Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2011 13:33 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Barbara Nichols aka Lola Fandango "Where the Boys Are (1960)" aka Birdie McDade in "The King and Four Queens (1956)" aka Poopsie in "The Pajama Game (1957)" aka Gladys in "Pal Joey (1957)" aka Rita in "Sweet Smell of Success (1957)" aka Arlene Parker nee Witchy in "Miracle in the Rain (1956)" aka Mildred Croft in "The Naked and the Dead (1958)" aka Candy Kane in "House of Women (1962)" aka Gaye Swinger in "Looking for Love (1964)" aka Blossom LaTour in "The Swinger (1966)" aka June Loveland in "Dear Heart (1964)" (Died in 1976 at age 46)
Libyan rebel T-55 cruising around. Fast forward to 0:55 to see it start firing its main gun. There sure are a lot of guys standing around...I wouldn't be around a tank, it's the biggest target on the battlefield and is going to draw fire. At the end the tank takes a hit from somewhere. Kind of looks fake...a hit from an ATG wouldn't look like that, right? Looks like a detonation from inside the tank. The tank doesn't have an autoloader, which mean four men are operating the vehicle, so it gets crowded inside a tank with poorly trained personnel trying to operate relatively sophisticated equipment.. It could happen. Not to mention all the Insh'allan maintenance from the time the tank arrived on the quay in Tripoli all those years ago to the day of this video.
#7
I wasn't going to comment, as it is hard to tell. Also a suspicious number of video cams going. But if a T-55 took a hit (say from an RPG-7) and it penetrated the crew area, anyone standing/sitting in the commander's hatch could be blown out and would look like a rag doll flying through the air. The body would be a bag of mush. The T-55 is simple, rugged, and hard on the crew. It is also likely a 'monkey'/export model, so simpler to maintain and more primitive than one used in the USSR.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/29/2011 8:46 Comments ||
Top||
#8
RPGs must have the right shot to penetrate. A few degrees off 90 degrees and the shot could bounce, or hit and not penetrate. RPGs don't always penetrate the first time or even on the first hit. It has to be the right shot.
If you watch closely the blast knocks the loader's machine gun out of its mount. The vector of the blast from the detonation in a turret is entirely upward. Were it a side hit most of the blast would be contained inside the turret since the vector would be redirected inside the tank until it is expended.
The hull doesn't rock or sway from a side or rear hit, as you would expect it to.
My point was since the tank did not have an autoloader, a dumbass loader possibly forgot to set the loader's safety switch, or the floor was completing a circuit and the loader dropped a shell shorting the circuit, or as JM pointed out, a misfired round was ejected from the breech, then detonated.
Posted by: Matt ||
12/29/2011 10:41 Comments ||
Top||
#10
mixed evidence. The tank was rolled up to a berm so only the turret and gun showed, implying at least someone in the crew had some experience. On the other hand, the position would have made it hard for an AT hit anywhere but the turret and there's no hint of that in the video.
#11
Static electricity and old ammunition are a bad combination.
Also, as I remember it, the T-55 main gun ammo was a two piece round...first you load the shell and then you load the charge. IF the charge is old and deteriorated and more sensitive due to time, the static electricity that needs to be discharged with each round would have set the thing off.
Of course, the Russkies were not above selling bad ammo with their old equipment.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
12/29/2011 11:52 Comments ||
Top||
#12
I give the "flyer" a 3.7:
poor form, didn't stick the landing
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/29/2011 12:01 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Look at us! We got guns! We got TANKS!!!! Hey Achmed, be sure you get this on video. We can paste it on Facebook and show the world that we've got boom .....
#15
And it seemed to blow up about the time it should have been working with or firing another round. Probably ammo problems, in my uneducated opinion.
A man dressed in an Afghan army uniform today killed two NATO service members after turning his weapon against them.
NATO has not yet revealed the nationalities of the service members who were killed in eastern Afghanistan. There is also no word on what happened to the attacker.
Afghan officials said today's explosion destroyed a police pick-up truck as it passed through Zarghun Kalay village in Helmand's Nad Ali district. The officials said the officers had left a training center and were headed home when their vehicle struck the bomb.
Police chief Haji Abdul Marjan said they drove along the same road every day, and that eight of those killed were new recruits.
"During a support mission with the Afghan National Army (ANA) in the Tagab valley, the two non-commissioned officers were mortally wounded by deliberate fire from an Afghan soldier," said a memo issued by the office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The two soldiers shot in Kapisa province by a man dressed as an Afghan soldier were French nationals and members of the French Foreign Legion, as confirmed by the French government on Thursday.
At least two Islamic fascistiwere killed and 28 others were captured in a joint operations by Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... forces around the country in the past 24 hours, the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs said on Wednesday.
