Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
If I recall correctly, Anna Held is the lady who had two ribs surgically removed to allow her to cinch her waist to 20 inches. Very hazardous in the days before antibiotics and the danger of rip-roaring peritonitis from surgery.
#2
That corset's gonna explode the first time she takes a deep breath.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/07/2008 16:01 Comments ||
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#3
I''m gonna be working under the hood this evening. I apologize in advance for anything I might break.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/31/1969 19:00 Comments ||
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#4
I''m checking to see if the comments -- and the buttons -- are working under Safari. Presumably, if they work under Safari they''re gonna work under Mozilla.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 19:38 Comments ||
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#5
Safari isn't a variant of Mozilla. It's made using the renderer from the KDE web browser/file manager Konqueror.
I think Mozilla and Firefox (called, for bizarre copyright reasons, "Iceweasel" on Debian) share rendering engines, though. Not sure.
#8
I didn''t know Safari was descended from Konqueror.
I use Mozilla and "Iceweasel" on my Linux setups, though.
I still do most of my design work on IE. I actually find it more predictable than the others, and Mozilla least so. But I use Safari, Opera, and Konqueror as well.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 20:10 Comments ||
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In a massive explosion Monday that reverberated around the city, a suicide bomber killed at least 40 people and injured 140 close to the Indian Embassy in the Afghan capital, the Interior Ministry said. The dead included six Afghan policemen. While Afghan cities are no stranger to suicide attacks, Monday's assault ranked among the deadliest in Kabul itself.
The bomber rammed a car into two Indian diplomatic vehicles as they entered the gates of the embassy, witnesses reported from the scene. They said the blast wrecked several other cars and spread human body parts and bloodstained scraps of clothing amid the debris. The embassy is near the Afghan Interior Ministry, the scene of a huge blast last year.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The Taliban has threatened to escalate a campaign of suicide bombings in an attempt to topple the government and challenge the presence of some 60,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, including 34,000 Americans.
Witnesses said the blast on Monday left two Indian Embassy vehicles wrecked, but the Afghan authorities, quoted by The Associated Press, said the Indian ambassador was not at the mission when the bomber attacked. Hospital staff in Kabul said the dead included two Indian citizens, and news reports from New Delhi said two Indian security guards had been killed. The Afghan Interior Ministry said no senior embassy personnel were among the dead, who included women and three children.
The blast seemed to have torn through passers-by close to a nearby market area and people queuing for visas at the embassy. Haji Khial Mohammad, 45, who was in line to apply for an Indian visa, said a 'vehicle came and hit the embassy gate. I was shocked and could not hear anything after the attack. But I saw at least 10 men and three women in the queue who were probably killed.' Mohammad Ajmal, 26 a shopkeeper in the market adjacent to the embassy said, 'After a very loud explosion, I could barely could stand up' after goods from his shelves spilled over him.
Reuters reported that U.S. troops were among the security forces who arrived after the blast and cordoned off the area. India is seen as an ally of the Afghan government and is financing major development projects..
Posted by: john frum ||
07/07/2008 8:43 Comments ||
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#2
Four Indians among forty-one people were killed in a suicide blast near the Indian embassy in Kabul on Monday.
The suicide bomber exploded two embassy vehicles as they were entering the premises, sources said, the intensity of the blast blowing off the gates of the embassy. Some buildings inside were also damaged in the blast.
Four Indian nationals were killed the suicide attack, Indian Ambassador Jayan Prasad said.
Defence Attache Brigadier R D Mehta and Counsellor Venkateswara Rao were killed when the suicide bomber targeted the embassy early on Monday morning, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in Delhi.
The two other two Indians killed in the attack were identified as Indo Tibetan Border Police personnel Ajai Rathore and Roop Singh.
A fifth employee of the Indian Embassy Niamutullah, killed in the blast, was a local Afghan.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/07/2008 8:45 Comments ||
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#3
President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing and said it was carried out by militants trying to rupture the friendship between Afghanistan and India.
The Interior Ministry, meanwhile, hinted that the attack was carried out with help from Pakistan's intelligence service, saying that "terrorists have carried out this attack in coordination and consultation with some of the active intelligence circles in the region."
In Delhi, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said the attack would not deter the mission from "fulfilling our commitments to the government and people of Afghanistan."
Posted by: john frum ||
07/07/2008 8:53 Comments ||
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#4
It's July 7th - Total US military deaths in Iraq this month - 1, from non-combat causes. Ergo -(love using "ergo") total US military combat deaths in Iraq this month equal those in Germany and Japan combined.
#12
Killing people from India, in Afghanistan. Hmm.
Cuo bono?
Pakis/ISI. Pretty simple.
Savages. We must seriously plan how to force supplies through a HOSTILE Pakiland - because sooner or later we will have to fight them if they continue on this path of Islamofascist meddling in the region.
#13
This is sorta like the Shah of Khwarezmia who refused to make repayments for the looting of a Mongol caravan and murder of its members. Genghis Khan then sent again a second group of ambassadors to meet the Shah himself. The Shah had all the men shaved and all but one beheaded. It's not wise to piss off people known not to avoid a fight. Let's say, it didn't end well for the Shah or what remained of the population of Khwarezmia.
