May wanna add TUNA WARS to this one as many international food(s) companies that supply mainstream restaurant chains add CHARLEY-THE-TUNA = TUNA, OTHER FISHIES to their "chicken" products.
The U.S. military has reprimanded an unusually large number of commanders for battlefield failures in Afghanistan in recent weeks, reflecting a new push by the top brass to hold commanders responsible for major incidents in which troops are killed or wounded, said senior military officials.
The military does not release figures on disciplinary actions taken against field commanders. But officials familiar with recent investigations said letters of reprimand or other disciplinary action have been recommended for officers involved in three ambushes in which U.S. troops battled Taliban forces in remote villages in 2008 and 2009. Such administrative actions can scuttle chances for promotion and end a career if they are made part of an officer's permanent personnel file.
The investigations are a departure for the U.S. military, which until recently has been reluctant to second-guess commanders whose decisions might have played a role in the deaths of soldiers in enemy action. Disciplinary action has been more common in cases in which U.S. troops have injured or killed civilians.
In response to the recent reprimands, some military officials have argued that casualties are inevitable in war and that a culture of excessive investigations could make officers risk-averse.
"This is a war where the other side is trying, too," said one Army officer who commanded troops in Afghanistan and requested anonymity in order to speak freely.
As many as five battlefield commanders have received letters of reprimand in the past month or have been the subject of an investigation by a general who recommended disciplinary action. A sixth commander received a less-severe formal letter of admonishment. None of the investigations or letters of reprimand has been released publicly.
The reprimands come amid growing political pressure from lawmakers who have pushed the military to assign greater accountability for incidents in which large numbers of U.S. troops are killed or wounded. The Pentagon's top leaders — Adm. Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs chairman, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates — also have been quicker to dismiss senior officers, fostering a change in the overall culture.
In 2009 they relieved the top commander in Afghanistan for his stewardship of the war. "The issue of holding people accountable is something Admiral Mullen watches very, very carefully," said a senior military official.
#1
So Rules of Engagement make it impossible to shoot back at the Taliban. Now the top "brass" have decided to punish officers whose men get shot. Sounds to me like American Hater Obama ("The Commander in Chief's") dream of demoralizing the US military is coming true.
Posted by: War On Terror ||
02/05/2010 17:58
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#2
The battle at Combat Outpost Keating in Oct 2009 didn't seem to have much to do with restrictive rules of engagement. From the WSJ article cited elsewhere today on the 'Burg: The U.S. military decided to close the outpost in July and August 2009, but delayed the move because of other operations. Such a "mindset of imminent closure" prevented the unit from improving the outpost's defenses even as intelligence reports warned of a planned strike by "a large enemy force," Friday's report said. These inadequate defenses, in turn, have made Keating into "an attractive target" for the Taliban, the report added. Dozens of other vulnerable combat outposts, manned just by a few dozen soldiers, remain in Afghanistan. The report urged coalition commanders to assess "the value and the vulnerabilities" of each of these bases to prevent similar incidents in the future.
I keep getting the impression that the military is trying to do too much with too little in Afghanistan.
#3
OTOH BHARAT RAKSHAK/MIL FORUMS > [US INTEL ingeneral]CIA ALLOWS ITS AGENTS TO MOONLIGHT, in order to stem serious Agency-internal probs wid "SPY FLIGHT" INCLUD LOW-PAY.
The CIA = US INTEL wants Amer to believe that, despite allowing or tolerating "moonlighting", they can effec control their Agents-Employees from become subject to select ANTI-AGENCY, ANTI-MISSION/SCOPE, ETC. MALICIOUS PARTISAN INFLUENCES???
Read - turn TRAITOR, MAFIA, DOUBLE- or TRIPLE AGENCY, OTHER "FIFTH COLUMN" AGZ THEIR OWN AGENCY + COUNTRY???
#5
If the Colonel can't figure out how to keep his Spec 4's from being killed, he needs to go. Sorry the job is hard under Obama. Succeed or resign. Those Corporals deserve the best.
"Durbin earlier told WBBM Newsradio 780 that Cohen should leave the ticket and spare himself and his family what lies ahead, but Durbin won't specify what that is. Durbin says Cohen should sit down with somebody he trusts who will explain it to him." Ev'ryone in Chicago knows what it means to sleep in da River ...
NBC served up a mountain of controversy Thursday after a cafeteria menu offered fried chicken, collard greens, black-eyed peas and cornbread in honor of Black History Month. But the African-American chef who planned the menu said she had been trying to cook the menu for years in honor of the month and doesn't understand why everyone was so upset.
"All I wanted to do was make a meal that everyone would enjoy, and that I eat myself," chef Leslie Calhoun told the New York Post.
The fallout over the menu was prompted by a Tweet from Ahmir Thompson, aka 'Questlove,' the drummer for Jimmy Fallon's house band the Roots. He posted a picture of the menu on Twitter next to the words, "Hmm HR?"
The picture sparked a flurry of anger and claims the menu was racist, which led to NBC nixing the cafeteria special. "The sign in the NBCU cafeteria has been removed. We apologize for anyone who was offended by it," tweeted NBC vice president of communications Kevin Goldman.
But that didn't stop comedian Wanda Sykes from the bashing the menu on NBC's The Jay Leno Show. "That's how [NBC] celebrates. Oh, no, no, ya'll don't need to know about Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Here's some fried chicken," Sykes said on the show.
It was unclear, however, if Questlove regretted igniting all the fuss. "i think i need a twitter break. i done started something. and now i must put out fire," Questlove tweeted after the menu was pulled down.
#5
"All I wanted to do was make a meal that everyone would enjoy"
And yet you still served collard greens.
Disclaimer: My grandmother and her children, including my mother, all loved collards, hominy, etc., since that's what they grew up eating. My brother and I hated them. "Soul food" (supposedly foods black folks ate) became a big thing during the 1960's, which is also when I noticed "soul food" was the food that poor Southerners ate, no matter what their skin color. But don't anybody tell Jesse, et al.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/05/2010 14:10
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#6
Sounds like a pretty good lunch to me, and I'm as white as they come.
#8
Fried chicken and cornbread are good, Parabellum. I can take or leave the black-eyed peas (I certainly take them every New Year's, but not so much the rest of the year).
But collards? Yuck! your mileage may vary
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/05/2010 14:31
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#9
So I guess any restaurant with the audacity to serve fried chicken during this sacred month should be...what...burnt to the ground?
For the rest of the month, Chef Leslie, nuthin but Jello. Screw 'em...
#10
This is how the liberal mind works. How DARE anyone actually serve black people's food during Black History Month. How DARE anyone suggest black people are in any way different, even though their entire existence is predicated upon being different from whites.
#11
According to wikipedia, Collard Greens are 'extremely similar' to what the British call Spring Greens or Spring Cabbage. Which I loved as a kid, and miss because nothing similar is available in Oz.
#14
Turnip Greens are a hell of a lot better than collards, especially when you add a splash of Pepper/vinegar, gives them some gooood tastin vittles
Yup I eat 'em why do you ask.
No, I don't care for black eyed peas either, tasteless mush.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/05/2010 16:15
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#15
Just for all y'all Bigots out there, that's Southern Food, NOT Black food, we all eat it.
(And love it, Y'all haven't had fried chicken untill you've had SOUTHERN fried chicken, Yup it's different and a hell of a lot better than what I ate in Yankeeland.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/05/2010 16:20
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#16
That's not just a "black" menu, it's a southern POOR menu. My entire childhood included just about anything that could be grown or raised by my parents (We didn't raise black-eye peas, but I've spent many a day picking purple-hull, crowder, and lady peas somewhere you picked what you wanted, and paid cash for it at the farmstead). I know plenty of other white families that ate the same menu. For most of those that ate such a menu, it was a sign of self-sufficiency, and independence from grocery stores, just as raising chickens for eggs and a cow for milk. Someone is waaaayyy too thin-skinned.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/05/2010 16:35
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#17
Collard, Black-eyed peas, corn...
Are we noticing a pattern?
It's all cattle feed, and the cheapest stuff around.
#24
Bes, it may not be there now. I frequented the place back in 1979. It was (or still is) near the Hospital.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/05/2010 20:39
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#25
mojo, collards are members of the wild cabbage family, related to kale (but less pungent). Nutritious, with anti-cancer properties, they also grow in poor soil. They're not cattle feed - in fact, some historians believe that on slaveholding plantations, kitchen slaves added them to the owners' meals, to the distinct benefit of the latter.
#26
Where I grew up in South Alabama collard greens were a staple as were turnip greens. The turnips were fed to the pigs and the greens were prized.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/05/2010 20:53
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#27
Glad it was brought up, but in a place like, say, Kansas City, BBQ would be more likely to be identified as what these people are getting at as black cultural food, than this particular cafeteria menu.
Mrs. Sykes, if she is genuinely upset and not just doing topical humor (giving her the benefit, didn't see the clip) then she needs to turn her attention to BET, MTV, and VH1 whose childish and clicheed portrayal of blacks is not only leagues above a regional lunch menu, but also a year long occupation. Perhaps, add a promotion at the end of her joke to guide people to the information about the good, smart, strong black men and women who have been involved in this nation's history since before this was a nation.
And yes, Southern Fried Chicken is unstopable. It is everything people make it out to be and more. I will attest that in the midwest there can be quite a few miles between good meals, but KC does have some great food. The BBQ at Royals stadium is fantastic naturally, but in some of the poorer neighborhoods people sell their BBQ at the quick shops and it is usually so good ya don't wanna drive for 15 minutes afterwards because ya ain't thinking correct. At one point KC ranked among the top 5 overweight cities and people were not only unsurprised but for a while the call was, "Yeah we're fat...come find out why".
(Not trying to start a BBQ war, even though its an arguement everyone wins...to me its all good, but for some reason I have a personal affinity for that Carolina Style Sauce)
Nope. Just marking the limits of their territory and power. If they don't get the response they want, they up the pressure. That they can play the guilt game confirms their power.
#30
Wanda Sykes is of the Vagitarian persuasion. This time, when she says it "tastes like chicken", it is.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/05/2010 22:01
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#31
speaking of Wanda Sykes, food and racism all in one -- here's a most un-pc, dirty, foul-mouthed and possibly pretty offensive clip for some from the Clerks II movie...watch at your own risk...
WASHINGTON (CNN) - When it comes to launching a major military operation, most would assume that preparations are done secretly so as not to tip off the enemy.
So how do the U.S., coalition military and Afghan government prepare for a major clearing operation to eliminate the Taliban from an insurgent stronghold? Talk about it publicly ahead of time.
For months now, one of the worst kept secrets in Afghanistan's central Helmand region has been the forthcoming operation to take back control of the poppy-covered and Taliban-held Marjah district in the restive central Helmand province region.
The area is home to some of the most serious fighting between the coalition and Taliban in the country, and also is some of the most fertile land in the country.
Helmand province is in southern central Afghanistan and is patrolled mainly by forces from the United Kingdom and U.S. Marines, and it has been on the coalition's radar for a long time as Taliban dug in and funded their operations with money from poppy production.
Central Helmand is also home to the majority of the world supply of heroin, about 60 percent, according to U.S. government officials. The relationship of convenience between narco-traffickers and the Taliban brings in about $400 million to the Taliban from the poppy sales, "more than enough for them to conduct the kind of operations they do," according to a
senior U.S. military official.
The U.S. military has been briefing reporters for months on basics, mainly that the Marjah region is the target of this operation. However, officials have been leaving out details of how and when the operation will go down.
The British military even put out a press release with the name of the effort, Operation Moshtarak, which means "together" in Afghanistan's Persian-language dialect of Dari, saying the military is in the "shape" phase of the operation.
There have also been discussions with local governmental leaders about the operation, and those leaders have in turn spread the word around the local population.
So why, if the enemy is concentrated in one area, would the top commander in Afghanistan authorize the publicity of a major operation to go in, clear the area of Taliban and try to convince poppy growers to switch to wheat? It is a curious plan, but a plan that both Defense Secretary Robert Gates
and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen agree with and signed off on.
The answer, it seems, is based on human nature. If you are told the military is going to conduct a major operation in your region and you are one of the bad guys, common sense says you pack up and leave. But in this case, part of the message has been sent to the local population to let them know the Afghan government will support them if they
change from growing poppy to growing wheat of other non-narco crops. That paves the way, the military hopes, for less combat and leaves Afghan and coalition forces with a local population, in theory, willing to work with them.
There are problems with this kind of plan, though. The Taliban have plenty of time to plant roadside bombs and leave other deadly surprises behind for the Afghan and coalition troops.
The military understands this and expects this, and is prepared for casualties - but the benefits outweigh the negatives, according to military officials.
If the local population understands ahead of time that the government and local security forces will deliver jobs and security, then the fight will not be that bad.
The Marjah model is something McChrystal is counting on working; if it does, it will be applied to numerous other problem areas around the country, according to U.S. military officials.
Proof that this could work is counter-intuitively based on the failure of U.K. troops in the same area last year. There was no support form the local government or Afghan forces and the local governances did not end up supporting the local populations and remained influenced by the Taliban.
U.S. commanders are hopeful, and believe this formula of broadcasting the plans that will be more effective.
The question remains - if this does not work, where does that leave the U.S. and the Afghan government in the eyes of the local population who already are weary of their intentions?
#1
psych opps, or stupidity. ????
Maybe a false flag operation and they strike north?
Anyway.. we should be able to prosecute a war better than this.
Can you imagine fighting WWII this way?
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
02/05/2010 13:33
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#2
Depends on whether you want to win or just to posture as if you were trying, allowing the fight to be lost so you can pull the troops home and surrender.
#4
I wouldn't doubt that a lot of it is PSYOP. You keep telling the enemy that you are coming. But they don't know when or from which direction. Maybe then you start doing small operations in the area just to get them used to seeing you in the neighborhood. They can only keep their vigilance up for so long. Pretty soon they begin to ignore these little operations. But over time, you are shaping things, managing lines of communications, preparing things.
We weren't exactly secretive of the fact that we were going to take Fallujah either. It wears on the enemy and it gives civilians time to get out of the way.
We made no secret of the fact that we were going to invade France from England, we just didn't tell them where or when we would land.
We went to great pains to make sure Germany knew we were preparing to invade to include massive works of deception in making our forces looked to be massed in places where they weren't, etc.
#8
In context of the "protect the population" operational method of counterinsurgency, this makes a good deal of sense. Guerrillas don't go up against main force units, unless the guerrillas have clear superiority. I predict that, when the offensive does happen, the tactical-level units won't find much sign of any insurgents, because they will have melted away. Taking towns without firing a shot is a big plus, because then you don't piss off the locals, and you don't have to rebuild a shattered town you just took. The townspeople will naturally look towards the coalition and Afghan gov't forces to fill the security functions that the insurgents provided, and that's the whole point.
#10
lotp - it strikes me the overriding goal may be to force senior & mid-level officers out of the service, as a precursor to major downsizing. They are the biggest natural opponent to a civilian political militia (analog Brown Shirts.) Ok, I'm done now, and will put my tinfoil hat back on.
#11
Whatever the move is, this is part of prepping the battlefield.
lotp, you are not alone. The scenario which concerns me is that the bad guys take up the offer to fight this battlefield, and use the CFs to kill of the riff-raff and not as hard core as they should be types, not only causing damage to the CFs but give the body count victory for CFs to pull out, kill off their future rank and file competition, and still claim a victory as the last blackhawk flies out of Kabul. A Taliban Tet Offensive if you will. (I do think that would be a highly risky strategy by the bad guys)
#1
I have always had a concern about terrorists capturing a high level American, and holding them in exchange for the release of some terrorist(s) held in US jails.
It's only a matter of time, I fear.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
02/05/2010 13:46
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#2
to add;
Please dear Gawd , let it be Algore
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
02/05/2010 13:47
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#3
"Who are the 300 terrorists held in U.S. prisons?"
