The film "Fitna" by Dutch parliament member Geert Wilders has created an uproar around the world because it links violence committed by Islamists to Islam.
Many commentators and politicians -- including the British government, which denied him entry to the country last month -- reflexively accused Mr. Wilders of inciting hatred. The question, however, is whether the blame is with Mr. Wilders, who simply exposed Islamic radicalism, or with those who promote and engage in this religious extremism. In other words, shall we fault Mr. Wilders for raising issues like the stoning of women, or shall we fault those who actually promote and practice this crime?
Many Muslims seem to believe that it is acceptable to teach hatred and violence in the name of their religion -- while at the same time expecting the world to respect Islam as a religion of peace, love and harmony.
Scholars in the most prestigious Islamic institutes and universities continue to teach things like Jews are "pigs and monkeys," that women and men must be stoned to death for adultery, or that Muslims must fight the world to spread their religion. Isn't, then, Mr. Wilders's criticism appropriate? Instead of blaming him, we must blame the leading Islamic scholars for having failed to produce an authoritative book on Islamic jurisprudence that is accepted in the Islamic world and unambiguously rejects these violent teachings.
While many religious texts preach violence, the interpretation, modern usage and implementation of these teachings make all the difference. For example, the stoning of women exists in both the Old Testament and in the Islamic tradition, or "Sunna" -- the recorded deeds and manners of the prophet Muhammad. The difference, though, is that leading Jewish scholars agreed to discontinue these practices centuries ago, while Muslim scholars have yet to do so. Hence we do not see the stoning of women practiced or promoted in Israel, the "Jewish" state, but we see it practiced and promoted in Iran and Saudi Arabia, the "Islamic" states.
When the British government banned Geert Wilders from entering the country to present his film in the House of Lords, it made two egregious errors. The first was to suppress free speech, a canon of the civilized Western world. The second mistake was to blame the messenger -- punishing, so to speak, the witness who exposed the crime instead of punishing the criminal. Mr. Wilders did not produce the content of the violent Islamic message he showed in his film -- the Islamic world did that. Until the Islamic clerical establishment takes concrete steps to reject violence in the name of their religion, Mr. Wilders's criticism is not only permissible as "controversial" free speech but justified.
So, Islamic scholars and clerics, it is up to you to produce a Shariah book that will be accepted in the Islamic world and that teaches that Jews are not pigs and monkeys, that declaring war to spread Islam is unacceptable, and that killing apostates is a crime. Such a book would prove that Islam is a religion of peace.
As a society, we should pay in taxes what it costs government to provide desired services. If benefits don't seem equal to burdens, then the spending isn't worth having (exceptions: deficits in wartime and economic slumps).
If Obama were "responsible," he would conduct a candid conversation about the role of government. Who deserves support and why? How big can government grow before higher taxes and deficits harm economic growth? Although Obama claims to be doing this, he hasn't confronted entitlement psychology -- the belief that government benefits once conferred should never be revoked.
Is it in the public interest for the well-off elderly (say, a couple with $125,000 of income) to be subsidized, through Social Security and Medicare, by poorer young and middle-aged workers? Are any farm subsidies justified when they aren't essential for food production? We wouldn't starve without them.
Given an aging America, government faces huge conflicts between spending on the elderly and spending on everything else. But even before most of baby boomers retire (in 2016, only a quarter will have reached 65), Obama's government would have grown. In 2016, federal spending is projected to be 22.4 percent of GDP, up from 21 percent in 2008; federal taxes, 19.2 percent of GDP, up from 17.7 percent.
It would also be "responsible" for Obama to acknowledge the big gamble in his budget. National security has long been government's first job. In his budget, defense spending drops from 20 percent of the total in 2008 to 14 percent in 2016, the smallest share since the 1930s. The decline presumes a much safer world. If the world doesn't cooperate, deficits would grow.
The gap between Obama rhetoric and Obama reality transcends the budget, as do the consequences. In 2009, the stock market has declined 23.78 percent (through March 5), says Wilshire Associates. The Wall Street Journal's editorial page blames Obama's policies for all the fall. That's unfair; the economy's deterioration was a big cause. Still, Obama isn't blameless.
Confidence (too little) and uncertainty (too much) define this crisis. Obama's double talk reduces the first and raises the second. He says he's focused on reviving the economy, but he's also using the crisis to advance an ambitious long-term agenda. The two sometimes collide. The $787 billion "stimulus" is weaker than necessary, because almost $200 billion for extended projects (high-speed rail, computerized medical records) take effect after 2010. When Congress debates Obama's sweeping health care and energy proposals, industries, regions and governmental philosophies will clash. Will this improve confidence? Reduce uncertainty?
A prudent president would have made a "tough choice" -- concentrated on the economy; deferred his more contentious agenda. Similarly, Obama claims to seek bipartisanship but, in reality, doesn't. His bipartisanship consists of including a few Republicans in his Cabinet and inviting some Republican congressmen to the White House for the Super Bowl. It does not consist of fashioning proposals that would attract bipartisan support on their merits. Instead, he clings to dubious, partisan policies (mortgage cramdown, union check-off) that arouse fierce opposition.
Obama thinks he can ignore these blatant inconsistencies. Like many smart people, he believes he can talk his way around problems. Maybe. He's helped by much of the media, who seem so enthralled with him that they don't see glaring contradictions. During the campaign, Obama said he would change Washington's petty partisanship; he also advocated a highly partisan agenda. Both claims could not be true. The media barely noticed; the same obliviousness persists. But Obama still runs a risk: that his overworked rhetoric loses its power and boomerangs on him.
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<<< In 2009, the stock market has declined 23.78 percent (through March 5), says Wilshire Associates. The Wall Street Journal's editorial page blames Obama's policies for all the fall. That's unfair; the economy's deterioration was a big cause. Still, Obama isn't blameless. >>>>
Its not in the least bit unfair. The market is forward looking. It believed the hopeamania. That's why it ran up in December through January. It started falling as soon as the wrapping was taken off the new package to reveal Pandora's box. It's fallen 12% since the dividend and tax changes were announced whaich are taking place this October.
In any case, pull apart the market move. Commodities and Oil have bottomed and are now on the way up. That's because the market knows that inflation is on the way. The inflationary effects of the budget proposal and spending bill, the yield curve and the intention to further tax oil companies in the GOM by removing deductions will further reduce domestic supply. Doubling alternative sources [which Bush in fact did] would take "alternative" power generation from 1% to 2%. Its nuts. No-one is paying sufficient attention to the big con in this area.
The other half of the equation is the continuing massive drop in banking because Geithner is proving by his actions that he is operating in a field well above his competency level.
SAN SALVADOR -- After a 12-year civil war and a peace undermined by soaring crime, leftists in El Salvador are on the verge of completing a remarkable journey from armed struggle to the presidential palace.
Their candidate is a veteran TV broadcaster and morning talk show host, Mauricio Funes, whose Facebook page lists his political views as "other." Funes, 49, a former correspondent for CNN en Español, was recently recruited by the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the revolutionary group-turned-mainstream political party that is favored by polls to win the presidency in a vote scheduled for March 15.
Though the FMLN standard-bearers traditionally campaign dressed in fiery red, Funes favors a white Panama shirt, hip bluejeans and designer glasses. And while some of his FMLN stalwarts still favor rhetoric that evokes Cuba's Castro brothers, Funes considers himself to be El Salvador's Barack Obama -- an agent of change in a country beset by the highest murder rate in Latin America and an economy in free fall.
The comparison is overt: Funes and the FMLN use images of Obama in their ads (despite objections by the U.S. State Department), saying both candidates were smeared by their opponents as allies of extremists. The FMLN television spots complete the link by employing the Obama slogan in English and Spanish, vowing "Yes, we can!"
"During the entire history of El Salvador, the left has never had such opportunity to win as it does now," said José Raymundo Calderón Morán, a historian and dean of the University of El Salvador. "The people see a possibility for change, because one way or the other, they are demanding something different, no matter who wins."
Operating from the forested slopes of volcanoes, FMLN guerrillas during the 1980s and into the early 1990s fought a repressive military government that was backed by arms, training and billions of dollars in aid from the United States in one of the last conflicts of the Cold War. More than 70,000 people died in the 12-year war, many of them peasants. The war gained notoriety for the rape and murder of U.S. nuns and the assassination of Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero. It ended without any real winners in a U.N.-brokered truce in 1992, which saw the rebirth of the FMLN as a traditional political party. Today, the FMLN has mayors in city halls across the country and recently won 35 of 84 seats in the national assembly, making it the top vote-getter.
A win by Funes would put another Latin American country firmly on the political left, joining the "pink tide" of governments in Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay and Nicaragua. The question about Funes in the minds of El Salvador's voters, according to interviews and polls, is what kind of left? Will it be the democratic, globalized, pro-business, moderate left that is friendly toward the United States, like Brazil? Or the populist, hard-line, nationalistic left that is antagonistic toward United States, like Venezuela?
Funes has said that his left is the moderate kind, and that the Cold War needs to end in El Salvador. He has vowed to appoint a mixed cabinet composed of not only FMLN members but outsiders such as himself.
"I represent a new kind of leadership in El Salvador," he said, sweat pouring moments after he finished a high-octane speech in front of 1,000 supporters in the plaza in Metapan on Saturday night. In his address, he vowed to put medicine on hospital shelves, help families left behind by immigrants working in the United States and reduce the price of fertilizer. Funes was introduced by a mayor in a cowboy hat, who was wearing a pistol shoved into his waistband and who worked up the crowd by proclaiming that Funes would end the rule of the "bloodsuckers."
"The business community is not afraid of us," Funes said in an interview. "And we are not afraid of business. I will work to strengthen the relationship with the United States, to make the U.S. more of a partner, and I think we will work well together."
El Salvador's close relationship with the United States has been a campaign issue. On Saturday, there was a stadium-size celebration to salute the last returning soldiers from Iraq, where El Salvador once had 6,000 troops. The current president, Elías Antonio Saca, was a frequent visitor to the Bush White House. As many as 2 million Salvadorans reside in the United States, and many live in the Washington area. Remittances from Salvadorans living abroad are estimated at $3.8 billion annually, about 20 percent of the gross domestic product.
Funes's opponent is Rodrigo Ávila, 44, former chief of the National Police, who represents the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), which was formed by Cold War conservatives and was the winner of the last four presidential contests. Ávila says Funes is a puppet who will serve his true masters -- the FMLN hardliners who want to turn El Salvador into a Venezuelan satellite, under the influence of President Hugo Chávez.
Probing the 26/11 Mumbai attack, Interpol officials have praised Pakistan's efforts to find the plotters and chided India for not sharing information with them.
The France-based international security organization has announced an agreement with Pakistan to aid an investigation into the masterminds behind 26/11.
They say that though India has shared information with the FBI, they have kept Interpol largely out of the loop.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/09/2009
17:05 ||
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NEW DELHI, March 9 (Xinhua) -- India is reluctant to provide further evidence to Interpol on Mumbai terror attacks fearing it might result in Pakistan gaining insight into its intelligence operations, a senior government official said on Monday.
"India doesn't want Pakistan to gain knowledge of its intelligence operations," the official said, on condition of anonymity.
India has already shared evidence of the Mumbai terror attacks last November with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with the United States.
"The country is not bound to share any information on the attacks to Interpol until it feels necessary," the official said.
Pakistan has reportedly rejected an offer of assistance from the FBI.
Interpol officials have praised Pakistan's efforts to find the plotters but chided India for not sharing the information with them.
"India has shared information with the FBI, they have kept Interpol largely out of the loop. So far, we have received no information from the government of India or any (Indian) police organization," Interpol official Noble told the media Sunday in Islamabad.
The France-based international police organization has also announced an agreement with Pakistan to aid an investigation into the masterminds behind the Mumbai attacks.
Islamabad has admitted that part of the Mumbai terr plot was hatched on Pakistani soil, but called on India to provide more information about the attacks.
Pakistan has also pledged to provide Interpol with DNA evidence that was recovered, which will be cross-referenced against its global database of 83,000 DNA profiles.
Local news media reported that the evidence included samples from relatives of various Pakistani suspects, including of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only suspected assailant in custody.
But Noble had said that "in order for these comparisons to be completed, India will be required to send Interpol the DNA profiles that they obtained in their investigation."
Posted by: john frum ||
03/09/2009 17:11
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Maybe Interpol should mind it's own business.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
03/09/2009 21:37
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Currently, the U.S. has the second-highest corporate tax on Earth. U.S. firms can compete in Europe by opening a subsidiary in a low-tax country and locating the profits there. Since the high U.S. tax applies only when the money is mailed home, and firms can let the money sit abroad for as long as they want, the big disadvantage of the high rate is muted significantly.
End that deferral opportunity and U.S. firms will no longer be able to compete, given their huge tax disadvantage. With foreign tax rates so low now, it is even possible that the end of deferral could lead to the extinction of the U.S. corporation.
If any firms are to remain, they will be festooned with massive carbon-permit expenses because of Obamas new cap-and- trade program.
Perot would have nothing on the huge sucking sound of U.S. Corporations leaving the U.S. for foreign soil.
In fact I am beginning to think that is the whole idea behind Bambi's tactics.....
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has begun developing an extended range versions of its home-grown missile defence shield to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) or missiles which have ranges greater than 5000 km. Phase 2 of the missile defence shield will be the class of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missiles, Dr V.K. Saraswat, DRDO Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), said today.
While Saraswat did not mention it, defence analysts feel that Phase 2 of the missile defence shield is almost certainly meant to defend India from China's arsenal of ICBMs. China is the only Asian country which has an ICBM arsenal, including submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
The Ballistic Missile Interceptor, which successfully intercepted a Dhanush-ballistic missile test-fired from a warship the INS Subhadra is part of the ballistic missile defence system which can only shoot down intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) of upto 2000 km range like Pakistan's Ghauri and Shaheen missiles. "This system will be out mainstay until we enter Phase 2," Dr Saraswat said, addressing the media after Friday's successful test-firing of the Advanced Air Defence System from Wheeler Island. The Phase 1 is to be completed and ready for induction by 2011.
