More proof, if proof were needed that Amnesty International has lost the plot.
Amnesty International says Australia could be breaching international law when it hands suspected Taliban insurgents to US forces and Afghan authorities.
The Federal Government has confirmed it will continue to hand low-risk detainees to the Afghan government, while transferring high-risk prisoners to the US. It says it will monitor the detainees to make sure they are treated appropriately.
But Amnesty's Asia Pacific director, Sam Zarifi, says the US continues to deny some prisoners fair process. He says the Afghan government is accused of torturing detainees.
"In Afghanistan abuse by the National Directorate of Security is a virtual certainty, and the American system - every day it operates is essentially a violation of international law," he said.
"The system punishes the innocent and fails to appropriately provide accountability for those who have done bad things.
"Unfortunately with this decision Australia has bought into this failed system."
It's a Yemeni jail. What did they think was going to happen?
[Yemen Post] Houthi detainees held in connection with the rebellion in the far north were abused at political security jails in Saada and other provinces, the Houthi information bureau said on Monday.
The front man for the Houthi Group Muhammad Abdul Salam said in a statement to the Alsahwa website that their detainees were brutally tortured at jail.
We obtained information that one of the detainees had died under torture, said Abdul Salam, as he held the government responsible for the abuse of the detainees. "We urge an investigation into the abuse and other illegal acts against the war prisoners."
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... the website quoted its correspondent in Saada as saying that the riot police were seen rushing to the political security prison, but the reason was unclear.
The government and the group reached early this year a ceasefire ending a six-year war in northern Yemen, but sporadic festivities between Houthis and tribes have since left many casualties.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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Al-Jizz is an arm of al-Thani family policy, which is why it treads on so many people's toes. However, in the past ten years it's seen a bit of competition grow up, some of it pretty good, so it's a problem -- assuming it is actually a problem -- that will recede with time. The only reason it still remains a problem is the widespread existence of ministries of information. [An Nahar] Kuwaiti authorities have closed the office of the Qatar-based pan-Arab Al-Jazeera news channel over coverage of a police crackdown on a public gathering, the channel said on Monday.
"Today, I received a phone call from the information ministry informing me that the office has been closed immediately and our accreditations have been withdrawn," Saad al-Saeedi, Al-Jazeera's bureau chief in Kuwait City, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
Ministry officials had delivered the office a letter that stated the reason for the closure was "the latest developments and your interference in Kuwait's internal affairs," Saeedi said, quoting the letter.
The channel had aired extensive coverage of the police crackdown on a gathering held by the Kuwaiti opposition on Wednesday.
It showed footage of police beating activists and aired interviews with members of the Kuwaiti opposition following the festivities in which four Kuwaiti MPs and a dozen citizens were hurt.
In a statement, Al-Jazeera denied the charge of meddling in Kuwaiti affairs, saying it was just doing its job.
"Al-Jazeera, which has adhered in its coverage of Kuwaiti affairs to hosting all parties, condemns considering its professional coverage an interference in Kuwaiti internal affairs," it said.
"Al-Jazeera vows to continue to cover Kuwaiti affairs with full professionalism and balance."
Three Kuwaiti opposition MPs on Monday filed a motion to question the prime minister in parliament over the police action and alleged government clampdown on public freedoms.
Kuwait closed the office of Al-Jazeera in November 2002 in the run-up to the U.S.-led war on Iraq because it said the channel took a hostile stand against Kuwait, and for security reasons, before reopening it in May 2005.
This followed an official visit by Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, whose country has often had problems with other Arab states over Al-Jazeera's news coverage.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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the office has been closed immediately and our accreditations have been withdrawn,"
A small step but a good one, and in the right direction.
Muzzle the Rabid Muzzies and leave the rest alone.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/15/2010 12:39 Comments ||
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There's no limit to the size of the lies you can concoct if you have no regard whatsoever for the truth.
[Bangla Daily Star] Leaders of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the party widely condemned for opposing the country's independence and collaborating with Pak occupation force during the Liberation War, is now accusing India of planning the murders of intellectuals on December 14, 1971. All that proves is that the JeI leaders understand what a problem the murders are ...
"The intellectuals had stayed in the country till December 14, 1971 as they felt safe here. They were against a war being fought from India. That big power realised that they won't become its agents," said Jamaat's Acting Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam yesterday.
"So, it cannot be said that the big power [India] was not behind the killings of the intellectuals as the trial for the crimes was not held."
He was addressing a discussion to mark the Martyred Intellectuals' Day. Jamaat's Dhaka city unit organised the event at its Paltan office.
After the discussion, when this correspondent asked Azhar if he was refusing that Pak Army and their local collaborators were behind the killings, the Jamaat leader said he wouldn't make further comments as he had told everything in the speech.
Sensing defeat the Pakistain army and their local collaborators -- razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams -- on December 14, 1971 killed eminent doctors, academicians, engineers, journalists and educationalist. They do a lotta "sensing" over there...
It's a sensitive part of the world. Curious, though, that the Pakistani army and their local collaborators so thoroughly executed -- so to speak -- the Indian plot. One would think they'd oppose on general principles anything coming from the devious Hinjoo, as the Pakistanis so cleverly misname them.
Azhar in his speech said, the intellectuals were killed on December 14 but the Indian Army had already captured the entire capital on December 12.
Jamaat's Dhaka city unit acting Ameer Hamidur Rahman Azad said they [the intellectuals] were killed because they didn't want Bangladesh to be subservient to India.
Jamaat top brass including its chief Motiur Rahman Nizami are now facing trial for crimes against humanity in 1971.
In 2007, Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid in another outrageous comment said there were no war criminals in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
India must have done a great up job and couldn't find anymore.
