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Today: 58 articles and 115 comments as of 11:39.
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U.S. War in Iraq Declared Officially Over
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Marine Corps Accused Of Exaggerating MOH Recipient's Actions
Posted by: Anonymoose || 12/15/2011 11:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So Meyer gets a job with a defense contractor, goes public complaining they're sending the good stuff to Pakistan, thence to the Taliban. Gets fired. His employer goes public--this is illegal as hell--about drunk and not a team player and so forth--to ruin his prospects for another job.
Coincidence? You be the judge.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 12/15/2011 13:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Paging Courtney Massengale...


That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,
Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
"With our own feathers, not by others' hands


This is the "Perfumed Princes" closing ranks. And it is disgusting - if we had an honest Inspector general and a real leader as CinC, they would have put a stop to this BS quick fast and in-a-hurry.
Posted by: OldSpook || 12/15/2011 13:56 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
AEP: China's epic hangover begins
China's credit bubble has finally popped. The property market is swinging wildly from boom to bust, the cautionary exhibit of a BRIC's dream that is at last coming down to earth with a thud.
Posted by: tipper || 12/15/2011 03:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Emergence of the Punjabi Taliban
[Pak Daily Times] Pak intelligence circles are anxious about the feudal culture, illiteracy and poverty that provide fertile ground for the Punjabi Taliban's terror operations. The province's 20,000 hard boy and religious schools have the potential to convert the southern districts into jihadist nurseries

Radicalisation of Pak students in universities, colleges and religious schools has become a big challenge for the government and its administrative machinery. A half-religious and half-western education system and poverty have compelled the poorer parents in southern Punjab to send their children to sectarian religious schools. The country exhibits cancerous symptoms that point to high potential for youth radicalisation in more than 120 universities, 1,370 colleges and 25,000 religious schools, which now present a big security challenge for the law enforcement agencies.

Extremist infrastructure, widespread networks of myrmidon groups and poor governance have put the national security of the country in danger. A Taliban victory in Afghanistan in 1996 diverted the attention of young Pak students from various colleges and schools to the business of dying in order to kill. The Urdu-medium public schools that serve more than 70 percent of the poorer students play a vital role in their radicalisation. In southern Punjab, a majority of students in these schools come from poor families.

Poverty and the lack of freedom of expression are major factors responsible for the growing number of radicals. Politicisation of religion, the influence of Arab religious culture in society, and the institutionalisation of sectarianism have given rise to a new form of terrorism. Pakistain has entered the wrong process of socio-political transformation.

The madrassa culture in Pakistain has created tensions between Moslems and the followers of other religions. Europe and the west view Pak Islam as a global threat. Jihad against the Ahmedis, Shia Moslems, war among Sunnis, jihad against the Zikris, Hindus and Sikhs and the recent brutal killings of Christians in Punjab present a transmogrified aspect of Islam. These groups have brought isolation and shame upon Pakistain. Emergence of the Punjabi Taliban in southern Punjab is a big threat, and the lack of a sound and well-connected administrative structure has compounded the problem.

The term Punjabi Taliban has come to be widely used for forces of Evil in recent times, but the militancy of the Punjabi Taliban has long been a destabilising factor for civil society. Earlier, recruits from Punjab were used for jihad in Afghanistan and Kashmire. Some Punjab-based politicians and police officials, at the behest of their political bosses, tried to blame the attacks on FATA-based Taliban or on Indian agents, but it is now generally accepted that there are some beturbanned goons who belong to Punjab. The Punjabi Taliban are more lethal than the so-called Pashtun Taliban, as they carry out attacks that need much higher levels of training and coordination. Till analysts recognised the existence of the Punjabi Taliban, these hard boy groups were termed as splinter groups of sectarian organizations.

Intelligence sources estimated around 5,000 beturbanned goons from southern and northern Punjab to have moved to South Wazoo in 2005, while some 10,000 newly recruited young members of the Punjabi Taliban networks returned to the province.

Qandeel Siddique's DIIS Report for 2010 about the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) has warned, "The growing number of US drone strikes in Pakistain's border areas, and expanding US presence and influence inside Pakistain has further aggravated the jihadists -- not only in the northwest of the country, but also in Punjab." The jihadists, Qandeel says, accuse the government of Punjab of facilitating the US 'takeover' of Pakistain.

