I will be rolling over some of the posts put up after 6 pm CDT. They may or may not have comments already. So if they disappear tonight and reappear tomorrow, you'll know why.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/09/2008 21:30
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#4
Yours had the sharpened scalpels at the ends, Barbara dear. That's enough glory for anyone, I think. :-) As for yours, Frank, I've found yours to be true learning experiences. So there!
#2
Pretty clearly it says "sodomoites" or "homosexuals" in almost every reliable translation.
The Doay-Rheims version, one of the fiurst complete english translations has it this way:
10 Nor the effeminate, nor liers with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God.
Pretty obvious as to the meaning from almost 500 years ago. The latin vulgate, 1500+ years old says...
neque molles neque masculorum concubitores neque fures neque avari neque ebriosi neque maledici neque rapaces regnum Dei possidebunt
Thats males who sleep with other males as concubines.
The thing is, all you have to do is stop doing tht and ask God to forgive. Its in the next verse:
And such some of you were. But you are washed: but you are sanctified: but you are justified: in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God.
Typical of the homosexual activists to try to force their immorality on others via abuse of the courts.
My question is why did the court not simply throw this completely out and fine the idiot for wasting the time and resources of the court system?
The real issue here is they guy wants to FORCE others to accept his deviance as normal.
Sorry, doesnt work that way. Im not going to hate you for being a homosexual, but I am also nto goign to endorse your behavior and evil acts. I'm going to destest the sin you commit, and lament your oblviousness to the damage you are doing to your soul and pray for you to repent and convert -- and Im going to stand up for my beliefs in the process.
No I will NOT rewrite my Bible to suit your pervesions and hurt feelings.
BAGHDAD - Hundreds of women in black abayas crowd outdoor food markets, snapping up groceries and fresh vegetables. Stores are open again. Children play soccer on dirt fields until dusk — or later, when there's electricity.
This is Sadr City, where black-clad militiamen of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army once enforced discipline across the sprawling slum of 3 million people — half of Baghdad's population. The Iraqi army won control of the district in May after weeks of battles that damaged scores of houses and emptied the streets.
"Security is better without the Mahdi Army," said a 42-year-old resident who wanted to be identified only by his nickname, Abu Israa. "We don't want them back."
Most residents do not seem to miss the Mahdi Army, and the U.S. and Iraqi governments hope that sentiment sticks. So Sadr City is witnessing a flurry of public works projects — part of an effort to build confidence in the government and make it more difficult for the extremists to return.
The U.S. military has tried the same strategy before in Sadr City after cease-fires but with limited results. This time U.S. officials are more confident that they can do a better job of managing the effort and maintaining the flow of money. They also believe that support for the militia has dropped sharply because residents are tired of bloodshed.
The Iraqis apparently hope to avoid the disappointment that's growing in the southern city of Basra, where many residents blame the government for failing to deliver on its promises to improve basic services, provide jobs and distribute enough food after winning control from Shiite militias last spring.
Taking no chances in Sadr City, hundreds of city workers have spread out across the district to spruce it up. They are resurfacing roads and sidewalks, repairing the sewer system and collecting garbage.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has pledged $100 million to upgrade the quality of life. The U.S. military is also providing some reconstruction and economic aid to help rebuild parts of Sadr City — with about $4 million already being spent and more on the way.
"The Iraqi government is rebuilding Iraq, one area at a time," says a large billboard on one of Sadr City's main roads — part of a U.S.-backed propaganda effort.
To make sure everything goes smoothly, Iraqi troops man scores of checkpoints and are even directing traffic. They have set up small outposts deep inside the district, complete with blast walls and sandbags.
U.S. troops continue to stay in the area's outlying neighborhoods, but residents report nightly forays by American forces and their Iraqi allies to arrest Mahdi Army commanders — moves the government once roundly condemned and the Mahdi Army pledged never to allow.
On Monday, the top U.S. military officer visited Sadr City, where he met with U.S. troops at a coalition observation post and strolled through a market.
"We saw extraordinary progress there," said Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "A few months ago no one could go into Sadr City. I was able to walk openly down a street that until recently was extremely unsafe, and I'm encouraged by that."
With a canny mix of persuasion and intimidation, Mahdi Army fighters and clerics loyal to al-Sadr had governed the enclave since 2003 like a mini-state. They set up Islamic courts, punished offenders and operated hospitals and gas stations.
Rogue militiamen also ran extortion rackets and black-market rings in food and gas, and formed kidnap-for-ransom gangs.
Residents tolerated the abuses because the militiamen protected them from Sunni militants during sectarian strife in Baghdad in 2006 and 2007. But when violence abated, so did the Mahdi Army's welcome.
The setback for the Mahdi Army in Sadr City, its largest stronghold, has presented the once-feared militia its biggest challenge since al-Sadr created it in 2003. The uncertainty over the militia's future is deepened by al-Sadr's voluntary exile in Iran, where he has lived for more than a year.
Behind the scenes, al-Sadr is quietly reorganizing the militia into a smaller force to fight again, according to a senior militia commander. The commander, who fled Iraq in May at the end of seven weeks of fighting in Sadr City between the militia and U.S.-backed Iraqi troops, spoke by telephone from Iran's holy city of Qom.
The commander said al-Sadr and a small clique of trusted aides are working to organize groups of militiamen into small fighter cells that can operate in secrecy and in isolation of each other. Speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, he said about 20 commanders have been picked to lead the new cells.
The new structure will mirror that of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite guerrilla group backed by Iran whose popularity soared in the Arab world after it fought Israel to a standstill in the summer 2006 war.
"The last round of fighting was a lesson to everyone and it is the reason behind the restructuring," said the commander.
The recent fighting in Sadr City ended with a truce that allowed the government to take control of the vast district and obliged al-Sadr to take his soldiers off the streets.
It is unclear if the smaller, more mobile force foreseen by the commander would have trouble controlling Sadr City the way the full Mahdi Army did. But it would likely give al-Sadr better control over the proposed fighter cells. His aim likely is to bolster his standing as Iraq's top anti-American figure.
Publicly, the Mahdi Army has melted away.
Gone are the small groups of militiamen hanging out on major roads or racing through dusty streets in pickup trucks. They have even stopped guarding al-Sadr's office and manning checkpoints to search worshippers headed to outdoor Friday prayers.
Many commanders have gone into hiding or fled.
"Anyone with a beard and a black shirt now risks arrest," said Hussein al-Mohammedawi, a 36-year-old, midlevel commander who first joined the Mahdi Army in 2004.
"I often spend the night away from home to avoid arrest," he said.
But others say this is just a waiting period.
"We are still here even if you don't see us," said Mahdi al-Freiji, one militiaman. "There is a time for everything. You just have to wait and see."
#1
This is a non-story. Obama immediately accepted Jackson's apology, it's over. Anyway, minorities can say anything they want about other minorities and refer to them in anyway they wish. Jesse is still sitting in the front of the bus.
#7
John Stuart raked Candidate Obama over the coals tonight. The mock-Presidential Seal, reversal on federal matching fund monies, and his general reversal of principles as he tries to flimflam voters of pallor. This election gets more and more interesting.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again took aim at the West on Tuesday, blaming the US and Europe for "artificially" raising oil prices and dismissing as "a funny joke" fears that his country could come under attack.
But, on a visit to Malaysia, told a news conference Tuesday that the US and Israel were "focusing on propaganda and psychological warfare."
"Before, it would be considered as a serious issue," he said, speaking through an interpreter.
But Iranians are so used to the threats that they now treat it as a "very funny show. ... These type of wars are considered as a funny joke."
He added, "I assure you that there won't be any war in the future."
The latest developments were in line with the mix of conciliatory and bellicose statements by Iranian officials in recent weeks about the possibility of a clash with the US and Israel, which has been held partly responsible for driving up world oil prices and bringing down the dollar's value.
Continuing his rail against the West, Ahmadinejad blamed the US and Europe for record-high oil prices. He said the global production of oil is much more than consumption, suggesting that politics rather than economics were behind today's record-high prices of more than $140 a barrel.
Ahmadinejad said the high oil prices are the result of a weak dollar and a deliberate decision by the United States and some European countries to profit from high fuel taxes. In some European countries, 70 percent of the fuel cost goes to governments as tax, he said.
"So it is very clear and obvious that the market does not have a role in raising prices. There are some others that are determining the oil price for the benefit of the few, very rich people of the world," said Ahmadinejad, whose country is the second biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
In his typical combative fashion, the Iranian leader criticized arch foe, the United States, in every answer. He blamed Washington for the world economic crisis and maintaining a nuclear weapons stockpile while opposing Teheran's nuclear program.
Teheran insists its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes, such as energy production. But Washington believes it is for making nuclear weapons.
Ahmadinejad also questioned the United States' permanent membership in the UN Security Council, its role in Iraq, and held it responsible for illegal drug production in Afghanistan.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A top U.S. Democratic senator said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday that he would consider supporting opening up new areas for offshore oil and gas drilling.
"I'm open to drilling and responsible production," Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin told The Wall Street Journal, adding that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could also support the move.
Machine Democrats just now smelled the meat a'cookin' ...
However, Durbin said his support for opening new areas to drilling was contingent on setting requirements that oil and gas companies begin production within a specified time frame on acreage they have leased from the government.
The spike in oil prices to record highs above $145 per barrel has prompted calls for the U.S. government to allow energy producers to explore for oil and gas off the East and West Coasts and in the eastern region of the Gulf of Mexico. Those areas are currently off limits to exploration.
Republicans say their efforts to open up new regions for exploration have been stymied by Democrats. Democrats say energy companies are producing oil and gas from only about a quarter of the 91.5 million acres currently leased from the government. Newt was right!
#1
This comes after yesterdays news that Congress Critters are considered cute by very few percentage of people, single digits, which means only the squirels sitting in the trees in Berkely support them per yesterdays pole. So these Congressional pole lickers need to do SOMETHING to get the poles back up above 9%.
Posted by: a yankee ||
07/09/2008 17:37
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#2
Speaking of energy - They were trying to open a new coal plant here in OH - you should've seen the moon bat enviro douchebags clammoring out of the tofu spores mugging for local tv time...
#3
Ironically, as myself and other Netters have pointed out over the years, the VARIOUS RECYCLING TECH being pushed by the Enviros are predominantly based on advanced materials derived from - WAIT FOR IT - AAWL = OIL, which the Enviros like to claim the World is running low on ala PEAK OIL.
IOW, TO MAKE THEIR RECYCLING AND OTHER ENVIRON AGENDUMS A REALITY, THE ANTI-WOT "NO WAR FOR OIL" ENVIROS + ALIGNED ACTIVISTS BY THEIR OWN SCOPE-LOGIC NEED TO SUPPORT + WAGE A DE FACTO
"WAR FOR OIL". They must in fact support Dubya's alleged "WAR FOR OIL" = WOT, NOT argue agz it.
#4
here is what should be done
1 Revoke the frickin national gas tax
2 Drill here!
3 Do not allow oil produced here to be shipped overseas.
4 Create an american oil exchange for the oil produced here. If we get our dependence down to 30% then the govt could and should set prices on an american exchange.
As the big oil companies complained to congress they are dependant on the whims of foriegner's and must pay what they are charged... so if the govt sets the price per barrel then we would deflect ourself's from the ramp up in china/india. It is american oil we should benifit not the japanese who pay BP a premium for alaska crude.
Posted by: dan ||
07/09/2008 22:24
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#5
I'll believe the Dems are serious about domestic energy when John F'kn Kerry and Bridge Kennedy endorse wind farms in their home state.
Tehran will seek a seat on the powerful U.N. Security Council next year, despite the trade sanctions the body has imposed to slow Iran's nuclear program.
"It is our right, we have not been on the council in 50 years, and we are trying our best," an official from the Iranian Mission told The Washington Times on Tuesday. The official, who cowardly insisted that his name not be used, said Iran's bid for a seat on the 2009-10 council already has the "confirmation" of the Asian Group, whose members Tehran would represent.
Asian diplomats confirmed Tuesday that Iran has sought the group's approval to run for the council seat, which currently is filled by Indonesia and is reserved for an Asian country. Regional blocs often agree in advance which country will get a seat.
A second Iranian diplomat, Mohammad Mohammadi, the mission's press attache, also confirmed Tehran's desire for a seat on the council. The Iranian delegate said the overlapping memberships of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Nonaligned Movement and the Arab Group have given their support "in general."
"One should follow Security Council resolutions before they launch a bid to be on the Security Council," said Richard Grenell, spokesman for U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.
The Iranian delegate shrugged off the resistance, saying no U.N. rules are in place to stop the country's bid for a two-year term. "We consider the council's sanctions illegitimate, anyway," he said with a smile.
Regional blocs at the United Nations will send five new members to the council in January, each to be approved in October by a two-thirds vote of the 192-member General Assembly. However, countries often agree in advance to field only one candidate from a bloc, making the election automatic.
At present, the only country besides Iran that has expressed an interest in seeking the seat reserved for Asia is Japan, which is the largest individual contributor to the United Nations after the United States and has been re-elected to the council regularly, most recently for the 2005-06 term.
Iran, a founding member of the United Nations, has not held a council seat since the 1955-56 term.
Vietnam currently fills a second Asian seat and presides over the council for the month of July. Vietnam's council term expires in December 2009.
#1
"One should follow Security Council resolutions before they launch a bid to be on the Security Council," said Richard Grenell, spokesman for U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.
The Iranian delegate shrugged off the resistance, saying no U.N. rules are in place to stop the country's bid for a two-year term."We consider the council's sanctions illegitimate, anyway," he said with a smile.
Every society teaches kids a friendship, honesty and love for other human beings. On the other hand hamas and alike teach more than just a courage and friendship. They are pushing "killing propaganda" and planting seeds of hate and anger with regular cartoons and kids stories. Just take a look at some of the pictures and stories they are publishing on a website for kids.
Kids usually have great imaginations and with stories like this "Children stones heroes of today and tomorrow." they will live and dream on becoming the next "beloved" martyr.
A teenager was stunned to find that a baby bat had been curled up inside her bra for five hours - as she was wearing it. Abbie Hawkins, a hotel receptionist, thought her mobile phone was ringing when she felt vibrations coming from her clothes. But it was only the Bat Phone.
But she later discovered the tiny creature tucked away in the padded pocket of her underwear.
As staff and colleagues crowded around, Miss Hawkins, 19, produced the frightened bat, which was the size of her hand.
That's not 'tiny', and I'd like to know just how much extra room there was in there ...
She said: "Once I realised it was a bat I was shocked, but then I felt quite sorry for it really. It looked very snug in there and I thought how mean I was for disturbing it."
Miss Hawkins said she got dressed at 7:30am and arrived for work at the Holiday Inn Norwich North, near Norwich International Airport without noticing anything unusual. "When I was driving to work I felt a slight vibration but I thought it was just my mobile phone in my jacket pocket," she said. Then the Bat Phone went off.
It was not until her lunch break, at midday when she felt a strange movement inside her bra, which had been hanging on her washing line the previous night. "I plucked up the courage to investigate and I pulled out a little baby bat. I just lost my breath when I saw it and I did not know what it was at first," she said.
The teenager's general manager freed the bat in the hotel garden. You are FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Go in Peace, Little One!! And carry good tidings from Holiday Inn to your fellow creatures.
"I keep thinking how could I have not known it was there?" Miss Hawkins said. "I will certainly be checking my bras every morning from now on." Damned stowaways, anyway.
Jaime Eastham, of the Bat Conservation Trust, said they had never heard of a bat being found in a bra before. But she said the animals roost anywhere that appears dark and safe.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/09/2008
14:40 ||
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#1
not touching that last line; no sirree bob.....
#2
I work with a lady who didn't know she had a fish in her bathing suit until she went inside to take a shower. It had been in there for about 6 hours.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/09/2008 15:22
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#3
The only carriers of rabies believed to exist in the British Isles are bats. I sure hope Abbie has the bat tested for rabies, otherwise some months from now she could get her name in world news again. In the USA about 90% of all human rabies since 1980 has come from rabid bats.
#6
Then again there is the old joke about the guy who was transformed after being bitten by a bat. But it was just a fruit bat, so he became one of the living dead vegetarians.
#11
So, do Bison fart less methane? 'cuz when they were roaming the prairie in millions for all those years before they were brought to near extinction, were they contributing to global warming? Maybe we should thank the western settlers for removing such a horrible threat to us.
A year ago, the conventional Beltway wisdom had it that Iraq was a failed state. Today, the same wisdom holds that it is less chaotic but still fragile, dependent entirely on a U.S. presence to survive. But judging by recent comments from Nouri al-Maliki, even this view may be out of date.
Addressing Arab ambassadors in Abu Dhabi on Monday, the Iraqi prime minister made headlines by saying his government was "looking at the necessity of terminating the foreign presence on Iraqi lands and restoring full sovereignty." Mr. Maliki has also been playing hardball with the Bush Administration in concluding a status-of-forces agreement by the end of the year, when the current U.N. mandate authorizing the U.S. presence in Iraq expires.
Mr. Maliki's comments are an assertion of confidence in his country's stability – and not without cause. Fully nine of Iraq's 18 provinces are now under domestic security control. Al Qaeda is being smoked out of its last urban refuge in Mosul. The Iraqi army has performed with increasing skill and confidence against Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, which has also been ousted from its urban strongholds. Iraq will take in some $70 billion in oil revenue this year. T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oil magnate, told us yesterday that Iraq could double its current production, to five million barrels a day, in coming years.
More important, Iraq seems to have been able to consolidate the security gains achieved by the surge, even as the last of the surge brigades deployed in 2007 are now returning to the U.S. That makes further reductions in U.S. force levels look increasingly plausible, a further validation of President Bush's "return on success" strategy.
Mr. Maliki's comments were also designed for domestic Iraqi political consumption – another sign of that country's robust democratic debate. With elections scheduled for the autumn, Mr. Maliki wants to show he's nobody's pawn, especially not America's. The Sadrists continue to play the nationalist card, even as they are themselves pawns of Iran. The rise of Iraqi nationalism is inevitable and largely welcome as a unifying national force. Remember all of those who said an Iraqi Shiite government would merely be a tool of Iran?
The Prime Minister is also making it clear to his Arab neighbors that his government is not about to collapse. Apparently, they believe him: Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have announced plans to break the Arab diplomatic embargo of Iraq and return their ambassadors to Baghdad; the UAE has also forgiven $7 billion of Iraqi debt. Perhaps Saudi Arabia and Egypt will follow.
The significant question now is the pace and extent of any U.S. withdrawal, and the nature of any long-term U.S. military presence. Despite Mr. Maliki's comments, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie was quick to add that the call for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal was "conditioned on the ability of Iraqi forces to provide security," according to the Associated Press. In other words, Mr. Maliki is not endorsing the Barack Obama agenda of immediate U.S. withdrawal starting on January 20.
Our view is that Iraq and Mr. Maliki would benefit from striking a security agreement this year while Mr. Bush is still in office. Despite Iraq's impressive security gains, Iran can still do plenty of mischief through its "special group" surrogates. The U.S. can help deter Iranian trouble, especially with Iraq elections scheduled for this year and next.
Inside Iraq, a significant long-term U.S. presence would also increase the confidence of Iraq's various factions to make political compromises. And outside, it would improve regional stability by giving the U.S. a presence in the heart of the Middle East that would deter foreign adventurism. This is the kind of strategic benefit that the next Administration should try to consolidate in Iraq after the hard-earned progress of the last year.
Our sense is that, with the exception of the Sadrists, all of Iraq's main political factions want the U.S. to remain in some significant force. Iraq is now a democracy, however, and perhaps as their confidence grows the Maliki government and Iraq public opinion will think differently. But that kind of withdrawal timetable should be mutual – and not imposed by a new U.S. President acting as if the Iraq he'll inherit in 2009 is the same as the Iraq of 2006. That would mean U.S. forces could be withdrawn with honor, and in victory.
#1
The big question is now the last big election in Iraq, that will settle once and for all representation and power sharing. From there, the minority will have to rely on leverage and the majority on persuasion, not coercion, and to keep its unity, lest the minority leverage itself into power.
