Hi there, !
Today Thu 12/27/2012 Wed 12/26/2012 Tue 12/25/2012 Mon 12/24/2012 Sun 12/23/2012 Sat 12/22/2012 Fri 12/21/2012 Archives
Rantburg
531183 articles and 1854386 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 52 articles and 180 comments as of 22:59.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix    Main Page
Tunisia arrests 16 al-Qaeda suspects
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
13:46 1 14:08 Besoeker [336070]
12:43 11 18:47 swksvolFF [336104]
11:38 2 19:22 Redneck Jim [336085]
09:29 8 23:31 twobyfour [336089]
08:59 1 11:29 Skidmark [336067] 
08:45 10 18:15 P2Kontheroad [336091]
07:49 19 23:29 trailing wife [336101] 
04:24 0 [336069] 
04:20 1 10:28 NoMoreBS [336072]
04:02 1 11:03 Bobby on the road [336078] 
03:14 1 10:51 Redneck Jim [336081] 
03:03 6 13:27 Shipman [336106]
02:54 3 09:58 Glenmore [336087]
02:50 8 19:30 Redneck Jim [336093]
00:52 5 13:00 Pappy [336067] 
00:40 6 21:32 BrujoTejano [336091]
00:00 5 21:54 KBK [336093]
00:00 0 [336090]
00:00 1 10:25 Redneck Jim [336069]
00:00 0 [336117]
00:00 3 16:50 JohnQC [336092]
00:00 1 03:19 Redneck Jim [336081]
00:00 2 03:56 Besoeker [336070]
00:00 0 [336087]
00:00 2 16:24 lord garth [336083] 
00:00 0 [336066] 
00:00 3 12:18 P2Kontheroad [336076]
00:00 10 11:26 Deacon Blues [336077]
00:00 8 15:45 JohnQC [336088]
00:00 16 19:12 Redneck Jim [336094]
00:00 2 04:01 Besoeker [336066]
00:00 0 [336068] 
00:00 0 [336081]
00:00 5 14:21 AlanC [336088]
00:00 5 18:58 Zhang Fei [336084]
00:00 1 03:09 Redneck Jim [336077] 
00:00 0 [336067]
00:00 1 02:38 mojo [336068] 
00:00 6 19:15 Redneck Jim [336087]
00:00 1 03:17 Redneck Jim [336103]
00:00 4 11:33 Bobby on the road [336072] 
00:00 1 06:43 American Delight [336074]
00:00 0 [336084]
00:00 0 [336068]
00:00 0 [336074]
00:00 12 16:25 Mojo [336100]
00:00 0 [336070] 
00:00 0 [336065] 
00:00 0 [336068] 
00:00 1 04:44 Besoeker [336088]
00:00 1 10:40 Redneck Jim [336069] 
00:00 6 16:03 gorb [336068]
Afghanistan
Prince Harry earns his combat pay
Prince Harry is thought to have killed his first Taliban fighters as he flew to the rescue of a patrol that had come under attack. The third in line to the throne has been serving as the gunner and navigator in an Apache attack helicopter for the Army Air Corps in Afghanistan since September.

He is thought to have made his first "kill" a few weeks after arriving.

Defence sources denied reports that he had killed a Taliban "commander" but admitted that he had deployed his weaponry on operations.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/24/2012 13:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A good and very brave man that Harry! Hope we see more of him in years to come. Kill all the wretched bastids !
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 14:08 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Firefighters ambushed responding to WNY blaze
The residents of Lake Road, on a small peninsula at the mouth of Irondequoit Bay, woke up this morning to hell, hell on Christmas Eve. Volunteer firefighters from West Webster and Webster (NY) responded to the report of a house fire at 5:45 a.m. On arrival, they were ambushed and four firefighters were shot. Two have died and two are reported in serious condition at a local hospital.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/24/2012 12:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336104 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Meth lab nearby ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 13:14 Comments || Top||

#2  WTF??!
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/24/2012 13:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Update from NSJ sez the shooter is dead.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/24/2012 13:31 Comments || Top||

#4  As has been said before - we wonder why this is very rare in UK...
Posted by: Herb Hupeng3217 || 12/24/2012 14:02 Comments || Top||

#5  As I recall, Webster is the last exit off the I-90 before the Pennsylvania border. The people there were very kind to me when the deer crashed into my car, completely shattering the front windshield -- an example of physics I have chosen not to explore. The bits I saw were a pretty example of asmall American town, though that was 1990 -- it may have changed since, if it's got meth labs
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2012 14:07 Comments || Top||

#6  #4 As has been said before - we wonder why this is very rare in UK...
Posted by Herb Hupeng3217


It's the walk to the pub Herb. Pub grub and a few pints, some darts, then up the road again, pet the dog and to bed. The way life was meant to be dimmit!
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 14:15 Comments || Top||

#7  Webster is just east of Rochester, on the other side of Irondequoit Bay. The shooting took place on a peninsula across the mouth of the bay. The shooter, felon Wm. Spengler, took a position in natural cover behind a berm and fired on the firefighters as they arrived. First police on scene exchanged fire with Spengler then lost him in the dark and smoke. Was later found dead from a gunshot to the head, suicide.

Spengler served 18 yrs for the murder of his grandmother with a hammer in 1980. Paroled 1998 through 2006. As a felon, illegal for him to have firearms. Reportedly, his mother died a couple moths ago. They have not found his sister, also residing at the original fire scene.

7 houses destroyed by fire. Reminds me of the Breezy Point fire during Hurricane Sandy. Firefighters couldn't get in until scene was clear.

Map, link to scanner audio, at the story. Audio is chilling.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 12/24/2012 15:42 Comments || Top||

#8  As has been said before - we wonder why this is very rare in UK...

I wonder how the government there would behave if every citizen had a firearm.
Posted by: gorb || 12/24/2012 16:09 Comments || Top||

#9  As has been said before - we wonder why this is very rare in UK...

Was it the Telegraph or the Daily Mail that ran a story a few days ago about how the Brits may technically have been disarmed, but nonetheless are considerably more likely to experience violence than Americans. Something about knives, baseball bats and fists, not to mention your tolerance of school bullies. And of course, America doesn't have yobs and their football... we regularly take our children to such things without needing to worry about their safety.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2012 16:57 Comments || Top||

#10  Webster is just east of Rochester

Once again demonstrating my poor geographic skills. Oh well. At least the situation was resolved quickly. Those poor families, dealing with such unexpected grief on Christmas Eve.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2012 17:02 Comments || Top||

#11  Meanwhile, in Britain.

Also hear about French firefighters being attacked when responding to car-b-ques. Then there was the great question of why AmazonUK's top selling items were riot gear/baseball bats (baseball bats being quite a bit lighter).
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/24/2012 18:47 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Bataan Death March survivor, 93, dies
Pablo Gutierrez, a lifelong Grant County resident who survived the infamous Bataan Death March during World War II and was among the last surviving members of his New Mexico National Guard unit who made it through the war, has died. Gutierrez was 93 and died at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City on Dec. 17 after developing respiratory complications and pneumonia.

Born Jan. 25, 1919, in Santa Rita, Gutierrez was in a New Mexico National Guard unit sent to the Philippines in 1941. A Guard history says only half the 1,800 men survived the 1942 battle against the invading Japanese, the Death March after the American surrender and 40 months of captivity. Among his military decorations was the Purple Heart.

Gutierrez would not talk about his war experiences, his daughter said, although he regularly attended a Memorial Day service at the Fort Bayard National Cemetery, where he'll be buried Friday. A small group of Grant County survivors attended the events, although all but Gutierrez had died in recent years. He was hospitalized during this year's event, but insisted on attending, so doctors arranged for an ambulance to take him.

"He didn't really like to talk about everything that he went through," his daughter Rosemary Gutierrezsaid. "There's other people out there that would tell all the stories, but he was a real quiet man about the torture he went through on the Death March. People would go up to him and tell him 'thank you' and ask him for more details. But he would just break down crying. He couldn't handle it."

After being liberated in September 1945, Gutierrez returned to New Mexico, married and worked as a plumber. He and his wife Sarah Chavez Gutierrez had two sons and a daughter, but only Rosemary survives. He is also survived by five grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

The war deeply affected him, although he didn't like to talk about it. In recent years as his health declined, flashbacks were not uncommon. But he was always upbeat about life.

"He was never a bitter man about what happened in his life," Gutierrez said of her father.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/24/2012 11:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336085 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "he didn't like to talk about it"

Many, dare I say most, didn't. I know my father didn't.

RIP Mr Guiterrez and thank you.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/24/2012 12:29 Comments || Top||

#2  My Father served in the Philipines, he never talked about it either, common thread?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 19:22 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Beyond bizarre: University of Graz music professor calls for skeptic death sentences
Richard Parncutt, Professor of Systematic Musicology, University of Graz, Austria, reckons people like Watts, Tallbloke, Singer, Michaels, Monckton, McIntyre and me (there are too many to list) should be executed. He’s gone full barking mad, and though he says these are his “personal opinions” they are listed on his university web site.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/24/2012 09:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336089 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BTW You can also guess his politics.

So an Austrian socialist who wants to run death camps...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/24/2012 11:17 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't know BP, I think I heard of something similar sometime in the recent past. /s
Posted by: tipover || 12/24/2012 12:03 Comments || Top||

#3  So an Austrian socialist who wants to run death camps...
He's an Australian intellectual with delusion of grandeur, BP
As they say down under "He's got a mob of 'roos loose in his top paddock'
Posted by: tipper || 12/24/2012 13:14 Comments || Top||

#4  He's got it slightly out of sequence. Raise taxes, destroy industry, and confiscate property first. Then execute the surviving non-believers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 13:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Seems like talk like that would run afoul of the europeon's anti hate speech laws.
They have a much more modest right of free speech than we do.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/24/2012 13:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Naaahhhhh, bigjim - it's OK as long as he hates the right people. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 13:41 Comments || Top||

#7  derision of grandeur
Posted by: KBK || 12/24/2012 20:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Wasn't there an Austrian painter once that was into death sentences too?

Something in water? WHAT is it with these Austrians? (I have an Austrian friend and he's a decent guy, but he immigrated to Canada when he was still young, thanks God!)
Posted by: twobyfour || 12/24/2012 23:31 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
US Army teams going to Africa to fight terror threat
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 08:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah, I feared this when we saw the 1st stood up earlier. Hope someone plays the UN card instead.
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/24/2012 11:29 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Pro-gun rights US petition to deport Piers Morgan
This "petitioning the king" thingy was pointless posturing on the part of the White House from the beginning. It's time to stop feeding the chief resident's ego, and write to CNN instead. Their feedback page is here.
It is fun, however, to turn the king's tools against him. Conservatives should be doing that more often. It's almost .. Alinsky-like...
Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for British CNN host Piers Morgan to be deported from the U.S. over his gun control views.

Morgan has taken an aggressive stand for tighter U.S. gun laws in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting. Last week, he called a gun advocate appearing on his "Piers Morgan Tonight" show an "unbelievably stupid man."

Now, gun rights activists are fighting back. A petition created Dec. 21 on the White House e-petition website by a user in Texas accuses Morgan of engaging in a "hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution" by targeting the Second Amendment. It demands he be deported immediately for "exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens."

The petition has already hit the 25,000 signature threshold to get a White House response. By Monday, it had 31,813 signatures.

