I would've loved to been a fly on the wall for this...
CHICAGO (AP) There was no tear gas anywhere, and some of those who showed up for a reunion of Chicago Police officers who worked during the 1968 Democratic National Convention hung up their badges and their billy clubs a long time ago. But if this looked like just a gathering of retirees who came to knock back a few drinks and swap stories Friday night "I was just looking to see who's still alive," joked retired patrolman Jeff Norris it was much more than that.
Between men who almost spit out words like "scum" to describe demonstrators who descended on the city 41 years ago to the small crowd of protesters across the street, it was clear the days when the streets became a battlefield remain one of the most divisive chapters in Chicago history.
From the former cops came recollections, one after another, about what the cameras didn't capture, what the world didn't see on television along with the images of police wading into crowds of protesters, knocking them down and bloodying them with flailing billy clubs. They told of bags of urine and feces, and bricks that were thrown at them, the heavy glass ashtrays dropped on them from hotel windows high above, the nail-spiked rubber balls laced behind their car tires and sometimes thrown at them.
And they dismissed any talk of a "police riot," as a commission famously called the scene, speaking with pride about how they conducted themselves. "We were doing what we were supposed to do," said John Murray, a 62-year-old retired detective. "No regrets."
It was absolute chaos, they said, but they did not lose control even when faced with situations they never thought they'd ever see.
Like the woman disguised as a nun who punched Joe Mescall when the young patrolman wouldn't let her into the Conrad Hilton Hotel where he was stationed. Mescall laughed when he told of responding with a punch that was hard enough that she "landed on her keister right on Michigan Avenue," but he turned serious when he said that neither he nor any of his fellow "coppers" pulled their guns. "Not one shot was fired," he said, a sentiment echoed several times.
On the other side of the street, protesters say all this talk about doing their job and putting the blame for the rioting on the demonstrators amounts to a whitewash of history. That is obvious, they say, by the reunion organizers who did not just promote the gathering on a Web site called Chicagoriotcops.com, but promoted it as a way to honor those who protected the city from "Marxist street thugs."
"The language makes it very clear that this is a celebration of violence, of brutality and an attempt to rewrite history," said Jose Martin, a member of Chicago Copwatch, which organized a march that ended with a rally across the street from the Fraternal Order of Police lodge where the reunion was held. Wonder if thay want a rematch?
Martin said he wasn't sure if there would still be a march had the reunion been simply advertised as a reunion, but he said that kind of language sealed the deal."It was too golden," he said.
G. Flint Taylor, a prominent civil rights attorney whose clients include former death row inmates who have sued alleging police torture, saw his participation as his duty. "We have to constantly set the record straight, set the historical record straight," he said. "This new generation, half don't know what happened," he said, surrounded by a few dozen protesters, many of whom were not yet born when the 1968 convention occurred. And why miss a chance to break in a new crop of useful idiots...
That was one thing that even the former cops could agree to. "I don't think the young kids could tell you who was even running for office (in 1968)," said retired detective, Tom Flanagan, 67.
The other thing everyone agreed on is that the now-gray or balding men who were on duty during the 1968 convention remain a source of fascination for those who lived through it or studied it.
"Did you beat up anybody famous?" a young woman who rode up to the officers on her bicycle asked Murray.
Wattsburg, Pa. -- Vice President Joe Biden visited a small town on the outskirts of Erie today to talk to rural folks about federal stimulus money that can be used to expand broadband access to the Internet for rural areas that typically have poor connections.
Apparently stimulus money and broadband are not all that interesting to the local folk here: Only around 100 or so people have showed up so far to hear Biden talk at noon at Seneca High School off Route 8 in Wattsburg.
The room looked so sparse that about 30 or so chairs were removed by volunteers to give the illusion of a full house. The effect didn't exactly work. It's the thought that counts...
Pittsburgh native and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper are also on hand to talk about access to high speed internet as an essential tool for success in business and in school in our struggling economy.
#4
Because with all the anti-rural legislation in the works (fart tax, dirt tax, carbon tax, federal health care which will inevitably close rural hospitals, etc.) thats whut us are roarall folks isa concerned 'bout - faster internet connections. Good the see the secretary of agriculture on it too. Tell me, did the entire entourage pile out of a white VW bug with red and ribbon trim, funny sounding horn?
The Honduran coup is a reaction to Chávez's rule by the mob.
As military "coups" go, the one this weekend in Honduras was strangely, well, democratic. The military didn't oust President Manuel Zelaya on its own but instead followed an order of the Supreme Court. It also quickly turned power over to the president of the Honduran Congress, a man from the same party as Mr. Zelaya. The legislature and legal authorities all remain intact.
We mention these not so small details because they are being overlooked as the world, including the U.S. President, denounces tiny Honduras in a way that it never has, say, Iran. President Obama is joining the U.N., Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez and other model democrats in demanding that Mr. Zelaya be allowed to return from exile and restored to power. Maybe it's time to sort the real from the phony Latin American democrats.
The situation is messy, and we think the Hondurans would have been smarter -- and better off -- not sending Mr. Zelaya into exile at dawn. Mr. Zelaya was pressing ahead with a nonbinding referendum to demand a constitutional rewrite to let him seek a second four-year term. The attorney general and Honduran courts declared the vote illegal and warned he'd be prosecuted if he followed through. Mr. Zelaya persisted, even leading a violent mob last week to seize and distribute ballots imported from Venezuela. However, the proper constitutional route was to impeach Mr. Zelaya and then arrest him for violating the law.
Yet the events in Honduras also need to be understood in the context of Latin America's decade of chavismo. Venezuela's Hugo Chávez was democratically elected in 1998, but he has since used every lever of power, legal and extralegal, to subvert democracy. He first ordered a rewrite of the constitution that allowed his simple majority in the national assembly grant him the power to rule by decree for one year and to control the judiciary.
In 2004 he packed the Supreme Court with 32 justices from 20. Any judge who rules against his interests can be fired. He made the electoral tribunal that oversees elections his own political tool, denying opposition requests to inspect voter rolls and oversee vote counts. The once politically independent oil company now hires only Chávez allies, and independent television stations have had their licenses revoked.
Mr. Chávez has also exported this brand of one-man-one-vote-once democracy throughout the region. He's succeeded to varying degrees in Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and Nicaragua, where his allies have stretched the law and tried to dominate the media and the courts. Mexico escaped in 2006 when Felipe Calderón linked his leftwing opponent to chavismo and barely won the presidency.
In Honduras Mr. Chávez funneled Veneuzelan oil money to help Mr. Zelaya win in 2005, and Mr. Zelaya has veered increasingly left in his four-year term. The Honduran constitution limits presidents to a single term, which is scheduled to end in January. Mr. Zelaya was using the extralegal referendum as an act of political intimidation to force the Congress to allow a rewrite of the constitution so he could retain power. The opposition had pledged to boycott the vote, which meant that Mr. Zelaya would have won by a landslide.
Such populist intimidation has worked elsewhere in the region, and Hondurans are understandably afraid that, backed by Chávez agents and money, it could lead to similar antidemocratic subversion there. In Tegucigalpa yesterday, thousands demonstrated against Mr. Zelaya, and new deputy foreign minister Marta Lorena Casco told the crowd that "Chávez consumed Venezuela, then Bolivia, after that Ecuador and Nicaragua, but in Honduras that didn't happen."
It's no accident that Mr. Chávez is now leading the charge to have Mr. Zelaya reinstated, and on Monday the Honduran traveled to a leftwing summit in Managua in one of Mr. Chávez's planes. The U.N. and Organization of American States are also threatening the tiny nation with ostracism and other punishment if it doesn't readmit him. Meanwhile, the new Honduran government is saying it will arrest Mr. Zelaya if he returns. This may be the best legal outcome, but it also runs the risk of destabilizing the country. We recall when the Clinton Administration restored Bertrand Aristide to Haiti, only to have the country descend into anarchy.
As for the Obama Administration, it seems eager to "meddle" in Honduras in a way Mr. Obama claimed was counterproductive in Iran. Yet the stolen election in Iran was a far clearer subversion of democracy than the coup in Honduras. As a candidate, Mr. Obama often scored George W. Bush's foreign policy by saying democracy requires more than an election -- a free press, for example, civil society and the rule of law rather than rule by the mob. It's a point worth recalling before Mr. Obama hands a political victory to the forces of chavismo in Latin America.
Over the coming days a curiously revealing event will be taking place in Copenhagen. Top of the agenda at a meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group (set up under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature/Species Survival Commission) will be the need to produce a suitably scary report on how polar bears are being threatened with extinction by man-made global warming.
This is one of a steady drizzle of events planned to stoke up alarm in the run-up to the UN's major conference on climate change in Copenhagen next December. But one of the world's leading experts on polar bears has been told to stay away from this week's meeting, specifically because his views on global warming do not accord with those of the rest of the group.
Dr Mitchell Taylor has been researching the status and management of polar bears in Canada and around the Arctic Circle for 30 years, as both an academic and a government employee. More than once since 2006 he has made headlines by insisting that polar bear numbers, far from decreasing, are much higher than they were 30 years ago. Of the 19 different bear populations, almost all are increasing or at optimum levels, only two have for local reasons modestly declined.
Dr Taylor agrees that the Arctic has been warming over the last 30 years. But he ascribes this not to rising levels of CO2 as is dictated by the computer models of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and believed by his PBSG colleagues but to currents bringing warm water into the Arctic from the Pacific and the effect of winds blowing in from the Bering Sea.
He has also observed, however, how the melting of Arctic ice, supposedly threatening the survival of the bears, has rocketed to the top of the warmists' agenda as their most iconic single cause. The famous photograph of two bears standing forlornly on a melting iceberg was produced thousands of times by Al Gore, the WWF and others as an emblem of how the bears faced extinction until last year the photographer, Amanda Byrd, revealed that the bears, just off the Alaska coast, were in no danger. Her picture had nothing to do with global warming and was only taken because the wind-sculpted ice they were standing on made such a striking image.
Dr Taylor had obtained funding to attend this week's meeting of the PBSG, but this was voted down by its members because of his views on global warming. The chairman, Dr Andy Derocher, a former university pupil of Dr Taylor's, frankly explained in an email (which I was not sent by Dr Taylor) that his rejection had nothing to do with his undoubted expertise on polar bears: "it was the position you've taken on global warming that brought opposition".
Dr Taylor was told that his views running "counter to human-induced climate change are extremely unhelpful". His signing of the Manhattan Declaration a statement by 500 scientists that the causes of climate change are not CO2 but natural, such as changes in the radiation of the sun and ocean currents was "inconsistent with the position taken by the PBSG".
So, as the great Copenhagen bandwagon rolls on, stand by this week for reports along the lines of "scientists say polar bears are threatened with extinction by vanishing Arctic ice". But also check out Anthony Watt's Watts Up With That website for the latest news of what is actually happening in the Arctic. The average temperature at midsummer is still below zero, the latest date that this has happened in 50 years of record-keeping. After last year's recovery from its September 2007 low, this year's ice melt is likely to be substantially less than for some time. The bears are doing fine.
Did they find a brain? If so, where?
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) was taken to a Los Angeles hospital last night for "routine testing" after he was not feeling well, according to his office.
Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, had just ushered a historic climate change legislation to a narrow victory Friday. His office told the Associated Press that he was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he is "feeling much better now."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/01/2009
12:46 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Take a good look at a picture of Waxjob. If Lincoln was right when he said that "everyone over 40 is responsible for what he looks like" then Waxman has a lot to answer for.
#4
I assume he led by example and arrived by public transportation, waited in line for 3 hours, was prescribed 1 aspirin (usually ya get 2, but supplies are short) and will arrive again in 3 months to have his tests. You know, just like the rest of will if him and his ilk pass their legislations.
Posted by: Herman Hupomoger6016 ||
07/01/2009 17:52
Comments ||
Top||
#7
well at least the nasal checkup was easy
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/01/2009 18:35
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Always vital that the patient not lose consciousness. A brisk slap to the cheek by a trained professional (male orderly) is oftentimes necessary. If this does not produce the desired result, patient begins to fade or appear disoriented, unresponsive.... repeat the procedures 5-10 times using bare knuckles on the backstroke every half hour for a month or two.
IN HIS WEEKLY address on Saturday, President Obama saluted the House of Representatives for passing Waxman-Markey, the gargantuan energy-rationing bill that would amount to the largest tax increase in the nations history. It would do so by making virtually everything that depends on energy - which is virtually everything - more expensive.
The president doesnt describe the legislation in those terms now, but he made no bones about it last year. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle in January 2008, he calmly explained how cap-and-trade - the carbon-dioxide rationing scheme that is at the heart of Waxman-Markey - would work:
Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket . . . because Im capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, natural gas, you name it . . . Whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money, and they will pass that [cost] on to consumers.
In the same interview, Obama suggested that his energy policy would require the ruin of the coal industry. If somebody wants to build a coal-fired plant, they can, he told the Chronicle. Its just that it will bankrupt them, because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas thats being emitted.
The justification for inflicting this financial misery, of course, is the onrushing catastrophe of human-induced global warming - a catastrophe that can be prevented only if we abandon the carbon-based fuels on which most of the prosperity and productivity of modern life depend. But what if that looming catastrophe isnt real? What if climate change has little or nothing to do with human activity? What if enacting cap-and-trade means incurring excruciating costs in exchange for infinitesimal benefits?
Hush, says Obama. Dont ask such questions. There is no longer a debate about whether carbon pollution is placing our planet in jeopardy, he declared Saturday. Its happening.
No debate? The debate over global warming is more robust than it has been in years, and not only in America. In April, the Polish Academy of Sciences published a document challenging man-made global warming, Kimberly Strassel noted in The Wall Street Journal the other day. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to tap Claude Allegre to lead the countrys new ministry of industry and innovation. Twenty years ago Allegre was among the first to trill about man-made global warming, but the geochemist has since recanted . . . Norways Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the new religion.
Closer to home, the noted physicist Hal Lewis (emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara) e-mails me a copy of a statement he and several fellow scientists, including physicists Will Happer and Robert Austin of Princeton, Laurence Gould of the University of Hartford, and climatologist Richard Lindzen of MIT, have sent to Congress. The sky is not falling, they write. Far from warming, the Earth has been cooling for 10 years - a trend that was not predicted by the alarmists computer models.
Fortune magazine recently profiled veteran climatologist John Christy, a lead author of the 2001 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. With his green credentials, Fortune observed, Christy is the warm-mongers worst nightmare - an accomplished climate scientist with no ties to Big Oil who has produced reams and reams of data that undermine arguments that the earths atmosphere is warming at an unusual rate and question whether the remedies being talked about in Congress will actually do any good.
No one who cares about the environment or the nations economic well-being should take it on faith that climate change is a crisis, or that drastic changes to the economy are essential to save the planet. Hundreds of scientists reject the alarmist narrative. For non-experts, a steadily-widening shelf of excellent books surveys the data in laymens terms and exposes the weaknesses in the doomsday scenario - among others, Climate Confusion by Roy W. Spencer, Climate of Fear by Thomas Gale Moore, Taken by Storm by Christopher Essex and Ross McKitrick, and Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years by S. Fred Singer and Dennis Avery.
If the case for a war on carbon dioxide were unassailable, no one would have to warn against debating it. The 212 House members who voted against Waxman-Markey last week plainly dont believe the matter is settled. Theyre right.
So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement.
But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases.
And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldnt help thinking that I was watching a form of treason treason against the planet.
To fully appreciate the irresponsibility and immorality of climate-change denial, you need to know about the grim turn taken by the latest climate research.
The fact is that the planet is changing faster than even pessimists expected: ice caps are shrinking, arid zones spreading, at a terrifying rate. And according to a number of recent studies, catastrophe a rise in temperature so large as to be almost unthinkable can no longer be considered a mere possibility. It is, instead, the most likely outcome if we continue along our present course.
Thus researchers at M.I.T., who were previously predicting a temperature rise of a little more than 4 degrees by the end of this century, are now predicting a rise of more than 9 degrees. Why? Global greenhouse gas emissions are rising faster than expected; some mitigating factors, like absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans, are turning out to be weaker than hoped; and theres growing evidence that climate change is self-reinforcing that, for example, rising temperatures will cause some arctic tundra to defrost, releasing even more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Temperature increases on the scale predicted by the M.I.T. researchers and others would create huge disruptions in our lives and our economy. As a recent authoritative U.S. government report points out, by the end of this century New Hampshire may well have the climate of North Carolina today, Illinois may have the climate of East Texas, and across the country extreme, deadly heat waves the kind that traditionally occur only once in a generation may become annual or biannual events.
In other words, were facing a clear and present danger to our way of life, perhaps even to civilization itself. How can anyone justify failing to act?
Well, sometimes even the most authoritative analyses get things wrong. And if dissenting opinion-makers and politicians based their dissent on hard work and hard thinking if they had carefully studied the issue, consulted with experts and concluded that the overwhelming scientific consensus was misguided they could at least claim to be acting responsibly.
But if you watched the debate on Friday, you didnt see people whove thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing. What you saw, instead, were people who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They dont like the political and policy implications of climate change, so theyve decided not to believe in it and theyll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial.
