[Al Jazeera] The paramount chief of the Dinka Ngok rustics, from Sudan's Abyei region, has said his oil-rich territory could organise its own referendum on its future if authorities fail to reach agreement on the details of a planned ballot.
Abyei is supposed to vote on whether the region will be part of north or south Sudan on January 9 next year, as the south of the country decides if it will secede.
Most commentators believe the southerners will vote for independence and that the Abyei plebiscite will effectively be a vote on whether to join South Sudan as it breaks away.
However, The infamous However... a dispute between authorities in the north and south over who will organise the referendum and who will be allow to take part is casting doubts over whether the Abyei vote will take place.
The southern position is that members of the the Dinka Ngok tribe and other residents should vote in the plebiscite. The north, however, argues that the nomadic Arab Misseriya who travel south to Abyei for a few months every year to graze cattle must also be included.
"We are waiting for our affairs to be solved. If not we want to make our referendum by ourselves legally - we will do it," Kuol Deng Kuol, the highest chief of the Dinka Ngok, told the Rooters news agency in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
"After the end of this month we expect if nothing happens maybe we will take steps forward," he said, speaking after his tribe's congress.
Abyei has become a sticking point that threatens the north-south grinding of the peace processor, which ended two decades of civil war in 2005, under which the southern referendum is being held. High-level talks have so far failed to reach a compromise between the two parties.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
DO IT NOW. Vote prior to referendum. Do it prior to vote if you can. Make that count. Enough smoke and mirrors - you have a week to try it.
[Pak Daily Times] Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi warned of 'ghastly' consequences for Africa if Sudan returns to war after a crucial referendum on southern independence in January.
Africa's biggest country is 47 days away from a plebiscite in its oil-producing south on whether to secede or remain part of Sudan -- a vote promised in the 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south war. That conflict, the longest civil war in African history, killed about 2 million people and forced 4 million to flee.
"Like all doomsday scenarios (a return to war) is too ghastly to contemplate," Meles, who hosted crunch Sudan talks in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, told Rooters in an interview. "That is why we have to use everything in our capacity to stop it from happening because the alternative is massively destructive not only for Sudan or the Horn of Africa, but the continent as whole." Meles said all-out war was 'possible but not inevitable'.
Both sides have ramped up their rhetoric, having failed to overcome differences on issues including voter eligibility in the disputed oil-rich Abyei region. UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon said last week he hoped to boost the number of peacekeepers in Sudan amid fears the country could be headed for a new civil war.
Death threats: On the other hand, South Sudanese living in Uganda have received death threats and warnings not to register for a vote on the independence of their region, a development that could undermine the referendum, officials said on Tuesday. Staff from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) running the registration have also received menacing calls and letters, disrupting the preparations for January's referendum, said officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Britain is to cap the number of skilled workers entering the country from outside the European Union at 43,000 a year, down 13 percent from 2009, but at the higher end of recent proposals, the BBC reported on Tuesday.
Additionally, staff transferred by companies from another country would be exempt from the cap if they earned more than 40,000 pounds a year, the broadcaster said. The BBC gave no source for its report, and officials were not immediately available for comment.
The question of a cap on immigration has been a divisive issue for the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government and raised concerns among the business community.
Prime Minister David Cameron said on Sunday that immigration to Britain was "unacceptably high" and had to be brought down. He has promised to reduce overall inflows into Britain from 196,000 last year to "tens of thousands" by 2015, the end of the current parliament.
However, The infamous However... businesses have warned that plans to drastically cut the number of skilled workers could harm British competitiveness. Some Liberal Democrats, the junior coalition partner, are uneasy with the proposals. Business Secretary Vince Cable, a Lib Dem, has tried to reassure firms that the new measures will be flexible.
Last week, the Migration Advisory Committee, charged with setting limits for skilled migrants, said the number of non-EU skilled visas should be cut by up to a quarter to between 37,400 and 43,700, down from 50,000 granted in 2009. Home Secretary Theresa May is due to officially announce details of the cap later.
Curbing the number of skilled workers will only partly allow the government to reach its overall immigration target, and more cuts will need to be made on students from outside the EU and relatives joining their families in Britain. The government has no control over immigration from European Union countries, under EU rules which allow citizens of member countries to live and work anywhere in the bloc. The government has already introduced interim measures to avoid a rush of last-minute visa applications before a permanent cap on migrants from outside the EU is set.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
They really ought to be more concerned with stopping - and reversing - the influx of the non-skilled, the unemployed, the unemployable, and the religiously employed.
#2
and more good points from yesterday (comments closed there though) from you Gorb.
Really got me thinking: possibly this is right - that it may be the lack of a red light rather than a pre-planned green light from Beijing.
