#13
There once was a man from Boston,
Who bought hinself an Austin,
He had room for his ass,
And a gallon of gas,
But his balls hung out,
And he lost'em
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
12/08/2008 15:07 Comments ||
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#14
Dorothea Wieck to start off Dorothy Week! Ima lovin' it. Will we get to see her little dog Toto too?
#15
Swiss actress Dorothea Wieck (1908-1986) became a major star and a le$bian idol with her role as the adored teacher Fräulein von Bernburg in the German classic Mädchen in Uniform. She made more than fifty films, but she was also a prominent stage actress of the Deutsche Theater, the Schillertheater and other main theatres in Berlin.
International Success
Her breakthrough followed with the talkies where she had an international success with Mädchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (1931, Leontine Sagan). First the le$bian themed film was banned when released in the United States, but First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw the importance of the movie and the ban was lifted. Later in Germany the Nazi regime tried to burn all the copies of the film, but they couldn't.
Eleanor Roosevelt, championing le$bian films?
Calm down guys, Dorothea left Hollywood and returned to Germany where she married into a noble family.
The United States will deploy the first of its new forces arriving in Afghanistan next year around Kabul, a US general said Sunday, reflecting fears the Afghan capital is increasingly under threat. About 4,000 of the additional troops the US is expected to send to Afghanistan will be deployed around the capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
No surprise here. There have been several threats especially since several places have been attacked on the Pakistan border recently.
Posted by: Oscar Thineter5429 ||
12/08/2008 15:49 Comments ||
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At least 13 people have been killed and many others injured as the rebel al-Shabaab fighters seized a central Somali trading town.
Al-Shabaab fighters took control of Gurael - 370 km (230 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu - following three days of bitter battles with a government-allied group in the area, locals said. The fighting broke out after al-Shabaab fighters arrested a local religious teacher of that group.
"Hey! Gitcher mitts off our holy man!"
"I have counted 10 dead men myself. Six died yesterday and four were lying in the paths of the deserted town this morning. It is now under control of al-Shabaab," one local resident, Ali Aden, told Reuters by telephone from the area.
Meanwhile, more than 5,000 Gurael residents fled to the protection of nearby woods.
The capture of Gurael adds to the growing hold that al-Shabaab fighters have gained across south and central Somalia in a two-year insurgency against government and rebel forces. This is while al-Shabaab forces also took over the two central Somali towns of Mataban and Dhusamareeb on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Shoulda just shot the god-botherer. It'd cause less trouble in the end.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- Five men charged with plotting the Sept. 11 attacks told a military judge Monday that they want to immediately confess at their war-crimes tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, setting up likely guilty pleas and their possible executions.
The five said they decided to abandon all efforts to defend themselves against the capital charges on Nov. 4, the day Barack Obama was elected to the White House. It was as if they wanted to rush toward convictions before Obama -- who has vowed to end the war-crimes trials and close Guantanamo -- takes office. The hamster wheels in this guy's brain are overheating -- "But you'll be safe with Obama! Hope! Chaaaange!"
Right out of the al-Qaeda playbook, designed to use our justice system against us ...
Abruptly reversing course on previous attempts to defend themselves in the death-penalty case, the five announced they wanted to drop all motions presented on their behalf. The judge said competency hearings were pending for two of the detainees, precluding them from immediately filing pleas.
In a letter the judge read aloud in court, the five defendants said they "request an immediate hearing session to announce our confessions."
The letter implies they want to plead guilty, but does not specify whether they will admit to any specific charges.
The judge, Army Col. Stephen Henley, asked Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his co-defendants if they were prepared to enter a plea. So far, Mohammed and three others said they agreed with the letter; the fifth remained to be questioned by the judge.
Mohammed, who has already told interrogators he was the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, also told the judge Monday that he had no faith in him, his Pentagon-appointed lawyers or President George W. Bush. Sporting a chest-length gray beard, Mohammed said in English: "I don't trust you." "The feeling is mutual."
The pretrial hearings this week could be the last court appearance for the high-profile detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The first U.S. war-crimes trials since World War II are teetering on the edge of extinction. The Great and Wonderful Oz Obama opposes the military commissions -- as the Guantanamo trials are called -- and has pledged to close the detention center holding some 250 men soon after taking office next month. "I pledged to close the Guantanamo prison and I have done so. They've all been moved to McMurdo Sound."
