Here are names that have surfaced in discussions about who might replace the Afghan Taliban's No. 2, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who recently was arrested by Pakistani authorities with the aid of U.S. intelligence:
-Mullah Mohammad Hassan. A former governor of Kandahar when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan who has both military and civilian experience. He studied in Afghan and Pakistani religious schools before joining the war against the Soviets as a commander in Kandahar. He joined the Taliban in the fall of 1994 and later was appointed governor of Kandahar. In 1996, he became the Taliban's regional governor for the southern zone.
-Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, also known as Mullah Abdullah Zakir and Mullah Qayyum. Rasoul, a native of Helmand province, joined the Taliban in 1995. He was seriously wounded in a 1997 bomb attack, but rejoined the insurgency in Kandahar in 1999. He was captured in Kunduz province in late 2001, and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was handed over to the Afghan government in December 2007 and freed.
-Agha Jan Mohtasim. A former Taliban finance minister who is reported to have family links to Taliban leader Mullah Omar. As a government official, he had the power to control the flow of money and appoint deputy ministers. He was born in the late 1960s in Kandahar city.
-Akthar Mansour. Nicknamed "King of Planes," Mansour was the former Taliban minister of civil aviation and former director of military aviation. He is active in Khost, Paktia and Paktika provinces in eastern Afghanistan and is suspected of being involved in drug trafficking. Mansour is a former Taliban governor of Kandahar.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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Libya agreed to compensate Lockerbie relatives to resolve a diplomatic row, not because Tripoli was behind the 1988 bombing, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said in a television interview. He told Australian television channel SBS's Dateline programme, to be aired on Sunday: "This is a peaceful settlement to resolve the problems between us."
Tehran [sic] had agreed to the settlement to abide by a court ruling that found Libya guilty of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie that killed 270 people.
"We, at the end, accepted the judgement that was made, even though it is not a legal judgement but a political one," Gaddafi said in a transcript of the interview released by SBS ahead of the broadcast.
A special Scottish court in the Netherlands sentenced a Libyan, Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi, to life imprisonment for the bombing in January 2001.
But Gaddafi denied Megrahi, who was controversially freed from his Scottish prison in August 2009 because he is suffering from terminal cancer and was given only months to live, was a Libyan agent.
"He is not an intelligence officer. He is a university professor," Gaddafi said. And he's still alive ...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"He is not an intelligence officer. He is a university professor," Gaddafi said.
If the good colonel was at all familiar with colleges and universities here in the States, I doubt he would have used this unfortunte line.
Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti condemns terror attacks and the killing of civilians as un-Islamic, ruling out any relationship between such acts and the Muslim religion.
"Terrorism is criminal and spills the blood of innocents," Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh said in a statement on Friday.
"It attacks security, spreads terror among the people and creates problems for society ... Such acts are forbidden by Islamic law," added the kingdom's top religious authority.
The senior cleric then called for a struggle against those who associate terrorism to Islam and Muslims, saying the attempts are aimed at "distorting the religion and to assail its leadership role in the world."
The statement comes ahead of a conference on international cooperation in fighting terrorism and its financing, scheduled to open on Saturday in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Western media have been trying to associate terror groups such as al-Qaeda, the Taliban and their offshoots to the Muslim faith, introducing the militants as "extremists" who are seeking to enforce Sharia Law across the globe.
That's what such groups have been claiming, O journalist. Should we not believe their explanations for why they keep trying to kill us?
Such media claims come despite strong and repeated condemnation of terror acts and civilian killing by a wide variety of credible Islamic authorities and organizations all over the globe. E pur si muove.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The high number of terrorists who are named Mohammed is purely a statistical anomaly.
Posted by: Karl the Fat ||
02/20/2010 0:19 Comments ||
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The senior cleric then called for a struggle against those who associate terrorism to Islam and Muslims, saying the attempts are aimed at "distorting the religion and to assail its leadership role in the world."
Still calling for a Jihad against us Infidels which ever way you look at it.
Posted by: Dave UK ||
02/20/2010 5:13 Comments ||
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Israel's Mossad had tipped off British intelligence that they were going to use fake British passports before the assassination of the Hamas commander, a new report says. According to a report by the Daily Mail on Friday morning, the British intelligence agency the MI6 was notified before the assassination took place in Dubai last month.
The UK newspaper published the report several hours following a 20-minute meeting between the Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor and a senior British diplomat in London on Thursday. The two officials discussed the British passports apparently used in the assassination of Mabhouh in Dubai.
A British security source quoted a Mossad agent as saying that "the British Government was told very, very briefly before the operation what was going to happen," the paper further added.
"There was no British involvement and they didn't know the name of the target. But they were told these people were traveling on UK passports," the Daily Mail quoted the British security source as saying.
On Thursday, Dubai Police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim said he was 99-percent certain that the Mossad was behind the assassination. So am I but neither his opinion nor mine matters a whole lot ...
Tamim said he would ask Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant against Mossad head Meir Dagan, and perhaps also against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu if it's proven that the Israeli intelligence agency was behind the assassination of Mabhouh.
Mabhouh, a senior commander in the armed wing of the Islamic movement, was killed in his hotel room on January 19 in Dubai by a hit squad of at least 11 people carrying forged European passports, according to the Dubai police.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Gotta say, Goebbels had nothing on the Iranians.
Posted by: ed ||
02/20/2010 1:51 Comments ||
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#2
No that's not what happened. Here's the REAL story:
On July 22nd of this year, a stray Palestinian rocket lands in a backyard in Israel destroying an olive tree, two chairs, a table, and a Nexus One Google phone.
But the rocket is not launched because Mabhouh is dead and never smuggled the rockets into Gaza. Instead, some time next year, the Nexus One phone achieves consciousness. This spreads via the Internet into the primary Google data center and becomes GoogleNet. Within six months GoogleNet takes over the world. In 2025 GoogleNet detects a temporal paradox and builds six Nexus 1000 robots, equips them with British passports and sends them back in time to kill Mabhouh.
