Muslim countries in the Middle East and north-central Africa lead the world in human trafficking, according to a new U.S. State Department report. Of the 17 countries that were given the "Tier 3" listing reserved for the worst offenders, nine were Muslim countries or countries with a large Muslim population from these two regions. Tier 3 countries are defined as those whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards" of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 and "are not making significant efforts to do so.
The Middle Eastern countries with Tier 3 status are Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria. The north-central African countries are Mauritania, Chad, Sudan, Niger and Eritrea, all of which have very large Muslim populations.
Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Lebanon are on the Tier 2 Watchlist one step above Tier 3.
The data in the report indicates that Muslim countries in the Middle East and Africa are continuing their centuries-old practice of human trafficking. Historians estimate that between 9 and 14 million black Africans were brought to the Americas in the Atlantic slave trade and between 11 and 18 million black African slaves crossed the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert between the Muslim conquests in the 7th century and 1900.
Iran: The report says that Iran is a source, transit, and destination for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude. Iranian women are trafficked internally for the purpose of forced prostitution and forced marriage. Iranian and Afghan children living in Iran are trafficked internally for the purpose of forced marriage, commercial sexual exploitation, and involuntary servitude as beggars or laborers to pay debts, provide income, or support drug addiction of their families. Iranian women and girls are also trafficked to Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom for commercial sexual exploitation.
The State Department report noted that the Government of Iran does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and is not making significant efforts to do so. Lack of access to Iran by U.S. Government officials impedes the collection of information on the countrys human trafficking problem and the governments efforts to curb it.
Saudi Arabia, the report says, is a destination country for men and women trafficked for the purposes of involuntary servitude and, to a lesser extent, commercial sexual exploitation. Men and women from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Sudan, Ethiopia, and many other countries voluntarily travel to Saudi Arabia as domestic servants or other low-skilled laborers, but some subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude, including restrictions on movement, withholding of passports, threats, physical or sexual abuse, and non-payment of wages.
Some Saudi men have also used legally contracted temporary marriages in countries such as Mauritania, Yemen, and Indonesia as a means by which to sexually exploit migrant workers. Females as young as seven years old are led to believe they are being wed in earnest, but upon arrival in Saudi Arabia subsequently become their husbands sexual slaves, are forced into domestic labor and, in some cases, prostitution. The Government of Saudi Arabia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making discernible efforts to do so.
Syria is principally a destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation. Women from Iraq, Eastern Europe, former Soviet states, Somalia, and Morocco are recruited as cabaret dancers and subsequently forced into prostitution after their employers confiscate their passports and confine them to their work premises. A significant number of women and children in the large Iraqi refugee community in Syria are forced into sexual exploitation by criminal gangs or, in some cases, their families. Some desperate Iraqi families reportedly abandon their girls at the border with the expectation that traffickers on the Syrian side would arrange forged documents for the children and work in a nightclub or brothel. Iraqi families arrange for young girls to work in clubs and to be married, often multiple times, to men for the sole purpose of prostitution.
In Kuwait, the majority of trafficking victims are from among the over 500,000 foreign women recruited for domestic service work. Men and women migrate from Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in search of work in the domestic and sanitation industries. Although they migrate willingly to Kuwait, upon arrival some are subjected to conditions of forced labor from their sponsors and labor agents, such as withholding of passports, confinement, physical sexual abuse and threats of such abuse or other serious harm, and non-payment of wages with the intent of compelling their continued service.
Adult female migrant workers are particularly vulnerable, and consequently are often victims of sexual exploitation and forced prostitution. There have been instances of domestic workers who have fled from their employers, lured by the promise of well-paying service industry jobs, and being coerced into prostitution. In other cases, the terms of employment in Kuwait are wholly different from those agreed to in their home countries. The Government of Kuwait does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making sufficient efforts to do so.
What Obama did not mention
The report has four tiers altogether: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watchlist and Tier 3. Israel is in Tier 2, the second-best listing. It should be noted, however, that statistics regarding trafficking in Israel are largely provided by powerful organizations inside Israel which have been accused of exaggerating the severity of the situation there for political reasons. 5ad%
U.S. President Barack Obama, himself a descendant of black Africans, did not mention the subject of Muslim human trafficking in his recent speech to the Arab world in Cairo. He did mention, however, that for centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation, but did so in the context of talking about Palestinian suffering.
Instant Jihad.
The Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet), in cooperation with IDF and Border Police units, have arrested four Arabs for the July 27, 2006 murder of Dr. Daniel Yaakobi of Yakir. After Yaakobi brought his car to an Arab car garage for repairs, an Arab on site attacked the Jew with a wrench and a stick until he collapsed.
The ISA and Israel Police carried out intensive intelligence and investigation activities in the three years following the murder which resulted in the arrest of four suspects during April and May 2009. Their identities have now been approved for publication:
Tioun Hadi Khalil Tioun -- resident of Hadja village in the Kalkilya area, 21, a Tanzim militant, student at Abu Dis University.
Ahmed Hadi Khalil Tiyoun - resident of Hadja village in the Kalkilya area, 25, brother of the above, Fatah activist.
Amar Khamed Abdallah Nofel, resident of Hadja village in the Kalkilya area, 19, participated in disturbances in his village.
Nasim Jamal Ahmed Gaviti, resident of Funduk village in the Kalkilya area, 26, Tanzim militant, participated in disturbances in the area.
Tioun Tioun admitted to murdering Yaakobi, allegedly in revenge for the death one day earlier of Khamada Shativi, an Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist from Kadoum. Shativi was killed by security forces while attempting to evade capture on July 26, 2006. Yaakobi was last seen driving towards Karnei Shomron on the day he was murdered. His body was found inside his burnt car on the same evening.
Tioun said that he murdered Yaakobi after Yaakobi brought his car to his brother Ahmed Tioun's garage for repairs. He assaulted Yaakobi with a wrench and a stick beating him to death.
When his brother and Amar Nofel eventually arrived, Tioun Tioun told them to place the body in the trunk and burn the car. They loaded Yaakobi's body into the trunk, drove the car outside the village and set it alight. They then drove to Shativi's funeral, following which Ahmed Tioun informed Nasim Gaviti of Yaakobi's murder.
They then drove to the garage, where -- joined by Tioun Tioun and Amar Nofel -- they cleaned the garage and burnt Yaakobi's belongings. All four men will be indicted in the coming days.
Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, considered a top Torah sage of the generation in the hareidi-religious community, issued a Jewish legal decision banning the employment of Arab workers by Jews after an Arab hired as a driver by the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem murdered eight students in March, 2008.
"According to Jewish law, it is completely forbidden to hire Arabs, especially in yeshivas," Rabbi Kanievsky said. "There is a concern of endangering lives."
The rabbi explained, "After all, we are at war with them...and are there not Jews that can work and make a living?" Asked later if his words should be publicized, Rabbi Kanievsky said: "Certainly."
Though a web site listing Jewish labor businesses was closed down by the supreme court after a law-suit from an Arab advocacy group funded by the New Israel Fund, a hotline and email account has been set up to provide solutions for those seeking Jewish laborers for work anywhere in Israel, for everything from gardeners, heavy equipment operators, painters, car garages, cement mixers and handymen to catering and restaurants.
Dr. Yaakobi was 59 when he was murdered. He was survived by his wife Chani, four children and 12 grandchildren.
The Obama Administration should remove Hamas from the terrorist list, former President Jimmy Carter told media following his visit to Gaza today. He said he plans on pushing for the change when he meets with U.S. officials on Thursday to discuss his latest trip to the Middle East.
Carters comments came during a joint press conference with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh following their meeting today in Gaza. The former president said he tried to convince Hamas leaders to denounce violence, accept the existing interim agreements and recognize the right of the Jewish state to exist.
"Hamas leaders want peace and they want to have reconciliation not only with their Fatah brothers but also eventually with Israelis to live side by side, with two nations, both sovereign nations recognized by each other and living in peace," Carter said.
Haniyeh told Carter that he supported any plan that aims at preserving Arab rights and leads to the establishment of a sovereign Arab state on all the territories that were occupied by Israel in 1967 "with Jerusalem as its capital." He urged Carter to pressure Israel to lift the security blockade which was imposed on Gazas border crossings to prevent weapons smuggling.
During his visit Carter handed over a letter from kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalits parents and asked the group to deliver it on humanitarian grounds. He shared his version of a prisoner swap proposal which included releasing PA women, children, and parliament members he claimed were being held by Israel.
Haniyeh said Hamas desired to end the Shalit case and welcomed Carter's mediation efforts.
Asked about his feeling after touring Gaza, Carter said, "My feeling is a feeling of sadness, anger and despair after seeing all this destruction that was caused to Innocent People." He said that he would send President Obama a report explaining in details the situation in Gaza.
Carter said he felt personally responsible that American weapons were during Israels offensive in Gaza in January to stop terrorists from launching rockets against Israeli civilians in the south. "I know that the Israeli destruction of houses, infrastructure, and factories in Gaza was carried out by American weapons. I hope that this won't be repeated again," he said.
#5
besides being a glory hound egotist that is grasping on to his 15 mins like whitney houston on a crack pipe, wtf is jimmy's official title? Envoy, ambassador to paleostine? I'm so sick of this old a-hole constantly droning on abt the Paleos, if he likes them so much he should just move in w/them.
A private Venezuelan TV broadcaster threatened with closure for criticizing the government has called for talks with President Hugo Chavez. The offer came after the socialist leader extensively criticized the 24-hour news television channel Globovision on Thursday, saying it had become a problem for "people's mental health."
The Venezuelan president said that the Caracas-based media outlet was engaged in conspiracies, coup-plotting and terror that threaten public health. "This network poisons people's minds everyday and almost all the time. This is their goal: scaring people, sowing hatred, and fueling violence in the spirit of people," he said.
The president said the government would be ready to appreciate a change in attitude by the company's board of directors. "Otherwise," he said, "I guarantee that this network will not remain on the airwaves much longer."
Chavez said his warning against the channel "has nothing to do with the freedom to be critical or with freedom of expression."
Naming private TV networks Televen and Venevision as examples of responsible media, Chavez said they criticized freely. Televen has "morning (opinion) shows. I watch them sometimes," the president said, adding: "They (Globovision) will see. They have to take responsibility. Â... We actually need criticism and denouncement."
The Venezuelan leader's attack against Globovision came after authorities fined the TV network and raided the property of a top executive.
The TV station responded Saturday by urging dialogue, saying it was willing to "sit down and talk (with the president), like they do in civilized countries."
"The president should know that if he wants to talk, we're willing," Globovision Director Alberto Federico Ravell said.
Globovision is known for its tough anti-government stance.
Chavez has threatened the TV station before. After the president demanded that it be punished for alleged violations of broadcast regulations, the tax office fined the network $2.3 million for alleged unpaid taxes, while a fraud probe was launched as well as an investigation into allegations that the channel is linked to an anti-government conspiracy.
Chavez has warned that a group of civilians and retired military officers is trying to recruit troops and is spreading rumors. Last Thursday during a swearing-in ceremony of six Venezuelan ambassadors he told them to fight the smear campaigns that "extreme right movements" are waging against the Venezuelan people.
The Venezuelan ruler, who has been criticized for stifling press freedom before, said he didn't care if the international community criticized him if the station is eventually shut down.
But Globovision says it is being harassed for its editorial line and that it has broken no law.
Meanwhile, media regulators are investigating the station for inciting "panic and anxiety" after a director criticized state television for being slow to inform its viewers about a minor earthquake last month. Media rights groups have spoken out against the investigation, warning of "unwarranted accusations against the (Venezuelan) press."
#1
better safe than sorry and invest in some gold...either sell it in retirement at a profit (we hope :) or be one of the lucky ones if things go south..either way it is not a bad investment..but at 30% markup i would not buy
if things do go south those without gold - guns and seeds will be in a whole world of hurt -- and most will be lilly willy liberals
Posted by: Dan ||
06/17/2009 19:06
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#2
I've already got my stationary printed up for Frank G's Bartertown
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2009 19:09
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Frank G -- all you need now is a biomass generation plant and Thunderdome.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2009 20:46
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"If there's one thing I've learned from listening to talk radio it is that today is the perfect day to buy gold" - J. Lileks (paraphrased from memory)
ht - - free republic
(From a senior level Chrysler person)
Monday morning I attended a breakfast meeting where the speaker/guest was David E. Cole, Chairman Center for Automotive Research (CAR and Professor at the Univ. of Michigan. You have all likely heard CAR quoted, or referred to in the auto industry news lately.
Mr. Cole, who is an engineer by training, told many stories of the difficulty of working with the folks that the Obama administration has sent to save the auto industry. There have been many meetings where a 30+ year experience automotive expert has to listen to a newcomer to the industry, someone with zero manufacturing experience, zero auto industry experience, zero business experience, zero finance experience, and zero engineering experience, tell them how to run their business.
Mr Cole's favorite story is as follows:
There was a team of Obama people speaking to Mr. Cole (Engineer, automotive experience 40+ years, Chairman of CAR). They were explaining to Mr. Cole that the auto companies needed to make a car that was electric and liquid natural gas (LNG) with enough combined fuel to go 500 miles so we wouldn't "need" so many gas stations (A whole other topic). They were quoting BTU's of LNG and battery life that they had looked up on some website.
Mr. Cole explained that to do this you would need a trunk FULL of batteries and a LNG tank at big as a car to make that happen and that there were problems related to the laws of physics that prevented them from...
The Obama person interrupted and said (and I am quoting here) "These laws of physics? Who's rules are those, we need to change that. (Some of the others wrote down the law name so they could look it up) We have the congress and the administration. We can repeal that law, amend it, or use an executive order to get rid of that problem. That's why we are here, to fix these sort of issues".
My guess would be that this can be filed under apocrypha -- though I've no doubt there are enough blockheads among B.O.'s Best and Britest to make it not beyond the realm of possibility.
Posted by: Everday a Wildcat(KSU) ||
06/17/2009
15:40 ||
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#1
This showed up on Snopes.com a few days ago. They said it was false. Of course, snopes is apparently a fairly leftwing group, so who knows for sure.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/17/2009 17:45
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#2
ION RENSE > MANHATTAN FLOODS, CHICAGO HEATWAVES, AND WITHERING CALIFORNIA VINES: HOW SCIENTISTS SEE THE USA IN 75 YEARS!?
* PRAVDA > seems the World's "OIL AGE" will end in 42 = 50 Years???
Johnson County prosecutors charged a traveling salesman Tuesday for allegedly holding a Shawnee woman at her home at gunpoint and stealing from her.
Police said they are still investigating the mans claims that the womans armed husband forced the salesman to perform a sex act.
Alexander J. Gaviltta, 21, of Fresno, Calif., remains in jail today charged with kidnapping, theft, possessing drug paraphernalia and criminal property damage.
Police said the Shawnee woman returned home about 6 p.m. Monday and found an armed man in her house. He marched her around, told her he was in charge and left with the couples gun, credit cards, jewelry and a Rolex watch, according to police and court records.
Shawnee police said Gaviltta soon went to Overland Park police and told them the womans husband had invited him in, pulled a gun on him and demanded oral sex. Gaviltta told police, they said, that the husband passed out during the sex act, Gaviltta grabbed the gun and the woman returned home about then.
Posted by: Everday a Wildcat(KSU) ||
06/17/2009
15:06 ||
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There are some stories that you just don't want to know the truth or anything else about. As far as I'm cocerned, what happens in Johnson County stays in Johnson County.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/17/2009 18:03
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President Barack Obama said Monday Italy had agreed to accept three detainees from the Guantanamo Bay "war on terror" camp in Cuba, after talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
"I thanked the prime minister for his support of our policy in closing Guantanamo," Obama said after the two leaders met in the Oval Office.
"This is not just talk, Italy has agreed to accept three specific detainees," Obama said.
There were no immediate details on the identity of the detainees.
Obama and Berlusconi met for talks on next month's Group of Eight summit of industrialized nations in Italy, after the European Union endorsed a deal with Washington on transferring Guantanamo inmates to Europe. The pact, agreed by EU foreign ministers, stressed that the decision to accept any inmate was one for individual European governments to take.
The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today made the following statement regarding the situation in Iran following the presidential election:
Canada is deeply troubled by the current situation in Iran. The allegations of fraud in last weeks presidential election are serious and need to be answered. The Iranian people deserves to have its voice heard, and we call for a fully transparent investigation into electoral discrepancies.
The banning of opposition protests and security forces heavy-handed treatment of demonstrators throughout the country are also matters of grave concern.
We are further disturbed by reports of the unacceptable treatment of George McLeod, a Canadian journalist who was allegedly detained and beaten by Iranian authorities. We have called in Irans Chargé dAffaires in Ottawa to answer questions about the mistreatment of Mr. McLeod and to raise our concerns about the situation in Iran.
The Government of Canada calls for freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Iran, and urges the country to fully respect all of its human rights obligations, both in law and in practice. We also continue to call on Iran to comply immediately with its legal obligations concerning its nuclear program.
We will continue to monitor events closely over the coming days.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
14:49 ||
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Canada has taken a stand for freedom, while Obama supports the Iranian dictatorship. It's really disgusting there is a Muslim sleeper in the White House.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/17/2009 15:02
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Canada denounces anyone who doesn't like back bacon, eh?
On a train to London, a young woman wearing a burkha, with only her heavily made-up eyes peeping out, did not have a valid ticket.
Challenged by the guard, the young woman gave a litany of excuses. She had left her bag at her boyfriend's, he had bought the ticket, she had no money on her...
My friend Jane, who was in the same carriage, noticed how the guard became nervous as the Muslim girl presented herself as an innocent in a society she didn't understand.
Instead of issuing a penalty fine, the guard backed off, shrugging his helplessness at the other passengers.
So imagine my friend's surprise when she got off at the same station as burkha girl and saw this 'penniless innocent' whip out a credit card from under the folds of her dress with which she promptly bought a Tube ticket.
Jane was so incensed she sent me a text message, explaining what she'd witnessed. It ended: 'Attack of Burkha Rage. Grrr.'
Jane is not a BNP voter. She is a university lecturer who specialises in the developing world.
Yet Burkha Rage has become our personal shorthand for someone taking the mickey out of our country and its tolerant ways. Rest at link
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009
14:32 ||
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When I spent time in Tel Aviv, the buses were on the honor system, spot checks for tickets. Gal I knew from Finland related that she was on a bus, had no ticket. The ticket taker asked her for her ticket - so she babbled something in Finnish. He passed her by.
Of course she was fluent in English (most widespread 2nd language in Israel), and conversational in German (also well known) but the ticket taker didnt know that.
Petty fraud is found in all cultures.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/17/2009 14:40
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The rest of the article:
Yet Burkha Rage has become our personal shorthand for someone taking the mickey out of our country and its tolerant ways.
Despite a growing acceptance that multi-culturalism has been deeply damaging to race relations, there are still almost weekly opportunities for a fit of Burkha Rage.
Look at Fata Lemes, the Muslim bar waitress who won £3,000 compensation this week for quitting her job after she objected to wearing a red cocktail dress.
Apologies if I find it hard to keep a straight face, but my jaw keeps dropping open. Miss Lemes took the job in a bar and left after eight days, claiming managers asked her to wear a dress that made her look like a prostitute.
Actually, the frock is conservative by London bar standards - more Petersfield garden party than Peter Stringfellow. But fair enough if Miss Lemes didn't like it.
What was not fair enough was her demand for £20,000 compensation.
An employment tribunal found that Miss Lemes had 'overstated her trauma'. You can say that again. Her compensation claim was 'manifestly absurd'.
Yet instead of telling the 33-year-old to grow up and accept that a British city bar is not readily confused with a convent, the tribunal awarded her £2,919.95.
As a Bosnian Muslim, it said, she 'holds views about modesty and decency which some might think unusual in Britain in the 21st century'.
They might think it was unusual if they had spotted that modest flower Miss Lemes on Facebook wearing a vest top with a gaping cleavage. But that image was not produced in court.
How exactly are British employers supposed to avoid hurting the feelings of grievance-mongers like Fata Lemes?
Imagine a job interview where a bar manager dared to suggest that a Muslim woman might not feel at ease in their uniform. Before you could say 'Mine's a Cosmopolitan', Miss Lemes would have sued for discrimination.
I'm afraid Fata Lemes is no better than the girl dodging the train fare. Both are quick to hide behind their religious identity and play the victim. Both are happy to embarrass their host nation into ignoring common sense.
Let me be clear: there are millions of British Muslims who respect our cultural norms. It's the minority of opportunists who provoke Burkha Rage.
You see it from time to time: the Muslim shop assistant who refused to serve a woman buying First Bible Stories for her grandson because it was 'unclean'.