Morgan seemed unfazed -- and even amused -- by the movement.

In a series of Twitter messages, he alternately urged his followers to sign the petition and in response to one article about the petition said "bring it on" as he appeared to track the petition's progress.

"If I do get deported from America for wanting fewer gun murders, are there any other countries that will have me?" he wrote.
Posted by: tipper || 12/24/2012 08:45 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ypu violated the "Bill of Rights" Yes people are angry, also British Right to bear Arms is a MAJOR reason the United States exists today.
Think about it without prejudice.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 10:21 Comments || Top||

#2  that's about 29,000 more than his viewers
Posted by: Frank G || 12/24/2012 10:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Ha ha. He is a bit of a dipwad.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/24/2012 10:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Don't like our laws and our Constitution, Mr. Morgan?

THEN HAUL YOUR SORRY ASS BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 10:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Yet another son of Perfidious Albion. Few surprises here. Nice plump Englishman like you Piers, you'll likely be quite welcome in the ketel of some hungry village in the Pommie created utopia of Zim. Move out smartly will you !
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 11:09 Comments || Top||

#6  Actually he's not very welcome back
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/24/2012 11:30 Comments || Top||

#7  LOVE it, BP! ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 11:49 Comments || Top||

#8  Classic! His thoughts and attitude about our rights are the reason we are no longer a brittish colony.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 12/24/2012 12:37 Comments || Top||

#9  I support Morgan's right to make an ass of himself. But I can't help thinking it would serve the Brits right if we deported him because of their refusal to let Michael Savage or Geert Wilders into their country.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 12/24/2012 13:24 Comments || Top||

#10  Mr. Morgan, that issue was resolved at Concord bridge more than a few generations ago.
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/24/2012 18:15 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran: US Will Suffer 30,000 Casualties in First Day if it Attacks Tehran
The first day of a US military strike on Iran will result in a massive 30,000 casualties of American soldiers on the first day after the attack, according to Iran’s Former Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

In a report by Iran’s Mehr News, Mohammed Hussein Saffar Harandi said that though sanctions have taken their toll, the US fears Iranian reprisals if it chooses to conduct a military operation to halt Tehran’s nuclear program.

Harandi said the US is well aware that Iran can hit targets within 2500km of its borders.
Posted by: tipper || 12/24/2012 07:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336101 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nuke 'em.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/24/2012 9:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Hell it, Christmas, Nuke 'em now.
And if they don't get the joke nuke 'em again on New Years.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/24/2012 9:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Harandi said the US is well aware that Iran can hit targets within 2500km of its borders.

Harandi, the US can hit targets anywhere in the world.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/24/2012 9:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Harandi, the US can hit targets anywhere in the world. Posted by Rambler in Virginia

Except laser Designated targets in Benghazi Libya.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 9:07 Comments || Top||

#5  We've had the Mother of All Battles so will this be the Mother-in-law of all Battles? Crazy Sibling? Father Battles?

Father battles sitting right there on the bench...
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 12/24/2012 9:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Sounds like the turbans are trying to distract the "people".

Something bad (badder than usual) going down in their little slice of utopia?
Posted by: AlanC || 12/24/2012 9:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Propaganda, we're NOT listening, and up yours and the camel you rode in on.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 10:37 Comments || Top||

#8  When Israel pops that first high-altitude nuke for EMP suppression of Iran, all of Iran's fancy noise-making apparatus goes silent - and all that will be left will be smoldering targets, and yet to be destroyed targets.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 12/24/2012 10:49 Comments || Top||

#9  "Harandi said the US is well aware that Iran can hit targets within 2500km of its borders."

According to an internet distance calculator, Iran is over 10,000km from the US.

Too bad about Egypt....
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 10:50 Comments || Top||

#10  Too bad you are smarter than most of the Iranian rubes, Barbara.
Posted by: Bobby on the road || 12/24/2012 11:07 Comments || Top||

#11  30,000 even?
Posted by: Gleregum tse Tung1512 || 12/24/2012 11:51 Comments || Top||

#12  And if they don't get the joke nuke 'em again on New Years.

I'm with Ship. Harsh thoughts in the holiday season, but during that unpleasantness in the Pacific, we did have to nuke the Japanese twice before they had their come-to-Jesus moment.
Posted by: SteveS || 12/24/2012 12:10 Comments || Top||

#13  Typical muzzie posturing right before they get their butts kicked.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/24/2012 12:59 Comments || Top||

#14  All Israel has to do is the EMP shot. The Iranians will do everything else necessary.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 12/24/2012 14:53 Comments || Top||

#15  According to an internet distance calculator, Iran is over 10,000km from the US.

Israel isn't.
Posted by: gorb || 12/24/2012 16:06 Comments || Top||

#16  Yes, gorb - unfortunately I know that.

I hope the Iranians aren't that stupid - for Israel's sake (and the sake of the decent Iranian people). Unlike our feckless weasel Bambi, Netanyahu has no qualms about an eye (and foot, and head) for an eye.

But unless Iran can destroy all of Israel's Air Force and IDF at one time, they face the Samson option. Bambi won't, but Netanyahu will. And God bless him for it.

In any event, what in the hell makes Iran think any attack on it would involve any U.S. soldiers on the ground, let alone 30,000? Haven't they ever heard of cruise missles? High-altitude bombers? Bunker busters?
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 18:00 Comments || Top||

#17  IIRC, Nutjob said the country would be proud to write off 25% of its population to solve the Jewish Problem once and for all.
Posted by: gorb || 12/24/2012 21:28 Comments || Top||

#18  How much of the Iranian population would it take to be rid of its Nutjob problems?
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 12/24/2012 22:48 Comments || Top||

#19  But unless Iran can destroy all of Israel's Air Force and IDF at one time

Israel's navy has a couple of nuclear subs...and nobody seems to know where they are.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2012 23:29 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Muslim ‘brotherhood’
Posted by: tipper || 12/24/2012 04:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Discussing Islam - A losing battle?
Posted by: tipper || 12/24/2012 04:20 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Absolutely on point. The ruse that Islam is a religion of peace and not a theology of conquest has been readily accepted by so many who do not want to face what it is.
As a corollary, search the bloody borders project online and view the reality of what proximity to an Islamic state brings.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 12/24/2012 10:28 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Prince Harry targeted by Taliban after claims he killed chief in missile attack
AFGHAN warlords will step up attempts to assassinate Prince Harry over claims he killed a senior Taliban commander, it was feared last night.

There was already a £250,000 bounty on his head and a Western intelligence source said: "There is no doubt that chatter between jihadists in Afghanistan will increase in relation to intensifying attempts to harm the Prince."

The prince was reported to have fired a missile from his Apache helicopter, killing a Taliban chief in Helmand province.

But a senior defence source said: "He is part of a team that is taking part in extremely hazardous operations on a daily basis and anybody can come to the conclusion that he will have been engaged in operations that result in the deaths of insurgents. But to say that he personally did this is inaccurate."

Harry, 28, finishes a three-month tour in Helmand
province in January.
Posted by: tipper || 12/24/2012 04:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Both before AND after. Always.
Posted by: Bobby on the road || 12/24/2012 11:03 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria's war-battered pound floats on rebel funds
In Syria's eastern town of Deir al-Zor, a rebel commander flush with cash was swapping his dollars for Syrian pounds to pay fighters battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Money changers said that influx of foreign currency earlier this month helped push the pound's black market rate in the impoverished town up by at least 10 percent.

Hundreds of kilometres away in Damascus, panicked Syrians bracing for more violence sold pounds for dollars, driving the pound, which has lost half its value since the anti-Assad uprising erupted in March last year, the other way.

The events at opposite ends of the country illustrate the contrasting pressures on a currency whose sharp decline has been cushioned by factors including central bank intervention, flows of cash from Assad's friends and foes abroad, and even long term hopes for a wave of foreign investment if Assad were to fall.

By comparison, Iran, Assad's staunchest regional ally, has seen its own currency fall more sharply than Syria's, losing about two-thirds of its value since June 2011 because of Western sanctions imposed over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.

Damascus-based currency dealer Abdullah Abu Saloum, who also has an office in Deir al-Zor, said the rebel fighter's cash was one of many anomalies affecting Syria's foreign exchange market.

"There was a large quantity of dollars that were offered for sale at an attractive price," he said, adding ruefully that he was not able to capitalise on the opportunity because the ongoing violence, which has killed more than 40,000 people, prevented him transferring pounds from Damascus to Deir al-Zor.
Posted by: tipper || 12/24/2012 03:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "There was a large quantity of dollars that were offered for sale at an attractive price,"

Odd, the price SHOULD be $1.00 per (Unless they're fake, then nothing)
NO Cumshaw, Bribe, Interest etc.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 10:51 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Follow Santa's journey around the world
Due to depart shortly
Posted by: tipper || 12/24/2012 03:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336106 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Google? I thought this was NORAD's job.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 12/24/2012 6:43 Comments || Top||

#2  The loss of the F-104 and the SAGE was a heavy blow Eric. One does, what one can.

Posted by: Shipman || 12/24/2012 9:06 Comments || Top||

#3  NORAD's Santa-tracking page is here. For whatever reason, NORAD and Goggle had a falling out. NORAD also has a very active Facebook page here. (Yes, they are on my Friends list.)
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/24/2012 11:03 Comments || Top||

#4  When NORAD employees aren't totally bored it's time to worry.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/24/2012 11:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Heh, yep.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/24/2012 13:25 Comments || Top||

#6  And Rats, Marty's NORAD cam is gone. It was one of those, if you can see this picture then go ahead and go to work.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/24/2012 13:27 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghan policewoman kills US military adviser
An Afghan policewoman has shot dead a US military adviser inside Kabul police headquarters, Afghan officials say.

It is the first reported incident in which a female member of Afghanistan's security forces has opened fire on a Nato soldier.

The attacker has been detained. Officials say they suspect she has links with the Taliban.

There has been a rise in incidents in which foreign troops have been killed by Afghan troops or policemen.

In Monday's incident, offcials say the woman - an officer at the interior ministry - came looking for the police chief at the heavily secured headquarters.

The US adviser was thought to have been on his way to a canteen when she shot him with her pistol.

In September the US suspended training for local police recruits because of "insider attacks".
Posted by: tipper || 12/24/2012 02:54 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336087 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Teevee time delay broadcasting permits the editing of gang symbols by NFL players, can't we somehow do the same with these so-called "insider attack" incidents?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 7:42 Comments || Top||

#2  And the Russians continue to laugh at us for going into that country as they did.
Posted by: rel56 || 12/24/2012 9:22 Comments || Top||

#3  We went it, "declared victory," and mostly left, before critics insisted we go back in and fight the 'good' war.
Posted by: Glenmore || 12/24/2012 9:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Staten Island businessman’s $82 million in bad checks… in just two weeks
Saquib Khan hosted a $1,000-a-person fundraiser at his then-Todt Hill home for Hillary Clinton’s Democratic Senate campaign.

A Staten Island business owner known for throwing lavish fund-raisers for political candidates was charged with writing $82 million in bad checks — in just two weeks.

