Posted by: Mike ||
01/26/2009 8:05 Comments ||
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#7
I like her because she doesn't look too sober and parts of her are about to pop right out of that dress.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2009 9:19 Comments ||
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#8
Fred, those were the same reasons I proposed to my ex-wife.
Posted by: Scott R ||
01/26/2009 9:49 Comments ||
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#9
O.K., she's nice.
Have we had any sunspots yet?
Full-blown La Nina in effect?
I've been away...
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/26/2009 9:52 Comments ||
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#10
"Watt's up with that?" is my source for all information climate and solar related. An excellent resource: the blogger maintaining it is doing a survey of the suitability of weather station equipment disposition, so as to clean up the climate record. A place where pictures are indeed worth a thousand words.
We had one short-lived (2 days) group of three about a week ago, Bobby, but that's it. Here's a good link. Rather cold in Colorado Springs this morning, but with all the heat generated by Fred's and GB's photos, that may change...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/26/2009 12:30 Comments ||
Top||
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday condemned a US operation he said killed 16 civilians. Karzai said the killing of innocent Afghans during the US military operations 'is strengthening the terrorists' while hundreds of villagers denounced the American military during an angry demonstration.
The Afghan president added that his Defence Ministry had sent Washington a draft technical agreement that would give Afghanistan more oversight with regard to the US military operations. The same letter has also been sent to NATO headquarters.
You think he thinks he can roll Bambi?
Who doesn't think he can roll the Bambino?
In recent weeks Karzai has increasingly lashed out at his Western backers over the issue of civilian casualties, even as US politicians and a top NATO official have publicly criticised Karzai for the slow pace of progress.
The back-and-forth comes as the new US administration of President Barack Obama must decide whether to support Karzai as he seeks re-election later this year as part of the overall Afghan strategy of the United States.
I'm guessing here but Bambi's 'support' isn't going to be a big factor in the elections, and Bambi doesn't realize that ...
Civilian deaths during the US operations have been a huge point of friction between the Afghan government, the US and NATO militaries. Karzai had told parliament last week that the US and NATO had not heeded his calls to stop airstrikes in civilian areas. Karzai had recently sought more control over the activities the US and NATO forces could carry out.
Meanwhile, Afghan police in remote northwestern Afghanistan killed 13 Taliban fighters in a clash that also killed five civilians by Taliban, said a police official.
The Taliban first shot dead a tribal elder and his wife in their home in Badghis province on Saturday because the man did not agree to collect food and money for them, provincial police chief Muhammad Ayub Niazyar said. Three more local men were killed and five wounded when residents attacked the rebels, Niazyar told AFP. "Thirteen of the Taliban have been killed and seven of them were injured in a clash when the police arrived at the area," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2009 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Meanwhile, Afghan police in remote northwestern Afghanistan killed 13 Taliban fighters in a clash that also killed five civilians by Taliban, said a police official.
Did we kill any civilians, Mahmoud?
No, sir. We used the "non civilian killing" bullets, sir. Like Hamid told us to.
#2
Im not sure how much influence we have in the elections - I dont think its that minimal. I assume we are talking about US weight being thrown behind already important dissenting elements (including some ex Northern Alliance).
I also assume that Obama has access to input from US commanders on the ground, etc.
Hassan Hattab, founder of Algeria's Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), issued a fresh call on Monday (January 19th) for members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to lay down their weapons.
In the written document, which was released to the Algerian press, Hattab appealed to terrorists to renounce armed struggle in order to benefit from the law on civil concord. Drawing on a verse from the Qur'an and two hadiths from the Prophet Mohammed, he condemned the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Algeria in the name of Islam.
The former GSPC leader issued his call just as radical Islamists are demanding jihad in Gaza. "What law or moral code could allow this?" he asked in the statement. "Is this really a jihad that would please God?"
Hattab simultaneously condemned and repented for acts of terrorism, "which do nothing for Islam or Muslims and against which I have already given warnings in the past".
Advising his "brothers" to obey God and halt their activities, he implored them to "return to society and your families; society is ready to welcome you and heal the wounds".