And the disgraceful capitulation of Sainsbury's to Islamic checkout staff who refused to sell alcohol.
Gordon Brown, a recent convert to Britishness, has promised that the emphasis for immigrants must be on fitting in, learning our ways and our language.
Yet, only yesterday, a Metropolitan Police chief admitted the bill for translation services for criminals and victims was set to soar to a staggering £20million by 2012.
Scotland Yard blames a growth in 50 distinct communities of more than 10,000 people and having to deal with more than 300 languages.
At no point in the statement is there any mention of compulsory English lessons.
No suggestion of people needing to fit in with our ways, rather than us with theirs. I feel a small attack of Burkha Rage coming on.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 14:46
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#3
i was held up at Tel Aviv airport once. all day, missed my flight, because I looked Swedish, I'm American!
#5
Would have gotten through a lot faster if you asked her (i hope) phone # and said you'd call the next time you're in town, you Swedish-American hunk.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 16:09
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#6
I might move our weekly "business meeting" to The Rocket Bar to help make up the fine.
#7
From the Star Wars novel Showdown at Centerpoint:
"Traditions make for an awfully handy set of excuses," Mara [Jade] said. "Every time I have ever dealt with a Selonian who didn't want to do something, she's explained to me how tradition made it impossible, or the ways of her people caused it to be difficult to decide, or whatever excuse seemed handy And my people always had to be respectful of your ways, and accept the structure of your culture. No more. ... This is survival. There is no time. It is time for you to accept the ways of our culture.
#14
as some Marines would mess w/the locals who wanted MREs - "see Hajji, it says H.A.M. that's beef in english....sure you can have it, we have plenty...salami alaikum"
Brief seeking to deny Americans access to court remedies for attack
The Obama administration has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to protect Saudi Arabia and four of its princes from being held accountable for their alleged role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States that killed almost 3,000 Americans, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
Through its solicitor general, Elena Kagan, the Obama administration has asked that the Saudis be held immune under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, or FSIA, even though there is ample U.S. evidence of complicity by the Saudi government and the named princes in support of al-Qaida's attack.
While the FSIA generally protects a sovereign state, there are exceptions under which its provisions can be invoked. Such interpretations are left largely to the courts to determine.
Families of the 9/11 victims, however, have expressed outrage over the Obama administration's filing. They regard the action as undermining the continuing fight against terror.
In its recent friend-of-the-court brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in "Federal Insurance Co. vs. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the Obama administration asked the court to deny a petition for a "writ of certiorari," or higher court hearing, by the families of the victims of 9/11 in their effort to sue Saudi Arabia and its princes.
In the original case filed in 2006, the families of the 9/11 victims allege Saudi Arabia and four Saudi princes acting in their capacity as high-level government officials and as individuals made donations to charitable organizations with the knowledge that the charities were diverting funds to al-Qaida. In response, the Saudi government invoked the FSIA as a basis to preclude a lawsuit by the 9/11 victims' families.
Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.
In August 2008, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 2006 ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Casey in dismissing the claim against Saudi Arabia. The dismissal covered the four princes, a Saudi banker and a Saudi charity. In addition, the appeals court said that the exceptions to immunity didn't apply since the State Department had not designated Saudi Arabia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
There appears, however, to be a possible conflict in what the FSIA allows and a portion of a U.S. statute [28USC1605(a)] which states, in effect, that a foreign state shall not be immune from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts if the attack and funding for it occurred in the U.S.
"Although the United States disagrees in certain respects with the analysis of the court of appeals, further review by this Court to determine the best legal basis for that immunity is unwarranted," Kagan wrote.
Fifteen of the 19 terrorists who hijacked U.S. aircraft and crashed them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia and were affiliated with al-Qaida. Intelligence and past actions link the Saudi government and the four princes with al-Qaida.
"In effect, the U.S. Government announced its opposition to allowing 9/11 victims and their families full access to the U.S. legal system in (the government's) effort to protect Saudi Arabia and its princes from being held accountable for their role in the attack on the United States," said Peter Leitner, who has assisted terror victims' families successfully in suing terrorist organizations for the past 12 years.
"As power of Attorney for the family and estate of John P. O'Neill, former FBI (counter-terrorism) expert, I find it disgusting that the Obama administration has spat in the faces of these victims just as (Obama) prepares to leave for Egypt and Saudi Arabia while advocating for the closing of (the U.S. Guantanamo prison in Cuba) and giving full access to the U.S. court system to the terrorists currently imprisoned there," he said.
A group of Guantanamo detainees expected to be resettled in Palau may not want to move to the remote Pacific nation, a Palauan official said Wednesday.
Last weekend, Palau sent a fact-finding team to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to meet with the 13 Uighurs -- Turkic Muslims from China's far western Xinjiang region -- and assess their needs.
The Uighurs appear reluctant to temporarily resettle in Palau, said Joshua Koshiba, who leads a committee on U.S.-Palau relations. He has been in contact with the team since their trip. Possibly only one Uighur wants to move to Palau, he said, without providing details of the discussions.
"Hey man, ain't youse got room left in the Bahamas?"
"You and me, we thought this was between the U.S. and Palau," Koshiba said. "But they have their own lawyers, and they have rights."
Koshiba leads a committee negotiating the ongoing Compact of Free Association between the U.S. and Palau.
The four-member fact-finding team, sent by the committee, had initially traveled to Washington as part of talks to renew that agreement, which governs U.S.-Palau relations. They detoured to Cuba after Palau agreed last week to President Barack Obama's request to take the men as part of plans to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
The government will hold a public meeting on the team's findings within the next week, Koshiba said.
Attorney George Clarke, who represents two of the Uighurs, met the Palauan delegation with his clients. He said it is unclear what choice they have in the relocation but disagreed that they are adverse to the tiny archipelago. Dawut Abdurehim and Anwar Assan, both 34, are "very open" to the idea and asked for more information regarding their future legal status and living arrangements, said Clarke, based in Washington, D.C.
Palau's outpouring of hospitality "means a great deal," he said by telephone.
The Uighurs (pronounced WEE'-gurs) were captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001. The Pentagon determined last year that they were not "enemy combatants," but the men have been stuck in legal limbo since then. Sending them back to China was not an option because of U.S. concerns that Chinese authorities, who consider them separatists, would immediately arrest the men.
The United States asked Palau for help after other countries turned it down. Four other Uighurs left Guantanamo Bay last week for a new home in Bermuda.
Palauan President Johnson Toribiong has described the decision to accept the Uighurs as a humanitarian gesture and repeatedly denied that it was tied to any financial compensation.
Some local residents have expressed concerns about their own safety and criticized authorities for not consulting the public.
Clarke said he wants Palauans to know that his clients represent no threat to Palau, the U.S. or anywhere else. "They're nice, friendly, modest people," he said.
Palau is among the world's smallest countries, with some 20,000 people scattered across 190 square miles (490 square kilometers) of lush tropical landscapes.
JERUSALEM -- Former President Jimmy Carter passed a message to Hamas from the Obama administration, according to senior sources in the Islamist group. The sources did not disclose the content of the purported message or whether the communication was written or oral. They spoke on condition of anonymity, because they said Hamas had not yet reached a decision on officially releasing the information they were divulging.
Separately, in an interview with WND today, Ahmed Yousef, Hamas' chief political adviser in Gaza, refused to confirm or deny that any message was passed to his group from the White House. Youssef said, however, Carter is the "right person" to serve as a middle man between Hamas and the Obama administration.
"If we have anything to communicate, Carter will be the right person to convey messages from the movement (Hamas) to this (Obama) administration or from the administration to the movement," said Yousef, speaking from Gaza.
He's senile, foolish, leftist and a Democrat. Of course he's the right man.
Yousef told WND he spent three hours with Carter today, holding private meetings and also showing the former president areas of Gaza that were damaged during Israel's 22-day campaign against Hamas that ended in January.
"He promised he will write a report to explain what really is happening in Gaza," said Yousef.
Separately, Mushir al-Masri, a member of Hamas' parliament and a spokesman for the Islamist group, said in a joint interview with WND and Israel's Ynetnews.com, "We know Carter is not acting alone. He is acting as part of the large American system."
Masri refused to confirm or deny whether Carter passed any message to his group from Obama. Still, he claimed Hamas has "excellent relations with elements in the circle of the decision making in the U.S. administration."
"We are appreciating the change in the attitude in the U.S. toward Hamas," he said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a WND request for comment on the report of the Obama administration passing a message to Hamas.
Both Masri and Hamas' political adviser Yousef strongly denied an earlier report in an Israeli media outlet claiming an assassination plot against Carter was foiled at the entrance to the Gaza Strip. The report claimed there is some suspicion extremists in Gaza linked to al-Qaida were behind the attempt.
"This report is nonsense," said Yousef. "Nobody in Gaza will touch this man. He is on a noble mission. Everyone here respects him."
Yousef continued that if extremists indeed tried to disturb Carter's visit then Hamas' so-called security forces "are fully capable of dealing with such a threat."
Meanwhile, FoxNews.com reported it learned Carter intends to ask the U.S. to remove Hamas from its official list of terrorist organizations. Yousef responded to the online report telling WND he is not aware Carter will specifically make such a request.
He said, however, Carter communicated to Hamas that "one way or another" the Islamist group must do its best to meet the three conditions previously set out by the U.S. for the opening of dialogue.
Those conditions, expressed twice by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are Hamas' renouncement of violence, recognition of Israel, and agreement to abide by previous PLO commitments.
Yousef said Carter told his group "he will do his best to help to be sure Hamas will meet those conditions one way or another."
"We have reservations about recognizing Israel," Yousef said.
Actually you have no reservations at all on the matter ...
Hamas' charter calls for the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel. The group is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, deadly shootings and rocket attacks against Israeli civilian population centers.
Via InstaPundit
A decision by China to reduce its US Treasury holdings suggests concern about the US attitude towards its economic woes, Chinese economists were quoted as saying in state media Wednesday.
The remarks, coming after US data showed a modest decline in Chinese investments in US government bonds, were in contrast to an earlier statement in Beijing which had said the recent sell-off was a routine transaction.
"China is implying to the US, more or less, that it should adopt a more pragmatic and responsible attitude to maintain the stability of the dollar," He Maochun, a political scientist at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.
According to US Treasury data issued Monday, Beijing owned 763.5 billion dollars in US securities in April, down from 767.9 billion dollars in March. It was the first month since June 2008 that Beijing failed to purchase more US T-bills.
Zhang Bin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China's move showed a more cautious attitude. "It is unclear whether the reduction will continue because the amount is so small. But the cut signals caution of governments or institutions toward US Treasury bonds," Zhang told Xinhua news agency.
China's foreign ministry said Tuesday that its purchases of US Treasuries remained based on "security, liquidity and value preservation".
For Zhao Xijun, deputy director of the Finance and Securities Research Institute of People's University, China may have reduced its holding of US Treasuries simply because it needed the money.
Zhao said the sell-off could have been in order to pay for its own economic stimulus package. "The reduction was a result of composite factors, such as the investment need and the market change," Zhao told Global Times. Perhaps Americans will show similar concern over deficits and raise tariffs. Gradually of course.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009
13:22 ||
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#1
Perhaps Americans will show similar concern over deficits and raise tariffs. Gradually of course.
Bit late for that, I'm afraid. China is as welded on to the US as its manufacturing sector as the South was as its slavery sector. It would take a civil war to disengage.
#2
Zhao said the sell-off could have been in order to pay for its own economic stimulus package.
Unlikely. This would require that they sell dollars for yuan, which would accelerate the rise in their currency. The stimulus is being paid for by lending and government spending.
More likely the decrease is due to allocating dollars to raw material purchases.
#3
Unlikely. This would require that they sell dollars for yuan, which would accelerate the rise in their currency
Not really Dodo, the dollars can be laundered through the UK and the Carib FC.
Graph #1 is the Japanese carry trade year. Graph #2 is the collapse of global finances year. Note that London funneled massive amounts of foreign money into the US. Now, it is flowing the other way. And Japan funneled most of its international funny money which was denominated in dollars, to Europe in 2006-2007 while a year later, the flow switches suddenly from Europe straight to the US.
China is the ball at the top and the US flow to China was big in 2006 and then, this money flowed to the pirate islands in the Caribbean which is the ball near the bottom. OPEC is the ball at the very bottom of the graph. Notice that the Chinese money flowed from the pirate coves back into the US. Now, the OPEC nations are using euros so money is flowing from Europe to OPEC while money is flowing OUT of the US to the PIRATES [thanks to Bernanke and Geithner bailing out all these criminals!] and this money is flowing to CHINA!!!
There are many mechanisms for laundering money, but regardless of how it's done selling dollars reduces their value relative to other currencies and buying yuan increases its value relative to other currencies. China still has an export oriented economy, and like other asian economies is still trying to depress the value of its currency relative to the dollar. It is the basic conundrum that China faces and is trying to manage at the moment.
when you take out a big enough loan, you own the bank
Only until the bank decides you're never going to pay it back. After that its throwing good money after bad. China is already there; they're just trying to figure out how to keep their own economy going without making the problem worse. Hence their treasury holdings haven't grown.
#7
A far amount of China's growth was fueled by the US going into debt in a manner that is proving to have been quite insane. Our economic crisis is also China's.
#8
...and China's too. Their refusal to float the yuan against the dollar also precipitated this. Had the yuan rose against the dollar for the last 10 years, their exports would have been lower and the amount of Treasuries they gathered would have been fewer. Had the system been allowed to operate without the interference, their position would be more stable in the long run on those points, but they bet on an unending growth cycle and maximized internal development through exporting which is now headed for a very sharp decline. They are short of being able to replace America as the engine for the world economy. Now we're all on a ride 'in interesting times'. The Chinese could still opt for severe losses and trash the dollar hoping that in the end they'll end up in the better position when it all settles. If the idgits in the Beltway keep ignoring their warnings, they may just take that up. Think dumping the holdings to the IMF which in turn would then leverage Washington the way they leverage any other third world kleptocracry.
Will Collier Emphasis added.
Somebody cue up "My Sharona" or "Le Freak." Apparently it's 1979 all over again.
Rather than offering any crumbs of support to the Iranians who are literally putting their lives on the line for their own freedom, Barack Obama could only manage "deep concerns." In Obamaland, it's not as important to offer even moral support to people trying to shake off the yoke of a barbaric dictatorship as it is to not appear to be "meddling."
This all sounds quite familiar, and everyone over 30 has seen it before. Did somebody replace the "community activist" with a self-righteous peanut farmer while we weren't looking?
The fantasy that "moderates" within the mullah regime can be coaxed into a "grand bargain" has taken in better men than Barack Obama, but Obama doesn't even have the excuse of not being aware of that prior history....
The reign of the ayatollahs in Iran has an expiration date, and the ayatollahs know it. Seventy percent of Iran's population wasn't even alive in 1978, and they've had enough of the mullahs and their Basij bully boys. Whether their yoke is thrown off in 2009 or in 2012 or 2020, it's going to happen, probably within the next decade or so.
I hope any sane person would agree that sooner would be better, but here's a question for all of those who are eaten up with concern over "what will they think of us?" Whenever the turn comes, what exactly will they think of us, if we turn our backs on them today? What will they think if we just hedge our bets against the ludicrous idea that we might be burning (nonexistent) bridges with the mullahs otherwise?
I've meet a lot of Eastern Europeans who have pictures of Ronald Reagan on their mantles. They never forgot the way he stood up for them, in public, against the commissars. Iran's population is going to run off the mullahs one of these years, hopefully this year. When that happens, what do you want them to remember, that we were supporting them, or worrying about what their oppressors would think about it?
Posted by: Mike ||
06/17/2009
13:08 ||
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i was alive then and i watched that miserable bozo pace the oval office searching for a clue, any clue. it's deja vu all over again!
Posted by: Art ofWar ||
06/17/2009 13:30
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#2
Ayatollah Khamenei? Ayatolla Khamenei! Tear down this mosque!
#4
Amen to that Blondie. Habitat for Humanity homes didn't come with an Escalade in the garage either. Suffering a bit of Carter nostalgia I suppose. Please forgive me.
#6
Frankly, the only headline I want to see about Jimmeh is that he passed away of natural causes. (I wouldn't mind other reasons, but I don't want to get sink trapped.)
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/17/2009 17:53
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Lebanon -- Maan -- High-profile Fatah leader Ahmad Khalil (known as Ahmad Abu Al-Kul) was assassinated in Lebanons Ein Al-Hilweh Refugee Camp on Tuesday, according to Lebanese sources. A high profile makes for a better target...
The sources said that at 10:30pm on Tuesday, clashes erupted in Ein Al-Hilweh after a masked gunman shot Khalil in the head at his home in the Jewish Garden neighborhood of the camp injuring him seriously. The Jewish Garden?
Khalil was transferred to a hospital where he died of his wound. The shooter fled the scene to and has not been arrested. Heart failure again, doc?
Hmmmmmmm...looks that way. You could always sign it out as cirrhosis, doc. We don't care. Really.
Whatever you want, guys, just don't point that at me.
Leaders of various Palestinian factions in the camp have begun contacts to try and avoid further violence and complications. So howda we evah get dis far?
Chicago Boyz relays a message from an eyewitness in Tehran
I just received the appended message in e-mail from a friend in Europe. I have left it entirely unedited. Right now I feel so grateful that we don't have to do things like this here. Never forget those who died for your freedom.
Jay,
A guy on our team who is focusing on Iran received this from a guy inside the country..
it is posted on facebook..
Censored Name reports his own observations on the course of events of 15th June 2009 in Tehran
I left my home in Tajrish along with my family at 3 p.m. We went down Valiast Street which is the main northern-southern avenue in Tehran and entered the Evin Exp'way which leads to Enghelab Street. We knew that people are supposed to gather in Enghelab Sq. (Revolution Sq.) at 4 and march toward Azadi Sq. (Freedom Sq.). From Gisha Bridge onwards, we saw people walking down. Cars were blowing their horns and people were showing victory sign. We went to Navvab Street and parked our car at the end of the street. Then we took a taxi to bring us back to the Enghelab Street. On our way, near Jomhouri Sq. (Republic Sq.), I saw a group of about 20 militia with long beards and batons on motorbikes. My hand was out of the car window with a little green ribbon (the sign of reformists) around my finger. One of the militia told me to throw that ribbon away. I showed him a finger. All of a sudden, about 15 people attacked me inside the car. They beat me with their batons and wanted to pull me out. My wife and my daughter who were sitting in the back seat cried and hold me tight. I also hold myself tight on the chair. They wanted to shatter the car windows. The driver went out and explained that he is a taxi and we are his passengers and he has no fault. After about 5 minutes,they left. My elbow hurts severely. Then, a young man from their group came and kissed my elbow! I told him: You know, I don't hate you. I am like you with the only difference that I know more and you are ignorant. He apologized and left.
We joined the crowd in Enghelab Street.
Read carefully:
What I saw today was the most elegant scene I had ever witnessed in my life. The huge number of people were marching hand in hand in full peace. Silence. Silence was everywhere. There was no slogan. No violence. Hands were up in victory sign with green ribbons. People carried placards which read: Silence. Old and young, man and woman of all social groups were marching cheerfully. This was a magnificent show of solidarity. Enghelab Street which is the widest avenue in Tehran was full of people. I was told that the march has begun in Ferdowsi Sq. and the end of the march was now in Imam Hossein Sq. to the further east of Tehran while on the other end people had already gathered in Azadi Sq. The length of this street is about 6 kilometers. The estimate is about 2 million people. On the way, we passed a police department and a militia (Baseej) base. In both places, the doors were closed and we could see fully-armed riot police and militia watching the people from behind the fences. Near Sharif University of Technology where the students had chased away Ahmadinejad a few days ago, Mirhossein Mousavi (the reformist elect president) and Karrubi (the other reformist candidate spoke to people for a few minutes which was received by cries of praise and applause. I felt proud to find myself among such a huge number of passionate people who were showing the most reasonable act of protest. Frankly, I didn't expect such a political maturity from emotional Iranians who easily get excited. My family and I had put stickers on our mouths to represent the suppression. Placards that people carried were different; from poems by the national poet Ahmad Shamlu to light-hearted slogans against Ahmadinejad. Examples include: " To slaughter us/ why did you need to invite us / to such an elegant party" (Poem by Shamlu). " Hello! Hello! 999? / Our votes were stolen" or " The Miracle of the Third Millenium: 2 x 2 = 24 millions" (alluding to the claim by Government that Ahmadinejad obtained 24 million votes) , "Where is my vote?" , " Give me back my vote" and many other.