Indeed, if there was a defining moment in Fridays debate, it was the declaration by Representative Paul Broun of Georgia that climate change is nothing but a hoax that has been perpetrated out of the scientific community. Id call this a crazy conspiracy theory, but doing so would actually be unfair to crazy conspiracy theorists. After all, to believe that global warming is a hoax you have to believe in a vast cabal consisting of thousands of scientists a cabal so powerful that it has managed to create false records on everything from global temperatures to Arctic sea ice.
Yet Mr. Brouns declaration was met with applause.
Given this contempt for hard science, Im almost reluctant to mention the deniers dishonesty on matters economic. But in addition to rejecting climate science, the opponents of the climate bill made a point of misrepresenting the results of studies of the bills economic impact, which all suggest that the cost will be relatively low.
Still, is it fair to call climate denial a form of treason? Isnt it politics as usual?
Yes, it is and thats why its unforgivable.
Do you remember the days when Bush administration officials claimed that terrorism posed an existential threat to America, a threat in whose face normal rules no longer applied? That was hyperbole but the existential threat from climate change is all too real.
Yet the deniers are choosing, willfully, to ignore that threat, placing future generations of Americans in grave danger, simply because its in their political interest to pretend that theres nothing to worry about. If thats not betrayal, I dont know what is.
#2
We Humans exhale Carbon Dioxide, if they're so concerned about an entirely natural making of plant food, just slit their own throats to "Eliminate a huge Carbon Dioxide polluter"
Start with Oblahblahblah as his mouth is always open..
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/01/2009 15:53
Comments ||
Top||
While promoting his new cap-and-trade energy tax bill, which passed the U.S. House last week, President Obama revealed in a White House address on Monday his model for the nation's economy - California. "In the late 1970s, the state of California enacted tougher energy-efficiency policies," Obama said, noting that the state and its residents use less energy today per capita than the national average. "Think about that," he said, "California producing jobs, their economy keeping pace with the rest of the country and yet they've been able to maintain their energy usage in a much lower level than the rest of the country."
Obama might want to rethink his choice of a model state because it is easy to understand how California has curbed its energy use. Between 2000 and 2007, before the current recession, the state shed nearly 21 percent of its manufacturing jobs, driving down its industrial electrical consumption by 21 percent. California's industrial users pay electric rates twice as high as their Midwestern counterparts - which helps explain why so much heavy industry has fled the state. In addition to alienating its industry, California has also curbed energy use through exorbitant residential electric rates (50 percent higher than the national average) and massive net out-migration. Between 2005 and 2007, 2.14 million Californians moved to other states, while only 1.44 million people from elsewhere moved to the Golden State, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Don't be surprised when the 2010 Census finds even more people leaving to escape California's 11.5 percent unemployment. And, as jobs and residents fled California, its tax revenues have declined, while its politicians went on a spending binge, creating a severe budget crisis.
If the President wants America to look like California, pushing the Obama-Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade anti-global warming energy bill through Congress is surely the way to do it. Among much else in its 1,200+ pages (none of which were read by the vast majority of House members who voted on it), the measure caps carbon dioxide emissions at levels certain to cause artificial scarcity and higher energy prices. That will convince still more American manufacturers that they can only remain competitive by moving to other countries with no caps (think India and China), lower expenses and cheaper workforces. Manufacturers who can't move or who must rely on electric power will simply go out of business or drastically reduce their workforces. The Heritage Foundation forecasts job losses under Obama-Waxman-Markey of 1.15 million annually beginning in 2012. Welcome to the Hotel California in the age of Obama.
Following the contested Iranian election, the green armbands of the opposition and pictures of bloodied and dying Iranian protesters were being held aloft by Iranians from Los Angeles to Paris. Noticeably absent from the international scene were Westerners, particularly students.
The reaction to events in Iran has shown once again the double standards and hypocrisy of those in Europe and the West who jump at the slightest opportunity to protest Israel but remain stoic in the face of events in Iran. Of course, it's not about Israel—-it's about what Israel represents
While many have compared the outpouring of anger in Iran to what presaged the 1979 revolution, there is one key difference; this time around, no Western students care. Before the shah fell from power, he often visited the capitals of major European and North American cities. Every time he did, tens of thousands of progressive students and human-rights activists poured out onto the streets calling him a fascist and protesting his visit.
In one such protest on June 2, 1967 a German student, Benno Ohnesorg, was even killed.
But now there is no such outpouring of emotion. Neither is there any interest from the UN or from Jimmy Carter.
YET IN January, when Israel was embroiled in a war with Hamas, the anger directed at her in Europe was apoplectic. When Israel fought a war against Hizbullah in 2006, Western students even proudly wore the symbol of Hizbullah, a clenched fist holding an AK-47. Tranzis just hate humans and love their enemies
#1
Ballsy move by Mr. Oglesbee and others on site.
But I fear OSHA will come down hard on his employer (Cramer & Associates) for not making him wear a hardhat, safety glasses AND an 'approved' safety harness for this task.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/01/2009 11:53
Comments ||
Top||
#2
A construction worker just doing what real men do. Barry, Barney Frank, Reid, other limp dic*s in congress please disregard. You wouldn't understand.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.
___
Iran's feared Basij militia asked the country's chief prosecutor Wednesday to investigate embattled opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi for his role in violent protests that it said undermined national security in the aftermath of last month's presidential election.
The semiofficial Fars news agency said the militia known as supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's street enforcers sent the prosecutor a letter accusing Mousavi of taking part in nine offenses against the state, including "disturbing the nation's security," which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment.
Posted by: ed ||
07/01/2009
10:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
Honduras' interim leader warned that the only way his predecessor will return to office is through a foreign invasion -- though a potential showdown was postponed Wednesday when the ousted president delayed plans to return. A defiant Roberto Micheletti said in an interview with The Associated Press late Tuesday that "no one can make me resign," defying the United Nations, the OAS, the Obama administration and other leaders that have condemned the military coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya.
The U.N. General Assembly voted by acclamation Tuesday to demand Zelaya's immediate restoration, and the Organization of American States said Wednesday that coup leaders have three days to restore Zelaya to power before Honduras risks being suspended from the group. That period for negotiation prompted Zelaya to announce he was putting off his plans to return home on Thursday until the weekend.
Micheletti vowed Zelaya would be arrested if he returns, even though the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador have signed on to accompany him along with the heads of the Organization of American States and the U.N. General Assembly. Zelaya "has already committed crimes against the constitution and the law," said Micheletti, a member of Zelaya's Liberal Party who was named interim leader by Congress following the coup. "He can no longer return to the presidency of the republic unless a president from another Latin American country comes and imposes him using guns."
One of several clauses that cannot be legally altered in the Honduran constitution limits presidents to a single, 4-year term. Congress claims Zelaya, whose term ends in January, modified the ballot question at the last minute to help him eventually try to seek re-election. Chavez has used referendums in Venezuela to win the right to run repeatedly. "I'm not going to hold a constitutional assembly," Zelaya said. "And if I'm offered the chance to stay in power, I won't. I'm going to serve my four years."
Gosh, why did former President Zelaya change his mind about something that was so important to him a few days ago?
OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza delivered what he called "an ultimatum" during a marathon session in Washington. "We need to show clearly that military coups will not be accepted. We thought we were in an era when military coups were no longer possible in this hemisphere," he said.
France and Spain announced Wednesday they are recalling their ambassadors from Honduras as part of international efforts to reinstate Zelaya.
Zelaya's popularity has sagged at home in recent years, but his criticism of the wealthy and policies such as raising the minimum wage have earned him the loyalty of many poor Hondurans, and thousands have rallied to demand his return. Thousands of others rallied in favor of Micheletti on Tuesday, accusing Zelaya of trying to bring Venezuelan-style socialism to Honduras. Yet beyond the demonstrations at the presidential palace and the capital's central square, there has been little sign of major disruption to daily life.
Micheletti said he would not resign no matter how intense the international pressure becomes. He insisted Honduras would be ready to defend itself against any invasion. He did not name any specific countries, but Chavez has vowed to "overthrow" Micheletti and said earlier Tuesday that any aggression against Zelaya by Micheletti's government should prompt military intervention by the United Nations. "No one can make me resign if I do not violate the laws of the country," Micheletti said. "If there is any invasion against our country, 7.5 million Hondurans will be ready to defend our territory and our laws and our homeland and our government." Micheletti said it was too late for Zelaya to avoid arrest.
His foreign minister, Enrique Ortez, threw a wild card onto the table, telling CNN en Espanol that Zelaya had been letting drug traffickers ship U.S.-bound cocaine from Venezuela through Honduras. Ortez said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was aware of Zelaya's ties to organized crime. DEA spokesman Rusty Payne could neither confirm nor deny a DEA investigation.
The U.S. government stood firmly by Zelaya, however. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Washington saw no acceptable solution other than Zelaya's return to power. He said the United States was considering cutting off aid to Honduras, which includes $215 million over four years from the U.S.-funded Millennium Challenge Corporation.
Micheletti said he had no contact with any U.S. official since assuming the presidency. The interim leader, who now occupies the same office in the colonial-style presidential palace that Zelaya did, insisted he was getting on with the business of governing. He and his newly appointed Cabinet ministers were settling in, even as soldiers wandered the ornate hallways and manned barricades outside to keep Zelaya's supporters away.
Micheletti, who promised he would step down in January and had no plans to ever run for president, said a key goal of his short term in office would be fixing the nation's finances. Zelaya never submitted the budget to Congress that was due last September, raising questions about what he was spending state money on.
We know he was spending money to get those oh-so-clever ballots printed up...
Asked if Zelaya could one day return to power stronger than ever, Micheletti said that "it's not about sympathy, it's not about being a martyr, but simply that we are following the letter of the law which he did not respect."
Posted by: ed ||
07/01/2009
09:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I just got this email from a friend who lives in Birmingham, Alabama and does a lot of mission work. Hi family and friends! Well, my life is occasionally boring, but not the past few days. I just returned, along with my youngest son and 64 other people from a mission trip to Honduras. Yep! We were in the middle of the political uprising. We arrived last Friday in Tagucigalpa, the capital of the country and drove about 3 hours north to a ranch. We had planned to stay until this coming Sunday. We got in a very good days work in the surrounding towns on Saturday, then went to church on Sunday with a local congregation, got in some horse back riding and planned to start again on Monday with the labor. We were laying a brick wall at the church..I discovered I can sling mortar with the best of them, delivered food and clothes to needy families, helped get a good start on a water system for a village that had been entirely displaced due to floods and planned to deliver about a 1,000 pairs of shoes we took down to school kids. If you can get shoes on their feet, you can stop a lot of the illnesses they experience.
Then the world got the idea that there had been a military coup..not quite accurate according to the locals. The way it works there is the people vote and the military implements. The people voted to remove the president because he was trying to change the constitution to become more socialist. The military escorted him out of the country because that is their job. But our president did not help when he said it was military coup and Chavez took that as an invitation, thinking that America would not step in to protect Honduras. So he mounted his troops on the boarder and was threatening to invade last night. That did not happen, not yet anyway, but because we had so many young people with us, we decided to get out while we still could. The very real possibility existed that the airports could have been closed for weeks. A curfew had been implemented and demonstrations were taking place in the streets.
So we got out yesterday morning. We had at least 8 check points where either the local police or the military stopped our bus and vans to see who were were. We never felt like we were in danger, really making it all the more difficult to leave. We spent the night in Houston, and flew out on different flights all day today. Please pray for the beautiful people and for their country. They are defenseless as no one but the military are supposed to own guns. May we never give up that right to be able to protect ourselves. I plan to return next year and hopefully get to stay the entire time.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/01/2009 11:09
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Stand your ground, Honduras. You did the right thing. Screw the US lawmakers. We may be learning from your example soon.
#3
I don't think this will end well for the Hondurans.
For some strange reason all the usual suspects (and others) are determined to assist Chavez in this case.
My prediction:
Zelaya will return (mainly due to pressure by the Obama administration, maybe an intervention.), and the Honduran people will feel his wrath (and that of Chavez, the Castros, and Obama.)
For some strange reason it is beyond the pale to impose basic norms of Western Civilization on the Afghans (who attacked NATO on 911), while it seems to be perfectly acceptable to impose Communism on the Hondurans (who have done no harm to any NATO country.)
#5
Per local reports, anti Zelaya demos of 10,000 plus have been taking place today. Much bigger than the pro Zelaya demos.
Let's see whether this gets covered in tomorrows WaPo and NYTimes.
Also, a compromise is possible to let Zelaya serve as President while being essentially under house arrest and having no authority.
Posted by: Lord garth ||
07/01/2009 13:04
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Deacon, is your letter-writer confused, or did he mean that Ortega is threatening to invade from Nicaragua? Venezuela not having any more of a common border with Honduras than we do with El Salvador....
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/01/2009 13:40
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Mitch, I believe she was relating what the locals told her. She knows Venezuela does not have a border with Honduras but the locals there are really afraid Hugo and Ortega will conduct military operations to restore Zelaya. And it looks like The One is willing to go along.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/01/2009 15:27
Comments ||
Top||
#8
In the bad old days of the Soviet Union Cuba intervened in Southern Africa.
Could Venezuelan-Cuban forces threaten Honduras from Nicaragua? Would US assistance (short of an actual military conflict) for such forces make a difference?
An Arizona man who likes several drinks with his lunch has been arrested three times in the past week for refusing to pay at restaurants where he ate. Jefferson Parish sheriff's records show that a 36-year-old man was booked with defrauding an innkeeper after he ate at three restaurants, then laughed when asked to pay his bill.
The man allegedly ran up bills ranging from $23 to $31 including four beers with a lunch plate at one restaurant and four margaritas with a cheeseburger at another then said he was homeless and couldn't pay.
The man was being held Tuesday at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna in lieu of $1,000 bond. But he has been released on the same charges twice previously due to overcrowding.
#5
He's a drunk bum who knows how to work the system...
The first incident occurred June 22 at Melancon's Annex in Metairie, according to an incident report from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Bryant ordered a beer while he looked over the menu. He ordered a lunch plate and another beer, then two more beers while he ate his meal.
The report said that Bryant eventually began to fall asleep at the table. When the owner asked him to pay his $23 check and leave, Bryant allegedly laughed and told the owner he didn't have any money because he was homeless. When the owner threatened to call the police, Bryant again laughed and refused to pay.
Bryant is accused of pulling the stunt again at Pitre's Restaurant in Westwego on Thursday, and at Sun Ray Grill near Gretna on Monday, according to reports. At Sun Ray, he ordered four margaritas with his cheeseburger for a total of $30.99 and then tried to sneak out of the business. The report said that Bryant was chased down and detained until police arrived.
Col. John Fortunato said that Bryant has been released because overcrowding at the jail requires the Sheriff's Office to release many non-violent offenders. The jail must maintain a certain number of beds for violent offenders, such as those arrested on armed robbery charges, and officials there rate each offender based on their alleged crime. Bryant is accused of relatively minor offenses under the system.
A U.S. federal probe has found that about a third of American Apparel's factory workers in the Los Angeles area had supplied suspect or invalid records and were not authorized to work in the United States. The findings, from a January 2008 federal investigation, may deal a blow to the corporation's image as a proponent of immigration reform. But the company said on Tuesday the potential loss of those 1,800 workers would have no significant impact on its results.
With sales down, we don't need the extra manufacturing capacity the illegal workers supplied, so we won't fight this.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency found that some 1,600 current employees at American Apparel's Los Angeles factories appeared to have gained employment due to "suspect and not valid" eligibility documentation, the company said in a filing. The probe also found that the employment eligibility of an additional 200 workers could not be verified due to discrepancies, it said.
American Apparel said it could not accurately assess the impact on its operations from losing the employees, but said it did not believe any such loss would have a materially adverse impact on financial results. "The company believes that its current surplus levels of inventory and manufacturing capacity would mitigate the adverse impact of any disruption to its manufacturing activities that may potentially result from the loss of these employees," American Apparel said in the filing.
"ICE's notification provided no indication that the company knowingly or intentionally hired unauthorized aliens and no criminal charges have been filed against the Company or any current employees," it added.
A key point. The company complied with the law by demanding Social Security numbers and suchlike information from their employees, then passing it on to ICE for verification. Now that they are being informed that some employees lied, they are quite willing cut the lying illegals loose. The journalist ought to be ashamed of propagandizing so unsubtly.
The company, known for its colorful T-shirts and other basics worn by urban hipsters, has made immigration reform a central theme of its corporate message. Chief Executive Dov Charney has called for the legalization of foreign workers, and the company has used "Legalize LA" as a slogan on billboards and T-shirts.
American Apparel's Los Angeles operations, which employ some 4,500 workers, churn out some 230,000 garments per day in an environment in which workers are paid above minimum wage, enjoy subsidized health care and meals, and take part in free English classes. In the past, the company has let go of workers whose papers were proven false. Company executives say American Apparel diligently complies with the law, but have pointed out that papers can easily be faked.
