There was a surprising amount of that kind of thing at the time. My grandfather was warned that the SS were on their way to arrest him. He hid in the woods nearby until they left empty handed, then packed an overnight bag and made his way across the German-Dutch border that night. My grandmother followed on the train that weekend, and my mother was sent to join them a month later, when they'd found a place to live.
Al Qaeda 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.
Federal authorities met Monday to reassess the U.S. system of terror watchlists 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 Qaeda 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.
Yemeni forces, helped by U.S. intelligence, carried out two airstrikes against Al Qaeda operatives in the country this month. The second one was a day before Abdulmutallab attempted to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight as it prepared to land in Detroit.
The group said Abdulmutallab used explosives manufactured by Al Qaeda members.
One would think they'd be embarrassed by that little fact. After all, the vaunted AQ-AP explosives experts were only able to produce a bit of flame, rather than a workmanlike explosion. Even as a work accident it's pretty mortifying.
"He managed to penetrate all devices and modern advanced technology and security checkpoints in international airports bravely without fear of death," the group said in the statement, "relying on God and defying the large myth of American and international intelligence, and exposing how fragile they are, bringing their nose to the ground, and making them regret all what they spent on security technology."
#1
I wonder if they might move to 'sploding in airport areas before boarding to help tide them over. I still suspect the second Nigerian as a test of another run. It could have been a biological dry-run. "Food poisoning". Really?
#4
defying the large myth of American and international intelligence, and exposing how fragile they are, bringing their nose to the ground, and making them regret all what they spent on security technology."
Listen to this. It is a new branch of AQ defining its strategy.
However, one of Sutton's most notable moments is absent from the media hagiographies I have seen: he stated on television that he knew that an Islamic supremacist, Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, and advisor to a wealthy Saudi, had paid for Barack Obama's education at Harvard Law School.
Exactly how young Barack Obama, a man of slender means, managed to pay for a Harvard Law degree has long been a mystery, and the President has not been forthcoming about any details of his elite education.
#3
Honorable mention to Xerox management who didn't see any value in their PARC development of GUI but which their suits were more than happy to show Steve Jobs.
One thing that stands out from the 2008-09 numbers is that Americans are no longer flocking to the resorts of the Sun Belt. Florida's growth was well below the national average, as it was in the previous year, in contrast to its torrid growth over most of the last century.
California grew at only a little more than the national average, entirely because of immigrant inflow and high immigrant birth rates. More Americans are leaving California and Florida than moving in.
The same is true of Nevada and Arizona. For most of the last two decades, they have been our two fastest-growing states; Las Vegas and Phoenix have become major metropolises in the desert.
But now they're metropolises in trouble, with the nation's highest foreclosure rates and collapsed construction and real estate industries. Nevada was only the 16th fastest growing state in 2008-09, and that's only because of (decreased) immigrant inflow. Arizona, the fastest-growing state in the previous year, now ranks No. 7.
Immigration into Nevada, Arizona and California continues, though at lower rates than earlier in the decade. Interestingly, several Northeastern states -- New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island -- continue to attract large percentages of immigrants, but even they (except for Massachusetts) suffer from domestic outflow. Public policies -- high taxes and welfare benefits -- may account for these seemingly contradictory trends.
In contrast, this recession has seen several states move from below-average to above-average population growth. They include Oklahoma, with its energy-based economy; Tennessee, one of the few states without an income tax; and South Dakota, with its thriving credit card economy.
The state with the fastest population growth in 2008-09 was demographically tiny Wyoming, the nation's largest coal producer, which has had a higher rate of domestic in-migration than any other state. Just behind at No. 2 was Utah. With the nation's largest birth rates and largest families, Utah demographically resembles the America of the 1950s.
No. 3 in percentage population growth in 2008-09 was giant Texas, the nation's second most populous state. Its population grew by almost half a million and accounted for 18 percent of the nation's total population growth. Texas had above-average immigrant growth, but domestic in-migration was nearly twice as high.
There may be lessons for public policy here. Texas over the decades has had low taxes (and no state income tax), low public spending and regulations that encourage job growth. It didn't have much of a housing bubble or a housing price bust.
Under Govs. George W. Bush and Rick Perry, it has placed tight limits on tort lawsuits, and has seen an influx of both corporate headquarters and medical doctors.
Bush's late job ratings may have been low, and Perry may be a wine that doesn't travel. But their approach to governing may not be lost even in Washington.
Polidata Inc. projects from the 2009 estimates that the reapportionment following the 2010 Census will produce four new House seats for Texas, one for Florida, Arizona, Utah and Nevada, and none for California for the first time since 1850. Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois are projected to lose one each, and Ohio two. Americans have been moving, even in recession, away from Democratic strongholds and toward Republican turf.
#2
Americans have been moving from Democratic strongholds toward Republican turf.
Where they will continue to vote for the same cr*p that caused the conditions they fled from (Nevada and Arizona became filled with fleeing former Californistas and look at what happened.)
#4
A lot of union types who fled the rust belt are now picketing (like crazy) places in Texas that trditionally hires non-unions. In downtown Dallas in 2009 lines and lines of picketers were around numerous high rises under going renovations, so yes, the new comer influence is greatly asserting itself across Texas...
#5
GUAM PDN FORUMS POSTER > opined that Amers or local residents will leave INSOLVENT/BANKRUPT US STATES, COUNTIES, + CITIES, etc becuz they recognize that the same Insolvent cannot exist. In addition, unfortunately for Amers SAID SAME "INSOLVENCY/BANKRUPTCY" CAN SERVE TO INCREASE FEDERAL GOVT. TAKEOVER + CENTRAL CONTROL OF CONSTITUTIONALLY OR LEGALLY SOVEREIGN US ENTITIES. ANTI-DEMOCRATIC FED POWER WILL INCREASE OR EXPAND, NOT REDUX.
IOW, MORE "JUSTIFIED" = POLITICALLY-LEGALLY DENIABLE REGULATORY SOCIALISM, TOTALITARIANISM, HYPER-GOVT, + OTHER GOVT-CENTRIC NANO-MANAGEMENT ETC. IN "NORMAL" AMER LIFE, as due to "justified" FED-GOVT INTERVENTION DUE TO STEADILY WEAKENING US ECONOMY???
* FOX NEWS AM > GUEST Panel > the end result of POTUS Bammer's Stimulus, Bailout, or ObamaCare packages is the US GOVT. = FED ALLOWING THE PRIVATE SECTOR TO LEGALLY EXIST, BUT NOT TO MARKET COMPETE AGZ GOVT.-CONTROLLED
"PRIVATE/CONSUMER INDUSTRIES".
SUB-IOW, NAZI AMERIKA [you know, the COMMIE USSA = USR] + OWG GLOBAL "JUNKERS" GRUPPES???
#7
Where they will continue to vote for the same cr*p that caused the conditions they fled from...
No kidding! These people either have no grasp of cause and effect, or they're the spores of a larger plague. They foul their nest beyond what even they can stand, then move someplace else and start all over. There should be a bounty on them.
I see my beloved State (Texas) being consumed by these bottom dwelling Liberals before my eyes. Scum, absolute scum, all of them.
A lot of union types who fled the rust belt are now picketing (like crazy) places in Texas that trditionally hires non-unions.
Yep! And I see that ending badly, for them. There are a LOT of folks here that want nothing to do with the Unions, and when push comes to shove there is going to be violence unlike anything they have ever experienced in the places where they came from.
#2
ION TOPIX > [Kurdish Issue]TURKEY ON VERGE OF CIVIL WAR! Activist claims that TURK street protests are steadily becom more "Marches of Rebellion" than simple protests = demands for Kurdish rights.
* SAME > IRAN TRYING TO PREVENT TURKEY FROM BECOMING A REGIONAL LEADER; + 2010: IRANIAN EXPANSION INTO SOUTH CAUCASUS?
* WAFF > WHY TURKEY IS THE ONLY MUSLIM DEMOCRACY!; + WORLD BANK: TURKEY WILL THE FIRST TO RECOVER FROM CRISIS [global econ crisis] THAN EASTERN EUROPE; + ITS TIME, SOUTHERN BROTHERS [Poster calls from Political Action + Unity between Azerbaijan Azeris + IRANIAN AZERIS???
#5
The first cut and the second are not related, though it is joined up to give that appearance. This looks to be a COP abandoned in good order, with little or nothing left behind that was of any use to Johnny T.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
12/28/2009 20:25
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#6
News reports from a week or two ago said it was an abandoned COP. Per McChrystal's plan to reinforce the population centers. Personally, I would have preferred the US Army booby trapped it and had air strike plans ready.
Posted by: ed ||
12/28/2009 20:36
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The man who allegedly tried to blow up a transatlantic passenger jet over Detroit has reportedly claimed that he is one from a production line of terrorists that has been trained in Yemen by al-Qaeda.
And yet he was a total failure, producing only a bit of a flame instead of a proper explosion, and not raising so much as a finger to keep from being subdued by a film director. One is inclined to question the quality of this particular production line.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is charged with the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253, told FBI agents others with similar training to him were now ready to launch their own attacks, according to the US network ABC.
The claim came as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula released its first communication since the failed bombing. In a written statement it called on "the people of the Arabian peninsula" to attack American military installations, ships and "spying embassies".
The US Embassy in Yemen was attacked by al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists in September 2008, and the USS Cole, a US Navy destroyer, was hit by al-Qaeda in 2000.
The attempted plane bombing on Christmas Day, which was intended to kill all 289 on board, failed only because the bomb's detonator did not work.
But aren't detonators the easy part?
Pete Hoekstra, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said: "I think it's very clear it came very, very close. The explosive device went off, it became an incendiary device instead of an explosive device, which is probably what saved that airplane."
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
12/28/2009
12:17 ||
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#1
I understand that as a result of his injuries he is now eligible to work in the harem.
Five chilled and hungry Afghan teenagers stumbled into a southern Swedish town on Christmas Eve after being left by smugglers in a deserted stretch of forest days earlier, a priest who had taken them in said Sunday.
Nyström said the police had asked the local Högland parish to look after the teenagers until the social services opened on Monday following a Christmas break.
"They were cold, they were tired and they were starving," Nyström said.
The group had been "abandoned in the forest by a smuggler who did not want to be seen with them, and they were able to get to Sävsjö by following a railway line," he said.
A Swedish radio report said they had travelled across Europe hidden in a container.
Nyström said the Afghans did not speak English and he had communicated with them using translation software and through other Afghans in Sweden.
"Some of their parents had been killed by the Taliban," he said.
Many Afghans use illegal people smugglers to flee their dangerous and destitute country, with Europe the main destination.
#1
IIRC DER SPIEGEL? > old 2008 Artic indic that poor Muslims from ME, Central Asia, + North Africa? were sneaking into Europe via SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES + GEORGIA-UKRAINE???
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/28/2009
11:53 ||
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#1
The Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Monetary Fund have had this diplomatic status for half a century.
This did not empower them to operate in America. The FAO could not interfere with an American farm. The IMF could not walk into an American bank.
Likewise Interpol cannot arrest anyone in America.
All this order does is give Interpol the same diplomatic status as UNESCO.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/28/2009 13:57
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#2
INTERPOL, meet 2d Amendment....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/28/2009 14:08
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#3
John,
OK, but doesn't that make them immune from US prosecution if they actually DO make an arrest in the US? It's like they left the rules but removed the penalty for violation?
#4
Interpol relies on local law enforcement (in the US - the DOJ) to enforce its red notices.
Interpol itself cannot arrest anyone in the US.
http://www.interpol.int/Public/Wanted/Default.asp
An Interpol Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant.
The persons concerned are wanted by national jurisdictions (or the International Criminal Tribunals, where appropriate) and Interpol's role is to assist the national police forces in identifying or locating those persons with a view to their arrest and extradition.
These red notices allow the warrant to be circulated worldwide with the request that the wanted person be arrested with a view to extradition
Posted by: john frum ||
12/28/2009 14:45
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#5
Thanks for the clarification, John. The way the article was written made it seem that Interpol was being given carte blanche to go after US citizens.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/28/2009 14:53
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#6
We talked about this last week. Bob Owens gets a little .. excitable on occasion. This time he's talking through his hat.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/28/2009 15:55
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#7
ION FREEREPUBLIC > [AQ in Arabian Peninsula/
Yemen]AL QAEDA PRESS RELEASE CALLS NIDAL HASAN A "MOUJAHED BROTHER", CALLS FOR SOLDIERS TO FOLLOW HIS ACT.
IMO PR strongly infers call, support for MILITARY MUTINIES TO OCCUR WIDIN US REGIONAL, CONUS-NORAM, etc. MILFORS.
* FREEP POSTER > claims POTUS Bammer gave a seemingly disjointed or semi-confused press briefing today on DETROIT AIRLINER-MUTALLAB INCIDENT becuz Bammer realizes "his Muslim friends" are planning = coming to attack the USA, and most likely on his [first-term]POTUS watch???
* Also on FREEREPUBLIC > CHECHEN PRESIDENT: THE WEST WANTS TO DESTROY RUSSIA.
Policy & Rules of Engagement Disinfectants could effectively train Mulsim terrorists bacteria to become resistant to Military and TSA protective measures antibiotics, research suggests.
KARACHI -- A suicide bomber struck a religious procession in Pakistan's business center Karachi Monday, killing at least 20 people in the latest attack targeting the minority Shiite Muslim community.
The bomber blew himself up at the front of the procession of thousands of people in the city center that were marching to mark the holy day of Ashura, police said.
The blast occurred despite heavy security. More than 10,000 police and paramilitary troops had been deployed in hopes of trying to prevent any incidents on the day most holy to Shiites, which make up around 15% of Pakistan's population.
An angry mob set vehicles ablaze at the site of the suicide bomb attack in Karachi. probably blaming Israel, US, CIA, Britain, etc.
Waseem Ahmed of the Karachi police said at least 20 people were killed and 40 others were wounded. Some children as young as eight years old were among the victims, he said. There has not been any immediate claim of responsibility but police suspect Islamic militants were behind the bombing.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/28/2009
10:50 ||
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A Memphis man was arrested Friday after he walked into seven local businesses and announced that he would bomb them if they didn't close, according to a police affidavit.
The report states that Mohamed Ibrahim, 35, threatened businesses on Poplar Avenue, Summer Avenue, Mendenhall, Perkins and Danny Thomas Boulevard.
"If you don't close this place up, I'm going to blow it to pieces," Ibrahim told customers at the BP Gas Station on the 300 block of Poplar, according to the report.
A police officer pulled over the suspect's black PT Cruiser
What kind of car is that for a kewl jihadi?
on Poplar and arrested Ibrahim, who was "very nervous" and appeared as if "he was trying to hide something," the report stated. The suspect tried to kick out the windows of a patrol car during the arrest and police said they had to use pepper spray to subdue him.
The FBI found three Islamic cassette tapes and miscellaneous papers in the suspect's car, which were removed for additional study, according to the affidavit. Police charged Ibrahim with commission of an act of terrorism, filing false reports and disorderly conduct. He posted $100 bond and was released, pending his court date on Monday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/28/2009
10:47 ||
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#1
Memphis muslims brace for backlash, deny any link with islam, which is peace...
#2
"He posted $100 bond and was released, pending his court date on Monday."
See? The system worked!
This nation needs major surgery-- a radical idiotectomy.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/28/2009 12:39
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#3
Barber shops and music stores?
Posted by: ed ||
12/28/2009 12:39
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#4
I thought the Kuwaiti government was a majority shareholder in BP. You know, it'll be interesting to see if this situation is suddenly taken much more seriously a couple days down the line.
#5
Threatens to blow up local businesses and only had to post $100 bond?????? WTF??!!!
Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where the neon madmen climb.
They all fall there so perfectly,
It all seems so well timed.
An' here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/28/2009 21:56
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After a Sunday in Tehran in which protestors were met with violence from security forces, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her foreign minister have spoken out against the crackdown. In a strong statement to the press on Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the actions of Iran's state security services unacceptable.
She called on them to avoid any further escalation of the violence and to pursue political dialogue to peacefully settle internally disputed matters, and also to respect their commitment to the International Pact on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to peaceful protest.
At least eight people were killed in street clashes in Tehran when police and Basij militia members confronted protest marchers who were attempting to gather at a number of central squares. Sunday's protests took place on Ashura, a Shiite Islamic holy day devoted to honoring martyrs, often through street marches. According to opposition sources, security forces used tear gas and live ammunition to try to get the marchers to disperse.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle criticized Iran's tactics as brutal, and said that the international community would be watching, not looking away.
A spokesman for the French foreign ministry, Bernard Valero, said his country again expressed deep concern, and condemns the arbitrary arrests and violence carried out against ordinary protesters.
He added that intensification of repression would lead nowhere.
The Italian foreign ministry, meanwhile, warned the Islamic republic that "safeguarding human lives is a fundamental value which must be defended everywhere and in every circumstance."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/28/2009
10:46 ||
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Asked to comment on the Iranian crackdown on protesters, Obama firmly stated "Wow! Look at that sucker go! That's got to be 200 yards easy! Right onto the green."
The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement regarding Iran's crackdown on protesters in Tehran:
"Canada is deeply concerned by the Iranian regime's violent crackdown today, December 27, against Iranian citizens who were exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly on the occasion of Ashura.
"Iranian security forces once again used intimidation and violence against citizens of Iran. The Iranian regime's continued effort to restrict freedom of expression and assembly, thereby depriving its citizens of their rights, is deplorable, especially on the holy day of Ashura, a national holiday that marks an important Shia religious event. The people of Iran deserve to have their voices heard and to enjoy the rights to which they are entitled without fear of violence and intimidation.
"The Government of Canada condemns the use of brutal violence by the Iranian security forces and once again calls upon Iran to meet its human rights obligations."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/28/2009
10:45 ||
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#1
Bambi's gonna make a statement as soon as they can get somebody to fly to Honolulu and program his teleprompter.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/28/2009 12:33
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#2
Canada is deeply concerned by the Iranian regime's violent crackdown today, December 27, against Iranian citizens who were exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly
WTF? Doesn't this arrogant, meddling, imperialist know that all cultures are equal; and that "rights" are only valid in oppresive western countries??
Iranians have no rights not explicitly detailed in the Koran (aka Quaran, aka Qaran, aka Mo's fairy tale and porn collection)?
#3
Bambi's gonna make a statement as soon as they can get somebody to fly to Honolulu and program his teleprompter.
Nah, he's forging a birth certificate correctly this time, it's a bitch counterfeiting obsolete typewriter fonts.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/28/2009 14:18
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#4
ION WMF >CHECHEN PRESIDENT AKHMAEL KADYROV: WESTERN-CONTROLLED MILITANTS, GEORGIA, UKRAINE DESIRE TO SEIZE THE CAUCASUS AND DESTROY RUSSIA. WHOMEVER CONTROLS THE CAUCASUS CONTROLS RUSSIA. RUSSIA MUST GO ON STRATEGIC OFFENSIVE OR MILITANT ATTACKS WILL NEVER CEASE. CSTO-SCO WILL EXIST IN NAME ONLY.