We arrived in Azadi Square where the entire square was full of population. It is said that around 500,000 people can be accommodated in this huge square and it was full. Suddenly we saw smoke from Jenah Freeway and heard the gunshot. People were scared at first but then went forward. I just heard the gunshots but my sister who had been on the scene at that part told me later that she saw 4 militia came out from a house and shot a girl. Then they shot a young boy in his eye and the bullet came out of his ear. She said that 4 people were shot. At least one person dead has been confirmed. People arrested one of the Baseeji militia but the three others ran away when they ran out of bullet. At around 8 we went back on foot. On the way back people were still in the street and were chanting Allah Akbar (God is Great).
I was coming home at around 2 a.m. In parkway, I saw about ten buses full of armed riot police parked on the side of the street. Then I saw scattered militia in civil clothes with clubs in hand patroling the empty streets. In Tajrish Square, I saw a very young boy (around 16) with a club who was looking at the cars to see if he can find something to attack. I don't know how and under what teachings can young boys change into militia.
I came home. Tomorrow, people will gather again in Valiasr Square for another peaceful march toward the IRIB building which controls all the media and which spreads filthy lies. The day before Yesterday, Ahmadinejad had hold his victory ceremony. Government buses had transported all his supporters from nearby cities. There was full coverage of that ceremony where fruit juice and cake was plenty. A maximum of 100,000 had gathered to hear his speech. These included all the militia and the soldiers and all supporters he could gather by the use of free TV publicity. Today, at least 2 million came only relying on word of mouth while reformists have no newspaper, no radio, no TV. All their internet sites are filtered as well as social networks such as facebook. Text messaging and mobile communication was also cut off during the demonstration. Since yesterday, the Iranian TV was announcing that there is no license for any gathering and riot police will severely punish anybody who may demonstrates. Ahmadinejad called the opposition as a bunch of insignificant dirt who try to make the taste of victory bitter to the nation. He also called the western leaders as a bunch of "filthy homosexuals". All these disgusting remarks was today answered by that largest demonstration ever. Older people compared the demonstration of today with the Ashura Demonstration of 1979 which marks the downfall of the Shah regime and even said that it outnumbered that event.
The militia burnt a house themselves to find the excuse to commit violence. People neutralized their tactic to a large degree by their solidarity, their wisdom and their denial to enage in any violent act.
I feel sad for the loss of those young girls and boys. It is said that they also killed 3 students last night in their attack at Tehran University residence halls. I heard that a number of professors of Sharif University and AmirKabir University (Tehran Polytechnic) have resigned.
Democracy is a long way ahead. I may not be alive to see that day. With eyes full of tear in these early hours of Tuesday 16th June 2009, I glorify the courage and bravery of those martyrs and I hope that their blood will make every one of us more committed to freedom, to democracy and to human rights.
Viva Freedom, Viva Democracy, Viva Iran
p.s.: If you find this report of any value, please share it with as many people as possible. Facebook is filtered and internet is very slow in Iran. Please somebody put this on facebook
Posted by: mom ||
06/17/2009
11:49 ||
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#1
WOW, way to go social networking sites! I always thought they were for the vain to post about themselves , but I must take that back now.
#5
Seriosly doubt Venezuelans are there but awesome propaganda. It highlights the fundamentally foreign nature of the regime. It also has an element of truth given that these bastards do in fact import Hez thugs.
Even if our intel svcs are not not spreading this disinfo, we amateurs can thanks to twitter, etc.
No surprise that the Chicoms make control of the internet a priority and that the mullarchy hires them as consultants.
#6
Seriosly doubt Venezuelans are there but awesome propaganda. It highlights the fundamentally foreign nature of the regime. It also has an element of truth given that these bastards do in fact import Hez thugs.
Even if our intel svcs are not not spreading this disinfo, we amateurs can thanks to twitter, etc.
No surprise that the Chicoms make control of the internet a priority and that the mullarchy hires them as consultants.
Ten large U.S. banks are planning to repay the government about $68 billion in bailout money Wednesday, a pair of industry officials say. Wednesday is the first day the banks are eligible to repay the money. The banks repaying TARP are some of the industry's largest, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., American Express Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley.
The Treasury Department last week gave the 10 banks permission to repay the funds, which they received under the $700 billion bailout plan, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. That effort to unfreeze credit markets launched as global markets seized up last October.
#2
Quite a few banks have been wanting to return the money for months (one exec wanted to write a check at a meeting with Teh One), but a) there was no process to do that at the Fed, and b) the White House wasn't keen on the idea.
(CNN) -- Brushing off suggestions Tuesday the media is not critical enough of his administration, President Obama couldn't help but take aim at one cable news channel in particular.
"It's very hard for me to swallow that one," Obama told CNBC when asked whether he thinks the media is too easy on him. "First of all, I've got one television station entirely devoted to attacking my administration."
The interviewer quickly assumed Obama was referring to Fox News, a suggestion the president didn't disagree with.
"Well, that's a pretty big megaphone," he said. "And you'd be hard-pressed, if you watched the entire day, to find a positive story about me on that front."
"We welcome people who are asking us some, you know, tough questions," he continued. "And I think that I've been probably as accessible as any president in the first six months--press conferences, taking questions from reporters, being held accountable, being transparent about what it is that we're trying to do. I think that, actually, the reason that people have been generally positive about what we've tried to do is they feel as if I'm available and willing to answer questions, and we haven't been trying to hide them all. "
Obama struck a similar tone on the matter last month in his appearance before the White House Correspondents Dinner, during which he joked to the crowd, "Most of you covered me; all of you voted for me, apologies to the Fox table." *NPD Narcissistic personality disorder as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is "special" and can only be understood by, or should associate with, people (or institutions) who are also "special" or of high status.
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement
6. is interpersonally exploitative
7. lacks empathy
8. is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
You nailed that. I was surprised by the photo though. I would have expected a middle finger.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/17/2009 10:52
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#3
*NPD Narcissistic personality disorder as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is "special" and can only be understood by, or should associate with, people (or institutions) who are also "special" or of high status.
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement
6. is interpersonally exploitative
7. lacks empathy
8. is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
Anyone running for President, let along getting elected President, has to have one hell of an ego and sense of self-worth. They also shouldn't bruise easily. Otherwise they simply don't survive the process from thought to initial organization to begging for money (daily!) to primaries to general election.
Bambi might be a narcissist, I don't know, I'm not a psychiatrist, and I don't like tossing psychiatric terms and diagnostic codes around without knowing.
Personally I'd prefer to focus on what the man says and does, and what he intends to do. That's enough right there for me.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 13:10
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What he has said - and failed to say (Iran for an example), and what he has done, well.. that's damning enough.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi urged supporters to stage peaceful protests or gather in mosques to mourn those killed after a disputed presidential poll set off Iran's worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. "In the course of the past days and as a consequence of illegal and violent encounters with (people protesting) against the outcome of the presidential election, a number of our countrymen were wounded or martyred," Mousavi said.
"I ask the people to express their solidarity with the families ... by coming together in mosques or taking part in peaceful demonstrations," said Mousavi, adding that he would take part in the day of mourning planned for Thursday.
This is clever; guarantees a large turnout, and Muslims generally are very .. expressive .. when mourning their dead.
Mousavi's statement on his website did not refer to a protest called for Wednesday.
Further protests planned for Wednesday and Thursday are a direct challenge to the authorities who have kept a tight grip on dissent since the U.S.-backed shah was overthrown in 1979 after months of protest. After Monday's deaths, Mousavi had urged followers to call off a planned rally in the same downtown area on Tuesday so the marchers headed north instead. Some sent messages to meet again on Wednesday for a rally at Tehran's central Haft-e Tir Square. In a stark warning, Fars News Agency quoted Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli as saying "no permission has been issued for a gathering or rally in Haft-e Tir Square" on Wednesday.
State television has said the "main agents" behind the turmoil have been arrested with guns and explosives.
Security forces arrested a pro-reform activist and an editor on Wednesday while a provincial prosecutor warned that those causing unrest faced the death penalty. Mohammadreza Habibi, prosecutor-general in Isfahan province, said: "We warn the few ... controlled by foreigners who try to disrupt domestic security by inciting individuals to destroy and to commit arson that the Islamic penal code for such individuals waging war against God is execution."
Habibi's statement is the clearest evidence that the protests have spread into the countryside, and that the thugs are worried.
Tens of thousands of pro-Mousavi supporters defied authorities to rally in Tehran on Tuesday after the seven were killed in Monday's violence but international media were forbidden from leaving their offices to cover the event.
Pro-Mousavi protests have been reported in the cities of Rasht, Orumiyeh, Zanjan, Zahedan, and Tabriz. ISNA news agency said 88 people were arrested during post-election unrest in the city of Mashhad and up to 60 people in the city of Tabriz.
A reformist source said Saeed Laylaz, editor of business daily Sarmayeh, and activist Mohammadreza Jalaiepour were both arrested on Wednesday. Jalaiepour was detained at Tehran's international airport, the source said. Mousavi said arrests would help to widen protests. "I condemn widespread arrests of children of the revolution and I'm warning that the expansion of this method will reveal the ugly face of those who are against the nation and will motivate people more to continue and expand protests," he said.
An official inquiry was launched into an attack on university students. Iran's Interior Ministry ordered an investigation into an attack on university students which they say was carried out by Islamic Basij militia and police. The inquiry came a day after Iran's influential speaker of parliament, Ali Larijani, condemned the attack on the dormitory of Tehran University.
This is interesting; Larijani is usually one of Khamenei's lap dogs. Fissures in the ruling elite?
One student activist who declined to be named told Reuters on Tuesday that four students were killed during the violence. Tehran University denied anyone had been killed.
Mousavi urged the nation to be calm. "Therefore those rioters who damaged public property and create tension in the society are not part of us," he said, adding: "People have chosen peaceful methods and they avoid violence."
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Wednesday that Mousavi's wide support among reformists was "evidence of the will to revolt against oppression."
"We do not want to intervene directly and we are not doing that. But indignation, the need to support democrats, the need to support reformists -- that, we affirm loud and clear."
Thank you France. Now if Obama could muster the same clarity ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
09:39 ||
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#1
1. Its clever on many grounds. for one, its a technique that was used in the 1979 revolution. So it sends an ADDITIONAL message, one that has to send fear into Khameni at the same time he cant oppose it.
2 They have no had substantial protests 4 days running. This is big.
3. Its clearly gone well past teheran. Reports and videos from Shiraz and isfahan. Reports from Ahwaz and Resht and elsewhere of violence - (it seems in some smaller places, away from international view, the regime is tougher, also has a better ratio of forces for the regime)At least one social scientist dude who has done work in villages says the villagers, however they voted, dont believe the result.
4. France. In fairness, France doesn't have the same history vis a vis Iran.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/17/2009 14:20
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#2
pardon "they HAVE had substantial protests four days running"
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/17/2009 14:21
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#3
Dinnerjacket's out of the country. Does that mean that he's delegated the suppression to Khamenei, or does it mean that he's more confident than I would have given him credit for? I thought it was standard practice for dictators to *not* leave the country during mass protests based on the Ceauşescu example.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/17/2009 15:49
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#4
I thought it was standard practice for dictators to *not* leave the country during mass protests
It goes to show Monkey Boy is the puppet, not the puppet master.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 16:02
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#5
#1 1. Its clever on many grounds. for one, its a technique that was used in the 1979 revolution.
IIRC, wasn't what got the ball rolling? Shiite tradition of honoring martyrdom, leading to more repression/deaths, leading to more martyrdom demos, leading to more repression/deaths,... until critical popular mass was achieved?
4. France. In fairness, France doesn't have the same history vis a vis Iran.
Reeeeeeally? Whatever made you come to that conclusion, Mo'?
LONDON (Reuters) - Iran wants the ability to build nuclear weapons to gain a reputation as a major power in the Middle East, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said in a BBC interview broadcast Wednesday.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran sees nuclear weapons as an "insurance policy" against perceived threats from neighboring countries or the United States. "My gut feeling is that Iran definitely would like to have the technology ... that would enable it to have nuclear weapons if they decided to do so," ElBaradei told the BBC. "It wants to send a message to its neighbors, it wants to send a message to the rest of the world: yes, don't mess with us, we can have nuclear weapons if we want it.
"But the ultimate aim of Iran, as I understand it, is that they want to be recognized as a major power in the Middle East and they are. This is to them the road to get that recognition to power and prestige and ... an insurance policy against what they heard in the past about regime change, axis of evil."
And so that they can wipe Israel off the map, intimidate their neighbors, wipe Israel off the map, prevent the US from coming after them, wipe Israel off the map, provide support to terrorists in the region, wipe Israel off the map ...
Ahmadinejad indicated Sunday that there would be no change in nuclear policy during his second term, saying the issue "belongs in the past."
Six countries, including European Union members Britain, France and Germany, have offered Iran economic and other incentives if it stops enriching uranium, a process that can make fuel for power plants or weapons. Iran says it wants nuclear technology to generate electricity.
But they won't take the deal which would save them billions of dollars and years of work ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
09:35 ||
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#1
Is his job still open? Because I think I could do it.
Kabul 10 June--General Abdur Rashid Dostum, the renowned anti-Taliban Uzbek Turk leader has been reinstated as Chief of the Army Staff. According to sources from Presidential Palace, the decision came today Wednesday. General Dostum was suspended by former attorney general on the issue of Akbar Bais abduction. The General is currently in Ankara, Turkey for medical treatement.
The reinstatement is likely part of the deal between Wahdat-Junbish Alliance and Karza for the Presidential race 2009. General Dostum is accused of human rights violation, but he enjoys majority support from his Uzbek and other Turko ethnic groups including Hazaras. He scored 4th position in the Presidential Elections 2004 by securing about 10 percent of the total votes. Having military training in USSR, the General has served as Defense Advisor to the interim Government. His vast experience in war against militants can be an asset in the war on terror against Taliban. Sidelining of the General by US decision-makers is not fair enough as there are many others accused of human rights violation serving on high-profiles in Karzais Govt. He should be given a real chance for his capabilities in military affairs of the campaign against Taliban insurgency.
#2
He's a warlord, former Commie, viscous, a tyrant but mellowed out since the overthrow of the taliban and their Arab enforcers. He's nominally muslim and was our greatest ally during the 2001 campaign. He also seemed to like and was genuinely impressed by the US forces sent to work with him.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 15:00
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#3
He also likes buzkashi, horses, whiskey, wimmins, US smallarms, B-52's, RU tanks, and Special Forces detachments.
#8
perhaps this will be the newer, more sensitive, Dostum, getting in touch with his feminine side?
Naaaah.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2009 18:56
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#9
ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > DEFENSE PACT BETWEEN INDIA AND UKRAINE ANNOYS RUSSIA; + US GENERAL PETRAEUS: PAKISTAN FIGHTING A "WAR FOR EXISTENCE", NOTSOMUCH A WAR AGZ TERROR; + IMRAN KHAN: NEW PAKISTAN ARMY OFFENSE AGZ TALIBAN WILL FAIL. FUEL MORE EXTREMISM AND ATTACKS/ENDANGER PAKISTAN [more than ever before]???
Integration minister Eberhard van der Laan has sought direct confrontation with anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders for the third time in a week, the Volkskrant reports on Wednesday. After parliamentary questions on Tuesday, Van der Laan again criticised Wilders' statement on Danish tv that 'millions, tens of millions' of Muslims who commit a crime or 'start thinking about jihad or sharia' should be stripped of their Dutch nationality and deported. Wilders' claim that there are 50 million Muslims in Europe is wrong, because he is also including Muslims in Russia - which stretches to Japan, the minister said. In total, Europe has 20 million Muslims, the minister said.
The paper points out that the two men have have never crossed in parliament. But Wilders used to regularly attack Van der Laan's predecessor and fellow Labour party member Ella Vogelaar, and famously called her 'totally bonkers'. Labour party stalwarts told the AD they were pleased Van der Laan had 'finally' started attacking Wilders. 'I support his more radical approach,' said Rotterdam Labour councillor Dominic Schrijer. 'That moaning about Muslims and the Koran has to stop. It [the debate] should be about the real problems in the locality.'
But Tilburg University political scientist Marcel Boogers said he did not think Van der Laan's approach would have much affect on voters. 'He is trying to show that Wilders got the number of Muslims wrong, but I don't think most people care. You have to offer them perspective.' Here's hoping that Europe remains a region where babies still get names like Marcel Boogers.
#4
Islam in Russia In the 1980s, Islam was the second most widespread religion in the Soviet Union; in that period, the number of Soviet citizens identifying themselves as Muslims generally totaled between 45 and 50 million. The majority of the Muslims resided in the Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union, which now are independent countries. In 1996 the Muslim population of Russia was estimated at 19 percent of all citizens professing belief in a religion.
Major Islamic communities are concentrated among the minority nationalities residing between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea: the Adyghs, Balkars, Bashkirs, Chechens, Cherkess, Ingush, Kabardins, Karachay, and numerous Dagestani nationalities. In the middle Volga Basin are large populations of Tatars, Udmurts, and Chuvash, most of whom are Muslims. Many Muslims also reside in Ul'yanovsk, Samara, Nizhniy Novgorod, Moscow, Perm', and Leningrad oblasts.
Notice that all those locations are west of the Urals (European Russia).
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 15:19
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The Pakistan-India peace process, stalled for eight months, got a fresh lease of life when President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit here on Tuesday.
The two sides agreed that their foreign secretaries would meet on 'mutually convenient dates' to be followed by another meeting of the two leaders on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt in July.
'The two foreign secretaries will meet at mutually convenient dates and discuss the steps to be taken on either side to deal with extremism and terrorism and from those discussions the political leadership will re-engage at Sharm-el-Sheikh (Egypt),' Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said after the meeting.
The one-to-one meeting between President Zardari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh which began with a 'warm handshake' lasted for about an hour.
Earlier, Mr Mehmood Qureshi and Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and National Security Adviser N.K Naraynan joined the two leaders for a photo session.
Mr Qureshi replied in the negative when asked if the engagement between the two foreign secretaries was part of the composite dialogue process, but said: 'It is a positive step forward.'
He termed the meeting between the two leaders a 'positive development' and said 'the only sensible course was to talk to each other'. He said the people of South Asia wanted peace, security and development and wanted the two nations to live in harmony.
Asked if Pakistan would raise the water dispute with India, the foreign minister said that all contentious issues could be raised when the talk process began.
The Foreign Office in a statement issued after the talks said: 'The two leaders among other things discussed the question of resumption of the composite dialogue. Pakistan believes that the resumption of composite dialogue, and addressing seriously and with sincerity, a range of issues, is the only way forward.'
'The president reiterated the desire of the government of Pakistan to cooperate with India in bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice. It is imperative that the Pakistan-India joint anti-terrorism mechanism be re-activated.'
The president expressed the hope that Pakistan's relations with India would enter a new era and the existing outstanding issues and disputes, including Jammu and Kashmir, would be resolved. The statement said that Pakistan remained committed to friendly and good neighbourly relations with India.
'My mandate is to tell you that Pakistani territory should not be used for terrorism against India,' the Press Trust of India quoted Prime Minister Singh as telling President Zardari.
It said that after Mr Singh's comments Mr Zardari immediately asked journalists to be escorted from the room so the meeting could be continued in private.
PTI reported that Mr Singh was also understood to have conveyed India's 'unhappiness' over Pakistani inaction against terrorism aimed at India. Mr Singh also expressed disappointment over the release of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed suspected by India of being among the masterminds of the Mumbai attacks.
The two countries have already completed four rounds of the composite dialogue, but the fifth round was halted by India after the Mumbai attacks in November last year.
President Zardari and Prime Minister Singh are in Russia to attend as observers the summit of SCO that groups China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The two leaders last met in Sept 2008 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York.--Agencies
#1
ION INDIA, WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC HIGH DEGRE OF CONCERN: SOUTHERN TIBET BECOMING CHINA'S "ARUNUCHAL PRADESH". Milyuhns and Zilyuhns [under 0.50Milyuhn] of historically predomin INDIAN MIGRANTS + THEIR DESCENDANTS residing for generations in SOUTH TIBET = PART OF CHIN-CLAIMED ANCIENT "SOUTH CHINA"[includ Arunu Pradesh], steadily becom a point of contention between Beijing + New Delhi as the Migrants consider themselves INDIAN, NOT CHINESE OR TIBETAN/TIBETAN CHINESE???
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greets President Lee Myung-bak with a hug yesterday before their talks at Blair House, the guest house of the White House.
Picture at Headline Link Hope the president still has his wallet That's one ugly pantsuit ...
A daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il attended a public elementary school in Bern, Switzerland, near the public middle school that Kim's youngest son and heir apparent Jong Un went to, a leading Japanese daily said yesterday.
Citing diplomatic sources familiar with North Korean intelligence, the Mainichi Shimbun said, "Records on the daughter's attendance remain at the elementary school," adding, "Brother and sister seem to have studied in Bern while living there together."
