CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan Some days it is better to be lucky than good.
For Sgt. Jacob P., a Danish tank commander with Jutland Dragoon Regiment, luck was definitely on his side on two separate occasions in January.
On Jan. 5, Jacob was manning the turret in his Leopard 2 tank while providing overwatch during Operation Shamali Kamarband when he came under enemy fire. Jacob was shot in his right shoulder and fell down inside his tank. He immediately came back up after looking through his optics and located the enemy, engaged him and killed him by returning fire with his machine gun.
Following the firefight, the Holstebro, Denmark native had to be medically evacuated to Bastion Role 3 Hospital, adjacent to Camp Leatherneck, for treatment.
During his stay, Maj. Gen. John A. Toolan, commanding general Regional Command (Southwest), was making his routine visits through the hospital when he came across the soldier. He came back to his office and told Sgt. Maj. Michael F. Jones, sergeant major RC (SW), he needed to go visit him. During his visit, Jacob clearly recalled his story to Jones.
Then on Jan. 22 during a battle circulation tour, Toolan and Jones visited a Danish task force, operating out of Forward Operating Base Price, to say farewell, congratulate them on their many achievements and the accomplishments in Helmand and Nimroz provinces.
At that time, the commander pointed out Jacob to the [commanding general] and we had him come up and do a photo session, said Jones. The (commanding general) got inside the tank and Jacob showed him several technical aspects of the tank.
It was just 10 days later that Toolan and Jones once again found themselves in the Bastion Role 3 Hospital visiting Jacob.
While talking with Toolan, Jacob recalled the events surrounding his second medical evacuation in a month.
Jacob and his crew were out on a patrol showing the incoming officer-in-charge the lay of the land.
They were South of Route 611, the main road between Sangin and Kajaki districts, when Jacob noticed something was wrong with one of the tracks on his tank. He stopped the convoy and got out to inspect the track. He noticed that a portion of the track was offset, so he got a hammer and started hitting the track to put it back into place, making the tank more mobile so they could continue their mission.
It was then Jacob had a feeling that someone was watching him. He looked back over his shoulder and saw somebody approximately 500 meters away. The man proceeded to fire a rocket-propelled grenade at the tank. The RPG fell short as Jacob dived for protection as far from the tank as possible. He came up unscathed and began inspecting the tank for damage.
After inspecting the tank and deeming it okay, he made an attempt to return to the tank when he was shot in the right shoulder by a sniper. He immediately began yelling to his crew with instructions on the location of the enemy so that they could engage the insurgent.
With sniper fire hitting the ground all around him Jacob made another attempt to return to his tank. It was then he was shot in his left thigh. Once again he was forced to seek cover.
When he thought he could make it to the tank, he tried again. As he was crawling into the tank another round from the sniper shot him in his left leg.
Despite the fact that he had just been shot three times, Jacob instructed his crew from inside the tank on the location of the insurgent. They fired a 120mm round that fell short. However, the second round was a direct hit in the insurgents abdomen.
Jacob contributes his success and health to his crew of 12 years.
As they headed back to the nearest patrol base, the gunner and loader began to render medical care to Jacob. They cut off his clothes, assessed the wounds and began to bandage them.
The loader plugged the wound in his shoulder with his finger to stop the bleeding.
After the convoy arrived at PB Clifton, Jacob was waiting for the medical evacuation, when the Taliban released the name of the sniper they had lost.
A British commander came up to Jacob and thanked him for killing the sniper. The sniper had killed five of his men.
Im so happy I took the guy out, it really meant a lot to me, said Jacob.
It meant a lot to you last time too, Toolan chuckled in response. Youre not only going to go down in Danish lore, but youre going to go down in USMC lore.
He was humble, recalled Jones. Like we read about when people have done great deeds on the battlefield. Even to the point of almost ducking his head and lowering his eyes to say I did what anyone else would have done in those circumstances.
I thought that was so profound for me to see this man had been injured twice, on two separate occasions on the battlefield, pretty extensively, conducted himself the way he did, it was pretty humbling, said Jones.
Cohen certainly knows how to push the limits of comedy. And his new movie might appeal to some here. I'll probably go and watch it. BTW, I believe he is an observant jew.
WIKILEAKS suspect Bradley Manning was formally charged overnight ahead of a court-martial that could see the US soldier sentenced to life in prison. Manning was charged with 22 counts, the most serious of which is "aiding the enemy," for allegedly turning over a trove of classified US documents to WikiLeaks in one of the most serious intelligence breaches in US history.
The 24-year-old Manning is accused of passing hundreds of thousands of military field reports from Iraq and Afghanistan and US diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks between November 2009 and May 2010, when he was serving in Iraq.
The leak of the military documents shed light on civilian deaths, while the diplomatic cables sparked a firestorm by disclosing the private remarks of heads of state and candid observations by senior US officials.
The US government slammed the disclosure of the documents by WikiLeaks, saying it threatened national security and the lives of foreigners working with the military and US embassies.
WikiLeaks supporters view the site as a whistleblower that exposed US wrongdoing and see Manning as a political prisoner.
#3
Well, unless other government agencies intervene to demand he be tried in civilian court for his offenses against them, then he is looking forward to wearing some fashionable, brightly colored overalls while raking rocks, mowing laws with a push mower, washing cars, and exploring his sexuality among the other happy inmates at the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh signs three-stage deal with Egypt to end Gaza's energy crisis.
Egypt and Hamas reached an energy agreement Thursday to help end the energy crisis in Gaza, and that will ultimately connect Gaza's electricity grid to Egypt's, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported.
According to Ma'an, Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu said Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh struck a deal with Egyptian officials and the Islamic Development Bank after "intensive negotiations."
The deal, to be implemented in three stages, begins with Egyptian companies pumping fuel into Gaza under contracts signed with individual companies.
In the next stage, the Islamic Development Bank will fund projects to increase the capacity of Gaza's only power plant by 40 megawatts.
Finally, Gaza will connect its electricity grid to Egypt's and convert the power plant to run on gas instead of diesel.
Egypt decided to let more fuel into Gaza and increase the amount of electricity it supplies to the Palestinian enclave on Tuesday, a move aimed at easing a power crisis that has embarrassed the ruling Hamas movement.
Hattip Anonymoose. Follow-up on yesterday's story -- a lovely example of Sudden Jihad Syndrome in spades. More details and links to original documents at the link
FEBRUARY 22--The man who repeatedly yelled "Allah is great" as he was removed yesterday from a plane that was forced to make an emergency landing due to his unruly behavior is a 19-year-old Soddy Arabian who was jugged Sunday night after he led Oregon police on a drunken car chase that saw him ram two cop cars and attempt to run over pedestrians, The Smoking Gun has learned.
Okay, I give. How'd he bust out of jail? The cops and prosecutors certainly wouldn't release a foreigner who tried to run over people, would they? Even in Oregon?
According to Sherlocks, Yazeed Mohammed Abunayyan was smoking an electronic cigarette on a Continental Airlines flight traveling from Portland to Houston. When a flight attendant directed Abunayyan to stop smoking (or relinquish the device), he refused and began "yelling profanities and swinging his fist at the flight attendant," according to an indictment filed this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Portland.
Abunayyan, who reportedly has been in the U.S. visiting relatives, was charged with a felony count of interfering with flight crew members.
Male passengers on the Boeing 737 helped a flight attendant subdue Abunayyan, who was removed from the plane in plastic handcuffs and turned over to FBI agents. The Continental flight returned to Portland 20 minutes after departure.
Abunayyan, who is scheduled to appear later this afternoon before a federal magistrate, was jugged Sunday evening by cops after a wild car chase in Medford, an Oregon city 275 miles south of Portland.
#1
Oh my. Almost as exciting as the fisticuffs that seem to be a regular part of the Taiwanese parliamentary process. Grunter, what odds the voters will throw up their hands in disgust and turn toward the right side of the aisle?
#4
Disgust hardly begins to describe it, tw. I have never seen such visceral hatred for a Government of ours in my life. Australia is probably in the strongest economic position in the world and these trundlethrift ratheaded clown college dropouts are just squandering it.
And we are stuck with them for two more years, unless we get a miracle. But then, to answer the question, they will be massacred.
PARIS (Reuters)- After months of reassuring secularist critics, Islamist politicians in Tunisia and Egypt have begun to lay down markers about how Muslim their states should be - and first signs show they want more religion than previously admitted.
Islamist parties swept the first free elections in both countries in recent months after campaigns that stressed their readiness to work with the secularists they struggled with in the Arab Spring revolts against decades-long dictatorships.
Now that the Islamicists have won, there won't be a need for any more 'free' elections. They'll do the next one Yemeni style. Having more than one choice on the ballot just confuses the masses.
With political deadlines looming, a key Tunisian party in the constituent assembly and the head of Egypt's influential Muslim Brotherhood both made statements this week revealing a stronger emphasis on Islam in government.
Popular List, the party tasked with writing Tunisia's new constitution, announced on Monday its draft called Islam "the principle source of legislation" - a phrase denoting laws based on the sharia moral and legal code.
On Tuesday, Egyptian Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie said his group wanted a president with "an Islamic background." That term is vague, but not as vague as the conciliatory "consensus candidate" talk heard from most parties until now.
The term is not vague in the least. The Muslim Brotherhood gets to interpret what 'islamic background' means, and we all know what they mean.
Secularists in both countries warned voters against trusting the Islamists and these subtle changes could have come straight from a secularist playbook on how Islamists would gradually insert more religion into the political and legal systems.
But no one is going to listen to them. The fix is in.
Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the largest party ennahda and a leading reformist Muslim thinker during his years in London exile, reassured secularists last year by agreeing with them that the first article of Tunisia's constitution should remain unchanged. The article, which said Tunisia's language was Arabic and religion Islam, was "just a description of reality ... without any legal implications, he told Reuters in November. "There will be no other references to religion in the constitution."
He was lying, of course, but Reuters bought it. Then again, Reuters wanted to buy it so it was an easy sell...
In the draft constitution, Islam is described as Tunisia's religion "and the principal source of its legislation."
"Using Islamic sharia as a principle source of legislation will guarantee freedom, justice, social equality, consultation, human rights and the dignity of all its people, men and women," it says.
Just like it does in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Pakistain and Iran.
Mentioning sharia means all laws must be consistent with Islam, a condition found in many constitutions in Muslim countries. This can be interpreted broadly, or strictly if those vetting the legislation impose a narrow reading of Islam.
No, it cannot be interpreted 'broadly', because there is only one interpretation: the strict one.
Reaction in Tunis to the draft has been muted so far because Ghannouchi is planning a news conference on Thursday where he will probably have to declare Ennahda's position on it.
Hachmi Hamdi, who supported Ennahda before forming Popular List, said the draft was more Islamic than expected because "the public that voted for us is a conservative public that wants sharia as the principle source of the constitution."
So the public will get what it wants. If the public doesn't want it they'll still get it. That's what happens when you put thugs in charge.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has decided not to present its own candidate for the presidential election due in June and argued until now that it wanted a candidate acceptable to all. Even Emad Abdel Ghaffour, head of the leading Salafi Islamist Nour Party, told this to Reuters two weeks ago. He said the sharia mention in Egypt's constitution should be retained without being tightened, as more hardline Salafis have urged.
But Badie told the daily newspaper of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party on Tuesday that "the candidate must have an Islamic background."
He was just preparing the battlespace, and now is stepping up.
Badie's comments seemed to rule out Brotherhood support for Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister and Arab League secretary general seen as one of the frontrunners.
Unless he makes peace with the Brotherhood...
Lying between the two countries, Libya is also transforming its political system after ousting Muammar Gaddafi but has not yet held elections or begun work on a new constitution. The chairman of the ruling National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalal, has said Tripoli would take sharia as the source for its laws. Hundreds of Libyan Muslim Brothers and Salafists rallied last month to demand sharia law.
So we'll have a Sharia League from the western border of Algeria to the fence between Gazoo and Israel. Nice going, Barack, really nice going.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/23/2012
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#1
Of course they want a bigger religion role, but that doesn't mean the public does. Everyone has paid close attention to the Turkish model, and how they get more Islam but without getting in serious trouble over it and keeping their popularity.
Egypt is a freaking disaster area, and nobody who rules over it is going to enjoy the experience. If they try to go too Islamist too fast it will become like the French revolution. With 80m people, many of whom are starving... Ick. Just ick.
The Afghan president's office says it has received a letter from President Barack Obama formally apologizing for the burning of Korans at a US military base in Afghanistan.
The statement from President Hamid Karzai's office says the U.S. ambassador delivered the letter on today.
In the letter, which is quoted in the statement, Obama expresses his "deep regret for the reported incident" and offers his "sincere apologies."
According to the statement, Obama wrote: "The error was inadvertent; I assure you that we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible."
#4
Karzai's office said Obama called the Koranburnings "inadvertent," adding that the U.S. "will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible."
OTOH any expression of defiance in the face of Islamic demands or contempt for Islamic teachings (including the burning of Korans) is perfectly legals in the US. Any Afghan with internet access can find that out easily.
The difference between specific orders given to member of the military and general civil rights will be too subtle for the murderousintolerantbigotedsadistic Noble People of Afghanistan.
They will perceive Obama as a lying simpleton because his lies can be easily exposed as such. Americans don't go to jail for insulting Islam after all. Neither steps to avoid recurrences would be constitutional nor would holding Americans accountable for antiislamic speech.
Avoiding conflict by making the pluralistic US appear more dhimmified respectful to Islam than it really is isn't possible in the age of the internet.
#7
At what point does he just create a form letter and save time? He can sign it with the robo pen or automate that as well. If he wanted to earn money for his election perhaps he could sign personalized apologies for a price.
#8
The queer thing is, apparently one of the accepted ways to dispose of a damaged or worn Koran is by burning. Anything can be reason to get upset for those so inclined, though.
