Hi there, !
Today Mon 05/07/2012 Sun 05/06/2012 Sat 05/05/2012 Fri 05/04/2012 Thu 05/03/2012 Wed 05/02/2012 Tue 05/01/2012 Archives
Rantburg
531203 articles and 1854408 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 70 articles and 123 comments as of 2:53.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT        Politix   
Bajaur teenyboomer kills 24
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
4 23:57 newc [336078] 
1 18:48 gorb [336082] 
1 23:10 canalzone [336077] 
1 13:30 Besoeker [336066] 
0 [336064] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
1 17:43 g(r)omgoru [336097]
1 17:43 g(r)omgoru [336097]
1 15:00 Lord Garth [336084]
0 [336068]
2 17:13 gorb [336081]
0 [336088]
0 [336070]
0 [336083]
1 07:32 Glenmore [336069]
0 [336098]
2 17:15 JohnQC [336065]
0 [336072]
0 [336090]
0 [336100]
0 [336072]
0 [336069]
0 [336071]
0 [336067]
0 [336065]
0 [336068]
0 [336081]
0 [336073]
0 [336083]
0 [336087]
0 [336068]
0 [336071]
1 06:29 ryuge [336083]
Page 2: WoT Background
0 [336082]
1 20:12 Water Modem [336100]
0 [336097]
0 [336080]
0 [336078]
5 23:40 CrazyFool [336107]
4 22:41 JosephMendiola [336105]
0 [336067]
0 [336067]
0 [336064]
1 23:01 JosephMendiola [336088]
8 23:37 canalzone [336088]
0 [336065]
0 [336065]
0 [336064]
2 11:49 newc [336065]
3 17:42 g(r)omgoru [336065]
Page 3: Non-WoT
0 [336069]
1 17:10 trailing wife [336069]
3 22:30 phil_b [336075]
0 [336072]
11 23:09 Frozen Al [336067]
0 [336065]
0 [336065]
4 14:32 gorb [336067]
1 21:40 DepotGuy [336098]
1 10:27 Ptah [336064]
0 [336063]
4 18:52 gorb [336067]
1 08:58 Besoeker [336065]
1 16:12 crosspatch [336070]
0 [336072]
1 22:05 canalzone [336070]
9 22:28 canalzone [336095]
12 21:06 Frank G [336088]
Page 6: Politix
8 22:38 JosephMendiola [336087]
24 23:55 newc [336079]
2 20:10 JosephMendiola [336073]
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Busted: Iran's Jarring Photoshopped Missile Test Image
Maybe an example of In-Shallah journalism?
Obviously, we can't think of anything dumber than using an image from a meme created to mock your regime in a real-life news story. Then again, this is Iran.
Sorry, too many pictures and nuances to even try to paste it here. Go check out the link and enjoy! :-)
Posted by: gorb || 05/04/2012 18:39 || Comments || Link || [336078 views] Top|| File under:

#1  D *** NG IT, WE WERE ALL FOOLED - IT WAS JAR-JAR ALL LONG!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/04/2012 20:01 Comments || Top||

#2  GDOZILLA is not even there - WITFH conducted this Missle Test!

Of course you know Heads must roll.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/04/2012 23:16 Comments || Top||

#3  * ION DAILY TIMES.PK > IRAN DISMISSES WESTERN DEMAND TO CLOSE NUKE BUNKER [Fordow/Fordo/Fordu = underground nuke site].

* SAME > [DM Barak] IRAN COULD SEEK SHORT [lead] TIME FOR BOMB: ISRAEL. Approxi 60 days to build a [uranium] Nuke Bomb, ala the "JAPAN/
EGYPT" MODEL.

* TOPIX > ISRAEL FEARS IRAN MAY BUILD BOMB IN 60 DAYS | ... ... NEEDS 60 DAYS TO BUILD NUKE/BOMB.