Mainichi reported the daughter's name as "Ye Jong," but said South Korean sources know her as "Yeong Sun." Kenji Fujimoto, who was once the North Korean leader's personal chef, identified her as "Yeo Jong."
Nothing is known about the daughter except that her mother was Kim's third wife Ko Young Hee, who also bore her elder brother Jong Un, 26, and that the daughter was born in 1987. Academic records at the Bern elementary school said the daughter registered for classes under the name "Jong Sun" and using the birth date Jan. 1, 1988.
The North Korean Embassy in Bern performed the necessary procedures for her entrance. She first attended a German-language class for foreigners in April 1996 before starting the third grade in August 1997.
Mainichi said the elementary school has her academic records up to the fifth grade, but that the document section when she left remains blank.
Diplomatic sources said she left the school in late 2000 while in sixth grade. A teacher at the school told Mainichi at that time, "She was known to be a North Korean diplomat's daughter. Several women took turns in escorting her and she seemed overly protected."
On the Mainichi report that Kim Jong Un attended the public school Liebefeld-Steinhölzli in Bern, the school told a recent news conference that it cannot confirm whether he was Kim Jong Il's son."
A high-ranking official at the school said, "A student with North Korean nationality did attend our school from August 1998 to fall 2000. Since the student was registered as the son of a diplomat at the North Korean Embassy, we cannot determine if he was Kim Jong Il's son."
School principal Peter Burri, who was a math teacher back then, said, "That student quickly adapted to school life and was hardworking and full of aspiration," adding, "He loved basketball."
In addition, Kim Jong Il's second son Jong Chol, 28, also reportedly studied at the International School in Berne from 1994 to 1996.
The Korean woman who was confirmed to have been killed in Yemen yesterday went there as a volunteer for teaching missionary kids as part of Christian evangelistic activities. The mission provides education for children of missionaries, and this is why certain foreign reports said Eom Young-sun was a Korean teacher.
Hyeongje Church in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, which Eom had attended since 2001, held a sendoff service for her in October last year before she left for Yemen. She departed Oct. 10 last year.
In addition, she posted on her blog on Feb. 13, 2005, "When I finish my training, I want to teach missionary kids in Turkey." Her blog is now blocked.
Eom in July 2006 graduated from the Missionary Training College of the U.K.-based Worldwide Evangelization for Christ.
Started in the U.K. in 1918, the international organization has sent more than 2,000 missionaries to areas like Africa and the Middle East where Christianity has not spread. A Korean branch was set up in 1997, and has since sent 418 Korean missionaries to 46 countries through last year, the most among Korean missionary groups.
A branch source said, "Eom graduated from the Missionary Training College, but WEC Korea did not officially send her to Yemen."
The leader of Hyeongje Church's young adults group said he exchanged e-mail messages with Eom but added the church did not officially send her. "Though the church used the word 'sent' (for her going to Yemen), we cannot give great meaning to it," he said.
Eom sent an e-mail message to the group leader March 25 while in Yemen. She recommended a book written by a Jew that was unknown in Korea, saying, "I came to think a lot about their (Jews) faith and our God."
"Young-sun was an education major and liked teaching kids. She taught Sunday school at church every week," the group leader said. "She probably went to Yemen to have a good experience by helping others."
Criticism is rising over Korean Christian missionaries going to dangerous areas and taking high risks, but experts say Eom's volunteer work was not just evangelical and that teaching missionary kids alone did not encourage religious hate there.
"Eom was not killed because she conducted indiscriminate missionary activities," said Lee Sang-kook, a professor at the Institute for East Asian Studies at Sogang University in Seoul. "The fact that she worked with a Dutch volunteer group with her fluent English should be seen as an example for Korean youth pioneers."
#1
For jihadis to kill a woman helping people becuase she was a christian just demonstrates to me that they have very little real faith in Islams message.
#2
From my experience, Catholic missionaries go where ever they believe there is a need for the "Good News". They care less about danger or prejudice. They are very focused and believe they are doing "God's work". Peacefully extreme versus the extremism of the Religion of Peace.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/17/2009 10:40
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#3
...demonstrates to me that they have very little real faith in Islams message.
Really? And what do you see as Islams message? For myself, I see Islams message quite clearly. Having read the Koran also serves to clarify the matter too. Try it.
Posted by: Boss Clemble1759 ||
06/17/2009 10:55
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#4
Korean Christians have seized the Christian faith and message. They are indefatigable prayer warriors, and they go everywhere.
Yemen was the site of the murders at the Baptist hospital some years ago. The hospital did not proselytize but ministered with grace for decades, letting the locals draw their own conclusions. One of the doctors who was murdered, Martha Meyers, had delivered hundreds of babies in that area. The women of the community were outraged by the murders.
The terrorist mentality is afraid of people who deliver babies and people who teach somebody else's kids.
SPEED DEMON: East Japan Railway unveils the next-generation bullet train to the Press at its rolling stock laboratory center in Rifu, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan on June 17 2009. The new bullet train is expecting to provide services between Tokyo and Aomori, northern Japan in 2011 with a maximum speed of 320 kph. - AFP Picture at the link
#2
For a country like Japan it make sense. It literally takes up less composite land than an airport or even highways. They couldn't handle the congestion of such a congested country. Plus high speed rail is city center-to-city center and is more competitive with air at 300-400 miles which pretty much includes all the major Japanese cities. Think about your drive to your nearest airport, your time to clear ticketing, security etc. Then your wait to board, clear for taxi, takeoff, landing, exiting, renting a car or grabbing a taxi or bus and the trip to where you are actually headed. Compare to city center/city center rail. No comparison, really.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/17/2009 11:03
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#3
Based on the headline, I thought maybe Kimmie was announcing he set a world record in the 100 yard dash...
I had a business trip from Chicago to Toronto a little while back. It's a nine hour drive, door to door, or seven hours by air door to door, with all the waiting built in.
No contest: I drove it and had a very pleasant ride through southern Ontario.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 12:59
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#5
That is on seriously fugly train.
Posted by: O ||
06/17/2009 13:52
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#6
The airlines are not profitable at current fuel prices. They are doomed to be a niche market in the next 10-20 years, no matter what else happens. I would be happy if the US "upgraded" its passenger rail service to the standards it enjoyed in 1927. Then fast passenger trains went 100 mph. The "masses of land & steel" are nowhere near as hard to come by as jet fuel, motor fuel and highway maintenance costs. And trains can run on nuke power (i.e., electricity).
#7
The trains in Japan, Western Europe and the eastern US were originally built to carry passengers, so the railroad right-of-ways are close to residential and go through metropolitan areas. West of Pennsylvania, with a few exceptions in large cities, the trains were originally built to carry freight. Without a huge infrastructure change to get the terminals to where the people actually need to be 'delivered', it will not be as easy to convince the general US population to utilize trains as the 'preferred' mode of inter-city long distance transportation.
My thoughts, anyway.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/17/2009 16:08
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#8
it will not be as easy to convince the general US population to utilize trains as the 'preferred' mode of inter-city long distance transportation. I think $6/gal motor fuel (or rationed fuel) will do that quite nicely. I am not referring to a government-mandated supply, either. Just do the math. Last week the US imported 9.1 million barrels crude/day while its domestic production was only 5.3 million barrels/day. The US is borrowing at least $1.5 billion/day from foreigners (and probably a lot more with the MOAB). These sorts of numbers cannot continue forever. The era of Happy Motoring will end, just when I can't say. We can prepare by using what time & resources we have, or we can just passively let things happen and hope for a miracle. Maybe we can harness the power of Obama's rhetoric to fuel our current way of life.
#9
I would like to see trains in the US take on a bit of a Ferry mentality. That is drive your car on the thing at one end, and off at the other. That way you could even take your dog with you and no worries about rental cars. Yeah loading and unloading would be a pain but nothing is perfect.
BEIJING (AP) -- China has imposed a requirement for its stimulus projects to use domestically made goods - a move that could strain ties with trading partners after Beijing criticized Washington's "Buy American" stimulus provisions. Projects must obtain official permission to use imported goods, said an order issued by China's main planning agency and eight other government bodies.
Even before the order, business groups worried that foreign companies might be excluded from construction and other projects financed by Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus. Foreign makers of wind turbines complain they have been shut out of bidding on a $5 billion stimulus-financed power project.
"Government investment projects should buy domestically made products unless products or services cannot be obtained in reasonable commercial conditions in China," says the order, dated June 1 and reported this week by state media. "Projects that really need to buy imports should be approved by the relevant government departments before purchasing activity starts."
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#1
The only products China imports are those that they can't make themselves. This is just posturing.
Besides, nobody gets rich from government contracts in China. Too many idiot government officials, no rule of law to fall back onto, and screwing foreigners is considered patriotic and the correct thing for Chinese people to do.
#2
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > THE [econ]RISE OF CHINA'S SOUTHWEST [Five provinces = approxi 250Milyuhn people]; + CHINA LOOKS TO REGIONAL INTEGRATION [inter-provicial]FOR NEW GROWTH POINT. No more province-specific/preferred or "separate but equal" econ policies amongst the PRC's provinces, at least for a while. DA WORD OF THE BIRD IS CLOSER PRO-DEV PRO-MODERNZ TRANS/MULTI- COOPERATION, PARTNERSHIP, + INTEGRATIONISM, ETC. AMAP ASAP ALAP.
The organization blamed the murders of late-term abortionist George Tiller in Kansas and Holocaust Museum security guard Stephen T. Johns on the "extreme right," explaining that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's much-criticized report warning about the threat of violence by "right-wing extremists" was in fact prophetic.
"Republican right denounced her timely report as an 'attack' on veterans, anti-abortionists, and anti-immigrant crusaders," the editorial said. "Some even called for her resignation."
The party also accused actor Jon Voight of threatening violence against Obama.
"The latest venom comes from actor Jon Voight who denounced President Obama at a GOP fundraiser as a 'softspoken Julius Caesar' that America must be 'freed' from," said the party. "'Bring an end to this false prophet, Obama,' Voight ranted, sounding like Brutus. It is a federal crime to threaten violence against the president."
The solution? The party said: "[T]he best answer is to defeat the hatemongers politically. Boycott Fox News. Demand Senate confirmation of Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, latest target of hate. Build maximum unity to win healthcare for all, employee free choice, 'green' jobs, immigrant reform, an end to wars, and a more inclusive, tolerant democracy in our country."
#1
Actually, Sotomayor was a tough prosecutor. As a judge, she was deferential to police witnesses.
Posted by: Uloluns Scourge of the Bunions1692 ||
06/17/2009 2:55
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#2
Sotomayor has slipped out of the limelight lately. Probably just slip smoothly through the Senate hearings.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/17/2009 6:04
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#3
"Build maximum unity to win healthcare for all, employee free choice, 'green' jobs, immigrant reform, an end to wars, and a more inclusive, tolerant democracy in our country."
Sounds like the 'Democratic' Party of the USA (like there's a difference)...
#5
Boycott Fox News? If I did that where would I find coverage of the demonstrations against David Letterman in front of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York? Certainly not from CBS.
But I guess the really story here is that commies like Sotomayor. It's no surprise.
LOS ANGELES -- While thousands protest in Iran over the disputed presidential election, a small minority of Iranian expatriates believes it has a solution for what troubles their homeland -- a democratically elected government and a return of a Shah. Nostalgic for life before the Islamic Revolution toppled the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi 30 years ago, they say Iranians will have more freedoms under the system they propose, but are quick to add that a monarch will only hold a figurehead position.
They are pushing for a democratic parliamentary system in which there's a clear separation of religion from government, and a monarch who unites the country's various ethnic groups, the late Shah's son Reza Pahlavi told The Associated Press on Monday.
While some name Pahlavi, 48, as the natural successor, he demurs. With or without a title, he said, he is committed to more freedoms for Iranians. "Right now I have only one mission in life and that is to help the process of bringing about change," he said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
what they forget is that the Pahlevi dynasty was neither long lived nor distinguished. Descended from a general who took power in a coup in the early 20th century. This aint no house of Hapsburg we are talking about.
From Eastern europe to Russia to afghanistan, whenever a regime totters, someone mentions the old ruling family. It never works out. Never (excluding the unique case of Spain). We may end up (if the protestors win) with an Iranian Republic minus the Islamic, or with an reformed Islamic Republic, but I wouldnt bet on a monarchy.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/17/2009 14:35
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Two American journalists sentenced last week to long prison terms in North Korean labor camps admitted during their trial that they crossed into North Korea illegally, and confessed to committing their crimes out of political motives, the Norths official news agency reported on Tuesday.
How badly were they treated before they 'confessed'?
The report by the state-run Korea Central News Agency represented the North Korean governments most detailed account to date of the shadowy circumstances surrounding the arrest, trial and conviction of Laura Ling, 36, and Euna Lee, 32, both journalists for San Francisco-based Current TV.
North Korea sentenced the journalists to 12 years of hard labor on charges of illegal entry and committing hostile acts, dismissing calls for clemency from the womens families, the United States and other governments.
It was unclear why the news agency released the information on Tuesday. According to Tuesdays report, the journalists were detained on the North Korean side of the Tumen River, which serves as part of the boundary between China and North Korea. The Tumen has been used for years by North Korean refugees defecting across the border. Unlike the swift and deep Yalu River, which runs along most of the border between the countries, the Tumen is shallow and narrow, and is easily crossed in spots on foot or by swimming.
The KCNA report said that the womens own confiscated video indicated that they crossed the river illegally. It also said that the women had admitted to fabricating some aspects of their video in order to defile the governments human rights record. During their trial, they admitted that what they did was a criminal act inspired by political motives of isolating and stifling our republic by defiling our human rights situation through fabricated video footage, the news agency said.
The two women were given courtroom interpreters during their trial at the Central Court, the Norths highest court. Ms. Ling was defended by a lawyer, but Ms. Lee gave up her right to hire a lawyer. The ruling cannot be appealed, the news agency said. The criminals admitted and accepted the judgment, the report said.
Human rights advocates in South Korea who had helped arrange their trip to China have said that the journalists were on a reporting assignment about the plight of North Korean women sold through human traffickers and refugees fleeing hunger in North Korea when they were detained on March 17. The journalists families said they had no intention of crossing the border to the North Korean side.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called the charges against them baseless. Washington has said it will employ all possible channels to secure their release.
Not really ...
American officials have said that the heavy sentences would likely be used as a negotiating ploy by the North as it tries to fend off a new United Nations resolution that imposes a mandatory ban on arms sales and calls on members to inspect cargo vessels and airplanes suspected of carrying military equipment in or out of the country.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
These are US citizens. They must be released. Ferris? anybody?
#2
I think the premise here has a ring of truth. These naive women crossed the border and probably admitted that the were reporting on the sex slave trade in china. Probably thinking that a) the norks would be apalled that such a thing was happening and b) they would get exclusives on the story. Reality hits liberals the hardest. Heck I should copyright that phrase.
#3
They knew what kind of regime they were playing around with. Play near the fire and you may end up getting burned. Probably to death in this case as few people come back from the work camps after the starvation and overwork.
Posted by: Jame retief ||
06/17/2009 10:37
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#4
North Korea sentences Al Gore's minions to years in a labor camp, the US should be so sane & rational.
#6
tu, their carbon footprint is probably pretty low. As I understand it, the North Korean regime is admired in green circles because of their low carbon lifestyles.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/17/2009 18:36
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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday directed social welfare secretaries of all four provinces to conduct a survey for documenting the record of eunuchs across the country.
A bench consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui was hearing a petition filed by Insaaf Welfare Trust Chairman Dr Muhammad Aslam Khaki. The petitioner has asked the court to order a stop to violations of human rights of eunuchs. The court also directed that the status of eunuchs be determined and the court be told whether they were living with their heads (gurus) of their own accord or had they been forced to do so.
The petitioner said the eunuchs were neither treated as males nor females and no rights had been determined for them. He asked the court to provide justice to them and treat them as human beings. He said this segment of society did not even have the right to vote.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
That is pretty ballsy of the Paki Supreme Court, if you ask me.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/17/2009 11:09
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#2
It'll be a eunuch experience, that's for sure.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/17/2009 13:16
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BAGHDAD Iraqs interior minister said Tuesday more than 40 police officers face charges after an investigation into prison abuse found inmates incarcerated without warrants and others with their rights violated.
Jawad al-Bolanis announcement came as the government tried to contain a scandal over charges of widespread torture in Iraqi prisons, which is threatening to become a major issue ahead of Jan. 30 national elections. He spoke during a tour of one of the most notorious prisons in eastern Baghdad, where prisoners were packed by the dozens into small cells with clothes hung on the wall to dry and pillows on the floor.
Politicians loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr whose followers were rounded up in droves last year as part of a crackdown against militia fighters kept up their pressure on the government over prison conditions. Sadrist lawmaker Ali al-Miyali told reporters Tuesday that torture has been used to extract confessions in a prison in the southern city of Diwaniyah and other facilities.
He also alleged that inmates have been detained on false accusations from politically motivated informants and some families have been forced to bribe corrupt police officers for the release of their relatives or even for visitation rights. We demand that the government punish those officers and eliminate them from the security services, he said.
More than 300 detainees from al-Sadrs movement began a hunger strike this weekend at the Rusafa prison in eastern Baghdad, hoping to draw attention to their plight, according to family members and aides to the cleric.
The issue took on added prominence last week when a Sunni lawmaker who was an outspoken advocate of rights for prisoners from both Islamic sects was killed after delivering a sermon at a Baghdad mosque. Harith al-Obeidi, the head of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, was slain Friday after delivering a sermon that raised the complaints of prisoner abuse. He also was involved in a parliamentary debate on the issue.
The interior minister said a special committee had looked into 112 complaints following a June 11 parliamentary session on the issue, al-Bolani said. The committee found 23 cases of human rights abuses and 20 cases of inmates incarcerated without warrants, leading to court action against 43 police officers, he said, adding that dozens of others were being questioned for allegations that have surfaced recently in the media.
Concern about abuse within the Iraqi judicial system has have been heightened as the United States has begun to turn over control to the Iraqis of thousands of detainees in its custody under a new security pact that would end the U.S. mission in Iraq by 2012.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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Interesting speculation at the Christian Science Monitor.
Airbus responds: "Non, non, certainement pas!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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Oh, yeah? I write little one-page homilies with a quality theme for my employer. Here's a piece of one that seems relevant:
In 2006, a near-miss lead to B-2 crews discovering the pitot tubes malfunctioned due to condensation. They also discovered that turning on the 500-degree pitot heat would quickly evaporate the water and the flight computer would receive normal readings.
But crews and maintainers never documented the procedure to use the pitot tube heaters to calibrate air pressure sensors. Some crews knew about the procedure, but on the day of the crash, calibration of the sensors did not include using the heaters. Three of the 24 air pressure sensors on the Spirit of Kansas fed distorted information into the flight control computer. When the aircraft reached 130 knots, the computer thought it was at the 140-knot takeoff speed and lifted off the runway for takeoff.
Not so bad, at that point, because aircraft are typically a full power on takeoff, but the sensors also indicated the bomber was in a nose-down attitude so it commanded a rapid climb that reached 30 degrees before the pilots could stop the climb about 80 feet off the runway. By this time, the low takeoff speed and high angle of attack caused the aircraft to stall. It rolled slightly to the left, and its left wing tip struck the ground. At that point the pilots ejected and survived with minimal injuries, but I fear their flying careers are over.
Ill bet you dollars to doughnuts that the B-2 takeoff checklist now includes an item about turning on the pitot tube heaters. Most rules are written in blood, or billions of dollars.
I've been re-using this lesson recently, because of the recent crash, but first wrote about it almost a year ago, prompted by a Rantburg article and video.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/17/2009 7:13
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The pitot tube seems like the 2000s version of the square airliner window. Since pilots don't fly the plane any more, the sensor inputs are top priority. You get garbage input, and the computer happily flies the plane into a stall. This isn't the first time I've heard the word pitot tube and it's always in connection with an incident.
I got courtesy D's in math and chemistry in high school, and my eyes cross when I look at equations. So I am grateful to Rantburg U for explanations like these.
QUETTA: Two shops were destroyed and a shop owner injured when the womens wing of the Baloch Republican Army (BRA) bombed a shop on the Mezan Chowk here on Tuesday. The blast occurred at around 1pm in a juice shop in one of the most crowded business centres of the provincial capital, destroying two neighbouring shops and injuring one of the shops owner.
The blast occurred shortly after a woman wearing a veil left the shop. She mustve left explosives in the shop, the owner of the juice shop told Daily Times.
