New York -- Many remember the haunting photograph: A woman wearing business attire and pearls is covered head-to-toe in white dust, her hands held out helplessly before her, as she makes her way out of the World Trade Center's damaged North Tower on September 11, 2001.
Marcy Borders survived that day, getting out before both towers of the trade center crumbled and killed 2,753 people in the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil. But the woman in the photos, known to most as the "Dust Lady," died Tuesday, her family said. She was 42.
"My mom fought enemies in battle and I just loved her so much," Borders said in a phone interview. "She will always live through me."
Family members mourned the mother of two on Facebook.
Borders was 28, working as a legal assistant at Bank of America in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, when planes hijacked by terrorists struck. Freelance photographer Stan Honda took the famous photograph as Borders escaped the collapsing building through a cloud of dust.
"It wasn't like it was one of the best images you would want to view out in the world," she told CNN in an interview six months after the attacks. "Just looking at it just shows how much fear."
Borders battled depression and drug addiction following the attacks, the Jersey Journal reported, but she checked into rehab in 2011 and found sobriety. She had recently found work again as well -- on a local political campaign in her native New Jersey -- when she was diagnosed with cancer, according to the paper.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/27/2015 08:32 ||
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RIP
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/27/2015 8:43 Comments ||
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So can we add her death to the total for 9/11? That's what the Japanese (and anti-American activists) do for those who survived Hiroshima but later died of other reasons.
[Tolo News] Faryab provincial police said on Wednesday that the Taliban is using schools and hospitals as military bases in areas under their control.
They said that in doing so they are also preventing children from going to school.
According to provincial police in these areas, the Taliban takes civilians as hostages and forces them to fight against government forces.
A TOLOnews news hound who recently visited Shash Par village in Dawlatabad district of Faryab -- an area previously under Taliban control - said that the gunnies prevent people in villages from having a decent life and force them to pay almsgiving.
Shashpar village of Dawlatabad district was under Taliban control for nearly five years but was recently recaptured by government forces. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... the Taliban have since returned say residents who state that the Taliban also insist on them feeding them in order to avoid being lashed.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Russian officials have said Moscow is prepared to supply the Afghan army with the gunship helicopters -- Mi-35 attack choppers to combat terrorism.
President valdimir Putin's special envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... ov has said the issue was shared during the summit in UFA attended by the Afghan officials, Russia's semi-official news agency -- Sputnik News reported.
Putin told his counter President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. that Moscow is prepared to work jointly with Afghanistan and United States to start work on agreements for the delivery of the attack helicopters to Afghan Air Force, Kabulov said.
He also added that Russia is prepared to review Afghanistan's request for the supply of heavy and light weapons for the Afghan army.
The Afghan Air Force is currently going through reconstruction phase as the Afghan national security forces are engaged to curb the growing threats posed by the terrorist groups across the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2015 00:00 ||
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Well, if they bought American, parts may become hard to come by if the Administration doesn't like their stand on gay rights (or some other diversity issue).
[ARABNEWS] Libya's landline phone system broke down in much of the country after unknown people damaged submarine cables in an area held by Daesh, officials said on Wednesday, in another sign of state collapse.
Libya is in chaos with two governments allied to gangs fighting for control four years after the ousting of Muammar Qadaffy ...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... , while Daesh has expanded by exploiting a security vacuum.
The chaos has reduced oil, gas and electricity production to a trickle, disrupted the import of wheat, food and hospital drugs and scared away foreign embassies and airlines.
The telecommunications ministry in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... said land phone connections in the eastern and southern regions stopped "due to deliberate acts against a submarine cable station in Sirte," a western city on Libya's Mediterranean coast.
It did not say who was responsible for the damage, adding that the lack of security made it impossible to fix the damage. Tripoli residents trying to call the east did not get a connection on the land line.
Sirte is controlled by Daesh gunnies who have gained a foothold in several parts of the North African country. Libya's two rival governments have repeatedly flown Arclight airstrikes against the group in Sirte.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Ten suspected Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... members went on trial in Chad on Wednesday over their alleged roles in twin attacks that killed 38 people in the capital N'Djamena in June.
