Nato forces aim to step away from the front lines in Afghanistan in the middle of next year and focus on training Afghan troops ahead of a complete withdrawal by 2015, US defence secretary Leon Panetta said today.
Speaking ahead of a summit with fellow defence ministers in Brussels, Mr Panetta said he believed international troops could end their combat role by the end of 2013, bringing a close to the decade-long engagement in Afghanistan.
"Hopefully by the mid to latter part of 2013 we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role to a training, advise and assist role," he told the Associated Press, adding that Nato troops would remain "combat-ready" in the event of a Taliban surge.
Britain and the United States, whose troops make up the overwhelming majority of the International Security Assistance Force, have previously said that all troops would withdraw by 2015 but Mr Panetta's comments are the first indication of when they could step away from the fiercest fighting.
He would not comment on whether the transition from fighting to training in late 2013 would mean a faster withdrawal of US troops. There are currently 91,000 American soldiers in Afghanistan, scheduled to be reduced to 68,000 by September.
Mr Panetta said next year would be critical for the success of the international mission in Afghanistan, noting that key provinces are scheduled to be transferred to the control of the Afghan security forces.
His comments came after a week in which France urged Nato to end its mission by the end next year, 12 months earlier than previously agreed.
#1
Over at CNBC + FOX FIVE, the News Pundits are wondering iff Leon was premature + said somethingy before the Bammer + Admin had formally approved it???
President Obama raised more than $56 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 for his re-election bid, $24 million of which came through a channel that allowed him to raise money from wealthy donors in chunks of more than $30,000.
At least $9 million of that haul came from just 88 newly enlisted wealthy power brokers, which the campaign has attempted to brand as “volunteer fundraisers.”
About one-third of the $56 million came from people giving $200 or less. Small donors make up one-fifth of the Obama re-election money raised in 2011.
While the Obama campaign consistently has touted its grass-roots, small-donor fundraising appeal, the reach of the tentacles of a few hundred people, largely Hollywood moguls, Wall Street financiers and Chicago establishment figures, is astonishing.
Of $120 million raised in 2011, 445 bundlers gathered at least $75 million for Mr. Obama, and likely much more.
Remember all those columns Monbiot write about the courage of our troops fighting house-to-house in Fallujah? Me Neither. Remember all his columns denouncing cowardly terrorists who blew up girls' schools?
The ancient Greeks, unlike the Jews or the Christians, invested their gods with human failings. Divine judgment, they believed, was neither flawless nor dispassionate; it was warped by lust, vengeance and self-interest. In the hands of Zeus, the thunderbolt was both an instrument of justice and a weapon of jealousy and revenge. Monbiot's lucky that the gods don't strike him down for terrible writing. This reads like a lazy high school essay.
Those now dispensing judgment from on high are not gods, though they must feel like it. The people striking mortals down with drones are doubtless as capable as anyone else of self-deception, denial and cognitive illusions. More so, perhaps, as the eminent fictions of the Bush years and the growing delusions of the current president suggest. So, who's most evillest: W or BO? Clarify, please.
Barack Obama began last week's state of the union address by claiming that the troops who had fought the Iraq war had "made the United States safer and more respected around the world". Like Bush, like the gods, he has begun to create the world he wants to inhabit. So Bush is like a Greek god and BO's a wannabe?
These power-damaged people have been granted the chance to fulfil one of humankind's abiding fantasies: to vaporise their enemies, as if with a curse or a prayer, effortlessly and from a safe distance. Pistols at dawn, says Monbiot.
That these powers are already being abused is suggested by the mendacity of those who are deploying them. The CIA, which is running the undeclared and unacknowledged drone war in Pakistan, insists that there have been no recent civilian casualties. So does Obama's chief counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan. It is a blatant whitewash. Of course if we really wanted to vaporize our enemies from afar, all we need is one Ohio skipper with a bad attitude.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/01/2012
13:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Cowardly, or smart?
Is it cowardly to blow terrorists into chum when the said terrorists would attack unarmed civilians?
Which party is the more cowardly?
Either way, I suspect Monboit is a cowardly fuck himself and a SEAL challenging him to a fistfight would cause the yellow bastard to soil himself and run like hell.
Instead imagine a large drone aircraft that could deploy perhaps 20 individual guided bomblets, one at a time, perhaps with simple FM guidance, each bomblet designed as a small air burst, shrapnel munition.
Each one having about 4 times the amount of composition B of an M67 frag grenade (6.5oz), with a fragmentation exterior, it would pack a sizable punch to individuals in the open.
In a place like Afghanistan, where medical care is hard to get...
Is this how teh smaht people justify their continued support of Obama and disagreement with his drone policy? Mental diarrhea with corn bit? A D+ in junior high, at best.
#8
If you look in the comments he believes (his words) that the people being attacked should be able to vote on if drones should be permitted to attack them?
What deranged world is he living in? One where citizens of the Axis voted to allow the allies to bomb them? This would include the cowardly night attacks by the British Landcasters that were cowardly painted black so they wouldn't be hit as much.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/01/2012 15:16
Comments ||
Top||
#9
That's because it's not a war, George---it's deworming.
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/01/2012 15:36
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Moonbat Prime.
Unfortunately for all involved, he is paid to write.
Strangly, the Greeks did have what would be sort of fair where both sides would line up with their best on the left and worst on the right, and pound each other until one side's best defeated the other side's worst, and would take the field. That changed at Delium, Boatia vs Athens; Athens was pounding Boatia and Pagondas sent a couple groups of Boatian cavalry around a hill, Athens thought an entire new army was approaching and quit the field with victory in their grasp. Sure there were a number of Athenians talking about unfair tactics and lack of manhood...but from the loser's camp.
Also, the Greeks produced Taktike Theoria, outlining the basics of how to control the battlefield and use technology and training to defeat the enemy.
They may chalk a storm up to the gods, or treachory, but I also have the feeling that when it got down to killing the enemy they knew person, training, and advantage were quite important.
#14
Well, they have their cowardly IED's and they care not who gets killed. We merely mounted a firecracker on a model airplane. We do care to try to keep innocents out of the way.
#15
After clicking on 'Moose's link, i finally made the connection: Bambi is really Wliy E. in the flesh. Think about it; every 'genius' thing he has touched blows up on him. Only difference is, his Acme bombs also splatter us.
Makes me almost wish for an anvil and an airplane.....
#1
From the source article, in Branson's words: If we move quickly and get on top of this issue we could regulate the earth's temperature so that we need never go back into another ice age.
Utter B.S.! At least Branson did the rest of us a courtesy by spelling out the underlying flaw in all reasoning about MMGW, that humans can quickly assume command of regulating the earth's temperature. The global warmists avoid saying that because it is nonsense on stilts.
#4
Liberals gotta regulate the crap out of everything. They don't trust their fellow man or nature. Then there is a class of folks that like to take advantage of this for their own benefit. Bad combination.
#5
Ya see, this is why I blame CAPT. Jean Luc Picard + Starfleet for not dev the Sun/Star-destroying NEXUS mega-Missle - THAT D *** NGED MILYUHN-N-DILYUHN EARTHS-SIZED SUN WON'T SURRENDER LIKE FRANCE TO TINY EARTH-SIZED EARTH UNLESS IT KNOWS WE HUMANS CAN DESTROY IT IN RIGHTEOUS GLORIOUS SPACE JIHAD!
Two ships of the US Navy, the nuclear submarine USS Annapolis and the destroyer USS Momsen have passed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea. Although their destination is confidential, they are now getting dangerously close to the Persian Gulf.
'Dangerously'? I think they know their way around...
The shipsÂ’ passage was a major operation for the Suez administration as due to safety reasons they had to close off the canal to all other traffic and even shut down the bridge, disrupting the link between the banks for some four hours. The traffic on the roadways alongside the canal was also restricted, Interfax news agency reports.
There are no reports regarding the destination of the vessels, but the news come amid the ongoing crisis in the relationship between the US and Iran. There is mounting speculation that the Annapolis and the Momsen are heading to the Persian Gulf to reinforce the US naval forces already present in the region.
They might be going for anti-piracy duty off Somalia. Or a flag-showing exercise in Ruritania...
Currently the US has two aircraft carrier groups in the region headed by USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Carl Vinson. It is expected that another aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, will join the strike force in March.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2012
12:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
It seems to me that a type of anti-sub, mini-sub could be designed as "picket subs" for an aircraft carrier. Designed to be quickly deployed or recovered by crane.
Prior to passing through a tight area like the Strait of Hormuz, the carrier would drop them in the drink to scout for hostiles. Possibly unmanned, they could be very fast as they would have limited range for their mission, and would carry small anti-mini-sub torpedoes.
As soon as anyone detected a hostile in the water, a sonar signal could be sent, since there would be no need for quiet, and a designated sub would speed towards its target, then fire a torpedo, before it could fire one of its own.
Lots of uses beyond that. Some could be rigged as mine detectors, or to disable ships by blowing up their propeller.
#4
Mr Anonymoose, this already exists in multiple configurations, including underwater "unmanned drones". I cannot say whether the U.S. Navy, or any other navy, uses them extensively. But one would be wise to have this capability well in hand given these circumstances, n'est-ce pas?
#9
I could think of a few two faced allies in the world worth nuking!
Posted by: Paul D ||
02/01/2012 18:02
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Iran + Mullahs have the gonads to hold off doing anything unilateral to spark a US-NATO military counter-response in the Gulf - IMO iff there is a catalyst(s) for US,etal-vs-Iran War, it will likely be some kind of external event(s) outside of the Gulf proper which will drag the US-Allies + Iran toward direct mil conflict.
E.g. ANTI-IRAN ECON SANCTIONS, VERSUS US-NATO INABILITY TO SUPPORT POST-2014 AFGHANISTAN DUE TO PAKISTAN'S CONTINUING CLOSURE OF DOMESTIC NATO SUPPLY ROUTES.
Again, AS LONG US-NATO/ALLIED WARSHIPS STAY OFFSHORE + NO GROUND ARMIES INVADE IRAN, THE LATTER WILL GET ITS NUKES.
* TOPIX > IRAN FM [Salehi] COMPARES MEDIA INFLUENCE TO [form of] MILITARY POWER, which can determine, make-or-break, GEOPOL WINNERS + LOSERS.
D *** NG IT, IIUC IRAN/SALEHI = ITS THE MARKETING, STUPID, NOT THE NUKES OR LR MISSLES!
--------
More heat for IRAN ...?
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > KURDISH INDEPENDENCE [ + Syria Regime CHange = Breakup?] IS FIRST STEP TOWARD STABLE IRAQ.
"ITS THE PIPELINE, STUPID", from sovereign Kurdistan to the Med + regional US Allies!
Bypass Iran???
* SAME > PAKISTAN, [NOT China] WILL BE INDIA'S SECURITY [litmus] TEST.
* TOPIX > US TO TARGET/BOMBARD [northern]IRAN FROM GEORGIA? - RUSSIAN PAPER [Kommersant].
Georgia perceived as unlikely to turn down any possible request by the US to use same as a staging area for Iran milstrikes.
Lastly, the US should not fergit the conspiracy theory whereby Cuba = Fidel Castro may had ordered the assassination hit agz POTUS JFK, in retaliation for the Bay of Pigs, anti-Castro econ sanction, + alleged CIA attempts to kill Uncle Fidel. IRAN HAS MADE IT CLEAR IT RESERVES ITS RIGHT TO ACTIVATE MILTERR PROXIES ["Any + All Options"] TO STRIKE AT US-ISRAELI TARGETS + INTERESTS IN RESPONSE TO AN ATTACK BY THE LATTER AGZ IT = NUCPROGS.
* IRAN = "ANY ATTACK BY ISRAEL IS THE SAME AS AN ATTACK BY THE US".
By extension, such Iran-ordered, anti-US TerrOps may or may include possible attempts by pro-Iran MilTerr Groups to de facto capture or kill the US National Leadership AMAP, ala 1960's CUBA/CASTRO-VS-JFK.
US POTUS, CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION YEAR + POOR US ECONOMY = ????? VEE IRAN????
* SAME > IRAN'S NATIONAL MILITARY BUDGET INCREASES 127%.
Iran was + will continue to spend mucho $$$ on military-related ventures + acquisitions, as likely due to Iran-perceived US-Allied threats agz its NucProgs.
versus
* WORLD NEWS > US INTELLIGENCE CHIEF: AL-QAEDA HURTING, IRAN "MORE WILLING" TO LAUNCH [terror = proxy] ATTACKS ON US.
Al-Qaeda, "Core" [Zawahiri] or Affiliates, in favor of US-Iran War to "justify" TerrOps agz CONUS, espec agz POTUS Bammer + Washington DC???
* SAME > [USNI Director James CLapper] AL-QAEDA WILL RELY ON PAK MILITANTS TO CARRY OUT TRANS-NATIONAL TERROR ATTACKS IN 2012.
* SAME/TOPIX > [Pak Tribune] PAKISTAN'S RUSH FOR MORE [nuclear] BOMBS - WHY?
Lest we fergit, PAKISTAN > will side wid Iran = fellow Muslim country in case of any US-Israeli attack on same.
* SAME > SERIES OF ISLAMIST VICTORIES: NEXT EPISODE WILL LIKELY TAKE PLACE IN KUWAIT, i.e. where US troops are but perhaps not for much longer?
