[Tolo News] Officials in Ministry of Mines Sunday said oil deposits in the north (Mazar-e-Sharif Region) were estimated more than one billion drums.
The northern oil producing region, including Mazar-e-Sharif, Jowzjan and Sar-e-Pul Provinces, is believed to contain the biggest oil deposits in the country.
Several foreign oil companies have recently shown interest to invest in the oil resources, officials said.
"Mines Ministry will put the oil resources on tender one after another," Mines Ministry Spokesperson Jawad Omar said.
Oil is believed to be the main part of Afghan mines.
Previously a report by the US geologists said Afghanistan's mines have a value of more than three trillion dollars.
Huge intact resources of oil have also been discovered in western and southern provinces including Herat, Paktia and Helmand, which will significantly help Afghanistan to improve its economy.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2011 00:07 ||
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#3
Some people said all along the Afghan war was all about the oil. They'll claim this is proof they were right. They'll be wrong, but that won't matter.
[Tolo News] US efforts to hold direct talks with the Taliban would bring Afghanistan's independence under question, a bigwig in High Peace Council said Sunday.
High Peace Council is in need of support from international community, but their direct intervention would plunge the country into further more challenges.
The New Yorker magazine has reported that President Barack B.O. Obama has held secret talks with leading Taliban members to find which members are willing to join Afghan grinding of the peace processor.
The magazine said President Karzai's former efforts did not result in any breakthrough, but recent US-backed talks with the Taliban led by Karzai has prepared the ground for further talks.
"The mechanism to resolve Afghan challenges should be discussed by Afghan sides and if the US thinks Afghans are not able to handle it, this would damage Afghanistan's illusory sovereignty and it means the country is occupied," Mawlawi Ataullah Ludin, High Peace Council Secretary, told TOLOnews.
He says Afghanistan should have the cooperation its neigbours in any efforts to stabilise the country.
"We greatly need US, Pakistain and Iran as well as other regional countries to cooperate in Afghan peace efforts," Mr Ludin said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2011 00:07 ||
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#1
BHARAT RAKSHAK > [SecState Hillary] CLINTON: TALIBAN MUST CHOOSE EITHER WAR OR PEACE, i.e. being allowed to legally participate in Govt. Power-sharing, versus risk ultimately being defeated or destroyed for its support for AL QAEDA???
* OTOH SAME > BEYOND REDEMPTION: THE RAYMOND DAVIS AFFAIR COULD DISENGAGE THE US FROM AFPAK FASTER THAN IT HAD PLANNED FOR, SAYS NV SUBRAMANIAN.
#3
Karzai and Cronies worried we'll cut out the middle man?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2011 8:35 Comments ||
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#4
Karzai is a putz. He pushed negotiations with the Taliban at a time when Uncle Sam was being steadfast. Having set the precedent of Taliban negotiations, he has given Obama a way out of Afghanistan, which Obama will gladly take, as he waves to Karzai in the rear view mirror. The real question is whether Karzai will stay in Afghanistan and await Najibullah's fate, or take the smart way out and depart on the last Ariana flight out of Kabul.
#5
If he's not careful, Karzai's unique combination of greed, petulance and incompetence is going to lead to him being suspended from the wrong end of a lamp post. His promotion to president (from restaurateur) has proven to be an expensive reaffirmation of the Peter principle, much like Obama's elevation.
[Tolo News] The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John Foster Dulles ... has said the US did not seek to establish permanent bases in Afghanistan.
"The United States will always maintain the capability to protect our people and our interests," Hillary Rodham Clinton said during her speech in Asia Society in New York on Friday.
"But in no way should our enduring commitment be misunderstood as a desire by America or our allies to occupy Afghanistan against the will of its people," Ms Clinton further said.
Officials in Kabul had previously said some high-ranking US officials had shown interest to establish permanent bases in the country in a bid to diminish insurgency in the region.
At a presser on Saturday, President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai said peace would be the precondition to establishment of bases in Afghanistan.
President Karzai said any decision about a permanent US military presence in the country should be made by Afghans and after consideration of the concerns of neighbouring countries.
"This is not something to be done only by the Afghan government and it neither has the authority. It is Afghans who should come up with a decision," Karzai said on Saturday.
"In any case, Afghanistan needs peace as a precondition and it wants to make sure that neighbouring countries don't feel any threats," he further said.
