#6
...I am...shall we say...uneasy about a couple of points in the article:
"That was your first real engagement, wasn't it?" my co-pilot "Fog" says. "
Apaches do not have co-pilots, they have pilots and gunners. The gunner - AFAIK - is not a rated pilot, though it's possible in British Army service things may be different.
my colleague, Darwin, is shouting from the back seat.
The pilot flies the Apache from the back seat. The gunner is in the front seat.
These are unusual errors for an Apache pilot to make in writing. I'm hoping there's an explanation for them.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/16/2010 16:26 Comments ||
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#7
I don't care if it's fiction or not. I want MORE!
#8
If the story is true and not fiction, I'd say to Charlotte: "What chance did the murdered people in the WTCs, the Pentagon, and in a field in Pennsylvania have?" These are the thugs who did it. And thanks for doing your job.
#9
Not so sure about all that Mike, your right on some of it. In the US both are rated aviators, not pilots, there are flight controls in both the front and rear, and both can manage the weapons systems. You are correct that the primary gunner is the front seater, just like the ol Cobra. They tried, in the US, to put spotters-nonrated types, in OH-58d's. The program lasted a few years and was killed long before this war.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/16/2010 22:00 Comments ||
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Irish authorities said Tuesday they have charged two men who were reportedly part of an international plot to kill a controversial Swedish cartoonist.
The two men appeared in Waterford District Court on Monday night, the Courts Service of Ireland said. While the service refused to confirm whether their case is related to the alleged plot, Irish and British media outlets including The Irish Times reported the connection.
The first man, Ali Charaf Damache, was charged with making a menacing call to an individual.
The other man, Abdul Salem Monsour Khalil al Jahani, was charged with failure to produce a valid passport or other valid document to establish his identity, contrary to the Immigration Act 2004.
The Irish Times reported that al Jahani admitted telling investigators he gave a false name when he came to the Republic of Ireland to claim asylum in July 2001.
Both men were remanded into custody until their next court appearance Friday.
We could just strangle Kimmie and save the snooping around on the banks ...
The U.S. envoy charged with UN sanctions, Philip Goldberg, is still trying to block North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's cash flow, even as Washington has agreed to talks with Pyongyang aimed at persuading it to return to nuclear negotiations.
North Korea invited U.S. North Korea envoy Stephen Bosworth on Aug. 4, when former U.S. president Bill Clinton was in Pyongyang to win the release of two American journalists. The same day, Goldberg was on his way to Moscow, where he met Russian Vice Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin and reportedly asked Russia to crack down on a mafia gang based on a tip-off that it had been involved in the laundering slush funds for Kim Jong-il.
South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities believe that North Korea recently earned a lot of foreign currency by smuggling ivory from Africa and distributing fake Viagra as well as selling drugs and circulating counterfeit dollars.
The North allegedly laundered money or operated secret bank accounts with the help of the Russian gangsters after it became practically impossible for the North to carry out normal transactions using the real names of top officials or agencies. Russia then passed an advisory circular which the U.S. had sent around Russian banks.
According to the source, North Korea expanded arms exports even after UN Security Council Resolution 1874 took effect in the wake of its second nuclear test on May 25. "North Korea has developed new markets in Africa and Latin America, in addition to expanding exports to its existing markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East," the source said. "It seems the North is mainly exporting small vessels such as Hovercraft and patrol boats and Air Force equipment including radar and GPS to Africa and Latin America."
Goldberg then visited China in late October to persuade his hosts to implement sanctions against the North. He pledged to concentrate on blocking any money flow related to weapons of mass destruction. There are fears that the sanctions lost their bite when China in early October promised the North a massive aid package, but some experts disagree.
Prof. Cho Young-ki of Korea University said, "The U.S.-led financial sanctions will deal a blow especially to Kim Jong-il's slush funds and the North's munitions economy. Unlike in 2005 when it sanctioned Banco Delta Asia, the U.S. now seems to have found a way to inflict pain on the North while not allowing it to openly resist."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apparently believes Golberg's efforts have been successful, saying Monday that North Korea now wants dialogue because nations of the six-party talks are taking concerted action in implementing sanctions against the North.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2010 00:00 ||
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ION MACAU DAILY TIMES > {Chin Premier Wen Jiabao] US HAS VIOLATED CHINA'S SOVEREIGNTY, wid its recent arms sales to Taiwin + its welcoming of the Dalai Lama to the WH.
* WMF > PAKISTANI MEDIA: CHINA'S MAIN ARMORED FORCES ARE NO MATCH EVEN AGZ THE TALIBAN [armed wid RPGS].
First guess, China, as a hedge in case they need a puppet in North Korea someday. Second guess, Kimmie, in case plans with #3 son fall through. Third guess, Uncle Sugar, just because we're dumb that way.