I don't know much about Honduras, but I do know something about Iran. And Obama's bizarre behavior, taking days to come to the conclusion any decent person knew immediately, indeed other world leaders like Merkel and Sarkozy had demonstrated as much - that there were very clear good and evil sides in the Iranian election, even though the good wasn't perfect. (Is it ever?) So when I heard that our President had joined Chavez and Castro in condemnation of the supposed coup in Honduras, this time with immediacy, I felt a tightening in the gut. Chavez particularly was on the side of Ahmadinejad in the recent Iranian brutality.
This was a side I didn't want to be on, didn't want our country on. I heard many suspicious things about Zelaya, the booted Honduran president, including allegations of drug ties. Also, he was running for succor to the UN, the very organization just weeks ago I had personally seen embrace Ahmadinejad in Geneva. So when I read this message from a Honduran on The Corner, I wasn't surprised.
Obama has strange friends. He equivocates and equalizes in disturbing ways. Is he "objectively pro-fascist" as George Orwell memorably wrote in his famous essay "Pacifism and the War"?
The answer is pretty obvious.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/01/2009
08:16 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
The most surprising thing about the first half-year of Barack Obama's presidency, at least in the realm of foreign policy, has been its indifference to the issues of human rights and democracy. No administration has ever made these its primary, much less its exclusive, goals overseas. But ever since Jimmy Carter spoke about human rights in his 1977 inaugural address and created a new infrastructure to give bureaucratic meaning to his words, the advancement of human rights has been one of the consistent objectives of America's diplomats and an occasional one of its soldiers.
This tradition has been ruptured by the Obama administration.... ...and here's why:
while it may be possible to identify derogations from democracy and human rights in America, those that are ubiquitous in the Muslim world are greater by many orders of magnitude. If democracy and human rights are held as high values, then all societies are not morally equal. This is a thought that cuts sharply against Obama's multicultural sensibilities.
America not only embodies these values, it is also more responsible than any other country for their spread. Many peoples today enjoy the blessings of liberty thanks to the influence of the United States, thanks to its aid, its example, and its leading role in bringing down the Axis powers, the Soviet Union and European colonialism. Moreover, the advancement of human rights and democracy requires the exercise of American influence and in turn may serve to strengthen that influenceneither of these, it seems, processes to be welcomed by apostles of national self-abnegation.... Go read the rest of it.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/01/2009
06:50 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He doesn't seem all that keen on democracy or the rule of law here, so why should we be surprised that he's not a big fan of it abroad?
This week, American troops start leaving Iraqi cities in compliance with both former President George W. Bush's negotiated start date for withdrawal and President Barack Obama's campaign pledge. Given Bush's profound commitment to succeed in Iraq, if he were still in office and if he judged such a scheduled removal of troops to be dangerous, he doubtlessly would have postponed the action -- just as he changed his strategy and ordered the surge against the advice of most of his government and most of Washington in 2007. Yet it was that surge and the changed strategy designed and led by Gen. David Petraeus that left Iraq at noon Jan. 20 largely peaceful and on a steady march to a stable, friendly, representative government. But in the past several weeks, a deep, if quietly expressed, concern has arisen on the part of some Iraqis and some U.S. military personnel that the removal of U.S. troops so soon is precipitous and seriously risks a return to the murderous sectarian conflict of 2004-07.
The withdrawal plan that our government is carrying out intends to reduce the current 130,000 American troops in Iraq, including about 24,000 in Baghdad, to 50,000 by the end of 2011 -- all of whom will be outside the cities and used only for training and U.S. force protection. Pursuant to that plan, about 24,000 troops in Baghdad have been moved outside the city already to secured locations, such as Joint Security stations Istiqlal, War Eagle and Ur and Camp Taji.
In the fortnight leading up to this week's troop withdrawals, bombings of a Shiite mosque in Kirkuk and in the Shiite slums of Sadr City have taken about 200 Iraqi lives. Presumably, those attacks were carried out by Sunnis, whose decision to cooperate with U.S. troops two years ago in the Sunni Awakening and with the Petraeus surge combined to form Bush's successful strategy to bring peace and victory to Iraq. Now Sunnis are scared that the majority Shiite Iraqi government has just been waiting for the U.S troops to leave the cities so the Shiites can cut off the jobs to former Sunni fighters that the U.S. government promised. There are (not completely reliable) reports that the jobs cutoff and other abuses have started already.
It was the later strategy of the Bush team (and those of us who supported that strategy) for U.S. troop, diplomatic and economic presences to remain as long as needed at a high enough level to restrain the Shiite government from its natural tendency to abuse the Sunnis and push Sunnis to participate in government. To the contrary, it was always the position of the anti-war advocates that only if U.S. troops left promptly could the Iraqis be forced to work together.
The Bush theory having been proved successful, we are about to test whether the alternative theory also can work. Will the Shiites and Sunnis (and Kurds) peaceably rise to the occasion or fall back into mass sectarian murder and civil war? We all must hope for the success of the current U.S. administration's idealistic theory that Shiites and Sunnis already have overcome their historic murderous hatred of each other and are ready to govern and live together in peace. Far too many of our troops, allied Iraqi troops and innocent Iraqi citizens have been killed or distressingly wounded to now lose the peace so terribly earned. But the test comes at an inopportune moment. The U.S. administration was hoping its outreach to Iran without preconditions would result in the Iranians' helping us to calm the Shiites in Iraq (and some of our enemy in Afghanistan). Whether that was ever plausible we never will know. Now, instead, with the Iranian regime shooting down its own people in cold blood, President Obama has been pulled into a nasty exchange of angry and rude words with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- from whom, therefore, we cannot reasonably expect help as we try to extract ourselves from Iraq and build up in Afghanistan.
I am struck by the potentially appalling irony that overhangs the president's decision this week to go forward with the removal of troops. G.W.F. Hegel, a great philosopher of history, believed that history is ironic and that every historical circumstance contains the seeds of its own destruction. Consider that it was Obama's central message during the presidential primary campaign that President Bush had made a strategic error by precipitously withdrawing troops from the war in Afghanistan -- the good and necessary war -- in order to provide troops for the unnecessary and ill-considered Iraq war. While the general election hinged on many issues, it was Obama's early and consistent opposition to the Iraq war and support for the Afghan war that gave him traction and eventual victory over Hillary Clinton.
Now President Obama is honoring his campaign pledge to systematically and promptly withdraw American troops from Iraq and send them to Afghanistan. But now it is the Iraq war and (until now) impending peace that looms large as a potential strategic advance for Western and peaceful interests in the Middle East. (Did the democratic Iraqi example encourage the Iranian democracy fighters?) And it is the Afghan war that seems without clear purpose or likelihood of success and that is draining currently needed troops from the Iraq theater of operations. I don't know whether history is ironic. It would seem to have a "fearful symmetry." It is certainly merciless.
"Only the aid from Iran continues to come in, and that too is only for bereaved families and for charities," Islamic Jihad Deputy Secretary-General Ziad al-Nahla, who is based in Damascus, recently told the Saudi-based newspaper Asharq Al Awsat. The problem is that a large part of the donor funds intended for Jihad is deposited in banks in the West Bank, where the funds are confiscated. "We can still guarantee the minimum necessary and the money reaches the Strip via the tunnels, just like the weapons," explained Nahla. The freeze on aid to Islamic Jihad is part of an overall effort by Hamas and senior Jihad officials to merge the two movements and create a joint leadership coalition in preparation for the possible reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah and the formation of a national unity government. The goal is to have Jihad fighters join Hamas' military establishment and to fold Islamic Jihad's administrative officials and civil infrastructure into the Hamas government and civil mechanisms. Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ramadan Abdallah Shalah, Nahla and some of the organization's leadership in Gaza, such as Mohammed al-Hindi, support the merger with Hamas and are working to promote it.
Hindi's opponents, however, such as Abdallah al-Shami and Nafez Azzam, object to the merger because they see it as eliminating the Jihad organization. This is the source of the big dispute within the organization and the economic pressure on its Gaza branch. One of the public expressions of this dispute occurred several weeks ago at a gathering in Gaza: Hindi talked about the Palestinian Authority's arrest of Jihad activists in the West Bank and "forgot" to criticize the arrest of organization members by Hamas. In response, Shami stood up and left in a demonstration of anger. Islamic Jihad activists also mention the pressure placed on them by Hamas during the tahadiya (cease-fire), when it arrested activists and confiscated the weapons of Jihad members who wanted to continue shooting at Israel.
As an organization, Islamic Jihad still adheres to its positions and criticizes those of Hamas, which recently made specific mention of the "1967 borders" in reference to the Palestinian state. So far, Islamic Jihad has refused to join the conciliation talks with Fatah and it rejects outright the Arab initiative and the Egyptian plan for reconciliation. The disagreement between the organizations attests also to the new direction Hamas adopted following the Cairo speech of U.S. President Barack Obama and the deepening ties between Syria and Washington. Shalah and Khaled Meshal, the Hamas political leader in Damascus, are already preparing the organizational foundation for the next stage, and judging by Meshal's declarations it is moving closer to the positions of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with regard to a negotiated solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. There is still no formal recognition of the State of Israel here, but even a long-term tahadiya agreement would obligate Hamas to demonstrate its complete control in the Gaza Strip to prove that it is a trustworthy security force. Such control cannot tolerate rebelliousness from Islamic Jihad. Thus the moderate economic pressure that Islamic Jihad in Damascus is exerting on its "daughter" in Gaza, and the quiet with which it is reacting to the confiscation of funds in the West Bank.
As first reported on the Drudge Report this morning, White House staffers have been poking fun at President Barack Obama's glare, which has been spotted during a number of high profile meetings.
Islamic terrorists insurgents in southern Thailand have shot dead a Burmese migrant and killed a soldier in a roadside bomb attack, police say.
The 23-year-old Thai Buddhist soldier was on foot patrol on Tuesday evening when a bomb exploded in Pattani province, killing him at the scene, they said. Shortly afterwards an unknown number of terrorists insurgents killed a 43-year-old Muslim food vendor, a migrant from Burma, in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwat province.
Four terrorists insurgents on motorcycles also shot and critically wounded a 46-year-old Thai Buddhist rubberwood buyer in Pattani on Tuesday night, police added.
Meet the "wonder weapon" that could have won the war for Hitler. Called the Horten 229, the radical "flying wing" fighter-bomber looked and acted a lot like the U.S. Air Force's current B-2 -- right down to the "stealth" radar-evading characteristics.
Fortunately for the world, the Ho 229 wasn't put into mass production before Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945.
But American researchers boxed up and shipped home the prototypes and partially-built planes that existed -- and now the same company that builds the B-2 has rebuilt one.
Northrop Grumman Corp. spent its own time and money using the original German blueprints to replicate the wood-and-steel-tube bomber, right down to its unique metallic glue and paint, at its facility in El Segundo, Calif.
Using radar of the same type and frequency used by British coastal defenses in World War II, the engineers found that an Ho 229, flying a few dozen feet above the English Channel, would indeed have been "invisible" to the Royal Air Force -- an advantage that arrived too late for the Nazis to exploit.
"This was the most advanced technology that the Germans had at the end of the war, and Northrop solved the question of how stealthy it was and its performance against Allied radar at the time," documentary filmmaker Mike Jorgenson told the Long Beach, Calif., Press-Telegram. "It's significantly better than anything flying operationally probably until the 1960s."
The National Geographic Channel will next air Jorgenson's documentary, "Hitler's Stealth Fighter," on Sunday, July 5.
#1
This is yet another manufactured sensation aimed ultimately at discrediting American and British technical achievements.
The language and tone of this article and of the broadcast invite a whole raft of false assumptions about just how advanced and significant a technology this was.
There has been nothing secret or mysterious about the HO-229 for many, many years. The broadcast claimed, for example, that the HO-229 prototype (the real one) had been "hidden" in a hangar in Maryland after the war. It was actually stored at the NASM facility in Silver Hill, along with many other relics, and anyone who seemed to know what they were doing could go in and see it and take pictures. I have been aware of it for many years and there are sections on it in aviation history books dating back to the late 40s.
As for its sensational stealth performance, almost any aircraft "flying a few dozen feet above the channel" would have been invisible to radar in the days before pulse-doppler. It would scarcely have had the payload/range performance to do more than annoy the allies. Early jet engines used fuel at a prodigious rate and this was much worse at low altitude. The Horten's radius of action would have been quite short, especially carrying a bomb load and having to hug the ground to evade allied radar. An internal bomb bay would have reduced fuel capacity and range but would have been absolutely necessary if stealth characteristics were to be retained. It would also have been vulnerable to allied jets like the Meteor IV and P-80 by the time it entered service.
Northrop-Grumman's real finding was that its special glue reduced the radar signature by about 20%. The flying wing configuration and wooden construction, which it shared with Northrop flying wings built years earlier, account for most of its stealthiness. It is therefore largely serendipitous and not the result of Nazi era super-science which we primitive Americans then stole and exploited for our own purposes.
This is not to say that the Horten brothers didn't know about the design's likely stealth characteristics. Most likely they did, since they had built a number of flying wing gliders, and they just decided to tweak this advantage in a rather simple and obvious way by experimenting with glue formulations.
"It's significantly better than anything flying operationally probably until the 1960s."
It's worth noting that the prototype had flown just 2 hours during the war and was very far from being operational.
Northrop N-9M, 1942
This is also a wooden flying wing, though not a jet. It undoubtedly had, and still has, a very small radar cross section even though this was not a design consideration at all.
Northrop in fact designed a flying wing jet fighter of its own during the war, the XP-79. This was conceptually one of the most radical aircraft ever designed, for it was not only a flying wing and initially rocket powered, it was made of welded magnesium and and had a prone pilot position. The XP-79 failed largely because Northrop was too busy with other work and farmed it out it to an incompetent sub-contractor in LA. By the time the project was straightened out, the AAF had little need for a point defense interceptor, rocket or otherwise, and the XP-79 was re-engined with turbojets and completed as a test bed for the prone pilot configuration. It crashed fatally on its first flight, possibly because of a defective canopy latch installed by the sub-contractor. (This information comes from Rocket Fighter by William Green, Ballantine Books, 1967) More pics here.
It is a fact of history that Northrop's own XB-35 flying wing bomber was designed before any American could have known about the Horten (starting before Pearl Harbor in fact). Finally, the much maligned British produced a whole flock of tailless and flying wing aircraft during and just after the war.
#2
The XP-79 may have been a dismal failure but its science fiction looks did not go to waste. The Martian war machines in the George Pal movie version of War of the Worlds, made in 1953, bear a striking resemblance to the XP-79. There is another Northrop product in the film as well; the XB-49 flying wing was used to drop an atomic bomb on the invading Martians, though without much effect. The XB-49 had already been scrapped by the time the movie was made and stock footage was used.
It's odd that the much more recent Sci-fi movie Independence Day also has a scene in which a Northrop flying wing (a B-2 this time) ineffectively attacks the alien invaders with a nuke.
#4
AT, I hardly think the project was undertaken by NG to discredit American technology. The NG engineers who built the RCS replica certainly seemed to be under the impression that the Horton 229 was built with radar stealth characteristics in mind, and that its mission was to avoid British radar. I thought that was the whole point. Or are you saying that the Americans and British were also building aircraft designed for stealth at that time?
The Germans also had a rocket powered interceptor, the Me 163, that went into production and actually saw combat, in spite of its poor capability in that role.
I don't think anyone is claiming that these concepts were not being explored by the Allies as well, only that the Germans were a few months ahead in some areas, like jet fighers, rocket powered fighters, guided missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and guided bombs.
#6
Actually, I'm sort of glad the Krauts built this one. Every pfennig they spent on immature, long-development-time technologies like this was another pfennig that didn't get spent on something with actual immediate military utility. No less a scientist than Freeman Dyson credited the V-2 project with being equal to "unilateral disarmament."
Posted by: Mike ||
07/01/2009 6:44
Comments ||
Top||
#7
That may be true, but again the point of the NG exercise was to investigate the technology, not the wisdom or morality of the German war efforts which are obviously questionable.
#8
AC Says; before any American could have known about the Horten (starting before Pearl Harbor in fact). Finally, the much maligned British produced a whole flock of tailless and flying wing aircraft during and just after the war.
I loved your retrospective and your writing is so precise. Having said this the outtake copied above, must mean your not really cognizant of quantum potential...yet. Its functioned for ages without anyones official approval, acknowledgment or endoresment....
but then again, its easier to just follow the linear path.
#9
Mike, if the Germans had gotten the Horten into production in 1944 or 5, there were no Allied AAA or airplanes that could touch it, neither in speed or ceiling. Not even the XP-80. That's assuming it didn't crash on the way to the target because of flying wings' notorious stability problems. The "stealth" was incidental. All of England would have been one big target, including the millions of tons of supplies out in the open for the Normandy invasion.
For bombing the USA, Horten proposed a 6 engine flying wing, the Horten Ho XVIII that looked a lot like the YB-35/49.
A quick synopsis of Northrup's work. Notice the first flying prototype (with twin booms) in 1928.
As for what could have been, my favorite was the Lockheed L-133, a canard jet fighter proposed in the 1930's. The engines would have been the J-37.
Posted by: ed ||
07/01/2009 7:48
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Mike; No less a scientist than Freeman Dyson credited the V-2 project with being equal to "unilateral disarmament."
projective identification....hindsight in maintenace to ego.
