Hi there, !
Today Mon 10/10/2011 Sun 10/09/2011 Sat 10/08/2011 Fri 10/07/2011 Thu 10/06/2011 Wed 10/05/2011 Tue 10/04/2011 Archives
Rantburg
531692 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 57 articles and 219 comments as of 12:28.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix   
Doctor Who Helped U.S. Find Osama Bin Laden May Hang
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 1: WoT Operations
11 00:00 rammer [] 
7 00:00 SteveS [] 
0 [] 
5 00:00 Ebbang Uluque6305 [] 
4 00:00 trailing wife [] 
0 [] 
5 00:00 g(r)omgoru [] 
1 00:00 g(r)omgoru [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 Kofi and Company8880 [] 
0 [] 
1 00:00 American Delight [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
0 [] 
3 00:00 JosephMendiola [] 
10 00:00 Eric Jablow [1] 
Page 2: WoT Background
2 00:00 Frank G []
1 00:00 g(r)omgoru []
6 00:00 Barbara []
5 00:00 USN, Ret. []
1 00:00 tipover []
0 []
15 00:00 swksvolFF []
0 []
2 00:00 Eohippus Phater7165 []
0 []
3 00:00 Kojack []
2 00:00 JosephMendiola []
0 []
1 00:00 g(r)omgoru []
1 00:00 Boyo []
4 00:00 JosephMendiola []
0 []
4 00:00 JosephMendiola []
3 00:00 JosephMendiola []
Page 3: Non-WoT
9 00:00 European Conservative []
1 00:00 g(r)omgoru []
1 00:00 DarthVader []
10 00:00 Deacon Blues []
0 []
0 []
14 00:00 Procopius2k []
3 00:00 Thing From Snowy Mountain []
0 []
1 00:00 newc []
Page 4: Opinion
5 00:00 Perfesser []
2 00:00 JosephMendiola []
0 []
1 00:00 Deacon Blues []
16 00:00 Perfesser []
Page 6: Politix
7 00:00 Procopius2k []
6 00:00 Anonymoose []
4 00:00 Ebbang Uluque6305 []
5 00:00 Eohippus Phater7165 []
38 00:00 Sping Panda9115 [1]
Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2011 10:50 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot

Rachel McAdams aka Regina George in "Mean Girls" aka Irene Adler in "Sherlock Holmes" aka Claire Cleary in "Wedding Crashers" aka Lisa Reisert in "Red Eye" aka Inez in "Midnight in Paris" aka Allie in "The Notebook" aka Amy Stone in "The Family Stone" aka Becky Fuller in "Morning Glory" aka Della Frye in "State of Play" (age 33)



Look Ma, no tramp stamp (aka Body Graffiti)
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 10/07/2011 11:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Welcome News from the U.K.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/07/2011 12:37 Comments || Top||

#3  This link claims the Tea-Party is astroturf. Projection?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 10/07/2011 12:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Definitely projection, Bright Pebbles.. Theirs is, so they can't imagine that the tea party is the real deal.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/07/2011 20:52 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
A Mod: In deleting Justice....
I may have also deleted a couple of posts that weren't Justice. I was moving fast, and did notice I had just deleted a couple of "short ones"

Sorry about that -- and I don't know whose I deleted!
Posted by: Sherry || 10/07/2011 14:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You've to cut healthy tissue when taking out a cancerous growth, milady.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/07/2011 15:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Just checking as my post has disappeared. Couldn't repost in the article. Let's see if I'm in exile.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/07/2011 15:04 Comments || Top||

#3  We be good.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 10/07/2011 15:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Man... I have to remember what I posted a couple hours ago? I can't even remember breakfast!
Posted by: DarthVader || 10/07/2011 15:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Ah... Darth --- give me a little slack here --- When the first of Justin's posts appeared, a search gave a number of 638 post... and he didn't stop there.....

