The Deputy Governor of the Middle Shabelle Regional Administration of the Somali Federal Government Yusuf Abdi Abdulle Jaalle insisted on urgent humanitarian aid be delivered to certain vicinities that have been struck by poverty in the region.
Only certain vicinities in Somalia have been struck by poverty?
Yusuf Jaalle highlighted that the security situation in the region is one that is very peaceful but that there is extreme cases of aid shortages in territories occupied by large population of residents in the Middle Shabelle region.
"The citizens in the Middle Shabelle region necessitate complete aid distribution from the Government as well as humanitarian agencies," Said the Deputy Governor.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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The compounds of the various leaders have not been particularly struck by poverty. Of course that's where all the emergency aid goes.
Thousands of Somalis caught up in an ongoing offensive by Somali and African troops against the Al-Shabaab militant group are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, a U.N. agency said Wednesday.
Move them to the Crimea, I hear there's available housing...
"Most of the humanitarian needs which have arisen so far are related to population movements -- either people moving out of towns affected by the military operation or people previously displaced moving back to newly recovered areas," the United Nations Office for Coordination Assistance (OCHA) said in a statement mailed to Anadolu Agency.
Shelter, household items, foodstuffs, safe drinking water and healthcare have all been identified as priority needs.
Yes, Somalia needs those things. Of course they've needed those things for like three millennia...
Government troops, backed by peacekeepers from the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM), have recently retaken a number of southern and central regions from militant forces. But thousands of people are believed to have been displaced in the ongoing military offensive, which began earlier this month.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has called for immediate humanitarian assistance for thousands of people in southern areas of the country recently liberated from Al-Shabaab militants. In November, Mohamud vowed that 2014 would see the end of the Al-Qaeda-allied militant group.
How's that working out for you, Sparky?
The U.N. agency has also raised the alarm over food security as the military operation continues.
"The ongoing military offensive could disrupt the early start of the planting season, which could in turn have a negative impact on the annual harvest in August/September 2014, particularly in the agricultural zones of the Shabelles, the Jubas and the sorghum belts of Bay and Bakool," OCHA warned.
According to OCHA, Turkey is the first country to have responded to the situation in the southern and central parts of Somalia. On Monday, food supplies donated by Turkey were sent in convoys from Mogadishu to affected areas.
Good for the Turks. I'm feeling a little tapped out myself right now...
Turkey's increased interest in Somalia goes back to 2011 -- at the height of the Somali famine -- when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the first non-African head of state to visit the country. Ankara has since offered significant assistance to Somalia, from infrastructure development to food aid.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Are the people in Somalia Moslems?
There you have your answer and your game plan.
Help your friends. Moslems are not your friends.
Let California help Somalia, get Hollywood to pitch their weenies and ship a boatload of Clooney and Goldberg to pass out free Clark Bars.
#2
Thousands of Somalis Americans caught up in an ongoing offensive by Somali Kenyan and IRS troops against the middleclass militant group are in dire need of humanitarian assistance with their taxes.
Egyptian army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has recently intensified contact with the Russian Defense Ministry in order to expedite the completion of an arms deal. According to senior Egyptian sources that the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai quoted in a report on Wednesday, the deal with Russia includes advanced aircraft, monitoring equipment and other sophisticated weapons that would be used to fight terrorism emanating from Sinai.
The urgent move to close the deal for needed weapons comes after a report on Tuesday that the White House was delaying the delivery of an arms deal that included 10 Apache helicopters. An Egyptian military source told the London- based Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that the arms deal was intended to help put down the Islamist insurgency in Sinai.
The delay continues an ongoing US partial aid and weapons freeze that has largely been seen as punishment for Sisi's military coup and crackdown on former president Mohamed Morsi and his supporters. The delay of the helicopters has frustrated the Egyptians, Al-Rai's sources said, especially because US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel called Sisi Monday and promised to put an end to the matter and deliver the aircraft "in a few days."
Hagel also told Sisi that Obama's position is unjustified and that the Pentagon is against cutting military ties in this way.