Nine relatives of victims of the 2001 al-Qaida attacks were on hand to observe the hearings at this Navy base in southeastern Cuba, but were not visible in video images relayed to a press room nearby. Five were chosen by military lottery like civilian lottery, but with guns
and they brought four other relatives with them.
Henley was assigned to the case after the previous judge resigned for undisclosed reasons in November. The defendants, who are representing themselves, were also expected to question Henley about whether any conflicts would prevent him from impartially overseeing the death-penalty case.
No trial date has been set, and it is all but certain none will begin before Obama takes office on Jan. 20. Still, the U.S. military is pressing forward with the case until it receives orders to the contrary.
"We serve the sitting president and will continue to do so until President-elect Obama takes office," said Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman. Interesting phrasing...
Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch, who is also an observer at this week's hearings, urged Obama to stand up for the Human Right of protecting American civilianstry terror suspects in federal court "where attention will focus on the defendants' alleged crimes rather than the unfairness of the commissions." I hope someone remembered to file littering charges for all those aircraft parts in lower Manhattan.
The military commissions have netted three convictions, but have been widely criticized by busybodies like Jennifer for allowing statements obtained through harsh truncheons interrogations and hearsay to be admitted as evidence.
The victims' family members were expected to watch from a gallery at the rear of the cavernous, high-security courtroom and will not be allowed to address the defendants. Maureen Santora, whose firefighter son Christopher was killed at the World Trade Center, says she wants to lock eyes with those accused of killing her son and 2,972 others in the bloodiest terrorist attacks ever on U.S. soil.
Relatives of about 30 more victims, mainly firefighters, have given Santora memorial cards that she planned to bring into court "to know their spirit is with us."
#3
"They wanted to RUSH towards convictions before Obama ....takes office" > OKAY MADONNA, I'LL BITE, IS PENN STATE PROFESSOR = AL QAEDA #3 KHALID TRYING HARD NOT TO SAY HE, etc. DESIRES TO STAY IN THE US = US FACILITY EVEN IFF IT MEANS BEING IMPRISONED IN CONUS, i.e. a dedicated Enemy of the USA prefersto stay wid his Enemy, NOT HIS OWN CAMP OR OTHER [handover]???
Security forces gained control of Bara Bandai and Ningolai areas of Swat on Sunday, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
A spokesman for the ISPR said the troops completed a military operation around 4pm, establishing the writ of the government in the areas with the support of the locals. The conclusion of the operation was followed by the distribution of sweets and essentials among residents, said the spokesman.
In Bajaur Agency, unidentified assailants targetted the house of a tribal laskher's chief with rockets late on Saturday, but Malak Mansab Khan and his family escaped unhurt. The assailants fled after the tribesmen retaliated.
Meanwhile on Sunday, security forces targeted suspected Taliban positions with artillery and mortars in Nawagai and Mamoond tehsils, but there was no report of casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Indian police said Saturday that they are questioning two suspects accused of illegally purchasing cellphone cards that might have been used by the gunmen who carried out the attacks in Mumbai last month. The suspects, Tausif Rehman, 28, and Mukhtar Ahmed Sheik, 35, were arrested Friday night on allegations that they used forged documents to buy the cards, police said.
"We are questioning them about procurement of SIM cards used in Mumbai," Jawed Shamim, deputy commissioner of police in Kolkata, where the arrests were announced, told the Reuters news agency. SIM, or subscriber identity module, cards allow the transfer of data from one phone to another.
Mumbai police officials earlier traced some of the SIM cards used in the Mumbai attacks to West Bengal state, whose capital is Kolkata.
Police initially dismissed the notion that any domestic support network had been involved in the operation, which the Indian government says was carried out by a militant group based in Pakistan. But in the past three days, Indian officials have been trying to determine whether some Indians provided logistical help to the gunmen.
Pakistan has denied involvement in the attacks, which left more than 170 people dead and more than 230 injured.
Police said Rehman, who was arrested in Kolkata, allegedly supplied at least 22 cellphone cards to Sheik, who was arrested in New Delhi and is of Kashmiri origin. The two were remanded until Dec. 19.
"Thirteen such SIM cards were bought by Tausif, which were passed on to Sheik. Some of these cards were used by terrorists involved in the attack in Mumbai," the public prosecutor in Kolkata, S. Pathak, told the Press Trust of India.
