Attorney General Eric Holder finally got fed up Tuesday with claims that the Justice Department went easy in a voting rights case against members of the New Black Panther Party because they are African American.
Holder's frustration over the criticism became evident during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing as Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) accused the Justice Department of failing to cooperate with a Civil Rights Commission investigation into the handling of the 2008 incident in which Black Panthers in intimidating outfits and wielding a club stood outside a polling place in Philadelphia.
The Attorney General seemed to take personal offense at a comment Culberson read in which former Democratic activist Bartle Bull called the incident the most serious act of voter intimidation he had witnessed in his career.
"Think about that," Holder said. "When you compare what people endured in the South in the 60s to try to get the right to vote for African Americans, to compare what people subjected to that with what happened in Philadelphia, which was inappropriate....to describe it in those terms I think does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line for my people," said Holder, who is black.
I do believe that a much better black man than you said in his "I Have a Dream Speach" we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
So, Holder. What's your excuse again for refusing to prosecute racists brandishing clubs and threatening other races at a voter both? Hypocrite.
[Tolo News] A dramatic surge in Taliban-led violence in the country showcases Karzai's government weakness, leader of the opposition party Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... said Monday.
Dr Abdullah, leader of Change and Hope coalition, said death of hundreds of civilians in Death Eater attacks is an "unacceptable crime". He accused the government of acting irresponsibly regarding the issues.
Afghan people desire fair peace in the country, Abdullah said.
He sees election of parliament house speaker as a prominent step marking an end of stalemate within the house.
"I found it surprising and at the same time disappointing that no government official even asked who was behind this crime. We cannot turn a blind eye on these crimes at all," Abdullah told TOLOnews.
We will not be able to bring peace and stability in the country by providing concessions to the enemies of the Afghan people, he said.
Scores of civilians trapped in Kabul Bank building during a thug attack in eastern Jalalabad city were rubbed out on Saturday last week.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Afghan Attorney General is working on the case of the captured Kabul Bank mass murderer.
Officials said his case will soon be completed and sent to the Supreme Court.
Attorney General's Spokesman Amanullah Eman said the nabbed man will be prosecuted publicly.
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03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Isaf is aiming at better targeting hard boy sanctuaries and safe havens located in border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistain, Isaf front man said Monday.
At a presser Isaf Spokesman Gen. Josef Blotz told news hounds that Isaf is so far "absolutely" confident for a good start of security transition to Afghan lead this year.
"A lot of gunnies do have base, do have supporting infrastructure in Pakistain," said Blotz.
Gen. Blotz sees removal of hard boy sanctuaries in Pakistain's tribal belt crucial to a good start of transition.
"The basic fact and the more important issue is that yes there is still support from within Pakistain to the insurgency here in Afghanistan," he said.
"Isaf is aiming at even better targeting insurgency on both sides of the border. We do proper coordination with Pak military, and I think this is even more important now since we are going to start transition in 2011 and we need to have a good start for transition," he further said.
Afghan National Directorate of Security has recently announced that 90 percent of Taliban-led attacks in Afghanistan are designed and planned in Pakistain's territory.
In the past one month or so Taliban have intensified their attacks by targeting more civilian locations.
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03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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"The basic fact and the more important issue is that yes there is still support from within Pakistain to the insurgency here in Afghanistan," he said.
You've simply got to hand the tarts to that Gen. Blotz. Mind like a steel trap that lad.
[Arab News] Egypt's top prosecutor seized all the funds of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak and his family on Monday and banned them from travel abroad, the latest humiliation for the once-powerful family.
During the 18-day pro-democracy uprising, unconfirmed reports that Mubarak and his family might have amassed billions, or even tens of billions of dollars over their three decades in power fueled protesters already enraged over massive corruption and poverty in Egypt. Mubarak, the top ruling party leaders and other cronies, and the powerful military have all profited richly from the corrupt system.
Mubarak was forced out of the president's office on Feb.11 by the military, who have promised to meet many of the protesters' demands. He is now believed to be living in seclusion with his family in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The attorney general had already frozen the assets of the ousted president, his wife, two sons and their wives on Feb. 20.
Nearly half the 80 million Egyptians live under or near the poverty line set by the World bank at $2 a day. Mubarak is suspected of turning a blind eye to corruption by family members and their associates, while many of the allegations of wrongdoing centered on the business activity of his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, as well as Gamal's wife and her family.
Unlike other Arab leaders, particularly those in the oil-rich Gulf nations, Mubarak was far from ostentatious.
Whatever wealth he and his family may have had was rarely -- if ever -- flaunted.
The most prominent symbol of their presumed fortune that has surfaced was a townhouse in London's exclusive Knightsbridge district, which is listed under Gamal Mubarak's name and where he was said to have lived while working as an investment banker in the early 1990s. The townhouse has become a focal point for many in Egypt as foreign governments begin to either enact, or consider freezing the family's assets.
Gamal Mubarak was the ousted leader's one-time heir apparent, although they never confirmed the plan and remained evasive on the topic almost until the very end.
The younger Mubarak rose rapidly through the ranks of his father's National Democratic Party, or NDP, over the past decade to become the country's most powerful politician after the president, who is 82.
In the NDP, Gamal Mubarak surrounded himself with mega-rich businessmen who sought political careers to promote their business interests. Between them, they introduced far-reaching economic reforms that benefited the businessmen. But any prosperity Egypt ever enjoyed never trickled to the impoverished majority.
Several of those businessmen are now in prison and subject to criminal investigations as the ruling military pushes ahead with a campaign to cleanse the country from the corruption of the ousted regime.
Alaa Mubarak's wealth has been the subject of much speculation from well before the political rise of his younger brother. There are allegations that he used the family name to muscle in on profitable enterprises, taking a cut of profits without contributing to the funds invested or work done.
Monday's edition of the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper, for generations the traditional flagship of the state media in Egypt, splashed on its front page a complaint filed to the attorney general by a former politician and harsh critic of the Mubarak regime that detailed the funds held by the Mubaraks in Egypt.
The complaint only mentioned Mubarak when it alleged that he gave his wife Suzanne control of the funds available to the Library of Alexandria, a modern version of the historic library believed to have been destroyed by a fire or an earthquake in late antiquity.
The complaint said Alaa and Gamal Mubarak had tens of millions of pounds and dollars in accounts at the National Bank of Egypt, one of four state-owned banks in Egypt.
Switzerland was the first foreign country to say it was moving to identify and freeze assets of Mubarak and his family.The European Union said last week it was considering a request from Egypt to freeze the assets of Mubarak's top aides. The EU said, however, that no such request had been submitted about the Mubaraks.
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03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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Are these middle-eastern kleptocrats still stashing the boodle in Switzerland? You'd think they'd have learned by now that the Swiss are no longer trustworthy in that regard.
[Ennahar] Kenyans and Nigerians fleeing unrest in Libya said on Monday they faced attacks and hostility from Libyan citizens and officials who branded them as mercenaries supporting Muammar Qadaffy's rule.
