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Pakistan suicide attack kills 17: police
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 6: Politix
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Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Dia Mirza aka Miss Asia Pacific, 2000 aka Shikha in "Krazzy 4" (Bollywood) (age 29)



A Christine Keeler Moment
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/09/2010 0:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Interesting Tony Blair quote found in a left wing rag.

My informant recounted the one-time premier denouncing the current US president as dangerously left-wing. "The problem with Barack Obama," opined Blair, "is he's really a socialist."
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/09/2010 7:35 Comments || Top||


--Tech & Moderator Notes
About Wikileaks
To all good Rantburgers,

Our regulars have had a spirited discussion recently about the Wikileaks cables. Fred and the mods have had a discussion as well behind the curtain.

We mods are concerned about one specific issue in handling anything that might appear on Wikileaks: the concern that classified information might appear on Rantburg. That then would cause the Burg to be banned from computers owned/operated by the federal government, and that is something that we don't want.

We note some of Rantburg's readers work for the U.S. government in various capacities. If they open a web page that contains a WikiLeaks cable, they are required at a minimum to scrub their computer completely. If they do this multiple times their employment could be at risk. Rantburg will not be party to that, given these are the people actually fighting the War on Terror.

We are also reminded that classified information remains classified even if stolen and disseminated on the web.

Therefore, the mods will not permit posts that quote Wikileaks cables, nor will we permit posts that link directly to them. We will permit posts of news items about Wikileaks as long as they don't quote directly classified information. Posts that contain banned information will be deleted.

Thanks for your understanding.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/09/2010 09:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thank YOU for the work to keep Rantburg clean. It's like a minefield some days. Even on the drive home I find I'm too-often forced to quickly change the station when Wikileaks is mentioned in a news broadcast. Thank you.
Posted by: JonC || 12/09/2010 11:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Integrity, standards, operational security, consideration for others, patriotism....how refreshing! Would that our nation's leadership could do nearly as well.

Thank you Doctor.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/09/2010 12:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Those of us that had a security clearance are outraged at the process of leaking classified material. We took our responsibilities seriously then. There are problems with the process of classification, for sure. And Wikileaks has exposed bad policies and thought processes. However, there are unintended consequences of leaking classified information. I am appalled by the access of State Department cables. Who has set up the system of handling classified information there???

Even going back to Watergate. Those leaks started the open season on leaking anything to the media, regardless of content or consequences. And that is the crux of Wikileaks. There is no thought of consequences to nations or individuals. Pretty despicable and irresponsible.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/09/2010 12:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Thanks Fred, Doc and the Mod Squad. It has been somewhat frustrating.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/09/2010 12:30 Comments || Top||

#5  A firing squad at the Fort Leavenworth Disciplany Barracks for Private Bradley Manning would belay a signficant amount of my frustration.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/09/2010 12:43 Comments || Top||

#6  As a suggestion, for those who work in a capacity where there is sensitivity to such information, it might be good to keep a look out for any ban lists, keywords, or "special sensitivities" of topics, that if possible, could be provided to the mods.

This would be for "derivative" information that is not Wikileaks, per se, but will create annoyance. There is at least a good chance that those lists themselves would not be under security, so could be handy trouble avoidance guides.

And it could likely be addressed as easily as substituting Burgspeak for keywords.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/09/2010 13:00 Comments || Top||

#7  smart policy, thinking about the welfare of the 'Burgers, and patriotic as well. Thank you
Posted by: Frank G || 12/09/2010 13:55 Comments || Top||

#8  As someone with 3 USG email accounts (if you know what I mean), I applaud your efforts to keep this site clean.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 12/09/2010 15:06 Comments || Top||

#9  "As a suggestion, for those who work in a capacity where there is sensitivity to such information, it might be good to keep a look out for any ban lists, keywords, or "special sensitivities" of topics, that if possible, could be provided to the mods."

Google chrome had an add-on for blocking the RTHVN sites....Just need the specific html's in a text list. Something similar to that for wikileaks and other sites to posted content may help.
Posted by: newc || 12/09/2010 17:53 Comments || Top||


Update on Rthvn...
A repeat post from Fred yesterday.... --- I, too, wish there were a meter, to cheer Rantburgers on. But, he doesn't. So know this, he needs a thousand more than is currently in his account. And now, AP has gone the route of Rfhvn...... so if you can't do without Rantburg... well, you know what to do.
I reached agreement with Righthaven the beginning of October. I've been waiting for the paperwork since then. Squire Cingold called me to see how it was going and I told him, and he called them for me to see what was up. In the course of the resulting poopstorm they said they sent me the papers by email the day I talked to them, plus a followup. Never saw any of them -- presumably eaten by Gmail's spam filters, even though I got their latest holler.

Anyway, I'm not supposed to disclose the amount of the settlement by the terms of the agreement, but it's more than is currently in the Rantburg bank (or in my checkbook after paying for a new HVAC system in October...) So if you've got spare change, please kick in. By this point it's easier to spend four digits to make it go away than to spend five digits defending it, which is what they count on.
Posted by: MOD for Fred || 12/09/2010 01:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I have contributed.