#2
Well all you culturally illiterate cracker bastards who didn't know we had a Black National Anthem obviously never heard of this either. www.negrospaceprogram.com
Let us be clear here: Not a single general, not a brigadier, a major general, a lieutenant general or a full general, nor any naval officers of the same grades, has suffered any serious adverse consequences for failure upon the field of battle since World War II. At worst, as was the case with Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, some might merely have not been promoted. Others, such as Gen. William Westmoreland, were promoted to chief of staff of the Army after failing to win year after year in Vietnam. So what is the difference and how have things changed over time since the end of World War II?
.... Wilson and his administration also supported, among several others, the semi-official organization known as the American Protective League. This was a group whose quarter-million members took it upon themselves to conduct warrantless searches, phone tapping, arrests (they would be called kidnapping now, because these were civilians arresting civilians), interrogations and a host of other activities we now would see as outrageous. Atop all of this, WilsonÂ’s administration created the Committee for Public Information, a domestic propaganda organization designed purely to whip up and maintain support for the war effort, with more than 75,000 employees. In effect, Wilson established as close to a police state as this nation has ever known. It meant, in effect if not by intent, that the political cost for the relief of generals, either by Wilson or by the armed forces, was effectively zero. The commander of the American Expeditionary Force, Gen. John Pershing, therefore had the ability to send no less than 32 of the generals sent over to him packing back home, or doing the generalÂ’s equivalent of counting towels at the gym....
Truman, despite abysmal polls, was unequivocal when he decided finally to relieve MacArthur from command in 1951 for his repeated insubordination and blatant political maneuvering with the Republican Party. Just before that, the commander of the Eighth Army in Korea, Lt. Gen. Matthew Ridgeway, had relieved five division commanders in combat on his own authority (apparently over the screaming protests of the general officer personnel management back in Washington). But those would be the last division commanders relieved so far in our history.
Truman had been at the top of the political game for decades at that point, and arguably was more interested in adhering to his Midwestern values than he was in any re-election he might contemplate. He was famously willing to take the hit, epitomized by his desktop sign, “The Buck Stops Here.” Discussing MacArthur, Truman told the then-influential Time magazine, “I fired him because he wouldn't respect the authority of the president. I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.”
And take the hit he did. In the wake of the overtly political MacArthur’s relief — MacArthur had not-so-privately maneuvered for the Republican Party presidential nomination as early as 1930, while he was chief of staff of the Army — Truman’s opposition made mincemeat of the president. There were calls for impeachment, his popularity dropped to 22 percent, and he lost the first round of his party’s primaries....
#1
Not a single general, not a brigadier, a major general, a lieutenant general or a full general, nor any naval officers of the same grades, has suffered any serious adverse consequences for failure upon the field of battle since World War II.
It's also fortune. Walker died in an accident during the debacle and retreat in Korea and Ridgeway [the Petraeus of that conflict] stepped in and turn the collapsing American/ROK/UN army around. General Dean was captured in the early days during the confusing and losing fight around Taejon, to spend the rest of the war as a POW. Being dead or captured sorta rates a little higher on the penalty category than being fired.
I thought our readers might wish to celebrate the end of a very long and arduous road that Carla Howell and her friends have trod. I have heard they have just passed the last hurdle and their initiative to end the income tax in Massachusetts will appear on the ballot this fall.
If you are in Massachusetts, help spread the news. This is your chance to roll back the State like it has never been rolled before.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/09/2008
12:34 ||
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#1
And, already, the Hacks are mobilizing. With the assistance of the Usual Suspects...
Already, opposition is mobilizing in the state, led by the Coalition for Our Communities, a group comprised of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, several communities, non-profits, businesses and individuals.
The AFL-CIO is calling on all unions to join the coalition and urges on its Web site to oppose "the decimation of local aid to cities and towns, and the inevitable property tax increases to provide the necessary funding for our schools, police and fire protection, emergency medical services and transportation infrastructure."
State officials and legislators also vowed to fight against the repeal, along with interest groups such as the Massachusetts Teachers Association and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
Will it pass? I doubt it. By the time the election rolls around, we'll have seen so many scare ads, lucratively funded by all of the above and others, saying that Massachusetts will become the American Somalia if this passes that people will be terrified to vote for it.
But I signed the petition. And I'm voting for it.
#2
tu3031 you are correct that it won't pass even though I'll vote for it too.
There's a reason that scum like Kerry, Kennedy and McGovern et. al. keep getting elected.
We already passed a cut in the tax that the legislature totally ignored. I figure that between mini-Obama and the legislature implementation has no chance at all regardless of the actual vote.
BTW Where in our lovely People's Republic do you reside?
#1
Seattle papers report the contract will be rebid and winner decided by an office at the Sec Def level; took it out of the hands of the USAF. That has to leave a big ol biatchslap of a mark!
#2
John Young, Gate's undersecretary for Aquisition, Technology & Logistics, has also pulled a lot of aquisition activity from USAF & NRO up to his office, under Joshua Hartman.
#3
...Looks like Boeing gets the contract, then. Would be nice if somebody at DOD was taking them aside right now and telling them, "These are the changes you WILL make", but it ain't likely.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/09/2008 15:58
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from Defense News. Note the comment that the NYT report on the June air exercise was way off in reporting the actual size and makeup of the force that participated.
#1
"Will I put something very special, very valuable and very rare on UAVs? I'm not ready. We're not there yet," said Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, the new IAF commander.
Curious statement. It counds like he's referring to nukes.
Arrrre you ready to rrrrumble???
In an interview with NPR's David Welna that ran today, former Gov. Jesse 'The Body' Ventura, Ind-Minn., sounds like he may run for Senate, challenging incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., whom Ventura defeated for governor in 1998, as well as Democratic nominee and former Saturday Night Live humorist Al Franken. . . . After leaving office, he turned into a cartoonish 9/11 conspiracy whackjob. When he was a wrestler, you could at least respect him. Now, not so much.
Ventura had a stormy tenure as governor and horrible relations with the Minnesota press corps. Thus, it was the June issue of a local wine magazine where he chose to drop hints about his pending campaign. . . . . . . and like any good pro wrestler, he laid down the smack talk:
Ventura called Franken an opportunist and a carpetbagger. 'He hasn't lived here in 30 years, and he's only coming back to Minnesota for the convenience of his own political agenda. Why didn't he run in the states he was living in? Clearly, for being a Harvard graduate, he's not too smart on taxes, is he? Everybody laughs, saying I came from wrestling. But at least I knew when I wrestled in 40 states, I had to pay taxes in those 40 states. You just have to do the paperwork. I find it unbelievable that someone who could go to Harvard didn't know that or let it slip. Blaming his accountant is worse, because now he's turning into a politician. He's not accepting responsibility for his actions.'
A recent state poll has Coleman leading with 52 percent of the vote and Franken with 40 percent.
A hypothetical race with Ventura shows Coleman with 41 percent, Franken with 31 percent and Ventura with 23 percent.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/09/2008
12:16 ||
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#1
"Where is that pencil-necked dweeb? Lemme at 'im!"
#2
Maybe he'll do an atomic piledriver on Al during the debates. (Please?)
Posted by: Jonathan ||
07/09/2008 12:40
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#3
Norm Coleman is a pretty good Senator (glad I voted for him), but is a rather traditional politician. I've become less impressed by "traditional politicians" as I've gotten older ... but, it's funny how mature and "regular guy" Norm looks when stacked up against Franken and Ventura. Whether the Body runs or not, I think MN will give Norm another term.
(For the record, I voted for Ventura for Gov back in the day as well ... he ran a great "not politics as usual" and gave clear, straight answers back then and had a pretty good first and second year as Govenor ... and then things got weird. :-/)
#4
i used ta like jessee and even read a couple of his books, that was prior to 2001. Now he has gone 9/11 truther bat-shit craaaazy...hopefully he runs for senate, cuts down some of Stu Smalley's numbers and they still both lose..that would be sweet....IF YA SMELL WHAT THE BROADHEAD IS COOKIN'!!!!!
#9
OS - looks like it keeps things status quo - Coleman stays up on frankenstein by 8-10 points w/or w/out the body in the race.
BTW - venture repeatedly talks about his time in the seals and supposedly said he spent time in 'nam doing "black ops". Though I don't doubt he was a seal the second assertion makes me wonder.
#10
He was UDT, not SEAL from what I heard years ago from a SEAL, who was pretty unhappy with the misrepresentation thing.
SO he pulls the ron paul nutters in away from the GOP, and the anti-war lefties from the Dems.
Introduces an intreseting dynamic into the Presidential race though - splitting a ticket becomes much more possible and may pull enough Dems away from Obama to let McCain sneak in.
LUCKNOW: In a chilling reminder of the Imrana case, yet another young woman from Muzaffarnagar who allegedly fell victim to her father-in-lawÂ’s sexual assault faces a bleak future after mullahs called for the annulment of her marriage.
On July 6, Salma (25), an unlettered mother of two kids, returned to her parental home in Islamnagar, Muzaffarnagar, after she was allegedly raped by her father-in-law over a period of six months. SalmaÂ’s father, Raisuddin, filed a criminal complaint with the police under section 376-506 IPC in Ghaziabad, and the accused, Salma's father-in-law Akbar, has been jailed.
But in the process her four-year-old marriage to Azad has virtually ended after clerics ruled their reunion as 'haraam'.
"A woman who has had a sexual liaison with her husband's father cannot be his consort anymore. A divorce is a must," Mufti Maulana Imran, senior cleric from Darul Uloom Deoband, said on Monday after his view was sought. The prescribed punishment in the case, he maintained, was 'sangsar' or public stoning of the victim and the culprit until death.
In 2007, Imrana's case, which was broadly similar with the clerics declaring her marriage null and void after she was raped by her father-in-law, had led to a tsunami of criticism of the mullahs who have been treading cautiously on inter-personal issues ever since.
Maulana Khurshid Alam Qazmi, another mufti from Darul Uloom, when contacted by TOI, refused to discuss "a religious edict" on phone.
"In any case there are so many fatwas issued from Deoband that it's next to impossible for me to remember any details," he said.
But Mufti Imran was more forthright. "Such a relationship as in the particular case is totally immoral and can't be condoned," he told reporters on Monday.
"The couple must separate. They are free to marry any other man or woman on a later date but their nikah is void under Islam," he said.
The mufti also ruled that "children in this case (Salma has one two-year-old and a four-month-old son) must be looked after by the father who is entitled to their custody". The woman, the mufti clarified, "cannot be exonerated for such a thing cannot happen without her consent."
According to Raisuddin's FIR lodged on July 5, Akbar was sexually abusing Salma for the last six months. It says Akbar told her that if she opposed his overtures he would have her father and brother killed. He also used firearms to coerce her. "The husband is under the father's influence and can't protest.
Moreover, Akbar has promised him another wife," the FIR says. Salma, who was virtually under house arrest, spoke about her trauma to a visiting aunt and asked her to approach Raisuddin and save her.
COMPUTER users frustrated by slow internet connections could soon be surfing the web 100 times faster, all thanks to new Australian technology.
University of Sydney scientists say they have developed a new technology that could speed up the internet - and not cost users an extra cent.
Described as "a small scratch on a piece of glass'', the university's photonic integrated circuit boosts the performance of traditional optic fibres, Professor Ben Eggleton said.
"This circuit uses the 'scratch' as a guide or a switching a path for information - kind of like when trains are switched from one track to another - except this switch takes one picosecond to change tracks,'' Prof Eggleton said of the technology developed over the past four years.
"This means that in one second the switch is turning on and off about one million times.''
"Currently we use electronics for our switching and that has been OK, but as we move toward a more tech-savvy future there is a demand for instant web gratification.''
Prof Eggleton said initial testing of the technology showed it was possible to achieve internet speeds 60 times faster than the current Telstra network.
But if developed further, the circuit could reach speeds 100 times faster, he said.
"This is a critical building block and a fundamental advance on what is already out there,'' Prof Eggleton said.
"We are talking about networks that are potentially up to 100 times faster without costing the consumer any more.''
Not if MicroBorg, Apple, the phone company, the cable company can keep buying your congresscritters, the people who delivered infinite copyright to big entertainment media for the right price.
#3
instant web gratification
I want IWG now, I'm damn tired of waiting for it. It's been 45 long seconds since I finished this article, WTF is taking so long? I sense big oil is keep the interwebs capped.
The pendulum has swung too far in denigrating the value of technology in war. Anything that smacks of high-tech warfighting is ridiculed as “legacy” or “Cold War” thinking. Today, however, we are at risk of over-correcting and dangerously undervaluing high-technology.
Historians Ronald Haycock and Keith Neilson make an important point: “Technology has permitted the division of mankind into ruler and ruled.”[18] Technology is part of our culture; it is, in fact, our asymmetric advantage. Recently, strategic theorist Colin Gray noted: “[H]igh technology is the American way in warfare. It has to be. A high technology society cannot possibly prepare for, or attempt to fight, its wars in any other than a technology-led manner.”[19]
Some underrate technology because they are drawing the wrong lessons from history. For example, in writing the new counterinsurgency manual the drafters relied heavily upon lessons learned from insurgencies of the 1950s-70s. These were eras when, significantly, high-technology in general, and airpower in specific, had little to offer. Hence, it is no surprise that the discussion of airpower in the 2006 counterinsurgency manual is limited to a five-page annex, and that short discussion is leery of airpower out of fear of collateral damage.
Ironically, today’s precision air weaponry, especially the new Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, have produced what retired Army General Barry McCaffrey insists is a “a 100-year war-fighting leap-ahead” that has “fundamentally changed the nature of warfare.”[20] The result? Human Rights Watch activist Marc Garlasoc recently conceded that he thinks “airstrikes probably are the most discriminating weapon that exists.”[21]
Equally important, today’s insurgent is not low-tech. In a recent article, retired Army officer John Sutherland invented the word “iGuerrilla” for what he describes as the “the New Model Techno-Insurgent” who exploits technology in a wide variety of ways.[22] Sutherland argues that the iGuerrilla “cannot be swayed by logic or argument” and insists this kind of insurgent is markedly different from those of the twentieth century who, he contends, are relegated to the “dustbin of history.” Yet much of our doctrine today is premised on twentieth-century insurgents.
To me, this risks missing the opportunity to exploit technological opportunities. We may be reaching the tipping point where the research and development capabilities of the nation-state can significantly exceed the abilities of an adversary dependant upon improvising from off-the-shelf technologies.
Tell the Japanese. After the failure at Guadalcanal, their gains contracted. After the naval battles of the Philippines, their naval defense were decimated. When Okinawa as taken, their inner defense lines were breached. Their cities were literally burning to the ground around them. The Imperial Japanese Staff continued to follow an irrational path which included plans using human waves of civilians to try to delay the inevitable. It took two wake up calls to bring logic back to the process. Even then, desperate elements within the military attempted a coup to prevent a rational conclusion to the conflict. Dealing with the irrational is not new. It is only 'will' or lack there of that by application in a manner they understand will rational return to the equation. We spend a lot of time and effort to avoid applying will.
#2
We Americans must use technology in warfare as a lever. We do not have the human assets, read fodder, for attacks, unlike the Chicoms, or the Jihadis. Even they will eventually feel the effects of attrition.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/09/2008 15:03
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#3
We do not have the human assets, read fodder, for attacks, unlike the Chicoms, or the Jihadis.
One of the lessons learned by the Chinese in Korea is that they don't have enough fodder either.
#4
We have made huge advances but we don't have the ability to take advantage of them in many cases. Many of our weapons are expensive to build and take a long lead time to produce. We can knock out a tank with a single missile but a country could produce more cheap tanks than we have missiles.
The way to defeat the US would be in quantity of targets. Our ammunition is so scarce and expensive that if you present more targets than we have high-tech missiles to hit them with, you win.
The worst scenario would be a mix of fully capable tanks along with others that are basically just a shell and a motor. Indistinguishable visually from the fully capable target, we would waste a lot of ammunition on targets of little military value.
The answer to that threat is the enhanced radiation warhead that simply kills all the tank crews but it would be hard politically to use such a weapon against a mosquito like Iran, for example.
#5
"Reaching the Tipping Point...off-the-shelf technologies" > methinks DESERT STORM better marked that Point. You can go back even earlier to Osama's war agz the Soviets + Putin in Afghanistan where ELDERLY REDEYE MISSLES STILL MANAGED TO SHOOT DOWN A LARGE NUMBER OF NEWER SOVIET = SOVIET EQUIPPED ARMED HELOS, or the early '80's ISRAELI AIR VICTORIES over Lebanon.
Hello. Mutual of Gaza. How may I direct your call?
Two people were killed and two were injured in an explosion at a Hamas training camp near the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, Palestinian sources reported Tuesday morning.
'Awright, mens! Lissen up! Today we're gonna learn how to wire up explosives! This is dangerous work, so pay attention, knuckleheads! First, y'take this here red wire in yer right hand and the green wire in yer left hand...'
The circumstances of the blast were unclear,
'Sarge! Sarge! That's the red wire y'got in yer left hand! And the green's... [KABOOM!]'
but a source in the Strip said it caused a building in the training facility to collapse. The Israel Defense Forces has yet to comment on the incident,
'Har-ar-ar-ar-ar! Hyuk hyuk! [Guffaw!]... [Snicker!]... [Snif!]... [Giggle!]... We'll have to get back to you later on that!... [Wheeze!]'
which is believed to be the result of a 'work accident' during the production of weapons. Looks great, Samir. Now for the final test. Hand me that hammer.
About a month ago, a mysterious explosion in a building in the southern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya left seven people dead, including a baby and a child, and dozens injured. A day after the blast, Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades confirmed that the operatives who died in the explosion were making last-minute preparations for a 'special mission', a Hamas codename for a 'high-quality' attack. ...at the Beit Lahiya Daycare Center and Missile Factory.
According to the statement, the dead were operatives of a special Hamas unit. The organization promised that its people will 'continue following in the path of those killed.' Let's hope so...
Posted by: ed ||
07/09/2008 11:58
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#2
No, ed, an A+! That's just the example we want them all to follow.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/09/2008 15:22
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#3
the operatives who died in the explosion were making last-minute preparations for a 'special mission'
as in "Special" Olympics?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/09/2008 16:21
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#4
Local package delivery guy shows up at the training camp.
"Hey, guys, sorry I'm late. I have a low current ohm meter for the Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, addressed: attention: Samir."
"Hokay, wait a minute. Samir is in conference. He will be out in a minute."
KABOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Samir just exited the building, from all openings!!!!"
"I will just leave the meter here for somebody. Insh'Allah.... Bye."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/09/2008 16:52
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An abortionist who claims to have destroyed more than 20,000 unborn children and who once was Hillary Clinton's OB-GYN says he is doing "God's work" when he terminates a pregnancy.
"Embryos and fetuses spontaneously aborted – most, but not all of those 'canceled' by 'God' – are ... luckless human souls," wrote William Harrison, referring to an ancient poem describing the plight of mankind.
"But a few spontaneous abortions occur in desired pregnancies with no discernible abnormalities. For those girls and women and their families whose circumstances would make their babies 'luckless human souls,' I 'cancel' them before they become babies."
Harrison's comments came in an e-mail to Warren Throckmorton, whose work has been published by journals of the American Psychological Association, the American Mental Health Counseling Association and the Christian Association for Psychological Studies. He documented his exchange with Harrison on his blog.
#5
More evidence that any ideology that doesn't recognize that man is not the ultimate authority and is limited in what he can and should do ends in the slaughter house.
A Hamas cell that was plotting suicide attacks inside Israel with chemical explosives was arrested in May by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the IDF, security officials announced Tuesday. The cell, the officials said, was involved in manufacturing a bomb belt that was discovered in a Tel Aviv apartment on Yom Kippur, last September, and was designated for use in a suicide attack in the city.
The IDF arrested four members of the cell, all in their 20s and residents of Nablus. One member of the cell, Ayman Awad served a prison sentence in Israel for involvement in dispatching a suicide bomber several years ago.
During their interrogation, the four cell members confessed to having built a laboratory in a Nablus apartment building where they experimented bomb building with different chemical materials, such as sulfur and nitric acid. The four said they used an instructional video that was prepared by a senior Hamas bomb maker who was killed in 2002 during clashes with IDF troops. Too bad this one didn't turn out that way...
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles Wednesday during war games that officials said aimed to show the country can retaliate against any U.S. and Israeli attack, state television reported. Gen. Hossein Salami, the air force commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, said the exercise would "demonstrate our resolve and might against enemies who in recent weeks have threatened Iran with harsh language," the TV report said.
