#3
Me thinks a group of sociopathic drooling fanatics could deliberately toss an Ebola carrier on a jet to the US. By the time he got to customs and began hemorrhaging, he would have infected hundreds.
Biological warfare doesn't have to be an aerosol can full of Cholera or a couple of envelops of Anthrax mailed to a school. The simplest and for those who do not have the glove boxes and centrifuges needed to manufacture a biological weapon, is to just grab someone with a particularly nasty infectious disease and buy him a plane ticket. By the time the plane lands at Kennedy, O'Hare, Bush, or LAX, you would have 200 or so infected people plus everyone the person comes into contact as they walked to the customs gate.
Given as how the region is so in turmoil, and given the lack of rational thought by most Islamic Fanatics in Africa, THIS is more disturbing to me, the potential for deliberate infection, than some of the other developments.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
07/29/2014 11:16 Comments ||
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#4
i don't really understand why lots of Americans are worried about ebola walking in from mexico - the afrians are not going to fly to mexico. They are going to fly to london and the USA. They follow money. They want to go to developed nations with good hospitals. Plus I doubt many mexicans are volunteering in ebola zones - your risk is the Samaritans Purse volunteers and NGO employees (who also won't likely be mexican) fleeing back home - to London, Paris and the USA... From Mexico you will get unwanted immigration and probably drugs and gun crime but they won't have ebola
The Obama administration has stepped up tensions with Russia, accusing Moscow of conducting tests in breach of a 1987 nuclear missile treaty. The US has called the breach "a very serious matter", Fine words. Do the words matter?
going public with allegations that have simmered for some time. The treaty confrontation comes at a highly strained time between Barack Obama and Russian president Vladimir Putin over Moscow's intervention in Ukraine and its grant of asylum to National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
An administration official said President Obama notified Mr Putin of the US determination in a letter. The finding will be included in a US State Department annual report on compliance with arms control treaties to be released today. The US says Russia tested a new ground-launched cruise missile, breaking the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty that President Ronald Reagan signed with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The official said the US was prepared to hold top-level discussions on the issue immediately "with the aim of assuring the United States that Russia will come back into compliance with its treaty obligations". Although the US has raised the issue with Russia in the past through diplomatic channels, it had not previously made the accusation publicly. Russian officials say they have looked into the allegations and consider the matter closed Obama Administration grandstanding or legit complaint?
#1
What, if anything is Obumble prepared to do to induce compliance? Toothless threats, or a twitter hashtag? Wrong actions can precipitate a potential nuclear conflict by being either too weak or too provocative. What's frightening that we have incompetents in charge, a lumbering lurching tool for a Sec State, and the president is narcissist amateur and poseur. The 3 AM phone call is going to voice mail because he's out of town on a fund raiser
#7
Yet State values such bum wipe so much that they'll promote it and celebrate it, cause it justifies their existence. Institution self aggrandizement over national security. Then again, it's seems we've already surrendered our sovereignty, by the same ruling caste.
#8
Not exactly shocking. Put yourself in Putin's place - the US has simply ceased to exist as a serious factor for Russia or other rivals. I guess the ragtag remnants of the former Libyan security forces were about the only ones who had anything to fear from US power. And a few Afghans dumb enough to lift a finger before our idiotically announced departure date - but that's just inertial continuation of an involvement none of these cretins in the Beltway today would have initiated on their own.
I remember working on the INF Treaty .... seems like 1 million years ago, when there was a US, adults were generally were in charge.
"In a strong statement, the Russian foreign ministry accused White House press secretary Josh Ernest of "slander" when he characterized the downing of MH-17 as "Russian complicity." Just can't shake the feeling that we are watching an international slow rollover.
#1
The fact that there have still not been any Russian messages of condolences or regret to families of the dead in Holland and the other countries should be noted. Also to be noted should be Vlad's spike in national popularity immediately after the MH-17 downing.
Who was it Mitt said was American's greatest international threat again....?
#2
Yep, besoeker, this whole tragic affair has a creepy, weird feel to it. THIS is how degraded the US and the west have become. An incredibly shocking act - shoot-down of a completely uninvolved airliner with large loss of life - registers hardly a blip - if that - in terms of real reaction. Europe's humiliation and degradation have never been more evident.
Inured to so much that is beyond belief, it's hard for me to get worked up much any more. But stepping back just a bit from this one, it's breath-taking. KAL 007 was 30 years ago .... but it seems like 100 years. The world is that different - and all for the worse.
#4
G(r)om, that's the paradox. When you're at the table with your opponents, you know what their position is. When you're at the table with your friends, you spend your time worrying if they'll get to the potatoes ahead of you.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/29/2014 7:27 Comments ||
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""We're looking inside our own readiness models to look at things that we haven't had to look at for 20 years, huh?! Is "reactive" part of the "leading from behind" thingie?
