The staff have been informed, and are frantically searching the premises for the real linens and silver so long in storage, practicing the dance that is Russian service, and bracing the tables against thumping and possible spontaneous tarantellas. Naturally, there is a serious discussion whether it would be wise to invest in a set of depleted uranium tankards... (See here for the after action reports following the last Rantapalooza trailing wife attended.)
Please join us for an evening of food, drink, and civil, well-reasoned discourse
Wednesday, September 16th
RSVP to Steve White (stevewhitemd1@mac.com) or trailing wife (jssawicki@gmail.com) for details of place and time, or leave a note in the comments.
As always, significant others of all sorts also welcome -- Mr. Wife and the trailing daughters plan to enjoy themselves thoroughly!
#8
Please plan on it, BP - we'd love to have you. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/03/2009 19:33 Comments ||
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#9
We need to have one of these in Shanghai. In fact, there was one last week. It wasn't very well-attended, though. Maybe that was because I forgot to invite anyone. Actually, it was just me and a bottle of cheap bourbon.
#1
Dostum had traveled to Turkey on December 4, 2008 to visit his family for the Kurban Bayram (Eid al Adha) festival, but was then denied the right to return by the Afghan government.
#3
order up the Conex's! We got Taliban to seal up
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/03/2009 9:46 Comments ||
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#4
While a Soviet General, Dostum subjected traitors, Taliban to lie on the ground and be run over by tanks. However, he has a habit of switching sides in wars...depending on who's winning. I believe he possibly made the poignant remark that when the Soviets left Afghanistan, they would not so on the skids of their helicopters!
General Dostum: "A" Number 1: "The Duke of Afghanistan!"
[Maghrebia] A Mauritanian court on Tuesday (September 1st) released two of three al-Qaeda terror suspects arrested last month in Kobon, southern Hodh Gharbi province, for lack of evidence, local press reported on Tuesday (September 1st). One of the men is a Malian national.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] A top Nigerian militant who has held talks with the government about laying down arms took out a full-page newspaper advert on Wednesday detailing demands that include a military withdrawal from the oil-producing Niger Delta.
Government Tompolo, a core faction leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), has held informal talks with the government about surrendering his weapons in return for a presidential offer of amnesty.
Security and federal officials said on Tuesday a deal with Tompolo and two other senior militants, Ateke Tom and Farah Dagogo, could be reached within days.
In an open letter to President Umaru Yar'Adua published in The Nation newspaper on Wednesday, Tompolo said the offer of amnesty to gunmen in the Niger Delta was seen as part of a wider peace process rather than an end in itself.
He said peace would only be achieved once there was dialogue with the government about core issues in the delta, home to Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, including the withdrawal of the joint military taskforce (JTF) from the region.
"They may win this war against our just cause but they cannot win the peace in any guise," Tompolo said.
"I urge you to authorise your government to commence dialogue with representatives of the people of the region, nominated from elders and leaders of youths," he said.
A source close to Tompolo said the letter was authentic.
Yar'Adua in June offered amnesty to all gunmen in the Niger Delta to try to stem unrest which has prevented Nigeria from pumping much above two-thirds of its oil capacity, costing it billions of dollars a year in lost revenues.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
For the decades of civil war in Angola both sides avoided damaging the oil infrastructure (and for that matter, the 'deals') because they wanted it to be intact for their side when/if they won. Likewise, the oil companies worked hard to avoid 'taking sides' and just dealt with the party in power at any given time and place.
The Nigerians seem to be following a different template. Ugly as Angola was, this template could get even uglier. Makes me wonder if the Chinese are backstopping the militants.
[Dawn] One person was killed and nine others were wounded Wednesday in an apparent suicide car bomb attack in Makhachkala, the main city of Russia's violent Dagestan region, the Interfax news agency reported.
An unknown individual exploded a homemade bomb with 40 kilogrammes of explosives when traffic police were checking his car in the early hours of the morning, a security source told the agency.
'Six police and three medics, who were stationed at the post, were wounded.