A Kenya Airways flight landed in Nairobi with 90 Kenyans on board, and 64 other people from South Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Burundi, officials said.
Nigeria said it had flown 1,035 of its citizens back to the capital Abuja on two chartered flights on Sunday, with about 1,000 more to follow in the coming days.
"We were being attacked by local people who said that we were mercenaries killing people. Let me say that they did not want to see black people," Julius Kiluu, a 60-year-old building supervisor who arrived back in Nairobi, told Rooters.
"Our camp was burned down, and we were assisted by the Kenyan embassy and our company to get to the airport."
Libya's former ambassador to India, Ali-al-Essawi, told Rooters last week African mercenaries were being used by Libya to crush protests, prompting some army troops to switch sides to the opposition.
Another Kenyan worker said government officials were confiscating mobile phones, tearing open bags and throwing their contents on to piles at the packed airport in Tripoli.
"When they saw a black person, they immediately saw a mercenary, and if you dared use your telephone in public, it was grabbed and the SIM card removed. If your telephone was cheap you got it back, but if it was expensive it was pocketed," said Kenyan worker Francis Ndung'u.
Nigerians arriving in Abuja told similar tales.
"We are all slaves in the hands of the government over there," said one returnee, James Ugochuku.
"Nigerians are hiding inside the bush. They don't eat, they die because if they come out, they kill them."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > POSTER Thread = apparently up to 27 Chinese contrux camps in Libyuh were attacked + looted at the onset of the protests, wid many Chinese workers also repor physically attacked or abused by the Libyan protesters.
[Ennahar] A young man died after he had set himself on fire late Sunday afternoon in the wilaya (province) of Bordj Bou Arredidj, 235 km east of Algiers, reported on Monday El Watan daily.
The victim, L. Abderrazak, aged 25, was burned in the third degree. Despite his rapid evacuation, he died Sunday from his injuries, said a medical source at the local hospital, Lakhdar Bouzidi.
The newspaper, quoting a source from the wilaya, indicates that the young man has committed his act following a problem with the deposit slip for an identity card.
This is the fifth death by immolation in Algeria, where there have been several other attempts since mid-January, shortly after the riots triggered a few days by soaring prices of commodities.
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03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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The newspaper, quoting a source from the wilaya, indicates that the young man has committed his act following a problem with the deposit slip for an identity card.
Sir: I am sorry, but we cannot make that type of transaction from the drive-up window, you'll have to see Karen, our customer service representative inside.
[Jerusalem Post Front Page] Egypt imposed a travel ban Monday on former geriatric President Hosni Mubarak and his family while complaints about their wealth are being investigated. The public prosecutor issued an order freezing the money and assets of Mubarak and his family following complaints they had acquired wealth through illegal means, a front man for the prosecutor said.
A Cairo criminal court has set March 5 to look into the case, the state news agency MENA said. The travel ban follows the prosecutor's decision on February 21 to ask foreign governments to freeze the overseas assets of Mubarak, who handed power to the army on February 11 and headed to the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with his family.
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WASHINGTON - The United States began repositioning naval and air force units around Libya on Monday, stepping up pressure on embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi after calling on him to step down immediately. The naval units could be used for humanitarian and rescue missions, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Geneva, where she told the U.N. Human Rights Council that Gaddafi was using mercenaries and thugs to suppress a popular uprising.
There is not any pending military action involving US naval vessels, she said after the Pentagon announced the repositioning of military units.
The Pentagon gave no details of the forces being moved, but its announcement was likely aimed at sending a signal to Gaddafi and his government that the United States was matching its sharper rhetoric with action.
We have planners working and various contingency plans and ... as part of that were repositioning forces to be able to provide for that flexibility once decisions are made, said Colonel David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.
It was not immediately clear what ships the US Navy has in the Mediterranean but it does have two aircraft carriers stationed further southeast in the Gulf and Arabian Sea.
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03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya] A key Kuwaiti opposition group on Monday demanded the ouster of the prime minister as youth activists called for a rally on March 8 to force the premier to quit.
"The first step toward reforms is in forming a new government under a new prime minister that should be capable of running the country and reforming imbalances," said a statement by the nationalist Popular Action Bloc.
The new government should combat corruption, safeguard the constitution and public funds, guarantee public freedoms and find solutions for unemployment and housing, the statement said.
The bloc, headed by veteran former three-time parliament speaker Ahmad al-Saadun, is one of the most influential opposition groups in the oil-rich Gulf state. It only has four MPs in the 50-seat house but several backers.
Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah, a nephew of the ruler, has been under increasing pressure to resign and in January narrowly survived a non-cooperation vote that could have ousted him.
Since being appointed to the post in early 2006, Sheikh Nasser has fought almost non-stop with the opposition in parliament and five of his six cabinets were forced to resign.
As a result of ongoing political crises, parliament was also dissolved three times.
Opposition groups in Kuwait have agreed to shelve anti-government protests in February as the country marks the 50th anniversary of its independence, the 20th anniversary of Kuwait's liberation from Iraqi occupation and the emir's ascendance to power five years ago.
A group of youth called the Fifth Fence plans to hold a protest outside parliament on March 8 to press for the ouster of the prime minister and has been urging supporters through Twitter to gather in large numbers.
Also, the newly established Kuwaiti Progressive Group, a liberal movement, called on Saturday for the prime minister to quit and for the implementation of political reforms.
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03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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Politically, "going there" is a dangerous proposition for Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) politicians. The Dirty War, prosecuted by Mexican national security forces and the military over nearly 30 years against a leftist insurgency, is still fresh in Mexican national memory. They are still finding where the bodies were buried, literally in Mexico. And aside from that, the Mexican left, such as the mainstream socialist Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) and its allies in the Partido Trabajadore (PT), and other smaller parties, will not let it go.
And who can blame them? It was their people who did the dying along with a number of other supporters and a few bystanders. They have everything to gain by keeping PRI off balance from this latest storm.
They probably see strong parallels between the Dirty War and Calderon's war on the cartels, but they have yet to convince the electorate of a nexus.
The Mexican Army, smeared with the task of brutally putting down demonstrations and revolts at the behest of PRI politicians in the 1960, 70s and 80s may have damaged the institution's image. Despite its recent history, the image of the Army and Mexican Naval Infantry have recovered the longer Calderon's campaign against the drug cartels has continued. Mexicans generally support the effort of the military in dealing with the cartels now. It is likely Mexican conservatives who wholly support the military, as well as the average middle class Mexican, do not want to return to the days of Zedillio and Salinas de Gortari.
At least, that's the plan. And at least this time, there is a real bad guy: The Drug Cartels.
So, when a former PRI governor basically states that, yeah, we colluded with criminals, but no one got hurt... much -- you get a clear notion of why PRI wants to distance itself from its recent past.