#9
What? No apology to Christians for the US military burning Bibles in Afghanistan? Or mandating abortion insurance by United States Catholic institutions?
#11
rjschwarz, the value of an apology is debased with each subsequent issued. Robo-signed B.O. grovel letters would be like printing money. I'm not sure which will be worth more in the endgame: a US dollar or an apology from Barack Obama.
#12
BTW. Did he address Karzai as "massa"? I wish someone would taunt him with that, to prompt him to reconsider bowing and scraping to every dictator on earth.
#3
A gentleman may glance; an oaf ogles. A blazing idiot gets caught ogling on film shown at eleven. Perhaps the First Husband in question had a bit too much to drink, also unwise for those in politics when in public.
Had he been quicker witted, he might have quietly commented in admiration over her jewelry, as he was pondering a small gift for his wife -- nothing do grand as the princess's of course, as that would not be appropriate, but the style ...
Of course, it's much easier to to think of how it ought to have been handled if one hasn't just been caught out acting the cad.
#5
Pentti Arajarvi...who is a man...
Agree the total lack of concentration and ensuing parody-level recovery would suggest (at least) one totty over the line.
#7
I was reading a history of Golds Gym the other day,and the gentleman might consider the Arnold Approach (to an attractive bank teller, after the requisite eye contact while waiting in line)
"You have nice breasts.
Please to turn around.
I like your backside.
Take my phone number."
Of the nine people (identified as) infected in 2011, eight were men who had sex with yes.....other men, according to the agency. Seven were either in the U.S. Army in Fairbanks or had sexual partners in the military. Most were young-- four were under the age of 20.....Post DADT enlistees. The nights are very long at Fort Richardson.
#1
Under such circumstances, NATO should go to WWII-levels of security on Afghan army soldiers.
That is, sequester them in their barracks with no access to outside information. Monitor conversations looking for agitators. Give them reliable Imam chaplains. More than anything else keep them busy training or on mission.
When they capture enemy forces, turn them over immediately to non-NATO prisoner details.
#3
If they rate morans higher than human life perhaps we should threaten to burn down a warehouse full of Korans if they don't ....
Why don't we blow up a warehouse full of Korans and blame Al Quida.
Why don't we spread rumors that a number of false Morans were created (misprints or intentional, or with poison on pages or whatever) and these are destroyed when found to protect believers from the untruths and dangers within and then next time there is a burning issue we claim they were misprints, not real ones.
#4
Rj: That would be good, too. I might recommend setting it up so that those who complained would automatically be implicated in the "poison Koran plot".
"Symptoms of poisoning may include impotence and/or homosexual urges, hunger and thirst, head or body lice, flatulence, body odor, sudden death syndrome, sneezing and coughing."
#5
You don't "establish a technology" in China. You give it to them, the whole shooting match, and pay for the privilege.
It is astounding that any company would do this today, given the history, and one can only suspect malfeasance by those who do.
#6
ION SINA, NEWSMAX > LIGNET: CHINA NIXES EXPORT OF METALS [precious = rare-earths] NEEDED FOR AMERICA'S DEFENSE.
Personally I'm more interested in finding any Govts, Perts universal consensus on "PEAK RESOURCES/EVERYTHING" by our mighty future OWG-NWO = [proto]SPACE GOVT-ORDER.
versus
* MARIANAS VARIETY > CHINA AS THE "C" IN CNMI.
Economically, espec as per Chinese Tourism + Investments, which I'm sure Beijing would love to supercede one day in near-future wid the PLA.
#1
Blathering about it achieves nothing. As does waiting for the government to do something.
Instead, create a "futures" contract.
That is, find some mercenary company and make them a deal. If they transport arms to the rebels, then once we are in power, they are guaranteed a long-term, non-controversial project worth a LOT of scratch.
So, on the surface, it seems like they are acting on their own to support the rebels. No USG involvement at all.
Later, come what may, if Republicans win the presidency, the mercenaries are given a juicy federal contract to make an approximate count of seashells near Caribbean resorts. And if the rebels overthrow Assad, those seashells will need to be counted twice.
#4
No one has any business getting in the middle right now. There is enough on our plate at home and we cannot trust POTUS to make a correct decision in ANY THING.
So, knock off the hawk talk and concentrate on unseating king obamis tyrannis before we all live like Syrians.
#3
Nope, literally everyone realized a long time ago that unless there were international standards on science and commerce, everything would be ten times as hard and there would be a lot of disasters.
This is why international communications, flight control and navigation is in English, and everybody uses Arabic numerals. Commercial ships can also include ideograms along with their English text names.
#4
Looks pretty, but then again most publicly released footage of invasions do (the USMC cleans up their film too).
A couple things that struck me is they were using only autocannons for shore bombardment. Also the air cover shown were some pretty obsolete planes. This invasion would go pretty well against a minor nation, like Vietnam or Indonesia. Against Taiwan, maybe not so much.
Things I didn't see that need to be taken into account and most likely won't be shown since the tactics to do it are classified:
ASW screen. How the task force deals with subs during the steaming to the invasion spot.
Mine sweeping. A mined bay would be a bitch to try to land in.
Counter-shore fire. The task force would have to deal with fire from the shore against the ships. Big guns would be hell against the smaller landing craft and short range missiles would put the larger ones dumping tanks off out of action.
I didn't see China simulating any of these, but as I said the tactics for it are usually classified and won't be shown to the world. Also another thing that I noticed is the invasion force was pretty small. Maybe a reinforced battalion at most. Again enough to seize a disputed island, but not enough to do much else.
#5
After decades of theft of hardware, software, designs, techniques, it is fasinating to watch LSTs, commanche gunships, amphibious vehicles with forward ramping to afford greated waterborne speeds, shore bombardment, etc.. and know that out arrogance, indifference and frankly often treasonous cooperation have given the Chicoms generational technology improvements that lead them to a level short of parity in capability, but when offset by quantity, potential dominance.
There is very little they haven't already stolen and developed, and with their manufacturing base, their wealth and quantitative advantages in a confrontation short of nuclear is daunting. And now comrade obama wants to cut the nuke warheads by 80%.
#7
Also another thing that I noticed is the invasion force was pretty small
Yes. Could be a work up to seizing a small objective. But it's possibly a "let's try this out" exercise geared more toward working out the mechanics and C3 schtuff.
#8
What a gift to Hilliary. Just keep releasing videos like this and our alliances grow and strengthen. This may be important when we get a president who values allies.
#10
The most likely scenario for a PLA invasion of Taiwan is Airborne Paratroopers-Mech + Commandos first, then cometh the Panda Marines.
To conquer Taiwan quickly before US, UNCOM Relief Milfors arrive, China has said it is willing to suffer massive casualties, as FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.
h/t Instapundit
The sensational result that neutrinos can travel faster than the speed of light may be undone by nothing more than a simple mechanical error.
Scientists from the OPERA collaboration at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy have identified two issues that could significantly affect the reported result, wrote OPERA spokesman Antonio Ereditato in an email.
The first issue is a faulty connection of the fiber-optic cable bringing the GPS signal to the experiments master clock. The experiments GPS may also have been providing the wrong timestamps during synchronization between events. The difference between Big Science and bad science is not always obvious.
#1
In all fairness, they did say that these *may* have been the problem, not that there *were* the problem. What is important is if they fix these and do the experiment again.
However, they must be careful in doing this, because the fix can often introduce anomalies on its own. For example, when Hansen of GISS did not like his actual results, he "fixed" (adjusted) them to conform with the results he wanted. This was not done "in good faith", but with intent to distort data.
This is a major problem in experimental science, ignoring anomalies. For example, when Alexander Fleming discovered the contamination of his Petri dish experiment by a penicillin-generating mold, his first inclination was to discard it and start over. Fortunately for millions of people, he decided to investigate the anomaly.
#3
Notice the difference between this and Climate Fraud: these guys are openly and publicly discussing experimental errors and what might be the cause. Just like some of us learned to do in high school science class.
* ION TELEGRAPH.UK > ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSES [EMPS] EXPLAINED; + ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSES IN HISTORY.
* TOPIX > SOLAR CMES HITTING EARTH PRODUCING STRANGE SOUNDS?
* LIVESCIENCE > SHRINKING SKY? CLOUD TOPS DROPPING CLOSER TO EARTH, NASA SATELLITE FINDS.
On the surface, it would appear the Artics are describing the EMP dangers vee Iran + potens Nuclear Islamist, NGO Terror - INTENSIVE SOLAR ACTIVITIES GET BRIEF OR VERY GENERALIZED MENTION.
WHICH IMO IS A MEDIA-, POLITICAL-DENIABLE WAY OF SAYING THE EMP THREAT AT QUESTION IS ACTUALLY VIA THE SUN.
The Sun has been releasing massive waves of Gravity whcih has been interfering wid my observations + "bending/warping" various thingys.
#4
Gas consumption down. Gas production up. A barrel running around 104 compared to 2008 at 140. It's not the 'price' gas. It's a 1.4 trillion dollar stimulus along with two official and one on going QE by the Fed and Treasury. It's inflation. Your buck is busted. Nothing is going to talk or regulate the price down after you've debased the currency. Dear Nancy, reap what you have sown.
Gas prices are pretty much constant when measured against other commodities.
EJ is right: this is one of the high commissars looking for an appropriate target to blame. I'm just surprised she didn't name the Koch Brothers specifically.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/23/2012 8:45
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#8
You forgot Marc Rich and his henchman Green to go with Soros and Corzine.
Of course the big game changer is that China's increase in oil consumption over the last ten years has been almost exponential.
Lastly, is it a coincidence or is it my imagination that oil prices went up right after the empty suit nixed the Canadian pipeline thingee.
It is also BS that it is price gouging. If you take the total income of one of the oil companies and figure out the profits, most oil companies make less in profits from manufacturing, distributing and selling gasoline than the Federal government makes in taxes on oil and oil products at every stage of production. To say that federal taxes on gasoline are only $0.18 per gallon is nearly as big a lie as our unemployment. There are import taxes on the oil, taxes on refining, taxes on distribution, intermediary taxes when the oil goes to the distributor and taxes when the distributor sells to the retail outlet. The pure net price of gasoline, world wide minus taxes and surcharges is about %0.85 per gallon the rest is government taxes. So the feds have no vested interests in lowerin gasoline prices because that is a revenue stream.
When John Kerry said that the ideal price for gasoline was $4.00 a gallon he did not mean it as a means of getting people to use mass transit, it was the ideal price for gasoline as the maximum people would tolerate and the best possible amount of tax revenue for the government to waste on the empty suit and his corrupt exploitation of the economy to pay off his cronies.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/23/2012 10:23
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#9
Energy Sector, Housing Market, Health Sector. All major compnents of the U.S. Economy. All taken over or heavily regulated to death by these cock roached and they then have the gall to stand up their and blame the Republican party. And I can promise you, these debased maggots aren't going to back down.
Posted by: George Ebbeamp4828 ||
02/23/2012 11:16
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#10
Things are just far worse in this country than most think. We have not even started to feel obama's policies yet.
One day, the arab is not going to accept currency from the cowboy, and no one will even remember the wicked witch of the west.
#13
So I wonder if her and hubby are cashing in on this while the gettins good? Or if they have somebody fronting for them? Madame Minority Leader's (I love calling her that) never been above making a buck on a crisis...
An inmate of a Saudi prison thought he had nothing to lose when he went mad and swore at a police man. He was wrong.
The head of the prison asked his guards to take him to court, the Arabic language daily Okaz said. The judge sent him back to prison and ordered him lashed 40 times with the whip for swearing at a police man.
Okaz said the unnamed prisoner is serving a seven-year jail term on charges of drugs dealing.
A former terrorist insurgent in the Pattani United Liberation Organisation (PULO) was gunned down in a rubber plantation in Narathiwat province hours after a village leader was killed in the neighbouring province of Pattani.
The bullet-ridden body of Tore Jewaemueror, 53, was found on Tuesday morning. Police thought the motive for the killing was to silence him after he refused to join the Runda Kumputlan Kecil (RKK) terrorist insurgent movement. The victim was invited to join the group after several leading RKK members lost their lives in extrajudicial killings.
Last night in Pattani province, a village leader was gunned down while he was returning home. Ma Jeha was ambushed 500 meters from his home by a gunman with an AK47 assault rifle.
Jeha, a developer who worked in the civil society network, had cooperated with the authorities.
A village defense volunteer was shot and seriously wounded in a drive-by shooting in Pattani province.
Boonya Boonsrang was attacked on a local road at 2 p.m. while driving his motorcycle to downtown Pattani. He was followed by two men on a motorcycle. The pillion rider fired four shots at him and fled the scene.
In Yala province, a combined team of police and soldiers yesterday raided a hideout of suspected terrorists insurgents and found many sets of survival gear.
The officers searched a cave at Khao Yala mountain. No one was inside the cave, which police believe served as a terrorist insurgent hideout.Dried food, instant noodles, tents, clothes and solar panels were all found there.
The raid followed information given by Hamdee Torlubor, an terrorist insurgent who was arrested earlier. The suspect was responsible for a series of violent attacks in Yala.
Vladimir Putin praised Cold War-era Soviet spies on Thursday for stealing U.S. nuclear secrets so that United States would not be the world's sole atomic power. "You know, when the States already had nuclear weapons and the Soviet Union was only building them, we got a significant amount of information through Soviet foreign intelligence channels," Putin said, according to state-run Itar-Tass.
"The were carrying the information away not on microfilm but literally in suitcases. Suitcases!"
From wikipedia: Judge Irving Kaufman, in his statement sentencing the Rosenbergs to death: "I consider your crime worse than murder... I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-Bomb years before our best scientists predicted Russia would perfect the bomb has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason. Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country. No one can say that we do not live in a constant state of tension. We have evidence of your treachery all around us every day for the civilian defense activities throughout the nation are aimed at preparing us for an atom bomb attack."
