Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/19/2012 15:40
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#2
> WW2 was all but officially over.
> UK's Local or Regional Allies may need 'em vee the West-recognized, looming post-War new Soviet threat.
> War-damaged UK saved a bundle of $$$ on international return shipping costs.
#3
Fully expect the MoD to take a page from the US DoD and claim the aircraft belong to the gov't AFTER they have been recovered using private funds.
please hope he has had a good lawyer work this angle before he turns another shovel of dirt.
#4
Amazing. The ingenuity and tenacity of our WWII generation, on either side of "The Pond" just never fails to astound.
My Dad (from W. Massachusetts)served during the China-Burma-India (CBI) campaign as a 20 year old Signal Corp technician. He came close to dying from Malaria twice before being sent Stateside.
Dad is still "hanging in there" at 87 in a care-facility in NJ-with mid-stage Alzheimer's.
I'd download everything available on this story tonight and head up to see him in Jersey in the morning if he were able to recognize me or remember his connection to CBI. As much as I hate I-95N/S, and my own physical limitations, I might just do that anyway...
I will continue to follow this and to stay plugged-in. Better than the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 IMHO...
-cz-
A woman injured while having sex in a hotel room is entitled to workers' compensation, an Australian federal judge ruled today.
The unnamed employee of ComCare the government agency in charge of monitoring occupational health and safety met a friend while on a business trip in November 2007, and the two were "going hard" in her hotel room according to the woman's male companion, when a light fixture suddenly fell on them.
The woman's compensation claim for facial and psychological injuries was rejected by her employer.
"If the applicant had been injured while playing a game of cards in her motel room she would have been entitled to compensation," Justice John Nicholas stated in his decision. "In the absence of any misconduct or an intentionally self inflicted injury, the fact that the applicant was engaged in sexual activity rather than some other lawful recreational activity does not lead to any different result."
The ruling reverses a lower court's decision to deny the claim on the basis that sex was "not an ordinary incident of an overnight stay like showering, sleeping, eating."
But, not to worry! The envirowackos have not yet given up!
A coalition of nine environmental groups said Monday afternoon that a defeat at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission earlier in the day would be only a temporary setback in its legal fight to halt construction of the nation's first commercial reactors in three decades.
The coalition is challenging the NRC licenses to build and operate two reactors at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, GA. It has asked the NRC to stop work at the $14 billion project while a federal appeals court in Washington decides the legal challenge to the licenses.
Coalition members say the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that crippled four commercial reactors in Fukushima, Japan, shows that Vogtle is more dangerous to people and the environment than was originally understood. They got neutrons, man! And alpha particles! Waynesboro is about 110 miles from the ocean as the seagull flies. It'd be one big honkin' tsunami to get that far...
The NRC says it had considered the Japanese experience when it issued the licenses in February after reviewing its task force report. "We ultimately accepted the staff's position that our regulatory approach and our regulated plants' capabilities 'allow the task force to conclude that a sequence of events like the Fukushima accident is unlikely to occur in the United States and [that] continued operation and continued licensing activities do not pose an imminent threat to public health and safety,'" wrote NRC Secretary Annette Vietti-Cook in Monday's unanimous commission decision. Get that? Unanimous.
The commission denied the environmental coalition's request because it found that the challenge was not certain to win in court.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/19/2012
09:03 ||
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#1
Neutrons. I knew that.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/19/2012 12:53
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#2
Fixed :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/19/2012 12:58
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Coalition members say the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that crippled four commercial reactors in Fukushima, Japan, shows that Vogtle is more dangerous to people and the environment than was originally understood.
Yeah, Waynesboro The Bird Dog Capital of the World is real susceptible to earhquakes and tsunamis.
#4
Where does this "the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy" get its money so we can apply "grass roots" pressure to those sources of funds to get them to tell these people to knock it off?
#5
I don't + have never believed that Nippon was serious about stopping its NucEnergyProgs - LIKE GOOD POLITICIANS, AT WORST TOKYO WILL PCORRECTLY STOP THE NUCENERGYPROG TEMPORARILY BEFORE RESTARTING IT AGAIN LATER.
"GLOBALISM" + OWG-NWO = akin to PROTO SPACE GOVT-ORDER.
OWG-NWO + "GREEN TECHS" is about getting Earth + Global Consumers, Industries, + Govt-Private Institutions, etc. organized + "penny-pinching" or "cutting back" on $$$ + Scarce Resources, etc. in support of Deep Space Exploration + Colonization, NOT ABOUT GETTING RID OF NUCLEAR POWER FOR PUBLIC, PRIVATE SECTOR UTILITY.
#6
Considering the hideous death toll from the Three Mile Island incident, I don't see how the NRC can do this. What? None? Not a soul? Well, I guess it's OK then.
Sudan's president says he will not surrender an inch of land as he vows to retake oil-rich Heglig from South Sudan.
Sudan's president has said he will "cut" the hand of aggressors and retake the disputed oil-producing Heglig region as his country continues to clash with its southern neighbour South Sudan.
Omar al-Bashir told a rally in Sudan's North Kordofan state on Thursday he would not surrender "an inch" of the country and that he would firmly deal with the enemies.
"We will not give them an inch of our country, and whoever extends his hand on Sudan, we will cut it," Bashir told thousands of people in El-Obeid, North Kordofan's capital.
"Heglig is in Kordofan," he said in the speech broadcast on state television, dancing and waving his walking stick. The region accounts for 50 per cent of Sudan's oil production.
Al Jazeera's Peter Greste, reporting from Bentiu, South Sudan, said officials in Juba, the country's capital, had dismissed Bashir's statements as rhetoric.
"They [Sudanese authorities] never really accepted the cessation of the South", Barnaba Benjamin, the South Sudanese minister of information, told our correspondent, referring to the referendum that led to South Sudan becoming an independent state.
Benjamin said the South was not interested in war with Sudan and that "all they're trying to do is defend South Sudan's territorial integrity".
The war of words between Tehran and the six-members of the Gulf Cooperation Council over three disputed islands continues to escalate.
Iran's ground forces commander warned the military is ready for action should diplomacy fail, state TV reported on Thursday.
General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said Iranian forces are "capable of confronting any offender: against Iran's sovereignty over the strategic Abu Musa island in the Persian Gulf.
It was the first time an Iranian military commander commented on the issue since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week made a controversial visit to Abu Musa.
"We do not allow any country to carry out an invasion," Pourdastan said. "If these disturbances are not solved through diplomacy, the military forces are ready to show the power of Iran to the offender. Iran will strongly defend its right."
Abu Musa is situated on the approach to the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz through which much of the world's exportable oil flows.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards and US Navy warships are both currently patrolling the narrow waterway, which Iran has threatened to close should Western pressure continue to mount.
The Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet has said any attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz would be regarded as an "act of war."
Iran took control of tiny Abu Musa and two nearby islands the Greater and Lesser Tunb in 1971, after British forces left the region.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/19/2012 13:54
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And once again, Virginia, we relearn again again the importance of BASE-TOO-FAR QATAR TO THE USDOD, NOSTRADAMUS, MADONNA VIDEOS + TEXAS-SIZED ASTEROIDS.
A Toronto Islamic center has removed links on its website that led people to other sites featuring speakers who preach intolerance and terrorism. Its organizers insist they were unaware of any connection to Islamic radicalism.
Since January, the Walk-in Islamic Infocentre has been placing controversial posters in various TTC stations. The ads state that "There is no god but Allah" and advertise the center's website, which had at least two links to other sites featuring Islamic lecturers, including two now banned in Toronto and the U.K. for making pro-terror and anti-Semitic comments. The center removed three of the seven links on its site.
Links to the Islamic Research Foundation, Peace TV and the Muslim World League's Canadian office were taken down as of Wednesday morning, shortly after QMI Agency ran a story about the website.
A spokesman for the center insisted organizers were unaware of the controversial speakers. One was Dr. Zakir Naik, a well-known Indian lecturer who once praised the actions of Osama bin Laden and said "every Muslim should be a terrorist."
Joseph, who spoke on behalf of the center but refused to give his last name said that including those links on the website was a move based on both "stupidity" and "innocence".
"They didn't have a clue. If they had ... they would have said 'Get rid of that' ... They don't align themselves with anything other than (giving) out free information on Islam. That is all they do," he said.
Meir Weinstein of the Jewish Defense League accused those who run the center of "covering up" after the negative attention. Weinstein, along with officials from Canadian Hindu Advocacy, is planning a campaign against the TTC for allowing the ads. He said, "We know who they are, (and) the spotlight was on them. We have to constantly investigate these people."
The TTC has maintained since there is nothing illegal or contrary to the transit commission's policies in the ads, it would be discriminatory to remove them.
A woman who worked as an assistant nurse was gunned down while at a village market in Pattani province on Wednesday.
Wanna Sornsuwan, 29, an assistant nurse of Yupparaj Sai Buri Hospital, was among the crowd buying food at the Ban Kayi market. A terrorist man approached her and fired three shots at her with a .38 pistol, seriously injuring her. The terrorist gunman then ran to Ms Wanna's motorcycle and fled on it. Ms Wanna was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Police are examining images from the security cameras.
A school building was burned down by a terrorist an arsonist in Narathiwat province on Wednesday night, and police blamed separatist terrorists militants.
The two-story building as set ablaze at about 8:20 p.m. while members of the village security team guarding the school were at the village mosque for prayers. Traces of fuel oil were found at two spots at the burned building.
Pol Col Prayong said while he was traveling in a pick-up truck to the school after the attack to examine the scene, a bomb buried in the road was remotely detonated by terrorists militants hiding in a roadside rubber plantation. The blast made a crater in the road about one meter deep and 2.5 meters wide, but his vehicle escaped with only slight damage.
None of the police on board, including himself, were hurt, the district police chief said.
Police say a series of morning blasts in the Iraqi capital and the northern city of Kirkuk has killed 15 people.
Police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir says nine people died in three rapid-fire explosions across the ethnically-mixed Kirkuk on Thursday. The city is located 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
At almost the same time, attacks rocked three Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, killing six people.
Police say more than 30 people have been wounded in the two cities.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All Baghdad officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
A Hezbollah commander accused of targeting U.S. soldiers in Iraq may be released from prison within weeks, his lawyer predicted Wednesday, claiming that flimsy American evidence has kept his client behind bars for nearly five years.
There is an alternative way of handling this...
The case has been a thorn in diplomatic relations between Baghdad and Washington since the American military pullout last December. U.S. terror experts have described Ali Mussa Daqduq as among "the worst of the worst" militants and would remain a severe threat to Americans if freed.
Daqduq's attorney, Abdul-Mahdi al-Mitairi, said he expects Iraqi courts to agree that there is not enough evidence to keep him in prison.
"Legally, the investigation judge should have already released him for a lack of evidence, but he was under pressure from the Americans," al-Mitairi said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press.
"Now we are waiting for the case to be transferred to a criminal court in the coming few weeks, and I think he will be released after the first trial session," al-Mitairi said.
Daqduq is a Lebanese commander for Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group linked to numerous deadly attacks. U.S. officials say he trained Shiite militias in Iraq and helped plot the 2007 killing of four American soldiers in the holy city of Karbala, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad.
Daqduq was captured later that year and held in U.S. custody in Iraq as officials tried to decide where to charge him. When the American military left Iraq late last December, U.S. officials were forced to hand over Daqduq to Iraqi authorities -- despite fears in Washington that he would be quietly freed by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
An al-Qaeda leader has suicide bombed himself, his wife and two children following a skirmish with the Iraqi troops, an Iraqi official said.
Did he also kill his cell phone and laptop? If he didn't, his death won't prove as harmful as he hoped...
Ahmad al-Zarkoushi, the administrative director of al-Saadiya district, said two explosive belts were blown up simultaneously as the troops were about to storm the Qaeda leader's house.
"He killed himself, his wife and two children, aged 5 and 15," Zarkhoushi said.
Thus wiping out his bloodline. Darwin wins again.
The explosion took place as the troops were ordered to enter the house and seize the unidentified leader alive.
"The Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda has been pursuing new tactics which call on operatives to commit suicide before being taken prisoner.
"The tactic has been adopted to escape jail in Iraq and interrogation that might divulge the terror group's secrets," Zarkhoushi said.
Certain parts of the Province of Diyala, of which Baaquba is the capital, are still believed to be among the few remaining strongholds of Qaeda in the country.
Diyala was for several years after the 2003-U.S. invasion Qaeda's major base in Iraq.
#1
As heard on John Bachelor show Al Qaeda's funding comes from the golden chain from rich people in the UAE, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Last time I checked we support all of those countries with our military and are fighting Al Qaeda in Yemen. Those pukes know what people are supporting them yet they do nothing to stop it cuz they are bitches! At some point will end up in a harem being butt raped by their slave masters on top of camels hopefully! Now with all of the oil drilling not being allowed in the United States or pipelines being built and us being made more dependent on the people supporting Al Qaeda who our military Leaders and Washington protect what does that make those who give orders to their men only to get them killed and aid in it by giving support to the enemy? I am sure it is all old news to most on who funds them and why so good luck shoot straight do your homework and trust your guts and make sure the person standing next to you is not a ghoul or someone with to many stars on their shoulders either way your screwed! It is pathetic! Hopefully some people in the United States will just gargle with buckshot or a round from their service piece!
