#7
Newsweak for sale! kick in on Pay Pal to help Rantburg buy it
WHY WOULD WE WANT IT
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/06/2010 12:02 Comments ||
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#8
Because I want to stand in the doorway of their headquarters, pointing sternly into the howling wind and the blowing snow while Eleanor Clift carries her pitiful cardboard box of possessions into unemployment.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2010 15:45 Comments ||
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#9
TV Guide got sold for a buck a few years back. The seller even threw in 3.5 million to keep it running.
Just something to remember...
#10
real gald you are back Fred. i had a bout of pneumonia in '98 that really kicked my rear. ended up in both lungs and i was on O2 for 10 weeks and steroids over a year. i would not wish it on my enemies. took almost 3 years to get back to anything resembling ability to exert physically for more than 15-20 minutes.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
05/06/2010 19:47 Comments ||
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#11
Good grief, Fred. Glad you're on the mend.
I really do recommend the pneumonia vaccine, as tw recommends.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/06/2010 20:14 Comments ||
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#12
Everyone hit the tip jar so Fred can get his Pneumovax! :-)
[Quqnoos] Taliban insurgents, including suicide bombers, attacked the governor's compound in the south western Afghan province of Nimroz on Wednesday, officials said
Mohammad Mustafa Rasoli, a senior intelligence official in the province, said two suicide bombers had blown themselves up outside the compound and a gunbattle between the insurgents and security forces was still going on.
At least a female member of the provincial council member and a police were killed in the explosions.
The Taliban have launched a series of attacks in the Afghan south in recent weeks, targeting government buildings and officials.
The attacks come only weeks ahead of a major military offensive in southern Kandahar province.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed the Islamist group was behind the Nimroz attack.
"Seven bombers and two gunmen are involved in the attack. Two of the bombers have set off their explosives and the others are locked in a gunbattle," said Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi.
Nimroz is a largely desert province that shares a long border with Iran and lies next to Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2010 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
The Danish army says almost a dozen of its soldiers in Afghanistan have been wounded amid escalating violence in the war-weary country.
Militants attacked the Danish base in Helmand Province late on Tuesday, injuring eleven troopers and two Afghan translators, the military said on Wednesday.
Nearly 30 Danish soldiers have died in the war-torn country since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
At least 178 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of 2010. According to statistics, 2009 was the deadliest year for foreign troops, with a total of 520 US-led soldiers killed.
NATO currently has more than 120,000 soldiers in the war-torn country. The US has plans to deploy 30,000 extra troops by August.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2010 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Its almost as if the Danish Armys strict ROE make them an easy target just sayin.
Russian naval task force sailors released on Thursday the Somali pirates detained after a mission to free the Moscow University tanker, a Defense Ministry source told RIA Novosti.
"Unfortunately, at present there exist no legal rules for prosecuting in court the pirates operating in the region of Somali," the source said. "This means they do not fall under the jurisdiction of any state or international law."
Commandos from the large anti-submarine warship Marshal Shaposhnikov freed the tanker earlier on Thursday in a 22-minute operation that saw one pirate shot dead. The vessel, on its way from the Red Sea to China, was seized on Wednesday.
The source added that after the pirates had been disarmed and their navigation equipment removed, they were "put into an inflatable boat" and pushed off into the sea.
The news comes shortly after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had pledged to punish pirates who seize vessels off the Somali coast.
"What is the problem? We are all aware of this evil and cannot agree on how to fight it," Medvedev told Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.
"We will have to act as our forefathers did when they met pirates", the Russian president said. "Of course, we will fight pirates with the full force of naval law."
He did not specify exactly how the pirates should be punished.
Somali pirates carried out a record number of attacks and hijackings in 2009. According to the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Center, a total of 217 vessels were attacked last year, resulting in 47 hijackings.
Posted by: john frum ||
05/06/2010 19:29 ||
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[11136 views]
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#1
The source added that after the pirates had been disarmed and their navigation equipment removed, they were "put into an inflatable boat" and pushed off into the sea
Did they give them oars?
