Militants armed with rockets have attacked the main Allied military base in Afghanistan, leaving at least two people dead and a number of others hurt.
The perimeter of Camp Bastion was breached as it was hit by small arms fire and there was major damage to buildings, an aircraft hangar and several military jets.
The two soldiers killed are thought to have been US Marines.
This facility is often subject to indirect fire, but officials in Afghanistan say the damage that has resulted is far more severe than normal. The attack was launched in the US area of the base.
Army Major Martyn Crighton, a spokesman at ISAF's Joint Command, says the attack may still be ongoing.
Officials in Afghanistan said it was too early to know if the attack was motivated by the anti-Muslim YouTube film which has sparked violent protests in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Prince Harry is currently stationed at Camp Bastion on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan
#1
Camp Bastion is the brit side of Camp Leatherneck...there's like almost 30miles of standoff there. We only took IDF there once or twice when I was there last yr. So I'd say, yeah, most likely attack is related to current events.
With excruciating detail, the White House's budget office on Friday laid out exactly where it will have to cut $109 billion from federal spending in January, including $11.1 billion from Medicare and $54.7 billion from defense spending.
The defense cuts include $21.5 billion from operations and maintenance for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines and the reserves and National Guard, and nearly $1.4 billion from military aide to Afghanistan, with tens of billions coming from procurement and other Pentagon accounts.
"The report leaves no question that the sequestration would be deeply destructive to national security, domestic investments, and core government functions," the White House's budget office said in the report.
Everything from fencing and technology along the U.S.-Mexico border to the government's own internal watchdogs to local environmental programs are also on the chopping block.
The cuts fall particularly heavy on the federal civilian workforce, where staffing levels and salaries would be docked more than 8 percent almost across the board.
Also facing slashes are the National Institutes of Health, which would see a $2.5 billion cut, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which would have to trim $464 million, according to the 394-page report, issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget in response to a law.
And at a time when embassy security is under question following the recent attacks, that account would be cut by $129 million. Why is it that when teh 0ne is fund raising and going to parties I also get visions of Nero fiddling while Rome burned?
#1
Oh, and mods I have really no idea where this should go. Seedy pols, because of the politics, but at the same time WoTB since it will gut a lot of our defense at a time when AlQ is on the offensive.
#3
But it'as all the Trunks fault! Send me FORWARD! I have a PLAN! - BHO
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/14/2012 17:14
Comments ||
Top||
#4
It's seedy pols, not WoT.
I wouldn't mind a $109 billion cut in the budget. On a $4300 billion budget, the proposed sequestration is a nice first step.
Go ahead and try to scare me, President Ladies-Tee.
I say this as an NIH grant holder. The cuts will be painful to many, but we can't keep spending at the current rate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012 17:30
Comments ||
Top||
#5
The cuts fall particularly heavy on the federal civilian workforce, where staffing levels and salaries would be docked more than 8 percent almost across the board.
Every cloud has a silver lining. I'm all for a net 10% cut. Start with the entire Dept. of Education & Energy and go on from there.
#9
reports earlier this week that many defense contractors intend to issue the 60 day pre-layoff notice. it hits just before the election. wonder if this is the reason for Bo's concern, now....
Four members of the Multinational Force & Observers (MFO) in the Sinai Peninsula were wounded on Friday, after dozens of Bedouin militants attacked their headquarters in northern Sinai.
According to reports, an angry mob broke down the wall of the base and set vehicles and tools alight.The peacekeepers inside the camp, located in the al Gura area of northern Sinai, exchanged fire with the assailants, according to witnesses.
Israel's Channel Two reported that the militants included Salafi extremists.
Soroka Medical Center, Beer Sheva said that two of the wounded were being transferred to the hospital in southern Israel for treatment. The Israel Defense Forces did not confirm the report.
It was unclear whether the attacks were linked to the protests spreading across the Muslim world over a film deemed as insulting the Prophet Mohammed. Locals in the area said the attack was apparently a backlash to the film, however, an Egyptian security official denied the claim.
"The attackers are unknown and the cause of the assault is not immediately clear," the official told dpa on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The Sinai attack was at the Multinational Force & Observers (MFO)'s North Camp base in the north of the peninsula. In the last year, the MFO in the Sinai has suffered from repeated attacks on its bases and forces. This has included stone throwing and the blocking of their envoys.
Around 1,000 peacekeepers, under U.S. command, are positioned in Sinai to monitor Egyptian-Israeli border under a 1979 peace treaty between the two countries.
Last month, Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi deposed both chief of staff Sami Enan and Defense Minister Gen. Hussein Tantawi following the attack at the Israeli border crossing at Kerem Shalom, in which 17 Egyptian policemen were killed.
After the attack, the Egyptian army carried out a wide campaign to eradicate terrorist organizations in the Sinai peninsula, although according to reports in Egypt, the campaign was stopped after talks between Cairo and local Bedouin leaders.
Following the unrest sweeping the Muslim world over the past four days, Morsi said in a televised speech on Friday morning that it is part of the responsibility of Muslims to protect diplomats and foreign embassies located in their countries.
#1
Morsi said in a televised speech on Friday morning that it is part of the responsibility of Muslims to protect diplomats and foreign embassies located in their countries
#4
Colombians run security at the North Camp, about 50 guys assigned to camp security. Americans are present at the camp, as it serves as the HQ and we provide most of the HQ staff. US contribution to the MFO is National Guard troops. We have about 1,200 or so in the Sinai. This is a big deal, folks, and something that has concerned me since the Arab Spring began.
No reason to stop hugging each other + singing "Kumbaya" + stop suppor your local OWG Sidewalk Suicide = Self-Disintegration Chamber,
etc. just because the Jihadists wanna behead all of us, so there.
[NAZI STUKAS, OR USN SBD "ZERO/MEATBALL" DAUNTLESSES BOMBING PEARL HARBOR ON 07/7/1941 here].
According to a report on National Public Radio today, the White House asked YouTube to pull the "Innocence of Muslims" movie that is being blamed for the Middle East attacks. White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked about it during his press briefing today, and essentially punted.
On Twitter, NBC's Chuck Todd attempted to clarify the situation:
@chucktodd: To clarify, the WH ...asked YouTube to review the video to see if it violated their policies
As anyone who has dealt with YouTube knows, though, asking the video site to review a video for possible violations is how one starts the process of getting a video pulled from the site. Todd's clarification amounts to a confirmation.
Added to Thursday's news that the Department of Justice investigated and publicly identified the man believed to be behind the film, and the fact that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Martin Dempsey called Rev. Terry Jones to ask him to rescind his support for the film, and the picture of a White House going out of its way to squelch free speech is clear.
Update: More from the LA Times.
Obama administration officials also flagged the trailer to YouTube and asked the company to review whether it violated the website's terms of service.
Nice to see executive power being used for censorship. Laws are for the peasants.
#1
The phone call on Tuesday was intended to calm the storm that had arisen over the New York snub, but the leak to the Times is also a message that no one should mistake. While his surrogates are still trying to reassure wavering Jewish voters that he backs Israel, the administration isnt interested in doing anything about Iran and the president doesnt care who knows it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/14/2012 13:12
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The thought that came to mind on reading this and Bobby's comment is "what's going on here?"
Is this regime aware of things that are not in the public domain that tell them in clear fashion that they are going to lose big time in Nov.?
If, for example, the internal polls show a wipe out, and the true economic numbers show another crash in the next couple of weeks so they reach the conclusion that there's no hope left, what changes will they try to force through in the time left?
I would not put it past these vermin to go gotterdmerung on the country and try to take us all down with them.
#3
It kind of makes sense if Champ knows he won't be re-elected. Why bother going to intel meetings? Why talk to Joos? Just phone it in, hang with celebs at glitzy fundraisers and pick out curtains for your Hawaiian mansion.
#4
I would not put it past these vermin to go gotterdmerung on the country and try to take us all down with them.
Or am I being paranoid?
No, you are not paranoid. I expect scorched earth from the Left. Race riots and the whole nine yards.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
09/14/2012 15:14
Comments ||
Top||
#5
I expect that to fail quite quickly when they find out the other side is armed. Record gun sales the last 4 years remember?
Posted by: Charles ||
09/14/2012 15:36
Comments ||
Top||
#6
....when they find out the other side is armed
...and far better trained in using them rather than the usual gangbanger/cartel hire-a-thug most likely to show up.
BTW, depending upon locale, this coming week's Wallysmart sales flyer is advertizing Colt AR-15s and Sig Sauer SIGM400s. That might qualify for Portents and Signs.
Naw. It seems to happen every donk administration. I always feel like personal freedoms are at risk. Fast and Furious, Ruby Ridge, Waco. Seems like the donks are harder on the citizens than they are on our enemies.
#9
#3 Iblis: exactly. Obozo is behaving like he knows he's short. Let the ingrates kvetch, let the embassies burn, let the meanies say mean things. He's off to his permanent Hawaiian vacation in 4 months, so who cares.
On one hand, it's terrifying. On the other, it is a relief to think we will be rid of him so easily.
#10
I don't know about being short and all.... Rasmussen polls today still show Bambi ahead in both Ohio and Florida; 2 states Romney HAS to win in the E.C.
While i dearly want to watch Champ and Mochelle climb into Marine One for their final flight, if Romney doesn't pick up the pace and start hitting these fools hard, we get fo' mo' years....
#4
I agree with Glenn Reynolds. If flamethrowers (and SAWs) are not immediately available to our Marine embassy guards, then
1) cancel all visas for citizens of that country
2) order their citizens currently in the U.S. to leave (hardship exemptions if they can prove they love America)
3) suspend all aid programs for 90 days minimum
Why?
To ensure that host governments understand that they AGREED to defend and protect our embassies. If they can't do that, we can't do business with them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012 12:16
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Excellent time for an attack on Iran.
Seething and rage:
-Cairo, Egypt - US Embassy
-Khartoum, Sudan - British, German and US Embassies
-Sanaa, Yemen - US Embassy
-Jerusalem - protests at the Old City
-Basra, Iraq - protests
-Tehran, Iran - protests outside the Swiss Embassy
-Amman, Jordan - protests
-Indian-administered Kashmir - protests
-Tripoli, Lebanon - one protester killed as KFC burned
#6
MY greatest concern is that Obama will let this escalate so he can suspend the US elections. And I will go as far as saying this may be a part of a grand plan he has in that regard all along. I do doubt he thought his mobs would kill an ambassador but I would not put such a plot past the radical left that he is a part of.
#7
Best quote of the day these feckers need to learn is-
"When Christians are subject to insults to their faith, and that certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence. When Hindus or Buddhists are subjected to insults to their faiths, and that also certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence," said Clinton. "The same goes for all faiths, including Islam."
Posted by: Paul D ||
09/14/2012 12:48
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Excellent time for an attack on Iran.
Seething and rage:
-Cairo, Egypt - US Embassy
-Khartoum, Sudan - British, German and US Embassies
-Sanaa, Yemen - US Embassy
-Jerusalem - protests at the Old City
-Basra, Iraq - protests
-Tehran, Iran - protests outside the Swiss Embassy
-Amman, Jordan - protests
-Indian-administered Kashmir - protests
-Tripoli, Lebanon - one protester killed as KFC burned Agreed.They hate us if we attacked or not!
Posted by: Paul D ||
09/14/2012 12:49
Comments ||
Top||
#9
as bad as these attacks are ... they are probably serving as a very important wake-up call in the Middle East. In the event of an attack on Iran, there are going to be a LOT more buildings on fire than the ones we are seeing now. It is time for all westeners, esp. Americans, to get their Plan B on status for "ready to go at a moments notice".
#12
No I don't agree with that. To stop Iran's nuclear program is one thing, but don't forget that there are many courageous young Iranians who want freedom. Support them, and do it without restraint.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
09/14/2012 16:10
Comments ||
Top||
#13
MY greatest concern is that Obama will let this escalate so he can suspend the US elections.
A lot of people said this about Bush, too. Ain't gonna happen.
#17
"MY greatest concern is that Obama will let this escalate so he can suspend the US elections."
"I wouldn't be surprised if he tried."
Me neither - but I'd be surprised if he succeeded.
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/14/2012 19:01
Comments ||
Top||
#18
Me neither - but I'd be surprised if he succeeded.
Exactly. Besides, it isn't up to him. The elections in each State are run by the State. Obama has no say, and neither does the Federal Government. If he tries, that will be the bridge too far.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
09/14/2012 21:00
Comments ||
Top||
Face MRI images were used to quantify the metrics of face shape ahead of the genetic study. Understanding the genes that determine human facial shape could one day provide valuable information about person's appearance using just their DNA.
The discovery of five genes involved in facial form could have applications in forensics, say the authors of a study. Virtually nothing was known about the genes responsible for facial shape in humans.
The study of almost 10,000 individuals is published in Plos Genetics.
"Perhaps some time it will be possible to draw a phantom portrait of a person solely from his or her DNA left behind, which provides interesting applications such as in forensics."
Posted by: Water Modem ||
09/14/2012
10:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#5
Genetics will be the next huge thing. The power of unlocking our own genes and controlling our own evolution is huge.
However, with great power comes great responsibility and there will be people and nations that abuse it. While being able to construct the face of the rapist from the semen collected from the victim is great, it could also be used to weed out undesirables as well. Just imagine if the Nazis could make a genetic virus that would wipe out all those they thought were sub-human.
All very possible with this technology.
The International Franchise Association held a convention in Washington this week where most of the Radio Shack, Dunkin Donuts, Curves and other franchisers were grumbling about new federal regulations, especially the impact of Obamacare.
Most, said Atlanta Taco Bell and Kentucky Fried Chicken franchiser David Barr, presumed that the reports about how hard Obamacare will hit them were overblown. "They had their head in the sand," he told Secrets.
That is until he pulled out his powerpoint showing how funding Obamacare will cut his--and likely their--profits in half overnight. With simple math the small business folks understood, he spelled out that their only choice is to slash employee hours so they aren't eligible for company-paid health care or stop offering insurance and pay the $2,000 per employee fine.