US ambassador in Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, said at a presser on Sunday that the presence of US military forces doesn't mean establishment of US permanent bases in Afghanistan.
"If your government wishes us to continue here in Afghanistan, of course our military forces will have to have locations from which they conduct their operations, training support for the Afghan National Army and perhaps counter-terrorist operations. So a presence here, but we don't talk in terms of permanent bases," Mr Eikenberry said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2011 00:07 ||
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A warship is shadowing a hijacked yacht with four Americans aboard - which was taken by Somali pirates on Friday - according to pirate sources and a Somali government official.
The yacht Quest was reported to be moving closer to Somalia after being boarded off the coast of Oman, but is now in the waters between Yemen and northern Somalia.
A pirate, who gave his name only as Hassan, told the Associated Press that a warship with a helicopter on its deck was near the Quest. The pirate's claim could not be independently verified, and U.S. officials on Sunday did not release any information about the yacht.
Hassan said he was speaking directly with the pirates aboard the hijacked yacht. A second pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein and a Somali official in Puntland - who asked not to be named - both said the Quest was in between Yemen and Somalia and heading closer to Puntland, a haven for pirates on Somalia's northern tip.
#1
Remember when they wanted to try that Special Forces vet using a .50 caliber Sniper unit from the back of a US Destroyer who shot four pirates pop-pop all over ding ding done.?
Let's put some Congressional Democrats on a Yacht off Somalia and let them talk to the pirates about Hope and Change. Let them try to get the VERY OWN Nobel Peace Prize, its getting easier and easier. All Obama needed was a light tan and a big smile. Remind me again why Arafat got his Nobel....was it because he was good at sacrificing sheep?...I mean, that IS where they sacrifice ritual sheep in Mecca, the Plains of Arafat, isn't it? Yeah, that's the place to sacrifice sheep... Islam is so colorful.
But whatever you do dont murder those Pirates in cold blood as if you were Dick Cheney...or somebody like that. That's so inhumane and un-California.
SHOULD be worrisome to pirates in any case. But if it's a big helicopter, and/or if it keeps going and coming, they might want to go ahead and abandon the yacht and its captives before the SEALs appear.
#3
Remember the last time the US Navy acted, it was the local commander's initiative, not the National Command Authority, that had the SEALs render the pirates environmentally compatible organic mass. The WH initially was making very angry noises about the green lighting until the massive press response was so positive, and then, demonstrating the real pivot skills, made nice noises and took credit immediately.
It woud be interesting to see after the nice shiny medal for the Commander on scene, how his career progressed.
A warship is shadowing a hijacked yacht with four Americans aboard - which was taken by Somali pirates on Friday - according to pirate sources and a Somali government official.
The yacht Quest was reported to be moving closer to Somalia after being boarded off the coast of Oman, but is now in the waters between Yemen and northern Somalia.
A pirate, who gave his name only as Hassan, told the Associated Press that a warship with a helicopter on its deck was near the Quest.The pirate's claim could not be independently verified, and U.S. officials on Sunday did not release any information about the yacht.
Hassan said he was speaking directly with the pirates aboard the hijacked yacht. A second pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein and a Somali official in Puntland - who asked not to be named - both said the Quest was in between Yemen and Somalia and heading closer to Puntland, a haven for pirates on Somalia's northern tip.
[Ennahar] Prince Moulay Hicham El Alaoui, cousin of King Mohammed VI called for the democratization of the system and provided support to thousands of Moroccans who marched Sunday to demand political reform.
"Personally, I support any initiative that calls for the democratization of our political system, taking into account the necessity that this be done in a peaceful and tolerant manner. In this case, it seems that this movement has all these conditions and so I joined it," the prince said during an interview on news channel La Belle France 24.
Thousands of Moroccans protesting Sunday in Casablanca and Rabat to the call of the movement "20 February" launched on the social networking site Facebook, calling for political reforms and limiting the powers of the king, first movement of this kind in the country since the early revolts that shook the Arab world.
"People today want to see progress, political reform, in a monarchy," said the king's cousin, aged 46, who ranks third in succession to the throne of Morocco and is nicknamed the "rebel prince" because he is happy to criticize the Moroccan monarchy and the political system in this country.
"From a legal and constitutional, the monarchy is absolute, but that does not mean that the political system is closed or totalitarian. It is a soft authoritarian system," said the prince, who from 8,000 miles away is a researcher at the University of Stanford in the United States.