The Afghan National Police, Afghan National Army and Coalition forces launched 11 joint operations in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. , Kandahar, Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , Pashtun-infested Logar, Ghazni, and Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... provinces over the last 24 hours to clear thugs.
During the operations the Afghan forces have seized caches of weapons.
Afghan and NATO forces have recently launched military operations in different parts of the country in which dozens of Islamic fascistihave been killed or captured.
KABUL: A roadside bomb attack killed three NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan, one of the deadliest flashpoints in the 10-year war against Taliban insurgents, the military said on Wednesday.
NATOs US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not release the nationalities of the troops or give further details of the incident, which happened on Tuesday.
The deaths take to 561, the number of foreign troops, killed in Afghanistan so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on figures from independent website. A total of 711 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan last year, the highest annual total since the US-led invasion in 2001 ousted the Taliban from power.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
This is a surprising article from the NYT: it actually acknowledges that women are and have been brutalized as a result of the war in Somalia. The article correctly identifies the Shabab terrorist group as a major contributor. The West is not blamed, nor is George Bush. I can't imagine what's going on in the editorial office today...
MOGADISHU, Somalia The girls voice dropped to a hush as she remembered the bright, sunny afternoon when she stepped out of her hut and saw her best friend buried in the sand, up to her neck.
Her friend had made the mistake of refusing to marry a Shabab commander. Now she was about to get her head bashed in, rock by rock.
Youre next, the Shabab warned the girl, a frail 17-year-old who was living with her brother in a squalid refugee camp.
Several months later, the men came back. Five militants burst into her hut, pinned her down and gang-raped her, she said. They claimed to be on a jihad, or holy war, and any resistance was considered a crime against Islam, punishable by death.
Ive had some very bad dreams about these men, she said, having recently escaped the area they control. I dont know what religion they are.
Somalia has been steadily worn down by decades of conflict and chaos, its cities in ruins and its people starving. Just this year, tens of thousands have died from famine, with countless others cut down in relentless combat. Now Somalis face yet another widespread terror: an alarming increase in rapes and sexual abuse of women and girls.
The Shabab militant group, which presents itself as a morally righteous rebel force and the defender of pure Islam, is seizing women and girls as spoils of war, gang-raping and abusing them as part of its reign of terror in southern Somalia, according to victims, aid workers and United Nations officials. Short of cash and losing ground, the militants are also forcing families to hand over girls for arranged marriages that often last no more than a few weeks and are essentially sexual slavery, a cheap way to bolster their ranks flagging morale.
But it is not just the Shabab. In the past few months, aid workers and victims say, there has been a free-for-all of armed men preying upon women and girls displaced by Somalias famine, who often trek hundreds of miles searching for food and end up in crowded, lawless refugee camps where Islamist militants, rogue militiamen and even government soldiers rape, rob and kill with impunity.
With the famine putting hundreds of thousands of women on the move severing them from their traditional protection mechanism, the clan aid workers say more Somali women are being raped right now than at any time in recent memory. In some areas, they say, women are being used as chits at roadblocks, surrendered to the gunmen staffing the barrier in the road so that a group of desperate refugees can pass.
The situation is intensifying, said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations special representative for children and armed conflict. All the recent flight has created a surge in opportunistic rapes, she said, and for the Shabab, forced marriage is another aspect they are using to control the population.
In the past two months, from Mogadishu alone, the United Nations says it has received more than 2,500 reports of gender-based violence, an unusually large number here. But because Somalia is a no-go zone for most operations, United Nations officials say they are unable to confirm the reports, leaving the work to fledgling Somali aid organizations under constant threat.
Somalia is a deeply traditional place, where 98 percent of girls are subject to genital cutting, according to United Nations figures. Most girls are illiterate and relegated to their homes. When they venture out, it is usually to work, trudging through the rubble-strewn alleyways wrapped head to toe in thick black cloth, often lugging something on their back, the equatorial sun burning down on them.
The famine and mass displacement, which began over the summer, have made women and girls more vulnerable. Many Somali communities have been disbanded, and with armed groups forcing men and boys into their militias, it is often single women, with children in tow, who set off on the dangerous odyssey to refugee camps.
At the same time, aid workers and United Nations officials say the Shabab, who are fighting Somalias transitional government and imposing a harsh version of Islam in the areas they control, can no longer pay their several thousand fighters the way they used to. Much as they seize crops and livestock, giving their militants what they call temporary wives is how the Shabab keep many young men fighting for them.
But these are hardly marriages, said Sheik Mohamed Farah Ali, a former Shabab commander who defected to the government army.