Saquib Khan wrote the worthless checks last month, according to Brooklyn federal prosecutors. Khan, 51, was released on $400,000 bail.
Posted by: tipper || 12/24/2012 02:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anyone could write $82 million in bad cheques, hell, I could if I were home and near my chequebook. The trick is to get people to *accept* your bad paper, and that takes a significant long-con of apparent probity and good credit.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 12/24/2012 7:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Meet the new Secretary of the Treasury.
Posted by: Perfesser || 12/24/2012 7:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Perfesser
Was just thinking if he was a Bernanke-buddy he could use Bernanke's photocopier and stimulate the economy with this new wealth!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/24/2012 11:19 Comments || Top||

#4  "Khan . . . was released on $400,000 bail."

Did he write a check?
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 11:52 Comments || Top||

#5  If he didn't have that sort of cash after writing 82 million in bad checks, Barb, he'd have to be pretty stupid.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/24/2012 12:37 Comments || Top||

#6  The court would have to be pretty stupid if they took a check from him, Thing.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 13:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Barbara, the bail amount was about one half of one percent of what he just stole through fraud. Check, cash, or gold bars, that's either stupidity or malfeasance.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 12/24/2012 19:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Once I was arrested, Bail was certified check, no cash, nothing else. (And the bail bondsmen were livid that I had My brother do it, for cash, got the certified check at Wall Mart, paid him back and all was well, the Bail Bondsmen have a racket there, interest is staggering.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 19:30 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russian military presence in Syria poses challenge
Russian military advisers are manning some of Syria's more sophisticated air defences – something that would complicate any future US-led intervention. The advisers have been deployed with new surface-to-air systems and upgrades of old systems, which Moscow has supplied to the Assad regime since the Syrian revolution broke out 21 months ago. The upgrades were supplied by Moscow, which sees them as a bulwark against western-imposed regime change and protection of a longstanding investment in Syria. The country includes Russia's biggest electronic eavesdropping post outside its territory, in Latakia, and its toehold on the Mediterranean, a small naval base at Tartus.

The depth and complexity of Syria's anti-aircraft defences mean that any direct western campaign, in support of a no-fly zone or in the form of punitive air strikes against the leadership, would be costly, protracted and risky. The possibility of Russian military casualties in such a campaign could have unpredictable geopolitical consequences.

Russian security and defence officials, who are notoriously loth to publicly comment on their operations abroad, have repeatedly denied providing explicit support for the Assad regime. Over the weekend, the head of Russia's ground forces air defence, Major General Alexander Leonov, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station: "Syria's air-defence system is a no-nonsense force. As a result, no one has ever used serious air combat power against it." That "no-nonsense" force, the air defence command, comprises two divisions and an estimated 50,000 troops – twice the size of Muammar Gaddafi's force – with thousands of anti-aircraft guns and more than 130 anti-aircraft missile batteries.

According to Jeremy Binnie, the editor of Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor, recent Russian deliveries include Buk-M2 and Pantsyr-S1 (known to Nato as SA-22) mobile missile launch and radar systems. Reports of the shipment of the modern long-range S-300 have not been confirmed, and the Syrian armed forces did not show off any S-300 missiles in a military display this year. It is possible they have been delivered but are not yet operational.

Posted by: Pappy || 12/24/2012 00:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shocking! I say again... shocking! Could they also be piloting Syrian aircraft or threatening the Turks with regard to the transit shipment of weapons from Libya? We'll likely learn more as our vitally important mission in Benghazi is rebuilt and functioning again. How is the reconstruction coming anyway....?
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 4:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Is it possible the Russians organized the "hit" on our ambassador? Just asking.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/24/2012 10:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmmm, Could be.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 10:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Well John, I cannot say for certain with the open source info that has thusfar come forward. One must examine however, who has serious skin in the game, and what lengths they might go to in order to dampen western involvement and shut down the supply of arms to the Syrian rebels.

The fact that the consulate in Benghazi remains Tango-Uniform is indeed telling. If it was such a key facility to the State Department and the Intelligence Community, why has it not been rebuilt and manned? How are those vital regional intelligence gaps being filled today? Where has the media discussion with regard to assisting the Syrian rebels gotten off to? Wat say ye Blue Mountain Security Ltd? Note the lack of commentary on the topic from our Russian and Turkish friends?

Crickets, crickets everywhere !

Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 10:56 Comments || Top||

#5  If it was such a key facility to the State Department and the Intelligence Community, why has it not been rebuilt and manned?

Perhaps it has gone the way of the Pueblo?
Posted by: Pappy || 12/24/2012 13:00 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
WHY GRAMPS CARRIES A GUN
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/24/2012 00:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336091 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes Granny, my granny had several. Same reasons.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 2:44 Comments || Top||

#2  My granny was deep into knives, all kinda knives. No one messed with her.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/24/2012 9:07 Comments || Top||

#3  I've heard the uptick in gun ownership by baby boomers is because we're too old to fight and too slow to run.
Posted by: Mercutio || 12/24/2012 12:15 Comments || Top||

#4  A man simply cannot own too many guns or knives.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 14:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Then maybe it's not true that more than two handfuls are a waste.
Posted by: gorb || 12/24/2012 16:22 Comments || Top||

#6  See story above: Drunk driver who ran down two boys shot dead in my dearest Texas.
Posted by: BrujoTejano || 12/24/2012 21:32 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Minister Plays Down Sharaa 'No Winner' View
[An Nahar] Syria's information minister on Sunday played down Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa's assessment that the country's bloody 21-month conflict could not be resolved by military means.

"It is one opinion among 23 million opinions in Syria, which is a state led by institutions and leaders who will give the final opinion," said Omran al-Zohbi, referring to Syria's population.

Sharaa said in an interview with the Lebanese al-Akhbar newspaper published last Monday that a clear winner was unlikely to emerge in Syria's war and he preferred a negotiated solution, in remarks at odds with Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...

"No opposition can end the battle militarily, just as the security forces and army cannot achieve a decisive conclusion," Sharaa said. "Every day that passes, we are moving further away from a military or political solution."

But Zohbi insisted that the military was "defending its country" against foreign-backed armed rebel forces. "The final decision will come from what is imposed on the battlefield and by politicians."

However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
the information minister also stressed the need for political action to resolve the conflict and insisted that the government was "the first to propose a political solution through a national dialogue."
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
Kayani makes Afghan peace 'top priority'
[Pak Daily Times] Army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
has made reconciling warring factions in Afghanistan a top priority, military officials and Western diplomats say, the newest and clearest sign yet that Islamabad means business in promoting peace with the Taliban.

Kayani is backing dialogue partly due to fears that the end of the US combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014 could energise a resilient insurgency straddling the shared frontier, according to commanders deployed in the region. "There was a time when we used to think we were the masters of Afghanistan. Now we just want them to be masters of themselves so we can concentrate on our own problems," said a senior military officer stationed in South Wazoo, part of the tribal belt that hugs the Afghan border.

"Pakistain has the power to create the environment in which a grand reconciliation in Afghanistan can take place," he said, speaking in the gritty town of Wana, about 30 km from Afghanistan. "We have to rise to the challenge. And we are doing it, at the highest level possible." On December 7, Kayani hammered home his determination to support a negotiated end to the war in Afghanistan at a meeting of top commanders at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi.

"He (Kayani) said Afghan reconciliation is our top priority," said a Pak intelligence official, who was briefed about the meeting. Major progress with Kayani's help could enable US President Barack Obama
Why can't I just eat my waffle?...
to say his administration managed to sway Pakistain -- often seen as an unreliable ally -- to help achieve a top US foreign policy goal. Afghan officials, who have long suspected Pakistain of funding and arming the Taliban, question whether Kayani genuinely supports dialogue or is merely making token moves to deflect Western criticism of Pakistain's record in Afghanistan.

Relations between Taliban capos and Pakistain's security establishment have increasingly been poisoned by mistrust, however, raising questions over whether Kayani's spymasters wield enough influence to nudge them towards the table. Nevertheless, diplomats in Islamabad argue that Pakistain has begun to show markedly greater enthusiasm for Western-backed attempts to engage with Taliban leaders. Western diplomats, who for years were sceptical about Pak promises, say Islamabad is serious about promoting stability in Afghanistan.

"They seem to genuinely want to move towards a political solution," said an official from an EU country. "We've seen a real shift in their game-plan at every level. Everyone involved seems to want to get something going." Army attitudes towards former Islamist proxies have also begun to evolve due to the rise of Pakistain's own Taliban movement, which has fought fierce battles in the tribal areas and launched suicide kabooms in major cities. Kayani seemed to signal that the army's conception of its role in Pakistain and the region was changing in a speech to officers in Rawalpindi last month.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Don't bother, They're doomed anyway.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 3:09 Comments || Top||


UN, US pledge to stand by Pakistan in anti-terror war
[Pak Daily Times] UN Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
and US Ambassador Richard Olson have condemned the suicide kaboom in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
that killed Bashir Ahmad Bilour. "The secretary general reiterates the strong support of the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
for the efforts of the government and people of Pakistain to combat the scourge of terrorism," said a statement issued by Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson. In a statement, Olson also praised Bilour as a courageous man.
Yeah, buddy. If I was a Pakistainian I'd feel ever so much more secure with Ban Ki Moon watching my back.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  The layers of deceit and treachery in that entire statement could take days to unravel.
Posted by: mojo || 12/24/2012 2:38 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Mali Islamists Destroying More Timbuktu Mausoleums
[An Nahar] Islamists occupying Timbuktu in northern Mali were using pickaxes on Sunday to destroy any remaining mausoleums in the ancient city, an Islamist leader said.

"Not a single mausoleum will remain in Timbuktu, Allah doesn't like it. We are in the process of smashing all the hidden mausoleums in the area," an Ansar Dine leader, Abou Dardar, told Agence La Belle France Presse.

The claims were confirmed by witnesses, and backed by a resident who said he belongs to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM), the other bad boy group occupying the fabled city since a March coup plunged the west African state into chaos.

Anything that doesn't fall under Islam "is not good. Man should only worship Allah", said the AQIM resident Mohamed Alfoul.

"The Islamists are currently in the process of destroying all the mausoleums in the area with pickaxes," one witness confirmed.

"I saw Islamists get out of a car near the historic mosque of Timbuktu. They smashed a mausoleum behind a house shouting 'Allah is great, Allah is great'," another resident told AFP.

Ansar Dine, which considers the city's cultural treasures blasphemous, first began its campaign of destruction in July after U.N. cultural organization UNESCO put Timbuktu on its list of endangered world heritage sites.

The International Criminal Court
... where Milosevich died of old age before being convicted ...
warned that their campaign of destruction was a war crime but the Islamists followed up with more damage in October, when they smashed several Moslem saints' tombs, prompting another international outcry.

The latest vandalism comes a day after another Islamist group in northern Mali -- the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) -- said it had cut off the hands of two people and warned there would be more to come.

The amputations were seen as a sign that the armed Islamist groups were unfazed by the U.N. Security Council decision last week to back an African-led military force to take back the region.

But the operation will not be launched before September next year and the Security Council vowed in the meantime to work towards a peaceful solution.

Once considered one of Africa's most stable democracies, Mali has for months been mired in the northern conflict that has so far displaced more than 400,000 people, according to the United Nations
...Parkinson's Law on an international scale...
.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine

#1  Why I intend to be cremated.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 3:19 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Bilour laid to rest in Peshawar
[Pak Daily Times] Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, KP Governor Masood Kausar, Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti, Interior Minister Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
, Qaumi Watan Party chief Aftab Ahmed Khan, Mehmood Khan Achakzai of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain of the PML-Q and other senior politicians attended the funeral prayers of Bilour at Army Stadium.