Question: as I understand it, these scumbags are using a loophole. There was something about registering as a news organization and a small fee to some govt org. I remember no details.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 12/09/2010 6:58 Comments || Top||

#2  It's extortion plain and simple.
Posted by: newc || 12/09/2010 8:29 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't like it in principle either, but I'm in, Fred.
Posted by: Frank G || 12/09/2010 8:59 Comments || Top||

#4  I hit the tip jar, too. It may be extortion, but unless Fred has a d*mn good pro-bono lawyer and is willing to sit on his thumbs waiting for the wheels of justice (sometimes for years), I believe he did what he needed to do to get this behind him.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/09/2010 9:19 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm hoping that at some point down the pike EFF or somebody like them will put together a class action and hit Rgthvn and the deep pockets behind them for large dollars, perhaps even a few bucks for those of us victimized.

  • Barratry & maintenance, yes.
  • RICO, yes (but doesn't fall a under tort law).
  • Extortion, yes.
  • Abuse of the legal system, yes.
  • A couple dozen things that don't spring to my aging mind immediately, yes.
  • Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2010 10:30 Comments || Top||

    #6  Fred---I can contribute on the 15th. Will it help on that date?
    Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/09/2010 11:53 Comments || Top||

    #7  It always helps. Anything not made up here comes out of my pay check.
    Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2010 13:40 Comments || Top||

    #8  http://is.gd/isbiU

    They have just announced they are going to sue Matt Drudge.
    Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/09/2010 14:10 Comments || Top||

    #9  Fred, I'll be sending a check on the 15th - hope that's OK.


    "They have just announced they are going to sue Matt Drudge."

    They may find they've bitten off a little more than they can chew there.... :-D
    Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 12/09/2010 15:32 Comments || Top||

    #10  Wish it could of been more...
    Posted by: jay-dubya || 12/09/2010 15:35 Comments || Top||

    #11  On the waaaaay.
    Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/09/2010 16:44 Comments || Top||

    #12  Done. I hope that the swine all come down with a nasty case of sepsis this year.
    Posted by: remoteman || 12/09/2010 17:00 Comments || Top||

    #13  pitched a tad into the kitty... drudge will shine the light into the crevices where these roaches live
    Posted by: abu do you love || 12/09/2010 17:23 Comments || Top||

    #14  There was something about registering as a news organization and a small fee to some govt org. I remember no details.

    Whiskey Mike, since this started Fred did register with the government and pay his $100+ fee (I don't remember exactly how much). Before, it had seemed an extravagance for a hobby site that costs him out of pocket rather than bringing in income.

    For those of you who are hobby bloggers, contact Fred and he'll tell you what to do. Until Rthvn is vanquished, you all are at risk.
    Posted by: trailing wife || 12/09/2010 21:00 Comments || Top||


    Afghanistan
    Think tank says go Commando after 2014 in Afghanistan
    Posted by: Jeremiah Flainter9609 || 12/09/2010 03:12 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  Tens of thousands of U.S. Special Operations and conventional forces, drone strikes and intelligence operatives. At least $25 billion per year, spent indefinitely. Plus the loss of a squad a month. Seems a good estimate. I doubt the electorate will endure it.
    Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/09/2010 8:06 Comments || Top||

    #2  It's been sixty-five years and some retired generals weren't even born when WW II ended, much less started. Ditto most of the population.
    Nevertheless, the end state of WW II seems to be the model for "winning" a war. Smash the offenders flat, kill millions of their citizens, as well as their soldiers, occupy them, sit on them, remake their societies.
    Last time that happened was probably when the Romans finally took Carthage.
    After Napoleon was defeated, the Allies put a Bourbon back on the French throne and allowed the French to go their own way. After WW I, there were some short-term, limited occupations for reparations purposes of Germany.
    After the US Civil War, Lincoln's advice to "let'em up easy" was more or less followed.
    The idea that Afghanistan, given Pakistan's situation, the amorphous nature of Islamism, the funding from the Gulf States, is going to give us a peaceful and congenial end state is nonsense.
    Thus, the question of what else is to be done must arise, and the answers are not going to be a peaceful and congenial end state as we got used to by thinking of WW II.
    But the answers have to be...something.
    Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 12/09/2010 8:47 Comments || Top||

    #3  At some point, there should be consideration by someone, not us, of smuggling in, and detonating, an extremely dirty nuclear device directly beneath the center of Mecca.

    One that will annihilate all traces of the 1km diameter center of the city, its buildings and the Kaaba, and leave a large radioactive exclusion zone around it by adding a selection of very long half life isotopes. Ideally, the rest of the residents will have to leave the city.

    1km of utter destruction would probably require 3-5mt.
    Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/09/2010 10:24 Comments || Top||

    #4  Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
    Posted by: Excalibur || 12/09/2010 13:55 Comments || Top||

    #5  I see your nuke and raise an asteroid.
    Posted by: Water Modem || 12/09/2010 19:09 Comments || Top||

    #6  I see your nuke and raise an asteroid.