Moulay Hicham El Alaoui also wished to "perpetuate the monarchy," he deems "legitimate and culturally rooted," an evolution toward a constitutional monarchy like Spain or Britain.
The Prince has denied any role in a possible political transition he wishes: "The aiguillonage yes, piloting does not concern me."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2011 00:07 ||
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#1
ION Morocco reports that Crown Prince Alaoui weirdly + mysteriously did not get a formal Invite to the annual Royal Feast this year.
[Maghrebia] Mauritania opposition Rally for Democratic Forces (RFD) on Saturday (February 19th) denounced the government response to the Friday strikes in the southern town of Fassala, Journal Tahalil reported. "People demonstrating against water scarcity and rising prices faced repression, abuse and arrests by security forces," RFD said, calling for the immediate release of those nabbed in the festivities.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2011 00:07 ||
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WASHINGTON The State Department says the United States is gravely concerned about reports that hundreds of people have been killed or injured during anti-government protests in Libya.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley says the US has raised strong objections with Libyan officials, including Foreign Minister Musa Kusa, about the use of lethal force against demonstrators. Crowley says the US reiterated the importance of universal rights, including freedom of speech and peaceful assembly.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I was "gravely concerned" once. But they took me to the Prison Infirmary and pulled it out of my nose. And then I felt better.
"Gravely concerned"...like who specifically in the entire US govt?
Amorphous vast billowing grave concern can be an ugly thing. I wouldnt want to get any of that splashed on my Limo in the Congressional Parking Garage.
Foreign Minister Musa Kusa? Nice name. Pusa Pusa. Gusa Gusa.
Cant you just see State Dept. spokesman Crowley, (great great grandson of Aleister Crowley?), delivering a bucket load of "grave concern" to Foreign Minister Pusa Gusa? Hey, happens....
Dribble: I'm getting a little tired of the trolling.
You want to be constructive, fine.
Otherwise the DailyKos is calling.
You've been sinktrapped once today. Take the hint and knock it off.
Or else.
AoS (moderator)
**********
Update from trailing wife at 10:33 a.m. ET: You have now been sinktrapped twice.
#3
USDS Translation: We are concerned that Qaddafi will be in his grave prematurely.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
02/21/2011 11:28 Comments ||
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#4
According to CIA factbook, Libya has been a transition point for human trafficking into Europe and points beyond. I suspect part of why Italy was 'making nice' was to try and get Qadaffy to crack down on it. That's something to be of concern if nobody ends up running the country.
I was "gravely concerned" once. But they took me to the Prison Infirmary and pulled it out of my nose. And then I felt better.
Maybe you got it swimming as a youth in the irrigation canals whilst in your underwear?
CAIRO -- A moderate Islamic party outlawed for 15 years was granted official recognition Saturday by an Egyptian court in a sign of increasing political openness after the fall of autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.
Al-Wasat Al-Jadid, or the New Center, was founded in 1996 by activists who split off from the conservative Muslim Brotherhood and sought to create a political movement promoting a tolerant version of Islam with liberal tendencies. Its attempts to register as an official party were rejected four times since then, most recently in 2009.
The founder of the newly recognized party, Abu al-Ila Madi, said Saturday's ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court was "a positive fruit of the Jan. 25 revolution of the freedom generation."
Madi said his party would immediately get to work organizing its membership and opening branches to freely participate in Egypt's political life. Seeking to prove Al-Wasat Al-Jadid has a more moderate position, Madi said two Coptic Christians and three women were among the party's 24 top members.
"We will cooperate with all political powers, secular or democratic, to develop the democratic process," Madi said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Looks like dem Iranian warships won't enter the SUEZ CANAL until Wednesday.
* ION TOPIX > [US News & World Report] EGYPT IN DANGER OF BECOMING AMERICA'S GREATEST MIDDLE EAST FOE.
* SAME >[JPOST Artic = Israel IDF] HEZBOLLAH MIGHT ATTACK ISRAELI TARGET TO HELP IRAN, in Northern Israel to help Tehran = Moud + Mullahs divert international attention from on-going Iran protests.
#4
Moderate....
Reminds me of a vintage bit of sarcasm from the Carter era: A moderate Islamic party is one who might take hostages, but doesn't eat them.