* SAME > OBAMA SKILFULLY DIVIDES THE BODY/TOTAL WITH PROXY TERRORISM AND FOREIGN POLICIES: US CONTROL OF MAINLAND ASIA LIES ON THE BLOODY PATHS US-CONTROLLED ISLAMIST MILITANTS CUT THRU RUSSIA AND CHINA.
Oh joy. This is going to be just dandy for families returning from holiday visits with kids. Think 'babies with no blankets or bottles during takeoff/landing, kids in seats for an hour with no toys or snacks, business people who suddenly cannot check email or get work done ..... Not to mention the fact that I need to fly next week.
1. BOARDING GATE
1. The aircraft operator or authorized air carrier representative must ensure all passengers are screened at the boarding gate during the boarding process using the following procedures. These procedures are in addition to the screening of all passengers at the screening checkpoint.
1. Perform thorough pat-down of all passengers at boarding gate prior to boarding, concentrating on upper legs and torso.
2. Physically inspect 100 percent of all passenger accessible property at the boarding gate prior to boarding, with focus on syringes being transported along with powders and/or liquids.
3. Ensure the liquids, aerosols, and gels restrictions are strictly adhered to in accordance with SD 1544--06-02E....
2. IN FLIGHT
1. During flight, the aircraft operator must ensure that the following procedures are followed:
1. Passengers must remain in seats beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
2. Passenger access to carry-on baggage is prohibited beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
3. Disable aircraft-integrated passenger communications systems and services (phone, internet access services, live television programming, global positioning systems) prior to boarding and during all phases of flight.
4. While over U.S. airspace, flight crew may not make any announcement to passengers concerning flight path or position over cities or landmarks.
5. Passengers may not have any blankets, pillows, or personal belongings on the lap beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
#1
A few years ago we had the shoe bomber so now we have to take off our shoes to clear security. Now we have the underwear bomber..... Lord I hope I don't get caught in line behind Helen Thomas or Rosie O'Donnell.
#3
The TSA directive states that these measures will expire at 0200Z on December 30, 2009. Stay off airplanes for the next two days, and you're in like Flynn. I suppose.
What comes after that-- we all fly nude?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/28/2009 10:01
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#4
re: expiration - thanks. That solves my problem, although it won't be fun for returning families.
re: nude - I devoutly and sincerely pray not. Wholeheartedly too.
#6
I vote that Muslims must fly nude. The rest of us are left alone. If that doesn't work - than muslims can't fly - with lie detector tests to prove you are not muslim.
#8
Lucky that our j1hadi enem1es do not read Sun Tzu.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/28/2009 10:39
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#9
If Janet NapOnTheJobo ran this guy's name against "the lists" one hour before take off all these "new rules" would never be required> So guess what. The terrorists who can still board will now schedule their evil deads one hour and ten minutes before landing...
#10
How about banning muslims from any form of transportation that didn't exist in the 7th century and stop forcing grandmothers to turn their head and cough during airport check in.
Posted by: ed ||
12/28/2009 11:57
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#11
I got an flight at 6:30 this morning at DFW and saw none of these new measures.
Maybe this is just a feel-good measure for the rubes?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/28/2009 12:11
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#12
"I vote that Muslims must fly nude."
Just upholster the seats with pigskin. Problem solved.
#13
Security expert Bruce Schneier has an apt description for this: "security theatre". It accomplishes absolutely nothing but creates the appearance of action.
#15
I'm pretty sure the whole "no bottles for the babies / no snacks for the kids one hour before we land" thing will never be adopted. It's the easiest way to keep the littlest ones from screaming during landing (helps with pressure in their ears).
Thailand sent army troops with shields and batons to evict more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers Monday and send them back to Laos despite strong objections from the U.S. and rights groups who fear they will face persecution.
Under tight security, all 4,371 of the Hmong were loaded onto covered military trucks and driven out of the camp by late afternoon toward buses waiting near the Lao border, Thai authorities said. Journalists kept at a distance from the camp could see many children inside the trucks.
Col. Thana Charuwat said Thai troops "didn't even touch" the Hmong who offered no resistance as they were taken from the camp.
With the eviction under way, the United States called for it to stop.
"The United States strongly urges Thai authorities to suspend this operation," U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a statement, noting that the United Nations and Thailand in the past had deemed that many of the Hmong in this group were "in need of protection because of the threats they might face in Laos."
The Hmong, an ethnic minority group from Laos' rugged mountains, helped U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. Many Hmong fought under CIA advisers during the so-called "secret war" in Laos before it fell to the communists in 1975.
Since the communist victory, more than 300,000 Laotians, mostly Hmong, are known to have fled to Thailand. Most were either repatriated to Laos or resettled in third countries, particularly the United States. Smaller numbers found refuge in France, Australia and Canada.
The Hmong claim they have been persecuted by the Lao government, but Washington has said it has no plans to resettle more of them in the U.S.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, commending the smooth operation Monday, said that Thailand had received "confirmation from the Lao government that these Hmong will have a better life."
The Thai government claims most of the Hmong are economic migrants who entered the country illegally and have no claims to refugee status. The group was being held at an overcrowded camp in northern Thailand that the government wants to close.
Thana, the Thai army's coordinator for the operation, denied an allegation of brutality by one human rights group, which said callers from inside the camp had used their mobile phones to report violence and bloodshed.
"There has been no violence and nobody has been injured," Thana said, noting it was impossible for anyone in the camp to call outside because the military had jammed mobile phone signals.
Thana said 5,000 soldiers, officials and civilian volunteers were involved in the eviction. He said the troops carried no firearms and that their shields and batons met international standards for dealing with situations in which people are being moved against their will.
"There was no resistance from the repatriated Hmong because we used psychological tactics to talk with them, to assure them that they will have a better life in Laos as the Lao government has confirmed," he told reporters.
Journalists and independent observers were barred from the camp and were allowed no closer than a press center about 7 miles (12 kilometers) away.
The Hmong were driven out of the camp in military trucks and were then to be put on 110 buses going to the Thai border town of Nong Khai, and then across to Laos, heading to the Paksane district in the central province of Bolikhamsai, Thana said.
Laos Foreign Ministry spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing rejected international concerns, saying the government has a "humanitarian policy" for resettling the Hmong.
He told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the group would initially be placed in a temporary shelter and then housed in two "development villages" -- in Bolikhamsai province and in Vientiane province -- where each family will receive a house and a plot of land that international observers will be welcome to inspect.
New York-based Human Rights Watch on Monday called the deportation "appalling" and a low point for Abhisit's government.
"As a result of what Thailand has done to the Lao Hmong today, Prime Minister Abhisit sinks Thailand's record on contempt for human rights and international law to a new low," said Sunai Phasuk, a Thai representative for Human Rights Watch.
Last summer, the bodies of two women were washed ashore on the banks of the Rambiara river in Shopian. Eight people were to die, and some 400 suffer injuries as the embers fanned by the deaths set off fires across urban Kashmir.
For the angry young Islamists who spearheaded the protests, the deaths of the two women were murders murders, moreover, carried out by a predatory Hindu state in its campaign to annihilate Kashmiris.
The body of one of them, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Associations investigation recorded witnesses as stating, was lying half naked on dry sand. Her clothes were torn and hair, clothes and body were dry. Blood was dripping from her nose and it appeared sindoor had been thrown in her forehead.
During our investigations, association leader G.N. Shaheen said, we found that the perpetrators belonged to a particular community and they had even vandalised the bodies of the victims. In case anyone had missed the point, Mr. Shaheen added the rapists were fanatic Hindus.
Now, the Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a charge sheet which rips apart the claims of the secessionist-linked Bar Association, politicians like Peoples Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti and much of the media. Backed by forensic detective work by the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, the Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory in New Delhi, the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Madhuban and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, the CBI has concluded that the women were neither raped nor murdered.
Inside the bodies of the victims, AIIMS forensic experts found several pieces of evidence suggesting drowning. Pin-sized petechial haemorrhages were found on the membranes of their lungs and bronchi. Larger patches of Paltaufs haemorrhages bluish-red areas found in the lungs of about half of all drowning victims were also visible. Doctors also discovered accumulations of fluid within the alveoli, suggesting pulmonary oedema, another sign of drowning.
None of the findings in themselves was conclusive. So, experts at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in New Delhi and the Forensic Sciences Laboratory at Madhuban proceeded to conduct tests which matched the soil recovered from the victims lungs with the earth in the Rambiara. Further tests showed that diatoms a kind of eukaryotic algae inside the victims lungs were similar to those found among some organisms in the river. During autopsy, the doctors also recovered small insects from the victims lungs. Experts at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute identified the insects as silverfish small, wingless creatures commonly found under the bark of trees, under rocks, in rotten logs and among leaf litter.
But the finding that the victims were drowned did not rule out the possibility of murder or rape. The AIIMS evidence shot down the first possibility in short order. The body of one victim did indeed have a lacerated wound in the forehead, likely caused by hitting against a hard surface but the forensic examiners believed it was not sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course. There were no external ante-mortal injuries on the other victim.
No evidence of rape, the experts stated, emerged either. The hymen of one of the victims was found intact. Four Shopian hospital staff members Javed Iqbal Malik, Tariq Ahmad Tantrey, Mohammad Ismail Sheikh and Mohammad Ismail Sodagar corroborated the findings, telling the CBI that there were no injuries on the private parts of the victims. Their clothes, six other witnesses told the CBI, were also intact at the time the bodies were found.
Faked evidence
How could the AIIMS findings be so different from that of two separate teams of doctors who carried out earlier autopsies? Breathtaking incompetence may have played a role. Shopian doctors Bilal Hassan and Nazia Hassan ruled out drowning as a cause of death, claiming to have carried out a flotation test using samples of lung tissue from a victim. In fact, the AIIMS team determined, the tissue was from the heart.
Moreover, the lung flotation test has long been known to be less-than-conclusive proof of drowning especially in fresh water, which has a lower density than salt water. Janson Payne-James, Anthony Busuttil and William S. Smocks Forensic Medicine: Clinical and Pathological Aspects explains that the test rests on the fact that lung weights are usually higher in people who were drowned. But a normal weight is possible in some drowning cases. The more sophisticated tests conducted by the CBI experts were either unavailable or unknown to the Shopian doctors.
Nighat Shaheen, Ghulam Qadir Sofi and Maqbool Mir, who made up the second autopsy team, are also charged by the CBI with fabricating evidence. The team insisted that a victims hymen was damaged an assertion the AIIMS experts videotaped autopsy debunks. Evidence that Dr. Shaheen had fabricated evidence, first reported in The Hindu, also figured in the CBI investigation. She claimed to have taken vaginal swabs from the victims, but later tests revealed that they had in fact been lifted from unconnected women. The CBI claims that Dr. Shaheen offered them three contradictory accounts of how this had come about including a claim, now disproved, that she had supplied a vaginal swab from her own body under duress.
The CBI investigators were unable to arrive at a precise determination of just how the women were drowned. Human rights groups who have investigated the case say water in the Rambiara was just ankle-deep.
But official records gathered by the CBI show that the river was flowing at its year-high flood, 228 cubic feet per second, just days before the womens death. There is, of course, no direct relationship between the flow of water in the river and its depth. However, the CBI discovered multiple witness testimonies suggesting that the river was indeed flowing at dangerous levels the most important being a videotaped media interview given by the husband of one of the victims the day after her death. He asserted that the water level in the river was so high that even a man could not have crossed it. Independent witnesses, the CBI states, corroborated this claim, with one adding it was also the opinion of the victims family. They also noted that two separate witnesses earlier said the victims had froth around the nose, a classic sign of drowning.
Efforts to link police personnel to the crime went nowhere. Much of the case rested on the testimony of Ghulam Mohaiuddin Lone and Abdul Rashid Pampori, who claimed to have heard the women crying for help from inside a police vehicle parked on the Zawoora Bridge. However, the CBI noted, their testimony was contradictory on at least five issues. Later, the CBI says, it acquired statements from the men that they had been coerced into making the allegations. Forensic tests on 23 police vehicles and 47 officers posted in the area also threw up no evidence that they were in any way linked to the deaths.
The Kashmir High Court Bar Association says it has a letter from AIIMS forensic medicine expert Sudhir Gupta, casting doubt on the forensic findings. Dr. Gupta has offered no independent corroboration of this claim; indeed, in an in-house AIIMS correspondence obtained by The Hindu, Dr. Gupta asked for a copy of the letter so he could give a legitimate reply. The AIIMS spat has led to some bizarre media allegations, including assertions that its experts helped to rig forensic evidence in the murder of a Delhi teenager a case the institution had nothing to do with. Dr. Gupta, whose name was struck off the rolls of the Medical Council of India in 2004, on plagiarism charges, may or may not be a credible witness, but if there is any serious critique of the evidence marshalled by the CBI, it must be assessed and responded to.
Failing this, many must hold themselves to account for the bloodshed that followed the deaths in Shopian. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his government must take part of the blame. The government buckled under pressure from Islamists, transferring senior police officials who insisted that the deaths were an accident, suspended others on charges of destroying evidence and paving the way for the judicially-mandated arrests of four suspects, now exonerated. Politicians in the PDP, and among the secessionists, who cynically cashed in on the deaths to further their agenda must also be held to account. Media and civil rights groups, which paid little attention to evidence that from the outset cast doubt on the rape-murder story, cannot evade responsibility either.
Many in Jammu and Kashmir, reared on the half-truths and deceits fed by large sections of the media, are likely to believe the CBI account. It is imperative that proceedings from here on be carried out with complete transparency to avoid further muddying of the waters.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/28/2009
07:41 ||
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#1
Good luck curbing Muslim belligerence with reason.
#2
Good luck curbing muzz anything with reason. Until everyone cottons to that fact, "religion of peace" is the inshalla of the blinkered PC western mind...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/28/2009 10:41
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Democrats are retooling and reprising their "Party of No" attack on Republicans in Congress after they unanimously rejected financial reform and health care bills in votes this month.
But already, analysts are questioning whether charges of GOP obstructionism will be enough to keep voters from taking out their angst over the economy on Democrats next fall.
Truly, since the Republicans are saying no to things the voters don't want.
Last week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee began making robocalls against Republicans in four districts in Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania for opposing a Democratic plan to tighten regulation of banks and financial services firms widely blamed for last year's economic meltdown.
"Remember? We said it can't happen again. But did you know Congressman [Mario] Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) voted to let Wall Street continue the same risky practices that crippled retirement accounts and cost taxpayers $700 billion, including unchecked bonuses and salaries for executives?" says the call, which was first reported by the Miami Herald. "Maybe the $81,204 he got from financial special interests mattered more than taxpayers."
The recorded messages come on the heels of 60-second radio ads the DCCC rolled out in five districts in California, Nebraska and Pennsylvania highlighting the same Dec. 11 vote in which no Republican backed the regulation package.
The salvos come as other Democrats say they plan to paint Republicans as obstructionist for their down-the-line opposition to Senate health care legislation Thursday.
"History will judge harshly those who have chosen the simple path of obstruction over the hard work of making change. It always does," said Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), an architect on the Senate financial reform bill.
"I think it's a good argument for the Democrats. I just don't think it will work," said Stu Rothenberg of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. "It is a good message if the fundamentals change. ...The problem is, if the economy is not in good shape and people still don't feel [a recovery], it's going to be about Obama and about the Democrats. With Democrats controlling everything, and how active the administration has been on all these fronts, I just don't think the Democrats are going to make it about the Republicans."
Republican lawmakers insist they're not worried about being slapped with a do-nothing label.
"Nobody's been an obstructionist. All we wanted to do was participate in the process," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said on CNN during a back-and-forth over the health care bill. "I think [Democrats] deserve some credit for getting it done, as bad as it is. But it's going to wreck our country, I have to tell you. And people out there know that."
A spokesman for the DCCC, Ryan Rudominer, said his committee's message is not so much about Republican inertia as about the GOP siding with the very banks and financial institutions that many Americans blame for tanking the economy last fall.
#1
I'll vote for a "No" party. Hell, I would vote for "Let's just meet for one month for one bill then party the rest of the year and leave the voters alone" party at this point.
#3
Well I think this "party of 'no'" attack dog tactic is a great campaign add for the Republicans.
I know that even here in the left coast, everyone with any sanity is up in arms about the health care bill and this cap and trade nonsense. Having the reputation as trying to hold the line against the looney left will have more resonance with voters to the positive than the dems can imagine.
Let's hope the dems continue this rhetoric to remind voters who is fighting for them.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/28/2009 11:11
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#4
Not just No, but HELL NO!
2009 Fiscal Year Federal budget deficit: $1420 billion
2010 Projected Fiscal Year Federal budget deficit: $1170 billion. Which is now a fantasy since tax revenue will be much lower. Can you say projected 7% unemployment with a straight face?
2009 Federal debt increase: $2900 billion (bailouts and stealing money from Social Security and Medicare trust funds are "off budget")
2010 Projected Federal debt increase: $1400 billion. Again Marxist Math in action.
Posted by: ed ||
12/28/2009 11:51
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#5
Better the party of No than voting for the Demonrats, the party of human sacrifices, criminals, traitors, racists, and anti-human bigots.
My question is, why do we bother negotiating with vermin?
#1
Actually the xmas bomb messes up the pre-prepared transfer to Yeman of Gitmo inmates. These could be housed at the Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois as the to-be-transferred terrorists are, on net, no more or less terrorisitic than the other terrorists.
Personally, I don't see the physical security situation being a problem. I do see the legal security being a problem. Once in the US, who knows what legal rights will accrue to these men.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/28/2009 10:21
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#2
Put them all on the same plane back to Yemen & fly it into the middle of the Atlantic, then blame the loss on a suicide bomber. Do I have to think of everything?
I mean they will either committ suicide because of all of the naked female flesh or they will enjoy same flesh and not want to kill the fatted calf...
If that doesn't work, wrap them in pig hide, spray them with bacon grease and leave them in the desert for the coyotes to eat.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/28/2009 10:55
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#4
I am afraid that moving these nut jobs to Illinois will invite a huge terrorist hostage mega-kaboom situation by our goat sodomizing adversaries.
Seems to me, if my memory serves me correctly, that these terrorist types like to stage big hostage incidents to get air time AND get their little buddies sprung from jail...I wonder how Bambi would feel about a major bloody hostage situation in Chicago during his watch...to free the Gitmo types in Thomasen?
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/28/2009 10:59
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#5
I mean they will either committ suicide because of all of the naked female flesh or they will enjoy same flesh and not want to kill the fatted calf...
Unfortunately the odds are that they'd enjoy themselves and then go blow up some infidels to get right with Allan again.
#6
I am afraid that moving these nut jobs to Illinois will invite a huge terrorist hostage mega-kaboom situation
And these Terrorists are different from the "Normal" Chicago thug, HOW?
There are so many Paki Convenience Store/Gas station honest workers around, that they'll blend right in, NO PROFILING remember.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/28/2009 14:04
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#7
TOPIX > ABC NEWS Report > {Mutallab] AIRCRAFT BOMB COULD HAVE COME FROM EX-GUANTANAMO INMATES. Two Saudi ex-Gitmo Boyz released back in November 2007, one of whom is repor now a top Leader in the AL QAEDA-IN-YEMEN Group which worked wid Mutallab???
#8
DAILY TIMES.PK > US PENTAGON REVIEWING STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM OPERATIONS.
