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You can't blame them for having to do this.
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 02/02/2013 19:51 Comments || Top||


Qaher F313: Iran unveils home-made 'stealth' fighter
Video at link
Iran has unveiled a new home-made combat aircraft, which officials say can evade radar.

The single-seat Qaher F313 (Dominant F313) is the latest design produced by Iran's military since it launched the Azarakhsh (Lightning), in 2007.

President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad said it had "almost all the positive features" of the world's most sophisticated jets.

He said the "development of the Iranian nation's military power is... for deterrence and defensive purposes".
Posted by: tipper || 02/02/2013 17:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...When I was a USAF recruiter, we had a "F-16" at the squadron - a slightly oversized go-kart that we drove around at parades and events.

It was about the same size as this thing.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/02/2013 17:28 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Harvard hands down punishment in cheating scandal
Banished from the cushy ivory tower, scores of cheating Harvard students were sentenced to six months’ hard time in the real world before they can re-apply to the prestigious university.
Hard time in the real world? Northeastern does that. It's called the "co-op" program.
The punishment came down on 60 crimson students ordered to “withdraw” — a forced break that can only be absolved after the ousted undergrads hold “a full-time, paid, non-academic job in a non-family situation” for at least half a year, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences Michael D. Smith wrote in an email yesterday. After that, the dean added, Harvard will consider letting the students back on campus.
Daddy can pay in cash?
Welcome back!

The cheating accusations first surfaced in the student newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, in August 2011. The paper reported the cheaters were part of an Introduction to Congress class where 120 students were accused of cutting corners, a figure the university did not dispute.
Sounds like they've got a future there...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/02/2013 13:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like they've got a future there...

Where? Harvard or Congress? Or is that a distinction without a difference?
Posted by: AlanC || 02/02/2013 14:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Caught cheating in an introduction to the US Congress class? Sounds like over achievers to me.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 02/02/2013 15:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Arrgh, my postlapsarian world!

The horror!

the horror
Posted by: swksvolFF || 02/02/2013 17:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Now who deserves the credit, and who deserves the blame?
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 02/02/2013 22:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Now who deserves the credit, and who deserves the blame?

If it's from Tom Lehrer, Eric, the next line is
"Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevski is his name." Link
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/02/2013 23:48 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Teacher shoots violent thugs at school - in Detroit
2d Amendment wins again.
(WXYZ) - Police sources tell 7 Action News that a women's basketball coach from Martin Luther King, Jr. Senior High School shot two men who attacked him as he was walking two basketball players to their cars in the school parking lot.

Police sources say the coach was walking the two girls to their cars when two men allegedly approached and one pulled out a gun and grabbed him by his chain necklace. The coach then pulled out his gun and shot both of them, according to sources.

The man who shot the attackers was 70 years old, according to police.

One of the attackers was found dead in the median on Lafayette Boulevard, and the other was taken to a local hospital, according to police sources. We've learned that both of the men had attended the high school, and one had been recently expelled.
"But they were such good boys"
Police sources say the coach has a Concealed Pistol License and is reportedly a reserve police officer. They say he is fully cooperating with authorities.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/02/2013 11:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm glad the coach knew gun control.

Minus one goblin.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/02/2013 12:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Old men can be dangerous, especially while walking young girls to their cars.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2013 12:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Chivalry? In Detroit? I'm absolutely shocked!

The school sued by the two-would-be-rapists parents in 3-2-1...
Posted by: Charles || 02/02/2013 15:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Gotta start somewhere.
Make it now.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/02/2013 15:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Coach needs to be thrown in jail. How dare he carry a violent assault rifle onto the sacred no carry grounds of a school filled with all of those children. They did say it was an "assault" rifle didn't they?
Posted by: Lowspark || 02/02/2013 16:57 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ynet: Is Turkey urging Syria to retaliate Israeli strike?
"Let's you and him fight."
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/02/2013 09:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why? Were the SA-17s cash on delivery?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 02/02/2013 12:21 Comments || Top||

#2  See also WAFF > TURKISH FM [Ahmet Davugotlu] SLAMS ISRAEL FOR SYRIA STRIKE AND SLAMS SYRIA FRO NOT RESPONDING | [JPost]DAVYGOTLU ACCUSES ASSAD OF INACTION AFTER IAF STRIKE [IAF], SUGGESTS FAILURE TO RESPOND DUE TO "SECRET AGREEMENT" WID ISRAEL.

* RELATED SAME . DAVUGOTLU CRIES: WHY DIDN'T ASSAD SHOOTDOWN DOWN THE ISRAELIS BUT BLOWS OUR JETS [Turkey's] OUT OF THE SKY | [Hurriyet News] "WHY DIDN'T [BASHAR] AL-ASSAD EVEN THROW A PEBBLE AT ISRAEL: DAVUGOTLU.

... WHEN ISRAELI JETS WERE FLYING OVER HIS PALACE AND PLAYING WID THE DIGNITY OF HIS COUNTRY"?

Oh My.

versus

* SAME > [Liveleak, Youtube Videos] FSA [+ Al-Qaeda] SAYS THEY ARE WID ISRAEL AGZ SYRIA.

* SAME > ]The Atlantic Wire] JOE BIDEN TO IRAN: CALL ME, MAYBE.

Call me, beep me, anytime you need me, ... iff you Iran are serious about Nuclear Negotiations.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/02/2013 22:03 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Where is Israel headed?
It is still difficult to assess how Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will govern in his next government. The public has little interest in begging the Palestinians to return to negotiations.

But then the Israeli public has rarely had much interest in pursuing fruitless deals with unreformed Palestinian terrorists. The only reason we continue to chase deals with them is because the US is obsessed with supporting Palestinian anti-Israel demands in the name of peace.

To a significant, if not necessarily determinative degree, whether the Palestinians continue to be a salient issue in the coming years will be a function of events in the wider Arab world. The collapse of the Egyptian state, Syria’s civil war, and the potential collapse of the Hashemite monarchy in Jordan will all limit President Barack Obama’s ability to press Israel to give away land to the Palestinians.

...Where the next government is likely to move ahead are in two other significant, if under-discussed areas: economic reform and religious reform.

ISRAEL RECENTLY conducted its first successful test pumping of natural gas from the offshore Leviathan natural gas field. In the next four years, Israel will become a major natural gas exporter and will make great strides in developing its recently discovered shale oil deposits. Israel’s emergence as an energy exporter will have a transformational impact on Israel’s economic independence and long-term viability.

Moreover, as the surrounding Arab world becomes more unstable, violent and fanatical, Israel’s economic independence and vitality will emerge as our most important diplomatic asset and a hugely important domestic trump card.

Under the economic leadership of Netanyahu, Lapid and Bennett, as Israel stands at the cusp of this economic breakthrough, it will be led by its most powerful, and – at least in the cases of Netanyahu and Bennett – ideologically committed champions of free market economics.

Yair Lapid’s emergence as the leader of the second largest party will lead to one of two possibilities – Shas, the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party, will join the coalition and have no power, or it will be kept outside the coalition and have no power. Either way, both in terms of Israel’s ability to capitalize on its economic opportunities, and in terms of its ability to transform the country’s religious institutions, Shas’s demotion from political kingmaker to political deadweight is a major and possibly transformative development.

...The fact that most ultra-Orthodox men do not serve in the IDF, while receiving government handouts to study in state-funded yeshivot is one source of social friction.

Another source of friction is that while its members do not participate in either the common burden of national defense or in the economic life of the country, due to Israel’s proportional electoral system, the ultra-Orthodox minority has managed to maintain control over the state religious institutions and so dictate the (sour) relationship between religion and society in Israel.

Both Bennett and Lapid ran on platforms of universal male conscription or national service and ending the ultra-Orthodox community’s monopoly on control over the state rabbinate. A Netanyahu-Lapid- Bennett government could enact major reforms in the religious establishment that would lead to a national-religious takeover of the rabbinic courts and the chief rabbinate of the country. Such a government could also require the ultra-Orthodox to serve in the IDF, and enable the community’s members to integrate into the economic life of the country.
...We will learn a great deal about Netanyahu’s plans to contend with Iran’s nuclear project, the hostile Obama administration, the rapidly expanding and metastasizing campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state in the West, and the rise of genocidal anti-Semitic regimes in neighboring countries through his choice of defense minister.

After the prime minister, the defense minister will be the most important member of the government, on nearly every level and every sphere of national endeavor.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2013 09:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'd call it intelligent leadership; leading from the front. Survival.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/02/2013 11:22 Comments || Top||

#2  The fact that most ultra-Orthodox men do not serve in the IDF, while receiving government handouts to study in state-funded yeshivot is one source of social friction.

Welfare Reform? Not For The Orthodox

Seems to be a common problem for the Ultra Orthodox.
Posted by: Waldemar Elmung2663 || 02/02/2013 14:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Israel can thank US private enterprise for being the major force in developing fracking technology. And both the US and Israel should thank Dick Cheney for clearing away significant regulatory obstacles, thus greatly accelerating the development of the new technology.
Posted by: Odysseus || 02/02/2013 17:11 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkey: US Embassy bomber had terror conviction
The suicide bomber who struck the U.S. Embassy in Ankara spent five years in prison on terrorism charges but was released after being diagnosed with a hunger strike-related brain disorder, officials said Saturday.

The bomber, identified as 40-year-old leftist militant Ecevit Sanli, killed himself and a Turkish security guard on Friday, in what U.S. officials said was a terrorist attack. Sanli was armed with TNT and also detonated a hand grenade, officials said.

The U.S. flag at the embassy flew at half-staff and already tight security was increased. Police sealed off a street in front of the security checkpoint where the explosion knocked a door off its hinges and littered the road with debris. Police vehicles were parked in streets surrounding the building.

Sanli's motives were still unclear. He had been a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, which has claimed responsibility for assassinations and bombings since the 1970s but has been relatively quiet in recent years. Compared to al Qaida, it has not been seen as a strong terrorist threat.

Officials said Sanil was arrested in 1997 for alleged involvement in attacks on the police headquarters and a military guesthouse in Istanbul and jailed on charges of membership in the group. While in prison awaiting trial, he took part in a major hunger strike that led to the deaths of dozens of inmates, according to a statement from the Ankara governor's office. The protesters opposed a maximum-security system in which prisoners were held in small cells instead of large wards.

Sanli was released in 2002 after being diagnosed with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a malnutrition-related brain illness that affects vision, muscle coordination and memory and that can cause hallucinations. Sanli fled Turkey after his release and was wanted by Turkish authorities, the statement said. He was convicted in absentia in 2002.
Posted by: tipper || 02/02/2013 08:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  diagnosed with a hunger strike-related brain disorder, That coupled with the religious- brain disorder makes for trouble.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/02/2013 10:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Lack of zinc tp waalkes and all histamine issue I imagine!
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 02/02/2013 16:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Ph level off also was at bed side with break on even refused pancakes!
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 02/02/2013 16:55 Comments || Top||

#4  To many corn dogs messed his head up the bacteria ya know!
Posted by: Maggie Flomong2662 || 02/02/2013 17:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Sanli fled Turkey after his release
I'm guessing Germany.
Posted by: tipper || 02/02/2013 17:04 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Northwest Pakistan Taliban attack kills 23
The Pakistan Taliban have attacked an army checkpoint, killing 13 soldiers and 10 civilians, officials say.

The raid took place in the town of Serai Naurang in north-west Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province early on Saturday, and lasted several hours.

Twelve militants were killed in the attack, some of them suicide bombers, the officials said.

Pakistan Taliban say the attack was in response to the death of two commanders in a drone strike last month.