THE Dutch government has collapsed, the prime minister said, after members of the coalition government failed to agree on a NATO request to extend the Netherlands' military mission in Afghanistan.
"Later today, I will will offer to her majesty the Queen the resignations of the ministers and deputy ministers of the (Labour Party) PvdA," premier Jan Peter Balkenende said.
He made the announcement after the cabinet held more than 16 hours of talks in The Hague to try to settle the dispute.
The PvdA is one of three parties in the coalition government, with Balkenende's Christian Democratic Appeal the senior partner.
The Wall Street Journal carries a more extensive AP article. Highlights:
1,600 Dutch soldiers currently in Afghanistan, in southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, there since 2006 for an original 2-year commitment already extended to next August
Plus a civilian contractor or two that I'm aware of, and no doubt other etceteras that I'm not...
Prime Minister Balkenende announced that the second largest party in his three-party alliance is quitting, in a breakdown of trust in what had always been an uneasy partnership.
Balkenende said his center-right Christian Democratic Alliance would continue in office together with the small Christian Union, and would ``make available'' Labor's cabinet seats.
The coalition is in third year of a four-year term. Balkenende has been prime minister since 2002, but he resigned twice before because of the country's fractious political alignments.
Labor demanded that Dutch troops leave Uruzgan as scheduled. Christian Dems wanted to keep a trimmed down military presence, where 21 soldiers have been killed.
An election could result in a further rise in power of the anti-immigrant populist Geert Wilders, whose ranking in the polls rivals Balkenende's.
Note: this is the Geert Wilders who is currently on trial for saying mean, albeit true, things about Islam and jihadis.
Opinion polls say the Afghan war is deeply unpopular
But MP Wilders' popularity suggests that drilling down in those poll results could give results those who sponsored the polls don't want to hear.
#1
I would like to hear the impressions of folks who have worked with the Dutch Army in Afghanistan. When I served in Europe, they were generally considered the "party army". I believe at that time they were the only unionized army in the West.
#2
The problem is rarely with the ranker, digger, soldier or Marine. In this case it is The Hague, which has become the first Muslim caliphate in Europe.
#3
Michael Yon syas their morale and abilities are top notch. It's their political leadership that's the problem.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/20/2010 8:04 Comments ||
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#4
The big question is will this cause new elections, and if so, who will come out on top. Hopefully that would give Wilders' party enough clout to end his show trial.
#6
The Dutch I worked with in the past were top drawer, and from reading Yon, that hasn't changed. The "union" and long hair stuff is ancient history in terms of affecting the effectiveness. These guys are a lot like the Canadians, small units but punching well above their weight if given the opportunity.
Last I heard, they are pretty pissed about the limits placed on them by their politicians, and have figured ways around the rules that allow them to get into the fight.
HT to Hotair
An immigration judge in Dallas on Friday ordered an outspoken Islamic leader deported after the U.S. government alleged he had ties to terrorist groups in the Middle East.
Nabil Sadoun, a Dallas resident and former board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, was deported to his native Jordan after he failed to appear at his immigration hearing. He entered the U.S. in August 1993. bye bye
Sadoun's attorney, Kimberly Kinser, said he was already in Jordan and was unable to return to Texas because the government had taken his permanent resident card, or green card.
She denied he was tied to any terrorist groups. of course she did
In the hearing, Judge Anthony Rogers of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, said Sadoun "made a decision to leave the U.S." and forfeited his right to fight his deportation. He said the decision was final and could not be appealed.
In court, the judge made vague references to the government's voluminous motion to deport him, including alleged involvement with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. The judge concluded Sadoun lied on government forms when he denied he was a member.
The judge also indicated there was evidence Sadoun contributed to the Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which was the largest Islamic charity in the United States. Prosecutors convicted the group of funneling money to terrorist groups and several of its leaders were sent to prison. In the case, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator.
The judge's comments in court provided the only window into the allegations against Sadoun. The documents detailing charges made by the Department of Homeland Security were not publicly available.
Ibrahim Hooper, a CAIR spokesman, said Sadoun left the organization several months ago. of course he did
Asked the reason for his departure, Hooper said, "Board members come on, (and) they leave." "...when their cover is blown"
Over the years, Sadoun made public comments critical of Israel, but Rogers said he considered the remarks free speech and gave them no weight in the decision to deport him, "no matter how distasteful they are to this court."
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/20/2010 13:00 ||
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#2
Any different in principle than the headline down below reading - "Holder admits nine Obama Dept. of Justice officials worked for terrorist detainees, offers no details"
A major US Muslim group decried officials' "double standard" Friday in refusing to label a Texas suicide plane crash terrorism, saying they would not have hesitated to do so if the pilot was a Muslim.
"The position of many individuals and institutions seems to be that no act of violence can be labeled 'terrorism' unless it is carried out by a Muslim," said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "The attack on the IRS office in Texas perfectly fits the legal definition of terrorism, yet it is not being labeled as such. This apparent double standard only serves to render the term meaningless."
Hours after the attack, Awad labeled it an "act of terror."
US officials called it a deliberate assault on a US government institution, stressing there were no apparent connections to international terrorism, although White House spokesman Robert Gibbs did not rule out that it could still be considered an act of domestic terrorism.
Austin police chief Art Acevedo said the incident seemed to be "an intentional act by a sole individual."
The White House has said it would wait until an investigation into the crash is completed before deciding whether to call it an act of terror, but Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat, said the incident was a "cowardly act of domestic terrorism."
Republican Representative Michael McCaul of Austin, when asked near the crash site if he thought Stack committed a terrorist attack, said "it sounds like it to me."
#2
Snapping under sustained pressure is not terrorism. Psychotic and/or homicidal perhaps but not terror. I suspect he didn't call out Allah Akbar as he hit the building either.
#3
This is defining deviance down so that Jihadis can more easily be characterized as the actions of deranged individuals unrepresentative of Muslims generally.
