It may seem like an unlikely pairing, but the fun-loving furry Muppets on Sesame Street are partnering with the Department of Homeland Security to teach kids as young as 3-years-old how to proceed should a terrorist attack, hurricane, or other potential catastrophe occur.
For the times it's not a sunny day in the neighborhood, Sesame Street wants its pupils prepared, reports CBS station WCBS-TV in New York City.
"An emergency is something that happens that you do not expect," warns a helmet-wearing Grover at the beginning of a new DVD and information package aimed at young children. Officials hope children will learn how to respond should a major event occur.
"This way they're aware something unexpected can happen and there's ways to prepare for it," says Jeanette Betancourt, the Education Director of Sesame Workshop.
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 stressed the need for a child's psychological protection, while family separation during Hurricane Katrina taught the need to know names other than mommy and daddy.
On the DVD, the familiar and friendly faces of the Muppets sing about first names, last names, emergency kits, the neighborhood's helpers, and -- with Grover as the intrepid reporter -- what to know in case of an emergency.
Helping with the kid-friendly message were experts with Weill Cornell Medical College's pediatrics department. "They can memorize their own address and phone number so someone knows how to get a hold of them and then we focused on parents and saying what they can do," says Dr. Mary Jo Ward, a Developmental Psychologist at the college.
The push came from what kids didn't know. Developers of the package say almost 2 out of 3 families don't have an emergency plan everyone is aware of.
Parents are happy to add this to their collection. "I guess if you can watch it on a DVD they might pay more attention," says parent Julie Koontz. Adds Jennifer Friedman, another parent who agrees with Koontz: "It's something the parents can use to stimulate conversation."
A conversation helped by characters that children trust. "It's made from the child's point of view, it's fun. It's not only not threatening, but it's also a way to enjoy it over and over and over," says Betancourt. Too much time + Too much money == ?
#2
This is important. As soon as each of the trailing daughters was truly talking, I taught her a little song with her full name, street address, town and country. We lived in Germany when I started this, so I taught it to them in the local language. When we moved to Belgium I taught them the new address in English, because the Belgians become so upset if addressed in the wrong language, whether French or Flemish. This gave the tds confidence that they would be ok if they got lost or separated from their adults, and I no longer needed to worry that when turned in to the police they would have answers beyond, "My name is trailing, I live with Mommy and Daddy at home."
#3
TW is exactly right. My extended family lives in Louisiana and Texas, and go through hurricanes, tornadoes, and just plain thunderstorms regularly. They also experienced the total disorganization that occurred during the Katrina evacuation. It's easy for a family to get separated, and tough to reunite them if you don't have a last name, telephone number, or street address. Good on Sesame Street to do this - those familiar characters will take some of the dread out of what would otherwise be a somber and frightening experience.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/21/2008 19:39 Comments ||
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#4
"Too much time + Too much money == ?"
You and Procopius2k have not been on the wrong side of disaster? Or perhaps you've both forgotten what happens when things go kablooie. Or perhaps you're counting on the parent(s) to do it?
May I counsel you that that final sentiment doesn't necessarily work?
And that the primary recipient of kids not knowing what to do will be the government responders?
My question is why hadn't this hadn't been done five or six years ago.
TERROR chief Osama bin Laden will have his poetry published next week.
As well as being head of al-Qaida, the mastermind behind the World Trade Centre attacks once recited his poems at weddings and other feasts, an Arabic studies academic has discovered.
Prof Flagg Miller found the recitings on tapes recovered from bin Laden's Afghanistan compound after the September 11 attacks, the Sunday Times reports.
Prof Miller, of the University of California Davis, said bin Laden was a skilled poet and many people taped him and passed the recordings around like pop songs.
One poem begins: "A youth who plunges into the smoke of war smiling stains the blades of lances red. May God not let my eye stray from the most eminent humans, lest they fall."
It portrays bin Laden as a "warrior poet" who will lead followers to an idyllic refuge in the Hindu Kush mountains.
Prof Miller said often in bin Laden's verse mountains were shields against secular temptations.
The poems seem calculated to win over disaffected urban youth by telling gory tales of war.
Tape extracts will be in next month's Language and Communication.
Some Arabic specialists are outraged at the publication of the poems.
One said they were like brutal video nasties.
"Whatever else bin Laden is, he is now exposed as a disgrace to two millennia of Arabic culture," the specialist said.
