Hi there, !
Today Mon 04/04/2011 Sun 04/03/2011 Sat 04/02/2011 Fri 04/01/2011 Thu 03/31/2011 Wed 03/30/2011 Tue 03/29/2011 Archives
Rantburg
531697 articles and 1855971 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 76 articles and 230 comments as of 13:29.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Two UN staff beheaded and eight others murdered in protest against U.S. pastor who burnt Koran
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
4 00:00 JosephMendiola [] 
10 00:00 JohnQC [1] 
1 00:00 Frank G [] 
1 00:00 Nimble Spemble [] 
20 00:00 Keystone [] 
1 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [] 
3 00:00 Procopius2k [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 swksvolFF [] 
3 00:00 trailing wife [] 
12 00:00 OldSpook [1] 
6 00:00 Fi [] 
5 00:00 lord garth [] 
2 00:00 trailing wife [1] 
1 00:00 Bernardz [] 
2 00:00 JohnQC [] 
3 00:00 g(r)omgoru [] 
2 00:00 Abu Uluque [] 
0 [1] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
4 00:00 Thing From Snowy Mountain [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
2 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [] 
2 00:00 g(r)omgoru [] 
0 [] 
0 [1] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 Frank G [] 
0 [] 
Page 2: WoT Background
0 []
3 00:00 RandomJD []
4 00:00 Rob Crawford []
0 []
1 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 []
3 00:00 g(r)omgoru []
1 00:00 Anguper Hupomosing9418 []
23 00:00 Zebulon Thranter9685 []
0 []
0 []
4 00:00 trailing wife []
2 00:00 swksvolFF []
0 []
0 []
1 00:00 Pappy []
0 []
Page 3: Non-WoT
0 []
8 00:00 Mizzou Mafia [1]
0 []
2 00:00 OldSpook []
0 []
23 00:00 trailing wife [1]
3 00:00 Shieldwolf [1]
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
2 00:00 crosspatch []
0 []
3 00:00 SteveS []
2 00:00 swksvolFF []
0 []
Page 4: Opinion
12 00:00 Jock the Salmon []
3 00:00 SteveS []
1 00:00 JohnQC []
9 00:00 Pappy []
5 00:00 swksvolFF []
0 []
12 00:00 Shieldwolf []
Page 6: Politix
14 00:00 Frank G [1]
2 00:00 Water Modem []
0 []
Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Traci Lind aka Alex Young in "Fright Night II" aka Missy McCloud in "My Boyfriend's Back" aka Nurse Graves in "The Road to Wellville" aka Cat in "The End of Violence" aka Christy Langford in "Class of 1999" (age 43)



Miss TSA, More Nekkid Than an Egg (April Fool)
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 04/01/2011 3:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Miss TSA, More Nekkid Than an Egg (April Fool)

A charming choice for the day, dear GolfBravoUSMC. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/01/2011 5:13 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Meanwhile, The 101st Is In A Heck of a Fight in A-stan
Hat tip Drudge, which links to a blog reporting the death of six soldiers from the 101st in what is described as a ongoing battle in Eastern Afghanistan. Remember when the DNC Talking Point was that the stupid cowboy Bush had drained resources from Afghanistan (the "good war") to fight his silly venture in Iraq?
Posted by: Matt || 04/01/2011 13:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thank you.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/01/2011 15:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Matt

Yes a lot of people remember this donk talking point.

Thousands and thousands of hours of thought are going into how the left can blame Bush if we leave A-stan and it falls to the Taliban.
Posted by: lord garth || 04/01/2011 15:46 Comments || Top||

#3  MEMRI.ORG > EX-PAKISTANI GENERAL: "US EXIT FROM AFGHANISTAN WILL BE A DEFEAT FOR AMERICANS AT THE HANDS OF MUSLIMS; AS A RESULT, MUSLIMS ACROSS THE WORLD WILL RISE AGZ THE US".

IOW, iff mostly uneducated, low-tech, but dedicated Islamist or Muslim Militants-Terrorists can defeat the world's SOLE SUPERPOWER US of A, THEY CAN DEFEAT ANYBODY + WILL HAVE NO FEAR TO DO SAME AGZ THE WORLD'S OTHER MAJOR POWERS JUST BECAUSE GOD + VICTORY SEZ THEY CAN???

SUB-IOW, US-NATO DEFEAT OR PULLOUT IN AFGHANISTAN = AFPAK MEANS AFGHANISTAN + AFPAK, ETAl. WILL COME TO YOU.

It won't be over regardless of any Media, Polit + Diplomatic rhetoric to the contrary TRUBLE HAS ONLY BEGUN.

* SAME > SAUDI ISLMAIC SCHOLAR MUHAMMED MUSA AL-SHARIF:THE DAY IS COMING WHEN ISLAM WILL RULE THE WORLD AGAIN.

ARTIC > SHARIF = Communism + Capitalism are broken + bankrupt, ONLY ISLAM IS LEFT TO RULE THE WORLD. As per the PROPHET MOHAMMED,ISLAMIC = MUSLIM LEADERSHIP [dominance?] IS COMING WHETHER MANKIND/HUMANITY [Govts-Societies?]LIKE IT OR NOT. Muslims + Mankind have observed that the worst results occur when NON-MUSLIMS/ISLAM IS IN AUTHORITY.

* SAME > INSPIRE V, PART III: AQAP ENCOURAGES WESTERN JIHADISTS TO ATTACK NIGHTCLUBS + SHOPPING MALLS.

* SAME > INSPIRE V, PART II: AMERICAN JIHADISTS SAMIR KHAN CALLS FOR "ISLAMIC STATE IN EGYPT" [loyalty, oedience to God = Allah more important than same to the Govt-State].

* FREEREPUBLIC > THE REAL RADIATION HAZARD: IRAN [ + WHEN-NOT-IFF COMING NUC TERRORISM], not damaged Japanese NucPlants.

IIUC ARTIC = infers or subtledly hints that AL-QAEDA, ETAL. = RADICAL ISLAM DOES NOT NEED TO EXPLODE MANY NUKES NOR HIGH-YIELD NUKES TO THREATEN THE US = US NATIONAL SECURITY, + CHANGE THE US-WORLD FOREVER.

* SAME > DISCIPLINED AND [Well]ORGANIZED ISLAMIST GROUPS SQUEEZE OUT YOUTH GROUPS IN EGYPT. Muslim Brotherhood + older , more experienced Orgs politely + politically + covertly + legally STEALING = USURPING THE POST-MUBARAK REVOLUTION FROM LIBERAL ACTIVIST YOUTHIES - the Youthies + other aligned are repor scarmbling to par wid the MB, etal. before mandated Parliamentary elections???

And so the OWG Caliphate = Global Islamist-Jihadist State [Nuclear?] suddenly begins.

UNLESS SOMETHING CHANGES, IT WON'T BE THE US-VS-CHINA ANYMORE.

The US-NATO were watching PAKISTAN's NUKES [North Korea] BUT WEREN'T WATCHING EGYPT'S CIVILIAN NUCENERGY PROGS.???

{ALWAYS THE QUIET/SILENT ONES here].

Yokay, I'll say it, D *** NGED MURPHY'S LAWS!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/01/2011 23:45 Comments || Top||

#4  OOOPSIES, forgot PEOPLE'S DAILY FORUM > LIBYAN CONFLICT COULD SPREAD MISSLES TO EXTREMISTS, e.g. SA-7 "STRELA" MANPADS, Other.

and

* SAME > [US = USDOD] PENTAGON: LIBYAN REBELS DESPERATELY NEED ARMS, BUT DON'T LOOK TO THE US, to supply or give 'em any.

[SPRINGFIELD MAYORAL/POLITICAL CANDIDATE HOMER
"CAN'T SOMEONE ELSE DO IT" SIMPSON here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/01/2011 23:50 Comments || Top||


Two UN staff beheaded and eight others murdered in protest against U.S. pastor who burnt Koran
Ten United Nations staff were murdered - two by beheading - after extremists stormed their compound in northern Afghanistan today.

Protesters broke into UN offices in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif after a demonstration against Koran burnings in the America turned violent.

A small breakaway group attacked the UN compound, throwing stones and climbing on blast barriers to try to gain entry. They seized weapons from guards and opened fire before storming the site.

An Afghan police source, who asked not to be named, said the chief of the mission in the city was wounded but survived.

Among those murdered were Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish and Nepalese nationals. Two were decapitated, it is understood.

A UN spokesman confirmed that workers had been killed at the mission, but he said the situation on the ground was still confusing and it was difficult to 'ascertain facts'.
Posted by: tipper || 04/01/2011 13:55 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Helping the poor, suffering people of Dar is challenging.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/01/2011 14:06 Comments || Top||

#2  That's the thanks they get for Helping the poor, suffering people of Dar get ahead.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/01/2011 14:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Thereby proving exactly the point of the koo-ran burners.
Posted by: Clyde Shigum3699 || 04/01/2011 15:02 Comments || Top||

#4  "And the linkage between the match-happy American preacher and the UN schmucks that the rabid rioters offed is?..."
"Well..."
Posted by: mojo || 04/01/2011 16:33 Comments || Top||

#5  I wonder if Western political and military elites will once blame Terry Jones for the Afghan people's murderous intolerance and bigotry.
Posted by: Hupemble Oppressor of the Munchkins7822 || 04/01/2011 16:46 Comments || Top||

#6  I wonder if Western political and military elites will once again blame Terry Jones for the Afghan people's murderous intolerance and bigotry.
Posted by: Hupemble Oppressor of the Munchkins7822 || 04/01/2011 16:47 Comments || Top||

#7  From the link:
And tonight pastor Jones remained defiant over his decision to hold the Koran burning, saying it was time for 'Islam to be held accountable'.

He said: 'We must hold these countries and people accountable for what they have done as well as for any excuses they may use to promote their terrorist activities. The time has come to hold Islam accountable.

'Our United States government and our President must take a close, realistic look at the radical element Islam. Islam is not a religion of peace.

'We demand action from the United Nations. Muslim dominated countries can no longer be allowed to spread their hate against Christians and minorities.

'They must alter the laws that govern their countries to allow for individual freedoms and rights, such as the right to worship, free speech, and to move freely without fear of being attacked or killed.'


This is what Bush should've said on 9/12 2001!
Posted by: Hupemble Oppressor of the Munchkins7822 || 04/01/2011 17:21 Comments || Top||

#8  I wonder if Western political and military elites will once again blame Terry Jones for the Afghan people's murderous intolerance and bigotry.

The former Ranger/independent reporter Michael Yon most certainly does, Hupemble Oppressor of the Munchkins7822. He's got two threads going on the subject on his Facebook page.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/01/2011 18:05 Comments || Top||

#9  This Youtube video sums up how I'd respond to Yon's argument.
It is a response to the Danish Cartoon Crisis that is making my point better than I ever could.

Posted by: Oppressor of the Munchkins7822 || 04/01/2011 21:59 Comments || Top||

#10  There's something very crazy about a religion that triggers off such maniacal rages.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/01/2011 22:32 Comments || Top||


Six US soldiers killed in Afghanistan
Six U.S. soldiers died this week after attacks in northeastern Afghanistan, officials said. The soldiers were all from the same Army unit and died Tuesday after fighting in Afghanistan's Kunar province, the Defense Department said in a statement.