And it is probably a good thing that their mortal and lifelong opponents, Partido Accion Nacional (PAN), were relatively gentle in their response to Rizzo Garcia's unfortunate admission. PAN needs PRI in the Chamber of Deputies and in local governor's houses to help prosecute their war, and the PRI, as well as other Mexican political parties have been forthcoming with votes in the Chamber of Deputies, such as those to reinforce the Mexican Army effort against the drug cartels with the addition of 18 more rifle battalions and increase of pay and benefits for soldiers.
The first of the units raised were raised in Tamaulipas,announced in an Army Day ceremony in Reynosa, Tamaulipas last week which Felipe Calderon and his Secretary of Defense, General Guillermo Galvan Galvan attended.
As the political crisis deepened, PRI politicians began to turn on Rizzo Garcia, but not before Rizzo Garcia turned on himself by trying to reframe his remarks.
In an interview Friday evening with Ciro Gomez Leyva, a television and print journalist associated with Milenio, Rizzo Garcia recanted his contention that local and state politicians followed the lead of PRI presidents in making pacts with organized crime in exchange for social peace and a tamping down on violence.
Rizzo Garcia said that what he meant by his remarks Wednesday was that a consensus at the time had developed that drug trade going to the United States would not create more social problems.
"That means that for practical purposes we had a unified security policy, almost as a national police force.", said the 66 year old PRI politician.
"To combat the side effects, and I mean to prevent car thefts, kidnappings, bank robberies, extortions... ...because that was due to coordinated action. ...PGR, state attorney and state police, all spoke with the same voice; that was the national agreement, not dealing with the crooks. " he added.
In remarks prior to the interview, Garcia Rizzo also said: "First note that, to deal with insecurity, it requires a strong presidency supported by a national agreement between the political class and society, and second, that social peace prevailed during the PRI governments, and third, that the alternation of power relaxed shielding effectiveness of public safety."
None of his attempts to redefine his comment address what he actually said in Saltillo, however.
Despite that, former federal deputy Benjamin Clariond has warned Rizzo Garcia that he may be brought to court to prove his allegations. He also hinted Rizzo Garcia is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which he hinted may have been the real reason Rizzo Garcia was forced to resign the Nuevo Leon governorship in 1996.
Clariond served as interim governor of Nuevo Leon from 1996, 1997, after Garcia Rizzo resigned his position.
He said Rizzo Garcia's allegations "...gives concern to see that maybe Alzheimer's has come (to Rizzo Garcia) early. I do not know what it took or what went before." he added.
Clariond said the drug violence increased when the payment system for drugs deliveries was changed in 1998 from cash to product, so that only way mules could be paid was to return to Mexico and sell product.
Clariond, taking a swipe at America's' part in drug violence, suggested reduction of the availability of weapons from the US could be affected if the serial numbers were traced to the US and the persons buying them and selling them to drug traffickers were arrested.
Good suggestions, for sure, except that Clariond also failed to address the base charge, that PRI was in league with drug criminals throughout Mexico before 2000 and the ascendancy of PAN. The suggestions are a diversion from the issue which has not been addressed so far.
The distinction is critical for PRI because of the coming elections in Mexico state in July and the presidential elections in 2012.
Inevitably one of the left parties will attempt to link PRI with PAN and Calderon's war on the cartels during the 2012 campaign. While not quite a taint, the Mexican left's offer to accommodate the cartels by shifting resources towards income supports for Mexico's poor, as Andres Manual Lopez Obrador, presidential contender against Calderon in 2006 has said.
The political offer may have some traction with peasants and workers, PRI's main constituency. It would erode Moreria's image as a populist and would undo months of hard work his his predecessor, Paredes Rangel.
Mexican politics, like the politics of its northern neighbor are not just the art of the possible, as Bismark once said. It is also the management of time and information. This issue may go away, but it probably won't, not with two critical elections coming up.
Moreria should have hit the ground running in his new role as head of the PRI, but it appears the ground hit him, instead.
[An Nahar] U.S. and South Korean troops on Monday launched major annual land, sea and air exercises, amid North Korean threats to turn Seoul into a "sea of flames" in the event of any provocation.
The Key Resolve/Foal Eagle drills are the first of their type since the communist state's deadly shelling of a South Korean border island last November.
The U.S. and South Korea said the exercises are defensive in nature while training their forces "to respond to any provocation." North Korea habitually denounces them as a rehearsal for invasion.
"If the aggressors launch provocation for a 'local war' the world will witness unprecedented all-out counteraction on the part of the army and people of the DPRK (North Korea)," Pyongyang's military said Sunday.
"It will also see such merciless counteraction as engulfing Seoul in sea of flames..."
Ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun Monday accused Seoul of "despicable sycophancy" towards Washington and said the war games increase the risk of nuclear war on the peninsula.
The North routinely issues such warnings before military drills in the South, which has a defense alliance with the United States dating back to the 1950-53 Korean War. Some 28,500 U.S. troops are based there.
But tensions are high after the island attack, which killed two marines and two civilians. The South also accuses its neighbor of torpedoing a warship near the disputed Yellow Sea border in March 2010 with the loss of 46 lives, a charge it denies.
Military talks aimed at thawing icy relations broke down in February. Seoul's unification ministry said Pyongyang's latest comments were "not at all helpful" in improving ties.
The North's regime is also trying to block news of popular revolts that have swept away despotic regimes in North Africa.
The South's military has been floating balloons into the North carrying news of the uprisings along with basic household goods that are in short supply in the impoverished nation, a politician said last week.
Private activists also frequently launch propaganda leaflets, suspended in bundles under the balloons.
On Sunday, the North's military threatened to open fire at sites from where "rotten videos" and other propaganda material are launched.
The two sides halted their official cross-border propaganda barrage under a 2004 deal, but the South said it would partially revive the campaign in response to the warship sinking.
A unification ministry official confirmed the military has been launching leaflets.
"Our government will not retract what it has to do because of protests by North Korea," he told news hounds. "The government will decide on the level of its action by considering various circumstances."
A senior government official said the North appears to see the leaflets "as a considerable threat to its system."
The drills launched Monday involve 12,300 U.S. troops and some 200,000 South Korean service members including reservists.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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It's Tuesday there and they're still using "Sea of Flames"? Isn't that a Monday thing?
It would be but since the country is in need of resources, nearly the entire propaganda division has been doing outsource work for their brothers in Madison. So, the remaining domestic staff has to fall back on the 'canned' stuff.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 -- The United States has no plans to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea despite renewed threats from North Korea, the White House said Monday.
Not today, anyway...
"Our policy remains in support of a non-nuclear Korean peninsula," Robert Jensen, deputy spokesman for the National Security Council, told Yonhap News Agency in an e-mail. "There is no plan to change that policy. Tactical nuclear weapons are unnecessary for the defense of South Korea and we have no plan or intention to return them."
North Korea Monday renewed its threat to wage nuclear war and vowed to respond to an 11-day South Korean-U.S. military exercise called Key Resolve/Foal Eagle. Speaking to reporters, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the exercises are "defensive in nature."
