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Car bomb in Syria's Homs kills 15: State media
Today's Headlines
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Home Front: WoT
Tracking Muslim Brotherhood's 'Grand Deception'
Posted by: tipper || 12/03/2012 20:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
US military: Intervention in Mali now would fail
The top US military commander in Africa is warning against any premature military action in Mali, even as al-Qaida linked extremists strengthen their hold on the north.

Army Gen. Carter Ham says any military intervention done now would fail and would set the situation there back.

The African Union and United Nations are discussing the funding, troops and other assistance necessary that Ham said would play out in the coming weeks.

Ham said Boco Haram is receiving financial support, training and explosives from Al Qaida in the Islamic Mahgreb, and "the relationship goes both ways."

Ham noted that Libyan mercenaries have been sending heavy weapons into Mali. With that, he said, it's not unexpected to see militant training camps and increased terrorist recruiting efforts there.
Posted by: tipper || 12/03/2012 13:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No no no. Some lawyer on TV said that AQ no longer exists and all Libyans are our friends.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/03/2012 14:04 Comments || Top||

#2  The US military is wrong:

It is nothing an atomic carpet bombing of Northern Mali wouldn't fix.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/03/2012 14:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Said this before ... this is a mission for the French Foreign Legion. There is no better force for this area and this type of enemy. It must be just a question of who's willing to pay for it.
Posted by: Raider || 12/03/2012 16:15 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Indian navy prepared to deploy to South China Sea to protect oil interests
The Indian navy is prepared to deploy vessels to the South China Sea to protect India's oil interests there, the navy chief said on Monday amid growing international fears over the potential for naval clashes in the disputed region.

India has sparred diplomatically with China in the past over its gas and oil exploration block off the coast of Vietnam. China claims virtually the entire mineral-rich South China Sea and has stepped up its military presence there. Other nations such as Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia have competing claims.

Indian state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has a stake in a gas field in the Nam Con Son basin, off Vietnam's south coast.

Indian Navy Chief Admiral D.K Joshi said while India was not a claimant in the dispute over territorial rights in the South China Sea, it was prepared to act, if necessary, to protect its maritime and economic interests in the region.

"When the requirement is there, for example, in situations where our country's interests are involved, for example ONGC ... we will be required to go there and we are prepared for that," Joshi told a news conference.

"Now, are we preparing for it? Are we having exercises of that nature? The short answer is yes," he said.
Posted by: tipper || 12/03/2012 12:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Indian & Chinese fleets out at the same time in the same place?

Oh this will end well.

Time for more "smart" diplomacy?
Posted by: AlanC || 12/03/2012 15:13 Comments || Top||

#2  China got deh cash money, but India has the superior lines of communication. Hinjoooos mine the strait and it's game over for Mattel.


Posted by: Shipman || 12/03/2012 17:26 Comments || Top||

#3  What does MAMA RUSSIA = VLAD sayeth about this???

As for IN CoS ADM. Joshi + "...We are prepared for that" > Apparently, as per DEFENCE.PK + INDIAN DEFENCE ARTICS, thanks to political corruption, misappropriation, and defective internal "kultur", not everyone in India's military establishment thinks the country is ready for any kind of serious, major or minor military conflict. UNFORTUNATELY, THE AFORESAME BELIEVE THAT IT MAY TAKE A DE FACTO MAJOR MILITARY DEFEAT, E.G. VEE CHINA + WORSE IN SCALE THAN 1962, TO SHAKE INDIA'S ESTABLISHMENT FROM ITS MORASS INTO PROPER ACTION???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 19:01 Comments || Top||

#4  RELATED CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > INDIA WILL INTERVENE IN SOUTH CHINA SEA, IFF REQUIRED | [NDTV.com] NEW DELHI: THE INDIAN NAVY IS PRACTICING TO OPERATE IN SOUTH CHINA SEA TO PROTECT ITS ECONOMIC INTERESTS.

ARTIC = India has four oil blocks off the coast of Vietnam.

versus

* CHINA DAILY > OPED: US PLAYING WID FIRE OVER ISLANDS. US Senate support of Japan' side ala China-claimed Senkakus in East China Sea.

* TOPIX > MANILA: "COALITION OF THE WILLING" RISING AGZ CHINA.

ARTIC > PROF. HI YINYON, Professor of INternational relations at Renmin University in Beijing = argues that both China + Japan have chosen CONFRONTATIONAL APPROACHES to the disputed islands' issue.

* SAME > PHILIPPINES: CHINA PLAN COULD SPARK REGIONAL WAR.

Again, PHIL CG = JAPAN SDF = CHINA one day may just suddenly open fire on PHIL andor Nippon assets in the SCS + ECS, and attempt to sink, shoot down, or otherwise destroy everything + everyone AMAP to show China's displeasure at the PHIL + JAPAN for the two latter's lack of respect for China's interests + warnings.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 22:38 Comments || Top||

#5  argues that both China + Japan have chosen CONFRONTATIONAL APPROACHES to the disputed islands' issue.

With China throwing their weight around, Japan's choices are either roll over or push back. That the US has pulled back only makes conflict more likely.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/03/2012 22:59 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Bob Costas, Gun Control Cognitive Dissonance
I was one of those that send an email to NBC Sports and wanted to do more. Not only was Costas out of line, he actually looked silly doing it. I asked if he was doing an audition for "World News"?
NBC broadcaster Bob Costas used his halftime segment on ''Sunday Night Football'' to advocate for gun control following this weekend's murder-suicide involving Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, causing an immediate debate on social media.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 12/03/2012 09:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No matter the guy had mental health problems, probably had concussions, and was on pills and drugs! How about taking Bob Costas off the air. He is a danger to truth. Save him from sounding like a bloomin idiot. I can think of several local incidents where handguns saved lives from being taken by thugs.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/03/2012 10:18 Comments || Top||

#2  So if Jovan had beat his girlfriend with a hammer, coffee pot, iron, golf club, stabbed her with a kitchen knife or screwdriver, strangled her, shoved her out of a car at 70 mph what would Costas have to say about these means of killing? Would he want to control golf clubs, coffee pots, hammers, screwdrivers, knives, cars, etc. What a moron.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/03/2012 10:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Nicole Simpson was unavailable for comment.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/03/2012 10:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Bob Costas, the always erudite King Solomon of sportscasters...
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 12/03/2012 11:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Where is Jimmy the Greek when you need him.... {rumor has it the Greek beat the crap out of Costas on the set a number of years ago)
Posted by: Thumper Munster1272 || 12/03/2012 11:12 Comments || Top||

#6  So some guy murders his girlfriend then suicides himself outside his place of work. But because he is a pro athlete I'm somehow supposed to ponder why? Maybe the guy was an as@hole pure and simple. He can go to hell. In the meantime where is our toxicology report if I'm supposed to sit and contemplate the trials of a millionaire athlete. An apex athlete, prime of career, think the little lady would have had a chance if he decided to inside blitz her skull into the wall? No, the only way this would have ended differently only if the victim had a firearm.

Second, Belcher is no saint, heck he was barely a remarkable player, I thought who oh yeah that guy and I'm a Chefs fan. Took the easy way and used a gun to kill his girl, then took the easy way and killed himself rather than do his punishment. If the guy was remarkable the stadium would have drawn greater than 15% capacity.

The Costas Inquisition, yes I welcome a full investigation into the NFLs obvious and pervasive use of pain medication, ADD meds and ecstasy abuse, in addition to the complete lack of enforcing bans and laws against cronic drug abusers and law breakers.

If the NFL would be investigated with half the vigor Congress has gone after MLB, we would have hands in the air about famous QBs gettting it on with under 18s, a famous WR who was so stoned after a game he ran over a traffic cop, heck that hot shot wide receiver for the Chefs who still cannot catch a third down pass even with the passion of a murder/suicide coarsing through his veins has already been caught and fined for putting steriods in his veins; and what was in this guy's system when he flipped out late late at night and lost any control.

Concussions huh. Fine, disband the entire pro football and college ball system. Obviously it is a danger to women and minorities. Gun djinns Costas, thought you were supposed to be the smart one. Couldn't possibly be a person is still and as@hole even after they make it big, its why Basketball Wives is such a classy show, right Costas you whore of a hack.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/03/2012 11:18 Comments || Top||

#7  Furthermore, I would call on Congress to investigate the referees. You telling me this joke of a team went the whole game with only a delay of game penalty? Bull. Gimmie the scab refs, you know you wanted to call them that you talking heads, they at least were trying to call an honest game. By now they would have been at game speed. At least hire out Bobby the Brain Heenan to cruise the sidelines if this is how its going to be.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/03/2012 11:29 Comments || Top||

#8  Big Gun Control(tm) in Chicago.
Big death count by guns as well this year.
How's that all working out? /rhet question
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/03/2012 11:46 Comments || Top||

#9  Concussions huh. Fine, disband the entire pro football and college ball system. Obviously it is a danger to women and minorities.......

....and little boys who take showers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 11:49 Comments || Top||

#10  Boeserker, thanks for that mental image. Really livened up my day.

/s
Posted by: Charles || 12/03/2012 13:57 Comments || Top||

#11  Sorry Charles. All credit must go to the Penn. State Athletic Dept however.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 15:27 Comments || Top||

#12  Costas is one of these guys that see himself as one of the "conscience of sports" guys. Eventually, they reach a point where you just tune them out and eventually they're out of a job. Case in point, Howard Cosell. And our old buddy Olbermann.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/03/2012 16:11 Comments || Top||

#13 
rumor has it the Greek beat the crap out of Costas on the set a number of years ago


God love Jimmy the Greek. That alone makes up for any stupid remarks.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 12/03/2012 16:48 Comments || Top||

#14  Cleveland Browns groundskeeper self exits at facility.

The obvious connection is Romeo Cronell, perhaps as far back as Marty Schottenheimer. I think we should outlaw head coaches, they seem to be dangerous to women, minorities, and young boys.

(for you all with lives, both people were head coach of both Cleveland and then Kansas City. And the Penatentory State deal is horrible when considering the sheer scale..of the coverup. News carrying water like boilers on a dreadnaught. Even fart a suggestion that a Catholic Priest may, may, have a glancing impure thought and out come the ladders and torches. Not here, oh no, not infallable public university sports legend meme. Any thoughts there Bobby?).

And for the record - Bobby Coaster has been bLcr@p since his live broadcast of an animation of what the beijing olympics might look like. Fraud without any more weight on any issue of opinion.

Soccer players get bonked in the head all the time, especially when nobody is any good. Contested header ruins the day for two players. Never saw Preki go apeshit and start blowing away people. No movie out called End it like Beckhem. I killed my baby's momma...maybe bobby you should start at that simple five word statement and brave a discussion rather than taking the equivilant of belcher's cowardly approach to the subject. Quoting Whitlock, you should have at least raised a flag right there before plugging in your penis pump and giving your butterdish feelings.

It pisses me off because they are trying to eulogize a murder/suicide. Guy just ruined not lives but entire families. Surprised there wasn't a bronze statue near gate B2 or wherever. It was like the tribute was already set up and at the last minute somebody thought, hey maybe we should honor domestic abuse victims other than our murdering coworker? Now we got this story like he lived in the Stanley Hotel, and after coming home one night at two in the morning he put on Vivaldi, as he always does, except this time the record played backwards and a gun levitated into his hand, and then the rest.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/03/2012 16:51 Comments || Top||

#15  great comments by all.

-my thoughts -- the only "gun culture" I know are the Marines I serve with and those vets and others I go hunting or to the range with. Patriotic, Law abiding, good folks who treat every firearm w/utmost respect. What asshole Costas should be talking about is a "culture of violence" - big difference. That does not require a gun and has very little to do w/the 2d Amend. I guess in the Costass or Shitlock world the NRA is driving in a big van selling glock's door-to-door in inner city hoods...selling them to the gang bangers.

I bet Jovan was a mulitple concussion guy on pain killers and just found out the 3-month old wasn't his or that the gf was hooking him in for 18yrs of payments. Maybe he just got pissed because she burned his breakfast. Who knows. I don't know anymore than Costass or Shitlock. What I do know is that there's a culture of non-accountability, generational entitalism, and lack of stand-up fathers in the inner-hoods. That is the conversation the pussies at NBC do not want to have because it doesn't fit the narrative...
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 12/03/2012 17:35 Comments || Top||

#16  Lupica, the liberal jock-sniffer, was apoplectic on Imus this AM. Wanted to make "the big statement" but couldn't answer simple questions such as:
"what do you think propose we should do? Ban guns? Cuz it sounds like that's what you want"

"oh...no, no...that's not what I ...uh..."

freaking coward. Say it. That's what you want, you're not man enough to take the backlash or lead the effort to confiscate guns
Posted by: Frank G || 12/03/2012 19:30 Comments || Top||

#17  Whether or not there is a causal relationship between concussions or not. Football is a contact sport. Concussions occur. Lots of people get concussions. Not all become angry killers who blow their girlfriend away. Most likely Jovan was a stupid mf who might have done this if he didn't play football. Pro football players know the risks of football. They roll the dice and weigh the risks against the potential of making lots of money.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/03/2012 21:27 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Iraqi refugee jugged over explosion in Casa Grande
Hat tip Patrick Poole at PJ Media.
CASA GRANDE, Ariz. - A 47-year old Iraqi refugee is in federal custody Saturday in connection with an explosion at a Social Security office in Casa Grande.

A source close to the investigation says he'll likely face a litany of federal and state explosive and arson charges on Monday.

"I'm positive in my heart and my soul he had nothing to do with this," said Swannee Welsh. Welsh believes her neighbor, Abdul Latif Aldosary is being unfairly targeted. She says he's a refugee from Iraq.

"I've never seen him with a match even, he doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, he doesn't move, he doesn't go to the mosque," said Welsh.

But Saturday, federal agents were still searching Aldosary's home at 47th Street and Lemon in Coolidge. The 47-year old is being held in connection with an explosion at the Social Security office in Casa Grande Friday morning.

Investigators believe someone threw an explosive out a car window, causing the entry door to become blackened and charred. The office was closed and no one was hurt but the blast shook those nearby.

"He was just in that neighborhood because he goes to unemployment offices and other government buildings over there but he hasn't any problems against America; he's very thankful he got to be a refuge somewhere," said Welsh.

Friday evening, dozens of homes near where Aldosary lives were evacuated as a precaution as agents served a search warrant.

"It's kind of a surprise, wouldn't expect a neighbor across the street to be involved in something like that," said Jerry Vining, Aldosary's neighbor.

"I'll be the most stunned person if it turns out he did something like that," said Welsh.

Aldosary has served time for aggravated harassment after he threatened an employer who wasn't giving him enough hours. FOX 10 spoke with that employer Saturday and they say Aldosary made threatening calls and sent letters, but none mentioned explosives.