Monday's appeal was not Hattab's first. Last August, he responded to an attack on the police academy in Issers with a statement calling for terrorists to abandon their violent agenda.
Hassan Hattab left the GSPC in 2003 after a dispute with current leader Abdelmalek Droukdel over the legitimacy of targeting civilians. In September 2006 the group rallied to Osama bin Laden's cause, changing its name to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Hattab surrendered to Algerian authorities in late September 2007.
Salima Tlemçani, a terrorism specialist, told El Watan that the message follows a statement by Droukdel "calling for attacks against the interests of Westerners -- particularly Americans, French and Israelis -- throughout the world".
The Droukdel communiqué was no longer available, however, just hours after its release, noted Tlemçani. Previous messages about Algeria are still available online.
According to the expert, Droukdel's organisation has suffered heavy losses in recent months, to the point where it has been unable to regain ground, except for sporadic roadblocks. This has raised questions about the future of the group.
Journalists suggest that differences at the heart of the terrorist organisation have rendered it unable to carry out attacks as visible as those of last year. This is believed to be the result of both a series of surrenders within the heart of the group and a government crackdown.
According to Nayla Berrahal of Algerian daily Echorouk, the al-Qaeda organisation "is in a really difficult position since the start of the events in Gaza... due to the reaction of the public". She said the people believe the terrorist organisation is attempting "to profit from the situation to clean up its image following a series of suicide attacks and crimes targeting civilians".
Rather than garnering the support of impassioned youths, Berrahal suggests Droukdel's group has alienated itself. "These young people have risen up against the terrorist organisation, which they accuse of executing foreigners' plans and strategies," she said.
For many civilians, the former GSPC can no longer fool young people about its real intentions. Lotfi Amine, a student, said the group "has no legitimacy or credibility to support Palestine, given the crimes it has committed against the sons and daughters of its own country".
Fellow student Djamel Alek went a step further, accusing al-Qaeda of being "mercenaries". Speaking to Magharebia, he addressed the terrorists: "Those who live in Gaza are pure and their blood is sacred. We do not want it to be mingled with the blood of mercenaries like you."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11131 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
#1
It is fascinating that former major philosophers of jihadi terror and Number 1's have so publicly and forcefully recanted their original arguments. This gives me hope of a real evolution to an Islam that can live with the rest of the world, not just apostasy and conversion.
#2
Hattab seems to be recognizing the 'trap' that Zarquawi-type actions represent. Even fundamentalist Islam relies on the acquiescence of the population, and it is possible to repel them beyond terrified tolerance and into alliances with the opposition.
#3
I think glenmore is on the right track. I would also note that Algeria may be unique, in that the "insurgency" there began when some relatively moderate islamist parties were pushed out in a coup by the military (back in '92), a carry over of failed Algerian socialism, and so elements in GSPC (I am not sure about Hattab in particular) may have been moderate enough to pursuse a different strategy from the pure jihadi one.
via Tim Blair - a thankful well-done to our Aussie friends and patriots. They have stood side by side with us, which is more than we can say of other "allies and friends"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
A nice Jewish boy doing his bit to heal the world, an immigrant who gave back to the country that took in his family, a true Australian who helped protect all of us. May his memory be for a blessing.
Transporters in the NWFP on Sunday asked bus drivers to remove TVs and music players from their vehicles, following Taliban threats to bus owners a few days back. A banner put up at the general bus stand in Peshawar by Haji Zahir Shah Yousafzai, president of the Sarhad Transport Owners Federation, asked bus owners to remove audio and visual equipment by January 25. "If any TV or VCR is found in a vehicle after the deadline, the owner will be fined Rs 5,000 and the equipment will be seized," the banner read.
The Taliban warned all bus owners to remove audio and video systems from their vehicles by January 25 or face the consequences. Shah said it was not the Taliban threats that had forced the music systems' removal, but the federation was trying to discourage the drivers practice of showing obscene films during inter-city travelling. Ajmal, a driver who travels between Hangu and Peshawar, told Daily Times that he had removed the cassette player from his vehicle after the Taliban threat. However, the drivers travelling on local routes are still playing music in their buses and do not intend to remove the equipment. "Listening to music is not illegal and most of the people, especially the youth, prefer to sit in buses that have music playing in them," Niamat, a local driver, said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11132 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
Wouldn't it be simpler to remove muslims from the busses?
