Hi there, !
Today Sat 12/22/2012 Fri 12/21/2012 Thu 12/20/2012 Wed 12/19/2012 Tue 12/18/2012 Mon 12/17/2012 Sun 12/16/2012 Archives
Rantburg
531695 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 60 articles and 158 comments as of 12:52.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix    Main Page
Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan; eight dead in 48 hours
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
13:06 1 16:42 Raider [1]
09:54 7 18:34 bigjim-CA [1]
09:07 4 17:15 JohnQC [1]
08:28 11 23:02 USN,Ret. []
07:52 0 []
07:17 0 []
06:37 16 23:12 tipper []
06:22 14 23:10 USN,Ret. [2]
06:13 8 19:50 JosephMendiola [] 
05:58 9 13:35 Perfesser []
05:48 2 14:40 Raider []
05:44 9 15:13 Frank G []
02:59 9 20:02 JosephMendiola []
01:33 5 15:06 Bright Pebbles []
01:07 5 09:49 JohnQC []
00:00 1 23:06 USN,Ret. []
00:00 7 18:28 Barbara []
00:00 0 []
00:00 3 21:41 Frank G []
00:00 1 09:00 Ptah [1] 
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 4 19:57 Barbara []
00:00 2 19:41 SteveS []
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 1 10:22 Pappy []
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 4 10:29 Besoeker []
00:00 0 [1] 
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 3 10:36 Besoeker [1]
00:00 1 21:53 JosephMendiola [1]
00:00 0 []
00:00 2 14:57 SteveS []
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 5 18:29 Barbara []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 3 10:05 Besoeker []
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 [1] 
00:00 1 22:07 Mullah Richard [1]
00:00 3 22:01 Mullah Richard [1] 
00:00 0 []
00:00 14 22:58 Tom Sawyer [1] 
00:00 3 12:16 GolfBravoUSMC [] 
China-Japan-Koreas
Almost Everything You’ve Heard About the North Korean Space Launch Is Wrong
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 12/19/2012 13:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  don't tell me ... let me guess. The rocket was really built by chimps and they put a human aboard as an experiment. HAHAHA!!!
Posted by: Raider || 12/19/2012 16:42 Comments || Top||


Economy
US Highiways and Bridges for Sale
Posted by: Dale || 12/19/2012 09:54 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Tolls here we come.We will have to file a flight plan to drive in the future.Meet and greet friendly TSA workers with doggies.
Posted by: Dale || 12/19/2012 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  And the funding from fuel and vehicle taxes that was originally collected to pay for roads and bridges, where did that get off to ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 11:12 Comments || Top||

#3  California's thieves have raided the gas tax for decades
Posted by: Frank G || 12/19/2012 11:25 Comments || Top||

#4  This bridge across the Wabash River was built in 1930. Due to "hard times" a .05 cent toll was charged to cover the cost. The bridge was paid off in the 1950's.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 11:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Besoeker, whatever gave you the idea that the highway fuel tax was sufficient to pay for all the roads?

Toll roads are a fact of life and have been for decades. I've been driving them on a frequent basis and have no problem with it. I have a transponder on my windshield -- zip through the toll arch, here's my money at 70 mph, and off I go.

If the toll ensures that the road is safe, maintained and wide enough to permit me and all the other morons out there with me passage, I'm good with it.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/19/2012 12:11 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm not at all certain it is Doctor, but as a taxpayer, I would like to know where those dollars go. I believe you frequently drive I-90 into the city. Can you or anyone else provide a lay-down on what the Illinois Tollway Authority collects each day, week, month, year? At over a dollar per axel, it has to be buttloads!

(last time I passed through Hoffman Estates and Elgin and westward, the speed limit was 45mph due to construction. Nobody was driving 70 and the toll was not reduced)
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 12:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Yeah, it's going to get depressing when you have to pay a chinese company to drive on our own roads some day.
What isn't for sale in this county? And what will they do after the yard sale is over and all we're left with is a bunch of rotting junk, most of it made in the years after WWII? Our infrastucture in this country must be the worst of all the developed nations.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/19/2012 18:34 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli expert: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood wants to destroy us
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 09:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well Duh!!!
Posted by: AlanC || 12/19/2012 9:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Since we (all of us) are dealing with idiots, sometimes it is necessary to repeat the obvious.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/19/2012 13:31 Comments || Top||

#3  The good news is the MB will try to destroy the Shiites first.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/19/2012 16:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Doesn't everyone in the neighborhood?
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/19/2012 17:15 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pentagon to reimburse Pakistan $688 million
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon quietly notified Congress this month that it would reimburse Pakistan nearly $700 million for the cost of stationing 140,000 troops on the border with Afghanistan.

The United States also provides about $2 billion in annual security assistance, roughly half of which goes to reimburse Pakistan for conducting military operations to fight terrorism.

Until now, many of these reimbursements, called coalition support funds, have been held up, in part because of disputes with Pakistan over the Bin Laden raid, the operations of the C.I.A., and its decision to block supply lines into Afghanistan last year.

The $688 million payment -- the first since this summer, covering food, ammunition and other expenses from June through November 2011 -- has caused barely a ripple of protest since it was sent to Capitol Hill on Dec. 7.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/19/2012 08:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yay! Polio for everyone!
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/19/2012 8:46 Comments || Top||

#2  When is Pakistan going to reimburse us?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/19/2012 9:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Sandy victims seeking loans and financial assistance take note! Please vote appropriately next time (if there is to be a next time).
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 10:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Let me guess - Paki government officials pocket the money, pennies reach the troops in the field actually on the border with Afghanistan.
Posted by: gromky || 12/19/2012 10:28 Comments || Top||

#5  They could've designated $100 mil of that to get Dr. Shakeel Afridi out of jail...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/19/2012 10:29 Comments || Top||

#6  Gromky, of course, is an optimist...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/19/2012 12:11 Comments || Top||

#7  He just left out the part where millions get funneled to the terrorists by sympathetic ISI officers.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/19/2012 12:22 Comments || Top||

#8  Mark the money, let's see where it ends up.
Posted by: Muggsy Mussolini1226 || 12/19/2012 15:55 Comments || Top||

#9  Mark the money, let's see where it ends up.

Mark it? H*ll, IRRADIATE THE BEJEBUS OUT OF IT!
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/19/2012 20:16 Comments || Top||

#10  They could've designated $100 mil of that to get Dr. Shakeel Afridi out of jail...

Yeah, what Pappy said. A shameful bit of business. At the very least, offer the Paks some cash to look the other way while we stage a "jail break". As opposed to us coming to get the doctor ourselves...
Posted by: SteveS || 12/19/2012 20:56 Comments || Top||

#11  Send them GM Stock Certificates.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 12/19/2012 23:02 Comments || Top||


Britain
Home Office could use £217,000 of Abu Qatada's assets to help pay cost of keeping him in Britain
Ain't gonna happen. That would be against his "ooman rites" don't ya know?
The Government could use frozen bank accounts and seized assets belonging to hate preacher Abu Qatada worth £217,000 to help cover the cost of keeping him in the country.

Home Secretary Theresa May told the Home Affairs Select Committee that officials will look at raiding Qatada's cash and assets to pay for his huge legal bills.

The cost of the terror suspect's legal aid has already reached more than £500,000.

Qatada, 52, was recently moved into a £450,000 north London home which is being rented out by the British taxpayer for £1,400 a month.

The Al-Qaeda fanatic continues to battle deportation to Jordan to face terrorism charges.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission last month upheld Qatada’s latest appeal because of concerns about human rights in the country.

The Government is appealing against the decision but Qatada remains in the UK on bail conditions including a 16-hour curfew, wearing an electronic tag, not using the internet and not contacting certain people.

Committee chairman Keith Vaz said: 'Bank accounts that have been frozen and seized assets are worth £217,000.

Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 07:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Abbas Urges UN to Help Palestinian Refugees in Syria
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants Palestinian refugees living in Syria and affected by the fighting there to be able to enter the West Bank or Gaza Strip.

The official WAFA news agency said Mr. Abbas on Wednesday urged United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to help the refugees get to Palestinian territories.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency says more than 486,000 Palestinian refugees were living in nine official and three unofficial camps in Syria.

The Yarmouk camp in the Syrian capital, Damascus, has been the site of heavy fighting this week, including a deadly airstrike by a Syrian warplane.

The camp was established in 1957 and is home to the largest Palestinian refugee community in Syria.
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 07:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Biden to oversee White House effort to reduce gun violence
Reader Beavis points out this link as well.
President Obama will formally name Vice President Biden on Wednesday as the head of the administration's working group assigned to come up with ways to reduce gun violence following the Newtown, Conn., shootings.

The White House said Obama will make the announcement late Wednesday morning. Biden, a gun-control advocate during his years in the Senate, will supervise what the administration described as an "inter-agency" process to draw up a comprehensive strategy to address gun violence and the mass shootings that have battered a handful of communities during Obama's tenure.

Obama spoke Monday to Biden and several key Cabinet members, including Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, about the process.

White House officials say the eventual package of proposals will likely include some new restrictions on guns, particularly assault rifles, and high-capacity magazines. But they say it will also likely involve measures that touch on mental health initiatives and, perhaps, a discussion on the depiction of violence presented in popular culture.
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 06:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Biden to oversee White House effort to reduce gun violence grab guns

FIFY

How about this - allow any pol who wants to grab guns do the collection himself, unarmed, door to door without backup. Lead by example.
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/19/2012 10:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Does this mean they aren't serious?
Posted by: Iblis || 12/19/2012 11:18 Comments || Top||

#3  The O admin knows that this will be a fight. They do not want to get any mud on O, so they will let Biden spearhead the effort, and when things go south, Biden will be da man to focus on. You sure as sh*t can't have Holder be point man.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/19/2012 11:22 Comments || Top||

#4  I assume Slow Joe will lead by example and disarm his Secret Service troop first?
Posted by: Frank G || 12/19/2012 11:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Champ passes the turd to Joe for safe handling. We'd rather not talk about F&F, Benghazi, Mexico ....guns, any guns.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 11:22 Comments || Top||

#6  Sheriff Joe will make sure you check your guns when you come to town.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/19/2012 11:35 Comments || Top||

#7  If Biden holds a Gun-press Conference nobody will show up without Vests. Just in case.
Posted by: Charles || 12/19/2012 12:33 Comments || Top||

#8  You know, this could be interpreted to mean that Obama really isn't serious about gun gontrol, this business of putting Slow Joe in charge.
Posted by: no mo uro || 12/19/2012 12:34 Comments || Top||

#9  Update
Obama Asks Biden To Draft 'Concrete Proposals' On Guns By January
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 12:50 Comments || Top||

#10  "I will use all the powers of this office to help advance efforts to prevent more tragedies" such as Friday's, the president said.

The Congress be damned! Executive Orders forthcoming.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 13:08 Comments || Top||

#11  It would be a LOT more constructive if the Administration put together a special package to improve safety and security at American schools.
Posted by: Raider || 12/19/2012 14:42 Comments || Top||

#12  Doing nothing but giving the illusion of doing something? This doesn't square with O's gungrabber stance in the past.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/19/2012 17:07 Comments || Top||

#13  Raising taxes is the main game right now. The gun issue is agitprop and distraction, plus battlespace prep for later.
Posted by: Grunter || 12/19/2012 17:41 Comments || Top||

#14  "It would be a LOT more constructive if the Administration put together a special package to improve safety and security at American schools."

There's your problem right there, Raider.

Plus, probably not enough opportunity for graft and corruption. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/19/2012 18:20 Comments || Top||

#15  Raising taxes is the main game right now

That will probably be the core of the gun grabbing legislation - registration of all guns with a high annual fee for each, plus a high tax on ammo and accessories.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/19/2012 20:22 Comments || Top||

#16  An interesting economic consequence of the fear that the govt will clamp down on guns is that prices have gone exponential, rising by 200-300% since the day before the attack on eBay. People are buying at their Wal-Mart stores and gun shops, so much so that they are running out of stock in many areas and selling for a tidy 3x profit. It should be mayhem for the next month.
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 23:12 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Qatar's big budget answer to anti-Islam film? $1 billion Prophet Mohammed movie
A movie series on the life of Prophet Mohammed with a budget of $1 billion has been planned by a Qatar-based firm, AFP news agency reported on Tuesday.

Alnoor Holding has said it will raise the budget for the planned production to $1 billion from the $1.5 million announced three years ago.

The company said the film will be in English and will be translated into several different languages "to correct the wrong image Western societies have of Islam."

The biopics will be produced as a series of "seven films -- instead of three films as per an earlier announcement -- with a total budget of $1 billion," Alnoor chairman Ahmed Al-Hashemi said in a statement.

The company said "the team of experts has finished writing the scenario after overcoming numerous artistic and dramatic challenges."
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 06:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  pass the pop corn. The fisking opportunities will be infinite.

