A special BDR court in Dhaka will frame on Nov 22 charges against 256 border guards of the hospital unit, accused of involvement in the Feb 25-26, 2009 Peelkhana mutiny, reports bdnews24.com. Outgoing Bangladesh Rifles director general Maj Gen Mainul Islam, who heads the panel of judges, set the date and adjourned the court until then. Cheez, he's almost as slow as Carla del Ponte ...
Could they have been busy with the preliminaries of all those cases?
Prosecutor Lt Col SMA Al Muyid, who presented charges against the accused, said that 84 members of the hospital unit were present during the mutiny and were directly involved with the rebellion. He said 16 members defied the commander''s order, as many members did not come forward to save officials of the unit and 55 others left the unit without the permission of the commander.
Eighty members looted weapons and ammunition and 38 took arms at their hands, 85 members did not try to stop the mutiny and 55 did not play any active role. Nine members provoked the hospital patients to join in the mutiny. Among them, one person was involved in more than one crime.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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A lengthy article describing the War for Juarez, it's background, and some "who is who," even the extensive destruction of the city. Well worth the read for background info.
An eerie doom hangs over this ghostly border city, militarized by 4,500 soldiers and up to 5,000 federal police since 2008, and the soldier wearing the black-and-white skeleton mask at one of dozens of checkpoints erected throughout Juarez probably had a warped sense of humor. But it's symbolic of the escalating bloodshed witnessed every day, anywhere, at any time.
Since Mexican President Felipe Calderón deployed the military and federal police in 2008 across northern Mexico to halt violence among warring cartels, the deaths have mounted, and locals see a correlation.
By far, Ciudad Juarez has experienced the most violence, skyrocketing to about 5,060 murders in a little more than two years, and more than 700 from January through April alone. This compares with about 600 murders attributed to drug violence from 2006 to 2008. The Mexican government estimates 22,700 people have died in drug-related crimes across Mexico since 2006, when Calderón took office.
It's hard to keep up, but on any given day, between three and 12 people, including men, women and children, are gunned down or show up dead on streets or in ditches, sometimes hanging from a bridge, sometimes floating on the Rio Grande or nearby creeks. Many are involved in organized crime, but many are innocent. There seems to be no safe haven. People are killed in clinics, hospitals, funeral homes, shopping malls and baseball games.
The warfare is between the Juarez Cartel, headed by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, and the Sinaloa Cartel, run by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Although both are fugitives, they still run the show. In the past two years, however, Guzman has so far successfully encroached on Carrillo's turf, unleashing gang violence for the control of the opium trade as well as the marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamines pouring into the United States. Between 40 and 60 percent of Mexico's illegal drugs are smuggled across a 300-mile route that stretches from New Mexico to Texas, including the Big Bend National Park.
#1
Driving on a cold desert night to a small farming community along the Rio Grande where hit men had gunned down a man who stopped to buy a beer, the convoy of local crime photographers snapped away at a soldier manning a checkpoint. He was wearing a skeleton mask, a "mask of death,'' as he pulled over drivers deemed suspicious and who could be carrying drugs or guns. The soldiers were guarding a main highway outside Ciudad Juárez that leads to communal farming communities that mostly grow cotton and alfalfa along the river.
Seems like more people on this side of the border are getting their panties wadded up about stopping people and asking them for identification in attempts at stemming the epidemic of drugs in the U.S. and the trafficking in people for prostitution and other illegal activities. Trafficking in people used to be called slavery. You'd think the people complaining about all this such as Al Sharpton and others would have some interest in trying to curb such illegal activities.
#2
Trafficking in people used to be called slavery.
The "S" word is only used as it relates to America's Civil War and the lineage of it's protected classes. It does NOT apply to Mexico, Cenral America, or thousands of years of the shameful practice still ongoing in Africa, or the Middle East.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/30/2010 14:50 Comments ||
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#4
It also causes people to lose sight of the real injustices (U.S. slavery and particularly its descendants) not the paltry inconvenience of being the victim of a human trafficking ring in Guatemala.
The US Congress has urged the US State Department to put a Chechen rebel group led by Doku Umarov on the list of foreign terrorist organizations. Chairman of Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) Alcee Hastings introduced the relevant Congressional resolution Thursday detailing the crimes committed by the group and urging the State Department to add them to the list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Hastings said that Umarov wants to establish and Islamic state in Taliban style on the territory of Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. "They've got a jihad against Russia and the United States. If that ain't a terrorist organization, I don't know what is." Hastings said. Earlier the State Department did not include the Caucasus Emirate to its list of foreign terrorist organizations. Meanwhile, a political analyst from RIA Novosti news agency claims that the reason for the reluctance of some US officials to view Umarov as a terrorist is because "there is an anti-Russia bias. Anyone fighting Russian 'imperialism', as they call it, is basically not a bad man."