ARTICS > ISRAEL = Iran believes NucWeaps will give it "Govt/Regime Immunity" from any domestic or foreign threat(s).

* WAFF > OCCUPIED CYPRUS [TRNC = future "Turkish Cypriot Govt-State"?] KEEN TO COZY UP TO IRAN, as per Energy + other Cooperat Econ Development-Investment.

versus

* TOPIX > NETANYAHU CALLING EARLY ELECTIONS [in Israel] FOR POSSIBLE OCTOBER WAR WID IRAN?

* BIG NEWS NETWORK > [Russia Today] US NOT READY FOR WAR WID IRAN.

* SAME > TEN WAYS ATTACKING IRAN COULD DESTROY THE UNITED STATES.

Looks like Diplomacy-minded POTUS Bammer is not out of the woods yet as per avoiding major war agz Iran [North Korea?] this summer going into the 2012 November elections???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/04/2012 23:41 Comments || Top||

#4  It goes without saying, the Iranians are smart, caring, and very intelligent people. They are not the issue. The fools that have lock on Iran are.

This was a message for America.
Posted by: newc || 05/04/2012 23:57 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Muslim Brotherhood in America
A ten part series. An excellent addition to any library.
Posted by: tipper || 05/04/2012 14:20 || Comments || Link || [336077 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I completed the 1st Chapter/Lesson, but when I tried to start Lesson #2, it wasn't available. Links didn't work...Advancing to the next Chapter (2),kept putting me in a "do loop". Totally disjointed. Frank Gaffney is a Bud. His tech team will correct the problems with his 10 Chapter Anti-Terrorism Tutorial.
Posted by: canalzone || 05/04/2012 23:10 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
The post-Osama terror factory
[Dawn] I MUST confess I was among the feckless journalists that wouldn't believe for days after the event a year ago that the late Osama bin Laden
... who had a brief but splitting headache...
was killed or could be killed without the help of Pak intelligence.

Many analysts staked their reputation over the inevitability of Pak collusion in Osama's death. The true story remains mired in claims and counter-claims.

So much so that President B.O. was ticked off by officials of the US Navy SEALs for claiming undue credit. There was a story this week about a vital tip-off the Americans got from Pak intelligence on Osama's secret courier whose movements were tracked and eventually led to the Al Qaeda chief's lair near a Mighty Pak Army cantonment. The debate continues, drawing new battle lines, killing old alliances, building new ones.

It was such an incredibly daring operation fraught with risks. After all, in 1980 another Democratic president lost a second bid for the Oval Office after a similarly daring operation went wrong. The attempt to rescue American hostages from their captors in Tehran misfired in a stormy Iranian desert.

Pictures of President B.O. and his team watching the real-time execution of Osama bin Laden added to the pervasive sense of achievement that followed and lingered on for weeks, months, across the oceans.

And yet, in political cat and mouse, rarely does the liquidation of an adversary lead to an anticipated dénouement. The meticulously planned elimination of Osama in his lair last May appears today at best to have been a vendetta killing of a macabre villain. By all accounts, the threat of religious terrorism associated with the 9/11 criminal mastermind remains very much alive and ready to mutate into more ominous forms of horror.

According to a recent CNN news alert, a 22-year-old Austrian named Maqsood Lodin could represent new forms religious terror may acquire. He has been questioned by police in Berlin since May last year after he had returned from Pakistain. Lodin's interrogators were surprised to find that hidden in his underpants were a digital storage device and memory cards. Buried inside them was a pornographic video and a file marked 'Sexy Tanja'.

After sustained efforts to crack a password and software to make the file nearly invisible, German Sherlocks discovered encoded inside the video a treasure trove of intelligence -- scores of Al Qaeda documents that included clues about plots and a road map for future operations.

These plots, according to CNN, include the idea of seizing cruise ships and carrying out attacks in Europe similar to the gun attacks by Pak hard boyz on Mumbai in November 2008.