Oh, BTW isn't it illegal to portray the Big Mo? So what's this going to be, talking turbans?
Posted by: AlanC || 12/19/2012 8:27 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder if the Shiites will like the film's Sunni take on Imam Ali and the issue of their prophet's succession.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 12/19/2012 9:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Spend your money now, guys. In a few years, when
Canada, the US, and Israel are major oil and natural gas exporters, you won't have nearly as much to spend on such frivolities.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2012 11:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Is it a snuff film?
Posted by: Iblis || 12/19/2012 11:21 Comments || Top||

#5  TW, because of that you and I should form a movie production services company, and seek to fleece these jokers whilst the sheep is fluffy...
Posted by: Steve White || 12/19/2012 12:12 Comments || Top||

#6  TW, because of that you and I should form a movie production services company

Only if we call it Argo, Dr. Steve. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2012 12:44 Comments || Top||

#7  1. How do you make a movie based on the life of a guy whose image can't be displayed under penalty of teeth-gnashing, rioting and murder? Will this be shot in first-person style like a video game?
2. Will the film contain scenes depicting his marriage to Aiesha?
Posted by: Dopey Sinatra9196 || 12/19/2012 14:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Heck with all that. Will there be goat pr0n?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/19/2012 14:13 Comments || Top||

#9  Hollywood's challenge "humanise a murderous, invisible, thieving, paedophile prophet"
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/19/2012 14:23 Comments || Top||

#10  Musical??? Mo with a top hat and tails, buncha burqa babes doing the high kick?
Being an INFIDEL, I might pay to see that...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/19/2012 17:13 Comments || Top||

#11  Rated X due to child-boinking?
Posted by: SteveS || 12/19/2012 19:07 Comments || Top||

#12  Hollywood's challenge "humanise a murderous, invisible, thieving, paedophile prophet"

Meh, Oliver Stone could do it standing on his head.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/19/2012 19:32 Comments || Top||

#13  A billion dollars? Nothing too good for Mo. That amount could feed hungry Paks, but a lot will go to the massive burkha budget.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 12/19/2012 21:46 Comments || Top||

#14  Set the thing in a desert western town. have a black, gay iman come to town, call it 'Blazing Turbans.'
al-Mel Brooks, producer
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 12/19/2012 23:10 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan; eight dead in 48 hours
Three workers in a polio eradication campaign were shot in Pakistan on Wednesday, and two of them were killed, the latest in an unprecedented string of attacks over the past three days that has partially halted the U.N.-backed campaign.

The United Nations in Pakistan has pulled all staff involved in the immunization campaign off the streets, spokesman Michael Coleman said.

The government insisted immunization was continuing in some areas although many Pakistani health workers were refusing to go out.

Government officials were surprised by the violence, saying they had not expected attacks in areas far from the Taliban's strongholds and they would have to change tactics in the health campaign.

"We didn't expect such attacks in Karachi," said Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, minister for human rights, who oversees the polio campaign. He was referring to the southern commercial hub where there have been attacks this week.
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 06:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We go out and risk our lives to save other people's children from being permanently handicapped, for what?

Good question.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/19/2012 8:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Islamic proof that polio vaccines kill.
Snark of the day.
Posted by: Frank G || 12/19/2012 8:41 Comments || Top||

#3  More savage stupidity. But it does make a nice example of Islam vs Civilization.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/19/2012 10:12 Comments || Top||

#4  It's so much more civilized in the U.S., where opposition to polio vaccination stays on the intertubes and X-File reruns.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/19/2012 10:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, there's one way to ensure aid packages stay at home.
Posted by: Charles || 12/19/2012 12:28 Comments || Top||

#6  Is it possible to give someone polio on purpose?

I'm thinking of a little gift sent to the clowns doing the shooting, and their buddies.

After all, they insist that Allan wills it....
Posted by: Barbara || 12/19/2012 14:03 Comments || Top||

#7  Somebody said it yesterday: Quarantine Pakistan.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/19/2012 14:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Uh, uh, THE BURQUA/HARD BOYZ LOVE-N-ADORE THE "IRON LUNG"???

gut nuthin.

Must be iff they're going to keep the Kiddies, etal. from being immunized.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/19/2012 19:50 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
The Most Absurd 'Loophole' in the Tax Code
And I mean absurd in the most literal sense. We all know that the U.S. tax code is riddled with "loopholes", exemptions and deductions intended to incentivize certain activities. Many of these are of dubious provenance and questionable utility. But, there is one that is particularly ridiculous. As in, how can this possibly be thought of as a loophole? But, to the technocrats in the federal government, the tax you don't have to pay on the value of rent you don't have to pay because you own your home is a loophole.

Read that last sentence again. Its called "The Imputed Net Rental Income on Owner-Occupied Housing" and the feds include it in their annual list of "tax expenditures." That term is how Washington officially refers to credits, deductions and exemptions. Here's how the federal government describes it:

Under the baseline tax system, the taxable income of a taxpayer who is an owner-occupant would include the implicit value of gross rental income on housing services earned on the investment in owner-occupied housing and would allow a deduction for expenses, such as interest, depreciation, property taxes, and other costs, associated with earning such rental income. In contrast, the Tax Code allows an exclusion from taxable in- come for the implicit gross rental income on housing services, while in certain circumstances allows a deduction for some costs associated with such income, such as for mortgage interest and property taxes.
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 05:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great! I get a tax deduction for expenses, such as interest, depreciation, property taxes, repairs, utilities, escort services?

But I already deduct interest and property taxes on my (underwater) Owner-Occupied Housing. So is the reporter mis-informed? Or the Federal Government stoopid? I'm betting on both.

Is the loss in value when the housing bubble collapsed considered "depreciation", I wonder? I mean, for tax purposes.
Posted by: Bobby || 12/19/2012 6:31 Comments || Top||

#2  No. When the actions of government cause the fair market value of a property to drop, that is a "regulatory taking." A type of eminent domain under the 5th amendment, for which the government is required to pay just compensation.

But that assumes the government repects the rule of law, and is not a communist money-printing thugocracy.
Posted by: RandomJD || 12/19/2012 7:35 Comments || Top||

#3  If you own your home out-right and don't have a mortgage at all, you would be "earning" $2,000 a month which the IRS thinks should be added to your taxable income.

While you have been paying Social Security for 49 years, you could have waited until age 70 to begin drawing Social Security. You however, elected to begin drawing your Social Security entitlement at age 62. Therefore, your entitlement is reduced approximately 40%.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Are they going to assess as implied income the difference between buying a new car, and the cost of keeping my current cheapass five-year-old Aveo on the road? Is my noninclination to buy dress clothes for work, and instead shop at Walmart, also a taxable implied event? How about my failure to buy cable TV? Eating in on cheap food instead of eating at a restaurant every night?
Posted by: Mitch H. || 12/19/2012 10:00 Comments || Top||

#5  The "Implied imcome" tax code language impacts only 50%, 49%, 48%, 47%.... a small number of taxpayers people.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 10:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Taxing the implied income of a home is actually Adam Smith capitalism.

You may not like it but it is.



Ground-rents are a still more proper subject of taxation than the rent of houses. A tax upon ground-rents would not raise the rents of houses. It would fall altogether upon the owner of the ground-rent, who acts always as a monopolist, and exacts the greatest rent which can be got for the use of his ground. More or less can be got for it according as the competitors happen to be richer or poorer, or can afford to gratify their fancy for a particular spot of ground at a greater or smaller expense. In every country the greatest number of rich competitors is in the capital, and it is there accordingly that the highest ground-rents are always to be found. As the wealth of those competitors would in no respect be increased by a tax upon ground-rents, they would not probably be disposed to pay more for the use of the ground. Whether the tax was to be advanced by the inhabitant, or by the owner of the ground, would be of little importance. The more the inhabitant was obliged to pay for the tax, the less he would incline to pay for the ground; so that the final payment of the tax would fall altogether upon the owner of the ground-rent.


— Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations, Book V, Chapter 2, Article I: Taxes upon the Rent of Houses
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/19/2012 10:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Bullshi*! Businesses DON'T pay taxes, CONSUMERS pay taxes, AND they pay taxes on the same item purchased over, and over, and over again!

Business profit margins DO NOT and simply CANNOT ignore overhead costs (which also include what Uncle Sam may levy).
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 10:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Bright Pebbles, I'm pretty sure that passage was about different ways of taxing property, and in particular, real estate property tax. Specifically, an endorsement of the land value or site valuation tax - a levy on the unimproved value of land. It's intended to encourage improvements by setting the cost of letting it lie fallow high.

But still and all, Smith and Henry George argued for an explicitly simple direct property tax scheme, not a involuted tax-expenditure accounting honeytrap built around income tax code.

I live in Pennsylvania, which already has a species of land value tax on the books. I probably pay *more* in mortgage, maintenance, and property taxes than I would to rent the same square footage in the same market as the townhouse I own. But the opportunity costs tied up in documenting that particular hypothesis to the satisfaction of some humorless IRS drone would not come cheap, relative to my modest income. And that sort of bureaucratic hoop-jumping crap is definitely not what the Georges and Smith intended.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 12/19/2012 10:38 Comments || Top||

#9  "Meet the new loophole, same as the old loophole."

Peter Townshend
Posted by: Perfesser || 12/19/2012 13:35 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudi official jailed 25 years, to get 2000 lashes for holding parties
A Saudi official appears to have paid a heavy price for staging "unethical parties" at his department, with a court in the Gulf Kingdom sentencing him to 25 years in jail and ordering him lashed 2,000 times in public.
Wanna bet he's not even the lowest level royal?
The unnamed head of the government office in the southern town of Baha was also convicted of taking drugs, extortion of other officials and involvement in sodomy.

Newspapers said the court also fined the official SR200,000 and banned him from travelling outside Saudi Arabia during that period.

"He will be lashed in three batches after Friday's prayers at the place where he committed his crimes in front of people," Alsaudeh daily said.

It said the court also sentenced his aide to 15 years in jail, 1,500 lashes and travel ban, adding that the judge issued a recommendation the two would not benefit from any future pardon. The paper described it as a reduced sentence as the prosecutor had demanded the death penalty against the two.

"The two were found guilty of engaging in obscene acts, including staging unethical parties, using drugs and extorting other officials. They had also invited officials and other people to practice sodomy," it said.
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 05:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's not easy to be as cool as Silvio Berlusconi.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 12/19/2012 14:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Can somebody actually survive 2,000 lashes??? Sounds pretty much like a death sentence right there. They are really trying super hard to make an example of this guy.
Posted by: Raider || 12/19/2012 14:40 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
(Iran) Israeli death squads involved in Sandy Hook bloodbath: Intelligence analyst
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 05:44 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is from The Onion, right?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/19/2012 9:03 Comments || Top||

#2  I would give this theory no credence, but all theories and elements therein, should be examined objectively and cataloged appropriately.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 9:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Iran PressTV - all the credibility of The Onion, with only unintended humor
Posted by: Frank G || 12/19/2012 9:45 Comments || Top||

#4  PressTV has found some willing lackeys in the US to put forward these things. I wonder what PressTV pays its stringers.
Posted by: lord garth || 12/19/2012 10:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Hey Garth - I'm not a Khomeinist lackey... Am I?
Posted by: Cheager Angoluque6848 || 12/19/2012 11:40 Comments || Top||

#6  I blame renegade ex-Navy hunter/killer dolphins. Oh, wait...that was Hurricane Sandy.
But seriously, folks. These loons should be beaten with bats...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/19/2012 12:07 Comments || Top||

#7  "This is from The Onion, right?"

Of course not, Rambler.

The stuff in The Onion is at least half-way plausible.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/19/2012 13:59 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm unable to figure out the compensation system here. PressTV has an annual budget of 250 billion rials (about $12 million dollars at today's street price). They have several regular correspondents (Gordon Duff who is the main source for this article and has admitted proudly that he makes up stuff, is one of them).

Probably there is enough money so that every now and then they pay somebody big bucks and inspire a lot of wannabees.
Posted by: lord garth || 12/19/2012 14:48 Comments || Top||

#9  I bet serving their Anti-American Islamic masters is reward enough for many
Posted by: Frank G || 12/19/2012 15:13 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Unfounded Fears? Mayan End of the World and climate catastrophe
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 02:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ooh! I got an idea! Call it a theory.

The end of the Mayan calendar is the beginning of the end caused by global warming. Saturday, the oceans will begin to rise (noticeably!) and the north pole will melt, forcing Santa to borrow the USS Enterprise for his floating workshop.

Remember, you read about it at Rantburg!
Posted by: Bobby || 12/19/2012 6:21 Comments || Top||

#2  It's not the end of the world. Have a twinkie;

Posted by: Dale || 12/19/2012 7:11 Comments || Top||

#3  which began in 3114 BC, ends on December 21, 2012. The calendar is supposedly the measure of days from the beginning of humanity to the end

Beginning of humanity in 3114 BC??