However, a senior police official told the Associated Press that Sheik was part of a semiofficial counterinsurgency network and may have been on an undercover mission.
In Mumbai, Joint Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria said a diary found aboard a fishing trawler hijacked by the attackers provided proof "that there were only 10 gunmen on the boat." The diary named the 10 people and described each person's task -- some would watch out for the coast guard, others would cook, and others would steer the boat.
Maria said authorities were searching "for anyone here or elsewhere in India who might have aided the attackers."
This article starring:
Mukhtar Ahmed Sheik
Tausif Rehman
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Pakistan suspends a supply line to NATO forces in Afghanistan after the Taliban burned into ashes about 150 NATO trucks in north-west Pakistan.
The decision came just hours after a logistics terminal in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, where dozens of trucks carrying Humvees and other military vehicles were parked, was attacked by insurgents on Sunday. More than 300 Taliban militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles burned down the logitics terminal.
Earlier in November Pakistan suspended traffic through the Khyber road -connecting Pakistan to Afghanistan- for several days after Taliban-linked militants hijacked more than a dozen trucks on the their way to Afghanistan.
The Khyber road from Pakistan's Peshawar to Afghanistan is a major supply route for US and Western forces fighting against the Taliban insurgents. There have been a series of attacks on US and NATO convoys recently - although not on this scale.
Sunday's raid is being described by many security experts in the region as the most serious of such recent attacks. It has fueled concerns that Taliban insurgents are tightening their hold in Pakistan's tribal belt and could choke the supply route.
The al-Qaeda and Taliban linked militants holed up in the volatile north-west Pakistan have threatened to cut the supply line if US forces in Afghanistan continue strikes on their hideouts.
The move would greatly hamper the operations of the US-led forces against the Taliban militants in Afghanistan, experts say. More than 70,000 foreign troops under the command of NATO and the US military are stationed in Afghanistan where the Taliban has made a come back since 2005.
Pakistan's tribal areas are seen as a safe haven for Taliban militants, after a US-led invasion toppled their regime in Afghanistan in 2001.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
This could get very interesting, methinks.
Anyone here an off-the-shelf expert on our LOC into Afghanistan, and what interruption or complication of the Pakistan route in question might mean?
Alternative route? How much comes straight up through Baluchistan, if any? In extremis, might we "secure" an alternate route, and what sort of fun might that imply?
#5
I think about 80% of US/NATO supplies come through the Khyber Pass, 10% through Russian railroads, through the Stans and in through the North, and 10% Gwadar-Quetta-Kandahar.
This Strategy Page piece says it's 75% through Khyber, and that negotiations are underway to move large tonnages on the Trans-Siberian RR. From the looks of it, the Strategy Page bot harvested that info from this WaPo article.
#6
#4 So, how many Indian divisions would it take to maintain the LOC? Posted by: Procopius2k
Before or after the US puts a major hurt on the Pakistanis, P2K? The US should take out the Pak nukes, break a LOT of heads in Islamabad, and totally crush any large gatherings of Pakistani troops (more than six people in one place). Then Pakistan could be divided into two parts - India to the east, and Afghanistan to the west. That would unify the Pashtuns, which should please that group. It would give the Baluchis a bit of breathing room, which should please them. India would have all of Jammu & Kashmir, which should please them. Most of the madrassas would be either blasted to bits or quietly disbanded, which should allow the rest of the world to breathe a little easier. The market for fake Pakistani passports would dry up, which should help put a stop to a LOT of sh$$. ISI would disappear, which should bring the threat levels in about 20 countries down to acceptable levels. A lot of British indigents would have to make a major decision - accept British, Indian, or Afghanistani citizenship, or find themselves people wihtout a country. A group of people who have no idea how to run a modern government no longer have to worry about it. I see no drawbacks, personally.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/08/2008 12:58 Comments ||
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#7
Its coming down to Pakistan being dismembered. Its about as integral a nation as Yugoslavia was.
#8
But give the Paki govt one last shot: either they exert sovereignty in those tribal areas, or we will consider them to be unruled and lawless -- and therefore open to any measures we deem fit.
#9
It's the Russians who may tip the scales here, particularly if they get ham handed in squeezing supply lines through the former SSRs.
