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Pakistan film protests: 15 die in Karachi and Peshawar
Today's Headlines
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Britain
Weather history rewrite revealed
Posted by: Dale || 09/21/2012 20:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Uhm, that article is from 2009. I thought it smelled a little musty.
Posted by: crosspatch || 09/21/2012 21:27 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Pentagon should take over U.S. nuclear plant security -lawmaker
The Defense Department should take over security for U.S. nuclear weapons sites after a nuclear complex was broken into with ease in July by an 82-year-old nun and two other peace activists, a top lawmaker in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Friday.

Mike Turner, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services panel that oversees the Energy Department's nuclear weapons complex, has drafted legislation to put the U.S. military in charge of protecting facilities like the Y-12 complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

"The fact that this vulnerability is so widely known has got to be addressed," Turner said in an interview.

The Y-12 facility, built after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, had been previously touted as "the Fort Knox of uranium" and was supposed to be one of the most secure facilities in the United States.

But in July, the three anti-nuclear activists cut through several fences and vandalized a building which holds the U.S. stockpile of highly enriched uranium used to make nuclear bombs.

An internal Energy Department watchdog found guards ignored motion sensors because they were routinely triggered by wildlife, and a security camera that should have shown the break-in had been broken for about six months.
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 16:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Secret City was guarded by the military during WWII. Link
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 17:34 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF soldier killed, another wounded in border terror attack
A heavily armed terrorist cell from the Sinai Peninsula opened fire on IDF soldiers on the Israeli - Egyptian border on Friday, killing one soldier and injuring a second, before the gunmen were killed in return fire. The IDF announced the name the 20-year-old victim, Netanel Yahalomi, and promoted him posthumously to the rank of corporal.

The IDF confirmed that the terrorists ambushed the group of IDF soldiers while they were providing water to African migrants who had arrived at the border trying to cross into Israel.

Shots were fired at IDF Artillery Corps and Karkal (Wildcat) battalion soldiers from a distance of 100 meters. One soldier sustained a bullet wound to the head and was killed immediately, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai said.

The soldiers instantly returned fire, shooting dead two terrorists. A group of Border Patrol undercover soldiers also responded to the incident, giving chase and killing the third, the Border Patrol stated.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/21/2012 15:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Presenting: President Inflation
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 14:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Saudis protest anti-Islam film in a civilized way
Saudis also behead and chop off hands and feet in a civilized way
As angry demonstrators stormed US and European embassies in many countries in protest at a movie denigrating the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), a large number of young Saudis began raising awareness about the Prophet through various campaigns on social networking sites.

Recently social media has been abuzz with Muslims speaking out against the violence and they took the initiative to portray the correct image of the Prophet.

Twenty-three-year-old student Maher Naji said: Ā“The way we shall respond is not by violence, threats, or insults. No, we shall respond with wisdom and social media is our tool to spread the message.Ā”

Maher and his friends here in Jeddah started to think of a civilized way to respond to those who had the wrong impression of the Prophet. He said: Ā“The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) himself stated the strong Muslim was the one who could control his anger and control his emotions. Therefore all Muslims should follow this example.

Ā“ThatĀ’s what we are doing right now. We have a very informative site that shows who the Prophet was, so other Westerners can find out everything about him.Ā”

Abdulaziz Al-Jihani, a 24-year-old student, said: Ā“Setting places on fire and killing innocent people does not do anything to defend the Prophet, but increases the hate toward Muslims.Ā”
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 13:55 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [19 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All their jihadis are abroad
Posted by: Fester Clunter7205 || 09/21/2012 14:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Too lazy to stage a proper riot.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/21/2012 15:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Indeed. Happens with fourth generation money and inbreeding.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/21/2012 18:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Too lazy to stage a proper riot

Why bother, when you can pay a bunch of Egyptians and Pakistanis to do it for you?
Posted by: Pappy || 09/21/2012 21:23 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
1 Israeli soldier, 3 terrorists killed in border gunfight
One of three assailants who crossed from EgyptĀ’s Sinai peninsula to attack Israeli soldiers on Friday went kaboom!", an Egyptian security official told AFP.

Ā“Three gunnies infiltrated Israeli territory from central Sinai. Two were killed by the Israeli army, the third detonated the explosives vest he was wearing,Ā” the source said.

Ā“According to our information, an Israeli soldier was killed,Ā” he said, in the attack in which the Israeli military said all three assailants also died.

The Israeli army confirmed that one of its soldiers was killed and another maimed in in the operation along the Egyptian border, AFP reported.

Ā“I can confirm he is dead,Ā” a military spokeswoman said, adding that another soldier was Ā“moderately injuredĀ” in the attack by three gunnies who infiltrated from EgyptĀ’s Sinai.

The Israeli military earlier said their forces had prevented a major assault.

Ā“A big terror attack was thwarted. Three cut-throats infiltrated from Sinai into Israel and opened fire towards IDF soldiers guarding the border,Ā” army spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovich said.

Ā“The cut-throats were well armed and carried boom belts upon their bodies,Ā” she added.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 09/21/2012 13:55 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Lawmakers to Obama: Get your story straight on Libya attack
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 13:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Gold Hits All Time Highs In Euro, Swiss Franc And Brazilian Real
Gold has now reached all-time record highs in terms of the Euro, Swiss Franc, and Brazilian Real. Gold in USD is up 90% from the March 2009 equity lows and up 50-65% in the rest of the major fiat currencies.
Of course it did. The market is pricing in QE3.
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 12:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pretty soon, tungsten will be hitting new highs also.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 09/21/2012 13:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Snark of the day award to Anguper!
Posted by: Steve White || 09/21/2012 14:13 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan film protests: 15 die in Karachi and Peshawar
Fifteen people have died as violent protests erupted on the streets of Pakistan's main cities in anger at an anti-Islam film made in the US.

Ten people were killed in the port city of Karachi and a further five died in the north-western city of Peshawar, hospital officials said.

Protesters also breached the diplomatic enclave in the capital, Islamabad, near the US embassy.

There has been widespread unrest over the amateur film, Innocence of Muslims.

Dozens of people have been reported wounded and BBC correspondents said some were in a critical condition.
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 12:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [19 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is Pakistan the most troublesome country when it comes to militant islam?

Pak Army/mullah alliance-Saudi funding-Iran Govt-Eygpt MB in that order.Alot of new salafist groups popping up in North Africa too.

Hopefully Somalia and Yemen are being cleared as we speak
Posted by: Paul D || 09/21/2012 12:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Is Pakistan the most troublesome country

The very name 'Pakistan' means Land of the Troublesome. But I could be translating that wrong.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/21/2012 14:51 Comments || Top||

#3  15 down 1.5 billion to go
Posted by: Lumpy Jones9392 || 09/21/2012 15:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Looking forward to the sequel.
Posted by: Kelly || 09/21/2012 16:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Up to at least 19 now.
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 16:59 Comments || Top||

#6  It be cool if someone posts a new insult every week until they burn the whole city down.
Posted by: Large Darling of the Antelope3345 || 09/21/2012 17:34 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
The eight dumbest things said about free speech this week
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 12:16 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Broken link. Unless it's another link to zerohedge, in which case a broken link is a better outcome.
Posted by: gromky || 09/21/2012 13:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Link
Zerohedge is a fight club, the ultimate in free speech.
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 14:07 Comments || Top||

#3  If Romney gets elected the very first thing he should do is sack General Martin Dempsey.

He can talk all he wants about the risks to our service men and women. I've listened to a few who are not afraid to defend our freedom. They are brave young people. I salute them. If the politicians and the generals don't want to let them fight then bring them home.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/21/2012 16:13 Comments || Top||


--Tech & Moderator Notes
Leading From Behind
Hat tip Instapundit, cartoon at Reason, copyright Bokbluster. Everything you need to know about where Champ and his foreign policy takes the U.S.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/21/2012 10:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If I hear this phrase again, I think my head is going to explode. There is no leading from behind. That is a mealy-mouthed, chicken $hit phrase invented by Obama and the Left. If "O" can't lead from the front resign.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 10:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I swear I'd heard the phrase before but it was used to denote cowardly or undecisive leadership.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/21/2012 14:40 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: George Glaigum7976 || 09/21/2012 19:45 Comments || Top||


Economy
EPA Sets 4-Gallon Minimum for Motorists Buying Gas at Ethanol-15 Pumps
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has mandated that all consumers in the United States must purchase at least 4 gallons of gasoline when they go to the gas station, if they are getting fuel from a pump that also offers a new E15 ethanol-gasoline blend.
Don't worry; they'll soon impose a maximum as well. And you'll need special coupon books...
The Obama administration wants consumers to use more of the E15 fuel -- a blend that contains 15 percent ethanol -- but the problem is that many gas stations use blender pumps, which offer several types of fuel and, after pumping, there always is a residual amount of fuel in the hose. E15 fuel can potentially damage engines made prior to 2000 and it cannot be used in motorcycles, ATVs, and many other engines, such as lawn mowers and boat engines.

So, to circumvent the potential problems, the EPA is requiring a 4-gallon minimum from blender pumps to ensure that any E15 fuel residue is diluted. (Stations that provide a completely separate, single hose for E15 only are exempt from the rule.)

But many lawmakers, as well as motorcycle and off-road specialists, say the EPA rule is not a viable solution and that requiring people to buy a minimum of 4 gallons of gasoline is not acceptable.

The Obama administration announced in April that it had begun issuing waivers to allow for the sale of gasoline that contains 15 percent volume ethanol (E15), a product previously not approved for the market.
One of Champ's favorite activities (after golf) is issuing waivers...
"To enable widespread use of E15, the Obama Administration has set a goal to help fueling station owners install 10,000 blender pumps over the next 5 years," stated an EPA press release on April 2.

The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), which represents 225,000 members across the country, has reached out to the EPA over their concern over E15.

"At the current time we're not aware of any manufacturer of motorcycles that has approved E15 for the use in motorcycle engines," said AMA Spokesperson Pete terHorst. "So, the AMA has been asking the EPA what it will do to prevent the inadvertent fueling of motorcycles with E15 fuel. That's a big concern to our members."
Posted by: Au Auric || 09/21/2012 10:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has mandated

We are a nation of laws passed by representatives of the people. Take your mandates you think you can shove down peoples throats and shove them up your ... .
Posted by: Elmump Elmereck1851 || 09/21/2012 10:41 Comments || Top||

#2  E15 fuel can potentially damage engines made prior to 2000
Article neglects to mention that some manufacturers of 2012 models (e.g. Hyundai) FORBID use of anything more alcoholic than E10.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 09/21/2012 10:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Some of us know it from computer programming, but one of the sure signs that You're Doing It Wrong(tm) is your rule sets become more and more complicated, with all sorts of tweaks and exceptions and special cases. At some point, the only sane thing to do is pitch the whole mess and start over.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/21/2012 13:38 Comments || Top||

#4  I'll agree to this if every time I fill up, an EPA official has to drink 4 gallons of the same fuel. And they have to do there, at the gas station in front of us.

Why no, that's not a sparkler in my hand, it's a combustion fueled signalling device.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 09/21/2012 16:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Mechanisms now in place, lovely. Limits on gasoline sales.....hmmmm, used to be called RATIONING.... no ?

Where are my gasoline stamps from yesterday's post?
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 16:47 Comments || Top||

#6  What do you do about fueling your lawnmower or other gasoline powered tools, chainsaws, weedeaters, generators? I guess they will be mandating that 1, 2, 2.5 gal containers are gone. How much do fuel tanks on motorcycles hold? It seems that some of them don't hold 4 gallons. EPA needs to be cut back seriously; they have become a radical left organization.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 17:06 Comments || Top||

#7  Fred sent me.

I got some 10 litre cans of gas from Canada here in the trunk. No ethanol. Only $25 a can.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/21/2012 19:15 Comments || Top||

#8  @#6, did that today myself, had the same thought

Likely, you just get your gallon and get charged for 4.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/21/2012 21:13 Comments || Top||

#9  first wave of EPA firings in a Romney Admin. Get your "hire me now, ___________________ (substitute name of Progressive Institute!" boilerplate at my newsletter..oh, wait...
Posted by: Frank G || 09/21/2012 21:50 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraq blocks Syria-bound N Korean plane, suspects weapons cargo
Iraq denied permission to a North Korean plane bound for Syria to pass through Iraqi airspace last Saturday because it suspected it could be carrying weapons, a senior official said on Friday.

Iraq on Thursday denied a Western intelligence report that said Iranian aircraft had flown weapons and military personnel over Iraqi airspace to Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad battle an 18-month-old uprising.

The allegation, reported by Reuters on Wednesday, said arms transfers were organised by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

"Continuing the Iraqi government policy to investigate the passing of weapons to Syria through Iraqi land and air space, the Iraqi authorities prevented a North Korean plane from going to Syria, after they suspected that the plane was shipping weapons," Ali al-Mossawi, media advisor to the Iraq's prime minister, told Reuters.

Moussawi said the scheduled plane's itinerary, from North Korea to Syria, was what had aroused suspicions but that there had been no contact between the Iraqi government and North Korea on the issue.

Mossawi said that despite repeated requests from the Iraqi side, the United States had not presented any evidence that Iranian civilian aircraft were shipping arms to Syria via Iraq.
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 07:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:


Science & Technology
Ig Nobel honours ponytail physics
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 07:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I just want to know why women look cuter with ponytails (especially with a baseball cap)?
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 09/21/2012 9:42 Comments || Top||

#2  This one made me laugh:

Anatomy Prize: Frans de Waal (Netherlands/US) and Jennifer Pokorny (US) for discovering that chimpanzees can identify other chimpanzees individually from seeing photographs of their rear ends.
Posted by: Penguin || 09/21/2012 10:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Searched a few of the other Ig Nobel entries and found the 'SpeechJammer'.

That would be a hoot to deploy at a 'peaceful' socialist/unionist rally. Might need to amp up the output somewhat, though.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 09/21/2012 11:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
DAMMIT, WAKE UP!
h/t Instapundit
There is a mystery about this election. The slanted national press and RomneyĀ’s weaknesses are well understood, but a large gap separates these explanations from the fact that needs explaining: this election will be close. How is that possible when Obama has shown himself to be the worst president in modern history? And when Romney (on the other hand) is unexciting but safe, serious, solidĀ—just the right sort of man to shelter all sorts of tempest-tost Americans in a storm?

Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/21/2012 06:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I pay no attention to the polls. Look at Gallup what happened when they came close to showing the truth. The old media is in the tank for the Democrats period. More people are now losing jobs, good jobs like coal and defense. I talked to a young woman that had to quit college and now must work full time to support her future husband and child. He just lost his computer related job with a defense company. He is now working on his masters she said. Just basics, wick program but too little to help. No extra money for anything.
Many anti Obama signs in my coal area also. I truthfully believe we will hear a loud flushing sound at election time. While still in office he will pull as many dirty tricks as he can, pardons and so on.
Posted by: Dale || 09/21/2012 7:06 Comments || Top||

#2  I pray you are right Dale.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 7:11 Comments || Top||

#3  I think the media will stay in the tank until after the debates. At that point they may try to regain credibility if it looks like Obama is the weak horse despite their attempts.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/21/2012 8:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Reagan was behind Carter in late October in 1980. He won the election with 489 electoral votes. Carter got something like 44. Carter screwed up the Iran crisis and the economy was terrible, similar kind of phenomenon today with Obama. It's a little more complicated today as there are other factors that have entered this election.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 9:05 Comments || Top||

#5  1. Public education.

2. Independents are emotional voters. They don;t know and don't care about policy. They want to be excited, and Romney isn't exciting.

3. The polls are bald lies. At the last instant they'll skew toward Romney to try and save some credibility, but they will never show anything but a horse race until then.
Posted by: Iblis || 09/21/2012 9:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Give me a guy or a gal who in unexciting but competetent--someone who can actually do something. I don't want some dumb a** Hollywood celebrity as President.

Margaret Thatcher said: "Socialism ends when it runs out of other people's money."
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 10:48 Comments || Top||

#7  "who in is unexciting." Sorry, my proofing missed this.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 10:49 Comments || Top||

#8  JohnQC:

You are not an independent voter would be my guess.

One additional feature of the 'I' voter is that they follow the crowd. If the party base gets excited that's enough for them. They'll get excited too. Worked for Reagan. Worked for Champ in '08. Not working this year, though you saw it briefly with the Ryan pick.

Also, if the Independents remain undecided at the end they overwhelmingly break for the challenger.
Posted by: Iblis || 09/21/2012 11:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Reagan was exciting but he was also eminently competent and courageous enough to take a stand.

I'm afraid Romney needs to kick it up a notch or else he's going to lose the same way John McCain did. When he went in front of Univision he talked about the 100 percent. Bullshit. He had a moment of candor when he talked about the 47 percent but he let the media convince him it was a gaffe. It was only a gaffe because he let them say it was. All he had to do to justify it was ask people if they want to be dependent or independent. That's what it's all about.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/21/2012 12:10 Comments || Top||

#10 
The polls are bald lies. At the last instant they'll skew toward Romney to try and save some credibility, but they will never show anything but a horse race until then.


The polls show what they're paid to show -- which is exactly what you describe. The press wants to show a "horse race" -- with Obama generally in the lead -- because it brings in a bigger audience.

And, second, polls are just an example of bandwagon propaganda. "The majority are voting for Obama -- you don't want to be an outsider, do you?" It's BS.

The only honest polls are the ones the campaigns pay for -- because they pay for the accuracy and honesty. Those polls must show Romney with a comfortable lead, because most of the efforts the Democrats have made have been in getting their base excited, not in reaching out to the undecided.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/21/2012 12:30 Comments || Top||

#11  I have low expectations for the debates. I'm actually afraid Obama will mop the floor with Romney - he has no fire in his belly and seems uncomfortable coming on strong. I also want to know where Ryan has been - I haven't heard/seen much of him in over a week. He's got more of what it takes to win than Romney - put him up front!
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 09/21/2012 12:51 Comments || Top||

#12  It isn't that the pollsters are paid to show a horserace.

The pollsters are being paid (or lobbied) to suppress the Republican and independent vote.

The logic is simple: show that Obama (or Warren, or any other favored Democrat) is ahead, and there is a certain segment of the public who will stay home on election day. They'll say, "what's the use" and sit it out.

Sounds stupid, right? But it works.

So Axelrod and Plouffe are working hard daily on the pollsters.

Democratic client pollsters like PPP have an additional job: skew the poll averages. You've seen these averages at Real Clear Politics, etc -- they gather up a bunch of recent polls and average them for a 'consensus' number.

So if PPP, by whatever means, consistently shows Champ to be +6, and four other pollsters see it as Romney +1/0, guess what the average is. Yup, Champs keeps his lead.

The Democrats know this works: it was proven in Florida in 2000, when the Gore team had (bought) exit polls showing him in the lead and persuaded CBS to 'call' Florida early. The voters in the panhandle part of the state, in the Central time zone, still had time to go to the polls, but a number didn't. Later polling showed that the voters who stayed home rather than go vote in that last hour would have voted Bush 2:1 over Gore. Enough to tip (or solidify) the election.

A fair number of pollsters are as deep in the tank for Obama as the MSM. Remember that, and remember the Gore trick on election night: Axelrod has plans, I'm sure.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/21/2012 12:57 Comments || Top||

#13  I never talk to pollsters. Never.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/21/2012 13:55 Comments || Top||

#14  #9 JohnQC: You are not an independent voter would be my guess.

I was talking to my neighbor this A.M., a Viet vet. He said we wasn't so much voting for Romney as he was voting against Obama. I agree with him. I think what Obama is doing to this country is an abomination. We both agreed Washington is FUBAR. I will vote for the most conservative candidate that has a chance of winning. In this case it is Romney/Ryan. Independents don't have a good history of winning in this country; they tend to be spoilers--in some cases that is good. There were good people that never emerged beyond the primaries that I liked but that's the nature of the process.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 16:56 Comments || Top||

#15  Angiting, at least try to spew your shit on a thread that has some relationship to said shit.