CREATIONISTS!!!! STONE THEM!!!!
Posted by: AlanC || 12/19/2012 8:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Twinkies have a shelf life beyond the end of the world.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/19/2012 8:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Bobby:

Even better, call it a theory and then announce that "the science is settled."
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 10:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Evan though twinkies have a "shelf life beyond the end of the world they couldn't make it to Phu Bai and still be recognizable.
Posted by: bman || 12/19/2012 11:27 Comments || Top||

#7  While soldering on a bum graphics card yesterday, it occurred to me that what the Mayans foresaw was the simultaneous explosion of every cheap-ass, low-rent, melamine-filled Chinese capacitor in electronic devices everywhere, bringing modern civilization to its knees.

Either that or the Mayans figured that making a calender for the next five millennia was enough to last for a while and they would finish it up later.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/19/2012 19:26 Comments || Top||

#8  "the Mayans figured that making a calender for the next five millennia was enough to last for a while and they would finish it up later"

Ding-ding-ding-ding!

We have a winner! :-D
Posted by: Barbara || 12/19/2012 19:55 Comments || Top||

#9  Twinkies, like Fruitcakes, live forever - srsly!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/19/2012 20:02 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
White Lightning
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/19/2012 01:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Excellent article g(r)om. Unfortunately, the banning or restricting of firearms by our government has little if anything to do with street crime or the recent, tragic events in CT.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 1:47 Comments || Top||

#2  An article by Thomas Hargrove, Scripts Howard News Service appeared in our local newspaper this a.m. : Link. They did an analysis of mass murders and homicides from 1980-2011. His conclusions: mass murders remained about constant over that period at about 32 mass murders (>4 murders), homicides were halved over that period. The halving of homicides seems to have occurred about the time period when concealed carry laws were enacted in the States. I suppose this association could be teased out of the data by State but coffee beckons. I did not realize that all murders are not reported to the FBI which would make things a bit more difficult.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/19/2012 8:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Good observation by Wretchard. He follows his usual habit of leaving the obvious unsaid as a cue to his commenters: if crazy white boys can cause so much mayhem, what would happen when the sane ones get p*ssed off?
Posted by: Ptah || 12/19/2012 9:12 Comments || Top||

#4  ...why do you think they keep reminding people about 19th Century colonialism. The judas goats of the Left have been trying to undermine that capability by instituting multiculturalism (see - Great Britain).
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/19/2012 10:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Don’t Blame Autism for Newtown

Asperger’s and autism are not forms of mental illness; they are neurodevelopmental disorders or disabilities. Autism is a lifelong condition that manifests before the age of 3; most mental illnesses do not appear until the teen or young adult years. Medications rarely work to curb the symptoms of autism, but they can be indispensable in treating mental illness like obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Underlying much of this misreporting is the pernicious and outdated stereotype that people with autism lack empathy. Children with autism may have trouble understanding the motivations and nonverbal cues of others, be socially naïve and have difficulty expressing their emotions in words, but they are typically more truthful and less manipulative than neurotypical children and are often people of great integrity. They can also have a strong desire to connect with others and they can be intensely empathetic — they just attempt those connections and express that empathy in unconventional ways.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/19/2012 15:06 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
It Might Work, If Human Beings Were in Charge
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/19/2012 01:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  When the parent of an obviously mentally unstable young man tells friends and colleagues "do not turn your back on my son" ....but takes her mentally unstable son to a shooting range for "bonding" and weapons familiarization, what might one expect? Sorry, I believe we may have had more than one candidate for mental instability.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 1:28 Comments || Top||

#2  She did seem to be a little .. strange, didn't she. But I certainly would not blame her.

The problem here is a simple one, though the solution is not. The problem: a small but real number of people have chronic paranoid schizophrenia. They're born with it and have certain genetic and environmental cues that allow it to develop. It's a disease that takes a while to manifest itself, and the full manifestations come when a young man/woman is in their late teens / early twenties. They enter a spiraling cascade of worsening psychosis. For some, that leads to escalating violence.

I don't know the young man, of course, and I don't have his medical record handy. But my one-thousand-mile-away diagnosis is that.

Fixing chronic paranoid schizophrenia, helping the patients, and preventing them from killing others -- that's complex.

Addendum at 0800 CT: some have said that Mr. Lanza had some sort of 'autism-spectrum disorder' that eventually decompensated, and that's why he went on his murderous rage. That's certainly possible, but I know that schizophrenia, particularly in children and teens, is frequently mis-diagnosed as something else. But I'll be corrected by whatever finally comes out about Mr. Lanza's medical history.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/19/2012 8:37 Comments || Top||

#3  and keeping them on any meds that help is a huge task
Posted by: Frank G || 12/19/2012 8:40 Comments || Top||

#4  And now we have the Champ appointing Joe "This really is a BFD" Biden to head up a commission to look into the CT slayings.

White House narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) victims examine potential remediation of chronic paranoid schizophrenia violence. I am not hopeful.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 8:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Fixing chronic paranoid schizophrenia, helping the patients, and preventing them from killing others -- that's complex.

Second that. A friend has a brother who has late onset schizophrenia. The family is at their wit's end as to what to do. He's not legally crazy. Maybe the only thing he hasn't done is take his prescribed medicine. We have a kid in the neighborhood that everyone thinks is a ticking time bomb. The police say they can't do anything until he does something! There is a balance of trying to protect these people (ensure their fundamental Constitutional rights) but also protect society from them. As the writer says, we don't want to turn things over to the government because of a past track record. We don't want bureaucrats to lower the threshold for placing people in the loony bins so that eventually people are sent to the loony bin who are troublesome, inconvenient or speak out against the government. Generally, politicians simplify the problem by going after guns. They have done little to address the real problems other than provide knee-jerk reactions and try to get a lot of TV face time.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/19/2012 9:49 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Three kidnappers released on fake acquittal orders
[Dawn] While police have so far failed to arrest any of the three undertrial prisoners who were released from the Sukkur central prison in October on forged acquittal orders, a similar case has been detected in which three men convicted of kidnapping in a 2006 case were released from the same prison on fake orders of a sessions court.

On Nov 23, the Rohri police had enjugged
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
Abdul Qayum Golo, a clerk of the 2nd additional sessions court Jacobabad, and court bailiff Nazir Ahmed Dasti for preparing fake acquittal orders of the three UTPs -- Akram Kehar, Leemon Rind and Noor Muhammad Khoso -- who had been released from the prison on Oct 24 and Oct 27.

Police said that the three convicts -- Irshad Junejo, Dodo Junejo and Ghulam Qadir Junejo -- were also released from the Sukkur central prison on fake release orders of the 2nd additional district and sessions judge, Jacobabad.

They said that in 2006 Hamza Supar was kidnapped by Irshad Junejo, Dodo Junejo and Ghulam Qadir Junejo within the remit of the Saddar cop shoppe, Jacobabad. The victim was later recovered and he identified his kidnappers, who were subsequently arrested.

They were sentenced to 21 years in prison and were sent to the Sukkur central prison.

The police said that a private suspect, identified as Adal Junejo, had allegedly cut a deal with court official Golo for the release of his relatives.

Suspect Golo issued fake acquittal orders of the sessions court in which he allegedly mentioned that an appeal of the convicts had been allowed by the Sindh High Court. Subsequently, jail authorities released the three convicts after getting the fake orders, the police added.

A case (FIR 82/2012) was registered on a complaint of Saeed Ahmed Soomro, the office superintendent of the district and sessions court, Jacobabad, against Abdul Qayoom Golo and Adal Junejo under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 422 (dishonestly or fraudulently preventing debt being available for creditors), 425 (mischief), 466 (forgery of record of court or of public register, etc), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistain Penal Code at the Civil Lines cop shoppe, Jacobabad.

Following the registration of the case, the police arrested Adal Junejo and produced him and suspect Golo before Judicial Magistrate (Jacobabad) Zulfiqar Kamboh, who remanded them in police custody for seven days on Monday.

Court sources told Dawn that a man, Nazeer Bhangar, appeared before Judicial Magistrate Kamboh on Monday and recorded his statement under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code in which he confessed to his involvement in the release of three UTPs and as many convicts.

After his statement, the magistrate directed the police to put him under observation so that he might not move anywhere till the final decision.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Home Front: Politix
White House: Obama Backs Bill to Ban Assault Weapons
[An Nahar] President Barack Obama
How's it going, Sunshine?...
on Tuesday threw his weight behind a bill to reintroduce a ban on civilians owning assault weapons, in the wake of a gun massacre in an elementary school that shocked the nation.
That didn't involve assault weapons, from what I understand...
White House front man Jay Carney said the president would support a law proposed by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein to prohibit the arms, defined as certain types of semi-automatic firearm with removable magazines.

"He is actively supportive of, for example, Senator Feinstein's stated intent to revive a piece of legislation that would reinstate the assault weapons ban," Carney said, when asked what Obama would do about gun control.

Carney said Obama would also support any move to ban high-capacity clips -- magazines that hold dozens of rounds -- and close the so-called "gun show loophole" that allows unlicensed individuals to sell guns privately.

Feinstein vowed on Monday to bring the bill forward, telling CNN: "It's going to be strong, and it's going to be definitive. And it's going to ban by name at least 100 military-style semi-automatic assault weapons."

A previous ten-year ban on military-style assault weapons was allowed to expire in 2004, and many U.S. citizens have since rushed to arm themselves with semi-automatic versions of rifles like the Kalashnikov or the AR-15.

On Friday, a 20-year-old man used a Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle in an attack on a Connecticut elementary school, killing six staff and 20 children aged six or seven in a hail of high-velocity .223 rounds.

The slaughter has revived calls for stricter controls on arms in civilian hands, but Obama and Feinstein may encounter tough opposition from America's legions of shooting enthusiasts and a well-funded pro-gun lobby.

Obama has long supported a return of the assault weapons ban, but did nothing in his first term to put his own political muscle behind attempts to revive it.

America has suffered an epidemic of gun violence over the last three decades, including 62 mass shooting sprees since 1982, three of the deadliest in the second half of this year alone.

The vast majority of weapons used have been semi-automatic handguns or military-style assault weapons obtained legally by the killers.

There were an estimated 310 million non-military firearms in the United States as of 2009, one for each citizen. People in America are 20 times more likely to be killed by a gun than is someone in another developed country.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fast and Furious didn't work out, but then along comes this Sandy Hook disaster to take its place. Never let a crisis/disaster go to waste.
Posted by: Bobby || 12/19/2012 6:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Didn't Columbine happen right in the middle of Clinton's ban?

This isn't going to solve anything (but then it's not designed to).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 12/19/2012 9:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Every single mass killing (3 or greater) in the past couple of years has happened in a GUN FREE ZONE. Only exception is the Giffords shooting in Arizona.
Posted by: Ebboque Snainter4421 || 12/19/2012 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  The hypocrisy of Fast and Furious (and Benghazi) and govmint attempts at gun grabbing is galling.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/19/2012 17:13 Comments || Top||

#5  But completely expected, #4 John. :-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/19/2012 18:29 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
24 die in Durango in failed prison escape

For a map, click here. For a map of Coahuila state, click here For a map of Durango state, click here. THIRD UPDATE with a new death toll. You can watch a video in Spanish here

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

A total of 15 inmates and nine trustees were shot to death in a failed escape attempt in a prison in far eastern Durango state Tuesday, according to Mexican news and Twitter reports.

According to a news item posted on the website of Milenio news daily, the shooting and escape attempt took place at the Centro de Readaptacion Social Number Two (CERESO) in Gomez Palacio, Durango at around 1700 hrs.

According to the news item, gunfire was exchanged between a criminal group and prison guards as inmates attempted to jump a back fence. Guards were fired on, prompting return fire which killed nine prison trustees and 15 inmates.

A Mexican Army element which was nearby assisted in retaking control of the prison.

A dispatch which appeared on the website of Animal Politico Tuesday evening noted that the prison itself had been inspected by an unit of the Policia Federal as part of Laguna Seguro security operation, starting Sunday night and ending Monday morning. The raid found several contraband items including shanks, cell phones and other items. The search was initiated at the request of Mexico's Comision Nacional Derechos Humanos (CNDH), or human rights commission.

Durango's CERESO Number Two was the prison where in 2010 prison officials colluded with inmates to stage armed attacks outside the prison on facilities operated by Los Zetas drug cartel. Included in those attacks was the infamous attack on a party at Quinta Italia in Torreon in Coahuila just across the Durango border, which killed 17 party goers.

The group was also responsible for at least two other attacks in the La Laguna area, which killed at least 16 individuals .

La Laguna encompasses Torreon, Coahuila, Gomez Palacio and Ciudad Lerdo in Durango. Laguna Seguro ended less than three weeks ago in the area, but Durango state has begun operating a separate security operation in Gomez Palacio in cooperation with the Mexican Army, and now, apparently the Policia Federal, now a sub agency of the Mexican national Secretaria de Gobierno, or interior ministry.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Libya launches rebel integration project
[Magharebia] Libya's Warriors Affairs Committee is set to reintegrate former revolutionaries into civilian life, Libya Herald reported on Monday (December 17th). The project will help 5,000 former fighters establish their own SMEs. Each revolutionary will be eligible for a maximum grant of 100,000 dinars.