I confessed...... even posted that I had deleted some posted comments (oh, and was doing this at work, had just started eating my lunch when he appeared....)..... Would you rather that we leave Justin's filth in the 'Burg... or, in all of our efforts to get his filth cleaned up, a mistake was made.......
Posted by: Sherry || 10/07/2011 20:57 Comments || Top||

#6  good job, Sherry
Posted by: Frank G || 10/07/2011 21:09 Comments || Top||

#7  Yeah, a heroic effort, Sherry. I look forward to the day when our friends from a certain part of the world can contribute something besides annoyance. And no, I'm not holding my breath.

I think Darth was just joshing.
Posted by: SteveS || 10/07/2011 21:43 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Two Killed in Taliban Bus Shooting
[An Nahar] The Taliban opened fire on a bus in southern Afghanistan Thursday killing two civilians, including a child, and wounding 16 others, a local official said.

The attack came after the bus driver ignored demands from the gunnies to stop as he drove along a road in the troubled Gereshk district of Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province.

A man and a child were killed, and eight women, four men and four children were maimed, provincial front man Daud Ahmadi said.

"The Taliban waved to the bus to stop. The driver didn't stop and the Taliban opened fire. Two people, one of them a child, were killed," Ahmadi told Agence La Belle France Presse.

The driver sped away from the scene after the shooting and reached a nearby police post, where the maimed were evacuated to hospital, Ahmadi said.
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Taliban Bus Shooting

Sounds like some kind of, fairly common, sport event (e.g. "little league game").
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/07/2011 3:59 Comments || Top||


Africa North
NATO, NTC bombings hit Sirte hospital
The hospital in Sirte has been repeatedly hit during NATO and NTC forces bombardment, the International Red Cross informed the Catholic Missionary Agency, Misna. "The humanitarian situation is dramatic," said Steven Anderson, who coordinated a Red Cross mission to Sirte on Monday, "parts of the hospital have been blackened by explosions and hit by bullets."
Imagine it's still Bush presidency
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/07/2011 05:54 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm sure it wouldn't have happened if he hadn't recently been president.
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2011 9:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, it's in some furrin internet thingy.

I'm sure the media will explode with fury when the AP gets ahold of the story.

Prolly coming over their 'wires' right now!
Posted by: Fantasyland Bobby || 10/07/2011 10:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Bush hell, I'm even trying to imagine it's still Clinton's presidency.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/07/2011 10:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Imagine it's still Bush presidency

Which one?
Posted by: Pappy || 10/07/2011 14:29 Comments || Top||

#5  The really hated one.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/07/2011 15:03 Comments || Top||


Gadhafi Urges Libyans to Demonstrate Against New Rulers
[An Nahar] Deposed strongman Moammar Qadaffy
...who single-handedly turned a moderately prosperous kingdom into a dictator's fantasyland...
called on Libyans to turn out in their millions to demonstrate against the country's new rulers, in an audio message broadcast Thursday on Syria-based Arrai television.

"I call on the Libyan people, men and women, to go out into the squares and the streets and in all the cities in their millions" to reject the National Transitional Council, he said in the poor quality broadcast.

"I say to them, do not fear anyone. You are the people, you belong to this land," said Qadaffy, whose whereabouts are unknown but is widely thought to still be in Libya.

"Make your voice heard against NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
's collaborators," he said, in reference to the new regime of the National Transitional Council.

"Some people speak of the NTC as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people," he said, using a term applied by many of the various foreign governments that recognized the body after it was formed.

"But from where does that legitimacy come from -- their election by the Libyan people? Are they interested in the Libyan people?" he asked rhetorically.

Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Final Push : gaddafi gasp ! Mortars : Machineguns pisssintashnur
Posted by: Kofi and Company8880 || 10/07/2011 13:01 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
All hands on deck: Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet
A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America's Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots' every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones.

The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military's Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech's computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military's most important weapons system.
Posted by: || 10/07/2011 14:49 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't recall seeing this related topic on the 'Burg, from Rooters 6/11/11:
Old worm won't die after 2008 attack on military
Three years after what the Pentagon called the most significant breach of U.S. military networks ever, new versions of the malware blamed for the attack are still roiling U.S. networks, Reuters has learned.

The malware at issue, known as "agent.btz," in 2008 infiltrated the computer systems of U.S. Central Command. U.S. officials have said a foreign spy agency was responsible for the 2008 attack, which occurred when an infected flash drive was inserted into a U.S. military laptop at a base in the Middle East.

