Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
A goddess on the Rantburg paper
Burning like a silver flame,
The summit of beauty and love,
And Venus was her name.
She's got it,
Yeah, baby, she's got it.
Well, I'm your Venus,
I'm your fire at your desire.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/18/2009 0:12 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Don't mess with Venus' Second Amendment Rights
In April 2007, Ramey confronted intruders who had entered a storage building on her farm where thieves had previously stolen equipment. She used a snub-nose .38 revolver to shoot out the tires on their pickup truck, then flagged down a car and had the driver call 911, holding the would-be-thieves until the sheriff arrived. "I didn't even think twice. I just went and did it," she said. "If they'd even dared come close to me, they'd be six feet under by now." Wikipedia
The US and Afghan military have continued attacks against the Haqqani Network in eastern Afghanistan despite a threat from the group that a captured US soldier would be executed if the raids did not cease.
Last night, US and Afghan forces conducted two major raids in Paktia and Logar provinces. The raids were aimed at taking down the leadership of the Haqqani Network and gathering intelligence on the location of the captured US soldier.
The biggest raid took place against an "enemy encampment" situated "in the remote reaches of Paktia province," the US military said in a press release. The operation was carried out about 20 miles southeast of Gardez City, and was designed to stem the flow of foreign fighters and weapons moving from Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agencies of North and South Waziristan through the Khost-Gardez Pass to the capital of Kabul. Read the entire article
Posted by: ed ||
07/18/2009 10:22 ||
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#1
Mullah Sangeen Zadran, a senior commander in the Haqqani Network, threatened to kill a US soldier unless Coalition forces end operations in ...
This might work against some countries, but not the US, at least not yet.
[Bangla Daily Star] Detective Branch of Police arrested a listed member of banned Islamist militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh from a house at Rasulpur in the district town yesterday.
The arrested was identified as Hasanuzzaman Hasan, 32, son of Maulana Mahfuzur Rahman of Tengra Bhabanipur village in Sadar upazila.
DB sources said Hasan went into hiding soon after the August 17 serial bomb blasts on 2005 and recently, he came to the area.
Talking to the journalists, Hasan said he was an active JMB member but later he left the outfit as his father had asked him to cut off all relations with militancy.
On contact, Satkhira Police Super SM Maniruzzaman said they would be able to gather more information on activities of JMB in the district during his interrogation.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2009 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Taliban militants resurfaced in parts of the Buner district during the last several days, carrying out armed patrol on roads besides establishing a checkpoint in Pacha Killay, locals told The News on Friday.
The reports about the reappearance of the militants emanated from the district at a time when the people, displaced by the Taliban arrival and the subsequent military operation, are returning to their homes.
"My brother had gone back to his home after the start of the IDPs' return, but the situation there was still precarious and the Taliban were active, which forced him to leave Buner again," a resident of a village near Pir Baba said, requesting anonymity.
Locals said the militants had infested numerous parts of the Buner district. "The Taliban arrived in great numbers to Kalpani, which is a densely populated area, and Chagharzai. They terrified the people when they brazenly carried out armed patrol on a four-kilometre strip on the Kalpani-Chagharzai Road a couple of days back," another resident of Buner, who also requested not to be identified, said.
He contended that during the operation, the Taliban militants had suffered meagre casualties and their numerical strength remained intact. The displaced people coming back, he apprehended, would not be safe there and they could migrate again. "They are moving back to the district, because they could not pass time in camps. They just want to be at their homes in this scorching heat and unfavourable conditions," he argued.
The locals from Pacha Killay said the militants had established a checkpoint at a stream between Pacha Killay and Balo Khan a few days back, where they checked the people to single out government officials or their opponents.
"The checkpoint was set up a few days ago, but removed after shelling by security forces. However, they have set it up again and checked the people here on Friday," a resident said.People of Pacha Killay said some 250-300 Taliban militants stormed the area a couple of days ago. There were also reports that they took away Rs 25,000 cash cards from the recently-returned IDPs.
The locals said the Taliban militants were still present in Pir Baba, Mula Banda, Dokada, Malikpur and Balo Khan. The militants, they added, were also present in Hisar, Gokand and other areas on this strip.
Meanwhile, the Amn Tehrik on Friday raised a serious concern over the military operation and said the Taliban's top leaders were still alive. "How can we say the task has been completed when the top leadership of the Taliban is still alive? After the return of the IDPs, there is an apprehension of a wave of targeted killings," Idress Kamal and Dr Said Alam Mehsud of the Amn Tehrik told a press conference here.
However, the Frontier Corps, which is leading the operation in Buner, denied setting up of a checkpoint and armed patrol by the Taliban. It also played down the concerns by some quarters about regrouping of the militants.