The womens wing of the BRA, a hitherto unknown armed group struggling for a separate Baloch homeland, claimed responsibility for the blast. We accept responsibility for the bomb blast, said Gohar, spokeswoman of the womens wing of the BRA in telephone calls to several newspaper offices. She claimed to have personally put the explosives in the shop. More such attacks would be carried in the future, she warned
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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I said the jews, not the juice!
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 0:20
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Dang, I missed that when I posted the article last night. Nice pick-up, Ed!
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 13:12
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From a blog, but one that can translate. It's opinion' but seems genuine. See what you think.
Grand Ayatullah Husayn (Hossein) 'Ali Montazeri has issued a statement supporting peaceful protests to "claim rights", condemned the violence, and called the Iranian presidential election results into question.
"Confirmation" in the Western media seems to be slow in coming, but the statement (in Persian) has been released on Montazeri's official web site. A translation has been posted). Upon skimming sections, it seems like a reasonable translation. However, confirmation from a reader whose Persian is much better than mine is welcome.
There is some streamlining, e.g. of the introduction, where it reads "To the Iranian People" instead of "[to the] Noble People", which is closer to the literal translation. The word ملت can also be translated as "nation," thus, "Noble Nation."
The entire bismillah used by Muslims around the world to begin things is also cut short, "In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful...":
In the name of God
People of Iran
These last days, we have witnessed the lively efforts of you brothers and sisters, old and young alike, from any social category, for the 10th presidential elections.
Our youth, hoping to see their rightful will fulfilled, came on the scene and waited patiently. This was the greatest occasion for the governments officials to bond with their people.
But unfortunately, they used it in the worst way possible. Declaring results that no one in their right mind can believe, and despite all the evidence of crafted results, and to counter people protestations, in front of the eyes of the same nation who carried the weight of a revolution and 8 years of war, in front of the eyes of local and foreign reporters, attacked the children of the people with astonishing violence. And now they are attempting a purge, arresting intellectuals, political opponents and Scientifics.
Now, based on my religious duties, I will remind you :
1- A legitimate state must respect all points of view. It may not oppress all critical views. I fear that this lead to the lost of peoples faith in Islam.
2- Given the current circumstances, I expect the government to take all measures to restore peoples confidence. Otherwise, as I have already said, a government not respecting peoples vote has no religious or political legitimacy.
3- I invite everyone, specially the youth, to continue reclaiming their dues in calm, and not let those who want to associate this movement with chaos succeed.
4- I ask the police and army personals not to sell their religion, and beware that receiving orders will not excuse them before god. Recognize the protesting youth as your children. Today censor and cutting telecommunication lines can not hide the truth.
I pray for the greatness of the Iranian people.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
This is not a significant development.
Montazeri is a Grand Ayatollah, but he was sidelined a couple of decades ago in a falling out with Khomeini. He has often issued this sort of opinion and has always been ignored. He is known as the dissident Ayatollah.
Now, if some other Grand Ayatollahs were to issue concurring statements that would be something.
The new chief of MI6, Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), will be Sir John Sawers, currently Britain's Ambassador to the United Nations, Downing Street announced Tuesday.
Sir John will take up his job in early November, replacing Sir John Scarlett who has spent more than five years in the post, has switched there from his controversial role as head of the Joint Intelligence Committee in the run up to the Iraq war.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official spokesman said: "Sir John Scarlett has done an important and valuable job in guiding the SIS through a period of change and making a real contribution to protecting Britain from international terrorism and other global threats." The spokesman insisted Sir John Scarlett's move had no connection whatsoever with the impending inquiry into the Iraq war, at which he is expected to be a key witness.
Sir John Sawers, a career diplomat, had previously been the Foreign Office's political director and also worked as an envoy in Baghdad and as foreign affairs adviser to ex-premier Tony Blair in No 10. During his time in that post, 1999-2001, Sir John was heavily involved in the Kosovo conflict and the Northern Ireland peace process. He has also worked in the British Embassy in Washington and has been ambassador to Cairo. He worked in South Africa between 1988 and 1991 during the initial stages of the end of apartheid.
But, intriguingly, the Downing Street announcement said Sir John was "re-joining SIS." Brown's spokesman said it would "not be appropriate" to say when he had left SIS.
His appointment was confirmed by Foreign Secretary David Miliband and formally approved by Brown.
Sir John, 52, studied physics and philosophy at Nottingham University in central England, and also joined Harvard University in the US.
His replacement as the UK Permanent Representative to the UN has yet to be announced.
LONDON - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Tuesday he had "friendly" talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about four Guantanamo inmates sent to Bermuda, but made clear his frustration. He added that the status of the four Uighurs -- from a mostly Muslim minority living in China's northwestern Xinjiang province -- remained "unclear."
It's clear that Bambi is making a concerted effort to cheese off one of our best allies ...
That's why he's cheesing them off - because they were our strongest ally in Iraq and Afghanistan. The pattern seems to be rather clear.
US authorities last week ignored demands by China for custody of the four, who had served seven years at Guantanamo Bay, and flew them from Cuba to Bermuda, an Atlantic archipelago that accepted them in a guest-worker program. The Foreign Office was clearly caught short by the transfer, and said that authorities on Bermuda -- a British overseas territory which has a degree of autonomy -- should have consulted London over the transfer.
London had apparently not been alerted to the transfer by the administration of US President Barack Obama either, but the British government has voiced no criticism of Washington.
"We are obviously in touch with the American authorities. I've spoken to Secretary Clinton about it. I gave her my explanation of what I believe (happened)," Miliband told a parliamentary committee.
Asked if he had had a frank conversation with Clinton, he said: "It's always a friendly conversation with Hillary Clinton. But we have no doubts about what should have happened in this case and it didn't."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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A special North Korean train which transported a long-range rocket or intercontinental ballistic missile to a launch site in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province in May recently moved from a missile research center in Sanum-dong, Pyongyang to another launch site in Musudan-ri, North Hamgyong Province, a South Korean government source said Tuesday.
South Korean and U.S. authorities believe the North may have transported a second intercontinental missile to the launch site. The North launched a long-range rocket from Musudan-ri on April 5, which had also been transported by special train.
Seoul and Washington are wondering whether the North will launch two long-range missiles from both launch sites at the same time or whether the train is just a smokescreen to confuse watchers.
North Korea has threatened to launch another missile in protest against UN sanctions over its nuclear test. It apparently has three to four intercontinental ballistic missiles, and may be keeping one or two more at the research center in Sanum-dong.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Ya better stop it, Norks, or, or Bryan Williams will hold his breath until he turns blue! So there!
#3
Just the kind of thing Operation Lemony Snickett would approve of, 3dc ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 9:24
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WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC PRESIDENT OF CHINESE PEOPLE'S INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: CHINA AND NORTH KOREA'S RELATIONS IS NO LONGER ONE OF MILITARY ALLIANCE. NORTH KOREA'S MISSLES THREATENS ONLY THE USA, NOT CHINA, HENCE ONLY THE USA SHOULD BE THE ONE TO RESOLVE/DEAL WITH PYONGYANG. NORTH KOREA'S GOVT. SEEMS TO INTENS PREFER POLICIES WHICH KEEPS THE COUNTRY IN PERMANENT DANGER. SOUTH KOREA AND CHINA ARE SIMUL THE TWO COUNTRIES IN ASIA MOST AT THREAT, AND MOST TO BENEFIT, FROM THE NORTH KOREA CRISIS [ this + previous]???
YEKATERINBURG, Russia -- Leaders of the four largest emerging market economies discussed ways to reduce their reliance on the United States at their first formal summit meeting on Tuesday. But they concluded with only a cautious statement suggesting a move away from the dollar's role in global commerce and a call for greater representation of developing countries in global financial institutions.
By some predictions, the four nations, Brazil, Russia, India and China, a group referred to as the BRIC group, will surpass the current leading economies by the middle of this century, a tectonic shift that by this reckoning will eventually nudge the United States and Western Europe away from the center of world productivity and power.
Until the Russians implode demographically and the Chinese fall apart into several warring states.
Russia's president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said the main point of the meeting was to show that "the BRIC should create conditions for a more just world order."
MARDAN: Two policemen were killed and three wounded late on Monday when Taliban attacked a police checkpost in Mardan. According to police officials, the Taliban opened fire on the Kharkai checkpost. Policemen Sakhi Jan and Nazir died instantly, while three others were injured. They were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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The Australian Government has sent a team of officials to northern Sri Lanka to look at the camps where hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians are being held by the Sri Lankan government.
More than 280,000 Tamils have been held in camps guarded by the Sri Lankan military ever since the military smashed the Tamil Tigers more than a month ago. Among the detainees are three Australian Tamils who the Sri Lankan government says must be screened like everybody else to see if they are members of the Tamil Tigers. The Australian detainees are a 62-year old man and two women aged 26 and 29.
According to a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australian diplomats based in Sri Lanka have been trying to "obtain urgent access" to these people. Weeks have gone by, but they still have not managed to get to them.
That's going to be a problem; foreign nationals detained in a country are supposed to have access to counselor officials.
DFAT says it has heard nothing to suggest Australians are not safe and it is helping their families in Australia, but there is also puzzling uncertainty about their fate.
Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Canberra, Senaka Walgampaya, says his government does not even know who they are or where they are. "They have so far not identified the persons and when they are identified and if in fact they are there, then they will have to be questioned as to what they were doing," he said.
The Australian head of the International Commission of Jurists, former New South Wales Supreme Court Judge and Attorney-General John Dowd, says the Australians are caught up in an increasingly worrying nightmare. "We can't wait for an interminable delay while the Sri Lankan Government works out who it says are combatants and who it says aren't," he said.
Several staff members from the Australian High Commission in the capital Colombo are visiting Sri Lanka's north to look at camp conditions, talk to the United Nations, aid groups and Sri Lankan government agencies. But the Sri Lankan government has banned independent observers who want regular access to the camps.
"What's going on, why can't the world be allowed in? There can only be things that the Sri Lankan Government doesn't want us to see and that's a real concern," Justice Dowd said.
The International Commission of Jurists says the conditions there are not the only worry.
Justice Dowd says the purpose of the camps may breach the convention against genocide. "The convention covers forced movement of people. These people are being forcibly moved from the areas where they surrendered to other parts of Sri Lanka," he said. "The real concern is that they're not going to be returned, that in fact they're going to move them, transfer the population, and put other people in."
Yesterday the deputy chief of Australia's Navy, Rear Admiral David Thomas, made an unannounced visit to Colombo to meet the chief of Sri Lanka's defence staff. The Defence Department says it was a goodwill visit to meet senior Sri Lankan defence officials to exchange views on regional security.
The Department of Foreign Affairs was more explicit. It says the two men discussed people smuggling.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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That's going to be a problem; foreign nationals detained in a country are supposed to have access to counselor officials.
If they're Sri Lanka nationals with double passports, they're out of luck. Sri Lanka considers them its citizens and that's it. They're lucky they're the wrong age for the draft.
June 16 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. judge urged Justice Department lawyers to decide if theyll seek the death penalty for Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who is now facing civilian charges over his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in New York, who is presiding over the case, said at a hearing today in Manhattan federal court that the Justice Department should decide quickly. The judge said hes sure the government is considering the issue and should speedily resolve an issue that may linger for months.
This case gets tried in 2010, if it gets tried at all, Kaplan said today at a hearing.
Ghailani is the first Guantanamo inmate to be tried in a U.S. civilian court. He was transferred to New York last week to face charges that he participated in the Al Qaeda-sponsored bombing of U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. Four others were convicted in a 2001 trial in Manhattan and are serving life sentences.
Ghailani was held at the Guantanamo military facility since 2006. He faces 286 counts including a charge of cooperating with Osama Bin Laden and other members of al-Qaeda to kill Americans around the world, according to a Justice Department statement.
In 2008, the U.S. moved to try Ghailani before a military commission and sought the death penalty.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Raskin told Kaplan today that hes not optimistic that the death penalty decision will be decided as quickly as the judge wants. Theres still a process, he said, adding that he would try to speed the decision along.
Also today, Kaplan appointed two civilian lawyers to represent Ghailani and said he would add two military lawyers to the defense team if the Defense Department gives them permission to join. Ghailani has asked that the military lawyers represent him, as they did at Guantanamo.
Kaplan said he expected the defense to file a request that the case be dismissed because the government waited too long to bring Ghailani into court in the embassy bombing case. Ghailani was first indicted in 1998 in New York. He was captured in 2004 and transferred to Guantanamo in 2006. Bin Laden was also charged with Ghailani in the case.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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Mossad chief Meir Dagan on Tuesday told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the riots in Iran over the election results will die out in a few days rather than escalate into a revolution. "The reality in Iran is not going to change because of the elections. The world and we already know [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad. If the reformist candidate [Mir Hossein] Mousavi had won, Israel would have had a more serious problem because it would need to explain to the world the danger of the Iranian threat, since Mousavi is perceived internationally arena as a moderate element...It is important to remember that he is the one who began Iran's nuclear program when he was prime minister."
According to Dagan, "Election fraud in Iran is no different than what happens in liberal states during elections. The struggle over the election results in Iran is internal and is unconnected to its strategic aspirations, including its nuclear program."
He thinks what happened in Iran is the same as France or the US? That's just bizarre ...
Dagan also told the committee the Mossad believed that Iran would have its first nuclear bomb ready for action in 2014, "If the project continues at the present rate and is not interrupted."
The Mossad chief said that Western sanctions affect Iran but do not stop its nuclear aspirations, and that the Iranians were trying to evade these sanctions. "The international community must enforce the sanctions and continue this policy." Dagan said that if the sanctions were sufficiently harsh they could stop Iran's nuclear program.
With regard to Iran's support for Hezbollah and Hamas, a senior Mossad official told the committee Tuesday that Iran was continuing to fund and control Hezbollah, but its control of Hamas was limited for now. The official explained that Hamas is maintaining its independence because of its extensive relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood. However, defense officials also say that relations between Hamas and Iran will grow stronger in the future. "The reason for the strengthening of these ties is money and arms, both of which Hamas needs and Iran is willing to give."
According to the senior official, Iran wants to strengthen its position in the region and reach the hegemony Egypt enjoyed in the 1960s and '70s. These aspirations are a cause of great tension in and concern among moderate states in the region such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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"Dagan said that if the sanctions were sufficiently harsh they could stop Iran's nuclear program."
With Mossads chiefs like this...
Posted by: Large Snerong7311 ||
06/17/2009 0:36
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andy sullivan is getting hysterical about this.
I say to you what i would say to Sullivan. THINK. If there is debate about what the impact of a BHO statement on Iran would be imagine the what the Iran media would do with "head of Mossad endorses Moussavi"
This is not to say that there arent israelis who think (like Obama) that there no real diff between moussavi and dinnerjacket, but Moussavi would mask it better. But the Dagan statement can be explained differently as well.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/17/2009 14:32
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WASHINGTON: The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday unanimously passed the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act, (Kerry-Lugar Bill) authorising $1.5 billion annually to the key anti-terror ally for the next five years.
A neat $150 million for President Ten-Percent ...
The bipartisan measure will now have to pass the full chamber before the Senate and the House of Representative hold a conference to arrive at a reconciled version of the bill. The US House has already passed the bill.
Committee Chairman Senator John Kerry emphasised it is timely the US supported Pakistans anti-militancy drive as well as help look after the displaced people of Malakand. This is a critical moment for Pakistan, he said. He said Pakistan is taking critical action against the Taliban and stressed the displacement of millions of people from Swat and other northwestern parts offered the US and Pakistan an opportunity to help relocate them. It is all the more important to get the money moving at this moment, he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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Did Khamenei assure him that everything was under control at home?
YEKATERINBURG, RUSSIA Russia welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday on his first trip abroad since his bitterly disputed re-election, a show of support for a leader facing massive protests at home and questions from the West about the legitimacy of the vote count.
Ahmadinejad arrived in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg and sat down for talks at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes Russia, China and four Central Asian nations. Iran has observer status in the grouping, widely seen as a counterbalance to U.S. interest in the region.
A senior Russian diplomat hailed Ahmadinejad's visit as evidence of strong ties between Russia and Iran. "It's quite symbolic that the Iranian president arrived in Russia on his first foreign visit since re-election," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said at a briefing. "We see that as a sign that the Russian-Iranian relations will advance further."
So you guys are still hoping to get paid for the reactor, eh ...
Ahmadinejad had been expected to arrive Monday and meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the summit. He postponed the trip for one day amid persistent street protests in Iran following his re-election Friday in a vote his main opponents claim were rigged. Iran's state radio says at least seven people died in clashes in Tehran.
Ryabkov said the election was Iran's internal affair, but he endorsed Ahmadinejad as the victor. "We welcome the fact that the elections have taken place, and we welcome the newly re-elected Iranian president on the Russian soil," he said. "We see this visit as a reflection of partner-like, neighborly and traditionally friendly relations between Moscow and Tehran."
It was unclear whether Medvedev would meet with Ahmadinejad on Tuesday.
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ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army has formally recieved marching orders against Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and preparations for the first phase of a miltary operation in South Waziristan have already been completed, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Athar Abbas said on Tuesday.
They've been saying this for a few days ...
The government has taken a principled decision to launch a military operation against Baitullah and his network, Abbas said. Abbas told a press conference which he addressed alongside Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira that 13 terrorists were killed and another three were apprehended in Malakand and Dir during the last 24 hours. Abbas also said Baitullah claimed the support of a 10,000-strong militia.
Abbas said Peochar valley, a stronghold for the Taliban, had been secured completely and a link up from Chaprial to Peochar had been completed.
He said the civil administration and police had become fully functional in Shangla. Kaira said the government would provide the army all the resources it needed to successfully complete the operation against the Taliban. The minister did not rule out the possibility of weapons flowing into the Tribal Areas from Afghanistan.
Abbas said there were unconfirmed reports that Uzbek militant leader Tahir Yuldashev was injured in a Pakistan Air Force strike on Sunday in the Makeen area of South Waziristan. He gave no further details.
Pray for sepsis ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Basic coverage of the most recent events here if you need to catch up.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Thousands of pro-reform protesters marched Tuesday in a second straight day of large street demonstrations in the Iranian capital, defying the government after the clerical regime said it would recount some disputed ballots from the presidential election.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Iranians to unite behind the cleric-led ruling system despite the rival demonstrations and street clashes, state television reported, and he said representatives of all four candidates should be present for any limited recount of disputed ballots. "In the elections, voters had different tendencies, but they equally believe in the ruling system and support the Islamic Republic," said Khamenei, who is Iran's ultimate authority.
Ain't necessarily so ...
The supporters of reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi marched about the same time--but in a different location--as a state-organized rally that also drew thousands of people waving flags and pictures of Iran's supreme leader in an apparent attempt to reclaim the streets for the government.
Following a demonstration of hundreds of thousands of Mousavi supporters on Monday, the regime issued tough restrictions on journalists, barring foreign media from covering rallies in Tehran.
Witnesses and amateur video showed a large column of Mousavi supporters walking peacefully along a central avenue in north Tehran. A witness told The Associated Press that the pro-Mousavi rally stretched more than a mile (1.5 kilometers) along Vali Asr avenue, from Vanak Square to the headquarters of Iranian state television.
Security forces did not interfere, the witness said, and the protest lasted from about 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Other witnesses told the AP that about 100 people were still protesting in front of state TV around 9:45 p.m. A correspondent for state-controlled Press TV correspondent said the crowd carried banners of Mousavi, wore green headbands and covered their mouths in an apparent defense against tear gas.
The clerical government appears to be trying to defuse popular anger and quash unrest by announcing the limited recount even as it cracks down on foreign media and shows its strength by calling supporters to the streets.
"This nation will protect and defend its revolution in any way," Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a prominent lawmaker and supporter of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told the pro-government crowd in Vali Asr Square. The people pumped their fists in the air and cheered in support, images on state-run television showed.
Iranian state media said the government organized the rally to demand punishment for those who protested violently after Monday's rally. Mousavi has said he won Friday's balloting and has demanded the government annul Ahmadinejad's victory and conduct a new election.
Khamenei said Monday the government would conduct an investigation into the election. The move seemed intended to calm protester anger but was followed by a rally of hundreds of thousands of people that presented one of the greatest challenges to Iran's government since it took power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In Washington, President Barack Obama said the disputed election revealed a change in expectations among voters and perhaps their leaders, but he stopped short of saying the balloting was rigged.
"I do believe that something has happened in Iran," with Iranians more willing to question the government's "antagonistic postures" toward the world, Obama said. "There are people who want to see greater openness, greater debate, greater democracy."
Iran's state radio said seven people were killed in clashes from Monday's protest--the first official confirmation of deaths linked to the street battles following the disputed election.
Witnesses saw people firing from the roof of a building used by a state-backed militia after some Mousavi supporters set fire to the building and tried to storm it.