    Nukes come from people. Asteroids are sent by God. Who is shuttling the supplies up to the Space Station nowadays?
    Posted by: trailing wife || 12/09/2010 21:04 Comments || Top||

    #7  Is this the kind of commando they are talhing about?

    Posted by: Guillibaldo Unusing2147 || 12/09/2010 23:22 Comments || Top||


    17 Insurgents Surrender to Afghan Government
    [Tolo News] Seventeen Taliban beturbanned goons including their commanders have layed down their arms surrendering to government in Northern Kunduz province, officials said
    See? The Chieu Hoi program's working!
    Ten Talibs including their commander, named Mohammad Nabi, have surrendered to government forces in Imam Sahib District of Kunduz on Wednesday, said chief of the 303 Pamir zone, Gen. Dawood Dawood.

    They have handed all their weapons over to the government forces, he added.

    On Monday seven hard boyz including their commander Abdul Aziz laid down arms and resumed normal life, local officials said.

    The Taliban have yet to comment on this.

    According to reports nearly 500 hard boyz have laid down arms in the past one month and joined the grinding of the peace processor in Afghanistan.

    Kunduz is one of the volatile provinces of Afghanistan where Afghan and foreign forces have recently escalated counter-insurgency operations to improve security in the province.
    Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

    #1  It's winter, and cold outside. Surrender, get housed and fed and 'rehabilitated', then get released for the spring fighting.
    Posted by: Glenmore || 12/09/2010 9:16 Comments || Top||

    #2  It's winter, and cold outside. Surrender (sort of), receive amnesty, admit nothing, inform on no one, refuse biodata processing, get paid in USD, get pat on the back, get housed and fed and 'rehabilitated', then get released for the spring fighting.

    Just a couple of add-ons (highlighted).
    Posted by: Besoeker || 12/09/2010 9:21 Comments || Top||


    Africa Horn
    Somali Pirate on when negotiate or kill hostages
    Posted by: Frozen Al || 12/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    Africa North
    Al-Qaeda brigade leaders killed in Boumerdes
    [Maghrebia] Algerian security services killed the two leaders of the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb brigade in corpse-littered Boumerdes, Tout sur l'Algerie reported on Monday (December 6th). "El Arkam" brigade emir Habib Mourad, (aka Nouh), 25, and his communications chief, Abdeslam Samir, 33, were ambushed Sunday night in Bordj Menaiel. Mourad, who led the terror group's operations in corpse-littered Boumerdes and Tizi Ouzou, was suspected of involvement in the May 2009 liquidations of Zemmouri judicial police mobile brigade (BMPG) commander Mohamed "Taha" Touati and local official Nordine Ghazi.
    Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


    Home Front: WoT
    Cyber Anarchy - Julian Assange and the slow stupefaction of the state
    Posted by: Besoeker || 12/09/2010 09:45 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  In practical terms, wikileaks and their secret army of internet vandals represent nothing less than a global coup dÂ’etat by the media-industrial complex and its adherents.
    The objective is to remove the power of governments entirely, at least free or accountable governments, and substitute the media culture as the final arbiter of policy.
    WikileaksÂ’s supporters and apologists are almost entirely associated with the media culture and its values, including its political arm (democratic socialists, left-leaning parties of all kinds); and its enforcers, (anarchists, NGOs, lefty agitators).
    Their targets are non-media power centers of any kind. They have not targeted totalitarian governments for two reasons:
    -The media culture's well-documented affinity for totalitarianism (think "Che t-shirt").
    -It would not be cost-effective. Totalitarian governments are much less vulnerable to, and accountable for, security leaks; and they are more willing than the democracies to exact a very high price for those leaks.
    Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/09/2010 17:38 Comments || Top||

    #2  that "secret army of internet vandals" is nothing less than angry people who have nothing organisationally to do with Wikileaks at all, who lashed out at the interference of the State in civic society.

    The Government rules at the will of the people.

    The Government starts meddling in daily life, the people will remove the Government. We have a vote, remember. Government is answerable at the end of the day to the public.

    I don't think Wikileaks' objective is to remove the power of governments entirely at all.

    It is simply to hold them accountable so that their actions reflect the will of the people that voted them in.

    And as they lie to us the public does not know if that is the case.

    As evidence I point out to you the very clear video of US Forces gunning down two Reuters employees standing in a group of people.

    You can clearly see the camera is not an AK-47.

    Then shooting up as wounded survivors try to get away.

    Then shooting up the van that comes to rescue them, which has two children in it.

    Then showing the Department of Defence lying about it in statements.

    Then a poor-res video was released around the time Reuters was issuing FOI requests... largely to whitewash the incident to make it look like you couldn't tell whether the camera was a weapon.

    But the real official video shows everything.

    Totalitarian Governments like executing journalists.

    It seems our Governments are moving towards totalitarianism: interfering in civic life.