Theres no cleric, no ceremony, nothing, he said, adding that Shabab fighters had even paired up with thin little girls as young as 12, who are left torn and incontinent afterward. If a girl refuses, he said, shes killed by stones or bullets.
One young woman just delivered a baby, half Somali, half Arab. She said she was selected by a Somali Shabab fighter she knew, brought to a house full of guns and handed off to a portly Arab commander, one of the many foreigners fighting for the Shabab.
He did whatever he wanted with me, she said. Night and day.
She said she escaped when he was sleeping.
The Elman Peace and Human Rights Center is one of the few Somali organizations helping rape victims, run by Fartuun Adan, a tall, outspoken woman whose husband, Elman, was gunned down by warlords years ago. Ms. Adan says that since the famine began, she has met hundreds of women who have been raped and hundreds more who have escaped forced marriages.
You have no idea how difficult it is for them to come forward, she said. Theres no justice here, no protection. People say, Youre junk if youve been raped.
Often, the women are left wounded or pregnant, forced to seek help. Ms. Adan wants to expand her medical services and counseling for rape victims and possibly open a safe house, but it is hard to do on a budget of $5,000 a month, provided by a small aid organization called Sister Somalia. Ms. Adan wept on a recent day as she listened to the 17-year-old girl recount the story of seeing her friend stoned to death and then being gang-raped herself.
These girls ask me, How am I going to get married, whats going to be my future, whats going to happen to me? she said. We cant answer that.
Some of the women in Ms. Adans office seem to have come from another time. They have made it here, with help from Elmans network, from the deepest recesses of rural Somalia, where women are still treated like chattel.
One 18-year-old who asked to go by Ms. Nur, her common last name, was married off at 10. She was a nomad and says that to this day she has never used a phone or seen a television.
She spoke of being raped by two Shabab fighters at a displaced-persons camp in October. She said the men did not bother saying much when they entered her hut. They just pointed their guns at her chest and uttered two words: stay silent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Carry a small Knife, Use it on them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/29/2011 1:24 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I'm sure NOW and the Human Rights [abuse] Industry will jump right on it. And lets not forget the U.N. Human Rights [abusers] Comission.
#3
Please stand by for National Organization of Women announcement about abuse of women in Somalia by Muslim men in .....5.....4.....3.....2...I guess NOW is not going to comment (As if they ever do comment on abuse of women in Moslem countries)
Why do the lefties provide cover for Human Rights abuses in Moslem countries?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
12/29/2011 11:42 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I can't imagine what's going on in the editorial office today...
A repeat of two decades ago, when the media did a full-on campaign for US involvement in that g*dforsaken place. Since this administration has established a track record for this type of intervention, methinks NYT decided to ask for yet another one.
#6
just like with Clinton - their response is: "you might wanna put some ice on that"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/29/2011 15:14 Comments ||
Top||
#7
And also ignoring... there aren't any christians or westerners there; the women are basically moslem africans or arabs or some mixture of the two. And they have the same lack of rights as foreigners do when it's convenient for the gangs with guns.
#9
While also subtly addressing the observation that lefties tend to ignore the real impact of Islam on women.
Well, yes. That's because the enemy of both the Left and Islam is Western civilization. For the Left to point out their erstwhile ally's problems would be counterproductive to The Struggle.
#10
Feminism isn't about being a woman, it's about being a political creature. Emphasis on creature...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/29/2011 21:21 Comments ||
Top||
#11
I recall that the women were enthusiastically shielding the men with their bodies en-masse when American forces were firing to keep the men pushed back when they shot down that Blackhawk helicopter during Clinton's administration. I don't seem to find myself too worked up about it. They got what they asked for: A male-dominated warlord-centric society. I have no idea why a woman would ask for that. They wouldn't know what to do with an equal society if it fell in their lunch. They'd probably throw it in the garbage.
[Yemen Post] About 20 people were maimed, some seriously injured on Tuesday in a fight with hands and batons, witnesses said.
The fight was erupted between supporters youth revolution belongs to the opposition Islah Party and Shi'ite elements "Houthis".
According to sources, elements of Islah Party attacked a tent erected in the square by the youth belonging to the Houthis and the some youths of the March of life from Taiz who reject the Gulf initiative.
The media office of Houthis said that militias of Islah party launched a dawn attack unjust and unwarranted brutal on the youth of the March of life who came from Taiz caused a large number of maimed, some of them are seriously injured.
It added that Islah elements, as described as armed militias, try to impose a total siege on all the ports scene in the form of criminal terrible predictors for aggressive intentions built, show the opposite of what they claim to protect the revolution.
This events came just a day after Houthis attempt to control of the platform arena of Altaghyeer Square. They attacked the stage, but they were faced by refusal by supervisors of the platform because Houthis were demanding stand on the stage and to call for a march to Alsabein Square.
