Who said that about Sarah Palin? Would you believe the president of LA's National Organization for Women, Shelly Mandel? Amazing! This is quite a moment for her to push back against the pressure from the feminist groups who see Sarah Palin as a traitor because she's a Republican and pro-life who actually lived her principles. Let's hope more mainstream, liberal feminists come out of their closets and support Sarah because, as Shelly said, Sarah supports women's rights, equal pay, Title 9, and the middle class. She has integrity and demands it from others. Take a look
Shelly gave a wonderful endorsement. I'm thrilled to have her as a fellow Sarah Palin supporter. If other feminists and NOW presidents come out and trash Shelly, we need to stand behind her and give her a lot of support.
I was talking to my husband about this and told him that this is probably the reason why she went to California. The endorsement of the president of one of the largest chapters of NOW is huge, which explains why the MSM isn't reporting it.
#1
Good for her. I wonder if it was due to strength of convictions or an uproar from their supporters that threatened their existence. Either way, it is a good thing for all women.
INDIAN police battled with rampaging mobs today, killing four people, in a bid to contain clashes between Muslims and tribal groups in the north-east that have claimed 30 lives, officials said.
Despite a curfew and shoot-on-sight orders, police struggled to quash the violence that erupted on Saturday after Muslims allegedly attacked guards from the Bodo tribal group in an area of Assam state bordering Bhutan.
At least 30 people have been killed since then, including 14 in police firing, and more than 100 injured, the state's home ministry said today, as villagers attacked each other with machetes, spears and homemade guns.
"We have asked security forces to take all possible steps to stop the violence and help restore calm in the area", Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said as the violence spread.
Police today shot dead four armed rioters trying to torch a village in the Udalguri region, about 120km north of Assam's main city, Guwahati.
Police and paramilitary troops opened fire in at least three separate locations in an attempt to stave off arson attacks, officials said.
More than 400 homes have been burnt and at least 30,000 people have fled their villages in an area partly controlled by the Bodos under a deal that saw the majority of the tribal people abandon claims for a separate homeland.
Authorities suspect an extremist Bodo group of being behind the attacks on Muslims, but other groups in the insurgency-hit state also appear to have joined the fighting.
Officials have been surprised by the clashes between the Muslims and the Bodos, who have coexisted peacefully for decades until fighting broke out between them in August, leaving 10 people dead.
More than 10,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in Assam during the past two decades.
BARACK Obama has accused Republican rivals John McCain and Sarah Palin of a low blow after the vice-presidential candidate said he "palled around" with terrorists.
Mrs Palin raised Senator Obama's connection with Bill Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era radical group the Weathermen, after a New York Times report outlined the link between them.
The group carried out a series of bombings on the Pentagon and other government buildings. The Times report backed up Senator Obama's assertions that he is only loosely connected to Mr Ayers in Chicago's local politics.
But Mrs Palin accused the Illinois senator of "palling around with terrorists" and said the Democrat was therefore "not a man who sees America as you and I do, as the greatest force for good in the world".
Senator Obama has hammered Senator McCain and Mrs Palin for engaging in low-blow personal attacks a month from election day.
"Senator McCain and his operatives are gambling that he can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance," Senator Obama told a giant crowd in North Carolina, estimated by police to number at least 28,000 people.
"They'd rather tear our campaign down than lift this country up. That's what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time," he said, ahead of the second presidential debate on Wednesday (AEST).
A new Obama campaign TV ad called Senator McCain "erratic" and "out of touch". It featured footage of a shuttered factory, a panicked financial trading floor and a family struggling to make ends meet.
It juxtaposed those images with remarks from top McCain adviser Greg Strimple, who said the campaign was "looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis" and instead attack Senator Obama record in the Senate.
"We're facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and John McCain wants us to 'turn the page' on talking about the economy?" Senator Obama said, drawing derisive jeers from the rally crowd.
Senator McCain is preparing for Wednesday's debate near his ranch in Arizona, and is seen as needing a game-changing performance to turn the tide in the build-up to the November 5 (AEST) vote.
On the home stretch of the campaign, Senator Obama said he would hammer away at the issues as crisis sweeps through Wall Street and batters household budgets.
The polls are breaking his way both nationally and in battleground states. A national tracking poll by Gallup gives Senator Obama 50 per cent support, compared with 43 per cent for Senator McCain.
Senator McCain's campaign more or less gave up on winning Michigan late last week, surrendering one of the states Republicans had targeted with substantial money and resources.
#2
"BARACK Obama has accused Republican rivals John McCain and Sarah Palin of a low blow after the vice-presidential candidate said he "palled around" with terrorists."
Truth hurts, huh, Bambi?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/05/2008 19:15
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#3
The louder they scream, the closer to the truth the statement is.
#4
His record, thin as it is, is beyond citind citing, lest you be called a racist. Welllll I'll start: you, sir, are a soft-marxist empty suit with a tolerance of terrorist friends, a long-term participation in a black hate-filled church, a wife who's received a puffedup-employment salary based on the pork you delivered, a lie-filled resume, and a coward who votes "present" for any tough votes. Besides that, and your thin-skinned brownshirt responses to criticism, I have absolutely nothing good to say about you or your hate-filled bitter wife. But I'm sure you're probably nice to your children...so I guess that's something.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2008 19:39
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#5
Wow, even the Australian media's in the tank for him.
#9
Just a reminder.... Hank Paulson will be jobless in a couple of months. Unless he really gets on the stick, he'll not have spent the $ 7B USD that congress just handed him. What that means is, if elected, the Obamessiah will appoint one of his pals to look after the dough. Any doubt where those dollars will go?
#1
I think Britain has promoted this POS to a position above his capability. Maybe he can get another one, perhaps in Barbados, closer to his capabilities. In the meantime, don't the Brits have a bulldog or two they can assign to Afghanistan? This POS is a nervous parakeet.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/05/2008 18:31
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#2
Well, you are never going to win with that attitude ya know!
#4
neither could the Iraq war, in your not-so-humble-opinion. Looks like you're a poofed up fool and possibly 0-for-2? Why should we listen to designated hostages? Your boots on the ground do good work, when allowed and given the resources they need. I instinctively distrust double-named men as poofters and self-esteem-inflated losers
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2008 21:59
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#5
I instinctively distrust double-named men as poofters and self-esteem-inflated losers
Posted by Frank G
May I add pipe smokers and fellows who add acronyms and digits after their names as well Frank?
#6
DRUDGEREPORT > AL-QAEDA: US ECONOMIC CRISIS EQUALS MUSLIM VICTORY; + TOPIX > NEW AL QAEDA TAPE SAYS ENEMIES OF ISLAM ARE FACING DEFEAT.
And vis ADAM GHADAN = "American Taliban" no less.
Again, Radical Islam is weakened but NOT absolutely defeated nor incapable of victory; whereas the USA is winning/prevailing but its domination of the future OWG-NWO + Victory over Islamism is NOT yet absolut assured.
The "WAR OUTSIDE OF IRAQ" > tantamount to a NEW HISTORIC MUSLIM CONQUEST OF THE ASIAN MAINLAND, as indic by RUSSO-GEROGIAN WAR, ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE IN INDIA vv HINDUS [fear of return and domin of UK-West], + SUPPOR BY MANY CHIN NETTERS FOR UNILATER CHIN PLA MIL INTERVENTION IFF THE US INVADES PAKISTAN AND RUSSIA PROVES MILPOL UNABLE TO STOP THE ISLAMIST DESTABILIZATION AND TAKEOVER OF ITS FORMER CENTRAL ASIAN SSRS [ + New Russ Breakup]. RADICAL ISLAM IS NOT WAGING ITS JIHAD ONLY FOR "PARITY".
Mainstream America = Amerika also has RUSSIA's subtle hints about NO NEW COLD WAR OR RETURN TO ANY NEW COLD WAR VV THE USA.
IOW, BY ALL THE ABOVE, and unless Washington DC desires to see a NEW NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN MAP OF ASIA [pro-Islamist], THERE HAS TO BE A BE-ALL, END-ALL CLEARLY CONCLUSIVE DETERMINATIVE WINNER IN THIS MAN'S GWOT!
* ION REDDIT > RUSSIA TODAY > INTER-NATION MIL CONFLICTS OVER ARCTIC RESOURCES MAY BEGIN TO OCCUR AFTER 2020.
Also from REDDIT [WND 04/2001] [paraph] > LED BY RUSSIA + CHINA, MANY OF THE USSR's NOW SOVEREIGN FORMER CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS ARE FORMING A POWERFUL COMBINED MILITARY REACTION FORCE TO DEFEND THE REGION AND TAKE THE OFFENSIVE AGZ MILITANT ISLAMIC FORCES.
#8
"US strategy is doomed to FAILURE" > as long as the USA limits its troops to only IRAQ + AFGHANISTAN, regardless of magnitude = level of Mil-National commitment, IRAN + MILITANTS BELIEVE THEY WILL SUCCEED AND GET THEIR NUKES.
IOW, NUCLEAR IRAN + NUCLEAR JIHAD + NUCLEAR ISLAMISM, etc. = ASIA IS JUST A "WALKING DEAD MAN" ABOUT TO VOLUNTARILY OR FORCIBLY CONVERT TO ISLAM/ISLAMISM.
Somebody better tell RAND-MCNALLY, etc. to start coming up wid new ISLAMIST PLACE-AREA NAMES for their NEW MAP OF ISLAMIST ASIA = EURASIA.
Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden's mother-in-law died Sunday afternoon, and the Obama campaign has canceled the Delaware senator's schedule through Tuesday, a spokesman said.
Jill Biden's mother after a long illness, said spokesman David Wade. "Other details will follow, but we appreciate everyone's respect for the family's privacy during this difficult time."
#3
Probably worth 3 pts. in the polls. That's how dumb American's are considering the status of our public schools where teachers can come to school wearing Obama T's.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/05/2008 19:54
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Saturday, Oct. 4, the Bush administration indefinitely shelved its plans to set up a diplomatic outpost in Iran for the first time in three decades, following Irans refusal to discontinue uranium enrichment and come clean on its suspected weapons program. Rather than appearing to try and influence the US presidential race, it was therefore decided to leave the decision to President Bushs successor.
DEBKAfiles military sources disclose that another factor influencing the decision was fresh intelligence that Iran has gone back to pumping into Iraq Shiite combatants trained by Revolutionary Guards and Hizballah instructors. Several hundred have crossed over and some are posted in Baghdads Shiite districts.
Furthermore, the backdoor US-Iranian meetings to resolve the nuclear controversy have run aground. Tehran appears to have taken advantage of Americas financial crisis and weak moment to step up the momentum of its nuclear arms program. Iran has also been encouraged by North Koreas reactivation of its nuclear reactor in defiance of US efforts to bring Pyongyang back in line.
In sum, the Bush administrations diplomatic offensive for an accommodation with Iran on the nuclear dispute, Iraq and Lebanon, has foundered. For a time, Tehran was helpful; it reined in Shiite militia attacks in Iraq and shared intelligence on al Qaeda and other terrorists, while in Lebanon an understanding between them brought about the election of a president. Bush and the heads of his administration had hoped to bow out leaving a certain level stability behind them in these areas.
However in recent weeks, when the administrations focus shifted to putting out financial fires and the onus of the war on terror moved from the Middle East to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Washingtons understandings with Tehran faded into the background of major events.
Israel has lost out on its strategic options twice: At the beginning of 2008, the Bush administration discarded its military option for dealing with Iran and leaned hard on Israel to refrain from a unilateral strike against its nuclear facilities. The Olmert government was advised to rely on international diplomacy and sanctions. This substitute option has also gone bankrupt leaving Israel high and dry with the prospect of an unstoppable nuclear-armed Iran.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari says India has never been a threat to Pakistan, and that militants in Indian-administered Kashmir are terrorists.
But he said it in English so it doesn't count ...
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he also seemed to acknowledge that his government has given consent to US air strikes in Pakistan.
The unorthodox views run counter to those held by Pakistan's military, which views India as a threat. Pakistan's powerful military has long-defined India as an existential threat, and in the past it has given covert backing to the militants in Kashmir.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars but have made recent peace moves. The two regional rivals did take part in a faltering peace process under the former president, General Pervez Musharraf.
But suspicions always ran deep, and relations have soured recently. Mr Zardari's comments thus mark a radical break with the past.
The Wall Street Journal also reports that Mr Zardari acknowledged that the US was firing missiles at militant targets inside Pakistan with his government's consent. "We have an understanding, in the sense that we're going after an enemy together," it quotes him as saying.
But the Pakistani army is adamant that coalition forces do not have permission for such cross-border raids. These incursions have stoked enormous anger in Pakistan - and Mr Zardari's comments may do the same.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008
16:57 ||
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In response to a casual question, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates dropped a historical bombshell, an offhand remark telling more about how the Middle East works than 100 books. And a former US Marine commander added an equally big revelation about long-ago events quite relevant for today.
Almost 30 years ago, president Jimmy Carter tried to show what a nice guy he was by pressing the shah of Iran not to crush the revolutionaries. After the monarch fell, national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski met top officials of the new Islamist regime to pledge US friendship to the government controlled by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. At the time, I wrote that by approaching some of the milder radicals, the administration frightened the more militant ones. US-Iran relations must be smashed, they concluded, lest Washington back their rivals. In fact, as we'll see in a moment, the Carter administration offered to back Khomeini himself.
Three days after the Brzezinski meeting, in November 1979, the Islamist regime's cadre seized the US embassy and its staff as hostages, holding them until January 1981. This was our introduction to the new Middle East of radical Islamism. Carter continued his weak stance, persuading the Teheran regime that it could get away with anything.
So we've long known that undermining US allies, passivity toward anti-American radicals and inaction after a massive terrorist act against Americans doesn't work. The hostages were only released because Iran was suffering desperately from an Iraqi invasion and feared Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, as someone likely to be tougher.
THE LESSON of being strong in defending interests and combating enemies has not quite been learned. Today, the mainstream prescription for success is just the opposite, and the US may be about to elect a president whose world view parallels the way Carter worked.
Here's where Gates comes in. On September 29, while giving a lecture at the National Defense University in Washington, someone asked him how the next president might improve relations with Iran. Gates responded: "I have been involved in the search for the elusive Iranian moderate for 30 years." Then Gates revealed what was actually said at Brzezinski's meeting, in which he has been a participatant, summarizing Brzezinski's position as follows: "We will accept your revolution... We will recognize your government. We will sell you all the weapons that we had contracted to sell the shah... We can work together in the future."
#1
"and feared Carter's successor, Ronald Reagan, as someone likely to be tougher."
Boy, is that an understatement. The Iranians were scared spitless of Reagan, who everyone let them know would mop the floor with the Mullahs if given half a chance.
With Indian Air Force helicopter gunships killing hundreds of rebels and infantry combat vehicles punching through rebel positions, Indias largest-ever deployment of soldiers on foreign soil has taken on a muscular new turn in the heart of Africa.
The Democratic Republic of Congo's internal conflict -- whose resolution is a test case of strong global intervention -- has led an Indian brigade under the United Nations mission (known by its French acronym MONUC) to rework its peacekeeping strategy from a velvet glove to an iron fist.
The first signs of the changed Indian posture were visible late September in Masisi in the collapsing eastern province of North Kivu, the epicentre of the conflict between rebels and government troops. UN North Kivu brigade commander Bipin Rawat, who learnt his trade in Kashmir and India's northeast, ordered Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters of the IAF to strafe positions tightly held by the private army of rebel general Laurent Nkunda.
The underutilised Russian-made IAF gunships fired a salvo of rockets that killed hundreds of Nkunda's rebels. The offensive sorties allowed ill-equipped and ill-trained Congolese government troops drive back rebels who had come menacingly close to seizing Masisi, which is on a vital road axis some 80 km from North Kivus capital Goma.
I'm guessing Nkunda was thinking that the Indians were going to behave more like the mighty Uruguayans ...
Indian Army infantry combat vehicles, used only for a cosmetic show of force thus far, rumbled into life with machineguns blazing and cannon punching through rebel defences in the flashpoints of Tonga and Kanyabayonga where Indian posts are located.
"In the past one or two years, some degree of passivity has seeped into our operations," Brigadier Rawat told the Hindustan Times. He said UN rules allowed the use of force in specific scenarios. "Weve decided to fight with our equipment," said Rawat, who took charge of the Indian brigade this August.
There are now more than 4,500 Indian troops with the UNs costliest peacekeeping mission in the Congo, a sprawling (the size of western Europe), dangerous and notoriously unstable country formerly known as Zaire. It was here that heavyweight boxing champion Muhammed Ali knocked out George Foreman 34 years ago in a world-famous bout called "Rumble in the Jungle".
The Congo is home to half of all Africas forests and has enough diamonds, gold and copper to make it the continent's richest country. But it has come to represent the worst of Africa: most of its 60 million people live on less than $1 a day and its women and children have suffered almost unimaginable sexual violence.
It was first ravaged in the late 19th century by Belgium's King Leopold, who ran it as a personal colony. Later, one of Africas worst dictators, Mobutu Sese Seko -- backed for strategic reasons by the West -- famously squandered public money on Concorde charters to Disneyworld and million-dollar shopping sprees to Brussels and Paris.
After Seko was deposed 11 years ago, the Congo descended into bloody patchwork of war and butchery that claimed the lives of 3 million Congolese and at its height embroiled nine countries. To growing criticism of its irrelevance, the UN then launched its mission to stabilise the Congo, with 2006 seeing the first democratic elections in 40 years. The Congolese turned out in millions to vote in Joseph Kabila as president.
Rawat said his message is that Indian troops "will walk the extra mile to protect the Congolese people", whose mistrust of MONUC has grown manifold in recent weeks. "It is not a pretty picture to see an Indian soldier, tested in the hottest of fires, hunker down in a jeep even as unruly crowds pelt stones," said Rawat. "Its happening here. Locals are asking what difference has MONUC made."
That changed when an 8,000-strong crowd recently took shelter at a 10 Assam base in Masisi when the Congolese army traded heavy machine gun and mortar fire with the rebels. The crowd clapped as IAF attack helicopters fired rockets. Rawat said his soldiers would resist "the temptation to go over the top at all costs".
Thats because all rebel groups are signatories to a January 2008 peace accord, and the key mission of troops is to bring them to the negotiating table.
India has a long history of deploying troops in the Congo: the first Indian blue berets (the colour used on UN duty) served from 1960 to 1965. It is the only UN mission where an Indian soldier -- Captain G.S. Salaria -- was awarded the Param Vir Chakra. He died in 1961, trying to save the Katanga province from falling to rebels.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008
16:39 ||
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#1
I've been to the site of a football field sized battlefield, where, at the Battle of the Bulge, a time later, a fight happened almost beyond imagination.
In that small area where the advance column of the German attack met with an anti-tank company of Americans, a battle was fought, illuminated only by burning tanks, in pitch black smoke and the heaviest fog Europe had seen in over a hundred years.