#2
Shhhhh, Chomoque Poodle9080. Nobody is gargling with buckshot -- this, too, shall pass. In the meantime, lie back on the fainting couch and have a nice cup of soothing chamomile tea, while I cool your fevered brow with a handkerchief soaked in toilet water. You'll feel calmer in a jiffy, I promise.
India announced the successful test launch Thursday of a new nuclear-capable missile that would give it the capability of striking the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai for the first time.
The Agni-V missile, with a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), still requires a battery of tests before it can be inducted into India's arsenal. But officials hailed the successful launch as a major boost to the country's efforts to counter China's regional dominance and become a respected world power in its own right.
"The nation stands tall today," Defense Minister A.K. Antony said, according to the Press Trust of India.
The test came just days after North Korea's own failed rocket launch, but sparked none of the same global condemnation that greeted that test.
Video released by the government showed the Agni-V taking off from a small launcher on what appeared to be railroad tracks at 8:07 a.m. from Wheeler Island off India's east coast. It rose on a pillar of flame, trailing billows of smoke behind, before arcing through the sky.
The missile hit an altitude of more than 600 kilometers (370 miles), its three stages worked properly and its payload was deployed as planned, the head of India's Defense Research and Development Organization, Vijay Saraswat, told Times Now news channel.
"India has emerged from this launch as a major missile power," he said.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/19/2012 6:33
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Posted by: john frum ||
04/19/2012 6:34
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For now, more testing lies ahead, says the DRDO chief. We will have two more test launches of the Agni-5, and then productionise it for induction into field service with the Strategic Forces Command. We will also start working on different variants of the Agni-5, including MIRVs (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles), anti satellite systems, and on making the Agni-5 capable of launching military satellites on demand, says Saraswat.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/19/2012 6:36
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#5
The fireball that erupted when the dummy payload hit the waters of the Indian Ocean was recorded by the cameras on board the ships stationed around the impact point.
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/19/2012 13:16
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#6
Posted by: John Frum ||
04/19/2012 13:21
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#7
Oh dear. Now Europe is going to have to thread between not annoying Russia, not annoying Iran, and not annoying India, as all three have missiles that can reach Europe.
#8
I wonder if these new Indian missiles are actually more advanced, more accurate and easier to control than American, Chinese or Russian ICBMs due to scientific/technological advances in recent years...a sort of a next generation of ICBMs if you will.
#9
The test itself was a huge technological and logistical challenge. After lifting-off from the mobile launcher at the test range, the missile being propelled by the first stage that burnt out and separated in 90 seconds tore into the sky.
After heading into space during its parabolic trajectory, reaching an altitude of 600-km, the missile then re-entered the atmosphere powered by the third stage.
The missile reached hypersonic velocities of around 7,000-metre per second in the terminal stage before splashing down in the southern Indian Ocean, all along being monitored by shore and warship-based tracking systems.
''All three stages went off extremely well. The re-entry parameters were superb...all terminal events related to detonation of the warhead (it was a dummy payload for the test) happened in textbook style. As missile scientists, we could not have expected anything better,'' Saraswat told TOI.
Unlike the earlier largely rail-mobile missiles, Agni-V can be easily stored in hermitically sealed canisters and swiftly transported atop launcher trucks by road. This will give the armed forces the required operational flexibility to pick and choose from where to launch the missiles.
Agni-V has a ''highly accurate'' inertial navigation system and will get an even more potent punch with MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles) warheads. An MIRV payload carries several nuclear warheads on a single missile that can be programmed to hit different targets.
A flurry of MIRV missiles can hence completely overwhelm an adversary's ballistic missile defences. DRDO has also worked to reduce the radar and other ''signatures'' of missiles like Agni-IV and Agni-V to make them ''much more immune to counter-measures''.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/19/2012 18:49
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A report issued by the London-based International Centre for Development Studies confirmed that Iran is stealing large amounts of oil from neighboring Iraqi fields.
According to the report, Iran steals $17 billion worth of Iraqi oil from fields that are mostly Iraqi and not shared between the two countries. Those fields are home to more than 100 billion barrels and the majority of them are inside the borders of Iraq.
The amount of oil Iran takes from Iraq, the report explained, is estimated at 130,000 barrels and mainly comes from four Iraqi fields: Dehloran, Naft Shahr, Beidar West, and Aban. Irans violation of Iraqi oil rights also extends to the fields of al-Tayeb and Fakka as well as parts of Majnoun field with an estimated 250,000 barrels.
The total amount of oil Iran steals from Iraq is estimated at 14 percent of Iraqi oil revenue.
The report points out that Iran is using Iraqi oil unilaterally even though the two countries have previously agreed on forming joint committees to regulate the use of oil in border fields. In addition, excavation activities Iran carries out on the border have a negative impact on the quality of Iraqi oil since it affects the pressure in Iraqi fields.
#1
Iraq should drill shafts near Iran's directionally drilled lines along the border and blow shaped charges off in them to ruin the shaft's integrity.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/19/2012 2:37
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Water Modem - if Iraq drills wells close enough to the Iranian wells to do what you suggest, they'd be better off just completing them to produce; with modern, top-line completions they could essentially out-suck the Iranians. The hardest part would be knowing exactly where the Iranian wells are.
[Dawn] The Lahore High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the federal interior ministry and Punjab home department for April 25 on a petition filed by Jamaatud Daawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed ...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain... and his aide Hafiz Abdur Rehman Maki for security following announcement of bounty on them by the United States.
LHC Chief Justice Sh. Azmat Saeed was hearing the petition who also directed petitioners to approach the home department Punjab for security.
Earlier, the petitioner's counsel submitted that Pak courts had exonerated Hafiz Saeed ...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat... from charges levelled against him by India and the US.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2012
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[Dawn] KARACHI: Ten people were killed and several others were maimed when gunnies opened indiscriminate fire in different areas of the violence-ridden city, DawnNews reported on Wednesday.
The Sindh home ministry has taken a decision of closing all tea shops in the metropolis at midnight.
The decision was taken after faceless myrmidons killed a man in Gulistan-e-Johar and two in North Nazimabad during attacks on tea shops.
Chakiwara, Surjani Town, Usmanabad Liyari, Liaquatabad, Sohrab Goth and Karimabad were among other areas which were hit by violence.
The provincial government has announced to distribute Rs 200,000 to each family that has lost a member amid assassinations in the city.
Moreover, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has also announced to allocate Rs 20 million to recompense the violence-hit families.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2012
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Secret Service agents are being forced out of their positions as officials investigate the alleged hiring of prostitutes and other questionable behavior during a presidential visit to Colombia.
"Although the Secret Service's investigation into allegations of misconduct by its employees in Cartagena, Colombia, is in its early stages, and is still ongoing, three of the individuals involved will separate or are in the process of separating from the agency," said Paul S. Morrissey, the assistant director of the U.S. Secret Service Office of Government and Public Affairs, in a written statement.
One supervisory employee was allowed to retire and another was "proposed for removal for cause," the statement said. In addition, a non-supervisory employee resigned. Eight other Secret Service employees remain on administrative leave with suspended security clearances.
In addition, some Secret Service personnel are now under investigation for possible drug use in Colombia, ABC News confirmed.
U.S. inspectors are now on the ground in Colombia canvassing night clubs, interviewing hotel employees and collecting hotel surveillance video. Many of the suspected prostitutes have been identified and will be interviewed, officials told ABC News. Prostitution is legal in Colombia, but officials are concerned about the use of prostitutes by U.S. personnel for ethical and security reasons.
"Since these allegations were first reported, the Secret Service has actively pursued this investigation, and has acted to ensure that appropriate disciplinary action is effected," Morrissey said. "We demand that all of our employees adhere to the highest professional and ethical standards and are committed to a full review of this matter."
The news of the employee removals comes as Congressional committees are lining up to review the Secret Service's actions and culture that led to the scandal. On Wednesday, the chairman and ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., wrote to Mark J. Sullivan, the director of the U.S. Secret Service, about potential security concerns.
This might be the first truly bipartisan hearing in a decade...
"The facts as you described them raised questions about the agency's culture," Issa and Cummings wrote. "The incident in Cartagena is troubling because Secret Service agents and officers made a range of bad decisions, from drinking too much, to engaging with prostitutes, to bringing foreign nationals into contact with sensitive security information, to exposing themselves to blackmail and other forms of potential compromise."
Next week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a previously planned oversight hearing. Today, in a statement provided to ABC News, she voiced her support for Secret Service Director Sullivan.
He'll be gone after the hearings. Spend more time with the family...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/19/2012
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#1
Let's not be too hard on the Secret Service on all of this. They have been through a HELL of a 5 years here. In all honesty, I may need a line of coke every time POTUS needs to go somewhere - anywhere from the Whitehouse. And yes, he is a DICK.
"Lets have a round of golf at 6 different courses this week, take my daughter Sas..*** to ***, Michelle needs to go shopping at ****, I want BO to have his shots.... *Flyonwallism deleted*"
#3
They should be happy nobody took advantage of them all being so STUPID. They watch who watches them all drunk and messed up in one place like shooting fish in a barrel or worse. What does it cost in South America to buy off some brothel employees and crooked cops? Some people would get off more by carrying than out then buying some sun baked trout!
Posted by: Ebbeamp Spawn of the Lutherans2504 ||
04/19/2012 8:18
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#4
Ebbeamp Spawn of the Lutherans is very correct. This could have turned out very, very badly.
#6
This kind of ethical collapse always starts at the top of the Chain of Command - with the Secert Service these are political appointees. Also moving the SS to Homeland Security was a boneheaded move and it is startng to show. This is speculation but, too many idiots at DHS may have watered down the Agency's policys and organizational pride.
If the investigation bears it all out then the responsible parties need to be dealt with - but dont stop with with just agents and supervisors.
Now add in BO and Michelles endless summer and you are stressing the hell out of these people. The number of Agents who protect the POTUS and first family is not that large. Yeah Bush went to Crawford Tx a lot, but the SS already had 90% of the advance work done and the ranch was fairly isolated. BO and the family are total jet setters requiring vast amounts of time, money and energy to properly safeguard.
#8
I'd have more sympathy for them if they didn't investigate crazy stuff like Ted Nuggent's comments. They should be allowed to triage a bit of common sense into their workload.
#10
with the Secert Service these are political appointees
Since when are special agents political appointees? The job openings are advertised and are competitive.
Think about it - given the training and security clearance investigations required before they enter duty, it would be impossible to protect a candidate or newly elected President if they were appointed politically.
[Dawn] No army in the world could win war without the support of its countrymen and political ownership of the ongoing military operations in militancy-hit areas of the country was necessary to achieve long-lasting peace, Beautiful Downtown Peshawar Corps Commander Lt-Gen Khalid Rabbani said on Tuesday.
Addressing participants of a seminar on 'War on terror and role of Pakistain Army' at University of Peshawar (UoP), the corps commander said from 2008 to 2012, the government's writ had been re-established in 91 per cent of Fata, while the situation in the remaining areas was under control.
He said around 3,300 Pakistain Army personnel had lost lives in the line of duty in the war against terrorism and more than 10,000 had been severely injured in various operations.
Perhaps if y'all didn't have all those pet terror groups, you wouldn't have been bitten by them...
"We and the whole nation feel proud of those, who have laid lives for peace in a war where there is only one option for us and that is to win it," he said
Lt-Gen Khalid said Pakistain Army had conducted more than 300 major and 760 minor operations in militancy-hit areas over the last few years, mostly in 2009-10. He said peace had been restored in the entire northern region of Pakistain and road accesses to most of Fata had been established.
The corps commander said the army was working on a sustainable development plan for Fata to improve livelihood of locals.
He said the army had been carrying out 52 educational projects in Fata and they included establishment of a cadet college in South Wazoo Agency, Khyber Institute of Technical Education and Waziristan Institute of Technical Education.
Lt-Gen Khalid called for gradual mainstreaming of Fata and said its infrastructure development was imperative for socioeconomic development in the region.
He said the army went to an area for pace at the request of the federal government. He denied that the army consumed eight per cent of the budget and said all three forces i.e. army, navy and air force consumed 17 per cent of the country's total budget, while the army shared in it was 8.7 per cent.
Chairman of UoP Political Science Department Professor Dr AZ Hilali, whose department organised the seminar, highlighted the importance of the seminar and said it was a sign of solidarity with Pakistain Army, which rendered great sacrifices for peace in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2012
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[An Nahar] A ceasefire to end 13 months of bloodshed in Syria was violated again on Wednesday with 39 people reported dead, despite the government's latest bid to reassure the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... over its willingness to implement the peace plan.