Old Spook, I wonder if Pakistan is even less coherent that Yugoslavia. Sure, the slavs were split three ways, or more, in confession, dialects, and ethnicity, but Marxism, under whatever variant, imposed a levelling misery across the board. The advantage of lifting that burden generally outweighed the return to more local prejudices - at least the rest of eastern europe indicates as much, while the yugo breakup ran the spectrum from relatively cordial to bad/near Rwandan.
I wonder how a Pak breakup would play out, beyond OP's outline - it seems India would reconstitute the Raj, which I suspect would be fine with many from the Punjabi and Sindh.
But the die hard leftovers really would be just that.
1. So far, no heavy duty response from the Mumbai attacks. So ISI elements and the other terrorists think that India is weak.
2. So some ISI geniuses think that since it is the end of the Bush presidency, that it would be an opportune time to disrupt the logistical flow of materiel to Afghanistan, as they figure that the President is not going to make waves this late in his term of office.
3. Despite big talk from the Big O, they figure that he will also do nothing or the minimum.
4. The Pak army will not go seriously into the tribal regions and deal with the terrorists.
5. The Pak army will not seriously challenge the ISI and clean it up.
So they figure that this is a perfect time to create mayhem and try to run us out of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/08/2008 20:40 Comments ||
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#13
Another terminal attacked!
Suspected militants in the Pakistani city of Peshawar have attacked another terminal holding Nato-bound equipment, the second such attack in two days.
The attackers struck the terminal on the outskirts of the city, torching up to 50 vehicles.
On Sunday a guard was killed and more than 90 lorries were set on fire when 300 gunmen attacked the first terminal.
The road from Peshawar to Afghanistan is a major supply route for US and Western forces battling the Taleban.
Lightly armed
Monday's attack took place just 2km from the scene of the first raid in the early hours of Sunday.
A security guard, Mohammad Zaman, told Reuters news agency that Monday's attackers "came just past midnight, firing in the air, sprinkled petrol on containers and then set them on fire".
"They told us they would not harm us, but they asked us not to work for the Americans," he said.
Terminals in Peshawar have only lightly armed guards who are deployed to tackle theft rather than insurgent raids.
But raids on terminals supplying US and Nato forces in Afghanistan are increasing.
The US played down Sunday's attack, saying the incident was "militarily insignificant".
But the BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says that with 300 lorries crossing the border each day, military officials will be deeply concerned that their supply line can be disrupted in this manner.
Witnesses said Sunday's attackers destroyed 96 flat trucks and six containers.
The manager of the depot, Kifyatullah Khan, told Associated Press: "They were shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Great) and Down With America."
Security along the road leading to the border has deteriorated this year with soldiers recently carrying out an offensive in the Khyber region to drive militants away from the outskirts of Peshawar, the main city in the north-west.
Taliban militants launched a pre-dawn raid on NATO terminals in Pakistan Sunday, torching nearly 160 supply trucks and other vehicles destined for troops in Afghanistan, police said.
About 250 heavily armed militants attacked two major terminals in the northwestern city of Peshawar, disarming security guards before dousing the trucks in petrol and setting them alight.
One guard was killed in the audacious attack, which also destroyed two armored vehicles, two fire engines, ammunition containers and 89 jeeps meant for international troops in Afghanistan.
Police described the attack, on three different locations in the city, as the biggest of its kind so far.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#3
Police officer Qamar said the number of guards at the terminal had been increased in the wake of the earlier attack, but they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of militants.
#6
Pakistan has reportedly warning that, iff India unilater attacks and sends troops into Pakistani territory in response to MUMBAI, it will give arms to local Taliban and other Islamist Militant Groups to fight agz the Indian invader???
MUZAFFARABAD: An operation was launched by army personnel on the outskirts of the Azad Kashmir (AK) capital on Sunday, on a site housing some infrastructure currently used by Jamaat-ud-Dawa (Jud), an organisation headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed.
Sources said over 20 members of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), including its AK chief were arrested. The wanted LeT commander, Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi was also reportedly amongst those arrested.
But will they hand him over to India or will the ISI hide him?
More likely the ISI will have a feast in his honor ...
There were reports that such action has also been planned in major cities in the Punjab Province.
However, there was no official confirmation from the Interior Ministry or the Inter Services Public Relation (ISPR) on the crackdown, despite frequent requests by the media. Local police and civil administration officials were completely in the dark about the operation and did not hide their ignorance in this regard.