Dr Saraswat said that Phase 2 was far more challenging because it calls for detecting ICBMs hurtling at twice the speeds of intermediate range missiles. It not only requires bigger interceptor missiles flying at hypersonic speeds of between six and seven times the speed of sound (present interceptor speeds are between Mach 4 and Mach 5) but also radars to detect incoming ICBMs at ranges of over 1500 kms as opposed to the current detection ranges of over 600 km.
Phase 2 will be part of the DRDO's attempts at incrementally increasing the BMD capabilities of the home-grown system. Friday's test was the third successful test of the ballistic missile since it was first test-fired in December 2006 the first test shot of the exo-atmospheric interceptor down a missile 45 km away; the second test a year later proved the endo-atmospheric or Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor, which shot downed an incoming ballistic missile 15 km away and Friday's test, shot down a ballistic missile 48 km away. The interceptor used a 'gimbaled directional warhead' or a warhead only one side of which explodes close to an incoming ballistic missile, shattering it.
For Phase 2, Dr Saraswat said that the organisation had already begun development of a two-stage hypersonic missile interceptor called the PDV and it would be ready in two years. It had also put in place the building blocks for developing extended range radars of over 1500 km.
Unlike the exo-atmospheric interceptor, which was test-fired on Friday, the PDV has two stages, a liquid and a solid. The PDV is a longer missile with two solid stages. It is in the class of the THAAD or Terminal High Altitude Area Defence missiles deployed by the United States as part of its missile shield beginning this year. THAAD boasts of missiles which can intercept ballistic missiles over 200 km away and tracking radars with ranges of over 1000 km.
The only Achilles heel in the Phase 1 of the ballistic missile interceptor is that it cannot tackle strategic cruise missiles like the Tomahawk flying a little over tree-top height. For intercepting such flat-trajectory weapons would call for airborne systems capable of tracking them, Saraswat said.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/09/2009
16:13 ||
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They look like primary school kids who haven't been trained in the skill yet. I'm surprised the exercise leaders didn't stop to break down the exercise for them -- the Iraqis won't get nearly as much out of it so long as they do it wrong.
They seem to have a more streamlined process than us...
LONDON (Reuters) A Mexican national who told airport immigration he was visiting Britain to see a friend was swiftly deported after a search unearthed a good-luck card in his luggage wishing him well for his "new life in the UK." Oh, that. Wait! That's not my luggage!
UK Border Agency officers at Manchester Airport routinely stopped the 40-year-old chef after he arrived on a flight from Los Angeles last Friday. The man told them he was on a short trip to see a friend who was opening a restaurant in the area. "However, a search of the passenger's baggage revealed a huge collection of Mexican food recipes and a good-luck card from his church wishing him well for his 'new life in the UK,'" the agency said in a statement. Not so fast there, amigo...
The man later admitted he had intended to work at the restaurant illegally and had planned to bring his family over from America if he liked it. He was deported the next day. So now they're sneaking out of America?
"We will not tolerate people coming here to work illegally," the agency said. "People wanting to visit the UK must play by the rules. Those who do not are sent back." Adios, muchacho!
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"We will not tolerate people coming here to work illegally," the agency said. "People wanting to visit the UK must play by the rules. Those who do not are sent back."
Yeah. All those illegal muzzies you have now are too much of a strain on your socialist society.
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I watched a reality TV show last night about immigration enforcement officers in the UK. In the show the found 3 illegals by doing identity checks at a railway station. Only one who violently resisted was held. The other 2 were released to report in later. They of course didn't report and promptly dissapeared.
More importantly, the comments of the immigration officers showed they didn't take their job seriously. They knew it was like trying to empty the ocean with a tea spoon.
Illegal immigration is just as out of control in the UK as it is in the USA.
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RUMORMILLNEWS [paraph]> RADIO INTERVIEW: IN AFTERMATH OF ANY DE FACTO MEXICAN CIVIL WAR, UP TO 50 MILYUHN MEXICAN REFUGEES [10-50Milyuhn]COULD BE RESETTLED IN AMER HEARTLAND RED STATES [Scenario > 1/2 of Mexico's population = LEGAL + VOTING US CITIZENS by 2012] - ARTICLE also claims POTUS OBAMA ADMIN NEEDS OWG-NWO UP AND RUNNING [proto-OWG?] BY 2012.
ALso, CHINESE MIL FORUM [combined]> POSTERS PAKISTAN MAY BECOME A FAILED STATE LIKE MEXICO/TALIBAN EXPANDING REIGN OF TERROR [ National-Regional]; OR BECOM LIKE SOUTH VIETNAM???
On this page last week I argued that Barack Obama's first budget showed him to be more of a left-leaning liberal than I and many others -- sceptics and admirers alike -- had previously supposed. People I respect have accused me of going off the deep end about this, or of neglecting Mr Obama's tactical finesse, or both.
Mr Obama is calling for little that he did not promise in the campaign, I am reminded, so he cannot be accused of springing a surprise. I welcome many of the budget's main elements, notably healthcare reform and the cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, and the president made it clear all along that he wished to reverse the Bush tax cuts for the high paid. So the revelation that Mr Obama is a progressive liberal must arise from the proposal to curb high earners' income-tax deductions. That was a surprise, but a small matter: hence the charge that I am getting carried away.
Alternatively, I am told, Mr Obama is playing a shrewder game. Like any good negotiator, he has adopted a maximalist opening position. He expects to be walked back from it, ending up where he wanted to be in the first place, with a more centrist plan than the one he pitched.
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It depends how that is defined. Did Carter have good political skills? Being popular before you get the job and conning your way into it is different from failing in the job and proving to be a dud.
It wasn't that hard to win the job when the MSM doesn't ask questions. The post today concerning Obama ringing back the NYT to find out if the "socialist" question is an example. Probably the first time he was asked a searching question and the idea shocked him more than the question.
The same violent groups warring in Mexico have established Atlanta as the principal distribution center for the entire eastern U.S.
Their presence and ruthless tactics are largely unknown to most here. Yet, of the 195 U.S. cities where Mexican drug-trafficking organizations are operating, federal law enforcement officials say Atlanta has emerged as the new gateway to the troubled Southwest border.
Rival drug cartels, the same violent groups warring in Mexico for control of routes to lucrative U.S. markets, have established Atlanta as the principal distribution center for the entire eastern U.S., according to the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center.
In fiscal year 2008, federal drug authorities seized more drug-related cash in Atlanta -- about $70 million -- than any other region in the country, Drug Enforcement Administration records show.
This year, more than $30 million has been intercepted in the Atlanta area -- far more than the $19 million in Los Angeles and $18 million in Chicago.
Also, an American was found in Mexico decapitated and cut into chunks. He was recently released from US prison for drugs selling.
Posted by: ed ||
03/09/2009 14:32
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also have a high influx of immigrants from n=mexico since atl is a major drug distribution center since you have ibterstaes going up north and ttoo other parts of the country, but don't worry about the meth epidemic that ICE nad crack are just recreational use
Welcome to reality. Open borders. Political pampering of the non-citizen over the citizen (for votes of course). No need for id when voting, hell, we can now have MS-13 politicos running the city!
You "multi-culturalists" want the world to love us?
President Obama was so concerned that he had appeared to dismiss a question from New York Times reporters about whether he was a socialist that he called the newspaper from the Oval Office to clarify his policies.
"It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question," he told reporters, who had interviewed the president aboard Air Force One on Friday.
Opening the unusual presidential call to reporters by saying that there was "just one thing I was thinking about as I was getting on the copter," he said it wasn't he who started the federal government's intervention into the nation's financial system.
"I did think it might be useful to point out that it wasn't under me that we started buying a bunch of shares of banks. It wasn't on my watch. And it wasn't on my watch that we passed a massive new entitlement --- the prescription drug plan -- without a source of funding. And so I think it's important just to note when you start hearing folks throw these words around that we've actually been operating in a way that has been entirely consistent with free-market principles and that some of the same folks who are throwing the word 'socialist' around can't say the same."
The New York Times asked, "So whose watch are we talking about here?" but Obama wouldn't name names.
"Well, I just think it's clear by the time we got here, there already had been an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system. And the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people if that coming in, the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me to stay out of it. I have more than enough to do without having to worry the financial system. The fact that we've had to take these extraordinary measures and intervene is not an indication of my ideological preference, but an indication of the degree to which lax regulation and extravagant risk taking has precipitated a crisis."
He concluded the brief call by saying, "I think that covers it."
The phone call came after the president was asked aboard his plane: "Are you a socialist as some people have suggested?"
He was clear in his first answer: "You know, let's take a look at the budget -- the answer would be no."
"Is there anything wrong with saying, 'Yes'?" a Times reporter pressed.
"Let's just take a look at what we've done," Obama said, ticking off efforts his administration has made to stabilize the economy. But he acknowledged that, as he told Joe the Plumber, he plans to try to spread the wealth around.
"If you look on the revenue side what we're proposing, what we're looking at is essentially to go back to the tax rates that existed during the 1990s when, as I recall, rich people were doing very well. In fact everybody was doing very well. . . . We said that we'd give a tax cut to 95 percent of working Americans. That's exactly what we have done."
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"It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question," he told reporters, who had interviewed the president aboard Air Force One on Friday.
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Guess he's not ready to come out of the closet yet.
But I wonder how he voted in the Senate on the prescription drug program. And what was his position in regards to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the sub prime mortgages that caused all the difficulty we are now experiencing? Did he vote at all or did he just say "present"? And who does he think is going to pay for his universal health care? And why is he making nice with those communist bastards in Cuba?
NEW YORK CITY - The A-list of manmade climate-change skeptics is meeting in New York City for the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change.
The Conference is definitely international in scope. Opening the conference is Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic and the European Union. When it comes to manmade global warming, Klaus calls that a myth. He is also an outspoken critic of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and says the panel is one-sided and has a political agenda.
Featured at the conference will be more than 70 scientists who do not subscribe to the notion that so-called global warming is driven by manmade emissions of carbon dioxide, one of those being Harrison "Jack" Schmitt -- one of the last astronauts to walk on the moon.
The Conference is being hosted by The Heartland Institute. Dan Miller is the director of public relations at Heartland.
"What we are trying to accomplish with this conference is to present to the politicians and to the public that the debate is not over about global warming or climate change; that there is plenty of room for disagreement; and that sound science shows that the earth is not warming," says Miller. "For much of the latter part of the 20th century there's been a mild warming as we come out of an ice age -- but the planet today is much cooler than it was a thousand years ago."
Besides the 70+ scientists at this conference, more than 650 scientists worldwide have expressed skepticism over manmade climate change.
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Shares of companies specializing in stem cell research burst upward on the news, with Geron Corp up by as much as much as 35 percent and StemCells Inc up 73 percent at one point. Other related company shares rose, too.
Is anyone investigating/researching if sombody(s) bearing a 'D' after their public title benefited from this announcement?
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon charged Monday that five Chinese ships shadowed and maneuvered dangerously close to a U.S. Navy vessel in an apparent attempt to harass the American crew.
Defense officials in the Obama administration said the incident Sunday followed several days of "increasingly aggressive" acts by Chinese ships in the region. The incident took place in international waters in the South China Sea, about 75 miles south of Hainan Island. U.S. officials said a protest was to be delivered to Beijing's military attache at a Pentagon meeting Monday.
The USNS Impeccable sprayed one ship with water from fire hoses to force it away. Despite the force of the water, Chinese crew members stripped to their underwear and continued closing within 25 feet, the Defense Department said.
"On March 8, 2009, five Chinese vessels shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity to USNS Impeccable, in an apparent coordinated effort to harass the U.S. ocean surveillance ship while it was conducting routine operations in international waters," the Pentagon statement said. The Chinese ships included a Chinese Navy intelligence collection ship, a Bureau of Maritime Fisheries Patrol Vessel, a State Oceanographic Administration patrol vessel, and two small Chinese-flagged trawlers, officials said.
"The Chinese vessels surrounded USNS Impeccable, two of them closing to within 50 feet, waving Chinese flags and telling Impeccable to leave the area," officials said in the statement. "Because the vessels' intentions were not known, Impeccable sprayed its fire hoses at one of the vessels in order to protect itself," the Defense statement said. "The Chinese crew members disrobed to their underwear and continued closing to within 25 feet."
Impeccable crew radioed to tell the Chinese ships that it was leaving the area and requested a safe path to navigate, the Pentagon said. But shortly afterward, two of the Chinese ships stopped directly ahead of the Impeccable, forcing it to an emergency stop to avoid collision because the Chinese had dropped pieces of wood in the water directly in front of Impeccable's path.
"The unprofessional maneuvers by Chinese vessels violated the requirement under international law to operate with due regard for the rights and safety of other lawful users of the ocean," said Marine Maj. Stewart Upton, a Pentagon spokesman. "We expect Chinese ships to act responsibly and refrain from provocative activities that could lead to miscalculation or a collision at sea, endangering vessels and the lives of U.S. and Chinese mariners," Upton added.
China views almost the entirety of the South China Sea as its territory. China's claims to small islets in the region have put it at odds with five governments--the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
The incident came just a week after China and the U.S. resumed military-to-military consultations following a five-month suspension over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. And it came as Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was due in Washington this week to meet with U.S. officials.