Strict security measures were adopted around Army Stadium as hundreds of police commandoes and other security forces were deployed to guard the high-profile funeral of Bilour.

Bilour was among nine people killed in the suicide kaboom on the ANP's public meeting in Dhaki Nalbandi near historical Qissa Khawani bazaar.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain grabbed credit for the attack.

Meanwhile,
...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck reached for the green sauce...
police registered an FIR against unidentified people for carrying out the suicide attack. According to a police front man, the FIR was lodged in Khan Razaak Police Station.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Ansar al-Din, MNLA sign deal in Algiers
[Magharebia] Two Malian rebel groups on Friday (November 21st) said they were committed to suspending hostilities and holding peace talks, despite condemning the UN's approval of plans for an African-led intervention to reconquer the country's Islamist-held north, AFP reported.

Ansar al-Din and the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) signed a seven-point partnership agreement in Algiers under which both parties rejected terrorism and opposed the use of military force in northern Mali.

The two groups have also engaged in talks with Mali's interim government after pledging earlier this month to respect the country's territorial integrity and root out terrorism.

Algeria, with the mediation of Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and may be in the process of being chased out now...
, succeeded in getting Ansar al-Din and the MNLA to reach a deal.

Ansar al-Din's Mohamed Ag Akharib and the MNLA's Bey Diknan pledged to "refrain from any action which may lead to situations of conflict and from all forms of hostility in the areas under their control and to make every effort to honour this commitment".

After the deal was signed, both parties hailed Algeria's efforts to promote dialogue. While in Algiers, Ag Akharib said that his group "reiterates its desire for and commitment to a peaceful resolution" and praised "Algeria's efforts to resolve the Malian crisis through dialogue".

The two groups announced their intention to take steps to free hostages, provide emergency humanitarian assistance to communities and to facilitate the free movement of people and goods. Additionally, they pledged to send in forces to maintain the security of the areas they control.

Ten Europeans and three Algerians remain held hostage in northern Mali, kidnapped by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its offshoot the Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) since September 2010.

The two Malian groups jointly condemned Resolution 2085 adopted on Thursday by the UN Security Council, which unanimously approved the deployment of a 3,300-strong international force in northern Mali for one year. The resolution also authorised "all necessary measures" to help the Malian government regain its full territorial integrity.

But the 15-member council insisted that military force could only be used after political efforts were exhausted. It said military plans would have to be refined and approved before any offensive started.

The Security Council also called on the transitional authorities in Bamako to re-establish constitutional order and hold elections before April 2013.

It urged them to engage in "credible" negotiations with groups in the north, including the side-lined Touaregs.

A move toward a military offensive would come in a second phase.

Mali's government hailed the Security Council decision on the intervention plan as a sign that the world would not abandon the country.

"We are grateful to the international community, a consensus has been reached on the Malian situation," said advisor to Mali's interim president Dioncounda Traore.

"We are going to wage war against the cut-throats and continue to negotiate with our brothers who are ready for dialogue", he added.

Another Mali politician, Mustapha Cisse, said the UN vote showed "the willingness of the international community not to abandon Mali to its own devices".
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Dine

#1  Ansar al-Din's Mohamed Ag Akharib and the MNLA's Bey Diknan pledged to "refrain from any action which may lead to situations of conflict and from all forms of hostility in the areas under their control and to make every effort to honour this commitment".

Nicely worded non-meaning statement,(Means nothing, But uses fancy words).
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 10:40 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
9 die in Jalisco state

For a map, click here.

By Chris Covert
Rantbirg.com

A total of nine unidentified individuals have been killed in drug and gang related violence in southern Jalisco state since early Sunday morning according to Mexican press accounts.

A wire dispatch originating from El Universal news service posted on the website of El Diario de Coahuila news daily reported that a firefight between municipal police agents and armed suspects travelling aboard 10 vehicles took place early Sunday morning in Ayotlan municipality, killing three municipal police agents and one civilian.

According to the report crime scene investigators found more than 500 spent shell casings at the scene.

At about the same time one unidentified man and woman were found shot to death in two separate incidents in Jilotlan de los Dolores municipality in southern Jalisco. The woman was found aboard a vehicle in Jilotlan de los Dolores city while the man was found aboard a vehicle on a road between Jilotlan de los Dolores city and a road leading south to Tepalcatepec in Michoacan.

Also early Sunday police agents in Quitupan municipality, also in southern Jalisco state located the bodies of three unidentified men shot to death at Rancho Quiringual.

Previously, two municipal police agents were wounded in an exchange of gunfire with armed suspects on a road between San Onofrie and San Diego Sunday morning. Reports were that the armed suspects involved in the shootout had fled south into Michoacan.

A separate report that appeared in a Sunday news item posted on the website of Proceso news weekly said that a shootout took place at around 0300 hrs Sunday morning between municipal police agents and about 40 armed suspects, who were travelling aboard several vehicles in Degollado municipality in southeastern Jalisco state.

Apparently no one was hurt in that incident.

Southern Jalisco and northern Michocan have been in the grips of an intense and deadly battle between Caballeros Templarios and Los Zetas drug cartels. Only a few weeks ago Caballero Templarios had been taking advantage of internal conflicts among the senior leadership of Los Zetas to run Los Zetas out of the border area.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
Posted by: badanov || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336090 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Bombs Kill Four in Iraq
[An Nahar] Three separate bomb attacks killed a member of the Kurdish peshmerga security forces and three construction workers in Iraq on Sunday, officers and doctors said.

A bomb blast in an under-construction house in the town of Mishahada, north of Baghdad, killed the workers and wounded another, a police captain and a doctor said.

A roadside bomb attack against an army patrol wounded three soldiers in the town of Khanaqin, northeast of Baghdad, while a member of the peshmerga forces was killed when a second bomb exploded as he and his team arrived at the scene of the first bombing.

Two other peshmerga were also wounded in the second Khanaqin blast, an army officer and a doctor said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336088 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq

#1  No much coming out yet on this.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 4:44 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Gaza Militants Fire Rocket at Israel
[An Nahar] Paleostinian Death Eaters in the Gazoo Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel on Sunday for the first time since an Egypt-mediated ceasefire on November 21, Israel's army radio and other media reported.

The reports said it fell on open ground and caused no injuries, but an Israeli military front man denied that a rocket had hit.

"No rocket fell in Israeli territory," he told Agence La Belle France Presse, without elaborating.
Perhaps they hit Egypt or Jordan again... or Gaza. Those Gazan Lions of Islam aren't terribly good with compasses.
Israel and the orc Islamist group Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, which rules Gazoo fought an eight-day war last month in which 177 Paleostinians and six Israelis were killed before the truce took effect.

On Friday, Israeli troops shot and maimed five Paleostinians near the Gazoo border fence east of Jabalia, in the north of the coastal strip, Paleostinian medical sources said.

The army said soldiers opened fire when a group of men moved into a no-go zone near the fence.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336087 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Arabia
Kuwait Liberals Blast Calls to Ban Christmas Celebration
[An Nahar] Several Kuwaiti liberal civil societies have condemned calls from some organizations and individuals forbidding the celebration of Christmas in the oil-rich Gulf state, a report said Sunday.

The civil societies said in a statement published by Al-Jarida newspaper that every year at this time certain groups declare celebrating Christmas and New Year as forbidden from an Islamic point of view.

"Because such actions represent an insult to Christianity and Christians ... we strongly reject the publication of such calls," a statement signed by nine liberal groups said, adding that such calls were an act of hatred criminalized under the international law.

The statement did not say who issued the calls, but usually some radical religious individuals and small groups issue fatwas (religious edict) forbidding Christmas celebrations.

However,
Switzerland makes more than cheese...
the mainstream Islamic organizations do not issue such calls.

There are no government restrictions on religious or social celebrations of Christmas or New Year in the conservative emirate, but social parties on any occasion must abide by strict regulations.

Kuwait has about a dozen churches which all freely mark Christmas especially in the main church complex in the heart of the capital Kuwait City.

There are some 200 Christians -- mainly of Iraqi or Paleostinian origin -- among the 1.2 million native population of Kuwait.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336092 views] Top|| File under:

#1  NOT "Their" god.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 2:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't celebrate Quanza either.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 2:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Funny, the liberal groups in Kuwait are calling for allowing the celebration of Christmas. In the U.S. it is the liberal groups who are trying to do away with everything Christmas.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/24/2012 16:50 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
'End Of The World' Party In San Bernardino Turns Deadly
[Los Angeles.CBSLocal] Authorities Saturday continued to investigate the circumstances surrounding a fight at an "End of the World" party in San Bernardino that turned deadly.
"We're all gonna die, but you're first! [KERBLAMMO!]"
A statement by the San Bernardino Police Department says as many as 100 people had attended the party at a home on 7th Street on Friday evening.
"Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow... ummm... this evening... ummm... now? [BANG!]"
At some point during the party, a 29-year-old man was stabbed
"Aaaaiiieee!"
"E-e-e-e-ew! Blood!"

and police were called to the scene to investigate.
"Operator! Get me the police!"
Upon arriving on scene, authorities say a shooting occurred nearby.
"It's da cops!"
"Where?"
Over dere! [BANG!]"

The shooting victim, identified as 20-year-old Felipe Jason Moreno, suffered fatal injuries.
"[TWITCH! TWITCH! RATTLE! KICK!] Rosebud!"
His 22-year-old cousin was also wounded in the shooting, authorities said.
"Ow! My arm!"
"The reason for the shooting appears to have stemmed from a fight that had occurred at the party location," the statement said.
No! Re-e-e-e-ally?
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336077 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lessee if the San Bernardino Sun can spin this incident...
Posted by: Pappy || 12/24/2012 0:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Note to self: NO End of the World parties...
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/24/2012 2:23 Comments || Top||

#3  This day has passed, there'l be another. And another, and another, I'm sick of it.

Some power hungry freak will "Discover" another like the (Extinct) Myans.
As far as spin, what the hell, we all know the news media os bought and paid fpr.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 2:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Is
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 2:57 Comments || Top||

#5  a while to wait for the real thing
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/24/2012 7:01 Comments || Top||

#6  It was the end of the world for Felipe.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 12/24/2012 7:37 Comments || Top||

#7  if you live in san bernardino it might as well be the end of the world
Posted by: dan || 12/24/2012 7:57 Comments || Top||

#8  Re: #5. BP - that may cause some real problems. COBOL problems may be vulnerable. By 2037, there will probably be COBOL programs, but there probably won't be any COBOL programmers.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 12/24/2012 9:09 Comments || Top||

#9  It's not just COBOL I think most O/Ses and C programs are similarly affected.

Just in time for me to retire...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/24/2012 11:03 Comments || Top||

#10  Why all the doomsday stuff about Mayan Alpaca lips? Their hair makes great clothing but I don't know of any use for their lips.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/24/2012 11:26 Comments || Top||


Police in riot gear stop brawl among parents at kids' football game
[Fox News] Police in riot gear flooded the field of a youth football game in Southern California to stop a brawl that involved dozens and possibly hundreds of adult spectators.
Great example to their offspring, they are.
Chino police told the San Bernardino Sun they received several calls saying a melee had broken out amid a crowd of hundreds of parents who were watching a Pop Warner playoff game at a city park on Saturday.
Do they act like that in Mexico?
Sgt. Frank Mena said most of the brawlers ran from the field as police with helmets and clubs poured into the park. No one was seriously injured and no one was arrested.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336076 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Do they act like that in Mexico?