Wednesday's war games were being conducted at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway through which about 40 percent of the world's oil passes. Iran has threatened to shut down traffic in the strait if attacked.
The report showed footage of at least three missiles firing simultaneously, and said the barrage included a new version of the Shahab-3 missile, which officials have said has a range of 1,250 miles and is armed with a 1-ton conventional warhead. That would put Israel, Turkey, the Arabian peninsula, Afghanistan and Pakistan within striking distance."Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch," the official IRNA news agency quoted Salami as saying Wednesday. So are ours...
The report comes less than a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed fears that Israel and the United States could be preparing to attack his country, calling the possibility a "funny joke."
"I assure you that there won't be any war in the future," Ahmadinejad told a news conference Tuesday during a visit to Malaysia for a summit of developing Muslim nations.
But even as Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials have dismissed the possibility of attack, Tehran has stepped up its warnings of retaliation if the Americans — or Israelis — do launch military action, including threats to hit Israel and U.S. Gulf bases with missiles and stop oil traffic through the vital Gulf region.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Wednesday's tests "evidence that the missile threat is not an imaginary one. Those who say that there is no Iranian missile threat against which we should build a missile defense system perhaps ought to talk to the Iranians about their claims," Rice said while traveling in Sofia, Bulgaria.
A White House spokesman called the tests "completely inconsistent with Iran's obligations to the world. The Iranian regime only furthers the isolation of the Iranian people from the international community when it engages in this sort of activity," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council. They should also refrain from further missile tests if they truly seek to gain the trust of the world," he added, speaking from Japan where President Bush is attending the Group of Eight summit.
In late June, Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, who was then the commander of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, said any attempt by Iran to seal off the Strait of Hormuz would be viewed as an act of war. The U.S. 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, across the Gulf from Iran.
Israel's military sent warplanes over the eastern Mediterranean for a large military exercise in June that U.S. officials described as a possible rehearsal for a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, which the West fears are aimed at producing atomic weapons. The Israeli exercise was widely interpreted as a show of force as well as a practice on skills needed to execute a long-range strike mission. Iran says its nuclear program is geared only toward generating electricity, not weapons.
Shaul Mofaz, an Israeli Cabinet minister, set off an international uproar last month by saying in a published interview that Israel would have "no choice" but to attack Iran if it doesn't halt its nuclear program. Mofaz is a former military chief and defense minister, and has been Israel's representative in a strategic dialogue on Iran with U.S. officials. On Wednesday, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel "does not desire hostility and conflict with Iran. But it is clear that the Iranian nuclear program and the Iranian ballistic missile program is a matter of grave concern," Regev said.
#6
FYI the $10M is the complete cost averaged across a production run of 154 missiles, rolling in R&D costs as well (At least half a billion in FY05 alone for development costs, nto production costs).
Incremental cost is considerably less per unit - i.e. now that the research is done, it costs us less then $1 million (guesstimate) for each additional missile.
Posted by: ed ||
07/09/2008 11:36
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#8
The astonishing cost is one reason why I don't want the US to emplace missile defenses in Europe, especially not when the majority of the populations are against it. The complex with 10 GMD interceptors is supposed to cost around $5 billion (AFAICR). Their ass, their responsibility.
Posted by: ed ||
07/09/2008 11:45
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#11
One hopes the following:
1) missiles are backtracked to storage sites
2) all traffic into/out of storage sites for n-years is reviewed to determine placement.
3) backtracking from storage to factories.
4) repeat on the factories.
Posted by: The New York Times ||
07/09/2008 13:04
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#13
Makes a good case for escalation. This conflict is going nuke.
Hopefully, we are not permanently sandbagged by the we-can't-do-that-because-we-can't-do-that idiocy. If that UN building was turned into Condos, nobody would believe that crap. Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the fire bombing of Tokyo? Over 500,000 dead in minutes.
#14
I've looked at Iran on Google Earth. Heck, I know where their missile production plants are. I also know where they store about half their SILKWORM missiles, and where they park their launchers to fire missiles. It isn't that hard. BTW, napalm on missile storage facilities causes some HUMONGOUS secondary explosions.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/09/2008 15:43
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#15
OP - take the launch parameters, radar, guidance, logistics and C3 elements into account, and you can narrow the areas you need to look.
Under a contract awarded by the Naval Sea Systems Command, Raytheon will provide 75 Standard Missile-3 Block IA missiles for the United States. The company also will provide 27 similar missiles under the Foreign Military Sales program, which funnels weapons to allied nations through the U.S. military procurement process.
The Defense Department said it will initially fund about $92.8 million under the contract, which runs to February 2012.
I guess I misread that as being the total production run award.
#18
Actually, Iran has been able to perfect its mobile missile systems in the 6 years since they were tagged with the "axis of evil" monicker. In fact, since 9-11 that filthy country has become richer and more fanatic. If they acquire an intercontinental ICBC threat, we will have to blame Bush's suicidal, face saving alliance with Iraq Shiites for that unnecessary threat.
What happened to Bush's "West Point" doctrine of "pre-emption"? He is becoming a sick joke.
#19
WAFF.com > WND.com - CONGRESS EXAMINES [Iran] EMP THREAT [to USA]IRAN PLANNING TO DEV MISSLES THAT CAN HIT THE US.
ALso from WAFF > ARGENTINA MIL THREAT RAISES NEW FEARS OVER FALKLANDS. Argentina's Madame President plans to claim a formal Argent stake in ANTARCTICA + INTENT ON USING ARGENTINE MIL TROOPS TO DEFEND ITS INTERESTS. Similar to RUSSIA's reported willingness to deploy WINTER WARFARE TROOPS to defend its new ARCTIC = NORTH POLE INTERESTS/CLAIMS. ARGENTINA IS FOLLOWING THE LEAD OF CHINA, FRANCE, NORWAY, + AUSTRALIA, etc. as per the ANTARCTIC
ANTARCTIC > HMMMMMM, well, for one its more evidencia that WOT > MACKINDER'S WAR BTWN NEW WORLD + OLD WORLD > NEW WORLD = AMERICAS IS CURR PREVAILING as per the proposed "TEXAS TRANS-CORRIDOR/SUPER-HIGHWAY", NAU + Pan Amer Union, + VARIOUS PROPOS OWG FREE TRADE ZONES [espec CONUS-NORAM].
As HORACE GREELY once did NOT say > "GO TO ZIMBABWE, YOUNG MAN, GO TO ZIMBABWE"!?
#21
The C301 copies of the CSS_N-2 are not that mobile - and that's what would close hormuz.
These missiles are nearly 6meters long with an 3 meter wingspan. THey have a large truck-mounted rada array that is needed for target acquisiton and initial guidance.
Those have to come up, emit and get the target. They do that, they are DEAD from a HARM.
C301 radars and launchpoints have a very very short life expectancy after the initial salvo.
Also, their longest range misslies are 1200miles or so in range - the Shahab3 specifically, and they have a 700-800 kg single payload, or less if using cluster munitions (mainly chemical/nerve). CEP estimates vary but are generallybetween 500m and 1 KM (lowest is 200m, highest 3km). This is a weapon that is used only for terror with HE or conventional cluster warneads, or needs an area effect WMD to be effective.
Open sources reveal about 20 launchers at best, and they are tightly controlled.
Most of the advanced capability was purchased form NKor originally (Its basically a NoDong missile) with some Chinese help later, and more sales of rocket motors form the Norks (who go themfrom the Chinese and resold them).
Basically, yes Iran can cause a lot of damage initially, but after that they are in for a world-class assbeating. C3I targets, including power generation and transmission, telecom, broadcast com, and water planst will all be disabled or destroyed. WIhtin a month they will have no power, no water no sewage and no fuel (one refinery). Cholera will run rampant in the large cities- and you'll see perhaps a million or more dead, non from firepower, but fromthe loss of clean water, electricity and modern medical care. Within 6 months starvation will set in.
POTTER VALLEY, Calif. — A Mendocino County woman who was trying to kill mice in her trailer with a gun ended up shooting herself and another person.
The 43-year-old woman pulled out her .44-caliber Magnum revolver after she saw the mice scurrying across the floor of her trailer on Highway 20 in Potter Valley, sheriff's officials said. "This is the most powerful handgun in the world; take your head clean off. So ask yourself, do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, Mickey?"
"Eeek!"
"Squeek!"
"She's psycho, and she's got a gun!"
"Cats I can deal with, but not this!"
"Scurry! Hurry!"
"Feets don't fail me now!"
But she accidentally dropped the gun, "Ooopsies!"
which went off as it struck the floor. BANG!
The bullet went through the woman's kneecap, "Ow! Oweeee!"
bounced off the keys sitting on the belt loop of a 42-year-old man in the trailer Zing!
and grazed the man's groin "Egads! I've gone from baritone to mezzo soprano! My opera career is ruined!"
before ending up in his coin pocket. Ka-CHING!
Authorities did not release the shooting victims' names. And now for the punch line:
The mice escaped the shooting unharmed.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/09/2008
09:20 ||
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Police suspect a serial rabbit killer in Germany may be using satellite images like those available on Google Earth to locate victims before draining their blood.
Up to 40 rabbits have been killed in Dortmund and Witten – and in almost all the attacks the killer decapitates the pets and bleeds them dry.
Volker Schuette, one of a special team of five officers hunting the killer, warned that many animals had been snatched from cages away from public view, suggesting the killer might be using satellite images from the internet to track them down.
Now pet owners are being forced to take extreme measures, protecting their rabbits with locks and alarms and hiding them in cellars or garages to confound the killer.
One woman, Julia Perkun, has built a secret bunny bunker for her 13 rabbits in woodland on the edge of Witten.
"This place isn't visible from the street," Mrs Perkun told the BBC. "I try not to tell anyone where this place is. People know that I have rabbits, but I don't tell anyone where this place is, so I hope my rabbits are safe."
Ruhr Valley police said they feared that the assassin could be a Satanist, or Satanists, looking for blood for ungodly rituals.
Mr Schuette, said: "It's always the same. Detectives find the rabbit lying dead in a hutch.
"An unknown person has cut off the head and drained off the blood in a box or a bottle. So we find no blood and no head."
While the rabbit corpses are being examined for traces of DNA and 300 people have been questioned, police admit they still have no idea who is doing the decapitating. But the effects of the murderous spree on pet owners are clear.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/09/2008 10:48
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#3
Hey, sarge, we're getting more questions on the rabbit serial killer. What do I tell em?
I dunno. Wait. Tell them he's using...Google Earth. Yeah! That's the ticket! Act like it's some kind of big secret...
#10
Google Earth is good enough to locate properties you can access from farm or woodland. Although, not as good as a 1 inch/1 mile topographic map. Maybe, people can't read maps any more.
A U.S. Marines commander said Wednesday his troops have killed 400 insurgents in southern Afghanistan since late April. Col. Peter Petronzio, the commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said the figure came from the governor of the southern Helmand province, where his troops have been deployed since late April. Some 2,200 U.S. Marines moved into the town of Garmser in Helmand province to clean the area of insurgents.
After months of fighting around Garmser, Petronzio said the area is not yet secure but is more stable. 'The Taliban proved they wanted to fight for Garmser and we took the fight to them,' he told a news conference in Kabul.
Petronzio said NATO and Afghan forces are committed to completing their mission in an area that is an important gateway for insurgent fighters smuggling weapons from Pakistan. The Marines will be replaced by British troops this fall. 'If the Taliban are waiting for us to leave, they will have a very long wait,' he said.
Meanwhile, the top NATO commander here told The Associated Press in an interview this week that rockets and mortars fired from militants in Pakistan at U.S. and Afghan border outposts in Afghanistan have spiked in the last month. 'We have seen an increase in the eastern part of Afghanistan of cross-border indirect fires coming into some of our, not only our but Afghan' outposts, said McKiernan, who took command of the 40-nation International Security Assistance Force mission last month. But McKiernan said that U.S. and NATO forces have been returning fire. 'Of course our presumption is that the threat feels safer firing (from) across that border. I'm not sure that's the case, that they're any safer, because we do return those fires, coordinated with the Pak military,' McKiernan said.
U.S. troops have fired artillery and used airstrikes to hit militants inside Pakistan. The militants use that country's lawless border areas as a base for staging their attacks against Afghan and foreign troops here.
McKiernan offered no specifics on the number of attacks coming into Afghanistan from Pakistan, but said: 'There definitely has been an increase since I've been here in the last 30 days.' The four-star general said he thinks those attacks have spiked because militant groups have the freedom in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas to move across the Afghan-Pakistan border unimpeded and resupply and recruit in Pakistan.
This article starring:
Col. Peter Petronzio
Posted by: ed ||
07/09/2008
08:25 ||
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#1
The militants use that country's lawless border areas as a base for staging their attacks against Afghan and foreign troops here.
Well, then, take your best Afghan troops and give the Pakies a return visit. Think Northwest Passage. Just skip the head trophies.
#2
Napalm and cluster munitions. Fill the passes except for a small, narrow path that leads across. Set up a kill-zone focused on that path. Have a Predator with a couple of Hellfires on call if the bad guys try to move beyond the pass and cross bare rock. Make crossing the Afghan/pak border suicide for the taliban. It can be done. It just takes a strong will and a deaf ear.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/09/2008 13:31
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#3
OP, maybe they can hire some old East German border guards. They have the skills and lack of scruples will and demonstrated deaf ears. Could pretty much be assured they're not enjoying gainful employment these days anyway. Square peg, square hole type deal. Should work as well in keeping bodies out as keeping bodies in.
#4
I have to say that we have long needed to rethink the Afghan campaign, as it is militarily far harder than Iraq ever was. And, if there are any real Vietnam comparisons, they apply a lot more to Afghanistan.
The easiest way to imagine this is to think of Afghanistan as South Vietnam, and Pakistan as a combined, North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
The enormous contiguous border provides numerous easy routes for infiltration, even though in either case there are major natural obstacles. But add to that a seemingly endless supply of enemy foot soldiers, and you have a problem.
Eventually, the Afghans have to take control of their own country for NATO to leave. And they will be the ones who determine who they will tolerate in their country and who they will not.
But they cannot act in a vacuum. Until Pakistan controls itself, Afghanistan will never be at peace.
#6
A bit of history if I may : Afghanistan has NEVER been at peace, anytime in recorded history. The best that one can hope for in that tribal mishmash is that there is an outside force attempting to control the country and that the tribes band together against the outsider. If the Afghanis are not fighting an outsider, they are fighting each other.
Fortunately for the West, Pakistan is starting to become the boogie man for the Afghan public - due in no small part to the activities of the ISI. The useful role of outside agitator being taken, the Afghanis in the main will unite in hostility to the same.
#7
A bit of history if I may : Afghanistan has NEVER been at peace, anytime in recorded history. The best that one can hope for in that tribal mishmash is that there is an outside force attempting to control the country and that the tribes band together against the outsider. If the Afghanis are not fighting an outsider, they are fighting each other.
Fortunately for the West, Pakistan is starting to become the boogie man for the Afghan public - due in no small part to the activities of the ISI. The useful role of outside agitator being taken, the Afghanis in the main will unite in hostility to the same.
At least six people, including three police officers, have been killed in a shootout near the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, the city's governor says.
Two other police officers were wounded in the attack Wednesday. A U.S. consulate official said no American citizens or employees were hurt.
Gunmen pulled up in a white car and opened fire at a police security checkpoint at the outer entrance of the consulate, Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler told reporters at the scene.
Police fired back, resulting in a three- to five-minute gun battle, Ivan Watson, a journalist with National Public Radio reporting from the scene, told CNN.
Guler said the dead included three police officers and three assailants. Authorities did not immediately know whether the attackers were affiliated with any organization, he said.
People waiting to obtain visas inside the heavily fortified building were not hurt. The outer entrance is more than 30m (100ft) from the main building which sits atop a hilltop.
At least three bodies remained on the ground as ambulances pulled up and police cordoned off the area with yellow tape and waved off onlookers.
The most recent attack on a foreign mission in Turkey was in November 2003 when a string of bombings in Istanbul targeted the British consulate, along with two synagogues and a British-owned bank. The blasts killed more than 70 people, including the British consul general, and wounded hundreds.
Turkey is a secular country that is predominantly Muslim. There has been a lot of tension in the country between secularist and traditional Muslims, and the state has been battling Kurdish separatists for many years.
ISTANBUL, Turkey - Suspected al-Qaida militants armed with pistols and shotguns attacked a police guard post outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, sparking a gunbattle that left three attackers and three officers dead.
Turkish and U.S. officials publicly labeled the shooting a terrorist attack and a police official in Istanbul told The Associated Press that authorities suspected al-Qaida was behind it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists on the investigation.
Footage from a security camera at the site showed four armed and bearded men emerging from a car and killing a traffic policeman, then running toward a guard post some 50 yards away as other policemen fired back, the Dogan news agency reported.
At least two of the attackers were Turkish nationals, Guler said. Police said they were pursuing at least one attacker who escaped in a car after the attack outside the high-walled consulate compound in the residential Istinye district around 11 a.m. NTV television, citing police sources, said officials feared the car might be loaded with explosives. Police would not confirm that report.
About 2,000 Islamist women gathered at the radical Red Mosque in the Pakistani capital on Wednesday and vowed to raise their children for holy war, days after a suicide bomber killed 18 people after a similar rally.
Chanting slogans of "jihad is our way", burqa-clad women, some with babies, listened to fiery speeches from the daughter of the mosque's jailed cleric on the eve of the anniversary of a commando raid on the complex in which more than 100 people died. "Our mujahideen (fighters) laid down their lives for the enforcement of the Islamic system in Pakistan. We are left behind to carry forward their mission," the daughter of cleric Abdul Aziz told the tightly guarded rally in the mosque compound.
Several thousand men attended a similar rally on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the July 10 commando raid that ended a week-long siege that began when gunmen from the mosque clashed with police. Shortly after the Sunday rally ended, a suicide bomber attacked police who had been guarding the gathering killing 18 people, all but three of them policemen.
The attack highlighted the danger posed by militants in nuclear-armed Pakistan, where a new coalition government has been preoccupied with what to do with the unpopular President Pervez Musharraf, a staunch U.S. ally who has been isolated since his allies were defeated in a February election. The blast in the centre of the capital also compounded gloom on Pakistan's financial markets, where stocks have been sliding because of economic worries and the rupee has set new lows.
But there was no trouble on Wednesday as the cleric's daughter, who did not identify herself, told the crowd to steel their families for holy war. "We should prepare our children and men for jihad," she said. The crowd responded with shrill chants of "we are ready" and "al jihad".
Aziz was caught during the siege last year trying to slip through a cordon dressed in a woman's burqa. His brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was also a mosque cleric, was killed. Ghazi's widow, identified as Umm-e-Hassam, said President Pervez Musharraf should be punished for ordering the crackdown: "This man is the enemy ... I want this man to be severely punished before I die," she told the rally.
#2
Seems like a vow to raise your kids to be suicide bombers ought to be grounds for intervention by the Child Protection Service. In fact, I'd make it a capital offense.
Posted by: Menhaden S ||
07/09/2008 7:50
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#3
Well, it takes nine months of preproduction before they're off the assembly line, then a couple years to work out the operating bugs. So, it's not like its an immediate issue.
Just shut down NGOs in the area that provides assistance for bunnies and baby ducks programs that front the operation. Let them do without Western medicine, vaccines, and aid during processing.
#9
C'mon, ladies! Hows about you step up to the plate and show the kiddos how it's done.
Or is it healthier marching around in the street makin lotsa jihadi noise?
The United States said Tuesday that a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand was 'very worrisome' but did not anticipate any role in helping to resolve the turmoil. More than 3,300 people have been killed since separatist unrest broke out in January 2004, and militants' tactics have turned increasingly gruesome, with a U.S. rights group reporting that beheadings, live burnings and torture have become a common feature.
'The insurgency in southern Thailand is very worrisome, I know it is very worrisome to the Thai authorities,' Scot Marciel, the U.S. envoy to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), told a forum of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
He said the new government of Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was formulating a strategy to contain the insurgency. 'It's gotten better but it hasn't got dramatically better. So it remains, I think, a very serious problem -- one I know the Thai government takes very seriously,' Marciel said.