The soldiers were from the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team from Fort Campbell in Kentucky. The soldiers were identified as Ofren Arrechaga, 28, of Florida; Frank Adamski III, 26, of Connecticut; Jameson Lindskog, 23, of California; Jeremy Faulkner, 23, of Georgia; Bryan Burgess, 29, of Texas and Dustin Feldhaus, 20, of Arizona.

The soldiers were part of an ongoing mission to clear insurgents out of the area, the Fort Campbell Courier reported.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/01/2011 13:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  RIP with our thanks for their ultimate sacrifice
Posted by: Frank G || 04/01/2011 14:03 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Reports of gunfire near Gaddafi's compound
Sustained gunfire rang out near Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy's
... a proud Arab institution for 42 years ...
Fuhrerbunker in Tripoli on Friday and residents said they saw snipers on rooftops and pools of blood on the streets.

It was not clear what triggered long bursts of machinegun and automatic gunfire that echoed around the city centre and stopped before dawn.

Cars were heard speeding along central Tripoli streets, their tyres screeching against the asphalt. Distant shouting or chanting was also heard.

"There were pools of blood on the streets. You will not find anything now. It's been hosed down and cleaned by the fire trucks," said one Tripoli resident.

Gunfire is often heard in Tripoli where people like to shoot their weapons into the air in celebration or defiance, but Friday's episode was different and sounded like a shootout, witnesses said.

State forces have cracked down on all forms of dissent in Tripoli since the start of an anti-Qadaffy uprising in February.

The city has been on edge in past days, with people's anxiety compounded by fuel shortages and increasingly long queues outside bakeries and petrol stations.

With Qadaffy's air defences crippled by Western air strikes, cracks in his hold on power have also started to emerge with the defection of a key minister to Britain.

A Libyan man who lives in exile abroad and maintains daily contact with relatives in Tripoli, said sustained gunfire was also heard in the working class suburb of Tajoura before dawn.

"The Libyan army has put a lot of snipers on the roofs of schools near mosques. People are afraid...they are staying at home," he said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/01/2011 13:34 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Odd time for a wedding.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 04/01/2011 21:55 Comments || Top||


US Ending Its Air Combat Role in Libya
The Pentagon is about to pull its attack planes out of the international air campaign in Libya, hoping NATO partners can take up the slack.
Hoping? Is hope a battle plan?
The announcement Thursday drew incredulous reactions from some in Congress who wondered aloud why the Obama administration would bow out of a key element of the strategy for protecting Libyan civilians and crippling Moammar Gadhafi's army.

"Odd," ''troubling" and "unnerving" were among critical comments by senators pressing for an explanation of the announcement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that American combat missions will end Saturday.

"Your timing is exquisite," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said sarcastically, alluding to Gadhafi's military advances this week.
Posted by: tipper || 04/01/2011 06:41 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, at least Barry will end it before the media re-discovers the quagmire word.

I imagine this was his 'plan', all along - 15 days, some cruise missiles, no American caskets...
Posted by: Bobby || 04/01/2011 6:53 Comments || Top||

#2  incredulous reactions from some in Congress why the Obama administration would bow out of a key element of the strategy for protecting Libyan civilians and crippling Moammar Gadhafi's army.

Obviously Obama has no wish to be connected to a FAILED EFFORT!

"NATO Partners" decide to leave Afghanistan in 5,4,3,2.....

Posted by: Besoeker || 04/01/2011 6:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Is this an April fool?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/01/2011 7:40 Comments || Top||

#4  So....Clapper was correct with his statement....
Posted by: armyguy || 04/01/2011 7:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Is this an April fool?

Nope. Zero is a fool every day of the year...
Posted by: PBMcL || 04/01/2011 8:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Suez 2.0, but with a few more nations.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/01/2011 8:35 Comments || Top||

#7  The Pentagon is about to pull its attack planes out of the international air campaign

Wow. If this is accurate, Red Barry just cut the legs from under the coalition as well as the Libyan rebels. He's also destroyed any hope of the US building coalitions or of even finding allies for an entire generation. It's suspiciously like that is the plan.

Even if just the US combat sorties are curtailed, the rest of the coalition will have to double combat sorties. With news that Britain has pulled training cadres into this NFZ duty means they won't even be able to sustain this pace for more than a few weeks, let alone double the effort.

If US support assets are also pulled, the other nations won't be able to sustain even half their current sorties, as well as being virtually blind to what is happening on the ground. Everyone else being so very poor on support assets, the most critical being tanker aircraft.

According to Strategypage.com:
So far, American aircraft have flown about sixty percent of the sorties, but only about half of the combat sorties. About 55 percent of the sorties are for support (reconnaissance, electronic eavesdropping, aerial refueling). The no-fly force has been averaging 100-150 sorties a day, but demonstrated the ability to fly as many as 300 a day when such a surge is needed. About 700 missiles and smart bombs have been used so far, in addition to about 150 cruise missiles.
Posted by: Zebulon Thranter9685 || 04/01/2011 9:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Just another Obumble Executive Finding. Back to Rio?
Posted by: Titus Slusorong5901 || 04/01/2011 9:30 Comments || Top||

#9  "A NATO F-16 fighter jet" ? Don't scratch the painted NATO insignia too hard, there might be a USAF emblem under there !!
Posted by: Chet Logan || 04/01/2011 9:32 Comments || Top||

#10  remember this?
Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.
Joe Biden
Posted by: Frank G || 04/01/2011 10:12 Comments || Top||

#11  Seems the "freedom fighters" have some new toys and are setting minimum expectations for a cease fire. Seems The Duck of Death's top advisor(s) are bailing at the same time some of the rest of them are negotiating a safe path to anywhere but Libya. Uganda has offered him a place to live should he decide to "retire".

I'm hoping Barry knows something for sure that we can only infer.
Posted by: gorb || 04/01/2011 10:32 Comments || Top||

#12  Remember when the NVA was getting its butt kicked? So, they'd put out feelers or start talking up the stalled Paris talks, but required a halt in the bombing campaign before they'd go any further. The bombing was stopped, the NVA recovered and replayed the same game plan over and over again. Gadhafi remembers.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/01/2011 10:48 Comments || Top||

#13  "O" must have reread the exit strategy for Vietnam. Stop aerial support and cut of the supplies to our side.

He's left out the Paris Peace Talks and a Nobel Peace Prize for the Hildabeast and Qaddafi.

Will we provide helicopter evacuations from Benghazi rooftops? The MEU is in place.

After the Paris Agreements, however, the American role took the form of gradual abandonment of South Vietnam when the U.S. withdrew its combat troops, stopped air support, and cutback military and economic aid.17 It was this feeling of abandonment--no longer being regarded by the United States as worth saving--that had a devastating impact upon the people and leaders of South Vietnam in those tragic last months of 1975.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 04/01/2011 11:31 Comments || Top||

#14  Cutting his losses. He was stupid to get into this war. He is smart to get out. It's over.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/01/2011 13:42 Comments || Top||

#15  Now it's French & British against Qadaffy's mercs. God send the right!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/01/2011 14:09 Comments || Top||

#16  Cutting his losses. He was stupid to get into this war. He is smart to get out. It's over.

And he gets to leave the Euros (and Qatar) swinging in the wind. It's a two-fer.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/01/2011 16:05 Comments || Top||

#17  Word, Pappy.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/01/2011 16:12 Comments || Top||

#18  And he thumbed his nose at both Congress and the Constitution. If it were deliberate, I'd have to say "well played".
Posted by: Shereter Poodle9774 || 04/01/2011 18:22 Comments || Top||

#19  Since his whole campaign was based on Hope and Change what do you expect? He's run out of Hopium.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/01/2011 19:06 Comments || Top||

#20  I guess this means we won't see the A-10 or AC-130. That's too bad for the rebels.
Posted by: Keystone || 04/01/2011 22:57 Comments || Top||


Wheres The Kid From Mad Max With The Steel boomerang When You Need Him.
Posted by: Water Modem || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What, no spongebob balloons?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/01/2011 12:43 Comments || Top||


Hey, We Could Also Bomb the Rebels!
Isn't there anyone in Washington who can play this game?
WASHINGTON — Members of the NATO alliance have sternly warned the rebels in Libya not to attack civilians as they push against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, according to senior military and government officials.

As NATO takes over control of airstrikes in Libya, and the Obama administration considers new steps to tip the balance of power there, the coalition has told the rebels that if they endanger civilians, they will not be shielded from possible bombardment by NATO planes and missiles, just as the government’s forces have been punished.
So after intervening to help the rebels depose Qaddafi, we'll bomb the rebels if we catch them harming civilians. In a civil war. A brutal civil war.

We're all for protecting civilians, but shouldn't we have made this clear PRIOR to intervening?
“We’ve been conveying a message to the rebels that we will be compelled to defend civilians, whether pro-Qaddafi or pro-opposition,” said a senior Obama administration official. “We are working very hard behind the scenes with the rebels so we don’t confront a situation where we face a decision to strike the rebels to defend civilians.”

The warnings, and intense consultations within the NATO-led coalition over its rules for attacking anyone who endangers innocent civilians, come at a time when the civil war in Libya is becoming ever more chaotic, and the battle lines ever less distinct. They raise a fundamental question that the military is now grappling with: who in Libya is a civilian?
Children, women without weapons in their hands, and old folk without weapons in their hands.
In the early days of the campaign, the civilian population needing protection was hunkered down in cities like Benghazi, behind a thin line of rebel defenders who were easily distinguishable from the attacking government forces.

That is no longer always the case. Armed rebels — some in fairly well-organized militias, others merely young men who have picked up rifles to fight alongside them — have moved out of Benghazi in an effort to take control of other population centers along the way, they hope, to seizing Tripoli.

Meanwhile, fresh intelligence this week showed that Libyan government forces were supplying assault rifles to civilians in the town of Surt, which is populated largely by Qaddafi loyalists. These civilian Qaddafi sympathizers were seen chasing rebel forces in nonmilitary vehicles like sedans and trucks, accompanied by Libyan troops, according to American military officers.

The increasing murkiness of the battlefield, as the freewheeling rebels advance and retreat and as fighters from both sides mingle among civilians, has prompted NATO members to issue new “rules of engagement” spelling out when the coalition may attack units on the ground in the name of protecting civilians.

“This is a challenge,” said a senior alliance military officer. “The problem of discriminating between combatant and civilian is never easy, and it is compounded when you have Libyan regime forces fighting irregular forces, like the rebel militias, in urban areas populated by civilians.”
But remember, according to the progressive Left the US military is a bunch of psychopathic killers...
Oana Lungescu, the senior NATO spokeswoman, emphasized that NATO was taking action because Qaddafi’s forces were attacking Libyan civilians, including shelling cities with artillery. If the rebels do likewise, she said, the organization will move to stop them, too, because the United Nations Security Council resolution “applies to both sides.”

“Our goal, as mandated by the U.N.,” Ms. Lungescu said, “is to protect civilians against attacks or threats of attack, so those who target civilians will also be targets for our forces, because that resolution will be applied across the board.”

But it is no simple matter to follow that logic.

“Qaddafi is trying to take advantage of this mixing of combatants and noncombatants to deter NATO from striking,” said one Obama administration official who was briefed on the intelligence reports.
That makes the non-combatants, well, combatants.
Even though rebel forces were in retreat on Wednesday, the civil war has seen repeated advances and retreats by both sides, and that is expected to continue. The biggest concern is not how to deal with fighters who are loyal to the government, but how NATO would respond to rebels firing on a town of Qaddafi sympathizers, like Surt.