* SAME > AL QAEDA HAS [seemingly] CHANGED ITS FACE, OPERATES FROM A DIFFERENT BASE. However, not all Somali, Yemeni Milit Groups claiming to be affiliated wid AQ actually are, + claim so to disguise or divert attention from local criminal activities.
*TOPIX > REPORT: SOMALIA, YEMEN ARE AL QAEDA'S NEW BASES.
Security agencies in Britain are investigating reports that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young Nigerian accused of attempting to blow up a transatlantic airliner, contacted radical Muslims while studying at university in London, The Independent understands.
Mohammed Mutallab, a cousin of the arrested man, has claimed that the 23-year-old came under the influence of extremist groups while in this country, and associates claim he visited the East London Mosque, which has attracted criticism for hosting Muslim hardline preachers, three times.
#2
Fox had an eyewitness in Amsterdam that reported a well-dressed older man as an accomplice, trying to board without a passport. He wasn't allowed on although he claimed they did it in Sudan all the time. Hope this is followed up on.
Posted by: Lumpy in NY ||
12/28/2009 19:22
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#2
The Democrats pulled this crap all the time with Bush's nominees. Just business as usual in the Senate.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/28/2009 11:42
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#3
So when are the Dims gonna ram 'em all through? They only have 60 votes for so long...
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/28/2009 12:17
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#4
Something that was omitted from the article is the fact that the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve only has 5 sitting members as opposed to the 7 authorized by law. This has been the case for a long time. I guess it is easier to ram crap through a 5-member board than a 7-member one. Credit Sen. Dodd with this convenient situation.
#1
Hopefully as successful as the war waged by Wall Street, it's lobbyists, and its Congressional and Executive sock puppets to loot the American taxpayer to cover their gambling loses.
#4
I suspect you are thinking of Smoot-Hawley, the tariff bill. Glass Steagall separated investment banking from commercial banking and prohibited interstate banking, among other things. It was passed in response to the GD and was not a cause. Its reimposition would do much to help us out of our current difficulty.
#5
Neither measure helped but I was indeed thinking of Glass Steagall. While it had short-term tactical value, prohibiting interstate banking and limiting the ability of commercial banks to manage risk did indeed IMO strongly deepen the GD, given the rampant hyperinflation in parts of Europe at the time (among other issues).
#6
I agree that the removal of the walls between investment banking and institutional banking were significant contributors to the current financial chaos. Had some provisions of Glass Steagall been in place, those huge losses by the investment houses on mortgage derivatives would not have leaked over into the institutional side and caused the credit crunch and the damage now in place.
I like being about to use a ATM card in Maryland at a branch of my bank in California. Interstate banking does not bother me...the elimination of the wall between investment and institutional banking does still and needs to be put back in place.
I notice...that I am using....a lot of dots in my posts...these days...am I channeling Maureen Dowd?....Crap.
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/28/2009 11:05
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#7
limiting the ability of commercial banks to manage risk did indeed IMO strongly deepen the GD Please provide links to background info on your assertion. This is the only place I've found this. Glass-Steagall was overturned in 11/99. Between 1940-1999 I see little evidence that commercial banks had trouble managing risks. Since 1999 commercial banks have done a superb job of mismanaging risk, the best ever in world history, and all this mismanagement was done without the burden of Glass-Steagall. Even the former head of Citigroup, which came into existence only because of Glass-Steagall's repeal, has expressed his regret for that change in the law. Paul Volcker supports reinstatement of it, very strongly.
Glass Steagle basically boils down to saying that bureaucrats can avoid systematic risks at banks.
They cannot.
The trouble was in the volume of credit (and governments loved taxing the effects of the credit). The way to lower the volume of credit is to raise reserve requirements.
#9
And what the Congress did was just the opposite: mandated risky loans to poor prospects with the implicit guarantee of government bailouts - but without any disciplined tracking of the risk that such would be needed and with overt threats if the banks priced risk into the loan rates.
I don't see any great likelihood that separating investment from commercial banking will do much to prevent that sort of ideological bias. It's not fair to say that the banks mismanaged risk - they responded quite rationally to the pressures presented them by Congress and also by the Bush admininstration which used house 'value' to keep consumers buying in order to finance the wars indirectly.
Market failure mandated, abetted and utterly unsurprising as a result.
An indirect analogue happened with the Great Depression. Combined with tariffs on imported goods, Glass-Steagall decoupled commercial loans from risk offsets the banks could have made on the investment side. What the Congress thought was a safeguard against market risk meant that risk could not be measured or offset, with the inevitable result that banks stopped lending, the CRA not having yet been adopted.
Most people don't realize how important credit is to tangible goods businesses. Access to well priced funds for inventory, cash flow management and investment is a huge multiplier of economic activity. Cut off that flow and business activity dries up. But capital for lending has to come from somewhere ... and if it is limited to simple deposits, that is a very limited source compared to markets.
#11
by the Bush admininstration which used house 'value' to keep consumers buying in order to finance the wars indirectly. I don't know that the Bush administration planned on using house values to indirectly finance the wars without raising taxes, but I do understand that the housing bubble did have that effect. Had the housing bubble somehow been killed at birth and no other bubble started, there would have been a recession instead. The US has been consuming far more than it produces for quite some time, the housing bubble just masked that.
I don't get that the Congressional mandate for loans to poor prospects had much of an effect on the housing bubble. CRA has been in effect since 1975 & wasn't a problem for the first 30 years. The explosion of credit default swaps had nothing to do with CRA & everything to do with the government preempting the states laws against CDS. In addition the SEC gave the 5 biggest banks an exemption from its old 12-1 reserve ratio (approx) after which they went to 40-1 leverage. Still, no one forced the banks to go hog wild between 2005 & the crash, they did it themselves. Their excesses were not rational by any means, but greedy and shortsighted.
A flatulent pig triggered a minor emergency in Australia when smells wafting from her farts sparked gas leak fears
Two fire engines and 15 firefighters turned out in darkness to search for the source of the 'leak' at Axedale, near Bendigo, Victoria.
Eventually, the culprit - a 120kg pet sow - was identified, reports the Melbourne Herald Sun.
Fire chief Peter Harkins said: "We got to the property and we could smell a very strong odour in the vicinity. It didn't take us too long to work it out because we could both smell and hear her.
"She got very excited when two trucks and 15 firies (firefighters) turned up and she squealed and farted and squealed and farted. I haven't heard too many pigs fart but I would describe it as very full-on."
Mr Harkins said the family had done the right thing by calling emergency services to report the suspected gas leak.
#2
There will be deflation. It's just a matter of when, and then the next generation will be able to get into all those McDonald Mansions for a song. Remember in 1982 when interest rates went up to 21%, and the next generation was locked out of home ownership?
#3
The Lotps weren't locked out permanently, but the 6 years until we could buy our first home were costly in terms of lost tax deductions and the need still to be paying mortgage payments as we edge closer to the usual retirement age.
#4
Lemme get this straight, they want "affordable housing" but they want to continue policies that contribute to artificial housing inflation? Only a politician, probably a Democrat politician, could come up with such nonsense. You say the Los Angeles economy would tank? It's long overdue.
Let's do a few numbers:
20% down on the $729,750 house they mention in the article is $145,950. I don't know anybody who can come up with that kind of cash unless they're selling another house that they already own so it kinda lets first time home buyers out in the cold. Your monthly payments would be upwards of $3,000.
Wow. I remember a time when $145,950 would be more than enough to buy some prime real estate in Southern California all buy itself. Of course, those were the days before the Community Reinvestment Act. Thank you, jimmuh.
Now, if you put 10% down and get a mortgage in the 5.x% range you will be making payments over $3,800 per month. That's according to an Internet mortgage calculator. Your results may vary, but probably not much. Gosh, Bawney, that doesn't seem all that affordable to me. You have to have an income of $160,000 to qualify.
They didn't offer a 0% down type of mortgage but if they did you can just imagine the monthly payments.
You talk about housing inflation and then you have to wonder what impact it has had on the overall rate of inflation in this country. Then you wonder how much it has to do with American workers being priced out of the global labor market. Kinda like a ripple effect.
Well, when we're all living in tents making bird houses and whirligigs to sell to the Chinese for a few pennies to buy a can of beans some of us might remember the good old days.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/28/2009 19:00
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#5
Hey, anybody remember in the first few years after WWII when the Japanese made toys out of beer cans? I do. So, after you're finished with those beans, don't throw the can away.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/28/2009 19:05
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#6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ricardo
Read Rent.
And ignore the lefties additions who infected Ricardo with Malthus.
#1
Step one: Have a Unified Value System that pits the WHOLE United States against Radical Islam.
If the Obamas and the Pelosis and the Reids dont have common Values with the decent American people, if Congress can be bought and sold and "deals" can be made and interests determined by bribes to Senators to vote one way and against Values of integrity...then we have a rotten leadership and a corrupt system.
The Courage of the United States military is un-questioned. Its the LEADERSHIP which is fagboy and largely piss itself Democratic Party bugout and run.
Bush led the United States to victory in Iraq. We won that war. There IS a Democracy there now, we can largely bring the troops home. Say THANK YOU, to George Bush and not to the ball-less Democrats like Kerry and that paragon of Values Breck Boy Edwards. That PUKE was the best the Democratic Party had for the American people and it truly sucked when it didnt stink so bad the buzzards fell out of the air).
And NOW we have a bendover boy like Obama. And Skinny wouldnt fight for his own momma.
And we are going to defeat radical islam with THIS lineup? yeah?
Iran and Syria are not our friends. Places like Sudan and Somalia are Islamist pustules. The Israelis are our friends...AND the Israelis fight and win. Pakistan can be bought and they are never going to be our friend EXCEPT for money. Afghanistan is full of Moslems. Moslems are de facto all expendable. If it gets killed that's not a problem. You will never miss it. Whatever it takes with Moslems, they either do it our way or they get the full treatment. Up it, tie it off and tighten it down, break its neck off and kick it.
Radical Islam wherever it is found gets the one two three. And then we turn off the air.
YOU EITHER HAVE THE WILL TO WIN or you dont. Losing ? It doesnt exist. Stick the blade in under the chin and twist hard. No,I am not going to split it with you. I am am going to take it all. Yo' Momma, monkeyboy.
Angleton, you've been warned about using racist language at the Burg. Consider this a more strongly worded warning. Rantburg is a great place to rant but racist language does not belong here and will not be tolerated.
Like Simon deMontfort said about the Albigensian campaign...burn the place, let God sort 'em out.
And you know what? It worked for Simon and it can work for us.
You just have to have the nerve to make sure you are thorough....and if you dont like it you can be my little sister.
Yep, A9, you have that right. I believe world 'leadership' (and a great many if not most of the people) do NOT have the WILL. Perhaps eventually some traumatic shock will re-generate the WILL, but by then the cost of winning will be immensely greater (see WWII for case study.)
Islam is a religion, an integration of beliefs and assertions that prescribes worship in a particular way. But radical Islam, we must insist, is different.
There is NO, ZIP, ZERO, ZILCH difference between "radical Islam" and (what? real?) Islam!
There are just a difference in the will and cowardice or lack there of among individual Muslims!! Until there is a true reformation in Islam that defines a non-radical, non-kaffhir hating, non-jihad embracing theology, until that time we ARE at war with ISLAM!!!!!
#4
There is a difference between Radical Islam and standard Islam in that the regular Islamic folks are still on the fence looking for the strong horse. If we provide them with one dominos tumble as they did for a while after the invasion of Iraq. If we show weakness it works the other way.
I believe you need to take some realities into account when planning war. (1) Americans do not like peacekeeping. (2) Americans do not like long wars that give the left a chance to undermine morale.
So basically we need to topple a nation using our forces or indigenous forces and then set up a dictatorship and move on. Yes dictatorships are foul, but they can gain control, do what needs to be done, and transform into a democracy when the nation is strong enough.
I don't disapprove of what we did in iraq. It was worth the risk because the unique location and such and the massive payoff if we can get a Democracy, but the same is not true of Afghanistan, or Syria and others.
The al-Qaeda branch linked to the attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight has for the past year escalated efforts to exploit Yemen's instability and carve out a leadership role among terrorist groups, say Yemeni and Western officials, terrorism analysts, and tribal leaders.
U.S. authorities say Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, the Nigerian suspect who tried to ignite explosive chemicals with a syringe sewn into his underwear, may have been equipped and trained by an al-Qaeda bombmaker in Yemen. He allegedly made that claim to FBI agents after his arrest. If the claim is true, it represents a significant increase in the activities of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the emergence of a major new threat to the United States, the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.
No doubt Europe as well, unless AQ-AP plans to leave that to the Pakistani groups.
"Al-Qaeda started in Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula, but it was raised and nurtured in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other places. Now it is clear that it is coming back to its roots and growing in Yemen," said Saeed Obaid, a Yemeni terrorism expert. "Yemen has become the place to best understand al-Qaeda and its ambitions today."
Relegating Osama bin Laden and his little friends even further into the background? How nice for them -- when they are finall captured/killed, nobody will care except the wife and children held hostage in Iran.
The branch, known as AQAP, is still a work in progress, officials and analysts said. It is led by a new generation of Yemeni and Saudi militants keen on transforming Yemen into a launching pad for jihad against the United States, its Arab allies and Israel.
Not that they've paid more than occasional verbal attention to Israel's neighbors continue to handle that as well as can be done.
They have used Yemen's vast stretches of ungoverned, rugged terrain; loose-knit tribal structures and codes; widespread sympathy for al-Qaeda; and animosity toward U.S. policies to lure new recruits and set up training bases.
The group has yet to notch a catastrophic attack against the United States or its allies, suggesting that the organization is still too weak to operate effectively outside Yemen. Yet despite operative failures and setbacks, it has shown a resilience and ability to quickly regroup and cause havoc inside the country.
The branch appears to be trying to fill a void left by al-Qaeda's central body, led by Osama bin Laden, which has been weakened by military assaults in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Although the branch mostly operates independently, AQAP leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi, who comes from a wealthy family and once served as bin Laden's personal secretary, is believed to have strong contacts with the al-Qaeda head, analysts say.
U.S. and Yemeni officials say Wuhayshi and his deputy, Said al-Shihri, a Saudi national and former detainee at the U.S facility at Guantanamo Bay, were at the meeting, along with Anwar al-Aulaqi, the radical Yemeni American cleric linked to the gunman charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., Nov. 5. The fate of the three men is still unknown. Eyewitnesses and tribal leaders in the area expressed doubts that the men had died or were even at the meeting
The current AQAP generation has its roots in a February 2006 jailbreak of 23 prisoners from a maximum-security prison in Sanaa, the capital. U.S. and Yemeni officials said the prisoners were aided by Yemeni intelligence officials sympathetic to al-Qaeda. The escapees included Wuhayshi and several high-profile operatives behind the Cole bombings. Wuhayshi, who is believed to be in his early 30s and to have fought alongside bin Laden in Afghanistan, soon began to rebuild the branch.
Until a year ago, the branch mostly targeted tourists, missionaries, oil installations and other soft targets in Yemen. In November 2008, heavily armed al-Qaeda gunmen attacked the U.S. Embassy, detonating a car bomb that left 16 dead, including six of the assailants. The embassy attack, analysts and officials said, was believed to have been a direct order from bin Laden. Two months later, the Yemeni and Saudi Arabian branches of al-Qaeda merged to create AQAP.
Today, the branch has about 100 core operatives, most in their 20s and 30s. But it has countless sympathizers and immense tribal support in southern and eastern provinces, said Abdulelah Hider Shaea, a Yemeni journalist with close ties to al-Qaeda. Shaea, who interviewed Wuhayshi in an al-Qaeda hideout earlier this year, said he saw several Muslims with Australian, German and French citizenships. In a report to parliament last week, Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Rashad al-Alimi said militants killed in a Dec. 17 airstrike included Yemenis, Saudis, Pakistanis and Egyptians. U.S. officials have said some militants are leaving Pakistan and Afghanistan to fight in Yemen.
Since the merger, AQAP has improved its abilities to spread its message. It has an online magazine called Sada al-Malahim, or "the echo of epic battles," and regularly beams videos and communiques to Web sites and jihadist forums. On Oct. 29, AQAP published an article in its online magazine saying "that whoever wants to carry out jihad with us," the group would "guide him in the appropriate way to kill."
The group has launched five attacks this year, compared with 22 in 2008, Western diplomats said. But the targets have been higher-profile. In August, the branch dispatched a Saudi suicide bomber with explosives hidden on or in his body who slipped past airport security checkpoints and nearly killed Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the head of the kingdom's counterterrorism operations. The bomber, according to some reports, used the same chemical explosives that Abdulmuttalab allegedly did. Last month, AQAP militants ambushed and killed three senior Yemeni security officers and four bodyguards in Hadramawt province. And last week, Alimi said the branch was planning to launch suicide bombings against the British Embassy and foreign schools.
On Sunday, AQAP issued a communique declaring that it would take revenge for the Dec. 17 airstrikes.
#3
In some ways it would be beneficial to us if AQAP was to grow - by attracting recruits from Af-Pak, or who would otherwise go to Af-Pak, because the logistics of our operating in Yemen are simplified. The ONLY advantage A'stan has is that we are allowed land bases there.
#4
Given Yemen's geographic location, fighting there is logistically much simpler. We can pull our carriers and assault ships hard up against the territorial waters and launch all sorts of hardware and "rough men ready to do violence" on the Yemeni twerps and nut jobs.
I think all of these jihadis are deranged. Serious issues. The math of it is frightening, given that there are over 2 billion moslems, and given the statistical average of 1 to 2 percent of a population having serious Psychosis, that means we have about 40,000,000 seriously nuts, not counting the antisocial, borderline and DID's out there.
I think we should make it policy to carpet bomb any place that has a wahabi maddrassah
Posted by: Karl Rove ||
12/28/2009 10:51
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carpet bomb any place that has a wahabi maddrassah
[Iran Press TV Latest] Somali pirates onboard a Chinese cargo ship say they are preparing to release the vessel and its crew of 25 after receiving a USD 3.5 million in ransom.
A pirate source said Sunday that a helicopter dropped the ransom on the deck of the coal ship De Xin Hai, which was seized by Somali pirates in mid-October en route to India.
The ship, carrying a 76,000-ton cargo from South Africa, came under attack in the Indian Ocean northeast of the Seychelles, but was later transferred to the bandit's hideout on the Somali coast, where a number of other pirate-held ships remain anchored.
The October 18 hijacking again highlighted how a multinational European Union-led naval armada dispatched to the region to battle piracy in the Horn of Africa has failed to tackle the growing crisis in one of the world's busiest shipping routes.
Furthermore, the anti-piracy presence seems to have pushed the outlaws to expand their operations. De Xin Hai was taken more than 1,000 kilometers (550 nautical miles) from the Somali coast.
The limits faced by the naval mission also renders is impossible to hold any suspected pirates caught at sea without proof. The pirates in turn take advantage of the situation, dumping any weapons or proof as soon as a warship is sighted.
The 324 hijacking attempts worldwide up to October 20 this year, point to a dramatic rise from the same period in 2008, with 194 attacks. Of the total annual attacks in 2009 and 2008 respectively, 37 and 36 were successful according to the latest figures from the ICC International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB).