Marciel said the problem could not be resolved purely by military means, noting that the previous government used security and law enforcement to contain the crisis combined with efforts to win the 'hearts and minds' of the people. But the United States was not likely to get involved.
'We do not anticipate a U.S. role. I don't think that would be productive, I don't think the Thais think it would be productive,' he said. 'If there is something useful we could do and are asked, we would certainly consider. At this point, we are just watching it.'
'Insurgent groups continue to unleash brutality on civilians to demonstrate their power and weaken the credibility of Thai authorities,' Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Tuesday.
On July 4, insurgents beheaded Khan Sangthong, a 55-year-old Buddhist, in nearby Yala province. He was shot, burned and had nails hammered through his hands before being decapitated. His severed head was placed on a bridge yards from his body.
Human Rights Watch said more than 20 Buddhist Thais have been beheaded by insurgents across the southern border provinces in the last four years.
* SAS trooper Sean McCarthy, 25, killed
* Two other Australians injured in attack
* Readers mourn loss of decorated soldier
THE Australian soldier killed in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan was a "top bloke" who had been looking forward to returning for his second combat tour of the country, close friends say.
SAS Signaller Sean McCarthy, a 25-year-old rugby-mad soldier from the Gold Coast, was killed when a bomb exploded near his vehicle, the Defence department has said.
Two other Australian special forces soldiers were injured, along with a soldier from another country.
After four years of living in Baghdad, war was taking its toll on Lara Logan.
As CBS's chief foreign affairs correspondent, she regularly risked her life by accompanying American forces in combat. But there were more personal strains as well: Her mother had died after a lengthy coma, she and her husband had long ago agreed to a separation, and, last November, she broke off an intense relationship with another journalist in Baghdad. Soon afterward, Logan started dating Joseph Burkett, a federal contractor stationed in Iraq who was separated from his wife back in Texas. This is why the Iraqi's want to take away contractors immunity?
Now, having just moved to Washington with an expanded portfolio for the network, Logan finds her romantic life reduced to tabloid fodder. And there is a new complication: She recently discovered that she is pregnant.
"Nobody likes to read about themselves like that, especially the way it's been sensationalized," Logan says of the coverage that spread to the front page of the New York Post, which called her a "sexy CBS siren" and "in-bedded reporter." "I hated it. But I'm just going to rise above it and keep going." The baby is due in January, she says, and she is "looking forward to being a mom."
Logan, 37, says she and Burkett plan to get married eventually. Her divorce is slated to become final in two weeks, and Burkett's divorce trial is likely to end next month. But the case has turned decidedly messy, with Burkett's estranged wife Kimberly, the mother of their 3-year-old daughter, charging that Logan broke up her marriage.
Much of the media interest is fueled by the South African native's rapid rise to stardom, which has brought her both celebrity status and a string of journalistic prizes, including an Emmy Award, Overseas Press Club Award and, last week, an Edward R. Murrow Award. While some may accuse her of tawdry conduct, what happened to Logan is an all-too-familiar tale of someone consumed by a career and needing a partner who understands the peculiar pressures involved.
"I just surrendered myself completely" to the Iraq story, Logan says. "If you give yourself 100 percent to the people around you, it's very hard to have anything left. Being away for long periods, when you come home, you can't explain what it is you've been doing to someone who's never been through it."
CBS News President Sean McManus calls Logan a "fearless" reporter with "a dynamic quality that just jumps off the screen." He says he transferred her to Washington to get her on the air more often and that "depending on her situation with her child, I'd anticipate she'd be covering the war in Iraq again. " . . . All the distractions happening now will at some point be behind her and behind CBS News and she will succeed based on the quality of her work," McManus says.
Logan married Jason Siemon, a former professional basketball player in Europe who now works as an energy lobbyist in Chicago, in 1998. Soon after that, her career began to take off.
She had spent years as a freelancer for CBS, NBC, CNN and British television, landing a job as a CBS correspondent and "60 Minutes II" contributor only after talking her way into Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks. Not long afterward, she was in a Humvee with members of the 10th Mountain Division on the Afghan-Pakistani border when the vehicle was struck by an antitank missile, causing a fall that tore the skin inside Logan's mouth and bruised her face. When U.S. forces led the Iraq invasion in 2003, CBS withdrew all its correspondents, but Logan drove back in 10 days later. "I'm not some Hollywood star," Logan says in her first interview on the subject. "It's not about a career for me. It's who I am. I do this because I believe in it."
Despite her years of war reporting, Logan has also drawn attention for her striking looks and provocative comments on such programs as "The Daily Show," where last month she demonstrated how she curses with soldiers. The British press often refers to her as a "former swimsuit model" because of part-time work she did as a student.
As the Iraq conflict dragged on, Logan grew apart from Siemon. The decision to separate was particularly hard for her because her own parents had divorced when she was 8. Siemon could not be reached for comment.
Last year, about two years after Logan and her husband had separated, she began a relationship with Michael Ware, a CNN correspondent in Iraq. Shortly after that romance ended in November, she started dating Burkett, a friend she had met years earlier when both were working in Afghanistan. Despite his government contracting duties, Logan says, "we always respect each other's boundaries. We agreed never to talk about our work."
At the time, Burkett was separated from his wife of 3 1/2 years. He had been in Afghanistan and Iraq, away from their Texas home, for most of Kimberly Burkett's pregnancy and most of their marriage, according to a family friend who declined to be identified because of a confidentiality agreement in the divorce case. The friend said the marriage had long been rocky and that Kimberly Burkett had asked for a divorce several times. Joseph Burkett would not be interviewed.
In January, Burkett flew home to file for divorce, and acknowledged to his wife that he had begun a relationship with Logan. Kimberly, 32, was hospitalized after taking an overdose of tranquilizers, according to the family friend. At a court hearing that month, Joseph Burkett told the judge he was having an extramarital affair, and his attorney said that was not the reason for the divorce.
The National Enquirer reported last month on what the tabloid called Logan's "torrid affair with a married man." Kimberly Burkett's lawyer, Susie Chmielowiec, told the supermarket tabloid that "Kimberly believes Lara stole her husband -- and now they're trying to steal her little girl." The divorce case includes a custody dispute between Burkett and his wife.
Chmielowiec and Burkett's lawyer, Jonathan Cluck, did not respond to requests for comment. The Enquirer quoted Kimberly Burkett last week as saying that "Lara Logan deserves to be canned" and that her CBS promotion is "a slap in the face to everyone who believes in marriage."
Carole Cooper, Logan's agent, says the publicity has been unpleasant. "It has been difficult for her but she's coping fine," she says. "She's a strong woman."
Logan became pregnant shortly before leaving Baghdad in April, although she did not know it at the time, and flew to New York to sign a new contract that would compensate her for her expanded responsibilities in Washington. Logan had spent the previous two months involved in negotiations that freed a kidnapped CBS videographer, Richard Butler, and says she felt that Iraq had become too dangerous for her. But she still hopes to report from there in the future.
The pregnancy was unplanned. Logan says she lost one of her fallopian tubes during an ectopic pregnancy years ago and believed at her age it was highly unlikely that she could get pregnant. The news came at a time when she was looking to change her life. At CBS, Logan says, "they let me run around the world doing everything I want to do. It's a dream job, but it comes at a cost.
"Since 9/11, I've spent 95 percent of my time on the road, and I do need to have a home at some point. I do need to settle down. I've been living like a refugee."
#4
I remember seeing LL on TV in the background of someone else's news report after a late night bombing/RPG attack near/at the correspondents' hotel in 2003. Wearing a flak jacket & helmet w/o makeup, she still looked very good. Constant excitement & stress does make people act even weirder than in normal times.
#5
The weird part of it is that she will probably be pressured by some of her radical colleagues to have an abortion, and for some pretty twisted reasons.
#7
'I'm not some Hollywood star,' Logan says in her first interview on the subject. 'It's not about a career for me. It's who I am. I do this because I believe in it.'
#10
She spent six months persuading the Navy to let her embed with the Seals... and she kept up with them while they were catching some pretty important people. The CBS management decided not to run the story, because one bunch of soldiers in uniform looks like every other bunch, so what her bunch did wasn't really news, not to mention that the American audience is tired of war stories. At least that's how she told it on The Daily Show. I respect her. Not to mention that it sounds like the first Mrs. Burkett had long not wanted to be married to a man whose career was far from home.
#11
Thing is they were both already in the process of divorce. No real affair there. Plus, if I were getting divorced, and I were in Iraq and I had a chance to hit that, you're damned skippy I'd knock boots.
#14
#11 Thing is they were both already in the process of divorce. No real affair there. Plus, if I were getting divorced, and I were in Iraq and I had a chance to hit that, you're damned skippy I'd knock boots.
Quoted for truth.
I can't judge a person who lived in physical danger for 4 years to get stories. And, she turned into a small fistful of journalists over there in for the long haul, and telling us how it was. Her report on 60 Minutes describing the danger of the Baghdad-Airport highway from about 2004 was particularly good.
And I'd hit it like the angry fist of Allah if I ever had that chance.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading U.S. Senate Democrat accused the Bush administration on Tuesday of a "cover-up" aimed at stopping the Environmental Protection Agency from tackling greenhouse emissions.
"This cover-up is being directed from the White House and the office of the vice president," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
At issue is a preliminary finding by the EPA last December that "greenhouse gases may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public welfare," according to Jason Burnett, the agency's former associate deputy administrator who appeared at a news conference with Boxer.
Such a finding would be an early step toward government regulation aimed at protecting public health.
Boxer said that unless EPA documents were released, it was likely that within the next two weeks her committee would try to subpoena the material. She did not know whether Republicans on the panel would block the effort.
Burnett, who resigned on June 9, told Boxer's committee the White House tried pressuring him to retract an e-mail in which he detailed the finding. Burnett said he refused.
Democrats say that since then, the EPA finding has been left "in limbo."
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said many federal agencies, departments and offices normally review any initiatives being developed to check for "factual inaccuracies" or "discordant" policies.
Without getting into specifics, Fratto said "views are frequently discussed and worked out in ways that make sense."
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, asked about the administration's actions, said, "I don't know if that is criminal. I doubt it. OK. But I know it is immoral."
"The health of my grandchildren, my children and me are affected by this head-in-the-sand that global warming doesn't exist," Reid told reporters. Harry, get with it, the new buzzwords are 'Climate Change'. What about the baby ducks, kittens and fluffy bunnies?
Boxer acknowledged she wanted to gather information so that the next administration could get a jump on global warming initiatives quickly after it takes office on January 20, 2009. You too, Babs, it's Climate Change.
She has been trying since last October to obtain related documents to show that planned congressional testimony on global warming by Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was censored by the Bush administration.
Boxer said Gerberding's testimony would have detailed the direct impact of rising global temperatures on human health, including mortality and the spread of disease.
Burnett told the congressional committee the administration's Council on Environmental Quality "and the office of the vice president were seeking deletions to the CDC testimony." He refused to say who in Vice President Richard Cheney's office was involved.
Responding to Burnett's charges, Fratto said, "Jason Burnett is not the EPA administrator" and that it was up to EPA chief Stephen Johnson to oversee environmental policy.
Asked at Tuesday's news conference about his support for Democratic candidates and whether he was trying to embarrass the Republican administration, Burnett said, "Following the law and responding to the Supreme Court is not a partisan issue."
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Clean Air Act gives EPA the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
In October, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Gerberding's draft testimony to Congress "did not comport" with science contained in an International Panel on Climate Change report and that "a number of agencies had some concerns with the draft."
On Tuesday, Boxer said Gerberding's planned testimony, which has since been detailed in media reports, and the IPCC report "matched identically."
#1
Calling CO2, pollution is quite the most bizzare nonsense of my lifetime.
The good news, apart from the fact global warming isn't happening (which is good news only to the extent global cooling is seriously bad news), is that GW is a sure fire election loser for the Left, once people see how much it is going to cost them.
#2
It should be clearly stated that MMGW is not based in science, or even anecdotal reality, but in philosophy and religion.
Like science fiction, it began with an unproven theory. But unlike scientific theories, the theory was built upon before it had any basis in proven fact. To make matters intolerable, the theory had to accept greater and greater assumptions that were nonsensically improbable.
The big one being that a trace amount, of a trace gas, could leverage a truly immense system. The mite could force the mouse to direct the course of the elephant.
That is, a fraction of the CO2 in the atmosphere is created by man, but that it would somehow strongly impact the far greater amount of natural atmospheric CO2, which in turn is still only found in trace amounts in the truly immense atmosphere full of water vapor in various forms.
The only way this could be supported was through the use of "feedback loops", of which a dozen have been proposed.
But none of these feedback loops have ever been proven.
And the models used to predict the future are insane, as with the previous illustration, they do not take into account the elephant, only the mite and the mouse.
Cloud cover which dictates over 90% of heat reflection or retention ignored, because it is too complicated to figure out.
#3
If fossil fuels indeed are (fossil, that is) where did all this carbon come from in the first place, if not the air?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
07/09/2008 10:31
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#4
Well, it certainly didn't all happen in the last eight years so it makes me wonder where all these alarmists were when Clinton was in the White House. It makes me wonder if the real problem is they just can't stand George Bush. I mean, why didn't Al Gore ever say anything about it until after that mean, old George Bush stole the election?
#5
Dammit, can't believe the White House didn't tell me last week it would be 75 and rainy this morning. I demand an emergency meeting at the golf course to consider inbeechwood procedings at once!
#9
Iff one believes that a POTUS OBAMA Admin will rsult in SOCIALISM IN AMERICA 2008-2012, as many Netters believe, ITS ALL THE MORE REASON FOR THE SO-CALLED ISLAMIST "HIDDEN-IMAM-MAHDI" TO APPEAR AND DEFEAT OR DESTROY THE US MIL PRESENCE + AGENDA IN THE ME.
Nothing can scare Amer Politicians and mainstream Amer voters like a HIGH-PROFILE, MAJOR AMER MIL DEFEAT + OTHER CATASTROPHE.
ADD TO NEWSVINE > FUTURE HEAT WAVE TEMPERATURES TO RISE + TOPIX > LATE SUNSPOT CYCLE ["24"] MAY MEAN STRONGER SOLAR FLARES LATER.
D *** NG IT, PEOPLE, EVEN THE SUN IS DOING ITS PART/WANTS ISLAMIST NUKES-APOCALYPSE + AMERIKAN SOCIALISM 2008-2012 - LETS GET WID THE PROGRAM! DON'T FORCE ME TO TELL BARRY "SUPERMAN" BOSTWICK TO YANK OFF HIS EYEGLASSES, OR MICHELLE TO UNSHEATH HER LECTURE FINGER, D *** YOU!
#10
Note: I've never voted for Ms "Dumb as a bag of hammers". As a Californian, I apologize for my fellow 'Fornians sending this dumb POS to the Senate. What can I say?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/09/2008 20:53
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The U.S. has to be held responsible for not sending enough troops to prevent this looting.
Authorities in Baghdad have seized five luxury cars they believe belong to Saddam's notorious son, Uday. How is he going to pick up those 72 Babes in paradise without his rides?
Uday and his younger brother, Qusay, were both killed in a gun battle with U.S. forces in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in 2003, a few months after the invasion of Iraq.
#1
damn how kreepy watching UDAY smirk at the Soccer players as he put medals around their necks...
He's happy because he'll get to beat the hell out of them later..
TCA -- Given Barack Obama's historic run for the Oval Office, African American-themed cable network TV One plans to break from its usual entertainment programming to provide extensive coverage of the Democratic National Convention in August.
"Sen. Barack Obama running for president is a huge deal for TV One as it is for the African American community," said Johnathan Rodgers, president and CEO of TV One, a channel in about 40 million homes. "African Americans have fallen in love with his candidacy, his family Â… we will be covering the democratic convention all the time."
But John McCain shouldnÂ’t expect the same treatment. The network doesnÂ’t plan any coverage of the Republican Convention.
"We are not a news organization," said Rodgers, speaking at the opening session of the semi-annual Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills. "We are a television network designed to celebrate African American achievement. If Hillary was the nominee, we would not be covering this year's Democratic Convention." If you aren't a news organization then leave the news reporting to them.
"My audience is 93% black," Rodgers added. "I serve my audience."
TV One does have a Republican pundit as part of its convention coverage, comedian Sheryl Underwood. But sheÂ’s also voting for Obama.
When critics pressed a panel of TV One’s convention pundits about whether African American republicans will feel slighted, Underwood said, “I speak for all eight of us -- we are not slighted ... McCain is not going to win it, that's why I'm over here, because I want to be with the winners -- and I'm a Bush Republican."
When TV One's coverage panel was asked if their coverage will raise criticisms of Obama, contributor Hill Harper, who said he's been a friend of Obama's for 20 years and serves on his National Finance Comittee, said "the whole purpose of the event is celebration. We're not covering a debate." Then don't broadcast the audio channel. Play some Gangsta Rap instead.
But Rodgers added, "It's primarily a celebration but, yes, we'll also be critical when necessary."
As a cable network, TV One is likely exempt from any equal time access rules. Federal Communications Commission rules state that broadcast networks are required to give equal time to presidential candidates.
In 2007, when “Law & Order” actor Fred Thompson entered the race for the Republican nomination, NBC pulled episodes that featured him, but cable network TNT did not pull “L&O” repeats. Still, the matter is also considered a regulation gray area, with the FCC largely untested on the issue.
TV One will probably find itself on the losing end of this one. I'll bet stepping into the partisan news arena has something to do with it, too. The fact that O is black has nothing to do with it. It's just an excuse. But then again, I don't know how BET or TV One even exist. If I started WET or TV Two to cover whites only stuff and used it as an excuse to cover McCain while ignoring O, I'm fairly sure I'd get skewered in short order.
#8
Ok, well.....what markets is this "broadcasting powerhouse" in?
Because in the last five years I've lived in three places, and never heard of them until now. BET, sure......Starz in Black, yep, even watch it on occasion if there is a movie I want to see.....TV One? Eh, nope, not registering.....
Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields ||
07/09/2008 14:03
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CHINA'S economy will overtake that of the United States by 2035 and be twice its size by mid century, a study released today by a US research organization concluded.
The report by economist Albert Keidel of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said China's rapid growth is driven by domestic demand more than exports, and will sustain high single-digit growth rates well into the 21st century.
"China's economic performance clearly is no flash in the pan," Mr Keidel said.
"Its growth this decade has averaged more than 10 per cent a year and is still going strong in the first half of 2008. Because its success in recent decades has not been export-led but driven by domestic demand, its rapid growth can continue well into the 21st century, unfettered by world market limitation."
Mr Keidel said the rise of China to the world's biggest economy will happen regardless of the method of calculation.
Under current market-based estimates, China's gross domestic product is about $US3 trillion ($3.14 trillion) compared to $US14 trillion ($14.65 trillion) for the United States.
Based on a more controversial purchasing power parity (PPP) measure used by the World Bank and others to correct low labour-cost distortions, he said China's GDP is roughly half of that of the United States.
"Despite this low starting point, if China's expansion is anywhere near as fast as the earlier expansion of other East Asian modernizers at a comparable stage of development, the power of compound growth rates means that China's economy will be larger than America's by mid century - no matter how it is converted to dollars," Mr Keidel said.
"Indeed, PPP valuation distinctions will diminish and eventually disappear."
#2
Any economist worth his salt, will admit that following free market principles will cause a take-off period to ensue. However, one an industrial superstructure is developed, development possibilities become somewhat limited. A fall-off isn't the next stage. The American economy is stable, and development is balanced. China will follow suit, unless politics intervenes. That is unlikely.
#7
China's businesses have a huge debt and the government banks are writing off nearly 60%. A major economic global slowdown or the US pulling their factories out of China will bring it crashing down.
China could do it, but it has a lot of problems to overcome first. Personally, I think with the coming economic troubles, surplus of males and a Xenophobic attitude of the government, China will have civil war in 10 or so years.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/09/2008 10:47
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#12
if the chinese empire stays together simple math dictates they will be larger...when who know's -- as stated they have many issues to resolve but thier middle class is larger than the american middle class today
Posted by: dan ||
07/09/2008 10:55
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#13
My projections of China's future are guarded, but there are some strong possibilities.
First of all, they are going to have to have a humdinger of an economic correction in the short term. But I don't see this as causing widespread political instability. Instead, the public really wants to take it out on local and regional government, not the national government.