Regime forces killed 20 people in Homs, three in Idlib, four in Daraa, two 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... , two in Hama and one in rural Damascus ...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world... , the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.
As U.N. observers were greeted by hundreds of anti-regime protesters on the streets of Damascus, Washington said their mission was not being given the necessary freedom to properly monitor a halt to hostilities.
"We have a very small number of observers now on the ground and it seems that small number is having difficulty with the freedom that we all expected and that is required," said Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Chateaubriand ... warned Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... of tougher measures if he squanders his "last chance" by failing to implement 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... 's peace plan six days after it came into force.
"It is obviously quite concerning" that, while U.N. observers are starting to deploy in Syria, the "guns of the Assad regime are once again firing in Homs, Idlib and elsewhere", Clinton said in Brussels.
Videos posted online showed a crowd surrounding two U.N. vehicles in the suburb of Irbin, waving revolutionary flags and carrying signs that read: "Closely observe how Bashar is exterminating his people."
U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... was due to report to the Security Council later on Wednesday on progress made by the advance team of seven observers.
He has made it clear the U.N. mission could not go forward if Damascus does not cooperate and guarantee the observers safe access across the country.
The team arrived in Damascus on Sunday and is to be expanded to 30 in the coming days.
Approved under a U.N. Security Council resolution, it is to be reinforced in the longer term with up to 250 international monitors, but this will require a new resolution.
Damascus said it was close to agreeing a protocol paving the way for the observers to fan out across the country to monitor the truce aimed at halting the violence that the U.N. says has killed more than 9,000 people.
"We are about to finalize it," foreign ministry front man Jihad Makdisi told Agence La Belle France Presse, referring to the protocol. "Discussions with U.N. observers have been constructive and both parties agree on 90 percent of the points."
Washington earlier warned that hopes of a larger mission in Syria were being jeopardized by the persistent violence, which saw at least 14 people killed on Wednesday, seven of them civilians, according to monitors.
Three non-combatants were killed as regime forces launched a fresh bombardment of a rebel neighborhood of the flashpoint central city of Homs, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Four others, including a nine-year-old, were killed elsewhere, the Britannia-based watchdog added.
Seven government troops were also killed in a roadside kaboom on the outskirts of the northwestern town of Idlib, where fighters of the rebel Free Syrian Army have been active.
La Belle France said 14 foreign ministers would attend a meeting on Syria in Gay Paree on Thursday to send a strong message to the Assad regime to implement the peace plan.
"The obstacles to the U.N. observers' mission that Damascus is putting in place and the Syrian regime's continued repression, contrary to its commitments, call for a strong reaction from the international community," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in a statement.
Juppe said the foreign ministers of Germany, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, Soddy Arabia and the United States would be among those taking part.
Another senior U.N. diplomat said that if Damascus did not complete the protocol by the end of the week then the Security Council could not allow the full mission of 200-250 observers envisaged by 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.
He said there was a risk the Syrians would not agree to give the monitors "full, unimpeded and immediate freedom of movement and access".
Damascus ally Moscow has pointed the finger at the rebels, accusing them of trying to provoke violence in a bid to torpedo Annan's plan and pave the way for foreign military intervention.
"There are plenty of those who would like to see Annan's plan fail in hopes of then demanding other options -- primarily meaning the use of (outside) force," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told news hounds.
Russia and China courted Western and Arab anger by vetoing two Security Council resolutions that would have blamed Assad's regime for the violence.
But they have backed Annan's peace efforts and voted in favor of Saturday's text approving the observer mission.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem was in Beijing on Wednesday for talks with his counterpart Yang Jiechi.
"Muallem ... said Syria would continue to ... respect and implement Annan's six-point proposal," the Chinese foreign ministry said.
[Shabelle] The German cabinet has agreed on new rights for the Bundeswehr in the fight against piracy off the coast ofSomalia. If parliament approves, the mission -- previously restricted to the sea -- will be taken inland.
The German government agreed to expand an EU mandate on Wednesday to allow the Bundeswehr to target inland Somali pirate bases as part of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... anti-piracy Atalanta mission.
The German military had previously been restricted to only carrying out missions at sea, but the cabinet has now advocated that airborne attacks be allowed up to two kilometers inland. In line with an EU amendment in March, pirates' weapons, ships or fuel depots can all be targeted.
The mandate does not sanction the deployment of any military personal on the ground.
"It is a small, useful additional military option," German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere said as he arrived at a meeting of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... defense ministers inBrusselson Wednesday.
He added thatBerlinshould not stand in the way of passing the mandate, which now needs final approval in parliament. But with skepticism among the opposition, this may be problematic.
"The decision comes at a time in which the pirate attacks on convoys and well-secured are declining," Rolf Mützenich, a front man for the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) told news agency Rooters. The SPD has pledged to vote against or abstain from the vote, which is scheduled to take place in May.
Green Party leader Renate Künast, meanwhile, described the decision as a "false development."
The waters offSomaliaare considered among the most dangerous in the world, with 230 pirate attacks reported last year alone.
In light of ongoing attacks, the German parliament voted last year to extend their contribution to the Atalanta mission until December 18, 2012.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2012
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#1
They don't want their weapon shipments compromised also more ears for listening!
[Shabelle] A kaboom at Somali government military bases in the chaoticMogadishuhas on Wednesday injured at least three people, mostly innocent civilians, security officials said.
Naturally. That's what civilians are for, in that part of the world.
Sabriye Abdulla Aden, a TFG military officer said a man carrying explosive devises hidden in a plastic shopping bag detonated his explosive near the Villa Baidoa base inMogadishu, injuring at least two passerby civilians and the attacker seriously.
The second blast which was used a hand grenade took place at Madina hospital, few meters away from the army base,casusin an unconfirmed loss. The hospital treats many Somalis who were maimed in the daily violence in the capital.
Many security forces have reached at the site of the kaboom and began search operations to avert another incident. No group has so far claimed the responsibility for the attack.
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[An Nahar] Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. threatened Wednesday to overthrow South Sudan's "insect" government, as world powers tried to pull the rivals from the brink of an all-out war after the South seized a key oil field.
"Our main target from today is to liberate South Sudan's citizens from the SPLM (Sudan People's Liberation Movement)," Bashir said, adding that the southern regime cannot be called a "movement".
"We call it an insect... trying to destroy Sudan, and our main target from today is to eliminate this insect completely."
He spoke at a rally in support of troops who hope to reclaim Sudan's most important oil field, Heglig, from South Sudanese troops who seized it eight days ago.
"In a few hours you are going to listen to good news from your brothers in Heglig," he told about 3,000 youths, some of them dressed in military gear.
"Heglig will not be the end. The end will be in Juba," the South's capital, said Bashir, whose audience sang songs about jihad, or holy war.
War debris litters the rust-colored dirt road into occupied Heglig, where bodies of dead Sudanese soldiers lie scattered. One fell beside a leaking oil facility. Another died in a former Sudanese military compound.
In the face of Bashir's words, South Sudan called for negotiations.
"We can only resolve this through talks with the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... ," South Sudan's Minister of Information, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
While Bashir forecast an imminent victory, a foreign ministry official said Sudan is pursuing both military and diplomatic measures to get South Sudan out of the area.
"Military steps are underway... and they are calculated measures," Omar Dahab, head of the ministry's crisis team, told a news conference.
"At the same time, they are taking into consideration the diplomatic and good offices efforts regarding the ending of the occupation.
"We have to end the occupation by hook or crook, by either way."
Sudan's military has released virtually no information about the situation on the ground but South Sudan has vowed to hold its positions in Heglig, despite air strikes.
"We thought that we could only resolve this peacefully around a table, but Sudan has been using Heglig as a base to launch attacks on the South," Benjamin said.
Clashes broke out last month in the Heglig area and escalated last week with waves of aerial bombardment hitting the South and Juba's seizure of the oil center on April 10.
The United Nations ...what started out as a a diplomatic initiative, now trying to edge its way into legislative, judicial, and executive areas... , the United States and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... have criticized the South's occupation of the oil field, equally denouncing Sudanese air strikes against the South.
There are widespread fears that the fighting will spread.
It is already the worst since South Sudan won independence in July after a 1983-2005 civil war which killed two million people.
On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council discussed possible sanctions against Sudan and South Sudan in a bid to halt a wider war.
But Dahab said penalizing both the aggressor and the victim would be wrong.
"Logically it should be directed to the aggressor," he said.
Air strikes have killed several South Sudanese civilians and earlier this week damaged a U.N. peacekeeping camp in the South's Unity State.
The two Sudans are locked "in a logic of war," with hardliners controlling both countries, international peace envoys told the U.N. Security council.
Although South Sudan disputes it, Heglig has been internationally regarded as being part of Sudan.
Princeton Lyman, the U.S. special envoy on Sudan and South Sudan, is expected in Khartoum on Thursday after a meeting in the South's capital Juba with President Salva Kiir.
His message will stress "that we need an immediate and unconditional cessation of violence, and we need both sides to get back to the AU process," State Department front man Mark Toner said.
He was referring to talks on a variety of protracted disputes brokered by the African Union. Sudan pulled out of those talks after the Heglig attack.
Both sides reported a deadly skirmish on Tuesday around their borders just outside the contested Abyei area, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Heglig.
Khartoum's foreign ministry said rebels from Sudan's Darfur region have been photographed alongside South Sudanese troops in Heglig, but the rebels denied any involvement.
In another development, the impoverished South joined the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on Wednesday.
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[Yemen Post] The late Osama bin Laden's ... Maybe his Mom misses him... Yemeni widow and children will be deported back to Yemen from Pakistain on Wednesday, a foreign ministry official told Yemen Post.
The family would first be heading to Soddy Arabia, where Bin Laden's other wives will land and later head to Yemen.
No additional security precautions are expected in Yemen in the timing of the family's arrival.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Will the CIA be able to cross examine them re Pakistans complicity with OBL?
Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals -- an incredibly liberal appeals court -- ruled that Arizona's voter ID law was largely constitutional. Opponents of the law had argued that the fee to obtain an ID amounted to an impermissible "poll tax"; the Court thought otherwise.
The Court did rule, however, that Arizona cannot turn down federal voter registration forms, which simply ask applicants to check a box indicating that they are US citizens. That's not because such provisions would be unconstitutional -- it's because those provisions violate the federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the so-called Motor Voter Act). Due to the supremacy clause of the Constitution, in areas where the federal government legislates, states cannot.
The case will likely move on to the Supreme Court.
#1
Well that's a picnic. The Ninth Circus? Really?
Now it's time to strike down the motor voter law if it so has to be. It's time to regress. Driving does not make you a US citizen eligible to vote. Though, they would all have to go back and register to vote again. Cry me a storm.
#3
Go ahead, Holder. Take it to the SCOTUS. They'll smack you down too. That would give me pleasure.
JFM, I think newc is referring to malt liquor which, at least in my experience, is typically the choice of low life types who are looking for a cheap drunk.
#5
Thats what you get for scolding the Judicial's during your first State of the Union speech, and then trying to intimidate them regarding federal cases.
At a large post office right after Zero was elected, the mostly African-American tellers had a big picture of Big Zero in each cubical at the counter. Was not long before he said something derogatory about the Postal Service. Those pictures dissapeared faster than a fart in a fan factory.
And don't let me get started on what the 3 million member Black Chamber of Commerce thinks of him.
[Bangla Daily Star] The BNP-led four-party alliance yesterday expanded to an "18-party alliance" aimed at strengthening the movement for restoration of the caretaker government system and formation of a "patriotic government" to fulfil people's aspirations.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... announced this at a presser at Diploma Engineers' Institution in the capital.
Reading out a declaration paper on the 18-party alliance, Khaleda said expansion of the four-party combine was a necessity in view of demands from "all parties and people from all walks of life to be united to compel the present government to hand over power to a non-party caretaker government. It was a demand of time."
She went on, "Our goal is to build a tougher movement for the formation of a patriotic government to meet the challenge of time and fulfil the aspirations of people."
The leader of the opposition in parliament urged all to form committees across the country to strengthen the anti-government movement.
The new components of the 18-party combine include Liberal Democratic Party, Kalyan Party, Jatiya Gana tantrik Party (Jagpa), National People's Party (NPP) and Bangladesh NAP, and seven other parties not registered with the Election Commission -- Bangladesh Labour Party, National Democratic Party (NDP), Moslem League, Islamic Party, National Awami Party (NAP-Bhasani), Democratic League and People's League.
Among the leaders of these parties, only LDP Chairman Oli Ahmad won the last parliamentary polls.
Most of the new components of the expanded alliance are known as name-only parties.