"Pakistan has been co-operating with the US in its drone strikes that killed our two senior commanders, Faisal Khan and Toofani, and the attack on military camp was the revenge of their killing," a Taliban spokesman said, quoted by Reuters news agency.
Posted by: tipper || 02/02/2013 08:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Pakistan Taliban say the attack was in response to the death of two commanders in a drone strike last month.

Looks like another Taliban commander has volunteered to join his two comrades.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 02/02/2013 12:19 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Canadian extremists more likely homegrown: 'secret' CSIS report
Violent Canadian extremists are more likely to be citizens than immigrants, according to a “secret” study by the federal intelligence service. And these radicals tend to be relatively young and well-integrated members of society.

These findings appear in “A Study of Radicalization: The Making of Islamist Extremists in Canada Today,” a 21-page study released to The Globe and Mail under the Access to Information Act.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service study is released as global concerns about terrorists from Canada are growing.

The Prime Minister of Algeria this month said two unnamed Canadians were among the al-Qaeda-aligned guerrillas who took hostage oil workers from the West, before the four-day standoff ended in dozens of deaths. Canadian officials are on the ground in Algeria investigating the claims, but have reached no conclusions.

In Ottawa, CSIS analysts are tasked with a putting together a big-picture view of the trends that lead to terrorism.

The path to violent zealotry is ultimately a “idiosyncratic, individual process,” the study says. The precise reasons why people want to become terrorists defy explanation, but the CSIS analysis does offer some observations.
Posted by: tipper || 02/02/2013 00:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Al Nusrah Front imposes sharia in eastern Syrian town
The Al Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant, al Qaeda in Iraq's affiliate in Syria, has imposed sharia, or Islamic Law, in a town in eastern Syria that is close to the Iraqi border. The area has served as a jihadist haven in the past.

"Islamist militants" from the Al Nusrah Front "have taken unclothed mannequins they see as sexually enticing out of the shops," in the town of Mayadin, Reuters reported. The al Qaeda affiliate has "also prevented women from wearing trousers, preferring that they adopt the shapeless head-to-toe black veil." Alcohol has also been banned in the town.

Al Nusrah Front fighters are providing "daily religious teaching" to children, and are recruiting teenaged boys to fight President Bashir al Assad's regime. Additionally, the group is making a profit by selling oil, even to members of the Assad regime.

The imposition of sharia in Mayadin by the Al Nusrah Front is eerily similar to al Qaeda in Iraq's activities in Anbar province and other areas in Iraq from 2004 to 2007. Taking advantage of the security vacuum that arose after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, al Qaeda in Iraq seized control of several towns and cities in western Iraq and declared Islamic emirates in towns like Haditha and Al Qaim, which is right on the Syrian border. The terror group immediately began to enforce its radical interpretation of Islamic law on Sunni tribesmen, who were too weak and disorganized to fight back.

Posted by: tipper || 02/02/2013 00:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
'Traces of pork DNA' found in Halal prison meat
The Ministry of Justice is to suspend a firm supplying meat to prisons after tests found that it may have provided pies and pasties described as Halal - but with traces of pork DNA.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said the "local authority" involved was investigating, while the MoJ said the products have been withdrawn.

Justice minister Jeremy Wright said the incident was "absolutely unacceptable".

Under Islamic law, Muslims are strictly forbidden to eat pork.

In a statement, Mr Wright said the Prison Service was investigating the incident "as a matter of urgency".

He added: "This is an absolutely unacceptable situation and one which we regret greatly.

"Clearly this must be distressing for those affected and they can be reassured we are doing everything we can to resolve the situation.
Posted by: tipper || 02/02/2013 00:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Simple solution. Don't feed them any meat. Vegetables are healthier & cheaper, right?
Posted by: AlanC || 02/02/2013 8:25 Comments || Top||

#2  What ever happened to good old bread and water?
Posted by: european Conservative || 02/02/2013 9:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Who has the time and money to do DNA analysis on prisoner's food? I mean, I would understand if there were chunks of bacon or pork chops visible, but if they need to do DNA analysis, they are just looking for trouble.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/02/2013 10:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Let 'em eat VitaPro!
Posted by: SteveS || 02/02/2013 10:49 Comments || Top||

#5  There's only one solution, those who ate the tainted meat must do the honorable thing and commit hari kari.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/02/2013 11:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Don't suppose it ever occurred to them that the goats might have been dallying with hogs out in the country.

"What happens in Yorkshire stays in Yorkshire (unless you drag out the DNA test kit).!"
Posted by: Barbara || 02/02/2013 11:41 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh gee darn.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/02/2013 14:59 Comments || Top||

#8  "pork" is also a noun.
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 15:20 Comments || Top||

#9  Pork was the filler, most of it was mosquito meat. Never examine your lunch too closely, this 1st Class Scouts shit.


Posted by: Shipman || 02/02/2013 17:08 Comments || Top||

#10  I think you mean a verb, #8 Frank.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/02/2013 19:41 Comments || Top||

#11  No. They used it as a noun. I was just offering an alternative for its' appearance in their food:

"So I was porking the cook by the food"

TMI?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 20:14 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Was Iran’s space monkey launch a scam?
Iranian authorities claimed to have successfully sent a monkey into space. But before and after pictures of the animal have internet observers calling the rocket launch a fake.

Posted by: tipper || 02/02/2013 00:20 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You have to ask?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2013 2:36 Comments || Top||

#2  So Iran won't let us touch their monkey?
Posted by: gorb || 02/02/2013 9:02 Comments || Top||

#3  I invented the iPad.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2013 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Isn't Iran a scam?
Posted by: Barbara || 02/02/2013 11:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Dinner Jacket never left the ground.
Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 02/02/2013 17:37 Comments || Top||

#6  Where are those PETA protesters? En route to Tehran?
Posted by: Capsu78 || 02/02/2013 20:49 Comments || Top||


Africa North
International donors offer millions for Mali military aid
[MAGHAREBIA] Thirty-four countries and the European Union this week pledged funds to help Mali end months of occupation by al-Qaeda and Islamist group Ansar al-Din.

The conference at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa on Tuesday (January 29th) aimed at providing financial support for the African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA).

The financial assistance package would also preserve the gains already achieved on the ground by Malian, African and French troops.

AU chairman and Ethiopian leader Hailemariam Desalegn offered his "sincere gratitude" at the pledges, which totalled 336 million euros.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the AU, however, had said they would need at least 737 million euros to fund both humanitarian aid and the needs of African forces.

"The current situation in Mali requires a quick and effective international response because it threatens Mali, the region, Africa and the world," African Union Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told attendees at the Ethiopian event.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  "Ummm. Qatar? Wrong side"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 10:28 Comments || Top||

#2  "The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the AU, however, had said they would need at least 737 million euros to fund both humanitarian aid and the needs of African forces."

HAHAHAHA!!! Pretty hysterical.
That amount of money should line a lot of pockets in Africa. But it will have zero effect of upgrading their military.
Posted by: Raider || 02/02/2013 13:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Steyn on Hagel
From TFA:

There are over 300 million Americans, and another 20 million more Undocumented-Americans about to be fast-tracked down the soi-disant “path to citizenship.” Surely, from this vast talent pool, it should be possible to find someone who’s sufficiently interested in running the planet’s biggest military not to present himself on the world stage as a woozy, unfocused stumblebum. In an exquisite touch, responding to reports that Hagel was “ill-prepared,” someone in the White House leaked that he had been thoroughly “coached.” In other words, don’t blame us: We put him through the federally mandated Confirmation Hearing for Dummies course. He doesn’t have to be a competent defense secretary; he just has to play one on TV for a couple of hours. But even that’s too much to ask of an increasingly dysfunctional political system: The Senate disdains to pass a budget, 70 percent of U.S .Treasury debt is bought by the Federal Reserve, month-long negotiations to cut spending turn out in the final deal to increase spending . . . and the president’s choice of defense secretary tells the world he has no idea what our policy on Iran is.

Hagel may know nothing about Iran, but he’s an incisive expert on America.
Posted by: badanov || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nevertheless, he's going to be confirmed.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2013 2:42 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm thinking that the Obama brain trust has the idea that they can survive and control an economic collapse especially it they cause it. His cabinet seems to consist of fodder for the underside of the bus who think they'll be taken care of no matter what happens. The problem the controllers and the fooder is that they are working from a theory that has never worked. The revolution eats its own.
Posted by: Vortigern Hupoluse1541 || 02/02/2013 4:42 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: junkiron || 02/02/2013 4:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Intelligence is NOT a requirement for Obama administration positions. All the candidate must do is carry out the dictates of Donilon, Garrett, and the [I am not a king] Champ.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2013 6:19 Comments || Top||

#5  why even have a hearing if the knucklehead nominated can bomb the hearing and still be confirmed?
Posted by: airandee || 02/02/2013 9:33 Comments || Top||

#6  Secretary of Defense for Dummies, I love it.

But it must not have had many pictures.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/02/2013 11:37 Comments || Top||

#7  why even have a hearing if the knucklehead nominated can bomb the hearing and still be confirmed?

Because "I am not a King" Obama has to call in his chips to get Dem senators to make absolute fools of themselves in public. At some point he is going to run out of chips and bring down his whole political structure (the party, the MSM, Hollywood) with him.

Hopefully the United States of America will not callapse along with him.
Posted by: Frozen Al || 02/02/2013 11:43 Comments || Top||

#8  They need people who make Champ look bright by comparison.

Even more embarassing, he's a f&$king Republican. How did that happen?
Posted by: Titus Ulans4144 || 02/02/2013 13:14 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq Death Toll Spikes in January
[An Nahar] January was Iraq's deadliest month since September, Agence La Belle France Presse data showed Friday, as cut-throats shattered a relative calm and the country grapples with a political crisis and anti-government rallies.

The violence largely targeted security forces and officials, and struck Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities, mostly north and west of Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
Al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq has claimed much of the violence, including a suicide kaboom that killed a Sunni MP, and a string of attacks in mid-January.

The bad turban group often carries out deadly attacks in order to destabilize the government and push Iraq back towards the sectarian war that blighted it from 2005 to 2008.

A total of 246 people were killed last month, including 30 coppers and 18 soldiers, according to an AFP tally based on reports from security and medical officials.

Two anti-Qaeda beturbanned goons known as Sahwa also died.

Some 735 other people were also maimed in violence, among them 31 coppers, 26 soldiers, six members of the security forces of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, and one Sahwa fighter.

The corpse count was the highest since September, when 253 people died, and comes with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki mired in a political crisis that has pitted himself against many of his erstwhile government partners.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the entire 614th quadrant searched. The Green Lensman must be found!...
massive protests in Sunni-majority areas of Iraq's north and west have railed against alleged targeting of the community and, more recently, called for the premier to quit.

Most of the victims last month were killed in two separate strings of violence -- 88 people were killed in the January 15-17 period, and 70 others for January 22-23.

The month's deadliest single attack struck on January 23, when a jacket wallah made his way into a Shiite mosque and went kaboom! in the middle of a packed funeral, killing 42 people.

A day earlier, a wave of attacks in and around Storied Baghdad and in northern Iraq killed 26 people and maimed dozens more.

And on January 17, spate of bombings and shootings across the country left 29 people dead, in a third day of deadly violence that killed 88 people overall.

Violence is down markedly from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq

#1  Wouldn't have anythingy to do wid TOPIX > AL-QAEDA IN IRAQ CALLS ON SUNNIS TO TAKE UP ARMS???

Just askin'.

OR ...

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US LIMITED IN FIGHT AGZ NORTH AFRICA MILITANTS.