BNP was perfectly happy to partner with Jamaat-e-Islami and to support its campaigns of intolerance against anybody but them.
[Bangla Daily Star] Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday alleged that BNP chief Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... has sided with the war criminals and their collaborators through extending support for the December 26 hartal. ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ...
Barbie says, "Governing is haaaaaard!"
Hasina, also the Awami League president, said the hartal has been called to obstruct the war crimes trial and to protect the perpetrators of 1971.
The premier was speaking at a discussion at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital with AL Presidium Member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury in the chair. The ruling AL organised the discussion marking the Martyred Intellectuals' Day.
The main opposition BNP on December 9 extended support to the countrywide hartal called by Sammilita Olama Mashayekh Parishad president Muhiuddin Khan in protest against the National Education Policy that has been passed recently.
Hasina said the countrymen witnessed the evidence of BNP-Jamaat's looting when they were in power.
"The looted items were shifted in boxes in last few days.... Her broken suitcase has turned into a magic box.
"BNP doesn't love the country and its people. It only knows to loot. Their main job is to patronise killers and Islamic exemplars," she noted.
Hasina urged the countrymen to compare the 23 months of her government with that of the BNP-Jamaat coalition government. "Liars will resort to lies. Don't be misled by those lies," she said.
She also directed party leaders to work for the common people who voted them to power.
Urging BNP to withdraw its support for the hartal, AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said an identified razakar and war criminal has called the hartal, and BNP has unveiled its actual face by supporting it.
Earlier in the morning, Ashraf, also the LGRD and cooperatives minister, said the anti-liberation force killed hundreds of intellectuals on 14 December in 1971 to intellectually cripple the country.
The current government will try the war criminals and the killers of martyred intellectuals at any cost, he added.
AL leaders Suranjit Sengupta, Matia Chowdhury, AK Azad Chowdhury, Mohammad Nasim, among others, spoke on the occasion.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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The Telegraph seems to have pulled the article, or at least directed to one about Mr. al-Abdaly's accomplices. Here's another article on the subject at the Independent.
From the article:
Mona Thwany became a fanatical Muslim around the time of the Sept 11 attacks and in turn radicalised her previously westernised husband, it is alleged.
Her grandmother Maria Nedelcovici, who lives in Romania, said that Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly could have been persuaded to abandon his deadly bomb plot if his wife had intervened.
British investigators are understood to be focusing on possible links to al-Qaeda in Iraq and the associated group the Islamic State of Iraq, or al-Muhajiroun the banned group with a strong presence at the fundamentalist mosque Abdulwahab attended in Luton.
Mr Lindstrand said: "He was totally unknown to the Swedish Security Police. He came to Sweden from Luton in November so of course it's important to us to know if there is anything of interest there."
Explosives experts believe Abdulwahab could have killed 100 people and injured 500, but his car, which was filled with gas canisters, caught fire prematurely and his suicide belt is also thought to have gone off before he intended.
Meanwhile Abdulwahab's one-time best friend recalled how the bomber had spent time as a community radio station disc jockey in his home town of Tranas, but became withdrawn after he moved to Luton to study physical therapy at Bedfordshire University.
Pelle Johansson said: "He wanted to be a physiotherapist. His ambition was to come back to Sweden and open his own clinic, but something changed when he was in England." He added: "Taimur liked to play hip hop and pop music and he was popular with everyone, including girls."
Mexican president Felipe Calderon told US Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) in October 2009 he was aware that Venezuela president Hugo Chavez funded one of his opponents in the 2006 Mexican presidential election, according to various online news sources.
This new information, brought to light through a leaked US State Department of State cable two weeks ago, also revealed that Chavez was involved in several activities in Latin America, termed "everywhere", by Calderon, especially in Mexico.
The cable detailed the content of an October 19th, 2009 meeting between Calderon and Admiral Dennis Blair in Mexico City, then the US DCI, who was fired by President Obama in May, 2010 over an unrelated matter.
Calderon told Blair he concluded that Chavez gave money to Partido Revolucion Democratica candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for his 2006 presidential run which he narrowly lost by less than a half percentage point.
Lopez Obrador has denied the allegation.
Following the election Lopez Obrador charged that an outside group headed by former Mexican president Vicente Fox, unfairly influenced the election by campaigning on behalf of Calderon. The issue was brought to court by Lopez Obrador after the election, but was ultimately dismissed by a court.
The PRD was originally a coalition of several Mexican communist and socialists parties formed in 1989, and is the most left wing of all major Mexican national political parties.
Another issue raised at the meeting was an warning by Calderon that in order to counter Chavez's ambitions in Latin American, the US would need to engage the incoming Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's first female president and like her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a leftist and a member of the democratic socialist Workers Party.
The day after the revelation about Chavez funding the PRD, Lopez Obrador issued a Twitter tweet challenging Calderon to prove the his claim.
SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Yonhap) -- Lockheed Martin Corp. can deliver F-35 fighter jets as early as 2016 if it wins South Korea's multi-billion dollar contract for a fighter modernization program, a senior company executive said Tuesday, dismissing doubts over a delay in the new warplane's flight-test schedule.
I'm sure that's what Lockheed would say. Might even be correct.
South Korean officials say the cost rise for an individual F-35 aircraft, stemming from the delay, is a potential obstacle for Lockheed in an upcoming tender by Seoul for 60 fighter jets, valued at 9.7 trillion won (US$8.5 billion).
Seoul is expected to invite bidders as early as next year for the third stage of the fighter modernization program to replace aging F-4E and F-5E/F jets that have been involved in several deadly crashes in recent years. The delivery of new aircraft is scheduled to start in 2016.