I like this too:
"That said, if this is all about a successful power shift to Junior, I guess what we do could very well have influence on who assumes power after Kimmie dies. Do we want Junior in power? Do we want the military in power? Who else might assume power? Who would be more likely to play nice with the neighbors and not push Japan and the South into nuclearizing?"
Very important point. I guess how we the West respond now really matters. We can push internal workings in NK. But the big question is who do we want there?
The Kimmie family dynasty is just a figurehead for the military Junta. does it matter that they are there personally or not? The ruling elites will throw up another hated despot with the same policies.
But is there any getting rid of them? Or is there a difference between potential despots?
very good points.
perhaps war can break out there at any moment - but i really hope not because it could so quickly escalate to world war
US would have to get involved, so would we (Australia will ALWAYS go into war beside the US, no matter what). Then China will go to bat for the Norks because they don't want a unified Korea with US bases on their southern border....
Maybe China would stay on the sidelines if there were some understanding, on both sides, of acceptable behavior in the event of having to take out Nork.
The Chinese government on Tuesday avoided direct comment on North Korea's artillery attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong and instead called on Seoul to do more for peace and urged a resumption of six-party nuclear talks. It also had no comment on North Korea's uranium enrichment program.
Asked in a press briefing about China's position on the North's unveiling of the uranium facility, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China has "taken note of related reports." He added Beijing's consistent policy is to realize denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through dialogue.
He urged resumption of the six-party talks as soon as possible. "It is necessary to properly handle concerns of each country through dialogue within the framework of the six-party talks," he said.
Commenting on the artillery attack, he said Beijing is "concerned" but added, "The real situation needs to be confirmed."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Nice graphic. :-)
The Norks may think that a handful of unreliable, undeliverable nukes will be sufficient to blow China, Japan, South Korea and the United States to Kingdom Come.
#2
The Japanese do not have nukes simply because of two reasons : 1) the American nuclear umbrella, and 2) they didn't want them because they are icky. Reason 1 is fading fast because of Zero's public statements, and 2) no longer seems to apply, at least to the Japanese military or the long-term bureaucracy. The Japanese have the plutonium, the space lift rockets, the miniaturization skills and capabilities, the satellite launch and recovery techology, and the nuclear know-how to go nuke with thermonuclear weapons in about 6 weeks. That is the timeframe for the first warhead, 6 months to surpass China's nuke arsenal, 18 months to surpass Russia's.
#3
Tie that in with Japanese AEGIS cruisers that just did ANOTHER successful test for Japan, Patriot III missiles, and the ability to mass produce Arrow 3 class ABMs, and North Korea could be SOL in a real hurry.
#4
...I've seen several sources that suggest the Japanese have all the components for several weapons simply waiting to be assembled and could actually have warheads online and pointed at the Norks in about 60 days. Part of me hopes that's true, because of the heads that would explode in Beijing and Pyongyang. Part of me hopes it's not.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/24/2010 5:56 Comments ||
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#5
What could go wrong...when we have Circus Boy Obama on it?
#6
The more I read about this incident the more convinced I am it was entirely approved by and perhaps even prompted by Beijing.
Days before the attack, Chinese diplomats said ... "we must be more humble on the world stage.."
Just in time for their crazy puppet to come out with a nasty attack - that was clearly planned well in-advance to coincide with the SK military exercises. Complete with preparation work of showing off their nuke facilities. Pre-approved by China.
China gets to look like the saviour of the world when the other nations plead and beg it to reign in the North Koreans.
Oh no, we want to be peaceful on the world stage, we can't interfere... the Chinese will say
Meanwhile they will be getting a lot of smug satisfaction and payback over US pressure to float the Yuan and also over that Nobel Prize being given to the Chinese dissident.
They get payback AND diplomatic kudos
AND they get to ram the point home that Chinese support is needed: is vital and crucial to stability in the Asia-Pacific.
they won't like the sending of that US aircraft carrier George Washington. Good on the US for sending it.
but they know the US is stretched over Af-Pak // Iraq and is thus unlikely to back an SK response beyond military exercises/ diplomacy and maybe (remote possibility) a well-telegraphed precision hit on the military installation responsible, giving enough time for the Norks to evacuate. Just to save face.
I think it is a total smokescreen that this attack had much to do with internal succession issues in NK.
I think it was China. China stands to benefit the most, diplomatically and politically from this situation.
Kimmie Junior would not DARE lift a finger if China had not first approved. His succession would not last long if he did.
Maybe this latest attack strategy is what they worked out together on that recent trip to China by Kimmie Senior.
The White House on Monday warned North Korea against attempts to heighten tensions with maneuvers like its unveiling of a new uranium enrichment facility.
"North Koreans have to be serious about living up to their obligations, and not having done so has put the sanctions regime in place that is the strongest the country has ever faced and has greatly increased the price of their noncompliance," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.
