Thirteen people were indicted by a Swedish court on Thursday after being caught with 2.5 million kronor ($318,000) in counterfeit dollar and euro bills. The bills are very well-done. Id guess this is the largest seizure of false currency ever in Sweden, said Michael Schönhoff of the Stockholm police.
The fake bills were printed in Lebanon and were then transported to Sweden in plastic bags by one of those charged in connection with the operation.
Police engaged in an intensive surveillance operation in early 2009 to gather evidence against the men. In addition to confiscating the fake currency, police also discovered a large number of dyed Swedish bills, most likely taken in a bank robbery. All of those charged in the case live in the Stockholm area.
Seven face up to four years in prison for gross unauthorized possession of false currency.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/26/2009 20:43
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#2
The photo at the article shows a pile of new US $100's, not mentioned in the text, along with the dyed Swedish kronor and the Euros. I wonder why.
The big question, for me: were the fakes done on a government press, as in NK? Does Lebanon print it's own banknotes, anyway?
#3
Iran has been counterfeiting currency for a while. Hizballah is their pipeline for moving the merchandise to the west. It's economic warfare plain and simple.
Posted by: ed ||
06/26/2009 23:54
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Four days after the elections, there have been anti-demonstration forces on the streets of Tehran whose accents are unrecognizable. Witnesses say they are not able to understand what they are saying. Some say they have openly heard Arabic being spoken by some. Yesterday, I had a chance to chat with one of the plain-clothed men in a sandwich shop.
Me: Salaam brother. How are you?
Him: God Bless you, fine, thank you.
Me: Where are you from?
Him: Torbat
Me: Torbat?
Him: Torbat-e Jam (a small town in the Eastern region of Iran close to the border of Afghanistan)
Me: How old are you?
Him: 36.
Me: Do you have a wife and kids?
Him: No. Wife and kids costs money. I am unemployed.
Me: Unemployed? Arent you a Basiji? Doesnt the army give you a fixed salary?
Him: No. I am not a Basiji. I am unemployed.
Me: But you are working now, arent you?
Him: Yeah.
Me: Why do you have that club?
Him: They brought us here to hit the anti-revolutionaries. Thats why they gave us this club.
Me: Who gave it to you?
Him: Haji. He told me to hit in such a way that they dont get up anymore. Theyre traitors!
Me: What do you think about that?
Him: I dont get involved in these things. I just get my money.
Me: You get money for beating people up. Thats great.
Him: Yeah. They gave me money just to beat people up! Wouldnt you do the same?
Me: How much do they pay you?
Him: 200 dollars (200,000 tomans) per day. (he smiles)
Me: Thats a lot of money. Whatre you gonna do with all that money?
Him: Get a wife. Or even two, if I can have this kind of money. Do you know how much that is? 2000 dollars. Maybe I wont even go back to Torbat. Maybe Ill stay here. Haji says there will be more demonstrations. They will give us more work.
Me: How many days have you been in Tehran?
Him: 3 days. There are still 7 more days left.
Me: Where are all the other people from who are with you?
Him: I dont know all of them. But in our dormiatory we have people from Mazandaran, Arak, Khoozestan. Also from Torbat-e Hedariye and Khvaf. (he takes a sip from his soda. He asks me for a cigarette. I give it to him. He lights it and he smokes and talks.
Me: There are Arabs among them, no?
Him: Yeah. But I heard they put them in a hotel. They say they are from Lebanon. Last night they gave us Tuna for dinner. The guys said the Arabs get better food.
Me: Where is your dorm?
Him: I dont know. I dont know my way around Tehran. But its far. You have to go this way to get there (he points east).
Me: Have you been to Tehran before?
Him: No. This is my first time.
Me: You pray?
Him: Yeah, sure. But here, when we are on duty, were not even allowed to go to the bathroom.
Me: Dont you get upset when you beat people?
Him: People? Haji says those who are in the demonstrations are traitors. I believe him. Hes a haji. You know Haji would not lie.
Q: Aside from a mass deployment of force against unarmed protestors (which, unfortunately, is not unlikely) what is the worst possible outcome in Iran?
A: That it becomes unavoidably clear the post-election conflict isn't a struggle between tyranny and freedom the epic narrative we've been hearing in absolute, non-contestable terms. The worst thing that could happen next, at least for the absolute, non-contestable pundit-ocracy, is that it becomes clear we're looking at an intra-Islamic power struggle that has nothing to do with liberty and justice for anybody. That this may be a battle between theocratic, anti-American, anti-Israel, pro-jihad, Khomeinist factions should be enough to chill the enthusiasm of any pro-democracy booster.
Amazingly, the thought that there might not be a pro-West horse to ride here doesn't enter the collective media mind, from Left to Right. Such unbraked credulity reflects the media failure to deal competently with any non-Western aspect of Islamic society. They instantly project their Western selves onto everything every time.
It would seem advisable to feel one's way into this story, particularly after picking up on the mullah-versus-mullah action, along with a few choice highlights of "opposition" candidate Mousavi's resume. Mousavi (who defended the seizure of American hostages taken from the U.S. embassy there in 1979) served as the Ayatollah Khomeini's prime minister (and is believed to have had a connection to the 1983 attack on the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut), reportedly initiated contact with Pakistan's A.Q. Khan to launch Iran's nuclear program, and, as John Bolton recently pointed out, "is fully committed to Iranian terrorism." (So much for the Wall Street Journal's uncontested mention of Mousavi's "mercy Islam.") In a recent Al Jazeera interview, Mousavi revealed his opinion of Ahmadinejad's genocidal intention to "wipe Israel off the map." Mousavi said: "From the beginning, I objected to that phrase."
The phrase?
But there's more. In a seminal but barely reported speech on June 20, Mousavi explained his movement. It has nothing to do with freedom, with modernity or, as Iran-watcher Michael Ledeen has written, a call "in effect for the end of the Islamic Republic as we know it." Indeed, Mousavi's vision as laid out in this speech has everything to do with returning Iran to the past 1979, to be precise.
In a paean to the 1979 Islamic Revolution "an illumination, never experienced before" that empowered the noxious Ayatollah Khomeini, Mousavi explains his intent to revive "the Islamic revolution as it was" and "the Islamic Republic as it should be." Noting that this "noble message ... excited the younger generation, a generation that had not seen those times, and felt a distance between ... this great inheritance," he speaks of the "rights of the people" to fair election results, and pledges his loyalty to this cause. And finally this:
"We are not up against our sacred regime and its legal structures; this structure guards our Independence, Freedom and Islamic Republic. We are up against the deviations and deceptions and we want to reform them; a reformation that returns us to the pure principles of the Islamic Revolution."
A Chinese firm's bid to buy the gas-guzzling Hummer car brand will be blocked on environmental grounds, according to Chinese state radio.
Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery emerged as the surprise buyer for the brand earlier this year. But China National Radio said Hummer is at odds with the country's planning agency's attempts to decrease pollution from Chinese manufacturers.
Sichuan Tengzhong disputed the accuracy of the radio report. "The fact that it is from an article from a state media organisation does not mean it is government policy," the company said in a statement. "Some people may have views and speculation, but the Chinese government has a process that we respect."
The acquisition from General Motors needs Chinese regulatory approval.
#1
So maybe the Chinese will open a US plant or two and build them here? Lots of available TIF Districts and cheap labor (in a few months once the laid-off UAW folks realize that their beloved automaker unions are of little or no help when the local's benefit fund runs dry).
Plus they don't seem to get bent out of shape by a
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/26/2009 17:12
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THE defense budget approved by US senators includes a plan to reform the controversial military tribunal process at Guantanamo Bay.
"Those commissions... and their procedures have got to be changed to ensure that they are consistent with American principles of justice," said Democratic Senator Carl Levin.
"The use of coerced testimony, we have put in our bill, it is not going to be admissible," Levin said in comments to the media.
Who decides it was 'coerced'?
Levin, who spoke alongside the committee's senior Republican Senator John McCain, said the changes would address how classified evidence can be used. The issue of providing detainees with access to "exculpatory evidence" will also be dealt with, the senator said.
Levin said he had worked "very closely" with the White House, as well as McCain and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on the plan.
President Barack Obama decided last month to keep the military commission system set up by former president George W. Bush to prosecute detainees at Guantanamo, although he pledged reforms would be made to the system.
One of Obama's first acts after taking office in January was to order a fourth-month suspension of the commissions process, which was established in 2006. The halt in proceedings was intended to give the administration time to assess its options after Obama pledged to close the Guantanamo prison camp for "war on terror" detainees by January 2010.
The defense budget approved by the committee must still be approved by the Senate as a whole.
Maybe it's if you ask the same question more than once?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/26/2009 17:06
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#2
Bambi, Levin, Graham, McCain. There are not four people on the planet whose involvement would be less likely to lead to sensible procedures. The commissions were consistent with our principles in their first edition, much less the multiple ones produced in response to the outrageous bait-and-switch Third World antics of the SCOTUS.
One more disgrace and blow to sanity and international law courtesy of the self-appointed guardians of justice and fairness. Kinda takes the sting out of large-casualty Predator strikes and the like - the unfortunate deaths of innocents will still be far preferable to the idiocy that ensues when America now actually captures someone alive.
Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers pleaded guilty this morning to conspiring to commit bribery and is free on personal bond. U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn said, "The defendant now stands convicted."
The one count of conspiring to commit bribery is punishable by up to five years in prison. No sentencing date has been set.
In court, Conyers' combative demeanor was gone, replaced by soft-spoken resignation as the judge and his staff several times asked her to speak up. Conyers, the wife of powerful Democratic congressman U.S. Rep. John Conyers, appeared before Cohn to answer charges in connection with the wide-ranging probe of wrongdoing at Detroit city hall. She will probably continue to serve on the city council until sentencing.
Posted by: Lord garth ||
06/26/2009
15:17 ||
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#1
Wasn't Dinnerjacket one of the rabble in the street in 1979 that seized the U.S. Embassy?
Bolton is right. The mad mullahs will simply drag their feet in negotiations to buy time to develop nuclear weapons. Dinnerjacket has threatened to wipe Israel off the map. He is a hateful little $hit. People have made the mistake of appeasing and negotiating with tyrants in the past. Chamberlain's fiddling and fumbling opened the door for WWII. With tyrants negotiations are used for advantage or taken as a sign of weakness. History again is ignored.
#2
Yes and much more. According to other OSU officials, when the idea of storming the U.S. embassy in Tehran was raised in the OSU central committee by Mirdamadi and Abdi, Ahmadinejad suggested storming the Soviet embassy at the same time. A decade later, most OSU leaders re-grouped around Khatami but Ahmadinejad remained loyal to the ultra-conservatives.
During the crackdown on universities in 1980, which Khomeini called the Islamic Cultural Revolution, Ahmadinejad and the OSU played a critical role in purging dissident lecturers and students many of whom were arrested and later executed. Universities remained closed for three years and Ahmadinejad joined the Revolutionary Guards.
In the early 1980s, Ahmadinejad worked in the Internal Security department of the IRGC and earned notoriety as a ruthless interrogator and torturer. According to the state-run website Baztab, allies of outgoing President Mohammad Khatami have revealed that Ahmadinejad worked for some time as an executioner in the notorious Evin Prison, where thousands of political prisoners were executed in the bloody purges of the 1980s.
In 1986, Ahmadinejad became a senior officer in the Special Brigade of the Revolutionary Guards and was stationed in Ramazan Garrison near Kermanshah in western Iran. Ramazan Garrison was the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards extra-territorial operations, a euphemism for terrorist attacks beyond Irans borders.
In Kermanshah, Ahmadinejad became involved in the clerical regimes terrorist operations abroad and led many extra-territorial operations of the IRGC. With the formation of the elite Qods (Jerusalem) Force of the IRGC, Ahmadinejad became one of its senior commanders. He was the mastermind of a series of assassinations in the Middle East and Europe, including the assassination of Iranian Kurdish leader Abdorrahman Qassemlou, who was shot dead by senior officers of the Revolutionary Guards in a Vienna flat in July 1989. Ahmadinejad was a key planner of the attack, according to sources in the Revolutionary Guards.
This is the person Obama wants to buddy up to.
Posted by: ed ||
06/26/2009 19:59
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Top secret War Office papers have revealed a strange and macabre weapons project tested by the Allies during World War II.
Lethal clouds of tiny poisoned darts were to be tipped with mustard gas to kill enemy troops without damaging nearby buildings or equipment.
The file has been released by the National Archives.
Test results were inconclusive and although the scientists remained enthusiastic, the project was shelved. The concept was developed between 1941 and 1945 at the Porton Down research base in Wiltshire.
Research scientists thought clouds of poison darts, blasted from canisters high above the battlefield, could be even more lethal against enemy troop concentrations than high-explosive shells.
Mustard gas compounds in the needles would ensure anyone whose skin was broken would die a swift and horrible death, or at least have terrible injuries.
Assessing the effectiveness of the darts one report notes: "If penetrating into the flesh, will cause death if not plucked out within 30 seconds. If plucked out within this time, will cause disablement by collapse. Collapse occurs within one to five minutes, and death within 30 minutes."
A hand-written comment written next to this observed: "I doubt whether the darts can be plucked out. The paper tail would come off."
The scientists later pooled their knowledge with Canadian and American research teams. In one experiment, the Canadians had dressed sheep and goats in two layers of battledress material and positioned them across a wide area, some in trenches, to be exposed to the killer darts.
Scientists predicted that symptoms displayed by the animals would be similar to those affecting humans.
"The pulse becomes very slow and the blood pressure falls. The subject collapses and lies on its side with twitching muscles. Where the dose is lethal, death occurs on 30 minutes, usually preceded by convulsions."
Despite some initial success, the project did not always run completely to plan. When the scientists came to procure the needles needed for their experiments - it seems they caused not a little confusion.
An exchange of letters between Singer Sewing Machine Co. Ltd in Bristol and the Biology section at the experimental station in Porton Down illustrates how the need for secrecy stopped scientists explaining exactly what they needed the needles for.