Kim Jong-nam, the eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, is apparently living with his wife and son in Macau in a luxury villa he bought 10 years ago. There are separate homes in downtown Macau for his bodyguards. He frequents the five-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel and is often seen in the hotel's casino, restaurant, bar and sauna. A night in a suite there costs US$460 a night.
In 2001, Kim Jong-nam was deported from Japan when he was caught trying to enter on a fake passport, apparently to visit Tokyo Disney Land. At the time, Kim was wearing a Rolex watch, Aigner belt and A. Testoni shoes, and the two women accompanying him carried pure gold Chanel accessories and Louis Vuitton bags. Few North Koreans will know these brand names, and each of these items cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars.
In 1998, Kim Jong-nam sneaked into Japan and had a few drinks at a notoriously expensive bar in Tokyo's Akasaka district, according to the account of a barmaid. Kim Jong-il's second son Jong-chul, meanwhile, reportedly followed Eric Clapton on tour through Germany, attending four concerts in different cities.
South Korean employers pay North Korean employees in the Kaesong Industrial Complex $59 a month. North Korean authorities take 30 percent of that salary and the workers take home $41 worth of goods (not in cash). And in actual foreign exchange rate terms, the average North Korean worker makes about $1 a month. An ordinary North Korean worker must slog 460 months to cover Kim Jong-nam's Macau hotel stay for one night, and a Kaesong worker 11 months. It's difficult to calculate how many North Korean workers must toil and sweat to finance Kim's gambling, drinking and shopping. How many workers must toil to support Kim Jong-chul's tour through Europe to hear Eric Clapton?
Using the six-party nuclear talks as a pawn, North Korea is demanding access to $24 million of its assets frozen in a Macau bank account. This is part of a slush fund North Korean officials are managing and is used as spending money for the communist country's ruling elite, including Kim Jong-nam. Pro-North Korean officials in South Korea are trying to turn a blind eye to this eyesore while spending tens of billions of won (US$1=W937) operating 15 truth-finding commissions to rake up the past.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
He stashed away a rainy day fund while he was still the favored son. What's so hard to understand about that?
#2
not toomention all the money he made stealing the AID (food) and selling it
Posted by: chris ||
03/16/2010 18:16 Comments ||
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#3
I'm sure Kim Jong-Nam is a key player in North Korea's arms export business, and rakes in a tidy sum from playing these games. I also believe that some of what he's doing is finger-in-the-eye behavior against Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the US. He may also be a foil to divert attention from someone engaging in far more nefarious activities.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/16/2010 18:51 Comments ||
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#4
The Chicoms could shut Kimmie down, but they find him useful in making trouble for the civilized world. Kimmie is a symptom of a bigger proxy problem.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/16/2010 21:49 Comments ||
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In March last year South Korea gave US$3.8 million worth of aid, including $400,000 in cash and building materials, to North Korea to build a center for inter-Korean video-link family reunions in Pyongyang. But North Korea has not even started construction on the site, it was known on Sunday.
The donation violated a ban on cash aid to North Korea, but South Korea's Ministry of Unification said at the time that there would be no room for suspicious dealings because the North agreed to inform the South where the money was spent and the South agreed to visit the construction site to find out whether the money and materials were used properly.
It has been almost a year since the aid was delivered, but it is not clear what the North has done with the cash and building materials. The South Korean government has demanded that it be allowed to visit the construction site, but the North has brushed off the requests, saying it will show the site "next time" or after the center is dedicated.
Explaining the cash aid at the time, the South Korean government said the money was to be used to purchase LCD monitors and computers which are needed for the video reunion center but cannot be shipped to North Korea according to U.S. Export Administration Regulations.
But many experts believe that argument was just an excuse to give Pyongyang the cash. Seoul could have solved the problem by consulting with the U.S. as it did with the Kaesong Industrial Complex, or it could have bought the equipment for Pyongyang in China.
Song Dae-sung, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, a private non-profit think-tank in South Korea specializing in security, national unification, and foreign affairs, said, "The cash aid sent to the North may have been used for three purposes -- slush funds for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, funding for the North Korean Army or funding for the North Korean Workers Party. It may also have been used to fund clandestine North Korean operations in South Korea or for military purposes."
On eight occasions from early April to late August last year, South Korea delivered to the North building materials such as cement, iron bars, electric cable, tiles, drills, adhesive glue, interior furnishings, elevators, and air-conditioning and heating equipment. It also sent 10 buses and six Rexton SUVs.
When sending the materials, Seoul demanded five times that the North allow South Korean officials to visit the construction site and provide details on where the materials were used. All such demands were rejected.
However North Korea reportedly showed South Korean officials a vacant lot in November last year, indicating that construction still had not begun. An official with a construction firm said, "North Korea must have already used the cement, iron bars and cable for other purposes since they become useless five to six months after leaving the factories."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2010 00:00 ||
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MACAU DAILY TIMES > FOOD SITUATION WORSENS [again] IN NORTH KOREA, forcing Pyongyang to reopen select markets in order to attempt to alleviate the new shortages.
