Most of us here click at least once a day. It's a community.... one we all share.....
Consider that you are Mayor Fred.... he has been at this, daily since 2001..... He blocks the spammers..... he posts and adds his comments, bringing to us, his vast history of experience about topics I can only think... well, I didn't know that......
He has a website that Secretary Kathleen Sebelius should envy..... except, as my Mother use to say, "I don't know no better."
During these years, Rantburg U has emerged.
Fred needs funds in his checking account....... to continue with Rantburg.
You got 10 bucks? So do about 100 other Rantburgers.... That goes a long way in Rantburg bucks.
There is that PayPal button far down on the right side of the screen. You know what to do with PayPal.
But, need to do a credit card?
Click that PayPal and keep scrolling ---- PayPal also gets you to the place for a credit card entry.
When you click the PayPal button, scroll down and you will see:
Don't have a PayPal account?
Use your credit card or bank account (where available). Continue
The Continue is clickable and displays that familiar credit card entry screen.
Need to snail mail cash or check? Email "fred-at-rantburg.com" for an address....
Come on Rantburgers... we need to make this Bleg the best run ever to get some stress/worry off Mayor Fred as he hassles his way through moving us to Faithful Penelope.
Would you, after all these years since 2001, still be doing each day, what he does...... wondering if his team is covering his six?
A roadside bomb ripped through a police vehicle in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing a district police chief and three policemen, an official said.
The police chief of Pachir Wa Agam district of Nangarhar province had escaped an ambush by militants and was on the way to his office when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb, provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said.
The police chief of Pachir Wa Agam along with three policemen were killed and seven police were wounded, he said.
He blamed the enemies of Afghanistan, a term used by Afghan officials to refer to Taleban, for the attack. The Taleban, who are waging an insurgency against the US-backed Afghan government, were not immediately available to comment.
In the neighbouring Kunar province on Sunday, a roadside bomb hit a passenger van in the provinces Shegal district, killing four civilians, the interior ministry said in a statement. Another civilian was wounded in the blast, it said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2013 00:00 ||
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The death toll in a grenade attack on a minibus near a Somali-dominated area in Kenyas capital at the weekend has risen to six after two more of the wounded died, police said on Sunday.
Saturdays assault was the first such incident since gunmen linked to the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab stormed an upscale shopping mall in September, killing 67 people. The attack on the minibus mirrored a series of similar assaults last year that were also blamed on the Somali group, which has demanded the withdrawal of Kenyan troops who have joined African peacekeepers fighting al Shabaab in Somalia.
The death toll has risen to six after two more people died last night, Benson Kibui, Nairobi county police commander, told Reuters. We have also arrested a foreigner in connection with the blast.
He did not give the nationality of the person detained, but said the arrest was made near the scene of the blast, close to the Somali-dominated Eastleigh district of Nairobi.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2013 00:00 ||
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MOGADISHU -- At least seven persons from the opposing sides died when Al Shabaab militants attacked a military base in Araf neighborhood of Mogadishu's Yaqshid district late on Saturday night, Garowe Online reports.
Local reports say that heavily armed Shaboobs
...are there any other kind?...
Al Shabaab militants targeted the base with rocket propelled grenades leading to a heavy battle that lasted for nearly '30 minutes'.
A spokesman for Federal Government of Somalia said they have repelled a planned Al Shabaab attack. He told that seven people were killed in the attack but he didn't give further comments on the casualty figures on both sides.
Al Shabaab military operations spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu-Muscab said in a recorded statement that the ambush was part of a series of attacks on Mogadishu military bases.
"Our militants targeted government troops base and killed soldiers and commanders. They have returned to their positions after the operation," he noted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2013 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/16/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Some CIA security contractors disagreed with their bosses and wanted to move more quickly.
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, who heads a House intelligence subcommittee that interviewed the employees, said he believes this disagreement was the source of allegations that the CIA ordered security personnel to "stand down" and not help the people inside the diplomatic mission, and perhaps was the source of accusations the administration failed to answer a call from the CIA security team for combat aircraft.
"The team leader knew he was on his own," said Westmoreland, R-Ga.
The above is a bit contradictory. If the "team leader knew he was on his own"..... what kept him from taking immediate action ?
#6
If the "team leader knew he was on his own"..... what kept him from taking immediate action ?
Okay, I've calmed down. Let's run down the possibles:
1. The team leader at the Benghazi annex took initiative or was convinced to take initiative after not receiving a response from his chain of command, or receiving a "stand down" order, expecting no support.
2. The team leader at the Benghazi annex contacted his chain of command, which led up to Langley. Langley contacted its Director. The Director did not respond, or the Director contacted National Command Authority and failed to receive authorization. The team leader at the Benghazi annex took initiative, expecting later or no support.
3. The team leader at the Benghazi annex contacted his chain of command, which led up to Langley. Langley contacted its Director and the State Department. Either one or both failed to respond, or declined to provide authorization, or did not relay up to National Command Authority. The team leader at the Benghazi annex took initiative, expecting later or no support.
4. The team leader at the Benghazi annex contacted his chain of command, which led up to Langley. Langley or the Director contacted the White House National Security Council (NSC) for authorization. The NSC, essentially not a functioning entity under this administration, did not provide authorization. The team leader at the Benghazi annex took initiative.
