[IsraelTimes] For second time in six weeks, demonstrators prevent unloading of Zim vessel at Port of Oakland
Officials say a group of pro-Paleostinian protesters on Saturday were again blocking an Israeli-owned commercial ship from unloading its cargo at a port in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,.
International Longshore and Warehouse Union front man Craig Merrilees says longshore workers did not unload cargo from the Zim Shanghai docked at the Port of Oakland on Saturday morning because of safety concerns raised by the presence of police and protesters.
Steve Zeltzer, a front man for the Stop Zim Action Committee, says about 200 protesters planned to demonstrate again during the longshore workers' evening shift.
The protesters are demonstrating in response to recent Israeli military action in the Gazoo Strip.
Last month, protesters blocked cargo from unloading off the Zim Piraeus for nearly five days before the ship apparently departed to Los Angeles with a partial load.
#2
Let's see...pro-Paleostinian protesters vs. longshoremen...yeah, I could see some "safety concerns" if the police weren't there to protect the protesters.
#3
The local unions work in concert with the lefty agit groups. Even before the ship is due in everyone knows the playbook. This has been going on for some time.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
09/28/2014 12:13 Comments ||
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[AnNahar] By all accounts, the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group's treatment of women in the territories it occupies has been abhorrent. Well, if the group wanted to make women the enemy, it may have gotten more than it bargained for.
Meet Mariam al-Mansouri, the 35-year-old pilot from the United Arab Emirates who -- the UAE revealed Thursday -- is leading strike missions against IS targets in Syria.
Mansouri is the UAE's first female pilot, having graduated flight school in 2007. She is now a Major and an experienced F-16 pilot.
"I can officially confirm that the UAE strike mission on Monday night was led by female fighter pilot Mariam al-Mansouri," UAE Ambassador to the US Yusef al-Otaiba told MSNBC's Morning Joe Thursday. "She is a fully qualified, highly trained, combat-ready pilot, and she led the mission."
UAE's The National reported in June that al-Mansouri, originally of Abu Dhabi, had dreamed of becoming a pilot for her country's military ever since her teenage years, at a time when women were not allowed to fly. She joined the military anyway, and became the first female recruit in the academy once the rules were changed.
"At that time, the doors were not open for females to be pilots. So I had to wait almost ten years for the decision to be taken," al-Mansouri told CNN earlier this year.
She added that she had received a lot of support from her peers, trainers and commanders.
"We are in a hot area so that we have to prepare every citizen," al-Mansouri said. "Of course, everybody is responsible for defending their country -- male or female."
Ambassador al-Otaiba sought to link al-Mansouri's rise in the ranks and the UAE's relatively liberal stance on women's rights to the conflict against Islamic State.
"The whole campaign and coalition on (Islamic State) and turbans in general boils down to ultimately this: Do you want a model or a society that allows women to become ministers in government, female fighter pilots, business executives, artists...or do you want a society where if a woman doesn't cover up in public she's beaten or she's lashed or she's raped," he told MSNBC.
"It's important for us -- moderate Arabs, moderate Moslems -- to step up and say this is a threat against us," he said. "This is more of a threat against us than it is against you (Western countries). This is not just a threat to our countries. This is a threat to our way of life."
The reveal of al-Mansouri's involvement in the aerial missions has brought the UAE a great deal of positive attention in the media, as well as social media, but the nation's actual record on women's rights remains patchy: Rooters reported in late 2013 that while women have access to education, they represent only 14 percent of the country's work force; culturally, women continue to fill mostly traditional, conservative roles in society; sexual violence laws are heavily tilted in men's favor; husbands are allowed to beat their wives and marital rape is unrecognized by law.
The Rooters survey placed the UAE at number 10 out of a list of 22 Arab nations in their attitudes towards women. Not great -- but making progress.
And if women like al-Mansouri are leading the charge, this week seems to prove, the sky is the limit.
#1
Unfortunately, it takes but one bomb or bullet for the takfiris to even the score with ol' Miriam. Almost wrote that I can't believe that the Emiratis gave out her name. Then I slapped my forehead.
[DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] The female air force pilot whose missions against Isis were dubbed 'boobs on the ground' has reportedly been disowned by her family and labelled an 'ingrate'.
Mariam Al Mansouri's participation in F-16 bombing raids for the UAE was celebrated in the West, but an anonymous statement claiming to be from her family 'disowned' her for 'taking part in the brutal international aggression' against Syria.
It also expressed support for the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... , saying 'we are proud of the Sunni heroes in Iraq and the Levant'. The brutal terrorist group's original name was the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... , or Isil.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
In order to be properly Islamic, she should be driving a two-seater with a close male relative sitting in back.
North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un missed a regular session of the Supreme People's Assembly in Pyongyang on Thursday after disappearing from public view about a month ago. North Korean Central TV showed his empty seat on the leaders' platform in the conference hall.
If we had a CIA worth anything we'd be spreading rumors throughout North Korea that Pudgy has been whacked in a quiet coup by the generals. And each time we'd name a different group of generals. And we'd be reaching out to those generals to see who would make a deal with us and who'd prefer to disappear forever in a Chinese gulag...
Before disappearing from sight, Kim had been seen walking with a slight limp. He was last seen at a concert on Sept. 3.
Cheese and cognac will do that to you -- causes the gout to flare. Gout is really, really painful...
His father, former leader Kim Jong-il, also missed several sessions of the rubber-stamp parliament.
At the SPA session, Hwang Pyong-so, who had earlier replaced Choe Ryong-hae as army chief, was appointed a vice chairman of the top decision-making National Defense Commission.
The SPA "recalled" Choe Ryong-hae "from the post of vice chairman of the National Defense Commission… due to his transfer to another post," state TV reported. After he became party secretary for workers' organizations, Choe took a post in charge of overseeing sports, which was once held by executed eminence grise Jang Song-taek.
Choe became army chief and vice chairman of the National Defense Commission at the last session of the SPA in April, but has now already forfeited his position. Instead the regime consolidated Hwang's standing. He was already given Choe's old job of chief of the Army politburo in May.
Hwang's the man. Can we whack him?
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Pudgy Misses Session of Blubber-Stamp Parliament
[AnNahar] Three Frenchiestossed in the calaboose I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! in Turkey after traveling to Syria were charged Saturday with planning terrorist acts, one of their lawyers said.
The men, who were the subject of a high-profile judicial bungle this week after their arrest in Turkey, were being charged with "criminal association with the aim of planning terrorist acts", lawyer Pierre Dunac told Agence La Belle France-Presse.
Continued on Page 49
After keeping his promise to avoid American involvement in extended wars for nearly six years, President Obama on Monday began a military engagement that he acknowledged is likely to far outlive his time in office. Extended wars, as opposed to kinetic military actions, or drone strikes in countries that are supposed to be allies. No bias here!
The launch of airstrikes in Syria and expanded U.S. action in Iraq, at the head of a dozens-strong coalition of nations, is by far the biggest commitment of U.S. might Obama has made, far beyond 2011's limited air action in Libya or the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. A coalition something like half of Bush's....
Yet his decision seemed all but inevitable as Islamic State militants publicly executed U.S. hostages and it became clear that extremist advances in Iraq -- all of a sudden whose survival is key to a host of U.S. objectives in the Middle East -- could not be reversed without direct intervention in Syria. Once decided, the plan commenced with head-spinning speed. My head is certainly awhirl.
Barely a month ago, there wasn't even a plan. That's Champ's fault.
To Obama's frustration, according to participants in extended national security discussions on Syria in late August, advisers who recognized that something had to be done had presented him with a disparate collection of actions but no coherent blueprint that would address military, diplomatic and political aspects of the problem and could be explained to an increasingly worried American public. Champ is frustrated that his staff couldn't do what he never expected them to do. So who's fault is that?
There were proposals, but no agreement, to attack the Islamic State in Syria. There were plans, ignored by Congress as it left on summer vacation, to ramp up aid and training for U.S.-backed rebels fighting on the ground. If only we could find any left after two years of being ignored by the hero of this article (The Lightbringer).