DRPK Ruling elites are able to cream off the top - hwoever, those below must rely on eating low/poor-quality rice porridge, or corn, or else forage for their own Personal, Family foodstuffies.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has US$4 billion hidden in secret accounts in European banks to continue his lavish way of life if he is forced to flee the country, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
"The money is the profits from impoverished North Korea selling its nuclear and missile technology, dealing in narcotics, insurance fraud, the use of forced labour in its vast gulag system, and the counterfeiting of foreign currency," the British daily said. "Much of the money was held in Swiss banks until authorities there began to tighten regulations on money laundering."
"Kim's operatives then withdrew the money -- in cash, in order not to leave a paper trail -- and transferred it to banks in Luxembourg," it added. Why not seize it all? We could establish a trust account for the people of North Korea to be cashed in on the day of their liberation.
Swiss banks kept customers' account information in closely guarded secret even in the case of criminals until Switzerland signed information exchange agreements with the U.S., France and other countries after the G20 summit in London last April warned that sanctions could be imposed on nations that refuse to cooperate.
"I believe this is the most extensive money-laundering operation in the history of organised crime, yet the final destination of the funds has not been given the proper attention it deserves," the daily quoted Ken Kato, the director of NGO Human Rights in Asia, as saying. "Somewhere in the world, there are bankers who are earning a large sum of money by concealing and managing Kim Jong-il's secret funds, and at the same time almost 9 million people in North Korea are suffering from food shortages." Why don't we name the bankers?
A South Korean intelligence officer said, "If they know about this money, the starving North Korean people will rise in revolt against the regime." Why don't we tell them?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/16/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I believe this is the most extensive money-laundering operation in the history of organised crime
Not even close, dude. Try some $40 BILLION by Putin over the last decade. Or look at the sums stolen by Suharto, or Mobutu, or Collor in Brazil, or the Salinas clan, or Fidel over the last 50 years, or Arafat, or...
#3
...or the 'smart' people who got their 'paid for' Congresscritters to bail them out of unbacked securities gambling losses in 2008-9 and are rewarding themselves with bonuses today. We're reaching hundreds of billions looted.
FORT JACKSON, S.C. (AP) - New soldiers are grunting through the kind of stretches and twists found in "ab blaster" classes at suburban gyms as the Army revamps its basic training regimen for the first time in three decades.
Heeding the advice of Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans, commanders are dropping five-mile runs and bayonet drills in favor of zigzag sprints and exercises that hone core muscles. Battlefield sergeants say that's the kind of fitness needed to dodge across alleys, walk patrol with heavy packs and body armor or haul a buddy out of a burning vehicle.
Trainers also want to toughen recruits who are often more familiar with Facebook than fistfights.
"Soldiers need to be able to move quickly under load, to be mobile under load, with your body armor, your weapons and your helmet, in a stressful situation," said Frank Palkoska, head of the Army's Fitness School at Fort Jackson, which has worked several years on overhauling the regime.
"We geared all of our calisthenics, all of our running movements, all of our warrior skills, so soldiers can become stronger, more powerful and more speed driven," Palkoska said. The exercises are part of the first major overhaul in Army basic fitness training since men and women began training together in 1980, he said.
The new plan is being expanded this month at the Army's four other basic training installations--Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., Fort Sill, Okla., Fort Benning, Ga., and Fort Knox, Ky.
Drill sergeants with experience in the current wars are credited with urging the Army to change training, in particular to build up core muscle strength. One of them is 1st Sgt. Michael Todd, a veteran of seven deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
On a recent training day Todd was spinning recruits around to give them the feel of rolling out of a tumbled Humvee. Then he tossed on the ground pugil sticks made of plastic pipe and foam, forcing trainees to crawl for their weapons before they pounded away on each other.
"They have to understand hand-to-hand combat, to use something other than their weapon, a piece of wood, a knife, anything they can pick up," Todd said.
The new training also uses "more calisthenics to build core body power, strength and agility," Palkoska said in an office bedecked with 60-year-old black and white photos of World War II-era mass exercise drills. Over the 10 weeks of basic, a strict schedule of exercises is done on a varied sequence of days so muscles rest, recover and strengthen.
Another aim is to toughen recruits from a more obese and sedentary generation, trainers said.
Many recruits didn't have physical education in elementary, middle or high school and therefore tend to lack bone and muscle strength. When they ditch diets replete with soda and fast food for healthier meals and physical training, they drop excess weight and build stronger muscles and denser bones, Palkoska said.
Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command, the three-star general in charge of revamping all aspects of initial training, said his overall goal is to drop outmoded drills and focus on what soldiers need today and in the future.
Bayonet drills had continued for decades, even though soldiers no longer carry the blades on their automatic rifles. Hertling ordered the drills dropped.
