[Emirates 24/7] Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai on Wednesday warned against the "daily killing" of civilians in NATO operations, saying the international force could face "huge problems" if the deaths did not stop. He's gonna take his business elsewhere, if he hasn't already...
The statement came after Afghan officials said nine children were killed in an air strike on Tuesday in the northeastern province of Kunar, which has seen a string of reported civilian deaths in Nato-led operations.
"I once again point out that Nato and ISAF must focus on terrorist bases and havens or otherwise with the daily killing of innocent civilians, they will cause huge problems for themselves," Karzai said in a statement issued by his office.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Sometimes... you should listen to the Sean Connery of the Silk Road.
Summary: Rescuing consular personnel in the port city of Sirte, Qadaffi's final stronghold. The personnel are safely out of the country, but the Marines and their grounded helicopter are being held by Libyan authorities. Discussions are underway for their release.
#2
Half assed, poorly planned Noncombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO). Where was the security? Where was the Quick Reaction Force (QRF). Some things you simply cannot do by the "seat of your pants."
Enforcing the no-fly zone is doable but not without risk, he said when asked at Congressional hearing his views on this.
"Well, if it's ordered, we can do it. But the reality is...there's a lot of, frankly, loose talk about some of these military options. And let's just call a spade a spade," he said. You're probably stalling to try to figure out how to frame a lie, aren't you?
"A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defences. That's the way you do a no-fly zone. And then you can fly planes around the country and not worry about our guys being shot down. But that's the way it starts," Gates said. Yes. First some troops with laser designators have to sneak in and mark anyone with a slingshot.
"It requires more airplanes than you would find on a single aircraft carrier. It is a big operation in a big country," he told lawmakers. Yes, if they were a fully functional country. But they're not. Kadaffy is just happy to be alive right now. And they probably only have a couple of airports with fighter jets. Ask the guys in Malta.
Air defences consist of radar and missile threats. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Libyans themselves have air capabilities. And we have HARMs.
"You have to assume -- if you're going to do something like that, you've got to assume it's very capable. Obviously, we know something about their readiness, but you have to assume it's very capable until proven otherwise," he said. Uh huh. Yeah. Right.
"We've not been able to confirm that any of the Libyan aircraft have fired on their own people. There have been reports of that, but we have been unable, through this morning, to confirm that that's actually happened," he said. And I think you know what you thought I said but I'm here to tell you that what you think you know about what I thought I said might be the opposite.
Mullen said America's ability to predict historically has been pretty lousy. Politics will do that.
"Certainly we have been concerned about what has been, I guess, building in the Middle East over time, specifically, but I don't think anybody predicted what would cause it and when it would happen and the speed with which it would happen," he said. Given present-time Libya, especially with their current distractions, it seems like it would be a walk in the park. Even if we just fly one over occasionally just to make Gadaffy pee his pants and to show our support for the folks on the ground who are braving machine gun fire with rocks and sticks.
#1
Sure, but 40% of Congress and 80% of the Executive Branch don't want to actually hurt anybody with our military.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/03/2011 5:56 Comments ||
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#2
Let's be fair. I'm not a military pilot, and I understand that the Lawn Dart F-18 drivers who would have to enforce the 'no-fly zone' have to be concerned with guys on the ground wanting to shoot back.
We should remember that the no-fly zone for Iraq, prior to 2003, consumed substantial resources. It was a LOT of work for our military. Libya is actually larger than Iraq, and the need to cover two separate zones (Tripoli in the west and Benghazi in the east) makes it a more challenging affair.
Plus, while certain European countries are talking big at this point, when push comes to shove the US could be on its own (again) in enforcing a no-fly zone.
So I don't blame Gates in the least for being hesitant about this.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2011 11:01 Comments ||
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#3
Given present-time Libya, especially with their current distractions, it seems like it would be a walk in the park. Even if we just fly one over occasionally just to make Gadaffy pee his pants and to show our support for the folks on the ground who are braving machine gun fire with rocks and sticks.
Bullshit! An operation like this is never "a walk in the park". And that's exactly what Gates was saying. First off, there are a multitude of unknowns regarding Libyan capabilities all with varying degrees of risk. Even the most brilliant military minds will admit that in the end, given the complexity, their goal is that they account for the majority (Not all) of the risks. The second consideration is our capabilities. Remember, soon it will be spring time in Ghannie and if you hadn't noticed - we're kinda busy. Finally, to what ends would this mission accomplish? Alot of those "folks on the ground" seem to be carrying around alot more then "rocks and sticks". So exactly who are the "Anti-Qadaffy rebels" anyway? Do you think they will vew the US as liberators? Or do you really trust them not to take a few pot-shots themselves?