It was the first Chadian trial involving the Nigeria-based Islamist group, which has in the past months stepped up attacks and suicide kabooms in Nigeria and the neighboring countries of Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... , Chad and Niger.
They are accused of criminal conspiracy, killings, willful destruction with explosives, fraud, illegal possessions of arms and ammunition, as well as using psychotropic substances, city prosecutor general Bruno Mahouli said.
The closed-door hearing is expected to last eight days.
The accused include Nigerian national Mahamat Mustapha, also known as Bana Fanaye, who according to Chadian authorities was the criminal mastermind behind the June 15 suicide kabooms that struck a school and a police building in N'Djamena, killing 38 people and injuring over 100.
Shortly after Fanaye's arrest in late June, Chad's top prosecutor Alghassim Kassim said the suspect was the "ringleader of a network smuggling weapons and munitions between Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad".
Fanaye was also responsible for procuring weapons and "recruiting and managing Boko Haram members", Kassim added.
The June attacks in the Chadian capital were followed by another suicide kaboom at a market in July that killed 15 people.
Chad -- which is part of a regional fightback against Boko Haram -- has beefed up security in response to the bloodshed. The 8,700-strong force is not yet up and running.
Meanwhile, ...back at the pound, the little lost dog had finished eating the rat terrier... two suspected Boko Haram members blew themselves up on Lake Chad while being pursued by the Chadian army, a military source told AFP on Wednesday.
There were no other casualties in Tuesday's incident on the island of Kaiga-Ngouboua on the lake which is ringed by Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
In Nigeria, a Lagos court late last year convicted in secret three suspects on charges linked to Boko Haram and sentenced them to 25 years in jail.
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08/27/2015 01:30 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] The three incarcerated Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! lawyers charged with financing a Chittagong-based murderous Moslem group gave confessional statements yesterday under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code in a case lodged with Hathazari police.
Senior Judicial Magistrate Shahidul Islam recorded the statements at noon and later sent them to jail rejecting the bail petitions in the case filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Supreme Court lawyers barrister Shakila Farzana and Md Hasanuzzaman Liton, and Dhaka Judge's Court lawyer Mahfuz Chowdhury Bapon -- arrested on August 18 from Dhaka -- told the court yesterday that they had deposited Tk1.08 crore to an account without knowing that it was owned by a murderous Moslem leader.
On Monday, Shakila and her associates were shown arrested in the case filed regarding the raid at Shahid Hamza Brigade's theoretical training centre Al Madrasatul Abu Bakar in Hathazari on February 19.
The trio made similar statements under section 164 on Sunday in an explosives case lodged with Banshkhali police. It was lodged after the police's elite force Rapid Action Battalion busted Hamza Brigade's military training camp in a remote hilly area of Banshkhali on February 21. They confessed to depositing money into a bank account but claimed that they were only returning an advocacy fee they had taken from a client in advance.
Daughter of former BNP whip Syed Wahidul Alam, Shakila is the incumbent joint general secretary of the Supreme Court wing of Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, a pro-BNP lawyers' body. Details about her two associates could not be known.
The trio were nabbed by a team of RAB 7 from the capital's Dhanmondi area for their alleged involvement with the murderous Moslem outfit -- formed by disgruntled Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... members in November 2013.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[ALMANAR.LB] Two refugee shelters in Germany have been attacked, police said Wednesday, hours before Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... is due to visit a centre for asylum-seekers that was hit by violent far-right protests.
A man was seen flinging a Molotov cocktail into a refugee home in the eastern city of Leipzig which was due to house 56 asylum-seekers from Wednesday, police said in a statement.
Only a mattress was burned as a witness was able to raise the alarm swiftly.
Meanwhile in the town of Parchim, also in eastern Germany, police tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! two men who had charged into a refugee shelter wielding a knife.
Several residents, who were outside when the incident took place, alerted the police after noticing that one of the two suspects was holding a 20.5-centimetre (eight-inch) knife.
Both were shouting anti-migrant comments. Police ran blood tests on them for alcohol levels.
German authorities have been alarmed by a wave of attacks targeting refugee centers, as the country braces to host a record 800,000 asylum-seekers, four times the number taken in last year.
The town of Heidenau, near Dresden in eastern Germany, was the scene of violent protests over the weekend against the opening of a new centre for refugees.