Posted by: john frum ||
05/06/2010 19:32 Comments ||
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#2
here is hoping the inflatable leaks... and not a particularly slow leak either.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
05/06/2010 19:51 Comments ||
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#3
A somewhat slow leak might be best - let them savor the end.....slowly...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/06/2010 19:52 Comments ||
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#4
"put into an inflatable boat" and pushed off into the sea ...
#6
The source added that after the pirates had been disarmed and their navigation equipment removed, they were "put into an inflatable boat" and pushed off into the sea.
The kind of Russian kindness reserved for the truly deserving.
#8
The boat WAS the bucket of chum. The Russians talked like Euros, but they took nav equipment and let them go. I would guess that they did not give any water or rations to the pirates. So, good luck t'ye and off they went. No food and water and you have-----------Survivorman, Somali style, heh. Very clever of the Russians.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/06/2010 22:21 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] A Liberia-flagged oil tanker with 23 crew members aboard has been hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, says the EU's anti-piracy mission.
Somali pirates armed with automatic weapons boarded the Moscow University tanker carrying 86,000 tons of crude oil ,worth roughly USD 50 million, Cmdr. John Harbour, a European Union Naval spokesman said on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.
According to the ship owner, Novoship, the tanker was sailing to china when the attack occurred on Wednesday, about 800 kilometers east of the Somali coast.
Meanwhile, The Marshal Shaposhnikov warship was dispatched to rescue the harassed ship.
The European Union's anti-piracy mission in Somalia, NAVFOR, said "armed men in speed boats attacked the tanker at about 8 a.m. Moscow time about 350 nautical miles east of Socatra, Yemen."
According to the statement the crew members are all believed to be in good health.
Update at 1045CT: Russians took it back. One dead pirate, rest surrendered, crew is fine.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2010 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11137 views]
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#1
probably not a solid career move.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
05/06/2010 0:22 Comments ||
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#2
And then the Russians take it back by force and take the pirates back to Moscow for prosecution
Good job , showing the west how its done . In retrospect , its embarassing for us really
Posted by: Oscar ||
05/06/2010 5:38 Comments ||
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#3
And then the Russians take it back by force and take the pirates back to Moscow for prosecution
Alternatively, the Somali village from which the pirates came gets a Spetsnaz visit.
#10
More ... "The tanker crew (of 23 Russians) had taken refuge in a safe room, disabled the engine and called for help. One of the nearest warships was a Russian frigate with commando detachment on board."
Two Pirate Action Groups ( PAG ) were interdicted in two separate actions according to a new release from EU NAVFOR.
A skiff with seven suspected pirates was intercepted outside the International Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) Tuesday after it was spotted by a recon helo.
The helo was an element of a Japanese task force which was escorting a small convoy through the IRTC. The action took place about 50 nautical miles south of Al Mukalla, Yemen, last Tuesday according to the news release.
The Greek warship HS Elli responded to a request for assistance by the Japanese, closed and then fired on the skiff in order to force it to halt.
During the chase the suspected pirates were observed throwing items overboard. After the Elli fired on the skiff with its main gun, the skiff heaved to and its crew surrendered to the Greek sailors.
After a brief investigation the skiff was released. It is unclear as to the fate of the seven Somali mariners.
A PAG was intercepted approximately 400 nautical miles north west of the Seychelles.
A combined force consisting of one Swedish crewed maritime patrol aircraft, the French warship FS La Fayette and the Dutch warship Johan De Witt was used in the operation.
According to the report, after the Swedish patrol aircraft spotted a PAG Wednesday morning, the EU NAVFOR command ordered the La Fayette to intercept.
The PAG comprised a whaler and two skiffs with 12 crew total. The whaler and a skiff heaved to, but one skiff attempted to outrun the La Fayette.
The skiff was finally halted during a chase after a French sniper disabled the skiff's two engines.
Aboard the disabled skiff were discovered a quantity of arms and ladders. The equipment was seized and the Somali sailors placed under arrest.
The HNLMS Johan Dewitt provided assistance in this interdiction operation, according to the news release.
In other news:
A South Korean tanker, the MV Ocean Trader, evaded a hijacking attempt Wednesday morning, according to a EU NAVFOR news release.
The attack took place approximately 200 nautical miles north west of Comoros Islands. The crew were reported unharmed.
The Ocean Trader displaces 39,000 tons. No other details about the hijacking attempt were made available.