* SAME > ISRAEL'S "STEEL CANAL" TO [compete with +] BYPASS EGYPT'S SUEZ CANAL. Proposed Railroad network linking Israel's Tel Aviv wid its port at Eilat.
A new report from the Democratic staff of the main House committee investigating Operation Fast and Furious stresses that federal law enforcement officials in Arizona relied on the investigative tactic of gunwalking as far back as 2006 and used it in three other investigations before the one that made the technique infamous.
The minority report, "Fatally Flawed: Five Years on Gunwalking in Arizona," was released early Tuesday, two days before Attorney General Eric Holder is to testify before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing into Fast and Furious, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation that allegedly permitted more than 1000 guns to flow from licensed dealers in the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels. Two of the weapons were found at the scene of the killing of a Border Patrol agent in Arizona in December 2010.
The timing of the Democratic staff report seemed aimed at taking the sting out of Thursday's hearing and muddling a more hostile narrative Committee Chairman Darrell Issa of California is likely to lay out.
In a letter accompanying the report, the panel's ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, indicated that the committee's year-long probe had turned up no indication that Operation Fast and Furious was directed from Justice Department headquarters
"Contrary to repeated claims by some, the Committee has obtained no evidence that Operation Fast and Furious was a politically-motivated operation conceived and directed by high-level Obama Administration political appointees at the Department of Justice,” Cummings wrote.
“The documents obtained and interviews conducted by the Committee indicate that it was the latest in a series of reckless and fatally flawed operations run by ATF’s Phoenix Field Division during both the previous and current administrations.”
Police in Pakistan on Wednesday revealed that a parcel containing deadly anthrax powder has been sent to the official residence of the country's prime minister. While it marks the first time criminals have used the biological agent in an attack on a government office, letters laced with anthrax spores were sent to a mass-market Urdu newspaper and to a computer company in Karachi soon after 9/11, at the same time as scares in the US.
"We have just received the lab reports confirming it was anthrax but we cannot say more than that at the moment," said Hakim Khan, a police officer in the government and diplomatic area of the capital, where the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, has his official residence. The spores have a molecular signature. You can pretty much tell from what lab they came, if they came from a recognized lab in the West or Russia. Golly gosh, wonder if the Paks will let us have a sample for testing?
Pakistan has been gripped for months by speculation that the government could be toppled by the military or the courts, and the use of a biological agent will deepen concern about the country's fragility.
A spokesman for Mr Gilani said it had been delivered in October and police were notified this week after laboratory tests were completed.
"We believe the culprit was a lady professor," said Akram Shaheedi, but he declined to speculate on a motive.
#6
Attention Pak Sherlock Holmes-Try ISI HQ first!
Posted by: Paul D ||
02/01/2012 18:25
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Try ISI HQ first!
Not necessarily. There are more than enough uber-Islam groups in Pakistain (including in the universities) that would do this without prompting by the ISI.
A court has sentenced 10 Islamic militants to up to eight years in prison for acquiring materials to be used in terrorist activities in Indonesia.
The defendants were arrested after a suicide bombing last April that wounded 28 people in a mosque attended by police in the West Java town of Cirebon.
The judges ruled today that the 10 defendants violated Indonesia's anti-terror law by either possessing or acquiring illegal arms and explosives material.
Dzulkifli Lubis and Musolah Saifullah were sentenced to eight-year terms. The other defendants received between five and seven and half years. The trial was held in Tangerang city, just west Jakarta.
The April 15 bombing was the first attack in a house of worship in Indonesia, where a string of terrorist attacks have occurred since 2002.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced Monday night that it had successfully prevented retired Lieutenant General William G. "Jerry" Boykin from speaking at an upcoming prayer breakfast at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
"We welcome Mr. Boykin's withdrawal from this event and hope that the speaker who replaces him will offer cadets a spiritual message that promotes tolerance and mutual understanding," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad in a statement.
West Point initially balked at the calls to remove Boykin -- a former military intelligence officer -- from the event.
Lt. Col. Sherri Reed of West Point told The Associated Press that cadets are "purposefully exposed to different perspectives and cultures."
"The National Prayer Breakfast Service will be pluralistic with Christians, Jewish, and Muslim cadets participating," Reed said. "We are comfortable and confident that what retired Lt. Gen. Boykin will share about prayer, soldier care and selfless service, will be in keeping with the broad range of ideas normally considered by our cadets."
Boykin backed out of the event on his own volition, according to a report from Fox News.
The retired lieutenant general has been on CAIR's radar for casting Islam in a poor light, specifically in speeches in which he analogizing the War on Terror to a war against Satan.
CAIR and the group VoteVets.org pushed hard for a retraction of Boykin's invitation to the event due to his "Islamophobic" views.
CAIR and People For the American Way failed to stop a speech Boykin gave in Ocean City, Md., last week. This week it seems they have been successful.
Here we go, again. It's a resilient religion. When one god is brought down another is raised up... How long until this particular computer model is inspected and found wanting? Or will that effort be preempted by the observation that the oceans have been more acidic in the past, at times when coral reefs did just fine...
Per elsewhere, between 1751 and 1994 surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14 with the arctic acidification greater and the tropical acidification less so
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/01/2012 12:31
Comments ||
Top||
#5
They have been trying everything since the 70s to convince us that CO2 is evil and we need to stop using fossil fuels to keep whatever disaster they predict from happening.
I am almost to the point that if someone whines about "greenhouse" gasses and the damage man has done with them I will punch the dumb fuck in the face.
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/01/2012 18:11
Comments ||
Top||
#12
"PEAK TREES/WOOD/FORESTS" + "PEAK TUNA"
versus
THE MIGHTY "SLUSHY" = NEW ICE AGE/MINI-ICE AGE???
"Icy, but not Frozen", as James Bond 007 would paraph.
I say "slushy", in part, in remembrance of childhood dreams/visions where I seemingly dipped my hand + arm into what I preceived as "used to be" the former tropical Pacific.
* WORLD NEWS > [Gizmodo] THIN WE'RE HEADED FOR A NEW ICE AGE? YOU'RE WRONG.
The alleged coming "Mini-Ice Age" may prove to be a SUN-DRIVEN GLOBAL HEAT WAVE/PERIOD THATS JUST NOT AS HOT AS IT SHOULD BE, thanks to minor cooling = icy conditions.
Yet another third-party affirmation of the "Great/Mighty Slushy".
* SAME > FOUR HUGE VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS [ancient]ARE TO BLAME FOR "LITTLE ICE AGE".
As per MADONNA + GUAM TAOTAMONAS, once again Virgina we learn why the "2012" Movie's scene of an Apocalyptic/Cataclysmic Tidal Wave crashing oer the Himalayas + bell-ringing, brave devout Tibetan/Buddhist Monk should had been VOLCANOES [East Asia REGION-WIDE ERUPTIONS = VOLCANISM].
D *** NG IT, YOU DID IT TO US AGAIN, DIDN'T YOU, PICARD/JEAN LUC - THE MONK WASN'T EVEN WEARING GLASSES, + EVEN MADONNA SAYS "NO NIPPLES" FOR THE SUPERBOWL!
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
02/01/2012
11:42 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
FTA: Most of the caches [used by insurgents to rapidly assemble and deploy IED's against coalition forces] are believed to be scattered through desert regions beyond the district center, particularly to the east, near the border of Kandahar. From there, components are smuggled piecemeal — a jug one day, a pressure switch the next — and only later assembled in Sangin proper. “If you know how to put one together,” Folsom explained, “it literally takes minutes, if not seconds. If we catch them in the act, we can drop ordnance on them. But if they get away, we’ll track them out to the east until we eventually lose sight of them.” Until recently, the Marines, distributed among their many fixed positions, lacked the manpower to go after these caches and disrupt insurgents infiltrating from the east.
#2
So after going through and making the loan process a nightmare, they will go back and streamline it?
Had to look up GSE - it is either Government Sponsored Enterprise or Grape Seed Extract, hard to tell in the text.
In basis, this will be paid for by fees upon the banks, then loss of interest revenue for banks, in addition to the non-recess recess appointment made which begins the new card fees program.
#5
Let me guess. The housing market is still strong in DC. Who do you think will get the money. I would like to know the names of those approved. Even if this program is stillborn people move to DC to gain power for their group. Its not we the people there anymore.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
02/01/2012 12:49
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Not a hit piece? Ask yourself why. Cui bono? Could it be the public relations wing of the U.S. Democratic party Liberal Press needs to burnish Mr Obama's credentials a bit?
#5
Could be. However, it made the army look good. I would think that NYT editors would have a knee-jerk response to that. It felt like I was hearing the NYT praise Nixon....
Remember the concept of "smart power"? That was Barack Obama's promise, along with strengthening our friendships with allies abroad. It's generally helpful for both approaches to get the names straight:
President Obama mistakenly referred to the nation of Georgia as "Russia" after a bilateral meeting with the Georgian president -- an unfortunate slip-up, given that the president was celebrating 20 years of Georgian independence from Soviet rule.
"[O]ne of the first things that I did was express my appreciation for the institution-building that's been taking place in Russia -- in Georgia," Obama told reporters following a meeting with Georgia's President Saakashvili. Moments earlier, Obama had noted that it was "a wonderful occasion to have him here as we'll be celebrating this year 20 years of independence for Georgia and the eighth anniversary of the Rose Revolution."
That gaffe isn't just an Austrian-language moment, either:
Georgia was conquered in 1921 when the Soviet Red Army invaded the country. Three years ago, Russia invaded Georgia as part of a territorial dispute that has simmered since Georgia regained independence after the Communist empire collapsed in 1991.
Smart power, indeed. When you are too "smart" too look up and remember some important historical facts for a country you are visiting, maybe you should just keep your fat mouth shut.
Thanks to IBD, Congress is finally probing the administration's shakedown of banks over alleged "lending discrimination." At issue is backdoor funding of Acorn clones.
Last week, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith fired off a three-page letter to Attorney General Eric Inaction Jackson Holder warning that his recent punishment of Bank of America's mortgage unit seemed political. In fact, he may have abused his power.
As IBD first reported Jan. 4, 'BofA Must Pay Excess Settlement Funds To Acorn Clones," the $335 million lending-bias deal requires BofA to fork over a chunk of the payout to leftist groups not connected to the suit.
The unusual term is part of a secret Justice program to redistribute millions in settlement cash to third parties instead of alleged victims.
Critics told IBD it's a "political backdoor" to subsidize Democrat-tied bank shakedown groups.
"I am concerned that the terms of the Justice Department's recent settlement with Countrywide Financial will allow the department to give large sums of money to individuals and organizations with questionable backgrounds or close political ties to the White House without any guidelines or oversight," Smith, R-Texas, wrote in his Jan. 25 letter.
"If that is to be the case," he said, "this sort of backdoor funding of the president's political allies would be an abuse of the department's law enforcement authority."
Under the order, excess funds will be handed to groups that "provide education, counseling and other assistance to low-income and minority borrowers." Excess funds should be turned into the Treasury. Simple enough.
This language mirrors Acorn's mission statement.
The corrupt group, which has re-emerged under other names after coming under investigation in 2009, continues to receive federal funds. Acorn Housing Corp. got some $700,000 in federal money after changing its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
02/01/2012
10:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Gangster Government. Thank you Lamar Smith for shining a bright light on the rats.
#1
"Like other progressive presidents fond of military metaphors, he [B. O.] rejects the patience of politics required by the Constitution he has sworn to uphold."
I thought that George hit the nail on the head.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
02/01/2012 11:47
Comments ||
Top||
(Reuters) - The United States military has said in a secret report that the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control over Afghanistan after NATO-led forces withdraw from the country, Britain's Times of London newspaper said Wednesday.
"Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban," the newspaper said, quoting the report. "Once ISAF (NATO-led forces) is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable," it quoted the report.
The Times said the "highly classified" report was put together by the U.S. military at Bagram air base in Afghanistan for top NATO officers last month. The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document.
Large swathes of Afghanistan have already been handed back to Afghan security forces, with the last foreign combat troops due to leave by the end of 2014.
The document cited by the Times and the BBC also stated that Pakistan's powerful security agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was assisting the Taliban in directing attacks against foreign forces -- a charge denied by Islamabad.
A group of four Islamic militants, all British citizens, admitted involvement on Wednesday in a conspiracy inspired by Al Qaeda to place a bomb in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange, part of a plot that, prosecutors said, was foiled after undercover counterterrorism officers tailed them as they surveyed London tourist attractions.
The case seemed part of BritainÂ’s long-running battle against militants born or residing in Britain since the July 7 bombings in 2005 that killed 52 people on three London subway trains and a bus.
The four were among a group of nine men who had been set to plead not guilty to terrorism charges but changed their pleas to guilty when they learned of the likely sentences, BritainÂ’s Press Association news agency reported.
The other five pleaded guilty to lesser charges. They are to be sentenced next week.
Prosecutors alleged that the men, who were arrested in December 2010, had drawn up a list of potential targets including the home of the London mayor, Boris Johnson, two rabbis, the American Embassy and the Stock Exchange.
In November 2010, two of the men, Mohammed Chowdhury, 21, and Shah Rahman, 28, both of Bangladeshi descent and from London, were followed by plainclothes counterterrorism operatives as they observed locations around Parliament, including the Big Ben clock tower, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye Ferris wheel, the prosecution said.
#3
Actually for the sake of the world economy, this is one terrorist attack we actually should applaude. The Brits have their hands all over a number of questionable derivative instruments that have tanked a number of governments. The City doesn't have a lot of the investor protection rules that the SEC has.