#13
AT, I hardly think the project was undertaken by NG to discredit American technology.
I did not suggest that Northrop-Grumman itself had any such motivation; that is a strawman. I am clearly referring to the sensationalized and exaggerated media coverage of this project.
The NG engineers who built the RCS replica certainly seemed to be under the impression that the Horton 229 was built with radar stealth characteristics in mind, and that its mission was to avoid British radar.
Where does it say they were under that impression? They were aware that it had stealth characteristics, of course, but that is not the same as saying they believed this was the main intent of the design.
I thought that was the whole point. Or are you saying that the Americans and British were also building aircraft designed for stealth at that time?
The allies were certainly aware of the possiblities. They knew about the low RCS of wooden aircraft and flying wings. The Horten was designed as fighter, not a strike aircraft. I believe its stealth characteristics were largely serendipitous, since they are inherent in the flying wing configuration and the wooden structural material, neither of which was originated for that purpose. With the single exception of the special glue, there was nothing in the Horten that was not also available to the allies.
I don't think anyone is claiming that these concepts were not being explored by the Allies as well, only that the Germans were a few months ahead in some areas, like jet fighers, rocket powered fighters, guided missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and guided bombs.
That is certainly not the thrust of the media coverage. An ill-informed poster at Free Republic spelled out the invited inference this morning: "The B-2 is a rip-off of the Horten bomber (sic)."
A wooden flying wing built in 1939 by and American, imagine that?
The N-1M that evolved from many design studies and model tests was the first such tailless configuration to appear in the United States. The experimental aircraft was distinguished by the absence of any of the unusual appendages; the pronounced anhedral, or downward droop, of the wing tips gave the airplane a distinctly bird-like appearance. Aircraft configuration could be varied on the ground between tests to permit in-flight evaluation of the many variables associated with wing sweep, dihedral, and the all-wing design. In effect, the N-1M was the forerunner of today's "variable geometry" airplanes.
Control of the N-1M was accomplished using many of the same techniques and methods employed by the Hortens in Germany and other European designers. Elevons operated together for pitch control and differentially for roll control. Rudder control was accomplished initially with a plain split flap or "clamshell" at each wing tip. Actuated independently by the rudder pedals, they opened to produce drag, which, in turn, induced yaw. Both split flaps could also be opened simultaneously to increase gliding angle or reduce airspeed, thus serving in the role of air brakes.
The ICI-1M was of wooden construction, and thus easily adaptable to the many changes in configuration to which it was subjected during the flight test program. The aircraft was initially powered by two submerged 65-hp Lycoming 0-145 four-cylinder, horizontally-opposed engines driving two bladed pusher propellers by means of extension shafts. The engines, which were later replaced by 117-hp six-cylinder, air-cooled Franklin engines driving three-bladed propellers, were cooled by means of slot-type intakes in the leading edge of the wing.
Engineering and construction of the N-1 M took exactly one year, beginning in July 1939. The first flight of the N-1M, nicknamed the "Jeep," was in July 1940, and indeed was an accidental one, as pilot Vance Breese bounced the airplane into the air during a high-speed taxi run on Baker Dry Lake, California.
#15
You see, GB, that just shows how dumb and backward those nefarious American military-industrial types really are. They didn't even know to rip off their own designs rather than stealing one from the Aryan supermen.
/Germanophile pidgin logic, courtesy of the Hitler History Channel
SDASM welcomes its newest addition, the Horten 229 Flying Wing. The National Geographic Channel and Northrop Grumman Corporation teamed up to build the Flying Wing replica for Hitler's Stealth Fighter, a new documentary premiering June 28, 2009 at 9:00 p.m. The top-secret Nazi stealth fighter was reconstructed to determine if Hitler's military had stealth capabilities three decades before the United States. The Flying Wing is scheduled to be unveiled as part of the Museum's World War II Gallery on Wednesday, June 24, 2009.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/01/2009 15:00
Comments ||
Top||
#18
I did not suggest that Northrop-Grumman itself had any such motivation; that is a strawman. I am clearly referring to the sensationalized and exaggerated media coverage of this project.
OK, I take it back. However I didn't see any intent on the part of Nat Geo to make it an "us vs them" story.
Where does it say they were under that impression?
I thought it was clearly stated, but I could be wrong.
They were aware that it had stealth characteristics, of course, but that is not the same as saying they believed this was the main intent of the design.
I didn't say they believed that was the main intent of the design, only that they believed that it was designed with stealth in mind.
The allies were certainly aware of the possiblities.
Yes, but the point is the Hortons actually built this thing.
I believe its stealth characteristics were largely serendipitous
The reason that the stealth aspect has been bandied about is that Reimar Horton stated this was an intentional design feature. He could have been lying of course. It may not have been the main design goal, but the point of the exercise was to measure that aspect of the design, not its flight characteristics.
That is certainly not the thrust of the media coverage.
I don't know what the media coverage is like, I only saw the program. I was referring to what I read in historical accounts. But I still don't see how hyped media accounts imply something negative about American technology.
#19
Cynicism, I understand and acknowledge that the Hortens were aware of the Ho-229's low RCS while it was still under design. Having this in mind doesn't make it the main thrust of the design. Horten has always said that, like other flying wing pioneers, that he was primarily interested in the low drag characteristics of the airframe as a way of approaching Goering's 1000/1000/1000 performance objective (1000Km/hr over 1000Km range with a 1000Kg bombload.)
I don't know what the media coverage is like, I only saw the program.
If you have read the posted article, you know what the media coverage has been like.
I was referring to what I read in historical accounts. But I still don't see how hyped media accounts imply something negative about American technology.
So, the claim that this was decades in advance of anything the allies had, and that it could have won the war for the Nazis doesn't imply anything negative about allied technology? Judging from the responses at various message boards, that is exactly the conclusion being drawn.
#20
AC, I agree from what I've read that the main design goal from the point of view of the RLM was to meet the three 1,000's spec. (which actually seems more like a bomber spec). What I meant to say was that the premise of the NG project was, based on how the program presented it, to test a mission scenario that called for eluding the British air defense system. One part of that requirement was reducing radar detection range, and another part was having speed sufficient to make intercept by British fighters difficult. So radar evasion and high performance were both part of the scenario. I agree that the sea skimming aspect of the scenario was kind of dubious, because any aircraft could get some degree radar invisibility that way.
Your complaint is with the written media articles, which, judging from statements like "could have won the war for Hitler" are indeed sensationalistic and ridiculous. But "what if" seems to be a commonly indulged-in mind game, even by serious historians, and others like alternative-history novelists. The same things have been said incessantly about the Me 262, the V2, and so on.
I take your point that there are ignoramuses out there interpreting this as reflecting negatively on American technology. Informed observers might interpret the German "super weapon" efforts as more like acts of desperation in the face of overwhelming Allied military power. Which does not take away from the ingenuity.
I have been reading about this aircraft and other experimental aircraft with fascination since I was about 12. That includes the even more fascinating saga of American advanced aircraft, missile, and rocket designs. So my defense of the the program comes from a many decades fascination with this subject.
#21
We're in agreement then.
(It's just like me to find myself in agreement with cynics, btw.)
Harry Turtldove's alt-history World War, in which a force of advanced but hardly invincible aliens invadethe Earth in the middle of World War 2, has many examples of brilliant historical and technical extrapolation. The aliens arrive in June, 1942 and the nations of the Earth set aside their various squabbles to confront the common enemy. Since the aliens have supersonic jets and SAMs, there is little point in going ahead with the bombers and piston engine fighters that took up such a large percentage of the production and engineering resources in the real universe of WW2. Advanced projects of every kind suddenly have the highest priority. Goddard and the Cal-Tech team provide crucial assistance to von Braun and the V-2 is operational by early 1943. Goddard's own missiles, an amalgam of the V-2 and his own ideas, are operational a few months later. The British Gloster Meteor team, working on a shoestring at a backwater aero company, suddenly find themselves the beneficiaries of the entire British aeronautical community. An aircraft very likely the Ho-229 makes an appearance in the series and enhanced models of the Me-263, 262, Gloster Meteor, and Bell P-59 are definitely on hand.
Turtledove is a professional historian. His research is amazingly detailed and accurate and his extrapolation wholly plausible, if one can swallow the alien invasion premise in the first place.
One example: American ground troops are mentioned as having huge numbers of .50 machine guns. Turtledove doesn't spell it out, but this would indeed have been the case if most fighter and all bomber production had been halted overnight, since each of these used anywhere from 4 to 13 such guns. With no aircraft to put them in, the guns would have been available to other forces.
#2
I would think that a program such as this also provides good information for us. We should know as much as possible about every aspect of the Pak program should certain events occur. Some people might like to if they should cut the red wire or the black one. ;-)
#4
The article talks about computer simulations in place of actual tests for "stockpile management". If we had a CIA worth a damn, we would provide the Paks with a simulation program that looks really spiffy but would actually make sure the nukes don't work. Too bad we don't have such a CIA, they're too busy undermining politicos.
#5
"Modernizing" sounds like a great way to steal their weapon cores & replace them with radioactive medical waste. One could only fantasize about American spies brave enough to try it.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/01/2009 9:43
Comments ||
Top||
#6
A. If thats teh andrew cockburn I think it is, hes a far leftie and unreliable source
B. If it IS true, its about making the weapons safer, mainly. The odds of the nukes creating a problem through a f**k-up are at least as high as their actual use.
C. I would VERY MUCH HOPE that this was accompanied by intelligence gathering.
D. I dont see how a simulation program could render the weapons non-functional.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
07/01/2009 9:59
Comments ||
Top||
#7
It is indeed that Andrew Cockburn
Posted by: john frum ||
07/01/2009 13:33
Comments ||
Top||
The regime that ousted Manuel Zelaya in Honduras claimed Tuesday that the deposed president allowed tons of cocaine to be flown into the Central American country on its way to the United States. "Every night, three or four Venezuelan-registered planes land without the permission of appropriate authorities and bring thousands of pounds ... and packages of money that are the fruit of drug trafficking," its foreign minister, Enrique Ortez, told CNN en Espanol. "We have proof of all of this. Neighboring governments have it. The DEA has it," he added.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rusty Payne in Washington said he could neither confirm nor deny a DEA investigation. Zelaya was traveling from New York to Washington and could not immediately be reached to respond to the allegations.
Honduras and other Central American nations have become major transshipment points in recent years for Colombian cocaine, particularly as Mexico's government cracks down on cartels. The drugs arrive in Honduras on non-commercial aircraft from Venezuela and increasingly in speedboats from Colombia, according to the Key West, Florida-based Joint Interagency Task Force-South, which coordinates drug interdiction in region.
In its most recent report on the illicit narcotics trade, the U.S. State Department said in February of Honduras that "official corruption continues to be an impediment to effective law enforcement and there are press reports of drug trafficking and associated criminal activity among current and former government and military officials." The report did not name names.
Drug-related violence appears to be up in Honduras. Homicides surged 25 percent from some 4,400 in 2007 to more than 7,000 in 2008 while more than 1,600 people were killed execution-style, suggesting drug gang involvement, according to the Central American Violence Observatory. In October, Zelaya proposed legalizing drug use as a way of reducing the violence, and doubling the country's police force, which reached 13,500 last year, up from 7,000 in 2005, according to the State Department report.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Jeebus, no wonder Obama wants him back. The Hondurans seized his dealer.
Posted by: ed ||
07/01/2009 8:50
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Wrong dots connected Ed. Barry is very outspoken about illegal substances and drug trafficing, etc....speaks about it seldom often. Very high on his agenda. Right up there with Catfish Grappling, Confederate Memorial Day (Apr 26), and NASCAR.
[Geo News] A blast occurred near a police station situated in a Malir Stream, injuring a child, Geo News reported Tuesday. The blast was caused by a rocket. The rocket damaged Al-Falah Band (Embankment). According to SSP Zahid Shah, it would be premature to say for sure about the nature of blast; it could have been the cracker blast. He said Bomb Disposal Squad has been summoned to ascertain its nature. Police sources said the blast caused damage to some nearby buildings.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Pakistan
A federal judge in California has issued an injunction to stop a proposed $2 hourly wage reduction for the state's home-care workers, reductions that are part of efforts to cut a state budget shortfall of $24 billion. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken halted the wage cuts on June 25 in response to a lawsuit by the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) on behalf of 250,000--out of a total of 440,000--home care workers that it represents in California. Tired by the silliness of his syncophants, King Cnut the Great set his throne by the sea shore. "Stop, sea!" he ordered. "Back, you waves!" The tide ignored him and wet his feet and robes. "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws." He then hung his gold crown on a crucifix, and never wore it again.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Talk about "imperial judiciary" - this will cause the workers to end up unpaid in the end - and hopefully that jackass judge too when CA goes bankrupt because of SEIU union activists in robes like her.
#4
Our government here in California is acting just like a drug addict only it is addicted to the people's money. They just can't say no to new spending.
It is time they simply go back through the recent legislation and begin to repeal bill by bill starting from the most recent. Get rid of idiotic regulations such as those requiring trucks entering California with a load and might only be in California for a day or two to meet California exhaust emission standards. That measure is going to force small operators out of operation and provide a larger share to the big operators while increasing the costs of all goods shipped in and out of California.
All of these regulations are strangling business. When you strangle business, you reduce revenues. More companies are going to refuse to do business in California. The result is higher prices for everyone. When you have less money to spend on things, tax revenues actually go down. Companies show less profit, increase wages less or lay off employees, and the result is bad for everyone.
California is smoking crack when it comes to encouraging the very spirit that made it at one time the richest state in the nation. It now has the worse credit rating in the nation and is broke.
#5
Note that the legislature has not reduced it's own compensation or perks, nor those of it's staff.
I don't believe that the governor or his staff has taken hits either.
That being said, I would prefer to simply lay off half these people. 440,000 home-care workers means that 1.3% of the state's population are state employed home-care workers.
#7
Who needs the Tenth Amendment. Now the fed dictates the internal operations of the states. Imperial Judiciary indeed. You know there are savings in doing away with 50 redundant administrative units.
#8
Look for Barry to soon appoint (appointed vs elected) Federal Zsar or overseer with wide ranging authority who will guide the State of California out of thier economic situation. His first step will be to Federalize the State's infrastructure and payroll. What takes place in California over the next few weeks and months will become Barry's template for the nation. It will be something to watch.
#10
California is a busy place, crammed with brand new BMW SUV's among other things, how is it that they're "broke"
On my recent business trip to the Central CA area the pace of everything was dizzying. The Glistening infrastructure, the multitudes of expensive new SUV's, the gazillions of people out on all the freeways.... where does this money go? How can these objectively "rich" people paint themselves into a corner?
The Legislature did propose reducing their free glasses program from two pair to one pair per year. This included their staff. It still included sun glasses for people that didn't wear prescription glasses.
#17
I have a question for the federal judiciary, besides this being a state matter and all that is: When California begins to print IOUs they will be of course only redeemable in California as no shoppkeeper in any other state will accept them willingly as payment. At what point will it be determined that California is printing its own currency?
#18
The public sector workforce long ago broke the social contract they made with America.
The way it was supposed to work was this: if you get a public sector job, it'll be one that you'll have forever, and you'll get a pension, but in return for giving you that, the private sector will demand that you make a GREAT deal less money than if you were in the private sector.
In the past 80 years, government workers have said 'we want the job security AND the pension AND to make as much money as someone in the private sector, and we're giving you NOTHING back in return, and if you don't like it tough."
They've transgressed, and at some point they'll have to be punished for it.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/01/2009 17:38
Comments ||
Top||
#19
In the past 80 years, government workers....
Please file under deafening silence, jumbo shrimp, clearly misunderstood, pretty ugly, etc.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/01/2009 18:38
Comments ||
Top||
#21
What Frank said.
I realize it's fashionable to bash goverment workers as lazy, overpaid crooks...but all I can say after 25 plus years at the wellfair deep art mint is what K said to J in Men in Black: "Try it."
#22
That there are notable exceptions in no way diminishes the truth of my post. If you are one of those exceptions, you oughta know I didn't mean you.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
07/01/2009 21:37
Comments ||
Top||
#23
I reread your post and really don't see any room for me in it. But I'll take your word for it.
The fact is, most evil goverment workers here in the Failed State of California are like me -- we're not in management, our wages are not increasing (and are often going down), and our workloads have increased to the Rantburgian rearranging of deck chairs. Staff reduction by attrition is the rule. Somebody leaves, they are not replaced. We try to pick up the slack. And after a time, we can't. We'd love to be able to do our damn jobs, but we can't. That ship, the Titanic, has sailed. Yet, all we hear is how lame we are. Fine. Keep your fooking narrative and your scapegoating. My kind will be gone soon and you can rip off the young'ns. But you are not going to like what you pay for. The self-esteem generation coming up is not like us aging boomers (Get off my lawn!) and will not work for peanuts. Hell, they won't work at all.