Unreliable INTEL + even fewer unreliable State partners, even amongst those whom hate the Hard Boyz. Also a "Mehhh/Who cares" poor attitude ingeneral among many of the US Pols on Capitol Hill.

I suspect the Hard Boyz will have to forcibly violently takeover a few more African countries + threaten the Suez Canal + South AFrica before these attitudes change.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/02/2013 0:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Iff the Bammer isn't careful he could end up wid a BIGGER "SYRIA CRISIS" IN AFRICA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/02/2013 0:44 Comments || Top||

#3  "Were you correct when you said the surge in Iraq would be an unmitigated disaster? Please senator, just answer yes or no".
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2013 6:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Whens the the Eid thingy? They always spike unexpectedly then.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/02/2013 15:43 Comments || Top||


Africa North
UN deplores Tahrir Square rapes, demands action
[Al Ahram] U.N. officials deplored reports that 25 women were sexually assaulted during protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square and demanded that Egyptian authorities take steps to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The executive director of the U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women said the agency "is deeply disturbed by the gravity of recent attacks against women." Michelle Bachelet called on Egyptian authorities to protect women and punish those responsible for the attacks.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says that about 25 women were reportedly sexually assaulted during demonstrations in Tahrir in recent days.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says she deplores the attacks and the fact that authorities have failed to prevent them or bring the perpetrators to justice.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Caribbean-Latin America
Mexican Army smokes 8 bad guys in Tamaulipas state

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

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Seven unidentified armed suspects were killed in an encounter with a Mexican Army road patrol in Tamaulipas state Friday evening, according to Mexican news accounts.

A news account published on the website of Milenio news daily said that the gunfire exchange took place in Ciudad Victoria, the state capital of Tamaulipas at around 1700 hrs near ejido Estacion Caballero, near the PEMEX facility east of the city.

The suspects were travelling aboard two vehicles when they were observed by a Mexican Army unit. A pursuit ensued which ended in gunfire. Among the seven dead were two women. Four rifles were also secured in the aftermath.

Separately, one armed suspect was killed in an encounter with a Mexican Army unit in Reynosa, according to the same report posted on Milenio news daily Friday night.

The encounter took place on Bulevar Colosio in Obrera colony when the army road patrol came under small arms fire from suspects travelling aboard a vehicle. Army return fire killed one suspect. One rifle was seized following the conclusion of the encounter.

Five other individuals were killed in ongoing drug and gang violence in Tamaulipas state, according to several Mexican news accounts.
  • Four unidentified car buyers from Michoacan state were killed in an apparent kidnapping. The victims arrived in Tamaulipas January 10th to close a purchase when they were kidnapped. Despite the family's protestations that the ransom demands were met in full, the four were killed.

  • An unidentified man in his 30s was found beaten to death and dismembered on the highway between Ciudad Victoria and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Thursday night. The victim was found when a vehicle hit the remains on the road.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
2,400 Jamaat, Shibir men sued in Bogra
[Bangla Daily Star] Police filed two cases accusing 2,400 Jamaat-Shibir men in connection with Thursday's festivities between the law enforcers and activists during hartal
... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
hours in Bogra.

The cases were filed with Bogra Sadar Police Station on Thursday night for assaulting police, said Riaz Ahmed, inspector (investigation), yesterday.

One of the cases were filed accusing 1,400 activists, mentioning names of 25, in connection with the clash at the town's Shatmatha, said SI Monjurul Islam Monju.

The other case was filed against 1,000 activists, mentioning names of 37, in connection with the clash at Jamil Nagar, he said.

Police had locked away
You have the right to remain silent...
25 Jamaat-Shibir men till 12:00noon yesterday while seven injured activists were undergoing treatment at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College and Hospital under police guard.

At least three people were killed in Bogra during Thursday's festivities between Jamaat-Shibir men and law enforcers.

Jamaat claimed the victims, Abu Ruhani, 22, Mizanur Rahman, 30, and Abdullah, 21, were its activists.

The party and its student body Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
on Thursday called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in the district today protesting the killings.

Hospital sources said 15 people, critically injured in the festivities, were brought there. Of them, eight were released after primary treatment till 10:00am yesterday.

Mizanur Rahman, town publicity secretary of Shibir, told The Daily Star the dead had been sent to their families for burial.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Leb: Two Soldiers Killed in Clashes with Gunmen in Arsal
[An Nahar] The army announced on Friday that one of its units was the victim of an armed ambush as it was patrolling the outskirts of the Bekaa town of Arsal.

Two officers were killed and a number of soldiers were maimed the clash that ensued with the gunnies, said the Army Command in a statement.

A number of the gunnies were also injured.

"A large army unit soon headed to the region where it cordoned off the area and began pursuing the attackers," it continued.

Furthermore, it urged the residents of Arsal to cooperate fully with the army's procedures in the area, warning that it will "not be lenient with any attempt to allow passage or harbor gunnies."

Media reports had said earlier that at least four soldiers were killed and a number others maimed the Arsal festivities between the army and gunnies.

LBCI and al-Jadeed televisions said that the festivities erupted in light of the shooting and kidnapping of Khaled Hmayyed in Arsal.

OTV later reported the death of Hmayyed, identifying him as a member of the group that kidnapped seven Estonians in Leb in 2011.

Hmayyed recently joined the Free Syrian Army.

LBCI said that the Lebanese security agencies had labeled him as a member of a "terrorist group," adding that his activity was constantly being monitored.

Other sources said he was a member of the Death Eater al-Nusra Front, which is active in the Syrian revolt.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  LBCI said that the Lebanese security agencies had labeled him as a member of a “terrorist group,” adding that his activity was constantly being monitored.

This is Lebanon, who isn't?

Initial reports had said that the Bekaa clash erupted as the army was cracking down on a kidnapping and robbery gang.

--and--

They added that the army was clashing with members of the Free Syrian Army.

Seems fully consistent to me. The group might be one of Al Qaeda's "financiers".
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 02/02/2013 13:00 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Newsweek company renames as 'NewsBeast'
[FRANCE24] The operator of the erstwhile news magazine Newsweek, which became a solely digital publication last year after 80 years in print, officially became "NewsBeast" on Friday, its parent company said.
Well, Pravda is taken. So is "O Magazine"...
The corporate rebranding appeared to leave unchanged the separate online brands of Newsweek and The Daily Beast, which merged in 2010, with the website continuing to bear both names, initially at least.

Newsweek editor Tina Brown, alongside unit chief executive Baba Shetty, told a staff meeting that the Newsweek Daily Beast Company will henceforth be known as NewsBeast, said Justine Sacco, a spokeswoman for corporate parent IAC.

An Instagram photograph showed Brown and Shetty with a caption describing "our new chapter -- and company name." The two were pictured behind a logo reading "News_Beast."

It was unclear if the change would be visible to readers, however, as the website newsbeast.com directs people to a Greek-language news site.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. As would a big steaming pile of poo.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/02/2013 0:13 Comments || Top||

#2  "Baba Shetty"???

Any relation or link to a Boy named "Sue"???

Sorry - couldn't resist.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/02/2013 0:33 Comments || Top||

#3  That's a shetty name for a once proud business.
Posted by: KBK || 02/02/2013 8:37 Comments || Top||

#4  "I'm Tina Brown, and I smell like a NewsBeast"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 10:47 Comments || Top||

#5  It was unclear if the change would be visible to readers, however, as the website newsbeast.com directs people to a Greek-language news site.

CASSIUS:Did Cicero say any thing?
CASCA:Ay, he spoke Greek.
CASSIUS:To what effect?
CASCA:Nay, an I tell you that, Ill ne'er look you i' the face again: but those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me.

[idiom - It's all Greek to me. (informal)
something that you say when you do not understand something that is written or said]

Apropos
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2013 11:23 Comments || Top||

#6  Their UPC code is 666.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/02/2013 13:36 Comments || Top||

#7  I thought "NEWSREEK" would be appropriet. But then who am I to say?

Posted by: junkiron || 02/02/2013 22:03 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt President Vows Firm Hand with Violent Protests
[An Nahar] Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi vowed security forces will "act with utmost decisiveness" to protect state buildings, as protesters clashed with police outside the presidential palace on Friday.

The presidency, in a statement posted on his Facebook page, also said it would hold "politically accountable" opposition groups behind the violence.

It said protesters had tried to break down the palace gates and scale its walls, and demanded that opposition groups denounce the violence and call on their followers to withdraw.

The opposition National Salvation Front, which called for mass rallies on Friday, said it "had no connection whatsoever with the trouble that erupted suddenly in front of the presidential palace."

It said the NSP condemned all acts of violence and urged security forces to exercise "utmost restraint" with the protesters.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  What? Did Morsi find Mubarak's playbook in the presidential bathroom? Funny when the shoe is on the other foot.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey || 02/02/2013 12:27 Comments || Top||


Economy
New England fishermen say new regulations may lead to collapse of the industry
[FOXNEWS] Fishermen say now they're staring at industry collapse because they've been left with far too few fish for most boats to make a living.

"We are headed down the wrong course here, of exterminating the inshore fleet, for no good reason," said David Goethel, a New Hampshire fisherman and council member.

The cuts, in effect May 1, are expected to be backed by federal managers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA's top federal fisheries regulator, John Bullard, acknowledged the reductions will be devastating. But he said the fish stocks are struggling and the industry's steady, excruciating decline must be reversed.

"The first thing we have to do is put denial behind us," he said.

The cuts hit an industry that was crucial to the nation's early economy and remains imbued with the risk and romance of man versus nature -- depicted in the famous "Man at the Wheel" statue in Gloucester of a fisherman facing the sea.
Awwwww, don't worry guys. Liz Warren's got your back. Just tell her the "Man at the Wheel" was gay...
The new low limits reduce the cod catch to just a fraction of what it once was and prevent fishermen from landing more plentiful species, such as haddock and pollock. That's because fishermen can't pull up the healthier groundfish without catching too much of the cod that swim among them.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's because fishermen can't pull up the healthier groundfish without catching too much of the cod that swim among them.

Just follow the White House model, automate. Send out drone fishing craft, then collateral damage is OK.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2013 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  These cuts have nothing to do with science and nothing to do with "saving the industry".

What is happening here is a concerted effort by government fisheries managers, to go down the European path of a de facto takeover of the groundfish industry in New England, by using their script as follows:

-Use questionable "science" and friends in the MSM to gin up public notions of a collapse in the numbers of fish that is way out of proportion with any population fluctuations

-Switch from open fishing to quotas based upon previous fishing experience, making it difficult for boats to enter the industry

-Switch from overall quotas to "days at sea" quotas, making the profession even more dangerous and less able to respond to market prices

-Switch from "days at sea" quotas to sector-type catch share management, which allows large operators to buy up other operators' catch shares and drive even more boats out of the industry

-Finally, shut down the quota again one more time to drive the remaining small boats out of the business, leaving a few large boats from one or two ports in any given state to catch all the fish.

The intent of the government fishing managers has never been to maintain the fish populations in a way which is sustainable and has never taken into account wider economic effects on communities. It has always been a crony mercantilist effort to destroy the small-business model of fishing and consolidate the industry into a few large players. Every step the government has taken has had as its purpose not concern about the long term survival of the fishermen or the fish, about which the vast bulk of fisheries management public sector workers care very little, but takeover of the fishing industry by the government to make their own jobs more secure and much less difficult.

Every country in Euroland did exactly this same thing. Outgoing NMFS boss Lubchenko was overt in her support for this progression. The end result is a de facto government owned fishing industry, with lots of smaller coastal fishing towns devastated financially and the infrastructure needed to maintain it (ice houses, trucking routes, etc.) allowed to wither on the vine.