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, investigated how much the Soviet spy ring helped the USSR to build their bomb. In 1945, Moynihan found, physicist Hans Bethe estimated that the Soviets would be able to build their own bomb in five years. Thanks to information provided by their agents, Moynihan concluded in his book Secrecy, they did it in four. That was the edge that espionage gave them: one year.
#1
I noted that he was very careful to not name those traitorous scientists, as people like the Rosenbergs still have defenders who swear they were innocent, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Some of the traitors might not even be publicly known today.
#2
I agree, some of the worst traitors probably retired on US pensions & died of old age, their names known only to God and the KGB. It is worth remembering what happened. Krushchev's autobiography did name the Rosenbergs specifically, when he said Stalin & Molotov both gave them personal credit.
#3
My now-elderly Mother used to tell me she had met the Rosenbergs in Illinois as a young college student from post-WW2 Guam, back in the very early 1950's.
Iran's authorities this week launched a new, sophisticated offensive against the Internet, stifling Gmail and other messaging services and totally blocking software that provides secure browsing.
The severe clampdown has prompted an outcry by media, businesses, students and private web users, and has even provoked criticism within the regime.
"E-mails have again been cut and the patience of (Internet) users is at an end," the ISNA news agency reported, highlighting the "disruption" for those needing online tools for their profession.
Authorities were "playing with the nerves of Internet users," the reformist newspaper Shargh said in a front-page article.
The website Alef.ir, belonging to an influential MP, Ahmad Tavakoli, complained about the "numerous problems" created by the offensive.
"No communications official or security service has given any explanation about this measure. Apparently those who ordered it attach no importance to public opinion or the discontent created by their action," it wrote.
Iran has strangled the Internet from time to time in the past, extending a permanent censorship of millions of websites it deems un-Islamic. The last time was a week ago, when Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo e-mail services were cut or slowed to an unusable speed.
This time, however, the attack has gone further, completely stopping the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) -- software that enables secure Internet connections.
VPNs, which are often used worldwide by corporations, were commonly used by many of Iran's 33 million individual Internet users to get around the web censorship.
The head of the Iranian parliament's new technologies department, Reza Bagheri Asl, said the block was creating hardship for "banks and financial institutions (which) use this protocol for its heightened security to exchange information."
The new and systematic block on VPN use appeared to be part of plans by Iran to roll out its own "national Internet" -- a totally closed system that would function like a sort of intranet for the Islamic republic.
#1
This is actually interesting. There has for a long time been speculation that society has become so Internet dependent that to lose the Internet would cause a major crisis. So now there will be an actual example, on a small scale, of what would happen.
My speculation is that it will create a huge rumor mill. The government thinks it will now control all information dissemination. But because they are so despised, everyone will assume that they are putting out nothing but b.s.
So when *any* non-governmental information comes out, it will rapidly spread through the population, and no matter how ludicrous, be seen as fact.
And that could be a major kick in the cajones to the government. Rumors might actually become realities, because even most of the government will believe what the rumors say.
"Ahmadinejad just tried to murder Khamenei with a knife! He is seriously wounded, near death, and there are orders to shoot Ahmadinejad on sight!"
#2
Rise up, brave Iranians, and toss the mullahs down the well.
Act now and we will arrange for free WiFi for a decade and Ipads for every citizen.
Act Now! Offer expires March 30.
signed,
US State Department
Wonder how the mullahs would deal with the great satan if that offer were made to the youth of Iran? Couldn't cost more than what we are already spending.
At least five Afghans were rubbed out and dozens maimed Wednesday in festivities between police and demonstrators protesting over the burning of the Koran at a U.S.-run military base, officials said.
In the capital Kabul and in provinces to the east, north and south of the capital, furious Afghans erupted into the streets screaming "Death to America™", throwing rocks and setting fire to shops and vehicles as gunshots rang out.
In the eastern city Jalalabad, students set fire to an effigy of President Barack Obama On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today... , while the U.S. embassy in Kabul declared it was on lockdown.
In Kabul, hundreds of people poured onto the Jalalabad road, throwing stones at U.S. military base Camp Phoenix, where troops guarding the base had gun sex and black smoke from burning tyres rose, an Agence La Belle France Presse photographer said.
Afghanistan is a deeply religious country where slights against Islam have frequently provoked violent protests and Afghans were incensed that any Western troops could be so insensitive, 10 years after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
Three protesters were killed in Shinwar district of Parwan province north of Kabul, provincial administration spokeswoman Roshna Khalid told AFP.
"The protests got violent. They attacked police with rocks and in a clash between police and protesters three people were killed and over 10 others are injured," Khalid said.
Kabul demonstrators attacked anti-riot police, forcing them to retreat and shots were fired as they tried to march on the centre of the capital, killing one person and wounding at least 11, according to a health ministry official.
Police front man Ashmat Estanakzai denied police opened fire, but said the demonstration "got violent after they attacked Camp Phoenix" and blocked the key highway leading east towards the Pak border.
The demonstrators were driven back and the protest was over by mid-afternoon, witnesses said.
A second protest erupted in west Kabul, involving about 100 university students and a third was held by dozens more at parliament until they were driven away by riot police.
In Jalalabad, there were also pockets of demonstrations across the city. Gunshots were heard but police did not confirm firing. Crowds threw rocks at cars and they set fires in the streets, an AFP news hound said.
Doctor Ahmed Ali said one person was killed and 10 others had been admitted to Jalalabad hospital with gunshot wounds.
"I saw the body myself. He is a young man from the protesters," Ali said.
More than 1,000 demonstrators, many of them university students, blocked the highway shouting "Death to America™ns, Death to Obama", an AFP news hound said.
Elsewhere in the country, about 800 gathered in district center Baraki Barak in Pashtun-infested Logar province, a flashpoint for Taliban violence south of Kabul, shouting anti-U.S. slogans, said Sayed Wakil Agha, the district chief.
Reports that the Koran had been mistreated emerged on Tuesday, sparking demonstrations in Kabul and at Bagram airbase, but it remains unclear exactly who was responsible.
An interesting point to suddenly appear on the record...
A front man for the U.S.-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... force in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, told AFP he could not confirm that the Korans had been burnt by Americans at the base, saying it was still under investigation.
Even more interesting...
Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP the military removed Korans from the U.S.-run prison at Bagram because inmates were suspected of using the holy book to pass messages to each other.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted on Wednesday that his country is not seeking an atomic weapon, following an unsuccessful visit to Tehran by U.N. nuclear watchdog officials.
"We are not after an atomic weapon. We want to break the supremacy (of the world powers) that relies on nuclear weapons. God willing, the nation will reach this goal," he told a meeting with Iranian nuclear scientists, according to an official government statement.
"Despite what the enemy (the West) says, nuclear energy is directly linked to our national interests," Khamenei said, urging the scientists to "continue the important and substantial" nuclear work.
Khamenei's reiteration of Iran's long held stance came after a five-strong delegation from the U.N.'s ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency left Tehran empty-handed following two days of talks focused on suspected military aspects of Iran's nuclear program.
The U.N. nuclear inspector heading the team, Herman Nackaerts, said on his return to Vienna the Iranians had not permitted the team to visit a military site in Parchin where apparently non-peaceful activities had been detected.
He also said "we could not formalize the way forward," signaling that the delegation left with no further talks scheduled.
The IAEA delegation was to submit its report, "then we will have to see what the next steps are," Nackaerts said.
Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, was quoted by the Iranian news agency ISNA as saying Tuesday that the talks had been intensive and covered "cooperation and mutual understanding" between the two sides.
"These negotiations will continue in the future," Soltanieh said.
#4
Again, iff Radical Islam wants Parity, Superiority, or Dominance for the so-called "OWG/GLOBAL CALIPHATE" vee the Non-Islamic World, then they need NucWeapons + other SuperTechs, etc. to be so.
The "JAPAN/EGYPT" MODEL = IRan is effectively admitting that it + Caliphate is not ready yet to compete or destroy Western + JUdeoCHristian hegemony, BUT THAT THEY WANT THE ABILITY TO PRODUCE NUCWEAPS IN A PINCH WHEN REQUIRED.
AKA "YES, WE WANT NUCLEAR WEAPONS, BUT SSSSHHHHH WE AREN'T READY FOR MAJOR OR TOTAL WAR RIGHT NOW".
Explosions and gunfire rocked a suburb in northern Nigeria's largest city of Kano early Wednesday where Islamists staged deadly attacks in January, an Agence La Belle France Presse news hound and residents said.
An AFP correspondent heard at least six huge kabooms followed by gunshots, just before Mohammedan dawn prayers, which continued for around an hour.
The causes were still unclear but some residents suggested security forces had raided a suspected hideout of members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... in Tinshama area of the city. Tinshama also neighbors the low income suburb of Badawa, which also houses both Christians and Mohammedans.
"The whole area has been cordoned off by armed soldiers and coppers. All we hear is that a house suspected to be a Boko Haram hideout was raided by security agents," said Badawa resident Bala Haruna.
Boko Haram staged coordinated gun and bomb assaults in Kano, killing at least 185 people in what was the group's deadliest ever strike. There have since been several smaller attacks in the city.
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02/23/2012
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Taiwan's navy will arm its submarines with anti-ship missiles for the first time ever beginning next year, a report said Wednesday, as the island boosts its defense capabilities against rival China.
The Taipei-based United Daily News said the navy, which ordered the U.S.-built Harpoon missiles in 2008, recently test-fired the weapons in the United States, in preparation for installing them on its two Dutch-built submarines.
"The missiles will become operational on the two submarines next year," the newspaper said, citing an unnamed naval source.
It said that the more than 30 missiles, which have a range of 120 kilometers, will give the two submarines long-distance strike capabilities that they have previously lacked.
Taiwan's navy declined to comment on the report, citing a long-standing policy of not discussing arms purchases with the media.
Taiwan, which already has Harpoons installed on frigates and F-16 fighter jets, ordered the submarine-launched missiles in 2008 as part of a $6.5 billion arms sale that sparked strong protests from Beijing.
The deal also included advanced interceptor Patriot missiles and Apache attack helicopters.
Ties between Taipei and Beijing have improved markedly since Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party came to power in 2008 promising to boost trade links and allow more Chinese tourists to visit the island.
But Beijing still sees the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, even though Taiwan has governed itself since 1949 at the end of a civil war.
China has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan should the island declare formal independence, prompting Taipei to seek more advanced weapons, largely from the United States.
Russia on Wednesday said it could not rule out that the United States would use the U.S. Manas airbase in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan for an eventual strike on Iran over its contested nuclear program.
Nah, our planes don't have the Star of David on 'em...
"It cannot be excluded that this site could be used in a potential conflict with Iran," foreign ministry front man Alexander Lukashevich told news hounds. "We hope that such an apocalyptic scenario will not be realized."
Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambayev in December said it was "very dangerous" for the state to host the U.S. Manas military airbase and has threatened the Americans with eviction when the current lease expires in 2014.
The U.S. base, which is located at the airport in the capital Bishkek, is currently used as a key coalition hub for operations in nearby Afghanistan.
Lukashevich said using the airbase as a launch-pad to strike Iran would require "changes or rather violations" to the lease agreement between Washington and Bishkek.
"The statements from Washington which do not rule out a military solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis have caused serious worries in the Central Asian region," he said.
"The worries are shared not just by Kyrgyzstan -- where a debate has erupted about the risk of a retaliatory strike from Iran -- but other Central Asian countries," he added.
The United States and its chief regional ally Israel have never ruled out a military strike against Iran over its controversial nuclear program but Russia has always insisted the standoff can only be solved through diplomacy.
Russia also has a military base in Kyrgyzstan and has long vied with Washington for influence in the country as Moscow seeks to preserve its ascendancy in the ex-Soviet region.
#1
Umm... maybe we'll use an flippin aircraft carrier (hint - like the ones we used in WWII) or just fly a B-2 round-trip from CONUS. A little less apocalyptic don't ya think?
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
02/23/2012 4:58
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#2
IMO this is Russia's roundabout = PDeniable way of thraetening to close down the NDN of supply routes into Afghanistan.
Ala the "Japan/Egypt Model", as long as Iran technically or officially maintains no NucWEaps of any sort, IMO Russia believes there will be no war on Iran as the US-NATO, Israel will lack a premise for one before the UNSC where Russia has veto power.
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Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Natalia Verbeke (Argentine) aka Naty in "El hijo de la novia (Son of the Bride)(2001)" aka Carmen Collazo in "Dot the I (2003)" aka Paula in "El otro lado de la cama (The Other Side of the Bed) (2002)" aka María Gonzalez in "Les femmes du 6ème étage (The Women on the 6th Floor)(2010)" (age 37)
A Thai court on Wednesday allowed police to continue to detain one of five Iranian suspects in an alleged terror plot that was exposed by an accidental blast in a residential Bangkok neighborhood.
Police Maj. Gen. Piya Uthayo said Mohammad Kharzei, 42, will be held at a Bangkok prison for at least 12 more days. He was incarcerated on charges of being an accomplice to possession of unlawful explosives and causing kabooms that damaged property and harmed other people.
Three men identified as Iranians decamped the house where the blast occurred Feb. 14. Police found bombs in the house, but are still not clear about the suspects' intentions.
There is speculation that they planned to attack Israeli targets in the Thai capital as part of a covert battle being waged over Iran's alleged quest to develop nuclear weapons.
The kabooms Feb. 14 came one day after two other incidents in India and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia in which bombers tried to hit Israeli targets with so-called "sticky" bombs that attach magnetically to vehicles.
In Thailand, 43 coppers, including senior-ranking commissioners, have been assigned to work on the case and have found "quite a bit of evidence," Piya said.
He said Kharzei is the first suspect whose case has proceeded under criminal law. He was incarcerated at Bangkok's airport on the day of the blast as he was waiting for a flight to Malaysia. With court approval, a suspect can be jugged without formal charges for up to 84 days.