Nope this one has European command written all over it. Hey, I got an idea, maybe the mighty Spainish AF can take the lead on this one.
#4
maybe the mighty Spainish AF can take the lead on this one.
The Italians are closer...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2011 12:15 Comments ||
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#5
Gates has done a few head-scratchers, but here he is explaining to the likes of Kerry that this would be a military mission. Story about the OIC explicitly stating no intervention from anyone outside OIC. Story of British C-130 being shot-up by rebels who say they mistakened it as a Team Daffy transport. The folks on the ground seem to want air support without acknowledging publically thanks for such support. In the PR arena the admin gave up 2 goals in the first 5 minutes of the game. Any loss of aircraft for whatever reason would be a nightmare. Even if just an EU operation, by treaty it would be a de facto NATO Act of War, violating airspace especially without the cover of a UN resolution. Logistics, logistics, logistics.
#6
Would you rather overfly Iran or Libya? Libya would be relatively easy. Yes I know there would be planning involved, but please leave room for something being more complicated than Libya, like Iran.
Gates is stalling so the politicos can go through their risk-avoidance calculations.
Obean is moving aircraft carriers around like game pieces, but is afraid to commit. $hit, maybe we should just put someone on the ship to pilot it around and that's it.
The Libyan army has taken the side of the people. Gadaffy probably hasn't been maintaining his air defense readiness. We don't have to fly over the whole country.
The country used to be tough to overfly, but not any more.
I don't advocate putting boots on the ground. Just keep the government scared and show support to the folks with the rocks and sticks.
#7
With all due respect gorb if you want boots on the ground in Libya I suggest you put on some boots.
With this admin and the modern understanding of war we would be committing more of America's sons and daughters to yet another godforsaken shithole to defend folks who probably don't like us already and won't appreciate us. Expose our troops to more terrorism. And make them do it with extremely risky ROEs and a media screaming "War Criminal" at those same troops the whole time - Oh and we get to spend 3 billion a month doing it. No thanks.
#9
With all due respect gorb if you want boots on the ground in Libya I suggest you put on some boots.
No. I don't advocate for boots on the ground. Quite the opposite. Just harry Kadaffy and support the rebels. And stop flying over the country after they wave that they've got their hands on him.
I think of the idea as payback for Lockerbie bombing.
#10
The hell with finding the planes, they're old soviet crap anyway, for the most part, and wouldn't last 5 minutes in a dogfight with the US Navy. Just crater every runway in the country, and blow up the fuel storage.
#12
That works. If we can find him. I understand that the CIA trained him years ago in how to avoid getting caught, and that he actually had to put it into practice when Reagan went after him. I figure he's too insane to get what's going on enough to know if his bodyguards are really doing a good job, so if that knowledge or will isn't there today, we may be able to.
#13
Iff Uncle Muammar succeeds in staying alive + holding on to potent ruling power, IMO the number of US-NATO NFZ's may depend on how many sovereign? pieces Libya can be efffec divided into???
Mot more than 2-3 presum that each has access to maritime ports + fair share of local resources [read, Oil-Gas Wells,Other], ONE OF WHICH MUAMMAR WILL PROLLY RULE.
#14
BHARAT RAKSHAK > {GCC = Persian Gulf] GULF STATES TO AID UNREST-HIT BAHRAIN, OMAN, wid their version of a MINI "MARSHALL PLAN".
Saudi Arabia repor has approxi 3000 troops at the Bahraini borders ready to unilater intervene, or else assist the local Bahrain Govt-Police upon the latter's request.
#15
Let me think a bit; several years ago we went downtown Libya with a couple of Tomcats and F-111's. one of the Aardvarks got shot down but the crew was recovered. As part of the set up for that a Blackbird did a fly over and while SAMs were launched was able to evade ( Mach 3.3+ will do that for ya). And that was when Daffy had an air force in one piece. I think that it would maybe not be a walk in the park but if the Prowlers and Electric Lawn Darts can't jam the electronics for a B1/B52 low level wake up call cratering the runways of Daffy's airforce, we should just scuttle all of it. The rebels need a feel good and a little bit of help would not be out of line. But Gates is taking a play out the Waffler-in-Chief's coloring book and dithering. they both disgust me. And don't get me started on that almost as worthless Mullen. poster child for mandatory condom use.
[Al Arabiya] Iran has warned the West not to use the military option to oust Libyan strongman Moamer Qadaffy, saying such action could turn the country into a Western military base.