A larger initiative benefits some 140,000 former rebels. Plans include sending 5,000 fighters to study abroad, setting up vocational training for 10,000 revolutionaries, assisting 20,000 warriors with post-traumatic stress care, and preparing 2,000 revolutionaries for public service positions.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Plans include sending 5,000 fighters to study abroad

Flight school?
Posted by: Pappy || 12/19/2012 10:22 Comments || Top||


Racism spurs Mali terrorist defections
[Magharebia] Amid mounting defections within al-Qaeda linked terror groups in northern Mali, attention is turning to what some say see as racist practises of jihadist groups in the Sahel.

Racism has been a key factor pushing many young Africans of non-Arab descent to defect and return to their normal lives in their countries of origin. This is taking place at a time when the majority of these young Africans are beginning to realise more than ever that the promises of equality, freedom and dignity of true Islam have not materialised within the jihadist movements.

One of the most prominent jihadists to defect from Sahel terror groups over racism was Hicham Bilal. Bilal was the only black person leading a battalion within the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), the group in control of the city of Gao.

He defected at the beginning of November and returned his native Niger. In an interview with AFP in Niamey at the time, he described the racism within the ranks of Malian jihadist groups.

"These lunatics from MUJAO are not children of God, they are narcos. They do everything which goes against Islam and to them, a black man is inferior to an Arab or a white," Bilal said.

"For them, blacks are less valuable than white Arabs. This is what has made hundreds of black Africans recruits defect," the former terror leader said.

Bilal also described how the al-Qaeda-linked jihadists were sending black fighters to the frontline near Mopti in anticipation of a possible international military intervention.

"They say that if there is a war they will put all the black fighters in the front as cannon fodder," he said.

While Nigerian journalist and activist Hassan Ag Midal discounted racism as the cause for recent defections, he said that the conflict "proves in the end the existence of real internal splits, be they racial, tribal or material".

"It is known that the majority of elements of MUJAO, dominant in Gao, are black Africans as group leaders and members of the councils. They assume direct responsibilities but the founders and emirs are white," Timbuktu-based journalist Osman Mohamed Osman told Magharebia.

He explained that the reason behind this was that the majority of the population of Gao is black. "The white population of the city fled, except for the jihadists who are not afraid, though people fear them," he added.

Youth activist Ibrahima Mica, a Songhai resident of Gao, said that Arab and Touareg residents fled because of their rejection of control by "black African jihadists, even in the name of Islam. This contrasts with Timbuktu which is controlled by white-skinned Ansar al-Din and al-Qaeda white Arabs."

"Everybody in northern Mali realises that the Movement for Tawhid and Jihad is the only organization that includes in its ranks black Africans who refuse to be under the control of Algerian or Arabs jihadists, even though they meet within the same jihadi creed," Mica told Magharebia by phone. Security analyst Babou Sek noted that MUJAO itself was a product of internal conflicts within al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

"The group that founded it wanted it to be a jihadist branch that would include black Africans, as well as some Arabs who were marginalised within al-Qaeda. It is no secret to anyone that this marginalisation is partly racist and partly due to resource sharing," he said.

He added that "al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb tried to avoid a recurrence of such problems by establishing battalions and brigades led by Touareg emirs and Arab Mauritanians who had long suffered from exclusion by the Algerians. Yet the structural problem remained as the exclusion of black jihadists continued, even within MUJAO where blacks are a majority."
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine

#1  So, Arabs are white now? Anything to fit the narrative.
Posted by: gromky || 12/19/2012 1:07 Comments || Top||

#2  the promises of equality, freedom and dignity of true Islam have not materialised

The irony just drips off the page. Dumb, dumber, dumbest and then some.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/19/2012 8:23 Comments || Top||

#3  "the Movement for Tawhid and Jihad is the only organization that includes in its ranks black Africans who refuse to be under the control of Algerian or Arabs jihadists, even though they meet within the same jihadi creed"

That explains why the White House and the Euros are so reluctant to help the Africans push the jihadis out of Mali.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/19/2012 10:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Exactly! The cultural reality (with deep rooted hatred) that everyone would prefer to ignore.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 10:29 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Baby Bhutto seeks rapists' arrest
[Dawn] Pakistain People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari sent on Monday a bouquet to a six-year-old rape victim from Umerkot district admitted to the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto
... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in...
Hospital Lyari, and asked the Sindh government to provide necessary help to the victim and bring the perpetrators to book.

In a message, he also pledged to protect all weak segments of society from atrocities and violence.
Terribly nice of him to say so.
Bilawal House media coordinator Surendar Valasai gave the bouquet to the girl on behalf of Mr Bhutto-Zardari in the hospital. PPP 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...
division information secretary Lateef Mughal and former PPP MPA Gianchand Meghwar were also present.

The small girl was kidnapped in Ghulam Nabi Shah town in Umerkot district early this month and raped by some men.
Because it's Pakistan.
The PPP chairman instructed the Sindh government to provide every kind of assistance, including the best medical facilities, to the victim and her family and to take stringent action against the culprits.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa Subsaharan
Chad sends troops into Central African Republic to help stop rebel advance
Chadian troops entered the neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) on Tuesday following an appeal from Bangui's President Francois Bozize after rebels seized a number of key towns, a CAR military official said. Chad sent troops into neighboring Central African Republic on Tuesday to help the government there stop a rapid advance by rebels that risks sparking a new spiral of violence in the mineral-rich nation. The rebels killed 15 government soldiers during the capture on Tuesday of Bria, a diamond mining town about 600 km (360 miles) northeast of the capital Bangui and the sixth town to fall to the insurgents in little over a week.

A coalition of three rebel factions is threatening to overthrow the Bozize government, demanding respect for different peace accords signed between 2007 and 2011. Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno is a close ally of Bozize whom he helped when the high-ranking army officer seized power in 2003.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Good Morning
Posted by: badanov || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Rosa Blasi [Rican][Filmography](age 40)


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/19/2012 0:52 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm thinking Alyssa Milano who is 40 as well.
Posted by: Beavis || 12/19/2012 8:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Beavis

Alyssa Milano was under consideration, pretty Hood Ornament, large Radiator but thin tires with graffiti on the sidewalls.

Scanned a couple thousand pics a Alyssa for a decent Gam Shot without luck. Some days it's difficult to find Gam Shots on any of the birthday girls.

Congrats on your find.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/19/2012 12:16 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Atomic Energy Association: country to continue enriching uranium
Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Association Fereidoon Abbasi said that the country needs to continue enriching uranium to 20 percent, IRIB News reported. Abbasi said enriching uranium to 20 percent for the Tehran reactor is Iran's right, which will be defended.

"Twenty percent enrichment may not be something the Westerners agree with, however this is the right of Iranian people," he said.

Abbasi added, that according to the report of IAEA's Board of Governors, the agency's stance towards Iran has not changed.

Several days ago, member of Iranian parliament's national security committee, Nozar Shafie said that Iran can exit the NPT, if the pressure on country continues to intensify.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Death toll rises to 21 after Khyber agency attack: officials
[Dawn] The corpse count from a car kaboom on a marketplace in northwestern Pakistain’s Khyber Agency has risen to 21, officials said Tuesday.

The bomb went kaboom! on Monday in Jamrud, part of the tribal district of Khyber, close to where passengers were waiting to catch buses across the country.

“Four more people died of their wounds at the Hayatabad Medical Complex overnight, raising the corpse count in the attack to 21,” Doctor Sohail Ahmad told AFP.

Local administration official Jehangir Azam confirmed the new toll and said 43 people were still being treated for injuries.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Punjab banned outfits in contact with Uzbek militants, NA told
[Dawn] Banned bad boy organizations in Punjab province have contacts with Uzbek forces of Evil who charge $40,000 for carrying out terrorist attacks in Pakistain, a federal minister told the National Assembly on Tuesday.

During Tuesday's session, Federal Minister Sheikh Waqas Akram told the assembly that the Uzbek forces of Evil were in contact with the banned outfits in Punjab, adding that the members of these 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
s could be seen wearing shirts of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

"These (Uzbek) forces of Evil demand a payment of US$40,000 to perform terrorist attacks on Pak soil," he told the assembly.
"And it's cheap at twice the price."
Akram, who belongs to ruling coalition partner the Pakistain Mohammedan League-Q (PML-Q), said Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
should stop "spinning tales" and take definitive action against these banned bad boy outfits.

The minister's disclosure comes after a brazen attack on 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 Bacha Khan Airport and military airbase on Saturday by forces of Evil said to be foreigners of Dagestan
...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca...
and Uzbek origins.

Uzbek forces of Evil are known to corroborate with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) in battles against the Pak security forces, which include an attack on Bannu jail conducted to release Taliban inmates and the high-profile prisoner Adnan Rashid.

NA Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi chaired Tuesday's assembly session held here in Islamabad.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan


Caribbean-Latin America
CBS News: 'Fast and Furious' Gun Found At Site Where Mexican Beauty Queen Killed
A gun found at the scene of a shootout between a Mexican drug cartel and soldiers where a beauty queen died was part of the botched "Fast and Furious" operation, CBS News reports.

Authorities had said that Maria Susana Flores Gamez was likely used as a human shield and that an automatic rifle had been found near her body after the Nov. 23 shootout.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tells CBS News that the Justice Department did not notify Congress that a Fast and Furious firearm was found at the scene in Sinaloa.
A mere oversight, I'm sure.
CBS News learned the Romanian AK-47-type WASR-10 rifle found near her body was purchased by Uriel Patino at an Arizona gun shop in 2010. Patino is a suspect who allegedly purchased 700 guns while under the ATF's watch.

The "Fast and Furious" operation was launched in 2009 to catch trafficking kingpins, but agents lost track of about 1,400 of the more than 2,000 weapons involved.

Authorities say the ring was believed to have supplied the Sinaloa cartel with guns. Mexico's drug cartels often seek out guns in the U.S. because gun laws in Mexico are more restrictive than in the U.S. Some guns purchased by the ring were later found at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States.

The operation came to light after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010 by marijuana smugglers who used guns from the "Fast and Furious" operation.

Federal authorities who conducted the operations have faced tough criticism for allowing suspected straw gun buyers for a smuggling ring to walk away from gun shops in Arizona with weapons, rather than arrest them and seize the guns.

Several Republicans have called for the resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder due to the botched operation.
Posted by: Beavis || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A war against women, too?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/19/2012 0:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tells CBS News that the Justice Department did not notify Congress that a Fast and Furious firearm was found at the scene in Sinaloa.

Might explain why DoJ and State have said or appear to have done very little about the former Marine, Jon Hammer's detention in Mexico.

Might also explain the Champ's recent lament about.... "gun control being a complex issue". Now that the Gamez story is out however, he's media full-bore into the "Assault Gun Ban". Typical administration...."best defense is a good offense" strategy. Smooth operator, that Champ.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 0:29 Comments || Top||

#3  I love how CBS spins it - "botched" operation. The operation worked exactly as planned! "Lost track of the weapons" that was the entire point! Nice job, mainstream media. Those evil Republicans, always wanting to prosecute people for innocent mistakes.
Posted by: gromky || 12/19/2012 1:05 Comments || Top||

#4  This whole operation should have been enough to bring down and administration. Just shows how much the MSM, the federal machine, dhimocrats and the lack of Republican backbone have led to a coup d'état of our Republic.

Our founding fathers are rolling in their graves.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/19/2012 1:26 Comments || Top||

#5  When Holder was declared "In Contempt of Congress" over F&F but was not prosecuted, the jig was up. The Rule of Law was finished. They know it, we know it. It is what it is.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 1:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Govmint illegal gun traffickers have gun control as an agenda? The trafficked guns end up murdering American and Mexican citizens and there is no outrage and fury by citizens and the press? Something's very wrong with this picture.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/19/2012 16:59 Comments || Top||

#7  "The trafficked guns end up murdering American and Mexican citizens and there is no outrage and fury by citizens and the press?"

I doubt most of the citizens know anything about it, John. And if the ones who vote D do know, it's overshadowed by dreaming up new stuff they can demand from those of us who actually work and pay taxes the gummint.

As for the press, it's not like anyone was killed who they actually know. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/19/2012 18:28 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
North Waziristan tribes lose perks for not supporting anti-polio drive
[Dawn] The political administration of North Wazoo Agency has suspended all perks and privilege of Othmanzai Dawar and Wazir tribes for not cooperating with the authorities in the anti-polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
drive in their areas.

Political Agent Siraj Ahmed on Monday issued directives to heads of all government departments including Nadra, passport and tehsildar office to stop issuing passports, national identity cards and domiciles certificates to members of Wazir and Dawar -- two major tribes of North Waziristan.

According to the directives, ban has been imposed on provision of lungi (honorarium given to tribal elders), fresh recruitments of Class IV employees and developmental work till these tribal elders ensure security of teams taking part in the anti-polio campaign.