But they have never publicly named which one. Reuters has learned that experts inside and outside of the U.S. government strongly suspect that the original attack was crafted by Russian intelligence.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 10/07/2011 14:56 Comments || Top||

#2  "...logging pilots' every keystroke..."

keystrokes

really?
Posted by: Lord Garth || 10/07/2011 15:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Where were the computers made? Just asking...
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 10/07/2011 15:43 Comments || Top||

#4  How long can we pretend that China and Russia and their surrogates are not subjecting the US to the most overwhelming, effective, massive theft of public and private information in the history of the world?
Single handedly we have given the Chinese economy and technological skill centers a multi-generational leap across the entire spectrum. Wake the f*** up people, war is coming with these guys, and at this rate, we lose.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 10/07/2011 15:49 Comments || Top||

#5  #4 我們聽你的。
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 10/07/2011 15:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Still have some Viper I's laying about?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 10/07/2011 16:36 Comments || Top||

#7  Would a different operating system prevent these sorts of attacks?
Posted by: john frum || 10/07/2011 17:35 Comments || Top||

#8  OS X?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 10/07/2011 17:58 Comments || Top||

#9  john, I like to think Linux is more secure than Microsoft. But if a virus is well crafted for Linux it could be just as devastating. Now, if the virus resists attempts to remove it I have to wonder if it was embedded in the firmware or even in the CPU which brings me back to my earlier question: Where were the computers made?

I've said it before, it is a grave security blunder to allow importation of computers into this country from hostile foreign powers. I have no idea if that is the situation at Creech but I believe we have lost a lot of our capacity to manufacture computers simply by relying so heavily on imported computers.

A computer is not a plastic toy or a shirt or a pair of shoes. In the hands of our military it is a weapon. Would you buy tanks, war planes, missiles and ships from the ChiComs?

But it isn't just the military. Our entire economic system is now dependent on computers and almost all of them are all interconnected on the Internet. I'm no security expert but it seems a little worrisome to me.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 10/07/2011 18:02 Comments || Top||

#10  IMO "Viruses" can only be Minimized, not Eliminated.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/07/2011 21:00 Comments || Top||

#11  You will only hear about our failures not our successes.
Posted by: rammer || 10/07/2011 23:13 Comments || Top||


Post 9/11 we're a pack, not a herd
Mid-air terror as Saudi Arabian student is wrestled from cabin after trying to open door

A young Saudi Arabian man was questioned by police after he created panic on a commercial flight by trying to open the exit door while the plane was still in mid-air.

Passengers aboard American Eagle flight 4305 from New York to Indianapolis rushed to pull Abdulaziz Mubarak Alshammari, 20, away from the door and return him to his seat.
That doesn't sound like panic...
One said he thought he was about to die when Alshammari began acting erratically about half an hour before the plane was due to land.

The pilot, captain James K. Kolostyak, said he heard someone trying to open the cabin door and saw the interior door warning light come on in the cockpit, WISH TV reported.

Alshammari was questioned by Airport police officer Jonathan Brown when the flight landed at Indianapolis International Airport at 10pm on Wednesday.

The police report states he did not appear to know what he was doing and spoke little English. They photocopied a note Alshammari had handwritten in Arabic while on board.

Alshammari, who was not charged, claimed to be a student at the University of Indianapolis, WISH TV reported, but a spokesperson at the school said they have no record of him there.
And he speaks very little English. Clearly not well prepared for tertiary education in America. No doubt he did well on the religious section of king Abdullah's exam for those desiring to study abroad.
A language academy near the university, Internexus Indianapolis, sends several Saudi students to the university after they complete courses, the Indy Star reported. The director of Internexus, Adele Tyson, could not be reached for comment.

Alshammari said he flew from Riyadh, Soddy Arabia, to Doha, Qatar, to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York before heading to Indianapolis, the Indy Star reported.