Second, China is demographically bulging at the seams, and this presents an impressive target to a natural population correction, most likely by a whopper of an epidemic. But if they lose hundreds of millions of people, it will solve much of their economic and development problems.
But that presents the third possibility, because such plagues work from the bottom of the demographic pyramid up. Essentially culling the poor and peasant. But the people who remain are going to want to keep their power and wealth, so politics will become very conservative and power more balanced and even.
And the best way of doing this is democracy, not out of any sense of freedom or liberty, but efficiency. The freedom and liberty are just side effects of this.
#14
China has shut down factories around Beijing in an effort to cut down on polution for the Olympics. Here in the States hundreds of Wal-mart stores are closing. They're running out of EVERYTHING!
Leno
(Xinhua) -- The United States announced Tuesday to impose sanctions on four Iranian individuals and four entities for their ties to Iran's nuclear and missile programs.
As a result, U.S. citizens will be prohibited from any transactions with them, and their assets under U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen. 'Iran's nuclear and missile firms hide behind an array of agents that transact business on their behalf,' said Stuart Levey, the Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. 'As long as Iran continues to engage in such deceptive practices, companies and banks must exercise extraordinary vigilance to avoid participating in illicit transactions,' he said.
The United States has accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the charges.
This article starring:
DAWUD AGHA JANI
Govt of Iran
MEHRDADA AKHLAGHI KETABACHI
Govt of Iran
MOSHEN HOJATI
Govt of Iran
NASER MALEKI
Govt of Iran
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Three suicide bombers have entered the federal capital while security has also been beefed up in Punjab following reports of the presence of explosive-laden vehicles in the province, private television channels reported on Tuesday. ARY One quoted an intelligence agency report as saying that the suicide bombers may target important political and religious personalities, while the Interior Ministry has banned the conduct of rallies and processions near sensitive places in Islamabad.
According to the report, the would-be suicide bombers have been identified as Alam Zeb, Sajid Moawia and Mujahid Hussain and they belong to Lashkar-e-Abdullah of Parachinar in the Kurram Agency. The report says that local Taliban have formed suicide squads to be sent to Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. The channel reported that law enforcement agencies have tightened security across the country besides deploying additional forces to sensitive places. According to Geo News, security has also been beefed up in Punjab following reports of the presence of explosive-laden vehicles in the province. The channel said police was ordered to check all suspected vehicles. Faisalabad city was sealed after reports of an explosive-packed car in the city, it said, adding that five terrorists and an explosive-laden car were reported to have entered the city from Kohat.
This article starring:
ALAM ZEB
Lashkar-e-Abdullah
MUJAHID HUSEIN
Lashkar-e-Abdullah
SAJID MOAWIA
Lashkar-e-Abdullah
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Look if they know the number and the names ... admit the truth. They are ISI guys.
#3
Has Pakistan EVER been anything but a disfunctional potentate for whoever is the most powerful person in the nation? I see no reason for this experiment in human behavior to continue any longer. It's a failure. Accept that, and do what's necessary to clean up the mess and move on.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/09/2008 14:55
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LI chief Mangal Bagh on Tuesday refused to provide monetary and other guarantees to ensure writ of the state in Khyber Agency. 'I can give you my word, but I cannot give men as guarantors,' he told a tribal jirga that met him in Tirah Valley. 'In tribal society, words matter. I will honour my word,' Bagh told the negotiators. Jirga leader Amal Gul Afridi said that he was 'satisfied' with the talks. 'A promise is stronger than a guarantee (in tribal system),' he told Daily Times upon returning to Peshawar.
This article starring:
Amal Gul Afridi
MANGAL BAGH
Lashkar-e-Islami
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Afghanistan blamed a foreign intelligence agency Tuesday for the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, making a veiled but clear reference to its eastern neighbor, Pakistan. The accusation came as the commander of the NATO military mission in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Gen. David D. McKiernan, said increased Afghan violence is due in part to a porous border that allows insurgents to resupply in Pakistan and cross freely into Afghanistan.
President Hamid Karzai's spokesman said Afghan officials have evidence showing foreigners were behind Monday's suicide bombing at the embassy that killed 41 people, the deadliest attack in the capital since 2001. He did not provide any specifics.
Samoans? Lutherans? Esquimaux?
Humayun Hamidzada did not mention Pakistan's intelligence agency by name but told reporters it was 'pretty obvious' who was behind the attack. Afghanistan previously blamed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, for a recent assassination attempt on Karzai. 'The sophistication of this attack, and the kind of material that was used in it and the specific targeting, everything has the hallmark of a particular intelligence agency that has conducted similar terrorist acts inside Afghanistan in the past. We have sufficient evidence to say that,' Hamidzada said. 'The project was designed outside Afghanistan. It was exported to Afghanistan,' he added.
Pakistan's prime minister denied its intelligence service was responsible. Speaking in Malaysia on Tuesday, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said his country has no interest in destabilizing Afghanistan when both countries are fighting terrorist groups. 'We want stability in the region. We ourselves are a victim of terrorism and extremism,' Gilani said on the sidelines of a summit of eight developing Islamic nations.
This article starring:
Gen. David D. McKiernan
Humayun Hamidzada
Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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A bomb was found on a bus transporting 12 Indian workers in Afghanistan on Tuesday, a governor said, a day after a suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul killed 41 people.
The workers, including engineers, had noticed a 'suspicious package' on the bus as they were travelling to work in the southwestern province of Nimroz, provincial governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad told AFP. They called the police who discovered it was a remote-controlled bomb, he said. The driver of the bus was arrested for questioning. 'The bomb could have been fixed on his bus without him knowing but all this will be made clear after the investigation is over,' he said.
Trooper dies: Meanwhile, a soldier from the NATO-led forces and four Afghan policemen were killed on Tuesday in new attacks linked to an insurgency in Afghanistan by Taliban and other Islamist extremists, officials said.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) trooper was killed when a roadside bomb struck a convoy in the eastern province of Kunar, NATO's ISAF said. Four other ISAF soldiers were wounded, it said. The 40-nation force did not give details, including the nationalities of the soldiers caught up in the attack. Most of the troops in Kunar are US citizens. Kunar, on the border with Pakistan, sees regular violence from militants involved in an insurgency against President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government. The insurgents mainly rely on bombs, including suicide devices, to attack international and Afghan troops. Also on Tuesday, two policemen were killed in fighting with Taliban insurgents in the central province of Ghazni, provincial spokesman Ismail Jahangir said.
Five militants were also believed to have died in the hour-long battle but their bodies were removed from the scene, Jahngir told AFP. Two other policemen were killed in a similar incident in the neighbouring province of Paktika, another troubled region on the Pak-Afghan frontier, another government spokesman said.
US carrier: A US aircraft carrier has moved to the Arabian Sea to support military operations in Afghanistan, leaving the Gulf without a carrier, US defence officials said on Tuesday. The shift by the USS Abraham Lincoln over the weekend comes amid stepped-up insurgent violence in Afghanistan. The operations in Afghanistan and Iraq 'are extremely dynamic and sometimes we have to adjust the posture of forces so we can we can take advantage of certain opportunities that are there,' said a Navy official, who asked not to be named.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under: ISI
#1
US Carrier -
Which would leave it in a good position to evacuate diplomats from Islamabad?
#3
It also puts it in a place where it's hard for Iran to attack it, Pappy. Not sure that has anything to do with the move, but it's a possibility. I think the US knows the Iranians are up to something, and are moving the pieces to confuse the issue, among other things. I would double those suspicions if a second carrier showed up.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/09/2008 13:41
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Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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#1
On the topic of the weather, still no sunspots, far beyond anyone's predictions. It looks more and more likely we heading into an extended solar minimum. Little (or Big) Ice Age here we come.
#2
A Hurricane in the Atlantic only a little over a month into the Hurricane season? Yup, a clear sign of Global Warming/Climate Change.
This one is going through it's life cycle so quickly we can call it a Hurrichange. If we all had a smaller carbon footprint this storm would have been allowed to have a normal life. Oh, the humanity!
By Captain Timothy Hsia
Today's water woes in the DRV are not due solely to the ongoing war or the Iraqi government's lack of ability to address essential services. The Diyala River and Hamrin Lake are the two main sources of water in the region. However, the water level in both these bodies of waters is directly impacted by Iran. The Hamrin Lake used to store up to two billion cubic meters of water. If one were to reference the lake in any map of Iraq it stands out as one of Iraq's largest lakes. However, today its existence is in serious jeopardy and instead of crossing a bridge to get across the lake, one can simply drive thru what once was a lake.
Mufawaq Howar, a Water Resource Department expert states that "Hamrin Lake contains only 20 percent of its capacity." There is a great chance that this body of water will simply disappear in the coming summer months. Iranians have diverted water to the lake to fill their own dams for energy purposes. The Diyala River suffers a similar fate as water from the river is also being diverted by the Iranians for hydroelectric power and irrigation for their own agricultural industry.
In Iraq a thin line exists between what in the West constitutes two separate crises, the energy and food crises.
#2
The Tigris and the Eurphrates, plus those streams that feed into them can be utilized more effectively. Reservoirs and irrigation canals help the American West get through droughts. Center pivots create "crop circles" of green growth even in the high desert regions of northeastern Colorado. Water wells can be drilled just as readily as oil wells, too. I believe even the ancient Babylonians irrigated, utilizing the regions water resources, making the Mesopotamian region the Cradle of Life. Screw Iran.
A private Calgary company and the world's biggest aircraft maker plan to build a 'blimp on steriods' - an airship filled with helium and powered by big rotors that can be used to haul heavy equipment to remote areas where there are no roads, including northern Canada.
Calgary's SkyHook International Inc. announced Tuesday it is teaming up with Chicago-based Boeing Co. to build the so-called Jess Heavy Lifter, or JHL-40, which will haul steel, huge trucks and M-1 Tanks other equipment in remote areas where ground transportation may not be an option. The SkyHook JHL-40 heavy-lift rotorcraft looks like a blimp with four helicopter-like rotors underneath and will be able to lift a 40-tonne load slung from its belly and carry it 300 kilometres without refuelling.
That's a big advantage in the Arctic, where the costs of developing oil and gas projects and diamond and base metal mines have soared because of the need to build roads or provide expensive airplane access to remote communities. Boeing and SkyHook hope to have the first JHL-40 in service by 2012.
Continued on Page 49
#9
Can't find it right now, but there is an online video of such a beast crashing horribly. I think it happened not that long ago...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/09/2008 10:50
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#10
Giant cargo-hauling Zeppelins . . . cool!
Posted by: Mike ||
07/09/2008 11:20
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#11
God I didn't know Gamera was a musical. No wonder I prefer Godzilla. And Joe, well done. Your best post ever.
I imagine a big heavy lift zeppelin would be useful in the Amazon and other places as well. They need to build it of teflon materials like the transhab to prevent crazy environmentals from shooting at it but beyond that if time is not a factor it's a better, cheaper, way to move bulk.
I also imagine a day when such a blimp could be useful in cross-country travel. It'd be like a cruiseship, but in the air, and you could take your car with you.
#13
MM: that crash you are referring to was of a similiar concept built by the Piasaki company (sic i think) He was the founder of what is now Boeing Helicopters. He developed the twin rotor helicopter for heavy lifting without the restrictions a single rotor w/ anti-torque tail rotor had.
anyway, his rube goldberg machine was a blimp with 4 CH-34's minus tail booms and tail rotors bolted to the four corners. got the monster airborne, but one on the mutant helos broke away (mounting strut failure) and the whole thing crashed, killing the pilot.
funded on a shoe string, the word was that they were not going to do any more work with it.
Local Taliban on Tuesday took possession of two girls' primary schools in Charmang area of Nawagai tehsil in the Bajaur Agency and announced the conversion of these schools into madrassas. The Taliban captured Government Girls Primary School Manugi and Government Girls Primary School Azghar Charmang.
Separately, a bomb detonated in a residential area of the agency headquarters in Bajaur, partially damaging a house. There were no reports of any casualties. Political Agent Shafeerullah Khan said it was not a missile attack. Taliban also returned 11 rifles and two vehicles to a jirga that they had snatched from Bajaur Scouts personnel two months ago in Salarzai.
This article starring:
Political Agent Shafeerullah Khan
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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#1
I think one reason they do this is to sniff the seats in the classrooms...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/09/2008 10:32
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#2
That's disgusting, M. Murcek. But it could be the snark of the day.
(AKI) - Two leaders allegedly from the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq have been arrested in volatile Diyala province, the Voices of Iraq news agency reported on Tuesday.
Suicide bombers have for some time been targetting the area around Baquba against local Sunni tribesmen who joined local Awakening Councils to fight al-Qaeda. Twenty suicide attacks have been carried out this year in Diyala, many of them by women.
The Islamic State of Iraq has been held responsible for many of the suicide attacks carried out in the Sunni province. It is made up of seven Salafite-inspired groups and is led by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.
This article starring:
Abu Omar al-Baghdadi
Haqqa Ismayl
Muthanna al-Duleimi
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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#1
What ever happens to all these AQI leaders who get arrested? We never hear about any trials or sentences - are they just released? Or executed? Or do they await trial for a decade or so?
Posted by: Menhaden S ||
07/09/2008 7:32
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#2
Methinks that since the Iraqis are not really that squeamish about "aggressive interrogation, that we hand them over to the locals, leave and wait for the transcripts of the interrogation.
I believe with regard to the Iraqi intel gathering techniques, it is "don't ask".
Posted by: James Carville ||
07/09/2008 13:59
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(VOI) -- Six people, including three policemen, were wounded on Tuesday when two improvised explosive devices went off separately in Diala, a local police source said. 'An IED went off on Tuesday near a gathering of civilians in al-Katoun neighborhood, central Baaquba, wounding three civilians, including a child,' the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI). 'A short while later, another IED went off near an Iraqi police patrol on the main street linking the district of Baladruz, (45 km) southwest of Baaquba, to the district of Kanaan inside the city, wounding three policemen,' the source added.
On Monday, nine civilians, including women and children, were killed and 12 others wounded when a female suicide bomber blew up her explosive vest inside an outdoor souk in central Baaquba city.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday submitted an adjournment motion in the National Assembly (NA) Secretariat seeking a debate in parliament on recent terrorism in Islamabad and Karachi. PML-N members Raja Muhammad Asad Khan and Nighat Parveen Mir moved the adjournment motion. More than 20 people died in a suicide attack on Saturday in the federal capital, followed by seven bomb attacks in Karachi in which at least 50 people were injured.
This is a tactic. While you're debating it interminably you're not doing anything about it. PML-N is on the other side.
This article starring:
Nighat Parveen Mir
Raja Muhammad Asad Khan
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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(Xinhua) -- A Hamas delegation from the Palestinian territory of Gaza Strip arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for talks with Egyptian mediators on the reopening of the Rafah crossing and a prisoner swap deal with Israel.
The Hamas team entered Egypt earlier in the day via the Rafah crossing at the Egypt-Gaza border, the Egyptian state MENA news agency said. The eight-member delegation comprises Hamas' former Interior Minister Said Siam and Hamas official Jamal Abu Hashem in addition to Hamas leader Mahmuod Zahar.
The Hamas team from Gaza is reportedly to join up with a delegation of the movement from Syria that is expected to arrive later in the day for talks with Egyptian mediators.
Before leaving for Cairo, Zahar said 'The delegation will discuss the calm issue according to the deal which stipulated a lull and a full lifting of the siege and opening the crossing points into Gaza.'
The delegation will also discuss the issue of Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held by Palestinian militants for two years. Hamas demands to swap him for a number of Palestinian prisoners.
This article starring:
ABU HASHEM
Hamas
Gilad Shalit
MAHMUOD ZAHAR
Hamas
SAID SIAM
Hamas
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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NORFOLK, Va. - In an unprecedented move, the Navy recently tested the communications network supporting its Aegis ballistic missile defense system across the Middle East. The test comes as top military commanders are expressing a hardened stance against Iran's intransigence.
The upgraded Aegis systems aboard Navy destroyers and cruisers can track ballistic missiles and intercept them with ship-launched SM-3 missiles.
Tensions have flared recently over Iran's intent to attain nuclear arms and its persistent threats to destroy Israel, which has indicated it could defend itself with a pre-emptive strike.
The intensified sparring -- with the consequences of an additional Middle East war in mind -- has prompted U.S. military commanders to speak up.
On July 2, Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, the 5th Fleet commander based in Bahrain, told a conference of naval leaders in the Persian Gulf that maritime security in the area remains an "essential condition" to global stability.
While not speaking specifically about the BMD exercise, he said naval operations in the area reflect the high stakes involved.
"Conducting these operations in and around the Arabian Gulf sends a signal of security within the region that is commensurate with the area's global importance," he said.
The BMD exercise, which took place from June 28 through July 2, involved the destroyer Benfold operating in the Persian Gulf and the destroyer Russell operating in the eastern Mediterranean.
Again, 2008-2012 = LOW PROFILE PREFERRED FOR NUCLEARIZING IRAN. Risk will mainly be any Iranian failure to keep Iran-Controlled/suppor Militant-Terr Groups in line and NOT doing anything stupid to justify a US andor Israeli attack agz Iran + its Nucfacs.
IOW, ITS UP TO ISRAEL TO DECIDE vv INTEL IFF IRAN CAN BE TRUSTED AS FOR "NUCLEAR ENERGY" ONLY, OR IN ALTERN IFF CURRENT AND FUTURE MISSLE DEFENSE TECHS WARRANTS NOT PREEMPTIVELY ATTACKING IRAN AT ALL.
As a reminder, NET > NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION espec ala THIRD WORLD-DEV NATIONS = Besides BMD-GMD,also strongly induces the latter Nations to adopt PREEMPTIVE MILPOL + WARFIGHTING STRATEGIES AND METHODISMS.
#2
Let's not underestimate field missile potential. Israel and the US deployments in the UAE and Iraq are vulnerable. Fortunately the Ayatollahs have burnt all proportionate retaliation bridges. Anything goes. Then again, I supported predictions of a crippling US attack on Iran, last Winter. That rings hollow.
#3
I think the likelyest scenario is Iraqi retaliation for infiltrating weapons etc. or Iranian action against one of the Gulf states, triggering a US response.
#4
our operations in the area are vunerable....alot depends on accuracy, suprise and can iran sustain a bombardment? i would say no...with the surviving forces (and this would be the majority) the iraian guards,navy and airforce (if you can call it one) will take a pounding...a much more target rich environment than iraq..bloodier on us but we've needed to do this for 30 years and sadly we are just about out of time...to reduce the cost to us we should premptively use nukes..screw what the world thinks they can give a rats ass about us...and then leave the place alone..let'em rebuild with the shithole UN
Posted by: dan ||
07/09/2008 22:14
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(UPI) -- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak Tuesday reopened border crossings between Israel and Gaza after earlier mortar fire prompted their closings.
The Jerusalem Post, without naming sources, reported Barak made the decision to allow the movement of goods and humanitarian aid into Gaza at the urging of Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who reportedly told Barak that reopening the crossings would help in negotiations with Palestinian militants Hamas, who control Gaza.
Israel and Hamas are meeting to secure the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. A Hamas delegation was set to arrive in Cairo Tuesday to discuss Shalit as well as the option of reopening another crossing, the Post said. 'There are several small offshoots (of the major terror groups) in Gaza trying to disrupt the truce, but we have one address, and that is Hamas,' an unnamed Israeli security official told the newspaper. 'We know Hamas has dispatched forces to track down these renegade cells, but (the group) is not (doing) enough.'
This article starring:
Ehud Barak
Gilad Shalit
Omar Suleiman
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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#1
Ombert is dumber than Wile E.
what does 'Kick me' look like in Hebrew?
The missile attack on a house in the residential area of Bajaur Agency headquarters Khar was carried out by a United States drone, TTP spokesman Maulvi Umar said on Tuesday. Umar alleged that the MQM was behind the Karachi blasts and it had specifically targeted the Pashtuns. He said the Islamabad bombing was a reaction to the Lal Masjid tragedy.
This article starring:
MAULVI OMAR
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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#1
1. Sindhis despise Pashtuns.
2. Sindhis should despise Pashtuns.
3. Everyone should despise Pashtuns.
Frankly, Pashtos - including Karzai - are the human equivalent of mosquitoes. If they are not leaching off the UN and Saudis, then its the Heroin trade.