Blowing up the City and the London Exchange should be on our list of ways to improve our economy.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/01/2012 11:01
Comments ||
Top||
#4
The stock Exchange has nothing to do with AIG London or the FSA...
Maybe you applaud The twin towers attack for it's fight against dodgy financial dealings???
#3
Had the US wanted a different outcome, it would have used a little extra effort at the very start to set up a new form of government, with an American administrator, MacArthur constitution, and trained every available orphan child with a secular upbringing in boarding schools, to be the next generation of leaders, with no tribal affiliations.
This would have affirmed the superior nature of the western world, and made Afghanistan permanently separate and apart from Pakistan, once we had closed the border between the two.
Putting Karzai in charge was as stupid as if we had put one of Saddam's Sunni lieutenants in charge of Iraq.
Afghanistan would have been far easier to fix because unlike Iraq, it had nothing. No government, no assets, few people left, miniscule wages, and no law only chaos. A 'tabula rasa', a blank slate, we could have rebuilt in any way we chose.
Instead, we tried to recreate their cluster-f*** of a failed semi-government tribal system that is even inferior to a royal government. A castle built of dog crap with a president who has no power beyond its stinky gates.
#6
Once again, TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > {Pak Tribune] PAKISTAN'S RUSH FOR MORE [nuclear] BOMBS - WHY?
Political Jihad = Election, Govt-sharing-happy Radical Islam should no doubt be happy iff Pakistan expands its nuclear arsenal for any reason.
Also, IIRC DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US INTEL: INDIA PREPARING FOR LIMITED CONFLICT WID CHINA.
Pragmatically, any new SINO-INDIAN WAR will prolly be end outcome of antecendent AFGHAN-PAK or INDO-PAK WAR; or in altern a US-IRAN WAR as Iran has said it has no qualms using the sovereign territories of its neighbors as staging areas for asymmetric anti-US attacks, + wid or widout the consent of their neighbors' Govts.
IOW, THE SCENARIO EXISTS THAT A US-IRAN WAR MAY GO NUKULAAR WIDOUT IRAN PER SE NECESSAR HAVING TO HAVE ANY NUKES.
#7
Once again, TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > {Pak Tribune] PAKISTAN'S RUSH FOR MORE [nuclear] BOMBS - WHY?
Political Jihad = Election, Govt-sharing-happy Radical Islam should no doubt be happy iff Pakistan expands its nuclear arsenal for any reason.
Also, IIRC DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US INTEL: INDIA PREPARING FOR LIMITED CONFLICT WID CHINA.
Pragmatically, any new SINO-INDIAN WAR will prolly be end outcome of antecendent AFGHAN-PAK or INDO-PAK WAR; or in altern a US-IRAN WAR as Iran has said it has no qualms using the sovereign territories of its neighbors as staging areas for asymmetric anti-US attacks, + wid or widout the consent of their neighbors' Govts.
IOW, THE SCENARIO EXISTS THAT A US-IRAN WAR MAY GO NUKULAAR WIDOUT IRAN PER SE NECESSAR HAVING TO HAVE ANY NUKES.
A secret Nato report published by British media shows that the Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly assisted by Pakistani security services.
The report says that the Pak intelligence agency, ISI, "is thoroughly aware of Taliban activities and the whereabouts of all senior Taliban personnel"
They should, they provide meals, housing vouchers and expense accounts of all those 'senior Taliban personnel'...
The Taliban remain defiant and are widely supported by the Afghan people, according to the report.
The report, initially published by the Times of London and the BBC, has reportedly been derived from 27,000 interrogations with more than 4,000 captured Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters and civilians.
The report, initially published by the Times of London and the BBC,
has reportedly been derived from 27,000 interrogations with more than 4,000 captured Taliban, al-Qaeda and other imported muscle and civilians.
"Pakistain's manipulation of the Taliban big shotship continues unabatedly," the report was quoted as saying.
"Pakistain knows everything. The Taliban are not Islam, the Taliban are Islamabad," the report says.
Part of the report which has been seen by TOLOnews says the Haqqani Network conducts most of the Taliban's "large-scale operations" in Kabul and the Taliban have designated the Afghan capital as "free area", in which any commander can conduct operation without prior coordination with the local command.
The report says that Sarajuddin Haqqani, the operational commander of the Haqqani Network, is in hiding and his brother Badruddin is in charge of all military operations.
The report also says Nasruddin, the oldest son of Haqqani Network's founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, who is described as loyal and competent "represents Sarajuddin in meetings with ISI [Pakistain intelligence agency] in Islamabad, Pakistain, and the Taliban Central Shura in Pak city of Quetta.
The report says that the Haqqani family "resides immediately west of the ISI office at the airfield in Miram Shah", Pakistain.
Oddly like the Osama bin Laden family residing in the shadow of the Abbotabad military academy.
A spokesperson for NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... -led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) LTC Jimmie Cummings said that "is clearly a collection of beturbanned goon detainee commentary, and should not be considered an analysis or any type of interpretation of campaign progress".
"This document aggregates the comments of Taliban detainees in a captive environment, without considering the validity of, or motivation behind their reflections," said Cummings in a statement.
Pakistain has always denied allegations of having any ties with the Taliban or other myrmidon groups.
Pakistani "truth".
"Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over the Government of Afghanistan, usually as a result of government corruption, ethnic bias and lack of connection with local religious and tribal leaders," the report says.
The US Department of Defence has set out it fears about Pakistain and its influence in Afghanistan, but it said it could not comment on the report.
"We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI and some beturbanned goon networks," said US Pentagon front man Captain John Kirby, adding that the US Defence Department had not seen the report.
Pakistain has frequently been accused by US officials of supporting beturbanned goons that carry out attacks against foreign troops and Afghan forces, something Pakistain has repeatedly denied.
The report comes as the Pak Foreign Minister Hinna Rabbani Khar is making her first visit to Kabul to extend Pakistain's support to Afghan peace efforts..
Taliban working with Pakistan (i.e. ISI, the state within the state):
Haqqani Network
Afghan Taliban (headquartered in Quetta, Pakistan)
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Hafiz Gul Bahadur's North Waziristan (AKA Muqami Tehrik-e Taliban)
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
02/01/2012 10:35
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Tipper,
Bottom line Saudi funds all Sunni terrorist groups whilst Iran fund all Shia terrorist groups.
We in the West need to cut off funds to Islamist Pakistan,Egypt in the future and crack down on Saudi and Yemen Govts who are BFF of jihadis worldwide!
Posted by: Paul D ||
02/01/2012 10:43
Comments ||
Top||
#6
So if the war in Afghanistan has done nothing else at least it has taught us who our real enemies are.
Pakistani jets bombed insurgent bases in the country's mountainous tribal areas before dawn on Wednesday morning, killing at least 31 Taliban fighters, according to security officials.
The strikes targeted four compounds run by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in Orakzai district.
The past week has seen an upsurge in clashes -- with at least 80 people dead - as the spring fighting season draws near. Warplanes and helicopter gunships were involved in the latest round of fighting according to a senior military official in the north-western city of Peshawar.
"The Pakistan Air Force engaged four targets in Sheikhan and Samana Bazar at midnight," he said. "More than 20 militants were killed."
He added that a senior local commander, Moin ud Din, may have been killed in the bombing.
After a furious backlash from West's backers over a redistricting plan that would imperil his 2012 prospects, the tea party favorite got a political gift Tuesday: the opportunity to run for a nearby seat -- one much more favorable to his prospects.
Under the state's proposed redistricting plan, drawn by Republican state lawmakers, West's current district would become much more hostile territory. The freshman congressman will instead run for a South Florida seat, whose current occupant, GOP Rep. Tom Rooney, announced on Tuesday that he would vacate the district and run nearby. After redistricting, his old 22nd District went from 51% Donks to 57%, the 18th District will be 51% Trunks and contains 20% of his current constituents.
SEOUL, Jan. 31 -- North Korean leader Suet Face Kim Jong-un's repeated visits to the military may be a sign of weakness rather than strength, as the new leader desperately seeks to foster loyalty within the key backbone of the regime, analysts in Seoul said Tuesday.
The young Pudgy Kim paid eight visits to different military units this month, starting with an inspection of a tank division on New Year's Day, according to Yonhap News Agency's analysis of news reports released by the North's state media. The new leader, thought to be in his late 20s, also visited an institute for military officials and attended a concert given by a military orchestra, bringing to 10 his total number of military-related public activities. Of his remaining four public appearances this month, one was a visit to a construction site managed by the armed forces.
In comparison, his father Kim Jong-il, who ruled the country with an iron fist for 17 years, met with the military only once in a total of 14 public appearances in January last year.
"The fact that Kim Jong-un is making such frequent visits to military units is evidence that he does not enjoy solid support within the armed forces," said Baek Seung-joo, a senior analyst at the state-run Korea Institute of Defense Analyses. "(The visits) are aimed at boosting his presence among military officials and consolidating his power base."
The state media's prompt reporting of Kim's military inspections may serve to convince the North Korean people of their leader's authority within the armed forces, he added. The worthless young leader was designated as a four-star general in 2010 and declared supreme commander of North Korea's armed forces after his father's demise, though he is believed to have little, if any, military experience.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sonny-Boy KJU is fighting the clock vee a famine-affected Military + Chinese takeover.
CAIRO: Egypt's military leader has sacked the general responsible for media affairs to bolster an image tarnished by killings of protesters and accusations that the men in uniform are undermining Egypt's democratic revolution. The change is the first in the military council since the generals took power from President Hosni Mubarak during a popular uprising last February.
Maj. Gen. Ismail Etman, 60, was "exempted from service and replaced by Maj. Gen. Ahmed Abu El-Dahab, the director of the artillery division," a Defense Ministry source said. The decision was announced later by state media.
A source close to the military council said it was concerned about its deteriorating public image.
"The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces concluded that the army's image in the media has suffered over the past year under Etman's leadership," said the source.
"The decision is intended to bring in new leadership to improve the armed forces' performance," and was decreed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who heads the council, the source added.
Etman led the army department which handled a wide range of issues ranging from media relations to dealing with the concerns of military officers. Little is known about Etman's successor, Abu El-Dahab, and it remains to be seen whether the change will alter the army's public affairs policy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
[Iran Press TV] Mitt Romney ...whose real first name is actually, no kidding, Willard, was governor of Massachussetts and is currently the front-runner for president on the Publican ticket. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's foot is in an ideological bucket because of Romneycare, a state-level experiment that should have been a warning against Obamacare if anyone had been paying attention. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field... won the Florida presidential primary Tuesday, taking a long stride toward capturing the GOP nomination.
His victory handed Romney Florida's 50 delegates, the biggest cache yet, but more than that the win shows his ability to capture support in a big, costly and diverse state that will be a major battleground in the fall contest against President B.O..
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
By most accounts, despite his NOT-THE-US-BATTLESHIP-OKLAHOMA Florida victoire', the MITT-VS-NEWT GOP RACE REMAINS WIDE OPEN.
#5
Mitt outspend Newt by a huge margin. He won't be able to outspend Obama.
Turnout was DOWN 14%. Why? Because this was a Republican primary. Mitt and the media have been able to hurt Newt, but they still can't appeal to conservatives.
Romney will lose the election. The sad irony is that the very idiots who want to nominate him will blame conservatives for his loss.
#6
Sure, which countries should he raid? How about starting with Britain? He could also outsource our allegiance to the Chinese. Whoops, Billy was there first.
#8
"I heard $16 million out of a total $20 million for all candidates. Mitt's gonna embarrass Barry by being the first billion dollar politician."
Yes, he outspent Newt 4-1 in Florida and only 2-1 in SC.
Another way to look at this - Romney ran 65 TV ads for every 1 of Newt's.
But you miss the point entirely. Obama will outspend Romney. Where do you think all that stimulus, Solyndria, etc money is going? Right back into Obama's campaign coffers is where. If Romney raises a billion then Obama will raise 2.
#10
Obama has been ghosting the Republican primary on the taxpayer dime, is that included in the 2:1?
Maybe there is a campaign law expert out there, I know a president has the bully pulpit and all but can a president call out individual candidates and not count it as a campaign event?
#11
Iblis: The sad irony is that the very idiots who want to nominate him will blame conservatives for his loss.
The 'idiots' will be correct.
The 'true' conservatives (how you define that I don't know, perhaps, like Spectre, they have tattoos) don't like Mittens at all. Sure fine, but to borrow the Rumsfeld saying, you go into an election with the candidates you have. If the 'true' conservatives wanted somebody different, they should have gotten that person to run, run well, and win.
But they didn't so now they're going to sulk. This includes the libertarian-conservatives who demand that the Pubs nominate a candidate that pleases them without lifting a damned finger to help out (yeah, I'm looking at you Bill Quick).
It's utter horseshit, of course.
Mittens may not be conservative enough to please some, but he's way, way better than the flaming socialist we currently have in power. I remind the Bill Quick acolytes that they sat on their hands in '06 and '08 because they didn't like the Pub choices and the Pub spending and corruption. How'd that work out for your ideals, fellas? Are we more libertarian today because Barack Obama is President, we had Nancy Pelosi as Speaker, and we still have Dingy Harry as Majority Leader?
Moses may have led his people to wonder the Sinai for forty years so as to purify them, but it wasn't fun for the people walking around in the baking sun.