Pentagon officials said the close encounter followed several other incidents involving the Impeccable and another U.S. vessel Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
--On Wednesday, a Chinese Bureau of Fisheries Patrol vessel used a high-intensity spotlight to illuminate the ocean surveillance ship USNS Victorious as it operated in the Yellow Sea, about 125 nautical miles from China's coast, the Pentagon said. The move was made without notice or warning, U.S. officials said. The next day, a Chinese Y-12 maritime surveillance aircraft conducted 12 fly-bys of Victorious at an altitude of about 400 feet and a range of 500 yards.
--On Thursday, a Chinese frigate approached USNS Impeccable without warning and crossed its bow at a close range of approximately 100 yards, the Pentagon said. This was followed less than two hours later by a Chinese Y-12 aircraft conducting 11 fly-bys of Impeccable at an altitude of 600 feet and a range from 100-300 feet. The frigate then closely crossed Impeccable's bow yet again, this time at a range of approximately 400-500 yards without rendering courtesy or notice of her intentions.
--On Saturday, a Chinese intelligence collection ship challenged USNS Impeccable over bridge-to-bridge radio, calling her operations illegal and directing Impeccable to leave the area or "suffer the consequences."
#1
Maybe we should stick russian or pakistani flags on our vessels. The commies seem to think those countries have the right to kill Han with impunity, no diplomatic protests, no big demonstrations...
#13
Several small, probably PLAN INTEL trawlers met larger and better-armed Ship-zilla USNS IMPECCABLE and repor demanded that IMPECCABLE leave the area.
CNN AM > PERT - the USA = USN should be the one to BACK OFF FROM THE SOUTH CHINA SEA.
* GLOBAL WARMING > TINY SOLE EARTH DEMANDS THAT THE MILYUHN-AND-ZILYUHN EARTH SIZED SUN BE THE ONE AND ONLY ONE TO ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY CATEGORICALLY UNDENIABLY .......@ETC. SURRENDER.
It's a Military Sealift Command ocean surveillance (data collection) vessel, hence the USNS. The ship of its type are operated under contract by a civilian crew with a small civil-service or navy technical cadre.
Technically it's a civilian ship. In order to have weapons aboard it would need a military detachment specifically for that reason.
Me, I'd send the Impeccable back along the same course, with a couple of warships escorting it. Maybe even a carrier group transiting nearby with hourly overflights. Just to make the point very clear.
Hmmmmm...it appears the "yutes" missed the point of the exercise...
SILVER SPRING, Md. Montgomery County police say 16 people were arrested after a fight broke out during a concert held to promote nonviolence and to remember a Silver Spring teen killed last year.
The free Stop the Violence youth concert was held Saturday night on Ellsworth Street in downtown Silver Spring in memory of 14-year-old Montgomery Blair High School student Tai Lam, who was shot to death in November.
Police say fighting broke out near the stage toward the end of the concert and at least one person resisted arrest. Police say 16 adults and juveniles were arrested for offenses such as assault and disorderly conduct. See you all next year...
I'm going to wade into Rush, one more time -- one more time, for now. I wrote about the fuss about him here. And I wrote a little more in this column, in which I talk about how painful it is when friends disagree, or are at each other's throats.
In the course of the second column, I said, "I love David Frum, and he has long been one of my favorite people. I love Rush, too. What a stinker of a situation." David had gone after Rush hard. And he has gone after him again, in this article, which is the cover of Newsweek. Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mike ||
03/09/2009
09:39 ||
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Canadian soldiers soared into western Zhari District Saturday to disrupt suspected Taliban compounds, the first air-assault mission done with Canadian helicopters in the country's military history.
"It was the experience of a lifetime," said Master Cpl. Scott Vernelli, of November Company, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group, based out of Petawawa, Ont. "Landing combat with the Chinooks was pretty good; pretty cool. It's for sure something we can tell our friends and family back home."
The mission netted a small cache of weapons and bomb-making materials, but Canadians say the ability to quickly drop dozens of soldiers deep into Taliban territory is an important new tool here.
The 11-hour day began at dawn, with a Canadian Chinook helicopter joining two British CH-47s on the ramp to pick more than 200 soldiers. After a roughly 20-minute flight, the soldiers stood in unison when the helicopter's wheels touched down on the spongy ground. They disembarked and less than two minutes later the helicopter was back in the air.
The area was thought to be a hub for bomb-making supplies and other materials shipped across the Registan Desert from Pakistan. Canadians spent the day methodically searching compounds and grape huts in the area. Afghan men of fighting age watched the soldiers from the hills nearby, but never engaged the troops. Canadians took the lack of fighting as a sign they startled the insurgents.
The flight's pilot, Maj. Jonathan Knaul, said it was pretty special seeing Canadian soldiers in the back of the helicopter. "We made a major Canadian milestone for our troops here and for Canadian aviation in general," Knaul said. "I felt a great deal of pride to have been a part of that, so have been the one commanding the Canadian Chinook."
Canada has been flying six Chinook heavy-lift helicopters and eight Griffon helicopters in Afghanistan for more than two months now, but this is the first time they have been used to ferry troops on a combat mission. Canada had done similar assaults in the past, but relied on NATO helicopters.
Improving air support in Afghanistan was a key recommendation of last year's report to Parliament by former MP John Manley. The battle group commander, Lt.-Col Roger Barrett says the helicopters give soldiers here one more tool to use against the insurgency. "It allowed us to strike deep into this territory quickly, efficiently and extract out quickly and efficiently."
#4
Of the ABCA (America, Britain, Canada, Australia-plus-NZ), Americans (Vietnam), Brits (Falklands) and Australians (Vietnam) did this kind of thing for real a while back. Glad to see that the Canadian Forces have joined the club. The next rite-of-passage is doing it while entering a hot zone (where the enemy is blasting away at you as you land).
#5
Canadian forces quietly honing their skills and expanding their equipment base after a long period of not-so-benign neglect at the hands of politicians.
Canadians have been effective fighters in wherever they've gone. Welcome .....
#2
Speaking of which, I am wondering if any part of the "credit crisis" is related to the growth of sharia-'compliant' financing. The problem is that sharia financing is completely fantasy-based. It is a fiction. The banks (and ministries) are required to hire 'scholars' to pass judgment on what is and is not suitably Islamic. The obvious items are there - gambling, liquor, pork, anything tainted by juice - but I suspect they also toss out random categories just to watch the dhimmis scurry and bow.
We had a story here last week that a great vast deal of money has left The City (ie London) over the past year. The fact that Gordon Brown (!) decided to make Lonon(istan) the capital of Islamic Banking was not mentioned as a reason, but I suspect that it prolly plays some part.
#4
but I suspect they also toss out random categories just to watch the dhimmis scurry and bow.
A certainty, Seafarious.
Sharia law forbids interest, either giving or receiving
My understanding is that Sharia permits the payment of fees for banking services. My understanding also is that the fees calculate pretty closely to what the interest would have been, had interest been charged... as a baseline. I believe the toplines reach levels considered unacceptably usurious to the rest of us.
#6
Well I guess if Allah is stupid enough not to see his followed gorging themselves like pigs at night during ramadamadingdong he'll be too stupid to notice that its ends up all the same.
#7
The irony here is that sharia 'lending' would have protected the banks from the credit crisis.
There is no 'lending' under sharia law. A bank will buy a property on your behalf, which you will acquire after fulfilling the terms of a contract with the bank.
The sharia banking practiced by Citi and others was fraudulent.
The Government's human rights watchdog has said it will take on Defence Secretary John Hutton and the Ministry of Defence in a test case to extend human rights laws to soldiers on the battlefield.
#3
Only if the 'Human Rights [abuse] Advocates' are the ones who have to pop-up out of the foxhole and go over to the enemy for the campfire sing-a-long.
Mormon temples in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles
Town halls in Batavia, Ohio, and Ellenville, N.Y.
A funeral home and a day-care center in Ocala, Fla.
A sheriff's office in Eagle, Colo.
Homes in Ely River, N.M.
The FBI has investigated about 1,000 such "white-powder events" as possible terrorist threats since the start of 2007.
In the past two fiscal years, records show, U.S. postal inspectors responded to more than 5,800 reports of letters and packages containing suspicious substances. Only a few-dozen cases have resulted in arrests.
A new generation of Muslims is being radicalized using the very Government funds that are supposed to be fighting the problem, a new report by the Policy Exchange think-tank says.
The state and federal governments have prepared contingency plans to deal with spillover violence from across the border as Mexican troops clash with ruthless drug cartels terrorizing Mexico.
Mexico's two largest drug cartels have fielded a combined army of 100,000 foot soldiers to battle not just government forces but also one another.
A crackdown by Mexican President Felipe Calderon has turned Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, into a war zone as federal troops battle feuding cartels.
Thousands of soldiers and agents have surged into the border city in the government's latest effort to free Mexican citizens from a daily spectacle of assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings ordered by rival drug czars.
Mexico's active-duty armed
The Mexican drug wars claimed more than 5,700 lives in Mexico in 2008. About a half-dozen cartels account for $27-billion-a-year through the smuggling of drugs and human cargo.
forces number more than 130,000 and are being aggressively used to combat the cartels. But U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters last week that Mexico's two largest drug cartels have fielded a combined army of 100,000 foot soldiers to battle not just government forces but also one another.
The state's contingency plan, which has not been released publicly, envisions scenarios of violence, such as kidnappings or a takeover by hit squads, with a corresponding response by law enforcement, McCraw said.
The Mexican drug wars claimed more than 5,700 lives in Mexico in 2008, including 1,600 in Juarez, where the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels are battling for supremacy. About a half-dozen cartels are rooted in Mexico, accounting for an estimated $27-billion-a-year business through the smuggling of drugs and human cargo.
#2
This is bad, really bad. It is also not just border violence, as Geraldo reported cartel members are moving into El Paso and other cities further north. Gang violence is taking place in many cities where Mexican gangs are established, and the map of violent incidents included Sioux City, Omaha, and Kansas City. Beefing up the border is good but ignoring this cancerous spread where law enforcement is not prepared for combat is worrisome.
#3
There will not be any US Federal involvement on this issue until a US citizen kills an illegal gang member in self defense. Then and only then will you see US action - to prosecute and imprison the US citizen in order to make an "example" of them.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
03/09/2009 13:06
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I know what many of you are thinking. Galloway got into the hashish but it's even better.
A convoy led by the maverick MP George Galloway carrying supplies for Gaza has been attacked in Egypt, apparently injuring several people travelling in his party. The convoy, carrying aid worth £1 million, was pelted with stones and vandalised with anti-Hamas slogans after it stopped overnight in El-Arish, a small town around 28 miles from the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. It appears that Hamas is not thought too well of there. George certainly doesn't appear to be...
The attack comes weeks after Mr Galloway, of the Respect party, described Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak as a "tyrant" and "criminal" and demanded that he be overthrown by his country's armed forces. Proving once again that Galloway is a meddling dickweed. Drove through Egypt after insulting Hosni? My, that's brave ... I think the word you were actually looking for might be "stoopid."
Mr Galloway's party confirmed that Egyptian officials had also become embroiled in a dispute with the party over what type of goods they would be allowed to take into the territory through the Rafah crossing. Galloway is under the delusion that because he is a member of Parliment he can go wherever he pleases and do whatever he wants.
Well of course he can - the sun never sets on the Empire and all that.
Oh wait ... wrong meme ... The sun never sets on the Ummah?
The sun never sets on arrogant dumbasses? They were due to cross over into the Hamas-run territory today, but were so far believed to have been detained at Rafah this morning for more than an hour.
The biggest attack faced so far by the the 110-vehicle convoy, organised and led by the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, came after it arrived in El-Arish on Saturday. During a power cut -- which is a frequent occurrence in the town -- children had pelted the convoy with stones, a security official said. "It's an absolute disgrace,'' convoy organiser Yvonne Ridley We're just overrun by usual suspects on this trips, aren't we?
told the AFP news agency. "The power was cut. Under cover of darkness members of our convoy were attacked with stones. I mean, here we are trying to give aid to their enemies and they treat us like Infidels! I can only hope Yvonne took a couple upside the head ...
"Vandals also wrote dirty words and anti-Hamas slogans. Several people in the convoy were injured in the attack." Don't they know who we are? They should be worshipping us!
The convoy had been held up in El-Arish after a dispute arose between organisers and Egyptian officials over the inclusion of non-medical aid in the convoy. Somebody try to sneak in some ammo? weapons? Dynamite, likely...
Egyptian officials have said that they will allow medical relief through the Rafah passage to Gaza, which is facing a humanitarian crisis after Israel's military offensive. However, non-medical goods such as food would have to pass through Israel's crossings with the Palestinian enclave. "George Galloway is still in negotiations," said Ms Ridley. "What we have agreed to do is to separate the medical aid from the non-medical aid. The non-medical will go into Gaza via the Egyptian Red Crescent." Which will then be sold a a hefty proffit.
Mr Galloway's convoy were braced for some hostility in Egypt after the Respect MP earlier this year called for its President to be overthrown in a highly controversial speech at a rally protesting Israel's assault on the Islamist militants of Hamas. "There are many governments responsible for this great crime in Palestine, but the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak is jointly responsible for the murder of every Palestinian who has died in these last two years," he said. "I think I'll waddle right down to Egypt and tell him that!"
"When he [Mubarak] was embracing Livni [the Israeli Foreign Minister] as the bombs were falling, when he locked the border at Rafah, he became an international criminal and an outlaw of the Arab world. So I call, in conclusion, on the great people of Egypt, on the heroic armed forces of Egypt, and the heroic army of Egypt of 1973, to rise up and sweep away this tyrant Mubarak. To rise up, to rise up, and to demolish the border at Rafah and let the people go free." Hey Dickweed. They don't want Paleostinians ruining their Country.
The trip also ran into controversy when it was disclosed last month that three Islamist terror suspects arrested in northwest England had planned to leave the country under cover of Mr Galloway's convoy. That went over like a fart in an aroma therapy clinic.
Senior police sources said that the men were believed to be planning a terrorist operation abroad. With George's connivance...