Of course, even as the number of boats "needing" regulation plummets, the number of fisheries personnel at NMFS and the various state agencies has not been cut and they have been getting paid the same or more. Think about that. The actual work load of the agency has declined (and will hugely decline under these new regs as the number of boats is cut by as much as half) and the number of people working at NMFS will stay the same. As it stands right now NMFS has almost three employees and grant recipients for every groundfish license in the north Atlantic. That may jump to five or more. Five public functionaries and rent-seeking grant recipients for every boat out there fishing. The word "parasite" leaps to mind.

In essence, the government has killed off the groundfish industry while feasting on its economic carcass, all based upon lies and bureacratic sleight-of-hand. We are rapidly approaching a time when there will be almost nobody fishing and all the people at NMFS still have their "paychecks" without having a speck of work to do. Most of the "science" used to justify these cuts is junk, but even if it were true, the moral and ethical thing for the government agency to do would be to cut its own workforce and pay grade in proportion to the size of the job they were tasked with doing. Instead they continue to stay at their sinecures even though the actual work they were hired to do no longer exists.

Posted by: no mo uro || 02/02/2013 6:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Trust the Gorton's Fisherman to look absurd standing in the line at the unemployment office in that slicker and hat...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/02/2013 8:54 Comments || Top||

#4  No worries. So long as Peru and China have fish, we'll have fish too! And without all those grubby fishermen!

/NOAA
Posted by: AzCat || 02/02/2013 12:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Who did the New England area vote for?

Posted by: Injun Snoling3722 || 02/02/2013 13:25 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Shamita Shetty [Bollywood][Filmography](age 34)




Intelligent Design

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 02/02/2013 0:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Seem to be getting a:
Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /images/orig/5/h/5h2hjmasx245mjsh.jpg on this server.

on that clickthrough - pic doesn't show up either :(.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/02/2013 0:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Shamita Shetty has been kidnapped!!!
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/02/2013 0:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Shetty Link.
Posted by: Vespasian Trotsky1624 || 02/02/2013 2:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Ah...the Shetty girls.Very nice, both are sweet and Shilpa is a doll. Met them at a party in Delhi, I think she was interested, but my wife was stuck to me like Velcro. Sigh!
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 02/02/2013 6:27 Comments || Top||

#6  "img2.bdbphotos.com" - why do they hate us?
Posted by: JonC || 02/02/2013 16:42 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Bangkok wants OIC help in Rohingya situation
Posted by: ryuge || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Mother loses fourth child to Chicago gun violence
[NEWS.YAHOO] I feel for the lady, really I do. But along about the time child #2 got it I'd have been buying a bus ticket for Topeka or Abeline or Charlotte.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Or Detroit.
Posted by: gorb || 02/02/2013 9:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Ronnie Chambers, an artist who loved banana shakes and onion rings, had spoken publicly about his past in a gang.

The Chicago Police Department said his arrest records total well over 100 pages.

But Shirley Chambers' sister, Dorothy Wayne, bristled when Shirley Chambers was asked about her son's criminal past. "In his 34 years on earth, there was nothing he could have done to make them blow half of his face off," Wayne said. "Nothing. Nothing. He didn't deserve it."


sometimes, being a life-long criminal asshole catches up with you. Even if you are an "artist who enjoys banana magazines shakes and bling onion rings"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 10:46 Comments || Top||

#3  What are the chances?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/02/2013 11:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Topeka or Abeline or Charlotte

Not sure they have the same ward healers' social support services that Chicago offers.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2013 11:27 Comments || Top||

#5  and yes, I did screw up the clip vs magazine reference
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 11:47 Comments || Top||

#6  So I guess "dad" was to overcome to comment?
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/02/2013 11:51 Comments || Top||

#7  'nother one of those 34 yr. old "kids" that Zero needs to protect from inanimate objects.

PS good question tu.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/02/2013 16:20 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Mali's civilians face human rights abuses from both sides
[THESTAR] Reports of abuses by Islamists in northern Mali were widespread. But two human rights groups say the army also committed executions and rights violations.
Pop out just like clockwork, don't they? Give 'em another coupla weeks and the Frenchies will be "just as bad as" AQIM.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


In Amenas gas plant to reopen
[MAGHAREBIA] Algeria's In Amenas gas complex will resume operations at one-third capacity, APS quoted the Tiguentourine plant's director as saying on Thursday (January 31st).

"Thirty-five per cent of the total production... will be marketed as soon as possible," the director of the Tiguentourine plant told visiting news hounds.

The facility is set to reopen within a month, but foreign workers will not return for another three.

Thirty-seven foreign hostages were killed when cut-throats stormed the gas plant last month. One Algerian and 29 Orcs and similar vermin were also killed.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Science & Technology
Twitter announces security breach
From the Twitter blog:
We also echo the advisory from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and security experts to encourage users to disable Java on their computers. For instructions on how to disable Java, read this recent Slate article.

This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident. The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked. For that reason we felt that it was important to publicize this attack while we still gather information, and we are helping government and federal law enforcement in their effort to find and prosecute these attackers to make the Internet safer for all users.
Posted by: badanov || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli Army Gunfire Wounds Two Gazans

[An Nahar] Israeli army gunfire wounded two Palestinian teenagers near northern Gaza's border with the Jewish state on Friday, a medical official said. "Two Palestinians, aged 16 and 17, were hit in the legs by Israeli army gunfire east of Jabaliya as they approached a security barrier" between Israel and the Gaza Strip, health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told Agence France Presse.
Assuming the graphic isn't a file photo, I see six people. All six are masked, the one with the back of his head to the camera not very well. The second from the right and the guy being carried both wear the Hamas flag or variants thereupon as masks.
An army spokesman said the two youths had strayed "very near" the barrier.

"Several Palestinians came up to the security barrier. The soldiers used tear gas and fired in the air to try to stop them, but without success. They then fired at their legs," he said.
So y'got at least two masked individuals -- can't tell if they're sixteen or sixty with the masks. They approach the fence. The border guards fire tear gas and they fire in the air to make them think twice about being quite so stoopid. When that fails they shoot at their legs. It doesn't sound real bloodthirsty to me.
Four Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since a November 21 ceasefire between the Jewish state and the Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the coastal territory, ended a bloody eight-day conflict.

The Egypt-brokered ceasefire stipulates the Israeli army grant Palestinian farmers access to arable land in a buffer zone along the border and allow them to approach up to 100 meters (yards) from the security barrier.
I've known quite a few farmers in my life. Not one of them has gone to work in a balaclava.
Israel says its soldiers open fire on Palestinians who cross that mark.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Mutual of Gaza Foot/Leg Injury™ policy. Don't approach the fence without it
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 10:03 Comments || Top||

#2  This guy has gunshot wounds on his feet?
Where?
There seems to be no blood on his pants legs.
Posted by: djk || 02/02/2013 14:42 Comments || Top||

#3  The Pali have evolved with self-sealing feets.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/02/2013 15:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Another satisfied customer of "Bulletproof Shoes R' Us"...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/02/2013 16:24 Comments || Top||

#5  Ima have a vision.... a vision of simple Zionist soldiers with long locks albeit with good rythem....... Dance Pali Dance! I mean it must have crossed their minds. I mean it would be wrong, but still.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/02/2013 17:04 Comments || Top||

#6  "Israeli Army Gunfire Wounds Two Gazans"

It's a start....
Posted by: Barbara || 02/02/2013 19:39 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Moro leader seeks united front
Interview with "Commander Bambi" of the Moro National Liberation Front
Posted by: ryuge || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria Military Claims it Kills 17 Islamists in Raid
[An Nahar] Nigeria's military on Friday said it killed 17 Islamic fascisti in raids on two "terrorist camps" in the embattled northeastern state of Borno, the base of Islamist group Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
The military "conducted two special operations supported by Nigerian Airforce helicopter gunship to dislodge Boko Haram terrorist camps," a statement from front man Lt. Col. Sagir Musa said.

The statement is the first recent confirmation of a Boko Haram training camp or base, although the military has frequently commented on bad boy safe houses in urban settings.

Musa claimed the Islamic fascisti were using territory in the Sambisa Game Reserve and in an area called Ruwa Forest.

"The camp was...fortified and had training facilities," the statement further said.

"Efforts by the JTF (Joint Task Force) to destroy the camps led to a fierce exchange of fire that resulted in the death of 17 Boko Haram bully boyz and one JTF personnel was killed," it continued, referring to the January 30 and 31 raids.

Musa, who said the camps had been destroyed, listed a catalog of items found at the sites, including various weapons and ammunition, as well as communication equipment, food and a generator.

Boko Haram, blamed for killing hundreds in the area since 2009, has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's mainly Moslem north, but its demands have repeatedly shifted.

Violence linked to the Islamists has been intense at times amid periods of relative calm. The insurgency is estimated to have left 3,000 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security services.

Both the police and the JTF have been accused of committing massive rights abuses, including summary executions, during operations against Boko Haram.

A ceasefire declaration from a man claiming to represent the bad boy group sparked intense debate this week, as it was not clear if the individual was a fraud or a legitimate envoy.

The military described the declaration as a welcome development but warned that it would not lead to a halt in operations aimed at stemming the insurgency in Africa's most populous country and top oil producer.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram

#1  Both the police and the JTF have been accused of committing massive rights abuses, including summary executions, during operations against Boko Haram

"shut up" they explained
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 9:28 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Menendez drained more than 1/3 of bank accounts to pay for past Dominican Republic travel
[DAILYCALLER] A check that Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez wrote to his longtime campaign donor Dr. Salomon Melgen on Jan. 4 to cover private jet travel to the Dominican Republic represented more than one-third of his cash-on-hand -- and perhaps as much as 90 percent -- according to an analysis of his most recent U.S. Senate financial disclosure report.

Dan O'Brien, Menendez's chief of staff, told WNBC-TV4 in New York on Tuesday that the senator reimbursed Melgen $58,500 for two trips they took together to the island nation in 2010.

Menendez signed a disclosure statement on May 9, 2012 indicating that he had between $66,003 and $165,000 in three different bank and credit union accounts. His only other asset is a rental property worth between $250,001 and $500,000.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like someone has a serious sex addiction???

I'm going to guess its NOT for the one he usually takes to Washington $100/1000-a-plate functions.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/02/2013 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Appears he's a spender not a saver. What has he been spending it on, and don't tell me $150. whores ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2013 6:13 Comments || Top||

#3  My first thought was: He's a Donk, whose accounts did he drain?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/02/2013 11:27 Comments || Top||

#4  The prostitutes wanted $600 each, he paid $100 each. By accounts, he stiffed each for $500. They are unhappy and talking.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/02/2013 11:29 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
White House Backs Chuck Hagel Nomination
[An Nahar] The White House Friday defended its nominee for defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, after his perceived weak performance at a Senate confirmation hearing.

It also denounced Republicans who pressed Hagel hard at Thursday's session. Hagel has been nominated to replace Leon Panetta in President Barack Obama's second term.

Hagel was grilled for hours and often found himself on the defensive as Republicans went after him for his past positions against the Iraq war and sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.

"I think Senator Hagel answered the questions appropriately and did a fine job," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

He said he was surprised that Republican senators like John McCain took issue with Hagel over Iraq.

In 2008 "then-Senator Obama had a view on Iraq. It was one of the reasons why he ran for president and ran on that position and won in 2008 against Senator McCain," Carney said.