A Liberian flagged Russian operated tanker was hijacked Wednesday morning, according to a EU NAVFOR news release.
The Moscow University was seized by Somali pirates approximately 350 nautical miles east of Socatra. The tanker was heading east and was bound for China. The tanker, displacing 106,474 tons, has a compliment of 23 sailors.
According to the news release, the Moscow University "was not registered with Maritime Security Centre Horn of Africa (MSCHOA) for their recent transit through the IRTC but they had reported to UKMTO."
According to reports from elsewhere, a Russian warship is said to be en route to the reported location of the hijacking. No other details were available.
[Maghrebia] A bomb explosion in Algeria's Kabylie region gravely wounded an elderly woman on Tuesday (May 4th), Liberte reported. Algerian security forces dispatched to the remote scene in Yakouren successfully defused three other improvised explosive devices. Another homemade bomb was defused a day earlier in the Draa El Mizan town of Ichoukren.
In the same region south of Tizi-Ouzou, ANP troops killed three armed terrorists on Tuesday. Kalashnikov-type weapons were recovered after the clash, Tout sur l'Algerie reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
The Ministry of Interior said Wednesday that a Saudi had returned to the Kingdom from Africa after contacting the authorities expressing the wish to hand himself in. The statement from ministry spokesman Mansour Al-Turki follows last Sunday's announcement that wanted Al-Qaeda-linked militant Aqil Amish Aqil Al-Mutairi had turned himself in to the authorities.
Al-Turki said Wednesday that the ministry was not disclosing the name of the latest returnee, but said he was not on the ministry's February 2009 list of 85 wanted terrorists.
The returning Saudi is 22 years of age, and had gone to Africa for jihad but found it "false", leading him to call his family to arrange his return through the relevant authorities
#3
Lazy and romantic. Jihadis get guns and bombs, they get to play soldier, not to mention the adoring local girls who aren't as covered up as the Saudi girls... even before the 72 houris of paradise.
#4
As Glenn Reynolds points out, the DoD apparently was counting on a group of Navy SEALS caving.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/06/2010 21:03 Comments ||
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#5
Navy SEAL's don't cave.
HOOYAH!
Posted by: Jan ||
05/06/2010 21:59 Comments ||
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#6
Fuc& the a$$hats who laid this on our SEALs and the rest of our military. Never forget. Would it be wrong to hope that the pols in this case get a reality check by having to do a SEAL's job once? If they actually pull it off, they can have their old job back. If not, well, I guess we can say they'd be subject to the same risks the SEALs are subject to with every mission.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/06/2010 18:03 Comments ||
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#3
(snark "ON") I didn't realize that the Burg was run from the UK, Bright Pebbles. I thought it came out of the USA where North American terms would be used. (snark "OFF")
#1
Why? simple. because as the article says :"Suspects who realize that they've been compromised tend to destroy evidence and go on the lam."
this way, Holder et al can tip the baddies with deniablity and no further 'vast conspiracy' can be uncovered.
move along, nothing to see here...
Posted by: abu do you love ||
05/06/2010 0:18 Comments ||
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#2
These guys never miss a chance to play politics with tragedy (or in this case a very near miss). I wonder if Joe Public has caught on to the "never let a crisis go to waste" mentality yet. I hope so, but I'm not willing to give the average person that much credit yet. Hopefully November will change my mind.
#3
...may harm the ongoing investigation, but it is savvy public relations. It gives the Justice Department and the administration a script with which to portray themselves as super-competent and the civilian justice system as so effective that Bush-era relics like military detention are unnecessary.
I see the BO administration is still fighting the real war against GWB and the Tea Party. I feel safe. Meanwhile, (ho hum, yawn) in Afghanistan, American economy and jobs, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, NK and on the Mexican border...
#4
My guess, and only a guess. Domestic terrorism, successful or not is bad juju for Barry. This is an administration damage control measure. We alreayd know, as reported a day or two ago in the NYT, the FBI has been watching this fellow since 2006 when he sold his first house, possibly long before. As he was taken into custody, Shahzad immediatly started talking. What could he possibly be talking about? How about methodology, accomplices, networks, contacts, funding....a plea bargain.