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
01/26/2009 14:34 Comments ||
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#2
Screw it. Mo didn't have no busses, so get rid of em.
Start walkin, my Muslim friends...
#3
the drivers practice of showing obscene films during inter-city travelling
Of course even Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs would be "obscene" because it has music and lacks burkas.
The government formally took control of the main operational facility of the banned Jamaatud Dawa in Muridke near Lahore on Sunday.
Lahore Division Commissioner Khusro Pervaiz visited the 'Markaz-e-Taiba' institution with Sheikhupura's deputy inspector general of police, the district police officer, the district coordination officer and officials of the Auqaf Department. He met the mohtamim (manager) of the facility and later appointed a grade-19 District Management Group (DMG) officer, Khaqan Babar, to supervise the social, charitable and welfare projects. The new in-charge said the move was aimed at ensuring the beneficiaries of the charity would not be affected by the ban. That'd be the Widows and Orphans Ammunition Fund... Salman Ejaz, a senior official in the Punjab province, told the Associated Press that all assets and properties of the charity in the province were now under the government's control. Most of the assets, offices and operations of the group are in Punjab. "The government has appointed an officer as administrator for all the assets," Ejaz said. "The schools and hospitals will keep on working as they are."
Ejaz said the administrator and other officials would try to gauge and map out the extent of the charity's operations -- especially the boodle its bank accounts, which Pakistan has ordered frozen. Asked why it took so long for the government to take over the Muridke site, officials said it was a complicated task. After the initial crackdown and assessment of the group's operations, "we are going for total regulation under government control," Punjab Home Secretary Nadeem Hasan said. "All things cannot happen in one go."
Jamaatud Dawa official Khalid "Sonny" Walid, son-in-law of its founder Hafiz Saeed, confirmed the takeover while talking to AFP, and said Babar would "look after the administrative and financial matters of the schools and hospital in Muridke".
Jamaatud Dawa is one of Pakistan's biggest charities, but it is also widely seen as the political wing of the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India says was behind the attacks on Mumbai in late November. Indian officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday. Pakistan has urged India to allow a joint investigation into the attacks.
Pakistan's Interior Ministry has said that 71 leaders of Laskhar and Dawa had been arrested while another 124 were put under surveillance. Authorities have also said they closed 20 offices, 94 schools, two libraries and six websites linked to the charity, while shutting down more than a dozen relief camps, some of which are alleged to be militant training grounds.
This article starring:
Muridke
District Management Group (DMG) officer, Khaqan Babar
HAFIZ SAID
Jamaatud Dawa
KHALID WALID
Jamaatud Dawa
Lahore Division Commissioner Khusro Pervaiz
Punjab Home Secretary Nadeem Hasan
Salman Ejaz, a senior official in the Punjab province
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
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[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
Security forces were issued 'shoot at sight' orders against people who violate the curfew imposed in Kooza Bandai, Bara Bandai, Ningolai, Chota Kalam and Shakardara areas of Swat on Sunday. A spokesman for the troops' media centre in Mingora said the indefinite curfew began at 5pm on Sunday. "Anyone violating the curfew in these areas will be shot at sight," he said. Meanwhile, ISPR Director General Athar Abbas told the Voice of America that the Swat situation was normalising and several political leaders had returned to the area. Intelligence operations are underway to determine who funds the Taliban, he said, pledging the army would bring peace to the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
'Shoot At Sight'...fairly straight forward I'd say. Might wish to synchronize watches and make it 16hr30 just to be on the safe side.
Swat Taliban have released a list of 43 people -- including former and incumbent ministers -- who they have declared 'wanted' and liable to punishment under the Taliban sharia.
The 'wanted' men also include former and current members of the national and provincial assemblies, district and local nazims, officials of political parties, local elders and other influential residents of the restive valley.
The announcement that the leaders were liable to punishment and must appear in Taliban courts was made by rebel cleric Mullah Fazlullah on his FM radio channel on Sunday morning, locals said.