"We have to make the training relevant to the conditions on the modern battlefield," Hertling said during a visit to Fort Jackson in January.
The general said the current generation has computer skills and a knowledge base vital to a modern fighting force. He foresees soldiers using specially equipped cell phones to retrieve information on the battlefield to help repair a truck or carry out an emergency lifesaving medical technique.
But they need to learn how to fight.
"Most of these soldiers have never been in a fistfight or any kind of a physical confrontation. They are stunned when they get smacked in the face," said Capt. Scott Sewell, overseeing almost 190 trainees in their third week of training. "We are trying to get them to act, to think like warriors."
For hours, Sewell and his drill sergeants urge on helmeted trainees as they whale away at each other with pugil sticks, landing head and body blows until one falls flat on the ground. As a victor slams away at his flattened foe, a drill sergeant whistles the fight to a halt.
"This is the funnest day I've had since I've been here!" said 21-year-old Pvt. Brendon Rhyne, of Rutherford County, N.C., after being beaten to the ground. "It makes you physically tough. Builds you up on the insides mentally, too."
The Marine Corps is also applying war lessons to its physical training, adopting a new combat fitness test that replicates the rigor of combat. The test, which is required once a year, has Marines running sprints, lifting 30-pound ammunition cans over their heads for a couple of minutes and completing a 300-yard obstacle course that includes carrying a mock wounded Marine and throwing a mock grenade.
Capt. Kenny Fleming, a 10-year-Army veteran looking after a group of Fort Jackson trainees, said men and women learn exercises that prepare them to do something on the battlefield such as throw a grenade, or lunge and pick a buddy off the ground. Experience in Iraq has shown that women need the same skills because they come under fire, too, even if they are formally barred from combat roles.
"All their exercises are related to something they will do out in the field," Fleming said, pointing out "back bridge" exercises designed to hone abdominal muscles where soldiers lift hips and one leg off the ground and hold it steady.
"This will help their core muscles, which they could use when they stabilize their body for shooting their weapon, or any kind of lifting, pulling, or something like grabbing a buddy out of a tank hatch," Fleming said.
Fleming said those who had some sort of sports in high school can easily pick up on the training, while those who didn't have to be brought along. One hefty soldier in a recent company he trained dropped 45 pounds and learned to blast out 100 push-ups and 70 sit-ups, he said.
"We just have to take the soldier who's used to sitting on the couch playing video games and get them out there to do it," Fleming said.
#2
High schools in Kaliphornia don't have towels for the kids after PE classes so the kids don't shower. So who wants to get all dirty and sweaty in PE if they can't get cleaned up afterward? Result? Fat kids. Well, that's not the only reason our kids are fat but it's one of them.
#3
"It makes you physically tough. Builds you up on the insides mentally, too."
That line alone is worth $1Billion in appropriations for all the DIs' needs and wants. Take it out of the Dept. of Education, and send the graduates back to HS as teachers, and make a poster of it.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A breakaway Iraqi Shiite militia has denied allegations that it tortured a Briton it held captive for more than two years, U.S. monitoring group SITE Intelligence reported on Monday.
The League of the Righteous -- a splinter group from the former Mahdi Army of Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr which led two uprisings against U.S.-led troops in 2004 -- said the allegations were "false", SITE said.
Peter Moore, who was held by the League from May 2007 to December 2009, said in interviews last week that the group tortured him.
The League posted a 47-second video clip on its website on Sunday in which "Moore plays with a small child, watches television, eats and exercises," SITE said. The group "claims his treatment is just as the 47-second video clip depicts," the monitoring group added.
In an interview broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 News on Thursday, Moore said he was left "screaming in pain" during a torture session which ended with him hanging from a door by a pair of handcuffs.
Moore said he endured several mock executions and spent two years of his captivity on his own, living in cramped rooms and guarded by a rotating group of insurgents
Three of Moore's British guards were killed by their captors, and the fourth was believed to have been killed although his body was never returned.
Moore said his kidnappers made it clear they wanted several leaders of their group held by the Americans to be released in exchange for him. Several of the group's members were among batches of Iraqis freed from U.S. detention and eventually, at the end of December, Moore was driven to a rendezvous with an Iraqi MP and told he was being released.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2010 00:00 ||
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well, of course, we should believe these guys, cuz they're all holy and shit
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/16/2010 18:52 Comments ||
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Hundreds of Palestinians in east Jerusalem set tires and garbage bins ablaze on Tuesday and hurled rocks at Israeli riot police, who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas. The heaviest clashes in months broke out as an American envoy abruptly canceled a visit, deepening a U.S.-Israeli diplomatic feud.
The violence spread from Arab neighborhood to Arab neighborhood across the eastern side of the volatile city. Angered by plans for more Jewish housing in predominantly Arab east Jerusalem and unsubstantiated rumors surrounding the rededication of an Old City synagogue, Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces throughout the day.