Iran's foreign ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast condemned the "inhumane violence" unleashed by Qadaffy loyalists against Libya's "popular movement" but said this "should not provide an excuse for military interference by other countries."
"They (Western countries) should not try to turn countries into military bases," Mehmanparast was quoted as saying on the website of Iran's English-language Press TV channel on Tuesday.
His remarks came in response to reports that the West, including the United States, was weighing a military option against embattled Qadaffy.
However, The infamous However... such intervention was looking less likely on Wednesday after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that "there is no unanimity within NATO for the use of armed force" against Qadaffy.
"We also have to think about frankly the use of the U.S. military in another country in the Middle East," Gates added.
Although Qadaffy's military is badly outgunned by U.S. and NATO aircraft, the regime has dozens of surface-to-air missiles that could target invading warplanes.
More than 100,000 people have already left Libya to escape a vicious crackdown by Qadaffy loyalists which has left at least 1,000 dead, according to conservative U.N. estimates.
The revolt against Qadaffy's 41-year rule is part of anger at authoritarian Arab regimes sweeping the Middle East and North Africa and even the Gulf states of Kuwait and Oman.
The uprisings were triggered by revolts in Tunisia and Egypt which led to ouster of their respective presidents.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya] During his 42-year-old rule, Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy ... an Arab institution for 42 years ... has come up with a set of theories that enabled him to introduce himself as a thinker and a man of letters and that gave the world an insight into what kind of a person the world's oldest ruling head of state is. You need merely glance into his wardrobe to see that. Or wait for him to emerge for breakfast in the morning...
Placing himself in a position similar to that of Adam Smith and Karl Marx, Qadaffy formulated the Third Political Theory, which he explained in his famous Green Book. In his theory, Qadaffy gives people the right to rule not through elections as is the case with the world's democracies, but through holding popular conferences.
The Green Book also includes a social section that deals with the difference between men and women and is summarized in a now famous phrase that has become the passing 'joke' among Arab youths on social networking website: "Women are female while men are male."
In another book called Death, Qadaffy tries to find out whether death is male or female and finds it most likely that it is male.
"It is a must to determine the gender of death and to know whether it is male or female," wrote Qadaffy. "If death is male, we have to fight it till the last breath, but if it is female, we have to surrender to it all the time."
Qadaffy wrote about revolutions and anticipated the imminence of several of them, but has never predicted that one of those will be against him.
"The tyranny of one person is the mildest kinds of tyranny," Qadaffy wrote in his book Running away from Hell. "A person can be deposed by the people or even by another person. What I worry about is the tyranny of the people."
To avoid the tyranny of the people, Qadaffy added in the same book, the individual should not suppress the people and should give in to their will.
"How I love the freedom of the people and the way they break their chains and become without a master. I love people like I love my father and I fear them like I fear him."
Qadaffy's other books include Earth, The Village, and The Suicide of an Astronomer.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2011 00:00 ||
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With North Korea getting closer to perfecting its ballistic rocket technology and hundreds of missiles aimed squarely at the South, defense officials in Seoul are stressing the need for advanced reconnaissance.
The launch of a rocket by North Korea on Sunday was a learning experience for South Korea, which depends largely on the United States and its high-tech hardware to detect suspicious military activity in the North.
In the weeks leading up to the launch, defense experts in Seoul made varied assessments, both positive and critical, on how South Korea's early warning system for identifying airborne missiles would fare.
Although Seoul's Defense Ministry remains tight-lipped, sources close to officials there say the Navy's Aegis-class destroyer that was dispatched to the East Sea to monitor North Korea's rocket launch was dead-on. The ship King Sejong the Great is equipped with a powerful radar that can pick up any flying object manned or unmanned within a 1 km range. Word has it the South Korean destroyer caught the rocket launch faster than the American and Japanese Aegis ships that were in the East Sea on Sunday. But South Korea had to rely on the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado for tracking the projectile's flight path that reached beyond 1,000 km.
South Korea is expected to put three new Aegis destroyers into service by 2012, one currently being prepped and tested for deployment.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
ION NOT-KING-SEJONG, WALL STREET JOURNAL > RUSSIA FEARS CHINA, NOT JAPAN, as per South Kuriles dispute.
MOSCOW REFUSES TO BE SEEN OR TREATED AS A REGIONAL "NO.2" OR "ALSO-RAN" RELATIVE TO RISING CHINA OR ANY OTHER REGIONAL POWER, STATE.