Abu nailed it. Publicize the fact he's talking and accomplices and networks vanish. The last thing the Obama administration wants is a larger terrorist catch.
Like MAJ Hasan, if the FBI really wanted Shahzad, they could have had him long ago. Again, just my guess.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The chief suspect in the attempted bombing of New York's Times Square tried to flee the United States with a one-way ticket to Islamabad, an Emirates Airlines official said on Wednesday.
"We have been informed that he had a one-way ticket for Islamabad via Dubai," Boutros Boutros, Emirates deputy president and head of communications, told Al Arabiya.
Pakistani-American suspect Faisal Shahzad was arrested and taken into custody on Monday in New York as he was trying to board an Emirates Airlines bound for Dubai from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2010 00:00 ||
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[11129 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
I still say that the terrorist need a No Jihadi Left Behind Program. He was passed through to graduation and probably wasn't even capable of blowing up a 2 liter of Diet Coke with a handfull of Mentos.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/06/2010 0:32 Comments ||
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#2
He probably trained on a "simulator" (aka diagrams drawn in the dirt). Practice making actual bombs would get very expensive.
MUMBAI, India An Indian court sentenced the only surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks to death Thursday, a punishment officials hoped would send a message to archrival Pakistan to stop future violence as fears about the global reach of militancy based on its soil grow.
Judge M.L. Tahaliyani gave Mohammed Ajmal Kasab multiple death sentences for murder, waging war against India, conspiracy and terrorism. He also handed down penalties for over two dozen other offenses ranging to life in prison.
"He shall be hanged by his neck until he is dead," Tahaliyani said.
Kasab cried silently as he heard the penalties, his shoulders shaking as he hid his face with his hand. Guards helped him out of the courtroom briefly for a glass of water. Awwwww, c'mon, Brave Jihadi Pussy. You guys love death...
#1
Kasab cried silently as he heard the penalties, his shoulders shaking as he hid his face with his hand.
He murdered we-don't-know-how-many entirely innocent others. He couldn't be punished enough, but at least he gets the additional pain of knowing he's going to be killed. Personally, I hope he doesn't stop crying till it happens.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/06/2010 17:00 Comments ||
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#3
Since the rest of his fellow terrorists died in the attacks, what did he expect?
I'm not really up on Sharia. Does this count as martyrdom so that he gets his 72 white raisins?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
05/06/2010 17:29 Comments ||
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#4
Does this count as martyrdom?
Not if they tuck a pork chop between his neck and the rope...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/06/2010 23:19 Comments ||
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#5
Hey Kasab, they usually try to sneak bacon bits in your last few meals.
[Dawn] The Rawalpindi Anti-Terrorism Court acquitted four suspects of the Marriott bombing case due to the lack of evidence on Wednesday.
According to official sources, the ATC acquitted Dr Usman, Rana Ilyas, Hameed Afzal and Tehseenullah Jan in relation to the bombing case.
The Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing occurred on September 20, 2008, when a truck filled with explosives detonated in front of the building, killing at least over 50 people, injuring at least 266 and leaving a deep crater outside the hotel.
Some foreign nationals were also killed in the bombing.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2010 00:00 ||
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[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] Police in Dera Ghazi Khan arrested four people after seizing two truckloads of explosives from their possession on Wednesday.
Police said that they stopped the trucks at Ghazi Ghat check-post on the River Indus for checking and found four tons of explosives loaded in each one of them.
Police have started investigation after taking four people into custody. The four arrested were identified as Qasim, Noor Muhammad, Muhammad Riaz and Sheikh Bahadur, all belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
During the preliminary investigation, the accused told police that they had loaded the explosives from Hattar and were taking it for the Sandak Project in Balochistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2010 00:00 ||
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[11126 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
[Dawn] Pakistan's military warned Wednesday that it had yet to establish a link between the Pakistani-American charged with trying to bomb New York and the country's main militant stronghold in Waziristan.
Army spokesman Athar Abbas told AFP that a link between Faisal Shahzad and Waziristan had "yet to be established".
"Until and unless the link is established, it will be premature to say that he had gone there," he said.
According to the US criminal complaint, Shahzad admitted "after his arrest that he had received bomb-making training in Waziristan, Pakistan."