Police contacted the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center and the FBI Terrorist Screening Center to run checks on the passenger. Records indicated Alshammari was not on a terrorist watch list or wanted on any criminal warrants.
Which proves nothing, one way or another.
Spokesmen for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and the Indianapolis Department of Homeland Security said they had no involvement in the case. The FBI could not be reached for comment.

'He appeared confused,' American Eagle front man Ed Martelle told the Indy Star. 'He was heading to the front of the plane when he was intercepted by a passenger and a flight attendant. They led him back to his seat and that's where he remained the rest of the flight.'
That doesn't sound like panic...
'It was concerning rather than threatening,' Dr Harry Greenspun told WISh TV. 'Once the guy got in his seat none of us were going to let him out, but we weren't going to overreact and tackle him to the ground.'
That doesn't sound like panic, either. Wonder where the reporter got the idea passengers were panicked?
Passenger Rodney Bailey was quick to step in when he noticed Alshammari's erratic behavior.

'He tried [to open the door] twice,' Mr Bailey told WISH TV. 'I just threw down my stuff and jumped out of my seat and ran to the door. I pulled him by the arm and tried to get him behind me. I've flown more than two million miles with American Airlines; I've never seen anything like this. I felt like my life flashed before my eyes.' Mr Bailey said that he had travelled all over the world, and did not want to die over a corn field in Indiana.
He was, however, willing to fight for his fellow Americans.
Mr Bailey then asked Alshammari if he was looking for the bathroom and Alshammari shook his head.
He was looking for jihad, perhaps?
The police report stated: 'T.S.A. would not respond to the scene.'

Jim Fotenos, a TSA Spokesperson told WISH TV: 'TSA was notified of the incident onboard American Eagle flight 4305 from John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and Indianapolis International Airport. The flight landed safely and local law enforcement responded. TSA monitored the situation and was satisfied with the actions taken by local and federal law enforcement.'
Posted by: Steve White || 10/07/2011 11:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  TSA: Tough S*it America...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 10/07/2011 12:07 Comments || Top||

#2  If they'd wanted TSA response, they could have said it was a twelve-year-old girl.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 10/07/2011 13:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Seems the kid never used the bathroom on the flight out from Saudi Arabia to New York which has to be a long flight. Pretty impressive, or else is story if full of crap.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 10/07/2011 14:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Not charged? Would he have been charged if he had succeeded in opening the door?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 10/07/2011 15:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Records indicated Alshammari was not on a terrorist watch list or wanted on any criminal warrants.

Let's hope somebody has sense enough to put him on the list now.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 10/07/2011 15:52 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Kashmiri student held in Delhi high court blast
NIA has arrested a Kashmiri medical student who is suspected of being a 'key link' in the conspiracy behind the Delhi high court bombing in September which killed 15 people. Wasim Ahmed, a student in Bangaldesh, was being questioned by the NIA in connection with the blast, according to official sources.

There was no official word on whether Wasim was arrested near the Indo-Bangladeshi border or the authorities in Dhaka had handed him over.

Wasim was also quizzed about the whereabouts of Hizbul Mujahideen operative Junaid Akram, thought to be one of the key conspirators in the Delhi blast.

From the leads being followed in the case so far, the investigators suspect that it could be the handiwork of Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen and not Harkat-ul-Jehad-Islami (HuJI) as earlier believed.

Information about Wasim was given by Azhar Ali, who has been incarcerated in Jammu since 2009, according to sources. An NIA team had questioned Ali, arrested for involvement in recruiting people from the Kishtawar area and obtaining SIM cards for the outfit, to learn about some of the youths including Akram he had allegedly sent for training to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.

Though NIA claimed that Akram was in Pakistan, sources in the security agencies believed that he was in Jammu and Kashmir.

NIA has arrested Abid Abbas, a high school boy, on charges of sending an email after the high court blast. The probe agency had also detained Abbas's brother from Shillong who expressed complete ignorance about the matter.
"Brother, what brother?"
Posted by: ryuge || 10/07/2011 12:11 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Schools reopen today in Mohmand after 3 years
[Dawn] All government schools in Khewazai and Biazai areas of Mohmand
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar...
Agency will reopen on Thursday after three years, marked by violence and military operations.