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.
Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.
Kurt HaskellLori and Kurt HaskellHaskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man.
While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. The guy said, 'He's from Sudan and we do this all the time.'
Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab's lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.
The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn't see Mutallab again until after he allegedly tried to detonate an explosive on the plane.
As I've watched the stories roll in on this story, I realized I predicted nearly exactly this situation (right down to the airport!)a little over four years ago.
Go take a look here, and read down through to my additional comment.
I got it mostly right, I think, including the handler who smoothly and easily evaded the security protocols, while the rest of us learn how to use a catheter and a ziploc bag when we fly.
#2
Howdy Sea! Happy holidays and hope you're well!
You did predict this, didn't you. Now what we have to predict is whether the fools currently in charge of DHS will start getting airport security right.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/28/2009 1:11
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MUTALLAB is repor claiming that AL QAEDA INSTRUCTED HIM TO BLOW UP THE PLANE OVER US SOIL??? IIRC the US State of MICHIGAN has one of the largest, iff not the largest, Muslim communities in the entire US of A - IMO this means that Mutallab blowing the plane just minites before landing in Michigan was likely meant to inspire local area Muslims unto engaging in Terror agz their own Stae, MidWest, + Nation.
#4
Dearbornistan and surrounds are largely Shia, if I'm not mistaken. Al-Q is a Sunni outfit, and has been celebrating Ashoura in proper Islamic fashion this weekend.
#7
Some airport/airline personnel might know there's a Muslim concentration in the Dearborn area, but many aren't going to know the difference between Sunni and Shia, or a Nigerian and a Sudanese.
And if you're Dutch, and the passenger is going out of country (and to the U.S. in particular), you likely don't care.
#8
I understand that the xmas bomber is talking so the FBI, etc. should know who the helpers are at Schiphol. FWIW, I was there last Aug. The security screening was mostly done at each gate, not at the entrance to the gate-terminal like most airports (sometimes a few gates were together - like at the KC International).
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/28/2009 11:34
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Be interesting to hear Obama's thoughts on waterboarding now that its his life and death responsibilty.
At the end of 2009 many conservatives will have renewed appreciation for Winston Churchill's admonition: "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result." Conservatives and their fellow citizens were not generally (unless engaged on the battlefield) shot at, but they were bombarded with an avalanche of leftist policy proposals. And yet, as Bill Kristol observes: "The Obama administration (so far) hasn't succeeded in doing too much damage to the American economy. Major parts of American society and the American polity are resisting the allure of a slide into European decadence. The climate change fear-mongers are increasingly discredited, and Copenhagen was a farce."
In short, the Obama team didn't succeed to the degree many of us anticipated and feared it would in refashioning domestic policy and achieving its free-market-killing initiatives. Card check is off the table. Cap-and-trade has been postponed. The stimulus bill did not endear the country to the wonders of big government. The health-care bill is not yet law, but is grossly unpopular. It is worth asking: why? Why did the most heralded politician to assume the White House in a generation, in the midst of a collapse of the private sector, and with huge Democratic majorities in the House and Senate not do any better (or do more damage, depending on your perspective)?
The answers are three-fold, I think. First, this president showed no inclination or talent to engage in the nitty-gritty business of lawmaking. He did not set forth his own specific proposals on key agenda items, set a deadline, or whip Congress into line. He preferred endless speeches, innumerable TV talk-show appearances, and campaign-style events, none of which solved the hard questions as to what it is that key legislation should contain. And then Congress did what it does best -- squabble, debate, reach gridlock, churn out pork-a-thon legislation in lieu of serious policy prescriptions, and show themselves to be obsessed with shielding their own constituents from measures they would willingly foist on others. The result was low output and an absence of thoughtful or innovative policy. And most glaringly, on his most important agenda item, Obama did not make substantive arguments nor focus on a coherent legislative health-care scheme that was designed to fulfill his objectives.
Second, the Obami ran Left, even beyond the tolerance of their own party. Democratic senators have held up cap-and-trade, not the Republicans. The Democrats can't find 60 votes in the Senate to take away the right to secret ballot in union elections. Again, the liberal aspirations of special interest groups don't match the political composition of those in office, even after an election that delivered across-the-board Democratic victories.
And finally, Obama himself did not inspire or persuade the public in the way his followers imagined he would. His campaign rhetoric wore thin, never rising above the level of platitudes. And when that rhetoric didn't persuade, the president diminished himself and the power of the bully pulpit by inveighing against opponents, picking fights with talk-show hosts and news networks, and condescending the public (e.g., red pill/blue bill health-care hooey, Gatesgate's "teachable moment," etc.). In short, he didn't lead.
This year ends with a sigh of relief from conservatives on the domestic front. Their work in opposing liberal Democratic policies is not, however, over. The health-care bill looms on the horizon and the Democrats will take a second pass at a number of their policy proposals. But there is a certain exhilaration in surviving the initial (and certainly the strongest barrage) of one's political enemies. And for conservatives, finding that the American people are increasingly rallying to their side in the political debate is particularly gratifying.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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In short, the free market is on life support & Obama wants to pull its plug. Friends & relatives of the patient are having 2nd thoughts.
After years of scientific studies, US researchers in California say they have finally discovered how the human brain forms memories.
Scientists at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) told BBC that they have uncovered a central process in encoding memories that occurs at the level of the synapse, where neurons connect with each other.
"When we learn new things, when we store memories, there are a number of things that have to happen," said senior author Kenneth S Kosik, co-director and Harriman Chair in Neuroscience Research, at UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute.
"One of the most important processes is that the synapses, which cement those memories into place, have to be strengthened," he added.
According to Kosik, part of strengthening a synapse involves making new proteins, which can build the synapse and make it stronger.
"In strengthening a synapse you build a connection, and certain synapses are encoding a memory. Those synapses have to be strengthened so that memory is in place and stays there. Strengthening synapses is a very important part of learning. What we have found appears to be one part of how that happens," Kosik added.
The researchers say their findings could eventually lead to a breakthrough remedy for brain diseases such as Alzheimer's.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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If the Mullah regime can count to two they KNOW how this is all going to end. ONE: Move as much of the money out of the country to somewhere you can settle in...start NOW. TWO: Buy the tickets and pack Momma.
If they think force is gonna work against everybody and his brother plus the dog, they didnt finish their Wheaties. Its going to get WORSE in progressive stages.Once they start shooting ( do I hear gunfire) its already too late.
You dont shoot your own citizens and expect to stroll down to the corner afterwards to buy sunglasses. What you are gonna get is gasoline and broken windows. And clue you, they know where you live and at some point the "guards" arent gonna show up for work and its too late to get to the Airport.
You dont want to be looking through the blinds at the street when they are already inside the building, Poncho.
And if you are gonna stay and sit it out? Yeah.
Good Luck. The Maid and the Chauffeur are gonna do better than you are.
But, the IRG etc. still have a lot of very deadly weapons and their are ideological enforcers throughout the regular army.
This could go on for a while.
Meantime, the Obama machine will have time to plan how to take credit for any good that comes out of this.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/28/2009 8:28
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#3
No - they'll take credit for having stayed out of it, no matter how it turns out*.
*Frankly, I don't think the mullahs are going to go any time soon. At best you'll end up with a Nicaraguan solution in a few years. At worst, a significant reduction in the population via deaths or exile. The regime has a lot of chips it can call in from places like Lebanon. The Russians would likely be happy to lend technical support - for a price.
#5
I'm in no position to speculate on their chances but from what I've seen in the videos these people are extremely pissed off. They are so pissed off that they are fighting with sticks and stones against armed security forces. They're getting shot at, they can't shoot back, but they keep charging and throwing rocks. It's been going on for several months. Maybe if they could find a strategic target like an armory or something and take it...or if the government had trouble paying the soldiers...
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/28/2009 13:44
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strategic target like an armory or something
Like maybe a 'poorly guarded' US weapons depot or convoy just over the border in Iraq or A'stan or Turkey that maybe somebody in their midst knew about?
[Iran Press TV Latest] A source with the Iranian Intelligence Ministry has announced the arrest of a number of Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorists in anti-government protests that occurred in central Tehran.
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 unnamed source was quoted by Fars News Agency as saying that protestors had attacked mourners participating in Ashura ceremonies and damaged public property and parked vehicles in central Tehran.
The protesters reportedly chanted slogans against top Iranian government officials.
According to the Intelligence Ministry source, a number of MKO terrorists were arrested in this connection.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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Understandbly, the White House is trying very hard to get out in front of the would-be Christmas bomber story. The head of the Department of Homeland Security isn't helping. I watched her on three shows and each time she was more annoying, maddening and absurd than the pevious appearance. It is her basic position that the "system worked" because the bureaucrats responded properly after the attack. That the attack was "foiled" by a bad detonator and some civilian passengers is proof, she claims, that her agency is doing everything right. That is just about the dumbest thing she could say, on the merits and politically.
I would wager that not one percent of Americans think the system is "working" when terrorists successfully get bombs onto planes (and succeed in activating them). Probably even fewer think it's fair that they have to take off their shoes, endure delays and madness while a known Islamic radical -- turned in by his own father -- can waltz onto a plane (and into the country). DHS had no role whatsoever in assuring that this bomb didn't go off. By her logic if the bomb had gone off, the system would have "worked" since it has done everything right.
Napolitano has a habit of arguing that DHS is a first responder outfit. Its mission is to deal with "man-caused-disasters" afer they occur. It appears she really believes it. If the White House wants to assure people that it takes the war on terror seriously (a term Robert Gibbs used this morning by the way), they could start by firing this patenly unqualified hack.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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Fire the patently unqualified hack who appointed her, too.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/28/2009 7:41
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#8
Newspeak: System worked - muslim terrorists were too incompetent to build a working bomb.
Posted by: ed ||
12/28/2009 12:12
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#9
All the appropriate agencies notified after the fact? CHECK
Proper paperwork filed? CHECK
Alleged perpetrator given Miranda rights and free legal counsel? CHECK
You're doing a heckava job, Nappie!
Posted by: regular joe ||
12/28/2009 12:14
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#10
The system DID work!!
Guys, you all keep forgetting that the purpose of the system is to prevent blame for disasters from accruing to the bureaucracy and the politicians!!
They admit that the whole purpose of DHS is to be a "first" responder NOT a preventer. They are there to pick up the aluminum and human confetti after a "man-caused disaster" while providing cover for the traitorous filth in government.
#11
I dunno. Napolitano has made a career of defending the indefensible. She has always been willing to go in front of reporters and cameras and utter complete nonsense. In Arizona where the subject was illegal immigration she did it on a regular basis. That is her primary qualification for the job she now holds. It is exactly what Obama wants her to do. Now, whether or not he'll throw her under the bus for this latest snafu is another matter. But if he does he'll be looking for someone just as obnoxious as she is to replace her. Trust me, folks, he will NOT be looking for a better solution to the problem.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/28/2009 18:04
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#12
BTW, here is some interesting footage of what the shoe bomber might have done if his bomb had worked properly: LINK
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/28/2009 18:09
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Janet(from another planet) Sez, "It (DHS C-4)went off like clockwork"
They set fire to prefabricated units which were due to house showers at the controversial structure close to the town's ferry port.
"A great deal of damage was done,' said a Calais police spokesman. "One of two structures earmarked for use as a shower block was badly damaged by fire. It was due to be part of a unit containing lavatories and bathrooms.
"We have launched an inquiry into this act of vandalism and arson. Our fear is that local people opposed to the setting up of the new centre may be responsible."
Earlier this month French administrative judges approved the opening of the new centre next to an industrial estate.
It was immediately described as "Sangatte II" after the former Red Cross centre which attracted thousands of illegal migrants before it was razed to the ground in 2002.
The new centre is just a few hunded yards from the site of the notorious "Jungle", a shanty town in woodland which was populated mainly by Afghan migrants before it was dismantled by the authorities in September.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il moved early this month to wipe out much of the wealth earned in the past decade in his country's private markets. As part of a surprise currency revaluation, the government sharply restricted the amount of old bills that could be traded for new and made it illegal for citizens to have more than $40 worth of local currency.
It was an unexplained decision -- the kind of command that for more than six decades has been obeyed without question in North Korea. But this time, in a highly unusual challenge to Kim's near-absolute authority, the markets and the people who depend on them pushed back.
Grass-roots anger and a reported riot in an eastern coastal city pressured the government to amend its confiscatory policy. Exchange limits have been eased, allowing individuals to possess more cash.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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#1
ION WMF > SOUTH KOREAN "KBS" MEDIA: NORTH KOREA DESIRES TO BECOME A DE FACTO NUCLEAR WEAPONS STATE, PLANS THREE FUTURE NUCLEAR TESTS.
* NUCWEAPS STATE > shade of ISLAMIST IRAN come Year 2012, as Iran is technically already is a nuclear state wid its centrifuges + low-yield uranium materials???
#5
ION CORYE INDIAN EXPRESS > [Dr. Qadeer Khan]NORTH KOREA BUILT PLANT TO MAKE GAS FOR URANIUM ENRICHMENT [incl. for plutonium bombs], wid help from PAK. ARTIC > indics NORTH KOREA does desire and has escalated indigenous efforts to become a NUCLEAR WEAPONS STATE.
Again, SHADE OF IRAN come Year 2012 [NucEnergy + NUcWeaps], later RADICAL ISLAM 2012/13-2020 or 2025???
Gut the OIL = Gut the $$$ = Gut the Perts = Gut the MIL/NUCTECHS.....
* ION WMF > RUSSIA WORRIED OVER CHINA'S DEPLOYMENT OF NEW DF-31A STRATEGIC MISSLES WHILE THEIR OWN ARSENAL FACES AN UNCERTAIN PERIOD OF RETIREMENT AND REPLACEMENT.
Nutshell > VARI MIL FORUMS threads > CHIN'S MILITARY IS GETTING STRONGER WHILE RUSSIA'S IS GETTING WEAKER???
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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Dad met Gypsy Rose on a country road near Red Lodge Montana when he was camping in the area and she was staying there.
He saw her years later preforming at one of the State Fairs...
Moral of this little story...
You never know whom you will meet where.
Thanks for the help. Kilo Bravo's twin sister, Papa Bravo and her husband Bravo Bravo, have been visiting for the Christmas Holiday. We had to make our annual trek to Carmel, CA to celebrate Boxing Day. Oh darn!
The killing of the three Fatah operatives in Nablus by the IDF over the weekend could trigger a third intifada, Fatah officials warned on Sunday. But the new intifada, they said, would be different from the first two - this time it would be directed against the Palestinian Authority.
As it is written: as ye sow, so shall ye reap.
During the funerals of the three men, all veteran members and leaders of Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, thousands of Palestinians chanted slogans accusing the PA of collusion with Israel and calling for an end to security coordination with Israel and the dismantling of the PA.
Y'all may want to adjust your primary and secondary school curricula to tone down the anti-Israel martyr stuff. Your best students seem to have learnt their lessons a bit too well.
For several hours during the funerals, which took place in Nablus, it seemed as if the PA and not the IDF had killed the three men. It was, in the words of a local journalist, "one of the biggest anti-Palestinian Authority demonstrations" in many years.
The relationship between the PA and local Fatah activists has always been tense. Nablus and its surrounding refugee camps, especially Balata refugee camp, has long been a stronghold for disgruntled Fatah militiamen who occasionally vent their frustration against the PA leadership and security forces.
For years during the second intifada, Nablus, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, was controlled by dozens of Fatah gunmen and thugs who imposed a reign of terror on wealthy clans.
Many local families did not hide their satisfaction when IDF troops raided the city during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 and killed or arrested scores of Fatah gunmen, including the infamous Ahmed Tabouk, one of the leaders of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
*snicker* And now we know why the IDF has such good information.
In the context of its efforts to restore law and order to the city, the PA offered four years ago to recruit many of the gunmen to various branches of its security forces if they agreed to lay down their weapons.
The PA also managed to persuade Israel to stop pursuing those gunmen who agreed to hand over their weapons and abandon violence.
In return, the PA took on itself the mission of holding the "pardoned" gunmen in one of its security installations for a limited time and as a first step toward granting them total freedom of movement.
Most of the Fatah gunmen who complied were added to the PA's payroll, but not all were happy with the arrangement. Some complained that the PA had broken its promise to appoint them to senior positions in its security forces, while others said that their salaries were too low. Others complained that despite their agreement to surrender their weapons and open a new page in their lives, Israeli security forces were continuing to target them.
Friends and relatives of the Fatah operatives who were killed in the recent IDF operation accused the PA of failing to fulfill its "commitments" to give them more money and good jobs. Some did not rule out the possibility that the Fatah cell that murdered Rabbi Meir Chai last week had received money from an "outside" party, such as Hizbullah or even Hamas.
n the past, there were a number of cases where Fatah militiamen in the West Bank openly admitted to receiving funds from Hizbullah. The gunmen justified their action by arguing that the PA had failed to "compensate" them for the "sacrifices" they made in the fight against Israel.
Police removed an airline passenger Sunday following a disruption on the same Detroit-bound flight that was subject to a failed bomb attack on Christmas Day.
An FBI spokeswoman in Detroit said Sunday's incident turned out to be nothing serious.
"Today (Sunday) at Detroit Metro Airport, the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) responded to a report from an incoming flight from Amsterdam where a passenger spent a lengthy time in the restroom. This raised concerns so an alert was raised. JTTF investigated and the investigation shows that this was a non-serious incident and all is clear at this point," the FBI spokeswoman told Fox News.
A law enforcement official said the man removed from a Sunday flight to Detroit posed no security risk to the plane. The official says the passenger was taken into custody after becoming verbally disruptive on landing. Subsequent interviews by investigators determined he was a businessman who became ill during the flight.
A source confirmed this report to Fox News, saying the passenger was indeed sick and that the incident appears to be "a non-event at this point."
Authorities did not find any sign of explosives.
A federal law enforcement official said the man, who was from Nigeria, was interviewed by authorities and the aircraft was swept. But the official said the incident was all an incredible coincidence.
DHS Press Secretary Sara Kuban issued a statement on the incident: "A passenger on today's Northwest flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit spent an unusually long time in the aircraft lavatory. Due to this unusual behavior, the airline notified TSA and the agency directed the flight to taxi to a remote area upon landing to be met by law enforcement and DHS."
"The passenger in question, a Nigerian national, was removed from the flight and interviewed by the FBI; indications at this time are that the individual's behavior is due to legitimate illness, and no other suspicious behavior or materials have been found."
"Though this does not appear at this time to be a security incident, in an abundance of caution, the aircraft was fully screened, with negative results, and all baggage is being rescreened before the aircraft taxis to the gate."
Several police vehicles and a police command unit had surrounded a Northwest Airlines plane at Detroit's Metro Airport Sunday after the pilot on the flight requested emergency help. The passenger reportedly became verbally disruptive and barricaded himself in the bathroom for an hour.
Two sources tell Fox News that the suspect boarded a plan in Lagos, Nigeria, with no baggage, and said the FBI has already sent an e-mail alert to other federal agencies notifying them of the incident.
A source told Fox News that the man taken into custody at the Detroit airport was a Nigerian national in his 30s. Federal officials know who the suspect is, but won't provide any more details.