In one incident, youths hoisted a giant Palestinian flag and shouted, "We shall die and Palestine shall live."
Thousands of police, including anti-riot units armed with assault rifles, stun grenades and batons, were deployed across east Jerusalem in anticipation of the unrest.
Palestinian medics said 10 people were seriously wounded, five from rubber bullets. Israeli police said 14 security men suffered light wounds and 60 protesters were arrested.
"They are donkeys and dwarfs!" a woman screamed as riot police and plainclothes security men hauled away a handcuffed, hooded youth. Police pinned the youth to the ground, setting muzzled Doberman pinschers near them as the young man shrieked in panic.
Palestinian merchants in east Jerusalem shuttered their stores in solidarity with the protests, and Palestinian schools in the city were closed. Small clashes also took place in several West Bank towns.
The diplomatic crisis with the U.S. was sparked by Israel's announcement last week of plans for 1,600 apartments in east Jerusalem, which undercut a visit by Vice President Joe Biden aimed at bolstering peace talks. Palestinians claim that sector of the city for a future capital. Israel claims all of the holy city as its eternal capital.
The announcement enraged Palestinians, who have threatened to bow out of U.S.-brokered peace talks that were supposed to begin in the coming days. The Obama administration has angrily demanded that Israel call off the project.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio on Tuesday that demands to halt construction "are unreasonable as far as we are concerned." He predicted the row with the U.S. would blow over, saying neither side had an interest in escalation.
But Washington notified Israel that its special Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, had indefinitely put off his trip to the region.
The State Department said it was still awaiting a formal response from Israel after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton upbraided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a 43-minute phone call Friday.
Spokesman P.J. Crowley also said a lot is riding on whether Israel agrees to take steps suggested by Clinton to underscore its commitment to the peace process and strong relations with America.
"We will evaluate the implications of this once we hear back from the Israelis and see how they respond to our concerns," he said Monday.
Netanyahu has apologized for the timing of the project's approval, but has not said it would be canceled. On Monday, he defended four decades of Jewish construction in east Jerusalem and said it "in no way" hurts Palestinians.
The feud is feeding already high tension in east Jerusalem, where Jews and Palestinians live together uneasily.
Palestinian officials had called on the public to defend Muslim religious interests in Jerusalem after the rededication Monday of a historic synagogue in the Jewish quarter of the Old City. The rededication has stoked unsubstantiated rumors that Jewish extremists are planning to take over the hilltop shrine at the crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But the unrest appears to reflect a deeper frustration over the yearlong standstill in peace efforts. "Israel has reached a stage where people cannot take it anymore," said Hatem Abdel Qader, an adviser on Jerusalem affairs to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "Jerusalem is witnessing the largest Jewish projects aimed at swallowing the city. This strong reaction from the Palestinian street sends a message to the Israelis that we will not accept that."
Israel annexed east Jerusalem after capturing it from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war. Most Israelis accept the Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem as part of Israel, and previous peace proposals have allowed them to remain in Israeli hands.
But the international community does not recognize the annexation and considers the Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to be illegal settlements. Some 180,000 Jews now live in a ring of Israeli neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, alongside 250,000 Palestinians in Arab neighborhoods.
Israel's president, Nobel peace prize laureate Shimon Peres, warned against a deterioration of Israel-U.S. ties in a speech Tuesday.
"We must develop friendships with other nations, especially with the United States, to ensure political backing in our hour of need and military support against the dangers that face us," Peres said. "We cannot afford to unravel the delicate fabric of friendship with the United States.
Netanyahu consulted Sunday with the forum of seven senior cabinet ministers over a list of demands that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made in a telephone conversation Friday. Haaretz has learned that Clinton's list includes at least four steps the United States expects Netanyahu to carry out to restore confidence in bilateral relations and permit the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.
1. Investigate the process that led to the announcement of the Ramat Shlomo construction plans in the middle of Biden's visit. The Americans seek an official response from Israel on whether this was a bureaucratic mistake or a deliberate act carried out for political reasons. Already on Saturday night, Netanyahu announced the convening of a committee to look into the issue.
2. Reverse the decision by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee to approve construction of 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo.
3. Make a substantial gesture toward the Palestinians enabling the renewal of peace talks. The Americans suggested that hundreds of Palestinian prisoners be released, that the Israel Defense Forces withdraw from additional areas of the West Bank and transfer them to Palestinian control, that the siege of the Gaza Strip be eased and further roadblocks in the West Bank be removed.
4. Issue an official declaration that the talks with the Palestinians, even indirect talks, will deal with all the conflict's core issues - borders, refugees, Jerusalem, security arrangements, water and settlements. It's sounding more and more like the Guns of August. And all the time Iran gets closer and closer to its first test. And the Paks want to start a war with the Indians that really does make the dominoes fall. And a community organizer sits atop the greatest military machine in history trading honor he doesn't have for a peace he won't maintain.