There are also 7.0MILYUHN NOT-THE-PRUSSIANS-OR-WEHRMACHT RUSSIANS living in the RUSSIAN FAR EAST FEDERAL DISTRICT TO COUNTER 100.0MILYUHN CHINESE JUST ACROSS THE BORDERS, + 50,000 LEGAL CHINESE ["officially" = wink-wink] in the RFE whom control or dominate most of the regional commerce vee Local Russ.
* WMF > RUSSIAN EXPERTS: RUSSIA'S KURILES GARRISON "AS IS" CAN LIKELY SURVIVE FOR ONLY FOUR DAYS AGZ A DEDICATED/MAJOR JAPANESE CONVENTIONAL ATTACK OER THE DISPUTED SOUTH KURILES.
* SAME > RUSSIA MAY CHOOSE TO USE NEUTRON, EMP BOMBS AGZ HOKKAIDO, TOKYO IN A LIMITED WAR AGZ US ALLY JAPAN OER THE SOUTH KURILES.
* SAME > FEAR OF RUSSIAN-CONTROLLED LOST ISLANDS WILL INSPIRE JAPAN TO QUICKLY DEV INDIGENOUS NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
* SAME > CHINA DESIRES TOTAL RUSSIAN CONTROL IN "THE FOUR ISLANDS" KURILES DISPUTE BETWEEN RUSSIA + JAPAN: ALTHOUGH CHINA WOULD PREFER NONE OR MINIMAL RUSSIAN GARRISON IN THE SOUTH KURILES, IT ALSO DOES NOT WISH TO SEE JAPANESE SOVEREIGNTY RETURN TO ANY OR PART OF ITS FORMER "NORTHERN TERRRITORIES".
* SAME > KOREAN NET USERS CALL FOR CHINESE TO CLAIM RESIDENCY, MOVE TO DAOYUS [Japan = Senkakus], OKINAWA, + OTHER KEY EAST CHINA SEA ISLANDS.
The military will deploy E-737 airborne early warning and control aircraft in July that have a 400 km surveillance range. The aircraft are capable of simultaneously monitoring 1,000 aircraft, track 300 targets and search the skies for low-flying North Korean AN-2 infiltration airplanes.
Boeing unveiled the new planes, dubbed "Peace Eye," and said the first plane will be delivered to South Korea in June, a month earlier than planned.
Seoul will spend W2 trillion (US$1=W1,128) until the end of 2012 to procure four E-737s. The first one will be built in the U.S. and the rest will be fitted with radars and undergo final modification in South Korea.
South Korea will be the third country in the world to operate the E-737 after Australia and Turkey. The E-737 is fitted with Northrop Grumman's Multi-mode Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar and an identification friend or foe (IFF) system. It performed flawlessly in several test flights under rainy, snowy and windy conditions. Boeing said that the planes fly at an altitude of between 9 km to 12 km and can detect all low-flying aircraft that infiltrate using mountainous terrain.
Unlike the disc-shaped radar of existing airborne warning and control systems, which rotate once every 12 seconds to transmit and receive radar signals, the MESA radar can freely transmit and receive radar signals in any direction and distance. Under normal conditions, the maximum surveillance range is around 370 km, but focused transmissions of radar signals in one direction could expand the maximum range up to 500 km, making the E-737 capable of monitoring all of North Korea when flying close to the Demilitarized Zone.
The E-737's radar is also capable of monitoring enemy vessels and other maritime targets. Surveillance data can be transmitted to command headquarters and other weapons systems, including F-15K fighter jets. The E-737 is also capable of firing aluminum chaff and flares to evade heat-seeking missile attacks and is fitted with six missile advance warning systems on top of and under the fuselage.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Meanwhile, PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM/TOPIX > JAPANESE JETS SCRAMBLE AGZ CHINESE PLANES [2 ea. Naval Y-8's] NEAR SENKAKUS [Chin = Daoyus].
ION TAIWAN DAOYUTAI = JAPAN SENKAKUS, WMF > KOREAN NET USERS CALL FOR CHINESE TO CLAIM RESIDENCY,MOVE TO DAOYUS, OKINAWA, + OTHER KEY EAST CHINA SEA ISLANDS.
#2
...This is SERIOUSLY going to pi@s off Kimmie and Sonny, because there's a little detail about the Peace Eye's capabilities that's not in the article:
It does a real good job of seeing stuff on the ground, too. Not as good as JSTARS, but it'll do. Between JSTARS and this beast, we can now see anything the Kims are doing above ground, 24/7.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/03/2011 8:52 Comments ||
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#3
YONHAP NEWS > SCHOLARS: NORTH KOREA UPRISING UNLIKELY UNLESS MARGINALIZED FORCES RISE
[Conditions for "Jasmine" Mass Protests, Uprising good + betting better, but DPRK State Controls agz same still too strong at this time].
