If a male senator had said that, he would rightly be regarded as insecure, narcissistic, arrogant, and juvenile. Which is precisely why no male senator would ever say such a thing: He would know that he would be the laughingstock of the U.S. Senate.
Last week, a brief moment in time captured much that has gone wrong with post-'60s liberalism and feminism.
Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers was testifying at a hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. At one point during his responses to questions posed by the Committee Chair, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the senator interrupted the general to admonish him about using the word "ma'am" when addressing her:
"You know, do me a favor," Boxer said in an annoyed tone of voice. "Could you say 'senator' instead of 'ma'am?' It's just a thing; I worked so hard to get that title, so I'd appreciate it. Yes, thank you."
"Yes, senator," the humiliated general responded.
The oxygen was sucked out of the room by Sen. Boxer's remarks.
It is hard to know where to begin in describing how reduced the U.S. Senate was at that moment. It is not due to differing politics that many in California are embarrassed to have Boxer as their senator; few Californians who differ from Sen. Dianne Feinstein are embarrassed by her.
To think that a body once called "the world's most deliberative" was reduced to this juvenile level is to mourn for America. The immaturity of a U.S. senator needing to ask to always be responded to as "senator" rather than "ma'am" in an ongoing dialogue with someone -- of equal stature, it should be noted -- should be self-evident to anyone.
However, in case it is not, two arguments should make this clear.
First, people in the military are taught to call their superiors "ma'am" and "sir." Thus, for example, a sergeant responding to a general will say, "Yes, sir," to a male general and, "Yes, ma'am," to a female general. Though not in the military, I always feel honored when a caller to my radio show says calls me sir. And I always have renewed respect for the military for inculcating that respectful form of address into its members.
To object to being called sir or ma'am by anyone, especially a member of the military and especially a high ranking member of the military is to betray an ignorance of the military and a tone deafness to civility that is appalling in anyone, especially a member of the United States Senate .
Second, and both more revealing and more instructive, is to understand how inconceivable it would be for a male senator to make such comments. Neither a Democrat nor Republican could imagine a male senator interrupting the testimony of a brigadier general to admonish him publicly, "You know, do me a favor. Could you say 'senator' instead of 'sir?' It's just a thing. I worked so hard to get that title, so I'd appreciate it."
If a male senator had said that, he would rightly be regarded as insecure, narcissistic, arrogant, and juvenile. Which is precisely why no male senator would ever say such a thing: He would know that he would be the laughingstock of the U.S. Senate.
For example, every Obama press conference transcript I read included journalists calling President Obama "sir," as was true for previous presidents. Can one imagine President Obama halting the conference to announce that because he had worked hard to earn the title, he expects never to be called "sir," but only "president"? It is inconceivable. People would have thought he had lost his mind.
Why did Boxer fail to think that way?
The answer is not only because she happens to act foolishly and childishly. The reason is deeper. Liberalism has lowered expectations of behavior for everyone in America except white Christian heterosexual males. They are the only Americans from whom dignified and mature conduct is always expected. Liberals treat women, blacks, Hispanics, gays, and many non-Christians, with what is known as the soft bigotry of low expectations. Many liberal women, blacks, Hispanics, and gays know that and use it to get away with conduct and speech that no WASP heterosexual male could. People rise or descend to the level of behavior expected of them.
That is why those 17 seconds in the U.S. Senate were so revealing and worthy of attention. They encapsulated the way in which modern liberalism has lowered the bar of civility for so many in America. And they revealed -- yet another time -- why this particular senator from California is an embarrassment to her colleagues, her state, and the U.S. miltary. It was not, unfortunately, an embarrassment to Barbara Boxer.
Barack Obama's fourth solo White House press conference differed from his past efforts in many ways: It was held during the day instead of prime time. It was the first to be held in the briefing room. It featured a question that had been directly solicited by the White House.
And perhaps most notably, the feel was simply different. The president faced a press corps that at times seemed exasperated and was quick to challenge him, and Mr. Obama seemed more frustrated with his questioners than he has been in the past.
The primary point of contention was Iran. The president opened the press conference by ratcheting up his rhetoric, saying he is "appalled and outraged" by the violence and threats against protesters. He had been criticized in recent days by John McCain and others for not offering stronger criticism of the Iranian regime.
That prompted this question from Fox News' Major Garrett: "What took you so long?"
The president responded by saying, in part, "we've been entirely consistent, Major, in terms of how we've approached this."
That's a stretch – the president had previously been nowhere near as strong in his criticism as he was today. He was later short with Garrett, repeating exact words in response to a follow up on potential diplomatic relations with Iran.
Before you say, "hang on, this is conservative-leaning Fox you're talking about, it doesn't mean all that much," consider the fact that an even more contentious back-and-forths took place with other correspondents.
Here's an exchange between Mr. Obama and NBC's Chuck Todd:
Todd: Mr. President, I want to follow up on Iran. You have avoided, twice, spelling out consequences. You've hinted that there would be from the international community, if they continue to violate -- and you said "violate these norms." You seemed to hint that there -- there are human rights violations taking place.
MR. OBAMA: I'm not hinting. I think that when a young woman gets shot on the street when she gets out of her car, that's a problem.
Todd: Then why won't you spell out the consequences that the Iranian people...
MR. OBAMA: Because I think that we don't know yet how this thing is going to play out. I know everybody here is on a 24-hour news cycle. I'm not. OK?The next questioner was ABC's Jake Tapper, who opened, with, "Before I ask my question, I wonder if you could actually answer David's [on health care]." Mr. Obama didn't seem to like that.
"You think you're going to -- are you the ombudsman for the White House press corps?," he asked. "What's your question -- is that your question?"
The president soon attempted an uneasy joke after Tapper's question referenced Mr. Obama's "Spock-like language about the logic of the health care plan" – the president quipped "is that a crack on my ears?" – but it fell flat.
Mr. Obama would later knock a reporter's attempt to tie his smoking habit to yesterday's tobacco legislation because, he argued, the bill is focused on children.
"I think it's fair, Margaret, to just say that you just think it's neat to ask me about my smoking as opposed to it being relevant to my new law," he said.
With Bloomberg's Hans Nichols, the president got into a mini-argument about whether he would prognosticate about the ceiling for the unemployment rate; when Helen Thomas interjected as he was answering a question toward the end, he told Thomas to "hold on a second" but did not go back to her.
At one point, CBS News' Chip Reid asked if Mr. Obama was "influenced at all by John McCain and Lindsey Graham accusing you of being timid and weak." Responded Mr. Obama (albeit with a smile): "What do you think?"
All this said, the overall tone of the press conference was certainly civil. It just wasn't quite as civil as it has been in the past. Is this evidence that the press corps is turning against the president? That might be a stretch. But it does seem to reflect the fact that reporters have clear lines of inquiry on issues like Iran, health care and the economy -- and that Mr. Obama does not seem to be able to dismiss them quite as easily as he might like.
#4
"when Helen Thomas interjected as he was answering a question toward the end, he told Thomas to "hold on a second" but did not go back to her."
So he's not quite as stupid as he looks....
"At one point, CBS News' Chip Reid asked if Mr. Obama was "influenced at all by John McCain and Lindsey Graham accusing you of being timid and weak." Responded Mr. Obama (albeit with a smile): 'What do you think?'"
Anybody with two functioning brain cells thinks, "Hell, yes."
"All this said, the overall tone of the press conference was certainly civil. It just wasn't quite as civilmuch of a tongue-bath as it has been in the past."
Awwwwwwww. It's so sad when a romance starts to go bad....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/23/2009 18:08
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The family, clad in black, stood at the curb of the road sobbing. A middle-aged mother slapped her cheeks, letting out piercing wails. The father, a frail man who worked as a doorman at a clinic in central Tehran, wept quietly with his head bowed.
Minutes before, an ambulance had arrived from Tehran's morgue carrying the body of their only son, 19-year-old Kaveh Alipour.
On Saturday, amid the most violent clashes between security forces and protesters, Mr. Alipour was shot in the head as he stood at an intersection in downtown Tehran. He was returning from acting class and a week shy of becoming a groom, his family said.
The details of his death remain unclear. He had been alone. Neighbors and relatives think that he got trapped in the crossfire. He wasn't politically active and hadn't taken part in the turmoil that has rocked Iran for over a week, they said.
"He was a very polite, shy young man," said Mohamad, a neighbor who has known him since childhood.
At the crack of dawn, his father began searching at police stations, then hospitals and then the morgue.
Upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a "bullet fee"—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said.
Mr. Alipour told officials that his entire possessions wouldn't amount to $3,000, arguing they should waive the fee because he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. According to relatives, morgue officials finally agreed, but demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran. Kaveh Alipour's body was quietly transported to the city of Rasht, where there is family.
Everyone in the neighborhood knows the Alipour family. In addition to their slain son, they have two daughters. Shopkeepers and businesses pasted a photocopied picture of Mr. Alipour on their walls and windows. In the picture, the young man is shown wearing a dark suit with gray stripes. His black hair is combed neatly to a side and he has a half-smile.
"He was so full of life. He had so many dreams," said Arsalan, a taxi driver who has known the family for 10 years. "What did he die for?"
Pity Barry's Granddad is enjoying his 72 tear old virgin otherwise he might have been able to line up for some loot.
FIVE elderly Kenyans have launched a legal bid to win compensation from Britain over claims they were tortured and unlawfully imprisoned during colonial rule half a century ago.
The veterans of the Mau Mau revolt, which led to a series of bloody clashes between Kenyan nationalists and British forces throughout the 1950s, left Kenya for the first time in their lives to take legal action in person in London.
The three men and two women are also hoping to shake off the label of terrorists given them by their British rulers, and want to be seen as freedom fighters who helped liberate their country from the shackles of colonialism. "Many Mau Mau were beaten and tortured and many were killed. This case is about bringing all those issues before the British courts to say what we did was so wrong back in the 1950s," said Martyn Day, one of their lawyers. "They have lived under a shadow in Kenya, a shadow which started with the British regime and effectively continued for many, many years."
Mr Day said the compensation bid had "a good chance of success".
The women veterans, Jane Muthoni Mara and Susan Ngondi, said they were sexually abused and suffered horrific mutilation.
One of the men, Paulo Nzili, said he had been arrested by British forces, who castrated him using pliers in 1954. He survived severe beatings that killed many other Mau Mau. "I would be very happy if we succeed in this case," the frail 81-year-old said after a press conference to launch the legal bid. "But the most important thing for me is to be recognised as a freedom fighter, as a liberator."
An estimated 160,000 people were detained and forced into camps by the British during what was known as the Mau Mau uprising.
Another veteran, Wambugu Wa Nyingi, said: "At one camp, called Hola, they had locked us up in an isolated space. There were 12 of us and they killed 11 and I was the only survivor." Pity Barry's Granddad is enjoying his 72 year old virgin, otherwise he might have been able to line up for some loot.
John Nottingham, a former British colonial official in Kenya who refused to carry out the torture orders, has helped the veterans bring their case by studying British government documents. "I feel very emotionally affected by what is happening this morning," he said. "It has taken a long time for what happened in Kenya in those 10 years of the Emergency for anything to be done about it all.
One factor that continues to work for Obama, however, is that most Americans still see him as a new type of Democrat, one "who will be careful with the public's money," rather than an old-style, "tax-and-spend Democrat." By this point in 1993, Clinton had lost the new-style label, which he had maintained over the first months of his presidency.
Confidence in Stimulus Plan Ebbs, Poll Finds
Barely half of Americans are now confident that President Obama's $787 billion stimulus measure will boost the economy, and the rapid rise in optimism about the state of the nation that followed the 2008 election has abated, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
, 52 percent now say the stimulus package has succeeded or will succeed in restoring the economy, compared with 59 percent two months ago. The falloff in confidence has been sharpest in the hard-hit Midwest, where fewer than half now see the government spending as succeeding. In April, six in 10 Midwesterners said the federal program had worked or would do so.
The tempered public outlook has not significantly affected Obama's overall approval rating, which at 65 percent in the new survey outpaces the ratings of Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton at similar points in their tenures. But new questions about the stimulus package's effectiveness underscore the stakes for the Obama administration in the months ahead as it pushes for big reforms in health care and energy at the same time it attempts to revive the nation's flagging economy.
Obama maintains leverage on these issues in part because of the continuing weakness of his opposition. The survey found the favorability ratings of congressional Republicans at their lowest point in more than a decade. Obama also has significant advantages over GOP lawmakers in terms of public trust on dealing with the economy, health care, the deficit and the threat of terrorism, despite broad-based Republican criticism of his early actions on these fronts.
With unemployment projected to continue rising and fears that the big run-up in stock prices since February may have been a temporary trend, fixing the economy remains the most critical issue of Obama's presidency -- and retaining public confidence in his policies is an important element of his recovery strategy.
The shift in public assessments of the stimulus package has clear political ramifications: At the 100-day mark of Obama's presidency, 63 percent of people in states that were decided by fewer than 10 percentage points in November said the stimulus act had or would boost the economy. Today, in the telephone poll of 1,001 Americans conducted Thursday through Sunday, the number has plummeted to 50 percent in those closely contested states, with nearly as many now saying the stimulus program will not help the national economy.
The falloff since April cuts across partisan lines. Confidence in the package's effectiveness has dropped from 81 percent to 73 percent among Democrats and from 32 percent to 26 percent among Republicans. Among independents, it has dropped from 56 percent to 50 percent. What was once a clearly positive assessment of the program among independents (56 to 39 percent) is now an almost even split (50 to 47 percent).
Public confidence in the direction of the country remains well above pre-election lows, but in the new survey, that indicator stopped rising for the first time since the election. In April, the number of Americans saying things were moving in a positive direction hit 50 percent for the first time in more than six years, up from single digits before the November election. In the new survey, 47 percent said they believe the country is moving in the right direction and 50 percent said it is pretty seriously off on the wrong track.
Obama's approval rating is slightly lower than it was in April, and his disapproval figure has risen by five percentage points. In general, public approval of his handling of major issues is lower than his overall rating. Still, majorities of Americans said they approved of Obama's handling of the economy, health care and global warming.
Two weak points on the domestic front remain: Obama still gets tepid marks on his handling of problems facing the big U.S. automakers, and as many people disapprove as approve of his handling of the federal budget deficit. On the deficit, intensity runs against the president, with 35 percent "strongly" disapproving, compared with 22 percent who say they are solidly behind his efforts.
More broadly, worries about the deficit remain widespread, with almost nine in 10 Americans saying they are "very" or "somewhat" concerned about its size.
One factor that continues to work for Obama, however, is that most Americans still see him as a new type of Democrat, one "who will be careful with the public's money," rather than an old-style, "tax-and-spend Democrat." By this point in 1993, Clinton had lost the new-style label, which he had maintained over the first months of his presidency.
A take-over robbery & shooting occured on 6/20 in Albuquerque at a crowded local Denny's. Albuquerque Police said one of the two captured murder suspects in belongs to the violent MS-13 Gang.
The FBI labels the group as exceedingly violent. One arrested suspect had the digits "503" shaved into the back of his scalp. 503 is the country code for El Salvador. The FBI claims that gang members identify themselves through 503 or gang tattoos on their chest.
Police said they don't consider this weekend's shooting gang related. "They committed a heinous crime. And the fact that they killed someone while they were committing that crime, I think that's more important than what gang affiliation they have," a former Bernalillo County deputy said.
KOAT reported Albuquerque police said they're now calling on other law enforcement organizations to step in and help with the case. Officials said the suspects in custody are not cooperating and haven't given any information to help them go after other gang members.
#3
I'd help him out with a Craftsman Router, make sure that 503 stays on him the rest of his short life
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/23/2009 20:09
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#4
Note well, that the Democratic controlled legislature and Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM) just repealed the death penalty in the state. Unilateral disarmament in face of a ruthless group of thugs and terrorists. MS-13 now has more influence than the sovereign government of New Mexico. Try getting witnesses who face a death penalty without trial, due process, or appeal.
AT least 17 people have been killed after suspected US missile strikes hit a Taliban base in Pakistan's northwest, pounding militants gathering for funeral prayers to paste, officials said.
The first reported strike by an unmanned drone aircraft hit near Makeen village, 60km northeast of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan and a stronghold of Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.
"A missile attack by a suspected US drone took place in rugged mountainous terrain in Neej Narai in South Waziristan," said a Pakistani security official who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
He said the first drone fired three missiles overnight, adding that "six militants were killed and seven others wounded in the attack".
Another security official confirmed the incident and casualties, saying that the missiles destroyed a compound, a bunker and two vehicles of the Taliban in the semi-autonomous tribal belt along the Afghan border.
As militants gathered for funeral rites for the dead later in the day, another unmanned drone aircraft dropped three more missiles, officials said.
That just warms the deepest cockles of my heart ...
"Our agents in the area informed us that eleven militants were confirmed dead. We have reports of dozens wounded," another security official based in the northwest said.