Merkel will travel to the centre to meet with refugees, volunteers and security staff later Wednesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] At least 55 dead bodies were discovered on Wednesday on three overcrowded migrant boats in the Mediterranean, the Italian coastguard said.
Almost all of the victims - 51 - were found in the hold of a wooden boat found drifting precariously off the Libyan coast by Swedish coastguard vessel the Poseidon. Media reports said they had choked to death on gas fumes from the small motor boat.
The Italian coastguard, which coordinates rescue efforts in the area, said some 3,000 other migrants had been rescued during ten operations over the course of the day, including more than 500 people picked up by the Poseidon.
On August 15, the Italian navy discovered the bodies of 49 migrants asphyxiated in the hold of a people smuggler's boat. Survivors later testified that the victims had been locked below deck and constrained to make them stay there.
More than 2,300 migrants have died at sea this year during attempts to reach Europe, almost invariably on overcrowded boats chartered by people smugglers.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[CNNPHILIPPINES] Hungary is set to send up to 2,000 extra police to help secure its borders, its Interior Ministry said Wednesday (August 26), amid concern over increased numbers of migrants attempting to cross into the country.
Thousands of men, women, and children -- many fleeing conflict in Syria or Afghanistan -- are on the move toward northern Europe, where they hope to claim asylum in European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... countries such as Germany.
The mass movement of people has led to tensions in non-EU countries on their route, including Macedonia and Serbia.
Hungary, which is in the EU, has already announced stepped-up security measures to prevent migrants entering, including building a temporary barrier along the border with Serbia.
Justice Minister Laszlo Trocsanyi told Hungarian media Tuesday (August 25) that the influx of migrants "has created an emergency situation in the region" and that "having 1,500 people entering the country illegally on a daily basis is unacceptable," according to the government's website.
State Secretary of Justice Robert Repassy said procedures for handling migrants would also be made faster and more efficient.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2015 00:00 ||
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Last month al Nusra captured elements of the first group of fighters trained by the United States’ train-and-equip program, including the leader, as soon as they entered Syria. Rebel sources claim it was Turkey that tipped off al Nusra, though the US denies such charges while Ankara remains silent.
“Only the Americans and the Turks knew about the plans for the train-and-equip fighters to enter Syria,” an unnamed officer of Division 30, the rebel group the captured unit was supposed to join, told American news service McClatchy DC.
McClatchy DC published a detailed report on Monday where several high-level Syrian rebels suggested it was Turkey that had tipped off al Nusra, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, of 54 newly-trained rebels that had completed the United States’ train-and-equip program. Among those abducted was Division 30 commander Colonel Nadim Hassan.
“We have sources who tell us the Turks warned Nusra that they would be targeted by this group,” the unnamed officer added. He noted that al Nusra still holds 22 of his comrades hostage in the town of Azaz just south of the Turkish border. “Right now the only thing keeping our men alive is that Turkey does not want them executed – al Qaida always executes Arabs who work for the CIA.”
Captain Ammar al Wawi, spokesman for Division 30, refused to say Turkey had betrayed the operation, though he agreed that only Turkey and the United States were aware of the details of the plan to enter Syria.
He refused to comment more when pressed further, “I have to live here in Turkey and have been targeted for kidnapping or assassination twice in the last month. But, we know someone aligned with Nusra informed them of our presence. They were taken within just 10 minutes [of entering Syria].”
Another rebel commander said he wasn’t surprised al Nusra targeted US-trained fighters. “There’s no ideological difference between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Nusra Front, just a political fight for control… Remember, America has targeted Nusra with some airstrikes.”
He added that, while there was some limited cooperation between some rebel groups and the Islamist factions, Turkey was aware that the cooperation was likely to end at some point. “They don’t want anything bad to happen to their allies – Nusra and Ahrar ash-Sham – along the border, and they know that both the Americans and the Syrian people will eventually recognize that there’s no difference between groups like Nusra, Ahrar and ISIL.”
Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) spokesman Mustafa Abdi similarly claimed that Turkey had leaked the arrival of the US-trained fighters, adding that this was a ploy to manipulate America to more closely operate with the groups Ankara considers its allies in Syria.
