THE CIA was tracking a person of interest known as "The Nigerian" - who was in fact airline bomb suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab - as early as August, CBS News reports.
The connection between "The Nigerian" and Mr Abdulmutallab was not made when the 23-year-old's father contacted the US embassy in Nigeria in November to warn them of his son's radicalisation.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said the intelligence agency did not have Mr Abdulmutallab's name until November.
And they did not know he was "The Nigerian" until after his attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.
"In November, we worked with the embassy to ensure he was in the Government's terrorist database-including mention of his possible extremist connections in Yemen," Mr Gimigliano said.
"We also forwarded key biographical information about him to the National Counter-terrorism Center.
"This agency, like others in our Government, is reviewing all data to which it had access - not just what we ourselves may have collected - to determine if more could have been done to stop Abdulmutallab."
Of course more could have been done. More always could have been done. The question is whether it is realistic to expect that more would be done. If yes, practices need to change. If no, then let's just be grateful we got lucky this time.
US authorities yesterday displayed the underwear Mr Abdulmutallab was wearing on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day.
Explosives had been sewn into them.
As the plane approached Detroit the material ignited, shooting 1.8m flames up the cabin wall.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has claimed the attack, said the device failed because of a "faulty detonator".
Question: was the faulty detonator the fault of poor bomb making by the Al Qaeda bomb-making expert, or was young Mr. Abdulmutallab a poor choice to detonate the bomb?
#1
A shining example of the seam in our society these scumbags operate in. The CIA can't go after every nutjob in the world. They can't go after him until they get him acting or planning, not shooting his mouth. Nigeria's population is half full of people that hate America. Every 20something kid there wants to cap an american or be one. There are 500,000 people on that watch list they put him on.
The police can't do anything until there is a crime. They have no jurisdiction in Nigeria. I guess we could deny all visa's from Nigeria, guess we should have done that 40 years ago!
The issue is how do we find track, decide relevance, and then act? When our nation is prepared to do this correctly we can get to most of these. Until then we will continue to swat flies.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
12/29/2009 21:49
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"...our Government, is reviewing all data to which it had access - not just what we ourselves may have collected - to determine if more could have been done to stop Abdulmutallab."
What else could they possibly do? Maybe not give a visa to someone who is suspected to be a terrorist by the CIA if the person has been reported by his father to western authorities as having radical Islamist beliefs. No that is not sufficient, they have not been convicted of any crime. Who are we to be the determiner of who is or is not a terrorist?
A Sturgis woman had a record-setting blood alcohol level of .708 when she was found earlier this month behind the wheel of a stolen vehicle parked on Interstate 90, according to Meade County State's Attorney Jesse Sondreal.
A South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper discovered Marguerite Engle, 45, on Dec. 1 passed out behind the wheel of a delivery truck reported stolen in Rapid City. Her blood alcohol was almost nine times the level at which South Dakota authorities presume a person is intoxicated.
Checks with local and state labs where blood alcohol levels are tested suggest Engle's reading may be the highest ever recorded in South Dakota, Sondreal said.
Sondreal said a state chemist recalled a sample that tested .53 in his more than 30 years on the job. Dr. Robert Looyenga, who recently retired from the Rapid City Police Department's forensic laboratory, told Sondreal the highest blood alcohol test measured he could recall was .56.
Sondreal's research indicates that a blood alcohol level of .40 is considered a lethal dose for about 50 percent of the population.
"Engle's was almost double that," Sondreal said.
After she was found, Engle was hospitalized and freed free on bond. She failed appear in court on Dec. 15, but Sturgis police found her Monday evening -- in another stolen car sitting in a ditch along S.D. Highway 34 near Fort Meade.
Engle was arrested for second offense driving under the influence and taken to jail.
Engle made her initial appearance in Meade County magistrate court Tuesday. She is currently being held without bond.
Sondreal said Engle has been living in a hotel after recently moving here from Minnesota.
Engle is most likely facing charges in Pennington County since both vehicles were stolen in Rapid City, Sondreal said.
A representative of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday opposition leaders were "enemies of God" who should be executed under the country's sharia law.
The statement by cleric Abbas Vaez-Tabasi coincided with rallies by tens of thousands of government supporters calling for opposition leaders to be punished for fomenting unrest after June's disputed presidential election, state media said.
"Those who are behind the current sedition in the country ... are mohareb (enemies of God) and the law is very clear about punishment of a mohareb," the representative of Khamenei, who possesses ultimate authority in Iran, said on state television.
Under Iran's Islamic sharia law the sentence for "mohareb" is execution.
Posted by: ed ||
12/29/2009
17:50 ||
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and, of course, the UN, EU, etc. have invoked No-Fly rules against the Iranian regime? No? Make them stay home and decorate the streetlights of Tehran and Qom
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/29/2009 19:00
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Looks like they've chosen the Ceausescu exit strategy when the time comes.
Iran is close to clinching a deal to clandestinely import 1,350 tons of purified uranium ore from Kazakhstan, according to an intelligence report obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. Diplomats said the assessment was heightening international concern about Tehran's nuclear activities. Rest at link
Posted by: ed ||
12/29/2009
17:46 ||
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hmmm.
apparently they had plenty of yellowcake but have 'used it up'
but they have no functioning reactors and no bombs (if they had, they would have had a demo) so what happened to the old yellowcake?
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/29/2009 22:19
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#1
Alone...listless...breakfast table in an otherwise empty room
Young girl...violins...center of her own attention
The mother reads aloud child tries to understand it
Tries to make her proud
The shades go down it's in her head
Painted room...can't deny there's something wrong...
Don't call me daughter not fit to
The picture kept will remind me
Don't call me daughter not fit to
The picture kept will remind me
Don't call me...
#4
Big First Year Leaves Obama Tired.... listless, irritable.
The usual prescription would be a laxative and healthy purge with a diet full of fiber rather than fluffy and nebulous empty calorie consumptions and emissions of gas.
#10
Now we know why every man who steps into that office comes in like a bright shiny penny and leaves office looking like a bag of freshly hammered dogcrap.
That job,that nearly holy office of this Republic is the one branch of government held by a single individual and as such, it is damn hard.
What's worse is that its purposely designed by the founders of the Constitution, not to work. Its almost a cruel joke that we play on the biggest "alpha males" of our civilization; we lure them in with a promise of power and then we tie them down in a sort of life sized "Chinese finger trap" where every move is countered by a move of equal size from the other sources of power in the government.
Most of the men who occupy the office run for the job in the strongly held personal hope of "doing something" to leave their mark on history and yet in almost every memoir of an ex-president, you see that most of them leave deeply humbled and happy to have simply survived the experience.
I believe that the current occupant of the Office is rapidly coming to that realization; that while it is "good to be the king", the Presidency of the United States is not King, nor even a Prime Minister, he's just the President, He's just 1/3 of a Governmental system designed at the start and with deliberation, not to work.
Over the years I have sometimes found that the man we as citizens elect to the job is not always someone I like or agree with, but in every case I have and will continue to have, a profound and deep respect for whomever holds it. I would also take this moment to remind you that "like" and "respect" are two very different things.
And I may also take a moment to say that I am not a religious man by any means, but I have often found myself in deep contemplative prayer for the poor bastard that holds that job, not always for him and his agenda, but always for us in this Republic.
For he is after all is said and done:
"Our President"( The poor bastard...)
and we are not "His Citizens"; but his "fellow Americans" and may it ever always be so.
Never forget that it is our job as citizens to keep the men who hold that office honest; but let us also never forget that the man in the office is at the end of the day, just a man. Let us hope that all men who hold that office also know that is the case.
Posted by: frank martin ||
12/29/2009 23:21
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The idea was naturally that the comparison between Jesus and Obama -- which is something that the critics developed themselves -- would be comical, blasphemous, or both. If such a comparison were to be made, it would, of course, inevitably be to Obama's advantage. After all, what did that Christ dude ever do?
Today, his historic Health Reform is being passed through the American Senate -- a welfare policy breakthrough that several of his predecessors have been unable to manage. Despite all the compromises, it has finally been possible to ensure something so fundamental, as the right of every American not to be financially shipwrecked when their health fails them. Add to that the biggest ever financial support package in America's history, a major disarmament agreement and the quickest-ever re-establishment of American reputation.
On the other hand, we have Jesus' miracles that everyone still remembers, but which only benefitted a few. At the same time, we have the wonderful parables about his life and deeds that we know from the New Testament, but which have been interpreted so differently over the past 2000 years that it is impossible to give an unequivocal result of his work. Yeah, yeah, there was also that whole "take away the sins of the world" business that assured salvation to all the world, but that's peanuts compared to an individual health insurance mandate and public ownership of General Motors! And a $787 billion stimulus package! Don't forget the stimulus package!
Obama is, of course, greater than Jesus -- if we have to play that absurd Christmas game. But it is probably more meaningful to insist that with today's domestic triumph, that he has already assured himself a place in the history books -- a space he has good chances of expanding considerably in coming years.
Without, however, ever attaining the heavens.... Discovered via National Review blogger Jim Geraghty, who snarks:
Come on, you wimp, call him greater than Mohammed.
C'mon; I triple-dog dare you.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/29/2009
15:23 ||
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#4
> the right of every American not to be financially shipwrecked when their health fails them
So Erm, How does your neighbour paying for your bad health, and you paying for his bad health make things more affordable? Or will it "only" bankrupt the country?
The good news for Senator Ben Nelson is that he doesnt have to face Nebraska voters until 2012.
If Governor Dave Heineman challenges Nelson for the Senate job, a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows the Republican would get 61% of the vote while Nelson would get just 30%. Nelson was reelected to a second Senate term in 2006 with 64% of the vote.
Nelson's health care vote is clearly dragging his numbers down. Just 17% of Nebraska voters approve of the deal their senator made on Medicaid in exchange for his vote in support of the plan. Overall, 64% oppose the health care legislation, including 53% who are Strongly Opposed. In Nebraska, opposition is even stronger than it is nationally.
Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters in the state believe that passage of the legislation will hurt the quality of care, and 62% say it will raise costs.
The House and Senate have passed different versions of the health care legislation and now will try to agree on a plan to pass early in 2010. Because every Democratic vote is required to pass the legislation in the Senate, Nelsons vote is essential. If Nelson votes to block final passage of the health care plan, he would still trail Heineman but would be in a much more competitive situation.
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
When survey respondents were asked how they would vote if Nelson blocks health care reform, 47% still pick Heneman while 37% would vote to keep the incumbent in office. Twenty percent (20%) of those who initially said theyd vote for Heineman say theyd switch to supporting Nelson. Another six percent (6%) of Heineman supporters say theyre not sure what theyd do if Nelson stops the health care plan from becoming law.
If Nelson votes to block health care reform, 10% of all voters would prefer a third-party option. Most of those who would prefer a third choice initially said they would vote for Nelson.
Overall, 40% of Nebraska voters have a favorable opinion of Nelson while 55% have an unfavorable view. Those figures include 12% with a Very Favorable opinion while 34% hold a Very Unfavorable view.
Twenty-six percent (26%) say Nelson has done a good or excellent job in the health care debate. Forty-seven percent (47%) give him poor marks.
Forty-two percent (42%) say their senator has been too supportive of President Obamas agenda while 13% say hes not been supportive enough. Thirty percent (30%) say hes got the balance about right.
Nelson is also one of the key players in the discussion about how abortion should be handled in the health care plan. Sixty-five percent (65%) of Nebraska voters say that coverage of abortion should be prohibited in any plan that receives government subsidies. Only six percent (6%) want coverage mandated, while 22% want no requirements either way.
Obama earned 42% of the Nebraska vote in 2008, and 38% continue to approve of his job performance. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Nebraska voters disapprove of how the president is performing.
#1
Nelson's vote on the actual health care bill, when it comes to that, is unimportant, and he will presumable vote against it. It was his vote for cloture that mattered, and that's done with. In two years he will be able to drag out either vote to campaign on, depending on the mood by then, and people will have forgotten there was a difference.
Same story for Mary Landrieu and presumably several other vulnerable Senators who will be freed to vote against the bill, which will pass with about 52 or 53 votes.
#3
In general Nelson is considered to have been a good Governor of the state 1991-1999. He promoted welfare reform before the 1994 National bill. He actually cut a few programs. He supported the death penalty. Increasing agriculture prosperity (due partly to ethanol subsidies) helped him. He was at a 70% approval as Senator in 2006. Like so many red state dems before him he slowly internalized the national Democratic party meta narrative.
Sad.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/29/2009 17:05
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#4
a very good ad would compose the question of how this "Senator representative" could whore himself out for the quarantees promised, but probably ultimately yanked back, and whether he was "inebriated a) all, b) most, c) partly, or d) only on the video Youtubing around the world right now"....oh, and how about that girl-squeeze on your staff....
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/29/2009 19:13
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Iranian authorities continued arresting hundreds of opposition members and accused the United States and Britain on Tuesday of orchestrating the violent demonstrations that rocked the capital and other cities on Sunday. The sister of Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi was detained on Monday night...Iranian authorities arrested at least a dozen opposition figures on Monday, including former Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yazdi, the human rights activist Emad Baghi and three top aides to the former presidential candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi, Iranian news sites reported.
All told, more than 1,500 people have been arrested nationwide since Sunday, including 1,110 in Tehran and 400 in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, the pro-opposition Jaras Web site reported.A 27-year-old journalist who was reporting on the street clashes on Sunday was reported missing. The reporter, Redha al-Basha, who was working for Dubai TV, has not been heard from, according to a statement issued by Dubai TV. Mr. Basha was last seen surrounded by security forces in Tehran, witnesses said.
The group Human Rights Activists in Iran said that the 1,100 people arrested in Tehran were being held in Evin Prison, the Gooya Web site reported.
Among those arrested in Isfahan was the son of a senior cleric, Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri. Ayatollah Taheri is the former Isfahan representative of Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his son Muhammad is married to the granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of Irans 1979 revolution.
Ayatollah Taheri tried last week to lead a memorial service for the dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died Dec. 20. The arrest of his son was viewed as an effort by the authorities to pressure the ayatollah.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/29/2009
15:10 ||
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Expect a spiral.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/29/2009 19:26
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Honest. This is not The Onion. Payvand.com - The majority hardline faction of the parliament held a rally on Tuesday against the opposition protests which took place on Sunday in Tehran and other cities. Right. The government taking to the streets to demonstrate against the people. That makes sense. Not a lot of sense, but sense. In a dictatorial sort of way. I guess. Also allows the Maximum Leader to see who's still on board ...
The peaceful protests by the supporters of the Green Opposition Movement turned into riots when the security forces attacked the unarmed people. Don'tcha just hate it when the oppressed fight back?
According to state TV, 15 people died in the event which coincided with the holy day of Ashoura. Government is blaming the protesters for violating the sanctity of Ashoura. For which it killed 15 of them and threw 300 or 400 of them into jug.
The MPs first rallied in the parliament hall and then outside around the building to voice their support for the government. That'd be themselves, natch...
Ali Larijani, speaker of the parliament, was among the protesting MPs. After you go past ridiculous and wallow in sublime for awhile what comes next?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
14:28 ||
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#1
The government taking to the streets to demonstrate against the people. That makes sense.
Actually that happens here too, with Dems in Congress complain about the ungreatful peasants. In America, they just bite off your finger instead of kill you. So far.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/29/2009 15:48
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On Christmas Day, an Islamist fanatic tried to blow up an airplane whose passengers were mostly Christians. And we helped.
Our government gets no thanks for preventing a tragedy. Only the bomber's ineptitude preserved the lives of nearly 300 innocents.
How did we help Umar Abdulmutallab, a wealthy Muslim university graduate who decided that Allah wanted him to slaughter Christians on their most joyous holiday?
By continuing to lie to ourselves. Although willing -- at last -- to briefly use the word "terror," yesterday President Obama still refused to make a connection between the action, the date and Islam.
Was it just a ticketing accident that led to a bombing attempt on Christmas? Was it all about blackout dates and frequent-flyer miles?
It wasn't. You know it. And I know it. But our government refuses to know it. Despite vast databases crammed with evidence, our leaders -- of both parties -- still refuse to connect Islamist terrorism with Islam.
Our insistence that "Islam's a religion of peace" would have been cold comfort to the family members of those passengers had the bomb detonated as planned.
Abdulmutallab's own father warned our diplomats that his son had been infected by Islamist extremism. Our diplomats did nothing. Why? Because (despite a series of embassy bombings) the State Department dreads linking terrorism to Islam.
Contrast our political correctness with Abdulmutallab's choice of Christmas for his intended massacre. Our troops stand down on Muslim holidays. A captive terrorist merely has to claim that a soldier dog-eared a Koran, and it's courts-martial all around.
We proclaim that the terrorists "don't represent Islam." OK, whom do they represent? The Franciscans? We don't get to decide what's Islam and what isn't. Muslims do. And far too many of them approve of violent jihad.
It gets worse. Instead of focusing on the religious zeal and inspiration of our enemies and how such motivations change the game, our "terrorism experts" agonize over whether such beasts as Abdulmutallab or Maj. Hasan, the Fort Hood assassin for Allah, are really members of al Qaeda or not.
As a Sunday Post editorial pointed out, al Qaeda's far more than a formal organization; it's an idea, a cause. If a terrorist says he's al Qaeda, he is, even if he doesn't have a union card from Jihadi Local 632.
We're dealing with a global Muslim movement, not a Masons' lodge.
And that "global" aspect is especially worrying. Despite limited Special Operations strikes beyond our recognized combat zones, we still don't accept the nature of the threat from jet-set jihadis. Our leaders and our military are obsessed with holding ground in Afghanistan -- even though al Qaeda's growth areas are in Yemen and Africa.
We voluntarily tie ourselves down, while our enemies focus on mobility. Worse, we've convinced ourselves that development aid (the left's all-purpose medicine) is the key to defeating al Qaeda.
That's utter nonsense. Abdulmutallab's a rich kid. He didn't come from a deprived background, bearing the grievances of the slum. He's a graduate of a top English university. And Osama bin Laden's from a super-rich family. How does building a footbridge in Afghanistan deter them?
Most of our home-grown Islamist terrorists hail from middle-class families -- such monsters as Maj. Hasan or the Virginia virgin-chasers under arrest in Pakistan (where jail conditions are a lot worse than at Guantanamo -- can't we just leave 'em there?).
This isn't a revolt of the wretched of the earth. These terrorists are the Muslim-fanatic versions of Bill Ayers and the Weathermen, pampered kids unhappy with the world. Al Qaeda's big guns are re- belling against privilege. There's a lot of Freud in this fundamentalism.
Spoiled brats remade their god in their own vengeful image. And we have to kill them. This one really is a zero-sum game.