I suspect we are going to be living is a state of "surprise" for some time forward.
frankly, about basing and lines of communication and sea lanes," Gen. Martin Dempsey, America's top military officer, said at the Aspen Security Forum Thursday evening. "What the military does when faced with these crises is -- our job is preparedness, deterrence and readiness."
Precisely. I find it very hard to believe nobody has war-gamed Russia for two full decades. This strikes me more as posturing for Putin's benefit, not to mention the kind of foreign policy win preferred by the Smartest Men in the Room.
#1
Gen. Martin Dempsey .......... "What the military does when faced with these crises is -- our job is preparedness, deterrence and readiness."
That must be why we're sending RIF notices to personnel currently deployed to Afghanistan. Nicely played Marti, saying one thing whilst doing yet another. Very regime like, very presidential.
#4
The very idea of the US coming to blows with the russkis now is even less plausible than it was for most of the Cold War, but for precisely the opposite reasons. Not fear of armageddon as two behemoths slug it out. More the limp, flaccid, unserious lukewarm condition of the west, and the US. Can anyone imagine what now passes for the US using force on any significant level? Forget the rub-your-eyes-am-I-really-seeing-this "leadership" - I'm talking about the electorate and society. I cannot come up with a plausible scenario that would cause the country to act in a serious fashion again.
#10
Hypothetical next: A (new) non aggression pact between Russia and Germany, because it worked so well the last time.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/29/2014 7:22 Comments ||
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#11
Why worry about Russia when you've surrendered your southern border? How many Americans died in 9/11 and how many have died at the hands of illegals since? You have failed in your primary mission.
I was a recon platoon leader for the 8ID in Bad Kreuznach.
When I was on the G-2 staff at VCORPS, I came up with a worst case scenario that was immediately classified TS and tossed in the bottom of the TS safe in the document vault. I wonder how many of my little action plans I wrote as we were constantly fine-tuning the General Defense Plan.
I did have a fine moment as an S-2 officer in the 8ID. I had a Colonel lecture me at length one day about the content of one of the annexes of a contingency plan...he and I disagreed on the intent of the plan...he went on and on and I finally shut him town by turning the page on the document he was waving around and showed him my name at the bottom of the page.
Anyway, I wonder how many of us know more about the defense of the Fulda Gap than anyone currently on active duty with the US Army?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
07/29/2014 11:22 Comments ||
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#13
Hello Bill Clinton (???? Zipper control problem???)
I hear you. Fulda Gap, Hohe Roehn, Tann Pocket, etc.
Retroactively, I learned of a minor problem. As G-3 Plan Officer (1984), my Section NCO had a higher security clearance (SCI) than I did. So - he ran the TS-SCI vault. Who was this upstanding NCO? None other than (then SFC) Clyde Conrad - as in
And SP4 Jeffrey Rondeau was my driver!!!!
For JFM: It was a defensive plan - designed to VERY aggressively kill the logistics chain, at every point along the way from Mother Russia to the IGB (Inter-German Border).
#15
8thID? REMFs. Heh. 2ACR. Us and the Black Horse were USAEURs speed bumps for GSOFG. 1GTA, 8GA, Fula up there, coburg and Hof and the "ghost autobahn" where I was. And that beautiful Czech border (because the put their fences back from the border). I still remember patrolling that on skis with the GSG, the border stones that go back to the Middle Ages. Firewood boxes out in the woods. Leave a carton of US Marlboro reds, get a case of damned good Pils the next day on patrol in the same box.
A top-ranking North Korean military official has threatened a nuclear strike on the White House and Pentagon after accusing Washington of raising military tensions on the Korean peninsula.
threat came from Hwang Pyong-So, director of the military's General Political Bureau, during a speech to a large military rally in Pyongyang Sunday on the anniversary of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
Hwang, who holds the rank of vice marshal in the Korean People's Army, said a recent series of South Korea-US military drills, one of which included the deployment of a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier, had ramped up tensions.
"If the US imperialists threaten our sovereignty and survival... our troops will fire our nuclear-armed rockets at the White House and the Pentagon -- the sources of all evil," Hwang said in his speech broadcast Monday on state television.
It is not the first time that North Korea's bellicose rhetoric has included threats of nuclear strikes on the continental United States and US bases in the Pacific.
But most experts believe it is still a long way from developing a viable intercontinental ballistic missile with the required range.
The North has conducted three nuclear tests, but is not thought to have mastered the miniaturisation techniques necessary for mounting a warhead on a missile.
It does possess a range of short-and mid-range missiles capable of striking South Korea and Japan, and has conducted a series of test firings into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) in recent weeks.
The latest test on Saturday -- guided by the leader Kim Jong-Un -- simulated a short-range missile strike on South Korea where 28,500 US troops are stationed, the North's state media said.