"The U.S. and Republic of Korea routinely conduct joint military exercises," Crowley said. "North Korea was notified about these exercises on February 14th, and its belligerent rhetoric is unwarranted."
The U.S. pulled all of its tactical nuclear weapons out of South Korea in 1991 as the two Koreas signed an agreement calling for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and inter-Korean rapprochement. Washington since then has committed to providing so-called "extended deterrence," using all of the U.S. military might, including the nuclear umbrella and ballistic missiles, in defense of South Korea.
Some South Korean conservatives, however, have periodically called for the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons or a nuclear-armed South Korea since North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 and test-fired ballistic missiles.
Then-South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said in November that he would consider discussing with the U.S. redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons back to South Korea, although his remarks were quickly withdrawn by the presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, and the Defense Ministry.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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we "removed them", just like the Norks "quit making nukes". Don't get outraged when you haven't lived up to a single one of your promises, Kimmy
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But we'll be sure and let you guys know if we change our minds.
South Korea is preparing for further North Korean provocations during the annual Seoul-Washington military drills starting Monday, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said Friday. Kim told parliament that the North could attempt provocations amid the Seoul-Washington military drills, dubbed "Key Resolve and Foal Eagle" which will last until March 10, so the South Korean military is fully ready for dealing with a variety of possible provocations.
But the military believes that the chances are slim of direct, targeted firing attacks at areas where leaflet-carrying balloons are released, despite a threat from North Korea.
"The North won't be able to attack Imjingak Pavilion" south of the demilitarized zone "because it would cause greater repercussions than its artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island and invite concentrated artillery fire from the South," a military source said. But the military thinks the North could fire at South Korean loudspeakers along the DMZ. It has apparently been training to do so since June last year, even though the South has not made good a promise to resume propaganda broadcasts through them.
The military is preparing for various scenarios including surprise attack on islands or the capital area, firing of medium- and long-range missiles, a third nuclear test, provocations in the DMZ, terror attacks on major cities and South Korean workers at the Kaesong Industrial Estate being taken hostage.
Gen. Walter Sharp, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, also recently warned about possible North Korean provocations in the Kaesong industrial park and the joint security area.
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The USS Ronald Reagan and Aegis destroyers and cruisers of the Seventh U.S. Fleet are participating in annual joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises. The exercises, dubbed "Key Resolve and Foal Eagle," began Monday and continue until April 30.
A government source said once after the "Key Resolve" drills comes to an end on March 10, the Ronald Reagan and Yokosuka-based naval ships of the Seventh Fleet will take part in the Foal Eagle exercise, which continues until April 30. The Reagan arrives at the Naval Operations Base in Busan in mid-March.
The South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command plans to brief the press on Thursday on details of the exercises.
A CFC spokesman said about a dozen observers of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission will watch the exercises to check if the two exercises are defensive and in accordance with the armistice agreement.
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Holder may not "know", but I do.
"We will do all that we can, we have to obviously work with Congress. Congress has put barriers in place to what I think is what we should be doing," Holder said. Excuses excuses. I'm sure Congress will have no problem removing those barriers the instant a better solution is found.
And don't forget, when you insult Congress in cases where politics isn't as much a factor as voter opinion, you are insulting the people they represent.
A NH House bill would make it a sexual assault for an airport screener to touch, view, or scan a person's breast or genitals without probable cause, including TSA agents.
The bill states "discussing or possessing a copy of the Constitution, discussing the security apparatus of an airport, being on the premises of an airport, possessing an airplane ticket or any other type of ticket for access to mass transportation, driving a motor vehicle on a public way, or ownership of firearms" is not probable cause. You know the actors at the TSA will find a way around this. Better make it painful for them to propose new excuses to screen law-abiding citizens. Personally, I would just make it illegal to scan more than 0.1% of the passengers in any rolling one-week period without permission from the governor, and only then for something that the common man could recognize as a valid reason. No "random screenings". Every time they break the law, I would cut back on the amount of scans they were allowed to do for the next year until they got it right.
The APRT, designed to replace the current APFT, expands from three to five events, eliminates sit-ups, increases the pace of push-ups, and replaces the long-distance run with shorter-faster runs. The five events include: 60-yard shuttle run, one-minute rower, standing long-jump, one-minute push-up, 1.5 mile run.
In order to better assess anaerobic capacity that drive high-intensity bursts of energy, the run will be changed to 1.5 miles, at a faster minimum speed than for the equivalent distance in the old standards.
To better assess muscular endurance, the one-minute rower and push-up events will not allow Soldiers to pause and rest. This will require non-stop muscle movement that will demonstrate immediate muscle fatigue and failure.
The ACRT will be executed in the Army Combat Uniform, Advanced Combat Helmet, and weapon, and includes a 400-meter run, hurdles, a high crawl, casualty drag, sprints, and several other movement drills. Back in the good old days, it was obvious that PT favored short people over tall ones. One good idea never adopted was the load run: if you had no load, you ran the full distance at high speed; if you carried a heavy load, you ran part of the distance at lower speed. This evened out height and weight, so that short, skinny guys would want to run the fast no load, and tall, muscular guys would carry loads to equal credit.
#2
I remember the "run, dodge, and jump" which we called the "run, trip, and fall". That event was probably responsible for more injuries than any other PT test event. It didn't last long.
Evidence outlined in a Pentagon contractor report suggests that financial subversion carried out by unknown parties, such as terrorists or hostile nations, contributed to the 2008 economic crash by covertly using vulnerabilities in the U.S. financial system.
The unclassified 2009 report Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses by financial analyst Kevin D. Freeman, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, states that a three-phased attack was planned and is in the process against the United States economy.
While economic analysts and a final report from the federal government's Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission blame the crash on such economic factors as high-risk mortgage lending practices and poor federal regulation and supervision, the Pentagon contractor adds a new element: outside forces, a factor the commission did not examine.
#1
I'd say, the collapse was largely an "inside job" that came about because of excessive spending, progressive politicians trolling for votes, and migration of jobs/businesses overseas; particularly to China and India. China manipulating their currency to their currency was also a problem.
A letter to the editor appeared in our hometown newspaper a few days ago where the writer called the IRS to get information only to get a call center in India. There is something very wrong with that. The call center jobs could just as well be done in the USA.
#2
Basel 2 turned the volume of credit into a commons.
The volume of credit thus exploded.
This credit pushed down yield below the natural risk.
System default was inevitable afterwards.
#3
Our own government set this calamity up by ignoring its regulatory duties at many levels and then strongly encouraging loans to people who couldn't service them.
None of the regulatory oversight issues have been corrected. No one is in jail and Barney Frank still has a job.
As for the 2008 crash, one need look no further than the Obama-Soros axis. All that was needed was to kick out one of the lower cards. They got more than they hoped for to affect the election.
#4
KBK hit the nail. My first thought was, Soros working with Obama. They set up the dominoes and let them fall. They hoped to make Americans plead for their socialist reforms and policies. After the 2008 election, it was their time, their moment in history!