We're not just fighting men but a plague of faith. Until Washington accepts that, we'll continue to reap a low return on our investments of blood and treasure.
On Christmas Day, a Muslim fanatic attempted to butcher hundreds of Christians (dead Jews would've been a bonus). Our response? Have airport security analyze the contents of grandma's mini-bottle of shampoo -- we don't want to "discriminate."
With our lies, self-deception and self-flagellation, we're terror's little helpers.
#2
well at least some people aren't lying to themselves about Islam
I'm inclined to think there are more and more people who have had their eyes open. The vote in Switzerland seems to confirm this although that might be a fluke.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/29/2009 16:09
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It's Odd, Environmentalism is the Frustrated Western Rich kids Terrorism-lite.
Maybe there's something about unearned wealth that often ruins kids.
The organizers behind acclaimed Barbadian singer Rihannas planned concert in Abu Dhabi on New Year's Eve are denying media reports that the star has been told to trade in her trademark revealing, raunchy stage gear for a more wholesome look in her gig at the Emirates Palace Hotel in the emirate.
The facts and figures recently reported around Rihannas Abu Dhabi concert are totally inaccurate, said concert organizer Flash in a statement quoted by the United Arab Emirates-based English-language newspaper Gulf News.
The wardrobe row surfaced after the British tabloid the Daily Mirror claimed in a report over the weekend that Rihanna had been instructed to dress more conservatively for her show in Abu Dhabi and that the 21-year-old star was tearing her hair out over what to do" about it. The article also claimed Rihanna was being paid a whopping $500,000 for her performance, a sum for which the Daily Mirror said the star is likely to leave her latex body suits and extravagant bras in the closet. So Rihannas team is now said to be working around the clock to somehow figure out a way to make Rihanna's daring stage outfits go along with the local traditions in Abu Dhabi, which prides itself as the more mature and conservative brother of neighboring, freewheeling Dubai.
But Rihanna's supposed scrambling for a more wholesome look so as to not upset her conservative fans might prove a challenge. She knows that she'll have to compromise her style to fit in with local traditions, but a huge part of her show is her sexy stage gear, an unidentified source told the Daily Mirror.
Aside from maybe having to cover up in a sweater and a pair of jeans in her planned New Year's Eve gig, the British tabloid also suggested that Rihanna and her crew might also have to ring in the new year with soft drinks and juice instead of champagne, saying the singer may have to obtain a special license to store alcohol in her dressing room during the concert.
The incident is likely to mark this year's last wardrobe row in the Middle East, but it's certainly not the year's first. Only two months ago, Islamic conservatives in Egypt branded pop singer Beyonce's concert in Cairo an "insolent sex party."
Hamdi Hassan, a lawmaker from the Muslim Brotherhood, reportedly submitted a written complaint about the concert to the Egyptian Interior Ministry. He said the posters advertising the show, in which Beyonce was shown wearing a revealing outfit and gripping a pair of motorcycle handlebars extending from her hips, threatened Egypt's "social peace and stability."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/29/2009 13:34
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#3
I've never understood the appeal of the leather-fetish-whips-chains-bondage look. I've never been turned on by the threat of physical pain--kind of a mood-breaker, it is.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/29/2009 14:25
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Um.....how do you square ...not upset her conservative fans... with her look in the first place?
Where did she get these conservative fans? Were they blind when they became fans?
#5
Young skank-ho music always sells well. Each hawt 'performer' lasts a year or two in the public eye and then goes away, unless they become even more raunchy and foolish (e.g. the lamentable Ms. Spears). Rihanna's star will fade in time, and I bet she knows it, so if she needs to wear a baggy sweater to make a half-million in Abu Dhabi, she should do so.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2009 15:25
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NATO says a U.S. service member has died in a shooting incident in western Afghanistan. NATO offered no other details, but Afghan Gen. Jalander Shah Bahnam said an Afghan soldier opened fire Tuesday after NATO troops tried to prevent him from approaching an area where an allied helicopter was about to land. He said the American service member died and two Italian soldiers were injured.
Bahnam, the corps commander for the Afghan National Army's western region, said the NATO troops returned fire, injuring the Afghan soldier. He said the incident happened at a military base in the Bala Murghab district of Badghis province.
Posted by: ed ||
12/29/2009
12:02 ||
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About the time you think the bad guys are smart, they turn the spotlight on their new playground in Yemen. Yemen is a whole lot easier place to hunt and kill than Afghanistan.
Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the US from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.
Interesting.
American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to US and Saudi officials.
Note for future reference: art therapy is not effective against entrenched jihadi drives. Perhaps an intense course of waterboarding before finger painting would be more effective.
Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.
Both Saudi nationals have since emerged in leadership roles in Yemen, according to US officials and the men's own statements on al Qaeda propaganda tapes.
Both of the former Guantanamo detainees are described as military commanders and appear on a January, 2009 video along with the man described as the top leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, Abu Basir Naser al-Wahishi, formerly Osama bin Laden's personal secretary.
In its Monday statement claiming responsibility for the Northwest bombing, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula called bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab a "hero" and a "martyr" and lauded him for beating US intelligence.
Hero he may be, but the only bit of him martyred is that which leads to sons.
The two-page written claim included a photo of Abdulmutallab and boasted of Al Qaeda's success in designing "advanced explosive packages" that can pass through airport screening undetected.
In other words, Al Qaeda's explosives are effective in the same way that Secretary Napolitano's system worked. It's nice to see that the competency levels are evenly matched.
The statement also asks for attacks upon Americans in the Arabian peninsula, and promises further attacks on the American people.
Iran Ayatollah: 'I Am Convinced that the Regime Will Collapse'
Iranian Regime Critic Ayatollah Kadivar he is a visiting professor at Duke U. - a 'Islam is against Terrorism and for women's rights' kind of guy
on the Future of the Opposition Movement
SPIEGEL: Do you expect a further escalation of state repression? Will the government dare to arrest the opposition politicians Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi?
Kadivar: You cannot rule out the possibility; at the same time, the rulers also fear any kind of escalation -- and rightly so. The next level could be open rebellion. But things have not gotten that far yet. There is still a chance for a peaceful reform of the state.
SPIEGEL: Really? You don't think that Iran has already long been on the path to becoming a religiously tinged military dictatorship?
Kadivar: You are right that the Shiite theocracy in its present form has failed -- a fact that few have expressed as clearly as my teacher in the last few months. Incidentally, when Grand Ayatollah Montazeri had his falling out with Khomeini, three months before the supreme religious leader's death in 1989, he said: This state is so different from the one we dreamed of and worked to create. Still, it is not Islam which has failed, but rather a particular interpretation of Islam. I also want to express that there hasn't been a revolution in Iran yet. The opposition is becoming increasingly clear in the formulation of its objectives and more daring. Still, we need to remain patient. I do not know when, exactly, but I am convinced that the regime will collapse.
SPIEGEL: Can the West do anything to support a democratic reform process?
Kadivar: The tightening of sanctions is not the right path ahead. They affect the people more than the government. A military attack is something I categorically reject. Perhaps Western countries should stop treating Ahmadinejad's government as the legitimate government of Iran. Otherwise, I think the reforms must be pushed forward from inside the country.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/29/2009
10:05 ||
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#1
condemns the xecution in strongest terms! woo I bet China is shaking now, I wonder if he was just a regular white man and not muslim if he would have cared at all
Posted by: chris ||
12/29/2009 12:01
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#2
Why, since all cultures are of equal value, would Gordo criticize China for enforcing their own cultural values?
This leads me to the conclusion that Gordo's philosophy is not internally consistent.
#11
ION SINA TIMES OF INDIA > [Indian] ARMY REWORKS DOCTRINE FOR WAR AGZ PAKISTAN, CHINA.
Proposed Highly Mobile, High-Techy BATTLE GROUPS capable of waging TWO-FRONT WARFARE AGZ PAK + CHINA, + ASYMMETRIC + FOURTH GENERATIONAL WARFARE AGZ MILITANT GRUPPES.
Sniff, sniff, reminds me of the debate oer AIRLAND BATTLE 2000, ETC. CONCEPTS DURING THE REAGAN-BUSH 1 ADMINS.
-------------------------------
WMF > QINQHUA SCHOLARS: NEW CHAOS MAY BREAK OUT IN XINJIANG IFF CHINA PREMATURELY SENDS PLA TROOPS INTO AFHGANISTAN. PASHTUN, TAIJIK, UZBEK, AND BALOCH, OTHER ETHNIC MINORITY UNREST CAN AFFECT BOTH COUNTRIES. VIOLENT COUNTER-REACTION OF HAN CHINESE.
#12
The Brits had better get used to taking it from China.
If I remember correctly they didn't fuss an awful lot about losing Hong Kong, but got all panties wadded over this loser.....I guess there are some priorities that just cannot be undone.
Obama envoy hails group accused of working against Jewish state
JERUSALEM -- In her first major interview since becoming President Obama's newly appointed anti-Semitism czar last month, Hannah Rosenthal yesterday blasted the Israeli government for its criticism of a lobby group accused of anti-Israel activity.
Rosenthal characterized as "most unfortunate" a decision by Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States, to not attend the annual dinner in September of J Street, a lobby group that is mostly led by left-leaning Israelis and that receives funds from Arab and Muslim Americans.
In an interview yesterday from Jerusalem with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Rosenthal said Oren "would have learned a lot" if he had participated in J Street's conference.
Rosenthal was in Israel as the Obama administration's envoy to the Foreign Ministry's Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism.
"I came away realizing what a generational divide there is and I don't know how it is in Israel. Young people want to be part of the discussion, they feel they have fresh ideas and they feel that we have to end the stalemate," she said, speaking of the J Street dinner.
Rosenthal stated it was important that new and different voices need be heard regarding Israel in the American Jewish community.
"It is not 1939," she said. "We have the state of Israel. We have laws in countries that are holding people accountable."
Regarding a recent U.N. report accusing Israel of war crimes during the Jewish state's defensive war in Gaza last year, Rosenthal told Haaretz, "it is not anti-Semitic to look at a certain policy of Israel and say -- I disagree with it. Half of the population in Israel isn't anti-Semitic by not agreeing with policies."
Anti Semitism Czar criticizing Israel for criticizing/ostracizing an anti Isreali lobby group?
Please explain to me how this person got the job? Hannah obviously didn't read her job description before she issued that statement...no wait, maybe she did.
I think this, if nothing else, should finally confirm that Bambi has no idea what he is doing...or that he cares for that matter.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/29/2009 10:38
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#2
I believe the term is "Orwellian." I wonder if George ever thought that "1984" would become a training manual...
#3
This is all of a piece with Bambi's determination to destroy capitalism, democracy and America. The Juice are at fault and therefore the Arabs must be given Israel.
#6
This prez of ours can't even hire a jew that believes in Israel. WTF?
Posted by: S49 Pan ||
12/29/2009 15:40
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#7
"It is not 1939." Hmmm. Maybe not 1939 but similar in many ways.
This 1960s anti-war activist and community organizer is dangerously naive. She seems to be mesmerized by the sound of her own voice.
It wasn't too long ago that Ahmadinejad said:
"Our dear Imam (referring to Ayatollah Khomeini) said that the occupying regime [referring to Israel] must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement."
What's with these socialists wanting to commit suicide? Why invite a Holocaust?
#9
I've reached the point with the O'bumble misadministration where I completely withdraw my consent to be governed by this bunch of absolutely idiotic people. That includes all Democrats and their supporters in Washington, DC. They are idiots. They are self-centered, jack-booted thugs with an IQ in negative numbers. I will NOT comply with anything they do. If they attempt to use force, in any form, to compel me to comply, I shall consider it a declaration of war against me, and will respond in kind. I will vote against them, I will campaign against them, and if necessary, I will take up arms against them. Their behavior is tyrannical, their "ideas" unsuitable to have come from five-year-olds, and the "Chicago Way" is pure thuggism.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/29/2009 23:09
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PESHAWAR (Agencies) - America's B-52 heavy bomber aircraft, which can carry nuclear and conventional ordnance with worldwide precision navigation capability, was again seen hovering over Pakistan's tribal areas on Sunday.
The flights of US B-52 bomber, along other spy planes, continued over Fata for last several weeks, causing panic among the locals.
Quoting sources, a private TV channel reported that the US drones and B-52 warplanes were hovering over areas of North and South Waziristan and Kurram Agency for the last several weeks.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/29/2009
08:04 ||
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#5
At the altitude they normally fly during a mission, would you even see a B-52?
RC-135, KC-10 or KC-135 would be the more likely as they're large, have 'swept-wings', and may fly at lower altitudes. I thought maybe even an E-3, but the dome would be pretty obvious to even a goat herder.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/29/2009 8:39
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#6
During the initial Afghanistan operations the B-52's would purposefully fly at an altitude guaranteed to produce contrails. It's PsyOps.
#7
When I was a teenager in South Central Nebraska - the B-52s out of SAC would, sometimes, practice low level bombing runs on the region. If you saw a Buff making a low level run over you now THAT was impressive.
#12
Lets just hope that the B52`s find some targets, and start dropping some bombs.
Posted by: Dave UK ||
12/29/2009 13:19
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#13
A few years ago at Mt. Rushmore they had a joint flyover of a B-52 and a B-1. Fun watching them when they're just strutting - would sure hate to see them if they wanted to kill me. Also a P-51 and an F-15/16 (I know the difference, I just don't remember which was flying) - it was pretty neat - the Mustang was about wide open and the jet was nose high & flaps spread.
Actually, it's pretty easy: just hit the "P" key and pause Flight Simulator, then F11 for external view and use the cursor keys to pan around it.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/29/2009 15:40
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#15
A B-52 orbiting over the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan might look to be over Pakistan from the point of view of someone on that side of the border.
If you are 50 miles from the border, you can probably see a plane orbiting at 30,000+ feet if it is within about 200 miles of you.
How the prison writings of Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, one of al Qaeda's founders now labeled a turn coat, are doing more to expose the terrorist group's hypocrisy than anyone else.
#5
Mutaa is a form of "temporary marriage" only acceptable within Shiite communities.
If I remember correctly, Osama set up "temporary marriages" for his supporters before 9/11. I guess he's only anti-Shia when he can't get his rocks off.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/29/2009 14:20
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#6
The party of the first part (the stick-in-me)agrees to marry the party of the second part (the stick-it-in ) for 1 hour under the bridge at the edge of town for a dowry of $150.00. After the divorce, as alimony, a chicken fried steak dinner will be offered along with a movie and a promise to call the next day.
#7
On the Ethics episode in the sitcom "The Office", Meredith agreed to a sexual relationship in return for a better price on raw paper from a supplier, free dinners at the Outback and some coupons. She said the coupons just made her feel better about herself.
one of the rightly guided caliphs banned the temporary marriage in Sunnidom (although people preparing for martyrdom get to evade this and other prohibitions)
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/29/2009 17:27
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#8
Calling Lysistrata!
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
12/29/2009 20:01
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#9
ION GLOBAL TIMES/PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > THE MYSTERY OF [History's] MISSING MUSLIM FEMALE RULERS. There's approxi 20 Muslim Babes whom ruled, the Good + the Bad + to include victorious Warrior Queens, but yet most of whose names are NOT included in academic or history texts.
#1
This is no surprise. By constantly supporting and defending indefensible extremist Muslims and Muslim practices the 'leaders' were forcing the rest of Britain towards a polarized state. That validates extremist groups as a necessary counter to the defended extreme Muslims. It will probably get a lot worse.
#5
Looks like the original Daily Mail article wasn't accepting comments. Don't blame them - that's a comment thread which would have gone nuclear very shortly.
#7
The police are here in force, too. 'Take that mask off,' barks a sergeant to one young man. He does so immediately but protests: 'Why are they allowed to wear burkas in public but we're not allowed to cover our faces?' 'Just do what you're told,' the policeman snaps
Coming soon to a country near you, unless something is done to end this nonsense.
#8
Love how they try to paint the EDL as "neo-Nazis" but the Nazis won't march with them because some of the EDL are black *and* one of their causes is the Islamic oppression of women.
The press loves to cast the violent into two sets: leftists, who are noble of intention and only doing what they must against an oppressive state; and fascists who are just interested in oppressing everyone. That there might be people willing to be violent in defense of liberty simply doesn't register in their minds.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/29/2009 10:47
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#9
Let's follow the line of argument in a Euro fashion.
(1) Per the head of German protestant churches, there is no such thing as a just war.
(2) Per the British government, the state should have an exclusive monopoly on force.
(3) Therefore the only just use of force is by the state against its citizens.
#10
I agree with the guy asked why he couldn't cover his face but the muslim women can. Also the caption under the pic about the woman being intimidated. You wouldn't be able too blow air up my ass every time one of them stepped onto the bus either
Posted by: chris ||
12/29/2009 11:57
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#11
'Our leaders in this country no longer represent us,' he says.
This response is to be expected. As a society we had given the monopoly of force and retribution to the police and the courts. This used to work reasonably well. However, when the people feel they are no longer being protected then they will protect themselves. What did the left think would happen?
#13
Love how they try to paint the EDL as "neo-Nazis"
I don't know squat about the EDL. But just look at how the MSM treated the Minutemen along the borders. You would think they were shooting men, women, and children on sight.
To the left (and the MSM) anything which they don't approve of is Facist and Nazi (that would be Nazi as in National socialist).
#15
The author is a fearmonger and nothing more. Where was he when the muslim protester held up the "Behead those who insult Islam" sign???
Case in point. He attempts to use the following excerpt to demonstrate that the EDL is not a peaceful organization as it purports to be: "He sticks to the 'peaceful movement' mantra but a text I later receive from him ahead of an EDL demo in London reveals his involvement with the hooligans. It reads: 'Right lads, the "unofficial" meet for the 31st (London) is going to be 12 o'clock at The Hole In The Wall pub just outside Waterloo Station. I will be there just before that. Remember lads were (sic) going as Casuals Utd and if you could obtain a poppy to wear it would make us look good even if we are kicking off. lol. Cheers lads. Joel "Arsenal" Titus.'
The above excerpt in no way suggests violence. This article is shi*.
#16
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > GLOBAL TINDERBOX: "THE ECONOMIST" SAYS 2010 COULD BE THE YEAR WHICH SPARKS WORLDWIDE SOCIAL UNREST.
ARTIC > Countries deemed at "LOW RISK" of SOCIAL UNREST in 2010 are, to wit:
* NORAM = CANADA-USA
* GREENLAND
* ICELAND
* BRAZIL
* SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES
* GERMANY [ + Most of CENTRAL, EASTERN EUROPE]
* AUSTRALIA [OZ Land]
* NEW ZEALAND
AND - drum roll, iff you please, Moriarity - LIBYA [aka DA KOLONEL = UNCLE QADDAFI]???