The delay in the flight-test schedule, however, would force South Korea to buy F-35s after 2018 if it selects Lockheed, South Korean officials said. Lockheed, Boeing Co. and a consortium of European firms led by EADS have expressed interest in the tender.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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If one thinks about fighter jets as 'commodities' it makes sense the price in dollars would rise, just due to the devaluation of the dollar.
Russia on Monday criticized North Korea over the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island last month, brushing aside claims that it was a response to a preemptive strike by the South.
Better late than never. Perhaps the Russians would be ready to be useful for a change ...
"It was confirmed that a fatal artillery attack on a nation's territory deserves denouncement," said a statement the Russian Foreign Ministry issued Monday after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met his North Korean counterpart Pak Ui-chun.
Russia, along with China, urged self-restraint on both Koreas after the North sank the Navy corvette Cheonan in March, but the Yeonpyeong shelling was apparently a provocation too far for Moscow.
Lavrov also expressed "deep concern" about the North's uranium enrichment project at Yongbyon and called on it to comply with UN Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874, according to the statement.
On Nov. 23, when the North shelled Yeonyeong, Lavrov censured the North Korean attack in a press conference. Two days later he said South Korea's "firing drill is one thing and shelling a residential area is quite another. People died and that is most important."
"Russia has noted the facts objectively. We are doing our best to help Russia share views with us," Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan told reporters Tuesday.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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Mouth, Mouth,Mouth,Mouth and do nothing(I didn't get a "Harumph" outa that guy)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/15/2010 12:47 Comments ||
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North Korea has dug a new tunnel more than 500 m deep at a nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province, intelligence sources said Tuesday. The North is also reportedly accelerating massive excavation work and construction of a new building at its main nuclear site in Yongbyon.
Busy little beavers, aren't they ...
"North Korea seems to be busy digging even in winter when the ground is frozen" at Punggye-ri and Yongbyon, a South Korean intelligence officer said.
Maybe they're digging for turnips ...
Based on an estimate of the amount of earth dug up, the intelligence officer speculated that the North has already dug a cave more than 500 m deep in Punggye-ri.
"If progress goes on at the current pace, the North will have dug a cave 1 km deep, the depth where it is possible to conduct a nuclear test, between March and May next year," the officer said.
Voice of America, quoting a U.S. Congressional Research Service report, reported on Dec. 7 that the North could conduct a nuclear test as a proxy for nuclear weapons developing nations such as Iran.
The North is also carrying out massive construction in Yongbyon. Experts including Siegfried Hecker, a U.S. nuclear scientist who visited Yongbyon last month, believe that the North is building a 25-30 MW reactor.
But a South Korean security official said, "The North has never admitted what it is building. We're just speculating that it's building a nuclear facility whose purpose is unclear."
But we can guess, can't we ...
South Korean government officials believe the North does not have enough technical wherewithal to build a light-water reactor power plant that uses enriched uranium as fuel and suspect it is now openly attempting to build a highly-enriched uranium facility to produce nuclear weapons. They also suspect that the North has three or four more undisclosed uranium enrichment facilities in addition to the one in Yongbyon it showed Hecker last month.
South Korea and the U.S. are worried that the North could heighten tensions on the peninsula by using a nuclear threat after the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island. It apparently aims to sway public opinion in the international community and South Korea in favor of early talks with the North by either conducting a third nuclear test or boosting its uranium-based nuclear capability.
Former chief U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill was quoted by VOA as saying that the North's disclosure of the uranium enrichment plant proves that the regime lied in the six-party talks.
Thanks Chris, if only you'd figured that out while you were in charge ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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ION TOPIX > ANOTHER ISSUE TO KEEP SEOUL, WASHINGTON DC BUSY. US-ROK in negotiations to revise [upward?] 2004 Accords LIMITING SOUTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
12/15/2010 10:07 Comments ||
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#4
Far past time for an "Accidental" nuke explosion there.
Hint,Hint
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/15/2010 12:53 Comments ||
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#5
"North Korea seems to be busy digging even in winter when the ground is frozen" at Punggye-ri and Yongbyon, a South Korean intelligence officer said
Even in NKor, the ground only freezes for the first meter of the 500m tunnel.
They're "positive" any talks aren't gonna last long, that nothing of substance is gonna come of them, and that they're gonna discard any agreements they make as soon as it suits their convenience.
[Emirates 24/7] China said on Tuesday that North Korea had agreed to help prevent any escalation of tensions with the South and had a "positive attitude" about the resumption of talks aimed at ending its nuclear drive.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told news hounds that officials in Pyongyang had expressed that view during a visit last week by State Councillor Dai Bingguo, ... "and Bingguo was his name-o!" ... who met with North Korean leader Kim Dear Leader Jong-Il
.... hereditary dictator of North Korea. His definition of reunification isn't the same as the definition in Seoul...
That trip came amid high tensions between the two Koreas sparked when the North shelled a South Korean island on November 23, killing four people including two civilians.
"The two sides believe that all parties should keep calm and exercise restraint, take a responsible attitude to avoid further escalation of tensions and play a constructive role in safeguarding peace and stability," Jiang said.
The two sides "will continue to push forward the six-party talks process committed to the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula (and) realising the normalisation of state-to-state relations among countries involved," she said.
The spokeswoman said North Korea "has taken a positive attitude" on a resumption of the stalled negotiations bringing together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Beijing has been under renewed pressure to rein in its ally Pyongyang in the wake of the deadly shelling.
The United States, South Korea and Japan gave the cold shoulder to a Chinese proposal for emergency six-way negotiations, saying North Korea must demonstrate its commitment to change first.
US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg is to visit Beijing this week to press for stronger action from China.
