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Pakistan detains top al-Qaida suspect
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Africa North
It's a TOTAL war, monsieur
h/t Gates of Vienna
The winners of that "kinetic" thing in northern Africa (the Barack Obama administration swears it's not a war) - collectively described as Friends of Libya (FOL) - were all in a jolly mood as they gathered in Paris on Thursday, with no air-conditioning but potent odors of runny Brie and Roquefort, to gloat about their United Nations-sanctioned, North Atlantic Treaty Organization-implemented "operation" for regime change in Libya.

Call it the FOL war; the R2P war (as in "responsibility to protect" Western plunder); the Air France war; the Total war; anyway, the FOL had a blast spinning their win.

The Great Arab Liberator, neo-Napoleonic President Nicolas Sarkozy, gloated, "We have aligned with the Arab people in their aspiration for freedom." Bahrainis, Saudis, Yemenis, not to mention Tunisians and Egyptians, have every right to be puzzled.

Sarko added, "Dozens of thousands of lives were spared thanks to the intervention." Even the "rebels" are spinning there are at least 50,000 dead, with NATO still hooked on a wild bombing spree.

...Securing the loot
Hours before the Paris bash, French daily Liberation published on its website a letter written only 17 days after UN Resolution 1973. In the letter, the TNC ratifies an agreement ceding no less than 35% of Libya's total crude oil production to France in exchange of Sarko's "humanitarian" support.

Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 09/05/2011 03:40 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Or perhaps Africans see right through the FOL's agenda; the new Libyan status as a barely disguised Western colony; and the neo-Orwellian fable of humanitarian imperialism.

Blood for oil, sure, but a 'western colony'? I think not!
Posted by: Bobby || 09/05/2011 7:09 Comments || Top||

#2  European arranged regime changes have a rather shoddy performance record on the continent of Africa as I recall. I doubt this one will fair much better.
Posted by: Besoeker || 09/05/2011 9:48 Comments || Top||

#3  I doubt this one will fair much better.

Just a thought. If one is a Jihadi intent on reaching Europe with equipment, new Libya is a great boon.
Posted by: gr(o)mgoru || 09/05/2011 12:35 Comments || Top||


Economy
German endgame for EMU draws ever nearer
We are so used to German self-abnegation for the sake of Europe that we can hardly imagine any other state of affairs. But the escalating protest against EMU bail-outs by Germany’s key institutions go beyond the banalities of money. The fight is over German democracy itself.

Those who talk of a Fourth Reich or believe that EMU is a "German racket to take over the whole of Europe" – as Nicholas Ridley famously put it -- have the matter backwards.

Germans allowed their country to be tied down with "silken chords". They are the most reliable defenders of freedom and parliamentary prerogative in Europe, precisely because they know their history.

Finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble could hardly have chosen a more toxic term than "Bevollmächtigung" or general enabling power when he requested blanket authority from the Bundestag for EU rescues, as if Weimar were so soon forgotten. He was roundly rebuffed.

You can feel the storm brewing in Germany. Within days of each other, President Christian Wulff accused the European Central Bank of going "far beyond" its mandate and subverting Article 123 of the Lisbon Treaty by shoring up insolvent states, and Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann said bail-out policies had "completely gutted" the EU law.

Both believe the EU Project has taken a dangerous turn. Fiscal powers are slipping away to a supra-national body beyond sovereign control. "This strikes at the very core of our democracies. Decisions have to be made in parliament in a liberal democracy. That is where legitimacy lies," said Mr Wulff.

Otmar Issing, the ECB’s founding guru, fears that the current course must ultimately provoke the "resistance of the people". Instead of evolving into an authentic union with a "European government controlled by a European Parliament" on democratic principles, it has become deformed halfway house.

In its rush to save EMU, he said, Europe has forgotten that legislative primacy over tax and spending is the crucible of our democracies. It was monarchical assault on the power of the purse that led to England’s Civil War, and America’s Revolution.

We will find out to what extent Germany’s constitutional court shares these fears when it rules this Wednesday on the legality of the EU rescue machinery, and delivers its verdict of life or death for monetary union.

The opinion will be drafted by Guido di Fabio, a Wilhelmine nostalagic and declared enemy of "libertarian nihilism". The judge has an odd outlook perhaps for the grandson of an impoverished nobleman from the Abruzzi who found work in Duisburg steel mills. He is quintessentially German now.

His remarkable 2005 book "The Culture of Freedom" decries the "enfeebled" societies of the West, and judges multiculturalism and the welfare state to have failed miserably. He calls for a "renaissance of marriage and family" and a return to "the nation as common destiny". One awaits his Nieztschean verdict on Europe with curiosity.