The newly established military wing of the group, Asian Tigers, is based in Waziristan. Its training camps prepare Punjabi forces of Evil for war against Pak security forces in southern Punjab. The group killed the father of the Afghan Taliban, Colonel Imam, and former ISI officer Khalid Khwaja.

The undemocratic political culture in Pakistain is considered to be another factor of radicalisation. The sectarian and hard boy culture has promoted intolerance and violence. An hard boy bodyguard of Salmaan Taseer Shaheed, Mumtaz Qadri, killed him in Islamabad. He viewed Taseer as a blasphemer for having opposed Pakistain's blasphemy laws. This murder exposed the rising influence of the Punjabi Taliban in government departments.

War against the Soviet Union created a support network in Pakistain for armed hard boy groups. These newly trained forces of Evil and their masters intelligently cashed in on the increasing radicalisation of Pak society, which took place in the 1980s and 1990s. The process of radicalisation continued as myrmidon groups shifted their focus towards Kashmire. Unfortunately, Pak society has developed both internal and external factors of radicalisation. The external, experts say, might be the US and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization....
presence in Afghanistan and their drone attacks inside Pakistain's tribal belts. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, jihadists continued to flow into Pak Punjab.

Throughout the 1990s, Pakistain's myrmidon groups trained over 25,000 beturbanned goons in terror camps. In his book, Secret Affairs, Mark Curtis says that the Mighty Pak Army trained about 60,000 forces of Evil for the Kashmire jihad, but sources in the Pakistain Army denied it. In 2010, while talking to a private TV channel, former president General Musharraf admitted the army's role in recruitment of jihadis.

Research and official reports by the government of Pakistain have now shown the strong presence of Punjabi Taliban networks across Punjab province, specifically in southern Punjab. Pak intelligence circles are anxious about the feudal culture, illiteracy and poverty that provide fertile ground for the Punjabi Taliban's terror operations. The province's 20,000 hard boy and religious schools have the potential to convert the southern districts into jihadist nurseries.
Posted by: Fred || 12/15/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Punjabis fear the break up of Pakistan more than Sindh,Balochs and pashtuns.
Posted by: Paul D || 12/15/2011 14:41 Comments || Top||

#2  DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US SENATOR [Mark Kirk] WANTS INDIA TO SEND ITS TROOPS INTO AFGHANISTAN.

Also feels Pakistan should give up trying to dominate Afghanistan + instead work wid the latter to take over a number of curren Pak-controled/specific anti-terro activities.

versus

* SAME > US FEELS INDIA HAS 180.0 MILYUHN MUSLIMS.

India's Govt. undercounting or missing potens score(s) of Milyuhns of Muslims.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 12/15/2011 21:43 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Who’s REALLY Blowing Up Iran?
By Michael Ledeen

It just has to be Israel, according to the pundit class.  You know, that warmonger Netanyahu.  Or maybe it’s us.  Maybe it’s Obama, who after all killed bin Laden and Qadaffi, toppled Mubarak and bin Ali, and has proclaimed that “Assad must go.” Who else could be behind the “mysterious” wave of assassination, sabotage and explosions all over the country, from military bases to factories, from pipelines carrying natural gas to the Turks to automobiles in downtown Tehran carrying nuclear physicists to or from work?

Before we get to the whys and wherefores, a bit of detail:  the huge detonation at Karaj, which, as I have explained, surprised the attackers and distorted our understanding.  The operation was aimed at the Revolutionary Guards Corps, specifically at General Hassan Tehrani Moghadam, who was both the architect of the national missile program and one of the nastiest officials in that legendarily nasty organization.  The attackers did not know that there was a large quantity of rocket fuel on the base that day (which was the reason Moghadam was there).  The special fuel came from North Korea, and it was supposed to double tne range of Iran’s missiles.  The explosion that killed Moghadam and scores of his comrades ignited the rocket fuel, with dramatic results.  To date, 377 dead have been reported to the supreme leader’s office.  Among the dead are the attackers–they couldn’t escape the big explosion–and at least four North Korean officials, who were there for the celebration.

The attackers came from the internal opposition, and so far as I know they had no ties to any foreign anything, not a foreign intelligence service, not a foreign military organization, not a foreign government.

I’ve been a lonely voice for quite a while, saying that the opposition (call it the Green Movement, for lack of an updated logo) would become more violent, that the movement was, if anything, more powerful than it was at the time of the big demonstrations a year and two years ago, and that the regime was full of opposition sympathizers and collaborators.