They were arrested in a joint operation by police and MI5 while they were driving two vans on the M65 near Preston, Lancashire. Police sources said that the men were driving to Ramsgate to join a "Valentine's Day convoy" of 110 vehicles that later left the port. There is no indication that Mr Galloway or any of the convoy's organisers knew of the men's plans. Tell them Hogan I know nothing! He's shocked, shocked!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/09/2009
08:08 ||
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#1
No one is ever more offended then noble, unappreciated moonbats who are pissed on by the very wogs they're trying to help...
#8
Update: George Galloway kissed the ground upon entering Gaza and said, "I have entered Palestine many times but the most emotional of these is after the 22-day genocidal aggression against the Palestinian people".
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/09/2009 18:50
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This disgusting piece of trash was sent to me by Sue of the Muffled Vociferation blog. It was pushed through her friend's letter box in Luton. Is this really the country we are living in? I don't normally get involved with stories about Muslims as I think there are far too many raving loonies going over the top about them. However, on this occasion I think that something needs to be done. I would like to believe that this leaflet does not represent the vast majority of decent Muslims living in Luton.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles the flatulent ||
03/09/2009
08:00 ||
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#1
Could one of the admins upload the scan of the hate mail?
A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from the kingdom for having two unrelated men in her house, according to local media reports.
According to the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan, troubles for the woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, began last year when a member of the religious police entered her house in the city of Al-Chamli and found her with two unrelated men, "Fahd" and "Hadian."
Fahd told the policeman that he had the right to be there, because Sawadi had breast-fed him as a baby and was therefore considered to be a son to her in Islam, according to Al-Watan. Fahd, 24, added that his friend Hadian was escorting him as he delivered bread for the elderly woman. The policeman then arrested both men.
The court also doled out punishment to the two men. Fahd was sentenced to four months in prison and 40 lashes; Hadian was sentenced to six months in prison and 60 lashes. In a phone call with Al Watan, the judge declined to comment and suggested the newspaper review the case with the Ministry of Justice.
Posted by: ed ||
03/09/2009
07:47 ||
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U.S. efforts to identify and thwart the growing threat posed by Pakistani extremists who enjoy easy access to the United States -- and already have a significant presence here -- are being undermined by the government of Pakistan, according to current and former U.S. and Western counter-terrorism officials.
After the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, in November, which killed more than 170 people, the FBI and other U.S. agencies went on high alert, searching without success for evidence of plotters in the United States. But they were essentially shut down in efforts to work the Pakistan side of the investigation, not only to find additional plotters but to learn more about the Al Qaeda-affiliated Pakistani militant group suspected of orchestrating the attacks, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and its global network of cells, the officials said. FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III flew to Islamabad last week, in part to press for better cooperation. But the FBI and other U.S. officials have been denied access to about 20 members of Lashkar, including about six senior officials also suspected of heading the group's global operations and fundraising.
A senior Pakistani official said the government wanted to cooperate with U.S. authorities, but must do so slowly and investigate the militants independently or risk a backlash from the populace and the military, which view the militants as strategically important assets. On Sunday, the nation reached agreement with Interpol to share information about the Mumbai investigation. "The big picture is that the civilian government in Pakistan is trying to set things right," the Pakistani official said. "But there will always be some people who say, how far back do you want to reach" in terms of investigating the Pakistani militant groups and the Islamabad government's long-standing ties to them? "Can we just say, 'Come in, guys, and find anything you want on Lashkar-e-Taiba and shut it down'? It's not going to happen."
Bruce Riedel, a former South Asia specialist for the CIA and National Security Council, said in an interview after the Mumbai attacks that Pakistan had long protected the militant groups. He warned that a "global jihadist syndicate" of disaffected young Pakistanis was the most likely mechanism for launching an attack in the U.S., possibly with Al Qaeda. Riedel, who now chairs the Obama administration's Pakistan-Afghanistan strategy review, said Mumbai was only the latest of several attacks by such militants on soft targets frequented by Americans, including hotels in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Islamabad.
Juan Carlos Zarate, the deputy national security advisor for counter-terrorism in the Bush administration, said: "We are and should be concerned about the threat LT poses," using a popular acronym for Lashkar. Its name means "Army of the Pure." Lashkar "doesn't just reside in South Asia. It is an organization that has potential reach all over the world, including the U.S.," he said, adding that there are "LT-tied individuals in the country that we need to be concerned about."
U.S. and allied intelligence shows that potentially tens of thousands of Pakistanis have trained in Lashkar's guerrilla camps in Pakistan, and many of those trainees have gone on to work with Al Qaeda. That includes a small number of U.S. residents, some of whom are believed to have returned to the United States. Nearly a dozen Americans, including many members of the so-called Virginia Jihad Network, have been convicted in U.S. courts of training at Lashkar camps. Evidence confiscated from other, often computer-savvy, young militants shows a Lashkar interest in the Washington area, New York, California, Georgia and other locations, according to interviews and court testimony.
But authorities say their far greater concern is the thousands of disaffected Westerners and Pakistanis in Britain and other "visa waiver" countries in Europe who travel frequently to Pakistan. An unknown number of those have trained in Lashkar camps and, after being indoctrinated in its hatred of the West and returning home, are free to travel to the United States with only a cursory last-minute background check.
FBI Director Mueller highlighted that concern in a recent speech, saying U.S. authorities fear a Mumbai-style commando attack, and that such militants from "less well-known terrorist groups . . . are merely an e-ticket away from the United States."
"Where you're not subjected to the scrutiny of a visa or an interview and the like, then that is one less precaution or screening mechanism that is out there," Mueller told a Council on Foreign Relations audience.
FBI intelligence chief Donald Van Duyn told Congress recently that the bureau was investigating "a limited number" of U.S. individuals with suspected links to Lashkar but that there was no evidence the group had an organized U.S. presence. Still, he and his intelligence counterpart at the Department of Homeland Security, Charles Allen, testified that they were so worried about domestic Mumbai-style attacks that they had briefed state and local law enforcement agencies, and the managers of thousands of hotels, public transportation hubs and other locations on how to protect their facilities.
U.S. officials say that Pakistan cooperates in going after foreign Al Qaeda fighters within its boundaries, but that it often refuses to cooperate significantly in important counter-terrorism efforts focusing on Pakistani militant groups like Lashkar. For 16 months, for instance, Pakistan dragged its heels in the global investigation into the 2006 airline plot despite Mueller's personal appeals, denying U.S. officials access to suspected mastermind Rashid Rauf, senior FBI officials confirm. They say Rauf, a Pakistani Briton, was the key conduit between Al Qaeda's leadership in the tribal areas, Lashkar and other militant groups and their cells in Britain and the West, and extremist sympathizers in Pakistan's intelligence and military agencies. Rauf ultimately escaped under suspicious circumstances and was killed last year in a U.S. airstrike.
U.S. officials also say they have been frustrated by Pakistan's lack of full cooperation into other terrorism investigations focusing on Pakistani militants, including the 2002 kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, a grenade attack near the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad in 2002 that killed the wife and daughter of an embassy official, the 2006 slaying of another U.S. consulate employee in Karachi, and a 2008 attack at an Islamabad restaurant that injured four FBI agents.
Robert Burnham, the FBI's former legal attache in Pakistan, said U.S. counter-terrorism officials stationed in Pakistan repeatedly pressed it for more cooperation, but even basic requests for financial records, criminal background checks and investigative assistance went unanswered. "We would almost always do the right thing by making requests through" Pakistani authorities, Burnham said. "And these things would fall into a black hole."
In response to heavy U.S. and Indian pressure after the Mumbai attacks, the Islamabad government said it raided some Lashkar training facilities, shut down several of its offices and detained some key members. But one veteran Justice Department counter-terrorism official said Pakistan's refusal to fully cooperate meant that U.S. authorities still knew little about Lashkar's shadowy network in the United States. "I'm confident that there are people here who have gone to LT training camps," the official said, "and that when LT asks for their help, they will give it to them."
Yes, yes, yes, we do remember. Under the old king it was referred to as "radical Islam, Elquida, or the Global War on Terror (GWOT)." All the same, mad, seething muzzies. A new criminal twist, "syndicate." Very smart, Barry's man that lad Riedel.
#3
A senior Pakistani official said the government wanted to cooperate with U.S. authorities, but must do so slowly and investigate the militants independently or risk a backlash from the populace and the military, which view the militants as strategically important assets.
Strategically important assets, huh? I think that says it all right there.
#4
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > SECURITY EXPERTS: LeT REPLACES AL-QAIDA AS MAIN US TERROR THEAT; + MUSHARAFF ACCUSES INDIA OF FOMENTING TROUBLE IN PAKISTAN, + INDIA ALARMED AT CHINESE-BUILT GWADAR PORT, + INDIA PLANS TO DEPLOY ACTIVE NUCLEAR DEFENSE IN TWO YEARS [2011-2012].
Gunmen shot dead two US-allied Iraqi militiamen at a checkpoint in western Baghdad on Monday, a security service official said. "Armed men opened fire on a Sahwa (militia) checkpoint in the Jihad district, killing two men," an official said. Sounds like the right district.
Sahwa (Awakening) councils are a decentralised network of Sunni Arab militias recruited by the US military from insurgent groups and tribesmen. Many of them fought US and Iraqi forces after the 2003 invasion toppled Saddam Hussein before they joined forces with the US military in 2006 to fight Al-Qaeda linked jihadists after Bush's surge convinced them that Al Qaeda would not prevail.
The Hamas government in Gaza reportedly arrested 10 al-Quds Brigades gunmen recently for allegedly firing rockets at Israel, a senior Islamic Jihad source told Ynet on Monday. According to the source, the men were arrested in the southern area of the Gaza Strip, near the town of Khan Younis. Among the detainees was a senior Jihad field commander. The latter, the source added, remains the only one in Hamas' custody, as the other nine were released, but only after they were abused and coerced into signing a statement declaring they would stop firing rockets at Israel.
The senior source also noted that the head of Hamas' internal security forces informed the detainees that they must adhere to the pacts made between Hamas and the Islamic Jihad leadership after the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Hamas' warnings aside, the source said that it was the Islamic Jihad's right to retaliate on the assassination of its operatives. "We dont understand how we are expected to observe the ceasefire when the occupying forces violate it. "It was only a few days ago that they killed one of our operatives, Khaled Sha'alan, and took out two others in the al-Maghazi refugee camp (in central Gaza) and a third in (the northern Gaza Strip town of) Beit Lahiya.
"We as all the other Palestinian groups have the right to respond to all acts of aggression and to the crimes committed against our people. The rockets are part of our resistance especially when the enemy cannot tell the difference between a Hamas, Jihad or Fatah operative," continued the source.
The Islamic Jihad, he added, demands the Palestinian government support the Gaza resistance rather than oppose it and "refrain from applying the same policies as the West Bank government, which persecutes the warriors and jails them." The source then called on all of the Palestinian groups to unite and condemn the arrest of any of the resistance's operatives.
An Islamic teacher was shot dead here early Monday morning while riding his motorcycle home, police said. Abdulahsi Saleh, 35, an Islamic teacher of an Islamic school of Ban Padu Mosque in Tambon Lidlor of Muang district, was shot and killed at 1:10 am on a road in Batu Puteh village. His friend, Usaman Yango, 29, was severely injured. Police said the two were returning home.
PEW has an interesting analysis explaining the differences between findings related to the character of Muslim-Americans in two polls. One was conducted by PEW, the other by Gallup. Look how differences in methodology (the language used) lead to different findings:
Gallup estimates that more than one-in-three American Muslims (35%) are black, compared with Pew's estimate of 24%. Gallup estimates that 40% of Muslim Americans have obtained a college degree; Pew estimates that 24% have done so. And Gallup estimates that more Muslims are currently employed than does Pew Research (70% vs. 57%).
On race, education and employment, Muslims interviewed in English by Pew Research are roughly similar to Muslims interviewed by Gallup. Muslims interviewed by Pew Research in Arabic, Urdu or Farsi, by contrast, exhibit very different characteristics than those interviewed in English. For instance, only 8% of Muslims interviewed in these languages describe their race as black, compared with 27% of Muslims interviewed by Pew Research in English and 35% of Muslims interviewed by Gallup. Only 14% of Muslims interviewed in these languages report having graduated from college, about half the number of college graduates among those interviewed by Pew Research in English and about one-third the number of Muslims interviewed by Gallup. And only 25% of those interviewed in Arabic, Urdu or Farsi are currently employed, which is less than half the employment rate seen among Muslims interviewed in English by Pew Research or Gallup.
#1
Fascinating. "Black" means something different in America than elsewhere, which we too often forget. "College" does as well. In the U.S. we don't differentiate between college and university as terms for tertiary education, except when specifying institutions which provide masters and doctoral degrees. Much of the rest of the world uses college in the British sense, meaning a trade school or institutions providing a 2-year tertiary (associate) degree.
A bomb has exploded outside a Citibank branch in Athens, causing damage but no injuries, police say.
The bomb went off at 3am local time on Monday in the Nea Ionia district of the capital, a police statement said. The device had been planted behind the two-storey bank building, which sustained moderate damage. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, and police said they had received no warning call.
Police said the bomb was detonated from very close to the blast site, with the use of electric cables. A police spokeswoman said the attackers used "a medium-sized improvised device", and the damage to the building was not severe.
The target of the attack pointed to Greek far-left militant groups, which have become increasingly aggressive following the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy in December - an incident that sparked the country's worst riots in decades. Nobody has been killed so far, but authorities are alarmed that the terrorist tactics appear to demonstrate a desire to carry out indiscriminate slaughter.
Last month, police destroyed a car bomb abandoned outside Citibank offices in Athens, which contained enough explosives to crumble a four-storey building. There has been no claim of responsibility.