#2
When Netanyahu stops laughing and his staff get off the floor from another gutbuster by the coward in chief, He will of course get himself composed and issues a statement. It will read that Israel will look into Hillary's request, giggle giggle, and get back to her once they come to resolution on it oh, in say about two years. BWHAHAHA!!! Stop it! I'm gonna pee if you make me laugh any harder. Oh, and send that rummy VP over again so our junior staff can have some more fun with press releases!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/16/2010 0:32 Comments ||
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#3
Decisions, decisions...
1) Do as Obama (not the USA - Obama) wishes and get treated like he treats the British (i.e. like stale, smelly, sh*t).
2) Tell Obumble to kiss off and take a flying F and get bowed and scrapped to by Zero and company.
#5
Toldja that the Waffler in Chief would have a Grade A hissy fit. Why even now his ears are all a-twitter because 'nobody pays me any mind. And I won the election and everything.'
What a bunch of douchebags.
#8
I've been thinking that Obumble might try to time some military action (or feint) in the middle east in an attempt to help Dem chances of surviving midterm elections. If so, the wrong move here will put a serious crimp in his plans. And even if not, I would't be surprised if Israel could form and time their response to make things even worse for Dems.
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > ISRAELI HISTORIAN: ISRAEL COULD FIND ITSELF FORCED TO WIPE OUT EUROPE, espec iff Tel Aviv deems the nation's demise or end is near. ARTIC - Historian argues that ISRAEL BELIEVES EUROPE IS A "HOSTILE TARGET".
#14
The Americans Obama seek an official response from Israel on whether this was a bureaucratic mistake or a deliberate act carried out for political reasons.
The Obama Administration Bureau of political acts investigating a bureaucratic mistake? Something akin to Charles Manson investigating a parking ticket. Total rubbish!
#15
Does anyone actually listen to Hilary or Obama, apart from at comedy hour ?
Posted by: Oscar ||
03/16/2010 7:48 Comments ||
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#16
Does anyone actually listen to Hilary or Obama, apart from at comedy hour ?
Posted by: Oscar ||
03/16/2010 7:48 Comments ||
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#17
ack - itchy trigger finger again , please delete this and #15
Posted by: Oscar ||
03/16/2010 7:49 Comments ||
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#18
It WAS stupid and shortsighted of Israel to announce the expansion when Biden was on his visit.
It seemed like a direct slap to the president.
I'm counting down the days until I get to vote Obama out of office, but Israel needs to value the relationship between the countries, and not shiat on a particular president.
They need to value their long-term relationship with their allies more. They don't have many.
#19
I understand where you're coming from, Mizzou. What I believe to be the more likely scenario is that the announcement was quite deliberate in its timing.
Throwing down the gauntlet, as it were, and forcing your opponent (in this case, us) to show where he stands. Act a little rude and you'll often get your opponent's true feelings to stand out.
The Israelis needed to know.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/16/2010 8:23 Comments ||
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#20
They're not going to quietly get into the boxcars again for anyone.
#21
They're not going to quietly get into the boxcars again for anyone.
That's true of the Settlers, but American Jews and their international equivalents still happily vote for the Obamatron and the Dems.
Were I a younger and fitter man, I'd seriously think about joining the West Bank Settlers. They are the front line against everything that would drag this world into chaos.
#22
Now, I wonder why Obama needs to have a crisis with the Jewish state right now? Could it be that he's trying that tried and true method of dealing with economic problems?
#23
I've been thinking that Obumble might try to time some military action (or feint) in the middle east...
Gorb, I'm afraid that the military action that a$$hole would want to take is a US takeover of the borders of Israel as they have been talking about to "further the peace process".
#26
just read the ticker going across the bottom of CNN and you will see how anti semitic most their viewers are
Posted by: chris ||
03/16/2010 18:10 Comments ||
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#27
the Admin is trying to walk it back after talking "tuff and shit". Oren is sticking to his "crisis" comparison. Our O-amateurs and Arabists in the State Dept got themselves worked up and now are looking to say "well, he started it!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/16/2010 18:54 Comments ||
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#28
My dad always taught me to not make more enemies than I could watch. Too bad Obumble's step-dad didn't impart such wisdom to him when he was younger. Obumble is making an awful lot of enemies, internally and externally. That's extreme stupidity in any form, but especially in politics.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/16/2010 19:16 Comments ||
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Israel's envoy to Washington said ties between the two allies have hit "the most severe crisis since 1975" over Tel Aviv settlement plan that embarrassed the US administration at a time that it was promoting indirect peace talks with the Palestinians.
"Israel's relations with the US are facing the most severe crisis since 1975," Israel's Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren said on Monday.
Israel's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment on Oren's remarks.
The year 1975 witnessed a major crisis between the key allies over the US calls for a partial withdrawal from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, then under Israeli occupation.