Aldosary is expected in federal court Monday.
More here. Since he's a refugee expect the national media to ignore this.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 08:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't expect the GOP to 'deftly pin' this on Democrat muslim sympathizers & appeasers.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 12/03/2012 16:12 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Osama bin Dead, but not al Qaeda
The plan was to unleash mayhem across an entire city and "bring Amman to its knees," in the words of one security official. It would start with suicide bombings at two shopping malls, then build momentum as teams of terrorists blew up cars and raked cafes with machine-gun fire.
In the midst of the chaos that would ensue, the attackers would turn their attention to the U.S. Embassy, the primary target and a long-sought prize for the organization that investigators say provided critical support for the scheme: al-Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq. Using the terrorist group's expertise and weapons from Syria's civil war, the plotters planned to rain mortar shells on the American compound and homes nearby.
Sort of Benghazi-like.
Jordanian authorities foiled the plot last month, arresting 11 men said to be the ringleaders. Although the suspects are Jordanians, the investigation has affirmed the key role played by al-Qaeda's Iraqi branch, commonly known as AQI, which analysts say is rebounding after being all but destroyed by U.S. troops in the past decade.
No! Destroyed by the Lightbringer, who took time off from golf to watch his plan unfold, resulting in the decapitation (!) of al Qaeda.
New evidence shared by security authorities here, including intercepted e-mails, shows that the terrorist cell received guidance from AQI. The instructions included recipes for powerful explosives intended to blow up shops, restaurants and embassies, according to Western and Middle Eastern officials briefed on the investigation.
What, the message came from AQI.net?
The same kinds of explosives also are turning up in Syria, intelligence officials and terrorism experts say, underscoring AQI's expanding role in that country's 20-month-old civil war.
Well, that's too bad, because The One has declared a peace dividend, and there'll be no money for the military after we go over the fiscal cliff.
"What we're now seeing is al-Qaeda in Iraq's revival, not only as a movement in that country but as a regional movement," said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA counterterrorism expert who is with the Brookings Institution. From its base in the Sunni provinces west of Baghdad, AQI appears to be attempting to rebuild old networks into Syria and Jordan "at an alarming rate," Riedel said.
That's one opinion; what does Ambassador Rice think?
Equally worrisome, analysts say, is Syria's emergence as a training ground for Islamist fighters from outside the country, including some who are linked to AQI. A Western intelligence official familiar with the Amman plot said most of the suspects had fought in Syria before returning to Jordan with new skills and a changed perspective toward their native country.

The reemergence of AQI comes at a time when U.S. officials and analysts are expressing growing concern about other al-Qaeda affiliates, including al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which operates in Yemen, and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates in North Africa. U.S. intelligence officials have said that some of the fighters involved in the Sept. 11 attack on the American diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, were associated with the North Africa branch.
What, that old thing? Next you'll be linking soon-to-be-Secretaty-of-State Susan Rice to the 1998 Tanzania and Kenya embassy bombings! Raaaaaacist!
Posted by: Bobby || 12/03/2012 06:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  New evidence (read that - Jordanian Intelligence interrogations) shared by security authorities here, including intercepted e-mails, shows that the terrorist cell received guidance from AQI.

Are there any further questions regarding the apparent distancing of the Obama administration from that of Jordan's King Abdullah ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 7:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Obama is busy arming and equipping Al Qaeda in Syria. He obviously wasn't looking at a map when he decided that was a good idea.
Posted by: ChuffingChuffChuff || 12/03/2012 8:30 Comments || Top||

#3  I have yet to see anything by Obama that I think was a good idea.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/03/2012 9:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Islamic States [Nuclear?] in both Syria + Iraq be their intention.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 18:38 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Alarm in Tehran and Moscow over Bushehr nuclear reactor’s near-explosion in mid-October
DEBKA, salt to taste.
Posted by: tipper || 12/03/2012 02:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  what is certain is the reactor was shut down sometime in October but no announcement about it until mid nov, then corrected info

because of the location of the plant, mostly Sunni Iranians would die in the case of a major accident
Posted by: lord garth || 12/03/2012 4:47 Comments || Top||

#2  garth, would an Israeli bomb be considered a major accident?
Posted by: AlanC || 12/03/2012 8:38 Comments || Top||

#3  I thought reactors only exploded in hollyweird movies?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/03/2012 15:37 Comments || Top||

#4  If the operators screw up badly enough, you can have an "explosion" from steam pressure or combustion. The scale of the "explosion" could be from comparable to a fire cracker to a boiler explosion.

Posted by: Rob Crawford || 12/03/2012 16:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Uh, uh, JANE FONDA in "THE CHINA SYNDROME II: TEHRAN BUGALOO"???

gut nuthin.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 18:35 Comments || Top||


Rumour: Assad dead or debunked
Unusual activity was reported by western intelligence at Syrian chemical weapons sites amid rumors Syrian president Bashar al Assad is either dead or fled . Neither is confirmed, however, the rebels have in recent days made major strategic gains and begun to turn the tide of war against’s Assad forces.
We should run a sweep on the method. Lead poisoning is too obvious. I'll go for car accident on the road north from Damascus.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/03/2012 02:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Assad has been debunked? You mean his existence was a rumor all along?
Posted by: gromky || 12/03/2012 2:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Brain fade

I meant 'Decamped'
Posted by: phil_b || 12/03/2012 2:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Suuuuuure you did.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/03/2012 7:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Debunk: An explosion in a bunker.
Posted by: Grunter || 12/03/2012 7:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Debunkered?
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 12/03/2012 7:53 Comments || Top||

#6  When the russkies arrive to take away the chemicals the jig will officially be up. Probably a matter of days now.
Posted by: Jonathan || 12/03/2012 9:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Chemical weapons = Hillary Clinton deodorant...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/03/2012 10:20 Comments || Top||

#8  Gone to Moscow 'to get help?'
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 11:51 Comments || Top||

#9  He'll be right back with the Cavalry.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/03/2012 11:54 Comments || Top||

#10  Upper debunked or lower debunked?
Posted by: Halliburton - Mysterious Conspiracy Division || 12/03/2012 12:42 Comments || Top||

#11  I don't think he's dead. He'll use those Chemical Weapons before he gets killed.
Posted by: Charles || 12/03/2012 13:40 Comments || Top||

#12  It won't be from hanging; his neck is way too long.
Posted by: airandee || 12/03/2012 14:42 Comments || Top||

#13  Syria Prepping Chemical Weapons, according to WIRED.

Think about it, you have your back to the wall and you have two choices: fly to Russia or use the chemical weapons. What are you gonna do? What was the point of having those weapons if you can't use them when your life and the lives of your people are on the line? And just exactly what does Hillary plan to do about it?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/03/2012 16:09 Comments || Top||

#14  So ... can I take him off my Christmas card list?? No point in spending the extra postage.
Posted by: Raider || 12/03/2012 16:11 Comments || Top||

#15  If Assad really has those weapons and if he is desperate enough to use them it will become clear that arming those rebels and staking US credibility on them was a very dangerous game. Is it possible Putin would conclude that Obama doesn't have the balls for a real fight? And then what? Does Obama back down and make us all look ridiculous or does he get us into WWIII? Would China loan us the money for it? Syria isn't worth it. If we had to face Russia it should have been over Iran and we should have made it clear from the get go that we meant business. That would have given the Russians a chance to back down without losing face.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/03/2012 16:26 Comments || Top||

#16  Curious question -- will the left treat more harshly the fellow whose foreign policy resulted in the use of WMD, or the fellow who believed all the information available and mistakenly believed there were WMD?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 12/03/2012 16:46 Comments || Top||

#17  Your comments are well thought out EU6305, what do you think of the option of letting them kill themselves like 12 rats in a 3 rat cage? One side might need gas, so might the other.
And shitloads of it too.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/03/2012 16:53 Comments || Top||

#18  Everything the Champ does, every action he takes
has a political dividend which will benefit him and his regime. I can see no political dividend with regard to any aspect of US involvement in Syria, bugs and gas or no bugs and gas.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 17:04 Comments || Top||

#19  I'm all in favor of letting them do whatever they want to each other. But Hillary told them not to use gas. Isn't that kind of a line in the sand? So my question is: what is her boss gonna do about it if they do? Is he gonna show himself to be impotent or is he gonna risk a confrontation with Putin? And if he risks a confrontation with Putin, what is Putin gonna do about it?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/03/2012 17:57 Comments || Top||

#20  So my question is: what is her boss gonna do about it if they do?

Stage a diversion.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/03/2012 18:29 Comments || Top||

#21  Golf?
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/03/2012 18:56 Comments || Top||

#22  Stage a diversion.

Works for me. Shameful, but then, the man has no shame.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/03/2012 19:20 Comments || Top||

#23  As per FREEREPUBLIC, Israel has repor asked permission from JORDAN to attack Syria's CHEMWAR sites, + the Bammer has warned Syria that iff it does resort to using its CHEMWAR weapons there "will be serious consequences', inferring possible US, UNO mil intervention to which both Russia + China will have a hard time disagreeing to.

IRAN per se may not do anything iff only an Israeli air strike(s) agz Assad's ChemFacs, not agz Assad himself, because even Iran doesn't want a Syria ally par or stronger than itself in alliance, but IMO Iran may de facto militarily intervene iff the US + regional rivals Turkey, KSA send ground troops into Syria, even under UN auspice, AS SYRIA IS IRAN'S LINK TO AIR, NAVAL PORTS IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN.

The key as always will be RUSSIA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 19:30 Comments || Top||

#24  If anyone busts out wmd in Syria, then the US should use vast amounts of small precision bombs, deep penetrating ordnance, followed up with an incendiary over-strike to destroy and sterilize every wmd site in the country.

20 B-1s and a carrier's worth of strike aircraft could do it all in an hour. And it would be better to do it all again 12 hours later.

There is no down side to putting the hammer down on any tinpot dictator using wmd on civilians, and there is real value in going all out to break something hard.
Posted by: rammer || 12/03/2012 21:00 Comments || Top||

#25  Here I mean, "break something hard" not as in

"break something hard to break", but instead

"break something fragile, with such exponentially excessive force as to cause Iran to pause and re-consider their ways."
Posted by: rammer || 12/03/2012 21:06 Comments || Top||

#26  #24 If anyone busts out wmd in Syria, then the US should...

Personally, I can't see the present Admin doing *anything* that calls for an actual decision, much less decisive action.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/03/2012 22:10 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Symbolism and Numerology in North Korean Rocketry
Posted by: tipper || 12/03/2012 01:57 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
DIA sending hundreds more spies overseas
The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size, U.S. officials said.

The project is aimed at transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been dominated for the past decade by the demands of two wars, into a spy service focused on emerging threats and more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military commando units
Posted by: tipper || 12/03/2012 01:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nothing says clandestine like an announcement in a news release.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 1:56 Comments || Top||

#2  A good move IMO.

I think political CIA spies in the Internet age is dumb, but military spies makes sense. You can't measure military morale from a satellite.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/03/2012 2:30 Comments || Top||

#3  The services (Army, USAF, Marines, Navy) had trained human intelligence (HUMINT) personnel until DIA convinced the congress in the early 1990's that they could of course, do it better. Lost to DIA also was the vital service logistical support elements that enabled the HUMINT effort.

The services obviously ended the Military Occupational Skill (MOS) training for those positions when they lost they mission. Lost also was the excellent service connection and interface to the CIA. Military HUNINT personnel were senior folks who came with a wealth of prior training in languages, counterintelligence, and other skills. It was a sad time for the services, particularly the Army.

The DIA 'got by' with the power grab for with limited success for a time by hiring retiring or exiting service members. When those dried up, the started hiring college kiddies.

Training and "sending hundreds more spies overseas" is a somewhat misleading statement. Training a Foreign Area Officer (FAO) or Economics person to work out of an embassy and attend dinners and trade shows is one thing. Training and supporting someone who can clandestinely penetrate a foreign organization or network is quite something else again.

A "transformation" of DIA is indeed necessary and long overdue. As a US Government showcase for Affirmative Action and the advancement of wymin, along with being the employer of the largest number of Senior Executive Service (SES) of any agency in the gov't, I doubt change will come any time soon.

It takes a very long time to build a real spy. Good luck ye beltway bastids.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 6:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Probably just an anouncement, no actual spies involved. At least it might get the enemy to waste time turning over a few rocks.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/03/2012 7:54 Comments || Top||

#5  "Nothing says clandestine like an announcement in the news"

Don't worry - they will all be wearing jeans and tank tops. No-one will spot them :-)
Posted by: Raider || 12/03/2012 10:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Don't worry - they will all be wearing jeans and tank tops. No-one will spot them :-)
Posted by Raider


What will the DIA female recruits be wearing Raider ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 11:51 Comments || Top||

#7  Hey Besoeker - you have to remember than all the young kids watch NCIS on television. So they all want to dress like "those agents". And make the same jokes, too :-)
Posted by: Raider || 12/03/2012 12:53 Comments || Top||

#8  Nothing says clandestine like an announcement in a news release.

Unless you want to strangle the idea before it gets enacted.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/03/2012 13:04 Comments || Top||

#9  Right Pappy....or you wish to insulate the 'high-grades' and tenured career employees with a fresh crop of probationary new hires in advance of pending DoD cuts. Burn up the FY-2013 budget before it gets slashed.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 13:11 Comments || Top||

#10  But if it's a repeat of the Clinton era GS-4 'local hires', you can guarantee that something else is going to be be cut.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/03/2012 16:16 Comments || Top||

#11  Col. Flagg RIDES!
Posted by: Shipman || 12/03/2012 17:00 Comments || Top||

#12  In this era of OWG + "Globalism", I'm interpreting this announcement to mean that Military + Civie INTEL are now officially one + the same, or at least in most aspects.

Truth be told, have been for a while.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 18:43 Comments || Top||


Europe
Next Up For A "Recovering" Europe: A 30-50% Collapse In Wages In Spain, Italy And... France
Posted by: tipper || 12/03/2012 01:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Coming soon, to an over-extended country near you. The US, you recall, wants to be more like Europe.
Posted by: Bobby || 12/03/2012 14:22 Comments || Top||

#2  ...well, the Blue States want to, thus powerful unions and 'living' wage [vs minimum wage].
Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/03/2012 15:40 Comments || Top||

#3  So Madrid, Roma, + Paris, etal. sovereign capitals all have surrender national power-n-authority to the EXTRA/POST-NATIONAL EU in BRUSSELS.

YOU KNOW - BRUSSELS, DAT FAMED CITY IN A NATION THAT REPOR W-I-L-L BE "TURNING ISLAMIC".

IOW, THE HQ OF NATO-EU WILL BE IN A MUSLIM COUNTRY, ONE OF OTHERS IN A POTENTIAL FUTURE "EURABIA"???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 19:12 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
UN's Ban Ki-moon warns Israel of 'fatal blow' to peace
Israeli settlement plans in a strategically sensitive area of occupied land near East Jerusalem would deal "an almost fatal blow" to peace hopes, UN head Ban Ki-moon has warned.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem could be completely cut off from the rest of the West Bank, he said.
Really? How unexpected.
Israel authorised 3,000 additional housing units a day after the UN voted to upgrade Palestinian status.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue with the building plans.
"We will carry on building in Jerusalem and in all the places that are on the map of Israel's strategic interests"

The UN General Assembly backed a proposal on Thursday by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to change the Palestinians' status at the UN to that of non-member observer state.