North Korea has over the last 10 to 20 years been developing what is called an "asymmetric strategy," which involves focusing on areas, however small, where South Korea is inferior to the North or lacking altogether. One part of this strategy is submarines. The North is believed to have a fleet of around 70 submarines, including some 20 1,830-t Romeo-class subs and 20 330-t Shark-class subs.
The subs had been considered only a minor threat, due to their age, noisy engines and inability to operate in the shallow coastal waters of the West Sea. But the sinking of the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan could radically change that perception.
There are growing concerns in the South Korean military that its anti-submarine warfare capabilities may not be up to the challenge. The South Korean Navy's battleships, 10 submarines and P-3C Orion anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft can detect subs, but there is considerable skepticism about their ability to incapacitate the entire North Korean submarine fleet. Former South Korean defense minister Kim Jang-soo said recently that he heard the military is capable of detecting less than 50 percent of North Korean submarines.
Another area that needs improvement is the ability of South Korean naval ships to deal with mines. A U.S. military official reportedly said early last year the South needs to drastically strengthen its ability to combat mines. The fact that a mine was initially considered the most likely cause of the sinking of the Cheonan demonstrates the Navy's apparent weakness in detecting and defusing mines.
North Korea's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons as well as its ballistic missiles are another key component of its asymmetric strategy. The communist country is believed to have six to eight nuclear weapons similar in strength to the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. It is also believed to have between 2,000 to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, making it the world's third largest arsenal. It has around 10 different types of biological weapons as well. A thousand tons of chemical weapons is believed to be enough to kill 40 million people on the Korean Peninsula.
Around 350 long-range North Korean artillery pieces including 170 mm self-propelled howitzers and 240 mm multiple-launch rocket systems are lined up on the border and trained at Seoul and other South Korean cities, while 1,000 ballistic missiles, including 350 Scud and Rodong missiles, also pose a huge threat. If North Korea unleashes its artillery shells over the border, 100,000 Seoul residents could be killed or injured in just an hour.
North Korea also has around 180,000 special forces troops, the largest contingent in the world, who are constantly ready to be deployed behind South Korean military lines through Antonov AN-2 transport planes, helicopters, submersibles and hovercrafts.
South Korea's strategy is to use its F-15K and other cutting-edge fighter jets, Aegis destroyers and K-9 self-propelled howitzers in conjunction with U.S. military firepower to deter or contain a North Korean threat in its initial stage. But the asymmetrical strategy is capable of neutralizing such conventional responses, prompting experts to call for more specialized measures to deal with the threat.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION WAFF > BUSINESS INSIDER + JOONGANG DAILY.SK > NORTH KOREA MAKES MAJOR TROOPS SHIFT, POSTURES FOR DIRECT ATTACK | SOURCES: NORTH ADOPTS NEW WAR INVASION STRATEGY | NORTH KOREA BUILDS UP MILITARY FOR DIRECT ATTACK.
The DPRK's revised milstrat calls for SEOUL to be quickly overrun by NOKOR mil blitz, + then just as quickly subjected to DRPK-ROK
"negotiations".
Read, MAJOR CONCESSIONS FROM SOKOR TO AVOID NOKOR NUCLEAR STRIKES AGZ SAME.
* ALso from WAFF > DEBKA > US GULD UNITS/FORCES MAY NOT FIRE ON IRAHNIAN MILITARY WIDOUT WHITE HOUSE [bammer] APPROVAL.
and
* TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > UAE: IRAN'S MILITRAY OCCUPATION OF STRAITS ISLANDS IS LIKE ISRAEL'S [Gaza-West bank + Paleos].
US ALLIES + Perts are wondering how POTUS Bammer will react iff IRAN DOES A DRPK = DOES A "CHEONAN" [wilfull act of war]???
#2
Seems simple to me, sink any unidentified sub you find.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/30/2010 6:52 Comments ||
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#3
In the... for what it's worth dept, 'Asymmetrical Warfare' has recently undergone a name change. The new Joint Pubs now call it 'Irregular Warfare.'
#4
All wars are asymmetrical. At least if you do it right.
Posted by: ed ||
04/30/2010 8:47 Comments ||
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#5
But the asymmetrical strategy is capable of neutralizing such conventional responses, prompting experts to call for more specialized measures to deal with the threat.
Really? Seriously? I think the editors didn't quite think this conclusion through.
Specialized responses, sure, plan as much as possible (keeping in mind the adage about plans), but by definition, the point of asymmetric warfare is that it cannot be countered - it's asymmetric!
All that said, the two great unsaid things in the article are the ROK/US conventional advantages/capabilities, and our own asymmetric plans. While it's useful to keep both secret from the NORKs, it's the whole point for the latter.
Finally, does anyone believe the NORKs have an airborne capacity which we wouldn't counter in the first five minutes of a war? Would they even get off the ground?
President Lee Myung-bak and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao were to have discussed bilateral friendship on Friday, but the unexplained sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan on March 26 is now likely to take precedence as suspicions grow that China's ally North Korea was involved.