Obama's position is, however, consistent with a collapsing foreign policy that has elevated incompetence and ideological blindness...
Egypt's Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy said in an interview on Egyptian TV that the army had sent several Apache helicopters to the US for maintenance, but that they have not been returned.
Egypt completed a $2 billion arms deal with Russia, with financial support from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a senior official told Al-Masry al-Youm last month.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/21/2014 08:51 ||
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Smart Diplomacy by Hildabeast, Lurch, Power, Rice and Zero
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/21/2014 9:46 Comments ||
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#2
For somebody "completely isolated" Russians aren't doing so badly.
The other day they were going to take a 'soft approach.'
[PREMIUMTIMESNG] President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... declared on Thursday in Windhoek, Namibia, that the Federal Government would no longer treat the terror groups in Nigeria with kid gloves.
Mr. Jonathan made the disclosure at bilateral talks with President Hifikepunye Pohamba, at the Conference Hall of the Namibia State House.
He said that the Federal Government had decided to be more forceful in curtailing the activities of the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... group that was unleashing terror in the some states of the North-East region. He solicited the support of his Namibian counterpart and other leaders in stamping out terrorism globally.
"The issue of global terror is worrisome and in Nigeria, we believe that a terror attack anywhere in the world is a terror attack on everyone. It may be more in one country compared to the other; for instance, in the North-Eastern parts of Nigeria, three states out of 36 states, we are having incidence of terror.
"Initially, we handled it with kid gloves, but now we have decided to be a little more forceful because we must thrash out these terror groups. We must not allow it to continue to slow down economic growth in that part of the country. With the terror attacks in that part of the country, the rest of the country feel it because Nigerians live everywhere. In these other parts, there is always the fear that if you do not tackle it, it will infiltrate in these other parts. We will work together to ensure that terror attack is stamped out globally and in Nigeria, we are committed," Mr. Jonathan stated.
The Boko Haram has grabbed credit for the death of thousands of people since 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
So they'll treat them like US and Euro retirees, scam them for everything they've got, and then offer to charge 'legal fees' to try to recover anything?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/21/2014 7:17 Comments ||
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North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un has lately been boosting his martial image by overseeing all kinds of shooting exercises.
He observed a shooting competition among staff of a military school on March 12; a competition among Army corps commanders on Monday; and a match between the Kim Jong-suk Naval Academy and the Kim Chaek Air Force Academy on Wednesday, according to the official Rodong Sinmun daily.
Experts believe Pudgy Kim is trying to establish military discipline and make senior military officers compete with each other to show their loyalty. As if asserting his authority to old military officers, Kim is often seen lounging sideways in his chair and smoking a cigarette while the officers have to keep their backs straight.
What a dick-weed...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Huh.
He didn't photoshop himself with a shotgun?
#3
Not the brightest choice to place one's self in an area where there's ammunition to go flying. Never know, one day it might not go in the direction it was scheduled.
An exclusive Daily NK report that even low denomination transactions in North Korean markets now regularly take place in foreign currency rather than the country's own Korean People's Won (KPW) offers fresh evidence of the grave threat that hard currency usage poses to North Korea's fiscal sovereignty.
A fair bit of this is occurring right under the noses of the NK Party leadership. The time is coming when these guys are going into a common grave, and news like this suggests (to me) that that time isn't so far off.
According to internal North Korean sources, in recent times transactions have started to take place entirely in Chinese Yuan (RMB). When 100 Yuan is presented in payment, the transaction is computed at the daily black market exchange rate and change is then provided in 10 and 1 Yuan bills. This is a new development; previously, it was the absence of small denomination bills and coins that precluded completing transactions in hard currency.
According to sources nearer Pyongyang, payments for private tutoring in English and Chinese in the capital are also frequently paid for in foreign currency, notably U.S. Dollars. Back on March 11th, Daily NK also reported that payment for trips by "servi-cha" or private bus are also being done in hard currency in the modern era.