Carney also said he found it "bizarre" that senators had hardly asked any questions on Afghanistan, scene of an "active war" with 66,000 Americans in uniform.

"Instead, they wanted to re-litigate the past," Carney said.

He added that the White House believes Hagel will ultimately win approval in the Senate, where Republicans hold a blocking minority.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OTOH FREE BEACON > RETIRED US GENERALS AND ADMIRALS [lot of 'em] OPPOSE HAGEL NOMINATION FOR SECRETARY OF DEFENSE.

and

* IIRC SAME > CHUCK HAGEL ACCEPTED MONIES FROM IRAN-LINKED COMPANIES.

More anti-Hagel Artics at website.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/02/2013 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  not a deep thinker, is he?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 11:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Hagel for Secretary of Defense? That's like Morfin Gaunt for head of Muggle Relations, the Penguin for security guard, or Neron Caesar for Human Rights leader.
Posted by: Korora || 02/02/2013 12:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Hagel (R-Dipshit) was supposed to give Obama partisan cover as he cuts the military, stabs Israel, and gives the Mullahs some loving
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 12:20 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Al Qaeda silent on French hostages in Mali
[FRANCE24] For several months last year, as France was leading international diplomatic efforts for an intervention in Mali, al Qaeda's North African branch warned that a military operation would "provoke" the executions of French hostages in the region.

In a statement released in September 2012, AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) threatened that, "These crazy initiatives [for a Malian intervention] will not only lead to the deaths of the hostages, but it will drown the whole of France in the marches of Azawad."

Azawad refers to the region of northern Mali that fell to a motley mix of rebel groups following a Malian military coup in March 2012.

But since the French offensive to liberate northern Mali began on January 11, there has been an uncharacteristic AQIM silence on the fates of the French hostages.

Seven French nationals are currently being held in the Sahel, the inhospitable southern belt of the Sahara desert. Four hostages were abducted in a uranium mining town in Niger in September 2010. Two others were kidnapped in the central Malian town of Hombori in November 2011. A year later, on November 20, 2012, another French national was abducted near the southwestern Malian town of Nioro by MUJAO (Movement for Unity and Oneness of the Jihad), an AQIM splinter group that sprang up last year in northern Mali.

On Thursday, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said it was "likely" that the hostages were being held in the Ifoghas massif region, a remote rock-strewn area of northern Mali near the Algerian border.

In an interview with French radio station France-Inter, Le Drian added that, "We never lose sight or mind of the fact that there are French hostages in this territory."

'They're more useful as human shields'

On January 20 -- nine days after the launch of the Malian intervention -- French officials, who tend to be tight-lipped about hostage issues, revealed that the hostages were "alive".

In the pre-intervention days, there were some fears that the hostages could be executed in retaliation for a military operation. But that assessment appears to have changed since the French military intervention in Mali began.

"The various jihadist groups have no interest in executing them," said Philippe Hugon, Africa research director at the Paris-based IRIS (Institut de Relations Internationales et Strategiques). "They're more useful as human shields."
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Britain
Pork discovered in British prisons' halal food
Britain's Ministry of Justice on Friday suspended a supplier of halal meat to prisons after traces of pork were found inside meat pies and pasties.

All prisons have been notified and the halal-labelled products were withdrawn immediately, according to an MoJ spokesman.

Justice minister Jeremy Wright said, "This is an absolutely unacceptable situation and one which we regret greatly. Clearly this must be distressing for those affected and they can be reassured we are doing everything we can to resolve the situation. The Prison Service is investigating this as a matter of urgency."
Too late! They're all going to Hell!
A spokeswoman for the Food Standards Agency said the latest incident involved traces of pork. She said, "The FSA has been informed that a number of meat pies and pasties supplied to UK prisons which were labelled and served as Halal contained traces of pork DNA. The local authority (where the supplier is based) is investigating how this contamination came about and whether these products have been distributed further across the UK."
Sounds like we got a disgruntled infidel working at Achmed's Halal Foods...
"It is the responsibility of food businesses to ensure the food they sell contains what it says on the label. We are considering, with relevant local authorities, whether legal action is appropriate following the investigation," she added.

The Prison Reform Trust campaign group welcomed the swift probe. Its director Juliet Lyon said, "This is not a matter of dietary preference but of Islamic law. There are clear hospital and prison rules that halal meat must be on the menu.

"This lapse will have offended and distressed high numbers of Muslim prisoners and their families so apologizing, suspending the supplier and investigating the incident are the right steps for the MoJ to take."
Jeez, hope they don't so on a hunger strike or...sumthin.
According to MoJ figures from June 2011, some 12.5% of the prison population in England and Wales are Muslims.
Posted by: ryuge || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Lautenberg calls Menendez controversy 'a terrible tragedy'
[Washington Post] Sen. Bob Menendez's (D-N.J.) New Jersey colleague has responded to the growing controversy surrounding the senator's ties to a doctor who was recently raided, and he's not exactly doing Menendez any favors.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), in comments reported by the Star-Ledger, left open the possibility that the allegations against Menendez could have merit:
"If there are infractions as they are reported, it's too bad," Lautenberg told reporters.
...
"There a lot that's said and covered, but I for one know Bob as a very capable United States senator, and I'm sorry to see him in this position," Lautenberg said. "But I can't give you anything more. Don't want to. Don't know to."
...
Lautenberg later added he had not spoken to Menendez about the accusations but called them "devastating."
"(He) has built an almost sterling reputation for a lot of years and our hope is that this, what we're hearing, is not as it's presented," Lautenberg said. "I think Bob will survive this with his good work. This is a terrible tragedy. And we're not yet sure what all of the facts are."
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey, Frank. If the Feds are looking at him, chances are they aren't looking at you. So shut up and be happy.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/02/2013 0:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Tragedy? I think the technical legal term is Statutory Rape if the girls where underage.

I'm waiting for the Democrats claim that 'hey it was consensual! What difference does it make?'.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/02/2013 0:32 Comments || Top||

#3  It wasn't rape rape.
/Whoopi Goldberg
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/02/2013 0:33 Comments || Top||

#4  'a terrible tragedy'

Translation - we've got a RINO in the governor's office who's unlikely to fill the slot with a proper patronage interim appointment.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2013 11:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Where is the outrage from the left?
Underage hookers? Really? In a 3rd world country, most likely victims of human trafficking?

That's reprehensible, even to me.

Not a peep from his peers though.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/02/2013 11:32 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Seven more fall victim to Karachi violence
[Pak Daily Times] Unabated wave of violence on Friday claimed seven more lives of people in the city.

In the first incident, a joint in-charge of MQM was rubbed out in sector 11/1-2, Orangi Town near Rehmat Chowk within the jurisdiction of Pakistain Bazaar cop shoppe. According to police, Nayyar, 23, son of Sarosh, was returning home on his cycle of violence after dropping his children near a school where two gunnies intercepted him and shot him dead.

The body was brought to ASH for his appointment with Doctor Quincy. Police said that deceased was joint in-charge of unit 119 of party's Orange Town sector and an employee of health department of 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...
Municipal Corporation. He said that deceased was the father of two children and lived in the same area.

Similarly, a bank employee affiliated with labour wing of Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
(MQM) was killed while other injured in an armed attack at Sohrab Goth Bridge within the precincts of Yusuf Plaza cop shoppe. An official said that two unidentified armed pillion riders opened volley of bullets at a vehicle bearing registration No ARH-833 at Sohrab Goth bridge and escaped as a result, two people, including 32-years-old Mudassir Malik, son of Sami Malik, and 35-year-old Wajahat Hussain son of Raza Hussain received critical multiple bullet wounds and were rushed to a private hospital where doctors pronounced Muddassir as dead.

The body was later moved to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) for medico-legal formalities. The dear departed was an employee of National Bank of Pakistain and affiliated with labour wing. The victim was the resident of Gulshan-e-Maymar.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Down Under
Geert Wilders challenges Aussie immigration minister to debate
Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders has challenged Australia's immigration minister to meet him during a speaking tour of the country this month. Wilders said Chris Bowen, who has called Wilders an extremist and criticised his writings as offensive and wrong-headed, should meet him to debate his beliefs.

Wilders was forced to cancel a speaking tour last October after the decision to grant him a visa was postponed. At the time, Bowen said he finally decided to permit the visit because to refuse would give Wilders the opportunity to become a cause celebre.

Wilders said, "I am not going to insult your Minister of Immigration, even though he insulted me. But he is wrong, I am not an extremist. I represent the third biggest party in the Dutch parliament, nearly one million people voted for my party and now we are No 2 in the polls.

"Perhaps, if he is a real man, he would like to meet with me and discuss the issues publicly or privately, I don't care."

A spokesman for Bowen confirmed Wilders would be allowed to enter Australia on the visa he was granted last year, but the minister would decline his invitation to meet. He said, "The minister made his views very clear last year. He has absolutely no desire or plans to meet Mr Wilders."
Posted by: ryuge || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He has absolutely no desire or plans to meet Mr Wilders."
He can't anymore. He made such a mess of his Emigration portfolio with his "humanitarian and compassionate" delusions that he has been shifted.
Posted by: tipper || 02/02/2013 1:37 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Gaza Tunnel Authority suspends work amid heavy rainfall
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The Gaza government announced Friday it has closed tunnels under Gaza's border with Egypt due to heavy rainfall in the area.
Mahmoud!You all right down there?
....glug glug glug
What did he say?
He said...glug glug glug.

Gaza's border authority told Ma'an that the tunnels were shut on Thursday night, and will be opened again on Sunday.
Hey! We gonna get paid for this?
See ya union rep! And put that shovel back!

During severe floods in January, at least three tunnel workers were killed after the structures collapsed around them.
Actually, it sounds like they collapsed "on" them...
A human rights group in Gaza urged the government to implement better safety measures and assess the benefits of the network as a whole, saying 232 people had been killed in collapsing tunnels.
Yeah, this'll occupy PCHR until little Yasser blows himself up with one of daddy's homemade grenades. Probably tomorrow...
The tunnel network developed as a vital source of goods under Israel's blockade of the coastal strip and Egyptian restrictions on the official Rafah crossing point.
It's for the children...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
White House steps away from Menendez, cites cooties.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cooties or Cuties???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/02/2013 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  I head Reid backs the slimy pedophile.

So I guess its true what that confidential source in the white house says about him....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/02/2013 0:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, he's never denied it...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/02/2013 0:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Senator Menendez

WASHINGTON — Federal immigration agents were prepared to arrest an illegal immigrant and registered sex offender days before the November elections but were ordered by Washington to hold off after officials warned of “significant interest” from Congress and news organizations because the suspect was a volunteer intern for Sen. Robert Menendez, according to internal agency documents provided to Congress.

The Homeland Security Department said last month, when The Associated Press first disclosed the delayed arrest of Luis Abrahan Sanchez Zavaleta, that AP’s report was “categorically false.”

Sanchez, 18, was an immigrant from Peru who entered the country on a now-expired visitor visa. He eventually was arrested at his home in New Jersey on Dec. 6. He has since been released from an immigration jail and is facing deportation. Sanchez has declined to speak to the AP.

After the AP story, which cited an unnamed U.S. official involved in the case, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and six other Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the Obama administration for details about the incident.


In other news: Still no word from Vera Baker who headed off to Fort de France, Martinique to start the site CapeCaribbean.com, which is self-described as “a strategic mix of marketing based services,” with Marc Merlini – whose name Baker would take on when she was listed as “Vera Baker-Merlini” on Senator Burris’ staff.

