The gambler, John Laws, must be laughing uproariously in his grave to see his acolytes, the Keynesians, in the guise of the Squid, taking over the poker tables firmly convinced that this time things will be different. Laws fiasco led to the French Revolution, what will the Squid fiasco lead to?
The United States and its allies have undertaken a sustained effort since 2008 to develop sea, ground, and air transportation routes to Afghanistan's north, through the territories of the former Soviet Union. This so-called Northern Distribution Network (NDN) now conveys large quantities of non-lethal supplies from Europe to the NATO troops in Afghanistan through Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
There are three different transport routes comprising the NDN that are available to the United States: one leaves Riga and crosses Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan; the second traverses the Caucuses, passing through Georgia and Azerbaijan before crossing the Caspian Sea and then rolling across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; the third route option goes from Riga to Kazakhstan, then through Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
About 70 percent of cargo transiting the NDN enters through Uzbekistan's Hairaton Gate, explaining the increased importance of Uzbekistan in coalition thinking ("Central Asia and the Transition in Afghanistan," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Majority Staff Report, December 19, 2011). But what is often overlooked is that a full 100 percent of goods traveling along the NDN passes through Kazakhstan. All the cargo through each itinerary passes through Kazakhstan in some capacity, by boat, train or road. This is not true of any other country participating in the NDN, yet Kazakhstan's pivotal role in the NDN, which began in January 2010 (EDM, February 24, 2010), draws little attention since working with Astana generates less controversy than cooperating with some of the other governments along the NDN.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/17/2012
19:21 ||
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Sometimes, capturing a Taliban commander requires vast resources and complex operations. Last week in eastern Afghanistan, it required neither.
Mohammad Ashan, a local number three mid-level Taliban commander in Paktika province, strolled toward a police checkpoint in the district of Sar Howza with a wanted poster bearing his own face. He demanded the finder's fee referenced on the poster: $100.
Afghan officials, perplexed by the man's misguided motives, arrested him on the spot. Ashan is suspected of plotting at least two attacks on Afghan security forces. His misdeeds prompted officials to plaster the district with hundreds of so-called "Be on the Lookout" posters emblazoned with his name and likeness.
When U.S. troops went to confirm that Ashan had in fact come forward to claim the finder's fee, they were initially incredulous.
"We asked him, 'Is this you?' Mohammad Ashan answered with an incredible amount of enthusiasm, 'Yes, yes, that's me! Can I get my award now?'" recalled SPC Matthew Baker.
A biometric scan confirmed that the man in Afghan custody was the insurgent they had been looking for.
"This guy is the Taliban equivalent of the 'Home Alone" burglars," one U.S. official said.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/17/2012
18:44 ||
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#1
It's just a matter of mathematical projection that the day will come that the DoD budget will only be able to afford one airplane. The Air Force and Navy will swap days on who gets to fly, with the Marines getting Leap Day.
#3
"Afford one airplane" > At last check, INdia is mulling designs for an indigenous LCS-style stealth = NT surface warship that can submerge, move, + fight like a submarine.
WE have Airborne EMPS that can knock out Enemy power + telecommunications grids, etc. from the sky, so why not NOT Underground EMPS that can cause earthquakes = tectonic shifts that canachieve similar things.
* IIRC RENSE [old = paraph] > DID A SPACE-BASED US ENERGY WEAPON DESTROY NORTH KOREA'S ROCKET, after launch.
#5
Not surprising after seeing the reams of requirements my former employer had to go through in order to run his 5 axis CNC to trim a carbon fiber body panel. and Lockheed Martin HAD to approve every step prior to the actual cutting. and any feature more than 0.004" out of true position tolerance required L-M to review and approve any repair. our machines had a 0.003 tolerance, so that left virtually nothing for wear in the drive train, mialignment of the part on the trim tool, temperature vary, etc. and then we got written up for not having the proper mil-spec on every 50 pack box of wiping cloths! and LM mandated who we could buy them from; when told it was their problem due to poor vendor oversite, boy did i get a major time out!
#1
Hmm, seems to be only coming from Iranian English-language news sources right now.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/17/2012 15:33
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Agree with the British/American finding re the overthrowing of the Saudi regime is required re wahabbi/salafi terrorism but whoever took over could be worse!
#3
Iff Rising Iran is able to de facto control or politically dominate the sovereign Gulf Island-States, it may be able to obstruct or seriously damage any US-led AmphibOp inside the Gulf, while all but forcing the US-Allied to attack from the Sea of Oman, i.e. WIDIN RANGE OF ITS COMBAT/TACTICAL AIRPOWER + LRBMS BASED IN SOUTHERN, SE IRAN.
IFF IRAN'S STRATEGY ISN'T SO MUCH "TO WIN" AGZ THE US VERSUS "TO NOT LOSE", IT MAY NEED ONLY TACTICAL, NOT STRATEGIC, NUCWEAPS AT THIS TIME TO DEFEAT A US-LED GROUND INVASION. Besides fostering international anti-US "brinkmanship" among the "Great/Nuclear Powers", ITS FOCII WILL LIKELY BE TO CAUSE AS MANY CASUALTIES AS POSSIBLE, NOT TO DE FACTO STOP A US-LED GROUND INVASION.
E.g. 1950 KOREAN WAR > CHINA'S WINTER MIL INTERVENTION AGZ US-LED UN FORCES AT THE YALU = allowed the UN Milfors to approach the Yalu + proclaim "Victory in Korea" while massive intervening Chicom forces covertly or stealthily infiltrated along their flanks + rear, ultimately mil "ambushing" + destroying many US Units as they "sat down for Thanksgiving dinner".
Lest we fergit, 1990's + Pre, Post-911 NET > THE REAL OR GREATEST BATTLEFIELD AS PER "GLOBALISM", OWG-NWO, + THE GWOT IS IN THE HALLS OF THE US CONGRESS + WASHINGTON DC, THE HEARTS-N-MINDS OF THE GOVT-PEOPLE OF THE SUPERPOWER OR HYPERPOWER USA, NOT OVERSEAS ALA COMBAT IN FOREIGN LANDS.
The nature of the Radical Islamist threat, as complemented by the premises of so-called
"Asymmetric Warfare" + related, IS SUCH THAT THE US MAY BE FORCED TO CONQUER THE WORLD EVEN IFF MAINSTREAM AMERICA DOESN'T WANT IT OR LIKE IT.
IMO any use of TacNukes = Tac Nukes-WMDS/CBRN(E/EM) by Iran agz any invading US-Allied Ground Forces is consistent wid the premises behind Iran's preferred "JAPAN/EGYPT", "NUCLEAR ENERGY" MODEL.
Iff a Saudi-Iran War does break out on the Arabian Peninsula, the Scenario is real that US Marines etal. may have to liberate Base-Too-Far Qatar + Emirates first just to successfully mount a follow-up ground invasion of Iran.
The outcome of the 2012 POTUS Elex will be as decisive for Iran as anything wid the GCC.
Cheniere Energy Inc. won federal approval to build the largest U.S. natural-gas export terminal.... Waitaminute - were are we gonna get th gas to export? Green natural gas, of course. Silly...
... as drillers who extract the fuel from shale formations struggle to find domestic buyers to absorb a glut.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved an order Monday that will let Cheniere build a $10 billion plant adjacent to its Sabine Pass gas-import terminal about 170 miles west of Baton Rouge. Making it a true import/export terminal.
Cheniere will compete with LNG producers in Indonesia, Yemen, Qatar and Australia that charge customers in Japan and South Korea as much as as 10 times the price of U.S. supplies. Capitalism - market-driven greed!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/17/2012
12:18 ||
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#1
I'm all for bringing capital back into the US via exports.
#4
If we export all that pesky natural gas to someplace else the resulating CO2 won't warm OUR part of the globe, right? And it will get it out of the way as competition for all our uneconomic green projects.
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) on Tuesday revealed two cases of terrorists who were released in the Gilad Schalit deal who have already returned to committing acts of terror.
In October 2011, Israel released over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in a deal with Hamas which brought Schalit home after five years of captivity.
The first, Daoud Chilo, a resident of a refugee camp near Ramallah, was convicted of attempting to illegally buy weapons one month after his release. He was arrested by security forces and sentenced to just under four years in prison. Arrested? Imprisoned? Why not just whack him?
The second, Omer Abu Snina, a member of Hamas and resident of Hebron, was deported to Gaza as part of the Schalit deal. Subsequently, he attempted to solicit and induce others to commit terrorist acts in the West Bank, including perpetrating kidnappings.
Over the course of the probe, investigators recovered a memory card from Abu Snina which included details related to kidnapping soldiers, illegally obtaining weapons and establishing a terrorist cell. He definitely needs to disappear...
#2
It looks like Israel expected it, and picked them up again as sooon as they generated excuses. A memory card? Good, clean fun for the lads and lasses back in the lab.
Two Secret Service supervisors and three members of the agency's elite Counter-Assault Teams were among the 11 agents sent back from Colombia and placed on administrative leave over allegations that they brought prostitutes to their hotel rooms in Cartagena, law enforcement officials tell NBC News.
The involvement of Counter-Assault Team (CAT) members-- who are not members of the Uniformed Division, but full-fledged Secret Service agents -- ratchets up the seriousness of the incident, officials said. The heavily armed agents play a key role in protecting the president, serving as part of any presidential motorcade, usually a few cars back from the president's. Their responsibility is to "neutralize" any attack "as quickly as possible," according to the Secret Service website.
"Their job is to fend off a heavy assault on the motorcade to give POTUS a chance to flee to a safe locale," one law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told NBC News, speaking on condition of anonymity. Humm -- just an advanced planning team as the media originally reported? And this is from MSNBC.
The source said the two of the CAT team members were directly involved in the dispute with one of the prostitutes at the Hotel Caribe that led to the scandal. After bringing back the prostitute to their hotel room, the agents reportedly got into a dispute with one of the women when she complained she hadn't been paid. The woman then went to the Colombian police -- who reported the matter to the U.S. Embassy.
Others involved in the incident include three members of the Secret Service Counter-Sniper Team, which is part of the Uniformed Division.
The source also said the incident raised the possibility of a potential security breach, telling NBC News that all Secret Service personnel had been given copies of the president's schedule, which they are told to lock up in a safe in their hotel rooms.
#1
I wonder if these problems have arisen as a result of re-organization under Homeland Security instead of under the Dept. of Treasury in 2003? Or is it just a corruption and rot that has developed and spread throughout government?
#2
Glenn Beck pointed out, and I agree, that this whole Secret Service thing is really peculiar (and this is the worst, but by no means only example) - what's going on? Can their professionalism have fallen off a cliff in the last few years? Why? They even maintained it through all of Hillary's abuses. Or is it some kind of sabotage? From where? If something doesn't make sense - and this doesn't - then you don't know the whole story.
#3
Not paying off a whore? What the hell? This story has a bad end no matter who you are. She's local, you're not. Pay a hundred bucks to her or deal with the authorities - which is easier?
#4
Not paying off a whore? What the hell? This story has a bad end no matter who you are. She's local, you're not. Pay a hundred bucks to her or deal with the authorities - which is easier?
#5
according to a couple of my Marines that were on MSG duty in Central/South America - it was not uncommon when the secret service came to town that they'd ask the Marines what part of town the best "escorts" were working out of.
Hope that isn't one of those hotel safes which go to their default setting after pressing the overcharge reset button...or are we in trouble for not inviting el prez to a coke party.
#8
The administration wanted to save the life of a child that was raped and beaten to death with a hunk of sidewalk by an illegal. Also used a 15 inch stick with a nail on the end to rape her and tear her insides up, birds of a feather flock together they are all the same on the inside ghouls!
#9
1. The fish rots from the head. 2. It may be poorly briefed that human trafficking and/or under-aged prostitution as many other items of health. 3. As a representative of the Federal Government, and as of your Country, you ought to know better. 4. It's a petty crime unless CINC could have been compromised by leaving... say calendars about. 5. If off duty, remember above.
6. Some learn the hard way. The Price of Freedom? a Buck O' Five. The price of a Security Clearance? $36,000.00 and a job.
7. Let's not make a which hunt.The administration has plenty of "Gun Walkers" across the border.
H/T to Instapundit
The United Nations is being flouted and ignored more often than usual these days -- and the consequences are, as usual, nil.
In Syria, arriving UN ceasefire monitors are greeted with artillery barrages. Iran continues to ignore resolutions on opening its nuclear facilities to inspectors. And North Korea merrily flouts UN resolutions as it fires rockets and tests nukes pretty much at will.