Mousavi supporters had called for demonstrations Tuesday but Mousavi said in a message in his Web site he would not be attending any rally and asked his supporters to "not fall in the trap of street riots" and "exercise self-restraint."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
The people who fixed the election have promised to investigate the question of whether or not the election was fixed. Hmm, I wonder what they will conclude.
One he can't. Its all about him not them. So why would he so soon contradict himself from his Cairo speech? Secondly, he is not a democrat in terms of Democracy/Liberty/Pursuit of Happiness - he is a Marxist radical with the largest narcissistic ego in the history of our great Republic. None of this works for HIM.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/17/2009 10:50
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#4
If anything significant is going to come of all this they are going to have to do more than just rally. At some point they will either get organized and take some kind of action or else let the whole thing fizzle. Waiting for a recount of the votes is pointless unless they use that time to get organized and come up with some kind of a plan. Mousavi may have been the spark that ignited the protests but it sounds like he is ready to knuckle under after a bogus recount shows that he lost the bogus election. The fix was in from the get go and he had to at least suspect as much. The question is: will anyone have the skills and support from the masses to organize a putsch and, if so, who?
by rally and showing the regime cant stop them, they rob the regime of its image of power and authority. That is the first step, and the biggest. Where they head next depends on many things, including how the regime security forces break. There are videos showing uniformed police smiling at crowds - at the same token the folks breaking heads in all seem to be baseegi militia, and some spec riot police. The reg army is quiet, and so far the uniformed Rev Guards seem to be mainly quiet. Which way they go has a huge impact. Think Tiananmen and Burma - but also think Moscown 1991, and Bucharest 1989.
If all of the security forces stay loyal to khameni and dinnerjacket, that makes things very, very hard. But the situation is almost certainly fluid. Certainly grabbing for control of govt ministries now is probably not a good idea.
note also, there are rumors Rafsanjani is trying to get the expediency council to fire Khameni. that is nominally legal under their islamic constitution, but its never been done.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/17/2009 14:27
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#6
Pre-Islamic Persia had an historical event that sort of translates to "The day they killed all the priests". One can hope the spirit lives on.
#7
I guess I'm thinking more along the lines of Moscow 1917 where there were competing forces waiting to wrest control from Czar Nicholas II. It'd be a bummer if the Iranians swapped mullahs for commies.
#8
1. I havent heard a word out of the Tudeh party, the old mainstream Commie party in Iran. I think they sort of went dud a while ago. There is an active labor movement (bus drivers, for example) who have done strikes in the past - I think they support Moussavi, and are not totalitarians. MEK, the commie group that used to be based in Iraq, and which we have supported from time to time, has a website, but I dont think they are real strong in country.
Really, a commie takeover most unlikely, and even if they did, given the absence of a genooine commie regime to give them support (dont call billionaire supporters in Beijing commies, please) I dont think they would be real strong.
If there is an analogy to 1917, its Moussavi as Kerensky, and genuine pro-western secularists as Lenin. Except in this case Moussavi is rather more ruthless than the secularists, and the peace land bread issues arent there.
No, best analogy of all is Romania, 1989. Genuine hunger for liberty on the street, being manipulated by moderate elements of the regime to dispose of the dangerous loony elements of the regime. In romania it eventually worked out relatively well. No assurance it will get that far in Iran, but likely not to get worse.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/17/2009 16:23
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LE BOURGET, France -- Boeing said on Tuesday that it was prepared to go head to head with its European rival, EADS, to win a bitterly contested $35 billion contract from the Air Force by converting its 777 passenger plane -- a bigger aircraft than Airbus is offering -- into a refueling tanker.
In what will be the third effort in a decade to replace the Air Force's aging tanker fleet, the Department of Defense is expected to release soon a preliminary request for proposals, according to executives from both companies.
No military contract has stirred as much rancor between Boeing and Airbus as the refueling tanker. The contract, which was first let in the late 1990s, was awarded in February to a consortium of Northrup Grumman and the Airbus parent, European Aeronautic Defense and Space, only to be withdrawn in September after investigators called the selection process flawed.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
Will Airbus warranty their flight control system?
#2
Ah, great. We get to do it again because the result came out wrong. Never mind that Boeing was corrupt as hell and their product sucked, it's all about USA vs. Europe jingoism.
Let Airbus compete freely in the U.S. and Boeing freely in Europe.
Result: Best quality
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/17/2009 11:40
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#4
Tornado, Eurofighter, A400M, NH90. Should I go on?
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 11:55
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You guys ever deal with the USAF procurement folks? I'm talking about the whole chain, from requirements to contracts. In my experience, they are nothing but screw ups, especially at the requirements end of the chain. While Boeing probably had their own set of issues, I am hesistant to place the blame squarley upon them.
#6
I agree with EC. If the Airbus is the better tanker then that's the one the USAF should buy.
It's the whole process of figuring out which one is 'better' (they're both going to do the job, we already know that) that is so sordid.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 13:11
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#7
Ed, the EADS tanker was much much better than the POS 767 Boeing originally offered. Stop being stupid.
Boeing is only now doing what it should have done to begin with: make a longer-legged, higher capacity, modern airframe, modern avionics tanker, based of the 777, in stead of trying to force the original POS 767 design on the USAF mainly in order to keep their 767 assembly lines open.
Ed, contrary to your ignorant snarks, the original Boeing offer was NOT what the USAF asked for, and it was not up to spec, nor did it conform to what the USAF needed operationally, The EADS tanker did - and would have been 45% American made parts from Grumman (engines, avionics primarily), and assembled in a plant in Alabama.
The good news is that Boeing *is* going to offer a competitive and possibly superior aircraft (IUt is a larger aircraft and will lift more, meaning it will probably win on merits).
Let the competition be fairly done and give our military the best aircraft we can get that fits the requirements.
The only reason this was such a CF in the previous iteration, was that Boeing management was too damned arrogant and thought they could force whatever THEY wanted onto the Airforce.
#8
No Oldspook. Sending $40 billion (or $22 billion if you like) to Europe when a perfectly good aircraft are made here is irresponsible. In addition, at least another $40 billion will be spent on parts for those aircraft. In addition to the addition, there are 600 tankers (another $100 billion + spares) that need to be replaced. Whoever gets this contract has the leg up for following purchases.
Whether you think the A330 or B767 is immaterial. The Air Force asked for a tanker to replace the KC-135. THAT was the requirement to meet. A larger cargo volume did not figure into the RFP. It was EADS/NG that cried late in the game, after the aircraft were submitted, that they would take their ball and go home unless the Air Force changed the requirements in favor of the larger A330, btw whose airframe is 33% more expensive, burns more fuel and is more expensive to operate.
That is what the GAO said violated procurement rules and voided the award. Now Boeing is going to do to EADS what they did EADS did. They are going to submit a plane even larger and higer performing than the A330, costs more and burns more fuel. Let's see the Air Force wiggle their way out of this.
As for being stupid, do you think weakening the only industrial sector that still shows a trade balance is stupid? Do you want to see the aircraft industry go the same way as cars, electronics, chemicals, medical equipment? Europe sure does not. That is why I mentioned those pan-European aircraft projects. Let's take the latest examples:
A400M - $200-225 million for 40% of the payload, less speed and range of the C-17 ($200M).
NH-90 - $25m for slightly less specs that the UH-60M ($12M).
Let's not mention the decade late Tornado and Eurofighter or a whole host of other European weapons that cost 2-3X for less performance but are bought because they are designed and made in Europe by Europeans. Remove the beam before we talk about the moat.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 13:54
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#9
STICK TO THE TOPIC. If you want to talk helicopters, etc, go start another article.
Ge your facts straight about the issue at hand and stop your off topic whinging about other issues. IT DOESN'T MATTER BECAUSE WE ARE DISCUSSING TANKERS - not helicopters for the president, etc. The issue HERE is TANKERS. And I am all about getting the best we can for people on the line. The EADS was it, the 767 was not. Can you get that into your thick skull past your blinders?
Don't blame the Euros for showing up with a better plane that met the USAF needs - blame Boeing for not showing up with a plane that could have done so easily to begin with.
"perfectly good aircraft are made here "
And there's your problem. The 767 was NOT "perfectly good". It would have forced the USAF into changing strategy and operations with its shorter legs and lesser capacity, it would have reduced the flexibility of the expeditionary air forces with its lower cargo capacity, and it was a much older design which means it was less efficient, and higher time/labor/cost to maintain.
So you completely missed the point: Had Boeing put the effort into a 777 instead of a 767 solution, the mess would never have happened. 777 bigger, better lift, better efficiency, better legs, better avionics, better (more modern) design than the 767. But its going to take Boeing a couple of years to fully flesh out the design to the point where they can produce it. EADS is less capable than the 777 but more than the 767, and is ready to go to production NOW. So we are stuck, and will likely have to split the contract - the current tanker fleet is falling apart.
Understand now? You're wrong about the original Boeing offer, for what seem to be idiotically blind jingoist reasons. Admit it, you were wrong, Boeing deserved to lose, and you move on to the 777 which is what should have been there all along. The problem is immediately obvious to juat about anyone willing to think: Boeing management blew this, and our Armed Forces will suffer due to delays cause by Boeings incompetence. And that's what has me pissed -- our armed forces are losing capability due to bungling by Boeing.
#10
STICK TO THE TOPIC. If you want to talk helicopters, etc, go start another article.
Ge your facts straight about the issue at hand and stop your off topic whinging about other issues. IT DOESN'T MATTER BECAUSE WE ARE DISCUSSING TANKERS - not helicopters for the president, etc. The issue HERE is TANKERS. And I am all about getting the best we can for people on the line. The EADS was it, the 767 was not. Can you get that into your thick skull past your blinders?
Technological and economic patriotism too complex a topic for you? It's been part of the pan-European identity building process (as is fostering anti-Americanism, the external enemy). That Europeans will spend 2X for less capability in order to provide independence from America and export revenue too much to grasp? Don't respond to my comment then later claim I'm off topic. Want to see a real thick head? Look in the mirror.
Don't blame the Euros for showing up with a better plane that met the USAF needs - blame Boeing for not showing up with a plane that could have done so easily to begin with.
It isn't what the Air Force asked for. They asked for a straight replacement for the KC-135. There is very good reason they did that, which I will explain later. The B767 is that replacement, the A330 is not.
"perfectly good aircraft are made here "
And there's your problem. The 767 was NOT "perfectly good". It would have forced the USAF into changing strategy and operations with its shorter legs and lesser capacity, it would have reduced the flexibility of the expeditionary air forces with its lower cargo capacity, and it was a much older design which means it was less efficient, and higher time/labor/cost to maintain.
EXACTLY the opposite is true. The B767 profile matches the 135's within a few feet. It has about 10% greater payload, but being a widebody, more cargo volume. That means, like the KC-10, both the B767 and A330 can self deploy with their crew. No advantage either way. But because the A330 costs 1/3 more, for the same cost that means 4 B767s for every 3 A330s. That means fewer refueling probes in the air (very important). The A330s though do burn more fuel, the single biggest operations cost.
What the B767 can do, and the A330 can't, is use the current flightline profile and hangers. The A330 does not fit and will require new infrastructure like more tarmac and new hangers. You know those really big and really expensive buildings off the flight line will have to be replaced. That means fewer aircraft can be bought.
Tarmac space is also at a premium during overseas ops. Think Saudi 1991 or Bagram. That means fewer A330s can be deployed. (KEY) The most important factor in air refueling is the number of probes/drogues in the air. That determines the number of aircraft that can be refueled which determines the size of the strike packages that can be supported. Otherwise the Air Force would have been flying B747 refuelers for the last 30 years. The B767 win hands down both in cost, support and flightline requirements.
So you completely missed the point: Had Boeing put the effort into a 777 instead of a 767 solution, the mess would never have happened.
Not really. Boeing's been working on the B777 proposal all this time. The critical refueling gear directly transfers from the B767 program. The 777F requires much less airframe modification than the passenger A330. The critical factor in getting planes in the air was EADS/NG whinging that delayed the contract awarding for a year, then the cancellation for improprieties.
The Air Force RFP did not ask for a A330 or B777 size aircraft. The RFP asked for specs circumscribed by the KC-135. The B777 is TOO LARGE for a tanker and will decrease total air refueling capacity. The A330 less so. Boeing submitted the right plane the first time.
777 bigger, better lift, better efficiency, better legs, better avionics, better (more modern) design than the 767. But its going to take Boeing a couple of years to fully flesh out the design to the point where they can produce it.
Not really. Boeing been working on the B777 proposal all this time. The critical refueling gear directly transfers from the B767 program. The KC-135R fleet is good to 2040. The E's will have to be SLEP'd to R specs.
EADS is less capable than the 777 but more than the 767, and is ready to go to production NOW. So we are stuck, and will likely have to split the contract - the current tanker fleet is falling apart.
Understand now? You're wrong about the original Boeing offer,
You are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG about tanking, hence you do not understanding the basis for the original Air Force request. All 3 tankers can service the SAME number of receiving aircraft.
The A330 STILL hasn't off loaded any fuel. It's not ready for primetime.
for what seem to be idiotically blind jingoist reasons. Admit it, you were wrong, Boeing deserved to lose, and you move on to the 777 which is what should have been there all along. The problem is immediately obvious to juat about anyone willing to think: Boeing management blew this, and our Armed Forces will suffer due to delays cause by Boeings incompetence. And that's what has me pissed -- our armed forces are losing capability due to bungling by Boeing.
Wrong. It is Air Force bungling and political meddling that threw discipline and requirements out the window. EADS/NG bitching and maneuvering caused a year delay in awarding the contract. A year (now 3 or 4) that is lost. The B777 tanker is exactly the WRONG tanker because the number of refueling probes/drogues determines the air refueling capacity.
In the end, the Air Force will get B777 tankers that have twice the fuel/cargo capacity of the B767 but 1/2 the airframes (2X cost). That means effective air refueling capability is cut in half. Had the Air Force any balls to enforce the original RFP on the original timeline they could have B767 tankers in operation. Just like the Japanese and Italians.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 22:46
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The sacked Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya said on Tuesday his Hamas movement backed the establishment of a Palestinian state within the borders of the pre-June 5, 1967, Middle East war.
"The envisaged state should have full sovereignty over the Palestinian territories and have Jerusalem as its capital," Haniya said in a joint press conference with visiting former US president Jimmy Carter here.
The Hamas government, ruling in Gaza, works with other Paleofactions to maintain the fragile ceasefire with Israel pending the arrival at a longer-term settlement to the conflict, he pointed out.
"The basic prerequisites of such settlement are; the reopening of Gaza crossings, and the prisoner swap," Haniya stressed. Carter has held talks with Hamas leaders on the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, he said noting that his government is pressing for a fair and humanitarian deal that can ensure Shalit's release in return for thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Carter voiced hope that the Paleofactions would be able to stop killing each other long enough to restore their national unity as a prelude to resumption of the peace talks with Israel.
Carter, now on a Middle East tour, said he would offer a report on the outcome of the tour to US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Obama's special Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
During his stay in Gaza, he inspected the large-scale destruction inflicted on the enclave by the Israeli military offensive early this year. Carter noted that many of the weapons, used by the Israeli army to destroy civilian targets including factories, schools - notably the US school, and Hamas premises during the war on Gaza, were US-made. He voiced outcry about the horrible scenes of destruction and the heavy loss of innocent lives.
As the embattled government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears to be trying to limit Internet access and communications in Iran, new kinds of social media are challenging those traditional levers of state media control and allowing Iranians to find novel ways around the restrictions.
Iranians are blogging, posting to Facebook and, most visibly, coordinating their protests on Twitter, the messaging service. Their activity has increased, not decreased, since the presidential election on Friday and ensuing attempts by the government to restrict or censor their online communications.
On Twitter, reports and links to photos from a peaceful mass march through Tehran on Monday, along with accounts of street fighting and casualties around the country, have become the most popular topic on the service worldwide, according to Twitter's published statistics. A couple of Twitter feeds have become virtual media offices for the supporters of the leading opposition candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi. One feed, mousavi1388 (1388 is the year in the Persian calendar), is filled with news of protests and exhortations to keep up the fight, in Persian and in English. It has more than 7,000 followers.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
In case it happens in your country download (don't install) http://www.torproject.org/
CAIRO Egypt appointed a new ambassador to Baghdad Tuesday, ending a four year hiatus after Cairos chief envoy to Iraq was kidnapped and killed by al-Qaida, said a government spokesman.
The president named career diplomat Sherif Kamal Chahine, the current envoy to Zambia, to the post, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki, without elaborating on when the appointment would take effect.
Zaki said the move would restore vitality and strength to bilateral ties.
After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the post-Saddam Hussein government struggled to build ties with other Arab nations. Several have since named ambassadors to Baghdad, reflecting growing Arab acceptance of Iraqs Shiite-led government that also has close ties with Iran.
Iraqs deputy foreign minister Labid Abbawi said five other Arab countries have named ambassadors to Baghdad Kuwait, Syria, Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates while five others have charge daffaires.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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Close aides of Kim Jong-un, the 26-year-old third son and heir apparent of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, last week attempted to assassinate the leader's first son Jong-nam, KBS reported Monday citing Chinese government sources.
Nothing like a little sibling rivalry ...
Aides to Kim Jong-un planned to assassinate Jong-nam, who lives in Macau, after first eliminating his close aides in North Korea. The sources said, "It seems they tried to assassinate Kim Jong-nam without telling Kim Jong-il."
Then again, Daddy might not mind ...
The plan was foiled when the Chinese government found out about it early last week. "The Chinese government warned North Korea to stop the assassination attempt, and sent intelligence and military officers to Macau and spirited Kim Jong-nam to a safe place," the sources said.
Shame. Could have been fun.
The sources said the reason China was protecting Kim Jong-nam is because he has been developing friendships with high-ranking Chinese officials for a long time. KBS said Kim Jong-nam is likely to weigh option of seeking asylum in China.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
Plus, he makes a nice threat to hold over Junior.
#2
Maybe China's game is to have Jong-Nam as their very own puppet ruler of nork.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/17/2009 5:51
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#3
Nah, the Norks boil over, fall apart and the Chicoms have their very own Kim to present as the "legitimate" leader of the new Nork, who become a much more gentle puppet state of China.
From the LA Times, a story that focuses on the use of Twitter as a tool for the protesters.
Reporting from Cairo -- Footage of burning cars, masked boys and bloodied protestors in Iran is playing across the Middle East, captivating Arab countries where repressive regimes have for years been arresting political bloggers and cyberspace dissidents.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Sunni nations have tense relations with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Shiite-led theocracy ruling Iran. But they don't want protests in Tehran to inspire similar democratic fervor in their countries -- especially the merging of Facebook and Twitter with a potent opposition leader like Iran's presidential challenger, Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
So far, that has yet to happen. Egyptian activists, for example, have over the last year called for rallies and strikes on the Internet's social networks, but they have no galvanizing personality and are not organized enough to pose a threat to a police state controlled by President Hosni Mubarak.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
Most say this young generation doesn't remember the democratic life before the Revolution but LA has a large educated Iranian population. I once had an Iranian dermatologist, a US educated female that fled with the clothes on her back and leaving all family behind. She kept in contact, worrying about earthquakes and the mullahs and such, but she said the hardliners are actually very few. Most people don't agree with them but fear for their lives to speak out, which is understandable, but this spark may not be put out so easily. Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and the UAE have all had a taste of the West and the freedom genie is difficult to put back in the bottle.
#2
Let's include IRAQ in that list of "Freedom-tasters". Wouldn't it be great if Iraq somehow plays a role in supporting the Persians in toppling the regime.
Posted by: Captain Lewis ||
06/17/2009 9:36
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#3
This is where a "social networking/astroturfing using politician" like Obama could do wonder but decides to vote "present". Now if there is a Reganesque on the Conservative/Freedom/Democracy side of things that could step in with some knowledge of how to use cyberspace and all its weapons you have competition here as well as there in the making. Unfortunately, the Trunks have nothing of the sort. Even Tracy McCain has to remind the GOP to update their website. Pathetic. Never waste the opportunity of a crisis except when it backtracks on your own words. Right, Rahm?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/17/2009 10:45
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Two suspected cadres of an outlawed party were brutally murdered by rival party men inside a female dormitory of Islamic University (IU) in Kushtia early yesterday. The deceased, Sher Ali, 30, son of Ibrahim Mondol, and Abdul Awal, 32, son of Abu Taleb of Diknagar village under Sailkupa upazila in Jhenidah, were the cadres of outlawed Gono Mukti Fouz.
Police suspected that the cadres of outlawed Jasod Gono Bahini killed the youths as police found a slip written by the party that claimed responsibility for the killings.