    Pressuring companies to cut ties with a media outlet they don't like.

    Perverting the organs of law and justice to political ends.

    executing journalists

    calling for Assange to be executed.

    Go check out the video. It's on YouTube.

    You've been lied to. See how the Government spins. It's not just the US Government, my Government is just as guilty.

    We have an absolute right to be accurately informed about what our Governments are doing - because we are in a democracy.

    So if you want to see the truth go to YouTube and look for that Wikileaks video of the Reuters assassinations. It says everything about Wikileaks and why it is important.
    Posted by: anon1 || 12/09/2010 18:01 Comments || Top||

    #3  Whether you acknowledge it or not, anon, the effect of wikileaks is to destroy the power of governments, for good or ill.
    Whether the anonymous vandal gang has any formal contact with wikileaks is immaterial. They support it and seek to facilitate its objectives.
    Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 12/09/2010 18:09 Comments || Top||

    #4  Hello AC

    I don't think the effect of Wikileaks will destroy the power of Government.

    Government has demonstrated quite well in the last week that it has the power to persecute any and each of us through civic life: the courts, our bank accounts.

    The power of Government has grown very large, as has its power to control information through the old media outlets. They do this with secrecy and spin.

    Wikileaks' big threat is not to destroy governments but to limit their power and make them more accountable to their people.

    Posted by: anon1 || 12/09/2010 18:22 Comments || Top||

    #5  I tend to agree with both sides.

    I think Government has diworsified into things force cannot do well, i.e. Education, Schools, Retirement, "welfare", "fairness". This has come at the cost of things State force can do well, as well as cost to wealth creation.
    Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/09/2010 18:26 Comments || Top||

    #6  every time i start to read one of anon1's fanboy screeds (yes, i know her gender) i get a little sick and have to scroll down to keep from puking on my keyboard.
    Posted by: abu do you love || 12/09/2010 18:40 Comments || Top||

    #7  Posted by: abu do you love 2010-12-09 18:40
    You too? I thought it was only me *wink*
    Riddle me this Batman:
    Obama = Anti American Anti War bring America to its knees. Supported by Soros. End
    Wiki punks: same as above.
    Wiki does not have any info on Obama. Snort.
    When/if snicker Wiki comes up with :
    A. College records.
    B. Passport from Pakistan
    C. Original Birth Certificate (yes I know I know, Birther).
    D. ANY dirt on Obama.
    Call me @ 1-800-FUOB
    In the mean time it's all a dog and pony show.

    Posted by: Phavirong Wittlesbach7769 || 12/09/2010 18:57 Comments || Top||

    #8  If you go to Julian's blog (since deleted by him, but can be accessed here) you find the following entry:
    Sat 09 Jun 2007 : The United what of America?
    When you read that, what does it remind you of?
    Maybe Julian fancies himself as being a reincarnation of Mr Beale(played by Peter Finch, another Australian)from Network?
    Posted by: tipper || 12/09/2010 19:53 Comments || Top||

    #9  B. Passport from Pakistan

    Why a Pakistani passport, Phavirong Wittlesbach7769? I could understand a Malaysian passport, as his mother's second husband's stepson, or a visa to visit Pakistan, which he did with a Pakistani friend from university, over the Christmas holidays, I believe. What. of the infinite things that I don't know, would suggest President Obama was granted a Pakistani passport?
    Posted by: trailing wife || 12/09/2010 23:11 Comments || Top||

    #10  WikiLeaks isnt out to destroy the government; in their statements, its to destroy some kind of 'accidental conspiracy' of undemocratic forces that they believe have been effectively driving policy for the past decade; by forcing them to either become more secretive or be revealed, WikiLeaks believes that their channels of communication will be degraded to the point that they will not be in charge of policy anymore.

    Conspiracy theory stuff, I know, but they're not terrorists or anything, just nutballs inadvertantly doing a lot of damage.

    Anon1 is right that the current fiasco shows that the government does have far too much power to persecute people in civic life, but the way to fix that is through the polls, not through vigilantiism.

    Just my opinion :P
    Posted by: HEU || 12/09/2010 23:20 Comments || Top||

    #11  Just another in a list of non-state actors - terrorists, pirates, and now these clowns, demonstrating that the 'state' has wrapped itself up with legal rituals to the point of inaction. It is tightening itself into a Gordian knot. The non-state entities are acting outside the law - literally 'outlaws', and the priests of the law can't understand why just more laws aren't working.
    Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/09/2010 23:50 Comments || Top||


    A Bradley Manning Protege: Sailor at Bragg Sold Secret Documents
    Bryan Minkyu Martin, a low-level sailor stationed at Ft. Bragg, sold dozens of classified documents to an FBI agent posing undercover as a foreign intelligence officer, Navy investigators wrote in an unsealed warrant obtained by The Associated Press.

    Martin, 22, a petty officer in the Navy, was taken into police custody on Dec. 5, though he has not yet been charged.

    The warrant, filed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, reveals that Martin engaged in multiple transactions with undercover agents, collecting $3500 for the sale of 51 secret documents.