Barr has 23 stores with 421 employees, 109 of whom are full-time. Of those, he provides 30 with health insurance. Barr said he pays 81 percent of their Blue Cross Blue Shield policy, or $4,073 of $5,028 for individuals, more for families, for a total bill of $129,000 a year. Employees pay $995.
Under Obamacare, however, he will have to provide health insurance for all 109 full-time workers, a cost of $444,000, or two and half times more than his current costs. That $315,000 increase is equal to just over half his annual profit, after expenses, or 1.5 percent of sales. As a result, he said, "I'm not paying $444,000."
Providing no insurance would result in a federal fine of $158,000, $29,000 more than he now spends but the lowest cost possible under the Obamacare law. So he now views that as his cap and he'll either cut worker hours or replace them with machines to get his costs down or dump them on the public health exchange and pay the fine. "Every business has a way to eliminate jobs," he said, "but that's not good for them or me."
But that's not all. His experience tells him that most low-wage workers he would have to cover under Obamacare won't take it because their $995 share is too high, meaning those the program was set up for won't see any benefit. And those who do will because they have major health issues, likely resulting in higher premiums to him.
#4
Full time employee defined as 30+ per week instead of 35-40. People may be hired, but work 29.9 hours per week. Nobody will make enough money, income tax per pay period will drop, Fed sits around and wonders where the money is, taxes go up.
What about partnerships, proprietorships, and the businesses income counting towards the individuals $250k, or do we wait to find out about that?
#5
Many companies have been cutting full timers to part time. Wall Mart is a good example. I'm not trying to pick on them but I know managers have been told to cut their full time help to part time or we will get somebody who will. That has been the case for over two to three years now. Don't have a help issue. Just subcontract all your staff needs. Using a temp type service. They simply sub contract as independent contractors working with a franchise agency. Most will cut help below the magic target number. Remember we don't need you, you need us.
Many more pics and inside account of the attack in Benghazi, from the Daily Mail.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012
09:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Thanks Steve. Very sad.
Panic: A U.S. State Department official said Mr Stevens and his team 'became separated from each other due to the heavy, dark smoke while they were trying to evacuate the burning building'
Cardinal rules of any Personal Security Detail (PSD) ....(if you have one); never get seperated from your principal, and never surrender your weapon or lose your SATFONE.
#2
Indeed, thanks Steve. The British source of this story has done a much better job at coverage than our median. One thing that amazes me is how "soft" the consulate appears to be--looks like a pushover.
#4
I shouldn't be surprised to learn sensitive documents specifically identifying Libyans helpful to America have gone missing. Reminds me of Shakil Afridi, I hope these Libyans aren't compromised and killed. More crap compromising our intel.
Why keep these sensitive documents in such an unprotected place. Really?
Posted by: Jan ||
09/14/2012 11:00
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Of course we have to go to the British papers to find out what happened.
The picture of the empty chair floating in the pool must have Axelrods head Exorcist spinning...
Yet to see the bloody handprint picture in the LSM either.
This incident is going to be treated like photos of the jumpers on 9/11.
#7
Yes, of course we have to go to the British papers. You think the NYT would cover this? Doesn't fit the narrative.
Besoeker, thanks for the tip if ever I'm working as a PSD (but if I am the person I'm 'protecting' is in big trouble). I assume that these folks are very well trained, so it's unfortunate this happened. I get it can, though, particularly if all hell has broken loose.
As to the consulate, sometimes they're just buildings. We have a bunch of these in Chicago, either downtown or on the near north, and many of them are just office suites in towers or units in an apartment. I have no idea what arrangements they have for security (though we as the host country are responsible for their security).
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012 12:20
Comments ||
Top||
#8
I suspect the folks on the security detail were reall good people - there were just not enough of them (and possibly they were not well enough armed). The attack at Benghazi looks to be very well planned - the hit squad clearly knew the laout of the primary target, the number of guards and security personnel, and their contingency plan for evacuation. They also knew the primary safehouse where the evacuation would go to. This attack was professionally executed.
#2
IIRC KYODO NEWS > yesterday repor that the remaining four CMS ships have since departed from Japanese territorial waters.
Apparently, its not only Tokio/Tokkyu that has upset Beijing ...
* NEWS KERALA > CHINESE DAILY TAKES UMBRAGE TO MANILA RENAMING SEA [SCS = now "West Philippines Sea as per PHIL Govt. order].
ARTIC = ...
> Beijing will not tolerate PHIL attempts to encroach on its maritime territory.
> PHIL Govt. action/decision viewed as "reckless" by Beijing.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > JAPANESE PM ORDERS SDF TO FULLY PREPARE FOR ANY EMERGENCY, espec vee THE China situation.
* SAME > CHINA MUST TEACH JAPAN A LESSON, SAYS CHINESE DAILY.
* TOPIX > JAPAN LDP ADVOCATES CHALLENGING CHINA IN BID TO REGAIN [political] POWER.
* SAME > CHINESE DAILY WARNS OF CHINA-JAPAN
"FULL CONFRONTATION".
ARTIC = ...
> Tokyo has chosen = picked the "wrong opponent at the wrong time".
> Balance of Power not the same as during the 20th century = Cold War. PRE-911???
> Japan owes TOO GREAT A "BLOOD DEBT" to the Chinese people for its past actions. CHINESE COMPROMISE AS PER THE DIAOYUS [Senkakus] WILL ONLY ADD MORE SHAME = "DOUBLE THE SHAME" ON THE CHINESE PEOPLE.
> CHINA'S PATIENCE HAS WORN OUT. Japan-only?
Taiwan reunification?"First Island Chain?
* SAME > JAPAN AWAITS CHINA'S NEXT MOVE ON DISPUTED ISLANDS.
RELATED SAME > CHINA SAYS WON'T BACK DOWN ON ISLANDS, BUT TOKYO IS DISMISSIVE OF THEIR DISPUTE.
Lest we fergit, SINO-VIET "MISCHIEF REEF" INCIDENT > By most accounts, after post-1975 unified Vietnam ignored China's warnings, China attacked Viet personnel on Mischief Reef + allegedly DELIBERATELY SLAUGHTERED EVERYONE, EVEN THOSE ATTEMPTING TO SURRENDER, IN ORDER TO REINFORCE + MAKE VIETNAM UNDERSTAND CHINA'S ANGST + INTENTIONS IRREGARDLESS OF CHINA'S SUPPORT FOR [North]VIETNAM AGZ THE US DURING THE PRECEDING VIETNAM WAR.
And China did so despite calls from both the USA + then-USSR + UNO for peace + diplomatic solution.
#3
CHINA DAILY FORUM > LUO YUAN:US-JAPAN SECURITY TREATY CANNOT/WON'T INTIMIDATE CHINA.
* Also from CHINA DAILY > TOKYO MUST COME "BACK FROM THE BRINK", before its too late.
BEIJING = urges Tokyo to immediately cancel or rescind Diaoyu Islands "purchase".
* GLOBAL TIMES EDITORIAL > [China's false] DISILLUSIONS OF FRIENDLY TIES WID JAPAN.
Highly subjective = unsteady Sino-Japan ties since the 1970's have now COMPLETELY COLLAPSED due to Japan's purchase of sovereign Chinese islands, + despite improvements = new rapprochements made since 9-11???
* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > WILL CHINA ARM ITS FISHERMEN TO PROTECT A "CORE INTEREST"?
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > RUSSIAN MEDIA: JAPAN'S CUTS IN ITS 2013 MILITARY BUDGET LEAVES IT WID NO ABILITY TO MOUNT OR SUPPORT "OFFENSIVE" WARFARE AGZ CHINA OVER DISPUTED ISLANDS.
* SAME > US CSIS THINK-TANK: IFF CHINA ATTACKS THE JAPANESE SENKAKUS [China = Diaoyus/
Tiaoyutai] OR THE PHILIPPINES [ships, aircraft, etc.] US SHOULD MILITARILY DEFEND ITS ALLIES.
* SCHOLARS: SINO-JAPANESE BATTLE FOR DIAOYUS IS ALSO BATTLE FOR TAIWAN AND WESTPAC REGIONS AS FAR AS GUAM ISLAND. CHINA'S LAND-BASED NUCLEAR MISSLES [strategic arsenal = PLA Second Arty] MAY GIVE IT DECISIVE ADVANTAGE AGZ JAPAN'S SDF AND US NAVY NUCLEAR AIRCRAFT CARRIER GROUPS.
* MARIANAS VARIETY > [Tinian Mayor = North Field US-JSDF MilEx] TINIAN IS "FULCRUM" OF REGION'S "BALANCE OF POWER".
The MV repors that JSDF troops reianed aborad ship while US Marines debarked - IMO prolly due to the JSDF arrival on Tinian coinciding wid China sending its six CMS ships to the Senkakus/Daoyus???
A villager was killed in a drive-by shooting in Pattani province on Friday morning.
Witnesses said that Somchit Thongna, 34, his wife and young daughter were travelling on a motorcycle along the Pattani-Yala road when a gunman on another motorcycle fired at him. The assailants then fled.
Somchit was shot in the head and died on the spot. His wife and seven-year-old daughter were slightly wounded when they fell from the motorcycle.
Best account yet of what happened. The phrase 'fog of war' applies...
BENGHAZI, Libya, Sept 12 (Reuters) - A squad of U.S. troops despatched by helicopter across the Libyan desert to rescue besieged diplomats from Benghazi on Wednesday ran into a fierce overnight ambush that left a further two Americans dead, Libyan officials told Reuters.
Accounts of the mayhem at the U.S. consulate, where the ambassador and a fourth American died after a chaotic protest over a film insulting to Islam, remain patchy. But two Libyan officials, including the commander of a security force which escorted the U.S. rescuers, said a later assault on a supposedly safe refuge for the diplomats appeared professionally executed.
So the blasphemous movie is an excuse and an afterthought...
Miscommunication which understated the number of American survivors awaiting rescue - there were 37, nearly four times as many as the Libyan commander expected - also meant survivors and rescuers found themselves short of transport to escape this second battle, delaying an eventual dawn break for the airport.
Captain Fathi al-Obeidi, whose special operations unit was ordered by Libya's authorities to meet an eight-man force at Benghazi airport, said that after his men and the U.S. squad had found the American survivors who had evacuated the blazing consulate, the ostensibly secret location in an isolated villa came under an intense and highly accurate mortar barrage.
"I really believe that this attack was planned," he said, adding to suggestions by other Libyan officials that at least some of the hostility towards the Americans was the work of experienced combatants. "The accuracy with which the mortars hit us was too good for any regular revolutionaries."
Obeidi's Libya's Shield Brigade was formed by civilians during last year's U.S.-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi and is now part of the ad hoc government militia forces which the fledgling democratic administration uses to keep order.
Other Libyan officials cited the possible involvement of former soldiers still loyal to Gaddafi's family or Islamist fighters, some of whom have trained and fought in Afghanistan.
U.S. officials have noted it was "complex attack". Several Libyan officials and witnesses said an initial demonstration at the consulate appeared to be largely unarmed, though some elements of an Islamist militia were spotted.
At some point, the crowd became incensed, believing they were under attack from within the consulate, many fetched weapons and the consular villa ended up in flames, with most of the Americans fleeing to the safe house after two, including ambassador Christopher Stevens, had been fatally injured.
"RAINING DOWN FIRE"
Of the eight American troops who had come from Tripoli, one was killed and two were wounded, Obeidi said. A Libyan deputy interior minister said a second American was also killed in the attack on the safe house. It was not clear if this was a diplomat or one of the consulate's original security detail.
"It began to rain down on us," Obeidi told Reuters, describing the moment the attack began - just as the Libyan security force was starting up the 10 pickup trucks and sedans they had brought to ferry the Americans to the airport.
"About six mortars fell directly on the path to the villa," he said. "During this firing, one of the marines whom I had brought with me was wounded and fell to the ground.
"As I was dragging the wounded marine to safety, some marines who were located on the roof of the villa as snipers shouted and the rest of the marines all hit the ground.
"A mortar hit the side of the house. One of the marines from the roof went flying and fell on top of us."
A senior U.S. diplomat - not ambassador Stevens, who Libyan officials said died at a local hospital of the effects of smoke - urged Obeidi to push ahead with the evacuation, the Libyan commander Obeidi said. But he had a transport problem.
Having been told to expect 10 Americans and having found 37, Obeidi did not have enough vehicles to break out, despite having one heavy anti-aircraft gun mounted on a pickup truck.
"I was being bombarded by calls from all over the country by Libyan government officials who wanted me to hurry and get them out," he said. "But I told them that we were in such difficult circumstances and that I needed more men and more cars."
Eventually dozens more vehicles were despatched from pro-government militia brigades and, with the sun rising, the convoy headed back to the airport where an aircraft flew a first group of U.S. personnel out to the Libyan capital.
Libyan Deputy Interior Minister Wanis al-Sharif said Stevens and another diplomat died in the first series of incidents around the consulate, while the other two Americans died during the attempt to evacuate from the safe house to the airport.
"(The ambassador) died as a result of suffocation by the fumes of the fire inside the embassy and one was also killed by gunfire before around 37 people were moved to a place we thought was safe," Sharif told Reuters in Benghazi.
Speaking of the rescue mission, he said: "A team of commandos arrived by air and went to a farm which we thought was a secret location. Once they got there, they came under heavy fire from heavy machineguns, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles, which resulted in the death of two others."
He estimated that a dozen or more Americans were hurt.
#1
Clearly a multi-pronged attack - with very careful preparation and planning for contingencies. The accruacy of the mortars implies that their fire was set up ahead of time ... carefully ranged to target. All the facts in this article seem to support the theory by Debka.com that this was a large Al Qaeda strike. The riots about the film were just a cover so that AQ could mount the attack. That's my $0.02 anyway.
It's really a tragedy to lose two ex-SEALS who were doing such fine work over there. The same comment goes for the US Marines who were killed.
#2
As you know Raider, the ultimate decision maker is the Chief of Mission. If he wishes to iggy his RSO, throw common sense to the wind and trust the locals, it can go to kak in a hurry. You trust this foks at your own peril.
