[Arab News] The Daraan family on Tuesday disowned Muhammad bin Maeed bin Badah Al-Dossari, a Saudi dissident living abroad, and vowed its support for the Kingdom's ruling family.
"We hereby announce that the deviant Muhammad bin Maeed is from the Daraan family, which has sacrificed their lives to unify the Kingdom under the leadership of King Abdul Aziz," said Nasser bin Turki bin Daraan during a reception given by King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah at his palace.
"Our family participated in a number of battles along with King Abdul Aziz and this renegade who has deviated from the right path is not from our family," Daraan said, while denouncing Al-Dossari for going against the Kingdom's rulers.
Daraan reiterated his tribe's total support to the government and said it would fight against those who try to undermine the Kingdom's security and stability.
Mansour Al-Salman spoke on behalf of the people of Qatif and reaffirmed their support to the king. He praised King Abdullah's efforts to strengthen the Kingdom's security and promote the welfare of its citizens.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... the newly appointed Saudi ambassadors to Egypt and Norway, Ahmed Kattan and Khaled Al-Nafeesi, took their oath of office in front of the king.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] World oil prices slid Tuesday as Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi said the amount of crude available on the world market was "very adequate" amid fears the Libya crisis could cause a supply shortage.
Al-Naimi reiterated Saudi commitment to meet excess demand in the world oil market but refuted suggestions that the present surge in oil prices reflected a shortage of crude in the market.
"The Kingdom of Soddy Arabia has long been committed to promoting market stability in the interest of both producers and consumers, and in support of global economic growth and development," Al-Naimi told the Saudi Press Agency.
He said the world oil markets have been sufficiently supplied. "Soddy Arabia has an excess capacity of 3.5 million barrels a day which could help compensate any shortages. The Kingdom has access to a large number of oil storage facilities around the world," he said.
"Soddy Arabia's systemic global role is obvious and instrumental in averting supply disruptions in the physical market and keeping the global economic recovery intact. Soddy Arabia's ability to maintain around 70 percent of the world's extra capacity is reassuring to global markets," John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi, Riyadh, told Arab News.
"Speculators and punters as well as analysts who find it opportune now to call for oil price spikes are exaggerated and unjustified. Those who make such calls are often taking prior market positions damaging the global economy in many ways. Measures have to be taken now to contain such punters," Sfakianakis added.
Brent crude futures for April delivery fell $1.94 at $113.10 a barrel by 12:37 p.m. EST (1737 GMT), having fallen as low as $112.13. US crude futures for April delivery fell 55 cents to $104.89 a barrel, after posting a low of $103.33.
Brent's premium to the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude fell $1.44 to $8.34 a barrel, down from a peak of more than $17 last week. On Feb. 24 Brent hit $119.79, the highest since 2008, when it reached an all-time high of $147.50.
OPEC has yet to officially change its production policy, even though it has been boosting supply informally for months. OPEC members often adjust output informally in response to changes in demand and prices without the need for a meeting, Rooters said. Soddy Arabia sometimes steps in unilaterally to meet shortages or when it feels prices have risen to levels that may threaten economic growth or oil demand.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
...Rumor has it that the riots have started in the Magic Kingdom.
$5.00/gal by Monday.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/10/2011 14:14 Comments ||
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North Korea on Wednesday released video footage of interviews with the family members of four North Korean drifters who have defected to South Korea, pleading with them to return. The four were among 31 North Koreans whose boat drifted into South Korean waters early last month.
The video, posted on the North's official propaganda website Uriminzokkiri, shows family members of the four accusing the South Korean government for coercing or persuading the four North Koreans to defect. Kim Ok-jin, who claims to be the mother of a 22-year-old female defector, says, "The South Korean puppets are detaining my daughter who drifted in bad weather." She adds the South is "trampling on the hearts of parents who yearn for their daughter's return."
A South Korean intelligence official said, "Look at these peoples faces. [The regime is] pressuring the defectors to return or watch their families die." North Korea is apparently the first country ever to try and blackmail defectors by blatantly parading their families before the world press.
North Korea also sent a letter signed by the families of all 31 drifters and addressed to the unification minister and the head of the South Korean Red Cross demanding the return of all of them. The North once again demanded that South Korea let the North bring the four defectors face to face with their families in the truce village of Panmunjom.
A government official said, "I believe the defectors all have their own private reasons for making their decisions. This is not the Cold War, and in an age when there are more than 20,000 North Korean defectors living in South Korea, why would the government try to coerce or persuade them to defect?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Looking into the true face of evil totalitarian power at its zenith, and wondering how people cannot see that we must never enable these scum with any resources of any kind.