The four-party alliance was formed in 1999 to intensify the movement against the then Awami League-led government. It comprised BNP, 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... , Islami Oikya Jote ... a political party in Bangladesh. In the 2001 elections the party won 2 out of 300 elected members in an alliance with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It has a focus on building an islamic state, and has used the madrassas to gain support... (IOJ) and Bangladesh Jatiya Party ...aka Jatiya Front; a political party established by Bangladictator Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1986 to lend a veneer of respectability to his rule. Since nobody was amused he was forced to resign by popular demand in 1990. The party remains in existence with about a dozen seats in Bangla's parliament... (BJP).
Later, IOJ split into three factions -- IOJ (Aminee), Khelafat Majlish and Jomiyote Ulamaye Islam-- and all of these were active in the four-party combine.
Most of the alliance partners of BNP keep their activities limited to forming human chains and holding discussion meetings.
Posted by: Fred ||
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NEW YORK (AP) -- The admitted mastermind of one of the most serious terror threats since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- a foiled plot to attack New York City subways -- testified Wednesday that al-Qaida trainers taught him a "very simple" formula for making suicide bombs.
After being recruited by the terror network and taken to a compound in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan, Najibullah Zazi said he learned how to mix chemicals found in nail polish remover and other products sold at beauty supply stores.
"It was very simple and they're everywhere," he said of the chemicals.
Zazi, 26, was testifying for a second day at the trial of Adis Medunjanin in federal court in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors allege that Medunjanin, Zazi and another former high school classmate from Queens, Zarein Ahmedzay, formed a terror cell that posed one of the most ominous terror threats since 9/11.
NEW YORK--Three former high-school classmates were perilously close to implementing an al Qaeda-inspired plan to detonate suicide bombs in New York City's subways before they were thwarted in 2009, federal prosecutors told a packed courtroom Monday.
The characterization came during opening statements in a trial in Brooklyn federal court which one of the men, Adis Medunjanin, is accused of receiving training by the terrorist organization while in Pakistan and returning to the U.S. with orders to launch a devastating attack.
A Bosnian-born immigrant in New York accused on nine terrorism counts heard a second friend testify that he was a willing participant in a suicide bombing plot in New York City.
According to Najibullah Zazi, the confessed mastermind of the foiled 2009 subway bomb plot, accused terrorist Adis Medunjanin "was a role model to us," because he was most knowledgeable in Islam. Zazi, who earlier pleaded guilty, is one of two former friends testifying in the federal trial of Medunjanin, 27.
A Bosnian immigrant accused in a subway bombing terrorism plot has gone on trial in federal court in New York City. He faces life in prison if convicted on all nine counts, including conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. A federal jury in Brooklyn is hearing the terrorism case against 27-year-old Bosnian-born Adis Medunjanin, who allegedly conspired with two former high school friends to bomb New York subways in 2009.
[Dawn] After successfully infusing terror in the minds of the masses, some Taliban groups are now involved in extorting money from businessmen -- based in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , police officials say.
Umar Riaz, the senior superintendent police (SSP) who heads the investigation branch in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, says cases of extortion by Taliban have been reported in Peshawar's Matani area. The Taliban of Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... Agency also receive protection money or bhatta from Mohmand traders based in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as well as in their native tribal agency. "Around 50 per cent of the people contacted by such groups agree to pay bhatta after doing some bargaining over the amount," says an official of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) who does not want to be named. This, the traders believe, is better than being kidnapped and going through the emotional and physical trauma attached with kidnapping, he adds.
A police source who knows how the extortion system works, tells the Herald that the Taliban usually have detailed information about the wealth, income and assets of the people they call to demand bhatta. "First they [the myrmidons] make a call to their target and ask for money. If the receiver of the call says that it is impossible for him to arrange the huge amount of money being demanded, he is provided with all the information about his assets including his bank balance," the source says. At the next stage, an bomb is blown up in his car or near his house, in order to make him realise that he has no option but to pay, he adds.
In one such case, according to the IB official, the Taliban sent a message to a Matani-based hundi operator and demanded three million rupees as bhatta which the Taliban usually dub as donation for their "holy cause". After the businessman did not pay the money, the snuffies blew up a bomb near the entrance of his house, killing a women working in the house. Officials say such terror tactics also force most people paying bhatta to avoid registering cases with the police.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2012
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#1
I wonder what would happen if we offered to return their fighters for $10k or $100k each. Might lower the fighters' morale if they knew their buddies wouldn't pay.
Posted by: Flomble Darling of the Hemps8576 ||
04/19/2012 8:19
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#3
A police source who knows how the extortion system works, tells the Herald that the Taliban usually have detailed information about the wealth, income and assets of the people they call to demand bhatta.
Targeted groups commonly referred by thieves, extortionists, and communists the world overs as the.... "top 2-percent highest earners."
#5
At the most basic level, any organization needs to recruit new members, because if not, eventually everyone in the organization will die of old age.
(For example, the Chinese Communists are in trouble, because they have not recruited any new communists in thirty years.)
These terrorist outfits use money to recruit. So we see that they use the recruits they have today to go where the money is now to get more money to be able to spend it to recruit for the future.
Because of that, stopping their access to money is a good policy, but always remember that the policy is not about the money. The policy is a means to deny access to new recruits.
AFP - Horse riding has become a popular hobby in the Gaza Strip but local Palestinians face constant hurdles -- from a conservative society to Israel's blockade on the territory -- to practise the sport on their home turf.
The Al-Faisal equestrian club, on the seafront in Gaza City, attracts around 50 riders a day, according to Samir Salama Saad, director of the "Beautiful Life" society which bought the club several months ago.
Founded in 2003, the club now attracts both male and female equestrians ranging in age from eight to 40 years, Saad said.
But the club, which occupies some 10 dunams of land -- around 100 hectares (247 acres) -- has had to resort to unusual methods to obtain the 60 horses it owns, smuggling them in through tunnels from Egypt.
"We don't have medicine because of the blockade, and this affects the horses we have locally, so their numbers are constantly diminishing because of deaths," Saad told AFP.
To make up the numbers, horses are brought in through the tunnels dug under Gaza's border with Egypt, but the process is dangerous and often leaves the animals with injuries and psychological problems.
Israel imposed the blockade in June 2006 after the capture of an Israeli soldier. The restrictions were tightened when the Islamist Hamas group seized control of Gaza a year later.
Israel defends the blockade, saying it is necessary to prevent weapons smuggling, but the Palestinians call it collective punishment.
Despite the restrictions, Saad runs an equestrian school at the club, with five trainers, including one qualified at the international level, who provide lessons and organise competitions.
There's plenty of interest, but Saad acknowledges that the lessons remain out of the reach of most people in impoverished Gaza, where unemployment is around 45 percent and much of the population is dependent on foreign aid.
Still, he said, "the prices are 20 percent less than those in neighbouring countries," and they have come down in recent years as poverty in Gaza has continued to worsen.
Before the Israeli blockade was imposed in 2006, the club charged around 300 shekels ($80, 61 euros) for 15 lessons, according to 18-year-old Ola Abu Safiya who has been riding for five years.
"Now they don't take more than 150 shekels because they're taking into account the economic conditions in Gaza," she said.
Abu Safiya is a psychology student but she dreams of one day teaching horse riding herself.
"It's been my favourite hobby since my father took me riding for the first time," she said.
She finds the sport liberating -- "there's no difference between boys and girls when it comes to horse riding," she said.
Hanan Abu Nada, a 28-year-old lawyer and a mother of two, said she had to overcome some local scepticism when she took up the sport.
"My father and mother encouraged me to ride. We had a small stable and my father was passionate about it. He wanted all his children to be excellent riders."
"People said 'You're veiled, how can you ride a horse? It's impossible'," she said. "But I insisted on the idea that a veiled girl is like any other girl who wants to enjoy a pastime."
"They shouldn't be criticising. On the contrary, Palestinians should be proud of us," she added.
Abu Nada takes lessons with Omar al-Mamluk, the club's only international-level trainer, and aspires to one day participate in global competitions "representing the country of Palestine".
But Mamluk says opportunities to compete have been sharply curtailed by the blockade and the division between the Gaza Strip and West Bank because of tensions between rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas.
The division "has greatly affected horse riding and stopped us from participating abroad, which had allowed us to reach the level of our Arab brothers," he said.
"The Palestinian Equestrian Federation works in the West Bank and Ramallah, but because of the division we have been excluded, even though we have horses for show jumping and racing, as well as riders."
"If the division were to end, we would be able to cooperate with our brothers in the West Bank," he said.
"For now, all our competitions are local," Saad added.
Posted by: Chris Farley ||
04/19/2012 9:55
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#4
Excuse me. They have money for horses? I thought they were starving and that is why the western tax-payers was hanling thelm hundreds of millions of dollars all while people starve in Darfur and Somalia.
Confronted with plunging polls and deserting allies, President Nicolas Sarkozy faces the prospect of a rout in the two-round French presidential election starting this weekend, with senior members of his government already said to be certain of defeat.
Supporters of the front-running Socialist candidate, François Hollande, could scarcely contain their euphoria when they gathered in Lille for their last big rally on Tuesday night before French electors go to the polls on Sunday. They interrupted the candidate's speech endlessly with chants of "François president, François president".
"You are well informed," Mr Hollande quipped. "It is possible we are going to win. It's not certain... but, yes, I feel the hope rising."
New polls published yesterday suggested that Mr Hollande, 57, was leading the field of 10 candidates in the first round with up to 29 per cent of the vote. He had extended his lead over Mr Sarkozy to between two and four points. In voting intentions for the two-candidate, second round on 6 May, Mr Hollande now leads the President by a "landslide" margin of 14 to 16 per cent.
In a series of damning, private remarks, reported by the Le Canard Enchainé newspaper, senior members of President Sarkozy's government said that defeat now seemed inevitable.
"The carrots are cooked," the Prime Minister, François Fillon, was quoted as saying. "[Sarkozy's] strategy of campaigning on hard-right issues was a serious mistake." The former centre-right prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, was reported to have said privately: "There is no chance of us winning."
The President has also suffered a series of desertions. It was reported earlier this week that the former President Jacques Chirac intended to switch sides and vote for Mr Hollande. A clutch of former Sarkozy ministers and supporters, from the right, left and centre of French politics, have also declared they will vote for the socialist. They include Martin Hirsch and Fadéla Amara, two of Mr Sarkozy's ministerial recruits from the Left after his 2007 election and three former centre-right Chirac-era ministers, Azouz Begag, Corinne Lepage and Brigitte Girardin.
The President has fought an energetic but erratic campaign. He began by warning that France needed tough medicine to escape recession. But he then switched to a hard-right message to reclaim votes from Marine Le Pen's National Front.
In recent weeks, Mr Sarkozy warned that French "identity" was menaced by a tide of illegal immigration, Islamist terrorism and halal meat. Last Sunday, he stole abruptly -- and without acknowledgement -- Mr Hollande's argument that the European Central Bank should be allowed to pump reflationary cash into Eurozone economies (a policy that Mr Sarkozy had opposed with Germany).
Mr Sarkozy's sharp right turn propelled him into a narrow lead in first- round opinion polls but that support now appears to have dribbled back to Ms Le Pen. In polls published yesterday, she regained third place with around 17 per cent of the vote.
The hard-left candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose lurid anti-capitalist rhetoric has illuminated an uninspiring campaign, fell back to fourth place with around 13-14 per cent.
Through all these twists and turns, Mr Hollande has held his nerve. At the Lille rally, he said he would bring a three-part approach to the economic crisis: "responsibility" (deficit cuts, mostly through tax rises); "growth" (EU capital investment programmes and the reflationary printing of euros); and "solidarity" (help for poorer people and poorer EU countries).
France is thereby boned...
But if enough of them choose to be boned, they have nothing to complain about later.
They're socialists for goodness sakes. Not only will they complain later, they'll blame others for their misery. Pro'ly us...
Still, the limitations of "Hollandism" were apparent. He failed to fill a giant pop-concert venue from which most seats had been cleared. The crowd of 15,000 cheered his rhetoric against "big finance" but became fidgety as Mr Hollande explained the minutiae of his plans.
The Socialist top brass, seated nearby, were, however, two steps ahead of Mr Hollande. Their chatter was not about the first or second rounds but the "third round": who would be "in" and who would be "out" in the first centre-left government for a decade. The favourite to be Mr Hollande's prime minister is the Socialist party leader, Martine Aubry, daughter of former European Commission President Jacques Delors.
All in the family, a familiar theme in Europe the past three thousand years...
Mr Hollande and Ms Aubry briefly held up one another's arms in a victory salute at the Lille rally. However, their stiff body language suggested the prime-ministerial choice has yet to be made.
The opening round of the presidential election this weekend is the first of four polling days in just over two months. On Sunday, French voters will choose between the 10 candidates. The top two go on to the second round on 6 May, after which the winner will hold office for five years, not seven as used to be the case.
He (never yet she) will be the ultimate arbiter of French policy but will not run the government day to day. To do that, the President will choose a Prime Minister. He, or possibly she, will seek to win a parliamentary majority in the lower house of parliament.