    He was paid $500 for secret documents in one meeting, and later given two payments of $1500 for even more files, according to the warrant. Of the 51 documents, "48 pages...were marked SECRET and three pages were marked TOP SECRET," the affidavit states, according to ABC News.

    Martin, who began his Naval career in 2006, was given top secret clearance, according to the AP.

    In his meetings with the FBI agents, the warrant states that Martin bragged he "could be very valuable" as a source of information over his likely 20-year future in the Navy, and also offered his access to classified network systems.

    Though Martin's security clearance was "significantly higher" than [Bradley] Manning's, according to ABC News, officials believe the "leak" never made it past the FBI.

    "Investigators have a high level of confidence that no classified informaition was actually delivered to any unauthorized persons and Martin is currently being held in the naval brig in Norfolk pending command's review of the investigative material," said Paul O'Donnell, a spokesman for NCIS, in a statement to ABC News.
    More details from Military.com
    According to a search warrant unsealed in federal court Friday, Martin sold secret and top secret documents in several staged buys of intelligence at two Spring Lake hotels.

    According to the search warrant, Martin was assigned to the Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg on Sept. 16. Two months later, on Nov. 15, Martin met an undercover FBI agent in the lobby of the Hampton Inn on Bragg Boulevard in Spring Lake, according to the warrant. The special agent, posing as a foreign intelligence officer, brought Martin to his room, where Martin discussed his access to military computer networks and classified networks, according to the warrant.

    Martin also told the agent that he was seeking "longterm financial reimbursement," and that he could be very valuable over a 15- or 20-year career, which he expected would take him to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the warrant says.

    Martin offered to bring the agent two documents at their next meeting and accepted $500 in cash from the agent, the warrant says.

    At a meeting the next day at the same hotel, Martin produced two documents one labelled "secret" and the other "top secret" and accepted $1,500 in cash, the warrant says. He agreed to meet the agent again Nov. 19, when he produced 51 pages of secret and top secret documents, according to the warrant. He was paid another $1,500, according to the warrant.

    Martin also failed to report the contacts to any member of his chain of command, the warrant says. The warrant authorized NCIS agents to search the room Martin was using at the Landmark Inn on Fort Bragg and his 2009 gold Nissan Altima. It does not address how Martin came under suspicion or how he came into contact with the undercover FBI agent.

    Buice (Ed Buice, a public affairs specialist for the Naval Criminial Investigative Service) would not clarify the matter Friday night, but said, "We have a high level confidence that classified information was not delivered to any unauthorized person."

    Martin enlisted in the Navy on Nov. 30, 2006, and completed basic training on July 20, 2007. He received a top secret clearance on Sept. 20, 2007, and was subsequently assigned to temporary duty with the Defense Intelligence Agency between May 9 and Aug. 22, according to the warrant.

    A spokesman for the Army's Special Operations Command referred all questions to NCIS.
    This article starring:
    Bryan Minkyu Martin
    Posted by: Sherry || 12/09/2010 01:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  This will continue and get worse until something really, really bad happens to these folks.
    Posted by: gorb || 12/09/2010 2:57 Comments || Top||

    #2  2,000 bucks? Are you serious, dude? Hope it was worth it, chump.
    Posted by: American Delight || 12/09/2010 5:45 Comments || Top||

    #3  He was this close to getting a key to the city of Berkeley like ol' Brad. Bummer, dude!
    Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 12/09/2010 7:37 Comments || Top||

    #4  gorb is spot on...SWIFT and FINAL action against Manning and these other treasonous tools is the only thing that will stop this!

    and the military CAN move swiftly...if so directed and that is the rub! Obumbler as C-in-C??? We're doomed.
    Posted by: Justrand || 12/09/2010 9:39 Comments || Top||

    #5  Unfortunately, we have become very lax in enforcing the laws against treason and espionage. Started in the 70's when two punks, Boyce and Lee, sold several billion dollars with of satellite technology (Keyhole)to the Russians for $10,000 and wound up with wrist slaps and a book and movie deal instead of a firing squad.
    Posted by: rwv || 12/09/2010 10:30 Comments || Top||

    #6  We need to back to drawing and quartering for these punks.
    Posted by: DarthVader || 12/09/2010 10:38 Comments || Top||

    #7  Both this latest POS and Manning need to be publicly hanged. That would be the best possible solution to both problems, and would send a clear message. The usual parties will get their panties in a wad, but that's just tough. Hang them, and let their bodies hang for three to five days before cutting them down. Of course, that would take someone with brass cojones, which leaves the current C-n-C totally out.
    Posted by: Old Patriot || 12/09/2010 11:40 Comments || Top||

    #8  "Started in the 70's when two punks, Boyce and Lee, sold several billion dollars with of satellite technology (Keyhole)to the Russians for $10,000 and wound up with wrist slaps and a book and movie deal"

    I guess that explains why Clinton felt he could get away with his shenanigans with Loral and the Chinese. I've never understood why he wasn't thrown out of office and imprisoned for that.
    Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 || 12/09/2010 13:00 Comments || Top||

    #9  Let us not forget Sandy Berger and his classified storage container undershorts.
    Posted by: Besoeker || 12/09/2010 13:04 Comments || Top||

    #10  i would be rather interested in a non-classified summary of the documents ol' sandy was stuffing in his socks.
    Posted by: abu do you love || 12/09/2010 18:35 Comments || Top||


    India-Pakistan
    Death toll rises to 15, over 20 wounded in Tirah Bazaar
    (KUNA) -- The corpse count of a suicide kaboom earlier Wednesday in Pak northern Kohat town is now up to 15, with over 20 others maimed, many seriously.