One local inhabitant received wounds from the bomb fragments and died on the spot,' the source said.
There has been mounting violence throughout Russia's overwhelmingly Muslim Northern Caucasus over the last months as militants wage a low-level insurgency against the pro-Kremlin local authorities.
Russian special services said Monday they had killed in Dagestan an Algerian man known as Doctor Mohammad and suspected of being a member of the al-Qaeda terror network.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
The armed men that attacked the minister for religious affairs were probably already present in the area and had not come from outside the high-security zone, a private TV channel reported Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Tahir Alam Khan as saying on Wednesday. The SSP said there were more than two attackers, adding that they had fired using a Kalashnikov assault rifle and pistols. The minister was shot in his shin, while his driver was killed on the spot.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Security forces pounded hideouts of militants and demolished two houses in Safi Tehsil of Mohmand Agency on Tuesday.
Official sources said security forces dynamited the houses of two suspected militants in Safi subdivision early in the morning. They said the relatives of militants, whose names could not be ascertained, had already vacated the houses.
The residents said the area was completely sealed and the forces had taken positions at important places during the operation. Security forces also shelled the suspected hideouts of militants in different areas of Safi Tehsil with artillery and mortar guns.
There was, however, no report on loss of life or damage to property. Meanwhile, unidentified armed men and local residents traded heavy fire in Michni area late Monday night.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TTP
[Geo News] Shagufta Jumani, State Minister for Religious Affairs Wednesday said there is a police station situated near the premises of ministry for Religious Affairs. Talking to Geo News, she said the culprits kept on firing at the minister; but, the police personnel did not show up on the site, even though, there were police in large number at the police station that is situated nearby.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Complicity or cowardice?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/03/2009 6:25 Comments ||
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#2
Demote /Fire everyone at that Station that day.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/03/2009 14:41 Comments ||
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[Geo News] Two more extremists have been killed and 24 arrested in the ongoing operation in Swat. According to Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), two extremists were arrested in Sakhra valley. Eight extremists surrendered to the security forces in Barshor and one in Mingora, while six suspected terrorists were arrested in Panar and Barama area during a search operation. The ISPR spokesman said two terrorists were killed in an operation near Jambel and Kachach area. Five extremists were arrested in a search operation in Sangota and Mangalore, while two were taken into custody in Zoraha area. ISPR further said that over 2,81,000 ATM cards have so far been distributed among the afectees of Malakand.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] Forty more suspects have been arrested after the attack on Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi earlier today. The police squad providing security to Hamid Saeed Kazmi has also been taken into custody, sources said. The police squad went for fuel refill at the time of attack on the Federal Minister, sources added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Indian troops have killed five militants trying to sneak into Indian-ruled Kashmir from the Pakistani side of the disputed region, the army said Wednesday.
'The army has foiled an attempt by militants to infiltrate into (Indian) Kashmir from across the Line of Control (LoC),' army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Uma Maheshwar told AFP.
The heavily-militarised LoC divides Kashmir between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan who both claim the whole territory and have fought two wars over it.
'The militants were killed in (northern) Gurez sector during an operation that started late Tuesday and is still continuing (Wednesday),' Maheshwar said.
The fighting erupted a day after an Indian soldier was killed when Pakistani troops allegedly fired at Indian positions across the LoC.
Pakistan denies Indian accusations of arming and funding the militants, who have been waging a separatist insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir since 1989 that has left more than 47,000 people dead, according to an official tally.
They agreed to a ceasefire along the Line of Control border in 2003 and started a peace process in 2004. Since then there have been sporadic clashes, and both countries have accused each other of violating the ceasefire.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Iran Press TV Latest] A powerful Indian politician has gone missing during a helicopter flight in south of the country as rescue teams launched a massive search operation.
Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the 60-year-old chief minister of Andhra Pradesh state went missing during a flight over a Maoist rebel stronghold on Wednesday.
Air force helicopters rushed to the area to locate the aircraft carrying the politician who was accompanied by a bodyguard, two officials and a photographer.