Another suspect, Saeid Moradi, 28, is so far being held for violating immigration law. He was jugged soon after the blast after he attempted to hurl explosives at coppers, blowing off part of his legs in the process.
Arrest warrants have been issued for three other suspects, all Iranians: Masoud Sedaghatzadeh, 31, who was jugged by Malaysian authorities last week; Leila Rohani, 31; and Norouzi Shayan Ali Akbar, 57. Thai authorities are seeking Sedaghatzadeh's extradition and believe Rohani and Akbar have returned to their home country.
Piya said Sherlocks have not found any links between the suspects and dozens of stickers bearing the word "SEJEAL" -- possibly a reference to a passage from the Koran -- that were pasted at various locations in Bangkok. The stickers were identical to ones found under the seat of the Iranians' cycle of violence as well as in an apartment rented by one of the suspects.
"The officers will base their investigation only on the evidence and witnesses, and will use neither speculation, nor imagination in solving this case," Piya said.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Wednesday assigned two deputy prime ministers to oversee intelligence meetings and prepare security measures. She also asked the Transport Ministry to ensure the safety of travelers at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
Four Bosnian Croats, including a woman, were tossed in the calaboose on Wednesday accused of committing war crimes against Serb civilians at the start of the 1992-1995 war, justice officials said.
The former members of paramilitary forces are suspected of committing war crimes against Serb civilians in a detention camp in May 1992, shortly after the start of the war, the Bosnian war crimes prosecutor's office said.
The prisoners in the camp in the southern Bosnian town of Dretelj were "tortured, beaten, raped and persecuted in an extremely humiliating way," it said in a statement, adding that some had died and others were still missing.
At the time the suspects, now aged between 44 to 59, were either top camp officials, guards or members of a Bosnian Croat militia.
Top officials accused over atrocities committed during the Bosnian war, which killed about 100,000 people, are tried by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), while local courts handle smaller cases.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously agreed Wednesday to increase the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... force in Somalia from 12,000 to 17,731 troops.
A resolution passed by the 15-nation council gave the African force a tougher mandate to attack Shebab Islamist snuffies and substantially increased international funding for the military operation.
The resolution was prepared by Britannia ahead of an international conference in London on boosting support for efforts by Somalia's transitional government to re-establish control in the country.
Somalia has had no effective government for more than two decades and in recent years Shebab rebels, which are linked to Al-Qaeda, and other bad turban groups have taken an increasing hold on large parts of the country.
The African Union force, AMISOM, has been helping the government to fight back over the past year, however. The force had an upper limit of 12,000 but can now call on extra troops following the new resolution.
Kenyan troops already in Somalia will now come under AMISOM command. Ethiopian troops, which have taken the Shebab stronghold of Baidoa, will not be part of the force, however.
The Security Council ordered AMISOM to move into new parts of Somalia and gave it a direct mandate to go on the offensive against Shebab.
AMISOM was "authorized to take all necessary measures" with Somali security forces "to reduce the threat posed by Shebab and other armed opposition groups in order to establish conditions for effective and legitimate governance across Somalia," said the resolution.
AMISOM is run by the African Union but paid for by the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit...
The resolution increased international funding for its logistics. Diplomats said the annual cost would increase from about $250 million a year to about $550 million.
The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... is the biggest contributor to the AMISOM fund.
Iraqi security forces on Wednesday tossed in the calaboose the head of Ansar al-Sunna, a Sunni bad turban group said to be linked to Al-Qaeda, the counter-terrorism chief for Anbar province said.
"Iraqi forces today tossed in the calaboose the leader of Ansar al-Sunna, Walid Khaled Ali, as he tried to illegally infiltrate into Iraqi territory from Syria," Brigadier General Khaled al-Dulaimi told Agence La Belle France Presse.
He "tried to cross on foot near Al-Walid border post" into Anbar province in western Iraq, Dulaimi said.
He "was one of the most prominent suspects for terrorism cases," Dulaimi said, adding that "he killed many of the sons of Anbar and decamped to Syria after the announcement of the tribal fight against Al-Qaeda in 2007."
Sunni rustics joined forces with the U.S. military against Al-Qaeda from late 2006, helping to turn the tide of the insurgency.
Ansar al-Sunna is an ultra-conservative Sunni Salafist group that has claimed several attacks against US and Iraqi security forces. It is an offshoot of the Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam.
Dulaimi said the group is part of the Islamic State of Iraq, Al-Qaeda's front organization here.
Iraq's interior ministry meanwhile said on Monday its forces had fended off "smugglers and infiltrators" trying to cross the border from Syria.
"Border guards were able to fend off groups of smugglers and infiltrators who were trying to cross the border from Syria into Iraq," a statement on the ministry's website said, without specifying when this occurred.
The Iraqi premier's office said on Saturday that Iraq is taking measures to secure its border with Syria against weapons smuggling and the unauthorized movement of people.
US spy chief James Clapper said last week that Al-Qaeda's branch in Iraq was probably behind recent suicide kabooms in 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 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... , Syria's second city.
His comments confirmed earlier reports that US officials suspected the terror network's hand in the bombings, and supported repeated claims by Damascus about Al-Qaeda's involvement in the uprising 11-month uprising.
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An international rights group urged the United States, where Yemen's outgoing President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... is staying, to probe his forces' deadly crackdown on opponents during a year-long uprising.
"The United States has an obligation to investigate the serious and credible allegations of torture and other widespread violations brought against Saleh," the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said in a statement late Tuesday.
Saleh, who gave up power in return for immunity from prosecution based on a Gulf-brokered deal he signed in November, has been in the United States since January 29 for treatment of burn wounds he suffered when his presidential palace was attacked in June.
The deal came following months of demonstrations in which hundreds were killed in a crackdown by Saleh's loyalists and forces across the country.
"The United States has failed to comply with its legal responsibilities to uphold this resolution and has allowed Saleh to remain in the United States without legal consequence while demonstrations calling for justice continue on a daily basis in Yemen," said the Gay Paree-based FIDH.
The group "and its partners in Yemen... call on the U.S. government to uphold its international responsibilities and open an investigation into torture against Saleh," it added.
Yemen's parliament last month adopted a law giving Saleh "complete" immunity from prosecution in return for stepping down under the transition deal.
Rights groups have repeatedly pressed the United States to prosecute Saleh.
In a report this month based on witness accounts, Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... said that Saleh's forces had stormed and shelled hospitals, evicted patients at gunpoint and beat medics during an assault last year against protests in the city of Taez.
The New York-based rights group said that at least 120 people died in Taez, of whom 57 were taking part in peaceful demonstrations and 22 were children.
Yemenis on Tuesday voted in a referendum-like presidential poll in which Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi stood as sole candidate to lead the country during a two-year interim period, based on the transition deal.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that Saleh was in Caliphornia and would enjoy diplomatic immunity until Hadi was inaugurated.
ANBAR / Aswat al-Iraq: Police forces on Wednesday arrested the leader of Ansar al-Sunna army armed group while he was attempting to infiltrate into Iraq from Syria in the west of Anbar, the chief of the anti-terror department said.
Acting on intelligence information, anti-terror forces arrested Walied Khaled Ali, leader of Ansar al-Sunna army in Iraq, while he was attempting to sneak into Iraq from the Syrian territories, Brigadier Khaled al-Dalemi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
The forces seized papers and documents, which includes names of senior police and army officer, to assassinate them, he added. The man is wanted for being involvement in killing, kidnapping and blackmailing hundreds of civilians."
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Interesting. Syria too hot for this brave lion?
Plenty of time to see which way the wind blows. Muslim Brotherhood should be running things by then.
CAIRO The verdict in the landmark murder and corruption trial of ousted Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak has been set for June 2, Judge Ahmed Refaat said on Wednesday.
Mubarak, his former security chief Habib al-Adly and six security chiefs could be sent to the gallows if convicted of complicity in the deaths of peaceful protesters during the uprising that overthrew him.
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"So doctor, is there any possibility that Mubarek could live past the end of May?"
MOGADISHU: Ethiopian and Somali troops captured a key militant stronghold in Somalia on Wednesday, as the rebels left their positions, a regional government official and residents said.
The loss of Baidoa in central Somalia is a major blow for the Al Qaeda-backed Al-Shabab rebel group which is also battling Kenyan troops to hold on to territory in southern Somalia and against African peacekeepers in pockets of the capital.
We have taken Baidoa. There was no resistance from Al-Shabab, said Abdifatah Mohamed Gesey, a senior commander of the advancing Somali government soldiers.
Al-Shabab said its flight withdrawal from the city had been aimed at avoiding casualties.
Our fighters left town this morning without fighting. Now we are surrounding the town, said Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al-Shabab's spokesman for military operations. Baidoa will be a cemetery for the Ethiopians.
Shades of Baghdad Bob...
Earlier on Wednesday, a Baidoa resident who gave his name as Farah told Reuters no Al-Shabab fighters were visible in the streets.
Al-Shabab have run away to the Idaale jungle. Other residents tell me Ethiopian troops have reached the corners of the city, Farah told Reuters by telephone.
Ethiopia's forces launched a push south toward Baidoa through the neighbouring Bay and Bakool regions on Tuesday, making swift progress with the insurgents offering minimal resistance, said officials.
Located about 250 km north west of Mogadishu, Baidoa is considered the most important rebel base after the southern port city of Kismayu. Baidoa hosted Somalia's interim government from early 2006, when another Islamist administration was battling warlords for control of Mogadishu, until the turn of 2008/2009 when Al-Shabab seized the city and expelled the transitional government.
Ethiopia moved troops across the border into Somalia in November to open up a third front against the militants already suffering financial constraints after pulling most of their fighters out of Mogadishu and internal divisions. On Wednesday morning, witnesses said Al-Shabab had also surrendered the town of Berdale about 60 km for Baidoa.
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqiya bloc member Muhammad Salman pledged to secure the release of more than 20 detained local residents of Babel province who were not proved guilty of belonging to the dissolved Baath Party.
Salman made the remarks after a meeting between him and a delegation of clans from southern Baghdad and Babel with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Wednesday.
Iraqi legislators and prominent officials have recently promised to secure the release of many detainees from different Iraqi provinces.
Bringing home the bacon in a different way...
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Egypt on Wednesday wraps up two-stage elections for the upper house of parliament, which caps a landmark legislative poll that saw Islamists propelled to the center stage of politics.
Many polling stations were empty in the final day of voting for members of the Shura Council, in sharp contrast to the long queues and active campaigning that marked the People's Assembly vote.
Less than 10 percent of voters turned out in the first stage of voting for the Shura Council which saw the two main Islamist parties dominate the polls, according to the electoral commission.
Final results for the upper house are expected to be announced on Saturday, after which members of both houses are to choose a panel to draft a new constitution.
The elections are part of a roadmap for a transition to democratic rule laid out by the ruling military council that took power after the popular uprising that overthrew president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... last year.
Under the complex system adopted after Mubarak's ouster, two thirds of the Shura's 180 elected members are elected via a party-list system, while one third are elected directly.
One third of the Shura Council will be nominated by the head of state.
The powerful Moslem Brüderbund's Freedom and Justice Party won a crushing victory in the lower house of parliament elections, which were contested over three months, to clinch 47 percent of seats.
The Al-Nur, representing the ultra-conservative Salafist current of political Islam, came second place, with liberal parties trailing far behind.
The election comes amid nationwide protests calling for the immediate ouster of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces led by Mubarak's longtime defense minister Hussein Tantawi.
Protesters accuse the military council of mismanagement and of human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... abuses.
The SCAF has vowed to cede power to civilian rule by June when a new president is elected, but there is widespread belief it seeks to maintain some degree of control even after June.
SACRAMENTO, CA (KXTV) - The federal government has filed a lawsuit to force anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan to provide her financial records to the Internal Revenue Service. Boy-howdy, she's in trouble now!
An IRS revenue officer said Sheehan refused to answer any questions about her finances after receiving a summons at her Vacaville home. Not a smart move, but then, she's never been accused of being smart. Just a tool.
The U.S. Attorney's office on Tuesday filed a petition to enforce the IRS summons. Oh, my! A summons!
The summons ordered Sheehan to produce bank account statements for the period from August through early November 2011. Four lousy months? C'mon Cindy you can do this time standing on your head.
According to IRS revenue officer Jose Arteaga, the financial information may be relevant to the collection of Sheehan's federal income tax liabilities for tax years 2005 and 2006. So she's a tax cheat as well. My my my. Whooda thunk?
Arteaga said Sheehan first met with him on Nov. 22 and sought an extension to Jan. 17. It was during the January meeting that she refused to answer any questions or produce the requested documents. I can say nothing!
Sheehan said she's always been up front with the IRS and has no intention of paying her taxes. She says the government has already taken enough from her. It doesn't work that way, Bugwit.
"If they (federal government), can give me my son back, I'll pay my taxes, but that's not going to happen," Sheehan said. Then you will probably loose everything you still have. Unless some other Bugwit pays them for you.
Sheehan became an anti-war activist after her son, U.S. Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq. She attracted national attention after setting up a camp in 2005 near President George W. Bush's ranch in Texas. Miss me yet?
More recently, Sheehan has been involved in the Occupy movement and was arrested during an October demonstration in Sacramento. I'm not surprised. Hangs around with the other leeches.
The IRS lists Sheehan as self-employed. She was not immediately available for comment on the tax lawsuit.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
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She has no friends in the O admin, I would surmise, so that makes her a Useless Idiot(TM).
You pick and choose your battles. This is not one she can win. It is not worth fighting. Maybe she looks at this as a way to stay in the [s]limelight.
Boy Howdy is right, Deacon!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/23/2012 1:19
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The U.S. Attorney's office on Tuesday filed a petition to enforce the IRS summons.