The reality is that the UN today is less prestigious and influential than it was in the 1940s and 1950s. There used to be a time when General Assembly votes actually meant something. Newspapers used to report its resolutions on the front page. And the Security Council, on those rare occasions during the Cold War when it could actually agree on something, was seen as laying down the basic principles along which an issue would be resolved.
The increasing feebleness of the UN reflects several developments. The first is experience; as more and more actors figure out how toothless it is and how little its resolutions actually matter, more and more governments simply ignore it. And as that happens, it looks even more toothless, and even more governments conclude that they don't have to worry much about it. WRM only scratches the surface of it's incompetence, corruption and evil. UN delenda est.
#2
Heading towards the dust bin of history as did the Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations? The one world enthusiasts are much to willing to cede our sovereignty to the U.N.
h/t Michael Yon
About 150 Afghan schoolgirls were poisoned today after drinking contaminated water at a school in the country's north, officials said, blaming it on conservative radicals opposed to female education.
Since the 2001 toppling of the Taliban, which banned education for women and girls, females have returned to schools, especially in Kabul.
"We are 100 per cent sure that the water they drunk inside their classes was poisoned. This is either the work of those who are against girls' education or irresponsible armed individuals," said Jan Mohammad Nabizada, a spokesman for education department in northern Takhar province.
An Egyptian man who went online to watch a porno film for the first time got the shock of his life when he found that the woman in the film was his own wife.
The man, identified as Ramadan, instantly collapsed in disbelief on the floor at an internet shop before coming round and rushing home to face his unfaithful wife.
The woman first denied his allegations and started to swear at him, prompting her husband to face her with the film.
Unable to deny it any more, she confessed to have betrayed him with her pre-marriage boy friend, telling him she had never loved him although they had four children during their 16-year marriage.
I found 11 films showing my wife in indecent scenes with her lover .it was the first time I watched a porno film and I did this just out of curiosity, Ramadan told Egyptian newspapers at his house in the northeastern province of Dakhalia.
She first denied it and accused me of being insane before I faced her with the films she then confessed to be still in love with her boyfriend, saying he is as young as her and that I am an old man.
Ramadan said he had been happy during his marriage life until he logged on to that website. Newspapers did not say whether he decided to divorce her.
The Libyan former intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people was released from a Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... hospital on Monday after receiving an emergency blood transfusion, his brother said.
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was taken to a private hospital on Friday to receive a transfusion of eleven litres of blood,
That seems rather a lot...
That's eleven units that could have helped someone else...
but subsequently felt strong enough to return home, his brother Abdel Hakim told Rooters.
Well, sure. I got one unit, once upon a time, and was oxygen-drunk and giggling very inappropriately for months.
Only because the donor had had a highball...
"His health is going from bad to worse, but he felt ready to go and his family took him home," Abdel Hakim said.
Megrahi was convicted in 2001 of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 as it flew to New York from London. All 259 people aboard the airliner were killed and 11 others on the ground in the Scottish town of Lockerbie died from falling wreckage.
Britannia freed him in 2009 on compassionate grounds because he was suffering from advanced terminal prostate cancer and thought to have months to live.
His release angered many relatives of the victims, 189 of whom were American, and the B.O. regime criticised the decision. A number of U.S. politicians have pressed for his extradition to the United States, something Libya's ruling National Transitional Council said it would not do.
Megrahi, who served as an intelligence agent during the rule of Libyan dictator Muammar Qadaffy ... the like of whose wardrobe will never be seen again. At least that's what we hope... , denied any role in suspected human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... abuses in his home country before Qadaffy's fall and death in a popular uprising last year
And this time they truly, doley mean it. Would a politician lie?
Hate cleric Abu Qatada has been arrested and returned to custody pending a fresh attempt to deport him to Jordan.
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is expected to tell MPs this afternoon that an agreement has been reached with Jordan to ensure his removal. Assurances have been sought to allay fears by the European Court of Human Rights that he will face trial with evidence obtained by torture.
However, despite facing a fresh deportation order, Qatada's lawyers will be able to launch a fresh legal challenge against his removal.
A Home Office spokesperson said: "UK Border Agency officers have today arrested Abu Qatada and told him that we intend to resume deportation proceedings against him.
"The Home Secretary will make a statement to Parliament later."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has warned the Taliban that their attacks will only work to prolong the foreign presence in Afghanistan.
Karzai's comments come after a series of coordinated attacks hit Kabul and three other Afghan cities, leaving 35 insurgents, 11 members of the Afghan security forces, and four civilians dead.
Karzai said the attacks on April 15 only killed Afghans and caused damage to the country's infrastructure and economy.
Reuters news agency quoted Karzai as saying, "You did nothing for Islam, you did not work for Afghanistan's independence, and you did not work for its people, freedom, and development."
But Karzai, in an apparent effort to keep alive reconciliation efforts and hopes of a possible peace deal before foreign troops leave in 2014, also said he would continue to call the Taliban "brothers".
Pashtunwali. They are brother Pashtuns together, and the other tribes can go to perdition.
#11
This is why the Kirchners want the Falklands (and perhaps also the Maldives) -- it's the oil, silly, and they want to do what Hugo did in Venezuela, which is to use the national oil company as a personal open-draw bank account. To do that you actually need to have oil, which the Falklands have.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/17/2012 12:06
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#12
And Spain has vowed to retaliate harshly. I would imagine they might strike a joint venture in the new oil field recently discovered around the Falkland Island.
#14
Chinas Oilfinder General Sinopec confirmed it was in serious talk to buy Repsols stake in YPF for $15B.
So China will have 49% of a company that has big interests in Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico and Nigeria. Not to mention just across the ways in the Falklands or as Obama might say, the Maldives.
Interesting.
WASHINGTON - History will be made today as NASA's oldest and most traveled shuttle leaves the Kennedy Space Center and heads to the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center[located just south of Dulles Airport]. The same radio station, from whence came the linked article, had interviews with three intelligent folks on the airwaves at 5:30 (a.m.). All thought retiring the shuttle was shortsighted, given all the new discoveries made as a result of the space program.
Discoveries with the Discovery! Get it?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/17/2012
06:37 ||
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#1
Truly impressive watching Discovery fly in. Glad I remembered my good camera today
Though Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has faltered, key financial backer Sheldon Adelson has given more contributions to help the GOP defeat the Democrats.
The Netanyahu confidante and his Israeli-born wife Miriam have donated $5 million to a GOP Super PAC that tries to get Republicans elected to the US House of Representatives, according to new filing reports released Sunday.
The donations come on top of more than $16 million the couple gave to a Super PAC backing Gingrich that keep his campaign operation going despite significantly trailing front-runner Mitt Romney.
#1
Not bad for the son of a Boston taxi driver. Hat tip to his very accomplished wife as well.
Forbes writes:
Miriam Ochshorn
Married To: Sheldon Adelson
Age: 60
Israeli-born Ochshorn graduated magna cum laude from Tel Aviv University's medical school. Has since focused her research on the biology of chemical dependency and is considered a pioneer in the treatment of drug addiction. With Adelson, founded drug treatment clinics in Tel Aviv and Las Vegas. In addition to running the clinics, she is an adjunct faculty member at Rockefeller University in New York.
Australia is set to bring its troops home from Afghanistan a year earlier than planned with most soldiers withdrawn in 2013, reports said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard was expected to make the announcement during a speech to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute later in the day, outlining a timetable she will take to a NATO summit in Chicago next month.
Canberra has faced increasing pressure over the long-running Afghan campaign and a 2013 pull-out date will be a year in advance of the 2014 deadline previously laid down by NATO-led international forces.
It will also mean most Australian troops are likely to be home before the next election. Gillard is struggling in opinion polls and many people are against the deployment to Afghanistan.
In her speech notes obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald, Gillard reportedly says "the peoples of the world's democracies are weary of this war".
And the Taliban aren't. That sorta says it all, doesn't it...
"I'm now confident that Chicago will recognise mid-2013 as a key milestone in the international strategy," the speech notes said.
"A crucial point when the international forces will be able to move to a supporting role across all of Afghanistan."
For the men of the Anzac Corps, the Anzacs Australians and New Zealanders assisted by Indian Army troops and the British Royal Naval Division the Battle of the Landing at Gallipoli lasted from 25 April to 3 May. During that period, they drove back a number of strong Turkish counter-attacks aimed at driving them into the sea, as well as launching attacks to secure their own positions. By 3 May, a defensible line had been established inland from the landing beaches along what was known as Second Ridge, and this small area of Gallipoli was soon known as Anzac. According to the official historian, Charles Bean, the Battle of the Landing cost Australia and New Zealand 8000 casualties, of whom 2300 were killed. Bean summed up this loss in these words:
They were men their countries could ill afford to lose. But with their lives they purchased a tradition beyond all human power to appraise, and set for all time the standard of conduct for the Australian and New Zealand soldier. A brilliant despatch from Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, published a few days after the Landing, brought the effort of these young nations before the world in a manner that some speak of to this day as if the landings were an affair of Australasian troops alone
[Charles Bean, The Story of Anzac, Vol 1, Sydney, 1941, p 605]
Someone want to analyze his manner of speech and body language? As is typical of MSM, they don't show most of the contents, but blabber on and on with their own view of events. The second video is the raw footage, with subtitles in Chinese. Not gonna translate it because it's probably a bunch of boilerplate "sea of fire" nonsense.Here's Kimmie's only sentence.
Now O'Keefe is back, defiant as ever. His new video shows Project Veritas going into poll locations in DC on April 3, being offered ballots for Ben Jealous, President & CEO of the NAACP; one Bill Maher; and David Brock (Project Veritas says they could not verify whether the David Brock for which they were offered a ballot was the same David Brock as the Media Matters president).
Hilariously, Project Veritas also shows that you can't get into Media Matters without showing ID.
Sure, some things are important...
The video also depicts Project Veritas going to a polling place and asking about Alicia Menendez, daughter of New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez (D) and political commentator on MSNBC; a poll worker asks to see ID, preventing Project Veritas from being offered Menendez's ballot.
Video at link. Go on -- you know you want to want to.
In a related matter, Mr. O'Keefe Is now considered to have some expertise on the subject, enough to be included in a panel discussion with the South Carolina attorney general as a fundraiser for Project Veritas. Link.
#1
Hey, its not asking too much to have someone show legal identification as to who they are. Its only the voter fraud peddlers who want to steal elections who are complaining about voter ID. You have to show IDs in many other situations. My fantasy is to register as Bill Maher and vote mega-times for the most conservative person available--write in if necessary; say Sarah Palin whom Maher seems to detest. Oh well, back from my reverie.
[An Nahar] U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... peace plan for Syria has only a three percent chance of working, the emir of Qatar said on a visit to Rome Monday, as a U.N.-backed ceasefire was marred by ongoing violence.
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told a presser that the chances for success "are no higher than three percent", and that the Syrian people should not be supported through peaceful means but "with arms".
Qatar has taken a hawkish stance in favor of the year-old rebellion against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... Prime Minister Mario Monti, who stressed the "close collaboration" between Italia and Qatar on the topic of Syria, said Rome was willing to send in observers to help oversee a truce aimed at ending 13 months of bloodshed.
The observers' mission is part of the six-point peace plan that Syria agreed with U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... The U.N.-backed ceasefire came into force at dawn on Thursday, but since then, at least 55 people, mostly civilians, have been reported killed in violence.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that 11,117 people have been killed in 13 months of unrest -- 7,972 civilians and 3,145 military and gunnies, including fewer than 600 rebel fighters.
Earlier this month, Syria's U.N. envoy demanded that Qatar, Soddy Arabia, Turkey and Western nations not undermine Annan's peace mission by paying and supporting opposition groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Pragmatically, BABY ASSAD VICTORY = means or infers ANOTHER FAILURE OF THE SO-CALLED "OBAMA DOCTRINE"[UN-Enforced Regime Change on Humanitarian grounds]; + MORE THAN LIKELY IRAN WILL GET BOTH ITS NUKES + ESTABLISH AN AIR, NAVAL PRESENCE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Five candidates who took part in Guinea-Bissau's aborted presidential election, including top opposition leader Kumba Yala, on Monday condemned last week's military coup.
"We firmly condemn the April 12 military uprising and demand the quick return of constitutional order," said ex-president Yala, who came second in first-round presidential voting on March 18 behind then-prime minister Carlos Gomes Junior, who is currently being held by the coup leaders.
All five rejected the result of the first round, including Henrique Rosa, who said none of them would participate in the National Transitional Council that the military and some opposition parties announced would lead the country after the coup.