The decision was taken under collective territorial responsibility clause of Frontier Crimes Regulations.

The political agent told Dawn that the decision was taken after the elders of Wazir and Dawar tribes failed to cooperate with the government in carrying out the anti-polio drive.

He said that thousands of children were at risk in the tribal region owing to a ban, imposed by bad boys, on anti-polio drive. He said that government would not tolerate challenging its writ at any cost.

The political agent said that it was responsibility of tribal people to make security arrangements for the polio teams.

It may be recalled that Shura Mujahideen of North Waziristan (Hafiz Gul Bahadar group of Taliban) had imposed ban on anti-polio campaign in the tribal agency.

A pamphlet distributed on June 15, 2012 by the Shura stated that the ban on polio campaign would be continued till end to US drone attacks.

After one week, the Shura of South Waziristan Taliban (Maulvi Nazir group) also distributed a similar pamphlet, linking anti-polio campaign to drone attacks in the tribal agencies.

However,
if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning...
tribal people had held America responsible for ban on polio campaign. They said that Dr Shakil, presently languishing 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.
jail, and other 'US agents' had played negative role during anti-polio campaign.

They said that Dr Shakil and his team helped America to trace out whereabouts of Al Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden
... who has won the race to that place where we all eventually end up...
by running a fake immunisation drive in Abbottabad
... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden....
A doctor responsible for carrying out polio campaign in tribal areas told Dawn on condition of anonymity that 160,000 children were deprived of vaccine during each campaign.

He said the government had made alternative arrangements to reach maximum children by administering vaccine to children under the age of five years at various points on roads from Bannu to Peshawar.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Heretics liable to be slain, says note found on militant's body
[Dawn] "My name is Musa'b and I am from Dagestan
...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca...
(Russia)," so wrote one of the bully boyz who ended up fighting, holed up inside an under-construction house, barely a kilometre away from the scene of Saturday night's brazen attack on the Pakistain Air Force base inside the Bacha Khan International Airport.

The handwritten letter, written in Urdu, was found on Musa'b's body after he was killed in Pawaka village, along with four others, the day after the assault on the airfield. It gives a rare insight into the mindset of bully boyz indoctrinated to fight Pak forces, and also points to the growing role of foreign bully boyz in attacks inside Pakistain.

"I am taking part in these blessed operations because you people do not act upon the divine faith. You people neither act on its teachings nor accept it. Indeed, you follow the laws of the infidels," he writes. "The heretics are liable to be killed till the evil is eliminated. Killing (them) is obligatory," he sermonises in the single-page letter.

The letter does not address the Pak forces directly, but knowing that he and his fellow fighters would soon be taking on the Pak forces in their quest to seize control of the PAF base and the adjoining international airport, it was clear who it was meant for.

The level of motivation and marksmanship of Musa'b and his fellow fighters, two of whom blew themselves up, while three others died fighting police surprised even the most hardened and experienced coppers.

"I could never forget the way Musa'b charged at us, firing and running straight into us," a police brass hat recalled.

"He still had ammunition left with him and he could have fought on for several hours. And had one of our men not spotted him charging towards us and shot him there and then, he would have killed many of us. Today people would have been observing our Qul," the officer said.

But more than their motivation and level of preparedness, the element that surprised law enforcement and security officials was the number of foreign bully boyz in the two groups that tried to take control of the PAF base.

Out of the nine bodies, five, they say, have distinctive central Asian and Caucasian features. Musa'b and one of the other bully boyz killed have Caucasian features and some security officials believe they could be brothers.

UZBEK CONNECTION: Law enforcers have long had experience of coming across Uzbeks in course of various encounters and operations, but this is the first time, they say, they have come across so many of them 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.
That the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan have long been collaborating and conducting joint operations inside Pakistain's tribal areas is no secret. What, however, has come as a surprise is a pronounced and extremely visible role of the IMU in action in the settled districts of Pakistain.
Foreigners make fabulous cannon fodder, and they have fewer objections to harming the locals than those related to the locals, however distantly.
Reams of video footage is available to corroborate the TTP-IMU long association with each other in battles against the Pak forces inside the tribal areas, mainly in North and South Wazoo, including recently released visuals of them undertaking joint fire-raids against army posts in the Mahsud heartland.

But the midnight attack on Bannu jail, a joint TTP-IMU operation, was the first such public demonstration of their collaboration in a settled district of Pakistain. The TTP released a video showing scenes of pre- and post-attack on the prison, ostensibly conducted to release the former PAF technician, Adnan Rashid.

The video was the first acknowledgement of the presence of IMU fighters in any attack conducted outside the confines of the tribal region. The IMU followed suit, releasing a version of its own, dubbed in German and Uzbek language.

Why is the TTP relying more now on the IMU for support is not clear, but law enforcement officers who have had the experience of fighting them acknowledge Uzbek fighters for their ferocity, alacrity and training.

For the law enforcement agencies, the increasing and growing role of imported muscle in audacious and high-profile attacks could well change the dimension of the whole war game in Pakistain.

TATTOO: Already, law enforcers and security officials are trying to make a case for the fight against bully boyz by pointing to tattoos on four of the bodies in their custody.

Two very large tattoos engraved on the back of two imported muscle have caught their immediate attention. There is an almost a scramble to search to find the meanings behind what they perceive and claimed to be engraved tattoos of the "angel of death" and "Satan".

Some within the law enforcement officers believe the bully boyz belonged to some particular cult in the Russian Federation before taking up the cause of the "Holy Jihad" to fight the "infidels" "in the land of Jihad".

Others believe the bully boyz were part of some international network, though tattooing is a common practice in Russia, including Chechnya and Daghistan, and central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.

One of the killed foreign bully boyz had a small star-like tattoo on his shoulder and leg, while one had his name "Yusuf" engraved on his arm in Russian alphabet.

The tattoos remain an enigma for Sherlocks, who are working hard to find religious explanation and the symbolism behind the "evil face" and the long-nailed fingers. This may turn into something big and it may also end up in a total fiasco. But what is now known is that the law enforcement agencies are increasingly facing more daring and brazen attacks inside urban populated centres, not just from Pak bully boyz under the TTP umbrella but also a horde of foreign bully boyz based in the tribal region.
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind, as it is said. Our compliments to the ISI.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Rebel control of Yarmouk 'real gain for opposition'
[JPost] The capture by Syrian rebel forces of a Paleostinian refugee camp in southern Damascus
...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations...
is another significant gain for the opposition in the capital, Israeli experts said on Tuesday.

"It is another tactical development that, taken together with other developments, makes for a dramatic change [for the rebels] because it is another neighborhood in Damascus," Prof. Eyal Zisser, who heads the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University, told The Jerusalem Post.

According to Zisser, the rebel gains inside the capital are a sign that this is the beginning of the end for Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
. However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds...
it is unlikely that his regime will collapse quickly.

"That end can take a long time to come," Zisser added.

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Shlomo Brom, an expert on Syria and the Paleostinians at Tel Aviv's Institute for National Security Studies, said that Paleostinian support for Assad had waned well before the latest violence in Yarmouk.

"The Paleostinians are Sunnis and have been sympathetic to the opposition," Brom said.

The Syrian conflict has split Sunni loyalties, with Hezbollah following its patron Iran in backing Assad. In July, pan-Arabic newspaper Asharq Alawsat reported that the leadership of the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Mohammedan Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
had left Syria for Iran but still remained on good terms with the Assad regime.

However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
Paleostinian Sunni terror group Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, closed its offices in Damascus earlier this year, announcing in February that they were turning against the Alawite Assad and instead supporting the Sunni rebels.

In October, Syrian rebels announced they had begun arming sympathetic Paleostinians, who would form a group called the Liwa al-Asifa (Storm Brigade) to fight against the PFLP-GC and take its Yarmouk stronghold.

The PFLP-GC have accused the Liwa al-Asifa of trying to stir up trouble within the Paleostinian refugee community in Yarmouk, while Syrian rebels have accused the PFLP-GC of stifling Paleostinian dissent against Assad.

Last month, PFLP-GC sources said that Liwa al-Asifa fighters had critically injured a senior PFLP-GC leader and killed four others in an boom-mobileing attack in Yarmouk.

Now, with Yarmouk fallen to the rebels, PFLP-GC fighters are also starting to defect and join the opposition forces, Rooters reported on Monday, citing Paleostinian sources.

Many of the defections came on Saturday, the same day that PFLP-GC leader Ahmed Jibril fled the Yarmouk camp with his son, the sources said.

Like Zisser, Brom believes that if the Syrian rebels' claim of taking the Yarmouk camp is true, it is significant only in that it is another gain for the opposition within Damascus, and not because it is a Paleostinian area.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: PFLP-GC


India-Pakistan
Government committed to a polio-free Pakistan: PM
[Dawn] Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday while strongly condemning the attack on polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
field workers 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...
and 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.
, reiterated the resolve of the government to make Pakistain a polio-free country.

Chairing a meeting of Polio Task Force at the PM Secretariat in Islamabad, the prime minister said “we cannot, and will not allow polio to wreak havoc with the lives of our children.”

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf expressed deep shock and grief over the death of polio field team workers in the two cities, earlier in the day and paid tribute to their services.

He said it was only due to their efforts that the disease was being wiped out from the country. The prime minister also ordered the concerned authorities to conduct an enquiry into the incidents and bring the real culprits to book.

The prime minister directed the interior ministry to coordinate with the national polio eradication authorities and provide foolproof security to the polio teams.

The meeting was informed that 34 million children would be covered under the National Emergency Plan 2013 which will involve over 25,000 polio workers.

The Prime Minister said seeking a polio-free life was the fundamental right of the people and added “we would not allow polio to plague their lives.”

“This is the least we owe to our children and we will stay the course until polio is wiped out from the country,” he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Benghazi attack report
This is the State Department report. It details the lack of security, the lack of warnings, and the fact that indeed, there was no protest outside the consulate that day.

It does not get into what happened at the White House afterwards, but that may not have been included in the charge of the reviewers.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The radio report this morning said there were serious mistakes, "but apparently not serious enough to cost anyone their job."
Posted by: Bobby || 12/19/2012 6:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Unclassified State Dept. report? Who's going to put together and integrate the other smokestack reports: DOD, CIA, Executive branch, FBI, other intelligence agencies? Probably won't happen.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/19/2012 8:21 Comments || Top||

#3  "but apparently not serious enough to cost anyone their job."

Ambassador Stevens had no comment
Posted by: Frank G || 12/19/2012 8:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Board members found that there was little understanding of militias in Benghazi and the threat they posed to U.S. interests.

Another way of saying.... Who Knew? Where there is "little understanding" (or gross ignorance), could it be someone failed in their duties with regard to 'due diligence regarding 'warnings and indications'? Could someone or a group of someone's be found "criminally negligent". I found no reference to criminal negligence in this document.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 9:04 Comments || Top||

#5  One could have a field day parsing (fisking?) this report.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/19/2012 10:09 Comments || Top||

#6  I love the smell of white wash in the morning.
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 12/19/2012 10:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Perhaps I will better understand the report after I.... fall down and suffer a mild concussion.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 10:16 Comments || Top||

#8  To actually establish breech of duty is pretty difficult.

If you have a confused bunch of people with airy and ambiguous responsibilities and leadership which continuously provides incomprehensible direction, you can have all kinds of disasters without anybody breaching duty.
Posted by: lord garth || 12/19/2012 10:40 Comments || Top||

#9  The head of State Dept Security resigned. Find that interesting in that nobody will accept that as a sacrificial lamb, so why did he resign? Testifying perhaps?
Posted by: Charles || 12/19/2012 12:30 Comments || Top||

#10  "but apparently not serious enough to cost anyone their job."

So far 3 State officials have resigned "under pressure." This is just the appetizer.

Posted by: Frozen Al || 12/19/2012 15:07 Comments || Top||

#11  So far 3 State officials have resigned "under pressure."

How many appointees and how many career service personnel?
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/19/2012 17:44 Comments || Top||

#12  "How many appointees and how many career service personnel?"

And how much was given to each under the table to pay them off?
Posted by: Barbara || 12/19/2012 18:22 Comments || Top||

#13  Ooooohhhhhhhhh...my head!!!
Posted by: Hillary Rodham Clinton || 12/19/2012 19:39 Comments || Top||

#14  Mugsy beat me to it.
Posted by: Tom Sawyer || 12/19/2012 22:58 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkey To Iran: Stop Syrian Violence
[Ynet] Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged Iran to "send a clear message" to the regime in Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
to push for an end to the violence.

He said that instead of criticizing, Iran should "stop" the Syrian regime which has continuously oppressed its own people and caused violations by Turkey's border.
When you've purged your army, all that's left is toothless diplomacy.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
N. Korean Satellite May Be Malfunctioning
Independent astronomers say North Korea's newly launched satellite may be malfunctioning, tumbling end over end instead of pointing consistently at the Earth. It also is allegedly failing to emit expected ultra high-frequency radio broadcasts.