He said hundreds of militants were assembled to attend the funeral prayers of one of their commanders killed in the initial strike. "The reports we are receiving from the area said that the death toll may rise as hundreds of militants were attending the funeral prayers," he said.
A local intelligence official confirmed the death toll and said he had reports of more than 10 wounded in the second attack.
#6
Sepsis and infection should take care of a bunch of others. Allan Snackbar!
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/23/2009 19:59
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#7
My only regret is that a cluster bomb wasn't dropped.
Posted by: ed ||
06/23/2009 20:46
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#8
Hmmm,
Zap a taliban compound and kill a bunch of them.
Zap the funeral rites and kill a bunch of them.
Zap THAT funeral and kill a bunch of them.
Zap THAT funeral and kill a bunch of them....and so on and so on and so on and....
Do you get the impression that these clowns are NOT the sharpest knife in the drawer?
Posted by: James Carville ||
06/23/2009 20:53
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obligatory handwringing: Detailsof the attack, which occurred in Makeen, remained unclear, but the reported death toll was exceptionally high. If the reports are indeed accurate and if the attack was carried out by a drone, the strike could be the deadliest since the United States began using the aircraft to fire remotely guided missiles at members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/23/2009 21:08
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#10
Just read that Frank. The NYT and BBC are weeping for these turds.
To bad they are like cockroaches and are so difficult to get rid of.
#11
Hundreds were gathered and we only got 17 of them? I suspect the toll will be much higher. In any case, we need to develop white phosphorous cluster napalm bombs just for this sort of situation.
Relatives and friends of Neda Soltan, the 26-year-old protester who's become an international symbol of Iranian resistance, wanted her to be remembered for her love of music and passion for travel.
"She was a person full of joy," the Los Angeles Times quotes her music teacher and close friend Hamid Panahi, who was among mourners at her family home. "She was a beam of light. I'm so sorry. I was so hopeful for this woman."
Details continue to emerge Tuesday about the murdered protester nickamed "Angel of Freedom," after graphic videos of her apparent murder at a Tehran protest hit the Internet.
Images of Soltan's bloody death on Saturday have galvanized the country and many insist on speaking out about this young woman and who she was, despite authorities banning anyone from mourning her.
Neda was reportedly gunned down during protests in the capital city. Videos posted on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter show her bleeding from the nose and mouth as a crowd tries unsuccessfully to stanch the flow and save her life.
The video also shows a moving clip of a man identified as Panahi cradling her head and yelling out, "Neda, don't be afraid. Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!”
During a meeting last September with Assistant Principal Jan Gentry, Latham claims Gentry mentioned his school-affiliated Web site, which she called "too patriotic." The site had links to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Air Force, the U.S. Army and other military-and history-related sites.
Imagine having the gall to link to these right wing extremist sites.
A high school teacher in Kansas who claimed his contract was not renewed due to his conservative political views has been reinstated. Tim Latham, 44, who was told that his school-affiliated Web site was "too patriotic," will return this fall to the 2,000-student Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kan., where he'll continue teaching American history and government for a second consecutive year. Since the contract renewal became official late last week, Latham, a teaching veteran of 20 years, said he's received countless well-wishes from students and teachers alike.
"My cell phone just went off again," Latham told FOXNews.com on Tuesday. "I have received well over 1,000 e-mails, comments on my Facebook page, personal letters and phone calls, not only from all over the country, but from all over the world. I even had a guy who wrote me from China, saying he could see this happening in China, but not here."
Latham, who was criticized by a student for not airing President Obama's inaugural address during class, filed a grievance with his school district earlier this month after he was told in April that his contract would not be renewed.
The married father of three had claimed school officials violated his contract by not conducting proper reviews -- four 20-minute in-class evaluations throughout the year -- and said school administrators were looking for a way to get rid of him due to his personal politics. But Latham was informed last Thursday by District Superintendent Randy Weseman that there were "inconsistencies in the evaluation process" and that his contract would be renewed for 2009-10.
Latham said he was not surprised. "I thought that if they followed the letter of the contract and if they looked at all the evidence, there was no other result that could happen," he said. "It had to happen."
Weseman confirmed to FOXNews.com that Latham will be back next year. He said administrators erred by not conducting enough in-class evaluations. "To make a long story short, they didn't do what they were supposed to," Weseman said. "Obviously there are implications to procedures not being followed."
Latham conducted himself in a "respectful and dignified" manner throughout the process, Weseman said, adding that the "injustice" claimed by Latham had been confirmed.
During a meeting last September with Assistant Principal Jan Gentry, Latham claims Gentry mentioned his school-affiliated Web site, which she called "too patriotic." The site had links to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Air Force, the U.S. Army and other military-and history-related sites.
He claimed the critiques took a personal turn in October, when class lessons began focusing on the presidential race between Obama and John McCain. One unidentified student has complained to Gentry that Latham had been too critical of Obama.
"I had been called into [Gentry's office] and was told I was picking on Obama in class," Latham said earlier this month. "But I didn't cover anything else that wasn't already covered by anybody else in the news."
Latham also said that Gentry asked him about a "McCain-Palin" bumper sticker on his car. "She said, 'I don't know how you could support that woman,'" Latham said. "That was the beginning of what was going on. They were trying to find a reason to get rid of me."
Latham said a condition of his reinstatement would be that Gentry would not conduct his evaluations any longer, Weseman said. Gentry could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Chloe Mercer, who graduated Lawrence High School last month, said Latham's class was her favorite and said he was fair despite his decision not to show Obama's inauguration in class.
"He chose not to show it, but he printed out Obama's speech and we read it and discussed what we felt was good about it," Mercer told FOXNews.com earlier this month. "[Latham] was fair. He listened to all sides of every issue. He actually made print-outs of every candidate and how they felt on certain hot-button issues.
#5
For those not familiar with that part of the country: Lawrence, KS is a little slice of San Francisco that broke off, drifted eastward, lodged in the midwest and has festered there. Personally I cheered wildly during the Day After though I was somewhat disappointed that Lawrence wasn't completely vaporized.
Major Garrett just challenged Mr. Obama’s tone on Iran, essentially asking why he waited so long to show any outrage and whether he’d been inconsistent. “I don’t think that’s accurate,” the president replies, defending himself. “Track what I’ve been saying. Right after the election I said we had profound concerns about the nature of the election, but that it was not up to us to determine what the outcome is.” And he added, “The United States will not be a foil” for the Iranian government to accuse of meddling.
Excuse me. If I may be so bold. I hate to trouble you but.... I don't mean to impose... I'm not interfering... Far be it from me to suggest anything that you might be able to characterize as meddling. I'm no meddler. Not at all. I'm just over here, modestly deploring violence.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/23/2009
15:08 ||
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#1
Iran however has not recognized the the sovereignty of Western countries for nearly 30 years (US embassy,Carrell, Rushdie, cartoonists etc).
#2
"And the fact that they are now in the midst of an extraordinary debate taking place in Iran..."
Oh so what we’re currently witnessing in Iran is a debate? Thanks for clearing that up for us Mr. President. Perhaps we should describe it as civil well-reasoned discourse - just with a little tear gas, Billy clubs, and water cannons mixed in. Funny how that sniper fire has way of deciding which side wins those types of “debates”.
Boeing's 787 Dreamliner airplane is facing yet another delay, the company announced Tuesday, this time saying it needed to reinforce a section of the aircraft before starting test flights.
The 787 is a medium-size plane that is expected to become the backbone of airlines' long-haul fleets, replacing the Boeing 767.
Boeing has not set a new date for the airplane's first flight, the company statement said.
"It will be several weeks before the new schedule is available," the statement added.
"Structural modifications like these are not uncommon in the development of new airplanes," Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in the statement.
The aircraft manufacturer originally announced it would deliver the Dreamliner in May 2008, and has delayed it at least three times before.
Airlines such as Qantas, British Airways and Continental intend to use the 787 to open up new "long, thin routes" -- long routes with fewer passengers than carried by the enormous 747.
At least 700 orders for Dreamliners were placed by the time it announced its third delay, in April 2008.
The delays mirror the problems that Boeing rival Airbus has had in delivering the A380 superjumbo, which suffered two years of delays and cost overruns before making its first flight in October 2007. The A380 and the Boeing 787 serve different needs for airlines, and so are not in competition with each other -- though both are the current stars for their respective manufacturers.
In January, Boeing reported it ended 2008 with 662 new net commercial airplane orders, giving it a backlog of unfilled commercial orders of more than 3,700 airplanes. While that was down sharply from the record 1,413 net orders in 2007, that year's orders marked the third-straight record year for new orders.
Boeing, one of the few employers that added workers through the nationwide labor market downturn last year, announced in January it will cut 4,500 jobs this year, undoing the employment gains it achieved in 2008.
The job cuts in Boeing's Commercial Airplanes division will take employment in the unit back to 63,500, about where it stood a year ago.
#3
More Bad News For Boeing: Sea Launch Files For Bankruptcy
Commercial satellite-launch services provider Sea Launch, which is 40% owned by 787 on time manufacturer extraordinaire, Boeing, filed for bankruptcy last night in Delaware (09-12513). The Long Beach company which has used the Kazakhstan Baikonur Space Center for rocket launches in the past, has listed liabilities of over $1 billion.
What is hilarious is that just last week, the Company launched a $245 million one-year Term Loan underwritten by Citigroup. Is Citi doomed to have the worst luck of any investment bank for ever and ever? For what it's worth, Goldman only provides loans to soon to be bankrupt companies (ahem, Movie Gallery) if they file for chapter with at least a one month lag post refi (and long after the bank has syndicated the loan to unwitting, dimwitted credit PMs who have to generate 15% returns in 3 months or the Exit sign it is).
At least gullible investors in the recent TL issue (yielding between L+200-350) be happy that it is guaranteed by Boeing, which after its 5th 787 launch delay may be better off changing its business model to focus on making space ship launch pads.
#5
One would hope most of those overhead indicators don't require operating switches as most are out of reach unless you remove the seat belt and stand up.
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--News Corporation today announced the appointment of Rebekah Wade to the role of Chief Executive Officer of News International. In her new role, she will assume responsibility for the day-to-day operations of News International, covering all five titles, The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times, News of the World and thelondonpaper. Ms Wade will continue to report to James Murdoch, News CorporationÂ’s Chairman and Chief Executive, Europe and Asia, who will additionally become Executive Chairman of News International. Both appointments will be effective 1 September 2009.
Wade has been Editor of The Sun, the UKÂ’s most popular newspaper, for over six years. Prior to that, she spent three years as Editor of the UKÂ’s leading Sunday tabloid, News of the World. A new Editor of The Sun will be announced later in the summer.
Announcing Ms Wade’s appointment, James Murdoch said: “Rebekah combines enormous editorial talent with commercial and strategic creativity at the highest level. I know that in this new role she will make a huge contribution to the business of journalism and to News Corporation’s continued role as a pacesetter in this incredible business.”
Ms Wade said: “Our titles are among the best in the world thanks to an unrelenting focus on high quality journalism that connects with its readers. At such a crucial time for the newspaper industry, I am honoured to have the opportunity to work with the exceptional team here and believe that we have an exciting future.”
Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, News Corporation, said: “Rebekah is a great campaigning editor who has worked her way up through the company with an energy and enthusiasm that reflects true passion for newspapers and an understanding of the crucial contribution that independent journalism makes to society. Her promotion reflects the importance of journalism to this business
Breaking: TVNewser has learned the CBS Evening News has once again set an all-time low last week with 4.89 million Total Viewers and 1.42 million A25-54 viewers. But it was also the lowest (since records began in the 1991-'92 season) for ABC's World News with Charles Gibson. The Gibson program drew 6.42 million Total Viewers and 1.77 million A25-54 viewers.
#2
More coverage of Barry, Rahm, Pelosi and cadre should bring them back up in no time. Live streaming vid from the Oval Office, Residence bedroom, Bo's pen, Marine one, etc. No worries!
#6
4.89 million Total Viewers and 1.42 million A25-54 viewers
Explains why every commercial is for adult diapers and erectile disfunction. Network news, like 60 minutes, has hitched itself to an audience with one foot in the grave. Can't die quick enough in my opinion.
Posted by: ed ||
06/23/2009 20:35
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#7
Don't worry - Perky Couric sez the transvestite community will save the CBS Evening News.
From late last week.
A BRISBANE woman was jailed for eight months in the United Arab Emirates for claiming she was raped by three men after her drink was spiked in a hotel bar. The woman, identified only as Amanda, said she ordered one drink from the bar in the United Arab Emirates hotel she was staying, but then remembered nothing until waking up the next afternoon.
Amanda, interviewed on ABC radio this morning, said she was arrested after reporting her rape to police and later sentenced to 11 months' jail for having illicit sexual relations and one month for consumption of alcohol.
"I don't remember anything except for having that drink ... in one way that's a good thing but from what happened following, it's still an extremely traumatising,'' she said.
Sounds like the rapist put something in her drink ...
She was released five months ago after securing a royal pardon after serving eight months, and is now home in Australia. She said the jails were overcrowded, inmates were often beaten and the water was frequently turned off.
Amanda said she had extensively researched the customs of the largely Muslim country before living there, but was not aware of the laws surrounding women and sex and drinking.
Guess her research wasn't that 'extensive' ...
"It was such a glamorous lifestyle and at the moment there are so many Australians working over there,'' she said. "It is a very glamourous lifestyle and you can make a lot of money but unfortunately there's the other side that people just aren't aware of.''
She said four high-ranking muslim men had to witness penetration to prove a rape charge, so women who reported rapes were typically seen as confessing to illicit sexual relations or prostitution.
"I can move on, and I'm working on that, part of my process is to help other people with awareness of what's going on and making changes,'' she said.
Amanda met with several state MPs this week to tell her story.
Amnesty International's Michael Hayworth said he sent a letter to United Arab Emirates officials, asking them to comply with United Nation's Women's Rights Conventions and remove discriminatory laws.
#3
"Amnesty International's Michael Hayworth said he sent a letter to United Arab Emirates officials, asking them to comply with United Nation's Women's Rights Conventions and remove discriminatory laws."
GFL on that one.
Was the letter strongly worded?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/23/2009 23:23
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I bet none of you could see that coming!
The United States made a deal Tuesday allowing it to continue using a Central Asian air base that is crucial to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, after agreeing to triple the rent it pays.
The former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan in February had ordered the U.S. forces out, a decision some observers said may have been made under pressure from Russia, which is strongly opposed to a U.S. military presence so close to its borders. Russia also has a base in Kyrgyzstan.
Under the new deal, the U.S. will pay $60 million in annual rent, up from the current $17.4 million for use of the Manas air base, which is an increasingly important operations hub.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/23/2009
12:36 ||
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#1
better than paying Pakland for passage
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/23/2009 20:03
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#2
Cheaper than hauling fuel to Bagram.
Posted by: ed ||
06/23/2009 20:55
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This is a post-election video of Ahmadinejad in a meeting, in the city of Qom, with ultra-conservative Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi. They are basically planning a coup: to take Iran from an Islamic Republic to an Islamic State (i.e.: pure dictatorship, no more elections after him). He says "I can feel the people are spiritually ready for that...". He also hints on the rigged elections: "now that the job has been achieved with your help..." film at the link
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/23/2009
12:18 ||
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#1
the diff between bogus elections and no elections isn't really that far
it would be a big deal if dinnerjacket announced he is ruling by divine right in prep for the madhi and abolished the council of experts
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/23/2009 19:09
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QUESTION: This isn't a frivolous question, really. Do you think it's still appropriate to have Iranians come to these July 4th parties under the circumstances? I mean, is there any thought being given to like, rescinding invitations?
MR. KELLY: No, there's no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian diplomats.
QUESTION: It's appropriate to have a social dialogue with them if they come?
MR. KELLY: Well, we have made a strategic decision to engage on a number of fronts with Iran, and we tried many years of isolation and we're pursuing a different path now.
QUESTION: Have they said yes?
QUESTION: The President keeps saying that --
MR. KELLY: I don't know, Arshad. Unlikely that any of Neda's friends and relatives would get the same diplomatic courtesy.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/23/2009
10:03 ||
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#1
Iran smells weakness hence the street protests wont get anywhere!
Ed McMahon died at a hospital in Los Angeles this morning, his agent said. The 86-year-old TV personality and former "Tonight Show" sidekick died this morning at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in California, agent Howard Bragman said today. McMahon, who is best known for his role as Johnny Carson's No. 2 on the late-night show, was hospitalized for several weeks in intensive care earlier this year with pneumonia and other illnesses.
The famous TV pitchman — who is responsible for bringing the infamous "Heeeere's Johnny!" line into the pop culture lexicon — has promoted a number of products through the years such as Budweiser, American Family Publishers' sweepstakes and, most recently, Cash4Gold.com in a self-deprecating Super Bowl commercial. McMahon also hosted the popular syndicated talent competition "Star Search."