At least 100 Afghan policemen and government officials, including a deputy provincial governor, were poisoned after eating their evening meal.
A man claiming to be from the Taliban said he had carried out the mass poisoning but NATO's military force, which offered medical treatment, said it was believed to be a straightforward case of food poisoning.
About 100 men fell ill in the eastern province of Nuristan late yesterday after eating iftar, the evening meal that breaks a day of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, deputy provincial governor Abdul Halim said. They had all eaten food prepared in the kitchen of the governor which feeds some provincial authorities and police who guard the compound. "After we had our iftar, about 100 people felt really ill,'' he said.
Many had fainted and about 360 people were treated were given medical treatment. Halim said he had also taken ill but had recovered by Sunday. The provincial police chief was however still being treated in a clinic, he said.
The source of the poisoning appeared to have been the bread but it was being investigated.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force, in Afghanistan to help the government defeat a Taliban-led insurgency, said about 160 people were treated at a clinic and 200 more at a local police station. "Although the cause of the illness is not fully understood it is believed to be a straightforward case of food poisoning and the matter is being investigated by the Afghan National Police,'' it said in a statement.
A man who gave his name as Ajab Khan and said he was a Taliban commander in the region claimed responsibility for the poisoning and said 300 people had been affected.
Nuristan is a rural and mountainous province on the border with Afghanistan. It has seen attacks by Taliban insurgents, with the radical faction of former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar also active there.
(SomaliNet) France has circulated a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council calling for a coordinated, international response to tackle piracy off the coast of Somalia. France says that all states interested in maritime safety should take the necessary measures to prevent pirates from hijacking ships in the area. Earlier this week pirates hijacked two more ships off the Somali coast; there are now 13 vessels being held for ransom.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
We're kind of busy now, but feel free to go ahead and jump right in.
#2
You can't deal with the piracy issue until you deal with the lawlessness and civil war going on. Trying is a fool's errand. Not having a functional national government will allow all kinds of fun things to escalate. The entire civilized world needs to come together and jump on Somalia with both feet. Of course, Russia and China will never allow that to happen, but it's what's needed.
Maybe the pirates need to capture a Russian or Chinese vessel. Maybe that's the only thing that will change some minds.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/21/2008 19:42 Comments ||
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#3
Put a Panamanian flag on a rusty old cargo ship with a pop-up MK-15 Phalanx on an elevator amidships, a dozen or so Marines.... and go HUNTING!
Investigators are now probing Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh's suspected involvement or link with militancy at home and abroad following Thursday's arrest of 10 of its leaders and activists in Rajshahi.
Sources in the law enforcement agencies yesterday said the arrests were not unexpected and that the agencies were looking for Tahrir men after a few of them distributed leaflets at Baro Masjid in Rajshahi around 10 days before the arrests.
Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) Commissioner Mahbub Mohsin yesterday said the arrest of Tahrir leaders on Thursday was not surprising. "We had been looking for the organisation's leaders and activists for distributing leaflets at Baro Masjid," he told The Daily Star.
Law enforcement and intelligence agencies suspected Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh as a militant organisation and kept it under watch for quite a long time although it is not officially declared a militant outfit, said a top official of a law enforcement agency in Dhaka.
Meanwhile, The Daily Star yesterday received a fax dated September 18 sent in the name of Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) that apparently acknowledged Hizb ut-Tahrir as its 'front organisation' and asked the government and all law enforcement agencies to refrain from harassing its leaders and activists.
The message also reiterates Tahrir Chief Coordinator Mahiuddin Ahmed's demand for releasing the 10 arrested leaders and activists within 48 hours and threatened that otherwise "Bangladesh will be stained with the blood of law enforcers and all the advisers".
Although Hizb ut-Tahrir has been campaigning in the country for several years by distributing leaflets and putting up posters, its activities came to the notice of law enforcers after the grenade attack on the then British high commissioner to Bangladesh Anwar Choudhury at Hazrat Shah Jalal Shrine in Sylhet on May 21, 2004.
Tahrir men had put up anti-British and anti-US posters around the shrine two days before the attack, which made investigators suspect that the attack was carried out by Hizb ut-Tahrir. And since then the outfit has been alleged to have militant links at home and abroad, said a law enforcement official involved in the probe into the attack.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Mohammad yesterday told the media that Hizb ut-Tahrir's activities in Rajshahi are suspicious and that they are investigating the outfit's objectives and activities. He said they are cautious not to let similar incidents take place elsewhere.
