Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Cheryl Ladd aka Kris Munroe in "Charlie's Angels (19761981)" aka Louise Baltimore in "Millennium (1989)" aka Georgie Cooper in "Poison Ivy (1992)" aka Deborah Solomon in "Purple Hearts (1984)" aka Katherine in "Lisa (1990)" aka Dawn 'Holli' Holliday M.E. in "One West Waikiki (19941996)" (age 61)
#5
Cheryl Ladd was related to Alan Ladd. She married fellow actor David Ladd, son of the famous actor Alan Ladd She was born as Cheryl Jean Stoppelmoor in South Dakota.
Posted by: Black Charlie Bluetooth9160 ||
07/12/2012 15:28 Comments ||
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#6
Black Charlie Bluetooth9160 = JohnQC. I chucked out my cookies. Sorry. I've been fiddling around with IXQuick Web browser which is supposed to not store specific cookies--only a general cookie. However, IXQuick Web kicks into Google Search if you are not careful to prevent it. I got ticked off at Google Search because it was reported that Google has a bad attitude about not having websites advertising firearms and such products in the future. Figured I'd use IXQuick, LYCOS or BING.
#7
I recommend Bing, John, I've been satisfied with it.
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/12/2012 18:14 Comments ||
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#8
the problem is the other search engines aren't as good as goggle
- i suggest using firefox - not using javascript, flash or cookies - and then running adblocker and ghostery.
#9
I used Google for years, linker, then switched to Bing a couple of years ago. I've gone back to Google only a couple times when I couldn't find what I needed on Bing, and guess what? Google didn't do any better. I'm satisfied. YMMV.
What the heck is ghostery?
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/12/2012 21:12 Comments ||
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#10
Vallerie Perrine Was In Steambath And Slaughter House Five And Then : Playboy ! Then Clothed : Circus To The Stars ! Sylvia Kristel : Emmaneulle And Other Emmaneulle Film : Then Clothed : The Nude Bomb !
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] South Sudan has asked its public institutions, non-governmental organizations and businesses operating in the country to sack Sudanese nationals.
The decision followed a May 26 circular issued by the Ministry of Labour, Public Service and Human Resource Development to put the Sudanese employees on one-month notice for having lost status following the independence of South Sudan on July 9, 2011.
Ms Hellen Achiro, the undersecretary for Labour, said the positions must be declared vacant and re-advertised for South Sudanese to apply.
"It is a right of [South Sudanese] nationals to get those positions. There should be no anyway a Sudanese would occupy jobs for South Sudanese," Ms Achiro said.
"For them to stay here, they must legalise their status. If they would like to be refugees for those from war zone, they should apply so that they are legalised as refugees ... for those who want to do business, they have to reapply and register afresh so that South Sudanese become part of those companies," she added.
Tens, if not hundreds, of Sudanese from the far north and eastern Sudan, Darfur and the warring states of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states still hold their jobs as "nationals" despite the split of the country a year ago.
The said Sudanese remained on the lam in UN agencies, foreign companies and local businesses without fresh work permits.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Two Kenyan aid workers and a Somali doctor were kidnapped in lawless northern Somalia on Wednesday, probably by pirates, a local police official told AFP.
Several local employees from aid agencies and non-governmental groups in Galkayo and Garowe, another town farther north, told AFP the victims work for Swedish group International Aid Services.
The organization said it would not be commenting in the immediate future.
"Two Kenyans and a local Somali doctor were kidnapped and the initial reports indicate the kidnappers were pirates, but we are still investigating the incident," said police official Adan Warsame in Galkayo, close to where the abductions occurred.
Galkayo straddles the border separating semi-autonomous Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... from the self-proclaimed separate region of Galmudug ...a semiautonomous region in central Somalia, bordering Puntland on the north. Galmudug is not trying to obtain international recognition as a separate nation, but rather considers itself autonomous within the larger Somali federalism, for what that's worth... to the south.
Another Galkayo police official, Mohammed Ise Hassan, said the kidnapping took place Wednesday afternoon near the village of Baadweyn, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north.
Hassan said the abductees' driver and two of their police escorts were maimed.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Does anybody see a pattern here? Hallooooo! There must be half a dozen incidents of tourists or aid workers being kidnapped from areas near the Kenya-Somalia border. And yet - these humanitarian agencies are still not supplying their own armed protection for these workers. Pretty sad.