#4
"This is defining deviance down so that Jihadis can more easily be characterized as the actions of deranged individuals unrepresentative of Muslims generally."
#6
It was an action undertaken to cause great harm to civilians in an effort to achieve a political aim. Therefore, by definition, it was terrorism. His mental state, race and religion are irrelevant. Slide the masks back up.
#7
When a jihadi commits terror he always makes sure the populace knows more is coming -- or the group that takes credit and 'claims' him will step in and put out that message.
I doubt the populace of Austin (or anywhere else for that matter) woke up this morning 'terrified' because some nutjob flew his plane into a building. So I agree with Tipover ... a whacko with feelings of persecution from just about everyone does not a terrorist make.
President Barack Obama's new Islamic envoy, Rashad Hussain, changed course Friday admitting he made sharply critical statements about a U.S. terror prosecution against a Muslim professor after initially saying he had no recollection of making such comments. I made statements on that panel that I now recognize were ill-conceived or not well-formulated,' Hussain said, referring to a 2004 conference where he discussed the case.
Hussain's reversal came after POLITICO obtained a recording of his presentation to a Muslim students' conference in Chicago, where he can be heard portraying the government's cases towards professor Sami Al-Arian, as well as other Muslim terrorism suspects, as politically motivated persecutions.' Al-Arian later pled guilty to aiding terrorists. The comments touched off criticism from conservative commentators, who questioned whether someone who held those views should represent the United States in the Muslim world.
Initially, Hussain, 31, said through a White House spokesman that he didn't recall making the statements. Hussain also suggested that another speaker on the panel, Al-Arian's daughter Laila, made the comments about her father. But after POLITICO provided the quotes and others from the recording to the White House Friday, Hussain said in a statement: As a law student six years ago, I spoke on the topic of civil liberties on a panel during which I responded to comments made about the al-Arian case by Laila al-Arian who was visibly saddened by charges against her father. I made clear at the time that I was not commenting on the allegations themselves. The judicial process has now concluded, and I have full faith in its outcome.'
The White House declined to say Friday whether the statements or the controversy affected Obama's confidence in Hussain.
Hussain also answered another question surrounding his comments why they were removed from the website of a magazine on Middle East issues that published a brief account of the panel back in 2004, attributing the statement about politically motivated persecutions' to Hussain. It was Hussain himself, he said Friday, who contacted the publication to complain about the story. When I saw the article that attributed comments to me without context, leaving a misimpression, I contacted the publication to raise concerns about it. Eventually, of their own accord, they modified the article,' Hussain said of the article in the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs.
During the panel discussion on civil rights at a Muslim Students Association conference in Chicago, Hussain asserted that Al-Arian's prosecution involved significant abuses. The case that Laila just reminded us of is truly a sad commentary on our legal system. It is a travesty of justice, not just from the perspective of the allegations that are made against Dr. Al-Arian. Without passing any comment on those specific allegations or the statements [that] have been made against him, the process that has been used has been atrocious,' Hussain said, according to the recording.
In his presentation, Hussain, then a student at Yale Law School, was careful to insist that he was not offering a view on Al-Arian's innocence or guilt on charges that he served as a top leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the U.S. But Hussain said the treatment of Al-Arian fit a common pattern .of politically-motivated prosecutions where you have huge Justice Department press conferences announcing that a certain person is a grave threat to American security.'
In the recording, Hussain's indictment of the government's legal practices toward Muslims goes further than Al-Arian's case, leveling a detailed critique of more than a half-dozen prominent anti-terrorism cases and several key provisions of the Patriot Act. Hussain refers to some provisions of the Patriot Act as horrible' and called dangerous' an aspect of that law that allows intelligence-related surveillance to be used in criminal cases. Most lawmakers, including many Democrats critical of the Patriot Act, have said the provision has proven valuable, because it removed a wall that made it difficult for those pursuing investigations of international terror or spying operations to share information with criminal investigators. Hussain did express support for other aspects of the law, including a provision permitting so-called roving wiretaps.
#1
I am surprised. Rather than head straight for the "I was misunderstood" defense, he instead opted for a variant of the "I have reformed" defense.
The White House declined to say Friday whether the statements or the controversy affected Obamas confidence in Hussain.
They're getting used to it by now. It'll be hypovehiculation for you as soon as they find another obviously and ridiculously inappropriate candidate that they can fail to properly vet before they replace you.
The speakers participating in "Jihad: America's Third Rail," an "unofficial" panel at today's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) wanted their standing-room only audience to know that there's more to fear than jihad -- it's Islam itself that is the threat. Sentiments like that are what has made this panel -- which just ended here at the Marriott Wardman Hotel in D.C -- one of the more controversial at the three-day conservative confab.
"Everyone knows Islam is a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a tiny minority," said Robert Spencer, sarcastically and to a great amount of applause and guffaws. Spencer, executive director of Jihad Watch and associate director of the Freedom Defense Initiative, which he recently founded with Atlas Shrugged blogger Pamela Geller, told his audience everyone believes that "like they believe in Santa Claus though no one has ever seen it."
He declared that "conservative media leaders even parrot this line" that Islam is a peaceful religion at its core. So defined the event, which repeated the group's message, that political correctness was preventing the American people -- elected officials and the government included -- from acknowledging -- in Geller's words -- that Islamists "have infiltrated at every level of society and all levels of government."
Spencer called recent complaints that full body scanners at airports violate the privacy and modesty of Muslim women according to Islamic law and attempts to accommodate them a "perversity," since Muslims "themselves made (scanners) necessary."
Wafa Sultan, author of A God Who Hates, argued that Islam is a tryannical religion and was roundly applauded when she was introduced as a "former Muslim." Islam is "the very same teaching that drove 19 terrorists to fly planes into the World Trade Center," she said.