Reddy's helicopter took off on Wednesday morning from Hyderabad, the state capital.
The aircraft lost contact with air traffic controllers in bad weather as it flew over forests where Maoist rebels are known to operate.
It was unclear whether the helicopter had landed or crashed or in some remote forest region.
Indian security agencies say they are worried about the chief minister's safety in the forested region largely controlled by rebels.
Meanwhile, heavy rains are said to have hampered the rescue operation in the dense forest area.
Reddy is among the most popular politicians from the Congress party that rules the South Asian country.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] At least nine suspected militants were confirmed dead as security forces launched a massive operation in the Bara sub-division of Khyber Agency on Tuesday.
The security forces and political administration, however, claimed killing 40 militants during the swoop, codenamed Bia Daraghlam (here I come again) launched in the aftermath of a spate of beheading in the lawless region. The operation conducted in the area in June last year was codenamed as Daraghlam (here I come).
Locals said nearly 35 beheaded bodies were recovered from different areas of Bara over the past one month. The beheading had spread a wave of terror among residents, prompting the security officials to take action against the perpetrators. Briefing journalists about the operation, sector commander of security forces Brigadier Faiz and Political Agent of the Khyber Agency Tariq Hayat Khan said
40 militants had been killed and 43 were arrested.
40 militants had been killed and 43 were arrested.
The arrested militants were produced before the media along with the arms seized during search. The two officials said four hideouts of the militants had been destroyed during the operation. They said the ground forces were supported by military helicopters that targeted the hideouts of militants. The officials said the operation was not against a particular group or individual, but to purge the area of the miscreants.
Asked about a similar operation in late June last year and its conclusion without any gains, the two officials said the current operation would continue till the restoration of peace and security in Bara.
They said security forces were engaged in Swat last year, but enough force was available with the government to take the operation to its logical end this time.
Locals said the banned Lashkar-e-Islam activists did not offer any resistance as the operation was launched this morning. They had already vacated their areas to take refuge in the nearby mountains.
Sources said the Frontier Corps (FC) and Army troops were taking part in the operation. Troops started movement around 1am on Tuesday. They captured all important places of militants around 3am. The operation was launched at 6am by imposing curfew all over the Bara sub-division.
Initially, the troops continued the search operation in Shalobar, Kamarkhel and Malak Dinkhel areas till the afternoon. However, tanks and troops were called to the Sipah area after an attack on security forces convoy in the afternoon and burning of a military vehicle by the miscreants.
Independent sources confirmed the killing of nine suspected militants during the operation. Five among them were identified as Habibur Rahman, Arif, Wali Khan, Abdur Rahman and retired subedar Murad.
Residents said security forces had captured the houses of key militant commanders in different areas. However, they retreated from the places after some time. Sources said the houses would be demolished with the help of earth moving machinery today (Wednesday).
Nearly 35 people, mostly opponents of the outlawed LI, were killed in the area and their bullet-riddled and beheaded bodies were dumped on roadsides or uninhabited areas. No one would be allowed to remove the bodies till a time limit mentioned in the notes pinned to the bodies.
A similar operation, codenamed Daraghlam (here I come) was launched in Bara on June 28 last year during which some houses of militants were demolished. However, the operation was halted without achieving any conspicuous results.
Connecting Afghanistan and Pakistan at the busiest Torkham border crossing, Khyber Agency is rapidly becoming a lawless zone because of the increasing cases of kidnapping on the Peshawar-Torkham route.
A suicide attack on a Khassadar (tribal police) checkpost on August 27 killed 21 Khassadars, who were preparing to open their daylong fast. Two days before the attack, an Afghan journalist Janullah Hashimzada was shot dead by unidentified armed men in the broad daylight in the Sur Kamar area of Jamrud sub-division.