(Sh. M. Network)-Military commanders in Somalia government are claiming the upper hand of a heavy combat against Al shabab faceless myrmidons tied to Al Qaeda near Baidoa, situated 256 kilometers (159 mi) northwest of the capital Mogadishu.
Aden Doodshe, the police commissioner of Bay region for Somali government, told Shabelle Media by phone that TFG forces have killed many Al shabab combatants while several others captured in a live during a fighting took place on Tuesday on the outskirts of Baidoa town, the third largest city in Somalia.
"Our troops carried out coordinated military operations at rebel-held villages close Baidoa on Tuesday, to wipe out Al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... in the entire region of Bay, and had left fighters of the Al-Qaeda linked hard boy group in disarray after losing ground and military equipment," he added.
He stressed that the operation would continue until Al-Shabaab was wiped out or too weakened to launch any significant attack in the government controlled territories in South Somalia.
Last December, Æthiopian forces, fighting alongside pro-TFG militias in Somalia managed to remove Al-Shabaab fighters from Baledweyne town in Hiran region, then Baidoa in south-central Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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(Sh. M. Network)-: Somali troops with the support of the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have this morning launched an operation to capture Lanta‐Buro village, the site of a major al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... training camp.
Lanta‐Buro, 40km west of Mogadishu, housed political prisoners during the Siad Barre regime but has since been converted into a major terrorist training camp by the Al Qaeda‐affiliated Al‐ Shabaab. The move to take the camp comes at a critical time for the capital as it prepares to host a National Constituent Assembly which will adopt a provisional constitution and end 12 years of transitional government.
AMISOM Force Commander, Lieutenant General Andrew Gutti, said the operation would enhance security in the capital by denying the Islamic fascistia base from which to launch attacks. "AMISOM is committed to supporting the grinding of the peace processor in Somalia and this operation will not only bring relief to the population in that particular area, but will also help create a safer environment in the capital," he said. "Our aim is to ensure that the people of Somalia can continue to pursue national reconciliation free of the fear of terrorist attack," he added.
Since the UN Security Council boosted AMISOM troop numbers to over 17,000, the force has been expanding outside Mogadishu and has helped the hapless Somali government secure major strategic towns across the country including Afgooye, on the Shabelle river; Afmadow, the second largest city in the southern region of Lower Jubba; and most recently Balaad to the north of the capital. Additionally, AMISOM troops are present in Baidoa, the capital of the Bay region, and Beletweyne in the northern region of Hiiran.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Sudanese university students armed with sticks and stones on Wednesday staged perhaps their largest protest since unrest sparked by inflation began nearly a month ago, a witness said.
Security forces fired tear gas, said the witness, adding the students at the University of Khartoum were shouting and throwing stones after the protest began mid-afternoon.
"Compared to other demonstrations it's... bigger," said the witness who asked not to be identified.
With protesters scattered around the central campus, it was hard to determine their numbers, the witness said.
"I think it's more than 100," he added.
The university is where an unprecedented three weeks of national protests began on 16 June, when students first voiced their opposition to high food prices.
After President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. announced austerity measures, including tax hikes and an end to cheap fuel, the scattered protests spread to include a cross-section of people around the capital and in other parts of Sudan.
Protesters are also calling for an end to Bashir's 23-year regime.
A university source said the student demonstrators are now fighting for something else as well.
"A large number of their colleagues are now under arrest," the source said. "I think this is the whole issue now," as exams approach and set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! students could lose their academic year, the source said.
Bashir has played down the demonstrations as small-scale and not comparable to the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere, maintaining that he himself remains popular.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] A separatist from Yemen's southern movement was killed and four other people were maimed, including two women, in festivities with police in the port city of Aden on Wednesday, a local activist said.
"The police came into the Mansoura district and opened fire after residents came out to protest the police presence," Nizar al-Saeedi told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding that "one person was killed and four others were maimed."
On Monday, two protesters were killed and a man was left "clinically dead" during festivities in the same district which for months has been controlled by southern separatists who have their own militia.
Police rarely venture into the area without triggering a reaction, at times violent, from local residents who view them as an extension of the central government in Sanaa from which they want to separate.
On June 15, police forcibly reopened the main entrance into the district, blocked off by the local militia since 2011, and dismantled a year-old separatist protest camp, sparking fierce festivities.
At least eight people were maimed, including six soldiers.
Yemen's southern separatists have for decades complained of marginalization by Sanaa. Though the movement remains fractured, it demands autonomy and in some cases independence.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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For a map, click here. For a map of Coahuila state, click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of 13 murders in La Laguna region of Mexico in the last two days has Coahuila state security officials pondering a call for more federal reinforcements, according to Mexican news accounts.