Houthis directly proclaimed that Islah Party supporters deliberately attacked the youth of the March of life who denied their proclaimed in a statement said they did not come to Sana'a to topple the platform or the Organizational Committee, critics Houthis and parties together to attempt to exploit their march and they are entirely out of the conflict of Houthis and Islah supporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[Yemen Post] The Yemeni Parliament approved on Wednesday the General Program of the National Reconciliation Government.
The members of the Parliament Council held meeting today in which they gave their views and comments on the general program of government.
The Council also heard a report of the Committee charged with drafting the most important recommendations of the Council on the general program of the National Reconciliation Government.
The Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Ba Sondowah said that his government is committed with the recommendations of the Parliament: " 'We (Me and my colleague ministers) have followed with great concern what has been said by the Parliament members, their comments and recommendations during the last days." Ba Sondowah Said.
" We thank those who praised the general program of the government, we also thank those who criticized it and expressed their points of views toward it, as we would like to assure you that we will accord all those observations, and shall put them in consideration." Ba Sondowah said.
He said that the program is hardly not much different from the programs of previous governments, because it is a program of national reconciliation government not the program of one-party government. A government of transitional period carry out specific tasks for a period of two years and three months.
Its success or failure will affect the future of Yemen passively or negatively and its success requires the Parliament Council as well as all Yemeni people to stand together and support it. To enable it carried out its tasks as hoped, and to stand against it if it failed to or deviated from the straight path.
"You know that the estate is heavy and the stage is very serious and possibilities are limited. What is waiting from the government is to do and it is required from each one of its members, individually and collectively to be in the level of expectations to receive the satisfaction of God and the satisfaction of citizens." Ba Sondowah added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
ADEN - Yemens army exchanged machinegun fire with Al-Qaeda terrorist suspects in the countrys south in clashes that left two soldiers and three terrorists extremists dead, military and local officials said on Wednesday.
Battles using machineguns erupted on the eastern outskirts of the city of Zinjibar, leaving two soldiers dead and seven others wounded, a military official told AFP, referring to the capital of Abyan province.
Three terrorists militants from the Partisans of Sharia, the Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist insurgent group that took over most of Zinjibar in May, were also killed in the clashes late on Tuesday and at least five were wounded.
A local official in the adjacent town of Jaar confirmed the toll, adding that the three dead terrorists militants were a Syrian, a Saudi and a Yemeni.
The army also fired Katyusha rockets at the terrorists extremists hideouts in several areas across the outskirts of Zinjibar, the military official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.
The Islamist terrorist extremist network has turned 11 months of political turmoil in the country to its advantage, using the popular revolt against President Ali Abdullah Saleh to bolster its presence in southern and eastern Yemen. Terrorists Militants linked to Al-Qaeda control several regions and towns including Zinjibar, where they clash regularly with government forces and tribal auxiliaries.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
SANAA: Military positions separating Yemens warring forces in central Sanaa were dismantled on Wednesday in a show of faith by both sides that they want to halt nearly a year of fighting to topple the president.
Bulldozers crashed through the walls of sandbags fortifying the fighters positions on a main street in Hasaba, a flashpoint area where tribal leader Sadeq Al-Ahmars compound is located and the site of fighting between his and outgoing President Ali Abdullah Salehs forces, including units led by Salehs son.
However, underscoring how volatile the country remains, one person was killed and three wounded when gunmen loyal to a pro-Saleh security chief based in the suburbs of Sanaa opened fire on a group of that chiefs subordinates, who had revolted against him and demanded he be sacked, a security source said.
Separating the countrys many warring forces is central to a plan brokered by Yemens wealthier neighbors to ease Saleh from power and avoid civil war they fear could give Al-Qaeda a foothold in Yemen. The military committee overseeing the disengagement works with a transitional government, split between Salehs party and opposition forces, that is to lead Yemen to elections in February to choose a successor to Saleh.
Witnesses said fighters loyal to Al-Ahmar, still bearing grenade launchers and rifles, watched as a large checkpoint they ran near an office of Salehs political party was demolished.
We are committed to the Gulf initiative and ... will work to remove all of the obstacles facing the military committee and to follow its guidelines, said Hashem Al-Ahmar, a military and tribal leader in the powerful Hashed tribal confederation. The Al-Ahmar clan threw its weight behind protesters early in the uprising against Saleh.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
For a map, click here. For a map of Coahuila state, click here Updating with new information
By Chris Covert
Mexican Army troops from at least two units totalling 600 personnel and Naval Infantry (Marines) entered Saltillo, Coahuila Tuesday as part of an enhanced security effort, according to Mexican news accounts.