    District Coordinating Officer (DCO) Shahidullah Khan talking to newsmen at the scene said that this was a suicide kaboom and that the authorities have recovered the head and other parts of the suspected bombers body.

    However,
    The infamous However...
    he said, the kaboom destroyed a bus and not a barbers shop as being reported earlier. He said a jacket wallah went kaboom!" near a bus at the Tirah Bazaar bus station in the town.

    The DCO said the kaboom killed twelve people and maimed over twenty others. At least three more gave up the ghost in hospital.

    The DCO feared further rise in the corpse count as several of the maimed were at death's door.
    Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


    India says Indian Mujahideen bombed pilgrim city
    [Dawn] India said on Wednesday a home-grown Militant group with ties to Pak gun-hung tough guys was behind a bomb attack in one of its holiest cities, and local media reported two people were questioned over the attack.

    Home Secretary Gopal Pillai said traces of explosives were found at the site of Tuesday evening's blast in the northern city of Varanasi that killed a two-year old girl and injured 37 Hindu worshippers and foreign tourists.

    Pillai said the crude bomb was set off by the Indian Mujahideen
    A locally recruited auxilliary of Pakistain's Lashkar-e-Taiba, designed to give a domestic patina to Pakistain's terror war against its bigger neighbor...
    (IM), a local group India says has been trained by gun-hung tough guys based in Pakistain, including the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

    The IM grabbed credit for the attack in an email to local media, police said. That email was traced to a Mumbai suburb and two people were questioned over it, local media said.

    "The main players of Indian Mujahideen are based in Pakistain and they are definitely running the game from there," Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjeev Dayal told a presser.

    Pillai has said it was "too premature" to say if individuals or groups operating from Pakistain were involved.

    "The investigation is focusing on the clues we have, on suspicious characters who stayed in hotels there (Varanasi)," Pillai, the top bureaucrat in the interior ministry, told Rooters.

    No one has been jugged or nabbed, said R.P. Singh, a police brass hat said in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state where Varanasi is located.

    India remains jittery about the threat of snuffy strikes, especially since the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 which killed 166 people and raised tensions with arch rival Pakistain.

    New Delhi says Pakistain-based groups aid and train gun-hung tough guys to carry out attacks against India, a claim Islamabad rejects.

    Investors closely monitor any signs of an escalation in tensions between India and Pakistain, two nuclear-armed rivals who have fought three wars.

    MOSQUE ANNIVERSARY
    With hundreds of temples and shrines, Varanasi, on the sacred Ganges river, is the centre of Hinduism. Pilgrims flock to the city for a dip in the river, which they believe will wash away their sins.

    The Indian Mujahideen has in the past claimed several attacks, including the 2008 bombings in the tourist city of Jaipur that killed 63 people and a September 2010 attack on a tourist bus outside New Delhi's main mosque.

    Local media said the Indian Mujahideen, in the email claiming the attack, said the blast was retaliation for a court verdict over a disputed mosque site that gave two-thirds of the land to Hindu groups. The blast came a day after the 18th anniversary of the razing of the mosque by Hindu zealots.

    The demolition had led to some of the worst religious riots in India and remains a recruitment pitch for the snuffys.
    Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


    IJT students barge into PA premises
    [Geo News] The students of Islami Jamiat Talaba staged a protest in front of Punjab Assembly premises which soon turned into a violent show, Geo News reported Wednesday. The students transgressed into the Assembly's premises however, they could not make into the main hall thanks to heavy contingents of police. At least two vehicles were torched on the violent spot.
    Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami

    #1  At least two vehicles were torched on the violent spot.

    They have a designated area for carbeques?
    Posted by: Pappy || 12/09/2010 8:57 Comments || Top||

    #2  on the violent spot.

    a euphemism for "Pakistain" in general, I suppose
    Posted by: Frank G || 12/09/2010 9:00 Comments || Top||


    Pakistan suicide attack kills 17: police
    [Emirates 24/7] At least 17 people were killed in a suicide kaboom on a market in the northwestern Pakistain of Kohat on Wednesday, a senior police official said.

    The kaboom took place at a busy bus terminal in the garrison town's main Tirah bazaar, Kohat police chief Dilawar Bangash told AFP.

    "It was a suicide blast. The corpse count has risen to 17," he said, adding that 25 others were maimed, seven of them seriously.