Asked if Washington believes that the threat is growing, Gibbs told reporters, "Well, look, I think that the threat has always been serious. We have certainly taken it as such and will continue to do so."
Who's the bigger man, Bambi or Lil' Kim?
In a separate briefing, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said, "Obviously, North Korea's claim to have a uranium enrichment program, if true, contradicts its own pledges and commitments and violates its international obligations."
"We will not be drawn into rewarding North Korea for bad behavior," he added.
No, not like in the past twothreefour five administrations ...
Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Dave Lapan said that Washington has no immediate plans to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea. His remarks came after Defense Minister Kim Tae-young in the National Assembly talked about a plan to consider redeployment. Lapan said it is too early to discuss how to respond to the North's uranium claims.
That'll require lots of study. And lunches.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
Hmmm, hard choice.
Measured in sheer Assholium, they tie.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/24/2010 9:33 Comments ||
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#3
Arrange to have Obama pictured in public with his thumb stuck holding his place part-way through a copy of McCullough's biography of Truman, then make sure that the South Korean press publishes a few columns highlighting the United States' status as the only power to ever have used nuclear weapons on an enemy combatant.
That ought to be oblique enough to not drive the North Koreans into a corner while still scaring the crap out of them.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/24/2010 14:14 Comments ||
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#4
That ought to be oblique enough to not drive the North Koreans into a corner while still scaring the crap out of them. Crazy people and crazy nations know no rules and are inherently unpredictable. The only thing sure to scare the NK leadership is to collapse whatever building they currently occupy and then set it on fire.
#5
Jimmuh Cahtuh has a piece in the Washington Post about North Korea. He blames Bush. See, North Korea is being more belligerent because Bush increased sanctions when it becme obvious that North Korea was breaking it's agreement to stop it's nuclear program so it's Bush's fault.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/24/2010 16:16 Comments ||
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#6
Since the only serious resources Nork has are hydroelectric dams, now, just as winter is moving in, would be a great time for one of them to bust open. Pyongyang in the dark, mofos.
[Dawn] North Korea's Deputy UN Ambassador said Tuesday's shelling incident close to the border between North and South Korea should be discussed by the two countries, not the UN Security Council.
Envoy Pak Tok-hun was speaking to Rooters after North Korea fired scores of artillery shells at a South Korean island, killing two soldiers, in one of the heaviest attacks on its neighbor since the Korean War ended in 1953.
"It should not be discussed by the Security Council but should be discussed inter-Korea between the North and South," Pak said as Security Council diplomats consulted on how they might respond to the incident.
"The Security Council is dealing with threats to international peace and security," he said. "This is a regional issue between the North and South."
UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon earlier condemned the North Korean attack and voiced his "utmost concern" to British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, the current president of the Security Council. "Utmost concern". Yes, sir, I'll write that down, sir. Should that be included in the Strongly Worded Letter?
Lyall Grant did briefly raise the issue during a closed-door meeting on the Middle East, although an envoy present told Rooters the British diplomat merely announced that he was in consultations with the other 14 member states on what to do about the Korean incident.
Western diplomats said it was unclear what, if any, action the council might take given China's reluctance to see its neighbor pilloried by the 15-nation panel. China, like Britain, France, Russia and the United States, has veto powers and can block any Security Council action.
"The attack was one of the gravest incidents since the end of the Korean War," Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, said in his statement, adding that he called for "immediate restraint."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Chosun Ilbo] North Korea on Tuesday fired scores of coastal artillery and howitzer shells on Yeonpyeong Island in the West Sea, killing two South Korean marines, wounding 16 soldiers and three civilians, and damaging homes and facilities. This was the first time since the Korean War that the North has fired artillery shells on a civilian area in South Korea.
President Lee Myung-bak warned the North could launch further provocations because its military" is still on the offensive. I believe we should punish them severely to a point where they will never think of another attack." Lee was speaking during a visit to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The government called the attack a "clear armed provocation." Lee later told ministers in charge of foreign affairs and security to "respond firmly beyond the rules of engagement," according to a government front man.
The South Korean military fired back some 80 K-9 self-propelled howitzer shells at the North Korean coastal artillery batteries. The two militaries exchanged fire for about an hour.
According to the JCS, the North Korean shells were fired from Kaemori and Mudo, both in Kangryong, Hwanghae Province, from 2:34 to 2:55 p.m. and from 3:10 to 3:41 p.m. Many landed on a military camp but others on a civilian village on the island. Flames and thick columns of smoke were seen rising above the village and a nearby mountain. "The North must have carefully premeditated the provocation against the camp," a JCS officer speculated.
Locals were evacuated to shelters on the island, and military and police are assessing the damage. The JCS issued the highest Defcon level and increased the level of Watchcon, a five-stage surveillance alert, from 3 to 2. It also raised the alert for all military forces across the country.