Everyone agreed that more aggressive international action had to be taken to stop the flow of foreign fighters and money to the militants. Much the same as the agreement in 2003, maybe not quite as unified. Remember, The Hidabeest voted to attack Iraq.
For a president who is regularly sometimes criticized for drawn-out decision-making and a reluctance to act, the swiftness of the move from "no strategy" to a massive, extended air assault was stunning. It followed what even some current and former senior members of the administration saw as extended presidential dithering while Syria disintegrated and extremist groups there grew to become a direct terrorist threat, not only to Iraq and the wider Middle East but also to the United States. Finally, an admission about dithering!
Obama had said repeatedly that he did not believe U.S. airstrikes would substantially change the trajectory of a raging three-way civil war among the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the so-called moderate rebels and a bewildering array of extremist groups. Justification for action was also considered questionable on both domestic and international legal grounds. Let's see if the legal grounds have changed, shall we?
But there were rapid and ominous changes in August. Although limited U.S. air power was deployed to destroy trucks and mortars help Iraq roll back Islamic State forces that had swept over the Syrian border, military assessment teams had concluded that the effort would not succeed as long as the extremists had havens and steady resource streams inside Syria. Remind anyone of safe havens in Pakistan? Cambodia?
U.S. and European intelligence agencies were seeing a rapid rise in the number of Western passport holders among the thousands of foreigners joining the Islamic State. The blindingly obvious recognition that they could easily reenter their home countries as a danger -- and the videotaped Islamic State beheading of American captive James Foley and the threat of more executions -- had begun to rapidly shift U.S. public and congressional opinion in favor of action. Leading from behind again, are we? The day after Obama�'s late-August news conference, a Friday, Secretary of State John F. Kerry -- a longtime and strong advocate of more aggressive U.S. action in Syria -- brought his own policy team together on a conference call.
"We need to get the White House our theory of the case," he told them.
The team worked throughout the weekend on what emerged as an eight-page strategy document outlining progress on Iraqi government formation and five mutually reinforcing "lines of effort" that spanned the Iraq-Syria border: a military plan including airstrikes against the Islamic State in both countries; training and equipment for Iraqi security forces and Syrian rebels; humanitarian assistance to those displaced in both countries; coordinated international action against foreign fighters and militant funding sources; and countermessaging against Islamic State propaganda. My head is spinning again!
The gulf monarchies had listened with cynicism to Obama's news conference and to his promise that his plan, once it was ready, would include partner nations.
No one had discussed a plan with them, and there had been no request for participation. "We've already been consulting for three years," one senior Arab official said at the time. �"Our point to them is, if you're serious, come and tell us what you're going to do and we'll do it with you."
In an address that night from the White House, he told the American public that "we will conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists." In military action and the other elements of the plan, he said, "America will be joined by a broad coalition of partners."
"This is where Kerry wanted to be, over the last year and a half, during all the hours of meetings and relationship building" in the region, a senior State Department official said. "It was the turning point." So Kerry now rises above the previous foreign-policy wizard, Ms. Clinton. Kerry in 2016! Again!
"We would have been happy to have one flying with us," the official said of the partners. Instead, they had five -- the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar. "Qatar didn't want to fly strikes," he said, but contributed air defense with fighter jets protecting the others.
Less than 24 hours later, after a quick collating of available resources, the U.S. air command center at Qatar's al Udeid base was ready to launch. Time just flies when you're having fun! And the 'legal grounds' issue was not addressed.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/28/2014 07:47 ||
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#1
I'd say it ranks about a '3' on the Juche scale.
#2
What was the saying about tactics, strategy, and logistics? Could it possibly apply here, given that we may be using things slated for obsolescence?
[AnNahar] A Lebanese-born U.S. Marine who vanished from his unit in Iraq and later wound up in Leb for eight years will face trial on desertion and other charges, the military said Friday.