But that's probably beyond your ability (and I use the term loosley).
Posted by: Barbara || 09/21/2012 19:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
G Gordon Liddy retires at 82
Posted by: Dale || 09/21/2012 06:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good! Maybe we'll see less of him on teevee. Never cared for guys who wear military awards and decorations on their business suits. Makes them look like Russian Great Patriotic War veterans. Sorry Congressman West, it's just a personal thing with me. I should probably get over it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 7:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe they are great patriots?
Posted by: Cleart Thrater7665 || 09/21/2012 8:10 Comments || Top||

#3  military awards and decorations on their business suits

There seem to be official protocols for absolutely everything in the military - what's official protocol for military awards on civilian attire?
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/21/2012 8:29 Comments || Top||

#4  The G-Man, man, I love that guy. I have a 5x7 autographed photo of him as he appeared back in the Watergate days.

Used to keep it prominently displayed on my desk at work when I was out in Silicon Valley. Right next to my photo of Nixon. It agitated the crap out of the liberal asshats.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 09/21/2012 9:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Nixon thought he had an administration above the law. Obama also thinks he is above the law. I didn't like it then and don't like it now. Nixon paved the way for an inept, weak President--Jimmy Carter.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 9:31 Comments || Top||

#6  "He kept his mouth shut and took his lumps."
Posted by: mojo || 09/21/2012 11:48 Comments || Top||

#7  He must have thought a great deal of Nixon personally to keep his trap shut and get kicked around as much as he did.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 09/21/2012 11:54 Comments || Top||

#8 
Nixon thought he had an administration above the law.


More accurately, Nixon figured he could do the same things the Democrats had been doing for decades and get away with it.

I saw Liddy in person while I was in college. He and Timothy Leary were doing a speaking tour where they went head-to-head. Liddy definitely was the more coherent and personable of the two.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/21/2012 12:26 Comments || Top||

#9  I caught him bugging my house the other day. I told him if he didn't stop - I'd take his name off Social Security :-)
Posted by: Raider || 09/21/2012 12:53 Comments || Top||

#10  That's funny Raider. Taking away his SS. Somehow, I don't think he needs it to survive. Probably did O.K.

Liddy did know how to keep his mouth shut and take his lumps. I liked listening to his radio show when he was on. A smart guy.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 14:19 Comments || Top||

#11  More accurately, Nixon figured he could do the same things the Democrats had been doing for decades and get away with it.

That is more accurate. The Corruptocrats are still plugging away to undermine things.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 14:25 Comments || Top||

#12  "Taking away his SS. Somehow, I don't think he needs it to survive. Probably did O.K." yes, very well. He earned it. He had a place near Upperville Virginia. Horse riding country. Kennedy's had property in the area also. Wealthy area. When I was on a property a Fox hunt was on. They can charge right through local properties.
Posted by: Dale || 09/21/2012 15:23 Comments || Top||


-Election 2012
The Obama You Don't Know (2)
The Introduction was yesterday. Today's snippet:
First lady Michelle Obama told the Democratic National Convention that "Barack and I were both raised by families who didn't have much in the way of money or material possessions."

By his account, he grew up in a broken home with a single mom, struggled for years as a child in an impoverished Third World country and then was raised by his grandparents in difficult circumstances.

The facts aren't nearly so clear-cut.
Imagine that.
Tellingly, Obama has never lived in a black neighborhood.
Maraniss reported in his book that when leftist activist Jerry Kellman interviewed Obama for a community organizing job in Chicago, he asked Obama how he felt about living and working in the black community for the first time in his life.

Obama accepted the job but chose not to live among those he would be organizing. Instead, he commuted 90 minutes each way daily from his apartment in Chicago's famous Hyde Park to the Altgeld Gardens housing project where he worked.

Next: Chapter II: The myth of the rock-star professor
Posted by: Bobby || 09/21/2012 06:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hyde Park to the Altgeld Gardens is a 90 minute commute -- if you're Obama on a girls bike.

Otherwise it's a straight shot down Stony Island Boulevard to the Bishop Ford, and that to 130th street. Forty minutes tops in traffic and less in off-peak driving.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/21/2012 7:35 Comments || Top||

#2  ...if you're Obama on a girls bike.

LOL. Doc, I can easily picture that. Probably had shoes on that were too big with holes in them and carrying his lunch.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 9:08 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Pat Condell: A word to rioting Muslims
Posted by: Thanter Theque9562 || 09/21/2012 05:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wish we had leaders like him.
Posted by: Paul D || 09/21/2012 8:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Brilliant. Pat Condell for UN General Secretary.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/21/2012 8:44 Comments || Top||

#3  I hope he's in hiding because I'm pretty sure there's a police raid in his future.

For a 'voluntary' interview, I'm sure.
Posted by: Orion || 09/21/2012 10:02 Comments || Top||

#4  I couldn't agree more, the Walgreens was out of sympathy cards.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 09/21/2012 12:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Bloody brilliant!
Posted by: eltoroverde || 09/21/2012 13:40 Comments || Top||

#6  I like it. Snarclights.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/21/2012 16:11 Comments || Top||

#7  LOL That was great
Posted by: Large Darling of the Antelope3345 || 09/21/2012 17:44 Comments || Top||

#8  Thanks, Thanter. When will they start rioting about this?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/21/2012 19:02 Comments || Top||

#9  Ah, Pat Condell. I wish he would just come out and say what he means.

/s
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 09/21/2012 19:45 Comments || Top||

#10  Hot double-damn!

Give 'em hell, Pat. :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 09/21/2012 20:05 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan blocks cell phones on prophet protest day
Pakistan has blocked cell phone service in major cities to prevent militants from using phones to detonate bombs during a national day of protest against an anti-Islam film produced in the United States.

An Interior Ministry official says the service is blocked in at least 15 cities, including Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. The service is scheduled to be resumed at 6 p.m. local time.

The ministry official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

The government has declared Friday a national holiday and has encouraged people to peacefully protest a film that denigrates Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The film has sparked violent protests throughout the Muslim world that have left at least 30 people dead, including two in Pakistan.
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 03:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
USA, peace treaties at risk if Israel attacks Iran
h/t Gates of Vienna
Egypt and Jordan could tear up their peace treaties with Israel if it launched an attack against Iran.
The practical consequences of which would be...
Israeli sources told Yediot Aharonot that this was the content of a warning that the Obama administration sent to Bibi Netanyahu. In particular, Washington pointed out that, in the event of an Israeli raid, protests in Cairo and Amman may force their leaders to take drastic steps. "Today the Arab leaders do not control their peoples, the streets control the leaders," was the American explanation. "An Israeli strike is just what the Iranians need. The entire Arab and Muslim street will take to the streets to demonstrate," and the pressure to annul the accords would be huge.

In this sense, the US warned, "What happened with the film against Mohammad is just a preview of what will happen in case of an Israeli strike." . .
And they say marijuana is harmless
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/21/2012 01:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What about the Pakistan connection and the think tank in Maryland and the savage and Israel sign brought to by the same group that has done everything else! Kabob cart man leader of Afghanistan tall pale and sun glasses!
Posted by: Angiting Snore1647 || 09/21/2012 7:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Fingers Away!
Posted by: Angiting Snore1647 || 09/21/2012 7:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Egypt and Jordan could tear up their peace treaties with Israel if it launched an attack against Iran.

Meaningless, expired coupons. Anyone who ever thought they meant anything (other than a USAID guarantee) was or is nuts.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 7:43 Comments || Top||

#4  What is at risk if Israel doesn't attack Iran?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 09/21/2012 9:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Keep in mind that the objective of the ruling elites is to maintain Stability that includes an 'acceptable level of violence', and a related industry that provides suitable and profitable employment for its members.

That's why the Cold War went on for decades.
Posted by: Pappy || 09/21/2012 11:39 Comments || Top||

#6  If Israel hits Iran - its a fair bet that they will not only find themselves "at war" with all their neighbors, but they may also be shunned by many western countries as well.

It's fair to say that PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Chief of Staff Benny Gantz face the toughest decisions that have ever confronted Israeli leaders - since the country was founded.
Posted by: Raider || 09/21/2012 13:05 Comments || Top||

#7  If Israel hits the Iranian nuke sites, you can also bet Hamas and Hezbollah will enter. Israel will not hold back this time. The islamists operating in the Sinai will also likely stir up trouble for Israel.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 14:14 Comments || Top||

#8  JohnQC ... those fateful words describe the next conflict. "Will not hold back this time".

The truth is that no-one in this war will be holding back this time ... including Israel, Hezbollah, Iran, AQ and various proxies. I have to imagine that the estimate that Israel will lose only "500 men" is drastically low. I also think that there's not much that's going to be left of southern Lebanon.
Posted by: Raider || 09/21/2012 16:00 Comments || Top||


Jordan to receive USD $560 million aid from US and EU
h/t Gates of Vienna
Faced with serious financial shortage, Jordan is expecting to receive a life line of $650 million from the US, the EU and some European countries to finance the state budget, finance minister Jafaar Hassad said today.

Nearly $400 million will be handed to the kingdom as grants, and rest, totaling $250 million will be loans paid under easy loan agreements, said the minister, noting that the government also is reaching out to Arab gulf states to fund the budget.

The government said it will channel part of the funds to projects in the fields of water, education, energy and business.

The government this year said the budget deficit reached JD1.2 billion and the figure could go higher towards end of the year. The government says it needs additional funds to pay for subsidies on energy including fuel and electricity, which could reach up to $ 2 billion.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/21/2012 01:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Jordan had a chance to go in with Israel on a neat project to bring in sea water from the Med and generate power and desalinate some of the water, putting the rest in the dying Dead Sea. What a project!

Too bad it did not happen Jordan. Now you need subsidies to survive instead of getting something to help your country and economy. Too bad.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/21/2012 1:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe Jordan should have kept the money it un-froze to give to Hamas...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3115438.stm
Posted by: American Delight || 09/21/2012 6:09 Comments || Top||

#3  We sell bonds and borrow money from China to GIVE to there vermin so they may one day love us? How lovely.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 6:54 Comments || Top||

#4  We aren't borrowing money from China any more.

It's merely being printed.
Posted by: Pappy || 09/21/2012 11:42 Comments || Top||

#5  It's merely being printed.
Which is another way of saying it is being silently confiscated from peoples savings.
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/21/2012 14:58 Comments || Top||


Europe
EU states soon unable to afford national defence
h/t Gates of Vienna
Some EU countries will be unable to afford key parts of their national defence unless they spend more and cooperate better on defence, EU Military Committee chairman, Hakan Syren warned in Brussels Wednesday, Reuters reports. He suggested a percentage of national defence budgets be set aside for common European purposes.
These being?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/21/2012 01:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's okay President Golfpants will foot the bill.
Posted by: Slumble Closh3687 || 09/21/2012 8:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Our poor old printing presses are going to catch fire if we run them any harder.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 09/21/2012 11:57 Comments || Top||

#3  It gets even worse:
Europe's most powerful countries call for elected EU president
Germany,France and nine other of Europe's most powerful countries have called for an elected European Union president and an end to Britain's veto over defence policy in a radical blueprint mapping out the continent's future.
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 15:51 Comments || Top||

#4  How did their peacekeeping quick reaction force turn out?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/21/2012 16:15 Comments || Top||


Economy
Son of QE2, This Time It's Deadly
by Sarah Hoyt

It is perhaps a feature of human life that the things you laugh at as a kid are the things you tend to be, do or think as an adult.

As a kid who was always very interested in both politics and economics, my favorite objects of derision were the gold bugs and the UN opponents. As we know more about the UN, from the rampant corruption that vanishes billions and manages to make things even worse in the third world countries and other kakistocracies in which it purports to intervene to child prostitution and exploitation of natives by UN troops or envoys, I find myself thinking the old guys who said "UN out of the US" were perhaps much brighter than I gave them credit for. (To be honest, unlike most of the kids today who are getting this soft-lit version in school and the idea the UN is some kind of super hero -- I never thought it was good for much but talk-talk, but I thought as such it was inoffensive, and perhaps a show of good will.)

As for the gold bugs...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/21/2012 00:57 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Weimer Republic hyperinflation.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 10:45 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm afraid that we are going to have to endure a period of falling wages and rising prices for some time.
We have deep structural problems with our economy as we make a painful and cumbersome shift from manufacturing to whatever it is going to be our future.
I don't see any meaningful changes or even honest talk about what is going on between our 'leaders', I don't think they know any more than us about what is going on or where we need to get ourselves in order to recover. They are stabbing in the dark and in a bit of a panic at this point. I don't think trying to save a few billion here or there is going to do the trick, we are going to have to devise and implement an entirely new paradigm to deal with the realities of this new world. This has been a long time coming and is very overdue. We are still struggling to get things back to the way they were before 2006, I think that might be wasted effort, we should be looking ahead.
Fatalism and Nihilism are worthless to us. It doesn't do a damned bit of work to get us where we must go.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 09/21/2012 12:29 Comments || Top||

#3  +1
the US economy is facing a major structural shift. we have got to get away from being a service-based economy and back to relying on manufacturing & technology. if we can make the jump - tough as that may be - our long-term future is good. but if we fail to make the jump ... we're gonna land in a full-fledged depression. right now .. we're pretty shaky.

i find it personally disturbing that neither of the candidates are really addressing this. they're all talking about the symptoms instead of the disease.

the Fed has just gone to QE3. practically, it means that they have put our entire economy on continous (financial) life support. the trouble is - there's nobody around to pay the hospital bills that keep mounting up while they do that :-)
Posted by: Raider || 09/21/2012 21:57 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
U.S. warns Americans against travel to Pakistan
[Al Ahram] The State Department warns Americans of travelling to Pakistain, citing 'indigenous hard boy sectarian groups' as a 'potential danger'
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Rats! There goes this year's vacation plans. And I was so looking forward to visiting Abbotabad. That's where bin Laden got shot in the face, you know.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/21/2012 1:09 Comments || Top||

#2  "After my election, we'll have much more flexibility regarding travel."

*See EO-238821L: US Embassy to Madrassa closures and trasition plan funding.

Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 7:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Er, when is it a good time to visit?
Posted by: F(r)an Galt || 09/21/2012 11:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Hi there, Angiting Snore1647!
Rantburg

Today's Front Page View All of Fri 09/21/2012 View Thu 09/20/2012 View Wed 09/19/2012 View Tue 09/18/2012 View Mon 09/17/2012 View Sun 09/16/2012 View Sat 09/15/2012
2012-09-21 Home Front: Culture Wars
DAMMIT, WAKE UP!
h/t Instapundit
There is a mystery about this election. The slanted national press and Romney's weaknesses are well understood, but a large gap separates these explanations from the fact that needs explaining: this election will be close. How is that possible when Obama has shown himself to be the worst president in modern history? And when Romney (on the other hand) is unexciting but safe, serious, solid--just the right sort of man to shelter all sorts of tempest-tost Americans in a storm?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2012-09-21 06:49|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| ||Comments [282 views ] Top

#1 I pay no attention to the polls. Look at Gallup what happened when they came close to showing the truth. The old media is in the tank for the Democrats period. More people are now losing jobs, good jobs like coal and defense. I talked to a young woman that had to quit college and now must work full time to support her future husband and child. He just lost his computer related job with a defense company. He is now working on his masters she said. Just basics, wick program but too little to help. No extra money for anything.
Many anti Obama signs in my coal area also. I truthfully believe we will hear a loud flushing sound at election time. While still in office he will pull as many dirty tricks as he can, pardons and so on.
Posted by Dale 2012-09-21 07:06|| 2012-09-21 07:06|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#2 I pray you are right Dale.
Posted by Besoeker 2012-09-21 07:11|| 2012-09-21 07:11|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#3 Housing fraud-government buys all the paper no boots on ground like Russia
Keeps printing money
Prices are going through roof on everything
Smaller quantity in food containers at stores
using food crops for inferior energy for entire country
Farming all jobs over seas
Corruption is beyond obvious
Gold what crap can't eat it
Troops spread across globe
All sorts of useless lies and leaders yet putting on the complete opposite air on television and the internet
What do people really believe?
Posted by Angiting Snore1647 2012-09-21 07:38|| 2012-09-21 07:38|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#4 I think the media will stay in the tank until after the debates. At that point they may try to regain credibility if it looks like Obama is the weak horse despite their attempts.
Posted by rjschwarz 2012-09-21 08:29|| 2012-09-21 08:29|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#5 Reagan was behind Carter in late October in 1980. He won the election with 489 electoral votes. Carter got something like 44. Carter screwed up the Iran crisis and the economy was terrible, similar kind of phenomenon today with Obama. It's a little more complicated today as there are other factors that have entered this election.
Posted by JohnQC 2012-09-21 09:05|| 2012-09-21 09:05|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#6 1. Public education.

2. Independents are emotional voters. They don;t know and don't care about policy. They want to be excited, and Romney isn't exciting.

3. The polls are bald lies. At the last instant they'll skew toward Romney to try and save some credibility, but they will never show anything but a horse race until then.
Posted by Iblis 2012-09-21 09:50|| 2012-09-21 09:50|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#7 Give me a guy or a gal who in unexciting but competetent--someone who can actually do something. I don't want some dumb a** Hollywood celebrity as President.

Margaret Thatcher said: "Socialism ends when it runs out of other people's money."
Posted by JohnQC 2012-09-21 10:48|| 2012-09-21 10:48|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#8 "who in is unexciting." Sorry, my proofing missed this.
Posted by JohnQC 2012-09-21 10:49|| 2012-09-21 10:49|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#9 JohnQC:

You are not an independent voter would be my guess.

One additional feature of the 'I' voter is that they follow the crowd. If the party base gets excited that's enough for them. They'll get excited too. Worked for Reagan. Worked for Champ in '08. Not working this year, though you saw it briefly with the Ryan pick.

Also, if the Independents remain undecided at the end they overwhelmingly break for the challenger.
Posted by Iblis 2012-09-21 11:56|| 2012-09-21 11:56|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#10 Reagan was exciting but he was also eminently competent and courageous enough to take a stand.

I'm afraid Romney needs to kick it up a notch or else he's going to lose the same way John McCain did. When he went in front of Univision he talked about the 100 percent. Bullshit. He had a moment of candor when he talked about the 47 percent but he let the media convince him it was a gaffe. It was only a gaffe because he let them say it was. All he had to do to justify it was ask people if they want to be dependent or independent. That's what it's all about.
Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-09-21 12:10|| 2012-09-21 12:10|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#11

The polls are bald lies. At the last instant they'll skew toward Romney to try and save some credibility, but they will never show anything but a horse race until then.



The polls show what they're paid to show -- which is exactly what you describe. The press wants to show a "horse race" -- with Obama generally in the lead -- because it brings in a bigger audience.

And, second, polls are just an example of bandwagon propaganda. "The majority are voting for Obama -- you don't want to be an outsider, do you?" It's BS.

The only honest polls are the ones the campaigns pay for -- because they pay for the accuracy and honesty. Those polls must show Romney with a comfortable lead, because most of the efforts the Democrats have made have been in getting their base excited, not in reaching out to the undecided.
Posted by Rob Crawford 2012-09-21 12:30|| 2012-09-21 12:30|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#12 I have low expectations for the debates. I'm actually afraid Obama will mop the floor with Romney - he has no fire in his belly and seems uncomfortable coming on strong. I also want to know where Ryan has been - I haven't heard/seen much of him in over a week. He's got more of what it takes to win than Romney - put him up front!
Posted by Yosemite Sam 2012-09-21 12:51|| 2012-09-21 12:51|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#13 It isn't that the pollsters are paid to show a horserace.

The pollsters are being paid (or lobbied) to suppress the Republican and independent vote.

The logic is simple: show that Obama (or Warren, or any other favored Democrat) is ahead, and there is a certain segment of the public who will stay home on election day. They'll say, "what's the use" and sit it out.

Sounds stupid, right? But it works.

So Axelrod and Plouffe are working hard daily on the pollsters.

Democratic client pollsters like PPP have an additional job: skew the poll averages. You've seen these averages at Real Clear Politics, etc -- they gather up a bunch of recent polls and average them for a 'consensus' number.

So if PPP, by whatever means, consistently shows Champ to be +6, and four other pollsters see it as Romney +1/0, guess what the average is. Yup, Champs keeps his lead.

The Democrats know this works: it was proven in Florida in 2000, when the Gore team had (bought) exit polls showing him in the lead and persuaded CBS to 'call' Florida early. The voters in the panhandle part of the state, in the Central time zone, still had time to go to the polls, but a number didn't. Later polling showed that the voters who stayed home rather than go vote in that last hour would have voted Bush 2:1 over Gore. Enough to tip (or solidify) the election.