A story posted on the website of El Diario de Coahuila news daily quoted Coahuila state security spokesman Sergio Sisbeles, saying Coahuila state officials are considering asking the head of the federal Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP) Genaro Garcia Luna for additional reinforcements to the area.
A total of four individuals were found butchered and placed in garbage bags in Torreon in a Toyota pickup truck near the intersection of Calle Piedras Negras and Avenida Arista in Valle Verde colony two days ago. Another six individuals were shot to death in the garage of a residence in Valle Dorado colony later that evening. Two more unidentified individuals were shot to death near the intersection of Paseo de los Azulejos and Diagonal de las Fuentes in Ampliacion La Rosita colony.
Additionally, a couple was shot in Gomez Palacio, Durango Tuesday night.
According to an account published on the website of El Sol de Mexico news daily, Cesar Ruiz Silva, 36 was shot to death while his wife, Irma Carrillo Ivon, 35 was critically wounded as the couple travelled aboard their Ford Lobo (F-150) pickup truck to go grocery shopping at an EXTRA convenience store in Miravelle colony Tuesday night, when they were attacked by armed suspects who were travelling aboard a Dodge Atos SUV.
Another incident which has officials worried is the detention of five alleged gang members affiliated with the Pacifico Cartel.
A separate story posted on the website of El Sol de Mexico reported that Juan David Alejandro Mendez Arizpe AKA El Chaparro and Sergio Gael Rosales Palacios, 18, Juan Manuel Hernandez Reyes, AKA El Talachas, 29, Miguel Angel Contreras Carrillo, 21, and Paulino Najera Valadez, 49 were detained three days ago for their role in an attack on two Policia Federal agents on the Matamoros-Mazatlan highway at Kilometer 236. Both federal agents were reported safe following the incident.
Mendez Arizpe and Rosales Palacios are being held for murder, while Hernandez Reyes and Contreras Carrillo were detained for kidnapping. Najera Valadez was also detained for his role in keeping safe houses and acting as a lookout for the group.
Police also seized three assault rifles, 11 weapons magazines, 197 rounds of ammunition and a ballistic vest. Vehicles seized included one stolen Volvo S40 sedan, one Mazda B2500 pickup truck, one Volkswagen Jetta, and one Volkswagen Golf.
The La Laguna region, which encompasses Torreon, Coahuila, and Ciudad Lerdo and Gomez Palacio in Durango, has been the focus of a security operation which began last October dubbed Seguro Laguna. That operation is mirrored in a number of other similar operations including Operacion Noreste in Tamaulipas state, Seguro Veracruz in Veracruz state and Seguro Guerrero in Guerrero state. These security operations have been in place since last fall and reflect a change in strategy by the Mexican federal government which focusses on concentrating police and military power in transit choke points used by organized crime to move drugs, guns and immigrants north to the US border.
As of last February, a total of 4,000 federal and state security effectives had been deployed to La Laguna region.
Last February, a news report said that Policia Federal units had moved out of Torreon and were redeployed south, specifically to Zacatecas state. The subtext of the rotation was that Policia Federal road patrols in the region had somehow added to the violence in the region and that rotating them out would reduce violence. It is unclear in news reports at the time whether it was the Sixth Military Region or the federal SSP which had ordered the units out.
The El Diario de Coahuila article also hinted that requests for federal reinforcements could include Mexican naval infantry units, including special units which have proved effective in eliminating violence in a region. Coahuila state already has a marine company encamped in Ciudad Acuna in the far north of the state since last February.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com.
[LA Times] One of the longest-held prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has been released and sent home to Sudan after serving two years of a 14-year sentence for providing support to Al Qaeda's late founder, the late Osama bin Laden. ... who sleeps with the fishes... Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud Qosi, 52, had been held at the compound for suspected faceless myrmidons since early 2002, shortly after it was opened at the U.S. Navy base in southern Cuba. His release and transfer to his homeland on Tuesday fulfilled a plea deal at the time of his July 2010 conviction for providing assistance in the form of cooking, driving and bookkeeping to Al Qaeda's terrorist training center in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
Qosi's release spurred new calls by human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... organizations for President B.O. to release or transfer the remaining 168 foreign men still held at Guantanamo and to close the prison and military tribunal that have brought international condemnation of the U.S. practice of indefinitely detaining terrorism suspects without charges or trials.