One letter from Singer, dated December 24 1941, begins: "In reply to your letter of the 23rd instant, we are afraid we do not quite understand your requirements. From your remarks, it would seem that the needles are required for some other purpose, other than sewing machines."
Historians looking at the files today said they provided a "fantastic insight" into what the Allies were prepared to do to win the war.
Mark Dunton, a contemporary history specialist at the National Archives, said: "I have never heard of poisoned darts being used as a weapon of war in this way before. To our modern sensibilities it seems shocking and there's a real sense of viciousness about this weapon. But it shows the Allies were prepared to consider anything - no matter how gruesome - to secure a victory."
The file shows the darts were never used because they were a "highly uneconomical weapon" and only a small proportion of people would have been killed.
#1
Chemical weapons were not used during WWII by mutual consent, which worked out well for the allies because the Nazis were way ahead of us in this field.
#2
Don't forget the Nazis used them on an industrial scale against civilians. They were just too scared to ever start using them against Allied forces.
#3
To our modern sensibilities it seems shocking and there's a real sense of viciousness about this weapon. But it shows the Allies were prepared to consider anything - no matter how gruesome - to secure a victory
Yikes. A perfect expression of the moral confusion attached to unconventional munitions, then and now. You see, the injuries and painful deaths and maiming caused by bullets and explosives are, well, just not as bad as deaths and injuries caused by chemicals.
Also a nice touch with the shock about the Allies were willing to do "consider anything" to win. Really? I hadn't noticed, what with firebombings of cities, laying waste to half of Europe to drive the Germans out, and unsentimental and correct application of the Geneva Conventions when it came to executing (or torturing, in effect) spies.
And this guy is, um, an HISTORIAN.
Methinks a lot of the "restraint" involved with CW in WWII was simply practical - usefully applying such ordnance isn't so easy, especially in a war introducing true (mechanized) mobility to most of the land forces.
I've always thought that a "preparation" of Iwo Jima involving weeks and weeks of intense non-stop chemical bombardment might have been a good idea. Surely would have added to the limited impact of the conventional "typhoon of steel" applied.
Iwo might in fact be the exception to the rule that chemical ordnance in modern warfare has limited utility.
"Anybody who fights against the Islamic system or the leader of Islamic society, fight him until complete destruction," he (Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami) said in the nationally broadcast speech.
She was carrying an Irish passport, and burst into tears or fainted periodically throughout her adventure. We can hope these were tactical choices rather than expressions of the frail flower of the West.
I went to a net café to read western analysis of what the Ayatollah said. I tried to access CNN online, but the government had slowed down the internet to keep Iranians feeling isolated that week.
As I waited for the news to load a young man named Ali offered to help me. I expressed my annoyance to him over the slowed internet speed, and the fact that Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and the BBC had all been blocked. "Our government is very bad," he said. I nodded my head slightly.
Ali helped me hail a taxi to Valiasr Square to meet a friend for coffee. The taxi quickly moved through streets that were normally clogged with gridlock traffic. As we approached my destination two motorbikes pulled up on both sides of the taxi, waving for us to pull over. There were Basiji men.
An unfamiliar feeling of terror came over me the moment I recognized one of the men as Ali from the net café. Read the rest.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/26/2009
12:11 ||
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#1
She was arrested, not 'kidnapped'.
She sounds like an 'emotional' type of person. Given that, probably not the best place or time for her to have been there. Glad she's out.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/26/2009 17:17
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Instead of meeting with House Democrats Thursday to argue in favor of passing a controversial climate change bill, former Vice President Al Gore has decided to meet one-on-one with them via phone calls.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had decided not to impose on the former vice president after the list of undecided lawmakers narrowed Wednesday. Gore had been scheduled to meet with Democrats on Capitol Hill at 1 p.m. ET. Thursday and was going to speak with the press at 2 p.m. ET.
"It was a question of what was energy efficient for the vice president," Pelosi said at her weekly news conference Thursday, explaining the absence. "We were narrowing the list of the undecided and thought perhaps another occasion we could call upon his time to come here."
Pelosi added that it was more energy efficient for Gore to continue coordinating efforts from Tennessee.
Senior Democratic sources told FOX News that in addition to the time commitment issue, they thought it was better if Gore worked the phones with targeted lawmakers. Gore is specifically reaching out to more liberal lawmakers who don't think the bill goes far enough, the sources said.
But speculation is swirling that Gore's presence would have been radioactive and could have caused more of a problem, a source told FOX News.
Senior Democratic leaders are pushing skeptical lawmakers to side with them to approve a measure that could have significant economic impact on the energy bills of many Americans and could even drive up the price of food by forcing utility companies to buy credits to pay for their carbon output.
Gore, who is well-known for his environmental views, has authored books on climate change an produced the Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" in 2005.
Steve Fielding recently asked the Obama administration to reassure him on the science of man-made global warming. When the administration proved unhelpful, Mr. Fielding decided to vote against climate-change legislation.
If you haven't heard of this politician, it's because he's a member of the Australian Senate. As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to pass a climate-change bill, the Australian Parliament is preparing to kill its own country's carbon-emissions scheme. Why? A growing number of Australian politicians, scientists and citizens once again doubt the science of human-caused global warming.
Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting. It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media), did a little too vociferous a job smearing anyone who disagreed with them as "deniers." The backlash has brought the scientific debate roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan and even, if less reported, the U.S.
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#1
I've been searching the web for more on Dr. Simpson, haven't found much yet. It was interesting that she felt she had to wait until she retired before speaking her skepticism about global warmism.
As a leading cleric demanded today that dissenters be punished "strongly and with cruelty" and that some are "worthy of execution," Iran's increasingly isolated opposition leader effectively ended his role in street protests, saying he'll seek permits for future rallies.
Iran's ruling clergy has widened its clampdown on the opposition since a bitterly disputed June 12 presidential election, and scattered protests have replaced the initial mass rallies. The official Web site of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, his main tool of communicating with his supporters, was hacked today, leaving it blank, an aide said.
Mousavi has said victory was stolen from him through fraud, challenging the proclamation of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner. However, Mousavi has sent mixed signals to his supporters in recent days, asking them not to break the law, while pledging not to drop his challenge of the election results.
Hundreds have been detained in recent weeks, including journalists, academics and university students, and a special court has been set up to try them.
In today's central Muslim sermon at Tehran University, a senior cleric, Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami, called for harsh retribution for dissent. "Anybody who fights against the Islamic system or the leader of Islamic society, fight him until complete destruction," he said in the nationally broadcast speech.
The cleric claimed some involved in the unrest had used firearms. "Anyone who takes up arms to fight with the people, they are worthy of execution," he said. "We ask that the judiciary confront the leaders of the protests, leaders of the violations, and those who are supported by the United States and Israel strongly, and without mercy to provide a lesson for all."
Khatami said those who disturbed the peace and destroyed public property were "at war with God," and said they should be "dealt with without mercy." He reminded worshippers that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rules by God's design and must not be defied.
The cleric also lashed out at foreign journalists, accusing them of false reporting, and singled out Britain for new criticism. "In this unrest, Britons have behaved very mischievously and it is fair to add the slogan of down with England to slogan of down with USA," he said, as his remarks were interrupted by worshippers' chants of "Death to Israel."
Iran's rulers have accused the West, which has become increasingly vocal in its condemnation of the post-election clampdown, of meddling in Iran's internal affairs. Earlier this week, Iran expelled two British diplomat, prompting the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats by Britain. In Trieste, Italy, foreign ministers of the Group of Eight countries called for an end to the violence in Iran and urged the authorities to find a peaceful solution.
Khatami, meanwhile, alleged that the icon of the opposition, slain protester Neda Agha Soltan, was killed by demonstrators, not the Iranian security forces. Soltan, 27, was killed by a shot to the chest last week, on the sidelines of a protest. "The proof and evidence shows that they (protesters) have done it themselves and have raised propaganda against the system," he said. "I say hereby that these deceitful media have to know that the ordeal will be over and shame will remain for them."
In quelling protests, Basij militiamen have broken up even small groups of people walking together to prevent any possible gathering. Still, dozens of friends and relatives of Soltan managed to pay tribute Friday, arriving at Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in groups of two and three, uttering brief prayers, placing flowers on Soltan's grave and then leaving, witnesses said.
Vigils for Soltan have been held around the world.
This morning, Mousavi, who has said he is being increasingly isolated, lost his main link to the world after his official Web site Kalemeh, came up blank and stripped of any text or pictures. Mousavi's associate Ali Reza Beheshti told The Associated Press the site had been taken down by unknown hackers.
In a message on the site late yesterday, Mousavi had said he would seek permission for future protests, even though he said unfair restrictions were being imposed. He said he has been asked by the Interior Ministry to apply in person, a week ahead of time. The opposition leader noted that his rival, Ahmadinejad, has been able to hold two post-election marches and a Tehran rally "that were well publicized on state television, seeming to encourage participation with their regularly advertised march routes."
Mousavi has said the authorities are pressuring him to withdraw his challenge by attempting to isolate and discredit him. He hasn't led a rally in more than a week.
Khamenei has ordered a large security detail around Mousavi -- ostensibly to protect him, but presumably also to restrict his movements. Authorities have also targeted those close to Mousavi. Late yesterday, state TV reported that the head of Mousavi's information committee, Abolfazl Fateh, was banned from leaving Iran for Britain. The report, which could not be verified independently, identified Fateh as a doctoral student in Britain. The semiofficial Fars news agency said Fateh was banned from travel so authorities could investigate "some of the recent gatherings," a reference to election protests.
At least 11 Mousavi campaign workers and 25 staffers on his newspaper have been detained since the election. On Wednesday, 70 university professors were detained immediately after meeting with the opposition leader. All but four have been released. Those still in custody included Qorban Behzadiannejad, Mousavi's former campaign manager.
In all, at least 17 people have been killed in postelection protests, in addition to eight members of the Basij, the government has said.
Two men went on trial Friday on accusations they were involved with a radical Islamic group whose alleged plans to attack U.S. targets in Germany were foiled by authorities in 2007. Though not charged in the plot itself, Omid S., a German of Afghan background, and Huseyin O., a Turk, are being tried on more general charges that they supported the Islamic Jihad Union, an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan a jihadist group with ties to Al Qaeda. No pleas were entered, as is usual under the German trial system.
Omid S., 28, faces charges of membership in a foreign terrorist organization, while Huseyin O., 27, is charged with supporting a foreign terrorist organization. Both face a possible 10 years in prison if convicted at the Frankfurt state court. Neither man's full name was released, in keeping with German privacy rules. Authorities say both men have links to Adem Yilmaz, a Turk living in Germany who is currently standing trial in connection with the foiled 2007 plot.
Omid S. is accused of contacting the Islamic Jihad Union through Yilmaz and procuring supplies for the group such as night-vision devices and a GPS unit at the end of 2006 and in early 2007. He left Germany for training at an Islamic Jihad Union camp in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area in May 2007, prosecutors have said. Before heading off, he gave Yilmaz his bank card and security code so the Islamic Jihad Union would have access to the funds, prosecutors said. On his way to the training camp, he gave the supplies to an Islamic Jihad Union member in Iran, according to the indictment. Upon his return to Germany in October 2007, Omid S. continued to provide logistical support for the terrorist organization, prosecutors said.
Huseyin O. is also accused of obtaining supplies for the Islamic Jihad Union and trying to arrange through Yilmaz to train at a camp on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He was arrested while trying to enter Pakistan through Iran in June 2007. Prosecutors allege that he also gave Yilmaz access to his bank account so that Yilmaz could collect unemployment insurance funds that Huseyin O. had applied for.
#1
ION EUROZONE, WAFF > TERROR GROUP ["Sect of Revolutionaries] ISSUES NEW WARNING TO GREECE POSTER > 30-40% of Greece popul is now Muslim, includ Milyuhns + Zilyuhns + Nilyuhns, etc. of ILLEGALS]; + SEVEN TURKISH MILITARY MOVES WHICH IS CAUSING GREEKS TO BITE THEIR NAILS.
* SAME > MUSLIM [beggars?] LOOKING TO LIVE OFF THE SYSTEM IN THE EU NOW STUCK IN UKRAINE [Nos. of Muslim refugee = detainees in Ukraine rising fast].
Instead, we should stretch out the six remaining shuttle flights to 2015one per year. Sure, that will cost money, but we can more than make up for it by canceling the troubled Ares I. In its place, we should use the old reliable Delta IV Heavy or the Atlas V satellite launchers, upgraded for human flight. (It wont take much.) Then fast-track the Orion to fly on a Delta IV or Atlas V as soon as possible.
NASA should also step up its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program to subsidize private rockets like the SpaceX Falcon 9, which could make its first flight any time now. SpaceX is also developing the Dragon capsule to fly seven astronauts to the space station.
In the short term, some combination of an extended shuttle schedule and a new Orion/Delta, Orion/Atlas or Dragon/Falcon would fill the gap and give us the kind of continuity and flexibility we had during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. In the meantime, we need to develop new strategies, new launch vehicles and new spacecraft for the years beyond 2015 to bring us to the threshold of Mars.
#1
Space is wonderful thing. I know, I spent most of my life working in the field.
However the one thing I have learned is that space per se, other than the odd exploratory probe (which I favor), will amount to nothing until a profit is to be made. Which it surely will someday.
Government subsidies are all well and fine but are fickle as all get out.
So, Buzz, show us how to make a profit and there will be no stopping us. Until then you are blowing in the wind.
Posted by: Kelly ||
06/26/2009 11:10
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#2
Mr Aldrin didn't mention the funding source for these dreams. On the other had I would rather spend billions on HIS dreams than where Obama has been spending them.
#5
I think it's imperative to establish a Mars colony, ASAP, in the absence of a credible anti-comet strategy. One big rock, and poof! Good-bye human race.