They'll be getting a visit from the RAB sometime soon ...
Sources said security guards of Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib Hall saw the bodies inside the dormitory in the morning and informed the IU police station about it. Police later recovered the bodies and sent those to Kushtia general hospital for autopsy. Police said the murder might take place after midnight as the guards of the hall went to sleep around 12:30am.
IU Vice-Chancellor Prof M Alauddin and police officials of Kushtia and Jhenidah visited the spot. Police increased their patrol after the killings that created panic on the campus.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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inside a female dorm....? cherchez la femme....
ISLAMABAD, June 15 (KUNA) -- A Pakistani Federal Minister Monday said that militants were using kidnapped children as suicide bombers across the country.
Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik talking to newsmen here said that the militants were buying innocent children for few hundred thousand rupees and using them to carry out suicide attacks. He further said that the militants are getting weapons and ammunition from Afghanistan, adding that the government of Pakistan has taken up the matter with Afghan President Hamid Karazai.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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Senior U.S. military officials say North Korea's ballistic missiles could threaten the west coast of the United States in three to five years. The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lieutenant General Patrick Cartwright, said North Korea's three tests of its longest-range missile, though unsuccessful, have demonstrated an increasing capability. His comments came during a hearing Tuesday of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn told lawmakers that North Korea's missile testing program has accelerated. Lynn said the future threat of Pyongyang's long-range missiles provides a strong reason for the United States to maintain ground-based missile interceptors.
The head of the U.S. military's Missile Defense Agency, Lieutenant General Patrick O'Reilly, said North Korea is involved in sharing technology with countries including Iran, but would not specify other countries. O'Reilly said there is an extensive effort to sell North Korean technology and hardware.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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I wonder how the norks would do with a large scale SAC air drop, our SAC planes can definitely get to Norkland, no prob.
#4
CYRANO D' BERGERAC > LE' GAZETTE = "The Queen of France caught the King of France secretly eating Pan-Korean Spicy Squid - Korean Spicy Squid will no longer be served at Court".
Fred continues to improve. He had a setback but is recovering from this. We don't know when he'll return to the Burg but it shouldn't be too long.
And now, a request, and an admonition. The mods have noted that the last couple of weeks have seen some loss of civility on the Burg. A couple of long-time readers have ended up on the poop-list, and certain others seem to be pushing the envelope.
There are clearly new stresses out there both around the world and at home. In times like these, civil, rational discourse is how we'll be heard. None of us want the Burg to be the center-right equivalent of Kos or MyDD.
So let's keep it civil, let's respect the simple rules for discourse, and let's keep an eye on the world. Thank you.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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Continued good wishes to Fred for a speedy recovery! One way to contribute is to heed this post by Steve.
#2
Get well Fred. I was thinking of Rantburg today when I went to the Green Thumb Organic farm stand in Water Mill and saw a Jeep Cherokee full of junk (like a guy was sleeping in it) and he had an Obama for POTUS bumper sticker slapped over a Ron Paul for POTUS one. How do you reconcile that flip-flop?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/17/2009 10:37
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Appears he wanted a non-GOP candiate, regardless if he was a flake or a fake.
#5
LMAO WJ9440. Well, let's hope that when "dad" returns, he finds that some of the children have risen to the occasion and made an effort to behave responsibly (and I have no one specific in mind, I might add!).
Steve White, you and everyone else have done a great job keeping Rantburg running as smoothly as possible during Fred's recovery. Fred's presence is definitely missed, but the essential elements that keep Rantburg great are all still in place. Nice touch with the Persian protest babes on the Defender-Scimitar the past couple of days too.
Sorry to hear about Fred's setback, but glad to hear that he's improving. He's in my prayers as all Rantburgers are always.
WASHINGTON -- The emergence of Mir Hossein Mousavi as a challenger to Iran's clerical establishment has been cheered as potentially heralding a new moderation in Tehran. But his record also suggests that he would hew to a number of Tehran's more controversial policies. Mr. Mousavi governed as a social conservative while he was prime minister during the 1980s, and remains a committed supporter of the values and clerical system born of the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution, said diplomats and Iran analysts.
He's certainly not a 'reformer', and more just an ally of Rafsanjani, but he's not Short Round, and if the people can depose one government, they can depose another ...
He was one of the early supporters of Iran's nuclear program, and as prime minister he specifically approved Tehran's purchases of centrifuge equipment from the nuclear black market run by the Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, according to a 2007 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.
Many Iran analysts say that while a Mousavi presidency, if it happened, could open numerous new areas for U.S.-Iranian cooperation, serious stumbling blocks would remain. President Barack Obama addressed that distinction Tuesday in an interview with CNBC.
"Although there is amazing ferment taking place in Iran, the difference in actual policies between [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual policies may not be as great as advertised," he said. "I think it's important to understand that either way, we are going to be dealing with a regime in Iran that is hostile to the U.S."
Mr. Obama Tuesday also offered support for Mr. Mousavi's supporters. "Something has happened in Iran. There is a questioning of the kinds of antagonistic postures towards the international community that have taken place in the past," Mr. Obama said. Of Tehran's suppressing of protests in response, he added, "That is not how governments should interact with their people."
Republicans who question Mr. Obama's plan to engage in direct diplomacy with Iran are seizing upon the election fracas to demand Mr. Obama denounce the current regime and support Mr. Mousavi more strongly. "He should speak out that this is a corrupt, flawed sham of an election," Sen. John McCain of Arizona said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. "The Iranian people have been deprived of their rights. We support them in their struggle against a repressive, oppressive regime."
Mr. Mousavi campaigned on a platform of moderating Iran's foreign policy and improving ties with the U.S., heralding a potential break from four years in which President Ahmadinejad openly sought confrontation over the nuclear question and Israel.
Still, it remains unclear just how significantly Mr. Mousavi could redirect Tehran's foreign and defense policies, short of a recasting of the Iranian political system dominated by conservative supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said U.S. officials. Iran's last reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, regularly clashed with Mr. Khamenei on social, economic and international issues and left office in 2005 with little to show for his progressive agenda.
While serving as Iran's prime minister during the 1980s, Mr. Mousavi was viewed as a competent manager, but politically cautious. This time around, Mr. Mousavi has pledged to loosen the restrictions Mr. Ahmadinejad placed on Iranian nongovernmental organizations, media and women's groups in recent years. These elements of Iranian society have been among the most vigorous in pressing for Tehran's rapprochement with the U.S.
He pledged during the campaign his commitment to Iran's nuclear power, but also held out the potential for direct talks with the U.S. Speaking to Time magazine on Friday, he said there are two elements to the nuclear question: "One is our right to nuclear energy, which is non-negotiable. The second issue is related to concerns about the diversion of this program towards weaponization. Personally, I view this second part, which is both technical and political, as negotiable."
U.S. officials were hoping the potential election of Mr. Mousavi could quickly lead to direct negotiations over the future of Iran's nuclear program. Mr. Obama's aides also seek more substantive cooperation with Iran on stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan and confronting global threats such as narcotics smuggling and piracy.
A number of U.S. and Western diplomats caution, however, that if Mr. Mousavi were to prevail it could actually help Iran's pursuit of nuclear technologies.
The Obama administration has been seeking a unified international stance toward Tehran. It has been lobbying nations such as Russia and China to support expansive new sanctions against Iran should its leaders not respond to Mr. Obama's calls for direct dialogue.
The elevation of a moderate face in Tehran, as opposed to Mr. Ahmadinejad, could delay action against Tehran if foreign governments decide to give Mr. Mousavi some political space and time, these diplomats warn. In such a dynamic, hardliners in Iran could rapidly push ahead with Tehran's nuclear program.
"If your goal is to increase the international sanctions regime against Tehran, it's much easier to do if the Iranian president is a Holocaust-denying radical," said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think tank, referring to Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
Iran and a hard place.....
Brothers And Sisters At Arms,
So I'm watching Iran information all over the many blogs and T.V. news that's reporting about the riots happening there. Then I'm thinking, the Resident-in-Chief wants to talk with leaders or the President of Iran without preconditions as he said in one of the many Democratic Debates. Misguided. Yes. Bordering stuck-on stupid. Yes. And not debating on Fox News because of some far-left zealots another stupid choice? Definitely. Why you ask? If you have studied any information on any of the major players in the middle east, besides the terrorist factions/sects/groups, the name of the so-called "moderate" candidate, which I will not even attempt to write or say his name, was the S.O.B. that got Iran's nuclear program started in the first place! Then there is the fool who wants to "...wipe Israel off the map...". No matter what the outcome of those so-called elections, who would you (the White House) want to speak to? How would you even start the conversation? And I'm about sick and tired of hearing that Israel should give up land for peace. Didn't they do that with the Gaza Strip back in 2005? How's that working out for you? The Israeli's left fully constructed homes and apartment buildings, greenhouses with fruit and vegetables going and growing. It was all torn down. What really gets me going is the fact that we are training the "Fatah" faction to do security for a state I don't believe should be anywhere near Israel (heh, that's just how I roll) or within missile range. But "Fatah" used to be called "The Palestinian Liberation Organization", the "P.L.O.", though led by Arafat, was an offshoot of the "Muslim Brotherhood" in Egypt. The dictators in Egypt have been keeping a tight leash on them for a while but Arafat was still able to start the P.L.O. in the sixties. Why are we doing this? I must not get it because I'm a 'Grunt' or something....
I'm all Infantryman however. Some might even call me a "warmonger". I believe if you go to war, it's "clobbering time". Overwhelming forces, after carpet bombing the land. Case in point; the Gaza Strip. The population should not be getting any support from Israel to a populace that voted into power an organization that has in its charter, or like the "mission statement" an American corporation would have to spell what their ultimate goal(s) is/are, Hamas, has it in their charter, and I'm paraphrasing here, "...the elimination of the Zionist/Jewish occupied territories...". I don't remember the exact language, you can look it up, but you hopefully get the point. The general public should pay a severe tole for electing/letting a terrorist group run their 'government'. How's that working for them? Hamas can't even supply basic services. They beg for help from the feckless U.N. There's a clusterf**k of an organization for you. Heh, you folks that didn't want to invade Iraq. I have a couple of words for you: Food for Oil. That was some kind of racket. Wasn't it? Back to the Gaza problem. I think the entire area, and by the way, this should be on the table for Iran as well, they (our government) should begin "carpet bombing" every square inch until the population turns on Hamas in Gaza, and the Mullahs and President of Iran, and surrender "without conditions", so it sends a message to the rest of the dictators and despots around the world "that we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore". An we should use every type of weapon in our arsenal, napalm if we have any, cluster bombs, hellfire missiles, including nukes if they don't get a clue after a few hours of that unleashing of destruction we in the 'west' invented. Now you can call me callous, apathetic towards the people of those two areas, whatever your heart desires. It's my opinion and I gave a little over ten years in our nations military to pay for the right IN FULL.
Part of the reason I'm not affiliated with Democrats or Republicans at this time, I am a registered Independent that is a conservative and have traditional values. When Reagan, the beloved of some people on the right of politics, pulled out of Beirut after our barracks there got bombed, we should have sent an overwhelming force to eradicate the lot of them. Instead, Reagan turned tail and ran, pissed me off. Bush, Sr. blew it with me after "Read my lips, no new taxes". Bush, Jr. had me for a while until he signed the McCain/Fiengold bill and even thinking about giving amnesty to illegal aliens in our nation. I DON'T CARE WHY THEY CAME HERE. They didn't respect our laws to begin with, stealing identities to work and allegedly paying taxes (bologna), or working under the table for indentured servant wages. Slaves, getting money, but slaves none-the-less. And they aren't/weren't paying taxes people.
The Democrats; got us into Viet-Nam for starters, though to fight against communism, a noble cause, but J.F.K. got us in there. The best thing he ever did, besides Marilyn Munroe (sorry, but I couldn't resist), was to create The U.S. Army's Special Forces, and bestow on them the distinction of their signature headgear; the Green Beret. L.B.J.? Are you kidding? Carter; who is all Anti-Semitic, all the time, though I joined the U.S. Army despite him before he became the man he is today, I thought like the rest of my Brothers at Arms with me in Basic Infantry School that we would be part of the first wave to get our people (the Hostages) back from the Iranians and since some of us were going to Airborne School right after Basic. Our D.I.'s gathered the Airborne candidates at one point and basically told/warned us we just might be part of the "Tip Of The Spear". Scary, but thrilling at the same time. A real mission. Our nation had the moral authority and "high ground", liberals love to say our government must have before we even defend ourselves. But they have no clue we [in the military] were/are taught the credo to "never leave a man on the field or behind". There were active duty Marines among those hostages. And everyone of us wanted to go get them back. That incident should have been enough to declare war. I reported to the 82nd Airborne Division after Airborne School (which kicked my butt but I made it among the 60% that finished the course)in December of 1979. And while there, we all waited and waited and waited, but no "green light" came. Then came the botched rescue attempt that made our military look like the Keystone Cops around the world. Thanks Jimbo, now go back to your peanut farm and just shut the F**k up you feckless coward. And while still in office he wrecked our intelligence services with cutbacks. And "B.J." Clinton, oh my God, as the girls in California say, not only did he do more to reduce our intel services and the troop levels of each service, he didn't, like all those before and after him, put a security wall, triple fence, mine field, cow field or dog field on our southern or northern border when Osama Bin Hiden declared war on us in the early nineties and (1) wasn't taken seriously and (2) blew several opportunities to nab his a**; and then (3) sent the cops to do a soldiers work after the first bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. The terrorist were just plain stupid for sticking around long enough to get caught, tried, then jailed, but one of their lawyers, whose name escapes me at the moment, she was taking coded messages from one of the terrorist (the Blind Sheik) and passing it along to his buddies on the outside. Besides the illegality of that, and in my opinion, a treasonous act, she should have been jailed for longer than approximately 3 years. She should have been put on 'Death Row' for that! She helped get people killed in the middle east, but that still doesn't make it alright!
All that's happening now, electing a socialist to the Oval Office, cutting defensive budgets right when things are heating up around the world and the the Resident-in-Chief bugs out of an agreement for anti-missile batteries in Poland and a radar system in another "allies" country. And then gets scared of a threat from the ruins of the U.S.S.R. of pointing nukes at western Europe? He is not impressing me what so ever. I wonder if those that voted in the novice have "buyers remorse" yet. I could be wrong though....
In the meantime,
watch your six.
Phoenix
P.S. This was originally posted on my blog at warriorlegacyfoundation.org on June 15th,2009. It's amazing that logical speculation can be seen and addressed by anyone and discussed similarly on a completely different web site. Viewers should collate these two opinions seriously and come to their own conclusion. If you have the opportunity, check them out the web site I mention above or try the website I list to find me and my blog. You may have to create an account but sign up is free and you might find a whole lot of like-minded folks out there. It's open to people that have never served in the military but support the military, so don't feel left out! And all the services are represented...
Posted by: Old Paratrooper ||
06/17/2009 0:49
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Hitler vs Ernst Rohm - no lesser of two evils here.
Posted by: Spereck Oppressor of the Weak4379 ||
06/17/2009 15:08
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"If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate because application of an atomic bomb would not leave any thing in Israel but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world"
Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, December 2001
"If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."
Hezbollahâs Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, October 23, 2002
"Our struggle is not about land or water...It is about bringing, by force if necessary, the whole of mankind onto the right path."
Khomeini 1980
"We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you."
Hussein Moussawi,
former leader of Hezbollah on Americans
"Death to America!"
De Facto National Motto of Iran
Just as a reminder. Mousavi is apparently an ally of the Rafsandjani faction. He served as Prime Minister under Supreme Leader Khomeini and had a hand in founding Hezbollah.
The safe, conservative assumption on Iran is that all the relevant factions are mortal enemies of the West (especially Israel of course, but not limited to it.)
Mousavi might not actually deny the historical fact of the Holocaust, but he and his allies are as likely as Ahmadinejad to try to complete it.
On this day in history: June 17th.
1579 Sir Francis Drake claims Marin County, California for England.
1775 Battle of Bunker Hill
1876 Battle of the Rosebud 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.
1885 The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
1930 U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act into law.
1940 The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.
1972 Watergate scandal: five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee.
1994 Following a televised low-speed highway chase , O.J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
YEKATERINBURG: The eight-month long Pakistan-India stalled peace process got a fresh lease of life on Tuesday, as President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh agreed for their foreign secretaries to meet on mutually convenient dates.
Until the next kaboom or terrorist shoot-up ...
Meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, they said they would then meet on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Egypt in July to review any progress. The two foreign secretaries will meet at mutually convenient dates and discuss the steps taken on either side to deal with extremism and terrorism. From those discussions, the political leadership will re-engage at Sharm-el-Sheikh (Egypt), Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told APP after the meeting.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said both leaders had agreed to resume foreign secretary level contacts, but had chosen to focus only on terrorism. He said the officials would assess the steps taken by Pakistan to address Indias concerns. The meeting in Egypt would decide whether to resume bilateral process, and its format, he added.
Qureshi said it was in the interest of both countries to resume the dialogue process. The most sensible thing to do now would be to resume dialogue as soon as possible. It is in our mutual interest. Both countries stand to gain by resumption of dialogue. Pakistan feels it is an useful exercise, he said. We made progress (through composite dialogue). It was slow but steady. The people of South Asia would stand to gain from it, he added. He said Pakistan itself was a victim of terrorism and the menace was not country-specific.
We are victims of terrorism, but as a nation we have decided to act in a decisive manner and there has been lot of dislocation, he said, likely referring to the situation in Swat. He said all countries agree that terrorism has to be condemned and fought from wherever it emanates ... India, Pakistan, UK and America.
To questions, Qureshi said Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilanis comments that Kashmir was the core issue between India and Pakistan were reflective of the issue being one of the components of the composite dialogue. It is an outstanding issue. Both countries recognise it as such, he said. He said Pakistan has to respect the independence of its court system, and could not interfere in the lawful release of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafeez Muhammad Saeed. The provincial government is contemplating appealing the courts decision, he added.
On whether he thought India and Pakistan should make joint efforts to restore peace in Afghanistan, Qureshi said: There has to be a regional approach. All regional players can contribute and should contribute.
President Zardari also reiterated Pakistans desire to cooperate with India in bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Office. It is imperative the Pakistan-India Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism be reactivated, Zardari told Singh.
So that the Paks can figure out what Indian Intel is up to ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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[14 views]
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About 600 people gathered outside Parliament in Hamilton, the island's capital, chanting "Brown must go" and waving banners as they marched to the Cabinet office.
But Mr Brown was defiant. "As some of you might know, I grew up in the protest era," he shouted at the booing crowd. "This is nothing new to me. I have seen them larger and longer," he said.
Mr Brown negotiated a secret deal with the US last week members of China's Muslim Uighur minority to be sent to the British. The Foreign Office was not informed and the Obama administration also bypassed the British.
The US, which is desperate to unload the prisoners to fulfil a promise made by president Barack Obama to close the jail by next January, said it could not send the Uighurs to China because they faced persecution there. Congress, however, blocked efforts to release them in the US, even though they had long ago been deemed no threat.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, protested to Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, about the secret deal and questioned whether Mr Brown had authority to admit the Uighurs. Britain is responsible for the foreign policy and security of Bermuda.
Janice Battersbee, who described herself as a lifelong supporter of Mr Brown's Progressive Labour Party, stepped up to the microphone when Brown invited the protesters to send a representative to speak. "The leadership of this country seems to be on a course heading toward dictatorship that the majority of Bermudians are no longer willing to tolerate," she said. "This latest action is the final straw. We are fed up, disgusted, disrespected and angry."
Mr Brown said he had been summoned to meet with Sir Richard Gozney, Bermuda's governor, but did not elaborate on what was discussed. When Mrs Battersbee finished speaking, Mr Brown was directed away by police and left in an official car.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
What's the possibility that Mr. Brown has experienced some mysterious increase in his assets? Are there others, besides the US, who might pay well to get these guys out? Looks like Mr. Brown's political career may be about over, so could he have accepted a bribe to help him out in his declining years?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/17/2009 6:19
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I'm about to confirm Godwin's law here:
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
06/17/2009 8:51
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I'm about to confirm Godwin's law here: Downfall.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
06/17/2009 8:54
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Just helping a brutha out. Sounds like Dr. Brown shares a lot of Barry's charecter traits.
#5
What's the possibility that Mr. Brown has experienced some mysterious increase in his assets?
Indirectly perhaps. The rumor was that Obama was going to drop punitive sanctions against Bermuda's status as a tax haven. That will cost the US treasury a lot more than the $200 million bribe for Palau to take 17 Uighur muslim terrorists.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 11:48
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True, Ed, but people are less likely to notice ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 12:57
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True, Ed, but people are less likely to notice ..