    It is the latest bombing in a long series of attacks in Pakistain blamed on networks linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

    Local police front man Fazal Naeem said the bomber approached the door of a bus carrying passengers to the nearby tribal district of Orakzai and detonated his explosives.

    Television footage showed two damaged passenger vans parked at the terminal. A woman was crying while people tried to console her. Earlier it appeared the bomb was planted in a vehicle parked at the main bus stand, but Bangash said that "now we have found the head and legs of the jacket wallah".

    Bangash said it was not immediately clear who was the target. The victims were both Sunni and Shiite Mohammedans, he said.

    The blast, the third in as many days, is part of a new wave of bombing after a brief lull.

    A double suicide kaboom in the tribal district of Mohmand near the Afghan border killed 43 people on Monday.

    Police said two jacket wallahs dressed in police uniform attacked a meeting of anti-Taliban faceless myrmidons and pro-government elders in Ghalanai, about 175 kilometres northwest of Islamabad.

    A purported front man for the Pak Taliban grabbed credit for that attack, threatening death to anyone who forms militias against the Islamists.

    On Tuesday a jacket wallah tried to kill the chief minister of Pakistain's southwestern province of Baluchistan, damaging his motorcade but leaving the minister unhurt, officials said.

    The blast maimed nine people near the convoy of Nawab Aslam Raisani in Quetta, the capital of a province where separatist, sectarian and Taliban violence has surged this year.

    A purported front man for the banned bad boy group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
    ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ...
    grabbed credit, saying Raisani had been targeted for efforts to provide security to Shiite Mohammedans, who are frequently attacked in Baluchistan.

    Around 4,000 people have died in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistain since government forces raided an bad boy mosque in Islamabad in 2007. The attacks have been blamed on networks linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
    Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: TTP


    Israel-Palestine-Jordan
    Israeli warplanes strike Khan Younis, Rafah
    (KUNA) -- The Israeli Air Force carried out two separate attacks in Khan Younis and Rafah in the southern Gazoo Strip on Wednesday.

    The warplanes targetted Khan Younis in the south, bombarding a chicken farm and resulted in the injury of a civilian, who was then transported to a near hospital, said the local radio.

    Israeli forces also attacked the city of Rafah, targeting the tunnels on the borders with Egypt, it added.

    There were no reports of human or material losses, Paleostinian medical source noted.
    Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

    #1  Food was flyin' everywhere, I left without my hat...
    Posted by: 2sealys || 12/09/2010 7:53 Comments || Top||

    #2  Funny how the media reports immediately know exactly whether it was a terrorist or a civilian killed in these type of attacks.
    Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 12/09/2010 11:52 Comments || Top||


    Southeast Asia
    Indonesia on alert after church blast
    [Straits Times] INDONESIA will boost security over Christmas and New Year to prevent violence against Christians in the Mohammedan-majority country, police said on Wednesday.

    The alert came after a crude homemade bomb went kaboom! harmlessly at a church near Solo in central Java on Tuesday and another unwent kaboom! device was found at a church in the same area last week.

    'Ahead of Christmas and New Year, we'll enhance security measures to anticipate bomb threats... and church burnings,' national police front man Iskandar Hasan told news hounds.

    'The national police chief has ordered all police personnel across the country to coordinate with churches and local administrations to take preventive measures.' He said a 'terror group' was likely behind the bomb scares but he was reluctant to lay the blame at any particular organisation while investigations were ongoing.

    Indonesia is home to a plethora of homegrown Islamist turban groups bent on waging jihad or 'holy war' against non-Mohammedans and the democratically elected government in a bid to impose Islamic law on the country.

    The government has jugged and convicted hundreds of alleged bully boyz since the 2002 bombings of tourist areas on the resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people, mainly Westerners.
    Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah


    Syria-Lebanon-Iran
    Irans Suicide Fleet
    A FLEET of suicide ships is being built by crackpot naval commanders in Iran.

    More than 9,000 speedboats have been made with deadly explosives engineered into their hulls. The vessels - to patrol the Persian Gulf where UK forces operate - will be piloted by extremist "martyrs". They can be rammed into the side of "enemy" ships and each carries enough explosives to rip a seven-metre hole in a boat's keel.

    Around 30,000 kamikaze captains are being trained to steer the ships, a source claimed. There are plans to build 15,000 of the six-metre vessels. Their C4 explosives go off when rammed into larger ships.

    An Iranian defector asked to design the crafts revealed the secret plot after fleeing the country - led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The ex-military engineer, said: "They wanted me to help build a vast fleet of suicide boats. It's shocking. That amount of explosives is deadly. I love Iran and that's why I'm revealing this. No one in Iran wants a war."

    A US vessel was attacked by a suicide boat in 2000, killing 17, in Yemen
    Posted by: 746 || 12/09/2010 09:01 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

    #1  The USN Navy has had a big down on suicide attacks ever since WWII. And with even a suggestion that a potential enemy is scheming such a thing, the USN will burn a little midnight oil to develop "countermeasures".