NAXAL, MAOIST TRUBLED INDIA > ranked "HIGH RISK" ON PAR WID BRITAIN + FRANCE???
REST OF THE WORLD MAY GO "BOOM" IN 2010 [1980's MTV Video > "Things that May You Go UMMMM"].
-------------------------------
GLOBAL TIMES.CN > CHINA'S GDP PER CAPITA FOR END-OF-YEAR 2010 IS USD 4000, CHINA STILL RANKS IN THE CATEGORY OF "MIDDLE-LOW" INCOME COUNTRY.
ARTIC > back in the 1960's, the UNO set USD 3000 as being a "MODERNIZED COUNTRY", the equivalent of US$8000-10,000 today.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the alleged Detroit bomber, was president of University College London's Islamic society, according to a university spokesman.
Terror suspect Abdulmutallab, who is charged with attempting to destroy the Christmas Day Northwest Airlines Flight 253, was president of the society between 2006 and 2007.
Faisal Hanra, a spokesman for the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, said: "We became aware that Abdulmutallab was president of the Islamic Society within the last 24 hours.
"It came as quite a shock. This raises a number of concerns, and we are making efforts to contact as many members of the society from the time as we can."
UCL said that Abdulmutallab, who was a full-time student from 2005 until 2008 "never gave his tutors any cause for concern", adding that he was "well mannered, quietly spoken, polite and able".
The university's Islamic Society last month attracted criticism after allowing Abu Usama to speak on campus Usama has previously preached that homosexuals and opponents of Islam should be killed and women are mentally deficient. The university called off the event after protests.
#1
Faisal Hanra, a spokesman for the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, said: "We became aware that Abdulmutallab was president of the Islamic Society within the last 24 hours.
Wha?..
"It came as quite a shock. This raises a number of concerns, and we are making efforts to contact as many members of the society from the time as we can."
#5
Given that the IRA trained FARC in bombing methods, and that there are pro-Islamicist voices in Ireland, that may not be too far fetched in the near future Black Bart.
#6
"It came as quite a shock. This raises a number of concerns, and we are making efforts to contact as many members of the society from the time as we can."
Hunh? For what purpose?
Ralphs son Johnnie, I imagine the phone call/text/email says, "Clean up the mess. The next knock on your door will be the police and MI-6."
#8
"well mannered, quietly spoken, polite and able"
American policies have turned another well mannered, quietly spoken, polite and able young man into an alleged criminal. Another chicken coming to America to roost? Was it our support of Israel? Our imperialist attempt to corner the market on nuclear weapons? Maybe our insistence on taking more than our share of the earth's precious resources? Woe is us - we have all these criminals coming to roost.
Apparently the fellows in al Qaeda took as a personal insult Secretary of Homeland Anxiety Janet Napolitano's comment Sunday that their role in the foiled Detroit airliner bombing wasn't clear but would be investigated. Yesterday, al Qaeda's ascendant franchise in the Arabian peninsula saved Secretary Napolitano the trouble of plowing through all the layers of the national-security bureaucracy for an answer.
The terrorist organization put out a pointed statement not only claiming responsibility but also mocking the U.S.'s ability to stop them. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, they said, "dealt a huge blow to the myth of American and global intelligence services and showed how fragile its structure is."
What this means is that we have to think more broadly about jihad and the potential recruitment of terrorists anywhere in the world, including inside the United States. We and our European allies have to revisit the problem of fiery imams using mosques as recruitment depots for airline suicide bombers. The close call in the airspace over Detroit gives "probable cause" new meaning.
Al Qaeda has sent a message to the Obama Administration: You are in a war. Someone in our government needs to say clearly that they now understand the message.
#2
And where was Obama? He was surfing in Hawaii and skipping Church.
Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.
When the Fort Hood killings happened he cautioned us "not to jump to conclusions" about Moslems. And the FBI powdered their butts before they ever got to the scene and said they had it all under control. But we know how good the FBI was on that one, dont we.? They knew about the clown a year ahead of time and gave him a pass. Way to go, Fosdick.
yeah. you sure can depend on your government to protect the Public. Who was that guy who said he had it all under contriol after Reagan got shot? The guy who ran the Concentration Camps in Vietnam when he was a General under Johnson. That guy. What was his name?
lets all stand up and salute when Obama comes into the room.
#3
....they said, "dealt a huge blow to the myth of American and global intelligence services and showed how fragile its structure is."
Nearly 10 years following 9/11 our intelligence services and government have learned much, but continue to deny everything. The wonderful faith of Islam must not be tarnished.
"Kill them [infidels, namely Christians and Jews] wherever you may come upon them, and seize them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every conceivable place."
- Sura 9:5
#4
And where was Obama? He was surfing in Hawaii and skipping Church.
Now now, we didn't object when Dubya was visiting his ranch in Crawford.
We assume presidents are always in contact and always have the information and access they need to make decisions, and then see those decisions through.
It isn't where Bambi was, it was the lack of understanding, the lack of decision-making, the lack of fortitude, and the lack of personal integrity.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2009 7:57
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...PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB! Unless of course it's about Barry winning another Nobel Prize. Then please ring until someone answers.
#6
Napolitano Says No Evidence Yet Airplane Bomb Plot Part of 'Anything Larger"
Ummm, Ms. Napolitano, in case you missed it while you were trying to figure out how to build a Potemkin Village of security, it's a larger plot called the Radical Violent Muslim War against the infidel and the West. A good start would be to read The Looming Towers by Lawrence Wright. Then you might understand why (since the first WTC bombing in 1993 and leading up to 2009 when there were 28 "Man-Made" successful or attempted attacks), that this is something larger.
#8
Nearly 10 years following 9/11 our intelligence services and government have learned much, but continue to deny everything. The wonderful faith of Islam must not be tarnished.
Actually, I'm kind of skeptical myself now.
Why is it just when certain middle-eastern countries are getting their knickers in a twist over Shi'a rebels in Yemen, _suddenly_ there are ineffectual terrorist attacks being done supposedly by Al-Qaeda-in-Yemen? This, combined with the confession you quote, all seem just too _convenient_ to me.
You talk about how noone wants to talk about Islam. You know what bugs me?
Noone wants to talk about the Moslem Brotherhood in particular, which seems to play a key role in changing the people in the Middle East from Moslems we can live with to Moslems we can't.
It's a network with a much higher correlation with terrorism than Islam in general, and we let it run mosques in this country as if it's just another religious organization.
Another thing noone talks about, that's gone completely under the radar... Hasan was an advisor to "President" zero's transition team. Imagine if a member of Bush's transition team had shot up an abortion clinic... the dems would have held an impeachment vote by now. Hasan was also up to his neck in connections to various Brotherhood organizations.
Keep in mind that the end result of attacking those guys in Yemen will be to have american troops fighting one batch of Moslems on behalf of other sets of Moslems. You're talking tough now, but are you tough enough to maybe try not to let the country become another pawn to be used by one group of Moslems against another?
#9
Now now, we didn't object when Dubya was visiting his ranch in Crawford.
As it happens W had an operations center at Crawford and could operate from there almost as easily as at the White House (probably easier without all of the hangers on in DC).
BHO has nothing when he is jet-setting around the world and vacationing on the US taxpayers dime & time.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
12/29/2009 11:11
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#10
He has his Blackberry. And I rather suspect his aides have some other comms. But your point is well taken.
#12
maybe try not to let the country become another pawn to be used by one group of Muslims against another?
I strongly suspect that already has happened/I happening right now.
I just hope we're not duped into backing the wrong side, and I do expect trouble out of the Mideast (Bubbling fermenting) Religious cesspit for decades to come.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/29/2009 18:45
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#13
* Year 2012 Benchmark > ISLAMIST IRAN declares it is not only a de facto NUCLEAR STATE, but a NUCLEAR WEAPONS STATE [See NORTH KOREA = Kimmie]
* Year 2013 > POTUS BAMMER Second Term, or his POTUS Successor > RADICAL ISLAM MAY ALL BUT OFFCIALLY? DECLARE THE US HAS LOST THE GWOT/WOT due to TECHS TRANSFER-PROLIFER TO VARIOUS ISLAMIST, OTHER WORLD MILITANT-TERR GROUPS.
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, 2013 > SURRENDER, OR THET MILTERRS WON'T SEND FLOWERS, SAD CONDOLENCES AFTER THEY KILL US!
#14
I just hope we're not duped into backing the wrong side, and I do expect trouble out of the Mideast (Bubbling fermenting) Religious cesspit for decades to come.
You can take it to the bank that we have been duped into supporting the wrong side. It has been a religious cesspit since Islam first reared its ugly head. Ultimately I see only one reliable course of action. No need to say it out loud, it'll never happen.
#16
Great. He's got his Crackberry. Is it the same one that was the one he used when he sent out his "private" opinion on Kanye West? Because if it is, he may as well use Facebook and Twitter.
Yep, we are all in the very best of hands with the smartest president evah.
Terrorists Suspected militants have shot and killed two men in the latest unrest in southern Thailand, police said on Tuesday.
A 48-year-old Muslim man was shot dead by a group of gunmen on a pick-up truck while he was on his way home from a mosque in Narathiwat province on Monday night. Early on Tuesday in the same province, a 29-year-old Buddhist man was shot as he travelled with his parents to work at a rubber plantation, police said. He died later at hospital, but his parents were unharmed.
[Quqnoos] At least 11 Taliban militants and two Afghan police were killed in clashes in north-western Afghanistan, officials said Monday.
Afghan and NATO-led troops launched an overnight operation in Bala Morghab district, a Taliban stronghold, killing eight militants, said Badghes Police Chief, Sayed Ahmad Saami.
He said the foreign and Afghan troops were unharmed in the clash.
In a separate gun-battle in the neighbouring district of Qhadis, two Afghan policemen were killed and three others had gone missing, the Police Chief said.
Three militants were also killed when police returned fire, he further added.
Meantime, locals said that air strikes against Taliban hideouts in Bala Morghab district claimed the lives of three civilians and injured four others. But Mr Sami declined to make a comment.
Taliban have not made an immediate comment over the casualties.
The operation in Bala Morghab is on-going, according to officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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[Al Arabiya Latest] U.S. President Barack Obama vowed Monday to hunt down extremists wherever they plot attacks against the United States as al-Qaeda claimed it hatched the attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day.
Obama pledged to "disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us--whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the U.S. homeland."
" A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism and we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable "
U.S.President Barack Obama
The president said he had ordered a probe to find out how 23-year-old suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria managed to board a Detroit-bound plane from Amsterdam with an explosive device.
"A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism and we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable," Obama said in his first public comments since the botched attack.
Abdulmutallab has told U.S. investigators that al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen supplied him with an explosive device and trained him on how to detonate it, officials said over the weekend.
As millions of edgy air travelers endured stringent new security measures for flights around the globe, Obama was under massive pressure to ease frayed nerves and counter accusations his administration is soft on terror.
The incident has put a spotlight on the growing prominence of al-Qaeda in Yemen, and on the expanding role of the U.S. military and spy agencies in fighting the group.
"This was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland," Obama said, three days after catastrophe was narrowly averted on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
In a statement posted on Islamist websites, an al-Qaeda affiliate in the Arabian peninsula said the attempt was to avenge U.S. attacks on them in Yemen.
It said it had provided the Nigerian suspect in the failed airliner bombing with a "technically advanced device" but that it did not detonate because of a technical fault.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
In Rush Limbaugh place (or Glenn Beck's), I'd be calling Blackwater right now.
#2
First off, fire Homeland Insecurity Chief Napolomano and FBI Director Robert Mueller. He might also wish to call in CIA Director Leon Panetta for some very serious discussions. Twelve killed at Fort Hood and nearly 300 dead on this Delta flight.
Their efforts are focused upon the gun hugging, bible thumping, racists and neo-Nazis commonly referred to as the center and right of American politics, aka 'the enemy'. Just check the rhetoric they employ against them as opposed to 'not jumping to conclusions' about various Islamic related incidents.
#5
Obama pledged to "disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us--whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the U.S. homeland."
O.K. Let's get on with it then and quit pussyfooting around. The headline says: "Facing pressure, Obama vows to hunt extremists." What astounds me is the reactionary mode this administration is in. He should have been doing something long before he faced pressure. You get the idea there are a bunch of novices at the helm. Obama, Napolitano, etc. If you gut the CIA, shackle them with lawyers, handcuff them, treat terrorism as a crime, prosecute Navy Seals for busting a terrorist's lip, then you are going to get more and more terrorist assaults on our country.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/29/2009 14:15
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#8
This moron actually thinks that since public reaction to the attempted attack and his 3 days late speech, coupled with Napolitano's incredible blunder, was poor, that if he just gave another speech and showed he was real mad it would be fixed/ Jesus Mary and Joseph, we are in serious sh*t, the American people are discovering what a clown we have given the Presidency to, and how utterly feckless and clueless he is. Instead of action, more political talking points on national security and "violent extremists" so he can calm the anger and get back to reshaping the nation into a workers paradise. We are going to end up, dead broke, and in a worldwide war with sudden jihadi events all over the country and the Israeli's contemplating nukes as the fight for their lives, all becasue this POS didn't understand how to keep all the balls in the air and keep the world confident and stable through a belief in American power.
1930's anyone? Fascism and the krystalnacht may already be rumbling in the UK through the BNP and the EDL. What a mess.
#9
OTOH THE HINDU.com > HEADLEY TORTURED ME, ALLEGES ONE OF 26/11 ACCUSED [Mumbai Attack].
SABAHUDDIN AHMED claims to recognize DAVID HEADLEY as a member of FOUR-MAN US FBI INTERROGATION TEAM "investigating" = torturing him over the Mumbai terror operation.
The Dutch hero credited with halting a suicide bomber's attempt to blow up a plane loaded with Christmas travelers said today the syringe the bomber was holding was on fire and was stuck deep into the bomber's pants.
"I really had to pull it out of his hands because he kind of resisted. And it was also kind of stuck in his underwear," Jasper Schuringa told "Good Morning America" today.
Fresh details emerged today about the terror attack aboard Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas day, largely from "GMA's" interview with Schuringa, the passenger who leaped over plane seats to subdue alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
"When I came to the seats he was holding ... the object which was on fire and smoke was coming out of it," Schuringa said. "I really had to rip the whole object out of his pants."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
12/29/2009 9:35
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#3
The flaming syringe was a chemical fuse for the bomb.
This guy had 80 grams in his pants and the bomb that nearly nailed the Saudi Minister of counterterrorism and public relations had 100 grams in his underwear...I guess PETN is pretty powerful stuff.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/29/2009 10:29
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#4
are there air Marshals on these planes anymore?
#5
Do I detect soiled underwear? Jasper Schuringa prevented this from becoming a disaster as anyone. He is a hero. The administration said it was an isolated terrorist incident and that the system worked. What a load of crap we are spooned shoveled up and expected to believe.
Could US Air Marshalls do any better than Mr. S did, or would they get analysis paralysis as they radioed in a "potential situation" in to headquarters for authorization to remove flaming object from pants?
Angry passengers seem to be our best insurance against terrorists on board to date.
Im not trying to be fresh, just wondering what the SOP on use of force by Air Marshall look like? Does anyone definitively know what a Marshall can and can't do?
#12
Yes, the mystique of the Air Marshall, I forgot momentarily. Like taxpayers would ever be permitted to know what protections their money is buying.
[Dawn] Three people were killed and two others injured on Monday when a bomb suspected by police to be a left-over from Nepal's civil war went off in the southwest of the country, officials said.
"Three people of a same family died on the spot and two were seriously injured," police officer Prabin Adhikari, told AFP from Chitwan district, 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Kathmandu.
The blast occurred while the family was working on the field at the back of their house on Monday morning, according to police.
"We suspect the bomb must have been left unattended on the field during the armed conflict," Adhikari said.
Rebel Maoists waged a 10-year war against the government until a peace deal was struck in 2006.
Many unexploded bombs litter the country, left in villages and jungles during the conflict, which claimed the lives of more than 16,000 people.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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[Ma'an] Surrounded by police, an international group of human rights advocates staged a demonstration at a UN installation in Cairo on Monday after the Egyptian government denied their request to enter Gaza.
Former EU parliament vice president Luisa Morgantini, Filipino Senator and president of the Transnational Institute Walden Bello and others held a news conference outside the UN building in Cairo in hopes to negotiate their entry in Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
Another member of the Gaza Freedom March group, Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstien, 85, declared a hunger strike in protest of Egypt's decision. More than 600 others joined the demonstration at the UN building, one of the event's organizers told Ma'an in a telephone interview.
"We have a lot of police surrounding us -- we are besieged," Ziyaad Lunat said, speaking from outside the UN compound on Cairo's Mourad Street.
"It is a visual show. We are camping [outside the UN building] and so many different banners are flying."
Lunat added that the demonstrators are surrounded by hundreds of Egyptian guards and will remain outside the UN building until the negotiations are complete.
The Gaza Freedom March delegates, a group of 1,400 activists from 42 countries, intended to enter Gaza with humanitarian aid to commemorate Israel's Cast Lead operation.
The group was meant to leave for Rafah via Al-Arish on Monday, but were told that Egyptian security forces would not allow busses to take transport them. Egypt informed the group they could not travel due to the "sensitive situation" along the Gaza border.
Negotiations are underway to allow the transit of the delegates into Gaza, where they intend to march to Israel's Erez crossing on 31 December to bring an end to blockade on the coastal strip.
Meanwhile, several hundred French activists who amassed on Sunday in front of the French embassy in Cairo, demanding that buses be allowed to take them to the Rafah crossing, remain camped out in front of the embassy in an attempt to secure their entry into Gaza.
The activists, from the solidarity group EuroPalestine, erected several tents in front of the French embassy. The French Ambassador, as a result, met with the activists to negotiate on their behalf, a statement released by the US anti-war group CODEPINK, which organized the Gaza Freedom March.
Lunat said that the "French Ambassador has promised to help."
Olivia Zemor, the coordinator of the French group said in the statement, "we are waiting for the buses, we are staying in front of the French embassy, even if it's not comfortable, it's much more comfortable than Gaza."
The commotion in Cairo also comes amid controversy around Egypt's construction of a steel wall along the border with Gaza intended to cut of underground smuggling tunnels.
The tunnels represent a lifeline for Gaza's 1.5 million residents, who rely on them to import food, fuel, medicine, and other goods made scarce by two and a half years of an Israeli blockade.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
it's much more comfortable than Gaza.
How soon can you dig a tunnel to smuggle croissants? And, by all means, fire some rockets at Egyptians.
#2
This is absolutely HILARIOUS ? Palestine will be OURS! Yeah, give it to them. Human waves of French queers and EUroweenie politicians. Pink banners everywhere. Xst! go get the camera.