"We are democrats. As a matter of ethics and political coherence, we will not participate in the NTC," Rosa told journalists.
The coup came two weeks before the second round of the presidential vote, which would have seen Gomes Junior face off against Yala.
Yala, who said there had been "massive fraud" in the first round, and four other candidates had already said they would not take part in the second round.
The boycott had raised fears of unrest in the country of 1.6 million people, which has a history of military coups and has become a hub in the drug trade between South America and Europe.
The Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) had voiced concern after the coup that the five candidates who boycotted the polls may have played a part in overthrowing the government, saying they should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... if their involvement could be proved.
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[Emirates 24/7] Britannia's Labour Party on Sunday suspended peer Nazir Ahmed over reports that he offered a £10 million ($15.9 million, 12.1 million euros) bounty for the capture of US President Barack Obama Why can't I just eat my waffle?...
The Lord also offered a similar incentive for the capture of former US president George Bush in response to a US reward for the capture of suspected terrorist Hafiz Muhammad Saeed ...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain... , according to Pakistain's Express Tribune newspaper.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Susie Amy (English) aka Beatrice Hastings in "Modigliani (2004)" aka Claire Leevy in "House of 9 (2005)" aka Donna Jagger in "Bonded by Blood (2010)" aka Guilia in "Two Families (2007)" (age 32)
[Emirates 24/7] The hard boyz who mounted weekend attacks in central Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan carefully rehearsed for months, even building small military-style models and pre-positioning weapons, a Taliban front man said on Monday.
And in the end they achieved a lot of sound and fury -- and their own deaths -- but very little more, other than to demonstrate that Afghan forces have improved since the last such effort..
Zabihullah Mujahid provided Rooters with a rare insight into how the group plans strategic high-profile attacks designed to deal a psychological blow to U.S.-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... forces and their allies in the Afghan cops.
In the latest, a 30-member suicide squad was dispatched to launch simultaneous assaults on parliament, NATO bases and Western embassies after two months of painstaking discussions on tactics.
"Our military experts sketched maps of the targets and also created a mock-up of them where fighters carried out practice before carrying out the large-scale operations in four provinces," Mujahid said in a phone interview.
"The fighters also learned how to enter their targets and hold them."
His account could not be independently verified.
Heavy street fighting between beturbanned goons and security forces in the centre of the Afghan capital ended on Monday after 18 hours of gunfire, rocket attacks and kabooms that bore strong similarities with an operation last year.
In both assaults, hard boyz occupied high-rise construction sites to use as firebases after smuggling weapons into central Kabul past police checkpoints.
The battles that broke out at midday on Sunday gripped the city's central districts into the evening and through the night, with blasts and gunfire lighting up alleys and streets before Afghan special forces soldiers backed by NATO helicopter gunships killed the myrmidons.
Mujahid said the myrmidons, who were mostly all killed by security forces, had been selected from among the estimated 50,000 fighters battling NATO and Afghan troops and given special training.
"Ordinary fighters can't obviously carry out these important missions," he said. "The fighters who were assigned for this mission received special training on how to use heavy machine guns, suicide bomb vests and other tactics."
Mujahid said heavy machine guns, rocket grenades and ammunition had been put in place well before the assault with inside help from Afghan cops, but did not elaborate.
A witness to the attack in Kabul's diplomatic quarter saw hard boyz in a dark blue Prado SUV opening fire on a policeman before entering a building that he had been guarding.
"One Taliban opened fire toward a security guard from a window of the vehicle and another went to a security checkpoint and maimed the man inside, occupying his position," said Ahmad Zeya Azami, 29, a car mechanic, who worked next door.
"Five Taliban ran into the building."
Azami said one myrmidon targeted the multi-storey Kabul Star Hotel with a rocket-propelled grenade, while another opened fire on the nearby diplomatic quarter.
"I closed our shop and beat feet from the area without any wounds. But now everybody is living in fear and losing hope about the future," he said.
Ahmad Farhad, 19, another shopkeeper, said the hard boyz had appeared calm and very well prepared.
"One went to the police checkpoint and others went into the building in an organised way, like they had seen the area before," Farhad said. "All were wearing traditional clothes, black or grey, and all looked to be aged about 30."
Farhad said the men had been armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles, and some had carried bags as they climbed out of a black four-wheel-drive.
Afghan and U.S. officials have blamed the attacks on the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, based along the porous Afghan-Pakistain mountain border.
Mujahid denied any involvement by the myrmidon group, one of the most feared in Afghanistan. The United States has long pressed Pakistain to go after the Haqqani network, which analysts say Islamabad regards as a strategic asset.
Any Haqqani role in the weekend assault would likely further strain relations between Washington and Islamabad.
"The attacks were very successful for us and were a remarkable achievement, dealing a psychological and political blow to foreigners and the government," Mujahid said.
"Although the Haqqanis are part of the Taliban, we did not ask for any help, guidance or support. This is a baseless plot from the West, who wants to show that we are separate
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[Tripoli Post] Sudanese warplanes bombed a UN peacekeepers' base, damaging it but causing no casualties in the first such attack since a recent escalation of fighting with South Sudan, reports by ADP indicate.
The area's information minister, Gideon Gatpan said that bombing raids on Sunday also killed nine civilians elsewhere in South Sudan's Unity border state, adding that bombs were dropped near the oil-producing state's capital Bentiu, as well as in the village of Mayom, some 60 kilometres to the west.
Gatpan said that in Mayom seven non-combatants were killed and 14 maimed. Two fighter jets released eight bombs east of Bentiu and two bombs fell inside the UN camp in Mayom destroying a generator and a radio. Others fell in villages around Bentiu, where two people were killed.
UN peacekeeping mission front man Kouider Zerrouk confirmed the attack on the small base, but said "there were no casualties, no one was maimed".
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#1
Given the condition of the Sundanese Air Force, I'm wagering the tactic is drop-and-scoot.
Then there's this:
Nanchang A-5 Fantan . 15-20 of the aircraft were delivered to Sudan by China in 2003, supposedly financed by Iran. Some 100 or so of an A-5 variant are also in service with The Pakistani Air Force.
#3
The Axis of Evil is growing. Not sure about any sane reasoning coming out of Iran, but they need as many proxies and allies as they can get when they are under sanctions. Refugees from such countries as Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Bosnia, etc. are forming gangs such as the Sudan Posse, even adopting American gang dress and hip-hop. According to the FBI's 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, gangs are responsible for between 48%-90% of violent crime. Gangs are increasingly engaging in non-traditional gang-related crime, such as alien smuggling, human trafficking, and prostitution. Gangs are also engaging in white-collar crime such as counterfeiting, identity theft, and mortgage fraud, primarily due to the high profitability and much lower visibility and risk of detection and punishment than drug and weapons trafficking, but they are also linked to the cartels. Gang members are acquiring high-powered, military-style weapons and equipment which poses a significant threat because of the potential to engage in lethal encounters with law enforcement officers and civilians. Typically firearms are acquired through illegal purchases; straw purchases via surrogates or middle-men, and thefts from individuals, vehicles, residences and commercial establishments....I dunno, but my guess the chaos created is intended to usher in the Mad Mullah from the Hell-Well and gives the DoJ plausible deniability for Fast and Furious and Operation Castaway.
To buy regional influence. Sudan has been an international pariah for ages, but also occupies a strategic location. Think of it as an end-run around the Sunni sphere of influence.
That it has (or had) oil is a plus, at least for China.
One of Britannia's most important Mohammedan leaders is to be charged with war crimes, Sherlocks and officials have told The Sunday Telegraph.
Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, also known as Choudhury Moinuddin, director of Mohammedan spiritual care provision in the NHS, a trustee of the major British charity Mohammedan Aid and a central figure in setting up the Mohammedan Council of Britannia, fiercely denies any involvement in a number of abductions and "disappearances" during Bangladesh's independence struggle in the 1970s.
He says the claims are "politically-motivated" and false.
An Afghan National Army soldier was killed when he opened fire on a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... convoy in southern Kandahar province on Monday, a military official said.
Good. That's how it's supposed to go.
"A soldier from ANA Supportive Unit opened fire on a NATO convoy travelling to Kandahar airport and was killed in return fire," Commander of 205th Corp Abdul Hamid Wardak said.
There were no NATO fatalities in the incident, he added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... Kandahar security forces seized a cycle of violence full of bombs in the Aino area of Kandahar city, provincial front man Jawed Ahmad Faisal told TOLOnews.
No suspects were incarcerated in connection with incident, he added.
"Coordination between Afghan cops should increase in order to prevent attacks like those occurred in Kabul, Pashtun-infested Logar, Paktia and Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. ," Faisal said.
"Security checkpoints have increased in Kandahar and discovery of the motorbike was also as a result coordination between security forces," he said, also asking Kandahari citizens to cooperate with the security forces.
At least eight coppers and five non-combatants were killed in Sunday's coordinated attacks launched by forces of Evil in four provinces of the country.
Another 74 others, including 32 security forces, were maimed in the incidents.
Around 36 forces of Evil attacked government and foreign facilities in Kabul, Pashtun-infested Logar, Nangarhar and Paktia provinces.
Afghan cops rapidly responded to the Death Eaters; however, forces of Evil resisted for more than 18 hours in Kabul.
The Taliban grabbed credit for the attacks, saying that the German and British Embassies and Isaf HQ were their prime targets.
[Dawn] The Kohat police has established several new checkpoints at various places on its borders with Bannu and Hangu for the arrest of prisoners who beat feet from Bannu central jail on early Sunday.
The police said that according to information received by the regional police headquarters in Kohat, about 384 prisoners had beat feet from the Bannu jail, which came under attack by the jihad boys.
They said that police parties had also started operation in different residential and mountainous parts of Kohat and checking passengers coming from Bannu on the highways.
Deputy inspector general of police, Kohat region, Imtiaz Shah had deputed several contingents of police in Lachi tehsil of Kohat, Shakardarra and Sumari-Hangu road to foil escape of any prisoner through Kohat into other districts.
The officials said that the border with the tribal areas was also being monitored because some of the prisoners wanted in heinous crimes like kidnapping for ransom belonged to the tribal areas.
However, the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... none of the fleeing prisoners has been locked away in Kohat area till filing of this report.
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[Yemen Post] US drones targeted al-Qaeda an vehicle in the southeastern Yemeni province of Shabwa with five strikes, sources told Yemen Post.The drone targeted the beturbanned goons' car in Karma area in Azzan district, of Shabwa, which is considered to be al-Qaeda stronghold as it's the hometown of the Yemeni-American holy man Anwar al-Awlaqi, who was killed last year by a drone attack.
As of yet, there is no reports of causalities resulting from the attack but a tribal source told Yemen Post on condition of anonymity that the five people who were in the car are all presumably killed.
Further, the drone has targeted some hideouts in the areas between al-Hota and Azzan districts of Shabwa, media outlets said.
US intensified its drones attacks in the southern parts of Yemen in an effort to compensate for the disrupted military cooperation on fighting the terror network. The cooperation, which is based on training, funding, and donating equipment, was suspended owning to the unrest that plagued the country last year.Azzan, a district in Shabwa, was taken over by al-Qaeda gunnies who found little resistance by security forces.The terror network also take control of some towns in the war-torn province of Abyan, including Zinjubar, the placid provincial capital, taking an advantage of the distracted army.
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#1
Yes, the home of the Tomb of the Sponge, containing the remains of aliswacky. My bad, alwaswacky.
Posted by: Steven ||
04/17/2012 0:36
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#2
You should be ashamed, Steven. That was dreadful. ;-)
[Globe and Mail] The UN Security Council strongly condemned North Korea's rocket launch Monday, announcing it will impose new sanctions and warning of further action if Pyongyang conducts another launch or a new nuclear test. Then they used that and $3.95 to buy a cuppa coffee at Starbucks...
Acting swiftly, the 15-member council, including North Korea's closest ally China, adopted a presidential statement underscoring its united opposition to Friday's launch -- which violated UN sanctions -- and the military policy being pursued by the country's young new leader, Kim Jong Un.
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#1
Johnson! Bring the Strongly Worded Letter! Immediately!
Read this in a Jay Carney voice and it works better...
(Sh. M. Network)-- The chief of security agency for Somalia government Mohammed Mo'allin Fiqi, announced Monday that it will assure the overall security of the lawless capital,Mogadishu, months after the cut-throats of Al shabab pulled back from their bases in the capital.