Reminder: UN reports of opium eradication in non-Pashto parts of Afghanistan, are true. Yes, in both May and June there were more killings of US troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq. But, Pashtos - and their Arab allies - are doing all of it.
Reminder: Karzai praised Taliban "morality" last month in der Spiegel (Germany). He has to go.
#2
Replace Pastuns with Punjabis. Pashtuins didvide into two categories: those who are manipulated by Punjabis so they fight for Islam while Punjabis laugh their way to the bank with the money they stole from Pashtuns, Balocjs and Sindhs.
Those who are understand the trick are nationalsist. Between the nationalist you have a good number who are hostile to Islam, tell that Pashtuns descend from a Jewish tribe who went East when Cyrus liberated the Jews (this is guranteed to have local turbans spin) and ven are admirers from teh West and/or Israel. The finest eulogy about Israel I have ever heard was from a Pashtun.
#2
Is that a collar under the pearls, or is it the 1920's version of photoshop?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/09/2008 5:55
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#3
I think that's either a shadow or the pearls are sewn to a ribbon to make a choker, which would be my choice if I wanted the necklace to remain suspended mid-neck rather than slipping down to lay on my throat.
FOREIGN diplomats based in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, were reportedly preparing plans yesterday for an emergency evacuation as alarm grows over a resurgence of suicide bomb attacks by militants linked to al-Qa'ida and the Taliban.
In the wake of Sunday night's devastating bomb blast in the heart of the capital, two of the country's leading newspapers said diplomats - already operating under heavy guard in a fortified diplomatic enclave - were discussing plans for emergency evacuations, should the need arise. For most countries represented in Islamabad, including Australia, the city is already a 'non-family' diplomatic post.
A red alert was in force in Islamabad and other leading Pakistani cities last night, with strategic buildings and government offices under increased guard.
Reports said plans for the emergency evacuation of diplomats were drawn up when 'Western embassies noticed unusual night-time activities of militants, some of whom had left messages against the foreigners and the Pakistani security forces in graffiti chalked on walls warning of (imminent) attacks'.
Several foreign missions have significantly reduced staff, while others have abandoned their embassies and moved into heavily fortified hotels. Confirming the heightened security measures, one diplomat said: 'We have been advised to avoid going to market places, public parks, restaurants and other places.'
Security officials blame Sunday night's bombing on the dominant Pakistan Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.
Optimism that the March election would usher in a new democratic spring of peace and reconciliation for Pakistan has been replaced by despondency, with many believing the situation is worse now than previously.
Since all parties in Pakiwakiland believe pretty much the same things, and the only real argument is who gets to be in charge ...
Al-Qa'ida and the Taliban are effectively in control of large swaths of territory in the North West Frontier Province, with the Pakistan army forced to take action to try to break the steady encirclement by militants of the provincial capital, Peshawar.
#1
Islamabad is heavily militarized. The fact that Taliban has the capacity to threaten it, is a testament to the suicidal effects of indulgence of the frontier terrorists. Mushy chose to deal with those devils; now he finds that the devil breaks deals. Americans should be promoting civil war between Punjabis and Pashtos.
#6
A couple more suicide bombings aimed at Indians targets and I wouldn't want to be near ground zero either. Diplomats don't like living in glowing green glass houses. The Dips probably grasp the Indians have far less patience than the Americans.
#9
Optimism that the March election would usher in a new democratic spring of peace and reconciliation for Pakistan has been replaced by despondency, with many believing the situation is worse now than previously.
Awwwwww geez. And we all thought this time would be different...
#11
Ambassador: [over the phone] I can hear the sound of explosions from the north east. The sky is very bright. All lit up.
[phone melts and high pitched whining sound starts] - Failsafe, 1964
#12
The last time Pakistan got India really mad, that would be in 1972, this is how it ended:
The military dictator of the moment, that would be Gen. Yahya Khan, was sitting in a hole just dug behind the commander in chief`s house at army headquarters in Rawalpindi with a couple of sandbags over his head to protect him against Indian bombs. He had only one companion, Sultan Khan, his foreign secretary, and he asked his chief diplomat when he thought the Americans, led by his friend Richard Nixon, would come to save them.
Nixon loved Yahya Khan, a gruff, Scotch-drinking man who liked to tap a cavalryman`s crop agaist his leg, and had helped the American president make the contacts that led to his historic trip to China to meet with Mao Tse-tung. But, of course, the Americans never came. Neither did the Chinese, who were pledging undying loyalty to Pakistan. They meant verbal and diplomatic loyalty, but Khan misunderstood.
In fact, Khan misunderstood most everything, including what happened just before he climbed into his earthy new bomb shelter. He had been meeting with the U.S. ambassador, who was trying to tell him he was on his own, when the ambassador was literally pulled away by his military attache. That would be the famous pilot and Air Force general Charles (Chuck) Yeager. ``We`ve got to get out of here right now,`` said Yeager.
Why? Yeager explained that for some fool reason Khan had ordered a few of his planes to attack airfields in India. Probably Khan thought a few explosions would persuade Nixon to send in the Marines. Now, said Yeager, the Indians are going to send in bombers and the Pakistanis were going to send up their entire air force to dogfight. When the Pakistanis landed to refuel, the Indian bombers would turn for home, but a second Indian wave would arrive and destroy Pakistan`s air force while it was all on the ground with empty gas tanks.
And that`s what happened. Pakistan, which is to India as Canada is to the United States, lost half its country in a couple of weeks. What is now Bangladesh used to be East Pakistan, but the Indians invaded, capturing hundreds of thousands of Pakistani troops sent from Rawalpindi, in West Pakistan, to reverse the result of elections in which East Pakistani separatists had predictably won every seat in the national Parliament, giving them political control over both wings of divided Pakistan.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/09/2008 16:01
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#13
One might expect more from the sixth largest county in the world.
Posted by: Charles ||
07/09/2008 20:31
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#15
Thanks, John.
I vaguely remember this stuff. (In 1972 I was dealing with the Baader-Meinhof gang and their BS, so was a little preoccupied, but do remember the jist.)
Go, India! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/09/2008 21:04
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#16
From Orbat.com
Incidentally, Pakistan has three separate major intelligence agencies: the ISI, Army intelligence, and the civilian police Intelligence Bureau. Each has their own agenda. Doubtless they cooperate when ordered. But they are independent and do their own thing. We noted yesterday that according to a dispatch filed by Mandeep Singh Bajwa, this attack was the work of Army intelligence.
the attack being on the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan.
The Church of England voted on Monday to allow the ordination of women bishops following a divisive debate that pitched conservatives against liberals, British media reported.
More than 1,300 clergy had threatened to leave the church if the General Synod, the Church of England's legislative body, voted for the move.
More than 1,300 clergy had threatened to leave the church if the General Synod, the Church of England's legislative body, voted for the move.
The vote was conducted across the three houses of the General Synod. Bishops voted to bring forward legislation to ordain women bishops by 28 to 12, clergy voted in favour by 124 to 44 and laity by 111 to 68, said the Times newspaper.
In his Sunday sermon, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the leader of the world's Anglicans, said Jesus was with those on both sides of the debate.
The General Synod earlier rejected compromise measures designed to accommodate those who could not accept women bishops. The measure would have created three male 'super-bishops' to tend to those who objected to women bishops. The synod also voted against creating new dioceses for parishes that would not accept women bishops.
In his Sunday sermon, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the leader of the world's Anglicans, said Jesus was with those on both sides of the debate. Archbishop of York John Sentamu backed a compromise, saying, 'I would like to travel in company with everybody in the church.' The Church of England is the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which has about 77 million followers.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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#1
The Africans will leave. And take a large number of Americans and some English with them.
Greenhouse gases and carbon trading schemes coming to the EU, and if the Dems have their way, to the US, too. Watch yer wallets, folks!
An average family faces the threat of nearly £45 being added to the cost of a holiday if the European parliament rubber stamps a plan for green curbs on airlines this week. Pick on the airlines and dip into the people's purse is the name o' the game.
European MPs will debate the latest proposals for an "emissions trading scheme" (ETS) that the aviation industry fears could see carriers going bust. Let's tax people and industry more and destroy more private enterprise.
Last month senior aviation executives, meeting at the industry summit in Istanbul, warned that the rising cost of oil was already threatening the future of low-cost air travel. Hope they were watching their wallets there.
Now there is the likelihood of a substantial environmental levy in addition to aviation taxes raised by individual governments.
In Britain this additional charge would come on top of an anticipated increase in aviation duties, which some believe could add as much as £170 to the cost of a long-haul family holiday by 2012.
This will also be when the emissions trading scheme is due to come into force, which will hit all airlines flying to and from European Union airports.
Brussels appears ready to press ahead with the scheme, which is designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation industry, even though oil prices have soared since the plans were first mooted. "Does not affect us, we don't pay taxes. We just institute taxes and you pay them."
After prolonged haggling between governments, a compromise package was agreed last month. Well catered, I'm sure.
But it still has to be ratified by the European Parliament and this is likely to happen on Wednesday, after which it will become law. "Rubber stamp that sucker and we'll start rakin' in the dough for *ahem* discretionary spending projects."
Under the scheme airlines will have to pay for the greenhouse gases they emit via a complex licensing system known as "carbon permits". Which means higher ticket prices. Much higher ticket prices.
Every airline will be allocated a ceiling – based on their emissions between 2004 and 2006.
In 2012 the cap will be 97 per cent of this level, falling to 95 per cent the following year. Carriers wanting to go above their permitted threshold will have to buy carbon credits to do so. Even those who stay below their agreed ceiling will have to buy permits for 15 per cent of the carbon output, with the money going to national governments. We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you.
---Chilkoot Charlie
It is estimated that this would cost the aviation industry £2.8 billion a year – equivalent to £5.55 a ticket – or £11.10 for a return flight.
"Unless the Government cuts the taxes it imposes on passengers when ETS comes in, it will be a case of fly once and pay twice," said an easyJet spokesman. Maybe people will quit flying and the whole scheme will do nothing but destroy an industry reeling from astronomical fuel prices.
The burden for anyone flying to the United States from Britain would be even worse, with Washington considering an emissions trading scheme for American companies. THEM are fighting words! Another battle for American Taxpayers. *sigh*
This, it is estimated, would add another £18 to the cost of a transatlantic ticket.
Simon Evans, the chief executive of the passengers' watchdog, the Air Transport Users Council, said: "We do accept that passengers have an obligation to mitigate their carbon footprint. But it is not fair that we should be singled out more than anyone else."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/09/2008
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#1
Even without this stupid proposal the airline industry is at the brink of collapsing. At some point sufficiently high fuel costs will make air travel unaffordable for most [former] air travelers, so that only the extremely wealthy will be able to afford it. If you don't believe this, invest in an airline of your choice.
#2
The objective here is to force people off of planes. The left does not like or want the common people to travel at all.
I know it sounds weird, but I can cite a dozen examples of efforts to keep the citizenry bottled up in the cities and out of rural and undeveloped areas.
#3
.....dozen examples of efforts to keep the citizenry bottled up in the cities and out of rural and undeveloped areas.dozen examples of efforts to keep the citizenry bottled up in the cities and out of rural and undeveloped areas.
Moose: Please keep me posted on the success of this effort.
#5
Have to agree with Anonymoose. Travelling, especially outside of the local culture, expands the mind and creates new ideas. Friend of mine (hippy, the good kind) came out here from Lawrence KS (little berkely on the river) and he was nervous about all the redneck jokes he had heard. Couple weeks later he didn't want to leave, I think he found out he has more in common with us out here then with his crowd back at home. I went to Europe back in '03 worried about going off on my own (I speak various romance languages well enough to get around on my own) worried about all the stuff I hear on the news. Find out none of that existed really outside of the tv. Cousin was about to be stationed in Germany and he was concerned as well and I was able to tell him firsthand that it was all basically bs and he went on to make some good local friends. Associate from Germany came out here thinking USA was fascist police state and realized it was nothing like that. In fact he had to go out of his way to find very thin examples of it.
People stay at home they are easier to feed information to. Its like that line in Red October - Capt. Vasili Borodin: I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck... maybe even a "recreational vehicle." And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?
Captain Ramius: I suppose.
Capt. Vasili Borodin: No papers?
Captain Ramius: No papers, state to state.
Capt. Vasili Borodin: Well then, in winter I will live in... Arizona. Actually, I think I will need two wives.
Captain Ramius: Oh, at least.
Also think that a clampdown on smoking in bars is another prong. People at bars tend to have a comraderie and share ideas and stories.
#7
It is part of their philosophy.
Indeed. Ever wonder about the truth behind (and underneath) the new Denver Airport. Ask Snowy, next time you see him.
The Shi'ite Mehdi Army militia is finished as a fighting force in Iraq's oil rich Basra province and upcoming provincial elections should pass without violence, the province's governor said on Tuesday.
(VOI) - Iraq's Central Criminal Court on Tuesday decided to postpone its session on the trial regarding the execution of 40 merchants in 1992 to July 16 after hearing the plaintiffs' statements and the presentation of a corroborating documentary.
The court began proceedings during Tuesday's session, headed by Raouf Abdel Rahmam Rasheed, by presenting a documentary showing the cutting of a merchant's hand who testified as an eyewitness. The merchant told the court 'security forces (in 1992) cut his right hand and mistreated him before he fled to the Netherlands as a political refugee via Amman.'
Speaking behind a screen with a voice-distorting device to conceal his identity, the first eyewitness recalled 'how events took place four months before the execution of merchants in 1992,' adding 'his relative told him while he was in Amman that his father , an uncle, and a cousin were among the slain.'
The court session concluded with Ali Hassan al-Majid, former president Saddam Hussein's step brother and his staunch henchman, who spoke about undergoing hard circumstances in the detention center. 'He has been severed from his family since his arrest in 2003,' he noted, adding 'he was allowed for contacting once this year for only ten minutes.' .
One of the defendants, Sabawi Ibrahim, Saddam's second step-brother, denied any role, saying the agency that conducted the arrests was not affiliated with the public security forces, which he headed at the time.'
The session witnessed a strained debate between Judge Raouf Rasheed and a defendant Sabawi before dismissing the latter from the courtroom.
Tariq Aziz, the diplomat who served as the public face of Saddam Hussein's government, appeared in court on Tuesday accused of being part of a 'systematic campaign' to kill over 40 Iraqi merchants. The deaths came in a sweep conducted by the government in 1992 against merchants on charges of destroying Iraq's economy crushed by the imposed UN sanctions.
The case is the fourth one to be run by the Criminal Court and the first for Tariq Aziz, Saddam' s best lieutenant who was promoted to deputy prime minister in the 1990's. The court is presided over by Judge Raoud Rasheed, who handed down the the death verdict to Saddam Hussein.
This article starring:
ALI HASAN AL MAJID
Iraqi Baath Party
Raouf Abdel Rahmam Rasheed
SABAWI IBRAHIM
Iraqi Baath Party
TARIQ AZIZ
Iraqi Baath Party
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Baath Party
Iraqi officials at the Ministry for National Security Affairs said documents uncovered in suspected al-Qaida holdouts in the Sunni areas of Baghdad 'prove these elements left Iraq for Somalia and Sudan.'
'Our intelligence information indicates the withdrawal of certain groups of al-Qaida from Iraq because of the military strikes,' Maj. Gen. Hussain Ali Kamal of the Iraqi Interior Ministry told Gulf News. 'I believe this is the beginning of the complete withdrawal of al-Qaida from Iraqi territory,' he said.
This article starring:
Maj. Gen. Hussain Ali Kamal of the Iraqi Interior Ministry
#2
HMMMMMM > Wel-l-l, given my Afghan War cohort's OSama's recent threat agz the VATICAN and its new covert focii on CENTRAL ASIA from the ME, METHINKS THIS TITLE SHOULD BE "ATTACKING AFRICA", NOT FLEEING TO AFRICA.
PROTECTING NUCLEAR IRAN + FUTURE NUCLEAR JIHAD, etc > CONTAINING/KEEPING THE US, ISRAEL, EUROS, etc. AT THE BEACHES AMAP AFAP ALAP FROM IRAN + CENTRAL ASIA.
2008-2012 > US SLEEPS [Back in CONUS], IRAN + ISLAMISTS PEEP AND SWEEP [attack, destabilize].
Lest we fergit, SUN TZU [paraph] > THE ENEMY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR STRENGTHS OR WEAKNESSES, OF YOUR SHIELD, ARMY, CAMP, LEADERSHIP, ....etc.
Unidentified militants killed five security personnel and injured three others on Tuesday. The militants opened fire at a security forces' vehicle in the Khyber Agency's Bara tehsil. Mehsud Scouts personnel reached the spot and cordoned off the area.
The scouts seized a vehicle belonging to the militants. There were unconfirmed reports about the death of a militant in retaliatory fire, whose body was taken away by the militants.
Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) deputy chief Misri Khan condemned the attack, calling it an attempt to sabotage the Bara peace process. He said LI men had been told to shoot the culprits 'on the spot'.
Which spot?
Separately, LI chief Mangal Bagh told a jirga, 'I will not resist security forces and continue support to the government. The LI will not engage in any act that affects the writ of the state and will only carry out activities concerning the Afridi tribes.'
The government launched the security operation on June 28 to flush out militants endangering Peshawar. Security forces have destroyed militant headquarters and various private jails.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami
(VOI) - Iraqi security forces on Tuesday arrested four wanted men in southern Mosul, the official spokesman for Ninewa operations command said. 'A force from the Special Operations brigade managed to arrest the four wanted men in Garage Baghdad region in southern Mosul after receiving intelligence tips,' Brigadier Khaled Abdul Sattar told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). 'The detainees are registered on the list made by the Ninewa operations command,' he also said. He did not add further details.
Iraqi security forces launched a large-scale military campaign since May 10. The operation, codenamed Za'eer al-Assad (Lion's Roar), aimed at tracking down gunmen in Ninewa province. Five days later, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the operation's second stage under the name Umm al-Rabiain (Mother of Two Springs).
This article starring:
Brigadier Khaled Abdul Sattar
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
(VOI) -- An Iraqi army soldier was injured in a roadside bomb explosion near his vehicle patrol in the city of Mosul, a police source said on Tuesday. "An improvised explosive device went off targeting an Iraqi army vehicle patrol in al-Muaared region in eastern Mosul, wounding an Iraqi soldier," the source, who asked for anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI). "He was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment," he continued. He did not add more details.
Iraqi security forces launched a large-scale military campaign since May 10. The operation, codenamed Za'eer al-Assad (Lion's Roar), aimed at tracking down gunmen in Ninewa province. Five days later, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the operation's second stage under the name Umm al-Rabiain (Mother of Two Springs).
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.
Last month, 11% of voters gave the legislature good or excellent ratings. Congress has not received higher than a 15% approval rating since the beginning of 2008.
The percentage of Democrats who give Congress positive ratings fell from 17% last month to 13% this month. The number of Democrats who give Congress a poor rating remained unchanged. Among Republicans, 8% give Congress good or excellent ratings, up just a point from last month. Sixty-five percent (65%) of GOP voters say Congress is doing a poor job, down a single point from last month.
Voters not affiliated with either party are the most critical of Congressional performance. Just 3% of those voters give Congress positive ratings, down from 6% last month. Sixty-three percent (63%) believe Congress is doing a poor job, up from 57% last month.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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#1
"It's a Democratic year" - thus speaketh almost all pundits, for months now. Never bought that, still don't.
While obviously things are rarely broken down along party lines among the bulk of voters, those numbers for independents stand out.
This is more of a test year for the GOP than anything else. If they can't make at least some hay with what has been placed before them (record low ratings for Congress, higher gasoline prices, an intern at the top of the Dem ticket and most Dem policy preferences easily and justifiably colorable as tax and regulation increases), they will have really molested the pooch.
#3
The GOP's been stuck on stupid for quite a while. No leadership to speak of, and an apparent complete unwillingness to confront the Donk's head-on, or get back to the principles they used to stand for. IMHO we've got the absolute worst political class in the history of the Republic.
#4
I simply don't believe the statistic. All House Representative positions are up for election this year. A substantial proportion of incumbents failing to re-win their seats would be the conclusive evidence for voter disapproval of Congress. I don't think it's going to happen.
Voters will bitch & moan to pollsters, then proceed to re-elect the beloved incumbents.