For days, the only effective weapons were pistols and knives. Two men would run up to each other and try to determine what uniform the other wore, with just one foot of space between them. Then it was kill or be killed if they were a foe. Both sides kept sending reinforcements to that one place.
The memorial that rests on that flat field lists, I believe, 14 Medals of Honor that were received for actions in that small area.
A couple from Malaysia was beaten to death Thursday in a bizarre stop-smoking ritual, Agence France-Presse reported.
Police spokesman Ku Chin Wah told the official Bernama news agency that Mohamed Ibrahim Kader Mydin, 47, and his wife Rosina Mydin Pillay, 41, sustained head injuries in a beating intended to cure them of smoking and other illnesses. The 15-year-old daughter of one of the four relatives who participated in the beating was also attacked and is fighting for her life in a hospital, according to AFP.
Police said that Mohamed Ibrahim asked family to help him kick his smoking habit, and confided in relatives that his wife was suffering from asthma and a liver ailment. "Following this, a 23-year-old male relative suggested that the couple undergo a ritual which involved all family members joining forces to beat up the couple to rid them of their ailments,'' Ku told Bernama. The couple's heads were smashed on tables and beaten with crash helmets and brooms.
It is believed one of the four suspects, who are now in police custody, belongs to a "deviant'' cult. Well, it DID cure their smoking habit. And all other habits, good and bad.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/05/2008
15:45 ||
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The time capsule labyrinth lies deep below the Normandy city of Caen, which was all but destroyed by British guns around D-Day, June 6th 1944.
Largely undisturbed since, the makeshift bunkers still contain numerous reminders of a terrified population whose only thought at the time was survival. They include packed suitcases, tins of syrup, decaying maps and official passes, and even lady's make-up bags including nail varnish and lipstick. There are also children's magazines and toys, shoes, carbon lights, prayer books, and makeshift beds where people would try and rest despite the barrages.
Many spent more than a month deep below the constant shelling from Royal Navy ships and RAF bombing. Some 2000 died, with thousands more injured. Caen Memorial historian Marc Pottier said the lost world was a hugely moving testament to what ordinary people went through during the war.
He said: During the summer of 1944 here, in Caen, 15,000 Caen refugees experienced some of the most terrible conditions imaginable. By visiting these galleries we can better understand what they went through.
Despite what was happening up above, Caen University archaeologist Laurent Dujardin said the caves were well organised.
The atmosphere is remarkably healthy - there's always a temperature of twelve degrees, said Mr Dujardin.
Describing a cave accessed from a tiny manhole in a garden in Rue des Roches in the suburb of Mondeville, Mr Dujardin said: On June 6th the first refugees arrived here. They stayed here until July 12th .
In one cave alone there were between 500 and 600 people. Underneath the whole of Rue des Roches there were 5000 people. Each gallery is organised around a family enclosure.
We only re-discovered this tunnel recently, and it is one of the most interesting.
Many of the so-called 'carrières' were forged out of around 300 subterranean medieval quarries in Caen. The galleries - undoubtedly carved out of the soil by civilian and military diggers - are around 36 feet high and 300 feet longs, and divided into separate family units.
On D-Day Caen was the principal objective for the British 3rd Infantry Division and was the scene of intense fighting right up until August. The old city, including many buildings dating back to the Middle Ages, was largely destroyed, with 75 per cent of buildings reduced to rubble.
Reconstruction went on until 1962, with most of the underground shelters largely forgotten. Caen University hopes that at least some of the caves might one day be opened to members of the public.
Posted by: Andy Slaviger5074 ||
10/05/2008 15:27
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#2
This is interesting stuff. I've prowled some of the WWII and even WWI undergrounds that remain in Germany, under many of the Kasernes used by US forces.
Out of fear of booby traps, many of them just had their doors welded shut and were ignored. Every now and then they would find something interesting after opening one up.
For example, a farmers field had a collapse which unveiled an underground aircraft hanger, complete with aircraft, one of which had a human skeleton inside.
NATO-led soldiers have captured a Taliban commander said to have links to the most senior figures in the extremist militia that is waging an insurgency in Afghanistan, the force said Sunday. Mullah Sakhi Dad and another insurgent were captured at a compound in the southern province of Uruzgan on Wednesday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. He had been leading a "significant number of Taliban fighters" and was implicated in suicide bombings, the distribution of ammunition and the kidnapping of Afghan civilians, it said.
Sakhi Dad was also understood to be connected to Taliban leadership, especially Mullah Berader Akhund, the Taliban's second-in-command, it said. It appears he was captured in 2004. Afghan officials could not be reached to confirm this although the statement said the fighter had previously been given a chance to "reconcile" with the government.
That militant, called Mullah Sakhi Dad Mujahid, was held carrying a satellite telephone containing the phone numbers of top members of the ousted fundamentalist regime including its supremo, Mullah Mohammad Omar. Afghan officials said at the time he had been a secretary to Mullah Omar under the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule. Couldn't resist the headline.
The UK's commander in Helmand has said Britain should not expect a "decisive military victory" in Afghanistan. Brig Mark Carleton-Smith told the Sunday Times the aim of the mission was to ensure the Afghan army was able to manage the country on its own. He said this could involve discussing security with the Taleban.
When international troops eventually leave Afghanistan, there may still be a "low but steady" level of rural insurgency, he conceded. He said it was unrealistic to expect that multinational forces would be able to wipe out armed bands of insurgents in the country.
The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says Brig Carleton-Smith's comments echo a view commonly-held, if rarely aired, by British military and diplomatic officials in Afghanistan.
Many believe certain legitimate elements of the Taleban represent the positions of the Afghan people and so should be a part of the country's future, says our correspondent.
'legitimate' elements? Next 'our' correspondent will be discussing the 'legitimate' elements of al-Qaeda.
Brig Carleton-Smith is the Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade which has just completed its second tour of Afghanistan. He paid tribute to his forces and told the newspaper they had "taken the sting out of the Taleban for 2008".
But he stated: "We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army."
Brig Carleton-Smith said the goal was to change how debates were resolved in the country so that violence was not the first option considered. He said: "If the Taleban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that's precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this.
"That shouldn't make people uncomfortable."
Since the start of operations in Afghanistan in 2001, 120 UK military personnel have been killed.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008
12:19 ||
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#1
But he stated: "We're not going to win this war.
Publicizing that attitude I'd be surprised if you did.
Three weeks ago, Israeli soldiers burst into Awwad Sror's small family home in the Palestinian West Bank town of Nilin. Mr Sror's family say that when he intervened as troops arrested his younger brother, Aqal, he was shot from close range with at least three rubber-coated steel bullets. One hit him in the chest, another smashed his jaw, while a third entered his right eye socket and fractured his skull.
Mr Sror, a married father of three, is lucky to be alive. But he has lost the sight in his right eye.
Israel has investigated the incident and has concluded that the soldier who fired the shots acted properly when Mr Sror tried to stop his brother being taken away. The family argues it was an excessive use of force.
In and around Nilin there are regular, sometimes violent, protests against the continued building of Israel's West Bank barrier which snakes around a new Jewish settlement on the other side of the small valley.
Acutely aware of accusations that it is using disproportionate force in political hot-spots like Nilin, Israel is deploying a new, non-lethal but highly effective and highly-offensive weapon.
It's called Skunk.
Imagine the worst, most foul thing you have ever smelled. An overpowering mix of rotting meat, old socks that haven't been washed for weeks - topped off with the pungent waft of an open sewer. Imagine being covered in the stuff as it is liberally sprayed from a water cannon.
Then imagine not being able to get rid of the stench for at least three days, no matter how often you try to scrub yourself clean.
The beauty of Skunk - if beauty is the right word - is that it is said to be completely organic. No illegal chemicals, no proscribed substances - just a thoroughly disgusting mix of yeast, baking powder and a few other "secret" ingredients.
The Israeli police force has high hopes of turning Skunk into a commercial venture and selling it to law-enforcement agencies overseas.
Superintendent David Ben Harosh treats Skunk as something of a pet project. The way he hugged the litre bottle of dirty, green liquid close to his chest as we talked was odd - most people would surely keep it at arm's length. "It's totally harmless, you can even drink it," boasted Superintendent Harosh - as though encouraging me to swallow a mouthful.
Reporters will sometimes go the "extra mile" to add authenticity to their story, but not this time. No way.
For human rights groups, the jury is still out on Skunk. They object to the arbitrary way in which innocent bystanders can be soaked with the stuff - having to suffer for days afterwards. Then again, protestors and villagers are still being killed and seriously injured in the West Bank by more conventional weapons.
As unpleasant and as disgusting as it is, being sprayed with Skunk may ultimately be preferable to being hit by a rubber-coated bullet or choking and vomiting under the effects of tear-gas or pepper-spray.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008
12:17 ||
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#1
"It was disgusting, I smelled like a Paleo"
"but you are"
"oh...yeah. But this was worse, like Arafat-worse"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2008 12:25
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#2
this stuff could be good for injecting into tunnels
Germany will guarantee all private savings accounts, says Chancellor Angela Merkel, as a major bank struggles to stay in business. Ms Merkel was speaking after an emergency meeting with the central bank and financial regulator.
Hypo Real Estate, Germany's second biggest commercial property lender, is in trouble after a 35bn euro ($48bn; £27.2bn) rescue plan collapsed. Hypo has said it will study alternative measures to fund its business.
"We will not allow the distress of one financial institute to distress the entire system. For that reason, we are working hard to secure Hypo Real Estate," Ms Merkel said.
The BBC's Tristana Moore in Germany says the government is under intense pressure to save the bank before markets reopen on Monday. But out correspondent says tax-payers must also be convinced that a bail-out would be justified.
On Saturday, European leaders at a Paris summit stopped short of offering a US-style bank bail-out plan.
The collapse of Hypo Real Estate will put further strain on other financial institutions in other countries, struggling against a crisis of confidence in the global financial system.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008
12:01 ||
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RANCHI: Controversial lines in a translated version of the Bible in Jharkhand rocked the state assembly on Tuesday, leading to an assurance by the government that the book would be recalled. Chandresh Oraon, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator, moved the motion to stop work in the assembly on Tuesday and demanded a debate on the lines in the translated Bible that call for destroying tribals' places of worship.
The book in Kuduk language, one of the main tribal languages in Jharkhand, has been brought out by the Bible Society of India (BSI). The translated version reportedly says: "Destroy the trees and Sarna (tribals' worship places)."
"BSI has done a criminal act by publishing such derogatory remarks in the translated Bible. This is a conspiracy against the tribal society.
"We seek a probe and action against the society for publishing the book which hurt the sentiments of the tribal," said Oraon.
The BJP tribal legislators came in the well of the house and shouted slogans like "Stop hurting tribal sentiments".
Inder Singh Namdhari, former assembly speaker and independent legislator, said: "No one has the right to hurt the sentiment of any religion. Government should take suitable action on the issue."
Deputy Chief Minister Stephen Marandi said: "We admit the fault. Wrong translation of Bible has been done by BSI. The state government will recall the translated version of the book and take suitable action against the publisher," he added. Marandi, however, did not clarify what action would be taken against the publishers.
The BJP legislators were not satisfied with the reply and they shouted slogans. They demanded action against the publisher. The Congress legislators alleged that the BJP was politicising the issue.
A deep resentment is prevailing among the tribal scholars on the issue. Tribal scholars demanded suitable action against the publishers. "The Christian missionaries have no right to hurt the sentiment of the tribal people. The issue could take a volatile shape if such things take place," said Karma Oraon, a tribal scholar.
On Monday, 11 tribals were arrested in Ranchi for trying to burn the copies of the Bible.
Less than a year back, another book published by the society had insulted a local freedom fighter. The issue was also raised in the state assembly.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008
11:54 ||
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A few words about column writing
Famous columnist Atta ul Haq Qasmi wrote in daily Jang, that today columns are very popular in Pakistan and everyone who can write his name is trying to become a columnist. Today there are less than 10 heavyweight columnists. The majority of successful columnists have a leaning towards Jamaat Islami and two heavyweights were once members of Jamaat Islami. Columnist who were once affliated with Jamaat Islami and Pakistan Peoples Party still show "after effects" of their party affiliations.
Why not go to FATA?
Nazir Naji wrote in daily Jang, that a hallasheri group of brave and chivalric minority wants to push Pakistan into another adventure.
This group didn't get any votes but wants to decide the fate of Pakistan.
This group didn't get any votes but wants to decide the fate of Pakistan. The state of their honour is such that they don't have courage to live in areas under the control of Taliban in Waziristan. Why don't they go to FATA to enjoy themselves? There they would have the passion of jihad and honour to fulfill.
The successes of our hallasheri group
Nazir Naji wrote in daily Jang, that hallasheri (cheering squad) group is not shamed after every defeat. Those deceived by them end up in the jails of our enemies, tortured and insulted, and then they run towards superpowers to let them off the hook. For 60 years they piled up arms to liberate Kashmir, but gave up Hyderabad, Junagarh and finally Kashmir. This brave and chivalric hallasheri group couldn't get an inch of land from India but now want to take on America.
Hallasheri courage
Nazir Naji wrote in daily Jang, that in 1971, an unelected ruler didn't accept the election results of East Pakistan. People protested and this hallasheri group celebrated the march of tanks on the East Pakistanis. When India attacked East Pakistan and imprisoned 90,000 soldiers, this hallasheri group sank in a corner. After Z A Bhutto recoverd the country from defeat and chaos, this hallasheri group again sprang to action against Z A Bhutto.
Conquerors of Afghanistan
One picture showed Qazi Hussain Ahmad holding a Kalashnikov looking at the province of Khost as a conqueror.
Nazir Naji wrote in daily Jang, that when Russia invaded Afghanistan, our jihadis were enrolled in the service of America to "serve" Islam. As long as this "American jihad" was funded by America, our leaders went to Afghanistan and posed as victors. One picture showed Qazi Hussain Ahmad holding a Kalashnikov looking at the province of Khost as a conqueror.
American propaganda against ISI
Famous columnist and TV anchor Hamid Mir wrote in daily Jang, that when Interservices Intelligence sacked three colonels for interfering in the October 18 elections, American was alerted. The Americans realised that if ISI didn't interfere on behalf of PMLQ ,then pro-Musharraf forces wouldn't win the elections and Musharraf would become weak. If Musharraf became weak, then who would safeguard American interests? That is the reason why America started its propaganda war against ISI.
Pro-American liberal extremists
Famous columnist and TV anchor Hamid Mir wrote in daily Jang, that he was informed by very reliable sources that America is annoyed with the army for not helping pro-Musharraf forces. Liberal extremists think that if PMLQ and PPP joined hands in Punjab, then serving American interests in Pakistan would be easy. Journalists who were supporting the downfall of Musharraf are being targeted by pro-American liberal extremists who want them to be punished by Zardari.
Embassy truck responsible for Marriot blast
Rumours are rife in media that the truck came out of an embassy before reaching the Marriott Hotel.
As reported in daily Nawa-e-Waqt, Jamaat Islami naib amir Liaqat Baloch said that the Marriot blast shows evidence of an involved foreign hand. He said that rumours are rife in media that the truck came out of an embassy before reaching the Marriott Hotel. He said that government shall investigate the attack.
We have restored judges: Farooq Naiq
We are strengthening institutions to provide easy and cheap justice to the people.
As reported in daily Pakistan, federal law minister Farooq H Naiq said that we have honoured our pledge to restore judges and 90 per cent of judges are restored. We are strengthening institutions to provide easy and cheap justice to the people. He said that there is only one chief justice and Abdul Hameed Dogar is the real chief justice. He said that he didn't have any contact with Iftikhar Chaudhry.
Film star Khushboo harassed in park
As reported in daily Express, the film star Khushboo was jogging in a local park when a young man started following her. When Khushboo told him to stay away he started abusing her. The star called her husband, film star Arbaz Khan, who was at the gate of park with his guards. Arbaz Khan and his guards beat the offensive young boy.
Iftikhar Chaudhry can restore Nawaz Sharif as PM
Famous columnist Abdul Qadir Hassan wrote in daily Express, that Nawaz Sharif didn't resign from his office of prime minister. When parliament was electing a new prime minister, Nawaz Sharif's party members were casting their vote in favour of a new prime minister. This is not constitutional because we can get a stay order from a judge like Iftikhar Chaudhry. An elected prime minister can't be removed from office without a vote of no confidence or a physical disability.
Zardari's election is haram?
Rafiz Tarrar, elected president and removed from office by a dictator, didn't resign and therefore no one can be elected in his place.
Famous columnist Abdul Qadir Hassan wrote in daily Express, that Rafiz Tarrar, elected president and removed from office by a dictator, is alive. He didn't resign and therefore no one can be elected in his place. There are ulema in parliament who didn't give fatwa against this nikah on top of another nikah (nikah par nikah). There wasn't any divorce, and no hilala or iddat was observed. How can ulema sit silent over this gross violation of sharia?
Tribesmen behind loss of Kashmir
Nazir Naji wrote in daily Jang, that a few junior officers decided to infiltrate India disguised as mujahideen without orders from the high command. Tribesmen were then allowed to enter Kashmir, who looted everyone and kidnapped Kashmiri women. This gave an excuse for India to send its army, and because of the "bravery and honour" of these jihadis, India occupied Ladakh, Kashmir valley and Jammu. This first jihad cost Kashmiri people 60 years of Indian slavery and Pakistan lost its share of water.
Imtiaz Alam narrowly escaped Marriott blast
At the time of the blast, he came out of his room and entered a lift, which stuck because of an electricity failure. He managed to come out of the lift, which went crashing downwards.
As reported in daily Aajkal, journalist and SAFMA president Imtiaz Alam was in the Marriot Hotel at the time of the suicide attack. At the time of the blast, he came out of his room and entered a lift, which stuck because of an electricity failure. He managed to come out of the lift, which went crashing downwards. Imtiaz Alam said that he came face to face with death and narrowly escaped.
Militants want civil war in Pakistan
Sohail Qalandar wrote in daily Express, that the impression that the war on terror was an American war, formed during the Musharraf era, won't be eradicated. Terrorists chose FATA to attack Pakistani citizens to terrorise them and to raise them against the Pakistan army and take the country into civil war. When their dream got sore, they attacked other Pakistani cities. It is no hidden fact that these suicide attacks have linkage to fasadis (miscreants) from Waziristan and FATA.
Death is determined by destiny
When he was returning to his home, he was hit by a pick-up van. Death comes where it is written in your destiny.
According to daily Aajkal, a security guard at the Marriot Hotel on duty at the gate escaped to the road when the truck loaded with explosives caught fire. He was unhurt after the bomb blast and took part in the rescue operation at the hotel. Later when he was returning to his home, he was hit by a pick-up van and he died. It is true that death comes where it is written in your destiny.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
11:08 ||
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#1
Death is determined by destiny
but it often arrives on a motorcycle of doooom
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2008 11:58
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#2
aka The Cycle of Violence™.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008 15:16
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#3
"death comes where it is written in your destiny"
Hmmmmm. For some reason, Alfred Hitchcock's The Hitchhiker comes to mind....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/05/2008 15:20
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#4
Binny and Doc have an embassy?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/05/2008 16:24
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As their gruelling tour of duty in Afghanistan ends, men of 2 Para tell of relentless battles with an enemy that simply doesn't know when he is outgunned
AS the Afghan sun set over the end-of-tour memorial service last Wednesday at British headquarters in Lashkar Gah, 32 names of the dead, aged between 19 and 52, were solemnly read out, including that of the first woman killed, Corporal Sarah Bryant. Almost every other name, it seemed, was from 2 Para.