US intelligence sources told CNN that the documents uncovered are "pure gold"; one source says that they are the most important haul of Al Qaeda materials in the last year, besides those found when US Navy SEALs raided Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad
... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden....
One Al Qaeda document makes it clear that the group is aware it is being followed. "It specifically says that western intelligence agencies have become very good at spoiling attacks, that they have to come up with new ways and better plotting."

While the document 'Future Works' does not include dates or places, nor specific plans, it appears to be a brainstorming exercise to seize the initiative and again install Al Qaeda on front pages around the world. The question remains: is the world really much safer after Osama bin Laden.

As liquidations go, Osama's killing seems almost passé in its import against some other individual fatalities, including the less immaculately planned and nearly spontaneous liquidation of Archduke Ferdinand in the Balkans in 1914.

Those two bullets fired on a Sarajevo street on a balmy June morning in 1914 set in motion a series of events that shaped the world we live in. The First World War, the Second World War, the Cold War and its conclusion all trace their origins to the gunshots that interrupted that summer day.

By contrast, Osama's killing will at best find an echo in the American presidential race in November this year. But even President B.O. who ordered the assault will not be quite so sure that the proverbial trophy of the victim's head was good enough to see him home and dry against the gathering Republican challenge. Who knows, but had the Al Qaeda chief been nabbed alive the secular world and probably President B.O. himself would have benefited more.
We got his computer -- which he didn't bother to encrypt -- and his memory sticks. We didn't need him after that, especially not with all the nonsense about civilian trials that our beloved president had previously tried on for size. Sorry.
The cynical cost-benefit factor in the bizarre terror hunt has all the potential to make ordinary people wary of the shifting motives behind the global dragnet. What would make any serious observer suspicious about celebrating the anniversary of Osama's death as some kind of a game-changer in the big fight is the palpable shift in focus about the quarry. From Al Qaeda and groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
it spawned, suddenly out of the blue, a new battle cry has brought Iran in the crosshairs of global terror hunt.
Don't be so parochial, O Feckless Journalist. Out in the big world Iran has been attracting attention since 1979.
As an Indian journalist I have watched together with other angry colleagues how a fellow journalist has been made a pawn in the new chess game between Iran and its detractors, with India playing a cowardly controller, in a post-Osama terror hunt.
Why, pray tell, is an Indian journalist, citizen of what it pleases the Pakistanis to speak of as the Hinjoo nation, thus combining what to them are the two deadliest insults of all, writing an opinion piece for the New York Times of Pakistan? Could there be a reason this piece was either not submitted to, or not accepted by, even one of the minor Indian papers?
An alleged kaboom on an Israeli diplomat's car in Delhi was without a moment's pause declared to be the handiwork of Iran.
If you think so, you weren't paying attention.
Until this incident, all the alleged villains were Sunni groups variously based in Pakistain, Bangladesh and India. Suddenly, Iran, which itself was and reportedly still is a target of Al Qaeda's Pakistain-based allies, has become the terrorist-in-chief.
Embarrassingly parochial, poor dear.
I wonder how Syed Mohammed Kazmi, now lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail for the alleged attack on the Israeli car, a charge he has vociferously denied, will observe the anniversary celebrating Osama bin Laden's death.
No doubt he is wailing and gnashing his teeth at the martyrdom. This is very wrong of him, as the eternal priapism is supposed to be celebrated.
As far as his friends are concerned, and they are highly respected Indian journalists, Kazmi was by far the best informed correspondent who had enviable contacts in nearly all the countries of the Middle East. He challenged the West in Syria, in Iraq and on Iran.

The terror factory works both ways. It spawns a culture of indiscriminate mass murderers. It also enables the most applauded democracies to turn slowly, unobtrusively, into police states.
Posted by: Fred || 05/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336066 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  Subject: Craigslist Advert

YOU ARE PROBABLY NOT VERY INTERESTED IN ANY USED FARM EQUIPMENT BUT YOU MIGHT ENJOY THIS AD TAKEN FROM CRAIG'S LIST.