Then "legislative elections" will be fought, once again over two rounds, on 10 and 17 June.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/19/2012
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#1
This will be fun to watch.
The LEFT will gain power in Fwance just in time for the Spanish bonds to implode thus further ruining the Fwench banks already in great difficulty from their exposure to Greek bonds. This will also be just in time for the Greek mess to step up to the next level of awfulness.
Then the Fwench will go running to the Germans to DO something. The Germans will be happy to do something which will cause the Fwench to complain bitterly and blame the English/Italians/Greeks/Dutch/Norwegians/whomever for it all.
If you thought the Euro was in trouble a month or so ago, just wait for a month or more in the future.
The Chinese government has halted the repatriation of North Korean defectors, apparently in response to South Korean requests.
This is just for the rubes in the West. "Look, China is getting tough!" the rubes will say, and then they'll demand that we feed North Korea 'as a good will gesture'.
The Yomiuri Shimbun on Wednesday cited an official from China's Liaoning Province as saying China, which had been repatriating up to 30 North Korean defectors a day since the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in December, recently stopped doing so.
"North Korea failed to inform China of specific plans to launch its missile last Friday," another Chinese official told the Japanese daily, which added that Beijings anger at being kept in the dark played a role in the decision to stop the repatriations.
China drew condemnation from international human rights groups by claiming North Korean defectors were not political refugees but merely economic migrants searching for work. But the Yomiuri said Beijing's stance appears to have changed since Chinese President Hu Jintao met his South Korean counterpart Lee Myung-bak on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul last month, when Hu pledged to "respect" the South's request to stop repatriating them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/19/2012
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#1
Good, they're treated like shit.
So don't send them back.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/19/2012 0:23
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#2
ION NOT-HOME-ALONE/SLEEPLESS ON THE YALU, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > [Yet another]100,000 CHINESE RESIDENTS MAY HAVE TO MOVE DUE TO FEARS OF THREE GORGES DAM COLLAPSE. Landslides + sidebank collapses seen.
The massive 3GD was supposed a source of Chin national pride + credibility, ala "The Great Wall", but instead may had caused or exascerbated myriad of Probs both inside + outside of China proper, NOTABLY CHINA'S + ASIA'S "MISSING/DISAPPEARING WATER".
Besides prouducing vital hydro-energy, 3GD was suppos to be combatting China's environ desertification, not causing it.
[Yemen Post] Yemen's Interior Ministry has declared its intention to expand war against Al-Qaeda, stating that it will not halt its fight against Al-Qaeda until the defeat of the organization.
Violent festivities have been continuing for two weeks in Lawdar town of Abyan governorate between Al-Qaeda snuffies who attempt to take control on the town and rustics backed by the army.
Al-Qaeda has been taking control on several towns of Abyan which include Zinjibar, the capital of the governorate, since May as it exploited Yemen's disturbance in the past year.
In a statement, the Interior Ministry has affirmed that the war against terrorism will expand to everywhere Al-Qaeda or any other forces of Evil groups existed.
It stated that Al-Qaeda received painful blows in Abyan, affirming that dozens of its operatives were killed and maimed.
Local officials say that over 150 Al-Qaeda snuffies were killed during the recent festivities, but the organization denies that.
The Interior Ministry highly appreciated the role played by rustics who formed what is called public committees to fight the krazed killers.
Yemen's Defense Ministry said that air raids in a southern town have killed six Al Qaeda-linked fighters, pointing out that the raids were carried out early Wednesday against krazed killer positions in the southern town of Lawder in Abyan province.
Military sources have said About 200 soldiers of US-trained Yemeni forces were sent to fight Al-Qaeda snuffies in Lawdar of Abyan governorate, reiterated that 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... had refused to send the US-trained counter-terrorism forces to fight Al-Qaeda.
The sources said President Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi had ordered to send forces to engage in street fight with al-Qaeda.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2012
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The commander of the Iranian Armed Forces said on Wednesday that Iran has notified the two U.S. aircraft carriers deployed in the Persian Gulf that they are not allowed to stop in certain areas of the Persian Gulf designated by Iranian naval forces, MNA reported.
"We had previously notified them that they must not stop in the areas of the Persian Gulf which are considered areas of threat for us, and they heeded the warning," Major General Ataollah Salehi said in an interview with the Persian service of the Fars News Agency published on Wednesday.
He also said that the passage of U.S. aircraft carriers through the Persian Gulf is only a "publicity stunt" that has no military value.
Salehi added, "They are soft targets for us."
Sure, Sparky, you keep on thinking that...
The Associated Press reported on April 9 that the U.S. Navy has deployed a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf amid rising tensions with Iran over its nuclear program.
According to the report, Commander Amy Derrick-Frost of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet said on the same day that the deployment of the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise along the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group marks only the fourth time in the past decade that the Navy has had two aircraft carriers operating at the same time in the region.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/19/2012
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#1
If they're such a soft target, why worry about them so?
#4
Main worry here is resupply to Afghan troops when Iran erupts, as Russia will likely screw up the Northern route by hook or crook and Pakiwakiland is impossible. Might just be easier to take out south of Iran and resupply the 'stan through an occupied Bandar-e-Abbas with its population removed for our troops safety.
Is the port at Konarek good enough for resupply? f.e. Konarek to Iranshahr to Zahedat and then crossing somewhere near Zabol into 'stan?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/19/2012 2:48
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By soft targets I think he means his woody shrinks and crawls up inside when he thinks he might get orders to attack a carrier.
The US should find a small gulf somewhere along the Iranian coast and name it the Persian Gulf, and refer to the existing gulf as the Arabian Gulf. That would certainly make some Persians angry.
#6
Why would a carrier want to come to a stop in the Persian Gulf? Why would it have to?
What's next? They can't hoist sail unless Iran sez it's OK? And, since they haven't, obviously they must be in mortal fear of the invincible Iranian navy.
WOOF...
#8
It would be awfully ironic on the centenary of the Titanic disaster to think that the U.S. carriers are unsinkable. We lost ten carriers over three years during WWII and the Iranians have much better technology now than anyone did then.
They are quite sinkable. But to do it would require sustained and determined attack that would make it immensely clear who was responsible.
And all of those folks understand that the U.S. response to such an attack would be extremely violent.
[Dawn] After decades of waging the propaganda war against India for its highhanded treatment of Kashmiris, Pakistain is now the subject of a similar campaign by India who has highlighted the plight of Shias being murdered by sectarian cut-throats in Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Asian News International reported recently that "in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistain's only Shia dominated province, ethnic cleansing is being carried out systematically." At the same time, the Shia-dominated town of Kargil ... three months of unprovoked Pak aggression, over 4000 dead Paks, another victory for India ... in the Indian controlled Kashmire recently shut down the main bazaar in solidarity with the Shias of Gilgit and Chilas who were murdered in cold blood in early April. Several Sunni Mohammedans also bit the dust a few days later when sectarian violence broke out in the region.
The comparative statistics on terrorist violence between India and Pakistain speak volumes of how the tide has indeed turned against Pakistain. The data compiled by South Asian Terrorism Portal reveals that in the current year alone, approximately 150 civilians, mostly Shias, have died in sectarian violence in Pakistain. In comparison only 23 violent deaths were recorded in the Indian controlled Kashmire in 2012.
Even with a six-times larger demographic footprint, 62 civilians reportedly died in terrorist violence in India in 2012, whereas 734 civilians became victims of terrorist violence in Pakistain during the same time period. For decades, Pakistain had pointed finger at India and accused her of failing to protect the life and property of religious minorities. Today, Pakistain stands accused of the same where Mohammedans belonging to minority sects and others are being murdered while the state's machinery has failed miserably to protect their lives and property.
Sectarian violence has spread to all corners of Pakistain. Only last week several Shias belonging to the Hazara tribe were bumped off by the Sunni Death Eaters in a crowded market in Quetta. Later, Sunni hard boyz called local newspapers and grabbed credit for their murderous accomplishment. Over the past few years hundreds, if not thousands, of Shias have been murdered in Kurram Agency ...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora... by Sunni Death Eaters and Taliban factions who are reportedly aligned with Pakistain's intelligence agencies. In other parts of Pakistain Shias have been taken off buses, lined up, and bumped off.
As of late, the followers of majority Sunni sects, such as Barelvis, have increasingly become targets of hard boyz who are followers of radicalised Sunni sects. The attack on Data Darbar, the mausoleum of Lahore's patron saint, in July 2010 left almost 50 moderate Sunni Mohammedans dead. In an earlier post, I reported police statistics which showed that almost 90 per cent of incarceratedcut-throats in Pakistain were followers of the Deobandi sect.
It is only recently that the moderate Sunnis have been targeted by the followers of radical Sunni sects in Pakistain. However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... for decades, Shias and other minorities were the only victims of turban violence. The majority Sunnis, who never agreed with the murderous agenda of the few radicalised groups, however remained complacent and maintained a deafening silence over the murders of Shias and others, which escalated during the dark days of General Ziaul Haq. It was during General Zia's time when madrassas were turned into military academies where intelligence operatives trained hundreds of thousands of Afghans, Arabs, and Paks in warfare; equipped them with Kalashnikov assault rifles and Stringer missiles; and marched them into Afghanistan.
The widespread distribution of small arms weaponised the Afghan society to such extremes that after the withdrawal of the Soviet Army in 1989 successive Afghan regimes collapsed because of the in-fighting that continued between heavily armed Afghan militias who could not agree on a post-Soviet governance formula. While Afghanistan imploded in the early 90s as a direct result of military interventions by the Soviets, Americans, Saudis, and Paks, several thousand alumni of the Afghan war returned to Pakistain to establish their own mini jihad factories in every nook and corner of Pakistain. For over a decade, the jihadis used Shias for target practice until they waged a full-fledged war against Pakistain's establishment in 2001.
The patron-in-chief of the jihadis, including the Taliban, has been General Hameed Gul, who headed Pakistain's Inter-Services Intelligence during the formative years when Russian-made weapons were shipped from Egypt and elsewhere to equip Afghans and others to fight the Red Army in Afghanistan. General Gul was recently confronted by an inimical group of Shias who were protesting outside the Parliament in Islamabad. As the crowd complained against his longstanding relationship with the hard boyz leading terrorist attacks against Shias, the General instead came off as the biggest dove as he addressed the crowd while his son whispered speaking notes in his ear. General Hameed Gul claimed to have initiated deweaponising the hard boyz before he was removed from ISI in June 1989.
I happened to meet General Hameed Gul in a suburb of Toronto in the mid-90s when he visited Canada. Sitting among a large group of devotees, General Gul spoke with pride of the "successes" achieved by the Taliban in Afghanistan. I specifically asked the General if he was at all concerned about the excessive spread of small arms and assault weapons in Pakistain and Afghanistan. His answer then was quite different from what he stated on April 10 in Islamabad. General Gul looked at me with barely concealed disgust and observed that weapons were the ornaments for men. "It is the same weapons that will come in handy to ward off the enemy," proclaimed General Gul.
Since his proclamation in the mid-90s, the same ornaments have dispatched thousands of Paks to their graves and have brought the state and the society to a near default. In the comity of nations, Pakistain is increasingly being referred to as a pariah state. Even the overseas Paks now march outside Pak embassies to protest against the massacres of minorities that continue unabated. Wherea,s once Pakistain complained of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. violations by India in the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... , other are now accusing Pakistain of the same.
As the violence increases in Pakistain, the rest of the world loses its confidence in Pakistain's ability to meet her economic, legal, and moral obligations. If the sectarian and factional violence, which no longer targets only the Shias and other minorities, continues in Pakistain, it is likely that the state and the society will implode, as it has already in the neighbouring Afghanistan.
It is imperative for Pakistain's military and civilian establishment to recognise that the time to act decisively against Death Eaters in Pakistain has arrived. There is no room or time to play favourites and support the "good beturbanned goons" who may side with the establishment for a short while, but the same good hard boyz will most likely turn against their handlers, as they have done so repeatedly in the last few years.
#3
ION SECTARIANISM, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > TTP CLASH WID HAQQANIS IN NORTH WAZIRISTAN | [Express Tribune] NOT ALLIES[?]:EIGHT DEAD AS TTP, HAQQANI NETWORK CLASH IN NORTH WAZIRISTAN.
SOme DPK Bloggers believe it relates to a weeks-old internal tribal incident = affair/matter of Org-vs-Org honor, but I'm inclined to think it has more to do wid 2014 = powersharing profile of the Pak Govt???
[Dawn] SWABI: Unidentified Islamic fascistiblew up a private school, owned by a politician of Awami National Party, here on Monday.
Police officials said that main gate, boundary wall and rooms of the school were damaged when a five-kilogram bomb, planted at its entrance, went kaboom! with a big bang. No one was present in the school at the time of kaboom. The Pakistain International Public School, situated in the district headquarters on Swabi-Jahangira Road, is owned by MPA Sikandar Irfan. The school was visited by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti About two months ago.
The school remained closed on Tuesday and the management of the institutions told students that they should wait till further order.