"We know nothing! Nothing! Tell them, Hogan!"
However, residents said that they saw army personnel taking control of the area along Shawai Nullah, some 5 kilometres northwest of Muzaffarabad, where JuD owns a sizeable piece of land and several buildings.
Earlier, before being the ban was imposed, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), founded by Hafiz Saeed, occupied this area.
'I saw an army helicopter hovering over the area and later at around 5 pm I heard two to three loud bangs,' a housewife told Dawn from the area by telephone.
Another witness said: 'The helicopter landed at one spot and may have airlifted the people detained or injured during the operation.' There were unconfirmed reports of an exchange of fire between the two sides.
The army personnel had also called ambulances from the city hospitals to the area, but witnesses said they returned without any casualties. According to witnesses, army personnel were also intercepting and checking public transport vehicles at Chehla Bandi, bound for the Neelum valley.
A JuD official denied any knowledge of an operation against the organisation.
This article starring:
Hafiz Saeed
Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi
Posted by: john frum ||
12/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: A key leader in al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) was arrested during a security operation in downtown Baaquba city, a local police chief said on Sunday. "On Sunday, police forces carried out a military operation that targeted an al-Qaeda hideout in Old Baaquba area, (downtown Baaquba), and arrested Mohammed Alwan Mareed, nicknamed 'Emir of al-Muqdadiya'," Staff Maj. Gen. Abdelhussein al-Shamri said in statements to Aswat al-Iraq. Earlier today, 19 al-Qaeda gunmen were arrested during operations in different parts of Diala province.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: A wife of an al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) leader, along with two of her sisters, was killed in an explosion that tore through a house in Diala's Balad Rouz district, according to a local security source. "An improvised explosive device (IED) detonated inside a house of an al-Qaeda leader in Balad Rouz district (45 km east of Diala), killing his wife and two of her sisters," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. The AQI leader was not inside the house at the time of the blast, the source added, providing no further details.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
A sign from God, perhaps? Probably not if you're a terrorist.
The mayor of the Iraqi city of Baquba was among 35 people wounded in a roadside bombing in the restive provincial capital northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, medical and security sources said.
General Raghem al-Omairi, head of military operations in the city, was injured along with Mayor Abdullah al-Khayali by the bomb, Baquba General Hospital medic Ahmed Alwan told AFP. Two journalists from local television channel Dijla, eight policemen, six anti-Qaeda militiamen and 17 civilians were also among the wounded, the doctor said.
The blast happened when Khayali and Omairi and a heavy escort were visiting the town's old market on the eve of the Eid al-Adha festival, the sources said.
The police officers and officials had been removing concrete barriers placed across downtown streets in Baquba two years ago, when ethnic and sectarian bloodshed raged across Iraq and Baquba, a volatile and religiously mixed city, was a war zone.
"They were just walking along in a group when they reached an electrical appliance store. Suddenly a powerful blast happened. The front of the store was totally destroyed," said Ali Abu Shahad, a Sunni Arab patrolman who witnessed the blast.
Violence has fallen significantly in Iraq this year but insurgents are still capable of carrying out bloody attacks.
Tensions remain high in Diyala between majority Shiites and Sunni Arabs, some of whom initially sided with al-Qaeda, ahead of provincial elections next year and the withdrawal by mid-2009 of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities and towns.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Sri Lankan troops have killed scores of Tamil Tiger rebels in the past few days and are within "kissing distance" of their political capital, the defence ministry said Sunday. Forces were moving towards the key town of Kilinochchi and inflicting high casualties on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the ministry said. "Troops are now positioned in kissing distances to the outer defence lines of the LTTE's administrative heartland and main garrison township," it said. The military "have caused great damages to LTTE leaving scores killed and as many injured during the past few days," the defence ministry said. It said troops found 11 bodies of Tiger cadres on Saturday. The ministry did not give details of its casualties, while there was no comment from the guerrillas. The LTTE has admitted losing ground to government troops but their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has vowed to fight on. The battle zone is inaccessible to journalists and aid workers, meaning claims and counter-claims about the fighting are impossible to verify. The guerrillas, who began their struggle for a separate Tamil homeland in 1972, are facing the Sri Lankan army's biggest-ever push to defeat the rebels militarily.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/08/2008 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