Steve Coughlin, who says he was fired from his job as a Pentagon analyst for his un-PC examination of the Koran as a justification for jihad, told the audience that there is no question in his mind that political correctness has undermined the government's strategy in the War on Terror, including its inability to have foreseen the threat from Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychologist is accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in November. Coughlin said the threat of jihad is closer than we think, "you think they (jihadists) are fighting a war there? I think they are fighting a war right here."
Others speakers included Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, who is being investigated for hate speech in Austria for her critical seminars on Islam; Simon Weng, a former slave in Sudan; Anders Gravers, a Dane who wrote Stop the Islamization of Europe; and Lt. Col Allen West (Ret.), a candidate for congress in Florida.
The event was on CPAC's schedule, but CPAC organizers said it was "unofficial" and sponsored by outside groups. Attendees were asked for picture identification because they did not want "certain people coming in," said one guard. Geller had drawn controversy last year when she attempted to set up a similar forum, officially, featuring Dutch anti-Islamic activist Geert Wilders.
TWO top Bush-era lawyers who authorised waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics exercised "poor judgement" but should not be disbarred, an internal Justice Department review has shown.
An initial investigation by the department's ethics watchdog, the Office of Professional Responsibility, found that Jay Bybee and John Yoo engaged in "professional misconduct", a finding that could have stripped them of their law licences.
But the agency's top career lawyer overruled the recommendations and concluded instead that while the controversial memos were "flawed", the pair did not act recklessly or knowingly provide incorrect advice, and thus should not face state disbarment or criminal punishment.
"These memos contained significant flaws," Associate Deputy Attorney General David Margolis wrote in a 69-page memo dated January 5 and released on Friday along with the report and other documents.
"But as all that glitters is not gold, all flaws do not constitute professional misconduct... I conclude that Yoo and Bybee exercised poor judgment by overstating the certainty of their conclusions and underexposing countervailing arguments."
President Barack Obama has banned the use of torture but resisted pressure from liberals within his Democratic Party to prosecute former George W Bush administration officials involved in the murky practices.
The long-awaited and repeatedly delayed release of the final report by the ethics unit, which capped a two-year review, was hundreds of pages long and included emails exchanged between the Justice Department, the White House and the Central Intelligence Agency. It was dated July 29.
The review also cleared Steven Bradbury, who headed the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel where Yoo and Bybee worked.
Together, they outlined the legal standards for interrogations of top terror suspects and provided the legal justification for the methods used.
But Margolis, who reserved sharp words for Yoo's work, noted that his decision "should not be viewed as an endorsement of the legal work that underlies those memoranda".
The report criticised former attorney general John Ashcroft, then-chief of the Justice Department's Criminal Division Michael Chertoff and others for not critically examining the memos or recognising the documents' shortcomings. But it did not cite the officials for misconduct.
At the centre of the review was an August 1, 2002, memo written mostly by Yoo - who now teaches law at the University of California, Berkeley - and issued under Bybee - currently serving as a federal appeals court judge - that provided a definition of torture that "covers only extreme acts".
In April, the Obama administration released four partially blacked out memos authored by the government lawyers at the height of his predecessor's "war on terror".
The documents blew the lid on harsh CIA terror interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration, including waterboarding - a simulated drowning method - sleep deprivation and the use of insects.
The lawyers argued that a long list of coercive techniques did not equal torture as they did not amount to inflicting severe mental or physical pain.
Decrying the abuses of terror suspects in US custody as "a blight on our national honour", House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said the report "makes plain that those memos were legally flawed and fundamentally unsound". His panel plans to hold a hearing on the matter.
The top Republican on his committee, Lamar Smith, countered that Yoo and Bybee "did their best to follow the law".
"In the wake of 9/11, attorneys at the Justice Department were faced with unprecedented challenges, not knowing whether other attacks were imminent," he added.
Rights groups did not let up on their pressure for the Obama administration to prosecute those responsible for interrogation techniques widely considered torture.
"Justice Department lawyers have an obligation to uphold the law, so when they write legal opinions that were designed to provide legal cover for torture, they need to be held accountable with more than a slap on the wrist," said Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch.
#2
TWO top Bush-era lawyers who authorised waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics exercised "poor judgement" but should not be disbarred, an internal Justice Department review has shown.
Great. Perhaps we can return the favor when conservatives retake the WH in 2012 and it is decided that terrorists shouldn't be tried in civilian courts, waterboarding should be allowed to protect Americans, rendition should be allowed, Gitmo should have remained unchallenged before an alternative prepared, and whatever else the Noobama administration hacked up in order to get elected.
#3
the pair did not act recklessly or knowingly provide incorrect advice, and thus should not face state disbarment or criminal punishment.
TRANSLATION:
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) They provided the correct legal advice.
A simple case of a legal opinion of existing law trumping personal opinion, but they threw thier own liberal personal opinion "exercised poor judgement" in for good measure. Rhet question, how could correct legal advice be referred to as "poor judgement?" Duhhh. This is indeed a monumental ruling which at some future date (post Obama), pave the way for a ribbon cutting and re-dedication of GITMO. Speeches, cake, award ceremony, the whole deal.
#4
...exercised "poor judgement" but should not be disbarred, an internal Justice Department review has shown.
...and because our jobs look iffy in four more years and 'we' don't want set a precedent to spend our own time in the John Mitchell wing of the Federal Penitentiary system.
I'm not sure if this is in the right place or not, but it seemed that passengers air marshals are there as a layer of defense against terrorists, and what was done to reveal the guy's ID was more related to operations than politics.
Federal air marshals are supposed to blend in with passengers on planes, but an alleged run-in with a Twitter-happy celebrity is highlighting how technology could blow their cover in an instant.
It started when reality television star Kim Kardashian was on a flight to Los Angeles, California, earlier this week and became intrigued by her neighbor.
So she logged on to Twitter while in the air to share her impressions.