ROME - Italian authorities have ordered a Palestinian man expelled after he served his sentence for taking part in the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, which resulted in the murder of an American citizen. The 43-year-old Ibrahim Fatayer Abdelatif was freed Monday from a temporary holding center for illegal immigrants in Rome, his lawyer said.
Lawyer Francesco Romeo said authorities have ordered Abdelatif to leave Italy within 15 days. Romeo said a request for political asylum had been turned down, but he plans to appeal the expulsion order because his client "has nowhere to go." Well, since Gaza's really not a country, how about you send him there? Sounds like a perfect fit.
Abdelatif was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon but is not a citizen of that country and Beirut will not let him back in, Romeo said. Ummmmmmmmm...no thanks.
Abdelatif was given a 25-year sentence for being a member of the four-man team that took over the Italian cruise ship off the Egyptian coast. During the hijacking an elderly American in a wheelchair from New York, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot and pushed overboard. So...how about you shoot him and dump him in the Mediterranean. Tell him he can stay wherever he can swim to.
Romeo said his client's sentence was reduced for good behavior. Before ending up in the holding center in April, he spent 20 years in prison and three on parole working for a Catholic charity in the central Italian city of Perugia, the lawyer told The Associated Press. Ahhhh, shilling for the Infidel. That'll go over big wherever he ends up.
Others convicted in Italy for the hijacking include Youssef Magied al-Molqi, who was sentenced to 30 years for shooting Klinghoffer, and Khaled Husain Abdullrahim, who was given life in prison. The hijacking was organized by the militant Palestinian Liberation Front in part to demand the freedom of Samir Kantar, the convicted gunman now at the center of a prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah. Well doesn't that make you feel just great...
He's a criminal, but he 'did the right thing' when it mattered - alerting cops to what he feared was a terror plot the day before the Fourth of July. At about 5 p.m. yesterday, an unidentified thief with a police record broke into a red van that had been parked at 53rd Street and Second Avenue in Brooklyn's Sunset Park for about a month, a source told The Post.
He was stunned when he looked inside - it was filled with gas cans and Styrofoam cups containing a mysterious white substance with protruding wires and switches.
The street is lined with brownstones, and there's a ballet studio and a small Muslim school. So he drove the van 15 blocks to 37th Street and parked it at a desolate waterfront location behind the Costco store and next to some little-used piers. Then he got out and called a cop he knows from his run-ins with the law.
'He did the right thing,' a high-ranking officer said. 'And he possibly saved a lot of people's lives.'
Another source said cops are unlikely to file charges for the break-in.
The van had Delaware plates that had been issued to another vehicle. It's not clear when its cargo was put inside.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly joined cops from the Bomb Squad and the anti-terror task force at the scene. Cops shut down three blocks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Why is 'D. C.' in the headline?
Sometimes I get the feeling that people in DC don't take terrorism seriously, but that people in NYC always do.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
07/07/2008 1:00 Comments ||
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#2
Somebody either lost their nerve or forgot where they parked their van or thought the cops were on to them.
I'd be interested in hearing anything more about this incident, but I doubt I will.
I go through every Independence Day waiting to hear of some terrorist atrocity against us somewhere (and I always carry everywhere I go on that day especially)
A bomb-laden van found on a Brooklyn street by a car thief was wired to detonate by remote control, and had likely been sitting there for more than five months, sources said yesterday. Investigators believe the homemade explosives found Thursday night in the Ford Econoline belonged to Yung Tang, 39, a Chinese national. He has been behind bars since he was caught Jan. 29 in Wallingford, Conn., with nearly identical bombs in his Mazda MPV minivan.
"Based on the manner in which the materials inside the van were constructed, it's possibly linked to an individual in custody in Connecticut," said one source.
Also found in the MPV were two silencers, four hollow-point bullets and two radio-controlled detonators. Days after that arrest, the NYPD searched his Brooklyn house and found yet anther van - a Ford Explorer - full of similar explosive devices.
In May, Brooklyn prosecutors charged Tang with attempted murder for allegedly planting a bomb near the car of a commercial tenant he was trying to evict. The victim lost his foot in the 2002 blast.
Sources said the homemade bombs inside the Econoline - made of Styrofoam cups, 10-ounce water bottles, cans of WD-40 and five-gallon jugs filled with gasoline - were rigged to go off via a remote car-door opener.
The 53rd Street location is six blocks from the home of Tang's estranged wife, whom he has threatened to kill, according to federal prosecutors. Neighbors of Tang's wife said she had sold the house last week.
In papers filed in the Connecticut case, prosecutors said Tang's wife has complained of physical abuse and threats - including one to hurl her out the window of a cruise ship while they were on vacation.
Tang's lawyer, George Farkas, denied that there was a connection between his client and the van. "My guy has been in jail," said Farkas. "What that means, I don't know. It makes an interesting news story, but I think he has the alibi of alibis."
#7
Probably a registered Trunk. Them's been known to be crooks but still patriotic. The other brand, where the dead can still vote, not so much. Would have preferred that Bushhitlermonkey get blamed for a terror attack in the US than save lives. Its all about power for them.