Lee is expected to meet Hu for a mere 30 minutes as the Chinese leader greets some 20 foreign leaders who are in Shanghai for the opening of the World Expo.
Their meeting could be crucial as the scope of South Korea's response in case North Korea was involved depends largely on China's attitude. North Korea's staunchest ally and chair of the six-party nuclear talks, Beijing has offered little comment on the sinking of the Cheonan.
Lee's expectations for the meeting are apparently not high, not least because the cause of the shipwreck remains to be determined and any discussion of it would be hypothetical, presidential officials said.
Officials said an expression of agreement with the principle and sympathy for the victims is probably the best Seoul can hope for from Hu.
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04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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Defense Minister Kim Tae-young's comments on Sunday that a bubble jet caused by a heavy torpedo was the most likely cause of the blast that sank the Navy corvette Cheonan have put North Korean heavy torpedoes on the top of the list of suspects.
It is difficult to imagine a country other than North Korea launching a torpedo attack against a South Korean warship, and the extent of damage the Cheonan suffered has made a heavy torpedo the probable cause. Military experts believe North Korea has four types of heavy torpedoes: Yu-3G, ET-80A, TYPE 53-59, and the TYPE 53-56.
One source said if a North Korean torpedo was the culprit, it would most likely have been a Yu-3G. Developed in China during the mid 1980s, the Yu-3G is a "passive acoustic homing" torpedo that tracks the sounds of a vessel's propellers and its wake and attacks accordingly. Experts believe the North would have equipped the Yu-3G with a fuse that can be detonated by the magnetic field generated by a vessel.
The lower part of the Cheonan, beneath the gas turbine room where the external explosion is believed to have happened, is the part of a ship that produces the strongest magnetic field. When equipped with a 200 kg high explosive, the Yu-3G, with a range of 12 km, is said to be strong enough to split a warship the size of the Cheonan in half.
The ET-80A is also a passive acoustic homing torpedo with a range of 7.3 km. The Type 53-59 and Type 53-56 torpedoes, which were developed in the former Soviet Union and were exported to China and North Korea, are straight-track projectiles that travel in a straight line toward their targets after being fired.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
If they can be spotted on active radar, perhaps a decoy with a magnetic field could be launched to pull the torpedo off target.
#2
Passive sonar is the only detection for a torpedo, gorb...besides that, degaussing is a practice most navies engage. Link
I'd bet it was a contact mine or deliberate attack. The type of torpedo is purely speculative at this point. In theory, they should find evidence of a torpedo on the sea bed...a mine would leave very little discernable debris sans shrapnel.
#3
There's that 'bubble jet' crap again.
It was an explosion, under water. It made a massive, violent, destructive 'bubble' that was not aimed or focused. No 'jets' were involved.
You know, BOOM. Like a conventional torpedo or mine.
Government officials say the wrecked hull of the Navy corvette Cheonan could in itself provide powerful evidence what kind of external explosion sank the ship on March 26, even if no shrapnel from a torpedo or mine is found. "We'd better not jump to any conclusion until the final outcome of the investigation, but the salvaged hull itself can constitute evidence," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kim Young-sun said Thursday.
A senior government official asked, "Is there decisive evidence other than the salvaged hull? It's important to find shrapnel of an explosive device, but that would be nothing but corroborating evidence."
The official added, "Even if we find shrapnel, North Korea will deny that it was from its weaponry. So if we conduct a precision analysis of the hull and determine that it was hit by a torpedo, we'll have secured more than 90 percent of the evidence."
So far the government has been saying that any North Korean involvement in the sinking can only be determined if fragments of an explosive device are found -- a position that would certainly help bolster international confidence in the investigation. But some experts say that has also limited the government's scope in investigating the cause.
Kim Hee-sang, the president of the Korea Institute for National Security Affairs, said, "North Korea is the only country that could launch a torpedo attack on the South in the West Sea. It's essential to analyze the hull and determine whether the ship was hit by a torpedo."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
NET > WHAT + HOW SHOULD POTUS BAMMER RESPOND?
Today its the SKS CHEONAN, tomorrow its a NIMITZ-CLASS OR PORT OF NEW YORK???
Belgium's lower house of parliament has voted for a law that would ban women from wearing the full Islamic face veil in public.
The law would ban any clothing that obscures the identity of the wearer in places like parks and on the street. No-one voted against it.
The law now goes to the Senate, where it may face challenges over its wording, which may delay it. If passed, the ban would be the first move of its kind in Europe.
Only around 30 women wear this kind of veil in Belgium, out of a Muslim population of around half a million.
The BBC's Dominic Hughes in Brussels says MPs backed the legislation on the grounds of security, to allow police to identify people. Other MPs said that the full face veil was a symbol of the oppression of women, our correspondent says.
Thursday's vote was almost unanimous with 134 MPs in support of the law and two abstentions. It is expected to pass through the Senate without being blocked, with initial reports saying it could come into law as early as June or July.