The 43 people on the list were the Taliban's enemies, he said, and would be arrested or killed by his men. If arrested, they would be produced before the Taliban courts, which will punish them in line with the 'sharia', Fazlullah was heard saying on the radio channel.
The rebel cleric announced 'amnesty' for some political leaders and influential people who had stopped opposing Taliban in Swat, said locals who heard the speech. Fazlullah said they would not be harmed if they do not oppose the Taliban in future.
The brazen announcement comes only two days after a provincial minister from the Awami National Party (ANP) and two members of the NWFP Assembly visited the valley to express support for the people of Swat against the Taliban.
The ANP leaders in Peshawar are also speaking, in public and in private, of a changed strategy in Swat.
Three days ago, NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, Information Minister Mian Iftikhar and Senior Minister Bashir Bilour had made separate claims the people of Swat would hear 'good news' in 15 days. The leaders did not elaborate.
The warning by Fazlullah coincides with ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan's statement on Sunday that the Taliban must lay down arms if they want to solve the problem in Swat through dialogue. He made the statement in his address at a ceremony to commemorate the death anniversaries of Bacha Khan and Abdul Wali Khan in Peshawar.
According to BBC Urdu, Fazlullah also said Swat residents other than those on the list would not be harmed, and that the people who had fled the area could return to their homes.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2009 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11135 views]
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#1
The Progressives in the US and Europe could only *dream* of wielding that kind of power.
#5
Three days ago, NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, Information Minister Mian Iftikhar and Senior Minister Bashir Bilour had made separate claims the people of Swat would hear 'good news' in 15 days.
Like, Fazlullah's head on a stick on the six o'clock news?
Two US military aircraft have crashed in northern Iraq, killing four soldiers, the US military says.
"Four coalition forces members were killed when two aircraft went down in northern Iraq at approximately 2:15 am [local time]," Major Jose Lopez said. "The cause of the incident is unknown and is under investigation." Please pray for their families and friends.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/26/2009 16:44 ||
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Maybe one way to fight back against the apathy, ignorance, and arrogance now dominant in the USA is to redouble direct support to military families. Can't let my total disappointment with most of the country undermine my support for those "rough men" whose activities in the night allow all of us to sleep comfortably in our beds, to borrown Orwell's fantastic phrasing.
Egypt on Sunday closed its Rafah crossing point with the Gaza Strip, fearing fresh Israeli attacks on the smuggling tunnels as Hamas proposed a one-year ceasefire instead of Israel's 18-months suggestion.
Egyptian authorities have evacuated the Rafah border crossing into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, acting on reports of a possible Israeli air strike on the Palestinian side of the crossing, Egyptian security sources said on Sunday.
Security sources and witnesses speaking on condition of anonymity said authorities had carried out a sudden and rapid evacuation of the crossing area, removing staff and ambulances from the vicinity of the gates that control access to the crossing.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
apparently Egypt has been telling Hamas to take whatever deal they can get now, before Bibi is elected.
Three people have been killed in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, police have said, including two terrorists separatist insurgents who died in a shoot-out with authorities.
Five terrorists militants in a pick-up truck opened fire on a police checkpoint in Narathiwat province near the Malaysian border on Sunday afternoon (local time), authorities said, injuring the three policemen on duty. The wounded officers managed to return fire, killing two of their attackers.
Also Sunday, a man was killed after being shot by suspected separatists who opened fire on him and his wife as they travelled to work at a rubber factory in Narathiwat. The man died in hospital, while the woman remains in a serious condition.
#2
The Thais should just go Sri Lankan on these "separatists". Unfortunately, their leadership seems to have more in common with Israel's. That is, maintaining a soft-touch due to fear of world opinion re: "aggression" against Muslims.
#3
Too many of Thailand's leaders are Buddhists, who abhor violence. They really need to build a division of just upland tribal folk (mostly animists), equip them and turn them loose on the lower three provinces. The terrorists will never know what hit them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/26/2009 12:51 Comments ||
Top||
COLOMBO (AFP) Sri Lankan government troops were Monday pushing into the last pockets of jungle still held by Tamil Tigers after the capture of the rebels' last urban stronghold and military headquarters. Soldiers on Sunday overran Mullaittivu, a northeastern coastal lagoon town that was the Tigers' main base for more than a decade, the island's army chief announced in a televised address to the nation.