Israel's settlement plan to build 1,600 new housing units in east Jerusalem (al-Quds), which was announced during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden aimed at promoting indirect peace talks with the Palestinians, ignited a new crisis between the two sides.
US administration officials including Biden, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and senior presidential advisor David Axelrod have slammed both the new construction and the timing of the announcement as insulting and destructive to peace efforts.
In American media the move was deemed as a "slap in the face" of US President Barack Obama's administration.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced regret on Sunday for what he described as bureaucratic happenstance, saying "We know how to deal with these situations -- with equanimity, responsibly and seriously."
Israeli media reported that Clinton, in a telephone call to Netanyahu on Friday, demanded he reverse the decision to construct the settler homes at Ramat Shlomo in northern Jerusalem (al-Quds). Israel, however, declined to comment.
In Washington, the influential pro-Israel lobbying group, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, called on the White House to take immediate steps to defuse tension with Israel.
A US envoy is expected back in the region later in the week to try to get peace talks, suspended since December 2008, under way.
Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas, however, refused direct or indirect negotiations without a complete settlement freeze.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Israel know one thing for certain, America will be at her side, however reluctanly, by our prez O. They also know that he will not last forever in office, read voted out, and they will not piss off the American supporters. They will go it alone until those crazy Americans figure it out.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/16/2010 0:36 Comments ||
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#2
Israel outlasted Ford and Carter (remember those clowns?). They'll outlast this clown. 560 days to go.
#3
You can see the fear in the Liberal's eyes. They know what they dont want to know...and they are out in the open. Its later when they have a broken thumb and at least ten inches of slit open belly fat and trying to push a large curl of lower bowel back into the cavity..that they know its going to get dark and then...twenty hyenas and no Jesus.
#6
I guess no one told Obama, and Clinton has forgotten. On his very first visit to USA as Israeli PM, his first term, Bibi spoke to Congress about phasing out USA aid to Israel. A move that aroused considerable heat in Israel[1]---now he can get his way without any domestic opposition.
[1] Jews survived 2000 years of Diaspora by finding powerful patrons---the psychological need is very fundamental.
#7
fwiw, the WaPost editorial today counseled Obama to retreat from his confrontation with Israel (and blame Obama for the 'blunt and undiplomatic' Clinton phone call.
I expect other newspaper have similar editorials.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/16/2010 11:42 Comments ||
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#8
Lest we forget the Israelis have their friends in the US press corps. This could boomerang badly for the Big O. I certainly hope it does. What a tool that man is. This issue with Israel is all smoke and mirrors, created to bully them and nothing more.
#9
Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas, however, refused direct or indirect negotiations without a complete settlement freeze.
What has gotten lost in the shuffle here is that a settlement freeze has never been a prerequisite for negotiations until after President Obamas Cairo speech. Also, when Secretary Clinton tried to soften the bungled language the Arab League pulled the rug out from under her cankles. Thats no excuse for Israels ill-timed announcement but the situation should viewed in the context of recent events.
#10
I wish it were only 560 days. (2x365) + (10x30) = 1030... right? til Jan 20 2013
there's an f'n leap year in there too somewhere
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/16/2010 18:57 Comments ||
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#11
What has gotten lost in the shuffle here is that a settlement freeze has never been a prerequisite for negotiations until after President Obama's Cairo speech. Also, when Secretary Clinton tried to soften the bungled language the Arab League pulled the rug out from under her cankles. That's no excuse for Israel's ill-timed announcement but the situation should viewed in the context of recent events.
If she doesn't like the water she's carrying she can always stop carrying it. IMHO.
Until then, I think we can safely assume she agrees with Zero about the situation.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear on Monday settlement building in east Jerusalem would continue, in a move likely to further heighten tensions with key ally the United States.
"Construction will continue in Jerusalem as this has been the case over the past 42 years," he told members of his Likud party. Israel occupied mainly Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.
Israel's go-ahead last week for the construction of 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem infuriated Washington, particularly since it coincided with a visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden aimed at promoting renewed peace talks with the Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Indonesia's largest Islamic organization on Monday condemned protests by hard-line groups against U.S. President Barack Obama's planned visit to the mainly Muslim country.
Nahdlatul Ulama deputy chairman Maskuri Abdillah said the visit would strengthen frayed ties between the United States and the Muslim world.
"We call on all Muslims in Indonesia not to join any protest rejecting the visit of President Obama to Indonesia," he told AFP.
"This call has been made following our concerns about a number of protests by some Muslim groups who stand against the visit.
"We must welcome Obama as his visit will be positive in terms of the U.S. relationship with the Muslim world."
Thousands of demonstrators from radical Muslim group Hizbut Tahrir, which aims to establish an Islamic caliphate, rallied against Obama on Sunday, tearing U.S. flags and calling America a terrorist state.
Such groups have little support in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country where Obama lived for four years as a child.
He is scheduled to leave the United States on March 21 for the trip, which will include stops in Guam and Australia.