Flash forward to 2010 and they just had their Stalingrad. The war is still on but they can't see the tide has turned and they are losing (or lost) the public trust and faith. Yet, the axis is still going on as if they have the war won. Keeping drilling from happening, pushing forward Obamacare, stalling oil shale production, pushing green projects, etc. I predict a bunk like mentality and attitude come Sept. 2011 as they watch their cronies starting to go down like flies to the rampaging voters and their vision of a socialist America utopia crumble beneath the rumbling poll numbers.
#6
The economic collapse happened because McCain/PALIN were surging in the polls. If McCain would have responded correctly it would be a far differnt world today.
#7
I think you miss the point gorb. There is plenty of fingerpointing to go around. Basically, the American consumer went nuts and the regulatory government groups let them have all the rope they wanted.
It just answers the question, "Who would benefit the most from a economic US crash?"
Soros has a history of making billions from crashes and knows how to make the most of them and just happens to be supporting and in bed with most of the people that were in power during the crash. They knew how to "never let a crisis go to waste". However, the fault should lie at our own feet for allowing the situation to develop over decades. Soros and his cronies saw the perfect time to move in and take advantage of the collapse.
#8
I remember at the time there was a Congressman saying that there had been a panic in govt circles because "someone" had withdrawn a vast sum from the money markets, and that this was what precipitated the liquidity freeze-up.
#11
At the time there was a brief mention of a flurry of the orders being placed from German internet addresses with prior affiliation the Russian mafia. Keep in mind that manipulation of financial markets doesn't JUST benefit terrorists; it benefits all those who profit from the manip by knowing of it in advance. Last year we had all the "technical errors" where a single stock would lose 70% of it's value for 5 minutes. Did they investigate who bought during the downturn? Or was this a demonstration event (again). Knowing there are those out to "get you" doesn't necessarily make you paranoid . . .
#12
Blame for putting us in the position where we were so financially vulnerable goes back to Johnson. Medicare and Medicaid were his baby steps to the provision of socialized medicine. He also set up the inflation that led to automatic COLAs for Social Security. Before then, the level of social security payments was set each year by congress. He also converted Frannie Mae to the monster we know today and created GNMA
Then the next liberal, Nixon, gave us Freddie Mac. He also broke the link between our currency and the price of gold. Not to mention the EPA, OSHA and the Clean Air Act.
All this was enough to cripple American industry over the next decades and the fiscal constraints that had controlled government spending.
So the rot had been developing for decades. But why did the dam break on September 15, 2008 just as McCain's position was strengthening in the polls? Coincidence? Perhaps. But Soros and the Chinese had a lot to gain by throwing the circuit breaker and I'd bet one of them did and could again.
And it's the "could again" that makes this worth getting to the bottom of. It will be a couple of decades before we've returned our financial house to order, at least. There may be another attempt to topple the house of cards. And oil at $200 a barrel could do it. In September 2012.
#15
HONEYPOT with a beautiful REPUBLICAN :) Oh, the horror! Video and distribute. Its the only way. You can't fight a money Goliath with more money, and cannot do anything that cannot be stated, buuuutttt that leaves other options. Hell hath no fury like an ugly leftie chick scorned.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
03/01/2011 20:35 Comments ||
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#16
It just answers the question, "Who would benefit the most from a economic US crash?"
Although I am curious to know if there is an answer, this question is not as interesting to me as it might be to others.
I am more interested in how this system came to be. How it interacted to sustain itself. Who allowed it to carry forward. Why.
I lay the blame for this squarely at the feet of the subversives who set up our faulty regulatory system. Who were put there by voters, by the way.
We don't just need the specialists like the press to keep the politicians in line, we also need specialist groups to keep an eye on their policies so we have a feel for what proposed polices would mean. To keep enacted polices from going off the rails, either intentionally or unintentionally. Obviously, our politicians aren't capable of policing themselves. But I expect this behavior. The main thing most of our politicians are expert at is taking advantage of situations to further their own power base no matter how bad it damages the system they depend on.
In my mind, this kind of behavior is felonious in the old-fashioned absolute sense, and not the new relative sense. Worthy of a miserable existence behind bars until death, or even the death penalty itself in some of the cases that have been revealed by this mess we are in. Instead politicians and executive management are sent home with their tails between their legs, bank accounts intact, to lick their wounds on their private yachts or in their NY penthouse apartments. While I toil to repair my brick in the foundation of our country and hope that my children actually inherit a country that means something and that they can be proud of after what has been done to it.
If we put ourselves in a position to be vulnerable, we deserve everything we got, whoever the agent that finally pulled the pin happened to be.
Learn, intercept, fix. Or fall because you didn't really try.
[Iran Press TV] More people in Pakistain are joining protests against a CIA contractor charged with the murder of two Paks in the eastern city of Lahore in January.
University students, human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... and political activists as well as lawyers have called for punishing Raymond Davis.
How many of them were paid for their appearance? Rage Boy supports a family on his income from protesting, after all.
On Monday, a fresh protest was held against US efforts to secure Davis' release without punishment.
Washington says Davis has diplomatic immunity and has stepped up pressure on Islamabad to free him.
People across Pakistain have repeatedly taken to the streets to push for his prosecution.
Police have rejected Davis' claims that he killed the two Paks in self-defense and say the American national had even checked to make sure that his victims had been killed.
Reports say the CIA is mulling over the targeting of Pak diplomats and intelligence agents across the world in an effort to pressure Islamabad to release Davis.
Hundreds of people also staged an anti-American rally outside the US Consulate in Lahore on Sunday. Protesters demanded the capital punishment for Davis.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Reports say the CIA is mulling over the targeting of Pak diplomats and intelligence agents across the world in an effort to pressure Islamabad to release Davis.
Iron bombs on Quetta and Chaman would send a delightful message as well as put a stop to the cross-border ISI support of the Taliban in Afghanistan for at least the short term.
KIRKUK: North Iraqi Kurdistan Regions Peshmerga Forces Minister has said on Sunday that his forces had not entered in the city of Kirkuk, but were mobilized on the outside borders of the city, to protect citizens, public and private properties.
The Peshmerga (Kurdish forces) Minister, Jaafar Sheikh Mustapha, a source close to Kirkuk Provinces Media source said, had confirmed that, during a meeting with Kirkuks Governor, Abdul-Rahman Mustapha.
Both sides have discussed during their meeting, attended by Members of the Provinces Diwan (office), the recent developments that followed the demonstrations that took place in Kirkuk and other Iraqi cities over the past few days, the media source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The Kurdish Minister, he added, had reiterated that the Peshmerga Forces had not entered inside Kirkuk city, but were mobilized on the outside borders of the city, to protect the citizens, as well as the public and private properties, in response to coordination between the Peshmerga and the security forces in Kirkuk Province.
Kirkuk Governor, on his part, said: We are working as one team, to serve Kirkuk and its inhabitants, along with protecting the demonstrators, keeping away intruders to fish in the troubled waters.