Regional tensions also spiked after Pyongyang disclosed a new uranium enrichment programme that has further sparked fears it could produce more material to make nuclear bombs.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, at a meeting Monday in Moscow with his visiting North Korean counterpart Pak Ui-Chun, expressed "deep concern" about the new capability and urged Pyongyang to comply with UN Security Council resolutions banning its nuclear activities.
In Beijing, Jiang said: "As for the uranium enrichment programme, we hold that parties should implement relevant UN resolutions and take a responsible attitude to carry out international obligations."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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#5
What is that thing? all I see is a Greek cross atop St Andrew's cross. And that curvature of the earth nonsense, that astronaught from Indonesia proved beyond a doubt that the earth is a disc. Better not be film of the prayer group...if you pull out last years Fatwas! in Three Languages, volume 3, idols and humility section, page 747, it clearly explains that film is the same as painting or drawing with light and therefore not only steals the soul but is considered idoltry on a massive scale. But me, personally, am waiting for the ruling on digital storage and playback. I mean how crazy is that? Is it just an arrangement of electrons? I for one think it is like those self inking stamps - you know the image is hidden then you stamp and boom! sorry expression of speaking - your address but you look at the bottom of the stamp and there is no address. So in my pious opinion yes. Yes it is imaging and idoltry but you know they are the holy men so what they say is true beyond truth no matter what.
And if you disagree I'm gonna break your forearm and blind both your eyes with your exposed bones until you say its a peaceful gathering of peaceful people you got that? Now, you got a smoke for me? Oh, and a subway token I'm late for something.
... and a pious condemnation it is, by Gum!
(KUNA) -- Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu strongly condemned Tuesday the terror assault that took place in the Swedish capital of Stockholm last Saturday.
Ihsanoglu said in a statement that "such criminal attack is frowned upon by all Mohammedans and by the religion of Islam," asserting that, "whoever stands behind such heinous crimes are the foes of Islam and mankind and they are should be brought to justice." He also expressed his condolences for the families of victims, and for the government and people of Sweden, wishing speedy recovery for the injured.
Ihsanoglu also stressed in his statement the principled stance of OIC that rejects terrorism, asserting its determination and resolve on eradicating such dangerous phenomenon in cooperation with the international community.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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TOPIX > WHY SWEDEN IS IN THE CROSS-HAIRS OF TERRORISM.
It started simple wid those TWASN'T-SPPOSED-TO-INDUCE-VILENCE MOHAMMED CARTOONS, + evolved into THE-JIHADIST-STATE-OF-EUROPE + demands for Sharia.
The heavy casualties will come. They've already been there in Britain and Spain. The next step will be for them to become routine. But that's okay. Y'all just continue denying you're being colonized.
[Emirates 24/7] Stockholm narrowly avoided mass casualties not seen in Europe for some time when it was attacked by a jacket wallah at the weekend, Sweden's foreign minister said Monday.
Carl Bildt told BBC television that the bomber was just minutes and "a couple of hundred metres" from causing catastrophe when he went kaboom!" in a busy shopping district of the Swedish capital on Saturday.
The bomber, who Sherlocks strongly believe was Taymour Abdelwahab, was the only person to die in the attack. Two other people were maimed when the bomber detonated a car before blowing himself up.
Bildt said he did not know the bomber's exact target but added that he appeared to have been "heading into probably the most crowded place of Stockholm at the most crowded time of the year.
"He was heading into a place where if he had went kaboom! all of the ordnance that he had with him... it would have been mass casualties of a sort that we have not seen in Europe for quite some time," he told the programme Newsnight.
"We were extremely lucky... I mean minutes and just a couple of hundred metres from where it would have been very catastrophic."
An Islamist group has said Abdelwahab, a Swedish citizen who had been living in Britain, targeted Sweden over its military presence in Afghanistan.
The attacker was carrying a cocktail of explosives and probably meant to wreak carnage among Christmas shoppers, Swedish prosecution chief Tomas Lindstrand said.
Bildt said that Sweden was working with other countries, including Britain and the United States, to figure out whether the bomber had any accomplices.
British police have been searching his house in Luton, just north of London, where he had been living with his family.
"It might be that he was operating on that particular night alone," said Bildt.
"It might be that preparations and training and whatever was part of a wider network. But that is obviously something that the authorities are extremely keen to find out."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The next step will be for them to become routine.
You mean like the French Car-B-Ques?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/15/2010 12:56 Comments ||
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#2
i can think of a couple ways this can be used that would be positive. for example goodwill gifts to the locals to ingratiate us. however i feel that the likelihood of that is low. most likely a pandering handed down from the top.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/15/2010 12:09 Comments ||
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#3
This is a list of items for bid, Muslim related to include camo prayer rugs for the Air Force. They don't issue Bibles and crucifix's to Christians, why are they issuing religious items to Muslims?
Any would-be terrorist can easily outsmart the ubiquitous backscatter scanners found in major airports around the world, two scientists say.
The Transportation Security Administration's X-ray backscatter scanners have been the center of a widespread controversy, following concerns from privacy advocates that they take nearly naked photos of people. The trade-off is improved security, of course. Yet Leon Kaufman and Joseph W. Carlson, two physics professors at the University of California, San Francisco offer a stark conclusion: They can be easily duped, according to a recent paper published in the Journal of Transportation Security. No - the trade off is a increased false sense of security.
"It is very likely that a large (15--20 cm in diameter), irregularly-shaped, cm-thick pancake with beveled edges, taped to the abdomen, would be invisible to this technology -- ironically because of its large volume, since it is easily confused with normal anatomy," the researchers said in the paper. Kaufman and Carlson conclude that some types of foreign objects can be reliable detected only if they are packed outside the sides of the body, and some well hidden items would be impossible to see even with the scanner. Such a shaped object would probably also be undetectable to even the grope-searches the TSA loves to give. How does the groper know if that is your breast (or beer belly) or 5-20 lbs of explosives without really feeling (as in skin on skin contact) or actual examination?