Background on the Gaddafi clan. I wasn't aware of this incident before I googled 'Seif Al-Arab'.
Note that in early 2007 Gaddafi backed down, and didn't escalate.
A year later the Hannibal Gaddafi arrest in Geneva led to a major confrontation. By then Gaddafi had understood that he'd get away with nearly everything, and Switzerland was a smaller adversary in the first place.
The dresses notwithstanding Gaddafi is not a loon, he's a rational explorative aggressor, always carefully probing for weakness and submission.
The new Obama administration circulated a draft executive order Wednesday that calls for closing Guantanamo Bay within a year and halting any war crimes trials in the meantime. Bwahaha! Just in time to add additional pain to his reelection bid. Too bad foreigners can't vote for the US president. They are relegated to the political sidelines and only allowed to contribute vast sums to the candidate they feel will benefit them the most.
Closing the facility in Cuba "would further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice". Blah blah blah. I'll bet you're so sure of it that you haven't included provisions to reopen Club Guantanamo should it not quite work out as planned, as evidenced by our soldiers being able to travel the world in uniform and unarmed.
Some detainees would be released, others would be transferred elsewhere and later put on trial under terms to be determined. Smells like ... rendition!
#2
Article is one year and one week old. Which means the due date on his promise in NOW. Very appropriate to post this one year later to show the world how irrelvant Obama is.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended her department's proposed fiscal year 2012 budget Wednesday, saying cuts proposed by House Republicans would hurt the nation's security. It would if you cut in the wrong areas, anyway.
If House-approved cuts "become the basis for the FY12 budget, then I think the Congress needs to understand... that, in all likelihood, will have a security impact," Napolitano said. The operative word here is likelihood.
The House budget "cuts technology investments and security improvements on the southwest and northern borders," Napolitano said. Screw technology. Build two parallel fences and fill it with landmines. And pungi sticks. And alligators. Anybody who wants to cross the border legally can use the front door.
"It cuts aviation security measures. :-)
It cuts funding to sustain the progress that has been made in enforcing the nation's immigration laws. WTF??? Are you are talking about your suicidal urge to attack sovereign states when they move to secure their borders for our common good?
It cuts critical cyber security tools and operations. It cuts intelligence personnel.
It cuts Coast Guard funding to support our war efforts abroad. Abroad? Lately, it seem we need them here more.
And it cuts grants that support counter-terrorism and disaster response capabilities at the local level," she added. Why not just not take the money from the states in the first place and let states fund their own disaster-preparedness programs?
The U.S. Army Wednesday notified Pfc. Bradley Manning, a prime suspect in the WikiLeaks case, that he now faces 22 more charges in connection with "allegedly" downloading secret information from computers in Iraq.
The most serious new charge alleges that he aided the enemy by making this information public. That charge is punishable by death. A news release from the Army said the prosecution team "has notified the defense that the prosecution will not recommend the death penalty," but technically it is up to the commander overseeing the case to make the final decision about the death penalty.
All told, Manning, a military intelligence analyst from Oklahoma, now faces a total of 34 charges in the case, including: .... :-)
#3
Aiding the enemy in time of war is a death penalty charge. Way way the Obama admin would ever enforce it.
Posted by: Pearl Gleaper1127 ||
03/03/2011 13:47 Comments ||
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#4
The last military execution was around 1961. Regardless of one's fervent wishes, the Military Court of Appeals is 2 to 1 against it and unlikely to get a new favorable posting for another couple years.
The documents are a couple years old but the point remains valid: the same people who couldn't organize an orgy at a Nevada cathouse want to set up body scanners on the sidewalk. What could possibly go wrong?
Giving Transportation Security Administration agents a peek under your clothes may soon be a practice that goes well beyond airport checkpoints. Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.
The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Wednesday published documents it obtained from the Department of Homeland Security showing that from 2006 to 2008 the agency planned a study of of new anti-terrorism technologies that EPIC believes raise serious privacy concerns. The projects range from what the DHS describes as a walk through x-ray screening system that could be deployed at entrances to special events or other points of interest to covert inspection of moving subjects employing the same backscatter imaging technology currently used in American airports.