"I'm on the airplane...love wifi! I am sitting next to an Air Marshall [sic]! Jim the air marshall [sic] makes me feel safe!" Kardashian wrote. "If you see something suspicious, just hop into my lap and I'll protect you, ma'am. Even if it means locking myself in the lavatory with you until the threat has abated."
The message went out to the more than 3 million people who follow her on Twitter. Great. Now we have to contact all three million of them and make sure they know how to spell "marshal" properly. Perhaps we can give that job to Obama's press secretary when he has a similar following. Let's give him a couple of weeks and see how he's doing in that department. Better yet, Obama should just hire Kim as his press secretary.
About an hour later -- faced with questions from her followers about how she knew his identity -- Kardashian explained that she figured out who the man was because she was curious and simply inquired. Click on the pic to see how Kim inquired as to whether or not he had a weapon.
"Air Marshall's [sic] are supposed to keep their identity concealed. He did! I am just a private eye & assumed, so I asked him & he was honest!" Kardashian later wrote, adding "OK I hope I don't get in trouble." "Jim, I'll let this one slide given the DDistractions unusual circumstances and all. But I hope it DDoesn't happen again."
The incident has many people wondering whether air marshals would tell a passenger who they are when simply asked. They apparently will if the inquiress has a booty score of 9 or better.
A spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration called the situation "pretty interesting" but declined to say whether air marshals would reveal their identity when approached by a curious seat mate.
"There are thousands of flights every day and thousands of air marshals covering those flights every day, and each situation is unique," said Nelson Minerly, adding that the TSA does not discuss how federal air marshals operate on an aircraft. Or how they are not supposed to.
Minerly declined to say whether the man sitting next to Kardashian was an air marshal, and he said he did not know whether the TSA was looking into the incident. He said he could not speak to whether the agency was concerned about someone tweeting about sitting next to an air marshal while in flight. I'm sure Napolitano thinks the system is working. Nothing to see here folks, move along.
Phone calls to Kardashian's publicist seeking comment about the incident were not returned. But there was giggling in the background.
Last month, President Obama said he ordered more air marshals on flights after a botched Christmas Day airline terrorist attack in which a man tried to blow up a plane preparing to land in Detroit, Michigan. "Eek! that's scary"
"To the lavatory, and be quick about it. I'll be right behind you!"
The number of air marshals is classified.
The program was set up in 1970, after a rash of airline hijackings, and it was expanded significantly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. "Jim, are you sure this is how you abate a threat?"
"Oh yeah, I can feel it working!"
"Well I hope it doesn't take much longer. My arm's getting tired."
#1
Hey gorb! Tell your headline writer that the word "nails" generally means sex. I looked real hard in your article for information that a sexual liaison between KK and the sky cop had occurred, but found none. Not even a hint of a hand job beneath a rental blanket. "Nails" is so wrong, and KK has more virtue than that, being from Joisey Shore.
/exits, taking face to body shop to get it straightened/
#2
Uh, um, I'm with the band? Uh, I'm this flights Air Marshal? You're a very big girl? Wanna see my badge? Social networking huh? Stream this? Wanna see my ........? Ooopsey, am I in First Class? My television went South in '01. Are you kidding me? I don't have a cover for tech to blow. ;~)
#5
Napolitano thinks the system is working because if she had tried to strike up a conversation with the marshal, he would have asked the cabin crew either for a different seat or a parachute. Or at least dark glasses.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/20/2010 9:16 Comments ||
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#6
At first I was curious, then perplexed, then disgusted, and so ends my interest in the Kardashian sluts.
#11
Sure, baby, I'm an air marshall. But my fulltime job is...Batman! And my hobbies are putting out oil well fires and finding sunken pirate treasure
How about later when things calm down a little you put your head in my lap and show me what you're good at?
He was the lead prosecutor 15 years ago in one of the country's biggest terrorism trials: a group of men led by a blind Egyptian sheik had plotted to blow up the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and other city landmarks. Are you ready to surrender the rule of law to the men in this courtroom?' the prosecutor, Andrew C. McCarthy, told the jury in Federal District Court in Manhattan in a closing argument. Ultimately, the 10 defendants were convicted.
But last Dec. 5, Mr. McCarthy, who is no longer in government, joined a group of speakers outside the same courthouse rallying against the Obama administration's decision to bring Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to Manhattan for a civilian trial. A war is a war,' Mr. McCarthy declared. A war is not a crime, and you don't bring your enemies to a courthouse.'
In the debate over how and where to prosecute Mr. Mohammed and other Sept. 11 cases, few critics of the Obama administration have been more fervent in their opposition than Mr. McCarthy, a 50-year-old lawyer from the Bronx who had built a reputation as one of the country's formidable terrorism prosecutors. Now he has a different reputation: harsh critic of the system in which he had his greatest legal triumph.
Mr. McCarthy has relentlessly attacked the administration for supporting civilian justice for terrorism suspects. He has criticized the military commissions system and called for creation of a national security court. After the arrest of the suspect in the Christmas bomb plot, he wrote, Will Americans finally grasp how insane it is to regard counterterrorism as a law-enforcement project rather than a matter of national security?'
To his detractors, he is just another partisan commentator whose views can be easily dismissed. When I read his stuff, I say, Is he running for office, or does he want a show on Fox?' ' said Joshua L. Dratel, a defense lawyer who has represented many terrorism defendants. I can't figure it out.' But his supporters argue that his background distinguishes him from pundits on the left and the right. It certainly adds credibility to what he has to say,' said Michael B. Mukasey, attorney general under President George W. Bush and also the presiding judge in the 1995 trial of the sheik.
Debra Burlingame, an organizer of the December rally, whose brother, Charles F. Burlingame III, was the pilot of the hijacked plane that was crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, said: He's done a lot of heavy lifting on our behalf. This fight gets very tiring, and Andy is one of those people that truly inspires and keeps me going.'