Mr.Fiqi told news hounds in Mogadishu that the security forces are to conduct measures to tackle the security and the overnight mortar bombardments at VillaSomalia, the country's palace in the capital where senior TFG officials are currently locating.
"In the past couple of days, our security forces have juggedbombs with 50 men allegedly connected Al shabab who were orchestrating to carry out attacks against TFG buildings and as well as civilian populated areas in the capital," he added.
Lastly, the chief of TFG security agency stated that the forces will reachs to all liberated regions and town from the cut-throats in south and central Somalia as soon as possible.
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[Tripoli Post] A 14-minute YouTube video that analysts say has revealed the Nigerian President's miscalculation of the hard boy threat, is heightening tensions between Nigeria's government and a violent Islamist sect President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... has promised to destroy.
The video opens with graphics of spinning flowers and crossed AK-47s. Bubble letters identify it as a message to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan made by the group that calls itself People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad, more commonly known as Boko Haram. ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... The group's suspected leader, Abubakar Shekau, is seated with four armed and masked men. He tells viewers the Nigerian President was boasting two weeks ago when he said the government would destroy the group within three months.
"We have sworn and we are telling you, Jonathan, that there is nothing that you can do to stop us," Shekau says.
Taking war to the "doorstep"
University of Abuja senior lecturer Abubakar Umar Kari is reported saying by VOA, that the President's statement and Boko Haram's video have succeeded in heightening tensions in the country.
Kari says the group should be identified as an international terrorist organization and Nigerian security forces should get assistance, like specialised training, from other countries.
Boko Haram has been blamed for the Easter Sunday bombing that claimed dozens of lives, but it has not taken responsibility. The group is believed to have killed about 1,000 people since it began violent operations in 2009, including attacks on churches, the UN headquarters, cop shoppes and other government buildings.
Kari says the video will succeed in scaring the people, because they are more likely to believe Boko Haram threats than government assurances. On Easter Sunday, a Nigerian newspaper quoted the defence minister as saying more than 95 percent of local governments had been secured against the threat of Boko Haram.
International Crisis Group senior analyst Kunle Amuwo says it is impossible to be 100 percent sure the video represents Boko Haram, a fractured sect with no clear structure. He says the video is a response to what he calls the "naive" statement by Nigeria's President. Amuwo says that even if the President had the capacity to crush the group, he never should have said so publicly.
Amuwo also says Boko Haram's presence in Nigeria is misunderstood by foreign critics who say Nigeria needs to develop the impoverished, mostly-Moslem north to lessen the threat. Amuwo says if violence was simply a product of poverty, terrorist attacks would be nation-wide.
Besides costing lives, Boko Haram attacks have also stagnated many local economies and made travel more dangerous and time consuming. Kari says military checkpoints can double time on the road, and innocent people have been shot by nervous security officers under the constant threat of attack.
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[Dawn] The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... (KP) government has forwarded its preliminary investigation report for yesterday's jailbreak incident to the federal interior ministry, DawnNews reported.
The report terms the incident a failure on the part of the security agencies and the police.
Moreover, dozens of prisoners who had decamped the jail in Bannu have returned but hundreds remained on the lam, said an official on Monday.
"Fifty-three prisoners out of the total 384, who had beat feet the jail, have returned voluntarily while 11 others were incarcerated," senior Bannu police official Iftikhar Khan told AFP.
A woman prisoner was one of those who surrendered.
According to the report forwarded to the interior ministry, the beat feet convicts included 21 prisoners on death row. Moreover, five female prisoners also managed to escape during the incident.
(According to an AFP report, 34 condemned prisoners had beat feet the prison.)
Furthermore, the report claims that the police reached the scene of the crime after a delay of about two hours.
Of the total 384 beat feet convicts, 269 were prisoners were serving their sentences, while 89 were still under investigation.
Around 100 to 150 gunnies had stormed the Bannu central prison Saturday midnight and freed 384 prisoners, among them a man sentenced to death for trying to assassinate former president Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... The gunnies had arrived on pick-ups at about 1.30am and attacked the prison housing over 900 inmates after blowing up the main gates with rocket-propelled grenades.
The incident was described as the biggest jail-break in the country's history.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, front man for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) bad turban group has grabbed credit for the attack, which he said was launched to get their special members freed.
A large number of gunnies had recently been moved to the jail from neighbouring Kohat and Lakki Marwat prisons, which are being converted into centres to rehabilitate former myrmidons.
A former member of the airforce sentenced to death for an attack on former president Pervez Musharraf was among the beat feet bad turbans, according to officials.
Adnan Rasheed was convicted after a bomb planted under a bridge in Rawalpindi near Islamabad in December 2003 went kaboom! moments after the passing of Musharraf's motorcade. His appeal is pending before the Supreme Court.
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(Sh.M.Network)- A former Al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... bad boy has confessed how he joined and fought alongside the Somali beturbanned goons.
Abdullah Adbul Majid aka Abul, a Kenyan aged 18 and who arrived from Somalia in January, is in police custody after he was placed in long-term storage last week in connection with the Machakos Country Bus blasts that killed nine people.
An interrogation report seen by the Standard details his confessions from how he joined the terror group and his military training inSomalia.
He was placed in long-term storage inEastleighlast Thursday together with three people following a tip-off that they were involved in the blasts.
Abdul said he travelled toSomaliain January, last year, fromMombasathrough Garissa, Dadajabula and Dobley towns.
"He secured his bus fare toSomaliaby secretly selling his mother's mobile phone at Sh5,000. He packed a few clothes in a paper bag to begin the journey toSomalia," says part of the report.
Abdul is a Standard Seven dropout fromAhzabAcademyand his parents stay in Majengo,Mombasa.
He has told police he was motivated to join the cut-throats by teachings in aMombasamosque by two Sheikhs including deceased Samir Mohamed Khan who was found dead inTsavoNational Park.
The preachers, according to the report, told their followers the war inSomaliais a real Jihad afterUgandaandBurundisoldiers joined the Transitional Federal Government soldiers in fighting the Al-Shabaab bad boys.
The report says some sailors at theMombasaold port advised Abdul how he could travel toSomalia. While inSomalia, he was inducted in using grenades, pistols and rifles at Abadajira, which is a former prisons camp.
It was a three-month course involving about 300 trainees. He remained inMogadishuwhile his colleagues were taken to Quri Luk.
He revealed that imported muscle found speaking in English were slaughtered on the spot because they were assumed to be spies.
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#1
Must have been a big surprise for those English speakers. Whoops! Does that still count as martyrdom?
#2
found speaking in English were slaughtered on the spot because they were assumed to be spies.
I think we've found where to send many of our prisoners...
[Yemen Post] A prominent leader in the pro-secessionist Southern Movement (SM), Tariq al-Fadhali, said he asked Yemeni former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... to forgive him, revealing that they have had a good relationship. In an interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Ray published on Monday, al-Fadhali revealed that he as contacted Saleh after he peacefully surrendered power to Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi and asked him for forgiveness.He further stressed that forgiveness is Saleh's nature, citing that Saleh has never killed his opponents in the south or in the far north.
"In spite of my disagreements with Saleh, I respect him because I know he is smart and powerful. When I watched him relinquish the power peacefully in a civil and modern manner, my respect yet more increased for him," said al-Fadhali.Peaceful transfer of power is something new in the region, and that has never happened in any place in the Arab world except in Leb. If Saleh wanted to play havoc, he would have done that as the Elite Republican Guards, and most of the military was still loyal to him. But he decided not to destroy what he has accomplished, he continued.Speaking about post Saleh Yemen, he said regardless of my huge disputes with him on several issues during his rule, but I think the northern people would regret ousting him.Al-Fadhali was one of the biggest aides to Saleh for fifteen years, only to turn against him in 2009 and be an advocate leader for SM, which calls for outright independence from the north.He was a member of the anti-Soviet Mujahideen movement in Afghanistan, and is often described as the founder of the jihadist movement in Yemen. His new position provided momentum to the SM and its struggle for secession.
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"The arrogance of the Jews will be defeated, Allah willing," imam tells worshipers on state TV at Friday prayers in Jordan.
Jordan's army will destroy Israel and regain Jerusalem from the "killers of prophets" -- that was the message a Jordanian holy man delivered in a Friday sermon on state TV, according to recently released video footage.
"The [Jordanian] army is invincible. Its units are filled with people who pray, with imams, and with people who memorized the Koran. This army will never be defeated, Allah willing," Imam Ghaleb Rabab'a said in footage translated and released late last week by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
We've noticed that Allah has been decidedly unwilling since the 1890s, when the Jews started moving back, not to mention that series of Arab invasion attempts, declared and undeclared, starting in 1948. How is it that y'all have missed that critical detail, O Imam Rabab of Jordan?
"Jerusalem will be regained, Allah willing, by these modest and pure hands, which hold the Koran high and recite it day and night," Rabab'a said in the March 23 sermon. "This is an army that bows before none but Allah. Today, we must take pride in our country and its army, which descends from the Prophet Muhammad."
It remained unclear whether the sermon was delivered from a state-run or private mosque.
Article 11 of the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty calls on both countries "to abstain from hostile or discriminatory propaganda against each other, and to take all possible legal and administrative measures to prevent the dissemination of such propaganda by any organization or individual present in the territory of either party."
Requests to the Jordanian Embassy in Israel for comment went unanswered Sunday.
"The arrogance of the Jews will be defeated, Allah willing," Rabab'a said. "This army, my brothers in faith, will shatter the might of Israel, Allah willing, just as the might of the Crusaders and the Byzantines was shattered at Hittin, at Yarmouk, Al-Qadisiyya [and] 'Ain Jalut."
Hittin, near Tiberias, was the location of the 12th-Century battle in which Saladin's Moslem army started its final push of the Crusaders out of the Holy Land. 'Ain Jalut, near today's Kibbutz Yizre'el, was the site a century later where Moslem forces struck the first major blow against the invading Mongol armies.
"[Israel's might] will be shattered by the will of Allah," Rabab'a said in the sermon. "Allah will not leave for long the first direction of prayer for the Islamic nation in the hands of the slayers of the prophets."
In January the media monitoring group Paleostinian Media Watch released a video of Grand Mutfi of Jerusalem Mohammed Hussein reciting a hadith (saying attributed to Islam's prophet Mohammed) calling for the killing of Jews.
"The day of judgment will not come until you fight the Jews," Hussein said in the clip.
"The Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will call, 'Oh Moslem, Oh servant of God, this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'" Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on the attorney- general to open an incitement investigation into the holy man's remarks, and President Shimon Peres encouraged the Justice Ministry to open its own investigation.
Hussein, appointed by the Paleostinian Authority, has refused to retract his comments, insisting he had not called for the killing of Jews but had simply been quoting the Islamic prophet, whose words he could not change.
"These allegations come within the Israeli incitement campaign against Jerusalem and its figures," he said.
[Dawn] At least five people, including two activists of the Sunni Tehrik ...formed in Karachi in 1992 under by Muhammad Saleem Qadri. It quickly fell to trading fisticuffs and liquidations with the MQM and the Sipah-e-Sahaba, with at least a half dozen of its major leaders rubbed out. Sunni Tehreek arose to become the primary opposition to the Deobandi Binori Mosque, headed by Nizamuddin Shamzai, who was eventually bumped off by person or persons unknown. ST's current leadership has heavily criticized the Deobandi Jihadi leaders, accusing them of being sponsored by Indian Intelligence agencies as well as involvement in terrorist activities... , were killed in different parts of the city on Sunday, said police and party sources.
In Lines Area, officials said, two ST activists were rubbed out in an act of assassination in the early hours of Sunday.
Mohammad Yaha, 35, was sitting with Rashid Rasheed, 30, near the latter's home in Gulshan-e-Zahoor, where gunnies riding a cycle of violence pulled up and spayed them with bullets before fleeing, the police said.
They added that both victims sustained multiple gunshot wounds and were rushed to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival.
Following the medico-legal formalities, the police handed over the bodies to the families.
Police Sherlocks said 16 spent bullet casings of 9mm and TT pistols were found at the crime-scene. They said that Rashid was an air conditioner technician.
An ST front man said both victims were associated with the Lines Area sector of the party.
Their funeral prayers were offered after Asr near their homes. They were buried in a local graveyard. ST leadership and a large number of party workers attended the burial. Heavy contingents of police and Rangers were deployed in the locality to avert any untoward incident.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Sudan's parliament voted unanimously on Monday to brand the government of South Sudan an enemy, after southern troops invaded the north's main oilfield.
"The government of South Sudan is an enemy and all Sudanese state agencies have to treat her accordingly," the parliament's resolution said.