But the Liberals and Christian Democrats - both represented in the Senate - say they will question the phrasing of the law, which could cause delays. It will also take longer to become law if elections are called, as parliament would have to be dissolved. The Belgium government collapsed last week.
The Muslim Executive of Belgium has criticised the move, saying it would lead to women who do wear the full veil to be trapped in their homes. Amnesty International said a ban would set a "dangerous precedent"
Some Somali-Canadians have received a cut of the ransoms collected by pirates operating off the Horn of Africa and money may have been sent back to Somalia to fund other hijackings, according to an intelligence specialist on piracy.
Karsten von Hoesslin, a senior analyst for Risk Intelligence, told naval officers from Pacific Ocean nations gathered in Victoria for a three-day maritime security conference, that the transfer of ransom money has been tracked from Somalia to Ottawa and a number of other locations that are home to Somali communities.
"It's coming to Ottawa, it's in London and Nairobi," he said. "We know where the money is going."
Since January, there have been 65 attacks on ships off the coast of Somalia. Pirates have seized 17 vessels and have taken 362 hostages. Shipping companies almost always pay for the release of crews and vessels. Ransoms range from $3 million to $7 million per ship.
Von Hoesslin declined to get into specifics about where the ransom money is going in the Somali community in Ottawa. "There is money going both ways to and from Ottawa," he added. Thanks for the help ...
He said that there is the potential that some of the money that Somali-Canadians send back to the region is "to invest in the piracy syndicates."
Piracy off the Horn of Africa is big business, with Somali individuals and communities investing in pirate ventures. Pirates are provided with food, supplies and transportation all on credit, von Hoesslin explained. When the ransoms are paid, the investors and suppliers all receive a cut, he added.
Von Hoesslin pointed out one case in which a Somali security official working for Risk Intelligence was offered a chance to invest in a piracy operation for $5,000 U.S.. The man declined, but acknowledged if he had gone through with the investment he would have made a large profit, von Hoesslin said.
He said there has not been enough effort focused on following the flow of ransom money from the region. "When it comes to asset tracking, the institutions who are tracking are asleep at the wheel," von Hoesslin said.
Interpol, he added, also has been lax in sharing information with governments in the region, such as those of Kenya and the Seychelles, hindering the ability of those nations to prosecute pirates.
Many immigrants from Asia and Africa use hawalas to send cash to their homeland faster and cheaper than the formal banking system. Largely unregulated, hawalas are informal financing networks: take your money to a hawala in Ottawa, and within minutes or hours, a trusted associate is releasing the cash equivalent to your relative on the other side of the world, for a modest fee. The hawala industry came under scrutiny after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and new rules were introduced in Canada requiring hawala operators to track all transactions.
Farah Aw Osman, executive-director of Canadian Friends of Somalia, is from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, home base for many of the pirate syndicates.
"Somalis hear foreign governments saying they want to crack down on the pirates, but without addressing the root causes of the piracy," he said. "Some of the very countries making the loudest noises about piracy are the ones who send their boats to the Somali coast for illegal fishing. That's piracy itself, looting those waters. It has tremendous impact on local fishing."
Aw Osman argued that piracy will flourish as long as there are scores of unemployed young men drifting to the Somali coast, the longest in Africa. Oh, so it isn't the overfishing after all ...
Somali pirates have extended their range and can now be found operating up to 1,000 nautical miles offshore. Their small boats are transported out to sea by larger mother ships.
Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks pirate attacks, noted that Somalis are so destitute that they line up to become pirate crews. Being captured and thrown into a European or U.S. jail, where they are provided with three meals a day is not a deterrent, he added.
What is required is that international law enforcement agencies conduct better tracking of where the ransom money goes and then target those who are funding pirate ventures, said Mukundan. "You need to target the people at the top," he said. Sorta like the drug trade ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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Wants exemption for firms based in China and Russia
The Obama administration is pressing Congress to provide an exemption from Iran sanctions to companies based in "cooperating countries," a move that likely would exempt Chinese and Russian concerns from penalties meant to discourage investment in Iran.
The Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act is in a House-Senate conference committee and is expected to reach President Obama's desk by Memorial Day.
"It's incredible the administration is asking for exemptions, under the table and winking and nodding, before the legislation is signed into law," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Florida Republican and a conference committee member, said in an interview. A White House official confirmed Wednesday that the administration was pushing the conference committee to adopt the exemption of "cooperating countries" in the legislation.
Posted by: ed ||
04/30/2010 08:23 ||
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#1
"It's incredible the administration is asking for exemptions
Two U.S. citizens were charged Friday with conspiring to give computer advice, buy watches and do other tasks to help al-Qaida modernize.'
A vaguely worded indictment unsealed Friday in federal court in Manhattan accused Wesam El-Hanafi of traveling to Yemen to meet with unnamed al-Qaida members in February 2008.
The terrorists instructed him on operational security measures and directed him to perform tasks for al-Qaida,' the indictment says. While there, he also took an oath of allegiance to al-Qaida,' it adds.