The Dutch tourist who helped stop the alleged terrorist plot is profiting off his heroism, according to the media outlet Gawker. Filthy lucre, is it? Why, damn the man! I'll bet he'd have profited out of it if he'd been killed, too.
Jasper Schuringa, who burned his hands while taking down Flight 253's would-be terrorist, has taken in at least $18,000 for two cell phone pictures and interviews with CNN and the New York Post, according to Foster Kamer of Gawker. $18,000? That's big money. That's like ten minutes of a Bill Clinton talk.
Schuringa, who sought the help of an Israeli handler to arrange the media appearances, according to the Web site, said Saturday he heard a pop, saw smoke and climbed over seats to stop a man from trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight in Detroit. "I didn't think. I just went over there to try to save the plane," Schuringa said on CNN. And what was everyone else doing at the time?
As passengers on Flight 253 screamed "fire, fire" on Friday, Schuringa said he figured the suspect was "trying to blow up the plane." So if he'd kept his seat and hollered "fire!" he wouldn't have made $18,000.
"When you hear a pop on a plane, you're awake," Schuringa said. ... and looking for the source.
The Detroit News tried to reach Schuringa, starting on Saturday, but he has not responded to Facebook requests for an interview. There's no law saying he has to.
Mike Bernacchi, a marketing professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy, said Schuringa's move is a byproduct of "his whole reality mechanism. Reality sells." So does fantasy, for that matter. And I'm guessing you make more money off good reality than off bad reality, and better money off fantasy of any but the worst sort.
"There's a price tag on everything and I guess while that is not the motivation and not the initiation of the action, the opportunity is there," Bernacchi said. "More and more folks are seizing it. Twenty years ago, a parade through main street and receiving a key would have been it and delightful. The price tag is out there. No good deed goes without remuneration." I heard it as "no good deed goes unpunished." I guess he's getting off lightly, just being criticized for picking up a few bucks.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
Get it while you can, buddy. And screw the hand-wringers. Oh, and thanks for helping out on the flight.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/29/2009 3:24
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#2
Formal recognition from the White House and a grateful nation? No, no, no! The media would rather talk about MONEY.
#4
Sounds like the Detroit News is pissed off that he didn't "friend" them on Facebook, at the very least.
How much have we taxpayers shelled out for the TSA employees and other government apparatchiki who didn't stop the terrorist from getting on the plane? How much has that pinhead Napolitano made since she took over Homeland Security?
He at least earned his 18k. Thank you, Mr. Schuringa.
#5
IMHO his actions deserve an immediate response. At the very LEAST a phone call from Barry. I know they are stillsorting out the details but come on call the guys and thank him. The money? Dude strike hard and strike often, it wont last that long.
#7
I don't understand why this guy is expected to pay for ANYTHING in the United States EVER.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
12/29/2009 10:40
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#8
It is utterly disgusting to see this kind of faux outrage from the mainstream media, an industry that falls well below the average whorehouse in ethics and dignity.
#9
The workman deserves his wage, good on him. I would cheerfully pay this man 18K out of my own pocket if I had it.
If the jihad-kebab had turned out to be Osama himself, Jasper and friends would be splitting 50 mil courtesy of Uncle Sam and Detroit News would probably be belly-aching about that too.
#10
--- At the very LEAST a phone call from Barry. In your dreams, man! Barry would never stoop to such a despicable action.
--- Speaking of despicable, I wouldn't be surprised if the MSM next links the Flying Dutchman to the Nazis. If so, you read it here first.
#12
I would say that the MSM's tut-tutting reminds me of a couple of elderly virgins discussing the facts of life, but it actually reminds me of a couple of retired hookers pretending to be elderly virgins discussing the facts of life.
#13
I actually dropped him a message on Facebook on the day this happened, congratulating him.
He acted how I would hope I would act, but you never know until the rubber meets the road.
As far as I'm concerned, if I ever meet him, he's not going to have to buy anything.
#15
" ...but it actually reminds me of a couple of retired hookers pretending to be elderly virgins discussing the facts of life."
A wonderful analogy of the concept of journalistic ethics! Media tearing down a hero because they couldn't pony up the dough for a story they wanted for free.
Posted by: regular joe ||
12/29/2009 15:21
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#16
What this article should be about is why aren't they organizing a ticker tape parade down Broadway for him and why hasn't Obama mentioned giving him a medal yet. Let's hope that someone can manage to get some of his work out on DVD in the US, so that he can profit some more.
#17
Since Rahm Emanuel could not capitalize on this crisis: Recall this quote: You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And since the administration has a lot of egg on its face about this near-disaster and since the MSM are aiders, abeters, and apologists of/for the current administration, it makes sense that the MSM would be critical of Jasper rather than say "Thanks; job well done."
According to press reports, 'Umar Faruq 'Abd Al-Muttalib, the Nigerian man who attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas Day, received the explosives from a bomb expert affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
At this early stage in the investigation the suspect's ties to AQAP have yet to be corroborated. It is noteworthy, however, that the Emir of AQAP, Nasir Al-Wahishi, wrote about bombing U.S. airplanes in a recent issue of the organization's magazine, Sada Al-Malahim. The issue was dated Shawwal 1430, corresponding to September-October 2009, and was posted on jihadist websites on October 28, 2009.
As reported by JTTM on November 5, Al-Wahishi wrote an article titled "War Is Deception" in which he urged others to emulate Abu Al-Khayr ('Abdallah Hasan Tali' 'Asiri), an AQAP suicide bomber who attempted to assassinate Saudi Deputy Interior Minister Muhammad bin Naif. One of the passages in the article read:
"Make the explosives into a bomb that you can throw, set off with a timer, explode by remote, or make them into an explosives belt; or you can put them in any electronic device, like a digital recorder in which you hear the tunes of explosions, or in a photo album, a folder, or an envelope. Explode them on any taghut, spy nest, Emir, minister, or Crusader, wherever you find them.
Brilliant idea: let's look at the results of the latest example of Al Qaeda bomb-making expertise -- that poor Nigerian lad. This new suggestion will likely leave the jihadi missing half his brain, but with his manhood still in working order. After all, what they have in Paradise depends on what they had when they died, if I recall correctly. Perhaps a reassuring fatwa ought to be issued on the subject.
"Likewise, [you should explode them] in the airports of the Western Crusader countries that have taken part in the war against the Muslims, or in their planes, on their residential blocks, or in their metros, and so on.
Prime jihadi age is 15-45 among Muslim males, whether Sunni or Shia. One possible response is to banish all such persons to the Dar al Islam, the Muslim lands, allowing them back when they have outgrown such stupidity. Not likely, I realize, but tempting.
+"There is always a stratagem [to be found] if you think and rely on Allah, and have no fear of it being discovered after you have hidden it well. By the power of Allah, it can not be discovered..."
While Al-Wahishi appeared to be mainly encouraging independent actions on the part of "lone wolf" bombers, the article did include an offer to help with these initiatives: "For our part, we will make contact with anyone who wants to wage jihad with us, and we will guide him to a suitable means to kill the collaborators and the archons of unbelief..."
According to media reports, 'Abd Al-Muttalib, the would-be bomber of NWA flight 253, had 80 grams of the explosive PETN sewn into his underwear. This method of hiding the explosives in or near one's private parts may also be suggestive of an Al-Qaeda connection. In recent propaganda, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has taken great pride in the fact that the suicide bomber Abu Al-Khayr had managed to sneak his explosives through multiple levels of security and into the presence of the Saudi Deputy Interior Minister. The communiqué taking responsibility for the assassination attempt said that "nobody knows or will ever know the nature [of this explosives charge] and how it was detonated." In fact, the bomber is believed to have hidden the explosives in his rectum. An AQAP video celebrating the assassination attempt later bragged that the explosives were not discovered "even though [Abu Al-Khayr] was searched more than once in the airports of Najran and Jeddah, and again at the Prince's palace."
True, the explosives were not discovered. Nonetheless, poor Mr. Abu al-Khayr ended up a double smear on floor and ceiling, harming no one but himself... and his manhood was not the bit of him left intact for identification purposes. The only thing the Al Qaeda bomb experts can point to as a success was that the explosives were not discovered before detonation.
AQAP has also focused in its recent propaganda on the use of small amounts of powerful explosives. (According to some reports, Abu Al-Khayr's explosives were also in PETN.) Al-Wahishi wrote: "It requires no great effort on your part, nor large sums, to manufacture 10 grams, more or less, of explosives. Do not search long for the materials, since they are in your mother's kitchen and are ready at hand, in whatever city you are in. Then you will accomplish what Abu Al-Khayr accomplished, may Allah have mercy on him."
Nothing like aiming for the stars! Or the ceiling, at any rate. Look for lots of inexplicable work accidents and gene pool cleansing in the next 6-12 months.
Likewise, in the video released by AQAP in celebration of the assassination attempt, the suicide bomber himself said in a recording made before the bombing: "The tyrants of the House of Saud claimed that they had already shut down [the operations of] the jihad fighters, and banned the selling of explosives of any kind... Bur from now on, we will come to you with [only] 50 grams, 100 grams, or 200 grams [of explosives], and with Allah's help, our brothers in the manufacturing department will produce videos explaining how anyone, using simple materials available to him, can [manufacture explosives] and blow up the enemies of Allah... You will be surprised to learn that explosives can be manufactured [even] from foodstuffs..."
Try mixing vinegar and baking soda, guys. Or ammonia and bleach.
In conclusion, it is not yet known for certain if or when 'Abd Al-Muttalib was in Yemen, but the circumstantial evidence drawn from AQAP's own publications and videos indicates that such a connection is plausible, and that the organization was actively seeking to assist in bombing plots like the attempt to blow up NWA 253.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
#1
AQAP repor is vowing more attacks will be a'comin.
[Dawn] Thirty people, three policemen and four children among them, were injured when a low-intensity bomb exploded during a Muharram mourning procession in Qasba Mor area of the city on Sunday.
This was second such incident in the city in two days. Although bomb disposal personnel said the blast had not been caused by an improvised explosive device (IED) but by gas from an open sewer line along the road, the crater at the place was larger than usually seen after a sewerage line bust.
"We thoroughly checked the area and found nothing which shows it's a bomb blast," said Capital City Police Officer Waseem Ahmed.
"The situation is quite clear but we are still investigating to strengthen our findings. The injuries were caused when construction material dumped on the roadside came down due to force of the explosion."
But doctors at the Qatar Hospital and Abbassi Shaheed Hospital, where the injured had been taken to by residents, ambulances of charity organisations and also by law-enforcement personnel, found splinter wounds on their bodies.
"The wounds appear to have been caused by a bomb blast," said Dr Mashhooduz Zafar Farooq, medical superintendent at the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital. "We received seven people who had suffered minor injuries. They were discharged after necessary treatment."
Officials at Qatar Hospital in Orangi Town, where 27 injured people had been treated, were of the same opinion. "The 27 injured included two boys nine to 10 years old and three policemen," said one of the officials. "One policeman was taken to the Abbassi Shaheed Hospital because he required a minor head surgery which we couldn't do here, but he was out of danger."
Violence erupted in Qasba and Ali Garh areas after the blast and dozens of charged youths took to the main road chanting slogans against the government, blaming it for what they called its failure to make adequate security arrangements.
That certainly is one way to describe the government sponsorship, training and funding of jihadi groups that were intended to be aimed at India and Afghanistan.
While police maintained calm and tried to persuade the protesters to disperse, some people set on fire two taxis and another vehicle parked in the area.
Despite police insistence that it was not a case of bomb explosion, the incident set alarms bell ringing in law-enforcement quarters and senior officials met later in the night to review security arrangements for Ashura on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
A Turkish archaeologist has called on his government to demand that Italy return the bones of St Nicholas to their original resting place.
It's probably just as well. I've got it on good authority that the guy who's been delivering the toys all these years isn't actually Saint Nicholas, but poor old Saint Sebastian. It started out as a public relations thing -- they discovered sometime around 1108 A.D. that children would rather get presents from a jolly old elf than from a skinny guy who'd been shot full of arrows -- and then it got out of hand.
The 3rd Century saint - on whom Santa Claus was modelled - was buried in the modern-day town of Demre in Turkey. But in the Middle Ages his bones were taken by Italian sailors and re-interred in the port of Bari.
The Turkish government said it was considering making a request to Rome for the return of the saint's remains. While Christmas is by and large not celebrated in Muslim Turkey, the Christmas figure of Santa Claus certainly is in the Mediterranean town of his birth. He was born in what was then the Greek city of Myra in the third century, and went on to become the local bishop, with a reputation for performing miracles and secretly giving gold to the needy - on one occasion being forced to climb down a chimney to leave his donation.
After his death he was canonised as Saint Nicholas, and venerated in much of the Christian world. But when Myra was occupied by Arab forces in the 11th Century, Italian sailors came and took the saint's bones to the port of Bari, where they remain interred to this day.
Prof Nevzat Cevik, head of archaeological research in Demre, says Saint Nicholas had made it clear during his life that he wanted to be buried in his home town. Even without the bones, the town of Demre has not been shy about cashing in on its most famous native son - today visitors to the Byzantine church there are greeted by a large, plastic Santa statue, complete with beard and red snow-suit.
Make the condition for their return government financing of the renovation of every church building in Turkey, the return of the Hagia Sophia to the Church for worship services, and the graduation of a full class of priests from the reopened seminary. When St. Nicholas was bishop, Christians worshipped freely. The Italian sailors acted to prevent his grave being desecrated by the conquering Muslim horde. Let the price of his return mark a Christian renaissance in the Byzantine home counties.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
See also TOPIX > TURKEY [Minister] DEMANDS BACK CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL VALUES FOUND IN ASIA MINOR.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Ten civilians including eight school children have been killed the latest episode of NATO's imprecise airstrikes in Afghanistan.
"Initial reports indicate that in a series of operations by international forces in Kunar province... 10 civilians, eight of them school students have been killed," Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said Monday.
Karzai has strongly condemned the killings in the airstrikes and appointed a delegation to investigate the event.
NATO forces in Kabul said they were looking into the incident, but declined to give further details.
Kunar representative in the parliament walked out of an important session debating appointments to Karzai's new cabinet in protest at the civilian casualties.
The border regions of Kunar have long been volatile as Taliban militants are said to cross the porous border from Pakistan to fight Western troops and Afghan government forces.
The imprecise operations carried out by the 100,000-plus foreign forces in Afghanistan have been criticized for their potential in claiming civilian casualties.
In one of the worst such cases, more than 140 people, including at least 30 civilians, were killed or wounded in Kunduz Province on September 4.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
latest episode of NATO's imprecise airstrikes
The airstrikes are extremely precise; IF civilians and school children are killed it is because they were being used as human shields for Taliban attacking NATO forces. Alternatively the civilians and students may well have been attacking NATO forces themselves - in A'stan you don't have to be an adult or military to shoot at infidels.
#2
In an insurgency, "asymmetrical war" or whatever politically correct term you want to use, none of the "enemy combatants" wear uniforms. Also since we have a vast trove of anecdotal information that women and children actively participate in the mayhem, either as suicide boomers or shooting at our troops, how can any moron say we killed civilians with a straight face?
Same freaking problem we had in Viet Nam, women shooting our wounded, kids throwing hand grenades at convoys...and when we popped them, we were shooting civilians...
Its all crap, nuke the danged place, bulldoze it and start over...or eradicate islam.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/29/2009 10:24
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#3
Glenmore, don't get too hasty about the accuracy of NATO forces.
France is in there and while I will not fault their troops bravery under fire the pilots cannot be trusted to not break the unbreakable. Having them hit off-target with GPS-guided munitions is unthinkable . . . but they have succeeded at it in the past.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
12/29/2009 11:22
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#4
A NATO official said that Sunday's mission in Kunar was a joint, ground operation involving U.S. and Afghan forces and no aircraft were used. The official sought anonymity so as not to interfere with coalition's involvement in the Afghan-led investigation of the incident.
The planned mission was against an insurgent network tracked for some time that was believed responsible for homemade explosive attacks on Afghan and international forces, the official said.
Based on weapons and improvised explosive device components found at the scene, the troops involved in the mission confirmed the deaths of nine insurgents, who were all young males, he added.
Gen. Zaman Mamozai, the local border police commander, also said Tuesday that those killed were insurgents.
He told The Associated Press by telephone that he had received photos from the forces involved in the fighting that show the young victims were armed insurgents planning attacks against international troops. Mamozai said coalition forces found homemade explosives in the house where the incident happened.
"I don't see civilians in the photos," he said. "The coalition said our target was insurgents who were planning to sabotage the security of the area. This operation looks like a successful operation. It seems like the men, ages between 25 and 30, were meeting in a room when they were struck."
Posted by: ed ||
12/29/2009 12:07
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#5
BTW, it must suck when those Lions of Islam see a squad of Americans bust into their hideout like Terminators and wastes each one, one by one.
Posted by: ed ||
12/29/2009 12:11
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#6
And it really sucks when they don't have a woman or child to hide behind, or a burka to hide in.
#7
RE:#2 nuke the danged place, bulldoze it and start over...or eradicate islam.
how about 'all of the above'?
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/29/2009 15:42
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#8
Sooner or later we're going to have to hit the Presidential Compound in Kabul. That's the source of most of the propaganda war against Allied forces.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/29/2009 17:17
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[Ma'an] The Hamas movement laid to rest on Monday two men killed in an explosion in Beirut on Saturday.
The two were buried in Al-Burj Ash-Shamali Refugee Camp in Beirut.
According to Lebanese sources, forensic experts determined that the blast was caused by a 15 kilogram charge of TNT that was placed underground in the city's Haret Hreik district.
Also on Monday, the leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, became the first to point the finger at Israel for the apparent assassination.
In his weekly column in the Al-Anbaa newspaper that the incident was a "sabotage act that only confirms the [depth] of Israel's aggressions against Lebanon, either through recurrent violations of Lebanon's airspace, land and sea or through security incidents."
At a news conference on Sunday afternoon, Hamas' top official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan cautioned the public not to jump to conclusions about the explosion, stressing that an investigation was "ongoing."
Earlier on Sunday Hamas leader in Gaza Ayman Taha confirmed that the two were Hamas members
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Lest we fergit ISRAELI MIL FORUM > LEBANON REPUDIATES UN RESOLUTION #1559 OUTLAWING HIZBOLLAH AS A TERRORIST-MILITIA GROUP.
The pro-Islamist Hizzies Hezzies Huzzies Hazzies look upon pro-Secular HAMAS wid disfavor + distrust, even iff Hamas is also agz Israel.
A disturbingly confused Janet Napolitano, confidently proclaimed Saturday that the security system that failed to spot a terrorist on a terror watch list worked just fine. Yesterday she must have added a shot of truth serum to her coffee and admitted the obvious.
