Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2012 11:25 ||
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Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
January Jones aka Betty Draper in "Mad Men (TV Series 2007– )" aka Elizabeth Harris in "Unknown (2011)" aka Emma Frost in "X-Men: First Class (2011)" aka Cadence Flaherty in "American Wedding (2003)" aka Laura Gerard in "Seeking Justice (2011)" aka Carole Dawson in "We Are Marshall (2006)" aka Darla in "Swedish Auto (2006)" aka Lou Ann Norton in "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)" aka Gina in "Anger Management (2003)" (age 34)
Fred has opened a new category for the Burg for the coming year: 'Election 2012'. Yep, you guessed it, it's for any reader or moderator contributed post that is about the US elections for 2012.
Anything related to that goes into this category. Of course, such posts are always classified as 'seedy politicians' and are not WoT related.
If your post really is WoT related, then put it in the proper category (e.g., Home Front WoT).
We'd like to centralize our posts and commentary for the upcoming election to this category as a convenience to our readers: those who do care, and those who resolutely don't care, about the election.
Thanks!
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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I like, but I don't Facebook.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/05/2012 21:48 Comments ||
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Fred has implemented the Facebook 'Like' button on our main posts. It works just as Facebook works: when you click it you are voting that you 'like' the post. We get a running tally behind the scenes, and you get to see the total number of 'likes' on the post.
This will help the mods get a sense of what you, the readers, favor, so help us out: when you find a post to be useful, intelligent and/or humorous, tell us you 'like' it.
Thanks!
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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1. Facebook like button won't work unless you're logged into facebook. Then, facebook knows everything you like.
2. Let's see the likes! Don't keep em a secret!
3. How about a "top 10 liked today" box on the sidebar?
4. As long as we're spiffing the place up, how about removing all the dead links from the 'better than the average link' box?
#3
It might be better to use a system like Reddit, with up and down vote arrows. Involving a third party, of dubious character, like Facebook, is asking for trouble. Personally, I wouldn't touch them.
A small print "+/-" tally, next to "views", not only shows interest in the headline or subject, but in the body as well.
Good question: Should a very down voted posting be struck from the front page? A serious consideration entering the political season.
#6
When I click "Like" -- am I "liking" because I "agree" with the article, or that I "like" that the article was posted? This is different from Facebook ---
I "like" that the article about Obama cutting the military was posted, but I don't "like" the content, that the military is being cut.
Does my "like" tell others I agree with the article? In this case of the military cuts article, that I "like" that the cuts are happening?
#7
Hacker Fred wants us to use FB Like? FB jumped the shark...even my kid quit. I never joined, in fact I've got Firefox set to block all the FB urls, just like Righthaven. Code it yourself!
A counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy is man-power intensive. Obama's June 22 decision to draw down US surge forces from Afghanistan makes a US lead COIN strategy untenable.
Once we've publicly withdrawn, it'll be Afghan Special Forces doing all the night raids. (Any of our special guys going along will just be visiting with old friends, right?)
Obama's new high risk strategy is for US and NATO to transfer control to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), who will transition from being the backup force to the leading force executing a COIN strategy with the support of the US.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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In the meantime: Pakistan Backs War Against NATO On January 1st, the Pakistani Taliban agreed to halt all terror attacks inside Pakistan. In return, the Pakistani military will not interfere with Taliban movements, as long as these movements are part of supporting Taliban attacks against NATO forces in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban will deploy their forces into Afghanistan under the leadership of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar. This deal is supposed to include the autonomous Haqqani Network, which often links up with the Taliban, but considers itself a separate operation.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Kenyan forces have killed a top Al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... commander and captured one more town in the latest onslaught on the cut-thoats' strongholds in southern Somalia.
Hurrah! Even if it doesn't last, clearing out the experienced ones weakens the rest.
The Kenya Defence Forces, assisted by Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) fighters stormed the Al-Shabaab stronghold of Fafadun on Tuesday evening and destroyed the cut-thoats' base in a fierce exchange of fire.
Three Al-Shabaab fighters including one of the commanders in charge of the Gedo region identified as Sheikh Hassan Hussein were killed, Kenya military front man Maj Emmanuel Chirchir reported in social media.
"Out of the engagement three Al-Shabaab killed, two AK-47, three Browning pistols and three HF radios captured. One KDF slightly injured," Maj Chirchir tweeted.