Maj. Gen. William D. Beydler has referred 34-year-old Cpl. Wassef Hassoun for a general court-martial on charges of desertion, larceny and destruction of government property, according to a news release from the Marines. No date has been set for Hassoun's trial at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where he is being held.
The case began in June 2004, when Hassoun disappeared from a base in Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... Iraq. About a week later, he appeared in a photo purportedly taken by bully boys. Hassoun was blindfolded and had a sword poised above his head.
Hassoun, a naturalized American citizen who was born and grew up in Leb, turned up days later at the U.S. Embassy in Leb saying he was kidnapped by holy warriors.
But the military doubted his story, and he was brought back to the U.S. while charges were considered. He was allowed to visit relatives in Utah in December 2004 when he disappeared again -- eventually winding up back in Leb.
Defense attorney Haytham Faraj argues that Hassoun was prevented from leaving for years by Lebanese authorities and came back to the U.S. after travel restrictions were lifted.
Faraj, himself a former Marine, said he's seen many similar cases dating to the Vietnam era in which the desertion charge was changed to unauthorized absence, and service members were given administrative punishment. To prove desertion, the military must show a serviceman intended not to come back.
"The intent to remain permanently away isn't there," Faraj said. "Here we have a clear case of a person who came back."
Faraj has said the report by the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing notes that the case consists mostly of circumstantial evidence and that many witnesses, including some in Iraq, would be hard to find.
Military prosecutors argue Hassoun was unhappy with his deployment and left the Marines in Iraq in 2004. They cited witnesses who said Hassoun didn't like how the U.S. was interrogating Iraqis and that he said he wouldn't shoot back at Iraqis.
Military officials say a marriage for Hassoun had been arranged with a woman in Leb. They are now married and have a son who has dual U.S. and Lebanese citizenship.
Faraj, who maintains the kidnapping story is true, has said his client traveled to Leb in early 2005 while on leave and was soon locked away Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! . Faraj argues that court proceedings in Leb were triggered by the U.S. charges against Hassoun.
Marine prosecutors say Hassoun's whereabouts were unknown for eight years. He was returned to the U.S. in 2014 after he contacted officials here.
Translated Lebanese government documents provided to the court say Hassoun was arrested in 2005 by Lebanese authorities after Interpol issued a bulletin triggered by his status as a deserter. The documents, which the defense also gave to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, say Lebanese authorities released him but took his passport and prevented him from traveling.
The documents indicate that Lebanese officials declined to extradite Hassoun and he was eventually fined for theft of military tools -- a charge that mirrors the U.S. larceny count.
[IsraelTimes] The British MI6 spy agency was reportedly engaged in months-long talks with Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... 's regime in the lead-up to the Western military campaign against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group.
Officers from the agency have been conducting discussions in Damascus with members of Assad's intelligence network as well as senior Syrian diplomats, despite a recent assertion by British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond that a pact with the dictator would not be "practical, sensible or helpful," the Mirror newspaper reported.
The United States has also denied any coordination with the Syrian government or its close ally Iran regarding the air campaign against the Islamic State, which has carved out a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq and declared an Islamic caliphate there, killing thousands of people in the process.
"We warned Syria not to engage US aircraft," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki ...a valley girl who woke up one morning and found she was spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State... said on Tuesday. "We did not request the regime's permission. We did not coordinate our actions with the Syrian government."
"It makes sense that MI6 would try to make inroads with Assad by talking to his people, first through proxy channels like other Arab nations, but then directly," an unnamed source was quoted by the Mirror as saying.
"It may be there are no face-to-face meetings with Assad himself but behind the double-speak of foreign relations it is perfectly normal for them to see his senior people. It would be staggering if Britannia's intelligence agencies were not talking to Assad's people. The talks they have within Syria are of invaluable benefit to Britannia's security."
According to the report, Britannia is also acting under the assumption that Assad's agents could possess information on the British nationals who are in Islamic State captivity.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/28/2014 02:34 ||
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#1
"We did not request the regime's permission. We did not coordinate our actions with the Syrian government."