The system failed.
To put it more bluntly, she failed.
Of course aviation security experts weren't buying her initial CYA line about the system working just fine. You see, when the only thing that prevents an airliner from blowing up is the fact that the detonator went bad, unless the government supplied the terrorist with the bad detonator, from a security standpoint, the plane was as good as lost.
From the Washington Post.
"Security failed," said Doron Bergerbest-Eilon, Israel's senior-ranking counterterrorism officer from 1997 to 2000 and a former national regulator for aviation security. It is of little comfort that Abdulmutallab was stopped only after he allegedly failed to properly detonate the bomb, instead igniting a fire that alerted fellow passengers, Bergerbest-Eilon said.
"The system repeatedly fails to prevent attacks and protect passengers when challenged," he said, adding that, in the minds of security experts, "for all intents and purposes, Northwest Flight 253 exploded in midair."
One wonders why a guy named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was on a terror watch-list because his father was worried about his militant behavior and reported him, was allowed to get on a plane. Call me a simpleton, but why wasn't that guy on the list to get the full-proctology screening at the airport? As the WaPo article notes, the explosive he was using is easily detected by security equipment. But aside from the equipment, what about just using common sense? The hard work was already done: He's already on the watch-list. Why should he fly anywhere without a full body search?
Or perhaps we are worried that he might be offended?
After all, it is not nice to offend your enemies, they might try to blow you up or something.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
those snot nosed drooling halfwit TSA agents couldnt spot a watermelon on a barn door much less an obviously middle eastern freak - on a watchlist- without a passport.
#4
Strange sounding muzzie name, no passport, one-way ticket, no baggage....no problem. Your window seat directly over the fuel tanks have now been confirmed. Have a nice flight.
#5
Amazing, no passport, paid cash for his ticket and he checked no baggage.
Geez Louise, aren't those supposed to be major league signal flares that something is wrong?
I think the initial reports that some well dressed handler got this half wit on the plane has some legs, I hope the Dutch are investigating this one...must have been a big handshake to get the kid on the plane..
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/29/2009 10:34
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#6
While I am not entirely supportive, I don't think he got a TSA screening. He was screened in Europe and should have been stopped there. Lots of blame here but I don't think TSA gets any.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/29/2009 14:01
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#8
But the TSA is damn good at making sure I take tiny tubes of toothpaste and shaving cream, and don't carry water in my waterbottle. I've lost 2-3 plastic water bottles in the last year because I forgot to empty them...
God I hate flying, and would do none of it if I didn't need to for work...
#9
garth,
IIRC, he may have had the visa but was missing the passport, or something like that. And the OTHER Nigerian (the lavatory lad) was on a cash -aid, one way, no luggage trip. Of course he wasn't exploding the plane, just his bowels, or so they say.
#10
The ticket was purchased in Lagos, Nigeria. I should think in that part of the world many middle class people would not own a credit card. On the other hand, our lad's father was the former head of the national bank, and our lad himself had spent several years in London at university, so he should have had a credit card of his own. On the third hand, our lad was no longer connected to his family and I imagine Papa was no longer paying his credit card bill (Papa had contacted the U.S. embassy to report him in the hope that the U.S. would track him down and return him to the bosom of his loving family -- an odd hope, but perhaps Papa was relying on his influence as a former high government official, even if only of Nigeria). But apparently the purchase did ring bells, because his name was run twice against the No Fly list with, of course, no result. And then I read today that AQ-AP has purchased the scanning machine the airlines use, so they knew their lad's laden underpants would pass inspection. All hail that Homeland Security contractor who made the draft handbook available to the general public!
[Al Arabiya Latest] A relative of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said his nephew's body was removed from hospital without the family's permission, a day after he was shot dead in clashes during anti-government protests, which state TV said killed 15 people.
The body of Seyed Ali Mousavi, the nephew of Iran's opposition leader killed in Tehran protests, has been transferred from the hospital to an unknown location, his brother told a website on Monday.
"My brother's body was taken away from the hospital and we cannot find it," Seyed Reza Mousavi told Parlemannews, the website run by the reformist minority faction in parliament.
"Nobody accepts responsibility for taking away the body ... We cannot have a funeral before we find the body."
The 35-year-old nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi was shot dead in Tehran's Sunday protests which turned into the bloodiest showdown between opposition protesters and security forces in months.
Tehran police said they were investigating the death.
"The killing of Mousavi's nephew in Ashura incidents is being investigated and the result will be announced soon," Tehran police chief Azizollah Rajabzadeh told ILNA news agency on Monday.
Jaras said opposition politician Ebrahim Yazdi, leader of the banned Freedom Movement and foreign minister in Iran's first government after the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed shah, was detained early on Monday at his home.
Authorities also arrested aides to reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami and Mousavi, another website reported.
Khatami aides "Morteza Haji and (Hasan) Rasooli were arrested," Parlemannews said. The two men run Khatami's non-governmental Baran organisation.
"Mousavi advisors Alireza Beheshti, (Ghorban) Behzadian-Nejad and (Mohammad) Bagherian were also arrested in the morning," it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula on Monday claimed responsibility for the attack on a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day, saying it was retaliation for a U.S. operation against the group in Yemen.
Yes, yes. Frightening as is the thought of what might have been, the fact is the U.S. operation succeeded. The Al Qaeda operation failed in a painful and life-changing way.
Federal authorities met today to reassess the U.S. system of terror watch lists to determine how to avoid the type of lapse that allowed a man with explosives to board the flight in Amsterdam even though he was flagged as a possible terrorist.
In a statement posted on the Internet, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula said 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab coordinated with members of the group, an alliance of militants based in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
In a statement posted on the Internet, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula said 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab coordinated with members of the group, an alliance of militants based in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
But but President Obama assured us yesterday Abdulmutallab was just an isolated extremist. I am so confused.
#2
DepotGuy - listening to "President" O'Bumble can confuse anyone. Listening to his "czars" and cabinet secretaries is equally as bad. Remember the computer saying, "Garbage in, garbage out"? Our "President" has been spoon-fed Marxist garbage since he was six years old.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/29/2009 17:21
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From AP via Haaretz
More than 400 members of an international aid convoy to Gaza declared a hunger strike on Sunday to protest Egypt's refusal to allow them entry into the Hamas-ruled territory via the Red Sea.
Alice Howard, a spokeswoman for British-based Viva Palestina, said the group was consuming only liquids, as it remained stranded in the Red Sea port of Aqaba.
Led by British MP George Galloway, they had hoped to enter Gaza on Sunday, the first anniversary of Israel's offensive against Hamas in the coastal strip, Operation Cast lead.
Egypt refused to let the group enter through the Red Sea. It says they should use a Mediterranean route closer to the Gaza border. where they could use a tunnel
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/29/2009
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#1
Alice Howard, a spokeswoman for British-based Viva Palestina, said the group was consuming only liquids, as it remained stranded in the Red Sea port of Aqaba.
In the Red Sea port of Eilat, bar owners were reporting a brisk sale of ice, blenders, techno cd's, Georgian red wines, Long Island Ice Tea ingredients, protein Power Shake ingredients, soy milk and fresh fruit.
Meanwhile, Aqaba authorities are pressuring the Viva Palestina to lower the noise level after 3 a.m., as it's keeping their goats from producing milk.
#2
Give it a few more days. The Egyptians arent going to let them in. And they are just cooking out there in the lack of breeze and its getting late. Its only a matter of time and the pharmaceuticals are baking in the truck.
Give 'em enough cheap beer to hang themselves.
Enjoy it while it lasts. It cant get any better than the Global thingy Farce in Copenhagen.That was hard to top. Pink spandex and kumbaya, y'all.
Go Galloway. And when you wake up in the morning it will all be just like it was a little ways down the road from Crawford, Texas.
#4
Galloway could go on Biggest Loser with Al Sharpton.
Unfair to Rev. Sharpton who, for all his myriad faults, actually has one or two scruples left (like NOT pretending to be a cat or wearing a red leotard on national TV).
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/29/2009 9:08
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#5
George Galloway -- Britian's Benny Hill for the new millenia.
Posted by: regular joe ||
12/29/2009 12:53
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#6
what is this,the bastard pro iszrahell squaters association? fuck you scum that convoy is carring medical aid you bastards scum
#7
*kiss* hello, ignorant scum. Medical aid, as in.... ammo for the widows and deformed inbred infants fund?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/29/2009 20:15
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#8
Clearly poor Mr. CraiheRa45's school in Los Angeles neglected to teach him the basics of writing, like the first word of a sentence begins with a capital letter, and the sentence ends with either a period, a question mark or an exclamation point. On the rhetoric side, each repetition of a one-word insult reduces its impact by suggesting the writer has an exceedingly limited vocabulary, and an intelligence level to match. This was, of course, confirmed by the vicious inanity of the gentleman's post. I suggest he be sent back to repeat second grade, after which we can address his remaining learning deficiencies.
[Dawn] North Korea may have constructed a plant to manufacture a gas needed for uranium enrichment in a development that would indicate that Pyongyang had opened a second way to build nuclear weapons as early as the 1990s, The Washington Post reported late Sunday.
Citing a previously unpublicized account by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb program, the newspaper said North Korea may have been enriching uranium on a small scale by 2002, with maybe 3,000 or even more centrifuges.
Pakistan helped North Korea with vital machinery, drawings and technical advice for at least six years, the report said.
The Post said Khan's account could not be independently corroborated. But one US intelligence official and a US diplomat said his information adds to their suspicions that North Korea has long pursued the enrichment of uranium in addition to making plutonium for bombs.
It also may help explain Pyongyang's assertion in September that it is in the final stages of such enrichment, the paper noted.
Khan described his dealings with the country in official documents and in correspondence with a former British journalist, Simon Henderson, who said he thinks an accurate understanding of Pakistan's nuclear history is relevant for US policymaking, the report pointed out.
The Post independently verified that the documents were produced by Khan.
Khan's account of the pilot plant depicts relations between the two countries' scientists as exceptionally close for nearly a decade, the paper said.
Khan says, for example, that during a visit to North Korea in 1999, he toured a mountain tunnel, according to the report. There his hosts showed him boxes containing components of three finished nuclear warheads, which he was told could be assembled for use atop missiles within an hour.
His visit occurred seven years before the country's first detonation, prompting some current and former US officials to say that Khan's account, if correct, suggests North Korea's achievements were more advanced than previously known, and that the country may have more sophisticated weapons, or a larger number, than earlier estimated, The Post said.
But Siegfried Hecker, a former Los Alamos National Laboratory director who was allowed to see some North Korean plutonium during a visit to its nuclear facilities in January 2004, said after hearing Khan's description of the trip he remains unconvinced that the country in 1999 had enough fissile material on hand to make such weapons.
The Post quotes Hecker as saying that Khan may have tried to get himself "off the hook" by implying that his own illicit technical assistance to Pyongyang was irrelevant because "these guys already had nuclear weapons."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > PAKISTANI SCIENTIST [Dr. Qadeer Khan]DEPICTED MORE ADVANCED NUCLEAR PROGRAM FOR NORTH KOREA.
IMO read, NOKOR = 2012 IRAN = "NUC ENERGY" is just a PCorrect-Deniable "Gateway" for NEAR-TERM OR EVENTUAL DEV OF NUCWEAPONS???
The system is supposed to work, according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, something like this: a man recently reported to U.S. authorities by his own father, who was on a terror watch list, who pays three grand in cash for a ticket to Detroit (enough to buy a city block in the Motor City), and who was denied a student visa to the United Kingdom, attempts to explode a bomb on a packed plane and is tackled by a Dutch filmmaker. Vindication of the stupid, bloated, counterproductive DHS security apparatus! Which, as has been pointed out in these very pages by Jesse Walker, is about to get even dumber and more irritating.
Today Napolitano backtracked, saying she had been taken out of context and that the system, in fact, failed:
Ms. Napolitano said Monday on NBC'S "Today" that her remark the day before -- "the system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days" -- had been taken out of context. "Our system did not work in this instance," she said. "No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way."
Other notable backtracks in the past few days: The ever-reliable Michael Moore tweeted that it was a gang of tough Detroiters (probably union guys) that foiled the plot, forgetting that no one actually lives in Detroit anymore. He later clarified that the 60 pound Nigerian was pummeled by a flying Dutchman, but "Then Motown kicked in" by providing a runway for an emergency landing.
Lefty blogger Spencer Ackermann tweeted that "Some idiot set firecrackers off on a jet and were supposed to be afraid of that?" Well, yes we are. Because according to a report in today's New York Times, were he not foiled by a faulty detonator, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was carrying enough firecrackers to blow Flight 253 out of the sky.
In related news, Brian Ross of ABC News reports today that Abdulmutallab "told FBI agents there were more just like him in Yemen who would strike soon." Awesome.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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"No one actually lives in Detroit anymore" > Uh, uh, and the SOUTH SIDE OF CHICAGO.
Also, lets not fergit IRAN's so-called "14 Province", aka DA ARNUUULD'S STATE OF CALIFORNIA?
#4
Napolitano Says No Evidence Yet Airplane Bomb Plot Part of 'Anything Larger"
Ummm, Ms. Napolitano, in case you missed it while you were trying to figure out how to build a Potemkin Village of security, it's a larger plot called the Radical Violent Muslim War against the infidel and the West. A good start would be to read The Looming Towers by Lawrence Wright. Then you might understand why (since the first WTC bombing in 1993 and leading up to 2009 when there were 28 "Man-Made" successful or attempted attacks), that this is something larger.
#5
Since all of the lefties in the Obama administration are lawyers, it's all law enforcement to them.
It's not a war, we don't need war, a couple of cease and desist orders and a nicely worded MOI and its all good.
Except for one thing, they will never negotiate, it is their sworn duty to convert the world or kill the infidels. Its the Quran or the sword to these people.
When is anyone going to seriously admit, through their politically correct filters, that we are in a religious war and a cultural war. We either pray to Allah or we die. They bash our Judeo-Christian traditions, won't say a negative word about Islam and they hide the really ugly news of what these people are doing all over the world from the american people. I just hope and pray that some nut case from Somalia or Yemen decides to blow up the NYT. Maybe then, these pillars of journalism will get the message. And maybe once one of them blows up a building full of lawyer, then the legal profession will get on board...wait, THAT has already happened.
I for one do not want my grandchildren to live like they do in these illiterate, fanatical fever swamps of hate that the radical islamists create.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/29/2009 10:47
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To raise his popularity rating quite a few points, all 0 would have to do is fly back to DC & fire Napolitano, just to encourage the others. Of course that won't happen.
Recent headlines seem lifted directly out of an Ayn Rand novel. President Obama decries the "fat cat bankers on Wall Street". Harry Reid attacks insurance companies for making too much profit. House Democrat leaders call Tea Partiers "Racist, Nazi, Gun Nuts". How about this nauseating statement made by Army General George Casey after the Muslim terrorist attack on Ft. Hood?
As great a tragedy as this was, it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well
Each of these headlines might well have been uttered by an Ayn Rand character. Rand, whose father's pharmacy was confiscated by the Soviets during the communist revolution of 1917, and who came to America in 1926, seems uniquely able to speak to us about the inverted morality of our times. Virtue is to be apologized for. Depravity commands respect. Success is cast as evil and punished while failure is blamed on others and rewarded. Rand's insights into the psychological state of collectivists--those who demand that we sacrifice our individual freedom and happiness for the sake of the state--explain what often seems incomprehensible to thinking people.
An epic demonstration of the inverted morality that Rand described was on display in Copenhagen last week as the world's worst most evil dictators--Mugabe and Chavez--partnered with the world's most visible and misguided progressives--Al Gore , Gordon Brown, Barack Obama--in an orgy of depravity. Sadly, even the Pope lent his moral support to the lunacy, saying, "Industrialized nations must recognize their responsibility for the environmental crisis, shed their consumerism and embrace more sober lifestyles."
John Galt, the industrialist hero of Rand's 1957 masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged, refers to those in power who stripped men of their minds, wealth and freedom, as mystics. The mystics of spirit were the religious leaders of centuries past who proclaimed that faith is superior to reason. Galt is no fan of these mystics but it is the mystics of muscle--the progressives who force us to submit to their version of the common good--that Galt despises.
And Barack Obama is a mystic of muscle in its purest form, able to corral the worshipping media, the always superficial Hollywood elites, America hating academics, state-sponsored capitalists (e.g., Goldman Sachs), and grant hungry "scientists" & environmentalists hoping to cash in on a trillion dollar loot of the American people called global warming. These are the pillars of deceit Obama used to get elected. This was how he convinced enough of us to give up our minds for the the mystical concept that Rand called the collective. True to form, Barack, master of the mystics of muscle, has used his power mightily to loot from the producers, and hand it to the parasites, crooks and undeserving (read; SEIU, ACORN, UN Climate Fund, General Motors).
John Galt leads a revolt by the productive class and outlines Rand's philosophy in his 60-page radio address. Here, he explains how human beings--alone among life forms--can choose to be mindless:
A living entity that regarded its means of survival as evil, would not survive. A plant that struggled to mangle its roots, a bird that fought to break its wings would not remain for long in the existence they affronted. But the history of man has been a struggle to deny and destroy the mind.
Sad to say, for a movement powered by the mindlessness, there is plenty of fuel to sustain "hope and change":
Who but the mindless can believe that government run health care will reduce costs and improve care while covering more people?
Who but the mindless can believe that this President is now serious about reducing the deficit after shattering spending records during his first year?
Who but the mindless can take seriously the sham "jobs summit" held by a President whose every policy is a lesson in job destruction?
Who but the mindless can believe Obama's lie that "Cash for Clunkers" which cost taxpayers $24,000 per car was successful?
Who but the mindless would not outraged that our government has reneged on its promise pay back the unused TARP fund to taxpayers?
Who but the mindless would not question the morality that the world's finest health care, which has extended and improved human life in unimaginable ways--conceived and produced by countless unsung heroes in the private sector--should magically be transformed by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi into a "human right", taken over by the state and rationed out as they please?
The assault on reason by our President and Congress goes on ad infinitum. It is mindlessness that elected "hope and change" and mindlessness that sustains it. Ayn Rand recognized that the greatest struggle on earth is that between the individual and the collective, and to submit to the collective, the individual must lose his ability to think for himself. Howard Roark, hero of The Fountainhead explains;
The mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain.
The last thing a mystic of muscle wants is for us to start using our minds to uncover their fraud. Galt gets to the heart of the evil of progressive demand that we all serve the state when he says,
By the grace of reality and the nature of life, man--every man--is an end in himself, he exists for his own sake, and the achievement of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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The purpose of a thing is always itself. That's probably Aristotle. Augustine would agree.