Noteworthy is that Arab and Turkomen members in Kirkuk Provinces Council had confirmed that the said forces have entered in Kirkuk borders, in response to an Iraqi governments demand, to stand against the entrance of armed groups to Kirkuk city.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] An Iraqi court on Monday convicted a British man and sentenced him to 20 years in prison over the shooting deaths of two contractors, making him the first Westerner convicted in an Iraqi court since the 2003 U.S. invasion.
Danny Fitzsimons, 30, was found guilty in the 2009 fatal shootings of a British and Australian contractor who worked with him and with attempting to kill an Iraqi guard.
Fitzsimons, who had been facing the death penalty, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named as he was being led from the courtroom by Iraqi guards that he was happy with the sentence. But when asked whether he thought the trial was fair, he said: "No."
The former security contractor from Rochdale, England, admitted to shooting the men but claimed it was self-defense.
During earlier testimony, Fitzsimons said that he and co-workers Paul McGuigan and Darren Hoare had been drinking whiskey when a fight broke out. In the quarrel, he said the two other men pulled guns on him and he had no choice but to shoot them with his pistol.
Covered with blood, Fitzsimons decamped the scene and was running toward the British Embassy when an Iraqi guard pointed his Kalashinkov rifle at him and asked him to stop. Fitzsimons shot the guard in his left thigh.
All three foreigners and the Iraqi guard worked for a British security firm, ArmorGroup.
Fitzsimons also claimed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
In handing down the verdict, the head judge of the three-judge panel said Fitzsimons' mental condition was taken into consideration when deciding on the sentence.
"Danny Fitzsimons, the court has found established evidence that you killed the two slain men and attempted to kill the third," said the judge.
"So the court issues its sentence according to ... the Iraqi criminal code and sentences you to 20 years in prison," the judge added.
Fitzsimons was accompanied by his Iraqi lawyer, Tariq Harb; his family, who attended a court session last week, were not in attendance.
"This is a very good sentence. I saved him from the gallows," Harb told news hounds afterward. Fitzsimons now has 30 days to appeal, which Harb said he would do.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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London, Feb 28, IRNA While the Arab uprisings are provoking serious concern among state and security elites across the West, Israels stance is the most self-defeating of all, according to one of Britains leading security analysts.
Professor Paul Rogers said that Israels most immediate fear is that a reformed government in Cairo will respond to public pressure and end the embargo of Gaza.
Substantial change would likely require Israels army to reoccupy the southern part of Gaza and isolate the Philadelphi corridor (between Gaza and Egypt), in turn making clear that Israel alone was treating Gaza as an open prison. Rogers said.
But Israel's concerns go far wider, he warned, referring to the recent Herzliya security conference in Israel, which was attended by such figures as Nato secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, UK Defence Secretary Liam Fox, and the former head of the US national-security council General James Jones.
Israels dominant perspective is that the United States is losing its potency across the region, in great part through its readiness to abandon presumed guarantors of stability such as Hosni Mubarak, Rogers said in his latest column for OpenDemocracy.
More broadly, Washington seems willing to countenance unpredictable political change that (in the Israeli view) carries the risk of the street carrying the day and of protesters unrepresentative of the majority being propelled to power, he said.
The professor of peace studies from Bradford University said that Israel's conclusion from the decline in Washington's power and regional uncertainty could be to seek to strengthen its links with other states, such as China, Russia, India, South Africa, Brazil and even Azerbaijan.
There is little if any sign that Israel will upgrade its efforts to seek a just peace with the Palestinians it still has a chance to do so, he said.
#1
could be to seek to strengthen its links with other states, such as China, Russia, India, South Africa, Brazil and even Azerbaijan.
Linking Israel to totalitarian regimes, now there's an interesting twist. One must wonder how many times the esteemed Professor Rogers will have to highlight that insane linkage before anyone believes it?
#2
I think it would be more prudent to just sit and wait for Bambi to step down and try to fix the damages he's caused to the US/ME with a smarter republican POTUS in office.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
03/01/2011 8:10 Comments ||
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#3
I am hopeful that the majority of people realize by 2012 that a weakened country does not lead to a more stable world but to a far more dangerous world. We are seeing a 2011 technological world but a late 1930s political and economic world.
#4
Well the Israelis ought to be worried, but what about the millions of Egyptians who have suffered under the hands of Mubarak for years. Giving him carte blanche to persecute the population while sifting a fortune from the dollars he received from the good old us of a.
#5
The professor of peace studies from Bradford University said that Israel's conclusion from the decline in Washington's power and regional uncertainty could be to seek to strengthen its links with other states, such as China, Russia, India, South Africa, Brazil and even Azerbaijan.
They won't find the same love from those countries, but it's a good thing to diversify your allies, instead of being presumed to be defended by only the US, which is mostly true.
#6
The Chinese are having significant technology issues with building advance jet engines. Israel has a bargaining chip in play. Not that the idiots in the Beltway care. Every nation looks out for its own interests.
#7
Israel has never built jet fighter engines. The Chinese are now flying WS-10 engines in their SU-27 clones and J-10s (Israeli Lavi derivative). The WS-10 core is copied from the CFM-56 engine sold to them to power Boeing 737s, along with Russian AL-31F tech. They are now working on F-22 class engines.
The CFM-56 engine is derived from the B-1's F101 engine and also used to build the F-15 and F-16's GE F110 engines.
Posted by: Pearl Gleaper1127 ||
03/01/2011 10:55 Comments ||
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#8
Anyway, some about capitalist, rope, selling, and hang.
Posted by: Pearl Gleaper1127 ||
03/01/2011 10:57 Comments ||
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#9
seek to strengthen its links with other states, such as China, Russia, India, South Africa, Brazil and even Azerbaijan.
#10
#3 is correct - the 2011-2020/2025 time period will "MAKE-OR-BREAK" PRO-US-VS-ANTI-US OWG-NWO,+ OWG-NWO IN GENERAL, to include COMMIE-SOC WORLD ORDER [CWO-SWO].
Lest we fergit, IIRC DAVE ROSS = "THE STATUS QUO IN THE US IS UNSUSTAINABLE" [+ around the World].
and
* 1990's NET > CHINA + RUSSIA = Collectively, opine that "WAR AGZ THE US IS NOT ONLY POSSIBLE BUT DESIRED", generally circa Year 2018.
IIRC, as early as 2011 = this year, or 2014 for RISNG CHINA; to NLT 2022 for RUSSIA.
* OSAMA BIN LADEN [paraph] = the DAMAGE OR DESTRUCTION OF THE US ECONOMY ASAP AMAP ALAP ATAP IS A DESIRED OBJECTIVE = METHOD IN SUPPORT OF JIHAD.
IOW, ISLAMIST THREAT [2012 = Nukulaar?] + CHINA + RUSSIA, ...@ETC. = AMERICAN GEOPOL POWER + INFLUENCE WILL BE SERIOUSLY CHALLENGED 2011-2020/2025, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO MILITARY.