In a statement on Sunday, Mr Ban expressed his "grave concern and disappointment" over the 3,000 newly authorised Israeli settlement units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

But he was most adamant that any plans to build in the so-called E1 area - between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim - should be rescinded. An Israeli official has described the proposals in the E1 zone as "preliminary zoning and planning work".

"It would represent an almost fatal blow to remaining chances of securing a two-state solution," Mr Ban said.
Perhaps the Palestinians should have thought of that before pushing forward at the UN.
Posted by: tipper || 12/03/2012 00:55 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A "fatal blow" to a non-existent "hope for peace".

That's a good trick.
Posted by: mojo || 12/03/2012 13:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Fuck you moon-boy. The Palestinians are the biggest fatal blow to your two-state solution. Or any solution that doesn't involve napalming the West Bank and bouncing the rubble after.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/03/2012 14:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Unlike, say, 8000 rockets from Gaza?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/03/2012 15:30 Comments || Top||

#4  OTOH compare wid TOPIX > UN CHIEF ACCUSES SYRIA OF VIOLATING [1974] CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT WID ISRAEL, URGES END TO ALL FIRINGS.

As for the Paleos, technically speaking EGYPT claims Gaza as its sovereign territory - AFAIK its only allowing the Paleos to stay there as "guests" of the Egyptian Govt-State. DITTO AS PER JORDAN + WEST BANK, ALBEIT ISRAEL PROCLAIMS THE WEST BANK AS "DISPUTED" TERRITORY.

Jordan does have a very large Paleo population, a fact which the ruling Hashemites are always keen to notice - read, sensitive.

All things equal, I would argue that Israel's contruction on the WB is actually good for the Paleo's interests, as both Egypt + Jordan show no sign of giving up Gaza or WB to the Paleos as the latter's own sovereign land.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 22:18 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Suicide Car Bomber Kills 3 in Uruzgan
[Tolo News] Provincial officials say a suicide car boomer killed three civilians and maimed another six in Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province.

Abdullah Himmat, a front man for the provincial governor, said Saturday's blast occurred near the police headquarters of Uruzgan's Dehra Wood district.

Fareed Ayal, a front man for the provincial police, says the car apparently detonated prematurely before it reached the gate of the headquarters.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian shells land in Turkey border town
[Al Ahram] Several shells fired from Syria hit a Turkish border town late Saturday but caused no casualties, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

The shells landed near the Reyhanli town in southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border amid festivities between troops loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
and rebel forces in Syria's Bab al-Hawa border post with Turkey, Anatolia said Sunday.

It was not immediately clear whether Turkish border units struck back at Syria after the incident.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
Reports of foiled terror bid in Quetta turn out false
[Dawn] The reports of a major terror bid foiled by security forces in Quetta turned out to be false after the recovered material was identified as harmless potassium chloride, DawnNews reported.

Security forces had earlier announced that a bid to smuggle a huge quantity of explosives into the bustling provincial capital was foiled early on Sunday.

The material previously reported as explosives turned out to be urea which has no link with bomb making, according to DawnNews.

Other household items including shoes, pulses and blankets were recovered among the items falsely reported as explosives.

According to an FC official, Captain Jauhar, security personnel had acted upon receiving a tip-off regarding suspected snuffies entering the city and intercepted a bus coming from Mastung.

Security forces had claimed to have recovered six to seven thousand kilograms of explosives upon conducting a search of the vehicle.

Five suspects were also taken into custody who were shifted to Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location for further questioning.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So they were going to blow up Quetta with Salt Substitute?

Sounds like Muzzies.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/03/2012 10:17 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen's army bombards saboteur's house in Marib
[Yemen Post] The Yemeni army bombarded on Sunday the house of an oil pipeline saboteur, Mohammad Kalfoot, in Wadi Abida of Marib governorate.

Local sources said that some population of Wadi Abida left their homes amid fears that they would have been raided.

Kalfoot, who is accused of attacking oil pipelines on Friday, responded to the military's bombardment of targeting the electricity towers.

The oil pipelines were subjected to attacks three times in Wadi Abida.

A number of Yemeni governorates are now living in darkness after the gas-run power station was assaulted by Kalfoot hours after his home was raided by the army.

Yemen's electricity supplies have been damaged many times since the eruption of the eleven-month-old protests. Yemen have lost billions of rials as a result of recurring attacks, official statistics say.

Yemeni officials and analysts accused the former regime led by President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
of supporting those saboteurs who target power lines.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Africa North
Egypt opposition groups announce plans to march on presidential palace
Several Egyptian political parties and groups have issued a joint statement announcing their intention to peacefully march to the presidential palace in Cairo at 5pm on Tuesday to voice opposition to President Mohamed Morsi's recent decisions and the date that has been set for a nationwide popular referendum on Egypt's draft constitution.
Boy howdy a march. That'll show those Salafists. Oh, by the way, how are you going to deal with the Salafists with guns riding into your midst upon camels?
"The constitution project that Morsi wants to put before a referendum is in fact a project for tying down the political, civil, social and economic freedoms of Egyptians," read the statement, published on the Egyptian Popular Current's official Facebook page.

The statement went on to question the draft charter's constitutionality, stressing its rejection of the date set -- 15 December -- for the upcoming referendum.

Egypt's High Constitutional Court had been expected to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of Egypt's Constituent Assembly (which wrote the draft constitution), but the ruling was postponed indefinitely after large numbers of pro-Morsi protesters gathered outside the court's downtown headquarters on Sunday.
Intimidation works. Ask our own Chief Justice...
Groups opposed to Morsi, which have been occupying Cairo's Tahrir Square for over two weeks, accuse the president of working in the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party.

"This is a final warning to Mohamed Morsi, who was democratically elected president: his policies, which favour his party and group, will cause the dissolution of his legitimacy," read the statement.

On Saturday, despite continued protests against Morsi's recent constitutional decree, which protects the Constituent Assembly from legal challenge, the president announced that the draft constitution would be put before a nationwide referendum in two week's time.

The statement was signed by eighteen political parties and groups, including the Constitution Party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Free Egyptians Party, the National Front for Justice and Democracy, the 6 April youth movement, the Democratic Front and the Kefaya movement.

Anti-Morsi forces have threatened for several days to march on the presidential palace in Heliopolis if constitutional declaration was not withdrawn.

Veteran journalist Abdel-Halim Qandil, a fierce critic of the president, and the Mubarak regime before the revolution, has called in a tweet "on the judges, workers, and underground metro drivers to strike and to march on the presidential palace" to defeat the president's decrees.

Many judges, who are on strike against the decree, have already threatened not to monitor the referendum if the president did not rescind his decisions.

Meanwhile, shortly after the president finished his speech on Saturday night calling for a vote on the draft constitution, Mohamed El-Beltagy, the Muslim Brotherhood main operative in the Constituent Assembly, called on the opponents of the draft to fight it - if they disagreed with it - by mobilising a NO vote not to protest.

El-Beltagy, a leading member also in the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, told Ahram Online that if the opposition defeats the draft at the referendum set for 15 December, a new Constituent Assembly will be chosen via direct elections.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You can’t be halfhearted in a revolution. Values that serve well in a civil society don’t work in a state of nature.

Sayeth the blog father.

Your advice to Egyptian moderates tracks what Arnold Beichman, old socialist, said to to me as we looked at the Winter Palace c. 1985: “Kerensky, that jerk–if only he’d shot a few people, millions would be alive!”
Posted by: AlanC || 12/03/2012 10:24 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Ismail Khan Impeachment Expected Monday
[Tolo News] Parliament is expected to impeach the Minister of Energy and Water Mohammad Ismail Khan on Monday after more than 50 politicians voted in favour of his removal, the Administrative Office said Saturday.

Khan has become unpopular with the politicians after publically calling last month for the former mujahedeen figures to take up arms and join the private army of the Jihadi Council he leads.

The Administrative Office said that 55 parliamentarians have signed in favour of impeaching Khan and in their written reasons for doing so, the main one precisely being his private milita plan.

"Fifty-five MPs sent their signatures to the Administrative Office. The subject was discussed in a meeting... and it was specified that [Parliament will] impeach him on Monday," Deputy Secretary Mohammad Farhad Azimi said.

Other reasons cited were a lack of development plans for electricity to some parts of country, slow process in construction and reconstruction of hyrdo-electric dams and the budget expenditure of the ministry.

Some parliamentarians said that the lower house has the legal right to impeach government ministers but feared government meddling.

"Some of the influential people and ministers threaten representatives by phone call to take back their signatures and give up the decision," Kabul parliamentarian Nazifa Zakee said.

"The House of Representatives has the right to impeach some ineffective ministers but the government improperly interferes in the House," Kunar parliamentarian Wazhma Safee said.

Others said the reasons for the impeachment were incorrect.

"The reasons for Ismail Khan's impeachment by the House are meaningless -- every minister has the right to have some meetings with the Mujahedeen," Ghour parliamentarian Sima Joinda said.

Khan has said that his reasons for forming the militia outside of the national security forces is to help secure the country where NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
has failed.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria troops step up attacks on Damascus suburbs
Syrian government troops Sunday intensified attacks on pro-rebel suburban areas of the capital, Damascus, reported opposition activists, dpa reported.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that President Bashar al-Assad's troops shelled the towns of Jassrin, al-Maleeha and Deir Sulaiman on the outskirts of Damascus, causing an unspecified number of casualties. Clashes between al-Assad's troops and rebels were underway in the same area, added the organization.

State television said that troops had "eliminated" scores of rebels in a crackdown on the suburban areas of Damascus. The broadcaster called the rebels "terrorists" with alleged links to al-Qaeda.

Fighting, meanwhile, continued between government forces and rebels in the vicinity of Damascus for the fourth straight day, said activists. They reported explosions and a big fire in a nearby area, resulting in a power outage at the airport.

The violence has prompted several foreign airlines to suspend flights to and from Syria. The state-owned carrier is the only airline still operating at the Damascus airport. On Sunday, EgyptAir said it will resume flights to Damascus and Aleppo airports on Monday after a three-day halt.

"The decision comes after coordination with the Egyptian embassy in Damascus and the EgyptAir office in Syria and asserting that security conditions are stable right now in Syria, especially on the roads leading to Damascus and Aleppo airports," the head of EgyptAir, Roshdy Zakaria, said in a statement.

Elsewhere, at least 15 civilians were killed and 24 injured in a car bombing in the central province of Homs, according to Syrian television. The Observatory said residents of the district of al-Hamra, where the bombing had occurred, are opponents of al-Assad's regime.

At least 105 people were killed nationwide, mostly in Damascus and its suburbs, according to the Local Coordination Committees, a group of activists documenting violence on the ground.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Listening to a FOX interview of Darth Bolton, appears chemical weapons are being moved or relocated in Syria and could be used by Assad very soon.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 13:07 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Mail carrier poisoned husband's tuna fish sandwich, tried to kill him
BARTOW, Fla. - A Central Florida mail carrier was tossed in the slammer
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
on attempted murder charges after she tried to poison her husband's tuna fish sandwich, according to deputies.

Beth Dickison Richards, 37, of Lake Wales, was arrested Friday on charges of attempted first-degree murder, poisoning food with the intent to kill, possession of cannabis and possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, deputies were called to Richards' home Thursday night in connection with a poisoning case. Deputies said they met with Richards' husband, Gregory Lawrence Richards, and her step-sister, Jessica Jarvis.

Jarvis said Beth Richards told her earlier in the day that she tried to poison and kill Gregory Richards by crushing up multiple Trazodone pills and placing them in a tuna fish sandwich.

Jarvis said she she immediately contacted Gregory Richards' family to verify his well-being, according to deputies.

Gregory Richards told deputies he had eaten part of the sandwich earlier in the day and felt nauseous. He was taken to Lake Wales Medical Center, where he was treated for nausea and dizziness.

According to the National Institutes of Health, Trazodone is used to treat depression and increases the amount of serotonin, a natural substance in the brain that helps maintain mental balance.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Beth Dickison Richards, 37, of Lake Wales, was arrested Friday on charges of attempted first-degree murder, poisoning food with the intent to kill, possession of cannabis and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Anyone remember when mail carriers were usually highly respected WWII veterans who wore nice starched uniforms, a smart looking hat, coached Little League teams, cooked pancakes at the American Legion, and marched in parades?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 6:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, Besoeker, but my father-in-law died four years ago.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/03/2012 8:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, I'm glad they caught the perp. But I'll guarantee Death? or Lake Wales? is still a tricky question for him.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/03/2012 12:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Most of my guys look like they just got out of rehab. Or getting ready to go in...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/03/2012 18:10 Comments || Top||

#5  tu - you must be near Haymarket Square...
Posted by: Raj || 12/03/2012 20:06 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Defense volunteer gunned down in southern Thailand
Defense volunteer Ahamatole Dolo was ambushed by members of an terrorist insurgent group while returning home on a motorcycle from his job at a rubber plantation in Pattani province. Cartridges from an assault rifle and a 9 mm pistol were found on a local road near Ban Baruere.

Police think Ahamatole was targeted by a terrorist militant group because he worked as an informant.

In another development, 332 schools in Pattani will today resume classes after a six-day closure. The reopening comes after enhanced security was promised for teachers, according to the Confederation of Teachers of Southern Border Provinces.

The widespread closure was ordered by the confederation to force authorities to institute better security strategies for teachers, who are among the prime targets of terrorists insurgents. On Nov 22 terrorists insurgents killed a school director in Pattani's Nong Chik district.

The confederation said the killing was the final straw. Confederation chairman Bunsom Thongsiphrai said, "The temporary closure was done in the hope that officers will protect the lives of our fellow teachers. If the situation [continues] the way it is, teachers' morale will plunge further."

The organization agreed to reopen the schools after talks with security officers, the deputy prime minister and the education minister.

Many teachers returned to their schools yesterday to prepare their classrooms and teaching materials ahead of lessons. However, those at Ban Maruat school in Pattani province had to find temporary locations to hold class after the two-story school building was torched by arsonists on Thursday.

School director Muhammat Jelo said teachers agreed to resume lessons by using the library and the prayer room as temporary classrooms. He said, "We don't want students to lose the chance to study any further."
Posted by: ryuge || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Rangers raid on Manghopir localities: 'Bomb factory', arms seized
[Dawn] With helicopters hovering overhead, some 2,000 Rangers personnel, including women members, in vehicles guarded by armoured personnel carriers moved into the Manghopir and Sultanabad localities for a pre-dawn 'targeted-operation' on Saturday.