A notification, issued by Agency Education Officer Said Mohammd Khan on Wednesday, directed all teachers concerned to reach their respective schools in the areas and perform duty.

All the educational institutions in Mohmand tribal region were closed three years ago owing to militancy and military operation.

It merits a mention here that more than 80 schools have been destroyed since inception of militancy and consequent military operation in the area. The future of 20,000 students was at stake owing to closure of schools for three years.

The education officer said that classes would be arranged in hujra and tents for the students of destroyed schools.

DEFUSED: The security forces and Levies defused an bomb planted by unidentified persons in a dry water channel at Gul Akbar Banda area of Mohmand tribal region.

Also, a joint search operation was launched by Levies and Mohmand Rifles in Miangan Kallay, Shanikhel and Sultankhel areas of Haleemzai tehsil. However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them...
official said that situation was normal in the areas.Meanwhile,
...back at the buffalo wallow, Tex and his new-found Indian friend were preparing a little surprise for the bandidos...
different bazaars and the main road in the tribal region remained closed for several hours owing to unknown reasons.

Locals said that shopkeepers of Ghalanai, Main Mandi and Ekkaghound were told to close their shops and avoid walking in the bazaars.

Security was also beefed up in different tehsils of the region. The Levies, Khasadar and FC were deployed on several points to check general public. However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday...
after three hours the road was opened but the bazaars remained closed.

The political administration officials, when contacted, said that the measures were taken because security forces were engaged in search operation in the adjacent area.
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afaq Ahmed arrested again in a 10 years old case
[Dawn] Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) chief Afaq Ahmed was tossed in the clink in a 10 years old kidnapping for ransom case on Thursday, DawnNews reported.

Korangi Police tossed in the clink Ahmed even before the hearing of a petition filed against his detention started in a court here.

Police claimed Ahmed was wanted in the case for kidnapping a man named Abdullah from SSP East Javed Aalam Odho's Korangi area in 2001. The case was filed by Jameel against four suspects.

Suspects were nominated as Younis Khan and Zafar and other two were unknown, later MQM-H's chief was identified as the third suspect.

According to SSP East the ATC number two freed Younis Khan and Zafar while Afaq Ahmed was declared absconder.
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Mumtaz Qadri files appeal against death penalty
[Dawn] A Pakistain police commando, who killed one of the country's top liberal politicians for urging reform of controversial blasphemy laws, on Thursday filed an appeal against his death sentence.

The Pak anti-terror court on Saturday found Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, one of Punjab governor Salman Taseer's bodyguards, guilty of murder and sentenced him to death.

Qadri confessed to shooting Taseer dead outside an upmarket coffee shop close to his residence in the leafy capital Islamabad on January 4.

He said he objected to the politician's calls to amend the blasphemy law, which mandates the death penalty for those convicted of defaming the Prophet Mohammed.

"Today we have filed an appeal in Islamabad high court against the verdict and have challenged Qadri's death sentence," Shuja-ur-Rehman, one of Qadri's lawyers, told AFP by telephone.

"The anti-terrorism court was not the competent authority to sentence him, this decision is illegal and baseless." Rehman said a preliminary hearing for his appeal had been fixed for Tuesday.

The killing of the reformist Taseer was the most high-profile political liquidation in Pakistain since former prime minister Benazir Bhutto died in a gun and suicide kaboom in December 2007.

Taseer had supported a Christian mother of five sentenced to death in November 2010 for alleged blasphemy in the central province of Punjab.

Two months after Taseer's killing, a Catholic government minister for minority affairs who had vowed to defy death threats over his opposition to the blasphemy laws was also rubbed out in Islamabad.

While no-one has ever been sent to the gallows under Pakistain's blasphemy law, activists say it is used to attack others out of personal enmity or because of business disputes.

Since Taseer's liquidation, right-wing religious holy mans have heaped praise on his killer. The government has said it has no plan to reform the law.

On Saturday, immediately after the judgment, more than 500 people rallied outside the prison in support of Qadri, and later blocked off a main road in the city by setting tires alight.