In February 2008, El-Hanafi bought computer software that allowed him to secretly communicate over the Internet, federal prosecutors allege. That summer, he met with an unnamed co-conspirator and the second defendant, Sabirhan Hasanoff, in Brooklyn to discuss joining al-Qaida, according to the indictment.
The confidential co-conspirator paid $50,000 to Hasanoff, who later traveled to New York City and performed unspecified tasks for al-Qaida,' the court papers say.
The papers say that the conspiracy included El-Hanafi purchasing seven Casio digital watches, but doesn't say why.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement that the men had schemed to modernize al-Qaida by providing computer systems expertise and other goods and services.' His office declined further comment.
At an initial court appearance Friday afternoon in Alexandria, Va., El-Hanafi, 33, and Hasanoff, 34, waived their rights to a hearing there. They were detained and ordered transferred to New York for a bail hearing.
Prosecutor John Cronan declined to answer questions about the case after the hearing. There was no immediate response to phone messages left with the men's defense attorneys.
BEIJING: China has agreed to build two new civilian nuclear reactors in Pakistan, a report said on Thursday. Chinese companies will build at least two new 650-megawatt reactors at Chashma, The Financial Times said.
China began building a reactor at Chashma in 1991 and broke ground on a second one in 2005, which will be completed next year, it said. Our Chinese brothers have once again lived up to our expectations,' The Financial Times quoted a Pakistani official as saying of the deal, which would help Pakistan cope with a crippling energy crisis. They have agreed to continue cooperating with us in the nuclear energy field,' he said.
Last year, Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute said it had been hired to design the two new reactors.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON: The United States will hand over two upgraded P-3C Orion reconnaissance aircraft to Pakistan on Friday to help boost maritime security capability of the key member of the multinational task force.
Pakistan will receive the surveillance maritime aircraft in Jacksonville, Florida, at a ceremony, to be attended by Vice Admiral Shahid Iqbal HI (M), chief of staff of the Pakistan Navy, Islamabad's Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani and senior US naval officers. Being a critical anti-terrorism partner of the international community, Pakistan is currently commanding the Combined Task Force (CTF) 150, having already fulfilled the responsibility three times.
Pakistan is due to get in phases a total of 7 P-3 C Orion aircraft that are being upgraded by global security company Lockheed Martin.
As a major non-NATO ally of the United States, Pakistan will also acquire frigate USS McInerney later this summer under foreign military funding.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder if any other countries in Asia could use anti-submarine aircraft?
TANK: South Waziristan Political Agent Syed Shahab Ali Shah has said that 4,000 additional men will be recruited to the levies force to effectively enforce the writ of the government in the agency. Speaking at a press conference at his office, Shah said the recruitment would start from May 3 and would continue until May 7, adding that the recruitment would help decrease unemployment in the area.
He said recruitment for Suleman Khel and Dothanikhel tribes would be held at the Wana Scouts Camp, while men of the Mehsud and Burki tribes would be made at Manzi Constabulary Fort.Shah added that the displaced people of South Waziristan would start returning home from next month.
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04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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Senior U.S. officials urged Congress on Thursday to support long-term military and civilian security assistance for Pakistan, which they say has been essential for the U.S.-led fight against global terrorism. Members of Congress from both political parties were generally supportive of the plan, with some urging faster movement particularly in providing new helicopters for Pakistan's military.
The Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Michele Flournoy, told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee the level of importance the Obama administration attaches to defense cooperation with Pakistan.
"Our partnership with Pakistan is fraught with challenges, but it remains vital to our overall goal of disrupting, dismantling and defeating al-Qaida and enhancing stability in a critical region," said Michele Flournoy.
="This is something we are in discussion with them on with regard to a five-year defense plan that we are working with them to develop in a multi-year approach to security assistance and FMF [Foreign Military Financing]," she said. "They haven't made a decision yet on that, but it is something we are actively discussing with them, and I think they are very open to, frankly."
Flournoy said the United States faces several challenges in its effort to renew its defense relationship with Pakistan, which was dormant for many years. She said the problems include limited Pakistani capability, particularly to sustain control in areas after it flushes out militants, distrust caused by the U.S. pullout from the region in the 1990s and some disagreement over the seriousness of the militant threat, although she said that problem is easing.
At the same time, Flournoy reported that increased U.S. and allied operations in southern Afghanistan and coordinated Pakistani operations in its western region are making life difficult for insurgents who used to operate more freely on both sides of the border.
"I think all of that is starting to have a cumulative effect that is creating a lot of rethinking inside elements of the insurgency on both sides of the border," said Flournoy. "And that's exactly the kind of rethinking we want to stimulate."=
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04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUMS > OBAMA PROMISED ABBAS A PALESTINIAN STATE IN TWO YEARS [2012].
* SAME > LAURA BUSH: GEORGE AND I WERE POISONED AT THE G8 SUMMIT [2007].