After the vote, parliamentary speaker Ahmed Ibrahim El-Tahir called in the legislature for the overthrow of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) which rules the South.
"We announce that we will clash with SPLM until we end her government of South Sudan. We collect all our resources to reach this goal," he said.
World powers have urged restraint after fighting began with waves of aerial bombardment hitting the South, whose troops last Tuesday seized Khartoum's main Heglig oil region from Khartoum's army.
It is the most serious clash since July 2011 when South Sudan separated after an overwhelming "yes" vote under a peace deal that ended 22 years of civil war.
When the South became independent, Khartoum lost about 75 percent of its oil production and billions of dollars in revenue, leaving the Heglig area as its main oil centre.
Tuesday's attack caused a total production shutdown, Ahmed Haroun, the South Kordofan governor, said last week.
Legislators said those responsible for the loss of a region which accounted for about half the country's oil output should be held accountable.
"How did we lose Heglig in a matter of hours?" Samia Habani, a Khartoum MP, asked in the chamber. "This is something unacceptable."
Alfa Hashim, an MP from Darfur in the country's west, said the seizure of Heglig was "something rare in the history of Sudan's army" and someone must be found responsible.
Some have called for the resignation of Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court ... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ... for alleged crimes against civilians in Sudan's western region of Darfur.
A number of MPs sought a suspension of the constitution and elected government in South Kordofan state, which includes Heglig, to give the military a free hand to fight the South.
The latest unrest follows festivities around Heglig that broke out on March 26.
Although South Sudan disputes that Heglig belongs to Sudan, the area is not included in the roughly 20 percent of the border officially contested.
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#1
Iran has repor asked the South Sudan Army-Security forces to leave the Heglig oil field region.
First they said the glaciers were receding but it was shown they were advancing. Then they said "ok, they're advancing but they are thinning", that has now been proved false. Himalayan glaciers are both advancing AND thickening.
Wel-l-l, I suppose China's "THREE GORGES" + other proposed major dam projects can't be responsible for everything. DARE ALL OF CHINA'S-INDIA'S-PAKISTAN'S, ETC. MISSING WATER BEING WILY DASTARDLY TURNED INTO GLACIAL ICE VEE THE HIMALAYAS??
and
* RUSSIA TODAY > US HIT WID WORST DROUGHT IN YEARS. US Weather + Soil, Crop Boyz starting to get worried.
#5
I made an interesting discovery a while back. Its south facing glaciers that are retreating. North facing glaciers are advancing. Its the same in all the places I've looked, Himalayas, Cascades, Greenland.
Rising atmospheric temperatures can't be the cause. Its almost certainly caused by increased solar insolation from decreased clouds.
#7
BP, you are, of course, correct. This, though, points up the major flaw with all the "climate" science models, theories and screaming.
The people in charge of the global warming/climate change/climate chaos scam have never been concerned with multiple variables, uncertainty and complexity.
Can't expect the world to pay you trillions unless you can sum it all up in a simple catch phrase.
#8
Thing is people quote GIGO (garbage in garbage out).
Climate models are actually a lot WORSE than this. Using model outputs to "predict" further into the future exponentially magnifies even small errors into vast ones.
the south asian monsoon is a big driver of the snow accumulation and thus the glaciation in the Himalayas
it is thought to have decadal cycles of strength but the causation isn't understood well
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/17/2012 10:00
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#10
We could have another Ice Age, and the global warming/climate change hucksters would still be defending their religion and asking for more government money to do so.
We WILL have another ice age. What we call "Ice Age" is the NORMAL state of climate over the past 3 to 5 million years. Glacial periods are about 100,000 years interspersed with 10 to 20 thousand year warm interglacial periods. We are nearing the end of this interglacial but due to the orbital mechanics, this one might be a fairly long one. We are due for a bit of an period of increasing polar insolation for another 5000 years or so before it drops considerably.
#12
I'll trust their models when they can feed it historical data, and produce historical results. Start with the last ice age and what cause ti to warm into what we have now. Or better yet, try to have the models show the Medieval Warm period, and then the "little Ice Age", based on climatic data during the preceding centuries of the Roman Empire and its decline.
Right now, it cannot. You give it historical data, based on what I have read, none of the models can show why the MWP happened (and why it abated), nor can any of them predict the Little Ice Age given the preceding centuries of data.
These so-called "scientists" need to open up their data (raw), their models and their research, completely, so someone can help them spot the flaws. until they have a model that can reliably predict the past with data from the past (and the known outcomes), they need to shut up about any prediction their stuff makes - false premises yield unproven and unfounded conclusions.
That's not science, its snake oil salesmanship. Sorry, I aint buying it and neither should anyone else.
#13
OldSpook, They just deny that the MWP or little ice age ever happened. At best they claim it was just some "local noise" in the system.
I reviewed some of the model code that was published in the "Climategate" release from UEA. Given 30 yrs in software it was very easy to see the lies and tricks the models use. I particularly like the one where they reference a sequential data set (in Fortran) to change any value that was too low for their needs.
#14
OldSpook, I do models for a living (such as it is). Do not, repeat do not trust any model based on computer simulations---too many variables can take too many values.
#17
g(r)omgoru, Some of that 30 yrs I mentioned was doing modeling too. The genesis of gigo. Modeling can be a big help if done for the right reasons with conservative techniques but they rapidly can get out of hand, can't they?
#18
Interestingly, in a recent paper co-authored by Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia, it was discovered that the LIA and the MWP also were evident in the Patagonia region of South America.
#19
I also do models for a living and what you want to do is use the same model to compare different scenarios. That way you remove the potential bias between the two or more alternatives. The relative difference is what is useful for making decisions.
For a map, click here. For a map of Durango state, click here.To read the Rantburg.com report on the abduction and murder of Ramiro Ortiz Aguirre click here
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
The Durango state Fiscalia General del Estado (FGE) or attorney general told an assembly of the state Chamber of Deputies that she takes responsibility for pulling the security detail only hours before her predecessor was kidnapped and murdered, according to Mexican news accounts
Sonia Yadira de la Garza Fragoso appeared last Friday before a session of the Durango state Chamber of Deputies to give a report on her department, following what she says is a final account of one of the worst mass graves in modern Mexican history.
Her predecessor, Ramiro Ortiz Aguirre, was kidnapped last March 28th near a shopping center in Durango city. He was later found shot to death near the village of Estacion El Chorro.
News accounts at the time of the discovery of the body mentioned Ortiz Aguirre's personal state-provided security detail had been mysteriously pulled only hours before he was abducted and later murdered. Those accounts failed to mention how or why the detail had been pulled.
In her presentation to Durango legislators, she did not elaborate her reasons for pulling the detail and stopped short of saying she personally ordered it pulled.
It was during the term of Ortiz Aguirre in April 2011 when the first of 331 dead were exhumed mostly around Durango city, but he resigned in June 2011 before he completed his concurrent term.
Exhumations continued throughout 2011 with the help of Mexican federal security forces, mainly Mexican Army units. The exhumations were completed in January 2012.
In her presentation, Yadira de la Garza Fragoso broke down the grim statistics of the mass graves.
331 individuals were found in total.
Of those, 303 were male, 22 were female, and the rest were unidentifiable.
Of the 13 graves uncovered, eight were found in Durango city totalling 301 dead. This total eclipses by 108 dead the mass graves uncovered in San Fernando municipality in Nuevo Leon the same spring-summer of 2011.
In Lerdo municipality two mass graves were uncovered with a total of 10 dead, six of whom have already been identified. Seven suspects were detained in connection with those dead.
In San Juan del Rio municipality nine dead were also found, one of whom was identified.
In Santiago Papasquiaro municipality eight dead were found, but none have been identified.
In Cuencame municipality three dead were found. Three suspects have been detained in connection with that grave.
258 were killed by strangulation
17 were killed by gunshot.
15 were killed by suffocation.
Seven were beaten to death.
34 died from indeterminate causes. When I go it's gonna be from indeterminate causes. It's so much more pleasant than being beaten to death...
Yadira de la Garza Fragoso also told legislators that the difference between national crime statistics and the state's were more than 1,000 murders were committed in Durango state, compared to 600.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[An Nahar] Israeli authorities were on Monday holding 47 foreigners pending deportation, out of 79 barred from entering the Jewish state because of their links to a pro-Paleostinian campaign, an official said.
"There are 47 people still awaiting deportation, including 37 Frenchies, eight Britons, an Italian and a Canadian," immigration official Sabine Haddad told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"Those who remain will be repatriated by the same airline companies that brought them to Israel as soon as there are places available for them," she added.
All 79 activists would be barred from entering Israel for five years, Haddad said.
Hundreds of Israeli police had been deployed at the airport from Saturday night in a bid to prevent the arrival of a wave of foreigners taking part in the "Welcome to Paleostine" fly-in campaign, also known as the "flytilla."
Organizers of the campaign, now in its third year, had been expecting to welcome up to 1,500 people, but Israel vowed to prevent them from entry, warning airlines they would be forced to foot the bill for the activists' immediate return home.
The organizers said in a statement on Monday that the jugged activists had begun a hunger strike "in solidarity with the April 17 Paleostinian Prisoners' Day on one hand and to renew the demand for their basic right to move freely in the occupied West Bank, especially to Bethlehem."
European airlines, under Israeli pressure, cancelled the tickets of at least 300 Tel Aviv-bound passengers, sparking angry protests in several European capitals.
According to Haaretz newspaper, over a third of the names presented to the airlines were added to the blacklist without any concrete evidence they were planning anything illegal.
Quoting a senior source familiar with the list, the paper said there was no evidence that 470 of the 1,200 names on it -- compiled by Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency -- were involved in "pro-Paleostinian activities" or affiliated with the "flytilla."
Police at the airport also placed in durance vile nine Israeli activists who had come to support the visitors.
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04/17/2012
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#1
"...and to renew the demand for their basic right to move freely in the occupied West Bank, especially to Bethlehem."
#2
Police at the airport also placed in durance vile (confinement) nine Israeli activists who had come to support the visitors.
Interesting. They would be known as "sponsors" here and offered free scholarships, healthcare, small business loans, and food stamps. Hat tip to the Israeli authorities.
[Emirates 24/7] The Syrian government said it could not be responsible for the safety of international ceasefire monitors unless it is involved in "all steps on the ground," government spokeswoman and presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban said on Sunday.
Shaaban said Syria reserved the right to refuse monitors, whose numbers it said will eventually rise to 250 as agreed with the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... , depending on their nationality.
"The duration of the work of observers and priorities of their movement will be in coordination with the Syrian government because Syria cannot be responsible for the security of these observers unless it coordinates and participates in all steps on the ground," she told news hounds in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... "Syria has the right ... to agree or not to agree on the nationalities of the observers," she added.
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[Bangla Daily Star] Nearly five months into his taking over as railway minister, Suranjit Sengupta resigned yesterday on the prime minister's instructions the night before, following the midnight recovery of Tk 70 lakh from the microbus of his close aide.
The money had allegedly been collected as bribe from railway job seekers.
"At the meeting with the prime minister on Sunday night, I told her that I wanted to relieve myself of the charge of the railway ministry, and she happily accepted it," a pale-looking Suranjit told a press briefing at the Rail Bhaban yesterday afternoon.
He said he had decided to step down taking full responsibility for scandal surrounding the cash haul. "As a minister, I'm responsible for all good and bad things in my ministry."
Only a couple of days ago, he had said he would not quit. Since the beginning of the cash haul affair from his assistant personal secretary's (APS) microbus on the night of April 9, he strongly defended his aide by saying he would not take action against the APS until the latter had been found guilty.
He also said the vehicle with the money was not heading for his Jigatola residence in the capital, contrary to the claims of the APS and two other railway officials travelling in the microbus.
But then, the Sunday night meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina led to a change of mind in him. Sources at the Prime Minister's Office told The Daily Star that Suranjit got a "clear signal" from the one-to-one meeting with the PM that he was no more expected to head the ministry.
Suranjit, who has a long 55-year political career, told the press that he would also stay away from politics until he came "clear" through investigation, terming it a "break" in his political career.
"I made the decision for the sake of a fair investigation and to set an example, acting beyond the existing practice, and to uphold democracy," an embattled Suranjit told a large crowd of journalists who gathered at the Rail Bhaban following hints that he might step down.
The seven-time parliamentarian from Sunamganj in the northeast region also hoped that the "truth" would emerge through the inquiry.
Earlier in the morning, Suranjit skipped the regular cabinet meeting. He went to his Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban office and prepared a draft which he read out at the briefing.