The alleged visit to the Al-Qaeda and Taliban stronghold in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border presumably occurred during a five-month trip the complaint says Shahzad made to Pakistan.
He returned on February 3 without his wife and told immigration officials that he had been visiting his parents, the complaint said.
Waziristan is the powerbase of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has been the only militant group to claim Saturday's attempted bomb attack, albeit in a move widely disputed in Pakistan and the United States.
"As for the TTP claim, anybody can get up and claim anything. We have to see the capability and reach of the organisation... so that is questionable," said Abbas.
TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud appeared in two videos purportedly made last month in which he threatened to attack US cities.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2010 00:00 ||
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[11131 views]
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#1
No, no, no link to Waziristan. Bomb making? No, we are a peaceful people. We make only nuclear bombs. We're not even certain he traveled to Pakistan.... could have been Fiji. You must speak to our intelligence division. They have more... info.
[Ma'an] A Palestinian laborer was killed Wednesday after a smuggling tunnel collapsed along the border between Egypt and Gaza.
Muawiya Hassanein, director of ambulance and emergency services at Gaza's Health Ministry, told Ma'an that the body of 20-year-old Ibrahim Abu Lehia arrived at a hospital in the south.
The incident comes a week after four Palestinians died and six were injured inside a tunnel in Rafah. Medics accused Egyptian forces of spraying a chemical as part of a crackdown on smuggling. Egypt denied using gas, but confirmed placing explosives inside a tunnel.
Cairo has recently escalated its crackdown on the besieged Palestinian enclave, cooperating with Israel's blockade. Smugglers say officials are seizing goods almost daily, and regularly shutting down tunnel that serve as a lifeline to the coastal enclave's besieged populace.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2010 00:00 ||
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[11130 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
[Ma'an] Nine Palestinians were injured in clashes between residents and Israeli police forces in the flashpoint neighborhood of Silwan, occupied East Jerusalem, medics said.
Ma'an's correspondent said violence erupted as Israeli police forces fired rubber bullets and tea-gas canisters, reporting that one individual was lightly injured after being hit by a military jeep.
Those injured were treated at a local clinic, medical sources said, adding that they were treating rubber bullet wounds and respiratory problems resulting from tear-gas.
An Israeli police spokesman said he would look into the report.
On 24 April on-site medics said at least 30 protesters and two doctors were injured during clashes in the Al-Bustan neighborhood of Silwan, as extremist Israelis launched a pro-settler rally.
The Silwan neighborhood is the site of ongoing home demolitions and evictions of Palestinian families, with an EU report issued in December 2009 reporting that the area has received the least planning permits by Israel's Jerusalem Municipality since Israel occupied the neighborhood in 1967.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2010 00:00 ||
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[11127 views]
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's military has kicked off new war games in the strategic Gulf waters -- the country's second military show in less than a month, as the Iranian President announced that new sanctions would not stop his country from resuming its nuclear program.
State TV says the exercise -- which started Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman -- will last eight days and cover about 97,000 square miles (250,000 square kilometers) of Iranian territorial waters.
The exercises reflect Iran's desire to flex its military muscle at a time of a deepening standoff with the West over Tehran's controversial nuclear program. The West suspects it's aimed at building a nuclear weapon, a charge Iran denies.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard held five-day maneuvers in late April in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz -- the waterway for around 40 percent of the world's oil and gas supplies.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/06/2010 00:00 ||
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[11129 views]
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#1
Thanks for the intel... again
So wonder whats on their cards this time
Posted by: Oscar ||
05/06/2010 5:40 Comments ||
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#2
Do they honestly think they are a strong army or is it bravado only?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Ministry of Interior said Wednesday that a Saudi had returned to the Kingdom from Africa after contacting the authorities expressing the wish to hand himself in. The statement from ministry spokesman Mansour Al-Turki follows last Sunday's announcement that wanted Al-Qaeda-linked militant Aqil Amish Aqil Al-Mutairi had turned himself in to the authorities.
[Dawn] Pakistan's military warned Wednesday that it had yet to establish a link between the Pakistani-American charged with trying to bomb New York and the country's main militant stronghold in Waziristan.