The failed bombing on February 18 followed two gunfire attacks on a private Greek television station and a police station, which caused no injury. A new far-left group called Sect of Revolutionaries claimed responsibility for those two strikes.
In January, a far-left group called Revolutionary Struggle claimed responsibility for a shooting on January 5 that seriously wounded a 21-year-old riot policeman in central Athens. The group is best known for firing a rocket-propelled grenade into the US embassy in Athens in 2007.
Greece has faced targeted attacks by domestic terrorist groups for decades. But authorities believed the problem had diminished after the arrest of several members of the country's deadliest group, November 17, following a botched bombing in 2002.
Tens of thousands of jobs created by the economic stimulus law could end up filled by illegal immigrants, particularly in big states such as California where undocumented workers are heavily represented in construction, experts on both sides of the issue say.
Studies by two conservative think tanks estimate immigrants in the United States illegally could take 300,000 construction jobs, or 15% of the 2 million jobs that new taxpayer-financed projects are predicted to create.
They fault Congress for failing to require that employers certify legal immigration status of workers before hiring by using a Department of Homeland Security program called E-Verify. The program allows employers to check the validity of Social Security numbers provided by new hires. It is available to employers on a voluntary basis.
"They could have deterred this, but they chose not to," said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies.
He said a federal requirement that employers use E-Verify would have reduced, if not eliminated, the hiring of immigrants in this country illegally.
#4
I doubt that any of Nancy's AIG holdings would see the light of day in the California tax stream, but even the illegals have to pay sales tax to keep local government going.
#8
I am beginning to think that is precisely what Obama wants. Let's consider that ha has ever hanged with people who hate America and want it destroyed, let's remember his association with his cousin who happens to be a fundamentalist Muslim who launched his partisans into pogroms of Christians and animists, let's remember the suspicions he could be a covert Muslim.
Then ask yourself assuming he wants the worst for America what best than causing it to split into a set of small, powerless states no longer able to fight islamism?
The federal bailout of insurance giant American International Group Inc. has benefited at least two dozen U.S. and foreign financial institutions who collected some $50 billion, according to media reports Saturday.
AIG once the world's largest insurer is paying money to its counterparties because it had agreed to guarantee them against losses from credit default swaps they had invested in.
Citing a confidential document and people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal said recipients of AIG money include Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Germany's Deutsche Bank AG, each of which received roughly $6 billion in payments between mid-September and December 2008.
Also receiving AIG money last year were Merrill Lynch, now part of Bank of America Corp., French bank Societe Generale SA and, to a lessor extent, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and HSBC Holdings PLC, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, business magazine Fortune on Saturday issued its own list of 15 banks that received AIG money, including: Calyon, Credit Agricole of France; UBS; Barclays; Coral Purchasing, DZ Bank of Germany; Bank of Montreal; Rabobank of the Netherlands. Fortune, which credited a "reliable source," did not supply dollar amounts that each bank received.
The disclosures come the same week the Fed refused a congressional request for the names of all AIG's derivative counterparties. At a hearing Thursday, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman David Kohn declined to reveal who had been made whole after deals with AIG went bad, arguing that the information would undermine what little confidence remains in the financial markets.
AIG on Monday reported a $61.7 billion quarterly loss, the worst in U.S. history. The same day, Treasury provided AIG as much as $30 billion in additional aid from the $700 billion financial bailout program, bringing the company's total bailout to more than $170 billion since September. The government now owns nearly 80 percent of the company.
AIG has been forced to seek more help in part because of the ongoing recession and its falling stock price, now well under $1. Among its biggest problems: It can't sell assets to pay back government loans because the credit crisis is preventing would-be buyers from getting financing to complete such deals.
A representative with New York-based AIG wasn't immediately available to comment.
#1
Only a few counterparties have named, and none of their counterparties. I suspect the full extent of the derivative counterparty mess will never been known.
While Lashkars top leaders Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Yousuf Muzammil, Ahmad Bhai and Zarar Shah are said to be in Pak custody as part of the probe into the Mumbai attacks, the group is learnt to have replaced them with new commanders to resume their operations all Pak nationals who have operated in the Valley over the last decade.
Top intelligence sources said four new commanders Shahji, Hyder Bhayee, Huzefa and Walid have taken over the Lashkars reins, their initial focus being the Valley and the Doda-Rajouri-Poonch belt in Jammu.
Shahji was in north Kashmir after he infiltrated in the autumn of 1997. Active as Abu Anas, he was Lashkars divisional commander until he left the Valley in 2007. A resident of Bahawalpur, Shahjis name is Raza Ahmad.
Hyder Bhayee, known as Bilal and Salahudin in the Valley, operated in the jungles of Bandipore in north Kashmir for eight years until he crossed over to Pakistan in 2006. His exit, in fact, led to a sharp dip in suicide attacks particularly in Srinagar city.
Sources said Huzefa alias Khalid was active in Ganderbal in central Kashmir. And that his real name is Abdul Gaffar, a resident of Gujranwala. Walid was active in Lolab in north Kashmir for six years. Sources said hes the organisations top man for ammunition supply and finances.
Posted by: Paul ||
03/09/2009
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#8
Looks more like a fuzzy chin-strap to me. But with regard to the lawsuit, whatever happened to "de minimis non curat praetor"? The UK courts must not be over-burdened.
Over 13 people have died and eighty others have been infected with the fatal disease of cholera in middle Shabelle region of southern Somalia. At least there aren't any foreign troops occupying their country.
As many as thirteen people have succumbed to death and eighty others have been inflicted with the water-borne disease in cholera-endemic areas of Middle Shabelle region. There were kids as young as 7 and 8 among those admitted to medical centers across the region, a doctor told Press TV. The heart [urp!] bleeds.
Cholera is an acute, diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The infection is often mild or without symptoms, but sometimes it can be severe. Approximately one in 20 infected persons has severe disease characterized by profuse watery diarrhea, vomiting, and leg cramps. In such cased, rapid loss of body fluids leads to dehydration and shock. Without treatment, death can occur within hours.
An outbreak of the disease in southern African nation of Zimbabwe has so far seen 88,000 reported cases of infection leading to nearly 4,000 deaths.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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#1
So Somalia is better off then Zimbabwe? Do they win some kinda prize for that?
#2
#1 So Somalia is better off then Zimbabwe? Do they win some kinda prize for that? Posted by: tu3031
Continued existence, TU. I suspect the real cholera numbers in Zimbabwe are two or three times what's being reported. The cholera victims in Somalia only have to put up with heat, Islam, and the disease. In Zimbabwe, cholera victims also have to put up with humidity, mosquitos, starvation, no medicine, and the threat of death from Mugabe's goon squads. Just about anywhere - even Cuba! - looks better if you're living in Zimbabwe.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/09/2009 12:48
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Nothing says Failed State like a cholera epidemic.
The first coordination meeting of remaining BDR officers with the newly appointed director general after the February 25-26 carnage yesterday emphasised re-stabilising the paramilitary force, say meeting sources.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has warned the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) office in Khyber Agency against issuing National Identity Cards (NICs) to women, threatening to attack it otherwise. A private TV channel quoted TTP (Khyber Agency) chief Omar Farooq as saying women's NICs were against Islam, adding the Taliban would not allow women to obtain these cards. He also said the women going to NADRA offices for registration would be responsible for the consequences.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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#1
How are you gonna know who their owners are if they don't have ID cards?
Pakistan Muslim League-Q leader Muhammad Ali Durrani said on Sunday that any confrontational situation could emerge during long march between two main political parties. Speaking to mediamen after condoling PML-N leader Javed Hashmi on the death of his sister, he said that reconciliatory efforts were underway between two main factions of Muslim League and the results would appear soon. So far, only one of the 30 clauses of the charter of democracy (CoD) has been implemented in one year, he said. He urged the federal government to form a national commission for resolving basic problems facing the country. Â"We will not become a part of horse-trading in Punjab,Â" he said, adding that the government came into power as a result of horse-trading would have no credibility or moral ground in the eyes of people.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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Read the accident description: KGB couldn't have done it better.
Morgan Tsvangirai is expected to return to Zimbabwe today after undergoing medical tests in neighbouring Botswana following the car accident on Friday that killed his wife, Susan. The prime minister, who was flown to Botswana on Saturday, was recovering physically but remained in a state of "enormous shock" after being told of his wife's death, said a spokesman for his party, the Movement for Democratic Change.
Condolences flooded in from MDC supporters and governments all over the world. The finance minister, Tendai Biti, said Mrs Tsvangirai, who had been married to the MDC leader for 31 years and was the mother of his six children, would be "irreplaceable".
The deputy prime minister, Thokozani Khuphe, is expected to handle day-to-day affairs until at least Wednesday when Mrs Tsvangirai will be buried in the couple's home town, Buhera. She was fatally injured when the Toyota Land Cruiser the couple were travelling in overturned after it left the road about 50 miles south of Harare on Friday afternoon. The couple were on their way to a weekend rally in Buhera. Tsvangirai, who will be 57 tomorrow, had given his maiden speech in parliament two days earlier.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/09/2009
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A two-member team of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrived in Dhaka yesterday afternoon from New Delhi to help Bangladesh probe the carnage at the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters.
Confirming their arrival, US Ambassador James Moriarty hinted that a full FBI team would replace this advanced team after their departure.
Meanwhile, the 11-member probe body headed by former secretary Anisuzzaman Khan yesterday sought more time to complete its investigation into the BDR mutiny.
Responding to a query from reporters at Shilpakala Academy, he said the FBI agents would work with the authorities here to figure out means to go forward with the investigation. He said Washington asked the FBI agents to come to Dhaka and the agents would perform preliminary survey this week.
The agents are expected to talk to local investigators and visit the crime scenes to have an idea on the kind of assistance Bangladesh requires to properly probe the atrocities.
Earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said the government sought technical assistance from the FBI and the Scotland Yard for the investigation.
"Responding to our requests for assistance ... they agreed to investigate and assist the investigation on the incidents took place in Pilkhana on Feb 25-26," she told reporters. "The FBI will also provide forensic expertise to trace bodies of missing army officers killed in the BDR massacre," she added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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KABUL - One NATO soldier was killed and two injured in a roadside bomb blast in eastern Afghanistan, the military said Sunday. The soldiers, who were part of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), were attacked during a patrol on Sunday, the alliance said in a statement.
The statement did not disclose the nationalities of the soldiers, nor did it say where exactly in the eastern region the incident took place. Most of the soldiers serving under the banner of ISAF forces in eastern provinces are from the United States.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/09/2009
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Commies are commies, whatever they call themselves ...
Police will take away more than 100 monks for political re-education today on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising that led to the flight of the Dalai Lama.
The rounding up of 109 monks from Lutsang monastery in Qinghai province, western China, is one of a series of extraordinary security measures being implemented to prevent restive Tibetans from commemorating the anniversary with protests against Chinese rule.
About a quarter of China's territory, an area the size of Western Europe, has been closed off to foreigners. Thousands of troops and paramilitary police have been deployed in Tibetan-populated regions amid fears of a renewed outburst of the anti-Chinese violence that rocked the region a year ago. Winding mountain roads have been clogged for days with convoys of armoured military trucks and coaches bringing in reinforcements.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/09/2009
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Palestinian fighters in the blockaded Gaza Strip have launched rockets into Israeli towns, seen as a reprisal for a recent Israeli air strike.
Four Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on Sunday exploded in the southern Israeli regions of Eshkol and Sdot Negev, but left no injuries or damage as they landed in open areas, Israeli media reported.
The rocket firing came hours after the Israeli Air Force said it had attacked a northern Gaza Strip arms warehouse and two alleged smuggling tunnels suspected of being used by forces loyal to the Islamic Hamas resistance movement.
The Hezbollah Brigades, one of the armed factions in the Gaza Strip, claimed in a statement that it had launched two projectiles in retaliation to Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the coastal enclave.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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#1
From now on they will be called peace offerings. We wouldn't want to offend the Paleos they might do something drastic.
Algeria is planning to launch this month a religious channel to counter unauthorized fatwas from satellite channels and the internet.
The success of al-Quran al-Karim (the Holy Quran) radio station encouraged the authorities to launch a T.V. channel under the same name and with the same purpose: unifying Algerians under one religious banner, a source at the Ministry of Religious Affairs told AlArabiya.net.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the aim of launching the channel is countering unauthentic fatwas and particularly violent ones that played an important role in destabilizing the country during the security crisis the bordered civil war in the 1990s.
In 1996, Algerians were dying under the name of Jihad when the armed Islamic groups GIA (Groupes Islamiques Armés) adopted a fatwa by Jordanian militant Abu Qatada and which sanctioned the killing of civilians and women and children.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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#1
Algeria to discover TV,s have off switches and Chanel changers.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/09/2009 18:12
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A suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up killing at least 30 people and wounding 57 more at a police academy in the Iraqi capital on Sunday, as the Washingron announced that it will reduce the number of troops in Iraq by around 12,000 in the next six months. "A suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a crowd outside the (police) academy on Palestine Street," a police official told AFP. It looks like AQI has found their new Zarqawi.
The bomber activated his vest as he sped into the crowd, a police official said. The academy in Baghdad has come under repeated attacks. Fifteen people died and more than 45 were wounded in two blasts on Dec. 1 as al-Qaeda and other insurgents continued to target security forces around the country.
On Thursday, a truck bomb killed 10 people and wounded more than 50 at a crowded livestock market near Hilla, a mainly Shiite provincial capital south of Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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#1
A suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a crowd outside the (police) academy on Palestine Street
#2
US Contracting giant DynCorp lost a young kid to sniper fire yesterday while part of a US State Dept personal security detail (PSD). The bad guys are stepping it up.... as many predicted they would. "W" had the buggers under control. Barry pissed it away.
This Day in History:
1796 - Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.