The 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment lost more lives than any other section of 16 Air Assault Brigade -- 11 in total, and five in one week in June -- or one in 10 of the unit.
Continued on Page 49
#1
nice slideshow. Real warriors, and not a John Kerry among em
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2008 12:34
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#2
No hat like the one Kerry was given either.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/05/2008 16:30
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One of the photo 13 into the slideshow is MOH recipient Franklin D. Miller. His remarkable story is chronicled in "Reflections of a Warrior." He is the tall blond American on the far right of the photo.
CHANDRAPUR: Incenced over the death of a young boy, his relatives thrashed a doctor and ransacked his hospital in Warora on Friday night.
As per details, Shwetal Narde (19) from Ram Mandir ward, reportedly suffering from high fever and queasiness, was admitted at Dr Pradeep Parates hospital on Thursday night. After tests, the patient was diagnosed to be suffering from jaundice.
Dr Parate directed Nardes family members to take him to Nagpur or Sevagram for emergency treatment by 5 pm. However, they did not comply with the advice and Narde breathed his last around 9 pm.
Irked over the death, around 20 persons ,mostly relatives of the deceased, ransacked the hospital and thrashed Dr Parate. Earlier, Shobha Narde, mother of the deceased, lodged a complaint with Warora police station alleging medical negligence. In a counter complaint filed by Dr Parate, he has estimated loss of Rs 16,000.
The post-mortem was performed by doctors from Chandrapur civil hospital under camera. Heavy police force was deployed at sub-district hospital, Warora as a huge mob had gathered there while post-mortem was underway.
Similar incident in Akola: The brother of a woman and other relatives ransacked the district hospital for women in Akola on Friday night following the death of a newborn due to alleged negligence of the doctor. Usha Deshmukh of Bhod village gave birth to a baby boy on September 30 at the hospital.
However, the infant died on Friday evening. Sachin Deshmukh, the maternal uncle of the infant, his relative and colleagues, vented their anger against the doctor and broke the furnitures and window panes. Resident medical officer Dr R H Khatri was badly beaten up by the relatives of the dead infant. The relatives were already informed about the deteriorating health of the newborn and doctors attending took care but unfortunately the infant died, hospital sources said. tnn
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008
08:35 ||
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#1
Let's not just throw rocks at Indians. I'd bet, if Dr. Steve was willing to talk, he's either seen or heard of such threats/actions in American hospitals. I've read of numerous cases in which gang members have come into E.R.s with bullet-riddled accomplices and told the attending medical personnel that they would either save said accomplice or die themselves.
People doing such things are simply displaying the logic that Heinlein explained when he said that any sufficiently advanced technology was like magic. All these gun-waving boneheads know is that hospitals contain the magic of healing people, and that if their friend/relative/loved one isn't saved it's because the people who work there just weren't willing to do what was necessary.
Ignorance, stupidity and fear are a damned dangerous combination of elements, the mixing of which almost invariably leads to violence.
Hunh? This is from the Times of India. If any one is throwing rocks, it's the Indians.
I've read of numerous cases in which gang members have come into E.R.s with bullet-riddled accomplices and told the attending medical personnel that they would either save said accomplice or die themselves.
I won't say you haven't, though I haven't, but given the prevalence of EMS, fire and police personnel in ERs, I suspect the thugs would be nominated for Idiot of the Day by their fellow Americans here at the burg.
#3
I suspect the thugs would be nominated for Idiot of the Day by their fellow Americans here at the burg.
Of course they're benighted fools, N.S. as are the Indians doing the same thing. I'm just saying that this isn't solely an Indian phenomenon. Actions like this come about when un-or ill-educated people encounter problems with advanced technologies they have no way to understand.
The British, when they were running refineries in Iran for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, found they had to buy solid gearwheels as opposed to the regular, skeletonized type. Seems the locals kept getting seriously injured by sticking hands and feet in them because when the gearwheel was spinning at speed they couldn't see anything but the outer ring.
Since they couldn't see the supporting spokes, their logic assumed they had disappeared and no amount of persuasion/argument/explanation by the British seemed to sink in. In the end, it was just easier to buy solid gearwheels.
#5
Saw a couple situations at the County, usually rival gang-bangers put too close to each other in the Trauma Unit. Even with holes in them they had to display how they were muy macho. But we had good security -- I had no idea a sheriff's deputy could be that big -- so the docs, nurses and students never were touched.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2008 15:26
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I don't know if India has the problem of retardation and physical handicaps due to marriage of close relatives but I wouldn't be surprised if this were a consideration in these incidents.
KOLKATA: A mob fought a pitched battle with police for nearly two hours in the Charu Market area late on Saturday night after a speeding bus overturned while trying to overtake another. The incident occurred just as Panchami pandal hoppers were hitting the streets.
While 14 people were injured in the accident, five policemen were hurt in the streetfight. Police say the relative of a south Kolkata MLA and some local gangsters were behind the attack. Police suspect some of the attackers were part of the mob that had lynched the bodyguard of the Charu Market OC during the 2005 Gobindapur Railway Colony evacuation.
The mob set fire to five police vehicles, attacked policemen, stormed into Charu Market police station and ransacked it. RAF was called in, but the mob refused to back down. A volley of tear gas shells and a lathicharge finally broke up the fight.
Two buses on routes 1B and 18B, headed for Tollygunge Phanri, were locked in a high-speed race from the Rashbehari Avenue crossing, said Sailen Ghosh, a local resident, who was on the 18B bus. Near Tollygunge rail bridge, the 1B bus tried to overtake the other. The 18B driver pushed to the right and the other driver also instinctively turned right, hitting the divider and turning turtle.
Local residents smashed the windows and started rescuing trapped passengers. Only two seemed seriously injured, said Apu Chakroborty, one of the rescuers. Police rushed to the spot and took the injured to MR Bangur Hospital.
Everything seemed back to normal when a mob suddenly descended on the streets around 9.30 pm. As one group blocked traffic, the other stormed the police station. Several policemen were beaten up and vehicles set on fire. Even mediapersons were assaulted.
Outnumbered and taken by surprise, police were on the back foot for over an hour. Later, reinforced by a RAF team, they fought back with tear gas and lathis. Some shopkeepers were apparently beaten up in the melee. It was well past 11 pm when traffic resumed.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008
08:32 ||
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#1
"Even mediapersons were assaulted."
So there is a silver lining.... :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/05/2008 13:30
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The United Nations has said that a total of 77 tanks and 15 jet fighters were secretly imported by Kenya last year alone. According to official documents from the United Nations published by the Sunday Nation newspaper, two rocket launchers and more than 40,000 automatic rifles and machine guns were also brought in. Yet the Kenyan government has not reported its arms purchases to the United Nations as required by international agreements. Instead, Kenya told the UN it had not imported any arms at all, the documents were quoted as saying.
According to the newspaper, the purchases are detailed in a report by Ukraine to the United Nations in which it said it had exported the tanks and guns, among other weapons. "The jet fighter imports from Jordan are shown in a report published on the internet this week by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute which tracks the international movement of arms," said the newspaper.
Since 1993 when the register was first compiled, Kenya has been reporting that it made no imports and no exports of arms.
The purchases represent a significant rearming of Kenya's military. As a sovereign nation, Kenya has a right to buy and sell arms. Kenya treats virtually all information about its military as classified, though a lot of information about its strength and armaments can be gleaned from officials and academic sources.
The report by the Stockholm Institute shows that Ukraine inherited millions of small arms and light weapons after the collapse of the Soviet Union, ending up with over 7 million small arms and light weapons which it has over the years exported to different countries. The top five importers were the United States, Britain, Libya, Azerbaijan and Georgia. "Ukraine has made significant progress in improving transparency and controlling exports in recent years," wrote Paul Holtom of the institute.
According to the latest report released by the Ukrainian government, Kenya imported 40,000 automatic rifles and submachine guns and 405 grenade launchers last year. "Although Kenyan officials made it clear that the 33 T-72 tanks, grenade launchers and ammunition aboard the hijacked Ukrainian ship MV Faina were part of a larger deal under which tanks, artillery and small arms and light weapons were delivered by Ukraine in 2007, these weapons did not appear in Kenya's recent submission to UNROCA for 2007," Holtom said.
Significantly, he pointed out, the report to UNROCA of no imports or exports was made on September 26 this year, the same day that MV Faina was hijacked off the coast of Somalia and just hours before it was expected to dock at the port of Mombasa, east Kenya.
#2
I confess some sympathy for Kenya. They live in a dangerous neighborhood. Somalia, Uganda, Ethiopia to the north and west. All the craziness of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi isn't that far away. And they have a Muslim minority population. Sure the government there is 3/4 hosed, but they do need to defend themselves in a bad situation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2008 13:46
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Raila Odinga, their prime minister, will only have to wait a few months until his cousin is installed, then he can have the pick of US advanced weaponry for free.
Guwahati, Oct 5: Police recovered nine more bodies overnight in the violence torn Assam districts of Udalguri and Darrang, taking the toll in three days of clashes between two communities in the area to 16, officials said Sunday.
"The casualties as of now is 16 killed and about 50 wounded, some of them critically, besides about 20 villages have been affected. Around 200 houses were torched in the group clashes," a police official said.
The clashes took place despite an indefinite curfew in violence-hit areas and soldiers staging flag marches, besides the presence of police and paramilitary troopers.
"We have asked security forces to take all possible steps to stop the violence and help restore calm in the area," Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said.
"Shoot-at-sight orders have been issued against perpetrators of violence," he added.
Gogoi Saturday suspended the police chief of Udalguri and transferred the district magistrate for dereliction of duties. Violence broke out Friday between two communities in Rowta in Udalguri, about 100 km north of Guwahati. In the last two days, the violence had spread to the adjoining district of Darrang.
"The situation is tense with miscreants setting ablaze about 50 houses overnight," the police official said.
A large mob armed with bows and arrows, machetes, spears, besides country made guns, have been roaming the violence hit areas to target villages of rival communities.
Thousands of villagers have fled their homes and are taking shelter in makeshift relief camps set up by the police.
"There are an estimated 10,000 people of various ethnic communities sheltered in camps. These people had fled fearing attacks or belonged to villages where miscreants had torched their homes," the official said.
The immediate provocation for the clashes was the attack on a group of Village Defence Party (VDP) volunteers early Friday by armed miscreants.
"The VDP members belonged to the tribal Bodo community and were attacked by members of a religious minority group and that sparked off the clashes," the official said.
In August, the area witnessed similar clashes between two communities in which about 10 people were killed and several injured.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008
08:22 ||
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#1
There are reports of Pakistani flags flying over the Muslim majority villages.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008 8:30
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John,
Assam is a long way from Pakistan. What do you attribute the locals flying Pakistani flags to - infiltration from Bangladesh?
IMO, Pakistan and Bangladesh are two nations that really, really don't deserve to exist, and India would be perfectly within its rights to exterminate them (not the people, just the countries).
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/05/2008 18:19
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They are all Bangladeshi in origin.
The state Congress party has facilitated these illegals, issuing them ration cards and voter IDs, to secure their voting base. Their numbers are so large now however that they have begun to support Muslim parties, not the Indian National Congress. The UFLA which claims to be fighting for independence actually attacks Biharis and other Indian nationals and favors the Bangladeshis.
The local Assamese are now a minority in their own state.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008 20:01
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Should I be getting my tea from some where else?
An eight-day-long gunbattle between militants and troops in Kashmir ended on Friday, leaving 13 militants and one soldier dead. 'The gunfight occurred in Harmukh mountain range of Kangan in Ganderbal district on September 25 at an altitude of 15000 feet, where snowfall occurs almost on daily basis and ended on October 2.
Major General S.S. Goudar, general officer commanding of the armys elite counter-insurgency Kilo Force, said a group of heavily armed militants was spotted moving from Bandipora district towards Kangan. He said troops of the 10, Para regiment and 14th, 5th and 24th Rashtriya Rifles were moved on foot and by air to track them down. Contact was established with the terrorists on September 25, he said, adding that the mopping operation is still on.
He said 11 AK-47/56 rifles, 27 magazines, 287 rounds of ammunition and two satellite phones were recovered from the possession of the slain terrorists. He said one soldier was also killed in the gunfight, considered one of the longest since armed violence started here in 1989.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008
07:50 ||
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#1
cripes, at 15,000 ft dying might seem like a relief
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2008 8:15
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The Indian Army choppers can only carry 2-3 soldiers on each run. They've been making continuous sorties trying to airlift enough men to assault the caves and other hiding places.
I suspect these jihadis may be Pak army SSG or NLI in mufti.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008 8:28
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#3
Well the Pakistanis have been particularly belligerent in general of late - it would fit, wouldn't it?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/05/2008 14:38
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#6
Those sat phones are probably a source of good intel, even without any phone numbers. Who, what, where, when and why were the phones obtained. A trail begins to appear.
Not since the Nazi book burnings of the 1930s has free speech been as endangered as it is today. Firebombing publishers, murdering filmmakers, issuing death threats against writers and cartoonists, suing researchers, restricting freedom of expression through the United Nations - these are some of the ways militant Islamists, their enablers and apologists, are seeking to silence their critics. Intimidation is another. It operates on campuses and within the foreign policy establishment. A recent experience may be instructive.
I participate in a "list-serve," a kind of online chat among foreign policy specialists: former intelligence, Foreign Service and military officers, academics and think tank denizens. One posted an article about an attempt to "temper" the religious beliefs of detainees in Iraq before releasing them. A former ambassador (I'm not including names here in the interest of privacy) wrote that "we're finally learning something from Saudi success."
I asked if the sermons preached in Saudi Arabia's government-supported mosques were generally temperate these days. I had been given to understand that Saudi clerics frequently refer to Jews and Christians in hostile terms. He replied that in his experience, "most sermons in Saudi mosques do advocate peace as well as respect for Judaism and Christianity." I consulted MEMRI, an organization that translates materials from Arabic, and found the titles of a few sermons that didn't sound so respectful and peaceful, for example: "The Christians and the Jews are Infidels, Enemies of Allah;" "Jews - The Descendants of Pigs and Apes;" "Muslims Must Educate Their Children to Jihad and to Hatred of Jews and Christians."
The ambassador and I might have gone back and forth in this spirit - sharply disagreeing but remaining civil in tone - for some time. But another member of the list-serve, an Arab-American academic chimed in. He said he was becoming "increasingly uncomfortable with the assumptions considered legitimate, particularly those of Cliff. "It does not particularly scare me to have 'NASCAR dads' or 'hockey moms' fear and loathe something they have little or no direct contact with, namely Islam, Muslims, and the Islamic World," he wrote. "Since I've come to assume such dangerous naivete in recent years, I usually wander around these United States gently jesting with their fears over beers while kvetching about my precious New Orleans Saints. However, such ill-informed opinions rattling around within a high level, peer-reviewed, vetted, well-connected, D.C.-based, and 'elite' group of security experts ... is truly frightening."
He proceeded not to address my points but to insist that to "have a respectable opinion" on this topic requires "advanced knowledge of Arabic, and attendance over an extended period of time at several different mosques throughout different sections of Saudi Arabia." In other words, since I don't speak Arabic and have not spent time in Saudi mosques (and notwithstanding the fact that "infidels" are generally forbidden to do so), I should shut up.
He added that while he had "no doubt that objectionable things are on occasion said within certain mosques in Saudi Arabia" he was certain "objectionable things are said in certain churches, synagogues and mosques in the United States. As an American who would be lazily placed in the box of 'Muslim' should this country ever erupt in ethno-sectarian violence of the sort that we've visited upon Iraq" - by "we" he means Americans, of course - "I fear this extremism far more than that sometimes in evidence in Saudi Arabia."
I haven't space here for my entire reply, but I did tell him that while he was free to play the victim and fear American Christians, Jews and NASCAR fans, "until these folks are issuing death threats and hijacking jets and slamming them into skyscrapers such moral equivalence is ludicrous, outrageous and insulting to the intelligence."
If any members of the list-serve agreed with me, they kept it to themselves. Indeed, the ambassador scolded me for having "gone too far." Is there a threat to free speech in their acquiescence to the charge that it is not "legitimate" to criticize the hate speech emanating from Saudi Arabia - home of 15 of the 19 terrorists of Sept. 11, 2001 - a country whose oil-rich citizens continue to fund terrorism around that world? You're entitled to make up your own mind - for now at least.
#1
So, I'm too dumb to understand the peaceful nature of Islam. I'll buy that. Sure, sure, I will. But, in exchange, you Islamists need to accept that we are trying to save your bloody asses from a death cult within your religion. Fair enough?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/05/2008 10:44
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#2
The direct approach is never effective in such discussions. More to the point is to address the issue tangentially. This puts the apologist or the fanatic on the spot, with arguments he is not used to addressing.
In this case, I would highlight the mass "defections" of Muslims, repelled with Muslim extremist behavior, who convert to Christianity not out of love of that religion, but out of distaste of the primitivism and violence extolled by so many Muslim leaders.
This removes it from "my opinion against his", and points out that many of his fellow Muslims are "voting with their feet", even though raised and familiar with the Muslim culture. Surely not all of them are unfamiliar with preachers and other advocates of violence, murder, and barbarism found in the mosques of the world?
It is not Americans who are at issue here, for though they are unfamiliar with Islam, advancing their knowledge of it would not lead to acceptance of that philosophy, but utter revulsion to its excesses and depravity.
#3
I'm familiar with Islam; two graduate courses in a major university, years of experience living/working in the M.E.
Most M.E. Muslims would, IMO, not be Muslim if they had the chance. Once they get away from the strict scrutiny in the Gulf, many go hog wild with the whores and the booze. They would be doing that back home too if it wouldn't get them in serious trouble.
For the Muslim true believers, they make no bones about the fact that their religion calls for violently subjugating the infidel and admits the use of any weapon against him. Even a cursory reading of the Koran, with an understanding of the Islamic principle of negation (later suras negating the precepts of earlier ones), makes this crystal clear.
Islam is not a religion, per se, it is a sociopathic assault on all others who are not Muslim. Consequently, it should be prohibited in Western countries as a clear and present danger to democratic forms of government. Until this happens we will continue to be bullied by Muslim fanatics pushing for further rights for their "religion" and threatening violence, terror and death if those demands are denied.
The world of Wretchard's Three Conjectures draws closer every day.
AHMEDABAD: A former Congress minister of Gujarat and five others were on Saturday sentenced to 20-year imprisonment for their involvement in an April 1993 bomb blast in Surat, in which a school girl was killed and about 30 others were injured.