"Hey, Sarge! Can we use these radios to track down the rest of 'em?"
HF radios are used for long range communications -- like to Eritrea or Arabia. Or even Pakistain. If they got the radios there's a good chance they got the code books. Even without the codebooks, they probably got their SOI, which'll give info on what frequencies and maybe when to listen for further comunications from... ummm... elsewhere.
In a subsequent interview, Maj Chirchir explained that the capture of Fafadun was vital as it was one of the few remaining Al-Shabaab bases in southern and central Somalia.
"With the capture of Fafadun, the KDF, TFG and Ethiopian troops now control 90 per cent of the Gedo region," he told the Nation.
Besides pockets of the capital Mogadishu, the Al-Shabaab mainly operate in the Gedo region where they have imposed a strict version of the Sharia (Islamic) law.
Maj Chirchir maintained that KDF's ultimate aim was to capture the port town of Kismayu and kick out the cut-thoats.
Kibaki urges unity to defeat Great Lakes militia
The capture of Kismayu will effectively deny the hard boyz of the billions of shillings they collect in illegal taxes to fund their bloody insurgency in the Horn of Africa.
"We will eventually go to Kismayu because its capture is very important to our overall strategy but in terms of when, I cannot tell," he said.
He stated that the injured KDF soldier had been treated.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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"their bloody insurgency"?
Dunno if I'd call al-Shabaab an insurgency.
Posted by: American Delight ||
01/05/2012 20:38 Comments ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Gunmen have attacked a cop shoppe in northern Nigeria's Jigawa state, killing a teenage girl and wounding an officer in the first such incident since a state of emergency was declared.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack late Tuesday, though Islamist group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... has been blamed for scores of such incidents in northern Nigeria.
"The gunnies shot indiscriminately into the cop shoppe and engaged our men in a shootout, killing a teenage girl trying to flee and wounding a policeman," Jigawa state police commissioner Hashimu Argungu said.
"They threw an explosive into the cop shoppe but it did not detonate, which saved the cop shoppe from being destroyed, although its walls were riddled with bullets from the attack."
President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... declared a state of emergency last weekend in parts of four states hard hit by attacks blamed on Boko Haram.
The decree included parts of Yobe state, which neighbours Jigawa, as well as areas of Borno, Niger and Plateau states.
Some have expressed fears that Boko Haram would shift its attacks to areas not affected by the state of emergency.
Tuesday night's attack targeted a divisional cop shoppe in the town of Birniwa on the border with Yobe.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] Clashes were renewed yesterday between police forces and cut-throats belonging to the Hashid tribe leader Sheikh Sadiq Alahmar in Alhasaba area north Sana'a.
The front man for the Military Committee Major General Ali Saeed Obeid said on Tuesday that the committee continued its in Alhasaba zone and it has already removed the armed manifestations from of a number of government buildings.
He expected that the committee teams will complete their work there within three to four days, considering what has been made since last Wednesday as an advanced work, and described some of the skirmishes that occur as individual events.
In the meantime, local sources said that the huge kaboom took place yesterday in the headquarter of the First Armored Division in Sana'a. It was followed by armed festivities in the vicinity of the Office of the Division Commander, Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar between a group of his private guards and the other individuals wearing the dress of the First Armored Division. The festivities resulted in killing 5 people, one from the private guards of Alhamar
Some sources said that cut-throats from the band including an officer, were there waiting for Major General Ali Mohsen to get out after the kaboom to assassinate him, while other sources reported that the band was a group of soldiers belong to First Armored Division who did not received their salaries soldiers, so they tried to take Dire Revenge™ from their leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Saudi youths stage a rally in the kingdom's Eastern Province to condemn the regime's brutal crackdown on the protesters inside the country as well as its military invasion of neighboring Bahrain.
Has Iran been inciting among the Shiites again?
Rallying in the province's town of Sawfa, the protesters chanted slogans against the ruling Al Saud family.
The Eastern Province has been a scene of numerous anti-regime demonstrations since the beginning of 2011, with the outraged public urging implementation of human rights reforms, realization of freedom of expression, and release of political prisoners.
Saudi troops, together with forces from the United Arab Emirates, invaded Bahrain on March 14, 2011 to assist the Bahraini government in its quelling peaceful popular protests in the Persian Gulf island.
On March 5, 2011, the Saudi Interior Ministry called all public gatherings 'illegal,' authorizing regime forces "to take all measures needed" against the people, who would defy the ban.