But the Hollywood legend fell on hard times recently and became embroiled in financial trouble. His home was reportedly to be placed on the auction block later this month after he fell behind $644,000 on his $4.8 million mortgage. He recently settled lawsuits against a hospital and doctors over difficulties stemming from the broken neck he suffered in fall of 2007. In 2002, he sued various insurance companies and contractors over mold in his house and collected a $7 million settlement.
And from his Wiki bio, something that was once common to read about celebrities:
During World War II, McMahon was a fighter pilot in the United States Marine Corps serving as a flight instructor and test pilot. He was a decorated pilot and was discharged in 1946, remaining in the reserves. After college, McMahon returned to active duty. He was sent to Korea in February 1953. He flew unarmed O-1E Bird Dogs on 85 tactical air control and artillery spotting missions. He remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring with the rank of Colonel in 1966 and was then commissioned as a Brigadier General in the California Air National Guard. Rest in peace, Ed. God Bless.
#1
I had the pleasure of working with Col McMahon when he would bring his Philadelphia Marine Reserve squadron to MCAS Beaufort for summer training. At the time he was flying the FJ3 Fury.
Ed was already doing work with Johnny Carson on a show called "Who Do You Trust". Col McMahon was always a nice guy and never full of himself. He was also a big guy so the FJ3 cockpit proved a little cramped for him.
I've spent the last seventeen hours living inside a cyberpunk novel. A libertarian cyberpunk novel. It's been a weird and awesome experience.
Within an hour after I received a plea for help from Iran, a regular commenter on this blog recruited me into a hacker network that has been forming to support the democratic Iranian revolutionaries by providing them with proxy servers, Tor anonymizers, and any other technologies needed for them to communicate over channels the Iranian regime cannot censor or control.
I know this network has contacts on the ground among the revolutionaries. I don't know who they are, and don't want to know. Most of the other network members are just names on an IRC channel. But we're putting together a stealth network at amazing speed. Nothing matters as much as the courage and determination of the Iranians on the ground, but we aim to make a difference in our own way and we have the tools to do it.
This disorganization has only been forming for a very short time. It doesn't really have leaders. It didn't have even a name when I joined it, though I've given it one that looks like it might stick. Until and unless somebody else steps up to the job, I'm our public contact.
This role carries a non-zero risk that I will be targeted for assassination, or interrogation followed by execution, by agents of the Iranian regime - we've had more than one death threat against core members already. I take this risk with eyes open because we need somebody to be public, and I know I've already been a jihadi target since 2006; at least I can keep some other poor bastard out of the line of fire. I now expect to remain continuously armed for the duration of the Iranian crisis.
Rostam, this is how I'm answering your plea. We'll do what we can for your people. For freedom.
To learn more about NedaNet and how you can help, go here.
Those of you with the time, skills, and computer resources to help are encouraged to click through that last link.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/23/2009
08:12 ||
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Hundreds of Israeli protesters blocked border crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, demanding the immediate return of captive Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.
The protesters are blocking the Karni, Kerem Shalom, and Erez crossings, in an attempt to stop the entry of trucks carrying food supplies to the coastal territory. Since 9 A.M., only one truck has entered the Strip, according to an official involved in the transport of supplies to Gaza. The protesters, wearing shirts that read "enlisted for Gilad", plan to remain at the crossings until 4 P.M. Gilad's father Noam attended the protest at the Karni crossing, where he called on demonstrators to allow the entry of trucks carrying medical supplies, and the passage of Gazans seeking medical treatment in Israel.
Police are attempting to disperse the protesters and have vowed they will not allow any stoppages in the provision of supplies to the Gaza Strip. Nonetheless, dozens of trucks currently stand idle at the crossings waiting for the protests to disperse. A truckers' council has called on shipping and trucking countries to refrain from sending supplies to the Gaza Strip, in solidarity with the protesters. Noam Shalit told Israel Radio Tuesday "the people have spoken and you can see that here."
A counter-protest is slated to begin at 1pm on the Palestinian side of the border, where Gazans will demand an end to the Gaza blockade and the immediate resumptions of talks for a prisoner exchange, which would include Shalit.
Calls are growing in Germany for Islam to be granted the same legal status, rights and duties as other recognised religions, with the idea forming the main focus for this week’s Islam Conference. Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble of the conservative Christian Democratic Union has said this is his long-term aim, while the Greens this week urged the conference to take concrete steps in that direction. But a number of formalities have to be fulfilled for the German constitution to recognise Islam as an official religious community, including the ability to provide teachers to give children education in state schools about their faith.
The Muslim communities in Germany are still a way away from this, Schäuble recently told the Tageszeitung. He said the conference was, “a fair way along the road to reaching the point of being able to offer religion classes at schools to Islamic children. We have developed a more exact understanding together that one can only introduce religion classes in a partnership.” He acknowledged the fact that the state governments have jurisdiction over education, and are far from accepting the idea of putting Islamic religion classes on an equal footing with Catholic and Evangelical classes. But he said, “This process needs time. There are model projects in many federal states where Islamic children are taught something about their religion, with school subject Islam.
“The Islam conference has also, more to the point, defined conditions under which Islamic religion lessons can be introduced when the Muslims want it – and then the question remains whether Muslim organisations will fulfil these conditions. “So, for example, existing associations such as the Islam Council, are religious associations, but not a religious community as far as the constitution is concerned. Religious instruction is needed for that.”
The Green Party this week drew up a discussion paper which set out further conditions which any formalised religious community would be expected to fulfil. This included active campaigning for religious freedom of non-Muslims, as well as working for the rights of Muslim women, and against anti-Semitism and against homophobic violence.
Germany’s Bishops’ Conference has also spoken out in favour of the long-term legal equality of Islam. Its secretary Hans Langendörfer wrote in a piece for the Tageszeitung it was, “fundamentally desirable that the Muslim community be set on a legally equal level as the Christian Churches. Above all, the status of a ‘legal public corporation’ is not a right exclusive to the churches.”
#1
On second thought, maybe this isn't such a bad idea. Perhaps public school religion classes would do for Islam what they've done for Christianity: kill it off.
#1
Read the article, he's got it dead on target, Blacks get a pass.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/23/2009 8:41
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That's not what the article said, Jim. It said, 1) presidents get a break early in their presidency 2) presidents suffer when the economy suffers and 3) presidents who are viewed as likable suffer less than presidents viewed as less likable.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2009 16:36
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A Taliban faction leader who was seen as the chief rival to the militant group's Pakistani head was fatally shot Tuesday, reportedly by one of his own guards. The attack on Qari Zainuddin appeared to be a sign that divisions within the Taliban have broken into the open as they come under military assault. The army is clearing out militants from the Swat Valley and has been pounding strongholds of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in the South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan in apparent preparation for a major offensive.
Elsewhere in the area, three suspected U.S. missiles hit a reported Taliban training center Tuesday, killing at least seven people, according to two intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to media. They said the attack was believed to have been carried out by unmanned drones in the village of Najmarai, in the Makeen area of South Waziristan. Dozens of such targeted strikes have been carried out in the tribal regions over the last year.
Zainuddin was gunned down in the nearby town of Dera Ismail Khan. He had emerged as Mehsud's chief rival and had criticized the militant leader over attacks that killed civilians. Dr. Mahmood Khan Bitani told The Associated Press that he pronounced Zainuddin dead on arrival at a local hospital with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. "He's dead, Jim" Baz Mohammad, an aide to the militant leader who also was wounded, said a guard barged into a room at Zainuddin's compound after morning prayers and opened fire. He accused Mehsud of being behind the attack. "It was definitely Baitullah's man who infiltrated our ranks, and he has done his job," Mohammad told AP, vowing Dire Revenge™ to avenge the death. He later filed a criminal complaint with police, alleging the shooting was carried out at Mehsud's behest. A spokesman for Mehsud could not immediately be reached to respond to the accusation.
Bahawal Khan, the area police official, confirmed the slaying, as did Sher Mohammad, an uncle of Zainuddin. Aides said the guard had gotten closer to Zainuddin about four months ago. He fled after the attack in a waiting car, they said. Mahmood Shah, a former top security official, said the slaying sends a strong message to the government that they need to launch a strong, comprehensive operation to eliminate Mehsud, described as the center of gravity for much of the terrorist activity in Pakistan. Instead, Shah said, they have relied on "local efforts" by Mehsud's opponents like Zainuddin. "Baitullah Mehsud has overcome all tribal dynamics. He has resources, funding and a fighting force to strike anywhere in Pakistan," Shah said, calling him a front man for al-Qaida. "You simply can't eliminate him through local efforts; instead, you need a major force."
Zainuddin was estimated to have about 3,000 armed followers in Dera Ismail Khan and nearby Tank. Earlier this month, he denounced Mehsud for recent attacks that have killed civilians -- apparently launched in retaliation for the army offensive in the northwestern Swat Valley. "Whatever Baitullah Mehsud and his associates are doing in the name of Islam is not a jihad, and in fact it is rioting and terrorism," Zainuddin told the AP after a mosque suicide bombing attack, blamed on Mehsud, killed 33 people. "Islam stands for peace, not for terrorism."
Zainuddin's motive for criticizing Mehsud was not clear, but there was speculation that he was trying to portray himself as a more moderate alternative to the Taliban leader, although there appeared to be little or no differences between the two over fighting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Suspected Islamic terrorists militants opened fire at a Buddhist temple in Thailand's restive south where people were taking part in an aerobics class, wounding seven, police said on Tuesday.
Four armed terrorists insurgents stormed into the building in the troubled province of Narathiwat and attacked the group of around 50 villagers gathered inside the temple late on Monday, they said. Two volunteer guards providing security for residents fired back and the rebels fled the scene. A 20-month-old girl was among the wounded but no one was seriously hurt, said police. The incident had echoes of an attack on June 8 when gunmen burst into a mosque in Narathiwat and killed 11 people. The government blamed militants but villagers alleged security forces were to blame.
A weak signal from the flight data recorders of the Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic killing all 228 people on board have been located, French newspaper Le Monde reported on its web site Tuesday.
According to the report, French naval vessels picked up a weak signal from the flight recorders on Monday and that a mini submarine has been dispatched to try and find the "black boxes" on the bottom of the rugged ocean floor.
An Air France spokeswoman told Reuters she could not confirm the report. The Transport Ministry and the air accident investigation office was not reached immediately for comment.
The "black boxes" may contain vital information that could help explain what happened when the Airbus A330 aircraft crashed into the sea en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1. Locator beacons, known as "pingers", on the flight recorders send an electronic impulse every second for at least 30 days. The signal can be heard up to 2 km (1.2 miles) away.
French vessels involved in the search operation include a nuclear submarine with advanced sonar equipment and a research ship equipped with mini submarines.
The remote location in the Atlantic as well as the depth and surface of the ocean floor have made the search especially difficult and the wreckage could lie anywhere between a depth of 1 km (0.6 miles) and 4 km (2.5 miles).
#1
Other reports indicated that none of the recovered bodies were wearing life jackets. Appears something catastrophic happened very quickly and without warning at altitude. This entire event is beginning to look very suspect.
#3
A colleague just sent the following along with two very, very disturbing photos which I have not attached. Totally unconfirmed. I have no way of checking the validity:
AIR FRANCE CRASH PHOTOS....2 photos before Death....
Feel so sad for all the passengers including the extraordinary photographer, who kept his cool even in his last moments of life and took this photo.
Hats off to him!!! The world saw the disappearance of an A330 Air Frane during a trans Atlantic flight between Rio to Paris.
Two shots taken inside the plane before it crashed. Unbelievable!
Photos taken inside the aircraft.....
The two photos attached were apparently taken by one of the passengers before the aircraft crashed. The photos were retrieved from the camera's memory stick. You will never get to see photos like this. In the first photo, there is a gaping hole in the fuselage through which you can see the tailplane and vertical fin of the aircraft.
In the second photo, one of the passengers is being sucked out of the gaping hole.
These photos were found in a digital Casio Z750, amidst the remains.
Although the camera was destroyed, the Memory Stick was recovered. Investigating the serial number of the camera, the owner was identified as Paulo G. Muller, an actor of a theatre for children known in the outskirts of Porto Alegre.. It can be imagined that he was standing during the turbulence,
he managed to take these photos, just seconds after the tail loss the aircraft plunged.
The structural stress probably ripped the engines away, diminishing the falling speed,
protecting the electronic equipment but not unfortunately the victims.
Paulo Muller leaves behind two daughters, Bruna and Beatriz.
#4
MODS: My apologies. Appears the above is a <strong>HOAX. Please delete. Found it all on line with a disclaimer. Some very sick minds here, again, my apologies.
Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) leaders are using the threat of a law suit to silence and intimidate critics, according to current and former members of the liberal activist group.
In a letter dated June 11 an attorney for ACORN advised top whistleblowers that their unauthorized use of the organization's name could make them liable for monetary damages and injunctive relief.
ACORN executives have also changed their organization's name, which was tarnished by investigations in at least 14 states of allegations of voter registration fraud during the 2008 presidential campaign, and charges by current and former members of financial mismanagement and misrepresentation. The new name will let ACORN leaders continue their operations without worrying about prior bad publicity, according to Marcel Reid of ACORN 8, a group of present and former members.
"We've known for many months now that the name ACORN is going to be retired," Reid said. "The name has been so damaged to the point where the leadership knows it simply can't go on as it has with the ACORN label out front and center, especially after all of the reporting."
In fact, the process has already begun, she noted. Wade Rathke, who founded the organization, announced on his blog that ACORN International has officially changed its name to "Community Organizations International."
Reid also said ACORN is in the process of dismantling Citizen's Consulting Inc. (CCI), a New-Orleans based non-profit, which has been used to maintain centralized financial control, ACORN 8 activists claim. Tax records show that CCI is interlinked with several ACORN affiliates.
Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke, embezzled almost $1 million from the organization in 1999 and 2000, while he was employed as the organization's chief financial officer with the CCI affiliate. For almost a decade Wade Rathke and other staff members concealed the embezzlement from ACORN's board of trustees, according to the criminal complaint ACORN 8 members filed against the organization. ACORN's national leaders withdrew a lawsuit Reid filed with fellow board member Karen Inman last October seeking access to internal financial records. Reid and Inman were also expelled from their board positions; a move they say was illegal. Reid and Inman then came together with six other colleagues to form ACORN 8.
"ACORN has to be decapitated," Reid said. "The senior staff and current national board should be dismantled. The only way to have reform is for the current leadership to be removed completely. We also need a forensic audit."
Arthur Schwartz, the general counsel for ACORN, has sent a "cease and desist" letter to Reid and Inman instructing them to discontinue using the name ACORN in a connection with their activities. This same letter threatens legal action if the ACORN 8 members do not provide written assurances that they will comply with this demand by the end of June.
"It is a violation of federal and state law for you to use the ACORN name and mark without the written permission of ACORN," the letter states. "Should you continue to do so, you will be liable for monetary and injunctive relief."
Reid told The Examiner that ACORN 8 will not comply. "We have no intention of not using the name ACORN 8, it is not a trademark infringement," she said. "This get tough attitude is part of larger attempt to silence people and shut them down. We are not going to be silenced."
Meanwhile, ACORN's Project Vote affiliate has filed suit against Anita MonCrief, a former employee, who has testified under oath on voter registration allegations. ACORN is currently under investigation in at least 14 states for electoral irregularities. The Project Vote suit claims that Anita MonCrief and an unidentified accomplice gained access into private e-mails from group executives and stole the group's name without permission. It also accuses Moncrief of using a company credit card for her own purposes.
"ACORN is attempting to silence me, and the allegations in the lawsuit are false," MonCrief said in statement emailed to The Examiner.
ACORN 8 has released its own statement on "whistleblower retaliation" through its national spokesman Michael McCray that expresses support for new protective legislation.
"On behalf of the national board of ACORN 8, we are all saddened by and express great concern due to ACORN's court action filed against whistleblower Anita MonCrief," the statement reads. "While we do not express an opinion on the merits of ACORN's complaint; we as reform advocates decry the tactic of suing whistleblowers -- especially, low to moderate income people who do not have the financial means to effectively fight back in courts of law. Moreover, this is yet another example of why congress must enact strong corporate, government and tax-payer funded whistleblower protection laws."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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NUUK, Greenland -- The thing about being from Greenland, said Susan Gudmundsdottir Johnsen, is that many outsiders seem to have no clue where it actually is. "They say, 'Oh, my God, Greenland?' It's like they've never heard of it," said Ms. Johnsen, 36, who was born in Iceland but has lived on this huge, largely frozen northern island for 25 years. "I have to explain: 'Here you have a map. Here's Europe. The big white thing is Greenland.' "
But Greenland, with 58,000 people and only two traffic lights, both of them here in the capital, is now securing its place in the world. On Sunday, amid solemn ceremony and giddy celebration, it ushered in a new era of self-governance that sets the stage for eventual independence from Denmark, its ruler since 1721.