And "HERBERT/HERBIE" = BUSH 1 ala CAN'T-BLAME-BROCCOLI-WW2-AND-GRANDMA-BUSH-BUT-ITS-FUN-TO-TRY "SUSHI/JAPAN-GATE" [Bush 1 collapsing, vomiting? at the diploamtic food table from alleged food poisning = upset stomach]???
BAGHDAD - An election recount in Baghdad will start on Monday and may take three weeks, Iraqi officials said on Thursday, further delaying the formation of a new government as U.S. troops prepare to leave.
The recount in the capital has delayed certification of the election results and led to a prolonged period of political uncertainty. Electoral commissioner Hamdiya al-Husseini said the manual recount of more than 2.5 million ballots in Baghdad, which accounts for over a fifth of seats in the 325-seat parliament, would also include votes cast abroad and by troops, police, detainees and the sick.
Monday ... has been set as a date to start the recounting process. We estimated it would take from two to three weeks for the recount but this could change,' she said on Thursday.
Observers from the United Nations and the European Union are willing to advise Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission during the recount process, IHEC chief Faraj al-Haidari said.
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04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: A total of 120 detainees were released from al-Rusafa Jail in Baghdad, a source from the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.
The committee assigned by al-Maliki to follow up the detainees' affairs freed 120 detainees from the central al-Rusafa Jail,' said the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The committee, formed on April 12, will continue its work in following up all files to release those proved innocent,' he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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GAZA CITY - The UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Thursday launched a campaign to distribute some 200,000 laptops to schoolchildren in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, a spokesman said. Good grief. Okay, who wants the tech support contract?
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) plans to distribute half a million devices to refugees across the Middle East by the end of 2012, spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said. Ah, "refugees". Celebrating, what, their 62nd year of refugeedom?
Don't kill the job, UNRWA...
The campaign is beginning today in refugee schools in (the southern Gaza town of) Rafah, with the distribution of 2,200 laptops as part of a plan to distribute 200,000 laptops to our students in the Gaza Strip,' he said.
The plan calls for linking pupils and teachers via wireless internet so that the students can continue their studies during crises,' Abu Hasna added. How many laptops are still working at the end of the month? And how many are taken by the men-folk to surf pr0n?
The programme has received funding from US-based One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation, he said. Two more useless idiot organizations ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Are these the kind where the webcam can be turned on remotely? Like that school....
#6
Fifteen years later, they've added about five to ten thousand hackers, spammers, and cyber bandits to the world population. Won't that be fun?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/30/2010 15:45 Comments ||
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#7
Considering that all the paleos teach their kids is violence and murder, 20 bucks says the kids who get these laptops will use them to hit other kids upside the head.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/30/2010 16:10 Comments ||
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A senior Iranian Air Force officer does not rule out reports that an Iranian fighter jet might have flown over a U.S. aircraft carrier last week in the Arabian Sea.
The incident was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. According to the report, a plane belonging to the Iranian Navy was flying as low as 300 feet near the USS Eisenhower on April 21.
The Eisenhower was in the northern Arabian Sea when the Iranian maritime patrol aircraft flew within 1,000 yards of the vessel, U.S. military officials claimed.
Mohammad Alavi, deputy commander of the Iranian Air Force said that the fighter jet may have come close to the U.S. aircraft carrier during a routine patrol.
""Iran has scheduled flights in the air corridor in the altitude of up to 20,000 feet, and its plane might have come close to the U.S. aircraft carrier while flying in this corridor,"" Fars news agency quoted Alavi as saying on Thursday.
He added, ""Nobody can criticize such flights because they are being conducted within the framework of international law. We conduct routine reconnaissance flights with different aircrafts, including drones, and they may have come across the U.S. forces.""
#1
From Debka: The US Fifth fleet and USS Eisenhower refrained from shooting an Iranian spy plane collecting intelligence from the American carrier on April 21 because they are under orders not to respond to hostile Iranian acts without permission direct from Washington. Gulf governments fear US military passivity will encourage Tehran to be bolder and more provocative, emulating Pyongyang which got away with sinking a South Korean vessel scot-free.
The Iranian Fokker F27 spy plane hovered for 20 minutes 900 meters over the carrier and no more than 250 meters away. To try and explain this incident away, US naval sources Wednesday, April 28, claimed the Iranian plane was unarmed and its encounter with the US carrier was not of a threatening nature, although irregular. Gulf sources, talking to DEBKAfile, wondered out loud if the United States would also turn a blind eye to an Iranian attack that caused the sinking of a Saudi, UAE or Israeli ship sailing in the Gulf, as they did in the case of South Korea.
Today's WTF? Moment brought to you by one of the usual suspects.... They also elected Congo and Zimbabwe. Think about that ...
Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged "immodest."
Just days after Iran abandoned a high-profile bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, it began a covert campaign to claim a seat on the Commission on the Status of Women, which is "dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women," according to its website.