#3
The bit about the film was to help gin up extra mobs after the fact and to provide justification for cowarice aming US leadership which plays into Al Quedas hands.
[Politico] The B.O. regime is flatly denying a blaring British newspaper report that the U.S. diplomats in Libya were killed as a result of a "continuing security breach," and that "credible information" about possible attacks had been ignored.
A U.S. official told POLITICO: "There's no intelligence indicating that the attack in Benghazi was premeditated."
The newspaper, The Independent, plastered its cover with the headline, "Revealed: inside story of US envoy's liquidation," and reported inside: "The killings of the US ambassador to Libya and three of his staff were likely to have been the result of a serious and continuing security breach ... American officials believe the attack was planned."
The article continued: "According to senior diplomatic sources, the U.S. State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and 'lockdown', under which movement is severely restricted."
Shawn Turner, front man for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, emailed: "This is absolutely wrong. We are not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
02:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
Shawn Turner, front man for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, emailed: "This is absolutely wrong. We are not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent."
Intelligence reporting need not be "actionable" to be crucial. Knowing these people are, let me say.... 'anniversary prone to violence', a geographic uptick in [source unspecified] reporting during the 9/11 timeframe might be something to investigate further, keep an eye on, or mention in routine cables.
Furthermore, I always get a bit uneasy when "intelligence experts" respond with the words "absolutely", always, or never, especially when it involves a potential operational cock-up involving dead people.
#2
I mean like duh. zawahiri only celebrated the martyrdom of al libi and asked the mooj to avenge his blood. Plus his bro offered a hudna. Doesn't anybody understand this language? Anyone? Yes. Precautions should have been taken in Libya.
#3
It was the anniversary of 9/11. Champ may not get that but the radical Muslims do. The intel may not have been 'actionable' but it should have raised security precautions substantially.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012 8:47
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Just because we didn't have any intelligence on it doesn't mean it wasn't premeditated. It was obviously planned, premeditated, organized, etc. and therefore an intelligence failure. But of course O can't admit that so it never happened. Move along.
#5
the "actionable" part is pure spokesholee dissembling. They had warning, knew a prime anniversary date was coming up, yet did nothing to protect our people. "Under the bus" doesn't even begin to describe what Zero and Shrillary have done and continue to do. These are Americans dead because he couldn't be bothered.
"Intel briefings? Val can attend and give me a headsup if it's important, like if it affects my campaigning and fundraising"
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/14/2012 9:38
Comments ||
Top||
#6
At a bare minimum - you would think they would have stocked up on weapons.
Secretary Clinton delivered a powerful and personal speech about religion at an Eid ul-Fitr reception, marking the end of the Moslem holiday of Ramadan. The speech, at times, was a direct response to the attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions in the Middle East, and the deaths of four diplomats at the hands of gunnies in Libya.
In her remarks, Clinton repeated much of what she's said in the last two days. Namely that the Benghazi attack was carried out by a "small and savage group," and that the United States completely rejects what she called the "inflammable and despicable" anti-Moslem film circulating the Internet. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... Clinton pointed out all religions have faced insults and denigration, but that's no justification for violence. The response to such insults is what separates people of true faith from those who would use religion as an excuse to commit violent acts, she said.
"When Christians are subject to insults to their faith, and that certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence. When Hindus or Buddhists are subjected to insults to their faiths, and that also certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence," said Clinton. "The same goes for all faiths, including Islam."
She spoke movingly about her own personal beliefs as a way of re-enforcing her point.
"I so strongly believe that the great religions of the world are stronger than any insults. They have withstood offense for centuries," said Clinton."Refraining from violence, then, is not a sign of weakness in one's faith; it is absolutely the opposite, a sign that one's faith is unshakable."
She asked the crowd to work towards building a world where if one person commits a violent religious act, millions of people will stand up and condemn it
"We can pledge that whenever one person speaks out in ignorance and bigotry, ten voices will answer," Clinton said forcefully. "They will answer resoundingly against the offense and the insult; answering ignorance with enlightenment; answering hatred with understanding; answering darkness with light."
The secretary urged the audience not to be discouraged by the hatred and violence that exists, but instead resolve to do something tangible to promote religious tolerance in their own communities.
"In times like these, it can be easy to despair that some differences are irreconcilable, some mountains too steep to climb; we will therefore never reach the level of understanding and peacefulness that we seek, and which I believe the great religions of the world call us to pursue," she reflected. "But that's not what I believe, and I don't think it's what you believe... Part of what makes our country so special is we keep trying. We keep working. We keep investing in our future," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
02:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
Classic deflection through the repeated use of the progressive passive voice, ie, crimes are caused, not committed.
#2
The secretary urged the audience not to be discouraged by the hatred and violence that exists, but instead resolve to do something tangible to promote religious tolerance in their own communities.
Can we start by rounding up all those with violent tendencies and shipping them t0 Saudi Arabia?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/14/2012 5:55
Comments ||
Top||
#3
But what of the broadcasting of the obscure youtube on tv in egypt? And what of the hornets nest reaction which was certain? And what of the timing so that the rage would erupt on 9/11? Hillary is a dope and not the smartest woman in the world. What next? Prosecute on the basis of Sharia. Now that's disgusting.
#5
"When Christians are subject to insults to their faith, and that certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence. When Hindus or Buddhists are subjected to insults to their faiths, and that also certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence," said Clinton. "The same goes for all faiths, including Islam."
That should on the front of all newspapers worldwide!
Posted by: Paul D ||
09/14/2012 7:59
Comments ||
Top||
#6
"We can pledge that whenever one person speaks out in ignorance and bigotry, ten voices will answer."
Waiting for Mrs Clinton's condemnation of US government mandated 'ignorance and bigotry' ...
#7
"We can pledge that whenever one person speaks out in ignorance and bigotry, ten voices will answer," Clinton said forcefully. "They will answer resoundingly against the offense and the insult; answering ignorance with enlightenment; answering hatred with understanding; answering darkness with light."
On a serious note, this 'more speech' approach will not work against even harsh criticism of Islam, and the Muslims know it.
Terry Jones said he burned the Koran in order to draw attention to the persecution of Christians in the islamic world.
A discussion of Jones' 'bigoted' act will thus necessarily turn into a discussion of Islam's murderous intolerance.
Even our allies, the liberated moderate Afghans have instituted the death penalty for apostasy.
This is a fact that will ensure that Islam loses in the free marketplace of ideas. This is why Islam must destroy the free marketplace of ideas if it is to survive unchanged.
#9
"When Christians are subject to insults to their faith, and that certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence. When Hindus or Buddhists are subjected to insults to their faiths, and that also certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence," said Clinton. "The same goes for all faiths, including Islam."
I had my fingers crossed, I only meant the Christians, Amish, Hindus and Buddhists should not resort to violence. I had my fingers crossed about the Muslims.
#14
How about we use a year's worth of foreign aid to these countries that hate us to move the remaining non-muslims here.
Gotta be a goodly number of shopkeepers, bankers, etc. - productive people - in that crowd. Let the rest of them starve to death without anyone else to blame.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/14/2012 12:48
Comments ||
Top||
#15
Here, here Bobby. And set up an offer to pay the fare for anyone of middle eastern origin who wants to give up cotizenship or visa and head back.
[An Nahar] Around 200 protestors erupted into the streets of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... on Thursday to express outrage over a U.S.-made film mocking Islam and the Prophet Mohammed.
Some protestors burned the U.S. flag while chanting "holy shit! Allahu akbar!" (God is greatest), while others carried with them black flags that read: "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his prophet."
Despite the relatively small number of demonstrators, security forces were heavily deployed in the city during the rally.
Scores of men and women also demonstrated on the outskirts of the southern port of Sidon to denounce the film.
"Freedom does not mean insults to religion," read one poster held up by protesters. "Who are you, you low lifes, to insult what is good for people," read another.
Protestors have demonstrated against the film in several countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[An Nahar] Several hundred Paleostinians in the Gazoo Strip protested on Thursday against an anti-Mohammedan film that has sparked deadly riots in Libya and Yemen.
The protest, called by the ruling Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, government's ministry of religious endowments, comes after two days of demonstrations that have left four U.S. embassy staff including the ambassador dead in Libya and a protester rubbed out in Yemen.
Ismail Radwan, Hamas's minister of religious endowments, called on the protesters gathered outside the legislative council building in Gazoo City to "boycott American products."
He called for new demonstrations to be held after Friday prayers.
Protesters held banners reading "Where are you Mohammedans, when your prophet is being insulted?"
In Tel Aviv, around 60 Arab-Israeli protesters demonstrated outside the U.S. embassy, in a protest called by the Islamic Movement in Israel.
"We came to protest against the producers of this movie and the United States which allowed it to be made," protester Zahi Nijidat told AFP.
Demonstrators rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud against U.S. President Barack Obama I am the change that you seek... and criticized the film, a low-budget amateur production available on the Internet that was largely unheard of before the violent demonstrations that rocked several capitals since Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[An Nahar] Russian President Vladimir Putin ...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile... said Thursday the Middle East was at risk of descending into "chaos" following a deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Libya and incidents in Egypt and Yemen.
"We are afraid that the region may descend into chaos, which is essentially what is happening already," he said in comments broadcast on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
from his summer residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Putin condemned Tuesday's attack in Libya that killed the ambassador and three other U.S. citizens as not only a crime but one that also broke conventions on the safety of diplomats working in dangerous conditions.
The culprits "not only put themselves outside the bounds of law, but outside the frameworks of contemporary civilization," said Putin. ... thereby dangling a lot more testicle than Mr. O'Bean...
He also urged the new governments that rose to power in the Arab Spring uprisings to accept greater responsibility for security.
"I would like to point out to the leaders of the new governments, the heads of states where serious changes took place -- they must also not forget about their responsibility for what is happening on their territories," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
For some reason, what I hear is "Now I understand American expression `ROTFL`".
#3
Alright ... this comment falls into wild speculation. Was the Russian SVR somehow involved in this? Who supplied the weapons to the attackers of the Libyan embassy??
#4
Possible, but unlikely Raider. We appear to be perfectly capable of orchestrating our own international disasters. Additionally, the tragic events of the past few days can only complicate the delicate situation the Russians now face in Syria.
#5
Those Russian in Syria, even under the guise of diplomatic immunity, have a fig leaf of protection if the Islamist punk Assad. Putie has reason to be concerned when the 'other side' has no use for Western sensibilities.
[Foreign Policy] President Barack Obama I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick... didn't intend to signal any change in the U.S.-Egypt relationship last night when he said Egypt is not an "ally," the White House told The Cable today.
In an interview with Telemundo Wednesday night, Obama said that the U.S. relationship with the new Egyptian government was a "work in progress," and emphasized that the United States is counting on the government of Egypt to better protect the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, which was attacked by protesters on Sept. 11.
"I don't think that we would consider them an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy," Obama said. "They're a new government that is trying to find its way. They were democratically elected. I think that we are going to have to see how they respond to this incident."
That comment had Egypt watchers scratching their heads, especially since technically, Egypt was designated as a Major Non-NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... Ally in 1989 when Congress first passed the law creating that status, which gives them special privileges in cooperating with the United States, especially in the security and technology arenas.
White House front man Tommy Vietor told The Cable Thursday that the administration is not signaling a change in that status.
"I think folks are reading way too much into this," Vietor said. "'Ally' is a legal term of art. We don't have a mutual defense treaty with Egypt like we do with our NATO allies. But as the president has said, Egypt is longstanding and close partner of the United States, and we have built on that foundation by supporting Egypt's transition to democracy and working with the new government."
Vietor referred to Obama's Wednesday phone call with Mohamed Morsy, during which Obama pressed the Egyptian president to ensure the safety and protection of U.S. personnel and facilities in Egypt. Morsy agreed to do so, according to a White House statement on the phone call.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[WKRN] U.S. officials say the Pentagon is moving two warships to the Libyan coast, in the aftermath of the attack in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador and three others.
Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed when an armed mob stormed the U.S. consulate in Benghazi Tuesday and set it ablaze.
Officials say one destroyer, the USS Laboon, moved to a position off the coast Wednesday, and the USS McFaul is en route and should be stationed off the coast within days. The officials say the ships, which carry Tomahawk missiles, do not have a specific mission. But they give commanders flexibility to respond to any mission ordered by the president.
U.S. Sherlocks are looking into whether the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya was a coordinated terrorist assault to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and not just spontaneous mob violence triggered by an anti-Islam video on YouTube.
The speaker of Libya's Parliament says the attackers "may have had foreign loyalties" - an apparent reference to international terrorists.
President Barack Obama I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go... says the U.S. will work with the Libyan government to find those responsible and vows: "Justice will be done."
The U.S. Embassy says its consulate in Berlin has been evacuated as a precaution after an employee reported a strange smell from an envelope.
Spokeswoman Ruth Bennett said the smell came from an envelope containing supporting materials for a visa application given to consular employees by the applicant in person Thursday morning.
There were no reports of injuries and American and German authorities are now examining the contents of the applicant.
Bennett says she has no immediate information on the status of the person who brought the envelope in.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
(CBS) -- Winslow Township police say a Camden County pharmacist turned the tables on a would-be robber Wednesday. Around 2 p.m., a man allegedly armed with a gun entered Jolin's Pharmacy at 412 Sicklerville Road in Winslow Township and demanded Oxycontin from the pharmacist.
Police say the pharmacist, identified as Dr. John Agyemang, distracted the suspect by telling him there was someone entering the store. While the suspect turned around, Agyemang ran to the back of the store and got his gun, according to police.
The suspect fled the store, with the pharmacist chasing after him. Authorities say Agyemang fired at least five shots at the suspect outside the pharmacy. "Here y'go! Try some o' these pills!"
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The pharmacist needs shooting lessons. But, he's in Camden county. He really needs shooting lessons.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
09/14/2012 14:27
Comments ||
Top||
#2
You watch -- the Camden Co DA's office will file charges -- against the pharmacist.
[blog.heritage.org] Independent federal legal officials have concluded that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius violated federal law by conducting political activity "in an official capacity," according to a statement released on Wednesday.