According to Amnesty International, more than 300 people have been detained for taking part in peaceful demonstrations in the province since March.
Saudi activists say there are more than 30,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscious, in jails across the kingdom. According to human rights campaigners, most of the detained political thinkers are being held without trial or legitimate charges and have been arrested on grounds of mere suspicion.
The implementation of the suppressive measures, however, has failed to dishearten the protesters.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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Shia are a minority in Saudi Arabia, probably constituting about 5 percent of the total population, their number being estimated from a low of 200,000 to as many as 400,000. Shia are concentrated primarily in the Eastern Province, where they constituted perhaps 33 percent of the population, being concentrated in the oases of Qatif and Al Ahsa.
...
In 1979 Shia opposition to the royal family was encouraged by the example of Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini's revolutionary ideology from Iran and by the Sunni Islamist (sometimes seen as fundamentalist) groups' attack on the Grand Mosque in Mecca in November. During the months that followed, conservative ulama and Ikhwan groups in the Eastern Province, as well as Shia, began to make their criticisms of government heard. On November 28, 1979, as the Mecca incident continued, the Shia of Qatif and two other towns in the Eastern Province tried to observe Ashura publicly. When the national guard intervened, rioting ensued, resulting in a number of deaths. Two months later, another riot in Al Qatif by Shia was quelled by the national guard, but more deaths occurred. Among the criticisms expressed by Shia were the close ties of the Al Saud with and their dependency on the West, corruption, and deviance from the sharia. The criticisms were similar to those levied by Juhaiman al Utaiba in his pamphlets circulated the year before his seizure of the Grand Mosque. Some Shia were specifically concerned with the economic disparities between Sunnis and Shia, particularly since their population is concentrated in the Eastern Province, which is the source of the oil wealth controlled by the Sunni Al Saud of Najd. During the riots that occurred in the Eastern Province in 1979, demands were raised to halt oil supplies and to redistribute the oil wealth so that the Shia would receive a more equitable share.
After order was restored, there was a massive influx of government assistance to the region. Included were many large projects to upgrade the region's infrastructure. In the late 1970s, the Al Jubayl project, slated to become one of the region's largest employers, was headed by a Shia. In 1992, however, there were reports of repression of Shia political activity in the kingdom. An Amnesty International report published in 1990 stated that more than 700 political prisoners had been detained without charge or trial since 1983, and that most of the prisoners were Shia.
#3
This excerpt explains why the Saudi Royals backpedaled on Westernization:
In 1979 Shia opposition to the royal family was encouraged by the example of Ayatollah Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini's revolutionary ideology from Iran and by the Sunni Islamist (sometimes seen as fundamentalist) groups' attack on the Grand Mosque in Mecca in November. During the months that followed, conservative ulama and Ikhwan groups in the Eastern Province, as well as Shia, began to make their criticisms of government heard.
Ultimately a country's rulers must go along with the fundamental beliefs of its populace. And the Saudi populace is steeped in Islamism, much as Americans are steeped in secularism. The Sunni Islamist Revolutions of 2011 in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia will eventually be remembered as Obama's greatest foreign policy failure, much as the Iranian Revolution is viewed, justly, as the capstone to Carter's unbroken string of defeats in the international arena.
For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas state, click here
As many as 31 inmates may have been killed in a prison riot in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas Wednesday afternoon, according to Mexican news reports.
News reports say the Centro de Ejecucion de Sanciones (CEDES) prison in Altamira municipality, immediately north of Tampico was the location of the riot that started at about 1700 hrs. Tamaulipas government officials have yet to release an official version.
Reports also say an estimated 30 inmates were wounded in the riot.
The area in southern Tamaulipas has recently been a flashpoint of fighting between Los Zetas criminal gang and criminal groups allied with the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels.
More then 40 armed suspects have been killed or executed in southern Tamaulipas state and northern Veracruz state since just before Christmas. Previous Mexican press reports credit a massive buildup of Mexican army troops in northern Tamaulipas state with the increase of violence south, as criminal groups seek refuge from near constant harrassment by Mexican security forces. To read the latest rantburg.com report on the Mexican Army deployments to Tamaulipas, click here
[Dawn] Eleven gunnies were killed on Wednesday when Pak gunship helicopters attacked their hideouts in the Jogi area of the northwestern Kurram tribal region, near the Afghanistan border, security officials said.