A special TADA court in Surat found Mohammad Surti and his accomplices guilty of the bomb blast and handed them the sentence. Seven others were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
The accused were alleged to have used government vehicles to transport bombs and other equipment for the blast. The TADA court examined more than 300 witnesses and based its judgment on the Forensic Science Laboratory report on the blast.
In all, there were 24 accused, of whom at least five are still absconding, while one has died since then.
It was claimed that the bombs were exploded in a reprisal for the communal riots that broke out in the wake of the demolition of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya in December 1992. The diamond and textile city of Surat was one of the worst affected in the riots. In April 1993, two bombs were exploded, one at the Surat railway station when the Gujarat Express was on the platform and the other near a school on Varacha Road, in which the schoolgirl was killed. All the accused are out on bail.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008
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#1
Posted by: john frum ||
10/05/2008 8:00
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NEW DELHI: The situation in Assam has turned critical as communal clashes between the local tribals and Bangladeshi migrants continue in Udalguri and Darrang districts of the state. According to unconfirmed reports, over 25 people have been killed in clashes.
On Sunday the violence has spread to Rauta village in Udalguri district, about 80 kms east of Guwahati, where a large number of houses have been burnt down. The continuing violence which is spreading in these central districts has pushed the administration to extend the shoot at sight orders.
On Saturday the government had issued shoot at sight orders to paramilitary forces and the Army in order to curb the violence.
Since Friday, more than 200 houses were set ablaze in about six villages. Curfew was imposed in Darrang district last night after fresh incidents of arson and looting were reported. Army has been deployed in the area.
The governmnet has so far been tight-lipped on the number of casualties.
Shoot-at-sight orders were issued on Saturday in Assam's curfew-bound district of Udalguri, where seven people were killed and more than 50 injured in clashes between two communities even as a cluster of villages were set ablaze, officials said.
Violence broke out Friday between two communities in Rowta in Udalguri district, about 100 km north of Guwahati. "The situation is tense with the violence spreading to new areas in the district even as five more bodies were recovered, all of them shot at with poison-tipped arrows and hit with crude sharp implements," a police official said, requesting anonymity.
More than 50 people were wounded, some with bullets. "More than 200 houses were set ablaze in about six villages," the official said. Thousands of villagers have fled their homes and are now sheltering in makeshift relief camps set up the police.
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The war of words between Israel and Hizbullah continued on Sunday, with a top official in the guerrilla group brushing off "threats" made by IDF Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, in which the latter said that the next war would have serious consequences for the villages which support Hizbullah. "The resistance is completely ready and Israel's threats do not scare [us]," Sheikh Nabil Kaouk said during a rally in southern Lebanon. His comments were published by United Arab Emirates newspaper Al-Hilaj on Sunday.
"This paper tiger state will collapse at the hands of resistance fighters, which achieved a glowing victory in 2000 and 2006 against this thieving entity which has taken Palestinian land," Kaouk continued. "The liberation strategy of the resistance has proven its effectiveness, and has demonstrated its success on the highest levels," he said. "The proof of this is seen in the Lebanese flags and the flags of the resistance flying in the winds of victory next to the Golan and the Shaba Farms."
Kaouk then reiterated comments previously made by other Hizbullah officials in which the group vowed to fight on until the Shaba Farms area was out of Israeli control. "The enemy must know that as long as it occupies our land in Shaba Farms it will never be secure because the resistance is still bound to the national obligation to complete what was achieved in 2000 (the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon)," he said. "The strategy of the resistance is the fundamental source of Lebanon's strength in returning the remaining land, because the diplomats have reached a dead-end," he concluded. "Israel, which is frustrated by its many internal problems, is not capable of launching a new war against Lebanon," Kaouk said, adding that the comments made by Eizenkot were nothing but propaganda.
In an interview with Yediot Ahronot over the weekend, Eizenkot said that the next war, if and when it happens, must be settled quickly, with force and without blinking in the face of international criticism. "We have the ability to do this," he said. "I have a great force in comparison to what was. I have no excuse for the inability to achieve the goals which will be imposed on me."
"Hizbullah knows full well that [rocket] fire from villages will lead to their destruction," Eizenkot continued. "Before [Hizbullah leader Hassan] Nasrallah gives orders to shoot at Israel, he will need to think 30 times whether he wants to destroy his support base in the villages."
#1
That's why the leaders of Hizbullah walk openly among their people and publicly post the times and places of their meetings for the usual PR grip and grin photo ops.
#2
Arabs have mastered the art of starting fights that they cannot win and then complaining when the going gets tough. And the West has mastered the art of caving.
Five years ago, he was a bankrupt felon with a conviction for passing bad checks. He was facing deportation. And he was living in a subsidized, low-income apartment complex in Paulsboro, scratching for cash by trying to sell used cars from the complex's parking lot. Today he is the central figure in the Fort Dix terrorism trial, an FBI informant who may have received more than $3,000 a month to wear a body wire and record conversations.
Mahmoud A. Omar, whose immigration problems appear to have gone the way of his financial difficulties, spent more than a year working undercover in the case. While some details about his role have surfaced in pretrial documents, Omar's actions and motivation will be the focus of what could be the most important testimony in the high-profile trial. Was he the FBI's eyes and ears inside a conspiracy to gun down Army personnel on the sprawling Burlington County military complex? Or was he an agent provocateur who took the hollow words and empty threats of five hotheaded young Muslims and turned them into a terrorist plot?
"He is a consummate con man," said Rocco Cipparone, the lawyer for Mohamad Shnewer, the defendant who spent the most time with Omar. "He wasn't in this for patriotic or altruistic motives," added Cipparone, who has spent hours going over transcripts and FBI memos detailing Omar's activities. "He was very adept at manipulating conversations." Prosecutors have declined to comment about the 39-year-old Egyptian Muslim or a second cooperating witness in the case.
Jury selection began last week. Opening statements are expected this month. The defendants, in addition to Shnewer, 23, are brothers Dritan Duka, 29, Shain Duka, 27, and Eljvir Duka, 24, and Serdar Tatar, 24. The five foreign-born Muslims, all raised in the Philadelphia area, were arrested in May 2007 and charged with planning to gun down Fort Dix military personnel in a jihad-inspired attack.
Omar routinely met with his FBI handlers at public locations in the township - the parking lot of the library, in front of the Cherry Hill Skating Center, at the Steak & Ale restaurant on Frontage Road, and outside the public-works garage. At those meetings, he would turn over tapes of conversations, get his instructions, have his car fitted with audio and video recording devices, and receive cash payments, usually $1,500. Defense attorneys, who will receive a tally of the cash paid to Omar and the second cooperating witness before they testify, estimate it will exceed $50,000.
The lawyers are expected to argue that money motivated Omar - that he brought the ethics and style of a sleazy used-car salesman to the undercover operation, doing and saying whatever was necessary to close the deal. All five defendants interacted with him, and most were picked up on tape. Those conversations and Omar's testimony are at the heart of the case. How Omar comes across on the stand may determine the fate of the defendants, who face possible life sentences.
The FBI has said Omar began working undercover in its investigation early in 2006, shortly after a videotape of the defendants waving weapons and shouting for jihad turned up at a Circuit City store in Mount Laurel.
Omar's entry into the alleged Fort Dix conspiracy came through Shnewer, the youngest defendant and, Shnewer's lawyer argues, one of the most gullible. Shnewer was working at his father's Plaza Food Market in Pennsauken. Omar was a regular, and struck up a friendship with Shnewer and his family. The two men would socialize, play pool, and talk about cars, politics, and their ethnic and Muslim heritage. On one tape, Shnewer discussed attacking Fort Dix. "I assure you that you can hit an American base very easily," he said. But he appeared to defer to his older friend. "I am at your services, as you have more experience than me in military bases and in life," he told Omar.
An earlier conversation, cited in an FBI memo, demonstrated how Omar used his ethnicity to solidify his bond with Shnewer. In March 2006, Omar asked Shnewer's mother to cook a lamb for what the memo describes as an aqiqa, a traditional welcoming party for a newborn. This was soon after Omar's daughter was born. Shnewer suggested a mosque where Omar could have the party, and, according to the document, Omar agreed to pay Shnewer's mother $350 for preparing the lamb feast.
Tapes and FBI memos also refer to conversations about jihad and attacks on Fort Dix, surveillance trips to the base and other targets, and philosophical discussions about Muslim extremism. Other evidence includes a map of Fort Dix given to Omar by Tatar, whose family owned a nearby pizza shop, and an attempt by two of the Dukas to purchase seven assault rifles from an undercover agent posing as friend of Omar's who was an illegal gun dealer. There are also conversations noted in FBI investigative memos but not recorded because Omar said he wasn't wearing a wire or because the recording device malfunctioned or the tape ran out.
Defense attorneys point to those alleged lapses - and to the fact that Omar had the ability to turn his recorder off - as opportunities for Omar to fabricate information or steer the conversation in a certain direction before he turned on his tape. Omar was "an extremely good used-car salesman," Cipparone, Shnewer's lawyer, said last week. He was adept not only at closing the deal but, "in many respects, creating it."
#1
I'm willing to punish those who indulge in this kind of violent fantasy by assuming they meant it. Were they good guys they would have called the FBI to turn in the inciter, or at least dropped his acquaintance.
Retired IDF and high-ranking Mossad officials have praised Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, saying he would be a better partner for Israel in the White House.
Brig.-Gen (Ret.) Shlomo Brom, former IDF commander of strategic planning, said that the Bush administration caused major damage to Israel's interests. He said Obama would be a better president for Israel than his rival John McCain, whose policies, Brom said, would likely be too close to those of Bush that were "not so helpful for Israel."
Similarly, Yossi Alpher, a former Mossad senior officer, said that McCain would maintain the same pose that the Bush administration adopted, which, Alpher said, had failed. He said Bush's approach had strengthened radical Islamic elements, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Alpher said that he was excited when he saw Obama's readiness to bring a fresh approach to the region.
Col. (res.) Shaul Arieli, a former brigade commander in the northern Gaza Strip, said it seemed Obama was the best person to open a new page in the relationship both with the Arab world and Israel, and to bring stability to the Middle East. Former IDF chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak said that during the Bush Administration, US involvement in the Middle East was "not professionally handled."
Maj.-Gen. (Ret.) Amram Mitzna said that another four years of indecision, stagnancy and a lack of intense US involvement in the Middle East peace process would be bad for Israel. He claimed Obama would achieve a greater involvement and that he "brings many hopes."
Former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy also spoke fondly of the Democratic candidate, saying that he brought a breath of fresh air, was "impressive" and a "great communicator."
Brig.-Gen. (res.) Giora Inbar, a former IDF commander in south Lebanon, said he would personally vote for Obama to help Israel. Inbar said he was not convinced that the Bush method was the right way to deal with the axis of evil and that he would welcome anyone who chose to handle it differently.
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan hailed Obama's willingness to be engaged with the Iranians in order to stop the Islamic Republic from attaining nuclear capabilities.
#3
Maj.-Gen. (Ret.) Amram Mitzna said that another four years of indecision, stagnancy and a lack of intense US involvement in the Middle East peace process would be bad for Israel.
Yes and don't forget, it was the Goerge Bush Administration which took down the pro-Israeli Saddam Hussein government.
#7
How come all these 'endoresments' are coming from 'former' or 'retired' people? where is The One's endorsemetn from somebody actually drawing an active duty paycheck????
#8
I plowed through the hideous Jpost commenting system to see if I could garner any insights. Closest thing to one was a suggestion that Obama is actually the Manchurian Candidate from the Mossad. Would explain a lot...
Do American Jews respond well to Israeli grandees telling them who to vote for? I'd tell them to f-off and look after matters closer to home.
#2
Sorry guys. The kid is reading from the quran. The translation goes on about America while the kid is saying 'bismillah ar rahman ar rahim'. Sorry but the "translation" is made up and this is a hoax.
#3
Anyway, the reference to the "hope & change" slogan was a pretty straightforward giveaway this is an hoax (though not necessarily a slander, the vid could have originated as a spoof, and then been circulated without proper context).
Frank waited until he was "47 years and 3 months old" to come out of the closet. By that time, he says, "I was pretty sure that if I came out I would not lose my job in Congress. I thought it would diminish my influence in Congress. It did not." His base in suburban Boston, in fact, is so safe that he hasn't had to make a campaign commercial for TV in 16 years.
He thinks the average American is "less homophobic than he thinks he's supposed to be and more racist than he's willing to admit."
Frank credits President Clinton for doing "anything a president could do by his own executive action to fight anti-gay and lesbian prejudice." But his "biggest disappointment" with Clinton is on the "don't ask, don't tell" issue of gays in the armed forces, which he regards as a meaningless compromise. "I think because of his own problems, obviously with Vietnam, the one area of public policy where he almost always caved is the military."
Unlike other aspects of his private life, Frank warms to the subject of his homosexuality, becomes softer and less irritable as he talks about it. He smiles and jokes and is generally more cordial.
He recently broke up with Herb Moses, whom he referred to as his "lover," after a relationship of more than 10 years. The two are still friends.
Frank delights in telling stories about their experiences. Once at a charity ball, a woman asked them to stop dancing together. "It was going to be a fast dance and it became a slow dance and we weren't very good at it. The music changed on us in the middle. There may be some people who were uncomfortable but we just said, 'Look, we're not.' Our rule was very simple. We almost never did anything to make a point. But we never not did anything to make somebody else's point. We just decided we're going to live the way we want to live and if that bothered people that was their problem."
They made an exception once at a White House Christmas party when they saw then-Rep. Bill Dannemeyer (R-Calif.), "who was the arch, foolish homophobe," Frank says. "I noticed Bill Dannemeyer staring at us and I ran my fingers through Herb's hair, which, you know, I never did in public. And he looked a little sort of mildly puzzled, but then he kind of snuggled up to me. That was more to annoy Bill Dannemeyer."
He is still amused by the "spouse pin" issue. Congress distributes these pins for parking and other amenities, and Herb Moses had one. But "a bunch of right-wingers" demanded that Gingrich rescind the perk for Moses. Ultimately, Congress issued him a "domestic partner" card instead. "Herb may have the only domestic partner card. And his will expire in three weeks."
Frank says he is dating someone new but he's not yet ready "to be pinned." He doesn't know whether this will become another committed relationship, but he did take his new friend to the White House congressional Christmas party last week.
Before her son came out of the closet 11 years ago, Barney Frank's mother didn't have a clue he was gay. Barney had dated women, though whenever things got serious he would break up with them.
"He said he had something important to tell me and I was prepared for the worst," she says. But "to me that was not the worst. I was a little down, but not for long. I mean, he's still Barney."
Pelosi Declares Hearings On Housing Crisis: Barney Frank To Co-Chair
Immediately after the Wall Street Bailout bill passed the House and went to the Oval Office for Presidential signature, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that there would be hearings on the subject.
Yet, she mentions nothing about the accountability of people like Sen. Chris Dodd, or Franklin Raines or Jamie Gorelick, the latter two having made millions off of Fannie while the organization itself was sliding into government conservatorship.
And what about Barney Frank Co-Chairing these hearings? Will anyone get him to answer questions about the way he blocked reform of Freddie and Fannie over the past several years? Will Pelosi demand accountability and transparency from him? No. She is nothing more than a partisan hack who just managed to cram through the biggest socialist package in American history.
Something else that should be looked into: Barney Frank's relationship with a former Fannie executive named Herb Moses.
Of course they didn't immediately respond. They need time to think up a way of spinning out of it.
#1
You mean the Pelosi who's district includes the HQ of Starkist which if you dig into the Pork Bill you find out "That includes, as the New York Post pointed out, millions in tax breaks and related pork for kids' wooden arrows, Puerto Rican rum producers, auto race tracks, and corporations operating in American Samoa. (The likely explanation for the latter: StarKist has a large tuna-canning operation in American Samoa. And StarKist's parent company happens to be located in the district of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.)" - source
Pelosi et al haven't passed the appropriations bills for most of the departments of government in this past year, but can get this turkey out in two weeks.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is planning to hold a total of five hearings this month on different aspects of the financial crisis, including looks at hedge funds, credit rating agencies and federal regulation.
The invited witnesses for the hedge fund hearing, which will be on Oct. 16, are John Alfred Paulson, President, Paulson & Co., Inc.; George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management LLC; Philip A. Falcone; Senior Managing Director, Harbinger Capital Partners; James Simons, Director, Renaissance Technologies LLC; and Kenneth C. Griffin, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Citadel Investment Group. They were invited, according to the Committee's Web site, because they each earned over $1 billion last year.
A spokesman for Harbinger Capital Partners said that Falcone is reviewing the request, but declined to comment further.Falcone came to Harbinger from Barclays Capital, where he had been head of high-yield trading.
The witnesses invited for the hearing on ratings agencies, which will take place Oct. 22, are Deven Sharma, President, Standard & Poors; Raymond W. McDaniel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Moodys Corporation; and Stephen Joynt, President and Chief Executive Officer, Fitch Ratings.
Those invited for the federal-regulator hearing on Oct. 23 are former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, former Treasury Secretary John Snow and current Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox.
Those three hearings are in addition to previously announced hearings on the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy on Oct. 6 and the $85 billion bailout of American International Group (AIG: 3.86, -0.14, -3.50%) on Oct. 7.
#6
Any regular man on the street John Q Citizens invited? George Soros was invited? The guy who broke the Bank of England? The guy that is trying to undermine America?
Are journalists playing favorites with some of the key political figures involved with regulatory oversight of U.S. financial markets?
MSNBC's Chris Matthews launched several vitriolic attacks on the Republican Party on his Sept. 17, 2008, show, suggesting blame for Wall Street problems should be focused in a partisan way. However, he and other media have failed to thoroughly examine the Democratic side of the blame game.
Prominent Democrats ran Fannie Mae, the same government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) that donated campaign cash to top Democrats. And one of Fannie Mae's main defenders in the House -- Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a recipient of more than $40,000 in campaign donations from Fannie since 1989 -- was once romantically involved with a Fannie Mae executive.
Continued on Page 49
#1
The media will not attack Barney and his buddies until it is convinced that it's very survival is dependent on rooting out Washington corruption. Not likely in my lifetime.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/05/2008 10:30
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#2
MSNBC's Chris Matthews launched several vitriolic attacks...
A small bomb exploded Saturday outside a court in Spain's northeastern Basque region following a warning call from the armed Basque separatist group ETA, causing material damage but no injuries, Spanish media reported.
The bomb went off at 1:15 am (2315 GMT Friday) in the town of Tolosa about half an hour after a man speaking in the name of ETA called Basque traffic department DYA to warn of an imminent blast, public television TVE said.
It had been left in a rucksack in the steps of the court, the Europa Press news agency reported, citing local police who had cordoned off the area.
ETA, which is blamed for the deaths of over 820 people in its 40-year campaign of bombings and shootings for an independent Basque homeland, traditionally calls the DYA to warn of its attacks.