An IRS agent wanted my client and myself to fill out a 433 (Financial Statement information) in his presence. I politely told him to fuck off. Said agent delivered a summons to me and my client... on Christmas Eve. You can defeat a summons by (largely) complying with its provisions, so I sent the 433 to the agent and cc'd his boss on it. The agent calls me back and starts giving me crap; I called him a thugh & a brownshirt (the same words I used when I called his boss the week before & laid into him on the Xmas Eve delivery of the summons).
You can push back on the IRS to a degree, but Alaska Paul's right - choose your spots.
#4
So she's now become a "sovereign citizen militant"?
To suggest this to the left would be hilarious.
"She was so disappointed with Obama that she has become a sovereign citizen, and encourages other liberal Democrats to join her in refusing to pay Income Taxes that go to corrupt Wall Street bankers and foreign wars."
#6
Hey, I'm surprised that Eric Holder and Tim Geithner aren't fighting a pitched battle to see who gets to hire her. After all, being a lying lefty activist and tax cheat are what the O' administration is all about.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/23/2012 16:02
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I am not a lawyer, but I have seen several things on the internet that say it can be dangerous to answer questions from a law enforcement officer. Martha Stewart went to jail because she was convicted of lying to federal agents. The basic message seemed to be to consult an attorney.
I am in no way supporting Ms. Sheehan. I would love to see her justly convicted and jailed. I don't know the circumstances of her situation, or what the legal implications of the summons are.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/23/2012 18:21
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Martha Stewart went to jail because she was convicted of lying to federal agents.
Stewart was convicted of conspiracy. The false statements and obstruction stuff was icing. Sheehan, once again, proves she's just yer garden variety dip-shit.
NEWARK, New Jersey: Americans living and working in New Jersey's largest city were subjected to surveillance as part of the New York Police Department's effort to build databases of where Muslims work, shop and pray. The operation in Newark was so secretive even the city's mayor says he was kept in the dark.
This seems a little .. excessive. Where does the jurisdiction end for the NYPD?
For months in mid-2007, plainclothes officers from the NYPD's Demographics Units fanned out across Newark, taking pictures and eavesdropping on conversations inside businesses owned or frequented by Muslims.
The result was a 60-page report, obtained by The Associated Press, containing brief summaries of businesses and their clientele. Police also photographed and mapped 16 mosques, listing them as "Islamic Religious Institutions."
The report cited no evidence of terrorism or criminal behavior. It was a guide to Newark's Muslims.
According to the report, the operation was carried out in collaboration with the Newark Police Department, which at the time was run by a former high-ranking NYPD official. But Newark's mayor, Cory Booker, said he never authorized the spying and was never told about it.
Quite possibly, this is even true. One hears stories about New Jersey politicians being connected, whatever that means.
"Wow," he said as the AP laid out the details of the report. "This raises a number of concerns. It's just very, very sobering."
Police conducted similar operations outside their jurisdiction in New York's Suffolk and Nassau counties on suburban Long Island, according to police records.
Such surveillance has become commonplace in New York City in the decade since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Police have built databases showing where Muslims live, where they buy groceries, even what Internet cafes they use and where they watch sports. Dozens of mosques and student groups have been infiltrated and police have built detailed profiles of ethnic communities, from Moroccans to Egyptians to Albanians.
The documents obtained by the AP show, for the first time in any detail, how those efforts stretched outside the NYPD's jurisdiction. New Jersey and Long Island residents had no reason to suspect the NYPD was watching them. And since the NYPD isn't accountable to their votes or tax dollars, those non-New Yorkers had little recourse to stop it.
"All of these are innocent people," Nagiba el-Sioufi of Newark, said while her husband, Mohammed, flipped through the NYPD report, looking at photos of mosques and storefronts frequented by their friends.
Egyptian immigrants and American citizens, the couple raised two daughters in the United States. Mohammed works as an accountant and is vice president of the Islamic Culture Center, a mosque a few blocks from Newark City Hall.
"If you have an accusation on us, then spend the money on doing this to us," Nagiba said. "But you have no accusation."
It's one thing to know what's going on in the community, but this does seem to be a government agency spying on its citizens. That's not appropriate, and the blowback is likely to cause more harm than the good the surveillance ever did.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne did not return a message seeking comment about the report. Former Newark Police Chief Garry McCarthy, who is now in charge of the Chicago Police Department, also did not return messages left on his cellphone and with a press aide.
They're both calculating their final pension payouts...
The goal of the report, like others the Demographics Unit compiled, was to give police at-their-fingertips access to information about Muslim neighborhoods. If police got a tip about an Egyptian terrorist in the area, for instance, they wanted to immediately know where he was likely to find a cheap room to rent, where he might buy his lunch and at what mosque he probably would attend Friday prayers.
"These locations provide the maximum ability to assess the general opinions and general activity of these communities," the Newark report said.
The effect of the program was that hundreds of American citizens were catalogued -- sometimes by name, sometimes simply by their businesses and their ethnicity -- in secret police files that spanned hundreds of pages:
-- "A Black Muslim male named Mussa was working in the rear of store," an NYPD detective wrote after a clandestine visit to a dollar store in Shirley, New York, on Long Island.
-- "The manager of this restaurant is an Indian Muslim male named Vicky Amin" was the report back from an Indian restaurant in Lindenhurst, New York, also on Long Island.
-- "Owned and operated by an African Muslim (possibly Sudanese) male named Abdullah Ddita" was the summary from another dollar store in Shirley, New York, just off the highway on the way to the Hamptons, the wealthy Long Island getaway.
In one report, an officer describes how he put people at ease by speaking in Punjabi and Urdu, languages commonly spoken in Pakistan.
This past summer, when the AP first began reporting about the NYPD's surveillance efforts, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said his police do not consider religion in their policing.
In that case we can review the NYPD files on the Amish in Lancaster, PA...
On Tuesday, following an AP story that showed the NYPD monitored Muslim student groups around the Northeast, school leaders including Yale University president Richard Levin expressed outrage over the tactics. Bloomberg fired back in what was the most vigorous defense yet of his department.
"The police department goes where there are allegations. And they look to see whether those allegations are true," he told reporters. "That's what you'd expect them to do. That's what you'd want them to do. Remind yourself when you turn out the light tonight."
But apparently there were no allegations, Mr. Mayor...
There are no allegations of terrorism in the Demographics Unit reports and the documents make clear that police were only interested in locations frequented by Muslims. The canvas of businesses in Newark mentions Islam and Muslims 27 times. In one section of the report, police wrote that the largest immigrant groups in Newark were from Portugal and Brazil. But they did not photograph businesses or churches for those groups.
"No Muslim component within these communities was identified," police wrote, except for one business owned by a Brazilian Muslim of Palestinian descent.
Polls show that most New Yorkers strongly support the NYPD's counterterrorism efforts and don't believe police unfairly target Muslims. The Muslim community, however, has called for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's resignation over the spying and the department's screening of a video that portrays Muslims as wanting to dominate the United States.
In Newark, the report was met with a mixture of bemusement and anger.
"Come, look at yourself on film," Abdul Kareem Abdullah called to his wife as he flipped through the NYPD files at the lunch counter of their restaurant, Hamidah's Cafe.
An American-born citizen who converted to Islam decades ago, Abdullah said he understands why, after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, people are afraid of Muslims. But he said he wishes the police would stop by, say hello, meet him and his customers and get to know them. The documents show police have no interest in that, he said.
"They just want to keep tabs on us," he said. "If they really wanted to understand, they'd come talk to us."
He's right. That's the proper first step. Now if those initial conversations show that there is a problem, then selected surveillance is helpful, and likely much more useful.
After the AP approached Booker, he said the mayor's office had launched an investigation. "We're going to get to the bottom of this," he said.
Booker met with Islamic leaders while campaigning for mayor. Those interviewed by the AP said they wanted to believe he didn't authorize the spying but wanted to hear from him directly.
Ironically, because officers conducted the operation covertly, the reports contains mistakes that could have been easily corrected had the officers talked to store owners or imams. If police ever had to rely on the database during an unfolding terrorism emergency as they had planned, those errors would have hindered their efforts.
Another reason to approach people openly at the start.
For instance, locals said several businesses identified as belonging to African-American Muslims actually were owned by Afghans or Pakistanis. El-Sioufi's mosque is listed as an African-American mosque, but he said the imam is from Egypt and the congregation is a roughly even mix of black converts and people of foreign ancestries.
"We're not trying to hide anything. We are out in the open," said Abdul A. Muhammad, the imam of the Masjid Ali Muslim mosque in Newark. "You want to come in? We have an open door policy."
By choosing instead to conduct such widespread surveillance, Mohammed el-Sioufi said, police send the message that the whole community is suspect.
"When you spy on someone, you are kind of accusing them. You are not accepting them for choosing Islam," Nagiba el-Sioufi said. "This doesn't say, 'This guy did something wrong.' This says, 'Everyone here is a Muslim.'"
"It makes you feel uncomfortable, like this is not your country," she added. "This is our country."
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"If police ever had to rely on the database during an unfolding terrorism emergency as they had planned, those errors would have hindered their efforts."
La Belle France on Wednesday demanded access to the victims of an attack in Syria that killed a U.S. war correspondent and French photojournalist, and summoned Syria's envoy to Gay Paree.
Syria has meanwhile denied that it was aware that the journalists had entered the country.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... said the killing of the two journalists showed that it was time for Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... 's regime to go.
"Following the information we have from Homs that a group of journalists were victims of shelling, I am asking the Syrian government to immediately stop attacks and respect its humanitarian obligations," Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in a statement.
"I have asked our embassy in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... to require the Syrian authorities provide secure medical access to assist the victims with the support of the International Committee of the Red Thingy," Juppe said.
He said he had also "summoned the Syrian ambassador to Gay Paree to express these requirements and to remind him of the intolerable nature of the Syrian government's behavior."
Sarkozy said the incident showed "the importance of freedom of information".
"This shows that enough is enough, this regime must go. There is no reason why Syrians should not have the right to live their lives, to freely choose their destiny," Sarkozy said.
The United States also condemned the killings. The deaths are "another example of the shameless brutality" of the Syrian regime, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told AFP on Wednesday.
La Belle France identified the two Western news hounds killed in Syria on Wednesday as veteran American war correspondent Marie Colvin of Britannia's Sunday Times and freelance French photojournalist Remi Ochlik.
Activists said they were killed and three others maimed when forces loyal to Assad's regime shelled a makeshift media center in the Baba Amr district of Homs.
The French daily Le Figaro said one of its news hounds, Edith Bouvier, had been among three journalists maimed in the same incident.
Syrian authorities later announced that they were not aware that the two journalists had entered the country, said Information Minister Adnan Mahmud.
"The authorities had no information that the two journalists had entered Syrian territory," he told AFP.
Mahmud said that he had asked "specialized authorities in Homs to look for them (Colvin and Ochlik)." He did not acknowledge whether they were dead or alive.
"The ministry urges all foreign journalists who entered Syria illegally to report to the nearest immigration office to legalise their presence," he added.
Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Sunday Times, said a Syrian army shell attack killed veteran Colvin and injured her British photographer colleague Paul Conroy.
He said the company was doing all it could to recover her body.
They're getting rolled up all over the place! What d'you suppose is revealing them to the authorities?
Police in Azerbaijan have incarcerated an unspecified number of people linked to Iran and Hizbullah suspected of planning attacks in the country, Azerbaijan's state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said Tuesday.
State broadcaster AzTV, quoting the National Security Ministry, said police had jugged people linked to Iranian intelligence services and Hizbullah who intended to stage attacks on foreign citizens in the country.
And now they won't be available for attacks when Iran really needs them. Kind of embarrassing they are so easily found...like they were only playing at being fearsome spies and saboteurs instead of being serious, like Mossad and the CIA. D'you suppose the armies are likewise comparable?
The report said the suspects had gathered intelligence on targets and bought explosives, guns and ammunition, but gave no further details.
The report comes after a car boom last week critically injured an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi while Georgian officials defused a second device in Tbilisi.
A suspected Iranian bomber had his legs blown off as he hurled a grenade at Thai police. Israel blamed Iran for the attacks which came at a time of heightened tensions over Tehran's nuclear program.
A senior Israeli security official warned on Friday that Iran and Hizbullah were planning to carry out "new" anti-Israeli attacks around the world after the incidents in India, Thailand and Georgia.
Police in mainly Mohammedan but officially secular Azerbaijan last month also incarcerated two men with alleged links to Iranian intelligence on suspicion of plotting to kill prominent Israelis in Azerbaijan.
The allegations infuriated Tehran, which sent a diplomatic note of protest accusing Baku of collaborating with Israel's spy services and helping assassins who have killed Iranian nuclear scientists.
Baku responded with a letter to Tehran calling the claim "absurd, unsubstantiated and false", according to Azerbaijani media reports on Tuesday.
Tehran has been angered by Baku's friendly links with Israel, while Azerbaijan has accused Iran of sponsoring Islamic Orcs and similar vermin on its territory.
Relations between the ex-Soviet state and the Islamic republic are complicated by the presence of a huge ethnic Azeri minority in Iran, which far outnumbers Azerbaijan's own population of 9.2 million.
WASHINGTON: Three members of the US Congress have received threatening mail containing a suspicious powder later found to be harmless and law enforcement officials on Wednesday warned that more may be coming.
Another US law enforcement official said letters sent to television personalities Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert threatened biological attacks on US senators. Other letters to a number of news organizations and postmarked Oregon warned that 100 letters had been sent to the Washington or home-state offices of US senators and that 10 of those contained a deadly pathogen, a law enforcement source said.
At least two of the letters already received - one to the home-state office of a senator and the other to the district office of a member of the House of Representatives - contained a powdery substance.
Tests found the substance to be harmless, according to a statement by Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer, the chambers chief law enforcement officer.