    And the US should be crystal clear and public with its maritime warnings: that an exclusion zone and blockade surround Iran, so that all military and commercial ships, boats and submarines not expressly identified in advance as being authorized in that zone may be seen as hostile and fired upon.

    This is essential, as the number of military submarines in the world has proliferated much like battleships did prior to WWI, and it would prove very tempting for many nations to observe the US submarine fleet in combat operations. And other things.

    Even the Israelis should be aware that unless they let us know ahead of time, there will be no involvement by them in our exclusion zone, without prior permission.
    Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/09/2010 10:06 Comments || Top||

    #2  Simple countermeasures, you sail within 100 Yards of our warship YOU WILL BE SUNK.

    Followed by the Islamonuts simply swarming our ships with thousands of Dingys loaded with women, children, and Burkahed "Martyrs"
    Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/09/2010 12:16 Comments || Top||

    #3  Slat armor for ships?
    High pressure water jets?
    Reactive armor?
    Wires at neck height?
    Daisy cutters?
    Gobs of computer-controlled 50-cals along the edge of the deck?
    EMPs?
    Semi-autonomos kamikazi hover-bots that explode on impact.
    Blow up the boats that are closest to other boats and start a chain reaction.
    Mine their harbor.
    Put a cable underwater across their harbor (but don't count on it working).
    Q-carriers.
    Posted by: gorb || 12/09/2010 12:33 Comments || Top||

    #4  gorb: When the USN means it, they don't pussyfoot around. And that can mean gruesome. I gather that airburst area shrapnel weapons are being considered.

    My own personal fave would be to use propane bombs, which over water would be "special". Anybody in boats over a half kilometer or better diameter would have something like their lungs, eyes, and eardrums explode all at once.
    Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/09/2010 13:10 Comments || Top||

    #5  Gorb,
    how about all of the above?
    Posted by: Frozen Al || 12/09/2010 13:40 Comments || Top||

    #6  how about all of the above?

    Yep. And all of the stuff that shows up below, too!

    And I also forgot to mention one of my favorites: Flamethrowers at the waterline.

    I like the airburst idea.

    I wonder how our weapons would hold out if they sent one boat at a time after a carrier.

    And they could use the boats as a diversion while a sub sneaked in.

    I'll bet they could sell slots of time at the 50-cals.

    And how about the electromagnetically propelled stuff, eh? I believe I remember seeing something about the navy working on getting a 5" round to go a hundred miles or so.
    Posted by: gorb || 12/09/2010 14:02 Comments || Top||

    #7  Practicalities. "If you can even see this aircraft carrier, you are not only too damn close, you are targeted and have only seconds to live."
    Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/09/2010 17:03 Comments || Top||

    #8  or just blow the bases to smithereens..
    Posted by: Water Modem || 12/09/2010 19:07 Comments || Top||

    #9  1 man or 9000?
    Posted by: Skidmark || 12/09/2010 22:24 Comments || Top||

    #10  1. Carriers never travel alone
    2. They are not on the outside of the protective circle(s)
    3. They are VERY hard to sink
    4. If it is suicide the Iranians want, it will be suicide they get. Unfortunately for them, they may accomplish nothing for their suicide.
    Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/09/2010 22:27 Comments || Top||


    Shootout in Shiyah
    [An Nahar] A quarrel between members of two gangs developed into a shootout in Beirut's Shiyah district, the state-run National News Agency reported Wednesday. It reported no casualties in the 30-minute shootout which broke out at 1:00 am. Security forces were unable to determine the reason behind the shooting with machinegun fire.
    Posted by: Fred || 12/09/2010 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:



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    Meet the Mods
    In no particular order...
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    Two weeks of WOT
    Thu 2010-12-09
      Pakistan suicide attack kills 17: police
    Wed 2010-12-08
      Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claims suicide kaboom on Balochistan chief minister
    Tue 2010-12-07
      50 dead, 120 maimed in Mohmand double kaboom
    Mon 2010-12-06
      Pirates hijack Bangladeshi ship in the Arabian sea
    Sun 2010-12-05
      150 killed in Nigeria's oil delta
    Sat 2010-12-04
      Officers killed in deadly Nairobi attacks
    Fri 2010-12-03
      Nigeria charges 65 in oil region kidnappings
    Thu 2010-12-02
      Senior Afghan Officials Release Top Taliban Fighters for Bucks
    Wed 2010-12-01
      Iraq arrests 50 suspected militants
    Tue 2010-11-30
      Chihuahua: 18 Dead in Mass Grave near Puerto Palomas
    Mon 2010-11-29
      Persian nuclear scientsts targets of car kabooms
    Sun 2010-11-28
      Emad Hatem Abdullah of Little Rock Arrested On Explosives Charges
    Sat 2010-11-27
      Somali teenager 'tried to set off carbomb in US'
    Fri 2010-11-26
      South Sudan accuses north of raid
    Thu 2010-11-25
      Bakri makes bail


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