Perspective matters. We will not (as Inspector Clouseau might say) go from a blue to a crimson nation in one swell foop. It takes time. It takes a lot of work. We've seen our country go as far left as it has because the progressives have spent the last half-century out-hustling conservatives and libertarians. You will NOT change that in one election.
Mittens may not be my kind of guy. But if it's Mittens versus the fumbling, bumbling, incompetent, malevolent Bambi in November, Mittens it shall be. Provide him with a tea-party motivated (or at least fearful) House and a more Pub Senate, and we'll begin to turn the country. Some. A little. And then I'd better see the Quick acolytes rolling up their sleeves and pushing like hell to make a difference.
Mittens. Newt. Religious Rick. Whoever. The 'perfect' candidate for the 'true' conservatives, for the Quick acolytes, isn't running. You got what you got. Make a choice. Stand behind whoever wins. Vote.
As the wise old Mr. Buckley said, you vote for the most conservative candidate electable.
Q: why is a syphilitic camel a better candidate than Barack Obama?
A: you can cure syphilis.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2012 12:13
Comments ||
Top||
#12
Still, if you'd taken Santorum out of the race it would have been a horse race. That's assuming Santorum votes would have gone to Newt which may or may not be a valid assumption. But it does look as though Santorum should take this opportunity to bow out gracefully.
#13
Mittens may not be conservative enough to please some, but he's way, way better than the flaming socialist we currently have in power.
Yeah. I even voted for McCain. I held my nose and did it. Or, as ZZ Top said, "Ain't all good but it's what we got."
But then, the primaries aren't over yet. I'm still hoping that Newt will hold on until the June primary in California. Hmmm. Maybe I should send him some money.
#14
If you look at the 4 remaining candidates, their election records are as follows:
Santorum: W 4 L 1 80.0%
Gingrich: W 11 L 2 84.6%
Paul: W 12 L 2 85.7%
Romney: W 1 L 2 33.3%
Since Romney won in FL among voters who consider "electability" to be important, we need to ask "Why does Romney do so poorly when facing actual democrats?"
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/01/2012 13:21
Comments ||
Top||
#15
Al, apples and oranges. Paul and Gingrich were running in stacked GOP congressional districts. Those are as close to automatic as you can get, short of the old Soviet Union or a gerrymandered "minority" congressional district. Winning those hardly proves any electoral prowess for national office, otherwise Shelia Jackson Lee would be leading the U.S.
#17
Romney FINNALLY wins a primary. After a recount Santorum won Idaho, Newt won South Carolina, and Mitt wins Florida. Does anyone think Mitt will win in Texas where over 50 delegates are at stake. No.
#18
Iblis: politics belongs to those who show up. Sit on your hands and you are guaranteed 1) your views won't be heard and 2) your hands will start to hurt.
Dole was no prize but he was better than Clinton, as events showed. McCain was certainly no prize but I'd take him today over Obama.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2012 17:18
Comments ||
Top||
#19
SW:
I'll be caucusing next week for the first time ever. And I will stand up and explain why I think Romney is a big, fat idiot. And it will make no difference whatsoever. But thanks anyway for your pointless advice.
Dole was no prize but he was better than Clinton, as events showed. McCain was certainly no prize but I'd take him today over Obama.
Exactly the kind of mistaken reasoning that keeps getting us into this sort of mess. Yes, either of our lame guys would have been better than their guy -- BUT OUR GUYS LOST! It's a false choice, as in, you don't get to choose between Romney and Obama, because Romney will lose.
Another tidbit --
43% of Romney's vote (about 300,000) in FL was early voting cast in December when Romney spent $5m and no one else had the money to compete there. In January Romney spent another $12m and picked up just 400,000 more votes.
He sucks. He's going to lose. People who don't get that will blame everyone else, but the fact is Romney is a suicidal pick for the party. I'm telling you now, so don't even go off on some tangent about showing up.
#20
Iblis, try asking them why the MSM is pushing Romney so hard. Obvious answer (since they're in the tank for Bambi): They know something about Romney, but they're hiding it until late October in an effort to boost Bambi. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/01/2012 18:10
Comments ||
Top||
#21
Obama and his Generals have been shaping the General Election battlefield for over a year (99% v 1%, Wall Street Fat Cats, Rich not paying their fair share, Cayman Islands, etc. etc.). They are drooling at the opportunity to face Romney.
They will be able to articulate the difference between the start-up successes of Bain and the huge profits made ala the Gordon Gekko type loading of weak companies with debt and making 10s of millions before they fall. Newt's foolish use of Bain in his campaign doesn't mean the Dem Opposition research didn't already have a lot worse dirt on Bain already in the can.
While Wall Street Goldman Sachs types got rich too many people saw there 401ks turn into 101ks. So far Romney is champ in Goldman Sachs political donation money.
Yup, Romney is the most electable or was he the next in line like Dole and McCain. I sometimes wonder if people like Daniels, Christie et al were advised to sit this out.
#22
P.S. Newt had a lot against him in Florida, early voting that took place when he was in the tank in Iowa, Advertising wise he had a pocket knife in a gunfight, and he let himself get into a pissing contest with a skunk. This is not to fail to mention he look tired and confused in the debates.
#23
Interesting debate. Not sure who I agree with.
FWIW, just gonna toss in my $0.02. I try to take the big-picture approach (like, sitting on the moon, watching these silly earthlings). Sometimes the details distract from, rather than clarify, the longer trendline.
Thusly, all the way up to the first week of Nov. 2008, I said I'd eat my hat if B.O. won the election. Well. I ate my hat.
Lesson learned: we're in uncharted territory. The rules we grew up with don't apply anymore, so never say never. Also, I badly underestimated the "anyone-but-Bush" factor, which hurt all Republicans to some degree. Maybe I am now overestimating the "anyone-but-Obama" factor, but, 9 months out, I still think Tweedledee just might pull this off.
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi official says a bomb blast north of Baghdad has killed three Iraqi soldiers, hours before the nationÂ’s parliament is to reconvene after lawmakers ended their boycott to protest persecution of Sunni officials.
Police spokesman in Diyala province, Maj. Ghalib Al-Karkhi, says a parked car bomb detonated near a military patrol late Monday in Baqouba, killing three soldiers and wounding three others. Baqouba is a former Al-Qaeda stronghold, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Citing a concern to "justify the origins of such resources", Partido Accion National (PAN) president Gustavo Madero Munoz filed a complaint with the Procuradoria General de la Republica (PGR) or attorney general demanding an investigation into the origins of the MP $25 million (USD $1.9 million) seized from two Veracruz state political operatives in Toluca, Mexico state Friday.
The filing, colloquially known as a denunciation, follows the arrest of Miguel Morales Robles, an employee of Partido Revoluionario Institucional (PRI) Veracruz governor Javier Duarte de Ochoa, and Said Sandoval Zepeda, who is reportedly on Governor Duarte's security staff after the two men had flown aboard an official Veracruz state aircraft carrying two packages -- later revealed to be a suitcase and a backpack -- containing MP $25 million, all in cash.
With the new filing he is attempting to place the financial antics -- to call them what they are -- of PRI politicians and officials front and center in the debate over who should lead Mexico for the next six years.
The flight originated in Veracruz city, the capital of Veracruz state and ended in Toluca in Mexico state. There the two men and the aircraft were met by Policia Federal (PF) agents, who subsequently detained them and seized the cash.
Morales Robles reportedly had on his person a letter from Veracruz state offices stating the money is "transportation money", and was being flown to pay 3 Industries for services to be rendered in three upcoming festivals in Veracruz City.
In an explanation provided Monday evening, Veracruz state government spokesman Gina Dominguez told an internet radio station that the cash had been gathered as a counter to the pre-holiday rush. The explanation has been met on Twitter with good deal of skepticism as various individuals have protested that the exchange looks like money laundering.
In Mexico it is not illegal for government officials to have large sums of cash on their person.
Charges were levelled by rival politicians in Veracruz state that the money had been taken to Mexico state to be used in the political campaign of PRI frontrunner Enrique Pena Nieto, which is illegal.
A similar charge that state money was being diverted to PRI electoral activities, was also laid against former PRI leader Humberto Moreira Valdes last fall as Moreira fought calls both from inside his own party and from rivals that he step down as PRI president until he provided an explanation to the massive run up of public debt in his state of Coahuila while he was governor.
Bowing to pressure, Moreira stepped down as PRI president last December 2nd.
To date the money seized last Monday remains in the possession of the PGR, which the agency refuses to release without an explanation of where the money originated.
In a press release PRI president, Pedro Joaquin Coldwell -- Moreira's replacement -- asked the two other major parties, PAN and Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD), not to politicize the standoff between the government of Duarte de Ochoa and the PAN-staffed PGR.
Citing two other cases Pedro JoaquÃn Coldwell claimed were politically motivated, drug charges against former Jalisco state governor Arturo Zamora and against former Guerrero state governor Manuel Anorve, he said in his statement that charges that the money was being diverted from Veracruz state coffers to the election campaign of Pena Nieto were "willful and reckless" and "absolutely false."
Madero Munoz -- who is credited with forcing the resignation of Moreira, who left his state of Coahuila as governor with record breaking public debt -- is apparently taking a lesson from the saga of Moreira. With the new filing he is attempting to place the financial antics -- to call them what they are -- of PRI politicians and officials front and center in the debate over who should lead Mexico for the next six years.
At the moment, Madero Munoz is raising a ruckus over financial matters of PRI governors, which in Mexico is apparently a fat and easy target since PRI owns more than half of Mexico's statehouses. Last summer a report showing the large number of states with record breaking debt, including Coahuila, was used against Moreira and will likely be used in some way against PRI frontrunner Pena Nieto, who left his office as governor of Mexico state in 2011 when his term ended.
The Mexican electoral process is still in the candidate selection phase.
[Iran Press TV] An Iranian politician says the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors should be banned from re-entering the country, if they once again publish unreal reports on Tehran's peaceful nuclear program.
Mostafa Kavakebian on Tuesday called on Iran's security officials to exercise vigilance over the IAEA inspectors' conduct in order to prevent them from collecting and leaking confidential information on the country's nuclear facilities.
Kavakebian, a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, also stressed that if the UN atomic agency's team would publish "unrealistic report" on Iran's nuclear activities and "mislead the global community" after leaving Iran, they must be denied entry into the country.
A high-ranking delegation of the IAEA, headed by the agency's Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts and its number two Rafael Grossi, arrived in Tehran on Sunday upon an invitation by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).
The visit was aimed at holding talks within the framework of the IAEA article of association to bolster cooperation between the two sides. The UN atomic agency's team had no plan to inspect Iran's nuclear facilities.
Referring to the negotiations between the agency's inspectors and Iranian nuclear officials, Kavakebian described the talks as "ineffective" if they were not bilateral.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Right, 'cuz everybody knows they are just American stooges.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/01/2012 5:45
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Pointless. Iran is letting the IAEA in because existing sanctions hurt and because Iran fears that Russia and China can delay the UN for only so long. If Iran kicks the IAEA inspectors out then the sanctions continue and will likely get worse.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
02/01/2012 10:39
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Yeah, because that line of bull worked so well for Saddam.
[Pak Daily Times] Sunni Tehrik ...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities... (ST) has announced to stage a sit-in in front of Sindh Chief Minister's House on Wednesday (today) against non-arrest of murderers of its activist. Addressing a news conference here on Tuesday, ST leader Shakeel Qadri said Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wasan had assured that he would meet ST leaders at Markaz-e-Ahle-Sunnat but he did not come. He said the assassinations was still going on, however, the government seemed non serious to maintain peace. He said the workers of ST would stage a sit-in outside CM House.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[An Nahar] Moscow will not tell Bashir al-Assad to stand down, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, stressing that while the Syrian president was not an ally it was not up to other nations to interfere.
After 10 months of internal conflict in Syria that the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... says has killed more than 5,400 people, Russia is under growing pressure to take a firmer line on Assad and his regime.
Russia, a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member, has exasperated the West by insisting it will not back a resolution calling on Assad to go.
"I don't think Russian policy is about asking people to step down. Regime change is not our profession." Lavrov said in Australia on Tuesday.
"It is up to the Syrians themselves to decide how to run the country, how to introduce the reforms, what kind of reforms, without any outside interference," he told the national broadcaster ABC.
"We're not a friend, we're not an ally of president Assad. We never said that president Assad remaining in power is the solution to the crisis."
A draft U.N. resolution on Syria seen by Agence La Belle France Presse calls for the regime to put an immediate stop to violence against protesters and for Assad to hand power to his deputy.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Iran Press TV] Recent reports indicate that the US is on track for a fourth consecutive year with a budget deficit topping one trillion dollars.
According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the US will be short USD 1.1 trillion in its 2012 budget, ending September 30. The CBO has revised its 973-billion dollar estimate for fiscal 2012. The budget analysis predicts the country's spending to remain unchanged, while expecting revenues to grow by 9.6 percent.
Over the past two fiscal years, the US posted a 1.3 trillion dollar deficit after posting a record 1.4 trillion dollar deficit in fiscal 2009. Under the current policies, the CBO predicts the national debt to jump to USD 15.3 trillion over the next ten years. The country's official unemployment rate is also expected to rise in 2013.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase... the nation's gross domestic forecast (GDP) has also been revised down to two percent.