Perhaps Abrahan Sanchez Zavaleta and Vera Baker have partnered to assist fund raising with the 2016 presidential campaign.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2013 7:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Judicial Watch

Did WH attempt to cover up the Senator Menendez - Luis Zavaleta scandal with EO ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2013 8:34 Comments || Top||

#6  I wonder how much this guy has been blackmailed.
Posted by: gorb || 02/02/2013 9:16 Comments || Top||

#7  Tip for Luis Zavaleta; avoid Fort Marcy Park when in the D.C. area.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2013 9:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Why does House Majority Leader Reid always end up around pedophiles? I sense smoke.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/02/2013 10:06 Comments || Top||

#9  ..cause they're easier to blackmail? Not big enough of a special interest group to exploit, so they're more expendable if you have call your cards in.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2013 10:34 Comments || Top||

#10  "Did WH attempt to cover up the Senator Menendez - Luis Zavaleta scandal with EO?"

Of course.
Posted by: Barbara || 02/02/2013 11:35 Comments || Top||

#11  We'll miss you down in the gym Rob.

See ya, Tony
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2013 11:58 Comments || Top||

#12  No wait, it's the Senate Majority Leader Reid who is constantly, constantly dealing with pedophiles.
Posted by: Shipman || 02/02/2013 15:48 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Clashes at Egypt's Presidential Palace
[NY Times] Protesters threw incendiary devices over the walls of Egypt's presidential palace during Friday demonstrations against President Mohamed Morsi, leading to festivities with riot coppers that filled the area with tear gas and threatened to deepen Egypt's spiraling political crisis.

The violence drew a quick condemnation from Mr. Morsi, who blamed unnamed "political forces" for inciting what he said was an attempt to "storm the gates of the palace." He promised that the security forces would respond "decisively."

"We stress that such violent practices have nothing to do with the principles of the revolution or legitimate means of expression," said his statement on Twitter. "We hold political forces that might have incited such violent actions fully responsible until results of the investigation are known."

The statement also called on "patriotic forces" to denounce the violence and "urge their supporters to immediately withdraw from the palace area."

The festivities started after a peaceful anti-government sit-in that lasted several hours outside the palace walls. As night fell, a small group of protesters threw incendiary devices over a palace gate, while officers inside fired a water cannon back, to disperse protesters but also to douse small fires, including one that started on a guardhouse by the gate.

On a broad avenue in front of the palace, armored carriers advanced, firing heavy amounts of tear gas and driving the protesters back. Security officers set fire to tents the protesters had set up across the street from the palace, and threw protest banners on small fires that were lit in the streets.

The festivities came after a week of violence in several Egyptian cities that left more than 50 people dead, leading Egypt's defense minister to warn of the potential "collapse" of the state.

By early evening, away from the presidential palace in central Cairo, thousands of anti-Morsi protesters marched on the Nile Corniche in central Cairo, chanting, "The people want the fall of the regime."

But though the number of protesters was still growing, there was no immediate sign that the festivities were turning into a broader conflagration, like the deadly violence that broke out at the palace in December, when supporters of President Morsi fought with anti-government protesters. The Moslem Brüderbund said on its Twitter account that it was not sending its members to the protest, and that it would not "be dragged into violence."
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1 
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/02/2013 3:37 Comments || Top||

#2  The violence drew a quick condemnation from Mr. Ghadaffi Mugabe Mubarak Morsi, who blamed unnamed "political forces" for inciting what he said was an attempt to "storm the gates of the palace." He promised that the security forces would respond "decisively."
Posted by: Pappy || 02/02/2013 22:42 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Suicide bomber member of the outlawed leftist group DHKP/C: Erdogan
[Hurriyet Daily News] The suicide bomber who killed one person and wounded another today in an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Ankara is a member of an outlawed leftist group, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said.

Erdoğan's statement confirmed reports claiming the attacker was a 30-year-old member of the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C). The suspect, identified as Ecevit Şanlı, has previously spent time in prison, according to reports.

"The suicide bomber exploded the bomb right after crossing [the personnel entry] and died in the explosion. A birth mark on his head proves [his identity], but DNA tests will be carried out to make sure. It is clear that he is a member of DHKP/C. He has perpetrated such attacks before," he said, during a live TV interview on private broadcaster Haberturk.

Erdoğan also played down claims that the attack might be related to Turkey's position on the Syria crisis. "I don't reach to this conclusion. You know that the DHKP/C made some other attempts lately, but Turkey is taking steps against terrorism as well," said Erdoğan, highlighting the recent police raids against lawyers and alleged members of the leftist group.

The prime minister also said he had called U.S. Ambassador Francis Riccardone to express his condolences, and wished a speedy recovery to the journalist Didem Tuncay, who was heavily injured in the attack.

Suspect is a former convict

Suspected suicide bomber Ecevit Şanlı spent time in prison between 1997 and 2000 for attacking an Istanbul military guest house, Harbiye Orduevi, with a flame thrower.

He participated in hunger strikes while being held in Ümraniye Prison in 2000, a time when massive hunger strikes were initiated in Turkish prisons. Şanlı, who suffered from Wernicke Korsakoff syndrome, was released on probation in 2002.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pound, Zebulon finally found just the friend he'd been looking for...
the security guard who also died in the attack has been identified as Mustafa Akarsu, 36, Interior Minister Muammer Güler said in a statement.

The attack destroyed the entrance to the embassy building, he added, adding that the force of the explosion left body parts strewn around the scene.

Today's attack bears remarkable similarity to a suicide bomb attack on a police station in Istanbul's Sultangazi district on Sept. 11, 2012, that killed a police officer and the attacker.

The suicide bomber was later identified as İbrahim Çuhadar, who was said to be a known member of the outlawed DHKP/C. Çuhadar had previously served eight months in prison for participating in illegal demonstrations.

Seven people, including four police officers and three civilians, were also injured in the bombing at the 75.Yıl Police Station last year.

"The suicide bomber set off the explosives he was wearing after throwing a grenade into the police station, killing one police officer and wounding four others at the entry," Istanbul police chief Hüseyin Çapkın said soon after the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "He has perpetrated such attacks before"

He had nine lives?
Posted by: Pappy || 02/02/2013 22:44 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Geraldo Mulls NJ Senate Run
[BREITBART] Because nothing says serious political candidate like a famous mustache and a bizarre history of covering faux Satanic ritual popularity, Geraldo Rivera is prepping for a New Jersey senatorial run, the radio and television host said Thursday. "I mention this only briefly, fasten your seatbelt," he stated. "I am and I've been in touch with some people in the Republican Party in New Jersey. I am truly contemplating running for Senate against Frank Lautenberg or Cory Booker in New Jersey."
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “I am and I’ve been in touch with some people in the Republican Party in New Jersey." Does that mean he is claiming to be a Pub? No way. Compared to Obama? That is really difficult. That's sort of like asking: Do you want cancer or a flesh-eating bacterial disease?
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/02/2013 11:34 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm thinking that if we give Geraldo plastic surgery and inject him into the leadership of Al Qaeda ... the world's terrorist groups should crumble in 4-5 years :-)
Posted by: Raider || 02/02/2013 19:27 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Tens of Thousands Call for Iraq PM's Ouster
[An Nahar] Tens of thousands of Iraqis gathered in Sunni-majority parts the country on Friday in new rallies against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a week after eight demonstrators were rubbed out amid a dire political crisis.

Thousands demonstrated in Fallujah,
... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids...
just west of Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
, where the killings took place at the hands of the army, railing against their alleged marginalization at the hands of Iraq's Shiite-led authorities.

"We want the fall of the regime -- no negotiations," proclaimed one banner in the town.

The demonstrations were the latest in a wave of rallies that have continued largely uninterrupted since late December, criticizing the alleged mistreatment of the Sunni community and, more recently, calling for Maliki's downfall.

They are among the myriad problems confronting the premier, who has also faced vocal opposition from many of his erstwhile government partners less than three months before key provincial elections.

"I will continue to protest, even if I am the one one left," said Osama Nayif, one of the Fallujah protesters. The 25-year-old was among 59 people who were maimed in Fallujah last week.

In an apparent Dire Revenge™ attack immediately following the protesters' deaths, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and three others kidnapped as the army withdrew from the city and handed over security responsibilities to the police.

In Ramadi, capital of Anbar province which surrounds Fallujah, many protesters held up flags dating back to the rule of now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein.

"I call for the 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...
and the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
to protect the demonstrators and to pressure the Iraqi government to listen to the people's demands," said one of them, Abdulrahman al-Ghawi.

And in Adhamiyah, a mostly-Sunni neighborhood in northern Storied Baghdad, several hundred demonstrators held their latest weekly protest under heavy security measures at the Abu Hanifa mosque, calling for the release of prisoners they claim are being wrongfully held.

The latest rallies come a day after al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq released an audio message calling for the country's Sunnis to take up arms against the Shiite-led government.

"You have two options," a voice in the audio message, purportedly that of Islamic State of Iraq front man Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, said. "You can kneel to them (the government), and this is impossible, or carry weapons and you will be the superior."

Iraqi authorities have taken several steps in a bid to curb the protests. They claim to have released nearly 900 prisoners, and have pledged to raise the salaries of anti-Qaeda militiamen.

At the same time, a top minister has publicly apologized for holding detainees without charge for prolonged periods.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


India-Pakistan
Sherry files review plea against SC order in blasphemy case
[Pak Daily Times] Pakistain's Ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against its January 17 order to Multan city police officer (CPO) for deciding an application regarding the registration of blasphemy case against her, according to the law. Senior counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan has filed the review petition on behalf Sherry Rehman, pleading that the court had passed the order without hearing his client's point of view in this case.

It has also been learnt that three other senior lawyers, Salman Akram Raja, Abid Minto and Kamal Azfar, have also filed review petitions in the case. It must be noted that Muhammad Faheem Akhtar Gill had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against a Lahore High Court, Multan Bench, decision that it has no jurisdiction in the case, and has prayed that the Punjab Police be directed to register a criminal case against Sherry Rehman under Section 295C of Pakistain Penal Code. He made Multan district and sessions judge, Multan CCPO, an SHO and Sherry Rehman respondents.

According to the applicant, Sherry Rehman had in a talk show on a private TV channel on November 30, 2010, outraged the religious feelings of Mohammedans with deliberate and malicious intent.
...to whit, by saying the blasphemy laws should be repealed.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  295-C Use of derogatory remarks, etc; in respect of the Holy Prophet. Whoever by words, either spoken or written or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.

A fine? Gee, they make you pay for the bullet.