A fair number of pollsters are as deep in the tank for Obama as the MSM. Remember that, and remember the Gore trick on election night: Axelrod has plans, I'm sure.
Posted by Steve White 2012-09-21 12:57|| 2012-09-21 12:57|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#14 I never talk to pollsters. Never.
Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-09-21 13:55|| 2012-09-21 13:55|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#15 #9 JohnQC: You are not an independent voter would be my guess.

I was talking to my neighbor this A.M., a Viet vet. He said we wasn't so much voting for Romney as he was voting against Obama. I agree with him. I think what Obama is doing to this country is an abomination. We both agreed Washington is FUBAR. I will vote for the most conservative candidate that has a chance of winning. In this case it is Romney/Ryan. Independents don't have a good history of winning in this country; they tend to be spoilers--in some cases that is good. There were good people that never emerged beyond the primaries that I liked but that's the nature of the process.
Posted by JohnQC 2012-09-21 16:56|| 2012-09-21 16:56|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#16 Quds force on this page is friendly and this is from Rand corp same page! Know why you are being killed the real reasons!

Ismail Bin Zakkaria Zakkaria
Oct 23, 2011 - Public
The first step is for the U.S. government and its allies to make a
clear decision to build moderate networks and to create an explicit link
between this goal and overall U.S. strategy and programs. Effective
implementation of this strategy requires the creation of an institutional
structure within the U.S. government to guide, support, oversee, and
continuously monitor the effort. Within the framework of this structure,
the U.S. government must build up the necessary expertise and
capacity to execute the strategy, which includes

1. An ever-evolving and ever-sharpening set of criteria that distinguishes
true moderates from opportunists and from extremists
camouflaged as moderates, and liberal secularists from authoritarian
secularists. The U.S. government needs to have the ability
to make situational decisions to knowingly and for tactical
reasons support individuals outside of that range under specific
circumstances.

2. An international database of partners (individuals, groups, organizations,
institutions, parties, etc.)

3. Mechanisms for monitoring, refining, and overseeing programs,
projects, and decisions. These should include a feedback loop to
allow for inputs and corrections from those partners who have
been found to be most trustworthy.
From the book called "Building Moderate Muslim Networks" by Rand Corporations
Posted by Angiting Snore1647 2012-09-21 18:36|| 2012-09-21 18:36|| Front Page ||Comments Top

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Posted by: Angiting Snore1647 || 09/21/2012 18:37 Comments || Top||

#5  You're a worthless fool, Angiting.

Mommy hasn't kicked you out of her life basement yet?
Posted by: Barbara || 09/21/2012 20:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Don't go to the sink trap. It's not worth it.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/21/2012 20:12 Comments || Top||

#7  Posting an entire link and thread available elsewhere? Bad form.
Posted by: Frank G || 09/21/2012 21:08 Comments || Top||


US screens anti-film ads in Pakistan featuring Obama, Clinton
[Dawn] US Embassy advertisements condemning an anti-Islam video appeared on Pak television on Thursday in an attempt to undercut anger against the United States, where the film was produced. Hundreds of youths, however, clashed with security officials as they tried in vain to reach the embassy in Islamabad amid outrage in many countries over the film's vulgar depiction of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!).

The ads reflected efforts by the US government to distance itself from the video in a country where anti-American sentiment already runs high. Violence linked to the movie has left at least 30 people in seven countries dead, including the American ambassador to Libya. Two people have died in protests in Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Was bowing featured? Or just groveling?
Posted by: Bobby || 09/21/2012 5:43 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm not sure who is running their psyops campaign, but they need to fire him or her and find someone else. It really isn't working.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 6:57 Comments || Top||

#3  The Democrats, the left and MSM capitulated to these savages on 9/11/2001.

Not long after that they managed to get a U.S. president elected by the name of Hussein.
Posted by: Anginens Clunk4837 || 09/21/2012 10:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Pathetic.
Posted by: mojo || 09/21/2012 10:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Groveling your way to peace never works, just ask Neville Chamberlin.
Posted by: F(r)an Galt || 09/21/2012 11:34 Comments || Top||

#6  This would be embarrassing and pathetic even if it was working. The fact that it's counter productive just makes it even worse.
Posted by: AuburnTom || 09/21/2012 11:58 Comments || Top||

#7  The Pakis wont listen to Obama and Hillary.Most have not even seen the film in question.

They just like a riot or protest to break up their mundane lives.
Posted by: Muggsy Clusosing6422 || 09/21/2012 12:55 Comments || Top||

#8  To be fair, their a-team is probably busy scrubbing home videos of the O-Jay Z hustle.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/21/2012 16:08 Comments || Top||


Khasadars thwart attack on Nato container
[Dawn] The Khasadar Force on Wednesday frustrated an attack on a container, supplying goods to NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
forces in Afghanistan, in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber Agency.

Officials said that a group of masked men opened firing on the container near Takhta Beg checkpost. However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday...
the khasadar
...a rural policeman in Pakistain or India...
s, posted at the checkpoint, reacted to the attack and forced the assailants to flee, they added.

Officials said that the windscreen of the vehicle was smashed in exchange of fire between the attackers and khasadars.

Also in Jamrud, Khasadar Force foiled an attempt to smuggle charas in Shahkas area.

Sources said that khasadars signalled a motorcyclist to stop on Shahkas road but he opened firing on them. The khasadars returned the fire but the man managed to escape on foot leaving behind his cycle of violence, they added. The khasadars recovered 17 kilograms of charas from the cycle of violence.

In Lakki Marwat, 10 bully boys, wanted for their alleged involvement in terrorism and subversive activities, surrendered to law enforcers on Wednesday.

A police official said that 10 faceless myrmidons belonging to Shah Hasankhel village surrendered to police in the presence of DPO Idrees Khan and
SDPO Bashar Khan.

Seven of the surrendered faceless myrmidons were wanted by police in Shah Hasankhel suicide kaboom that killed over 100 villagers in Jan 2010, sources said.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Olde Tyme Religion
Benghazi Islamists Fired Anti-Aircraft Weapons at US Drones
Libya closed its air space over Benghazi airport temporarily because of heavy anti-aircraft fire by Islamists aiming at U.S. reconnaissance drones flying over the city, days after the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed in an attack.

The closure of the airport prompted speculation that the United States was deploying special forces in preparation for an attack against the militants who were involved in the attack.

A Libyan official said the spy planes flew over the embassy compound and the city, taking photos and inspecting locations of radical militant groups who are believed to have planned and staged the attack on the U.S. consulate on Tuesday.
Posted by: Thromort Crang8467 || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How come our drones didn't shoot Hellfire's back?
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 09/21/2012 16:20 Comments || Top||

#2  didn't hit anythng ... did they?
:-)
Posted by: Raider || 09/21/2012 22:02 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Rehman Malik still senator, minister, says Anwar Mansoor
[Dawn] Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
's counsel, Barrister Anwar Mansoor, on Thursday said that the Supreme Court had not disqualified his client through its verdict on the dual nationality case, adding that, it was up to Senate Chairman Nayyar Hussain Bukhari to decide on Malik's membership, DawnNews reported.

Speaking to media representatives after the court's verdict in the said case, Mansoor said Malik remained a senator as well as a minister, adding that, the court had forwarded the matter to the Senate's chairman.

The Senate's chairman would assess the legal requisites and implications and then decide on Malik's membership, Mansoor said.

Responding to a question, the counsel said the decision pertaining to initiation of criminal proceedings against Malik would be taken by a concerned court.

On the occasion, Malik, who was accompanying his counsel, said he respected the decision of the Supreme Court.

Earlier today, the Supreme Court ruled that politicians holding dual nationalities were not eligible to hold any public officers and declared all such politicians as disqualified.

Ruling that Rehman Malik was a British citizen until May 29, 2012, the verdict stated that the PPP leader was not transparent with respect to his statements and could no longer be considered 'sadiq' and 'ameen'.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Home Front: WoT
US judge rejects call to ban YouTube anti-Muslim film
[Al Ahram] A US judge rejected Thursday a request by an actress in the anti-Islamic video that set off violent Moslem protests to ban YouTube from showing the trailer in the United States. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Louis Lavin refused the request by lawyers for actress Cindy Lee Garcia for a restraining order to prevent the online video-sharing service from continuing to show the trailer.

Garcia is one of three actresses in the film to have come forward with similar accusations since the kaboom of violence that destroyed Moslem countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia last week.

She sued YouTube and its owner Google
...contributed $814,540 to the 2008 Obama campaign...
for releasing excerpts of the very amateurish film, which was later dubbed into Arabic and made to show Mohammed as a thuggish womanizer.

YouTube said Wednesday it extended its restrictions on the video to "countries where it is considered illegal by local authorities; that is, to date, India, Indonesia. Malaysia and 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...
YouTube last week restricted access to the film in Egypt and Libya after unrest in those countries, and has been adding countries to the list. Some others including Pakistain and Sudan, have blocked access themselves.

The US actress also filed a lawsuit against the reported producer of the film, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, on grounds of invasion of privacy, fraud, slander and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The 55-year-old Egyptian Copt and convicted fraudster -- out on parole -- lives in Los Angeles and has admitted to working on the film, "Innocence of Moslems."

US media say Nakoula wrote and produced the film, using the pseudonym Sam Bacile before being identified. He was questioned overnight Friday by police before going into hiding with his family.

This article starring:
Cindy Lee Garci
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Brotherhood detainees in UAE make confessions
ABU DHABI: Activists belonging to the Moslem BrĆ¼derbund, who were tossed in the clink
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
in the UAE in a legal rights case, are being tried based on the Article No.180 of the Penal Code which bans establishing clandestine organizations, official sources revealed to Al Khaleej newspaper.

The sources categorically denied claims that the detainees have been tortured, asserting that the allegation is pure fabrication.

The sources stressed that torture is not in tune with values of the Emirates; nor does it conform to the qualities of the country's Rulers.

Al Khaleej newspaper learnt that the Public Prosecution has gone a long way in the interrogation of 60 detainees, whose cases would be referred to the concerned court soon. Some of them acknowledged the presence of a clandestine organization in the country to which they belong, the official sources said.

The activists also admitted that they have sought to collect money, investments and portfolio of their own, adding that they communicate with the international organization of the Moslem BrĆ¼derbund and other bodies.

The prosecution learnt that they run branches and offices to promote their ideas all over the Emirates. Members of the organization also admitted that they took advantage of the Arab Spring and their strategic objective is to seize power and establish a religious government or the State of Caliphate.

The prosecution charged the detainees with forming an organization that does harm to the state security and the principles on which the state is based on, in addition to having contacts with foreign communities, in a bid to doing harm to the politicianship.

Interrogations have revealed that the leadership structure of that organization includes committees and secondary offices in each emirate, in addition to a Shura council, an executive office and a military wing.

The sources affirmed that the technique of the organization relies on hitting the legitimacy of the country, spreading fabricated stories about corruption allegations, and degrading the prosperous living conditions in which people live in the UAE as fake and illusive.

It was affirmed also that they have extensive co-ordination with Brotherhood in some GCC countries. The Brotherhood of the UAE received Dhs10 million, as "the local organization suffers tough conditions at the moment."Ā Ā 

The sources also denied a rumour that the accused are not able to hire a lawyer and pointed out that there are eight lawyers defending them.

They estimated the number of people who joined the organization or those affected by it at hundreds and less than 1,000, underlining the neutral and fair legal procedures taken by the UAE in dealing with this case, considering that the UAE is a state of justice, constitution, law and institutions and that the proceedings would be announced transparently where those involved will be justly treated.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood


India-Pakistan
Sketch of suspect in twin blasts released
Police on Wednesday released the sketch of a man believed to be involved in Tuesday's twin blasts near the Bohra compound in North Nazimabad.

Seven people, including an infant and a minor girl, were killed and 22 others maimed in the terror attack.

The police said that the cycle of violence rigged with explosives used in one of the blasts was snatched on Sept 3 in Rizvia Society.

With the help of the owner of the cycle of violence, the police prepared the sketch of the bike snatcher who they believed was also involved in the Tuesday terror attack.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wine tasting, Vince was about to start tasting his third quart...
the police started the paperwork but haven't done much else (FIR 448/2012) under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 34 (common intention) of the Pakistain Penal Code, Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and Section 3/ 4 of the Explosives Act against person or persons unknown on behalf of the state at the North Nazimabad cop shoppe.

Investigators estimated that over 3.5 kilograms of explosives laced with ball bearings were hidden in the cycle of violence while 500 grams of explosive was hidden near a tree.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Africa Horn
UN Presses Kenya on Kismayo Civilian Protection
(Sh.M.Network) -- As Kenyan troops close in on the al-Shabaab
... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban...
jihad boy stronghold of Kismayo, Somalia, United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
officials are urging armed forces to try to minimize civilian casualties.

U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Mark Bowden met with the Kenyan defense minister and military officials in Nairobi Wednesday to discuss ways to protect civilian lives as the military operation heats up around the port city.

"The concern is that their interests are safeguarded and hopefully we can then make sure these people don't become long-termed displaced populations, and are able to return to safety as soon as possible," he said.

Accounts of civilian casualties

According to Kenyan military officials, ships have been shelling al-Shabaab targets in Kismayo, and receiving return fire from jihad boys, in the past few months. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
urged Kenyato investigate an August shelling incident in which two children and a pregnant woman were killed.

Although Kenya's military was integrated with 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...
forces (AMISOM) in June, its naval ships continue to operate independent of the AMISOM mission.

Kenyan military front man Colonel Cyrus Oguna said that, in operating independently, Kenyan forces are doing nothing illegal.

"We're not entirely banned from using maritime forces as long as it's in line with our national interests," he said. "So yes, that's why we're using maritime forces [to shell Kismayo], including air forces. As long as we're using it to protect our national interests and we're also taking care of collateral damage, we have not broken any law whatsoever."

Oguna also said Kenyan and Somali forces captured the town ofJana Cabdalla, which is within 50 kilometers of Kismayo, on Wednesday.

A fight to the death

Military officials and witnesses have said al-Shabaab commanders have been fleeing Kismayo this week, but that some fighters may be staying behind to defend the city.

VOA Somali service reports an al-Shabaab radio transmitter dismantled earlier this week in Kismayo is again up and running, broadcasting the group's message and urging residents to stay calm, but vowing to fight to the death.

Bowden said there has been a spike in the number of civilians fleeing the coastal city, one of the Somali jihad boy group's last remaining bastions.

"At the moment there appears to be a level of panic or concern about military operations, and yesterday we recorded over a thousand people leaving Kismayo," said Bowden, explaining that plans for providing humanitarian access to those in need must be made as soon as possible.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


India-Pakistan
PTI's amateur hour
[Dawn] IF you need any proof that Mr Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
is not ready to wield power, much less execute complex 'plans' for the economic revival of this country, look no further than the conundrum in which he finds himself in the ongoing talks on selecting an interim prime minister.

First Mr Khan complained on various TV talk shows that the two big parties -- the PML-N and PPP -- were not reaching out to him when deciding on the interim prime minister.

Then we hear from the PML-N that Mr Khan had provided them with names of his preferred candidates. Then Mr Khan denied having any contact with the PML-N. Then the latter released the two names in question, and also revealed the names of the people through whom Mr Khan's wishes had been communicated.

So has Mr Khan been talking on the sly with the very party he loves to vilify? And if so, why is it so hard for him to admit it? And why would he complain that the big parties are not consulting him when deciding this important matter?

The fact is that Mr Khan has painted himself into a corner and cannot figure out how to get out of it. He has presented himself as a candidate above politics, but at the same time has to navigate the facts of life in a parliamentary democracy, which are always negotiated. Now that the negotiations have begun, and will only grow in scope and complexity as the election cycle unfolds, he is left fumbling for a response.

There is plenty that is going to be negotiated from here onwards. A date for when the polls will be held is next on the agenda, after the composition of the interim government has been agreed upon, and at least one party -- the PML-N -- has already announced its preference for the date to be "no later than January". Does Mr Khan intend to participate in these parleys, or does he intend to sit them out too?

Of course, the real negotiations will begin after election day. A lot will depend on the new parliamentary arithmetic that emerges from the election, but notice once again how the PTI is the only party that has revealed what its post-election strategy is going to be.

In multiple forums, Mr Khan has clearly stated that his party will either form the next government on their own or will sit in opposition. On no account, he says, will his party consider becoming a coalition partner with the PML-N or the PPP, although in a June rally in Mirpurkhas he opened the door to forming a government with the Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
This is vintage Khan: no compromise, no middle ground, no negotiation. This is either supreme self-confidence or supreme amateurishness. It makes no sense in a parliamentary democracy to tie your own hands by staking out such rigid positions so early in the game.

One is also puzzled by his insistence that the mainstream parties like the PML-N- and PPP are responsible for the mess the country is in, but the JI is not. If the mainstream parties are morally repugnant, how come there's no feeling of shame in walking to the residence of Sheikh Rashid to form an electoral alliance?

By insisting on forming his own government, with only minor parties as allies, Mr Khan is trying to create a moment whose last parallel was seen in the 1997 elections, when Mr Sharif's PML had swept into power with a massive mandate -- a two-thirds majority in parliament. But it's important to note an important difference between that election and this one. At that time, Mr Sharif's party was the only one contesting in Punjab besides the PPP, whereas this time there are four major parties in the biggest province , an unprecedented state of affairs in Pakistain's political history.

Since Punjab's share of seats in the National Assembly is critical to building a viable majority, and since it is unlikely that any one player is going to sweep the province the way Mr Sharif did in 1997, it follows that no single party will emerge with the numbers to 'go it alone' in the aftermath of the election.

It will take deft negotiation to form the next government, and skilful politics to hold it together, but Mr Khan has already opted out of the process saying time and time again that he will not enter a coalition with the mainstream parties.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Pak govt urges UN to act against hate-mongers
[Dawn] A meeting of the federal cabinet was converted into a special sitting on Wednesday to condemn the anti-Islam film which hurt the sentiments of people across the Mohammedan world and set off violent demonstrations in the country.

Instead of taking up the scheduled 14-point agenda, the cabinet unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the highly objectionable film and calling upon international organizations, including the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to take measures to stop hate-mongers from touching such sensitive subjects.

The cabinet announced Friday would be a national holiday, designating the day as Yaum-e-Ishq-e-Rasool. It urged President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
to raise the issue at the UN General Assembly during his visit next week.

Addressing a presser after the meeting, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said that since the film was too big an issue to ignore, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf had decided to convert the session into a special sitting to "send a collective message across the world that we strongly protest any such attempt to denigrate our religion".

He said Shan-e-Rasool ((PTUI!)) conferences would be organised at the federal and provincial levels on Friday. The prime minister will address
the conference at the Convention Centre in Islamabad.

In reply to a question, Mr Kaira said the holiday had been declared to facilitate people to participate in rallies to be organised across the country. He requested the masses to remain peaceful.

Some critics, however, are not happy with the government's decision to declare Friday as a national holiday. They are of the opinion that it will encourage people to participate in demonstrations which may turn violent.

A participant of the meeting told Dawn that it was Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
who had made the proposal to declare Friday as a holiday.

Mr Malik was of the opinion that since massive demonstrations had been planned by religious organizations for Friday, protesters might turn violent and damage private and public properties. Therefore, he suggested, it was better to have a holiday to minimise the chances of loot and arson, according to the participant.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  How many hate mongers in Pakistan?
Posted by: Fester Clunter7205 || 09/21/2012 16:02 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Fed Judge Rules In Favor Of Attack Ads At MTA Stations Targeting Radical Muslims
[CBS] A legal fight over freedom of speech is spilling into New York's subway tunnels. A sign about "Jihad" is set to debut next week. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says it crosses the line, but a judge disagrees.

On the region's subways and buses, most ads we see don't get much attention. But that may change with a pro-Israel ad that will soon grace MTA property which reads: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad."

The ad is a clear swipe against radical Muslims.

"It's going to create problems for no reason, you know?" Maguid El Ghazzawi of Astoria told CBS 2's Sean Hennessey on Wednesday night.