Since the 2008 economic crisis, the US budget deficit has topped the one-trillion-dollar mark.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
[Pak Daily Times] Police have no clue yet to the killers of the incident in which MPA Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Mir Bakhtiar Khan Domki's wife, daughter and driver were rubbed out by gunnies in the wee hours of Tuesday near the Gizri flyover. Police high ups, including District South DIG Commandant Shaukat Ali Shah, SP Tariq Dharejo and other officials told media that nothing could be said about the incident as the investigation was underway. They said that culprits used kalashnikovs in the shooting. DSP Nayyarul Haq said that the family of the victims was not cooperating with the police in the probe. Domki has said that they were also receiving threats but he did not mention, who were receiving threats. The police did not have any exact information about the girl who remained safe in the tragedy as what the witnesses said that the culprits got a minor girl out of the car, who was supposed to be a housemaid, before opening the fire. Police have registered an FIR (27/12) under section 7 ATA and 302/34 against faceless myrmidons on the complaint of state.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Pak Daily Times] Four people, including a retired army doctor, were rubbed out in murders in different parts of the city on Tuesday. Dr Ashfaq Ahmed Qazi was rubbed out near Malir railway crossing within the precinct of Saudabad cop shoppe. According to police, he was going to his clinic when two gunnies opened fire on him near the Malir crossing, killing him on the spot. Police shifted the body to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities. DSP Imdad Solangi said the victim was a resident of Askari Phase IV, adding that the police received two empty shells of bullets from the scene of the crime. Later, the police handed over the body to the heirs. SSP (Investigation) Niaz Khoso claimed that it was an incident of sectarian killing and the victim belonged to the Deobandi school of thought. Separately, Naeem Abbas, 25 was standing in Mughal Hazara Goth when unidentified gunnies opened fire on him, injuring him seriously. Gulistan Jauhar police shifted him to nearest private hospital where he departed this vale of tears. Police said that the victim hailed from Gilgit-Biltistan and had come to Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... only two month ago, adding that they believed personal enmity was the motive behind the incident. The victim belonged to the Shia community. In another incident, a man was rubbed out in Bawani Challie within the limits of Site A cop shoppe. The victim, 42-year-old Omar Rehman, was standing in front of his house when unidentified gunnies sprayed him with bullets, killing him on the spot. In another incident, Muhammad Ahmed was rubbed out in the limits of Garden cop shoppe. The incident took place at Ramswami near BP Factory where unidentified gunnies shot Ahmed dead. It is pertinent to mention that around 49 people have been killed in incidents of murder in the first month of 2012.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
SANAA: US airstrikes targeting leaders from Yemen's active Al-Qaeda branch killed 15 suspected terrorists militants, Yemeni officials said on Tuesday. Yemeni security and military officials said missiles struck a gun festooned safehouse school and a car crammed with ammo in Abyan province in an area between Lauder and Mood where the terrorists militants were believed to be hiding.
A Western official in Washington confirmed the US carried out a strike against suspected terrorists leaders from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but said initial indications were that five terrorists people were killed. The official did not say where the strike occurred or specify whether it was carried out by a drone or a warplane.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
BEIJING: China's embassy in Sudan said all 29 Chinese workers kidnapped by rebels in the border state of South Kordofan remained in rebel hands, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday, despite a Sudanese report that 14 of them had been freed.
The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) said on Sunday it took the 29 workers for their safety after a battle with the Sudanese army. The army has been fighting the SPLM-N in South Kordofan bordering newly independent South Sudan since June. But there was uncertainty about how many of the workers remained with the rebels.
Sudan's state SUNA news agency said the Sudanese military had freed 14 of the workers. But on Monday, China's Xinhua news agency and government ministries continued to say 29 workers were abducted, and did not confirm the reported releases.
The Chinese embassy in Khartoum said 17 Chinese workers were "moved to a safe place by the Sudan army," but also that the "29 Chinese workers were still held by rebels," Xinhua reported.
"The abducted Chinese personnel have had all communications links with the outside world cut," an unidentified Chinese embassy official said, according to an earlier Xinhua report.
The fate of the workers has become a major news story in China where the country's expanding presence abroad and awareness of its rising status have brought public sensitivity about nationals killed or taken hostage.
The people leading the government, the flip side of China's growing nationalist fervour. Have fun riding that tiger, guys.
"The unstable political situation is the root reason for attack, and the possibility cannot be excluded that the rebels are targeting Chinese as a bargaining chip with the government," Li Xinfeng, a researcher on African affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the China Daily newspaper.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The fate of the workers has become a major news story in China where the country's expanding presence abroad and awareness of its rising status have brought public sensitivity about nationals killed or taken hostage.
Funny, they never seem to care when it happens in Pakistan.
[Pak Daily Times] The Sindh government has decided to impose a ban on pillion-riding in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , effective from today (Wednesday) till 12th Rabi-ul-Awwal amid new wave of murders in the metropolis. The announcement was made by Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wasan, who was accompanied by the IG Sindh Mushtaq Shah, in a cycle of violence and four-wheeler distribution ceremony for Madadgar held here at the Garden Police Headquarter on Tuesday. Wasan said that the ban on riding double was being imposed in view of the security condition during Rabi-ul-Awwal. The home minister also announced formation of a joint investigation team to probe the murder of MPA Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Mir Bakhtiar Domki's wife, daughter and a driver who killed in the early hours of Tuesday in Clifton area.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Just from the title, I thought it was to prevent women from riding horses astride.....
Posted by: Albert Omerese4211 ||
02/01/2012 12:14
Comments ||
Top||
[Bangla Daily Star] The International Crimes Tribunal yesterday accepted charges against Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman regarding his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. The ICT fixed February 29 for hearings on charge framing.
The prosecution on January 15 pressed charges against the Jamaat assistant secretary general on nine counts of crimes against humanity, including conspiracy of genocide.
Kamaruzzaman operated in Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Tangail and Sherpur areas during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, according to the charges.
The three-judge tribunal headed by Justice Md Nizamul Huq yesterday directed prosecution to submit copies of the formal charges against Kamaruzzaman and other relevant documents to the tribunal's registrar by February 6.
It also asked defence to collect copies of the charges from the registrar's office on February 7 so that it could prepare for the legal battle.
The court said it had taken the charges against the Jamaat leader into cognisance after examining the formal charges, probe reports and documents submitted by the prosecution and seeing enough preliminary evidence for a trial.
On December 28 last year, the tribunal sent the formal charge against Kamaruzzaman back to prosecution as the charges were not classified and organised properly.
After the court passed the order yesterday, Prosecutor AKM Saiful Islam told news hounds that Kamaruzzaman, chief organiser of Al Badr Bahini (collaborators' force), was in charge of executing the plan of the Pak armed forces' operation Search Light on the night of March 25, 1971.
Kamaruzzaman personally took part in operations at many places during the Liberation War, he said.
Defence counsel Tajul Islam told news hounds the case had been filed against Kamaruzzaman in order to harass him. He was not, said the lawyer, involved in any crimes against humanity committed during 1971.
Kamaruzzaman is among six Jamaat leaders, including its former chief Ghulam Azam and two BNP leaders, facing war crimes charges before the court. All of them have been locked away and one of them is on bail.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
#1
1971??
Does this mean they will get around to that thug in Sudan, Bashir in around 2052?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/01/2012 11:04
Comments ||
Top||
[Pak Daily Times] Egypt's military leader has sacked the general responsible for media affairs to bolster an image tarnished by killings of protesters and accusations that the men in uniform are undermining Egypt's democratic revolution.
The change is the first in the military council since the generals took power from President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... during a popular uprising last February. Although it defused a violent confrontation by ushering Mubarak out, the military has also tried to crush subsequent protests by force, killing dozens. It has only grudgingly agreed to hand over to a civilian president by June, and tried to protect its privileges and avoid civilian oversight.
Major General Ismail Etman, 60, was "exempted from service and replaced by Major General Ahmed Abu El-Dahab, the director of the artillery division," a defence ministry source said. The decision was announced later by state media. Since the 1973 war against Israel, Egypt's army was seen as a respected institution set above the fray. But its direct involvement in politics has exposed it to closer scrutiny.
The generals are not trusted by many young pro-democracy campaigners, who suspect they want to curtail civilian power by exploiting the fragile security situation. Dozens died when the army tried to suppress protests on the streets of Cairo in November and December and video of soldiers mistreating injured demonstrators sparked widespread anger. The army said troops were also killed. It has blamed the violence on "invisible hands" determined to sow chaos among Egyptians and undermine the achievements of the uprising against Mubarak.
A source close to the military council said it was concerned about its deteriorating public image. "The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces concluded that the army's image in the media has suffered over the past year under Etman's leadership," said the source.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Pak Daily Times] The US must disclose details of the legal and factual basis for the lethal use of drones in Pakistain, Amnesia Amnesty International (AI) said on Tuesday, after US President Barack Obama They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... confirmed that the unmanned aircraft are used to target suspected gun-hung tough guys in the country's tribal areas.
President B.O. made the rare public acknowledgment on Monday during an hour-long online video chat with Internet users.
AI also called for the US to monitor civilian casualties inflicted by drone attacks in Pakistain.
"The US authorities must give a detailed explanation of how these strikes are lawful and what is being done to monitor civilian casualties and ensure proper accountability," said AI's Asia-Pacific Director Sam Zarifi. "What are the rules of engagement?" he asked.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Main news was that Obama admitted to drone strikes in Pakland.
#2
Its better than piloted planes... That's a good reason. 70 some crashed drones beats 70 some crashed F-15s any day. The others are just jealous they don't have a space net and GPS sats to support drones.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
02/01/2012 2:29
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Basis: "We've a powerful dislike for them taliban critters."
#4
Turn the question around; what US laws are being violated?
Charter of the United Nations, Chapter VII: ACTION WITH RESPECT TO THREATS TO THE PEACE, BREACHES OF THE PEACE, AND ACTS OF AGGRESSION. See article 51.
Idiots.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
02/01/2012 14:31
Comments ||
Top||
[Pak Daily Times] At least 35 bad boyz were potted in a gun-battle after a newly-established security checkpost was attacked in Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... , also leaving eight soldiers killed and scores of others injured, a military statement said on Tuesday.
Over 100 Islamic fascistiattacked the post in Jogi heights of Kurram Agency, damaging the post badly, sources told Daily Times, wishing not to be named. The attack took place in the morning.
They said, "The gun-battle continued for hours." However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... the sources gave little information about the number of soldiers manning the post and that how the Islamic fascisticould take bodies of their killed comrades with them.
"Security forces foiled myrmidons' attempt to dislodge a newly-established checkpost at Jogi heights in Mamozai. The post was established to sever a frequently used route from Tirah Valley into Kurram Agency and North Wazoo by the myrmidons," the military statement said.
In exchange of fire 35 bad boyz were potted, it claimed and also acknowledged loss of eight soldiers and injury to 15 others in the attack.
Mamozai area of Kurram region is seen as stronghold of Taliban, who in recent times have inflicted heavy casualties on the government forces, kidnapping and killing scores of mainly paramilitary soldiers.
The military launched an offensive in Kurram in July 2011 and declared victory about a month later, but violence has continued.
A similar process has taken place throughout Pakistain's semiautonomous tribal region along the Afghan border. The military has launched a series of operations against the Pak Taliban in the past few years, and has often declared victory only to see fighting flare up again. The Pak Taliban have killed thousands of people throughout the country in suicide kabooms and other attacks. The group aims to topple the Pak government, partly because of its alliance with the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
WoT related due to Fast and Furious. Followup on the story posted last evening by R'burg reader Barbara.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) threatened Tuesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress if the Justice Department did not provide certain documents in response to the committee's subpoena.
In a letter to Holder, Issa wrote that "this committee will have no alternative but to move forward with proceedings to hold you in contempt of Congress" if Holder and the DOJ didn't produce documents they demanded relating to the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal.
Issa accused the Justice Department of trying to "obstruct our investigation and deceive the public" by withholding documents. "Your actions lead us to conclude that the department is actively engaged in a cover-up," he said in a four-page letter.
The California Republican pointed to a document that the DOJ released last Friday, which indicated that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer had promoted gun-walking to Mexico on the same day that Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote to Congress denying that the DOJ had allowed guns to walk.
"It is inconceivable that the Department just became aware of this highly damaging document," writes Issa, pointing out that the Oversight Committee had originally issued a subpoena on Oct. 12, 2011.
Issa outlines certain documents which the DOJ has which has not been provided to the Oversight Committee, and demands their release to the committee by Feb. 9 at 5 p.m.
"The department has worked with the committee over the last year providing numerous witnesses for interviews, officials for testimony at hearings and thousands of pages of documents and we will continue to do so," a DOJ official told POLITICO in response to the letter.
Holder is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, his sixth appearance before Congress regarding Fast and Furious in the past year.
The Democrats on the Oversight Committee have begun laying the groundwork for their strategy, and released a document Monday highlighting the fact that gun-walking had been used as far back as 2006, and was used in three previous investigations before Fast and Furious.
That doesn't change the problem Holder has with his selective memory. And it's irrelevant as F & F was done differently, and done (perhaps) with the intent of creating a backlash in the U.S., so as to push more gun control.
Under the Fast and Furious program, weapons were allowed to be illegally purchased in hopes of tracking gun traffickers and drug cartel leaders. But the ATF, which operates within the DoJ, lost track of these firearms, and many were allowed to cross into Mexico.