The Pentagon said in a statement Wednesday that Qosi's release was in accordance with a pretrial accord in which the government agreed to suspend all but two years of his sentence in exchange for his cooperation with prosecutors.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
What could go wrong?
Posted by: American Delight ||
07/12/2012 6:34 Comments ||
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#2
Would have been released months earlier, but at 52, the memorization of the contact numbers and dead drop coordinates became problematic. Don't be a stranger Ahmed. Let us hear from you soon!
[Dawn] The police and other law-enforcement agencies claimed on Tuesday to have taken into custody some suspects belonging to politico-religious and outlawed outfits.
The operation was launched in the areas surrounding the Chenab following a terrorist attack on an army camp at the river bank.
Sources told Dawn that some arrests had been made late on Monday night for investigation to find a clue to the incident. The agencies also confiscated the cycle of violence abandoned by the attackers and tried to find the car used in crime.
Initial investigation showed the car had fake registration number.
Sources said the country's premier intelligence and other agencies were actively working on the case and the role of the local police had been marginalised.
Another source said the involvement of "religious Death Eaters" could not be ruled out.
Gujrat District Police Officer Raja Basharat declined to comment on the proceedings of the investigations and also did not confirm the arrest of the suspects. The law-enforcement agencies would soon find a clue that could help in breakthrough, he said.
Regional Police Officer Amin Venis said special teams had been formed for investigation. He said the police were seeking assistance of other agencies to trace the assailants. They were also using sniffer dogs. The police, he claimed, had found some clues. He appealed to the masses to cooperate with the police in maintaining law and order.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Police on Wednesday found decapitated bodies of two Shia Moslems on the outskirts of Quetta, officials said.
The two men, including a prayer leader of a Shia mosque, were recently kidnapped from the Satellite Town area of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas rich Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
"Police found beheaded bodies of the two Shia Moslems," senior local police official Wazir Khan Nasir told AFP.
He put the beheadings down to sectarian violence, but could not say who was behind it. Another local police official Sikandar Tareen confirmed the killings.
Balochistan remains one of the most deprived areas of Pakistain where Baloch rebels rose up in 2004, demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the oil, gas and mineral resources in the region.
The province has also been a flashpoint for violence between Sunnis and Shias, who account for around 20 per cent of the population, that has left thousands of people dead since the late 1980s.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] At least one person was killed and 15 others maimed as an kaboomdestroyed a bus stand near Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... 's Moach Goth, Baldia Town area, DawnNews reported.
The target of the attack appeared to be a bus from the national space agency Suparco (Pakistain Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission) which was taking workers home, they said.
"It was a remote-controlled bomb and was planted on a bicycle. Looks like that bus was the target," said Sharfuddin Memon, home ministry front man of southern Sindh province.
The injured were transported to Murshid Hospital. Hospital sources confirmed one person was dead, while five of the maimed were at death's door.
Moach Goth is located in the suburbs of Bloody Karachi, near the Hub river Road, close to insurgency-hit Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province.
Senior police officer Akram Naeem said the motive of the attack was unclear but confirmed the bus was the target.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] An officer of the Indian Army is facing charges of establishing unauthorised contacts on the Facebook with a woman, who is suspected to be an agent of Pakistain intelligence agency ISI.
The same woman, whom the Indian army sources claimed to be Bangladeshi, had earlier honey-trapped another Indian officer in Dhaka last year.
They call her Facebook Fanny, and if you're not careful she'll hogtie your heart.
The Armoured Corps Lt Col deployed in Suratgarh district of Rajasthan is facing a Court of Inquiry (CoI) for allegedly establishing Facebook contacts with the woman, army sources said.
They said the CoI was ordered after the Intelligence Bureau personnel had noticed that the officer was regularly in touch with her on Facebook.
Army sources said the officer had not established any physical contact with the woman and it was limited only in the cyber domain.
The same woman by the name of Sheeba was allegedly involved in honey-trapping another Lt Col during his posting in Bangladesh and then blackmailed the officer through ISI, which asked him to spy for Pakistain.
The infantry officer was doing his Staff College course in Bangladesh's Military Academy in Dhaka. He met the woman at a party in Dhaka and was allegedly approached by ISI agents later.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Go ahead Colonel [or anyone else in any army], spend some quality time each day on Facebook. I'm certain no one is watching or conducting DB management.
A member of a separatist group was killed and another arrested in a battle with police in Pattani province Wednesday afternoon.