Turkish support for “the Salafi-Jihadi-Islamist coalition in the north is clear,” said Aymenn al Tamimi, an expert on regional Jihadi groups at the US-based Middle East Forum. Noting that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) espoused similarly Islamist goals, “Erdogan and his allies would ideologically be sympathetic to Islamist groups.”
The United States and Turkey have frequently been at odds over Turkey’s willingness to work with al Nusra, which the US officially declared a terrorist organization nearly three years ago. Turkey claims such a designation ignores that the group is the most effective faction fighting the Assad government. Jihadi expert Tamimi agrees, “There’s a case to be made they are the most effective forces in the north.”
Additionally, Turkey has criticized America’s train-and-equip program for focusing too much on ISIL and not enough of toppling the Assad regime.
However, despite the rebel’s claims, Washington denied that there was any indication that Turkey had betrayed the US-trained fighters to al Nusra.
“There are no indications that Turkish officials alerted the Nusra Front to the movements,” Pentagon Spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis told McClatchy DC in an email. “Turkey is a NATO ally, close friend of the United States and an important partner in the international coalition against ISIL.”
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one senior official at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment, saying any discussion of Turkey’s relationship with Nusra was off limits.
Other Turkish officials speaking off the record acknowledged the likely accuracy of the claim that Turkey leaked the information to Nusra. One official even said the plans were leaked to Nusra hoping to lead to the disintegration of the program, thus pressuring the US to train rebel groups dedicated to fighting the Assad regime instead of ISIL.
[IsraelTimes] Letter signed by former officers and navy admirals says nuclear agreement will enable Tehran to become 'far more dangerous'
They aren't all political weenies after all. Possibly not even most. That's a relief.
Nearly 200 retired US generals, admirals and former political officials have come out strongly against the Iran nuclear accord, and have called upon Congress to sink the aon the grounds that it will "enable Iran to become far more dangerous."
Among the signatories are top former career officers from every branch of the US military, as well as officials who have served in the White House, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
"The agreement will enable Iran to become far more dangerous, render the Mideast still more unstable and introduce new threats to American interests as well as our allies," the letter, which was addressed to Republican and Democratic senators and congressmen, stated.
Written in response to a similar petition two weeks ago by 36 retired US generals that backed the deal, the letter was endorsed by former undersecretary of defense for intelligence William Boykin, former vice chief of naval operations Leon Edney, and the retired vice commander of US Air Forces in Europe, Thomas McInerney, among others.
"What I don't like about this is the number one leading radical Islamic group in the world is the Iranians," McInerney said.
"They are purveyors of radical Islam throughout the region and throughout the world. And we are going to enable them to get nuclear weapons. Why would we do that?" he asked.
Congress is set to vote on the deal next month, and requires a two-thirds super majority vote to sink the deal -- after President Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... indicated he would utilize his veto power in an attempt to pass the agreement.
Congress has witnessed a flurry of petitions and letters from numerous groups and individuals -- including rabbis and nuclear scientists -- urging them to either back or sink the deal.
Republican party politicians have announced that they will unanimously vote against the deal, meaning that lobbying efforts are largely aimed at undecided Democratic Party politicians.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/27/2015 11:16 ||
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#3
"requires a two-thirds super majority vote to sink the deal"
Thank you McConnel (via Sen Corker, your tool). IF not for that bill abdicating your responsibility, a simple majority as the Constitution defined it would have been enough to defeat it.
The GOP leadership handed this one over a long time ago. Dont like it? Dont blame Obama as much as you should blame the GOP leadership in Congress.
At the rate Pakistan is building nuclear weapons, it could have the world's third-largest nuclear stockpile within five to 10 years, a new report by two American think tanks projects. The study by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Stimson Center suggests that Pakistan, driven by a fear of India, its nuclear-armed nemesis next door, may be building 20 nuclear warheads a year, which could result in the country possessing a total of at least 350 nuclear weapons within a decade. Right now, analysts estimate Pakistan has about 120 nuclear warheads.