"The leaflets distributed in Rajshahi contain objectionable statements against the state and the government. We are investigating the line of their activities," the IGP said.
Another law enforcement agency source said Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh was on the list of suspected militant organisations prepared by intelligence agencies, including police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), when JMB started militant activities openly.
Rab Additional Director General Col Gulzar Uddin Ahmed, who led the investigation into JMB's militant activities and massive terror attacks, told The Daily Star yesterday that many statements of Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh are similar to those of the JMB.
"We are yet to trace any terrorist activity by Hizb ut-Tahrir. Its activities are being watched," Gulzar said.
Boalia Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Ramzan Ali, who was tasked with investigating activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir after Thursday's arrest, said over phone, "I am investigating if the 10 arrested leaders and activists of Hizb ut-Tahrir are involved with militancy."
He said on September 9, Tahrir men distributed leaflets in front of the Baro Masjid in Rajshahi after Esha prayers. "The language of the leaflet was objectionable. Since Hizb ut-Tahrir's name was on the leaflets, we were looking for their activists," he added.
The leaflet reads, "Our rulers have discarded the Quran and Sunnah...They have handed us over to our enemies. In this holy month of Ramadan, we have to take oath to dethrone our rulers and establish the rule of Khilafat."
Hizbut ut-Tahrir also criticises sending of forces in United Nations Peace Keeping missions for protecting "enemies" instead of "turning them into the flag bearers of Islam".
A law enforcement agency source said Hizb ut-Tahrir Bangladesh sought permission from an intelligence agency in Rajshahi on Wednesday for holding a press conference at Rajshahi City Press Club on Thursday but did not get the permission.
The police arrested the 10 Tahrir men when they attempted to hold the press conference without prior permission.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2008 00:00 ||
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Venezuela is increasingly becoming a police state. The government is expelling foreign critics, and jailing or harassing domestic ones. President Hugo Chavez's brand of nationalistic socialism is ruining the economy and antagonizing neighbors. Chavez is trying to use oil income to buy the support of enough of the population to keep himself in power. Meanwhile, the United States has charged three senior Venezuelan officials with working for FARC, mainly in the area of money laundering, and arranging for FARC drugs to get smuggled through Venezuela. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on the three Venezuelans, restricting their access to the international financial system. The three men were also charged with trying to overthrow the Colombian government, as another way to aid FARC. Chavez took this personally, and the spat between the U.S. and Venezuela got nasty, with ambassadors being expelled.
Posted by: ed ||
09/21/2008 08:13 ||
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#1
Hugo Chavez, President and Pompous Ass in Charge of Venezuela.
The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) NWFP on Saturday launched its "protest week" against military operations in Bajaur and other tribal areas. In this connection, a protest demonstration was held in Peshawar which was led by the party's provincial chief Sirajul Haq. Similar protest rallies and demonstrations were held on divisional level throughout the province.
Scores of JI activists, carrying banners and placards inscribed with anti-America slogans, gathered in front of Peshawar Press Club (PPC) to mark the first day of their protest week. They were chanting slogans against America and asked the government to put an end to military operations in Bajaur and Swat as well as stop US forces from violating Pakistani borders. Addressing the protestors, Sirajul Haq said two operations were conducted in Bajaur during Musharraf era in which a total of 100 civilians were killed. However, the tally of civilian casualties reached 625 in the agency during the first eight months of the present government. Siraj said the present elected government was busy accomplishing the unfinished agenda of the Musharraf regime by using the military and arms against its own people to appease the United States. Lashing out at the Awami National Party (ANP) government in NWFP, Siraj said it had lost the writ in many areas and people were feeling themselves unsafe even inside their houses. He said the NWFP government was restricted to the Governor's House and Chief Minister's House while the ministers and other high-ups could not dare to come out of well-guarded houses and see the pathetic condition of the people who pushed them to the corridor of power.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2008 00:00 ||
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Indian Mujahideen - the group that claimed responsibility for last week's deadly bomb blasts in New Delhi - is being supported by Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, Delhi police said on Saturday.
This is the first time New Delhi has linked last Saturday's serial blasts, which claimed at least 24 lives, to Lashkar-e-Taiba. Delhi Police Joint Commissioner Karnal Singh told reporters that Lashkar-e-Taiba "was providing complete support to the Indian Mujahideen and the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)".