Calls by some NATO members to provide heavier weapons to the rebels suggest that these worries will only intensify.

The deliberations about where to draw the line, going on at the highest levels of allied nations and among senior officials across the Obama administration, show how an intervention to stop a potential massacre is evolving into a much more complex, and perhaps open-ended, role in policing the Libyan chaos.

The situation is as complicated legally as it is militarily. The Security Council resolution that authorized a no-fly zone and other steps in Libya makes no distinction between pro-rebel and pro-Qaddafi civilians.

Senior legal advisers to the military campaign say unarmed civilians, whether living in towns or fleeing the fighting, are clearly meant to be protected by the United Nations resolution, while opposition forces taking an active part in combat away from cities are currently seen as falling outside of its protection.
That's the traditional view: pick up a weapon, even for self-defense, and you're no longer a 'civilian'. That works in a normal war, that is, one that pits one country against the other. Abide by the (mostly Western, post-Westphalian) rules of war and your own civilians are supposed to be protected. The 20th century demonstrated that such protection was relative, especially as civilians became to be recognized as part of the overall war effort.

A further problem is that there are, by definition, no laws in a civil war -- it's a society at war with itself in which the law of the government is no longer respected by the rebellion. The Marcus of Queensbury himself couldn't come up with a code.
But one such official acknowledged that there were other situations that were much less clear. Noncombatants and the various shades of opposition, resistance and rebellion “are so intermixed that it is not feasible to discern where the boundary between the civilians and opposition forces lie,” the official said, adding: “There are also those civilians entitled to protection that may be armed in order to protect their families, homes, businesses, and communities. Other civilians may join the rebels at certain stages, becoming armed combatants, and then decide to return home for whatever reason, thus transitioning back to civilian non-combatants.”

At times when the rebels are gaining ground, the allies fear that the rebels will inevitably try to take loyalist cities by force,
Brilliant. Yes, that's what rebels do -- take cities and land held by the loyalists. The loyalists do the reverse. A true Homer "d'oh!" moment.
and could end up endangering or even killing civilians there. That is what prompted the coalition’s warnings to the rebels, administration officials said.

The specifics of the warnings — like when they were conveyed, who delivered them, and to which rebel leaders — remained unclear.
As is everything else about Libya right now.
The traditional laws of war distinguish between combatants, who may be lawfully attacked, and civilians, who generally must be protected. Civilians who pick up weapons and join in fighting can be lawfully attacked as long as they are directly participating in hostilities.

But the laws of war are vague about how to categorize internal rebels, rather than external enemies. And the recognized government of a country — even an internationally despised one like the Qaddafi government — is generally seen to have a right to use force to put down an armed insurrection, said David Glazier, a professor of national security law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
That was one of the key outcomes of the Treaty of Westphalia: sovereign governments, be they kingdoms or republics, have the right to rule at home, and thus may put down internal rebellions without outside interference. That's what most of Europe and much of the rest of the world hold to today, and one has to be a truly odious government (why, like Qaddafi!) to overcome that reluctance to interfere.
“I don’t know that we have distinguished between civilians who are truly nonparticipants in the conflict and who no one has any right to attack,” Mr. Glazier said, “and those civilians who have taken up arms in revolt against the government and so are legitimate targets. This is all poorly defined. It really is all about politics, and not at all about law.”
Bingo. How many words did the NYT waste to get to that conclusion?

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Apparently none of the elite bothers to read history, like the Spanish Civil War, WWII and postwar Yugoslavia, or the Congo.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/01/2011 0:25 Comments || Top||

#2  This could go very bad for us. If Al Qaeda has anything at all, they just need one murderous bastard like Zarkawi with fifty loyal men. Something like that and all hell breaks loose. AQ pulled off a good massacre in Tikrit earlier in the week.

It's a very dangerous thing this freedom fighting. It's got to be up to the Arabs to save themselves from murderous extremists. We're anchored on the west by Libya and Tunis, on the east by Iraq and Bahrain, and Jordan, the Saudis, and Syria in the middle. Shit's happening all over. This is clearly the start of something big.

Posted by: Penguin || 04/01/2011 0:41 Comments || Top||

#3  OTOH BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Debka] LIBYA REBELS SOLD HIZBULLAH + HAMAS [000's of] CHEMICAL SHELLS, from captured Gaddafi arms stocks in return for several Milyuhn dollars.

Approxi 2000 ea. Mustard Gas + 1200 ea. Nerve Gas Arty shells.

Iran + regional MilTerrs repor rushing to be first in line to purchase???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/01/2011 1:14 Comments || Top||

#4  “Qaddafi is trying to take advantage of this mixing of combatants and noncombatants to deter NATO from striking,” said one Obama administration official who was briefed on the intelligence reports.

A dastardly and heretofore unheaard of tactic which must have certainly took AFRICOM and French Air Staff planners and decision makers by complete and total surprise. [snark off]

Please amend "trying to take advantage" to successfully employing anti-kenetic defensive tactics and manuevers.

Coming soon: As a test of NATO's new...."we'll end this if we have to kill them all" ...resolve, Qaddafi authorizes relaxed grooming standards, mufti, and Toyota pickup trucks to select army (rebel look-alike) elements for the purpose of terrorizing and conducting UN comdemnation worthy atrocities among selected segments of the civilian population.

Other rogue look-alike rebel units will be tasked with conducting adhoc rebel link-ups for the obstensive purpose of conducting weapons and ammunition re-supply and medical support. These rogue units will actually conduct assassination, prisoner snatche, photographic, screening, surveillance, and intelligence reporting missions.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/01/2011 1:19 Comments || Top||

#5  Bomb these guys now, bomb those guys later. It's all good.

Let's face it. There are only a few places in the ME that would not be improved by a good strategic bombing.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/01/2011 1:37 Comments || Top||

#6  No one seemed to have considered the Daffy wins scenario.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/01/2011 4:47 Comments || Top||

#7  The French not considering a 'Daffy wins' scenario being the first movement in this avalanche.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/01/2011 6:49 Comments || Top||

#8  No one seemed to have considered the Daffy wins scenario.
If the Duck of Death wins he will massacre his foes in Libya and after he's done with them he will attack the West by sponsoring terror attacks.

After a couple of new Lockerbies (or something much worse if the Duck did some shopping in North Korea) Western forces would have to take him out anyway.
Posted by: Captain Omavising2428 || 04/01/2011 6:52 Comments || Top||

#9  Besoeker, Gaddafi will end up fighting his own rebellion against himself going down that route.

I give up, everything I've said about this war has been either wishful thinking or wrong. It's a total trainwreck. He's going to end up dying of a heart attack in twenty years, schtupping a Bulgarian "nurse".

They've systemically proven that you can't pull off a regime change with aerial bombardment. *Some* sort of organized ground force is required.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 04/01/2011 8:24 Comments || Top||

#10  Other rogue look-alike rebel units will be tasked with conducting adhoc rebel link-ups for the obstensive purpose of conducting weapons and ammunition re-supply and medical support. These rogue units will actually conduct assassination, prisoner snatche, photographic, screening, surveillance, and intelligence reporting missions.

Not disagreeing, but being mercenary type elements the other side of the knife says that they, too, could be bought by Daffy with their very own semi-autonomous (more so than before, perhaps waiving the I Don't See You Tax) south to conduct exercises against economic regions outside Daffy's direct control. Daffy said as much.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/01/2011 10:53 Comments || Top||

#11  Maybe we will arm the rebels...and maybe we won't...we haven't decided yet. Then again, maybe at some point we may decide to bomb 'em...or not. Who knows we may even do both...or for that matter...we may do neither. Look...what part of "take all necessary measures" don't you understand?
Posted by: DepotGuy || 04/01/2011 11:56 Comments || Top||

#12  If we are pulling out then the French and Brits will end up bombing both sides. Good ol colonialism. Which side are they on? Doesn't matter, Nigel, drop the bombs, they're all wogs.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/01/2011 19:34 Comments || Top||


'Blonde bombshell' daughter helping Gaddafi rally troops?
Hat tip to Ace.
LONDON: Colonel Gaddafi is using his sexy blonde daughter as his secret weapon in the war against Libya's rebels.
Fine with me. She's a Gaddafi. If she decides to put herself in the national chain of command she can take her chances with a kinetic encounter...
With revolutionaries fighting to take control of the country, Gaddafi is using pretty Aisha to rally battle-weary troops, reports the Daily Star. Aisha, dubbed the Claudia Schiffer of North Africa, is known for her designer sunglasses and supermodel looks. But with the country in the midst of a bloody civil war, the 34-year-old has ditched her makeup, donned a veil and headed to the war zone.

The mum-of-three has been stripped of her role as a UN Goodwill Ambassador because of her support for her brutal dad.

The rumoured death of one of her closest brothers, Khamis, 27, last week is said to be behind her rallying call.

Aisha has hated the West ever since she was nine, when her adopted sister Hanna was killed by a US air raid on Tripoli as they slept. Since then Aisha, who married her cousin Ahmed al-Gaddafi al-Qahsi in 2006, has spoken out in support of the IRA and worked as a lawyer for former Iraq tyrant Saddam Hussein.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A dastardly strategy that the opposition, being good Muslims, cannot duplicate.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/01/2011 3:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Aisha, the Claudia Schiffer of North Africa



Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 04/01/2011 9:54 Comments || Top||

#3  I just knew GB would do the deep opposition research required for this one.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/01/2011 10:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Is she wearing clear high heels with that outfit?
Posted by: Fi || 04/01/2011 10:06 Comments || Top||

#5  It defies description that the UN would make a Quadaffi, any Quadaffi a Goodfreakingwill Ambassador...

Logic like that causes brain damage to the rational.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 04/01/2011 10:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Logic? I think its more along the line of goodies. She might have passed some of her goodies out to an aging UN member.
Posted by: Fi || 04/01/2011 10:23 Comments || Top||


Libyan opposition has less than 1,000 fighters
Video at link. It's CNN so it may be the usual fog of war reporting without a clue.
During "In the Arena," Jon Lee Anderson, staff writer for The New Yorker reporting from Benghazi, Libya, tells Eliot Spitzer that the number of opposition fighters on the front lines are fewer than anyone would think and that they are poorly armed and badly trained.

Anderson says, "Effective number of fighting men, well under 1,000. Actual soldiers, who are now in the fight, possibly in the very low hundreds on the opposition side."
Posted by: Steve White || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's CNN so it may be the usual fog of war reporting without a clue.

I suspect the regular army units who defected to the rebels are staying back, not willing to get killed because of the amateurs. And funny - no mention of how many jihadists are there.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/01/2011 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  TOPIX > NO-FLY COALITION RUNNING OUT OF [non-Military] OPTIONS AGZ GADDAFI.

and

* SAME/BHARAT RAKSHAK > SIRTE WAS THE DECISIVE BATTLE OF THE LIBYA CRISIS, AND GADDAFI WON!

As per above Artics, Uncle Muammar still holds more than enough local mil advantages to defeat the Libyan Rebels despite their early successes, + despite the imposition of the UN NFZ + continuing NATO-led Airstrikes agz him.