So far about 12 schools and colleges had been targeted by Islamic fascistiin the district.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2012
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[An Nahar] The powerful Moslem Brüderbund's Khairat al-Shater, barred from Egypt's first post-Arab Spring presidential election, accused the country's military rulers on Wednesday of seeking to stay in power and promised an anti-government protest.
He spoke after the electoral commission confirmed that 10 candidates had been barred from standing, rejecting challenges by him and another Islamist and the old regime's spy chief.
"The way the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) runs Egypt ... shows manipulation in the democratization process and a desire to prevent people from democratically electing their president," Shater told journalists.
He accused the SCAF of seeking "to extend the transitional period," which is scheduled to end in June after a president is elected.
"The SCAF wants to pull the strings of power from behind the scenes," said the wealthy businessman.
Shater said the Islamists would join a demonstration on Friday organized by the same movements that ousted long-time president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... last year.
He called on Egyptians to "protect the revolution," warning that plans for electoral fraud and vote-buying were under way.
He promised "to topple the remains of the Mubarak regime."
Shater also urged support for another Moslem Brüderbund candidate, Mohammed Morsi, chairman of the movement's Freedom and Justice Party.
On Tuesday, the electoral commission confirmed that 10 candidates had been barred from the May 23-24 presidential election, including Shater, Mubarak's ex-spy chief 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)... and Salafist candidate Hazem Abu Ismail.
Shater, who was in jail last year on charges of terrorism and money laundering, was barred because of a law that those who have been freed from jail may only run for office six years later.
Vocally anti-American Abu Ismail is out of the race because his late mother held US nationality, violating electoral rules that candidates, their parents and their wives must have only Egyptian citizenship.
Among the candidates still able to run are former 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... chief Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa ... who has been head of the Arab League since about the time Jerry and Dean split up ... and Abdelmoneim Abul Fotouh, a one-time member of the powerful Brotherhood.
"It's a very important decision because it eliminates the most controversial candidates," said Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed, professor of political science at Cairo University.
It is expected that those who would have voted for Suleiman would support Moussa, and Islamists may back Abul Fotouh.
But with the only Salafist candidate out of the race, "there is fear of reactions from the Abu Ismail supporters, who are not very disciplined," said Sayyed.
Those supporters, many of whom believe the ban is a conspiracy against their candidate orchestrated by Egyptian authorities and backed by the United States, protested outside the electoral commission on Wednesday.
"There was a falsification of documents" to eliminate the candidate, said Osama Sami.
"And if there was fraud this time, then there is likely to be fraud during the presidential election," he charged.
The Salafists ...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them... also vented their fury against the army council ruling Egypt.
"Down with the military! The Egyptian army is ours. The council does not represent us," they chanted.
Although expected in some quarters, the news of the decision threw the presidential campaign into turmoil as the fate of a new constitution remains hanging in limbo.
The latest developments in the presidential campaign further complicate the transition to democracy after the ouster of Mubarak.
Last week, a Cairo court suspended the Islamist-dominated commission tasked with drafting a new constitution amid a boycott by liberals, moderate Moslems and the Coptic church.
The panel, which is evenly divided between parliamentarians and public figures, was elected by the parliament. But most of its members were from the Moslem Brüderbund and Salafist fundamentalists who hold the majority in both houses of parliament.
The secular parties claimed their presence was only used as a smoke screen allowing the Islamists to draft a basic law reflecting their ideologies.
The prestigious Sunni Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, and the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt have also boycotted the panel.
Islamists believe the commission should reflect the composition of a parliament where the FJP holds nearly half the seats and the Salafist al-Nour party almost one quarter.
The secularists want a more balanced commission, fearing the Islamist grip would lead to the strengthening of a demand for Islamic Sharia law to be the point of reference for legislation.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2012
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#1
Muslim Brother Hood Whit House Germany did Russia ever leave Germany? Poor Exxon Mobil big oil deal for tech shame they will lose all of it to Russia in the end just a track record!
No, IDFcrotchsupporter, thanks to your islamist buddies, Coptic = killed. >:-(
Asshole.
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/19/2012 13:25
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#6
It appears to be posting from Portugal, g(r)omgoru, but it certainly is of the stupid type. After all, if the Copts were killers, Egypt would have returned to the bosom of Mother Church a thousand years ago...or during the British Mandatory period, anyway.
#7
"if the Copts were killers, Egypt would have returned to the bosom of Mother Church a thousand years ago...or during the British Mandatory period, anyway"
We can always dream, tw....
Posted by: Barbara ||
04/19/2012 14:13
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#8
Why is there a picture of Jerry Lewis in this article?
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
04/19/2012 18:28
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Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is set to visit Turkey on Thursday and Friday to speak with Turkish officials and Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, on bilateral relations, regional developments, the fight against terrorism and serious internal political issues in Iraq, Today's Zaman reported.
A Foreign Ministry statement said Barzani was scheduled for a two-day visit, and was expected to be received by President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.
Sedat Laçiner, the rector of 18 Mart University in Çanakkale, told Today's Zaman that this was neither Barzani's first visit to Turkey nor his last and added that the essence of Barzani's visit was not to meet with Hashemi only, as was claimed by some. "This is not an extraordinary visit. Barzani has also had discussions with senior American officials recently. The Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK] issue, Iraq's domestic issues and the crisis in Syria are expected to be discussed during his visit to Turkey," said Laçiner.
Turkey was content with Barzani's recent meeting with US leaders, where he spoke out against Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's monopolization of political power in Iraq, which Turkey is also very critical of, and a broad range of other issues, including encouraging the KRG to continue engaging in the Iraqi political process under the auspices of Iraq's constitution. Barzani said US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden reassured him that the United States would remain committed to cooperation with Kurdistan and committed to helping Iraq solve its serious internal political disputes.
Laçiner underlined that the relations between Turkey and Barzani have improved and become closer in recent times compared to the past. "In the past, Turkey and Barzani had very different relations, but today they meet as two close allies. So, this meeting will be a meeting of two partners," said Laçiner. He added that both sides -- Turkey and Barzani -- were in serious cooperation on many issues, including PM Maliki's policies and the PKK.
Barzani is also expected to meet with Hashemi, for whom the Shiite-led central government issued an arrest warrant in late 2011. Hashemi already stated that he will return to Iraq and will not seek political asylum in neighboring countries. Last week Hashemi came to Turkey, seeking political support. He met with Prime Minister Erdoğan and other officials to assess the situation in Iraq.
When asked about Iraqi Vice President Hashemi's situation, Laçiner stated that Turkey prefers Hashemi stay in Iraq. "Turkey wants Hashemi to live in his own country, Iraq, and to find solutions to the domestic problems of Iraq by preventing the occurrence of serious mistakes," said Laçiner.
Hashemi is trying to bolster his case, that he remains a key member of Iraq's government despite being a wanted man in Baghdad on charges of terrorism. The KRG refuses to hand over the fugitive vice president to the central government, despite calls from Baghdad.
The KRG's relations with the Shiite-led government, which already has long-running disputes with Kurds over territory and oil, were strained further when Vice President Hashemi, one of Iraq's leading Sunni politicians, fled Baghdad for the Kurdish north in December to avoid prosecution at the hands of the Maliki-led government on charges of running death squads.
Tayyar Arı, a professor at Uludağ University, told Today's Zaman that despite many problems, Turkey's relations with the KRG have improved in the recent years and that both sides have managed to agree on specific issues. "Especially after Maliki's policies in Iraq, it became compulsory for Turkey and the KRG to be in close contact. Maliki's insincere attitude towards Sunnis led Turkey to take more initiatives towards the Sunni issue. Hashemi's visit to the KRG, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey shows that the problem is not solved yet," said Arı.
He underlined that Hashemi was not going to be the sole topic that would be discussed between Turkish senior officials and Barzani. "Regional security issues, in particular border security, border operation and PKK infiltration, are still a top concern for Turkey. The KRG is trying to cooperate with Turkey on these issues," said Arı.
Arı also noted that the Syrian crisis will be the other serious topic expected to be discussed. "Kurds' expectations, Assad's stance on Kurds, Turkey's approach to Kurds in Syria and Barzani's expectations from the Syrian issue will be the topics on the table," said Arı.
Barzani is scheduled to hold a national Kurdish conference in Arbil in the forthcoming days at which he is expected to make a call on the PKK to lay down its arms or be isolated.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] President Bob Muggsy Mugabe Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case... on Wednesday urged Zim-bob-weans to shun violence ahead of elections he insists be held this year, in his first public appearance since a new wave of worry about his health.
"We are going to elections and troubles have already started. This is happening not only parties versus parties but within parties as well," he said in an hour-long speech at Harare's biggest stadium.
"All our politicians should encourage their supporters to promote the spirit of peace and tranquillity through social dialogue," he said.
The speech to mark Zim-bob-we's 32nd anniversary of independence from Britannia was the first public appearance by 88-year-old Mugabe since he returned from Singapore last week.
That trip sparked new worries about his health, amid reports that he has advanced prostate cancer. Mugabe has repeatedly brushed off concerns about his health.
The government said he went to Singapore to arrange post-graduate studies for his daughter Bona, but his near-monthly visits to the city-state have raised suspicions he is receiving medical care there.
Mugabe's health is a key factor in Zim-bob-we's politics, as he has no clear successor. His ZANU-PF party has already endorsed him as its candidate for the next polls.
Mugabe insists elections to choose a successor to his power-sharing government with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai should be held this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2012
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#4
Sallow complection, chemo/skin reaction to sunlight. Pale lips, low hemoglobin. Plump neck, pumped IV fluids. Curious he has eyelashes and eyebrows. Must still have some time left.
[An Nahar] Turkey has intercepted a Bermuda-flagged vessel suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition to Syria in the Mediterranean, a diplomatic source told Agence La Belle France Presse on Wednesday.
"We received information that the vessel has a cargo of arms and ammunition headed for Syria," the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that Turkish authorities would search the vessel later in the day.
The "Atlantic Cruiser" belongs to a German company, the source also noted.
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04/19/2012
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#3
Not that I object to the idea of disarming the Syrian regime, but under what legal authority is Turkey acting, that it feels it can enforce an arms blockade in the Med? Was this ship in Turkish territorial waters or something?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/19/2012 8:46
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#4
Turkey is trying to percipitate an incident large enough to get an armed response from Syria as an excuse to invade Northern Syria to support the rebels.
The Turks have a pretty good army I don't know why they just don't go in and take control of the situation. They have popular support for the action, given the thousands of refugees crossing over from Syria.
Syria has gone sideways and the implications for Turkey, Israel, and Iraq are monumental. As if all of the Iranians in Gaza wasn't enough.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
04/19/2012 11:08
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#5
The Turks have a pretty good army
They had a pretty good army before they started replacing professional (and Kemalist) officer corps with Islamists.
[Yemen Post] At least ten al-Qaeda bully boyz were killed in air strikes in Yemen on Wednesday, shortly after the Interior Ministry decided to expand the war on militancy in the south.
Informed sources in Abyan province said at least six bully boyz were killed by an air strike which targeted them in south Lawder city and the others were killed in another air strike in Jaar city.
With direct support from the US and locals, the Yemeni army has been fighting the bully boyz in southern and southeastern regions including Abyan, where hundreds of bully boyz have been killed and injured recently.
Last week and this week, the forces and popular fighters repelled many attacks by al-Qaeda to occupy Lawder and forced the bully boyz to withdraw.
On Tuesday, more than 20 bully boyz were killed in fierce battles in Lawder.
In mid-2011, al-Qaeda occupied and declared as Islamic emirates some towns in Abyan including the capital Zinjibar and since then its members have been fighting the army.
Highlighting the battles with al-Qaeda, commander of the Republican Guard, Ahmed Saleh, criticized on Tuesday the power-sharing government, saying the political foes in Yemen have failed to support the armed forces to uproot militancy.
In a speech during his meeting with leaders from the elite republican guards and Special Forces, Saleh said the country is in an urgent for the alignment of politicians and forces to face the threats of al-Qaeda in the Red and Arabian Seas.
"The armed forces in Yemen need the support from the politicians and whatever happens they are ready to defend the country," he said.
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[Dawn] WHAT is one to make of the coordinated attack that the Taliban launched on seven sites in Kabul and three sites in Paktia, Pashtun-infested Logar 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..
It was certainly the most dramatic and widespread assault in the Afghan capital since an attack in September on the US embassy and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... headquarters. It took the Afghan national security forces and their NATO mentors some 18 hours to clear out the last of the 36 hard boyz involved in the attack in Kabul.
An Afghan front man explained that so much time was taken only because the Afghan cops were anxious to avoid civilian casualties. They did acknowledge that while 35 of the 36 hard boyz in Kabul were killed, eight members of the Afghan cops and four non-combatants were killed while another 40 security personnel and 25 civilians were maimed.
