RIP to the sailors condemned to serve on Vlad's coffins. HT Drudge
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2008 20:33 ||
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Russian sites say it's the Nerpa, an Akula 2 attack sub. It's also the sub the Russians are refurbing for the Indians.
Posted by: ed ||
11/08/2008 21:19 Comments ||
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Nov 1, 2008: Indian Navy crews to move to Russia to start training on Chakra Batches of Indian naval personnel are to shortly leave for the Russia's far eastern port of Vladivostok to train on board the Chakra, (formerly the Nerpa) a Russian Akula-2 nuclear powered attack submarine which is to be transferred to India on a 10-year lease next year.
The Nerpa was launched at the Komsomolsk on-Amur shipyard in June this year after which she began harbour trials. Earlier this week, the shipyard announced that the submarine had been shifted out of the shipyard to a maintenance facility in the Primorye territory near Vladivostok for trials in the Sea of Japan.
The Indians just missed a bullet. Not so fortunate for the Russian crew.
Posted by: ed ||
11/08/2008 21:23 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON: In the short saga of the phone call which hasn't materialized so far, the mandarins are having a good laugh over pundits who have gotten their knickers in a twist.
Turns out that the high priests of Indian diplomacy are not as perturbed as pundits in the media over America's president-elect Barack Obama not telephoning Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, although he has spoken to 15 other world leaders, including Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari, in the past two days.
"We should be quite relieved that we are not in the same crisis league, right?" one official joked, expanding on the new diplomatic adage that "it is better to suffer from US inattention than US attention."
The official, a key figure in the US-India loop, did not offer any explanation why Obama had not called Singh, but said New Delhi was happy it was placed in the same league as Beijing and Moscow, the other capitals Obama was yet to reach. In a more serious vein, another official explained that "mutually convenient times" could not be found for the call before Singh left for the Gulf region on Friday.
The US President-elect phoned leaders of Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico and South Korea on Thursday and followed it up with calls to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain, and Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari on Friday as he began to connect with the world.
Some pundits have interpreted Obama not calling Singh as an affront and an indication that India will not be a priority for the new Democratic dispensation, but Indian officials were not particularly agitated, saying the media was just "over-analyzing" the matter. "Of course we are not in the same league as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand and we are happy not to be," the first official told ToI.
Obama's transition office did not respond to messages seeking details of the call schedule.
Prime Minister Singh in the meantime has left New Delhi on a maiden three-day visit to the energy-rich Gulf region where he will be talking to leaders of Muscat, Oman and Qatar. Modern communication facilities do not preclude a Singh-Obama conversation on the go, but the Indian side is not holding its breath, although the second official expected it to take place soon.
The Prime Minister is scheduled to be in Washington this coming weekend for the G-20 summit convened by President Bush, when there is a chance he will meet with Obama, since Bush has said the president-elect will be involved in the deliberations. It's another matter whether the President-elect would want to be involved in the meeting.
Obama has also written a letter to Singh during the latter's visit here in September, contents of which are being parsed for signs of which way future US-India ties will go in a Democratic dispensation.
But a former aide to Prime Minister Singh, who pointed out that Obama's first 100 days in office will coincide with the UPA government's last 100 days, surmises that ties between the two countries have reached a stage where change in governments will not make substantial difference.
The two officials who spoke to ToI on background also said exchanges between the President-elect and the Prime Minister had been warm and friendly and New Delhi did not particularly anticipate any backslide in the excellent relations it has enjoyed with Washington in recent years. The Prime Minister even wrote a personal letter to Obama with condolences on his grandmother's death earlier in the week.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/08/2008 14:45 ||
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he didn't call me either. I think we both know it wouldn't have gone well.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2008 16:09 Comments ||
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Nobody told him India is a country---one of the most important in the World (and not just because Aishwarya Rai lives there :-))?
#4
#3. This shows what happens when the president and his friends are utterly ignorant of foreign policy. Surely, you don't include Slo Joe, the nation's foremost foreign policy expert, in that group of ignoramuses. s/
Kolkata (PTI): Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan which has to be sorted out between the two countries, External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee said here on Saturday.
"Essentially it has been stated that it is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan," Mukherjee said when asked to comment on US President-elect Barack Obama's reported desire to appoint former US President Bill Clinton as a special envoy on Kashmir.
The problem has to be resolved under the Shimla agreement and subsequently the Lahore agreement, besides the series of discussions which had taken place including within the framework of the composite dialogue, he told reporters on the sidelines of the curtain raiser for the BIMSTEC summit 2008 here.