He went to the railway ministry around 12:45pm on a vehicle flying the national flag. But after the announcement of his resignation, he left the ministry in the same car without the national flag at 3:15pm.
Before leaving, he had a farewell meeting with the officials and employees of the ministry and exchanged greetings with them.
Suranjit, who had originally been left out of the cabinet after the general elections of December 2008 apparently because of his "compromising" role during the 2007-08 military-backed caretaker government, finally got a berth in the newly-formed rail ministry in December last year, about three years into the government's tenure.
After taking office, he appeared to be a crusader against corruption in the railway and his vow to "catch the black cat from the bag" made such a bang that his downfall came almost like a whimper, an absolute anti-climax.
And the beginning of the end of his short ministerial career was signalled when the driver of his APS swerved the vehicle into the BGB headquarters in Pilkhana on the night of April 9 and raised an alarm about the APS and two other railway officials -- the now-suspended general manager (East) Yusuf Ali Mirdha, and Dhaka Division security chief Enamul Huq -- carrying Tk 70 lakh in bribe money.
The money is said to be part of the bribe taken recently from job seekers for about 7,000 posts in the railway.
In a belated reaction, Suranjit on Sunday sacked the APS and suspended the GM and the security chief.
He also formed two committees to probe the scandal. But both the committees came under question as they were staffed by his personal secretary, a railway ministry joint secretary and the director general of railway, which is also under the ministry.
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[Yemen Post] Riot police forces managed to disperse on Monday protesters camping in front of the Tax Authority headquarters in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a.On Sunday, dozens of businessmen staged an open-ended sit-in protest in front of the Tax Authority HQ demanding that the tax sales law be canceled, corrupt officials be purged, and their confiscated goods be released. Prominent businessmen were at the forefront of protests including, Hassan al-Kabous, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief.
Police forces used tear gas bombs and fired shots in the sky in an effort to disperse the protesters, leaving at least some businessmen maimed of suffocation, local sources close to the government-owned building told Yemen Post anonymously.The maimed merchants were reported to have been raced to some hospitals in the capital.One merchant participating in the sit-in, Ali al-Hababi, said that the way the security forces dealt with them was barbaric especially given that their demonstrations were conducted in a peaceful, civil manner. "We are not Death Eaters to treat us like this, we only call for our rightful rights," he added.The Tax Department director, Mohammed Galeb, said on Sunday that groups of armed thugs are surrounding the department's headquarters, calling on security sources to assume its role and break the siege imposed on them.
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[Tripoli Post] The first six-strong advance party of observers from the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... are starting work in Syria Monday. They would make contact with the Syrian government and opposition, before beginning to monitor the fragile ceasefire. Another 24 will be arriving in Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... by the end of the week.
The advance party from the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) arrived in the capital Damascus on Sunday, a day after the UN Security Council passed a resolution authorising their deployment.
The monitors' first tasks will be to liaise with the government of Syria, the Syrian security forces and begin to reach out to the opposition so that all sides understand they've arrived, and that mission's pre-advanced team has begun its work in monitoring.
This follows the Security Council's authorisation for sending an advance team of up to 30 unarmed military observers to Syria to report on the implementation of a full cessation of armed violence, pending the deployment of a United Nations supervision mission that will be tasked with monitoring the ceasefire.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Hey, did you see that?
Yup.
What should we do?
I dunno? Write it down?
On what?
How about the back of this menu? Waiter, could you bring us another menu? And the wine list...
[An Nahar] The Israeli army will receive new tank shells developed to penetrate reinforced targets, a crucial means for the military of the Jewish state which faces future conflicts with Hizbullah and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday.
The new 120 mm. shell called M339 can be fired by Merkava Mk 3 and Mk 4 tanks at extended ranges, the newspaper said. The shell explodes only after it penetrates a target and then releases thousands of lethal fragments.
It was developed by Israel Military Industries together with the army's Ground Forces Command.
The Jerusalem Post said M339 is the second new tank shell purchased by the Israeli army in the past year. It joins the Kalanit, which was recently deployed in tanks stationed along the border with the Gazoo Strip.
Kalanit explodes midair over hard boyz hiding behind various obstacles such as boulders or vehicles.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#2
Standard anti-armor APFSDS do that by design, so what is so special about the new Israeli shell? Besides which, DU ignites after traveling a specific distance through reinforcement and the rod shatters into thousands of flaming white-hot BBs that ricochet like hell in a bunker.
#3
Tank shells are fired at high velocity and with flat trajectories. So they're going horizontally, more or less, and if they don't hit something sticking up, they just keep going.
Main gun on a tank is for killing other tanks. Secondarily for blowing up buildings. IIRC, the US M1 doesn't have HE. Sabot and HEAT, maybe a beehive if they're legal--anybody know?
So a mod like this is a big help, especially the one that has the shell exploding overhead.
Keep in mind that the Arabs have the numbers and the IDF has the scientists. It's a kill-ratio thing and stuff like this helps.
Especially if the building in question has an antitank missile crew.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
04/17/2012 8:44
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#5
Happened to think about the old Sheridan. It had a Shillelagh gun-missile launcher. It could launch a microwave-guided antitank missile, or an artillery shell.
Since the missile was the antitank weapon, there was no need for high velocity when firing the shell. So what they had was a fat, 152mm slow arty round. For direct fire in Viet Nam, they used HE and flechettes, one or the other as the targets were bunkers or troops in the open. Note that the area of a circle 152mm in diameter is about 60% greater than that of a circle 120mm in diameter. So if--if--the shell had the same length as the 120mm tank shell, the volume of explosive, flechetter, or anything else, would be much greater.
How, the Sheridan is too lightly armored to be used in this or practically any other circumstance, but the point is either the guns or the schematics are still around someplace. Skip the missile.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
04/17/2012 11:16
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[Yemen Post] Inmates of the Central Prison in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah continued their sit-in demonstration for the second day in protest over the delaying of their cases by courts and prosecutions. Police attempted to disperse the crowd with tear gas and firing live shots in the sky, leaving at least 40 prisoners maimed, 7 of whom are at death's doors.The injured inmates were rushed to the Saudi Hospital for treatment, local security source was quoted as saying.
The prisoners started their sit-in rally yesterday demanding that the authorities revamp the bad services and conditions of the prison, and that the prosecutions and courts stop neglecting their cases. The protesters also complain of bad health conditions that prompted infectious diseases to spread among them.The Riots police was called in to deal with the protesters. They used more than 25 tear gas bombs in a bid to disperse the prisoners after the provincial security chief, and the head of Hajjah prosecution failed to convince the them to stop their protests, the paper said, citing sources from the prison.Yesterday afternoon, one of the protesting prisoners attacked the jail director, Yahia al-Mualmi, by stabbing him right in the neck with a sharp dagger. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... al-Maualmi injury was described as light and his health condition as stable by doctors.We have been attacked in the presence of the provincial security chief and the provincial prosecutor as we refused to listen to them and stop our protests, a prisoner was quoted saying.The police presence was at least doubled in and around the prison and strict security measures were taken to foil any potential collective escape of prisoners after the riots today.
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[Tripoli Post] A latest presidential election poll in Egypt shows that disqualification of Mubarak's former spy chief and vice president Omar Suleiman ... Now former Vice president of Egypt. From 1993 until his appointment to that office in 2011 he was Minister without Portfolio and Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate (EGID)... could benefit Ahmed Shafiq and Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa ... who was head of the Arab League for about 400 dithering years ... A presidential election poll published Sunday and reported by alahramonline has shown that the disqualification of Omar Suleiman, Mubarak's former vice president and intelligence chief, from the presidential race could benefit Amr Moussa and Ahmed Shafiq, both of whom also previously served in Mubarak's government.
The poll, carried out by the state-owned Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, showed that Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister, was the second choice of 40.4 percent of voters who had been planning to vote for Suleiman before he was disqualified from the race Saturday by the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) for allegedly failing to secure the required number of recommendations from the governorate of Assiut.
Amr Moussa, who served as foreign minister for ten years during Mubarak's reign, received the next highest approval percentage from Suleiman supporters, with 27.4 percent.
The poll was carried out on April 7-10 from a sample of 1200 Egyptians from all governorates except those on the borders. The border regions heavily supported Salafist candidates during recent parliamentary elections.
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[Dawn] Federal Interior minister Rehman Malik, Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. while terming the Taliban as 'contract killers', said that the Taliban were involved in terrorist activities but called themselves 'Mohammedans', DawnNews reported on Monday. Picked right up on that, didn't he?
Speaking to media representatives in Islamabad, the interior minister said that Attack on Bannu jail was a pre-planned conspiracy.
The interior minister said that a new security strategy has been devised after the Bannu jail break incident.
Replying to a question about security situation in Chilas and Gilgit, Malik said that two suspects, who were allegedly involved in the violent activities, have been placed in durance vile.
"Curfew in Gilgit will be relaxed in the day-time," the interior minister added.
Talking about the security arrangement for the upcoming Bangladesh cricket team's visit to Pakistain, Malik said that tight security will be provided to the visiting team.
Was it the Sri Lankan team that was shot up on their bus a few years ago?
"Fans of cricket in the country will not be disappointed," the interior minister added.
Responding to a question regarding the issue of bin Laden' family, Malik said that interior ministry has no objections in sending the family members to their respective home countries.
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[Dawn] Authorities on Monday removed four bigwigs over a jail break in the restive northwest and launched a probe into whether it had any link to multiple attacks in Afghanistan.
The provincial government said a "total failure" of intelligence was to blame for the break-out, in which dozens of inmates including Talibs and death row prisoners decamped a prison after armed cut-throats attacked before dawn on Sunday.
More than 150 heavily-armed cut-throats stormed the jail outside the town of Bannu, near the lawless tribal region where Taliban and al Qaeda linked cut-throats have carved out their stronghold.
"It was a total failure of intelligence agencies," Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province, told a news conference.
The cut-throats came in dozens of vehicles, continued to operate for more than two hours and went back undetected, he said.
"We have removed the deputy superintendent of Bannu Jail, the city commissioner and two other senior coppers," he said, adding that a five-member committee had been set up to investigate the matter.
The provincial government has also taken note that the jail break in Pakistain coincided with multiple attacks by Taliban forces of Evil across the border in Afghanistan on Sunday.
Some 36 forces of Evil were killed nationwide as Afghan forces regained control of Kabul on Monday 18-hour after the Taliban assault, which left 11 members of the security forces and four civilians dead.
Hussain said "the committee will try to find out whether the jail break in Pakistain, claimed by local Taliban, had any link to coordinated attacks in Afghanistan." Senior Bannu police official Iftikhar Khan earlier told AFP that a total of 384 inmates had beat feet the jail, of whom 53 returned voluntarily while 11 others were tossed in the clink.
Most of those who beat feet were bully boys, including 34 prisoners on death row.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, front man for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) bully boy group, grabbed credit for the attack which he said was launched to free some of their key members.
The attack began around 1:00 am (2000 GMT Saturday) and continued for two hours, with cut-throats in cars and pick-up trucks shooting and throwing grenades to force their way into the prison, which held 944 prisoners.
A former member of the air force sentenced to death for an attack on former president Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... was among the beat feet bully boys, according to officials.
Adnan Rasheed was convicted after a bomb planted under a bridge in Rawalpindi near Islamabad in December 2003 went kaboom! moments after Musharraf's motorcade passed. His appeal is pending before the Supreme Court.
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[Dawn] The Shabaab-e-Mili Pakistain, a youth wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... (JI), on Sunday declared that youth of Pakistain would not allow reopening of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supply line.
The announcement was made at a youth convention organised by the Lower Dir chapter of Shabaab-e-Mili, which was attended by more than 1,500 youth and workers of the JI.
The JI central leader Sirajul Haq, Shabaab-e-Mili Pakistain chief Atique Rahman, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... chief Hafiz Ibrar, JI Dir amir and former MNA Maulana Asadullah, former MPA Muzafar Syed, Sahibzada Yaqub Khan, Syed Sultanat Yar and Nawab Bad Shah addressed the convention.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Siraj alleged the rulers had compromised the illusory sovereignty of the country for dollars and betrayed the blood of deaders. He said the JI and its youth would never allow anyone to sell illusory sovereignty and dignity of Pakistain. "We will block the NATO supply route with public support," he said, adding 'resumption of NATO supply line was against the wishes of the people'. Mr Siraj alleged the present government had committed record corruption in the last four years, hallowing foundations of Pakistain.