Firearms linked to the operation were later found to have been involved in the December 2010 shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, bringing the operation to public attention.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
note that in the previous ops, the Mexican Gov't was a partner and the guns were tracked. F&F was done without informing Mexico and the guns weren't tracked. Kind of a big difference to all but the lying Dems (like their chief whore Elijah Cummings)
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2012 8:16
Comments ||
Top||
#2
This will be the first time in front of Issa's committee. The others have been before the Judiciary Committee.
Conflicting opinions that calling Holder only is a mistake. Some think that Burke, Cunningham, Hurley and Morrissey should be in attendance.
[An Nahar] Supporters of Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... Tuesday called on people to attend a "counter-revolutionary" rally in Moscow
Remember the olden days, when Russians thought counter-revolutionaries were evil incarnate?
on the same day as Russia's opposition holds its third mass protest in the Russian capital.
Organizers called on "anti-Orangist forces" to mount a show of strength against Saturday's opposition rally, in a reference to Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution that ousted its old order from power and infuriated the Kremlin.
Their website anti-orange.ru. features little information beyond a YouTube clip that warns against a "bloodbath" triggered by opposition rallies.
"The United States has long used the 'Orange overthrow' scheme, paying discontented protestors money," the clip says, featuring footage from war-torn Libya and the Orange Revolution uprising.
One of the organizers of the pro-Putin rally, veterans group Heroes' Fund, expects up to 80,000 people to turn out, according to its chairman Vyacheslav Sivko.
The opposition hopes to attract similar numbers to its rally on the same day.
"We are against civil war, we are for stability," he said.
"What is happening now does not benefit the people, it's only a struggle for power," he said of two massive demonstrations in Moscow in December against Putin's monopoly on power ahead of his candidacy for a third term in the Kremlin.
The rally's symbol -- a man's fist strangling an orange snake -- was immediately recognized by bloggers as a copy of Stalin-era propaganda posters that called on Soviet citizens to report supposed spies in the 1930s.
Russian media reported earlier this week that newspapers in the Moscow region received instructions from the regional government on how to report on pro-Putin rallies, namely to show "happy faces, mothers with children" and avoid any mention of Putin's party United Russia.
Despite the attempt to distance the rally from United Russia or Putin himself, some of the groups listed as organizers have a connection to the authorities.
"Our superiors advised that we send people to this rally -- that would be 100 to 200 people," said Mikhail Kolchev, head of the Moscow branch of the Congress of Russian Societies, one of the listed organizers.
The Congress of Russian Societies is chaired by a parliament member in United Russia. It is a former party of current deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Turkish police placed in long-term storage an Iranian passenger on a domestic flight after he attacked cabin crew because he was angered by a six-hour delay, the Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday.
The passenger, identified only as S.R.I., was scheduled to fly from Istanbul to Antalya in southern Turkey on Monday evening on an Onur Air plane, but heavy snowfall in Istanbul caused long delays.
Turkish authorities cancelled almost 200 flights Monday in Istanbul.
Angered by a three-hour delay before boarding and another three-hour wait inside the plane, the Iranian passenger broke one of the plane's window protectors and attacked cabin crew, Anatolia reported.
He also stole food being served and attempted to force his way into the cockpit, leading the pilot to call police and an ambulance. Police placed in long-term storage the passenger and the flight was cancelled.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I hear Turkish prisons are lovely at this time of year
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/01/2012 9:58
Comments ||
Top||
#2
So, Angered by a delay (that probably annoyed the crew as well), he angered all the passengers by cancelling their plane and delaying them ,some for probably over a day.
[An Nahar] Syrian security forces on Tuesday killed at least 27 civilians, including two children, and five army deserters across the country, according to activists, as the rebel army said the embattled regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... no longer controls half of the country's territory.
Fourteen people were killed in the flashpoint northwestern province of Idlib, eleven in the central protest hub of Homs, four in the capital Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... and its suburbs, and three in the southern province of Daraa, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.
For its part, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least eight people were killed, three at the hands of regime forces in the central town of Rastan, in Homs, and five others across Idlib in the northwest.
"Three people were killed when the Syrian army unleashed mortar rounds on the city of Rastan, where the regular armed forces incurred heavy losses in terms of lives and equipment in the past two days," the Observatory said.
In Idlib, three young men were reportedly killed in an ambush by a militia loyal to Assad's regime, a citizen was rubbed out in the crossfire between soldiers and deserters, and a fifth was killed after passing a checkpoint.
The Observatory also reported an unconfirmed number of casualties in the outskirts of Damascus, where "corpses" could be seen on the streets of Irbin, which was rocked by "heavy machine gunfire."
"The regime is using disproportionate force in several regions of Syria and the firepower being deployed is the most intense since the start of the Syrian revolution," said the Observatory's chairman Rami Abdul Rahman.
Demonstrations were also held on Tuesday in southern Daraa province as thousands attended the funeral of a slain protester, activists said.
And regime forces began blowing up houses in the protest hub of Rankous, north of Damascus, said an activist, who urged the world to help civilians besieged in the town for a week.
"This morning they started to blow up houses in Rankous. They are using diesel to set fire to buildings," said Abu Omar, an activist front man for the town of 25,000 people.
"The main road to Rankous is completely cut off, as well as communications, water and electricity, and there is no milk for babies. Help them. Send them food. They are dying."
Rights groups said troops penetrated Rankous after having shelled the town.
The opposition Syrian National Council has warned of a possible massacre in Rankous after hundreds of young men were rounded up by security forces.
"They have imposed a siege on Rankous, preventing food and medical aid from entering" the town, it said in a statement.
On Monday violence claimed some 103 lives according to the LCC and the Observatory, marking one of the bloodiest days of the revolt against Assad's regime since it erupted in March.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth had turned a paler shade of blue. Star-A-Star had struck again... Colonel Riad al-Asaad, head of the rebel Free Syrian Army, said "fifty percent of Syrian territory is no longer under the control of the regime."
He added, however, that this did not mean rebel troops were in control of this territory.
In an interview with AFP, Asaad, who is based in Turkey, said the FSA, emboldened by its growing ranks, was increasingly conducting guerrilla operations against regular army positions before withdrawing to safe positions.
"The operations carried out by the FSA amount to guerrilla operations that consist of carrying out quick attacks against regime forces and then making a tactical withdrawal to safe areas," Asaad said.
He said the FSA, made up of army defectors and sympathizers, was now launching daily strikes against regime checkpoints and was managing to destroy military vehicles before retreating.
Asaad said the army for its part had launched a fierce assault in the last week in a bid to reclaim control of suburbs near the capital Damascus, as well as the central flashpoint city of Homs and the northwestern town of Idlib.
"The army believes ... that if it manages to crush the revolt in those areas then this will put an end to the revolt nationwide," Asaad said, adding that his troops were more determined than ever to continue the fight.
"The people and the FSA will continue to resist, the revolt will continue and the regime will collapse," he said.
He added that the morale of army troops was extremely low.
"That's why they are bombing indiscriminately, killing men, women and kiddies," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Half of Syria? That's a lot of people to draw recruits from.
[Iran Press TV] At least 23 people have been killed and twelve others maimed in two separate attacks in central and southern Somalia, Press TV reports.
Eighteen people, including seven civilians, were killed on Tuesday in festivities between al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... Islamic fascistiand Somali Transitional Federal Government troops in the southern district of Medina in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
"The rebels [al-Shaboobs] attacked our forces using speedboat and armed vehicles. We killed six al-Shabaab rebels in the fighting," Somali government official Ahmed Hassan said.
Al-Shabaab officials confirmed the festivities and said their fighters killed more than five government troops and are now in control of the town.
In another incident on Tuesday, at least five people bit the dust in a kaboom in the Galmudug region of central Somalia.
The attack targeted the house of Somali Minister for Water and Mineral Resources Abdi Hassan Awale, who is known as Qeybdid, in the south of Galkacyo town, located about 700 kilometers northwest of Mogadishu.
Residents said two of Awale's guards were among the dead but Awale was not injured.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but al-Shabaab Islamic fascistifrequently carry out kabooms targeting Somali government officials and security forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[An Nahar] Kuwait's Islamist-led opposition appears headed for a key victory in this week's general election, described as crucial for the future of the oil-rich Gulf state.
The outcome of Thursday's ballot, the fourth in just under six years, is not expected to end political turmoil that has paralyzed development in OPEC's third largest oil producer, however.
"All indications show the opposition dominating the next parliament and immediately pressing for constitutional reforms," said Saad bin Taflah, a prominent political analyst.
"But I am not optimistic the elections will lead to political stability unless fundamental democratic reforms are undertaken," bin Taflah, a former information minister, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The opposition is a loose formation of Islamists, liberals, nationalists and independents who can be united on reforms and development plans but differ on other issues.
"Thursday's polls will not lead to stability because enemies of democracy will not remain silent after their defeat," another analyst, Anwar al-Rashid, said.
"Their plan is to convince people that democracy is harmful and it is the parliament that is blocking development projects," said the secretary general of the Gulf Civil Society Forum.
The opposition groups held around 20 seats in the 50-member parliament which the emir dissolved in December following a bitter political crisis and youth-led street protests inspired by the Arab Spring.
"Based on our studies and polls, I believe the opposition will win between at least 26 and 33 seats," said Talal al-Kashti, general manager of Ittejahat Studies and Research Centre, an independent think-tank.
"(Sunni) Islamists are expected to double their strength to between 15 and 19 seats," up from nine in the dissolved chamber, Kashti told AFP.
About 50 opposition candidates are among 286 hopefuls, including 23 women, competing for seats. Kuwait has more than 400,000 eligible voters, 54 percent of them women.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
[Pak Daily Times] Taliban said on Tuesday they were ready to "negotiate" with the US but not with Washington-backed Afghan government of Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... as it "is illegal and powerless."
Reliable sources told Beautiful Downtown Peshawar-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency that Taliban's central shura took the decision in a meeting held to deliberate the issue of negotiation.
The AIP, however, did not say when and where the shura met.
"Even negotiations with the US would be restricted to swapping the prisoners held by each side and no other issue or proposal from the US," it said quoting unnamed sources as stressing.
Also, Taliban resistance against the "foreign occupying forces" in Afghanistan would "not be suspended for the duration of talks", the sources told the AIP.
The AIP quoted another Taliban source as saying that there were "no differences of opinion in the Taliban ranks" about the stand taken by their central shura on the issue of negotiations.
A military commander of Taliban, when contacted by the AIP, said, "There is no possibility of sitting on negotiating table with the Karzai-led government. If Taliban Islamic movement holds talks, with the incumbent Afghan government, our movement would split into two factions."
"One small group would hold talks with the Hamid Karzai-led government and the other faction would continue jihad," he maintained.
When asked if Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... is still leading Taliban, the commander said, "Mullah Omar has more authority and control over the prevailing situation than before. He frequently takes decisions on making changes."
Information received by the AIP about the US-Taliban negotiations in Qatar "suggests that no worthy development has so far been made in the negotiations".
The sources said that the process of negotiations was "so weak that an office for Taliban has not yet been opened" in Qatar. They added the Taliban representatives, who are currently in Qatar, could not travel freely in Doha.
The AIP sources clarified that the actual agenda of negotiations was prisoners' swap, adding that no progress was made in this regard so far.
The Taliban shura's decision of not holding talks with the Afghan government comes at a time when Hamid Karzai government has differences with the US over the negotiations in Qatar. "The Afghan government is unhappy for not being included in the talks. Secondly, the government of Afghanistan wants the talks to be Afghan-owned," the AIP said.
The deputy chairman of the High Peace Council, Abdul Hakim Mujahid, a renowned Taliban member and once their representative in New York, believed the ongoing US-Taliban talks in Qatar "are aimed at building trust between the two warring sides".
He hoped that after some time, the High Peace Council would join the talks between the Taliban and the US. Mujahid was of the view that the talks were incomplete and unsuccessful without their participation.
"Taliban are still firm on complete and unconditional withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and not to allow permanent military bases to United States," sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
[Pak Daily Times] KARACHI: The Excise Police claimed to have seized a huge quantity of hashish from a container here on Tuesday. The Excise & Taxation Officer, Malir Zone Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , Karam Ullah Kalwar informed that a team of Excise Police Malir chased a truck on a tip-off at Khator Morr, Super Highway. The driver managed to flee from the scene, abandoning his vehicle, which contained 1,600 kilogrammes of fine quality hashish, he added. Kalwar said unknown culprits were trying to smuggle the narcotics from Beautiful Downtown Peshawar into Bloody Karachi for a likely smuggle through Bloody Karachi seaport.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
So was the hashish possession illegal only because the smugglers didn't pay excise taxes on the hashish?
Why else would the excise & taxation police be the ones with authority over this case??
Posted by: American Delight ||
02/01/2012 9:19
Comments ||
Top||
[Iran Press TV] Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov says a Western-backed UN Security Council resolution on Syria will pave the way for a "civil war" in the Arab country.
Gatilov told Russian media on Tuesday that a draft resolution on Syria "will not help in the search for a compromise" if it is approved.
"Pushing it through is the path towards civil war," Gatilov added.
On January 27, the UN Security Council met to consider the draft, which was presented to the UN body by Morocco and supports an Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... plan that calls on Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... to resign and hand over power to a deputy to form a national unity government "with the opposition within two months."
The United States, the United Kingdom and La Belle France have supported the new Arab League plan.
Gatilov had earlier said Moscow would "not support any measure which orders Assad to leave office."
Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi said in a statement issued on January 28 that the organization had decided to "immediately stop the work of the vaporous Arab League's mission to Syria" due to "the critical deterioration of the situation" in the country.