One of the units are detached from the Mexican 15th Motorized Cavalry Regiment, and had been deployed to Chiapas until this week. A convoy of 90 vehicles including US made Humvees and armored vehicles were seen travelling en convoy into the city. The convoy left Chiapas state in far southern Mexico early Monday morning.
El Diario de Coahuila reported Thursday morning that 150 Mexican Marines entered Ciudad Acuña near Piedra Negras on the US border to presumably establish a base. The report also quoted a military source saying the new deployments were to backstop operations in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Zacatecas, as armed criminal groups attempt to escape counternarcotics operations
News reports also say that an unidentified special forces unit also accompanied the army troops reinforcing Saltillo.
Saltillo is the capital of Coahuila state. It is also the headquarters for the Mexican 6th Military Zone, an army ground command which covers part of Chihuahua state as well as Coahuila state.
Saltillo has been an intense battle area in recent weeks with last December 15th being the bloodiest with 10 armed suspects killed by Mexican Army troops in the area. To read the Rantburg reports on the fighting in Saltillo click here, here and here El Diario de Coahuila news daily in Saltillo has been keeping a running count of the death toll on the facing page of its website. As of this date, 64 individuals have been killed since December 3rd, although it is unclear why that date had been selected.
The uptick in violence is likely due in part to reinforced security efforts in the La Laguna region of southern Coauula state, 50 kilometers to the west. Operation Laguna Seguro was launched last October as a comprehensive effort at locking down security in the face of several criminal gangs operating in the area, including Los Zetas and their bitterest rival, the Sinaloa Cartel.
It was recently reported that crime including intentional homicide such as shootings have been reduced. As with criminal gangs in Tamaulipas being forced south in the face of additional pressure from reinforced army deployments near the border, it is possible gangs have attempted to shift their activities east to Saltillo. Until last October Saltillo was a backwater with regard to gang violence.
Another factor in the uptick in violence may be due to coming austerity measures forced on Coahuila state government after a massive social spending spree hit a full stop. Much of the money for those programs came from illegally acquired debt, not from normal government revenues. Those measures are sure to include job killing tax increases as well as program cuts.
Lastly, earlier in the week a bodyguard of newly inaugurated governor of Coahuila Ruben Moreira Valdes, was shot to death. Although Governor Moreira himself disclaimed the attack was against him, it is possible a federal response was initiated notwithstanding.
The new army troop deployment is reportedly part of the Operacion Noreste counternarcotics operation with has been ongoing since early summer. The main effort for Operacion Noreste has been in northern Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.
The Mexican 15th Motorized Cavalry Regiment was previously deployed to Tamaulipas last May at the start of Operacion Noreste.
In related news, Mexican Army units seized a number of weapons and drugs in Coahuila state.
In Piedras Negras, a town on Coahuila's northern border with the US, Mexican Army soldiers seized seven AK-47 rifle and one AR-15 rifle after observing a man with a rifle outside a residence. The search also found 152 weapons magazines and 3,110 rounds of ammunition. Two vehicles were also seized
In Torreon, soldiers on patrol found an 2.1 kilograms of marijuana divided for retail sale, personal quantities of cocaine, 17 rounds of ammunition, a knife and a radio battery.
In an area between Guerrero, Coahuila and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas Mexican soldiers on patrol found an abandoned vehicle with two .22 caliber rifles, one .22 caliber weapons magazine, 12 rounds of .38 Special ammunition, 20.12 kilograms of marijuana.
POLICE in China's restive Central Asia border area have fatally shot seven members of a Muslim ethnic group in what officials say was an attempt to end a kidnapping.
Officials and state media accounts said today that police opened fire after encountering resistance in trying to free two men who had been kidnapped by what officials called "a violent terrorist group".
Four others were injured and another four arrested in Wednesday night's raid outside the city of Hotan.
The two hostages were freed.
The area has been plagued by tensions between China's Han Chinese majority and Uighurs, the indigenous, mainly Muslim group.
The Turkish military killed at least 35 people in an air strike near the country's border with Iraq, after apparently mistaking smugglers for Kurdish militants. Turkish warplanes strike suspected militants regularly in their battle against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas, and have stepped up raids after a PKK attack in August.
Fehmi Yaman, mayor of Uludere in Sirnak province, said "We have 30 corpses, all of them are burned. The state knew that these people were smuggling in the region. This kind of incident is unacceptable. They were hit from the air."
The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) released a statement saying 35 people had been killed, adding that party leaders were heading for the area.
A Turkish security official said. "There were rumours that the PKK would cross through this region. Images were recorded of a crowd crossing last night, hence an operation was carried out. We could not have known whether these people were (PKK) group members or smugglers," he said.