He said rivers in Malakand region had the capacity to produce 1,800 megawatt of electricity, adding despite these resources people of Malakand had been confronting massive power outages, over-billing and low voltage problems. He maintained that people of Malakand only utilised 135 megawatt of electricity.
The speakers asked youth to come forward and help the people of Pakistain get rid of corrupt rulers. They said Shabaab-e-Mili was an organization of youth working for welfare of orphans, widows and vulnerable communities in order to create a society based on justice and equality.
Meanwhile, ...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him... youth also sang patriotic songs and demonstrated acrobatics. Karate, 'aatish bazi' (fireworks) and 'kabotar bazi' (pigeon fighting) events were also held. Earlier, the participants held 'Istehkam-e-Pakistain' (strengthening Pakistain) rally and marched on Balambat-Timergara road from press club chowk to rest house chowk.
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Mexican Naval Infantry units have detained a total of nine suspects -- allegedly affiliated with the Jalisco Nueva Generacion drug cartel -- including two top leaders in three operations in Veracruz state, according to data provided by the Mexican Secretaria de Marina (SEMAR).
The three counternarcotics operations all took place in Boca del Río municipality, starting in Infonavit colony, where marines detained five suspects identified as José Manuel Sanchez Sanchez AKA Cunita, 42, Adriana Reyes Leal, 18, Noemi de la O. Rodriguez, 30, Martha Crisol Martínez Portillo AKA Tita, 22 and Levi Vergara Yepez AKA Coca, 25.
Marines also secured guns, munitions, quantities of crack cocaine and marijuana and one vehicle.
Based on an anonymous citizen's complaints and information developed from the Infovanit colony stop, marines were dispatched to Primero de Mayo where they detained two individuals on a motorcycle identified as Jorge Luis Feria Hernandez, 23 and José Francisco Torres Lopez, 27.
In Primero de Mayo, Mexican Marines also seized guns, drugs and other contraband, including a motorcycle.
SEMAR said that Jorge Luis Feria Hernandez was the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel's financial agent for the area.
A final operation took place in Nueva Era colony where Marines detained Noe Humberto Hernandez Perez AKA La P, 28 and a female companion, Claribel Casas Duran, 24.
SEMAR said that Hernandez Perez was the Jalisco Nueva Generacion's plaza leader for the Boca del Rio/Veracruz region. Weapons, drugs, ammunition and other contraband were seized in the aftermath of the arrest.
The Jalisco Nueva Generacion drug cartel's top leaders -- Erick Valencia Salazar, AKA El 85 and Nemesio Oseguera, AKA El Mencho -- were detained in a Mexican Army operation earlier last month in Jalisco state, the aftermath of which saw massive numbers of roadblocks and gun battles between cartel operatives and Mexican security forces in Guadalajara, Jalisco, the cartel's home turf. To read the Rantburg.com report on the Mexican Army operation in Guadalajara last month, click here
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) A federal trial involving more than a dozen defendants accused in a sex trafficking ring run by Somali gangs is being complicated by cultural issues within the Somali refugee communities in Tennessee and Minnesota.
Somalia gangs in Nashville. Cultural issues therein. Really?
U.S. District Judge William J. Haynes again this week ordered jurors to return on Monday as defense attorneys argued that the defendants, many of whom are refugees from Somalia, were juveniles at the time the alleged crimes occurred.
So send them to the Department of Children and Family Services branch office in Mogadishu...
The indictment said three gangs called the Somali Outlaws, the Somali Mafia and the Lady Outlaws were forcing teenage girls into prostitution and operated in St. Paul, Minn.; Minneapolis; Columbus, Ohio; and Nashville.
But the gang members were juveniles, you see, and thus didn't know that forcing their fellow teenage girls into prostitution was wrong. It's a cultural thing, you wouldn't understand...
After selecting a jury last month, the trial was delayed last week when prosecutors turned over thousands of documents and audio recordings from the investigation to defense attorneys on the eve of trial. Both defense attorneys and federal prosecutors have repeatedly declined to comment about the case.
"We will say no more!"
"It can be frustrating to have delays, but it is understandable because the case is so complex," said Derri Smith, executive director of End Slavery Tennessee, who will be an expert witness in the case. "I have the utmost confidence that the judge and jury will bring justice about in the case, but it's challenging for all of them."
What's challenging about teen-aged prostitution? Either they did it or they didn't. Either they were 'youts' or they weren't.
The indictment, which was originally unsealed in 2010 and amended by a superseding indictment in 2011, says the defendants, many of them from the Somali immigrant communities in Minneapolis and Nashville, were members or associates of the three gangs. Four unidentified victims, some of who were under the age of 14, are listed in the indictment. The indictment accuses the gangs of finding and recruiting young girls for the purpose of prostitution in exchange for money and drugs between 2000 and 2010.
Out of the 30 individuals listed in the indictment, only 14 are going to trial this month in Nashville on charges of conspiracy to commit sexual trafficking of children by force, fraud or coercion and charges related to the sexual trafficking. Many of the individuals have remained in federal custody since their arrests in 2010.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Van Vincent declined to say why the government dropped some of the counts related to one of the victims shortly before the trial was scheduled to start. However, another victim, who is identified only as Jane Doe (hash)2, is expected to testify in the trial that is expected to take at least two months.
Smith has been working with Jane Doe (hash)2 in the case and said testifying against other Somalis will be very difficult for the victim, but she wants to have her voice heard.
"In the case of Jane Doe (hash)2, she, as a minor, would typically be in a closed court, but she wants to have her story known and she wants to speak in public," Smith said.
Many, but not all the defendants, are described as refugees who came to the United States as young children. Police have relied on immigration paperwork to determine their ages, but defense attorneys have argued in court that information in those documents are routinely incorrect due to cultural and language issues.
That doesn't mean that they can't be prosecuted...
One defendant, Abdirahman Abdirazak Hersi, has a date of birth listed in police records as Feb. 20, 1990, but his mother testified in court Wednesday that he had been born in Somalia on Dec. 1, 1991, and that her sister was incorrectly listed as his mother in immigration records.
Thanks Ma. Your boy is still an adult, a gang member, and a pimp.
His attorney has asked the judge to dismiss some of the charges against his client because he would have been a juvenile at the time of the offenses and he never had a juvenile status hearing that would determine whether he would face the charges as an adult.
We can settle that in about three minutes...
Two other defendants are making similar arguments.
Courts in Minnesota, the state with the largest Somali population in the U.S., have seen similar issues in cases where defendants or victims are Somali.
There are no birth records in Somalia, and no government to keep such records even if they did exist. Meanwhile, birthdays aren't as significant to the Somali culture as they are to Americans, and aren't routinely celebrated.
Hashi Shafi, a Somali community leader in Minneapolis and head of Somali Action Alliance, said many Somalis know the year in which they were born, but not the month or date. Birthdates were assigned to many when they went to refugee camps and needed an exact date of birth so they could go to another country.
Sounds good to me. That's your birthday. And remember, we can charge you as an adult for certain crimes even if you're "15"...
"You could have a whole family of 10, the father, the mom and all of the kids, and all of them born on Jan. 1, because they could not come up with the date exactly when they were born, but they know exactly the year," Shafi said.
Dan Scott, a former federal defender in Minnesota who has handled complex terrorism cases, said witnesses often worry about the ramifications of testifying, especially in immigrant communities that.
"When you are dealing with an insular community, especially whose native language is not English, people are going to worry about the ramifications of testifying in court against community members," Scott said. "The Somali community is a very insular community in Minnesota everybody knows everybody.
"It shouldn't be any surprise that this is happening in a case like this," Scott said.
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#1
...as defense attorneys argued that the defendants, many of whom are refugees from Somalia, were juveniles at the time the alleged crimes occurred.
Undoubtedly the same class of attorneys who argue that curfew laws should be struck down because juvies should have adult rights. Do adult crimes, do adult time.
Following the second week and the first full week of campaigning, polling data shows that Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto continuing to hold a commanding lead over his rivals, more than 20 points over Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota, according to Milenio news daily.
Enrique Pena Nieto
Vazquez Mota's campaign, already suffering from campaign and press gaffes in the first few days of the campaign, has begun to alter its basic strategy by going negative on Pena Nieto, with ads that began to show up on the internet almost a week ago. The results from the change in strategy has yet to appear, or if it has, it has had scant effect on voters' preferences.
Josefina Vazquez Mota
Last week's polling data showed Vazquez Mota with 30 points and Pena Nieto with 50 percentage points. A week later Pena Nieto's polling position has increased two points while Vazquez Mota's has declined by 1.5 percentage points. Vazquez Mota's rival, leftist coalition candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is trailing at 18 percent, down one percentage point from a week ago.
PAN's new found strategy is partly because of the efforts of PAN president Gustavo Madero Munoz, who was brought on board the PAN campaign last week along with Ernesto Cordero. Madero presided over the general collapse of PAN's fortunes in several state elections last summer, one of which -- in Mexico state -- saw the PRI candidate for governor overwhelm his rivals by a factor of almost three to one.
Gustavo Madero Munoz
Madero's efforts later that year in Michoacan yielded a much closer race, though PAN still lost Michoacan to PRI. That election, held last November, was touted by some news organizations as a bellwether for PRI fortunes in 2012. The PRI candidate won by a razor-thin less than 42,000 votes, and PRI failed to capture a majority in the state Chamber of Deputies.
Madero at the time had the advantage of PRI president Humberto Moreira, a leader so flawed and troubled it was hard to see how PRI even won in Michoacan. Moreira was replaced in December by Pedro Coldwell, a far more formidable leader, as it has turned out.
This time round Madero has no similar advantage, and the new negative campaign, which focusses on Pena Nieto's poor record while governor of Mexico state, could well backfire on PAN.
Even so, Madero apparently is aware that under the right circumstances going negative can work, although it may not win Los Pinos for PAN.
The Mexican general elections will be held July 1st, or about 75 days from now.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Yemen Post] The Military Committee, formed in line with the GCC-brokered deal and headed by Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, underlined on Monday the primary importance of expedient reshuffle of the armed and security forces in the country.During its meeting held today in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a and attended by the US ambassador Gerald Feierstein and US technical delegation, the committee noted that the quick reformation of the army is an urgent strategic and vital need for the success of the GCC-accord, its mechanism, and the UN resolution about Yemen.The members of the committee further stressed the importance for enhancing the coordination and cooperation between the various military institutions as well as the two ministries of defense and interior in order to be able to foil any terrorist attack and restore security and stability in the country.For his part, Feirestein has hailed the steps taken by the military committee so far which has helped defuse tensions, and enhance military cooperation between Yemen and the ten states sponsoring the GCC deal, including the US.In this angle, Hadi sacked dozens of military commanders days ago, but some of fired generals are still defiant to date to his presidential decrees, stipulating that other commanders be simultaneously dismissed as well.Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, the dismissed Air Force chief and former President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... 's half brother, refused to hand over the command to his appointed successor. In response, Hadi has ordered yesterday that he stand marshal tribunal.
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[An Nahar] Syrian forces were locked in fierce shootouts Monday with rebels in one city and shelled another, as the U.N. chief urged "maximum restraint" after the arrival of observers to oversee a truce aimed at ending 13 months of bloodshed.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... 's forces killed at least 45 civilians and were fighting rebels at Idlib in the northwest, while also shelling the flashpoint central city of Homs, said the Local Coordination Committees and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Twenty-three non-combatants were killed in Idlib, nine in Hama, six in Homs, three in Daraa, two in al-Qameshli, one in Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins... and one in the Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... suburb of Douma, the LCC said.
Since a U.N.-backed ceasefire came into force at dawn Thursday, at least 55 people, mostly civilians, have died in violence that prompted U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... to urge Syria to ensure the truce does not collapse, the Observatory said.
It said on Monday that 11,117 people have been killed in 13 months of unrest -- 7,972 civilians and 3,145 military and gunnies, including fewer than 600 rebel fighters.
In Brussels, Ban called on Damascus to exercise "maximum restraint" and the opposition to "fully cooperate" to cement the shaky ceasefire.
An advance team of six international observers arrived in Damascus late on Sunday, the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... said.
The delegation -- the first of 30 monitors the U.N. Security Council approved on Saturday -- will set up a headquarters and prepare routines to verify a cessation of hostilities.
"They've arrived and they will start work (on Monday) morning," U.N. peacekeeping department front man Kieran Dwyer said. "The other monitors in the advance party are still expected in Syria in coming days."