Kidnapping from Peshawar city has almost become a routine with its roots traced back to Bara and Jamrud areas of Khyber Agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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Law enforcement agencies on Wednesday arrested three more sons of Sufi Muhammad, chief of the banned Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi, a private TV channel reported. The men were arrested along with their families from Peshawar's Pervaiz Colony. The channel said security officials raided a house in the locality to arrest Abdullah, Fazlullah and Abdul Rehman and moved them to an unidentified location. Sufi Muhammad has 11 sons, seven of whom are now under arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TNSM
[Asharq al-Aswat] A Baghdad court on Wednesday sentenced four members of Iraq's security forces to death for their roles in a bank heist in the Iraqi capital that left eight bank guards dead. A three-judge panel gave the men a month to appeal the swift sentence in a case that has the potential for political fallout after at least one of the suspects was linked to a senior official in a major Shiite party.
Gunmen broke into the state-run Rafidain Bank at about 4 a.m. on July 28, killing three on-duty guards and five others on the premises who were either on a break or asleep, according to police investigators. The bank's chief testified during the trial that 5.6 billion Iraqi dinars, or about $4.8 million, was stolen.
Most of the money was later recovered in the office of a newspaper owned by Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a senior member of Iraq's largest Shiite party, investigators said.
Abdul-Mahdi has denied any involvement but said one of those charged in the robbery worked as part of his security detail. He has said any suggestion of wrongdoing on his part was a politically motivated attempt to sabotage his re-election efforts in next January's national elections.
A fifth defendant, who worked at the newspaper, was acquitted for lack of evidence. Throughout the trial, he maintained that he was arrested because he was related to one of four other suspects wanted in the case who are on the run.
The chief judge, who refused to be identified for personal security reasons, told The Associated Press shortly after the sentencing that the four suspects at large would be tried in absentia. He did not set a trial date.
The proceedings in the case were emotionally charged, with a judge briefly adjourning hearings after relatives of those killed in the heist beat and spat on the defendants. The relatives were banned from entering the court for the sentencing.
Outside the courtroom, Ali Hussein Ali said he was satisfied with the sentencing of the men who killed his brother but that the feeling will not be "complete until the others who are still at-large are arrested and brought to justice."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2009 00:00 ||
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Eleven people were shot dead and a powerful bomb wounded at least two dozen others as violence intensified in Thailand's Muslim-majority south during the holy month of Ramadan, police said Thursday. The spate of killings, all on Wednesday, was one of the bloodiest for months in Thailand's insurgency-hit provinces bordering Malaysia, where a terrorist jihad separatist rebellion has been raging for more than five years.
Gunmen shot dead a soldier as he rode his motorcycle in restive Narathiwat province on Wednesday night, while a deputy village chief was gunned down and killed in a tea shop in the same province hours later, police said.
A Muslim man was shot dead and his wife seriously injured as they returned from a religious school in Narathiwat, they said.
In neighbouring Pattani province, suspected insurgents killed a Muslim religious teacher and his 13-year-old son after following them through the provincial capital late Wednesday, police said.
Attackers earlier shot dead a Muslim candidate for the local administration as he returned from prayers at a mosque in Pattani, and in separate attacks gunmen killed three other Muslim men in the same province.
Attackers raided a house in Yala province and shot dead another Muslim man as he broke his fast for Ramadan on Wednesday evening, police said. Security forces also shot and killed a wanted Muslim terrorist militant in a clash in Yala.
Meanwhile, a motorcycle bomb exploded on Thursday lunchtime outside a restaurant crowded with Buddhist customers in Pattani town, injuring at least 27 people, police said. Two people were seriously injured, they added. One has died in this bombing, and there was another bombing as well.
On August 25, a powerful car bomb hit a restaurant frequented by government officials in Narathiwat, wounding at least 42 people.
In the wake of a series of publications worldwide regarding the rape and torture of dissident prisoners in Iran's jails, supporters of Ahmadinejad gathered with him in Jamkaran, a popular pilgrimage site for Shi'ite Muslims on the outskirts of Qom, on August 11, 2009. According to Iranian pro-democracy sources, the gathered crowd heard from Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi and Ahmadinejad himself regarding the issue.