The corpse count could not be independently verified, and gunnies often dispute official accounts.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control... seven suspected gunnies were killed and one maimed on Wednesday as two banned groups clashed together in Khyber Agency, DawnNews reported.
According to government sources, the incident took place in the Nari Baba area of district Landi Kotal. Twelve gunnies have been killed so far during the week as a result of infighting between the two rival groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Three persons including two Levies personnel were killed and eight civilians were maimed when a powerful car boomwent kaboom! in Landi Kotal Bazaar of Khyber Agency on Tuesday.
Officials said that explosives fitted in a car were detonated with a remote controlled device when a number of Levies and Khasadar personnel and civilians were present in Bacha Khan Chowk at around midday.
The kaboom caused death to two Levies personnel and a shopkeeper on the spot. The killed were identified as Gulzar and Roza Khan, both Levies personnel, and Mohammad Ikram a cloth merchant.
Local thug group Abdullah Ezzam Brigade grabbed credit for the blast and said that their target was the Khasadar and Levies personnel posted at the square.
The group threatened to carry out more attacks against security forces. The security forces recently conducted operation in Karamna, Landi Kotal, in which 12 bully boyz including four would-be jacket wallahs were killed.
The eight injured were admitted to a local hospital where doctors said their condition was stable. The local administration said that it would bear treatment cost of the injured.
In Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... , One passenger was injured in a roadside kaboom blast on Tuesday, officials said.
The passenger coach, going from Parachinar to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, was damaged when a remote controlled device went off at Pir Qayum village near Sadda Town. A women passenger received injuries in the blast while others remained unhurt.
The Thall-Parachinar Road was recently reopened for traffic after restoration of peace in the area. Local people condemned the blast and demanded of the government to take action against the perpetrators.
In Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency, bully boyz blew up a government primary school for boys in Safi tehsil on the night between Monday and Tuesday.
Officials said that the two-room school in Gurbaz Gagezai area of Safi tehisl was completely destroyed in the blast. The kaboom also shattered windowpanes of several houses in the area.
A front man for Mohmand Taliban grabbed credit for the attack.
In a subsequent operation, the political administration tossed in the clink six rustics, including Malik Attaullah and his two sons, on suspicion of their involvement in the crime.
In Nowshera, unidentified cut-throats blew up a pylon on Tarbela-Peshawar transmission line at Baba Ji Kallay on the night between Monday and Tuesday.
Police said that the pylon was blown up when four huge kabooms were heard in the locality, creating panic among people.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Two people were killed and 28 others injured when a bomb went kaboom! in the basement of a multi-storey plaza on the main University Road on Tuesday.
Cantonment Circle SP Dr Mian Saeed Ahmed said one man was struck down in his prime and the other in hospital.
The injured were taken to the Khyber Teaching Hospital where six of them were said to be at death's door.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain described it as an act of terrorism and an attempt to pressurise the government. But, he said, the cut-throats would never succeed in their design.
"A number of hardcore cut-throats have been killed recently in Khyber Agency and the blast may be its reaction," he said.
The minister said it was yet to be ascertained which Taliban group was involved in the attack. He said the government was determined to face the challenge.
"We had received no threat in the past but because of the tense situation the plaza administration had asked the owners of the net cafes to leave the building but they used delaying tactics," he said.
An official of the bomb disposal unit said the blast was caused by six kg of explosives.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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Baghdad was today hit by another wave of bomb blasts, killing at least 29 people. The explosions, which struck two Shiite neighborhoods, have worsened fears Iraq will implode as terrorists insurgents step up attacks after the U.S. troop withdrawal.
The attacks started when a bomb attached to a motorcycle blew up near a bus stop where day workers gather in the Sadr City area. This bomb killed at least eight people. That was followed by a roadside bomb close by that killed one more person. Police found a third bomb nearby and defused it.
Less than two hours later, two bombs struck the neighborhood of Kazimiyah in the north of the Iraqi capital, killing at least 14 people. Officials said the Kazimiyah blasts happened almost simultaneously, with at least one caused by a car bomb. Hospital officials confirmed the causalities, which included about 60 injured.
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: A group of unknown armed men have killed 2 Iraqi soldiers in southern Mosul, the center of Ninewa Province, late Tuesday night, a Mosul security source reported on Wednesday.