#24
In my own capacity - I've been "acting" Sr Bridge Engineer since last fall, covering 5 bridge projects. I have 2 engineers and 2 surveyors working for me. I am also doing my Project Manager job I transferred from "in my spare time" with 5 projects, including a $392 million project with two bridge replacements and a widening of I-5 for a stretch in concert with Caltrans - Project Report and Environmental Document should be out for public review in August. For that I get an extra 5% above my base to account for the 10-14 hr days counting evenings online. Regulars would note my absence at the Burg.
In private, I would make $40K-60K more with less pension/retirement and no guaranteed health bennies. I work my ass, just as in private, and am relatively happy with what I have. I spend A LOT of time on evenings, weekends, that I don't charge, because in my mind, it's part of my job duties to stay on top of things and provide prompt direction. I'm not unusual among my engineering peers, although there are slackers in any org.
I made the choice and I have nothing to apologize for. I'd only ask that you think of that before you lazily slur every public employee, k?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/01/2009 22:29
Comments ||
Top||
#25
by the way - when I say:
"In private, I would make $40K-60K more with less pension/retirement and no guaranteed health bennies."
I understand how the current Obama Downturn makes that false. In a NORMAL economy, that would be true, but I have a lot of friends, associates, that are in private that either took a ten percent cut or lost their jobs. Shit. We took a 6% cut, so I understand their pain, but at least I'm still working, so I'm ok with that
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/01/2009 22:35
Comments ||
Top||
A member of the Saudi royal family has called for the assets of his brother to be frozen.
Prince Khaled bin Talal denounced his brother's media empire in an unprecedented public attack from within the ruling family. Prince Khaled accused Prince Walid bin Talal of disseminating vice and violating the rules of Islamic Sharia in the conservative kingdom.
Prince Walid is one of the richest businessmen in the world.
It has long been known that there is a split within the ranks of Saud family between liberals and conservatives. But, until now, they have always managed to keep a lid on the problem.
Prince Khaled said he had been forced to speak out after quiet efforts to advise his brother to mend his ways had fallen on deaf ears. Prince Walid, known for his liberal lifestyle, owns a media empire which features entertainment channels that have long angered conservative Saudis.
Prince Khaled, told an Arabic website that his brother's plan to introduce cinema into Saudi society was the straw that broke the camel's back. This was a reference to a Saudi film financed by Prince Walid, and shown in Saudi Arabia late last year despite fierce opposition from Islamist activists.
Nearly all forms of modern entertainment - particularly those that bring men and women together - are regarded by conservative Saudis as morally corrosive and can, in their eyes, undermine the religious foundation of the Saudi society and state.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] The Israeli navy intercepted and boarded a ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in defiance of an Israeli blockade. "No shots were fired during the boarding of the boat," the Israeli military said in a statement, adding the vessel was being taken to the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod. "The boat crew will be handed over to the appropriate authorities."
The small ferry had set off from Cyprus with activists from the US-based Free Gaza movement and humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip ruled by Hamas Islamists. "Yesterday evening the Israeli navy contacted the boat while at sea clarifying that it would not be permitted to enter Gaza coastal waters because of security risks in the area, and the existing naval blockade," the military said. "Disregarding all warnings given, the cargo boat entered Gazan coastal waters," the statement said, promising that any humanitarian goods found on board would be transferred to the Gaza Strip "subject to authorization."
On its web site, the Free Gaza movement said among the activists on the vessel, which it dubbed the Spirit of Humanity, were Irish Nobel peace prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. "We are outraged, they just stole our boat and kidnapped our people," said Greta Berlin, a representative of the movement in Cyprus.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
In a just world, the headline would read "Israeli Navy intercepts and captures blockade runner ship"
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/01/2009 0:17
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Israel should keep (or burn) this boat, and any more from now on. And levy a huge fine on everyone aboard to cover the cost of their operations. Make life as expensive as possible for the bozos.
#3
Keep the boat or I like the idea of levying a fine of 10 times it's value. Quarintine the cargo for months and then have it conviently disappear, perhaps in a crime. Don't laugh it would happpened if the cargo had reached it's intended destination.
#5
Idiots. A cop commandeers a civilian car during a chase. A naval vessel *seizes* a hostile vessel. Commandeering is the act of taking a private good for public usage with the intent of reimbursing the owner, or otherwise making good the usage. Seizure requires no such representation, and offers no such expectation, as the property in question was taken from an actor, a criminal, smuggler, or purported enemy of the state.
English is a language with vast and contradictory dictionaries to its name, but remarkable few actual synonyms are found within their pages.
"The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/01/2009 9:36
Comments ||
Top||
#6
I'm thinking that a double strand of marine det cord running the length of the bottom of the hull would be such a novel approach to scuttling the boat that it would be lucky indeed that an Israeli craft was there to rescue survivors.
If done properly, it would look like a structural failure.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Michael Jackson's fans who had planned to attend his comeback tour this summer in London learned Tuesday they could either get a refund on their ticket or receive a physical ticket, but not both, organizers said in a statement.
Concert promoter AEG Live (UK) Ltd. said full refunds including service charge would be available to anyone who purchased tickets for any of the 50 'This is It' concerts from an authorized dealer.
Fans could also keep the ticket that cost between £70 ($116) and £700 ($1,160) and were printed with a specially designed hologram "inspired and designed by Michael Jackson" as memoribilia. "[F]ans will have the option to be sent the actual tickets they would have received to attend the shows in lieu of the full refunds which are being offered," AEG Live announced in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[Geo News] The security forces killed at least 18 terrorists were killed in the ongoing operation during the last 24 hours. While, 23 extremists were apprehended from Swat and Dir. Also, three soldiers embraced shahadat and 8 others including 3 officers were injured. Security forces also recovered one explosive-laden vehicle.
During clearance of Biha valley, 18 wounded terrorists, who could not have been taken to safety, were slaughtered by their own people on orders of their commanders.
According to a press release issued by Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), it has been reliably learnt that during clearance of Biha valley, 18 wounded terrorists, who could not have been taken to safety, were slaughtered by their own people on orders of their commanders.
Does that count as shahadat (martyrdom), with all its benefits, or simple murder?
Security forces commenced operation to secure Swat's Shah Dheri from two directions. From north, Samai Killile was secured. In the process 3 soldiers embraced shahadat and 5 soldiers including 2 officers got injured. From the east security forces secured Bhoka, Dande and Yakh Tangai Sar. During this operation 3 soldiers including an officer were injured.
Security forces commenced clearance and search operation around Rahatkot, and Jukhtai south east of Fatehpur and recovered 1 explosive laden vehicle from the house of Dua Khan and 1 red colour Double Cabin vehicle was also blown up. During exchange of fire with terrorists, 8 terrorists were killed.
Security forces conducted search and sweep operation in areas around Matta and Wanai. On a tip off by locals, 8 terrorists were engaged and killed.
Security forces conducted clearance and search operation at Balasur and apprehended two suspected terrorists Mian Afil Zada and Aziz Ahmed.
Security forces conducted clearance and search operation at Sambat in which terrorist Muhammad Raheem alias Bhai son of Gulpur Jan was apprehended.
Lashkar conducted house to house search and burnt 15 terrorists hideouts. During exchange of fire with terrorists 2 terrorists were killed and 20 were apprehended.
An IED exploded near traffic police check post at Swari Bazaar in Buner, resultantly 2 policemen and 2 civilians were injured.
Reportedly, parents of young boys, who were forcibly taken for suicide training by Baitullah Mehsood group, have demanded release of their siblings. However, Baitullah Mehsood has flatly refused to release them at any cost.
What kind of perverts steal only young boys? Everyone knows normal jihadis steal both boys and girls.
The ISPR pres release also reported that 8-10 individuals impersonating as army officials searched luggage of IDPs at Fazal Kallay Camp, Mardan and took away gold ornaments, Rs. 25,000/- and other valuables on 18 June 2009.
In another incident, at Garhi Gohati, Swabi, unknown persons reportedly checked cards of IDPs on 23 Jun 09. IDPs are requested to contact on following telephone numbers on any suspicion and help.
The security forces continued the relief activities, as at least 16 trucks carrying food and relief items dispatched for IDPs to Bunnu. As many as 1000 IDPs residing at Rawalpindi / Islamabad have been provided food items.
Electricity, PTCL, Mobile service and Sui Gas facilities have been made functional in Besham, Darmal, Shung and Darmang in Shangla District. Most of the IDPs of Buner have returned to their villages.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warns of revenge on pro-democracy states
Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned the regime would seek revenge against states it has accused of fanning pro-democracy demonstrations in the wake of its disputed election.
Mr Ahmadinejad used the attack on Western powers send a defiant message in his first public comments since his controversial re-election was upheld by the electoral authorities on Monday. He said: "We must use all the capacities to break the monopoly of the global powers."
"Those who asked for the annulment of 10th presidential election are anti-revolutionary and against the regime," hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami told the official news agency IRNA. "If anyone said there was fraud in the election, he has lied and committed a sin,"
[Iran Press TV Latest] Former Iranian president Seyyed Mohammad Khatami calls for effective measures to be taken to restore public trust and safeguard the Islamic establishment.
In a Sunday meeting with members of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Khatami raised the alarm that the breach of public confidence could shake the foundation of the Islamic establishment.
Khatami said it was inappropriate to slander or arrest people in response to what he called "logical objection and civil behavior of a large segment of the society who protest against the election results."
The two-time Reformist president then suggested that the formation of an 'impartial panel' to look into the issue could remove any ambiguities and restore public trust.
Citing his adherence to the principles of the Islamic Revolution, Khatami stressed the need for taking measures to ensure freedom of expression for all and 'by doing such, the establishment will ensure that the people will be present in the political scene in the future.'
Khatami added that the religious and democratic principles integrated into the Islamic establishment must be protected by the best possible approach.
"The nation-oriented establishment will become vulnerable if its social resources are lost," warned the former president.
The veteran Reformist figure described defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi as one of the 'religious, noble and valuable assets' of the Islamic Revolution whose 're-emergence in the political scene is an opportunity for the country'.
Following the announcement of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner of the June 12th election with nearly two-thirds of the votes, defeated candidates Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi rejected the result as fraudulent and demanded a re-run.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[ADN Kronos] Five Singaporeans arrested by the Indonesian police for alleged involvement in terrorism have had their charge downgraded to immigration forgery. An unnamed counterterrorism source said the suspects had been monitored for months before their arrest.
The police announced last week they had arrested five Singaporeans -- Syamsul Anwar alias Somad bin Soban, Ahmad Kastari, Husaini Ismail, his wife and a child -- as well as an Indonesian identified as Syaifuddin Zuhry, in three different locations.
However, after a series of intensive investigations, the police announced that the suspects were only seeking safe refuge within Indonesia.
"They will be charged with document forgery, immigration violation and various other offenses," national police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji said Monday.
The police previously suspected the group of being involved in an attempt to bomb Changi International Airport and several other strategic locations several years ago.
Susno said the five foreigners were fugitives running from Singapore government, but did not elaborate what crimes they had committed in their homelands.
"They are currently being detained by the regional police," Susno said.
The national police will hand over the suspects to the Foreign Affairs Ministry so their deportation can be arranged, Susno said.
He said Zuhry, the Indonesian citizen, would be the only individual to be charged with terrorism activities in Lampung.
The police believe Zuhry was closely related to fugitive Malaysian terror suspect Noordin M Top. A source at the counterterror detachment said the suspects had been monitored for months before finally being arrested.
Meanwhile, police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said the police were still investigating the case and had not come to an official conclusion yet.
Separately, intelligence expert Dino Chrisbon said the scenario was similar to the arrest of Mas Slamet bin Kastari, a member of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), in Riau in 2003.
JI has been linked with the Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people and injured around 300 others, mostly foreigners, in 2002.
Even though Zuhry was on Singapore's most-wanted list for plotting terrorist attacks in the neighboring island state, the Indonesian government only charged him with breaching immigration regulations due to a false passport in his possession.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah
The U.S. co-sponsored a successful U.N. resolution supporting Honduras's ousted leader Tuesday as Republicans began to speak out against the Obama administration's condemnation of the overthrow.
Really? But why would they do that, when the case is so clear?
Manuel Zelaya, who was arrested and forced into exile Sunday, addressed the U.N. General Assembly after the unanimous vote on the resolution sponsored in part by Bolivia, Mexico, Venezuela and the United States. "The resolution that the United Nations has just adopted unanimously ... expresses the indignation of the people of Honduras and the people worldwide," said Zelaya, who began his speech by thanking Venezuela and Ecuador.
Of course he did. They're birds of a feather ...
President Obama, meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Monday, said the U.S. would "stand with democracy" in the face of the overthrow. "We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the democratically elected president there," Obama said. "It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backward into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition rather than democratic elections."
Again, for the journalist who wrote this little piece: why are the Republicans objecting, and which Republicans: Congressional leadership or some sillies out on the fringe?
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Hondurans followed their constitution and removed the former president for violating the constitution. The Honduran Congress voted for it, the Supreme Court ordered it, and the military carried it out as provided for in the Honduran constitution.
They did this because the Former president had violated the laws several times in attempting to change the constitution illegally, and in illegally firing a General after the Supreme court ordered that General reinstated. He fired the General because the General refused to carry out the illegal order the former president gave him to continue with an illegal plebiscite. He was replaced by a member of his own party, duly elected by the Congress in conformance with the Honduran Constitution, who plans to hold elections as scheduled this November.
OK Obama apologists, explain that one to me. Is Obama in love with would-be dictators and socialists, or is he just that fucking stupid?
#3
What's really happening here, Oblahblahblah wants badly to set a precedent where the President (Doesn't matter where) "Can ignore both the constitution and the law with impunity".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/01/2009 1:50
Comments ||
Top||
#5
That pick speaks volumes. If I were running the Republican elections I would pound home the theme: "Do we want to become Cuba or Venezuela?" or "When you find yourself aligned with Cuba it's time to change direction." Mr. Steele feel free to use these.
#8
What's really happening here, Oblahblahblah wants badly to set a precedent where the President (Doesn't matter where) "Can ignore both the constitution and the law with impunity".
Redneck Jim, you took the words right out of my mouth.
#9
"Is Obama in love with would-be dictators and socialists, or is he just that fucking stupid?"
Yes
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/01/2009 13:19
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Here's an English translation of one of the relevant articles of the Honduran Constitution.
Article 239 â No citizen that has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice-President.
Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform, as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years.
This is certainly not something that would be compatible with the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution. However I believe it is a legitimate safeguard against a descent into dictatorship, especially in a political culture that has already made plenty of bad experiences with "Caudillos/Presidents for Life".
In any case if that provision of the Honduran Constitution is so offensive to the "international community", why has no one objected until now?
Given the nature of e.g. the Karzai regime (The penalty for leaving or criticizing Islam is death!), that is not only tolerated but actively supported by NATO this mobbing of Honduras simply disgusting.
If "Realism" dictates we support Karzai, it should logically dictate that we at least tolerate the Hondurans and respect their sovereignty.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Arab states of the Gulf and Red Sea said on Monday that they are planning a joint anti-piracy force, insisting defense of the crucial Red Sea waterway was the "primary responsibility" of littoral states.
Indeed. How lovely they finally remembered.
Saying it was necessary to prevent the spread of piracy to the Red Sea or the Gulf, 11 regional states agreed on an all-Arab Navy Task Force, to be initially led by Saudi, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
This should be amusing, especially for our readers with boating experience.
The delegates to the conference in the Saudi capital stressed the "importance of the exclusion of the Red Sea from any international arrangements, especially the fight against sea piracy."
Royal Saudi Navy commander Lieutenant General Prince Fahd bin Abdullah told journalists: "This subject is now under negotiation and we are hoping to reach an agreement to form this force."
"Who can we get to front the funding for this?"
Joining the talks were representatives from Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the UAE and Yemen.
Fahd said part of the effort would be to design ways of cooperating with the flotillas from some 20 foreign countries now patrolling sea lanes in the Gulf of Aden and off the Horn of Africa to stop pirate attacks. "One of the objectives of the meeting is to discuss joint Arab coordination with multinational forces operating in the region to combat piracy and to agree on the mechanisms of the Arab contribution" to these efforts, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
Royal Saudi Navy commander Lieutenant General Prince Fahd bin Abdullah
So a general, not an admiral, commands the navy, and a prince, to boot? Methinks the problem has been detected...
#2
The delegates to the conference in the Saudi capital stressed the "importance of the exclusion of the Red Sea from any international arrangements, especially the fight against sea piracy."
#4
On the bright side, assuming they catch any pirates they can just kill them with impunity.
What - you thing the Useless Nitwits will say anything against a non-Westerner?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/01/2009 19:45
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Barbara, Pappy's quote is relevant to yours: they are declaring, in typical Arab/Muslim arrogance, that the Red Sea is outside of all international agreements that would hamper them.
Whotta power! If we did the same, they'd squeal like pigs.
#6
#1 Royal Saudi Navy commander Lieutenant General Prince Fahd bin Abdullah
So a general, not an admiral, commands the navy, and a prince, to boot? Methinks the problem has been detected... Posted by Spot
Think in terms of "Ships of the Desert" Spot. Ships of the Desert.
#7
in typical Arab/Muslim arrogance, that the Red Sea is outside of all international agreements that would hamper them.
That, and the ability to control (or not control) maritime traffic, such as that heading to the Mediterranean, the western Mediterranean in particular.