North Korea claims the South Korea fired first since an annual drill was underway. "Despite our repeated warnings, South Korea fired dozens of shells... and we've taken strong military action immediately," the official Korean Central News Agency said.
But JCS front man Lee Bung-woo denied this, "Our military carried out its regular maritime fire drill not northward but southward in the West Sea. Firing artillery shells on a civilian area under this pretext is clearly an illegal act and violation of the armistice."
Presidential front man Hong Sang-pyo told news hounds, "Seeing the North's attack as an armed provocation, the government will cooperate with or make requests to allies or the UN." "The government will take more concrete steps after further analyzing the situation," he added.
The Unification Ministry decided to cancel inter-Korean Red Thingy talks, which were slated for Thursday. They were to have discussed regular reunions of families separated by the Korean War, resumption of package tours to Mt. Kumgang, and rice and fertilizer aid to the North. The ministry also banned all visits from businesspeople and staff to the joint Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex on Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The two militaries exchanged fire for about an hour.
Does the South have the ability to accurately target the origin of the incoming fire?
If so, why wasn't it taken out? Do they have so many guns that even if they actually were taken out that it will take a long time to get them all?
#2
The North Koreans love to mole everything - most of their emplacements are on the reverse slope and dug in. The guns are rolled out to fire, and rolled back under cover after doing so. It takes a hell of a lot more shells to kill that kind of artillery setup.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/24/2010 8:10 Comments ||
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#4
It takes a hell of a lot more shells to kill that kind of artillery setup.
Here's a thought, if it isn't being done already.
We have computers that can track the trajectory of the shell back to where it was fired from. Do we keep track of when shells were fired and look for patterns? Just wait until the next time they are supposed to shoot and make sure something is in the air to intercept that point at the right moment.
Here's another one: Maybe parachuted GPS-guided shells that plop down gently at exactly the right location but only blow up when they see something moving nearby.
Maybe rockets that come down on a clear-plastic parachute but when they see something moving in a target area they release the chute and shoot themselves at whatever is moving.
If nothing else, all these things would seriously screw up their ability to lay down heavy fire and give us time to deploy and more freedom to move.
Of course, some of these things might need IFF systems if we were to mix it up on the target area.
SWEDISH artist Lars Vilks, who has received death threats for depicting Muhammad as a dog, dismissed fresh calls from Somali militia to kill him.
"I can feel pretty safe," he said, adding, "Right now the weather is looking really good (for me). It's too cold and there is too much snow for someone to try an amateur terrorist act."
US monitoring group SITE said that a Swedish fighter with the Shebab militia, which has ties to al-Qaeda, urged Muslims to kill Vilks.
"Wherever you are, if not today or tomorrow, know that we haven't yet forgotten about you," said Shebab member Abu Zaid in a video.
"Know what awaits you, as it will be nothing but this: slaughter. For that is what you deserve.
"We will get hold of you and with Allah's permission we will catch you wherever you are and in whatever hole you are hiding in," Zaid said in a recruitment video with English and Swahili subtitles that calls for Muslims to join the radical movement.
Vilks dismissed the video as a desperate attempt for the organisation to recruit new members.
"That organisation has no resources to speak of. They are almost bankrupt," he said.
"They send out that type of information to try to find volunteers that could interest them and to get attention. It's something that can only lure in a few crazy people."
The artist has faced numerous death threats and a suspected assassination plot since his cartoon of the Prophet was published by Swedish regional daily Nerikes Allehanda in 2007, illustrating an editorial on the importance of freedom of expression.
#3
Good on you Lars Vilks, you should keep on drawing Mohammed in any way you want. I joined the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day FB site in support of you and all cartoonists of the world.
Good on YOU. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
#4
If he had a sense of humor, he could let it be known that he is hiding in an isolated cabin in a very rural part of Sweden, and if the Somalis hurry they can hike in and catch him there just before a major weather front snows it in for six months. And after they kill him, they can eat the provisions in that cabin to survive.
And of course, there is a cabin there, if a tad drafty, but no firewood or food. Or him. Maybe if one of the Somalis is fat, the others wouldn't starve to death.
A Russian intelligence agent testified from Moscow for more than three hours Tuesday as part of a sentencing hearing for Ashland Widows & Orphans Ammunition Fund founder Pete Seda.
A Eugene federal court jury convicted Seda in September on one count of tax fraud and one count of conspiring with a Soddy Arabian associate to smuggle $140,000 out of the country in 2000, allegedly to support Mohammedans in Chechnya, where Mohammedan mujahideen fighters battled Russian soldiers.
Though Seda was not charged with or convicted of terrorism, federal prosecutors called Col. Sergey Ignatchenko to testify via video feed in support of their recommendation that Seda's sentence include a "terrorism en-hancement" for allegedly providing material support to the mujahideen fighters.