North Korea has been jamming Global Positioning System signals in South Korea since last Friday, it emerged.
"The North kept jamming GPS devices as of Tuesday," a senior government official said Wednesday. "The attack isn't common knowledge because there's been no tangible damage, but it continues."
There was one report that the GPS equipment of civilian aircraft near Incheon International Airport was faulty last Sunday. The official added the government identified Kaesong and Mt. Kumgang as the sources of the jamming attack. Interfering signals are sent out constantly, "so we can't say exactly when and how many times it was carried out."
A senior Cheong Wa Dae official said it is "certain" that the North is behind the attack because the signal can be traced to its exact source. "The North should immediately stop the attack, which clearly runs counter to the spirit and charter of the International Telecommunication Union," the official added.
"It's a clear violation of international law, but no penalty clauses are clearly defined for this kind of attack, so the government is reviewing what kind of sanctions it could impose," presidential spokeswoman Kim Hee-jung said.
Funny, when the US is accused of violating international law you hear all about it...
Meanwhile, Minister of Public Administration and Security Maeng Hyung-kyu said a cyber attack on Friday was "seven times" as intense as a similar one two years ago but was dealt with swiftly before it did much damage. "The attack was launched on the websites of 40 government agencies on three occasions. A total of 77,000 zombie computers infected by seven file-sharing sites were used for the attack," he told government officials and Grand National Party leaders.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
HMMMMM, HMMMM, wel-l-l, I suspect there's more to the DPRK's jamming that just toying wid the South.
[DF-21C ASBMS + USN CVNS here].
* ION TOPIX > [Korean] PENINSULA SEES ITS MOST DANGEROUS TIME SINCE [end of]KOREAN WAR.
* TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > VARIOUS > UNITED NATIONS COMMAND KOREA: NORTH KOREA VIOLATED ARMISTICE AGREEMENT IN SHELLING OF [Yeongpyeong]SOUTH KOREAN ISLAND, + "Cheonan" beforehand.
* SAME, PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > SOUTH KOREA REFLECTS ON NUCLEAR TABOOS.
* SAME > SOUTH KOREA: WE CAN, + WILL USE, [our own] EMP BOMB | YOU ATTACK US, WE WILL TAKE OUT YUR POWER GRID.
------------
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [UK IISS]THINK-TANK: JAPAN IS AN AIRCRAFT-CARRIER POWER. The HYUGA-Class.
> Nippon is deemed No.2 behind USN.
> HYUGAS will substans increase the strike = offeinsive? capabils of JAPAN'S MSDF [JMSDF] once the latter procures F-35 NG Aircraft.
* SAME > [Sankei.jp]JAPANESE FURIOUS AT CHINESE ADDRESSING OF OKINAWA AS "RYUKYUS AUTONOMOUS REGION" OF THE PRC [PRC = Peoples Republic of China] | CHINA PLANNING OKINAWA/RYUKYUS
"AUTONOMOUS REGION", SENKAKUS [Chin = Daoyus]AUTONOMOUS REGION CLOSER TO THE NAVY [CPLAN].
Senior PLA Officials repor in support of Preemptive NucWar schemas agz Japan as pertinent, CREATION OF "CHINESE NATION RYUKYUS BOROUGH" IN BEIJING + LOCAL POLITICAL MOVEMENT ON OKINAWA PROPER, JAPAN OKINAWA = CHINESE RYUKYUS SEEN AS MIL BULWARK FOR CHINA + SAFETY OF CHINESE.
Also from SANKEI.JP > BRITISH IISS INSTITUTE: PLAN CHINESE NAVY INTENT ON GREATER NAVAL SUPREMACY IN WESTERN PACIFIC.
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM/SPACEWAR > [IISS]CHINESE MILITARY GROWING FAST, BUT CONCERNS STILL "REGIONAL".
CMF POSTER = asked why would one need to use LR Bombers when there are many 00's, Types of PLA LRBMS aimed at GUAM + OTHER ASIAN US BASES???
OTHER CMF POSTER > PLAAF J20/F20 = as the "GUAM BUSTER".
Lastly, JAPAN = TOKYO has repor labeled Chin driling a DISPUTED = JAPAN-CLAIMED EAST CHINA SEA GAS FIELD AS "REGRETTABLE".
FOR CHINA = strategic PLA, Trade access directly into WESTPAC + FAR PACIFIC; bilaterally divides "First Island Chain" into disparate, weaker = more mil vulnerable pieces.
FOR US = expects China to QUICKLY MILITARIZE TAIWAN ASAP AMAP upon final re-unification wid mainland, DESIRE TO PROTECT FLANKS OF US ALLYS + MILBASES IN OKINAWA = JAPAN, + SOUTH KOREA + PHILIPPINES + SE ASIA.