Think "Compton".
Posted by: Pappy || 12/24/2012 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Great example to their offspring, they are.

Hey, their "Offspring" are out thee "Fighting" as well, that's football.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 2:52 Comments || Top||

#3  From the people who brought you the first Football War, the sequel now playing in limited release in Southern California.
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/24/2012 12:18 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen says search on for abducted Finns, Austrian
[Pak Daily Times] Yemen said on Sunday its security forces were still searching for two Finns and an Austrian whose whereabouts remain unknown since they were kidnapped in Sanaa. Security services are "carrying out vast search and investigation operations to locate the kidnapped" foreigners, kidnapped on Friday in Sanaa, official news agency Saba quoted Interior Minister Abdelqader Qahtan as saying as he received an envoy from Finland. The minister assured the envoy that Yemeni forces will take all steps to ensure the safety of the hostages and secure their quick release.

A security official told AFP that the hostages, kidnapped by gunnies suspected of links to al Qaeda, were probably still in Sanaa. Another official had said Friday that al Qaeda had threatened to kidnap foreigners and to stage bank hold-ups if the authorities fail to release members of an imprisoned network. The three hostages - an Austrian man, a Finish man and a Finish woman -- were kidnapped when they were preparing to travel to the southern port of Aden via second city of Taez.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia

#1  Why can't Finland and Austria start kidnapping jihadists and demand the release of their hostage in exchange for AQAP's?
Posted by: American Delight || 12/24/2012 6:43 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
PML-N MNA escapes attack
[Pak Daily Times] GUJRANWALA: PML-N MNA Rana Nazeer escaped unhurt when unidentified people opened fire on his car on Sunday. According to police, two guards of the MNA were "critically injured" in the attack.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


China-Japan-Koreas
South Korea charges North building missile that could reach US
[CS Monitor] South Korean officials say they have evidence that North Korea is working on an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach as far as the United States.
Being stoopid is at the heart of the Do or Die Army First Songun Policy...
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336072 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  I've heard we already have one that can reach North Korea. In fact, I've heard we have...maybe a couple.
Posted by: tu3031 || 12/24/2012 2:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Any satellite in orbit can be made to "Fall" where they want, they have it.

Damned expensive however, and fatal (To them) if used, sooo, just a boogyman to scare the world into Giving them food.

Let's see if Obullshit's scared.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 3:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Might hit the coast, but it will need another 400 miles or so of range to hit the US.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 3:54 Comments || Top||

#4  I hope half of our military is enough to intercept two inbound missiles. And that the Norks have not yet learned the value of Decoy(s).
Posted by: Bobby on the road || 12/24/2012 11:33 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Gaza official says 2 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire
[Fox News] A Gaza health official says two men have been killed by Israeli fire in the central Gaza Strip.

Ashraf al-Kidra says Israeli forces fired toward the men east of Deir al-Balah late Sunday. Their identities were unclear.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Such incidents have been rare since Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers wrapped up an eight-day battle last month. Israel launched the offensive to stop years of rocket fire at Israeli communities.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336103 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Aw gee, i suppose the Israelli's just killed them unmercifully, no reason, and no pity. (Yeah sure)

Tell me another, your lies are old and transparent.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 3:17 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
PLO: 700 Palestinians Killed in Syria Conflict
[An Nahar] More than 700 Paleostinians have been killed in Syria since the conflict there erupted more than 21 months ago, a Paleostine Liberation Organization official in charge of refugees said on Sunday.

"More than 700 Paleostinians have died in Syria since the beginning of the conflict, including in Yarmuk" refugee camp in southern Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...
, the PLO's Zakaria al-Agha told officials of Paleostinian refugees in Arab states.

"We have asked the Syrian authorities not to let Paleostinians be drawn into the conflict," he told the conference in the Egyptian capital.

Late on Sunday, several rockets were fired into the camp which has been the scene of deadly festivities between pro- and anti-regime forces for several days over the past week, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said.

The Britannia-based group said two men were killed by the rocket fire and another was rubbed out by a sniper.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336100 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  total non military fatalies in the conflict are over 40k and maybe as high as 50k so the 700 are between 1% and 2%.

since the total population is about 22M and the paleo pop is about 400k, the fatalities are about proportional
Posted by: lord garth || 12/24/2012 0:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Nevertheless, garth. I won't say it made my morning, yet...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/24/2012 0:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Not our problem. Stay out of it !
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 4:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Imagine if the Israelis had killed half that number --it would have meant a special edition of NYT and CBS,NBC,NPR, etc etc and the BBC would have gone ballistic. But the syrians killed 'em --so it gets on page 148 of the daily NYT.
Posted by: m.leonard || 12/24/2012 8:15 Comments || Top||

#5  399,300 left to go.
Posted by: rel56 || 12/24/2012 9:23 Comments || Top||

#6  Were these Syrian Paleos, or Leb Paleos, or Jordanian Paleos, or West Bank Paleos, or Gazan Paleos?

I need a scorecard here.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/24/2012 9:44 Comments || Top||

#7  It's a start....
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 10:40 Comments || Top||

#8  fwiw, about 600 Hezbollah troops have also been killed in this conflict, although some may have been killed just across the Syrian border in Lebanon
Posted by: lord garth || 12/24/2012 11:18 Comments || Top||

#9  Let's not quibble over location, LG. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 11:50 Comments || Top||

#10  The murder of Rafic Harari was equivalent to the murder of archduke Ferdinand,
Posted by: darrylq || 12/24/2012 12:12 Comments || Top||

#11  BRB off to check the rail capacity of Turkey.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/24/2012 13:19 Comments || Top||

#12  "You're not trying, people!"
Posted by: Mojo || 12/24/2012 16:25 Comments || Top||


Syria Insists It Kept Out of Yarmuk Camp Clashes
[An Nahar] Syria insisted on Sunday its military played no role in last week's deadly festivities between pro- and anti-regime forces inside the Yarmuk Paleostinian refugee camp in southern Damascus
...The capital of Iran's Syrian satrapy...

Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi also called for all Paleostinian refugee camps in Syria to be kept out of the country's 21-month conflict that a rights watchdog estimates has cost at least 44,000 lives.

"The Syrian army did not intervene militarily, in any way, in the camp, neither by land nor by air," he said.

"The situation returned to normal inside the camp and the residents expelled the gunnies to restore stability," said the minister.

Refugees who had fled streamed back into Yarmuk on Friday after five days of fierce festivities between rebel forces and pro-regime Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine-General Command.

Syrian regime warplanes carried out several deadly raids on Yarmuk after rebels gained the upper hand in the fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
Three more fall prey to Balochistan violence
[Pak Daily Times] Three more people were rubbed out in two incidents in Quetta on Sunday.

In one of the incidents, a policeman fell victim to the ongoing wave of murders in Kutchlak on the outskirt of Quetta.

Police said that Constable Gulzar was on duty at Bostan in Kutchlak when some unidentified persons opened fire on him, leaving the policeman critically injured.

A passer-by was also maimed in the attack.

Police and rescue teams reached the site and moved the two injured to civil hospital where the policeman succumbed to the injuries. Police launched a search operation to trace the killers.

In the second incident, at least two people were bumped off in Quetta.

According to police, unidentified people rubbed out the two people on Khan Shaheed Road in Pashtunabad area.

Identity of the victims and motive behind the killing could not be ascertained until the filing of this report. The attackers expeditiously departed at a goodly pace after killing the two people. Police have started the paperwork but haven't done much else.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336067 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Brahimi Arrives in Syria
[An Nahar] U.N.-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi arrived in Syria on Sunday for talks on the country's crisis, Agence La Belle France Presse reported.

Brahimi entered Syria via a land border crossing with Leb after arriving earlier in the day at the Rafik Hariri International Airport from Cairo.

"The international envoy crossed the Lebanese-Syrian border at about 2:00 pm (1200 GMT)," a Lebanese border official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Airport officials in Beirut told AFP on condition of anonymity that the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
was tasked with ensuring Brahimi's security on his journey into the embattled country.

Brahimi's visit to Syria is the first since October 19.

During his previous five-day stay, he held meetings with Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Scourge of Qusayr...
and other top Syrian officials over a tentative ceasefire for the Mohammedan Eid al-Adha feast. Despite pledges, the truce did not hold.

Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi, who told news hounds he was unaware of any visit by Brahimi, reiterated calls for national dialogue to solve the spiraling crisis.

"Only Syrians will participate in national dialogue," he said. "The Syrians will decide for themselves. We tell those who do not want dialogue to engage in talks, because time is running out."
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Texas: Drunk driver shot dead after mowing down two boys.
Quite obviously a suicide.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336093 views] Top|| File under:

#1  May he burn in hell.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/24/2012 0:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Good riddance, NO prosecution.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 2:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Quite obviously a suicide

Gotta agree. Musta taken him two shots because the first one didn't hit anything important.
Posted by: gorb || 12/24/2012 16:20 Comments || Top||

#4  "Musta taken him two shots because the first one didn't hit anything important."

Then obviously the shot was to his head. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 18:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Some really astute comments here:

"How could the driver mow down the children after being shot and killed? Most likely he was killed after the children were killed."

"Of course, I could get glassed whilst here in the U.K. on holiday"

"The driver MAY have been shot. The driver may well have NOT been shot"
Posted by: KBK || 12/24/2012 21:54 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Violence, fear & suspicion imperil Pakistan's war on polio
[Pak Daily Times] Health worker Bushra Bibi spent eight years trekking to remote villages, carefully dripping polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
vaccine into toddlers' pursed mouths to protect them from the crippling disease.

Now the 35-year-old mother is too scared to go to work after masked men on cycle of violences bumped off nine of her fellow health workers in a string of attacks this week. "I have seen so much pain in the eyes of mothers whose children have been infected. So I have never seen this as just a job. It is my passion," she said. "But I also have a family to look after ... Things have never been this bad."

After the deaths, the United Nations
...an organization whose definition of human rights is interesting, to say the least...
put its workers on lockdown. Immunisations by the government continued in parts of the country. But the violence raised fresh questions over stability in the South Asian nation.

Taliban insurgency, convinced that the anti-polio drive is just another Western plot against Moslems, has long threatened action against anyone taking part in it.

The turban group's hostility deepened after it emerged that the CIA - with the help of a doctor - had used a vaccination campaign to spy on the late Osama bin Laden
... who doesn't live anywhere anymore...
's compound before he was killed by US special forces in a Pakistain town last year. Critics say the attacks on the health workers are a prime example of the government's failure to formulate a decisive policy on tackling militancy, despite pressure from key ally the United States, the source of billions of dollars in aid.

For years, authorities were aware that Taliban capos had broadcast claims that the vaccination drive was actually a plot to sterilise Moslems.

That may seem absurd to the West, but in Pakistain such assertions are plausible to some. Years of secrecy during military dictatorships, frequent political upheaval during civilian rule and a poor public education system mean conspiracy theories run wild.

"Ever since they began to give these polio drops, children are reaching maturity a lot earlier, especially girls. Now 12 to 13-year-old girls are becoming women. This causes indecency in society," said 45-year-old Mir Alam Khan, a carpet seller in the northern town of Dera Ismail Khan
... the Pearl of Pashtunistan ...

The father of four didn't allow any of his children to receive vaccinations.