The enhancement can in crease sentences by more than 20 years. In Seda's case, however, it would add at most five years to a guideline sentence of 27 to 33 months prosecutors propose without it. That's because federal law caps sentences for Seda's tax fraud and conspiracy charges at three years and five years, respectively.
Defense attorneys are recommending a six-month sentence -- with credit for time already served -- for the Iranian-born U.S. citizen. They cite his first-time offender status and his decades serving the community and promoting religious tolerance and peace in Ashland.
After hearing more than six hours of testimony from Ignat chenko and others, U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan announced that he wanted time to prepare a written opinion before pronouncing sentence. He did not announce a sentencing date.
Seda spoke publicly for the first time since his arrest in 2007, telling the judge: "I have not and never will allow money that passes through my hands to promote violence."
His attorneys have maintained throughout the case that Seda legally conveyed an Egyptian doctor's donation to Seda's Al-Haramain USA to its Saudi parent organization for humanitarian relief in Chechnya.
Yellow comments from KBK, who submitted this post about when I did.
The next step in tightened security could be on U.S. public transportation, trains and boats. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for U.S. vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary.
Unless we, you know, kill the terrorists ...
"[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through," Napolitano said in an interview that aired Monday night on "Charlie Rose."
"I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?"
Napolitano's comments, made a day before one of the nation's busiest travel days, come in the wake of a public outcry over newly implemented airport screening measures that have been criticized for being too invasive.
The secretary has defended the new screening methods, which include advanced imaging systems and pat-downs, as necessary to stopping terrorists. During the interview with Rose, Napolitano said her agency is now looking into ways to make other popular means of travel safer for passengers and commuters.
Why not just close all public transportation? That would make it safe ...
Napolitano's comments were in response to the question: "What will they [terrorists] be thinking in the future?" She gave no details about how soon the public could see changes in security or about what additional safety measures the DHS was entertaining.
Napolitano said she hoped the U.S. could get to a place in the future where Americans would not have to be as guarded against terrorist attacks as they are and that she was actively promoting research into the psychology of how a terrorist becomes radicalized.
You might just ask the Israelis; they seem to know a thing or two about this ...
"The long-term [question] is, how do we get out of this having to have an ever-increasing security apparatus because of terrorists and a terrorist attack?" she said. "I think having a better understanding of what causes someone to become a terrorist will be helpful." If you don't know, you are way out of your depth. Let me spell it out: 99.9% are Muslims who have been indoctrinated by al Qaeda. 0.1% it's a guy named Timothy McVeigh, and he's dead. How about focusing on the 99.9% and lay off grandma, the kids, and stop groping American's "crotchural areas" with your filthy gloves?
I will say, that since you asked that initial question, that you may be waking up to the fact that there's a better way.
DHS and intelligence officials are not as far along in understanding that process as they would like, Napolitano said, adding that until that goal is reached, steps need to be put in place to ensure the public's safety.
"We don't know much," she said. "If you were to try and devise a template about what connects this terrorist to this terrorist and how they were raised and what schools they went to and their socioeconomic status, or this or that, it's all over the map. No, it's not. The template is al Qaeda, the connection is Islamic jihad, and the map is primarily the Mid-East. Any honest person admits this. Only politically correct people such as yourself claim ignorance and confusion. The rest of us know you people for what you are, liars and fools, since we know all the information you claim you lack is readily available inside the US government.
"I think there's some important work that's being done on that but ... the Secretary of Homeland Security cannot wait for that."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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Does The Hill get their crap from InfoWars? /sarc
If the new grope-downs and nekkid scanners weren't enough, this development ought to make Private Eye ecstatic.
#2
At the frequency those body scanners work at you are risking unzipping DNA...
It sounds like it is potentially more dangerous than the terrorist.
What does it do to a woman's eggs or fetus?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/24/2010 0:29 Comments ||
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#3
Probably not much. A paper whose link was posted here Monday indicated that pretty much the full dose was trapped in the skin, which also suggests that even though the dose was small, the concentration in the skin was higher than you might think. Scientists have concerns over these effects inducing skin and breast cancer, especially in frequent fliers. Of course, the WH is stiff-arming them in order to protect Americans. I guess risk of non-violent death at our own hands is acceptable vs. violent death at foreign hands.
Oh well, at least Chertoff probably already took his cut.
#7
You know, my feeling is that the Obama Administration isn't just shooting for ending up in jail with nice long jail terms, they're hoping to go out the way of Mussolini.
I kind of like New Jersey's approach of opening these guys up to criminal charges for doing this stuff.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Lost Drill Bit Division - Halliburton ||
11/24/2010 9:00 Comments ||
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#8
OK, far enough, seems to me they;d be a whole lot better off issuing each and every flier a gun, loaded with low velocity had rubber bullets, (Goes through people, but not aircraft skin) and seal the pilots area with titanium bulkheads.