The observer mission had been in Syria since December 26, 2011 and was tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Arab League resolution to end the unrest in the country.
The Syrian government said on Saturday Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... "regrets the decision taken by Arabi to suspend the observer mission" and that the decision called for "foreign intervention" and encouraged "gangs to increase violence."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] A draft U.N. resolution on Syria seen by Agence La Belle France Presse Tuesday calls for the regime to put an immediate stop to violence against protesters and for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... to hand power to his deputy.
The text also stresses there will be no foreign military intervention in a conflict that the United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... says has killed more than 5,400 people in the past 10 months.
It demands that "the Syrian government immediately puts an end to all human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... violations and attacks against those exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association".
It calls on Assad to delegate his "full authority to his deputy" and then to form a national unity government leading to "transparent and free elections under Arab and international supervision".
The text insists it does not compel states "to resort to the use of force, or the threat of force", which a diplomat said was a statement aimed at answering the concerns of Russia and China.
Russia, a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member, has exasperated the West by insisting it will not back a resolution calling on Assad to step down.
China and Russia used their veto powers as permanent members of the council to block a previous resolution on Syria.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as For a good time at 3 a.m. call Hillary and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Elihu Root ... , the head of the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... and the foreign ministers of Britannia and La Belle France were gathering in New York on Tuesday to push forward the U.N. resolution and persuade Russia to drop its opposition.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Iran Press TV] At least two Afghan soldiers have been killed and six others maimed in a roadside kaboomkaboom in western Afghanistan, Press TV reports.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the blast happened against a military convoy in Bakwa district of Farah province.
Elsewhere in Kandahar and Ghazni provinces, at least three more Afghan soldiers were maimed in attacks on Tuesday.
No group has grabbed credit for the incidents, but the Talibs usually carry out the roadside kaboomkabooms.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 -- The U.S. intelligence chief warned Tuesday that North Korea will continue its exports of weapons of massive destruction despite its leadership change.
"North Korea's export of ballistic missiles and associated materials to several countries, including Iran and Syria, illustrate the reach of the North's proliferation activities," James Clapper, director of national intelligence, told a congressional hearing. "We don't expect Kim Jong-un, North Korea's new young leader, to change Pyongyang's policy of attempting to export most of its weapons systems."
Clapper's comments marked one of the firmest assessments by Washington of Pyongyang's new leadership.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Nork WMD exports are by ship. Sounds like an opportunity for target practice.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
02/01/2012 10:41
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Nork WMD exports are by ship.
Is it not possible that they export some of these weapons, if not the majority, overland through China? Especially if they give the Chicoms a cut?
#3
From China overland to where? From Chinese ports?
Possible, but it strikes me as a poor calculation.
Nuclear weapons are a threat to China as much as they are to the west.
And what would be the consequence to China if they were caught?
The norks have better military relations with Russia (the Kim's fear the Chinese). More likely that Russian flagged ships would be used than trusting China.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
02/01/2012 12:30
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Is it not possible that they export some of these weapons, if not the majority, overland through China?
More likely it'd be via NorK ship to a Chinese port for 'repackaging' (new manifest, new container, etc.)and then onward to an intermediate or final destination. Doesn't even have to be in a Chinese hull.
The NorKs might have to pay off a 'willing' shipping agent or freight forwarding company, but that is part of the cost of doing business.
[An Nahar] German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called on Tuesday on the U.N. Security Council to act "urgently" on Syria, telling a Cairo news conference a strong text on the crisis was "absolutely important."
"The situation is unacceptable and it even became worse in the last couple of days," Westerwelle said after talks with his Egyptian counterpart Mohammed Amr.
"It's a drama what we are seeing at the moment in Syria. The Security Council of the United Nations ...an international organization whose stated aims of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country... must act," he said ahead of a council session on the crisis to be joined by his British, French and U.S. counterparts.
On Monday alone, almost 100 people, including 55 civilians, were killed during a regime assault on the flashpoint central city of Homs, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The unrest, which also saw 25 soldiers killed, marked one of the bloodiest days of a revolt that erupted in March, inspired by a wave of Arab uprisings that last year overthrew authoritarian leaders in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
"The violence by the (Bashar) al-Assad regime must be condemned by the Security Council -- this is for us absolutely important," Westerwelle said.
"A resolution should be passed urgently and I hope that we can make progress in this direction in today's session and in the next days."
A draft resolution put forward by Morocco on Friday calls on Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... to put an immediate stop to violence against protesters and for Assad to hand power to his deputy.
The text seen by Agence La Belle France Presse on Tuesday also stresses there will be no foreign military intervention in a conflict that the United Nations said earlier this month had already killed more than 5,400 people since last March.
Russia, a veto-wielding Security Council permanent member, has exasperated the West by insisting it will not back any resolution calling on Assad to step down.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Iran Press TV] In a bid to secure its last outpost in South America, the British government is to deploy its most sophisticated warship to the occupied Falkland Islands to give a clear war message to Argentina.
The Ministry of Defense revealed that destroyer HMS Dauntless will sail to the South Atlantic in order to substitute frigate HMS Montrose in the coming weeks. It was claimed that the deployment was long planned but the decision is evidently put in practice when a war of words between Argentina and Britannia over the disputed Falkland islands (known as Las Malvinas to Argentina) has intensified. The islands, located about 250 nautical miles from Argentina, have been a British colony for over 180 years. However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... Argentina also claimed illusory sovereignty as it controlled the islands before, and the two countries fought a destructive 74-day war over the islands in 1982.
As 30th anniversary of the Argentina-Britannia war nears, the dispute over the territory is heating up once again. The British government is attempting to prevent any counter-move taken by Argentina to reclaim its occupied islands.
Jeremy Browne, Foreign Office minister in charge of Latin America, will travel to the islands in June to attend the anniversary of capturing the islands from Argentina. It was formerly announced that the Duke of Cambridge Prince William will also be posted to spend six weeks on the islands as an RAF search-and-rescue pilot next month. Buenos Aires described the move as being "provocative."
The destroyer is a £1billion warship equipped with supersonic Sea Viper missiles, radar and an air defense system, being able of shooting a cricket ball moving at three times the speed of sound out of the sky. Which is about as fast as those little suckers move...
A Navy source said that the warship could "shoot down Argentine fighters as soon as they take off from their bases," insisting the deployment would give the Argentina government "serious pause" for thinking about their claims.
Meanwhile, ...back at the desert island, Bert was realizing to his horror that he'd had only one bottle for one message, and he'd forgotten to include a return address... Foreign Secretary William Hague underplayed the deployment of the warship, claiming they were routine moves, but warning "the Royal Navy packs a considerable punch."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Basically, Argentina's claim is based on uti possidetis juris from a Spanish claim of sovereignty even while a British settlement existed.
Seems pretty sketchy.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
02/01/2012 12:19
Comments ||
Top||
[Pak Daily Times] Security forces on Tuesday blew up the house of two wanted forces of Evil who refused to surrender to the law enforcement agencies despite repeated warnings. Sources say the house of two turban bothers, Haider and Usman, was demolished in the Bara Bandai area of Kabal tehsil. Sources also said that father of the wanted turbans, Humayun, was killed during operation Rah-e-Rast in Swat.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: TNSM
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Sherilyn Fenn aka Audrey Horne in "Twin Peaks (TV Series 1990–1991)" aka Curley's Wife in "Of Mice and Men (1992)" aka Laura Lincolnberry in "Fatal Instinct (1993)" aka Sheryl Ann 'Candy Cane' DuJean in "Ruby (1992)" aka Bridget 'Bridey' DeSoto in "Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel (1991)" aka Jain in "Diary of a Hitman (1991)" (age 47)
1990: nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series – "Twin Peaks" That Figures
[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... activist Shafiqul Islam, shot to death during Monday's festivities in Rajshahi, was buried at Hatim Khan graveyard under police protection yesterday, foiling an alleged attempt by the party to bring out a procession with his body.
After an autopsy was performed on Shafiqul at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital around noon, law enforcers handed over the body to the family and the party, said Assistant Commissioner (Boalia Zone) Nurul Islam.
But as Jamaat men tried to hold the procession, police took the body back and carried it to Shafiqul's village home Basua Achintola in Rajshahi.
It was brought to Hatim Khan, five kilometres off the city, after namaz-e-janaza, he added.
Monzur Rahman, younger brother of Shafiqul, denied any attempt to bring out such a procession. He claimed that the Jamaat men just wanted to carry the body on their shoulders and walk to the graveyard.
AC Nurul Islam said police wanted to avoid any untoward incident. They allowed all relatives and party men to attend the funeral.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory the fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight... the autopsy report on Shafiqul Islam has confirmed that a bullet from a small firearm had hit Shafiqul, resulting in heavy bleeding.
Mansur Rahman, chief of a three-member medical board formed to prepare the report, told The Daily Star last evening that the bullet had entered the body at the lower portion of the chest and went out by the back near the neck. The report was handed over to police.
Yesterday, police sued 900 opposition activists in connection with Monday's violence as the BNP-led alliance observed a peaceful hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... in the city.
Hafizur Rahman, a sub-inspector of Boalia Police Station, filed two separate cases against 900 activists of the BNP and its key ally Jamaat-e-Islami with the cop shoppe in the early hours.
The complainant named 16 accused in the cases.
Of the cases, one was filed on charge of disrupting public life by holding a mass procession and obstructing police from discharging their duties and another under the Explosives Act.
The BNP-Jamaat alliance enforced the half-day shutdown for six hours from 6:00am to protest the death of Shafiqul.
No BNP or Jamaat men were seen picketing during the hartal hours while security was tight with deployment of additional law enforcers.
Thirty-year-old Shafiqul was hit by a bullet when police, under attack, opened fire on the violent activists of the Jamaat and Islami Chhatra Shibir ... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh... at Hatim Khan on Monday.
It all began as law enforcers stopped an opposition procession. In the ensuing fighting, around eighty others, including 19 cops, were maimed.
Police claimed that they fired rubber bullets and shotgun shells only to scatter the rioters, not targeting anybody. Rather, gun-wielding Jamaat-Shibir activists shot at the law enforcers and went kaboom! cocktails.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
BASRA / Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces arrested today 20 wanted persons, including 9 on charges of terrorism, police sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that security operation were conducted in several parts of the province that led to arresting 11 for criminal charges and 9 implicated in terrorist actions.
The police suspected that may have a connection with the killers of an officer and wounding another mid of the city yesterday. The source added that 48 Kalashnikov machine guns were seized and two pistols, in addition to a great quantity of ammunition.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Qatar's prime minister, speaking on behalf of the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... , urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to take action to stop Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... "killing machine."
Opening a top-level Security Council meeting on the Syrian crisis, Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said that the vaporous Arab League had tried to seek a solution with Assad in face of the 10-month uprising.
"Our efforts and initiatives, however, have been all useless because the Syrian government failed to make any sincere effort to cooperate with us and the only solution available to it was to kill its own people," he said.
"Bloodshed continued and the killing machine is still at work," he said.
He called for support of a U.N. draft resolution, sponsored by Arab League member Morocco, under which Assad would step down from power and agree to an end to violence ahead of negotiations on a settlement.
Russia, a close ally of Syria which holds veto power on the Security Council, has voiced opposition to the draft.
Western allies brought out their diplomatic big guns at the Security Council Tuesday to try to overcome the Russian opposition.
The showdown at the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... came as fighting escalated between Syrian government forces and rebels and a senior U.S. official predicted that Assad would be toppled.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Woman to Call at 3 a.m. and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Henry L. Stimson ... was leading the charge for U.N. action in Syria, backed by allies British Foreign Secretary William Hague and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe.
The proposed U.N. resolution, crafted by the Western powers and the Arab League, seeks to stop a Syrian crackdown that the United Nations says has killed more than 5,400 people in the past 10 months. Under the resolution, Assad would be ordered immediately to halt violence and hand power to his deputy.
While there is no threat of use of force in the resolution, Russia says it amounts to regime change.
"I don't think Russian policy is about asking people to step down. Regime change is not our profession," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, arguing that while the Syrian president was not an ally of Moscow, it was not up to other nations to interfere.
The text of the resolution, seen by Agence La Belle France Presse, calls for the formation of a unity government leading to "transparent and free elections," while stressing there will be no foreign military intervention in Syria, as there was in Libya during the toppling of Muammar Qadaffy ...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland... .
Assad's government has already flatly rejected a similarly worded resolution proposed by the Arab League.
Russia's deputy foreign minister, Gennady Gatilov, said on Tuesday that the resolution would be a "path towards civil war" in the increasingly divided country.
But in Washington, U.S. intelligence chief James Clapper said the fall of the Assad was inevitable already.
"I do not see how he can sustain his rule of Syria," Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told senators.
"I personally believe it's a question of time but that's the issue, it could be a long time."
The opposition Syrian National Council deplored the international community's lack of "swift action" to protect civilians "by all necessary means," in a statement on Facebook.
The SNC, the most representative group opposed to Assad, reaffirmed the "people's determination to fight for their freedom and dignity," stressing they "will not give up their revolution, whatever the sacrifices."
The head of the now-defunct Arab League observer mission to Syria, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, said there had been a marked upsurge in violence since last Tuesday.
On Monday alone, almost 100 people, including 55 civilians, were killed during a regime assault on the city of Homs, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On Tuesday, at least 32 people were killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The rebel Free Syrian Army said half of the country was now effectively a no-go zone for the security forces.