Officials claimed the operation was a 'major success' that led to the seizure of a crude bomb-making factory, huge caches of arms and explosives with stocks of bearing balls and deadly chemicals as had been used in kabooms during Muharram.

The more than four-hour-long operation triggered a brief protest from area residents, who accused the paramilitary troops of violating the privacy of their family lives.

"It was planned on specific information to arrest some wanted terrorists," said a front man for the Sindh Rangers. "The targeted operation started early in the morning in the Manghopir and Sultanabad areas, which was attended by the 2,000 troops along with APCs (armoured personnel carriers)."

Saturday's operation was the second consecutive exercise by the Rangers in as many days.

On Friday, the troops cordoned off the neighouring Kunwari Colony in the same district and rounded up several suspects after hours-long search of the densely-populated locality.

"Today (Saturday) a difficult and hilly area was targeted. It was a well-planned operation with aerial cover for monitoring of the operation. Today a major success has been made," said the front man.

Manghpoir has emerged as a hotbed of suspects associated with the banned outfits in recent months and the recent raids by the police and Rangers that resulted in deadly encounters and arrest of alleged faceless myrmidons reflected the alarming influx of criminal elements into the locality.

Only on the eve of Ashura last week, the anti-extremist cell of the Sindh police's crime investigation department claimed to have tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
a suspected krazed killer, Ataullah alias Saddam, in an encounter that killed his aide Gul Muhammad Mehsud and led to the recovery of more than 100 kilograms of explosive stated to be meant for use in an attack on the main Ahsura procession on M. A. Jinnah Road.As claimed by the Sindh Rangers front man, the seizure after the paramilitary operation suggested well-organised presence of suspected faceless myrmidons in the suburb of the metropolis.

"During the operation an IED making facility has been found," he said. "Important recoveries include substantial amount of ball bearings, cycle of violence batteries, aluminum powder, aluminum nitrate, nitric acid concentrated, circuits without detonators, mobile phones without SIMs and approximately 70 weapons of different caliber with ammunition."

Though the number of suspects arrested was not explained by the Rangers, the front man hinted that the operation helped in pursuing investigations in line with recent terrorist attacks in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...

"Leads have been found with recent IED kabooms in Bloody Karachi. This success will lead to operations in other areas as well," he said. After the Rangers personnel returned with the 'major success', area people erupted into the streets and blocked the main road in protest against the operation.

Traffic remained suspended in the area that was revived only after talks between some area leaders and senior coppers.

However,
women are made to be loved, not understood...
the Sindh Rangers front man thanked the Manghopir and Sultanabad residents for their support during the operation.

"Sindh Rangers thank the inhabitants of Sultanabad and Manghopir for their support during the operation. We regret any inconvenience caused due to the prolonged operation," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Report: New Signs Of Activity At Syrian Chemical Weapons Sites
[Ynet] Western intelligence officials say they are picking up new signs of activity at sites in Syria that are used to store chemical weapons, the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
reports.

The officials are uncertain whether Syrian forces might be preparing to use the weapons in a last-ditch effort to save the government, or simply sending a warning to the West about the implications of providing more help to the Syrian rebels.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  See also WAFF > TURKEY REQUESTED NATO MISSLE DEFENSE [Patriots] OVER SYRIAN CHEMICAL WEAPONS FEARS. TURKISH OFFCIALS SAY THEY HAVE EVIDENCE ASSAD REGIME COULD RESORT TO BALLISTIC MISSLES IFF AIR CAMPAIGN AGZ REBELS FAIL.

ARTIC = RUSSIA'S role to be decisive in bringing Syrian conflict = civil war to an end.

versus

* TOPIX > OBAMA WARNS ASSAD ON USING CHEMICAL WEAPONS.

* SAME > US MULLING MILITARY OPTIONS IFF SYRIA USES WMDS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 23:15 Comments || Top||

#2  What happens if you shoot down a short or intermediate range ballistic missile with a chemical warhead? You get the nasty stuff dispersed over a wide area?
Posted by: SteveS || 12/03/2012 23:23 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt draft charter vote 'right move for stability': Salafist leaders
Of course they'd say that, they're in charge...
President Mohamed Morsi's decision to put Egypt's draft constitution before a popular referendum is the "right move for achieving stability in Egypt," Yasser El-Borhamy, deputy head of the Salafist Calling and member of the Constituent Assembly, and Galal Morah, secretary-general of the Salafist Nour Party, told state news agency MENA on Sunday.

Morah explained that Egyptians, weary after almost two years of post-revolution political instability, had "long awaited" the president's decision to put a draft constitution to a popular vote. He went on to urge the Egyptian people to work together to achieve revolutionary goals, which include social justice, freedom and the establishment of functioning state institutions.

El-Borhamy, for his part, pointed out the "dangers posed to the national economy" if the country was left too long without a national charter. "This transitional period [i.e., the current period in which Egypt has neither a constitution nor a functioning parliament] must end," he said.

El-Borhamy went on to stress that "several months of tremendous effort" had gone into Egypt's draft constitution, which will be put before a nationwide popular referendum on 15 December.
That's less than two weeks. Wonder who is the only political party in Egypt organized to conduct an election in two weeks?
Morsi hailed the proposed national charter after the document was handed over to him by members of the Constituent Assembly (which drafted the new constitution) on Saturday.

The Salafist Nour Party, which won the second largest number of seats in Egypt's now-defunct parliament after the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, had previously announced its support for Morsi's controversial 22 November decree, which made the president's decisions impervious to challenge by the judiciary.

The party, along with the Salafist Calling and the Muslim Brotherhood, has continued to organise protests in support of Morsi's decision and the draft constitution.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
Three PKK members killed in Turkey
Three members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have been killed during a raid of Turkish army in the province of Elazig on Saturday, the Dogan agency reported.

Over 10 months, Turkish security forces rendered harmless
Oh, what a politically correct term!
716 PKK militants in different parts of the country, including 496 terrorists that have been killed, 21 wounded, 44 arrested and 155 surrendered to the authorities. During the reporting period, the security forces held six large and 19 local operations against militants.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Qatar releases 15 Iranian prisoners
Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.2 -- 15 Iranian prisoners, whose have been detained cause of passing Iran-Qatar borders illegally, were released, Iran's ambassador in Qatar said on Sunday.

According to Mehr News Agency, Mohammad Javad Asayesh Zarchi said that prisoners were released after Iran's diplomatic negotiations with its southern neighbor. Zarchi added that some of prisoners have returned by ship and airline to the country.
Just as long as CIA and Interpol have all the biometrics...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Shia minority scores big win in Kuwaiti polls
Kuwait's Shia minority has won for the first time more than a third of the 50 parliamentary seats in polls boycotted by the opposition which declared the new assembly "illegitimate" due to poor voter turnout, Aljazeera reported.

According to official results released on Sunday, the Shias - who form around 30 per cent of Kuwait's native population of 1.2 million - won 17 seats compared with seven they won in the scrapped 2012 parliament and nine in the 2009 house. Three women were elected to the new parliament compared to four in 2009, according to figures released by the National Election Commission.

The new house includes as many as 30 new faces as leading members of the opposition stayed away from the polls. Sunni Islamists were reduced to a small minority of four MPs compared with as many as 23 in the house elected in February.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Burkina Faso votes in test for Compaore regime
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Voters in Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
went to the polls on Sunday in legislative and municipal elections seen as a test for the regime of President Blaise Compaore which was almost toppled in a wave of violence 18 months ago.

Faced with a still divided opposition in one of the world's poorest countries, Compaore's powerful Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) party remains the big favourite despite internal tensions.

Sunday's elections are the first since a deep crisis erupted in early 2011, when a wave of mutinies and violent popular protests almost toppled the administration of Compaore, who has been in power since a 1987 military coup.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas Official: Palestinian State Needs Armed Struggle™
[Jpost] A Paleostinian state without armed struggle™ against Israel is an illusion and won't add anything for the Paleostinians, top Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, official Osama Hamdan was quoted Sunday as saying.

Hamdan, who is based in Beirut, said that the result of the UN General Assembly vote last Thursday on the statehood bid was a "political step, but not a victory or great achievement."
Ah, Beirut. None of that "Armed Struggle™" for him.
He pointed out that the PLO already had representation in the UN.

"The PLO has paid a heavy political price for this representation because it relinquished its claim to the lands of 1948," Hamdan said. "Therefore, the real achievement lies in the liberation of the land, the return of the refugees and achieving steadfastness on the land. These are the achievements which the people respect and appreciate."
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  I am considering Armed Struggle™, the damn gators are oppressing me bad.

Here, have a shot of Armed Struggle™ it will make you forget.

I'll have Number 4 Armed Struggle™ with a side of grits please.

Armed Struggle™ it is what is now and getting better.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/03/2012 17:06 Comments || Top||

#2  The newly UN-recognized PA remains a Govt-People widout a physical Country, i.e. land, as both Egypt + Jordan claim sovereignty oer Gaza + the West Bank respectively.

That leaves Israel.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 23:08 Comments || Top||


Arabia
OPEC member Qatar says to start embracing solar energy
[Al Ahram] The Gulf nation aims to raise the share of solar power in electricity generation to 16 per cent by 2018
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, at least they don't have a shortage of sunshine there.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/03/2012 8:19 Comments || Top||


Economy
Hospital in Central Brooklyn Plans to Declare Bankruptcy
[NY Times] A financially troubled hospital serving a largely African-American and Caribbean niche of central Brooklyn is planning to declare bankruptcy this week, hospital officials said on Sunday, raising concerns that New York State may force it to close or merge with another facility.
Connect with NYTMetro

The hospital, Interfaith Medical Center, serving Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, has been in and out of financial trouble for decades, with its survival assured only by infusions of state aid.

However, in difficult economic times, the Cuomo administration has not indicated a willingness to continue bailing out failing hospitals.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Obamacare should help with that... /s
Posted by: tipover || 12/03/2012 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  The closure of a magnet, People's Hospital following the presidential election? We must be closer to the end than I thought.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 6:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Obamacare will turn an otherwise good health care system into a clusterphfvck that doesn't work for anyone. Thanks Omugabe (sarc). It was never really about covering the uninsured.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/03/2012 10:15 Comments || Top||

#4  "an otherwise good health care system"

????
Posted by: Blossom Thinerong6539 || 12/03/2012 10:51 Comments || Top||

#5  "Do NOT tell me where you found him. EVER."
Posted by: mojo || 12/03/2012 11:14 Comments || Top||

#6  BT if you mean that then you are falling for the typical MSM, rent seeking progressive bs.

The health care system in the US is probably the best in the world.

Now let's talk about the health care PAYMENT system. That's what's broken and what needs fixing is not that gov't doesn't have enough control.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/03/2012 12:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Was at a company all hands meeting today. Boss told everyone their premiums were going up between 30 and 100% percent in 2014. It was a delicious moment, because 90% of them voted for Champ.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/03/2012 17:05 Comments || Top||

#8  I suspect that even had Obamacare never passed, medical insurance prices would be spiking due to previously known causes plus the Fed's devaluation of the currency.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/03/2012 17:36 Comments || Top||

#9  Agree, but my family plan sent me a letter within a month of gables mcbotox struttin marking an increase of 30%. Also, any union worth their salt found a reason to renegotiate their contracts to include any future health care costs...almost as if they knew something.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/03/2012 18:20 Comments || Top||

#10  My wife was given a choice; change your insurance company or dump your doctor of 30+ years. Another lie of Obamacare.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/03/2012 21:17 Comments || Top||


Arabia
High-ranking commander escapes assassination attempt
[Yemen Post] A high-ranking Yemeni commander escaped an liquidation attempt on Sunday in the southern governorate of Lahj.

Military sources affirmed that a gunman in a four-wheel vehicle assaulted the commander of the Al-Anad military base Mohammad al-Subaihi.

They said that the escorts of Al-Subaihi could injure the attacker and arrest him.

"Nobody was hurt in the armed attack, but two cars of the convoy were pockmarked by bullets," local sources said.

Military sources anticipated that al-Qaeda was behind the event, citing that al-Subaihi is pursuing a military offensive against al-Qaeda in 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...
governorate.

Al-Qaeda had claimed its responsibility for the liquidation of senior Yemeni commander including the commander of the Southern Military Region Salem Qatan who was killed in last June.

More than 60 Yemeni officers, most of them are intelligence officers, were killed across Yemen since the beginning of 2012.

Most liquidations carried out against intelligence officers have occurred in Aden and Sana'a which experience alarming insecurity since the popular uprising erupted against the former regime in early 2011.

Yemeni analysts say that Al-Qaeda failed to target Yemeni strategic facilities and it resorted to assassinate high-ranking officers as a simple option.

Leaders of political parties and ministers were frequently to subjected to liquidation attempts in Sana'a and other major cities.

Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula had called its members to use cycle of violences and avoid using vehicles after US drones increased against them.

The Interior Ministry has directed to ban cycle of violences with no registration plates in all Yemeni governorates as most liquidations were carried out by gunnies on cycle of violences.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia


Africa Horn
At least 26 killed in Somali clan battles

[Al Ahram] Fierce fighting between heavily armed rival clans in war-torn Somalia has killed at least 26 people in a dispute over grazing land and water, officials said Sunday. "There are many casualties, the initial reports are of 26 people killed," said Mohamed Abdi Shire, a senior commander of the Ahlu Sunna militia in central Somalia, which controls the region. Clashes broke out Saturday in the central Galgadud region, around the villages of of Marer and Balalder, he added.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
Report: Iran Stations Defence Staff At North Korea Military Site
[Ynet] Iran has stationed defence staff in North Korea since late October apparently to strengthen cooperation in missile and nuclear development, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported on Sunday, citing a Western diplomatic source.

The report came as North Korea said on Saturday it would carry out its second rocket launch of 2012 between December 10 and December 22, near the first anniversary of the death of young leader Kim Pudge Jong-un
...the hereditary potentate of North Korea...
's father.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
JMB back: Rab claims the banned Islamist outfit regrouped
[Bangla Daily Star] Rapid Action Battalion yesterday tossed in the calaboose
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
five top-level leaders of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
The JMB is said to be the youth front of Al Mujahideen, the parent organization that began working toward establishing Bangladesh as an Islamic state in the mid 1990s which remains obscure even today. Other organizations, such as Jama'atul Jihad, JMB, Jagrata Mohammedan Janata Bangladesh (JMJB), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), Hizbut Tawhid, Tawhidi Janata, Islami Jubo Shangha, Islami Shangha, Al Falah A'am Unnayan Shanstha and Shahadat-e al Hiqma are believed to be part of the Al Mujahideen network. The JMB at its peak was reported to contain at least 100,000 members, and an alleged 2,000-man suicide brigade, few of whom actually went kaboom!. JMB allegedly received financial assistance from individual donors in Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Libya. Reports have claimed that funding of JMB by international NGOs like Kuwait based Society of the Revival of Islamic Heritage (RIHS) and Doulatul Kuwait, Saudi Arabia based Al Haramaine Islamic Institute and Rabita Al Alam Al Islami, Qatar Charitable Society and UAE-based Al Fuzaira and Khairul Ansar Al Khairia. The top leadership of JMB was captured in 2005 and hung in 2007, which pretty much shot their bolt.
(JMB) in the capital's Mirpur on charges of allegedly plotting to foil the ongoing war crimes trial by destabilising law and order.