Some, such as Mansoor Ahmed, a nuclear expert at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, think the new report is "overblown." Still, if its predictions are proven true, Pakistan will soon have the third-biggest nuclear arsenal on Earth -- though still well behind Russia's 7,500 and America's 7,100. That means Pakistan would have more nukes than France, China, the U.K., India, Israel, and North Korea. Today, Pakistan is believed to have the world's sixth-largest stockpile.
"What the world must understand," Ahmed told The Washington Post, "is that nuclear weapons are part of Pakistan's belief system."
Posted by: chris ||
08/27/2015 20:27 Comments ||
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#6
It's fun to build more nukes than China
To give your big sister angina;
To show off your ammo,
To keep shouting "BLAMMO!"
...And that's how I picked up this shiner.
#7
Must mean the Nuke-armed Pakistan under threat of ISIS-Taliban Alliance, or in altern ISIS takeover of the Taliban + aligned.
'Tis in line wid AYMAN ZAWAHIRI'S call for Radical Islam to attack + takeover already Nuke-armed Russia, China, + India, + for Muslim nations to dev or acquire their own Nukes, SO THAT ISLAM'S OR RADICAL ISLAM'S "FINAL VICTORY" IS ASSURED = PRE-ORDAINED NO MATTER HOW MANY CONVENTIONAL OR NUKE BOMBS THE WEST = JUDOECHRISTIAN/NON-MUSLIM WORLD DROPS ON ISLAMIC COUNTRIES, + NO MATTER HOW MANY MUSLIMS ARE KILLED FROM SAME.
[DAWN] The Sindh home department has identified 49 madressahs having alleged links with 'terrorist organizations' against whom the 'relevant authorities' have been told to take action, it emerged here on Tuesday.
Senior officials in the provincial home department said they had got reports from intelligence sources listing 49 madressahs 'having linkages with terrorist organizations'.
The officials, who have prepared a report based on the latest information and submitted it to Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, avoided naming the bully boy groups those madressahs had ties with. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... they said the information had been shared with the Sindh police and Rangers for 'appropriate action' against them.
The latest report prepared by the home department said 26 of the seminaries linked with the banned groups were in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , 12 in Hyderabad, seven in Sukkur and four in Larkana.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] The Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... has postponed a meeting of member state defense ministers who were scheduled to ratify a protocol for a new joint military force to intervene in troubled areas in the region, the organization said in a statement Wednesday.
Arab League countries will decide later on a new date for the meeting, which had been scheduled for Thursday, the statement said. Members had formally announced the agreement in March, and drafted a protocol for it in May.
The delay comes as the idea of an Arab joint force is already being tested in Yemen, where an ad hoc Saudi-led and US-backed coalition has been targeting Iran-backed Iranian catspaws and their allies.
Experts say a new force would have difficulty reaching consensus on intervention in cases like Libya, where different Arab countries support rival parties.
Members already reportedly disagree over whether the force should be headquartered in Cairo, the home of the vaporous Arab League. Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... and Algeria reportedly object to the location. Qatar, a nation with huge reserves of natural gas, and Egypt, which has the Arab world's largest standing army, have been at odds since the overthrow of Egypt's President Muhammad Mursi, who Qatar backed.
Countries that requested the Thursday meeting be postponed include Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and Iraq, according to the statement.
Defense ministers of member states would run the force, with a two-thirds majority required to make decisions. Military plans would be left to the member states' top generals.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2015 00:00 ||
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Despite the fact that Qatar and its al-Thani family have supported the Muslim Brotherhood for more that a quarter-century, the US and CENTCOM still place most of their eggs in that basket. Eventually, we will be gone from that sandflea infested hellhole, and there will be another skeleton -- like Wheelus AFB -- to remind us that Middle East "allies" are ephemeral.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraqi President Fouad Massoum on Wednesday endorsed amending the constitution, responding to protesters' demands to reform a system of government mired in corruption and mismanagement.
"We agree for the need to amend the constitution but we must not differ on the value and importance of the document which the people voted for," Massoum said.
He did not mention specific amendments. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who launched a major reform campaign this month, has also said he might seek to revise the constitution.
Abadi, in a statement on his website, said "the reforms voted on by the cabinet and the parliament are constitutional and legal and I will not back down on them."