Because of the inherent detection methods, raising the level of X-ray exposure and thus the picture clarity wouldn't help. "Even if exposure were to be increased significantly, normal anatomy would make a dangerous amount of plastic explosive with tapered edges difficult if not impossible to detect."
The TSA maintains that the machines remain an integral part of their security arsenal. Of course it is. Its not intended to actually find anything or stop any threats. How many attacks have the TSA stopped so far? None.
The intended 'target' is the American public - to get them used to being stripped searched at the whim of government bureaucrats. It's security theater ...
That's way too long. I'd be in favor of cutting it back to 125 years, assuming good behavior.
[An Nahar] A North Carolina man who has spent a decade in prison for allegedly aiding Hizbullah is trying to get his 155-year sentence cut, The Charlotte Observer reported. To borrow from Richard Pryor in Stir Crazy, he'll be 190 years old when he gets out ...
Mohammed Hammoud, who was convicted in 2002 of conspiring to provide material support to a "terrorist organization" and 13 other crimes, will ask a U.S. judge at a hearing Wednesday to reduce his sentence to time served, or at least no more than 15 years.
Prosecutors say that his cell smuggled cigarettes from North Carolina to Michigan and sent the illegal proceeds to Leb to finance Hizbullah.
"The overwhelming evidence here is that Mr. Hammoud's original sentence is a miscarriage of justice," attorneys James McLoughlin and Stanley Cohen argued in court documents.
But Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Brown and Craig Randall wrote, "Defendant was motivated by fanatical terrorist ideology and, thus, represents a serious future danger to society."
"Any sentence less than life imprisonment will provide defendant the opportunity and the motivation to carry out acts of violence," they said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
be magnanimous. Split the diff and call it 85 yrs
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/15/2010 10:07 Comments ||
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#2
Change it to life, the hanging's tomorrow.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/15/2010 14:43 Comments ||
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#3
Those who have disbelieved our signs, we shall roast them in fire. Whenever their skins are cooked to a turn, we shall substitute new skins for them, that they may feel the punishment; verily, Allah is sublime and wise. Quran 4:56
There's a lot of money to be made in the religion racket, and Fazl takes it personally when the flow's shut off. [Emirates 24/7] A key partner in Pakistain's ruling coalition says it is defecting to the opposition, leaving the US-allied government one vote short of a majority in the National Assembly.
The announcement by the Islamist party Jamaat Ulema Islam threatens the existence of the weak civilian government whose cooperation is critical to America's war effort in neighbouring Afghanistan.
JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman Known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... said Tuesday the party is leaving because one of its ministers was sacked over a scandal involving Mohammedan pilgrimages to Soddy Arabia arranged by the government.
The next session of parliament is slated for December 20, giving the ruling Pakistain People's Party some time to cobble together a new coalition.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Obviously Ray-Bans are not Haram.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/15/2010 13:03 Comments ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraqs Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has reiterated in a reception here on Monday of visiting U.S. Commander of the Joint Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, the necessity to activate the Strategic Security Agreement, signed between Iraq and Washington.
The Prime Minister has also reaffirmed during the meeting the significance of further strengthening of Iraqs relations with the United States in different fields, as well as the activation of the Strategic Security Agreement, a statement by the Prime Ministers office said on Tuesday.
It stressed that Maliki had also called during the meeting, attended by the U.S. Ambassador to Baghdad, on the Unites States to render support for the Iraqi Armed Forces and Security bodies in the fields of training, armament and developing Iraqi expertise in these fields.
Admiral Mullen, on his part, has reiterated the U.S. Administrations support for Iraq in all fields, especially in training and armament, highly assessing the current progress of the Iraqi Armed Forces and the Iraqi security bodies, the statement added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Sorry, but Pres. Obama doesn't want an alliance with Iraq because that could validate Bush's Middle East strategy. Better for Obama if it ends with a messy divorce.
Posted by: American Delight ||
12/15/2010 7:43 Comments ||
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The influential Islamist movement issued a religious decree today against participation of Jordanian forces in peace missions lead by the US forces around the world.
The group said joining American forces in their military presence in Afghanistan and Sudan is religiously taboo, a verdict that will likely cause controversy in this Muslim nation.
''Fighting alongside the Americans means supporting non-Muslims against Muslims, this is haram (taboo) and those who do it can consider themselves non-Muslims,'' said the group in a statement made available to ANSAmed. The Islamist group said support should be directed to resistance in Afghanistan and other parts where fighting against American forces takes place and called on soldiers to disobey their leaders in this regard.
The pro-west Jordan is one of the few Arab countries to support Nato forces in Afghanistan and has an active peace missions across the world including Sudan, Congo, Indonesia and in some parts of central America.
The kingdom has also trained Afghan forces on its territories on hope of enabling the troubled forces over take security once the Americans reduce their presence in Afghanistan
#1
There will never be peace with this us(Muslim)and Them(Infidel)mentality.
Posted by: Paul ||
12/15/2010 7:56 Comments ||
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#2
"Influential Islamist Movement". That reminds me of the often media quoted "Influential Sunni Scholars" of Iraq, who were "influential" only in the minds of the media, until they and their followers were so thumped that even the media started referring to the as just the "Sunni Scholars."
I also remember in the first few years of the occupation, the ISS didn't get diddley-squat, ever, despite the protestations of the media that they had to be obeyed.