IOW, GADDAFI IS WINNING - HE'S NOT LEAVING POWER OR LIBYUH UNLESS HE WANTS TO, + THE REBELS ARE ON THE VERGE OF DEFEAT UNLESS THE US-NATO DE FACTO INVADE, OCCUPY LIBYUH [ala Saddam = 2003] OR GADDAFI SUFFERS A MASSIVE CORONARY DURING HOT SEX? WATCHING SOCCER?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/01/2011 1:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Actual soldiers, who are now in the fight, possibly in the very low hundreds on the opposition side."

......but well placed and continuing to clandestinely report on rebel dispositions and locations.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/01/2011 1:28 Comments || Top||

#4  The opposition fighters are a ragtag bunch that seem to lack much direction, knowledge, training, fire discipline, or tactics. A lot of training and equipment would be required to get them shaped into a capable fighting force. They also seem to lack leadership.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/01/2011 13:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Fewer than

not

less than
Posted by: lord garth || 04/01/2011 15:49 Comments || Top||


Obama threatens to arm the opposition
[Ennahar] Barack B.O. Obama expressed confidence Tuesday that Qadaffy would yield "ultimately" to the diplomatic and military pressure and leave office, but has not ruled out arming the opposition if the current operation does not weaken enough the Libyan regime.

The military operation launched against the Libyan regime by the international coalition led by the United States has put "Qadaffy on the defensive," said President of the United States in an interview with NBC television.

"In addition to imposing a no-fly zone, the protection of civilian populations, we also provide tools to our political and diplomatic sanctions, the freezing of his assets, all of which will continue to strangle "Qadaffy's regime, the president said.

"So, with these high pressures, not only military (...), we expect Qadaffy ultimately leaves power," Obama said.

The U.S. leader has also said he did not rule out seeing the U.S. supply weapons to the Libyan opposition but stressed that an evaluation of the balance of power between the rebels and the Qadaffy regime was underway.

Asked about arms shipments, Obama replied: "I do not exclude it. But I'm not saying either that it will happen."

"We're still trying to assess what Qadaffy forces are going to do. It has been nine days now since the military operations began in Libya, also noted the president, believing that if these forces were sufficiently weakened, arming the rebels might be unnecessary.

"But we do not exclude anything at the moment", said Mr. Obama, who on Tuesday gave interviews to three U.S. networks (NBC, CBS and ABC) in the aftermath of a solemn speech devoted to Libya, during which he justified his decision to intervene in this country by saying it had "prevented a massacre."

He however cautioned against direct intervention in Libya to overthrow Qadaffy and recalled the "error" costly in lives and in budget that had made the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to oust Saddam Hussein from power.

On ABC, the President noted that Qadaffy's entourage, given the current pressure on the regime, could release him. "What we are seeing is that the inner circle of Qadaffy understands that the noose is tightening, that their days are numbered and they will probably have to think about what they will do shortly," he said.

On the question of the opposition, particularly the possibility that elements hostile to U.S. interests infiltrate, Obama has ensured that its executives met with U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Bainbridge Colby ...
declared reliable, but the motivations and objectives of some groups could remain unclear.

"That's why I think it's important for us not to jump into the water without thinking. We must consider carefully what are the objectives of the opposition," said Obama on CBS.

Earlier Tuesday in New York, where he inaugurated the new building of the U.S. mission to the UN, Mr. Obama welcomed the cooperation and prompts the international community in the Libyan case.

"Today, in Libya, we show what is possible when we find the courage, when we meet our obligations when we are united," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gotta love that scholarly decisiveness.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/01/2011 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  BO, the master of confused, muddled, dissembling gobblygook.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/01/2011 8:50 Comments || Top||


Gaddafi will stay in Libya 'until the end': spokesman
[Bangla Daily Star] Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffy
... a proud Arab institution for 42 years ...
will stay in the country "until the end" to lead it to victory against its enemies, a government front man said on Thursday.

Speaking after former Foreign Secretary Moussa Koussa defected and flew to Britain on Wednesday, the front man said Western air strikes against Libya had only united its top leadership against "a clear enemy."

"If this aggression did anything, it only rallied people around the leader and the unity of the nation," Mussa Ibrahim said in Tripoli. "Especially now. They see a clear enemy."

Asked if Qadaffy and his sons were still in the country, he said: "Rest assured, we are all here. We will remain here until the end. This is our country. We are strong on every front."

He added: "We are not relying on individuals to lead the struggle. This is a struggle of the whole nation. It's not dependent on individuals or officials."

Ibrahim refused to comment on Koussa's defection, saying there would be a formal government statement later in the day.

"We have millions of people leading this struggle. If anyone feels tired, feels sick or exhausted, if they want to take a rest, it just happens. I am not confirming anything," he said.

Ibrahim dismissed suggestions that coalition air strikes had tipped the balance in favor of rebel forces fighting against Qadaffy troops, or encouraged ordinary people to seek change after Qadaffy's four-decade rule.

"With the air strikes bombarding every Libyan city, you don't see people coming out en masse demanding any change," he said. "Where is a popular revolution? Where are the tribes coming out and saying to the leader: 'Leave the country'? You need to read the signs."
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I agree - again, my read of his character profile is that unless his personal narcissism is satisfied, he will have no qualms about fighting a protractive, high-casualty = bloody mil struggle to preserve his power + legacy, agz anyone even agz his own people.

He is the type that will have to suffer either death in war; or else via unsuspecting, sudden, covert internal political assassination [close circle] in order to prevent his likely harsh or bloody retaliation.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/01/2011 0:53 Comments || Top||

#2  GADDAFI > SELF-CENTERED "POWER PIG" = HELL YES, A MIL COWARD = HELL NO!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/01/2011 0:56 Comments || Top||

#3  #1 Who are you, and what did you do with our JosephMendiola?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/01/2011 3:43 Comments || Top||


Gaddafi regime racing against time, intensifies secret talks with West
[Asharq al-Aswat] Colonel Qadaffy's close aides are racing against time to find a political solution to the current crisis in Libya. Asharq Al-Awsat also learnt that one of Saif al-Islam's senior aides, Mohamed Ismail, is currently in the middle of a secret visit to London in this regard.

Sources informed Asharq Al-Awsat that the proposals being put forward by Qadaffy's close aides include a proposal which would see him remain in power as a figurehead, like Queen Elizabeth II, with one of his sons being appointed president, and opposition figures joining a national government.

Sources familiar with the details of the communications taking place between Qadaffy's close aides and a number of western governments informed Asharq Al-Awsat that Qadaffy put forward the idea of his son Mutassim Qadaffy -- who is currently a Libyan national security adviser -- being appointed Libyan president, with Colonel Qadaffy remaining in power in a symbolic position.

The sources added that this new proposal indicates that Colonel Qadaffy has withdrawn his previous proposal of his second son, Saif al-Islam Qadaffy, being appointed president, after the Libyan opposition forces completely rejection this idea. The rebel forces announced that Saif al-Islam Qadaffy's statements and positions revealed that he would follow in his father's footsteps with regards to his style of rule.

The sources also revealed that this offer is currently being discussed with a number of western governments, as well as officials within the Barack B.O. Obama administration, adding that the final form of this offer has yet to be determined, and will be put in place in the coming days pending the outcome of the current consultations.

The sources also told Asharq Al-Awsat that Saif al-Islam Qadaffy's aide, Mohamed Ismail, was held for a number of hours in Cairo, before arriving secretly in London. The source stressed that these consultations are still in their early stages.

Saif al-Islam Qadaffy has not appeared in public for 10 days, nor has he issued any statements to the media during this period, whilst Asharq Al-Awsat has learnt that Saif al-Islam Qadaffy's cell phone is switched off.

Abdul Monem al-Houni, a front man for the Libyan rebel National Transitional Council told Asharq Al-Awsat that there is an international consensus that Qadaffy should leave power as soon as possible in order to avoid further bloodshed and put an end to the destruction of the infrastructure of the Libyan state.

Al-Houni also stressed that there is division within the Libyan regime, with some believing that the time has come for Qadaffy and his family to leave power. He added that Qadaffy still believes that he might be able to remain in power in some form, as a symbolic figure-head like Queen Elizabeth II. Al-Houni told Asharq Al-Awsat that "Qadaffy believes that the Libyan people, the Western states, and the US, might possibly accept this...he is seeking to have any kind of presence [in the makeup of the future state]."

However al-Houni stressed that "it is not possible for any Libyan citizen to think of Qadaffy having any presence in their life after all that has happened."
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IMO the US-West will have to pay a sum-certain equal or superior to Gaddafi's massive self-ego just to entice him to leave Libyuh while on the verge of decisive victory agz the Rebels.

Iff he does leave, I don't believe he will chose to go or reside permanently in UGANDA - now EAST EUROPE? UKRAINE? RUSSIA? wid his favorite pregnant Ukrainian Nurse???

Muammar can compare bare-chests, abs-flexes, horses + martial skills, etc. wid Vlad.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/01/2011 1:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Why would he negotiate when he's winning? Is this his version of the Paris Peace Talks? Keep talking, keep fighting, win?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/01/2011 13:38 Comments || Top||


Gaddafi's forces battle rebels for Brega
[Al Jazeera] Troops loyal to Muammar Qadaffy have continued their advance against pro-democracy fighters as they moved eastwards toward Brega.

Brega is one of several oil towns along the fiercely contested coastal strip. Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, west of Brega, have both been retaken by Qadaffy's forces. Zueitina, east of Brega, is still in rebel hands.

Some rebel forces fell back on Wednesday as far as the town of Ajdabiya, the gateway to the east about 150 kilometres south of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. Ajdabiya was still in rebel hands on Thursday.

For several weeks pro-democracy fighters and forces loyal to Qadaffy have been fighting across a strip of land between Ajdabiya and Bin Jawad.

Rebels armed mainly with pick-ups mounted with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47 assault rifles have been unable to hold on to gains despite almost two weeks of air strikes by coalition forces.

Brega and Misurata reportedly came under heavy attack from Qadaffy's forces on Thursday, with the frontline moving closer to Ajdabiya.

Misurata -- the last major rebel stronghold in western Libya -- has been encircled by pro-Qadaffy forces for weeks and repeated coalition air strikes aimed at protecting civilians there have not stopped them.

Civilian casualties
A rebel front man said pro-Qadaffy forces shelled Misurata on Thursday, leaving dozens of civilians dead in the past few days when their homes were hit.

"Massacres are taking place in Misrata," the rebel front man, called Sami, told Rooters by telephone.

"Artillery bombardment resumed this morning and is still going on. The [pro-Qadaffy] brigades could not enter the town but they are surrounding it.

"Twenty non-combatants were killed yesterday after their houses were hit by bombardments. Many people were maimed."

Residents say that figure added to the dozens who have been killed in fighting over the past 10 days.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wreckage, a single survivor held tightly to the smashed prow...
a NATO commander on Thursday said the bloc was taking seriously reports of civilian casualties in coalition air raids over Libya.

A top Vatican official citing reliable sources in close contact with residents told Rooters at least 40 civilians have been killed in air strikes over Tripoli.

"It is a news report and I appreciate the source of this report but it is worth noting that I take every one of those issues seriously," Lieutenant-general Charles Bouchard, the Canadian commander of the coalition's military operations over Libya, said.