#5
The last line is a laugher. Its unnatural for people with divergent philosophies and beliefs to remain in trust and love for long unless one is on that hippie bus driving cross-country hey, dont Bogart that joint!
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
02/21/2011 11:52 Comments ||
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#6
The last line is a laugher.
One man, one vote, for the very last time, Jack Salami?
A senior member of MI5 will give evidence later at the inquests into the deaths of 52 people killed in the 7/7 terrorist bombings in London in 2005. The officer, who will be referred to as Witness G, will be asked whether the attacks could have been prevented.
The bereaved families in court will be able to see him but reporters in a nearby annexe will only hear his voice.
Four suicide bombers detonated their devices on three Tube trains and a double decker bus on 7 July 2005.
Witness G will be asked about a key moment months before the bombings when the security service came across two of the terrorists during an investigation into another plot.
Many of the relatives of those who died want to know why those under surveillance were not subjected to detailed scrutiny. MI5 has always maintained it did not uncover any intelligence that would have identified the pair as potential suicide bombers.
BBC correspondent Peter Hunt says it will be a significant day as the senior MI5 officer will sit in the witness box and be questioned in public.
Lest we forget who the real terrorist criminals are:
The Cuban government has freed a jailed dissident who refused to go into exile in Spain as a condition for release. Ivan Hernandez, a journalist who was one of 75 opponents of the government arrested in 2003, was released along with six other prisoners.
He is among a group of dissidents whose freedom was brokered by the Roman Catholic Church, and most of whom were flown to Spain upon release. He said he meant to continue working as an independent journalist.
"A major from the interior ministry told me that since I was being released from jail, that I should stay quiet at my home," he told AFP news agency by telephone from his home in Matanzas, 100km (62 miles) east of the capital Havana. "But I told him that I was going to keep writing and working as an independent journalist just like before they convicted me."
Mr Hernandez, 39, was jailed for 25 years while working for the dissident news agency Patria (Fatherland).
The deal brokered by the Church last year was meant to see the release of 52 dissidents. Forty of these were released and accepted exile in Spain, while the other 12 refused to leave Cuba. Mr Hernandez is among six of the latter who have been released.
Of the 75 people arrested in 2003, six remain in custody.
Speaking to the Associated Press after his release on Friday, Mr Hernandez said he was in good health, though feeling stress, and he thanked the Church for its help.
"I have faith that this process will continue until all are freed," he added, referring to those dissidents still in prison.
Brave man. More deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize than some who have received it...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2011 00:00 ||
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For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas, click here. by Chris Covert
Four of 18 new rifle battalions are to be raised in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, according to Mexican news reports.
Mexican Army secretary of defense, General Guillermo Gavan Galvan, speaking in Reynosa announced that the four of the 18 new rifle units proposed and funded last November by the Chamber of Deputies will be raised in Tamaulipas. Galvan Galvan also announced a number of other new reforms including enhanced compensation for soldiers.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon along with General Galvan Galvan were visiting the border city of Reynosa in an observance of Army Day last Saturday.
Army Day celebrates the formation of the Mexican Constitutionalist Army, the forbear of the modern Mexican Army 98 years ago.
Tamaulipas and its long border with the United States is a prime transit point for illegal drugs coming from the Gulf Cartel and its main rival Los Zetas.
The three Tamaulipas border cities, Reynosa, Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo have long been flash points of fighting between the rival groups. The fighting in these area also extends to roads south leading into the cities.
Tamaulipas has in the past been considered to be a state in the thrall of Mexican drug gangs with some state and municipal officials in the pay of organized crime.
Last July, however, a new state administration under Governor Egidio Torres Cantu has seen some changes in security arrangements in recent months, including the mixing of federal security forces from Tamaulipas and neigboring Nuevo Leon.
Torres Catu's invigorated involvement in fighting the Mexican drug trade is understandable: His brother, Rodolfo, was murdered by a group of assassins, said to be Los Zetas, last June. Egidio took over Rodolfo's campaign and went on to win the governorship of Tamaulipas. To see Rantburg's reports on the murder of Rodolfo Torres Cantu click here.
Calderon is politically considered to be a lame duck. The year 2011 is his last full year as president before the 2012 presidential election in July, 2012.
Calderon's visit during Mexican Army may has some symbolic significance given the severe criticism he has received nationally and internationally, both from his political opponents and his Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) compatriots, for his war on the drug cartels.