Buried 2,000 words deep in a U.N. press release distributed Wednesday on the filling of "vacancies in subsidiary bodies," was the stark announcement: Iran, along with representatives from 10 other nations, was "elected by acclamation," meaning that no open vote was requested or required by any member states -- including the United States. FOXNews.com learned of the press release only after being alerted to it by Anne Bayefsky director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust.
The U.S. currently holds one of the 45 seats on the body, a position set to expire in 2012. The U.S. Mission to the U.N. did not return requests for comment on whether it actively opposed elevating Iran to the women's commission. I'll take a wild guess and say....no.
As word of Iran's intention to join the women's commission came out, a group of Iranian activists circulated a petition to the U.N. asking that member states oppose its election. "Iran's discriminatory laws demonstrate that the Islamic Republic does not believe in gender equality," reads the letter, signed by 214 activists and endorsed by over a dozen human rights bodies.
The letter draws a dark picture of the status of women in Iran: "women lack the ability to choose their husbands, have no independent right to education after marriage, no right to divorce, no right to child custody, have no protection from violent treatment in public spaces, are restricted by quotas for women's admission at universities, and are arrested, beaten, and imprisoned for peacefully seeking change of such laws." "Yeah, but on the positive side of the ledger at least they don't check a suspect's immigration status when he gets caught driving drunk like those wackos in Arizona...."
The Commission on the Status of Women is supposed to conduct review of nations that violate women's rights, issue reports detailing their failings, and monitor their success in improving women's equality. Yet critics of Iran's human rights record say the country has taken "every conceivable step" to deter women's equality.
"In the past year, it has arrested and jailed mothers of peaceful civil rights protesters," wrote three prominent democracy and human rights activists in an op-ed published online Tuesday by Foreign Policy Magazine. "It has charged women who were seeking equality in the social sphere -- as wives, daughters and mothers -- with threatening national security, subjecting many to hours of harrowing interrogation. Its prison guards have beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted and raped female and male civil rights protesters."
Iran's elevation to the commission comes as a black eye just days after the U.S. helped lead a successful effort to keep Iran off the Human Rights Council, which is already dominated by nations that are judged by human rights advocates as chronic violators of essential freedoms. The current membership of the women's commission is little different.
When its term begins in 2011, Iran will be joined by 10 other countries: Belgium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Estonia, Georgia, Jamaica, Iran, Liberia, the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and Zimbabwe.
Iraq's banned Baath party, booted out of power in the 2003 US-led invasion, held its first public meeting in the Syrian capital on Thursday.
"We have launched negotiations to reunite the party," Ghazwan Qubaissi, the number two in a wing led by Mohammed Yunes al-Ahmad, a former governor of Mosul under now executed dictator and Baath chief Saddam Hussein, told AFP.
"There is no difference between Baath party members here and those there (inside Iraq) ... All are contributing to the liberation of the country," he said at a meeting in a Damascus cultural centre attended by 300-500 people.
He was referring to a wing led by Ezzat Ibrahim al-Duri, Saddam's number two and the highest-ranking party official still at large, seven years after the invasion which split the Baath into Duri- and Ahmad-led factions.
Or perhaps not at large we still await firm reports.
Several senior Iraqi Baath officials fled after Saddam's ouster to neighbouring Syria, which itself is ruled by a rival wing of the Baath party, an Arab nationalist movement.
This article starring:
Ezzat Ibrahim al-Duri
Ghazwan Qubaissi
Mohammed Yunes al-Ahmad
Posted by: abu Chuck al Ameriki ||
04/30/2010 12:50 ||
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday said Syria's transfer of missiles and other weapons to Lebanon's Hezbollah militia poses grave dangers to the Middle East. She shared a stage in Washington with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak who said Israel would hold the Lebanese government responsible for any new flare-up of fighting along their mutual border.
Clinton had harsh words for the Syrian government, which is reportedly stepping up its already considerable arms shipments to Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist group. But at the same time she defended the Obama administration's plan to send a full U.S. ambassador to Damascus for the first time in five years.
Addressing the American Jewish Committee in Washington, Clinton said Syrian transfers of weapons - especially longer-range missiles to Hezbollah - would pose a serious threat to Israel's security and also be profoundly destabilizing to the region. She said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is making decisions that could mean war or peace for the region but suggested that this only underscores the need for the United States to upgrade its level of representation in the Syrian capital:
"We know he's hearing from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. It is crucial that he also hear directly from us, so that the potential consequences of his actions are clear. That's why we are sending an ambassador back to Syria," she said. "There should be no mistake either in Damascus or anywhere else. The United States is not re-engaging with Syria as a reward or a concession. Engagement is a tool that can give us added leverage and insight and a greater ability to convey strong and unmistakably clear messages aimed at Syria's leadership."
Recent news reports that Syria may be providing long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah have triggered calls in the U.S. Congress for the Obama administration to shelve its nomination of veteran diplomat Robert Ford as envoy to Syria.