Security tightened in wake of death plot discovery
A teacher protection unit in the restive southern province of Narathiwat was ambushed in a bombing on Friday, which left one police officer seriously wounded, while the Army chief pledged security measures would be provided to vulnerable peoples targeted by terrorists insurgents. The two victims, police officers in a protection unit patrolling the Sako-Sungai Padi Road in Sungai Padi district, were en route to escort teachers in the area, when a bomb was detonated by mobile phone. Pol.Cpl. Mudhuseng Suksawai, 26, was seriously injured and was sent to Sungai Kolok Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Army Commander-in-Chief Gen. Anupong Paochinda commented on reports of a terrorist insurgent plot to kill two judges of the 2004 Tak Bai case. Gen. Anupong said he had discussed the security measures with concerned authorities, but the details cannot be disclosed. Songkhla provincial judges Yingyos Tanorachorn and Chutharat Sansevi who were part of a special inquest on the Tak Bai tragedy have requested to transfer their posts from Songkhla province after a Ministry of Interior intelligence report indicated there was an assassination plot against the two judges. According to the report, if the action against the two Tak Bai judges fails, the terrorists insurgents will attack judges and public prosecutors in the three southernmost provinces instead. On October 25, 2004, 85 Muslim protesters were suffocated to death during Army transport from Tak Bai to an intended Army detention centre.
Gen. Anupong said that security measures will be tightened for weak and vulnerable people who are targets of the terrorists insurgents, including teachers, children, monks and state employees. The Army chief also affirmed that political and military tactics should be used in parallel to solve the southern jihad insurgency. For the military, legal and security measures will be strictly implemented and state security forces must prevent violence against local residents. "In terms of politics, quality of life must be improved in the restive South such as economy and education, Gen. Anupong said. Armed force will not be used to suppress the insurgents.
The Judicial Commission also meets on Friday to consider measures to prevent a possible plot to kill judges as well as to consider the transfer of the two targeted judges.
The Yala-Bangkok passenger train was attacked by gunmen near tambon Na Pradu in Pattanis Kok Pho district about 1.40pm on Friday, but there were no injuries, Pol Lt-Col Nukul Thanirat, chief of Na Pradu police station, said. Officials of rail union at Hat Yai office coordinated with the officers of the Internal Security Operations Commands Region 4 (South) in requesting more security forces for several other passenger trains scheduled to run from deep South to Bangkok late this afternoon.
Even with the boarding party on the way, jumping off a sinking boat, usually at night, is dangerous. U.S. laws have been changed so that the crews escaping from their sinking boats, can still be charged with drug smuggling (despite the loss of the evidence). This, plus the new Colombian laws, is why the drug gangs are looking into automating the boats, so that no crew is needed at all.
#2
Sink them very quietly, then tell the drug lords that the subs in fact did arrive and that the intended recipients made off with the entire stash. Let them sort it out.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2009 15:11
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#3
And then of course you would tell the intended recipients they were never sent.
Make the drugs worse quality.
Increase crime.
Whatever on that issue, a closely related issue which is far more important: Subs don't care what they carry. Drugs or nuclear materials, no difference to them. Big difference to us. Secure our borders with whatever it takes.
#8
End the "war" on drugs and the smuggling will stop
And we'll have several million dead people OD'd on cheap cocaine and their family members who the addicts have killed for money or for objecting to their self destruction.
Posted by: ed ||
06/26/2009 20:06
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#9
And it's not just cocaine. Meth will kill you quicker. So will heroin and some designer drugs. No thanks. I'd rather pack the dealers off to work camps for 10 years or more, send first time users to detox/rehab/boot camps, and death to the king pings (foreign and domestic) as enemies of the state.
Posted by: ed ||
06/26/2009 20:12
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Five Cuban dissidents who have collectively spent decades in jail for their pro-democracy activities were given a top award by the National Endowment for Democracy last night. But, unlike in past years, their representative was not invited to the White House, organizers said.
Carl Gershman, president of the endowment, said the organization asked two weeks ago whether President Obama could meet with Bertha Antúnez, the sister of one of the dissidents, who was picking up the award on their behalf. Gershman said he never got a response. There was also a lead editorial yesterday essentially saying Obama was siding with the oppressors rather than the oppressed - every now and again the WaPo comes through - while the NYTimes is still giving Obama serial tongue baths.
Posted by: Lord garth ||
06/26/2009
08:29 ||
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#1
Suppose he'll not say a word about Dr. Biscet either.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/26/2009 11:36
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I've wondered about the Big O's tendency to suck up to enemies and abuse friends. Maybe friends are assumed to be already in the bag, having been either bought or intimidated into playing along, whereas enemies represent fresh opportunities for influence and cash. 0 17
...Calling Michael Jackson an icon doesnt let him off the hook for anything. But to listen to the news anchors youd think it absolves him of everything.
I say: Who cares who his famous friends were? Who cares what a fascinating person he was? If you want to talk about his death as an end of an era, have at it. But thats not what the Barbara Walters set is doing.
I know that Michael Jackson wasnt convicted of the despicable crimes he was accused of. And thats why he never went to jail. Three cheers for the majesty of the American legal system. But in my own personal view he wasnt exonerated either. Nor was he absolved of his crimes because he could sing, moonwalk or sell 10 million records. (Though many of us suspect the money and fame he made from those things is precisely what kept him out of jail).
And, while I merely think he was a pedophile, I know he was not someone responsible parents should applaud, healthy children emulate nor society celebrate.
And while were at it, his relatively early death wasnt tragic. He was one of the richest people in the world. He spent his money on perpetual childhood and he was perpetually with children not his own.
Meanwhile, in the last ten days, weve seen or heard of remarkable people whove given their lives for freedom in Iran. Weve heard of innocents killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the last decade, America has lost thousands of heroes in noble causes and thousands of innocent bystanders who were denied the simple joys of life through no fault of their own. Those deaths are tragic, and we're hard pressed to think of more than a handful of names to put with the long line of the dead.
If anything, Michael Jacksons life, not his death, was tragic....
Posted by: Mike ||
06/26/2009
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Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
- Euripides
It applies to the MSM as well as Mr. Jackson. Dr. Frankenstein and his creation, parts of the same story. To the glory of ego.
Meanwhile the plebeian media of the net will have to carry the business of maintaining the republic in the absence of responsible adults in other venues.
#10
He lost me when he started changing himself into a white woman.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/26/2009 20:35
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Well, he's not with us anymore, I'll def miss his music but not his weird appearances and scandals. Makes me feel older but we must stay in the now. RIP MJ
Former Vice President Al Gore canceled plans to fly to Washington for a news conference with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday, and instead was working the phones from Tennessee to help push a landmark climate bill to passage.
Friday's vote on the measure is expected to be close, but multiple sources on both sides of the aisle say they're confident that the bill will pass -- with some Republican votes -- following a deal between House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson.
"It's a question of what was energy efficient for the vice president," Pelosi said of the decision to keep Gore in Tennessee. "We were narrowing the list of the undecideds. We had a great narrowing of the undecideds." The speaker, President Barack Obama and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel were all telephoning undecided or wavering House members in both parties.
As part of their efforts, Obama added a last-minute Rose Garden Thursday, where he predicted that the vote on the bill would be close. To those members of Congress who are undecided, he said: "We've been talking about this issue for decades, now is the time to act."
The American Clean Energy and Security Act, better known as the Waxman-Markey bill, would cut greenhouse-gas while promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency. The measure, which is likely to have a tough go in the Senate, is a linchpin of Obama's first-year agenda. A victory would give the White House momentum going into a vote on health care later this summer.
What would a defeat give?
The speaker's office sent this notification to reporters Thursday morning: "As the list of undecided Members narrowed, the Speaker thought it was unnecessary to impose on the Vice President's schedule to travel to Washington, and instead to continue coordinating efforts from Tennessee," spokesman Drew Hammill said in an e-mail. Gore, who was coming at the invitation of the speaker, was going to make the case for strong action one of the president's top priorities -- energy and global warming -- without delay. He supports the House bill as the way to cut pollution, make dramatic increases in using energy efficiently, and increase use of renewable energy, which will boost jobs and improve our national security.
Earlier this week, Gore held a conference call to mobilize more than 10,000 of his Repower America grassroots activists.
And were they mobilized? The article doesn't say anything about lawmakers getting 10,000 calls, letters and emails supporting this bill.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/26/2009 6:01
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At this point the bill is so full of special interest provisions, so full of arcane language, so full of exceptions and exceptions to the exceptions, so full of contingencies and required reports and required studies that it should be an embarrassment to the authors. Yesterday, the Wapo, essentially came out against it on these grounds.
Bring it on.
Posted by: Lord garth ||
06/26/2009 8:19
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following a deal between House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson.
The Climate Change Boondoggle has been in the works for years and as recently as last week even the proponents couldnt agree on the validity of their facts and figures. Now Rep. Peterson, in the 11th hour, was able to get both the agriculture and forestry industries exempt from the definition of a capped sector. Yet, according to the EPA, the agricultural sector alone was responsible for 6 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. So one would assume those exemptions would substantially alter Waxmans previous calculations. Dont worry you can bet thier deal has it all worked out.
#4
So what I want to know, how many of our supposed 'leaders' in the House/Senate/Administration that are trying to ram this POS through, are personally invested in the "GoreCap" trading firms or markets?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/26/2009 10:59
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I wonder if Gore was asked to stay home because Obama didn't a cold snap to hit the DC area on the day of the House vote?
#6
Former Vice President Al Gore canceled plans to fly to Washington for a news conference with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday
Ha Waxman and Pelosi caved at the last minute and offered an enticement bribe to Democrats from Timber producing districts. (Upper NW) Over strong objections, from none other then Al Gore, they are allowing Biomass to be defined as a renewable energy source. According to Gore, the use of Biomass will only encourage unsustainable logging in federal forests to meet demand for biomass power plants. Not to mention this decision really throws the promises of CO2 reduction benefits, as envisioned in this bill, into a tailspin. The MSM narrative was Al politely declined his invitation so as not to upstage Obama. However, reality suggests Gore was home pouting.
#10
apparently, it passed 219-212 with eight GOPers voting for it. Malkin is hunting down their names, addresses, emails, license plates...etc.
A monumental bill that none of these idiots even READ should be qualifications for removal, tar and feathering, and loss of pension
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/26/2009 19:38
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#11
the traitors are named:
Bono Mack
Castle
Kirk
Lance
LoBiondo
McHugh
Reichert
Smith (NJ)
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/26/2009 19:39
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#12
Blue Staters all! No surprises here. Food stamps cash-for-clunkers, natural gas, electricity, and heating oil vouchers for the "poor and needy" ... here they come!
#13
Look for electric bills to double and everything else to go up less. Basically a trillion dollar/year anchor on the American economy.
Posted by: ed ||
06/26/2009 20:25
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#14
My congresscritter, NutLoebsack, voted for it. Big shocka there, especially since the little weasel who answered the phone in his office refused to say how he voted. The university twits are gonna be so happy...until the heating bills come in.
Duh. Since when does it take the Supreme Court to figure this out? We're doomed.
Details about the story posted yesterday.
Arizona school officials violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old girl when they strip-searched her on the suspicion she might be hiding ibuprofen in her underwear, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The decision put school districts on notice that such searches are "categorically distinct" from other efforts to combat illegal drugs.
In a case that had drawn attention from educators, parents and civil libertarians across the country, the court ruled 8 to 1 that such an intrusive search without the threat of a clear danger to other students violated the Constitution's protections against unreasonable search or seizure.
#1
'Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter. "Judges are not qualified to second-guess the best manner for maintaining quiet and order in the school environment," he wrote.'
As per usual, the leftist crowd is skewering Thomas for his dissent. It will be interesting to see their reaction when this decision is used as a precedent to challenge school policies that they wish to enforce in their districts. One can assume many a lawyer will exploit this decision to confront issues beyond unreasonable search or seizure. Can you say Zero Tolerance?
#3
It's generally against school rules for students to have anything more interesting than a chocolate bar, Crazy Fool. School nurses will only pass out pills with a doctor's prescription, so they don't even have baby aspirin on hand.
#4
Yes railing, you sure must know a lot about baby aspirin.
Why don't you tell all the respected Rantburg readers about your dad's occupation (unemployed Chemist) and about his chemistry certificate from Hudson Valley Community College?
Ha! ha! 0 10
Posted by: TRUTH yeah! ||
06/26/2009 12:39
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#5
Have you always been stoopid or did you take a course? 0 15
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009 12:44
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#6
Your right TW - but being against school rules does not make it exactly 'Illegal' (picky - but then I'm an engineer type). Just against the rules.
Somehow I don't think it rises to the level of requiring a freaking strip search - particulary on a 'tip' from a fellow student. Its Motrin for gosh sake.
#9
A lot of teenage girls this age have their period and cramps and believe it or not require Motrin, Aleve, or other pain reliever. The school officials seem to lower the standard for idiocy.
So, do these school officials have to register as sex offenders and stay away from the school?
The greatest evil which fortune can inflict on men is to endown them with small talents and great ambition.
Jenny Sanford said Thursday that her husband Mark Sanford's political career is "not a concern of mine" and that the gander would she'd be just fine -- regardless of whether their marriage survives.
She would not speculate whether her husband would resign as South Carolina governor. No need. We can guess how that's going to turn out.
"His career is not a concern of mine," she told reporters as she departed the family's vacation home in Sullivans Island, South Carolina. "He's going to have to worry about that. I'm worried about my family and the character of my children." Ooh, "my family". That's going to leave a mark.
She added that she would be fine, with or without her P.O.S. husband. "I have great faith and great friends and great family. We have a good Lord in this world and I know that I'm going to be fine and not only will I survive, I'll thrive," she said.
"I don't know if he'll be with me, but I'm going to do my best to work on my marriage because I believe in marriage. I believe in raising good kids is the most important thing in the world," she said.
After disappearing from the public eye for nearly a week, Gov. Mark Sanford, 49, admitted to having an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman. He also admitted Wednesday that he had not hiked the Appalachian Trail during his absence -- as his staff had said earlier -- but had been in Buenos Aires, Argentina hiking up his girlfriend's skirt.
Jenny Sanford would not reveal whether she was headed back to the family's home in Columbia. "Right now we're taking it a day at a time. Right now we're going out on a boat." Better check behind you if you go near the rail, Gov.
Gov. Sanford, leaving the family home in a different car, was in a far less talkative mood. "I'm going back to Columbia," he said.