The attacks at the Jalalabad airfield used by the Americans and on Afghan installations in Paktia and Pashtun-infested Logar were, it seems, largely casualty-free though three of the four hard boyz attacking the airfield were killed.
Taliban front man Zabiullah Mujahid, in a detailed briefing, told a Rooters' correspondent that the 30 specially trained mujahideen had spent months working with mock-ups of the targets to rehearse the attacks. He claimed that heavy machineguns, rocket grenades and ammunition had been put in place before the assault with inside help from the Afghan cops.
This attack has been termed as the start of the 'Taliban spring offensive' and one can assume that this was the Taliban version of creating 'shock and awe' -- very different from the military dominance that was proclaimed by this term when used in describing the American attack in Iraq -- to let the Afghans know that the Taliban could attack at will the most sensitive installations in the best-guarded parts of the capital.
According to Mujahid, "The attacks were very successful for us and were a remarkable achievement, dealing a psychological and political blow to foreigners and the government."
On the other hand, NATO saw things very differently. In his statement, Gen John R. Allen, the top US commander in Afghanistan, maintained that the Afghan cops "were on scene immediately, well-led and well-coordinated. They integrated their efforts, helped protect their fellow citizens and largely kept the hard boyz contained".
President Karzai, while being critical of both NATO and Afghan intelligence failures that permitted the hard boyz to infiltrate into sensitive areas, maintained that "Death Eaters must know that by launching such attacks they cannot prevent the determination of the peoples of this homeland of ours from the path of rebuilding and progress, as well as our goal for reaching peace and tranquillity in our country".
Separately, a spokesperson at NATO headquarters in Brussels, while conceding "we still face security challenges" and that "this was not the first such attack, and I don't expect it will be the last", went on to say "such attacks don't change the transition strategy. They don't change the goal and they don't change the timeline." Not much publicity has been given to the fact that NATO helicopters were used in the final assault on the bully boy positions which would seem to suggest that the Afghan forces may have acted "largely" on their own but needed critical help from NATO forces to clinch the issue.
In other words, the NATO perspective is that this was a "largely ineffective" attack and not the "remarkable achievement" that the Taliban would like to think it was. Rather, it established that the Afghan cops have proved their ability to take on responsibility of handling whatever the Taliban can throw at them. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between these contradictory assertions.
Certainly the Taliban have reinforced the belief that they have sympathisers among the most well-placed of the security forces and can enlist their support to place weaponry in sensitive sites and to allow infiltrators to reach and use these caches. But it is also established -- if this is the start of the 'spring offensive' -- that the Taliban cannot yet mount frontal assaults and cannot retake territory lost to the foreign and Afghan cops.
From Pakistain's perspective the most important element is the assertion that the one bully boy captured has said that he was a member of the Haqqani network. The American ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, told CNN that "frankly, I don't think the Taliban [are] good enough" to pull off such an attack. In another interview, he said that the attacks may be the work of the Haqqani network since, in his view, "The Taliban are very good at issuing statements, less good at fighting".
As surely as night follows day we will see in the next few days a spate of leaked reports confirming that the attack was the handiwork of the Haqqanis and dismissing contemptuously the Taliban front man's statement that the Haqqanis, even while being with the Taliban, were not involved in this attack. Pressure will then mount on Pakistain to take action in North Wazoo. How will we react at this time when relations are at a particularly delicate juncture?
Another point to ponder. Was there any connection between the assault in Kabul and the similarly well-planned attack on the same day on Bannu prison, which resulted in the escape of several high-security prisoners? There, too, the assault was rehearsed over a period of time. The attackers had inside information about the location of the cells occupied by the high-security prisoners. There was no resistance to the assault by the prison guards. Not one attacker and not one defender was even injured.
Does this suggest that the same people planned both attacks? Worse, does this not prove that, because of venality or incompetence, our security is now worse than that prevailing in war-torn Afghanistan?
Continued on Page 49
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Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals an incredibly liberal appeals court ruled that Arizonas voter ID law was largely constitutional. Opponents of the law had argued that the fee to obtain an ID amounted to an impermissible poll tax; the Court thought otherwise.
The Court did rule, however, that Arizona cannot turn down federal voter registration forms, which simply ask applicants to check a box indicating that they are US citizens. Thats not because such provisions would be unconstitutional its because those provisions violate the federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the so-called Motor Voter Act). Due to the supremacy clause of the Constitution, in areas where the federal government legislates, states cannot.
The case will likely move on to the Supreme Court.
Defendant Who Pleaded Guilty Describes al Qaeda Training, Subway Bomb Plot
Click on the names to see the articles on this story in the Rantburg archive.
Three former high-school classmates were perilously close to implementing an al Qaeda-inspired plan to detonate suicide bombs in New York City's subways before they were thwarted in 2009, federal prosecutors told a packed courtroom Monday.
The characterization came during opening statements in a trial in Brooklyn federal court which one of the men, Adis Medunjanin, is accused of receiving training by the terrorist organization while in Pakistain and returning to the U.S. with orders to launch a devastating attack.
Mr. Medunjanin has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to counts including conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to commit an act of terrorism, conspiring to commit murder abroad and conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization.
He is the only one of the suspects who didn't plead guilty. His alleged confessed cohorts will testify against him as part of cooperation agreements with the government. On Monday, one of the men began detailing the trio's road to radicalization and the planning of the alleged mission, which authorities considered to be one of the most viable terrorist threats in the U.S. since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The trial is notable in that unlike many other terrorism cases, the defendants weren't caught as a part of a federal sting. Instead, the prosecutors said Monday, the attack was fully operational rather than aspirational.
"These men came so close, within days of carrying out this attack," said James Loonam, assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District.
This lot can be proud they were self-starters, I s'pose, though eyes were on them.
Mr. Medunjanin faces a maximum term of life in prison if convicted.
His attorney, Robert Gottlieb, said his client was seeking to support the Taliban fighting the U.S. in Afghanistan
Treason as a defence -- interesting. No doubt it's a good deal more clever than it appears.
but denied the 28-year-old Bosnian-born Moslem had agreed to carry out suicide kabooms in the U.S. with Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay. Both men have pleaded guilty to a host of terrorism charges.
"The truth is that Adis Medunjanin is not a terrorist," Mr. Gottlieb said. "In this case, the government is just wrong."
He wanted to join the Taliban.
He wanted to fight, and presumably kill, for the Taliban.
The Taliban are a jihadi organization, ie terrorists. Then there's the Al Qaeda connection, which the lawyer seems to have forgotten.
Therefore, Mr. Medunjanin is a terrorist, though he claims he drew the line at dirtying his own nest.
Quod erat demonstratum, as I believe the Latin goes.
He attacked the credibility of the witnesses, saying they were cooperating only to avoid likely lengthy prison terms.
Testimony on Monday began with Mr. Ahmedzay detailing his friendship with Messrs. Medunjanin and Zazi. The three had attended high school together in the New York borough of Queens, and in 2008 they "made a covenant to go to Afghanistan and fight with the mujahedeen against American forces," he said.
It sounds dreadfully romantic in the abstract, when one leaves out all the killing of one's countrymen, and stuff like that.
That summer, Mr. Ahmedzay said, they traveled to Pakistain where they were recruited by al Qaeda operatives who showed them slickly produced propaganda videos, which were played in court, with digital recreations of the 2005 London subway bombings and the car-bombing of the 2008 Danish embassy in Pakistain.The videos, which were played in court, contained "martyrdom" statements by the perpetrators of the attacks.
Mr Ahmedzay said the three were told they would be more valuable as jacket wallahs in the U.S. and were given training in use of weapons, Mr. Ahmedzay said. Their handlers encouraged them to identify targets in the U.S. and execute a "mission" during the presidency of George W. Bush, he told the court.
"You're not valuable enough to be true a Lion of Islam, but you'll do as well as a raped woman or a retarded child to carry a bomb. There -- now don't you feel better?"
Mr. Ahmedzay said he spoke with his two friends at the time and said, "We had come here to give our lives, to seek martyrdom...now are we going to accept or reject it?"
He said the men accepted the mission and began planning it.
"Woo hoo! Ok, srsly, guys -- who wants to be mentally broken, and who wants to be mentally deficient?"
Mr. Ahmedzay, a taxi driver, would case prominent targets. Mr. Medunjanin, a doorman in a New York City building, would be a suicide bomber and Mr. Zazi, an airport-shuttle driver in Colorado, would seek bomb-making materials and build the explosive, Mr. Ahmedzay said.
The original plan called for a car-bomb targeting major New York landmarks such as Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and the New York Stock Exchange, the witness said. But when Mr. Zazi said he couldn't build a big enough bomb because he had lost a page of his notes,
Wow. That must have been why he emailed, asking for directions.
they decided on suicide belts to target the subway during rush hours, Mr. Ahmedzay testified.
The attack was abandoned when Mr. Zazi realized he was being watched by federal and local authorities while on a car trip to New York.
That was when he was stopped by police on the bridge, if I recall correctly.
At the time of his guilty plea in February 2010, prosecutors said Mr. Zazi had purchased large amounts of chemicals needed to produce the explosive TATP,
A.k.a. Mother of Satan, because it's so unstable...
which was used in the bombing of London's transit system in 2005. Prosecutors alleged that Mr. Zazi used a hotel room near Denver, where Sherlocks later found bomb-making residue. Mr. Zazi traveled to New York in September, and along with the others plotted the timing of the attack and where to make the explosives, according to prosecutors.
Mr. Ahmedzay said he lied repeatedly to the FBI during the investigation and destroyed evidence.
No doubt that seemed clever at the time...
Mr. Gottlieb, the defense attorney, zeroed in on Mr. Ahmedzay's cooperation agreement with the government and called his credibility into question during cross examination.
"You would be willing to kill, to set off a bomb, but you wouldn't lie to a jury?" he asked the witness.
Noting that Mr. Ahmedzay faces a range of no prison time to life, Mr. Gottlieb asked Mr. Ahmedzay how much time he hopes to serve in exchange for his testimony.
"I hope to get that zero years you mentioned, sir," the witness replied.
Mr. Zazi, who was described by authorities as the leader of the cell at the time of his arrest, was expected to testify Tuesday..
Once in Pakistan, Ahmedzay said, they were taken instead to an al-Qaida training camp in northwestern Pakistan and urged to carry out a suicide mission in the United States. The men agreed, and after returning to the U.S., Zazi began assembling ingredients for the bombs, including nail polish remover and peroxide from beauty supply stores.
Ahmedzay testified they discussed potential targets with their al-Qaida handlers in Pakistan, including Times Square, the New York Stock Exchange, Grand Central Station and Pennsylvania Station, but did not settle on a definite one. The goal, he said, was to strike a crowded subway station during rush hour, to maximize civilian casualties.
Medunjanin's lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, said Medunjanin never intended to hurt anyone when he crashed his car into another vehicle on a New York City bridge just after calling a police emergency line to say that he "loved death more than you love your life."
Prosecutors termed that a jihadist slogan, but Gottlieb told the jury that Medunjanin meant only to kill himself, rather than be falsely branded as a Muslim terrorist.
According to Najibullah Zazi, the confessed mastermind of the foiled 2009 subway bomb plot, accused terrorist Adis Medunjanin was a role model to us, because he was most knowledgeable in Islam.
According to Zazi and Ahmedzay, who also pleaded guilty, the trio became close friends after high school, bonding over their dedication to Islam - and to the Internet lectures of radical Imams. As they grew angry at the American presence in Afghanistan, they decided to go there to fight to the death - toperform jihad, as Zazi testified.
Zazi, who operated a food cart in New York, said he used more than 10 different credit cards to buy cameras, computers, jewelry and airline tickets to Pakistan in 2008.
The prosecution plans also to put on the stand two other confessed terrorists, including Saajid Muhammad Badat, a Briton convicted of plotting to use a shoe bomb to blow up an airliner.
Continued on Page 49
An admitted al-Qaida recruit testified Wednesday that he and two friends were determined to "weaken America" by strapping on suicide bombs and attacking New York City subways around the eighth anniversary of 9/11, but now hopes for redemption.
"I believe my crimes are very bad," Najibullah Zazi said on cross-examination. "If God gave me a second chance, I would appreciate it and will be a very good human being."
Zazi recounted how, after leaving their Queens neighborhood for Pakistan in 2008, the three Muslim men met a top al-Qaida operative they knew only as Hamad. Authorities say Hamad was Adnan Shukrijumah, a Saudi listed on an FBI website as a fugitive who plotted attacks for al-Qaida worldwide.
By the time Zazi rented a car and drove to the city with the acetone peroxide in a glass jar, FBI agents were tailing him. When he realized that, he stopped at a Queens mosque and threw away chemicals, goggles and other bomb-building items, he said.
Ahmedzay flushed the acetone peroxide down a toilet as part of the cover-up, he added.
He also decided to go back to Colorado. But before he could leave, he discovered his rental car was missing. Authorities have said they secretly towed it away for a search before allowing him to retrieve it without letting on.