Its last victim was a soldier who was killed when a car bomb exploded outside a military school in the northern autonomous Cantabria region, which is beside the Basque region, on September 22.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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President Evo Morales said Saturday that Bolivia does not need U.S. help to control its coca crop, stepping up his anti-Washington rhetoric days after rejecting an American request to fly an anti-drug plane over the South American nation's territory.
Morales also compared U.S. counter-drug efforts in the country, including Drug Enforcement Administration flights, to espionage.
"It's important that the international community knows that here, we don't need control of the United States on coca cultivation," the president told a gathering of coca farmers. "We can control ourselves internally. We don't need any spying from anybody."
U.S. Embassy spokesman Eric Watnik said the DEA makes periodic requests to fly a plane transporting U.S. and Bolivian anti-narcotics personnel around the country. The aircraft is not used for surveillance, he said.
Relations between Washington and La Paz have increasingly deteriorated in recent weeks. Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador last month, accusing him of supporting deadly protests organized by his conservative opposition. The former ambassador denies the allegations.
Washington responded by ousting Bolivia's ambassador and later placed the Andean nation on an anti-narcotics blacklist, saying Morales has not sufficiently cooperated with international anti-drug efforts.
"We've certified Bolivia twice before under the Morales government, even though they have taken a very different approach to counter drugs, especially to eradication, than previous governments," Thomas Shannon, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
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Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mourad Medelci has stressed that al-Qaeda in Algeria is being financed from foreign parties, without unveiling their names, while indicating that counterterrorism in Algeria has succeeded. Mourad Medelci has unveiled, in an interview with Asharq Alawsat newspaper, at the margin of the UN General Assembly, what could be considered as a developed position of Algeria vis-à-vis Al-Qaeda Organization, which claims terror acts in Algeria since 2007.
In fact, the chief of the Algerian diplomacy has raised possible solutions for the total eradication of terrorism, while making connection between the internal solution which Algeria has quite succeeded in, and political solutions up to put an end to problems in the Middle East, including Iraq, and Afghanistan. Medelci said these regions are the cradle of Bin Laden's Organization, and still activates in.
Minister of Foreign Affairs further confirmed the hypothesis suggesting that what is known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is being supported by foreign parties. He further admitted the existence of a wing of Al-Qaeda in North Africa, saying: "well, I won't say that Al-Qaeda Organization is present in Algeria, but rather it is existing in many places worldwide; eventually, Algeria is targeted just like other places worldwide are." Medelci further assumed that the elements pertaining to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are not Algerians.
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#1
Somebody is spending too much time hanging out with UN diplomatic types, and has gone native.
Aswat al-Iraq: Ten "suspected terrorists" were arrested by the Multi-National Force (MNF) during operations in central and northern Iraq, according to a press release. "Friday in Quayyarah, about 54 km south of Mosul, Coalition forces detained two suspects while targeting an alleged terrorist courier believed to be connected to regional AQI leadership," read an MNF statement received by Aswat al-Iraq.
"During three coordinated operations Saturday in Sulayman Bak, about 81 km southeast of Kirkuk, Coalition forces detained one wanted man and six additional suspects. The wanted man, who identified himself to forces during the operation, is believed to have connections to suspected terrorist operatives in the area."
"Another wanted man was captured during a Coalition force operation in Sabah Saturday, about 95 km west of Kirkuk. Reports from detainees already in custody pointed forces to the man, who is believed to be a member of a terrorist group associated with AQI and have links to its regional leaders. He too identified himself to Coalition forces," the statement noted.
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#1
They must have room in the prisons for the next batch of suspects, after so many were released in honour of Ramadan.
A new national newspaper, the "Khorshid" or "Sun", hit the newsstands on Saturday, published by an aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Like its mass-circulation British namesake, the full color daily will cover all topics from political issues to sports and soap operas.
No 'Page 3' girl?
The centerfold of Khorshid is a picture illustrating a current news story.
Umm, that's not a 'centerfold' ...
Initial circulation is targeted at 200,000, which publisher Mohammad Paryab hopes to build up later. Khorshid, whose launch has been expected for a few months, has gone on sale only eight months before the country's next presidential elections, prompting speculation it might serve as a campaign tool for the re-election of Ahmadinejad. "If we wanted to do that, we would have allocated 10 to 12 pages of the 24-page newspaper for political news," said Paryab, who used to be deputy government spokesman and secretary of the presidency information council.
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While demanding justice, the nun who was allegedly raped in Orissa's riot-hit Kandhamal district has claimed that she can identify the culprits. The nun alleged that some men had dragged her out from a Hindu household where she was hiding. "...Two men were holding my hand, one raped me," she told CNN-IBN from an "undisclosed location."
Seeks justice
She demanded justice not only for herself "but for the sake of the people she was working with."
The nun appealed to the State government for ensuring protection to the people of Kandhamal and said the situation had been bad for far too long.
Police inaction
Blaming the police for inaction, she claimed that when she was being taken towards the market, the policemen present there failed to protect her. She alleged that "...they were sitting like stones. They did not talk or move."
She has left Orissa after the incident and is not sure whether she will return to Kandhamal.
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#1
I'm still waiting for the mass demonstrations on the country's campuses protesting this illegal war./sarcasm off
Oh, let's throw in a Hollyweird movie about the brutal barbaric behavior of the troops towards the local population. /sarcasm off
#2
Oh I'm sure hollywierd would be more then willing to produce this - and the 'feminist' organizations as well.... As long as the soldiers wear U.S. uniforms.
Supporters of reformist and pro-Khaleda faction of BNP engaged in a clash Friday at Gauranadi in Barisal that left at least 35 people including a policeman and a journalist injured.
Traffic movement on Barisal-Dhaka highway was disrupted for hours and a number of shops and vehicles were vandalised at Gauranadi Bus Stand during the clash.
After the clash Nur Alam Howladar, Gauranadi municipality mayor and upazila BNP president, resigned from his party post. Barisal north district BNP President Abdur Rob told The Daily Star that upazila BNP vice-president Abul Hossain Mia will take over from Alam.
Witnesses, police and party leaders and workers said the clash started around 10:30am when former BNP lawmaker Jahiruddin Swapan, who was in the reformist BNP faction led by Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, along with his supporters was heading towards Gauranadi Press Club. When his motorcade reached Gauranadi Bandar, local Jubo Dal General Secretary Badiuzzaman Mintu and his supporters obstructed the motorcade.
They claiming themselves to be of pro-Khaleda faction, attacked and vandalised three motorcycles belonging to the followers of Swapan in front of the shop of Wahidul Huq Khan, also a local BNP leader.
The groups clashed and the clash lasted for an hour and a half. Chases and counter chases took place along with hurling brick bats. Traffic movement on the highway was disrupted.
Shops of supporters of Swapan and their rivals were vandalised, witnesses said.
Police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control around 12:45pm. They escorted Swapan and his followers out to Sharikal.
Leaders and activists of both BNP factions, Wadud, a constable of Agoiljhara Police Station, Giasuddin Mia, local correspondent of Dainik Samakal, two pedestrians Kulsum Begum and Ali Hossain were injured. Seventeen of them were admitted to hospitals in Gauranadi and Agoiljhara.
Jubo Dal leader Badiuzzaman Mintu claimed that locals resisted Swapan and his followers.
Swapan, however, said there is no division in the party and the party is united under Khaleda Zia. He said a number of misguided leaders and activists created the unwanted situation which is harmful to the party.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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The leaders of Europe's four main economic powers held crisis talks on the global financial meltdown on Saturday, brushing aside a dispute that killed off talk of a joint bailout package.
After U.S. President George W. Bush signed off on a 700-billion-dollar handout to Wall Street, the financial world's eyes turned to Europe in the hope of more measures to free up capital and reassure jumpy markets.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi were to seek a coordinated response to the credit crunch, which has drained liquidity from banks and stock markets and undermined flagging growth rates.
"I want the message to go out from this meeting today: No sound and solvent banks should be allowed to fall because of a lack of liquidity," Brown told reporters ahead of the closed door meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Three Taliban were killed by a tribal lashkar in Bajaur Agency on Saturday. According to locals, volunteers of the Salarzai tribe set fire to eight Taliban houses in the Aundai area. Taliban attacked the lashkar and three Taliban were killed in the exchange of fire.
Meanwhile, the residents of Mamoond have also decided to form a lashkar to combat the Taliban. The decision was taken during a meeting of tribal elders. A meeting of tribal leaders would be held on Sunday to devise a strategy against Taliban.
Afghan refugees started leaving Bajaur following a three-day deadline given by the local administration for them to vacate the agency, locals said.
Meanwhile, the residents of some parts of Mohmand Agency have started vacating their areas in the face of a possible military operation in the agency. Rumours of a military operation have spread rapidly after Eid. People have started vacating their homes in Yaka Ghund tehsil and other adjacent areas, where Taliban have been active for a few months.
The local families leaving the area said they were leaving their homes as they feared a massive operation after October 6, following a clash between security personnel and Taliban in Pir Qala.
Sources told Daily Times that the Taliban leadership had directed their supporters to trim their beards and long hair to avoid recognition. Beards and long hair have become Taliban hallmarks in the Tribal Areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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#1
Pretty clever, those Talibini's. Disguise themselves with a shave and a hair cut.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/05/2008 11:44
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#2
One wonders whether the Afghan refugees will return to Afghanistan, or just move over to a less unwelcoming tribal agency.
The IAEA member states have called for a nuclear free Middle East to send a strong message to Israel, the only nuclear country in the region.
During the annual meting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, the members of the UN nuclear watchdog adopted a resolution, calling on all Middle Eastern countries, including the Israeli regime, to allow the inspection of their nuclear activities. The resolution also urges the countries in the region to adhere to the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and not to "develop, produce, test or acquire nuclear weapons."
Israel is widely believed to possess hundreds of nuclear warheads in its arsenal but it has so far refused to either comment on its nuclear capabilities or allow the IAEA to inspect its nuclear facilities. Later on Saturday, the IAEA summit was to discuss a separate draft resolution on Israel's nuclear capabilities.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Villagers collected the corpses and body parts on Saturday of the people killed by a US missile strike overnight, but there were no indications that any of those killed were regarded by US counterterrorism agencies as top-tier Al Qaeda targets.
A pilotless drone aircraft launched the attack late on Friday, targeting a tribesman's house in Mohammad Khel, a village 30 kilometres west of Miranshah. Two intelligence officials, citing reports from field agents and informants, told AP that eight Arabs and 14 Taliban died in the attack.
The Taliban included a Haqqani commander who had invited the others to dinner, they said. The commander, his father and two young sons were among the dead Taliban, the officials said. Six of the Arabs were buried in the village on Saturday morning, while militants took the other two bodies to an undisclosed location, they said.
The officials said they had no information indicating that any senior Taliban leader was killed. "We found body parts scattered all over the place in the ruins, someone's hand, someone's leg," Bakht Ali, one of the villagers, told Reuters.
An intelligence official based in the region said a woman and three children were among those killed. Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said initial reports indicated that 20 or more people were killed. He said there was 'speculation' that many were foreign terrorists, but cautioned that the army was still awaiting a detailed report.
Lt Nathan Perry, a spokesman for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, said he had "no information to give" about the reported attacks. He did not deny US involvement.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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The Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Commander-in-Chief of Iran's military has granted executive powers to his senior military aide.
The senior military advisor to Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Major General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, has been appointed as the top assistant to the Commander-in-Chief of the military.
The position, which places the Iranian general above the Chief of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces, would grant Maj. Gen. Rahim-Safavi executive privileges.
The former chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced on Saturday that Ayatollah Khamenei had communicated his duties to him. "The Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Commander-in-Chief of the military has tasked me with 11 duties which are not among the common responsibilities of the IRGC, military, and joint Chiefs of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces," Rahim-Safavi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
So what are the eleven special duties?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/05/2008 11:30
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#2
Cooking
Cleaning
Washing
Ironing
Mow the grass
Shoe shine boy
Pick up dry cleaning
Answer the phone
Go to the post office
Get the oil changed
Walk the cat (dogs are un-Islamic)
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008 16:16
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THE Somali pirates slung their AK47 rifles over their shoulders as they peered into the dark hold, using torches to light up the bowels of the Ukrainian freighter. "We couldn't believe our eyes," said Sugule Ali, commander of the so-called Voluntary Marines for Somalia, speaking to The Sunday Times over a satellite phone from the MV Faina. "We were horrified that people were bringing these weapons through Somali waters."
The ragtag band of armed gangsters could have been forgiven for thinking they had hit the jackpot as they surveyed the tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and Russian-made antiaircraft guns stored in the hold. This weekend they were demanding a $20m (£11.3m) ransom for the cargo, about 10 times what they usually ask to give back a vessel.
The thought of the Faina's vast arsenal finding its way into lawless Somalia, where Islamists are threatening to overrun a weak government, has horrified Washington. Half a dozen American warships have encircled the Faina to stop any of the 33 Soviet-era tanks and other weaponry being taken ashore.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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#1
What a goat rope.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/05/2008 2:07
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British envoy to Kabul suggests that the best solution for Afghanistan would be to install an "acceptable dictator" in the country.
A coded French diplomatic cable leaked to France's weekly Le Canard Enchaine, quotes the British Ambassador in Afghanistan Sherard Cowper-Coles as predicting that the NATO-led military campaign against the Taliban will fail. The best solution for the country, the ambassador said, would be installing an "acceptable dictator," according to the newspaper.
The weekly also published excerpts of the purported cable, including a passage that quoted the ambassador as criticizing both US presidential candidates over pledges to send more US troops to Afghanistan. "It is the American presidential candidates who must be dissuaded from getting further bogged down in Afghanistan," the newspaper quoted the envoy.
"The current situation is bad, the security situation is getting worse, so is corruption, and the Government has lost all trust," he emphasized.
"The presence of the coalition, in particular its military presence, is part of the problem, not part of its solution," Coles noticed, adding, "Foreign forces are the lifeline of a regime that would rapidly collapse without them. As such, they slow down and complicate a possible emergence from the crisis."
That statement doesn't make a bit of sense.
Cowper-Coles had previously said of worsening violence in Afghanistan and warned that foreign troops will likely be required there for around 30 years.
On Saturday, Britain's Foreign Office said that Cowper-Coles had held a meeting with a French counterpart but insisted that the reported comments did not reflect the government's views.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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#1
It is a Muslim news source, so why would it make sense?
#2
Actually, it makes perfect sense. The current government presiding over Afghanistan is a typical American style faux-democracy. Karzai is Afghanistan's Chalabi, he was simply installed successfully.
When the Western troops that protect him leave - the Afghans will have it out (again) and whatever emerges from the rubble will prevail. Hopefully this time we won't completely ignore the situation, as we did last time after creating it in the first place.
With our support, proponents of civil society (which existed in Afghanistan before Reagan saved it) may prevail - it certainly is a better plan than continuing to support the Warlords and war criminals for whom we've successfully secured the seat of government through our ignorance and bumbling.
#3
Good to know that the commenter from British Columbia sees this as a joint effort, despite his sneer about 'typical American faux ....'
What he misses, however, are other developments behind the scenes which are laying the groundwork for longer-term success. Among them the national military academy which has begun producing professional officers with an allegiance to the country as a whole rather than to the tribe.
The current government presiding over Afghanistan is a typical American style faux-democracy. Karzai is Afghanistan's Chalabi, he was simply installed successfully.
I prefer to think of it as a "training wheels democracy." When the Talibs departed Kandahar in the dead of night after agreeing to surrender, Afghanistan had a legitimate president: Bahanuddin Rabanni. It had a legitimate government in the Northern Alliance. They were the recognized goverment at the UN and most other places, whilst the Talibs under Mullah Omar were recognized by Pakistain, from whence they came, the UAE, and Soddy Arabia, if I remember correctly. The current Afghan government was the product of a series of jirgas, which are Afghanistan's indigenous attempt at oligarchy, if not democracy, culminating in the Bonn conference, where pretty much everybody but Mullah Omar and Hekmatyar had a say. Rabanni very graciously -- and unfairly, I thought at the time -- stepped aside for the Karzai government, which was designed and built to give the Pashtuns (40 percent of the population) a representation in the government disproportionate to the amount of their contribution to getting rid of first the Soviets and then the Taliban. Afghanistan has in fact held elections that were mostly honest, or as honest as elections can be in a country that's never had them.
Karzai came before Chalabi. The idea was to make Chalabi the Iraqi Karzai, not the other way around. Had we done so, operating him as a true puppet, and had we written Iraq's constitution and imposed it, it's likely things would have gone differently than they actually did -- I don't know if the end result would have been better or worse and neither do you.
When the Western troops that protect him leave - the Afghans will have it out (again) and whatever emerges from the rubble will prevail.
Not necessarily. Karzai's turned out to be a better politician than people gave him credit for. There are other capable people who're close to or in positions of power. Under the monarchy the country was relatively civilized, with the exception of most of the Pashtun regions, where people are nutz by preference. Even at this moment the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan are in many places more peaceful than are the Pashtun areas of Pakistain.
Hopefully this time we won't completely ignore the situation, as we did last time after creating it in the first place.
We didn't create it. The situation was created when the Russers installed their puppets in Afghanistan and then, when that didn't work really, really well, invaded the country in December, 1979.
With our support, proponents of civil society (which existed in Afghanistan before Reagan saved it) may prevail...
Russia gobbled up yet another independent country on its periphery. The Afghan resistance wasn't our creation, initially. Return with us now, to those thrilling days of yesteryear, in 1980, when Tadjiks were literally dropping big rocks off the sides of mountains onto Soviet APCs and trucks. Eventually, givent the bureaucracy of the CIA and antiwar tendencies of Congress, we ended up equipping and partially financing the Tadjiks, who put together an alliance with the Uzbeks, Hazaras, Turkmen, and eventually with Pashtuns, though not with all of them. Additional financing was lined up through Soddy Arabia and supply lines were established through Pakistain -- still the only way into the country. As it turned out, both the Soddies and the Paks were playing their own games, but the divergence from common cause wasn't as pronounced at the time.
- it certainly is a better plan than continuing to support the Warlords and war criminals for whom we've successfully secured the seat of government through our ignorance and bumbling.
Those "warlords and war criminals" are the guys who actually fought the Soviets, bub. Some of them are war criminals and some -- the majority, in my perhaps rosy-memoried opinion -- were heroes. It was a war of singular brutality, against a ruthless enemy. Have a look at Chechnya to see the tactics that the Sovs tried to apply in Afghanistan. You might even want to google KhAD, the Afghan secret police, that were a wholly owned subsidiary of the Russers.
Rather than dismissing the heroes of Afghanistan as "warlords and war criminals," you might want to read up on them as well. Start with Ahmed Shah Masood, but also have a look at Ismail Khan, Mojadeddi, and even (when he was sober and on the right side) Dostum. You want to read about some villains? Try Rasool Sayyaf and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
And I'll remind you: the Taliban weren't involved in the war against the Soviets at all -- a "talib" is a student, and most were warm and cozy in the madrassahs in Pakistain while their betters were fighting commies. Mullah Omar was a pretty small-potatoes commander. Jalaluddin Haqqani was a better commander, and in those days seemed more tightly wrapped than he does now. And Hekmatyar spent as much time canoodling with the Soviets against the Tajdiks as he did actually fighting.