The leaders of the banned bad boy outfit were preparing to hold a secret meeting, Rab officials said.

One of the arrestees Shaik Rahamat Ullah alias Masum, 33, is a member of Majlish-e-Sura, the highest decision making body of the JMB, Rab sources said.

The other detainees are ehsar (full-time) members Shahinuzzaman Shahin alias Shafique, 27, Amit Hossain alias Ajmeri, 26, and Shariful Islam Shohag alias Milton, 23, and gayeri ehsar (part-time) member Saidur Rahman, 40.

A senior intelligence official of the Rab told The Daily Star that JMB men regrouped, targeting to kill BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia
Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide...
, Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta and Foreign Minister Dipu Moni.

A good number of books, leaflets, CDs and pen drives containing the party's organizational directives were seized from the possessions of five arrestees.

During a press briefing at Rab headquarters, its Legal and Media Wing Director Captain M Sohail said the leaders of the banned
...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organization
have been getting together under the umbrella of some religion-based political parties.

"In collaboration with these parties, the outfit members are trying to destabilise law and order, aiming to foil the war crimes trial and save war criminals," he said.

"Besides, JMB leaders and leaders of the like-minded organizations have targeted some top ranking leaders of the two major political parties," Sohail told news hounds.

The bad boy outfit has targeted to recruit Rohingyas in Myanmar to conduct bad boy activities, Capt Sohail said adding that JMB men were trying to keep contacts with the placed in durance vile
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
war criminals.

Rab officials said Sura member Masum, who hails from Narayanganj, had been working as the second man to JMB's chief Sohel Mahfuz, who is now hiding in India.

"As per the directives of Mahfuz, Masum came to Bangladesh on November 10 from India through a border point in Rajshahi," said a Rab source.

Masum was convicted to 17 years' imprisonment in an arms case in addition to six years in an explosives case. He is also accused in several other cases, including a robbery in a Brac office at Gopalganj in 2005.

After he came out of prison on a High Court bail in 2011, he had fled to India.

Ehsar members Shahinuzzaman is the chief of Khulna district JMB, Shariful of Satkhira district JMB while Amit Hossain is the finance secretary of the banned outfit.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh

#1  ...and Mahmoud the Weasel begins planning a new wing on his house...
Posted by: gromky || 12/03/2012 1:12 Comments || Top||

#2  What happened? Did they knock off all the Purba Bangla commies?
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/03/2012 2:17 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Turkmenistan replaces Justice Minister
But I think we all saw this coming...
Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 2 -- Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has signed a decree dismissing Myrat Garryev as Justice Minister, Turkmen State News Service (TDH) reported Sunday.

Garryev was replaced with his deputy, Begench Charyev.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Charyev over Garryev. It was fate
Posted by: Frank G || 12/03/2012 19:20 Comments || Top||


Europe
Mum set for trial after sending son named 'jihad' to nursery with 'I am a bomb' jumper
A MUM who sent her three-year-old son named "Jihad" to nursery school wearing a top bearing the words "I am a bomb" is to go on trial in France. Beneath the boy's name on the back of the jumper were the words "Born on the 11 September" - the date of the 9/11 terror attacks on New York's twin towers.

The muslim mum was reported to police by the boy's outraged teacher and has now been charged with supporting a terrorist act.

Thierry Lagneau, the mayor of the southern French town of Sorgues, said: "We fully support charges being brought against this woman for provoking hatred and terrorism in one of our schools.

"This was an utterly irrespoinsible act by the boy's mother, who used their son to promote a violent political belief of her own."

The divorced mother said the jumper was a gift to her from the boy's uncle and has insisted the message on the top was not meant to be provocative.
Oh no, of course not, no true believer would be upset, and who cares what infidels think, anyway?
She also told police her son's genuine birthdate was September 11, 2009.

The 32-year-old woman will appear in court in Avignon on December 19, when she faces a suspended prison sentence and fine of up to 800 pounds.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Kind of like naming your kid Adolph Hitler.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/03/2012 9:56 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm impressed with the english language skills of the french people to have been able to read the message on the shirt.
Posted by: Blossom Thinerong6539 || 12/03/2012 10:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Fuck You is pretty much the same in all languages.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/03/2012 11:55 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Al-Qaeda denies killing of Saudi diplomat
[Yemen Post] Qaeda has denied its responsibility for the killing of a Saudi diplomat, Khalid Al-Enizi in Sana'a on Thursday, a Yemeni newspaper quoted sources of al-Qaeda as saying.

Alyaman Alyawam Newspaper owned by the former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
added that al-Qaeda paid money to kidnappers of a Saudi diplomat, Abdullah al-Khalidi, who was kidnapped last March.

It further spelt out he was kidnapped due disagreements with a Yemeni tribal family.

The Saudi Ambassador to Yemen, Ali al-Hamadan, had said that gunnies attempted to abduct al-Enizi, singling out that he resisted them and they killed them shot up him.

Yemen's security authorities offered on Wednesday $25 thousand to anyone who will give information that might lead to the arrest of the killers of a Saudi diplomat, Khalid al-Enizi.

Gunmen dressed in security force uniforms of the Central Security killed al-Eniz and his bodyguard close to his residency at the heart of the capital Sana'a.

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...
, which is a major donor to their poor neighbor and hosted the signing of the deal for President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi
...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh...
to take power, strongly supported Yemen in combating Al-Qaeda.

Hadi conducted an offensive against Al-Qaeda and could cleanse them from their main hideouts in 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...
and Shabwa governorates, but Al-Qaeda resorted to use other tactics including liquidations and bombing in its war against the Yemeni government.

A Saudi diplomat, Abdullah Al-Khalidi, was kidnapped in the port city of Aden on March 28 and several video messages of al-Khalidi were posted by Al-Qaeda in which he appealed to the Saudi authorities to meet the demands of captors through releasing Al-Qaeada prisoners and pay a ransom.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia

#1  What, did someone there finally figure out that you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/03/2012 12:05 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghan commander feels vulnerable as U.S. forces leave
[USA Today] The war in Afghanistan has changed. The Afghan forces are doing most of the fighting and taking a larger share of the casualties, as U.S. forces withdraw. But Afghanistan's military remains dependent on Americans for medical evacuation helicopters, surveillance and equipment to counter roadside kabooms. Afghan commanders worry the withdrawal of American forces will leave them vulnerable.

The Taliban remain weakened, but still capable of attacks. They are increasingly targeting Afghan forces. The latest reminder came early Sunday, when Taliban jacket wallahs attacked a joint U.S.-Afghan air base in eastern Afghanistan, leaving at least five Afghans dead.

Afghan Maj. Gen. Sayed Malouk, who commands the 215th Corps here in Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province, said morale in the Afghan army is high despite the daily casualties they take. In a recent meeting, Malouk told Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Neller, who was visiting from the United States, that he appreciated the help the Americans have provided.

"But we should be honest with each other," Malouk said. Without the medevac support, many of his troops will die where they are injured and that would hurt morale, he said.

He said that already the Taliban has planted roadside kabooms in areas where the United States has removed surveillance cameras, in preparation for withdrawal. The Taliban is also turning to remotely detonated bombs because its members know the Afghan forces are not equipped with jamming equipment.

The coalition strategy is to strengthen the Afghan military and police, and weaken the Taliban before most U.S. troops leave in two years.

"Our job is not to be here until you get a Taliban surrender," said Marine Maj. Gen. Charles "Mark" Gurganus, commander of Regional Command Southwest. But he said the Taliban remains weak in Helmand and Afghan cops have grown in size and quality.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  MGEN Malouk prolly learned the US Senate is calling for a faster pullout of US Troops than planned???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 0:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, when there are no more NATO troops for alleged "friendlies" to shoot, who do you suppose they'll turn their attention to?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/03/2012 10:26 Comments || Top||

#3  The British couldn't tame Afghanistan, the Sovs couldn't, and now NATO/USA can't. No shame in that.

The shame is that we're still sending people to die meaningless deaths because the politicians won't admit defeat.
Posted by: Blossom Thinerong6539 || 12/03/2012 10:53 Comments || Top||

#4  ...obviously some have already forgot 9/11. Ring me when the next big one hits.

Posted by: Procopius2k || 12/03/2012 11:43 Comments || Top||

#5  "But we should be honest with each other," Malouk said. Without the medevac support, many of his troops will die where they are injured and that would hurt morale, he said.

Solution: Mount up in your US Taxpayer funded FORD Rangers, go out and kill bad guys until the shi* stops. If it starts back up again, go out and kill ya some more!

See ya around General Malouk.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 11:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Considering he and his troops probably assisted with intel for the Taliban, now find it being used against them. No sympathy.
Posted by: Charles || 12/03/2012 13:44 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Japan threatens to shoot down North Korean rocket
[ABC.Net.AU] Japan is threatening to shoot down a North Korean rocket that Pyongyang says it could launch next week.

Kim Pudge Jong-un
...the hereditary potentate of North Korea...
's regime insists the rocket, which it says will fly south over the Philippines and Australia and into orbit, is carrying a communications satellite.

But the United States, South Korea and Japan all say that the launch is really a ballistic missile test, with North Korea trying to master the technology to fire long-range missiles capable of one day carrying a nuclear warhead.

The last North Korean rocket launch ended in ignominy in April, when the rocket broke up and splashed into the Yellow Sea just a minute or so after take-off. After that debacle, there were rumours throughout Pyongyang that a couple of rocket scientists had disappeared.

Japan's prime minister Yoshihiko Noda is threatening to shoot down the next rocket if it manages to stay airborne and threaten Japanese territory.

"The defence minister has today issued orders to prepare for the interception and defence against ballistic missiles," he said. "If they do indeed go ahead with the launch, then it is indeed very regrettable.

"Not only our country, but the entire international community must take strong measures to deal with this."

The launch window runs for 12 days from next Monday - a period in which South Korean voters will be going to the polls to elect a new president.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Once again - SSSSSHHHHH..CCCCCC read, CHINA.

FYI Beijing is repor mulling a counterresponse to Japan's Abe's call to use retired JMSDF warships to patrol the Senkakus/Diaoyus, which itself was tit-for-tat per an earlier Chinese plan.

* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > ANALYSIS: CHINA'S PLA MAY NEED TO STRIKE JAPAN FIRST, TO INCLUDE USE OF LRBMS AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS, DESPITE THE PLAAF PRESENTLY OSSESSING A MINIMUM 4:1 NUMERICAL ADVANTAGE AGZ THE JASDF. CHINA'S AIR ADVANTAGE OFFSET BY THE HIGHER QUALITY OF JAPAN'S FIGHTER AIRCRAFT, PILOT TRAINING, AND GROUND-BASED ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSLES.

China was more willing to compromise back when integration + reunification efforts wid Taiwan were progressing seemingly fine - IT WANTS TO SEE DE FACTO INTEGRATION, NOT JUST PCORRECT DIPLOMATIC, MSM RHETORIC FULL OF SOUND-N-FURY SIGNIFYING NOTHING, I.E. "EMPTY TALK".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Nah - pull a "SPECTRE" and hijack the command channels, turn it around and drop it on the launch site where all the Nork Bigwigs are gathered.
Posted by: mojo || 12/03/2012 13:32 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria rebels say captured missiles downed army aircraft
[Al Ahram] Syrian rebels say a former army missile specialist in their ranks used captured shoulder-launched weapons to down two government aircraft in as many days last month.

Rebel commanders said that the army helicopter shot down on November 27 and the fighter jet shot down the following day were both hit with Russian-made surface-to-air missiles captured from an army base west of Syria's second city Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
in mid-November.

Defence analysts cited by the Western media had said that the aircraft were likely brought down with surface-to-air missiles provided from abroad, including by the Gulf state of Qatar, an outspoken champion of arming the rebels, over the opposition of the United States.

The rebels said the expertise to use the SA-16 Gimlet missiles, which they said they captured from Base 46 along with other heavy weaponry, came from within their own ranks in the form of a former army missile specialist.

"This is Musa Abu Omar. He shot down both of the aircraft," said Abu Abdel Rahman, a leading rebel commander in the town of Darret Ezza, 30 kilometres (20 miles) northwest of Aleppo, as he introduced the fighter to AFP.

"Both the missiles came from Base 46," Abu Omar said. "We've got enough of them now to bring down the whole Syrian air force," he boasted, refusing to give any specific numbers.

Asked where he got his training on the use of the SA-16, a missile most famous for its use by Saddam Hussein's forces against coalition aircraft during the 1991 Gulf war, Abu Omar said: "It was my specialism in the army during my three year service."

The 27-year-old showed AFP a photograph of himself holding a shoulder-launched missile that he said was one of the two he fired. The picture's authenticity could not be independently verified.

Abu Omar said instruction was now being given to other rebel fighters.

"We'll impose our own no-fly zone without any need from help from foreign governments," he added in reference to the repeated refusals of Western governments to heed opposition calls to intervene to close the skies to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
's warplanes as they did in Libya last year.

Abu Omar recalled how on November 27 the rebels received intelligence that a government helicopter was due to carry out a resupply mission to the massive Sheikh Suleiman base, near Darret Ezza, which has been under rebel siege for months.

"Our information was that it would resupply the base, then return to Aleppo with some generals and other senior officer. So we laid in wait and I fired when the aircraft took off again," Abu Omar told AFP in an interview.

"We knew that the regime would attempt to retaliate the following the day... so we laid a new ambush," the 27-year-old said.

The rebels' acquisition of surface-to-air missiles poses a significant threat to the government's increasing reliance on its air power in its war against the rebels, particularly in their stronghold in the northwest.

"It's a turning point," said Riad Kahwaji of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis (INEGMA) told AFP after the two aircraft were downed.

But there have been contradictory reports about the likely source of the missiles with the Washington Post reporting on Thursday that they were likely part of a consignment of up to 40 supplied from abroad.

Some of the missiles were supplied by Qatar, the newspaper reported, citing two Middle Eastern intelligence officials it did not identify.

"It should be worrying to everyone," one of the officials said. "When Assad is finished, Islamic fascisti could end up with these, and commercial flights would be at risk."

Washington has consistently opposed providing SAMs to the rebels for fear they could fall into the wrong hands.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Look Chuff, there can only be one. You ain't it.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/03/2012 11:58 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt judges refuse to oversee constitutional poll, say judicial sources
[Al Ahram] Judicial sources within Egypt's Judges Club told Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website on Sunday evening that club members had agreed to boycott Egypt's upcoming constitutional referendum -- slated for 15 December -- and would refuse to supervise the voting process. They arrived at the decision during a judges' meeting held before the presser that is currently taking place.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  "Sorry, boys - not gonna play your reindeer games."
Posted by: mojo || 12/03/2012 11:16 Comments || Top||

#2  They're going to be replaced by islamic judges anyway.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/03/2012 15:26 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Handler, 'would-be suicide bombers' killed in KP
[Dawn] Three would-be jacket wallahs and one of their handlers were killed in two separate incidents when their vests detonated prematurely, according to security sources.