At a Manhattan Mosque, not all were pleased with the fact the ad will soon go public.

"It is negative, not positive," Harlem's Abdus Khan said.

"I think it is something stupid. For somebody they are very ignorant," El Ghazzawi said.

For almost a year, the MTA fought the running of the ad, saying the words "savage" and "jihad" demean a group, but in the lawsuit a federal judge ruled that barring the ad violated the First Amendment and the "....fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas..."

"What the court said, 'no demeaning' is too general a phrase," said Leon Friedman, a constitutional law expert at Hofstra University. "Government just can't say 'I like this ad, I don't like that ad.' They just can't do that."

While the MTA said its hands are tied, the ad's sponsor celebrated the victory.

"Political speech is the most protected speech," said Pamela Geller of the American Freedom Defense Initiative.

Geller said the ad isn't anti-Muslim, but a response to an anti-Israeli ad the MTA ran last year.

"Honestly anyone that disagrees with me, I would take a bullet for their right to disagree with me. This is the beauty of America, the free exchange of ideas," Geller said.

On the subways, some said they understand the court's wisdom.

"I don't necessarily agree with what the ad says, but you shouldn't be suppressing free speech," said Doug Quayle of Darien, Conn.

While others said the ad should be derailed.

"I feel like it's disrespectful to other cultures," said Ayana Sanchez of Union City, N.J.

The MTA said it may revise its advertising standards. In the meantime, the ads will be seen on subway platforms beginning next week. The ads will be seen in 10 Manhattan subways stations and will run for a month.
Posted by: Beavis || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The ad is a clear swipe against radical Muslims.

Only if you consider radical Muslims to be uncivilized savages.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/21/2012 1:23 Comments || Top||

#2  The history of thriving civilizations appear to have at least one major factor in common. They require a populous that remains CIVIL!

Civility is guaranteed through the Rule of Law. Most, if not everyone here is aware of the Judeo-Christian basis of our Rule of Law. Most here are also aware of the basis of so called Muslim Law.

Therein lies the problem. Like oil and water, the two do not mix well. In the oil patch, a pipeline leak can result in contaminated water supplies. If livestock, cows in particular find crude oil on the surface of the ground, or in a pond, they will stand there and drink it until they fall over dead.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 7:21 Comments || Top||

#3  "Defeat jihad" IS a clear swipe against radical Muslims. That's a feature, not a bug.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 09/21/2012 9:05 Comments || Top||

#4 

Pamela Geller strikes at the Mohammedans again.
Posted by: Anginens Clunk4837 || 09/21/2012 10:31 Comments || Top||

#5  All your think tanks and agencies are beyond past compromised by them!




#16 Quds force on this page is friendly and this is from Rand corp same page! Know why you are being killed the real reasons!

Ismail Bin Zakkaria Zakkaria
Oct 23, 2011 - Public
The first step is for the U.S. government and its allies to make a
clear decision to build moderate networks and to create an explicit link
between this goal and overall U.S. strategy and programs. Effective
implementation of this strategy requires the creation of an institutional
structure within the U.S. government to guide, support, oversee, and
continuously monitor the effort. Within the framework of this structure,
the U.S. government must build up the necessary expertise and
capacity to execute the strategy, which includes

1. An ever-evolving and ever-sharpening set of criteria that distinguishes
true moderates from opportunists and from extremists
camouflaged as moderates, and liberal secularists from authoritarian
secularists. The U.S. government needs to have the ability
to make situational decisions to knowingly and for tactical
reasons support individuals outside of that range under specific
circumstances.

2. An international database of partners (individuals, groups, organizations,
institutions, parties, etc.)

3. Mechanisms for monitoring, refining, and overseeing programs,
projects, and decisions. These should include a feedback loop to
allow for inputs and corrections from those partners who have
been found to be most trustworthy.
From the book called "Building Moderate Muslim Networks" by Rand Corporations
Posted by: Angiting Snore1647 || 09/21/2012 18:39 Comments || Top||

#6  See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > ANTI-JIHAD "SAVAGES" ADZ GOING UP IN NYC SUBWAYS.

versus

* SAME > SAUDI ARABIA: WORLD ISLAMIC BODY PUSHES FOR GLOBAL ANTI-BLASPHENY LAW. Human Rights Commission of the inter-Islamic OIC.

* DAILY TIMES.PK > TIME FOR [World "Ummah"] MUSLIMS TO UNITE, SAYS RAJA.

Pak PM Raja Pervez Ashraf.

* SAME > [World/International] MUSLIMS PROTEST FILM, CARTOONS AMID DEATH CALLS.

ARTIC = Libyuhn Clerics call on Saudi Arabia + Egyptian Al-Azhar to ISSUE FATWAS CONDONING DEATH OF ANYONE = MURDER ASSOCIATED WID ANTI-MUSLIM/MOHAMMED FILM.

Technically speaking, fatwas could apply to POTUS Bammer + Admin???

* SAME > [JD Chief Saeed deamnds Pak Govt give ...]ULTIMATUM TO US: CRIMINALIZE [anti-Islamic] BLASPHEMY [in US], OR LOSE CONSULATE(S) IN PAKISTAN.

* TOPIX, WORLD NEWS > ISRAELI OFFICIAL: WORLD AFTER IRAN STRIKE SIMILAR TO VIOLENT ANTI-FILM PROTESTS.

* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [DM Ahmad Vahidi]IRAN OFFICIAL: "BIG WAR" MEANS MAHDI COMING, MILITARY LEADER TIES "LAST MESSIAH" TO REGIME'S PREPARATION FOR CONFLICT.

Iran + World in "ERA OF [Mahdi's/Hidden Imam's]COMING"; US-IRAN WAR IS A [religiously?] SIGNIFICANT WAR FOR SHIAS + ISLAM.

Son???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/22/2012 0:05 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Judge denies actress' bid to remove anti-Islam film
Think! Think! Think! Huuu, three astronauts land on a mysterious planet and are taken prisoner. I've got it! I've got it! She played Dr. Zira!
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's next? Hitler's estate sues for all those Downfall parodies?
Posted by: SteveS || 09/21/2012 1:06 Comments || Top||

#2  I understood that "adult film" actors and actresses were hired? Surely dubbed words were not the worst thing placed in her mouth for film excellence and "the mood"?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/21/2012 20:06 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Nizami, Mojaheed tortured Rumi, Altaf
[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat leaders Nizami and Mojaheed tortured martyred freedom fighter Rumi and musician Altaf Mahmud at a camp of the Mighty Pak Army in Nakhalpara of Dhaka, said a witness before the International Crimes Tribunal-2 yesterday.

Rumi and Altaf never came home as Nizami and Mojaheed decided to have them killed, said second prosecution witness and freedom fighter Zahir Uddin Jalal in the war crimes case against Mojaheed.

Jalal was also in the camp and was brutally tortured by Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami
...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them...
and Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, the witness said.

Mojaheed and Nizami also tortured Jalal's fellow fighters at the camp apart from Altaf and Rumi, son of Shaheed Janani Jahanara Imam, during the Liberation War.

Jalal was lucky to have escaped death as a Pakistain government official rescued him, the witness said.

Jalal had heard Mojaheed and Nizami ask a Pak captain to have Rumi, Altaf and himself killed.

"We assumed that Mojaheed, Nizami and their cohorts had killed them before the proclamation of the President's clemency as we did not get any information about them afterwards," said Jalal.

Jalal, also known as Bichchhu Jalal, yesterday appeared before the Tribunal-2, 41 years after the war, and narrated his horrific ordeal at the camp.

Mojaheed, who was in the dock, listened to the vivid description from the "direct victim" and an eyewitness yesterday. Mojaheed is facing seven charges of crimes against humanity, including murder, genocide and hatching a conspiracy to kill intellectuals during the nine-month-long war.

The 57-year-old witness said he had hurled a grenade at an Al-Badr rally at Chawkbazar, aiming it at Mojaheed on December 4, 1971, and the news of the rally was published with photos in newspapers.

During his four hours and 20 minutes of testimony, Jalal said Nizami, Mojaheed and other Al-Badr men used to torture intellectuals and freedom fighters before killing them at Mohammadpur Physical Training College during the war.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


Africa Subsaharan
Thousands protest against anti-Muslim movie in Nigeria
[Al Ahram] Thousands of Moslems marched in the Nigerian city of Zaria and burnt US and Israeli flags on Thursday to protest a US-made anti-Islam movie that has drawn demonstrations in various countries.
I have one word of investment advice for you, dear Reader: flag makers. OK, that's two, but thoughts of our beloved vice president made me think like him momentarily.
The protesters under the auspices of the pro-Iranian Shiite group Islamic Movement of Nigeria carried banners and placards denouncing the United States and Israel while calling for the prosecution of the film producers.

They dragged the US and Israeli flags along the dusty streets and burnt them at the end of the 10-kilometre (eight-mile) march amidst cries of "Death to AmericaĀ™" and "Death to Israel."

"The film, apart from outward mockery on tenets and beliefs of Islam, presented Prophet Mohammed in a display of an unspeakable immoral manner and personality," read a leaflet circulated by the group during the protest.

Armed coppers in vans escorted the protesters to ward off potential violence in the northern city that is home to Nigeria's Vice President Namadi Sambo.

The city has seen violent attacks blamed on Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
Islamists, including gun attacks on Sambo's house.

Last week, Moslems in the central city of Jos as well as the northern cities of Katsina and Sokoto poured into the streets in protest against the movie without any incident, although soldiers dispersed the protesters in Jos.

The crudely made "Innocence of Moslems", produced by US-based Death Eater Christians, has triggered protests in at least 20 countries since excerpts were posted online, and more than 30 people have been killed in violence linked to the film.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 160 million people, is roughly divided between a predominantly Moslem north and a largely Christian south, and Moslem-Christian tensions have often led to deadly confrontation.

An article in one of Nigeria's leading newspapers in 2002 considered blasphemous by Moslems helped spark deadly riots in the northern city of Kaduna in which 3,000 people were killed.

The article, published a few days before the Miss World Pageant planned to be held in Nigeria, said the Prophet Mohammed would have taken one of the beauty queens as a wife, in reaction to strong opposition by Moslems against hosting the pageant in the country.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why so late? Different calendar? Of the organizers couldn't schedule it fast enough, amid all the others?
Posted by: Bobby || 09/21/2012 5:42 Comments || Top||

#2  It takes a while to organize these spontaneous demonstrations, Bobby. People have to be contacted, signs made, flags acquired, paychecks written and signed...
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/21/2012 6:16 Comments || Top||

#3  We all know that only a small minority of Muslims are extremists, don't we?
That is, if you ignore the figures.
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 7:31 Comments || Top||

#4  You know what would be GREAT? A Mel Brooks remake of The Critic, this time narrated by an Imam.

Or mebbe Achmed the Dead Terrorist.
Posted by: Shinter Javirong9154 || 09/21/2012 14:55 Comments || Top||

#5  @trailing wife

Thank you for your link yesterday. I will actually order a few flags because the old ones I have are a bit tattered already.

We use to fly them on US holidays and since we live in Bavaria, we get cheers not sneers because we do.
Posted by: European Conservative || 09/21/2012 15:35 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
UN chief says anti-Islam film 'disgraceful, shameless'
[Al Ahram] UN chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
slams anti-Islam Internet video, pointing out that freedom of expression should not be a 'disgraceful and shameful' act
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hi there, Angiting Snore1647!
Rantburg

Today's Front Page View All of Fri 09/21/2012 View Thu 09/20/2012 View Wed 09/19/2012 View Tue 09/18/2012 View Mon 09/17/2012 View Sun 09/16/2012 View Sat 09/15/2012
2012-09-21 Home Front: Culture Wars
DAMMIT, WAKE UP!
h/t Instapundit
There is a mystery about this election. The slanted national press and Romney's weaknesses are well understood, but a large gap separates these explanations from the fact that needs explaining: this election will be close. How is that possible when Obama has shown himself to be the worst president in modern history? And when Romney (on the other hand) is unexciting but safe, serious, solid--just the right sort of man to shelter all sorts of tempest-tost Americans in a storm?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2012-09-21 06:49|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| ||Comments [282 views ] Top

#1 I pay no attention to the polls. Look at Gallup what happened when they came close to showing the truth. The old media is in the tank for the Democrats period. More people are now losing jobs, good jobs like coal and defense. I talked to a young woman that had to quit college and now must work full time to support her future husband and child. He just lost his computer related job with a defense company. He is now working on his masters she said. Just basics, wick program but too little to help. No extra money for anything.
Many anti Obama signs in my coal area also. I truthfully believe we will hear a loud flushing sound at election time. While still in office he will pull as many dirty tricks as he can, pardons and so on.
Posted by Dale 2012-09-21 07:06|| 2012-09-21 07:06|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#2 I pray you are right Dale.
Posted by Besoeker 2012-09-21 07:11|| 2012-09-21 07:11|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#3 Housing fraud-government buys all the paper no boots on ground like Russia
Keeps printing money
Prices are going through roof on everything
Smaller quantity in food containers at stores
using food crops for inferior energy for entire country
Farming all jobs over seas
Corruption is beyond obvious
Gold what crap can't eat it
Troops spread across globe
All sorts of useless lies and leaders yet putting on the complete opposite air on television and the internet
What do people really believe?
Posted by Angiting Snore1647 2012-09-21 07:38|| 2012-09-21 07:38|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#4 I think the media will stay in the tank until after the debates. At that point they may try to regain credibility if it looks like Obama is the weak horse despite their attempts.
Posted by rjschwarz 2012-09-21 08:29|| 2012-09-21 08:29|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#5 Reagan was behind Carter in late October in 1980. He won the election with 489 electoral votes. Carter got something like 44. Carter screwed up the Iran crisis and the economy was terrible, similar kind of phenomenon today with Obama. It's a little more complicated today as there are other factors that have entered this election.
Posted by JohnQC 2012-09-21 09:05|| 2012-09-21 09:05|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#6 1. Public education.

2. Independents are emotional voters. They don;t know and don't care about policy. They want to be excited, and Romney isn't exciting.

3. The polls are bald lies. At the last instant they'll skew toward Romney to try and save some credibility, but they will never show anything but a horse race until then.
Posted by Iblis 2012-09-21 09:50|| 2012-09-21 09:50|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#7 Give me a guy or a gal who in unexciting but competetent--someone who can actually do something. I don't want some dumb a** Hollywood celebrity as President.

Margaret Thatcher said: "Socialism ends when it runs out of other people's money."
Posted by JohnQC 2012-09-21 10:48|| 2012-09-21 10:48|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#8 "who in is unexciting." Sorry, my proofing missed this.
Posted by JohnQC 2012-09-21 10:49|| 2012-09-21 10:49|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#9 JohnQC:

You are not an independent voter would be my guess.

One additional feature of the 'I' voter is that they follow the crowd. If the party base gets excited that's enough for them. They'll get excited too. Worked for Reagan. Worked for Champ in '08. Not working this year, though you saw it briefly with the Ryan pick.

Also, if the Independents remain undecided at the end they overwhelmingly break for the challenger.
Posted by Iblis 2012-09-21 11:56|| 2012-09-21 11:56|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#10 Reagan was exciting but he was also eminently competent and courageous enough to take a stand.

I'm afraid Romney needs to kick it up a notch or else he's going to lose the same way John McCain did. When he went in front of Univision he talked about the 100 percent. Bullshit. He had a moment of candor when he talked about the 47 percent but he let the media convince him it was a gaffe. It was only a gaffe because he let them say it was. All he had to do to justify it was ask people if they want to be dependent or independent. That's what it's all about.
Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-09-21 12:10|| 2012-09-21 12:10|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#11

The polls are bald lies. At the last instant they'll skew toward Romney to try and save some credibility, but they will never show anything but a horse race until then.



The polls show what they're paid to show -- which is exactly what you describe. The press wants to show a "horse race" -- with Obama generally in the lead -- because it brings in a bigger audience.

And, second, polls are just an example of bandwagon propaganda. "The majority are voting for Obama -- you don't want to be an outsider, do you?" It's BS.

The only honest polls are the ones the campaigns pay for -- because they pay for the accuracy and honesty. Those polls must show Romney with a comfortable lead, because most of the efforts the Democrats have made have been in getting their base excited, not in reaching out to the undecided.
Posted by Rob Crawford 2012-09-21 12:30|| 2012-09-21 12:30|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#12 I have low expectations for the debates. I'm actually afraid Obama will mop the floor with Romney - he has no fire in his belly and seems uncomfortable coming on strong. I also want to know where Ryan has been - I haven't heard/seen much of him in over a week. He's got more of what it takes to win than Romney - put him up front!
Posted by Yosemite Sam 2012-09-21 12:51|| 2012-09-21 12:51|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#13 It isn't that the pollsters are paid to show a horserace.

The pollsters are being paid (or lobbied) to suppress the Republican and independent vote.

The logic is simple: show that Obama (or Warren, or any other favored Democrat) is ahead, and there is a certain segment of the public who will stay home on election day. They'll say, "what's the use" and sit it out.

Sounds stupid, right? But it works.

So Axelrod and Plouffe are working hard daily on the pollsters.

Democratic client pollsters like PPP have an additional job: skew the poll averages. You've seen these averages at Real Clear Politics, etc -- they gather up a bunch of recent polls and average them for a 'consensus' number.

So if PPP, by whatever means, consistently shows Champ to be +6, and four other pollsters see it as Romney +1/0, guess what the average is. Yup, Champs keeps his lead.

The Democrats know this works: it was proven in Florida in 2000, when the Gore team had (bought) exit polls showing him in the lead and persuaded CBS to 'call' Florida early. The voters in the panhandle part of the state, in the Central time zone, still had time to go to the polls, but a number didn't. Later polling showed that the voters who stayed home rather than go vote in that last hour would have voted Bush 2:1 over Gore. Enough to tip (or solidify) the election.

A fair number of pollsters are as deep in the tank for Obama as the MSM. Remember that, and remember the Gore trick on election night: Axelrod has plans, I'm sure.
Posted by Steve White 2012-09-21 12:57|| 2012-09-21 12:57|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#14 I never talk to pollsters. Never.
Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2012-09-21 13:55|| 2012-09-21 13:55|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#15 #9 JohnQC: You are not an independent voter would be my guess.

I was talking to my neighbor this A.M., a Viet vet. He said we wasn't so much voting for Romney as he was voting against Obama. I agree with him. I think what Obama is doing to this country is an abomination. We both agreed Washington is FUBAR. I will vote for the most conservative candidate that has a chance of winning. In this case it is Romney/Ryan. Independents don't have a good history of winning in this country; they tend to be spoilers--in some cases that is good. There were good people that never emerged beyond the primaries that I liked but that's the nature of the process.
Posted by JohnQC 2012-09-21 16:56|| 2012-09-21 16:56|| Front Page ||Comments Top

#16 Quds force on this page is friendly and this is from Rand corp same page! Know why you are being killed the real reasons!

Ismail Bin Zakkaria Zakkaria
Oct 23, 2011 - Public
The first step is for the U.S. government and its allies to make a
clear decision to build moderate networks and to create an explicit link
between this goal and overall U.S. strategy and programs. Effective
implementation of this strategy requires the creation of an institutional
structure within the U.S. government to guide, support, oversee, and
continuously monitor the effort. Within the framework of this structure,
the U.S. government must build up the necessary expertise and
capacity to execute the strategy, which includes

1. An ever-evolving and ever-sharpening set of criteria that distinguishes
true moderates from opportunists and from extremists
camouflaged as moderates, and liberal secularists from authoritarian
secularists. The U.S. government needs to have the ability
to make situational decisions to knowingly and for tactical
reasons support individuals outside of that range under specific
circumstances.

2. An international database of partners (individuals, groups, organizations,
institutions, parties, etc.)

3. Mechanisms for monitoring, refining, and overseeing programs,
projects, and decisions. These should include a feedback loop to
allow for inputs and corrections from those partners who have
been found to be most trustworthy.
From the book called "Building Moderate Muslim Networks" by Rand Corporations
Posted by Angiting Snore1647 2012-09-21 18:36|| 2012-09-21 18:36|| Front Page ||Comments Top

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Posted by: Angiting Snore1647 || 09/21/2012 18:37 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Unemployment mounts as Iran's economy falters
Posted by: Glinesh Craling7938 || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why don't they print money?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 09/21/2012 12:01 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tunisia Braces for Protests Over French Cartoons
[VOA News] A week after Mohammedans worldwide vented their anger at an anti-Islam film made in the United States, authorities in Tunisia are bracing for more unrest this Friday - this time because of French cartoons making fun of the Mohammedan Prophet Muhammad.