Because it’s obvious that whoever’s blowing up Iran, they’ve got a lot of help from some very important insiders.  Don’t take it from me;  ask Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.  He knows that if his enemies can blow up those installations, they can blow up most anything.  Of late, Khamenei hasn’t been particularly active in public events.  Like his buddy, Hezbollah chief Nasrullah, he’s keeping his head down and his profile low.

The sources upon whom I rely for such information tell me there is more to come, and I’m sure that the supreme leader believes just that.  He may not know the provenance of the army amassed against him and his regime, and he may well convince himself, as our own entrail readers have convinced themselves, that he is under siege from the satanic forces in Washington and Jerusalem.  But I don’t believe it.  Maybe–probably, even-Stuxnet.  I don’t think the Greens are up to that one.  Maybe, if you insist, some of the assassinations of the physicists, although I rather suspect they were suspected of disloyalty and were rubbed out by the regime.

But this is a major campaign, and I think it represents the revenge of the Iranian people against their torturers, murderers and oppressors.
Posted by: || 12/15/2011 06:54 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm not a chemist, nor even a rocket scientist. But I have a problem with new fuel doubling the range of a missile. That means the fuel contains more energy per unit of mass or volume. To, say, double the blast in the combustion chamber means the combustion chamber may not hold it. The acceleration would be substantially higher. The missile structure would be stressed beyond the design limits unless there had been a substantial fudge factor built in, which means extra unnecessary weight.
Or they could burn it more slowly so the same energy is exerted from less fuel and thus burn it longer.
But that would require completely rejiggering the plumbing, valving, and aiming or controlling mechanism.
Anything's possible, I suppose, but this is stretching it.
OTOH, it did blow up satisfactorily, so there's that.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 12/15/2011 13:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Look RA, Ledeen is one of these people who think that because they've been to a place and spoken to locals, they are experts on it. Actually, he knows as much about Iran as Tom Friedman knows about China---diddly squat.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/15/2011 15:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Who’s really blowing Up Iran?

Who cares, as long as they keep it up.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/15/2011 22:09 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Blood and Gore and Climate
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/15/2011 03:08 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The opinion piece in the WSJ was called, by the authors, a "Manifesto for Sustainable Capitalism".

I love the fact that they used the word "manifesto" because it pretty much gives away the fact that this is liberal fascism.

Also I like the fact that they used the word "sustainable" because it gives away the fact that that the argument for their idea is gibberish.

Posted by: Lord Garth || 12/15/2011 9:21 Comments || Top||

#2  I read this blather yesterday morning. It must have been because the caffeine hadn't hit my bloodstream yet...but I have to admit that the "Blood and Gore" authorship reference went over my head :-(
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 12/15/2011 10:19 Comments || Top||

#3  I thought according to the news, algore is too fat to effectively unleash his chakra. Or lead.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 12/15/2011 19:59 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
40[untagged]
3Govt of Syria
2Govt of Iran
2Taliban
1Iraqi Baath Party
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Jund al-Shams
1Lashkar-e-Islami
1Muslim Brotherhood
1Palestinian Authority
1Pirates
1TTP
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1al-Qaeda in Turkey
1Govt of Pakistan

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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2011-12-15
  U.S. War in Iraq Declared Officially Over
Wed 2011-12-14
  33 Civilians, 7 Regime Troops Killed
Tue 2011-12-13
  Mexican Army bags 11 bad guys in Tamaulipas state
Mon 2011-12-12
  Mysterious explosion kills 7, injures 16 in Iran
Sun 2011-12-11
  Syrian Opposition Reports Deputy Defense Minister Killed
Sat 2011-12-10
  Rival Yemeni forces said to quit streets of Taiz city
Fri 2011-12-09
  Twenty trucks torched in attack at Nato terminal in Quetta
Thu 2011-12-08
  Yemen's unity government announced
Wed 2011-12-07
  New coalition government formed in Yemen
Tue 2011-12-06
  Afghanistan: Kabul shrine attacks 'kills 34'
Mon 2011-12-05
  France Reduces Tehran Embassy Staff after Attack on British Mission
Sun 2011-12-04
  Iran police arrest 12 over embassy rally
Sat 2011-12-03
  US Hands Over Camp Victory to Iraq
Fri 2011-12-02
  Syria Sanctions Target Assad Brother, 16 Other Senior Figures
Thu 2011-12-01
  UK expels Iran diplomats after embassy attack

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