"Why doesn't the United States give free cures for other illnesses? Why only polio? There has to be an agenda," he said. While health workers risk attacks by turbans, growing suspicions from ordinary Paks are lowering their morale. Fatima, a health worker in the northwestern city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
, said that reaction to news of the CIA polio campaign was so severe that many of her colleagues quit.

"People's attitudes have changed. You will not believe how even the most educated and well-to-do people will turn us away, calling us US spies and un-Islamic," said the 25-year-old who did not give her last name for fear of reprisals.

"Boys call us names, they say we are 'indecent women'." Pakistain's government has tried to shatter the myths that can undermine even the best-intentioned health projects by turning to moderate holy mans and urging them to issue religious rulings supporting the anti-polio efforts.

Tahir Ashrafi, head of the All Pakistain Ulema Council, said the alliance of holy mans had done its part, and it was up to the government to come to the rescue of aid workers.

"Clerics can only give fatwas and will continue to come together and condemn such acts," he said. "What good are fatwas if the government doesn't provide security?" That may be a tall order in Pakistain, where critics allege government officials are too busy lining their pockets or locked in power struggles to protect its citizens, even children vulnerable to diseases that can cripple or disfigure them.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336088 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Nobody brought up the DNA scam?
Posted by: Skidmark || 12/24/2012 11:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Pakistan doesn't have a war on polio.

It has a war on polio vaccination. And any other Western ideas.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 11:54 Comments || Top||

#3  the anti-polio drive is just another Western plot against Moslems

Would it were so.

Too bad for the innocent kids but screw the adults and the goats they rode in on.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/24/2012 13:20 Comments || Top||

#4  "but screw the adults and the goats they rode in on"

FTFY, Alan.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 13:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Thank you Barbara, I'm always appreciative of concise editing.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/24/2012 14:21 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336068 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Birthday Gam Shot

Ava Gardner [Filmography](Died in 1990 at age 67)



A Stocking Stuffer for Gorb


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/24/2012 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  One more shopping day until Christmas.

Just in case: http://www.4elementsofgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/christmas-girl.jpg

Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 12/24/2012 6:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Gulf Bravo,
I look at Christmas girl and see two.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 12/24/2012 11:06 Comments || Top||

#4  I like Christmas Baubles.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 12/24/2012 11:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Too much "decking" on those halls.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/24/2012 13:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Sorry, GB, this is all I could find for your stocking stuffer.
Posted by: gorb || 12/24/2012 16:03 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Borderland Beat: A discussion of MANPADS in Mexico
Borderland Beat collegue Chivis Martinez has conducted an interview of security expert Dr. Robert Bunker concerning possible future cartel combat capabilities. Read the whole thing.

About MANPAD weapons like SA24 or RBS70 do you know at what price they would sell at on the black market?

The SA24 Grinch, which has only been in production since 2004, looks to be too high end for Mexican cartel use. Still, dozens of MANPADS turned up in Algeria in February of this year— many of which were SA24s—so these systems are out on the black market due to the recent civil war in Libya. The much older Swedish RBS 70 would be a better fit if the cartels decided to go down that path. My guess is you are thinking about some sort of Venezuela to Colombian FARC to Sinaloa or Zetas type of transfer.

I don’t think the black market price matters in the context of Mexican cartels. If a cartel really wanted a few of these systems, it could easily pay a multiple of the going black market price. Say a lower end system was going for $50,000.00—Sinaloa has the resources to offer ten times that number and not even blink an eye over it. Over the long term, they would not purchase MANPADS that way but for a few systems it would not break their bank.
Posted by: badanov || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336069 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OK, How much is YOUR life worth?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 10:25 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
MQM man among seven killed in Karachi violence
[Pak Daily Times] Seven people, including a policeman and a political worker affiliated with Muttahida Qaumi Movement
...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead...
(MQM), were killed in the city on Sunday, police said.

An activist of MQM was killed near Shoe Market in Garden area within the precincts of Garden cop shoppe.

According to police, Muhammad Amir, 25, son of Nizam Uddin, was rubbed out by unidentified armed pillion riders who immediately fled after the incident. The body was shifted to Civil Hospital Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
(CHK) for his appointment with Doctor Quincy. Police told the victim was a bachelor and resident of the same area. Panic gripped the area after his killing. Separately, a policeman was bumped off over a resistanceduring mugging near Nappier Road within the limits of Nappier cop shoppe. An official said that the victim Muhammad Aslam, son of Muhammad, was on his way to home a cycle of violence when gunnies intercepted him and attempted to snatch his bike. Upon offering resistance, they shot him dead and escaped taking along his motorbike. The body was brought to the CHK for his appointment with Doctor Quincy. The victim left behind three children and was the resident of Agra Taj Colony, Lyari.

In another incident, a Shia man was killed inside the area of Shah Faisal Colony within the limits of Shah Faisal colony cop shoppe. According to police, a trader identified as Azmat Ali was rubbed out in Shah Faisal Colony when he was sitting at his shop. The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities. Meanwhile,
...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment...
a man was killed while other got injured in an armed attack near Jehangir Road within the jurisdiction of Jamshed quarter cop shoppe. According to police, two armed pillion riders opened indiscriminate fire at a gathering near Jehangir Road, resultantly injuring two people identified as Shakeel, son of Faqeer, and Ghulam Mustafa. They were rushed to the CHK for treatment, where Shakeel departed this vale of tears while another was under treatment.

A perforated carcass of a youth was found near Raxer Bridge within the limits of Pak Colony cop shoppe. An official said that the local people of the area informed police that a body was lying near Raxer Bridge. After receiving the information, police rushed to the scene and moved it to CHK for a postmortem. The victim was identified as Mukhtiar.

A man was rubbed out at Hawksbay Road within the limits of Mauripur cop shoppe, while another man was killed at Korangi Road within the limits of Korangi cop shoppe.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under:


VIEW : The defining moment -- Mohammed Ahmad
[Pak Daily Times] It was Bashir Bilour on Saturday and Benazir Bhutto
... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in...
before that. Some other brave leader may be next but then the serpent of terror will also strike the timid. Its war is with democracy, freedom and any system that allows plurality of views even if it is in a stifled fashion. Even decades of military rule has not been successful in making people who democratically achieved a country believe in any system other than democracy and this is what is at stake. A successful election in Pakistain is the worst nightmare for Death Eaters who want the system to crumble and offer them the window to attain power here.

Pakistain is paying a heavy price for what has been done to it over the years. In the wake of the communist coup in Afghanistan, its radical president, General Zia ul Haq
...the creepy-looking former dictator of Pakistain. Zia was an Islamic nutball who imposed his nutballery on the rest of the country with the enthusiastic assistance of the nation's religious parties, which are populated by other nutballs. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976 by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whom he hanged when he seized power. His time in office was a period of repression, with hundreds of thousands of political rivals, minorities, and journalists executed or tortured, including senior general officers convicted in coup-d'état plots, who would normally be above the law. As part of his alliance with the religious parties, his government helped run the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, providing safe havens, American equipiment, Saudi money, and Pak handlers to selected mujaheddin. Zia died along with several of his top generals and admirals and the then United States Ambassador to Pakistain Arnold Lewis Raphel when he was assassinated in a suspicious air crash near Bahawalpur in 1988...
involved it in the Afghan war and made its people embrace tyranny and oppression in the name of national security and no one dared to question the response for fear of life or being branded a traitor. All were made to believe that it was a war for freedom while in reality it was a war waged to secure and perpetuate the dictatorship in Pakistain. The dictator had succeeded in befooling both the US and the people of his own country to see it otherwise.

Why did the Soviet Union invade Afghanistan? The answer is simple. While Afghanistan had had its share of emirs, kings and tyrants, it had never had a democratic welfare government. It was internally weak and was thus ripe for a takeover by a form of government that at least claimed equality for all and claimed that all its actions were pro-people. History had proved that the communist invasion of Eastern Europe could not move westwards because of the democratic welfare-oriented governments there. Democracy rather forced the Bolsheviks to erect the Berlin Wall to stop the subjugated from crossing over. The free Germans saw the benefits of democracy and that was the end of the Soviet advance in Europe. The real solution for Pakistain was power to the people. The dictator instead adopted the course of a proxy war in a neighbouring country. The war fought for the self-interest of the dictator brought to this part of the world all those who could fight for money and of course, some unsuspecting Moslem youth as well who were made to believe that it was a war for Islam. The fall of the Soviets and the later fall of the Taliban government evaporated their utility there and made hundreds of thousands jobless overnight and now they are doing what they know best: killing and oppressing the vulnerable. Since the human conscience even at its lowest ebb abhors plain murder, they are deceiving both their own souls and those who fall prey to their propaganda as a war for faith.

It is unfortunate that years of radicalisation have created for these Death Eaters sympathisers in Pakistain who offer them sanctuaries. These sympathisers are the real force for the operatives who bank on them for dividing the people and weakening the response. On the larger horizon, these sympathisers work behind the scenes to convince the common man that democracy is secular and is hence opposed to religion. On a smaller front, they work on the common man to dilute the reaction when Shias, Ahmadis or Christians are targeted so that society fails to garner for itself any common value that may bring the people closer. The radicalisation has thus divided the national thought and whenever there is need for action there is divergence of views.

After a struggle of more than 60 years going through dictatorship, civil war and finally democracy, the people of Pakistain again stand at a crossroads. There are two paths to choose from. One is the easy path, the path of least resistance, the path of fatalism and ultimate despair, rule by tyrants and the Taliban, and governance by violence and terror. The other is the path of struggle and sacrifice, the path of hope and progress, in which the people of Pakistain find their identity in Jinnah's vision and stand united with his ideas and dreams. No doubt taking this path will be painful but the reward is a land of dreams. The decision we take will mark our destiny.

Pakistain is in desperate need of a modern, liberal, progressive and vibrant welfare society Pakistain needs to be developed as a modern, progressive, secular democracy adhering to the principles of fairplay and social justice. Those in authority here need to wake up and realise that when people give the authority to rule they do so to be given a better and secure future. A future of oppression and intimidation is not what the people of Pakistain want. The response of a responsible government cannot be timid. It is duty bound to act to save Pakistain. Those who plotted Mr Bilour's liquidation must be made to pay for their actions and the mindset that supports such fanatics on the mainland needs to be tackled now not later. We need to take the fight to them rather than waiting as sitting ducks to be targeted at will.

Pakistain cannot survive without upholding the principles and guidelines provided to it by its visionary founder. The time is now for all patriotic forces to band together and let democracy stay at all costs. Democracy may one day give us back Jinnah's Pakistain, the land of our dreams where all citizens live in peace and harmony, a country full of hope, optimism, and security for all. Jinnah struggled to protect and nurture the cultural values of the Moslems of South Asia and not those of the tribal Chechens, Arabs or Sudanese. Jinnah's Pakistain was to be a land free of prejudice. Discrimination was to be the forbidden word in Jinnah's Pakistain. Jinnah's Pakistain was not created for the Taliban.

The destiny of Pakistain will not be inked by India, the US or China. The future of Pakistain will be determined by the choice of its people. Do we want to take the easy path of doom and be ruled by the Taliban or do we want to take the path of struggle where the reward is prosperity, freedom, and democracy? Now is the defining moment. It is either now or never.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336087 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  You can talk all day, there's no choice but the easy way.
And the author knows it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 2:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Its a Moslem country. Fruit of the tree. Pakistain ain't called that for nuthin'.. It a hole. And Mohammed was not askin' you, he was telling you. He would kill you and your whole family if you didn't git down and polish his curly toed slippers with the oil on your nose.
There is no hope for Pakiland. They are soaked in the Moslem cancer and the undertaker is standing outside with a tape measure. Not a prayer.