#5
The Norks may be jamming civilian GPS but the military stuff has special coding in it to make jamming harder. Plus, if the jamming does not frequency hop, it is relatively easy to account for and work around.
#6
Plus the Hyuga class ships could operate as light carriers if they utilized aircraft with JATO assistance for takeoff and VTOL for landing - like Harriers with upgraded engines and frames. If not that approach, then they need a ski jump front nose on them.
#7
The Hyugas are a little small to operate Harriers and their bow shape precludes normal takeoff. The follow on class, 22DDH, is being designed with the F-35B in mind, though no ski jump as of yet.
NINEWA / Aswat al-Iraq: Ninewa police released on Wednesday 12 detainees after investigation proved they were not guilty and in response to protesters demands, according to a police source.
A new concept for much of the Middle East...
Ninewa police freed on Wednesday (March 9) from the anti-terror prisons, the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. They were freed as they found not guilty of charges pressed against them.
He did not give more details.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2011 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr held talks in Storied Baghdad on Tuesday on what was only his second visit to the Iraqi capital since the US-led invasion of 2003, aides said.
Sadr, who returned to Iraq in January after four years in voluntary exile in Iran, visited the Shiite shrine district of Kadhimiyah in the north of the capital and his stronghold of Sadr City in the east, the aides said.
Sadr, who lives in the central shrine city of Najaf, also held talks with Storied Baghdad-based members of his party's politburo, they added.
The firebrand holy man led repeated uprisings against US-led troops in central and southern Iraq before ordering a halt to the activities of his Mahdi Army ... an Iranian fifth column masquerading as an Iraqi militia ... militia in 2008.
His movement won 39 of the 325 seats in parliament in a general election in March last year and has six ministers in the national unity government.
Sadr's backing was considered a key factor in Prime Minister Nuri Maliki's successful fight to retain his job in a protracted battle for the premiership last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2011 00:00 ||
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British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Wednesday condemned Iran's "completely unacceptable" behavior evidenced in the recent seizure of an Iranian arms shipment intended for the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
"This is completely unacceptable. It is not the behavior of a responsible neighbor," Hague said. "It is at odds with Iran's claim to the international community and to its own people that it supports stability and security in Afghanistan." You don't get out in the muslim world much, do you?
Hague's angry response came after British Special Forces and Afghan troops seized the shipment after a deadly fire-fight with insurgents in Afghanistan's southern Nimruz Province, located near the Iran and Pakistan borders, on 5 February.
"I am extremely concerned by the latest evidence that Iran continues to supply the Taliban with weaponry - weapons clearly intended to provide the Taliban with the capability to kill Afghan and ISAF soldiers from significant range," Hague said. Arm Iran's rebles and see how they like it.
"The detailed technical analysis, together with the circumstances of the seizure, leave us in no doubt that the weaponry recovered came from Iran," he stressed, urging " Iran to act in the interests of a stable and secure region."
Hague added that the British Ambassador in Tehran had raised the issue of the seized arms shipment with the Iranian Foreign Affairs ministry.
Although Hague did not provide further details of the seized Iranian arms shipment, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) officials have indicated that it contained 48 122mm rockets which have a range of about 20 kilometers. They linked the arms shipment to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards even though the identifying marks on the weapons had been deliberately removed.
The US and its allies have often accused Iran of funding and arming Taliban militants as part of its efforts to offset the ongoing NATO-led anti-insurgency mission in Afghanistan and disrupt international efforts aimed at reconstructing and bringing peace to the war-torn country. But Iran denies those allegations because it works against the weak-willed.
#2
Good! We've been too quiet about this behavior from Iran for too long. Shout it out loud that we know and secretly begin to arm the hell out of the Iranian opposition groups.
[Iran Press TV] Iran's Interior Minister the sinister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar Interior minister of Iran and a former defense minister of Iran. He is a veteran of the Revolutionary Guards since the establishment of the body in 1980...
says the fight on terrorism will yield no results unless Afghanistan cracks down on drug trafficking. Brilliant. See how he picked right up on that?
"We believe that fighting terrorism and organized crime will be an incomplete attempt without fighting drug trafficking," Mohammad-Najjar said in a meeting with Afghanistan's First Vice President General Mohammad Qasim Fahim on Wednesday. Kinda like the Three Faces of Eve, only without Marilyn Chambers...
Mohammad-Najjar arrived in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Tuesday for a two-day official visit.
The Iranian minister pointed to the increase in opium production in Afghanistan and said Iran is ready to offer Kabul equipment and training in order to provide alternatives to poppy cultivation, ISNA reported.