[Geo News] A grand jirga in FR Bannu area of Janikhel Tuesday demanded the government to stem the military action. The jirga, which was held in Bannu, took stock of the homecoming process of IDPs. The tribal veterans demanded the government to stop the bombardment in the area, so that the affected people may safely return to their areas. The jirga participants said the Janikhel tribes will extend every kind of support to the government and will accept the responsibility of safety of their area.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Geo News] A grand jirga in FR Bannu area of Janikhel Tuesday demanded the government to stem the military action. The jirga, which was held in Bannu, took stock of the homecoming process of IDPs. The tribal veterans demanded the government to stop the bombardment in the area, so that the affected people may safely return to their areas. The jirga participants said the Janikhel tribes will extend every kind of support to the government and will accept the responsibility of safety of their area.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Maghrebia] Four suspected members of a Salafia Jihadia cell dismantled last week in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta were arraigned Monday (June 29th) in Sale, MAP reported. Three Spanish nationals of Moroccan origin and alleged cell leader Abou Yassin were remanded into custody on multiple terrorism, drug trafficking and theft charges. The cell had allegedly established relations with French terrorist Robert Richard Antoine Pierre, alias Abou Abderrahmane, and other terrorists in Sweden, Morocco and Afghanistan.
I'd find an alias, too, if all my mother had given me was Christian names.
In related news, a Spanish delegation heard testimony Monday in Sale from Mohamed Belhadj, 31, extradited from Syria last May on suspicion of involvement in the deadly 2004 Madrid bombings. The hearing was attended by the Moroccan judge on terrorism cases. The Spanish judges will also take fingerprints and DNA samples from Belhadj.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Salafia Jihadiya
[ADN Kronos] At least 25 people were reported to have been killed by a car bomb in a market in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk late Tuesday. The attack took place as Iraqis celebrated the withdrawal of US troops from towns and cities, six years after the allied invasion that toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi and US troops were on high alert for attacks on Tuesday which was declared a national day of celebration.
More than 750,000 Iraqi forces were deployed in Iraqi cities, replacing US troops which have withdrawn to their bases outside the major cities.
Earlier on Tuesday, the US military announced that four soldiers had died from wounds they received during "combat" in Iraq, without disclosing any further details.
US troops began withdrawing from the country's major cities and towns as the midnight deadline passed on Tuesday for troops to hand over security to Iraqi forces.
There were widespread celebrations and fireworks lit up the sky over Baghdad in the early hours of Tuesday, after thousands of Iraqis attended a party in a park where singers performed patriotic songs.
"The withdrawal of American troops is completed now from all cities, after everything they sacrificed for the sake of security," Sadiq al-Rikabi, a senior adviser to Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, said.
Many Iraqis ignored an appeal by Tariq al-Hashemi, the Iraqi vice president, to avoid crowded places during the US withdrawal, after more than 250 people were killed in bombings over the past 10 days.
Tuesday was declared an official holiday called 'National Sovereignty Day.'
"June 30 represents a historic turning point and a success for the Iraqi people, which had been for so long, waiting to regain their sovereignty," said Haydar el-Ebadi, member of Iraq's Islamic Dawa party, in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).
Ebadi also said that the latest wave of attacks in Iraq are an "attempt to make the transfer of security to the Iraqis fail."
In a televised ceremony in Baghdad, prime minister al-Maliki said that the government could keep its citizens safe. "Those who think that Iraqis are not able to protect their country and that the withdrawal of foreign forces will create a security vacuum are making a big mistake," he said, quoted by Arab media.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
I just don't know what to think about Iraq. I was hoping they would 'make it', but they must be the biggest bunch of ingrates on the planet. If it devolves into all out civil war in the next 2 years I won't be happy either with all the sacrifices our soldiers have made. Screw that whole region (except the one real democracy of course).
[Quqnoos] At least 15 Taliban militants were killed and a dozen more were wounded Monday in northern Baghlan province, an official said.
The provincial police force launched an massive operation in Baghlan-e Markazi district, 30 km north of the provincial capital, Pul-e Khumri, where two locals have been killed and two others were wounded, Baghlan police chief, Gen Abdul Rahman Sayed Khaili said.
The provincial police chief added the fighting burst out after the Taliban militants were collecting money as 'Islamic tax -- ten percent of income' from the villagers.
A local Jehadi commander, Mohammad Jalil, said around 20 locals and police were wounded in the gun-fire. They have been taken to a district hospital, he said.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said they have killed three policemen captured three more in the gun-fire. He confirmed the injuries of only two Taliban fighters.
Baghlan operation last almost 14 hours, leaving high-level casualties, an unusual incident in the relatively stable northern region of the country. The provincial police chief said the militants have removed their fellows' dead bodies and wounded fighters from the villages.
It must be a No Littering zone.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Good for the Afghans. Now let's make sure every village and police unit has radios to call in reinforcements and air support.
Posted by: ed ||
07/01/2009 8:25
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Ed - I'd much rather see that every village had at least 40 men trained in village defense. We did that in Vietnam, and it worked out ok. The Afghanis are far more likely to defend themselves than the Vietnamese were.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/01/2009 12:58
Comments ||
Top||
[Geo News] Several hideouts of militants were destroyed during security forces shelling in different parts of Chaharmang. Sources said forces shelled militants strongholds in various areas of Chahrmang with heavy artillery from Loisam in which several hideouts were demolished. Search operation is also underway in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Maghrebia] Two bombs exploded on Monday (June 29th) in Khenchela province, killing one soldier and injuring four security officers, El Watan reported. The incident happened during a major search operation for the terrorists who killed five Algerian municipal guards and kidnapped two others on June 22nd in Chechar.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[Bangla Daily Star] Detective Branch (DB) of police yesterday arrested Sultanganj Union Parisad Chairman Monir Hossain on charge of firing gunshots on a crowd in Keraniganj on June 9 that left a man dead and another wounded.
I'm sure he didn't realize the bullets would come down again.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of DB police arrested Monir who is also the president of Kamrangirchar thana unit BNP at a house in the city's Maddhya Badda area around 7:30am and seized his licensed pistol and eleven bullets.
On June 9, some local people encircled Monir Hossain in Lohar Bridge area when he was passing through it by his private car at about 1:45pm. The UP chairman was then locked in an altercation with them and at one stage, he pulled his pistol and sprayed five to six rounds of bullet on them, leaving Mohammad Hasan, 18, dead on the spot and another wounded.
After the firing, Monir fled the scene by his private car. In reprisal, agitating people attacked the residence of the chairman and set fire to his garage and damaged his private car. They also torched an umbrella factory, owned by a brother of Monir, at Nurbag.
Monir at DB office told the reporters that he did not kill the man as he sprayed bullets on them only for dispersing them.
"Once ze rockets go up
Who cares ver zey come down?
Dat's not my department," says Werner von Braun
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[ADN Kronos] Taliban militants in Pakistan's lawless North Waziristan tribal area have scrapped a peace deal they had signed with the government 16 months ago. The move followed clashes there between security forces and militants on Monday.
Security officials said that 27 soldiers had lost their lives on Sunday in an attack on a military convoy in Wacha Bibi near Datakhel, about 35 kilometres west of Miramshah. Militants claimed to have killed 60 personnel in the attack carried out in the Miran Shah area. Local people said the place where the convoy had been attacked was littered with wrecked army vehicles. Army personnel retrieved the wounded and the bodies of their fighters and shifted them to Islamabad.
On Monday, helicopters pounded suspected militant positions in Wacha Bibi, a narrow pass in the mountainous region. According to officials, five civilians were killed in the shelling.
The announcement about the scrapping of the nine-point peace agreement signed by the government with elders of the Utmanzai tribe on 17 February last year was made by local Taliban. Ahmadullah Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban, told journalists by phone that the Taliban had decided to continue guerrilla activities until the drone attacks were stopped and the government withdrew troops from North Waziristan. 'We will attack forces everywhere in Waziristan unless the government fulfils these two demands,' he said, adding that the government had allowed the United States to carry out drone attacks in the tribal region.
The government claims that the peace accord was signed with tribal elders and not with the Taliban led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Maulvi Saddiq Noor. Under the agreement, militants had agreed to stop target killings and attacks on security forces. No one would be allowed to set up a parallel administration in the area. Elders of the Utmanzai tribe had also assured the government that there would be no cross-border movement of militants and foreigners would be expelled from the area. Sources said the elders had failed to curb militants' activities in the region and the agreement had become dysfunctional.
Irfan Mughal in Dera Ismail Khan adds: Two militant commanders were killed and five captured during an operation in Tank district on Monday. Officials said that security forces had cordoned off Garra Badha and Sabirabad areas after receiving information that some militant commanders were hiding there. Troops raided houses in Mohallah Khurdianwala and arrested seven militants, including Ikramullah, younger brother of militant commander Hayatullah Shah Bukhari, and local commander Rasheed Khan. However, Ikramullah and Rasheed Khan were killed when the militants resisted security personnel who were taking them away. The militants who died were reported to be affiliated with the Baitullah Mehsud group. The bullet-riddled body of militant Subhan was found on the Tank-Jandola road.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Mail and Globe] Zimbabwe has secured $950-million in credit lines from China to help rebuild the country's economy, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe has appealed to the world for a "financial stimulus package" for its devastated economy, saying lack of foreign support put a recovery plan drawn up by the unity government in peril.
The Southern African country says it needs $10-billion to rebuild dilapidated infrastructure and ease a 90% unemployment rate.
"The government, through the minister of finance, secured credit lines of almost $950-million from China," Tsvangirai said in a news conference.
Tsvangirai, who shares power with President Robert Mugabe, said a three-week tour he conducted of the United States and Europe had yielded pledges totalling more than $500-million.
"The amount of assistance that was raised on my visit to Europe and the United States does not reflect the enormous support we will be able to utilise if we are to fulfil all our political obligations," he said.
He said other promises of aid would be fulfilled only when Zimbabwe created a democracy and improved human rights after what critics say is Mugabe's repressive rule.
"If we want outside assistance, we must first prove that we are able to fulfil the obligations we have undertaken within the agreement that was brokered by the Southern African Development Community," Tsvangirai said.
"Actions speak louder than words, and while I was away there were instances of peaceful protesters being beaten by our police, innocent individuals arrested on trumped-up charges and continued vilification of the Movement for Democratic Change by the state media."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
949m of which promptly vnished into Muggabe's Swiss accounts.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/01/2009 1:41
Comments ||
Top||
#2
No way, RJ---he's to split it with his support staff.
[Iran Press TV Latest] An Iraqi security official says the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) triggered the recent post-election unrests in Iran.
National Security Advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said in an interview with al-Hayat that certain members of the terrorist group had instigated and fomented the recent political unrest in Iran.
"We have intelligence reports available that certain elements of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) infiltrated into the crowd of protestors [after the election results were announced] and sparked the riots."
The announcement of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election sparked opposition rallies in the capital Tehran with defeated candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi rejecting the result as fraudulent and demanding a re-run.
President Ahmadinejad's victory caused Mousavi supporters to take to the streets to protest the vote result. The rallies turned violent, resulting in the death of at least 20 people.
Al-Rubaie, however, rejected claims that MKO members had entered the country through neighboring Iraq, claiming that MKO terrorists were 'either already in Iran or had entered it from another country'.
Iranian security officials had earlier reported that a large number of MKO members who were involved in recent riots had been identified and arrested.
According to security officials, the detained MKO members had confessed to receiving extensive training in Iraq's camp Ashraf to create post-election mayhem in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
The U.S. administration made it clear to Congress that it is against restoring South Korea's peaceful nuclear program by means of reprocessing spent fuel, advanced mainly by the ruling Grand National Party. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher made the point in an 85-page answer to Senator Richard Lugar, the secretary of the Foreign Relations Committee, in the course of her confirmation hearing on June 9.
The relevant section has two parts. Lugar asks, "Does the administration contemplate any changes in existing nuclear cooperation agreements, in particular those with Taiwan and the Republic of South Korea, to allow reprocessing of U.S.-origin materials in those nations?"
Tauscher replied that "programmatic consent" for reprocessing given to the EU, Japan and India under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 cannot be extended to South Korea and Taiwan. "The administration does not believe that such programmatic consent to reprocessing is necessarily appropriate in other cases, including Taiwan and the Republic of Korea," she said. In other words, Washington sees no need to revise the Seoul-Washington nuclear cooperation agreement so the South can reprocess nuclear fuel.
She also agreed when asked, "Do you believe that an agreement that allowed any form of reprocessing to take place in South Korea would violate the 1992 Joint Declaration, in particular its clean statement that 'the South and the North shall not possess nuclear reprocessing and uranium enrichment facilities'?"
Coinciding with North Koreas second nuclear weapons test and resumption of nuclear programs, the answer sends a clear message that no reprocessing of spent fuel can be allowed to South Korea and Taiwan even in these circumstances.
The Barack Obama administration apparently feels the call by South Korean conservatives for Seoul to resume its own nuclear program would send the wrong message to the world.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress largely agree.
Cheong Wa Dae and the South Korean Embassy in Washington have made it clear that a call for nuclear armament in the South is not the official government position. "If South Korea violates the denuclearization treaty by reprocessing spent fuel and enriching uranium in the face of U.S. opposition, the price will be high," a diplomatic source in Washington warned.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
But North Korea's nuclear weapon program is A-OK with the Obama Administration right? And the spread of nuclear weapons to terrorist states is just fine with Big-OH.
I swear - there isn't a totalitarian, brutal Dictator Obama isn't in love with. Not a single one.
#1 But North Korea's nuclear weapon program is A-OK with the Obama Administration right? And the spread of nuclear weapons to terrorist states is just fine with Big-OH.
ARMS RACE IS FINE BY YOU I SEE DIP$%&*
I swear - there isn't a totalitarian, brutal Dictator Obama isn't in love with. Not a single one.
Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-07-01 01:12
#3
All things considered, Play4, there are worse things than a nuclear arms race (which this isn't, at least not yet). Conceding the race to your psychopathic enemy is worse, unless you are one of the old 'Better Red than dead' folks from the sixties.
#4
It's clear countries determined enough to do so are able to acquire nuclear raw materials, and those determined enough to get proper scientists trained -- or purchased -- along with sub rosa purchases of refining equipment. Especially countries like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. We all seem to think Japan could assemble a working device on very short notice, but has not because they've thus far trusted America to handle such things on their behalf, and it seems likely Taiwan and South Korea have not embarked on that path for the same reason. However, after the positions enunciated by President Obamaa over the past few days, what odds Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan continue to remain sanguine that America will actively protect them at the moment they should come to need protection that extends beyond speeches and stern letters to the appropriate foreign minister?
#5
Obama is the best guarantee Japan S Korea and Taiwan will go nuclear. Anticipating when Europe's #1 Love Interest withdraws American nuclear guarantees for NATO.
Posted by: ed ||
07/01/2009 8:54
Comments ||
Top||
#6
I was attempting to show the contrast between Obama's apparent support for North Korea's Nuclear weapons development (and exportation of nuclear tech) and his objection to the south even reprocessing fuel (which Japan, another non-nuclear-armed country, does already).
Like the contrast between his strong support of a wanna-be dictator and his limp d-k 'support' of the people of Iran.
There are worse things then a Nuclear arms race. Having your freedoms stripped away from being under the gun of a nuclear armed Psycho is one. Being on the receiving end of a nuclear attack is another. Kimmie is both desperate enough and Obama whimpy enough that the north might feel that they could get away with either option.
Perhaps this is the reason the Nork ship turned around, though anything the Burmese thugs say has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Rangoon says it will inspect the North Korean cargo ship Kangnam, which is suspected of heading to Burma carrying weapons-related materials, a news report said Tuesday. The Kangnam is being trailed by the missile destroyer USS John McCain.
Radio Free Asia on Tuesday said the Burmese junta has pledged to inspect the Kangnam and not to allow the North Korean ship to enter any Burmese port if it is carrying items banned by the UN.
It can't possibly be that the Burmese generals are actually worried about the UN. Perhaps their Chinese mentors are using them as a way to have the Norks turn the ship around without conceding anything?
Experts speculate that Burma was acting under international pressure. Inspection of North Korean vessels by individual states is encouraged by Clause 11 of the UN Security Council Resolution 1874, which was passed on June 12. But the resolution merely "calls upon" member states to inspect suspicious vessels, leaving the decision up to Burma. Rangoon may have been swayed by China and Russia, which both support the resolution, while South Korea and Japan are two major trading partners, RFA quoted unnamed observers as speculating.
Burmese authorities would be obliged to seize and dispose of any weapons and weapons-related materials they found under Clause 14 of the resolution.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I just wonder if the NORK ship is loaded to the gills with explosives salted with uranium, praying for the Mc Cain to get close enough to boom the ship and plant evidence of there being nukes on the Mc Cain? (Raidioactive wreckage)and they've turned around so the boom will be in shallow enough water to reach with diving subs like the Alvin.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/01/2009 1:35
Comments ||
Top||
#2
I have difficulty believing that Burma didnt know what was on the ship from the moment it sailed.