1862 - American Civil War: The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads.
1916 - Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico.
1933 - Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to the Congress
1959 - The Barbie doll makes it's debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
1989 - A strike forces financially-troubled Eastern Air Lines into bankruptcy.
Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) on Sunday moved a resolution condemning the disqualification of Sharif brothers by the Supreme Court. Attorney General Latif Khosa argued that decision about disqualification of Sharif brothers could not be criticized or discussed at any forum. The meeting of Pakistan Bar Council was held in Supreme Court's building in the federal capital. A resolution was moved in the meting which said that decision to declare Sharif brothers' ineligible was biased and given on dictation. The resolution said that decision was a clear evidence of weak judiciary instilled after the unconstitutional steps of Nov 3, 2007 taken by former president Pervez Musharraf. The governor rule imposed in Punjab is undemocratic and malafide, it further said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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AMMAN - Iraqi leaders have invited Pope Benedict XVI to visit Baghdad, his envoy to Jordan said on Sunday, as the pontiff confirmed he will visit the Middle East in May.
One thing I can tell you about the visit to Baghdad is that both President (Jalal) Talabani and the Prime Minister (Nuri) al-Maliki have personally invited the Holy Father to visit Iraq, the apostolic nuncio to Jordan, Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikat, said. So the invitation is there, but we dont know exactly when that would happen, and the Holy Father eventually will give consideration to that, he told an Amman news conference.
We can only hope and pray it will happen.
Pope Benedict told thousands of pilgrims gathered in St Peters Square for weekly prayers on Sunday that he will visit Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan from May 8 to 15. He said he would use the visithis first to the regionto pray for the precious gift of unity and peace for the Middle East and for all of humanity.
On the Jordan leg of the tour, he is expected to meet leaders of Iraqs Chaldean Catholic Church. The church is Iraqs largest Christian denomination and includes among its followers former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz who remains in US custody awaiting trial on charges of crimes against humanity.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/09/2009
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The then high officials of two top intelligence agencies had knowledge of transporting the 10 truckloads of arms and ammunition, Hafizur Rahman, the main accused in the case, told the court last week. An investigation has also revealed some proofs in support of his confessional statements, reported Bangla daily Prothom Alo.
National Security Intelligence (NSI) Field Officer Akbar Hossain rented trucks to carry the arms before the consignment was transported to the jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited (CUFL), sources say. This officer was attached to the special wing of the NSI Director General in Dhaka from Chittagong two months before the arms seizure. Conventionally, those working at the special wing are considered sincere and close to the DG.
Despite the fact that Akbar was transferred to Dhaka, he mostly used to stay in Chittagong in the end of March 2004.
According to sources, he stayed in Chittagong continuously for a week before the arms seizure. During that time, he rented seven trucks and a truck crane at Greenways Transportation Limited in Kadamtali in the port city. He told Greenways the trucks would be used to carry fertilisers from CUFL and were taken to the CUFL jetty in the dark night of April 1, 2004.
Greenways Transport owner Mohammad Habibur Rahman said, "NSI officer Akbar and another person rented trucks from my company."
He added, "Many people rent trucks from us. The NSI man also did the same." He gave his written statements to the investigation officials, Habibur Rahman added.
During his stay in Patuakhali, Akbar denied his involvement with the arms smuggling. When Greenways Transport owners' statement was referred, he said, "What is the benefit of dragging the past? Can a tiny official like me do something of his own?"
Akbar is now stationed at the NSI Headquarters.
Asked about taking actions regarding renting trucks by Akbar, the then director general of NSI Brig Gen (retd) M Abdur Rahim said, "Why should I take actions...? the director who transferred him to the special wing is supposed to take actions."
He referred to the then NSI director (security) Wing Commander Shahab Uddin. Contacted, Shahab said, "Why should I take punitive actions? The DG transferred Akbar to the special wing bypassing my opinions. He could say better why he did that."
Statements of these two former NSI officials indicate that transferring Akbar to the special wing in Dhaka and renting trucks have a connection, reported the Bangla daily.
Sources say the previous Awami League government sent M Abdur Rahim to forced retirement. Following that he started real estate business and later the BNP-Jamaat alliance government appointed him as the director general of NSI on contract basis. Rahim said, "We learned of the matter only after seizing the ten trucks with arms, not before that."
Suspension of five top officials, including three directors of NSI, in one and a half years into the arms seizure is something mysterious. Some NSI officials said they were suspended in fear that they might have leaked out the information regarding the arms smuggling.
Shahab Uddin said, "I myself also don't know why I was suspended. I was staying abroad for training during the seizure of the ammunition. On my returning home, I knew that I have no job. It was injustice to me."
On suspension of most of the NSI officials, he said, "It was the decision from the government high-ups. I had nothing to do. I know nothing about the link between suspension and the arms smuggling."
On the night when the seizure was made, Ulfa leader Paresh Barua was supposed to talk with the main accused of the case Hafizur Rahman over phone, but Rahman did not clearly tell the court if Barua talked to him.
Asked about it, the then chief of DGFI Major Gen Sadek Hasan Rumi said the statement of Hafiz was not right. He also said the government did not assign DGFI to investigate the case.
CID Senior Assistant Super Mohammad Ismail Hossain, one of the investigation officers of the case, recorded in December last the statement of Rezzakul Haider, director of GDFI counter intelligence bureau.
Rezzakul Haider said, "I was included in the government committee after the arms seizure. That is the reason why the investigation officer recorded my statement. I told him everything I knew. Besides, we submitted a written report to the government. Due to short time, it was not possible for us to identify the sources of arms, who were involved behind the smuggling, and what was their purpose."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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Fierce fighting between Sri Lankan troops and ethnic Tamil separatists defending their last remaining enclave has left about 100 rebels dead in two days of fighting, the military said Sunday.
The army has ousted the Tamil Tigers from most of their strongholds in an all-out offensive the government hopes will end the South Asian island's 25-year civil war.
The rebel holdouts are confined to about 50 square kilometres of jungle and beach near Mullaittivu on the northeastern coast along with tens of thousands of increasingly distressed civilians.
Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said Sunday that troops had killed about 100 rebels in a series of clashes in rebel-held territory since Friday, though he cautioned that only about 50 bodies were found.
Troops also took casualties in three battles on the edge of the enclave, the army's Web site said. Nanayakkara would not say how many soldiers were killed or wounded.
In one clash, more than 200 rebel fighters attacked security forces near Puthkkudiyirippu, the last rebel-held town, before dawn Friday, the Defence Ministry said.
"Terrorist offensive waves were received with intense military counter attacks" that killed at least 30 guerrillas, the ministry said in a statement.
Rebel officials could not be reached and battlefield details can't be verified independently because journalists are barred from the war zone.
Concern is mounting for the fate of the civilians caught in the fighting.
The government has rejected calls from international aid groups for a cease-fire, saying it is on the verge of victory, while the rebels have ruled out any mass evacuation of civilians fuelling suspicion they are using them as human shields.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Its "kind of silly" to keep debating the science, Mr. Gore said Yep. Why let inconvenient facts get in the way of a good story?
Former Vice President Al Gore repeated his message that climate change is a planetary emergency at the WSJ's Eco:nomics conference in California. The Nobel-prize winner declined to take any questions from reporters, but he did receive a couple of challenges from attendees, including Bjorn Lomborg. But don't expect Mr. Gore to debate the merits of how best to tackle climate change anytime soon.
Mr. Gore stuck to his prepared script about the urgency of taking action to curb global greenhouse-gas emissions, down to well-worn phrases he trots out at conferences across the country: America is at "a political tipping point" on climate change, and even if Washington has failed to address the energy challenge in the last 35 years, "political will is a renewable resource."
But he was challenged by Mr. Lomborg, the Danish skeptical environmentalist who thinks the world would be better off spending more money on health and education issues than curbing carbon emissions.
"I don't mean to corner you, or maybe I do mean to corner you, but would you be willing to have a debate with me on that point?" asked the polo-shirt wearing Dane.
"I want to be polite to you," Mr. Gore responded. But, no. "The scientific community has gone through this chapter and verse. We have long since passed the time when we should pretend this is a 'on the one hand, on the other hand' issue," he said. "It's not a matter of theory or conjecture, for goodness sake," he added. Really!? The whole point of science is that we continue to debate issues, look at new data, and re-examine what we thought was 'settled'. It's that kind of debate that pushes science forward. The moment someone says that the science is 'settled' and therefore off-limits, it's no longer a scientific argument but a political one.
As an example, he pointed to a new addition to the budget for the island nation of the Maldives: "Funds to buy a new nation." So how would he describe the multi trillion dollar budget?
Posted by: Omoter Speaking for Boskone7794 ||
03/09/2009
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#1
Al Gore is a politician - not a scientist. Such things as 'scientific method' goes over his head and to him 'debate' isn't about the facts - but the presentation and 'feelings'....
#3
What is left out of the encounter is some context. Bjorn Lomborg also believes in global warming and the manmade kind. However, he also has shown that our mitigation strategies (carbon cap and trade, severe restrictions of CO2) will lead to an insignificant reduction in temperature over the next 50 years and have the result of squandering trillions of dollars. His point is that on the basis of economics decision-making, for far less "investment" we could help all people to adapt to climate change and maintain our wealth to be in a position to do so.
#5
But he was challenged by Mr. Lomborg, the Danish skeptical environmentalist who thinks the world would be better off spending more money on health and education issues than curbing carbon emissions.
Yep, sure sounds like it's 'settled science' to me...
#8
Listen to me! I invented the internet. I also have a Nobel Piece Prize and an Oscar from Hollyweird. Global Warming is real I tell you. I also have this carbon credit snakeoil scam plan that will benefit mankind. I don't give a damn what science says.
Posted by: Weird Al Gore ||
03/09/2009 11:20
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#9
I say we change Ground Hog Day to Al Gore Day. If Al Gore sees his shadow, it's six more weeks of global warming.
#1
Now that its nationalized - I supposed it'll take them 3 months to process my ontime credit card payment - and then they will declare it 2 months overdue right?
GAZA CITY -- Hamas security officials say Israeli aircraft targeted a Gaza City warehouse in a nighttime airstrike. The officials say the warehouse was empty and no one was injured. The Israeli military confirms the strike, saying the target was used by militants as a weapons warehouse. The military says aircraft also struck two smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border.
Palestinian militants launched a rocket and a mortar shell into Israel on Sunday, causing no injuries. Rocket fire by Gaza militants and Israeli retaliatory airstrikes have become nearly daily occurrences.
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They're revolting. Families with children, bikers, seniors, pirates - by the thousands descended on a Fullerton bar Saturday to join talk show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou of KFI in protesting tax increases recently approved in Sacramento.
Police estimated that some 8,000 people came to the Slidebar Café in downtown Fullerton to listen to The John & Ken Show. The talk show hosts put forward an ambitious goal for their Tax Revolt 2009 live broadcast that ran for more than three hours.
"The purpose is to vote down Prop 1A on May 19 because it's a two-year tax extension," said Kobylt. "The purpose is to tell people how their Republican legislators lie about their votes. The purpose is to get support to recall Schwarzennegger, (Assemblyman) Anthony Adams, (Assemblyman) Jeff Miller, and everybody else."
Some wore buttons. One man brought a bloody effigy head of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and waved it from the end of a pike, while the crowd joined their hosts in a chant of "Repeal, recall, revolt."
Johanna Common, 45, of Fullerton, pushed her way to the front of the crowd to contribute her copy of the Schwarzenegger movie "Total Recall" to the pile. "I wanted to see it smashed to smithereens," she said. When all is done, Common plans to get involved in recalling her local representative, Assemblyman Michael Duvall, she said.
Some of the demonstrators brought crayons in response to a column in the Los Angeles Times that called John and Ken's politics simplistic. Some children opted for something a bit more artistic.
Hannah Ross, 6, and her sister, Olivia Ross, 4, of San Diego, used squeeze paint brushes to express a message suggested by their parents: "Stop Generational Theft."
"For day one, this is fantastic, but this a long road that's going to take months and years," said Kobylt. One Caliphornia event I wouldn't mind heading east.
North Korea warned Monday that any move to intercept what it calls a satellite launch and what other countries suspect may be a missile test-firing would result in a counterstrike against the countries trying to stop it. ''We will retaliate (over) any act of intercepting our satellite for peaceful purposes with prompt counterstrikes by the most powerful military means,'' the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Is anyone else thinking that sending a barrage of cruise missiles into the NKor launch site ASAP would just clear the air?
#3
If countries such as the United States, Japan or South Korea try to intercept the launch, the North Korean military will carry out "a just retaliatory strike operation not only against all the interceptor means involved but against the strongholds" of the countries, it said.
"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," it added
Gee, thanks for cutting our missile defense, President Dumbass
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/09/2009 8:18
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Here's your chance Barry. The ultimate deflection from domestic problems. Your very own Korean War.
#5
Retaliation? With What? they can barely afford to launch one (Assuming they have any intention to launch at all), and this isn't another publicity stunt that can't really lift at all.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/09/2009 13:38
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#6
See also PRAVDA > NORTH KOREA PREPARES FOR WAR WITH THE USA AND SOUTH KOREA.
* Also on PRAVDA > VIETNAM IS STILL PROUD OF THE CHINESE SKULLS IN THE JUNGLE. ARTICLE claims that CHINA lost approxi 62,500 men to Vietnam during the late 1970's SINO-VIETNAM BORDER WAR.
Barack Obama is ubiquitous. In his first six weeks in office, he's given an inaugural address, a State of the Union-like speech to a joint-session of Congress (since new presidents don't really report on the state of the union), and an hour-long press conference. He's also made several campaign trips and has been a daily fixture on magazine covers and the news shows. He's talking to us all the time.
Yes, he's an intriguing and appealing figure. But you don't have to go out on a limb to surmise that he may be risking overexposure -- which often leads to failure.