"We are very careful in the prosecution of any of the possible targets that we have. We have very strict rules of engagement provided to us and we are operating within the legal mandate of our United Nations
... aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
mandate."

'Qadaffy is staying'
A government front man on Thursday said that Qadaffy will stay in the country "until the end" to lead it to victory against its enemies.

Moussa Ibrahim, who spoke in Tripoli a day after Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister, decamped to Britain, said coalition air strikes had only united its top leadership against "a clear enemy".

"If this aggression did anything, it only rallied people around the leader and the unity of the nation," he said. "Especially now. They see a clear enemy."

Ibrahim said Qadaffy and his sons were still in the country.

"Rest assured, we are all here. We will remain here until the end. This is our country. We are strong on every front."

"We are not relying on individuals to lead the struggle. This is a struggle of the whole nation. It's not dependent on individuals or officials."
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


China urges political solution in Libya
[Iran Press TV] China has urged immediate cessation of US-led military Arclight airstrikes against Libya and stated that crisis in the North African country must be solved through peaceful means.

"Given the current situation, we believe that it is urgent to stop armed conflicts and solve the Libya crisis as soon as possible with peaceful means," Xinhua quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu as saying at a regular news briefing in Beijing on Thursday.

The Chinese official stressed that Beijing supports the United Nations
... aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
, the African Union, the vaporous Arab League and other international and regional organizations in their efforts to come up with a political and diplomatic solution to the Libyan issue.

Jiang Yu added, "We believe that the affairs and future of Libya should be decided by Libyans themselves."

The remarks come as the top Vatican official in Libya says that at least 40 civilians have been killed following Arclight airstrikes launched by US and its allies on the capital Tripoli.

"The so-called humanitarian raids have killed dozens of civilian victims in some neighborhoods of Tripoli," the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli, Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, said on Thursday.

He added, "I have collected several witness accounts from reliable people. In particular, in the Buslim neighborhood, due to the bombardments, a civilian building collapsed, causing the death of 40 people."

Libyan state TV has announced that at least 114 people, including several civilians, have been killed and 445 others injured in US-led aerial attacks in the oil-rich country.

"From March 20 to March 23, the attacks have killed 114 people and injured 445 people," the network quoted Libyan Health Minister Khaled Omar as saying at a presser in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on Saturday.

According to government figures, 104 people were killed in Tripoli, while another 10 civilians bit the dust in Sirte, the hometown of the Libyan ruler Muammar Qadaffy.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says some 351,600 people have decamped the crisis-hit Libya for fear of violence and around 1,500 to 2,000 are making their way to Egypt each day.

According to US military officials, more than 350 aircraft are participating in the US-led campaign of military Arclight airstrikes against Libya.

Apart from the United States, twelve countries from the European Union are taking part in Operation Odyssey Dawn, which began on March 19 after the UN Security Council imposed a no-fly zone over Libya to "protect civilians" from Qadaffy's attacks.

The rising civilian corpse count in Libya has set off a frenzy of speculations about the real motive behind the war in the country with many analysts stating that under the guise of protecting civilians, as enshrined in the UN Security Council resolution 1973, Washington and its Western allies are basically after the North African country's vast oil reserves.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's in it for China? They don't get all that much oil from Libya ~ 150,000 b/d. Libya only produces about 1.7 mb/d out of a daily requirement of 88 mb/d. Most of the Libyan oil goes to OECD countries in Europe. Call me jaded.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/01/2011 13:36 Comments || Top||

#2  What's in it for China? They don't get all that much oil from Libya ~ 150,000 b/d.
There is a world market for oil and which particular country imports oil from which particular other country doesn't matter in the larger scheme of things. After its successful and massive evacuation of Chinese citizens from Libya, the PRC has gotten a little good PR from sounding responsibly diplomatic (unlike the US).
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/01/2011 14:10 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen: Salehs offer to transfer powers rejected by opposition
[Asharq al-Aswat] Yemeni President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ...
put forward a new political initiative to the opposition, offering to transfer his powers to an opposition-led caretaker government, in return for them ceding their demand that he immediately resign the presidency. Saleh put forward this offer as hundreds of thousands of Yemenis took part in anti-government protests throughout the country, calling on Saleh to step down.

Well informed political sources in Sanaa revealed that President-for-Life Saleh
... exemplifying the Arab's propensity to combine brutality with incompetence...
held intense meetings with a number of prominent opposition leaders over the past 48 hours, particularly the Yemeni opposition Islah [Yemeni Congregation for Reform] party, with the aim of reaching a political settlement. The sources indicated that Saleh offered to cede his powers to a caretaker government jointly made up of the ruling General People's Congress and the opposition parties, with this government being led by a figure nominated by the opposition, in return for Saleh being allowed to remain in his position as a figure-head until the end of his current presidential term in 2013. Saleh's proposal also included Yemen's government ministries being divided between the ruling party and the opposition, with his party retaining the ministries of defense and foreign affairs.

In the first official response to Saleh's proposal, head of the opposition Yemeni Socialist Party's parliamentary bloc, MP Eidarous al-Naqib, played down the importance of the presidential proposal. Al-Naqib told Asharq Al-Awsat that "during the previous efforts, there has been division over the issues of [President Saleh] stepping aside and surrendering his powers and authorities to the vice-president, so how can we agree to form a government and accept powers [whilst he remains in power]." Al-Naqib stressed that the dispute is over "the entire cake" so "why should we accept half the cake?"

Naqib also told Asharq Al-Awsat that "nobody can delude themselves about the demands of the Yemeni people, who are in the streets and public squares in their millions, demanding the departure of the regime." He described Saleh's offer as being "unacceptable" and called on the Yemeni president to step down immediately.

A group calling itself the Youth Revolution also issued a statement on Wednesday saying that it did not intent to end a sit-in taking place near Sanaa University until Saleh is removed from power.

The group issued a statement calling on "a temporary presidential council of five individuals known for experience and integrity" to be formed "to run the country for an interim period (of six months)"

Whilst parliamentary opposition front man Mohammed Qahtan, accused Saleh of carrying out political "maneuvers" in order to remain in power, telling Agence-La Belle France-Presse [AFP] that "there's no choice for Saleh but to resign...the oppositions stance is tied to that of the protestors." He added that the opposition intents to "escalate its civil peaceful movements until the regime falls."
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Bahrain steps up crackdown on opposition
[Al Jazeera] Bahrain has stepped up the arrests of Shia Mohammedans, including many cyber activists, with more than 300 jugged and dozens missing since it launched a crackdown on pro-democracy protests, the opposition has said.

Activists and politicians said on Thursday that a growing number of reform campaigners are going into hiding, after the country's most prominent blogger was tossed in the slammer on Wednesday.

"The situation is critical ... Almost all the bloggers and activists who aren't in jail are now in hiding," Nabeel Rajab, head of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said.

Earlier this month, the Gulf Arab island's Sunni rulers imposed martial law and called in troops from fellow Sunni-ruled neighbours, including Soddy Arabia, to quell the protest movement led mostly by the state's Shia majority.

The severity of the crackdown, in which public gatherings are banned and security forces have been deployed at checkpoints, stunned Bahrain's Shia Mohammedans and angered the region's non-Arab Shia power Iran.

Soddy Arabia and other Gulf Arab states fearful of rising Iranian influence see Bahrain as a red line among the popular uprisings that have swept the region since January.

"The government says it is taking steps to ensure stability and security, but what's happening is the exact opposite," Mattar Ibrahim Mattar, a member of the country's largest Iranian catspaw Wefaq, said.

"We're in one of the most dangerous stages, where citizens have no security. They're being tossed in the slammer and kidnapped at checkpoints that are all over Bahrain. The checkpoints are a place of fear."

Mattar said Wefaq had counted 302 arrests on Wednesday but believed the number would soon reach 400.

Hezbullies denial

Meanwhile,
...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea...
the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbullies denied on Thursday that it had given military training to Shia Bahraini protesters.

Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahrain's foreign minister, said in an interview with the pan-Arab Al Hayat newspaper on Wednesday that Hezbullies, which he described as a terrorist organisation, had trained Bahraini "elements" in Leb.

In a recent televised speech, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbullies leader, offered support to the protesters in Bahrain, but did not specify what kind of help.

Last week, Bahrain lodged a formal complaint to the Lebanese government over Hezbullies's offer.

"We have to affirm that our Bahraini brothers did not ask us for any military or security training on any day and we have not given any training of that kind," Hezbullies said in a statement, adding that the group had only provided political and moral support for the protests.

Bahraini activists and opposition politicians said the campaign of arrests had taken a chilling turn following the arrest of the prominent blogger Mahmood al-Yousif.

Yousif, who for years has promoted anti-sectarianism under the slogan "No Shia, No Sunni, Just Bahraini", is believed to have been tossed in the slammer in the early hours of Wednesday.

His wife, La Belle Frances Irvine, said she arrived home from a trip to find her husband missing, as well as his computer, phone cassettes and tapes of family holidays.

"He phoned us at 10am to tell our son he was being held 'as a guest' and was okay. I don't know what that means, and I have had no other contact. We have no idea where he is," she said.

Yousif was considered a liberal who had criticised the Sunni rulers for their lack of reform but had also chided Wefaq for not moving more quickly to talks with the government.

More than 60 per cent of Bahrainis are Shia and most want a constitutional monarchy.

Demands by hardliners for the overthrow of the monarchy have alarmed minority Sunnis.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ION NEWSMAX > SAUDI ARABIAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN THE PERSIAN GULF[LT desire by KSA to transform the GCC into a NATO-EU style regional entity, albeit armed wid Nukes]???

and

* BHARAT RAKSHAK > SAUDIS ASK PAKISTAN TO PREPARE TO DEPLOY TROOPS ON PENINSULA IFF PROTESTS CAN'T BE STOPPED [Yemen, Bahrain, + even in Saudi Arabia itself]. PAK mil intervention as contingency in support of local Govts + security forces.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/01/2011 1:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Re: Joe's comment, what's in it for Pakistan? Can the Saudis be sure they can trust them?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/01/2011 16:08 Comments || Top||

#3  what's in it for Pakistan?

Cash.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/01/2011 16:11 Comments || Top||

#4  If the Iranians take over Saudi Arabia, then THEY'LL have the cash.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/01/2011 16:22 Comments || Top||


Sites Blocked, Hacked as Uprising Gains Further Momentum
[Yemen Post] Some news websites have been blocked and others hacked including the mouthpiece of the Islah Party amid an intensified war against the electronic media in Yemen coinciding with the peaceful uprising demanding the ouster of the regime across the republic.

The blocked websites included marebpress.com and those hacked included islah.net.

Management of islah.net said hacking its website was an attempt to prevent it from covering the popular revolution as hundreds of thousands have been conducting protests and sit-ins to call for the resignation of President Saleh.

The hackers posted photos of President Saleh and the phrase: 'yes to dialogue' on the homepage of the website, the management said.

" Such cheap ways are not useful and will not help resolve any problem or save the regime which is on the verge of collapse," it added, holding the government responsible for attacks on its website and local media.

As the popular uprising started to escalate in many part of the republic, some websites were blocked in the last few months including almasdaronline.com, nashwannews.com and yemennation.com.

officials at these website accused the authorities of blocking the websites because of covering the protests and the deadly crackdown on the protesters.