The cause of these changes is clear. Ever since the North Korean authorities implemented an economically ruinous flash currency redenomination on the morning of November 30, 2009, the public's preference for foreign currency holdings has grown all the more intense, and the value of the KPW has gone into concomitant deep decline.
Reviewing this slow but steady push for more and more hard currency transactions, South Korean experts declare it a grave threat to the fiscal sovereignty of the North Korean state. The problem is not merely the 2009 currency redenomination, they say; evidence of fiscal incompetence and widespread malfeasance on the part of the authorities becomes clearer with every economic policy that fails to take off. Popular suspicion of domestic currency increases in lockstep, and the desire of people to hold hard currency grows.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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Well, the NORKS just need to start counterfeiting the Yuan.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/21/2014 0:07 Comments ||
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Not only are North Korean people able to buy and sell goods in markets using hard currency these days; US Dollars or Chinese Renminbi are also in use for the ubiquitous "servi-cha," one of North Korea's few reliable means of mass transit.
Another sign that Pudgy's grip, for all his bluster, is slipping...
A source from North Hamkyung Province told Daily NK on the 11th, "Trains only run about once a week, and you'd be a fool if you believed that they would run on time. Demand has risen thanks to this state of affairs, so people are making good money from running servi-cha."
"If you want to ride a servi-cha you can't use Chosun currency, you have to use Chinese or American money," the source went on to claim. "You can get anywhere in the country that you want for 200 Yuan."
The source said that people in Hyesan opt to travel by servi-cha in part because the journey can take up to a week by train but only takes a day by servi-cha. The route from Pyongsung to Chongjin costs 100 Yuan, and a similar amount is required for the trip from the North Hamkyung Province county of Kilju to the border near Hyesan.
According to the source, the price of North Korean gasoline is currently 11 Yuan per kg, approximately two to three Yuan cheaper than the Chinese equivalent. Diesel trades at 6 Yuan. The source said, "There is no problem running a vehicle these days because there are fuel traders selling cheap North Korean gas alongside every road in the country that buses use."
Many owners of servi-cha have purchased buses rather than utilizing trucks, as they used to do. Owners offer a portion of their income to local government agencies and enterprises, in effect forming the North Korean equivalent of a Chinese "red hat enterprise."
These privately run buses are clean and popular, and the business itself is seen by operators as an easy way to earn good money. The servi-cha are mainly new vehicles from China or second-hand ones from Japan, and the average cost is in the vicinity of 12,000 USD (though size and type of vehicle both vary). A well run business can earn 3000 USD per month.
In theory, if a traveller wishes to visit a different region, prior to travel he or she must obtain a certificate authorizing the visit. The 2nd Department of his or her Provincial People's Committee ordinarily issues these permits; however, corruption among Party officials means that these can also be bought illicitly.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Next week's headline:
"NK bus drivers executed for disloyalty" (and not paying the right bribes).
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/21/2014 7:14 Comments ||
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[Ynet] Hossam Taleb Yaacoub was convicted of helping to plan attacks against Israelis, though none came into fruition.
The lawyer for an admitted Hezbollah member said Thursday a Cyprus appeals court has upheld his client's conviction for helping to plan attacks against Israelis on Cyprus.
Hossam Taleb Yaacoub had denied involvement in plots against Israelis and said he didn't know what the information he collected for the Hezbollah bad boy group was for.
He was found guilty last year on five of eight charges including participation in a criminal organization and handed down a 4-year prison sentence. No Israelis were attacked.
His lawyer, Antonis Georgiades, said the three-judge appeals ruling came Wednesday. The lone dissenting judge found that the evidence didn't support the charges against the Swedish-Lebanese citizen beyond a reasonable doubt and that his actions didn't prove Hezbollah to be a criminal organization, Georgiades said.
Yaacoub told the court last year he had collected information on Israeli tourists visiting the island, but denied plotting to attack them.
The 24-year-old said he had been asked to log information on Israeli flight arrivals in Cyprus and jot down the number plates of buses carrying tourists from the Jewish state.