The first incident took place 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.
's Dir colony area where a cycle of violence-riding suicide bomber was being equipped with the boom vest by his handler.

According to security sources, the explosives detonated while the handler was camouflaging the boom jacket with another jacket. Both the handler and bomber were killed in the blast.

The incident took place near a security check-post, which was presumed as the target of the would-be attackers. The faces of the suspects were unrecognisable as a result of the blast.

In the second incident, two suicide-bombers were killed prior to reaching their destination in Garang area of Pandiali Tehsil in Mohmand tribal area, according to security officials.

In another unrelated incident Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) personnel defused explosives planted on a cycle of violence on main GT road in Tarnab Farm area in the outskirts of Peshawar.

According to BDS official Zahid Khan the cycle of violence was fitted with remote-controlled detonator as well as a mobile phone detonator. The ignition system of the cycle of violence was also connected to the bomb which had six to seven kilograms of kaboom and the was filled with pellets to increase the devastation caused by the blast.

The cycle of violence was found parked a few yards away from security checkpost which was presumed as the target for the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  Air gets dry this time of year. Watch out for static cling boom...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/03/2012 10:22 Comments || Top||


Peace body member found slaughtered in Mohmand
[Dawn] The body of a member of local peace committee was found in Shagai area of Haleemzai tehsil of Mohmand Agency
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar...
on Tuesday.

Officials said that the victim, Raad Gul, was kidnapped by unidentified persons outside his house last night. His body was dumped in a playground in Shagai, they added.

Raad Gul was an active member of Haleemzai Peace Committee.

The officials of political administration shifted the body to agency headquarters hospital in Ghalanai and later handed it over to his family.
They said that the victim was slaughtered.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain front man Ihsanullah Ihsan grabbed credit of the killing of the volunteer.

He told local journalists by telephone that all those people who were supporting the peace committees and the government, would be targeted.

The political authorities brought sniffer dogs to trace the killers of the peace volunteer.

The dogs entered the house of a primitive, whose sons are already in the custody of security forces for their alleged involvement in a blast at Chanda about three months ago.

The security forces conducted search operation in Babikhel area and set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
seven rustics including shopkeepers and shifted them to Ghalanai lockup.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: TTP

#1  What? No kubaya. What's not to like about peace?
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/03/2012 9:55 Comments || Top||

#2  You can't shoot me, I'm on the peace committee!
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/03/2012 16:14 Comments || Top||

#3  didn't say they shot him, nor that his body was...
intact
Posted by: Frank G || 12/03/2012 18:24 Comments || Top||

#4  You can't hack me to pieces, I'm on the peace committee!
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/03/2012 18:56 Comments || Top||

#5  heh
Posted by: Frank G || 12/03/2012 19:35 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Gaddafi opponent to be buried 19 years after body found
[Al Ahram] Mansour al-Kikhia, a staunch Libyan opponent of the ousted Qadaffy regime whose body was found in a morgue 19 years after his disappearance, will be buried on Monday, his brother said.

Kikhia will be buried in his native city of Benghazi, said Mahmud al-Kikhia, after his body was found in mid-October in a villa that once served as an intelligence headquarters of slain strongman Moamer Qadaffy. Kikhia was "kidnapped in Cairo in 1993 by the former regime," and his body was discovered in a morgue inside the villa in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
in mid-October, he said.

Mahmud added that DNA analysis of Kikhia's body matched those of his brothers and sons, and that ex-Qadaffy intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, who is currently imprisoned by the country's new authorities, acknowledged the dissident's abduction and indicated the location of the body.

Libya's new rulers were, meanwhile, on Sunday organising a funeral ceremony to pay tribute to Kikhia, the foreign ministry in Tripoli said.

"The tyrannical regime (of Qadaffy) kidnapped the dissident Mansour Rashid al-Kikhia, killed him, hid his body and did not bury it, proving that it was more afraid of him dead than alive," a statement said.
Libyan authorities announced the discovery of the body last week.

Kikhia was a former foreign minister under Qadaffy and previously an ambassador posted to Gay Paree, Algeria and the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
but in 1980 he joined opposition ranks against the former dictator.
During the 1990s, Qadaffy launched a campaign to kill opponents in various Arab and western countries qualifying his detractors as "stray dogs."

Mahmud al-Kikhia said there were traces of stab wounds on the chest of his brother and that a medical report will be prepared to explain the causes of death.

Mohammed al-Mufti, Kikhia's brother-in-law, who helped identify the body, said that Kikhia was imprisoned for four years before his death.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  ...Qadaffy had a thing about the mortal remains of his enemies - he held onto the remains of one of the F-111 crews killed during Eldorado Canyon, there are disturbing signs he dug up and desecrated the bodies of the crew of US ketch Intrepid (lost in Tripoli harbor in 1803, IIRC)and it's known he was searching for the bodies of the crew of the Lady Be Good, a B-24 bomber lost in Libya in WWII.

There was a LOT of crazy behind them sprockets.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 12/03/2012 5:42 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Two shot dead in Orangi
[Dawn] A shopkeeper and a 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...
Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) worker were rubbed out in different parts of Orangi Town on Saturday, police said.

The two killings within the remit of the Iqbal Market cop shoppe were reported within in span of few hours. "In the first half of the day two men riding a cycle of violence pulled up close to the shop of 40-year-old Mohammad Daraz in Sector 10 near Awami Chowk," said an official at the Iqbal Market cop shoppe.

"One of the riders got off the two-wheeler, walked close to the shop owner and fired multiple shots at him before speeding away with his accomplice."

The victim sustained three gunshot wounds and was struck down in his prime, the official said, adding that the body was later shifted to the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

Following the post-mortem examination, the body was taken to the Edhi morgue as the victim's family lived in Punjab.

"The victim was married. He was an area resident and originally hailed from Punjab. The police were waiting for his family from Punjab before lodging the FIR," the police official said.

Shortly before sunset, another gun attack in Orangi Town left a KMC worker dead, the police said.

They added that Abdul Hameed, 43, had come to see a friend in the Toori Bangash area, where gunnies riding a motorbike fired at him and sped away. "The victim was shifted to the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital, where he died during treatment," said Iqbal Market SHO Inspector Mohammad Sabir.

Only a few years ago, Hameed had moved from Orangi Town to North Nazimabad. He was a KMC employee and father of three.

The SHO said that police Sherlocks were not yet soure about the motive for the killing as investigation was under way.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
Suit calls S.F. housing head bully, racist
[SF Gate] The San Francisco Housing Authority, which runs more than 6,000 units of public housing for the city's poor, is headed by an executive director who discriminates against white employees in favor of African Americans and regularly employs offensive, outlandish language and behavior in the workplace, according to a lawsuit filed by the agency's own lawyer.

The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court by the agency's assistant general counsel, Tim Larsen, paints executive director Henry Alvarez as a mercurial bully - a description echoed in interviews with The Chronicle by several others who have had close contact with Alvarez since his arrival at the Housing Authority in 2008.

Alvarez was recruited by Mayor Ed Lee, who was the city administrator at the time, from the Housing Authority in San Antonio to lead an agency that has had a series of leaders ousted or scrutinized. During Alvarez's tenure, the agency's federal scorecard has gotten worse, and housing advocates say Alvarez's leadership hurts those who need housing the most.

Lee defended Alvarez, though he was unaware that the director was being sued or of the complaints others have lodged against him. The mayor said that Alvarez has "one of the toughest jobs" in the city, and that he stands by his choice.

"I don't get into personnel matters," Lee said. "But I am familiar with every Housing Authority (director) being called a bully. I've been called a bully, and I don't think I am."

Larsen, who is white, has worked at the Housing Authority for eight years and says that he was repeatedly passed over for promotions and plum assignments in favor of African American employees.

Alvarez is African American, and according to Larsen's lawsuit, screamed at Larsen daily; gave him menial jobs such as organizing recycling; and told him to "stop being so Anglo," that he "did not have enough kink in his hair," and that "if you had more melatonin in your skin, I could make you my deputy."
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  biatch!
Posted by: texhooey || 12/03/2012 1:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Larsen, who is white, has worked at the Housing Authority for eight years and says that he was repeatedly passed over for promotions and plum assignments in favor of African American employees.

Welcome to the new normal Mr. Larsen. Shame you didn't see it coming.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 2:07 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas Grants Amnesty To Collaborators
[Maan] GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gazoo's ministry of interior will pardon collaborators who turn themselves into authorities, a Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, official said Sunday.
Oh, you're a Zionist collaborator, Mahmoud? Sure, come right in! Can I get yas a cuppa coffee or sumthin? Are ya hungry?
Interior minister Fathi Hammad, speaking at a graduation ceremony for Hamas security officers, said that anyone who confesses to collaborating with Israel will be pardoned and the details of their crimes kept secret from family and friends.
Sure. C'mon home, boys. All is forgiven! You have my word on it...
They will then be trained as resistance fighters, Hammad added.
See? Replacements.
Once the amnesty period is over, anyone found guilty of collaborating with Israel will be tried and sentenced, the minister said, adding that Hamas is trying to secure the home-front and prevent Israel from obtaining intelligence about Gazoo.
Yeah, we saw how that works a coupla weeks ago...
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Coast Guardsman killed after boat rammed by smugglers
A Coast Guard admiral said an officer killed Sunday when his boat was rammed by suspected smugglers near Santa Cruz Island died "protecting our nation." In a statement read by a spokesman at a news conference Sunday afternoon, Coast Guard Adm. Robert J. Papp said: "We are deeply saddened by the loss of our shipmate."

The Guard Guard released few details about the incident, but a spokesman vowed that "all individuals involved in this illegal action [will be] brought to justice."

The officer was identified as Executive Petty Officer Terrell Horne.

Horne was aboard a small Coast Guard craft and was investigating a boat that was operating without any lights, raising suspicion. The other boat was a "panga," an open-hulled boat that is "the choice of smugglers operating off the coast of California," said Coast Guard spokesman Adam Eggers.

The boat rammed the Coast Guard vessel when it approached, knocking two Coast Guard members into the water. When Horne was pulled out of the water it was determined that he had suffered a traumatic head injury and died. The other Coast Guard member had minor injuries.

An official at the Port of Hueneme told the Ventura County Star that two suspects were detained in the incident.

More:

According to sources, the incident took place early this morning, at approximately 1 a.m., when the Coast Guard intercepted two boats -- a pleasure craft and a panga boat, which is a small, fast launch -- near San Clemente Island, in Santa Barbara County.

The Coast Guard, according to initial reports, took the pleasure craft into custody and detained two occupants.

The Coast Guard cutter crew then lowered their smaller boat into the water in order to take custody of the individuals on the panga boat.

At that point the operation turned deadly.

As the Coast Guard small craft approached the panga, the driver of the panga rammed it and actually drove over the top of the boat, striking two agents and killing one of them.

Other members of the Coast Guard team took the occupants of the panga into custody, making for a total of four suspects in custody -- two from the pleasure craft and two from the panga.

Sources said that authorities believed that two additional suspects were dropped off on Santa Cruz Island just before the interception of the two boats. The Santa Barbara Sheriffs SWAT team was working with the U.S. Border Patrol today, searching Santa Cruz Island for additional suspects.

The panga was operated by Mexican nationals, and the cargo was marijuana, law enforcement sources said.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We've had a boat load of incidents and arrests involving pangas in our county (San Luis Obispo) during the past year. It's like an effing invasion.

HWY 1 is very rural, but it's also heavily touristed. Could be a recipe for a minor disaster.
Posted by: Thusort Ebbomoting1144 || 12/03/2012 0:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Sorry #1, IMO the real disaster is the US perennially giving illegals PCorrect-Deniable amnesty-that-is-not-amnesty while doing nothing to seal the borders year after year, and while also not demanding they learn or become Americans - THE ONLY END RESULT CAN BE MILYUHNS AND DILYUHNS OF ILLEGAL-N-STAYING-ILLEGAL ILLEGALS IN AMERIKKA OF SUBJECTIVE OR DUBIOUS ALLEGIANCE.

ADVANTAGE = GLOBAL JIHADIS + ANTI-US GLOBALISTS + ALIGNED.

WID EYES WIDE OPEN, NOT EYES WIDE SHUT.

E.G. RENSE > EUSSR BREAKING EUROPE INTO WEAKER REGIONS | [Daily Mail.UK] THE SHATTERING OF EUROPE: ITS NOT JUST SCOTLAND, ALMOST EVERY OTHER MAJOR EUROPEAN STATE IS UNDER THREAT.

I've long suspected it from the beginning as per being sub-agenda of 9-11 + GWOT, + extra/post-Nationalist OWG "Global Federal Union(s)". OUR FUTURE OWG = SPACE NAU [2015?]WILL HAVE THE POWER, NO LONGER TO BE [Pre-9-11/GWOT]SOLE SOVEREIGN = NATIONALIST WASHINGTON DC.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 1:09 Comments || Top||

#3  JosephM, it seems we aren't getting a million illegal Mexicans a year anymore... and the ones already here have a rapidly dropping birth rate. link
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/03/2012 10:07 Comments || Top||

#4  TW - I noted that birf rate info the other wk as well. Interesting.

Joe - concur. We needed to seal the borders decades ago.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 12/03/2012 11:28 Comments || Top||

#5  Pangas full of illegal aliens (I refuse the PC neutered terms) routinely are intercepted in San Diego waters. Occasionally, bales of pot packages float ashore
Posted by: Frank G || 12/03/2012 19:17 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Three members of outlawed group held
[Dawn] The CIA police claim to have incarcerated
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
three cut-throats belonging to a banned beturbanned goon organization.

CIA DSP Tariq Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
told the media on Saturday that the police arrested three cut-throats in Lorry Adda when they were planning terror activities. He said Arshad Ali, Umar Zaib and Amjad were activists of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain.

The police recovered seven kilogramme kaboom, four hand-grenades, one Kalashnikov and Rs160,000 in cash besides hate literature from their possession.

"They belonged to the Ghulam Rabbani group of the TTP and wanted to hit targets during Muharram," DSP Kayani said. He said Lahore CCPO Aslam Tareen on the basis of the intelligence reports directed DIG Investigation Chaudhry Shafiq to trace the terrorists.

CIA SP Umar Virk formed teams of CIA officials who after hectic efforts nabbed the beturbanned goons. The DSP said the funds recovered from them were to be handed over to their commander, Ghulam Rabbani.

Building collapse: A portion of an old and dilapidated building collapsed in the Lohari Bazaar area on Saturday. However,
Switzerland makes more than cheese...
no casualties were reported.