"Sebelius violated the Hatch Act when she made extemporaneous partisan remarks in a speech delivered in her official capacity on February 25, 2012," the news release from the U.S. Office of Special Council states. "Oh, but that doesn't apply to Democrats! And remember, it's been around since the '20s or '30s, at least! It's way obsolete!"
The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their official authority or influence to affect the outcome of an election. A federal employee is permitted to make partisan remarks when speaking in their personal capacity, but not when using their official title or when speaking about agency business.
After the event, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reclassified the trip from official to political and issued a statement to that effect. Secretary Sebelius and HHS reimbursed the U.S. Treasury for all costs and expenses associated with her travel to the event. OSC found no evidence that Secretary Sebelius made any other political statements in her official capacity.
The B.O. regime's decision to allow cabinet secretaries such as Sebelius to speak at events sponsored by large Democratic electioneering groups has raised other Hatch Act concerns.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
No longer illegal - trip was reclassified as political and costs repaid to the gov't. It's like if you get caught robbing a bank but give the money back everything is fine, right?
#2
He is their god! They must speak and chant of him!
The Amazons of Dahomey were crack all-female troops, all female, who also served as royal bodyguards. They were also priestesses and wore crescent moon crowns.
#6
Well yeah, Sebelius attempted to break money appropriations laws in Kansas before being promoted to steward of your body.
For Greensberg, she was instumental in coordinating with the national progressive movement before taking any action, turning a backwoods tragedy into private companies sporting green products paid for by government money.
Don't let the look and behavior fool you (Think grandma from futurama), she is on board and nose deep in the collectivist movement. In fact, I could listen to the arguement that she has been groomed for just such this position - no other reason for her, a nobody from a nobody state, to have the State of the Union rebuttle back in the W days (2008) except for her insurance busting days and grandmotherly behavior.
And she is as Kansan as Obama is. She is, in fact, from Ohio from generational high level government lineage, former governor of Ohio, just drives better than a Kennedy.
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/14/2012 19:24
Comments ||
Top||
#12
During the Bush years, if a Republican politician had an integrity issue, he resigned immediately under Republican pressure. But when a Dhimmicrat had an integrity issue, the Republicans never put any pressure on the Dhimmicrat poli to resign.
I always felt that the reason you put pressure on your own, was to give legitimacy for putting a full court press on the opposition as well. Didn't happen, should've happen. Not happening even now!
[An Nahar] Somalia's newly elected president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has been moved to the secure presidential compound following an liquidation bid at his hotel, officials said Thursday.
Hassan was unharmed after two blasts went off Wednesday outside the hotel where he had been meeting a visiting Kenyan delegation, but three soldiers were killed in what appeared to be an attack by multiple jacket wallahs.
A front man for the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Mission in Somalia, Colonel Ali Houmed, said the new head of state who was elected Monday is now staying at Villa Somalia, which was still home to outgoing president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Western observers had said they were surprised the new president was housed in a hotel -- even if it was just a few hundred meters from the capital's well-protected airport, which is AMISOM's main base -- rather than at Villa Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Dawn] An apparent suicide case turned out one of a murder when body of a 23-year-old girl was exhumed on the insistence of police here and a four-member team of district headquarters hospital carried out the post-mortem.
Station house officer of Mulkhow cop shoppe Adam Gul told Dawn on Wednesday that a girl, Qadir Gul, of Pakhturi Oveer went missing on August 27 from her home and her body was later recovered from a local river on Sept 3.
He said that relatives of the girl buried her before arrival of police to avoid post-mortem and told them that she had did away with himself by jumping into the river, but they could not explain circumstances related to the incident.
However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... the police stressed for exhumation of the body to determine real cause of the girl's death.
About the post-mortem report, a senior doctor of the DHQ hospital told this scribe that the girl's skull was badly smashed, which caused her death.
The SHO said that a murder case would be initiated on the basis of the report, which proved that the girl was killed and her body thrown into water. The medical team also included two lady doctors.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart... in a statement a local rights activist, Niaz A Niazi, praised the local police for their efforts to establish the real cause of the girl's death.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] Pakistain on Thursday stepped up security measures around US diplomatic missions, following attacks on American consulates and embassies in Libya, Egypt and Yemen over an anti-Islam film.
A mob stormed the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on Tuesday, killing US ambassador Christopher Stevens and several other staff members.
There were also anti-US protests in Egypt's capital Cairo and on Thursday a crowd stormed the American embassy complex in Yemeni capital Sanaa before being driven out by police.
"We have beefed up the security for the possible threats to the US embassy," Khurram Rasheed, a senior police official responsible for diplomats' security in Islamabad, told AFP. "We expect some protests against the embassy tomorrow and we are preparing to handle that."
The US embassy in Islamabad lies inside the city's heavily-fortified diplomatic enclave, and Rasheed said the entrance would be closed and extra security forces deployed.
In the eastern city of Lahore, police said they have issued an alert to protect the US consulate.
"The security is already tight but we have issued an alert to be careful for any urgent situation," Abdul Ghaffar Qaisrani, senior police official responsible for security, told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[20 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
... in which Hillary irreparably soils what hadn't been that bad a term of office...
[An Nahar] U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John Jay ... on Thursday condemned an amateur anti-Islam film which has sparked violent Middle East protests, stressing the U.S. government had nothing to do with it.
"To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible. It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose, to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage," Clinton said.
"The United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its content and message."
The top U.S. diplomat also reiterated: "There is no justification, none at all, for responding to this video with violence." The "wudn't me" argument. But it was us, because we have free speech, whether Hillary finds the output "disgusting" or not. I'll go with my pal, Putin, and stress that diplomatic missions have to be immune from violence. For one thing, the people whose people are storming embassies and consulates have embassies and consulates of their own. The only reason ours are stormed is because the people doing it don't expect any repercussions.
Protests have erupted for three days running outside U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere by demonstrators who deem the low-budget movie "Innocence of Mohammedans" made in the United States as offensive to Islam.
U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed when heavily-armed snuffies launched a sustained four-hour attack on the U.S. mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi late Tuesday.
Condemning the violence, Clinton said at the launch of a strategic dialogue between the United States and Morocco that all "leaders in government, leaders in civil society or religious leaders must draw the line at violence."
"Any responsible leader should be standing up now and drawing that line," she added.
"It is especially wrong for violence to be directed against diplomatic missions. These are places whose very purpose is peaceful to promote better understanding across countries and cultures.
"All governments have a responsibility to protect those spaces and people. Because to attack an embassy is to attack the idea that we can work together to build understanding and a better future."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
Scapegoating. Getting as good as Hussein at the blame game while everyone else knows it was a well coordinated event planned for 9/11.
And YOU gave moral and material support this movement known as the "Arab Spring" that just blew up in your face, Hildebeast.
#3
"To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible. It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose, to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage.
The United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its content and message."
However it is the official policy of the US government to order that Bibles be burned as 'trash' because the US government rejects the Bibles' 'content and message.'
Denigration of Christianity and support for islamofascism is official government policy.
#4
IMO both Hillary and Obama ultimately have responsibility for security policies our embassies. It also seems to me that the attacks on our sovereignty were acts of war. Both Libya and Egypt have a responsibility for security. If they cannot do this, pull the money and our embassies until they can insure security. Screw whatever the video was about or who did it.
[An Nahar] A customer in Shenzhen, China, took a brand new laptop out of its box and booted it up for the first time. But as the screen lit up, the computer began taking on a life of its own. The machine, triggered by a virus hidden in its hard drive, began searching across the Internet for another computer.
The laptop, supposedly in pristine, super-fast, direct-from-the-factory condition, had instantly become part of an illegal, global network capable of attacking websites, looting bank accounts and stealing personal data.
For years, online investigators have warned consumers about the dangers of opening or downloading files emailed to them from unknown or suspicious sources. Now, they say malicious software and computer code could be lurking on computers before the bubble wrap even comes off.
The shopper in this case was part of a team of Microsoft researchers in China investigating the sale of counterfeit software. They suddenly had been introduced to a malware called Nitol. The incident was revealed in court documents unsealed Thursday in a federal court in Virginia. The records describe a new front in a legal campaign against cybercrime being waged by the maker of the Windows operating system, which is the biggest target for viruses.
The documents are part of a computer fraud lawsuit filed by Microsoft against a web domain registered to a Chinese businessman named Peng Yong. The company says it is a major hub for illicit Internet activity. The domain is home base for Nitol and more than 500 other types of malware, making it the largest single repository of infected software that Microsoft officials have ever encountered.
Peng, the owner of an Internet services firm, said he was not aware of the Microsoft lawsuit but he denied the allegations and said his company does not tolerate improper conduct on the domain, 3322.org. Three other unidentified individuals accused by Microsoft of establishing and operating the Nitol network are also named in the suit.
What emerges most vividly from the court records and interviews with Microsoft officials is a disturbing picture of how vulnerable Internet users have become, in part because of weaknesses in computer supply chains. To increase their profit margins, less reputable computer manufacturers and retailers may use counterfeit copies of popular software products to build machines more cheaply. Plugging the holes is nearly impossible, especially in less regulated markets like China, and that leaves openings for cybercriminals.
"They're really changing the ways they try to attack you," said Richard Boscovich, a former federal prosecutor and a senior attorney in Microsoft's digital crimes unit.
And distance doesn't equal safety. Nitol, for example, is an aggressive virus found on computers in China, the United States, Russia, Australia and Germany. Microsoft has even identified servers in the Cayman Islands controlling Nitol-infected machines. All these compromised computers become part of a botnet -- a collection of compromised computers -- one of the most invasive and persistent forms of cybercrime.
Nitol, meanwhile, appears poised to strike. Infection rates have peaked, according to Patrick Stratton, a senior manager in Microsoft's digital crimes unit who filed a document in the court case explaining Nitol and its connection to the 3322.org domain.
For Microsoft, pursuing cybercriminals is a smart business. Its Windows operating system runs most of the computers connected to the Internet. Victims of malware are likely to believe their problems stem from Windows instead of a virus they are unaware of, and that damages the company's brand and reputation.
But more than Microsoft's image is stake when counterfeit products are tainted by malware that spreads so rapidly, Boscovich said. "It's more than simply a traditional intellectual property issue," Boscovich said. "It's now become a security issue."
The investigation by Microsoft's digital crimes unit began in August 2011 as a study into the sale and distribution of counterfeit versions of Windows. Microsoft employees in China bought 20 new computers from retailers and took them back to a home with an Internet connection.
They found forged versions of Windows on all the machines and malware pre-installed on four. The one with Nitol, however, was the most alarming because the malware was active.
"As soon as we powered on this particular computer, of its own accord without any instruction from us, it began reaching out across the Internet, attempting to contact a computer unfamiliar to us," Stratton said in the document filed with the court.
Stratton and his colleagues also found Nitol to be highly contagious. They inserted a thumb drive into the computer and the virus immediately copied itself onto it. When the drive was inserted into a separate machine, Nitol quickly copied itself on to it.
Microsoft examined thousands of samples of Nitol, which has several variants, and all of them connected to command-and-control servers associated with the 3322.org domain, according to the court records.
"In short, 3322.org is a major hub of illegal Internet activity, used by criminals every minute of every day to pump malware and instructions to the computers of innocent people worldwide," Microsoft said in its lawsuit.
Peng, the registered owner of 3322.org, said he has "zero tolerance" for the misuse of domain names and works with Chinese law enforcement whenever there are complaints. Still, he said, his huge customer base makes policing difficult.
"Our policy unequivocally opposes the use of any of our domain names for malicious purposes," Peng said in a private chat via Sina Weibo, a service like Twitter that's very popular in China. "We currently have 2.85 million domain names and cannot exclude that individual users might be using domain names for malicious purposes."
But past warnings by other online security firms have been ignored by Peng, Boscovich said. 3322.org accounted for more than 17 percent of the world's malicious web transactions in 2009, according to Zscaler, a computer security firm in San Jose, Calif. In 2008, Russian security company Kaspersky Lab reported that 40 percent of all malware programs, at one point or another, connected to 3322.org.
U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, who is presiding in the case, granted a request from Microsoft to begin steering Internet traffic from 3322.org that has been infected by Nitol and other malwares to a special site called a sinkhole. From there, Microsoft can alert affected computer users to update their anti-virus protection and remove Nitol from their machines.
Since Lee issued the order, more than 37 million malware connections have been blocked from 3322.org, according to Microsoft.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A more interesting question: Who manufactured the hard drive?
[ABC News] One of the Americans killed alongside Ambassador Christopher Stevens in an attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya Tuesday told ABC News before his death that he was working with the State Department on an intelligence mission to round up dangerous weapons in the war-torn nation.
In an interview with ABC News last month, Glen Doherty, a 42-year-old former Navy SEAL who worked as a contractor with the State Department, said he personally went into the field to track down so-called MANPADS, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, and destroy them. After the fall of dictator Muammar Qadaffy ...Proof that a madman with money will be politely received for at least 42 years until his people get tired of him and kill him... , the State Department launched a mission to round up thousands of MANPADS that may have been looted from military installations across the country. U.S. officials previously told ABC News they were concerned the MANPADS could fall into the hands of terrorists, creating a threat to commercial airliners.
Doherty said that he traveled throughout Libya chasing reports of the weapons and once they were found, his team would destroy them on the spot by bashing them with hammers or repeatedly running them over with their vehicles. When ABC News spoke to Doherty in late August, he was enjoying a short time off in Caliphornia before heading back to Libya just days ago.
The State Department declined to comment on Doherty's involvement in the MANPADS program, but pointed to a previous statement from State Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro in which he said the department was looking at "every possible tool to mitigate the threat."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
So Stevens security detail was a man short and Doherty tagged along on this trip as extra security help for the Ambo? What about the day job? Interesting contract. I damn sorry everyone got dead, but send us more info please.
#2
He might have gone along on the trip to get some face time with the ambassador -- hard enough to get otherwise. Or his interest in Benghazi that day merely coincided with that of Stevens.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012 8:49
Comments ||
Top||
#3
The potentially unarmed piece bothers me. There should be dead bad guys all around. Stevens may have thought, as many State Department do, that guns are icky or he wrongly perceived he was not a target, that all of his area familiarization, linquistic ability, or host nation good deeds insulated him from danger.