"A group of unknown gunmen, opened fire from pistols against 2 Iraqi soldiers late Tuesday night, close to al-Shoura township, 75 km to the south of Mosul, killing them on the spot," adding that the soldiers had been on leave during the attack.
Mosul, the center of Ninewa Province, is 10,308 km to the east of Des Moines 405 km to the north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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KARBALA / Aswat al-Iraq: Security sources announced today the capture of 35 terrorist groups that are planning to attack the religious parades heading to the holy city of Karbala. In addition, another 12 persons were arrested for planning chaos within the parades during the coming days.
Staff General Othman al-Ghanimi said, in press conference, that the arrests were "pre-emptive strikes, that captured weapons and ammunition to be used during the religious visit".
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A six-year-old girl was killed and eight other people maimed in a series of kabooms Wednesday in the Iraqi city of Baquba, security and hospital officials said.
Five bombs went kaboom! at short intervals in different parts of the city, starting from 0345 GMT, said an official at the operations command centre in Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Storied Baghdad. ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... One of them, which targeted the house of a local leader, killed a six-year-old girl, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. ... for fear of being murdered... Eight other people, including three coppers and five civilians, were maimed, he added.
The first blast struck a car in the city centre, with the others targeting the house of a police officer, another local leader's residence, the house of an anti-Qaeda Death Eaters from the Sahwa group, and a checkpoint.
Doctor Firas al-Dulaimi, at Baquba's general hospital, confirmed the toll from the bombings.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Iran on Wednesday reinforced its warning to America against keeping a US navy presence in the oil-rich Gulf, adding steel to a threat that Washington had dismissed as a sign of "weakness" from Tehran.
"Iran will do anything to preserve the security of the Strait of Hormuz" at the entrance to the Gulf, Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said, according to the website of Iran's state television. ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
"The presence of forces from beyond the (Gulf) region has no result but turbulence. We have said the presence of forces from beyond the region in the Persian Gulf is not needed and is harmful," he was quoted as saying.
The comments echoed a warning issued on Tuesday by Iran's military that it would unleash its "full force" if a US aircraft carrier is redeployed to the Gulf.
"We don't have the intention of repeating our warning, and we warn only once," Brigadier General Ataollah Salehi, Iran's armed forces chief, said as he told Washington to keep its aircraft carrier out of the Gulf.
The White House on Tuesday had brushed off the warning, saying it "reflects the fact that Iran is in a position of weakness" as it struggles under international sanctions.
The US Defence Department said it would not alter its deployment of warships to the Gulf.
But on Wednesday, Salehi again stressed his warning, and called 10 days of Iranian navy war games just held near the Strait of Hormuz as a "message" to the United States.
"The forces from beyond the region have received the appropriate message from these manoeuvres," he said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
"Those who have come as enemies should be afraid of our manoeuvres," he said.
The exercises climaxed on Monday with the Iranian navy test-firing three types of missiles designed to sink warships.
The head of Iran's parliamentary national security and foreign policy commission, Aladdin Brujerdi, was also quoted by the Fars news agency as saying the US description of Iran being weak "is a completely illogical stance".
He added: "The US talks about sanctioning our oil but they should know that if Iran's oil exports from the Persian Gulf are sanctioned, then no-one will have the right to export oil through the Strait of Hormuz."
The developments have sent the price of oil soaring. New York trading of West Texas Intermediate crude was at $102.60 per barrel, while Brent North Sea crude contracts in London were selling for $111.81.
"The situation with Iran remains worrisome," said Nick Trevethan, a senior commodities strategist at ANZ Research in Asia.
"The consequences of any military action in the Middle East will be enormous. A spike in crude prices will kill off any recovery in the US," he added.
Iran's war games were meant to show the Islamic republic could close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 per cent of the world's oil flows, if it is attacked or its oil exports are curbed by sanctions.
Last week, a US aircraft carrier, the USS John C Stennis, passed through the strait and eastward, through the Gulf of Oman and a zone being used by the Iranian navy for its drill.
Iranian military officials said that, if it tried to return through the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf, it would be attacked.
The US carrier would face the "full force" of Iran's navy, a navy front man, Commodore Mahmoud Mousavi, told Iran's Arabic television service Al-Alam on Tuesday.
The US Defence Department said in a statement it would continue the rotation of its 11 aircraft carriers to the Gulf to support military operations in the region.