Let the terrorist get on, they'll never get off again, except in body bags.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/24/2010 9:26 Comments ||
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#9
You are, of course, assuming their goal is the make it actually safer Redneck.
I don't believe that's the case. This is the same Homeland [in]security secretary who thinks that rednecks, veterans, and tea partiers are more of a threat than Al Quaeda.
#11
For 9 years after 9/11 this groping of Americans was not a part of Homeland Security. No hi-jackings or attacks in regards to airlines. Proof beyond doubt that this is not about security.
Therefore, this has everything to do with de-sensitization of the American public to the new regime's grotesque treatment of Americans.
#12
Let the terrorist get on, they'll never get off again, except in body bags.
Look, the would-be terrorists of late obviously don't expect to get off the plane alive, whether or not they succeed. They have all been trying to blow themselves up and the plane with it.
#13
The template is al Qaeda, the connection is Islamic jihad, and the map is primarily the Mid-East. Any honest person admits this. Only politically correct people such as yourself claim ignorance and confusion. The rest of us know you people for what you are, liars and fools
This bears repeating because it summarizes the issues perfectly. I'd just leave out "Islamic" since all Jihad is Islamic by definition.
#14
As a fair skinned Australian I have had a lifetime quota of skin damaging radiation and then some. Two skin cancers surgically removed , and in my last three visits to the skin cancer clinic in Sydney I have had 45 pre-cancerous thingys burnt off. No way in the world will I allow a full body x-ray.
#17
I suspect the scanners are Tetrahertz scanners.
I could be wrong.
However, I remember my dad - the reverend - burying far too many from the above ground nuclear tests. Nasty cancers without the Soviets firing a shot.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/24/2010 22:35 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Federal Minister for Tourism Maulana Attaur Rehman has said that Taliban are the true followers of Islamic ideology and the US has been creating hatred against them.
"Ulema and Taliban are the true followers of Islamic ideology and America is the biggest terrorist of the world, which is creating hatred against them," said the minister while speaking at a public gathering in Allai here on Tuesday.
Mr Rehman said that the ongoing spate of terrorism could not be eliminated until the US and the world gave equal rights and respect to the Mohammedans.
"It is a misconception that Learned Elders of Islam and Taliban are against coexistence of people with different religions, in fact it is America which is against the interfaith harmony to maintain its hegemony on the world," said Mr Rehman, who belongs to the JUI-F.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] A Christian politician called on Iraq's government Tuesday to better protect its dwindling Christian community, lambasting the nations that have offered asylum to the minority as meddling in Iraq's problems.
The comments by politician Younadem Kana, from the northern Iraqi city of djinn-infested Mosul, come after a spate of violent attacks on Iraqi Christians -- including a Catholic church attack last month that killed 68 people. Earlier this week, two Christian brothers in Kana's hometown were fatally shot by unknown gunnies who raided their auto mechanic shop.
Officials in France and Germany have offered asylum to Iraq's Christians, an estimated one million of whom have already left their homeland since 2003.
More than a third of the 53,700 Iraqis who have been given asylum to the US since 2007 are Christian, according to the US Embassy in Storied Baghdad, even though they only make up an estimated 5 percent of the population.
"We demand the government be up to its responsibility of protecting its people -- otherwise the crimes targeting Christians will continue," Kana told a Parliament session on Tuesday.
He said calls from France and Germany should be "rejected" and claimed they are "linked to foreign agendas that aim to deplete Iraq's Christian community." Kana also accused "political agendas" within the Shiite-led government of ignoring pleas to help Iraqi Christians. "We found no response, just silence," he said.
Parliament Speaker Osama Al-Nujaifi, a Sunni Mohammedan also from Mosul, agreed to consider a resolution to better protect Christians to keep them in Iraq.
He called the issue "one of the most critical that Iraq is experiencing now." Mosul is a former Al-Qaeda stronghold about 360 km northwest of Storied Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Head of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano said Tuesday Syria should speed up cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog to iron out all outstanding issues related to Dier Al-Zoor site, which was destroyed by Israeli in 2007 on pretext of being a clandestine nuclear facility.
Amano, in a new five-page report distributed on member states, said Syria failed to cooperate with IAEA since June 2008 thus unable to achieve any progress in solving thorny issues related to Deir Al-Zoor site and other three facilities linked to the site.
He urged Damascus of providing all information about particles of uranium that were found by IAEA inspectors in Mansar facility in Damascus.
Amano called on the Syrian government to ratify the additional protocol and facilitate the mission of inspectors to assure that the nuclear program was peaceful.