5. The team leader at the Benghazi annex contacted his chain of command, which led up to Langley. Langley contacted its Director, the State Department, and the White House. Due to bureaucratic inertia, or indecision, or misrepresentation of the situation by State or Langley, no authorization was given by National Command Authority. The team leader at the Benghazi annex took initiative , expecting later or no support.
6. The team leader at the Benghazi annex contacted his chain of command, which led up to Langley. Langley contacted its Director, the State Department, and the White House. The Benghazi consulate also contacted its State Department chain of command. Due to bureaucratic inertia, or indecision, or misrepresentation of the situation by State or Langley, or a deliberate decision by National Command Authority, no response was ordered. The team leader at the Benghazi annex took initiative , expecting no support.
#7
wait...where did the "offensive internet video" fit in?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2013 18:08 Comments ||
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#8
Ref #6.
Well we've heard from a rather disappointed and disgusted chargé d' affaires and a rather frank Regional Security Officer (RSO). Neither of these gentlemen painted a very supportive picture for the administration. I suspect the in-country answer man would be the Chief of Station and/or the Chief of Mission.
Any one or a combination of your 6 possible scenarios could be possible. Unfortunately, I am beginning to get a sense that few in Washington really doesn't want to know the truth. A review of the cable traffic might be most revealing.
Assailants stabbed a Japanese diplomat in Yemen as he drove his car Sunday in the capital Sanaa, scene of a recent spate of attacks on foreigners, the embassy said. The consul and second secretary at the embassy suffered five stab wounds in the morning attack as he drove through the neighbourhood of Hadda, an embassy spokesman said.
It was unclear if the attack was an attempt to kidnap the diplomat.
He is ok now. He is in hospital, said the spokesman, who declined to disclose the name of the consul.
The spokesman said he had been driving ahead of the consul, but when he arrived at the embassy, he discovered that the consul was no longer following. The diplomats had been driving without any guards, he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2013 00:00 ||
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LAHORE: Tehreek Nifaz-e-Fiqa-e-Jafria (TNFJ) leader Nasir Abbas was shot dead in Lahore late on Sunday.
According to reports, unidentified armed bikers opened fire on his car near FC College. Allama Nasir was taken to the Sheikh Zayed Hospital, where he was declared dead. He was the vice president of Tahafuz-e-Azadari Council Punjab chapter. The council has announced three days of mourning over his murder and demanded that the government immediately arrest his killers.
Meanwhile, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) condemned the killing. Leader of the opposition in Punjab Assembly and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Mehmoodur Rasheed has also called for the immediate arrest of the murderers. A number of attacks, that seem sectarian in nature, have occurred in the past month.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2013 00:00 ||
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The Israeli and Lebanese armies were on high alert on Sunday evening after an Israeli soldier was killed by a Lebanese soldier who opened fire across the border into Israel. Reports from Lebanon said a Lebanese soldier was missing, believed captured, by the Israeli army.
Israel complained to the United Nations force in Lebanon which said it would investigate the incident.
The incident happened at around 8.30pm local time near the Israeli village of Rosh Hanikra and the Lebanese village of Naqoura. The Israeli army said it had confirmed that the sniper is a member of the Lebanese armed forces.
Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for UN forces in southern Lebanon, said the UN was informed of a "serious incident along the blue line around Ras Naqoura". He said the UN is in contact with both the Lebanese and Israeli armies, and that they are co-operating.
"The incident happened on the Israeli side of the blue line," he said, referring to a UN-drawn line demarcating the border between the two states, which have remained technically at war since 1948.
Tenenti said the UN interim force in Lebanon, Unifil, was trying to determine exactly what happened.
Israel's defence spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, said: "The IDF has protested this outrageous breach of Israel's sovereignty with Unifil and has heightened its state of preparedness along the border. We will not tolerate aggression against the state of Israel, and maintain the right to exercise self-defence against perpetrators of attacks against Israel and its civilians."
In the past year, six Israeli soldiers have been injured in explosions along the Lebanese border although it was not clear whether the incidents were accidents.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2013 00:00 ||
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[Bangkok Post] A man and his wife were killed in a drive-by shooting in Yala province on Sunday morning. Witnesses said the couple was traveling along a rural road to their rubber plantation when a gunman riding pillion on another motorcycle shot at them with a handgun. The attackers then fled. Both were shot in the head and died on the spot.
Syrian activists said government air raids have killed at least 22 people, including 14 children, in the northern city of Aleppo. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the aircraft dropped barrel bombs on the Haidariya and Ard Al Hamra neighbourhoods on Sunday.
The Observatory also said the number of people killed in the town of Adra northeast of Damascus after an al-Qaida-linked rebel faction attacked on Wednesday has risen to 28.
Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said the dead are primarily members of President Bashar Assads minority Alawi sect, as well as a few Druse and Shias. All three sects largely support Assad in the fight against mainly Sunni rebels.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2013 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.
A roadside bomb ripped through a police vehicle in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing a district police chief and three policemen, an official said.
The death toll in a grenade attack on a minibus near a Somali-dominated area in Kenyas capital at the weekend has risen to six after two more of the wounded died, police said on Sunday.
Assailants stabbed a Japanese diplomat in Yemen as he drove his car Sunday in the capital Sanaa, scene of a recent spate of attacks on foreigners, the embassy said. The consul and second secretary at the embassy suffered five stab wounds in the morning attack as he drove through the neighbourhood of Hadda, an embassy spokesman said.