The remainder would come from around the Middle East and Africa "so we can move people quickly and they are experienced in the region," he told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Their mission is just one part of the six-point peace plan that Syria agreed with U.N.-Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... envoy Kofi Annan ...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo... The former U.N. chief wants more than 200 observers to be deployed in Syria, but the Security Council has said there would be a full mission only if the violence halts.
The United States warned on Monday that heightened violence in Syria threatens the sending of the full mission.
New attacks by government forces "call into question the wisdom and viability" of sending the full force, said the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice.
The observers were welcomed by Syria, which hoped they would see for themselves the "crimes" committed by "armed terrorist groups," said the state news agency SANA.
They face a perilous task, with Western nations doubting Assad's commitment to the ceasefire amid reports his forces have kept battering rebel strongholds and clashed with rebels.
A spike in deadly violence forced the vaporous Arab League to end its own Syrian monitoring mission in late January, barely a month after sending observers.
Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, told a presser in Rome on Monday that the chances for success for the Annan peace plans were "no higher than three percent."
On Monday, security forces killed two civilians when they fired on a car in Hama, while a third passenger later died of wounds, said the Observatory.
In the same province, security forces killed a 16-year-old youth after it shot up random in the village of Khatab, said the Observatory.
Elsewhere, fierce shootouts broke out at dawn between forces loyal to Assad and rebels in the northwestern city of Idlib, is said.
Four civilians were rubbed out by security forces during the shootout.
Security forces also rubbed out a civilian in the town of Inkhel, southern Daraa province, where the uprising against Assad's iron-fisted rule erupted in March 2011.
Regime forces resumed shelling rebel neighborhoods of Khaldiyeh and Bayyada in the central city of Homs, killing three people, the Observatory said.
The authorities on Sunday charged that rebels had "intensified" attacks on security forces and civilians, warning of a response, as state media published a list of alleged acts of violence.
Ban voiced concern over the shelling of Homs.
"I am very much concerned about what has happened since yesterday and today," he said. "It is important, absolutely important, that the Syrian government should take all the measures to keep this cessation of violence."
China and Russia, which raised earlier reservations over the text of the peacekeepers resolution and had vetoed past resolutions, backed Saturday's vote at the Security Council that approved the monitoring mission.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, meanwhile, was due to arrive Monday in Beijing to brief Chinese officials about the U.N.-brokered truce, China's state Xinhua news agency said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... Syrian tribes opposed to Assad said Monday they would join forces in an "Assembly of Tribes," Syrian opposition members and media reported.
"Today we proclaim, as children of all tribes, an Assembly of Tribes," opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) member Mahmut al-Maslat said in a statement read out on behalf of the assembly.
Anonymous diplomatic source tells South Korea's state news agency 12 Iranian officials observed the failed missile launch last week in North Korea.
A dozen Iranian nuclear experts visited North Korea last week to observe its failed rocket launch on Friday, South Korean state news agency Yonhap's Washington correspondent reported on Sunday.
"On March 31, 12 Iranians of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG) arrived in North Korea. "The Iranians undoubtedly were there to observe the missile launch and receive test data from North Korea," the correspondent quoted a diplomatic source, who wished to remain anonymous, as saying.
Defying international pressure, Pyongyang launched a long range missile, but U.S. and South Korean officials said it crashed into the sea a few minutes after launch, dealing a blow to the reclusive state
The launch of the three-stage Unha-3 rocket took place at 7:39 A.M. local time on Friday, according to South Korean officials. Pyongyang has claimed that the launch was meant to place a communications satellite in space, but the U.S., Japan, South Korea and other nations view it as part of North Korea's attempt to advance its military ballistic missile capacity.
The launch was timed to celebrate the 100th birthday of Kim Il-sung, the dear departed founder of the state, and to coincide with the ascent to power of his grandson Kim Sonny Jong-un.
North Korea admitted its long-range rocket failed to deliver a satellite into orbit on Friday, and the U.S. condemned the provocative action as a threat to regional security.
#1
ION SPACEWAR > NORTH KOREA SEEKS LEVERAGE WID NEW MISSLE:ANALYSTS.
Dont fergit the Nukalaar tests(s).
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA GAVE NORTH KOREA MISSLE LAUNCHER, VIOLATED UN RESOLUTION ITSELF.
* WORLD NEWS > [DNA India] HUMILIATED NORTH KOREA COULD SAVE FACE WID NUCLEAR DEVICE.
Prob is, few iff any Perts in the US-West believe that the DPRK's MilTech + Nucprogs os outside of China's oversight + control.
RUSSIA SAID IT BLUNTLY = NORTH KOREA'S NUCPROGS, ETC. IS [actually] CONTROLLED BY CHINA.
See below, in part.
* SAME > CHINA'S DILEMMA OVER NORTH KOREA LAUNCH.
* SAME > [Yahoo News] CAUSE OF NORTH KOREA'S ROCKET FAILURE MAY REMAIN A MYSTERY.
IMO Artic read, TOO DANGEROUS TO PUBLICLY REVEAL FOR 50 YEARS [or more].
versus
* RUSSIA TODAY > CHINA + US LOCK-N-LOAD AHEAD OF [coming?] SHOWDOWN IN PACIFIC.
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > PRESIDENT OF PALAU/BELAU REQUESTS FOR US MILITARY BASES TO BE BUILT ON ISLAND, CLAIMS THAT FORMERLY DETAINED, NOW-RELEASED CHINESE FISHERMEN INTENTIONALLY BURNED OR DESTROYED ANY REAL EVIDENCE OF ILLEGAL SPYING OR FISHING.
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > PRC FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN LIU WEMIN: CHINA DEMANDS PHILIPINE SURVEY/ARCHAEOLOGICAL SHIP LEAVE WATERS OF HUANGYAN ISLAND [Scarborough Shoal].
* SAME > INFAMOUS TOKYO GOVERNOR SHINTARO ISHIHARA SAYS JAPAN SHOULD BUY DAOYUS [Japan = Senkakus] FROM REAL "LANDOWNER". DITTO FOR OTHER DISPUTED ISLANDS IN EAST CHINA SEA.
HMMMM, HMMMMMM, well, its not clear in the Artic iff 'ole Ishihara is referring to CHINA per se [prolly is], or perhaps highly trained renegade Shaolin Monks turned Island-owning Syndicate Boss ala Bruce Lee's "ENTER THE DRAGON"???
#2
Any missile work has got to be a cooperative effort between Iran and the Norks. And any nuclear scientists are there to work on a nuclear bomb, not to help with a rocket launch.
[Yemen Post] Commander of the Air Forces Mohammed Saleh Al-Ahmar held a meeting on Monday with the former president President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... in Sanhan, an outskirt of the Capital Sana'a and the birthplace of both men, well informed sources have said.
The sources said Al-Ahmar left Al-Dailami Air Base on Monday escorted by 20 military vehicles of the Elite Republican Guards.
The meeting came after media sources reported that President Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi gave Al-Ahmar an ultimatum of 48 hours to hand over the command of Air Forces to the newly-appointed commander Rashid Al-Janad.
The sources said Hadi threatened Al-Ahmar on Sunday with stripping him from military rank and bring him to a military court in case he continued his rebellion against his decree.
Al-Ahmar had refused a decree of Hadi issued ten days ago and sent gunnies to surround Sana'a International Airport. His gunnies threatened to target civil airplanes, so flights were canceled for an entire day in the wake of the decree.
According to officers of the Air Forces, gunnies of Al-Ahmar looted weapon and equipment stocks of the Air Forces. They expressed fears that these weapons could be handed over to terrorist groups.
Media sources had said that Saleh ordered Al-Ahamar to refuse the decree in an attempt to hamper and issue of dismissing his son Ahemed who leads the Republican Guard.
The sources affirmed that Al-Ahmar's health badly deteriorates, he wanted to not rebel against Hadi, and that Saleh put pressures against him to rebel.
Well-informed sources told Yemen Post on Sunday that Hadi ordered to refer Al-Ahamar to a military court, pointing out that Hadi believes that Saleh is behind the chaos in the air force and the looting of military equipment.
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[Dawn] US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Woman to Call at 3 a.m. and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John C. Calhoun ... spoke to Pakistain's foreign minister about their shared responsibility to confront faceless myrmidons following Sunday's attacks in Afghanistan, the State Department said in a statement on Monday.
Afghanistan's Taliban attacked Kabul on Sunday with heavy kabooms, rockets and gunfire in one of the most serious assaults on the capital in the past decade.
Clinton and Pak Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar "discussed the cowardly attacks in Afghanistan," the statement said.
"(Clinton) underscored our shared responsibility for robust action ... to confront and defeat Islamic fascistiand violent orcs."
Clinton, who was visiting Brazil's capital, also discussed the "next steps in the US-Pak dialogue" following the conclusion of a Pak parliamentary review, State Department Victoria Nuland said.
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#1
Prediction:
Joe Biden schedules a Labor Day 2012 press conference at which he announces his intention to decline the 2012 Obama VP run and retire to spend more time with the family and his writing.
The Hildebeast then becomes the Obama 2012 VP running mate, and follow-on 2016 Democratic candidate.
#3
That does seem plausible, Besoeker. Certainly President Obama will need a woman to offset the pooch-screwing Ms Rosen did on his behalf in that direction, and our honourable secretary of state brings her own voters to the table
#4
A reasonable concept, Besoeker, assuming those Vince Foster conspiracy theories are pure fantasy. Given the recent Secret Service behavior, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with the bet, if I was Zero.
#5
Not to say that a new VP may not be selected. But it won't happen that late in the campaign. Labor Day? It'd be essentially announcing "the Obama campaign is in disarray" to both the voters and the international community.
If it did happen, it would have to happen before or during the convention.
[An Nahar] Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... on Monday confirmed that a female national had been kidnapped in Mali's Timbuktu, the fabled city seized by Islamists following after a coup in the west African nation.
A statement by the federal department of foreign affairs (FDFA) in Bern said that authorities were in contact with the woman's family and "were making every effort to ensure the kidnap victim is released unharmed," but did not identify her.
Local reports said she was a Christian woman in her 40s named Beatrice who had lived in the ancient city for years and was active in the local community.
Officials at the Swiss government's Agency for Cooperation and Development office in Bamako and at the Swiss embassy in Dakar, which is also responsible for Mali, are in touch with local authorities, the FDFA said.
The government said it had advised its nationals to leave the country temporarily following the March 22 coup and had been advising against travelling to Mali since December 2009 because of a higher risk of kidnappings.
"Because of the deteriorating security situation following the military coup and the advance of the rebels in the north of the country, since March 30 the FDFA has advised the Swiss nationals living in Mali to leave the country temporarily," it said.
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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.
Cheniere Energy Inc. won federal approval to build the largest U.S. natural-gas export terminal....
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) on Tuesday revealed two cases of terrorists who were released in the Gilad Schalit deal who have already returned to committing acts of terror.
Australia is set to bring its troops home from Afghanistan a year earlier than planned with most soldiers withdrawn in 2013, reports said on Tuesday.
Now O'Keefe is back, defiant as ever. His new video shows Project Veritas going into poll locations in DC on April 3, being offered ballots for Ben Jealous, President & CEO of the NAACP; one Bill Maher; and David Brock (Project Veritas says they could not verify whether the David Brock for which they were offered a ballot was the same David Brock as the Media Matters president). 
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
International Criminal Court
One of 
cycle of violence
US drones targeted al-Qaeda an vehicle in the southeastern Yemeni province of Shabwa with five strikes, sources told Yemen Post.The drone targeted the
The UN Security Council strongly condemned 
[Tripoli Post] A 14-minute YouTube video that analysts say has revealed the Nigerian President's miscalculation of the
[Dawn] The 
Pervez 
(Sh.M.Network)- A former A
A prominent leader in the pro-secessionist Southern Movement (SM), Tariq al-Fadhali, said he asked Yemeni former President 
[Dawn] At least five people, including two activists of the 
[An Nahar] Israeli authorities were on Monday holding 47 foreigners pending deportation, out of 79 barred from entering the Jewish state because of their links to a pro-Paleostinian campaign, an official said.
Inmates of the Central Prison in the northern Yemeni province of Hajjah continued their sit-in demonstration for the second day in protest over the delaying of their cases by courts and prosecutions. Police attempted to disperse the crowd with tear gas and firing live shots in the sky, leaving at least 40 prisoners 
Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
Federal Interior minister 
Enrique Pena Nieto
Josefina Vazquez Mota
Gustavo Madero Munoz
[An Nahar] Syrian forces were locked in fierce 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Commander of the Air Forces Mohammed Saleh Al-Ahmar held a meeting on Monday with the former president 
Hillary Clinton