"Our transits of the Strait of Hormuz continue to be in compliance with international law, which guarantees our vessels the right of transit passage," it said.
The Pentagon also underlined its pledge to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, saying "we are committed to protecting maritime freedoms that are the basis for global prosperity; this is one of the main reasons our military forces operate in the region."
The increasingly tense situation in the Gulf was taking place as Iran struggled with turmoil on its domestic currency market.
Foreign exchange shops on Wednesday were shuttered as traders refused to comply with a central bank order putting a new, low cap on the value of the dollar against the Iranian rial, which has come under intense pressure in recent days.
Iranian authorities were trying to shore up their currency after it slid 12 percent on Monday to a record low against the dollar the day after the United States enacted new sanctions hitting Iran's central bank.
Iran, however, insisted the volatility of the rial is not the result of sanctions.
It "definitely has nothing to with sanctions," foreign ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast said on Tuesday.
The United States and other Western nations have imposed sanctions on Iran's economy over Tehran's controversial nuclear program, which they believe is being used to develop atomic weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
maybe we should add some steel too our reply by sinking a few of their shipd pre emptively
Posted by: chris ||
01/05/2012 8:22 Comments ||
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#2
We should have sunk every last damn ship involved in this exercise/ threat.
Preemptively.
And if their planes start taking off, shoot them down. Missiles? Start taking out every bridge and dam in Iran, until they stop.
Sooner or later we will have to do this.
Every day they grow stronger.
Do they, Mikey? The CIA Factbook has their average fertility rate at 1.88 children per woman vs. 2.97 for Egypt, and the Iranian median age a full two and a half years older.
In the short term they are certainly a threat, and a good deal of rubble should be bounced (or military and military support stuff Lemony Snicketed, or both), to discourage nuclear ambitions and thoughts of spreading the revolution, but at the rate things are going the Kurds are going to inherit that particular corner of the earth, if David Goldman is reading the trends correctly.
#4
WAFF > IRAN [Parliament] PREPARES BILL TO BAN FOREIGN WARSHIPS FROM GULF.
No foreign vessels may enter unless they have the permission/consent of Tehran = Iranian Navy.
IMO as a matter of law, once approved Iran's action will only affect future time - THE REAL CRUX FOR IRAN IS THE PRESENCE OF THE US FIFTH FLEET IN BAHRAIN NOW, + THEN.
[Emirates 24/7] Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... on Wednesday accused Washington of interfering in the work of 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... , after a US official travelled to Cairo for talks with the bloc about a protest crackdown in Syria.
"The United States is one of the parties which is seeking to rekindle violence by its mobilisation and incitement (to violence)," foreign ministry front man Jihad Makdisi said in a statement.
"The US... statements are a gross interference in the work of the vaporous Arab League, and an unjustified attempt to internationalise" the issue of Syria, he said.
A team of Arab League observers has been in Syria since December 26 trying to assess the regime's implementation of a peace agreement signed by both sides aimed at ending violence in the country.
The US State Department said on Tuesday that Jeffrey Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs, was to travel to Cairo for consultations with the Arab League about Syria.
His trip was announced as the White House said it is "past time" for the UN Security Council to act as "sniper fire, torture and murder" were continuing in Syria and the Arab League conditions for the regime have been dishonoured.
"We want to see the international community stand together united in support of the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people," said White House front man Jay Carney.
Despite the presence of the monitors, Arab League chief Nabil Al Arabi has admitted "there are still snipers" in Syria, while also defending the mission for securing prisoner releases and removing tanks from the streets.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Karma's a bitch, thanks for all the Iraqi terrorist from Syria 2003-2009
[An Nahar] Syria accused the United States on Wednesday of interfering in 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... affairs, as a U.S. envoy traveled to Cairo for talks with the bloc about ending the Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... regime's deadly crackdown on dissent.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Alamo, Davy was counting their remaining cannon balls and not liking the results... democracy activists have denounced the 22-member Arab bloc over the "unprofessionalism" of a team of peace observers whose presence in Syria has failed to stem the bloodshed.
"The United States is one of the parties which is seeking to rekindle violence by its mobilization and incitement (to violence)," foreign ministry front man Jihad Maqdisi said in a statement.
"The U.S. ... statements are a gross interference in the work of the vaporous Arab League and an unjustified attempt to internationalize" the issue of Syria, he said.