The State, the Columbia-based newspaper that acquired what it said were e-mail exchanges between Sanford and the woman in Argentina, acknowledged Thursday that there would likely be people who would call for the governor's resignation. "We are not ready to join them at this point," its editorial said. We've got to talk to our lawyers first, because it's hard to tell what's right and wrong these days.
#3
Good for his wife. I'm so sick of seeing these women like Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Edwards trotted out to the podium like stage props. Finally, a woman with a spine.
#4
How lovely for him, Cyber Sarge. That does not excuse the pain his choices inflicted on others. He should either have divorced his wife, with all that entails, or kept his love within conventional bounds.
#6
Looks like it is just part of the divorce settlement.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/26/2009 10:28
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#7
Of course, this idiot will make himself out to be the victim. I hope she holds her ground and sticks to her terms. The guy is a complete moron.
Posted by: Art ||
06/26/2009 10:34
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#8
I thought getting women was the main reason men go into politics in the first place (except for Blarney Frank).
Posted by: some guy ||
06/26/2009 11:32
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#9
For some reasons Americans seem to believe that politicians who DON'T cheat on their wives (or are not caught doing so) are more honest than those who do cheat.
I think we don't believe that on our side of the ocean so we pretty much don't care that.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/26/2009 21:50
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Embattled South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford plans to return to work Friday, despite calls for him to resign because of a sex scandal. Where have we seen this before?
"After spending Thursday with his family in Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, Governor Mark Sanford has returned to Columbia and plans on holding a Cabinet meeting on Friday," his office told CNN by e-mail Thursday, a day after he admitted having an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman. "Oops! My bad! See ya next Monday after my vacation!"
After disappearing from the public eye for nearly a week, Sanford, 49, acknowledged Wednesday that he had not hiked the Appalachian Trail -- as his staff had said earlier -- but had been in his girlfriend in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Sanford said Thursday that he would reimburse South Carolina for the Argentina leg of a state-funded trade mission last year because he saw the woman he had an affair with on that trip, someone he described as "a dear, dear friend."
CNN's sources in Buenos Aires and in South Carolina identified the woman, whose name was also widely reported in Argentine media, as Maria Belen Chapur. Sorry, couldn't find a photo. I'll bet she's hot, though. If she isn't, he'd better resign. She's easy on the eyes. He needs to resign anyway.
The governor's disclosure prompted one newspaper in South Carolina and one of the state's top Republicans to call for his resignation.
Sanford "cannot navigate a deep and painful personal crisis and lead the state through its economic crisis at the same time," an editorial in The Spartanburg Herald-Journal said. Sure he can. He'll just join that growing support group comprised of all kinds of power-hungry hypocritical politicians who don't have the decency to just go home when they should.
The paper said South Carolina needed a spokesman who could talk to potential employers without having to answer questions about his personal life. "And the state needs a leader it can trust as it deals with the troubled economy. Sanford has destroyed that trust," it said.
A key South Carolina Republican cited Sanford's past criticism of Bill Clinton and accused the governor of hypocrisy. Hey, that was long ago. Before he was a hypocrite.
"He was saying our elected leaders need to stand firm on principles and values, and one of those is strong family values," Glenn McCall, a member of the Republican National Committee, told CNN by phone. "What he said is hypocritical if he doesn't step down, because he was right with what he said about Clinton and others. When you are an elected leader, we hold you to higher standards."
The State, the Columbia-based newspaper that acquired what it said were e-mail exchanges between Sanford and the woman, acknowledged Thursday that there would likely be people who would call for the governor's resignation. "We are not ready to join them at this point," the editorial said.
The State said it acquired the e-mails in December. The governor's office confirmed their authenticity Wednesday, the newspaper told CNN. When contacted by CNN, a spokesman for the governor would neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the e-mails.
The affair began in the past year and was discovered five months ago, Sanford said Wednesday without elaborating. He added that he and his wife were trying to work through it.
He implied that he had ended the affair, saying, "And the one thing that you really find is that you absolutely want resolution. And so oddly enough, I spent the last five days of my life begging crying in Argentina." Don't cry for him, Argentina. [Note: I will not go to my room unless Sanford resigns first. Hmph.]
Thursday, the governor said he would repay South Carolina for the Argentina leg of the trade mission last year with the Department of Commerce.
"While the purpose of this trip was an entirely professional and appropriate business development trip, I made a mistake while I was there in meeting with the woman who I was unfaithful to my wife with," Sanford said. Over, and over, . . . .
Good lord, the man should resign immediately on account of the grammar errors in that sentence.
"That has raised some very legitimate concerns and questions, and as such I am going to reimburse the state for the full cost of the Argentina leg of this trip." The South American swing took Sanford and several commerce officials to Brazil and Argentina for one week, beginning on June 21, 2008.
According to state expenditure reports, Sanford's expenses for out-of-state travel with the Department of Commerce were $21,487 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008. Governors commonly travel out-of-state or abroad to stir up investment in their home states.
It was not immediately clear how much of the expenses the Argentina part of the trip comprised.
Sanford said in the news conference Wednesday that he footed the bill for his most recent trip to Buenos Aires, which occurred in the past week. After he figured he couldn't get away with it anymore.
I'll bet Mrs. Sanford was not pleased about the burden on the family budget.
#2
He needs to resign, for two reasons: first, he broke the trust. He was out of country without making arrangements, and had originally planned to be gone 10 days. Governors can't do that.
And second, he's moon-struck. He's got a lot of 'issues', the biggest of which is that his heart, his brain, and lil' Mark aren't all on the same wavelength. He needs time to sort things out, and time is something he won't have as governor.
Spare us the angst and pain. Resign and go back to private life.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2009 8:42
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#3
The paper said South Carolina needed a spokesman who could talk to potential employers without having to answer questions about his personal life.
In other words, "Hiding behind his secretary".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/26/2009 9:04
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Something Demented this Way Comes.....
One of science fictions last surviving greats sounds off with controversial opinions about the internet
With the loss of Arthur C. Clarke and Michael Crichton last year, the survivors of the elite group of twentieth century science fiction authors has dwindled. Such greats as George Orson Welles, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov had already passed away. One of the last surviving greats is Ray Bradbury, currently 88. Mr. Bradbury is known for such classics as Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man, and The Martian Chronicles. Who in the name of Cthulhu is "George Orson Welles?" Hgeorge Gorson Welles?
Recently Mr. Bradbury has taken his passion for books to new heights, campaigning for the Ventura County Public Libraries. He explains, "Libraries raised me. I don't believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don't have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years." "You punks get off of my lawn, goddamit! Turn the TV down? Hell, I can barely hear it and where are my pants anyway?"
Perhaps out of concern that the internet is displacing printed works, he let loose some colorful comments about the internet and its worth in The New York Times this week. He comments, "The Internet is a big distraction. Yahoo called me eight weeks ago. They wanted to put a book of mine on Yahoo! You know what I told them? 'To hell with you. To hell with you and to hell with the Internet`. It's distracting. It's meaningless; it's not real. It's in the air somewhere."
A Yahoo spokesperson said they could not comment on the issue. They said they were unsure if Mr. Bradbury's account matched up to reality.
I grew up in the public library, too. Between my three siblings and two parents we went through a laundry basket of books every week, which would have been unaffordable on my professor father's salary. I love real books, and I've been know to buy eccentric volumes at the second hand bookshop. Nonetheless, I'd bet a larger percentage of the Millennium Generation is literate than ever before in history, due to the internet... and texting. The key is acquiring the ability to read; learning facts and learning to think are follow-on skills. Oh, and since Mr. Wife can't sleep if I have my light on, reading Rantburg and free novels on-line may well have saved our marriage. ;-)
#1
Fahrenheit 451 is perhaps the most tedious book ever published. But Liberals love the politics, so schoolchildren are made to study this piece of dross.
#2
Did spellcheck convert George Orwell into George Orson Welles?
And why?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
06/26/2009 5:42
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#3
"Orson" Wells, of War Of the Worlds fame, was born with the Christian name George. Orson is his middle name.
And personally, I enjoyed Fahrenheit 451, as I did everything else of Bradbury's that I've read. In fact, I'd say that he ranks only second to Heinlein, in the world of SF. Asimov? Now there's some seriously tedious writing! Outside of the occasional short story I never had the stamina to finish anything he wrote.
Posted by: Large Snerong7311 ||
06/26/2009 6:15
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#5
I think I understand why he'd say that. His writing revels in the senses; in the smell and sound and feel of things. I'd read that he preferred a manual typewriter for the sensation of the keys moving to hit the paper. He wouldn't want to lose the sense of the weight of the book and the feel of the covers and turning the pages--they'd be integrated with the act of reading for him.
I haven't read much of his recent work, so perhaps he's done it already, but I'd guess that if he were to write about books online he'd envision a self-aware server that rewrote the stories you stored on it; fitting them to what it thought you should be reading.
The internet--distracting? Not possible. Let me go check my email again.
Posted by: James ||
06/26/2009 7:14
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#6
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 October 10, 1985) was an Academy Award-winning American film director, writer, actor and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television, and radio. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the 20th century. His first two films with RKO, Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, are widely considered two of the greatest ever made. His other films, including Touch of Evil and Chimes at Midnight, are also considered masterpieces.[1][2] He was also well-known for a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds which, performed in the style of a news broadcast, reportedly caused widespread panic when listeners thought that a real invasion was in progress.
#7
he'd envision a self-aware server that rewrote the stories you stored on it; fitting them to what it thought you should be reading.
The media already does this.
#10
Martian Chronicles was a pretty good book, but Bradbury was and is a terminal reactionary. He hasn't had a damn thing to say in what, forty-five, fifty years now?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/26/2009 9:28
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#11
Internet Dismisses Ray Bradbury as "Distracting" and "Meaningless"
#12
Bradbury's angle was that his stories usually did not have saccharine happy endings that were the norm in science fiction of the time, nor were the loose ends particularly wrapped up.
He also avoided the "Deus ex Machina" problem of the new invention being central to the plot, and tried hard to avoid scientific impossibilities. Going way back, however, he has disliked television, which was central to several of his plot lines, such as "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Veldt".
A very influential short story, "There will come soft rains", had a major anti-nuclear war impact both in the US and the Soviet Union, where in 1984 it was made into an animated short.
Over here, it was most recently referenced in the 2008 video game Fallout 3.
#13
In what respect does Orson Welles qualify as a science fiction author, let alone one of the greats? He didn't even write the radio adaptation of War of the Worlds, Howard Koch did. Perhaps like many other pop-culturists, the author does not know that Welles and H.G. Wells were different people.
#14
"Saccharine happy endings" were no more the norm in SF during the heyday of Bradbury's career than were bug-eyed monsters and flying saucers. This is a literary establishment stereotype of the field, and Bradbury played to it. See Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations," Heinlein's original Starship Troopers, or practically anything by Alfred Bester, Fred Pohl (who is still with us btw) or A.E. van Vogt. This kind of sophisticated and balanced work was by no means atypical. Movie/TV scifi and printed SF are not the same and until very recently did not even resemble each other.
#15
I recently re-read Fahrenheit 451. After the election it seemed apropos.
In the afterward Bradbury talks about changes in the decades since he first wrote the novel. He gets many letters from people suggesting ways to conform it with current notions of political correctness. I never get tired of remembering his response: "There is more than way way to burn a book!"
Note that current editions of Heinlein and everything else have been expurgated by the PC gods. If you want to read what an author actually wrote you generally have to go to editions from to 50's or earlier. 0 18
#16
The late Michael Crichton was another writer who achieved acceptance from the literary/media establishment by playing off the "not typical sci-fi" strawman. Unlike Bradbury, Crichton did routinely resort to scientific impossibilities and Deus Ex Machina devices that would normally result in instant rejection from experienced SF editors who were familiar with the field as it actually is, rather than as it is stereotyped among academic literary conformists and media critics.
The former includes the whole premise of Jurassic Park, since it was already known at the time that viable DNA could not be recovered from amber. As for the latter, the ending of The Andromeda Strain, where a random mutation suddenly solves the problem by unaccountably affecting every individual virus, is classic Deus Ex Machina. Having a new invention as a central plot device is not necessarily a Deus Ex Machina unless one confuses the "god from the machine" with literal machines, as the lit-snob side of the Two Cultures dichotomy (another humanities strawman) is apt to do. 2 14
#20
Ray Bradbury's short stories were the first adult fiction I read back in the primary grades. I still like most of his stuff. I also admire old pharts who dare to flip off the world.
#21
IIRC Plato in his Dialogues cites Socrates as afraid that being able to write things down and read them later would dumb down the whole process and make people mentally lazy.
Attitudes haven't changed much in couple millennium.
It also depends on the particular magazine one read. Stories in Astounding (later Analog) tended to be uplifting human-triumphant stories, thanks to John Campbell, with some peculiar exceptions when Campbell was away. "E for Effort" by T.L. Sherred, for example. F&SF and Galaxy tended to have the more problematic stories.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
06/26/2009 23:29
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President Obama's town hall meeting on health care delivered a sickly rating Wednesday evening.
The one-hour ABC News special "Primetime: Questions for the President: Prescription for America" (4.7 million viewers, 1.1 preliminary adults 18-49 rating) had the fewest viewers in the 10 p.m. hour (against NBC's "The Philanthropist" debut and a repeat of "CSI: NY" on CBS). The special tied some 8 p.m. comedy repeats as the lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network.
Just for the record, "The Philanthropist" episode was about as tedious as television can get. We kept watching in the hope that it would get better, but it never got as far as awful. It didn't occur to us to check ABC to see if the president was any better.
The special was shot at the White House and featured the president answering questions about his health care plan. The president's primary message was that those who like their current insurance will be able to keep it and that taking no action will result in higher health care costs.
The special drew fire from Republican leadership after refusing to allow an official opposition response, or even a paid ad. ABC also interviewed Obama on "Good Morning America" to help promote the special.
#1
You've got to know your audience. Those watching the teley on that night and time are likely more interested in 'entertainment' than critical issues of the republic. Apparently, even with all the 'kings horses and all the kings men' Obama just isn't that kind of draw to attract much beyond his koolaid krowd. A warning that will be ignored by the egotist in the room.