That's not the question that needs answering. I'm more interested in who are the thousands of terrorist sleepers in the U.S. who aren't in jail?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/05/2010 14:18
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John Loughlin is not named in the poll, but he may have fared far better than the elected officials who were.
Nearly 6 in 10 registered voters in the First Congressional District would consider another candidate or vote to replace Loughlin's opponent, U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, according to a WPRI-TV, Channel 12 survey released Thursday night.
The poll offers a snapshot of an abysmal political climate for Democrats that could present serious problems for the eight-term incumbent Kennedy, according to pollster Joseph Fleming.
"It looks like it could be a very competitive race, which we haven't seen in many years," Fleming said, noting that Election Day is still nine months away. "I think people, right now, are really looking at who's in office, and they're considering somebody else."
Kennedy's office declined to respond to the WPRI poll, in which 28 percent of respondents from his district said they'd vote to replace the congressman if the election were held today; 31 percent said they'd consider another candidate; while 35 percent said they'd vote to reelect him.
Loughlin was not mentioned in the telephone poll of registered voters, conducted between Jan. 27 and 31 with a margin of error of at least 3.8 percent.
The Republican state representative downplayed the results, released on the same day he formally announced his candidacy. (Fleming said he had no contact with Loughlin and the timing was a coincidence.)
"At the end of the day, the only poll that counts is Nov. 2. You can't pay too much attention to this," Loughlin said.
Kennedy may have fared the worst, but none of Rhode Island's congressional representatives -- all Democrats -- did particularly well.
Just 33 percent approved of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's job performance, down 11 points from a mid-December Brown University poll. Fleming said a factor may have been the senator's controversial December statement that floor opponents of health-care reform were fueled by fanatics, "right-wing militia" and Aryan support groups that hate President Obama.
A spokesman for Whitehouse -- who's not up for reelection until 2012 -- declined to comment.
When asked to list their "most important issue," the majority of respondents (57 percent) cited the economy and jobs. Health-care was a distant second (14 percent), followed by taxes (8 percent), the deficit (8 percent), education (6) and national security (5).
At 51 percent, Mr. Obama's popularity is virtually unchanged from a Brown University poll in mid-December. But support for Mr. Obama's top domestic priority -- a national health-care overhaul -- has waned considerably. Just 38 percent of respondents favored Washington "health-care reform," down from 45 percent from December.
Sen. Jack Reed earned favorable ratings from 54 percent of respondents, while 44 percent of Second Congressional District voters approved of Rep. James R. Langevin.
#2
As an aside, though it is a closely guarded secret, the Kennedy fortune has been in serious decline, because Old Joe Kennedy was the only one of the family who was better at making it than spending it.
Only for about the last 10-15 years, did Teddy, who controlled the purse strings, start cutting back on the 30-60 clan members spending, and spinning off some of them entirely.
In 1998, they sold off the Merchandise Mart, which was their big cash cow, for about half a billion, then probably lost a lot of money in the crash of 2000, and even more with the 2008 market drop.
By now, some estimates put them as low as only $30m to $100m, though $300m is a more reasonable estimate. The big question is who holds the purse now, as the younger Kennedys are even worse losers than Teddy.
Kennedy (D-R.I.) told The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room yesterday, “Brown’s whole candidacy was shown to be a joke today when he was sworn in early in order to cast his first vote as an objection to Obama’s appointment to the NLRB.”
The son of former U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, whose seat Brown is now filling, added that the newly confirmed GOP senator is a key vote against the nomination of union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
“This is where he shows that when they need him, he’s in the tank for the Republicans,” Kennedy is quoted as saying.
Brown has denied any hidden agenda in moving up his swearing-in from Feb. 11 to yesterday afternoon.
Camelot's dead, lightweight. Daddy's not around to pull your sorry, useless ass out of the fire anymore. Your big decisions in your next career will probably be "paper or plastic".
The Pentagon for the first time will require military bases worldwide to offer emergency contraception or the so-called morning-after pill, a military spokesman told Fox News Friday.
The decision follows a recommendation by an independent panel of doctors and pharmacists in November, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The panel determined that emergency contraception should be added to the military's list of medications that must be stocked at each military facility.
The decision represents a policy shift from the Bush administration when such a change was resisted, Nancy Keenan, president of the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement praising the decision.
Over much resistance from abortion opponents, the Food and Drug Administration approved the over-the-counter sale of the morning-after pill to adults in 2006.
The drug, which contains a high dose of birth control pills, can be used to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex by blocking ovulation or fertilization. Critics of the contraceptive say it is the equivalent of an abortion pill because it can prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus.
It is not known when the policy would be implemented.
Military hospitals are legally forbidden to perform abortions. When asked if the new policy violated that law, Whitman had no immediate response and said he'd have to defer to the policy experts.
#1
If you should experience any of the well documented adverse side effects listed below, skip chow, go on sick call and visit your unit's assigned dispensary immediately:
Adverse side effects include significant weight gain (on average 15 pounds), depression, ovarian cyst enlargement, gallbladder disease, high blood pressure, respiratory disorders,4 increased risk of ectopic pregnancy5 and death. In some women, these serious adverse effects of levonorgestrel-type MAP could lead to further health risks for bulimia, anorexia, or clinical depression.
Our Obama government and the pharmaceutical lobby are working for YOU!
#2
The purpose of the military is to close with and destroy the enemy.
Anything else is rubbish.
Posted by: Kelly ||
02/05/2010 16:21
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#3
Yet I have to buy my pain meds on the local economy, because the military pharmacy system only stocks generic, or only stocks certain drugs that don't provide relief for my problems.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/05/2010 16:40
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#4
OP:
An old gentleman carefully hooks his cane on the counter and grimices silently while pulling himself onto the ice cream store stool. Issuing a well deserved sigh, he removes his hat, smiles broadly, and orders a banana split. "Crushed nuts" asks the young waitress. "No" retorts the old man..."arthritis."
All a female needs to do is pop 3-4 birth control pills at once for the contraceptive effect? How is that rubbish exactly? And what alternative are you proposing? If you're going to pass judgment on the ways things are getting done by our military, by all means propose an alternative and hopefully a realistic one?
#6
Please if someone trots out the old abstinence idea I will scream. Please please please lie to yourself and others and espouse that is possible and see how far that gets you.
#10
OP, I hear you about the inconvenience you face - but consider this. Tricare presumably is at least covering those meds that you are able to purchase. This policy is aimed at active duty troops, and especially young enlisted women. My guess is that many commanders will welcome the fact that their medical facilities will have this as an option.
#11
This is probably the flag pole's response to the commander who a month or so back threatened UCMJ action to soldiers who got pregnant [see self inflicted wound] resulting in the loss of personnel with skills creating operational problems.
#12
GirlThursday, it is possible. I lived through a lot of deployments and managed to keep myself out of situations where pregnancy or STDs would become an issue.
Surely you girls can keep your legs shut long enough in order -- or else soldier up and face the consequences of your actions. You're not a cat in heat backign up against any available couch leg and yowling at night. You are a human being, you have a choice. Start acting like it.
Don't get me wrong, if the "morning after" is needed then as long as its not an abortion (that is destroying a human live instead of preventing ovulation), then I can have no objection that would be legally enforceable.
Otherwise how about YOU be responsible enough to take your own pills or abstain from activity that can get you pregnant.
Don't depend on the medics/government to bail you out from your own lack of control at the cost of a human life.
Either you're completely jesting or you're disrespecting between 13-20% of the present military depending on locale. Those in uniform are by-and-large professionals. I applaud your unabashed bluntness about your view that women should be separate from men. But you leave out something of the warrior ethos when you do that. Those soldiering can't afford to think like that. In war times when strapping on a flack vest, LBE, Kevlar, etc., to go out and do your job you are a soldier not a man and not a woman. You are a trained killer. If this threatens you, get some therapy, because women soldiers aren't your Madonnas or Whores, or whatever neat little box category society wants them in. And those 'girls' who can't hack it usually get pregnant or get kicked out within the first year or two tops.
Women currently out there risking their lives are not to be made light of unchecked, this is not okay.
#14
"You are a human being, you have a choice. Start acting like it."
Making it personal when it is not personal? That is a sure sign of irrational thinking. Logically speaking, the Pentagon's policies are not mine to question. The first rule of being a soldier is you follow orders. You just failed the 'follow orders' portion of this hypothetical argument, yet you condescend to question my self control abilities? Second, my self control is well outside the bounds of being any of your business.
#15
Lest we fergit, 9-11 + GWOT = WAR FOR OWG-NWO > Add to US Army-DOD's news this AM that the US Army intends to cancel proposed budget cuts due to Soldiers' complaints about effects on family services, + US Embassy-Consuls reloc to US-controlled Milbases andor expanding its security to near-USDOD specs > IMO OWG-NWO + DEV "RISE/REST OF THE WORLD" = US MILBASES WILL BECOME SYMBOLIC, LIVING OR OPER
"INTERNATIONAL/SANCTUARY CITIES" + SHOPPING MALLS FOR ANY AND ALL NON-US CITIZEN LOCALS + FOREIGN NATIONALS.
Guam's "GUANTANAMO MODEL/SCENARIO" applied GLOBALLY, i.e. "MINI-US/AMERICA IN CUBA" aka SOVEREIGN US BASE ENCLAVE ON HOSTILE SOVEREIGN FOREIGN NATIONS.
#16
@#11 Procopious 2k nails it:
This is probably the flag pole's response to the commander who a month or so back threatened UCMJ action to soldiers who got pregnant [see self inflicted wound] resulting in the loss of personnel with skills creating operational problems.
Uh, yes a thousand times. Which goes back to my initial assertion (different phrasing this time) that yes, I concede in an ideal world abstinence could work but in a common sense which is not-so-flipping common world some people (present company excluded) will not abstain while deployed and bingo you will need to have contraception available.
A car that plunged down the side of Mulholland Drive on Friday morning is owned by actor Charlie Sheen, who reported the vehicle stolen, authorities said. "Dude,where's my car?"
Sheen called police about 5:15 a.m. to report a possible burglar on the premises of his Sherman Oaks home, said Los Angeles police Officer Bruce Borihanh. Remember that time, 5:15 a.m. Um, it's late for a cross-fire? ...
"That's a hot prowl -- as in, 'I think there's someone in my garage,'" Borihanh said.
The car, a Mercedes four-door sedan, was found 300 feet to 400 feet down near the 13300 block of Mulholland Drive in Beverly Crest, said LAPD Det. Bill Bustos. Police and fire crews found the car badly damaged just after 4 a.m., but no one was found in or around it. A search was ongoing. Found at 4 a.m., reported stolen at 5:15 a.m.
Nothing else from Sheen's home was reported stolen, Borihanh said. The Mercedes was likely taken before the burglary was reported, Borihanh said. Yeah, well, that's one explanation.
[Updated at 8:17 a.m.: A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation says that based on a preliminary review, it appears Sheen's car was stolen after the actor left it in the open garage with the keys inside.] ...with the engine running and insurance paid in full.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/05/2010
12:27 ||
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#7
"Oppossums, or Raccoons" > Now, now, lets not force GRANNY to use her shotgun on us, or Banker Mr. Drysdale, as fresh roadkill is among the Clampetts' favorite dishes to eat.
If changes in the public mood and the party alignment of the U.S. Senate have stalled healthcare legislation, they may have thrown the highly anticipated climate bill under a bus.
Even before Republican Scott Brown's stunning election to the Senate in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts last month, it was proving hard to corral moderate Democrats to support a bill capping greenhouse gas emissions. Now they're afraid to back anything that could be perceived as harmful to the economy. "Realistically, the cap-and-trade bills in the House and the Senate are going nowhere," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told the New York Times. That's a distressing comment coming from one of the three senators supposedly crafting a compromise climate bill that's capable of achieving a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
President Obama has backed down too. On Tuesday, he signaled that cap-and-trade could go the way of healthcare reform's "public option," saying it could be removed from the climate bill. That would eliminate the market mechanism for pricing greenhouse gas pollution -- and without setting such a carbon price, other measures under consideration, such as a national renewable energy standard, won't go far enough to significantly slow global warming.
Global emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases rise every year, and within decades are expected to hit a worrisome atmospheric concentration threshold of 450 parts per million. At that point, there's a high probability that average global temperatures will be at least 2 degrees Celsius higher than they were in 1850 (they're already 1 C higher). Our children would live in a world of mass migrations, wars and conflicts fueled by scarce water supplies, infrastructure destruction as rising sea levels swallow coastlines, extreme weather events, wildfires and increased poverty and disease. These are not the predictions of wild-eyed liberal pundits but of thousands of climate researchers around the world, along with organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the National Academies of Sciences. What a surprise, 1850 marks the end of the "Little Ice Age".
It gets worse. No one really knows what would happen if average temperatures hit 5 C higher than 1850 -- a level we could easily reach within a century under a business-as-usual scenario -- but changes to the physical geography of the planet become probable: land masses would vanish; ecosystems would collapse. Human civilization would change, and not for the better.
This process can still be slowed at a moderate economic cost, but time is short -- delays make both fighting climate change and adapting to it dramatically more expensive, and eventually could make it impossible. It's foolish to say we can't afford to pass a climate bill during a recession. We can't afford not to.
#1
No one really knows what would happen if average temperatures hit 5 C higher than 1850 -- a level we could easily reach within a century under a business-as-usual scenario
No one really knows what would happen if average temperatures hit 5 C higher than 1850 -- a level we could easily reach within a century under a business>/del> statistics.-as-usual scenario
#6
According to Sumerians, Nibiru is 'possed to return in about 60 years. The last time (cca 1540 BCE) it passed through the solar system, it fried Harappa and Mohenjo Daro (electrical firestorms that fused some brick walls into glass) and generally deposited enough debris and dust particles in the atmosphere that the cloud cover formed in much lower altitudes (that is where "the sky is falling" expression comes from). Other side effects: parting of the sea, wiping out all the Central European lake base villages (there was a similar event about 1600 years earlier, but not as devastating and the villages were rebuilt, after 1540BCE, no more of them built until about 300BCE by some Keltic and Slavic tribes), frying a large strip on Sinai peninsula to a crisp (visible from space), finishing off the desertification of Sahara, elevating parts of the west coast of South America from sea level up to 4000 m in altitude, and other events that are not precisely dated all over the world but seem to refer to the same period. According to Hebraic sources, the Exodus population at the end of the journey was reduced in 50 to 1 ratio, and Jews were of the luckier ones, some pops disappeared altogether according to other sources. Egypt was in such a bad shape that it has been invaded without much resistance by Hyksos (Greek term, in reality these were marauding Amalek protoarabic tribes) which then lorded over Egypt for the next 400 years. People lived in interesting times, then.
Temps ranged from + 20 C degrees at the beginning of the upheaval (several days) to -15 C drop later in some parts, which lasted for some 25 years.
2 C/5 C increase? C'mon! That would be marvelous! More produce and extended harvest, better fed people, healthier, longer life span...
The U.S. military blamed "shortcomings in command oversight" and delays in closing a remote outpost in northeastern Afghanistan for an October ambush that left eight Americans dead, according to a report released Friday.
The Oct. 3 gunbattle that broke out when hundreds of insurgents stormed the base with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and guns in mountainous Nuristan province near the Pakistan border was one of the worst ground attacks of the war.
An investigation found the soldiers "heroically repelled a complex attack from an enemy force of 300" after calling in air support. When the fighting was over, about 150 insurgents were dead but so were eight Americans and three Afghan soldiers.
A report released by the U.S. military in Afghanistan recommended administrative actions "to address shortcomings in command oversight" that contributed to the attack.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010
12:13 ||
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"shortcomings in command oversight"
Leadership "shortcomings" discussed on the Burg 24 hours after the attack. Five long months later DoD blames intelligence and others below the rank of general officer, decides....high ground good, low ground NOT so much.