"Fifty percent of Syrian territory is no longer under the control of the regime," its Turkey-based commander Colonel Riad al-Asaad told AFP.
He said the morale of government troops was extremely low. "That's why they are bombing indiscriminately, killing men, women and kiddies," he said.
However, the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... Syria's foreign ministry expressed outrage over "the aggressive American and Western statements against Syria (that) are escalating in a scandalous manner," and blamed violence on "armed terrorist groups."
A report from the state news agency SANA said Assad had visited maimed servicemen and praised their "unique will, bravery."
CIA director David Petraeus told senators in Washington that Assad now faced challenges in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... and Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , two cities that had been seen as insulated from the unrest.
"I think it has shown indeed how substantial the opposition to the regime is and how it is in fact growing and how increasing areas are becoming beyond the reach of the regime security forces," Petraeus said.
Amid the escalating violence, U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... called for unity at the Security Council.
The Council must be "united this time, speak and act in a coherent manner, reflecting the wishes of the international community and reflecting the urgent wishes and aspirations of the Syrian people, who have been yearning for freedom," Ban said.
Qatar's prime minister, speaking on behalf of the Arab League, urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to take action to stop Syrian President Bashir al-Assad's "killing machine."
Opening a top-level Security Council meeting on the Syrian crisis, Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said that the Arab League had tried to seek a solution with Assad in face of the 10-month uprising.
"Our efforts and initiatives, however, have been all useless because the Syrian government failed to make any sincere effort to cooperate with us and the only solution available to it was to kill its own people," he said.
"Bloodshed continued and the killing machine is still at work," he said.
He called for support of a U.N. draft resolution, sponsored by Arab League member Morocco, under which Assad would step down from power and agree to an end to violence ahead of negotiations on a settlement.
Russia, a close ally of Syria which holds veto power on the Security Council, has voiced opposition to the draft.
[An Nahar] Hundreds of Egyptian protesters demanding the end of military rule were prevented on Tuesday from reaching parliament by backers of the Moslem Brüderbund, which holds the majority in the assembly.
"We are standing here as a human shield, because if the protesters go any further, they will clash with the police. They want to enter parliament, what do you expect me to do?" Moslem Brüderbund member Hamdy Abdul Samad told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Behind him, anti-military protesters chanted against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that took power when Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... was ousted by a popular uprising last year.
Activists had called for a march from Cairo's Tahrir Square -- the symbolic heart of the Egyptian uprising -- to parliament to press the newly-elected MPs to implement the goals of the revolution.
They want the ouster of the military junta, an end to the military trials of civilians, the restructuring of the interior ministry and a guarantee of freedoms and social justice.
Islamist and secular protesters stood side by side in Tahrir Square during the 18 days of protests that toppled Mubarak in early 2011.
But tensions have risen between them since parliamentary elections propelled the long-banned Moslem Brüderbund to the center stage of politics, with its Freedom and Justice Party now controlling 47 percent of the assembly.
Secular protesters accuse the Islamists of colluding with the ruling military to maintain their new-found power.
"Badie, you are selling the revolution!" the anti-military protesters chanted, in reference to Mohammed Badie, the Islamist movement's supreme guide.
"The Moslem Brüderbund youth are blocking all roads to the parliament, preventing the anti-military protesters ... There are huge numbers of them standing in rows like militias," one anti-military protester told AFP.
Riot police was also deployed near the parliament building were MPs were holding a session.
After several hours, protesters decided to abandon their plans to reach parliament and headed to the state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
building in the Maspero district, another focal point of the protests.
Since January 25, pro-democracy groups have organized a series of rallies and protests to mark one year since the uprising that toppled Mubarak and left the military in power.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, led by Mubarak's ex-defense minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, has pledged to hand power to civilian rule by June when a new president is to be elected.
The military enjoyed hero status at the start of the uprising last year for refusing to shoot on demonstrators, but became the target of protester wrath over human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you... abuses and the stifling of dissent.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Pak Daily Times] The lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Muhammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, began a Supreme Court appeal against his death sentence on Tuesday by claiming that he had not received a fair trial. A lawyer read out a statement in court from Kasab, one of the 10 gunnies who laid siege to Mumbai in the attacks that lasted nearly three days and killed 166 people. The 24-year-old has appealed for his death penalty to be overturned after he was convicted in 2010 for a series of crimes. "I have been wrongly held guilty because I was denied a fair trial. I was denied a counsel," Kasab, who was not in court on Tuesday, said in a statement read by his appeal lawyer Raju Ramachandran. "The prosecution has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the charges against me... I may be guilty of killing people and carrying out a terrorist act but I am not guilty of waging war against the state."
Of course you are. That's what jihad is: war to replace the native governance with imposed rule by an Islamic state.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
#1
And once again that Guy from Guam laughs at the MSM-Net describing Kasab as a "24-year old" = a young 'un.
WE STILL THINK ANNA NICOLE SMITH IS A REAL BLONDE, DIDN'T WE???
The first part of a long, thoroughly researched and well-written analysis by Wajahat S. Khan for The Friday Times, which weekly gives us the charming "Nuggets From the Urdu Press".
Intro: At Peace with War?
If countries were books, then airports would be their covers. Till the tarmac, Kabul's airport compares in size and dreariness levels with Quetta's. But once inside the terminal, elements of the decade-long war machine begin to glint and grind. The premise of Afghanistan's long conflict and the promise of a lingering peace reveal themselves simultaneously. At war with itself and others, Afghanistan greets its visitors not as an uncomplicated country.
Total and immediate evacuation at the minute the clock strikes 2014 is not an option... '2014 is a goal, not a deadline'
Unclear is whether the Afghans are perfectly comfortable with perpetual bellicosity or seething under occupation. One sees the hoarding for a hotel that promises blast-resistant windows and doors - always a good sign of adaptable hospitality, or hospitable adaptability. Also lurking is the prodigal son, a returned-from-Dubai immigrant lugging two flat-screen TVs, trimmed by his snazzy sunglasses and white imitation-snakeskin shoes. Most of the other passengers on the Safi Air flight are NGO types, but there are a few soldier/spy variants, though in civvies but still sporting their West Point and Annapolis rings. The police guards are randomly placed, shabbily uniformed and ill tempered. The transport C-130 spin-offs on the tarmac have their own coterie of better looking and fear inspiring protectors: armed contractors with blond manes, desert tans tans and angry tattoos that match their weaponry. The immigration officer is not amused by my Pak passport, but he's not interested to investigate much. Outside, kids are exchanging dollars and dinars out of hand-carried display cases. Some US Army, in battle fatigues but not wearing armour, are hanging by a Humvee smoking as they wait for a pick up, probably a buddy from their unit. I'm trying to capture everything, suppressing the panic of my lost luggage that a Safi staffer, in fractured Urdu, has promised will be on the next flight, when I make first contact
Continued on Page 49
[An Nahar] Fearing the loss of its last Arab ally and seeking to reassert its global clout, Russia is defiantly refusing to budge in a high-stakes diplomatic standoff with the West over the crisis in Syria.
Russia, a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member, has exasperated the West by insisting it will not back a new resolution calling on Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... to step down despite the escalation of violence between the regime and the opposition.
Moscow retains close ties with Assad's secular regime that go back to the Soviet alliance with his father Hafez al-Assad, and Syria remains a major buyer of Russian arms as well as hosting a strategic Russian naval base.
The Kremlin watched the Arab Spring uprisings with anxiety as its ally Muammar Qadaffy ...a reminder that a single man with an idea can change an entire nation, usually for the worse... was ousted after the air campaign in Libya and the toppling of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... opened the way for increased Islamist influence.
"Russia and Syria have historic ties going back to the Tsars and the Soviet Union. Today Syria is Russia's sole ally in the Middle East," said Boris Dolgov of the Center of Arab Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"If Russia were to give up Syria like Libya then it would terminally ruin our prestige," he said.
Two decades after the Soviet Union's fall and just months ahead of Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... 's expected return to the Kremlin, Moscow also wants to issue a firm reminder to the West that it is a global power whose position cannot be ignored.
"First, unilateral sanctions are imposed without consulting Russia and then they go to the Security Council seeking our support," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency in an interview.
"Of course, we cannot support such an approach."
The extent of Russia's continued support for Assad was shown in January when a Saint Vincent-flagged cargo ship, the Chariot, docked in Syria after a brief stopover in Cyprus, reportedly carrying a supply of Russian arms.
While never officially confirming this delivery, Russia has openly stated it has every right to ship arms to the Syrian regime in contracts that provide a crucial income source for its weapons industry.
The general director of the Russia's Tactical Missiles Cooperation (TRV) Boris Obnosov told the RIA Novosti news agency on Tuesday that Moscow had delivered two years ago to Syria an order for Kh-31 air-to-surface weapons.
He revealed that TRV's losses from broken contracts due to the change of regime in Libya in 2011 amounted to 600 million euros ($790 million).
Russia in October vetoed an earlier Western-backed draft resolution on Syria along with its diplomatic ally China, which is usually happy to follow Moscow's defiance while being far less talkative in public.
Moscow was incensed that its abstention in March 2011 on the resolution that allowed the air campaign in Libya eventually led to the ousting of Qadaffy and appears determined not to allow the same scenario in Syria.
"We cannot agree with the use of the 'Libyan model' as a basis for solving internal disputes," said Gatilov.
Gatilov made clear that Russia would only support a resolution which condemned the violence "from whichever side", called for "objective dialogue" and ruled out the imposition of both military intervention and sanctions.
Georgy Kunadze, a former deputy foreign minister and now of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, said that Russia's intransigence was allowing bloodletting to continue by preventing the adoption of a tough resolution.
"There are times when a state has to stand and protect its own interests, but I'm not sure that's the case here," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
In a bid to position itself as mediator rather than recalcitrant obstacle, Russia on Monday unexpectedly announced that it had invited representatives of the Syrian regime and the opposition to talks in Moscow.
But the opposition rapidly said it had no interest in the idea until Assad stepped down.
"Talks were a nice but hardly realistic idea. It seems like Russia finally will lose its last ally in the region," said daily Vedomosti.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/01/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#2
I just can't understand why Russia always chooses to be on the side of tyrants and thugs. They have a choice, why do they always choose the side of darkness?
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/01/2012 10:55
Comments ||
Top||
#6
I just can't understand why Russia always chooses to be on the side of tyrants and thugs. They have a choice, why do they always choose the side of darkness?
Because where else are they gonna sell all those second rate tanks and warplanes that they build?
#9
When pencilneck goes down for the count, Russia will have very little emotional bank with the new regime.
Seems kind of short sighted to me.
Russia claims that it is not the job of the international community to pick winners and losers in the domestic politics of sovereign countries. I have some sympathy for that position. But when you have a minority using the murder of civilians to oppose the popular will of the people, I draw the line. Pencilneck has got to go.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
02/01/2012 13:08
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Inciting a violent unrest and using authorities' strong response as an excuse for invasion is one of the oldest tricks in the book, MR. In this case (unlike Libya) the unrest was incited by Soodies, rather than Euros, still...
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.
Police in Pakistan on Wednesday revealed that a parcel containing deadly anthrax powder has been sent to the official residence of the country's prime minister. While it marks the first time criminals have used the biological agent in an attack on a government office, letters laced with anthrax spores were sent to a mass-market Urdu newspaper and to a computer company in Karachi soon after 9/11, at the same time as scares in the US.
Remember the concept of "smart power"? That was Barack Obama's promise, along with strengthening our friendships with allies abroad. It's generally helpful for both approaches to get the names straight:
Allen West just got a new lease on life.
CAIRO: Egypt's military leader has sacked the general responsible for media affairs to bolster an image tarnished by killings of protesters and accusations that the men in uniform are undermining Egypt's democratic revolution. The change is the first in the military council since the generals took power from President Hosni Mubarak during a popular uprising last February.
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi official says a bomb blast north of Baghdad has killed three Iraqi soldiers, hours before the nationÂ’s parliament is to reconvene after lawmakers ended their boycott to protest persecution of Sunni officials.
[Iran Press TV] An Iranian 
[Iran Press TV] Recent reports indicate that the US is on track for a fourth consecutive year with a budget deficit topping one trillion dollars.
Police have no clue yet to the killers of the incident in which MPA 
[Pak Daily Times] Four people, including a retired army doctor, were 
SANAA: US airstrikes targeting leaders from Yemen's active Al-Qaeda branch killed 15 suspected 
Egypt's military leader has sacked the general responsible for media affairs to bolster an image tarnished by killings of protesters and accusations that the men in uniform are undermining Egypt's democratic revolution. 
[Pak Daily Times] The US must disclose details of the legal and factual basis for the lethal use of drones in Pakistain, 
Kurram Agency
Wazoo
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Iran Press TV] At least 23 people have been killed and twelve others 
[Pak Daily Times] Taliban said on Tuesday they were ready to "negotiate" with the US but not with Washington-backed Afghan government of 
[Pak Daily Times] KARACHI: The Excise Police claimed to have seized a huge quantity of hashish from a container here on Tuesday. The Excise & Taxation Officer, Malir Zone 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
BASRA / Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces arrested today 20 wanted persons, including 9 on charges of terrorism, police sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that security operation were conducted in several parts of the province that led to arresting 11 for criminal charges and 9 implicated in terrorist actions.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
The lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Muhammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, began a Supreme Court appeal against his death sentence on Tuesday by claiming that he had not received a fair trial. A lawyer read out a statement in court from Kasab, one of the 10 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