#5
Good question swksvolFF, but unlikely. Folks that search for weapons, especially challenging to operate battery operated weapons, usually have 'deep pockets' and receive plenty of smiles and invites for tea.
#6
I dunno how often you guys take air flights thru places like Africa. But every time the plane's wheels lift off the tarmac, I pray there's not a bad guy hidden at the end of that runway with a MANPAD. It's not hard to take down an airliner. AQ has come close a couple of times already.
People like Glen Doherty were doing the world a favor - a BIG favor. There are not many job assignments that an ex-SEAL could have that would make a more positive contribution.
[An Nahar] A man was charged with terrorism offences in Australia Thursday after a series of raids connected to a Melbourne Islamic center.
The 23-year-old was charged after a police swoop on properties across the city netted computers, firearms and a thumb drive containing "violent orc materials" linked to a group at the al-Furqan Islamic Center. "Where you headed off to, Mahmoud?"
"Goin' down to the Furkan Islamic centre. Wanna come along?"
"Yeah. Lemme stop by home and pick up my furkan megaphone."
"The individual has been charged with four counts of 'collecting or making documents likely to facilitate terrorist acts'," police said in a statement.
"The maximum penalty for this offence is 15 years imprisonment."
The man was tossed in the slammer Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! during Wednesday's raids at al-Furqan and more than 10 associated properties and police said he was due to face court later Thursday.
Police confirmed that further "operational activity" was under way but could not provide details, following reports of a fresh search of a home in eastern Melbourne on Thursday morning.
The raids are linked to a group from the center who police allege were "contemplating and getting information" about terrorist activities, though they stressed no plot was yet in train.
Local Mohammedans described the al-Furqan center group, linked to an outspoken holy man named Sheikh Haron, as being on the fringes of the community and having radical views.
"They are a splinter group that decided to go their own way. They had their own ideologies and interpretations and the other stuff that goes with it," said one man who occasionally prayed at the facility.
Another local told The Age newspaper Haron's following was "not large but his teachings are very fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... . He's a pretty marginalized figure in the Mohammedan community".
Among material being searched for by police, according to The Age, was "Inspire" -- an al-Qaeda-linked publication that last year featured an image of the Sydney Opera House, the first time an Australian landmark has been prominent in orc material according to the government.
Neighbors of the tossed in the slammer Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! man said they were stunned.
"They were pretty quiet and were always covered up when I saw the women," one neighbor who did not wish to be named told local media.
"They were not unpleasant but I'm just shocked."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Takfir wal-Hijra
[An Nahar] Yemeni police Thursday rubbed out a protester and maimed five others when they opened fire on a crowd attempting to storm the U.S. embassy in Sanaa to protest a film mocking Islam, a security official said. "Death to America! Death to the Zionists! Death to -- [BANG!] -- aaaiiieee! My brisket!"
The shooting came as protesters, chanting "O, messenger of Allah... O, Mohammed," launched a second charge on the complex which they had stormed earlier but were ejected by the security forces.
President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi apologized to his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama Why can't I just eat my waffle?... and the American people for the acts of a "mob" and ordered a probe.
"Those who are behind (the attack) are a mob that are not aware of the far-reaching plots of Zionist forces, especially those of made a film insulting the prophet," said Hadi.
Some protesters said they saw three vehicles being torched by some of the demonstrators after they gained access to the compound through an unguarded security gate.
After being evicted from the complex on their first assault, protesters retreated about 100 meters (yards) from the gate, gathering near a checkpoint where they chanted anti-Jewish slogans.
"O, Jews: Khaybar, Khaybar. The army of Mohammed will return," they chanted evoking a 7th century war in the west of the Arabian Peninsula in which the Mohammedans are said to have defeated the Jews.
They then launched a second bid to access the compound, prompting police to fire on the crowd, witnesses said.
The violent protests in Sanaa come two days after four Americans, including the ambassador, were killed when a Libyan mob attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and protesters in Cairo tore down the Stars and Stripes and replaced it with a black Islamic flag.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
a tad slow on the go, but better late than never.
One hopes the lesson is learned and Champ will encourage this response elsewhere rather than running the marine who dropped the hammer through the mill.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
09/14/2012 3:21
Comments ||
Top||
#2
A single warning blast from a flamethrower for the first over the walls to see. Thirty seconds later if they arent clumbing back in a hurry you fry them.
Not our fault they scaled the walls right into the middle of flamethrower practice.
[An Nahar] The U.N. atomic agency's board approved with a crushing majority Thursday a resolution criticizing Iran brought by world powers that was also aimed at dissuading Israel from military action.
The resolution expresses "serious concern that Iran continues to defy" U.N. Security Council resolutions for it to suspend uranium enrichment, a process which can be used for peaceful purposes but also in a nuclear weapon.
It also highlights the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency's complaint that activities at the Parchin base near Tehran, where it suspects nuclear weapons research took place, would "significantly hamper" inspectors -- should Iran let them visit.
The resolution was introduced at the meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors on Wednesday after days of haggling between Western nations and Russia and China, which are seen as more lenient on Tehran.
It was approved by 31 countries, with Cuba voting against and Egypt, Ecuador and Tunisia abstaining, all four of them members of the Non-Aligned Movement of which Iran is currently the rotating president.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[An Nahar] Al-Qaeda on Thursday posted an online video of two plane hijackers of the September 11, 2001 suicide kabooms, which they said were part of a war to drive U.S. forces out of the Arabian Peninsula.
Salim al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdar, two of the 19 gunnies who hijacked the four airliners, appeared reading their wills, in a video produced by As-Sahab media arm of al-Qaeda and provided by the U.S.-based SITE Monitoring Services.
Mihdar, dressed in a military jacket and a white turban, with a machinegun to his left, said he was reading his will on 21 Safar 1422, on the Islamic calendar, which was April 26, 2001.
Mihdar is believed to have landed in the United States in January 2000.
"Arab leaders... have gone far in betraying their nation and have permitted Christian Americans into the land of the two holy sites" of Mecca and Medina, he said.
The operation was "part of jihad (holy war) campaign against the United States and its supporters," said Hazmi in a separate message.
"It is to restore dignity for Mohammedans and to drive you out of the Arabian Peninsula," said Hazmi, who appeared with a patchy beard, wearing a brown thawb garment and a black turban.
"The Aqsa mosque (in Jerusalem) is being desecrated... and the Arabian Peninsula is full of U.S. and British troops that fight Allah," he said in a clear reference to foreign troops based at the time in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face....
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
Baku -- Iranian students have recently started their rally in front of the Swiss embassy in Tehran, as a result of an anti-Islamic movie, Fars reported. Isn't 'Talib' a word for student?
Tomorrow, after the Friday Prayer, such rallies are planned to be held in all cities of Iran.
Earlier today Iran's Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani has condemned as 'abhorrent' the anti-Islam movie made in the US which insults Prophet Mohammad. Iranian students are expressing their support for the youth of Egypt and Libya, many of whom have become enraged because of the film.
The so called students read out a statement, urging all Muslim nations to unite and act, and shouted slogans on accepting prophet Mohammad. Remember it was "students" who seized the US Embassy in 1979...
Because of the amount of people in front of the embassy, Iranian police has build up 5 layers of defense, to protect the embassy's diplomats.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
The killings of the US ambassador to Libya and three of his staff were likely to have been the result of a serious and continuing security breach [according to the Independent.] American officials believe the attack was planned, but Chris Stevens had been back in the country only a short while and the details of his visit to Benghazi, where he and his staff died, were meant to be confidential.
According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and "lockdown", under which movement is severely restricted.
According to security sources the consulate had been given a "health check" in preparation for any violence connected to the 9/11 anniversary. In the event, the perimeter was breached within 15 minutes of an angry crowd starting to attack it at around 10pm on Tuesday night. There was, according to witnesses, little defence put up by the 30 or more local guards meant to protect the staff. Ali Fetori, a 59-year-old accountant who lives near by, said: "The security people just all ran away and the people in charge were the young men with guns and bombs."
An eight-strong American rescue team was sent from Tripoli and taken by troops under Captain Fathi al- Obeidi, of the February 17 Brigade, to the secret safe house to extract around 40 US staff. The building then came under fire from heavy weapons. "I don't know how they found the place to carry out the attack. It was planned, the accuracy with which the mortars hit us was too good for any ordinary revolutionaries," said Captain Obeidi. "It began to rain down on us, about six mortars fell directly on the path to the villa." Libyan reinforcements eventually arrived, and the attack ended. News had arrived of Mr Stevens, and his body was picked up from the hospital and taken back to Tripoli with the other dead and the survivors.
Eight Americans, some from the military, were wounded in the attack which claimed the lives of Mr Stevens, Sean Smith, an information officer, and two US Marines. All staff from Benghazi have now been moved to the capital, Tripoli, and those whose work is deemed to be non-essential may be flown out of Libya. Sensitive documents have gone missing from the consulate in Benghazi and the supposedly secret location of the "safe house" in the city, where the staff had retreated, came under sustained mortar attack. Other such refuges across the country are no longer deemed "safe". Some of the missing papers from the consulate are said to list names of Libyans who are working with Americans, putting them potentially at risk from extremist groups, while some of the other documents are said to relate to oil contracts.
Wissam Buhmeid, the commander of the Tripoli government-sanctioned Libya's Shield Brigade, effectively a police force for Benghazi, maintained that it was anger over the Mohamed video which made the guards abandon their post. "There were definitely people from the security forces who let the attack happen because they were themselves offended by the film; they would absolutely put their loyalty to the Prophet over the consulate. The deaths are all nothing compared to insulting the Prophet."
Senior officials are increasingly convinced, however, that the ferocious nature of the Benghazi attack, in which rocket-propelled grenades were used, indicated it was not the result of spontaneous anger due to the video, called Innocence of Muslims. Patrick Kennedy, Under-Secretary at the State Department, said he was convinced the assault was planned due to its extensive nature and the proliferation of weapons. There is growing belief that the attack was in revenge for the killing in a drone strike in Pakistan of Mohammed Hassan Qaed, an al-Qa'ida operative who was, as his nom-de-guerre Abu Yahya al-Libi suggests, from Libya, and timed for the anniversary of the 11 September attacks.
#1
The fact that someone new the ambassador's travel itinerary plus the location of our safe houses indicates that terrorists are "reading our mail" or there is a mole in the state dept.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/14/2012 11:48
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The fact that someone [k]new the ambassador's travel itinerary plus the location of our safe houses
Means that your embassy coordinated with local authorities---all embassies do.
#4
DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US AMBASSADOR STEVENS WAS RAPED BEFORE HE WAS MURDERED | [Teyyar News Service, Lebanon] REPORTS HAVE SURFACED THAT AMBASSADOR STEVENS WAS RAPED BEFORE HIS MURDER.
Afterwards his corpse was presented to the protestors Gaddafi-style.
[Dawn] Pakistain on Thursday blocked access to an anti-Islam film as security measures beefed up around US diplomatic missions, following attacks on American consulates and embassies in Libya, Egypt and Yemen.
The Afghan government earlier ordered an indefinite ban on the entire YouTube video sharing site to prevent access to the film made in the United States, which Kabul said was offensive to Mohammedans.
"Pakistain Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has proactively blocked and is vigorously preventing all access to the anti-Islamic video placed on the worldwide web via YouTube with the name of 'Innocence of Mohammedans'," it said in a statement.
It said "the authority is in close liaison with all the service providers for immediate blocking of the provocative video", adding that "proactive monitoring and blocking is being done, round the clock".
The PTA, which is the main regulatory authority, is mandated to block blasphemous and pornographic websites.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[24 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Why not just cut off their internet access, to be safe? Satellites, too. Then increase funding to VOA.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/14/2012 5:51
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Correct me if i am wrong but dont muslims criticize other religions on a regular basis online/TV/Mosque etc?
Its seems a little one way here!
Posted by: Paul D ||
09/14/2012 7:52
Comments ||
Top||
For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas state click here.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Armed confrontations between criminal groups and Mexican security forces have killed four since last Tuesday in the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, according to Mexican news and Twitter accounts.
Two gunfights took place Tuesday between armed groups and elements of the Mexican Army according to a news item posted on website of Revista Proceso.
The news item quoted the Tamaulipas Procurduria General de Justicia de Estado, or state attorney general that one gunfight took place in Mil Cumbres colony, leaving one unidentified individual dead and an abandoned Jeep Liberty SUV at the scene. That gunfight took place at around 1350 hrs.
A second confrontation took place in Lomas del Real de Jarachina Sur colony where armed suspects fired on a Mexican Army road patrol. Mexican Army return gunfire killed three suspects. One GMC pickup truck was seized in the aftermath.
Subsequently armed groups in Reynosa put up roadblocks, blocking Bulevar Colosio, UAT Rhode bridge and Bulevar Morelos and others.
Thursday additional gunfights and roadblocks took place in Reynosa, but no reports of dead or wounded have been released by official sources.
A news report posted on the website of Noticias de Tamaulipas news website said that one civilian had been wounded in Calle Quintana Roo, when the victim ran from the area and was reportedly fired on by Mexican Army personnel.
Detentions have been reported. However, the numbers or identifications have not been released.
According to a news item posted on the website of Telvisa, Thursday's gunfights took place on Zona Centro on Calle Madero. Gunfire was also reported in Cumbres and Jarachina colonies.
Mexican Army units had reportedly been reinforcing Reynosa since last Tuesday, and have intensified patrols in the city since Thursday morning.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[An Nahar] The U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed on Thursday sanctions against Hizbullah's leadership in Leb, further exposing Hizbullah's active support to the regime of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... , as well as its role in terrorist activities.
"Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah's secretary general, is being designated today pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13582, for providing support to the Syrian government," said the Treasury in a statement.
"Mustapha Badreddine and Talal Hamiyeh, two senior terrorist leaders of Hizbullah, are being designated today pursuant to E.O. 13224, for providing support to Hizbullah's terrorist activities in the Middle East and around the world," it added.