#3
I wonder if his illness was a biologic response to a failed anal transportation of explosives (sort of the like the coke mules when the condom bursts)? Did the FBI analyze the contents of the commode?
#6
Oh he quite likely was ... only this second guy heading to Detroit doesn't appear to be part of the fun. Let's hope his illness isn't one of those dreadful African diseases against which most Americans have no immunity.
[Bangla Daily Star] In an ironic move, Jamaat-e-Islami accorded a reception and gave award to five Muktijoddhas (freedom fighters) yesterday, 38 years after the birth of Bangladesh. This party had termed freedom fighters traitors and miscreants during the Liberation War in 1971, and called for killing them.
Jatiya Muktijoddha Parishad, a Jamaat patronised organisation, organised the reception at a city hotel. The function was held against the backdrop of public demand for and the government's promise to hold trial of war criminals who had not only opposed the Liberation War but also collaborated with the Pakistani occupation forces in committing genocide during the nine-month war.
Recipients of the award from Jamaat are Dr Rowshan Ara Begum, Lt Commander (retd) Afazuddin Ahmed, Salahuddin Ahmed, poet Al Mahmud and (posthumous) Major MA Jalil.
Both Rawshan and Afazuddin demanded exemplary punishment of Jamaat leaders if found involved in the killings and oppression during the Liberation War.
Rawshan Ara told this correspondent she did not know that Jamaat was involved in the programme. Talking to journalists later, both Rawshan and Afazuddin demanded exemplary punishment of Jamaat leaders if found involved in the killings and oppression during the Liberation War.
Salahuddin said the award [Tk 50,000, books and a crest] will help an insolvent freedom fighter like him. No representative of Jalil was present to receive his award. Organisers said they would send it to his house as his wife is now abroad.
Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed, who was scheduled to be the chief guest at the function, did not turn up. He was represented by Maulana Rafiqul Islam Khan, ameer of city unit of the party. Several other Jamaat leaders including lawmaker Hamidur Rahman Azad were present at the programme.
Many of the present top leaders of Jamaat including its Ameer Maulana Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Mojaheed were accused of war crimes.
Leaders of Jamaat's student wing the then Islami Chhatra Sangha, now known as Islami Chhatra Shibir, and some other groups were involved in anti-liberation activities.
Mojaheed was president of East Pakistan Islami Chhatra Sangha in 1971. Mojaheed asked workers of the organisation to form Al-Badr Bahini to resist freedom fighters, according to a "Fortnightly Secret Report on the Situation in East Pakistan". In line with an official procedure, the report used to be regularly dispatched by the then East Pakistan home ministry to General Yahya Khan, head of the Pakistan government.
Many researches, academic studies, accounts of both victims and collaborators, and publications including newspapers revealed that Mojaheed, who headed the Al Badr team in Dhaka at that time, allegedly led those who had been involved in the killings of intellectuals -- only two days before the victory of liberation forces on December 16, 1971. Thousands of people still bear the scars of war crimes by Jamaat, Islami Chhatra Sangha and some other controversial outfits such as Nizam-e-Islami. Jamaat's opposition to the struggle for independence has been documented in different publications including those by the party itself.
This article starring:
ALI AHSAN MUHAMAD MOJAHID
Jamaat-e-Islami
HAMIDUR RAHMAN AZAD
Jamaat-e-Islami
MAULANA MOTIUR RAHMAN NIZAMI
Jamaat-e-Islami
MAULANA RAFIQUL ISLAM KHAN
Jamaat-e-Islami
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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US drone attacks continue to claim lives in the Pakistani border area of North Waziristan amid Washington's failure to push Islamabad into major offensives on the area.
The surveillance aircraft on Saturday attacked the Saidgi village in the tribal area reportedly killing 13 people, AFP reported. The raid marked the third of such attacks over the past ten days.
Quoting a local intelligence official, CNN said the projectiles had hit a militant hideout and that the mortalities had all been militants.
Local Pakistani news outlets, however, said the missiles struck the "residential compound of" a local tribesman, Asmatullah.
Islamabad has launched major offensives in the neighboring South Waziristan as well as the other northwestern areas of Khyber and Swat under pressure from the US, whose large-scale military presence in Afghanistan is blamed to have sent the militants across the border into Pakistan.
The ongoing military hostilities in South Waziristan have prompted 80,000 people to flee the area. The United Nations has warned that 170,000 others could be rendered homeless during the battle that started in mid-October.
North Waziristan, which is yet to see such government action, has witnessed a rise in the US missile raids as the entire tribal belt is being allowed less and less of a respite from the drone attacks.
Since August 2008, at least 69 such strikes have killed about 663 people. Pakistani media outlets say civilians comprise a large part of the mortalities.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi on Tuesday condemned the attacks as "counterproductive and unhelpful in our joint efforts towards winning hearts and minds, which is essential to succeed against violent extremism."
Reports, however, allege that US drones take off from airbases located inside Pakistan's territory, pointing to suspected compromises on the part of Islamabad.
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#1
local intelligence official said the projectiles had hit a militant hideout and that the mortalities had all been militants.
Local Pakistani news outlets said the missiles struck the "residential compound of" a local tribesman
U.S. federal authorities are investigating millions of dollars contributed by fraud suspect Allen Stanford and his staff to U.S. lawmakers in the past decade, the Miami Herald reported on Sunday.
The newspaper said the Justice Department investigation aimed to determine whether the banker received special favors from politicians while he was operating his alleged $7 billion Ponzi scheme centered on fraudulent certificates of deposit issued by his offshore bank in Antigua and Barbuda.
The U.S. Department of Justice said it had no comment on the Herald report.
The newspaper said an e-mail sent to Stanford by Texas Republican Representative Pete Sessions on the day authorities announced fraud charges against the billionaire financier, as well as $2.3 million in contributions he made to Sessions and other U.S. lawmakers, were "part of the government's inquiry."
It said Stanford, who has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting a trial set for January 2011, also spent $5 million on lobbying since 2001. It said he successfully lobbied in 2001 to kill a bill that would have exposed the flow of millions into his secretive offshore bank on the Caribbean island of Antigua.
The following year he helped block legislation that would have led to more government scrutiny of his now disgraced Antigua bank, the Miami Herald said.
Stanford, 59, has been in custody since June 19, when he was indicted on 21 criminal charges related to his alleged fraud. His global banking and securities business was shut down in February when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges that he and others had committed fraud.
The Miami Herald said that on the day federal agents raided Stanford's offices in the United States, February 17, the financier received an e-mail message from Sessions, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The newspaper said the message was found on Stanford's computer servers and reads: "I love you and believe in you.
"If you want my ear/voice e-mail," the Miami Herald quoted the message as saying, adding it was signed "Pete."
Officials now say tragedy was only averted on Northwest flight 253 because a makeshift detonator failed to work properly.
"We've known for a long time that this is possible," said Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar and ABC News consultant, "and that we really have to replace our scanning devices with more modern systems."
Bomb experts say there was more than enough explosive to bring down the Northwest jet, which had nearly 300 people aboard, had the detonator not failed, and the nation's outdated airport screening machines may need to be upgraded.
"We've known for a long time that this is possible," said Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar and ABC News consultant, "and that we really have to replace our scanning devices with more modern systems."
Clarke said full body scans were needed, "but they're expensive and they're intrusive. They invade people's privacy."
Al Qaeda, said Clarke, is aware of this vulnerability in the U.S. airport security system. "They know that this is a weakness and an Achilles' heel in our airport security system and this is the second time they've tried it."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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#1
But... the system worked!
Obama will speak on the subject as soon as he can find someone to give a shout-out to.
#5
Flight 253 was in Canadian airspace when the bomber attempted to detonate. Specifically, above the picturesque little town of Wallaceburg (see flightpath on Google). My town. Flight 253 Part II made a rapid descent to about 12,000 feet yesterday over .... yup, Wallaceburg. The laundromat is working overtime today on our collective tidy whities - again. Not funny.
#7
i'm most grateful indeed, lotp. I came to Canada from Scotland some decades ago. In 1989 and, ironically, from Lockerbie. I'm doubly greatful this one didn't detonate and no-one was hurt either in air or on ground. Nasty flashbacks tho' on the near tragedy.
Germany's Defense Minister says war-torn Afghanistan can never taste democracy according to Western ideals, casting doubts on the mantra for the international presence there.
In an interview with the mass-circulation Bild am Sonntag newspaper, Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg not only urged inclusion of moderate Taliban members in the Afghan government, but also conditioned any lasting peace in the country on that concession.
Guttenberg said he had arrived at this strategy from studying Afghanistan's history and character. "Because we are in a country with such regional diversity...We can't just leave out an entire ethnic group like the Pashtuns if we want sustainable solutions for the future," he was quoted by the paper as saying.
Certain conditions would need to be fulfilled, however, and it would be unacceptable for the Afghan government to ignore universal human rights.
"We must ask ourselves who from the insurgents poses a serious threat to the international community and who is more concerned with the conditions in Afghanistan itself," he said. "This issue of human rights must also be taken into account, without ignoring the existing cultures and traditions in Afghanistan."
His remarks in the past week seem to hint at a new German policy toward Afghanistan. He told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that he would support bids to engage in peace talks with non-terrorist Taliban members.
Guttenberg has also vowed to fight pressure demanding his resignation over allegations that he was complicit in covering up the large civilian toll of September's German-ordered strike in northern Afghanistan ahead of election later that month. The September 4 attack in Afghanistan's Kunduz Province, killed or wounded more than 14 people, including at least 30 civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > PAKISTAN TALIBAN SAY [thousands = 000's] OF FIGHTERS GOING TO AFGHANISTAN, to help Afghan Taliban. US claims no significant movement of Fighters seen or detected at borders.
* SAME > [Regional Trade]PLAN TO PAKISTAN TRANSIT CORRIDOR FOR CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS.
#2
It was a bad mistake at the onset to try and salvage anything about Afghanistan. It is like a soft rubber ox-cart with triangular wheels. No part works or is right for the job, nor can be repaired. The whole thing must be replaced.
#4
I don't see a problem with the return of individual Talibs to their communities in a civilian capacity -- the Prodigal Son scenario. But let them run for election like everyone else, not be given power and influence just for the sake of their pretty faces.
#5
It was a bad mistake at the onset to try and salvage anything about Afghanistan.
Afghanistan had a government when we threw the Talibs out. Remember that they were recognized in only three counties: Pak, Soddy Arabia, and the UAE. Their UN representation and such embassies as Afghanistan maintained were accredited to the Rabbani government.
The mistake was in trying to set up a government that "included" the Pashtuns, who're incapable of governing themselves, much less their more civilized Dari, Uzbek, and Tadjik speaking betters.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009 10:28
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#6
Maybe the mistake was trying to set up a government rather than impose one.
#7
TOPIX > US STRATEGY TO END AL QAEDA WAR USHERS IN 2010 FRAUGHT WITH PERILS.
* SAME > TALIBAN INSURGENCY EXPANDING IN AGHANISTAN, CREATES GOVERNMENT-IN-WAITING; + NATO OFFICIAL: TALIBAN EXPANDING INFLUENCE ALL ACROSS AFGHANISTAN, + TIME RUNNING OUT FOR US SURGE STRATEGY TO PROVE MERITS.
VIETNAM WAR = AFPAK > ultimately, the premier enemy method is NOT to militarily defeat the US on the battlefield, BUT TO FRUSTRATE + OUTLAST THEM [US political will = PCorrect Chickenhawks/
ChickenCritters in the Fed-Govt].
The Nigeria Civil Avia-tion Authority (NCAA) has confirmed that Abdulfarouk Umar Abdulmuttallab, the passenger who is a suspect in the attempt to bomb North-west-Delta Airlines flight 253 with 278 passengers and 11-member crew from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, is a Nigerian who boarded KLM flight out of Lagos on December 24, 2009 en-route Detroit, Michigan, USA via Amsterdam.
According to the Director-General of NCAA, Dr Harold Demuren, the ticket information of Abdulmutallab showed that the e-ticket with which he traveled was purchased from KLM airport office in Accra, Ghana on December 16, 2009 and with USD 2,831 the ticket was paid for in cash.
Demuren said the original routing of the trip was Lagos-Amsterdam-Detroit-Amsterdam-Accra. "However, the routing was later changed to Lagos-Amsterdam-Detroit-Amsterdam-Lagos," the Director-General said.
He said the return journey of Abdulmutallab was booked for January 8, 2010 out of Detroit, to arrive Lagos January 9, 2010.
"No contact address or telephone contact was given by the purchaser of the ticket at the time of purchase. KLM office in Lagos confirmed that the original ticket bought in Accra was cancelled and re-issued on the same 16th December, 2009," he said.
Demuren also said passenger information document confirmed that the passenger personally checked-in at 2035 (8.35 pm) local time and this was also corroborated by the close-circuit television (CCTV) footage.
"The passenger did not check in any luggage but was spotted with a shoulder bag. The passenger went through a normal checking process. His passport was scanned, his US Visa was scanned and the APIS (Advanced Passenger Information System) returned with no objection. Passenger was allotted seat number 20B on the Lagos-Amsterdam leg and seat 19A on the Amsterdam-Detroit leg," the Director-General explained.
The Murtala Muhammed Airport security also has details of Abdulmutallab's passport and visa information.
Demuren said the bombing suspect possessed a Nigerian Machine Readable Passport (MRP) issued on September 15, 2005 to expire on September 14, 2010 and the passport number is A3921640. According to the information from the passport, Abdul-mutallab has multiple entry US Visa issued in London, UK on June 16, 2008 to expire June 12, 2010.
The NCAA Director-General said the suspect presented himself for immigration clearance with his Nigerian passport and the passport was scanned into Passenger Registration System, "confirming that passenger went through normal standard security screening procedure."
"Thereafter, he passed through aviation security system comprising of walk through metal detector and the baggage X-ray screening machine. Passenger proceeded to the boarding gate where he went through secondary screening as confirmed by KLM airline security officials. At the close of the departure, the passenger was confirmed on board, his name was on the post departure manifest under serial number 2," Demuren also said.
He said the Nigerian authorities are willing and prepared to assist in any investigation that would unravel the circumstances surrounding this incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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The Yemeni national security chief has declared that the country is receiving assistance from the US in the crackdown on what he called 'al-Qaeda operatives' in southern Yemen.
Mohamed al-Anisi has told the Saudi Arabian newspaper Okaz that Yemeni forces were cooperating with the US military on attacks against al-Qaeda camps, DPA reported on Saturday.
Yemen's confirmation comes as an ABC report revealed that US President Barack Obama had signed the order for a recent military strike on Yemen in which scores of civilians, including children, were killed.
Upon the orders of Obama, the military warplanes blanketed two camps in the north of the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, on December 17, claiming "an imminent attack against a US asset was being planned," ABC News quoted anonymous administration officials as saying on December 18.
The US has also been throwing its weight behind the central government in San'a by supporting their months-long offensive against the Houthis in northern Yemen which has resulted in a humanitarian crisis in the region.
Houthi fighters say US fighter jets have in multiple times bombed their region, killing civilians including women and children.
Houthi fighters on Saturday declared that a US fighter jet had carried out multiple airstrikes on the home of a senior official in Yemen's northern province of Sa'ada.
The developments come as international aid agencies and some UN bodies including United Nations Children's Fund and UN High Commissioner for Refugees have voiced concern over the dire condition of the Yemeni civilians who have become the main victims of the conflict in the country.
The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana'a and Houthi fighters. Relative peace had returned to the region until August 11, when the Yemeni army launched a major offensive, dubbed Operation Scorched Earth, against Sa'ada Province.
The government claims that the fighters, who are named after their leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, seek to restore the Shia imamate system, which was overthrown in a 1962 military coup.
The Houthis, however, say they are defending their people's civil rights, which the government has undermined under pressure from Saudi-backed Wahhabi extremists. Shias, who form the clear majority in the north, make up approximately half of Yemen's overall population.
The United Nations, which according to its charter is set up "to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace," has failed to adopt any concrete measures to help end the bloody war.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Maghrebia] A former Touareg rebel leader is participating in talks to obtain the release of 3 Spanish humanitarian aid workers kidnapped in Mauritania last month by al-Qaeda terrorists, ANI reported on Sunday (December 27th). Iyad Haj is now Mali Consul in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In 2003, he helped obtain the release of more than 30 foreign hostages held in the western desert of northern Mali, the Nouakchott daily noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday called on Egypt to stop its construction of a steel wall along its border with the Gaza Strip as it could obstruct tunnels which provide a lifeline for the enclave, blockaded by Cairo and Israel.
Nasrallah told a crowd of tens of thousands of Lebanese Shiite Muslim marking the Ashura religious ceremony that Egypt should be condemned if it does not halt the wall building.
Last year Nasrallah accused Egypt of complicity with Israel in its siege of the Gaza strip.
"In addition to the siege there has been news about (building) a steel wall..to terminate the thin veins which are giving some life and some hope to Gaza," he said.
"We call on the government in Egypt and the leadership to stop the wall and flooding the tunnels and to end the siege otherwise it should be condemned by all Arabs and the Muslims," he said.
Egyptian officials have said steel tubes were being placed at several points along the 14-km (8-mile)-long border, but they did not specify their purpose.
Palestinians fear a steel barrier, deep underground, would limit or end their lifeline through hundreds of tunnels operating in an attempt to break a three-year-old Israeli-led blockade.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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#1
"Palestinians fear a steel barrier, deep underground, would limit or end their lifeline through hundreds of tunnels operating in an attempt to break a three-year-old Israeli-led blockade."
Yeah, that means they might have to act like rational human beings and actually come to an agreement rather than using the Egyptian border as an enabling mechanism of their idiotic "government".
And who does Nasrallah think he is to tell Egypt what to do?
#3
Like Nasrallah can threaten Egypt with "Dire Revenge"? yeah?
OR he can make it profitable for the Egyptians to the tune of how much, did you say?
No?
Well, where does that leave Nasrallah? 'Cause they aint gonna do it out of love and respect, I can tell'ya.
Nasrallah better figure out a way to blow the Sphinx or he is just sh9t outa luck.
You havent BEEN ignored until you dont tip an Egyptian toilet attendant.And what can you threaten an Egyptian toilet attendant WITH? There just isnt anything lower he can be pushed back to doing, now is there?
Nasrallah is just going to have to get a big bottle of Lysol and a wire brush and do it himself.
#5
I thought Israel captured Gaza and the Sinai from Egypt back during one of their wars, and subsequently returned both by treaty, so I can actually see Nasrallah's point (not that I care) - Gaza is part of Egypt so why should it be walled off.
#6
Gaza is part of Egypt so why should it be walled off
Um, Glenmore, Israel TRIED to give it back by the 'gypies said no thanks. Think of those Middle Age sieges where one sid was slinging diseased animals over the wall. When the defenders won, do you think that the attackers took those diseased carcases back??????
That would be a big NO! Now just equate Gaza with a diseased carcase.......................
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday called on Egypt to stop building a steel wall along the Gaza border that could obstruct smuggling tunnels which provide a lifeline for the blockaded enclave. maybe Egypt is really building it, no Arab country has condemned Egypt yet, neither has Iran
Nasrallah told a crowd of tens of thousands of Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim marking the Ashura religious ceremony he spoke via a jumbotron set up for such events
that Egypt should be condemned if it does not stop building the wall.