They mustn't think that Muhammad can standup for himself.
Posted by: Waldemar Elmung2663 || 02/02/2013 13:49 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan mortars kill five in Pakistan
[Pak Daily Times] Mortar shells fired from Afghanistan on Friday killed five people in South Waziristan tribal district, Pakistani officials said. "The shells hit five people near Angoor Adda, around three kilometres from Afghanistan border, and killed them," said a security official. The identity of the victims was not immediately clear as two officials said they were local militants and another said they were still identifying the bodies. "They were local militants who were coming towards Angoor Adda from Afghan border," said the security official on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. "There was a fire on Afghan forces a while before the mortar shells hit these people. They might have been attacked in retaliation," he added. Afghanistan and Pakistan regularly accuse each other of staging shelling barrages across the border.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Africa North
Mali jihadists say they've been tortured by military in custody
[CTVNEWS.CA] Three suspected jihadists tossed in the slammer
Please don't kill me!
in the days since the liberation of Timbuktu said Friday that Malian soldiers were torturing them with a method similar to waterboarding.
Oh, noze! Not waterboarding helpless Islamic brutes!
The three are being held in an earthen cell in what remains of the military camp in the town, which was freed this week by French and Malian soldiers after nearly 10 months under radical Islamist rule.
And what were the poor inoffensive Islamic brutes doing during that ten months?
Their allegations came as French President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, and a fine job he's doing of it...
prepared to fly to Mali on Saturday, nearly four weeks after the French-led operation began in the vast West African country.
I'm not too sure what it has to do with M. Hollande getting back on his airplane and flying away.
The three suspects, who were tied together with a turban
Oh, I do like that...
and one handcuff, all acknowledged to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named having been members of the al-Qaeda-linked group known as Ansar Dine, or Defenders of the Faith.
That would be the Tuareg-run collection of Salafist sadists, not MUJAO or AQIM, which were more international in scope.
"To force me to talk they poured 40 litres (85 pints) of water in my mouth and over my nostrils which made it so that I could not breathe anymore. For a moment I thought I was even going to die," said one of the men,
The heart [belch!] bleeds. Tums, anyone?
who gave his name as Ali Guindo and said he was from a village near the central Malian town of Niono.
"I always wanted to lord it over my neighbors, ever since I was a child. Then, suddenly, in the space of a fortnight, I read the Koran from cover to cover and then a couple volumes of the Marquis de Sade. For the first time my life had meaning."
"I sleep in the cold and every night they come pour freezing water over me. "
What'd you do during the Salafist occupation, Ali Guindo?
All three prisoners described similar treatment. Their account could not be independently verified.
"And then the Frenchies chopped my head off with a big machine!"
Soldiers holding the three asked news hounds to leave after initially allowing journalists to speak with them.
"Hey, Ali Guindo! Guess what you're gonna get once the reporters are outta sight!"
Army Col. Mamary Camara
... who has kept abreast of the situation...
told news hounds that the three were arrested by Malian forces in the town of Lere. He said one of the men was from Libya and was caught wearing a foreign military uniform.
Perhaps most of him could be shipped back to General Delivery, Benghazi?
The Libyan jihadist was visibly frightened,
We mustn't frighten the poor Islamic brutes!
crouching in a corner of his cell. He gave the AP contradictory information about his background, first saying he was born in a Malian village but of Libyan descent. Later, he said he was from Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
but has lived for years in Mali.
But calling him a liar would be a human rights violation or something.
He initially denied being part of Ansar Dine
"No, no! Certainly not!"
but later confirmed that he belonged to the movement though he denied having an important role.
"I only joined the party to make business contacts!"
The Malian military said that when he was arrested he was wearing a watch with a memory card inside that they said was used to communicate with other foreign jihadists.
Ahah! A two-way wrist radio!
The allegations of torture came right on schedule as Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
and Amnesia Amnesty International released reports outlining other allegations of misconduct by the Malian military and Islamists over the last month.
How many reports did they issue on Ansar Dine, MUJAO, and AQIM in the past ten months? Anyone? Bueller?
Both groups said they had documented cases of Malian soldiers killing suspected Islamist supporters in Sevare on the eve of the French-led intervention. Human Rights Watch cited at least 13 killings, while Amnesty said the number could be two dozen.

Human Rights Watch said the witnesses described seeing soldiers at a bus station in Sevare interrogate passengers suspected of links to beturbanned goon groups. Those without proper identification were taken away, the witnesses said.

"Before the soldiers marched them off, many of the locked away
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
men frantically tried to find someone in the crowd at the bus station who could vouch for them and verify their identity," the HRW report said. "They were driven or marched to a nearby field, where they were shot and their bodies dumped into one of four wells."

The News Agency that Dare Not be Named had earlier reported killings of civilians by the Malian army in Sevare, with bodies dumped into a well.

The Malian government has promised to investigate allegations of human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
abuses by its soldiers.

Friday's reports also alleged abuses by the Islamists. Human Rights Watch said beturbanned fascisti had killed at least seven Malian soldiers.

"One begged for his life saying, 'Please, in the name of God.' But they held him down and slit his throat," a witness told HRW. "Two days later, as we picked up the dead soldiers to bury them, the Islamists saw that five of them were still living. Most were gravely maimed, but they were still breathing and should have been given a chance to live. Instead the Islamists killed them -- one after the other."
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa

#1  They turned me into a newt, they did!
Posted by: SteveS || 02/02/2013 17:11 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
NBC News decides - one too many doctored videos. Steve Capus out

the stink and lawsuits over selectively edited videos with embarrassing apologia got to be too much. The proof in their reversal will be how they treat the MSNBC horde of illiterate drooling partisan hacks. I predict: nothing
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just another submission by Zimmerman's attorney in the suit against NBC demonstrating a institutionalized behavior that constitutes reckless disregard of facts and one that promotes libeling sensationalism at the expense of truth. Can you hear the loud KACHING in the damages?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2013 0:13 Comments || Top||

#2  do not be surprised if he ends up over at CNN.
Posted by: airandee || 02/02/2013 9:34 Comments || Top||

#3  The reviews are coming in
Posted by: Frank G || 02/02/2013 11:45 Comments || Top||

#4  do not be surprised if he ends up over at CNN.

Or as White House press secretary....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/02/2013 13:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Falsification and Reckless Disregard for the Truth appear to be guiding principles of NBC rather than things to be avoided at all costs.
Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 02/02/2013 17:46 Comments || Top||

#6  Falsification and Reckless Disregard for the Truth appear to be guiding principles of NBC

As opposed to the selective-shading or deliberate disinterest exhibited by other media outlets...
Posted by: Pappy || 02/02/2013 22:54 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Washington Times Gets Action! Indiana Gov. Spikes Deal With Pakistani Bomb Supplier
[Washington Times] Indiana Gov. Mike Pence has suspended a deal to finance an in-state fertilizer plant to be built by a Pak conglomerate that the Pentagon has criticized for refusing to take steps to stop the flow of materials to makers of bombs that kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

News of Mr. Pence's action followed a report Monday in The Washington Times that said Pakistain's Fatima Group stood to benefit from the sale of $1.27 billion in tax-exempt municipal bonds in Indiana even as it rebuffed Pentagon efforts to save U.S. lives.

The governor "immediately ordered that the project be suspended pending further investigation," said Pence spokeswoman Christina Denault. "Indiana is actively investigating in consultation with federal authorities/[Defense Department] the situation at this time."
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Go Hoosiera!
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2013 6:07 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Scott Brown not running for Senate
Scott Brown will not run for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by John Kerry, the former senator told the Herald first today.

Brown’s decision follows yesterday’s announcement by fellow Republican Charlie Baker that he won’t run for the seat either. Baker did urge former Gov. William Weld, who just moved back to Massachusetts, to run if Brown doesn’t.

This leaves Democrats U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch and rival U.S. Rep. Edward Markey as the only two declared candidates for the office.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He's unwilling to claim a faux Cherokee heritage? After all, he does have high cheekbones.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/02/2013 11:24 Comments || Top||

#2  If he runs again he's going to have to answer the question, "what makes you think you can win this time when you were rejected by the voters last year?"

There's no good answer to that question. You either lie, or start jabbering inside baseball, or gloss over it. Voters notice.

Smart thing for him to do is to keep the honorific 'Senator' and find something that he loves to do.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/02/2013 13:29 Comments || Top||

#3  He may make a run for governor next year and he'd have a pretty good shot.
As far as the current race, Excretable Eddie is the party's anointed one but he's a horseshit candidate. A lot of the unions are taking a pass on him. I think Lynch is gonna take him in the primary. At least the guy has worked for a living and knows where his district is.
The Republican's are talking the usual suspects. Bill Weld, Charlie Baker, the rumor this morning is that they want Romney's wife to run.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/02/2013 13:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Don't forget Muffy Healy - talk about a thin 'Pub bench.
Posted by: Raj || 02/02/2013 14:15 Comments || Top||

#5  "what makes you think you can win this time when you were rejected by the voters last year?"

Never stopped the EU from repeating referendums in countries till they got the result they wanted.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/02/2013 14:25 Comments || Top||

#6  It was a politically savvy move. In Massachusetts, Republicans have a much better chance of winning the race for Governor (where a fiscally conservative Governor can be a spending break on the state legislator) than for Senator (where the voters prefer an extra vote for the Democrats). The extra time will distance Brown from previous defeats while also making him look good compared with the next Republican candidate who will do much worse in the election than Brown had done.
Posted by: Odysseus || 02/02/2013 17:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Chelsea Clinton should be moving to Boston within a few weeks and begin talking about public service.
Posted by: Airandee || 02/02/2013 17:39 Comments || Top||


Ethically-challenged Rep. Charles Rangel in campaign debt
[WASHINGTONTIMES] In a case of the mighty having fallen, the campaign of Democratic Rep. Charlie Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Rangel
Congressman-for-Life from Harlem, who became what 20 terms in Congress turns you into ...
, the dean of the New York Congressional delegation and a man who was for decades untouchable in his Harlem district, is $35,000 in debt but has only $5,000 in the bank and has received handouts from other House members.
Sounds like it's time for another "birthday party"...
Mr. Rangel faced his first serious primary challenge in years, spending nearly a half-million dollars to fend off the son of the man he first deposed decades ago.

And ethics charges have worn him down, forcing him to fundraise separately for a legal defense fund. His campaign donated the maximum allowed, $5,000, to the legal fund, disclosures showed Thursday.

Mr. Rangel, who long helped other colleagues raise money, more recently has found himself on the receiving end of charity, as his colleagues in the House donated money to him through their leadership PACs, an act that had never before been necessary.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Time to write some checks from that Cayman Islands account Charlie.

You know, your "Retirement Fund". (wink, wink)
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 02/02/2013 11:34 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Thousands Demand Reform in Bahrain
[An Nahar] Several thousand Bahrainis marched near the capital Manama on Friday to demand reforms in a protest called by the Shiite opposition in the tiny but strategic Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom, witnesses said.

The demonstrators also called for the departure of the king's uncle Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, who has been prime minister for more than four decades.

Thousands of men and women protested in al-Bilad al-Qadim, waving Bahraini flags and brandishing pictures of political detainees, the witnesses said.

"National action calling for democratic change will not stop ... until all rights have been granted," opposition groups said in a statement.

"The action of the people of Bahrain on the ground has lasted for two years and will not end -- the opposition will act every day with demonstrations until all our demands are met," it added.

Referring to a call by King Hamad
...King of Bahrain (since 14 February 2002), having previously been its emir (from 6 March 1999). He is a Sunni, while the rest of Bahrain is predominantly Shiite...
on January 23 for a new round of national dialogue, the statement said "this dialogue is obscure and does not reflect a serious will on the part of the authorities to meet popular demands."
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Africa North
Sahel ulemas partner against extremism
[MAGHAREBIA] Religious leaders from Algeria, Mali, Niger and Mauritania this week decided that the most effective way to support peace and eradicate extremist ideas would be to work as a team.

The imams, who initially came together in November to condemn the extremism in Mali, met in Algiers on Wednesday (January 30th) to formally launch the League of Ulemas of the Sahel.

Imams of the Maliki rite across the Sahel will work to educate youth about the dangers of extremism, particularly by working closely with mosques and youth centres, said Algerian imam Youcef Mechri, the new body's secretary-general.

"We are convinced that only religion can provide a moral solution to the multidimensional crisis and the evils that threaten us. We must defend religious references in our region to cut off the preachers of violence and destruction," said Nigerien Imam Boureima Abdou Daouda, the League's president.

The ulemas unanimously denounced the crimes committed in the name of Islam, recalling that religion condemns violence, intolerance, extremism and terrorism.