Right now it's a typical weekday afternoon in downtown Tunis. The main Habib Bourguiba Avenue is choked with traffic and pedestrians. One thing that is different, however, are the barbed wire and police flanking La Belle France's elegant embassy.

The extra security comes ahead of Friday prayers - and a day after a French magazine published cartoons mocking the Mohammedan Prophet Muhammad.

Tunisian authorities clearly don't want a repeat of last Friday, when violent demonstrations by Salafists
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
outside the U.S. embassy here killed four Tunisians and injured dozens of others.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Egypt Islamists to refrain from protesting French Prophet cartoons
French and German diplomatic missions in Egypt will be shut on Friday as a precaution against any violent protests that may occur against a recent film and cartoons mocking Prophet Mohamed.
French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday published a series of cartoons denigrating Islam's prophet, prompting the French foreign ministry to close its diplomatic missions in 20 countries in anticipation of angry public responses.

The German embassy in Cairo is also taking precautions following a national debate
... an expenditure of personal wind at the national level that leads to face-making and other histrionics but can't be shown to have ever solved an issue ...
in Germany on whether to allow public screenings of the now-infamous short film 'The Innocence of Moslems.'

The film, deemed highly offensive to Moslems, prompted strong reactions against the US -- where the film was produced -- across the Middle East, including the killing of the US ambassador to Libya and three of his staff.

Germany's far-right Pro-Deutschland movement, which has previously staged a series of anti-Islam rallies, has insisted on screening the film, sparking debate among Germany's brass hats on whether to ban it or not.

According to German news agency DPA, Germany's foreign ministry has decided to close its Middle East embassies on Friday, saying that its diplomats had been instructed to stay home that day.

In an apparent reaction to perceived Western hatred of Islam, Germany's embassy in Sudan was set ablaze earlier this week by anti-film protesters. Sudanese demonstrators also converged on the nearby British embassy.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Arabia
Yemen Tightens Security At Embassies
[Yemen Post] Yemen has tightened security around foreign embassies and organizations in the capital Sanaa as a precaution to face expected attacks, almost a week after mobs stormed the US embassy to protest a film offending the Prophet Muhammad.

The interior ministry said on Thursday it has increased the number of guards and patrols at all foreign embassies and agencies and urged the security systems to stay on high alert to prevent security breaches at them.

Separately, the Military Prosecution will start next Saturday investigations of tens of soldiers and civilians who raided the defense ministry in downtown Sanaa last month, the September 26 website reported Thursday.

"The Military Prosecution has already received those involved in the attack and their tools to investigate them as a prelude to refer them to the court," the website quoted a well-informed source as saying.

83 soldiers and 8 civilians were tossed in the clink
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
in connection with the attack on the ministry, it said, adding that 25 officers and soldiers involved in the attack are still on the lam and three of the civilians were released on bail.

This year, coppers also stormed and looted the interior ministry's HQ exploiting fragile security at a time when Yemen is implementing a power-transfer deal that was reached after the 2011 unrest.

Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Bangladesh
Five charged with Saudi official murder
[Bangla Daily Star] Detective Branch of police yesterday pressed charges in a case against five criminals for their involvement in the killing of Saudi embassy official Khalaf Al Ali in the capital.

DB Assistant Commissioner Md Obaidul Haque, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka, showing 31 people as prosecution witnesses.

The five accused are Mohammad Al Amin, Saiful Islam Mamun, Rafiqul Islam Khokon, Selim Chowdhury and Akbar Ali Lalu.

Of them, Selim is on the run. And the others were earlier tossed in the calaboose
You have the right to remain silent...
and are now in jug.

The charges against the killers have been proved and they should be brought to trial, said the IO in the charge sheet.

The IO appealed to the court to issue an arrest warrant for Selim, who comes from Bhola, and an order to attach his properties.

Khalaf, 45, worked at the consular section of the Saudi embassy. He was rubbed out in a mugging incident near his Gulshan house in the small hours of March 6.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mugging. Really??
Posted by: Raider || 09/21/2012 12:55 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Terror in Tamaulipas: 14 die

For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas state, click here.

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of 14 individuals have been killed in drug and gang related violence in Tamaulipas state, including three Tamaulipas state police agents, according to several Spanish and English language reports.

According to a news item posted Thursday evening on the website of Animal Politico, the three police agents were killed Wednesday night aboard their official vehicle in Nuevo Laredo.

The agents were identified as JosƩ Luis Orozco, Arturo Alvarado, and Guillermo Hernandez,, all of the Tamaulipas state Secretaria de Seguridad Publica Estatal (SSPE) or state police.

The shooting took place near the intersection of calles Jesus Carranza and Paseo Colon.

Meanwhile eight other individuals were killed on drug related violence since last September 15, according to an translated account published on the website of San Antonio Express English language news daily Thursday evening.
  • A total of seven unidentified individuals were killed over last weekend in Tamualipas state. The news report did not specify the number or locations of the incidents.

  • A total of four armed suspects were killed by a Mexican Army road patrol just outside Nuevo Laredo city along Anahuac highway Monday afternoon. Soldiers in the patrol observed a vehicle with suspects and gave chase when the driver attempted to elude the patrol.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Helicopter crashes in Damascus suburb
[Dawn] A helicopter crashed in the town of Douma east of the Syrian capital Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
on Thursday, Syrian state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said.

It gave no details, but an activist in Damascus said rebels had shot down the helicopter. No rebel group has claimed the attack yet.

Rebel fighters seeking to overthrow Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
have often fired at planes and helicopters used by the Syrian military to bombard opposition strongholds, bringing down a helicopter on the outskirts of Damascus on Aug 27.

Three days later fighters in the northern province of Idlib said they had shot down a fighter plane in the northwestern province of Idlib near the Turkish border.

Rebels short of anti-aircraft capability have also launched ground attacks on airforce bases in the north and east of Syria to try to counter the military's air power.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Fifth Column
How the West is losing the cognitive war with Islamism and its death cults
T
he West continues well into the teens of the 21st century to lose the cognitive war with the Islamist camp. The latest catastrophe of international proportions has been the attacks on 9/11 against US embassies in Libya and Egypt (two places that went through major changes during the "Arab Spring"). A combination of well-planned rocket attacks used the cover of outrage at an inflammatory movie about Islam, to kill an American ambassador and three other embassy officials. The Muslim street in the Arab world has turned violently hostile to the US, and their own leaders, when not helpless to resist, are in cahoots, even with nuclear Iran. Angry Muslim demonstrations riots spread all over the globe, and American (and Western) policy in the region is "in tatters".

The results have made clear how poorly we Westerners conduct ourselves on the global stage, and how the news media self-inflicts some of those wounds. At the heart of the drama stands a President of the US, who plays win-win checkers against enemies who play I-win-you-lose three-dimensional chess; and at the same time a Western news media which rushes to publish as news, the poisoned meat of lethal narratives.

Let's look at what happened from the perspective of asymmetrical cognitive war, in which weak aggressors use non-violent methods to at once put a much more powerful enemy in a position where he cannot use his own force, and then maximize the use of their own force, largely (at the early stages) for symbolic effect. Here al-Qaeda affiliates make a daring assault on US sovereign territory, killing an ambassador. Their cover, a movie made that outrageously insults the prophet, and predictably arouses the angry violence of the crowd. America loudly denounces the film and protests the riots, but does not make any moves to even demand the punishment of the perpetrators. Crowds who have no fear, knowing that neither the US nor government troops will not shoot back, gather outside other US Embassies in the Arab world. The riots spread to other countries.

This massive symbolic attack, on 9-11 -- if you will, this global insult to the Peace of Westphalia and the basic principles of the UN -- comes off almost as brilliantly as 9-11. You couldn't script a movie better. The POTUS loses face on a massive scale, especially in the Muslim and non-aligned world, where matters of face have enormous cultural capital. He looks like a dismaying fool to the Europeans, who are struggling with both crises in their ambitiously high-minded (win-win) projects, and their increasingly restive and aggressive Muslim immigrant populations who have failed/refused to assimilate (i.e., they, like their co-religionists back home, will riot at perceived insult).

The people even our mild-mannered administration are willing to call "the enemy" -- "al Qaeda and its allies around the world" -- carried out a brilliant cognitive war op. Right up there in the global hit parade with 9/11 and the Cartoon Riots of 2005/6. And the implications on the ground: US Embassies, our sovereign territory on foreign soil, are under threat from crowds who have lost their fear. The Arab Awakening has given power to the Islamists, who cannot control -- if they are in league with -- the Jihadis. As even the President admits indirectly, the US has lost its closest Muslim ally in the Middle East, and gained no new ones.

Before even knowing about cognitive war, we heard complaints about how poorly we in the West were conducting ours, indeed how the aughts ('00s) were the occasion of catastrophic losses in a cognitive war with a remorseless foe. Those losses were all the more inexplicable in that the foe who had "picked" this wildly asymmetrical war with us, represented every kind of value and attitude upon whose opposition the West had built the remarkably free society that we enjoy today. But, we were told by our intellectual luminaries, these folks were part of the "socially progressive, global Left".

After all, without a profound commitment to tolerance and fairness, there's no way we can hope that this, the first global millennium, can produce a peaceful and varied global culture. And yet the foe to whom we lose repeatedly on countless small and large battlefields of their choosing, embraces exactly the opposite of progressive values: misogynist, homophobe, anti-Semitic, racist, theocratic, fascist. Indeed, it's hard to find, even in the worst periods of Christian and post-Christian, paranoid, Jew hatred, anything quite as delirious as the Hamas death cult of suicide-mass-murder.

Our losses in the first decade continue; our haemorrhaging, unabated. We have, apparently, learned nothing. And without a turn-around on the cognitive plane, we are condemned either to a world of quiet submission to a warrior aristocracy, or a bloodbath that will overtake even the Second World War's tens of millions. To contribute to having the much-needed turnaround occur while violence need not be a weapon of first resort, consider what this incident reveals about Western weaknesses in the cognitive theatre of war.

The major problem concerns how we interpret Arab Muslim political culture. Our view of the "Arab Spring," was shot through with a kind of messianic hope that our fondest beliefs -- people are the same everywhere -- were now proven by these "brave facebook protesters" who would bring "democracy" to the good people of Egypt. Now that Egyptians had "lost their fear of the government," -- what CNN and BBC commentators emphasized repeatedly during the dramatic street demonstrations -- they would choose democracy. We anticipated a huge victory for progressive forces on the planet.

And because we present ourselves as a gentle giant, which has renounced power for positive-sum relations -- we just want to be your friends, we tell the Muslim world -- we renounce the kinds of everyday violence necessary for "maintaining order" in pre-modern, alpha-male-dominated, political cultures. So our embassy guards are given unloaded guns, to ceremoniously maintain a faƧade of modern civility amidst people we refuse to believe are hostile. The guards' "rules of engagement," and now, since "Arab Spring," Arab governments' rules of engagement, systematically restrain the use of force. We cannot defend ourselves on the ground in a hostile political culture, nor can we retaliate for losses.

Of course, it is all dreadfully mistaken, and the worst scenarios of the Cassandras are now coming to fruition across North Africa and beyond, even as we are radically unprepared to deal with these developments. And yet, in order to maintain our pleasant progressive fantasy, we ignored all the evidence -- of misogyny, of anti-Semitism, of anti-Americanism, of brutal religious zealotry in the "revolutionary" Arab street. And now, on the basis of a ludicrous film, they riot and threaten violence for the sake of their honor -- all behavior no self-respecting progressive would tolerate for his own people.

We were and are in part able to carry off this astonishing act of denial, to self-inflict this debilitating wound, by adopting as a firm principle: there are no significant cultural differences. All cultures are equal, and one cannot "judge" another culture, or its religion. As SaĆÆd insisted, the most terrible sin a (Western) progressive can make is to invidiously "other" another culture. If they behave like "enfant terribles," then we'll apologize for upsetting them in the hopes of calming them down.

While this may be a fine way to proceed with "others" of good will, its dogmatic assertion in 21st- century international relations, has forced us to ignore major hostile cultural forces which have come to the fore in the 15th century AH (1979-2076). Driven by both religious and honor-shame dynamics, Islam has produced a deeply toxic brew of tribal warrior psychosis and millennial cult of death and murder. And yet we, as our President and his top officials insists, should not discuss "radical Islam" lest we insult Muslims. Then we get slapped in the face on the global stage by the very Islamists we don't talk about.

What should we expect? Our POTUS, in order to "live up" to our democratic principles and oppose dictatorship, threw America's most reliable Muslim friend in the Middle East, the anchor of our decades-long policy in a volatile region, to the mobs bent on his public humiliation. And rather than pay attention to the fascist theocratic forces at work here, we either ignored the Muslim Brotherhood, or, when they scored huge electoral victories, we redefined them -- astoundingly -- as basically secular and moderate. We not only played "sour grapes" with our hopes of democracy, we ate the bitter grapes of our enemy's victory, and claimed they tasted okay.

In the world of honor and shame where most people live, we Americans, Westerners, progressives, come off as fools. We, on the other hand, consider those juvenile games beneath us, deny they have importance. Yes, it's true that the embassies were attacked, that the attacks continue to spread and intensify, but let's not exaggerate the damage to our position and let's not make things worse by retaliating. "Mursi may not be our ally, but we don't consider him our enemy," Obama gaudgingly admits in a brief semi-nod to reality. (What firm evidence supports the second assertion?) Obama's concern for "saving face" apparently lies with his standing among the American people, not in the world in which his "face" is ours. Indeed, the only people he has not apologized to so far, are the American people, his people. Phaeton in his father's chariot, insisting he has not lost control.

And the most terrible thing is, Obama lost face not only in the eyes of foes so deadly even he will admit they're "the enemy," but also to bystanders.
If you want to know who the strong horse is in the eyes of people around the globe, now in our twelfth year since 9/11, do not look to any Western figure. Our champions, like Judith Butler and Noam Chomsky, score own-goals, and we cheer them on. If this were merely a war of words, it might not be so bad, but the purpose of their war or words is to better position to strike on the battlefield. This is not a war we who treasure freedom can afford to lose.
Posted by: Glinesh Craling7938 || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I have never understood the gangster mind -- I simply know what to do about gangsters."
Lazurus Long
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/21/2012 0:41 Comments || Top||

#2  We could straighten all this out in an afternoon simply by nuking Mecca. Not for any particular military, political, or religious reason, but simply to show them we are serious about this stuff. Lame-ass attempts at appeasement obviously don't work - and never have with bullies and tyrants. We'll give you a strong horse - in as many kilotons as it takes.
(and yes, nuking Mecca should be added to the drinks list)
Posted by: SteveS || 09/21/2012 1:17 Comments || Top||

#3  How about getting us and our allies independent of ME oil? Then we don't need them and they can do what they want as long as they leave us alone, or pound sand or both.

If they persist in their bad behavior, then we get kinetic.....from a distance. They need to learn the important life skills of cause and effect. Which is a tall order for them. There are serious consequences to their present behavior.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/21/2012 1:48 Comments || Top||

#4  1989
(Rondezvous with) Rama II
IIRC, began with a nuke device set off in the Vatican.

Now, think about that, because the story line was about humaniy's intolerance towards new knowledge; a new age approach; religion is intolerance.

The point the authors' approach was that all religeon was intolerant, yet which, at that time, was the most plausable to sell the story? Even in New Age?

Thirty (30) years later, the Policy Maker is making excuses. Unexpectedly. Spontaneously. Dasterdly. The L-Whys are inexcusable; Chef Ramsey would have fired them nevermind my ass.

Howz about, inexcusably, eh?!

Peace? Better a slave of Christiandom than a friend of the Turks.
1565-Malta
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/21/2012 2:01 Comments || Top||

#5  The US-educated Egyptian PM has officially demanded the legal abolition of free speech guarantees in the US.

'The fix, he (the PM of Egypt) said, was for the United States to amend its laws regarding free speech in order to protect Muslims.

"I think we need to work out something around this because we cannot wait and see this happen again," he said.'

Why isn't there a strong official response to this outrageous demand? In fact why isn't there public outrage?
Shitty little Egypt is making the 'final demand' that no Soviet leader dared make, ever.

What conclusions will friends and foes of the US draw from this?
Posted by: Woozle Hupetle1110 || 09/21/2012 3:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Excellent! The writer sees it for what it is.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 7:01 Comments || Top||

#7  Just looking forward to the whole atheist Islam big hug and love moment ya know what I am saying go DNC keep up the televised events dumb asses!
Posted by: Angiting Snore1647 || 09/21/2012 7:41 Comments || Top||

#8  Alaska Paul, Of all of George W. Bush's errors that is the biggest one. I can forgive kow-towing to Islam if it was just a cover while we built up our own domestic oil capacity but to kow-tow without drilling, drilling and more drilling? And building nuke plants, etc. I just don't understand that.

These things take time to build and exploit so we should have started them 11 years ago when the country would have been united behind energy independence in a way that is unlikely to happen again.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/21/2012 8:38 Comments || Top||

#9  The West is 'losing' this war because it pre-emptively committed intellectual suicide some years before 9/11/2001. The process was far advanced when the Dept. of Education was created.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 09/21/2012 8:59 Comments || Top||

#10  I noted the caption on the picture in the article: "The 'progressive' Left cringes before Islamism." The progressive left is always looking for some group to feel guilty about. You could add grovel, apologize, bow, to cringe. In this case the group is the Mooselimbs.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 10:40 Comments || Top||

#11  Change the argument -- in our culture, the ability of a belief to withstand ridicule is a sign of its strength. If criticism is so "hurtful" to Islam, then do Muslims really believe? Or are they simply given no choice? If they have no choice, if they are forced to practice the faith, then is it truth, or is it simply, well, submission?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/21/2012 12:33 Comments || Top||

#12  If they truly believed they would snicker knowing their God would cause eternal torment to blasphemers. Since they are unsure they riot and try to take Earthly justice.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/21/2012 14:34 Comments || Top||


-Election 2012
Republican Jewish Coalition begins $5 million TV ad buy
Spots will target Jewish voters in swing states between now and the election

(JTA) -- The Republican Jewish Coalition has launched a $5 million television advertising campaign aimed at Jewish voters in swing states.

The campaign started Wednesday and runs through Nov. 5 in cable and broadcast TV markets with sizable Jewish populations in Florida, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The first RJC ad is a shortened version of one of the group's "buyer's remorse" videos, which featured disillusioned Obama voters.

"This ad highlights the 'buyer's remorse' felt by many in the Jewish community, who voted for Obama four years ago, but are now disillusioned with his economic policies and his policies toward Israel," the RJC's executive director, Matt Brooks, said in a statement Wednesday. "These ads, and the stories of the people in them, give voice to the nagging doubts that many Jewish voters feel about President B.O.. To underscore that point, numerous polls have shown an erosion in Jewish support for the President."

Unreleased Gallup survey data found 70 percent of Jewish voters saying they would support Obama to 25 percent for Republican nominee Willard Mitt Romney
...former governor of Massachussetts, currently the Publican nominee for president. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals. More to the point, he isn't President B.O...
. The data, which were reported by Buzzfeed, is from Gallup's daily tracking polls from July 1 through Sept. 10 and is based on a sample size of 828 registered Jewish voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

In July it was reported that casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and other RJC board members would be funding a $6.5 million effort by the group to woo Jewish voters, including the TV ad campaign. Earlier this month, the RJC began a voter outreach effort in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and launched a new billboard campaign in South Florida featuring the slogan "Obama ... Oy Vey!!"
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Obama You Don't Know made mention of Obama's chumminess with U.S. Palestinians who had links to the Mideast while he was in Chicago. It helps explain his present day sympathies with Palestine rather than supporting our only real ally in the ME, Israel. O threw them under the bus.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 9:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Perhaps if the L.A. Times would publish or post online the Obama and Rashid Khalidi tape the ratio of support would flip to Romney. Just saying...
Posted by: F(r)an Galt || 09/21/2012 11:41 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria claims to have killed 100 Afghanis fighting with rebels
(SANA)- The armed forces on Thursday carried out a qualitative operation in Bustan al-Qasr in the city of Aleppo in which they killed more than 100 Afghani terrorists who were stationed near al-Fidaa al-Arabi school.
SANA = Syrian Arab News Network, an Assad controlled media outlet

It isn't likely there are many Afghanis in Syria. There are, however, a smattering of various non arabic speakers fighting with the rebels.
Posted by: lord garth || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks!
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/21/2012 11:10 Comments || Top||

#2  There must be Saudis and Pakistanis involved-The Home of Jihad.
Posted by: Muggsy Clusosing6422 || 09/21/2012 12:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Whoa, "left field" strikes again.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/21/2012 23:30 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pak interior minister 'should lose seat': Pak Supremes
[Bangla Daily Star] Pakistain's Supreme Court yesterday said Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
, a key aide to the president, should lose his senate seat for making a false statement in election papers.