There were no official comments on the accusations.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Anwar Al-Awlaki: Unrest in the Arab World will Enable Jihad Movement to Flourish
[Yemen Post] Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, (AQAP) said that the fall of the Arab regimes will help the organization to extend everywhere.

In his article in the fifth issue of Al-Qaeda's magazine, Inspire, Anwar Al-Awlaki, the American-born Yemeni holy man welcomed Wednesday the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia but questioned the intentions of the western world.

Al-Awlaki expressed optimism regarding the future of the jihadist movement. He said that the spread of unrest in Yemen, Libya, and the possibility that uprisings will break out in Gulf countries, primarily in Soddy Arabia, will open up new opportunities for jihad.

Al-Awlaki was designated as the most dangerous enemy of the U.S., with the CIA issuing in April of last year a dead-or-alive warrant for him. The U.S. also says Al-Awlaki had links with three of those involved in 9/11 attacks.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia

#1  Wait until these post-Jasmine Muslim States turn Islamist, then NUCLEAR [Nukulaar]???

Unlike the Cold War monolateral SOVIET = COMMIE BLOC, the US-NATO/EU may becom opposed by a large group of sovereign, Nuclear-armed Islamist Muslim Bloc, complete wid simil Nuclear-armed Milterr proxies, + wid no qualms about sacrificing a large number of Muslims from one or few islamist States in NucWar to finally defeat or destroy the US-West.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/01/2011 0:44 Comments || Top||

#2  And then, you'll have to feed them all.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/01/2011 3:45 Comments || Top||


Yemens Saleh makes new offer to protesters
[Ennahar] Yemen's president has made a new offer to protesters demanding his ouster, proposing he stays in office until elections are held but transferring his powers to a caretaker government, an opposition source said on Wednesday.

President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, after serving as a lieutenant colonel in the army. He had been part of the conspiracy that bumped off his predecessor, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, in the usual tiresome military coup, and he has maintained power by keeping Yemen's many tribes fighting with each other, rather than uniting to string him up. ...
made his offer at a meeting on Tuesday night with Mohammed al-Yadoumi, head of the Islamist Islah party. It was the first time Saleh had dealt with Islah, once a partner in his government, an opposition front man said.

"The opposition could pick a head of government of its own choosing and there would be parliamentary elections by the end of the year," an opposition source said of Saleh's offer.

He said the opposition was still considering its response.

Weeks of protests by many thousands in Sanaa and other cities have sent Saleh's 32-year rule to the brink of collapse, but the United States and top oil producer Soddy Arabia, a key Yemen financer, are worried over who could succeed their ally.

They have long regarded Saleh as a bulwark of stability who can keep al Qaeda from extending its foothold in an Arabian Peninsula country that many see as close to disintegration.

Yemen's al Qaeda wing grabbed credit for a foiled attempt in late 2009 to blow up an airliner bound for Detroit, and for U.S.-bound cargo bombs sent in October 2010.

U.S. officials have said openly they like working with Saleh -- who has allowed unpopular U.S. air strikes in Yemen against al Qaeda -- and Saleh has said the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa is involved in talks to find a solution.

Any agreement between Saleh and the parties could run into trouble from another party -- the protesters.

A coalition of protester groups calling themselves the Youth Revolution issued a statement on Wednesday saying they would not leave the large public space near Sanaa University until Saleh and his allies are removed from power.

"A temporary presidential council of five individuals known for experience and integrity should run the country for an interim period (of six months)," it said, adding the council should appoint a technocrat to form a caretaker government.

It also called for corruption trials, return of "stolen public and private property," release of political detainees, dissolving state security forces and closing the information ministry -- steps taken in Tunisia and Egypt after similar pro-democracy uprisings had removed entrenched leaders.

They called for dialogue over the complaints of northern Shi'ites and southerners who lean toward secession.

ISLAH LURES WASHINGTON

Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar, a key tribal figure who belongs to the Islah party, told Rooters on Tuesday Islah and the opposition could handle the beturbanned goon issue better than Saleh, whose government he said was not serious in confronting them.

"I think Yemenis would be capable to free Yemen of terror within months," Ahmar said, adding that the United States and European countries should call directly for Saleh's departure.

"They should do what they did in Egypt. We don't need what is going on in Libya. We don't need that much support. But support like what was done in Egypt would be enough to finish things," he said.

Protesters and opposition parties suspect incidents of lax security over the past week are government ploys to demonstrate to foreign powers that Saleh is the strongman who can hold the impoverished country together.

Islamists took control of a town in the central province of Abyan after government security deserted it, and the governors of Saada and Jawf provinces in the north also quit, prompting "popular committees" who back the protest movement to step in.

The opposition says Saleh is to blame for the presence of beturbanned goons, including al Qaeda, in the Abyan city of Jaar, where an kaboom at a bullet factory killed 140 people on Monday.

A perennial survivor of civil wars and militancy, Saleh has said Yemen could drift into armed conflict and fragment along regional and tribal lines if he leaves office immediately.

Saleh, who has been alternately conciliatory and defiant, has vowed in public to make no more concessions to opponents.

But talks have been going on behind the scenes for days.

This week, Saleh's General People's Congress proposed a new government to activate his earlier offers of a new constitution ahead of early parliamentary and presidential elections. He said in February he would not run for re-election when his term expires in 2013.

The opposition says it believes Saleh is maneuvering to avoid limits on his family's future political activities and secure a guarantee they will not be prosecuted for corruption.

Some ideas that were floated included both Saleh and General Mohsen, a kinsman and former ally seen as Yemen's second most powerful man, stepping down together as well as Saleh handing over power to a new vice-president.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Meanwhile, Wonder Woman costume fans,...

To wit,

* FREEREPUBLIC > [AQAP aka AQIY] AL-QAEDA DECLARES SOUTH YEMEN AN "ISLAMIC EMIRATE".

[DPRK Nukes here].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/01/2011 2:39 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
'Criminal' killed in city 'shootout'
An alleged criminal was killed in a 'shootout' between his cohorts and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in the capital's Kafrul area early Thursday.
Bad time to be sportin' about with guns in a banana grove; the RAB's of a mind to settle the restlessness in the rest of the Muslim world.
The dear departed, Rashedul Islam alias Murgi Rashed, 25,
'Murgi'? What kind of alias is that? Must sound better in the original Bengali...
was a listed criminal in the area and also accused on twelve systems in a number of cases, Officer-in-Charge Abdul Latif of Kafrul Police Station said.

Flight Lieutenant Khairul Mamun
'Flight Lieutenant'? The RAB has an air force?
of Rab-4 said a patrol team of Rab challenged Rashed and his gang while they were holding a 'secret' meeting near High-Tech Hospital
I wonder if there is actually such a thing in B'desh...
at Kachukhet in Kafrul at about 2:30am.

Sensing danger,
"Hark! My spider-sense is tingling!"
the gang shot up the elite force members
consisting of flight lieutenants...
compelling them to retaliate with bullets.
They sure didn't spork him to death...
Rashed was caught in the line of fire and was struck down in his prime while the other gang members managed to flee the scene.
... as though they had never been...
the Rab officer said.

Kafrul police later recovered the body and sent it to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) morgue for an appointment with Dr. Quincy.
So the RAB gunned him down near the 'High-Tech Hospital' and took him to Dhaka Medical instead? Took the long way to make sure Murgi bled out?
Rashed and his gang were involved in different crimes, including extortion, Rab sources said.

One foreign-made pistol, three bullets and one cartridge were recovered from the scene.
And no shutter gun.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He's lucky they shot him. A coordinated sporking by elite force members is a terrible thing to see, much less suffer
Posted by: Frank G || 04/01/2011 10:43 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
La Linea's Terror Campaign in Chihuahua Continues with Firebomb Attack
The residence of an unidentified Chihuahua state police agent was attacked with a firebomb Thursday afternoon, according to Mexican new reports.

The home, near the intersection of calles Galera and Solares in the Girasole colony, was only slightly damaged. The intended victim was not at home at the time of that attack.

If the attack had been successful it would have been the sixth state police agent killed in the line of duty, and the fourth state police commander since March 21st.

News reports say the intended victim was one of the commanders named in a threatening graffiti display two weeks ago, which demanded his resignation. One of the commanders in that graffiti incident, Commandate Aguilera was removed from his post three days ago. Another commander named in the graffiti was identified by local Mexican press only as Commandante Solares.
To read a Rantburg reports on La Linea's terror campaign against Chihuahua state police, click here, and follow the links.
The latest victims of these series of shootings took place Tuesday when Brenda Huguet Carrillo Gonzalez, 28 was shot to death along with her five year old daughter.

On Monday night Chihuahua state police agent Gabriel Guaderrama Beltran was shot to death in Chihuahua city.
Posted by: badanov || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ION FREEREPUBLIC > CARTELS THREATEN TO KILL TEXAS RANGERS, ICE AGENTS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/01/2011 2:43 Comments || Top||

#2  One of these days we're going to have to do something about the Mexican drug cartels. I hope we don't put it off so long that it requires us fighting all the way to Ecuador to get rid of them.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 04/01/2011 13:45 Comments || Top||

#3  About the only non-corrupt [that is no greater than Chicago or NJ or etc] between here and Ecuador is Costa Rica. They can probably just jump that and continue to fall back, though most likely Hugoland will become the major refuge.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/01/2011 19:12 Comments || Top||


More Mexican Mayhem
16 Die in Northern Mexico

A total of 16 individuals were murdered in drug and hang related violence which included three unidentified men shot to death near a burrito stand in Chihuahua, Chihuahua.
For a map, click here
  • An unidentified couple out drinking was shot to death in Juarez Wednesday evening. The victims were aboard a Pontiac GrandAm near the intersection of calles Castrellon and Satevo in the Residencial del Real colony when they were shot.

  • An unidentified man was found shot to death in Juarez Wedensday night. The victim had been handcuffed and stuffed into a plastic container near the intersection of calles Ramon Aranda and Guadalupe Victoria in the Barrio Alto.

  • Two inmates at a Chihuahua state prison were stabbed to death in a brawl Tuesday. Armando Rodriguez Guadalupe Nuñez, 25, and Sigifredo Chävez Chävez, 34, were involved in an ongoing personal quarrel, and apparently stabbed each other to death at the Serdan Achilles, Chihuahua Centro de Readaptacion Social (CERESO), which is about seven kilometers were of Chihuahua city. Guadalupe Nuñez was serving time for aggravated robbery while Chävez Chävez was in for domestic violence.

  • Three unidentified men were shot to death at a burrito stand in Chihuahua, Chihuahua Wednesday. The victims had attempted to flee the shooting on foot in the Unidad colony, however, two were shot to death near the corner of calles Loma San Pedro and Loma del Pegüis, while the other was shot near the intersection of calles Solidaridad and Administracion.

  • An unidentified man was shot to death and two other individuals were wounded in a shooting in la Glorieta, Chihuahua Wednesday night.

  • Two unidentified men were found beaten to death in Juarez Thursday night. The victims were gagged with duct tape and stacked one atop of the other near the corner of calles Acapulco and Cadetes del 47 in the Melchor Ocampo colony.

  • Two inmates at a Chihuahua state prison were stabbed to death in a brawl Thursday. Edwin Carreon Elizalde 25-year-old David Gerardo Aguilar Gallegos, 23 stabbed each other to death at the Serdan Achilles, Chihuahua Centro de Readaotacion Social (CERESO), which is about seven kilometers west of Chihuahua city.