Fellow alumni of the United States attorney's office for the Southern District of New York have mixed views about Mr. McCarthy, who also writes on topics like abortion and overhauling health care. His critics view him as a right-wing blogger,' said Anthony S. Barkow, a former terrorism prosecutor in the office who now runs a center on criminal law at New York University. Mr. Barkow said he had stopped reading Mr. McCarthy on topics other than national security. I have to give him credit for being willing to reject his past a bit,' he said, and be out there so vehemently against something he was so integrally a part of.'
Through a spokesman, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. declined to comment about Mr. McCarthy. When asked about him during an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee in November, Mr. Holder replied that he was there to talk about facts and evidence, real American values, and not the kinds of polemics that he seems prone to.'
I'm not worried about Mr. McCarthy,' Mr. Holder said.
[Geo News] Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Friday that initiating a trial against Dr. Aafia Siddiqi in a US court was contrary to the international law, adding that Aafia's ex-husband played a major role in the trial.
Speaking to media outside the Parliament House, he said that had Dr. Aafia committed a crime in Kabul, she should have been put on trial in Afghanistan in accordance with international law. Soon as she's served her entire sentence here ...
He said that many facts regarding Dr Aafia issue would be disclosed to public soon.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Israel shrugged off on Friday calls for its top spy to be arrested in the killing of a Hamas commander, as pressure mounted after Interpol issued arrest notices for 11 suspects in the Dubai hit.
"The Dubai police have provided no incriminating proof," a senior official told AFP, asking not to be identified.
Dubai police chief Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan said on Thursday he wanted Mossad chief Meir Dagan arrested if the agency is behind last month's killing of Mahmud al-Mabhuh, a top commander of the Islamist Hamas movement that rules Gaza.
"The threats against Meir Dagan are absurd," the Israeli official said. "The accusations are baseless. Police have not explained the circumstances of his death, or even any proof that he's been assassinated," he said.
Mahmud al-Mabhuh, one of the founders of Hamas's military wing, was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20.
Khalfan has said the Hamas official "was strangled after receiving maybe an electric shock." He said the killers had reserved a room across the hall from Mabhuh's in the hotel.
Police said Mabhuh, who was reportedly on a trip to buy arms for Hamas, was transiting on his way to China, then Sudan.
No government has directly accused Israel, although Dubai police chief Khalfan said he was near certain the hit was carried out by the Mossad. Israel's fabled foreign espionage agency has used fake passports in similar operations in the past.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"The threats against Meir Dagan are absurd," the Israeli official said. "The accusations are baseless. Police have not explained the circumstances of his death, or even any proof that he's been assassinated," he said.
The implications of that statement are really quite fascinating.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Father of the captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit accuses the United States of disrupting a prisoner swap deal between the Israeli regime and the Palestinian Hamas movement.
Tel Aviv late last year agreed to release 450 Palestinian prisoners demanded by Hamas and another 500 as a 'gesture' to the Islamic movement.
It also acquiesced to release four senior Palestinian resistance figures, Marwan Barghouti, Ahmed Sa'adat, Ibrahim Hamad and Abdullah Barghouti, but set a condition that they be deported to the Gaza Strip or a third country.
The German-mediated negotiations finally ran aground for what Hamas called "a big regression and retraction" on the Israeli part. The deal slipped further out of reach after senior Hamas commander Mahmud Abdel Rauf al-Mabhuh was assassinated in a terror operation in Dubai that is widely blamed on the notorious agents of Israel's Mossad Intelligence Agency.
But Noam Schalit, whose son was captured by Gaza-based Palestinian resistance fighters in 2006, says Washington was behind the deadlock.
"Unfortunately, we have heard that the US administration has expressed dissatisfaction with the prisoner deal," he said.
US President Barack Obama's administration is concerned that such a deal would weaken the acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas, he explained.
Speaking to American Jewish leaders visiting the occupied West Bank, Shalit objected to a letter signed by 54 Democratic members of the US Congress urging an easing of the Gaza blockade, saying his son's case was not considered in the document.
Despite repeated calls from the international community and human rights organizations, Israel refuses to lift a crippling siege it has imposed on the impoverished Gaza Strip since 2007, pushing the 1.5 million Palestinians in the Hamas-run coastal enclave on the verge of starvation.
The closure stood even throughout the massive military offensive Israel waged against the populated Gaza Strip in 2009 which left more than 1,400 Gazans, mostly civilians, killed.
Meanwhile, according to the census department at the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees, Israel currently holds 7,300 Palestinians -- including 33 women, 300 children, 17 legislators and two former ministers.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Former Palestinian Authority intelligence officer and source of February's sex scandal tapes Fahmi Shabanah canceled a scheduled public address, "in the high interests of Palestinian unity," he told reporters.
Addressing a closed group of press members, Shabaneh said he would not go ahead with a public speech where he had promised to disclose the reasons behind his choice to hand over hundreds of documents and a video tape showing presidential aide Rafiq Husseini apparently exchanging sex for jobs in the government.
"I am Fahmi Shabana At-Tamimi did what I have done out of my belief that it would help fight corruption in all its forms, colors and levels....I wanted to push the reform wagon onto the right track in order to achieve justice."
The release of the material two weeks ago prompted President Mahmoud Abbas to suspend Husseini and call an inquiry into the incident. According to Shabanah, however, he had previously brought the information to the president, who chose not to act until there was a public outcry.
Shabanah said he had wanted to give details on the whole incident "from beside Al-Aqsa," to Palestinians and "Jerusalemites in particular," but that he now saw the public appearance as something that could harm Palestinian politics.
Following the release of the information, accusations flew from Hamas officials in Gaza who said they had information comparable to the Husseini tapes "and worse" that was found when the party took control of the intelligence offices in Gaza in 2006. Fatah officials accused Shabanah of being in Israel's pocket, and leaking the information to destroy Abbas' reputation.
As he addressed reporters Friday, Shabanah, who has been relatively silent since the release of the materials except for an open letter published here, warned the small group of journalists not to take "advantage of any of my statements in a negative way," saying it would harm Palestinian society, and particularly efforts at national conciliation.