After finding himself on the receiving end of widespread criticism and unfriendly hashtags on Twitter, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has announced that he now considers Twitter messages and social networking as terrorist threats. He is quoted in this Spanish-language news report as calling for more state control over the Internet.... From the comments thread:
Ugh. In 1998, as a young pinko, I thought that this guy was going to be interesting, maybe even positive, but I was never so silly to view him as the GREAT HOPE OF THE LEFT...that would be idiotic. Well, he's certainly interesting, but this isn't positive, the man is losing it. This entire situation will end poorly....
Life is quite complex and maybe some people feel that we should not be too hasty in judgement. That said, in some situations, there are criteria to decide quickly and easily on a political movement or a person. In this example, you have a person, a government and a party that proponents and allies claim to be democratic, and even respectful of civil liberties. Whether they are or not, can be answered simply: How well do dissent, protest and anonymous opinions sit with the guy/group?
Answer: Not well at all, in the case of Hugo Chavez. No matter that he is maybe not able yet to restrict access to Twitter in Venezuela... Mighty Chavez has struck out with this one. One for RCTV TV station, two for the radio stations and circuits closed, three for Twitter and stadium protests. The guy cannot be held to be a democrat in any meaningful way.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/05/2010
12:03 ||
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#1
The guy cannot be held to be a democrat in any meaningful way.
#9
In this corner Hugo the Tyrant. In the opposite corner hundreds, if not thousands of the daughters of the critical people who make Hugo's breathing possible.
#2
It's snowing with a vengence here in central Virginia. I just drove home from the store and noticed that, while the roads are still pretty clear (but starting to get slushy), the trees are already weighted down with snow. Lots of wet snow = power lines down sooner or later. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/05/2010 14:16
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Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010 14:48
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DC radio this am said with 18" of snow, the 100-year old record for snowfall bows. Since 18-24" is forecast, and it's Feb. 5th, I'd say the record is going to be buried.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/05/2010 16:05
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Hey, send it up here please!! Worcester MA has only gotten a total of about 30" this winter and our snow-pack is down to just a couple of inches. We've only had a couple of 8 - 10 inchers and a few little things since Tgiving.
Pictures at link-- would like to hear from you who know, what is this thing? Also, the article has a "bias" against Blair -- it is the Daily Mail
They have been searching in Iraq for the past nine years, 10 months and 15 days. Today, the hard work finally paid off as soldiers found one of those elusive 'weapons of mass destruction' that Saddam Hussein was supposed to have been hiding.
So is it all round to Tony Blair's house for celebratory drinks?
Unfortunately the discovery came just a few days late for the former prime minister, who could have used the extraordinary find as proof he was right about Iraq all along during the Chilcot Inquiry.
But from the looks of the rocket, it would appear unlikely it could be deployed anywhere in 45 minutes, let alone be fired at the UK, as a certain dossier led us to believe.
The bomb is thought to have been buried by Saddam Hussein's regime before the UK and U.S. invasion of Iraq started in 2003. Iraqi guards were as surprised as the rest of us to discover the 'missile' during an operation in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib suburb.
It is not yet known whether the seven-metre rocket is armed with a warhead.
#6
Saddam had experimented with a number of guided or cruise missile and unmanned MIG-21 aircraft variants some of which could be slung under a jet and launched at altitude by the host aircraft.
#9
The SILKWORM is "dual-use" - it took SADDAM only to buy his NUKE, BIOWAR, + CHEMWAR warheads, andor indigenously dev his own while "reverse engineering" to produce Saddamist Iraq's own variant of the 'WORM.
In any case, YEAR 2012-N-BEYOND [2013] > I'm expecting the MILTERRS to formally declare their possession and competency in NUCLEAR + OTHER STRATEGIC WEAPONS TECHS.
Personally, I'm more concerned about the various MilTerr Groups as a class procuring low-tech [read, $$$ CHEAP + IDIOT-PROOF], "dual-use", NBC-CBRNE-CAPABLE UNGUIDED ROCKETS + MORTAR TUBE, ETC. SYSTEMS than the bulky, $$$ expensive, more Tech-complex MilComSys like SILKWORM + LARGER.
RELIABLE, CHEAP, POTENT, COVERT, EASY-TO-OPERATE, + WON'T STOP THE USERS FROM BLOWIN' THEMSELVES TO CAMEL-REENIES, OR WEAR WOMENS' CLOTHING, IFF THEY WANT TO.
British troops have launched helicopter advances in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province to prepare the battlefield for a major NATO operation, the British military said on Friday.
The British operations were the first confirmation that small-scale military activity has already begun ahead of an expected massive assault on the town of Marjah, a warren of desert canals that U.S. Marines say they intend to seize soon.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010
10:56 ||
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Nothing like telling the enemy what we plan to do in advance.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
02/05/2010 10:58
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The Germans knew we were coming across the channel too. Not much you can do to avoid that strategic dictate. However, you can mix and cover your operational and tactical execution.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/05/2010 13:05
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"Nothing like telling the enemy what we plan to do in advance."
Well, I am with Michael Yon in that respect. They already know exactly where we are. The civilians know where the compounds are, they can see troop buildups. Word gets around. You can't hide stuff like that from the locals. They already know.
So it's not the one you're used to.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is seeking funding in Fiscal 2011 for ArcLight, a program to flight-test a long-range, high-speed strike weapon based on the Raytheon SM-3 ballistic-missile interceptor.
ArcLight will be based on an SM-3 Block II booster stack and a hypersonic glider, and designed to carry a 100-200 pound payload more than 2,000 nautical miles. The weapon will be compatible with the Mark 41 vertical launch system and capable of launch from U.S. Navy warships and submarines as well as Air Force assets.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010
10:35 ||
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Probably looking for early strike capability for AA, Command & Control, Comm, infrastructure assets prior to air strikes. Get them before they move or shut off.
#3
Or eliminate certain turbaned leaders in hiding. 6000 mph vs 600 for an airplane or cruise missile opens opportunities. The payload is plenty large to bring down a house and the kinetic energy alone will make it a small bunker buster.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010 12:22
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If you put it down the chimney, a hundred pounds is sufficient. These items can go down the chimney.
Problem is, as the jarheads said when battleships were mothballed, we'd like to see support when the rounds cost less than the target.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
02/05/2010 13:29
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Or eliminate certain turbaned leaders in hiding. 6000 mph vs 600 for an airplane or cruise missile opens opportunities. The payload is plenty large to bring down a house and the kinetic energy alone will make it a small bunker buster.....especially with an uranium tipped warhead
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
02/05/2010 13:39
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I'm a'thinkin the USN, USAF assets will be backup for ADVANC ARMED DIRIGIBLE DESIGNS kept in permament or near-permanent atmospheric orbit.
OTOH, those Nations opposing the USA will likely want a formal international treatise banning such dirigibles from either offensive or defensive use, e.g. ONE-HOUR-OR-LESS "PROMPT GLOBAL/SPACE STRIKE" INCLUD "PROMPT GLOBAL/SPACE MISSLE DEFENSE"???
The UN secretary general has said he cannot determine if the Israelis and Palestinians have complied with a UN demand to carry out credible and independent investigations into alleged war crimes during the war in Gaza more than a year ago.
Ban Ki-moon told the UN General Assembly in a report released on Thursday that both sides were still looking into the allegations made in a September report by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge and former international war crimes prosecutor.
"No determination can be made on the implementation of the [UN] resolution by the parties concerned," Ban said in his report to the 192-member assembly that contains responses provided by Israel and the Palestinians. Clueless and stupid - a dangerous combination.
Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said anyone looking to the UN chief to make a stand on the investigations demanded would have been disappointed.
In his 72-page report, Ban mostly forwards reports to him from the Palestinians and Israelis and makes no assessment himself, our correspondent said. Ban doing what he does best. Sweet nothing.
'Hope' over probes
Last Friday, Ban received a 46-page report from Israel in which it denied violating international law, but admitted "tragic results" due to the "complexity and scale" of conducting a military operation in a heavily populated area.
Ban highlighted Israel's assertion that two of its senior officers -- a brigadier-general and a colonel - were disciplined for the firing of white phosphorous shells towards a UN compound during the Gaza war.
Also last Friday, Ban was handed a preliminary report from the Palestinians in which they said a commission of five well-known judges and legal experts had been set up. Did you notice, Ban, that the Pals have done nothing. Well, they have set up a commission that may appoint someone to look into the matter at some point when they're not busy lofting rockets into Israel.
In his report on Thursday, Ban said he had on several occasions urged both sides "to carry out credible domestic investigations into the conduct of the Gaza conflict". "What? You didn't get my memo?"
"I hope that such steps will be taken wherever there are credible allegations of human rights abuses," he added. and I want a pony.
A UN spokesman said the General Assembly would meet soon to discuss Ban's Gaza report. What report? Ban didn't do anything more energetic than run a photocopier.
The Goldstone report accused Israel and Palestinian fighters of war crimes during the Gaza war. Most of criticism in the report was directed towards Israel, which was accused of using "disproportionate force" and deliberately targeting civilians. The usual UN fair-headedness.
It recommended that its findings be passed to the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court at The Hague if Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian faction which governs the Gaza Strip, fail to carry out credible independent investigations of the claims by Friday -- six months from when the report was submitted. Palestinian and credible can't be used in the same sentence.
About 1,400 Palestinians - many of them women and children - were killed in the war. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were also killed.
Two bombs targeting Shiite Muslims exploded in Pakistan's largest city Friday, one outside a hospital treating victims from the first blast hours earlier. At least 22 people were killed and more than 50 others wounded. What a barbaric religion.
Ashura - death of Ali. Marked by random crowd bombings.
Arbaeen - end of 40 days of mourning for Ali. Marked by more random crowd bombings.
Oh, did I mention the convert or die! aspect?
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010
09:34 ||
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A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb Friday alongside a crowd of Shiite pilgrims packing a highway as they walked to a holy city south of Baghdad for a major religious ceremony, killing at least 27 people and wounding more than 70, Iraqi police officials said.
It was the third deadly bombing this week hitting the ceremony in which hundreds of thousands of Shiites have been converging on the city of Karbala. Friday's attack struck during the culmination of the pilgrimage.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010
09:30 ||
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Well that should get them a whole lot of friends. Been too much of this crap going on lately. The govt in Bagdhad needs to figure out security and fast.
Danish special forces stormed a ship captured by armed Somali pirates Friday and freed the 25 crew on board, an EU naval spokesman said, marking the first time a warship has intervened during a hijacking.
After the vessel Ariella sent out a distress signal early Friday, the Danish warship Absalon sent a helicopter to confirm the presence of pirates, and communicated with the crew to ensure they were in a safe location, said Cmdr. John Harbour, spokesman for the European Union Naval Force.
Then Danish special forces aboard the Absalon approached the Ariella in inflatable dinghies. The forces scaled the side of the ship and freed the 25 crew, who had locked themselves in a secure room, Harbour said. The forces continued to search the vessel for the pirates.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010
09:19 ||
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#1
Great post! Thanks for sharing! Click the link if you want to play bonus slot machines.
Thailand's Prime Minister is set to enact an amnesty for guerillas involved in the deadly insurgency in the country's southern provinces. But in the restive south, there is little appetite for surrender, or forgiveness.
''We are in the light, they are in the dark. They will never come out, [they] stay in the shadows.'' Arware speaks of his unenviable task, standing alone behind a makeshift parapet, guarding his Buddhist village, Ko Kachim, in Thailand's deep south against attack by Muslim separatist guerillas. But his words, too, reflect his thoughts on the chances of those guerillas laying down their arms and walking out of the jungle in peace.
Arware is a village defence volunteer, one of 40,000 in the region. Men, and increasingly women, who, because the government can't protect them, are given a couple of days' training by the army, a rifle, and the hope the insurgents choose a softer target this night. ''People have been killed here. Too many people. So we stay here to guard every night, every night, to keep our village safe.''
For more than half a decade, this part of Thailand has been torn apart by an insurgency fought by Islamic extremists who want independence, or some form of autonomy, for the three southern provinces Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. Eighty-five per cent of people here are not ethnic Thais, but Malayu-speaking Muslims. Few, however, claim the insurgents fight for them. This insurgency is a shadowy, splintered force. There are at least a dozen groups and factions, of varying strength, but rarely is credit claimed for any attack, and never has an explicit list of demands articulated. The violence, however, is real.
Beheadings, drive-by shootings and burning of bodies are so commonplace as to barely be news. Teachers at government schools, a favourite target of insurgents, are taken to school under army guard. They teach behind concrete walls ringed with razor wire. Army roadblocks populate the cities and the villages. Deep scars in the roads mark where bombs have been set off.
Some 30,000 troops, 45 per cent of Thailand's army, are stationed in the three southern provinces, home to 2 million people. Security is also provided by corps of rangers - black-clad paramilitary units - the police, and defence volunteers, such as Arware. But in many instances, these ''security forces'' are part of the problem. Reports of abuses are widespread, with insurgent suspects beaten, tortured with electric shocks, forced to dig holes and told they will be buried in them if they don't confess. In many cases, people simply disappear.
Since the long-standing disaffection of Muslims in Thailand's south reignited into conflict with the theft of government weapons in January 2004, the insurgency has claimed, according to various counts, between 3800 and 4100 lives. More than 6000 have been injured. Regarded one of the most violent insurgencies on the planet - the Australian government has issued a ''do not travel'' warning for the three provinces - the deep south of Thailand, according to the US military, had the third-highest number of terrorist bomb attacks in the world last year.
Now, with the violence past its sixth anniversary, and with no sign of abatement, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has proposed an amnesty for anyone involved in the conflict, which is claiming on average nearly two lives each day.
Abhisit announced he would take to the meeting of the National Security Council this month a proposal to implement Article 21 of Thailand's Internal Security Act. ''Article 21, if implemented, would grant an amnesty to insurgents in the south, so they could voluntarily turn themselves in to the authorities, who in turn would not impose any charges against them,'' the Prime Minister said in a statement.
Details of exactly who would be granted immunity from prosecution, and under what conditions are still unknown. Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn told The Age the National Security Council would devise a framework for assessing claims for immunity, but, ultimately, a court would rule on who is granted amnesty and who is not. The requirement to have people declare themselves insurgents before they know if they will be pardoned is the most obvious of many practical difficulties.
Standing in the darkness, on the front line of defence, Arware is doubtful any form of amnesty will be accepted by insurgents or by the communities they terrorise. ''If it is true, then maybe it can work. If they [the insurgents] can believe they will have immunity, then the situation here might be peaceful. But they will not believe, they will not surrender. And [there] cannot [be] immunity for everyone. The murderers must be punished.''
In a Muslim village in the nearby Yalan district, three village elders are equally sceptical. ''The last time the state officials ask for people to surrender, when they go back home to their village, they are shot dead. It is the soldiers killing them. People don't trust the government. I think it is impossible now. There is too much fear.''
This village too, has a defence corp. The Muslim enclaves are not immune from violence, from revenge attacks, political power struggles, or army brutality. Mosques have been attacked by gunmen. But the civilian volunteer defenders here have no guns. Twice, their government-supplied weapons have been stolen. They are now in the hands of insurgents. The army is, understandably, reluctant to offer them more guns. And anyway, there is no money for more.
The government has committed a massive 54 billion baht to the southern region, but has earmarked the money for ''development'' projects such as housing and programs to boost the fishing and rubber industries, arguing that lifting one of Thailand's poorest region out of poverty will help quell the unrest. The three village leaders like the idea, in theory at least. ''But policy and operation are very different. What the government in Bangkok says it will do and what happens in the south are always different,'' they say.
Newborn babies in the United States are routinely screened for a panel of genetic diseases. Since the testing is mandated by the government, it's often done without the parents' consent, according to Brad Therrell, director of the National Newborn Screening & Genetics Resource Center.
In many states, such as Florida, where Isabel was born, babies' DNA is stored indefinitely, according to the resource center.