Calderon has made trips in the past to northern states and nearly all of them presided over by Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) governors. Indeed, the new head of the PRI is a governor of Coahuila, Humberto Moreira. Such visits do not seem to signify anything more an exchange of views between Mexico City and state politicians.
The Army Day visit and the subsequent announcement of the new forces in one of the most violent areas of Mexico does signify that criticism will not dissuade anyone from fighting the cartels, not even PRI politicians, not even a lame duck president.
In fact, a news story released last Saturday quoted support for the war on the drug cartels from the coordinator of the Partido Verde Ecologista de Mexico M, Arturo Escobar, stated his support for the
war on the cartels. PVEM local politicians often align themselves with PRI to win local elections.
The latest announcement takes the ind out of the Mexican drug war as a political issue in 20120
The only wild card in Mexican national politics with regard to the drug war is the Partido Democratica Revolucion (PRD) ands its leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Lopez Obrador was Calderon's main opponent in the 2006 presidential elections, who lost by less than one percent of the vote.
The mainstream Mexican left represented by the PRD may well win the presidency in 2012, and if Lopez Obrador is the PRD candidate, he has made it very clear resources in his national government will shift from the drug war to income supports for the poor, effectively ending the war, at least in Mexico.
International elements threaten to intervene in Mexican politics as well. A news report last fall by a Mexican national publication published Lopez Obrador's denial that his 2006 presidential campaign was directly aided by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.
In his speech Saturday General Galvan outlined some of the pay enhancements Mexican soldiers can receive.
A general increase of pay for enlisted and tactical field commanders.
A monthly pension for the families of soldiers killed in the line of duty of no less than $10,000 pesos (USD $830.91).
Offers of low interest mortgage loans for soldiers who have served in the army.
North Korea has dug a new 800 m-deep tunnel at its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province, it emerged on Sunday. Experts believe it will be ready for another nuclear test once it reaches a depth of 1 km.
A South Korean government source said, "If they continue digging the tunnel in Punggye-ri at the current speed, they could likely conduct a third nuclear test anytime after early April."
The tunnel had reached a depth of about 500 m by December. South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies estimate progress based on satellite images of mounds of soil dug from the tunnel.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/21/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Nice alliterative-ish headline ;-)
Here's mine:
Audacious assholes auger assiduously
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
02/21/2011 16:35 Comments ||
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#2
FREEREPUBLIC > DIPLOMATS BRIEFED ON SEOUL'S VIEW OF NORTH KOREA [NK Military dictating Foreign Policy?].
IIUC, KIM JONG-IL'S heath may be in steady but certain decline, but his Heir KIM JONG-UN is NOT the one making Foreign Policy [Other Policy?]???
THE DPRK ECON HASN'T COLLAPSED - IT JUST DOESN'T EXIST [in most part] - NOT EVEN THE DPRK'S LIGHT INDUSTRIES ARE DOING WELL???
* ION PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > US + PACIFIC ALLIES: UNMANNED SPY PLANES [e.g. AAFB, Guam = GU Buildup] AGZ CHINA CHALLENGE?
ARTIC = Denotes US + AUSTRALIAN DESIRE TO EXPLORE VARIOUS "SHARED DEFENSE" COOPERATIONFOR REGIONAL SECURITY AGZ CHINA, AS PER LR UAVS + ESPEC UNDERSEA WARFARE ALA ADVANCED NUCLEAR SUBMARINES FOR AUSSIE NAVY.
* SAME > WIKILEAKS REVEALS NEW JAPANESE SPY AGENCY. All-Nippon NEW FOREIGN SPY SERVICE patterned after the US CIA, UK MI6 to spy on CHINA + NORTH KOREA, besides also to collect Anti-Terror information.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > US TO BOOST NAVAL FORCES AS CHINA DEVELOPS ITS CARRIER:ADMIRAL [US 7th Fleet Cdr VADM. Scott Van Buskirk].
The Pentagon is hoping to improve language translation technology by pumping money into its Boundless Operational Language Translation service.
BOLT is a universal language translation service expected to "enable communication regardless of medium (voice or text), and genre (conversation, chat, or messaging)."
Outlined in DARPA's 2012 budget request, the U.S. government hopes to put around $15 million at minimum into the program.
In contrast, Google is developing similar technology, with its voice/text translation and pronunciation tools that speak words with an appropriate inflection.