"By aiding Assad's violent campaign against the Syrian people and working to support a regime that will inevitably fall, Hizbullah's ongoing activity undermines regional stability and poses a direct threat to Leb's security," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen.
"Hizbullah's actions, overseen by Nasrallah and executed by Badreddine and Hamiyeh, clearly reveal its true nature as a terrorist and criminal organization," he continued.
"Hizbullah and its leader Nasrallah have sought to depict their organization as a social and political party, as well as a resistance movement," said the statement.
These efforts are belied by the facts: Hizbullah consistently uses terrorism against civilian targets to achieve its goals, and this trend has only increased recently. The last year has witnessed Hizbullah's most aggressive terrorist plotting outside the Middle East since the 1990s, it revealed.
Moreover, in recent months Hizbullah has also played an increasingly active role in providing support to the Government of Syria, further enabling the regime to carry out its bloody campaign against the Syrian people.
Under the Assad regime, Syria has been a longstanding supporter of Hizbullah -- providing safe haven to Hizbullah and routing weapons, in many cases from Iran, to Hizbullah in Leb. Hizbullah, under the direction of Nasrallah, is now returning the favor by providing training, advice, and extensive logistical support to the Government of Syria as the Assad regime continues to wreak havoc on the Syrian people through the use of terror and violence -- Hizbullah's area of expertise.
"Today's designations build upon a number of actions that the U.S. government has taken against Hizbullah over the years for its support for terrorism and its role in supporting the violence being perpetrated by the Assad regime against the Syrian people," said the U.S. Treasury statement.
Hizbullah was designated for its support to the Government of Syria pursuant to E.O. 13582 in August 2012. It was also named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to E.O. 13224 in October 2001, and listed in the Annex to E.O. 12947 as a Specially Designated Terrorist (SDT) in January 1995. Nasrallah was designated pursuant to E.O. 12947 in January 1995.
"Since the beginning of the Syrian people's courageous campaign in early 2011 to secure their universal rights, Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has overseen Hizbullah's efforts to help the Syrian regime's violent crackdown on the Syrian civilian population by providing training, advice, and extensive logistical support to the Government of Syria. Hizbullah has directly trained Syrian government personnel inside Syria and has facilitated the training of Syrian forces by Iran's terrorist arm, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). Also under Nasrallah, Hizbullah has played a substantial role in efforts to expel Syrian opposition forces from areas within Syria and coordinated its support to the Government of Syria with IRGC-QF and senior Syrian government officials. Indeed, under the direction of Nasrallah, Hizbullah since mid-2012 has escalated its support to the Government of Syria.
Mustafa Badreddine is a senior Hizbullah official who is believed to have replaced his cousin, Imad Mughniyah, as Hizbullah's top beturbanned goon commander after Mughniyah's 2008 death. In June 2011, the prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Leb charged Badreddine with the attack on February 14, 2005 that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others.
Talal Hamiyeh is the head of Hizbullah's External Security Organization (ESO), which maintains organized cells worldwide. The ESO is the Hizbullah element responsible for the planning, coordination, and execution of terrorist attacks outside of Leb.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[CBS] The Times of Israel reports about 100 peaceful demonstrators marched outside the embassy to protest the anti-Islam movie which mocks the prophet Muhammad.
A radical group called the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement led the demonstration, according to the Times of Israel.
A top Israeli Arab Knesset official warned of "Armageddon" if the United Nations ...When talk is your weapon it's hard to make yourself heard over the artillery... does not intervene. "We're stalkin' serious Gog and Magog stuff here: doggies and kitties sleeping together, anti-Christ, anti-anti-Christ, anti-anti-anti-Christ..."
"If the U.N. does not mobilize to stop this erosion, it will be Armageddon," MK Talab el-Sana told the Israeli paper.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[20 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
#1
Don't think Islam wins in a real Armageddon...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
09/14/2012 0:50
Comments ||
Top||
#6
D *** NG, I KNEW IT - twas the late-nite Movie that launched a Milyuhn Ships!
Obviously Israel being surrounded like Custer or the Brits at Isandlhawana by anti-Israeli, anti-US-West, pro-Sharia, pro-Militancy-Jihadism, pro-Caliphate, Nuclear-happy "democratic" Islamist
"democracies" has nothing to do wid it.
SAY IT WID ME, AMERICA = AMERIKA, SHERIFF BUFORD T. JUSTICE > THE G *** D **** GERMANS HAVE GUT NOTHING TO DO WID ANYTHING!
Protesting South African miners have blocked access to shafts of platinum company Amplats as officials sought to prevent the widening strike movement from turning into a nationwide revolt.
Revolt? That's serious.
The latest unrest broke out on Wednesday along roads leading to a shaft run by Amplats - the world's top platinum producer - in the same region as the Lonmin plant where 45 people have died in a wildcat strike that started last month.
On Tuesday night, at the world's largest platinum producer, Amplats, about a thousand workers confronted security. Workers "were unable to clock in for night shift due to fear of intimidation and threats by unidentified individuals in and around our Rustenburg operations", Amplats spokesman Mpumi Sithole said in a statement.
Workers at Gold Fields' Beatrix gold mine, close to Johannesburg, were also due to join the strike later this week, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Wednesday.
At least 45 people have died - including 34 in a police shooting last month which has been described as the worst case of police violence since the end of apartheid - since a strike over pay was launched at the Marikana mine. The site is run by Lonmin, the world's third biggest platinum producer, and workers there have yet to reach a deal with management and return to work.
Amplats said it had halted work at its four Rustenburg mines, which account for 17 per cent of its output, due to fears for the safety of its 19,000 staff there. Amplats's Rustenburg shafts have been under pressure since platinum prices collapsed after the 2008 financial crisis.
Gold and silver prices are through the roof, and jewelry diamonds have gone up as well, but platinum collapsed? I'll never understand money.
Analysts expect them to be targeted as "restructuring candidates" by parent company Anglo American.
Tensions have been high at the mine, where workers refuse to return to work since striking on August 10 unless the world's number three platinum producer bows to demands for a wage increase to $1,526.
Is that per day, per week, per year? Good job missing the obvious, O Al Jazeera journalist.
The company said only three per cent of its 28,000-strong workforce resumed work, and strongly condemned the intimidation of non-strikers.
Wage talks between the management and workers in Marikana, meanwhile, are in danger of breaking down, religion-based mediation group Bench Marks Foundation said.
No doubt that made more sense in the original English...
An estimated 8,000 striking miners and their followers, shadowed by police in armoured cars and helicopters, marched on Tuesday to a hospital to see some of the 190 miners who say they were beaten and tortured in police custody.
[Julius] Malema took up the workers' call, urging employees at Gold Fields to strike for five days every month until their demands were met.
"This is a serious revolution, don't give up!" Malema told a cheering crowd of around 3,000 at a stadium in Carletonville, west of Johannesburg. "You must render the mines ungovernable." He accused the NUM of being aligned with the country's political elite.
"There must be a national strike. They have been stealing this gold from you. Now it is your turn. You want your piece of gold. These people are making billions from these mines," Malema said.
Malema was expelled earlier this year by the ruling ANC party for ill-discpline. He has since been a vocal critic of President Jacob Zuma, who belongs to the ANC. Once a staunch supporter of Zuma before a fallout as the party's youth leader, Malema has stated he wants to see the head of state removed from the ANC leadership at forthcoming party elections in December. The winner of the vote will automatically become the ANC candidate for the 2014 presidential elections and likely be South Africa's next president.
#1
Melema is a fellow to watch very, very carefully. The mines that have been nationalized (like the farms in Zim) have been allowed to go to ruin and have limited productivity. If not stopped, Melema will likely ride the current mine crisis to power using classic Shakan tactics. The losers in all of this will be the western mine owners, tribal people who fail to follow Malema, and of course the dreaded whites.
That western backed one man, one vote, (one party) "democracy" isn't quite working out as well as expected.
#2
but platinum collapsed? I'll never understand money.
tw, if platinum prices actually have collapsed (and I have not checked), it could be because a major (the largest?) customer is the auto industry, for catalytic converters, and car sales have collapsed.
#3
Glenmore, you are correct that the majority of the platinum 'demand' has fallen due to the downturn of the automotive industry (here in the good ol' catalytic convertin' USA anyway).
More supply, less demand = lower prices. Funny how that evil capitalism works.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/14/2012 15:36
Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] Nine laborers were killed on Thursday when gunnies riding on cycle of violences sprayed bullets at road workers in Pakistain's troubled southwestern province of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , officials said.
A group of four or five gunnies came to the site of road building works in the town of Dasht, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of the scenic provincial capital Quetta, and opened fire, senior administration official Irfan Shah told AFP.
"The gunnies fled on their motorbikes leaving nine people dead and four injured," he said, adding that one was in a critical condition.
Police officer Mohammad Ismail confirmed the toll.
Nobody immediately grabbed credit for the attack. The oil and gas rich province which borders Iran and Afghanistan is plagued by sectarian violence, attacks by Talibs and a tribal insurgency.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Baloch Liberation Army
U.S. Marines defending the American embassy in Egypt were not permitted by the State Department to carry live ammunition, limiting their ability to respond to attacks like those this week on the U.S. consulate in Cairo.
Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson "did not permit U.S. Marine guards to carry live ammunition," according to multiple reports on U.S. Marine Corps blogs spotted by Nightwatch. "She neutralized any U.S. military capability that was dedicated to preserve her life and protect the US Embassy."
U.S. officials have yet to confirm or comment on the reports. Time magazine's Battleland blog reported Thursday "Senior U.S. officials late Wednesday declined to discuss in detail the security at either Cairo or Benghazi, so answers may be slow in coming."
If true, the reports indicate that Patterson shirked her obligation to protect U.S. interests, Nightwatch states.
"She did not defend U.S. sovereign territory and betrayed her oath of office," the report states. "She neutered the Marines posted to defend the embassy, trusting the Egyptians over the Marines."
#2
when i read the denial, it left room for the marines to have been disallowed ammo. The denial only states that the ambassador did not make the order and that both she and the regional security officer were in agreement as to the security situation at the embassy.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
09/14/2012 3:29
Comments ||
Top||
#3
the sad thing is that none of us here would be surprised if Champ (or Jarrett or some other operator in the admin) had ordered that no live ammo be issued. I can totally see the calculus for them that a trashed embassy would be far less damaging an incident than a deader among the rent-a-mob.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
09/14/2012 3:32
Comments ||
Top||
#4
In view of the administration's feckless penchant for body counting, it does seem rather odd that there were...... NO reports of dead embassy attackers or terrorists, not even one.
Difficult to believe those former Navy Seals went down without bodies stacked around them like cordwood.
#6
Roger-Roger P2k. I'd like to read the After Action Report (AAR) of the Regional Security Officer (RSO).....who evidently survived the attack while his principal the Chief of Mission was murdered. I suspect his next assignment will he'll be as a rangemaster.
#7
A little more complicated than our loving press dictates. First, the Marines are probably not allowed to carry live ammo, or weapons for that matter. But right next to the Marine post is the arms locker for this type of event. Second, the Marine mission is to protect the classified in the building and in the event of an attack, they are to protect it and/or destroy it. Defending the Mission/embassy is the RSO and the dip security mission. The PSD for the Ambo falls under the RSO and he failed this mission costing the Ambo and others their lives.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/14/2012 9:43
Comments ||
Top||
#9
#7 It would seem that the dual missions of protection of the embassy staff and protection and/or destruction of classified security documents both fall on the Secretary of State and ultimately on the commander-in-chief.
#11
When the dust settles we may discover that Ambassador Stevens "went native" and threw caution and security to the wind. I hope I am very, very wrong.
#12
B, I think your probably right on that call. Sad but true. Why an Ambo would only have a few security guards tells me a low situational awareness.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/14/2012 10:41
Comments ||
Top||
#13
Well, the alleged movie evidently made a politically extreme lifestyle statement. Was the US Mission the target or was Ambassador Steves specifically tageted as revenge for this statement? Are the reports of torture and sodomy accurate?
#14
B, one other point. You have been in prolonged combat. There comes a time when you realize everyone is out to kill you. You become numb to it and have a hard time deciding what intel is white noise and what intel is the silver bullet and gonna kill you. In that country I would wager there are a lot of reports of attempts on the embassy making it difficult to manage.
Last point. The hit on the Ambo is one thing. At his home and DSS blew it. The walls of the embassy were breached, but the embassy was not taken, that is as I understand it, and the families of essentials have not been neo-d yet. Makes me wonder if they embassy attack was over reported.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/14/2012 10:53
Comments ||
Top||
#15
She also broke the law - Embassy Marine details are NOT allowed to be disarmed, ever, by diplo personnel. They can be told to stand down, but NEVER disarmed.
#17
I suspect his next assignment will he'll be as a range master.
Quartermaster...Adak Alaska.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
09/14/2012 14:31
Comments ||
Top||
#18
#6 One of the two that were wounded will be lucky to survive. In critical condition with serious head wounds.
#14 Easy to say when you have no idea what actually happened. He was not at his home. His home was in Tripoli and he was visiting the consulate in Benghazi for a publicized event.
#15 If in fact she disarmed the Marines - what law did she break? Be specific - what section of the US criminal code did she violate? You can't just say some one broke the law and not know the statute. I'm highly suspect of this report.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
09/14/2012 18:13
Comments ||
Top||
#19
The classified contract between State and DOD/MCH for Embassy protection services. Facility security, as opposed to DSS.
#20
BB, the Goldwater-Nichols Act stipulates the legal the 'chain of command', incorporated into Title 10 USC. I don't recall the Ambassador in that DoD chain. Further the military are subject to UCMJ which requires action to be taken only by those in the chain of command. Much like allied commands [ie NATO], there is co-operation but never a surrender of authority to those outside the lawfully designated command and UCMJ authority.
KARACHI: More than 310 people have perished in fires that gutted factories in Pakistans two largest cities, in tragedies that prompted calls for an overhaul of poor industrial safety standards, officials said yesterday.
At least 280 people died at a garment factory in Karachi, in the worst blaze in decades to hit Pakistans biggest city, just hours after 21 died at a shoe factory in Lahore, close to the Indian border.