And NOT just via Radical Islam.
[ROSWELL SPACE ALIENS = D *** NGED TOURISTS here].
#13
D *** NG IT, why in the World should Israel fear "Jasmine" changes ...
To wit,
* FARSI NEWS > [Iran] MP:POPULAR UPRISINGS IN REGION SPREADING BEYONG US IMAGINATION [ + Control]. US lacks a SPECIFIC = COMMON STRATEGY on how to effec counter or respond, etc. to the various Regional mass protests, hence may not be able to control any of the State-specific final outcomes.
* TOPIX > THE EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST + THE COMING GLOBAL TSUNAMI.
Angry ME Youth + "Lost Futures" > symbolic of Worldwide recognition in both Muslim + Non-Muslim Countries of the decline in normal living standards + expectations wrought by alleged selfish, corrupt Ruling Elites + "Globalism".
* CHINESE MIL FORUM > AHMADINEJAD STRESSES IRAN, CHINA ROLE IN ESTABLISHING NEW WORLD ORDER.
* FARSI NEWS > [IRGC Politburo Chief Gen. Yadollah Javani]IRGC OFFICER TERMS IRAN AS "AXIS OF NEW MIDDLE EAST".
ARTIC > GEN. JAVANI > "JASMINE' REGIONAL PROTESTS HAVE INDUCED A UNIVERSAL "ISLAMIC AWAKENING" + IS A "GREAT VICTORY" FOR THE IRANIAN NATION.
* PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > [WSJ.com]ECONOMIST: CHINA AS WORLD NO. ONE IN 2027 SEEMS "A CERTAINTY"
* IIRC CHINA DAILY FORUM [old]> WILL "CHINDIA" {China-India] RULE THE WORLD [Econ, NWO?] IN 2050???
[Ma'an] The Al-Quds Brigades have "new tactics" they are ready to deploy against Israeli military action in the Gazoo Strip, a front man for Islamic Jihad's armed wing told Ma'an on Monday.
Militant groups will focus their efforts almost exclusively on Israeli troops breaching the Gazoo border and maintaining the "no-go zone" inside the Strip, front man Abu Ahmad said, adding that new tactics had been developed to defend against the incursions.
It's kind of hard to reach them when they're flying UAVs...
"We have fighters ready to sacrifice their lives for the nation and the land," he said.
"To the last drop of blood!"
Israeli forces patrol the Gazoo border daily, and regularly enter to demolish infrastructure and destroy agricultural produce. The military says the patrols are routine, and part of the security apparatus maintained by Israeli forces.
On Monday, Israeli tanks fired shells at the destroyed Gazoo International Airport near the Rafah border area. Paleostinian medics said one man was injured in what witnesses described as a volley of artillery fire.
In the northern Strip on Monday afternoon, Israeli troops shot and killed a Paleostinian worker. Medics told Ma'an that the man's body was evacuated shortly after noon.
Abu Ahmad said the development of new tactics was in response to the "difficult conditions witnessed by the people of Gazoo," and as an effort to "prevent our nation from coming under attack, or being charged with crimes."
Jurist Richard Goldstone accused Gazoo bully boy groups of committing war crimes by firing projectiles into Israeli civilian areas in his UN-commissioned report probing Israel's 2008-2009 offensive on Gazoo.
In January, shortly before the Egyptian revolution began, former Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman ... Now former Vice president of Egypt. From 1993 until his appointment to that office in 2011 he was Minister without Portfolio and Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID)... warned Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, that the flow of projectiles toward Israel should be slowed, if another Israeli offensive on Gazoo was to be avoided.
The announcement also follows a string of Israeli air strikes and incidents of artillery fire, and accusations of escalated projectile fire. Hamas officials denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! saying Israeli officials fabricated the reports in order to justify increased violence against Gazoo.
Because cause and effect don't exist in their universe.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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Iran's diminutive PresidentMahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad says the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran has established the "best example for asserting human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... in the world."
In a Monday message to the first National Human Rights Conference, Ahmadinejad said the Iranian constitution places emphasis on various aspects of citizens and human rights.
Nations, particularly Mohammedan ones, have pinned their hopes on the Medes and the Persians and the major achievements of the Islamic theocracy to guide them on their path, IRNA quoted him as saying.
"In a world full of deception -- where terrorism, internal disputes, war, bloodshed and military occupation are being supported in the name of freedom... -- it is the obligation of an Islamic government to provide the world with an excellent example and model for the achievement of religious democracy," the Iranian president went on to say.
"Today, in different parts of the world, signs of the weakness and desperation of the tyrannical powers are starting to surface and the collapse of the ideology and logic of domineering powers is evident. Nations now need a new path, a solid logic and divine and humanistic ideas," Ahmadinejad said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"Short round" is putting out propaganda again for the folks or he is severely delusional and needs to get on some meds or both. The problem is that the "folks" are not buying this garbage anymore.
[Iran Press TV] Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi ... current Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs since 13 December 2010. Previous to his appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran from 16 July 2009 to 23 January 2011. He was also Iranian Representative in the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency from 1997 to 2005... says Iran has been the "main victim" of Western-sponsored terrorism since the 1979 victory of Islamic theocracy in the country.
"While Iran has taken genuine steps to safeguard human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... ... it has been one of the main victims of terrorism in the world," Salehi said at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on Monday.
"Terrorist groups have killed, threatened and kidnapped thousands of ordinary Iranian citizens, including women and kiddies and proceeded to plunder public and private properties," he added.
Such a serious problem as terrorism is "supported by certain foreign countries," Salehi pointed out.
He referred to the liquidation of the two Iranian physicists, Professor Ali Mohammadi and Professor Majid Shahriari, by a suspicious terrorist group, which enjoys the generous financial support of the West and the full cooperation of the Zionist regime.
"This situation has placed a heavy responsibility on the shoulder of the government to put an end to this threatening challenge," Salehi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] An official with the Iranian Judiciary has rejected reports that the heads of the sedition movement, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, have been taken into custody.
"These two are presently in their own homes and restrictions have been imposed on their contact with suspicious elements," the official was quoted by Fars News Agency as saying on Monday.
Foreign media outlets supporting the counter-revolutionaries such as state-funded VOA and BBC had earlier claimed that Mousavi and Karroubi were nabbed.
Judiciary Spokesman Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei had earlier warned that if necessary, tougher measures would be taken against the "domestic counter-revolutionary movement."
"Today, this movement has gone beyond sedition and turned into [a] counter-revolutionary [one]," he was quoted by IRNA as saying.
Defeated presidential candidates Mousavi and Karroubi are known as the leaders of the sedition movement for their role in the post-vote unrest.
The supporters of the two as well as some members of the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization gathered in small numbers in parts of Tehran on February 14 in an attempt to cause a riot.
The violence in the Iranian capital left two people dead and several others injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday stressed that Hizbullah's weapons have become a "national problem" which needs a "national solution."