The move, which allows Greenland to gradually take responsibility over areas like criminal justice and oil exploration, follows a referendum last year in which 76 percent of voters said they wanted self-rule. Many of the changes are deeply symbolic. Kalaallisut, a traditional Inuit dialect, is now the country's official language, and Greenlanders are now recognized under international law as a separate people from Danes.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2009
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#1
I was taught the Vikings misnamed "Iceland" which is green, and "Grenland", whih is mostly ice, on purpose to deter invaders.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/23/2009 0:23
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#4
The Danes probably got had enough of subsidizing every man, woman and child to the tune of $11,000 per year. That's a lot fish exports to take up the slack.
Posted by: ed ||
06/23/2009 7:34
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#5
RJ, Greenland was green at the time. Didn't last, though.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/23/2009 7:54
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#6
Was green compared the rock of Iceland. Then Gaia Global Cooling set in. Not that you'd know given that according to the 'experts' and MSM, climate change has only occurred in since the on set of the industrial age.
#7
Ed, the white guilt reparations subsidy will continue under semi-independence. For a first move, expect a foreign orchestrated media campaign to shut down the vital US base at Thule way up on the northwest coast. The Danish parliament will technically still have control over this but it shouldn't be too hard to get an irresistable local uproar going over it, with the Danes caving in deference to strident pronouncements from the "independent" parliament.
#9
You're right, Para, this is loaded with throbbing purple prose, like the travel diary of some 1920s debutante.
Thrillingly, the Greenlandic government now gets to call itself by its Inuit name, Naalakkersuisut
Not much excitement in this reporter's life, I guess.
"Its harbor is impossibly quaint and its views breathtakingly beautiful;"
...just to die for, simply divine and so simpatico, like Cuzco in the springtime....
Greenland's new, charismatic prime minister, Kuupik Kleist,
....and so charming and well-spoken for, well, you know.
#10
This reminds me of a story from the heyday of dead tree media, the 1920s.
A big NYC paper sent an eager young reporter to western Pennsylvania to cover some damaging floods.
The neophyte soon wired his first report, opening with the immortal words, "God sat on a hill and laughed as the town of (whatever) died in the raging torrent."
Within minutes, the hard-boiled editor wired back, "Forget flood. Interview God. Get pictures."
#13
Look, if you want a country more suited for humans and their damn thermophilia there's still lots of land available in the Sahel. In the meantime could y'all please kindly stop complaining about those few lands at the fringe of the world that are still habitable by my people without _too much_ of an air conditioning bill?
#17
global warming is rapidly melting the mighty icecap that covers some 80 percent of Greenland's 840,000 square miles
Citation? OR are facts not important?
There is no water to melt the ice from below due to lack of warmth, except at lower altitudes near the coast where warm currents melt the bottoms, so it must be melted from above. The cooling always exceeds the warming for solid ice at reasonable altitude. Since Greenland is at lower latitude than the pole, the Solar insolation can be significantly higher. If a strong enough warmer wind blows in from the sea, the sea ice and lower altitude edge of the Greenland ice sheet may melt, and has melted many times before (why do you think it is called Greenland). Ice melting at the very edge has led to scare scenes of massive melting, but it cannot happen at the higher altitudes (where almost all of the ice volume is located) at temperature variations that are happening, or that are even projected to occur by the scare models.
If it were in a position to do so, Al Qaeda would use Pakistan's nuclear weapons in its fight against the United States, a top leader of the group said in remarks aired Sunday.
Pakistan has been battling al Qaeda's Taliban allies in the Swat Valley since April after their thrust into a district 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the capital raised fears the nuclear-armed country could slowly slip into militant hands.
"God willing, the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans and the mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans," Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the leader of al Qaeda's in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Al Jazeera television.
Abu al-Yazid was responding to a question about U.S. safeguards to seize control over Pakistan's nuclear weapons in case Islamist fighters came close to doing so.
"We expect that the Pakistani army would be defeated (in Swat) ... and that would be its end everywhere, God willing."
Asked about the group's plans, the Egyptian militant leader said: "The strategy of the (al Qaeda) organization in the coming period is the same as in the previous period: to hit the head of the snake, the head of tyranny -- the United States.
"That can be achieved through continued work on the open fronts and also by opening new fronts in a manner that achieves the interests of Islam and Muslims and by increasing military operations that drain the enemy financially."
The militant leader suggested that naming a new leader for the group's unit in the Arabian Peninsula, Abu Basir al-Wahayshi, could revive its campaign in Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter.
"Our goals have been the Americans ... and the oil targets which they are stealing to gain power to strike the mujahideen and Muslims."
"There was a setback in work there for reasons that there is no room to state now, but as of late, efforts have been united and there is unity around a single leader."
Abu al-Yazid, also known as Abu Saeed al-Masri, said al Qaeda will continue "with large scale operations against the enemy" -- by which he meant the United States.
"We have demanded and we demand that all branches of al Qaeda carry out such operations," he said, referring to attacks against U.S.-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The militant leader said al Qaeda would be willing to accept a truce of about 10 years' duration with the United States if Washington agreed to withdraw its troops from Muslim countries and stopped backing Israel and the pro-Western governments of Muslim nations.
Asked about the whereabouts of al Qaeda's top leaders, he said: "Praise God, sheikh Osama (bin Laden) and sheikh Ayman al-Zawahri are safe from the reach of the enemies, but we would not say where they are; moreover, we do not know where they are, but we're in continuous contact with them."
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06/23/2009
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More than 45,000 people are leaving their homes even before the start of a military offensive in South Waziristan, and are heading for communities already stretched to the limit in terms of resources, officials said on Monday.
Col Waseem Ahmed, spokesman for a Pakistani government unit overseeing humanitarian affairs, said he expected the number to rise to at least 60,000. About 37,000 people had already left their homes in South Waziristan, said Manuel Bessler, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, citing military figures.
Bessler said Pakistan presented a unique problem for humanitarian officials because 80 percent of the displaced were not in UN camps, but were staying with family and friends in 'host' communities.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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Troops on Monday shot dead three suspected militants in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), saying one of them was a senior guerrilla leader. The three were killed in a gunbattle in a dense forest, an army spokesman said in Jammu, the winter capital of IHK. He said they were members of the Hizbul Mujahideen.
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06/23/2009
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[Quqnoos] Afghan Interior Ministry said the Taliban militants rule 11 districts and threatens more than 150 others country-wide.
Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar told a conference on Sunday that at least 120 Afghan districts -- mostly in the southern Afghanistan -- are at serious risk. "There are some 40 other districts across the country that militants are present or have influence, but those are not of serious concerns for us," Minister Atmar added.
According to the Afghan Interior Ministry, at least 118 incidents, mostly roadside bombings and ambush attacks occurred only the last week in the country. The week before the last, more than 125 attacks had taken place across Afghanistan, a 6 percent higher rate than the recent seven days.
Afghan security forces and the international troops are the main target of the attacks, mostly planned and carried out by the Taliban.
A week earlier, Minster Atmar pointed to across the border sanctuaries of the insurgents from where they scheme and mastermind the attacks in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#1
COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG > SOMALIA: TALIBAN COMING TO A WAR THEATRE NEAR YOU!
All Talibs, all the time, and in video/high-definition VD, HD???
(Bloomberg) -- Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the security forces will crush further protests over the disputed presidential vote, as the country's elections supervisory body acknowledged some balloting discrepancies. "The saboteurs must stop their actions" or face "the decisive and revolutionary action of the children of the nation in the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij, and other security and military forces, to put an end to the chaos," the state-run Mehr news agency cited the Revolutionary Guards as saying today in a statement.
Police attacked hundreds of protesters with tear gas and fired shots into the air as they broke up a rally in central Tehran's Haft-e-Tir square shortly after the Guards' warning, the Associated Press said.
The 125,000-strong Guards, tasked by Iran's clerical rulers with protecting the Islamic Revolution, have their own ground, air and sea forces. Club-wielding members of the Basij volunteer militia, which is linked to the Guards, have played a role in suppressing the protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's June 12 victory. Opponents say the ballot was rigged. "This shows that it is very serious and can destabilize the regime," Yossi Mekelberg, director of international relations at Regent's College, London, said in an interview. Without the Guards' intervention, the protests won't stop, he said.
Security forces deployed in Tehran to prevent further demonstrations after hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets during more than a week of rallies that saw at least 17 people killed, according to the government. Police arrested as many as 457 people during clashes in the city on June 20, state-run Press TV said.
Guardian Council
The clerical Guardian Council, the top election body, acknowledged that the number of ballots cast in 50 districts surpassed the number of eligible voters in those areas, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported today. Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei said the discrepancies, in areas with a total electorate of about three million, may have sprung from voters being allowed to cast their ballot in cities or provinces other than those where they live.
The Council has rejected a call from Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main challenger in the disputed election, for a new vote, offering only a partial recount of ballots. "Crossing the red lines and pursuing scenarios to agitate the public is an obvious sign of threatening the national security and endangering the interests of the establishment and Iran," the Guards said in their statement, adding that the protests tell "a story of a big conspiracy against the revolution and the Iranian nation."
Supreme Leader
The Guards, who answer directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and act as a counterweight to the army, warned the international community including the U.S., U.K. and Israel to stop stirring unrest in the country. Iran has accused foreign nations of provoking the protests, a charge denied by Western diplomats.
The U.S. designated the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force a terrorist organization in October 2007, accusing the paramilitary group of supporting attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. The focus of the Quds Force has been assistance to Islamic militant groups in other countries.
The U.K.'s Foreign Office said today it will withdraw temporarily family members of its diplomats in Tehran, because they have been unable to continue their normal lives. The ministry isn't advising other Britons to leave, though it said it is monitoring the situation with "the utmost vigilance" and advised against all except essential travel to the country.
Splits in Elite
The Guards' intervention came as splits within Iran's ruling elite deepened after police arrested relatives of an ex- president and Parliament's speaker said that most Iranians questioned Ahmadinejad's electoral victory.
Security forces detained five relatives of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the most influential politicians in the country, state media said yesterday. They were released later. Bolstering the opposition, Speaker Ali Larijani, who served as Iran's nuclear negotiator until 2007, criticized the top election body for siding with Ahmadinejad and said most Iranians don't accept the results. "There is some serious dissatisfaction within the ranks," said Ilan Berman, an analyst with the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington. "Anytime a regime begins to eat its own, it signals significant transformation."
Rallying Support
Rafsanjani is believed to be rallying support within the clerical establishment for former Prime Minister Mousavi, 67. "The ball is in the opposition's court," said Kaveh-Cyrus Sanandaji, an Iran expert from Oxford University in the U.K. "The supreme leader and Ahmadinejad have proven they are willing to use violence against all dissent."
At Friday prayers in Tehran University on June 19, Khamenei reaffirmed Ahmadinejad's electoral victory. The president was re-elected for a second four-year term with 63 percent of the vote to Mousavi's 34 percent, according to the official tally.
Iran's rial strengthened 0.4 percent to 9,853.15 to the dollar, compared to 9,894.6 at the close of trading on June 19. The currency's rate is managed by Bank Markazi, the central bank.
Iran's governor at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, said the protests haven't affected the country's oil industry or crude exports. Iran is OPEC's second-biggest producer.
Oil Industry 'Normal'
"The recent developments in the country have had no impact on the oil industry or crude exports," state-run Press TV cited Khatibi as telling the Iran Daily newspaper yesterday. "The national oil industry is 100 percent normal."
The protests, the largest since the Islamic Revolution that ousted the shah in 1979, and the divisions within the regime mark an unprecedented challenge to the authority of Khamenei, the successor of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic Revolution. The loyalty of the security forces may be tested in the event of major bloodshed.
Mousavi urged his supporters to continue peaceful protests. Opposing lies and fraud is a right, Mousavi said in a statement published yesterday on his Web site.
Rafsanjani, 75, who heads the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body that has the power to appoint or dismiss the supreme leader, is likely to try to dislodge Khamenei, 69, said Anoush Ehteshami, a professor of international relations at Durham University in the U.K.
Rafsanjani's 'Direct Challenge'
"Rafsanjani is being forced to come out into the open," said Ehteshami. "The arrest of his family members is a direct challenge to him."
The Rafsanjani family members, including his daughter, Faezeh Hashemi, were detained two days ago in connection with the protests. The relatives were released yesterday, with Rafsanjani's daughter the last to be freed, late last night, Press TV said.
Ten people were killed on June 20 in Tehran as thousands defied Khamenei's imposition of a ban on rallies, state television reported, citing deputy police chief Ahmadreza Radan. Radan said more than 100 people were also injured in rioting. He said security forces didn't use firearms and "terrorist groups" among the protesters were responsible for the casualties. CNN television, citing workers at a Tehran hospital, said 19 people were killed. "The first priority of every nation is security," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said today at a news conference in Tehran. "It will first ensure security then turn to elections, freedom, human rights and democracy."
Media Crackdown
The Iranian government continued its crackdown on foreign media coverage of the crisis. The British Broadcasting Corp. said yesterday that its correspondent in Iran, Jon Leyne, was told by the country's authorities to leave.
Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari, 41, was arrested by security forces at his Tehran apartment over the weekend. Newsweek called in a statement for the dual Canadian-Iranian citizen's immediate release. "The stage may now be set for a violent showdown," said Michael Eisenstadt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Past experience, however, raises questions about whether the security forces can be uniformly relied on to implement an order to violently quash the protests."
In 1994, army and Revolutionary Guards garrisoned near Qazvin, a town northwest of Tehran, refused to obey orders to fire on rioters, said Eisenstadt.
For Rafsanjani, Mousavi and their allies, the democratic legitimacy of the Islamic republic is at stake, said Hooman Majd, the author of "The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran."
"If they have the chance to seize power and oust the supreme leader, they'll do it," Oxford University's Sanandaji said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#2
Their problem is that they can not play two games with contradicting strategies. If they continue to provoke the outside world with threats and terrorism, that will eventually lead to an external response. By suppressing the population internally so clearly and forcefully, the very population they will have to swim among, in any external intervention in the future, will be hostile and be the eyes and ears of their enemy. Just remember the best trained army in the Muslim world is now on their doorstep. Keep sending those bombs and agents in across the border making 'friends' and influencing people.
#3
I don't see Iran getting better until there is a popular uprising; they tear down the existing structure and start over again. They need to clean house of the mullahs who have a stranglehold on the country.
#4
The fact that the IRGC statement is not attributed to anyone is significant. The authorities have been arresting officers in the IRGC for several days. One of the arrested was the IRGC commander for Tehran (a war hero who lost an eye in the Iran-Iraq war).
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/23/2009 18:52
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#5
"...One of the arrested was the IRGC commander for Tehran (a war hero who lost an eye in the Iran-Iraq war)."
would make good movie
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/23/2009 19:27
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Around 1,000 pro-reform Iranians gathered in a central Tehran square on Monday as a senior Iranian politician said the ground was ready to legally pursue the moderate defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi for the illegal protests.
"Mousavi's calling for illegal protests and issuing provocative statements have been a source of recent unrests in Iran ... Such criminal acts should be confronted firmly," said Ali Shahrokhi, head of parliament's judiciary committee, semi-official Fars news agency reported. "The ground is paved to legally chase Mousavi," he said shortly after the elite Revolutionary Guards warned they would crack down on any election-related unrest.
Witnesses said protesters were gathering late in the afternoon and riot police were trying to disperse them. Mousavi had urged supporters Monday to stage more protests over the re-election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mousavi made a veiled appeal to the security forces to show restraint in handling demonstrations -- a move likely to be viewed with deep suspicion by a conservative leadership that has vowed to use force wherever necessary to quell opposition.
" The revolution is your legacy. To protest against lies and fraud is your right. Be hopeful that you will get your right and do not allow others who want to provoke your anger... to prevail "
Mirhossein Mousavi
State radio said on Monday that the capital had been calm overnight for the first time since the June 12 election. Mousavi, 67, reiterated his demand for a new election, and told his supporters on Sunday: "The revolution is your legacy. To protest against lies and fraud is your right. Be hopeful that you will get your right and do not allow others who want to provoke your anger... to prevail. In your protests, continue to show restraint. I am expecting armed forces to avoid irreversible damage."
Mass arrests
Iranian state radio said at least 457 people were arrested in the violent clashes in Tehran on Saturday that killed between 10 and 13 people wounded 100. State television said a daughter of former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, a rival of Ahmadinejad, had been released after being detained together with four other relatives during the Saturday rally in Tehran.
The authorities have branded the protesters as "terrorists" and rioters. Tehran's police commander Azizullah Rajabzadeh said police would "confront all gatherings and unrest with all its strength," the official IRNA news agency reported.