He said he was unaware what the information was for and was placed in durance vile Please don't kill me! in July 2012 before he could communicate the information to a handler, whom he did not know, in Leb.
The court said Hezbollah had ordered him to carry out six missions on Cyprus since December 2011, and that he was paid a total of 4,800 dollars by the powerful Shiite terror group.
It said the accused contacted Hezbollah through various Internet cafes in different towns.
In his testimony, Yaacoub denied planning any attack, but did admit to being in Hezbollah for the past four years while also insisting he worked solely in its political branch.
[An Nahar] A Yemeni national who has been imprisoned at Guantanamo for 12 years on Thursday tried to convince a U.S. review panel he no longer poses a threat and should be sent home.
With a thick beard and gray prison garb, 34-year-old Ali Ahmed Mohammed al-Rahizi was presented to the panel reviewing his case as "possibly having served as a guard" for al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden ... who used to be alive but now he's not... , criminal mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.
The hearing, retransmitted for public viewing to a room in the Pentagon, marked only the third time a Guantanamo inmate has appeared before the Periodic Review Board.
This functions much like a parole board, although most of the prison's 154 "war on terror" inmates have never been charged.
The boards were created in 2011 as part of President Barack Obama Jedi mind meld... 's efforts to make good on a pledge six years ago to close the prison at a U.S. naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba.
So far, 75 inmates have been declared releasable but the process of repatriating them or finding a third country to take them has been slow.
Uruguay stepped forward on Thursday and said it was prepared to take five of the Guantanamo prisoners and host them for two years.
The PRB is made up of six experts from the Defense Department, Justice, Homeland Security, the State Department, national intelligence, and the joint military task force that runs the facility.
On January 9, it recommended the repatriation of a Yemeni, Mahmoud al-Mujahid, who was deemed no longer a danger to U.S. national security.
Last week, however, it gave a thumbs down to the repatriation of another Yemeni, Abdel Malik Wahab al Rahabi, who also was alleged to have been a bin Laden bodyguard.
The panel said it had doubts about Rahabi's truthfulness in an interview a month and a half earlier, and confirmed his indefinite detention pending a follow-up review in six months.
The panel will give its verdict in Rahizi's case in 30 days. Captured in December 2001 on the Afghan-Pak border, Rahizi was transferred to Guantanamo January 11, 2002.
The 20-minute open portion of the hearing was held in the presence of two members from the Yemen embassy, but al-Rahizi has no civilian lawyer.
His military lawyer said the detainee "is eager to demonstrate to this board in the most straight forward way that he is a peaceful man.
"He's ready to live out the rest of his days as a peaceful man, a family man and an entrepreneur and no longer should be considered a continued significant threat to the United States of America."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Uh, uh, HE DOESN'T WANT TO VISIT AMERIKA'S NEW GITMO PLEX IN URUGUAY???
#2
Isn't Uruguay where a bunch of Nazis fled to and set up housekeeping? Perhaps their literal and philosophical descendents will be running the Gitmo South Annex?
#3
This functions much like a parole board, although most of the prison's 154 "war on terror" inmates have never been charged.
In most wars since the end of the 19th Century, POWs are kept till the war is over. POWs are not charged unless they did something outside of battlefield or something very specific to the laws of land warfare to warrant a trial.
[Ynet] UN officials say that if Klos C arms ship indeed originated in Iran, it would violate UN Security Council sanctions..
"This is not the first time that we have seen reports of potential arms transfers to Gazoo involving Iran," British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant noted.
The envoys spoke after a council briefing on the sanctions committee's latest report.
The report said Iran had still not replied to inquiries last year on two other incidents: Iran's launches of Shahab 1 and 3 missiles and an intercepted arms shipment in Yemen.
"If we posture just right, this time will be different!"
Australia's UN Ambassador Gary Quinlan, who chairs the committee, said it continues to call on Iran to provide explanations.
Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin urged the committee to refrain from taking any actions that could compromise efforts by six world powers and Iran to reach an agreement on Tehran's nuclear program.
Of course he did.
Churkin said "it is critically important that the committee and its panel of experts should operate in a very careful, balanced and objective way."
The Klos C was captured by the Israeli Navy earlier this month in open waters on the maritime border of Sudan and Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... , some 1,500 km south of Israel.
The vessel was sailing under a Panamanian flag, making its way to Sudan from Iran carrying a cargo of advanced rockets capable of reaching distances of up to 200 km.
The IDF found 40 M-302 long-range missiles, as well as 181 22-milimeter mortar shells and 400,000 7.62 bullets on board the ship.
The rockets originated in Syria, the IDF said, where Iran is known to store large arsenals. The rockets were flown from Syria to Iran, where they were loaded on the ship that then departed for Iraq where the arms were concealed in boxes of cement.
From the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr it sailed into the Red Sea around the Port of Oman, bound for Sudan. The ship's progress was closely tracked by the IDF as it sailed.
Also by the U.S., according to some sources...
Iran has accused Israel of staging the Red Sea seizure to derail Tehran's improving relations with the West.
"They'd already paid jizya and everything!"
Displaying the rockets earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the international community of falling victim to a charm offensive by the new leadership in Tehran.
Netanyahu has been highly critical of the US-backed efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran that would substantially scale back its nuclear program in exchange for ending international sanctions.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm surprised they're not demanding a probe into the "legality" of IDF's actions.
[Ynet] Confidential report says Iran not enriching uranium to 20%, but has yet to complete facility to convert low-enriched uranium gas into a less proliferation-sensitive oxide form.
Iran is continuing to implement its commitments under a landmark nuclear agreement reached with world powers late last year, the UN nuclear watchdog said in a monthly update on Thursday obtained by Rooters.
The ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has a pivotal role in verifying that Iran is living up to its part of the interim deal that took effect two months ago, under which the country suspended its higher-grade uranium enrichment and agreed other steps in exchange for limited sanctions easing.
The six-month accord was designed to buy time for negotiations on a final settlement of the decade-old dispute over nuclear activity that Tehran says is peaceful but the West fears may be aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability.
The confidential IAEA report to member states said that since the agreement entered into force on Jan. 20, Iran had not enriched uranium to a fissile concentration of 20 percent - a relatively short technical step away from the 90 percent level needed for bombs. It had also continued to reduce its stockpile of the 20 percent material, the report showed.
But it also showed that Iran had not yet completed a facility to convert low-enriched uranium gas (LEU) into a less proliferation-sensitive oxide form. That probably means its stockpile of the material is continuing to increase for the time being, as its LEU production has not stopped.
Among other steps, Iran agreed under the interim accord to limit its LEU reserve. The new plant is meant to achieve that by turning the material into oxide powder that is not suited for further processing into highly-enriched bomb-grade uranium.
Diplomats and experts have said the matter is of no immediate concern since Iran's commitment concerns the size of the stockpile towards the end of the deal, in late July, meaning it has time both to complete the facility and convert enough material.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
I was cynical 50 years ago, and I've gotten a lot worse.
There is "insufficient material" to prove that British soldiers unlawfully killed Iraqi civilians following a vicious battle in 2004, lawyers for families of the alleged victims told a British public inquiry on Thursday.
The Al-Sweady Inquiry is investigating claims that British troops committed abuses in the aftermath of a notorious firefight near the town of Majar al-Kabir, southwest Iraq, that came to be known as the "Battle of Danny Boy" after a nearby checkpoint.
Troops had been accused of unlawfully killing 20 or more Iraqis at Camp Abu Naji near Majar-al-Kabir in May 2004 after they were taken prisoner following the battle, which was triggered when Iraqi insurgents mounted an ambush.
But following a year of evidence from 281 witnesses, at a cost of more than 22 million ($36.3 million, 26.3 million euros), lawyers for the claimants told the London hearing there was no evidence that British soldiers had carried out unlawful killings.