What should we DO? Nothing. Stand back and sell them ammo. Pop some popcorn. They can't reach us and besides they smell bad up close. Peter Lorrie , cheap perfume, and M, scrawled in chalk, on his back.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 12/24/2012 3:01 Comments || Top||

#3  TF, agree with most of what you say but ammo is fungible and can be turned against us and others. If there was a practical way to quarantine the whole area I'd be all for it.

Otherwise I'm afraid that they would just be used as a pawn by the Chinese against the Indians.
Posted by: AlanC || 12/24/2012 8:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Pakistain is paying a heavy price for what has been done to it over the years.

"Halp us! We's a victim!"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/24/2012 9:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Frank G, nails it.

The first thing is to recognise that you have a problem and take responsibility for it. But, these are Muzzies and they are philosophically and culturally incabable of taking responsibility for anything.

InshaAllan
Posted by: AlanC || 12/24/2012 9:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Not quite, Allah Provides, so let Allah provide.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 19:15 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt Opposition Cries 'Fraud' in Referendum
[An Nahar] Egypt's opposition said on Sunday it will appeal a referendum seen as voting in a new constitution backed by ruling Islamists, and vowed to keep up a struggle that has spawned weeks of protests and instability.

Polling "fraud and violations" skewed the results of the two-stage referendum, the final leg of which was held on Saturday, the National Salvation Front charged.

"We are asking the (electoral) commission to investigate the irregularities before announcing official results," a Front member, Amr Hamzawy, told a Cairo news conference.

"The referendum is not the end of the road. It is only one battle," said another member, Abdel Ghaffar Shokr, reading from a Front statement. "We will continue the fight for the Egyptian people."

Germany immediately backed the call for a transparent investigation into the results. Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said: "The new constitution can only meet with acceptance if the process of its adoption is beyond reproach."

But Westerwelle said it was "not the power of the street but rather the spirit of compromise and tolerance that should determine the way forward for Egypt."

Egyptian state media and President Mohamed Morsi's supporters in the Moslem Brüderbund said the constitution was passed with the support of nearly two-thirds of voters, based on unofficial tallies.

A member of the national electoral commission, Mohamed el-Tanobly, told Agence La Belle France Presse that "no official date has been fixed" for the publication of the final referendum results.

The state news agency MENA had reported they would be released on Monday.

Opposition to the charter has fueled demonstrations for the past month, some of them violent, such as festivities that maimed 62 people in Egypt's second city of Alexandria on Friday, the day before the final round of voting.

The army has deployed troops to reinforce police since December 5 festivities outside the presidential palace in Cairo killed eight people and injured more than 600 others.

Morsi and Islamists backing the charter say it is necessary to restore stability after the early 2011 revolution that toppled president Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...

But the opposition sees the new constitution as a wedge to usher in creeping Islamic law through a weakening of human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
, particularly women's rights, and undermine the independence of the judiciary.

It accuses Morsi of steamrolling through the referendum without consensus on the charter, and argues that a low voter turnout of around 32 percent undermined the plebiscite's legitimacy.

Approval of the constitution would trigger parliamentary elections in two months' time to replace an Islamist-dominated assembly that was dissolved by Egypt's constitutional court before Morsi's election in June.

In the meantime, all legislative business is being handled by the senate, also under the sway of Islamists.

In a gesture to "national dialogue," Morsi on Saturday appointed 90 additional senators, including eight women and 12 Christians.

The U.S. government, which sees Egypt as a pillar of its Middle East policy and provides Cairo with $1.3 billion annually in military aid, has deliberately avoided public comment on the crisis.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336083 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Welcome to Mob rule. (We the people)
Or is it simply Religious rule?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 3:02 Comments || Top||

#2  another reason the Obama admin is withholding comment is that some of the same 'get out the vote', 'educate the voter' and 'help the voter vote' techniques used by the Moslem bros are also used by the Donk machine in many urban precincts in the US
Posted by: lord garth || 12/24/2012 16:24 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Oman First-Time Local Polls Turnout Tops 50%
[An Nahar] Voter turnout topped 50 percent in Oman's first ever local elections for 192 councilors with advisory powers, the sultanate's deputy interior minister announced on Sunday.

Turnout reached "50.3 percent of the electronically registered voters," Khaled Albusaidi said, quoted by the official ONA.

Turnout among the registered 447,551 voters was "satisfying," said Albusaidi, adding that the polls which took place on Saturday "were successful at all levels."

Among the 1,475 hopefuls, all of whom were standing as independents in a country where political parties remain banned, four out of 46 female candidates won seats.

The normally sleepy sultanate was caught up in the 2011 protests which swept the Arab world, with demonstrators taking to the streets to demand improved living conditions and reforms.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336070 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring

#1  Yup, you CAN fool some of the people some of the time.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 2:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Won't really be a democratic success story until 127% turn up to vote.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 3:56 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Punties free 22 hostages after three years
[Pak Daily Times] Troops from the Somali region of Puntland on Sunday rescued 22 hostages held by pirates for almost three years after their ship was seized off the Yemeni coast, the authorities said, adding that the men bore signs of torture.

The crew, from the Dubai-owned and Panamanian-flagged MV Iceberg 1 were freed after two weeks of fighting and a siege of the vessel off the coast of Somalia, the Puntland authorities said in a statement.

"Puntland government forces conducting a humanitarian rescue operation have safely rescued 22 hostages on board the MV Iceberg 1 vessel," according to the statement from the semi-autonomous northern state.

It said the rescue of the multinational crew came after two weeks of "fighting pirates and laying siege to the vessel". Government forces first surrounded the vessel on December 10 near the coastal village of Garaad in the Mudug region, lies along the Indian Ocean. The 4,000-tonne ship was seized in the Gulf of Aden in March 2010 with a crew of 24 people hailing from Ghana, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sudan and Yemen.

"After two years and nine months in captivity, the hostages have suffered signs of physical torture and illness," the authorities said. "The hostages are now receiving nutrition and medical care."
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336081 views] Top|| File under: Pirates


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
World Muslim Body Slams Islamist Threats against Syria Christians
[An Nahar] The world's largest Mohammedan body on Sunday condemned threats made by beturbanned fascisti in Syria against two Christian towns, warning of fresh confessional strife in the war-torn country.

Such threats "are contrary to the precepts of Islam which calls for tolerance, brotherhood and peace," said the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation based in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

It warned against the risks of "a slide into confessional" conflict.

beturbanned fascisti, in a video message posted on Saturday, warned Mharda and Sqilbiya in Syria's central province of Hama that they will be attacked if they do not evict regime forces.

One of seven men armed with Kalashnikovs warned residents to expel gangs of President Bashar "Assad and shabiha (pro-regime militia) from your towns and convince them not to bomb our villages and families," in the video.

"If not, we will immediately attack the hideouts of Assad's gangs and shabiha," added the man, who identified himself as Rashid Abul Fida, head of the Al-Ansar Brigade in Hama.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said the towns both had pre-war populations in the tens of thousands but that most of their residents have fled.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336065 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Africa North
Tunisia arrests 16 al-Qaeda suspects
[Magharebia] Tunisia announced on Friday (December 21st) that it placed in durance vile
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
16 men suspected of belonging to a group with ties to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the western regions of Kasserine and Jendouba, near the Algerian border, AFP reported.

"We have discovered a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in a training camp run by three Algerians close to AQIM leader Abou Moussaab Abdelouadoud (Abdelmalik Droukdel
... aka Abdel Wadoud, was a regional leader of the GSPC for several years before becoming the group's supremo in 2004 following the death of then-leader Nabil Sahraoui. Under Abdel Wadoud's leadership the GSPC has sought to develop itself from a largely domestic entity into a larger player on the international terror stage. In September 2006 it was announced that the GSPC had joined forces with al-Qaeda and in January 2007 the group officially changed its name to the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb....
)," in the Kasserine region, Interior Minister Ali Larayedh said.

In an operation that the minister said followed the deadly Kasserine clash earlier this month, security services arrested eight people in the province. Weapons, ammunition, explosives, binoculars, maps and military uniforms were seized during the operation. Most of the weapons are thought to have come from Libya, according to Larayedh.

The group was active in recruiting and training young Islamist Death Eaters in AQIM camps in Algeria and Libya, the minister added.

Eight other bad turbans, including three Libyans, were arrested in the Jendouba region of northwest Tunisia. Security forces were still searching for Islamist suspects in the hills north of Ain Drahem on the Algerian border, Larayedh said.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336117 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa


Africa Horn
Kenya police arrest 61 suspects over tribal attack
[Pak Daily Times] Kenyan police said Sunday they have locked away
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
61 suspects over a brutal attack on a remote village in the southeast involving two rival communities that left 45 people dead including women and kiddies.

Villagers were hacked to death and their homes torched in Friday's attack on Kipao village in the Tana River delta region, an area where deadly tribal violence killed another 100 people earlier this year. Police said on Saturday they had arrested 56 people, including a policeman, in the wake of the onslaught, which they feared could further inflame tensions between the rival Orma and Pokomo communities in the area. Another five were arrested in a late-night "security operation," a police officer said on condition of anonymity on Sunday.

Police attributed the killings to a disarmament operation in the area but the violence could also be linked to the election being held next March, the first since Kenya was gripped by deadly inter-ethnic killings after a December 2007 vote. Police said the dead in Kipao included 16 children, five women and 10 men, along with 14 assailants.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336066 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What, no outrage in our press?
Must be un-noticible.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 2:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Brought on by a shortage of EBT cards no doubt.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 4:01 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Nine candidates seeking police job injured in attack
[Pak Daily Times] At least nine aspiring candidates, applying for the posts of constable and assistant sub inspector (ASI) in Sindh Police Department met a terrible fate when they sustained injuries in a hand grenade attack at Khawaja Ajmernagri police headquarters, that evidently targeted the law enforcement personnel here on Sunday.

According to reports, a large number of aspiring men lined up at the Khawaja Ajmernagri police headquarters to submit their application forms, as the last date of submission is to expire on Monday.

SHO Chauhdary Afzal said that a large number people were standing in queue for submitting their recruitment forms outside the headquarter when suddenly three pillion riders hurled a grenade at the location that went kaboom! with loud pitch, thus injuring nine applicants who were immediately taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) for treatment. Doctors termed their condition stable while saying two of them were at death's door. Culprits expeditiously departed at a goodly pace after the incident.

Following the blast, a heavy contingent of law enforcers rushed to the scene of the crime and cordoned off the entire area to avoid any untoward incident. The BDS experts collected all available evidences for examination.

A BDS official said that an initial investigation revealed that the grenade was Russian-made and had no ball bearing, adding that police found a pin of the grenade near the scene of the crime.

SHO also informed that all the injured were applicants. Replying to a question, he said that at the time of incident at least half a dozen coppers were deployed outside headquarter to provide security to the aspiring recruits. He added that four coppers were performing their duty at the gate.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336074 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Home Front: Politix
How 'Cliff' Talks Hit the Wall
[Online.WSJ] Behind Scenes, Boehner Failed to Sell Republicans on Taxes, While Obama's Spending Plans Rankled

At one point, according to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, "I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?"