The Indian Mujahideen first came to public attention last November following serial blasts in Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh in which at least 13 people died.
The group has said it was also responsible for a string of five bomb blasts in July in the western city of Ahmedabad that killed at least 45 people.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2008 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images taken at night show heavily Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad began emptying before a U.S. troop surge in 2007, graphic evidence of ethnic cleansing that preceded a drop in violence, according to a report published on Friday.
The images support the view of international refugee organizations and Iraq experts that a major population shift was a key factor in the decline in sectarian violence, particularly in the Iraqi capital, the epicenter of the bloodletting in which hundreds of thousands were killed.
Minority Sunni Arabs were driven out of many neighborhoods by Shi'ite militants enraged by the bombing of the Samarra mosque in February 2006. The bombing, blamed on the Sunni militant group al Qaeda, sparked a wave of sectarian violence.
"By the launch of the surge, many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country, and they turned off the lights when they left," geography professor John Agnew of the University of California Los Angeles, who led the study, said in a statement.
"Essentially, our interpretation is that violence has declined in Baghdad because of intercommunal violence that reached a climax as the surge was beginning," said Agnew, who studies ethnic conflict.
Some 2 million Iraqis are displaced within Iraq, while 2 million more have sought refuge in neighboring Syria and Jordan. Previously religiously mixed neighborhoods of Baghdad became homogenized Sunni or Shi'ite Muslim enclaves.
The study, published in the journal Environment and Planning A, provides more evidence of ethnic conflict in Iraq, which peaked just before U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the deployment of about 30,000 extra U.S. troops.
The extent to which the troop build-up helped halt Iraq's slide into sectarian civil war has been debated, particularly in the United States, with supporters of the surge saying it was the main contributing factor, and others arguing it was simply one of a number of factors. Continued...
#1
Actually, I don't think that's totally BS; IIUC, about half of the 20% or so of the Sunni Master Race Members have left the building. I remember reading about the delusional worldview of sunnis, many of whom supposedly thinking they were the MAJORITY of the iraqi population, but when half your neighbors choose to fly to greener pastures, and the guys fighting to restore your brood as the top of the chain food are either psychos and/or thugs, it's not hard to understand why the "sons of iraq" saw the light, and understood there was no future in their grand strategy. Basically, they were beaten, and they finally had to face it, couldn't happen to a nicer lot.
#2
"By the launch of the surge, many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country, and they turned off the lights when they left," geography professor John Agnew of the University of California Los Angeles, who led the study, said in a statement
OR the more equal distribution of power on the electric grid left previously "special" places like Tikrit and Sunni Baghdad with less power than before...or they are conserving. I'd say Mr. UCLA man is making a huge jump to a predetermined conclusion
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/21/2008 11:16 Comments ||
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#3
My mind almost blow when i read this BS text. Read they example they wrote about violence: A bomb planted by Al-qaeda that by definition doesn't have anything to do with with geographic/ethnic barriers. All Al-Qaeda based violence have nothing to do with that. It was Al-qaeda sunni violence over iraq sunnis that made some province hot bed of violence.
The politics behind this are disgusting.
Posted by: Gromoper Scourge of the Heathen Rus6841 ||
09/21/2008 11:34 Comments ||
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Gen. Keane wants to make sure people understand why the surge worked. "I have a theory" about the unexpectedly fast turnaround, he says. "Whether they be Sunni, Shia or Kurd, anyone who was being touched by that war after four years was fed up with it. And I think once a solution was being provided, once they saw the Americans were truly willing to take risks and die to protect their women and children and their way of life, they decided one, to protect the Americans, and two, to turn in the enemies that were around them who were intimidating and terrorizing them; that gave them the courage to do it."
#6
Uhh ..... while as reported, this "study" is indeed BS insofar as it ignores the changes in widely dispersed parts of Iraq, many with their own distinctive profiles and histories since 2003, it accidentally trips over (in principle) one key - no, THE key - issue.
Wars - real, nasty, not-screwing-around wars - are won or lost. Period. One or more sides are defeated, the will of others is imposed on them, their MAM population is killed or reduced, their means to wage conflict or withstand the cost imposed on them for initiating/continuing their violence reduced or eliminated.
So - if the "study" actually showed what its authors claim (doubtful), then it's a reminder that wars are not won through fancy strategies that sound good at the war college (and they shouldn't do that, either).
The simple, obvious objection to the "study" is, uh, how do you explain Anbar .... or Diyala .... or Mosul ... or .... or .....