#10
Parked there for a month with bad plates; is there maybe more to this story?
Yes. It wasn't a legally plated vehicle idling in a fire zone. That would get immediate attention...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/07/2008 12:05 Comments ||
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#11
I'd like to buy the 'thief' a drink for driving a murdermobile 15+ blocks. Stunned indeed.
Yeah - and if you check a map you'll see that what he did was to take it to the very end of the driveable neighborhood, in the more desolate direction and totally away from residential buildings or very active businesses. In other words, the farthest he could away from people, without heading into traffic.
This guy thought quickly and chose about the safest place in the area to move that thing. Of course, the idea of moving a van with that sort of stuff in it in the first place is mindboggling.
Shariah courts have been set up in the Sewei area of the Bajaur Agency, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Maulvi Umar told reporters on Sunday. The courts have been set up at the behest of locals and several clerics have been deputed to these courts, Umar said. The spokesman said that people from all parts of the agency had come to the courts, which had resolved hundreds of cases. Daily Times spoke to many locals who said that they welcomed the establishment of Shariah courts.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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QUETTA: Unidentified men killed the district president of a religions organisation and injured a minor boy late on Sunday, police said. Tehreek-e-Jaffaria (TJ) Nasirabad President Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah was killed at Sariab Road. The injured boy, who was passing-by during the firing incident, was shifted to a local hospital where his condition was stable. The assailants fled from the scene. No group has claimed responsibility for the killing.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
In Pakistain, this is known as "theological discourse."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 21:32 Comments ||
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A Special Branch police constable was shot dead on Sunday after unidentified assailants opened fire at him on Karakh Road, the Khuzdar police said. The constable, identified as Ahmed Mengal, was targeted while he was going home. Mengal, who was a resident of Kalat district, died on the spot. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has accepted the responsibility for the killing of Mengal.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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Security forces will stay in Bara as long as the government's objectives of peace and security are not achieved, Khyber Agency Political Agent (PA) Tariq Hayat said on Sunday. Hayat was talking to reporters after talks with a 35-member Afridi tribe jirga.
In the meantime, he added, the government and tribal jirga would keep in contact and discuss various options on how to bring lasting peace to the region.
The Khyber Agency political administration also lifted the curfew from Bara Bazaar following a request by the jirga.
The jirga, led by Haji Amal Gul, held talks with PA Hayat at his office in Peshawar, following which the PA ordered the opening of the market to facilitate residents. Hayat said that the tribal elders had been assured that all the jirga's demands in accordance with the law of the land, Shariah and local norms and traditions would be accepted.
The government also formed a three-member committee, consisting of the Bara assistant political agent, the Jamrud tehsildar and the Bara naib tehsildar to continue negotiations with the Afridi tribe, he said.
This article starring:
Haji Amal Gul
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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Police officials arrested four men on Sunday in two separate incidents, seizing explosives and ammunition, satellite channels reported. Rajanpur Police foiled a plot to blow up a school van and arrested an alleged terrorist along with his accomplice in the Dajal area of Rajanpur district, Express News reported. According to the channel, one of the alleged terrorists, Abdul Rehman, belongs to Balochistan and is suspect in various terrorist attacks across the country like blowing up railway tracks in Sindh and Balochistan. The other, Shafeeq, hails from Punjab. Bomb disposal squad was called on the site to defuse the explosives seized from the men, the channel added.
Meanwhile, Faisalabad police arrested two people and seized weapons during a search of a suspicious car in Civil Lines area of the city, Samaa TV reported. According to the channel, the police, on a tip-off, stopped a car in the Civil Lines area and seized about 10,000 bullets, 10 pistols, 5 rifles, a repeater gun and other weapons. Faisalabad Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operation Aslam Tareen told the channel that the two arrested men, namely Niaz Hussain and Mujahid Hussain had disclosed during initial investigation that they had brought arms from the Tribal Areas of Dara and Khyber Agency and intended to supply them to criminals in various areas. The channel quoted Tareen as saying that the men claimed complicity of many police officials in the supply of arms to the criminals.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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Police on Friday claimed to have killed a militant owing allegiance to the Pakistan based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad and arrest four militants in Kashmir. A top police officer Ali Mohammad said that on specific information, police and army personnel launched an operation in at village Barpora and Wagahama in South Kashmir. 'While the operation was going on, the militants fired from automatic weapons towards the soldiers. The fire was returned by the troops, triggering an encounter. In the ensuing gunfight, a Jaish militant was killed,' he said.
No, that's not an RAB style 'encounter' with a pre-ordained result, more's the pity ...
Identifying the slain militant as Shabir Ahmad alias Arsalan, the police officer claimed that another militant believed to a Pakistani was hurt. 'He, however, managed to escape', the office said.
Gut shot, we hope, and leaving a trail of blood to follow ...
He claimed that an AK 47 rifle and two magazines were recovered from the slain militant.
Meanwhile, a police spokesman told NewsBlaze that a top commander or the pro-Pakistan militant group, Hizbul Mujahideen was arrested from outskirts of Srinagar. He identified the arrested militant as Showkeen Khan and claimed that he was active from last six years.