You're making the assumption that we were ignorant and bumbling because you expect us to always be ignorant and bumbling. The people I knew who were involved were neither ignorant nor bumbling, and some of them were frighteningly competent. It's real easy to sit back at the U of BC and criticize, but I'm pretty sure that if you were ever given the assignment to accompany a platoon-sized team of Tadjiks to blow the Salang tunnel in the dead of the Brutal Afghan Winter™ your toilet paper consumption would spike regularly and you'd screw at least one thing up an hour.
Crap. You'd probably do worse than that real-life scenario.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008 15:56
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#5
"you'd screw at least one thing up an hour"
You're being magnanimous today, Fred. I'd have gone with one per minute. ;-p
Great summary of the Afghan situation, by the way. Thanks.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/05/2008 16:56
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#6
I see the Brits still haven't learned that the things they tried as an EMPIRE a hundred years ago, STILL don't work. We may have to do this one without the "help" of the Brits. Their soldiers are excellent, their "leadership" is still colonial.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/05/2008 17:17
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#7
It's worse than that OP. Cowper-Coles may well have been speaking on behalf of the UK prime minister.
Gordon Brown detests most of what Blair clearly saw to be necessary actions to preserve Western freedom. Brown's best buddy and jr. Foreign Minister Mark Malloch Brown is and has for a long time been a wholly owned subsidiary of Soros -- the latter gave MMB a sweetheart rent deal in Manhattan while he served as Deputy Secty General at the UN. Malloch Brown's contempt and dislike WRT the US is known to any reasonably literate 3rd grader who googles the news. (Obama thinks MMB's great BTW.)
Gordon Brown signalled just where he stands when he appointed MMB to his cabinet of ministers.
And then there's Gordon Brown's intentional starving of the royal armed forces of all that would allow them to function effectively, both in terms of kit and equipment for deployment OTOH and in terms of health care etc. when they return.
The 10 Hizb ut-Tahrir leaders and activists arrested on September 18 were released from Rajshahi Central Jail Tuesday night. They were arrested in Rajshahi on suspicion of their involvement in militancy and inciting anti-state activities.
The release came after police submitted before a court a discharge report. Based on the report, the Rajshahi District and Sessions Judge's Court earlier that day granted them bail. Hizb ut-Tahrir had threatened of waging a movement to oust the government.
In the discharge report, police said nothing was found to sue the Tahrir men. Police only two weeks ago told the media that they would launch an investigation and would seek green signal from the government high-ups to bringing sedition charges against them.
A number of Hizb ut-Tahrir activists, many of whom went to Rajshahi from the capital, greeted the freed people at the jail gate around 8:00pm. "They were freed as we received the court order to release them," said Harun-ur Rashid, Senior Jail Superintendent of Rajshahi. "Necessary papers (for their release) reached in time at the jail but procedures took some time," he said about the delayed release of the arrestees.
On Tuesday, police submitted the discharge report with a court ending the investigation, said Ramjan Ali, officer-in-charge (OC) of Boalia Police Station. "No ground or evidence was found for filing any regular case against them," he said quoting the report.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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At least 116 persons were killed in crossfire with law enforcing agencies across the country in last nine months from January 01 to September 30, 2008. A report of human rights organization Odhikar said of the deceased, 51 have been killed by RAB, 49 by police and ten by joint forces, two by BDR and four by coast guard.
Even the coast guard gets in on the crossfires?
It has been reported that witnessing the criminals dying one after another in crossfire, panic gripped the criminals and illegal drug traders and most of them crossed the border and took shelter in the neighbouring countries.
I'd certainly skip town if I heard the RAB was looking for me ...
The report added despite various measures taken by the caretaker government, death and torture in the hands of the members of different law enforcing agencies are on the rise.
During the period from January 01 to September 30, around 55 people were killed reportedly by RAB and police in jail custody during their interrogation.
"I keep telling you Chaudhary, ease up with the number seven truncheon."
"Sorry, Sarge, I keep locking my elbow on the follow-through."
"Well keep at it. Practice makes perfect!"
A total of 219 women reportedly became victim to dowry related offense in last nine months. Of them, around 154 were killed and 57 tortured by their husband and at least eight women committed suicide.
So there's 57 more men who should be introduced to the RAB ...
During this period, around 113 persons became victim of acid violence. Among the victim, 60 were women, 30 men and 23 children including 12 girls and 11 boys.
Assuming one perp per victim, that's 113 more who need to encounter a crossfire ...
On the other hand, the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) killed 49 Bangladeshis, injured 29 and 53 were abducted.
So the smuggling biz has taken a hit, has it ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2008
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#1
Just trying to imagine a bunch of coasties doing a crossfire. I'm doubling over with laughter...
#3
That there's the high signal to noise ratio people keep talking about, .5MT. At any other site you'd have to wade through Maureen Dowd's bad hair day and Andrew Sullivan's latest sex fantasies about Sarah Palin in order to find this stuff.
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi army forces arrested a senior member of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq (a group affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq or AQI), and seized explosives and recruiting documents at his house in western Mosul, said a spokesman for the Ninewa Operation Command (NOC). "A force from the Iraqi army's 3rd division conducted a security operation at a village of Rabeaa district (110 km western Mosul), and arrested a senior member of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq," Brigadier Khalid Abdelsattar told Aswat al-Iraq. "The force also seized explosives and recruiting documents at his house," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Ma'an -- A new military group calling themselves the Hizbullah Brigades will begin operating in the Palestinian areas as a force against occupation, according to a Saturday statement.
The group will be made up of fighters from several other resistance factions that the statement accuses of "abandoning resistance." Their stated aims are to "fight the enemies of Islam," in the interests of the Palestinian national project. "We are a new Islamic Sunni group which has nothing to do with the political process," said the statement, "but we will not contradict with public Palestinian interests."
With regards to the group's ties with Hizbullah in Lebanon, the statement asserted that the group follows Hizbullah's steps in resistance, but has no ties with the Lebanese Hizbullah. "All we have in common is Islam and our admiration of their resistance methods," the statement explained.
The group stressed in their statement that they would not be involved in the ongoing inter-Palestinian rivalry. They also pledged to adopt the case of political prisoners, detained by factions in the West Bank and Gaza as one of their top priorities. The statement concluded with a slogan used by Lebanese Hizbullah; "death to Israel, and death to the United States."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
accuses of "abandoning resistance
Someone left the snake out in deh rain
ander Ima don't now if I can take it
Cause it took so long to fake it
And I'll never find that sling shot agaiiiiin
Ohhhhhhhhh Nooooooes!
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh Noooooooes!
Up to 21 suspected Taliban were killed in a series of operations by Afghan and international forces in Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday.
In a raid against Taliban in Ghazni, United States-led troops killed two Taliban on Friday, the force said, although local government claimed six had died. The men were killed after they were seen surrounding the force as they searched a compound for a Taliban leader responsible for roadside bomb attacks, the force said in a statement.
On Saturday, dozens of villagers carrying the corpses of two men marched to the governor's house, claiming the casualties they were carrying were civilians, local government spokesman Ismail Jahangir said. "The coalition forces, without discussing with us, conducted an operation against Taliban in Ander district. We've no idea who the casualties were. We're investigating to find out whether they were Taliban or civilians," he said. "Villagers are saying that two civilians were killed in that operation," the spokesman said.
In a separate incident the force killed three Taliban in the eastern province of Kunar, it said. A dozen other Taliban including two commanders were killed in separate raids by Afghan intelligence agents and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in the southern province of Kandahar, an official said. The raids -- on Thursday and Friday -- on the Taliban hideouts in the province's troubled Zhari district were based on intelligence, the Afghan spy agency's chief in Kandahar, Abdul Qayoum Katawazi, said.
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10/05/2008
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The bear is back. That's what all too many Russia-watchers have been saying since Russian troops steamrolled Georgia in August, warning that the country's strongman, Vladimir Putin, was clawing his way back toward superpower status. The new Russia's resurgence has been fueled -- quite literally -- by windfall profits from gas and oil, a big jump in defense spending and the cocky attitude on such display during the mauling of Georgia, its U.S.-backed neighbor to the south. Many now believe that the powerful Russian bear of the Cold War years is coming out of hibernation.
Not so fast. Predictions that Russia will again become powerful, rich and influential ignore some simply devastating problems at home that block any march to power. Sure, Russia's army could take tiny Georgia. But Putin's military is still in tatters, armed with rusting weaponry and staffed with indifferent recruits. Meanwhile, a declining population is robbing the military of a new generation of soldiers. Russia's economy is almost totally dependent on the price of oil. And, worst of all, it's facing a public health crisis that verges on the catastrophic.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2008
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#1
It seems to be a race between the US Congress and Russia as to who will get to the bottom first.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/05/2008 2:04
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#2
If my experience is anything to go by, there are still LOTS of Russian women willing to do just about ANYTHING to get out of Russia. That seems to include an extremely high percentage of the young and attractive ones.
#3
And yet, the french wingnuts in their vast majority, starting with the now officially red-brown front national, bask in their loving adoration of putin, and their awe of slavs, russians and serbs... with a lot of wishful thinking and fantasies ("russia the upcoming wolrd power, whereas the USA are in a downward spiral", "russian birthrates soaring thanks to the natalist policiy of their blue-eyed, blond manly leader who wrestled power away from the jooooooooish oligarchs",...) about the Resistance to the Empire...
#5
Russia really is dying off - the lack of longevity, the shortage of live births, and the numbers of those emigrating make Russia a rapidly depopulating zone. Plus, China has been making noise about "historically inhabited/ruled areas" regarding the Russian Far East - just like they did just before they invaded and took Tibet, the border area along India, and the mountains along northern Vietnam.
Also, lots of the women who could be giving birth no longer can in Russia due to the sloppy abortions and/or lack of sanitation during same : very large numbers of women in Russia use abortion as their contraceptive of choice, and the Russian medical standards are disturbingly low regarding the prevention of infections and other reproductive damage.
#6
Interesting they never mention rheumatic fever. Yet I would bet that is a major cause of their cardiovascular problems, just as its elimination is the primary factor in the reduction of ours. This is a hangover from their wonderful socialized medical system that we are about to adopt under The One.
We're going to change things and rearrange things.
We're going to change the world.
Agreed. However, neither do I attribute superhuman capabilities to my opponent either. The fundamentals are still in America favor far more than elsewhere because unlike most of the rest of the world which relies upon centralization, the Americans still have an individual spirit. When the center collapses, the Americans are among the few still have the initiative to organize and move forward instead of waiting around for some authority figure to tell them what to do. The falsehood of socialism is that you can control the future when in fact you can only introduce entropy and its subsequent phase decay. Dynamic human activity is froth with chaos. Too much control and you kill it. Too little influence creates anarchy. The key is to be able to ride it and give it direction. The Russians have chosen routine, even of the Putin kind, because it gives them a false sense of control over the chaos and their lives. It is a dead end. The question for everyone else is how many will the bear take with it in its decent.
#8
The Russians have chosen routine because it gives them a false sense of control over the chaos and their lives.
No, the Russians choose it because they have always chosen it for they know nothing different. People don't really understand how exceptional Americans and America really are, even many Americans. As Alan Macfarlane has shown, the individualism we inherited from Britain is not a recent development. It can be traced back to time before memory and to causes long forgotten. It is unique in the world.
It has been very difficult for other cultures to adopt it. Many have the veneer of democratic institutions, largely adopted or imposed as a result of defeat at the hands of the Americans. But none have really understood and adopted individualism and the pioneer spirit. Perhaps the Indians may make it, but there is much reason to doubt they can overcome the inertia of centuries of conflict, prejudice and caste.
For Britain to have been so close to a newly discovered continent that was ripe for the picking was truly miraculous. We should never doubt our good fortune and the bounty of Providence. Or the strength we gain from the immigration of like minded souls.
#10
People don't really understand how exceptional Americans and America really are, even many Americans.
I look around and just do not see only those of Anglo or Euro decent who are American. I see people whose ancestry comes from all parts the world. I also see the blooming of that 'unique' American perspective among the communities regardless of heritage. It varies in degree but its still there none the less. Its less in those communities that are encouraged to keep to their old ways [re: multiculturalism] and consequently their success in the culture is proportional. So exceptional nature of American is adaptable regardless of origin. I observe the relationship between those who were thrown out or who left upon their own energies and those who remained behind show a differentiation in the degree of risk taking and acceptance of the requirements associated with adaptation to uncertainty/change/chaos.
#11
Perhaps the Indians may make it, but there is much reason to doubt they can overcome the inertia of centuries of conflict, prejudice and caste.
As an American married to an Indian, I can tell you they won't make it. Three of the most common laments you will hear in India are: "What can I do?", "Doesn't matter!" and "What to do?".
Indians trend towards a very fatalistic, what will be, will be...mind set. 2nd and 3rd generation NRI's born in this country seem to be overcoming this, but Native born Indians have this mindset ingrained into them from birth.
I have found Indian society to be very dysfunctional, men are babied from birth and are almost incapable of looking after themselves on the domestic front. Also, middle/upper class Indians have an unlimited supply of cheap uneducated labor that is used for all their domestic tasks.
The middle/upper class's despise these uneducated people (and don't hide it) while in turn the laboring classes hate their betters. Of course these people also refuse to go to school and learn anything.
India is a powder keg waiting for the fuse to be lit.
#12
Sounds to me that most of the Russian people have little to live for, much to die for. That would make their behavior in the old empire and the new pandemonium rational. Party as best you can until the inevitible end. More vodka, please.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/05/2008 10:26
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#13
They are coming here in flocks. Much pressure washing will eventually be needed.
#14
Besoeker, you'd best be careful just who you wish to screen out quickly.
My father was one of 9 sons and 1 son-in-law of Russian/Ukrainian immigrants. All but the youngest of them served in WWII by choice (my father was 16 when he lied about his age to enlist), 8 of them in active combat. 5 were wounded, 4 decorated including my godfather uncle who, as a very young Sgt. earned a Silver Star, 2 Bronze Stars and several Purple Hearts in approx. 4 weeks fending off the elite German Nordwind attack in the freezing winter at Bastogne. In two cases he crawled up hill while wounded to destroy German machine gun emplacements. The third time he crawled a quarter of a mile while wounded to warn his unit of an ambush ahead.
Until this year he served as commander of the Order of the Purple Heart in his region. And despite his advanced age and the recurring pain that never quite went away over the decades, he gathered a group of vets and drove a couple hours each way to meet flights with wounded troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. And spent hours visiting them bedside.
My father was a Navy tailgunner, came home in a body cast after the 3rd plane and 2nd ship was shot out from underneath him.
The son-in-law (a Pole) was in one of the first waves of paratroopers at Normandy and again at the Bulge, where he was shot up badly. To his dying day he set off security scanners due to all the metal holding him together.
And that was only that generation. We've contributed uniformed military to many of the combat operations the US has been involved in since. One cousin lost his marriage over the long stints as missile launch officer in the tubes during the cold war. Another flew prop planes at treetop level over Cambodia knowing that if he crashed the US would disavow him.
My family has damned well earned the right to be respected as Americans. Has yours? And more to the point, will some of these new potential Americans?
#17
We are all Americans. Even Obama supporters. Never forget. When we do then we are not a country we are nothing. Now that does not mean I have high hopes for the continuance of this great country as we know it if he wins.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/05/2008 19:49
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#18
you're talking to the wrong people, Jack. Our side has tolerated the worst slander and lies against us and George Bush. When their side has a chance at power, will you be willing to kneel because "we're all Americans"? I expect bad things to come here at home. I'm not nearly close to the point of "stocking up on ammo, survival gear", but the signs are worrisome. Stolen elections, efforts to shut down contrary opinions, vandalized homes/offices/vehicles? these things have meaning, and they have consequences. I worry for our nation, and this is apart from the "The One" phenomenon, which has only provided a banner for these new-age brownshirts to cluster under. Perhaps I should stock up.....
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2008 19:57
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#19
Many Americans are born in the wrong place. Some wrong people are born in America.
I was just telling/reminding some Guam restaurant patrons again last nite that INDIA's HINDUS ala ORISSA, etc. likely well-recognize that the US = US-Allies are now engaged agz Radical Islamism in a WAR FOR CONTROL OF ASIA, and that INDIA's ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE IS SYMPTIOMATIC OF HINDU'S = INDIANS' FEAR THAT INDIA WILL ONCE AGAIN COME UNDER NEW EUROPEAN OR WESTERN ANTI-SOVEREIGN CONTROL-DOMIN IFF RADICAL ISLAMISM LOSES THE GWOT. At the same time that India is fearing new Euro/Western influence in Indian affairs, India's HINDUS, etc. do not wish to convert to ISLAM = BECOM MUSLIMS.
In sum, as per its ASIAN STRATEGIC FRONT [Priority] Radical Islam is trying to detabilize and knock out MOST OF THE COLD WAR "NUCLEAR CLUB", i.e. RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA, etc. Once achieved, the next Front should be GREAT BRITAIN + FRANCE [read, EU = FUTURE EURABIA, LONDONISTAN, etc.].
#21
Joe - you've omitted central Africa - a few astute experts think Islam's greatest threat will be Christian armies from central Africa. This throws interesting light on the Darfur conflict as a possible prelude to such efforts, as well as Ethiopia's role in the region.
For that matter, the world's deadliest conflict since WWII has been the Congolese civil wars of the past 20 years, and if they settle or move, the likely direction is to the northeast. Add to all this the question of how Nigeria holds itself together.
Makes the new Africa Command a long overdue move by our high command.
Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmed Saturday opposed the trend of forming armed Lashkars in the NWFP and the tribal belt, terming it as a conspiracy to ignite civil war in the country.
Raising a tehreek full of armed and dangerous turbans who control large swatches of state territory and carry out warfare against neighboring states certainly wouldn't do it.
"The uprising of masses and taking arms against own people is a conspiracy being hatched by anti-state elements seeking militarisation of the society," Qazi told an Eid Milan party at Shahi Bagh.
Taliban forces conducting warfare against the national army and chopping people's heads off wouldn't do that.
Flanked by former MNA Shabir Ahmed Khan and Jamaat spokesman Muhammad Iqbal, Qazi opposed formation of the tribal Lashkars in Bajaur Agency, Kurram Agency, Darra Adamkhel and other areas and expressed the fear that the situation might lead to a civil war. "The government is pushing the NWFP and Fata towards the conditions created in erstwhile East Pakistan which led to the Dhaka debacle," he alleged.
Certainly JI had an interesting role in that...
The masses are not willing to support the Army in the ongoing operation unless the Army gives up fighting for the US agenda in the region, the Jamaat chief said.
"I personally checked with the masses, and that's what they told me."