"There are no Taliban in Pacha Killay or any other area. The action against the Taliban was effective and now, there is no organised militancy in the area like before," the FC officials said, when asked to comment on the situation in Buner.
However, it was conceded that the militants had attacked security forces' position in the Bachkada area, which had been responded with full force. "Now that area has also been cleared and two local Taliban commanders arrested," the officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2009 00:00 ||
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Police on Friday arrested the head of a madrassa in Bahawalpur and confiscated "suspected material and important documents". According to a private TV channel, police made the arrest during a search operation at the seminary near Lorry Stand. The head of the seminary has been identified as Qari Bashir -- who has been shifted to an undisclosed location for interrogation.
This article starring:
QARI BASHIR
TTP
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2009 00:00 ||
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This is strange. It's from WaPo so who knows if it's true. If it is, it doesn't make sense; American supply convoys help not only our troops but also theirs. Maliki can't possibly think the IA and IP are ready to do everything on their own.
BAGHDAD, July 17 -- The Iraqi government has moved to sharply restrict the movement and activities of U.S. forces in a new reading of a six-month-old U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that has startled American commanders and raised concerns about the safety of their troops.
In a curt missive issued by the Baghdad Operations Command on July 2 -- the day after Iraqis celebrated the withdrawal of U.S. troops to bases outside city centers -- Iraq's top commanders told their U.S. counterparts to "stop all joint patrols" in Baghdad. It said U.S. resupply convoys could travel only at night and ordered the Americans to "notify us immediately of any violations of the agreement."
The strict application of the agreement coincides with what U.S. military officials in Washington say has been an escalation of attacks against their forces by Iranian-backed Shiite extremist groups, to which they have been unable to fully respond.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/18/2009 08:39 ||
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#1
The four levels of experience are unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence.
This is a very important scale to remember, as it explains many facets of the learning cycle. Being aware of it both gives the student confidence, and lets the teacher know when to back off and let the student succeed or fail on their own merits.
The Iraqis have been chomping at the bit to get control back, and they care less that they will be getting a lot of bumps and bruises, than that the fight is entirely theirs to fight.
#3
We trained hard . . . but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
If we leave completely, the next time we come to Iraq under hostile terms it will not be to stop and rebuild as we have done this time, it will only be to fly over and bomb until the rubble bounces.
#5
Though alternative courses of action would not have produced painless magical success (the idiotic "standard" implicitly or explicitly applied - oddly - only to foreign military operations by our ridiculous "elites" and media, et al), these should have reduced the problems under discussion:
* sovereignty was returned far too early
* during the extended occupation period that should have occurred, a serious effort of intimidation/extermination should have been mounted against indigenous criminal networks - the biggest/best ones - esp. those with foreign ties to Iran or Syria
* the longer and far more serious occupation would have provided a much better learning path for Iraq security force stand-up
* Iran in particular should have been punished, its personnel killed, to to maximum extent feasible (that limit being drawn way out yonder over the horizon), and embarrassing connections to local thugs/politicians/et al emphasized, not hidden
* Sunni terrorism should have been ruthlessly suppressed from the get-go, war should have been treated as war, absurd spectacles like Ramadi (the US in a stand-off with an enemy that should have been liquidated inside a week) avoided, and "hearts and minds" won the lower-cost, lower-violence, more effective way: demonstrating domination, power, competence (i.e. the very risky, situationally inappropriate, and much costlier goofy COIN stuff that's all the rage now strictly avoided)
* the positive synergies of these approaches must be considered; knee-capping Iran and exterminating/compromising their local friends would have sucked a lot of the oxygen out of the Sunni "resistance", while a serious suppression of their insane violence would have finished the job; doing the obvious and effective things to suppress Sunni violence would have sucked the oxygen out of the Shi'a resistance environment, while the targeted efforts against the IRGC and their local allies would have finished that job
As I said, not magic solutions, but given the circumstances, probably more effective than early sovereignty/feckless tolerance of Sunni terrorism/weakness shown towards Iran and thus towards the worst in the Iraqi Shi'a community/bizarre reliance on primitive political progress in a hobbesian environment where people sought security first. Oh, and deregulating energy in all forms would have been an obvious good way to such the oxygen out of the biggest mafia-building business that directly boosted the Shi'a resistance - fuel smuggling.
#6
They may not see themselves as having a choice. President Obama has made if very, very clear that he wants no more than a skeleton American force remaining in Iraq on the shortest possible timeline. If the Iraqis are to get any support from the American trainers as they climb a steep learning curve, they're going to have to get that support while the Americans are still there.
The Iraqi message to President Obama being, "You can't fire me! I quit!"
#7
It's not like it would take years for them to transition in a modern country that has all the financial and infrastructure advantages or even a lower threat level.