Maybe the PRC put the screws on Burma. I cant rule that out. My working hypothesis is slightly less conspiratorial - when it sailed, the NORKS didnt think they wouldnt get a port on the way, so they didnt bother filling it with extra fuel tanks (a pretty expensive proposition anyway, I imagine, if all it was was a shipment of small arms - they will save that option for when they are actually shipping a nuke)
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
07/01/2009 9:55
Comments ||
Top||
#3
I bet LH is right in making the maneuvers about fuel. As fuel-short as NorK is, they probably didn't load any excess, just enough to get them somewhere that would 'sell' them more (Hong Kong?) or maybe even Burma, but without any spare for playing games with the McCain etc.
#4
ION WORLD MIL FORUM > SK MINISTRY OF DEFENSE: SOUTH KOREA PLANS TO INCREASE ITS RESERVE FORCES BY 100,000 [10 Corps]. SOUTH KOREAN MILPOL CONCERNS FOR NORTH KOREAN CIVILIANS. Within 50-60 days after an outbreak of war between NOKOR + SOKOR, and the defeat of North Korean combat/military forces, the SOUTH desires to send these new troops into the NORTH to control post-conflict CIVIL-GOVT OPERATIONS.
ALso, SAME > US-SOUTH KOREAN "WAR PLAN 5027-5": NORTH KOREA MUST EFFEC DESTROY OR OTHERWISE FORCE SOUTH KOREA TO CAPITULATE WITHIN 48-72 HOURS OR ASAP BEFORE US MIL REINFORCEMENTS CAN ARRIVE IN TWO WEEKS.
* SAME > THREE MOST LIKELY REGIONAL FLASHPOINTS FOR A SECOND KOREAN WAR.
To wit,
!. NK-SK Naval clash in NORTHERN MARITIME BOUNDARY. NOKOR has fired over 1000 Arty shells apprxi 19 times since last year 2008 at SOKOR positions on Y. DUCK ISLAND [I of 5 in WEST SEA Region].
2. "JIANG NAM" NUCLEAR? VESSEL VERSUS US NAVY [USS John Mccain, etal.]. The "Jiang Nam" is at this time believed to be oper along the CHINESE COASTLINE. NOKOR threat of war and mil retaliation iff its ships are stopped-searched.
3. NK-SK GROUND-AIR CONVENTIONAL CLASHES ALONG DMZ [Limited War?]
MINE > Lest we fergit, the UNKNOWN "RUSSIA FACTOR" FOR = AGZ CHINA, US-ALLIES.
* SAME > NORTH KOREA'S ASYMETRIC/ALTERNATIVE MIL THREAT TO DEFEAT SOUTH KOREA: USE OF EMP-MICROWAVE BOMBS IN A "FIRST STRIKE" OR "SURPISE ATTACK" AGZ SOUTH KOREA. USE OF NUCLEAR-, WMD-ARMED SCUDS + 88,000 ELITE COMANDO TROOPS.
#5
ION WORLD MIL FORUM > SK MINISTRY OF DEFENSE: SOUTH KOREA PLANS TO INCREASE ITS RESERVE FORCES BY 100,000 [10 Corps]. SOUTH KOREAN MILPOL CONCERNS FOR NORTH KOREAN CIVILIANS. Within 50-60 days after an outbreak of war between NOKOR + SOKOR, and the defeat of North Korean combat/military forces, the SOUTH desires to send these new troops into the NORTH to control post-conflict CIVIL-GOVT OPERATIONS.
ALso, SAME > US-SOUTH KOREAN "WAR PLAN 5027-5": NORTH KOREA MUST EFFEC DESTROY OR OTHERWISE FORCE SOUTH KOREA TO CAPITULATE WITHIN 48-72 HOURS OR ASAP BEFORE US MIL REINFORCEMENTS CAN ARRIVE IN TWO WEEKS.
* SAME > THREE MOST LIKELY REGIONAL FLASHPOINTS FOR A SECOND KOREAN WAR.
To wit,
!. NK-SK Naval clash in NORTHERN MARITIME BOUNDARY. NOKOR has fired over 1000 Arty shells apprxi 19 times since last year 2008 at SOKOR positions on Y. DUCK ISLAND [I of 5 in WEST SEA Region].
2. "JIANG NAM" NUCLEAR? VESSEL VERSUS US NAVY [USS John Mccain, etal.]. The "Jiang Nam" is at this time believed to be oper along the CHINESE COASTLINE. NOKOR threat of war and mil retaliation iff its ships are stopped-searched.
3. NK-SK GROUND-AIR CONVENTIONAL CLASHES ALONG DMZ [Limited War?]
MINE > Lest we fergit, the UNKNOWN "RUSSIA FACTOR" FOR = AGZ CHINA, US-ALLIES.
* SAME > NORTH KOREA'S ASYMETRIC/ALTERNATIVE MIL THREAT TO DEFEAT SOUTH KOREA: USE OF EMP-MICROWAVE BOMBS IN A "FIRST STRIKE" OR "SURPISE ATTACK" AGZ SOUTH KOREA. USE OF NUCLEAR-, WMD-ARMED SCUDS + 88,000 ELITE COMANDO TROOPS.
#6
CHINESE MIL FORUM >RUSSIA DECLARES WAR ON CHINESE BUSINESSMEN IN RUSSIA/RUSSIA SEES CHINESE GOODS BEING SOLD CHEAPLY AND MAKING MONEY [Growing anti-Chin Nationalism, sentiment in VladLand = Russia?]; + WMF > RUSSIA'S ANTI-CHIN ECONOMIC "9-11": WHY VALDIMIR PUTIN IS BEING HEAVY-HANDED AGZ CHINA?
MOSCOW = RUSS = VLADVEDEV has confiscated or "detained" approxi 6000 CONTAINERS [circa 100,000 tonnes worth] full of Chin-made goods, and worth US$2.0BILYUHN. MORE TO COME.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Foreign Secretary David Miliband says Britain and Iran have agreed to resolve the dispute over the arrest of four local British Embassy staff in Tehran.
The Tuesday announcement came one day after Iran's Foreign Ministry confirmed that five of the nine detainees had been released following primary investigation into their alleged role in 'inciting mass public protests' following the June 12 vote.
Miliband told parliament that the decision had been reached for the safekeeping of the interests of both countries and expressed concern over the "continued detention of some of our locally engaged staff in Tehran."
"I have discussed this issue with Iranian Foreign Minister (Manouchehr) Mottaki and we both agreed in our second telephone conversation yesterday that a swift resolution was in both of our interests," Miliband said, calling for the release of the remaining Embassy employees.
The announcement of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election sparked opposition rallies in the capital Tehran with defeated candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi rejecting the result as fraudulent and demanding a re-run.
Iran has lashed out at foreign 'interference' in its internal affairs, saying the 'biased' attitude of European countries and their media incited the post-election unrest
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
A word of advice to UK: drop your pants before you spread.
[ADN Kronos] Eight Turkish colonels arrived at a civilian court on Tuesday for questioning by prosecutors assigned to the country's controversial Ergenekon probe, Dogan News Agency reported. Navy Col. Dursun Cicek, who is suspected of drafting an alleged anti-government document, was not among the military officers who were to appear before the prosecutors.
Ergenekon prosecutors had summoned Cicek and eight other colonels for questioning as part of the controversial probe.
More than 200 people have been detained in the Ergenekon case launched in 2007. They were arrested on suspicion of forming an illegal organisation to provoke a series of events that would pave the way to a military coup. About 140 people are already on trial in the case, including retired generals, lawyers and journalists.
The Ergenekon operation was revealed in June 2007 when grenades were allegedly discovered in a house in Istanbul's Umraniye district. It is alleged to have exposed an illegal organisation that was planning events that would pave the way for a military coup to overthrow the ruling AKP government.
The controversial case, however, has divided Turkey, as many believe it has turned into a witch hunt targeting government critics.
Turkey's military has staged three coups and pressured a fourth government, the first led by Islamists to step down in 1997.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday hailed his disputed re-election as a victory for the Iranian people and a defeat for the Islamic Republic's enemies. The June 12 poll sparked Iran's most vigorous internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but hardliners have regained the upper hand in Iran, whose nuclear program has alarmed the West. "This election was actually a referendum. The Iranian nation were the victors and the enemies, despite their ... plots of a soft toppling of the system, failed and couldn't reach their aims," the state IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
Iran often accuses the West of seeking to promote a "velvet revolution" to overthrow its 30-year-old Islamic system.
The body that supervised the vote ruled out any further legal appeal and said those alleging fraud should be prosecuted. "Based on Iran's constitution, the Guardian Council is the top legislative body to review complaints over the election. The council members have unanimously approved the election result," its spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai told a news conference. "The case of the 10th presidential election is closed," Kadkhodai said, a day after the council dismissed complaints raised by two defeated candidates, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi.
Kadkhodai urged the judiciary to take legal action against those who "spread rumors about election-rigging."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
short round's wrong -- This is truly a defeat for anyone who actually cares about the best interests of iranians.
Feats don't fail me now...
SEOUL, July 1 (Yonhap) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said science and technology are the powerful engine driving the construction of a strong nation during his latest trip to a semiconductor factory and a science academy, state media reported Wednesday.
Kim gave "field guidance" to the Hamhung Semiconductor Materials Factory and the Hamhung Branch of the State Academy of Sciences, both in Hamhung in the northern province of North Hamgyong, said the reports without giving a date for the visit.
Kim expressed "great satisfaction over the fact that they laid solid material and technical foundations of the factory by fully displaying the revolutionary spirit of self-reliance and are mass-producing quality semiconductor materials, the Korean Central News Agency said.
Kim has made nearly 80 field trips this year, compared to about 50 last year. By traveling nationwide so often, Kim, 67, who reportedly had a stroke in August last year, appears to be trying to demonstrate he is fully in charge of the country, Seoul's Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said earlier this week.
Recent photos showed Kim wearing sneakers on rough road trips or flat dress shoes in farms and factories, instead of his signature platform shoes he used to wear before the reported stroke to add height to his stature.
Kim "warmly encouraged the workers there in their dynamic 150-day campaign," the report said, referring to the North's labor mobilization project that started in late April. "Our science and technology can serve as a powerful engine for the revolution and construction and provide a scientific and technological guarantee for building a great prosperous and powerful nation only when they are closely combined with production," Kim was quoted as saying at the science school.
Kim was accompanied by Workers' Party department directors including his Jang Song-thaek, his brother-in-law believed to be the de-facto No. 2 figure in the country overseeing state affairs on behalf of the aging leader. Jang, married to Kim's younger sister Kim Kyong-hui, reportedly plays a key role in grooming the leader's third and youngest son, Jong-un, as the successor.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
You sure about who said that? I recall Obama saying something about "putting [compliant and obeidient] scientists to work in his administration", just like Kimmie.
#2
Our science and technology can serve as a powerful engine for the revolution and construction and provide a scientific and technological guarantee for building a great prosperous and powerful nation only when they are closely combined with production," Kim was quoted as saying at the science school.
poor kimme, the starvation, and deprivation imposed on majority of population, limits any potential for advancement to the level of general incompetence exhibited by his social infrastructure. kimmes new found beliefs in the potential of class bound states that are delimiters to goals. his high hopes, and keen understanding of the tools of compulsion, leading to breakthrough after breakthrough wont last long, as the production sought must be bought, in a free and open market.....
President Barack Obama has asked Vice President Joe Biden to take on a new role overseeing the US departure from Iraq and Washington's effort to promote internal political reconciliation there. The White House said Tuesday that Biden would work closely with General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq and US ambassador to Baghdad Christopher Hill as US forces prefer to leave for good by the end of 2011.
"The vice president has been asked by the president to oversee the policy," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.
Biden would work with Iraqis "toward overcoming their political differences and achieving the type of reconciliation that we all understand has yet to fully take place but needs to take place."
Maybe he can break the country into three parts!
"Given his knowledge of the region, the number of times he's been there, he's perfectly suited for this type of role," Gibbs said.
He's even been under fire there!
Biden, who was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee before becoming vice president, has made repeated trips to Iraq, and is playing a similar role overseeing a 787 billion economic stimulus package.
Gibbs said that an idea once put forward by Biden, of dividing Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities into a federation of autonomous zones, was not on the table for the Obama administration.
Since the Iraqis thought he was crackers ...
He said the vice president's role would likely include travel to Iraq and also meetings with the key players on US Iraq policy.
Biden's new portfolio had been rumored for several days, and Gibbs confirmed the reports on the day that US troops withdrew from the center of Iraqi cities and towns under an agreement with the Baghdad government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
time to gird your loins iraq, sheriff joe is coming to town. I'm sure his speeches will amuse you as much as they amuse us back in the states.
Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the military push didn't succeed because U.S. troops remain committed there in large numbers and political reconciliation has not been achieved.
"The purpose of the surge was to bring violence in Iraq down so that its leaders could come together politically," said Biden, D-Del., in this week's Democratic radio address. "Violence has come down, but the Iraqis have not come together."
He later added, "There is little evidence the Iraqis will settle their differences peacefully any time soon."
#7
Blondie has got it. The window of opportunity is closing but if Joe Biden can't do it, nobody can.
Posted by: ed ||
07/01/2009 9:11
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Don't the Iraqis hate Biden on account of his "let's break 'em up into three states" crap?
And what happened to reducing the vice president back to the old "bucket of warm piss" sinecure it used to be before Darth Cheney started in on blasting lawyers in the face & the Goracle used it as a platform for shaking down Chinese monks?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/01/2009 10:03
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Biden is now responsible for two of the biggest boondoggles the 0bama administration has put in place. First, the "stimulus" package, and now, the hasty withdrawal from Iraq. The chances for failure in both instances are high, if not guaranteed, so it's no wonder the 0ne punts them to someone else, ensuring that Biden will be the fall guy when things inevitably go poorly.
"Well, I made Vice President Biden responsible for that so you'll have to ask him what went wrong."
On one hand, I ALMOST feel sorry for Joe because he's just trying to be a good soldier here. On the other hand, as someone with a self-proclaimed IQ as high as his, he should know better.
#11
May God watch over the Iraqis, cuz I don't think this administration will. Word of advice for the good people of Iraq: you have won back your streets - be ever vigilant and don't lose them again.
[Al Arabiya Latest] 14-year-old girl who survived the Yemenia airline crash Tuesday is being treated in a hospital in the Comoros where she is in a state that is "not worrisome", a Comoros Red Cross spokesman told AFP.
"The young girl, aged 14, has arrived at the El Maarouf hospital. We were told that her condition is not worrisome," said Red Cross spokeswoman Ramulati Ben Ali.
A man identified as one of the girl's rescuers told France's Europe 1 radio that the teenager was seen swimming in choppy waters in the middle of bodies and plane debris around 4:20 am (0120 GMT). "We tried to throw a life buoy. She could not grab it. I had to jump in the water to get her," the rescuer said. "She was shaking, shaking. We put four covers on her. We gave her hot, sugary water. We simply asked her name, village."
Yemeni Transport Minister Khaled al-Wazir had said that a five-year-old boy among the 142 passengers and 11 crew on Flight IY 626 had been rescued alive. Arfachad Salim, a rescue coordinator for the Comoros Red Crescent, had said the child was brought ashore. However a Comoran government spokesman confirmed that the teenage girl is the only survivor so far and that she is from the southeast village of Nioumadzaha. "She is conscious, she is speaking, but we are trying to warm her" after being pulled from cold sea waters, said Ada Mansour, the examining doctor at the hospital where the girl is being treated.
Mansour added that earlier reports of a five-year-old boy surviving the crash were "based on information received from boats near the search site. But I have not seen him."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Nice job by the Yemeni Coasties (or whatever they were).
Posted by: Mike ||
07/01/2009 6:47
Comments ||
Top||
#2
It was the second time in less than a month that an Airbus has crashed into the ocean. This time French authorities said the Yemeni carrier had been under surveillance and that the 19-year-old jet had been banned from French airspace.
Telegraph Mohamed Yahya, former director of Comoros civil aviation department, who was also present, said the engines sounded in difficulty. "It looked to me as though the plane was having difficulties landing," he said.
Too much koran, not enough maintenance manual.
Posted by: ed ||
07/01/2009 8:48
Comments ||
Top||
#3
One memorizes the Koran by ear, ed. Maintenance manuals must be read, an entirely different skill.
#4
Another on time (actually about 10 miles early) arrival by Air In'Shallah. Troubling reports on French news about the upkeep of this A-310. RIP to those who lost their lives regardless of their faith.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
07/01/2009 19:48
Comments ||
Top||
[Quqnoos] A suicide bomber dressed as a woman struck a checkpoint Tuesday morning on Torkham border crossing, killing and hurting 9, officials said
The suicide attack in the Afghan eastern province of Nangarhar killed one and wounded four policemen as well as a number of civilians. Afghan Interior Ministry in a statement said the bomber blew himself up in a room at the Torkham border post used for searching women travelers. Gen Mohammad Zaman Momozai, chief of border police in Nangarhar province confirmed the incident and said the victims have been taken to a hospital.
The Torkham is one of the main international border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan, leading to Pakistan's Khyer Pass in the country's North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons.