"You get nothing," the president said. "I get that for free."
I'd walk away, too. Some deals aren't worth making.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336094 views] Top|| File under:

#1  agree completely.
let Champ be seen as in Hawaii frolicking in the surf and inflexible during budget negotiations.
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 12/24/2012 1:39 Comments || Top||

#2  I sincerely hoe his arrogance sinks him, there's no question he's an arrogant "I'm the boss" asshole, but the "Peepul" will always vote for the person who "Gives" them goodies, so we'll have to choose better next time. (And he's NOT eligible)

We need better People.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 2:21 Comments || Top||

#3  I told you that there will be no outcome with negotiating with Banana. I have already said it. Give the donks what they want, let them own it. The American people need a lesson.
The American people produced Champ, raised him up, and now they have to take the fall. Detroit is a prophecy.
We WILL go over the cliff. Deadlock,blame and Inflation like you won't believe. Gasoline at $8/gallon. Gold at 3,600/oz.
No? Champ will be swimming in Hawaii.

I took all my assets out of the US to Southern Asia. I can live on the thirtieth floor in Singapore and read about it in the news. When a gallon of milk is $8 at Majicmart, it won't effect me at all. I don't live in the projects when the dollar is devalued and the checks stop coming.
Ever seen the warehouses for the walking dead in lower Miami?
Ever seen the bony shanks and the canasta games under a bare lightbulb ? Ever seen sixteen walkerframes creeping down the block on some streets there?
Welcome to paradise. Do you smell piss ?

And down at the VA there are urine soaked sheets stacked in the elevator. But you got a Bronze Star in exchange for your leg.
Your wife lives in a trailer off base and your kids don't know you.
Spell inevitable for me.
Posted by: Threater Flusoper9823 || 12/24/2012 3:30 Comments || Top||

#4  I LIKE that, he's got it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 4:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Champ's goal isn't lower taxes. Champ's goal is a one party system. He's nearly there.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 4:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Too many free thinkers, He'll never do it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 10:23 Comments || Top||

#7  Give the donks what they want, let them own it.

The problem is there will be no one left absorb the lesson.

The problem with "negotiating" with Obama is he wants us to go over the cliff. The press will blame the Republicans and it gives him an excuse to gut the military.

The thing Rantburgers need to remember is Obama considers the US to be the "most genocidal country in the history of the world." Think about that. We are supposedly worse than Mao (60 million dead), Stalin (30 million), and Hitler (25 million). Wouldn't you want to destroy such a country?

The problem with the Republicans is they think they are dealing with someone they disagree with. In reality they are dealing with someone who wants to destroy them, their values and their entire way of life.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 12/24/2012 11:32 Comments || Top||

#8  that's what I don't understand, it will gut DOD over the next decade.
those are the only govt employees that they seem to like, even they are not worth compromising for?
cuts are automatic, now is not the time to play chicken, you have nothing to gain by winning that game.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/24/2012 13:21 Comments || Top||

#9  No worries, he'll shift funding around to fit his priorities. Congress is the least of his worries.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 13:23 Comments || Top||

#10  If we go over the fiscal cliff Obama gets to cut the military and blame The Republicans.
He gets to cut any programs he doesn't like, and blame the Republicans.
He gets to raise taxes on the middle class and the upper class and blame the Republicans.

Why would the Republicans think that they can hammer out a deal to avoid the cliff. They need to let him own it, make him own it, because they really can't stop it. Problem is the Republicans as shown in the last election just can't get the world to believe them despite the facts. There is a cult of personality around Obama and I'm not sure it can be deflated while he is in office.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 12/24/2012 13:39 Comments || Top||

#11  It's that time Mr. Lightoller. Bring those lads to the boat deck immediately and thank them properly for their valiant efforts on the pumps.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 14:01 Comments || Top||

#12  Champ thinks he's god and the US is Satan. With that as a starting point the rest sort of makes sense.
Posted by: Iblis || 12/24/2012 14:26 Comments || Top||

#13  Boehner said the screwing you get just isn't worth the screwing you get and walked away. Obama could have done something when he had the House and Senate during the first two years and didn't. He chose to screw the country and run up the debt by ramming ObamaCare through--"You have to pass it to read it nonsense. Has Champ had a budget yet?
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/24/2012 15:57 Comments || Top||

#14  Fine. Walk off the cliff. More taxes and less spending mean less debt. I'm all for it.
Posted by: gorb || 12/24/2012 16:26 Comments || Top||

#15  "Walk of the cliff hell" PUSH Obumbles over and watch him fall.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 19:08 Comments || Top||

#16  By the way, they show the "Cliff" as a precipiece, no, it's a wall, now climb it Obumbles.
Or is that work?
Yup work, it's the way WE do things, NOT PRESIDE.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 19:12 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Iowa court OKs firing of female dental assistant for being too 'irresistibly attractive'
[NY Daily News] Dental assistant Melissa Nelson was fired by her boss of 10 years because he felt her presence was a threat to his marriage.
Seems tooth mechanic boss was spending too much time looking at her butt and not enough time looking at his wife. Since he had to get rid of one or the other he chose the one he wouldn't have to pay alimony. Then came the summons...
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336088 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I saw her pic. yawn. about a 6.5 in Los Angeles. why did he wait 10 years to make the move though? thats what I find odd.
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 12/24/2012 1:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Hardly "Irresistable", Maybe his wife's a real dog.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 2:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Can't make an informed conclusion w/o a full length photo of the firee...
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 12/24/2012 3:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Sounds like the old soldier story. "I'm getting out of the army to save my marriage"...and 6 months later she divorces him anyway.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/24/2012 3:47 Comments || Top||

#5  So basically the court recognized his inability to 'keep it in his pants'?
That's so......islamic, in a way.
Posted by: bigjim-CA || 12/24/2012 13:26 Comments || Top||

#6  6 months later she divorces him anyway

Big thing now is waiting until six months to a year before he retires.
Posted by: Pappy || 12/24/2012 13:37 Comments || Top||

#7  May the tooth mechanic has been looking at teeth so long, he has a distorted view of the world. Could be worse, he might be a urologist, gynecologist or proctologist.
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/24/2012 15:45 Comments || Top||

#8  May Maybe
Posted by: JohnQC || 12/24/2012 15:45 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Regime air strike hit a bakery in Halfaya killing more than 60
[Pak Daily Times] More than 60 people were killed in a regime air strike on a bakery in a rebel-held town on Sunday, monitors said, as peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi launched a new bid to resolve Syria's brutal 21-month conflict.

In one of the deadliest incidents of the conflict, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike hit a bakery in Halfaya in the central province of Hama, killing more than 60 people and wounding at least 50.

Many of the maimed were at death's door, the monitoring group said, adding that the corpse count was likely to rise.

"In Halfaya, regime forces bombarded a bakery and committed a massacre that killed dozens of people, including women and kiddies, and maimed many others," said the Local Coordination Committees, a grassroots network of activists.

"A MiG (jet) has attacked! Look at (President Bashar al-) Assad's weapons. Look, world, look at the Halfaya massacre," says an unidentified cameraman shooting an amateur video distributed by the Observatory.

The footage showed a bombed one-storey block and a crater in the road.

Bloodied bodies lay on the road, while others could be seen in the rubble. Men carried victims out on their backs, among them at least one woman, the video showed.

On Monday, rebels launched an all-out assault on army positions across Hama, which is home to strong anti-regime sentiment. During the summer, rights groups accused government forces of committing war crimes by dropping bombs and using artillery on or near several bakeries in the northern province of 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...
. Another of the bloodiest attacks in the Syrian conflict was on a bread line in the Qadi Askar district of Aleppo city on August 16 that left 60 people dead, according to local hospital records. International envoy Brahimi, meanwhile, travelled to Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
overland from neighbouring Leb on a previously unannounced visit, officials said.

The UN-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 last visited on October 19, but since then there has been fighting between government forces and rebels on the road to Damascus airport.

During his October visit he met Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
The Scourge of Hama...
and other officials to clinch a temporary ceasefire for the Mohammedan feast of Eidul Azha. Despite pledges, the truce did not hold. At least 44,000 people have been killed in violence across Syria since the outbreak of the anti-regime revolt in March 2011, according to the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory. Shortly before Sunday's air strike, Information Minister Omran al Zohbi reiterated calls for national dialogue.

Apart from those killed in Halfaya, at least 49 others were killed on Sunday in violence across Syria, said the Observatory.

Other air strikes included a raid in Aleppo province. "At least 13 people were killed in an air raid on the town of Sfeira," said the group, which relies on a network of doctors, activists and lawyers for its information.

Warplanes also hit the town of Saqba in Damascus province, just north of the road linking the capital to the international airport, the Observatory added.
Posted by: Fred || 12/24/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [336084 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Hmmm, Breadlines?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 12/24/2012 11:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Why target bakeries, I wonder?
Posted by: Bobby on the road || 12/24/2012 11:43 Comments || Top||

#3  What makes you think it was actually targeted, Bobby?

Could have been Insh-Allan "targeting."
Posted by: Barbara || 12/24/2012 12:00 Comments || Top||

#4  the "Bakery" may have been a former "Baby Milk Factory"
Posted by: Frank G || 12/24/2012 12:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Why target bakeries, I wonder?

Without guided munitions, it's hard to hit your target when you're flying at hundreds of miles an hour ten thousand feet up in the air, while watching for MANPAD missile trails. It probably doesn't help that Sunnis have this habit of placing their major weapon systems as close to as many civilians as possible. Genghis Khan used to use the subjects of his enemies as human shields while attacking said enemies. Sunnis use their own people as human shields while attacking their adversaries.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 12/24/2012 18:58 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
28[untagged]
6Govt of Pakistan
5Govt of Syria
2Arab Spring
2Ansar Dine
2Hamas
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1Commies
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1al-Nusra
1TTP
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Pirates

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

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

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







On Sale now!


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

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

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

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

Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2012-12-24
  Tunisia arrests 16 al-Qaeda suspects
Sun 2012-12-23
  Egypt vice-president resigns on final day of referendum
Sat 2012-12-22
  Scuds pummel Syrian rebel positions
Fri 2012-12-21
  U.N. Security Council Approves Mali Intervention Force
Thu 2012-12-20
  Yemeni President Restructures Army, Removes Saleh Cronies
Wed 2012-12-19
  Three more polio workers shot in Pakistan; eight dead in 48 hours
Tue 2012-12-18
  Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp
Mon 2012-12-17
  Rebel Offensive In Hama
Sun 2012-12-16
  Rockets Fired on Peshawar Airport, Five Dead, Dozens Injured
Sat 2012-12-15
  Tunisian Salafists attack bar, call drinkers 'infidels'
Fri 2012-12-14
  Coca-Cola resumes its production in Somalia
Thu 2012-12-13
  'Friends of Syria' Recognize Syrian Opposition
Wed 2012-12-12
  Syria Fires Scud Missiles at Insurgents, U.S. Says
Tue 2012-12-11
  North Korea 'launches long-range rocket'
Mon 2012-12-10
  Rebels Seize Chunk of Aleppo Base as Fighting Rages across Syria

Better than the average link...



Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
44.206.248.122
Paypal:
WoT Operations (17)    Non-WoT (12)    Opinion (5)    (0)    Politix (2)