Gunfire and chanting
In pro-Mousavi districts of northern Tehran, supporters took to the rooftops after dusk Sunday to chant their defiance, witnesses said, an echo of tactics used in the 1979 revolution. There were no immediate reports of casualties and the shooting appeared an attempt to break up unsanctioned protests.
Government restrictions prevent correspondents working for foreign media from attending protests to report. Iran closed Al Arabiya's Tehran bureau and ordered BBC correspondent, Jon Leyne, out of the country.
Analysis shows "irregularities"
Independent British think tank Chatham House said the election results show "irregularities" in the turnout and "highly implausible" swings to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to an analysis published on Sunday. It said that in a third of all provinces, official results would have required Ahmadinejad to take all former conservative, centrist and all new voters, and up to 44 percent of reformist voters, "despite a decade of conflict between these two groups."
There would have to have been a radical shift in rural voting patterns and a "highly unlikely" change in heart among former reformist voters for Ahmadinejad to win as he did, the study concluded.
The authorities reject charges of election fraud. But the highest legislative body has said it is ready to recount a random 10 percent of votes cast.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's foreign minister accused Britain on Sunday of seeking to sabotage the disputed presidential election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power and ordered the BBC's Tehran correspondent to leave within 24 hours, semi-official media reported Sunday. "Great Britain has plotted against the presidential election for more than two years," Manouchehr Mottaki told foreign diplomats in Tehran in comments translated into English by state-run Press TV.
Retaliation on BBC
Shortly after his comments, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported that Iran had decided to expel the BBC's correspondent. "Jon Leyne will have to leave Iran within the course of the next 24 hours under the charges of dispatching fabricated news and reports, ignoring neutrality in news, supporting rioters and trampling the Iranian nation's rights," Fars said, without giving a source.
Al Arabiya's Tehran bureau was also shut indefinitely after Iranina authorities closed it for a week last Sunday. "We witnessed an influx of people (from Britain) before the election. Elements linked to the British secret service were flying in droves," Mottaki charged.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#1
That's the way thugs work, no possibility of any dissentig voice, especially lying with pictues and any actual proof.
Absolutely forbidden.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/23/2009 0:16
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#2
Well, let's start with the things we agree on: Vote sabotage is bad.
#8
The Beeb will probably do some soul-searching, or whatever the analog is for soul-dead media shills, and decide that they must re-double their efforts to appease mullahs and other third-world bigots.
Taliban blew up a girls' school in Peshawar and another the Khar area of Bajaur Agency early on Monday, police and other sources said. A police official in Peshawar told Daily Times that four, relatively minor, blasts followed one another in quick succession and completely destroyed the two-room school building. Separately, Taliban blew up a primary school in the Chaqwari area of Khar in Bajaur Agency.
A girls' school and a children's school. O brave, brave Lions of Islam!
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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[Geo News] Security forces are in the final phase of eliminating terrorists' hideouts and camps in Swat, Director General ISPR Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Monday.
I wonder if the CIA guys agree with that assessment.
Talking to newsmen, the DG ISPR said in the north Bhia valley the last stronghold of terrorists has been fully secured and in the west, area of Shamozai is being cleared. Meanwhile search operations are continuing in the secured areas to ensure that areas are safe for the return of IDPs, he added.
On the occasion, he displayed a map which, he said, shows the overall state of secured areas.
He said so far 1592 terrorists have been killed and showed photographs of a few for media's information.
He said during search and cordon operation security forces neutralized a number of IEDs and destroyed number of small and big tunnels, while 22 terrorists were killed and 5 were apprehended in Malakand.
Fourteen terrorists were killed by security forces during link up operation at Shamozai Bridge, while 8 large size IEDs planted by terrorists were also neutralized.
Security forces successfully secured Biha valley, and also cleared Bartana South of Chuprial.
Three small size tunnels were destroyed at Loi Namal.
Local Jirga handed over a terrorist to security forces at Behrain, while 4 other terrorists were apprehended at Wanai Bridge, Shalkosar, Bashkhela and Drushkhela.
Yesterday in Upper Dir, during an encounter of Lashkar with terrorists, 8 terrorists were killed, 1 got injured and 1 ran away.
Security forces are carrying out search and cordon operation in Charmang Tehsil of Bajur to flush out the terrorists from the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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[Kyodo: Korea] North Korea has issued another navigation restriction for vessels passing through waters off its eastern coast in the Sea of Japan over a self-claimed military exercise, the Japan Coast Guard said Monday. According to the coast guard, which was notified of the ban by Pyongyang via e-mail the same day, the new ban covers an area about 450 kilometers in length and 110 km wide along the coast of Wonsan from June 25 until July 10 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Japan time.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#1
Yup, they'll shoot off their skyrockets and help celebrate OUR Fourth Of July.
USN, be ready to participate in the Fireworks, OK.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/23/2009 8:22
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#2
FOX NEWS PM SEGMENT last Nite > IIUC the USF COMMANDER in SOKOR repor stated that in case of war NOKOR may be planning to resort to WIDESPREAD GUERILLA/INSURGENT TACTICS as per its LARGE CONTIN OF TRAINED COMMANDOS = SPECOPS, + Fifth Columnists, etc. already based in SOKOR, and in addition to the THREAT FROM ITS LARGE CHEMWAR ASSETS???
Two policemen were killed and seven people were injured when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into Thakot Police check-post in Battagram district on Monday, completely destroying the check-post. "An explosion occurred in a small truck when it reached the Dandai bridge in Shangla district (of Swat) ... it was a suicide attack," said Gul Wali Khan, the district police chief in Shangla, told AFP.
The attack was the first-ever suicide attack in Battagram district, after which security was beefed up in the district. The blast left two policemen, Shabir Shah and Niaz Khan, dead, while seven other people -- including three policemen -- sustained injuries. Two of the injured are said to be in a critical condition. Thakot Bazaar was shut down following the blast.
Locals condemned the blast and said they would not be cowed by such dastardly acts and would continue to oppose the Taliban who shed the blood of the innocent.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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[Kyodo: Korea] The United States is bracing itself for any threat from North Korea, including a possible launch by the reclusive state of a long-range missile toward Hawaii, President Barack Obama has said. ""This administration -- and our military -- is fully prepared for any contingencies,"" he said in a soon-to-be-aired interview with CBS News.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#1
U.S. fully prepared for any N. Korea threat
That wouldn't by chance include a missile defense system, would it?
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2009 7:43
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#3
Well, for the moment, they've both mobilized their best PR units for imminent engagement. Although, I'd have to go with the Norks for color and enthusiasm in their shots to the more mellow tones of teleprompter banality.
#15
ION RUMORMILLNEWS > BEJAMIN FULFORD: Alleged Fulford source(s) within Britain's MI6 claims IRAN HAS MANY = DOZENS OF NEUTRON BOMBS, and is merely waiting for Israel to attack Iran in order to "justify" using same agz Israel and wiping it out???
[Maghrebia] Algerian troops arrested several suspected terrorists and seized a large quantity of bulletproof vests, automatic guns and vehicles near Bordj Bou Arreridj, the scene of the June 17th al-Qaeda attack on Algerian gendarmes, L'Expression reported on Monday (June 22nd). More than 10,000 Algerian soldiers were deployed to the region after the ambush last week. The current operation aims at neutralising some 60 terrorists responsible for the deadly assault.
How does one say, "Good hunting!" in French?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#2
Pass a law that only "holy men" could wear turbans, then quietly start shooting anyone wearing a turban. You might pick off a few innocents, but the majority would be guilty of something, if not terrorism, stritcly speaking.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/23/2009 17:28
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SEOUL (AFP) – North and South Korea failed to reach agreement in talks Friday on the fate of a joint industrial estate which is their last remaining reconciliation project, officials said.
The South insisted it cannot accept demands for hundreds of millions of dollars in extra payments for the Kaesong estate just north of the heavily-fortified border, Seoul's unification ministry said. The North refused to discuss the fate of a South Korean employee it has detained since March 30, it said. "The two sides repeated their positions on key issues but there was no agreement," a ministry spokesman told AFP.
The estate's future has become increasingly uncertain as North-South relations have worsened and the North's nuclear standoff with the outside world has intensified.
The North's delegation denounced agreements reached at a US-South Korea summit earlier in the week, Yonhap news agency reported. However the two sides at the meeting in Kaesong agreed to meet again on July 2 and the North offered to ease curbs on cross-border traffic, the spokesman said.
The South proposed a joint survey of industrial estates in third countries as part of efforts to turn Kaesong into an internationally viable operation.
The communist state last week stunned Seoul by demanding a wage rise for its 40,000 workers at Kaesong to 300 dollars per month from around 75 dollars currently. It also demanded an increase in rent for the Seoul-funded estate to 500 million dollars, compared with the current 16 million dollars for a 50-year contract.
So not just slave labor, but expensive slave labor ...
The South is pressing for the release of the employee detained for "slandering" the North's political system and allegedly trying to incite a local female worker to defect. "We strongly urged the release of the detained worker and demanded access to him," delegation chief Kim Young-Tak said, according to Yonhap.
"But the North's delegation only said there was no problem with him and told us to convey its word to Mr. Yu's family."
Unification Minister Hyun In-Taek acknowledged the venture is at a critical stage. "One step you take and one stone you lay in today's talks will be crucial to inter-Korean relations," he told the South's delegation before its departure in the morning.
Representatives of the 106 South Korean firms at Kaesong, and President Lee, have rejected what they describe as excessive financial demands.
"If Kaesong shuts down, 40,000 North Koreans would lose jobs," Lee said in Washington Tuesday. "This is why the North must stop making excessive demands, for its own interest."
The impoverished communist North received 26 million dollars last year in wage payments. Yet some analysts say it may be willing to forgo the cash because it fears the effects of exposing its workers to the South Korean lifestyle.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2009
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#1
Good, don't waste any more time and treasure on the NORKS.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/23/2009 8:18
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[Bangla Daily Star] Rab arrested the chief of information technology (IT) wing of banned Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) from his residence in the city's Pallabi area on Sunday.
Rab men raided the house of Emranul Haque alias Rajib at around 9:00 pm and arrested him along with JMB 'Ehsar' (full-time) member Abu Bakar Siddiqui alias Abu Hanif, 20. Hanif is on charge of Pabna district of JMB.
Five detonators, two casings of grenade, one high resolution binocular, one laptop, a number of jihadi books and some bomb-making materials were also seized during the raid.
"Rajib's arrest help us to understand that many highly educated people and brilliant students are involved with the banned outfit," said Director (operations) of Rab Lt Col Mizan at a press briefing at Rab headquarters in Uttara yesterday.
In a separate raid at Muktagaccha of Mymensingh district on the day, the crime busting force arrested JMB's 'Gayre Ehsar' (part-time) members Mohammad Saiful Islam, 28, and Shirin Shapla, 18, wife of another detained JMB 'Ehsar' member David. Following confessional statement by her husband, Rab men arrested Shapla.
The JMB IT chief was given task to download information about explosives from internet for providing those to detained JMB explosives expert 'Boma Mizan' after translating those into Bengali. Rab sources said JMB has also its website.
Rajib, also known as Mainul, Abu Toba and Iqbal, had also worked as research associates at Water Resource Engineering Department of Buet for a few years.
Lt Col Mizan said on information they raided Rajib's residence. Sensing presence of the elite force, he tried to flee from his rented house but was caught finally, he added.
Though the four JMB men were kept at the briefing, journalists were not allowed to ask them any query on plea of fair investigation. At one stage, Rajib was allowed to brief the newsmen.
Rajib started his briefing with the name of Allah and said about his student life and his duty as the IT chief.
He said he got involved in JMB through Mostafiz, a former Dhaka University student. He had visited India twice--once for a training as an engineer and another for personal matter.
Rab sources said Mostafiz is a teacher of a school in Gazipur and a hunt is going on to arrest him.
"I download information on explosives from internet, translate those in Bengali and send those to Mizan through Bashar," Rajib said. Bashar, now a key-figure in JMB, is the son of incumbent JMB Ameer Saidur Rahman.
Son of a retired railway official, Rajib hails from Chuadanga district. He passed SSC in 1994 and HSC in 1996 from two institutions in Darshana and secured first division both in the examinations. Later, he got admitted in Buet and passed BSc engineering from Civil Engineering department.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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... That ambivalence at the heart of the Obama diplomacy about freedom has not served American policy well in this crisis. We had tried to "cheat" -- an opening to the regime with an obligatory wink to those who took to the streets appalled by their rulers' cynicism and utter disregard for their people's intelligence and common sense -- and we were caught at it. Mr. Obama's statement that "the difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as had been advertised" put on cruel display the administration's incoherence. For once, there was an acknowledgment by this young president of history's burden: "Either way, we were going to be dealing with an Iranian regime that has historically been hostile to the United States, that has caused some problems in the neighborhood and is pursuing nuclear weapons." No Wilsonianism on offer here.
Mr. Obama will have to acknowledge the "foreignness" of foreign lands. His breezy self-assurance has been put on notice. The Obama administration believed its own rhetoric that the pro-Western March 14 coalition in Lebanon had ridden Mr. Obama's coattails to an electoral victory. (It had given every indication that it expected similar vindication in Iran.)
But the claim about Lebanon was hollow and reflected little understanding of the forces at play in Lebanon's politics. That contest was settled by Lebanese rules, and by the push and pull of Saudi and Syrian and Iranian interests in Lebanon.
Mr. Obama's June 4 speech in Cairo did not reshape the Islamic landscape. I was in Saudi Arabia when Mr. Obama traveled to Riyadh and Cairo. The earth did not move, life went on as usual. There were countless people puzzled by the presumption of the entire exercise, an outsider walking into sacred matters of their faith. In Saudi Arabia, and in the Arabic commentaries of other lands, there was unease that so complicated an ideological and cultural terrain could be approached with such ease and haste.
Days into his presidency, it should be recalled, Mr. Obama had spoken of his desire to restore to America's relation with the Muslim world the respect and mutual interest that had existed 30 or 20 years earlier. It so happened that he was speaking, almost to the day, on the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution -- and that the time span he was referring to, his golden age, covered the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the American standoff with Libya, the fall of Beirut to the forces of terror, and the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Liberal opinion would have howled had this history been offered by George W. Bush, but Barack Obama was granted a waiver.
Little more than three decades ago, Jimmy Carter, another American president convinced that what had come before him could be annulled and wished away, called on the nation to shed its "inordinate fear of communism," and to put aside its concern with "traditional issues of war and peace" in favor of "new global issues of justice, equity and human rights." We had betrayed our principles in the course of the Cold War, he said, "fought fire with fire, never thinking that fire is quenched with water." The Soviet answer to that brave, new world was the invasion of Afghanistan in December of 1979.
Mr. Carter would try an atonement in the last year of his presidency. He would pose as a born-again hawk. It was too late in the hour for such redemption. It would take another standard-bearer, Ronald Reagan, to see that great struggle to victory.
Iran's ordeal and its ways shattered the Carter presidency. President Obama's Persian tutorial has just begun.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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Obama's silence in the face of the violent and brutal Islamic crackdown on the Iranian people peacefully demonstrating for freedom is in keeping with Obama's previous silences:
1. Silent on the Black Muslim Riverdale bombers.
2. Silent on the release of the Black Panthers voter intimidation case.
His department of justice ordered the case dropped.
3. Silent on the murder of Private William Long by a Black Muslim -
Issued a very weak statement, though he loudly condemned the Tiller murder.
4. Silent on the French plane that crashed in the ocean, possibly blown
up by the two Muslim terrorists on board.
5. Silent on Iran - Issued a weakly worded statement.
On the other side of the coin we have:
1. Obama's bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia.
2. Obama's pro Islam speech in Cairo, with many fabricated platitudes about the history of Islam.
3. Obama instructing Eric Holder to issue a memo stating that Muslims were not to be discriminated against.
4. Releases Muslim terrorists from Gitmo to Bermuda, so that they can go into the restaurant business and hang on the beaches there.
5. Eliminating the phrase "war on terrorism" and replacing it with "overseas contingency operation" and "terorists" with "man made disasters".
There is a definite pattern in the behavior by Barack Hussein Obama toward the worldwide ummah (in keeping with being raised a Muslim in Indonesia). hat tip Jonathan Galt
#3
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity and ego.
Obama is convinced of his ability to work miracles of diplomacy. He went to Harvard! he's got a first-class temprament! He's an intellectual and scholar! And he's smarter than Bush! All the cool kids think he's boffo keen!! He said he would negotiate with the Iranians and win them over with sweet reason and by gosh that's just what he's gonna do, and he's not gonna let these protestors and neocons and inconveniently-vivid videos of people being shot down in the streets stop him!
Posted by: Mike ||
06/23/2009 10:39
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#4
On the other hand the Obama administration is now unofficially taking credit for the unrest in Iran.
This implies that regime destabilization, perhaps regime change has become an official policy. That's a move in the right direction IMO.