Many parents don't realize their baby's DNA is being stored in a government lab, but sometimes when they find out, as the Browns did, they take action. Parents in Texas, and Minnesota have filed lawsuits, and these parents' concerns are sparking a new debate about whether it's appropriate for a baby's genetic blueprint to be in the government's possession.
Art Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, says he understands why states don't first ask permission to screen babies for genetic diseases. "It's paternalistic, but the state has an overriding interest in protecting these babies," he says.
However, he added that storage of DNA for long periods of time is a different matter.
"I don't see any reason to do that kind of storage," Caplan says. "If it's anonymous, then I don't care. I don't have an issue with that. But if you keep names attached to those samples, that makes me nervous."
Genetic testing for newborns started in the 1960s with testing for diseases and conditions that, if undetected, could kill a child or cause severe problems, such as mental retardation. Since then, the screening has helped save countless newborns.
Over the years, many other tests were added to the list. Now, states mandate that newborns be tested for anywhere between 28 and 54 different conditions, and the DNA samples are stored in state labs for anywhere from three months to indefinitely, depending on the state.
The specimens don't always stay in the state labs. They're often given to outside researchers -- sometimes with the baby's name attached.
According to a study done by the state of Minnesota, more than 20 scientific papers have been published in the United States since 2000 using newborn blood samples.
The researchers do not have to have parental consent to obtain samples as long as the baby's name is not attached, according to Amy Gaviglio, one of the authors of the Minnesota report. However, she says it's her understanding that if a researcher wants a sample with a baby's name attached, consent first must be obtained from the parents.
Scientists have heralded this enormous collection of DNA samples as a "gold mine" for doing research, according to Gaviglio.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran's ambassador to Russia says Moscow has guaranteed that it will deliver the S-300 missile defense system to Iran. "Or double your money back!"
"Iran is ready to receive this system and our Russian colleagues have assured us that they will meet their obligations," Ambassador Seyyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi said at a press conference at the main office of RIA Novosti in Moscow on Thursday. "If not completely satisfied just send it back at no charge!"
"Several technical issues [in the contract's implementation] have emerged, and we hope they will be resolved soon," the diplomat said without giving details about the problems.
The S-300 system, which can track targets and fire at aircraft 120 kilometers (75 miles) away, features high jamming immunity and is able to simultaneously engage up to 100 targets.
Russia and Iran have signed a deal for the sale and delivery of the missile system, but it has not been reported when the contract is to be implemented.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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Russia to the USA: Please enroll in our advanced Rope a Dope classes free of charge.
Scott Lee Cohen -- a pawnbroker who shocked state Democratic leaders Tuesday night by winning the party's nomination for lieutenant governor -- was arrested about four-and-a-half years ago and accused of holding a knife to a former live-in girlfriend's neck, newly obtained court records show.
The misdemeanor charge against Cohen was dropped weeks later when the woman -- who had just been found guilty of prostitution -- failed to show up to testify, according to those records.
This isn't the only piece of information Republicans might try to use against the Democratic gubernatorial ticket, the other half of which was being sorted out as Gov. Quinn and Dan Hynes ran neck-and-neck with ballots still to be counted.
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#2
Oh, come ON! How is this shocking? From the same state where the governor tried to sell Obama's Senate seat? Which resulted in the chain of events that culminated in this election?
#4
Cohen told anyone who would listen about his arrest and messy divorce. At least one columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times, house organ for the Democratic Party, skated around it FOUR TIMES since March 2009 as did the rest of the Chicago media. Why? Because they are: a) LAZY b)pick the Democrat side in any election or on any issue.
Cohen won his election, his opponents did not bring this issue up during the campaign. Quinns, and the medias immediate reacton was to dump the results of a free election and default to banana republic dictatorship tactics. Cohen isn't the problem, the Chicago Media and the Governor candidate is the problem.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of assh*les.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/05/2010 10:14
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An aggressive, ambitious reporter could have a heckuva lotta fun in Chicago providing, of course, that his editors don't muzzle him...or the bosses don't have him whacked.
#4
Besoeker-did you catch last week when we said that we'd accept 6000 Somali refugees currently in Uganda? The vetting process probably goes like this: Abdul: Have you or anyone else you know blown up a US Embassy in the past 30 days. NO?, good come right in.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
02/05/2010 9:25
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Vetting has worked so well in the past: When immigrants bring in large numbers of family members, this is referred to as chain migration. The family reunification program has been available to people from a variety of continents and nationalities since the 1980s. In recent years, according to the State Department, more than 95 percent of the applications to the P-3 program have been Africans—primarily Somalis, Ethiopians, and Liberians. (but mostly Somalis)
But, after repeated reports that applicants were faking familial relationships to persons already in the United States, the State Department started testing the DNA of applicants to this program. The tests were able to confirm familial relationships in only 20 percent of cases, so six weeks ago the department suspended the program until officials figure out a better way to run it.
For the life of me I can't understand why the government would to import people who regard 99.3% of us as dogs, drain government resources and couldn't organize themselves into anything more peaceful than complete anarchy.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010 10:04
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"suspended the program until officials figure out a better way to run it"
Leave it permanently suspended. There is no "better way to run it."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/05/2010 10:16
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The tests were able to confirm familial relationships in only 20 percent of cases,
That would tell me that 80% of cases are as phoney as an Obama promise and should at least get a lot more scrutiny - but that's just me I'm not neutered enough to work in state....
#8
So, how did the Al-Churbaji family make it back into the U.S.? Well, that’s interesting. Since Al-Churbaji was already deported once and engaged in a sham marriage, he was not eligible to come back at the time. But his wife, Denise, claims that she was directed to contact a U.S. Embassy employee, Sam Libby, to get her and her husband visas. Magically, Sam Libby, broke the rules and–voila!–the visas, golden tickets into America, were issued.
Just how much money did Sam Libby get from Al-Qaeda for issuing visas to operatives, like Mohammed Al-Churbaji, prohibited from entry into the U.S.? And is the U.S. government looking into all of the visas issued by or connected to him? While such an investigation should be a no-brainer, donÂ’t bet on it. There is no evidence that Libby was ever investigated or disciplined. WeÂ’re from the government, and weÂ’re here to help you, er . . . the terrorists.
Fantastic scoop but does anyone follow up on this?
#9
More interesting tidbits from links in the article:
Top Al-Qaeda TerroristÂ’s Son is Obama Fundraiser...ThatÂ’s in addition to Agent MirandaÂ’s testimony that GRF and the HAMAS-front group, Holy Land Foundation, co-mingled and gave each other funds. (GRF also transferred funds to Al-Qaeda financier Mohammed Zouaydi.) Again, Miranda is the FBI case agent in the HLF matter.
Now that Al-Churbaji is unemployed, his wife, Denise, testified that she is the breadwinner, as a pharmacy technician at the tax-funded University of Michigan, where she earns about $36,000 annually on your dime. After all, itÂ’s imperative that American taxpayers finance Al-Qaeda operativesÂ’ families while they fight deportation.
But not to worry. Mrs. Al-Churbaji told the courtroom that she is emotionally and physically unable to care for her 5 or 6 children. And Mr. Al-Churbaji does it for her, while she goes into her room and sleeps after work every day. The First Islamic Terrorist “Mr. Mom.” Yes, there is “diversity” in every realm in America.
While attempting to stay here and get U.S. citizenship, Al-Churbaji has had a steady supply of liberal democrat helpers who’ve written the government on this Al-Qaeda terrorist’s behalf, including the late Senator Paul Simon, former Senator Carol Moseley Braun, and Congressman-For-Life from Dearbornistan, John Dingell. What’s disturbing is that–even though Al-Churbaji was already deported and should never have been given a second visa and readmitted–America must go through the long deportation process to get rid of him. And the U.S. government and FBI–unwilling to produce important classified evidence against Al-Churbaji to public scrutiny–won’t prosecute him in the criminal courts. It must rely on the less stringent Immigration Court to get rid of him....All of these terrorist roommates–top operatives in the original Al-Qaeda–attended the same mosque in Peshawar. Even Al-Churbaji admitted on the stand that both Sheikh Azzam and Bin Laden attended the mosque and that he saw them there. All of these terrorist roommates also attended the Center Street Mosque in Arlington, Texas. Coincidence? Nope. It’s an Al-Qaeda “family” reunion. They don’t call it Al-Ikhwan–”The Brotherhood”–for nothin’.
The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea are proposing to Seoul a joint military exercise in preparation for the collapse of the North Korean regime. The South Korean and U.S. militaries have almost completed an operational plan for what is delicately called a "sudden change" in the North, but they have yet to carry out a joint exercise based on the plan.
The Defense Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff are reviewing the plan cautiously for fear of further angering the North, which is already on edge amid international sanctions and a currency reform gone disastrously wrong.
A government source on Thursday said since late last year, one U.S. military leader after another has proposed to the Defense Ministry and the JCS officially or unofficially that a joint military exercise be staged in preparation for the "sudden change."
U.S. JCS Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen reportedly made the proposal to his South Korean counterpart Gen. Lee Sang-eui at the bilateral Military Committee Meeting in Seoul in October last year. USFK Commander Gen. Walter Sharp repeated the proposal to senior South Korean military officers in a recent meeting, according to a source.
The ministry and the JCS urged caution but agreed there is a need for such an exercise. Military authorities are considering two options. The first envisages staging the drill as inconspicuously as possible as part of one of the existing annual joint exercises. The other is a drill ostensibly for humanitarian relief in case of a massive natural disaster in a hypothetical neighboring state.
The joint contingency plan, dubbed OPLAN 5029, envisages six scenarios, including civil war caused by a transition of power or a coup after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's death; theft and sale abroad of so-called weapons of mass destruction by an insurgent army; mass defection; massive natural disaster; and the kidnapping of South Korean citizens in the North. However, this has never been officially confirmed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2010
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraq's prime minister has convened parliament for Sunday to debate what his government branded an "illegal" decision to reinstate candidates with alleged links to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein in next month's election, state television said.
The television said parliament speaker Iyad Samarrai had at the request of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called MPs to an extraordinary session "to study the decision of the seven judges."
The electoral commission announced on Wednesday that the judges had ruled that around 500 candidates barred from Iraq's March 7 general election could stand after all.
"Postponing implementing the law of the Justice and Accountability Commission till after the election is illegal and not constitutional," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement on his website.
Shiite groups, which along with Iraq's minority Kurds bore the brunt of Baath party repression during the rule of Sunni dictator Saddam, also condemned the ruling.
The candidate ban was seen by many Sunnis as a conspiracy by Shiite-led factions to keep them from a fair share of power even though the list has more Shiite names and a disproportionate number from smaller, cross-sectarian alliances.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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[Dawn] Pakistan said Thursday it could play an important role in promoting reconciliation in Afghanistan and was willing to assist Afghan-led peace efforts after an eight-year Taliban insurgency. Say! How's that reconciliation thingy going in Pakistain?
It's even sweeter of them to offer to fix the problem they are still causing the neighborhood, even before they address the same problem at home.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai won backing for a new peace and reconciliation programme with the Taliban at a conference in London last month aimed at establishing a road map for the war-torn country.
"We fully agree that reconciliation and reintegration in Afghanistan is an important element to achieve peace and stability in the country," Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters.
"We genuinely believe Pakistan can be helpful in this process. We would like the government of Afghanistan to see how they would like to lead this process. It is also for Afghanistan to determine what role other countries can play.
"Pakistan is ready to help in whatever way it is asked for.... Pakistan can play an important role in promoting genuine reconciliation," he added.
Many Afghans believe Pakistan's powerful military are sponsoring the Taliban, preparing for the day US troops leave so that Islamabad can exercise influence over a Taliban government, offsetting rival power India.
"We already have serious concerns about India for using Afghanistan (soil) to destabilise Pakistan," said Basit.
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all recognised Afghanistan's 1996-2001 Taliban government, which was toppled by US-led forces after the September 11 attacks.
Karzai met Saudi King Abdullah this week in what was thought to be an effort to get Saudi Arabia to coax Taliban leaders into reconciliation talks.
Pakistan's army chief said Monday that his country had no interest in "controlling" Afghanistan, in a robust defence of Islamabad's policy across the border and its fight against extremists.
General Ashfaq Kayani, a former director of Inter-Services Intelligence, the spy agency at the heart of US fears that Islamabad is playing a double game, said peace in Afghanistan was crucial to Pakistan's long-term interests.
Kayani even offered Pakistani help in training Afghan security forces, key to Washington's exit strategy from the war in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
ION DAILY TIMES.PK > NEW DANGERS MAY EMERGE AFTER HAKEEMULLAH'S DEATH [AL QAEDA may exploit and step in to resolve new TTP Leadership vacuum].
* SAME > TALIBAN FIND POROUS BORDERS EVEN WHERE LAW EXISTS [ + Govt Army-Police units].
[Quqnoos] US troops and their Afghan and NATO allies are preparing to launch their biggest offensive in southern Afghanistan, officials said.
Afghan and American commanders gave notice on Wednesday that the assault is imminent, targeting a key Taliban town in the volatile southern Helmand province.
The operation is expected to involve up to 15,000 personnel and could last between six and eight weeks.
NATO spokesman Brig Gen Eric Tremblay told reporters on Wednesday in Kabul that the operation will include at least 1,000 Afghan police and thousands of Afghan soldiers as well as thousands of NATO troops.
No date for the start of the operation has been released, but US commanders have said they plan to capture the town of Marjah known as a hub of Taliban's opium trade.
The town has been described as a centre of militant fighters, bomb makers and opium traffickers and is believed to have given sanctuary to many fighters who fled military operations in central Helmand last July.
US officers believe between 600 and 1,000 fighters, including 150 foreign volunteers, are thought to operate in the area.
This is known the first joint military operation with highest number of Afghan forces involved.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a major international conference in London last week said Afghan forces should gradually take leadership of military operations in the country.
Spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defence, Gen Zahir Azimi, didn't not mention Marjah, but told reporters that a large operation is to take place "in the near future" in Helmand province.
The announcement of the operation parallels the Pentagon's preparation to deploy an additional 18,000 troops to Afghanistan, particularly in the s south, by late spring.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
The ROE: "Don't hurt anyone. Don't arrest anyone. Don't break anything. Don't do anything that will be embarrassing to the administration. Win. And be quick about it, you drones."
[Dawn] Thirty-two Taliban and three soldiers have been killed in an Afghan-Nato operation in Helmand province ahead of a major anti-Taliban push, the provincial government said on Thursday.
The operation took place in Nad Ali district, west of the provincial capital Lashkar Gar, on Wednesday, provincial government spokesman Daud Ahmadi told AFP.
"We had an operation in the Nad Ali area last night," Ahmadi said. "During the operation 32 Taliban were killed and the bodies of some of them remained in the area."
The southern province of Helmand, along with neighbouring Kandahar, has been the hub of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan since their regime was pushed from power in the US-led invasion in late 2001.
The Marjah area, south of Nad Ali, is set to be the scene of a major military operation headed by US Marines who have been massing in their thousands, along with Afghan and Nato troops, for weeks in preparation.
Afghan and Nato officials said Wednesday the operation to clear the Taliban from one of their last bastions should begin soon but gave no specific timeframe.
About 113,000 international troops are deployed in Afghanistan to eradicate the Taliban, with another 40,000 reinforcements due to arrive over the coming months. Most reinforcement will be sent to the southern insurgency hotspots.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
153,000 troops soon. How many fighters? 100,000 fighters, with license to kill, and there will be an abundance of hassenfeffer. 150,000 REMFs and 3000 handcuffed fighters will end up as 5000 allied casualties.
#2
From what I understand, Glenmore, the term "REMF" is no longer operational. There ARE no "rear areas" in asymmetrical warfare. If called upon to do so, it won't be the first time cooks, bakers, and candlestick makers have been handed a rifle and told "point to the outside and pull the trigger". It isn't always effective, but it sure causes confusion in the enemy's ranks.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/05/2010 12:07
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#3
Non-lethal weapons, spicey-hot paintball, wooden warning bombs, and annoying low-level sonic booms....all coming soon. Hope & Change on the battlefield.