The police spokesman further claimed that three Jaish-e-Mohammad militants were arrested from South Kashmir. Identifying the arrested militants as Irfan, Ishaq, and Tasveer, the spokesman claimed that two grenades, one Kalakope, two Kalakope magazines, 37 Kalakope rounds, one detonator and Rs. 1.10 Lakh were recovered on their disclosure from the nearby tin shed. 'Further investigations are going on,' he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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Police today shot dead two top militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) including its operations chief in an encounter at Naina, Batapora in Pulwama district.
Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Zone, S. M. Sahai told press persons at a news conference that police acting on specific information about the presence of two 'dreaded Lashkar-e-Taiba militants' in Naina Batapora Sangam area of south Kashmir launched an operation there. He said a Police party from Anantnag in association with CRPF and troops of 55 RR conducted the operation jointly this morning.
Sahai said that when the area was being searched the security forces came under militant fire and grenade attack. The forces retaliated and in the ensuing encounter two militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba were killed, he said. The slain militants have been identified as Abu Atif alias Sadak, resident of Gujranwala, Pakistan and Syed Moin another Pakistani national. Large quantity of arms and ammunition including two AK rifles and magazine were recovered from the slain militants.
According to police the slain militant Atif was active in the area for the last ten years and presently was operational chief of Let outfit not only for valley but for planning attacks in different parts of the country. He was instrumental in attack on CRPF personnel at Rampur, and at Science Congress in Bangalore by supplying arms to the militants who attacked it. Besides killing of Station House Officer Police Station Pampore, Inspector Manzoor Ahmad in the year 2006 and killing of a computer operator Qazi at Pampore. He was also responsible for killing of at least fifty civilians and security force personnel in South Kashmir Range, Sahai claimed. IGP further said that Atif was also responsible for grenade attack on tourists in Shalimar and Charsoo Sangam. Another militant killed was his body guard.
Meanwhile according to NAK, Lashkar's chief spokesman Dr Abdullah Gaznavi in a telephonic statement, said that chief of his organization Qari Abdul Wahid Kashmiri has paid tributes to the slain commanders who were killed during a day long gun battle with the Indian forces. He said that the slain commanders were among the experts of the organization and LeT will never forget their services they rendered for the cause. He said the commanders would be remembered in the history of Kashmir struggle and claimed that the sacrifices given by the militants for the 'just Kashmir cause' will not go waste. (NAK)
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's government said it is trying to identify the suicide bomber who killed at least 19 people, mostly police officers, in an attack in the capital, Islamabad, yesterday.
A bearded man detonated a bomb he was wearing after walking into a crowd of policemen, said Interior Minister Rehman Malik. The officers were guarding a demonstration by Islamic militants and sympathizers marking the first anniversary of an army assault on Islamist guerrillas at Islamabad's Red Mosque.
The rally drew thousands of men, including members of extremist groups banned by the government, according to independent Pakistani TV news channels. While no group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, Dawn News television cited a spokesman for a Pakistani Taliban group, Muslim Khan, as saying it was retribution for the army assault on the mosque.
Government ministers, including Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, condemned the attack as a violation of Islam. ``It was a hopeless attempt of enemies of the country and democracy,'' the official Associated Press of Pakistan cited Information Minister Sherry Rehman as saying yesterday in Islamabad.
Malik told reporters the authorities recovered the upper part of the bomber's body. The government is offering a 5 million rupee ($72,000) reward for information that leads to the arrest of the plotters, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I'd suggest they start looking in Bajaur, myself. But what do I know?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 21:36 Comments ||
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Mohmand Agency political authorities on Sunday arrested two journalists released by the Taliban a day earlier, a member of the agency's political authority told Daily Times on condition of anonymity.
The Taliban had kidnapped Pir Zubair Shah, Akhtar Soomro and their local facilitator, Malak Abdul Hassan on Friday, before freeing them after intervention from local elders on Saturday evening. All three have been in the custody of the political authorities since their release, the official said.
The official said that while Malak Abdul Hassan had been put transferred to a jail, the two journalists were being detained at an undisclosed location. However, the agency's political agent and assistant political agent were not available for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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At least nine policemen and a civilian were killed and 25 others injured in a massive explosion near the controversial Lal Masjid, minutes after thousands of Islamic hardliners demanded the public hanging of President Pervez Musharraf at a meeting to mark the shrine's storming by the Pakistani military.
The powerful blast, which was heard from several kilometres away, occurred as a large crowd of slogan shouting and flag waving people, including madrassa students and outlawed extremist groups like the Sipah-e-Sahaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, began dispersing at about 7.50 PM.
Witnesses said the explosion occurred in the vicinity of a petrol station near Melody Market, which is located adjacent to the Lal Masjid and created panic among the people who ran back towards the mosque.
Body parts and pools of blood lay strewn all over the area, which was cordoned off by the police. Nine of the dead were policemen.
A high alert was declared in Islamabad while an emergency was declared in all the hospitals of the capital.
The blast targeted the site where a large number of policemen had gathered as part of the security arrangements for the meeting where several clerics made hard hitting speeches criticising the arrest of former Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz as well as the government's plans for reforming madrassas.