It is the second time in three months the court has ruled against Malik, a senior member of the ruling Pakistain People's Party (PPP) seen by many as President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
's right-hand man, and the latest round in a long-running tussle between the government and the judiciary.

Some government members have accused judges of overreaching their authority and trying to bring down the coalition before it becomes the first elected administration in Pakistain's history to complete a full five-year term.

The court also disqualified four MPs -- two from the PPP -- and seven provincial assembly members yesterday for holding dual nationality. The constitution bars elected politicians from holding citizenship of any country other than Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa Horn
Al Qaeda Theatens French Hostages in Mali
The publication of the Muhammed cartoons in the French magazine Charlie Hebdo puts these hostages in a dicey situation.
Posted by: Raider || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Four NGOs stopped from working in Orakzai
[Dawn] The political administration of Orakzai Agency
... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers...
has asked four non-governmental organizations including partners of USAID and Unicef to stop working in the troubled area forthwith, sources say.

They said that the administration through a letter, issued on September 9, directed four non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their activities in the area till obtaining formal permission from Corps Headquarters in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.

The political agent said, in the letter, that the decision to stop the four organizations from working was taken in view of the directives he received from Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) on August 10.

The four persons to whom the instructions had been issued included chief of party Fata Children Project, agency coordinator National Research and Development Foundation, agency health communication support officer Chip Training Consultants and Field Monitor APEX, sources said.

They said that most of those organizations had been working in Orakzai Agency for the past one year for which they had been already issued no objection certificates.

Sources alleged that governor and other government functionaries were committed to allow private relief aid organizations but the local authorities created problems for them.

The no objection certificates are required by the organizations that take part in early recovery process of the residents of Orakzai Agency but the ones involved in improvement of 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...
and other immunisation activities stand exempted from the NOCs. According to sources,
these organizations have also been working in other six tribal agencies of Federally Administered Tribal Areas and signalling out only Orakzai will affect the child health and immunisation programmes.

Sources said that two of the organizations, which had been carrying out projects with the financial support of Unicef and United States International Agency for Development (USAID), were now trying to get NOCs from the 11 Corps through Fata Secretariat.

Official sources in Fata Secretariat said that the move was part of the government's programme to maintain law and order in the militancy-stricken areas. In such circumstances, the government wanted to tight scrutiny of all those working in development of health, education and other social sectors, they said.

"Genuine organizations will be allowed to work and help the government in the gigantic task of rehabilitation of people affected by militancy," they said, adding that the government required the services of relief agencies but not at the cost of national security. Officials said that each and every organization would have to apply for NOC before launching projects in all parts of Fata. The army, which conducted military operations, should know about the operations of the relief organizations to facilitate them in the troubled area, they added. Orakzai Political Agent Khushal Khan, when contacted, declined to comment on the issue.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Caribbean-Latin America
Death in Durango: 11 die

For a map, click here. For a map of Durango state, click here. For a map of Coahuila state, click here

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of 11 individuals were killed or were found dead in ongoing drug and gang related violence in Durango and Coahuila states including three Policia Federal (PF) agents, according to Mexican news accounts.

According to a news account on the website of Animal Politico, the three PF agents had been ambushed in Gomez Palacio by armed suspects travelling aboard several vehicles. The ambush took place near the intersection of calles Victoria and Zaragoza in Zona Centro at around 1100 hrs Thursday.

The three PF agents who died in the encounter were identified as Pedro Cano Rodriguez, 34, Refugio Hernandez Ramirez, 41 and Antonio Lopez Mendez, 33.

Meanwhile, eight individuals died in drug or gang violence elsewhere in Durango state, according to a news report posted on the website of El Siglo de Durango news daily.
  • A decapitated body was found in Tlahualilo municipality Tuesday morning near Ejido Banco Nacional. The victim was an unidentified male in his 20s with tattoos, whose hands were bound. His head was found nearby.

  • Two women were found shot to death inside a minivan in Gomez Palacio municipality late Tuesday night. The victims were identified as Ema MartĆ­nez Sainz, 55 and Dora Alicia Regalado Ramirez, 40. They were found aboard a Toyota Quest minivan near the intersection of Avenida Madero and Calle Zaragoza.

  • An unidentified man in his 20s was found shot to death along the Durango city to Gomez Palacio highway at Kilometer 41.

  • Another unidentified man in his 20s was found shot to death in Gomez Palacio municipality Wednesday night. The victim was found in San Alberto colony in Ejido Filadelfia. He had been shot once in the head.

  • According to a news item posted on the website of El Diario de Coahuila news daily, three armed suspects were killed by Mexican security forces in Piedra Negras municipality in Coahuila state Wednesday evening. According to the report, the gunfight took place near the intersection of calles Lopez Mateos and Alejo Gonzalez in Buenavista colony. A unit of the Coahuila state Grupo de Armas y Tacticas Especiales (GATE) located the armed suspects who were travelling aboard a van, and who had fired their weapons at state security forces. Piedra Negras is under heightened alert due to a mass prison break last Monday,which had sprung 132 criminals.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bad - I know there aren't many comments, but we appreciate the work you do in putting together the daily barbarism from south of the border
Posted by: Frank G || 09/21/2012 20:02 Comments || Top||

#2  What Framk said.
Posted by: Barbara || 09/21/2012 20:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Framk? Shows how I rate around here.... :-)
Posted by: Frank G || 09/21/2012 21:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Yes, good stuff
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/21/2012 21:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Thanks for the kind words...
Posted by: badanov || 09/21/2012 21:50 Comments || Top||

#6  unfortunately, I think the dull constant thump in Mexico is submerged via the noisy Arab spring and regional ME frolics. If China goes against Japan, same disinterest. Amazing. This is on our f*cking border!
Posted by: Frank G || 09/21/2012 21:53 Comments || Top||

#7  What Frank said, too. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 09/21/2012 23:05 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Al-Qaeda militants re-organize themselves in Abyan
[Yemen Post] Security chief of Al-Mahafad district of Abyan
...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues...
, Yaslim al-Anbori, has revealed that numbers of al-Qaeda Orcs and similar vermin are flowing to the east of al-Mahfad.

He told the Kuwaiti Alsyasia newspaper as saying that the number of Orcs and similar vermin is about 400, asserting that Al-Mahfad turns to a connection point between Orcs and similar vermin from Abyan, Hadhramout, Shabwah, Marib.

According to al-Anbori, he had confirmed information that jacket wallahs headed to Sana'a, Aden and other cities to carry out sucicide bombings using cycle of violences .

He affirmed that Saudis and Paks are among the Death Eaters, indicating that they are helping the Orcs and similar vermin in making bombs and boom belts and anticipating that Baihan district of Shabwah may be controlled by Al-Qaeda.

He said that Al-Qaeda Orcs and similar vermin kidnapped a Syrian and Turkish last week, and transferred them to a remote area with the aim of pressing on the Yemeni authorities to release an al-Qaeda leader, Nasser Al-Shaibah, held by the Yemeni authorities since three years.

He revealed that contacts about the Saudi diplomats kidnapped by Al-Qaeda in Yemen were totally suspended, emphasizing that there are no information about his place.

Al-Qaeda Orcs and similar vermin received painful blows as the Yemeni army cleansed them from their main strongholds in Abyan and they resorted to use other tactics including the abduction of foreigners.

A number of foreigners including a Saudi diplomat and a Swiss nationals are still held by Ansar al-Sharia
...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends...
h, an Al-Qaeda linked group, in Abyan.

Local sources of Abyan had said that Al-Qaeda managed to hire rustics to kidnap foreigners and transfer them to South Yemen.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Africa Horn
Heavy shelling in Mogadishu kills 1, injures 10
(Sh.M.Network)-- At least one person was confirmed dead and ten others injured, most of them seriously in an indiscriminate bombardment in Mogadishu on Wednesday night, Witnesses said.

"Mortar rounds fired from unknown locations smashed over night into residential area in Shibis and Bondhere districts and at least one civilian died and 10 others maimed who were taken to the hospitals for medical treatment," a resident said.

Somali government officials in the areas of bombardment were unavailable to reach for comments on the shelling and no group has grabbed credit for the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab

#1  I trust no restaurants, libraries, museums, ale houses, theaters or other cultural centers were damaged. . . .
Posted by: F(r)an Galt || 09/21/2012 11:31 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran preparing internal version of Internet
[Washington Post] The Iranian government, determined to limit Western influence and defend itself against cyberattacks, appears to have laid the technical foundations for a national online network that would be detached from the Internet and permit tighter control over the flow of information.

The concept of a self-contained network has been reverberating within Iran for almost a decade and has often been treated with skepticism, given the significant investment in infrastructure and security that would be required. But Iranian officials and outside experts say that development of the network has accelerated following cyberattacks aimed at the country's nuclear program.

Last month, Iran's communications and information technology minister unveiled a plan to take key government agencies and military outfits offline and onto the new network by the end of September. U.S. security researchers say they are for the first time seeing evidence of an operational network that is consistent with Iran's publicly stated plans.

The researchers, working under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Global Communications Studies, say in a report to be released this week that they have found functional versions of the sites of government ministries, universities and businesses on the network. They also found evidence of an already operational filtering capability.

At the core of the network was high-end equipment manufactured by the Chinese firm Huawei that is capable of sophisticated online surveillance of traffic. The network is already "internally consistent and widely reachable," concluded the report, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post.

William Plummer, vice president for external affairs at Huawei, said: "Huawei has not sold equipment to the Iranian government nor does it support monitoring traffic. Huawei only sells commercial equipment built to global standards to commercial operators."

The findings are likely to worry Internet freedom activists and the Obama administration, which has spent tens of millions of dollars on initiatives designed to ease access to the Internet in Iran and other countries with repressive governments. Officials had expressed concerns even before the release of the latest research.

"We have concerns from not only a human rights perspective, but about the integrity of the Internet," David Baer, deputy assistant secretary for the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, said in an interview. "When countries section off parts of the Web, not only do their citizens suffer, everyone does."

Experts say the Iranian government has a handful of reasons to establish a state-run alternative to the Internet. A protected Iran-only network could help officials counter U.S.-funded programs that allow Iranian activists to evade online surveillance. It could also help insulate Iranian computers from a covert campaign of cyberattacks that Iranian officials assert the United States and Israel continue to wage.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Down Under
Australian Treasurer Insults Republicans:"Cranks and Crazies"
More here. Let's give Republicans both Houses of Congress and the White House just to spite 'em after that.
Posted by: Grunter || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No labeling of "Cranks and Crazies" during the war years. How strange, how every strange.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 7:52 Comments || Top||

#2  As ever, the Australian Labor Party slavishly imitates the Democrats.
Posted by: Grunter || 09/21/2012 8:23 Comments || Top||

#3  I still love Australia despite this tosser and his ignorant comments.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/21/2012 8:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, I am cranky, and kind of crazy...
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/21/2012 9:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said Mr Swan's comments criticising the Tea Party movement and in turn, the opposition, amounted to little more than ''peddling hatred''.

Swan and Gillard are the Labor Party. Australian Donks. Just some Australians think that way.

It is good if people think we are cranky and crazy. Maybe they won't screw with us.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 10:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Swan is now joined by another moonbat, Trade Minister Craig Emerson.
"The US Tea Party movement could cause an American recession which would have worldwide consequences"
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 14:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Even better, we could do mass deportations of demonrats and their ilk to their communist paradise North Korea and the world economy would shoot up like a rocket.

Meanwhile, they could live their utopian dreams as worker ants in hell I mean paradise.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 09/21/2012 14:55 Comments || Top||

#8  Meanwhile, they could live their utopian dreams as worker ants in hell I mean paradise.

They would probably be eaten.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 09/21/2012 19:57 Comments || Top||

#9  "The US Tea Party movement could cause an American recession which would have worldwide consequences"

Mommy, I'm _scared_.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 09/21/2012 21:18 Comments || Top||

#10  he's obviously run out of Fosters.
somebody get him a six-pack in a hurry!!!
Posted by: Raider || 09/21/2012 22:01 Comments || Top||

#11  Emerson has never been the same since he broke up his sexual relationship with the present Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2004 and who backs every thing he says.
Posted by: tipper || 09/21/2012 22:43 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Arab nuclear "goodwill gesture" fails to impress Israel, U.S
(Reuters) - Arab states said on Thursday they had decided as a "goodwill gesture" to refrain from targeting Israel with a resolution over its assumed nuclear arsenal at the U.N. atomic agency's annual assembly this week.
What generosity of spirit, to be sure.
Arab envoys said the move was in support of wider efforts to rid the region of nuclear weapons,
Uh huh.
but it drew no public praise from Israel or the United States, which criticised the placing of the issue on the agenda in the first place.

Addressing a debate on "Israeli nuclear capabilities" called by the Arab countries, a senior U.S. diplomat said Washington was firmly committed to the goal of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.

However,
nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits...
"using meetings of the IAEA to single out Israel for censure will not take us one step closer to that goal. In fact, it is a step in the opposite direction," Robert Wood told the meeting of the U.N.'s ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency.

"Repeatedly invoking this issue only serves to reduce trust and confidence among states in the region and to distract the agency's attention from serious issues of ongoing non-compliance by two other states in the region," Wood said.

That was a reference to Iran and Syria, which are under investigation by the IAEA over their disputed atomic activities.

Israeli ambassador Ehud Azoulay said: "It is Iran which represents the greatest threat to peace and security in the Middle East and beyond ... Pointing an accusing finger toward Israel will not change this sombre reality."

Arab states had sharply criticised Israel but said they would not put forward a non-binding but symbolically important resolution calling on Israel to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and place all its atomic sites under IAEA oversight.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That calls for a return goodwill gesture from Israel. How about "We won't nuke you, for now."?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/21/2012 2:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Ir did not impress the US because its timing conflicted with a fund raiser.
Posted by: Kelly || 09/21/2012 16:17 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Mighty Pak Army called to protect Islamabad's diplomatic enclave
[Dawn] The Interior Ministry called on the Pakistain Army in Islamabad on Thursday as over a thousand enraged protesters attempted to reach Islamabad's heavily-guarded diplomatic enclave in a bid to register their protest against a US-made anti-Islam film.

At least 11 people were maimed Thursday as police fired live rounds and tear gas to break up a large crowd of over 1,000 students, many armed with wooden clubs.

The enraged students clashed with law enforcement agencies, pelting them with stones. Several protestors were eventually able to enter the high security Red Zone.

Islamabad's heavily-guarded diplomatic enclave is home to most Western embassies, including the US, British and French missions.

The crudely made "Innocence of Mohammedans" has triggered protests in at least 20 countries since excerpts were posted online, and more than 30 people have been killed in violence linked to the film.

There have been dozens of protests around Pakistain over the past week and at least two people have been killed, but Thursday is the first time protests in the capital have turned violent.

Police fired tear gas and live rounds as the protesters tried to break through a barrier of truck containers set up to block access to the diplomatic enclave.

"I was ordered by my boss to disperse the crowd and that is why I had to open live fire but the aim was nearby trees and not the demonstrators," Zaman Khan, a police officer deployed at the picket said.

The firing forced the protesters to scatter, but they returned later to pelt the police picket with stones.

Student Asif Mehmood demanded police let the protesters through to the US embassy.

Fellow protester Rehan Ahmad said: "Islam is often ridiculed by America and the West and blasphemy is committed against our prophet in the name of freedom of expression."

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said that "It is our responsibility to protect all our diplomats, all the foreigners."

He criticized protesters for resorting to violence and suggested that various religious and turban groups among the crowd were to blame.

Most of the protesters appeared to be students affiliated with the Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
party.

Flags from other Islamic groups, Jamaat-u-Dawa and the Death Eater turban group, Sipah-e-Sahaba, could also be seen flying among the crowd.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  There is alot of pent up anger in these countries.

I wonder why?No drinking?No singing?No dancing/No music?No sex before marriage etc.

They are bored and frustrated!
Posted by: Muggsy Clusosing6422 || 09/21/2012 12:51 Comments || Top||


Anti-Islam film protest turns violent in Islamabad
[Al Ahram] Up to 50 people were maimed on Thursday as police clashed with thousands of protesters, some carrying the banners of jihad boy groups, demonstrating in Islamabad against an anti-Islam film. Officers fired tear gas and live rounds as the demonstrators, many armed with wooden clubs, tried to reach Islamabad's heavily-guarded diplomatic enclave, home to most Western embassies, including the US, British and French missions.

The government called in the army to protect the enclave after protesters broke through a barrier of shipping containers set up by police to block a road leading to the area.

The crudely made "Innocence of Mohammedans", produced by US-based jihad boy Christians, has triggered protests in at least 20 countries since excerpts were posted online, and more than 30 people have been killed in violence linked to the film.

There have been dozens of demonstrations around Pakistain over the past week and at least two people have been killed, but Thursday was the first time protests in the capital had turned violent.

An initial demonstration of around 1,000 swelled to around 5,000 with the arrival of protesters carrying the flags of hardline Islamist groups Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
, Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
and Sipah-e-Sahaba -- which is banned by the Pakistain government.

Police fired tear gas and live rounds as the protesters, chanting "We are ready to die to safeguard the Prophet's honour", stormed the container barrier.

The firing scattered the crowd, but they returned to pelt officers with stones and breach the cordon, before torching a police post next to the nearby five-star Serena hotel.

The luxury hotel, much used by visiting Westerners, came under attack as a few demonstrators managed to enter the car park and damage vehicles, while others picked up tear gas shells fired by police and threw them into the Serena compound.

Doctor Razia Sultana of the Federal Government Services Hospital said at least 44 police and six civilians were hurt in the festivities, with the majority of injuries caused by stones and tear gas shells.

Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said the government would protect the diplomatic enclave at all costs and accused political groups of trying to fan violence.

Pakistain has declared Friday a national holiday and "day of love for the prophet" in response to "Innocence of Mohammedans" and called for peaceful protests.

"I appeal to the people to remain peaceful tomorrow as any violent protest will harm the country," Kaira said.

"Indulgence in violence will not convey any positive message abroad."

Student Asif Mehmood demanded police let protesters through to the US embassy and urged harsh treatment for American pastor Terry Jones, who is notorious for past Koran-burning episodes and is reportedly connected to the film.

"Terry Jones and the filmmaker should be sternly punished for playing with the feelings of Mohammedans. We will not tolerate this blasphemy," Mehmood said.

Fellow protester Rehan Ahmad said: "Islam is often ridiculed by America and the West and blasphemy is committed against our prophet in the name of freedom of expression."
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami

#1  Coming from the home of tolerance.
Posted by: Muggsy Clusosing6422 || 09/21/2012 12:47 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Jamaat leader Subhan held
[Bangla Daily Star] Members of an army intelligence agency yesterday tossed in the slammer
Please don't kill me!
Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
Nayeb-e-Ameer Maulana Abdus Subhan at Bangabandhu Bridge toll plaza in Tangail yesterday in connection with a case of violence.

A war crimes suspect, Subhan was sent to Pabna jail after he was produced before the executive magistrate's court here around 8:00pm, said sources in police.

Earlier, police had taken him from Tangail to Pabna.

"A case was filed in April this year against Subhan and 30 other BNP-Jamaat men on charges of looting, torching and vandalising houses in four villages of Chartarapur union under Sadar upazila in 2003," Jahangir Hossain Matobbar, Pabna superintendent of police, told The Daily Star.