In a statement to members of the Senate, Gainer did not say what was found in the third letter. Gainers notice, Urgent: Suspicious Mail Alert, warned that the unidentified sender of the letters indicated that additional letters containing a powdery substance will be arriving at more Senate offices and that some of these letters may contain actual harmful material.
He warned that special attention should be paid to letters postmarked from Portland, Oregon.
The official said the messages to Stewart and Colbert threatened to send letters to all 100 US senators, and that 10 of them would contain a deadly pathogen.
Other law enforcement officials said some of the letters in question contained anti-government and anti-Wall Street rhetoric.
The New York Police Department was made aware of the letters received by some news organizations on Tuesday night and alerted the FBI and the US Capitol Police, a law enforcement source said. The letters to the news organizations did not contain any suspicious substances.
The letters demanded an end to corporate money and lobbying in US politics, an end to corporate personhood and called for a new constitutional convention, the source said. The letters were signed the MIB.
OWS kicks into second gear...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/23/2012
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I'm PO'ed, wid me I was lucky to get a blank piece of paper - no signature or anything.
#3
Oregon has its share of extremists with radical agendas but a Continental flight from Portland to Houston was turned back yesterday after an unruly passenger was subdued by other passengers, who said he was sputtering how great Allan is.....and a Washington state trooper was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop. Do we have a western cell or are these all just lone nuts?
#4
The sputtering passenger was a Saudi visitor, Omoluque Hapsburg8162, whose relatives are no doubt both furious and a good deal lighter in the purse, so no blame can attach to Oregon for that. The story is now posted on page 1 under Home Front: War on Terror.
#5
Washington state trooper was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop.
This type of incident has been happening for decades. Over a century ago a would-be lynch mob burnt down the county court house in Akron, Ohio. Several of the rioters died, their would-be victim did not, the state militia was there to enforce order in the court room. The leaders of the mob were arrested, tried & convicted in what was left of the court house.
Looking at US history overall, this is not a big deal. The undermining of the legal process with respect to the FIRE industry, the tolerance of the biggest theft in world history by state & federal attorneys general, and assorted shenanigans going on with the Great Recession - now that, IMHO, is a very big deal and gets insufficient attention, even as it continues to damage what remains of our once great Republic.
President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov made a number of appointments within the government, the official Turkmen source said on Wednesday.
Particularly, a decree on the appointment of two Vice-Chairmen of the Cabinet of Ministers (Deputy Prime Ministers) Rozymyrat Seyitkulyev and Nokerguly Atagulyev was signed. According to the national legislation the government is headed by the President.
Berdymuhamedov was re-elected to this post on February 12. The government must be formed within a month after taking the office of the President in accordance with the Constitution.
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The United Nations ...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... on Wednesday extended special tribunal investigating the 2005 liquidation of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
The tribunal faces strong opposition from the Hezbullies party in Leb, but in announcing the three-year extension of the inquiry, U.N. leader the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... said he was determined to "send a message that impunity will not be tolerated."
The work of the Special Tribunal for Leb has now been extended for three years from March 1, UN front man Martin Nesirky said in a statement.
The tribunal was set up by the U.N. Security Council in 2007 and has announced that it will put four Hezbullies members on trial even though they have not yet been jugged.
The four -- Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Anaissi and Assad Sabra -- have been charged for the February 14, 2005 car booming in Beirut that killed Hariri and 22 others, including a jacket wallah.
Warrants have been issued for the four, but authorities in Leb, where the government is dominated by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbullies, have failed to arrest them.
The United Nations is preparing to announce a replacement for the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Daniel Bellamare, who will leave at the end of the month.
But Ban visited the court in Leb last month in one sign of support.
And the announcement of the mandate extension included a new signal of support from the UN leader.
"The secretary general reaffirms the commitment of the United Nations to the efforts of the Special Tribunal for Leb to uncover the truth regarding the terrorist attack" that killed Hariri "so as to bring those responsible to justice and send a message that impunity will not be tolerated," said the U.N. statement.
Two Western journalists were among 26 people killed on Wednesday as Syrian forces pounded the rebel city of Homs, activists said, while calls mounted for a truce to allow in humanitarian aid.
The latest barrage came a day after security forces killed at least 68 across the country, adding to an overall toll of 7,636 since anti-regime protests erupted last March, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The toll includes 5,542 civilians, the head of the Britannia-based monitoring group, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.
At least 24 non-combatants were killed in shelling of the Baba Amr district of Homs on Wednesday, the 19th straight day that the city in central Syria was being pounded, the Observatory said.
American journalist Marie Colvin, who reported for London's Sunday Times, and French freelance photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed in the bombing of Baba Amr, French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said.
From inside the quarter, activist Omar Shaker told AFP that two were killed and three others maimed as a shell crashed into a makeshift media centre set up by anti-regime bad boys.
The area remained the target of random shelling, blocking attempts to remove the bodies, Shaker said.
Syrian citizen journalist Rami al-Sayyed, who provided live footage on the Internet from Baba Amr, was killed late Tuesday when a rocket hit a car in which he was travelling, activist Hadi Abdullah told AFP.
A call by the International Committee for the Red Thingy for a two-hour truce daily to deliver aid to afflicted areas has gained support from the United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas... , as well as from the United States and Russia.
Tuesday's call came a day after the ICRC said it was in talks with Syrian authorities and rebels to halt the violence.
Meanwhile, ...back at the laboratory the fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight... Syria's main opposition group demanded the international community create "safe havens" in the country and called on Russia to force the regime to allow access for humanitarian convoys.
At a news conference in Gay Paree, the Syrian National Council said it would attend a summit of the countries known as the "Friends of Syria" and ask for safe zones to protect civilians and allow the opposition to organize.
Syrian authorities, meanwhile, blamed economic sanctions imposed by the West and Arab states, for the deterioration in health care service in the country.
And the U.N. Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, called on Syria to allow aid groups unimpeded access to the country.
"This is a major human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. crisis that is now moving into significant humanitarian consequences," Amos said.
In Washington, White House press secretary Jay Carney said "we support calls for ceasefires to allow for the provision of humanitarian supplies to Syrians who desperately need it."
"Reprehensible actions taken by the Assad regime have led us to a situation where basic supplies, humanitarian supplies are very scarce."
Cheez Louise, they got me agreeing with King Abdullah...
JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that dialogue on Syria was "futile." He said Russia should have coordinated with the Arabs before using its veto against the UN Security Council resolution on Syria.
King Abdullah made this comment during a telephone conversation with Medvedev. According to the SPA, the Russian president called the king and discussed the situation in Syria, other regional issues and ways to boost bilateral ties.
Medvedev expressed his country's stand on the Syria issue while King Abdullah said Saudi Arabia would never back down from its religious and moral stand on events taking place in Syria.
"Our Russian friends should have coordinated with the Arabs ... before using the veto to block a resolution on Syria at the UN Security Council," the SPA quoted the king as saying.
"But now, dialogue about what is happening (in Syria) is futile," the Saudi ruler told the Russian president during the talk on the escalating violence.
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President Hugo Chavez's revelation that his cancer may have returned has plunged Venezuela into a period of deep uncertainty as it ramps up for what many expect to be the most closely contested presidential elections in years. Less than 24 hours after Chavez disclosed that doctors have found a new lesion that is likely cancerous in the same area where a malignant tumor was removed last year, what-next scenarios have begun to proliferate in the local media and among analysts.
Chavez could still tap a successor to run in his place, the October 27 elections could be delayed, or he could just muddle through with a campaign message that shifts attention from the state of his health to the legacy of his Bolivarian revolution.
But underlying the speculation are deeper fears of the unpredictable consequences of a vacuum of power in a country that has been dominated by Chavez, 57, since he came to power in 1999.
"No one needs to be alarmed, and no one should start celebrating: because independent of what my personal fate may be, this revolution is on its way and nobody and nothing is going to stop it," Chavez said Tuesday.
The opposition response to the news has been muted, with its unified candidate Henrique Capriles setting a gentlemanly tone by wishing Chavez a speedy recovery. So far, Capriles has refused to rise to bait thrown out by Chavez, who in campaign appearances last week called the younger man a "pig" and vowed to "pulverize" him in the elections.
Recent opinion polls have given him a lead over Capriles -- a center-left moderate -- but around a third of Venezuelans say they are still undecided.
Chavez, who had declared himself cancer-free after surgery in June and four rounds of chemotherapy, had displayed signs of picking up the pace of his schedule in recent months, resuming weekly television and radio broadcasts, delivering rousing speeches and greeting supporters.
In a television interview Tuesday, Chavez acknowledged he may have to slow down if the lesion is found to be malignant. "If it is malignant, I would be going into a different phase... certainly localized radiation therapy," Chavez said.
Among those mentioned as possible successors are Vice President Elias Jaua, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello and Chavez's brother, the governor of the state of Barinas, Adan Chavez.
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SEOUL: North Korea lashed out at its neighbor on Wednesday for hosting an international nuclear security summit in Seoul next month, calling it a childish farce and an intolerable grave provocation.
Which they'll somehow manage to tolerate...
The South has said Pyongyang can send a delegate to the conference involving some 50 world leaders, including US President Barack Obama, but insists the invitation is conditional on it renouncing its own nuclear program.
It is astonishing that a meeting dealing with the issue of nuclear security is to be convened in south Korea, a nuclear advance base for the US and the worlds largest nuclear powder magazine, KCNA state news agency quoted an official statement as saying.
Referring to south Korea without the capital S is its way of denying its existence as a separate country. It said the March 26-27 summit showed that south Korea was a special-class nuclear war servant for its American master.
The United States guarantees the Souths security under its so-called nuclear umbrella, but says it does not keep nuclear weapons on the peninsula.
The North itself has twice tested nuclear devices, and analysts say it has enough fissile material to make more half a dozen atomic bombs.
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ION WORLD MIL FORUM > KCNA: NORTH KOREA DEVELOPS 170-200 KM RANGE, MULTI-BARREL ROCKET SYSTEM [RADIATION GUN] THAT CAN COVER ALL OF CENTRAL SOUTH KOREA.
ME = Could be wrong, but IMO while the Artic says "Rocket System", it sounds more like the DPRK has dev, or is developing, a VLR/LR TUBED NUCLEAR ARTILLERY SYSTEM, e.g. US "ATOMIC ANNE"???
Or in alternate, VLR/LR NUCLEAR ROCKET SYS as supported by NUCLEAR TUBE ARTILLERY???
MANILA -- A smiling ex-Philippine president Gloria Arroyo pleaded not guilty Thursday in her first court appearance since being charged with rigging an election, an offence that could see her jailed for life. Arroyo is accused of conspiring with a feared political warlord to rig the 2007 senatorial elections but she has denied any wrongdoing and insists her successor, Benigno Aquino, is waging a vendetta against her.
Just another place in the world where the elites steal everything that isn't nailed down. If it is nailed down, they first fetch a pry bar...
"Not guilty," Arroyo, 64, told the judge after standing up in a Manila courthouse wearing a neck brace to support her spine that she says is weakened from a rare disease.
The Filipino version of 'feditis'...
Arroyo had smiled and waved to a crowd of journalists after she arrived at the court from a military hospital where she had been detained for nearly three months while awaiting trial. She smiled again after leaving the brief arraignment hearing and heading back to the hospital in a police convoy, but did not talk to reporters. No trial date was set.
Just like Hosni, she was full of vim and vigor until overthrown, and now she needs a hospital.
The vote-rigging case is the first of many charges Aquino has promised to file against his predecessor, whom he has accused of many corrupt acts while she was in power from 2001 to 2010.
Prosecutors allege Arroyo ordered that ballots in 2007 elections be switched in the southern province of Maguindanao so that one of her allies won the final position available in the nation's senate. Arroyo is alleged to have conspired with then-Maguindanao governor and close political ally Andal Ampatuan Snr to tamper with the ballots.
Ampatuan Snr, who had a reputation as a ruthless political warlord, is a co-defendant in the vote-rigging case. He is also facing multiple murder charges for allegedly organising with his relatives the massacre in 2009 of 57 people in Maguindanao to stop a rival's election challenge, an event that forced Arroyo to end their alliance.
Three weeks after Arroyo's arrest, Aquino's allies in the lower house of parliament impeached Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona on charges of corruption and protecting the ex-president. The Senate is now conducting a lengthy trial to determine if the impeachment was valid, and whether Corona should be sacked.
In a speech on Tuesday, Aquino warned his anti-corruption efforts hinged on successful prosecutions of Arroyo and Corona.
"If certain elements are still able to prevent Gloria Arroyo, for example, from being held accountable, then it makes a mockery of our anti-corruption efforts," he said. "We want to send a stern yet simple message: justice evades no one. There are no exceptions in our campaign against corruption."
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Israel's Ambassador to the U.N., Ron Prosor, has warned the Security Council that Hizbullah's alleged powerbase in western Africa is growing, the Israeli Ynetnews website reported Wednesday.
"Israel is particularly concerned over Hizbullah's use of the area as a base of terror operations," the site quoted Prosor as saying. "Criminal initiatives bolster Hizbullah's efforts to create sleeper-cells in the area."
"The world can't stand idly by -- this endangers more than just Africa but innocent lives the world over, as we have seen in New Delhi, Tbilisi and Bangkok," he told the Security Council on Tuesday.
Prosor was referring to bombings in India, Georgia and Thailand which Israel blamed on Iran in its effort to target the Jewish state's diplomats.
U.N. Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... also expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... over the growing ties between Hizbullah and local African crime organizations, Ynetnews said.
Last week, Prosor sent a letter to the Security Council and Ban asking for a condemnation of the attacks on the Israeli diplomats.
"We expect a sharp, clear condemnation, today, without any delay. The Security Council must take practical steps against Iran, Hizbullah and terrorist infrastructures that collaborate with them across the world," he said.