#8
I think of Shia militias as Maliki's Brown Shirts - ready to seize power at a moment's notice. The moment Uncle Sam leaves, I expect Maliki to assume the mantle of a Shia Saddam.
#9
I fear Zhang Fei may be correct, but if so Maliki would have to decide whether he is Arab first or Shia first, since the Shia Saddam path entails a huge risk of being made a puppet to Iran, which would not be appreciated by a lot of (most?) Iraqis - Iran-Iraq War, Book 2?
[Iran Press TV Latest] Three people have been killed and four others wounded in a feud which stoke clashes betweens two tribes in the southern Shia province of Muthanna in Iraq.
The fighting erupted on Friday between the clans of al-Ziyad and al-Ribat at the al-Gharbi neighborhood of the provincial capital Samawa, 270 km (170 miles) south of Baghdad, according to the Voices of Iraq news agency.
Meanwhile, Muthanna Police Chief Major General Kadhem al-Jabbashi said that everything is now under control and calm has returned to the city. He added that as many as 15 people were also arrested in the tribal unrest.
The incident comes amid rising fears that insurgent operations may be escalating in war-torn Iraq as Washington withdrew its troops from Iraqi cities at the end of June.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces arrested on Friday five wanted men in northern Basra, according to the media office of the Basra police.
"Policemen on Friday (July 17) arrested five wanted men, including two were trying to plant a bomb on the main road in al-Haretha region in northern Basra," the office told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "Anti-bomb squad managed to defuse the bomb without damage," it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Missan security forces seized two missile launching pads in southern al-Amara city on Friday, a senior security official said.
"Security men from the Missan Police Emergency Contingents Department seized two missile launching pads as part of a search raid in the area of Kassiba, (10 km) south of Amara," Col. Sadeq Abdulazim al-Hiliw, the department's assistant director, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. "This area had witnessed Katyusha rocket firing targeting the department headquarters in Missan," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2009 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi forces on Friday captured seven persons who planned armed operations against pilgrims heading for the capital Baghdad, an official security source in Diala said.
"The seven arrested men are members of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) network in the area of al-Muradiya, Baaquba, district," the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Earlier on Friday, the governor of Karbala said some 10,000 security forces were deployed on the roads leading to Karbala and Baghdad to protect the pilgrims flowing on foot in the two cities to celebrate the death anniversary of Imam Musa al-Kadhim, the seventh top holiest figure for the Twelver Shiite Muslims. "The deployment occurred on the roads between Karbala and Baghdad, Karbala and al-Hilla and Karbala and Najaf," Amal al-Din al-Hirr told Aswat al-Iraq.
"The pilgrims are flowing on foot to reach the city of al-Kadhemiya in Baghdad while others are making for Karbala to visit the holy shrines of Imam al-Hussein and his brother Imam al-Abbas," he said.
Checkpoint were intensified to protect the visitors as part of a plan comprising all security agencies as well as the sniffer dogs department, formed a few days ago, Hirr added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2009 00:00 ||
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Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi was attacked by men in plain-clothes on his way to Friday prayers at Tehran university, the website of his Etemad Melli political party reported. Etemad Melli quoted Karroubi's son Hossein as saying the reformist cleric was attacked when he got off the car in front of the university.
"When my father got out of the car in front of the university, some plain-clothes forces standing by the door attacked and assaulted him," Hossein said. "His turban fell. They insulted him using very abusive and outrageous names."
Karroubi, a former parliament speaker, nevertheless attended the weekly prayers, along with Iran's main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and thousands of the two men's supporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2009 00:00 ||
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Tens of thousands of government opponents packed Iran's main Islamic prayer service Friday, chanting "freedom, freedom" and other slogans as their top clerical backer Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a sermon bluntly criticizing the country's leadership over the crackdown on election protests.
Outside, police and pro-government Basiji militiamen fired tear gas and charged thousands of protesters who chanted "death to the dictator" and called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to resign. Dozens were arrested, piled in trucks and taken away, witnesses said.
Plainclothes Basijis stood in front of a line of riot police and pumped canisters of tear gas, which young protesters with green bandanas over their faces kicked away across the pavement, away from the crowds. Some set a bonfire in the street and waved their hands in the air in victory signs.
The opposition aimed to turn the Friday prayers at Tehran University into a show of their continued strength despite heavy government suppression since the disputed June 12 presidential election.
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have won the election, sat among the worshippers, attending for the first time since the turmoil began. Many of the tens of thousands at the prayers wore headbands or wristbands in his campaign color green, or had green prayer rugs, in a crowd that filled the former soccer field where prayers are held and spilling into nearby streets.
In his sermon broadcast live on radio nationwide, Rafsanjani reprimanded the clerical leadership for not listening to people's complaints over the election, which was declared a victory for Ahmadinejad despite opposition claims of fraud.
