Tuesday - February 22, 2011

The Next Domino To Fall

Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has vowed to fight on and die a “martyr”, calling on his supporters to take back the streets from protesters demanding his ouster, shouting and pounding his fist in a furious speech on state TV.

Gaddafi, clad in brown robes and turban, spoke on Tuesday from a podium set up in the entrance of a bombed-out building that appeared to be his Tripoli residence hit by US air raids in the 1980s and left unrepaired as a monument of defiance.

“I am a fighter, a revolutionary from tents ... I will die as a martyr at the end,” he said.

“Muammar Gaddafi is the leader of the revolution, I am not a president to step down ... This is my country. Muammar is not a president to leave his post.”

“I have not yet ordered the use of force, not yet ordered one bullet to be fired ... when I do, everything will burn.”

He called on supporters to take to the streets to attack protesters. “You men and women who love Gaddafi ...get out of your homes and fill the streets,” he said. “Leave your homes and attack them in their lairs ... Starting tomorrow the cordons will be lifted, go out and fight them.”

Earlier, witnesses streaming across the Libyan border into Egypt said Gaddafi was using tanks, warplanes and mercenaries in an effort to stamp out the growing rebellion.

In the eastern city of Tobruk, a Reuters correspondent there said sporadic blasts could be heard, the latest sign that Gaddafi’s grip on the oil and gas exporting nation was weakening.

”All the eastern regions are out of Gaddafi’s control now ... The people and the army are hand-in-hand here,” said the now former army major Hany Saad Marjaa.

The bodies of protesters shot to death by forces loyal to Muammar al-Qaddafi were left on the streets of a restive district in the Libyan capital Tuesday, an opposition activist and a resident said, while the longtime leader defiantly went on state TV to show he was still in charge.

The eruption of turmoil in the capital after a week of protests and bloody clashes in Libya’s eastern cities has sharply escalated the challenge to Qaddafi. His security forces have unleashed the bloodiest crackdown of any Arab country against the wave of protests sweeping the region, which toppled leaders of Egypt and Tunisia.

World leaders also have expressed outrage. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Qaddafi to “stop this unacceptable bloodshed” and said the world was watching the events “with alarm.”

Mohammed Ali of the Libyan Salvation Front and a Tripoli resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said scores of bodies had been left on the streets in Fashloum after the pro-Qaddafi gunmen opened fire the night before. Ali, reached in Dubai, and the resident said the gunmen shot at ambulances and some protesters were left bleeding to death.

Meanwhile, over in Yemen:

Anti-government protesters in Yemen have resumed demonstrations to try to force Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president, to quit, burning a car belonging to his supporters in the capital Sanaa, reports say.

Tuesday’s protests broke out a day after a teenager was killed and four people wounded in a clash with soldiers in the country’s southern port of Aden, according to witnesses.

Demonstrators, inspired by revolts in Tunisia and Egypt that have forced long-serving presidents out of power, have been protesting for 12 days against the rule of Saleh, in power since 1978.

But mounting pressure has so far yielded little result as Saleh insists he will only step down after national elections are held in 2013.

He said protesters demanding an end to his rule could not achieve their goal through “anarchy and killing”.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/22/2011 at 01:01 PM   
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   Friday - February 11, 2011

Rat In A Drain Ditch, Caught On A Limb

A furious wave of protest finally swept Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak from power on Friday after 30 years of one-man rule, sparking jubilation on the streets and sending a warning to autocrats across the Arab world and beyond.

Mubarak, the second Arab leader to be overthrown by a popular uprising in a month, handed power to the army after 18 days of relentless rallies against poverty, corruption and repression caused support from the armed forces to evaporate.

Vice President Omar Suleiman said a military council would run the affairs of the Arab world’s most populous nation. A free and fair presidential election has been promised for September.

Ecstatic Egyptians celebrated in carnival mood on the streets and people embraced in Cairo’s Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, the main focus for protest. Many simply sobbed for joy.

Egypt exploded with joy, tears, and relief after pro-democracy protesters brought down President Hosni Mubarak with a momentous march on his palaces and state TV. Mubarak, who until the end seemed unable to grasp the depth of resentment over his three decades of authoritarian rule, finally resigned Friday and handed power to the military.