One project allocated to Northeastern University and Siemens would mount backscatter x-ray scanners and video cameras on roving vans, along with other cameras on buildings and utility poles, to monitor groups of pedestrians, assess what they carried, and even track their eye movements. In another program, the researchers were asked to develop a system of long range x-ray scanning to determine what metal objects an individual might have on his or her body at distances up to thirty feet.
This would allow them to take these technologies out of the airport and into other contexts like public streets, special events and ground transit, says Ginger McCall, an attorney with EPIC. Its a clear violation of the fourth amendment thats very invasive, not necessarily effective, and poses all the same radiation risks as the airport scans.
Its not clear to what degree the technologies outlined in the DHS documents have been implemented. Multiple contacts at the DHS public affairs office didnt respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
But EPICs McCall says that safeguards are irrelevant: If scanners are deployed in public settings, it doesnt matter if they show full naked images or merely the objects in a users pockets. When youre out walking on the street, its not acceptable for an officer to come up and search your bag without probable cause or consent., she says. This is the digital equivalent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
...and soon to those rest stops just before the state borders on the Interstates.
[BTW as anyone seen a train fall 20,000 feet after getting its 'aerodynamic' structure compromised?]
#2
We are broke. I don't see enough money to support this crap. I'd rather take my chances with defending myself against the terrorists/thugs/common criminals rather than deal with this costly this governmental boondoggle. I think the pushback from the public will never permit such intrusions.
[Geo News] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... Wednesday said the position fell vacant after the liquidation of Shahbaz Bhatti would be offered to one his family members, Geo News reported.
He said this while addressing the Sindh Assembly members belonging to Pakistain People's Party.
The President said the cut-throats cannot, with their cowardly acts, threaten the government or PPP. "We will not let the cut-throats succeed in their agenda," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Daniel Webster ... said Wednesday she was "shocked and outraged" by the slaying of Catholic Pak government minister Shahbaz Bhatti.
"I was shocked and outraged by the liquidation," Clinton told a Senate committee, adding it was also an attack on "the values of tolerance and respect."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] The federal cabinet on Wednesday condemned the liquidation of Shahbaz Bhatti, Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs and expressed the resolve for stern action against elements responsible for this heinous crime.
The cabinet which met under the chair of Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani at the PM Secretariat, observed two-minute silence for the departed soul.
The cabinet also expressed condolence with members of the bereaved family.
The meeting continued to discuss the security situation in the wake of the Minister's killing.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani ... hereditary head of the Kurdish Democratic Party, maybe a little too close to the Medes and the Persians for most people's tastes... , has returned from an announced trip to Italy. He met with the President of the Italian Senate to discuss bilateral relations between Iraqi and Italy, and the Pope, with whom he discussed the status of Christians in Iraq.
In his absence, the second-largest Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah and surrounding areas, were rocked by anti-government protests, in which at least 8 people were killed - including two young boys.
Demonstrators have protested what they called widespread corruption and persistent cronyism, and a lack of basic services such as reliable electricity, in the oil-rich region.
Tension has soared between opposition and pro-government groups, as branches of the opposition political party, The Movement for Change, were vandalized and set on fire across the region.
Mr Barzani made only an oblique reference to the opposition party.
The President also insisted that any comparison with recent events in the Arab world are misplaced, as Iraqi Kurdistan is a functioning democracy.
President Barzani slightly played down the existence of corruption, and said that the constant accusations were unhelpful - but pledged to take real measures and work hard personally on its eradication.
Barzani also returned to nationalists themes, such as the position of the disputed city of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... and reasserting some Kurds' longing for independence from Iraq, without actually saying that he wishes it to come about.
Barzanis' speech will certainly satisfy his supporters, as observers say, it' not clear yet if it has gone any way towards making peace with the opposition or the protesters.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is considering pushing for a long-term interim agreement with the Paleostinians in the absence of any moves to renew peace talks, press reports said on Wednesday.
The idea was splashed across all of Israel's main newspapers as Paleostinian negotiators held talks about resuming peace dialogue in Brussels with envoys of the Middle East Quartet ... The Quartet are the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society (xylophone), the United States (alto), the European Union (soprano), and Russia (shortstop). The group was established in Madrid in 2002 by former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Tony Blair is the Quartet's current Special Envoy.... of peacemakers -- in a session which Israel declined to attend.
"The Paleostinians are unwilling to enter into serious negotiations and therefore we should examine the idea of a long-term interim arrangement," a senior source in the premier's office told Israel Hayom, a newspaper considered close to Netanyahu.
Paleostinian negotiators say they are waiting for Israel to halt settlement construction on lands internationally understood to be part of what will become a Paleostinian state, before negotiations resume.