Tactlessly stated by a military man with poor political skills. This is new technology. If the military installations are not protected, they won't be able to get at those attacking the civilian areas. Second round of installations no doubt will cover the big cities and the border areas, then the third round of installations will get the rest. That's how I'd do it with limited supplies, at any rate.
Maj. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, commander of Israel's northern front, has dropped a bombshell by disclosing that the anti-missile systems the defense industry has developed are intended to protect the country's military installations, not its cities and civilian population.
"The residents of Israel shouldn't be under the illusion that someone will open an umbrella over the heads" in the event of a massive missile and rocket attack by Israel's enemies, he declared in a speech Sunday at the University of Haifa.
Eisenkot's uncompromising statement did nothing to ease a spate of dire warnings by political and military chiefs in recent weeks that Israel's cities, particularly Tel Aviv and its densely populated environs, will be major targets in any new conflict.
In November, the outgoing head of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, gave an equally bleak forecast to the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, noting that "future wars will be much bigger, much wider and with many more casualties" than Israel's conflicts in Lebanon in 2006 and the Gaza Strip in the winter of 2008-09.
The key factor here is that Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza are expected to bombard Israel relentlessly with an unprecedented firestorm of missiles and rockets if hostilities break out once again.
Israel got a taste of that in the 34-day 2006 war, when Hezbollah unleashed nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel, the heaviest bombardment Israelis have ever suffered.
These weapons, mainly unguided rockets, killed around 50 people.
Next time, Israel is likely to be hammered with far greater broadsides using missiles with far greater range, accuracy and destructive power than ever before. Fatality forecasts run into thousands.
The Israeli military estimates Hezbollah has at least 42,000 rockets and missiles, hundreds of which can hit anywhere in Israel. Syria is reported to be receiving advanced missiles from Iran and to be upgrading the capabilities of its existing arsenal. Iran reportedly has more than 100 Shehab-3b ballistic missiles deployed and to be developing a more powerful weapon, the Sejjil-2, capable of hitting Israeli targets.
After 2006, when Israel's vulnerabilities to missile attack were exposed for all to see, the country's defense industry raced to develop defense systems to counter this new threat.
The Arrow system, capable of intercepting Iranian ballistic missiles at high altitude and at long range, was already in operation, largely funded by the Pentagon. But this system is useless against shorter range weapons.
Enter a system called Iron Dome, designed to counter the short-range rockets like those used by Hezbollah and Hamas, and another, called David's Sling to defend against medium-range missiles.
Two batteries of Iron Dome, built by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, are ready. But military planners say at least 20 are needed if the system is to be anywhere near effective.
Rafael is still developing David's Sling and the first live-fire test is scheduled for the next few months.
#1
Nothing that the US-NATO + USSR-WARPAC didn't employ during the Cold War, i.e. that the most effective way of protecting civilians is to protect the nation's ability to mil counterrespond wid a high prob of success.
aka DETERRENCE.
However, as Iranian + Syrian LRBMS + other MilSys improve over time, IMO TERRSTRIKES INSIDE ISRAEL WILL EVOL FROM ATTACKING CIVILIAN TARGETS TO ATTACKING MILITARY ONES, ESPEC BMD AS PART OF A UNILATERAL OR PREEMPTIVE "FIRST-STRIKE" BY SYRIA + IRAN, ETC.
* WAFF > THE CHANGE IN EAST ASIA, as ilustr
by CHANGES IN THE DYNAMIC AS PER NORTH-KOREA-VS-SOUTH KOREA.
* SAME > THE MISSLE CRISIS. US-vs-Iran [+ Hugo = Iran LRBMS in Venezuela].
ARTIC > AUTHOR = Iran's Ahmadinejad feels he can safely put Missles in Venezuela because he perceives POTUS Bammer as WEAK. MOUD BELIEVES OBAMA IS NO JFK, i.e. WILL NOT STAND WHERE IT MATTERS IN A CRISIS DESPITE EXTANT MISTAKES IN HANDLING; + THAT THE RADICAL, WINNER-TAKES-IT-ALL MOUD IS NOT THE BLUSTERY, BUT CAUTIOUS, NIKITA KRUSCHEV THAT JFK FACED IN CUBA.
IOW, MOUD = thinks POTUS BAMMER WILL QUICKLY OR ULTIMATELY SURRENDER = "BLINK FIRST". Unlike the aftermath of the Cuban Missle Crisis, there may not be a post-MIKITA LEONID BREZHNEV TO BEGIN THE GREATEST SOVIET AMERIKAN MIL + NUCLEAR BUILDUP IN OWG USSA = OWG USRoA HISTORY???
#3
Tact doesn't fly far with the Israelis. They are more able to understand and accept this necessity than the average American. I wish our government was as forthcoming.
Not the actual details, of course, but the fact that they're taking place.
(KUNA) -- The French government on Tuesday gave a strong message of support for the "determination" of the United States to pursue peace efforts in the Middle East, specifically between Israelis and Paleostinians.
"La Belle France welcomes the speech made by (US Secretary-of-State) Hilary Clinton in Washington on December 10," French Foreign Ministry front man Bernard Valero said at a briefing.
"We note with satisfaction the determination of the American Administration to pursue its important and numerous efforts on the Middle East grinding of the peace processor file, despite the obstacles encountered," he said.
Valero said that "in the absence of peace the only winners are the cut-throats and the only victims are the populations of the region." While the French official admitted in answer to KUNA questions that "there is nothing new" in the statement today, he did emphasize that it was important to set out the ground-rules for future efforts and to draw up the framework and context for moving forward.