The clash took place in the afternoon when a combined police and military unit laid siege to a hut where six terrorists militants were reported to have been in hiding. Upon seeing the security force the terrorists militants opened fire in a bid to escape and a 15-minute battle ensued.
One of them was later found dead and another was arrested. Four others managed to escape. The dead man was identified as Adinan Masa-i, 28, who was wanted on seven arrest warrants, and the arrested man as Abdulroning Sa-a, 30. wanted on five warrants.
Pattani's police chief said the dead man and the arrested terrorist militant were leading members of a separatist movement and were high on the authorities' list of wanted criminals.
[Bangla Daily Star] Gunmen suspected to be Islamic hard boyz ambushed a convoy carrying farm workers in the southern Philippines yesterday, killing six and wounding 22 others, the army said.
The four-vehicle convoy, which also carried armed security escorts from a government militia, was on its way to a remote rubber plantation when it was attacked, Army front man Major Harold Cabunoc said.
No group grabbed credit for the attack on Basilan island, although local police and the farm cooperative's manager said they suspected the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... group.
Basilan is a rugged, jungle-clad island in the southern Philippines. It is a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf and farm workers commonly travel with armed escorts.
The Abu Sayyaf is a small Islamic beturbanned goon movement that has been blamed for most of the country's worst terror attacks as well as the kidnapping of foreigners.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON The Navy is rushing dozens of unmanned underwater craft to the Persian Gulf to help detect and destroy mines in a major military buildup aimed at preventing Iran from closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the event of a crisis, U.S. officials said.
The tiny SeaFox submersibles each carry an underwater television camera, homing sonar and an explosive charge. The Navy bought them in May after an urgent request by Marine Gen. James Mattis, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East.
Each submersible is about 4 feet long and weighs less than 100 pounds. The craft are intended to boost U.S. military capabilities as negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program appear to have stalled.
These sound cool. It shouldn't surprise me that we have robotic minesweepers but it did.
The first of the SeaFox submersibles arrived in the Gulf in recent weeks, officials said, along with four MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopters and four minesweeping ships, part of a larger buildup of U.S. naval, air and ground forces in the region aimed at Iran.
The U.S. already has sent two aircraft carriers and a squadron of F-22 fighters to the Persian Gulf, and is keeping two U.S. army brigades in Kuwait. Though much of the buildup has been publicly acknowledged by the Pentagon, the deployment of the submersibles has not been publicly disclosed, apparently to avoid alerting Iran.
Thanks, LA Times...
The SeaFox is small enough to be deployed from helicopters and even small rubber boats, but it also can be dropped off the back of a minesweeper. It is controlled by a fiber optic cable and sends live video back to a camera operator.
It can be used against floating or drifting mines, which Iran has used in the past. It operates up to 300 meters deep, and moves at speeds of up to six knots. But the $100,000 weapon is on a what amounts to a suicide mission. The built-in, large caliber shaped charge it carries destroys the mine but also the vehicle itself.
But let's not tell Iran about its capabilities...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Huh? Anti-mine warfare? Did the carrier and surface forces fall asleep on the job? Why did a rival division of the Navy get any funds at all? It's about as unsexy as you can get, compared to cool-looking fighters and sleek cruisers.
#2
The SeaFox is small enough to be deployed from helicopters and even small rubber boats...
Didn't we have a earlier story about reactivating a retired oiler with a added helicopter deck and a load of zodiacs?
Well, unless he was the one who leaked it to the Times.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/12/2012 10:02 Comments ||
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#5
there is a chapter in the book "Night Stalkers" that involves the tanker and some of the ops that occured off of it's deck. They sank serveral ships laying mines and shot up some of the Iranian speed boats.
#6
I would think that the Russians might step up efforts to arm Iran with more anti-ship missiles. it's certainly plausible, given that Putin finds himself being outmaneuvered (politically) here. There are a lot of Western aircraft carriers positioned in a small body of water (Gulf). Tricky situation.
#9
Huh? Anti-mine warfare? Did the carrier and surface forces fall asleep on the job?
Any vessel can launch mines. The Libyans did it in the Red Sea, using merchant ships. The Iranians have done so in the past, using small auxiliary craft and even dhows. The Iranian mine-laying vessel that was captured and later sunk was caught in the act
Last I checked, there isn't a hot war and Operation Praying Mantis is long over. Carrier and surface ships can't be used proactively.
And it still doesn't deal with mine countermeasures, unles you want to do the "minesweeper - once" method.
Why did a rival division of the Navy get any funds at all?