On the issue of Obama discouraging outsourcing by US companies, Mukherjee said it was the internal economic matter of that country and would comment on it when needed.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/08/2008 14:45 ||
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The government on Friday shifted former Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz from a resthouse in Islamabad to his residence in Bahria Town. A Lal Masjid spokesman said the cleric's release was being negotiated with the administration since long and the administration had finally shifted him to his new house. Government sources said the government was considering releasing Abdul Aziz in a phased process, where in the first phase, he would be shifted to his Bahria Town house, and in the second, sent to Saudi Arabia.
This article starring:
Bahria Town
MAULANA ABDUL AZIZ
Learned Elders of Islam
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2008 00:00 ||
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A boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists and European politicians was allowed to dock in Gaza on Saturday despite a strict Israeli blockade, in the third such voyage in less than three months.
The 20-metre (65-foot) ship "Dignity" arrived in Gaza at 9:30 am (0730 GMT) after departing from Cyprus on Friday to protest against the Israeli sanctions imposed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized the Gaza Strip in June 2007. On board were 11 European politicians, most of them British, and activists of the US-based Free Gaza Movement who last month completed a second successful attempt to reach the Gaza Strip.
The ship, flying the flags of several countries including Britain, the United States and Canada alongside Palestinian flags, was greeted with little fanfare by Hamas officials and police forces, but few civilians. The politicians plan to visit hospitals to deliver a tonne of medical supplies and three scanners for use in treating spinal injuries. They also plan to meet some of the 700 students who have been denied the right to leave Gaza and study at universities that have accepted them.
Make sure you stop at the grocery stores and the shopping malls ...
In addition to the British politicians, parliamentarians from Italy, Switzerland and Ireland also made the overnight voyage. "This is an historic time as we have European members of parliament going to Gaza to draw international attention to Israel's collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians," Lord Nazir Ahmad, Labour member of Britain's House of Lords and head of the delegation, told AFP. He described the Gaza Strip as the "largest prison in the world," but said "even prisoners have rights -- it's even worse than that." "It's like the holocaust, plus a meteor impact, plus armageddon . . . only worse. Here's some band-aids."
British MP Clare Short, a former minister for international development, said the trip was necessary because "the international community has not done its job in upholding international law. All we can do is show our solidarity and report back to our parliaments because doing nothing would be collusion."
The voyage is the third such trip by the Free Gaza Movement in as many months to protest against the Israeli sanctions imposed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power there in June 2007. Israel had warned the activists ahead of the two previous journeys not to enter the closed military zone it maintains around the Gaza Strip, but it did not obstruct either voyage.
Israel has sealed Gaza off from all but limited humanitarian aid since Hamas -- which is sworn to destroying the Jewish state -- drove out forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in a week of deadly street fighting.
#4
"the international community has not done its job in upholding international law. All we can do is show our solidarity and report back to our parliaments because doing nothing would be collusion."
Uhh, excuse me but isn't that part of the argument for the war on terrorism, the Taliban, Saddam, Iran, North Korea, and others who thumb their noses at international law and the rights of the rest of us to live? Anti-Americanism is so hypocritical and illogical, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out why the international/European model is considered superior and essential in uniting the world.
Jordan's opposition Islamic Action Front said on Thursday it is planning a trip to the Gaza Strip from the southern Red Sea port of Aqaba in a bid to break an Israeli blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory. "We are currently preparing for the trip and collecting aid for our brothers in Gaza to break Israel's unjust and inhuman siege," Rheil Gharibeh, spokesman for the powerful Islamist party, told AFP.
Gharibeh, whose party is the political arm of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood and has six seats in the 110-member lower house of parliament, did not give a date for the trip but said it would be by sea from Aqaba port. "Politicians, unionists and opposition party leaders are expected to join us in a bid to draw the world's attention to the crisis in Gaza," he said.
Pro-Palestinian activists from around the world have sailed to Gaza on two separate trips in as many months and a third is due to take place on Friday. A dozen politicians from Britain, Italy, Switzerland and Ireland plan to set sail to Gaza from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus to protest against Israeli sanctions imposed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power last year in the impoverished territory of 1.5 million residents.
This article starring:
RHEIL GHARIBEH
Islamic Action Front
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2008 00:00 ||
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday cautioned Israel about continued building in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. "Settlement activity, both actions and announcements, is damaging"to peace prospects, Rice told a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
She denied the Israeli-Palestinian peace process she sponsored was a failure, saying it should lay the ground for an eventual deal.