FIFTY YEAR OLD MANURE SPREADER - $1 (WASHINGTON, D.C.)

Fifty-year old manure spreader. Not sure of brand. Said to have been produced in Kenya. Stored for a few years in Indonesia before being
smuggled into the US via Hawaii. Good condition, apparently it was pampered over the years. It doesn't work very often, but when it does it can really sling the manure for amazing distances. I am hoping to retire the manure spreader this November.

I really don't want it hanging around getting in the way.

I would be willing to trade it for a nicely framed copy of the United States Constitution.

Location: Currently being stored in a big white house in Washington, D.C.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/04/2012 13:30 Comments || Top||


State vs the people
[Dawn] THE maddening operation in the Lyari
...one of the eighteen constituent towns of the city of Karachi. It is the smallest town by area in the city but also the most densely populated. Lyari has few schools, substandard hospitals, a poor water system, limited infrastructure, and broken roads. It is a stronghold of ruling Pakistan Peoples Party. Ubiquitous gang activity and a thriving narcotics industry make Lyari one of the most disturbed places in Karachi, which is really saying a lot....
area of Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
has once again exposed the law-enforcement personnel's incapacity to deal with an armed and organised challenge without grievously harming the innocent population in and around the theatre of conflict.

In any such situation, the first question that always comes to mind relates to the factors contributing to a clash between criminal outfits and the forces of law and order. In the case of Lyari, the role of certain political elements in creating, training and protecting militia-like bands has often been mentioned in public debates.

Even if this knowledge was not easily available any investigating authority would have concluded that the so-called Lyari gangs could not have built up their arsenals of heavy weaponry without the connivance of the state apparatus, if not its collusion. Nor could they have acquired the means of raising, training and maintaining a force capable of murder and extortion and subverting peace in other ways.

It is not for the first time that Pak authorities have been forced to go all out in their campaign to stamp out the monsters of their own creation. A heavy cost has already been paid for their failure to remember the lesson known to the whole world that any authority that creates a private army to serve its interests through the unlawful use of violence has ultimately to wipe it out. This has happened even when resort to violence is inspired by a noble cause, such as national liberation.

But Bloody Karachi has been home to quite a few unlawful militias raised by several contenders for dominant status in the metropolis -- mostly by political parties, ethnic communities and religious organizations. There have been crackdowns on gangs, some brief and others spread over considerably long periods, and the general impression is that each of these operations ran aground before realising its final objective.

Have appropriate lessons been learnt from the latest anti-crime drive? For quite some time, the authorities have claimed that the present operation is aimed at ridding Bloody Karachi of all criminal gangs regardless of their political or ethnic affiliations. Can this assertion be upheld in an independent probe?

An important issue in debate is the timing of the operation in Lyari. When did the authorities realise the threat from the Lyari desperadoes? Could the operation there have been more successful or would its purpose have been achieved over a shorter period and with smaller cost if it had been launched earlier? After all, Lyari had been, or should have been, on the official radar since the killing of Rahman Dakait (dacoit).

The way the Lyari operation has been conducted has been criticised on more counts than one. Doubts have been raised on the soundness of intelligence reports on the basis of which the plan of action has been drawn -- assuming that the raids on gangs have followed a definite plan.

It has been alleged that those conducting the drive against armed gangs have not hesitated from using private faceless myrmidons against their rivals in criminal undertakings. If these allegations are correct the tactic cannot be too strongly condemned. Such dangerous aberrations have been witnessed during the conflict with forces of Evil in the northern parts of the country, and the horrible consequences witnessed there should have deterred anyone from using the recipe for civil war in the country's largest city.

Above all, the need to avoid causing unnecessary suffering to the population of Lyari does not seem to have received due attention. A large number of people were caught in the crossfire as both sides resorted to indiscriminate firing.