Damascus denies that it has projects to build nuclear weapons. The IAEA's board of governors is expected to criticize Syria for its handling of the nuclear file, when it meets on December 2-3.
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11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Leb is extremely disappointed about the recent reports of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), broadcast at a time when the Office of the Prosecutor is working flat out to ensure that a draft indictment is submitted to the Pre-Trial Judge for confirmation in the near future, the OTP said in a blurb on Tuesday. "The Office of the Prosecutor's decision not to comment on matters relating to the investigation will not change. This decision is based on considerations of utmost concern for the integrity of the investigation and the safety of victims, witnesses, suspects and staff," the blurb added.
"The most serious impact of the CBC reports is that their broadcast may put people's lives in jeopardy," it quoted STL Prosecutor Danielle Bellemare as saying.
Bellemare noted that "it will be for the Judges, and the Judges alone, to assess the evidence and reach conclusions based on the facts as established at trial, and the law."
The OTP announced that it was assessing the impact of these reports on the investigation.
"Whatever the challenges faced in this investigation, which has been conducted in extremely difficult circumstances, the staff of the Office of the Prosecutor remain committed to bringing it to a successful conclusion," Bellemare stressed, according to OTP's blurb.
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11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Israel bugged the mobile phones of members of Hizbullah, allowing it to send false text messages and to track the phones' movements, a senior Hizbullah MP and Lebanon's telecommunications minister said on Tuesday. "The enemy has succeeded in planting secret lines ... in the mobile phones of some members of the Resistance," Hizbullah MP Hasan Fadlallah said at a press conference with Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas.
"After a lengthy, complex investigation ... it was revealed that three resistance members were using local mobile phones which had been deliberately sold to them after being implanted with secret Israeli lines" by a Lebanese spying for Israel, he said.
Fadlallah, chairman of parliament's media and telecommunications committee, said Hizbullah had cracked the case in coordination with military intelligence after police zeroed in on the three Hizbullah members as possible Israeli agents.
It turned that the three suspected agents were in fact the victims of the Israeli bugging, Fadlallah said.
A ministry expert at the news conference confirmed that the infiltration meant Israel could send out text messages and other information from the phones.
They could also track the movements of the phones and listen in on any conversations wherever they were, he said.
Fadlallah, who reiterated Hizbullah's belief that Israel had control over Lebanon's telecommunications, spoke following unconfirmed reports that three high-ranking members of the Shiite armed group were implicated in the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafik Hariri.
His comments also came a day after the release of a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC) that cited extensive telecom evidence linking Hizbullah to the murder.
But Fadlallah denied that the revelation came in reaction to any of the reports, saying the press conference had been scheduled weeks ago.
Tensions are brewing in Lebanon as the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) is reportedly set in the coming months to issue an indictment over the 2005 killing of Hariri and 22 others in a Beirut bombing.
Hizbullah has said it expects some of its members to be indicted and warned it would not stand by idly should it be accused, sparking fears of renewed violence in Lebanon.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain ex-premier, has vowed to see the investigation through.
More than 100 people in Lebanon have been arrested on suspicion of espionage for Israel since April 2009, including telecoms employees.
Lebanon has filed a complaint to the United Nations over the Israeli spy networks.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
a terro group bitching about playing by the rules! give me a break
Posted by: chris ||
11/24/2010 15:46 Comments ||
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#2
They still haven't found about the rays that halve their IQ.
#4
It's called the fricking lot number and serial number for your phones idiot! You're billed for your phone calls so they know who you are. Your calls are over the air and on land lines. Tap the central office by turning on the software taps or listen over the air... either way... GotYa!
Some of us made use of this to do statistical analysis that suggested the 2nd Intifada. At the time Israel wasn't interested but when I showed the prez of one of the Israeli carriers what you could tell - a year later - he got very excited and the rest is history.
Don't use anything electronic or electrical for crime or terror you Hizbullah idiots...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
11/24/2010 22:47 Comments ||
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#5
It turned that the three suspected agents were in fact the victims of the Israeli bugging, Fadlallah said.
And that's exactly what those and all the other moles and their Mossad handlers would like you to believe. Bwahahahaha!
[An Nahar] The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) uncovered in an investigative reporting that police intelligence chief Col. Wissam al-Hasan's alibi in the Hariri liquidation case was weak and that he had told another story entirely.
It said Hasan was on the U.N. radar from the beginning, for two reasons: He quickly became one of the inquiry's main liaisons with the ISF; plus he was in charge of Hariri's security at the time of the liquidation.
Except he hadn't been in the convoy the day of the blast. And his alibi was flimsy, to put it mildly.
On July 9, 2005, Col. Hassan told U.N. Sherlocks that he was enrolled in a computer course, Management Social et Humaine, at Lebanese University.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Hizbullah circles, commenting on an investigative report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. under the headline "Who Killed Hariri?" said the Shiite group was not concerned.