'Musharraf, Aftab Sherpao (then interior minister) and others responsible for the bloodbath should be tried and hanged publicly,' Islamist leader Idrees Haqqani said as the crowd raised their hands in approval chanted slogans like 'Allah-o-Akbar' (Holy Shit! God is great).
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
From Pakistan's Arts and Antiquities Ministry
A life size.. still-life
titled:
Pakistan's Motif
Body parts and pools of blood lay strewn all over the area, which is cordoned off by the police.
I thought he didn't have any of this stuff. Joe Wilson told me... AP Exclusive: Uranium stockpile removed from Iraq in secret US mission by land, sea and air
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program -- a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium -- reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. The removal of 550 metric tons of 'yellowcake' -- the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment -- was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
'Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq,' said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called 'dirty bomb' -- a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material -- it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.
The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer, Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth 'tens of millions of dollars.' A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to discuss the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.
The deal culminated more than a year of intense diplomatic and military initiatives -- kept hushed in fear of ambushes or attacks once the convoys were under way: first carrying 3,500 barrels by road to Baghdad, then on 37 military flights to the Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia and finally aboard a U.S.-flagged ship for a 8,500-mile trip to Montreal.
And, in a symbolic way, the mission linked the current attempts to stabilize Iraq with some of the high-profile claims about Saddam's weapons capabilities in the buildup to the 2003 invasion.
Moving the yellowcake faced numerous hurdles. Diplomats and military leaders first weighed the idea of shipping the yellowcake overland to Kuwait's port on the Persian Gulf. Such a route, however, would pass through Iraq's Shiite heartland and within easy range of extremist factions, including some that Washington claims are aided by Iran. The ship also would need to clear the narrow Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, where U.S. and Iranian ships often come in close contact. Kuwaiti authorities, too, were reluctant to open their borders to the shipment despite top-level lobbying from Washington. An alternative plan took shape: shipping out the yellowcake on cargo planes.
At that point, U.S.-led crews began removing the yellowcake from the Saddam-era containers -- some leaking or weakened by corrosion -- and reloading the material into about 3,500 secure barrels. In April, truck convoys started moving the yellowcake from Tuwaitha to Baghdad's international airport, the official said. Then, for two weeks in May, it was ferried in 37 flights to Diego Garcia, a speck of British territory in the Indian Ocean where the U.S. military maintains a base. On June 3, an American ship left the island for Montreal, said the official, who declined to give further details about the operation.
The yellowcake wasn't the only dangerous item removed from Tuwaitha. Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex. The lead-enclosed irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a weapon, according to the official. Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS Nordion, took them back for free, the official said.
#2
Interesting indeed. Tuwaitha is the location of the Osiraq reator bombed by Israel in 1981. While the reactor was completely destroyed, "agricultural research" continued there for years after the attack. For obvious reasons, that area was never a popular spot for UNSCOM inspectors.
#3
Unfortunately, this is the sealed yellowcake they already had on hand at the end of the first Iraq war, which was under the gimlet eye of the inspectors.
Which I thought somebody was gassing on about it having been stolen by malefactors back in 2004-5, so what's the deal, mainstream media? How'd we steal this yellowcake that supposedly had gone astray during the great looting of 2003?
Anyways - No Blood For Uranium! No Blood For Uranium!
Wheee!
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/07/2008 10:12 Comments ||
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#4
While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called 'dirty bomb' -- a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material -- it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast
Panic because the media persists in telling people that Uranium is dangerous, Uranium is bad and Uranium is used in dirty bombs.
In reality Uranium is not particularly radioactive.
The main isotope U238 has a half life of 5 billion years. U235 has a half life of 1 billion years. So if you had a pound of Uranium 235, it would a billion years for half of it to decay.
Very long half life == low activity.
Apart from not being very radioactive, the alpha radiation from Uranium is stopped by a piece of paper. Not lead, paper. Just one sheet will do.
The greatest danger from Uranium in a dirty bomb would be getting hit in the head from a piece of Uranium.
While Uranium is a heavy metal and thus toxic (like Lead, Mercury etc), nobody panics at the thought of a Lead dirty bomb.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/07/2008 11:35 Comments ||
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#6
While Uranium is a heavy metal and thus toxic (like Lead, Mercury etc), nobody panics at the thought of a Lead dirty bomb.
John,
It's kind of hard to powder lead, but not so hard to powder yellowcake. A ton of the stuff spread as an aerosol would require some very costly clean-up, although it wouldn't be an immediate threat to anyone. I'm happy it's out of the Muddled East.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/07/2008 17:38 Comments ||
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#7
Yellowcake is Uranium Oxide. How about Lead Oxide?
You wouldn't have to powder it yourself... the same Lead Oxide powders used to make paint can be used. The Chinese probably sell the stuff by the ton.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/07/2008 18:15 Comments ||
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#8
As argued times before, the real issue here is whether Saddam, as also for NOKOR + Pakistan wid AQ KHAN, transferred any to international/foreign Govts. whom sponsor and support anti-US agendas, includ but not limited to Terror. Uranium Yellowcake is very toxic = mortal to humans via skin absorption and normal inhalation [improved grain/powder], e.g. cancers - it is considered self-containing and not considered a threat to human life, even in open air, unless disturbed andor improperly handled widout precautions.