All altruism is just a greater perspective on self interest. Compassion is a combination of the words Cum( Latin) which means WITH and Passion ( which means to bear or suffer..where we get the word "passive").
I personally feel uncomfortable with compassion. I know too much about Human Nature. Like William Money says in the Clint Eastwood film The Unforgiven..."we all have it coming."
You cant afford illusions about yourself and about your enemies. Your enemies are just like you are only they are dead. Somebody wins and somebody loses. The Virtuous are probably not going to make it. Joan of Arc was just there to be used.
The important thing is to pay attention and get there fustest with the mostest. I have always like Jubal Early, who was Lincoln's "bad old man".
God has friends, but its always hard on His friends. Try not to get any of that on your shirt.
And you have to remember that one of Joan of Arcs best friends was Bluebeard. No, really. And another was L'Hire. You dont want to know.
In a tight place you dont need Dudley Doright. Trust me.
#7
Ah, so she's the chica that Churls at Little Green Pusballs gets agitated over approximately once a week for supposedly being some right wing neonazi!
#9
She's a bit out there beyond Michele Malkin but she is obviously on the same side of the "what the heck is going on here" question that most of us here are.
I think she's obviously concerned about the teflon coating the press and the Obama Monarchy are putting on Islam.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/29/2009 11:11
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#10
She's right about the headlines sounding like they came out of an Ayn Rand novel. They really do.
Sales of her novels have spiked since Obama got elected, just like gun sales.
The books can be difficult in places because Rand sends her characters on long, tedious rants that would never happen in real life conversations. John Galt's radio speech is particularly tedious and heavy on the Aristotle. People would be turning off their radios.
"A is A", he says.
Well, of course it is but can we just get on with the story?
Rand also has trouble with the concept of God. She believes only in what can be proven and accuses preachers of misleading their flocks with appeals for compassion. Unfortunately, many preachers resemble that remark. The Archbishop of Canterbury comes to mind.
Nonetheless, it is shocking how close Rand gets to the truth behind today's politics. Politicians will go on and on about compassion for the poor when all they really want is to steal your money so they can buy votes with it and make us all dependent on the state.
There are people who either cannot or will not read Atlas Shrugged. It doesn't necessarily mean they are bad...Maybe they just drank the KoolAid. But you need to beware of these people.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/29/2009 12:41
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#11
I thank God I was made to read Atlas Shrugged when in college. The book literally changed the way I viewed collectivism and opened up new ideas I'd never given much thought of. Right now many of us are Hank Rearden.
[Dawn] Gun battles between Taliban and a tribal militia killed 15 people on Monday in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the border with Afghanistan, security officials said.
The clashes broke out when Taliban fighters attacked homes and trenches dug by the anti-Taliban militia in the Stoorikhel area of Orakzai district, 200 kilometres (125 miles) from northwestern city Peshawar, officials said.
Security officials said the Taliban destroyed several houses and killed nine men from a rival militia, which was set up to challenge the Islamists who hold sway in parts of Orakzai.
"They also killed local tribal elder Malik Sharif and took over his house,"one official said.
"We have reports that nine militia men and six militants have been killed. The fighting is still going on," a security official based in the neighbouring garrison city of Kohat told AFP by telephone.
"There are casualties on both sides. Gun battles are continuing. Both sides are using heavy weapons," said an intelligence official in the town of Hangu.
Hakimullah Mehsud, who heads the umbrella Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, comes from Orakzai and many Taliban fighters are believed to have fled to the area to escape an offensive against the group's stronghold in South Waziristan.
Pakistan has encouraged locals to organise lashkars, or tribal militias, against militants in parts of the northwest, where the country's traditional army with equipment shortages has found it difficult to eradicate insurgents.
Regular soldiers have launched numerous offensives in the tribal belt, but Washington is increasing pressure on Islamabad to do more against Al-Qaeda and stop insurgents crossing the border to attack Western troops in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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The leader of Yemen's Shia rebels may have died after being severely wounded by government forces in the north of the country, a Yemeni government website and media said on Sunday.
Our prayers for sepsis have been heard!
In a separate development, al Qaida's wing in Yemen said in an Internet statement that it would take revenge over raids targeting the group this month, which it said were carried out by US jets and killed about 50 men, women and children.
The Shia rebels, known as the Houthis after the family name of their leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, are fighting government troops in impoverished Yemen's mountainous north, complaining of social, religious and economic discrimination.
Yemen's defence ministry website said Houthi was wounded in an attack by troops and might have died from his wounds.
"There are increasing reports about the death of the terrorist Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, who was severely injured in an attack aimed at a gathering with a group of terrorist elements," the website said, adding that he may have been buried already.
Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television also said the rebel leader was dead, citing unnamed Yemeni sources as saying he was killed in an airstrike. Yemeni news websites carried the same report.
The rebels could not be contacted and their website did not comment on the reports. Past reports about Houthi's death were never confirmed but the latest reports appeared to be stronger.
The conflict drew in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, after the Houthis seized Saudi territory last month, prompting Riyadh to launch strikes against them.
The United States and Saudi Arabia fear al Qaida will exploit instability in Yemen to stage attacks in the kingdom and beyond.
The rebels said in a statement on their website on Sunday that Saudi Arabia launched 31 air raids on the Jaberi area -- a Saudi territory with a large rebel concentration -- in addition to 15 air strikes on areas in Yemen on Saturday night.
"Air strikes and missiles continued all of last night...," the statement said. "This morning, the Saudi army began to advance inland into Jaberi."
Saudi officials could not be reached for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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TOPIX/DRUDGEREPORT > YEMEN GOVERNMENT: OVER THREE HUNDRED AL QAEDA MILITANTS ARE INSIDE COUNTRY, + planning attacks.
* TOPIX > [Mutallab]AL QAEDA VOWS MORE US ATTACKS. Attacks agz West + "Crusaders" anywhere around the World until such time they leave the Lands of Allah = Island of Arabia .
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, will offer an amendment on the Senate floor shortly that if adopted will ban the practice of trading earmarks for votes in the Senate. In order for the Senate to have an opportunity to vote on the DeMint measure, Senate rules will have to be suspended, something that is rarely done.
The text of the DeMint amendment reads as follows:
"(a) IN GENERAL.--It shall not be in order in the Senate to consider a congressionally directed spending item, a limited tax benefit, or a limited tariff benefit, if a Senator, Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner has conditioned the inclusion of language to provide funding for a congressional directed spending item, a limited tax benefit, or a limited tariff benefit in any amendment, bill, or joint resolution (or an accompanying report) or in any conference report on a bill or joint resolution (including an accompanying joint explanatory statement of managers) on any vote cast by any Senator, Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner."
The South Carolina Republican decided to offer the amendment in the wake of the national uproar against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's buying of votes for Obamacare, including the infamous $300 million "Louisiana Purchase" for Sen. Mary Landrieu's vote, agreeing to Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson's demand that the federal government begin paying his state's Medicaid costs in perpetuity, and a $10 billion program to create free medical clinics across the country, as demanded by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
A DeMint aide said the amendment is similar to one his boss co-authored with Sen. Richard Durbin, D-IL, in 2007. A similar rule is already in effect in the House of Representatives. The 2007 Durbin-DeMint amendment, which included a ban on earmark vote-trading, passed the Senate by a vote of 98 to 0. The Senate vote-trading rule was dropped in closed-door negotiations with the House and was not part of the final legislation signed by the President.
Senate rules will have to be suspended because Reid has blocked all further amendments to Obamacare. A motion to suspend Senate rules requires the votes of two-thirds of those present on the Senate floor at the time.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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It's legal, unless you're the governor of Illinois, in which case, they remove you from office. The lesson is - It's good to be the Senator.
#2
My dog sleeps about 20 hours a day. He has his food prepared for him. He can eat whenever he wants, 24/7/365. His meals are provided at no cost to him. He visits the Dr. once a year for his checkup, and again during the year if any medical needs arise. For this He pays nothing, and nothing is required of him. He lives in a nice neighborhood in a house that is much larger than He needs, but He is not required to do any upkeep. If He makes a mess, someone else cleans it up. He has his choice of luxurious places to sleep. He receives these accommodations absolutely free. He is living like a king, and has absolutely no expenses whatsoever. All of his costs are picked up by others who go out and earn a living every day. I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me like a brick in the head, Holy S#!t, my dog is a democrat!
[Ma'an] The Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, said on Monday that they fired a homemade projectile overnight at an Israeli installation near the Kissufim crossing in the central Gaza Strip.
The group said in a statement that this was in retaliation for the Israeli operation in the West Bank city of Nablus on Saturday when three Al-Aqsa-affiliated men were killed.
An Israeli military spokesperson said officials were not aware of any such event.
"From an initial check the IDF is not aware of any shelling or any rocket falls in the Kissufim area," a military representative said over the phone.
Israeli special forces killed the three Nablus men alleging that they were linked to the fatal shooting of a settler on Thursday night.
Also on Saturday, Israeli force shot death three Palestinians who Israel claimed tried to enter Israel. Palestinian officials said the three were collecting scrap metal near the border.
Saturday's violence was the worst Israeli-Palestinian death toll since the end of Israel's three week offensive on Gaza last winter which left 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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[Dawn] At least 15 militants extremists were killed in the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Nijat during the last 24 hours, a press released issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
The militants raided Boya Narai Post in South Waziristan Agency, late last night. Security forces retaliated and as a result 15 miscreants were killed including militant commander Zainual.
Two security personnel, Lance Havaldar Sikandar and Havaldar Aftab embraced martyrdom while three others were injured during the gun battle.
Soon after successful retaliation the security forces conducted search and clearance operation in Marobi Raghzai and Zhawar Killi in Razmak sector and a compound in Landi Wah near Lakki in Shakai sector and seized a large cache of arms and ammunition.
The security forces also carried out search and clearance operation in Atror near Kalam, Chuprial and Nilgram areas of Swat during Operation Rah-e-Rast and recovered several weapons.
At least three terrorists voluntarily surrendered to security forces at Roringar and Devolai. Security forces also carried out search and clearance operation in Mingora city and Tal, Kandao near Shah Dheri and Taghma areas of Swat and recovered arms and ammunition.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: TTP
Iranian state television reported that more than 15 people were killed in protests, 10 of whom were members of "anti-revolutionary terrorist" groups.
The other five who died during Sunday's fierce clashes in the Iranian capital were killed by "terrorist groups," the report said, without elaborating.
"In a suspicious act, five people were killed by terrorist groups and the ministry of intelligence announced that more than 10 of the known members of anti-revolutionary terrorist groups were killed," the state television website said.
An opposition leader earlier criticized Iran's hardline rulers for killing innocent people during a religious festival, a reformist website reported.
According to opposition websites the unrest had spread to other parts of Iran, including the holy city of Qom, Shiraz, Isfahan, Najafabad, Mashhad and Babol.
The reports could not be independently verified because foreign media are banned from covering protests.
The White House condemned the "unjust suppression" of civilians by the Iranian government and said the United States was on the side of protesters.
Canada condemned what it called "brutal violence" used by Iranian authorities against protesters and urged restoration of human rights in the country.
While German Chancellor Angela Merkel slammed the "unacceptable" crackdown on pro-opposition demonstrators and pressed Tehran to respect civil rights.
The killings showed that the confrontation between the opposition and the clerical establishment had entered a volatile phase, in which the security forces appeared determined to stamp out the pro-reform movement.
The disputed re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has plunged Iran into its biggest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution, exposing deepening divisions in its ruling elite and setting off a wave of protests that the opposition says left over 70 people dead.
Officials say the death toll was half that number.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Dawn] Police, in a routine snap check operation, arrested three suspected militants near Kashmore early Monday, DawnNews reported.
The militants, travelling from NWFP in a van, were on their way to Sindh and were carrying a heavy quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives.
DPO Kashmore Abdul Salam Sheikh said the militants wanted to transfer the arms and ammunitions, including detonators, explosives, guns and suicide jackets, to different parts of Sindh.
However, police intercepted their van and following a brief pursuit, they were nabbed.
Police said they were still determining the nature and the number of materials seized from the van. Meanwhile, a search operation was launched in parts of Kashmore.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: TTP
Main Justice reports that Christopher Coates, head of the Justice Department's voting rights division, has been removed from his post and replaced.
But no, the administration isn't doing damage control after it mysteriously dropped voter intimidation charges against three members of the Black Panther Party who rather openly intimidated Philadelphia voters on Election Day 2008. Rather, the administration is getting rid of the official who initiated the charges:
Coates signed off on the controversial voter intimidation complaint against the New Black Panther Party and three of its members, filed in the waning days of the George W. Bush administration. The Obama DOJ's decision to dismiss most of the charges in May has become a political controversy for the administration.
Coates is among those who were subpoenaed to testify about the Black Panther controversy before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
Voting while melanin-deficient should be a crime!
#2
You identified a minor dysfunction g(r)om where both symtoms and larger, long-term outcomes continue to suffer acute phychosocial denial. Not only is it denied, it is celebrated and deitized.
#3
See the post 'This is England' and note the response of a significant segment of fringe (so far) Britons to government protection of militant Islam. Is it hard to imagine that our own blantantly unfair (& racist) government actions like those around this case will lead to similar gangs of racist (anti-racist?) thugs in this country? Obama, the great unifying leader - yeah, right.
A senior Iranian commander has condemned sporadic anti-government protests in the Iranian capital of Tehran as "disgraceful" and "reproachable."
Protestors on Tuesday took to some central and downtown streets during ceremonies commemorating the 7th century martyrdom of Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) grandson, Imam Hussein (PBUH), known as Ashura.
Brigadier-General Masoud Jazayeri, the deputy commander of Iran's armed forces, on Monday defined the "actions of a group of hooligans on such days of mourning" as another "low act" incomparable to anything seen before.
He described the "small group of vandals" as marginal compared to "millions of real Ashura mourners."
Jazayeri also called on the judiciary to effectively deal with "the unbelievers and apostates" who had staged the riots in the capital.
At least eight people lost their lives during the Sunday riots which saw protesters chanting slogans against top Iranian government officials.
Confirming four of the deaths, Iran's deputy police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said one of the deceased fell from a bridge, two others were hit by cars while one other victim was shot dead by an unknown assailant.
Police identified the person who was shot dead by unknown assailants as Seyyed Ali Mousavi.
Police say the force was not involved in the killings, adding that the incidents are under investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
ION WORLD NEWS > KHALEEJ TIMES OP-ED > BIGGEST THREAT TO TEHRAN IS NOT FROM THE OPPOSITION. Its Kurdish, Baloch, Azeri, + Arab etc. separatists aggressively, curr comprising approxi 44% of Iran's population, colluding and working together.
How COULD this have happened? We were just minding our own business and playing like quiet Church-mice and then all these "low" demonstrations ( for some reason).
[Ma'an] Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Committee in Jerusalem, called on Monday for the allocation of 500 million US dollars to support health, education, and housing projects in the city.
Speaking at the Arab Parliament Union in Cairo, Sabri suggested establishing a housing fund for newlyweds in Jerusalem.
In an interview with Ma'an, Ekrima said the meeting tackled a number of issues, including violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, over which he urged the international community to do a better job protecting holy sites from Israeli extremists.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
He must be feeling left out. All of the other sheikhs have bigger Swiss bank accounts...
[Dawn] Security forces arrested seven militants from Khyber agency's Bara tehsil, DawnNews reported. Meanwhile, a shop was blown up by militants in Landi Kotal.
FC officials claim to have killed over a hundred foreign terrorists during the military operation in the Khyber tribal region.
Security forces have also arrested at least 200 militants from different parts of Bara tehsil since the operation began. A curfew was imposed in the area as search and clearance operations were underway.
Separately, militants blew up a shop located along the Pak-Afghan Highway in Khyber's Landi Kotal tehsil.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami
Police fired teargas on Monday to disperse supporters of reformist leader Mirhossein Mousavi who gathered to express their condolences over his nephew's death in an anti-government rally, an Iranian opposition website said.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council said eight people were killed on Sunday in anti-government protests across Iran that erupted during the religious festival of Ashura. Iran's Health Ministry said over 60 people had been injured in Tehran.
The deaths and scale of confrontations may signal a volatile new phase in which security forces loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei try to crush the reformist movement.
"These are the hardest clashes we've seen since June," said a Western diplomat in Tehran, referring to demonstrations after the disputed presidential election, adding that bitterness over the deaths may spark fresh protests and a harsh state reaction. He said Iran's leadership was under great pressure but showed no sign of losing its grip.
Among the dead on Sunday was a nephew of Mousavi. State television said unknown assailants killed Ali Habibi Mousavi Khamene. A Mousavi ally described his death as martyrdom. "A group of Mousavi supporters have gathered in front of Ebn-e Sina hospital where his nephew's body was kept ... Police fired teargas to disperse them," the Norooz website reported.
A moderate website said on Monday the body of Mousavi's nephew was missing from the hospital.
"We can not hold a funeral until my brother's body is found," said another of Mousavi's nephews said, according to parlemannews. Clashes were expected at the funeral ceremony.
Violence flared up across Iran. Jaras opposition website said three advisers of Mousavi were detained on Monday, a day after five people were killed in Tehran. Earlier the website reported the arrests of four pro-reform politicians.
Opposition websites said police fired on protesters in Tehran on Sunday, saying eight people were killed in the capital and other cities when tens of thousands of people took to the streets. Police denied the claim.
Police said the "suspicious deaths" were under investigation and that 300 protesters had been arrested, adding dozens of security men had been injured in the running street clashes.
The Intelligence Ministry said members of an exiled opposition group, the Mujahideen Khalq Organisation, were among those arrested.
Another opposition leader Mehdi Karoubi accused Iran's hardline rulers on Monday of killing innocent people, Jaras reported.
Police had earlier reported five dead in violence in Tehran, the first such fatalities since the street protests immediately after June's presidential election. "What has happened to this religious system that it orders the killing of innocent people during the holy day of Ashura?" asked moderate cleric Karoubi, who came fourth in the election, in a statement posted on Jaras.
Jaras said opposition politician Ebrahim Yazdi, leader of the banned Freedom Movement and foreign minister in Iran's first government after the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed shah, was detained early on Monday at his home.
Jaras said police shot dead four protesters in central Tehran on Sunday and that unrest had also erupted in the cities of Qom, Shiraz, Isfahan, Najafabad, Mashhad and Babol.
The reports could not be independently verified because foreign media are banned from directly covering protests.
Tabriz prosecutor Yahya Mirzamohammadi denied a Jaras report that four protesters had been killed in the northwestern city. He told the ISNA news agency no protests had occurred there.
The United States condemned Iran's "unjust suppression" of civilians and said it was on the side of protesters.