The Marines won't be the ones using them. Mattis is head of CENTCOM (US Central Command). It's a joint-service command; he has the authority to request assets.
It shouldn't surprise me that we have robotic minesweepers but it did
There have been some around in various forms for decades. The (West) Germans were pioneers at it. These are the newest of the breed.
I'm rather leery of launching them from helicopters. There's not a good track record with mixing ocean, fiber optic cables (or any cable for the matter), and helos.
[An Nahar] Syrian authorities have tossed in the clink Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! a prominent businessman and opposition figure on charges of inciting civil disobedience, a top human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... activist told Agence La Belle France Presse on Wednesday.
"Mohammad Bassam al-Malek, 65, was tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! on orders from the state prosecutor for inciting civil disobedience due to his role in a strike by merchants in May," activist Anwar Bunni said.
The strike was held in protest against the Houla massacre, when more than 100 people, many of them children and women, were slaughtered in central Syria, Bunni said.
U.N. Sherlocks said last month they suspect pro-government forces of much of the killing in Houla, while the Syrian authorities have denied any involvement.
Malek owns several shops across Syria selling household appliances and is also a top member of the Coordination Committee for National Change and Democracy which is tolerated by the regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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(SANA)- The General Staff of the Paleostine Liberation Army (PLA) on Wednesday condemned the abduction and cold-blooded killing by armed terrorist groups in Syria of a number of military conscripts from the Army on Hama-Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... road who were on leave heading to their families and relatives. The Paleostine Liberation Army is the official armed wing of the Paleostine Liberation Organization. They don't actually do much except issue the occasional communique and have their pictures taken holding guns.
The Staff considered in a statement that "this coward criminal act that targeted unarmed innocents stresses the foul criminal role of these groups and their connection with Zionist Western agendas as well as their blind bloody malevolence."
It added that this heinous crime is considered "a flagrant expression of the Zionist enemies' penetration in the lines of the armed terrorist groups and undoubted evidence of those killers' connection with the homeland and the nation's enemies."
The statement said this massacre will not deviate the Paleostinian people from their stances towards their just cause and support to Syria, people and leadership, in the face of those killers.
It added that the PLA is preparing its members for the battle of liberation against the Zionist enemy.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
They are blaming this on the Juice? I'm sure you are as surprised as I am.
[Guardian UK] The Guardian's diplomatic editor Julian Borger writes that president Bashir al-Assad is an increasingly isolated figure following the defection of Syria's ambassador to Storied Baghdad, ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... Nawaf al-Fares.
He notes that this is the second time in a week that Assad "has been deserted by a top Sunni ally, suggesting that the isolation of the Allawite core of the regime is accelerating, and that the conflict is sliding inexorably into a primarily ethnic civil war."
Fares is an especially significant figure. His selection by Assad in 2009 as Syria's first ambassador to Storied Baghdad in three decades was a high honour reflecting his status in Syrian society. He was the head of the Ba'ath party in his home city of Deir ez-Zor, the seventh largest in Syria, as well as serving as governor of the sensitive Quneitra province, along the Israeli border.
Most importantly, Fares is the Syrian head of the Uqaydat tribe which straddles the Syrian-Iraqi border along the Euphrates river. They and other border tribes have long been a powerful force in the region's history and some observers see them as the key to Assad's survival.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Glad OBL is gone but some things should not be forgotten. Some old articles came to mind while reading this. From a 2001 Chicago Tribune re: Osama's Syrian mother and first wife:
The Ghanem family has a double-sided bond to bin Laden. Najwa Ghanem and her siblings also are her husband's first cousins--a common phenomenon in the clannish world that exists both in Saudi Arabia and among the extended families of this part of western Syria....(Osama) bin Laden's maternal line has been comparatively ignored. His mother, Alia, comes from a working-class family that is largely secular. Najwa Ghanem, bin Laden's No. 1 wife, is the daughter of Alia's brother. They married when she was 14 and he was about 18.
The bin Laden connection to Latakia began in 1956, when Mohammed bin Oud bin Laden came to what was then a small seaside port surrounded by poor villages. The Ghanems said he already had married a local woman before taking Alia as his fourth and final wife. Together they had only one child, the relatives said. His name was Osama.