Oh right, I'm sure Saddam was only hoping to bake some cupcakes with this "yellowcake" stuff. Which means it was and is a senseless and unnecessary war, just like BHO's been saying. BHO is so dreamy.
#10
See also WAFF.com > NUCLEAR-ARMED IRAN CHANGES THE WORLD; + IS THE WAR ON IRAN ON HOLD? [GlobalResearch.com].
Also from WAFF > HAARETZ - HOW MANY MISSLES CAN BE FIRED AT ISRAEL FROM IRAN, SYRIA, AND LEBANON?
Need for Israel to modify and adopt a new multi-front warfighting strategy, including for the containment of the PA = GAZA-WEST BANK.
(VOI) -- An Iraqi army police force on Sunday threw a security cordon around nine sectors in Baghdad's Sadr City in the aftermath of military confrontations that took place last night between army personnel and local gunmen, eyewitnesses said.
'Today, a force from the Iraqi army threw a security cordon around sectors no. 35, 36, 38, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74 and 75, following the armed clashes that occurred last night in light of the detention of Abbas Abdul Aal, a senior Sadrist leader, and his nephew, Diyaa' a local eyewitness told Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq- (VOI). 'Security forces closed all of the city's outlets and prevented the movement of traffic and pedestrians,' the eyewitness noted. Baghdad's eastern city of al-Sadr includes 79 sectors, each contains 1,000 houses. The city's total population is estimated at 3 million. Another eyewitness told VOI that local residents stayed home in the aftermath of the clashes that broke out last night in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Can we let out the women, children, fuzzy kitties and fluffy bunnies first?
Posted by: Steven ||
07/07/2008 1:18 Comments ||
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#2
no Steve, don't have to bud, as all Muslimes and Iraqis get a free pass to massacre any American, Coalition member, man, woman, child, fuzzy kitty and fluffy bunny!
(VOI) - Six captives were set free by their abductors in Diala province on Sunday, a security source said. 'Six kidnapped persons from Asakra tribe in Khanqeen town, 155 north-east Baquba, were released after negotiations between the captives' families and armed groups believed to be loyal to al-Qaeda network in Iraq,' a Diala security source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq(VOI). The source noted 'unknown gunmen had abducted the six persons while they were attending funeral ceremonies of their relative in the district'.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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(VOI) - Police forces on Sunday arrested a key al-Qaeda commander during security operation conducted in Kirkuk, a security official said. "Police forces conducted a raid-and-search operation in al-Haweija district, 70 km west Kirkuk, capturing a key al-Qaeda commander,"Brig. Sarhad Qadir, chief of Kirkuk's Districts and Suburbs .told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq(VOI). The security official identified the arrested al-Qaeda commander as Abu Jaffar, but he declined to give further details. The self-proclaimed Iraq's Islamic state, announced in October, is a mantra for seven-group organisation, including al-Qaeda network in Iraq
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
It depends on what the meaning of, "Key al-Qaeda Caommander" is
(VOI) - A child was killed and another wounded by a landmine blast in Basra, a police source said. "A landmine explosion in Zubair farmlands, 40 km west Basra, left a child killed and another wounded," a police source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq (VOI). The police source pointed out "the landmines were military remains sustaining from previous wars in different parts of Iraq". In February 2008, Iraqi Environment Minister Nirmeen al-Mufti said Iraq has over 4000 landmines fields, which makes 25% of the world total unexploded mines.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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The hunt began just after dawn. Iraqi armoured personnel carriers surrounded the turbulent Zanjali district in the northern city of Mosul, blocking off roads as police acting on an urgent tip-off swept in and searched from house to house. They were looking for an Al-Qaeda bomb a big one. Their intelligence suggested it could be detonated as early as today.
As the search intensified, I accompanied Colonel Tawfeeq Abdullah on a tense drive through Mosul to check on the operation's progress. A gunner loomed out of the open hatch in the roof of our Iraqi army Humvee, swivelling a heavy machinegun and scouring the bullet-pocked streets for enemy.
A soldier in the front passenger seat scanned the roads for improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the roadside bombs that have wreaked havoc on Iraqis and American forces. Only three days earlier a roadside bomb had blown up an Iraqi Humvee, killing a policeman.
Everyone in our vehicle knew it was a prime target for Al-Qaeda in Iraq, formerly an awesome force that struck fear into the hearts of cities across the west and centre of Iraq but now reduced to a rump in the north in one of the most sweeping victories of America's war on terror. "We are going to a very bad neighbourhood," said Abdullah, wiping the sweat from his face. It was 41C outside and far hotter inside the armoured vehicle.
Yet despite Zanjali's reputation as a hotbed of the insurgency, we were able to climb down from the vehicle and walk safely along a road covered in hard-packed dirt from a spate of recent sandstorms. Most of the metal grates on the roadside shops had been pulled down and the acrid smell of burning rubbish filled the air. A few sheep grazed in scrubby wasteland between the houses.
As the police continued their search for weapons, insurgents and, above all, explosives, a few shopkeepers and residents stood idly watching.
Ambulances were positioned every few hundred yards along the road in case of fighting. It never materialised. A search of hundreds of houses met no resistance and yielded no bomb, just 60kg of TNT and some bomb-making equipment.