  • An unidentified man was shot to death at his residence in Juarez Thursday evening. The victim answered the door at his home near the intersection of calle Carlos Adame and Mariano Varela in the Barrio La Chaveña, when an armed suspect shot him. Several 9mm spent shell casings were found at the scene.

  • Two men, one of them a Honduran national, were shot to death near Sonoyta, Sonora Tuesday. Raul Alejandro Leyva Lopez, 22 of San Rafael de Ures, Sonora, and Jonathan Melgar Basilio Navarro, 21, were found shot once in the head near the ejido López Mateos (farm). Several .40 caliber spent shell casings were found at the scene.
Posted by: badanov || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


12 Die in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas
For a map, click here. For a map of Tamaulipas, click here. For a map of Nuevo Leon, click here For a map of Monterrey, click here
Three shootouts between elements of the Mexican Army and armed suspects claimed the lives of 12 suspects, according to Mexican press accounts.
  • In northern Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, an army detachment on patrol encountered a two vehicle convoy, which was signalled to stop. Instead, suspects aboard the vehicles opened fired on soldiers. Army return fire killed four suspects. The encounter took place late on the night of March 27th near the intersection of calle Coahuila and 20 de Noviembre in the Guerrero colony. Seized in the aftermath were the two vehicles, six rifles, 74 weapons magazines and 1,100 rounds of ammunition.

  • In Escobedo, Nuevo Leon, a Mexican Army unit encountered a six vehicle convoy carrying several armed suspects late last Tuesday night in the Las Malvinas colony. Reports say the suspects opened fire on the army unit as soon as they were seen, sparking a firefight which lasted about 40 minutes. The battle was concentrated mainly on calle Cerro del Topo, but spanned several colonies. Three armed suspects were killed and an unidentified woman died in the crossfire. A fifth suspect was found dead aboard a Chevrolet Camaro near the intersection of Avenida Abasolo and Calle Serafín Peña. Presumably, the deceased in the Camaro was part of the convoy initially encountered by the Mexican Army.

  • In Guadalupe, Nuevo Leon early Thursday morning a Mexican Army detachment fought a brief gun battle with armed suspects killing four. The unit was on patrol near the corner of Avenida Pablo Livas and Serafin Peña in the Guadalupe Victoria colony when armed suspects aboard a Dodge neon and a Jeep Cherokee fired on the soldiers. As elements of the army unit returned fire, the Jeep fled from the scene. The four suspects killed in the gunfight still had their AR-15 assault rifles in their hands when they died. Radio equipment as well as munitions were seized following the shooting.
Posted by: badanov || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Are they making progress sweeping up the weapons our government sent across the border?
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/01/2011 12:53 Comments || Top||

#2  No idea, tw

All I do know whenever a Mexican Army fusilero misses a bad guy, Gawd kills a kitten.
Posted by: badanov || 04/01/2011 18:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Gawd kills a kitten.

That's awful, badanov! Kittens have a hard enough time without Gawd stepping in.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/01/2011 19:26 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia kills 2 militants in Ingushetia
[Iran Press TV] Russian police forces have killed two armed forces of Evil in the volatile North Caucasus region of Ingushetia while their documents were being checked.

The gunnies were killed after they opened fire on Russian police forces who asked them to show their identity documents at a bus stop in the village of Nizhny Alkun on Wednesday. The killed forces of Evil were wanted for several terrorism-related charges, according to the police.

"The criminals were destroyed by return fire," AFP quoted the police as saying.

The killing follows a similar incident on Monday, during which 17 forces of Evil were killed in Russian military air strike on an alleged bully boy base in the same region.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Chechen Republic of Ichkeria


Home Front: WoT
Bounties: US Offers $5 Million In Killing Of ICE Agent, Mexico Offers 10 Million Pesos
Of lesser interest to the US Government and probably now a "cold case" is murder of Robert Krentz, 58, a prominent Arizona cattleman who was gunned down the morning of March 27 on his ranch northeast of Douglas.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/01/2011 03:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  From the article: the two agents were southbound on the four-lane federal toll highway in an armored blue Chevrolet Suburban with diplomatic plates when they stopped about 2:30 p.m. at what appeared to be a checkpoint by men dressed in camouflage and carrying automatic weapons.

The agents identified themselves, in Spanish and English, as Americans and as diplomats, authorities said, but were shot anyway.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/01/2011 14:04 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Seven killed in Balochistan firing, bomb attack
[Dawn] Seven people were killed in a kaboom and firing in different towns of Balochistan on Thursday, reported DawnNews.

According to security officials, five people riding in a car were killed when their vehicle was attacked by a remote control bomb in the area of Thump in Turbat.

In another incident, unknown gunnies opened fire and killed two people near Qalat.

The attacker riding on a cycle of violence managed to escape after the incident, said sources.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Eight militants killed in Kurram
[Dawn] Security forces attacked hard boy hideouts in the Kurram tribal region on Thursday killing at least eight hard boys, DawnNews reported.

Six hard boyz were also maimed in the action in central Kurram and two hard boy hideouts were destroyed.

Kurram is located near the Afghan border. Many Talibs escaping a Pakistain army operation in the nearby Orakzai Agency
... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers...
are believed to have decamped there.

It is difficult to independently confirm the clash or corpse counts because access to Pakistain's tribal belt is restricted.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Omar Patek shot, hurt during arrest
[Straits Times] THE main Indonesian suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people was shot and maimed by security forces who tossed in the clink him in Pakistain, an Indonesian official said on Thursday.

Umar Patek, a deputy commander of Al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah, was tossed in the clink in Pakistain on Jan 25 after a tip from the CIA, Pak and Indonesian security officials have said.

He was in a firefight that broke out during his arrest, Sutanto, head of Indonesia's intelligence agency, told news hounds in Jakarta.

One of the officers was also hurt, he said.

Pakistain will provide Indonesian consular officials access to Patek so they can confirm his identity, said Pakistain's Foreign Ministry front man, Tehmina Janjua, during her weekly press briefing Thursday.

The arrest of Patek, who has a US$1 million (S$1.3 million) American price tag on his head, ends a 10-year international manhunt and is a major achievement in the global fight against Al-Qaeda and its offshoots.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Blast in Charsadda targets Fazl's convoy; 12 killed
[Dawn] A kaboom targeting the convoy of Maulana Fazlur Rehman,
Known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam -- Fazl (JUI-F) party killed at least 12 people and maimed several others in the northwestern Pak town of Charsadda on Thursday, police said.

Today's bombing was the second attack against the politician and his supporters in as many days.

"The kaboom hit a police vehicle deployed for security of the convoy," senior police official Nisar Khan Marwat told AFP.

Fazlur Rehman and his lover companions were unharmed, Marwat said, adding that the politician had gone to the town to address a party meeting.

JUI-F front man Asif Iqbal Daudzai confirmed that the party chief and other leaders were not hurt, but two security guards travelling in the vehicle in front were maimed.

"Maulana Fazlur Rehman and others are safe, their vehicle was damaged in the kaboom," Daudzai told AFP.

Moreover, Abdul Jalil Jan, a JUI leader told Rooters: "The bomb went kaboom! just when Maulana Fazlur Rehman's vehicle passed that area. He was on his way to attend a public meeting. He is safe and sound."

Ajmal Khan Naimat, a top government official in Charsadda, said nine people were killed and Rehman was apparently the target.

"Yes, Maulana was the target of the attack. We don't know why is he being targeted," Rehman's aide Jan said.

It was the second attack on Fazlur Rehman and his supporters in two days. On Wednesday a jacket wallah on a cycle of violence went kaboom!" near a police checkpoint killing 10 people and wounding more than 20 in the northwestern town of Swabi.

Fazlur Rehman was on his way to a public meeting in Swabi when the blast happened.

Thursday's attack was the latest episode of political violence in Pakistain this year. In January, the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, was rubbed out by a bodyguard for his opposition to the country's blasphemy law. On March 2, Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated.

Militants linked to al Qaeda and Taliban have waged a campaign of suicide kabooms across Pakistain, mainly in the northwest bordering Afghanistan, in retaliation for government offensives against jihad boy strongholds.

Fazlur Rehman, a firebrand orator, is opposed to Pakistain's alliance with the United States in the fight against Islamic exemplars.

His party was part of the coalition government until December 2010, when it pulled out after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sacked two ministers, including one JUI-F member, for publicly trading accusations of corruption.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Protesters serving enemies: Assad
[Arab News] Syrian hereditary President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. Also head of Syria's Baath Party, an old-fashioned fascist operation that's seldom described as one in the press...
went on the offensive in a much-anticipated televised address to the nation on Wednesday, avoiding any proposal for concrete reforms and attacking opposition protesters as pawns of foreign interference.

In his first address to the nation since the sweeping protests left dozens dead, Assad spoke for 45 minutes in front of Parliament, departing from his notes for most of his speech -- except at the start and when he addressed the issue of reform. Human Rights Watch says at least 73 people were killed in the past 10 days of demonstrations, violently suppressed by government forces.

"To say it was disappointing would be understatement. It was also provocative as far as Syrian people are concerned. He made no attempt to appear conciliatory to the Syrian people or make any concrete proposal for reform," Malik Al-Abdeh, who runs the Syria In Transition website from London, told The Media Line.

The speech is likely not only to disappoint opposition protesters, who have been demanding more political freedoms and a crackdown on corruption, but Syria's moderate friends, such as Turkey and Qatar, which have been urging him to loosen some of the most draconian aspects of his rule.

There were unconfirmed reports that festivities broke out at the Arab International University in Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
immediately after the speech concluded.

"I see nothing new in this speech. Al-Assad spoke of reform but presented no elements to enable that reform," said Muhammad Al-Musfir, a political scientist at Qatar University in Doha. "He accused people of subversion (fitna). Is demanding reform subversion? That's news to me."

Assad had hinted that some of the opposition's grievances might be addressed in his speech. But he made no mention of lifting the state-of-emergency regime imposed in 1963. Nor did he refer to the civilians who have died in festivities with security forces.

Instead, he accused the protesters of serving the enemies of the country, using the word fitna, the Arabic for sedition and redolent with religious meaning, to describe the demonstrators.

"Some people consider what is happening to be a revolution, but we see it differently," Assad said. "The conspirators first began with incitement, which began a few weeks ago. They did not accomplish anything so they began to lie. They falsified information, sounds, pictures, everything. They then switched to the second axis -- the sectarian one -- and began sending text messages on mobile phones to one sect telling people to beware of the other sect."

The accusation that the opposition leaders have a religious agenda is likely to strike a nervous chord among Syrians, who are a mix of Mohammedans, Christians, Druze and Alawites. Sectarian tensions in neighboring Leb led to a protracted civil war in the 1970s and 1980s.

Syria has been ruled by the Baath party since 1963 and Assad succeeded his father, Hafez Assad, in 2000.

Against the hopes his speech had aroused, Assad sent other signals that he was gearing up for a fight rather than compromise. On Tuesday, tens of thousands gathered at Seven Sea Square in the capital of Damascus in a government-orchestrated protest. As he entered Parliament for Wednesday's speech, politicians chanted "God, Syria and Bashar only!" and "Our souls, our blood we sacrifice for you Bashar." His speech was interrupted by standing ovation.