Tensions between Egypt, a predominantly Sunni country, and Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group backed by Iran, have been running high since last year when Nasrallah accused Cairo of complicity with Israel in its siege of the Gaza strip.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/28/2009
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Hamas Prime Minister has called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to move towards putting an end to the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip.
They're beginning to squeal pretty loudly. I think the Egyptians are hurting them badly.
On the first anniversary of Israel's three-week war on the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh said Palestinians expect their "Arab brothers" to reduce the suffering of Gazans, who "live in the largest prison in the history of modern time."
The premier called on Cairo to open the Rafah border crossing and stop the construction of an underground steel wall along the border with the Gaza Strip. Haniyeh went on to say that the "strategic relations" between Egypt and the movement, makes Cairo responsible to put an end to the Israeli occupation of the territory.
"The [Israeli] occupation is the main reason behind the suffering of our people," he added.
The Gaza Strip has been under Israeli siege sine Hamas took power in the sliver in June 2007. Egyptian authorities kept Rafah border crossing -- Gaza's only crossing that bypasses Israel -- closed during the Gaza War.
Cairo is now building an underground wall, which has destroyed many tunnels along the border that have served as a crucial lifeline since Israel sealed off the strip from almost all vital supplies three years ago. The wall will be 9 to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) long, and will go as deep as 20 to 30 meters into the ground.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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Two men thought to have been acting suspicious aboard a flight bound for Phoenix were detained and questioned by federal anti-terrorism authorities before they were released, the FBI said Sunday.
Transportation Security Administration officials said passengers aboard U.S. Airways Flight 192 from Orlando, Fla., on Saturday night reported that two men, described as Middle Eastern, were acting strangely and talking loudly to each other in a foreign language.
A nearby passenger also observed one of men watching what appeared to be footage of a suicide bombing, but was actually a scene from the 2007 movie "The Kingdom." The man also got up from his seat while the seat belt warning sign was still lit, FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson said.
"The totality of those three occurrences led this passenger to believe this was suspicious," he said.
The flight crew called for law enforcement and TSA officers to meet them when the plane landed at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport at about 8 p.m. Authorities said the two men were met by Phoenix police and TSA officials at the flight's airport gate and later interviewed by FBI agents.
Nothing dangerous was found during a search of the plane and passengers' luggage, police said. The men were released after questioning and allowed to continue on to California, Phoenix Johnson said.
#1
"The Kingdom," (2007) From Wikipedia: The film is fictional, but inspired by bombings at the Riyadh compound on May 12, 2003 and the Khobar housing complex on June 26, 1996 in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The story follows a team of FBI agents who investigate the bombing of a foreign-workers facility in Saudi Arabia.
...During a softball game at an American oil company housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, al-Qaeda terrorists set off a bomb, killing many Americans and Saudis in the process. The terrorists impersonate members of the Saudi State Police. While one team hijacks a car and shoots up residents of the area, another runs out onto the softball diamond, pretending to aid the Americans, but then reveals that he is a suicide bomber and blows himself up, killing everyone near him.
[Dawn] A blast in northeastern Iraq killed five people Sunday in a crowd of pilgrims who had gathered for the most important Shia religious observance of the year, authorities said.
It was the latest in a string of attacks targeting Shias during the 10 days of religious ceremonies that reached their high point Sunday. The blast in the town of Tuz Khormato wounded 15 people, police and medical officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.
Sunday's commemorations marked the climax of Ashoura, the yearly mourning period in which Shia Muslims remember the 7th Century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein, in a battle in the central city of Karbala.
Pilgrims among the hundreds of thousands traveling to the holy city and others preparing for commemorations elsewhere in Iraq over the past week have come under repeated attack by insurgents seeking to re-ignite sectarian violence that brought the country to the brink of civil war two years ago. Dozens have been killed and more than 150 injured.
Ashura processions, when men beat themselves with swords and chains to demonstrate their grief, were banned under former dictator Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime. Publicly marking the holiday -- despite the threat of attacks -- has become a demonstration of strength for Iraq's majority Shias.
The Iraqi government has flooded the area in and around Karbala with 25,000 extra security personnel. The government is eager to demonstrate that the withdrawal of American forces will not leave a security vacuum for the insurgents to exploit.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/28/2009
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Top|| File under: Islamic State of Iraq
US President Barack Obama has ordered a review of air security after a Nigerian man was charged with trying to blow up a transatlantic jet on Christmas Day. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Mr Obama wanted to know how a man carrying explosives had managed to board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Mr Gibbs told ABC News the system of watch-lists used by US government agencies would be examined, after it emerged that the Christmas Day suspect was listed and known to officials. A US record for 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was created last month.
The US government uses three watch-lists, which become shorter as risk increases. They include one with some 550,000 names on it, a "selectee" list with 18,000 people within the higher-risk category, and a "no-fly" list with 4,000 names of people who are not allowed to board planes. Mr Gibbs said the number of people on the watch-list was "a huge number".
"The president has asked that a review be undertaken to ensure that any information gets to where it needs to go, to the people making the decisions. The president wants to review some of these procedures and see if they need to be updated," he said.
Mr Gibbs said "air detection capabilities" would also be examined as part of the review.
"The president has asked the Department of Homeland Security to answer the - quite frankly - the very real question about how somebody with something as dangerous as PETN could have gotten onto a plane in Amsterdam."
Nigerian authorities, who on Sunday pledged to co-operate with the US investigation, said all passengers passing through the country's 22 airports would be screened. Wealthy or influential people and their families are often allowed to skip checks, media reports say.
Speaking to ABC New, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said there was no immediate indication that Mr Abdulmutallab was part of a broader terror plot, but that the investigation was continuing.
#1
I don't know about the rest of you but I would GLADLY submit to a body scan if it means I can get up and go to the bathroom if I need to.
Telling someone that they may not use the restroon for an HOUR prior to landing is just plain NUTS. What if you are delayed in those last few minutes and it turns into two hours? What if your pilots get in an heated discussion and don't realize where they are until you are half way to Albuquerque?
Walk me through the body scanner and allow me to pee if I need to, please. Only keep people in their seats if you are prepared to provide them with diapers before the flight.
#2
I was flying in and out of Reagan back in the day when they did this for that airport. It was a) not a lot of fun; and b) was ignored shortly after.
Yemeni Shiite rebels are willing to withdraw from Saudi territory in exchange for an end to cross-border attacks by the Saudi military, a rebel spokesman said on Wednesday. "We are prepared to withdraw from sites if ... Saudi Arabia does not attack any one of us from its territory," said the rebel spokesman, Mohammad Abdel-Salam.
On Tuesday, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan gave Yemeni rebels, who are known as Houthis, the name of their leader, 24 hours to withdraw from the border village of Al-Jabiri.
"They have 24 hours to surrender, or we will destroy them," he said.
The rebels mocked the ultimatum in a statement on their website late on Tuesday, asking why Saudi forces had not already moved against the village. "The question is: what have you been doing these past days?" the statement said.
The rebels' spokesman said their key grievance against Saudi Arabia was the kingdom's decision to allow the Yemeni army to use its territory against their positions, a charge that Riyadh denies.
"We believe that the essence of the problem with Saudi Arabia is not land or borders, for we faced Yemeni aggression from Saudi Arabia," Salam said.
"We entered Saudi territory in response to Saudi aggression against Yemen, by its air force and through ground attacks in Saada [province]," he added. "All we ask for is good neighborly relations."
Fighting between Saudi forces and the rebels kicked off on November 3, when the kingdom accused the rebels of killing a border guard and occupying two villages in its territory.
Saudi jets began bombing rebel positions in the area the following day.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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#1
The terms are Unconditional Surrender, I propose to move on your works immediately.
#2
Yemeni rebels say they'll leave Saudi Arabia if attacks end
First thought, BULLSHIT
Second thought, the same as the first,
a little bit louder and a little bit worse.
(Yes a little bit of plagiarism, so?)
And I hope all had a very merry Christmas.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/28/2009 13:51
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#3
GULF NEWS > YEMEN ASKS REBELS TO LAY DOWN ARMS, after repor death of "Namesake" Houthis Leader vee air strikes; + YEMEN TRAPPED BETWEEN TWO WARS FOR DIFFERENT ENDS [Popular HOUTHIS/HUTHIS in Yemen's North, dedicated anti-US only, No-Popular/Local-Support-In-Yemen AL QAEDA in Yemen's South].
[Haaretz Defense] Israel is prepared to hand the northern section of a divided village on the Lebanon border over to United Nations forces, in order to complete its withdrawal from the country as outlined in Resolution 1701.
Foreign Ministry Director-General Yossi Gal has been holding consultations with representatives of the United Nations Force in Lebanon, to ensure that the peacekeeping force is prepared to take on security of Ghajar.
Residents of the divided village are wary of the withdrawal. Earlier this month, the village staged an all-day demonstration to protest the division in the wake of ongoing international efforts to secure the Israel Defense Forces pullout.
About 500 residents of Ghajar gathered in the town's square then marched toward the street where United Nations peacekepping troops are stationed, handing them a letter calling on UN chief Ban Ki-moon to end Ghajar's division.
The secretary for the town's council, Hussein Khatib, also read a statement in which he stressed that Ghajar was Syrian.
"Ghajar is Syrian, it's people are Syrian and its land is Syrian," Khatib said.
The statement said Ghajar residents reject an Israeli decision to withdraw from the northern part of the town, adding that the town's division was "just like separating the son from his father or the daughter from her mother."
Like the 18,000 Druze in the Golan Heights, Ghajar residents were Syrians when Israel occupied the region.
But unlike the Druze, the villagers - who are members of the Alawite Islamic minority - accepted Israeli nationality when the Golan was annexed in 1981.
Over the years, the village expanded northward. In 2000, when the UN demarcated the border, Ghajar's northern half came under Lebanese control and the other half remained Israeli territory.
Israel retook the Lebanese part in its 2006 war against Hezbollah militants, and has since built a security fence to prevent militants from entering the enclave.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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The clue train makes its regular rounds and for once Al-Guardian takes delivery.
When he was overpowered, Abdulmutallab was said by witnesses to be "screaming about Afghanistan". Yet it would be a too convenient simplification to see this attack as some sort of act of revenge for that war. Abdulmutallab's life history, as it is now emerging, seems to be much more driven by exposure to manichean radical Islamism
Most Guardian readers are going to have to check their dictionaries to discover the meaning of Manichaean. The history of Christianity is not taught as it once was, even in British public schools.
in Nigeria, Britain and, in particular, Yemen. The explosive chemicals and the syringe which he used on NW253 were sewn into his underclothing in Yemen. The methods used in Friday's attempted attack have echoes of a failed Yemeni-based suicide attack on Prince Muhammad, the head of Saudi counterterrorism operations, in August.
The Christmas airliner bomb plot did not take place because of western policy in Afghanistan. The west could withdraw tomorrow from Afghanistan and the continuing danger from jihadist terrorists would still be as great as it is today.
#4
Al-Quardian is willing to concede that we might be allowed to defend ourselves. Maybe they are just beginning to realize the US is the 'leader of the free world.'
[Dawn] A bomb ripped through a government official's house in Kurram agency on Sunday, killing him and his five family members in an attack that police said was in retaliation for military operations targeting Taliban in the area.
The military has stepped up airstrikes in Kurram since many militants fled there following a major ground offensive launched in nearby South Waziristan in mid-October. Both areas are in Pakistan's lawless tribal region near the Afghan border.
Sunday's attack targeted the house of Sarfaraz Siddiqi, a government official in Kurram, said police officer Naeemullah Khan. The dead included Siddiqi, his wife and four children, he said.
"Explosives were planted near the boundary wall of the house and went off early in the morning," local government official Khalid Mumtaz Kundi informed.
Police are investigating how the bomb was planted in Siddiqi's house and whether it was detonated by timer or remote control, added Khan.
The attack appeared to be in retaliation for the military's stepped-up effort to target Taliban militants in the area who have fled from South Waziristan, said Khan. Government officials have also been kidnapped in Kurram, he said.
Many Taliban militants are also believed to have fled to North Waziristan, an area in Pakistan's tribal region dominated by jihadi groups launching cross-border attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Washington has pressed Pakistan to target such groups but has received a reluctant response, as Islamabad has continued to concentrate on militants that pose a domestic threat.
The US has responded by relying more heavily on drone missile strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas, including one on Saturday in the Babar Raghzai area of North Waziristan.
Pakistani intelligence officials on Sunday raised the death toll from the strike to 13 after eight more bodies were pulled from the rubble and two wounded died in the hospital.
The US rarely discusses the covert program but has in the past said it has taken out several top al-Qaeda operatives.
At least one local militant commander was killed in Saturday's strike. But authorities were still trying to determine how many of the others were militants or civilians, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Pakistan publicly opposes the strikes but is believed to secretly aid them.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Viva Palestina aid convoy carrying humanitarian supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip remains stuck in Jordan while the medicines onboard are being spoiled in the desert heat.
The convoy of 250 vehicles is stuck in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba awaiting a resolution to be passed between Viva Palestina organizers and Egyptian authorities that would allow the convoy enter the Gaza Strip, Press TV reported Sunday.
"A new line of communication has been opened between Viva Palestina and the Egyptian government, but it doesn't necessarily mean these vehicles are going anywhere soon," said a Press TV correspondent.
The negotiations aimed at seeking a resolution to allow aid convoys pass through specific crossings to the Gaza Strip.
Israel and Egypt have kept their borders with the Gaza Strip closed since Hamas took power in the strip in June 2007.
Meanwhile, British lawmaker George Galloway, one of the organizers of the Viva Palestina repeated an appeal to Cairo to allow the convoy easy access to Gaza.
"I am appealing to anyone and everyone to help us reach Gaza," said the lawmaker.
"Our medicines are in a race against the time of their expiry date and are spoiling in the desert sun whilst people in Gaza are in dire need for them," Galloway added.
The aid convoy was scheduled to deliver medical, humanitarian and educational aid to Gazans on December 27, marking the first year anniversary of Israel's three-week war against the sliver.
Cairo, however, blocked the convoy on Thursday from entering its borders at Nuweiba, saying the vehicles had to enter through the Mediterranean port city of El-Arish.
"We are talking about 250 trucks passing along this critical territory [the Israeli-Egyptian border] -- it is technically so difficult to allow," Al-Jazeera quoted Maged Botros, a member of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party as saying.
He claimed that Cairo has 'every right' to specify the port through which Viva Palestina can enter its territory.
Members of the convoy, however, told Al-Jazeera's website that travelling through the Suez Canal was not a viable option, as passengers are not allowed to go with cargo ships and that the port of El-Arish is too shallow to take the size of ship needed to transport the aid.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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#1
Galloway is desperate. And now the pharmaceuticals are cooking off in the trucks.
And he is dealing with Arabs ( buy or blow me ) which must be ever so much fun. And pissing beside the truck in the gritty dawn and sitting in the heat and eating...what IS this stuff.
[Dawn] A suicide bomb attack outside a Imambargah in Pakistani-administered Kashmir killed at least five people as the faithful commemorated Ashura late Sunday, an official said.
The attack in Muzaffarabad came after Pakistan put tens of thousands of security forces on alert, fearing sectarian clashes and militant attacks as millions of Shias marked the seventh-century killing of Imam Hussein.
'It was a suicide attack. Five people have died, two of them were civilians and three were policemen,' Chaudhry Imtiaz, deputy commissioner of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, told reporters at the bomb site.
'Eighty-one people were wounded, 10 of them seriously,' he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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#1
What's an Imambargah? A Shia mosque or madrassa equivalent or some kind of shrine?
#2
It's a place where Shi'ites gather specifically to remember and mourn the murder of Muhammad's grandson, i.e. the event from which the Shia-Sunni split came.
[Al Arabiya Latest] From London to Sydney people prepared to stand in solidarity with the Gaza Strip as Sunday marked a year since Israel launched its deadly air, land and sea assault on the impoverished territory.
As politicians failed to bring those responsible for the mass destruction and death of more than 1, 500 Palestinians to justice, advocacy groups urged people to demonstrate to show the residents of Gaza they were not forgotten.
" It is barbaric that the Israeli government can lay siege to 1.5 million people in Gaza without international governments taking action to force Israel to abide by international law "
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Fresh off the Christmas holidays, London-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said it was staging a demonstration outside the British capital's Israeli embassy and said candlelight vigils would be held across the United Kingdom.
"The protest is simply to remind the British public what happened a year ago and to remind people that Israel still operates a deadly siege over Gaza," Betty Hunter, the general secretary of PSC, told Al Arabiya.
Hunter said PSC expected a few hundred people to attend the protest and said the group was calling on the British government to take practical steps to end the suffering of the people of Gaza.
"It is barbaric that the Israeli government can lay siege to 1.5 million people in Gaza without international governments taking action to force Israel to abide by international law," Hunter said.
"The British government must force Israel to end its siege, implement the Goldstone Report, and bring Israeli war criminals to justice."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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#1
Like anyone cares about the vermin in Gaza.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/28/2009 6:46
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#2
Hey , call a Cop.
Merci, Monsieur, Inspector Clouseau, at your service.
The only thing the "International Law" people are gonna force you to do is pull down your fly. And the French Army should be able to handle that. They know all about it.
Gaza, where stupid people live in holes and fart at loud noises.
#4
It is barbaric that the Israeli government can lay siege to 1.5 million people in Gaza without international governments taking action to force Israel to abide by international law," Hunter said.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing". So how come there's nobody to tell you to zip up, or feel the back of his hand, Betty?
[Iran Press TV Latest] Twenty-five US states are running out of federal funds to pay unemployment benefits to jobless Americans.
According to The Washington Post, currently 25 states have been forced to borrow USD 25 billion from the federal government to keep their unemployed a float. The Department of Labor estimates that by 2011 some 40 states will have run out of employment money and will be in need of borrowing USD 90 billion from the federal government.
State authorities currently have two options: Raising taxes or shrinking aid payments.
However, government consultant Leonard Simon says the federal government must create jobs at the state level. "It is surprising to see how wide spread it is" he said.
Meei Child is an unemployed citizen, since nine months ago, has been living off of unemployment benefits from the government which ends in March. "There is a lot of frustration and anxiety with that," Child told Press TV.
She is one of more than 15 million jobless Americans, who depend on their unemployment checks that average about USD 300 per week.
The White House recently taken measures that it hopes would create employment opportunities and Infrastructure revitalization, while providing USD 41 billion for unemployment benefits.
Addressing the measure US President Barack Obama said that "behind these statistics are people's lives, their capacity to do right by their families. It speaks to an urgent need to accelerate job growth in a short term while laying a new foundation for lasting economic growth."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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#1
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > GOLD BARS IN FORT KNOX ARE FAKE [dense gold-plated tungsten cores, NOT Gold per se]???
#3
There are two ways around this. Either act quickly, and have States take over abandoned housing, low cost leasing it, with equity, to unemployed families, then at the State level, set up minimum wage employment projects for the home dwellers. Basically a giant temp agency, so they will have a little income when the unemployment runs out.
Or, if everybody continues to screw around, to build pre-fab Obamavilles, at considerably better quality than if the unemployed have to build them themselves.