"Following the conclusion of the military evidence and current state of disclosure by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) it is our view there is insufficient material to establish that Iraqi civilians were unlawfully killed whilst in the custody of British troops at Camp Abu Naji and we have advised the Inquiry of this conclusion," said a statement from Public Interest Lawyers.
However, the lawyers stressed there were "numerous allegations of violent and other ill-treatment of Iraqi Civilians in British custody which the Inquiry will have to consider."
The MoD, which had strenuously denied the allegations, said it was "pleased" by the admission.
"We have long said that there was no credible evidence for these allegations and are pleased that they have been withdrawn," said a spokesman.
British army officials had dismissed the claims as "baseless rumors".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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US-sponsored peace talks with Israel have reached an impasse because of Jewish settlement activity, a Paleostinian front man said Thursday, as plans for over 2,000 West Bank units were moved forward.
The latest crisis comes as Washington scrambles for a formula to allow the Paleostinians and Israelis to carry on the peace talks beyond an April 29 deadline.
"Israel's settlement activity caused the negotiations to fail and led them to an impasse," Nabil Abu Rudeina, a front man for Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... , told AFP.
#3
Has Kerry discovered the golden rule yet?
What about Arab settlements in Israel?
I think there are said to be about 150,000 illegal Arab immigrants in Israel.
The trouble really is that Arafat and Abbas came from the PLO which represents the "refugees" and not the people of the West Bank. Their interests are avoiding peace (and termination of UNRWA) at all costs. This is very costly to the people of the West Bank, but the refugees could not care less about them. (Some camp refugees are in the West Bank but most are in Gaza Jordan Lebanon and Syria)
Israel has approved to build 1, 220 new housing units in its largest settlement in the West Bank, local media said on Thursday, Xinhua reported. Out of the total, the Civil Administration, Israel's governing body in occupied West Bank, approved 839 housing units in a new neighborhood of Ariel, the largest settlement there.
This ought to finish the goofy Kerry talks...
Some 31 housing units will be built in Almog, in the northern Dead Sea. Additional 350 housing units are planned to be built in Rahel, north of Ramallah.
The plan was initiated by the hawkish Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel, a prominent proponent of the settlement movement and former Secretary General of Yesha, the umbrella organization of municipal councils of the settlements.
Earlier Wednesday the Jerusalem Local Planning Committee just approved the construction of 184 new housing units beyond the Green Line.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Somebody wins and somebody loses. There will NEVER be any Kumbaya between Islam and the Israelis until one of them eats dirt by the shovel load. That is the ONLY way they can be resolved. Anything else is fantasy or worse.
Decide who you want to win. Then throw your weight and join the fight. Or shut up and get out of the way.
Kerry and his kind are as much enemies as glass in your eye. Useless is the kindest way to describe them. Fools don't live to be old.
You want Peace....then you have to see clearly and act on reality. There is only ONE reality, there are no alternatives.
Settlements WORK, The enemy hates them. NEVER do what your Enemy wants. There can be only one winner. Do what works and keep doing it. Do it until you win.
[Ynet] More than half of Syria's declared chemical weapons arsenal has been shipped out or destroyed within the country, the head of the international team overseeing the disarmament process said on Thursday.
Sigrid Kaag, head of the joint mission of the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said 54 percent of the toxins had been removed or eliminated.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON -- Iran is building a nonworking mock-up of an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that United States officials say may be intended to be blown up for propaganda value.
We refer to them as the Mad Mullahs for a reason...
Intelligence analysts studying satellite photos of Iranian military installations first noticed the vessel rising from the Gachin shipyard, near Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf, last summer. The ship has the same distinctive shape and style of the Navy's Nimitz-class carriers, as well as the Nimitz's number 68 neatly painted in white near the bow. Mock aircraft can be seen on the flight deck.
Pic at the link.
The Iranian mock-up, which American officials described as more like a barge than a warship, has no nuclear propulsion system and is only about two-thirds the length of a typical 1,100-foot-long Navy carrier. Intelligence officials do not believe that Iran is capable of building an actual aircraft carrier.