Sure, population shift may have been a "key factor" - but that doesn't have anything to do with other factors - the Anbar awakening, its analogues in Diyala and elsewhere, the cumulative improvement in the ISF - and .... the resumption (finally) of the initiative by MNF-I.
One other thing (category: erroneous shibboleths that help distort the overall picture): "hundreds of thousands" were killed? Maybe ... just barely. And the bulk of those were killed by one side, and its collaborators (10 guesses as to who that is). These people just, by sheer coincidence, happen to be the SAME people who ran the place before we showed up, and who DID kill millions overall, not to mention run the place into the ground in almost every imaginable human and material sense.
I'm still thinking the "hundreds of thousands" thing is nonsense - and I'm already certain that it has no place as a throwaway line in a wire-service report. One of the things that has destroyed basic "reporting" as a means of providing information to the public. Put someone knowledgeable and rigorous in a wire service editing position, and you wouldn't recognize the dispatches - instantaneously.
#3
AMF, you POS. It's long past time. I hope now that you're not protected by your office you soon find yourself in PMITA prison for a long, long stretch. If that happens, you should consider yourself lucky. Israelis should have shot you for treason.
#4
This thread is a sad commentary on what we really think of Ohlmert. The leader of the only democracy in the ME has just resigned and we're so tired of this guy, that we barely even comment. I'm willing to bet most of us haven't even read the article.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/21/2008 14:17 Comments ||
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#5
well, I did ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/21/2008 14:36 Comments ||
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#6
I'm willing to bet most of us haven't even read the article.
granted that was true for me. But as for the few comments, I think Frank G pretty much summed it up in his yellow inline.
#8
Mike, i think that the take on Olmert was the same as for any prominent figure that, evenwith the case made against him, continues to hang on, for whatever reason. Once it became clear that it was more than typical paolitics, he should have stepped aside and gathered what little bit of self respect he had left instead of stonewalling. (and yes i read the article).
The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was opened on Saturday to allow hundreds of Muslim pilgrims to leave the besieged territory ruled by Hamas, Palestinian officials said. The crossing will be open on Saturday and Sunday, an official said, adding some 3,000 Gazans had registered for departure during the two days.
However, the Hamas-appointed crossing authorities said most of those allowed to leave were pilgrims going to Saudi Arabia for Omra (minor pilgrimage) to Mecca during the Holy month of Ramadan, in addition to sick people, students, and holders of foreign passports.
"We expect to process 1,500 travelers today, if there are no obstacles, including 300 sick people in need of treatment abroad and 300 others who hold foreign nationality," Mohammed Adwan, a spokesman for the crossing, said. He added that the crossing would remain open on Sunday to allow students to leave the impoverished coastal territory to study abroad.
The Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza's sole border crossing that bypasses Israel, has been opened only rarely to allow sick people, students, and diplomats to leave the territory of 1.5 million people.
Unlike during past openings, when desperate Gazans had rushed the border and clashed with Hamas and Egyptian security forces, no disturbances were reported. Travelers boarded buses in Gaza City and Khan Yunis before being driven to the border, and dozens of Hamas security forces fanned out around the crossing to prevent anyone else from approaching.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"and some British bitch that wouldn't shut the f@ck up"
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/21/2008 8:33 Comments ||
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Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that Iran's military will "break the hand" of any aggressor that target his country's nuclear facilities. Addressing a military parade broadcast live on state television, he said: "If anyone allows himself to commit even a tiny offense against Iran's legitimate interests, borders and sacred land, our armed forces will break his hand before he pulls the trigger."
Ahmadinejad said Sunday that sanctions only help Iran achieve self-sufficiency. "Those who once imposed sanctions, today should open their eyes and see our nation's technical achievements."
"Today, Iran is not in a position to show softness toward its enemies," said Ahmadinejad, but added that threats made against Iran's nuclear facilities amounted to only "psychological warfare."
Sunday's parade marked the start in 1980 of Iran's ruinous eight-year war with neighboring Iraq. During the parade, state television showed various types of Iranian-made missiles, including Shahab-3 and Ghadr. Also taking part in the parade was a military truck that carried a huge banner saying "Israel should be eliminated from the universe" in both English and Farsi.
Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najar announced on Saturday that Israel is militarily so weak that could be [sic] a threat to Iran. We do not consider Israel as a threat at all, the minister told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony arranged to bury three soldiers martyred during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Israel should resolve its internal problems first. our nation has no worries about the threats by Israel and its ally America, Najar remarked.