#6
I would love to vote all the bums out of Congress, especially those from from Oregon that my vote can touch. The problem is the big shield of protection around incumbents. In the primary, the only opposition that Gordon Smith had was some guy who was complaining about changes in the law about how gold was weighed back in 1830's. Wacko. Anyone halfway reasonable would have gotten my vote. Now Gordon is campaining on his bipartisan work with Obama. Maybe I should have gone with the 19th century gold bug.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/09/2008 10:35
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#7
AH that's always the way.
I love my congress critter (he brings ME the bacon) but I hate yours (and his, and hers cause they take the bacon elsewhere) hence the reelection of the vermin and the loathing of the group.
#9
absolutely, because everybody else's congress critters suck but mine. Actually, I vote to oust both Dhimmi-Sen's Stabenow & Levin every re-election, too bad the rest of the idiots in my home state fail to do the same.
(VOI) -- Three death sentences out of 25 were approved by the Court of Appeals, and will be carried out according to their sequence, Diwaniya criminal investigations director said on Tuesday.
'The Iraqi Court of Appeals enacted death verdicts to execute three convicted people out of 25, who have been handed down death verdicts by Diwaniya's federal court,' Lieutenant Colonel Sattar Ali Mattar told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI). 'The 25 verdicts will be carried out in sequence, after the Iraqi Court of Appeals approves them,' he said. 'Carrying out these verdicts will enforce limits for criminals who violated the sanctity of Iraqi society,' he added. Diwaniya police arrested 25 out of 50 members of the special groups, during the implementation of Fardh al-Qanoon (Law Imposing) plan in Diwaniya, who were later convicted of committing killing and abduction crimes.
This article starring:
Lieutenant Colonel Sattar Ali Mattar
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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A meteor was seen passing over Israel Tuesday night in many parts of the country. Ynet was flooded with calls from citizens residing in central Israel, the Sharon region, Jerusalem and the Krayot cities who reported seeing the object crossing the sky at approximately 8:15 pm. Some witnesses said they heard a shrieking sound.
Eyewitness Ranik Kortzman said, "I was in my balcony when I suddenly saw an object with two trails passing over Kfar Saba from east to west. It was travelling at great velocity and made a shrieking sound – like a missile."
Ram Raphaeli of Kfar Yedidya in the Sharon told Ynet "we were on the roof when my son turned my attention to a tiny object that was passing above us. It appeared to be a meteor with a trail. It was traveling horizontally at a relatively low altitude. We didn't hear any noise, but it flew by at great speed."
Yigal Pat-El, chairman of the Israeli Astronomical Association and the director of the observatory in Giv'atayim told Ynet that "meteors enter the earth's atmosphere all the time. This is not a rare occurrence.
"The reason we were able to observe this meteor is because it was relatively large. Most meteors don't weigh more than 1/1000 gram, and this one apparently weighed a few grams," he said.
#2
I once saw a meteor burn up in the atmosphere. It was so close that I could see first a white glow that lit up the sky, then a red glow, and then nothing. In the light a tail was obvious, and the object didn't follow a straight line. There was a shriek. Scary.
#1
"it still strikes us that the historical lesson from that enormous tragedy at the opening of the previous century {i.e., WWI} would still find application today."
Now more than ever. Anyone trying to kill an insane king on the verge of getting nukes had better succeed with the first shot.
Unidentified armed men gunned down a religious leader in the Charbagh tehsil of Swat on Monday night, police sources told Daily Times on Tuesday. Charbagh Darul Uloom Administrator Maulvi Masood was killed in an ambush, the officials said. Meanwhile, 18 boys, aged 12-18, have been abducted from the Charbagh during the last week, Daily Times has learnt. The families of the boys informed the media about the kidnappings. The families suspect militants are carrying out abductions to use the boys for suicide attacks.
This article starring:
Charbagh Darul Uloom Administrator Maulvi Masood
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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'I'm not accusing anybody. All I know is there was an explosive device placed in my car and that it targeted me.'
The explosion damaged the car but did not cause any casualties, said police sources. Mughani told reporters he heard 'a weak explosion' in the back of his car as he drove to work in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah. 'I got out of my car and I realised there was an explosive device placed next to the fuel tank,' he said, adding, 'I'm not accusing anybody. All I know is there was an explosive device placed in my car and that it targeted me.'
'I haven't been injured and I am now in my office,' Mughani said by telephone. Mughani was briefly held by Hamas police in August 2007 after the movement seized power in the Gaza Strip and ousted forces loyal to moderate Palestinian President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas. Mughani, who is close to the Fatah movement, later moved to Ramallah.
This article starring:
Palestinian Attorney General Ahmed al-Mughani
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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[12 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
Gosh! Who knew that the Paleostains had an attorney general? I didn't know they had any laws that anyone thought to follow.
A federal judge overseeing Guantanamo Bay lawsuits ordered the Justice Department to put other cases aside and make it clear throughout the Bush administration that, after nearly seven years of detention, the detainees must have their day in court.
'The time has come to move these forward,' Judge Thomas F. Hogan said Tuesday during the first hearing over whether the detainees are being held lawfully. 'Set aside every other case that's pending in the division and address this case first.'
#2
We can only hope for a fair trial and a quick hangin'. I have it on pretty good authority that anyone being held at Camp Delta should be summarily executed because they are particularly hateful. The thing the Jihadis hate the most in this world is what is trying the hardest to get them cut loose. FU Judge Hogan.
#3
OK. I'll play the role of the military judge.
"Major, bring in the next prisoner."
"Sergeant, do you have evidence that this man is an illegal combatant?"
Sgt: "Yes, sir. Here it is"
"I see. Guilty. Execute him"
Sgt: bang
Repeat.
All in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
07/09/2008 14:22
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Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Sherry Rehman is currently a prime target for terrorists and the Interior Ministry has advised her to restrict her public movements in light of the threat to her life. According to a Dawn News report, official sources have said that the Interior Ministry has informed the Information Ministry that she is on the hit list of a would-be suicide bomber. A senior Information Ministry official also confirmed the report on condition of anonymity, saying that Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik had himself conveyed knowledge of the threat to Sherry Rehman to ensure her safety. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has placed all four provinces under a state of "high alert" following a suicide bombing in Islamabad over the weekend after a rally marking the first anniversary of the government's raid on the Lal Masjid, and a series of seven blasts in Karachi on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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[17 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#3
Lipstick! Eyeshadow! Eyebrow liner! Ear rings! Salon cut hair! Bare neck! No veil! These things displease allah. I bet she refuses genital mutiliation, and doesn't want to be some Abdullah's 4th sperm receptacle.
(VOI) -- Police forces arrested a gunman on Tuesday after planting a bomb in southern Mosul, the chief of the Ninewa police department said.
"Policemen arrested a gunman after planting a bomb in al-Dendan intersection in southern Mosul," General Khaled al-Hamadani told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI). "Security authorities received a tip-off from a citizen indicating a person who tossed a black package on the main road in the region," al-Hamadani explained. "Police forces managed to arrest the gunman and bomb squad team rushed to the area where they managed to defuse the bomb without casualties," he also said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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#1
Police forces arrested a gunman on Tuesday after planting a bomb in southern Mosul, the chief of the Ninewa police department said.
I know English isn't the first language of many of these people in the Muddled East, but some editor somewhere should really, REALLY do his job. According to the way the sentence above reads, the police, not the gunman, planted the bomb. While that's possible, it's not very probable. We also have newspapers such as the "paper of rectumord, the Noo York Slimes, with sentences such as "On Saturday, two gunmen were arrested for shooting at policemen on Saturday". I am glad to be among people who at least have a halfway decent command of the English language, and don't write crap like that. No wonder "old media" is dying, and our children can't read, write, or spell. They have such "sterling" examples to follow. End Rant
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/09/2008 15:20
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Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Israel will not tolerate violations of a two-year-old cease-fire by the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
This comes just a day after Israel and Hezbollah signed an agreement to exchange prisoners. Barak made the charge in a phone call to the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, according to a statement late Tuesday from Barak's office. Israel Army Radio reports that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is summoning his Security Cabinet Wednesday to discuss Hezbollah violations.
The statement quoted Barak as saying, ' Israel cannot accept the continuing and increasing erosion' of the truce. It lists arms supplies from Syria and demands that the U.N. force take action to stop it.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
That's what he says but in point of fact he has been tolerating it. Turn off the water and power and I will believe him.
#3
water and power? Hezb is Lebanon, not Gaza....But doing so to Hamas in Gaza is alright with me. I'm OK with shutting off the water and power to Hezb South Leb as well, but the consequences are more risky
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/09/2008 19:57
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Law-enforcement agencies on Tuesday stepped up security in Lahore following a call by an alleged would-be female suicide attacker, a satellite TV reported. The woman called 15 - Police Help Line- and threatened to carry out suicide attacks against security personnel, ARY reported. The unidentified woman said she planned to target 15 centres, and the city administration has directed authorities concerned to beef up security to prevent possible attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
'As usual, Pakistan's political leaders are standing next to this powder keg with a fuse in one hand and a fire extinguisher in the other,' according to a report on the creeping Talibanisation of the NWFP.
The report by Walter Mayr published by the online magazine, Salon, in arrangement with the German weekly Der Spiegel, says political Islamabad does not give the impression that Pakistan is facing one of the deepest crises in its history. Asif Ali Zardari, Nawaz Sharif and President Pervez Musharraf seem more interested in settling old scores. For a country under attack from the Taliban, it seems a dangerous lack of focus. The power vacuum has been an invitation to the fundamentalists, and they are responding by advancing ever further into the border regions. They have moved down from the mountains and towards Peshawar, bringing pious messages and undisguised threats.
The writer finds it ironic that Islam is being 'reinvented' in Peshawar of all places, a city which 2,000 years ago was the centre of the Buddhist civilisation of Gandhara. 'But in addition to the irony is the danger. A tendency in the city towards submissiveness could win out in the end. As one politician from the Pakistan People's Party put it: 'I'm afraid that when the time comes, the inhabitants will simply go out and welcome the Taliban.' Things haven't gone that far yet, though. Daily life continues as though nothing has happened,' writes Mayr.
The correspondent found pörnographic films being sold under the counter in Bara, while violent jihadist video and DVD material was being hawked openly, including films showing the Taliban beheading 'traitors' restrained in straitjackets, and a teenage boy being prepared by black hooded men for a suicide bombing mission that will take him straight to paradise. The final scene in the film shows the face of the young martyr suspended together with clouds in the sky, with a white dove taking to the wing. A message flashes across the screen: 'This is an example for you to follow'
This article starring:
Asif Ali Zardari
Nawaz Sharif
Walter Mayr
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
sinks into chaos ??? Pakistan has been there for quite some time. The flavor of the chaos just seems to change from one month to the next. If one of Pak's major cities is destroyed by a Pak nuke, I wouldn't be surprised one bit.
#3
Good. Get all the perps in one place, and glass that place. We don't need to destroy all of Pakistan, just enough to make sure the stupidity virus rampant there doesn't spread.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/09/2008 18:27
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(Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean ambassador to South Africa Simon Khaya Moyo on Monday dismissed as malicious mischief reports by British Foreign Secretary David Milliband that there were refugee camps for Zimbabweans in South Africa.
In a statement, Moyo said the purported visits to Zimbabwean refugee camps on Sunday by British Foreign Secretary David Milliband were a political manoeuvre meant to tarnish the country, New Ziana reported. 'Yesterday's so called visit to Zimbabwean refugee camps in South Africa by British Foreign Secretary David Milliband is a malignant political lie,' he said.
Moyo said the only known centers housing Zimbabweans were those recently created to cater for foreigners displaced during xenophobia attacks. 'There are no Zimbabwean refugee camps in South Africa. We only know of centers for displaced foreign nationals from all over the continent following recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa,' he said.
The ambassador called on Milliband to stop interfering with the mediation processes currently underway between the Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF led by President Robert Mugabe and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. 'Let the mediator on Zimbabwe, President Thabo Mbeki as mandated by SADC and recently by the African Union execute his noble task without British interference,' he said.
Moyo said Milliband had no business lecturing Zimbabwe since the country had 'long ceased to be a British colony.'
President Thabo Mbeki was in Zimbabwe on Saturday to broker talks between Zimbabwe's rival parties to map the way forward for the country that has developed sharp political divisions that threaten its economic prosperity.
The Morgan Tsvangirai-led faction of the MDC however boycotted the meeting at the last minute alleging that the African Union wanted to appoint other people to assist President Mbeki.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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#1
When I was in that part of the world in the mid-Seventies, whites in general predicted that Mugabe rule would mean: tribal government; mass exodus of whites; destruction of both cash and food crop industries; stagnation, etc. Mugabe cannot point to a single positive that his rule has produced, other than the palatial life that he and his tribalist cronies live.
In Africa, self-determination means: rule of a parasitic elite.
The attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul has been looked as an attack on the sovereignty of the Republic of India. This inhuman act was condemned all over the world, fortunately India's Ambassador Jayant Prasad was not present there at that movement.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
If I recall correctly, there are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan, or in any other country except Indonesia. With that many of them there must certainly me a significant number of wackos for AQ to 'inspire' through attacks. Plus, since India was part of the Ummah for a long time it would be considered a legitimate target. It will be interesting to see how India responds.
Posted by: Menhaden S ||
07/09/2008 8:05
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#2
The wife of the owner of my favourite Indian supplies shop told me the last time she went home the Muslims in their quarter were behaving queerly, which spooked her. She also mentioned the large number of Muslim religious television shows, which had not been so on her previous visit. Your comment about the number of Indian Muslims jibes with what I've heard before, Menhaden. It reads like things there are starting to get really interesting.
#3
My wife is in New Delhi (she'd Indian) and she has also mentioned the Muzzies acting odd...more so than usual.
While there may be a lot of Muzzies in India, they're still vastly out numbered by the Hindus, and they have long memories. I'd expect to see a lot of Muzzies get killed if they really act up.
Some of the more radical Hindu groups are just looking for a reason to go hammer-and-tongs on the Muzzes. Can't say I blame them.
#5
I have wondered why India was not directly targetted. The Hindu are not even people of the book and there is the bit about once being Muslim and the Kashmir issue. I came up with two possible answers: (1) Muslim-Indian Jihadi would be valuable at infiltrating the west (2) The Hindu nationalists would not hesitate to go Medieval and the Indian Muslims know that. Perhaps they are finally coming around and listening to the Jihadi's. Even a small segment of such an enormous population could mean a lot of Jihadi.
Perhaps I was wrong on the first, or Al Queda doesn't feel it's worthwhile and needs a new front and new blood after losing in Iraq.
#6
Infiltrating the West with Indian Muslims is right on target. Lots of computer engineers and techies working in sensitive companies with government contracts. Many manage hotels and shops that import goods from that neck of the woods, too, and curry-eaters just don't set off alarms.
#1
But now the crucial time has come and Assad is going to have to decide in the next few months which camp he really belongs to: the West's side or Iran's.
Tell me when Iran gets the crap bombed out of them and I'll tell you when Syria picks sides.
Paying ransom to radical Islamic groups such as the Abu Sayyaf, which survives largely due to funds from kidnappings and other acts of banditry, should be declared a crime to cut off a key terrorist lifeline, a police official said Tuesday. The government should also proscribe the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf and similar groups as terrorist organizations under the country's anti-terrorism law to make any financial support to them a criminal act, police Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza said.
Kidnappings for ransom and extortion, along with funds from foreign terrorist allies have allowed the Abu Sayyaf to survive and finance deadly bomb attacks and other atrocities for years. Between 1992 and last year, Abu Sayyaf collected an estimated US$31 million (1.4 billion pesos) from ransom payments and an unspecified amount from extortion, said Mendoza, a prominent officer who has made extensive studies on al-Qaida-linked militants in the Philippines. 'Ransom payment must be criminalized and penalized to deter similar actions in the future,' Mendoza told a Manila conference on countering terror financing. He said negotiations should be the main mode of seeking the release of hostages.
The Philippines passed an anti-terrorism law only last year that enables the government to create a blacklist of terrorist organizations. The government opposes ransom payment in kidnapping cases but no specific law exists criminalizing it.
Abu Sayyaf militants have also raised funds by collecting small amounts of cash from rural communities and Filipino Muslim workers in the Middle East, misrepresenting the money as 'zakat' -- obligatory contributions given by Muslims for the poor and the propagation of Islam, according to Mendoza, who is based in Manila.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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(VOI) -- 13 of Missan's provincial council members on Tuesday suspended their membership, protesting the arrest of three of the council's members, in addition to the raid on the governor's house and the arrest of 30 of his guards, said the council's deputy head. '13 of Missan's provincial council members, who belong to Muntada al-Fikr al-Husseini (The Husseini Ideology Forum) list, suspended their membership, protesting the arrests that targeted many of their list's members,' Ali Abdul-Kadhom told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI).
The list represents the Sadr movement in Missan, and occupies 15 out of 41 seats in the province's council, and the two major positions of the council's head and governor.
Since June 19, 2008, Iraqi security forces have been conducting a wide-scale operation in Missan, called Operation Bashaer al-Salam (Promise of Peace), aiming at eliminating gunmen and imposing law throughout the province.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Saddar police on Tuesday arrested two alleged militants involved in firing on police teams, officials said. A police patrol party led by Saddar SHO Abdul Malik was on a routine patrol in Killi Shabo when three people riding on a motorcycle opened fire on them. The police party retaliated and arrested two men and seized two pistols from their possession.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Iran warned on Tuesday it would 'set fire' to Israel and US forces in response to any attack over its nuclear drive, as the world's leading industrial powers told Tehran to freeze uranium enrichment.
Leaders of the Group of Eight nations at a summit in Japan urged Iran to fully comply with UN Security Council resolutions 'in particular to suspend all enrichment-related activities.'
They also urged Tehran to respond positively to a new package by six major powers aimed at bringing an end to the five-year-old nuclear standoff which has led to a string of sanctions against Iran.
The United States and its top regional ally Israel have never ruled out military action against Iran over its nuclear drive, which the West fears could be aimed at building an atomic bomb.
There has been concern a strike could be imminent after it emerged Israel had carried out manoeuvres in Greece that were effectively practice runs for a potential strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. 'The first US shot on Iran would set the United States' vital interests in the world on fire,' said Ali Shirazi, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative to the naval forces of the elite Revolutionary Guards. 'Tel Aviv and the US fleet in the Persian Gulf would be the targets that would be set on fire in Iran's crushing response,' he said, according to the Fars news agency.
Washington shrugged off the threat. 'Comments like that are not out of the norm and not unusual,' State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said, adding: 'We continue to stress our desire to resolve this issue diplomatically... continue with the process.'
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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#1
God says you are wrong, Iran, The world says you are wrong Iran. Sound judgment is paramount to the rule of an important country such as Iran. Check your sober history.
#3
Let me get this straight - the US Fleet in the Persian Gulf would be "set on fire"? With what? A coupla' hundred speedboats and another few hundred missiles?
Pssst! I got a clue for you mullahs - ships move. Your ballistic missiles can't hit a moving target. If you try to use those Chinese Silkworms you have in your stockpile or those Russian supercavitating torpedoes you might get in a few licks before the launch teams are wiped off the face of the earth along with everthing else inland for 500 miles along your entire coastline.
Look, you want to play with the big kids? Act like one. The big kids say you're acting like a spoiled brat looking for a fight. The biggest kid on the block can and will squash you like a bug if you don't prove you can act civilized (not that I think you can - your idea of civilization stems from the 7th Century AD when all you knew was you and everyone else was a serf or slave).
(Xinhua) -- The Islamist Al-shabaab movement Tuesday denied being behind the killing of the Somalia chief of United Nations development agency this week and accused Ethiopian forces in Somalia of carrying it out.
Osman Ali Ahmed, chief of Somalia office for United Nations Development Program, was shot dead Sunday by unknown gunmen as he left evening prayers from a mosque near his home in south Mogadishu.
'All the Mujahedeen (fighters) are not behind his (Osman Ali's) killing and it is not becoming of them to kill important persons who help the Somali people on whose behalf we are fighting but the enemy of Allah (Ethiopia) are behind his killing,' Muqtar Robow Abu Mansuur, spokesman for Al-shabaab Islamist movement told reports in a telephone press conference.
"Wudn't us."