"In the end, this report and or other reports do not concern us," Asharq al-Awsat quoted a Hizbullah source as saying.
"What is published in the foreign press every now and then proves that the International Tribunal is politicized and it does not do its work as it should
with all those documents leaked," the source added.
The CBC report said evidence implicates Hizbullah in the murder case of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Jazeera] The UN-backed Leb tribunal prosecutor has criticised a Canadian media report linking Hezbullies to the killing of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former prime minister.
Daniel Bellemare said on Tuesday that reports by Canadian public broadcaster CBC News could jeopardise lives and affect the investigation into al-Hariri's liquidation.
"The most serious impact of the CBC reports is that their broadcast may put people's lives in jeopardy," Bellemare said in a statement.
His office refused to comment on the accuracy of the allegations made by CBC.
In a documentary based on leaks, the broadcaster cited unidentified sources as saying UN Sherlocks had evidence that "points overwhelmingly" to the involvement of Hezbullies members in the 2005 killing.
Farhan Haq, a UN front man, has also expressed concern that the tribunal's investigation could be influenced by the report.
"Certainly leaks are matters of concern. We want to be able to ensure that the special tribunal on Leb can go about its work without hindrance or interference," he said.
'Analysing phone calls'
CBC News said on Sunday it had obtained mobile telephone and other telecommunications evidence which is at the core of the case.
It said that in 2007 the Sherlocks asked a British firm to analyse telephone calls made in Leb in 2005.
"What the British analyst showed them [the UN Sherlocks] was nothing less than the hit squad that had carried out the murder, or at least the phones they had been carrying at the time," CBC News said.
Hezbullies said it had no comment on the CBC report.
The CBC report also said Leb's head of police intelligence was possibly involved in the murder. This allegation was dismissed on Tuesday by al-Hariri's son Saad, who is currently Leb's prime minister.
The Hague-based tribunal was set up in the aftermath of the Beirut bombing that killed al-Hariri and 22 others on February 14, 2005.
Several media reports have said that the UN tribunal is close to announcing indictments against Hezbullies members for the killing.
Hezbullies, which is part of Leb's unity government, has repeatedly denied any involvement in the killing, and has called for a boycott of the tribunal's work.
Lebanese politicians have expressed fears of a new kaboom of violence if Hezbullies members are indicted.
Michael Williams, UN special co-ordinator for Leb, said last week that he expected indictments to be issued "in the coming months."
Al-Hariri's liquidation plunged Leb into its worst crisis since the 1975-90 civil war, with Sunni-Shia tensions threatening to boil over into a civil war.
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11/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Emirates 24/7] The Syrian foreign ministry on Tuesday rejected a new Israeli law mandating a referendum ahead of any pullout from the Golan, saying the status of the territory seized from Syria was not negotiable.
The Israeli parliament passed the law which which also applies to annexed east Jerusalem on Monday night.
"Syria totally rejects this Israeli measure which changes nothing to the fact that the Golan is Syrian territory and cannot be part of any negotiations," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The principle for making peace is the return (to Syria) of the entire Golan, up to the June 4, 1967 line," it said in reference to the Golan's status before it was seized by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.
The law requires any government signing a peace agreement that cedes territory in east Jerusalem or the Golan, or other sovereign territory within Israel, to secure parliament's approval or hold a national referendum.
Israel was "flouting international law and the will of the international community which considers that east Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan are occupied Arab land," the ministry in Damascus said.
Israel annexed mainly Arab east Jerusalem shortly after seizing it in the 1967 war, while the Golan plateau was formally annexed in 1981 -- in moves not recognised by the international community.
Any pullout from east Jerusalem would only occur as part of a peace deal, but talks between Israel and the Paleostinians are currently suspended because of a dispute over Jewish settlement building.
Likewise a pullout from the Golan would only be likely as part of a negotiated peace treaty with Syria, but the two countries remain technically at war and no talks are under way.
"This law is addressed to those who still have illusions concerning the current Israeli government and who believe that it seeks peace," the foreign ministry said.
The Paleostinians -- who hope to make east Jerusalem the capital of their future state -- have also condemned the referendum law, with their chief negotiator Saeb Erakat saying it makes a "mockery of international law."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2010 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 Chinese government on Tuesday avoided direct comment on North Korea's artillery attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong and instead called on Seoul to do more for peace and urged a resumption of six-party nuclear talks. It also had no comment on North Korea's uranium enrichment program.
[Chosun Ilbo] North Korea on Tuesday fired scores of coastal artillery and howitzer shells on Yeonpyeong Island in the West Sea, killing two South Korean marines, wounding 16 soldiers and three civilians, and damaging homes and facilities. This was the first time since the Korean War that the North has fired artillery shells on a civilian area in South Korea. 