While trying to locate the rental, the would-be suicide bomber who had every reason to fear being caught testified that he still did what most people would do: "I called the police."
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Republican challenger Mitt Romney ...whose real first name is actually, no kidding, Willard, was governor of Massachussetts and is currently the front-runner for president on the Publican ticket. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's foot is in an ideological bucket because of Romneycare, a state-level experiment that should have been a warning against Obamacare if anyone had been paying attention. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field... has closed the gap with US President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... and the two are now neck and neck in the White House race, a poll released Wednesday shows.
Romney, the party's presumptive nominee now that his main Republican rival has folded up his campaign, matched Obama 46-46 percent among registered voters who were asked in a CBS News/New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... poll who they would vote for if the election were today.
Last month, a survey by the same media outlets showed Obama with a 47-44 advantage.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#5
Uh, yeahhhh. That's what worries me...or at least part of it. Another part is I just plain don't believe him when he says he's gonna crack down on illegal immigration...just plain don't believe a lot of things. Experience has taught me not to.
#6
After watching what happened to Obama in the polls after Healthcare went through? From a political survival sense alone he'd never agree to keep healthcare.
#7
It would be nice to have someone more conservative but I'll pull the lever for Romney. Not because I'm voting for him but because I'm voting against the current disgrace in the WH.
Although the VP slot is rumored not to be worth a bucket of warm spit, it'll be interesting to see who he picks.
#8
Etch-a-sketch Tweedledee fights to repeal ObumerCare but goes down in the first round due to a phantom knockout punch from the minority Senate Dems.
#9
Although the VP slot is rumored not to be worth a bucket of warm spit, it'll be interesting to see who he picks.
I'm hearing whispers that the bucket of warm spit recipient will be Rand Paul.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
04/19/2012 19:01
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#10
What if Tweedledee decides TweedledeeCare would be good for the nation?
The states have the power to do that. The Feds don't. I don't disagree with Romney trying it for MA. If it had worked well, then great! If it failed miserably, then great! Those states who are paying attention can learn the lessons and copy, decline, or modify and carry on. That is the nature of friendly competition. We all learn what is best from watching each other. Now if the Feds get involved, there is no competition, and that is not good for America. That for me is where the line is drawn. Obean when over the line because he doesn't get the nature of competition and capitalism.
#12
I did some soul searching, and caucused for Mitt Romney here in Nevada. I even gave a speach supporting him. I didn't have to - everybody knew he would take the state - but I felt it was necissary, and I'll tell all of you why.
Obama has been terrible for the country, and that's an objective fact. Mitt will do a better job as president. His presidency will be less harmful to all of us. He can also beat Obama in a national election, and has the money and organization to do it. It's as simple as that.
I'm not saying that Romeny will win. He could very well loose. But Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul were never going to beat Obama, and I think most of you know that. So you put on the long pants and make the hard choices.
Kate Hudson aka Penny Lane (Nominated for AW) in "Almost Famous (2000)" aka Andie Anderson in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)" aka Caroline Ellis in "The Skeleton Key (2005)" aka Liv in "Bride Wars (2009)" aka Amy Stanton in "The Killer Inside Me (2010)" aka Marley Corbett in "A Little Bit of Heaven (2011)" (age 33)
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Sudan is pursuing both military and diplomatic measures to end the South's eight-day occupation of its key Heglig oil field, but it must stop "by hook or crook," a foreign ministry official said on Wednesday.
"Military steps are underway ... and they are calculated measures," Omar Dahab, head of the ministry's crisis team, told a news conference.
"At the same time, they are taking into consideration the diplomatic and good offices efforts regarding the ending of the occupation.
"We have to end the occupation by hook or crook, by either way."
Clashes broke out last month in the Heglig area and escalated last week with waves of aerial bombardment hitting the South and Juba's seizure of Heglig on April 10.
Sudan's military has released virtually no information about the situation on the ground but said last Saturday its forces were kilometres (miles) from Heglig.
Many in Khartoum are asking how the South was able to take over the area so easily in the first place.
South Sudan's army has vowed to hold its positions in Heglig, despite air strikes.
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[Shabelle] Ethiopian troops fighting al-Qaeda-linked snuffies in neighboringSomaliawill soon return home,Ethiopia's prime minister said Tuesday.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said regions ofSomaliacurrently controlled by Ethiopian forces will be handed over to troops fromBurundi,Kenya,DjiboutiandRwanda.
The first three countries have troops inSomaliaas part of the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... peacekeeping force.Rwandadoes not currently have troops inSomalia.
Ethiopian troops moved into Somalia at the beginning of the year. Meles said the mission has accomplished "very good results" in fighting al-Shabaab ... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban... bad boys.
He did not provide a timeline for such a withdrawal and handover.
"The aim of our involvement was to aide the (Somali) transitional government and help weaken Shabaab bad boys. And it has been successful," Meles told the country's parliament.
Meles said Ethiopian forces have met little military resistance inSomalia, although al-Shabaab has claimed to have carried out several deadly attacks against the Ethiopian troops.
He also told parliament thatEthiopiawould not become involved in a war with archrivalEritrea. Last month Ethiopian troops moved into neighboringEritreaand attacked three military camps in response to bad boy attacks on tourists insideEthiopia.
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The military behind the Mali coup last month on Wednesday tossed in the clink two more politicians, even as a newly-appointed interim prime minister weighed the make-up of a new government.
As the junta leaders carried out their show of force, there was more bad news from the country's desert north, where the political chaos has allowed rebel forces to make huge gains in recent weeks.
The United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... humanitarian office said some 268,000 people had now decamped northern Mali, which was seized by Tuareg rebels and Islamists in the days following the March 22 putsch.
In the capital, a member of leading opposition party the Democratic Alliance of Mali, Kassoum Tapo, was tossed in the clink by gunnies "in a public place" Tuesday night and taken to the coup leaders' military barracks, a relative told AFP on condition of anonymity.
And Tieman Coulibaly of the Democracy and Development Union was tossed in the clink at his home, his party said.
The coup leaders were already holding several brass hats -- including ex-prime minister Modibo Sidibe and Soumaila Cisse, a former minister who led the West African Economic and Monetary Union until last November.
The soldiers agreed to hand power back to civilians, and the arrests have signalled they do not want to be sidelined from the political process.
Interim president Dioncounda Traore on Tuesday named a noted astrophysicist as his prime minister, Cheick Modibo Diarra -- who worked on several space exploration missions for NASA -- and who is expected to announce the members of his government in coming days.
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Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."
Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.
Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,--
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.
A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.
It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,--
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,--
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Happy birthday to me. I had message from my doctor wishing me a happy 50th and it's time for a colonoscopy
#1
Jeebus, back in the early 1970's I + my elementary school class had to remember this poem for assignment + test - after all these several decades, I still remember most of it.
Ditto apparently a lot of other stateside Netters.
#2
Today in history: April 19, 1775, in Massachusetts, the government sent the army to confiscate the guns and ammuniton of the citizens. The citizens of Lexington & Concord did not approve and met the British army with 'The Shot Heard 'round the World.'
They would find few guns and no opposition there if they were to do it today.
[Yemen Post] Ministry of Interior named the person who attacked the power transmission lines in al-Shabwan area of Marib, leaving tens of thousands of households in the Yemeni capital and in some other provinces in total darkness. The ministry named Fahd Ali Jabar al-Shabwani, as the prime suspect and responsible for the attack of towers no. 372, and 379 with an iron chain. The ministry noted that police forces are currently looking for al-Shabwani to make him face the repercussions of what he has done. For its part Ministry of Electricity said that special teams have headed to the attacked sites and repaired some of the damage. The technical teams will completely fix the damages and make the station operational again with its full capacity. Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... the residents of the capital Sana'a complained about the frequent attacks, calling on the authorities to bring those responsible for the attacks before courts and punish them severely in order to put an end for the sabotage attacks. The power sector in Yemen has been severely hit since February of last year due to frequent attacks by person or persons unknown. Yesterday, the Arab Fund for Economical and Social Development granted Yemen $ 65 million aimed to bolster the energy sector in the country. A new wind-run power station will be established in Maka area of Taiz which will provide Sana'a and some other provinces currently depending on Marib station with power.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2012
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Shabelle] In the last few hours, Hundreds of Somalis have decamped from their homes Wednesday fearing armed festivities after Somali and Kenyan troops attacked holdout Islamist Al Shabaab jihad boy positions near the rebel-held Afmadow town locations in the south of the war-wracked country.
Columns of 130 families with their young children headed by foot into the city ofDhoblaywhich locates the border betweenSomaliaandKenyafrom the outskirts of Afmadow town, as the coalition forces moved into positions they seized from the Al-Qaeda-linked rebels this months after heavy fighting. ... as opposed to the more usual desultory or sporadic fighting... "These fleeing people are reportedly located at an area in the center of Dhobalay town, in the southwestern Gedo region ofSomaliawith no proper shelters to assist them from the cold and the daily scorching sun rays" said a resident of Dhoblay.
Many Afmadow residents had decamped to the border towns nearKenya, which hosts thousands of thousands of displaced people, in the wake of intense battles between the AU troops and the rebels in recent years.
Afmadow located in lower Jubba region and it is just 620 kilometers away south ofSomalia's capital,Mogadishu.
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04/19/2012
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[Yemen Post] UK Ambassador to Yemen Nicholas Hopton has said the Yemeni President Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi made progress in fighting Al-Qaeda, pointing out that he could play a major role in implementing the GCC-mediated power transfer deal
In remarks to the military-run online website, 26 September, Hopton further said that the United Kingdom strongly cooperates with Yemen in its fight against Al-Qaeda, indicating that Al-Qaeda never represents Islam.
He further stressed Britannia will continue its support to Yemen in political and economic fields, and help it overcome all its challenges and difficulties.
He called on all Yemeni sides to work for the success of the national dialogue conference to be hold in the few upcoming months.
While Hadi faces many challenges that include the restructuring the armed forces, recovering the fragile economy of the state , risks of secession in the South and rebellions in north, he vowed to defeat Al-Qaeda.
Yemen has been battling groups linking to Al-Qaeda for two weeks in some town of Abyan governorate after the group's lethal bids to expand in Abyan.
Many world countries, especially the Unties States, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and Yemen's neighboring GCC States pay much attention to Yemen as Al-Qaeda poses a significant and continuing threat to the global community.
Terrorist groups that exploited the state's turbulence to expand are viewed as a potential menace to the global community, in particular as a Yemen is located in sea lanes that are used to supply large amounts of crude to Western markets.
Yemen's Interior Ministry stated on Wednesday that it will expand its war against Al-Qaeda, saying that it will not halt its fight against Al-Qaeda until the defeat of the organization.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2012
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
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.
KARACHI: Ten people were killed and several others 
No army in the world could win war without the support of its countrymen and political ownership of the ongoing military operations in militancy-hit areas of the country was necessary to achieve long-lasting peace, 
Wazoo
...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 ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
The German cabinet has agreed on new rights for the Bundeswehr in the fight against piracy off the coast ofSomalia. If parliament approves, the mission -- previously restricted to the sea -- will be taken inland.
[Shabelle] A 
Khaleda Zia
Mohmand
Confronted with plunging polls and deserting allies, President Nicolas Sarkozy faces the prospect of a rout in the two-round French presidential election starting this weekend, with senior members of his government already said to be certain of defeat.
Yemen's Interior Ministry has declared its intention to expand war against Al-Qaeda, stating that it will not halt its fight against Al-Qaeda until the defeat of the organization. 
The Asian News International reported recently that "in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistain's only Shia dominated province, ethnic cleansing is being carried out systematically." At the same time, the Shia-dominated town of 
Kurram Agency
Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa
Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is set to visit Turkey on Thursday and Friday to speak with Turkish officials and Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, on bilateral relations, regional developments, the fight against terrorism and serious internal political issues in Iraq, Today's Zaman reported.
Venezuela After Chavez, a Very Uncertain Place
[Yemen Post] At least ten al-Qaeda 
Defendant Who Pleaded Guilty Describes al Qaeda Training, Subway Bomb Plot
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Republican challenger 
[Yemen Post] Ministry of Interior named the person who attacked the power transmission lines in al-Shabwan area of Marib, leaving tens of thousands of households in the Yemeni capital and in some other provinces in total darkness. The ministry named Fahd Ali Jabar al-Shabwani, as the prime suspect and responsible for the attack of towers no. 372, and 379 with an iron chain. The ministry noted that police forces are currently looking for al-Shabwani to make him face the repercussions of what he has done. For its part Ministry of Electricity said that special teams have headed to the attacked sites and repaired some of the damage. The technical teams will completely fix the damages and make the station operational again with its full capacity. 
[Shabelle] In the last few hours, Hundreds of Somalis have
[Yemen Post] UK Ambassador to Yemen Nicholas Hopton has said the Yemeni President Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi made progress in fighting Al-Qaeda, pointing out that he could play a major role in implementing the GCC-mediated power transfer deal 