Commenting on the ongoing insurgency in the region, he said it was America's conspiracy to deprive Pakistan of its nuclear assets. The US does not want to see Pakistan as a powerful country and the ongoing militancy and insurgency, he said, is a tool to destabilise the country.
"If it wasn't for the U.S., none of this would be happening."
About the religious parties' reluctance to stand up against the militant organisations, Qazi said: "Anti-state elements have joined militant organisations funded by America and India. It's now the responsibility of the intelligence agencies to search out these elements and make public their identities."
Which sez absolutely zip about the incestuous relationship between the fundo parties and the hard boyz.
About the suicide attack in Wali Bagh, Qazi said the perpetrators of such heinous crimes wanted to spread chaos in the country. Those shedding blood of innocent Muslims, Taliban or other groups, are agents of the US and India, he said. The seed of the existing insurgency in Pakistan was sown by former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf when he decided to appease America by crushing his own people setting aside the country's interest, he claimed.
Can't argue with that sort of logic, I guess...
The Jamaat chief said that Pakistan should abandon its policy of following American policies and that seems to be the only solution to all its problems. "We have not yet accepted the set-up as democratic as Musharraf's policies are still being followed," he said.
This article starring:
Bajaur Agency
Darra Adamkhel
Kurram Agency
MUHAMAD IQBAL
Jamaat-e-Islami
QAZI HUSEIN AHMED
Jamaat-e-Islami
SHABIR AHMED KHAN
Jamaat-e-Islami
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Good lip work. We'll keep a close eye on the hands.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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#1
I hear a lot of rumors in Pakistan about Zardari, how he is corrupt and encourages chaos and even killed his wife. I don't believe it but many Pakistani's seem to.
#2
Don't forget the mysterious circumstances surrounding the deaths of the Bhutto sons, Benazhir's brothers. It tis strange that no one was ever arrested for the murders.
Security forces arrested a Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) commander and five Taliban in Bara on Saturday. The six were arrested following the kidnapping of a Frontier Constabulary (FC) subedar in the Bara sub division. Locals said security forces had warned that an operation would be launched in Bara if the FC officer was not released by his captors.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Pressure on Saturday appeared to be mounting on the Centre for effective intervention in Orissa in the wake of continuing violence against Christians by Sangh Parivar outfits and the demand for imposition of President's rule.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who was asked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Friday's Cabinet meeting to come out with an apprisal of the situation, is understood to have sought a report from the Governor.
Mr. Patil spoke to Governor M.C. Bhandare to discuss the situation in the State, Home Ministry sources said.
The Centre was unhappy with the Naveen Patnaik government for the violence in the state against the Christian community and said despite half a dozen warnings, the Orissa government was not able to control the situation. The situation in Orissa acquired greater attention from the Centre after the embarrassment suffered by Dr. Singh when he met the leaders of the E.U. in France during the week when they raised the issue of attacks on Christians.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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#1
Anyone outside of the 'inner circle' bother reading the rag for anything other than its usefulness to fill blogs with the usual effective factual analysis of its lack of integrity and misconstrued data masquerading as facts?
so far in the tank they're lodged in the undergravel filter
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2008 14:10
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#5
"whitewashes"
Isn't that racist somehow?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/05/2008 15:17
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#6
N.Y. Times whitewashes Obama-Ayers connection.
There you go, Barbara S., all better now.... But I've now implied that the A-O connection was "dirty" (needed a wash) as contrasted with "Plugs'" assertion that The Annointed One was "clean."
OMG, now where do I turn to assuage my white guilt?
#9
I'm surprised the New York Times felt forced to actually run any story on the subject. This will give a few more people a reason not to vote for Candidate Obama.
#10
They're trying to innoculate Obama against the attack that Palin kicked off, hoping a little of the truth will create antibodies against the full impact.
The bench held that terrorist activities were on the rise and it would be highly prejudicial to the interest of society and the public at large to allow him bail, and directed the anti-terrorism court to expedite his trial.
The applicant was arrested on May 11, 2008. According to the prosecution, Saifullah, Muhammad Ali and Nasrullah, were allegedly involved in a blast outside the LHC building. Saifullah moved the petition before the LHC, as an anti-terrorism court rejected his bail application on May 24. The applicant took the plea that he was falsely implicated in the offence and deserved concession of bail. The deputy prosecutor general said Saifullah was not entitled to bail at this stage.
This article starring:
MUHAMAD ALI
Jamiatul Mujahideen
NASRULLAH
Jamiatul Mujahideen
SABIR ALI ALIAS SAIFULLAH
Jamiatul Mujahideen
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
Jeddah Suspected militants arrested for plotting to carry out terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia would be transferred to Shariah courts shortly to be tried there, according to Interior Minister Prince Nayef. God willing, they all will be transferred to the judiciary to give its verdict on them in accordance with what God has ordained to prevent sedition. We dont punish anybody except on the basis of a court verdict, Price Nayef was quoted by the Saudi Press Agency(SPA) as saying on Wednesday.
"We can behead them without a court verdict, but that's different," he added.
He said investigations of the arrested suspects were progressing to collect more information. By the Grace of God, we have uncovered several plots to undermine the kingdoms security. When time comes well provide more information to citizens about such plots, he added.
You know that Islam is targeted and your country with all its honour and pride is an Islamic country with Quran and Sunnah being its constitution ... and we depend on ourselves after God the Almighty, Prince Nayef said.
He stressed that security agents would not put extra pressure on suspects to win confessions. We are capable of implementing court verdicts (on the militants), he added.
Nope, nope, no extra pressure at all. Big Abdullah can put those brass knuckles down anytime he wants ...
He praised the security forces for their efforts to foil many terrorist attacks inside the kingdom.By the Grace of God, we dont need anybody except God...During the past years we have not resorted to the help of others, except God and our security officers, he said, referring to Saudi Arabias successful anti-terror campaigns that has won the country international applause.
From who?
Prince Nayef urged all Saudis including Islamic scholars, intellectuals and media persons to play their roles in protecting the countrys security and stability. Everybody should understand that we are not only dealing with individuals but also deviant thoughts.
Islamic scholars have a duty to explain the tolerant and peaceful teachings of Islam whenever Westerns are around. He also urged parents to keep a watch on their children. The state is capable of protecting their children from evil and guiding them to the right path, he said.
Sounds .. soviet ....
Last June, the Interior Ministry announced the arrests of 701 suspected militants for plotting to carry out terrorist attacks. According to Maj- Gen. Mansour Al Turki, the ministrys spokesman, some of the detainees were planning to stage terrorist attacks on oil fields and other vital installations.
In December last year, Saudi security forces had arrested 56 suspects of different nationalities for allegedly planning to attack various sites outside the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah. The men were reportedly in the process of rebuilding an Al Qaeda network in the kingdom to launch another wave of terror attacks across the country. In February 2006, the authorities foiled terrorist attacks targeting oil installations in Abqaiq.
Earlier, the government had announced its plan to deploy 35,000 well trained officers to protect vital installations across the country, including oil refineries. The first group of 1,554 officers who were attending special training courses graduated in March.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2008
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#1
Any bets on the outcome?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/05/2008 11:26
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(PTI) Amid conflicting reports about his death following prolonged illness, Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud made an appearance in a remote village in the country's restive tribal region, witnesses have claimed.
The militant commander was accorded a "warm welcome" by people of his Mehsud tribe when he appeared in Saam village in South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan, the witnesses were quoted as saying by the media here.
Pakistani and international media had earlier reported that Mehsud, who suffered from diabetes and hypertension, had died on Tuesday after lapsing into a coma. But, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar and Mehsud's family had denied the reports of his death.
Tribesmen and Taliban fighters reportedly fired rocket launchers and automatic weapons when Mehsud appeared in Saam and was presented with a traditional turban.
The Taliban leader also visited other areas in South Waziristan, including Ladha, Kani Garam, Salai Rogha and Badr, NNI news agency reported.
Tribal elders decided to arrange a visit by Mehsud to prove that reports of his death were baseless, the speakers were quoted as saying.
Mehsud is accused of launching suicide attacks against Pakistani security forces and is wanted for allegedly masterminding the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto in December last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Salmina Digal remembers her grandfather quoting an aborigine proverb to tell her that to Kondhs, their land, its forests, mountains and streams, was as precious as their mother. "From her we came and to her we will go," he would often tell her.
But all that has suddenly changed for the 45-year-old woman, forced by the rabid fury of those she can't fight, to give up everything her ancestors loved. The recent violence against Christians, most of them tribals like her, has forced at least 50,000 out of the only home they have ever known. Today, they are crowded into refugee camps both in Kandhmal and in cities such as Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
Some have taken shelter in the camps but many others have not. They continue to hide out in the homes of friends and relatives. But wherever they are, the common thread running through their stories is fear of persecution. They recount tragic tales of separation -- mother from child, husband from wife, brother from sister, friend from friend. Salmina's son, Ajit has been missing since clashes broke out on August 24, after gunmen shot dead Swami Laksmananda Saraswati, a Hindu leader who had a large following in Kandhmal and beyond.
"I knew things would go wrong," Salmina said, pain, anger and helplessness etched on her face.
Talking in Kui, her tribal language, she said, "Even my daughter-in-law is missing. I hid in the forests but others in the family went back. They wanted to check if our house was fine. I am told they are not there in the camps at Kandhmal. Can someone find them for me? My husband died a few years ago and I am all alone. What will I do?"
At the Peyton Sahi Relief camp, where 35 families and 130 distraught tribals are cramped, waiting for every little news that trickles out of Kandhmal, Chabila Naik, a man who ran an orphanage for 60 children in Sarangada, said, "I am looking for a house in Puri to shift the little ones. They spent three days in the forest after our houses and churches were razed. I will never forget their frightened faces." Though the children are now safe and in a camp, Naik hasn't gathered the courage to meet them. "Who knows when I will be able to hold my children," he wept.
The stories are unending, each more heart-wrenching than the other. Naranjan Pradhan, a 33-year-old from Raikia is still looking for his brother. "On the morning of August 24, we heard on the radio that Swamiji had been killed. But before we could make plans of escape, we were caught, beaten, murdered and hounded out. Riots broke out in Raikia the next day. Soon, roads were blocked and vehicular movement cut off to trap us all inside. They burnt my house. My wife, two sons and two daughters are at one relief camp and I am at another. It's been so many days I haven't seen them. I especially miss my eight-year-old twins so much."
One family, which didn't want to be named, said they had to leave their old mother in the jungles as they walked through rain and darkness for 60 hours to get out of Kandhmal. "We had no choice," the son said, tears pouring. "I could either save my wife and two kids or stay with her and ask for death for all of us. But I am sure God has saved her, though I have no idea where she is." Then he suddenly takes Jesus' name in penitence.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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A senior Iranian nuclear official has rejected reports that Tehran might halt uranium enrichment for guaranteed nuclear fuel import.
Several Western media outlets reported on Thursday that Iran's ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog agency, Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh, had suggested that Iran might reconsider its nuclear activities should it receive guarantees of foreign supplies of enriched uranium.
Soltaniyeh said on Saturday that he had been misunderstood on the subject.
He had told an IAEA meeting in Brussels that the outcome of failed negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany) had revealed that 'there was no guarantee for countries like Iran to be provided with foreign supplies'.
Western media reported, however, that his remarks suggested that Iran's nuclear program is conditional on foreign promises.
In an interview with Fars news agency on Friday, Soltaniyeh spoke out to set the record straight and clarified that Iran will not change its nuclear approach but is open to negotiations.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Tribesmen in the Mir Ali sub-division of North Waziristan Agency fired rockets at two drones that crossed into Pakistan on Saturday, locals said. The two drones entered Pakistani airspace from the Afghan side in Mir Ali sub-division, located 23 kilometres east of Miranshah, locals said. The spy planes returned as locals fired rockets at them. However, no casualty was reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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#1
should encourage this behavior since it makes targeting that much easier
ABHA: Sheikh Ahmed Al-Hawashi, the imam and khateeb of Noorain Jamie Mosque in Khamis Mushayt, changed his mind to leave the city following a fire in the mosque that killed two of his children as a result of pressure from his students and tribal elders to reconsider the plan.
More than 3,000 people, including prominent personalities and tribal elders, gathered in and around the mosque on Friday afternoon after Al-Hawashi announced during his Juma sermon that he was moving to Madinah to spend the rest of his life in the holy city.
Residents of the town, including a large number of his students, received the news with shock. Soon after the prayer, people gathered around the imam and requested him to change his mind, but the imam would not relent.
Prominent figures led by Saad Al-Hajari then secretly asked people to gather in front of the mosque after Asr prayer. They waited till Maghreb. When Al-Hawashi came to lead the prayer, an 80-year-old man sitting on his legs implored the imam to change his mind. Hearing the man's pleas, women and children started crying. One person fell unconscious. In the midst of the emotional scene, Al-Hawashi promised the crowd that he would not leave them.
Al-Hawashi's son Anas and daughter Tasneem died in a fire that gutted part of the mosque complex, including the imam's quarters, last Tuesday. The imam suspected arson and police have launched an investigation.
Asir Gov. Prince Faisal bin Khaled described the imam as a noble man and no one is likely to have enmity toward him. "The investigation is continuing and its findings will be made public soon," he told reporters. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 232-3] Dr. Ali al-Mosa, a Saudi academic from Asir Province, will later say that a cleric known as Sheikh al-Hawashi, who runs a mosque in Khamis Mushayt, is also instrumental in recruiting the hijackers: "Sheikh al-Hawashi was the evil father of the whole thing here. He was the one behind it all and he is still there--he knew five of the kids and he was praying with them." When Asir is visited by Australian journalist Paul McGeough in 2002, Sheikh al-Hawashi will still be preaching and Dr. al-Mosa will comment: "He has been here for 25 years and he's very popular." [Sydney Morning Herald, 10/5/2002]
Maybe not, but right now he's behind bars and the odds are pretty seriously against him beating this rap. He might do it but if he does it's going to cost him most of what money he's got left. As someone who has no doubt but that Simpson's a double murderer, he has absolutely no sympathy here. I hope he never sees the light of day as a free man again. It won't make up for the murders but it's a start at reparation.
Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed has said the caretaker government wants to continue with the state of emergency until the general elections to "retain control" over the old problems of money and muscle power during polls.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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#1
Oh, I thought they were talking about Democrat goals for our economy. Nancy and Harry are doing a bangup job of it. But the Big O seems to be a Big Zero in the drive. He isn't leading Democrats and the country to disaster like he should be doing.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/05/2008 10:48
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Israel accused North Korea on Saturday of providing weapons of mass destruction to at least six countries in the Middle East that ignored arms-control commitments.
Israel's delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spoke as the 145-nation assembly of the United Nations nuclear watchdog adopted a resolution unanimously urging North Korea to reverse steps it has taken to revive its dormant atom bomb program.
Israel itself is the target of two hotly disputed Arab-sponsored draft resolutions in the assembly urging it to give up its alleged nuclear arms monopoly in the Middle East, join the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and accept full IAEA inspections.
Israel said there were six Middle Eastern countries which had obtained the means produce doomsday weapons and ballistic missiles covertly from North Korea while ignoring commitments as members of the NPT and other arms-control regimes. "At a time when the international community concentrates on North Korea's nuclear activities and its non-compliance with safeguards agreements, the Middle East is at the receiving end of North Korea's reckless practices," Israeli envoy David Danieli told the global meeting in Vienna. "North Korea has long become a source of proliferation of dangerous weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles in the Middle East," he said.
"At least half a dozen countries in the region who do not even pay lip service to control regimes and are acting in bad faith regarding their stated policy and their undertakings regarding non-proliferation conventions have become eager recipients of North Korea mostly through black market and covert network channels," Danieli said, but did not name the six nations.
Western intelligence officials and non-proliferation experts have said that Iran, Syria, Libya and Iraq under Saddam Hussein were believed to have received North Korean military aid, some applicable to mass-destruction weaponry, in the past. "No due attention is paid to this dark aspect of North Korean behavior which has become a matter of great concern to my government and others," Danieli said.
He said there was growing evidence that such states were "emulating the dangerous unlawful practices" of North Korea, which left the NPT in 2003 and developed atom bombs.
"[We] call the attention of the international community to these dangerous developments and their consequences," he said.
U.S. envoy Chris Hill ended three days of meetings in North Korea on Friday meant to salvage the collapsing denuclearization deal, calling the talks substantive but not saying if he swayed Pyongyang to give up plans to restart its nuclear complex.
The resolution passed by the IAEA assembly underlined the need for denuclearization fully verifiable by IAEA inspectors - a demand resisted by Pyongyang and at the heart of disputes that have crippled its denuclearization deal with five powers.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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#1
Hmmm, the other two would be Sudan and Pakistan. Plus, Pakistan is providing the double status of being an arms supplier as well as a recipient. Egypt is trying to get their nuclear technology through Western sources, which are more reliable, but do keep track. I wouldn't be surprised if Saudi Arabia hasn't replaced Iraq as the sixth non-listed state.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/05/2008 17:28
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Two suspected criminals including an outlawed party leader were killed in the capital city and Ataikula upazila of Pabna in separate encounters between the thugs and the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) early yesterday.
Two for the price of one!
The man killed in Dhaka ...
We even know where that is!
... was Aminul Islam, 35, while in Pabna Shahidul Islam Shahid, a regional leader of Purbo Banglar Communist Party (ML-Lal Pataka) was killed.
The Purbos have been taking it on the chin lately. Maybe there's no Biplobis around?
The Rab members recovered four firearms and 20 bullets in the two incidents.
Just firearms, and no shutter gun?
A Rab-10 statement said that Aminul, a listed criminal often operating in Shiddhirganj upazila in Narayanganj and Demra in Dhaka, is wanted in 12 different systems cases including murders and rapes.
So his mother didn't love him ...
The statement said that Rab apprehended Aminul on Friday morning from Shukushi Graveyard in Demra ...
Skulking around a graveyard at 3 am, was he?
... and took him to Kayetpara in the same area to recover his hidden firearms.
"Open the casket and show us the shutter gun, Aminul [thump]"
As the Rab team approached Crescent Paper Mill at Kayetpara, Aminul's associates, who were already hiding there, opened fire on them.
Just happened to be in the area, they did ...
As the criminals continued fire on the Rab team, Rab shot back in retaliation prompting a 30-minute battle, the press release said.
Of course they did. No self-respecting RAB team waits for reinforcements against an imaginary foe ...
Aminul was shot when he tried to escape during the exchange of fire.
Curly toed slippers failed him, just like every other time.
The criminals however managed to flee the area ...
... as if they'd never been there in the first place ...
... and Rab later recovered Aminul's body ...
... right beyond the pickup truck where they'd dumped it ...
... one foreign revolver, one pipe gun and bullets from the scene.
All of which were made available for the next operation.
Aminul's family own Haji Kafil Uddin market at Shanarpar. His family also runs a transport business.
And they'll keep quiet if they want to continue in business.
Aminul was an accused in a case filed for killing Sramik Dal Sutrapur thana president and BNP leader Anwar Hossain Anu on July 17 in 2003. He is also an accused in the case filed for the rape of four garment workers -- all sisters --at Shanarpar in Shiddhirganj.