Obama's WH saying that his Cairo speech inspired the protesting and uprising in Iran is disgusting and despicable.
But he still is going to invite those who murdered protesters like Neda (while he was out eating ice cream - how inspiring) to 4th of july celebrations.
But privately Obama advisers are crediting his Cairo speech for inspiring the protesters, especially the young ones, who are now posing the most direct challenge to the republicÂ’s Islamic authority in its 30-year history.
An obvious veiled attempt at checking Rahm's "never waste a good crisis" box.... even if a few hundred unarmed young people get shot down in cold blood. Very presidential I'd say, very BahÃa de Cochinos.
#7
I think Mike is right, here. It comes down to simple vanity & conceit, really. Obama thinks his "soft-power" approach is the ONLY way that can ever possibly work despite the fact that such an approach has failed miserably throughout the course of history when push comes to shove. Yet he is so convinced of his superior intellect, powers of persuasion, and singular greatness he is blind to all the signs around him that the soft-power approach-- while on occasion effective in the short-term if only because it serves to delay the inevitable-- ultimately leads to greater suffering and eventual failure.
In essence it's all about HIM and what HE is capable of, regardless of the reality that surrounds him. That's NPD in full effect.
#8
Maybe the WH spokesperson misspoke. maybe he meant to say was:
But privately Obama advisers are crediting his Cairo speech for inspiring,the government to shoot the protesters, especially the young ones, who are now posing the most direct challenge to the republicÂ’s Islamic authority in its 30-year history.
Perhaps static on the line when Ralm and the MSM were having their morning conference call to go over their talking points.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Bahrain shut down its oldest daily newspaper for "violating the country's press code," the official news agency reported Monday, a day after the paper published a report that suggested Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was Jewish.
Gentlemen do not accuse other gentlemen of being *shhhh* Juices.
The paper, Akhbar Al-Khaleej, or "Gulf News," was shut down as it was about to to print late Sunday night and is to remain shut until further notice, a note on the paper's website explained.
The official BNA news agency carried the same notice but did not elaborate on the nature of the violation and the reasons behind the abrupt closure were unclear.
The AFP news agency reported that staff at the newspaper said the action followed the publication on Sunday of an article on Iran in which a female member of Bahrain's Consultative Council, Samira Rajab, came down hard on the Iranian government and suggested that Ahmadinejad was Jewish. "Islamic Republic -- Popular Fury," an opinion piece by Rajab, was a harsh critique of the current events taking place in Iran, which is facing the worst unrest since the 1979 revolution due to disputed election results, and discussed a live debate that took place between the incumbent and his reformist challenger Mehdi Karroubi.
Rajab wrote: "In a televised live debate between Mehdi Karroubi and Ahmadinejad, Karroubi took a jab at Ahmadinejad's origins and said 'my full name is Mehdi so and so Karroubi' so what is your full name?'"
Rajab went on to write that Ahmadinejad stated his name but failed to mention his "real" surname "which all Iranians know to be Jewish and that is what Karroubi was trying to get at." Goldstein. I knew it all along.
The question of Ahmadinejad's origins have been raised before by the son of one of the republic's conservative Ayatollahs, Mehdi Khazali, who wrote on his website that the president had changed his family name from the originally Jewish name Saborjhian. Right. Levi or Cohen?
Lots of converts to Islam over the centuries who'd been born Jewish, Christian or whatever. Mr. Karroubi sounds like a Spanish grandee claiming only Christians in his bloodline back to the year dot.
British newspaper the Guardian also reported that this family had changed its name for "a mixture of religious and economic reasons."
But the Guardian's British readers are not supposed to care about such things, so why on Earth would the Guardian's reporter and editor choose to include that information?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#1
Ahmadinejad a gifted tailor and men's suit designer, moves up in the company, falls in love with the boss' daughter, and wins her love, all the while maintaining his false identity. When he and his girlfriend go to a rabbi to plan their wedding, he mistakenly calls the rabbi Father, and his deception is discovered.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Mexico sends 1,500 additional soldiers to its northern borders to contain rising drug violence after initial troop deployment failed to effectively address the problem.
The northern border city of Ciudad Juarez has witnessed an upsurge in drug-related violence in recent weeks despite earlier reports that troop presence in the flashpoint city had caused a reduction in drug-related crimes.
Some 5,000 soldiers were deployed in the city in March.
The additional soldiers will begin patrolling the city on Monday, said Enrique Torres Valadez, the spokesman for the joint security operation of soldiers and state police in Ciudad Juarez, AP reported.
Victor Clark, a drug-trafficking expert based in Tijuana, claimed that troops had not been able to settle the ongoing problem in the city, blaming the failure on the lack of an effective drug intelligence program in the army.
"I see two wars, the visible and the invisible one. The visible one is the dead that the media reports on every day, but the dead are just cheap labor," said Clark, director of the Binational Center for Human Rights in Tijuana. "The invisible one is ... the business class and the politicians who really benefit from the millions that the drug trade generates."
"The army had not carried out profound intelligence work," he added. "In Juarez, they have not dared to touch that level of organized crime."
President Felipe Calderon has used 45,000 Mexican armed forces to crackdown on drug trafficking and violence across the country. The operations have resulted in the arrest of several cartel members.
Ciudad Juarez, which witnessed 1,600 drug-related killings last year, has had almost no high-profile arrests.
More than 10,800 people have been killed in drug-related violence since Calderon launched his anti-drug operations in December 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#1
The El Paso Times points out "it's 7,500 soldiers plus 2,300 federal police officers. That's 9,800 law enforcers who haven't ebbed the rampant killings. There have been 130 just this month, and 2,300 in the past 18 months."
Jet planes bombed Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud's positions on Monday and killed 21 Taliban after Taliban launched attacks on three military bases in North and South Waziristan with mortars, rockets and gunfire, military sources said. The fighter jets pounded the Tiarza, Saleyrogha and Sararogha areas, hitting two houses in Saleyrogha and killing 21 Taliban, the sources told Daily Times.
It sounds like the lads and lass of the Pakistani air force are enjoying themselves, however effective (or not) the ground troops may be.
The bombings come as the military prepares for a decisive large-scale offensive against the Taliban leader. Chief military spokesman Athar Abbas said 14 Taliban were killed during an operation in Malakand. Abbas added that Operation Rah-e-Rast in Swat and surrounding areas had entered into its final phase. Also on Monday, Qari Hussain, a close aide of Mehsud, telephoned AP to say the military strikes had not weakened the Taliban in South Waziristan.
Definitely not weakened. Just fewer cadres and cannon fodder, and possibly fewer at the management level. The training cycle is blown to hell -- the Human Resources wallahs are seriously peeved. But weakened? Perish the thought!
Separately, four Taliban were killed and six injured when helicopter gunships and long-range artillery targeted them and their local facilitators' positions in Bajaur Agency.
This article starring:
Baitullah Mehsud
Qari Hussain
TTP
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#1
I never trust kill reports from bombing raids. They're usually highly exaggerated. When you can actually count bodies, you can make an effective bomb damage report. Anything else is just bragging. That includes US bombing reports, too.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/23/2009 17:57
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[Quqnoos] At least eight civilians were killed and 40 others were wounded Monday afternoon in a suicide attack in eastern Afghanistan
A spokesman for Khost local government, Kochi Nasiri said the suicide bomber detonated the explosives rigged in a motorbike in a crowd of people in Khost city, the provincial capital. The bomber blew himself up after another explosion had drawn the crowd on the scene.
The tactical incident occurred at about 2:00 pm in the eastern volatile Khost province, the official said. The victims of the bomb blast are entirely local civilians and the intended target of suicide attacker is yet to identify.
Quqnoos's Qahir Shah in Khost said the blast took place in front of a mosque -- nearby a number of government buildings -- in the Afghan eastern city, bordering Pakistan.
The provincial health department director, Dr Amir Pacha said that around 60 people have been harmed in the powerful explosion, are taken to a state-run hospital in the city. The health official termed the health status of six of the wounded locals 'critical'.
The Afghan forces have been investigating the deadly incident to reach to the exact dead toll.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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[ADN Kronos] Khalid Hussein one of the men convicted of hijacking the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985, was found dead in an Italian jail early on Monday, possibly of a heart attack Italian media reports say.
Not liver failure? How novel.
Nah. Couldn't be cirrhosis. Never. That happens overnight. Ev'rybody in B'desh knows that ...
Khalid Hussein Abdul-Rahim, 73, had been sentenced to life in jail by a court in the northern Italian city of Genoa in 1987. He was arrested in Greece in 1991 for arms trafficking and extradited five years later to Italy where he was held at various jails.
He was one of many Palestinian militants involved in the hijacking of the ship (photo) on 7 October 1985, taking hostage 450 people in exchange for the release of 82 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. During the siege they shot and killed a wheelchair bound Jewish-American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, before throwing his body overboard.
Others convicted in Italy for the hijacking include Youssef Magied al-Molqi, who was sentenced to 30 years for shooting Klinghoffer, and 44-year-old Abdelatif Ibrahim Fatayer who was freed last July.
Hussein, however, was not directly involved in the hijacking, but had maintained contact with the Palestinian militants aboard the ship and was in charge of the logistics of the operation.
The militants belonged to the Palestine Liberation Front, a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, considered the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people at the time.
Whereas now half the Palestinians consider the Palestinian Authority to be their legitimate representative. The PA is staffed and headed by members of the PLO, which I believe once again calls itself Fatah. Not news to Rantburg readers, I know.
This article starring:
Abdelatif Ibrahim Fatayer
Khalid Hussein Abdul-Rahim
Youssef Magied al-Molqi
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, adopting one of the toughest lines on Iran of any Western leader, condemned on Monday what he said was Tehran's totally unacceptable use of "brute force and intimidation" to deal with protests.
Iranian state television said 10 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in demonstrations on Saturday in Tehran over a disputed June 12 presidential election. "The regime has chosen to use brute force and intimidation in responding to peaceful opposition regarding legitimate and serious allegations of electoral fraud," Harper said in a statement. "Canada calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately cease the use of violence against their own people, to release all political prisoners and journalists ... and to conduct a full and transparent investigation into allegations of fraud in the presidential election."
Canada's relations with Iran have been strained since 2003, when Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi died in custody in Tehran after being arrested. In February, Harper said the Iranian regime had "an ideology that is obviously evil".
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#1
Or what, they'll say it again.
You're no damn help, public opinion is NOT the solution.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/23/2009 0:12
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#2
in response Obama toughened HIS stance towards Iran, saying Iranian diplomats invited to our embassies on July 4th will only be able to have a single helping of potato salad! Take THAT!
#3
Canada calls on the Iranian authorities to immediately cease the use of violence against their own people, to release all political prisoners and journalists ... and to conduct a full and transparent investigation into allegations of fraud in the presidential election.
I would laugh... except that it's more manly than anything Obama said!
#4
Always interesting to listen closely for what is not being said or mentioned of late. Crickets chirping. Crickets? Crickets?
"Would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?" Obama responded, "I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration -- is ridiculous."
[ADN Kronos] At least 14 Muslim rebels were killed and 22 people injured in separate clashes with government forces in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday, quoted by GMANews TV.
Four gunmen from the Al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf group were killed and two Marines were wounded in fierce clashes over the weekend in the village of Paugan in Sulu's Parang town.
"As a result of the fighting, two soldiers were wounded and four enemies killed in Parang town. Their bodies were recovered by soldiers," GMANews quoted army spokeswoman for Western Mindanao Command, Steffani Cacho, as saying.
At least 10 separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters also died in clashes on Saturday in Bialong village in Maguindanao's Mamasapano town in Mindanao's troubled Muslim autonomous region, according to the army, cited by the media.
Army Colonel Jonathan Ponce, a spokesman for the 6th Infantry Division, said the fighting left 10 rebels dead and 20 more wounded. No military casualties were reported, he said.
"Elements of the 64th Infantry Battalion encountered a group of rogue MILF rebels numbering about 80 that resulted to killing of ten gunmen and 20 more wounded," he was quoted as saying. Only three bodies were recovered by troops, Ponce added.
Over 100 MILF and Abu Sayyaf gunmen have been killed in fighting in Sulu and Mindanao in recent months, according to the army.
The MILF also claimed to have killed dozens of soldiers; however, most of these claims had been denied by the military. Both groups accused each other of black propaganda.
I didn't know propaganda came in colours. What's the difference between black and any other kind?
White propaganda's overt stuff, like the old Radio Moscow or current Rodong Sinmun, that honks the party line. Black propaganda pretends to be white, but its content is designed to alienate its intended audience: too stupid, arguments too easily seen through, too brutal, that sort of thing. There's also gray propaganda, which is when white (very occasionally black) propaganda is infiltrated and turned. That's a gross overview and somebody who actually knows something about the mechanics of it can explain it in more detail.
The MILF is the largest Muslim rebel group fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern region of Mindanao. It has been engaged in its secessionist struggle in the Catholic-dominated Philippines since the 1970s.
Maguindanao is at the centre of the conflict, which escalated after a ruling last year the Philippines Supreme Court that blocked the expansion of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), where the country's Muslim minority lives.
Furious rogue MILF fighters burned down Catholic villages and local populations have been caught in the cross-fire between the army and the MILF rebels. At least 300,000 thousand people have been forced to abandon their homes in the province of Maguindanao alone, according to the MILF.
There are currently around 600,000 refugees in Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago, according to a report released last week by the Norwegian Refugee Council. The report described them as "the most neglected refugees in the world".
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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SEOUL, June 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator left for Moscow on Tuesday for discussions with his Russian counterpart on North Korea, as regional powers attempt to present a united front in pushing Pyongyang back to the bargaining table.
"To be discussed are the issue of implementing the U.N. Security Council resolution (adopted after its nuclear test) and various ways to resume dialogue with North Korea," Wi Sung-lac said shortly before departure.
He added Seoul's push for a five-way meeting with the U.S., China, Russia, and Japan is also among the agenda items for his meeting Wednesday with Alexei Borodavkin, head of Russia's delegation to the six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program.
Officials here say the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) to be held next month in Phuket, Thailand, could provide a chance for such an event. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her counterparts from South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan plan to attend the ARF. It is unclear whether the North's Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun will attend.
Russia has formally expressed support for a five-way session. "Russia supports five-way consultations to decide additional measures to deal with the current crisis," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.
But China, the host of the six-party talks, is still unresponsive. As North Korea's closest traditional ally, Beijing is reportedly reluctant to join a five-way meeting without Pyongyang.
Wi said South Korean and Chinese officials have been consulting on the matter by phone and through diplomatic channels. Asked about China's latest response, he only said "We will have to wait and see."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2009
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#1
Crickets again, only crickets from the MSM.
Amazing how our State Run Media fails to report that North Korea chose to escalate its nuclear brinksmanship shortly after Barry took office with a promise of appeasing Pyongyang is considered irrelevant.
The fact that he ordered deep cuts in the US missile defense budget as North Korea tested a long-range missile and a nuclear bomb, and that he has maintained these cuts despite North Korea's announced plan to launch a missile against the US on July 4 has also gone largely unreported.
India on Monday declared Left extremist groups as terrorists and banned the Communist Party of India (Maoists) organisation which has been spearheading rebellion in almost 10 states, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Home Ministry sources said the decision was taken at a high-level meeting. CPI (Maoist), which is the main Naxal group organising tribes and downtrodden across 220 districts, has been bracketed with 34 other organisations including Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and LTTE. Meanwhile, West Bengal's ruling Left Front said that it was against banning the CPI (Maoist). Left Front chairman Biman Bose said, "We have decided that such outfits, which follow misguided politics, cannot be countered by banning them. It is important to counter the activities of these outfits politically."
Addressing a news conference here, CPI-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat said the naxalite groups already stand banned in the states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. "But has the situation improved there? Their situation is similar to that of West Bengal," Karat said. According to Karat, banning the organisation will also mean that the groups cannot hold meetings publicly.
Ridiculing Left party's demand to fight politically against these groups, Congress spokesman Shakil Ahmed said no government could stand as a mere spectator to the killings of innocent civilians and paramilitary forces. He exhorted all seven naxal-affected states to come out with a white paper on the current situation in their areas. He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said on many occasions that naxalite problem was the biggest challenge to the nation. Separately, BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the centre could not wash off its hands by putting the Maoists on the banned list of organisation. "It is a national problem and needs to be tackled at the national way on the same lines on which the government constituted the federal agency to handle the menace of terrorism," he said.
Meanwhile, security forces conducting the operation to liberate Lalgarh region in West Bengal are reported to have cleared 22 of 42 villages, as Maoist rebels imposed a two-day general strike in five states. Officials said the troops had cleared the national highway connecting the district headquarters with Lalgarh. Sources said the Left extremists or Naxalites have virtually taken control of Malkangiri district and some pockets of Koraput in eastern state of Orissa.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#1
Can we get an Indian RAB now? Crossfires? Shutter guns? One round of bullet?