"Every day, our enemies scientifically and in an organized way try to harm Syria's stability," Assad told the politicians. "They have chosen the wrong people (to conspire against) because this kind of conspiracy will not succeed."

Assad's tactics follow the trajectory of other Arab leaders -- violent crackdown on demonstrators, replacing the Cabinet and promising piecemeal reforms that don't address the fundamental grievances of the opposition. In Egypt and Tunisia, however, those tactics failed to stop mounting protests and leaders of both countries were forced to resign.

Nevertheless, Assad reiterated in his Wednesday address that Syria was different from other Arab countries beset by unrest. "Syria isn't isolated from the Arab world, and is influenced and influences. At the same time, we are not a copy of the other countries ... we in Syria have features that make us more distinct both internally and externally."

Both he and political analysts have cited his personal popularity -- unlike most of the region's leaders he is a relatively young 44 years old and has been in power for just 11 years -- and his strong hostility to Israel and the US as reasons why Syria may avoid the most severe turmoil.

Ironically, Assad has the quiet backing of the US and Israel, who worry that the president's exist would expose the country to a possible takeover by religious beturbanned goons.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  I do agree that if Assad has any backing of the US and Israel, it is very quiet.

Posted by: Bernardz || 04/01/2011 8:24 Comments || Top||


Syria leader dashes hopes of end to emergency rule
[Asharq al-Aswat] hereditary President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. Also head of Syria's Baath Party, an old-fashioned fascist operation that's seldom described as one in the press...
of Syria dashed hopes of an end to decades of emergency rule Wednesday in his first speech since protests erupted two weeks ago, instead blaming conspirators for the unrest.

Syria has been ruled with an iron grip by the Assad family for 40 years but has now been reached by the wave of popular demonstrations that have swept the Middle East.

In a highly anticipated address to parliament that lasted almost an hour, Assad warned that Syria's "enemies" were targeting its unity.

He failed to deliver the expected announcement that he was ending the 48-year-old emergency, prompting rights groups to express disappointment.

Washington said the speech lacked substance, and two senior US politicians urged President Barack B.O. Obama to get behind the opposition to Assad.

Following the speech, gunfire broke out in the Syrian port city of Latakia, with conflicting reports as to what was happening.

Syria's emergency laws authorise the arrest and interrogation of any individual and restrict gatherings and movement.

Key Assad aide Buthaina Shaaban had told AFP on Sunday that the government intended to lift the state of emergency, but she could not say when.

Assad, who appeared relaxed and exchanged jokes with parliamentarians, echoed that statement on Wednesday, saying that talks were underway on new laws on the media and political pluralism.

"The emergency law and political parties law have been under study for a year.

"There are more, unannounced reforms ... but giving a timeframe is a logistic matter. When we announce it in such circumstances, it is difficult to meet that deadline."

The president warned that Syria was going through a "test of unity". Its foes had taken advantage of the needs of the people to incite division, he said.

"This conspiracy is different in shape and timing from what is going on in the Arab world," he said. "Syria is not isolated from the region... but we are not a copy of other countries."

While acknowledging that the Syrian people had legitimate demands, Assad warned that people's desires had been used to "trick them into heading to the streets."

"We are all for reform. That is the duty of the state. But we are not for strife," Assad said.

"What we should watch out for is starting reforms under these circumstances right now, this passing wave."

But Amnesia Amnesty International said Assad had "missed a crucial opportunity" to lift the emergency laws.

Pinning the blame on a foreign "conspiracy" was a "dangerous diversion" Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa deputy director, said.

Nadim Houry, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, described the speech as "extremely disappointing."

"President Assad simply repeated the same vague promises of reform that he?s been uttering for over a decade," Houry told AFP.

US State Department front man Mark Toner said Assad's speech "fell short."

"It's clear to us that it didn't have much substance to it," Toner said, adding that he thought the Syrian people would be disappointed.

Republican Senator John Maverick McCain
... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution...
and Independent Senator Joe Lieberman said Obama's effort to engage rather than shun Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
had "little to show for it".

Now it was time to back protesters against Assad's rule, they said.

Gunfire broke out in the port city following Assad's speech, with state television blaming "gunnies" for opening fire in the southern neighbourhood of Sleibi.

City residents reported a drive-by shooting at a sit-in, while another eyewitness, contacted by telephone, said security forces had opened fire to disperse demonstrators disappointed by Assad's speech.

Syrian human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
activists have accused security forces of killing 130 people in their crackdown on the two weeks of protests. Officials put the toll at some 30 dead.

It is a period of unprecedented domestic pressure for Assad, who succeeded his father Hafez in 2000.

Demonstrators have defied the state of emergency with street gatherings, emboldened by the wave of dissent that has rocked the Arab world since December.

The protests were quickly contained in Damascus, but took root in the tribal region of Daraa, south of the capital, and in the confessionally divided city of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.

The government of Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Otri tendered its resignation on Tuesday and a new cabinet is expected to be announced by the end of the week.

Facebook group The Syria Revolution 2011, an anonymous yet wildly popular page, has called for nationwide demonstrations on Friday.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Assad orders review of Syrian laws
[Al Jazeera] Facing a massive protest movement demanding reform, Syria's president has set up committees to look into the deaths of civilians during nearly two weeks of unrest and replacing decades-old emergency laws.

Thursday's move appears to be a carefully designed attempt by hereditary President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. Also head of Syria's Baath Party, an old-fashioned fascist operation that's seldom described as one in the press...
to show he will not be pressured to implement reform, instead, he will make changes at his own pace.

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on Thursday that investigative committees have been set up to look into possible causes in the deaths of protesters, including the 1962 census in east Syria, which resulted in many Kurds being denied nationality.

On Wednesday, Assad defied expectations that he would announce sweeping changes, instead blaming two weeks of popular revolt on a foreign conspiracy during his first public address since the protests began.

It was not immediately clear whether Thursday's overtures would succeed in pacifying a growing protest movement in one of regions most autocratic regimes.

'Martyrs Day'
Activists have called for massive demonstrations across Syrian provinces on Friday, dubbing it "Martyrs Day''.

The day could prove to be a turning point in the country's future.

Syrian TV said the ruling Baath Party's regional command formed a committee made up of legal experts to study legislation that would "guarantee the country's security and dignity of Syrians and combat terrorism''.

"This would pave the way for lifting the state of emergency laws,'' it said. The widely despised, decades-old emergency laws give the regime a free hand to arrest people without charge.

The state-run news agency
...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
said the committee would complete its study by April 25.

Syrian TV also said Assad has set up a judicial committee tasked with urgently investigating the circumstances that led to the death of Syrian civilians and security forces in the southern city of Daraa and port city of Latakia.

Assad dismissed his 32-member cabinet on Tuesday in a move designed to mollify the anti-government protesters, but the overture was largely symbolic.

Assad holds the lion's share of power in the authoritarian regime, and there are no real opposition figures or alternatives to the current leadership.

The protests were sparked off by the arrest of several teenagers who wrote anti-government graffiti on walls in the southern city of Daraa.

They spread to other parts of the country last week, and human rights
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
groups say more than 60 people have been killed since March 18 as security forces cracked down on the demonstrations.

'Protesters incarcerated'
An anti-government protester in Daraa said on Thursday that security forces incarcerated up to 17 people in the city overnight.

He said a sit-in by a few hundred protesters near al-Omari mosque, the epicentre of protests, ended on Thursday.

However,
The over-used However...
he said protesters were regrouping for more demonstrations in Daraa and nearby areas on Friday. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

In Assad's speech before parliament on Wednesday, his first speech since the protests began, he said Syria is being subjected to a "major conspiracy''.

He made only a passing reference to the protesters' calls for change, saying he was in favour of reform, but acknowledged there have been delays.

"The question is what reforms do we need,'' he said, without offering any specifics.

Social networking sites immediately responded with activists calling on Syrians to take to the streets.

Sectarian tensions
Within hours of Assad's speech, residents of the Mediterranean port city of Latakia said troops opened fire during a protest by about 100 people, although it was not immediately clear whether they were firing in the air or at the protesters. The residents asked that their names not be published for fear of reprisals.

Latakia, which has a potentially volatile mix of different religious groups, already has become a flashpoint for violence that could take on a dangerous sectarian tone in the coming days and weeks.

The anti-government protests and ensuing violence have brought Syria's sectarian tensions into the open for the first time in decades, a taboo topic because Syria has a Sunni majority ruled by minority Alawites, a branch of Shia Islam.

Assad has placed his fellow Alawites into most positions of power in Syria.

However,
The over-used However...
he also has used increased economic freedom and prosperity to win the allegiance of the prosperous Sunni Mohammedan merchant classes, while punishing dissenters with arrest, imprisonment and physical abuse.

Assad, who inherited power 11 years ago from his father, appears to be following the same strategy of other autocratic leaders who attempt to quell uprisings by offering minor concessions coupled with brutal crackdowns.

The formula failed in Tunisia and Egypt, where citizens accepted nothing less than the ouster of the regime.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Obscure group claims kidnap of Estonians in Lebanon
[Asharq al-Aswat] An obscure group has claimed the kidnapping of seven Estonians in Leb by sending an email to a local website along with copies of the ID cards of three of those kidnapped, the head of the website told AFP Thursday.

"We received an email late yesterday and we informed the proper authorities," said Rabih Haber, head of Leb Files website. The email added that the Estonians were in good condition.

The group, Haraket El Nahda Wal Islah (the movement for renewal and reform) said it would make known its demands at a later time.

A security official contacted by AFP would not comment on the claim.

The Estonian cyclists were kidnapped at gunpoint in the eastern Bekaa town of Zahle after entering Leb through Syria.

Authorities believe a gang of Lebanese and Syrian nationals involved in smuggling and other criminal activities is behind the kidnapping.
Posted by: Fred || 04/01/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
63[untagged]
4Govt of Syria
2Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
1Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
1Govt of Iran
1Govt of Pakistan
1Hamas
1TTP
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1al-Qaeda in Iraq

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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

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

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

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

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2011-04-01
  Two UN staff beheaded and eight others murdered in protest against U.S. pastor who burnt Koran
Thu 2011-03-31
  Obama 'orders covert help for Libya rebels'
Wed 2011-03-30
  Libyan Foreign Minister quits, arrives in UK
Tue 2011-03-29
  Yemeni regime loses grip on four provinces
Mon 2011-03-28
  Rebels push towards Sirte
Sun 2011-03-27
  Libyan rebels say forces reach oil town of Brega
Sat 2011-03-26
  Libyan Rebels Reclaim Ajdabiya
Fri 2011-03-25
  Libya: French aircraft destroyed a dozen armored vehicles in 3 days
Thu 2011-03-24
  15 dead in new clashes in Deraa
Wed 2011-03-23
  Qaddafi attacks rebel towns
Tue 2011-03-22
  Western War Planes Hit Qadaffy Command Post
Mon 2011-03-21
  Gaddafi compound attacked again amid reports son killed
Sun 2011-03-20
  Crisis in Libya: U.S. bombs Qaddafi's airfields
Sat 2011-03-19
  Fighting reported near Benghazi - Tanks enter city
Fri 2011-03-18
  Libya declares ceasefire after UN resolution

Better than the average link...



Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
3.91.17.78
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Background (16)    Non-WoT (16)    Opinion (7)    (0)    Politix (3)