Just to let everyone know, Fred's been under the hood the last day or so installing the new server, doing some upgrades, and jousting with spambots. News coverage may be a little light today as he works and the rest of us mods kibitz from a safe distance.
Thanks to everyone for their understanding.
AoS
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2013 00:00 ||
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#3
I confess. I have failed to respond to the last few blegs. I won't bother you with the lame excuses. However, inspired by Fred's diligence, I have just contributed.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/29/2013 15:18 Comments ||
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#4
Mods: We can comment from the editor now.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2013 16:29 Comments ||
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#5
Yes, I can comment from editor now. thank you, Fred.
[WAPO] A new American intelligence assessment on the Afghan war predicts that the gains the United States and its allies have made during the past three years are likely to have been significantly eroded by 2017, even if Washington leaves behind a few thousand troops and continues bankrolling the impoverished nation, according to officials familiar with the report. So, new assessment.... same as old assessment.
The National Intelligence Estimate, which includes input from the countrys 16 intelligence agencies, predicts that the Taliban and other power brokers will become increasingly influential as the United States winds down its longest war in history, according to officials who have read the classified report or received briefings on its conclusions. The grim outlook is fueling a policy debate inside the Obama administration about the steps it should take over the next year as the U.S. military draws down its remaining troops. Thirteen years of losing plays by a losing coach and losing host-nation team. Better call it a day.
The report predicts that Afghanistan would likely descend into chaos quickly if Washington and Kabul dont sign a security pact that would keep an international military contingent there beyond 2014 a precondition for the delivery of billions of dollars in aid that the United States and its allies have pledged to spend in Afghanistan over the coming years. But wait! I thought we were all out in 2014.
In the absence of a continuing presence and continuing financial support, the intelligence assessment suggests the situation would deteriorate very rapidly, said one U.S. official familiar with the report. Emphasis on "financial support".
That conclusion is widely shared among U.S. officials working on Afghanistan, said the official, who was among five people familiar with the report who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity to discuss the assessment. A "conclusion widely shared" by anyone with an ounce of common sense.
#1
My toilet starts needing cleaned again right after the brushing and flushing is done. Big surprise...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/29/2013 9:21 Comments ||
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#2
'Afghanistan' lasted about four years after the Soviets left. Given this administration's propensity for successfully failing, I wouldn't be surprised if 'Afghanistan' collapses in 2016.
Of course the NYT and the rest of the press wouldn't acknowledge it until mid-2017.
#4
Americans believe America is the greatest country in the world in part because Amer gets things done where many others have failed.
Mainstream Amer also believes that the way to stop the long march of Radical Islam is "over there", NOT "over here", so stop all this Waffling, Hyper/super-PCorrectness C *** P + JUST DEV The D **** PLACE LIKE ONLY AMERICA CAN - YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO!
Might help POTUS Bammer get the AFL-CIO, etc. off his back.
The DemoLeft likes to blame the GOP-Right for engaging in "imperialism" + similar despite knowing its the only way to support the Lefty-beloved, Soon-to-be-OWG-Global massive Welfare-Nanny State = BIG[GEST] GOVT, NOT JUST BIG OR BIG[GER], widout raising taxes, espec near election or re-election time.
HARGEISA, Somalia Dec.28, 2013 (Garowe Online)-Hundreds of people Saturday took to the streets in Somaliland capital of Hargeisa, complaining about severe water shortage, Garowe Online reports.
Residents of Siinay, Ahmed Dhagah, October and Mohamed Moge neighborhoods staged the demonstration following the suspension of water distribution services by water trucks according to local sources.
Angry crowds poured into the main roads, with protesters setting tyres on fire, blocking the roads with thorn bushes and asking the government to address their plight as shortage of water continue to persist across the southern part of the capital.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2013 00:00 ||
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One member of staff at Turkish Airlines has been killed and another injured in an attack, suspected to be an armed robbery, at the airlines main office in Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... .
Turkish daily Hürriyet named the slain employee as Uğur Tezcan. Both Tezcan and fellow employee Nadide Duman hospitalised with serious injuries were beaten by people armed with iron batons, according to the Hürriyet. Details of the incident are not yet clear, however, with conflicting reports saying that the attackers were armed with knives or guns.
