A proposed $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, one of the largest-ever U.S. weapons sales, marks the consolidation of America as the kingdom's main arms supplier after years of strain following 9/11.
The deal, which includes Boeing F-15SA Strike Eagle fighters, also underlines Riyadh's determination to confront the threat it perceives from Iran, Saudi Arabia's rival for regional supremacy and leadership of the Muslim world.
The Pentagon advised the U.S. Congress of the proposed multi-layered deal, which is expected to win approval in September.
That's because the administration of President Barack Obama, committed to ensuring that its ally Israel retains its long-held qualitative military edge in the region, has assured Israeli leaders the Saudis won't receive cutting-edge technology, particularly long-range missiles.
Significantly, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington, has raised no public objections to the proposed deal with Riyadh. If that remains the case, pro-Israeli lawmakers will likely wave the deal through Congress.
There are other considerations. Saudi Arabia and Israel have found themselves linked by their deep fears of a nuclear-armed Iran.
This hardly makes allies out of these longtime foes. But, in a changing world, the Israelis appreciate that the more able Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf Arab states are stand up to Iran, and support U.S. forces in the region, the better off they will all be.
Word of the massive arms deal was first reported Aug. 13 in Washington. "Contacts for the deal were conducted secretly due to Saudi sensitivity," said Israeli analyst Yiftah Shapir of the Institute for National Security Studies.
Good to see B-desh doing something about it. Bad that they have the attacks in the first place.
Sick and thirsty housewife Popy Rani was too weak to move and has been failing to manage a glass of water. She sought help from her husband Prodip Bonik. Cruel Prodip brought a glass of acid for her. She drank the same in good faith, but landed in a hospital in a critical condition.(BSS, Dhaka)
After struggling many months for life Popy somehow managed to survive. And Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) took over the responsibility of her. Subsequently mother of the victim filed a case against criminal Pradip.
According to available statistics, a total of 50 people suffered injuries in acid attacks in the first four moths of the current year (2010). While 145 people fell victims to such attacks in the year 2009, 179 in 2008, 192 in 2007.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
09/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Like I've said, the punishment in all cases should be a full body acid dip, feet first...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/01/2010 8:08 Comments ||
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#2
Glaringly absent from this article is the motive for these so-called acid attacks. Maybe they should attempt to cure the disease rather then simply treat the symptoms.
#3
There's no outside cure for hatefulness, DepotGuy. But curbing hateful behaviour is useful for society. Let them seethe all they want, so long as they keep it inside their own skulls.
#4
Let them seethe all they want, so long as they keep it inside their own skulls. Not to mention that society's forceful response to various outrages does have a mysterious way of changing what goes on inside some people's skulls. Not that crime can be abolished altogether, but it can be (and has been) seriously diminished in some parts of the world as opposed to some other parts, like B-desh.
#5
How does anybody even think this stuff up? The fact that it happens often enough to be termed "acid-violence" is mind-blowing. There is something very wrong with the culture that produces it.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Tuesday renewed her warning against hooliganism and violent activities on campus in the name of Chhatra League or other fronts of Awami League. She also warned Chhatra League leaders for giving sanctuaries to Chhatra Dal and Chhatra Shibir activists in Chhatra League to serve their own personal interests.
Sheikh Hasina, who had withdrawn her name as organizational chief of the BCL on April 4, 2009 following unprecedented internal clashes of the student body, said Chhatra Dal and Shibir activists have intruded the BCL and they are staging various violent activities on the campuses using the name of BCL.
"Besides, there is a group which I should call Permanent Government Party. They always change their color and get mixed with the ruling party's people to take various opportunities from the government," the Prime Minister said.
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Hugo Chavez has made it clear that exchange controls will be a permanent measure to prevent "the oligarchy from taking the US dollars and depositing them in banks around the world."
However, based on official data, capital flight has continued at a rapid pace no matter exchange controls. Hugo's going where Bambi wants to go ...
The asset and liability accounts and the item entitled "errors and omissions" of the balance of payments prepared by the Central Bank of Venezuela have enabled Ecoanalítica, a Venezuelan research firm, to determine that in the first half of the year, the outflow of capital stood at USD 8.69 billion, an amount 10 percent higher than the figure reported in the same period of 2009.