Protesting the arrest, activists of the Jamaat put up barricades of timber in Rajapur, Jafrabad, Jalalpur and a few other places on the Dhaka-Pabna highway around 6:30pm.

Movement of vehicles on the highway remained suspended till the filing of this report at 9:30pm.

The former politician was tossed in the slammer
Please don't kill me!
at 8:30am when he along with his two sons was on his way to Pabna from Dhaka by a jeep.

After his arrest, he was taken to Bangabandhu Bridge East Police Station and later handed over to Pabna police around 4:45pm, reports our Tangail correspondent.

Witnesses said as the news of his arrest spread, activists of the Jamaat and Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
, carrying bamboo sticks, brought out a procession after Zohr prayers before Chanpa Masjid in Pabna town.

When the procession drew close to the Doi Bazar point, some unruly activists threw brickbats at police, prompting the law enforcers to use batons on them.

The clash left at least 20 people, including three police and three journalists injured.

A sub-inspector of Pabna Sadar Police Station was admitted to Pabna Medical College Hospital for treatment.

SUBHAN'S ROLE IN 1971

Subhan served the Jamaat-e-Islami as acting Ameer (chief) of its Pabna unit during the Liberation War.

He was vice-president of the Pabna unit of the Peace Committee, an organization of Pak collaborators, according to the report on the findings of the People's Inquiry Commission on the activities of the war criminals and the collaborators.

Field level investigations have revealed that Subhan organised the Al-Badr and Razakars; formed the Peace Committee and was involved in a number of criminal activities.

He was implicated in a special tribunal case for his alleged activities against the Liberation War and killing of freedom fighters, innocent people and assaulting and repressing women.

He was asked to appear before the sub-divisional magistrate's court on February 29, 1972. But he fled to Pakistain with Ghulam Azam at that time. (Source: "Ekattorer Dalalera" by Shafiq Ahmed and Advocate Shafiqul Islam Shibly, Patahrtala Pabna)
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami


India-Pakistan
Three MQM men among dozen killed across Karachi
[Dawn] Around a dozen people, including three activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
, were killed in different parts of the city on Wednesday, police said.

The officials added that Ghulam Sarwar, 30, and Abdul Ghani, 32, were rubbed out by gunnies riding a cycle of violence in Gharibabad, Malir.

The police shifted their bodies to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, said an official at the Khokhrapar cop shoppe.

Sarwar was a Muttahida Organising Committee office-bearer of the MQM Unit 2 for the Malir area and Abdul Ghani was an active party worker, the police said.

Following the killings, tension gripped different parts of Malir and all the markets and shops in the area were closed. Only an hour earlier, a resident of Sahibdad Goth, SLearned Elders of Islamn Baloch, was brought in a car to Millat Garden near Malir Halt, where he was rubbed out, the police said, suspecting that the two incidents could be related.

A duty officer of the Saudabad cop shoppe said that SLearned Elders of Islamn Baloch, 40, had been kidnapped before being brought to the place near Malir Halt where he was murdered. The victim sustained gunshot wounds to the head and chest, while the killers escaped in their car, he added.

The body was shifted to the JPMC for medico-legal formalities, the official said.

The police said SLearned Elders of Islamn Baloch was employed at a roadside restaurant.

Two rubbed out in N. Nazimabad

An MQM activist and a supporter of the Awami National Party were killed and several others were maimed in separate gun attacks in Block S of North Nazimabad within the span of half an hour, police said.

The MQM activist was killed and his sister was maimed at their residence in Bilalabad, North Nazimabad Block S, police said.

Four gunnies riding two motorbikes arrived at their house, police Sherlocks quoted area residents as saying. They added that the gunnies barged into the house and opened fire on the two siblings before fleeing.

A duty officer of the Shahrah-e-Noor Jehan cop shoppe said that Waheed, 36, and his sister, Ammna, 30, sustained gunshot wounds and were rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where Waheed was pronounced dead.

The police said that Waheed was a worker of MQM Unit 175.

SP Gulbahar Division Latif Siddiqui suspected personal enmity as a possible motive for the killing.

Almost half an hour later, a man was killed and several others were maimed in a gun attack on a shop in the same block of North Nazimabad, police said.They added gunnies riding a motorbike opened fire on the dabbu shop near Shipowners' College, leaving Bahadur Husain, 30, dead and Faisal Mujeeb, 30, Jehangir Khan, 20, and Shahid, 18, maimed.

The body and the maimed were shifted to the JPMC for medico-legal formalities.

The Shahrah-e-Noor Jehan SHO said that Bahadur Husain was supporter of the Awami National Party.

Former policeman killed

An ex-policeman, who was dismissed from service, was bumped off in the trans-Lyari
...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot....
area, officials said.

They added that Sarwar Shah was killed outside his house in a drive-by shooting in Agra Taj Colony within the remit of the Kalri cop shoppe.

The police shifted the body to the Civil Hospital 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 medico-legal formalities. They suspected that he could have been killed by gangsters in Lyari on suspicion of being a police informer though he had been dismissed from service.

Man found rubbed out

In the old city area of Ramswami, a man was found rubbed out early Wednesday morning, police said.

A duty officer of the Nabi Bakhsh cop shoppe said the victim had been shot twice in the head and chest. The body was found near the Pak Masjid on Mir Ayub Khan Road, he said.

"The victim looked like a beggar, suffering from 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...
in one leg," the officer added.

The police shifted his body to the CHK for medico-legal formalities.

Man killed in Dalmia

A 30-year-old man was rubbed out on Dalmia Road in a gun attack that police suspected could be a result of drug peddlers' rivalry.

Obaid Jan Baloch, 30, was rubbed out within the remit of the Aziz Bhatti cop shoppe.

The police said that the victim was a resident of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Block 10-A. He used to hang out with a drug peddler in Shanti Nagar. The police suspected that the victim might have been killed by the rival gang of drug peddlers.

The police shifted the body to the JPMC for medico-legal formalities.

Gunsex Celebratory fire leaves one dead

A man was killed at a wedding ceremony in Orangi Town on Wednesday, police said.

They added that Akram Ashraf, 25, was hit by a bullet during firing at a wedding in Sector 13-C in Bangla Bazaar within the remit of the Pakistain Bazaar cop shoppe.

The victim was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
He's dead, Jim!
on arrival.

The police later found spent bullet casings of 9mm pistol at the scene of the crime and incarcerated
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
seven suspects for questioning.

The victim was an electrician and an area resident, the police added.

Bodies found

The body of an unidentified man was found on the Northern Bypass early Wednesday morning, police said.

They added that the victim had been strangled to death before his body had been dumped by the roadside.

The police later shifted the body to the CHK for medico-legal formalities.

A decomposed body of a eunuch was found in a house in Gulistan Colony, Lyari, police said.

They suspected that the victim, identified as Sana, 35, had been killed six days back. The body was found within the remit of the Chakiwara cop shoppe.

The police shifted the body to the CHK for medico-legal formalities.

Man killed

A man was rubbed out in Gulshan-e-Hadeed Phase 2 on Wednesday, police said.

They added Wazeer Dad, 45, was fired at near his house. He sustained gunshot wounds to his neck and chest and was struck down in his prime.

The police shifted the body to the JPMC for a post-mortem examination.

A duty officer at the cop shoppe said that the victim belonged from Swat.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:


Democracy and the Maldives
Mohamed Nasheed
[Dawn] THE Maldives stand on a knife edge. At stake is its hard-won liberal democracy, forged from the ruins of a brutal, 30-year dictatorship -- a period that was synonymous with serious human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
abuses, including extrajudicial killings and torture. President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's rule was eventually ended in 2008, by a democratic vote in which I was elected. But it is important that the outside world clearly understands that Gayoom, his allies and his henchmen are back. It was they who established, late last year, the 'December coalition' of Islamic Islamic fascisti who accused my government of being controlled by 'Jews' and 'Christians' and used incitement to religious hatred and violence as political tools. It was they who orchestrated February's overthrow of the Maldives' first democratically elected government. And it is they who control the current administration. From this position of strength, they are slowly squeezing the life out of the democratic fabric of my country.

Despite this, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (Cmag), which met last week, is considering removing the Maldives situation from its agenda. A decision is expected later this month.

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters in the Maldives have been locked away
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
and imprisoned. Many have been tortured, or charged with terrorism. Freedom of speech is being strictly curtailed -- and the country's independent oversight bodies are being staffed with friends and relatives.

Moreover, a sense of impunity is taking hold. Key agents of February's coup d'etat, and the coppers responsible for the violence that followed, know they cannot be touched. Despite gross and systematic human rights violations since February -- all catalogued by NGOs such as Amnesia Amnesty International -- not one police officer or state representative has been prosecuted.

The government has said it will not do anything to ensure accountability for these crimes. And yet it is ruthlessly pursuing legal action against many of the pro-democracy campaigners elected to government in 2008, including myself. Numerous members of parliament from my party, the Maldives Democratic party, have been taken before pliant judges and stripped of their seats. The government has also made clear that I and members of my former cabinet will stand trial very soon, with the home minister promising that I will be imprisoned for the rest of my life.

Their goal, in addition to Dire Revenge™ for their electoral defeat, is to prevent me standing in next year's election. Gayoom and his allies lost power through a free and fair election: they will not make the same mistake twice.

If Cmag were to remove the Maldives from its agenda the chances of securing justice for the victims of human rights violations, and of ever again having free and fair elections in the country, would disappear. So I urge the group members to keep the spotlight on my country until all violations have been dealt with, all victims have received redress, and conditions are in place for fresh elections.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Salafi-Jihadi Holy Man Issues Fatwa Sanctioning Killing Of U.S. Ambassadors
[MEMRI] Following the September 11, 2012 killing of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, a number of queries were sent in to the Salafi-jihadi website Minbar Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad (MTJ) regarding the legitimacy of this action. Answering on behalf of the website's shari'a committee, Sheikh Abu Mundhir Al-Shinqiti issued a fatwa in which he approved of the killing of the U.S. ambassador and other U.S. diplomats, and refuted religious arguments raised by some Islamic scholars against such actions.

It should be noted that over the past two years, religious queries on MTJ have been fielded almost solely by Al-Shinqiti through various fatwas, despite the fact that the shari'a committee has numerous other members. This may be explained by the longstanding imprisonment in Jordan of MTJ founder and prominent jihadi holy man Sheikh Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi.

Those who submitted the questions raised two main points: first, whether a person should be killed for an act he himself did not commit or approve (hinting at the fact that the ambassador had nothing to do with the anti-Islamic film "Innocence of Mohammedans"); and second, whether an ambassador can be considered an "courier" under Islamic law, and thus be granted immunity. In addition, Al-Shinqiti was asked for advice regarding the proper response to recent events.
This article starring:
Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi
Abu Mundhir Al-ShinqitiSalafi Jihad
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Salafia Jihadiya

#1  One hopes that some drone is targeting this mook.
Posted by: Water Modem || 09/21/2012 1:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Time to gently urge Israel to step aside, NOT SAY A SINGLE WORD, and destroy the lot. Call it day, and tell any beturbaned goon survivors to kiss our collective ass!

This all followed again by NOT SAYING A WORD, and weapons cleaning....until the next time.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 7:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Act of war. The Salafi-Jihadi website should be shut down and anyone belonging to it should be arrested or killed until the fatwa is recinded and a public apology (in English and Arabic) is made.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/21/2012 14:42 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Militants block road, kidnap 6 in Peshawar
[Dawn] At least six persons including an industrialist and two employees of a cellular phone company were kidnapped by suspected hard boyz at gunpoint from main Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
-Kohat Road in Matani area early on Wednesday morning.

The hard boyz armed with sophisticated weapons dared enough to block the main Peshawar-Kohat Road, just a few miles away from the site of kaboom occurred later in the day, and intercepted and combed passing vehicles to pick up people of their own choice in absence of law-enforcers.

The drama on the main road continued for several hours. However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
later police reportedly rushed to the site and forced the hard boyz to flee. The fleeing hard boyz succeeded in whisking away the six denizens with them.

The incident further increased the prevalent fear among the residents, who had already been bearing brunt of militancy. "In an aggressive defiance, the hard boyz strike at their sweet will whenever they want," residents said.

A police official told Dawn that a group of hard boyz blocked the main road in Darwazgai area in the limits of Matani cop shoppe and stopped vehicles coming from either side.

He said that the kidnapped persons included an industrialist Ijaz Rafiq and his driver Ahmed. They were on their way from Kohat side to Peshawar in a vehicle bearing registration number SZ-888 that was left behind on the road. Similarly, employees of a cellular phone company Akbar Khan and his driver Nadeem Siddiqui were also among the kidnapped persons.

The hard boyz also made hostage the district revenue officer of Bannu, Sajid Nawaz, his gunman and driver at gunpoint. However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
the revenue officer managed to flee while his driver and gunman were kidnapped.

Police claimed that after getting information they reached the spot and exchanged fire with the beturbanned goons. The vehicles of the kidnapped persons were brought to the cop shoppe and cases against the kidnappers were registered under anti-terrorism law.

DSP Fazl Maula, when contacted, told Dawn that five of the hard boyz were maimed in exchange of fire. It was dark and police could not properly see them to chase, he said.

The DSP said that hard boyz fled towards Akakhel area of Frontier Region of Peshawar. "We tried to chase them but they attacked our armoured personnel carrier and burst its tyres," he said, adding that the encounter continued for over three hours.

The official said that police had got some information about the presence of suspected people but tribal region was very close and they could not be chased with limited arms and ammunitions.

Another official said that later during search operation about 15 suspected persons of the area were jugged
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!

The people, he said, were living in the area close to the tribal regions and might give some clues to police about the beturbanned goons' group. The official did not confirm as the hard boyz were Taliban or belonged to outlawed Lashkar-e-Islam.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami


Africa Horn
AMISOM Urges Calm in Kismayo, Calls on Fighter to Lay Down Arms
(Sh.M.Network)--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 has called for calm among residents of the southern port city of Kismayo following reports of Al Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab
... the personification of Somali state failure...
Islamic fascisti fleeing the town.

"AMISOM is concerned about reports that civilians are being attacked by hard boyz in their homes and being forced to flee the town," said AMISOM Deputy Force Commander Maj. Gen. Simon Karanja.

"We appeal for all to remain calm. AMISOM's intent remains to liberate the people of Kismayo to enable them to lead their lives in peace, stability and security," he added.

Troops from AMISOM's Kenyan contingent have captured a string of towns on the road from Afmadow to Kismayo, most recently the strategic town of Bibi.

"We urge all the fighters remaining in Kismayo to lay down their arms. Already a number of them have contacted us indicating their wish to cease fighting and we have assured them of their safety if they give themselves up to our forces," Gen. Karanja said.

Gen. Karanja also appealed to humanitarian agencies to come to the aid of the people fleeing to areas liberated by AMISOM and Somali security forces. "We stand ready to facilitate any efforts to ease the suffering of the population," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


-Election 2012
Actress asks voters to pledge allegiance to Obama
The Obama campaign has launched its "For All" campaign, encouraging supporters to take pictures of themselves with their hands on their hearts and a note explaining why they support President Obama.

Actress Jessica Alba uses the Pledge of Allegiance as an example of the campaign in an email to supporters.

"Growing up, my classmates and I started every day with a ritual: We'd stand up, put our right hand over our hearts, and say the Pledge of Allegiance," explains Alba. "To me, that gesture was a promise. A promise to be involved and engaged in this country's future. A promise to work for liberty and justice -- and for affordable education, health care, and equality -- for all."

Alba joins Hollywood actresses Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson by photographing herself with her hand on her heart pledging to vote for Obama.

"That's why all across the country, people like you and I are proudly writing down our reasons for getting involved, and then taking the pledge -- to vote."

Obama campaign staffers have also begun posting photos of themselves with the pledge.

"Make sure you're ready to vote this fall," Alba writes. "Putting your hand over your heart is making a promise. Casting your ballot is keeping it."
Posted by: Au Auric || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "For All", huh? I guess "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" was already taken. (and where's my damn umlaut key?)
Posted by: SteveS || 09/21/2012 1:31 Comments || Top||

#2  You sure making popular heroes/national icons from play actors was a good idea?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/21/2012 1:45 Comments || Top||

#3  It's pretty creepy. Have a look.

I suggest intense mockery on the web right away!
Posted by: Secret Master || 09/21/2012 1:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Beyond comment.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 6:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Phucking Jim Jones crap is all it is! Brainwashing plain and simple!
Posted by: Angiting Snore1647 || 09/21/2012 7:43 Comments || Top||

#6  For the time being, I prefer placing my right hand over my wallet......
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 09/21/2012 8:21 Comments || Top||

#7  You mean...

like Sarah Palin did?

Perhaps, LoL instead of Ja!
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/21/2012 8:39 Comments || Top||

#8  Obama Uber Alles? No thanks Jessica, you misguided twit. Not buying today or any day.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/21/2012 8:46 Comments || Top||

#9  I never promised -- and no one ever promised me -- "affordable education" and "health care".

Liberty and justice? Absolutely. That's all I owe anyone else, and all they owe me.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 09/21/2012 12:35 Comments || Top||

#10  This cult of adoration thing is just getting CREEPY!
About a 9.4 on my weird-shit-O-meter.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 09/21/2012 12:35 Comments || Top||

#11  Apropos this and O's anti-colonialism, what I've figured out is that O wants to be an African "Big Man" (tribal Chief). They always go for the personal cult stuff. His real model is Robert "Zim-Bob-Me" Mugabe, and he's just as competent.
Posted by: Spot || 09/21/2012 12:43 Comments || Top||

#12  How's about I grab my crotch? With both hands...
Think the OBimbos will get my message?
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/21/2012 12:44 Comments || Top||

#13  Just a reminder that watching movies, TV, etc puts money in the pockets of people like this.

Find a different way to entertain yourself.
Posted by: Iblis || 09/21/2012 14:02 Comments || Top||

#14  Go ahead. Write down your list of reasons. Be concise and pay attention to your grammar. Then let's have a look at it. I can't wait.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/21/2012 14:02 Comments || Top||

#15  I guess Miss Alba and others of her "cult" forgot about this:

Posted: February 7, 2010 12:24 AM at Huff Post:

Closer inspection of a photo of Sarah Palin, during a speech in which she mocked President Obama for his use of a teleprompter, reveals several notes written on her left hand. The words "Energy", "Tax" and "Lift American Spirits" are clearly visible. There's also what appears to read as "Budget cuts" with the word Budget crossed out.


Posted by: Sherry || 09/21/2012 14:56 Comments || Top||

#16  Ugh...so hot yet so ignorant. I'd like to have a go a separating her from her panties money.
Posted by: Dikhed Al Fuqwad || 09/21/2012 15:13 Comments || Top||

#17  God help Canada should Romney win, eh?
Posted by: Kelly || 09/21/2012 16:24 Comments || Top||


'You Can't Change Washington from the Inside'
President Obama has learned something during his presidency: You can't change Washington from the inside.

"The most important lesson I've learned is that you can't change Washington from the inside," he told a Univision forum Thursday. "You can only change it from the outside."
He failed at that, too...
The remark immediately set off the political media on Twitter.

"(This) is perhaps Obama's worst gaffe since he met Joe the Plumber?" BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith asked on Twitter Thursday afternoon


Will you please leave Sir ... You are embarrassing yourself.
Posted by: Au Auric || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ripley: I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 09/21/2012 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  (This) is perhaps Obama's worst gaffe since he met Joe the Plumber?

He's the anointed one---doesn't matter how many blunders, or how bad they are, he makes.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/21/2012 0:28 Comments || Top||

#3  Basically he's admitting he can't do the job.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/21/2012 0:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Tiger Woods works by playing golf.

Obama gets out of work by playing golf.

Binary question: which One is most successful?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/21/2012 1:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Binary question: which One is most successful?

With the chickas?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/21/2012 1:38 Comments || Top||

#6  uhem, wise-chicas? ;)
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/21/2012 2:04 Comments || Top||

#7  Clearing admitting he cannot (or refuses) to work or be successful within the established democratic system. Very revolutionary, very Che.