#2
ION WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC WITHOUT REGARD [read, CARE/NOTICE] TO INDIA, CHINA SHOULD SEND MORE TROOPS INTO SOUTH TIBET. INCLUSIVE OF INDIAN-CONTROLLED,ARUNUSCHAL PRADESH, INDIA"S FORCES OUTNUMBERS CHINA'S BY A RATIO OF 14:1 IN INDIA'S FAVOR.
* SAME > VIETNAM IS GOING CRAZY OVER THE NANSHAS: BEGINNINGS OF BRUTE MILITARY FORCE AGZ VIETNAM BY CHINA ACCORDING TO THE CHINA'S DEFENSE MINISTER [ = also PLA General]!?
CHINA fears VIETNAM-LED, PRO-US/WESTERN
"SEA/AREA DENIAL" AGZ IT into the INDIAN OCEAN [Straits of Malaccas = BULK OF CHIN'S OIL-ENERGY TRANSHIPMENTS], vee COMBO EXPANSION OF VIETNAMESE MIL POWER + EXTENION OF EEZ, etc. SOVEREIGNTY TO UW CONTINENTAL SHELFS.
#3
ION WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC WITHOUT REGARD [read, CARE/NOTICE] TO INDIA, CHINA SHOULD SEND MORE TROOPS INTO SOUTH TIBET. INCLUSIVE OF INDIAN-CONTROLLED,ARUNUSCHAL PRADESH, INDIA"S FORCES OUTNUMBERS CHINA'S BY A RATIO OF 14:1 IN INDIA'S FAVOR.
* SAME > VIETNAM IS GOING CRAZY OVER THE NANSHAS: BEGINNINGS OF BRUTE MILITARY FORCE AGZ VIETNAM BY CHINA ACCORDING TO THE CHINA'S DEFENSE MINISTER [ = also PLA General]!?
CHINA fears VIETNAM-LED, PRO-US/WESTERN
"SEA/AREA DENIAL" AGZ IT into the INDIAN OCEAN [Straits of Malaccas = BULK OF CHIN'S OIL-ENERGY TRANSHIPMENTS], vee COMBO EXPANSION OF VIETNAMESE MIL POWER + EXTENION OF EEZ, etc. SOVEREIGNTY TO UW CONTINENTAL SHELFS.
[Bangla Daily Star] Some key members of banned Islamist militant organisation Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), wanted in the list of law enforcement agencies, are now staying in Pakistan for 'taking military trainings or fighting in favour of any militant group'.
Wishing anonymity, a top Rab official said they have so far information about two 'Ehsar' (full-time) members who have been staying in Pakistan for the last three months.
Earlier, detained JMB explosives expert Zahidul Islam alias 'Boma Mizan' disclosed the information about the flight of two members--Sayeed and Shiplu-- during interrogation.
'Boma Mizan' said the two 'Ehsar' members opted to flee to Pakistan for evading arrest. But law enforcers suspect that they are staying in Pakistan for taking military training from any militant group or fighting in favour of any of them.
Around three months back, a travel agency in the city's Fakirrapool area helped them to leave for Pakistan, which is experiencing intense fighting between Pakistan army and Taliban fighters.
Quoting the detained JMB man, the Rab official said family members of the two 'Ehsar' members provided the fund for their trip. But he suspected that the organisation might have provided the fund as both Sayeed and Shiplu were more influential among around 500 'Ehsar' members.
He said they are investigating whether the organisation provided the fund. Law enforcers suspect the number of JMB members who had fled to Pakistan might be more.
Executed JMB supremo Shaikh Abdur Rahman had visited Pakistan on numerous occasions and had his arms training and mastered of the art of bomb-making while fighting against the former Soviet Union forces in Afghanistan.
Earlier, 'Boma Mizan' had revealed about JMB's small-scale organisational activities in India. During the investigation, he confessed that an 'active member' of JMB from Bangladesh who has been staying in India near Rajshahi border in the guise of a cloth trader for long, sends explosives to his militant group.
MIZAN REMANDED
A Dhaka court yesterday again placed 'Boma Mizan' on a three-day remand in a case filed against him on charge of possessing huge arms and explosives, recovered from a 'mini-munitions factory' in his residence in the city on May 14-15.
Metropolitan Magistrate Tania Kamal granted the three days' remand after investigation officer of the case had prayed for seven days' remand.
Rab men arrested Mizan in the city on May 14 and seized firearms and huge amount of explosives after raiding his two rented houses.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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The man who helped John Edwards out of a tricky situation during his presidential campaign, moving in with a pregnant staffer who was linked romantically to the candidate, is ready to tell the whole story.
Andrew Young, the longtime friend and aide of John Edwards, is shopping a tell-all book to New York publishers, according to The Daily Beast. Last week, Young submitted a 20-page proposal and began a round of visits to New York publishers. According to his proposal, represented by agent David McCormick at McCormick Williams, the book would chronicle his longstanding friendship with the Edwards family and the strange role he played in the 2008 scandal that thwarted the politician's Presidential bid.
Young will presumably use the book deal to dish about his relations with Rielle Hunter, the woman who had an affair with John Edwards during the 2008 campaign for president and subsequently had a baby. Under pressure, Edwards admitted to having an affair with Hunter but denies paternity. When the baby was born, no father was listed on the birth certificate, and Hunter's initial threats to submit baby Frances for a paternity test were quickly dropped.
In return for an undisclosed sum, Young said the baby was his and moved to Santa Barbara, Calif., taking in the then-pregnant Hunter to live with him, his wife and and their three children. It was later revealed that the move was bankrolled by Edwards' campaign chairman, Fred Baron.
In the book proposal, Young details the fallout when the details of the arrangement went public and decribes how he feels betrayed by the once-friendly Edwards family.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#1
Please Mr. Young, run along quietly now like a good gentleman and find an honest job. No one wants to hear your.... sleeping with dogs and awakening with fleas story.
#4
good, because Mickey Kaus has been following Edwards' and his wife's attempts at political rehabilitation and money-grubbing. Hope this drives a stake through Mr. Two-America's heart future, but, being a Donk, you can never be sure
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/23/2009 11:14
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Andrew Young - no one cares you took the fall for the pregnant mistress. It shows how stupid you and John Edwards were to think the American people believed this crock. You have no crediability just like John Edwards. Fred Barons hush money wasn't enough - you should have thought of your reputation in December 2007.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Somalia's president, clinging to power by his fingertips in his Mogadishu palace, on Monday declared a state of emergency in a bid to contain a deadly six-week-old insurgent offensive.
That'll help. Especially if accompanied by a sharply worded note on the official presidential letterhead.
Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's announcement came amid growing talk of fresh foreign military action to flush out hard line Islamist groups, less than six months after Ethiopia ended a two-year intervention which failed to do just that.
Kenya is talking of doing something helpful...And Ethiopia is already there, however quietly.
The measure should have little impact on the ground in a country plagued by chaos since 1991 and over which Sharif's forces have no control but could facilitate his administration's request for foreign military assistance.
Send in the mighty Uruguayans! But not the Pakistanis -- everyone knows they arrive without weapons, proper clothing, or adequate food, and Somalia is certainly not the country to properly supply and equip them.
And they don't come with any idea of fighting, and their officers aren't particularly interested -- just ask the Rangers who were in Mog in '93 ...
"As of today, the country is under a state of emergency," Sharif said at press conference in the capital, during a brief lull in fighting that has killed at least 300 people nationwide since May 7.
The president said the government had decided to announce the emergency "after witnessing the intensifying violence across the country."
According to a presidential aide, the decree still has to be approved by parliament to be officially effective. It was not immediately clear where and when the national assembly would convene.
Prob'ly somewhere out of country, preferably at peaceful a five star hotel not likely to be blown up by Pakistani jacketwallas gone off the reservation.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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[Al Arabiya Latest] An appeals court in Yemen sentenced to death a Muslim man who shot dead a Jewish compatriot on Sunday as 16 Yemeni Jews arrived to Israel in a secret exodus.
The ruling overturned a previous sentence in March in which the court deemed Abdul-Aziz al-Abdi, a retired pilot in the Yemeni air force who killed a Jewish Yemeni, "mentally unstable." It ordered him to pay a fine of 50.5 million riyals ($250,000.) However the victim's father appealed the verdict and now Abdi's attorneys said they would file an appeal to the country's supreme court, the highest judicial body.
Yehiya bin Yaeesh said his son Mashaa was in the company of four Muslim men when he was shot in the town of Raida in December and had clearly been targeted.
There are 200-300 Jews in Yemen. About 50,000 moved to Israel in an airlift begun in 1949.
Wasn't it 500 just a few days ago? The Underground Railroad is moving quickly.
Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, is struggling with a Shiite revolt in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and growing militancy among Sunni al Qaeda sympathisers. The unrest has raised fears that Yemen will slip into chaos and provide a base for al Qaeda or pirates operating in the Indian Ocean.
Sunni Muslims make up the majority of Yemen's 23 million inhabitants, while most of the rest are from the Zaydi branch of Shiite Islam.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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[ADN Kronos] Iranian lawmakers are mooting legislation that would outlaw harsh punishment methods such as stoning and amputations, Iran's official news agency IRNA said on Monday. Ali Sharokhi, who is the president of the Iranian judiciary commission said MPs are eyeing legal amendments to make illegal stoning, cutting off the hands of thieves, amongst other 'Islamic' punishments.
Currently, stoning, or lapidation is a legal punishment for crimes such as adultery, prostitution, and incest.
The last reported stoning in Iran was in December 2008 of two Iranian men and one Afghan man who dug himself out and escaped the stoning in the northeastern area of Iran. These stonings were confirmed by Judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi in January 2009.
In stonings in Iran, men are buried to the waist and women are buried to the shoulders. Then stones are hurled until the prisoner dies or escapes.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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Ooh, lapidation sounds soooo much better. Hopefully the MPs are going to need to rely on this in the near future.
President Obama's excuses for firing AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin look weaker every day. The FBI has opened an investigation into a Sacramento program formerly run by a close ally of President Obama's, giving credence to the IG's work.
The president fired Mr. Walpin June 11 after Mr. Walpin filed two reports critical of Obama friends. The highest-profile of the two reports focused on misuse of funds at Sacramento's St. Hope Academy, then run by former NBA star Kevin Johnson before Mr. Johnson was elected Sacramento's mayor in November. Mr. Johnson was a frequent stump speaker for Mr. Obama during last year's campaign and has claimed in TV interviews to be particularly good friends with first lady Michelle Obama.
The inspector general detailed numerous irregularities in St. Hope's use of AmeriCorps funds, including AmeriCorps grantees being used to wash Mr. Johnson's car. Mr. Walpin complained vociferously, though, that acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown had negotiated far too lenient a settlement of the charges against Mayor Johnson and St. Hope.
In turn, the U.S. attorney filed a complaint against Mr. Walpin, charging him with unethical behavior throughout the investigation. The White House fired Mr. Walpin long before the relevant committee would have finished its assessment of the U.S. attorney's complaint.
As The Washington Times reported in a previous editorial, U.S. Attorney Brown's complaint included at least two major, easily discernible errors of fact. Many other complaints against Mr. Walpin, both by Mr. Brown and by other AmeriCorps officials, were strangely petty in nature.
Now here is where the story gets really interesting. On the very same day that the president fired Mr. Walpin, St. Hope's executive director, Rick Maya, left his job at St. Hope. He did not go quietly. His resignation letter charged Mr. Johnson and several St. Hope board members with numerous ethical violations. Most explosively, he charged that a board member improperly deleted e-mails of Mr. Johnson's that already were under a federal subpoena.
Suddenly, the problems at St. Hope begin to look as severe as Mr. Walpin had charged rather than being minor infractions.
On Wednesday, the Sacramento Bee reported that Mr. Maya's allegations have been deemed serious enough that the FBI is investigating potential obstruction of justice at St. Hope. In that light, the firing of Mr. Walpin, who properly blew the whistle on mismanagement and possible corruption, looks ill-considered.
Early last week, Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, and Sen. Claire McCaskill, Missouri Democrat, publicly questioned the White House handling of the firing, as did Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican. On Thursday, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican, and Sen. Michael B. Enzi, Wyoming Republican, sent a strongly worded letter to the White House indicating serious reservations about whether the administration had abided by the laws governing inspectors general.
It also was learned last week that the White House is involved in major disputes with two other inspectors general who were poking around the administration's business, including Neil M. Barofsky, whose job is to serve as watchdog for spending the $787 billion in controversial economic bailout funds.
All of this suggests that the purported White House mistreatment of independent inspectors general is a scandal that might have real legs. As well it should.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#1
I was misled. You there, minion, under the bus!
#2
IG witness Blows Up White House Excuse We have found an exclusive witness who directly contradicts multiple aspects of the official White House explanation for firing AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin.
We have found an exclusive witness who directly contradicts multiple aspects of the official White House explanation for firing AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin.
By the staff member/witness's account, later independently confirmed by Mr. Walpin, the IG had been working around the clock before the meeting, overseeing reports and reactions thereto concerning a case in Sacramento embarrassing to a close Obama ally and a case in New York highly embarrassing to board itself of the Corporation for National and Community Service. By both independent accounts, Mr. Walpin opened the meeting by chastising the board for particularly weak oversight of the grants, involving the Teaching Fellows program of the City University of New York. By both accounts, the board met Mr. Walpin's report with considerable hostility and repeated interruptions, during which the questions ranged without much logical order over several different topics.
At some point, the board asked Mr. Walpin to leave the room for 15 minutes while discussing the matter in private. When Mr. Walpin returned, he found his papers out of order. The witness confirms that Mr. Walpin asked for time to get his papers back in their proper order, but was denied that courtesy.
“I was also denied time to review my notes,” Mr. Walpin said.
Mr. Walpin continues: “There was no inability on my part to express myself before I was asked to leave for 15 minutes. After, there was indeed one question I didn't understand, because so many different items were on the table at once. I also felt physically ill in the middle of that meeting, and indeed was very ill that night. But even if I appeared to others to be confused that one time , that was based on just one occasion out of hundreds [of communications with the board]. Two weeks after that I had a long telephone meeting with the [audit] committee. The only confusion that existed then was the committee's confusion about its own duties.”
The witness, who agreed that Mr. Walpin and the board “weren't connecting” at the meeting after the board hectored him and denied him time to get his notes back in order, agrees that never before or since has he seen Mr. Walpin the slightest bit “confused.”
Barry's cheap thugs' tricks would make even the Checka blush in shame.
Posted by: ed ||
06/23/2009 0:54
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"But cousin Olongo said that what a President does!"
#4
Barry fires Walpin and an FBI obstruction of justice investigation opens. Attorney General Holder...where are you?
ACORN, Americorp, money laundering, stimulus checks to dead people. Too bad we no longer have a United States Congress. A Special Prosecutor is sorrily needed to sort all of this out.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Amid claims of a 'rigged-election' by certain defeated Iranian presidential candidates, a top election official says the box-by-box details of the vote will be released.
"During previous elections in the Islamic Republic, statistics concerning individual ballot boxes were considered confidential information ... this kind of information was only available to certain officials," deputy head of the Interior Ministry's election headquarters Ali-Asghar Sharifi-Rad said Sunday.
According to Sharifi-Rad, the Ministry had, however, decided to publish the results "box by box," to resolve ambiguities about the disputed election in which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a landslide victory, ILNA reported.
His comments came after the country's highest electoral authority, the Guardian Council, said, "Votes collected in 50 cities surpass the number of people eligible to cast ballots in those areas."
A spokesman for the Council, however, said that the additional votes did not change the outcome of the election, as they were not enough to reverse the reelection of President Ahmadinejad.
The extra votes amount to roughly three million ballots.
Following the victory of President Ahmadinejad on June 12, the country has become the scene of illegal rallies with defeated presidential hopefuls Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi rejecting the result as fraudulent and demanding a re-run.
The office of Tehran's prosecutor general on Monday said it had launched an investigation into the death of the 13 people who lost their lives in Tehran violence on Saturday. The unrest left 20 others injured.
The office announced on Monday that one of the individuals detained in connection with Saturday's violence is an armed terrorist, adding that further investigation will bring the remaining offenders to justice.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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Wasn't It Stalin who said "It only matters who counts the Vote"?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/23/2009 8:06
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Here is a general rule of thumb: If your country has a Supreme Leader, you might have elections, but they don't mean squat.
The United States and Russia have started a new round of talks to renew an expiring nuclear arsenal reduction treaty, a US spokesman said Monday.
The US and Russia are in Geneva, Switzerland, for the next three-days for a second round of talks, on renewing the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START), set to expire in December, State Deparmtent spokesman Ian Kelly confirmed at a daily press briefing.
Delegations will be discussing a variety of issues including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's offer to draw down its nuclear warheads, if the US does not build a proposed missile defense shield in Poland.