Dr. Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told VOA Monday that optical observers from around the world have been using orbital data to predict the satellite's movements. They also have been measuring its brightness. He said multiple reports, notably one from retired South African astronomer Greg Roberts, indicate the satellite is alternately getting brighter and fainter in 16-second intervals, which suggests to McDowell and other scientists that the satellite is tumbling in orbit.

"The box is tumbling end over end, so when it catches the sunlight it gets brighter, when it's facing the other way it gets fainter, McDowell said. That leads us further to conclude the satellite isn't working right. It's designed so that it should always point toward the Earth so it can use its little webcam to take pictures of the Earth," he said.

McDowell said another troubling sign -- the absence of ultra high-frequency radio broadcasts North Korea said would be emitted from the satellite -- was flagged by Bob Christy with the Kettering Group of amateur satellite observers in the United Kingdom.

"People have been looking for the claimed patriotic songs that the satellite is meant to be broadcasting over radio, and no one has been able to pick those up. So we think that part isn't working either," McDowell said.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It is the nature of bricks to tumble in flight, it is not the nature of bricks to broadcast.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/19/2012 5:12 Comments || Top||

#2  so it can use its little webcam to take pictures of the Earth

Hehe. What was the range on USB again?
Come on, guys. Don't be haters. Remember, the amazing thing about a dancing bear is not how well it dances, but that it dances at all.

P.S. I lost a box of donuts when the dang thing didn't blow up on the launch pad.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/19/2012 14:57 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
UN Watch: Human Rights Watch Expels Falk From UN C'tee
[Jpost] Human Rights Watch
... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world...
on Tuesday expelled UN investigator Richard Falk from one of its committees, UN Watch reported.

UN Watch had called for Human Rights Watch to dismiss Falk, citing condemnation against him for spreading anti-Semitism and 9/11 conspiracies by UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.

"We commend Human Rights Watch and its director Kenneth Roth for doing the right thing, and finally removing this enemy of human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
from their important organization," said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

"A man who supports the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, terrorist organization, and who was just condemned by the British Foreign Office for his cover endorsement of a virulently antisemitic book, has no place in an organization dedicated to human rights," said Neuer.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
US: Two-Thirds Of Top Qaeda Leaders 'Removed' Since 2009
[Ynet] The United States has eliminated more than 20 of al Qaeda's top 30 leaders based in Afghanistan and Pakistain from the battlefield since Barack Obama
We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us...
became president, a top US government security official said on Tuesday.

Daniel Benjamin, head of the State Department's counterterrorism bureau, said that when Obama took office in 2009, al Qaeda's central organization, then led by the late Osama bin Laden
... who has won the race to that place where we all eventually end up...
, was a "formidable and dangerous organization."
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan

#1  Appears Daniel Benjamin is suffering from advanced Susan Rice disease.

Think college football coaching vacancies Ben, then get back to us when you have something intelligent to say.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 0:59 Comments || Top||

#2  I could be wrong but outside of Bin Lasen himself, i thought we had taken out all the top guys by 2009. So the new top guys they are crowing about are technically top guys but realistally they are middle management.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 12/19/2012 10:07 Comments || Top||

#3  double-tapping Ayman "Stunted Unicorn" Zawahiri would put a dent in the old guard's morale
Posted by: Frank G || 12/19/2012 21:41 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Hundreds Protest Draft Charter in Cairo
[An Nahar] Hundreds of protesters demonstrated in front of the Cairo palace of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi late on Tuesday in a last-ditch bid to scuttle a draft constitution being put to a referendum.

The rally, of up to 2,000 people according to AFP correspondents, was smaller than previous anti-Morsi protests held over the past three weeks.

It was called by the opposition National Salvation Front to urge a "no" vote in Saturday's second round of polling in the referendum.

The Front was also protesting alleged fraud in the first round last weekend, unofficial results of which suggested the proposed constitution would be adopted.

Tallies by state media and Morsi's Moslem Brüderbund showed 57 percent support for the text -- less than Egypt's ruling Islamists had hoped for, but enough to secure victory without a major upset in the second round.

Some protesters on Tuesday said they would not accept the results of the referendum even if official results showed a majority backed the charter.

"We do not agree with this constitution. We don't recognize the referendum as valid," said one opposition protester near the palace, Ayyoub Laouindi.

"The constitution is void, the referendum is void. Egyptians' voices have been falsified and the ballot boxes been stuffed," said another, Suzanne Esmat, a tourist guide.

Morsi's camp argues the new charter is needed to bring stability to Egypt after months of turmoil following the early 2011 revolution that toppled veteran leader Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
But the opposition is scathing of the document, which was written largely by Islamists, believing it weakens human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
protections, particularly for women, and sets the stage for a creeping advance towards Islamic sharia law.

Divisions over Morsi's rule and the draft constitution spilled over into vicious festivities between supporters and opponents of the president, with eight people killed and hundreds injured outside the palace on December 5.

The head of the military, Defence Minister General Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, warned against the polarization of the nation.

"The divisions are affecting the economy and threaten social peace, requiring of us solidarity, renouncing differences and putting public interests first," Sissi was quoted as saying.

The justice ministry responded to the opposition's fraud allegations by saying it was appointing judges to investigate.

But the secretary general of the electoral commission, Mahmoud Abu Shousha, vehemently rejected the opposition's claims that fake judges oversaw voting in some polling stations.

Many of Egypt's 21,000 judges were keeping up their pressure on Morsi, charging that he was trying to undermine their independence.

On Monday, the State Council Judges Club grouping nearly 2,600 top judges announced it would boycott supervision of the second round of voting. It joined an estimated 12,000 judges who already boycotted the first round.

And a protest by hundreds of prosecutors the same day forced the resignation of the prosecutor general, Talaat Ibrahim Abdallah, appointed less than a month ago by Morsi.

"This is undoubtedly a new crisis for Mohammed Morsi, showing that his decisions are not accepted by large sectors of the state system," a political science professor at Cairo University, Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed, told AFP.

A commentator in the newspaper Al-Masri al-Youm, Hassan Nafaa, wrote that Morsi's drive to hold the referendum "has managed to do just one thing: solidify and deepen the division between Egyptians to a dangerous and worrying degree".
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


India-Pakistan
Grenade attack at Nowshera army facility wounds 10
[Dawn] Two men on a cycle of violence hurled hand grenades at the main gate of an army recruiting center in northwestern Pakistain on Tuesday, wounding 10 people, police said.

The injured in the attack in the garrison town of Risalpur in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
province included civilians and security personnel, said senior police official, Ghulam Mohammed.

Mohammed said the police have launched a manhunt to trace and arrest the attackers.

No one immediately grabbed credit for the attack, the latest in a string of assaults in recent days that illustrate the continued challenge Pakistain faces from Islamic fascisti despite military operations against the Pak Taliban and their supporters.

Tuesday’s attack came a day after a boom-mobile went kaboom! in a crowded market in Pakistain’s northwestern town of Jamrud near the Afghan border, killing 17 people and wounding more than 40 others.

Earlier on Saturday, ten Taliban fighters armed with rockets and boom-mobiles attacked the military section of an international airport 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.
, killing four people and wounding over 40 others.

Five of the Islamic fascisti were killed during the attack and the other five died Sunday after hours-long shootout with security forces.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Home Front: Politix
Report on Benghazi attack to blame diplomatic security
An independent review of the September 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi criticizes the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security for its work in Libya before the event in which four Americans were killed, two sources who have read the report told CNN Tuesday.

The senior management in charge of diplomatic security "does not come out well at all," said one of the sources.

Assistant Secretary of State Eric Boswell is head of diplomatic security and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb oversaw State Department decisions on security at the diplomatic outpost. Lamb testified before Congress about the security precautions; documents show Lamb denied repeated requests for additional security in Libya.

The review has been sent to Capitol Hill, and an unclassified version was expected to be released as well.
Posted by: tipper || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If I remember correctly, the Regional Security Offier (RSO) for Libya told Congress within days of the incident that the problem resided back at State. I believe he said something to the effect that "his superiors in D.C. were his Taliban". The question that remains unanswered is WHY the Diplomatic Security (DS) superiors acted in such a manner.

Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 0:42 Comments || Top||

#2  The question that remains unanswered is WHY the Diplomatic Security (DS) superiors acted in such a manner.

Red-headed stepchild project?
Posted by: Pappy || 12/19/2012 10:26 Comments || Top||

#3  They are not like us. Many in DS are....icky former military and probably homophobic. They cluster in small groups and keep to themselves in the cafeteria and are often seen selecting meat items. They push us around, carry icky guns, and tell us what to do. We've never liked them anyway.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 10:36 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Al-Qaeda-affiliated cell dismantled in Tunisia
[Magharebia] Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is trying to expand its operations in the Maghreb by taking advantage of security chaos, the availability of weapons and the increasing number of jihadists.

The recent discovery of a terror cell in Tunisia demonstrates AQIM's growing reach in the region.

In a press statement released Saturday (December 15th), the Tunisian Interior Ministry said that several elements of a "terrorist" group were placed in durance vile
Please don't kill me!
and brought to court on December 13th, and that efforts were under way to arrest other suspects.

The "terrorist" network was engaged in recruiting "religiously radical elements" and sending them to AQIM strongholds, officials said.

The investigation began after a rental car was stopped December 6th in Fernana, Jendouba province, near the Algeria border, Interior Ministry spokesperson Khaled Tarrouche said. The driver and a passenger were arrested, while two other passengers managed to escape.

"When the car was searched, four bags containing suspicious items, such as wires, electric detonators, explosives and powder, as well as some documents and food items, were found," Tarrouche said.

He described the suspects as part of a group "usually known as jihadist salafists".

Tarrouche added that following intensive security campaigns, other members of the network were arrested.

"A pistol, a Kalashnikov, bullets, combat gear, knives and maps were seized at a house owned by one element of the group," he said.

The announcement that a terror network had been dismantled came a week after military weapons were found in Jendouba province.

It also came days after an armed shootout broke out between Tunisian security forces and unknown gunnies near Feriana, some 200 kilometres west of Tunis, near the Algeria border.

The border post chief, 27-year-old Anis Jlassi, was killed in the December 10th Kasserine clash.

The Algerian-Tunisian border is a vital route for AQIM elements who cross from Libya towards training camps in Algeria. They take advantage of the lack of security on the border between Libya, Tunisia and Algeria.

According to Algerian paper El Khabar's December 15th edition, the Algerian army killed three gunnies - two Libyans and one Tunisian - who were trying to join al-Qaeda's strongholds in northern Mali. They reportedly had weapons in their possession.

Tunisian officials have repeatedly warned about threats posed by al-Qaeda and jihadist networks to the region's security.

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki recently declared that weapons from Libya were making their way to radical Islamists in both Tunisia and Algeria.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


India-Pakistan
KP Assembly told: Militants planned to seize key installations
[Dawn] Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain has said that the krazed killers, who attacked Bacha Khan International Airport on Saturday night, had planned to take over important security installations and local TV station in the cantonment area.

“We have reports that if attackers had entered the airbase then they would have received more backup from their standby associates in the adjacent tribal agency,” he said while speaking on a point of order in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday.

The minister said that 10 faceless myrmidons were killed in the attack on the airport while one was incarcerated
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
in maimed condition.

He said that foreigners of Dagestan
...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca...
and Uzbek origins were involved in the attack.

He said that all the faceless myrmidons involved in the attack had different tattoos on their bodies.

He said that members of terrorist organizations carved tattoos on their bodies to identify each other.

Mr Hussain did not disclose the name of the maimed terrorist, who is under treatment. However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried...
he said that the injured krazed killer was in stable, pH balanced condition.

“They (militants) had planned to seize important military installations, a nearby station of the state-run Pakistain Television, after entering the airbase,” he said and added that local people and law enforcement agencies jointly thwarted the nefarious plan of terrorists.

The minister said that Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain front man had also stated that 10 people were sent on the mission with two explosive-laden vehicles, rockets and hand grenades.

Mr Hussain said that one army man, two coppers and six non-combatants were killed while two more police constables suffered injuries in the operation.

He assured the house that government would compensate the local people whose properties were damaged as a result of krazed killers’ attack.

The minister condemned killing of tribal people in a car kaboom in Jamrud, Khyber Agency on Monday and asked federal government to properly compensate the affected families.

Meanwhile,
...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck reached for the green sauce...
absence of ministers again affected the assembly’s business and Speaker Kiramatullah Khan Chagharmatti kept adjournment motions and call attention notices pending.

Taking notice of the absence of ministers, speaker directed information minister to relieve those cabinet members, who did not attend the session. “Why not to relieve habitual absenting ministers,” he asked the information minister.

Earlier, during question-answer session member of e Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal from Lakki Marwat Naseer Mohammad Maidadkhel said that army had turned district headquarters hospital in his area into a base and the building was badly damaged.