Images on television showed a line of corpses covered by blankets on a hillside, with many people gathered around, some sobbing with their head in their hands. People loaded the corpses onto donkeys which were led down the hillside to be loaded into vehicles to be taken to a local hospital.
[Dawn] Eight alleged terrorists, including two jacket wallahs, were tossed in the calaboose from Islamabad and Beautiful Downtown Peshawar in the last one week.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Bani Amin Khan on Wednesday claimed that they had tossed in the calaboose six terrorists, including a suicide bomber last Friday, but the police department concerned denied the statement of its boss.
The announcement of the arrests was made by the IGP shortly after addressing a presser in which he highlighted police performance.
He, however, refused to give any further details about the Orcs and similar vermin claiming it would affect investigation and alert their accomplice in Peshawar.
The IGP stated that the Orcs and similar vermin were tossed in the calaboose by Crime Investigation Department (CID) from Kural on December 23.
He identified one of the `terrorists` as Wali Gul, the alleged suicide bomber.
However, the man who has no enemies isn't anybody and has never done anything... the Kural police and CID Islamabad expressed their ignorance about any arrest from the area of Kural. Besides, they also denied detaining any person on charges of terrorism.
They further stated that according to the law they had to produce terrorist in the court of law the very next day of the arrest. "So had we tossed in the calaboose them on Friday, as claimed by the IGP, we would have produced them in the court by now," they added.
However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... an official at Central Police Office Islamabad confirmed that the CID had tossed in the calaboose the Orcs and similar vermin but handed them over to Peshawar police investigating some other terrorist incidents that took place there and in the tribal areas, including Malakand Agency.
Replying to a question about any progress in the minorities affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti`s liquidation case, the IGP said red warrant of the accused had been obtained from Interpol (International Police). A team will be sent to the UAE to arrest them.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Esquimeau village our hero was receiving a quick lesson in aeronautics...... the security forces tossed in the calaboose two alleged Orcs and similar vermin from New Shakrial, and Peshawar on Tuesday night, sources close to the development told Dawn .
The arrest of the terrorist from the capital led to the capturing of the suicide bomber from Peshawar, they added.
During the raid, maps of sensitive areas and installations were also recovered from the alleged terrorist, Dunya Gul, the sources said, adding, that he was planning suicide kabooms in the capital.
Later, both the alleged Orcs and similar vermin were shifted to undisclosed location for further investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
PESHAWAR: Security forces on Wednesday attacked terrorists hideouts in Orakzai and Kurram agencies, killing 12 terrorists, local official sources said.
Troops pounded terrorists positions in Mamozai, Khadizai and Chapar Kali areas of Orakzai agency and killed seven terrorists besides destroying four terror safe houses. Over 40 rockets and a large number of landmines in a major search operation in Arhang, Zakhtun and Gandi Tal areas, have been recovered.
On the other hand, five suspected terrorists were killed in clashes with armed forces in Kurram Agency. Some unidentified miscreants on Wednesday destroyed government girls primary school with five-kilogrammes explosives in Somnat area of Shabqadar in Charsadda district. The school building was completely destroyed in the blast. However no loss of life was reported. Police started search operation and arrested three suspects belonging to Orakzai Agency. Similarly, terrorists dynamited two schools in Chalas area of Diamir.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... is pressing ahead with plans to impose new sanctions on Iran, an EU front man said Wednesday after Tehran threatened to close a vital oil transit channel in response to Western measures.
"The European Union is considering another set of sanctions against Iran and we continue to do that," Michael Mann, front man for EU foreign affairs Chief Catherine Ashton, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
"We expect the decision will be taken in time for the foreign affairs council on January 30," he said, referring to the next meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi warned on Tuesday that "not a drop of oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz" if the West broadened sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
The United States and the 27-nation EU are considering new sanctions aimed at Iran's oil and financial sectors. But EU governments have been divided over whether to impose an embargo on Iranian crude.
Oil from Iran in 2010 amounted to 5.8 percent of total EU imports, making Tehran the bloc's fifth-largest supplier after Russia, Norway, Libya and Soddy Arabia.
Spain represents 14.6 percent of Iranian oil imports to Europe, Greece 14.0 and Italia 13.1 percent.
More than a third of the world's tanker-borne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, linking the Gulf -- and its petroleum-exporting states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Soddy Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- to the Indian Ocean.
The United States maintains a navy presence in the Gulf in large part to ensure that passage for oil remains free.
NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... officials declined to comment on the Iranian threat.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
The United States maintains a navy presence in the Gulf in large part to ensure that passage for oil remains free.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/29/2011 1:29 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The EU pursues sanctions but is completely impotent to do anything if the strait is closed. They are depending on Uncle Sugar to provide any military muscle.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/29/2011 18:10 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I hope the Iranians are about to see the side of Europe that they won't like...