"Doubt has been created (about the election results)," Rafsanjani said. "There is a large portion of the wise people who say they have doubts. We need to take action to remove this doubt."
Rafsanjani couched his sermon in calls for unity in support of Iran's Islamic Republic. But his sermon was an unmistakable challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who declared Ahmadinejad's victory valid and ordered an end to questioning of the results. Rafsanjani said the dispute has split clerics and warned of "crisis."
Worshippers interrupted Rafsanjani with chants of "azadi, azadi"--Persian for "freedom"--and the cleric got tears in his eyes as he spoke of how Islam's Prophet Muhammad "respected the rights" of his people. Rafsanjani said the leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, "knew that people's vote was the most important thing in our country" and insisted it be enshrined in the founding of the Islamic Republic.
"Where people are not present or their vote is not considered, that government is not Islamic," Rafsanjani said.
He criticized the postelection wave of arrests, saying the leadership should show sympathy for protesters and release those detained. "Sympathy must be offered to those who suffered from the events... and reconcile them with the ruling system," he said. "We need to placate them."
Rafsanjani, a former president, regularly gives the Friday sermon but had not appeared since the election turmoil began. He is bitter rival of Ahmadinejad and is considered Mousavi's top supporter within Iran's clerical leadership, heading two of the three main clerical bodies that oversee the government. His daughter and four other relatives who openly backed Mousavi were briefly detained during protests last month.
In the days after the June election, hundreds of thousands marched in the streets in support of Mousavi. But after Khamenei validated the results, police, elite Republican Guards and Basiji militiamen launched a fierce crackdown on protesters in which hundreds were arrested and at least 20 killed--though human rights groups say the figure could be several times that official toll.
The scene outside the university on Friday was tumultuous. Before the sermon, police fired tear gas at hundreds of Mousavi backers trying to enter. When Mahdi Karroubi, another pro-reform candidate in the June election, headed for the prayers, plainclothes Basijis attacked him, shoving him and knocking his turban to the ground, witnesses said. "Death to the opponent of Velayat-e-Faqih," they chanted as they attacked him, referring to the supreme leader, the witnesses said.
Also arrested was a prominent women's rights activist, Shadi Sadr, who was beaten by militiamen, pushed into a car and driven away to an unknown location, Mousavi's Web site http://www.mowjcamp.com and a women's rights site http://www.meydaan.com said.
Inside the prayers--held on a former soccer field covered with a roof--some worshippers rubbed their eyes as tear gas from outside drifted in. They traded competing chants with some hard-liners in the congregation. When the hard-liners chanted "death to America," Mousavi supporters countered with "death to Russia" and "death to China."
It was a reference to Ahmadinejad's alliance with both countries. Ahmadinejad has come under criticism in Iran for not criticizing Beijing over Muslim deaths in China's western Xinjiang province.
After the prayers, some worshippers joined the protests outside, swelling their numbers to thousands, witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fears of government retaliation.
In his sermon, Rafsanjani--known as a mercurial and savvy political insider--was careful not to mention Khamenei. But he sharply criticized the Guardians Council, a powerful clerical body that has become Khamenei and Ahmadinejad's strongest backers. The Guardians Council oversaw the election, then conducted a partial recount that validated Ahmadinejad's victory. Opponents dismiss the recount.
Rafsanjani said the Guardians Council had had an "opportunity to unite the people and regain their trust," but the chance was "not used properly."
Rafsanjani heads two other top clerical bodies, the Experts Council and the Expediency Council. In the past week, a behind-the-scenes power struggle between Rafsanjani and the Guardians Council has become public, fueling heavy hard-liner criticism of Rafsanjani.
Rafsanjani also openly spoke of the split among clerics over the election. Many other prominent clerics have been sharply critical of the government or have failed to announce their backing for Ahmadinejad, including most of the country's "maraje'-e-taghlid," or "sources of emulation," Shiite clerics of the highest rank whose religious rulings are closely obeyed by their many followers.
"The maraje'-e-taghlid have always supported and served (the people). Why some of them are offended?" Rafsanjani said. "We need to keep them beside us. We need to support them and rely on them."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/18/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
And these current leaders of Iran are the ones Bambi wants to meet with no preconditions. What a maroon.
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.
[Bangla Daily Star] Detective Branch of Police arrested a listed member of banned Islamist militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh from a house at Rasulpur in the district town yesterday.
Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi was attacked by men in plain-clothes on his way to Friday prayers at Tehran university, the website of his Etemad Melli political party reported. Etemad Melli quoted Karroubi's son Hossein as saying the reformist cleric was attacked when he got off the car in front of the university.
Tens of thousands of government opponents packed Iran's main Islamic prayer service Friday, chanting "freedom, freedom" and other slogans as their top clerical backer Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a sermon bluntly criticizing the country's leadership over the crackdown on election protests.