#4
I don't think the economy will grow again until businesses are confident the Iranian situation is over and we won't have an oil spike that will leave them all overextended. Nobody trusts Obama in a crisis so they play the waiting game.
#5
Minimum wage doing what, Moose? The reason the houses were abandoned is because the jobs were shipped overseas in the first place.
Posted by: ed ||
12/28/2009 12:10
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#6
Repairing roads and bridges, staffing libraries and community centers, maintaining public parks, teaching literacy ... there's a lot that has been neglected in this country for a decade or more that could use some attention.
#7
The problem with that, lotp, is that everyone of those activities will be controlled by SEIU. Now, what was that minimum wage again? $20, $30 / hr???
#8
The problem with that is the massive expenditures will force local governments into bankruptcy even sooner. Then no budget even for maintaining what the money was blown on.
The problem will only be solved when taxpaying jobs are reintroduced into the community. For the majority of the people that means manufacturing and all the jobs are grow to support it. And that will require restructuring governmental trade policy.
Posted by: ed ||
12/28/2009 13:09
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#9
We need to provide important jobs and make them pay a living wage - stuff like reading poetry in coffee shops or interviewing prostitutes for psychological research, or...
Or we could let them pick and sort garbage at the dumps for whatever useful articles they may glean.
Different places have diffrent ways of dealing with unemployment.
#10
During the great depression many of those on the dole were asked to contribute things of value via the public works program. Not ideal and certainly not taxpaying jobs ... but that welfare expenditure translated into national parks and infrastructure that persist today - not to mention the dignity and value of working for what one receives. Given that handouts WILL be given I'd rather they be exchanged for work of value to the community.
SEIU's indeed a problem and will be until Obama figures out their support is too costly for him, at which point he'll ditch them in deniable ways.
#11
lotp, do you really think that Zero could figure out that his support of SEIU is too costly? I can't imagine this ever occurring if he is PotUS for 10 more terms (which is his wish). He won't ditch them anymore than he would ditch ACORN (yes, I know they're basically the same) or socialism.
[Straits Times] THE Philippine military on Sunday accused the country's communist guerrillas of burning a school to mark their 41st anniversary during a government ceasefire.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner assailed the communist New People's Army (NPA) for burning a high school building in Catanauan town, east of the Philippine capital before dawn on Saturday.
The attack came even though the government had called a Christmas ceasefire against the NPA lasting from December 24 to 26.
'We denounce this attack by the NPA. It only goes to show that they are really anti-development, anti-progress. They will even burn down a school,' he said.
The communist insurgents had called a similar ceasefire but only lasting from December 24 to 25, Mr Brawner said. He dismissed the significance of the NPA attack, saying 'they are just trying to project strength but actually they are already a spent force.'
The military has said that the NPA's manpower has fallen from a peak of more than 26,000 in early 1987, to below 5,000. Military officials are optimistic the group can be neutralised by 2010.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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Top|| File under: Commies
#1
I recall students (and I use the term loosely) setting off fire alarms in my school (in order to delay/avoid taking an exam, usually), but they never went so far as to actually burn the place down.
#2
The military has said that the NPA's manpower has fallen from a peak of more than 26,000 in early 1987, to below 5,000
Many of those who left the NPA went the route that other communists in other countries did, and entered academia or the government (ask Gloria about the latter...).
#5
COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG > CCP [Communist Party of the Philippines] WANTS TO INCREASE GUERILLA FRONTS TO 180 [from curr tote of 120]. "Guerilla front" is defined as a local area of operation by the NEW PEOPLE'S ARMY, the armed wing of the CPP.
#6
WORLD NEWS > MALAYSIA INQUIRER > [Philippines]REDS SEEK ALLIANCE WITH SEPARATISTS. Commie CPP joining wid Islamic MILF, etc. in joint dedic effort. e.g. sharing of arms, information, political activism, to overthrow the corrupt ruling system of the Philippines.
ARTIC > CPP-NPA operates in
* 120-130 guerilla fronts
* 70+ Provinces
* 800+ Municipalities
* 10,000+ fighters
* SAME > RISING HUNDER A MERE PERCEPTION: PALACE [Malacanang Palace = Phil Govt.]. Tri-Annual Report claims rise to new 10-year high of 23.7% = 4.3Milyuhn Philippine Households. Malacanang claims data is misleading becuz the report is not done every quarter or per annum.
* SAME > GUAM JOBS ON HOLD FOR FILIPINOS [US-Japan row over Futenma MCAS + USMC Reloc to Guam]. Few iff any Guam jobs next year for Fils depending on US-Japan resolution or outcome.
While al-Qaedas structure may have been shaken it has not been destroyed and it is known for its resilience and reinvention. More significantly, its ideology of intolerance and suicidal violence spreads easily via the internet and is embedded in sections of the British Muslim population, notably on many university campuses.
The ideology is today more potent than the organisation and there are still a significant number of people in Britain who want to put it into practice here or overseas. Al-Qaeda and its mindset remain a danger.
#1
Seen this before - Clinton treated Al-Qaeda attackes - the '93 WTC bombing, the Khobar Towers, the USS Cole, the Bojinka plot, the embassy bombings as problems for law enforcement. And that led up to 9/11.
Prior to 9/11, that might be excused as naïveté (though I'd call it stupidity). Post 9/11, it smacks of criminal negligence.
#2
The article's headline reads: Our false sense of security should end here: al-Qaeda never went away
--- What false sense of security? Every morning since 9/11 I turn on the TV to see if there are any banner headlines running of another atrocity. If I am out in the boonies as I was on 7/7, I tune my satellite radio to the news channels.
[Maghrebia] A roadside bomb explosion killed one Algerian soldier and injured two civilians on Friday (December 25th) near Tizi-Ouzou, Tout sur l'Algerie reported. The remotely-detonated blast targeted a National Army truck convoy in the village of Taboudoucht. The military trucks were reportedly part of an anti-terrorist operation in the Kabylie region.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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Security sources believe that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, 23, may have developed links with other extremists during the three years he spent studying at University College London.
The Security Service is concerned that the son of a respected Nigerian banker was "off the radar" while living in Britain from 2005 to 2008 on a student visa.
Little more than a year later he went on to attempt a terrorist attack after being trained by al-Qaeda. Officers are trying to track his movements and activities while in the country amid suspicions that he may not have acted alone.
Concerns were raised about the student visa system that allowed Mutallab to stay in Britain for three years. Whitehall officials have expressed fears previously that extremists were exploiting lax rules.
They suspect that he had planned to launch the attack from Britain but was stopped after being refused a student visa earlier this year to study at a college that was judged to have been bogus.
The MI5 investigation came as:
President Barack Obama ordered a review of US screening measures after it emerged that Mutallab was put on a "watch list" of terrorist suspects in November but was not included on a "no-fly" list that would have stopped him from flying into the US.
Tens of thousands of air passengers in Britain faced lengthy delays and confusion following the introduction of increased security on flights to the US.
Concerns were raised about the student visa system that allowed Mutallab to stay in Britain for three years. Whitehall officials have expressed fears previously that extremists were exploiting lax rules.
MI5 and the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command have drafted in extra staff to search for any links Mutallab may have to radicals. Sources said it was not Britain that supplied the information that led to Mutallab being put on the US "watch list".
"We have not come up with anything but we are now going back through our work to see if he may have been on the periphery of another group or trying to contact radicals in this country," said one.
"We need to know what he was doing in the UK and whether he was just a student. There may be some fragment that we come across that sheds some light on that."
Mutallabs attack raises questions about the operations of intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic. British security officers will need to explain why they remained unaware of a would-be terrorist living in London for three years.
Earlier this year, Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, suggested that al-Qaeda cells in Britain were being forced to "keep their heads down" due to the success of the services operations.
The attempted atrocity will also prompt concerns in the US that Britain is increasingly being used as a base by Islamic extremists planning attacks overseas.
In Washington, US officials are already under pressure to explain why the threat posed by Mutallab was not taken more seriously and why alarm bells did not ring when he paid for his ticket in cash and did not check in any luggage.
Embassy officials in Nigeria, who had been warned of Mutallabs behaviour by his father, were accused of not wording their warning more strongly. Janet Napolitano, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, said "there had never been any additional information supplied that would move him to a secondary list".
On Sunday, as US prosecutors charged Mutallab with attempting to blow up the Northwest Airlines Airbus, fresh details emerged of the plot.
He has told the FBI that al-Qaeda provided the bomb materials and training after he made contact with a cell in Yemen. He bought a ticket for almost $3,000 and, carrying a US visa issued in London last year, returned to Nigeria on Dec 24.
He flew to Schipol airport in Amsterdam and transferred to the flight to Detroit.
Mr Obama asked for a review of security and screening procedures after it emerged that Mutallab used explosive materials similar to those used in December, 2001, by Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber.
His device included PETN, one of the ingredients of the plastic explosive Semtex, but got through security in Nigeria and Holland. He had allegedly hidden the powder in a condom strapped to his inner thigh along with a syringe of liquid to mix with it.
It is thought that he assembled the device in the lavatory after complaining to fellow passengers about a stomach upset. It ignited but did not explode, merely causing a small fire that was extinguished by the crew as other passengers leapt on Mutallab.
Mutallab lived with relatives in a West End apartment while studying at UCL but cut off ties with his family after he graduated. He moved to the Middle East and then to Yemen, sending a text message last August warning them that they may not see him for a number of years.
#1
It's reported that Mutallab asked guidance from his Imam about going to his high school prom, but I guess he didn't see fit to ask for guidance about killing 300 people (or maybe he did).
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
12/28/2009 15:52
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#2
ION BHARAT RAKSHAK > [David Headley] HEADLEY'S GIRLFRIEND CROSSED WAGAH INTO INDIA [allegedly assisted Headley in personal local-area Recce for 26/11 Terror Operations back in May-June 2008].
* INDIAN EXPRESS > US MILITANTS ["Jihad 5/US Jihadists/Jihad Cool"] OFFERED TO HELP TALIBAN IN ATTACKS, starting wid strike agz CHASHMA NucPlant, Pakistan.
#3
Didn't I see that Mutallub was in the US in June 2008, listing a Houston address on the 'Burg the other day? Any more info on this?
Nigerian banking and oilfield ties could prove very interesting.
Posted by: Lumpy in NY ||
12/28/2009 19:40
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Two years down the road since Benazir Bhutto's tragic assassination in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, her murder mystery remains unresolved despite President Zardari's significant public statements like "she talks about her murderers from her grave" and that "I know her assassins and will reveal their identity at the right time".
Addressing his first press conference after the murder, Asif Zardari made public Bhutto's October, 20 2007 email to Wolf Blitzer, a staffer of the CNN which mentioned the name of her would-be assassin. "The said e-mail should be treated as Bhutto's dying declaration. She talks about her murderers from her grave and it is up to the world to listen to the echoes", Zardari said.
Bhutto wrote to Wolf Blitzer in her e-mail: "If it is God's will, nothing will happen to me. However, if anything happened to me, I would hold Pervez Musharraf responsible". Blitzer received the e-mail on October 26 from Mark Siegel, a friend and long-time Washington spokesman for Benazir Bhutto. That was eight days after she narrowly escaped an attempt on her life in Karachi. Bhutto wrote to Wolf: "I have been made to feel insecure by Musharraf's minions".
On October 19, 2007, a day after the Karsaz suicide bombing on her welcome procession, Benazir disclosed at a press conference that she had informed Musharraf in a confidential letter, written on 16 October, 2007 that three senior officials of his government were planning to assassinate her upon her return. "However, I had further made it clear to Musharraf that I won't blame (the) Taliban or al-Qaeda if I am attacked, but I will name my enemies in the Pakistani military establishment," she told journalists. Although Benazir did not publicly name the three persons, PPP circles later told the media that they were the then director general Intelligence Bureau, Brigadier (retd) Ejaz Hussain Shah, chief minister Punjab Pervaiz Elahi and chief minister Sindh Arbab Ghulam Rahim. While concluding the letter, she reportedly asserted that her life was in great danger, particularly from Ejaz Shah.
Significantly, on December 30, 2007, two days after Benazir's murder, a visibly furious Asif Zardari had accused [at a press conference in Naudero] the PML-Q leadership of his wife's murder besides describing the party as "Qatil League". Hitting back in the same tone the same evening (on December 30, 2007), Pervaiz Elahi had charged Zardari for Bhutto's murder, saying: "Who has benefited the most from the assassination? Zardari, and only Zardari. Check the authenticity of Benazir's will. Find out the amount for which she was insured." By that time, Zardari had already been elected as the Co-chairman of the PPP.
On October 18, 2008, on the first anniversary of the terrorist attack made on Bhutto's procession, the Karachi Police finally lodged a second FIR of the Karsaz attacks on the basis of her letter, naming three persons as those who could be involved in her assassination. National newspapers reported on October 20, 2008 that those named in the second were Pervez Elahi, Ejaz Shah and Hameed Gul. Confirming the lodging of the second FIR, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah said Bhutto's own attempts to lodge a second FIR of the Karsaz tragedy were foiled by the PML-Q government. The same day, Qaim Ali Shah declared in Karachi that the three persons nominated by Benazir Bhutto would be arrested soon for interrogations.
However, no such arrests were made. Ten days later, Pervaiz Elahi claimed in an exclusive interview with The News on November 1, 2008 that the Presidency had stopped the Sindh government from implicating him in the Benazir murder case. Elahi revealed that following the registration of a second FIR in the Karsaz case, he and his first cousin Ch Shujaat Hussain went to see Asif Zardari's close aide, Qayyum Soomro, who had delivered their message to the president. "After our meeting with Soomro during which we protested on the issue, [Sindh Home Minister] Dr Zulfiqar Mirza was told by the Presidency not to talk about the case any more". Elahi's claim eventually proved to be true given the fact that after the initial outburst against the PML-Q leaders, not only Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah fell silent but the rest of the PPP leaders also adopted a mysterious mum.
But almost two months later, while speaking on the first anniversary of Bhutto, President Zardari claimed on December 27, 2008 that he knew her killers and would reveal their identity at the right time. Six months later, on July 6, 2009, Zardari blamed Musharraf for the Bhutto murder, saying she died by a bullet and not by the bomb that a Scotland Yard report identified as the cause. "I wish Musharraf had looked after my wife as I can look after myself," Asif Zardari told British newspaper The Telegraph in an interview.
Almost five weeks later, on September 15, Zardari conceded at a dinner meeting with senior newsmen that foreign powers with interest in the South Asian region had guaranteed a safe exit to his predecessor, and he too had been party to the deal that was struck at the time of Musharraf's resignation in 2008. A belated denial by the presidential spokesman came two days later.
In November 2009, Musharraf was finally made to appear before the UN inquiry commission, taking a U-turn on his earlier stance that any outside agency has no legal ground to question him. Following his refusal to be interviewed, the UN commission had actually warned Musharraf his name would be passed on to the UN Secretary General as the one not cooperating with the commission. He was finally interviewed by the UN commission in Philadelphia on October 27, 2009.
On December 10, 2009, the Lahore High Court decided to precede ex-parte against Musharraf on a petition seeking registration of a criminal case against him and others for allegedly plotting the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. On 14 December 2008, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that he was extending the mandate of the UN commission investigating the Bhutto murder by another three months as sought by its chairman who wanted more time to complete its work. The commission was mandated to submit its report to the UN secretary general by 31 December 2009 amidst strong apprehensions that like all infamous assassination cases the people of Pakistan have witnessed, the mastermind in the Bhutto murder case will too remain a shadowy figure on whose role people will only speculate about in whispers.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
They want to be able to accuse Musharaff of doing it without having to take responsibility for accusing Musharaff of doing it. Just like all the truthers here in the US who say they're just "asking questions."
#2
It seems clear that with Benzir Bhutto being, essentially, anathema to the Taliban that Musharraf would be working against himself to have anything to do with planning her death. Sitting back and doing nothing to help or hinder would benefit him splendidly.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
12/28/2009 14:29
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#3
TOPIX > TALIBAN KILLED BENAZIR BHUTTO WITH MUSHARRAF'S CONSENT?
D *** NG IT, MORIARITY, FAMILY BEACH BARBECUES - WHY DO THEY HATE US!
Britain yesterday marked the first anniversary of Israel's military onslaught on Gaza by announcing a £50m aid package for Palestinians, including backing for what it called "a drive against extremism" among the territory's young people.
They're sponsoring new textbooks?
The move came 24 hours after Israeli forces killed six Palestinians -- three of them Gaza civilians -- in one of the conflict's deadliest days since the three-week offensive that began with massive aerial bombing of Hamas targets a year ago yesterday.
Yesterday Hamas marked the anniversary of the conflict with protests in the Gaza city of Jebaliya, close to where senior militant leader Nizar Rayyan was killed by an Israeli bomb. But with only 3,000 loyalists in attendance, according to AP, most residents ignored calls to show solidarity with their leadership, many expressing their dissatisfaction with Gaza's economic collapse by staying at home.
The British aid is in part intended to alleviate that crisis. The bulk of the money will go to budget support for the moderate-led Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah. But £7m has been earmarked to help war-stricken Gazans in the winter. Another £5m will pay for 562 teachers in UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) schools in the area.
John Ging, UNRWA's Gaza operation director, has indicated one of the biggest challenges faced by UNRWA schools for 260,000 refugee children in Gaza is tackling extremism fuelled by the winter offensive and Israel's continued siege. Mr Ging, who welcomed the British package, has said an end to the blockade would be a major help in countering radicalism among Gaza's young.
Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, said yesterday: "Better education in Gaza, free from extremist influences, is key to building the region's future." Mr Alexander, one of only a handful of EU ministers to have visited Gaza in the last two years, called on Israel to lift the embargo imposed after the breakdown of the Hamas-Fatah coalition and Hamas's seizure by force of full control of the Strip in June 2007. He said conditions were "dire" with "large numbers" of children lacking shelter, access to water and a balanced diet.
The Israeli military said that three Palestinians-associated with Fatah's military wing-whom it killed in Nablus early on Saturday were responsible for the fatal shooting earlier in the week of a rabbi who lives in the northern West Bank Jewish settlement of Shavei Shomron. The Western-backed PA has protested at the military's incursion which has put strains on its security accords with Israel.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/28/2009 14:38
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#2
Most fun thing I ever did with paper airplanes was staple firecrackers into their center of gravity, light the fuse & let them fly from a 3rd floor window.
The lord chancellor, Jack Straw, is to order a comprehensive review of Britain's much-criticised libel laws, the Ministry of Justice revealed today.
Straw has previously promised to act against libel tourism, fearing Britain's restrictive libel laws are being exploited by plaintiffs with few real links to the UK.
But the justice ministry said the review, to be conducted by academics, lawyers and newspaper editors, will go much further. The formal terms of reference will be to "consider whether the law of libel, including the law relating to libel tourism, in England and Wales needs reform, and if so to make recommendations as to solutions".
The review will look at whether a specialist libel tribunal should be established to resolve defamation cases out of court. The issue of whether academics and scientists can defend their remarks on the basis of fair comment or in the public interest will also be examined. The wide terms of reference will also allow the working party to look into whether the burden of proof should be shifted from defendant to plaintiff, as is the case in countries such as the US.