The attack took place on Thursday evening, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry. It is understood that it the main Turkish Airlines office in Tripoli Tower was the scene of the crime, not the companys Tripoli International Airport office, as initially stated by reports in the international media.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2013 00:29 ||
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[Libya Herald] Four American security staff from the US embassy have been released after their arrest and brief detention near the town of Sabratha.
The Americans were locked away Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! yesterday at a checkpoint near Sabratha and the town of Aljalat. Initial reports circulating on social media networks said they were apprehended for not carrying identification. However,
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Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2013 00:26 ||
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#1
She said she also had an "excellent round table exchange" with the local council, with discussions of community needs and potential cooperation.
[Pak Daily Times] A student was killed and 60 placed in durance vile Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! as Egyptian police entered a Cairo university on Saturday to confront Islamist protesters who torched a building, amid an intensifying crackdown on the Moslem Brüderbund, officials said.
The unrest followed nationwide repression of Islamist protests on Friday after the military-installed government listed the Brotherhood, the movement of deposed president Mohammed Morsi
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Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2013 00:22 ||
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Riot police moved into Egypt's main Islamic university on Saturday, firing teargas and breaking up a strike by students that threatened to disrupt midterms. One student was killed in the melee, an administration building was torched and students fled from exam rooms.
Police say they entered eastern Cairo's Al Azhar campus, the site of frequent clashes in recent weeks, and deployed around other Egyptian universities to prevent supporters of ousted President Mohammed Mursi from intimidating other students trying to take the tests.
Pro-Mursi activists have called for an exam boycott but deny government claims that they threatened anyone.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2013 00:13 ||
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#1
Al Azhar is not a Muslim Brotherhood stronghold. Rather, its leadership, especially the Grand Mufti, have decried efforts by the Ikhwan to infiltrate the place. The students who torched the engineering cafeteria were Ikhwan punks. Historically, the Ikhwan has tried to control the "professions" (doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, teachers); the scientists and engineers have successfully fought infiltration -- and are hated for doing so and are an Ikhwan target.
#2
the scientists and engineers have successfully fought infiltration -- and are hated for doing so and are an Ikhwan target.
But former President Morsi is a an engineer as I recall, Spigum Tojo8813. On the other hand, he did get his education in America -- perhaps that's why.
Tribesmen on Saturday blew up a major oil pipeline in southeastern Yemen operated by foreign companies, bringing production to a halt, government and industry officials said.
Gunmen belonging to an alliance of Hadramawt tribes blew up the oil pipeline linking Masila oilfield to Al Daba port in the town of Shahr, on the Gulf of Aden, a local government official said.
The gunmen had planted an explosive device under the pipeline in Hadramawt province, the official said, adding that production had been halted. An industry official confirmed the attack and that the flow of oil had ceased.
The pipeline, which is operated by several foreign companies, usually pumps around 120,000 barrels per day, the official said.
The attack comes amid rising tensions between Yemeni authorities and southern secessionists, allied with a group of tribes from Hadramawt, an Al Qaeda stronghold.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/29/2013 00:16 ||
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[Aljazeera] Officials say at least 18 dead after female suicide bomber sets of blast in southern Russian city of Volgograd.
A female suicide bomber has set off a blast in a train station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd killing at least 14 people, news reports and officials said.
Regional Interior Ministry spokeswoman Svetlana Smolyaninova told the ITAR-TASS news agency on Sunday that the blast occurred inside the city's main train station at around 12:45pm (08;45 GMT).
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The IDF responded with intense artillery fire toward the location from which four rockets were launched in southern Lebanon just minutes after residents of the border town of Kiryat Shmona heard loud explosions.
Army sources say that the source of the fire has been identified but that it was too soon to say which organization is responsible for the attack.
Two Katyusha rockets exploded near Kiryat Shmona, where residents reported seeing smoke rising from a fire sparked by one of the projectiles which landed on a hill overlooking the city. Two other rockets landed in Lebanese territory. No injuries or damage was reported.
#1
nip this shit in the bud quick. Overwhelming counter-battery artillery on what ever neighborhood, school, or hospital the Islamoasshats are shooting from
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/29/2013 8:46 Comments ||
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[Ynet] Paleostinians were hurling Molotov cocktails in the direction of an Israeli vehicle in Hebron. No injuries or damage were reported. IDF troops are scouring the area in search of the assailants.