This city of 320,000 is a stronghold of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Islam that controls Syria's government and security forces. Historically, there has been tension between the conservative Sunni arm of Islam and the Alawites. Though there has been widespread speculation that bin Laden's mother was an Alawite--which could have complicated his early life in Sunni-controlled Saudi Arabia--the Ghanems insist the family is Sunni. (Another source stated Osama was considered inferior by many of his siblings and taunted because his mother was Alawite, considered an outcast or half-breed among strict Wahhabists, and bullying contributing to his pursuit to prove himself in a warped way)
When Alia moved to Saudi Arabia with her husband, she left behind her two brothers, a sister and their growing families. Every summer, from the time Osama was 1 until last August, Alia summered in Latakia, sharing a house with her nephew Naji, 43, and his family. Naji said Osama accompanied his mother to Latakia every year until he was 17.
In 1974, when the family said bin Laden was about 18, he sent for his intended bride, 14-year-old Najwa. The family dispatched the girl from her home, where women did not wear veils and were free to live secular lives, to the restrictive world of Saudi Arabia. Since then, bin Laden has taken three more wives, as permitted in Islam.
Ghanem had 11 children with bin Laden.
Help me understand this mess. Sunni Baathists in league with Iraq's Baathists, Saddam's ruling party and thugs, as they have been all along and probably know where the WMD's are, Assad and the Alawites in league with the Shiite Iranians, Hezbollah and Hamas working together, and clans loyal to Bin Laden working the ports and leading rebels in the hills. Is the Alawite core dissolving or in league with AQ-affiliated rebels and Iranian? The rebels are being armed from probably the Saudis, Turks, Jordan, and it is assumed the US, but who are they??? Did we learn anything from arming our enemies in both Afghanistan and Iraq? Track and hunt...give democracy a chance. Assad should defect before he is strung up from a lightpole...and dead men tell no tales. Still think he's a puppet--a cowardly dastardly one--but he could cut a deal and talk till his wife comes home from shopping.
#2
Arab Nationalism, which theoretically united Arabic-speakers of all religions and ethnicities, appears to be on its deathbed, at least in Syria. I don't think there's any question that absent NATO intervention, Assad will win. Even Gaddafi's shambolic military was on the verge of finishing off the rebels when NATO forces jumped in.
The question is what Assad will do with a sullen, rebellious Sunni Arab majority after he wipes out the rebel resistance. If he's lucky, large numbers of them will have left for Turkey, much as the Palestinian Arabs left the Palestine Mandate during the course of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Unless he's prepared to slaughter large numbers of them, it's not clear that Assad has an alternative to Arab Nationalism as an ideology to keep the Sunni Arabs somewhat mollified at being ruled by Alawite heretics/apostates. This means he will continue to mount token efforts at being a thorn in Israel's side to satisfy Sunni Arab wishes, but not so much of a thorn as to invite a devastating Israeli attack. Still, for Israel, this is preferable to a Muslim Brotherhood regime that doesn't have to worry about internal opposition (after having slaughtered it to the last man, woman and child) and whose mission on earth is to erase Israel from the planet.
Arab Nationalism is dead! Long live Arab Nationalism!
(SANA) -- Authorities in Hama on Wednesday clashed with 6 gunnies in Qalet al-Mdeiq town after the locals informed them about the gunnies's digging works for antiquities.
An official source told SANA news hound that the clash resulted in wounding the gunnies, four of whom hold Turkish nationality.
The source added that the authorities confronted am armed terrorist group in al-Tweineh village, pursued its members in the agricultural lands and injured some of them.
Authorities Clash with Terrorists Who Were Planting Explosives in Hama
The authorities in Hama province also clashed with a terrorist group that was setting ambushes and planting explosives in the area between the villages of Mork and Ma'an in the province.
The clash inflicted heavy losses on the terrorists, injuring many of them and destroying five cars equipped with machineguns along with the beturbanned goons inside them, in addition to destroying two cycle of violences they were using.
The terrorists' weapons, which included RPG launchers and rounds, machineguns, and sniper rifles, were confiscated, along with ammo and advanced communication equipment.
Large Amounts of Ammunition, Weapons and Money Seized in Hasaka
In Hasaka, the authorities seized large amount of weapons, ammunition and money while storming a terrorist hideout in Tal Hamis.
A source in the province told SANA news hound that the seized weapons included 24 machineguns, sniper rifle and large amount of ammunition.
One of the beturbanned goons was found to have had USD 28000 and SYP 360000 buried in the ground.
Authorities Storm Terrorists' Den in Darayya in Damascus Countryside
The authorities stormed a terrorist den in Bayader Nader orchards in Darayya, Damascus Countryside, after they were informed by the residents.