Amid a heatwave that has seen temperatures top 50 degrees Celsius, protesters have railed against the poor quality of services, especially power outages that leave just a few hours of government-supplied electricity per day.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] The powerful Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah threw its weight Tuesday behind mass protests calling for the government's resignation, deepening a crisis that started over piles of uncollected garbage in the streets of the capital but has tapped into a much deeper malaise.
The kaboom of anger targets the endemic corruption, hapless government and sectarian divisions of a brittle country once torn by civil war and now struggling with a wave of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.
A grassroots youth movement calling itself "You Stink" mobilized thousands of people in two rallies over the weekend, and has called for another large protest on Saturday. The Hezbollah announcement of support for the protests is likely to fuel concerns the Iranian-backed group will try to hijack a rare, non-political movement for its own political gain.
Hezbollah ministers and their allies walked out of a Cabinet meeting Tuesday meant to discuss the worsening garbage crisis. Prime Minister Tammam Salam called the emergency session after the weekend festivities between security forces and demonstrators protesting corruption and poor public services.
The six ministers withdrew four hours into the meeting. Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil, whose Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... is aligned with Hezbollah, said he was pulling out because of the political "theater" surrounding the trash issue.
During the Cabinet session, ministers unanimously rejected the winning bidders to manage Beirut's trash collection, citing high costs and a bidding procedure some said was questionable. The Cabinet tasked a ministerial committee with restarting the bidding, meaning no imminent solution to the crisis was likely.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2015 00:00 ||
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[ALMANAR.LB] Managing-Director of the Iranian Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) Manouchehr Manteqi said Wednesday that Russia has asked for import of Iranian drone technology.
"The Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran is known as an advanced country in the field of (building) drones," Manteqi said on the sidelines of the MAKS 2015 air show in the town of Zhukovsky near Moscow.
He underlined that the Russians plan to transfer the technology of building one of Iran's drones to their country, but he declined to reveal any further details.
"We are discussing this issue now," he just said.
Iran has made huge progress in building different types of weapons and military equipment, including drones.
The Islamic Theocratic Republic has so far unveiled various domestically produced drones, including Ababil, Fotros, Hazem, Karrar (long range attack drone), Mohajer, Sarir, Shahed 129, Yasir and Zohal.
Iran unveiled its first homemade fighter drone that carries air-to-air missiles last September.
The Iranian media outlets reported that the drone is capable of destroying all types of aircrafts including fighters, small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and helicopters.
Earlier on Tuesday, Tehran and Moscow started talks on the supply of the Russian-made Sukhoi 30 fighter jets to Iran.
The talks were held on the sidelines of the MAKS 2015 air show in the town of Zhukovsky near Moscow during which Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... and Iranian Vice-President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari were present.
"Today, we visited different parts of the exhibition and the fighter jets' air show for three and a half hours accompanied by Mr. Putin which was a rare opportunity," Sattari told Fars News Agency.
"Putin showed that he is well aware of the military issues, knows the companies and products and spends time to get more familiar with them," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
Intehwesting, since Mother Russia already has its own Drone techs - why would they need to import from Iran???
#3
"We are discussing this issue pulling this out of our a$$ now," he just said.
FTFY.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/27/2015 5:26 Comments ||
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#4
Iran does have some drones in operation.
Like other UAVs, they move slow relative to the kinds of weapons US ships and aircraft have and are, thus not that much of a threat to those assets.
However, the Iranian drones are a major threat to unarmed civilian tankers and other slow movers.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/27/2015 9:15 Comments ||
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#5
Translation: "We need to make sure that control frequencies don't interfere. Also, it might handy to have some Iranian 'throwdowns' the next time Ruskiya becomes entangled in, well, ..."
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/27/2015 9:30 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I thought the crashed US drone tech a few years ago was already 'shared' with the Ruskies and Chinks.
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.
New York -- Many remember the haunting photograph: A woman wearing business attire and pearls is covered head-to-toe in white dust, her hands held out helplessly before her, as she makes her way out of the World Trade Center's damaged North Tower on September 11, 2001.
[ARABNEWS] Libya's landline phone system broke down in much of the country after unknown people damaged submarine cables in an area held by Daesh, officials said on Wednesday, in another sign of state collapse.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