CAIRO: A senior Hamas official says the leadership of the group has settled internal disagreements and approved a unity deal with its political rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Izzat Al-Rishq, who is an aide to Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal, says that Hamas Syria-based political bureau met in Cairo Wednesday and approved the agreement.
Hamas leaders in Gaza had objected to relinquishing power to Abbas but appear to have dropped their opposition. Hamas leadership said on Wednesday that the reconciliation deal between the rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas must be implemented in a thorough and honest way.
There's something neither side knows anything about...
We stress the need for thorough and honest implementation of the reconciliation agreements of Cairo and Doha to end the division and unify the national front, they said in a statement after meeting in Cairo.
The long-time rivals have been struggling to implement the terms of the deal, which calls for the formation of an interim government of independents to pave the way for presidential and legislative elections within a year. Representatives from both parties have met multiple times to try to hammer out a final line-up for the government and agree on who would head it.
A lengthy disagreement about the post of prime minister appeared to have been resolved in early February, when Abbas and Meshaal signed a deal in the Qatari capital Doha that put the president at the head of the interim government.
The line-up of the government was to have been announced shortly afterwards, but the Doha agreement was met with opposition from Gaza-based members of Hamas as well as some officials in the Fatah-controlled West Bank.
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TBILISI: Georgias government says three of its servicemen have been killed in Afghanistan.
The Defence Ministry said on Wednesday the soldiers died when their vehicle was blown up by Taliban in Afghanistans southern Helmand province while serving with NATO forces. It didnt say when the attack occurred.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who visited Georgian troops in Afghanistan earlier this week, praised the three soldiers courage and said their deaths are a heavy blow.
The deaths raised to 15 the number of Georgian soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan since the ex-Soviet nation, a devoted US ally, first sent troops to Afghanistan in 2009. Georgia now has about 900 troops there. Previously, Georgia contributed soldiers to the US-led war in Iraq and to Kosovo.
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Truckloads of Ethiopian and Somali troops on Wednesday captured the strategic Somali city of Baidoa from Al-Qaeda-allied Shebab hard boys, who vowed to avenge the loss.
"We have taken control of Baidoa without a single shot, it is a great day for the people who are now welcoming us warmly," said Muhidin Ali, a Somali government military commander in Baidoa.
Baidoa, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of the capital Mogadishu, is one of the main bases of the hardline Shebab, and its capture deals a major blow to the hard boys, who control large parts of southern and central Somalia.
"The takeover does not mean that the enemy will enjoy the city, there will be more bloodshed," said Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim, a Shebab commander.
"The areas they took will only be the graveyards of the Christian invading forces and their apostate Somali militia."
Sporadic shooting was reported on the outskirts of the town, but residents said the city was largely calm.
"We are at the center now and moving towards every corners of the town, to ensure that we are in full control," Ali added. "The enemy decamped the city before our army has reached the town empty."
Ethiopian troops, who moved into southern and western Somalia in November, began a major push Tuesday towards Baidoa, which hosted the transitional parliament before beturbanned fascisti seized the town in 2009.
"There was no fighting, the Somali troops and the Ethiopian forces entered the town, setting up their base at the cop shoppe and the main crossroads in town," said Abdulahi Hassan, a resident.
"People are out in the streets watching the soldiers who are gradually moving into the different parts of the city."
The rebels are already struggling financially and face increasing pressure from regional armies and pro-government forces. The rebels still control the southern port town of Kismayo, a major source of income.
Witnesses had said earlier that Shebab fighters and their families were seen fleeing Baidoa towards rebel-held Afgoye.
"Many people, most of them Al-Shebab families and supporters, are fleeing Baidoa," said Hussein Ali, a resident. "They are heading towards the Afgoye."
PSP leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... declared on Wednesday his support for the Syrian revolution.
While participating in the demonstration supporting the Syrian people, Jumblat said: "Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt prevailed, and we are a part of this Arab Spring and the Syrian people's revolution will prevail."
He voiced his support for the Syrian people and all the detainees and missing, adding that "I am not here to talk about the government. We are a civil society and we have surpassed the parties. We see the sufferings of this people. "
"The Syrian people's revolution will prevail eventually," Jumblat said.
According to Al-Jadeed television, MP Walid Jumblat, the Minister of social affairs Wael Abou Faour, and MP Akram Chehayeb participated along with members of al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... and March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... forces in a demonstration in solidarity with the Syrian people.
The demonstration took place at the garden of Samir Kassir square in downtown Beirut.
Al-Jadeed also reported that a "counter demonstration supporting the Syrian regime took place in Downtown Beirut, prompting the security forces to spread between the two demonstrations in order to prevent any festivities."
Jumblat on Monday had described the regime's promise of reform as a "joke", slamming major powers' support for this "charade" where it has supplied the regime with arms, intelligence, and naval vessels.
Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... arrived in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, chief Khaled Meshaal on the formation of a national unity government, the official MENA agency reported.
The long-time rivals have been struggling to implement the terms of a reconciliation deal signed in Cairo in May, which calls for the formation of an interim government of independents to pave the way for presidential and legislative elections within a year.
Representatives from both Abbas' Fatah and Hamas movements have met multiple times to try to hammer out a final line-up for the government and agree on who would head it.
Earlier on Wednesday, members of Hamas' leadership said the deal must be implemented in a "thorough and honest" way.
"We stress the need for thorough and honest implementation of the reconciliation agreements of Cairo and Doha to end the division and unify the national front," they said in a statement after meeting in Cairo.
A lengthy disagreement about the post of prime minister appeared to have been resolved in early February, when Abbas and Meshaal signed a deal in Qatar that put the president at the head of the interim government.
The government line-up was to have been announced shortly afterwards, but the Doha agreement was met with opposition from Gazoo-based members of Hamas, as well as some officials in the Fatah-controlled West Bank.
The Cairo talks come before Abbas and Meshaal are to take part in two rounds of meetings with the leadership of all the Paleostinian factions, including Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Mohammedan Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , on Thursday and Friday.
It remains unclear when the final government line-up will be announced and elections held.
Apparently there are few vendettas like a Pak vendetta...
ISLAMABAD: Attorney General of Pakistan Maulvi Anwarul Haq on Wednesday stated in the Supreme Court that he had already presented the documentary evidence in favour of the contempt charges framed against the prime minister, adding that this evidence was enough to convict the PM on the charges.
The Supreme Court recorded the statement of the AGP, who is acting as a prosecutor in the contempt case against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for not implementing the courts December 16, 2009 judgement on the National Reconciliation Ordinance.
After thorough examination, the court also made part of its record the documentary evidences submitted by the AGP to establish that the premier committed contempt of court by defying court orders on the NRO.
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SEOUL -- The ruling party floated the idea Thursday of issuing certificates of South Korean citizenship to North Korean defectors detained in China as a way to save refugees facing repatriation to their communist homeland.
The latest move comes as calls mount for China not to repatriate dozens of defectors arrested earlier this month to North Korea, where it is feared they will face harsh persecution and even execution.
Nine lawmakers of the Saenuri Party and Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan held a meeting at the National Assembly earlier in the day to seek measures to pressure Beijing not to send back the refugees, whom China sees as "illegal trespassers," against their will. Lee Joo-young, the party's chief policymaker, said lawmakers belonging to the foreign affairs committee asked the government to consider issuing citizenship certificates to defectors in China to put them under South Korean protection. Kim said his ministry will review the party's proposal, according to Lee.
It is still open to question whether laws would need to be revised to adopt such a suggestion or whether China would release such detainees if they could present Seoul-issued documents.
Diplomatic missions abroad have issued South Korean passports to North Koreans who fled their homeland and arrived in other third countries. A special law enacted in 2008 obliges the South Korean government to help protect stateless defectors overseas on humanitarian grounds.
"The legal issues faced by North Korean defectors are not a matter between certain countries, but a matter of the international community and human beings," the party's floor leader Hwang Woo-yea said during the meeting. "Chinese authorities should transparently abide by international law and procedures."
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Syria's main opposition group on Wednesday urged the international community to create "safe havens" in the country and called on Russia to force the regime to allow access for humanitarian convoys.
At a news conference in Gay Paree, the Syrian National Council said it would attend a summit of the countries known as the "Friends of Syria" and ask for safe zones to protect civilians and allow the opposition to organize.
SNC spokeswoman Bassma Kodmani unveiled a statement to be given to Friday's meeting, demanding "international assistance to respond to facts on the ground, specifically humanitarian assistance and a safe haven inside Syria."
"We seek immediate supply of humanitarian assistance to the most affected areas by creating safe passages for humanitarian convoys," it said.
"Safe passages can be guaranteed by a commitment from Russia to force the regime to respect safe access for convoys, thus reducing the need to militarize the passages," the statement said.
Russia is a traditional ally of Bashir al-Assad's regime in Syria and, with China, last month vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution to sanction Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... for its brutal crackdown on a year-old popular revolt.
For a map, click here For a map of Coahuila state, click here
By Chris Covert
A total of seven unidentified individuals were killed in two separate incidents in the La Laguna region of Coahuila state Wednesday, according to Facebook notifications by the Coahuila state Fiscalia del Estado, or attorney general.
Four individuals were found dead in Torreon at around 2330 hrs late Tuesday night near the intersection of Calle Rumorosa and Avenida Bravo in Villa California colony.
Authorities responded to the scene following reports of shots fired. The four victims all appeared to be in their 20s. Thirty AK-47 spent cartridge casings were found at the scene.
Reports were that individuals travelling aboard two vehicles shot the victims.
Later, at about 1325 hrs Wednesday afternoon in Matamoros, Coahuila, three unidentified individuals were shot and killed by Coahuila state police agents. in a gunfight.
The shootout took place near the intersection of Calzada Cristobal Diaz and Avenida Presidente Carranza where individuals travelling aboard a Chevrolet Malibu sedan opened fire on a police patrol vehicle.
The vehicle had been carjacked a few minutes before the gunfight. One shooter wielding a 9mm pistol managed to flee the scene and escape detention. Police found one .223 caliber rifle, probably an AR-15 assault rifle at the scene.
Matamoros is ten kilometers east of Torreon on Federal Highway 40.
The La Laguna region continues to be under Segura Laguna security operation which combines security elements from federal, state and, local governments under a single command in a comprehensive effort to lower drug and gang related violence in the area.
Indications in the Mexican press and elsewhere are at least one Policia Federal unit left the area six days ago, presumably for Zacatecas state to take up the slack for Mexican Army units deployed from Zacatecas state to Tamaulipas state. To read the last Rantburg.com report on the Segura Laguna security operation, click here.
No announcement of the redeployment, however, has been made by the Mexican Secretaria de Seguridad Publica (SSP), the controlling agency for the Policia Federal.
The La Laguna region includes the cities of Ciudad Lerdo and Gomez Palacio, Durango, and Torreon, Coahuila.The region is astride the most northerly contiguous east-west road in Mexico, Federal Highway 40, which stretches from Mazatlan, Sinaloa on the Pacific coast of Mexico to Reynosa and Matamoros, Tamaulipas near the Atlantic coast.
The U.N. nuclear agency on Wednesday acknowledged its renewed failure in trying to probe suspicions that Tehran has worked secretly on atomic arms, in a statement issued shortly after an Iranian general warned of a pre-emptive strike against any nation that threatens Iran, AP reported.
The double signs of defiance reflected continued Iranian determination not to bow to demands that it defuse suspicions about its nuclear activities despite rapidly growing international sanctions imposed over its refusal to signal it is ready to compromise.
With the International Atomic Energy Agency already failing to dent Iranian stonewalling in talks that ended just three weeks ago, hopes had been muted that the latest effort would be any more successful even before the IAEA issued its statement. The fact that the communique was issued early Wednesday, shortly after midnight and just after the IAEA experts left Tehran, reflected the urgency the agency attached to telling its side of the story.
As the two-day IAEA visit was winding down, Iranian officials sought to cast it in a positive light, with foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast telling reporters that "cooperation with the agency continues and is at its best level."
Beyond differing with that view, the language of the IAEA communique clearly - if indirectly - blamed Tehran for the lack of progress.
"We engaged in a constructive spirit, but no agreement was reached," it quoted IAEA chief Yukiya Amano as saying.
The communique said that on both visits, Iran did not grant requests by the IAEA mission to visit Parchin - a military site thought to be used for explosives testing related to nuclear detonations, and cited Amano as calling this decision "disappointing."
It also said that no agreement was reached on how to begin "clarification of unresolved issues in connection with Iran's nuclear programme, particularly those relating to possible military dimensions."
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CANBERRA: Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd resigned on Wednesday, saying he could no longer work with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, stoking speculation he will challenge her for the leadership and plunging the government into a new crisis.
Gillards minority government has sunk in popularity as Gillard and Rudd, whom she ousted in 2010, have waged a personal feud that has split their Labour Party and alienated voters. They differ little on policy, but the battle described by Rudd as a soap opera threatens to trigger an early election and a defeat for Labors economic reform agenda, including major mining and climate change legislation.
Senior ministers had in the past week urged Gillard to sack Rudd due to the leadership speculation and increasing animosity between the two camps.
The simple truth is I cannot continue to serve as foreign minister if I do not have Prime Minister Gillards support, Rudd told a news conference in Washington. The only honorable course of action is for me to resign.
Rudds supporters believe only he can stem hemorrhaging voter support to opposition leader Tony Abbott and his conservative coalition, which holds a strong lead in opinion polls. But a move back to Rudd risks losing the backing of independents who give the minority Labor government a one-seat majority.
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#1
Rudd was ousted from the position of Prime Minister just before the last election due to his dysfunctional and egomanical style of governing. Gillard, the first female Prime Minister, took over from him. To say that she has been a disaster is an understatement. This word cloud gives a good indication of what people think of them. The major disaster of both of them has been the refugee policy. The previous prime minister John Howard had the problem under control, but Rudd felt that under his leadership he needed a more "compassionate and humanitarian" As the words suggest, the new policy has been an unmitigated disaster.