According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), an independent Israeli intelligence analysis organization, Mesbah-Yazdi is considered Ahmadinejad's personal spiritual guide. A radical totalitarian even in Iranian terms, he holds messianic views, supports increasing Islamization, calls for violent suppression of domestic political opponents, and, according to the ITIC, "declared that obeying a president supported by the Supreme Leader was tantamount to obeying God."
At the Jamkaran gathering, Mesbah-Yazdi and Ahmadinejad answered questions about the rape and torture charges. The following text is from a transcript alleged by Iranian dissidents to be a series of questions and answers exchanged between the ayatollah and some of his supporters.
So we do not know if this very troubling exchange is true and complete. But it's interesting that it's making the rounds.
Asked if a confession obtained "by applying psychological, emotional and physical pressure" was "valid and considered credible according to Islam," Mesbah-Yazdi replied: "Getting a confession from any person who is against the Velayat-e Faqih ("Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists", or the regime of Iran's mullahs) is permissible under any condition." The ayatollah gave the identical answer when asked about confessions obtained through drugging the prisoner with opiates or addictive substances.
"Can an interrogator rape the prisoner in order to obtain a confession?" was the follow-up question posed to the Islamic cleric.
Mesbah-Yazdi answered: "The necessary precaution is for the interrogator to perform a ritual washing first and say prayers while raping the prisoner. If the prisoner is female, it is permissible to rape through the vagina or anus. It is better not to have a witness present. If it is a male prisoner, then it's acceptable for someone else to watch while the rape is committed."
This reply, and reports of the rape of teen male prisoners in Iranian jails, may have prompted the following question: "Is the rape of men and young boys considered sodomy?"
One aspect of these permitted rapes troubled certain questioners.
Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi: "No, because it is not consensual. Of course, if the prisoner is aroused and enjoys the rape, then caution must be taken not to repeat the rape."
A related issue, in the eyes of the questioners, was the rape of virgin female prisoners. In this instance, Mesbah-Yazdi went beyond the permissibility issue and described the Allah-sanctioned rewards accorded the rapist-in-the-name-of-Islam:
"If the judgment for the [female] prisoner is execution, then rape before execution brings the interrogator a spiritual reward equivalent to making the mandated Haj pilgrimage [to Mecca], but if there is no execution decreed, then the reward would be equivalent to making a pilgrimage to [the Shi'ite holy city of] Karbala."
One aspect of these permitted rapes troubled certain questioners: "What if the female prisoner gets pregnant? Is the child considered illegitimate?"
Mesbah-Yazdi answered: "The child borne to any weakling [a denigrating term for women - ed.] who is against the Supreme Leader is considered illegitimate, be it a result of rape by her interrogator or through intercourse with her husband, according to the written word in the Koran. However, if the child is raised by the jailer, then the child is considered a legitimate Shi'a Muslim."
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.
[Dawn] One person was killed and nine others were wounded Wednesday in an apparent suicide car bomb attack in Makhachkala, the main city of Russia's violent Dagestan region, the Interfax news agency reported.
Law enforcement agencies on Wednesday arrested three more sons of Sufi Muhammad, chief of the banned Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi, a private TV channel reported. The men were arrested along with their families from Peshawar's Pervaiz Colony. The channel said security officials raided a house in the locality to arrest Abdullah, Fazlullah and Abdul Rehman and moved them to an unidentified location. Sufi Muhammad has 11 sons, seven of whom are now under arrest.
[Asharq al-Aswat] A Baghdad court on Wednesday sentenced four members of Iraq's security forces to death for their roles in a bank heist in the Iraqi capital that left eight bank guards dead. A three-judge panel gave the men a month to appeal the swift sentence in a case that has the potential for political fallout after at least one of the suspects was linked to a senior official in a major Shiite party.
Eleven people were shot dead and a powerful bomb wounded at least two dozen others as violence intensified in Thailand's Muslim-majority south during the holy month of Ramadan, police said Thursday. The spate of killings, all on Wednesday, was one of the bloodiest for months in Thailand's insurgency-hit provinces bordering Malaysia, where a 