He also said in his answers that La Belle France was "showing its mobilization" through support for the US and through "its dialogue with the parties." "We naturally lend our full support to the pursuit of the American efforts. It is important that the international community, notably the European Union, are associated with these," the official said.
The US efforts to broker direct talks between Paleostinians and Israelis faltered because of Israels outright refusal to stop or even extend a freeze on illegal settlement building in occupied Arab lands like the West Bank, and also in East Jerusalem, which is to be the new Paleostinian capital and whose status is not to be changed until a final status accord is signed.
La Belle France reiterated the EU position adopted Monday and which calls for a negotiated settlement, more coordination with the Quartet, which has been conspicuously absent from the scene, and remarked positively on the progress by the Paleostinians and the institution-building in territories they control.
Additionally, La Belle France recalled that the EU statement calls for affirming Israels right to security and the right of the Paleostinians to have their own State. These rights cannot be called into question, despite a tendency by some to do so on the international scene, Valero pointed out.
The EU statement, Valero indicated, also recognizes the steps taken by Israel to ease some of the blockade on Gazoo and also points out the willingness of the European Union to help rebuild and develop Gazoo.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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At some point they're going to have to talk to each other, if only to sign an agreement. But an agreement is never, never going to come because the Paleostinians don't want one on any terms but their own and those terms don't have room for a Zionist state.
Never mind the Zionist state stuff, those terms leave no room for living Jews, period.
[An Nahar] Washington's Middle East envoy George Mitchell is to arrive in the region on Monday for talks with both sides as the B.O. regime attempts to keep alive the battered grinding of the peace processor.
The visit, Mitchell's first in nearly three months, comes after the United States admitted it had failed to secure a new Israeli settlement freeze that would have allowed the continuation of direct peace talks.
Mitchell is to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday evening, then on Tuesday head to the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Paleostinian leader the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas.
On Wednesday, Abbas is due in Cairo to discuss the situation with diplomats from the vaporous Arab League.
Following the collapse of the negotiations, the U.S. envoy is expected to ask both sides to outline their ideas for an eventual peace deal.
"The U.S. is today going to ask both sides to hear their positions," opposition leader Tzipi Livni told Israel public radio from Washington, where she held talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill...
"I have no doubts the Paleostinians will be asked to put their positions on the table. Then we will see any difference between what they say in public and what they say in private," she said.
However, The infamous However... the Israeli daily Haaretz said most of the pressure would be on Israel.
"The brunt of the work will be in Israel because the Paleostinians have already submitted their opening positions on all the core issues -- borders, security, Jerusalem, refugees, water and the settlements," the paper said.
In a speech on Friday, Clinton pledged that despite the crisis, Washington would remain engaged, and she encouraged the two sides to address core issues through indirect talks.
Clinton's speech came after weeks of fruitless efforts to convince Israel to impose a second freeze on West Bank settlement activity.
A previous 10-month freeze expired at the end of September, just weeks after Israel and the Paleostinians embarked on direct peace talks.
Since then, the two sides have not met up, with Abbas refusing to talk while Israel continues to build on land the Paleostinians want for a future state.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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Negotiation involves trading tits for tats. Getting guarantees means you don't have to give anything away -- all the load's on the other side. Or you can just wait them out and eventually the EU will recognize you and express surprise you don't already have all the stuff you've been demanding.
[Bangla Daily Star] Paleostinian leader the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas was hoping to secure a series of US guarantees before resuming peace talks with Israel, as he met with Washington's Middle East envoy.
George Mitchell returned to the region on Monday for the first time in months on a mission to salvage peace talks between Israel and the Paleostinians a week after Washington admitted that direct negotiations were off the menu.
Mitchell is trying to secure Paleostinian agreement to discuss the key issues of the conflict through indirect negotiations with the Israelis.
Ahead of the morning meeting, a senior Paleostinian official said Abbas was hoping to get Washington's answer to a list of demands laid out in a letter handed to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill... last week by chief Paleostinian negotiator Saeb Erakat.
"Last week, Erakat delivered a letter to Hillary saying that they want US guarantees and answers before returning to any negotiations, direct or indirect," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. ... for fear of being murdered... "We are now awaiting the answer to that letter."
The letter lays out two key requests on which the Paleostinians are conditioning their return to any peace talks with Israel.
Firstly, it demands US guarantees that there would be "a complete halt to settlement in the West Bank and east Jerusalem."
It also calls on the United States to recognise a Paleostinian state based on Israel's borders of before the 1967 Six-Day War in which the Jewish state seized the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and the Gazoo Strip.
If Washington refuses, the letter asks that the administration of President Barack B.O. Obama not take steps to prevent the Paleostinians from seeking such recognition from the UN Security Council.
"If there was no agreement on these points and no recognition by the administration of a Paleostinian state, then the US administration was requested not to block the Paleostinians from going to the Security Council and the General Assembly," the source said.
"Abbas is waiting for US answers to his request, which he expects Mitchell will have during his meeting today in Ramallah."
The letter also asks for Washington to reaffirm its commitment to ending Israel's occupation of the territories seized in 1967 and the establishment of a two-state solution, with a Paleostinian state within those borders.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
list of demands laid out in a letter
"First you give us everything we want, then we'll talk, but after you give us everything we want, there's no need to "Talk".
Typical Muslim bullshit.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/15/2010 13:09 Comments ||
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#2
Problem is, OBumbles / Biden is just stupid enough to fall for it.
#3
Isn't there a commercial where two youngsters are sitting on a bench, one with a candy bar and the other with a hammer. "Trade you my candy bar for your hammer." One says, the other says sure and they trade.
Guy with the hammer bonks the other one and gets his candy bar back.
Trying to out-bluster Hezbollah is like trying to out-bluster North Korea. On the other hand, the Zionist Entity™ does rubble well.