Many more were put to hardship by the non-availability of water and foodstuff. The sick could not receive medical care. Quite a sizeable section of the population was forced to migrate to safer places.

It is true that anti-social elements can add to the suffering of the people in their neighbourhood and even manoeuvre anti-police demonstrations with a view to creating public sympathy for themselves. Yet the deficiencies in the law-enforcement agencies' standard manual are no secret. They lack training in the controlled use of firepower and are generally unfamiliar with the methods of establishing order through reliance on non-lethal force.

They tend to panick in the face of resistance and forget whatever instruction in the principle of proportionality in countering violence with violence they might have received.

In any case, the people have a right to be reassured that all necessary precautions were taken to guarantee that the innocent residents of the locality were not exposed to any risk. The authorities must be made to answer a few elementary questions.

Was the Lyari population warned of the possibility of running battles in their streets? Was any attempt made to mobilise the law-abiding people in support of the operation that could disrupt their normal life? Were the people living in the targeted pockets given the option to move to safe places? Were any relief squads organised to extend succour to the unintended victims of the state agents' activities?

These questions need to be answered, possibly by a high-powered commission of inquiry that may be asked to probe all the operations against the terrorists, target-killers and extortionists carried out in Bloody Karachi over the past many years. It is necessary to ascertain what steps have been devised to prevent the state functionaries from indulging in target-killing, extortion or other excesses. Are they offered training and refresher courses in the use of force, especially firearms, while pursuing their quarries?
Is any policy of compensating the innocent victims of operations against criminals for loss of life and property in place?

Unless a thorough probe can satisfy the public on these points the distrust between the state and the citizens will widen, respect for the law will decline further and peace and tranquillity could be disturbed by those very hands that are supposed to maintain them.
Posted by: Fred || 05/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [336064 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Home Front: Culture Wars
Bizarro Islam
Posted by: tipper || 05/04/2012 16:54 || Comments || Link || [336082 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder what would happen if muslim males suddenly became the weaker sex.
Posted by: gorb || 05/04/2012 18:48 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
39[untagged]
6Govt of Pakistan
5Arab Spring
4Govt of Syria
3al-Shabaab
2Thai Insurgency
2Taliban
1Islamic Emirate of Caucasus
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1TTP
1al-Qaeda
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Boko Haram
1Global Jihad
1Govt of Sudan
1Hizb-ut-Tahrir

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

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

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

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

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2012-05-04
  Bajaur teenyboomer kills 24
Thu 2012-05-03
  Afghanistan: Pakistani driving truck bomb arrested
Wed 2012-05-02
  Suicide bomb blast hits hotel in Somalia, two MPs believed dead
Tue 2012-05-01
  'Egyptians thwart Iranian plot to kill Saudi envoy'
Mon 2012-04-30
  US drone 'kills three militants' in Miramshah
Sun 2012-04-29
  Syria Troops Kill 10 Rebels in Damascus Region
Sat 2012-04-28
   21 Taliban Insurgents Killed in Clashes
Fri 2012-04-27
  Separate bomb blasts rock Nigeria's newspapers, at least six killed
Thu 2012-04-26
  Libya bans religious, tribal or ethnic parties
Wed 2012-04-25
  Sacked Yemen Air Force Commander Quits Post
Tue 2012-04-24
  India orders deportation of 10 French nationals over Maoist links
Mon 2012-04-23
  Kazakh court sends 47 men to prison for terrorism
Sun 2012-04-22
  Tons of Explosives Seized from Militants Planning Attack in Kabul
Sat 2012-04-21
  Sudan Rebels Kill 79 Troops, Militia in Blue Nile
Fri 2012-04-20
  8 die in Michoacan state as conflict goes hot

Better than the average link...



Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
52.205.218.160
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (27)    WoT Background (17)    Non-WoT (18)    (0)    Politix (3)