"In light of the instability in the region, the only possibility is to go for an interim arrangement, on condition that it is a long-term one -- and this is what we are currently examining," he said, referring the unrest sweeping the Middle East.
Paleostinians have pushed for negotiations of what are termed "final status issues," including the setting of borders, an agreement for Paleostinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, agreements on water and security, saying that after the 1993 Oslo Accords and the US Roadmap plans - which each were set to move forward in stages - they have lost faith that such an agreement would lead to statehood.
Details of the plan are still sketchy but the idea is believed to involve the establishment of a Paleostinian state within temporary borders, while at the same time holding talks on the principles of final status issues, the Haaretz newspaper said.
News of Netanyahu's intentions were leaked to the press as the Quartet sought to push both sides into renewing some kind of peace negotiations, which ran aground last autumn over an intractable dispute about settlements.
Netanyahu had been expected to send his chief negotiator Yitzhak Molcho to the Brussels talks, but decided to skip the meeting when it became clear there would be no direct contact with their Paleostinian counterparts, Haaretz said.
"The moment there were no direct talks, there was no reason to fly out there," a source in Netanyahu's office told the paper.
Since the expiry in September of a temporary ban on settlement building -- which Netanyahu refused to extend -- the Paleostinians have refused all direct contact with the Israelis, saying they will not talk while settlers build on land they want for a future state.
Members of the Paleostinian negotiating team, headed by Saeb Erakat, are currently in Brussels to negotiate the parameters of the Quartet statement that will be issued after a top-level meeting of the principals when they meet in mid-March, Paleostinian sources told AFP.
Erekat resigned as chief negotiator in February.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2011 00:00 ||
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Post demolition, it is recommended that a minaret be built as a fitting replacement, allowing the glorification of God to be proclaimed daily as well as act as a powerful reminder of the superiority of Islam over all other ways of life.
#1
Compare wid TELEGRAPH.UK > CHRISTIANITY ISN'T [just]DYING, ITS BEING ERADICATED, in the UK in favor of universal, polyglot Secularism.
The imporatnce of [Judeo]Christianity in the hisotrica; dev of Great Britain + Brit Govt, Culture, Society, + Values, etc. is being intentionally degraded + suppressed as a matter of Public Policy.
TOTALITARIAN NEUTRALISM = AMORAL CENTER > FOR THAT KINDLER, GENTLER, FUTURE ANARCHY + MASS GEONICIDE.
Ala FUTURAMA > D *** NG IT, CHAPS, WE MUST SUPPORT OUR OWG, GOVT-SUBSIDIZED, LOCAL-AREA = STREET/SIDEWALK PERSONAL, GROUP SUICIDE PORTABLE DEATH CHAMBERS - ITS SIMPLY THE LATEST THING!
#2
Heh. Looks like Bakri's and his little butt boy Choudary's ultimate wet dream fantasy.
If they wanna play that game, I think the Kaaba will make a fine public toilet when we finally get sick of Islamic bullshit like this and do something about it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2011 7:47 Comments ||
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#4
Come to think of it, once the Kaaba has been demolished, and Mecca urban-renewed, maybe the US could go in halfsies with France to build a new statue of liberty where they used to be.
[Al Arabiya] Iran was urged to take "firm legal action" against opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi in a parliamentary report Wednesday, as prosecutors denied they have been jugged.
The demand was made by a parliamentary panel following its probe into February 14 anti-government protests called by Mousavi and Karroubi, whose families say they are being held in a Tehran jail.
But Iran denies they have been jugged.
The panel's report said Western powers, including the Islamic republic's arch-foe the United States, were behind the protests.
"The intervention of embassies and their elements in the 2009 sedition and the February 14 American-Israeli and British rebellion is totally unacceptable," said the report read out in parliament on Wednesday.
"The foreign ministry is obliged to decisively confront this illegal impudence which is contrary to international regulations.
"Those like Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who called and prepared the ground to make the nation insecure on February 14, deserve firm legal action," it added.
Reject detention
Family members of the two men have said on their websites that Mousavi, Karroubi and their wives had been transferred to Tehran's Heshmatiyeh jail from their residences in the Iranian capital.
Iran's prosecutor general, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie, on Wednesday again rejected the reports which he had denied a day earlier.
"As I told some news agencies (Tuesday) these people are at their homes. But some communication restrictions have been implemented against them," Mohsenei Ejeie was quoted by state news agency IRNA as saying.
The chief prosecutor in the capital Tehran, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, too denied the accusations on Wednesday.