Just as highway bandits use police and military uniforms to trick people before robbing them, extremists use Islam as a way of deceiving young people into joining their criminal activities, El Watan quoted Sheikh Mouadou Soufi of Burkina Faso as saying.

"Everybody knows that our religion teaches us neither violence nor terrorism, but the love of others and tolerance. What is happening in northern Mali is serious violations such as forced marriage, amputation of hands and stoning, are a result of misinterpretation of the Qur'an," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Suicide Attack on Regime Kills 53
[An Nahar] A suicide boom-mobileing at a Syrian military intelligence headquarters in Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
province killed 53 people, a watchdog said on Friday.

The January 24 attack, reported for the first time by the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, was carried out by the jihadist rebel group the al-Nusra Front, the watchdog said.

The blast targeting military intelligence in the Sahsah area of the town of Quneitra killed 53 intelligence workers including six officers and maimed 90, the Observatory said, citing medical sources.

Several bodies of prisoners being held in the building were found, but the cause of their deaths was unclear.

The Observatory relies on a network of medical sources and activists on the ground for its information.

A simultaneous kaboom at a checkpoint elsewhere killed four soldiers of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
's army and sparked festivities in which a number of al-Nusra Front fighters were killed, it said.

The United States has placed al-Nusra, which it says is closely linked with al-Qaeda's Iraq branch but contains mostly Syrian fighters, on its list of terrorist organizations.

The group has claimed the majority of suicide kabooms in Syria's 22-month uprising against Assad, which has transformed into a full-scale civil war and killed more than 60,000 people according to U.N. figures.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Hezbully Mahmoud Hayek Charged with Attempt on MP Harb's Life
[An Nahar] State commissioner to the military court Judge Saqr Saqr charged on Friday Mahmoud Hayek with attempted assassination of MP Butros Harb in July 2012.

Hayek refused to appear before the investigative bodies because he is a member of Hizbullah's security apparatus
Hayek is also charged with carrying out terrorist activity.

If convicted the man could be sentenced to death.

Harb had said that Hayek refused to appear before the investigative bodies because he is a member of Hizbullah's security apparatus.

The Batroun MP escaped earlier in July an assassination bid after residents of a building in which his office is located in the Beirut district of Badaro discovered individuals trying to booby-trap the elevator.

A string of high-level assassinations struck Lebanon between 2004 and 2008, targeting political, media and security figures who vocally opposed the Syrian government, including former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri who was killed in a powerful car bomb blast in February 2005.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Home Front: WoT
Clinton Says World Is Safer Now!
Hillary Clinton steps down from State Dept ... while proclaiming the world is a safer place. Meanwhile ... US stock market pops over 14,000 mark (Dow), everyone piles in with their money, and volatility is at all-time lows.

WELL - I certainly feel like I can breathe easier. How about you?! HAHAHA!!!
Posted by: Raider || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The world is safer ... if you belong to Al Qaeda.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 02/02/2013 11:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Safer for whom?
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 02/02/2013 14:54 Comments || Top||

#3  How is it for that doctor that found Bin Laden for us? Is his prison pretty safe?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 02/02/2013 16:38 Comments || Top||


Europe
John Paul ll Shooter Claims Iran's Khomeini Told him to Do it
[An Nahar] The Turk who shot pope John Paul II in St Peter's Square in 1981 claimed in a new book on Friday that the founder of the Iranian revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, told him to do it.

The Vatican immediately denied several assertions in the book including the claim by Mehmet Ali Agca that he had spoken of the Iranian link at his meeting with John Paul II in his prison cell.

Ali Agca, a former far-right extremist and Islamic fundamentalist, said he was "indoctrinated" in Tehran after escaping from a Turkish prison where he was serving time for killing a journalist.
Mehmet, have you ever been...in a Turkish prison?
Oh. You have?

At a nighttime meeting with Khomeini, Ali Agca said the Supreme Guide of the Iranian revolution told him to kill the Polish pope -- who was badly wounded but survived the assassination attempt.

"You have to kill the pope in the name of Allah. You have to kill the devil's mouthpiece on earth," Ali Agca said the Ayatollah Khomeini told him.

The book has been published in Italian and is entitled "I Was Promised Paradise: My Life and the Truth Behind the Attack Against the Pope."
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  *** cough *** NOT-JUST-KHOMEINI *** cough ***...

D *** NGED CHERRY-FROSTED AM DONUT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/02/2013 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  The mullahs must be replaced if we want peace in this world
Posted by: Knuckles Omusoth4340 || 02/02/2013 4:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Knucks, replaced with what?

I think expunged, eliminated, plowed under and sown with salt is more appropos.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/02/2013 8:22 Comments || Top||


Economy
America's Suicidal Cities
[NATIONALREVIEW] Two page opinion piece using Detroit as the model for all cities in decline, which it isn't. The valid point the author does make is that the cities' regimes keep acting as though the money was still flowing like it did about the time they started being run by Dem machine politicians. Detroit is well on its way to winking out of existence -- but it's the city council that's to blame. But Chicago's got a different set of problems even though they stem from a similar source. Washington D.C.'s problem with the Marion ("The Bitch Set Me Up!") Barry administration made the place a national laughingstock, but the voters gave him another term as soon as he was out of jail and he's still on the city council. New Orleans' problems during Katrina stemmed a lot more from its corrupt and incompetent city administration than from FEMA or G.W.Bush.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I used to live in Detroit and have many friends who still do. This is a tragedy.

And is the leading example for where the US is headed as we follow the same policies with the same sort of corrupt government.

Look well, America. You'll be just like this in 5-10 years, if not sooner.

Orion
Posted by: Orion || 02/02/2013 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Again, THE MORE BAD OR WORSE THINGS ARE, THE BETTER FOR ANTI-US LEFTISTS-GLOBALISTS + ANTI-US OWG + NAU, where differentiated regional Nation-States will be "forced" to depend on one another just for simple survival

SNAFU > nearly every day as per the MSM-Net Americans = Amerikans see the Fed surrender steadily + in piecemeal to the future OWG + OWG NAU 2015. CALL ME WEIRD BUT I DON'T SEE MEXICO, CANADA, + GREENLAND, ETC. SURRENDERING AS FAST OR AS DUBIOUS AS WASHINGTON = BAMMER + ADMIN ARE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/02/2013 0:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Corrupt political machines, unions, and crime can only survive as long as the host [business and industry] continues to breath and thrive. When the host dies, the parasites migrate to government for their sustenance or find a new host elsewhere.

When the government host finally dies, well, then you have a very real problem.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/02/2013 6:32 Comments || Top||

#4  ... a bold plan to revitalize Belle Isle by having the city sell it for $1 billion to investors who “believe in individual freedom, liberty, and free markets.” The investors would be given freedom to set up an “enterprise zone,” which would have self-governing commonwealth status with the U.S. much as Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands have. The new Belle Isle would have a top rate of 10 percent on income taxes, and no taxes on capital gains, dividends, investments, or estates.

Here's an idea: why don't we make the whole damn country an "enterpreise zone" with business-friendly policies like those described above. Be nice if these folks would stop rent-seeking long enough to at least try to explain the validity of these policies to the low information crowd.
Posted by: AzCat || 02/02/2013 12:30 Comments || Top||

#5  See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUM > WHITES TO BECOME MINROITY IN USA IN 30 YEARS | CENSUS: WHITES TO BECOME A MINORITY IN THE UNITED STATES BY 2043 - BUSINESS INSIDER, according to current projections.

Illegal Mexicans, Blacks, Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis + Arabs to be the majority soon enuff.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/02/2013 22:11 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
UN chief gravely concerned™ by Israeli airstrike in Syria
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "grave concern™" on Thursday over reports that Israeli jets bombed an apparent convoy of weapons near the Lebanese border and urged respect for the sovereignty of countries in the region.
Harrumph harrumph harrumph, boys! Harrumph harrumph harrumph!
"The Secretary-General notes with grave concern™ reports of Israeli air strikes in Syria," Ban's press office said in a statement. "At this time, the United Nations does not have details of the reported incident. Nor is the United Nations in a position to independently verify what has occurred."
Ban Man didn't get his Times delivered yet I guess.
"The Secretary-General calls on all concerned to prevent tensions or their escalation in the region, and to strictly abide by international law, in particular in respect of ... sovereignty of all countries in the region," the statement said.
Very good, Johnson. Mind if I start my weekend now?
UN peacekeepers in a demilitarized zone between Syria and Israel were also unable to verify a Syrian complaint that Israeli planes had flown over the Golan Heights to carry out the air strike."UNDOF did not observe any planes flying over the area of separation and therefore was not able to confirm the incident. UNDOF also reported bad weather conditions," Ban's spokesman, Eduardo Del Buey said.
Nah, I was asleep. Let me ask the underage hooker I was with though. I think she was up.
Nah, she said it was raining. Ending report.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder if the Secretary would be concerned with poison gas falling on Israel.

Nah, I didn't think so.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/02/2013 20:24 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudi king names brother deputy premier: SPA
[Pak Daily Times] King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah
... Fifth out of 37 sons of King Abdulaziz to ascend to the throne. He is, after his half-brothers Bandar and Musa'id, the third eldest of the living sons of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Abdullah's mother is from the Rashid clan, longtime rivals of the Saud. He has 6 sons and 15 daughters and about $20 billion. His youngest son is just seven years old...
appointed one of his brothers, Moqren bin Abdul Aziz, as deputy prime minister, on Friday, making him second in line to the throne, the official SPA news agency said.

"Prince Moqren bin Abdul Aziz, adviser and special envoy of the king, has been named second vice president of the Council of Ministers," said the SPA report.

The king, 89, is the president of the Council, and Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, 77, is the first vice president.

In the event of the king's death, the 68-year-old Moqren could then become crown prince.

Like Prince Salman, Moqren is a son of Abdul Aziz bin Saud, who founded Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
and died in 1953. He has served as an adviser and special envoy of King Abdullah since July, previously serving as the head of Saudi intelligence. The monarch's age and frequent hospitalisation have raised concerns about the future leadership of the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom, a key player in the Middle East and a major exporter of oil. The post of deputy premier had been vacant since Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, a half-brother of the king, became crown prince in October 2011 following the death of Prince Sultan and then died himself last June.
Posted by: Fred || 02/02/2013 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > SAUDI KING THROWAWAY IMMINENT | PRESSTV: SAUDI ARABIA OVERTHROW [Monarchy] IMMINENT: OBAMA ADVISORm via likely "Arab Spring/Awakening" led revolution during POTUS Bammer's second term.

Sunni-Shia rivalry getting hot-n-hotter - IFF THE US = BAMMER ADMIN WASN'T "SERIOUS" EVER BEFORE, IT HAS TO GET SERIOUS NOW.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/02/2013 22:29 Comments || Top||



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2013-02-02
  Syria Suicide Attack on Regime Kills 53
Fri 2013-02-01
  Binori Mosque cleric among 10 killed in Karachi
Thu 2013-01-31
  Boko Haram 'commander' declares ceasefire
Wed 2013-01-30
  Mali and Niger forces retake Ansongo
Tue 2013-01-29
  Sahel jihadist groups splinter
Mon 2013-01-28
  Timbuktu mayor: Mali rebels torched library of historic manuscripts
Sun 2013-01-27
  French and Malian troops begin restoring control in Timbuktu
Sat 2013-01-26
  Green-on-green clash in Khyber tribal region kills 32
Fri 2013-01-25
  AQAP #2 killed for the THIRD time in Yemen
Thu 2013-01-24
  US drone strike near Sanaa kills 7 hard boyz
Wed 2013-01-23
  Nuristan Airstrike Kills 14 Insurgents
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

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