Najar stressed the power of the Iranian nation lies in its culture of martyrdom and altruism, adding if enemies dare to launch a strike on Iran, they will face an all-out defense. On the recent Defenders of the Sky of Velayat war-games, the minister said it was aimed at increasing the military might (of the armed forces), testing new ways of management and defense.
"Another aim of the maneuver was testing the domestically produced equipment, and this is in line with preparedness to respond to potential military threats by enemies, he explained. However, he said the message of any war-game is to improve security in the region. Our power is a defensive and preventive power and we intend to attack nowhere. However, we are firm in defending this land.
Israel believes Russia passes intelligence it gathers about the Jewish state to Syria and indirectly to the Hezbollah resistance group in neighboring Lebanon, a senior military officer said on Friday. The allegations were made by Colonel Ram Dor, chief of information security in the armed forces, to Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
They came at a touchy time in relations with Moscow, given Russian arms talks with Syria and the involvement of a Russian state-owned company in building a nuclear power plant for Iran at Bushehr on its Gulf coast.
Russia has, in turn, complained about Israeli arms and training for Georgia, with which it fought a five-day war last month over the Georgian province of South Ossetia. "My assessment is that their facilities cover most of the state of Israel's territory," Dor told Yedioth Ahronoth, describing Russian spy ships that dock in Syria and Russian personnel who he said serve in electronic eavesdropping stations on the Syrian side of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
"The Syrians share the intelligence that they gather with Hezbollah, and the other way around. This we know, because we know how to build a mirror-image that shows us what enemy intelligence knows about us," Dor said. "So if the Russians help the Syrians get information, and the Syrians constantly pass it on to Hezbollah, it is a reasonable supposition that the information gathered by the Russians also reaches Hezbollah's hands."
Russian officials in Moscow were unavailable for comment.
Avoiding criticism
Moscow has denied providing Syria or Iran with support that could boost their offensive capabilities and in recent years has offered to host Israeli-Arab peace summits.
Israel generally avoids public censure of Russia. Analysts say it is concerned such criticism could hurt efforts to lobby Moscow into scrapping arms sales to Syria or weaken its backing for U.N. sanctions designed to deny Iran the means to make an atomic bomb.
Israel suffered surprise setbacks in a 2006 war with Hezbollah which some Israeli military commanders blamed on the guerrilla group's access to Russian intelligence and weapons.
Hezbollah does not volunteer information on its military assets, and Iran and Syria deny providing the group with arms.
According to Yedioth, Israel believes the Russian are spying on it "so significant changes in the region do not catch them by surprise. They are preoccupied with Middle East stability".
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Yeah, but let's root for russia against tiny Georgia - that makes sense!
Iran has sharply criticized the Italian premier over his comments about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's critical stance toward Israel. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hassan Qashqavi, said Silvio Berlusconi's remarks about President Ahmadinejad were 'uncalled for' and 'unbefitting' of the Italian nation.
Berlusconi had censured Ahmadinejad for praising the Palestinian resistance against Israel. Berlusconi said the "world must pay the utmost attention to someone who says that Israel must be wiped off the map."
Iran has repeatedly stated that the president's remarks were badly mistranslated and taken out of context. In a July press conference after a D8 summit in Kuala Lumpur, Ahmadinejad said "Iran has no plans to attack Israel", adding that "the illegal regime would disintegrate on its own".
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Truth hurts, huh?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/21/2008 0:48 Comments ||
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Russia is against new U.N. Security Council measures targeting Iran, the foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday after the White House warned of a new round of sanctions. The comments came after talks between majors powers over a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran ended with no firm commitment on Friday.
At a meeting with senior diplomats from the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany on Friday, Russia said "it was against the development at this stage of additional measures in the U.N. Security Council," the statement said. The foreign ministry statement, which comes as relations between Moscow and Washington are severely strained over Georgia, said that for now Moscow prefers dialogue with Tehran, "On the Russian side, we underlined the necessity of continuing efforts to include Tehran in a constructive dialogue aimed at launching a process of talks," the ministry said. "In this context we spoke against the development of extra measures by the U.N. Security Council at this stage."
The United States, Britain, France and Germany are pushing for harsher measures over Tehran's defiance of U.N. demands for full disclosure and a halt to uranium enrichment, which can have both civilian and military purposes. Russia and China however have been resisting such moves.