"There is a limit to lies, and rumors of transferring Mr. Mousavi and Karroubi to a prison are a sheer lie," Dolatabadi was quoted by Mehr news agency as saying.
"Using the term house arrest is not correct. Mr. Mousavi and Karroubi, along with their wives, are in their homes."
Mousavi and Karroubi lost to hardliner Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad in the 2009 presidential election, they say was rigged.
They both strongly oppose Ahmadinejad's government and have since guided a string of protests against his rule.
On February 14, the two had sought to stage a rally in support of Arab uprisings, but their supporters quickly turned it into the first anti-government demonstration in a year.
The ensuing festivities between protesters and security forces left two people dead and several maimed.
Similar protests, but in scattered forms, were also carried out on February 20 and again on Tuesday, although these were largely quelled by a massive presence of security forces.
"Though some hostile websites encouraged people to come to streets, nothing special happened due to the police presence," Dolatabadi said referring to Tuesday's events.
He said police was executing its duty and had "dispersed these gatherings" Tuesday and also nabbed some people while some more who participated would be pursued.
He did not specify how many arrests were made on Tuesday but said the families of the detainees were informed.
However the opposition said at least 79 people were nabbed at protest rallies on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Four caretaker ministers have turned down requests from the Special Tribunal for Leb prosecutor to provide information and documents, in breach of the cooperation protocol signed with the U.N., sources close to the STL told the English-language The Daily Star.
The requests made by Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare were sent last month from his office in Beirut to caretaker Premier Saad Hariri, who passed them on to Ministers Ghazi Aridi, Jebran Bassil, Ziad Baroud and Charbel Nahhas on February 24, the newspaper said Tuesday.
But the four ministers have not yet complied with the requests, the sources told The Daily Star.
The STL has requested a meeting with Leb's ambassador to The Hague, Zeidan Saghir, on March 7 to discuss the issue, they said.
According to the daily, Bellemare is mulling to take measures against the ministers who declined to cooperate with him, such as listing them by name as uncooperative.
"In his letter to Aridi, Hariri urged the caretaker minister to permit U.N. Sherlocks to question some ministry employees as witnesses and provide the requested documents as soon as possible in accordance with the Lebanese government's commitment to cooperate with the STL," The Daily Star said.
"In his letter to Bassil, Hariri reminded the caretaker energy minister in his capacity as former telecommunications minister that the Lebanese government and relevant authorities must facilitate the tribunal's work and prevent the obstruction of the course of justice," it added.
Hariri urged Baroud to help Bellemare's Beirut office obtain some information and documents at the departments of the interior ministry and told Nahhas to act immediately to provide the requested telecommunications data to the STL.
The daily quoted parliamentary sources as saying that Nahhas had told Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri ... the Hizbullah sock puppet ... that he had stopped meeting the demands of the U.N. commission investigating ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's liquidation since last year's speech by Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in which he called on the Lebanese government and officials to boycott the STL and not cooperate with the commission.
Nahhas explained to Berri that Bellemare had requested comprehensive information about telephone conversations among the Lebanese, including ministers and MPs, and that this violated the public freedom and eavesdropping law, the sources said.
He confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that he did not comply with Bellemare's request for information "until the legal debate over the STL is settled at Cabinet."
He revealed that he had been receiving requests by the tribunal over telephone calls between Lebanese citizens conducted seven years ago.
He explained that such requests contradict "Lebanese laws on the privacy of phone calls, as well as the immunity of MPs, presidents, and other individuals" which drove him to relay the demand to the Cabinet for it to take a decision over the issue.
The government however is incapable of tackling the matter as because it is still a caretaker cabinet.
The minister continued by saying that he had received a request by Hariri to comply with the STL's demands, adding that had also relayed these requests to Cabinet.
Asked whether the cooperation protocol between the STL and Leb does not include him, Nahhas replied: "There is a protocol, as well as laws and the constitution and we are responsible for applying the laws."
"The cooperation protocol does not eliminate everything, and when affairs require clarifications, they should be sent to Cabinet," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2011 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.
Hamid 
Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy
The new Obama administration circulated a draft executive order Wednesday that calls for closing Guantanamo Bay within a year and halting any war crimes trials in the meantime.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended her department's proposed fiscal year 2012 budget Wednesday, saying cuts proposed by House Republicans would hurt the nation's security.
The U.S. Army Wednesday notified Pfc. Bradley Manning, a prime suspect in the WikiLeaks case, that he now faces 22 more charges in connection with 
Asif Ali 
Hillary Clinton
Massoud Barzani
Quartet
Mahmoud 