Soooo, a real bad boy. No wonder RAB10 took care of Mister Macho.
In the other incident in Pabna, a team of Rab-12 rushed to Raghunathpur in Ataikula at around 2:00 am after receiving information that some extremists were holding a secret meeting there.
Just another meeting of the Purbos and it's going to end just like the last one.
The gang opened fire on the Rab team, triggering an exchange of fire between the law enforcers and criminals.
Wonder what would happen if the 'gang' decided to slip away without firing ...
At one stage, the outlawed party members fled the scene.
And not a round of bullet was left behind for ballistics ...
The body of Shahidul Islam Shahid, from Kalibari village in Ataikula upazila, was discovered from the scene.
"Hey look here Chaudhray, I found Shahid!"
"Yup, right where we left him."
Rab also recovered a revolver, one rifle and 10 bullets.
No shutter gun for him, either.
Rab officials said Shahid was wanted in a dozen systems cases, including seven for murder.
And no need for a trial this way, doncha know ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2008
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#4
Hey, if you want to call someone at the RAB, there's a phone directory at Nimble Spemble's link. Just don't forget the time difference -- the callee may become annoyed if you interrupt a 3 a.m. encounter.
#5
My favorite is RAB-5. They always get the shutter gun ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2008 13:51
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#6
12 systems, 12 RABS. It's symmetry
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2008 13:56
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#7
This fascination we have with RAB reminds me a little of the same fascination we had with Aussie Rules Football when ESPN first came on cable. It was one of the only sports they had license too and everyone sort became addicted to it.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/05/2008 16:23
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Two U.S. Blackhawk helicopters crashed while attempting to land in northern Baghdad's Sunni district of Adhamiyah late on Saturday, a U.S. military spokesman said. One Iraqi soldier was killed and two American and two Iraqi soldiers were injured in the crashes.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
Palestinian security forces in the West Bank have taken measures to prevent killings of leaders of the Palestinian Authority and its political power base, Fatah party, by the Islamic group Hamas, a pan-Arab newspaper reported on Saturday.
The London-based daily al-Sharq al-Awsat quoted Hamas members in West Bank as saying that the Islamists plan to take over the PA-ruled West Bank in the same way they took control of the Gaza Strip last year. "The oppression that the security services put on us will not last for long," a Hamas supporter was quoted as saying, referring to the Fatah crackdowns on Hamas members in the West Bank.
The source added that security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "have not learned their lesson from what happened in Gaza."
Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces in the Gaza Strip in June 2007 and seized control of the salient in reaction, Hamas claims, to attempts by Abbas' U.S.- and Israeli-backed Fatah movement to prevent Hamas from ruling after the Islamist party won parliamentary elections.
The Gaza Strip and West Bank became politically separate entities, with the two warring sides cracking down on their opponents.
Meanwhile, a senior Hamas leader, based in Gaza, said the crackdown by pro-Abbas forces against Hamas members in the West Bank "will backfire."
Tensions between Hamas and Fatah continue despite Egyptian efforts to launch a Palestinian national dialogue.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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The High Court (HC) will hear tomorrow two petitions filed by Awami League President Sheikh Hasina, now abroad on parole, seeking bail in the Niko and barge-mounted power plant corruption cases against her.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Saturday vowed a strong response after 15 Turkish soldiers and 23 Kurdish PKK separatist rebels were killed in the bloodiest fighting this year in the country's southeast.
Erdogan said he had cancelled a two-day visit to Mongolia and would immediately return home from Turkmenistan to discuss Ankara's reponse.
An army spokesman said that fighting erupted Friday afternoon when a group of rebels attacked a border post in Semdinli town, Hakkari province, under cover of heavy weapons' fire from bases in northern Iraq.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan asked parliament last month to extend a mandate, which expires later this month, to launch further military operations against the PKK in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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#2
PKK is considered as terrorist organisation by EU, US. They killed around 40.000 civils during the last 20 years including babies, mothers, teachers, engineers. Please do not call these terrorists as rebels. They are %100 terrorists.
More information on PKK Kurdish terrorism at htpp://pkkterrorism.com
#3
I love it when the Burg gets drive-by commenters. Especially one-issue commenters. A robotic response probably triggered by the same word-search-thingie used by our resident Greek PITA.
For the record, we didn't call them rebels. Al-Arabiya did. And no- we're not going to censor news postings.
Most of us Rantburgers are quite aware of who and what the PKK is (which is also partly why the US isn't opposing the Turkish operations). Many of us are also aware that many Kurds support the PKK, because the Turks treated their own resident Kurds like crap for ages.
Aswat al-Iraq: A lawmaker from Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militias rejected on Saturday a visit by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to Iraq, adding the visit only aims to press Iraqis into signing a security agreement with Washington.
"The U.S. administration, through Negroponte, is trying to add certain items that impinge upon Iraq's sovereignty," Aqeel Abdelhussein told Aswat al-Iraq. "We reject these visits altogether and urge the Iraqi side to maintain the country's sovereignty and also to negotiate the occupation forces' withdrawal from Iraq," he said.
Abdelhussein, whose Sadrist bloc occupies 30 out of a total 275 seats in the Iraqi parliament, said that Iraq would be in no need of such agreement, particularly after the Iraqi army succeeded to fine-tune security conditions. "The agreement would lead Iraq to a dark tunnel," he said, ruling out that this agreement would be signed this year due to many outstanding problems in its items.
The U.S. embassy in Baghdad had announced on Friday evening that Negroponte arrived on an unannounced visit to Iraq for talks with Iraqi officials on political, security and economic progress in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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#1
Hey Dipsh$$, it's over. Nobody cares what you think any more. You've been exposed as not only a weak horse, but that you carry carrion and corruption with you wherever you go. Just go away - you're no longer relevant to ANYTHING but your own ego.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/05/2008 17:32
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The former Iranian president Seyyed Mohammad Khatami says he needs assurance of his executive powers before running for presidency. Khatami said Saturday 'reaching a compromise with the Iranian nation for their requests' and 'receiving assurance for the implementation of his plans' are his two preconditions for running for president in Iran's 10th presidential election scheduled for 2009.
With the country's presidential election nearing, the former Iranian president has recently become an outspoken critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration. Khatami has criticized the 'aggressive' policies of the current administration, arguing that such policies provide grounds for the enemy to justify its acts against the country. "Aggressive and blistering rhetoric plays into the hands of the enemy, harming the country and the system," Kargozaran newspaper quoted Khatami as saying in September.
While there has been widespread speculation that Khatami may run for office in 2009, the former Iranian president has yet to announce his final decision on the issue.
In a new move, Khatami questioned the executive powers of presidents in Iran, saying that the current circumstances prevent the president from implementing his decisions. "If there is no possibility of executing new policies and various obstacles are put in the way [of the president], introducing even the best of plans would only mean deceiving the nation," said Khatami.
The former Iranian president said he was not concerned about the outcome of next year's election but added that he does not seek power at any cost.
Earlier in September, Khatami whose presidency extended from 1997 to 2005 and ran on the reformist platform called on his camp to prepare for a strong reappearance in the country's political arena.
Iran's 10th presidential election is scheduled to take place on June 12, 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, thought to have suffered a stroke in August, made his first appearance in about 50 days, the state's media said on Saturday. Kimmie alive. Baitullah alive. Adam Gadahn alive. I'm guessing B.O. is going to win the election.
Last month, U.S. and South Korean officials said Kim, 66, may have suffered a stroke in August, raising questions about leadership in Asia's only communist dynasty as Pyongyang backed away from an international nuclear disarmament-for-aid deal.
North Korea's official media said Kim saw a soccer match between two universities. The last report of a public appearance by Kim was in mid-August when state media said he visited a military unit. "After watching the match, leader Kim Jong-il congratulated the players on their good results, saying that the revolutionary and militant students in our country are good at art and sporting activities," the North's KCNA news agency reported.
Kim's reappearance came as the secretive state finished talks with a U.S. nuclear envoy who went to Pyongyang this week trying to save a disarmament deal and prevent the North from restarting its nuclear plant that makes bomb-grade plutonium.
CONSPICUOUS ABSENCE
Kim was conspicuously absent from a military parade on September 9 to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of North Korea. He appeared at ceremonies to mark the 50th and 55th anniversaries of the state founded by his father Kim Il-sung.
Kim Jong-il, known as "Dear Leader," inherited control in 1994 on the death of his father. Kim Jong-il had been groomed for years to take control. He has three known sons, but has not made any apparent moves to name any of them as his successor.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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#1
Did they wheel him out on a handtruck like "Young Mister Grace"?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/05/2008 13:55
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The Pak-Afghan border at Chaman has been closed because of security concerns, Balochistan Frontier Corps Inspector General Major-General Saleem Nawaz said on Saturday. He told the media that entry to Afghanistan from the villages surrounding Chaman including Kali Luqman, Kali Abdul Karim and Kali Faizabad had been banned. He said all passes allowing crossings had been cancelled, to stop people from crossing the border. However, anyone with a visa can enter Afghanistan through the Pak-Afghan Friendship Gate, he added. Vehicles entering and leaving the border area are also being thoroughly searched, he said. United States-led NATO forces have boosted their strength by deploying more troops in the Afghan areas adjacent to Balochistan. Source said a massive operation is on the cards against the Taliban in Afghan areas near Zhob and Qila Saif Ullah.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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Islamabad police claimed on Saturday to have thwarted a terror plot in the federal capital after defusing a bomb found near the National University of Modern Language (NUML), Aaj TV reported.
The police said that a bomb disposal squad had recovered the device from bushes near NUML in Sector H-9 of Islamabad, following information from a local resident. The police immediately cordoned off the area and defused the device, the channel added. According to the bomb disposal squad, the 25 kilogramme device could easily have destroyed a large building. The channel said that the police and law enforcement agencies were investigating the incident.
Security had been tightened across the country, especially in the capital, following the blast outside the Marriott hotel on September 20, in which more than 60 people died and over 200 were injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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[21 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
(PTI) The Sri Lankan army chief today said his forces are on the verge of capturing the key LTTE stronghold of Kilinochchi as fighter jets, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery pounded rebel positions leaving 21 Tamil Tigers dead. "We are two kms away from the Kilinochchi town limits," Army Chief Sarath Fonseka said in Anuradhapura, 212 kms north of capital Colombo.
MI-24 Helicopter gunships targeted LTTE bunkers on the city outskirts and an air force spokesman said that the air-action was timed to support the push of the ground forces into the town. Three soldiers were also killed in the operation.
The control of Kilinochchi could be decisive in the island nation's over three decades of civil strife. Once the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam lose the town, they would have no option but to fall back on Mullaittivu or go back guerrilla warfare.
Sri Lankan army has been on the offensive against the Tigers since January this year when Colombo scrapped a tattered 2002 ceasefire with the rebels, wresting control of number of towns held by the LTTE.
According to government figures, the Tamil Tigers have lost more than 7,000 fighters in this period while the military losses have been put at 700.
Fonseka, who was in the Buddhist city to attend the traditional Army Flag Blessing ceremony ahead of the Army Day on October 10, said the government proposed to declare Viswamadu and Otisudan in Kilinochchi a no war zone after the army consolidated its position there.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/05/2008
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WASHINGTON The Pentagon has notified the US Congress of its offer to sell India CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons (SFW) worth $375 million to help the Indian Air Force to develop and enhance standardisation and operational ability with the United States.
This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to strengthen the US-India strategic relationship, the Pentagons Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) told the US Congress on September 30, a day before the Senate approved the India-US civil nuclear deal.
It will also help improve the security of an important partner, which continues to be an important force for political stability, peace and economic progress in South Asia, the agency said, assuring lawmakers the proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region. The proposed sale comes three weeks after US offered India a $170 million deal for the sale of two dozen Harpoon air to ground anti-ship missiles during Defence minister A.K. Antonys visit to Washington.
India intends to use the Sensor Fuzed Weapons to modernise its armed forces and enhance its defensive ability to counter ground-armoured threats. The missiles will assist the Indian Air Force to develop and enhance standardisation and operational ability with the United States. India will have no difficulty absorbing these missiles into its armed forces, the DSCA said.
Hear that, nation-to-the-west?
There will be no adverse impact on US defence readiness as a result of this proposed sale, it added. The SFW a 1,000-pound class weapon is designed to accurately detect and defeat a wide range of moving and stationary land and maritime target threats with minimal collateral damage, while not leaving a single hazardous dud. India, DSCA said, has requested a possible sale of 510 CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons, 19 CBU-105 Integration test assets (12 live tails, seven inert tails) and five CBU-97 Integration test assets as well as associated equipment and services.
The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $375 million. India, the agency said, has requested offsets for the deal, but at this time agreements are undetermined and will be defined in negotiations between India and the contractor. The prime contractor will be Textron Systems Corporation of Wilmington, Massachusetts. The SFW contains 10 BLU-108 submunitions, each with four smart Skeet warheads, for a total of 40 warheads. One SFW can simultaneously detect and engage many fixed and moving land combat targets within 121,400 sq mts. This wide-area capability enables the SFW to halt an invading force and attack air defence sites while significantly reducing the number of aircraft sorties, it says.
Designed for stand-off deployment from a wide selection of aircraft, SFWs versatility and superior lethality make it the weapon of choice for anti-armour, destruction of enemy air defence and many other combat missions. SFW can be deployed from US or North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) tactical aircraft in all weather conditions, day or night, and is presently certified on most US Air Force fighter and bomber aircraft.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/05/2008
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#2
I think the Himilayan they picked up a few months ago is still clawing the furniture and causing enough havoc for them. Couldn't happen to a more deserving group of commissars.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/05/2008 18:25
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#3
develop and enhance standardisation and operational ability with the United States
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.
NATO-led soldiers have captured a Taliban commander said to have links to the most senior figures in the extremist militia that is waging an insurgency in Afghanistan, the force said Sunday. 
A few words about column writing
AS the Afghan sun set over the end-of-tour memorial service last Wednesday at British headquarters in Lashkar Gah, 32 names of the dead, aged between 19 and 52, were solemnly read out, including that of the first woman killed, Corporal Sarah Bryant. Almost every other name, it seemed, was from 2 Para. 
By Clifford May
The war of words between Israel and Hizbullah continued on Sunday, with a top official in the guerrilla group brushing off "threats" made by IDF Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, in which the latter said that the next war would have serious consequences for the villages which support Hizbullah. "The resistance is completely ready and Israel's threats do not scare [us]," Sheikh Nabil Kaouk said during a rally in southern Lebanon. His comments were published by United Arab Emirates newspaper Al-Hilaj on Sunday. 
Five years ago, he was a bankrupt felon with a conviction for passing bad checks. He was facing deportation. And he was living in a subsidized, low-income apartment complex in Paulsboro, scratching for cash by trying to sell used cars from the complex's parking lot. Today he is the central figure in the Fort Dix terrorism trial, an FBI informant who may have received more than $3,000 a month to wear a body wire and record conversations.
Retired IDF and high-ranking Mossad officials have praised Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, saying he would be a better partner for Israel in the White House. 
Out and About- December 18, 1998 
Pelosi Declares Hearings On Housing Crisis: Barney Frank To Co-Chair
Are journalists playing favorites with some of the key political figures involved with regulatory oversight of U.S. financial markets?
A small bomb exploded Saturday outside a court in Spain's northeastern Basque region following a warning call from the armed Basque separatist group ETA, causing material damage but no injuries, Spanish media reported.
President Evo Morales said Saturday that Bolivia does not need U.S. help to control its coca crop, stepping up his anti-Washington rhetoric days after rejecting an American request to fly an anti-drug plane over the South American nation's territory. 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mourad Medelci has stressed that al-Qaeda in Algeria is being financed from foreign parties, without unveiling their names, while indicating that counterterrorism in Algeria has succeeded. Mourad Medelci has unveiled, in an interview with Asharq Alawsat newspaper, at the margin of the UN General Assembly, what could be considered as a developed position of Algeria vis-à-vis Al-Qaeda Organization, which claims terror acts in Algeria since 2007.
A new national newspaper, the "Khorshid" or "Sun", hit the newsstands on Saturday, published by an aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Like its mass-circulation British namesake, the full color daily will cover all topics from political issues to sports and soap operas.
Supporters of reformist and pro-Khaleda faction of BNP engaged in a clash Friday at Gauranadi in Barisal that left at least 35 people including a policeman and a journalist injured. 
Three Taliban were killed by a tribal lashkar in Bajaur Agency on Saturday. According to locals, volunteers of the Salarzai tribe set fire to eight Taliban houses in the Aundai area. Taliban attacked the lashkar and three Taliban were killed in the exchange of fire. 
Villagers collected the corpses and body parts on Saturday of the people killed by a US missile strike overnight, but there were no indications that any of those killed were regarded by US counterterrorism agencies as top-tier Al Qaeda targets.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Commander-in-Chief of Iran's military has granted executive powers to his senior military aide. 
THE Somali pirates slung their AK47 rifles over their shoulders as they peered into the dark hold, using torches to light up the bowels of the Ukrainian freighter. "We couldn't believe our eyes," said Sugule Ali, commander of the so-called Voluntary Marines for Somalia, speaking to The Sunday Times over a satellite phone from the MV Faina. "We were horrified that people were bringing these weapons through Somali waters." 
Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqi army forces arrested a senior member of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq (a group affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq or AQI), and seized explosives and recruiting documents at his house in western Mosul, said a spokesman for the Ninewa Operation Command (NOC). "A force from the Iraqi army's 3rd division conducted a security operation at a village of Rabeaa district (110 km western Mosul), and arrested a senior member of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq," Brigadier Khalid Abdelsattar told Aswat al-Iraq. "The force also seized explosives and recruiting documents at his house," he added.
Up to 21 suspected Taliban were killed in a series of operations by Afghan and international forces in Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday.
A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday dismissed a bail application by 
(PTI) Amid conflicting reports about his death following prolonged illness, Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud made an appearance in a remote village in the country's restive tribal region, witnesses have claimed.
A senior Iranian nuclear official has rejected reports that Tehran might halt uranium enrichment for guaranteed nuclear fuel import. 
Palestinian security forces in the West Bank have taken measures to prevent killings of leaders of the Palestinian Authority and its political power base, Fatah party, by the Islamic group Hamas, a pan-Arab newspaper reported on Saturday. 
Aswat al-Iraq: A lawmaker from Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militias rejected on Saturday a visit by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to Iraq, adding the visit only aims to press Iraqis into signing a security agreement with Washington. 
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, thought to have suffered a stroke in August, made his first appearance in about 50 days, the state's media said on Saturday.
(PTI) The Sri Lankan army chief today said his forces are on the verge of capturing the key LTTE stronghold of Kilinochchi as fighter jets, helicopter gunships and heavy artillery pounded rebel positions leaving 21 Tamil Tigers dead. "We are two kms away from the Kilinochchi town limits," Army Chief Sarath Fonseka said in Anuradhapura, 212 kms north of capital Colombo.