#5
Point taken, Old Patiot. My concern is whether we are adding 'targets' to our staffing, or people intended to fight. It's hard to know how to fight a war of this kind (probably why Bush diverted focus to Iraq as early as possible.) Sometimes it's about killing people, sometimes about protecting them, sometimes simply bribing them - I have serious doubts ANY strategy will actually work in A'stan.
Lawyers for President Obama have been working behind the scenes to prepare for the possibility of one, and maybe two Supreme Court vacancies this spring.
Court watchers believe two of the more liberal members of the court, justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, could decide to step aside for reasons of age and health. That would give the president his second and third chance to shape his legacy on the Supreme Court.
Last week, when Obama took the nearly unprecedented step of criticizing the court's opinion in a major campaign finance case during his State of the Union speech, some believed he was showcasing for the American people that presidential elections, and Supreme Court nominations count.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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#1
Stevens has long let it be known that he will only leave when they have to scrape his decayed remains out of his chair.
Ginsburg is even worse, because she believes that her chair is now the "Jewish" chair, and she would never trust Obama to only nominate another Jew for it.
Such "seat politics" is not that uncommon on the court, because Democrats firmly believe there should be a "black" justice, a "Hispanic" justice, at least one female justice, etc. Ginsburg just thinks that there should be a perpetual Jewish justice as well.
#3
Maybe Barry will nominate himself and resign. SCOTUS gotta be a helluva lot less aggravating then his current position, and him being an alleged constitutional "scholar" and all...
BEIJING/SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- A senior official of China's Communist Party is set to visit North Korea next week apparently on a mission to help resume stalled talks on ending the North's nuclear program, informed sources in Beijing said Friday. Wang Jiarui, the head of the party's international department, is expected to visit Pyongyang and meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il next week, the sources said.
"Wang's trip to Pyongyang can be seen as part of a regular exchange of visits for New Year's greetings, but it may bring significant changes to the six-party talks," a source said, asking not to be identified.
Wang's expected meeting with Kim will be closely watched because it may lead to the North's announcement of its return to the nuclear negotiations, also attended by South Korea, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia. Wang may also speak with Kim about the possibility of the North Korean leader visiting China.
North Korea has boycotted the nuclear negotiations since late 2008, but the North Korean leader told China's visiting Premier Wen Jiabao last year that his country may return to the talks following bilateral dialogue with the United States.
A special U.S. representative for North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, visited Pyongyang in December but Pyongyang has yet to declare its return to the six-party talks. Observers believe Pyongyang may do so following Kim's anticipated trip to China to win economic concessions from its communist ally.
The North Korean leader was widely expected to visit China at the beginning of the year, but the sources said a trip is only possible after an invitation from the Chinese Communist Party as Kim, head of the National Defense Commission, does not hold any official title in the North's Cabinet. Wang is said to be tasked with delivering an invitation. So we know who drew the short straw ...
"If Wang visits North Korea, he will likely meet many of North Korea's ranking officials and we believe the topics of such meetings will inevitably include the six-party talks and North Korea's return to the negotiating table," an official said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2010
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#1
Buying or selling?
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010 1:24
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Australia said it used an anti-weapons of mass destruction law to block three shipments to Iran but calls for new sanctions against the Islamic state opened up a new international divide Thursday.
Western countries who fear Iran is trying to develop a nuclear bomb also condemned a test rocket launch by Iran.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said his country had blocked three shipments of unidentified cargo to Iran invoking a rarely used Weapons of Mass Destruction Act.
Rudd did not give details of the cargo. But The Australian newspaper reported that at least one of the orders made in recent months blocked a shipment of pumps which could have been used to cool nuclear power plants.
"If you look at the threat to regional and global peace which Iran poses in its current nuclear weapons program, there is no alternative other than robust international action including in areas such as this," Rudd told Australian television.
The United States and France led condemnations of Iran for launching its Kavoshgar 3 (Explorer) rocket, which Iran said carried a capsule containing a rat, turtle and worms and was an experiment in sending living creatures into space. Iran has denied it is trying to build a bomb.
The U.S. White House called the launch "provocative."
France believes "this announcement can only reinforce the concerns of the international community as Iran in parallel develops a nuclear program that has no identifiable civil aims," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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The U.S. Defense Department claims South Korea is interested in participating in a U.S.-led ballistic missile defense system, but Seoul officials deny that any concrete commitment has been made. In a report released Monday, the department said Seoul "is also an important U.S. BMD partner" and "has indicated interest in acquiring a missile defense capability that includes land- and sea-based systems, early warning radars, and a command and control system."
"The United States and [South Korea] are working to define possible future BMD requirements," the report says. It expresses the hope that South Korea will actively participate, saying, "The United States looks forward to taking further steps to enhance operational coordination and build upon ongoing missile defense cooperation" between Seoul and Washington.
But South Korean military authorities on Wednesday dismissed the claims, saying the report does not represent an official expression of the U.S. government views. They say there has been no formal request through diplomatic channels, nor has Seoul expressed such an interest.
Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said, "Whether to participate in the missile defense system is a matter that needs comprehensive consideration of the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and worldwide."
Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of the U.S. Army Pacific Command, on Tuesday said the U.S. is seeking a tripartite military exercise of the South Korean and U.S. armies and Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force, a claim Seoul also denies.
In a telephone talk with Defense Department bloggers, Mixon said South Korea, the U.S., and Japan have discussed ways to stage a multilateral or trilateral exercise for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
The Defense Ministry denied this report as well, saying it had no such discussions and made no such plans.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
If SKOR is NOT interested in a missile defense scheme, then we need to pull all our people out, because it is dead certain the Norks ARE interested in a missile offense scheme.
#2
Given the stick we just put into the Poles over missile defense, Seoul would be smart to pursue its own program in its own self interest and not wait till the 11th hours for another American administration to pull the rung from underneath it as a 'bargaining' in another useless round of talks with the Nkors.
#3
SK already operates the Patriot. Even if they don't already own the PAC-3, the PAC-2s have some anti-missile capability good for the kind of short range missiles the Norks would launch against them. And I'm sure US Forces are well protected w/ PAC-3s. The SKs also have Aegis ships and are building more. The country is only about 150 miles wide and 100 miles at the DMZ.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010 10:17
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#4
ION WMF > "TOKYO SHIMBUN" JAPANESE MEDIA: BRITISH IISS THINK-TANK REPORT SAYS RISING CHINA'S STRATEGY HAS CHANGED FROM "NATIONAL DEFENSE" ONLY TO "GLOBAL/WORLD ATTACK".
* SAME > IN 2015 CHINA WILL HAVE THE BALLISTIC MISSLE CAPABILITY TO ACCURATELY DESTROY US AIRCRAFT CARRIERS FROM ITS MAINLAND, AND HENCE BE ABLE TO EFFECTIVELY/DE FACTO CHALLENGE US HEGEMONY IN ASIA-PACIFIC.
(Bloomberg) -- Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, will consider Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection along with tax increases and asset sales as options to address $68 million in debt service payments due this year, the chairwoman of a City Council committee said last night.
Every option, including tax and fee increases, bankruptcy and a state takeover through Pennsylvania's Act 47 municipal oversight program will be considered, said Susan Brown-Wilson, chairwoman of the Budget and Finance Committee, which began a week of hearings last night to consider a 2010 spending plan.
The $68 million in debt service payments that Harrisburg faces in connection with the construction of a waste incinerator this year is four times what the city of 47,000 expects to raise through property taxes, and $4 million more than the city's entire proposed operating budget.
"We need to see, what does Act 47 do for us; what does bankruptcy do," Wilson said in an interview during a break in the opening budget hearing at Harrisburg City Hall. "You have to have all of them on the table."
Harrisburg skipped more than $3.5 million in debt-service and swap payments last year, prompting draws on reserves and back-up payments by Dauphin County, where Harrisburg is located. The county has sued the city to recover its payments.
Wilson was among five Council members who voted last year to reject a 2010 budget proposal by former mayor Stephen Reed, who left office last month after 18 years. The proposal would have attempted to cover the debt service costs by selling assets such as an historic downtown market, an island in the Susquehanna River that includes the city's minor-league baseball stadium, and the city's parking, sewer and water systems.
Selling Assets
The plan to raise $69 million by selling downtown features was reinstated last month by Linda Thompson, the newly elected mayor, in a substitute budget. The seven-member council has until Feb. 15 to approve a final 2010 budget.
Brown-Wilson said she would support leasing only city assets that don't generate revenue, as the parking and water systems do.
Carol Cocheres, bond counsel for the incinerator's operator, the Harrisburg Authority, told the city council at a Dec. 14 hearing that the city is already in danger of legal action for payments that were missed last year on $288 million in debt it has guaranteed with its full faith and credit.
"There's never been a default like this in Pennsylvania municipal history," she said. "This is all new territory."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The poverty evident in Harrisburg is all the more shocking considering the prosperity of the surrounding communities.
#3
I live here in the Peoples Republic of Pee Aye, and the urban areas are a mess thanks to 40+ years of 1 party (guess which) rule. We have the second oldest population in America after Florida, but those retirees are not living here by choice. More like they are broke (how's that union thing workin' out for ya?) If we could pawn off Philly on NJ and Pittsburgh / Erie on Ohio, we could have a pretty nice state here...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/05/2010 11:06
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#4
Keep one hand on your wallet, California is also desperate for money and is resorting to such worthwhile pursuits as beefing up jay-walking patrols. You haven't seen nuthin yet, its going to get really weird in the next year.
Indian authorities deployed thousands of police and detained top separatists in Indian-administered Kashmir's capital Srinagar on Thursday to halt protests over the death of a Muslim boy.
The 14-year-old child was struck by a teargas shell fired by police on Sunday during a separatist demonstration, and his death sparked days of angry protests against New Delhi's rule over the region.
About 100 protesters and policemen have been injured in clashes.
Security forces on Thursday enforced restrictions in most parts of Srinagar, to prevent further rallies. The government has banned the assembly of more than four people in Srinagar
"This has been done to maintain law and order," police officer Pervez Ahmed said. Residents said they were ordered to stay in their homes, though there was no formal curfew.
Senior separatist leaders were either detained in police stations or confined to their homes.
"I have been placed under house arrest," leading separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told AFP over telephone.
Farooq said if New Delhi continued to "kill people in Kashmir, then violent rebellion would return to the state."
Shops, businesses and government offices in Srinagar were closed and public buses stayed off the roads for a fourth day Thursday.
This article starring:
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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[Al Arabiya Latest] The government of Dubai announced Thursday the discovery of a new off-shore oil field which it hoped would rescue its limping economy. The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum, "heralds the good news to the people of the United Arab Emirates that a new off-shore oil field has been discovered in Dubai," a government statement said.
Small oil producer Dubai was evaluating the size of the field and potential production, the statement said. The ruler's office was unable to provide further information.
The discovery is timely for the emirate, which is currently restructuring.
"(It would) give a strong impetus to all sectors of the local economy and provide a new source of income enhancing the comprehensive development of Dubai," UAE state news agency WAM said in a statement.
Dubai's crude has an influence on global oil markets that belies its limited output, as it is used as a pricing benchmark for more than 10 million barrels per day of crude heading to Asia from the Middle East.
The emirate pumps only a fraction of supply from the United Arab Emirates, the world's third largest oil exporter with output of around 2.3 million bpd. The emirate of Abu Dhabi produces most of the UAE's oil and holds over 90 percent of its reserves.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Maghrebia] An Algiers criminal court on Wednesday (February 3rd) sentenced convicted murderer Mohamed Benziane to death, El Watan reported. Benziane, who was apprehended in 2004, was reportedly a member of Abou Yacine's armed group in Chlef. At trial, he recanted his alleged initial admission to several deadly terror attacks, including the 1999 Tadjena massacre in which at least 50 people were killed and 9 women kidnapped and raped.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The gunmen who attacked Mumbai in 2008 may have been guided by an Indian, or a man who had lived in India for some time, Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday.
In a television interview, Chidambaram said the man, whose true identity had yet to be ascertained, was suspected of acting as a "handler" for the 10 gunmen, who killed 166 people in the November 2008 assault on India's financial capital."When we say he could be an Indian, he could be somebody who acquired Indian characteristics. He could have been infiltrated into India and lived here long enough to acquire an Indian accent, and familiarity with Hindi words," the minister said.
Chidambaram said investigators had known for some time that there was a "handler" who could be an Indian. "We know him by Abu Jindal... but that is not his real name," he said. "We cannot put a finger on who he is, unless we get a voice sample. And they (Pakistan) won't give us a voice sample," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#3
Lumpy, can you elaborate? Are you referring to initial reports that a swarthy gentleman of the turbaned persuasion bought a ticket w/o a passport?
BTW, our underwear fizzle bomb victim has admitted Alawaki put him up to blowing up an airliner with 300 infidels on board.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010 9:53
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#4
BTW, our underwear fizzle bomb victim has admitted Alawaki put him up to blowing up an airliner with 300 infidels on board.
I believe he is referring to the reported presence of a "fixer" of Indian appearance that smoothed the Fruit of the Boom bombers boarding...sans Passport.
#5
Latest news: Abdulmutallab: Cleric Told Me to Bomb Jet Detroit Bombing Suspect Abdulmutallab Providing Intelligence about Anwar al-Awlaki, Radical Cleric Tied to 9/11 and Fort Hood
Abdulmutallab has turned against the cleric who claims to be his teacher, al-Awlaki, and has helped the U.S. hunt for him in Yemen, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010 11:55
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Russia has assured Iran that it still intends to deliver long-range air-defense missiles, the Iranian ambassador in Moscow said Thursday.
Russian news agencies cited Seyyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi as saying, "Our Russian colleagues have assured us that they will meet their obligations." A Kremlin spokesman declined to comment.
Russia signed a 2007 contract to sell the S-300 missile complex, but so far has not delivered
LAHORE: The long-standing Kashmir dispute should be resolved at the earliest otherwise the war against India would be inevitable. India has practically conducted atomic bombing against Pakistan by building numerous dams in Kashmir. The reduced Pakistani water share would turn the land barren. But thanks to the media, which has brought this critical issue to limelight.
These views were expressed by the speakers at a Forum entitled ‘Kashmir Freedom Movement and Pakistan' organised by TheNation, Nawa-i-Waqt and Waqt News at the Hamid Nizami Hall here on Wednesday. The speakers included Member Islamic Ideology Council-Azad Kashmir and former Member Kashmir Legislative Assembly Maulana Mohammad Shafi Josh, Member AJK Legislative Assembly and Secretary General People's Muslim League AJK Chapter Dewan Ghulam Mohyuddin, Director Kashmir Centre Lahore Mirza Mohammad Sadiq Jarral and Central Leader Jamaat-ud-Daawa Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki. Earlier, the speakers also met Editor-in Chief TheNation and Nazria Pakistan Trust (NPT) Chairman Majid Nizami.
Speaking on the occasion, Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki said that the Kashmir issue was put aside during the regime of former President Musharraf that gave India liberty to construct the dams on Pakistani water share. He opined that the Pakistani media should reply in a befitting manner to the Indian channels trying to malign Pakistan in the international community. Pakistan is in danger. We need to formulate an effective strategy to salvage our sovereignty, and to plead the case of our Kashmiri brethren,ö he remarked. He was of the view that the government should lift the ban from all the genuine religious outfits, and patronise them for Jehad. ôThe war on terror is not ours, but the US has imposed it on Pakistan,ö he clarified. Makki appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudrhy and Lahore High Court Chief Justice Kh Muhammad Sharif to take suo moto action of the grave situation of water crisis.
Dewan Ghulam Mohyuddin said if the Kashmir dispute was not resolved in the next one or two years the existence of Pakistan would be at risk. He warned India to remain in limits otherwise be ready to face the music. He opined that Pakistan should decide time frame and objectives before the commencement of composite dialogue with India to settle the Kashmir dispute.