He said that security forces had fitted heavy artillery on the hospital’s premises and cracks had appeared in the building due to firing. He said that government should evacuate troops from the hospital and provide them suitable place.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Hacking Ships' Transponders
The latest round of sanctions has caused Iran to come up with a number of new methods to get around these prohibitions. Iranian agents are offering deep discounts to buyers willing to create false documents and move the Iranian crude. Selling oil at discounts of 30 percent or more still costs Iran. So also does the expense of secretly buying tankers that will pretend to belong to another country while moving the black market oil. While Iran has been successful in the past, that was because it was often moving items (like weapons components) that could be hidden in a cargo container. Oil is another matter. Iran has experimented with using shipping containers to smuggle oil but this is very inefficient and you can still get caught. Iran fears that between the CIA (photo satellites and spies) and the maritime insurance industry (that monitors world shipping via transponders and other sightings) it will be very difficult to move the illegal oil.

This led Iran to come up with ways to confuse the international ship tracking system. These "maritime security technologies" were developed as a safety feature, and have proved valuable providing the positions of ships caught in storms or taken by pirates. AIS (Automated Identification System) and INMARSAT (International Maritime Satellite) were originally developed to make it easier for ships to track other nearby ships at sea. It enables shipping companies keep track of their vessels, no matter where they are on the planet. These two systems are now required by law (international agreements) for all sea going vessels greater than 300-tons. The technology has worked, and the U.S. Navy has found them particularly useful in counter-terror operations. Coast Guards the world over have also found the systems a big help. Iran often just has two ships trade INMARSAT IDs while they are near each other, leaving the U.S., or anyone else checking INMARSAT data, unable to track ships that have been switched.

But apparently pirates in some areas have gained access to the systems (via bribes or theft) and an increasing number of pirate attacks appear to have been helped by technology meant just to safeguard ships at sea. Iran, and other nations involved in smuggling learned how to have INMARSAT send a false signal, concealing where the ship actually is. This can work for a while, but a nation with lots of recon satellites, warships and cooperation from most of the world's shipping, can get around this. The Iranians are aware of the satellites and other means of double-checking transponder data and is constantly coming up with schemes to confound the American snoopers. Since Iran has been under sanctions for decades for being an outlaw state, threatening more punishment is seen as a challenge not a threat.

Posted by: Pappy || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If the ships were to sink after having been located, their location would be fairly well known for some time to come.
just sayin....
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 12/19/2012 23:06 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF Neutralizes Suspicious Object On Lebanese Border
[Ynet] The Lebanese media has reported that an Israel Defense Forces patrol neutralized a suspicious object behind the border fence in Metula, opposite the Fatima Gate.

A UNIFIL force followed the activity from the Lebanese side.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There are alot of suspicious individuals on the Lebanese border that require neutralization.
Posted by: Ptah || 12/19/2012 9:00 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Koreans Vote for New President
Koreans choose their next president on Wednesday by casting their ballots at 13,542 polling stations across the nation from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The total number of eligible voters stands at 40.5 million, up 2.85 million from the previous presidential election in 2007.

The two contenders, the Saenuri Party's Park Geun-hye and the Democratic United Party's Moon Jae-in, campaigned until Tuesday in Seoul and Busan.

"We expect a very close race, so it will probably take some time before a winner becomes evident," said an official at the National Election Commission.
Posted by: Steve White || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See also DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PRO-US-JAPAN, ANTI-CHINA-NORTH KOREA CANDIDATE WINS KOREAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

* SAME > PARK GEUN-HYE CERTAIN TO WIN SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENCY:LOCAL MEDIA - XINHUA.

RELATED TOPIX > PARK GEUN0HYE SURE TO BECOME THE FIRST FEMALE PRSIDENT IN KOREA: NEC - YONHAP NEWS.

* SAME > PARK GEUN-HYE TO STRIKE BALANCE BETWEEN CHINA, JAPAN. No reason in the World for SOKOR to be favoring one over the other.

SAME > SOUTH KOREA WILL CHANGE POLICY TOWARDS NORTH, towards "Moderation".

Reagan-esque "Trust, but Verify"???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/19/2012 21:53 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Algeria arrests AQIM 'number two'
[Magharebia] Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) suffered another major blow in Algeria on Sunday (December 16th) when its number two boss and main front man was captured near Bouira.

The arrest of Salah Gasmi, alias Salah Abou Mohamed, further weakens the leadership of the terrorist group, which is coming under heavy pressure from security forces and is hiding to limit its losses.

The operation took place in the village of Cheurfa in Bouira province, 100 kilometres east of Algiers, according to Tout Sur l'Algerie. Acting on reliable intelligence reports indicating that Gasmi was in the village, security forces laid a trap for him outside a restaurant where he was due to meet his followers.

According to security officers, his capture is important because of his importance to al-Qaeda emir Abdelmalik Droukdel.
... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb....
The Droukdel lieutenant was responsible for the terrorist group's propaganda and the co-ordination of the various small groups operating in Kabylie. A computer and communications specialist by profession, he is the suspected criminal mastermind of the 2007 suicide kabooms in Algiers.

This security operation follows another carried out November 18th on the border between the provinces of Tizi-Ouzou and Bejaia (east of Algiers) in which three bad boyz were potted. They included the head of AQIM's military committee, who was also a member of its committee of dignitaries.

This dangerous terrorist, Makhfi Rabah (aka Cheikh Abdenacer), a former member of the Armed Islamist Group (GIA) had been actively sought since 1992.

Another recent operation on August 15th led to the arrest of the chairman of AQIM's judicial committee, Nacib Tayeb (aka Abderrahmane Abou Ishak Essoufi), and two of his henchmen at a Ghardaia checkpoint, reportedly as they were headed to a leadership meeting.

In October, Algerian forces killed Bekkai Boualem (aka Khaled El Mig, the head of external relations for al-Qaeda).

Aziz Hatem (aka Youssef Abou Youssef), the head of AQIM's El-Wenchir brigade, was also recently eliminated by Algerian troops.

These operations carried out by security forces are the fruit of intelligence efforts, stemming from confessions of captured terrorists, the infiltration of terror groups and citizens' tips.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


India-Pakistan
Treason petition filed against Rehman Malik in SC
[Dawn] A petition was filed against 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.
’s tour of India, alleging illegal use of taxpayers’ money for the tour and for offering hospitality to the family of Sarabjit Singh at the 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...
registry of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, DawnNews reported.

The petitioner has called for the recovery of the expenses incurred on Malik’s tour, stating that the funds utilised for the tour were spent from the national treasury and therefore, should be returned by the federal interior minister.

The petition also claimed that Malik caused great embarrassment to the people of Pakistain by announcing that visas would be granted to the family members of the tossed in the clink
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
Indian spy, Sarabjit Singh, who is allegedly responsible for a large number of Pak deaths.

The petition added that the interior minister vowed to extend hospitality to Singh’s family, which was detrimental to national interests.

Moreover, the petition maintained the stance that the initiatives taken in India between the Indian delegation and Rehman Malik were illegal.

The petition requested the Supreme Court to try Rehman Malik for treason under Articles 5 and 6 of the Constitution.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
African leaders call for Mali intervention
[Magharebia] The African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
(AU) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) called on Monday (December 17th) for deploying an African force "without delay" to expel armed Islamist groups that control northern Mali.

"We have to focus on the need to send an international force without delay to put an end to the terrorist danger that is threatening peace in our region," Benin president and AU chairperson Thomas Boni Yayi said.

The AU chief made the remarks in Niamey at the opening of the summit of the Conseil de l'Entente (Council of the Accord), a regional co-operation body that includes Benin, 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...
, Ivory Coast, Niger and Togo.

In his turn, Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou repeated his request for the UN Security Council to adopt an urgent resolution to be the legitimate umbrella that would enable Africans to combat hard boyz in Mali.

"I reiterate our call to the Security Council to authorise the dispatch of an international force as soon as possible to help liberate northern Mali. Sending this force has even become an urgent thing for everyone," he said.

"Our region is facing unprecedented threats, such as terrorism and organised crime, which work together to create a condition that can explode anytime, in which case none of our countries will be spared," Issoufou said.

Analyst Mohamed Ag Ahmedu said that the African leaders' urgent statements and their desire to wage a quick war came as an implied response to the position of UN Secretary-General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
, who warned in late November of the consequences of any unplanned military intervention in the region.

"This has disturbed the African leaders who felt that these statements are underestimating their months-long efforts and co-ordination," the analyst added.

Malian journalist Moussa Coulibaly said that the African leaders' calls were expected as part of efforts to find a way out of this state of ambiguity, slow action and contradictory statements.

"It's about time the world realised that any minute lost in dates, delays and hesitation will further consolidate the armed terrorist groups' force," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Ecuador Volcano Spews Lava, Ash, World to End in Two Days
[An Nahar] Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano spewed lava and towering plumes of ash Tuesday but the alert level remains the same, seismic experts said.

"During the overnight and early morning hours, there continued to be a series of explosive events and signs of quaking and (lava) emission," said a statement from the Geophysical Institute in Quito, capital of the Andean nation.

Authorities have issued an orange alert -- the second-highest warning level -- for towns near the volcano; it has not been elevated, officials said.

Greater activity has been building since Wednesday, along with a slight increase in gas emissions from the 5,029-meter (16,500-foot) volcano, located about 135 kilometers (84 miles) south of Quito.

Eruptions at Tungurahua, which means "Throat of Fire" in the indigenous Quechua language, peaked in 2006, killing six people in a Chimborazo village.

Several communities near Tungurahua, including the tourist town of Banos with 15,000 people, also were forced to evacuate during the volcano's violent eruption in 1999. Residents could only return to their homes a year later.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Clashes Erupt As Israeli Forces Raid Jenin Village
[Ma'an] Israeli forces on Monday raided Jaba village in the northern West Bank, leading to clashes with locals.

Five army jeeps entered Jaba village at around noon, and young men pelted soldiers with stones and bottles as soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets, witnesses told Ma'an.

Soldiers ransacked several houses, including the homes of Mahmoud Awwad, Radi Fashafsha and Ziad Alawna, and took photographs of a girls' school, a mosque, a coffee shop and two houses, locals said.

An Israeli army spokesman did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Earlier Monday, Israeli soldiers shot and injured a Palestinian in Madama village near Nablus during clashes between villagers and Israeli settlers.

Witnesses told Ma'an that settlers from the illegal Yizhar settlement entered Madama village and clashed with villagers. Israeli forces arrived after a settler was injured by a stone.

During the clashes, Amir Fayiz Nassar, 27, was shot in the foot with live fire by soldiers and taken to Rafidia hospital, witnesses said.
"Hey - shootin dem inna foot, dat's our job!"
Soldiers also arrested three Palestinians during the incident, including Mamoon Nassar who was assaulted by settlers before being detained, locals said.
Aaaaand here's the Israeli perspective:
An Israeli army spokeswoman said a Palestinian man had approached Yizhar settlement and a soldier "arrived at the scene to distance the man, resulting in a physical confrontation."

"Several Palestinians gathered in the area and threw rocks at soldiers, who responded using riot dispersal means," she said.

"After the riot dispersal gear proved inefficient, the soldiers were forced to fire towards one of the rioters legs, identifying a hit," she added, noting that an Israeli civilian had been injured by a rock.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
162 Hospitalized, 37 Dead from Cold Spell in Ukraine
[An Nahar] Ukrainian health officials say 37 people have died from the severe cold spell that hit the country this month.

Temperatures have dropped as low as minus-17 C (2 F).

The Health Ministry said Tuesday that 190 people have sought medical help for hypothermia, of which 162 people have been hospitalized.

No health official would say how the deaths occurred, but victims in previous cold spells have been mostly the homeless and elderly people. Authorities have set up some 1,500 centers around the country to provide food and shelter.

The cold weather comes as heavy snowfall in the eastern European nation blocked key roads, leaving hundreds of cars stranded.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How do you say "global warming" in Ukrainian?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/19/2012 0:28 Comments || Top||

#2  It's not global warming any more. It's climate change. That way, they get to take our money no matter what happens.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/19/2012 9:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Chronic illnesses resulting from Climate Change may be classified as man-caused and not be eligible for full coverage and reimbursement under Obamacare. Needs-based riders may be available at substantial additional cost for high risk categories such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and firearms ownership. See Appendix XVIII for more details.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/19/2012 10:05 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
5 die in shooting in Torreon in Coahuila

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

A total of five individuals were shot to death and another two were wounded in an armed assault on a bar in Torreon, Coahuila Monday night, according to Mexican news accounts.

A news item which appeared on the online edition of El Diario de Coahuila news daily said that attack started at the Texas bar near the intersection of Boulevard de las Fuentes Diagonal and Paseo de la Rosita at around 2100 hrs near La Rosita colony.

Armed suspects were seen fleeing the scene aboard a Matiz sedan after the shooting. Two of the four men men who died as the scene were identified as Federico Sifuentes Vazquez, 45, and Hector Juarez Gomez, 38. The two other unidentified victims were in their 30s and 40s. Three more unidentified men in their 20s and 30s were also shot, one of whom died while receiving medical care.