“The people ousted the regime,” rang out chants from crowds of hundreds of thousands massed in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square and outside Mubarak’s main palace several miles away in a northern district of the capital.

The protest movement that began on Jan. 25 grew from small groups of youth activists organizing on the Internet into a mass movement that tapped into the discontent to become the largest popular uprising in the Arab world.

Up to the last hours, Mubarak sought to cling to power, handing some of his authorities to Suleiman while keeping his title.

But an explosion of protests Friday rejecting the move appeared to have pushed the military into forcing him out completely. Hundreds of thousands marched throughout the day in cities across the country as soldiers stood by, besieging his palace in Cairo and Alexandria and the state TV building. A governor of a southern province was forced to flee to safety in the face of protests there.

His fall came 32 years to the day after the collapse of the shah’s government in Iran.

Switzerland has frozen assets possibly belonging to Hosni Mubarak, who stepped down as president of Egypt Friday after 30 years of rule, a spokesman for the foreign ministry said.

“I can confirm that Switzerland has frozen possible assets of the former Egyptian president with immediate effect,” spokesman Lars Knuchel said, declining to specify how much money was involved.

GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinians in Gaza let off fireworks and shot into the air to celebrate the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Friday, and the Islamist group Hamas called on Egypt’s new rulers to change his policies.

“The resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is the beginning of the victory of the Egyptian revolution,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

“Such a victory was the result of the sacrifices and the steadfastness of the Egyptian people,” he told Reuters.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/11/2011 at 01:23 PM   
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   Wednesday - February 02, 2011

On the lighter side

Posted by Drew458     on 02/02/2011 at 08:53 AM   
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   Sunday - January 30, 2011

Pun For Everyone

Obama has a really tough decision to make about Egypt and the nascent revolutions all across northern Africa. But in Egypt, what makes it the “wurst” is that this really is a “chickens coming home to roost” situation. Because Obama is Carter II. But this time it’s like he’s possessed. And what was Carter I most famous for? Why, golly gosh and y’all, for brokering the Camp David Accords, which developed some kind of peace and mutual recognition between Egypt and Israel, and lead directly to the Eqypt - Israel Peace Treaty shortly thereafter. It was a pretty monumental bit of diplomacy, getting former freedom fighter Menachim Begin to make an agreement with former freedom fighter Anwar El Sadat, when just a few years before their two countries had been at war with each other. For a few memorable days at any rate. I seem to recall that a whole boxful of Nobel Peace Prizes got handed out over that agreement. But all was not roses. When Sadat signed the Accord and the Treaty, Egypt got kicked out of the Arab League. Your average fellah in Egypt was not too happy either; just two years later Sadat was dead, gunned down on live international television by “radical fundamentalists”. ie, the Muslim Brotherhood. And then Hosni Mubarak stepped in and took over as Rais; President for life of Egypt.

How did Carter get these two to the table? How did he make Egypt our nominal ally forevermore? Mad skills I suppose. Or you could consider that Egypt has pretty much nothing in the way of resources. Seriously. What they have is mud, which is what they’ve had since the days of Nemer, who was Pharoah 1. Mud grows food much better than sand, but at best they can do little more than feed themselves. While Israel does have some resources, and I count the ingenuity of her people as a viable resource, they aren’t exactly Finland, which has a nickel mine under every other reindeer. So, how? Well, hmm ... could it be that Israel is the country that receives the largest amount of foreign aid from the USA, and Egypt is the second largest country? When did that start, or when did it really ramp up? Could it be that ol Jimmah just bought them both off? I hear that Egypt gets $1.5 Billion a year from us. So that’s the chicken.

The roosting part is that Mubarak is pretty much a dictator. Stifling dissent, jailing the opposition, gagging the press, those jackboots kicking in doors in the middle of the night. Somewhere there are electrodes making sparks in the darkest nights. I wouldn’t call him Mr. Popular. But he’s been our dictator, always. Bought and paid for, and we’ll just turn a blind eye as long as he keeps the islamaloonies under his thumb, keeps the Suez Canal open, and manages to not shoot any missiles into Israel. But the typical Egyptian in his galabeya and rope sandals does not see us as any kind of buddy. Not much of the 1.5 Bil seems to filter down to his level.