In Washington on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Rice called on the West to resist what she labeled as Russian "bullying" and said Moscow had taken a "dark turn" towards authoritarianism.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
and said Moscow had taken a "dark turn" towards authoritarianism.
Russia, "dark turn, authoritarianism..." Thank you Rice, so very perceptive but not surprising for someone who finds Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo charming, and a "good friend."
An al-Qaeda video marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks has appeared on the Internet more than a week late due to technical problems. The delay of the much-touted 87-minute video, caused in part by the main Islamist websites crashing, has thwarted al-Qaeda's yearly celebration of its attacks on U.S. cities in 2001.
Parts of the video -- a compilation of documentary footage and messages by al-Qaeda leaders -- were aired on Sept. 8 by Al Jazeera television, which did not say how it obtained it. But the full version hit websites on Friday, eight days after the anniversary.
On it, senior al-Qaeda commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid vowed that Western forces in Afghanistan would face "more large-scale attacks ... where they least expect it" and called for militants in Pakistan to step up their fight. "In order for jihad in Afghanistan to continue and be victorious, you must stand with your Mujahideen brothers in Afghanistan and ... strike the interests of Crusader (Western) allies in Pakistan," said Abu al-Yazid, a commander of al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda has marked the anniversary of Sept. 11 in the past with releases including a tape on Sept. 7 last year in which its leader, Osama bin Laden, appeared on video for the first time in nearly three years, addressing the American people.
It was unclear why the websites normally favored by al-Qaeda had gone down. By Saturday, the two most popular were still out of action. Some suspected they had been targeted by hackers. India's Hindustan Times pointed the finger at intelligence websites that track militant sites on the Internet, which responded in tongue-in-cheek fashion.
Rusty Shackleford of My Pet Jawa denied his web group was behind any cyber-attack on the websites. "But if I was responsible I'd deny it," he said.
When less popular Islamist websites managed to post links to the video -- which includes a "last will" recording by one of the Sept. 11 hijackers -- downloaders noted that the password given to them was wrong. This further delayed the release and unnerved al-Qaeda sympathizers, one of whom wrote: "May God bless you my brothers, but the password is wrong."
The video also showed al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri accusing predominantly Shiite Muslim Iran of taking part in a Western "crusade" against Islam.
The closure of the Sunni websites coincided with a widespread cyber attack which shut down some 300 Shiite sites, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said. Fars blamed this on Sunni hackers in the United Arab Emirates. Hackers calling themselves Group XP took responsibility for defacing the website of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's highest Shiite authority. The group said the Shiite sites were attacked for "offending Sunnis".
Visitors could push a button to see U.S. humorist Bill Maher making fun of Sistani's religious edicts on a television show segment posted on youtube.com.
This article starring:
Ayman al-Zawahri
Mustafa Abu al-Yazid
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
It was censored by ABC, right? No, that's "The Path to 9/11." Sorry. (Source, Pajamas Media)
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
09/21/2008 0:17 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Indian Mujahideen - the group that claimed responsibility for last week's deadly bomb blasts in New Delhi - is being supported by Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, Delhi police said on Saturday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images taken at night show heavily Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad began emptying before a U.S. troop surge in 2007, graphic evidence of ethnic cleansing that preceded a drop in violence, according to a report published on Friday.
The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was opened on Saturday to allow hundreds of Muslim pilgrims to leave the besieged territory ruled by Hamas, Palestinian officials said. The crossing will be open on Saturday and Sunday, an official said, adding some 3,000 Gazans had registered for departure during the two days.
Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that Iran's military will "break the hand" of any aggressor that target his country's nuclear facilities. Addressing a military parade broadcast live on state television, he said: "If anyone allows himself to commit even a tiny offense against Iran's legitimate interests, borders and sacred land, our armed forces will break his hand before he pulls the trigger."
Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najar announced on Saturday that Israel is militarily so weak that could be [sic] a threat to Iran. We do not consider Israel as a threat at all, the minister told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony arranged to bury three soldiers martyred during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Israel should resolve its internal problems first.
our nation has no worries about the threats by Israel and its ally America, Najar remarked. 
Russia is against new U.N. Security Council measures targeting Iran, the foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday after the White House warned of a new round of sanctions. The comments came after talks between majors powers over a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran ended with no firm commitment on Friday.