#4
Well, since you raise the point. Given that Americans are living longer today than any other time in history and we probably have the largest population of over 80 year olds on the planet, 'universal health care' is a political entertainment gambit to enthrall the masses. The 21st Century version of the traveling barker selling snake oil. It's a good show but lousy in really curing ills other than to suppress with some form of opiate.
#5
The health care thing is not even a good show. Today's Dilbert is far more relevant about what is on the minds of more and more of the electorate: Dilbert 26 June 2009
Panel 1:
Coworker to Dilbert & Asok the intern, all holding coffee cups: "I can't afford my mortgage because of my pay cut. The bank will take my house.
Panel 1:
Asok the intern: "I saved a bundle by being a renter. I should buy your house for next to nothing."
Coworker eyes bug out in silence.
Panel 3:
Coworker glowers at Asok.
Asok the intern peering at glowering coworker over the edge of his coffee cup: "Too soon?"
BEIRUT - Lebanese militant group Hezbollah accused the West on Thursday of fomenting protests in Iran over this month's presidential election but added that it had no worries about the stability of its main foreign backer.
Yup, it's all our fault. We knew it too, even before he pointed it out to us ...
If they aren't worried, why are they fussing?
"The extent of Western and American involvement in Iran's internal affairs is now clear," the Shiite militant group's deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem, told AFP in an interview.
"What is going on in Iran is not a simple protest against the results of the presidential election," he said. "There are riots and attacks in the streets that are orchestrated from the outside in a bid to destabilise the country's Islamic regime."
Qassem insisted that his party, still blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Washington and regarded by its critics as an Iranian proxy, would not be affected by the events Tehran. "Hezbollah has nothing to do with Iran's internal affairs," he said. "We don't side with anyone. This is an internal Iranian issue.
"What is happening there has nothing to do with our situation," he added. "We have our own Lebanese identity and popularity, and these events don't concern us."
He said he felt certain the situation in Iran would soon return to normal. "The Islamic republic has succeeded in overcoming this plot from overseas aimed at destabilising the internal situation," Qassem said, singling out Britain for criticism of its role.
Got all his talking points from Khamenei, especially the part about the Brits ...
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District and Sessions Judge's Court of Kurigram on Wednesday rejected the bail prayers of 34 arrested rebel BDR men of 27 Rifles Battalion. All the jawans including Subedar Moysher were produced in the court. Lawyers of the BDR men appealed for bail but the court rejected the prayers.
Public Prosecutor (PP) Abraham Lincoln conducted the case on behalf of the state while advocates Zakaria, Rehana Begum Beauty, Fakhrul Islam, Yasin Ali, Monwarul Haque and Mokhlesur Rahman stood for the accused. The court later fixed the next date of hearing on July 08, 2009.
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[Geo News] A terror plot was foiled as a bomb, weighing 10-kilogram, was disposed of in Akora Khatak area here on early Friday morning, Geo news reported. According to police, the intelligence sources reported that a 10-killogram heavy bomb, packed in cylinder, had been planted under a bridge located at G.T. Road near Khush Hal Khan Khatak Library. Subsequently, police and bomb disposable squad were called in which succeeded to dispose of the bomb before it could go off. Security forces have launched raids and search operation in the area, sources added.
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#1
No surprise here.The saudi are only following age old ideology- The Islamist world view is perhaps best illustrated by the following extract from the book Jihad in Islam, written by Abu Ala Mawdudi, founder of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan:
Islam is not a normal religion like the other religions in the world, and Muslim nations are not like normal nations. Muslim nations are very special because they have a command from Allah to rule the entire world and to be over every nation in the world. Islam is a revolutionary faith that comes to destroy any government made by man. Islam doesn't look for a nation to be in better condition than another nation. Islam doesn't care about land or who owns the land. The goal of Islam is to rule the entire world and submit all of mankind to the faith of Islam. Any nation or power in this world that tries to get in the way of that goal Islam will fight and destroy. In order for Islam to fulfil that goal, Islam can use every power available every way it can be used to bring worldwide revolution. This is jihad.
In summary, the Islamist struggle is not motivated by grievances or a sense of oppression but rather by an ideology that seeks to dominate. Grievances are viewed as opportunities because they can be exploited and manipulated for the sake of furthering the cause. The grievance argument also gives Islamists the chance to cloud their political agenda in public and use it as something to hide behind when they feel the heat. Therefore, to suggest that grievances cause radicalisation plays into Islamist hands and allows them to present a more acceptable version of their position in public discourse. In either case it doesn't help those who are looking to sincerely address bad foreign policy decisions or those who may have suffered as a result of them.
BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Thursday criticised Arab and Muslim countries for their silence on calls by a senior Saudi cleric for Shiite scholars to be killed.
Fascinating. An appropriate challenge to the religion wallahs.
The Iraqi leader made the remarks a day after a massive bomb in the predominantly Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City in northeastern Baghdad killed 62 people and wounded 150. "We have observed that many governments have been suspiciously silent on the fatwa provoking the killing" of Shiites, Maliki, who is also Shiite, said in an e-mailed statement. He was referring to comments made by Mecca Mufti Sheikh Adil al-Kalbani last month to the BBC that "Shiite clerics are infidels."
"The Shiites have no right to be represented in the (Saudi) senior scholarly committee," Kalbani said. "The Shiite public, it's a matter of discussion (as to whether they are infidels). Shiite clerics are definitely infidels, without question."
According to Islam, it is permitted to kill pretty much anyone they want infidels and not have to pay the victim's family blood money.
"As June 30 approaches ... the rage of the instigators of sectarian strife grows," Maliki said, blaming "those who nourish them with Takfiri (Sunni extremist) ideology."
He added that "the recent series of terrorist crimes ... are only as a result of those dangerous opinions, which are being carried out in a plan that aims to awaken sectarianism, create chaos, abort the political process and prevent Iraqi people from standing on their own feet."
"We call upon the international community, Arab and Islamic countries in particular, to declare a clear position about these horrific crimes," he said. "Silence is no longer an acceptable or friendly position towards the Iraqi people."
Indeed.
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BAGHDAD - Nine people, including four civilians, were killed in two bombings in Iraq on Thursday, a day after a devastating bomb attack in Sadr City that killed 74.
In Baghdads Shiite district Bayaa, a bomb blast killed four persons and wounded another 32 at a bus station, police said. In the western Iraqi city of Falluja, five Iraqi soldiers were killed when an explosive device blew up while they were on patrol, security sources said. Nine further soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Meanwhile the death toll in Wednesdays massive terror bombing in a market of eastern Baghdads Shiite district of Sadr City rose to 74, a security forces spokesman said. Another 150 persons were wounded. According to eyewitness accounts, the bomb was apparently concealed beneath a motorcycle which was loaded with fruit. It was the worst single bombing attack in the Iraqi capital in a year.
The commander of US troops in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, and US Ambassador Christopher Hill released a statement condemning the senseless deaths and injuries of innocent Iraqi citizens in the attack on Sadr City market. We join the Iraqi people in denouncing all acts of terrorism, and remain steadfast in our support of the people and government of Iraq in their pursuit of peace, justice and democracy, they said.
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[Straits Times] THE Malaysian government did not extradite terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari to Singapore because he posed a threat to Malaysia and its neighbours and also put the people's safety at risk, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said today.
The head of the Singapore cell of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror network, which is linked to Al-Qaeda, escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre in February last year.
Datuk Seri Hishammuddin said Mas Selamat was arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) as he was a threat to the country, as well as its neighbours Singapore and Indonesia. 'We know his background, the details of his plan, network and contact with militant groups,' he told Parliament. 'From the information that we have gathered, it was a serious plan.'
He said detention under the ISA would ensure the terrorist's activities and contacts with other militant groups in Asia could be contained.
Prime Minister Najib Razak said last month that Mas Selamat would be detained for two years.
Mr Hishammuddin told reporters: 'We did not extradite Mas Selamat as we are concerned it will undermine the country's peace and put the people's safety at risk.' He added that only 12 ISA detainees remained in custody, six of them Malaysians.
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[Maghrebia] A Casablanca court on Wednesday (June 24th) sentenced Chakib El-Khayari, president of the Rif Human Rights Association (ARDH), to 3 years in prison for offences against the authorities, violations of law on exchange and unauthorized transfer of funds to bank accounts abroad, Kabyle.com reported. The court also ordered Khayari to pay a fine of 753.930 dirhams.
El-Khayari, also a member of the Federal Council of the World Amazigh Congress (CMA), had criticised the Moroccan government for dismantling an international drug trafficking network in the city of Nador, claiming that the "campaign targeted the small-time traffickers and excluded the icons of political corruption and officials assuming sensitive positions in the state".
Khayari who is known as a fierce critic of the government's anti-drug policies, was arrested on February 17th in Casablanca. His detention was denounced by international watchdog group Human Rights Watch.
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JERUSALEM Bowing to pressure from Washington, Israel granted U.S.-trained Palestinian security forces greater autonomy in four main West Bank towns, Israeli and Palestinian defense officials said Thursday.
The ability of Palestinian security forces to maintain law and order is key to Mideast peacemaking because Israel needs to be convinced that a future Palestinian state wont threaten its security. Israel already has turned over limited security control to Palestinians in three other West Bank towns, but the military said that forces in Qalqiliya, Bethlehem, Jericho and Ramallah would be the first to operate around the clock without Israeli clearance.
In a statement, the Israeli military said Palestinian security forces will be able to extend their hours of operation in the towns but emphasized that Israeli forces would continue to operate in the West Bank in order to thwart terrorist operations.
The move stops short of a full withdrawal from these towns. The Israeli military doesnt routinely patrol West Bank towns and cities, but frequently conducts nighttime and occasional daytime arrest raids.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the step does not go far enough. What is required a full cessation of military raids into Palestinian areas, he told reporters in Ramallah.
Israel pulled out of major West Bank population centers in the 1990s but re-entered them after the Palestinian uprising against Israel reignited in late 2000. Palestinians have long sought an Israeli pullback from those towns as a reassertion of sovereignty.
The U.S. has been training thousands of forces in the West Bank in preparation for future Palestinian statehood. U.S. officials involved in the training have been pressing Israel to allow the Palestinian forces more freedom. The European Union has contributed about $55 million (40 million euros) for equipment and training, said Jose Vericat, an EU official.
We are doing our job protecting our people and there is no need for Israeli forces to enter our territories under the pretext of security needs, said Adnan Dmeiri, a spokesman for the Palestinian security forces.
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SEOUL, June 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korean dwarf leader Kim Jong-il, who reportedly fell ill last year, was recently shown wearing sneakers during his public outings, switching from his trademark platform shoes that added height to his small stature.
In photographs released by state media on May 24, a day before North Korea conducted its second nuclear test, Kim, 67, is sporting a pair of dark-colored sneakers along with a gray parka, suit pants and dark sunglasses. He was giving "field guidance" at a historic site in the country's northern region.
The walking shoes had a rubber sole attached to their bottom that would enhance height comfort.
Kim, known to be 162 centimeters tall, or about 5'3" in heelsin his dreams, has worn stilts height-lifting shoes during official events, including his summit with the late South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in 2007. But the platform shoes were switched to flat dress shoes after he reportedly suffered a stroke in August last year.
Couldn't handle the nose-bleed height, huh ...
The flat shoes have now been replaced by hospital slippers sneakers, according to pictures released in recent weeks. But some pictures, like those released on June 5, 6 and 8, still show Kim in clown flat shoes during visits to farms and factories that can be easily reached by walking.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
My basketball coach he done kicked me off the team
For wearing high heeled sneakers and acting like a queen
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Lebanese lawmakers overwhelmingly re-elected a pro-Hizbullah parliament speaker Thursday despite the Iranian-backed group's recent election loss, signaling that the political factions are moving toward a unity government.
Lebanese leaders have been looking for a fresh start after a divisive election.
The June 7 vote brought victory for the Western-backed coalition which fought off a strong challenge from the militant group Hizbullah and its allies. But it also underscored the deep divisions among the Lebanese.
Re-electing Hizbullah ally Nabih Berri for a fifth consecutive term is expected to smooth the way for the formation of a new government in the coming weeks. Majority leader Saad Hariri is tipped to head it.
Hariri said picking Berri for the job "consolidates national unity and preserves civil peace."
The choice of Berri, a Shi'ite Muslim, respects Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing structure that calls for the speaker to be a Shi'ite, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the president a Maronite Catholic. Both Parliament and Cabinet are divided in half between Muslims and Christians.
Berri heads the Shi'ite Amal movement that together with Hizbullah control most of the Shi'ites' 27 seats in the 128-member legislature.
He was the sole candidate for the post, which he has held since 1992.
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COLOMBO - Sri Lanka is planning to hold two local elections in the north of the country which will mark the first attempt to restore political administration in the region after the defeat of Tamil rebels, officials said Thursday. Elections for two northern local councils have been fixed for August 8, the commissioner of elections announced.
Polls will be held for the municipal council in Jaffna, 397 kilometres north of the capital, and the urban council in Vavuniya, 257 kilometres north of the capital, after a gap of 11 years. The government and the main opposition have fielded candidates for the elections while a former pro-rebel party known as the Tamil National Alliance has also put forward candidates.
The move to conduct elections is seen as the first step towards restoring full political and civil administration in the region which has been affected by fighting for the last 30 years.
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The North Korean cargo ship Kangnam that is being tracked by a U.S. destroyer due to suspicions that it carries weapons is steaming toward the moment of truth. "The moment is approaching when the North Korea sanctions framework led by the U.S. and North Korean provocations collide," a government official said Thursday. Chances are the moment will come when the ship pulls into port, he added.
The U.S. has been monitoring the 2,080-ton Kangnam with KH-12 reconnaissance satellite and P-3C patrol plane mobilized since it left Nampo Port on June 17. Since June 21, the ship has been tracked by Aegis destroyer USS John S. McCain. It will reach the South China Sea on Friday sailing through the Taiwan Straits. "Washington believes that the ship is headed for Burma via Singapore," said an intelligence officer.