[An Nahar] A senior Israeli officer warned Hizbullah that Israel's response this time would be much tougher. "The response would be ten times tougher than the July war if tensions spread to the northern border," the officer warned.
He said the response would include "strong strikes" against Leb in the event of war following the indictment in the liquidation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonot quoted the officer as warning civilians in southern Leb that Israel would hit Hizbullah targets, pointing to Hizbullah's missile arsenal in villages flanking Israel's northern border.
He said that according to Israeli estimates Syria has provided Hizbullah with "all types of advanced rockets."
"So far, there are no sings that Syria has supplied Hizbullah with chemical weapons," the officer added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Don't "Talk" just DO IT.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/15/2010 13:11 Comments ||
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If that's the case they probably just got tired of the sound of Mottaki's voice.
[An Nahar] Iran said Tuesday its nuclear and foreign policies will not change after President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad fired Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and replaced him with the atomic chief.
"Iran's major international policies are defined in higher levels and the foreign ministry executes these policies. We will not see any changes in our basic policies," foreign ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast said at his weekly briefing.
"I don't think there will be any changes in the nuclear policy and the talks" with world powers over Iran's nuclear program, he said.
Ahmadinejad on Monday named Ali Akbar Salehi, a vice-president and head of Iran's atomic energy organization, as caretaker foreign minister after sacking Mottaki.
No reasons were given for the surprise move, which came just days after Iran held crunch talks in Geneva on December 6 and 7 with world powers over its controversial nuclear dossier.
Further talks are scheduled for next month in Iran's neighbor Turkey.
Salehi, 61, who was appointed atomic energy chief on July 17, 2009, has been a driving force behind Iran's atomic program, and during his tenure, the country's first nuclear power plant has come on line.
Earlier this month, at a security meeting in neighboring Bahrain, Mottaki hailed as a "step forward" remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill... that Iran is entitled to a peaceful nuclear energy program.
Clinton had told the BBC that Tehran could enrich uranium for civilian purposes in the future, but only once it has demonstrated it can do so in a responsible manner and in accordance with Iran's international obligations.
Mottaki's comments appeared to cut across the Islamic republic's official position, repeated almost daily, that its enrichment of uranium is non-negotiable.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
IRAN'S "NO CHANGE"
and
* TOPIX > IRAN PLEDGES SUPPORT TO LEBANON'S ARMY.
versus
* TOPIX > [Israeli President SHIMON-] PERES:TIME RUNNING OUT ON PEACE IN AN ERA WHEN MISSLES COULD BE FIRED [anywhere]ON US, EVEN FROM [Gaza +] ALASKA.
* SAME > SHIMON PERES: TIME RUNNING OUT FOR PEACE BETWEEN IRAN, ISRAEL ON NUKES, but will still give Iran Nuke Talks a chance.
ARTICS = The World now opers under a GLOBAL ECONOMY, hence NO PLACE ON EARTH IS SPARED FROM THE EFFECTS OF SAME. ANY KIND OF PEACE MUST NOW BE A "REGIONAL PEACE", i.e. NOT JUST LOCAL OR BILATERAL.
How dim do you have to be to be surprised at threats and bluster from Hezbollah?
[An Nahar] Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir expressed surprise at threats unleashed by Hizbullah, particularly by head of Hizbullah's parliamentary bloc MP Mohammed Raad, without naming him.
"The country cannot carry on under this escalating climate where one (political) camp threatens the other," Sfeir told al-Mustaqbal newspaper in remarks published Tuesday.
"The country continues to exist on the basis of understanding, cooperation and harmony among the people and power sharing," he added.
"People have a right to know the truth of who is behind those liquidations," Sfeir insisted.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
How dim do you have to be to be surprised at threats and bluster from Hezbollah?
EXACTLY farts would be the same noise.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/15/2010 13:14 Comments ||
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Not too sure what UNIFIL does with tanks anyway. Have they ever fired a tank round anywhere? Has any UN "peacekeeping" operation outside of DRC done so?
[An Nahar] The United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society Interim Force in Leb (UNIFIL) has implemented the recommendations of the joint technical assessment conducted by the peacekeeping operations administration and UNIFIL by withdrawing heavy combat tanks (Leclerc) from the rapid intervention unit and replacing them with light armored vehicles equipped with anti-tank capabilities, UNIFIL front man Neeraj Singh announced Tuesday.
The step comes as part of UNIFIL's objectives to boost its mobility and rapid intervention capabilities and in order to reduce the level of annoyance caused to villagers and the damage inflicted on roads and other infrastructure as a result of the use of heavy armored vehicles, Singh said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/15/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
A trifle bemused to see that French LeClerk tanks are tearing up the roads in PRC. The example that I saw in the French Armour Museum at Saumur was mostly made of plywood.
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.
[An Nahar] Kuwaiti authorities have closed the office of the Qatar-based pan-Arab Al-Jazeera news channel over coverage of a police crackdown on a public gathering, the channel said on Monday.
SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Yonhap) -- Lockheed Martin Corp. can deliver F-35 fighter jets as early as 2016 if it wins South Korea's multi-billion dollar contract for a fighter modernization program, a senior company executive said Tuesday, dismissing doubts over a delay in the new warplane's flight-test schedule.
North Korea has dug a new tunnel more than 500 m deep at a nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, North Hamgyong Province, intelligence sources said Tuesday. The North is also reportedly accelerating massive excavation work and construction of a new building at its main nuclear site in Yongbyon. 
[Emirates 24/7] A key partner in Pakistain's ruling coalition says it is defecting to the opposition, leaving the US-allied government one vote short of a majority in the National Assembly.