Vile, personal comment redacted.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/21/2012 7:29 Comments || Top||

#8  Is it a threat?
Posted by: SR-71 || 09/21/2012 9:04 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan protests UN listing in 'children and armed conflict' report
The UN Security Council has backed the naming and shaming of governments and gangs that recruit, kill or sexually attack children in armed conflicts over protests from Russia, China, Pakistain and Azerbaijan.

A resolution supporting the UN special representative for children and armed conflict and continuing annual reports by the secretary-general identifying those countries and groups victimising youngsters was approved by a vote of 11-0 with abstentions by the four countries late Wednesday.

The dissenters accused the report's supporters of trying to expand the naming and shaming list to all countries and not sticking to conflicts that the Security Council is dealing with, which is its mandate.

Pakistain also protested that the report includes situations that are not conflicts but acts by gunnies and criminals.

The secretary-general's latest report in June included Pak gangs as well as Syrian government forces and their allied "shabiha" militias on a list of 52 governments and gangs that recruit, kill or sexually attack children in armed conflicts.

The list includes 32 "persistent perpetrators" that have been on the list for at least five years, including the security forces of seven countries.

The resolution calls on member states to bring those responsible for such violations to justice, either through national or international judicial systems.

The Security Council also reiterated its readiness to adopt "targeted and graduated measures" -- a code phrase for sanctions -- against persistent perpetrators.

Pakistain's deputy UN ambassador Raza Bashir Tarar said his government supports reporting on violations in conflicts addressed by the council.

Pakistain is not on the council's agenda and Tarar called allegations against gangs associated with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the report, "unwarranted and completely misleading."

"This not only misrepresents Pakistain's law enforcement and counter-terrorism measures but also serves to accord undeserved respectability to gunnies and criminals," he said.

China's UN Ambassador Li Baodong called for more international support for Pakistain to fight terrorism "rather than creating difficulties and obstacles."

He insisted that the resolution cannot be interpreted "to equalise the incidents of terrorist attacks in Pakistain to armed conflict," a view echoed by Russia and Azerbaijan.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa Horn
Suicide Bombers Kill at Least 15 at Mogadishu Restaurant
[VOA News] At least 15 people were killed Thursday and many more maimed in a suicide kaboom on a restaurant in the Somali capital. Several journalists were among those killed in the attack.

Officials say two jacket wallahs attacked the Village Restaurant on Thursday evening in downtown Mogadishu.

The restaurant, owned by a British-Somali businessman, is popular with students, politicians and journalists.

Hassan Ali Geesey, director of Dalsan Radio, said at least three journalists were killed in the attack and reported seeing many more bodies at the scene.

"Me, I saw at least nine bodies of dead and at least 22 people, including journalists and civilian people who were maimed at the place," said Geesey.

The Director of Somali National Television, Liban Ali Nur, was among those killed in the attack. He had survived a previous suicide kaboom targeting journalists in April at the National Theater, just across the street from the Village restaurant.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab

#1  Dear G-d they still have restaurants there??
Posted by: F(r)an Galt || 09/21/2012 11:21 Comments || Top||


-Election 2012
Effect of Obama's middle name measured
U.S. President Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein, makes Israelis -- both Jewish and Arab -- perceive him as less pro-Israeli, a U.S.-Israeli study found.

"Even though the Israeli public has extensive information about the American president and his positions, their opinions can still be swayed by cultural cues, such as a name that in this case is perceived as Arabic," co-author Israel Waismel-Manor said in a release from the University of Haifa.

In a study conducted with researchers at the University of Texas, a news clip of Obama speaking at an official meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President of the Palestinian Authority Abu Mazen about the peace talks between the sides was shown to study participants.

They included Israeli Jewish students, Israeli Arab students, American students who sympathize with Israel and American students who sympathize with Palestinians.

A random half of each group was shown the clip with a reference caption that read "President Barack Obama," and the other half saw the clip with the caption "President Barack Hussein Obama."

Following the clip, the participants were asked whether Obama favors Israelis or Palestinians.

The study found the president's middle name makes Israelis -- both Jews and Arabs -- perceive him as less pro-Israel, ultimately shaping an opinion among the Jews that he is less fair and among the Arabs that he is more fair, the researchers said.

For the American participants in the study, their president's middle name apparently had no effect on their opinion of him, they said.

Posted by: Au Auric || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Do they know that "Barack" was Mohammed's horse?
Posted by: Grunter || 09/21/2012 9:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Not the sound a chicken makes?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/21/2012 16:02 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Somali Govt soldiers exchange gunfire in Beledweyne
(Sh.M.Network)-- Somali government soldiers have exchanged gunfire in the central town of Beledweyne on Wednesday, killing at least one soldier, wounding several others, according to witnesses.

Officials say that the fighting came as two government soldiers were on petrol Over night suspected each other and lured into raid, in an apparent case of mistaken identity.

The incident caused the death of the soldier during the clash and the movement of the traffic and business in the areas was halted for a moment as the clash continued there.

The latest reports in the areas say that the situation returned normal on Thursday morning, after more government troops had interfered to the warring sides.

It is the first time that government soldiers disagreed and exchange gunfire in the town since Al shabab's withdrawal.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Anti-Islamic Acts Go Against International Law: Nai
One would feel for them -- completely unequipped to understand, as they are -- were it not that they insist on imposing it on the rest of us.
[Tolo News] The release of an anti-Islamic movie and caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad go against the civil and political rights of people where the offending material was released, Afghan media watchdog Nai CEO Abdul Majid Khelwatgar said Thursday.

Speaking at a meeting for International Journalism day, Khelwatgar said that the release of the film "Innocence of Moslems" in the US and offensive cartoons of Prophet Mohammad in a French magazine went against the US and French civil rights conventions, adding that which harms other religions is against all international conventions.

"Article no. 2 of the political and civil rights of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights prohibits the release of anything that harms race, identity, or religion. Anything which incites political and religious violence," Khelwatgar said.

The Nai chief also raised concerns about the apparent rise of violence against journalists but said that in some cases the lack of a code of conduct contributed to the violence against them.

"At least 20 percent of the violence against the journalists is a result of the lack of a journalistic code of conduct," he said.

Nai made the comments after an anti-Islamic film produced in the US was released last week, resulting in violent demonstrations throughout many Islamic countries including Afghanistan.

It comes the same day that hundreds of people protested in the Afghan capital again, burning flags and images of Barack Obama
Why can't I just eat my waffle?...
. However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
it was a controlled protest without the same level of violence the capital saw on Sunday when as many as 50 police were maimed trying to contain the behaviour crowds.

Officials from Afghanistan's Reform Association also condemned the publication of the caricatures in a French magazine Thursday urging for the urgent prosecution of the producers of such acts.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If anyone still doubts that it's them or us...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/21/2012 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  The simplest solution is for Islamic radicals and those bothered by this sort of anti-islamic act to return to islamic countries and burn the airports, radio and television stations, and anything that might show them accidentally display such acts.

At the same time let any non-muslims or true moderats (known as sane) people leave.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 09/21/2012 8:40 Comments || Top||

#3  If your religion can't stand up to a free exchange of ideas you might want to reconsider whether or not it really is the one true religion.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 09/21/2012 11:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Islam is crime against humanity.
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 09/21/2012 13:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Does it include Bill Mahar maesturbating to transexuals?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 09/21/2012 16:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Dammit swksvolFF, gimme the brain bleach to get that out of my head....

That's just pure cruelty there. :p
Posted by: Silentbrick - Schlumberger Squishy Mud Division || 09/21/2012 16:19 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
10 killed in attack on PAF vehicle
[Dawn] At least 10 people, including two children, were killed and 30 others injured when a car-bomb went kaboom! in a busy commercial-cum-residential area here on Wednesday.

The Superintendent of Police (Rural) told news hounds that the bomb planted in a parked car hit a van passing through the Scheme Chowk on Kohat Road in the suburbs of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.

He said the explosives might have been detonated by remote control. The target of the attack, he added, was a Pakistain Air Force vehicle going to the PAF base located near the main highway in Badbher.

Nasir, a witness, said he was passing through the area in a pick-up when a huge blast took place. There was dust and smoke all around with the victims crying for help, he said.

Local people took the injured and the bodies to hospitals.

He said most of the injured were in the van going to Dera Ismail Khan
... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ...

Siraj, an auto mechanic, told Dawn at the Lady Reading Hospital that he was going home from his workshop when the blast took place.

He said his workplace was destroyed and some of his colleagues were maimed.

"Since it is a busy place and with vehicles parked in the area we did not suspect that the car was laden with explosives," he said.

Additional IG and head of the bomb disposal squad Shafqat Malik told newsmen that 30 to 40 kilograms of high quality explosives had been used in the attack. He said artillery shells had also been planted in the car to maximise the impact of the blast. "Yes we have found splinters of shells from the blast site," he said.

A police official said another bomb concealed in a pushcart had been defused in the city on Tuesday night.

He said that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain might have carried out the attack. However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
the TTP or any other group did not claim responsibility till late Wednesday night.Hospital sources said that 10 of the maimed people, a woman among them, were in a critical condition. A large number of people rushed to the Lady Reading and Combined Military hospitals to donate blood.

The blast destroyed several vehicles and about a dozen furniture shops and auto workshops.

Vehicular traffic remained gridlocked on the busy Kohat Road for about an hour.

According to police, the blast was so powerful that it also damaged some nearby houses.

On Aug 31, a car boom had killed 11 people at Mattani Bazaar.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian air strike kills at least 54
(Reuters) - At least 54 people were killed when a jet fighter blew up a fuel station amid heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual light or desultory fighting...
between government and rebel forces in northern Syria on Thursday, a British-based monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists across Syria reporting on government violence during the 18-month-old revolt, cited an activist in al-Raqqa province as saying more than 110 people were dead or maimed.

A video published by activists, said to be from al-Raqqa, showed black clouds of smoke rising from the wreckage of the petrol station as bewildered residents examined the scene following the attack by an air force jet.

Government forces shelled rebels near a border crossing with Turkey some 30 km (18 miles) away on the northern fringes of al-Raqqa, a day after it was seized by the bully boys.

A Rooters witness on the Turkish side of the border heard heavy gunfire and kabooms close to the Tel Abyad border post, where an opposition flag still fluttered. Residents rushed towards the border as the gunfire intensified.

It was impossible to verify the authenticity of the activists' video, and most foreign journalists are barred entry into Syria, making accounts of events difficult to confirm.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Bangladesh
Suspected child trafficker beaten to death by mob
[Bangla Daily Star] Angry locals dragged a woman out of a police vehicle and beat her to death suspecting her as child-trafficker at the capital's Jatrabari yesterday.

They also injured three coppers, a driver and vandalised the police van as the law enforcers attempted to control the rowdy crowd.

Maksuda, 35, died shortly after she was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

According to locals, the woman was seen with a two-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl at Hashem road of Matuail around 11:00am.

A local recognised the children as Jannat and Fahim, her neighbour's children and stopped the woman. She hurriedly walked away leaving the children behind.

Suspecting her as child-trafficker, the locals beat her up and handed her over to the police around 11:30am.

"Three coppers and an Ansar member arrived and picked the woman when suddenly, the mob intercepted the van and asked the police to hand over the woman to them," Assistant Commissioner of Demra zone Md Iqbal Hossain told The Daily Star.

"When the police refused the unruly mob beat them up, vandalised the vehicle and beat up the woman again," he said.

Additional coppers reached the spot shortly afterwards and sent the critically injured woman to DMCH, where she died around 3:00pm, he added.

The injured coppers, Sub-Inspector of Jatrabari Police Station Nazrul Islam, constables Ghulam Azam, Monir Hossain were admitted to Rajarbagh Police Lines Hospital, while the driver, Liton received first aid.

Yasmine, mother of Jannat and Fahim, claimed that Maksuda had tricked her children with promises of food while they were playing outside their house.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
Nigeria sends 140 police officers to Somalia
(Sh.M.Network)--140 officers of the Nigerian Police Force have arrived in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia to participate in the ongoing Africa Union (AU)Missionin Somalia (AMISOM) peacekeeping operations.
I feel more secure already. And I don't even live there.
A statement by the Peace and Security Department of the AU Commission on Wednesday said that the Formed Police Unit (FPU) from Nigeria would join other unit from Uganda who were already in Mogadishu.

The Special Representative of the AU Chairperson for Somalia, Boubacar Diarra in a statement said the arrival of the second AMISOM Formed Police Unit was a clear demonstration of the AU's commitment to support Somalia in its endeavour to improve the security situation in the country especially in the liberated areas.

Mr Diarra thanked the AU Commission, the government and the people of Nigeria for honouring the pledge to provide additional police personnel to the mission.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
French man held over Mohammad cartoon revenge plan
[Al Ahram] Police tossed in the clink
Please don't kill me!
a young man in southern La Belle France on Thursday on suspicion that he was planning a Dire RevengeĀ™ attack on the staff of a satirical magazine which published cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammad.

Anti-terrorism magistrates near the Mediterranean port city of Toulon questioned the 18-year-old after he threatened in a message on Facebook to cut the throats of anyone he could find at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a judicial source said.

The magazine's publication of cartoons ridiculing Mohammad added to the anger of Moslems already outraged over an anti-Islam film produced in the United States and posted on the Internet.

The suspect had no police record but he was already known to security services, the source said, without giving further details.

Police in La Belle France are on high alert for attacks by Islamist thugs. They were criticised for failing to stop an al Qaeda-inspired gunman shooting dead seven people in March, including three Jewish children, in the southern city of Toulouse
...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France...
The shooter, Mohamed Merah, had been interviewed by police after returning from a visit to Afghanistan and had a violent criminal record.

The government, which has criticised the cartoons, plans to shut schools and diplomatic offices in 20 countries on Friday as a precaution against protests after attacks on U.S. and German embassies, some of them deadly.

Police have refused a request to hold a protest against the film in Gay Paree, after some 150 participants in an illegal demonstration near the U.S embassy were tossed in the slammer
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
on Sunday. La Belle France has Europe's largest population of Moslems.

"People in the suburbs are very upset over the publication of these cartoons," said Mohamed Mechmache, head of the ACLEFEU association for urban youths, created in the wake of riots that swept French suburbs in 2005.

"They feel there is a double standard when it comes to free speech: it's okay to mock the Prophet, but we can't protest against it ... All it would take for things to spiral out of control is a police check that goes wrong."

In another incident which might exacerbate strains, an 18-year-old young French woman was sentenced to two months in jail for refusing to comply with a police identity check while she was wearing a banned full-face veil in public.

The woman resisted police when they asked to check her identity in front of a mosque in central Marseille in July, during the holy Moslem fasting period of Ramadan.

Under a French law from 2010, a person wearing a "burqa" or "niqab" style full-face veil can be stopped by police. If she refuses to remove her veil, she can be fined or sentenced to community service. Repeat offenders face jail.

In addition to being incarcerated
Please don't kill me!
and receiving a six-month suspended prison sentence, the veiled woman was ordered to pay damages of 1,000 euros ($1,300) to a female police officer whom she bit during the altercation.

Two young men who were accompanying the woman were also sentenced to two months' jail for fighting with police when they tried to carry out the identity check.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Child, Policeman, Nato Soldier Killed in Afghan South
A hidden improvised bomb in a cycle of violence killed a child and a policeman in southern Kandahar province Thursday evening, officials said.

The bomb was planted in the cycle of violence and exploded as a police convoy was passing in an area of Kandahar city at around 7:00PM, provincial front man Javid Faisal told TOLOnews.

Two other children and another police officer were maimed in the incident which also damaged the police Ranger vehicle, he added.

It comes as a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
soldier was killed Thursday in southern Afghanistan during an jihad boy attack, according to an Isaf statement.

No further details of the location of the incident or the nationality of the solider were released, as per Isaf protocol.

The death brings the total number of foreign troops killed this year in the Afghan war to 340.

There are around 117,000 international soldiers, mostly Americans, fighting cut-throats in Afghanistan.

No group including the Taliban has grabbed credit for the Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
blast.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Egypt to produce documentary film on Prophet Mohamed
Yawn.
[Al Ahram] In response to the recent crises sparked in the region by the now-notorious anti-Islam short film, Information Minister Salah Abdel-Maksoud and film director Shoukry Abu Amira, vice president of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU), have agreed to produce a major documentary film on the life of Prophet Mohamed. The film -- to be entitled 'Mohamed: Messenger of God, Gift of Mercy' -- will be directed by Egypt's Samiha El-Ghonemy, one of the Arab world's most prominent documentary filmmakers. El-Ghonemy has directed religious-themed films in the past, including 'The Holy Family's Journey in Egypt.'

A handful of scholars from Egypt's Al-Azhar are already reportedly working on a screenplay for the film, which will be jointly produced by the Egyptian Cinema Syndicate and the ERTU.

Members of the syndicate are also reportedly mulling production of a feature film portraying the life of the Prophet.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  The little clips of the infamous Youtube I saw- presumably selected to demonstrate how offensive the film was - seemed reasonably accurate and almost like a very bad documentary - the kind of thing the class smart-a** would have made for a high school project.
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/21/2012 8:33 Comments || Top||


Tunisia bans Friday demos for fear of violence over cartoons
[Al Ahram] Tunisia said it was banning all demonstrations on Friday after receiving a tip-off about preparations for violence over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by a French satirical weekly. "The interior ministry, using its powers under the state of emergency and in order to maintain public order, announces that it is outlawing any form of demonstration anywhere in Tunisian territory on Friday," a ministry statement said on Thursday.

"The ministry notes that it has received information suggesting the protests would be exploited for the purpose of committing acts of violence and causing unrest," it added.

Calls for Friday protests were circulating on social networks following the publication by French weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday of cartoons featuring obscene images of the founder of Islam.

The interior ministry called on "all Tunisians and civil society to demonstrate understanding" and "urge (people) not to follow the call" to protest.

The French embassy has announced it will close on Friday and said all French schools in Tunisia would remain shut from Wednesday until Monday morning, as a precautionary measure.

Tunisia's ruling Islamist party responded to the printing of the controversial images by saying Moslems had "the right to protest" against them, as long as they do so peacefully.

"Ennahda backs the right of Moslems to protest and calls on the use of peaceful and civilised means," said Ennahda, which heads Tunisia's governing coalition, while also branding the cartoons "a new attack against the Prophet."

Publication of the cartoons comes against a background of violent protests across the Moslem world, which first erupted early last week over an anti-Islam film made in Caliphornia and posted on the Internet.
Posted by: Fred || 09/21/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  One of the most noticeable - and interesting - aspects of the Muslim world today (Friday) is the LACK of response to the Muhammed cartoons published in France. There is almost nothing in the way of huge street demonstrations or emabssy burnings. Yet at the same time there are still active protests going on about the USA film in places like Islamabad and Nigeria.

The question is WHY???

Why would the French cartoons be any less offensive than the movie clip? There appears to be no logical reason.

This leads to the conclusion that the original protests against the film were part of a plan that may have been much deeper and wider than western Govt's suspected. The film was simply used as a catalyst to motivate people on the streets. Underneath the protests there may have been a carefully organized effort of subversion. If you look at the words of ambassador Chris Stevens - he suspected he was high on the hit list of aL Qaeda. Yet the State Dept has confirmed no evidence that the ambassador was on the AQ target list. Discrepancy? Possibly - that kind of intel is not strong. But could it be that both statements are correct? Stevens was not targeted by AQ - instead he was targeted by Iranian agents. It would certainly benefit Iran to be causing widespread anger against the USA at the current time.

Finally, it is worth noting that many intelligence agencies are capable of "false flag" operations. We should not discount the sophistication of the Iranians and al Quds. It is entirely possible that highly trained Shiite agents may be masquerading as Sunni Muslims, and operating within jihadist groups.

A thought for today from Raider at Rantburg.com
Posted by: Raider || 09/21/2012 11:47 Comments || Top||

#2  It would certainly benefit Iran to be causing widespread anger against the USA at the current time

The other possibility is the objective of weakening what central government there is in Libya, by showing them to be powerless and by removing/weakening whatever Western support they and pro-government militias might be receiving (not to mention weakening whatever western influence there is within Libya.)

Long term, it'd allow one or more militias (at least one of them Iranian-backed) to then become the 'strong horse' within the country.
Posted by: Pappy || 09/21/2012 17:58 Comments || Top||



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