This is not an argument about the longevity of political popularity. Rather, it has to do with Obama's creating what political scientist Theodore Lowi called "a personal presidency," in which one unreasonably exaggerates the power of a president to influence events -- especially economic ones. Going down that path, warned Lowi, is a sure road to political failure.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Omoter Speaking for Boskone7794 ||
03/09/2009
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#3
I agree. Every time I see his picture on (yet another) magazine cover, I want to throw up.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/09/2009 7:42
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"As visibility goes up, so do expectations and vulnerability,"
Barry, a quick solution. Leave the kids upstairs with granny, take Queen Michelle and go hide somewhere in the White House basement. Rahm will know where you are and keep in touch by crackberry. The sooner you turn OFF that NEW SOCIALIST IDEA MACHINE, the better we'll all be.
#5
Yeah, chalk me up as another one, sick to death of seeing him or Michelle on magazine covers at the super-market check-out stand. I'd take a quiet oath to never buy another one of those magazines again - but I didn't buy them before, so a buycott (deliberate miss-spelling there)would have no effect.
#6
If things improve soon, the president will claim the credit. If they don't, it's all his fault -- even though he had nothing to do with creating this crisis and doesn't have all that much direct ability to solve it, either.
In other words only Bush could fail to solve the problem.
With one candidate per seat, North Korea's parliamentary elections might appear to offer little prospect of a surprise result.
But outsiders are watching today's poll closely, in the hope that it will hint at the country's eventual succession. The youngest son of reclusive leader Kim Jong-il is rumoured to have stood - a signal that his father is grooming him, analysts said.
All registered voters cast ballots, barring those abroad or on ships, the North Korean state news agency reported tonight. Election results are expected tomorrow. In the last elections, in 2003, turnout was 99.9% and each candidate was elected unopposed with 100% of the vote.
Candidates are believed to be picked by Kim and the ruling Workers' Party, and the parliament meets a few times a year to rubber-stamp bills. But analysts pay attention because the elections are used to reshuffle the hierarchy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/09/2009
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North Korea orders its armed forces to 'be combat ready' ahead of a joint US-South Korea military exercise in the troubled Korean Peninsula.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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#1
The link is borked.
But I have been reading about it elsewhere. Here's the thing. We have been sitting there in South Korea for 50 years. We have these exercises at least twice a year. How incompetent do the NorKs think we are that we have to "rehearse" an invasion 100 times and still not get it right?
If we were going to invade, we would have invaded a long time ago. Who do they think they are fooling? Everyone knows they need the Army in the spring to do the planting and in the fall to do the harvest.
#2
WORLD MIL FORUM [GOOGLE Chinglish translation]> IIUC THINK TANK: USA MUST TAKE A CLEAR STAND ON ISSUE OF SOVEREIGNTY ON DISPUTED SOUTH CHINA SEA ISLANDS.
E.g. PHILIPPINES - China's 8 territorial claims comprising large maritime areas around the Philippines, etc. is INHERENTLY "UNTENABLE".
* Also on WMF > ON-GOING EASTWARD STRATEGIC SHIFT OF US MILITARY FORCES IN JAPAN [+ ASIA-PACIFIC] TO INTERVENE IN THE TAIWAN STRAITS. US desires to setup joint services' TASK FORCE COMMAND, US FORCES JAPAN - despite the anticipated US MARINE reloc to Guam from Okinawa, 3RD US MARDIV HQ structure + bulk of USMC Combat units/troops to remain in JAPAN as part of the former new TFCOM.
#5
When I was stationed in Korea (88) it was repeated many time to me that our mission was to prevent South Korean from invading the North. Not sure the current generation would have the fortitude but the previous one remembered the war and wanted revenge.
Security forces in an action in Mohmand Agency killed 15 militants, sources said on Sunday.
Security forces backed by gunship helicopters pounded militants hideouts in Gorgaray, Sapri and Mula Ghani areas of Tehsil Yaka Ghand, killing 15 militants.
Meanwhile, curfew remains imposed in Machnai area of Tehsil Shabqadar during which search operation is underway.
Security forces destroyed houses of 2 local commanders of the militants identified as Ahteshamul Haq and Raheel while 3 suspects have been arrested in Tehsil Haleemzai.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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MOGADISHU - Islamist insurgents controlling southern Somalia have accused Kenyan troops of crossing into their territory and warned the east African nation to stop troop movements along their common border. Kenya has been making false allegations of facing danger from the border, and that is a great danger to the regions security and stability, the Islamists said on their web site.
As opposed to the Islamic crazies ...
We believe that they intend to destroy the Islamic administration implemented in Somalia, said al Shabaab, a hardline Islamist group opposed to a new moderate president.
Not a bad idea, but the Aethiops couldn't do it and the Kenyans likely can't do it either ...
The group has been angry at Kenya since it helped capture Islamists trying to flee Ethiopian and Somali government troops in early 2007.
Kenya closed the 1,200-km (745-mile) border after the Ethiopians chased the Islamic Courts Union from Mogadishu early in 2007, but the flow of refugees increased despite the closure.
In December, al Shabaab crossed into the country through the remote border town of El Wak and kidnapped two Italian nuns who were held in Mogadishu for 101 days.
Kenyas foreign minister said earlier the government was on high alert and was increasing security at the border. He said the border would remain closed until there was stability in the failed state. Opening the border would expose the country and the region to instability, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/09/2009
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PRISTINA - Kosovos Prime Minister Hashim Thaci on Sunday expressed a wish for conciliation with Serbia, inviting Serbian President Boris Tadic to the former Serbia province. Thaci made the invitation after a visit to Kosovos Serb enclave of Caglavica, a suburb of the capital Pristina.
Communication between Pristina and Belgrade is unavoidable and is in the interests of Kosovo, said Thaci. Thaci invited Tadic to his office in Pristina, adding that in accepting such an invitation, Tadic should recognize that he should be visiting an institution of the Republic of Kosovo.
Which won't happen since the Serbs are still a bunch of soreheads ...
Belgrade has consistently repeated that it would not recognize Kosovos independence, which the former provinces ethnic Albanian leadership proclaimed February last year.
Meanwhile, more than 50 people were reported injured in a violent demonstration by Serbs in the Kosovo town of Gnjilane, media reports out of Belgrade said. Around 500 people blocked the Gnjilane-Kamenica road in protest against several days of lack of electricity, according to Kosovo police in Pristina. Five police officers were injured when demonstrators threw stones at intervening police.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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AWASHINGTON: President Barack Obama has chided his attorney general, Eric Holder Jr., for describing America as a "nation of cowards" when discussing race, wading into a tumult that flared over Holder's indictment of the way this country talks about ethnicity.
"I think it's fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language," Obama said in a mild rebuke from America's first black president to its first black attorney general.
In an interview with The New York Times on Friday, the president said that despite Holder's choice of words, he had a point."We're often times uncomfortable with talking about race until there's some sort of racial flare-up or conflict," he said, adding, "We could probably be more constructive in facing up to sort of the painful legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination." Just how disingenuous are these 2 sentences? Amazing. He's saying exactly the same thing as Holder in the second sentence. Let's see how long it takes for those "elites" in the press to pick it up and point it out.
Holder made his comments last month during an address to employees at the Justice Department, saying that "though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been and we, I believe, continue to be in too many ways essentially a nation of cowards."
His remarks ignited protest, particularly from conservatives. One post, by Stephan Tawney on the American Pundit blog, said that "our attorney general is black, both major parties are led by black men, the president is black."
"And yet," Tawney wrote, "we're apparently a 'nation of cowards' on race."
Obama was asked whether he agreed with Holder. He hesitated for five seconds before responding. The teleprompter was stuck for a moment? "Mr. Axelrod! Mr. Axelrod! We got a core meltdown!"
"Load the race tape and keep him talking! I'll be right there!"
"I'm not somebody who believes that constantly talking about race somehow solves racial tensions," Obama said. "I think what solves racial tensions is fixing the economy, putting people to work, making sure that people have health care, ensuring that every kid is learning out there. I think if we do that, then we'll probably have more fruitful conversations." Translation: Taking from the producers and gratuitously handing it over to the consumers And in those fruitful conversations of the future we'll still be beating people in the head ...
Posted by: Omoter Speaking for Boskone7794 ||
03/09/2009
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#1
Want to solve our 'racial' problems?
Start teaching kids in public schools about the dangers of ALL prejudice and bigotry instead of 'racism' or 'sexism' solely.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/09/2009 7:37
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#2
Take the first right out of the roundabout at the sign that reads Chesherbury - London and proceed South.
or
Take the first right out of the roundabout at the sign that reads London - Chesherbury and proceed south.
#4
"Pain and legacy?" Fully and irreversably recovered here, I'm over it. My house sits on top of a former cotton field as does 9 others in our subdivision and we pay a boatload of taxes. There, I did my part. Have a nice day!
#5
"I think what solves racial tensions is fixing the economy, blah, blah, blah
Rather then man up and tell the race baiting industry that its time to wind down the struggle, Obama takes the easy route and blame poverty as the cause. And of course, then Government can be the roundabout solution. Ill say it again. AG Holder was spot on. Cowards!
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - For many Minnesota Muslims, it's been virtually impossible to buy a home, because Islamic law forbids the paying or charging of interest. To help close the home ownership gap among Muslim immigrants, the state's housing agency has launched a new program offering Islamic mortgages. The problem here, as I see it, is we don't live by Islamic Law here. We don't live by any religious law, but if some lending agency doesn't want to make a proffit I could care less, as long as us Taxpayers don't have to pick up the bill when the Lendee defaults.
Islamic law does make exceptions to the ban on interest, if one's family is at stake. But the exceptions are open to interpretation and for many observant Muslims, conventional mortgages are strictly taboo.
Nawawi Sheikh is one of them. The Somali-American said he and his wife just couldn't go against their beliefs, even if it meant giving up their dream of owning a home. Still, he grew tired of moving from one rented apartment to another. Life is tough when when you follow a Barbaric Cult.
"One thing I hated was moving. I don't like to move all the time," he said.
He has no plans to move again anytime soon. Sheikh is the first home buyer to get a loan through the state's New Markets Mortgage Program. That's because, program manager Nimo Farah said, he has all the makings of a successful homeowner. "I had lots of applications, but he's the first one, because really, he was ready. He has been working at the same job for quite a while; he took care of his credit; he had the right size family, and he had all his documents together," she said. "He was basically ready to go."
The program is targeted at low-to-moderate income families. Qualified applicants have to complete first-time home buyer education classes. The goal is to help Muslim home buyers build wealth and reap the benefits of home ownership. Can I get in on this? I'm not a Muslim but I thought descrimination on the basis of religion was Un-Constitutional.
Here's how the mortgage, known as Murabaha financing or "cost plus sale," works:
The state buys a home and resells it to the buyer at a higher price. The down payment and monthly installments are agreed to up front at current mortgage rates. The deal is identical to a thirty-year fixed-rate loan, except there's no additional interest, because the higher up-front price factors in payments that would have been made over the life of a traditional mortgage. So it's basically a scheme to charge interest but not actually call it that. What I don't like is the State buying the home. That's Taxpayer money. Here is the State Government getting into the mortage business. That can't be legal.
If it's such a good deal why can't banks offer it? Perhaps they could offer them even without verifying income and assets! Why, they could bundle those mortgages into securities! And Freddie Mac could guarantee them! And pension funds could buy them! And AIG could sell credit-default swaps and insure them!
Oh ...
A handful of private banks and lending institutions offer Islamic mortgages in the U.S., but Minnesota Housing is the first state agency to offer such a product. The program is the brainchild of Hussein Samatar, director of the African Development Center in Minneapolis. "The process is different, but the outcome will look the same," Samatar said. "We wanted to be as conventional as possible, while respecting the tenets of Islam."
What business is it for the state to 'respect the tenets of Islam'? If the state tried to 'respect the tenets of Christianity' I rather suspect the ACLU would be all over them.
Samatar, who used to work for Wells Fargo, tried for years to launch Islamic financing. He said the fact that Minnesota Housing has agreed to participate is a nod to the Muslim community's growing economic power.
If they really had 'growing economic power' a private bank would be willing to write the loans without government interference ...
Chicago-based Devon Bank is underwriting the loans for the New Markets program. Devon is one of the largest Islamic lenders in the country. Corporate Counsel David Loundy said he expects the demand for Islamic financing to grow as more Muslims make their home in the U.S. Loundy said Muslims tend to be good risks. "If they worked so hard to get to this country, they don't want to screw it up now that they are here, so they tend to pay their debts pretty promptly," said Loundy. "In addition, you have a population that is religiously and culturally predisposed against having debt, so they want to pay down their debts as quickly as they can."
The numbers back this up. In its five and a half years offering Islamic lending, Loundy said Devon Bank hasn't lost a penny, though he admits the recession could make that record difficult to sustain as more borrowers face job loss.
But the bad economy is also offering opportunity. With housing prices at rock bottom, officials say the timing couldn't be better to match first-time Muslim buyers with foreclosures that need new owners.
Nawawi Sheikh's new three-bedroom south Minneapolis home is a former foreclosure. The African Development Center's Hussein Samatar said there are thousands more potential buyers like Sheikh out there. He said the New Markets Mortgage Program will help the Minnesota Muslims community put down strong roots. "It is great news for the country, and it really sends a great signal that the United States is our country," he said.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/09/2009
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#1
I assume this means they don't get to deduct mortgage interest on their 1040.
#2
I ment to add this as well. My thoughts;
government distorts the lending market again. Is it a legitimate function of American government, at the state or federal level, to set itself up as a lender just to help a religious sect get around its own set of beliefs?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/09/2009 8:35
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"It is great news for the country, and it really sends a great signal that the United States is our country,"
Well, no, not really. If you refuse to take out a normal mortgage to buy a house you've not really become a part of this country.