All that the soldiers found otherwise was a solitary Kalashnikov assault rifle. "We let him keep the gun because every Iraqi family is allowed to have a personal weapon," said Major Awad al-Juburi, 39, standing in the road in full battle gear. "The families have been okay with us so far. They are not objecting. They offered us tea and water."
In Mosul, Al-Qaeda's last redoubt, the group still held sway as recently as Easter. Now it lacks the strength to fight the army face to face and has lost the sympathy of most of the ordinary citizens who once admired its stand against the occupying forces and their allies in the Iraqi army.
Yesterday two off-duty policemen were shot dead in a market in the east of the city. Hit-and-run attacks such as this have replaced more organised resistance as Al-Qaeda's strength has been sapped. "Two days ago the insurgents fired two RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades] on our post," Abdullah said. "Yesterday they attacked us with machinegun fire." To the colonel, these seem small-scale affairs.
Iraqi officials acknowledge that bombs such as the one that had supposedly been made and stored in Zanjali will still claim civilian lives in "spectacular" attacks that are intended to attract publicity, to show that the group is still intact and to inspire supporters. Brigadier-General Abdullah Abdul, a senior Iraqi commander, said: "Al-Qaeda in Mosul is pretty much not able to do the attacks that they could do previously. They are doing small attacks and trying to do big ones but they are mostly not succeeding."
The Iraqis and Americans have got Al-Qaeda on the run. How have they come so far, so fast? On the night of May 9, 87 "target packets" landed on the walnut desk of Abdul, the commander of the Iraqi army's 2nd Division. The details of each named target were specific. One read: "Action: capture. Characteristics: white hair, hazel eyes, sunburnt skin. Alias: Abu Mohamed. Car: drives a station wagon. Residence: a two-storey house painted black (with map attached showing location). Credibility of source: reliable."
By early the next morning the launch day for Operation Lion's Roar to recapture Mosul hundreds of police and army checkpoints had been set up across the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
HOT AIR > COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG - IRAQ TASK, IRAN RISK. WHatever happens in the NEXT FOUR MONTHS vv Iraq, Iran may well decide the WOT.
Again, iff there is an ISLAMIST HIDDEN IMAM-MAHDI, now thru 2010 [2012] would be a good time to make His Appearance in the name of God + Islam.
COME ON NOW, BOYZ, EVEN THE SUN IS DOING ITS PART FOR 2008-2012 AS PER SUNSPOT CYCLE "24" = NOT KIEFER SUTHERLAND BEING LATE.
OTOH, HADRON COLLIDER > Possible PRE-TEST? may had caused MINI/LIGHT BLACK HOLES to appear near Guam-WESTPAC.
Whom but an IMAM-MAHDI can control the SUN = save MANKIND FROM HIMSELF = MAN'S OWN TECH, correct???
DOES GABRIEL TELL JUST ANY MAN = ANY CHIEF-KING [Avalon-KING ARTHUR?] TO WAKE UP FROM HIS DEATH SLUMBER [Drudgereport = Biblical Stone]???
Israel Police have concluded that a Palestinian construction worker who killed three Israelis with a bulldozer in Jerusalemlast week acted alone and not as part of a militant organisation, a spokesman said on Sunday. '(He) improvised the attack on his own,' police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said on a day when hundreds of officers were on hand to protect some 30 Israelis who demonstrated near the dead attacker's house to demand his family home be demolished, or in case the protest turned violent.
Husam Duwayit crushed cars and overturned a bus on Wednesday on one of Jerusalem's busiest streets. No major militant group claimed responsibility and relatives and neighbours described Duwayit, 30, as a troubled man with a record of drug offenses.
They insisted the family had been unaware of his intentions. Rosenfeld said Duwayit, who was shot dead at the scene, had shouted the Muslim slogan 'Allahu akbar!' (Holy Shit! God is greatest) and said police took that to indicate that he had intended to kill.
Bearing placards reading 'Destroy the house' and 'We want revenge', about 30 right-wing Israelis were given armed police protection to protest at the house occupied by about 20 relatives of Duwayit in a West Bank village annexed to Jerusalem by Israel.
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Sri Lankan troops have killed another 19 Tamil Tiger rebels and lost two of their own soldiers in fresh fighting in the island's north, the defence ministry said Sunday.
Troops killed the 19 members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and wounded 27 others in the districts of Vavuniya, Mannar, Mullaitivu and Jaffna on Saturday, the ministry said. A total of 13 government soldiers were also wounded in Saturday's clashes. There was no immediate word from the LTTE on the latest violence. However, the Tigers released pictures of their elusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran commemorating his suicide bombers on the 21st anniversary of the first suicide attack by his guerrillas.
The Tigers have deployed over 250 suicide bombers, known as Black Tigers, to carry out devastating attacks since July 1987. The defence ministry's latest claims of casualties takes the number of rebels reported killed by government troops since the beginning of the year to 4,755 against the loss of 427 soldiers.