Appreciating the role of Majid Nizami, Maulana Mohammad Shafi Josh said that the Nawa-i-Waqt Group was playing a pivotal role regarding the issue of Kashmir. He said that according to the Quaid, Kashmir was the jugular vein of Pakistan. He recalled that the Quaid had declared Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar and Ch Ghulam Abbas Khan as his successors. ôPakistan is incomplete without the liberation of Kashmir,ö he maintained. He called upon all the political and religious leaders to unite for the cause of Kashmir.
Mirza Mohammad Sadiq Jarral said that all the options - suggested by Pakistani govt, especially during Musharraf regime - went in favour of India, which always took advantage of our pro-American policies. He said India was exploiting our trade and engulfing our resources by building dams on our rivers. “The govt should warn India instead of initiating dialogue, because such talks never gave fruitful results,' he said.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/05/2010
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#1
May the spirit and blessings of Hanuman provide India with the needed Chakra to dispose of their failed nation-state neighbor!
#2
India has practically conducted atomic bombing against Pakistan by building numerous dams in Kashmir. This statement wins the hyperbole of the year award for 2010.
#7
NEWS KERALA > LeT CHIEF [Haafiz Saeed] THREATENS JIHAD OVER KASHMIR. Kashmir must be liberated, or its Jihad.
* SAME > BJP: NO COMPROMISE WID PAKISTAN ON INDIAN TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY. BJP views Bilateral talks on such as tantamount to Indian surrender to Pakistan.
#1
No surprise here - personally I more concerned about future SOVIET/COMMIE BLOC-STYLE "TRAVEL PAPERS, PLEASE, COMRADE(S)" being heard around the country, particularly to our descendants.
#2
Was it really necessary to post link to NY Times web site thus giving it some ad revenue? Wasn't it possible to find a 2008 election Map somewhere else?
#3
Sorry, guys, no connection here, except for the fact that high-speed rail connects big cities filled with Democrats.
Five or ten years ago, Florida DOT committed one interchange a year - $75 million - for 30 years to high speed rail, Miami-Orlando-Tampa. The Governor shot it down, then the people got it voted on as a constitutional amendment, and that was overturned. Southwest Airlines killed it in Texas in 1993, on the premise there was no need for it. Then.
I know there's a lot of anti-HS Rail sentiment here, but this is hardly a political connection.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/05/2010 6:00
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there's a lot of anti-HS Rail sentiment here
No, there's a lot of anti-Government funded anything. Sell AMTRAK and make the Interstates toll roads and I'd be happy. If HS rail can make money, by all means let venture capitalists fund it. But I'm not a VC and I don't want my tax money spent that way by someone who can't find their way to Sand Hill Road.
Technically, you pay for the interstate every time you fill up. Those federal and state taxes were rationalized as being to pay for the roads [before, of course, the pols stole redirected the money elsewhere].
#6
Bobby makes a fair point here and in the other high-speed rail post today: all forms of transportation are subsidized. It's just a question of how you spread it around.
For the interstates, I have no problem making all of the toll roads. Put in an EZ-Pass or similar system, make the highways open-road tolling compatible, and have people carry transponders in their cars.
You want to get somewhere quickly? Pay the toll.
You don't want to pay the toll? Take the side roads.
I'd re-introduce market principles to the traffic grid and get people to see the indirect subsidies that are all around us.
I also agree with Nimble: there is, indeed, a lot of anti-government funded anything right now. It's the price government pays for decades of stupidity, graft, mistrust and cavalier arrogance. High-speed rail might be a good idea, but it's going to get whacked if for no other reason that it's a convenient target right now.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2010 8:47
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You want to get somewhere quickly? Pay the toll. Posted by: Steve White
No argument there Doctor. But if you're commuting from say Rockford, IL to O'Hare... count on paying somewhere around $1500. per year in tolls. Chalk up another 57.9 cpg tax for gas. Add on another 12.5 cpg if you make the mistake of going downtown and buying fuel in Chicago.
Anyone looked that Illinois Tollway books in a while, ie, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, D&T, Ernst & Young, KPMG? No, and they never will either.
#8
Beso has it right. It's not just the anti-funding it's the anti-accountability problem. All of the roads and tolls are a major source of graft, pork and corruption in general. Look at the Mass Turnpike. Something like 2/3rds of the toll takers have direct connections to the statehouse polls.
#9
Actually, the project I'm working on now is HOT Lanes. High Occupancy (the old HOV concept) or Toll. Three folks in the car ride free, buses can mantain a schedule on the Beltway, and soccer moms in a hurry to get to the game can pay the toll. Tolls will be varied to maintain a speed (45 or 55, I forget). At 3 am, the toll might be two cents a mile; at 5 pm it might be a dollar a mile. Opening on 14 miles of the DC Beltway 12/20/2012. Unless the Mayans were right.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/05/2010 16:21
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Our gov, Jim Doyle, quacked his way through the latest State of the State, the high point of which was the unveiling of the high speed rail line between Chicago, Milwaukee, and Madison. It'll go through our town, but we'll have to drive into Madison to use it.
$820 million dollars for this line. Using what for money?
[Ma'an] Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family on Thursday, speaking at a business forum hosted by Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan University.
"If you declare war on Israel, you and your family will lose your reign," he said, according to a statement circulated by the university, which is considered among the more right-wing institutions in Israel.
Lieberman was referring to a comment made yesterday by the Syrian president that Israel is not serious about its intentions to make peace with Damascus, as evidenced by "its conduct which is leading the region to war."
The West Bank settler declared that Assad's statement had "crossed a red line." "We heard Defense Minister [Ehud] Barak's sincere call for peace with Syria, and we have now received Syria's answer. Whoever thinks territorial concessions will disconnect Damascus from the Axis of Evil is wrong," he asserted.
He also denied any intention to begin indirect negotiations through US mediation with the Palestinians. "I say to Salam Fayyad and to Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas]: without direct negotiations, not only will there never be a Palestinian state, but you will also lose control of the West Bank, just like you lost control of Gaza."
"The conflict with the Arab world still is no longer national, but rather religious, and no territorial compromise will work," he added. "Religious conflicts are not solved through territorial compromise. I don't know who Abu Mazen and Salam Fayyad represent. When we conduct negotiations, I want to know who's on the other side.
"There is nothing we haven't tried, from Camp David to Gush Katif, where we transferred nearly 10,000 Jews from their homes," the foreign minister alleged. "As compensation we received Hamas and terror. Nothing has changed since November 29th, 1947."
He added: "Conciliatory rhetoric brings lies. I can't change the bitter reality with a sweet lie. Sixteen years went by from Oslo to the establishment [of] Netanyahu's second government. And what's happened? Nothing!"
Lieberman insisted that "our biggest problem is reading comprehension -- you can't force peace. You must build peace. The correct order must be: security, economy, and only then peace."
He also questioned the purpose of the Palestinian Authority, praising what he termed gestures to the Ramallah-based government, which maintains close dies to Israeli security agencies.
"As of today, the Palestinian Authority isn't equipped to offer security and jobs. It isn't a stable entity which has the ability to reach a peace agreement. We must ensure our security. We've taken down checkpoints, we've allowed Fatah to establish a council in Bethlehem, we've instated a settlement building freeze on the West Bank -- we've made enough gestures," Lieberman said.
"The same international community that has been preaching to us about morals, hasn't shown any success stories for itself -- not in Somalia, not in Yemen, not in Pakistan, and not in Afghanistan," he emphasized.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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#1
A Fox News commentator couldn't have stated the matter more succinctly.
Following a Colombian armed forces bombardment on Tuesday morning, soldiers began an offensive in the south of the Tolima department against the FARC's 21st Front, which is thought to be led by the guerrillas' supreme commander, "Alfonso Cano."
According to the army, heavy fighting was still continuing at the end of the afternoon. The assault's aim was to weaken or break the security ring around the FARC's central command and its leader "Cano." The offensive follows the discovery of a number of camps where the army thinks top guerrilla leaders may be hiding.
The area where the fighting is taking place is remote, at an altitude of 13,000 feet, and far from civilization.
The authorities have long suspected that "Cano" and other prominent members of the FARC are using the deserted south Tolima mountains as their center of operations. The army claims to have killed three members of the personal security ring of "Alfonso Cano."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2010
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#1
offensive follows the discovery of a number of camps
I wonder just what kind of help they might have had 'discovering' those camps? Good hunting, boys.
#2
Jesus, fighting conditions must be horrific out there in the middle of nowhere. The "deserted south Tolima mountains" doesn't sound like a fun place to be, even for a jolly hike.
#4
Grom - it was considered the "IN" place for mountain climbing before the FARC took over. Fighting at 13,000 feet is harder than a Donk agreeing to a tax cut - especially for soldiers that were born, trained, and conditioned at sea level.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/05/2010 12:11
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[Dawn] Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday ruled out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's suggestion that three detained American hikers in Iran be swapped with Iranian citizens held in the United States.
Clinton said that the hikers, along with other Americans jailed in Iran, should be released immediately on humanitarian grounds. She said there is no basis for their continued detention.
''We call on Iran to release all of the American citizens that they have currently detained,'' she told reporters. ''We believe they are being unjustly detained and they should be released without further delay. We also are very committed to making it clear to the Iranians that they should do so on humanitarian grounds since the detention of our citizens is baseless.''
Her comments came a day after Ahmadinejad suggested in a television interview that the three American hikers be traded for Iranians that Tehran says are currently in US jails. Ahmadinejad also suggested that there were talks under way regarding such a swap, something Clinton denied.
''There are no negotiations going on between us and the Iranians,'' she said. ''They should unilaterally release our detained citizens."
Clinton said the Iranian government is fully aware that if it has questions about Iranians in US jails, it can request information through proper channels.
Iranian authorities arrested the three hikers - Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal - in late July after they strayed across the Iranian border from Iraq's northern Kurdistan region where they were hiking. Their families have said they accidentally crossed the border and meant no harm.
In addition to the hikers, the State Department says it is aware of at least two other Americans detained in Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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#1
VERSUS PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > AFGHAN TALIBAN TO EXECUTE US SOLDIER [Bowe Bergdahl] IFF AAFIA NOT RELEASED.
* SAME PDF > PML-Q SECGEN MUSHAHID PROPOSES IMRAN-LED ALL-PARTIES DELEGATION FOR AAFIA'S REPATRIATION [travel to USA]; + ZARDARI ORDERS GOVT. TO PROVIDE LEGAL AID TO AAFIA.
[Ma'an] Russia's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Hamas leader Khaled Mash'al will visit Moscow next week to hold talks over ending division among Palestinians and resuming peace talks with Israel. Mash'al's last visit to Russia was in 2007.
Ministry spokesman Andre Nestrenko told reporters in Moscow that "the main issue that will be discussed is the way to end division and ways to resume Palestinian-Israeli negotiations."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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#1
I sense a need for a good Bulgar assassin - poison tipped umbrella will do just fine...
An Egyptian cleric has issued a religious decree banning the use of Facebook, on the grounds that it encourages adultery.
Sheikh Abd Al-Hamid Al-Atrash, former head of the fatwa council at the influential Al-Azhar Institution, based his ruling on a sociological study linking the use of Facebook and other forms of new media with moral corruption.
He called the site a destructive tool that helps form "forbidden relations."
"When one side in a relationship is working hard, if the other side has lots of free time and hasn't got much of a conscience, they form illegitimate relationships," the cleric said.
Heba Morayef, a researcher with Human Rights Watch said Facebook is used extensively in Egypt, both for social networking and for political purposes.
"It's a relatively conservative society," Morayef told The Media Line. "For a lot of people, meeting people online is a way to date. What's interesting about it is that it's heavily used by activists to organize demonstrations and share information."
Your average young Egyptian who wants to learn about politics will go onto Facebook," she added. "I think the security services still view this activism as something that is dangerous."
Nevertheless, Morayef does not believe that this fatwa was sanctioned by the government as a way to silence opposition activists.
"For the most part, the government will only issue fatwas through the mufti who is closely aligned with government policy, to the extent that he will issue things that are criticized by the rest of the religious institutions," she said. "I don't think the government uses other low-level sheikhs because they are keen to monopolize the religious authorities in Al-Azhar."
Kareem El-Behirey, an Egyptian blogger, said the ban was part of a government tactic to employ religious people against channels of communication such as Facebook.
"[The Sheikh] says that Facebook isn't good because it pits the woman against her husband," he told The Media Line. "But I think this is an attempt to stop people from using Facebook, blogs and certain websites. I think you can't stop them and it's a good way for activists to be heard on the streets so I don't think they will stop using Facebook."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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banning the use of Facebook, on the grounds that it encourages adultery.
So does the edicts against women in the Koran (ie, OK to Bitch-slap your woman and look elsewhere).
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
02/05/2010 9:21
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He called the site a destructive tool that helps form "forbidden relations."
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010 10:06
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My guess is that his concern about relationships is decidedly uni-directional. It's fine for men to develop them but Allah Forbid that a woman might.
#5
Sheikh Abd Al-Hamid Al-Atrash, former head of the fatwa council at the influential Al-Azhar Institution, based his ruling on a sociological study linking the use of Facebook and other forms of new media with moral corruption.
His name is trash, and he is worried about moral corruption. You can't make this up.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reassured Syria on Thursday that Israel sought peace after his fiery foreign minister threatened to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in any future war.
Avigdor Lieberman's remarks clashed with Netanyahu's oft-repeated call for Assad to negotiate peace with Israel and prompted the Israeli leader to discuss what a spokesman termed "the Syrian issue" with the ultranationalist cabinet member.
"Both men clarified that government policy is clear: Israel seeks peace and negotiations with Syria, without preconditions," a Netanyahu spokesman said. "At the same time, Israel will continue to act with determination and decisiveness."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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#1
This reminds me of the advice I gave my son in 3rd grade.
"Don't you EVER start a fight. If someone else starts one with you, I have no objection to your finishing the fight."
I also passed this on to the teacher whose pet was the biggest bully in the school.....along with my lawyer's card. She was insulted that I though punishing both instigator and victim was inappropriate.
Ecuador is emerging as a focus for transnational criminal groups, according to US and European officials. Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers as well as Chinese and African human traffickers use it as a business hub.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the inter-governmental body responsible for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, is expected at its meeting in February in Abu Dhabi to include Ecuador on its high-risk jurisdiction list at the request of G20 finance ministers. The officials and analysts say concern about Ecuador has been mounting since an Ecuadorian government investigation revealed in December that the drug trafficking Revolutionary Army of Colombia (FARC) possessed an extensive network in Ecuador that includes some of President Rafael Correa's closest aides and may have allowed the guerrillas to partially fund his 2006 election campaign. FARC has been designated a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union.
The investigation into a 2008 Colombian bombardment of a jungle camp on Ecuadorian territory, in which the FARC's second-in-command Raul Reyes was killed, relied heavily on 600 gigabytes of data found in computers and hard drives in the destroyed camp and authenticated by Interpol. Correa has denounced the investigation, which he initiated.
[Dawn] At least 13 militants have been killed and several others injured on Thursday as military jets targeted militant hideouts in the Gaga area of Mamond Tehsil in Bajaur Agency.
Official sources said that security forces have taken control of important militant positions in the area.
They added that the jet fighters used heavy artillery to pound militant hideouts in Mohmand Tehsil during which 13 militants were killed.
A curfew has been in placed in Khar, Mamond and other surrounding areas since the last six days.
Security forces have launched a fresh offensive against militants in Khar, after a suicide attack in the area killed 17 people, including security personnel.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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#1
"They added that the jet fighters used heavy artillery to pound militant hideouts ..."
Leave it to Pakistan to put artillery on fighter planes!
[Al Arabiya Latest] Russia and Western powers have moved closer to agreement on the need for further sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, a leading Russian lawmaker said on Thursday.