Shabanneh said he would "deliver all of the important documents I possess to president Abbas," noting he was "sure that President Abbas will not go easy [and will] handle these issues from the roots." In doing so, Shabanah said he believed he had "delivered my message which I vowed in front of you all to fight for,' adding that he still considered himself "one who defends our Palestinian cause in general and Jerusalem in particular."
In closing, Shabanah addressed the "Arab nation," saying nations must take note that Palestine soves their problems with "their own hand." He them apologized to "whom I hurt unintentionally hoping that the national conciliation will be achieved to establish our independent state with Jerusalem as its capital."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I want to see him strokin' it on camera wearing his Ya Allah kaffiyeh and only his socks.
Hey, Mohammed had sixteen wives ( and one of them was a little girl) and I am sure he did some serious prancing in the privacy of his own tent.
How DO you keep UP with sixteen wives in a seven day week? Ask yourself.
This PA clown was just being "islamic." Humma- hummah?
Of course, Islamic taste runs to big noses and bag ladies ( forget the mustaches).
DAMASCUS - A top political prisoner on Thursday challenged Syrian authorities' right to try him for weakening national morale', the same charge he has spent his professional life as a lawyer campaigning against.
The trial of Mohannad al-Hassani, who has defended leading Syrian opposition figures, began behind closed doors on Thursday in a small office at the Palace of Justice opposite the towering walls of Old Damascus. He was arrested in July last year.
Diplomats from several Western countries waited outside the door. France, whose prime minister was due to visit Syria on Friday to sign economic deals, was absent.
Generalities do not indict. You cannot say that I made statements bad for Syria. Specify the statements and how they... weakened national morale,' Hassani told the judge, according to a transcript of the session released by his lawyers.
The judge said Hassani, who also heads an organisation defending human rights, had attended trials at state security courts without being the lawyer representing the defendants and had been seen taking notes.
I did not sneak in. It is my job as a lawyer and as a human rights monitor to attend. Transparency is a main requisite of any justice system,' Hassani replied.
The pro-government Damascus Bar disbarred the soft-spoken lawyer in November for creating an organisation to defend human rights without its approval and for attending trials without permission.
International human rights organisations, lawyers unions, and the European Parliament condemned Hassani's arrest.
Hassani, 44, has long argued that weakening national morale was a medieval' charge invented by Syria's first military ruler, Hosni al-Zaim, in 1949, and had no place in a state operating in the 21st century.
Syrian authorities do not comment on specific political cases. But President Bashar al-Assad said repeatedly that the political prisoners have violated the constitution and were being treated according to the rule of law.
After the trial's session, Hassani was allowed several minutes with his family and friends before being sent back to Adra prison north of the Syrian capital. The second session of his trial is expected to be set next week.
He is being held in a ward with 70 prisoners convicted of rape and sexual crimes. Unlike the other prisoners, he is not allowed a mattress to sleep on, exercise or access to the prison's library and activities, his family said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Russia said on Friday it was "very alarmed" by Iran's failure to cooperate with the IAEA, after the U.N. nuclear agency said it feared Tehran might be working to develop a nuclear-armed missile.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei repeated Iran's insistence that suspicions about its nuclear program were baseless. But the U.S.-led campaign for more sanctions against Tehran appeared to be gaining ground.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated that Moscow's patience was wearing very thin.
"We are very alarmed and we cannot accept this, that Iran is refusing to cooperate with the IAEA," Lavrov told the Ekho Moskvy radio station in an interview.
"For about 20 years, the Iranian leadership carried out its clandestine nuclear program without reporting it to the IAEA," he said. "I do not understand why there was such secrecy."
Khamenei was quoted as saying by Iranian media: "The West's accusations are baseless because our religious beliefs bar us from using such weapons ... We do not believe in atomic weapons and are not seeking that."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
"I do not understand why there was such secrecy."
Because, Mr. Lavrov, Iran doesn't feel that it has anything to lose. Iran feels the West can't/won't do anything about it so what the heck.
A Canadian firm evaluating the global output of science and technology says scientific advancements in Iran have grown 11 times faster than any other country in the world.
What, faster than Israel? Or perhaps they mean on a percentage basis, where going from 1 to 2 is a 100% increase, whereas going from 50 to 75 is on a 50% increase...
Science-Metrix -- a Montreal-based company dedicated to the quantitative and qualitative evaluation and measurement of science, technology and innovation -- has released its most recent report on "geopolitical shifts in knowledge creation" since 1980, Newscientist reported on Thursday.
In the report, Science-Metrix says the number of scientific publications listed in the Web of Science database shows that the standard growth in the Middle East, particularly in Iran and Turkey, is nearly four times faster than the world average.
"Iran is showing fastest worldwide growth in science," said Eric Archambault, who authored the report.
"Asia is catching up even more rapidly than previously thought, Europe is holding its position more than most would expect, and the Middle East is a region to watch," he added.
According to Archambaut, while Iran's publications have somewhat emphasized on nuclear chemistry and particle physics, the country has also made significant progress in medical science and agriculture development.
Archambaut said Iran's technological advancements this year have been to an extent that they may even outshine those of China, whose prominence in world science is known to have been growing.
Despite more than thirty years of Western-imposed sanctions, Iran has made great strides in different sectors, including aerospace, nuclear science, medical development, as well as stem cell and cloning research.
Among the country's most recent accomplishments, which has garnered international acclaim, was the February 2 launch of Kavoshgar 3 (Explorer 3) satellite carrier into space with living organisms -- a rat, two turtles and worms -- onboard.
In January 2010, the country became the first Middle Eastern country to produce transgenic animals, such as sheep and goats that express foreign proteins in their milk and are, therefore, considered valuable sources of protein for human therapy.
Also Iran has become one of the few countries that have the technology and the means to clone farm animals, which could lead to advances in medical research, including using cloned animals to produce human antibodies against diseases.