The residents said they had complained to the authorities concerned to either demolish or repair the building, but to no avail. They said cracks had appeared in several parts of the building due to seepage of sewerage water, adding that Wasa officials had failed to locate the actual problem.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Home Front: WoT
Susan Rice: Benghazi 2012, Tanzania and Kenya 1998
A mission attacked after warnings, Americans killed after security requests were denied, and a diplomat went on TV to explain it all - our current U.N. ambassador, after embassy bombings in [Tanzania and Kenya] in1998.

'What troubles me so much is the Benghazi attack in many ways echoes the attacks on both embassies in 1998, when Susan Rice
...who will never be known as another John Bolton, or even Hillary Clinton-lite...
was head of the African region for our State Department," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday after two hours with our U.N. ambassador. "In both cases, the ambassador begged for additional security." Surely, Collins added, "given her position ... she had to be aware of the general threat assessment and the ambassadors' repeated requests for more security ... (h)er actions -- and whether or not lessons were learned from the 1998 attacks on our embassies in Africa -- are important questions."

In both cases, Susan Rice was involved more than she would like to admit.

In the spring of 1998, Prudence Bushnell, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, sent an emotional letter to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright begging for a more secure embassy in the face of mounting terrorist threats and a warning that she was the target of an assassination plot. The State Department had repeatedly denied her request, citing a lack of money. But that kind of response, she wrote Albright, was "endangering the lives of embassy personnel." A matter of months later, on Aug. 7, 1998, the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were simultaneously attacked with car bombs. In Kenya, 12 American diplomats and more than 200 Africans were killed. And Susan Rice went on TV to explain it all.

Within 24 hours, Rice, then assistant secretary of state for African affairs, went on PBS as spokesperson for the administration -- just as she was regarding Benghazi on five Sunday talk shows on Sept. 16, 2012. Then, as now, she worked for a Clinton. Also then, as now, she went on TV to claim, falsely, that we "maintain a high degree of security at all of our embassies at all times" and that we "had no telephone warning or call of any sort like that, that might have alerted either embassy just prior to the blast."

Eerie similarities between Benghazi and Nairobi are many. A review of the attacks showed the CIA repeatedly told State Department officials in Washington and in the Kenya embassy that there was an active terrorist cell in Kenya connected to Osama bin Laden, who masterminded the attack. The CIA and FBI investigated at least three terrorist threats in Nairobi in the year before the bombing. Gen. Anthony Zinni, commander of the U.S. Central Command, had visited Nairobi on his own and warned that the Nairobi embassy was an easy and tempting target for terrorists.

We're still waiting for some real answers. One thing is clear -- Susan Rice is unqualified to be secretary of state.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Eerie similarities between Benghazi and Nairobi are many.

With the exception of there being no American made, anti-Allan vid in the deadly Kenyan blast.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 12:12 Comments || Top||

#2  That can change, video is cheap.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/03/2012 17:01 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas to 'allow Fatah members to return to Gaza'
[Maan] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, will allow twenty Fatah members who fled Gazoo during fighting in 2007 to return to the coastal enclave, a Fatah official said Sunday.
Gee...thanks.
Jamal Ubeid, a member of Fatah's high committee in Gazoo, told Ma'an that the party had been officially informed about the decision by Hamas, although a list of names has not yet been received.
Hmmmmmmmmm? Mahmoud, who's pissed us off lately?
Earlier Sunday, Gazoo's interior ministry front man Islam Shahwan told Ma'an that Fatah members who had fled to Egypt would be allowed to return to the Gazoo Strip.

"Fatah supporters will return to Gazoo on Monday via the Rafah crossing after they complete legal procedures, and nobody will harass them at any rate," Shahwan said.
No, we won't shoot them and drag them behind cycles of violence or throw them off of tall buildings or stuff like that. We swear by Allah...
Around 400 Fatah members fled the Gazoo Strip during 2007 fighting with Hamas and 56 party affiliates are in Gazoo's jails for political reasons, a Fatah official said this week.
"To the last drop of somebody else's blood!!"
The latest move by Hamas comes as both factions recently pledged to grant amnesties to rival supporters linked to fighting in 2007.

PLO official Nabil Shaath told Ma'an last week that dozens of Hamas prisoners held for political reasons will be released as a goodwill gesture to boost reconciliation efforts.
They'll now be known as "replacements".
Hamas had earlier indicated that they would free prisoners affiliated to Fatah, giving further momentum to reconciliation efforts since Israel's war on the coastal enclave.
Not to mention their little "tiff" a few years back...
The parties fought bitterly after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006, splitting into separate governments in Gazoo and the West Bank a year later.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Consequences: PLO Denounces Israel's Decision To Withhold Tax Revenues
[Jpost] Paleostinian officials in Ramallah Sunday strongly denounced the Israeli government's decision to withhold tax revenues belonging to the Paleostinian Authority, dubbing it an "act of piracy and blackmail."

The officials expressed hope that the Arab countries would now fulfill their pledge to provide the PA with $100m. per month to compensate for the loss of the tax funds.

PLO Executive Committee member Hana Amireh said that Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
foreign ministers were scheduled to meet on December 9 to discuss ways of supporting the PA in wake of the Israeli decision.

Amireh said that the decision did not come as a surprise to the PA leadership in light of its insistence on applying for the status of non-member observer state in the UN.

He said that Israel was now in conflict not only the Paleostinians, but all the countries that voted in favor of the statehood bid at the UN.
...many of whom have not paid their extravagant pledges to the Palestinians according to Spengler a few months ago.
Ma'an adds:
Israel will use the 460 million shekels ($120 million) of November tax payments to pay PA debts to the Israeli Electric Company, the Haaretz newspaper reported.

Israel had threatened a number of sanctions in response to the bid, including withdrawing Palestinian tax revenues, supporting more settlement building, and canceling past agreements.

Israel has withheld the tax revenues, which it collects on the PA's behalf as a result of international agreements, several times in recent years to punish the PA leadership.

The government also held back a smaller sum, around $9 million, in September to pay the Israeli Electric Corp., which supplies West Bank cities with power.

Israeli officials say the Palestinian Authority's Jerusalem District Electricity Co. has accumulated a $200 million debt from the company in unpaid bills.

The aid-dependent Palestinian economy in the West Bank faces financial crisis due to a drop in aid from Western backers and wealthy Gulf states, as well as Israeli restrictions on trade.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: PLO

#1  He said that Israel was now in conflict not only the Paleostinians, but all the countries that voted in favor of the statehood bid at the UN.

Then nothing has changed and it's essentially NSTR (Nothing Significant to Report),
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 6:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Note that virtually all the countries that voted in favour of the Paleos are either muslim or christian - just like the terrorist paleos?
Posted by: ChuffingChuffChuff || 12/03/2012 8:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Note that virtually all the countries that voted in favour of the Paleos are either muslim or christian

Virtually all countries, except some in Asia, are either Muslim or Christian.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/03/2012 10:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Nothing gets by our British troll, eh?
Posted by: Pappy || 12/03/2012 13:09 Comments || Top||

#5  "Money? What money? I think you're hallucinating again, dude."
Posted by: mojo || 12/03/2012 13:33 Comments || Top||

#6  If they consider this bad, wait until they cut off more when Hamas attacks, or just declare war and steamroll Gaza into Egypt.
Posted by: Charles || 12/03/2012 13:47 Comments || Top||

#7  Wow... using the money to pay the debts that are owed. How.... sane.

No wonder liberals love the Paleos so much. They are identical in their belief that they should get everything for nothing.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/03/2012 14:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Nader: War Criminal Obama Worse Than Bush
[Breitbart] "He's gone beyond George W. Bush in drones, for example. He thinks the world is his plate, that national sovereignties mean nothing, drones can go anywhere."
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm trying to figure out who's more unhinged - Nader, or the article's commenters.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/03/2012 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Can You Guess Who I Am ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 1:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Everytime I see Ralph, he looks more and more like everybody's crazy uncle...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/03/2012 2:22 Comments || Top||

#4  You're about two months too late, Ralph.
Posted by: Bobby || 12/03/2012 5:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Ralph might want to buckle his seatbelt right along with all of us. I fear there will be some rough motoring ahead.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 6:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Hey, Ralf! You know that old saying about how if you are sitting at the table and can't figure out who the mark is? Yeah, exactly.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/03/2012 9:04 Comments || Top||

#7  So who do you think Ralf voted for?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/03/2012 9:06 Comments || Top||

#8  I came across a great comment in a Jack Vance book on the weekend:
"Of all the groups of human beings, the most relentless are the pacifists."
Posted by: Grunter || 12/03/2012 10:17 Comments || Top||

#9  Where is the Time Magazine "We are all war criminals now" cover story?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/03/2012 10:31 Comments || Top||

#10  I see the Obama fan boys are out again.
Posted by: Blossom Thinerong6539 || 12/03/2012 10:47 Comments || Top||

#11  Boy's been missing an anti-roll bar for years if you ask me, I mean to say the boys roll-center is way, way too high, way too high for his own good. Needs a good talking too if you ask me, that is to say the boys a nut, light in the head, too much houndstooth, not enough hound. Crazy that is, but rich.

Posted by: Shipman || 12/03/2012 12:20 Comments || Top||

#12  So who do you think Ralf voted for?

The Green Party candidate, most likely.

Where is the Time Magazine "We are all war criminals now" cover story?

That was Newsweek, but your point is taken.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/03/2012 13:17 Comments || Top||

#13  I suspect Ralphy voted for Roseanne Barr and Cindy Sheehan VP on the Peace and Freedom Party...350,000 did.
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 12/03/2012 13:51 Comments || Top||

#14  If Ralph really cared instead of being an ego whore he would not have tried for President but would have gone for Senate from the green party. That way lefties in whatever chosen state could funnel their protests into his election without feeling it would give the election away to Republicans.

Same goes for the Libertarian candidate.

Poach a senate and house seat here and there. Get attention as a party. Then send someone to the big show.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 12/03/2012 16:51 Comments || Top||

#15  Good point Pappy - I had forgotten Nader was all green.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/03/2012 19:04 Comments || Top||

#16  The good news for POTUS Bammer is that, as per BENGHAZI-GATE, things heating up everywhere overseas means the Congress may not have the time or political will to set up Sen. John McCain's desired investigative panel [impeachment?] on the death of AMB Stevens.

One can argue the Bammer knows what he's doing as it was he himself whom gave Iran the deadline of March 2013.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 22:48 Comments || Top||

#17  E.G. TOPIX > [Powerline Blog] AL QAEDA - RESURGENT IN IRAQ AND EMERGENT IN SYRIA THANKS IN SMALL PART TO PRESIDENT OBAMA HIMSELF.

and

* SAME > [News Kerala] PAKISTAN HAS DESIGNATED THE US [its]"ENEMY" BY TERMING TALIBAN LEADER MULLAH NAZIR "FRIENDLY", to the Pak Govt-State.

* SAME > IMRAN KHAN VOWS TO DELINK PAKISTAN FROM US WAR ON TERROR.

In short, Radical Islam is steadily getting stronger + going Nuclear, while the US appears to be downsizing its forces only to have to go back in again. The US is seemingly "holding" for now, which is why how the Bammer handles CHINA in the ECS + SCS + mainland Asia [China-India-Pak] may prove decisive.

THE US HAS NOT HAD A NUCLEAR CONFRONTATION WID AN OPPOSING MAJOR POWER SINCE THE 1962 CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS + 1973 YOM KIPPUR WAR, BOTH OF WHICH WERE AGZ THE SOVIETS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/03/2012 23:03 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Inscrutable Birthday Gam Shot 12/02

Lucy Liu [Filmography](age 44)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/03/2012 11:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Birthday Gam Shot

Keegan Connor Tracy [Canuck][Filmography](age 41)



Moulting would be good!
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/03/2012 12:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Now how would you like to take her to the prom. She has class.
Posted by: Dale || 12/03/2012 15:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Lucy Liu I am referring to.
Posted by: Dale || 12/03/2012 15:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Bet Sophia was a better cook.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/03/2012 16:50 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Businessman Slain in Eastern Yemen, Security Equipment Cargo Seized in West
[Yemen Post] The Yemeni authorities found on Sunday the body of a domestic businessman who was kidnapped by unknown people the prior day in the Mukalla city, the capital of the eastern Hadramout
...the formerly independent Qu'aiti state and sultanate, annexed by Communist South Yemen in 1968, encompassing a region along the Gulf of Aden, extending eastwards to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman. The people are called Hadhramis and speak Hadhrami Arabic. The city Tarimis estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) anywhere in the world, approximately seven in every square yard...
province, the state-run September 26 website reported.

The website quoted security sources as saying the body of Abdullah Al-Amoudi, a honey dealer, was found on one of the streets early Sunday but those behind the crime have not been known yet.

"The killers called relatives and friends of Al-Amoudi through his cell phone to come and take his body after the murder," it quoted a statement by relatives of the businessman.

State media including the official agency Saba said President Abdrabu Mansour Hadi has ordered to investigate the murder and hunt the killers.

Separately, the authorities at the Hodeida seaport seized early Sunday a security equipment cargo imported from China, the website said.

The cargo included anti-riot equipment, bullet-proof shields, bullet cartridges and army helmets, it said, pointing out the cargo was imported by a company called Ritag.

The seizure comes amid thriving arms and drugs trade in Yemen which is experiencing an alarming security disorder casting a cloud on the West-backed power transition.

In recent weeks, the authorities seized several arms cargoes including the one of firearms imported from Turkey inside biscuit boxes.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis

#1  A honey dealer? Probably not.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/03/2012 9:52 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranian arms flow into Syria remains uninterrupted
US intelligence sources say activity has been observed around Syrian arms compound, including at chemical weapon storage sites

New evidence regarding Iranian arms transported into Syria has been discovered by western intelligence sources, the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
reported on Sunday.

The sources claimed recent activity has also been observed around Syrian chemical weapon storage sites.

According to the newspaper's sources it is still unknown whether Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs...
plans to use unconventional weapon to remain in power, or whether the movements aim to warn the West against assisting the rebels fighting against his regime.

The New York Times reported that US efforts to prevent such flow of arms into Syria have so far failed, due to Iraq allowing Iranian cargo planes that are Syria-bound to cross its airspace uninspected.

"It's in some ways similar to what they've done before," a senior American official told the New York Times. "But they're doing some things that suggest they intend to use the weapons. It's not just moving stuff around. These are different kind of activities."

However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow...
the official added that the Syrians have yet to take blatant steps towards using chemical weapons, such as preparing it for launch using artillery batteries or loading such warheads onto fighter jets.

The report further said that Iraq has become the main route for arms transport to Syria, since Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
is unable to control the country's airspace.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as America's Blond Eminence and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Tallyrand ...
commented on the matter in September, saying that Iraq's foreign minister is committed to inspecting flights from Iran passing through Iraq on their way to Syria, but only two inspections were actually performed -- the last one on October 27.