The bloodshed continued unabated on Wednesday, with the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, saying security forces rubbed out 10 people in the flashpoint central province of Homs and three others in the provinces of Reef Damascus, Hama and Daraa.
For its part, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two civilians died and four were maimed in the besieged central city of Homs by gunfire from a car likely belonging to the regime.
Another civilian was killed in the city of Hama, to the north of Homs, where Arab League monitors were sent, the Observatory added.
Arab League observers have been in Syria since last week trying to assess the regime's implementation of a peace agreement aimed at ending violence in the country.
The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday that Jeffrey Feltman, the assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs, would travel to Cairo for consultations with the Arab League about Syria.
Feltman is due to arrive in the Egyptian capital later on Wednesday and is scheduled to hold discussions with the Arab League on Thursday.
His trip was announced as the White House said it is "past time" for the U.N. Security Council to act, as "sniper fire, torture and murder" were continuing in Syria and the Arab League conditions for the regime have been dishonored.
"We want to see the international community stand together united in support of the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people," said White House front man Jay Carney.
Despite the presence of the monitors, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi has acknowledged that "there are still snipers" in Syria, but defended the mission for securing prisoner releases and removing tanks from the streets.
The United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... estimated last month that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the Syrian government's crackdown on dissent since March.
The observers were also touring the flashpoints of Dael in southern Daraa province and Harasta, near Damascus, state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reported.
But activists are urging them instead to go to Sabaa Bahrat, in the heart of the capital, where they plan to stage an anti-regime demonstration on Wednesday.
"We invite the Arab League observers to act responsibly and protect the peaceful demonstrators. Our rights are being violated and we will struggle to recover them," they said on Facebook.
Hundreds of regime supporters were already gathering on the same square carrying Syrian flags and chanting slogans in support of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... , an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent reported.
Making matters worse, Syria's opposition was in disarray and struggling to present a united front despite repeated calls by Western governments for them to put aside differences and join forces in their bid to oust Assad.
A pact agreed on Friday by two of Syria's main opposition factions -- the Syrian National Council (SNC) and National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria (NCB) -- now appears to be in tatters.
The political agreement signed in Cairo had outlined a "transitional period" should Assad's regime be toppled by the pro-democracy uprising.
However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... in a Facebook posting, the Syrian National Council said late Tuesday the "document conflicts with the SNC's political program and with the demands of the Syrian revolution."
Widely regarded as the most inclusive of Syria's opposition alliances, with representation from both the Moslem Brüderbund and parties drawn from the Christian and Kurdish minorities, the SNC has been at odds with some activists over the extent of foreign intervention required to bring change.
There was still no response to the statement from the NCB, an umbrella group of Arab nationalists, socialists, independents and Marxists which also includes Kurds and is staunchly opposed to any foreign military intervention.
A dissident who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity deplored the "divisions" within opposition ranks.
"It is taking time for the opposition to unite. If it was, the regime would have fallen last summer," he said, also lamenting that the international community had so far "refrained from mobilizing its efforts to bring down the regime."
The Arab mission has been mired in controversy since the first observers arrived on December 26, with activists accusing Syria's regime of keeping the monitors on a short leash as it presses on with its lethal crackdown on dissent.
The LCC estimate at least 390 people have been killed since the observers began their mission.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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Fred has opened a new category for the Burg for the coming year: 'Election 2012'. Yep, you guessed it, it's for any reader or moderator contributed post that is about the US elections for 2012.
Anything related to that goes into this category. Of course, it's always classified as 'seedy politicians' and is not WoT related.
If your post really IS WoT related, then put it in the proper category (e.g., Home Front WoT).
We'd like to centralize our posts and commentary for the upcoming election to this category as a convenience to our readers: those who do care, and those who resolutely don't care, about the election.
Thanks!
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2012 00:00 ||
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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.
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.
Obama's June 22 decision to draw down US surge forces from Afghanistan makes a US lead COIN strategy untenable.
Goodluck Jonathan
[Yemen Post] Clashes were renewed yesterday between police forces and 
[Dawn] Eleven 
Kurram Agency
Mohmand
[Dawn] Two people were killed and 28 others injured when a bomb 
[Dawn] A six-year-old girl was killed and eight other people 
[Dawn] Iran on Wednesday reinforced its warning to America against keeping a US navy presence in the oil-rich Gulf, adding steel to a threat that Washington had dismissed as a sign of "weakness" from Tehran.
[Emirates 24/7] 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