The visit is expected to build on a speech Obama gave last year in Cairo, in which he promised to mend fences with the Islamic world after years of discord under the previous administration of George W. Bush.
"Obama has a different personality to his predecessor George Bush. Obama has the political will to improve U.S. ties with the Muslim world," Abdillah said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2010 00:00 ||
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Iran's supreme leader is attempting to extinguish an annual event celebrating the last days of winter and the Persian calendar year, and the government is strengthening its security presence in the days leading up to a major holiday, Iranian media reported.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday urged Iranians to dismiss the ancient practice of fire jumping and feasting on Chaharshanbe Soori, a festival held on the eve of the last Wednesday before spring -- this year, March 16. The activities date back thousands of years. The festivities have no basis in Islam, and can cause "harm and corruption," Khamenei said in a statement published by Iranian news sites. "It is appropriate to avoid it," he said.
The celebrations lead up to Norooz, the holiday that marks the first day of spring and the Persian new year. Norooz falls on Saturday this year. Iran is beefing up security to ensure "order and calm" during the two-week period celebrating Norooz, stationing 200,000 security personnel across the Islamic republic, according to Raja news, the official new site of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the eastern city of Mashad, the chief prosecutor said those who engage in "disruptive behavior" during Chaharshanbe Soori would face "strong consequences."
It's a precaution that's become increasingly commonplace in Iran, especially in advance of holidays, as the government continues to warn against political demonstrations that have emerged since last summer's disputed presidential elections.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The Sunday Herald has reported that hundreds of powerful US "bunker-buster" bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia.
In January, the US government signed a contract to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island, the Scottish newspaper wrote on March 14.
According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 "Blu-110" and "Blu-117" bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures. Crucially, the cargo included 195 smart, guided, Blu-110 bombs and 192 massive 2000lb Blu-117 bombs.
Experts say that they are being put in place for an assault on Iran's nuclear facilities, added the newspaper.
There has long been speculation that the US military is preparing for such an attack should diplomacy fail to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment.
Although Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971. The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius.
The Sunday Herald reported in 2007 that stealth bomber hangers on Diego Garcia Island were being equipped to accommodate bunker-buster bombs.
Although the story was not confirmed at the time, the new evidence suggests that it was accurate, the latest edition of the Sunday Herald said.
A shipping company based in Florida, Superior Maritime Services, will be paid $699,500 to carry many thousands of military items from Concord, California to Diego Garcia.
"The US is not publicizing the scale of these preparations to deter Iran, tending to make confrontation more likely," the Sunday Herald quoted Dan Plesch, the director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London, as saying.
"The US... is using its forces as part of an overall strategy of shaping Iran's actions," he added.
According to Ian Davis, the director of the new independent think tank NATO Watch, the shipment to Diego Garcia is a major concern. "We would urge the US to clarify its intentions for these weapons, and the Foreign Office to clarify its attitude to the use of Diego Garcia for an attack on Iran," he said.
The British Ministry of Defense has said in the past that the US government would need permission to use Diego Garcia for offensive action.
However, the US military used Diego Garcia as a base to attack Iraq in 1991 and 2003.
About 50 British military personnel are stationed on the island and over 3,200 US troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/16/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Seems to me the BLU-117s are too small to make much more than a dent. Bunker Busters didn't do much more than rattle the dishes in Saddam's bunkers, and Iran's are newer.
#4
One thing the Mad Mullahs might want to think about is that, if the health care bill fails, Obummer is gonna need something to do that can make up for that failure. His ego will demand it. I mean, how would you like to go through the next two years as the main player on the world stage with everybody thinking that your are impotent and comical?
So if the guy is frustrated and humiliated and looking for something to make himself feel better he might just set his sights on bombing the hell out of Iran.
#5
If only Obama was capable of something like that...
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/16/2010 15:12 Comments ||
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#6
"His ego will demand it. "
I've heard of off the wall theories like astro-cartography and locational astrology...LOL...
Maybe EGO cartography needs to be added as a new age discipline--there might even be $ in it. Cause Obummer has an entire universe of satellite idiots orbiting round him, that is for sure.
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.
In March last year South Korea gave US$3.8 million worth of aid, including $400,000 in cash and building materials, to North Korea to build a center for inter-Korean video-link family reunions in Pyongyang. But North Korea has not even started construction on the site, it was known on Sunday. 
FORT JACKSON, S.C. (AP) - New soldiers are grunting through the kind of stretches and twists found in "ab blaster" classes at suburban gyms as the Army revamps its basic training regimen for the first time in three decades.
Hundreds of Palestinians in east Jerusalem set tires and garbage bins ablaze on Tuesday and hurled rocks at Israeli riot police, who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas. The heaviest clashes in months broke out as an American envoy abruptly canceled a visit, deepening a U.S.-Israeli diplomatic feud.