An official source told SANA news hound that a number of beturbanned goons were locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! and their weapons were confiscated during the raid, adding that a workshop for making bombs and stolen cars prepared for bombs were found.
The source pointed out that machine guns, pistols, detonators, batteries, row materials for preparing bombs and ammunition, in addition to stolen military uniforms were found in a nearby farm.
Military engineering units dismantled a number of bombs planted in different places on Darayya farms.
Terrorists' Tunnel Extending from Jouret al-Shaiyah Area to Orontes River in Homs Uncovered
In Homs, the authorities uncovered a tunnel used by beturbanned goons to move and transfer weapons extending from Jouret al-Shaiyah through al-Qarabis neighborhood and al-Ghouteh orchards to reach the Orontes River.
SANA news hound cited a source in the province as saying that a house linked with the tunnel by holes was found to include a large amount of food supply materials.
Authorities Storm Den of Terrorists in Homs
The authorities today stormed a den used by armed terrorist groups at al-Qarabes neighborhood in Homs used by them as a center for their operations against law enforcement personnel.
A source in Homs told SANA news hound that the authorities discovered inside the den different weapons and ammunitions, maps and documents that help the beturbanned goons move in the city, explosives and cameras.
Authorities Raid Terrorist Hideout in al-Waer al-Qadim Neighborhood in Homs
In Homs city, the authorities raided a terrorist hideout in the neighborhood of al-Waer al-Qadim, arresting all the members of the terrorist group hiding in it and confiscating their weapons.
The locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! terrorist include Mohammad Ammar al-Jandali, Anas Ahmad Sleiman, Haitham Mustafa al-Hemsiye, and Huzaifa Abdelhadi Ghali.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Rebels and troops clashed in the Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... district of Qadam on Wednesday as at least 52 people were killed in violence around Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Apart from the fighting in Qadam, hundreds of youths gathered late Tuesday in the capital's upmarket district of Mazzeh and chanted anti-regime slogans, it said.
Troops continued to pound rebel-held areas of the central province of Homs, the Observatory said, noting that shelling was especially violent in the besieged areas of Jurat al-Shiah and Qarabees.
The watchdog also reported violent shelling in the rebel-held town of Rastan, also in Homs, causing widespread destruction.
An amateur video posted on YouTube on Wednesday by anti-regime activists showed the impact of shelling on Rastan.
"This school and this house were pounded," said Abu Rawan, a citizen journalist in Rastan who shot a series of interviews with women and kiddies in the besieged town.
When troops shelled Rastan Wednesday morning, "we hid in the bathroom. I was very scared," a young boy tells Abu Rawan.
A second video shows Rastan's market, much of it destroyed, the streets filled with rubble. Still, some continue to buy and sell vegetables.
"It's a kind of challenge against destruction," activist Abu Rawan is heard saying. "The people just want to live."
Of those killed on Wednesday, 23 were civilians, 18 soldiers and 11 rebels, the Observatory said.
The watchdog reported 82 deaths on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/12/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Would a random number generator set to chose a number between 20 and 90 be the proper source for the daily Syrian death toll?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
07/12/2012 3:11 Comments ||
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#2
There is a well established pattern with regard armed rebellions. Win or lose, they generally come with a hefty price tag.
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.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] South Sudan has asked its public institutions, non-governmental organizations and businesses operating in the country to sack Sudanese nationals.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Two Kenyan aid workers and a Somali doctor were kidnapped in lawless northern Somalia on Wednesday, probably by pirates, a local police official told AFP.
(Sh. M. Network)-Military commanders in Somalia government are claiming the upper hand of a heavy combat against Al shabab 
[An Nahar] A separatist from Yemen's southern movement was killed and four other people were 
One of the longest-held prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has been released and sent home to Sudan after serving two years of a 14-year sentence for providing support to Al Qaeda's late founder, 
The police and other law-enforcement agencies claimed on Tuesday to have taken into custody some suspects belonging to politico-religious and outlawed outfits.
At least one person was killed and 15 others 
[Bangla Daily Star] An officer of the Indian Army is facing charges of establishing unauthorised contacts on the Facebook with a woman, who is suspected to be an agent of Pakistain intelligence agency ISI.
[Bangla Daily Star] Gunmen suspected to be Islamic 
The Guardian's diplomatic editor Julian Borger writes that president Bashir al-Assad is an increasingly isolated figure following the defection of Syria's ambassador to Storied 
(SANA) -- Authorities in Hama on Wednesday clashed with 6 
cycle of violence
Rebels and troops clashed in the 