A hardline clerical group in the holy city of Qom condemned the "sedition by rioters" during the Shi'ite Muslim religious ritual of Ashura, the official IRNA news agency said. "The association of Qom theologians ... asks officials to identify those behind yesterday's events and take appropriate measures to firmly encounter and punish them according to legal and religious standards," it said in a statement.
Political turmoil has convulsed Iran since the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a vote his opponents said was fraudulent, a charge the authorities deny.
Demonstrations have persisted, now increasingly on important days in the Islamic Republic's religious and political calendar, as the opposition seeks to sustain its own momentum.
Heavy security measures eventually quelled the first explosion of mass protests that plunged Iran into its biggest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The opposition says more than 70 people were killed in the early protests. Officials say the toll -- including members of a pro-government Islamic militia -- was less than half that.
The unrest, which has divided the political and clerical elite, has also complicated Iran's decision-making in the long-running dispute over its nuclear programme, which the West fears is a cover to build bombs. Tehran denies this.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
"We can not hold a funeral until my brother's body is found,"
GOOD, no body, no Huge Martyr Celebration.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/29/2009 13:21
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#2
Well, that's how the mullahs see it, given that such a funeral would offer a rallying place and event for the opposition.
But I'm surprised you agree with them, RedneckJim.
#3
IIRC PAYVAND > WILL THE MULLAHS FALL THIS TIME? Mullahccracy at the tipping/breaking point???
and
TOPIX > A SECOND COUP IN IRAN? ARTIC > actually, it may be THREE COUPS [ + counting] iff you give consideration to the events + reactions, etc. which led to the curr violence???
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, the front-runner in the Republican primary election for U.S. Senate, finds himself the object of an unusual attack ad from one of his lesser-known opponents.
Andy Martin, once known as Anthony Martin-Trigona, who has run for numerous elective offices over the last three decades in Illinois, Florida and Connecticut, taped a commercial saying Kirk is gay.
So long as he's not teaching school children about fisting, or planning to seduce Congressional pages of either sex, I'm afraid I am uninterested in what happens in his -- or anyone else's -- bedroom, so long as both parties are there of their own free will.
Martin's source? Statements some conservative Republicans made on a radio show saying they have heard "rumors" that Kirk is gay.
"Illinois Republican leader Jack Roeser says there is a 'solid rumor that Kirk is a homosexual,'" Martin says in the ad. "Roeser suggests that Kirk is part of a Republican Party homosexual club. Lake County Illinois Republican leader Ray True says Kirk has surrounded himself with homosexuals. Mark Kirk should tell Republican voters the truth."
Kirk, a U.S. Naval Intelligence officer, was unavailable for comment because he is on active duty over the holidays, said spokesman Eric Elk.
But Elk issued this statement on his behalf: "The ad is not true and is degrading to the political process. The people of Illinois deserve better."
In one of the many e-mails Martin sends to Chicago media -- often in the middle of the night -- Martin offers links to a tape of a radio show in which Roeser and True did make the comments referenced in the ad.
"You've got Mark Kirk, who's been so strong on his homosexuals so long that the solid rumor is that he himself is a homosexual," Roeser said on the program, adding, "Who, in Christ's name, needs to get themselves identified as a freak in the sexual department?" They named other Illinois Republicans they suspect are gay.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
Liberals being 'liberal', except when they are being fascists, which it seems is most of the time.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/29/2009 3:28
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#2
Exactly the sort of behavior that keeps the Republicans as the minority party.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2009 7:54
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#3
....because they're not as effective as liberals in carrying out the smear? /rhet question.
#5
This is the 'conservative' Republicans smearing another Republican. Kirk should probably stand up and defend homosexuality and condemn those who attempt to use it as a smear campaign tactic (though saying nothing one way or another about his personal position.)
#6
Anthony R. Martin-Trigona (aka Andy Martin) is a headcase from way back. He's a serious 'birther' (think he even filed a lawsuit in Hawaii trying to get access), and once ran a TV ad saying GW Bush used cocaine.
He has run as a Democrat, Republican, and Independent for various offices in various states over the last thirty years with no success. The campaign committee for his 1986 congressional was named "The Anthony R. Martin-Trigona Congressional Campaign to Exterminate Jew Power in America." That's 'good PR'.
Total whack-job. Unfortunately he's now painting himself a 'Republican'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/29/2009 9:00
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#7
The people of Illinois deserve better.
You hear this line a lot these days, but I am not sure it is true.
Posted by: regular joe ||
12/29/2009 15:13
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One day after clashes erupted between anti-government protestors and security forces in the Iranian capital, Tehran's Firefighting Organization talks of the extent of the damage.
Speaking to the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Monday, Head of the Public Relations office of Tehran's Safety Services and Firefighting Organization Behrouz Tashakkor said 838 firefighters were dispatched to various locations in Tehran on Ashura.
"Nine residential buildings, 9 vehicles, 7 shops, 2 banks and 3 power stations were set on fire [by anti-government protestors], " Tashakkor said.
The Iranian official added that "18 garbage bins" were also set on fire.
Protestors took to some central and downtown streets in Tehran on Sunday, hijacking the Ashura ceremonies, during which people commemorate the 7th century death of Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) grandson, Imam Hussein (PBUH).
The protesters reportedly chanted slogans against top Iranian government officials. Iranian police forces used tear gas to disperse protestors.
Eight people were confirmed dead during the unrest.
Among those killed on Sunday was Seyyed Ali Mousavi, the nephew of Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Police described his death as "suspicious," saying that investigations into the assassination were underway.
Confirming the deaths, Iran's deputy police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said the force did not use violence against protesters, denying any involvement in the killings.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
ION FREEREPUBLIC > BREAKING: IRANIAN MILITARY UNITS FORM "NATIONAL ARMED RESISTANCE COMMAND" [NIRU]???
D *** NG, out of nowhere comes the LEFT FIELD!
* OTOH ISRAELI MIL FORUM > FRENCH MAGAZINE SAYS ISRAEL WILL ATTACK IRAN AFTER DECEMBER. Artic describes possible LARGE-SCALE. LIMITED-TIME/ PERIOD IDF COMMANDO OPERATION INSIDE IRAN [search-and-destroy], NOT FULL-FORCE IDF or US-ISRAELI, OTHER OPERATION???
#4
Iran has destabilized Iraq by sending terrorists, arms, and IEDs to Iraq. It's about time the Ahmadinejad and the mad mullahs receive a large dose of payback.
Why is the U.S. not providing support to Iranian exile groups as well as the dissents inside Iran? It seems that Iran is nearly ripe for toppling.
[Dawn] President Asif Ali Zardari has condemned the Karachi terrorist attack and has appealed for calm and restraint and urging the people of Karachi not to be provoked.
President said that the fanatics wanted to rip up frenzy to achieve their ulterior designs and said that a deliberate attempt seems to be afoot to turn the fight against militants into a sectarian clash and make the people fight one another.
He said these are challenging times and we have to guard against such attempts by using force against extremists on the one hand and exhibiting wisdom and patience on the other.--
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
#1
DAILY TIMES.PK > [Estimated] RS$30-35.0BILYUHN GOES UP IN SMOKE AS RIOTS ERUPT AFTER BLAST [80% = roughly 3000 Shops set on fire]. PAK GOVT-POLITICOS criticized for not having enuff Firefighters + general Govt. negligence.
* SAME > POST-ATTACK VIOLENCE WAS PRE-PLANNED, SAYS MALIK | KARACHI BLAST AN ATTACK ON COUNTRY'S ECONOMY; + ZARDARI, GILANI CALL FOR RESTRAINT AND CALM.
President Obama's year of blunders is ending with the worst failure yet by the president and his team: An Islamist terrorist penetrated the United States and came very close to perpetrating the greatest mass-casualty attack within the U.S. since 9/11.
The president's first year in office has been marked by a string of pratfalls.
President Obama's massive stimulus didn't.
His hasty takeover of GM didn't restore confidence in the brand or faith in the company's executive team or future.
Obamacare has failed to persuade even 40 percent of the American people of its merits and depends upon the enthusiasm of such brilliant lights as Barbara Boxer, Al Franken and Bernie Sanders to pass.
The president's rhetoric about restraining spending has been washed away in a flood of red ink far vaster than all that has gone before it. And despite this profligate hemorrhaging of money the country doesn't have, unemployment is in the double digits and key industries like home building remain moribund.
His repeated appeals to the radical mullahs of Iran have not only failed to initiate any sort of constructive engagement, but a year into his "new diplomacy" the radical Islamists atop the power structure in Tehran are mowing down dissidents in the streets.
And now at least one foreign-born terrorist has breached American security -- despite a specific warning given by the terrorist's father to American officials six months ago -- only weeks after the worst act of a domestic Islamist terror since the war began.
The president is abandoning Iraq, and his dithering on Afghanistan has started a necessary surge but attached an expiration date to it.
Perhaps the close call over the approach to Detroit will wake up the responsible members of the president's party, and perhaps they will ask for a meeting in which they can lay out the obvious truths:
The president should spend more time and effort helping the CIA stop terrorists abroad than pursuing investigations into CIA personnel who have kept us safe in the past.
The president should stop spending so much time and effort to remove terrorists from Gitmo and to arranging their trial in New York and their imprisonment in Illinois and spend much more time arranging for more terrorists to spend more time in Gitmo's secure confines.
The president should spend less time in Copenhagen seeking Olympic games and global warming fame and more time at home demanding more vigilance from his woeful Homeland Security staff.
And the president should spend more time encouraging and consulting with our allies like Great Britain and Israel than pleading with our enemies in Iran and North Korea for breakthroughs that will not come.
2009 is the worst year for a president since 1978, which began with Jimmy Carter standing by paralyzed as the Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in Iran and ended as Jimmy Carter stood paralyzed as the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.
The tale of this president's and his team's incompetence must have come completely into focus even for the MSM when Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano declared to CNN's Candy Crowley that the attack on Detroit that failed to kill hundreds only because of the incompetence of the terrorist and the courage of a foreign filmmaker demonstrated that "the system worked."
This must strike even the president's network cheerleaders as Orwellian. And chilling.
Obama has proved himself remarkably skilled for the role of celebrity talking head and woefully ill-prepared for the job of leader of the free world and defender of American security. He campaigned as the opposite of George W. Bush and he has delivered, as the attack on Detroit demonstrates.
The country cannot afford two years in a row of such incompetence and close calls. Let us hope that senior statesmen in the president's party summon the courage to demand the changes in staff and policies that halt this accelerating parade of fiascos.
And let's hope they begin with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, where change must come soon, before less incompetent terrorists make their way into the airspace above America's great cities.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
All these ppointers are obvious to anybody with a brain, but sad to say I think that it will take the downing of a bird or another 911 style attack before the idiots in WA even begin to stir, mush less wake up. But we will not tire until all terrorists are rounded up ( i think that is fairly close to what bambi said Monday)
#2
If there is another 9/11 style attack or an airliner blown out of the sky, they'll spin it into some right wing white supremist infiltration of Al Qaeda as being responsible.
The Obama Monarchy has obviously managed to purge the lessons of 9/11 from the collective conscience of the DOJ and DHS and DoD and the CIA.
I hope we don't have to see a city or a town disappear in a nuclear cloud or thousands die in some chemical or biological attack on a mass transit system before someone somewhere stands up and tells Obama that he's got it all wrong and we have to stop talking and do something.
I think the only persons who can do that probably won't...it would take a Bill Clinton, a Hillary Clinton or a Joe Biden to do it.
Trust me I am not flying ANYWHERE for a while.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/29/2009 11:19
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#3
The ONLY times I've flown were as an infant, and again in1966 when I went to Navy Boot Camp in Great Lakes(Near Chicago).
I wouldn't fly today under ANY circumstances unless forced.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/29/2009 13:41
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#4
fly? seriously, who wants to put themselves through the cattle calls at the 'security' checkpoints. arrive 2 hours early... pay $5 for a coke... sit in a too small chair pressed tight against a fat smelly stranger with bad breath for half an hour between the time they push you off the gate and you taxi to the runway... then after you land get a nice note in your checked bags that the TSA randomly selected your bag to unfold all the clothes and spill your shampoo on...
no thanks, we will drive, stop when we want, eat real food along the way, and see some places along the way. then when you consider that gas money is cheaper than tickets for the whole family and we don't have to pay extra to check a second bag....
it doesn't take a brain surgeon.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/29/2009 21:36
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Three Saudi Arabian citizens were killed and three others wounded by unidentified gunmen on Monday while travelling in a car near Niger's border with Mali in West Africa, and Saudi King orders sending a plane to transport home their bodies.
"There are six victims, three dead and three wounded. They are all Saudi tourists," said Adamou, governor of the African country's Tillaberi region.
Jihadi tourists, I imagine. What other reason can there be to wander through that part of the world if one isn't in the oil buisiness?
Shooting bustards. They're real big on shooting endangered species.
The group was made up of six Saudi nationals and two Malians and was travelling to Mali.
Following reports of the attack, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz ordered sending a plane to bring the bodies of the victims. King Abdullah also announced a state of emergency in the Saudi embassy in Niger to ensure the safety of Saudi citizens in the African country.
"Niger's government deplores these barbarous acts that were unfortunately perpetrated on its territory, and offers its condolences to the Saudi government," he said.
The attack, near the village of Djambala, comes in a restive zone where Tuareg rebels and al-Qaeda cells are active.
In December 2008, a Canadian diplomat, Robert Fowler, his assistant and their driver were taken hostage by Qaeda operatives and were held until April.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[Iran Press TV Latest] The Iranian Foreign Ministry says it will summon the British ambassador to Tehran over London's reaction to the unrest in the capital on Sunday.
Tehran will summon British Ambassador Simon Lawrence Gass to formally protest the "meddling" remarks made by British officials, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast told Press TV on Monday.
Mehman-Parast said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband's comments were hasty and undiplomatic.
On Monday, Miliband hailed the "great courage" of opposition supporters who took part in illegal protests in Tehran one day earlier, during which several people were killed and public property was damaged.
In a statement issued in London, Miliband condemned the crackdown on the protesters, saying it was "particularly disturbing" since it happened during the holiest event for Shia Muslims, Ashura, which is the anniversary of the martyrdom of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Imam Hussein (PBUH).
At least eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and demonstrators that broke out during the protests, according to the Tehran police headquarters.
The police also said that the police forces neither used violence nor fired a single bullet on Sunday.
However, Miliband blamed the Islamic Republic for the deaths, saying they were "yet another reminder of how the Iranian regime deals with protest."
Mehman-Parast said that the British have proven that they believe they will benefit from sowing discord among Iranians.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman also advised British officials to rethink their policy toward Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
I don't know if I'd accept the invite- they might try to make him a guest of the Ayatollah for a year or two.
#3
ION HOTAIR > ISRAEL: IRAN WILL HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS BY 2011 [methods, produc techs down-pat in 2010, first Nucbomb in 2011].
* 2012 > IRAN declares itself a NUCWEAPS STATE.
* 2013 > RADICAL ISLAM DECLARES US = US-ALLIES HAVE LOST THE WOT, vee future NUKULAAR MILITANCY-TERROR [incl. other strategic WMDS = Terror Techs]. SURRENDER, OR ELSE???
#4
You know, Joseph, when someone is actually stupid enough to openly threaten a man who does do terminal things to flesh and bones by his very nature...its a VERY bad idea to threaten a man like that. Threatening people in general is a bad idea. Its better to not give any tip-offs, no warnings. Its better just to do it and then lean on it.
Iran will never live to threaten anyone with the bomb. The instant they say they have it, they wont get any warning from the bad boys who actually have used the damn things in the past.
It isnt a game. And the men who do nukes for a living are not nice people under specific circumstances. They are a mean priesthood of people who shave their heads and carry keys around their necks. You have to understand they will do their job. And your little dog, too, as they say.
You want to play nukes? Its a game that some people have played before....and they will do you to a turn if they get the order. Its almost genetic with some people, trust me.
#6
If the man who holds the football doesn't have the balls then there will be no order.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
12/29/2009 9:25
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#7
Dunno for sure but my guess is Netanyahu has balls. From what I've seen of him in a very few TV interviews, he gives the impression of being a very serious man. He seems to understand that his life and the lives of people he loves are at stake. I wouldn't mess with him.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/29/2009 11:58
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#8
I'm with Abu. Bibi has the spine of previous wartime (not Olmert!) leaders to realize they aren't allowed mistakes of "generosity of intent". I suspect the Ambassador retreat was a "here's what we say when the shit goes down", with the fatalistic realization Obama, the EU, et al, won't do JACK until the Israelis have to do it themselves. Go bless the Israelis!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/29/2009 18:59
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Cell phone-related materials, including SIM cards, were recovered during searches of "flats or apartments of interest" connected to Flight 253 bomber suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Fox News learned Monday.
SIM cards, which store cell phone numbers and incoming or outgoing calls, may be able to determine who was talking to whom in the months and days prior to Abdulmutallab's flight from Nigeria to Detroit.
The cards are now being analyzed as investigators continue searching locations where Abdulmutallab may have stayed.
The discovery comes as a court hearing to determine whether the government can get DNA from the suspect was postponed. The federal court in Detroit says a hearing scheduled for Monday has been delayed until Jan. 8. No reason was given.
On Monday, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula reportedly claimed responsibility for the attempt.
Investigators believe the suspect was radicalized before he went to Yemen, sources told Fox News. According to one source, Abdulmutallab traveled to Yemen sometime near the end of last year or early this year. He was there for several weeks or months, and investigators believe Abdulmutallab was "vetted for the mission" while in Yemen.
Investigators are still working to confirm whether the suspect was trained in Yemen and received explosive material there. Of the device, one source said it's "very likely that it did" come from Yemen.
The suspect also traveled within the last year to England, the Netherlands, and one other unnamed European country, Fox News has learned. He was also in Nigeria and Togo. One source said he "bounced around a bit."
Evidence collected shows that Abdulmutallab also was a "big fan" of radical imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, as Web traffic shows Abdulmutallab was a follower of Awlaki's blog and Web site
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
WIth all that has publicly been released about what this nutjob claims to know and the noise coming from Yemen, it would sure be nice if the Dems would unretire the waterboards to find out the real meal deal, instead of just playing 'pretty please.' It seems to me that things are heating up in a hurry. And that is only from what the Feds want us to know.
( maybe a chaser of giggle juice would also be in order)
#3
Still asking....what did the FBI Legal Attaché office guy (Legat) at the USEMBASSY Lagos know and when did he know it? What did the Chief of Station Know? What did the Chief of Mission Know? Cable traffic from Lagos to Washington? If not, why not?
Just like Fort Hood, someone is phueching sleeping or has been told to go to sleep.