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"permanent measure to prevent "the oligarchy from taking the US dollars and depositing them in banks around the world."
Aaaah, yea. Where I've heard that before... How dares the oligarchy to dilute Oogo's ability to take the US dollars and deposit them in banks around the world!
There can be only One! ($total - $1 billion of sold bonds = $7.69 billion; every maggot tin pot dictator does it--Oogo "knows" it's "good for the people")
Chinese nuclear negotiator Wu Dawei, who is on a visit to Japan, said he will make yet another "new proposal" to the countries involved in six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament, the Kyodo news agency reported Tuesday. 'yet another': even the South Koreans are jaded ...
Wu told Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, "North Korea is expressing hopes of the resumption of the talks, and we should create a new environment for an early resumption."
"But first let's resolve that whole table size/shape issue, and which tea will be served. We'll have to serve something more substantial than cookies, or the North Korean delegation won't have enough fuel to enable their brains to function. We can trust the South Koreans with that bit -- they know what their cousins like best."
The news agency speculated that Wu already laid out the proposal to Okada during the visit.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/01/2010 00:00 ||
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I prefer five-way talks. And the Norks can just listen.
#2
Six way talkers: China, the United States, North and South Korea, Japan, and Russia.
How about 3-way talks. Draw straws to see who nukes the Norks? Same with Iran except France and Israel should be included and any other interested parties. ...Just kidding.
From Ay Pee: The authorities had been watching the three lads for some time, intercepting poorly coded emails between ringleader Mikael Davud and an AlQaeda-in-Waziristan Number Three known as Ahmad, who was also guiding plots against the New York City subway and a shopping mall in Manchester, England. The NY and Manchester teams were arrested in 2009.
The plotters acquired a nice collection of ingredients to produce TATP ("Mother of Satan") and flour-peroxide bombs... although unknown to them they'd acquired something almost entirely unlike peroxide, thanks to a sneaky maneuver by the pharmacy at the behest of the Norwegian authorities.
But then Ahmad's boss died from an over-friendly Predator, Mr. Davud was called in to a meeting with the Turkish police while on vacation, and co-conspirator David Jakobsen decided he preferred to try his prospects as Mahmud the Weasel.
All in all, a successful exercise in international intelligence cooperation: top guys in untamed Waziristan killed, three terror teams rolled up, and undoubtedly more connections traced from this lot.
On July 8, 2010, German and Norwegian police arrested three terror suspects linked to a wider Al-Qaeda plot to stage terrorist attacks in Norway and other countries. Another arrest was made in Manchester, Britain, involving a Pakistani student named Abid Naseer. Those arrested in Norway and Germany were:
Shawan Saeed Bujak (37), an Iraqi Kurd living in Oslo. He was arrested in the German city of Duisburg and Norway asked to extradite him.
David Jakobsen (31), Uzbek living in Oslo who received a residence permit via family reunification.
Mikael Davud (39), Norwegian citizen of Chinese-Uighur background. Davud was formerly called Muhammad Rashidin but he changed his name in 2007.
Norwegian officials said the three men were planning to stage terrorist attacks in Norway using hydrogen peroxide bombs -- "the same type of homemade bombs allegedly planned in Manchester and New York," the London "Daily Telegraph" reported. This kind of bomb is also referred to as "Mother of Satan." The three men reportedly obtained the chemicals for the bomb in February or March this year. They are believed to be linked to the "East Turkestan Islamic Movement" (ETIM) and the "Islamic Jihad Union" (IJU). Both movements are close allies of Al-Qaeda and most of their recruits are Chinese Uighurs, ethnic Turks and Uzbeks.
Federal officials say a JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plant should give Muslim employees prayer time and not retaliate against workers who ask to pray.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit Monday on behalf of more than 80 Somali Muslims.
A message left at JBS Swift's U.S. headquarters in Greeley wasn't immediately returned.
Hundreds of Muslim workers walked off the job at the Grand Island, Neb., plant during Ramadan in 2008, saying they needed time to pray at sunset and break a day-long fast. Management adjusted the work schedule the next day.