Some of the stick-wielding protesters forced shops to close but later all dispersed peacefully.
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Case sought against Pakistan doctor who helped CIA
[Dawn] A Pak commission probing the US raid on the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now beyond all cares and woe...
says a doctor who helped the CIA track the al-Qaeda chief should be put on trial for high treason.

Dr. Shakil Afridi ran a phony vaccination program in the Pak town where the al-Qaeda leader hid in an effort to obtain a DNA sample from him.

Afridi is being jugged by Pakistain's intelligence agency.

American officials want him released, and his fate has become a complicating issue in strained relations between the two country's spy services.

The government commission investigating the bin Laden affair said Thursday it had gathered evidence against Afridi that was strong enough for authorities to register a case of high treason against him. Such a charge carries the death penalty.
Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  It says something about the nation of Pakistan that revealing the presence of the top man in the Al Qaeda organization is considered treason.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/07/2011 8:10 Comments || Top||

#2  A Pak commission ... says a doctor who helped the CIA track the al-Qaeda chief should be put on trial for high treason.

That they feel comfortable offering this recommendation is all I need to know.
Posted by: gorb || 10/07/2011 9:17 Comments || Top||

#3  **** cough **** cough **** cough **** ...

Sorry, FOOTBALL SEASON = FOOTBALL DONUTS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/07/2011 21:01 Comments || Top||


Doctor Who Helped U.S. Find Osama Bin Laden May Hang
The Pakistani commission probing the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May has recommended that a doctor who helped the CIA find the al Qaeda leader be tried for treason.

In a statement, the commission said "prima facie, a case of conspiracy against the state of Pakistan and high treason is made out against him," and that "case under relevant law" should be mounted against him. If convicted of treason, Afridi could hang. The commission, headed by a former Pakistani Supreme Court justice, also includes a former UN diplomat, a retired general and a former police official.
Posted by: john frum || 10/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The CIA should quietly be let it known that death penalties are contagious, and if this doctor hangs, then everyone associated with his prosecution: judges, prosecutors, even jury members, if applicable, will also hang.

Let them stew on the idea of a CIA enforced death penalty on them for a while, and see how enthusiastic they are about hanging him.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/07/2011 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Does PENN STATE know???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/07/2011 0:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Traitor for helping kill the worlds most wanted man.Pakistan are showing their true colours what side they are on ie not ours!
Posted by: Boyo || 10/07/2011 3:11 Comments || Top||

#4  The very fact that this proposal even raises a 'maybe' is testament to Pakistans lack of honesty and commitment.
Let Pakistan hang!
Posted by: Kojack || 10/07/2011 5:26 Comments || Top||

#5  I thought Doctor Who was BBC fiction?
Posted by: Skidmark || 10/07/2011 7:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Skidmark: It's over-dramatized. For example, the reason most alien invaders hit London is for the welfare. Turns out Cybermen are just as big moochers as are Pakistanis.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/07/2011 9:17 Comments || Top||

#7  He is a traitor to Pakistan, but that does not say much good about Pakistan.

Posted by: bernardz || 10/07/2011 10:44 Comments || Top||

#8  Seems to me he could only be a traitor to Pakistan if Pakistan's official policy was to protect OBL. I'd take his trial as an admission of that policy and treat the Paks accordinly.
Posted by: Spot || 10/07/2011 11:13 Comments || Top||

#9  Bin Laden was Pakistan's $20 billion dollar man. Is it any wonder the Pakis are pissed?
Posted by: Eohippus Phater7165 || 10/07/2011 11:47 Comments || Top||

#10  Skid, that's okay. He'll just regenerate.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 10/07/2011 23:14 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Philippine bus attack leaves two dead, 20 injured
Gunmen opened fire on two buses in the troubled southern Philippines on Friday, killing two passengers and injuring 20 others. Police said the attack could be a failed robbery or kidnap attempt, and is the latest outbreak of violence in the province of Maguindanao.

The passenger buses were shot at when they sped past gunmen in military-style uniforms who were trying to flag them down on an isolated stretch of highway.

One of 22 people treated for gunshot wounds at a local hospital, Veronica Cruz, said the bus driver thought the armed men were robbers and chose to run the blockade. The other vehicle did the same.