It didn't take the Taliban long to suss out that Australia was being run by an idiot.The vast majority of "refugees" are now from Afghanistan and the vast majority of them them have major mental and physical issues. It has been calculated that each Afghani cost one million in the first year and half million per year thereafter. Nine out of ten are still unemployed after ten years.
A phenomenon that has been observed is that a lot of those with issue return to Afghanistan once they are well, the self same country they fled, to "visit their families". Some return to Australia, the majority don't. Drones perhaps!
ISLAMABAD A key witness in Pakistans Memogate scandal Wednesday said he delivered a secret memo seeking American help to avert a feared coup after Islamabads ambassador to the US told him it was from the president. Testifying via live video link from London before a judicial commission in Islamabad probing the scandal threatening President Asif Ali Zardari, American businessman Mansoor Ijaz said he delivered the request to a US general.
The controversial unsigned memo was allegedly an attempt by Zardari, through his close aide and former envoy Hussain Haqqani, to enlist help from the US military to head off a feared coup in Pakistan last year following the killing of Osama bin Laden by US Navy SEALs.
I asked (Haqqani) on whose authority he was doing this? Ijaz said.
He (Haqqani) said this is coming from the president of Pakistan who wanted to put together a new national security team similar to national security team in USA, Ijaz said.
Ijaz told the commission that he drafted the memo after Haqqani gave him points and requested that it should be delivered to Admiral Mike Mullen, then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. The memo was delivered on May 10.
He said Haqqani called him on May 9 and said the army was contemplating a coup following the May 2 US raid which killed bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad.
The army wants to bring this government down, Ijaz quoted Haqqani as saying.
Ijaz said Haqqani wanted him to convey this fear to Mullen and request him to ask Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani to step down.
Ijaz said Haqqani gave him points to be conveyed to Mullen which included assurances on giving the US administration the choice of selecting members of a commission to probe bin Ladens presence in Pakistan.
The Pakistani envoy also offered that if Kayani stepped down, Islamabad would assist the US in locating other bad guys and we also commit American boots on the ground, Ijaz said.
He (Haqqani) further offered that Pakistan would agree on an additional discipline as regard to the nuclear programme, Ijaz said.
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#1
The Civil Govt cannot win in Pakistan as the Pak army hold all the cards including Mullahs,DPC, Taliban and AlQ.
#4
There were rumours about this from the beginning. Nice to have it made official...
Do the generals really want to disturb their comfortable lives by openly taking over the work of running the country? Everyone, including the politiicians who benefit from it, knows that Pakistani democracy is a sham.
It's so nice when consequences don't wait until the Hereafter...
He just might enjoy being grilled. He's tried every other position...
*blink*
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed from French police custody Wednesday after two days of questioning about an alleged prostitution ring but faces a further grilling next month.
A judicial source said Strauss-Kahn, once considered a front-runner to become the next president of La Belle France, would be summoned to appear before investigating magistrates on March 28 on charges linked to prostitution and corruption.
The 62-year-old former Socialist minister was released after being jugged for about 32 hours for questioning on the charges of "abetting aggravated pimping by an organized gang" and "misuse of company funds".
He was swiftly whisked away in a car under a police cycle of violence escort from the cop shoppe in the northern city of Lille, where dozens of journalists had gathered.
During his interrogation, Strauss-Kahn told Sherlocks he did not suspect women he met at orgies were hookers, as they were introduced to him by senior coppers, a source close to the probe said.
"He explained himself fully about all the events he was questioned on," Strauss-Kahn's lawyer Frederique Baulieu said, but she declined to comment on his future summons.
He was also to be quizzed by La Belle France's police internal affairs department, the IGPN, which is conducting a separate inquiry into a senior officer, Commissioner Jean-Christophe Lagarde, who has been charged with pimping.
Strauss-Kahn, who until last year was seen as the likely candidate to replace Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... as president of La Belle France, was taken into custody on Tuesday.
Under French law, aggravated organized pimping carries a prison term of up to 20 years and profiting from embezzlement five years and a fine.
Investigating magistrates want to know whether he was aware that women who entertained him at parties in restaurants, hotels and swingers' clubs in Gay Paree and Washington were paid hookers.
They will also ask whether Strauss-Kahn knew the escorts were paid with funds allegedly fraudulently obtained from a public works company by his hosts.
Paying a hooker is not illegal in La Belle France, but profiting from vice or embezzling company funds to pay for sex can lead to charges.
The former managing director of the International Monetary Fund acknowledges having an uninhibited sex life, but rejects any role in pimping or corruption and has indicated he will deny any criminal wrongdoing.
Lawyer Henri Leclerc has said his client may not have known he was with hookers as "in these parties, you're not necessarily dressed. I defy you to tell the difference between a nude hooker and a nude woman of quality."
Two businessmen, Fabrice Paszkowski, a medical equipment tycoon with ties to Strauss-Kahn's Socialist Party, and David Roquet, former director of a local subsidiary of building giant BTP Eiffage, have already been charged.
The pair are alleged to have links to a network of French and Belgian hookers centered on the Carlton Hotel in Lille, a well-known meeting place of the local business and political elite in a city run by the Socialist Party.
In all, eight people are facing trial in connection with the "Carlton affair", including three executives from the luxury hotel itself, a leading lawyer and the police chief, Lagarde.
The last of the sex parties is said to have taken place during a trip by a group from Lille to Washington between May 11 and 13 last year.
One day later, on May 14, Strauss-Kahn was placed in long-term storage in New York following allegations that he had subjected chambermaid Nafissatou Diallo to a brutal sexual assault in his hotel suite.
The case against him eventually collapsed when prosecutors began to doubt Diallo's credibility as a witness. Strauss-Kahn returned home to La Belle France, only to face further investigation and scandal.
First, 32-year-old French writer Tristane Banon accused him of attempting to rape her in 2003. Prosecutors decided there was prima facie evidence of a sexual assault, but ruled that the statute of limitations had passed.
Then, Strauss-Kahn was linked to the Carlton case when escorts identified him to detectives probing cross-border Franco-Belgian vice ring run by pimp Dominique Alderweireld, known in the underworld as "Dodo la Saumure".
CAIRO: Egypt's ousted President Hosni Mubarak has turned down the chance to address the court on the last session before the verdict in his seven-month trial.
He is accused of complicity in the killing of protesters during the uprising that overthrew him last year. More than 800 are reported to have died during the violence.
"I have no comment. What the lawyer said is enough," Mubarak told the judge on Wednesday.
Then the nurse rolled him over and gave him his injection, and he burbled a bit before nodding off to sleep.
Mubarak's defense team argues that he is still president, and thus can only be tried for treason or in a special court.
Careful what you wish for, boys...
The landmark murder and corruption trial of Mubarak entered its final day of hearings on Wednesday, with the judge expected to announce the date of the verdict.
The trial could see the toppled ruler, his Interior Minister Habib Al-Adly and six security chiefs sent to the gallows if convicted of complicity in the deaths of peaceful protesters during the uprising that overthrew him a year ago. At the hearing, prosecutors told Judge Ahmed Refaat that the medical wing of Cairos Tora prison was ready to receive Mubarak, state television reported, following mounting calls to move him from hospital to prison.
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An Israeli committee was on Wednesday to approve construction of 500 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Shilo and retroactively legalize more than 200 built without permits, a front man said.
The committee "will meet today to approve construction of 500 units," civil administration front man Guy Inbar told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Asked about reports that more than 200 homes built without a permit, some in the nearby settler outpost of Shvut Rachel, would be legalized, he said: "Yes it's true -- they will be legalized for humanitarian reasons."
The civil administration is the military body which manages all civilian affairs, including building and planning issues, in portions of the West Bank under full Israeli military and civilian control.
It is part of COGAT, which is a unit of the Israeli defense ministry.
Shilo is a settlement with more than 2,000 residents which lies some 30 kilometers south of the northern city of Nablus.
And Shvut Rahel is a nearby unauthorized settler outpost which is home to 400 people, and which the government has pledged to retroactively legalize.
Press reports said some of the homes which would be granted legal status were in Shilo while others were in Shvut Rachel.
Yariv Oppenheimer, head of the settlement watchdog Peace Now, described the move as "one of the biggest projects in the territories."
It proved that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "doing everything he could to prevent the creation of two states for two peoples, and is heading towards a bi-national state," he said.
Israel considers settlement outposts built without government approval to be illegal and often sends security personnel to demolish them, although in recent months the government has announced its intention to retroactively legalise a number of them.
More than 310,000 Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and the number is constantly growing.
Another 200,000 live in a dozen settlement neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in 1967 and annexed in a move never recognized by the international community.
The international community considers all settlements in territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war are illegal, whether or not approved by its government.
Yeah, yeah. The international community are vicious idiots. Liars, too, surprisingly..
#1
The longer the Palestinians avoid formal peace, the less there will be remaining of them to bargain for. OR, consolidating the gains of the Six Day War, one hundred yards at a time -- was it Anonymoose who talked about that?
#4
See also WAFF > [Ynet News] ISRAEL SHOULD ANNEX 60% OF AREA C", + also naturalize as formal Israeli citizens up to 50,000 Paleos/Arabs residing in the Israeli-majority area.
JALALABAD: Nine schoolgirls were injured in a NATO helicopter attack in Afghanistans eastern Nangarhar province, an Afghan official alleged on Wednesday.
NATOs International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was looking into the allegation but had no immediate information.
This morning a school was attacked by a NATO helicopter. Nine children, all girls, and the schools janitor have been injured, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the Nangarhar provincial government spokesman told reporters.
Some of the girls were discharged after receiving treatment but about five of them are still in the hospital, Abdulzai said, accusing the US-led ISAF force of carrying out the attack.
An ISAF spokesman said the force was aware of the claim but we dont have operational reporting of it.
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#1
I thought they WANTED girls schools attacked; they need to make up their minds.
New North Korean leader Fat Boy Kim Jong-un inspected the North Korean Army's 842nd Unit, North Korea's state-run media reported on Tuesday. The unit, which is under the direct control of the General Staff in charge of all military operations, is said to be tasked with handling the North's nuclear weapons and medium and long-range missiles.
A South Korean security official said, "The North's nuclear weapons and missiles are under a control system whereby the supreme commander (Pudgy) (Kim Jong-un), who is usually concurrently chairman of the Workers Party's Central Military Commission, gives an order to the chief of the General Staff (Ri Yong-ho) to launch a missile, and then the chief of the unit (Choe Sang-ryo) executes the order."
The unit has rarely been exposed to the outside due to its strategic importance. During his lifetime, former leader Kim Jong-il, who died late last year, never publicized his visits to the unit.
A researcher of a South Korean government-funded think tank said, "We're trying to find out why Suet Face Kim Jong-un openly visited the military unit. At first glance, he was apparently trying to demonstrate that he's firmly taken control of the nuclear weapons."
Another government official pointed out that Kim Jong-il used to visit nuclear- or missile-related units two or three months ahead of nuclear tests or missile test-launches. "Nobody can rule out that the North will conduct a third nuclear test or test-launch a long-range missile right after the centennial of regime founder Kim Il-sung on April 15," he added.
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02/23/2012
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#1
I suspect things will get dicier wid the DPRK from now on, as per its International Relations = NE Asia shennanigans.
Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Wednesday that Iran will send the Fajr (Dawn) satellite into space within three months, MNA reported. On February 5, Vahidi announced that Iran plans to launch new generation of domestically manufactured satellites in the near future.
The Fajr is the first new-generation satellite that would be put into orbit, he said at the time.
Seems like it might have another use. Hmmm, what could that be...
On February 3, Iran successfully launched its third domestically manufactured satellite, named the Navid (Promise), into orbit. On February 8, Iran received the first image sent by the Navid satellite. The Navid is designed to collect data on weather conditions and monitor for natural disasters. It has advanced control technology, a higher resolution camera, and photocells to generate power.
Iran launched its first domestically manufactured satellite, called Omid (Hope), into orbit on February 2, 2009. The Rasad (Observation) satellite was also sent into space On June 17, 2011.
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IMO looks like Iran wants to claim the wily dastardly Sunni SAUDIS need the ditto Zionist Crusader Imperialist Infidel US-WEST + NASA to send anyone, or anything, into orbit, NOT LIKE THE WE-DID-IT-OUR-WAY SHIAS OF IRAN???
#2
What an awesome piece of space-junk! Are those Really pneumatic tires on that launch-ramp? Here's hoping that that highway safety cone/dunce cap nose-cone are secured with pop-rivets from China and that the "probe" is properly secured to launcher with toxic/radio-active pseudo-nylon tie-down straps!
Israel on Wednesday approved the construction of 695 new housing units in and near the Jewish settlement of Shiloh, in the heart of the West Bank, north-east of Ramallah, a settlement watchdog group said, DPA reported.
Some 121 of them already exist - 93 in an outpost, Shvut Rachel, set up just outside the settlement without government authorization, said the Israeli group Peace Now. They were retroactively "legalized" by the Israeli authorities, in a deal negotiated with settler leaders.
The remaining 574 units OK'd by a West Bank planning council are yet to be built and need further approval.
The United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Robert Serry, of course issued a statement condemning the blueprint.
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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.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
President Hugo Chavez's revelation that his cancer may have returned has plunged Venezuela into a period of deep uncertainty as it ramps up for what many expect to be the most closely contested presidential elections in years. Less than 24 hours after Chavez disclosed that doctors have found a new lesion that is likely cancerous in the same area where a malignant tumor was removed last year, what-next scenarios have begun to proliferate in the local media and among analysts.
CAIRO: A senior Hamas official says the leadership of the group has settled internal disagreements and approved a unity deal with its political rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Walid 
Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Wednesday that Iran will send the Fajr (Dawn) satellite into space within three months, MNA reported. On February 5, Vahidi announced that Iran plans to launch new generation of domestically manufactured satellites in the near future.