Hariri called on the Hizbullah-led camp to "confess that this problem has become a national problem par excellence which needs a national solution par excellence, before anything else."
"Because it is poisoning everything else and we will not allow it from now on to poison the memory of our martyrs, all our martyrs: the martyrs of the Cedar Revolution and the martyrs of the resistance against Israel," the caretaker premier said during a meeting at the Center House with Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement ministers, MPs and officials.
He noted that the March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... forces "had waited a full month for the answer of the Prime Minister-designate (Najib Miqati) concerning three points: the (new) government's commitment to end the supremacy of weapons over political life in Leb, its commitment to the Special Tribunal for Leb and its commitment to the Constitution of Taef."
"Of course, as everyone expected, the answer did not come. After a full month, the March 14 forces considered the absence of an answer to be an answer in itself, or more explicitly, an absence of decision and an absence of will, and therefore they announced to all the Lebanese that their place was not in this government," Hariri went on to say.
He stressed that "the supremacy of weapons over political and cultural life in Leb is the problem ... that prevents the regularization of public life in our country."
Hariri accused the rival camp of torpedoing an alleged Saudi initiative to hold a national reconciliation conference in Riyadh.
"We have not heard any of you commenting on the reality of this initiative. All we have heard, once again, were accusations of treason and false allegations," the acting premier said.
"The Lebanese system and the economic, social, cultural, political and constitutional life, as well as the right of the Lebanese people to a secure and safe life, will never be achieved as long as these weapons are ready to be used against your countrymen," Hariri added.
He accused the Hizbullah-led camp of trying to "destroy the image of the President" Michel Suleiman.
"We want to tell you that if you have weapons, this doesn't mean that you are right. The weapons may give control, but they don't give a majority. The majority is produced by the ballot boxes, without weapons."
Hariri declared that the March 14 forces have decided to "take to the streets on March 14, 2011 to refuse the tutelage of weapons over our Constitution and national life."
He called for holding onto the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb, stressing that "the liquidation of Rafik Hariri was not an accident and the liquidation of the Cedar Revolution martyrs was not a coincidence."
In an interview with his movement's mouthpiece al-Mustaqbal newspaper published Monday, Hariri stressed that the March 14 forces had rejected on Sunday to be part of Najib Miqati's government that aims at "eliminating" the STL.
"They wanted us to become part of a government that seeks to eliminate the international tribunal from the policy statement," Hariri told the daily, referring to the March 8 forces. ... the opposition to the Mar. 14th movement, consisting of Hizbullah and its allies, so-called in commemoration of their Mar. 8th, 2006 demonstration of strength in Beirut ...
March 14 "saw that it is in the interest of Leb and the Lebanese to move to a real national opposition that responds to the requirements of a democratic system," Hariri said.
The new opposition should "preserve the nation" against efforts to target the constitution and the Taef Accord, he added.
When asked whether the March 14 decision to become the new opposition was the start of a campaign for the 2013 parliamentary elections, Hariri said: "This issue is not linked to power. It is about essential things that have affected public life."
He said the next elections will be an opportunity for the Lebanese "to salvage the democratic system" from Hizbullah's arms.
On Sunday, the March 14 forces officially announced their refusal to take part in the country's new government.
The March 14 forces "reject to legitimize the coup ... and reject to turn into observers who cannot prevent violations," the coalition said in a statement recited by ex-PM Fouad Saniora after an extraordinary meeting for its 60 MPs at the Bristol Hotel in Beirut.
On January 12, Hizbullah and its allies toppled Saad Hariri's cabinet in a long-running feud over the U.N.-backed STL.
Hizbullah-backed Najib Miqati was then appointed to form a new government, which Hariri's alliance has refused to join and has labeled "Hizbullah's government".
Hariri has refused to join Miqati's government without guarantees that his cabinet would see the tribunal through.
Hizbullah meanwhile is demanding Leb end all cooperation with the court, which it says is a U.S.-Israeli conspiracy.
While Hariri and his allies won Leb's last parliamentary election in 2009, shifting alliances today have positioned the Hizbullah-led camp as the majority after Druze leader Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times... moved closer to the Shiite party.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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1 March 2011 OSLO - Iran has been trying without success to obtain Norwegian missile technology for possible use in delivering nuclear weapons, Norways security chief said on Monday. Janne Kristiansen, general director of the Norwegian Police Security Service, told Reuters Iran had approached small Norwegian companies that sell special components that can ... be used in weapons of mass destruction, for building missiles.
Iranian efforts the past year, she said, targeted dual-use technology suitable for civilian products as well as advanced missiles like those that Norwegian contractor Kongsberg Defence Systems makes for several NATO navies and air forces.
There are many (companies in Norway) that supply missile technology, she said. I am not pointing the finger at one company.
Kongsberg Defence spokesman Ronny Lie said his company had hundreds of suppliers.
We are a large state-owned company that always follows a strict export regime in our dealing with other nations, he said. I would assume Iran knows that. So thats why if they do make approaches it would probably be to small companies.
He added that Kongsberg has been aware of the general problem for a long time.
Kristiansen said her agency discovered Irans attempts and stepped in before sensitive technology was passed.
In an assessment of Norwegian security threats that was published on Monday, her agency described very pushy behaviour by supposed commercial actors from Iran who would often inquire about innocuous products first. They would then widen their wish list to include sensitive goods and often make various proposals for transport and financing to circumvent Norwegian export regulations, the agency said.
In its written assessment the agency did not specify missile technology as Irans target, as Kristiansen did in an interview. Nor were any companies named.
Kristiansen said no Norwegian firms had been prosecuted because investigators lacked proof of intent to violate export controls or United Nations sanctions banning the sale of nuclear weapons-related technology to Iran.
When asked if some firms have intentionally skirted regulations, she said: Some do.
These companies have as a rule had good knowledge of potential loopholes and weaknesses in Norwegian export regulations and control mechanisms, the security service said in its published assessment. We have also seen how small companies with falling revenues and liquidity problems can become potential targets for procurement actors. Such firms are in a vulnerable position and will potentially have a hard time saying no to lucrative contract offers.
Timothy Moore, a spokesman for the US embassy in Norway, declined to say whether the United States was involved in disclosing the Iranian attempts. We have known for some time that Iran has been pursuing high technology around the world and we are naturally concerned, and thats why we work closely with Norway and our other European partners, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/01/2011 00:00 ||
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sell them bad parts. Hilarity ensues
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/01/2011 19:54 Comments ||
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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.
North Korea
[Iran Press TV] More people in Pakistain are joining protests against a CIA contractor charged with the murder of two Paks in the eastern city of Lahore in January.
[Asharq al-Aswat] An Iraqi court on Monday convicted a British man and sentenced him to 20 years in prison over the shooting deaths of two contractors, making him the first Westerner convicted in an Iraqi court since the 2003 U.S. invasion.
Mahmoud 
Salehi
[An Nahar] Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday stressed that Hizbullah's weapons have become a "national problem" which needs a "national solution."
Walid 