Mohammad-Najjar described Afghanistan's Parliamentary elections as a positive development for encouraging popular participation in managing the country's affairs.
"The people's participation in the elections is a major step towards the peaceful coexistence of all religious and tribal groups."
The Iranian interior minister said Tehran believes all internal affairs should be entrusted to the Afghan government.
"Entrusting security affairs and the reconstruction of economic infrastructure to the [Afghan] government is considered the first step on this uneven path."
Mohammad-Najjar also said that Iran would like Afghanistan to make progress in every field and that Tehran would not withhold any help to the neighboring country in this regard.
Fahim welcomed the expansion of cooperation between Iran and Afghanistan and said "the two countries' ties are influential in the fate of the region and the world."
"We will not forget that the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran never abandoned the Afghan people in different historical eras, and has continued its support and aid to Afghans," Fahim concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2011 00:00 ||
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Quickly, someone, forward this to Secretary Gates and the US State Department. The Holy Grail, it's found!!!
[An Nahar] Outgoing Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir reiterated that only Leb's armed forces should carry weapons and described as abnormal the presence of arms in the people's hands. He's right, y'know. In civilized countries, which Leb has occasionally aspired to be, the government reserves the right to do violence. The armed forces have guns and the cops have guns. While the citizenry usually has some sort of right to own guns, that right excludes heavy weapons -- mortars, machine guns, recoilless rifles, ICBMS, that sort of thing -- the idea being that small arms are sufficient for dealing with the occasional deer or the wife's lover.
In remarks to al-Joumhouriah newspaper published Wednesday, Sfeir said: "We either have a state or we don't. Only the state should own weapons." Our guess is that Leb's not really a state. It's a collection of organizations, some of them benign, others malevolent.
"This is the general rule" in the world, he said. "Arms should not be in the hands of the people," Sfeir told the daily in reference to Hizbullah. At least not heavy weapons...
He made his remark as the Maronite Bishops Synod begins meetings on Wednesday to elect a new patriarch. "And in this corner, weighing 183.5 pounds, His Excellency Bishop Boutros!"
Sfeir warned that interference in Leb's political affairs could sometimes serve and at other times harm the country.
"The Lebanese should accept each other through love and cooperation because there is still meddling" in the country's affairs, the outgoing patriarch said.
Asked if he was remorseful for not visiting Syria, he said: "Never. Why should I regret that?"
Sfeir told al-Joumhouriah that he had nothing to say to Syria's hereditary President Bashar Pencilneck Assad. ... one of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators ...
During his tenure, Sfeir took positions against Syria's years of interference in the country's affairs. A statement issued by the council of bishops in September 2000 calling for Syria to withdraw its 30,000 troops from the country marked a turning point in Lebanese opposition to Damascus' hegemony.
Syrian troops intervening in Leb's civil war first entered the country in 1976. They withdrew in 2005 after ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's liquidation in February of that year.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2011 00:00 ||
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Just make the donation anonymous, and voila -- no Islamist fingerprints!
Oh, also, they're liars:
Kasaam follows up by asking: "The fact that NPR is not only a tax-exempt organization, but also receives direct contributions from the government -- does that invite some sort of government oversight or government examination of contributions, et cetera?" Liley answered: "They have audited our programs at times and, I think, as part of that, they can look at our audited financials. If you are concerned in any way about that, that's one reason you might want to be an anonymous donor. And, we would certainly, if that was your interest, want to shield you from that."... Following their phone calls, Liley checked with NPR's senior management, and sent an e-mail to the man posing as Kasaam saying MEAC was cleared to make an anonymous donation of $5 million... That e-mail directly contradicts NPR's public statements issued in the wake of O'Keefe's first video. "The fraudulent organization represented in this video repeatedly pressed us to accept a $5 million check, with no strings attached, which we repeatedly refused to accept," NPR spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm said in NPR's official response.
At this point, NPR leadership has proven to give aid and support to an enemy that the United States is actively at war with. Defund and dismantle the NPR, arrest and execute these traitors. Enough is enough of the 5th column!
#1
This is cool beyond words. He will take those happy thoughts to his coming-way-too-soon-grave.
Just came from our local Relay for Life meeting: please support cancer research so these kind of stories will become fewer.
#6
Great story - our military men and women are the best of us.
Amen to that. Such great stories are repeated often involving our military. Unfortunately, they are often drowned out by the din of the Lindsay Lohan, Charley Sheen stories.
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.
[Asharq al-Aswat] Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr held talks in 
[Iran Press TV] Iran's Interior Minister 
Outgoing Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir reiterated that only 
Syria's hereditary President Bashar 
Just make the donation anonymous, and voila -- no Islamist fingerprints!