The Tigers' latest setback follows the loss three weeks ago of their political capital of Kilinochchi, where they had the trappings of a separate state with their own police, courts and a bank.
Army chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) now controlled just a "small strip" of land in the northeast and were completely cornered. "We have cleared 95 percent of the work (to defeat the Tigers)," Fonseka said, adding the island's government -- which abandoned a Norwegian-brokered truce a year ago -- was now on the verge of winning one of Asia's longest-running civil wars after a massive ground, sea and air campaign against the rebels. "The end of terrorism is near and we will definitely win," he said.
There has been no comment from the rebels, and there is no way of confirming any of the claims as independent journalists are barred from travelling to the conflict zone. Aid agencies and human rights workers are also barred from areas where the Sri Lanka military is active.
The big question now is whether LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran -- who has been leading a separatist war against Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese majority since 1972 -- is even still on the island. What is also unclear is whether the LTTE command structure is still intact, and whether the rebels' can survive the loss of their mini-state and return to fighting a guerrilla war from hidden jungle bases.
Army chief Fonseka said last week that Prabhakaran, 54, may already have escaped by sea. Authorities in nearby India as well as Malaysia have said they were on the look out for the rebel leader. The rebel chief is seen as having no safe havens overseas.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/26/2009 00:00 ||
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[11130 views]
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#1
"There has been no comment from the rebels, and there is no way of confirming any of the claims as independent journalists are barred from travelling to the conflict zone. Aid agencies and human rights workers are also barred from areas where the Sri Lanka military is active."
And fist-shaking condemnation by socialist Europeans, Arabs, and leftist liberal idiots of all stripes??? [::crickets chirping::]
Compare/contrast with Israel. Anti-semitism, anyone? How about news-whores breathlessly waiting for Obama to weigh in? Urgent calls to stop the vicious cycle of violence? Don't the Lankans know fighting terrorists only makes them stronger? It's a lost cause! The military CAN'T win!!!
OH, TEH SUFFERING. TEH HUMANITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RED THINGY -- WHERE R U??????
About 150 fighters from Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command have reportedly been smuggled to the northern refugee camp of Beddawi and the coastal town of Naameh south of Beirut.
The daily Al Balad on Sunday said the PFLP-GC -- which has bases in barren terrains in east Lebanon's towns of Qossaya, Hilweh, Sultan Yaqoub, and Deir el-Ghazal -- had smuggled around 150 fighters to Beddawi camp and a tunnel in Naameh. The newspaper, citing a security report, said the fighters were smuggled via the northern town of Talbira in the Akkar province.
It reported "unusual" PLFP-GC activity, including setting up rocket launchers, anti-aircraft guns and planting anti-personnel mines and anti-vehicle mines around its bases, in addition to sending more trained fighters to back-up its forces in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: PFLP-GC
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.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday condemned a US operation he said killed 16 civilians. Karzai said the killing of innocent Afghans during the US military operations 'is strengthening the terrorists' while hundreds of villagers denounced the American military during an angry demonstration.
Transporters in the NWFP on Sunday asked bus drivers to remove TVs and music players from their vehicles, following Taliban threats to bus owners a few days back. A banner put up at the general bus stand in Peshawar by Haji Zahir Shah Yousafzai, president of the Sarhad Transport Owners Federation, asked bus owners to remove audio and visual equipment by January 25. "If any TV or VCR is found in a vehicle after the deadline, the owner will be fined Rs 5,000 and the equipment will be seized," the banner read. 
The government formally took control of the main operational facility of the banned 
Swat Taliban have released a list of 43 people -- including former and incumbent ministers -- who they have declared 'wanted' and liable to punishment under the Taliban sharia.
Two US military aircraft have crashed in northern Iraq, killing four soldiers, the US military says.
Egypt on Sunday closed its Rafah crossing point with the Gaza Strip, fearing fresh Israeli attacks on the smuggling tunnels as Hamas proposed a one-year ceasefire instead of Israel's 18-months suggestion. 
Five 