Posted by: American Delight ||
12/29/2011 19:51 Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] A cautious calm prevailed in the Wadi Khaled area of the northern district of Akkar on Wednesday, a day after Syrian troops entered Lebanese territories and killed three men.
Kasser Hussein al-Zeit and his brother Ahmed, who hail from the Syrian town of Heit, and their cousin Maher Ali al-Zeit, who resides in Majdal in Wadi Khaled, were killed on Tuesday when the Syrian army intelligence members reached the outskirts of al-Mqaibleh and opened fire on their vehicle, An Nahar daily said.
Sources in the border area had earlier told the newspaper that the men died in a cross border fire around 9:00 pm Tuesday.
The Lebanese army immediately took strong security measures and pulled the bodies from the Mercedes 300 they were riding, An Nahar said.
A medical official told Agence La Belle France Presse that a fourth person was maimed in the shooting but managed to get out of the car.
On December 2, dozens of terrified families decamped their homes in Wadi Khaled after shooting from the Syrian side of the border maimed two men and a woman.
In recent months, thousands of people have decamped into Leb from border districts of Syria such as Tal Kalakh as troops have resorted to mounting violence to crush anti-regime protests raging in the neighboring country since March.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] A group of Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... observers on Wednesday entered the flashpoint Baba Amro neighborhood in the Syrian city of Homs, as world powers urged Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... to give them full access as they try to reveal the truth about the regime's crackdown on dissent.
Residents of Baba Amro initially refused to allow the monitors in because an army officer was accompanying them, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Later the officer agreed to stay out of the restive neighborhood, thus allowing the observers to enter Baba Amro, the Observatory added.
At the same time the residents asked the monitors to "come and see the maimed people and the parents of the deaders, and not members of the (ruling) Baath party," the rights group said.
The monitors also visited the Bab Sebaa quarter of Homs, where according to the Observatory the regime had organized a parade in support of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama...
The Observatory said it feared "that the observer team is not really seeing the violation of human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... in Syria."
The regime withdrew tanks from the streets of Homs, where hundreds of people have died in the nine-month crackdown on dissent, just hours before the observers arrived there on Tuesday and "could be back in five minutes," said the Observatory's chief, Rami Abdul Rahman.
Abdul Rahman called on the observers to investigate the fate of what he said were tens of thousands of people nabbed since unrest erupted in March.
Meanwhile, ...back at the buffalo wallow, Tex and his new-found Indian friend were preparing a little surprise for the bandidos... security forces rubbed out five civilians in Homs, five in the Damascus suburbs of Douma and Arbin, one in the southern province of Daraa, one in the northwestern province of Idlib, one in the coastal province of Latakia, one in the central province of Hama and another in the northern province of Aleppo ...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
For its part, the Observatory said mutinous soldiers ambushed a convoy killing at least four loyalist troops and wounding 12 in Daraa province.
Observers also headed Wednesday to other key protests hubs in Syria.
The monitors were due to visit Daraa -- cradle of more than nine months of anti-regime protests -- the northern provinces of Hama and Idlib, and around Damascus to pursue their investigations.
"As of Wednesday evening, and from Thursday at dawn, the observers will deploy in Idlib and Hama and in Daraa," mission chief General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Dabi, a veteran Sudanese military intelligence officer, said observers would also fan out 50-80 kilometers around Damascus.
The observers arrived in Syria at the weekend and on Tuesday visited the Homs, which has been besieged by government troops for several months.
Dabi said the visit to Homs had been "good", and that he was heading back there on Wednesday. He said more observers would join the mission, which now numbers 66 monitors.
French foreign ministry front man Bernard Valero said the visit had been too brief and insufficiently revealing.
"A few Arab League observers were able to be briefly present in Homs yesterday. Their presence did not prevent the continuing of the bloody crackdown in this city, where large demonstrations were violently repressed, leaving about 10 dead," he said.
"The brevity of their visit did not allow them to understand the reality of the situation in Homs. The Arab League observers must be allowed to return without delay to this martyr city, to travel everywhere in it freely and to have the necessary contact with the public."
The mission is part of an Arab plan endorsed by Syria on November 2 that calls for the withdrawal of security forces from towns and residential districts, a halt to violence against civilians and the release of detainees.
Valero said "the international community will be reassured when the violence stops, when the army returns to barracks, when the political prisoners are freed and when foreign journalists will receive visas to go to Syria."
Activists say the army pulled back heavy armor from Baba Amro ahead of Tuesday's visit by the monitors, accusing the regime of deception.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Syria to give the observers maximum freedom as they go about their mission.
"We constantly work with the Syrian leadership calling on it to fully cooperate with observers from the vaporous Arab League and to create work conditions that are as comfortable and free as possible," Lavrov said Wednesday.