The court is a formidable body, the last defender of sovereignty against EU overreach in a Europe of pliant judges. "European integration may not result in the system of democratic rule in Germany being undermined," was its verdict on the Lisbon Treaty.

In a defiant warning to the European Court and the plotters and usurpers of Brussels, it ruled that the nation states are "masters of the Treaties" and not the other way round. Core areas of policy – especially budgets -- "must forever remain German".

"The principle of democracy may not be balanced against other legal interests; it is inviolable."

"A blanket empowerment for the exercise of public authority may not be granted by the German constitutional bodies."

If democratic legitimacy is violated "in the course of the European integration", Germany must be prepared "in the worst case, even to refuse further participation in the European Union."

Even to refuse.
The Enabling Act (German: Ermächtigungsgesetz) was passed by Germany's Reichstag and signed by President Paul von Hindenburg on 23 March 1933. It was the second major step, after the Reichstag Fire Decree, through which Chancellor Adolf Hitler legally obtained plenary powers and established his dictatorship.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/05/2011 11:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Using a word like "Bevollmächtigung" in Germany is about as bad as if he had paraphrased and said something like, "One European people, One European Nation, One European leader!" (after the Nazi "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" -- "One People, One Nation, One Leader".

It probably made a lot of Germans collectively poop themselves.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/05/2011 11:41 Comments || Top||

#2  There will be war...
Posted by: Secret Asian Man || 09/05/2011 11:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Somebody should explain to them that the EU and Nato are in Brussels and not Antwerp for a reason. The Germans' job is to build the cars, pay the bills and shut up. /sarc
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/05/2011 12:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Euro stocks tanking hard today
Posted by: Frank G || 09/05/2011 12:17 Comments || Top||

#5  It's going to be another tough September once the traitors traders get up to date. Friday's market should be fun.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/05/2011 12:37 Comments || Top||

#6  NS I'm afraid that your strikeout was unnecessary and probably incorrect.

Might I suggest "traitors (aka traders)" as a replacement?
Posted by: AlanC || 09/05/2011 13:31 Comments || Top||

#7  Stupid Germans! Your democracy means nothing! The Smart People[tm] will make the decisions now. It's nothing personal, it's just that The Smart People[tm] are better suited to rule, and not unreliable like a democracy. Voting is pure gambling, there is no guarantee of a positive outcome. They are also not susceptible to human weakness like the corruption of power, they are The Smart People[tm].
Posted by: gromky || 09/05/2011 17:29 Comments || Top||

#8  Every time I conclude we are royally screwed, along comes a news item making me realize that the Europeans are adamant to be first over the cliff.

After Greece inevitably defaults, how eager will northern European voters be to prop up Portugal, Spain, and Italy? If either of the latter 2 default, a few significant French and German banks will fail, and then what?

Scary stuff. I'm tempted to stock up on food, guns, and ammo, but preparing for a Mad Max world doesn't exactly inspire me to action.
Posted by: kcs || 09/05/2011 18:40 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Real Nose-Bleeder About Jane Fonda
(Do not read if you are prone to high blood pressure, stroke or rages that could result in injury.)
Rebel without a bra: Jane Fonda said her biggest regret was not sleeping with Che Guevara... but that was to please her husband.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/05/2011 11:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “If the nuclear missiles had remained, we would have fired them against the heart of the U.S. including New York City. The victory of socialism is worth millions of atomic victims."
-- Che Guevara to the London Daily Worker,
November, 1962

Lebensunwertes Leben (ger.) = Life Unworthy of Life.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/05/2011 11:55 Comments || Top||

#2  there's very few that Jane hasn't slept with
Posted by: Frank G || 09/05/2011 12:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Rebel without a bra: Jane Fonda said her biggest regret was not sleeping with Che Guevara... but that was to please her husband.