The report says about forty 9mm spent cartridge casings were left at the scene.
Posted by: badanov || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Prosecutors: Florida Man Plotted New York Terrorist Attack
[Jpost] A Pak-born man plotted to detonate a bomb in New York City to avenge the deaths of people killed by drone attacks in Afghanistan but failed to raise enough money to carry out the scheme, a federal prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Raees Alam Qazi, 20, was tossed in the clink
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
along with his brother, Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 30, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Nov. 29. The brothers, both naturalized US citizens, are charged with providing support to cut-throats and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Both have pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
US, UK Attack 'Provocative' Jerusalem Construction Plans
Naturally.
[Jpost] State Department's Nuland says US "deeply disappointed" with Israeli plan to construct thousands of apartments in east Jerusalem; UK's Hague calls move an "obstacle to peace, two-state solution."

US and EU officials were in "close contact" regarding how to best and most effectively react to Israeli plans for thousands of new Jewish apartments in east Jerusalem, European diplomatic officials said on Tuesday.

The comments came amid reports that the four EU countries on the UN Security Council -- La Belle France, Britannia, Portugal and Germany -- were preparing a statement in the council condemning the settlement construction. The coordination with the US stems from a desire to avoid an American veto of any Security Council resolution on the matter.

In February 2011, the US vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have condemned all settlements, as well as construction in east Jerusalem, as illegal. The US said that while it believed the settlements were illegitimate, the resolution would have hindered chances to resume peace talks.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  US "deeply disappointed" with Israeli plan to construct thousands of apartments in east Jerusalem

Disappointment is part of growing up.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/19/2012 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  "obstacle to peace, two-state solution."

As the European imposed Middle East States are collapsing as we speak. Consider this part of the bigger picture. Just without the corpses.
Posted by: phil_b || 12/19/2012 4:21 Comments || Top||

#3  The provocative plans involve clearing a mountain that is currently completely barren of life - and has been that way since Israel was created. It's only a few miles from current housing in Jerusalem proper. And Israel has always claimed this land as its own. It's worth looking at both sides of this story.
Posted by: Raider || 12/19/2012 19:53 Comments || Top||

#4  "It's worth looking at both sides of this story."

Silly Raider - they'd never do that.

Their heads would explode.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/19/2012 19:57 Comments || Top||


IDF To Allow Gazans To Visit W. Bank For Christmas
Merry Christmas, habibi.
[Jpost] 500 Christian Paleostinians, 75,000 tourists to visit Bethlehem over holiday; IDF to decrease activity in area during holiday.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/19/2012 0:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Heh, the Palestinian Minister of Uncontrollable Rage.

Just remember, Muslims, Jesus loves you. Even if you are godless heathens.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/19/2012 19:41 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Battles raging in Damascus refugee area
Clashes between rebels and armed Palestinians loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have continued in a Damascus neighbourhood inhabited by many Palestinian refugees. Residents in Yarmouk camp said several mortar rounds landed in the neighbourhood on Tuesday and gunfire echoed around the area. Locals said there were no Syrian government troops in the camp and that most of the fighting was between opposition fighters and gunmen from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC). Government troops have been deployed outside the camp, and were preventing anyone from entering.

Activists said fighter jets bombarded the area and posted footage online purporting to show smoke billowing in the sky after the attack.

Tensions have increased after a regime air raid killed at least eight people on Sunday. Tens of thousands of the residents have fled the violence rocking the 2.1 square-kilometre area. Rebels have launched an offensive to drive the PFLP-GC out of the area, 8km from the city centre, as they try to push deeper into the capital in a bid to topple the Assad regime.

UNRWA said it was "gravely concerned" for the Palestinian refugees in Yarmouk who "have experienced particularly intense armed engagements involving the use of heavy weapons and aircraft".
Posted by: Pappy || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  AQ types taking out Paelos..
I have to ponder that...
Posted by: Water Modem || 12/19/2012 2:43 Comments || Top||

#2  where is the arab solidarity??

oh what that is only when bad jews and christians are involved....
break out the popcorn...less than 0 sympathy
Posted by: dan || 12/19/2012 19:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

Not to be confused with The Popular Front of Judea
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/19/2012 22:01 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraqi President Hospitalized After Suffering Stroke
[Ynet] Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who has mediated among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish parties, was hospitalized on Tuesday after suffering a stroke that left him in "critical but stable condition", government officials and politicians said.

Without Talabani, Iraq would lose an influential peace-maker who often eased tensions in the fragile power-sharing government and negotiated in the growing rift over oil between Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
and the OPEC member country's autonomous Kurdistan region.
May he heal well and quickly.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Major Exodus of Palestinians from Yarmuk Camp into Lebanon
[An Nahar] Leb saw a mass influx of Paleostinians on Tuesday, as hundreds fled mounting violence in the Yarmuk refugee camp in Syria and entered through the Masnaa border in the east, an Agence La Belle France Presse correspondent said.

They will join about 2,000 other Paleostinians who crossed into Leb over the past three days, according to estimates by the U.N. agency for Paleostinian refugees (UNRWA) and the Lebanese General Security.

The correspondent said that dozens of buses and cars carrying Paleostinians had arrived on the Lebanese side by midday.

The passengers told news hounds they were coming from the Yarmuk refugee camp, which suffered unprecedented air strikes on Sunday that left eight civilians dead, according to one watchdog.

"There is shelling in several areas of the camp and most people have left," one young man said on condition of anonymity.

An official from the newly-formed Syrian-Paleostinian displacement committee, responsible for the refugees coming to the Beddawi and Nahr al-Bared camps in northern Leb, said that between 60 and 70 families had arrived in the past 48 hours and were placed in homestays with relatives.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Iraq
Kudish troops fire on Iraqi Helo
Troops from Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan opened fire on an Iraqi army helicopter on Tuesday, officials said. Kurdistan Peshmerga officials said on Tuesday they fired on an Iraqi military helicopter near Sikanyan town just north of the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, to keep the aircraft from taking surveillance pictures of their military positions. A local mayor in the area confirmed the incident. But there was no immediate response from the Iraqi central government.

News of the clash came just hours after authorities announced Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, had been hospitalized following a stroke that had left him in critical but stable condition. A veteran Kurdish politician, Talabani has been a key mediator between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government who are growing further apart over how to control oil wealth and the disputed territories between their two regions.

Iraq's government and self-ruled Kurdistan last month both sent troops from their respective armies to reinforce positions around towns in disputed areas where they both claim control as part of a broader feud over oil and territory.The growing rift between Baghdad and Kurdistan is the most challenging test to Iraq's federal unity since the last American troops left a year ago, removing a buffer of U.S. military presence from an area long seen as a flashpoint for conflict. Iraqi armed forces and Kurdish Peshmerga have faced off before only to back off before any major confrontation and U.S. officials have been in talks with both regions to try to ease tensions between them.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My mind g back to a map Ralph Peters put together a few years ago.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 12/19/2012 22:07 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Two Russians, 1 Italian Abducted in Syria
[An Nahar] Russia said Tuesday that two of its nationals along with an Italian steel worker had been kidnapped in Syria on a motorway from the port city of Tartus.

"By all appearances, they are Russians," Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on a visit to the Central Asia state of Uzbekistan.

He added that Russia was undertaking "all the necessary steps both in Syria and other countries" to win the men's release.

Russia's embassy in Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
had earlier confirmed that two of the country's workers had been kidnapped together with a man identified by the Italian media as Mario Belluomo.

"Two Russians and an Italian were kidnapped on the road linking Tartus to Homs," the front man of the Russian embassy in Damascus Sergei Markov told state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?

Neither the two Russians' identity nor the circumstances of the abduction were released.

The Russian embassy noted however that all three men worked for a privately-owned Syrian factory in Tartus, Interfax reported.

It was not immediately clear when the abduction occurred.

Russia remains one of Syrian regime's last major ally and has shielded Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
from U.N. sanctions aimed at punishing him for his use of heavy force against his armed resistance.
Posted by: Fred || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Africa North
Russia May Ease Muslim Brotherhood Ban To Boost Egypt Ties
[Ma'an] Russia may ease restrictions on the Moslem Brüderbund soon to improve relations with Egypt and rebuild influence lost during the Arab Spring revolutions, diplomatic sources say.

The election of President Muhammed Mursi, propelled to power by the Islamist group, offers President Vladimir Putin
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
a chance to improve relations with Cairo that were strained during the long rule of Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
, who was ousted in 2011.

Russia's Supreme Court banned the Moslem Brüderbund from operating in Russia in 2003, describing it as a terrorist organization.

But Moscow is now trying to beef up ties with Egypt, partly to offset some of the influence it has lost in the Arab world in the past two years, particularly in countries such as Libya and Syria that have been recipients of Russian arms.

Easing restrictions on the Moslem Brüderbund would follow a similar move by the United States, which tweaked its ban on formal contacts with the Islamist group, banned under Mubarak, early in 2012. Mursi is expected to visit Washington in 2013 for the first time since his election in June.

Western diplomatic sources say Mursi also accepted an invitation to visit Russia when Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Egypt during a Middle East tour last month.

"The visit is expected close to the end of the first quarter in 2013. The Brotherhood being on the list remains the problem and Lavrov is said to have given assurances that they will deal with that," one of the sources said.

Russia has in the past accused the Moslem Brüderbund of supporting rebels who want to create an Islamist state in Russia's mainly Moslem North Caucasus.

The Kremlin is still struggling to contain the Islamist insurgency, which Putin has warned could fuel violence in other regions closer to the capital.

But during his trip to Cairo, Lavrov endorsed an initiative by Mursi to resolve the conflict in Syria and political analysts say Moscow appears to be looking for ways to engage more with Egypt, a popular holiday destination for Russians as well as being a regional power.

Better ties?

"As far as I know, Minister Lavrov wants to 'delist' it (the Moslem Brüderbund)," said Alexei Grishin, head of the Religion & Society think tank who used to be a presidential adviser on Islam.

"Any fresh decision by the Supreme Court would be a very lengthy procedure, so maybe what can be done is to restrict the blacklisted Moslem Brüderbund only to the faction that fought in Russia, in the Caucasus, for example," he told Rooters.

Russia's Supreme Court and anti-terrorist committee were not available for comment. The Foreign Ministry declined immediate comment.

The Arab world's biggest nation is engulfed in a prolonged political crisis nearly two years after the fall of Mubarak that pits Mursi's Islamist supporters against liberal, secular and Christian opposition groups.

"Nobody really knows what will come out of this, but Egypt is such an important country that no matter what we think of its new authorities, we need to have a dialogue," said Fyodor Lukyanov, a prominent foreign policy analyst.

"It makes sense for Russia to make a bet on Egypt, or at least seek ties with them very actively. So I think they will soon solve the issue with the Moslem Brüderbund in Russia."

In Egypt, a Moslem Brüderbund front man said the ban on the group in Russia was "a very bad thing" and made clear any real improvement in ties was unlikely before that was settled.

"Our leader (the head of the Brotherhood group) had mentioned that issue to the Russian ambassador in Cairo during a joint meeting where he told the ambassador: 'How come you are asking to have a strong relationship with us while you see as a terrorist group?'," front man Mahmoud Ghozlan said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/19/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood



Who's in the News
39[untagged]
6Govt of Pakistan
3al-Qaeda in North Africa
3al-Qaeda in Pakistan
2Arab Spring
2Govt of Syria
1al-Qaeda
1TTP
1Muslim Brotherhood
1PFLP-GC
1Ansar Dine

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
Comments Spam
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
RSS Links
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio
Sink Trap

Alzheimer's Association
Day by Day
Counterterrorism
Hair Through the Ages







On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2012-12-19
  Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan; eight dead in 48 hours
Tue 2012-12-18
  Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp
Mon 2012-12-17
  Rebel Offensive In Hama
Sun 2012-12-16
  Rockets Fired on Peshawar Airport, Five Dead, Dozens Injured
Sat 2012-12-15
  Tunisian Salafists attack bar, call drinkers 'infidels'
Fri 2012-12-14
  Coca-Cola resumes its production in Somalia
Thu 2012-12-13
  'Friends of Syria' Recognize Syrian Opposition
Wed 2012-12-12
  Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
Tue 2012-12-11
  North Korea 'launches long-range rocket'
Mon 2012-12-10
  Rebels Seize Chunk of Aleppo Base as Fighting Rages across Syria
Sun 2012-12-09
  Mohammad Ahmed Almansoor Drone-zapped in North Wazoo
Sat 2012-12-08
  Abu-Zaid al Kuwaiti Drone-zapped During Breakfast
Fri 2012-12-07
  6 dead, 450 injured in clashes at Egypt's presidential palace
Thu 2012-12-06
  Two Dead as Egypt Islamists Overrun Opposition Tents
Wed 2012-12-05
  Hundreds of thousands besiege Egypt's presidential palace to protest draft constitution

Better than the average link...



Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
34.206.1.144
Paypal:
WoT Background (29)    Non-WoT (11)    Opinion (4)    (0)    Politix (3)