Dozens of others were hurt in Karachi as they jumped out of windows from the four-story building to escape the blaze that began Tuesday evening in a bid to save their lives, as sobbing relatives of trapped workers scuffled with police overnight.
Our firefighters are finding bodies in greater numbers from the lower floors of the factory, Karachi fire chief Ehtesham Salim said. We didnt find bodies in ones or twos, but in the dozens, which is why the death toll is increasing so alarmingly."
Salim said the fire probably originated on the ground floor, giving those workers in the basement and on that level less time to escape.
Abdus Salam, a doctor at Karachis Civil Hospital, said at least 65 workers suffered broken bones after jumping out of windows. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said he had ordered an inquiry into both fires, as officials said the factory in Karachi in particular had been flimsily built, lacked emergency exits and had developed cracks in the walls.
It was packed like a box with little room left for ventilation. There were no emergency exits, Salim said.
According to workers, the factory produced underwear and plastic utensils.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
May the families find strength and be comforted ...
Oh dear gawd...
Former President Jimmy Carter spoke to students at Drake University in Des Moines today and was asked if he agreed with what Obama said about Egypt:
Carter: "Egypt is an ally of the US, we know Egypt well."
President Obama had earlier stated during an interview, "You know, I dont think that we would consider them an ally, but we do not consider them an enemy."
Carter went on to talk about Egypt's new President, Mohamed Morsi, saying that he knew him well and that they had met. He added that Morsi was dedicated to peace and a democratic government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
Umm... Did we ever conduct joint military exercises with egypt? If so they are probably an ally. This man is so stupid. He is totally out of his league.
BO is so much worse than any POTUS we have ever had that he is in a category by himself. I think Carter is trying to move up the list and wants to make sure BO is dead last.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
09/14/2012 11:08
Comments ||
Top||
The military's top uniformed leader decided on his own to phone an extremist Florida pastor linked to an inflammatory anti-Islamic online video, the Pentagon said Thursday -- no one else asked him to do so.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey called Florida pastor Terry Jones on Wednesday to ask him to withdraw his support for the video that some reports have linked with anti-American unrest in the Muslim world, a spokesman said. Military leaders aren't supposed to do that.
Didn't someone at that office call the good pastor last time around, too?
"He called of his own initiative over concern that the violence incited by the film would pose risks to U.S. service members around the world," said Marine Col. Dave Lapan. I appreciate the concern but you don't fix that by intimidating American citizens into giving up their First Amendment rights. Our military is supposed to defend itself. If our military is in a position where they can't do that, get them the hell out of that position.
Muslim protestors have reportedly cited the video as one reason for this week's attacks against American diplomatic missions, including embassies in Yemen and Cairo and the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, where the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed on Tuesday. The other reason was that they just wanted to kill Americans...
When asked at a press briefing about whose decision it was to call Jones, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little added: "Gen. Dempsey was willing to call pastor Jones. The kinds of words and actions that pastor Jones has spread have incited violence and have led to deaths, including in Afghanistan and including American service members. I think that's why he called. It was a brief conversation and pastor Jones was non-committal."
Jones first gained national attention when he threatened to burn Korans on Sept. 11., 2010. After Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Gen. David Petraeus condemned the threat and said it would put American service members at risk, Jones called off the burning. Gates phoned him to appeal personally. Still, Jones wound up burning a Koran after all earlier this year.
Clinton gave a statement Thursday at the State Department in which she emphasized that the American government had no connection with the online video and that it rejects insults against any religion. It also apparently is willing to sacrifice the rights of American citizens...
Also in the briefing, Little declined to go into detail about press reports that commanders had ordered two Navy warships to the Libyan coast after Tuesday's attack on the consulate.
"On the issue of assets being moved toward Libya, I'll be very clear: We do have ships in the Mediterranean," he said. "We have had ships in the Mediterranean for some time. None of our naval vessels in that region have been assigned any specific mission with respect to Libya. Our assets in the region are prepared to respond to any contingency. That's what the U.S. military does. But again, they haven't been assigned a specific mission."
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I don't want to be complicit in phoning Florida pastors.
#2
"Clinton gave a statement Thursday at the State Department in which she emphasized that the American government had no connection with the online video and that it rejects insults against any religion."
Calling Holy Scripture 'trash' and ordering it burned apparently doesn't count as an insult.
Pentagon office sneezing and car parking totally out of control. General Dempsey orders the errection of new Slugging tents, medics, and mandetory flu shots along I-95 corridor.
#4
"He called of his own initiative over concern that the violence incited by the film would pose risks to U.S. service members around the world,"
re: Secretary Panetta directed the call and we had to come up with an excuse that is so absolutely lame given all the administration's actions which daily/hourly endanger service members around the the world.
#5
"Clinton gave a statement Thursday at the State Department in which she emphasized that the American government had no connection with the online video and that it rejects insults against any religion."
-there, that should've been the end of it. Quit qualifying statements to appease these clowns you only look stupid Madame Secretary.
#6
SECDEF Panetta decided not to task any of the dozens of his civilian handmaidens to make the call... but rather asked the senior uniformed officer to make it ?
#7
Dempsey doesn't understand the place of the military in America and the dangerous precedent he has set by interfering in civilian political activities. He is a disgrace and should resign for the good of the service.
#10
Clinton gave a statement Thursday at the State Department in which she emphasized that the American government had no connection with the online video and that it rejects insults against any religion.
Please don't kill the masters. Kill the serfs. And for your convenience, we've even identified the guy to the press and provided a general location.
#12
As I dig into this, let us suppose for the sake of arguement that General Dempsey's anxiety regarding this alleged movie had something to do with it's lifestyle content. Was Ambassador Stevens targeted for a similar reason ?
#14
I'm not prepared to go there NS. I will just say there are pieces that appear to be fitting together that point to a targeted hit or hostage taking situation. What was the motive?
1. North African Tehran 1979.
2. Islamists appear as strong horse to seize control in power vacuum resulting from Arab Spring.
3. Divert attention from area of primary activity.
What I don't get is why do this to Baraq ibn Baraq right before the election. Do they think this will help their best friend?
Divining motivation is tricky and perhaps impossible. The question is when they do something like this, how do we react? They should be able to learn that their actions have consequences and if they don't they can suffer the Darwin effect.
#17
Sept 11 seems to juicy a date to skip. They would have been smart to hit right after the election to ensure the US had cooled before Romney took office and it could be used to undercut Romney. And if Obama won you undercut him and force him to grovel even more.
Never forgive, never forget, never understand. And never drop the investigation.
[Dawn] Police in Indian Kashmire have cooled for a few years Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! a myrmidon suspected of involvement in the 1999 hijacking of an Indian passenger plane that was flown to Afghanistan, a government front man told AFP Thursday.
Mehrajuddin Dand, alias Javed was cooled for a few years Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! by police in Kashmire's Kishtwar district on Thursday morning, ending a near 13-year-old pursuit of the forces of Evil behind the high-profile hijacking.
The New Delhi-bound Indian Airlines aircraft, flight IC-814, with 157 people on board was seized and flown to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar by five men after it took off from the Nepalese capital Kathmandu on December 24, 1999.
Kuldeep Singh Dhatwalia, a front man for the home ministry told AFP that Dand was cooled for a few years Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! in the morning and that the "initial investigation reveals that he provided logistical support to the hijackers".
Media reports said that Dand had provided assistance and fake travel documents to the five hijackers, none of whom were apprehended by police after the incident.
Dhatwalia claimed Dand moved across the border between India and Pakistain for years until police nabbed him.
"He is being questioned in a number of other cases as well, but we cannot reveal those details yet," he said.
The 1999 hijack crisis ended after India's then Hindu nationalist government swapped three Islamist forces of Evil imprisoned in New Delhi for the captives.
Five actual hijackers -- Ibrahim Athar, who is a brother of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, S. A. Sayed alias Doctor, Z. I. Mistri alias Bhola and R. G. Verma alias Shakir -- commandeered the plane to Kandahar after it was refused landing request in Pakistain.
Following tense negotiations with Indian officials the hijackers successfully got Azhar and two other forces of Evil released from Indian jails in exchange for the passengers and the plane. Indian foreign minister at the time Jaswant Singh and bigwigs escorted the freed inmates to Kandahar where the exchange took place.
The prisoners released by India included Mushtaq Zargar, chief of Al-Umar Mujahideen myrmidon outfit.
The third free myrmidon, Ahmed Saeed Sheikh, also known as Sheikh Omar, was later involved in the kidnap and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistain -- for which he was cooled for a few years Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! and sentenced to death. ... but so far hasn't had his neck stretched...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[23 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
Michael Totten unloads on Hillary. Totten has the rare blend of intimate, local knowledge of the Middle East, unwillingness to suffer American fools, and an ability to write. Worth the read.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And I find so called honor killings, dancing boys, and moon worship disgusting and reprehensible.
#5
One key thing that is being missed in this article is the assumption that the attackers were reacting to the movie. Evidence has surfaced that this was a multi-level preplanned attack (and that the embassy had warning). So the movie is just a convenient excuse for the attackers to blame America and the U.S. is being played a fool to be apologizing for it.
[Dawn] The Supreme Court on Thursday heard the petition filed by Tehrik-e-Istiqlal chief Air Martial (retd) Asghar Khan pertaining to the distribution of money among politicians by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), DawnNews reported.
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, has been hearing the 1996 petition filed by Khan who accused the ISI of financing politicians in the 1990 elections by dishing out Rs140 million to create the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and prevent Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... 's PPP from winning the polls. The petition was based on an affidavit of former ISI chief Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani.
During the hearing, Attorney General Irfan Qadir informed the bench that the notification enabling the formation of the ISI's political cell was not available.
Khan's counsel Salman Akram Raja failed to appear for the hearing, Raja's Advocate-on-Record informed the court.
Raja could not appear before the bench on account of ill health, the advocate said, requesting the court to adjourn the case's hearing.
Responding to which, Chief Justice Iftikhar remarked that the case was significant and its hearings were crucial, however, due to the counsel's absence on account of ill health, the hearing was being adjourned.
The court, once again, summoned the report pertaining to the establishment of the ISI's political cell and directed the federal defence and interior secretaries to submit their responses.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
CAIRO: An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced former prime minister Ahmed Nazif to three years in prison and to pay a fine of nine million Egyptian pounds ($1.5 million) for illegal enrichment.
Nazif, who left his post in late January 2011 at the start of a popular revolt against then president Hosni Mubarak, was accused of abusing his post to make illegal gains, the official MENA news agency reported. Didn't distance yourself from the big guy early enough, Ahmed...
The Egyptian judiciary has put on show trial several senior officials and businessmen close to the Mubarak regime since its ouster on February 11, 2011, including the long-time leader and his sons.
Nazif, who was close to business circles and viewed as the architect of economic liberalization in Egypt, was charged in July 2011 after being accused of having appropriated state property and embezzling public funds.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said on Thursday the deadly conflict in Syria was getting worse as he arrived on his first official trip aimed at ending nearly 18 months of violence.
"We came to Syria to hold meetings with our Syrian brothers because there is a big crisis, and I think it is getting worse," the official SANA news agency quoted the U.N. and Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy as saying on arrival at Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... airport.
"I think everybody agrees the need to stop the bloodshed and to restore harmony, and we hope that we will succeed" in the mission, said Brahimi, who was appointed two weeks ago to replace former envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... after the failure of his six-point peace plan for Syria.
Brahimi spoke after rebels were reported to have advanced into a key district of the northern city of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... , where activists said at least 11 people were killed in a strike by a helicopter gunship.
"During his visit to Syria, Brahimi will hold talks with the government and with representatives of the Syrian opposition and civil society," said a statement from his front man Ahmad Fawzi, who had previously announced the veteran diplomat from Algeria would meet Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... Brahimi was to meet Foreign Minister Walid Muallem later on Thursday, an official Syrian source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
The White House is flatly rejecting calls from House conservatives to halt U.S. aid to Egypt after a slow response from Cairo in rebuking violent attacks on the U.S. Embassy there Tuesday night.
A group of House conservatives, led by freshman Rep. Jeffrey M. Landry, Louisiana Republican, is calling for foreign aid to both Libya and Egypt to be stripped from a six-month federal funding bill up for a vote Thursday.
Egypt is second only to Israel in the amount of assistance it receives from the U.S., an estimated $2 billion a year, but the White House has no plans to curtail its investment there.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Air Force One on Thursday that the U.S. would not withhold aid to Egypt. We appreciate the public statements that [Egyptian] President Morsi has made condemning acts of violence and honoring its obligation to ensure the safety of Americans, he said. Honored his obligations, did he Jay? How, exactly?
Mr. Morsi on Thursday issued a stronger rebuke to violent protesters in Cairo and Libya, vowing to protect the U.S. Embassy in Cairo after speaking for nearly an hour with President Obama on Wednesday evening. After the new statement, Obama administration officials were toning down their public comments about Egypt and their concern over Mr. Morsis slow response to condemning the violent reaction to an anti-Islam film produced in the U.S.
The Obama administration was already wary of Mr. Morsi's Islamist government, and his tepid response after the attacks is giving them new cause for concern. Oh, it's more than a 'concern'. Perhaps Jay can issue a 'strongly worded statement'?
Mr. Morsi waited a full day before issuing a mild rebuke to the rioters on Facebook while the movement that brought him to power, the Muslim Brotherhood, called for a second day of protests against the anti-Islam film that sparked the protests.
In contrast, Libyan leaders have been fully engaged in cooperating with U.S. authorities to hunt down the killers and bring them to justice and to work to put in place new protections for U.S. personnel in Benghazi and throughout the country. Are they fully engaged or are they shamming? And how would our people know?
The White House on Thursday acknowledged that its partnership with Egypt continues, although it has changed significantly since last springs uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
Campaigning in Golden, Colo., Thursday, Mr. Ladies Tee Obama said the world is going through some tumultuous times but said America would stay true to its commitment to improving the plight of people around the world. By letting them kill our people?