"The driver noticed there were armed men on the road but they had no signs saying that they were police and army. They had boulders and tree trunks on the road so he suspected that it was a robbery. He yelled, 'Get down, we are going through', and this was followed by gunshots." Cruz recalled.

The drivers raced to a hospital so the injured could be treated, but police said two of the 22 were later pronounced dead.

Marcelo Pintac, police chief superintendent of Maguindanao, said the area was known for Muslim rebels, highway robbers and kidnappers.
Posted by: ryuge || 10/07/2011 10:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Saleh Forces, Tribesmen, Clash in Yemen Capital
[An Nahar] Fresh fighting erupted during the night between government troops and gunnies loyal to opposition tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar in Sanaa's northern al-Hasaba district, witnesses said Thursday.

The two sides traded machinegun and mortar fire for around two hours late on Wednesday, the witnesses said.

They said the exchanges were being directed from the tribal chief's home on the one side and the nearby ministry of the interior on the other.

Sheikh Sadiq's office told Agence La Belle France Presse that "President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower...
's forces fired mortar shells" on his house.

No casualties were immediately reported.

The two sides first clashed in May, after Saleh refused to sign a Gulf-brokered plan under which he would step down in return for immunity from prosecution for himself and his family.

Those festivities, that left 300 people dead, came to a halt when Saleh was maimed in a kaboom on his palace on June 3 after which he was flown to Riyadh for treatment.

In September, fighting between rival army units spread across the capital prompting renewed battles between the rustics and government forces in al-Hasaba.

The situation calmed again when Saleh, still refusing to let go of power he has been holding to since 1978, returned to Yemen on September 23.

The 69-year-old president is under growing domestic and international pressures to step down, as anti-regime protests in Yemen entered their 10th month.

Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


New EU Sanctions to Hit Syria Commercial Bank, 29 Iranians
[An Nahar] The European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
is preparing to target a Syrian commercial bank and 29 Iranians accused of human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
violations in fresh sanctions to be announced in the coming days, EU diplomats said Thursday.

A decision to blacklist a commercial bank is expected to be formally adopted in the coming days and come into force at the end of next week, several diplomatic sources told Agence La Belle France Presse.

An EU diplomat named the bank as the Commercial Bank of Syria, targeted by a U.S. assets freeze in August.

The 27-nation bloc last month banned the delivery to Syria's central bank of bank-notes and coins produced in the EU in a seventh round of sanctions designed to step up economic pressure on President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
's regime.

The last round also included a ban on European firms making new investments in Syria's oil industry, biting further at Assad's regime after an earlier ban on imports of Syrian crude to Europe.

Europe buys 95 percent of Syria's oil exports, providing the regime with one third of its hard currency earnings.

New restrictive measures against Iran meanwhile will target 29 Iranians with an assets freeze and travel ban "to state our concern on the situation of human rights", as one senior EU diplomat put it.

The EU enforced the same measures in March against 32 Iranians.

The sanctions against Syria come on the heels of growing irritation against Russia and China in the EU and the United States, for their veto of a U.N. resolution against the Syrian regime's unrelenting crackdown on protests.

More than 2,900 people have been killed in the six months since the beginning of anti-government protests in Syria, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Dean Acheson ...
led the criticism, saying the people of Syria "will not forget" the vetoes and accused the U.N. Security Council of having "abrogated its responsibility" by failing to push through the European draft resolution.

Following the lost vote at an angry Council meeting late on Tuesday, the British, French and German foreign ministers all said new pressure would be put on the Syrian government.

Russia defended its veto of the much-softened resolution which had been backed by nine of the 15 members. Brazil, India, Leb and South Africa abstained.

EU foreign ministers will discuss the situation in both Iran and Syria at talks in Luxembourg on Monday.

Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


12 Dead in Army, Deserters Clash in Idlib
[An Nahar] Twelve people were killed in festivities between soldiers and deserters in villages of Idlib province in northwest Syria on Thursday, a human rights
...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you...
group said.