Non-Muslims protested and the accommodations ended. The company fired 86 Muslims for walking off the job and said the firings weren't about religion.
#1
The "US Government" also sued Arizona again on Friday, suing an Arizona College for refusing to hire non-citizens for a job opening. The war against Americans is now from the so called US "Federal Government".
A Pakistani military delegation became the latest victim of the paranoia says this Pakistani paper permeating US airports on Monday night, when US security officials detained a brigadier at Washington's Dulles airport on a complaint by a passenger who said he did not feel safe sharing the flight with the delegation. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean somebody isn't out to get you.
The brigadier was removed from the United Airlines flight, and others in this eight-member delegation were also detained after they disembarked. They were later released.
The dispute became a major diplomatic row as the delegation, offended by this treatment, decided to cancel an important meeting at the headquarters of the US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday, and return home.
By the time the US Department of Defence apologised to the delegation, their leader, a two-star naval officer, had already informed Islamabad where officials approved his decision to return home on Tuesday night. Or some ISI guys on a dry run?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/01/2010 06:08 ||
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The dispute became a major diplomatic row as the delegation,
Only our beloved State Department would see it as a "diplomatic row." I'm reasonably certain everyone else in the country was damn GLAD to see the arrogant little buggers gone!
Gates apologizes.....? For phuechs sake, where are we headed with this crowd.
#2
Members of official delegations should display their best manners with the local citizenry, lest they create a diplomatic row with their host country. Pakistan's generals, diplomats and even President Ten Percent should be furious with these mannerless fools for causing such problems at a time when Pakistan is dealing with a third of the country under water at the same time as the Tehrik-e-Taliban are causing such problems throughout the country.
I'd expect not to hear about the early retirements when this lot get home.
#3
There should have been a US miltitary or State escort from the embassy with them. If it was official business someone screwed this up and we get another black eye.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/01/2010 9:05 Comments ||
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Explaining why the delegation decided to cancel the meeting and return home, the official said it was basically because of the humiliating treatment by the TSA and airline staff.
I dunno, something doesnt smell right on this one. Were to believe that high-ranking brass is so sensitive that they pike on an important meeting just because they say they felt humiliated? It doesn't sound like a dry run. But my guess is they intentionally provoked their way out of attendance. Call it a twofer. Create an excused absence and another intolerance narrative - all in one swoop. Never mind its prolly just the phobic in me talking.
1) Childish;
2) Only if they could afford it;
3) Because they wanted it to be that way;
4) It seems nobody wanted to be there if the Pakistani government backed them up on this one;
5) Maybe the ISI was using this opportunity to do a little research on airline security.
#8
I checked on the United Airlines website. There are two choices Islamabad-->Tampa, both dreadful:
1. Islamabad -> Doha, Qatar -> London (Heathrow) -> Newark, New Jersey -> Tampa for a total of 21:34 hours flying time plus layovers plus an overnight in Newark
2. Islamabad -> Doha -> Washington, DC (Dulles) -> Tampa for a a total of 19:45 hours flying time plus layovers.
And the only flight out of Islamabad is at 4:45 a.m. local time. No wonder the gentlemen were cranky, even if they didn't fly coach the entire way. Nonetheless, properly trained soldiers should know when to keep it under control, no matter how manifest the caliphatist destiny.
As for "a major diplomatic row", I think only one of the parties is aware that it's major. The other side doesn't have a problem dissing military types, however midlevel they might be. Brigadiers are a triumph when invited to tea, but not so important when there are real generals have been getting fired.
#9
If they were that important they should have got military flight assigned for them at their end and then cleared at your end no brainer - and no i dont want to hear the excuse 'all military planes are involved in the flood disaster ', cos they arent
To me , they were teed up for a dry run without knowing , everyone knows folk are tetchy on flights at the moment , no harm done for ISI to see what happens
Posted by: Ebbavinter Dark Lord of the Hatfields4006 ||
09/01/2010 13:59 Comments ||
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Predators really need to start targeting folks around Rawalpindi.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
09/01/2010 14:32 Comments ||
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Another article on this had a headline like "Pakistani Military Mistaken for Terrorists".