Although the technology seems to be somewhat akin to DARPA's vision of BOLT, Darpa claims that Googles version is somewhat amateurish, as the military version is billed as a much more powerful universal translator. There there. Of course it is .... [Pat pat]
#2
Oddly enough, real experts on the subject can, or at least could, be found at Dragon company, now Nuance, which makes the Dragon Naturally Speaking software, voice to text.
For years, the company was neck and neck with IBM in voice to text software, and eventually they produced a superior product, that could adapt to accents with minimal training. Except for one.
For some reason, a Scottish accent was just impenetrable. Just about any other English language accent, and there are a lot of them, they could handle.
But as far as translation goes, accents are the key, both to figure out languages and dialects.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2011 18:26 Comments ||
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#4
Speech - text is important, but not the only requirement here. The goal is accurate recognition and translation of meaning, to be delivered in small equipment carried by a soldier.
There is a way to create an universal translator that would do a decent job (accents and voice are another story) at syntax and grammar. All the languages are based on a binary logic. Aymara is the only one based on trinary logic. If you create logic gates based on Aymara, you get the essential layer by which you can map all the other languages. It has been already done, but the lady that did it was unwilling to depart with the algorithms, for use by mil/intel that become very interested. I guess that military needed another 8 years or so to mimic the functionality.
A note: Despite Aymara being a superior language tool, it does not follow that the speakers have more brain power or become smarter. Point in case--Evo Morales.
#6
Google Translate http://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wT# does a pretty good job of detecting what language you are typing and then translates to English.
Try this at the link: Boa Noite
Should tell you it is Portuguese and then translate it to English. (Means "Good night".)
Scannell said that TSA called for the pat-down because the scan showed Cissna had had a mastectomy. But it wasn't immediately clear from statements by the lawmaker's office and TSA why that would necessitate the further search.
Scannell described the pat-down search as "intrusive" but did not elaborate on the Anchorage Democrat's decision. I love it when our Reps have to deal with the same crap the average Joe/Jane has to.
#1
"I love it when our Reps have to deal with the same crap the average Joe/Jane has to."
I love it when our Democrat Reps have to. (And any other species, too, but more Dems seem to think they're "above" us.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/21/2011 19:01 Comments ||
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#2
Pisses me off that we are wasting time and resources on this security kabuki. I have had the nut-grope 5 times in the past 8 weeks. I;ve held clearances that these people don't even dream exist, and I can think of far better ways of bringing down an aircraft that hiding something in my shorts. Its an utter waste of time all due to political correctness that keeps them from profiling and targeting behaviors and ethnicity and travel patterns --- which are far more reliable indicators. They number of targeted searches must be far higher, and the purely random ones far lower.
#3
It is all done for the "feel good" factor OS. You know how politicians are. They are like a monkey fucking a football when it comes to stuff like this.
Heck of a lot of movement, nothing gets accomplished but the rubes feel safer.
(IANS) A computer expert was paid more than 13 million pounds (about $21 million) after he fooled the CIA that he developed software to stop Al Qaeda attacks, a media report said.
Officials were so convinced by Dennis Montgomery that, acting on a tip-off from him, former president George Bush ordered passenger jets flying from London to be turned back over the Atlantic amid fears they were being hijacked, Daily Mail reported Sunday.
There was even talk of shooting down the jets because it was feared the 'hijackers' would crash them into US targets in 2003.
But the information, like other tip-offs supplied by Montgomery, 57, was false.
Shouldn't spy agencies have .. a penalty .. for people who mislead them like that?
On that occasion French officials were so angry at the supposed lapse in their security - one of the planes was headed for France - that they carried out their own probe into Montgomery's technology and found it was a hoax.
One former CIA official said they realised then that they were conned and said: "We got played".
But even as late as 2008 he claimed to have picked up intelligence that Somalia terrorists were planning to disrupt President Obama's inauguration in Washington DC.
The programmer was given contracts worth over 13 million pounds after convincing the CIA and US Air Force that his software could decipher coded messages being sent among terrorists, according to the Mail.
Montgomery claimed his codes were able to find terrorist plots hidden in TV broadcasts made by the Arab network Al Jazeera. He also said his software could identify terror leaders from photographs taken by aerial drones and detect noise from enemy submarines - and he claimed that his software "could save American lives".