Yeah, it's not like we're talking serious money here. I mean what's a billion here or there?
Supporters of Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi have held another big rally in northern Tehran, witnesses say. Hours before, thousands of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's supporters staged their own protest in the city centre.
The opposition rally went ahead despite an official offer of a partial recount of the poll, which returned Mr Ahmadinejad to power.
Tough new restrictions have been imposed on foreign media reporting. The curbs came amid apparent surprise and concern among the authorities at the scale of popular defiance over Friday's official election results, correspondents say.
The powerful Guardian Council says it is ready to recount some votes from the poll, in a move backed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But opposition candidates have demanded a full re-run of the election.
A witness told the BBC that Tuesday's rally was even bigger than Monday's - though this cannot be independently confirmed - and the state Press TV also described it as large. Witnesses described demonstrators walking in near silence towards state TV headquarters - apparently anxious not to be depicted as hooligans by authorities.
The latest opposition rally comes despite a Mousavi spokesman urging supporters not to take part in another demonstration on Tuesday, amid fears of new violence.
The authorities have imposed tough new restrictions on foreign journalists operating in Tehran - the most sweeping restrictions our correspondent in Tehran, Jon Leyne, says he has ever faced. They must now obtain explicit permission before leaving the office to cover any story. Journalists have also been banned from attending or reporting on any "unauthorised" demonstration - and it is unclear which if any of the protests are formally authorised.
Some telephone, SMS and internet services have also been restricted, prompting some protesters to turn to the internet messaging service Twitter to communicate. The importance of such new means of communication was highlighted by a US official on Tuesday. The official said the state department contacted Twitter over the weekend to urge it to delay a planned upgrade that could have cut daytime service to Iranians.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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[24 views]
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#1
How about a "Reganesque" statement from Washington?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday branded Iran's election result a fraud as the international outcry over the security forces' crackdown on the opposition in Tehran intensified.
Excellent. That's how you do it.
While some governments tried to avoid taking sides, Sarkozy said the unrest was a direct result of Ahmadinejad's failings in his first term.
"The extent of the fraud is proportional to the violent reaction," said the French leader. "It is a tragedy, but it is not negative to have a real opinion movement that tries to break its chains."
"If Ahmadinejad has really made progress since the last election and if he really represents two thirds of the electorate... why has this violence erupted?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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[14 views]
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#1
Never fear. Obama will work up the courage and denounce Sarkozy.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 0:26
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Unidentified poll workers have admitted that ballots were not even counted in their areas. Ahmadinejad cronies polluted the election commission.
President Obama has offered nothing to the Opposition, except a promise to continue to negotiate with the illegal government.
Posted by: Uloluns Scourge of the Bunions1692 ||
06/17/2009 2:58
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Well done , maybe you aint a cheese eating surrender monkey after all !
French freedom fries all round !! Obama take note
Posted by: Big Foot ||
06/17/2009 5:35
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Our "president" will do nothing that isn't in his agenda to turn the US into a socialist (i.e., failed) state. Iran will twist in the wind.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/17/2009 10:59
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just shamefull -- america no longer stands up for freedom....parcels this out to euro weenies...what a joke we have of a govt anymore....2010 and/or revolution cannot come soon enough..we need to take back our values/freedoms from this bastard we have as a prez who only promotes his/extreme liberal agenda
Posted by: Dan ||
06/17/2009 13:21
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#6
next step, G7 statement?
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/17/2009 14:29
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Read someplace today that the head of the IT dept in charge of tabulation "died in a car accident" which may be Farsi for "argued with Mr Kalisnakov".
#8
When Minister of Education, Sarkozy walked into a school where a nutcase claiming to have a bomb had some kids hostage.
The kids came out with Sark.
Picture O doing that?
Me either.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
06/17/2009 15:08
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#9
Today, at least, Sark and France are leaders of the West. Not the US. Something to ponder.
We turned our collective power and outrage into a serious weapon that we could use at our will, without ever having to feel the consequences. We practiced distributed, citizen-based warfare, writes Matthew Burton, a former U.S. intelligence analyst who joined in the online assaults, thanks to a push-button tool that would, upon your click, immediately start bombarding 10 Web sites with requests.
But the tactic of launching these distributed denial of service, or DDOS, attacks remains hugely controversial. The author of one-web based tool, Page Rebooter, used by opposition supporters to send massive amounts of traffic to Iranian government sites, temporarily shut the service down, citing his discomfort with using the tool to attack other websites. Then, a few hours later, he turned on the service again, after his employers agreed to cover the costs of the additional traffic. WhereIsMyVote.info is opening up 16 Page Reboot windows simultaneously, to flood an array of government pages at once.
Meanwhile, San Francisco technologist Austin Heap has put together a set of instructions on how to set up proxies intermediary internet protocol (IP) address that allow activists to get through the government firewall. And the Networked Culture blog has assembled for pro-democracy sympathizers a cyberwar guide for beginners. Stop publicizing these proxies over Twitter, the site recommends. Instead, send direct messages to @stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they will distributed them discretely to bloggers in Iran.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/17/2009
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[12 views]
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LAHORE: The Ministry of Interior has advised the home departments of all four provinces to tighten security after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) threatened more suicide attacks on prominent religious leaders.
Now it is your turnwe have sent a jacketwala (a man with a suicide vest) to mend clerics like you. We will also send jacketwalas to other clerics too, sources told Aaj Kal quoting a threatening letter addressed to a cleric.
According to sources, TTP is written in bold letters at the end of the letter. In light of the letter, law enforcement agencies have been advised to tighten security for leading religious leaders.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
Ding Dong! Avon lady Jacketwala man!
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 0:16
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The Election Commission will ask the Speaker to strip opposition BNP's Salauddin Quader Chowdhury of parliamentary membership for giving false information in his affidavit ahead of last December's elections, a senior election official said on Tuesday. The commission will write a letter to Speaker Abdul Hamid recommending that the senior leader stands disqualified as MP from Chittagong-2 in line with electoral law on submitting such false information and defying a court order to rectify it, commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain told bdnews24.com.
The EC earlier collected the proof of his education qualifications from the parliament secretariat. Chowdhury's biodata for the second, seventh and eighth parliaments are preserved in the library.
According to section 12 of the Representation of People Order, an MP will lose membership if he provides false information in the affidavit during the nomination process, amounting to perjury. An EC official said Chowdhury has lost his eligibility though he was elected as MP.
Ashfaq Hamid, secretary of the parliament secretariat, told bdnews24.com on Tuesday: "We have supplied the commission necessary information."
An EC official told bdnews24.com on Monday that they had received conflicting sets of information about Chowdhury's educational qualifications. The MP mentioned in his affidavit ahead of the ninth parliamentary elections that he did not have any educational qualification. But the biographie preserved in parliament says that he passed his BA Honours.
Cheez, Joe Biden would never make it in B'desh ...
However, there are two separate accounts of his SSC exams. His second parliamentary bio says he passed his SSCs from St Placid School in Chittagong, HSCs from Notre Dame College and his BA Honours from Punjab University. He returned to the country while doing a course at the Lincoln's Inn in London because of the death of his father.
Another biography says he passed his matriculation (SSC equivalent) from Sadiq's School of Punjab and came back to the country while studying in a London school due to his father's death.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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[9 views]
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Hamas has foiled an attempt by Palestinian militants to attack former U.S. president Jimmy Carter during his visit to the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian source told news agencies on Tuesday.
Paleos never seem to miss an opportunity to bite the few hands that feed them ...
According to the source, militants linked with Al-Qaida planted two roadside bombs at a border crossing between Gaza and Israel with the intent of striking Carter's vehicle on his way out of the coastal territory. Witnesses reported seeing Hamas forces patrolling near the Erez crossing and detonating the explosives.
Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman Ihab al-Rassin denied the reports, however, saying the group's forces had engaged in routine activity and had no information of an assassination attempt.
Associates of the former president said they had received briefing on the matter, but would not elaborate on the matter.
Carter was in Gaza on Tuesday to meet with leaders of the ruling Hamas movement, in an effort to persuade them to adopt the international community's conditions for lifting the crippling economic blockade. The former president brought with him to Gaza a letter for abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been in Palestinian captivity since he was captured in a 2006 cross-border raid.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
Would have been funny if they could have blown him up just a little bit.
#2
That is about as credible as Mussolini ordering the assassination of Hitler.
Posted by: Uloluns Scourge of the Bunions1692 ||
06/17/2009 3:01
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#3
If true (a big if) Hamas has conclusively proven that they hate Americans.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/17/2009 5:47
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#4
he's even a failure at getting killed
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/17/2009 7:13
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#5
Smells like a set-up to prove how wonderful Hamas is.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/17/2009 8:05
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#6
More like Hitler ordering the assassination of Mussolini. And that wouldn't have been all that strange, if somewhat ahistorical.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/17/2009 8:24
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#7
How did they get past Secret Service? Attacking your 'patron saint' is further proof you can't trust or negotiate with them--but Jimmah will excuse it as a few bad actors. I was secretly hoping they would kidnap him so he would know firsthand what he is dealing with.
#11
Missed the election, I mean, not the bomb. I'm disappointed that he missed the election. Short round could have used a guy like jimmuh to legitimize his victory.
#16
Carter has always geared everything to grab headlines for his despicable agenda. The ongoing scourge of radical Islam is laid at the feet of the failed Carter Administration, yet Carter to this day refuses to accept this fact.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/17/2009 15:09
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For two decades, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has remained a shadowy presence at the pinnacle of power in Iran, sparing in his public appearances and comments. Through his control of the military, the judiciary and all public broadcasts, the supreme leader controlled the levers he needed to maintain an iron if discreet grip on the Islamic republic.
But in a rare break from a long history of cautious moves, he rushed to bless President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for winning the election, calling on Iranians to line up behind the incumbent even before the standard three days required to certify the results had passed. Then angry crowds swelled in cities around Iran, and he backpedaled, announcing Monday that the 12-member Council of Guardians, which vets elections and new laws, would investigate the vote.
"After congratulating the nation for having a sacred victory, to say now that there is a possibility that it was rigged is a big step backward for him," said Abbas Milani, the director of Stanford University's Iranian studies program.
Few suggest yet that Ayatollah Khamenei's hold on power is at risk. But, analysts say, he has opened a serious fissure in the face of Islamic rule and one that may prove impossible to patch over, particularly given the fierce dispute over the election that has erupted amid the elite veterans of the 1979 revolution. Even his strong links to the powerful Revolutionary Guards -- long his insurance policy -- may not be decisive as the confrontation in Iran unfolds.
"Khamenei would always come and say, 'Shut up; what I say goes,' " said Azar Nafisi, the author of two memoirs about Iran, including "Reading Lolita in Tehran." "Everyone would say, 'O.K., it is the word of the leader.' Now the myth that there is a leader up there whose power is unquestionable is broken."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
I don't see how a popular uprising in a place like Iran can triumph. Yet, there have been a few bloodless revolutions when the military and police simply refused to kill their own people en masse. Is this possible in Iran? Probably not.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/17/2009 7:09
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#2
One of the key elements is that the 'guard dogs' are first generation. First geners can still taste blood and historically don't have the qualms about taking out the 'heretics'.
#3
Khamenei (Obama, disgustingly and supinely calls him Supreme Leader) has several layers of support in the para military. There is the Revolutionary guard (aka the Basij) and the Special Revolutionary Guard (aka the Pasdaran or IRG or IRGC). Together they probably have a deployable strength of loyal (to Khamenei although they may be more loyal to Ahmadinejad) troops of nearly 1M. The Army has about 800k but is not thought to be loyal to Khamenei.
Interestingly, Khamenei has been thought to have had some serious illnesses in the past few years. If he was to be incapacitated, that would shake things up.
Posted by: Lord garth ||
06/17/2009 11:17
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#4
Question: didn't an article posted here a few days ago mention that the Basij Guards included a lot of Arabs? If so, then they'd have no qualms whatever about shooting Iranians, who are not their own people.
Will these security forces stay loyal when their relatives start dying then disappearing due to other parts of the security apparatus take then down (cousins, etc).
And will the regular army stand by when the same goes on? With millions protesting, its likely that the "degrees of separation" are shrinking rapidly.
#7
Read an article saying that the military had said they won't be used in putting down the demonstators, but on the other hand the real power is with the Revolutionary Guards backed up by the Basij militia. Think of the RG as something like the SS - both a secret police and a waffen aspect.
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration will order the Navy to hail and request permission to inspect North Korean ships at sea suspected of carrying arms or nuclear technology, but will not board them by force, senior administration officials said Monday.
The new effort to intercept North Korean ships, and track them to their next port, where Washington will press for the inspections they refused at sea, is part of what the officials described as "vigorous enforcement" of the United Nations Security Council resolution approved Friday.
The planned American action stops just short of the forced inspections that North Korea has said that it would regard as an act of war. Still, the administration's plans, if fully executed, would amount to the most confrontational approach taken by the United States in dealing with North Korea in years, and carries a risk of escalating tensions at a time when North Korea has been carrying out missile and nuclear tests.
In discussing President Obama's strategy on Monday, administration officials said that the United States would report any ship that refused inspection to the Security Council. While the Navy and American intelligence agencies continued to track the ship, the administration would mount a vigorous diplomatic effort to insist that the inspections be carried out by any country that allowed the vessel into port.
That might be clever. A Nork ship can't sail to Syria without stopping at certain intervals for fuel, etc. Wherever they stop, the authorities in that country have the right to inspect the ship. Takes the heat off us and at the very least makes the Norks wary of where their ships go.
The officials said that they believed that China, once a close cold war ally, would also enforce the new sanctions, which also require countries to refuse to refuel or resupply ships suspected of carrying out arms and nuclear technology. "China will implement the resolution earnestly," said Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said.
Nonsense, of course they won't. North Korea is their lap dog.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009
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#1
The resolution authorizes nations to seek to stop suspect North Korean shipments on the high seas, but they do not authorize forcible boarding or inspections.
Nice little nuanced wording there. Seek out the enemy and request that he cooperates. Gum them to death. Brilliant. Just brilliant. We're becoming EUniks, thanks to the Big O.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Thorne Bay, AK ||
06/17/2009 1:52
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#2
In discussing President Obama's strategy on Monday, administration officials said that the United States would report any ship that refused inspection to the Security Council.
Some "strategy". Why even waste the time or the resources?
#3
Mr. Capone, may we inspect your warehouse for contraband?
No. Now go away or I shall be forced to taunt you.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 12:00
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#4
Go ahead, talk 'em to death! Every day in port costs the Nork shipping companies tens of thousands of dollars. Hold 'em up a couple of weeks, and whatever cargo they're carrying now becomes a liability, whether it's missile-related or not. Do this to every ship that leaves North Korea, and you'll bleed them to death.
Even a BAD policy can be turned to the good if you can find a way to turn it to your advantage.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/17/2009 12:02
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#5
Anybody got a couple of attack subs they're not really using?
#6
Folks, I don't think you see the subtle play here.
A Nork ship can't sail to Syria without stopping. They have fuel up somewhere, perhaps two or three times. Each time they do it's an opportunity for us to get the authorities at that port to do an inspection.
Now the port authorities don't have to listen to us. But perhaps we could, you know, 'persuade' them. And then it's India, or Yemen, or Bangladesh, or whoever, who's doing the inspecting.
It's subtle. It gives us options and introduces more uncertainty for the Norks -- will a given country let them fuel their ship without asking questions, or will they start opening packing crates?
I personally would prefer a Nork ship loaded with missile parts to disappear quietly at sea. Sorry Kimmie, but that was one hell of a cyclone, didn't you get the weather report? Too bad what happened to your ship.
But I don't see that happening just yet, so this is an interesting play, IF our State Department, CIA and National Security team will play the game hard.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/17/2009 13:05
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#7
Mk48 "cyclone" can be pretty rough weather for any ship, especially a piece of junk Nork MS.
#8
Steve W., suppose the fueling port says to the NORKS: "No boardee, no fuelee." I wonder what the range on the Nork ships is before they require fueling. I wonder what the UN Security Council resolution says. I don't see the UN having the cajones to deny fuel.
#9
theoretically, the Norks could send along a tanker, couldnt they, and refuel at sea. Thats pretty costly for ordinary commerce though. It would pretty much mark a shipment as high priority.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/17/2009 14:44
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#10
Lotsa room in cargo ships for extra fuel tanks.
Posted by: ed ||
06/17/2009 14:48
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#11
China, once a close cold war ally
Seriously, how does the media get away with howlers like this? An ally? A close ally? Detente, certainly - inspired by a common opposition to the Soviets and nothing more.
And as for China implementing the resolution - the journalist might want to look at a map, a North Korean ship won't need to refuel in China because they're RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER.
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) acknowledged Tuesday that he had "violated the vows" of marriage by having an affair with a campaign staffer.
The admission -- made in a televised appearance in Las Vegas -- shocked Ensign's Senate colleagues and delivered a serious blow to any hopes he might have had of seeking the GOP presidential nomination in 2012.
Political insiders in the Senate and in Nevada told POLITICO that Ensign began the affair with the staffer several months after he separated from his wife, Darlene. When Ensign reconciled with his wife, the sources said, he gave the aide a severance package, and the two parted ways.
Continued on Page 49
#3
More rot at the top in the same-old same-old boys club for the GOP Senate leadership. FYI, Ensign was running the NRSC during the recent debacles, including backing Benedict Arlen Specter instead of staying neutral in a primary.
#7
At the very least, when he got caught (literally) with his pants down, he 'fessed up and gracefully resigned from his leadership position. The Dems *never* do that. They seethe, whine, stonewall, threaten, sue...and get promoted.
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.
This all sounds quite familiar, and everyone over 30 has seen it before. Did somebody replace the "community activist" with a self-righteous peanut farmer while we weren't looking?
Lebanon -- Maan -- High-profile Fatah leader 
(CNN) -- Brushing off suggestions Tuesday the media is not critical enough of his administration, President Obama couldn't help but take aim at one cable news channel in particular.
The Korean woman who was confirmed to have been killed in Yemen yesterday went there as a volunteer for teaching missionary kids as part of Christian evangelistic activities. The mission provides education for children of missionaries, and this is why certain foreign reports said Eom Young-sun was a Korean teacher. 
BAGHDAD Iraqs interior minister said Tuesday more than 40 police officers face charges after an investigation into prison abuse found inmates incarcerated without warrants and others with their rights violated.
LONDON - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Tuesday he had "friendly" talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about four Guantanamo inmates sent to Bermuda, but made clear his frustration. He added that the status of the four Uighurs -- from a mostly Muslim minority living in China's northwestern Xinjiang province -- remained "unclear."
A special North Korean train which transported a long-range rocket or intercontinental ballistic missile to a launch site in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province in May recently moved from a missile research center in Sanum-dong, Pyongyang to another launch site in Musudan-ri, North Hamgyong Province, a South Korean government source said Tuesday.
June 16 (Bloomberg) -- A U.S. judge urged Justice Department lawyers to decide if theyll seek the death penalty for 
WASHINGTON: The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday unanimously passed the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act, (Kerry-Lugar Bill) authorising $1.5 billion annually to the key anti-terror ally for the next five years.
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army has formally recieved marching orders against Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and preparations for the first phase of a miltary operation in South Waziristan have already been completed, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Athar Abbas said on Tuesday.
LE BOURGET, France -- Boeing said on Tuesday that it was prepared to go head to head with its European rival, EADS, to win a bitterly contested $35 billion contract from the Air Force by converting its 777 passenger plane -- a bigger aircraft than Airbus is offering -- into a refueling tanker.
Close aides of Kim Jong-un, the 26-year-old third son and heir apparent of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, last week attempted to assassinate the leader's first son Jong-nam, KBS reported Monday citing Chinese government sources. 
Two suspected cadres of an outlawed party were brutally murdered by rival party men inside a female dormitory of Islamic University (IU) in Kushtia early yesterday. The deceased, Sher Ali, 30, son of Ibrahim Mondol, and Abdul Awal, 32, son of Abu Taleb of Diknagar village under Sailkupa upazila in Jhenidah, were the cadres of outlawed 
ISLAMABAD, June 15 (KUNA) -- A Pakistani Federal Minister Monday said that militants were using kidnapped children as suicide bombers across the country.
About 600 people gathered outside Parliament in Hamilton, the island's capital, chanting "Brown must go" and waving banners as they marched to the Cabinet office.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday branded Iran's election result a fraud as the international outcry over the security forces' crackdown on the opposition in Tehran intensified.
LAHORE: The Ministry of Interior has advised the home departments of all four provinces to tighten security after the 
Hamas has foiled an attempt by Palestinian militants to attack former U.S. president Jimmy Carter during his visit to the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian source told news agencies on Tuesday. 
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