Earlier Thursday the State Department said the United States is concerned about the potential transfer by Syria of a number of weapons systems including Scuds. Clinton shared the stage at the Washington event with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who said Hezbollah may now have as many as 45,000 rockets of various types, some of which could hit targets across most of Israel.
Barak said if the situation flares into warfare as it did in 2006, Israel would not just blame Hezbollah: "The main responsibility lies with the Lebanese government," he said. "We make it clear once and again that we see the government of Lebanon and behind it the government of Syria responsible for what happens now in Lebanon. And the government of Lebanon will be the one to be held accountable if it deteriorates."
Clinton for her part, while reaffirming the United States' unshakable bond with Israel, said Israel should support U.S. peace efforts by among other things stopping settlement activity and addressing humanitarian needs in Gaza. She urged Arab states to join the United States and Europe in giving financial support to the moderate Palestinian government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank, while demonstrating that they are ready to accept Israel as a permanent reality.
"As negotiations proceed between the Israelis and Palestinians and mutual confidence increases, Arab states should reach out to the Israeli public, demonstrating that Israel's isolation in the region is ending. And all states should resume multi-lateral discussions on critical regional issues," she said.
Renewing U.S. calls for the reopening of Israeli trade offices and interest sections in politically-moderate Arab states and other confidence-building steps, Clinton said all those in the region need concrete evidence of the benefits that peace would bring.
#2
TOPIX > VARIOUS > CLINTON: SYRIA SCUDS TRANSFER MAY PLUNGE MIDDLE EAST INTO WAR; + [JPost]IRAN RIVALRY BEHINDCAIRO HIZBULLAH TENSION.
Arrested HIZBUL cell led by MOHAMMED-AL-MANSOOR allegedly desired that [IRAN-proxy] Hizbullah dev + possess the mil ability to STRIKE SHIPS = TARGETS IN THE SUEZ CANAL, which was believed by EGYPTIAN COURT to be proof of IRAN's desire to assert REGIONAL HEGEMONY OVERT ANDOR BY PROXY + MIL INTERFERE VIA HIZBULLAH, ETC, IN THE SOVEREIGN AFFAIRS OF ANOTHER MUSLIM COUNTRY.
and
* SAME > IRAN WARNS ISRAEL AGZ ATTACKING SYRIA [ + also LEBANON]. Iran claims it will back Syria wid all its strength.
* SAME > {Nasrallah] HEZBOLLLAH LEADER DOES NOT CONFIRM OR DENY SCUDS POSSESSION.
* HAARETZ > [OP-EDS] ISRAEL MUST PREPARE FOR NUCLEAR TERRORISM, + ISRAEL'S BEST INTENTIONS MAY NOT BE ENOUGH TO AVERT/PREVENT WAR IN LEBANON.
BEIRUT: Israeli allegations that Hizbullah is stockpiling Syrian-supplied Scuds are intended to scare away tourists, said Foreign Minister Ali Shami Thursday. I can see that the cruise ship operators would get nervous ...
If I didn't misunderstand the story, they've already been shamed into cancelling stops there. It seems the cruise operators' original response to threats against passengers holding Israeli passports was to forbid Israelis from getting on their ships. But there was an outcry, and for now they've cancelled that port of call altogether. I do hope it isn't just a very vicious rumour.
After a meeting with ambassadors from Arab and Security Council member countries, Shami also said Lebanon had the right "to use all available means to liberate its territories."
They mean the Shebaa Farms, that sweet little corner of Syria.
"The recent Israeli threats not only increase military tensions in the region but also harm investment in Lebanon and our upcoming tourism season," the NNA reported Shami as telling the ambassadors.
They really, really don't want another season like the last Israeli invasion. The image -- not to mention the reality -- of foreign navy ships coming to rescue their dual citizens from Beirut did terrible things for business.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/30/2010 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.
The US Congress has urged the US State Department to put a Chechen rebel group led by Doku Umarov on the list of foreign terrorist organizations. Chairman of Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) Alcee Hastings introduced the relevant Congressional resolution Thursday detailing the crimes committed by the group and urging the State Department to add them to the list of foreign terrorist organizations. 
North Korea has over the last 10 to 20 years been developing what is called an "asymmetric strategy," which involves focusing on areas, however small, where South Korea is inferior to the North or lacking altogether. One part of this strategy is submarines. The North is believed to have a fleet of around 70 submarines, including some 20 1,830-t Romeo-class subs and 20 330-t Shark-class subs. 
BAGHDAD - An election recount in Baghdad will start on Monday and may take three weeks, Iraqi officials said on Thursday, further delaying the formation of a new government as U.S. troops prepare to leave.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday said Syria's transfer of missiles and other weapons to Lebanon's Hezbollah militia poses grave dangers to the Middle East. She shared a stage in Washington with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak who said Israel would hold the Lebanese government responsible for any new flare-up of fighting along their mutual border.