Pro-Kremlin lawmaker Konstantin Kosachyov's remarks were the strongest recent sign from Moscow that Russia could support a resolution on new economic sanctions in the United Nations Security Council, where it has veto power.
"As regards a tougher conversation with Iran, the application of some additional sanctions of an economic character, on this question mutual understanding between Russia and its partners in the international arena has clearly increased," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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Sure, who wouldn't trust the word of a pro-Kremlin Russian willing to help America and it's allies?
Posted by: American Delight ||
02/05/2010 15:58
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North Korea is expected to deploy a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching parts of the United States in the next decade, despite two long-range missile flight-test failures, according to the Pentagon's ballistic-missile defense review.
The review report, made public this week, concluded that missile threats from several states, including Iran, Syria, China and Russia, are growing "quantitatively and qualitatively," and it outlined Pentagon plans for silo-based and mobile anti-missile systems to counter them.
On North Korea, the report disclosed for the first time the U.S. intelligence estimate of when Pyongyang will be able to reach the technically challenging threshold of producing a nuclear device small enough to be carried on a missile.
"We must assume that sooner or later, North Korea will have a successful test of its Taepodong-2 and, if there are no major changes in its national security strategy in the next decade, it will be able to mate a nuclear warhead to a proven delivery system," the report said.
U.S. intelligence officials said North Korea was one of at least three states — along with Libya and Iran — that benefited from the spread of nuclear technology provided by the network of suppliers headed by Pakistani technician A.Q. Khan. Included with that assistance and discovered when Libya gave up its Khan-supplied nuclear goods were Chinese-language documents on how to make a warhead for a missile, the officials have said. U.S. intelligence agencies suspect but have not confirmed that North Korea also obtained the warhead-design documents from Mr. Khan.
North Korea's two underground nuclear tests and its development of long-range missiles is a major worry, the report said, noting that Iran also is developing long-range missiles.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in Senate testimony this week that the Pentagon is seeking $8.4 billion for missile defenses under what he described as a phased plan to shift the focus from larger ground-based long-range interceptors to shorter-range missile defenses, like the Navy's SM-3 ship-based missile interceptor.
"We have deployed ground-based interceptors at Fort Greely [in Alaska]. We have a very aggressive test program that has been successful. We believe that those interceptors give us the capability to deal with launches from either Iran or North Korea, a small-scale threat," Mr. Gates said.
Chuck Downs, a former Pentagon official and specialist on North Korea, said the North Korean drive for a long-range nuclear missile is part of Pyongyang's objective of being able to threaten the United States. "They are a regime that has already relied on coercive threats, with their own people, with their neighbors and with the United States," he said.
Developing a nuclear-tipped Taepodong will be "the high point of their military development program," said Mr. Downs, head of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. "It should come as no surprise that they are seeking to develop this missile."
A defense official said the Defense Intelligence Agency told Congress last year that North Korea may be able to mate a nuclear warhead to a ballistic missile, noting that the Taepodong would be nuclear-capable. Additionally, DIA has stated that "North Korea could have several nuclear warheads capable of delivery by ballistic missiles."
"We have publicly stated that North Korea has a theoretical capability to produce a warhead and mate it with a missile, but we have no information to suggest they have done so," the official said.
Five years ago, Hillary Rodham Clinton, then a U.S. senator from New York, made headlines when she asked DIA director Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby during a hearing whether North Korea had a nuclear warhead small enough to be carried on a missile. Adm. Jacoby said yes, but a Pentagon spokesman said later that officials did not know whether Pyongyang has a nuclear missile warhead capability.
The report said it was difficult to predict when the missile threat to the U.S. homeland will evolve, "but it is certain that it will do so."
North Korea's April 2009 Taepodong test failed to orbit a small communications satellites, but showed that Pyongyang has developed "many technologies associated with an [intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)]," the report said.
The missile-defense report outlines the Obama administration's plan for stepping up the deployment of short- and medium-range missile defenses, specifically to counter Iranian missiles.
"North Korea and Iran have shown contempt for international norms, pursued illicit weapons programs in defiance of the international community, and have been highly provocative in both their actions and statements," the report said. "They have exploited the capabilities available to them to threaten others."
Regional neighbors of both states may be limited in their actions and pursuit of interests because of the missile threat.
"Deterrence is a powerful tool, and the United States is seeking to strengthen deterrence against these new challenges," the report said. "But deterrence by threat of a strong offensive response may not be effective against these states in a time of political-military crisis. Risk-taking leaders may conclude that they can engage the United States in a confrontation if they can raise the stakes high enough by demonstrating the potential to do further harm with their missiles. Thus, U.S. missile defenses are critical to strengthening regional deterrence."
Iran has not stated its plan to build ICBMs, but the report said it continues to "pursue long-range ballistic missiles," including the Safir space launcher that was used in August 2008 and February 2009 to launch satellites.
Current U.S. missile-defense systems include 30 ground-based long-range interceptors in Alaska and California, ground-based mobile Patriot and Theater High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems and the Navy's SM-3 anti-missile interceptor, based on Aegis warships.
In the next several years, the Pentagon plans to develop and deploy several advanced variants of the SM-3 missile, including a ground-based version in Poland. The report said the most advanced SM-3 will have some capability to knock out long-range missile warheads and will be ready for use in "the 2020 time frame."
The Obama administration canceled a plan to deploy long-range interceptors in Poland after Russia opposed the interceptor base and a related radar planned for the Czech Republic. Instead, the administration will use ships deployed in waters closer to Iran to counter Iranian medium-range missiles, as well as interceptors in Poland to protect the Continent.
Critics of the scaled-back missile-defense plan say abandoning the proposal for stationing long-range missile interceptors in Europe will increase the U.S. vulnerability to a future Iranian missile strike on the United States.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2010
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ERGO RENSE > TELEGRAPH.UK - US PENTAGON ABANDONS TWO-WAR DOCTRINE [two simul conventional wars].
#2
Pakistan is behind this. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. We have 800 million potential friends in India (the rest are Muslim). Let's cultivate that relationship.
[Ma'an] A Fatah official's office in Qalandiya refugee camp was the target of an apparent arson on Thursday, police said.
Palestinian Authority security forces opened an investigation into the incident, police said, refusing to identify whose office was targeted.
In a statement, the Ramallah police department stated that "intelligence services rushed to the scene, where it was discovered that the office door was deliberately opened by force, and that unknown assailants set fire to its contents."
It was not immediately clear exactly when on Thursday the alleged attack was carried out.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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h/t: Hotair.com I've heard him extolling the virutes of the Peace Corpse too. They do, like, really good work...
A ticky-tack mistake, but then so was Bush's pronunciation of "nuclear" and the left had fun with that. As always with this sort of gaffe, it resonates to the extent that it appears to confirm a suspicion about the person that uttered it. Bush was supposedly a dummy, ergo "nu-cu-lar" caught on; Martha Coakley was out of touch with voters, ergo the Curt Schilling thing had legs; The One is a dovish Ivory Tower egghead with no military background, ergo we've gotten half a dozen e-mails about this in the past few hours. Look on the bright side, though: At least he's trying.
I can't believe that a guy with a Harvard Law degree wouldn't know how to pronounce "corps," so I'm guessing some dumb staffer in charge of TOTUS decided to try to "help him out" by typing the phonetic pronunciation — incorrectly — into the machine. And in true Ron Burgundy fashion, O read it as is right off the 'prompter. You stay classy, Navy corpse-men! Click the image to watch.
Posted by: Tom- Pa ||
02/05/2010
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#1
Silly, everybody knows that a 'corpse'-man is he who provides an autopsy, a coroner, unless of course the coroner happens to be female, then she is a 'corpse'-woman.
And that person could of been from any one of the '57' states, here in the US..
#3
Jumping crickets in the underwear, does this guy just read and not think until a performance review is released?
I think thats it, he had done this before with the Palin/lipstick on a pig deal...you can see in his face he had no idea that line was coming and once said, had a look of oh crap whatta I say? More disturbing is this double down with no recognition of his mispronunciation.
When pollsters ask people about government, politicians, and the direction of the country, a frequently expressed frustrations is that officials aren't listening to their constituents. Signs asking "Are you listening now?" were prominent during the celebration of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown's victory in the recent special election for the Senate seat. President Obama's insistence that Congress pass his health care reform despite the opposition of a strong majority of Americans illustrates the way Washington thumbs its nose at people beyond the Beltway. Another example is Obama's announcement Thursday of more than $8 billion in economic stimulus grants for 13 high-speed rail transit projects.
The president says these projects should be built because they will put trains capable of traveling at 168 mph on routes between Los Angeles and San Francisco, Tampa and Orlando, Fla., and 11 other "transportation corridors." But the people who will have to pay for these massive spending programs have been voting against heavy rail projects for decades. Automobiles account for 88 percent of all passenger travel in this country, and commercial airlines make up most of the rest. Commercial passenger rail lines -- think Amtrak-- have been money-losing propositions for so long that only continuous infusions of federal tax dollars have kept them operating.
Public administration expert Randal O'Toole told The Examiner that Obama "has effectively committed the federal government to tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars for an obsolete technology that few people will use. California's high-speed rail plan will cost at least $45 billion to $60 billion and the state fully expects the federal government to pick up half the cost. So this initial grant will have to be followed by at least $20 billion more." He also notes that the Florida project's environmental impact statement recently recommended against approval, and that rail is always much more expensive than going by bus or car. That means the few who use the high-speed trains will be wealthier (remember the Concorde?), so once again the middle-class taxpayer gets hit in the wallet to pay for somebody else's ride in life.
There will be those who are quite pleased by the projects, however. As O'Toole points out in his book, "The Best-Laid Plans," rail transit projects mean big bucks for engineering and design firms, construction contractors, rail car manufacturers, and a host of other transit businesses. Does anybody doubt these firms will eagerly show their gratitude with millions of dollars in campaign contributions to the politicians behind the projects?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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#1
I have benefited from engineering contracts for transit in Dallas. (Now I'm working on a big roadway job in DC.) The Dallas transit ridership vastly exceeded initial projections and several communities that had opted out wanted in when they saw it.
A lot of people want an option to sitting in traffic. Metro in DC carries 750,000 people a day, saving some 600,000 trips by car. It, too, suffers from a budget shortfall and will have to raise fares.
The powerful airline lobby and even more powerful highway lobby don't want any funds diverted to other modes.
Subsidized? Get a grip. There's not enough lanes on the roads we have, too many potholes, bridges falling down, and not enough gas-tax revenues. Which came first, the B-52 or the 707? Many airports are disused military facilities - Chicago, Orland, Austin. Who built the new ones - DFW and Dulles? Not the airlines. Do airlines really pay all the costs of air-traffic control?
Because of their powerful lobbies, the public costs of other modes of transportation are not listed on a line called "subsidy". Dallas (Texas) was very nearly a seaport, but the barge companies were not fronting the money. You were.
Do you count the cost of your city streets as part of the cost of driving? Your home's cost included the local streets (and other utilities). Parking lots at the malls are built into the cost you pay for purchases. Free parking? Somebody pays, we just don't have any idea how much.
A lot of you folks here are smarter than this.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/05/2010 6:34
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#2
Good points, Bobby and thanks for making them.
I'm torn about the whole 'high-speed rail' issue. Sure, nice to have, and perhaps it would take pressure off our transportation grid. I do think we have plenty of options to travel 500 or 1000 miles already. Personally I'd like to make the 30 miles I travel daily to work easier but that's just me.
But there's one reason I'm against high-speed rail right now:
we seriously don't have the money.
The California proposal will be $60 billion (at least). The state pays half. Really? California has $30 billion in change laying around? Someone tell the Governator. And does the Federal government, running a current $1.35 trillion deficit, have the money to put into projects like this?
Show me a state that has a balanced budget right now and can afford to sell bonds for a high-speed rail system. There isn't one.
Even if 'high-speed rail' could be built efficiently and then operated without too much of a subsidy, I'd argue that we can't afford it now. Bring it back sometime when the federal budget is nearly in balance and the states can afford to take on new projects.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2010 8:40
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Bobby:
Always wanted to chat with someone involved in roadway construction like yourself. I've traveled a bit and have been perplexed at how our roads and bridges continue to, as you say "fall down" while many of the ancient roads and structures in Europe built by predominately by Roman engineers and soldiers, appear to have stood the test of time. I speak of the Ponte Saint-Martin, Pont du Guard, the Alvantara, the stone pillar bridge in Trier to name a few.
Were the Legions of Rome and it's soldiers better trained in engineering and construction, or had programmed obsolescence and the need for future contracts simply not caught on yet?
#4
One interesting custom of Roman engineering: When an arch on a bridge or viaduct was completed, the man in charge would stand under the arch as the wooden scaffolding was taken down. It's no surprise that so many are still standing.
#5
I'd be interested in hearing what knowledgeable folks have to say.
I have a fuzzy memory from about 25 years ago of someone complaining that the older Chicago tracks and bridges were in better shape than the new El stations and bridges. They suggested that the new structures were "over engineered" for minimal materials use while the old ones were overbuilt with extra safety factors. It sounded plausible, though there might be Chicago-specific factors as well.
I don't suppose the Romans ran a lot of 18-wheelers on their bridges.
Posted by: James ||
02/05/2010 10:14
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#6
Highway construction money has been political money down to the local level with graft and kickbacks and various family connections for generations [google anti-trust highway construction]. Roads could be built at higher related costs of better materials and practices, but then you couldn't put a new contract out sooner to 'repair' them, which is basically ripping up what remains and putting back the same materials. Less opportunity for graft and kickbacks.
#7
Steve, the reason you have a 30 mile problem has much more to do with the geographical spread of population than Transport.
The only way Mass Transit works is if you have a true mass of people to get from point A to B. Because of our development patterns, which have a lot to do with ideas of individual freedom, you can't get enough of a mass at at least one end of the connection.
Look at metro Boston. There are two major ring roads next to which the high tech businesses built. The bedroom communities that provide the workers are spread all over the place. There's no way to make trains effective in such an environment. Time is another key factor. Even with traffic it takes twice as long for me to take a train the 40 miles to Boston as it does to drive. You have to factor in the drive to the train station and the walk/subway to the office as well as the wait between scheduled trains.
If you have very high density domiciles and a high density industrial center this can work, if not, not.
#8
Maybe we could take some baby steps with buses. They don't have to be the stinky, old diesel monstrosities of old with the uncomfortable naugahyde seats. And the way it is at our airports you don't have to go 168 mph to beat an airplane from Anaheim to San Francisco either. Buses are a lot more flexible in that they can go where ever there are roads which is a lot more places than trains or airplanes can go. Buses use existing infrastructure and you can start out with just one bus to see how many people find that it meets their needs. If ridership is good you can add more buses. If ridership declines you can leave a few buses in the parking lot for a while.
Bobby, one question I've always had for road builders is why do they insist on carpool lanes? In San Diego we need more lanes for everybody, not just an elite few, but the only lanes they're building are designated for carpools only. That's my money they're pouring down the drain. Unless you have a fleet of buses to take advantage of them they make absolutely no sense at all. It looks like just one more way that Big Brother is trying to bully people into doing something that doesn't make sense for them. That's what they mean when they say the politicians aren't listening. They just do whatever the hell they want regardless of the reality on the ground.
#10
Slugging is the ultimate answer. I recommend a US Bureau of Slugging (USBS), modeled after the highly successful TSA scheme. Free slugger mileage awards and lunches at the Pentagon. Special licensing and fees/gummit insurance for slugger drivers. 'Three rider minimum' to enter the beltway. High fines or vehicle confiscation for repeat violators, inflatable riders, etc.
#11
EU, HOV lanes are a political ploy to "encourage" carpooling, not an engineering solution.
Cost, materials, forecast of use are all factors in Transportation Engineering. Note that before computers (slide rules or a sheet of paper) that the Safety Factors in the design were at least 2-3 times more than was calculated as needed for the design. Meant that things lasted much longer than the design estimate and in many cases almost forever. But--In many cases that structure or road needs to removed as it no longer meets needs or serves the purpose intended and is just in the way of bigger, better, faster, safer.