Rice said Palestinians should "soon" have their own state, though she has made it clear she does not expect a breakthrough before Barack Obama moves into the White House.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Hamas says it will boycott next week's Palestinian reconciliation talks if Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party does not stop arresting its members. That makes sense. How they gonna go to the talks if they're cooling their heels in the calaboose? So have Hamas arrest some of their boys and have the talks in jail. Must I think of everything... Chicago City Council somehow manages ...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2008 00:00 ||
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An Israeli academic says the time before new US President Barack Obama is sworn in is an "attractive date" for Israel to attack Iran. Of course. The time immediately after the election, when the new president doesn't yet have his feet on the ground and the lame duck sitting president is at his lamest would be the perfect time to take decisive action against a threat the two don't agree on. Everybody knows that. What would we do without academics ...
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
What would we do without academics ...Or politicians?
Well, Barry you will almost be in the catbird seat on January 19th. The question is what would you do on the 20th? Welcome to the big league. You wanted the job bad and now you have it.
#2
I just hope and pray somebody is thinking about those Forward Operating Bases (FOBS) in Iraq and our troops that man them. We've got a lot of good soldiers there who will be at risk from missile attacks.
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said Friday that Iran's development of nuclear weapons was "unacceptable" and the Islamic Republic must end its "support of terrorist organizations."
Obama said he would be reviewing a letter from Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, congratulating him on his election, and would "respond appropriately." But he said the U.S. approach to Iran could not be done in a "knee-jerk" fashion. "I think we've got to think it through," he said.
At his first news conference since winning Tuesday's election, Obama said he was moving with "all deliberate haste" to fill cabinet positions in his administration and expected to be announcing names within weeks.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#4
I thought we ... "could have just one President at a time." I wonder how that security clearance background investigation is coming, subject interviews, etc?
#7
Snark of the Week Award goes to Ptah! Well done, me lad! Well done! ROFLMAO!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/08/2008 19:33 Comments ||
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You know if the poor bastard had an ounce of sense, he'd keep his bloody yap buttoned up. At least until he's had a opportunity to be briefed and make some sound assesssments. Nothing like being in over your head before your feet are even wet, and then letting everyone know it.
(AKI) - The Syrian government has claimed that a militant belonging to Fatah al-Islam, an Al-Qaeda inspired group was behind the September bombings that killed 17 people and injured 65 others in the capital, Damascus. Syrian state television on Thursday showed what it claimed to be 12 members of Fatah al-Islam confessing they had planned the attack.
The militants interviewed also claimed that one of Fatah al-Islam's financial sources is the Future Movement or Tayyar al-Mustaqbal, a Lebanese political movement led by Saad Hariri, son of slain Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
Most of the people shown on TV were Syrian nationals, Palestinian refugees and a Yemeni national.
One of the militants, Abdel Baqi Hussein, a Syrian national claimed that the suicide bomber was a Saudi Arabian citizen known as Abu Aisha Abu Bandar Jazrawi and that the explosives used in the attack were smuggled from neighbouring Lebanon. "The objective was to rattle the Syrian regime," said Baqi Hussein.
I'm guessing the al-Qaeda boys are even less enthralled with Alawites as they are with Shi'a ...
The militants interviewed also claimed that one of Fatah al-Islam's financial sources is the Future Movement or Tayyar al-Mustaqbal, a Lebanese political movement led by Saad Hariri, son of slain Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
Oh what a convenient accusation, just as Syrian troops reach the border ...
Another militant, Mahmoud Hussein, said there were plans to carry out attacks in Syria against security buildings, British and Italian diplomats and vehicles carrying security personnel, said Syria's state news agency Sana on Friday.
One of the terrorists claimed that another source of financing of Fatah al-Islam came from Gulf citizens who were members of the militant group.
Baqi Hussein also said that the car used in the bombing was a stolen Iraqi-registered taxi that operates the Damascus-Baghdad route. The 220 kilogrammes of explosives were reportedly packed in a large sports utility vehicle and detonated by the suicide bomber.
The explosion took place on 27 September at the junction between Damascus international airport and a popular Shia shrine frequented by Iranians, Iraqis and Lebanese, called Sayyida Zeinab in the area of Kazzaz. It was the deadliest bomb attack in Syria by Islamist militants in two decades and the third major attack this year.
Fatah al-Islam emerged in November 2006 when it split from Fatah al-Intifada (Fatah Uprising), a Syrian-backed Palestinian group based in Lebanon.
During a bloody standoff with authorities at the Palestinian refugee camp, Nahr al-Bared, in northern Lebanon last year, about 400 people, mainly militants and soldiers, died in the violence and some 40,000 people were displaced.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I think Harari's fate was sealed on November 4th.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists and European politicians was allowed to dock in Gaza on Saturday despite a strict Israeli blockade, in the third such voyage in less than three months.