(CNSNews.com) -- Wind-power projects funded in part by the $787-billion Recovery Act (stimulus law) are coming under scrutiny at a time when President Obama and other Democrats have promoted alternative forms of energy production.
Two New York Democrats -- Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Eric Massa -- are among the lawmakers criticizing specific wind-power projects that are getting hundreds of millions in taxpayer subsidies.
A "definitive agreement" was reached on one of those projects two weeks ago, according to a Dec. 20 news release from the Austin, Texas-based Cielo Wind Power. The deal is between Cielo, U.S. Renewable Energy Group and China-based Shenyang Power Group.
The $1.5 billion project -- which is getting $450 million in stimulus funds -- is supposed to create 2,000 to 3,000 jobs. The problem is, most of those jobs will be in China, Sen. Schumer said, because that's where the wind turbines will be constructed. Another 300 temporary jobs will be created in Texas.
"I'm all for investing in clean energy, but we should be investing in the United States, not China," Schumer wrote in a Nov. 5 letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "The goal of the stimulus was to spur job creation here, not overseas. This project should not receive a dime of stimulus funds unless it relies on U.S.-manufactured products," the senator wrote.
The Cielo wind farm in West Texas is supposed to cover 36,000 acres and generate enough electricity to power up to 180,000 American homes each year.
Cielo Wind Power President Walt Hornaday, in a Nov. 10 statement, insisted that the project will grow the U.S. economy and would not be possible without federal assistance.
"A project of this scale will not only create hundreds of on-site construction and operational jobs, but it will also benefit a network of engineers, suppliers, and contractors all around the U.S. who will see hundreds of millions of dollars in additional work," Hornaday said.
"Cielo plans to draw on the same American contractors from North Dakota to New York and New Mexico to California who have contributed to its past 10 wind projects. This planned project is an economic development lifeline to the wind industry during tough economic times."
Hornaday did not deny Schumer's assertions that most of the jobs would be created in China. However, a Cielo staff member told CNSNews.com last week that none of the stimulus funds (taxpayer money) would be used to pay workers in China. However, the spokesman declined to say any more about the project than has already been discussed in news releases.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
Hard to believe I actually kind of agree with Schumer. The unfortunate thing is that we don't seem to be able to manufacture cost and quality competitive turbines in this country anymore. Why not? I don't think they're all that labor intensive so those cheap Chinese workers shouldn't be the whole story.
#2
It is also that the modern designs and manufacturing technology are shipped wholesale to China. Then the $200/month wages come into play.
So this project is $1.5B is expected to average 180MW (30% of the 600MW nameplate) with taxpayers forced to give a private citizen $450M.
Another way to look at that $450M is 1.4¢ taxpayer subsidy for every kWH produced over the 20 year life of the wind turbines. Then there is the 2¢ Fed production subsidy for every kWH. Plus there is accelerated depreciation where wind power investors get to write off their capital investment in only 5 years vs 20, so another .5¢/kWH. That comes to 3.9¢ taxpayer subsidy for every kWH produced. Compare that with the Texas wholesale electricity price of 3¢/kWH.
Another way to look at this is the 3.9¢/kWH forced taxpayer subsidy comes to $1.25 billion over the 20 years life of this wind turbine project. So in effect T. Boone is risking $250M for an income of $946 million. Pretty damn sweet and a total ripoff of the taxpayers.
More bad news for the taxpayers, T. Boone will force the taxpayers to build him new power lines from Bumfuck, TX to the urban markets for XXX hundreds of millions. And because of the unpredictable nature of wind, 90% of the wind project's capacity will have to be backed up by natural gas power plants that will have to be spinning and using energy, but not producing power. That cost will be reflected in every Texans electric rate as additional spinning reserve. So basically, we talking about 7-8¢ for every kWH produced of which only 3¢/kWH actually comes from the electric ratepayer, the rest from taxpayers.
Mo Money! picked from the taxpayer pockets. And this is just one example of thousands of feeding frenzies from the politically connected that is sinking this Republic.
Posted by: ed ||
12/29/2009 10:21
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#3
Don't forget the environazis will almost immediately try to shut down the wind farms because they threaten migratory birds.
They did the same thing to the big wind farm in the Altamonte pass near SFO. Huge wind farm, lots of power for the nasty capitalists in Silicone Valley, shut down the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant in return. Then they go to the 9th Circus Court of Appeals and get an order shutting everything down.
Does Pickens really think he can get those power lines built? Does he really think the environmental movement is serious about sustainable power? There is a butterfly, frog or clam out there somewhere lurking, to be used to shut it all down.
Will the Obama monarchy allow the environazis to stall, shut down or spike this or any other move to sustainable power? Especially since the Obama Monarchy is throwing such huge sums of money at it? Or is Schumer's little investigation actually a environazi instigated ploy to stop the entire thing before it gets off the ground and real money is spent? Maybe Obama has figured that he can talk sustainability and just shrug when his constituents stall his plans?
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/29/2009 10:55
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#4
Maybe Obama has figured that he can talk sustainability and just shrug when his constituents stall his plans?
I think you're on to something, Karl. In fact, I think we've seen that show before.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/29/2009 11:59
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#5
I saw Pickens the other day on one of the business channels. He was pushing natural gas as the savior of the future.
He had nothing to say about windmills.
I thought that was a bit strange.
Not.
Posted by: Kelly ||
12/29/2009 12:54
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#6
It always seemed strange to build giant windmill farms and then ship huge amounts of electricity to far away. Back in the heyday of hydroelectric, big electricity consumers were built near the electricity - Oak Ridge nuclear separation and Alcoa aluminum refining were sited to take advantage of TVA electricity, for instance - a government distortion, but at least a rational one.)
Pickens' wind farms and natural gas fields are the same land in and near west Texas - build a plant to use electricity to modify natural gas into synthetic diesel, maybe.
Instead we use government intervention to distort the economic process beyond any rational expression. But somebody is getting rich at our expense.
#7
ION TOPIX > GLOBAL WARMING WILL NOT PREVENT NEW ICE AGE.
ARTIC > IIUC, Warming-induced rise in global temps by 5-degrees Celsius will destroy most iff not all of Humanity before the inevitable formation of any new glacial ice sheets???
* RENSE > BILLIONTH AFRICAN BORN: POPULATION TO DOUBLE IN 40 YEARS [1.9BILYUHN Africans by 2050].
[Geo News] The death tally, in suicide blast at the mourning procession in connection with Ashura -- 10th Muharram, has mounted to 33 people while as many as another 80 unfortunate persons sustained wounds here at MA Jinnah Road in Karachi on Monday, Geo news reported.
The blast struck the city's main Ashura procession when the suicide bomber blew himself up near Light House at MA Jinnah Road, killing at least 32 people and wounding 80 others.
More than 400 shops and over 50 vehicles were set on fire by the enraged mob in different parts of the metropolis.
The blast triggered stampede and panic among the participants of the procession. Some unknown armed men also fired shots. Fire broke out after the blast in Karachi, fanning thick smoke into the sky, and people were running in all directions.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of mourning processions converged to Nishtar Park, from where they marched down the MA Jinnah Road. As the mourners reached the Tibet Center, a powerful blast took place.
Fahim Siddiqui, senior reporter of Geo News, is also among the injured. Siddiqui has been shifted to a nearby hospital, where he is getting emergency treatment.
Speaking to Geo News, Interior Minister Rehman Malik strongly condemned the blast and termed it a suicide attack. Malik said no Muslim could be involved in such heinous acts of terrorism.
MQM chief Altaf Hussian also called upon the people to maintain calm.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, in their separate messages, have also strongly condemned the blast at main procession of Aushra in Karachi on Monday.
The President and the Prime Minister also ordered immediate inquiry and submission of report. They also ordered for provision of immediate best medical facilities to the injured. The two leaders also appealed to the masses to remain peaceful.
According to media reports, angry mob have set ablaze Light House building situated at the MA Jinnah Road. While several vehicles, parked around the city court, have also been set on fire, sources said.
People are stranded in the building, which was set on fire.
There are also reports of unrest at different parts of the city, including Numaish, Jafar Society and MA Jinnah Road.
Edhi ambulances, KESC vehicles and police mobiles were torched.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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#1
These Moslem sure throw a good Party. Everywhere you turn around Moslems are blowing each other up and threatening each other and bombing the apostates and cutting off the heads..who? I dont know, does it matter?
yay team. Go! Go! Go!
Allah loves you PBUH. KowabonGA!
I want a stuffed one for the den.It all has to do with their personal charm and inner Values.
No, really.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Al-Qaeda's North African wing claimed responsibility on Monday for this month's kidnapping of an Italian couple in Mauritania, Al Arabiya reported.
In an audiotape recorded on Dec. 27, Salah Abu Mohamed, spokesman for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, said the kidnapping was linked to the "crimes of the Italian government in Afghanistan and Iraq."
The couple, Sergio Cicala, 65, and his 39-year-old wife Philomene Kabouree, went missing in the country's southeast on Dec. 18.
Security sources reported the couple's minibus was found empty and bullet-ridden on Dec. 19.
Reports from witnesses claimed the kidnappers appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the night shooting at the bus and specifically its tires. They took the Italian couple with them leaving the bus behind.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, formerly known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, has also claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of three Spanish aid workers in northern Mauritania in late November.
Italy's government responded by saying that the report would not affect efforts to secure the release of the couple and that they would use all political and diplomatic channels available.
"I don't think this changes anything with respect to the efforts which are underway," Alfredo Mantica, undersecretary for foreign affairs, told Sky Italia television.
Mantica also added that kidnappings in that area were usually related to ransom money rather than ideology.
Although never officially confirmed, analysts say ransoms are often paid. However the group did execute a British hostage in Mali this year.
For its part, the Mauritanian government has sought to reassure foreigners saying it is taking "all necessary measures to ensure their security".
öIn recent years, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has extended its territory to include Mauritania. In December 2007, the group prompted the cancellation of the Dakar Rally after killing four French tourists. It has also claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in Algeria and other countries in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2009
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
#1
ION GLOBAL TIMES.CN > WHY CHINA IS AFRAID TO USE MILITARY FORCE AGZ SOMALI PIRATES?
To wit,
* China's respect for State-specific SOvereignty and International Law, +
* Regional PLA military forces + support networks are woefully inadequate for desired level of security, +
* Fear of serious damage to Rising China's + PLA's international credibility + prestige as the PLAN [PLA lead service agz Somali Pirates] has little to no curr or contemporary COMBAT EXPERIENCE.
* Fear by smaller SOUTHEAST ASIAN GOVTS-NATIONS that unilateral or asymmetric Chin milaction is a cover for newfound CHINESE IMPERIALISM.
Iff CHINA hopes one day to be a US-style geopol superpower, par or even to replace the USA, ITS GOT TO "LEARN BY DOING" - ITS NOT GOING TO DISCOVER = RE-DISCOVER ITS PROFICIENCIES + GET THE RUST OUT OF THE PLA, ETC. BY KEEPING ITS MILFORS BACK HOME AND SAFE IN PERENNIAL TRAINING.
ITS CHALLENGE + COMBAT WHICH VALIDATES THE TRAINING. There is such a thing as growing stale, soft, or incompetent due to always being in training [complacency].
To paraphrase SUN TZU + OTHER > ONE DOESN'T KNOW HIS TRUE/REAL STRENGTH [skills] UNTIL HE COMES UP AGZ SOMEONE WHOM IS THE SAME OR STRONGER.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Payvand.com - The majority hardline faction of the parliament held a rally on Tuesday against the opposition protests which took place on Sunday in Tehran and other cities. 
On Christmas Day, an Islamist fanatic tried to blow up an airplane whose passengers were mostly Christians. And we helped. 
The organizers behind acclaimed Barbadian singer Rihannas planned concert in Abu Dhabi on New Year's Eve are denying media reports that the star has been told to trade in her trademark revealing, raunchy stage gear for a more wholesome look in her gig at the Emirates Palace Hotel in the emirate. 
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the alleged Detroit bomber, was president of University College London's Islamic society, according to a university spokesman.
Apparently the fellows in al Qaeda took as a personal insult Secretary of Homeland Anxiety Janet Napolitano's comment Sunday that their role in the foiled Detroit airliner bombing wasn't clear but would be investigated. Yesterday, al Qaeda's ascendant franchise in the Arabian peninsula saved Secretary Napolitano the trouble of plowing through all the layers of the national-security bureaucracy for an answer.
[Quqnoos] At least 11 Taliban militants and two Afghan police were killed in clashes in north-western Afghanistan, officials said Monday.
[Al Arabiya Latest] U.S. President Barack Obama vowed Monday to hunt down extremists wherever they plot attacks against the United States as al-Qaeda claimed it hatched the attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day.
The Dutch hero credited with halting a suicide bomber's attempt to blow up a plane loaded with Christmas travelers said today the syringe the bomber was holding was on fire and was stuck deep into the bomber's pants. 
[Dawn] Three people were killed and two others injured on Monday when a bomb suspected by police to be a left-over from Nepal's civil war went off in the southwest of the country, officials said.
[Ma'an] Surrounded by police, an international group of human rights advocates staged a demonstration at a UN installation in Cairo on Monday after the Egyptian government denied their request to enter Gaza.
The Dutch tourist who helped stop the alleged terrorist plot is profiting off his heroism, according to the media outlet Gawker. 
According to press reports, 'Umar Faruq 'Abd Al-Muttalib, the Nigerian man who attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas Day, received the explosives from a bomb expert affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
[Dawn] Thirty people, three policemen and four children among them, were injured when a low-intensity bomb exploded during a Muharram mourning procession in Qasba Mor area of the city on Sunday.
A Turkish archaeologist has called on his government to demand that Italy return the bones of St Nicholas to their original resting place.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Ten civilians including eight school children have been killed the latest episode of NATO's imprecise airstrikes in Afghanistan. 
[Ma'an] The Hamas movement laid to rest on Monday two men killed in an explosion in Beirut on Saturday.
A disturbingly confused Janet Napolitano, confidently proclaimed Saturday that the security system that failed to spot a terrorist on a terror watch list worked just fine. Yesterday she must have added a shot of truth serum to her coffee and admitted the obvious.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A relative of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said his nephew's body was removed from hospital without the family's permission, a day after he was shot dead in clashes during anti-government protests, which state TV said killed 15 people.
Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula on Monday claimed responsibility for the attack on a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day, saying it was retaliation for a U.S. operation against the group in Yemen. 
[Dawn] North Korea may have constructed a plant to manufacture a gas needed for uranium enrichment in a development that would indicate that Pyongyang had opened a second way to build nuclear weapons as early as the 1990s, The Washington Post reported late Sunday.
The system is supposed to work, according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, something like this: a man recently reported to U.S. authorities by his own father, who was on a terror watch list, who pays three grand in cash for a ticket to Detroit (enough to buy a city block in the Motor City), and who was denied a student visa to the United Kingdom, attempts to explode a bomb on a packed plane and is tackled by a Dutch filmmaker. Vindication of the stupid, bloated, counterproductive DHS security apparatus! Which, as has been pointed out in these very pages by Jesse Walker, is about to get even dumber and more irritating.
Recent headlines seem lifted directly out of an Ayn Rand novel. President Obama decries the "fat cat bankers on Wall Street". Harry Reid attacks insurance companies for making too much profit. House Democrat leaders call Tea Partiers "Racist, Nazi, Gun Nuts". How about this nauseating statement made by Army General George Casey after the Muslim terrorist attack on Ft. Hood?
[Dawn] Gun battles between Taliban and a tribal militia killed 15 people on Monday in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the border with Afghanistan, security officials said.
The leader of Yemen's Shia rebels may have died after being severely wounded by government forces in the north of the country, a Yemeni government website and media said on Sunday.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, will offer an amendment on the Senate floor shortly that if adopted will ban the practice of trading earmarks for votes in the Senate. In order for the Senate to have an opportunity to vote on the DeMint measure, Senate rules will have to be suspended, something that is rarely done.
[Ma'an] The Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, said on Monday that they fired a homemade projectile overnight at an Israeli installation near the Kissufim crossing in the central Gaza Strip.
[Dawn] At least 15 militants extremists were killed in the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Nijat during the last 24 hours, a press released issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. 
Iranian state television reported that more than 15 people were killed in protests, 10 of whom were members of "anti-revolutionary terrorist" groups.
[Dawn] Police, in a routine snap check operation, arrested three suspected militants near Kashmore early Monday, DawnNews reported.
Main Justice reports that Christopher Coates, head of the Justice Department's voting rights division, has been removed from his post and replaced.
A senior Iranian commander has condemned sporadic anti-government protests in the Iranian capital of Tehran as "disgraceful" and "reproachable." 
[Ma'an] Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Committee in Jerusalem, called on Monday for the allocation of 500 million US dollars to support health, education, and housing projects in the city. 
[Dawn] Security forces arrested seven militants from Khyber agency's Bara tehsil, DawnNews reported. Meanwhile, a shop was blown up by militants in Landi Kotal. 
Police fired teargas on Monday to disperse supporters of reformist leader Mirhossein Mousavi who gathered to express their condolences over his nephew's death in an anti-government rally, an Iranian opposition website said.
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, the front-runner in the Republican primary election for U.S. Senate, finds himself the object of an unusual attack ad from one of his lesser-known opponents.
One day after clashes erupted between anti-government protestors and security forces in the Iranian capital, Tehran's Firefighting Organization talks of the extent of the damage. 
[Dawn] President Asif Ali Zardari has condemned the Karachi terrorist attack and has appealed for calm and restraint and urging the people of Karachi not to be provoked. 
President Obama's year of blunders is ending with the worst failure yet by the president and his team: An Islamist terrorist penetrated the United States and came very close to perpetrating the greatest mass-casualty attack within the U.S. since 9/11. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] Three Saudi Arabian citizens were killed and three others wounded by unidentified gunmen on Monday while travelling in a car near Niger's border with Mali in West Africa, and Saudi King orders sending a plane to transport home their bodies.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The Iranian Foreign Ministry says it will summon the British ambassador to Tehran over London's reaction to the unrest in the capital on Sunday. 
Cell phone-related materials, including SIM cards, were recovered during searches of "flats or apartments of interest" connected to Flight 253 bomber suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Fox News learned Monday. 
(CNSNews.com) -- Wind-power projects funded in part by the $787-billion Recovery Act (stimulus law) are coming under scrutiny at a time when President Obama and other Democrats have promoted alternative forms of energy production. 
[Geo News] The death tally, in suicide blast at the mourning procession in connection with Ashura -- 10th Muharram, has mounted to 33 people while as many as another 80 unfortunate persons sustained wounds here at MA Jinnah Road in Karachi on Monday, Geo news reported. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] Al-Qaeda's North African wing claimed responsibility on Monday for this month's kidnapping of an Italian couple in Mauritania, Al Arabiya reported.