#12
Low bid drives contractors right to the edge and more thorough engineering (computer)analysis drives agency designs closer to the edge.
But that's OK, in 50 years the whole thing is obsolete anyway, (nobody uses the Roman stuff anymore, right?) and if a bridge doesn't fall down every once in a while, we're wasting our money. The Minneapolis bridge that fell had the defect for 40 years before added dead weight from improvements and unbalanced weight from the rehab contractor finally overloaded the factor of safety. The gussets that failed were about half the thickness they should've been.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/05/2010 16:13
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And I agree with Steve, we don't have the money now.
But in 1969 we went to the moon while maintaining 500,000 troops in another country. Oh, but that was before the Great Society.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/05/2010 16:15
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Bobby, it was always my understanding that light rail is the darling of leftist politicians because it directly benefits urban populations (is highly visible and benefits them for transportation) and doesn't do anything to help business or commerce.
Why can't some of these projects be heavy rail? Many cities have heavy rail as a part of their transportation systems, and it could have dual use in terms of moving goods. This also has the added benefit of removing trucks from the streets of crowded cities. And it still provides work for folks like you.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/05/2010 16:36
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Y'all forget the huge drawback of rail travel, when you get there how do you move about with your automobile parked a couple of hundred miles away?
Plus worying if your wheels are being towed, stolen, or Vandalised.
I think a form of rail that includesauto transport, either roll on/ roll off or towed behind, I'll ride that.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/05/2010 16:46
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Free parking? Somebody pays, we just don't have any idea how much.
A lot of you folks here are smarter than this.
There's no such thing as a free lunch. in 1969 we went to the moon
Buddy can you spare a trillion? Were the Legions of Rome and it's soldiers better trained in engineering and construction Their leadership was thinking in terms of centuries, while our leadership is only thinking of the next election. There are middling-quality houses in Europe that have been used for homes for 250 years, and should last indefinitely into the future. How many homes in the US are like those? Many cities have heavy rail as a part of their transportation systems, and it could have dual use in terms of moving goods. Chicago can serve as a bad example. It's a choke point for both rail and truck traffic. It would be easier to build a highway and rail bridge across Lake Michigan from southern Wisconsin to NW Indiana than to deal with the political crap heap that is Chicago.
#17
Even if they build it, it will probably be too expensive to ride. Look at Amtrak, they have a decent commuter line in the Bay Area that can get you from San Jose, San Fran, Sac. But its expensive, and its subsidized already.
#18
Not to worry, soon they will suggest we swallow a tiger to get the dog who got the cat and so forth, so all Yurtle the Turtles can be a shell higher.
[Straits Times] US LAWMAKERS on Thursday implored Thailand not to deport thousands of ethnic Karen villagers back to military-ruled Myanmar, saying they were at grave risk of human rights abuses.
Around 4,000 villagers escaped to Thailand in June when the regime stepped up its campaign against the Karen rebels, one of the few ethnic insurgent groups yet to sign a peace deal in the nation formerly known as Burma.
Twenty-seven US lawmakers sent a letter to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva urging Thailand not to repatriate the Karen, with reports saying the operation could begin imminently.
'If forced to return, these refugees will suffer horrific human rights abuses,' said the letter led by Representative Joseph Crowley, a Democrat from New York. 'They will undoubtedly be subject to forced labor, executions, torture and mutilations, forced recruitment as soldiers, including child soldiers, and theft and extortion, making their survival very difficult.'
While praising Thailand for taking on the burden of settling tens of thousands of refugees, the lawmakers warned of repercussions for forced repatriation. 'Historically, Thailand has developed a reputation as a country that provides refuge to those fleeing serious persecution, but actions like this will undermine and tarnish this reputation,' the letter said.
The appeal comes weeks after Thailand defied appeals by the United States, European Union and United Nations and sent thousands of members of the Hmong community to Laos. Hmong activists said that the group risked persecution in Laos, but Thailand said they were illegal economic migrants.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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HAT YAO BEACH, Thailand -- More than 800 U.S., Thai and South Korean marines stormed a beach in Thailand on Thursday with Seoul joining the annual joint war games for the first time. The three-week Cobra Gold exercise sends a message that the United States will have a continued presence in the Asia-Pacific region, and the military is one aspect of that presence, said Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, Commander of the U.S. Army, Pacific.
The core exercise, being held for the 29th time, will focus on peacekeeping operations and humanitarian and disaster responses.
Mixon said South Korea's participation was exciting. "South Korea is a leader in the Asia-Pacific region, and this just underscores their importance in the peace and stability within the region," he said.
Singapore, Japan and Indonesia also are participating in the war games involving 11,500 military personnel.
On Thursday, the three countries' marines and U.S. Navy Seals charged onto a beach southeast of Bangkok from 24 amphibious vehicles as helicopters clattered overhead and simulated explosions erupted along the shore.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2010
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A massive force D-Day graphic would be kinda cool here.
[Dawn] Discussions amongst world powers over imposing possible sanctions on Iran will complicate the situation and might make it harder to find a diplomatic solution, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Thursday. But if they've been yapping for year after year with no visible progress in the diplomacy and lots of visible progress in the nuke field, at what point do you declare the diplomacy a sham and move on to something a little toothier??
Speaking to reporters during a visit to France, Yang said he wanted to see more direct talks between Iran and the international community over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Western powers are pushing for a fourth round of UN sanctions against Iran to try to force it to enter into negotiating over its nuclear ambitions.
However, China, which buys a lot of oil from Iran, appears unwilling to slap more restrictions on Tehran, complicating the chances of getting a broad agreement within the United Nations Security Council.
"To talk about sanctions at the moment will complicate the situation and might stand in the way of finding a diplomatic solution," Yang said.
Western governments fear that Iran wants to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran says its atomic programme is purely for peaceful purposes, but is restricting inspections of its sites by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"China firmly supports the international nuclear non proliferation regime...all countries, Iran included if they obey by IAEA rules, have a right to a peaceful use of nuclear energy," Yang said.
The so-called "P5+1" group -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China -- have been trying to engage with Iran for years over its nuclear project, but Western diplomats say they have made virtually no progress.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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#1
Is there any one out there who graduated from the 6th grade who doesn't believe that Red China is rooting for the Iranians...well of course most at US Dept. of State don't yet believe that.
#2
Let's crank the China trade deficit up to $300 billion this year! Then they're sure to love us.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010 9:46
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Diplomacy? What diplomacy? All Iran is doing is saying "Nice doggy!" while they are feeling around behind them for a rock to try to hit us with. Screw them. And the "sanctions" talks. Sanctions talks are just an excuse for us to delay smearing their worthless a$$es.
We will issue a warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's arrest if it turns out Israeli intelligence was behind last month's killing of a Hamas strongman, Army Radio quoted Dubai's police commissioner on Thursday.
Dubai's police chief Dahi Halfan referred to the January 20 assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was reportedly responsible for the smuggling of Iranian arms to Gaza.
"Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will be the first to be wanted for justice as he would have been the one who signed the decision to assassinate [Mahmoud] al Mabhouh in Dubai. We will issue an arrest warrant against him," Halfan told the U.A.E. site The Natioanl.
The Dubai police chief also said that the method used to kill al Mabhouh, was a "Mossad method," but did not elaborate further.
On Wednesday, Dubai's police chief warned international intelligence agencies from working "behind our back," saying anyone who did so "should be wary of his own back.
Halfan added that that threat was also applicable "to any intelligence organization around the world, whether Mossad, Hamas or any other agency."
The Dubai police chief added that he believed the Hamas leader was in Dubai for business and not for any kind of arms transactions.
Halfan added that if Al-Mabhouh would have been interested in meeting Iranian officials in Dubai, as the Israeli media has claimed, he could have done so in either Syria or Iran itself.
The Dubai police commissioner refused to reveal the identity of the suspects linked to the incident, denying a Hamas claim that the assassins had entered the country by participating in Minister Uzi Landau's entourage, when he visited Dubai earlier that month.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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#2
Best-o-luck with that threat Mr. Police Chief! Of course this could be pure posturing on his part. Dubai is a business hub. Having terrorists running around is not good for business.
#3
Right shoulder camel whips! After the mad Jew BeBe. After him, after him I say! I'll be at the Burj Khalifa, ring me up and ask for Inspector Halfan when you've captured him. Now RIDE you fig nutted sons of whores!
[Dawn] Suspicion intensified Thursday that a suicide car bomber who killed three US soldiers training Pakistani troops along the Afghan border had inside information on their movements.
If confirmed that Wednesday's suicide attack was aimed at the Americans, it would indicate an increased sophistication in militant tactics, as well as potential infiltration of extremists in Pakistani security forces.
The attack on US forces occurred in Lower Dir, a northwest district believed to be a crossroads for al-Qaida and the Taliban. The blast also killed three schoolgirls and a Pakistani paramilitary soldier. Two more US soldiers were among dozens wounded.
Police official Naeem Khan said Thursday that authorities were investigating whether the suicide bomber knew the soldiers would be passing through Shahi Koto town and which vehicle to target in the five-car convoy, which also included Pakistani troops.
Such convoys usually include green military vehicles carrying armed troops who are clearly visible. The Pakistani forces could also have been the target as they have frequently been over the past several years.
"We launched a massive search in the area yesterday, and now about 35 suspects are in our custody, and we are questioning them in an effort to trace those who orchestrated the suicide attack," Khan said.
"God willing, we will capture those responsible for this carnage." Local resident Gohar Khan said he saw a small car attack the convoy.
''As soon as the convoy appeared it rushed to that place and exploded,'' he told The Associated Press.
The soldiers killed were part of a small group of American troops training members of Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps.
Training local forces is considered an important way to reduce the threat of militants using Pakistani soil as a staging ground for attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan, especially since Pakistan does not allow US combat troops on its territory.
The soldiers' deaths were the first known US military fatalities in nearly three years in Pakistan's Afghan border region.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/05/2010
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#1
First, second and third suspicions. I'm just surprised the suicide bomber wasn't also the driver.
Posted by: ed ||
02/05/2010 1:44
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Iraq's electoral commission has said it will delay the start of campaigning for next month's parliamentary elections.
The move follows a court decision to overturn a ban on candidates barred because of alleged affiliations with Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party. An appeals panel ruled the ban should be overturned, but the government wants it to remain in place.
The political campaign, due to start on Sunday, will now begin next Friday to allow time for the row to be resolved.
"The start of election campaigning has been postponed from 7 February to 12 February to give time to the federal court to look into our inquiry," Hamdiya al-Husseini, an official with the Independent High Electoral Commission said.
The delay will allow time for an emergency parliamentary debate, to be held on Sunday, on the court ruling, which the government has called "illegal and unconstitutional".
The election is regarded as a crucial test for Iraq's national reconciliation process ahead of a planned US military withdrawal.
On Wednesday, the appeals panel ruling overturned a ban on some 500 politicians from running for public office. The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Baghdad says that although the list of names straddles the sectarian divide, it is Sunni groups who have felt most targeted by the exclusions, and whose voices of protest have been heard loudest.
The ruling would allow the candidates to stand for election, and be subject to investigation only after the polls.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2010
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What is it about the automotive industry that inspires such thuggish attitudes in the Obama administration? The Examiner's Michael Barone coined the term "gangster government" to describe threats by the White House last spring against Chrysler creditors who had the temerity to insist that bankruptcy laws be followed in the bailout of the perennially ailing third member of the once-fabled Detroit Big Three. Now along comes Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood muttering darkly that "we're not finished with Toyota" in the controversy over sticking gas pedals in vehicles made and sold in America by the Japanese automaker.
The basis for these threats is little more than anecdote-based suspicions that an electronic malady related to electro-magnetic interference from power lines might be the problem instead of the mechanical wear identified by Toyota engineers. Regardless, LaHood, headline-chasing congressmen like Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and a chorus of Naderite auto safety nannies led by former National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration Administrator Joan Claybrook are demanding that Toyota submit to a punishing new round of subpoenas, hearings, and media inquisition. It's not enough that Toyota -- the auto industry's perennial leader on respected measures of initial and long-term quality -- has already taken the unprecedented step of suspending production and sales of eight of its most popular models, undertaken a crash course to identify the cause of the problem, and guaranteed a fix for every one of the 2.3 million affected owners.
Given the Obama administration's catering to one of its favorite special interest groups, the United Auto Workers union, during the government's bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler last year, it is difficult to avoid wondering whether Toyota has become a victim of the Chicago Way of dealing with competitors. Toyota overtook GM several years ago as the world's leading automaker. The potential of the current sticking gas pedal controversy to inflict damage on Toyota here in its largest single market is seen in the January sales figures. Toyota sales are down 16 percent while GM is up 14 percent (Ford, which declined a government bailout last year, is up 25 percent, while Chrysler is down 8 percent). Keep the controversy going and odds are good that Toyota sales will continue to drop. The biggest losers besides American consumers will be the men and women who own and work at Toyota's 1,200 U.S. dealerships and the 30,000 Americans who build Toyotas in its five factories here. LaHood might as well have said "Nice car company ya got there, be a shame if anything happened to it."
Posted by: Fred ||
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The basis for these threats is little more than anecdote-based suspicions that an electronic malady related to electro-magnetic interference from power lines might be the problem instead of the mechanical wear identified by Toyota engineers. Too much conspiracy speculation in this article to suit me. This is the only article I've read speculating about 'interference from power lines'. A drive-by-wire throttle system such as Toyota's has more ways to fail than the simple mechanical linkages of days gone by. Of course politicians will let no crisis of any kind go to waste.
#2
Well, earlier this week D.C.'s most popular commercial, news, commercial, traffic, commercial, weather, and commercial radio channel made it a point to note some "transportation officals had to travel to Japan in December to remind Toyota of their obligations" to the consumer.
I saw it as another taxpayer-paid vaction to Tokoyo Disney World. Call me cynical.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/05/2010 5:44
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There does seem to be some gaps in what is going on with this recall, whatever it is people sense they are not getting the whole story. With a fondling media, heavy handed speeches and actions it is no wonder a story like this, true or not, is published.
I do like most of the younger ones -- GB is giving me lots of ideas if I ever get my fingers on the Bloid again one night. Assuming I don't find more pics of Angie Harmon ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/05/2010 8:31
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Assuming I don't find more pics of Angie Harmon ...
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.
John Loughlin is not named in the poll, but he may have fared far better than the elected officials who were.
If changes in the public mood and the party alignment of the U.S. Senate have stalled healthcare legislation, they may have thrown the highly anticipated climate bill under a bus. 
Xeni Jardin, BoingBoing
Danish special forces stormed a ship captured by armed Somali pirates Friday and freed the 25 crew on board, an EU naval spokesman said, marking the first time a warship has intervened during a hijacking.
Thailand's Prime Minister is set to enact an amnesty for guerillas involved in the deadly insurgency in the country's southern provinces. But in the restive south, there is little appetite for surrender, or forgiveness. 
[Dawn] Thirty-two Taliban and three soldiers have been killed in an Afghan-Nato operation in Helmand province ahead of a major anti-Taliban push, the provincial government said on Thursday.
The U.S. Defense Department claims South Korea is interested in participating in a U.S.-led ballistic missile defense system, but Seoul officials deny that any concrete commitment has been made. In a report released Monday, the department said Seoul "is also an important U.S. BMD partner" and "has indicated interest in acquiring a missile defense capability that includes land- and sea-based systems, early warning radars, and a command and control system." 
[Al Arabiya Latest] The government of Dubai announced Thursday the discovery of a new off-shore oil field which it hoped would rescue its limping economy. The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum, "heralds the good news to the people of the United Arab Emirates that a new off-shore oil field has been discovered in Dubai," a government statement said.
[Ma'an] Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family on Thursday, speaking at a business forum hosted by Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan University. 