But an inquiry by The New York Times has revealed him as a fraud and, it is claimed, court documents that would prove the software failed are being kept secret by the US Justice Department to prevent embarrassment to spy chiefs.
Montgomery has not faced criminal charges over his deception or been ordered to pay back the money. He is awaiting trial in Nevada on unrelated charges of passing bad cheques worth 1.1 million pounds to Las Vegas casinos, the Mail said.
Isn't it always this way; a fraudster in one way is a fraudster in multiple ways.
#3
He is awaiting trial in Nevada on unrelated charges of passing bad cheques worth 1.1 million pounds to Las Vegas casinos, the Mail said.
This sounds like one of those instances where someone got caught and came up with a "Do you know who you're dealing with" reply and then had to generate some sort of story to cover the ever growing long tale. As much as we'd like to feed our own preconceived bias, this spins too much to be bought on a MSM source.
#4
Sounds like the CIA was scammed on some whizbang super data mining program with built-in translators (which may never have existed). Or Montgomery might have been a contractor who just sold purported services.
[Ma'an] The US veto of a UN anti-settlement resolution was "diplomatic terrorism," former PLO front man Ghassan Al-Masri said Sunday.
The US on Friday torpedoed a Paleostinian bid for a UN resolution condemning Israel's settlement activity. The other 14 member states of the Security Council voted in favor of the motion.
President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas pushed forward a vote on the resolution despite a last-minute personal appeal from US President Barack B.O. Obama urging him to abandon the effort.
Al-Masri said both the veto of the resolution and Obama's attempt to dissuade Paleostinians from pursuing international law were forms of diplomatic terrorism, both of which failed, he added.
The veto revealed the true intentions of US foreign policy, and undermined what remained of Washington's credibility as a sponsor of the Israeli-Paleostinian grinding of the peace processor, Al-Masri said.
Further, he said it highlighted that Obama was strategically allied with the settlement policies of Israel's occupation, and demonstrated that the president's declared support for a two-state solution was false.
The move would increase hostility toward the US on the Arab street, which is rising up for freedom and democracy, Al-Masri said.
The former PLO official appealed to Abbas to reassess his approach to negotiations, and to reconsider the Paleostinian people's demands, which he said called for restructuring the components of national unity within the internationally recognized PLO.
He also called for the PLO to have a greater role in leading the people, and to form more strategic relations within the Arab world.
He also said the PLO should take the lead and seek strategic relations between the Paleostinians and the Arab world, as well as taking advantage of the changes sweeping the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2011 00:07 ||
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[Iran Press TV] The Iranian police say there have been no anti-government gatherings in the capital Tehran, refuting some foreign media reports suggesting one person was killed during a demonstration.
Anti-Iran groups had called for demonstrations against the Iranian government on Sunday.
Police say they have nabbed two people -- one carrying a handgun with a silencer and the other carrying a Molotov cocktail, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Media reports say the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) beturbanned goons had earlier called for violent attacks in Tehran.
Press TV's correspondent has also learned that Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was briefly taken into custody, was freed after her identity was determined.
This comes after small groups of anti-government protesters breached the peace in Tehran on February 14.
Protesters, mostly supporters of defeated presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, set fire to trashcans and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against the government.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... counter-demonstrations were held by Iranians to denounce the move to disrupt public order, and condemn the riots by the supporters of Mousavi and Karroubi.
Tehran says American NGOs and organizations provided financial support for the post-election unrest in Iran in 2009 to topple the Islamic establishment.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/21/2011 00:07 ||
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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.
Hillary Clinton
Hamid 
[Ennahar] Prince Moulay Hicham El Alaoui, cousin of King Mohammed VI called for the democratization of the system and provided support to thousands of Moroccans who marched Sunday to demand political reform.
North Korea has dug a new 800 m-deep tunnel at its nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province, it emerged on Sunday. Experts believe it will be ready for another nuclear test once it reaches a depth of 1 km. 
The Pentagon is hoping to improve language translation technology by pumping money into its Boundless Operational Language Translation service. 
Scannell said that TSA called for the pat-down because the scan showed Cissna had had a mastectomy. But it wasn't immediately clear from statements by the lawmaker's office and TSA why that would necessitate the further search.
(IANS) A computer expert was paid more than 13 million pounds (about $21 million) after he fooled the CIA that he developed software to stop Al Qaeda attacks, a media report said.