"Seven soldiers and five deserters were killed in the festivities in villages west of Jabal al-Zawiya," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that dozens were maimed.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde...
the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Thursday that more than 2,900 people have been killed in the six months since the beginning of a crackdown on anti-government protests in Syria.

"According to the detailed list of names of individuals we've been keeping, the total number of people killed since protests began in Syria now stands at more than 2,900," Commission front man Rupert Colville told AFP in Geneva.

Colville said that figure could rise because "quite a lot more people" have been reported missing in Syria since the uprising against President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
's government in mid-March, and the U.N. has yet to verify their whereabouts.

Russia and China on Tuesday vetoed a European-backed draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would have threatened possible action against Assad. Non-permanent members South Africa, Brazil, India, and Leb abstained.

Meanwhile,
...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last...
the official Syrian new agency SANA reported on Wednesday that the "competent authorities" in al-Khaldiyeh neighborhood in Homs seized a white Kia Rio Car with the license plate No. 418869.

The seized car was loaded with pump-action shotguns, automatic firearms, pistols, ammunition, military uniforms and torture instruments including cables and sticks, in addition to large amount of stimulant drugs, said SANA.

"The authorities tossed in the calaboose three armed terrorist members and discovered a place for kidnapping innocent individuals and torturing them in the same area," it added.

Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  You'd think Brazil might be mildly sensitive to murders & disappearances of political dissidents...
Posted by: American Delight || 10/07/2011 8:36 Comments || Top||


Syrian Troops Infiltrate Lebanese Borders, Kill Farmer
[An Nahar] Syrian troops infiltrated the outskirts of Arsal village in Bekaa and rubbed out a Syrian national living there, a security official told Agence La Belle France Presse.

"At around 2:30 pm (1130 GMT) in a remote area called Saaba, next to Arsal, Syrian troops entered Lebanese territory and opened fire on farmer Ali al-Khatib, a Syrian national," the official said on condition of anonymity.

He said al-Khatib was married to a Lebanese and lived in the area.

A government official, also speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
, confirmed the incident and said it was unclear why Khatib was targeted or how he was killed.

"The area in question is very remote and right along the border," he said.

According to VDL Radio (100.3-100.5), the Syrian national was a farmer "who was working in his land when he was shot by the troops," adding that "his body is still on site ever since."

This incident comes after two Syrian BTR-type armored personnel carriers along with a pickup carrying Syrian soldiers crossed the border in the area of Kherbet Daoud near Arsal on Tuesday.

The soldiers raided the homes of brothers Zahri and Abdel Aziz al-Jabawi randomly firing from their machineguns. They later returned to the location where they came from.

Posted by: Fred || 10/07/2011 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria



Who's in the News
39[untagged]
7Govt of Pakistan
6Govt of Syria
2Hezbollah
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Palestinian Authority
1Taliban

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2011-10-07
  Doctor Who Helped U.S. Find Osama Bin Laden May Hang
Thu 2011-10-06
  Shelling Resumes in Sana'a
Wed 2011-10-05
  Afghanistan foils plot to kill Karzai
Tue 2011-10-04
  Bomb kills at least 65 in Mogadishu
Mon 2011-10-03
  Syrian Opposition Forms United Common Front
Sun 2011-10-02
  Syrian troops battle hundreds of renegade soldiers
Sat 2011-10-01
  Underwear-bomb maker also believed dead in Yemen strike
Fri 2011-09-30
  Anwar al-Awlaki killed in Yemen
Thu 2011-09-29
  US ambassador Robert Ford pelted with tomatoes by Syrian brownshirts
Wed 2011-09-28
  NTC Fighters Capture Sirte's Port
Tue 2011-09-27
  1 injured, 2 missing as Egypt pumps sewage into Gaza tunnel
Mon 2011-09-26
  Missile targets Afghan president palace
Sun 2011-09-25
  French Envoy Targeted with Eggs, Stones in Damascus
Sat 2011-09-24
  Paleostinians ask UN for statehood
Fri 2011-09-23
  President of Yemen returns home

Better than the average link...



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.
18.206.76.45
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Background (19)    Non-WoT (10)    Opinion (5)    (0)    Politix (5)