The United States and Human Rights Watch ... dedicated to bitching about human rights violations around the world... warned Damascus was hindering the mission which started following weeks of prevarication from Syria.
HRW accused the Syrian authorities of having "transferred perhaps hundreds of detainees to off-limits military sites to hide them from Arab monitors.
"The Arab League should insist on full access to all Syrian sites used for detention, consistent with its agreement with the Syrian government," the watchdog said.
State Department deputy front man Mark Toner said "we obviously look to these individuals to be intrepid in their search for the truth of what's happening on the ground."
The United States "would ... demand that the Syrian authorities allow them full access to the Syrian people in order to carry out their mission."
Syrian foreign ministry front man Jihad Makdisi has said the "mission has freedom of movement in line with the protocol" Syria signed with the Arab League. But the observers are banned from sensitive military sites.
On Tuesday, Syrian police used tear gas to disperse some 70,000 people who flooded the streets of Homs emboldened by the observers' visit and fired with live ammunition at some demonstrators, activists said.
The U.N. estimates more than 5,000 people have been killed in the crackdown since protests against President Bashir al-Assad's regime began in mid-March.
The government blames the violence on "armed terrorist" groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
BEIRUT - Arab League monitors in Syria faced angry crowds, gunfire and explosions during their second visit to Homs, the heart of a nine-month revolt against President Bashar Al Assad, online videos appeared to show on Wednesday.
Activists uploaded footage on the Internet showing crowds surrounding a monitoring team's car on Wednesday shouting "those who kill their people are traitors". In another video, orange-vested monitors rushed behind a concrete building amid heavy shooting and blasts.
The Arab League observers are in Syria to determine if Assad is keeping his promise to push through a peace plan and end his crackdown on the revolt that has pushed the country towards civil war. The head of the Arab League mission earlier said he saw "nothing frightening" on his first trip to Homs on Tuesday. But France called the comment from Sudanese General Mustafa Dabi premature and urged Syria to give his team full access.
"When you were in Homs yesterday 15 people died. We're not benefitting from your presence," one activist, named as Khaled Abu Salah, shouted at the mission in a video of its second trip on Wednesday in the Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr.
The Arab League has said the mission needs about a week to determine whether Assad has stuck to his promise to withdraw tanks and troops, free prisoners and start a dialogue with the opposition.
An overhead satellite or drone could figure that out in an hour. Just saying...
General Dabi earlier called on activists to give his team more time. "Remember, this was only the first day and it will need investigation. We have 20 people who will be there for a long time," Dabi told Reuters, speaking from Damascus.
Washington also urged patience. "It was just Day One," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. "We need to let this mission get up and running. Let them do their job and then let them give their judgement."
State television on Wednesday said Damascus had freed 755 people detained in the unrest "whose hands were not stained with Syrian blood". Thousands remain in detention.
US-based Human Rights Watch accused Syrian authorities of transferring hundreds of detainees to military sites off-limits to Arab League monitors and urged the observers to insist on full access to all sites used for detention.
Unobstructed access and uncensored testimony are crucial to the Arab League's mission. The monitors hit a snag on Wednesday when locals in Baba Amr refused to speak with the observers in the presence of a Syrian army colonel.
Surprise, surprise...
The monitors later returned unescorted but had to scrap an effort to check an area where residents believed detainees were being hidden, because gunfire erupted nearby, activists told Reuters by telephone.
As the monitors toured Homs, other hotspots saw fresh violence, said witnesses and activists. A video sent by rebels in Deraa province showed gunmen with faces swathed in checkered kerchiefs, firing automatic rifles at a convoy of security force buses. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four government soldiers died in the ambush.
Security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas at an anti-Assad rally in Hama, another major flashpoint of unrest north of Homs, said activists. At least one person died and seven were wounded, they added.
Al Jazeera television showed gunfire, curls of black smoke and men marching down a street chanting, "Where are the Arab monitors?" One man was bleeding from the neck.
The delegation plans to send teams to central Hama, southern Deraa and northern Idlib on Thursday.
Despite the hitches, many Homs residents were pleased with what they said was a more diligent second tour by monitors, and relieved to have a respite from days of heavy gunbattles.
In other video clips of the monitoring mission, observers scribbled notes as residents named missing loved ones and showed the team the body of a lifeless young boy shot in the back. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says three people died from gunshots in Homs on Wednesday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A man dressed in an Afghan army uniform today killed two NATO service members after turning his weapon against them. 
SANAA: Military positions separating Yemens warring forces in central Sanaa were dismantled on Wednesday in a show of faith by both sides that they want to halt nearly a year of fighting to topple the president.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