That's prolly coz her husband wanted to sleep with Che Guevara
Posted by: badanov || 09/05/2011 12:24 Comments || Top||

#4  LOL, badanov.
Posted by: gr(o)mgoru || 09/05/2011 12:36 Comments || Top||

#5  I guess even Che had standards.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 09/05/2011 12:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Father and brother - good folk... her... a political slut whore.... Yin & Yang?
Posted by: Water Modem || 09/05/2011 13:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Brother WM?? I thought Peter was as Pravda loyal as his sister, no?
Posted by: AlanC || 09/05/2011 13:26 Comments || Top||

#8  One screwed up commie bytch.
Posted by: JohnQC || 09/05/2011 13:46 Comments || Top||

#9  Jane Fonda should have been convicted of treason 40 years ago. Yes, I know how treason is defined in the Constitution: giving aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war. She allowed herself to be photographed sitting on an anti-aircraft gun, with the picture being used for anti-US propaganda. To me, that is giving aid to an enemy.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 09/05/2011 14:20 Comments || Top||

#10  Jane Fonda should have been convicted of crimes against humanity for her aid to Vietanmese and Cambodian genociders, hanged and buried alongside, Goering and Himmler.
Posted by: JFM || 09/05/2011 16:29 Comments || Top||

#11  I've got to agree with #9 & #10. Fonda (spit) should have been immediately arrested for treason upon return, and once the "press" objected it would have been crystal clear (as if more evidence was needed) which side they were on. Would it have made any difference? Probably not, but at least she would have been dead, or staring at a prison wall for a while. FOAD, HJ.
Posted by: PBMcL || 09/05/2011 17:44 Comments || Top||

#12  Wow. If it's all true, what a pathetic woman.
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/05/2011 18:47 Comments || Top||

#13  Don't you guys realize that the terms "treason" and "sedition" have been stricken from the judicial lexicon?

You must be constitutional literalists. How quaint!

Nobody pays attention to that old rag. It was written by slave-holding, dead, males of European extraction, and is therefore null and void.
Posted by: kcs || 09/05/2011 18:48 Comments || Top||

#14  white commie whore trash? Does that work for you?
Posted by: Frank G || 09/05/2011 18:58 Comments || Top||

#15  Jane Fondle should have been convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a miner, and hanged a long time ago. I don't give much energy to regretting not doing it, but it IS one of my life goals I haven't accomplished yet...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/05/2011 19:44 Comments || Top||

#16  Jane Fondle should have been convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a miner, and hanged a long time ago. I don't give much energy to regretting not doing it, but it IS one of my life goals I haven't accomplished yet...
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/05/2011 19:45 Comments || Top||

#17  Mods, sorry about the double-post. Please correct. My computer is acting up today and didn't respond the first time I pushed "Submit".
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/05/2011 19:47 Comments || Top||

#18  sorry about the double-post

In the spirit of "anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice", I would leave it if I were me.
Posted by: SteveS || 09/05/2011 20:51 Comments || Top||

#19  She should have been convicted of crimes against humanity for that Barbarella movie too!
Posted by: Sgt. D.T. || 09/05/2011 22:13 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Another slaughtered in Thai south, and no one cares
Posted by: ryuge || 09/05/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ION DAILY TIMES.PK > MUSLIM REBELS [MILF] DEMAND MODIFIED PEACE PLAN. New "Road Map", or else???

The Moros demand "real autonomy" vee de facto Muslim-controlled "SubState" in their region, not just another plan from Manila which focuses on socioeconomic reforms, IOW, PUT ANOTHER WAY THE MOROS WANT TO SEE THE BORDER BOUNDARIES = SURVEY MAPS.

The above is why I deemed repors of inter-MILF factionalism = breakaway Rebel Group as more EXPANSION OF PHIL JIHAD, NOT A REDUCTION OR PEACE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/05/2011 22:13 Comments || Top||



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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2011-09-05
  Pakistan detains top al-Qaida suspect
Sun 2011-09-04
  Sudan declares emergency in Blue Nile state
Sat 2011-09-03
  European Union Lifts Sanctions on Libya
Fri 2011-09-02
  Russia recognises Libya's rebel government
Thu 2011-09-01
  Al Qathafi Reject Rebels' Ultimatum to Surrender
Wed 2011-08-31
  Saleh Authorizes his party to Conduct Negotiations with Opposition
Tue 2011-08-30
  Qadaffy's wife, daughter, 2 sons flee to Algeria
Mon 2011-08-29
  29 dead in suicide bomb attack in Iraq mosque: Officials
Sun 2011-08-28
  Rebels claim capture of last army base in Tripoli
Sat 2011-08-27
  Al Qaeda's No. 2 , Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, Killed in Pakistan
Fri 2011-08-26
  Rebel council to take Libya's seat at Arab League
Thu 2011-08-25
  Yemeni premier back home from Riyadh
Wed 2011-08-24
  Rebels offers $1.7 million bounty for Gadhafi
Tue 2011-08-23
  Rebels Capture Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya Compound, House
Mon 2011-08-22
  Libyans Celebrate Takeover of Capital

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