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COLOMBO - At least 19 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in a series of gunbattles in Sri Lankas north. The government-run Media Centre for National Security said yesterday that the security forces were making further progress into rebel territory on all four fronts - Mannar in the northwest, Welioya in the northeast, Vavuniya which lies south of the rebel-controlled Wanni and Muhamalai, the northern borders of the rebel territory.
According to the media centre, the heaviest fighting on Saturday took place in the Vavuniya sector where 12 rebels died. Four rebels and a solider died in Welioya while three rebels died in Mannar.
There were no comments from the Tiger military command on the governments claim.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/07/2008 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
QUETTA: Unidentified men killed the district president of a religions organisation and injured a minor boy late on Sunday, police said. Tehreek-e-Jaffaria (TJ) Nasirabad President Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah was killed at Sariab Road. The injured boy, who was passing-by during the firing incident, was shifted to a local hospital where his condition was stable. The assailants fled from the scene. No group has claimed responsibility for the killing.
A Special Branch police constable was shot dead on Sunday after unidentified assailants opened fire at him on Karakh Road, the Khuzdar police said. The constable, identified as Ahmed Mengal, was targeted while he was going home. Mengal, who was a resident of Kalat district, died on the spot. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has accepted the responsibility for the killing of Mengal.
Security forces will stay in Bara as long as the government's objectives of peace and security are not achieved, Khyber Agency Political Agent (PA) Tariq Hayat said on Sunday. Hayat was talking to reporters after talks with a 35-member Afridi tribe jirga. 
Police officials arrested four men on Sunday in two separate incidents, seizing explosives and ammunition, satellite channels reported. Rajanpur Police foiled a plot to blow up a school van and arrested an alleged terrorist along with his accomplice in the Dajal area of Rajanpur district, Express News reported. According to the channel, one of the alleged terrorists, Abdul Rehman, belongs to Balochistan and is suspect in various terrorist attacks across the country like blowing up railway tracks in Sindh and Balochistan. The other, Shafeeq, hails from Punjab. Bomb disposal squad was called on the site to defuse the explosives seized from the men, the channel added. 
Police on Friday claimed to have killed a militant owing allegiance to the Pakistan based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad and arrest four militants in Kashmir. A top police officer Ali Mohammad said that on specific information, police and army personnel launched an operation in at village Barpora and Wagahama in South Kashmir. 'While the operation was going on, the militants fired from automatic weapons towards the soldiers. The fire was returned by the troops, triggering an encounter. In the ensuing gunfight, a Jaish militant was killed,' he said.
Police today shot dead two top militants of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) including its operations chief in an encounter at Naina, Batapora in Pulwama district.
(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's government said it is trying to identify the suicide bomber who killed at least 19 people, mostly police officers, in an attack in the capital, Islamabad, yesterday. 
Mohmand Agency political authorities on Sunday arrested two journalists released by the Taliban a day earlier, a member of the agency's political authority told Daily Times on condition of anonymity.
At least nine policemen and a civilian were killed and 25 others injured in a massive explosion near the controversial Lal Masjid, minutes after thousands of Islamic hardliners demanded the public hanging of President Pervez Musharraf at a meeting to mark the shrine's storming by the Pakistani military. 
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program -- a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium -- reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. The removal of 550 metric tons of 'yellowcake' -- the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment -- was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
(VOI) -- An Iraqi army police force on Sunday threw a security cordon around nine sectors in Baghdad's Sadr City in the aftermath of military confrontations that took place last night between army personnel and local gunmen, eyewitnesses said.
VOI) - Six captives were set free by their abductors in Diala province on Sunday, a security source said. 'Six kidnapped persons from Asakra tribe in Khanqeen town, 155 north-east Baquba, were released after negotiations between the captives' families and armed groups believed to be loyal to al-Qaeda network in Iraq,' a Diala security source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq(VOI). The source noted 'unknown gunmen had abducted the six persons while they were attending funeral ceremonies of their relative in the district'.
(VOI) - Police forces on Sunday arrested a key al-Qaeda commander during security operation conducted in Kirkuk, a security official said. "Police forces conducted a raid-and-search operation in al-Haweija district, 70 km west Kirkuk, capturing a key al-Qaeda commander,"Brig. Sarhad Qadir, chief of Kirkuk's Districts and Suburbs .told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq(VOI). The security official identified the arrested al-Qaeda commander as Abu Jaffar, but he declined to give further details. The self-proclaimed Iraq's Islamic state, announced in October, is a mantra for seven-group organisation, including al-Qaeda network in Iraq
Marie Colvin
Israel Police have concluded that a Palestinian construction worker who killed three Israelis with a bulldozer in Jerusalemlast week acted alone and not as part of a militant organisation, a spokesman said on Sunday. '(He) improvised the attack on his own,' police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said on a day when hundreds of officers were on hand to protect some 30 Israelis who demonstrated near the dead attacker's house to demand his family home be demolished, or in case the protest turned violent. 
COLOMBO - At least 19 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed in a series of gunbattles in Sri Lankas north. The government-run Media Centre for National Security said yesterday that the security forces were making further progress into rebel territory on all four fronts - Mannar in the northwest, Welioya in the northeast, Vavuniya which lies south of the rebel-controlled Wanni and Muhamalai, the northern borders of the rebel territory.