It defied censure by the UN Security Council which officially condemned Pyongyang on July 17 over the recent tests as violations of UN resolutions prohibiting the North from using ballistic missile technology. Kinda makes you wonder what they'd be like if they had real nukes instead of firecrackers.
We do have much to be grateful for: as I recall, team of North Korean technicians died in Syria when Israel destroyed that nuclear [weapons] facility.
Posted by: Big Thromoth3646 ||
07/29/2014 4:08 Comments ||
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#3
Ole Hwang Pyong-So had better mind his flaming, atomic rhetoric. We've got our very own dagga smoking sociopath looking for a convenient distraction and way out of a bad legacy as well.
[An Nahar] Black boxes recovered from downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in rebel-held east Ukraine show shrapnel from a rocket kaboom caused the passenger jet to crash, a Ukrainian security official said Monday.
International Sherlocks "indicated that data from flight recorders show that the reason for the destruction and crash of the plane was massive explosive decompression arising from multiple shrapnel perforations from a rocket kaboom," Andriy Lysenko, front man for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said.
Data from the doomed airliner's black boxes was decrypted in Britannia after being handed over to Malaysian officials by pro-Russian rebels controlling the crash site of MH17.
Investigators leading the probe in the Netherlands -- which lost 193 citizens on the doomed jet -- refused to confirm the latest information from Kiev, saying that they were "waiting to get a more complete idea of what happened."
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase... the Ukrainian army has seized control of part of the vast crash site of flight MH17 in the east of the country, pro-Russia rebels said on Monday.
"The Ukrainians have taken over a part of the crash site," said Vladimir Antyufeev, self-styled first deputy prime minister of the "Donetsk People's Republic".
Ukraine's military said its troops are battling separatist fighters for control of a string of towns around the impact site and had "entered" the town of Shakhtarsk, some 10 kilometers (six miles) from the scene.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
So, if they can dig out the remnants where the tank treads have pressed them into the ground...
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/29/2014 7:35 Comments ||
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[DAWN] GUJRANWALA: Three female members of the Ahmadi community, including two minors, were killed late Sunday and eight others were severely injured when an angry mob attacked and burnt five houses, a storage building and several vehicles over alleged blasphemy.
Those killed in the attack include a 55-year-old woman Bashiran, a minor girl Kainat and 7-year-old girl Hira.
The victims were rushed to the district headquarters hospital and the condition of few maimed was reported as critical.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of the People's Colony Circle as saying that the trouble started with an allegedly blasphemous post on Facebook by an Ahmadi youth.
The son of a Imam of a local mosque along with his friends reached the house of the youth where they entered into a scuffle and were allegedly fired upon.
The Imam's son and his friend sustained gunshot wounds following which a mob gathered and began protesting which eventually attacked and damaged homes and other property belonging to members of the Ahmadi community.
Gujranwala CPO Waqas Nazir, Civil Lines SP Zeeshan Siddiqi and DSP of CIA Rashid Sindhu reached the spot and began negotiations with members of both communities to bring the situation under control.
"Later, a crowd of 150 people came to the cop shoppe demanding the registration of a blasphemy case against the accused," said another police officer who declined to be identified. "As police were negotiating with the crowd, another mob attacked and started burning the houses of Ahmadis."
The youth accused of making the Facebook post had not been injured, he said.
Civil Lines SP Zeeshan Siddiqi said the victims died of suffocation and that a woman miscarried during the riots and was being provided medical treatment.
Salimuddin, a front man for the Ahmadi community, said it was the worst attack on the community since simultaneous attacks on Ahmadi places of worship killed 86 Ahmadis four years ago.
"Police were there but just watching the burning. They didn't do anything to stop the mob," he said. "First they looted their homes and shops and then they burnt the homes."
According to police and eyewitnesses, there were seven to eight houses of the Ahmadi community in the vicinity. However, ars longa, vita brevis... following the violence all Ahmadi families in the area managed to flee.
Fearing further incidents of violence and arson Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) suspended the supply of electricity in the area.
Ahmadis have been jugged Book 'im, Mahmoud! in Pakistain for reading the Holy Koran, holding religious celebrations and having Koranic verses on rings or wedding cards. Four years ago, 86 Ahmadis were killed in two simultaneous attacks in Lahore.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/29/2014 00:00 ||
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#2
I've been following these types of toys since 2006. They have a problem drones don't. They need to get close to the surface to talk to their operators. This requires way more intelligence to function. Some of them could put major super computers to shame and they may one day approach a real if limited AI.
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 Obama administration has stepped up tensions with Russia, accusing Moscow of conducting tests in breach of a 1987 nuclear missile treaty. The US has called the breach "a very serious matter", 
Yet another convenient distraction. When have treaties signed by Russians been anything more than bum wipe? 
A top-ranking North Korean military official has threatened a nuclear strike on the White House and Pentagon after accusing Washington of raising military tensions on the Korean peninsula.