COPS fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners. The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen. It was there London-educated Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, prepared for his Christmas Day bid to blow up a US jet.
The British extremists in Yemen are in their early 20s and from Bradford, Luton and Leytonstone, East London. They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike.
A Scotland Yard source said: "The great fear is Abdulmutallab is the first of many ready to attack planes and kill tens of thousands. We know there are four or five radicalised British Muslim cells in the Yemen. They are due back within months when they will be under constant surveillance."
The 25 suspects, of Pakistani and Somali descent, were radicalised in UK mosques. Some had been to university and studied engineering or computer sciences. Others were former street gang members.
Special Branch monitored them as they flew to Yemen, in the Middle East, from British airports in the spring and summer. In almost every case, their tickets were paid for in cash and bought less than a week before travel.
The source added: "Imams would have promised them rewards in heaven for becoming suicide bombers prepared to kill Westerners."
PM Gordon Brown and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson were being briefed.
The warnings came as another Nigerian was last night held in Detroit on the same flight attacked on Christmas Day. It later emerged the man had fallen ill.
#1
Its about time we throw these unemployed scum and their families who dont notify the authorities back to the islamic shitholes they come from usually Pakistan and Somalia in the case of UK!
As we say farewell to this rather dismal decade, which opened with Millennial celebrations of a New World Order and The End of History, and has been thoroughly disfigured by terrorism, economic stupidity, inept political leadership and untrammeled vulgarity of public tastes, I dare to hope for somewhat better things (for the world as well as my family and self).
Readers will have noticed that Copenhagen was about as complete a mockery as was forecast, here and elsewhere. Thousands of protesters, festooned with banners about the water level in Tuvalu, and dressed as polar bears and seals, inanely screaming at the earnest Global Coolers, had to be restrained by the gentle Danish police.
Most of the world's most odious leaders were present, demanding trillions of dollars to assist them in green development. Zimbabwe's infamous Robert Mugabe, who has violated every clause of the Clarence House agreement which conferred independence on Rhodesia, and has terrorized the country and reduced its standard of living by 99%, accused the advanced nations of trying to disguise the baleful effect of their carbon emissions on all mankind behind trivial concerns about the absence of human rights in Zimbabwe.
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, now challenging Fidel Castro ("Papa Castro" to the Trudeau family) as Latin America's shabbiest tyrant, announced the death of capitalism, to the rapacity of which he imputed the impending destruction of the world's environment, as well as the dissipated prosperity of his own oil-rich country which he has master-minded.
The chief spokesman of the aggrieved despots, Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir (whose country's government's cupped hands are dripping with the blood of a million victims of domestic genocide) dismissed a European offer of $11-billion to promote green industrial growth in the Third World as a pittance.
I can't be the only person who wondered if sincere dupes of this nonsense, from the Prince of Wales to Elizabeth May, have the remotest idea of what mayhem they have brought down on the world. At least Al Gore has made a lot of money from it. Indeed, it must be said that this unlikely man has had the greatest revenge of anyone ever wrongfully deprived of the U.S. presidency, except perhaps Richard Nixon. Gore has grown rich, eminent, won a Nobel Prize, completely disrupted the world and turned international relations into a gigantic slap-stick farce. The absence of evidence that global warming is actually occurring, and that human activity affects the world's temperature at all, was scarcely mentioned. The real result, however, is the pledged objective of not permitting the world's temperature to increase more than two centigrade degrees by 2050. Since it has only risen one degree in the last 35 years, and not at all in the last ten, this should be safe enough. The heads of government fellowship will pat itself hydraulically on the head and back, and money will be handed over to the toads of despotism when pigs fly and shrimps sing.
This must be the supreme coruscation of what Malcolm Muggeridge christened the "great liberal death-wish;" a canard about a fraud, invoked to impoverish the world's advanced countries in favour of its most rancid despotisms, which have already squandered and embezzled a trillion dollars of Western aid; all for a nonsensical purpose, solemnly agreed to, and then ignored.
For the first time in the history of the U.S. Presidency, Mr. Obama had to badger a foreign head of government to meet him (China's premier Wen). Last year, shoes were thrown at the U.S. president. This year we had self-abasement before the Japanese Emperor and (unsuccessful) supplication to the Chinese. If this trend continues, by the end of this new decade, the U.S. president will be invited to international meetings as a shoe-shine boy.
The great stars of Copenhagen were the Chinese and the Canadians. The Chinese strutted and gloried as a mighty economic growth story, a super-power presumptive, while leading the G-77, as the under-developed countries now modishly style themselves, out of the conference in protest against the supposed miserliness of the advanced countries. China has staged the greatest act of international pocket-picking in history, beggaring the U.S. by dumping trillions of dollars of cheap goods in it, which the United States bought with money largely borrowed from China. And as it spurned the importunity of the United States at Copenhagen, and basked in the adoration of the Third World, its leaders po-facedly demanding hundreds of billions of dollars to clean its economic growth, while refusing the donors the right to monitor the use of the money.
All Canadians should be proud of Stephen Harper. Of all the leaders of serious countries, he is the most conspicuously skeptical of this great eco-scam. This is Canada's finest foreign policy hour since Mackenzie King supported Charles de Gaulle's takeover of St. Pierre and Miquelon from Vichy at Christmas 1941, against the mindless opposition of the U.S. state department.
The flip-side of this controversy is the emerging U.S. economic miracle, which at this point officially promises increased taxes, faster economic growth, 50% to 100% annual increases in money supply without inflation, for a decade of trillion dollar annual federal budget deficits without seriously raising interest rates, or devaluing the dollar. All 18 wheels will come off this impossible contraption, in all directions of the compass. And all numerate people, including, presumably, the unfathomable Timothy Geithner and the fabulist President whom he serves, know it.
I predict that in a decent interval after his confirmation as Federal Reserve chairman next month or February, Ben Bernanke will announce that the central bank will no longer buy the treasury notes that finance this orgy. The United States cannot drink itself sober. China has now passed on the pleasure of continuing to buy low yield instruments of a country that is doing the necessary to convert its currency into wall paper, if not toilet paper. The Federal Reserve is buying the treasury issues that finance the federal government's deficit-straight additions to the money supply -- the most familiar form of currency debasement and rampaging inflation, from the times of Caligula to Juan Peron and Robert Mugabe.
Obama and Geithner will scream like wounded banshees that Bernanke has betrayed them on how to deal with what they will portray as George W.'s messy leavings, while Bernanke devalues the dollar by about 15%, raises interest rates to about 6% and requires federal government spending cuts of about $500-billion annually, largely from a revisitation of entitlements and some sales and transaction taxes that the Congress will have to agree to in conference as an emergency compromise between the parties. The health care charade of buying individual senators with from $100-million (Christopher Dodd,), to $3-billion (Bill Nelson of Florida -- not Ben Nelson of Nebraska who folded at $100 million) can't slice this Gordian Knot. There will be fewer lawyers and investment bankers in the U.S., and more savers and investors, and if the politicians don't ruin it again, market forces will shape up the U.S. to meet the Chinese challenge. But both job creation and economic growth will be slow in a transitional period.
Good riddance to 2009. Let us all have a splendid 2010.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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#1
um... this is the convicted felon, right? I know he's articulate, but still...
I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.
W. H. Auden
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
12/28/2009 9:37
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beggaring the U.S. by dumping trillions of dollars of cheap goods in it The US has beggared itself.
No decade is that dismal if one has survived it.
[Mail and Globe] Zimbabwe has reassured food giant Nestlé on the safety of its staff after a dispute on buying milk from President Robert Mugabe's farm prompted the firm to suspend operations, a minister said on Friday.
Then I believe them. Of course, I'm gullible...
Industry minister Welshman Ncube said he had met with Nestlé Zimbabwe and national dairy officials who agreed that the milk from Gushungo Dairies, owned by Mugabe's family, should be bought by local processors. "Welshman, dey need to buy deir milk from Genco Pura Dairies! Make them an offer they can't refuse!"
Nestlé in October stopped buying milk from the Mugabe farm, which was seized from white farmers under his controversial land reforms. "For its part, government has given its assurance on the safety of staff and management at both Nestlé Zimbabwe and Gushungo Dairies," Ncube said. "It'd be a terrible t'ing if something happened to your staff and management, wouldn't it? I'm sure Mr. Nestlé would be very unhappy!"
"You wouldn't...?"
"No, no! Cert'nly not! But if some person or persons unknown should...?"
"As a result of those consultations, the parties have collectively reached an understanding to work together in ensuring that milk produced at Gushungo Dairies is absorbed by the local dairy processors." "Okay. Okay. I guess milk's milk. It all tastes the same, after all!"
"Genco Pura Milk only costs a little more!"
Nestlé Zimbabwe chairperson Kumbirai Katsande confirmed having met with Ncube and other government officials. "We met with the government and did receive a letter from government and relayed its contents to the company principals," said Katsande. "Mr. Nestlé! We have a letter for you from Zimbabwe! It was wrapped around a fish!"
"We have responded to the minister's letter," Katsande said, declining to give further details. The Swiss-based food giant, the world's largest, said Zimbabwean government officials and police made an "unannounced visit" to the plant on Saturday, forcing staff to take delivery of a tanker of milk from non-contracted suppliers, apparently from Mugabe's farm.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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[Straits Times] THE Thai military was ready Sunday to begin forcibly repatriating 4,000 ethnic Hmong to communist Laos, despite global protests over a deportation that could 'turn ugly", activists said.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that armed forces had been mobilised for the expulsion on Monday from a camp in northern Phetchabun province, where the asylum-seeking Hmong are being held. 'I have heard from local officials that they expect the Hmong will resist deportation attempts. And that can turn ugly,' HRW Thailand analyst Sunai Phasuk told AFP.
Thailand's Third Army chief Major General Thanongsak Apirakyothin has arrived in Phetchabun to supervise the operation and 'said the army was ready and could start 'cleaning up' the camp anytime,' he added.
The first 'wave of action' to clear the asylum seekers would happen on Sunday night and the deportation would begin on Monday morning, Gen. Sunai said in an earlier email to AFP. 'During that (period), mobile phone (signals) will be jammed to prevent the Hmong from contacting outsiders. More than 100 buses and trucks are put on standby,' he said.
The only aid group assisting the Hmong, the Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees (COERR), was on Sunday refused entry by the army in Khek Noi village, about 12 kilometres from the camps. 'As of this morning their access to the camps was denied but their staff are still waiting,' said Tomoo Hozumi, Thailand representative for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), which supports COERR.
The 4,000 Hmong are seeking asylum based on claims that they face persecution from the Laotian regime for fighting alongside US forces during the Vietnam War. Thailand has promised Laos, which insists the group will be safe after their return, that they would be sent back by the end of the year. But the government refused to confirm on Saturday that any date had been set.
Posted by: Fred ||
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PENTAERYTHRITOL Tetranitrate, or PETN, is a highly explosive, colourless organic compound, related to nitroglycerine.
The deadly substance was used by Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, who failed in an attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001.
Officials said analysis of the remnants of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's device was being carried out by the FBI. It was possible that had the chemical mixture detonated, it might have brought down the aircraft.
Introduced as an explosive by the Germans before World War I, PETN is ''valued for its shattering force and efficiency''. It is the ''least stable of the common military explosives but retains its properties in storage for longer periods than nitroglycerine or cellulose nitrate [nitrocellulose] does'', the Encyclopedia Britannica says.
The white crystalline substance feels powdery to the touch. It is more sensitive to shock or friction than TNT or tetryl, and it is never used alone. It is primarily used in booster and bursting charges of small-calibre ammunition and in detonators.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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#1
sensitive to shock or friction
Doesn't sound like the kind of thing one would want to make underwear out of. Think of the problems with explosive flatulence or with chafing.
An Al-Qaeda operative in Yemen threatened the United States and said "we are carrying a bomb" in a video posted online four days before the botched Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight.
There were videos posted online before Whatsisname Zazi and his Afghan friends were arrested in September, too, as I recall. Al Qaeda has been looking ambitious but ineffective lately, at least as regards attacks in the U.S.: grandiose plans but poor follow through. Were I jihadi-bound, I'd choose another organization...unless I wanted to spend a large piece of my life in an American prison.
The video does not contain any clear evidence that the speaker was anticipating Friday's attempt, but it has attracted scrutiny because of reports that the bombing plot may have originated in Yemen.
The 23-year-old Nigerian man accused in the attack claimed he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives there, U.S. law enforcement officials said, and a key American lawmaker has said there are "strong suggestions" of a Yemen connection.
In a Dec. 21 video, the al-Qaeda operative delivered a eulogy for militants killed in a Yemeni airstrike on a militant training camp four days earlier. The speaker said he had no agenda against Yemeni soldiers, but warned them against cooperating with Americans.
"We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God," the speaker says.
"O soldiers, you should learn that we do not want to fight you, nor do we have an issue with you. We only have an issue with America and its agents, and beware of standing in the ranks of America," he says. "You should not defend these regimes. The soldiers and even Obama cannot put out the light of Islam."
The video was posted on extremist Web sites affiliated with al-Qaeda. The Web sites identified the speaker as Mohammed al-Kalwi, an al-Qaeda activist reportedly killed in another airstrike on Thursday.
See? There is an afterlife!
The video showed the bearded militant, wearing a a headdress and green military-style jacket over a long Arab robe, addressing a group of armed followers as he stood atop a car. The followers repeatedly interrupted the fiery address with calls of "God is great."
IntelCenter, a Virginia-based group that monitors extremist activity, said in a report that it was not certain the speaker knew about the airliner plot ahead of time. It said planning for the botched attack likely took place long ago, but it would be plausible for a member with knowledge of the plot to foreshadow an operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/28/2009
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#1
See also PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > ASIA TIMES ONLINE: AL QAEDA SETS SIGHTS ON PAKISTAN, AND BEYOND. Sources tell Asia Times that AQ has reestablished itself in SOMALIA + YEMEN, desires to disrupt major trade routes around the HORN OF AFRICA, + ultimately to control any and all MUSLIM RESISTANCE MOVEMENTS IN THE REGION.
And AL QAEDA IN LEBANON + TRANSJORDAN > goes to a certain old Saying about how its the "QUIET
ONE(S)" that have to be watched???
#2
Pragmatically, methinks that OSAMA = AL QAEDA, + Radic Islam in general are aware that the USA may try to cutoff or separate Africa's Islamists from those of the Middle East + Persian Gulf, via control of the Arabian Peninsula.
The wisest quote of 2009 came from President Barack Obama, who cut off belligerent Republicans with the reminder: "Elections have consequences."
They surely do. And Americans are paying the consequences of the 2008 election.
The most tangible fallout of the electorate installing single-party rule in Washington is that policy-making has become an ideological exercise, rather than a pragmatic one.
Republicans still represent the views of roughly half of the America people -- on health care, it's more like 60 percent -- and yet the minority party has had no moderating effect on the health care reform packages moving swiftly to passage.
It's a bill written by Democrats and passed by Democrats, with all of the give-and-take taking place between Democrats. The horse-trading is between the middle and the left, instead of between the right and the left.
So instead of a bill that falls close to the middle, Congress will produce one that is well left of center.
The old saw, "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely," applies perfectly to the process we're witnessing in Washington.
Moderate Democrats rose to express concerns about the size and scope of the bill, and held some sway. But because the negotiating was intra-party, it was too easy for the Democratic leadership to win over nettlesome holdouts with payoffs.
In the House, freshmen Democrats elected from conservative districts balked at voting for the most liberal bill to move in more than 40 years. They were bought off with promises of plum committee assignments or bullied into line by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with threats of burial in committee catacombs.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from conservative Louisiana, held out, citing the enormous costs. Ironically, she delivered her vote after getting a promise of $300 million for her pork-laden state.
Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., took up the torch lit by Michigan's Bart Stupak in the House and insisted that the Senate bill ban abortions from public funding. He didn't get his abortion amendment.
But he did win a promise from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to exempt Nebraska from the cost of the mandated Medicaid expansion.
Forty-nine other states will have to eat those costs, along with Nebraska's share. In Michigan, it could total $500 million the state doesn't have.
Send some love to Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, who has joined a handful of his colleagues from other states to challenge the constitutionality of the curious deal.
Reid says this is how legislating works. It is when there's no check on power. Some of the stuff we've seen over the past couple of months would qualify as criminal coercion, vote buying and bribery if it were the private sector writing the checks.
But as Obama pointed out, elections have consequences. So at least for the next year, this Democratic Congress will be able to do whatever it pleases.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Bruised by the health care debate and worried about what 2010 will bring, moderate Senate Democrats are urging the White House to give up now on any effort to pass a cap-and-trade bill next year.
"I am communicating that in every way I know how," says Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of at least half a dozen Democrats who've told the White House or their own leaders that it's time to jettison the centerpiece of their party's plan to curb global warming.
The creation of an economy-wide market for greenhouse gas emissions is as the heart of the climate bill that cleared the House earlier this year. But with the health care fight still raging and the economy still hurting, moderate Democrats have little appetite for another sweeping initiative -- especially another one likely to pass with little or no Republican support.
"We need to deal with the phenomena of global warming, but I think it's very difficult in the kind of economic circumstances we have right now," said Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, who called passage of any economy-wide cap and trade "unlikely."
At a meeting about health care last month, moderates pushed to table climate legislation in favor of a jobs bill that would be an easier sell during the 2010 elections, according to Senate Democratic aides.
"I'd just as soon see that set aside until we work through the economy," said Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). "What we don't want to do is have anything get in the way of working to resolve the problems with the economy."
"Climate change in an election year has very poor prospects," added Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.). "I've told that to the leadership."
At least some in the Democratic leadership appear to be listening. Asked about cap-and-trade last week, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said: "At this point I'd like to see a complete bill but we have to be realistic."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Another useless, needless piece of crap legislation built to destroy the middle class.
#5
As far as I can tell, all the Cap-and-Trade and other allegedly anti Climate Change political efforts have little or nothing to do with Climate Change and everything to do with creating One World Government of economic pseudo-socialism.
#6
Both Health Care Reform and Cap&Trade involve increased taxes, up front & right away, while benefits, if any, are years in the future. That will go over like a load of manure in the punch bowl.
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.
One thing that stands out from the 2008-09 numbers is that Americans are no longer flocking to the resorts of the Sun Belt. Florida's growth was well below the national average, as it was in the previous year, in contrast to its torrid growth over most of the last century.
At the end of 2009 many conservatives will have renewed appreciation for Winston Churchill's admonition: "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result." Conservatives and their fellow citizens were not generally (unless engaged on the battlefield) shot at, but they were bombarded with an avalanche of leftist policy proposals. And yet, as Bill Kristol observes: "The Obama administration (so far) hasn't succeeded in doing too much damage to the American economy. Major parts of American society and the American polity are resisting the allure of a slide into European decadence. The climate change fear-mongers are increasingly discredited, and Copenhagen was a farce."
[Mail and Globe] Zimbabwe has reassured food giant Nestlé on the safety of its staff after a dispute on buying milk from President Robert Mugabe's farm prompted the firm to suspend operations, a minister said on Friday. 
The wisest quote of 2009 came from President Barack Obama, who cut off belligerent Republicans with the reminder: "Elections have consequences." 