Ahmed was the latest of string of killings and kidnapping of senior social and business leaders or local and international aid workers in the Somalia. Islamist insurgents groups often deny carrying out those killings.
Somali government officials or the Ethiopian military commanders in Somalia have yet to comment on the latest insurgent allegations.
Somali government and Ethiopian troops accused the movement of threatening the national security of Ethiopia and of challenging the authority of the internationally recognized interim Somali government which was then based in the southern Somali town of Baidoa, 250 km southwest of Mogadishu.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
Oil tumbled more than $5 a barrel Tuesday in its second big drop this week, hurling crude back to levels not seen since June 26 as traders wary about the health of the global economy cashed in gains from oil's recent rally.
Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell $5.33 to settle at $136.04, after earlier slumping as low as $135.14. The decline followed a $3.92 slide on Monday, bringing oil's two-day drop to more than $9.
The market's bearish turn this week erases, at least for the time being, the effect of a rally that pushed prices past $145 in a string of record-setting sessions before the Fourth of July.
Analysts attributed much of the recent sell-off to profit-taking, saying traders were cashing in on the previous week's gains. A stronger dollar also helped keep prices lower by discouraging investors from pumping more money into commodities.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under:
#1
There were reports of major conservation during the holidays. Good idea. However, taking 4 people on a holiday trip in a mid-size car does more to help than hurt the economy.
#4
$100 per barrel: the line was finally crossed on January 2nd 2008. What does this imply for profits of oil producing nations? In order to run some numbers we have to consider a key measure called the break-even price which is the amount of money it takes to extract 1 barrel of oil.The break-even price is the first thing oil companies establish in order to determine if drilling a new well makes financial sense. For example with oil at $100 and a break even price of $50, profitability is 100%. But with oil at $60 and the same break even price, profitability drops to 20%
By dialing their target profitability first, oil companies then determine if a new drilling project is feasible. Needless to say, with oil retailing now at $100, more wells will be drilled in deeper, harder to reach places than were previously profitable.
The following table provided by the Bank of Kuwait gathers current reported break-even prices of major oil producing nations:
This level of profitability explains the recent $7.5 billion placement in troubled Citibank from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the $1.8 billion investment in UBS by a strategic Middle East investor and the 20 percent acquisition of the London Stock Exchange by the tiny nation of Qatar.
High oil prices have allowed Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to boost their foreign assets to more than one trillion dollars during the 2002-2006 period. With a looming recession (read "western assets on sale") and high oil prices we can expect this trend to increase.
(VOI) -- A U.S. force killed an officer of the former Iraqi army after raiding his house, in a village of al-Shergat suburb, a source from Salah al-Din police said on Tuesday.
He added that a policeman was killed in a roadside bombing that targeted Salah al-Din police commander's car, central Tikrit city. 'A U.S. force, yesterday after midnight, conducted a military operation in Sheikh Hamad village of al-Shergat suburb (110 km north of Tikrit), Salah al-Din province,' the source told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI) on condition of anonymity. 'The force killed a major of the former Iraqi army, after raiding his house,' he said. 'Reasons behind the operation and killing are not yet known,' he added, noting that the deceased officer 'was working as a laborer.'
There was no opportunity to contact U.S. forces to obtain more details. 'A roadside bomb on Tuesday morning detonated, targeting Salah al-Din police commander's personal car, when it passed through al-Arbaeen street, central Tikrit,' the source continued. 'One policeman who was driving the car was killed instantaneously,' he added. 'The explosion completely destroyed the car, and a number of shops nearby were also damaged,' he noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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#1
"Working as a laborer" indeed. It was a labor of love for alqaeda.
The major threw his lot in with the wrong group, and it cost him his life.
The Lehmann Timber was seized in the Gulf of Aden on May 28. The crew taken hostage included: the Russian captain, and a crew of four Ukrainians, one Estonian and nine Myanmar nationals.
The pirates are reported to have set July 7 as the ransom deadline and promised to kill the crew if it was not paid. Although shots were heard from the vessel late on Monday, the captain, who was in touch with the Ukrainian authorities, said the pirates fired in the air probably trying to scare the crew and negotiators.
"Today, at 5 a.m., the ransom was brought to the Lehmann Timber board. The pirates counted the money for several hours and then the vessel headed to the closest port. The exact sum of money is unknown, but the hostages said that the bandits had demanded $750,000," the Segodnya newspaper said on its website.
(AKI) - A prominent European MP said on Tuesday the situation in Afghanistan was out of control and security efforts could not continue at the current half-hearted rate.
German MP Elmar Brok was commenting soon after the European Parliament called for the European Union to play a much greater political role in conflict-wracked Afghanistan.
The lawmakers overwhelmingly endorsed a report urging far greater coordination among institutions involved in reconstructing the war-torn country. 'Until we can establish a secure environment, the population will remain indifferent and it will be very difficult to stabilise the country and help it to develop,' Brok said.
He said the security situation was alarming. 'Today there are possible attacks that were unthinkable a year ago, like the one during the military parade with President Hamid Karzai or the last one in front of the Indian embassy.' Forty people died and another 141 were injured on Monday in a devastating attack on the Indian embassy in the Afghan capital, Kabul (photo). The Taliban denied responsibility for the attack.
Brok is also worried about the spread of opium and the 'great flow of money' that the Taliban receives from abroad. 'A great deal of money is arriving from al-Qaeda but there are also likely to be other sources,' he said.
The German MP did not point to Pakistan. 'I do not believe that it is involved in directly supporting the Taliban, rather I believe that it cannot control the border region with Afghanistan, and foreign troops cannot either. That's not surprising given the particularly mountainous region.'
This article starring:
German MP Elmar Brok
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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#1
cannot control the border region with Afghanistan What's with the "cannot"? They haven't tried.
#2
German MP Elmar Brok was commenting...
Well, it would help if German troops would engage the enemy. Q: How many EU states are actually involved in combat? A: Not enough.
Israeli troops stormed the shopping mall in this West Bank city Tuesday and ordered it to close, saying the popular facility is linked to the militant Islamic Hamas.
The overnight move was the latest in a widening crackdown on the militant Islamic group in the West Bank, even as Israel observes a cease-fire with the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. Israel kept a vital Gaza cargo crossing open though Palestinians fired three mortar shells at Israel on Tuesday, violating a three-week-old truce.
Hamas condemned the Nablus operation as 'provocative.' Palestinian witnesses said the troops surrounded the Nablus Mall after midnight, sealing the building and posting closure orders in shop windows. 'There were dozens of soldiers, lots of jeeps,' said Ali Ashur, 28, who owns a cell phone shop. He said he rushed to the scene about 2 a.m. after a security guard alerted him to the raid.
The five-story mall is one of the most popular spots in Nablus, a city of 135,000 that serves as the West Bank's commercial center. It has about 70 shops, including clothing stores, wedding shops and a restaurant.
The order, signed by an Israeli general who oversees the West Bank, said the building will be closed on Aug. 15, giving shop owners more than a month to move their businesses. 'Anyone found in this center after Aug. 15, will be considered as working on behalf of Hamas and puts himself and his properties in danger,' the order said.
However, shops were closed Tuesday to protest the Israeli order. Businesses throughout the city prepared to hold a general strike on Wednesday as well.
Israeli security officials said the mall is owned by Hamas, the violent Islamic group branded a terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and the EU. 'Profits made by stores are used to sponsor terror,' said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity under military guidelines.
The listed owner of the mall is Beit al-Mal, a company whose partners include Nablus Mayor Adli Yaish, a Hamas politician who has been imprisoned by Israel.
Osman Muslah, a business partner of Yaish, said the company has many partners. 'This does not belong to Hamas,' he said. 'We will fight this order through the law.'
Tuesday's raid came a day after Israeli troops swooped down on other alleged Hamas targets in Nablus. They shut down a girls' school, a medical center and two other facilities of a Hamas-affiliated charity, witnesses said. Computers, documents, cash and furniture were seized, they said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#5
Move the merchants out and blow it up. If Hamass invests a dime in anything, destroy it. Same goes for any other islamic jihad group. Sooner or later, they'll either get the message, or be so poor they won't be able to buy free air.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/09/2008 15:39
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#6
He accepted her Honor and she accepted his offer so he was honor and offer all night.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/09/2008 20:47
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Baby-faced Hamza Bin Laden -- just 16 but already dubbed the Crown Prince of Terror -- also ranted in his evil ode that the US and our other allies must be wiped out. The teen declared in his demented ditty to fanatics: 'Accelerate the destruction of America, Britain, France and Denmark.'
He continued: 'Oh God, reward the fighters hitting the infidels and defectors. Oh God, guide the youth of the Islamic nation and let them assist with the fighters' plans.
'God, be pleased with those who want to go for jihad -- and blind those who are watching and want to capture them.'
The vile verses, by the youngest of the al-Qaeda warlord's 18 sons, appeared on an extremist website to mark three years since the 7/7 London suicide bombings killed 52 innocents. The poem urged: 'Grant victory to the Taliban over the gangs of infidels.'
His words -- believed to be recited by the lad himself -- accompanied a short video clip featuring old footage of his dad. A short introduction announced: 'We now offer you a new poem by Sheikh Hamza Bin Laden, may God protect him.' Hamza -- thought to be hiding on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border -- is Bin Laden's only son by his Saudi wife.
Respected terrorist expert Chris Dobson said: 'Despite his youth he is emerging as Bin Laden's likely heir.' Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a member of the Home Affairs Committee, said: 'The sins of the father are being visited upon the son. We now have the Crown Prince of Terror taking up his father's mantle.'
#10
Hamza, with brother Saad, and most of the AQ leadership fled to Iran after the US attacked Afghanistan. He and his buddies have been put up quite comfortably in villas on the Caspain.
My take: Hamza has been for the last few years been schooled in that heretic Shiite blasphemy. For the bin Laden's to have any honor left, they must hill him immediately.
Posted by: ed ||
07/09/2008 10:13
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#11
For the bin Laden's to have any honor left, they must hill him immediately.
#13
HAMZA, SAAD, etal., together or singularly, won't be the first nor the last Heirs = Princes to take over the tasks of Warfare, Conquest, or Other as begun vv Big Daddy = Big-GrandDaddy, but NOT completed. TO OSAMA's, ZAWI, etc, CREDIT, THEY HAVE PUT RADICAL ISLAM ON THE PATH TO CONTROL LARGE PARTS OF CENTRAL ASIA, OTHER ENCLAVES, + GO NUCLEAR 2008-2012 {"sufficient" deterrence]. EVEN IFF OSAMA, ETC. WERE CAPTURED OR KILLED TODAY, THE THREAT OF RADICAL ISLAMIST CONQUEST IN CENTRAL-EAST ASIA WOULD EXIST FOR A LONG TIME TO COME.
As argued times before, WOT > among other premises, is "WAR OF THE MESSIAHS" AS NOT EVERY ETHNIC NATIONALIST "SAVIOR" CAN BE MUSLIM ANDOR ISLAMIST = RADICALIST???
And NOT only MALE either e.g. NOSTRADAMUS'
"JOSEPHINE BONAPARTE", SISTER OF NAPOLEON; + "CYNTHEIA", SISTER OF SUN-GOD APOLLO,......etc.
(VOI) -- A gunman in Kirkuk surrendered to the Iraqi army 4th contingent, exploiting the national reconciliation project's amnesty decree, said a source from the Iraqi army. Abdullah Fadhil Hindi on Tuesday afternoon surrendered to the contingent's forces deployed in al-Rashad area (southwestern Kirkuk),' Major Shawan Ghareb Samerani told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI).
'Fadhil is an element of an armed group that conducted operations against security forces in al-Rashad area,' he added. 'Fadhil surrendered, taking advantage of the national reconciliation project's amnesty decree,' he noted.
This article starring:
ABDULLAH FADHIL HINDI
Iraqi Insurgency
Major Shawan Ghareb Samerani
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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(Xinhua) -- Four security men were killed in northwestern Pakistan's tribal area on Tuesday, local TV channels reported.
Some security men patrolling in Khyber Agency were ambushed by unknown gunmen. Resultantly four security men were killed and several others injured, said the report. The government last Friday suspended its security operation against suspected militants in Khyber Agency to allow tribal elders to meet militants and conduct peace talks. The security forces launched a major operation against local militant groups in Khyber Agency on June 28 and took control of the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
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... There has been a sharp increase in acts of terrorism in Afghanistan since the new Pakistan government assumed office in the last week of March.
NATO officers in Afghanistan have spoken of a 40 per cent rise in infiltration of jihadi terrorists since Pakistan suspended military operations against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and entered into peace negotiations with them.
Even as acts of terrorism -- including suicide terrorism -- have increased in Afghan territory, there has been a sharp decrease in acts of suicide terrorism in Pakistani territory. This indicates that the new government has made a deal with the Taliban allowing it to operate freely in Afghanistan in return for its stepping down operations in Pakistani territory.
The increasing Indian presence in Afghanistan to assist in its economic development has been a constant source of criticism by Pakistan, which has taken up the issue repeatedly with the US and other NATO countries.
Sections of the media and religious parties in Pakistan have also been critical of the close relations of the Karzai government with India. Urdu newspapers in Pakistan had even accused India of fomenting trouble in Balochistan from covert bases in Afghan territory.
Pakistan thus has a strong motive to target Indian nationals and interests in Afghanistan through surrogate Taliban. During the last three years, there has been a steep increase in acts of suicide terrorism by the Neo-Taliban of Afghanistan headed by Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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(AKI) - Spain is to spend 22 million euros in the next two years for the creation of an Afghan battalion to fight the Taliban. The Ministry of Defence announced on Tuesday the batallion would consist of 600 soldiers and would be based in Badghis province in northwest Afghanistan.
That's a little .. um .. far away from the Talibunnies, isn't it?
In a statement said it said funding would also be provided for housing, uniforms, vehicles and weaponry in the area of Qal-I-Naw in the province. The troops are expected to provide a permanent base for the Afghan army in the province and will be based with the Spanish provincial reconstruction team.
The ministry said through this programme Spain intends to leave the fight against the Taliban to Afghans. Under a mandate issued by the Spanish Parliament, Spanish forces are not authorised to take part in the fight against the Taliban insurgency in the south and east of Afghanistan.
Spain is currently the tenth largest contingent in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force or ISAF, with 778 soldiers, according to the Defence Ministry website.
ISAF currently has 53,000 troops from 40 countries in Afghanistan, NATO's largest ground operation outside Europe.
Spain was one of the main supporters of the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by US forces. It ran away withdrew its troops following the 11 March 2004 bombings at several Madrid railway stations that killed 191 people. The Madrid bombings were perpetrated by a loose group of Al-Qaeda-inspired Muslim militants, allegedly in response to the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
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(Xinhua) -- The law enforcement agencies of Pakistan have taken five people into custody in connection with the series of bomb blasts in the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Seven blasts occurred in different parts of Karachi Monday evening, killing one and injuring 40 others. No group has claimed responsibility of the blasts.
Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Chief Minister of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, was quoted by the News Network International news agency as saying that a planned conspiracy was being hatched to destabilize the government and to terrify the people. Inspector General of Sindh Police Babar Khattak said that five people had been taken into custody in connection with the terrorist act who were questioned.
Meanwhile a team of intelligence experts have been dispatched from Islamabad to Karachi to investigate the bomb blasts and expose the groups behind the terrorist activities and their motives. The Interior Ministry directed the intelligence agencies and all law enforcement agencies to fully cooperate with the Sindh government in apprehending the mastermind of Karachi bomb blasts.
This article starring:
General of Sindh Police Babar Khattak
Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Chief Minister of Sindh province
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2008
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The U.S. military has tried the same strategy before in Sadr City after cease-fires but with limited results. This time U.S. officials are more confident that they can do a better job of managing the effort and maintaining the flow of money. They also believe that support for the militia has dropped sharply because residents are tired of bloodshed.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A top U.S. Democratic senator said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday that he would consider supporting opening up new areas for offshore oil and gas drilling.
A year ago, the conventional Beltway wisdom had it that Iraq was a failed state. Today, the same wisdom holds that it is less chaotic but still fragile, dependent entirely on a U.S. presence to survive. But judging by recent comments from Nouri al-Maliki, even this view may be out of date.
A U.S. Marines commander said Wednesday his troops have killed 400 insurgents in southern Afghanistan since late April. 
At least six people, including three police officers, have been killed in a shootout near the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, the city's governor says.
About 2,000 Islamist women gathered at the radical Red Mosque in the Pakistani capital on Wednesday and vowed to raise their children for holy war, days after a suicide bomber killed 18 people after a similar rally.
The United States said Tuesday that a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand was 'very worrisome' but did not anticipate any role in helping to resolve the turmoil. More than 3,300 people have been killed since separatist unrest broke out in January 2004, and militants' tactics have turned increasingly gruesome, with a U.S. rights group reporting that beheadings, live burnings and torture have become a common feature.
After four years of living in Baghdad, war was taking its toll on Lara Logan.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading U.S. Senate Democrat accused the Bush administration on Tuesday of a "cover-up" aimed at stopping the Environmental Protection Agency from tackling greenhouse emissions.
LI chief 
(AKI) - Two leaders allegedly from the al-Qaeda-linked 
(VOI) -- Six people, including three policemen, were wounded on Tuesday when two improvised explosive devices went off separately in Diala, a local police source said. 'An IED went off on Tuesday near a gathering of civilians in al-Katoun neighborhood, central Baaquba, wounding three civilians, including a child,' the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq -- Voices of Iraq -- (VOI). 'A short while later, another IED went off near an Iraqi police patrol on the main street linking the district of Baladruz, (45 km) southwest of Baaquba, to the district of Kanaan inside the city, wounding three policemen,' the source added.
(Xinhua) -- A Hamas delegation from the Palestinian territory of Gaza Strip arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for talks with Egyptian mediators on the reopening of the Rafah crossing and a prisoner swap deal with Israel. 
(UPI) -- Israeli Defense Minister 
(VOI) - Iraq's Central Criminal Court on Tuesday decided to postpone its session on the trial regarding the execution of 40 merchants in 1992 to July 16 after hearing the plaintiffs' statements and the presentation of a corroborating documentary.
Iraqi officials at the Ministry for National Security Affairs said documents uncovered in suspected al-Qaida holdouts in the Sunni areas of Baghdad 'prove these elements left Iraq for Somalia and Sudan.'
(VOI) -- Three death sentences out of 25 were approved by the Court of Appeals, and will be carried out according to their sequence, Diwaniya criminal investigations director said on Tuesday. 
Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Sherry Rehman is currently a prime target for terrorists and the Interior Ministry has advised her to restrict her public movements in light of the threat to her life. According to a Dawn News report, official sources have said that the Interior Ministry has informed the Information Ministry that she is on the hit list of a would-be suicide bomber. A senior Information Ministry official also confirmed the report on condition of anonymity, saying that Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik had himself conveyed knowledge of the threat to Sherry Rehman to ensure her safety. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has placed all four provinces under a state of "high alert" following a suicide bombing in Islamabad over the weekend after a rally marking the first anniversary of the government's raid on the Lal Masjid, and a series of seven blasts in Karachi on Monday.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says Israel will not tolerate violations of a two-year-old cease-fire by the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
Paying ransom to radical Islamic groups such as the Abu Sayyaf, which survives largely due to funds from kidnappings and other acts of banditry, should be declared a crime to cut off a key terrorist lifeline, a police official said Tuesday. The government should also proscribe the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf and similar groups as terrorist organizations under the country's anti-terrorism law to make any financial support to them a criminal act, police Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza said.
Oil tumbled more than $5 a barrel Tuesday in its second big drop this week, hurling crude back to levels not seen since June 26 as traders wary about the health of the global economy cashed in gains from oil's recent rally.
(AKI) - A prominent European MP said on Tuesday the situation in Afghanistan was out of control and security efforts could not continue at the current half-hearted rate.
Israeli troops stormed the shopping mall in this West Bank city Tuesday and ordered it to close, saying the popular facility is linked to the militant Islamic Hamas.
(Xinhua) -- Four security men were killed in northwestern Pakistan's tribal area on Tuesday, local TV channels reported. 
(Xinhua) -- The law enforcement agencies of Pakistan have taken five people into custody in connection with the series of bomb blasts in the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Seven blasts occurred in different parts of Karachi Monday evening, killing one and injuring 40 others. No group has claimed responsibility of the blasts. 