Our task, as the most powerful nation on Earth, is to defend and protect and advance our people, but also to defend and protect and advance those values at home and around the world, he said. Thats what our troops do. Thats what our diplomats do. Thats what our intelligence officers do. Thats what our citizens do. Thats what we believe. Those are the values that we hold to.
Egypt has played a critical role in Americas strategic position in the Middle East for decades, but since last springs uprisings, the U.S. is grappling with an unpredictable relationship with Cairo.
The U.S. is confronting the reality that if you call for democracy, you may just get it, said Anthony Cordesman, a national security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Or you may get a new theocratic thugocracy called the 'Muslim Brotherhood'...
While several countries in the region are finding their way, its likely that the first elections in countries wont produce stable leadership, Mr. Cordesman said, cautioning that the U.S. needs to take the long view and warning officials not to rashly talk about rescinding U.S. aid or risk losing leverage altogether. Sure Mr. Cordesman. Say, there's an opening to be an ambassador. Want it? You could provide us with your 'long-term vision'...
Im not going to paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt exactly, but sometimes you need to speak softly and maintain a big aid program, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Multiple suspects have been arrested in the death earlier this week of US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other US diplomats in Benghazi, Libyan officials announced Thursday, DPA reported.
"Arrest the usual suspects, Corporal!"
"Yessir, your Emirness! That'll be a plumber, a professor, and a little old lady in black, suitable for accusing of witchcraft, as always. Send for Mahmoud the Weasel!"
"And arrest the Weasel, Corporal!"
"Sir?!?!"
"And then let him go. Quietly. It's good for his cover."
Deputy Interior Minister Wanis Al-Sharif would not release details about the people detained. "The results of our investigation must remain secret for now," he said.
The Libyan investigators are following up on evidence indicating that the attack was not spontaneous, rather specifically planned to take place on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
DAMASCUS: Syrian fighters killed at least 18 soldiers in a car bomb and ground attack on a military position in Idlib province yesterday, as fighting also raged in the countrys commercial capital, Aleppo.
Four Armenian Syrians were killed and 13 wounded on the road home from the airport after a trip to Yerevan.
There were 70 to 100 soldiers there when the attack occurred in the town of Saraqeb, Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP. Twenty soldiers escaped, and clashes are still going on, he added.
Abdel Rahman said the details of the incident were still sketchy, and that he could not say whether the car bombing was a suicide attack.
Outside Aleppo, fighting erupted at dawn in the Nayrab area, around five kilometers from the citys airport, which remained fully operational, the Observatory said.
Over the past several weeks, fighters have taken to attacking military airfields in an attempt to prevent them from being used for launching air strikes, while commercial facilities have been left alone. However, this is not the first time there has been fighting around Aleppo airport, which serves the countrys commercial capital.
A friend of the Syrian Armenians told AFP: Its not obvious who opened fire, but the result is that five cars were attacked and four Armenians were killed and 13 or 14 others were wounded.
Some say it was the FSA (Free Syrian Army), but its not clear. We dont have proof and we should wait and see. I dont think the FSA would attack random cars in the street.
Meanwhile, the army shelled a string of neighborhoods in central Aleppo, including Suleiman Al-Halabi, Sheikh Khodr and Qadi Askar, the Britain-based Observatory said.
Helicopter gunships also strafed the rebel district of Bustan Al-Basha, a witness said, and the Observatory reported that fighters used rocket-propelled grenades to attack a security branch in the adjacent Midan neighborhood. Fighters had been trying for four days to enter Midan.
Elsewhere, a boy and a girl were killed and dozens of civilians wounded when the army shelled the rebel village of Latamneh in Hama province, said the Observatory, which gathers its information from a wide network of activists.
Also in Hama, the Observatory reported that eight bodies had been found in farmlands in Halfaya village, following an assault by government forces. It said the number of dead was expected to rise as many people were reported missing.
In eastern Syria, troops shelled several districts of Deir Ezzor city, and an unspecified number of people were killed in air strikes on the town of Albu Kamal, the Observatory said.
Fighters launched rocket attacks on a number of army checkpoints in the northwestern city of Idlib, the Observatory added, with locals reporting powerful explosions and columns of smoke rising from the targets.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Up to 500 people protested in Tehran on Thursday over an anti-Islam film made in the United States, chanting "Death to America™!" and death to the movie's director, an AFP photographer at the scene said.
The rally took place near the Swiss embassy, which handles U.S. interests in the absence of U.S.-Iran diplomatic ties.
Hundreds of police and security personnel prevented the crowd from approaching the diplomatic compound, which had been evacuated by Swiss diplomats as a precaution.
Several protesters carried Egyptian and Libyan flags in support of Moslems in those countries where violent protests against the film occurred on Tuesday.
Iranian news agencies said the demonstration was called by the Student Islamic Society, a hardline university group loyal to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that has held anti-Western rallies in the past.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Reuters] Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri ... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is... has called on all Mohammedans to back the rebels in Syria, saying the overthrow of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... would bring them closer to the ultimate goal of defeating Israel, according to an audio recording posted on the Internet on Thursday. Suddenly Pencilneck as an idea looks so much better.
Speaking on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Zawahri criticized Mohammedan governments in the Middle East and in Asia for failing to pursue the cause of political Islam. He chastised the new leadership in Egypt in particular for sticking to its 1979 peace treaty with Israel and Pakistain, which he described as a "government for sale and an army for rent".
The 2011 Arab Spring revolutions have redrawn the political landscape in the Middle East, bringing in Islamist governments in Tunisia and Egypt and increasing the influence of Islamist political groups throughout the region, which Western governments have watched with concern.
Zawahri said the United States was propping up Assad because it feared the rise of another Islamist regime to threaten its ally Israel.
"Supporting jihad in Syria to establish a Mohammedan state is a basic step towards Jerusalem, and thus America is giving the secular Baathist regime one chance after another for fear that a government is established in Syria that would threaten Israel," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Maybe we could cut a deal with Pencilneck. In exchange for information on the whereabouts of the Z man, he gets to keep his head on top of his pencil neck.
[An Nahar] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face... , home to Islam's holiest sites, on Thursday condemned the release of an amateur movie mocking Islam and the deadly attacks against U.S. missions over the film.
The kingdom "condemned the violent reactions in several countries against U.S. interests," the official news agency SPA said, and "the production by an irresponsible group in the United States of a film insulting the Prophet Mohammed."
Saudi Arabia "offers its condolences to the United States on the victims of the violence that targeted the U.S. consulate in (the Libyan city of) Benghazi," it said.
The ultra-conservative kingdom also "affirms its rejection of all acts that insult religions and religious symbols."
Protests have erupted since Tuesday outside U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and other Arab states by demonstrators who deem the low-budget movie "Innocence of Moslems" made in the United States as offensive to Islam.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi reiterated during a visit to the EU on Thursday that Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Scourge of Qusayr... must step down as "a president that kills his own people is not acceptable."
At a news briefing, Morsi interjected to state "this is completely agreed upon" when European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told news hounds after talks between the two sides that "we are also adamant that Assad should go."
"A president that kills his own people is not acceptable," said Barroso.
"There is no place for a president who is killing his people," interjected Morsi.
Responding later to questions from the press, Morsi for his part said: "We want to end the bloodshed."
"We think there is a need today to have a regime change in Syria, that is what we agreed," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[Dawn] A polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... case was detected in Torghar on Wednesday as National Institute of Health, Islamabad confirmed presence of crippling poliovirus in a 10-month-old child in the district.
The father of the affected child had refused administering anti-polio vaccine to his child in her early life, officials said.After detection of the fresh case in Torghar, the number of polio cases in the country reached to 32 during the current year. During the corresponding period last year, the country had recorded 101 polio cases.
The family of Maulana Saifullah, the father of affected child Aneesa, had lived in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... for some time where she did not receive any dose of the oral polio vaccine.
The family has been living in village Dheera Koh in Shadag Shagai tehsil of Torghar for the last five months. The child was affected by the poliovirus recently, according to officials.
Torghar district had remained polio-free during the last two years. The last polio case was recorded in the area during the year 2010.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[An Nahar] About 100 protesters burnt the United States' flag and rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Thursday to demonstrate against an anti-Islam Internet film.
The demonstrators, mostly students at Islamic seminaries, hit the flag with shoes before setting it ablaze in front of the Baitul Mokarram Mosque, Bangladesh's biggest mosque.
Chanting "God is Greater", "We won't accept mocking of Prophet Mohammed" and "Down with American imperialism", the protesters held up traffic at a major road junction in the city.
"America should apologize immediately and arrest the people who've made the film," Shah Ahmadullah Ashraf, head of Bangladesh Khalefat Andolon, a small Islamic party that organized the rally, told the crowd.
He said the U.S. embassy in Dhaka could be targeted and called for nationwide protests after Friday prayers.
Bangladesh police said they had boosted security at the embassy to prevent any repeat of violence that left four Americans including the U.S. ambassador dead in Libya on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[USA Today] Federal authorities have identified a Coptic Christian in southern Caliphornia who is on probation after his conviction for financial crimes as the key figure behind the anti-Mohammedan film that ignited mob violence against U.S. embassies across the Mideast, a U.S. law enforcement official told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Thursday. "He did it! Kill him!"
The official said authorities had concluded that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was behind "Innocence of Mohammedans," a film that denigrated Islam and the prophet Muhammad and sparked protests earlier this week in Egypt, Libya and most recently in Yemen. It was not immediately clear whether Nakoula was the target of a criminal investigation or part of the broader investigation into the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Libya during a terrorist attack.
Attorney General Eric Inaction Jackson Holder confirmed Thursday that Justice Department officials were investigating the deaths, which occurred during an attack on the American mission in Benghazi.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation, said Nakoula was connected to the persona of Sam Bacile, a man who initially told the AP he was the film's writer and director. But Bacile turned out to be a false identity, and the AP traced a cellphone number Bacile used to a southern Caliphornia house where it located and interviewed Nakoula.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/14/2012
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
The entire episode is an elaborate and very sophisticated AQ Op.
They funded the film and did the edits to make it inflamatory and then posted it on the internet so it could be seen.
Just like 9/11 and Tet68, we have to remember that fanatics and diehard revolutionaries have immense patience and will spend years planning an operation.
The whole thing was a set up from the get go. Even this guy...how convenient an EGYPTIAN COPTIC...its not like the Coptics don't have a bullseye on their back in Egypt right now anyway...too much stuff coming to a nexus point for this not to be a planned and coordinated operation.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
09/14/2012 11:12
Comments ||
Top||
#5
well, if anyone was an expert on the depravity and insanity of muzzies in the ME it would be a Coptic Christian.
#6
Based on the open source releases we have seen, I must agree with you Bill. One thing is for certain, our government doesn't have an ounce of situational awareness on what has been transpiring in Libya. If they had, this deadly fiasco might have been avoided.
#7
And now he's probably in Montana and the Dakota's with every scrap of money he could get on short notice. That is, I would be in this situation, least for couple weeks to see if my house spontaneously explodes.
Posted by: Charles ||
09/14/2012 15:33
Comments ||
Top||
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.
With excruciating detail, the White House's budget office on Friday laid out exactly where it will have to cut $109 billion from federal spending in January, including $11.1 billion from Medicare and $54.7 billion from defense spending.
Four members of the Multinational Force & Observers (MFO) in the Sinai Peninsula were wounded on Friday, after dozens of Bedouin militants attacked their headquarters in northern Sinai. 
According to a report on National Public Radio today, the White House asked YouTube to pull the "Innocence of Muslims" movie that is being blamed for the Middle East attacks. White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked about it during his press briefing today, and essentially punted.
Face MRI images were used to quantify the metrics of face shape ahead of the genetic study. Understanding the genes that determine human facial shape could one day provide valuable information about person's appearance using just their DNA.
Secretary Clinton delivered a powerful and personal speech about religion at an Eid ul-Fitr reception, marking the end of the 
Around 200 protestors 
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
[Foreign Policy] President 
[WKRN] U.S. officials say the Pentagon is moving two warships to the Libyan coast, in the aftermath of the attack in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador and three others.
Pakistain on Thursday stepped up security measures around US diplomatic missions, following attacks on American consulates and embassies in Libya, Egypt and Yemen over an anti-Islam film.
Hillary Clinton
A customer in Shenzhen, China, took a brand new laptop out of its box and booted it up for the first time. But as the screen lit up, the computer began taking on a life of its own. The machine, triggered by a virus hidden in its hard drive, began searching across the Internet for another computer.
One of the Americans killed alongside Ambassador Christopher Stevens in an attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya Tuesday told ABC News before his death that he was working with the State Department on an intelligence mission to round up dangerous weapons in the war-torn nation.
The U.N. atomic agency's board approved with a crushing majority Thursday a resolution criticizing Iran brought by world powers that was also aimed at dissuading Israel from military action.
Pakistain on Thursday blocked access to an anti-Islam film as security measures beefed up around US diplomatic missions, following attacks on American consulates and embassies in Libya, Egypt and Yemen.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
"By aiding Assad's violent campaign against the Syrian people and working to support a regime that will inevitably fall, Hizbullah's ongoing activity undermines regional stability and poses a direct threat to 
U.S. Marines defending the American embassy in Egypt were not permitted by the State Department to carry live ammunition, limiting their ability to respond to attacks like those this week on the U.S. consulate in Cairo.
KARACHI: More than 310 people have perished in fires that gutted factories in Pakistans two largest cities, in tragedies that prompted calls for an overhaul of poor industrial safety standards, officials said yesterday.
The Supreme Court on Thursday heard the petition filed by Tehrik-e-Istiqlal chief Air Martial (retd) Asghar Khan pertaining to the distribution of money among politicians by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), DawnNews reported.
[An Nahar] Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said on Thursday the deadly conflict in Syria was getting worse as he arrived on his first official trip aimed at ending nearly 18 months of violence.
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
The White House is flatly rejecting calls from House conservatives to halt U.S. aid to Egypt after a slow response from Cairo in rebuking violent attacks on the U.S. Embassy there Tuesday night.
Multiple suspects have been arrested in the death earlier this week of US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other US diplomats in Benghazi, Libyan officials announced Thursday, DPA reported.
Zawahiri
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Dawn] A 