Both sides are talking "specific numbers" on scaling back on their weapons stockpile, according to Kelly, who did not offer the exact figures being negotiated, but said, "We do want to have a significant reduction".
Delegations from both countries will be discussing a variety of issues related to the START follow-on treaty, Kelly said including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's offer to draw down its nuclear warheads, if the US does not build a proposed missile defense shield in Poland.
Kelly said both issues "should be dealt with independently. They are two different issues". "We've made no final decisions regarding basing missile defense in Europe, which will be based on an assessment of the threat to the US and its allies," Kelly added "If that threat disperses, that will affect our decision on the need to move forward with missile defense".
President Barack Obama and President Medvedev agreed, at a meeting in London in April, to start negotiations on a new comprehensive agreement to reduce arms, "and that the US and Russia would seek to record, in the new agreement, levels of reductions that would be lower than in the Moscow Treaty, " Kelly said.
[ADN Kronos] Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat of the Fatah movement met the leader of the rival Islamist Hamas movement, Khaled Meshal, in Damascus ahead of a visit by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to Syria over the weekend.
Ali Badwan, member of the Palestinian National Council, told Adnkronos International (AKI) that Erekat met Meshal at the request of Syria. The meeting reportedly took place in the presence of a member of the Syrian government and other members of the Palestinian delegation.
Badwan said that Damascus called on the rival groups to reach an accord and put an end to their divisions, as well as "contribute to Egyptian efforts in order to obtain positive results".
The meeting between Erekat and Meshal were a "positive step", added Badwan, underlining that Hamas "is open to dialogue" but at the same time "is not willing to confirm that they will sign an agreement with Fatah in Cairo on 7 July, since a full understanding has not yet been reached".
Badwan told AKI that "there are still many contrasting questions that must be discussed."
Badwan said that Erekat praised the Syrian role in the meeting between the Palestinian groups, affirming that Syria "is a key country and a regional power which has an important role in the talks between Palestinians."
Prior to the talks, Palestinian sources said Abbas would not meet with Meshal in Damascus, since the meeting was not in his schedule during his visit.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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President Nicolas Sarkozy lashed out Monday at the practice of wearing the Muslim burqa, insisting the full-body religious gown is a sign of the "debasement" of women and that it won't be welcome in France.
The French leader expressed support for a recent call by dozens of legislators to create a parliamentary commission to study a small but growing trend of wearing the full-body garment in France.
In the first presidential address in 136 years to a joint session of France's two houses of parliament, Sarkozy laid out his support for a ban even before the panel has been approved--braving critics who fear the issue is a marginal one and could stigmatize Muslims in France.
"In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity," Sarkozy said to extended applause in a speech at the Chateau of Versailles southwest of Paris.
"The burqa is not a religious sign, it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement--I want to say it solemnly," he said. "It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic."
In France, the terms "burqa" and "niqab" often are used interchangeably. The former refers to a full-body covering worn largely in Afghanistan with only a mesh screen over the eyes, whereas the latter is a full-body veil, often in black, with slits for the eyes.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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Mais oui! It is "debasement." Thank you also for sharing Carla with us.
Russia said Monday it respected the choice of the Iranian people in selecting a president and considered the unrest taking place in the Islamic Republic an "internal affair.
"What is happening in Iran which is related to the Presidential Elections is an internal affair," the foreign ministry said in a statement. Russia called for addressing internal disputes in line with the Iranian constitution and legislations.
Nice that Russia won't be interfering the way they did in Georgia, not to mention their meddling in the economies and politics of Russia's entire "near abroad".
Three Afghan soldiers were killed and seven others were injured Monday when a jacketwalla suicide bomber stuck a military convoy in Kandahar. The motorcyclist bomber rammed into a convoy of Afghan National Army (ANA) in Zeray District of Kandahar and detonated the explosives rigged in the motorbike, said District Chief, Neyaz Mohammad Sarhadi. Two local civilian women also received serious wounds in the explosion.
The incident occurred on Monday morning at about 7:30 am on the Kandahar-Herat highway while Afghan army troops were clearing the road and bridges from roadside bombs.
A spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, Zemaray Bashari, confirmed the attack in Kandahar province, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, in a phone call from an undisclosed location immediately claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. Ahmadi said 16 Afghan and foreign troops were killed in the blast, which he said was carried out by a young man named Rahmatullah.
Provincial officials in Kandahar dismiss the claim, arguing that international forces were not engaged in the routine Afghan patrol when the explosion took place.
Quqnoos's Mohammad Masumi in Kandahar says the security forces have cordoned off the blast scene and have blocked the highway.
The wounded Afghans soldiers and the two local women have been taken to the US-run hospital at Kandahar Airfield, Masumi added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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Mullah Omar is reasserting direct control over insurgency in Afghanistan, ordering attacks and shuffling field commanders, United States officials say.
Until recently, a Wall Street Journal report says, the ground-level conduct of the fight against the United States-led coalition was left to local commanders. Omar, who heads the Taliban shura, has typically focused on choosing leaders and giving strategic advice.
Since the start of the year, however, he has ordered a spate of suicide bombings and assassinations. US officials believe that the effort by the Taliban leadership council to re-establish direct control over the fighters marks a significant new stage in the war in Afghanistan.
Let's see... how long was it in Iraq after al Qaeda started serving sheikh's sons up as dinner casserole that the Iraqi Sunnis formed the Sons of Iraq to run them out of the country? Go, Mullah Omar, go! Do your worst!
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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Why has special forces never targeted Quetta?
Posted by: Pearl Whort7887 ||
06/23/2009 11:38
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Following the week long post-election demonstrations and violence in Iran, Britain and Italy have warned their nationals against traveling to the country.
Britain and Italy's Foreign Ministries issued a statement advising their nationals against traveling to Iran "because of the disorder that has followed the June 12 elections, a situation of uncertainty persists in Tehran and in other cities".
Britain's Foreign Office statement also added that British nationals in the Islamic Republic "should avoid demonstrations and large public gatherings."
The UK is also withdrawing family members of its embassy staff from Tehran due to the ongoing situation in Iran. A Foreign Office Spokesman said that "the ongoing violence has had a significant impact on the families of our staff who have been unable to carry on their lives as normal." The spokesman added that there was no need to withdraw staff at this point, but the dependants would be withdrawn until the situation settles down.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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If they're stupid enough to go, screw 'em.
Write 'em off as suicides - because that's what Westerners going to Iran are committing. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/23/2009 17:54
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Not enuf excitement you say? Try a 14 day NORK-Chicom border add-on.
[Geo News] Federal Minister for Interior Affairs Rehman Malik Monday said security forces have put a cordon around chief of Tehreek-e-Taliban Swat Mullah Fazlullah about whom, he said, reports are being received of his being injured. It may be mentioned here that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had earlier said that the most of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Swat leadership had been crushed. He also said that silence is being maintained regarding Fazlullah but information about his fate will be gathered and made public.
Can we yet pray for sepsis, or does the darling need a purple heart-style splinter removed?
I'm afraid it's not yet time for either the vulture pic or the accordion lady.
This article starring:
Mullah Fazlullah
Tehreek-e-Taliban Swat
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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Has anyone noticed that he bears a resemblance to Chaka in Land of the Lost. Probably in more ways than one.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Monday called on Palestinians to unite for the creation of their own state in two years, without waiting for an end to the Israeli occupation.
"I urge the Palestinian people to rally around a program aimed at creating a state... so that a Palestinian state becomes a reality by the end of next year or within two years at most," he said in a speech at al-Quds university in Abu Dis, a West Bank suburb of Jerusalem.
He called for "all means" to be mobilized to ensure that goal is achieved "as this would place the entire world before its responsibility to end the occupation and allow our people to live in freedom in their homeland and to exercise their right to self-determination."
Fayyad, a technocrat with no significant political base of his own, heads a newly aligned cabinet with more ministers from the dominant Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Islamist Hamas rivals refuse to recognize the prime minister.
The poor man has been trying so hard. The problem is that he has to deal with the Palestinian polity.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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North Korean heir apparent Kim Jong-un works as acting chairman of the National Defense Commission to support his ailing father Kim Jong-il, the Mainichi Shimbun said Saturday. Quoting sources close to the North Korean regime, the Japanese daily said the leader's youngest son (26) is assisting his father although the position is not an official title.
The paper quoted an official close to the North Korean leadership as saying this means Kim junior would immediately assume the commission chairmanship, effectively the most powerful post in the land, if Kim dies, although he has a position neither in the Workers Party nor at the Ministry of People's Armed Forces.
Early this year, the General Political Department of the People's Army distributed an internal document saying Kim junior had been chosen as the heir apparent. The Ministry of People's Armed Forces and the Ministry of Public Security then led the efforts to establish the succession, and a new term "under the system of Kim Jong-un's leadership" is currently in use, the daily added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2009
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Kim Jong-un 'Acting as Proxy for Kim Jong-il'.....
....and Barry, who are three Proxy's for Communist China and Russia.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Dubai-based television channel Al Arabiya said on Sunday that its Tehran bureau has been ordered to remain closed indefinitely for "unfair reporting" of last week's disputed presidential election.
"The authorities accuse Al Arabiya of diffusing news that is not necessarily fair from their point of view," said channel's executive news manager, Nabil al-Khatib, adding that the channel had not done anything that was in violation of Iranian law and had appealed to the government about what it saw as a campaign against the station in the official Iranian media.
"They have ordered that we do not broadcast any news about Iran, saying Al Arabiya in Dubai does not comply with what Al Arabiya's office in Tehran was ordered to do," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Judges in the United States can now order a veiled woman witness to remove her face covering to testify in court, according to a new court ruling issued last week that has human rights groups worried about potential discrimination against veiled Muslim women.
In a majority 5-2 vote, Michigan's Supreme Court ruled that judges should "exercise reasonable control" over the appearances of witnesses to judge their body language and facial expressions and to ensure proper identification.
The new ruling was passed following the 2006 Hamtramck case, in which Ginnah Mohammad, a Detroit Muslim woman who wore the full face veil known as the niqab, refused to testify in court after Judge Paul Paruk asked her to remove her facial covering in order to determine whether she spoke the truth.
Mohammed sued Paruk in federal court and her case was dismissed. The Michigan Judges Association and Michigan District Judges Association then requested a court ruling giving judges authority over a witness's attire.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2009
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#2
It's not Judges in the United States, but judges in Michigan. Not that Al Arabiya would know the difference between state courts and federal courts.
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.
Barely half of Americans are now confident that President Obama's $787 billion stimulus measure will boost the economy, and the rapid rise in optimism about the state of the nation that followed the 2008 election has abated, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Relatives and friends of Neda Soltan, the 26-year-old protester who's become an international symbol of Iranian resistance, wanted her to be remembered for her love of music and passion for travel.
Boeing's 787 Dreamliner airplane is facing yet another delay, the company announced Tuesday, this time saying it needed to reinforce a section of the aircraft before starting test flights.
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--News Corporation today announced the appointment of Rebekah Wade to the role of Chief Executive Officer of News International. In her new role, she will assume responsibility for the day-to-day operations of News International, covering all five titles, The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times, News of the World and thelondonpaper. Ms Wade will continue to report to James Murdoch, News CorporationÂ’s Chairman and Chief Executive, Europe and Asia, who will additionally become Executive Chairman of News International. Both appointments will be effective 1 September 2009.
Calls are growing in Germany for Islam to be granted the same legal status, rights and duties as other recognised religions, with the idea forming the main focus for this week’s Islam Conference. Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble of the conservative Christian Democratic Union has said this is his long-term aim, while the Greens this week urged the conference to take concrete steps in that direction. But a number of formalities have to be fulfilled for the German constitution to recognise Islam as an official religious community, including the ability to provide teachers to give children education in state schools about their faith.
A Taliban faction leader who was seen as the chief rival to the militant group's Pakistani head was fatally shot Tuesday, reportedly by one of his own guards. The attack on
Zainuddin was gunned down in the nearby town of 
Bahawal Khan, the area police official, confirmed the slaying, as did Sher Mohammad, an uncle of Zainuddin. Aides said the guard had gotten closer to Zainuddin about four months ago. He fled after the attack in a waiting car, they said. Mahmood Shah, a former top security official, said the slaying sends a strong message to the government that they need to launch a strong, comprehensive operation to eliminate Mehsud, described as the center of gravity for much of the terrorist activity in Pakistan. Instead, Shah said, they have relied on "local efforts" by Mehsud's opponents like Zainuddin. "Baitullah Mehsud has overcome all tribal dynamics. He has resources, funding and a fighting force to strike anywhere in Pakistan," Shah said, calling him a front man for al-Qaida. "You simply can't eliminate him through local efforts; instead, you need a major force."
If it were in a position to do so, Al Qaeda would use Pakistan's nuclear weapons in its fight against the United States, a top leader of the group said in remarks aired Sunday.
More than 45,000 people are leaving their homes even before the start of a military offensive in South Waziristan, and are heading for communities already stretched to the limit in terms of resources, officials said on Monday.
Troops on Monday shot dead three suspected militants in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), saying one of them was a senior guerrilla leader. The three were killed in a gunbattle in a dense forest, an army spokesman said in Jammu, the winter capital of IHK. He said they were members of the Hizbul Mujahideen.
(Bloomberg) -- Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the security forces will crush further protests over the disputed presidential vote, as the country's elections supervisory body acknowledged some balloting discrepancies. "The saboteurs must stop their actions" or face "the decisive and revolutionary action of the children of the nation in the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij, and other security and military forces, to put an end to the chaos," the state-run Mehr news agency cited the Revolutionary Guards as saying today in a statement.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's foreign minister accused Britain on Sunday of seeking to sabotage the disputed presidential election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power and ordered the BBC's Tehran correspondent to leave within 24 hours, semi-official media reported Sunday. "Great Britain has plotted against the presidential election for more than two years," Manouchehr Mottaki told foreign diplomats in Tehran in comments translated into English by state-run Press TV.
Taliban blew up a girls' school in Peshawar and another the Khar area of Bajaur Agency early on Monday, police and other sources said. A police official in Peshawar told Daily Times that four, relatively minor, blasts followed one another in quick succession and completely destroyed the two-room school building. Separately, Taliban blew up a primary school in the Chaqwari area of Khar in Bajaur Agency.
Two policemen were killed and seven people were injured when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into Thakot Police check-post in Battagram district on Monday, completely destroying the check-post. "An explosion occurred in a small truck when it reached the Dandai bridge in Shangla district (of Swat) ... it was a suicide attack," said Gul Wali Khan, the district police chief in Shangla, told AFP.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Bahrain shut down its oldest daily newspaper for "violating the country's press code," the official news agency reported Monday, a day after the paper published a report that suggested Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was Jewish.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Mexico sends 1,500 additional soldiers to its northern borders to contain rising drug violence after initial troop deployment failed to effectively address the problem. 
Jet planes bombed Taliban leader 
[ADN Kronos] Khalid Hussein one of the men convicted of hijacking the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985, was found dead in an Italian jail early on Monday, possibly of a heart attack Italian media reports say.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, adopting one of the toughest lines on Iran of any Western leader, condemned on Monday what he said was Tehran's totally unacceptable use of "brute force and intimidation" to deal with protests.
[ADN Kronos] At least 14 Muslim rebels were killed and 22 people injured in separate clashes with government forces in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday, quoted by GMANews TV.
India on Monday declared Left extremist groups as terrorists and banned the Communist Party of India (Maoists) organisation which has been spearheading rebellion in almost 10 states, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
[Al Arabiya Latest] An appeals court in Yemen sentenced to death a Muslim man who shot dead a Jewish compatriot on Sunday as 16 Yemeni Jews arrived to Israel in a secret exodus.
President Obama's excuses for firing AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin look weaker every day. The FBI has opened an investigation into a Sacramento program formerly run by a close ally of President Obama's, giving credence to the IG's work.
The United States and Russia have started a new round of talks to renew an expiring nuclear arsenal reduction treaty, a US spokesman said Monday.
[ADN Kronos] Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat of the Fatah movement met the leader of the rival Islamist Hamas movement, Khaled Meshal, in Damascus ahead of a visit by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to Syria over the weekend.
President Nicolas Sarkozy lashed out Monday at the practice of wearing the Muslim burqa, insisting the full-body religious gown is a sign of the "debasement" of women and that it won't be welcome in France.
Russia said Monday it respected the choice of the Iranian people in selecting a president and considered the unrest taking place in the Islamic Republic an "internal affair.
Mullah Omar is reasserting direct control over insurgency in Afghanistan, ordering attacks and shuffling field commanders, United States officials say.
[Geo News] Federal Minister for Interior Affairs Rehman Malik Monday said security forces have put a cordon around chief of Tehreek-e-Taliban Swat 
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Dubai-based television channel Al Arabiya said on Sunday that its Tehran bureau has been ordered to remain closed indefinitely for "unfair reporting" of last week's disputed presidential election.