Boy howdy that's an astute analysis. This from the same officials who a few years back said Iran couldn't build a bomb, right? We'd better check the innards of that barge...
"Based on our observations, this is not a functioning aircraft carrier; it's a large barge built to look like an aircraft carrier," said Cmdr. Jason Salata, a spokesman for the Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, across the Persian Gulf from Iran. "We're not sure what Iran hopes to gain by building this. If it is a big propaganda piece, to what end?"
Whatever the purpose, American officials acknowledged on Thursday that they wanted to reveal the existence of the vessel to get out ahead of the Iranians.
Navy and other American intelligence analysts surmise that the vessel, which Fifth Fleet wags have nicknamed the Target Barge, is something that Iran could tow to sea, anchor and blow up -- while filming the whole thing to make a propaganda point, if, say, the talks with the Western powers over Iran's nuclear program go south.
Knock yourselves out guys. I appreciate the Mad Mullahs spending money on a barge rather than on stuff that could actually kill our people.
Iran has previously used barges as targets for missile firings during training exercises, filmed the episodes and then televised them on the state-run news media, Navy officials said.
"It is not surprising that Iranian military forces might use a variety of tactics -- including military deception tactics -- to strategically communicate and possibly demonstrate their resolve in the region," said an American official who has closely followed the construction of the mock-up.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/21/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Me thinks that's the only kinda of US carrier they could sink.
#3
Rising Iran is OWG Globalist Obama's new post-Syria BFF, + they want MilPol or Military capabilities befitting their new status.
The US-Allies will of course PCorrectly rant-n-rave, but in the end will allow Iran to acquire such.
China + India bought Russia's GORSHKOVS CVS', + the same + Russia itself are seemingly in no hurry to pass the specs on to Iran, so iff Iran wants a Carrier(s) + other it will have to ad hoc a way to reverse-engineer one.
[An Nahar] UNIFIL Commander Major-General Paolo Serra said on Thursday that Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... and Israel are not interested in escalating the situation after the Golan incident.
Israeli public radio quoted Paolo Serra, commander of U.N. peacekeeping troops in Leb, as saying Hizbullah too was unlikely to want a full-scale confrontation.
"Hizbullah and Israel are not interested in escalation after the Golan Heights incident," it quoted him as saying.
Israel launched air raids against Syrian army positions early Wednesday and issued a stark warning to Damascus just hours after a bomb on the occupied Golan Heights maimed four Israeli soldiers.
In a rare departure, the Israel military issued a public statement acknowledging Wednesday's strikes on Syrian army facilities.
Damascus. meanwhile, said one soldier had been killed and seven more maimed in an act of "aggression" that endangered regional stability.
Although the targets in raids were Syrian army, it appeared that the bomb was planted by Death Eaters from Damascus ally Hizbullah, pundits said in comments published in Agence La Belle France Presse.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2014 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.
he Deputy Governor of the Middle Shabelle Regional Administration of the Somali Federal Government Yusuf Abdi Abdulle Jaalle insisted on urgent humanitarian aid be delivered to certain vicinities that have been struck by poverty in the region.
Egyptian army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has recently intensified contact with the Russian Defense Ministry in order to expedite the completion of an arms deal. According to senior Egyptian sources that the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai quoted in a report on Wednesday, the deal with Russia includes advanced aircraft, monitoring equipment and other sophisticated weapons that would be used to fight terrorism emanating from Sinai.
Goodluck Jonathan
[Ynet] Hossam Taleb Yaacoub was convicted of helping to plan attacks against Israelis, though none came into fruition.
There is "insufficient material" to prove that British soldiers unlawfully killed Iraqi civilians following a vicious battle in 2004, lawyers for families of the alleged victims told a British public inquiry on Thursday.
WASHINGTON -- Iran is building a nonworking mock-up of an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that United States officials say may be intended to be blown up for propaganda value.