#4
How do you think they became owners of all the Stop'n Robs? (nobody listens to Joe Biden, bloody nobody) This is just another business development venue for the banks. In any case, why fault the banks? Our universities and colleges have been courting these murdering wonks for decades. Great Britistan here we come!
#5
I'm not faulting the Banks.This particular program was set up by the Minnesota Government expressly for a "religious" group. If Banks want to do it, fine by me but State and Federal Governments have no business catering to ANY religion.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/09/2009 8:47
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Ah, a summer house on the beach in Somalia. It's the "Somalian Dream"...
#7
So it's basically a scheme to charge interest but not actually call it that.
Exactly. Allah doesn't like interest, but he approves of overcharging. Interest rates were too difficult to calculate in the 7th century.
#8
Can I get in on this? I'm not a Muslim but I thought descrimination on the basis of religion was Un-Constitutional.
Yes you can. I know the program manager that put this together and making it "Sharia but not Sharia" was the most difficult part of creating the product. And yes, constitutional issues were a major part of creating this thing.
As for Taxpayer risk, Minnesota Housing Finance Agency is self financing and makes a profit. Which makes it relatively red tape free, and one of the better state agencies to work for. Of course, if enough of these guys walk away from their homes, the taxpayer will be stuck holding the bill. But that's also true of Citibank.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/09/2009 11:58
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Thanks for the clarification, Al.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/09/2009 12:09
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For many Minnesota Muslims, it's been virtually impossible to buy a home, because Islamic law forbids the paying or charging of interest.
I would have thought this was a feature and not a bug but I guess that's just me.
The Taliban on Sunday agreed to remove all checkposts across Swat district following the successful completion of talks between the NWFP government, the banned Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) and the defunct Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The first phase of the talks concluded successfully in Peshawar with the three parties agreeing to continue talks, a private TV channel reported. Sources said that following the release of 12 imprisoned Taliban, the parties concerned had achieved consensus on all matters. However, the channel added, the meeting agreed to continue talks to resolve any remaining issues.
Also on Sunday, security forces removed all checkposts from Takhtaband Road in Mingora and opened it to traffic. TNSM spokesman Ameer Izzat told Daily Times both the security forces and the Taliban had removed their checkposts following the successful dialogue. He said TNSM chief Sufi Muhammad had travelled to Tablighi Markaz through the Takhtaband Road.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Interpol Secretary General Ronald K Noble has said that links of seven different countries are found in the Mumbai terror attacks that killed more than 170 people. "Interpol and Pakistan are cooperating with each other to investigate into the Mumbai terrorist attacks, links of the seven different countries are found during the investigation. We are trying to help expose the terrorists wherever they are hiding," The Nation quoted Noble, as saying.
The head of Interpol said Sunday that Pakistan had agreed to provide DNA profiles and other data on suspected terrorists it obtained during a probe into the Mumbai attacks. "Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) will send Interpol the DNA profiles that it obtained during its investigation," Interpol Chief Ronald Noble told a news conference after talks with Pakistani officials.
Interpol is a global organisation that facilitates cooperation among police forces of member countries.
During his three-day stay in Islamabad Ronald met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, Interior Advisor Rehman Malik and the DG Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Tariq Khosa. Ronald who himself remained top US law enforcer at various positions including Chief of Staff of the Criminal Division, United States Department of Justice said that Pakistan was cooperating with the Interpol firmly.
He showed his confidence in the investigations of the Mumbai attacks being carried out by the Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
When asked whether Pakistan had sought the handing over of Ajmal Kasab the only alive actor of the brutal attacks at Mumbai currently under Indian custody, Noble did not reply saying, "This is the most difficult question to answer."
Noble added that Pakistan was providing the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) to the Interpol, which would be checked by the global data of the 187 countries maintained by the Interpol. He said that Pakistan understood that unless terrorists-related information was compared against Interpol's global database and shared among its global network, an international terrorist investigation can never be considered complete and all countries, which are not provided with this vital information, remain at risk.
Earlier Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency fears it may have to stop further investigations into the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks due to a lack of cooperation from India and other countries. A private television channel said the concerns were expressed in a letter addressed to the Interior Ministry.
The FIA, which is probing the Mumbai terror attacks, has informed the Interior Ministry that it would have custody of some suspects only for a few more days and it was thus imperative to get cooperation from other countries. The FIA said it "may have to stop further investigations" against the suspects due to the lack of cooperation by India and other countries, sources said.
The agency said it had not received a charge sheet against arrested attacker Ajmal Kasab from the Mumbai Police and that agencies from the US, Spain, UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have also not responded to requests for information.
Posted by: Fred ||
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ANTANANARIVO - Soldiers at a large military base on the outskirts of the Madagascan capital mutinied Sunday in protest at the government's repression of a three-month-old opposition movement. Access roads to the camp in Soanierana district, around six kilometres (four miles) from the city centre, were blocked by mutineering soldiers.
"We no longer take orders from our hierarchy, we are following our hearts. We were trained to protect property and citizens, not to fire at people. We are with the people," said one of them, on condition of anonymity.
Brave lad. Pro'ly believes all those words, too, while he does the bidding of the latest thug who wants power ...
Security forces had foiled several opposition rallies in Antananarivo and other towns since Wednesday, leading to clashes that left at least four people dead.
An AFP reporter was able to access one wing of the military compound, where soldiers who refused to be quoted confirmed that the base was rebelling in protest at the regime's repression of opposition demonstrations. "The army chief of staff came this morning in an attempt to sweet-talk us but he quickly had to get back in his car and leave," said one of them.
Several witnesses observed soldiers deploying around the base, apparently bracing for retaliation by the presidential guard, but no shots are reported to have been fired since the mutiny started on Sunday.
Madagascar has a long history of political instability but until now, the Indian Ocean island's military has been reputed for its loyalist tradition.
No official comment was immediately available but the renewed tension comes after opposition leader Andry Rajoelina was forced into hiding following a botched arrest attempt at his residence. On Saturday, Rajoelina, who late last year mounted a fierce challenge against the regime of President Marc Ravalomanana, told AFP that he could no longer risk appearing in public. "I am now hiding in a safe location where I cannot be attacked... Until the dust settles, I can no longer physically appear in front of my supporters," said Rajoelina, who had been leading almost daily protests in central Antananarivo.
The 34-year-old opposition leader did not specify whether he was still in the capital Antananarivo or even in the country.
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#1
ION MUTINY NEWS > WORLD MIL FORUM > LAS VEGAS: US ARRESTS FOUR MEMBERS OF LOCAL "SOVEREIGN MOVEMENT" NEVADA EXTREMIST GROUP FOR ENGAGING IN VARIOUS CRIMINAL/ILLEGAL ACTIVISTIES MEANT FOR "ATTEMPTING TO OVERTHROW THE US GOVERNMENT".
#2
It would probably be too much to ask for the wonks in Stuttgart and the UN to keep their noses out of this one. Quite enough on the plate as it is without stirring it up there. Then of course there's climate change in Namawakwaland that won't get solved, but the flowers will still bloom nicely.
This is quite amazing:
The government is seeking to resuscitate the nation's crippled financial system by forging an alliance with the very outfits that most benefited from the bonanza preceding the collapse of the credit markets: hedge funds and private-equity firms.
The initiative to revive the consumer lending business, outlined by officials this week, offers these wealthy investors a new chance to make sizable profits -- but, thanks to the government, without the risk of massive losses. The idea is to entice them to put their huge cash piles to work to stimulate the financial system. They would be invited to buy up recently issued, highly rated securities. These securities finance consumer lending, such as credit cards and student and auto loans."
In the past, hedge funds and private-equity firms have not been major buyers of the securities that provide financing for credit cards and other consumer loans.
But the government is turning to these investors in part because traditional buyers, such as retirement funds, mutual funds and university endowments, have fled the markets. Many are deep in the red and reeling from past forays into buying complicated debt securities. Moreover, many pension funds have rules that ban them from borrowing money to make investments, which is an essential ingredient in the government's program. So many pension funds will not be able to participate.
Federal officials, however, have not given up on the traditional investors and are considering setting up investment entities that would allow pension funds to get a piece of the profits. Officials said pension officials have expressed strong interest in this idea. Well, that's nice of the Feds, to give the screwed a chance to get something back. Not too much of a chance, of course.... And they can always tax the profits ...
Here's how a typical TALF deal would work: A hedge fund uses $1 million of its own money and gets a $9 million loan from the Fed, payable after three years, to buy a $10 million asset-backed security, which finances consumer loans. Hoping that the market for these assets recovers, the hedge fund would hold the asset for three years.
If the security rises in value to $11 million, the investor would keep the profit, essentially doubling the initial investment. The government, meanwhile, would consider the deal a success because consumer lending was spurred. If the value fell below $9 million, the hedge fund would lose its down payment but nothing more. The Treasury, using bailout funds approved by Congress, would cover the next set of losses, with the Fed ultimately on the hook for anything more. So the government essentially is going to be in the hedge fund business. And we all know how good government is at picking winners and losers.
If the asset-backed security really is AAA-rated the hedge funds won't need Obama dollars. If it isn't, they won't pony up the original $1 million in the first place.
Steven Schwartzman, chief executive of private-equity giant Blackstone, said the program is "highly attractive" because of the government financing. So the entities that skinned us on the upside now get to buy deeply undervalued assets at 10 to 1 leverage, with a government guarantee of no downside risk. Cute!
Now, if the government were to set up a fund with this kind of deal that ordinary citizens and taxpayers could buy shares in, there would be an enormous outpouring of money from the mattresses. But no, a deal like this has to go to the 'professionals'.
Makes you want to believe the conspiracy theorists. Jeeze.
Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir threatened on Sunday to expel diplomats and more aid groups, brandishing a sword at a Darfur rally days after a Hague court issued a warrant for him for war crimes.
The trip is seen as a calculated show of defiance by Bashir in the face of mounting Western criticism of his government's expulsion of 13 aid agencies following the ICC's announcement of the warrant on Wednesday for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western region.
Sudan said that the expelled aid groups helped the ICC. The relief organizations deny any complicity.
"We expelled the organizations because they threatened the security of Sudan," Bashir told a rally in Al-Fasher, capital of north Darfur. "We will expel anyone who goes against Sudanese law, whether they are voluntary organizations, diplomatic missions or security forces."
Bashir waved the sword as he rallied the crowd, after a speech in which he insulted the court, poured scorn on the West and defended the decision to close down the humanitarian organizations. Bashir shouted out a list of atrocities he said had been carried out by the West, from the mass killing of Native Americans during the foundation of the United States, to the bombings of Hiroshima, Vietnam and Iraq.
"They killed millions of Indians ... Why are they not on trial," he said. "The International Criminal Court and everyone who works for it are under my feet," he added, a serious insult across the Arab world.
Thousands of people, many riding horses and camels, waved banners and flags to greet Bashir, who rode into the town, waving from the back of an open pick-up truck. Some members of the crowd taunted ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. One man was seen leading a donkey with an Ocampo mask over its head, while others carried a model of a dog with Ocampo's name written on the side.
Before the expulsions, the United Nations and aid groups were running the world's largest humanitarian operation in Darfur where, international experts say, almost six years of conflict have killed 200,000 people and displaced more than 2.7 million people from their homes.
Earlier, foreign ministry Under Secretary Mutrif Siddiq warned that the expulsion decision was irreversible. "The decision of the authorities expelling foreign Organizations... is an irreversible decision," he said in a statement carried by the official SUNA news agency. "Evidence has proved their cooperation with the so-called International Criminal Court," Siddiq said.
United Nations' agencies in Sudan have warned that the expulsion of key aid groups will have "devastating implications" and that in their absence "much of the aid operation literally comes to a halt."
The expelled organizations account for "more than half" the capacity of the aid operation in Darfur, the United Nations reported.
Remaining organizations will be allowed to operate in Sudan "as long as they are committed to the laws regulating humanitarian work," Siddiq said.
The government is also preparing an "alternative plan" to fill the gap created by the expelled agencies, instead collaborating with "national and friendly foreign NGOs," according to the Sudan Media Centre, a website close to the security services.
However, oil-rich Sudan has seen its income slashed with the slump in the price of crude, and experts say it would be difficult to replace the support and experience of the relief agencies, even if the political will exists.
"If the life-saving assistance these agencies were providing is not restored shortly, it will have immediate, lasting and profound impacts on the well-being of millions of Sudanese citizens," the United Nations warned. "It is not possible, in any reasonable time frame, to replace the capacity and expertise these agencies have provided over an extended period of time."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2009
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#1
Since when is being kicked out of Sudan considered a threat?
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.
SAN SALVADOR -- After a 12-year civil war and a peace undermined by soaring crime, leftists in El Salvador are on the verge of completing a remarkable journey from armed struggle to the presidential palace. 
On this page last week I argued that Barack Obama's first budget showed him to be more of a left-leaning liberal than I and many others -- sceptics and admirers alike -- had previously supposed. People I respect have accused me of going off the deep end about this, or of neglecting Mr Obama's tactical finesse, or both.
President Obama was so concerned that he had appeared to dismiss a question from New York Times reporters about whether he was a socialist that he called the newspaper from the Oval Office to clarify his policies.
NEW YORK CITY - The A-list of manmade climate-change skeptics is meeting in New York City for the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change.
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GAZA CITY -- Hamas security officials say Israeli aircraft targeted a Gaza City warehouse in a nighttime airstrike. The officials say the warehouse was empty and no one was injured. The Israeli military confirms the strike, saying the target was used by militants as a weapons warehouse. The military says aircraft also struck two smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border.
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The Taliban on Sunday agreed to remove all checkposts across Swat district following the successful completion of talks between the NWFP government, the banned Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (TNSM) and the defunct Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
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