Whether the U.S. will board the ship to inspect it remains to be seen. If a ship with the size of the Kangnam is to navigate over 6,660 km from Nampo to Burma, it needs to refuel in Singapore or a Vietnamese port. The Pentagon said Thursday a decision has yet to be made whether to inspect the Kangnam. But government officials here said chances are that the ship will sail into a port sooner or later.
If the ship is searched and illegal weapons are found, "the U.S. will achieve a diplomatic coup and will be able to tighten sanctions against the North. If not, resistance will from China and other countries will grow and international cooperation in punishing Pyongyang will falter," speculated Kim Sung-han, a professor at Korea University. There are fears the ship will dump any weapons into the sea before inspection.
High-quality video, boys. Or an unfortunate accident and a mysterious explosion ...
Just one emptied ship might possibly be an embarrassment to the U.S,, but a series of cargoes dumped at sea translates into significant financial losses for a regime that has no visible income.
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#1
If you are scared of North korea, Obama, you have no business being President.
#4
While I share in the sentiments of many that this ship should disappear, I'm afraid there's been too much attention. So the best thing might be to shadow it until it reaches a port and play the political game. We can't offer Vietnam more than the Norks can? Singapore is basically a friend -- time to lean on that friendship a little. About the only place the ship can pull in without being hassled is Burma. Just doing that would be as clear an admission as any as to what the ship is carrying.
We want to play this one smart. The ship is slow, and we have time.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2009 0:44
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If the NORKs dump a weapon in a port, wouldn't that tick off the country with the port?
Posted by: Lord garth ||
06/26/2009 9:03
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The way around this problem needs just a smidgen of creativity. For example, if there were international observers on the bridge of the McCain, from NATO, and suddenly the sonar "detected" a Chinese submarine in the area, imagine the surprise if the Chinese sub mysteriously fired a torpedo at the Nork ship?
All the data "recorded", with all the proper sonar signatures. Of course, it would be immediately classified as Top Secret, the Chinese would be notified, and they wouldn't even know themselves until all their submarines had returned to base and had their torpedoes counted, which would take months.
Meanwhile, all the hubbub would be around "keeping the Chinese attack secret", and putting out some b.s. story about the Nork ship "having an explosion in its cargo hold".
Throw in a few more layers of deception, and seemingly nobody would know what actually happened.
#12
If I was Kimmie - I would have sent this ship plus many others out empty.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
06/26/2009 11:36
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#13
It doesn't take much intelligence to figure out if a ship is empty or not - it'll ride much higher in the water empty than full. I'm sure it has a cargo on board, it's probably weapons, and it's probably bound for Burma. The question is, is it a bluff, or is Kimmie trying to push some buttons, including a big red one? Remember, Nork only needs to use one nuke on Seoul, and South Korea is a basket case. We could probably nuke the entire surface area of North Korea, and Kimmie would still be breathing air in some shelter, 20 stories below ground level.
At the same time, mining North Korea's harbors wouldn't be a bad idea, and would REALLY put the screws to Kimmie's games.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/26/2009 13:14
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#14
Dolphins. With frickin' LASER BEAMS on their heads!
#19
What would Burma do with nukes, JosephM? As far as I know they've no external trade to speak of, either legal or illegal, and they don't sponsor external terrorists. Or did I miss something interesting about the Burmese generals?
[Iran Press TV Latest] The head of defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi's information committee, Abolfazl Fateh, has not been allowed to leave the country for Britain.
Following the recent incidents and a move by some Mousavi supporters to provoke people to hold "illegal gatherings", Fateh - who is a PhD student in Britain - has been banned from leaving Iran, Fars news agency reported.
Fateh has been banned from leaving the country so that some issues behind the gatherings can be clarified, the news agency reported.
Following the announcement of the results of Iran's 10th presidential elections, supporters of some candidates took to the streets to protest against alleged irregularities in the election process.
Meanwhile, Iran's Interior Ministry has repeatedly declared that it has not issued any permit for the rallies and has stressed that such protests are illegal.
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[Geo News] Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Naseerabad police Iftikhar Hussain Tarar has informed media of arrests of as many as 1600 suspects involved in banditry, terrorism including wanted criminals. Talking to media here, Iftikhar Tarar claimed of seizure of heavy illegal armaments from the arrested criminals. According to DIG, at least 250 among 1600 arrested criminals are terrorists who were wanted in terror attack cases carried out in separate parts of Balochistan. Â"Numerous police raids in areas of Naseerabad, Jafarabad, Bolan and Gandada led to their arrestÂ", he added informing of deployment of more police troops in areas of Bolan mountains.
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[ADN Kronos] Somalia is having difficulty controlling a growing number of Al-Qaeda-linked militants inside the country, a source close to Somalian president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed has told Adnkronos International (AKI). The source said that militants aligned with the hardline Islamist Al-Shabab militia, or the Young Mujahadeen, were too much for the government to handle.
"I believe that the Somalian government will be able to do something and not be defeated, but the problem is that the Al-Shabab are too many for us," he said.
The source spoke to AKI as news broke on Thursday that Al-Shabab performed double amputations on four men who reportedly admitted to several robberies.
After their conviction by an Islamic Sharia law court in the capital early this week, each man had one hand and one foot cut off with machetes as punishment for their crime before a crowd of several hundred people.
The government source said the militants were recruiting many volunteers from abroad. "They have many volunteers from other countries," said the source.
They aren't going to Iraq or Afghanistan anymore? I guess we won on both fronts. Congratulations to all who fought on the side of Good.
He said the militants are responsible for many small clashes that take place throughout the day on the outskirts of the capital, Mogadishu.
"Now the Young Mujahadeen and members of the Islamic party have a strong alliance even though most Al-Shabab are not happy to be commanded by Sheikh Hasan Dahir Aweys, who is willing to do anything to become the next leader of the Islamic state."
The source said there had been a mass influx of foreign volunteers invited by Al-Qaeda to the Horn of Africa to fight with the Young Mujahadeen. "In reality there are tonnes of them,
Go to Somalia in lieu of the fat farm -- it won't cost any more and the girls are prettier.
And less chance of a drone-zap. Did we mention, less chance of a drone-zap?
probably even too many for us and this is the real problem," he said.
"Young people from Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and many Westerners are with them, we even know that there are British and Americans with them. We do not know if there are any Italians, but at this point we cannot exclude anything."
Despite an announcement that Ethiopia and Dijbouti would not provide troops, the fragile Somalian government still hopes it will be able to defeat the Islamic militants. "It is not true when the Al-Shabab claim to be two kilometres away from Villa Somalia, the presidential palace," he said. "For weeks, they've been on the periphery, in the area past the football stadium, and have not been able to make any further advance."
Al-Shabab is an Islamic militant group, which the United States has included on the list of foreign terrorist organisations in 2008.
President Ahmed, a moderate Islamist, took office in January 2009 and introduced Sharia law to the Muslim country, but the move has failed to satisfy the hardline militants in the area.
Al-Shabab and allies have been fighting with pro-government forces since 7 May 2009.
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#1
Sounds like Beirut in the 90s, but without the shopping.
#2
Maybe we should encourage President Ahmed to permit live-fire exercises by the US Navy in parts of his country. The Navy has been hard pressed to find usable live-fire locales lately. Somalia would be an ideal place. If a few Al-Shabaab happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, well, that's life.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/26/2009 13:02
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Young people from Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan
Surely not our allies?LOL
It all comes down to Islamist ideology funded by Saudi!Pak/Afghan/Somalia is their playground of expansion!
. Adding to the intrigue, classified American intelligence documents related to Saudi finances were leaked anonymously to lawyers for the families. The Justice Department had the lawyers copies destroyed and now wants to prevent a judge from even looking at the material.
#5
This leak is long overdue, making one wonder "what took you so long?" Sadly, while the MSM might have lapped this up under the hated "Bushitler" administration, actions to keep this in the shadows by the Zero administration as well as the content itself, will be utterly ignored by the MSM. Wouldn't want to get sued by those with billions of petro-dollars now would we? makes that old saw about "...picking a fight with people who get ink by the barrel" look less sage.
[Geo News] The United Nations agencies, taking care of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Pakistan, have started preparing a framework for safe repatriation and rehabilitation of IDPs to their respective areas, a press release said Thursday.
""We emphasize an organized repatriation and safe return of IDPs to their homes,"" UN Humanitarian Coordinator Martin Mogwanja said here at a press conference. ""We are closely working with the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government and other agencies to prepare a framework and information sharing with the IDPs for their sustainable, safe and secure return to their homes,"" he said. Although all concerned would like to avoid a protracted displacement situation, he said, the humanitarian community is working with the government to ensure that any return of IDPs is voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable.
Answering a question, Mogwanja said, negotiation continues among the humanitarian community and the government for safer return of the IDPs. ""We also focus on availability of social services and sustainability. The government, on the other hand, is making wide range of efforts to achieve it,"" he added. Mogwanja underlined the need for disseminating information to IDPs as to where the pre-requisites had been completed and which area was ready for repatriation.
When asked about repatriation of Malakand and Buner people, he said, ""we are in fluid security environment and it is primary concern for going back."" He said survey was being conducted about repatriation of IDPs although the security situation was the basic criteria. The coordinator said the UN could not give the exact figure of people displacing from Waziristan tribal areas bordering Afghanistan though ""we look for expansion of our program coverage to those displaced as well."" He said the humanitarian agencies are also preparing a contingency plan to meet any upcoming needs of the people in wake of impending displacement.
The UN press release said one of the greatest challenges ahead will be rebuilding the schools in conflict areas so that IDP children can continue their education when they return.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009
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Reporting from Tehran -- Security was tight around the bare grave of Neda Agha-Soltan on Thursday. Militiamen and police stood nearby, witnesses said, and it was difficult for visitors to hold a conversation within sight and hearing of the glaring officers.
"We are here for Neda and our deceased relatives too"
An unidentified man
But the visitors come nonetheless to pay their respects to Agha-Soltan, who was shot dead by an unknown assailant during protests Saturday over Iran's disputed presidential election. Her dying moments were captured on video and found their way onto the Internet and the international airwaves.
"I read the news on the Web, and I saw the picture of the grave," said one man, hovering near the burial site. "I figured out the location of the grave and came."
"We are here for Neda and our deceased relatives too," he said. "We are here to utter our respect for them."
The man said that he too was in the street that day. "She was with us," he said. "Maybe one of us would have been killed that day. We are here to respect her, and all the martyrs they killed in the last days."
Another man who came to pay tribute said he found it amazing that the government was now fighting against ordinary people. "Not even the politicians, or some students, but normal people in the streets," he said in disgust.
"All of us are in danger, like Neda," said a third man at the grave site. "Now the military has taken the power and prevents us from paying our respects. It's not a big request! We want respect to Neda."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2009
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[ADN Kronos] Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was placed under house arrest on Thursday, Iranian sources have claimed. The reformist website 'Nasimfarda' made the claim about Mousavi's house arrest amid continuing unrest in the country since the presidential elections on 12 June. "All of Mousavi's aides and collaborators have been arrested and the government is trying to completely isolate him from the reformist protesters," the website reportedly said.
However, official Iranian sources have not yet confirmed the arrest of Mousavi.
Unrest has grown in Iran since hardline presidential incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of the 12 June election - a vote the opposition claims was rigged.
Mousavi and his supporters are demanding an annulment of the election and the Guardian Council, the country's electoral body, will give its final verdict on the election on Sunday but it has already indicated it will not annul the election result.
According to official Iranian media, Ahmadinejad received 62.3 percent of the vote, or 24.5 million votes, compared to Mousavi's 33.7 percent or 13.2 million votes.
Foreign media have been subjected to tight restrictions and reporters are not allowed to cover unauthorised gatherings or move around freely in Tehran.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009
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#1
I look for him to die of a mysterious illness sometime soon. Dinnerjacket and the mullahs will publicly express profound sorrow.
[Quqnoos] Seven men alleged in organising and executing suicide attacks have been arrested in the Afghan capital city, Intelligence Agency said
A spokesman for Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS), Sayed Ansari said the detained insurgents were planning to carry out a string of attacks in Kabul.
According to an NDS statement, the network is known to have carried out a number bombings including the most recent suicide attack in western part of Kabul.
Taliban leaders in Pakistan's Quetta city, bordering Kandahar province, the Taliban spiritual birthplace, funded the groups, the statement noted.
NDS urged Pakistan's border forces to carefully watch the Afghan-Pak border where terrorists can easily commute.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009
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[Maghrebia] Three Lebanese nationals, a Libyan and a Palestinian were charged Wednesday (June 24th) in Lebanon for trying to send a mail bomb on June 12th to Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, SAPA reported. According to judicial officials, the motive was to avenge the 1978 disappearance in Tripoli of Shia spiritual leader and Lebanese opposition Amal movement founder Imam Musa Sadr.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009
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[Jerusalem Post Middle East] Hamas said on Wednesday that Abdel Aziz Dweik, the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council who was released a day earlier from Israeli prison, should be treated as acting president of the Palestinian Authority.
Meanwhile, the PA is planning to release on Thursday 40 Hamas members who are being held without trial in its prisons in the West Bank.
Earlier this week, the PA leadership said it would free hundreds of Hamas detainees as a gesture aimed at boosting the chances of reconciliation with the Islamist movement.
According to the PA constitution, if the office of the president is considered vacant, the PLC speaker serves as interim president for 60 days until new elections are held in the Palestinian territories.
Mahmoud Abbas's four-year term ended in January, turning Dweik, the most senior Hamas representative in the West Bank, into acting president, according to Hamas.
"Dweik is the real president of the Palestinian people after Abbas's term in office expired in January," said Hamas legislator Salem Salameh.
Dweik's release has raised concerns among Fatah representatives in the West Bank who also criticized Abbas for rushing to phone him shortly after he walked out of prison.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009
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[Geo News] The security forces' ongoing operation against Taliban in Orakzai and South Wazisristan Agencies is continued in which militants' suspected hideouts are being pounded, ISPR sources said on Thursday.
According to sources, security forces shelled two militants hideouts located in Chapri Feroz Khel and Atman Khel areas, killing as many as six extremists including a local Taliban commander.