[Ynet] Airstrike launched by Assad forces on Aleppo kills at least 25 people. Video posted by local activist group shows residents pulling mangled corpses out of scorched car frames
A Syrian army air strike on a vegetable market in the northern city of Aleppo killed at least 25 people on Saturday, a monitoring group said, continuing a campaign of improvised "barrel bombs" that has drawn international condemnation.
A video posted on the Internet by local activist group Insaan Rights Watch showed residents pulling mangled corpses out of scorched and twisted car frames.
One road hit by the strike was covered with debris from nearby buildings and was lined with bodies, as young men shouted for cars to help transport the maimed. The content of the video could not be independently verified.
Hundreds of people have been killed by air raids around the city of Aleppo in recent weeks, scores of them women and kiddies, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group based in Britannia.
On Saturday, the Observatory said 25 people, at least four of them children, were killed by barrel bombing that also destroyed part of a hospital. It said the corpse count was likely to rise as dozens more were maimed in the attack.
Syrian authorities say they are battling rebels controlling large portions of the city, once Syria's business hub.
Human rights groups and the United States have condemned the use of the improvised bombs - oil drums or cylinders which are packed with explosives and metal fragments, often rolled out of an aircraft's cargo bay. They say it is an indiscriminate form of bombardment.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... 's forces have been regaining territory southeast of Aleppo in recent weeks and have made gains in suburbs around the capital Damascus as well.
The move is likely an attempt to strengthen Assad's position against the opposition ahead of planned peace negotiations in Geneva next month.
An army ambush in the Qalamoun mountains north of the capital killed at least 60 people on Friday. The Observatory said the dead were rebels. But the Syrian National Coalition, an umbrella group representing the opposition abroad, said the dead were civilians.
Well over 100,000 people have been killed in the 2-1/2-year conflict, which began as peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule. A fierce security force crackdown sparked an armed insurgency that has now spread civil war across most of Syria.
Syria has neither the economy nor the natural resources to support its current population, so they are fixing the problem the easy way.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/29/2013 00:44 ||
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[Ynet] The al-Qaeda affiliated Abdullah Azzam Shaheed Brigade released a statement announcing that Hezbollah official Hassan al-Laqqis was not assassinated two weeks ago, but rather was killed in an attack against the Iranian embassy in Beirut over a month ago. After the liquidation, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah blamed Israel for the death of al-Laqqis.
Two jacket wallahs blew themselves up in the Iranian embassy in Beirut last month. The attack claimed the lives of 23 people.
Bosnian authorities turned six Algerian terror suspects over to U.S. authorities after a tense all-night standoff with protesters in front of a Bosnian jail. A Sarajevo court initially had ordered the men released because their period of detention without being charged had expired. Supporters of the men clashed with police to prevent the transfer, but police used batons to clear the way for police vehicles transporting the hooded and shackled men. U.S. officials confirmed the six, who were arrested in October by Bosnia police, had been handed over, but would not reveal their present whereabouts. Human rights officials in Sarajevo immediately condemned what they described as illegal and unethical pressure by Americans in Sarajevo on local authorities to turn the men over, despite several local court rulings that should have prevented the transfer. That's okay. Criticize all you want. As long as we have them. We'd probably like to talk to their "supporters," too, if it's alright with the human rights wieners.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/29/2013 00:00 ||
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We're up and running again, kinda sorta. I'll be trying to fix things for the next couple days. So far I haven't been fixing them quicker than they break, but maybe eventually...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/29/2013 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
Yep. Noticed Fred has been spending a lot of time in the computer room lately. ;-) 
Riot police moved into Egypt's main Islamic university on Saturday, firing teargas and breaking up a strike by students that threatened to disrupt midterms. One student was killed in the melee, an administration building was torched and students fled from exam rooms.
Tribesmen on Saturday blew up a major oil pipeline in southeastern Yemen operated by foreign companies, bringing production to a halt, government and industry officials said.
[Aljazeera] Officials say at least 18 dead after female suicide bomber sets of blast in southern Russian city of Volgograd. 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