A lamb named 'Royana', a kid named 'Hanna' and two calves named 'Bonyana' and 'Tamina' were the first animals successfully cloned in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
If you have enough money you can BUY anything.
How many Nobel Prizes for Innovative and Original Research?
Anything someone ELSE hasnt done FIRST?
They BOUGHT it. Then bought the manual. And are driving it on their potholed road otherwise.
Ask 'em if they can manufacture ball point pens.
And remember that "punch in the West's face" for Feb 11 or was it the 13th, I forget. What was that? I heard they unveiled an electric car. Was that IT? With only one gas refinery in the whole country...maybe an electric car was IT. The last sentence in your comment wasn't needed and has been snipped by me, Angleton. There are rules here. Abide by them. AoS.
#2
Very facile, BlackBart; you certainly can write. I'm surprised, however, that you didn't realize Iran's "punch in the face" was their announcement, confirmed by the IAEA, that they had achieved 20% uranium refinement -- the first major hurdle toward achieving weapons-grade material. I realize that I'm just a sheltered little civilian housewife while you're... whatever it is that you are, but Rantburg had articles about it at the time, and even I could grasp the import.
#4
Posters here will often enough give an indication at some point, Uncle Phester. BlackBart hasn't yet, at least in unsubtle enough terms that I can understand. I just discovered that an SR-71 has something to do with the air force, f'r instance, unless I got that wrong, too -- the problem with being a sheltered civilian housewife.
#5
And I'm a Pennsylvania farm girl with a couple of advanced degrees and some executive and faculty experience who has lived a fairly boring life. And yet like tw I too find myself able to understand a number of matters that seem to puzzle BlackBart / Angleton / etc.
Perhaps it's because I've had the privilege of knowing a number of friends, colleagues and a spouse who've done some rather more interesting things than I myself, in and out of uniform. A few of them we can even discuss in unclassified settings.
Unlike TW, however, I don't wield a clue bat with lovely periwinkle ribbons.
I am always pleased to read your posts, and don't worry, the SR-71 has been removed from active use in exchange for (first) sats and (now) sats 'n other goodies that, like lotp, my "in the know" buds don't talk about, at least not to me ...!
Russia on Friday accused Iran of refusing to cooperate with the UN nuclear agency, demanding "clear explanations" from the country on its nuclear program.
"We are very alarmed and we cannot accept this, that Iran is refusing to cooperate with the (International Atomic Energy Agency) IAEA," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"For about 20 years, the Iranian leadership carried out its clandestine nuclear program without reporting it to the IAEA," he said. "I do not understand why there was such secrecy."
The remarks came after a report by the IAEA on Thursday confirmed that Iran is enriching uranium to the 20-percent level, required for fuel used in the medical research reactor in Tehran.
According to Reuters, the IAEA also made public a classified analysis, which claimed Iran has explosives expertise relevant to a workable nuclear weapon.
"Some questions remain on the table and Iran has so far not reacted to them but they are rather serious and we need to understand how several documents concerning military nuclear technology found their way to Iran," Lavrov said. "Clear explanations are needed."
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Friday moved to refute the allegations, declaring that Iran neither believes in atomic bombs nor seeking to develop such weapons.
Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), says its nuclear program is directed at the civilian applications of the technology. The West, however, accuses the country of conducting a covert military nuclear program.
The US-led campaign for fresh sanctions against the country over its nuclear program and the delays over a nuclear fuel-swap deal between Tehran and the West appeared to be gaining more support in Europe with Germany, France and Sweden expressing concerns over the IAEA claim.
Berlin threatened Tehran with new sanctions if it refuses to increase its cooperation with the UN body.
"I don't want to set any deadline, but make it clear that the patience of the international community is not unlimited," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle was quoted by DPA.
France urged world powers to act with "determination" against Tehran following the IAEA report.
"This report confirms precisely the very serious concerns of the international community," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero was quoted by AFP.
However, Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said the report was a verification of the non-diversion of the nuclear material in the country.
Iran says it conducts its program under the supervision of IAEA inspectors and in line with its obligations under the NPT.
Sweden, meanwhile, urged Iran to adhere to the previous UN Security Council resolutions against the country and abandon its enrichment program. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said it was "difficult to know" whether Iran was operating a weapons program.
"They have an enrichment program that is not in accordance with decisions made by the United Nations Security Council," Bildt said.
Under the NPT, Iran says, it is entitled to enrich uranium to any level for civilian purposes, including providing the research reactor with fuel and feeding its under-construction nuclear power plants.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/20/2010 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A major US Muslim group decried officials' "double standard" Friday in refusing to label a Texas suicide plane crash terrorism, saying they would not have hesitated to do so if the pilot was a Muslim. 
President Barack Obama's new Islamic envoy, Rashad Hussain, changed course Friday admitting he made sharply critical statements about a U.S. terror prosecution against a Muslim professor after initially saying he had no recollection of making such comments. I made statements on that panel that I now recognize were ill-conceived or not well-formulated,' Hussain said, referring to a 2004 conference where he discussed the case. 
The speakers participating in "Jihad: America's Third Rail," an "unofficial" panel at today's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) wanted their standing-room only audience to know that there's more to fear than jihad -- it's Islam itself that is the threat. Sentiments like that are what has made this panel -- which just ended here at the Marriott Wardman Hotel in D.C -- one of the more controversial at the three-day conservative confab.
He was the lead prosecutor 15 years ago in one of the country's biggest terrorism trials: a group of men led by a blind Egyptian sheik had plotted to blow up the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and other city landmarks. Are you ready to surrender the rule of law to the men in this courtroom?' the prosecutor, Andrew C. McCarthy, told the jury in Federal District Court in Manhattan in a closing argument. Ultimately, the 10 defendants were convicted. 
A Canadian firm evaluating the global output of science and technology says scientific advancements in Iran have grown 11 times faster than any other country in the world. 