Reports also reached here in regard to killing of another eight extremists while six were injured during clashes in Kurrum Agency, sources said.
As many as four captives have been arrested during separate operations in Kurrum Agency on Thursday while Khasdar forces have captured suspected Taliban militants from Toorkham area at Pak-Afg border who have been moved to undisclosed place for investigation, sources concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009
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WASHINGTON The Senate Armed Services Committee added $1.75 billion Thursday to a Pentagon budget proposal for seven more Lockheed Martin F-22 fighter jets, heightening a promised showdown with the Obama administration, which opposes the additional planes.
The committee voted as the House, by a vote of 389-22, approved its own version of the fiscal 2010 Defense Department spending bill, which included $369 million as a down payment for 12 additional F-22 Raptors, plus $603 million for a backup engine for Lockheeds F-35 joint strike fighter.
Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate panel, said he was confident that he and other opponents of the additional aircraft "have a fair chance of winning" when the full Senate votes on the defense bill. No date for that vote has been set.
His committee voted 13-11 in closed session to approve money for the additional aircraft, Levin said. The panel also voted 12-10 to add $438.9 million for a backup engine for the F-35, Levin said.
The Obama administration has already threatened to veto a $680 billion military budget that contains money for the jets. The White House Office of Management and Budget told Congress in a letter Wednesday night that it objects to both spending items in the House measure.
The Defense Department says it has enough F-22s and argues that the F-35s "current engine is performing well." Spending on a second engine is "unnecessary" and would "impede the progress" of the joint strike fighter program, the letter said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2009
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The Danish government for the first time is forcibly deporting Iraqi nationals whose application for asylum has been turned down.
Surprises like this are how I know the universe is not just a figment of my imagination.
The government's deportation of 244 Iraqis has been the point of fierce public outrage since the Danish and Iraqi governments agreed in May to repatriate Iraqi refugees whose asylum requests were rejected, dpa reported.
Some of the Iraqi individuals and families who are to be deported have been in Denmark for up to ten years.
Human rights organizations, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR and numerous Danish civil societies have asked the government to allow them to stay on a humanitarian basis, citing Iraq's precarious security situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009
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#1
The only "precarious security situation" that exists, is if these "refugees" have outstanding wants and warrants back home.
I have written down the numbers that were appearing in the comments in chronological order. It appears to be a code. I believe the software is trying to communicate with us but the only thing I can make out so far is "F150"
I don't think so, Willy. In moderator-view we all have a green light, but Fred's is red. I was having such fun getting rid of the comment spam until then.
#19
the only thing I can make out so far is "F150"
obviously, Dave D is using code urging us to go to the O-Club and drink UP!
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/26/2009 19:13
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I think it highly probable it is indeed code Could be anything from, "We'll hit the bank at 350" to one terrorist signaling another, you're right to flush it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/26/2009 20:14
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EOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il doled out foreign-made cars to senior intelligence officials to ensure their loyalty to his youngest son when he put the 26-year-old in charge of the country's powerful spy agency, a report said Wednesday.
Foreign cars? Do people really stay bought for a mere foreign vehicle nowadays? I'm not au courant on current bribery scales, I fear.
The appointment is part of Kim's plan to anoint the son, Kim Jong Un, as North Korea's future leader, South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said, citing an unidentified source. The son is also overseeing the handling of two U.S. journalists detained in March while on a reporting trip to the Chinese-North Korea border, the report said.
That might be disinformation designed to build up Junior in the eyes of the insiders, or it might indicate the importance Kimmie has put on the journalists. Any guesses?
Jong Un was serving as acting chairman of the National Defense Commission, the country's highest post, one currently held by his father, Japan's Mainichi newspaper reported last weekend.
Wednesday's Dong-a Ilbo report said Kim ordered senior officials at the State Security Department in March to "uphold" Jong Un as head of the agency. Kim told the officials to "safeguard comrade Kim Jong Un with (your) lives as you did for me in the past," the mass-market daily said.
Five luxury cars, each worth some $80,000, were given as gifts to the officials, it said. The paper did not say which cars were given, but Kim has long been known to favor Mercedes and French wine as gifts to ensure his inner circle's loyalty.
All at the expense of starving people. Couldn't we cut the brake lines and poison the wine?
*shrug* The wine has been drunk, and the cars lost 20% value the minute they were driven off the lot.
South Korea's main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, said it could not confirm the report.
The Dong-a Ilbo report also said that Jong Un was overseeing the handling of U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee of Current TV, a San Francisco-based media venture founded by former Vice President Al Gore. The two were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for allegedly crossing into the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts."
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters that Mats Foyer, Sweden's ambassador to North Korea, visited the American journalists in Pyongyang on Tuesday. Sweden serves as the U.S. protecting power in North Korea because Washington does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea. Foyer has been in "constant contact" with the North, Kelly said. He said the U.S. was "pursuing many different avenues" to secure their release, but he would not elaborate.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2009
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#1
Do people really stay bought for a mere foreign vehicle nowadays?
Just think of it as a Mafia-favor; it doesn't bode well to turn down one from the godfather.
Reporting from Tehran -- The mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters wait. They sip tea, amble around, look at their watches and stare at the posted lists of names, about 700 or 800 of them.
They arrived early outside Evin Prison, the notorious complex of buildings in northern Tehran where most of the Iranians arrested in the recent unrest have been locked up.
A suggestion: in Argentina the mothers of the disappeared marched in silence daily in a plaza. The families in Iran should do the same.
By 8 a.m., dozens have gathered, standing around the entrance or sitting on brown plastic chairs after wiping away the dew. They hold pay vouchers or shop licenses to use as collateral to bail out family members and friends. Many were called late the previous night and told to come here.
But no one is there to tell them where to go or what to do.
One man approaches the gate of a shuttered general courthouse near the prison entrance.
A kindly soldier approaches. "My dear father," he says. "You must go to the Revolutionary Court on Moallem Street. They will say where and when your child will be released."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2009
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The doctor who tried to save an Iranian protester as she bled to death on a street in Tehran has told the BBC of her final moments.
Dr Arash Hejazi, who is studying at a university in the south of England, said he ran to Neda Agha-Soltan's aid after seeing she had been shot in the chest. Dr Hejazi also told how passers-by then seized an armed Basij militia volunteer who appeared to admit shooting Ms Soltan.
"We heard a gunshot. Neda was standing one metre away from me. I turned back and I saw blood gushing out of Neda's chest."
"She was in a shocked situation, just looking at her chest. Then she lost her control. "We ran to her and lay her on the ground. I saw the bullet wound just below the neck with blood gushing out."
"I have never seen such a thing because the bullet, it seemed to have blasted inside her chest, and later on, blood exiting from her mouth and nose. I had the impression that it had hit the lung as well. Her blood was draining out of her body and I was just putting pressure on the wound to try to stop the bleeding, which wasn't successful unfortunately, and she died in less than one minute."
Dr Hejazi said he first thought the gunshot had come from a rooftop.
But later he saw protesters grab an armed man on a motorcycle. "People shouted 'we got him, we got him'. They disarmed him and took out his identity card which showed he was a Basij member. People were furious and he was shouting, 'I didn't want to kill her'.
"People didn't know what do to do with him so they let him go. But they took his identity card. There are people there who know who he is. Some people were also taking photos of him." It would be nice to post this murderer's ID and photos on the web.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/26/2009
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#1
Iranian gubmint wouldn't allow her family to bury her. She was buried by the thugs in the gubmint. When Gibbs was asked about this he said Obama was more determined than ever to sit down with Dinnerjacket and talk about this.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/26/2009 9:58
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When Gibbs was asked about this he said Obama was more determined than ever to sit down with Dinnerjacket and talk about this. bend over and grab his ankles.
There, I fixed it for you.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/26/2009 11:10
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When Gibbs was asked about this he said Obama was more determined than ever to sit down with Dinnerjacket and talk about this
The Iranian gov't isn't going to give the White House the time of day for long, long time.
#5
* SAME > GUARDIAN: OBAMA RISKING ANOTHER VIETNAM [ala Afghanistan]??? The Vietnam War = Afghanis/AFPAK devol into a REGIONAL CRUSAGE AGZ AMER, in addition to destroying two US POTUSes [JOhnson -Nixon] and caused Amers to distrust their own Govt. + country???
[Iran Press TV Latest] Turkey calls on the European Union to revive Ankara's deadlocked EU accession talks adding its membership would assist EU's affiliation with Muslims.
EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis said the EU would need Turkey as a transit route for energy supplies.
"The EU needs Turkey at least as much as Turkey needs the EU," he told reporters at the start of two days of talks and public appearances in Brussels intended to revive Turkey's efforts to join the 27-nation bloc, Reuters reported.
"It will help the EU's outreach to the East," said Bagis, who is also Turkey's Chief Negotiator with the EU.
This is while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu were also due in Brussels for talks with EU officials on Friday.
Erdogan was expected to meet the President of the EU's Executive European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso while Davutoglu was due to meet EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.
Turkey's membership talks are almost at a standstill, raising doubts that the predominantly Muslim country of 70 million people will be able to join the EU.
Reforms demanded by the EU have fallen prey to political infighting in Turkey, some member states openly oppose its accession, and Ankara's progress has been blocked by its refusal to recognize EU member-state Cyprus.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Gov. Sarah Palin is visiting U.S. troops in Kosovo. Palin's office had said the governor traveled Wednesday to see Alaska National Guard troops at an undisclosed overseas location. On Thursday, her office said she was visiting about 140 aviators with the Guard in Kosovo.
Her spokeswoman, Sharon Leighow, says that for security purposes, the governor's office could not release Palin's destination until it was cleared by the Department of Defense. Leighow says Palin will be on the trip through the weekend.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2009
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#1
I wonder if she will tell stories of dodging sniper fire? I would guess not becaue SHE would shoot back! I may be in an extreme minority but I would like her to take a serious run in 2012.
[ADN Kronos] Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has warned of more protests while expressing concern about the number of people who have "vanished" or been targeted by authorities since the presidential election.
In a statement on Thursday, Mousavi's official website expressed concern about pressure to withdraw his challenge to the election result and attempts to control the activities of him and his supporters.
"Many people have been arrested in Iran since the release of the election results, some of whom have been paraded on national TV and titled as thugs, terrorists or foreign paid agents," the site said. "Many others have vanished completely in the system."
He complained of restrictions on his access to people and a crackdown on his media group.
In another development on Thursday, Iranian state media said that eight members of the pro-government Basij militia had been killed and dozens more wounded in the protests. The eight deaths were in addition to 17 other people whose deaths have already been reported. The figures cannot be verified due to severe reporting restrictions inside Iran.
"I won't refrain from securing the rights of the Iranian people... because of personal interests and the fear of threats," Mousavi said on the website of his newspaper, Kalameh.
Iran's Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri warned the nation's rulers on Thursday that the continued suppression of opposition protests over the disputed presidential election could destabilise the regime. "If Iranians can not talk about their legitimate rights at peaceful gatherings and are instead suppressed, complexities will build up which could possibly uproot the foundations of the government, no matter how powerful," he reportedly said.
Unrest has grown in Iran since hardline presidential incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of the 12 June election - a vote that Mousavi and his supporters claim was rigged.
Mousavi and his supporters are demanding an annulment of the election and the Guardian Council, the country's electoral body, will give its final verdict on the election on Sunday but it has already indicated it will not annul the election result.
According to official Iranian media, Ahmadinejad received 62.3 percent of the vote, or 24.5 million votes, compared to Mousavi's 33.7 percent or 13.2 million votes.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009
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[Geo News] Various political and religious leaders have expressed deep sorrow and grief over the sad demise of former chief Jamat-e-Islami (JI) Mian Tufail on Thursday. Leaders including Governor Punjab Salman Taseer, CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, Provincial Minister Raja Riaz, Finance Minister Punjab Tanveer Ashraf Kaira, Senator Pervez Rasheed, PML-N Quaid Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and others expressed condolence over the death of JI's former Chief Mian Tufail and prayed success for the departed soul in eternal life.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The Israeli army has deployed its Mirkava tanks and personnel-carriers along the Lebanese border, Lebanon's National News Agency says.
The deployment took place on Thursday along the barb-wired fence which separates the Shebaa Farms from other parts of Lebanese territories.
Israeli tanks were also gathering along a 5-km area, stretching from the Tallat Sobaih army post to Mount Hermon while sporadic gunfire was also heard throughout the day, the agency reported.
The Israeli air force also carried out a number of flights over the Shebaa Farms, al-Arqoub villages, Hasbaya, Marjayoun, western Bekaa and Iqlim al-Tuffah.
Shebaa Farms comprises of a group of 14 farms close to the poorly-defined border of Lebanon and Syria. The farms were captured from Syria during the Six-Day Israeli War in 1967.
Lebanon says that Israel must leave the Shebaa Farms area, which it says lies on Lebanese territory while Israel contests this claim. Israel says that Shebaa is part of Syria's territory and its fate should be discussed in future peace talks with Damascus.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009
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#1
Expecting a little "hey! look over here!" by the Iranians? Good guess. I'd tighten the Gazan border as well. Shiny objects and distractions work on small minds and Democrats...but I repeat myself
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/26/2009 0:29
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#2
Grom, has there been a call-up? I thought the Israelis couldn't deploy without serious short-term reserve mobo?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/26/2009 9:17
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#3
The Jerusalem Post quotes the LNNA report, having no sources of their own on this story, Mitch.
#3
I can't see that Israel would have any choice. Am I wrong?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/26/2009 10:38
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The big question has always been, "How can Israel accomplish a win in this scenario?" It simply cannot be with the finesse the US used in Gulf War I. Israel cannot just destroy critical equipment and materiel.
It's going to have to kill a lot of Iranians, and do it ugly. Iran has to be so traumatized that they become fearful.
To be specific, Iran has to experience firsthand the horror of nuclear war--even if nuclear weapons aren't used.