The move keeps the U.S. and the rest of the international community guessing: Where is the Kang Nam going? Does its cargo include materials banned by a new U.N. anti-proliferation resolution?
Did Kimmie bow to the UN? Perhaps Kimmie doesn't want to antagonize Bambi while Bambi is helping their mutual friend Zelaya in Honduras? Did the ship blow a gasket and is now limping home? Did the Burmese decide that they didn't need the guns and ammo that badly? Was there not a safe port within reach?
The ship left a North Korean port of Nampo on June 17 and is the first vessel monitored under U.N. sanctions that ban the regime from selling arms and nuclear-related material.
The Navy has been watching it -- at times following it from a distance. It traveled south and southwest for more than a week; then, on Sunday, it turned around and headed back north, two U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.
Nearly two weeks after the ship left North Korea, officials said Tuesday they still don't know where it is going. But it was some 250 miles south of Hong Kong on Tuesday, one official said. Though acknowledging all along that the Kang Nam's destination was unclear, some officials said last week that it could be going to Myanmar and that it was unclear whether it could reach there without stopping in another port to refuel.
Two officials had said earlier in the day Tuesday that the Kang Nam had been moving very slowly in recent days, something that could signal it was trying to conserve fuel.
Or that they had a mechanical problem, or that Kimmie was stalling for time, or maybe the Vietnamese decided not to let them refuel.
They said they didn't know what the turnaround of the ship means, nor what prompted it.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said Sunday that Washington was "following the progress of that ship very closely," but she would not say whether the U.S. would confront the Kang Nam.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
kimmie doesnt give a bottle of kimchi for Zelaya, dont be silly.
My guess (caveat:I am not a navy guy and dont know the fuel and range issues) is that they did NOT have a safe port within reach. So they turned around, just as the UNSC policy envisioned.
I really doubt they were afraid of a Burmese inspection. Burma is the damned consignee on the arms shipment, they already KNOW whats in it, they friggin paid for it.
A good thing that happened on Obamas watch (so far) but really, the policy wasnt obamas alone,and it was in some respects an obvious policy that flowed out of ideas circulated years ago, IIUC.
Note- UNSC CAN be useful against baddies - IF the baddie is someone who has managed to piss off the PRC as well as us. A big enough IF not to RELY on the UNSC, but still reason not to write off the UNSC.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
07/01/2009 9:51
Comments ||
Top||
#7
(caveat:I am not a navy guy and don't know the fuel and range issues)
Answer,
Navy ships can refuel under way, civilian snips Can't so naval ships have near infinite range (We also can take on provisions, and the ship distills fresh water from seawater) Again, effectively Infinite.
Stern chases are very much in the navy's favor from the very start.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/01/2009 14:46
Comments ||
Top||
#8
HMMMMMM, HMMMMMM, NOKOR HAS THREATENED PER SE WAR = NUKE-WMD FIRESTORM?SHOWER/RAIN AGZ THE US-ALLIES IFF ITS SHIPS ARE STOPPED ANDOR ITS TEST LAUNCHES ARE INTERCEPTED. Hence, the RUSH LIMBAUGH-ian, Spicy Kimchee-Squid Questionne'-vouz is will this NOKOR SHIP [ships?] head back home; or else linger in the region during Nokor's upcoming new launch towards Hawaii???
Read, NOKOR "FIRST-STRIKE" = "BOLT-FROM-THE-BLUE/SEA" as per this vessel [others?] already in the East-Central Pacific regions???
#9
Navy ships can refuel under way, civilian snips Can't so naval ships have near infinite range (We also can take on provisions, and the ship distills fresh water from seawater) Again, effectively Infinite.
Depends. The Chinese merchant (arms) ship off the coast of South Africa was able to refuel. Likely because the crew were either PLAN or PLAN-reserve. The NorKs could have a similar set up wrt crew. Astern refueling really isn't that hard; at the worst, they meet up with a fuel barge in a sheltered cove and take on fuel at anchor.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Gunmen have opened fire on joint UN/African Union peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region, wounding one in the leg, the force said on Tuesday. The Nigerian police unit was attacked in Ardamata, close to the men's camp in the west Darfur capital of Al-Geneina, on Monday afternoon, the UNAMID force said in a statement. The unit's commander, who was shot in the leg, was in a stable condition in hospital, it added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
A Los Angeles dermatologist who treated Michael Jackson for years is the biological father of Jacko's son and daughter, according to a bombshell new report. But... But... They're the spittin' image of The Late Michael! Why, they even got the same surgical masks! Us Weekly magazine reports in its upcoming issue, which hits newsstands tomorrow, that Dr. Arnold Klein is the man who fathered Prince and Paris. The kid's mother, Debbie Rowe, once worked for Klein. "He is the dad," a Jackson insider said of Klein. "He and Debbie signed an agreement saying they would never reveal the truth." And I, for one, would never have guessed it was him. I thought it was somebody else. Though I guess he had the same chance as anybody else, since I guessed it was anyone but The Late Michael. And I, for another, would never have guessed that either of them would ever reveal an agreement they signed in secret. Not even for money. Not even for a lot of money.
But the celebrity Web site TMZ.com reports today that Rowe is not the biological mother of the two kids she bore claims she for Jackson. What a devastating thing to be told: "Debbie, I don't know how to tell you this: You're not the mother!"
The site reported that all three of Jack's kids were conceived in vitro -- outside the womb with the help of an egg and sperm donor -- and that Rowe was just a surrogate. Following Jackson's death on Thursday, Rowe told London's News of the World that The Gloved One was not the children's biological father. Well, I am just floored. You could knock me over with a feather. I feel so betrayed.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
With finalists selected, ugly battle now begins over funeral eulogy:
Rev. Billy Graham Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Bishop Desmond Tutu Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson Rev. Jeremiah Wright Others failing to meet Joe's reserve bid
Rev. Al Sharpton
Rev. Jesse Jackson
#4
think of the games he could play with those two kids: "I've got your Dad's nose!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/01/2009 15:02
Comments ||
Top||
#5
FOX NEWS AM > I'd caught only a glimpse of the bottom-screen Newsline threads but IIRC Michael Jackson repor or allegedly may had named DIANA ROSS to be GUARDIAN for his kids and their Estates - however, IIRC FOX had also repor that Jackson's gross estate may be comprised mostly of NON-CASH = NON-LIQUID ASSETS???
ACORN, which played a starring role in creating the subprime mortgage crisis, plans to add insult to injury by harassing lenders across the nation with protests tomorrow in an effort to coerce them into supporting President Obama's Making Home Affordable foreclosure-avoidance program.
This is nothing new. They've done this in Chicago for years.
Austin King, director of ACORN Financial Justice, sent out a press release today advising of the demonstrations that are planned as part of its "Homewrecker 4" campaign. The four financial companies targeted are Goldman Sachs, HomEq Servicing, American Home Mortgage, and OneWest. Read the whole document here.
ACORN plans to hit Dallas, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, St. Louis, New York City, Wilmington (Del.), Columbus (Ohio), Houston, Little Rock, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and Seattle.
But let's not forget that ACORN helped to cause the mortgage bubble by strongarming banks into making loans they shouldn't have. And cheering them on was ACORN's lawyer, Barack Obama, who contributed to the increasingly hostile environment for banks when he represented plaintiffs in the 1995 class action lawsuit Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank. The suit demanded that Citibank grant mortgages to an equal percentage of minority and non-minority mortgage applicants. The bank settled the case three years later and reportedly agreed to beef up its lending to unqualified applicants.
ACORN refuses to acknowledge the role that it and the CRA played in the current crisis on Wall Street, and President Obama continues to support stronger enforcement of the disastrous law.
The final paragraph of the press release is unintentionally hilarious:
Because millions of Americans are losing their homes, neighborhoods and the economy are in ruins, and while the "Home Wrecker 4" are taking tax dollars and giving away huge bonuses, they refuse to do even the bare minimum for American homeowners by signing up for the Obama foreclosure plan.
Millions of Americans are losing their homes and neighborhoods and the economy are in ruins because of groups like ACORN that interfere with markets and force banks to do stupid things.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Start with those banks who deserve criticism, Bank Of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Fifth Third, Compass Etc.
If you've any doubts, go to www.ripoffreports.com and see for yourself.
Outright thieves.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/01/2009 16:00
Comments ||
Top||
#5
FOX NEWS this AM > GLEN BECK Prog > "THE COMING INSURRECTION". NEW BOOK [French Co-Authored]calls for ARMED/VIOLENT REVOLUTION + ANARCHIES + RESISTANCE in the USA. BECK strongly proclaims that the "EXTREME LEFT" IN US IS ACTIVELY SUPPORS = CALLING FOR SAME.
#6
OOOOPSIES, my bad, GLEN BECK > also is disappointed at WAL-MART'S SEEMING COLLUSION WID ACORN + SEIU [combined public Company/Corpor Logos], which Beck argues are the same entities + whose Officios-Lobbyists are the only ones whom can get [policy?]confabs wid POTUS OBAMA at any time in the White HOuse???
Republican Norm Coleman has conceded to Democrat Al Franken in the Minnesota Senate race, ending one of the longest Senate races in American history and clearing the way for Democrats to hold a 60-seat supermajority in the Senate.
Coelman's concession, given from the front of his St. Paul home, came just a few hours after the Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously ruled Franken the winner of last November's Senate race. In a unanimous 5-0 decision, the court upheld a three-judge panel's April 14 ruling that Franken defeated Republican Norm Coleman in the race by 312 votes out of 2.9 million cast. The 32-page opinion was remarkably decisive, picking apart and rejecting one Coleman legal claim after another.
In its final line of the ruling, the state Supreme Court said Franken is "entitled" under Minnesota law to "receive the certificate election as United States senator from the state of Minnesota."
"The Supreme Court of Minnesota has spoken and I respect its decision and will abide by the result," Coleman said. "It's time for Minnesota to come together under the leaders it has chosen and move forward. I join all Minnesotans in congratulating our newest United States Senator -- Al Franken.
Coleman's concession means that Gov. Tim Pawlenty can easily sign an election certificate in the interim.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#11
So the question seems to be; How can voters (Even from a Blue state with a Republican incumbent in 2008.) be so foolish as to elect such an incompetent boob like Franken?
Two Words: Card Check.
[ADN Kronos] Afghan security forces have arrested 11 suspected militants in the eastern province of Khost in an operation against the Taliban. "Backed by the US-led coalition forces, the operation held on Monday in the Sabari district has led to the arrest of 11 rebels," said the chief of police in the province, Abdul Qayum Baqizai, according to media reports.
The chief of police said that six suspects were arrested when they were trying to escape wearing burqas, traditional clothing for women covering them from head to toe.
I'd bet they forgot to get pedicures before they donned the blue tents. Unfeminine toes are a dead giveaway, y'know.
The arrests followed a US-led air strike on Monday in Khost which killed more than a dozen Taliban militants, specifically a group of the Haqqani guerilla network, the US military said in a statement. The Haqqani guerilla network is closely linked to the Taliban and one of the most powerful groups in eastern Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Makes me wonder what Dinner Jacket's "drag name" is.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/01/2009 9:30
Comments ||
Top||
#3
I thought we weren't allowed to gun 'em down if they were without their gats. Why go to the bother of the burkha if we couldn't tag 'em without gun in hand?
Sounds like the Afghani police are more worth their salt than some reporting would have us believe, if the nellies feel the need to tart it up to get past their checkpoints.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/01/2009 9:40
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Can't a self respecting Paki go out cruisin' for a good time without getting hassled by the cops?
Posted by: ed ||
07/01/2009 9:45
Comments ||
Top||
[Kyodo: Korea] China denied Tuesday a new report saying Dear Little Leader Kim Jong Un, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's third son, had visited China secretly earlier in the month. 'The relevant report has no basis whatsoever,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a regular press conference. 'It is creating something out of nothing.'
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[Straits Times] A RARE survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime's main jail told on Tuesday how torturers ripped out his toenails and gave him electric shocks to try to make him confess to being a CIA agent. Former mechanic Chum Mey told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal how he pleaded for his life as he was tortured for 12 days and nights at the 1975-1979 communist movement's Tuol Sleng detention centre.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka court yesterday sent former forest and environment minister Shajahan Siraj to jail in a tax evasion case in which he was earlier sentenced to eight years" imprisonment in absentia.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[Straits Times] THAI premier Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Tuesday he would invoke a harsh internal security act to prevent protests at a regional summit in Phuket which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to attend. The move comes after an incident in April when anti-government protesters loyal to ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra forced the chaotic cancellation of a major Asian summit in the Thai resort of Pattaya.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/01/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
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.
IN HIS WEEKLY address on Saturday, President Obama saluted the House of Representatives for passing Waxman-Markey, the gargantuan energy-rationing bill that would amount to the largest tax increase in the nations history. It would do so by making virtually everything that depends on energy - which is virtually everything - more expensive.
While promoting his new cap-and-trade energy tax bill, which passed the U.S. House last week, President Obama revealed in a White House address on Monday his model for the nation's economy - California. "In the late 1970s, the state of California enacted tougher energy-efficiency policies," Obama said, noting that the state and its residents use less energy today per capita than the national average. "Think about that," he said, "California producing jobs, their economy keeping pace with the rest of the country and yet they've been able to maintain their energy usage in a much lower level than the rest of the country."
A federal judge in California has issued an injunction to stop a proposed $2 hourly wage reduction for the state's home-care workers, reductions that are part of efforts to cut a state budget shortfall of $24 billion. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken halted the wage cuts on June 25 in response to a lawsuit by the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) on behalf of 250,000--out of a total of 440,000--home care workers that it represents in California.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] The Israeli navy intercepted and boarded a ship carrying pro-Palestinian activists and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in defiance of an Israeli blockade. "No shots were fired during the boarding of the boat," the Israeli military said in a statement, adding the vessel was being taken to the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod. "The boat crew will be handed over to the appropriate authorities."
[Al Arabiya Latest] Michael Jackson's fans who had planned to attend his comeback tour this summer in London learned Tuesday they could either get a refund on their ticket or receive a physical ticket, but not both, organizers said in a statement.
[Geo News] The security forces killed at least 18 terrorists were killed in the ongoing operation during the last 24 hours. While, 23 extremists were apprehended from Swat and Dir. Also, three soldiers embraced shahadat and 8 others including 3 officers were injured. Security forces also recovered one explosive-laden vehicle.
The U.S. co-sponsored a successful U.N. resolution supporting Honduras's ousted leader Tuesday as Republicans began to speak out against the Obama administration's condemnation of the overthrow.
[Quqnoos] At least 15 Taliban militants were killed and a dozen more were wounded Monday in northern Baghlan province, an official said.
[Bangla Daily Star] Detective Branch (DB) of police yesterday arrested Sultanganj Union Parisad Chairman Monir Hossain on charge of firing gunshots on a crowd in Keraniganj on June 9 that left a man dead and another wounded.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Foreign Secretary David Miliband says Britain and Iran have agreed to resolve the dispute over the arrest of four local British Embassy staff in Tehran. 
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday hailed his disputed re-election as a victory for the Iranian people and a defeat for the Islamic Republic's enemies. The June 12 poll sparked Iran's most vigorous internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but hardliners have regained the upper hand in Iran, whose nuclear program has alarmed the West. "This election was actually a referendum. The Iranian nation were the victors and the enemies, despite their ... plots of a soft toppling of the system, failed and couldn't reach their aims," the state IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
President Barack Obama has asked Vice President Joe Biden to take on a new role overseeing the US departure from Iraq and Washington's effort to promote internal political reconciliation there. The White House said Tuesday that Biden would work closely with General Ray Odierno, the top US commander in Iraq and US ambassador to Baghdad Christopher Hill as US forces prefer to leave for good by the end of 2011.
[Al Arabiya Latest] 14-year-old girl who survived the Yemenia airline crash Tuesday is being treated in a hospital in the Comoros where she is in a state that is "not worrisome", a Comoros Red Cross spokesman told AFP.
[Quqnoos] A suicide bomber dressed as a woman struck a checkpoint Tuesday morning on Torkham border crossing, killing and hurting 9, officials said
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] Gunmen have opened fire on joint UN/African Union peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region, wounding one in the leg, the force said on Tuesday. The Nigerian police unit was attacked in Ardamata, close to the men's camp in the west Darfur capital of Al-Geneina, on Monday afternoon, the UNAMID force said in a statement. The unit's commander, who was shot in the leg, was in a stable condition in hospital, it added.
A Los Angeles dermatologist who treated Michael Jackson for years is the biological father of Jacko's son and daughter, according to a bombshell new report.
[ADN Kronos] Afghan security forces have arrested 11 suspected militants in the eastern province of Khost in an operation against the Taliban. "Backed by the US-led coalition forces, the operation held on Monday in the Sabari district has led to the arrest of 11 rebels," said the chief of police in the province, Abdul Qayum Baqizai, according to media reports. 
[Straits Times] A RARE survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime's main jail told on Tuesday how torturers ripped out his toenails and gave him electric shocks to try to make him confess to being a CIA agent. Former mechanic Chum Mey told Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal how he pleaded for his life as he was tortured for 12 days and nights at the 1975-1979 communist movement's Tuol Sleng detention centre.