[Ynet] After the head of the US Armed Forces' Pacific Command said that about 1,000 recruits from Asia joined Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... to fight in Syria or Iraq, Japanese official claims Israel told him Japanese have also joined radical group.
Nine Japanese nationals have joined Islamic State, Japan's former air force chief, Toshio Tamogami, quoted a senior Israeli government official as saying, but the government's top front man said on Friday it had not confirmed the information.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... a senior US military commander said that around 1,000 recruits from the vast region stretching from India to the Pacific may have joined Islamic State to fight in Syria or Iraq.
Tamogami, Japan's former air force chief, now a bigwig of a tiny new political party, said on his blog that Nissim Ben Shitrit, the director-general of Israel's foreign ministry, told him this month that nine Japanese had taken part in Islamic State.
Asked about the possible participation of Japanese citizens in the holy warrior group, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular news conference, "The government has not confirmed such information."
No one was immediately available for comment at the Israeli embassy in Tokyo, at the Israeli foreign ministry or at the Japanese foreign ministry.
Tamogami told Rooters that no details besides the number of Japanese participants were given to him in his meeting with Nissim Ben Shitrit, a former ambassador to Japan.
"I don't know anything further," Tamogami said. "He was tight-lipped." Tamogami's blog shows the meeting took place on Sept. 12 in Israel.
About 1,000 recruits from a vast region stretching from India to the Pacific may have joined Islamic State to fight in Syria or Iraq, the head of the US Armed Forces' Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Locklear, said on Thursday.
His comment came as a threat by Philippine forces of Evil to kill a German hostage, in a show of solidarity with Islamic State, has stoked fresh concern the Middle East group's brand of radicalism is winning recruits in Asia and posing a growing security risk in the region.
"That number could get larger as we go forward," Navy Admiral Samuel Locklear, who heads the US Armed Forces' Pacific Command, told news hounds at the Pentagon.
However, the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... Locklear did not specify which of the 36 countries in the Pacific Command - some of which have their own Islamist movements - have been recruiting grounds for the Sunni fundamentalist holy warrior group.
In addition to India, the Hawaii-based Pacific Command's area of responsibility includes Australia, China and other Pacific Ocean states. The command does not cover Pakistain.
Locklear told news hounds that current estimates put at 1,000 the number of "potential aspiring fighters" that have moved from the region encompassed by the Hawaii-based Pacific Command. He did not specify a time period.
His comments came as a threat by Philippine forces of Evil to kill a German hostage in a show of solidarity with Islamic State has stoked fresh concerns that the Middle East group's brand of radicalism is winning recruits in Asia and posing a growing security risk in the region.
In the region, thousands have sworn oaths of loyalty to Islamic State as local holy warrior groups capitalize on a brand that has been fueled by violent online videos and calls to action through social media, security analysts say.
Locklear said Islamic State recruitment was "high on the list" as officials look to future security concerns in Asia. He said most of the aspiring fighters had been recruited via social media and warned that officials were looking at ways to guard against blowback from potential attacks as imported muscle return to their home countries.
"We are working with all of our partners and allies to see how we harden (security in) our own countries and the region and the world against a threat like (the Islamic State)," he said.
On Wednesday, the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... Security Council demanded that all countries make it a serious criminal offense for their citizens to travel abroad to fight with holy warrior groups, or to recruit and fund others to do so.
On the same day, the United States designated two dozen individuals and groups as foreign murderous Moslems or terrorist controllers, enabling it to freeze assets and block financial transactions as it stepped up its offensive against Islamist forces of Evil in Syria, including Islamic State.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Not good for GUAM-WESTPAC + East Asia, nor even China???
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.
North Korean leader 
After keeping his promise to avoid American involvement in extended wars for nearly six years, President Obama on Monday began a military engagement that he acknowledged is likely to far outlive his time in office.
The day after Obama�'s late-August news conference, a Friday, Secretary of State John F. Kerry -- a longtime and strong advocate of more aggressive U.S. action in Syria -- brought his own policy team together on a conference call.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