China will not impose sanctions on North Korea independently of a UN resolution. The North depends on China for most of its energy and food. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Thursday said, "Measures related to North Korea should affect neither North Korean people's livelihood nor their normal economic and trading activities." He was answering views that the North would return to nuclear disarmament talks only if China suspends aid to the Stalinist country.
"Even the UN Security Council resolution against North Korea carries a provision stipulating that no UN sanctions should affect the North Korean people's livelihood, economic or trading exchanges, or humanitarian aid, Qin added.
As defined by the Norks, so money laundering and drug smuggling is still okay ...
The remarks amount to a polite rejection of U.S. requests for China to take direct actions against the North to make sanctions more effective. "China thinks it necessary to find a solution to the North Korean nuclear issue through dialogue and peaceful means, the spokesman said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
"China thinks it necessary to find a solution to the North Korean nuclear issue through dialogue and peaceful means" How about "Stop now, and we won't kill you."
#5
Of course, the Chicoms are 'unwilling'. What is in it for them? Any kind of Nork collapse causes refugee and economic problems for China. In the meantime, they are happy to see a steady stream of weapons flowing to Iran and Syria because it ties up the West on military and political fronts. Same with counterfeiting and drug smuggling.
#6
Any kind of Nork collapse causes refugee and economic problems for China. I don't understand what kind of economic problems a NK collapse could cause China. Neither would China have any trouble turning a NK refugee problem into a large casualty count and organs for export. My best guess is China is using its lapdog NK to subvert the West in a plausibly deniable way.
#8
RE #6: I don't understand what kind of economic problems a NK collapse could cause China...
If NK collapses and China accepts a huge mass of refugees, it is East & West Germany after reunification all over again. The last thing China needs is another mass of unskilled starving people.
China has the means to take your large causualty count option but that is bad for both business and China's desire to be seen as acting like a grownup in international affairs.
Their best move right now, absent some dealmaking, is to keep NK up and running as a perpetual thorn in the side of the America.
NEW DELHI - Indias defence minister on Thursday said New Delhi was committed to resolving its list of complex, unresolved issues with China through peaceful means, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometres (14,670 square miles) of its territory, while Beijing claims 90,000 square kilometres of Indian territory, or the whole of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The two Asian neighbours fought a brief but bloody war in 1962.
There is enough space for both India and China to grow into influential nations in the evolving international order, Defence Minister A.K. Antony was quoted as saying at a military function in New Delhi. He said there were complex unresolved issues but added that India believes that these should be resolved through peaceful means.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2009
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TEHRAN, June 25 -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at President Obama on Thursday, warning him against "interfering" in Iranian affairs and demanding an apology for criticism of a government crackdown on demonstrators protesting alleged electoral fraud.
Not even Bambi is going to apologize to Short Round ...
Despite an increasingly harsh response to the protests, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi pledged to continue challenging official results that showed a landslide victory for Ahmadinejad in Iran's June 12 presidential election. He vowed to resist growing pressure to end his campaign and said he remains determined to prove that those who rigged the election are also responsible for the violence unleashed on opposition protesters.
The two rivals issued their dueling statements -- neither mentioning the other by name -- a day after security forces broke up the latest demonstrations, then temporarily detained university professors who had met with Mousavi.
Two grand ayatollahs, leading figures in Iran's predominant Shiite Muslim faith, also waded into the fray, as did European foreign ministers from the Group of Eight world powers at a meeting in Italy.
In a speech at a petrochemical plant in southern Iran, Ahmadinejad said Obama was behaving like his predecessor, George W. Bush, and suggested that talks with the United States on Iran's nuclear program would be pointless if Obama kept up his criticism. Obama, who has expressed interest in talking to the Iranian leadership about the nuclear issue, said at a news conference Tuesday that he was "appalled and outraged" by recent violence against demonstrators, and he accused the Iranian government of trying to "distract people" by blaming the unrest on the United States and other Western nations.
"Do you want to speak with this tone?" Ahmadinejad responded Thursday, addressing Obama. "If that is your stance, then what is left to talk about?"
He added: "I hope you avoid interfering in Iran's affairs and express your regret in a way that the Iranian nation is informed of it." He asked why Obama "has fallen into this trap and repeated the comments that Bush used to make" and told the U.S. president that such an attitude "will only make you another Bush in the eyes of the people."
Ahmadinejad also praised Iran's election as demonstrating "the great capabilities and grandeur of the Iranian nation" and declared that his country is practicing true "freedom," as opposed to "this unpopular democracy which is governing America and Europe." Americans and Europeans "have no right to choose and are restricted to . . . two or three parties" in voting for their leaders, he said.
In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs dismissed Ahmadinejad's criticism. Obama has said "that there are people in Iran who want to make this not about a debate among Iranians in Iran, but about the West and the United States," Gibbs said. "And I would add President Ahmadinejad to that list of people trying to make this about the United States."
The 67-year-old former prime minister posted a statement on his Web site Thursday saying he was being pressed to withdraw his challenge and had been severely restricted in his ability to communicate with supporters. "However, I am not prepared to give up under the pressure of threats or personal interest," he said.
"The truth . . . is that a major fraud has taken place in these elections, and the people who tried to show their dismay with this event were attacked, killed and arrested," Mousavi said. "Not only am I not scared of responding to their false accusations, but I'm ready to show how the people responsible for the presidential fraud" are also to blame for having "spilled the blood of the people." Mousavi asked his followers to "continue your legal and responsible protest, which is born out of the Islamic revolution, with calm and by avoiding trouble."
A senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, called for the election dispute to be settled through "national reconciliation," saying in a statement Thursday that recent events "have caused deep regret and sorrow in all Iranians loyal to the Islamic establishment and revolution . . . and have gladdened the enemy," state-run Press TV reported. "Definitively, something must be done to ensure that there are no embers burning under the ashes" and to turn "hostilities, antagonism and rivalries . . . into amity and cooperation" he said.
But a leading dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, said an "impartial" committee should resolve the election dispute, which he warned could ultimately undermine the government if it is not addressed. "If Iranians cannot talk about their legitimate rights at peaceful gatherings and are instead suppressed, complexities will build up which could possibly uproot the foundations of the government, no matter how powerful," Agence France-Presse quoted him as saying.
The streets of Tehran were largely quiet Thursday after another opposition presidential candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, postponed plans for a demonstration to mourn protesters killed by security forces. Karroubi said he has not "succeeded in booking a particular location" for a mourning ceremony, apparently because the government has banned demonstrations. He said he still wants to organize a gathering that would "match the dignity of the martyrs of the past few days."
Karroubi also charged that the government has acted illegally in banning demonstrations and arresting political activists. He called for the immediate release of political detainees, and he challenged the Interior Ministry to allow separate but simultaneous demonstrations by Ahmadinejad supporters and the opposition to see which side would draw more people.
At least 17 people have been reported killed in violence after the presidential election, state-run media have reported. But Press TV, an English-language version of state television, put the death toll at 20 and quoted "informed sources" as saying that eight of the dead were members of the pro-government Basij militia. There was no independent confirmation of the claim, which marked the first mention in official media of deaths among security forces in the recent violence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2009
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#1
Obama will apologize. He is the ice cream man of apologies: he drves to your neighborhood (with bells chiming) and has a great selection of apologies to offer. For this joker he will be selecting one from the dollar menu
[Geo News] The anti-terrorism operation, launched by Pakistan army, is continued in Jani Khel locality of FR Bannu, sources reported while curfew for an indefinite period has been clamped in the area, sources added. Security forces have been shelling militants sanctuaries for several hours but no causality or loss of property was reported in preliminary reports, sources added. Meanwhile during local Jirga, the government has asked local forces and area residents to help in the establishment of peace in the region, sources clamed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/26/2009
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NEW DELHI - A searing heatwave across India has claimed at least 120 lives as officials warned that deficient rainfall may result in lower agricultural output and higher food prices, officials and news reports said Thursday. Soaring temperatures accompanied by power outages and water shortages sparked off angry protests in the national capital New Delhi and the financial hub of Mumbai.
Fifty-eight people died in eastern Orissa, the state worst-affected by the heatwave, VN Sahu, an official at the emergency control room in state capital Bhubaneshwar said on the telephone. In northern Uttar Pradesh state, 30 people have died of sunstroke, the Deccan Herald newspaper reported. Heat-related deaths have been reported since last month.
The monsoon rains, which usually hit eastern and northern India by the second week of June, were yet to arrive.
Temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius were recorded in large swathes of northern, central and eastern India over the past week. In the national capital New Delhi, daytime temperatures were hovering at 43 degrees Celsius in recent days, with weather officials forecasting no respite. The highest temperature recorded in Orissa was in the Sambalpur region where the mercury touched 46.2 degrees Celsius.
Meanwhile, 17 people have died since Monday in the eastern state of Jharkhand, which is reeling under scorching heat. In the neighbouring Bihar state, seven people died from heatstroke. Eight people died in the coastal district of Vishakapatnam in southern Andhra Pradesh which has also been in the grip of a heatwave over the past few weeks, media outlets reported.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2009
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#1
If only the Goreacle could have been lured from his energy consuming lair, this tragedy could have been prevented. All praise the Gore Effect and its cooling powers!
TRIESTE, Italy, June 25 (Reuters) - Group of Eight powers were divided on how to respond to Iran's disputed election on Thursday, with hosts Italy pushing for a strong condemnation of violence and Russia calling the vote "an exercise in democracy".
Much angst to ensue ...
Western nations at a meeting of G8 foreign ministers in Trieste were pushing for tough language in a final communique on Iran, where about 20 people have been killed in demonstrations following the June 12 presidential election two weeks ago.
"We are working on a document that should condemn the violence and the repression and at the same time stress that electoral procedures are an (internal) Iranian matter," said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. But he cautioned: "We (the international community) can't recount the vote."
But you wring your hands so well ...
The statement is expected on Friday. Delegates to the G8 conference, getting under way with a dinner on Thursday evening, were wrestling over the wording of the statement on Iran to take into account the sensibilities of Moscow, which has already said it considers all issues linked to the election as Iran's internal affair.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made clear that Russia was not prepared to sign up to a G8 statement condemning Iran's handling of the election. "No one is willing to condemn the election process, because it's an exercise in democracy," Lavrov told reporters.
Certainly a Russian would recognize democracy when he saw it ...
"We agreed that we will develop a language which would allow us to concentrate on the main task -- to move toward resolving the issues of the Iranian nuclear programme...," Lavrov said after separate talks with Frattini.
"Isolation is the wrong approach ... Engagement is the key word," he said.
Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maurizio Massari said the G8 would express concern over Iran's nuclear programme but added "we want to maintain as far as possible a climate of dialogue".
Events in Iran have cast a shadow over the G8 meeting that should have focused on stabilising Afghanistan and pursuing Middle East peace. Diplomats had seen the June 25-27 event as a rare chance for the Group of Eight nations to sit down with regional powers like Iran to discuss shared goals for Afghanistan and Pakistan. But Iran declined to answer Italy's invitation to attend.
Speaking in Washington before the meeting, a senior U.S. State Department official said foreign ministers were expected to discuss the impact of the situation in Iran on efforts to engage Tehran over its nuclear programme.
European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner condemned excessive force by Iranian security forces against demonstrators, urged a halt to arbitrary arrests and called a crackdown on journalists unacceptable.
As delegates gathered, a small group of Iranian protesters held up signs condemning the violent crackdown in Iran. "We want the G8 to exert pressure so Iran allows peaceful protests, free elections, democracy," said Siamak, an Iranian expatriate who fled Iran after the 1979 revolution.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/26/2009
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This is what happens when there is no leadership on the earth.
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.
Instead of meeting with House Democrats Thursday to argue in favor of passing a controversial climate change bill, former Vice President Al Gore has decided to meet one-on-one with them via phone calls.
District and Sessions Judge's Court of Kurigram on Wednesday rejected the bail prayers of 34 arrested rebel BDR men of 27 Rifles Battalion. All the jawans including Subedar Moysher were produced in the court. Lawyers of the BDR men appealed for bail but the court rejected the prayers.
SEOUL, June 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korean 
COLOMBO - Sri Lanka is planning to hold two local elections in the north of the country which will mark the first attempt to restore political administration in the region after the defeat of Tamil rebels, officials said Thursday. Elections for two northern local councils have been fixed for August 8, the commissioner of elections announced.
Reporting from Tehran -- Security was tight around the bare grave of Neda Agha-Soltan on Thursday. Militiamen and police stood nearby, witnesses said, and it was difficult for visitors to hold a conversation within sight and hearing of the glaring officers.
[ADN Kronos] Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was placed under house arrest on Thursday, Iranian sources have claimed. The reformist website 'Nasimfarda' made the claim about Mousavi's house arrest amid continuing unrest in the country since the presidential elections on 12 June. "All of Mousavi's aides and collaborators have been arrested and the government is trying to completely isolate him from the reformist protesters," the website reportedly said.
[Quqnoos] Seven men alleged in organising and executing suicide attacks have been arrested in the Afghan capital city, Intelligence Agency said
WASHINGTON The Senate Armed Services Committee added $1.75 billion Thursday to a Pentagon budget proposal for seven more Lockheed Martin F-22 fighter jets, heightening a promised showdown with the Obama administration, which opposes the additional planes.
EOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il doled out foreign-made cars to senior intelligence officials to ensure their loyalty to his youngest son when he put the 26-year-old in charge of the country's powerful spy agency, a report said Wednesday.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Gov. Sarah Palin is visiting U.S. troops in Kosovo. Palin's office had said the governor traveled Wednesday to see Alaska National Guard troops at an undisclosed overseas location. On Thursday, her office said she was visiting about 140 aviators with the Guard in Kosovo.
China will not impose sanctions on North Korea independently of a UN resolution. The North depends on China for most of its energy and food. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Thursday said, "Measures related to North Korea should affect neither North Korean people's livelihood nor their normal economic and trading activities." He was answering views that the North would return to nuclear disarmament talks only if China suspends aid to the Stalinist country. 
TRIESTE, Italy, June 25 (Reuters) - Group of Eight powers were divided on how to respond to Iran's disputed election on Thursday, with hosts Italy pushing for a strong condemnation of violence and Russia calling the vote "an exercise in democracy".