Opportunity means something different to President Ten Percent ...
KARACHI: Pakistan would convert the disaster caused by the floods, with help of its people and the international community, into an opportunity, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Tuesday.
Talking to editors of Sindhi newspapers and TV channels at the CM's House, he said the efforts to restore normalcy would be long drawn, and would take at least ten percent two to three years.
"We have launched an international appeal and the response is very encouraging. We are determined to rebuild the entire damaged infrastructure," he added.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
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Yup, his people are suffering, but he sees it as an opportunity to shakedown the West for even more money...
Posted by: American Delight ||
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Like a chicken in every pot, now each family will have its own swimming pool?
KARBALA / Aswat al-Iraq: A total of 15,000 security elements have been deployed in Karbala within a tight security plan to secure the province on the occasion of the end of Ramadan and Imam Ali anniversary, a member of the Karbala councils security committee said on Tuesday.
Security authorities, in cooperation with the local government, have mapped out a comprehensive security plan within preparations for the end of Ramadan and the anniversary of Imam Ali, Jassem al-Fatlawi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The night of Ramadan 21 coincides with the anniversary of the death of Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb, the Prophet Muhammads cousin, the fourth Orthodox Caliph and the top holiest figure for Shiite Muslims, who has been assassinated by Abdulrahman Ibn Muljam, one of the Kharijites (rebels), on Ramadan 19, 40 on the Muslim Hegira calendar at al-Kufa Mosque.
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden held on Tuesday a meeting with leaders of al-Iraqiya List, with the participation of the lists members and a group of U.S. and Iraqi experts and advisors.
Biden met with Head of al-Iraqiya List Iyad Allawi and a number of the lists members at the office of Deputy Prime Minister Rafia al-Issawi, a statement from al-Issawis office said received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The meeting tackled the latest developments in the country and the importance to speed up the formation of the new government, the statement quoted Allawi as saying.
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JERUSALEM -- As Israel's prime minister flew to Washington for new Middle East peace talks, President Shimon Peres insisted on Tuesday that any future Palestinian state must be demilitarised. The Paleos can have a lightly-armed police force, enough to crack the heads of the splinter groups, but that's it until they prove themselves. In say, 2050 ...
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to the United States "determined to represent his people to implement a widely agreed solution here, namely to have a two-state solution, a Palestinian demilitarised, united, democratic country on the side of Israel," Peres said.
"All other solutions are dangerous," he told participants at a World Jewish Congress gathering in Jerusalem.
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Being leftist = inability to learn from past mistakes.
An Iranian newspaper said on Tuesday that France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy deserves to die after she condemned Iran's decision to stone a woman to death for adultery.
Typical of the Sharia set to demand death for refusal to accept one of their decisions. It is not for the kufr to question Allah's Chosen.
The hardline newspaper Kayhan first labeled Bruni-Sarkozy a prostitute on Saturday after the first lady signed a petition calling for the release of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.
Iranian state television has also accused Bruni-Sarkozy of "immorality." And again on Tuesday, Iranian state-controlled media repeated the prostitute charge.
#1
The French don't particularly care about upholding collective or international security, but if you mess with l'etat, then they will come down on you like a ton of bricks.
Notice the machine-gun toting security all over the place the next time you're in Orly or CDG airports, or the judge-jury-prosecutor rolled into one that is JL Bruguiere, aka France's "Terror Magistrate."
#2
Carla Brun-Sarkozy is deeply concerned about issues involving human rights and the stoning to death of women by a mad religion. Michelle Obama is deeply concerned about caloric intake. You decide.
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.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Tuesday renewed her warning against hooliganism and violent activities on campus in the name of Chhatra League or other fronts of Awami League. She also warned Chhatra League leaders for giving sanctuaries to Chhatra Dal and Chhatra Shibir activists in Chhatra League to serve their own personal interests.
Chinese nuclear negotiator Wu Dawei, who is on a visit to Japan, said he will make yet another "new proposal" to the countries involved in six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament, the Kyodo news agency reported Tuesday. 