According to American intelligence reports, Iran might have been tipped off by Iraqi officials prior to the inspections, which could explain why nothing was found on the planes.

Adding to the United States' frustrations, Iran appears to have been tipped off by Iraqi officials as to when inspections would be conducted, American officials said, citing classified reports by American intelligence analysts.

"The abuse of Iraqi airspace by Iran continues to be a concern," an American official told the NYT. "We urge Iraq to be diligent and consistent in fulfilling its international obligations and commitments, either by continuing to require flights over Iraqi territory en route to Syria from Iran to land for inspection or by denying over flight requests for Iranian aircraft going to Syria."
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ima discombobulated as to who to support in this battle of Islamic Heroes™.
Posted by: Frank G || 12/03/2012 19:14 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Kickbacks in arms inspection: army sacks four officers
[Dawn] In September, a colonel and three majors were sacked from military service after it emerged that they had accepted kickbacks while inspecting arms purchased by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
government for the police in 2010.

The sacked officers are alleged to have accepted Rs11 million from a contractor to give a clean bill of health to weapons, ammunition, bullet-proof jackets and bullet-proof helmets which were then supplied to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police department.

The story emerged when the former officers -- Colonel Iftikhar Ahmed Malik, Major Awais Chaudhry, Major Tabassum Daud and Major Khurram Sheikh -- who were sacked by the army on Sept 24 this year, approached the court.

The sacked officers were posted at the Inspectorate of Armament (I of A) of Rawalpindi in 2010 when they were asked to inspect the weapons, ammunition and other equipment sent by the KPK police department. The latter wanted the weapons tested before handing them over to the police force.

The scandal was so big that it claimed a few scalps in the province also. Among them was then Inspector General of KPK police, Malik Naveed. He was, however, later released by a NAB (National Accountability Bureau) court in October last year.

According to Senator Haji Adeel of the Awami National Party, which heads the coalition government in KPK, total cost of the weapons was around Rs7 billion. Armoured personnel carriers (APCs), vehicles and cycle of violences for the police force were a part of the armoury. "The contract for the supply of these weapons was awarded to a general order supplier who was earlier supplying stationery to the government offices."

He alleged that senior bureaucrats were behind the deal.

He said there was a provision for testing the equipment before it was handed to the police force and due to the deficiency of weapons testing centres in KPK, the consignment was sent to the Inspectorate of Armament (I of A).

The senator added that Safwat Ghayur, the commandant of Frontier Corps who was killed in a terrorist attack, had already rejected the weapons because of their poor quality, but the contractors managed to get clearance from the army inspectorate.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Egypt Constitutional Court postpones all sessions indefinitely
The High Constitutional Court (HCC) declared on Sunday it will freeze all its sessions indefinitely in protest of pressure exerted upon it by supporters of President Mohamed Morsi who gathered outside the court building earlier the same day.

The press statement released by the court Sunday morning condemned the "lies" circulated by the pro-Morsi protesters and their campaign to "taint the court's image" and "twist the truth".

The HCC's decision comes after it was pushed to postpone its decisions on the constitutionality of Egypt's Shura Council (upper house of parliament) and the Constituent Assembly after supporters of the president surrounded the court.

Hundreds of pro-Morsi demonstrators gathered at the HCC late Saturday as the draft constitution was officially presented to the president by the head of the constitution-drafting body, to demonstrate against the courts expected verdict on the two bodies, which could see both dissolved.

The constitutionality of the Shura Council and the constitution-drafting body are being investigated after Egypt's parliamentary elections law was ruled unconstitutional.

The HCC had earlier ruled against the constitutionality of the lower house of parliament, leading to its dissolution.

On 22 November, President Mohamed Morsi issued a controversial Constitutional Declaration making the two bodies immune to dissolution and protecting his decisions and declarations from judicial appeal.

In response the judges declared a partial strike, saying the declaration infringed upon judicial authority. The Judges Club refused to recognise the declaration and threatened not to supervise the national referendum on the constitution, which is set to take place on 15 December.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Since the existance of a constituion is about as sovereign as you can get; AND Morsi has stated that he alone gets to make all sovereign decisions; THEN is is just gobble, gobble, turkey.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/03/2012 10:21 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian regime resembles armed militia - Turkish FM
The Syrian regime has degenerated into an "armed militia" that resorts to brutality in an attempt to stay in power, Turkey's foreign minister said Saturday at a meeting with top Arab diplomats, AP reported.

The officials at a one-day summit in Istanbul described the Syrian regime as a threat to peace and security in the region, and they also expressed support for the Palestinians after the United Nations endorsed an independent state for them on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey said the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad had lost its legitimacy after 20 months of conflict that started with peaceful protests against the regime and evolved into a civil war after pro-Assad forces cracked down.

"It has turned into an armed militia power that resorts to all kinds of brutal methods just to stay in power," Davutoglu said.
'Turned into'? When was Assad-led Syria, father or son, ever anything other than a kleptocratic thugocracy?
"The Syrian regime, which is a serious threat to the future of its own people and country, with each passing day increases the threat it poses to the well-being of our region, through its actions that target peace and security beyond its borders."

Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour agreed that the Syrian war has "negative ramifications" for the region. But he advocated dialogue as the only solution to the crisis, contrasting with Turkey's calls at the United Nations for an internationally protected "buffer zone" inside Syria that would protect civilians. Such a zone would likely require military action to secure it, including a no-fly zone.

"There should not be any external military or any other kind of intervention," said Mansour, current chairman of the Arab League.

He said the meeting of a dozen foreign ministers as well as other delegates, titled the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum, was a positive sign for a region traditionally plagued by a lack of political unity. Turkey launched the annual meeting in 2007.

"This was important in the aftermath of the 1990s, when we did not have a lot of activity," Mansour said.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Rights group calls on Morsi to help 'lift siege' on Cairo court
[Al Ahram] The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) has expressed deep concern after hundreds of supporters of President Morsi forced the High Constitutional Court to halt its work on Sunday.

Protesters starting congregating late Saturday outside the court in the Cairo suburb of Maadi. They demanded the court delay its verdicts on the constitutionality of the Shura Council (upper house of parliament) and the Constituent Assembly, which were expected on Sunday.

This show of force took place after President Morsi on Saturday accepted the draft constitution and announced it would be put to a referendum on 15 December.

In response to the protest, the court said it would indefinitely halt all of its activities and postpone its sessions until a later date.

Hafez Abou Seada, the head of the EOHR, an independent non-governmental organization, called on President Morsi to immediately intervene to "lift the siege" on the court.

On 22 November, President Mohamed Morsi issued a controversial constitutional declaration making the two bodies immune from dissolution and protecting his decisions from judicial appeal. He mentioned, however, that the declaration was a temporary measure to purge the judiciary of remnants of the Mubarak regime.

The government should "maintain the separation of powers in order to protect the rule of law," Abou Seada said.

In a statement released Sunday, the EOHR said one of the principles of judicial independence was non-interference in the judiciary's work. The "disabling of the court [by the president's declaration] in this way is a crime against the rule of law," it added.

The constitutionality of the Shura Council and the Constituent Assembly are being investigated by the HCC after Egypt's parliamentary elections law was ruled unconstitutional.

The HCC had earlier ruled against the constitutionality of the lower house of parliament, leading to its dissolution.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel to withhold Paleo funds in response to UN vote
Israel will withhold and not transfer tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, in reaction to a Palestinian move this week to upgrade its UN status, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Sunday, dpa reported.
Spend the withheld funds on new settler housing in the West Bank...
Israel media said the move is part of Israel's retaliation for the Palestinians' successful application to the United Nations to have their status upgraded to "non-member state," a move Israel objected to and said was aimed at circumventing negotiations.

The confiscated funds - around 460 million shekels, or 120 million dollars - will be used to offset debts the PA owes the Jewish state for electricity supplied it.
Might want to build up a surplus in the power fund...
On Friday, Israel reacted to the Palestinian triumph at the UN Thursday by announcing the construction of 3,000 homes in West Bank settlements, sparking international criticism.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey, which you want.... Kalashnikovs or electricity? You decide.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 7:03 Comments || Top||

#2  They should already be taking some of that to replace the Iron Dome missiles it fired as well as repair damages and such from Ham-ass rockets.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/03/2012 9:10 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Boko Haram burns more churches in NE Nigeria
Suspected members of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram set fire to churches and border posts in north-eastern Nigeria on Sunday, residents said, but it was not immediately known if there were casualties.

Around 50 gunmen in cars and on motorcycles carried out the attacks on three churches and border posts with neighbouring Cameroon, opening fire on police and chanting Allahu Akbar, (God is Greatest), residents said.
When do the Christians in the region start fighting back? If the bad boys are on motorbikes just string some wire neck-high across the road. If the bad boys have guns, use your own guns and get into a good sniping position near the road. Let the bad boys know that if they come into your neighborhood to burn your church that they're going to die. You'll be amazed how quickly the bad boys go elsewhere.
Among the security posts burned were offices for immigration, customs and the secret police and a quarantine building in the city of Gamboru Ngala, about 140 kilometres (80 miles) from the Boko Haram stronghold in Maiduguri.

"The gunmen believed to be Boko Haram were around 50 in number and came in cars and on motorcycles around 8:30 am and attacked the security offices at the border posts, burning them," resident Modugana Ibrahim told AFP.

"They opened fire on the security personnel but it is hard to say if anybody was hurt or killed," Ibrahim said.

Another resident, Hamidu Ahmad, said the gunmen went into town "chanting 'Allahu Akbar' and burnt down the divisional police station and three churches".
Posted by: Steve White || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This has been their latest pattern - large numbers of motivated jihadists on motorcycles and in cars. They have hit banks for money, and police stations for weapons. Right now - it's working for Boko Haram. But if this keeps up - Nigeria will be in full-scale civil war (north vs. south).
Posted by: Raider || 12/03/2012 16:13 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Motorcycles and mobile phones becoming tools for terrorists: Malik
[Dawn] Federal 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.
said on Sunday that all the mobile phone companies are bound to adopt a biometric data system within three months in order to sell cellphone SIMs in the country.

No mobile phone SIM will be sold by any unconcerned person or at shops in future, he said adding that a law would shortly be introduced in this regard.

Talking to the media in Okara, Punjab on Sunday, Malik said that cycle of violences and mobile phones have become tools for the hard boyz and that's why the government has been imposing bans on them for a while to ensure the safety of people.

To a question, Malik said carrying out operation against banned outfits in Punjab is the responsibility of the provincial government and the federal government was prepared to extend cooperation if the provincial government decided to do so.

To another question, the minister said that 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...
is the financial hub of the country and cannot be left at the mercy of myrmidons. The government is serious in maintaining peace in Bloody Karachi and the Army could be called in too if needed.

He said Quetta and Bloody Karachi are being targeted by the myrmidons as both cities have a big role in the economy of Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Malik said that cycle of violences and mobile phones have become tools for the hard boyz

Mind like a steel trap, that chap Malik.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/03/2012 6:53 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Protests in Tunisian town show anger at Islamist government
[Al Ahram] In a remote town in Tunisia's interior, protesters angry over joblessness and harsh police tactics call for the downfall of new Islamist rulers, echoing the revolt that ignited the Arab Spring two years ago.
Siliana, 140 kilometres (90 miles) from the coastal capital, has been convulsed as thousands of largely unemployed youth battle riot police firing tear gas and birdshot.

"I lost my eye because of the police; this is what Ennahda has done," says Anis Omrani, 24, referring to the Islamist party that won the North African country's first free elections last year after the overthrow of dictator Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali.

"We don't have jobs and we're marginalised, but they attack us savagely ... The police of Ennahda just add another problem," Omrani says, with a patch over one eye.

Of at least 252 maimed, medical sources say 17 have been blinded through police use of birdshot, and UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay condemned the government Friday for what she called excessive violence.

"You may have taken away our eyes but you can't take away our voice!" reads a slogan daubed in red paint on a wall.

"The people want another revolution!" and "Ennahda, go away! Game over!" say others.

The revolutionary graffiti recall Sidi Bouzid, the deprived town to the south where a street peddler burned himself to death two years ago in despair at the confiscation of his fruit cart.

His suicide provided the spark for an uprising in Tunisia that spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain.

Aware of comparisons between Siliana and Sidi Bouzid, the government temporarily removed the local governor Saturday and promised jobs to victims of the 2010 uprising. Police stopped using birdshot.

"Siliana will be the second Sidi Bouzid; we're going to get rid of these Islamists who know nothing of Islam," Omrani said.

Ennahda was late to respond to the protests, after first accusing leftists who lost last year's elections of fomenting unrest by provoking Tunisians in impoverished areas into confrontations that would drive away foreign investors.

The protests began on Tuesday after a call by the leftist labour union UGTT to take to the streets to demand jobs, investment and the removal of Ennahda's Islamist governor.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


In northern Mali, music silenced as Islamists drive out artists
[Washington Post]
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine

#1  Well, at least when the salafies are overrunning America, Bruce Springsteen will get it...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/03/2012 10:28 Comments || Top||

#2  it does mean that when the Islamists are killed - there will be nobody playing at their funeral.
Posted by: Raider || 12/03/2012 16:17 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Car bomb in Syria's Homs kills 15: State media
[Al Ahram] Fifteen non-combatants were killed on Sunday in a car kaboom in a regime-held district of the central Syrian city of Homs, state media reported. "A terrorist attack struck the Hamra district of Homs," official news agency SANA said, giving a casualty toll of 15 dead and 24 maimed. State television said it was a car booming.
Posted by: Fred || 12/03/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



Who's in the News
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
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tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2012-12-03
  Car bomb in Syria's Homs kills 15: State media
Sun 2012-12-02
  Mullah Nazir orders out Mehsud Taliban fighters
Sat 2012-12-01
  Egypt assembly approves new draft constitution
Fri 2012-11-30
  Damascus fighting cuts off airport, Emirates suspends flights
Thu 2012-11-29
  Bomb injures top Talibunny Mullah Nazir
Wed 2012-11-28
  Packed Tahrir Square defiant as deadlock prevails
Tue 2012-11-27
  30 Inmates Escape as Gunmen Attack Nigerian Police Unit
Mon 2012-11-26
  Syrian Rebels Claim Capture of Helicopter Base Near Damascus
Sun 2012-11-25
  Thousands of anti-Morsi protesters spend the night in Egypt's Tahrir square
Sat 2012-11-24
  7 People Killed in Pakistan Shiite Procession
Fri 2012-11-23
  IDF, Shin Bet Arrest 55 Terror Operatives In West Bank
Thu 2012-11-22
  Mashaal: I accept a Palestinian state on '67 borders
Wed 2012-11-21
  'Bomb blast' on bus in Tel Aviv
Tue 2012-11-20
  Female Suicide Boomer Targets Qazi
Mon 2012-11-19
  Israeli Strikes Kill 21 Palestinians, Gaza Rockets Wound 10 Israelis

Better than the average link...



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