Weevil #1: If Obama throws his hat in the ring and comes out swinging for old Hosni, then the USA is once again a total hypocrite. The land of freedom supporting a harsh dictator? Not cool. What’s next, hiring their government torturers to restaff Abu Graib and bring it back to it’s “glory days”? Huge win for radical pisslam.

Weevil #2: If Obama turns his back on Mubarak, he’s abandoning a key ally due to his rough treatment of his own citizens. Which is EXACTLY the same reason why Carter twisted the jambiya in the Shah of Iran’s back, and will have exactly the same consequnce: the only real opposition in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood. Oh sure, they’re not an Official Terrorist Group. Shades of difference. Can you say “intifada” boys and girls? How about “hamas”? I knew that you could. At the very best, the Muslim Brotherhood are enablers of violent fundamentalists. Jihad Joe with Kung Fu grip and his turbo camel of doom. Suicide belt sold separately. Sure, Obama could try and bend the world press to making it look like he was backing freedom, but that backing would give the people the freedom to become another rabid national mullah run mob like Iran. Bad scene. It’s taken 30 years for the regular folks in Iran to figure out that we aren’t the Great Satan after all; we’re not the real enemy, their own government is. And that crazy squad is nowhere even close to stepping down from power. They’re too busy stoning women and hanging homosexuals and making laws about men getting whipped for having too tidy a beard. Huge win for radical pisslam.

Yes, I could do a Princess Bride segue here, because the whole situation reminds me of Vizzini’s battle of wits with the Man In Black to figure out which wine goblet has the iocaine powder in it. And the truth is the same: they both do. There is no win in this for us.

Instead, I’ll take the obvious path: As you can see in the above images, both weevils are the same size, so Obama can’t even choose the lesser of two weevils. And to push that metaphor further along, it really bolls me over that Obama is probably going to do what he’s best at, which is to Vote Present and let the chips fall where they may. And that really galls me.

Alas, the upside will be that, no matter which way he does turn, the media will be 1000.37% sympathetic and supportive. Had Bush been in this no-win position, the press would be building crosses and heating the branding irons white hot even before he made a single statement.

Stay tuned.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/30/2011 at 09:55 PM   
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   Wednesday - January 12, 2011

Lebanon Government Falls

Sorry. This must have been a misstatement from the newscaster. There has not been an assassination, however the government has collapsed. The Lebanese Prime Minister is actually meeting with President Obama right now.

[Updated at 11:13 a.m.] Lebanon’s unity government collapsed Wednesday after Minister of State Adnan Sayyed Hussein turned in his resignation, the 11th Cabinet member to do so.

[Posted at 10:26 a.m.] Members of the powerful Hezbollah movement and its allies resigned from Lebanon’s unity government Wednesday, raising fears of renewed political crisis in the region.

As the Lebanese government faced collapse, Prime Minister Saad Hariri was meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House.

But it does seem to be true that the fragile unity government has been broken by the allied-with-terrorists-ministers quitting. And they quit because of the investigation into the assassination of the previous PM, who was the father of the current PM. So much for unity, and I can see how a TV talking head could get it wrong.

Breaking: Unity Government In Lebanon Collapses
Formerly: Breaking News: the Prime Minister of Lebanon has been assassinated.

This comes on the heels of Hezbollah pulling out of the government in that country, in an attempt to topple the government:

Hizbullah resigns from Lebanese government
By ASSOCIATED PRESS JPOST.COM STAFF
01/12/2011 17:59

Lebanese energy minister told a news conference that 10 ministers are pulling out of gov’t over Hariri tribunal deadlock.

BEIRUT— A Lebanese official says Hizbullah ministers and their allies have resigned from the Cabinet, bringing the government to the brink of collapse.

Lebanese Energy Minister Jibran Bassil told a news conference Wednesday that 10 ministers are pulling out. They need just one more minister to resign in order to force the government to fall and an 11th minister could resign later in the day.

The ministers are stepping down from the 30-member Cabinet over tensions stemming from a UN-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

The ministers were planning to resign in the afternoon unless Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri — the son of the slain leader — agrees to their demand to convene an urgent Cabinet meeting over the tribunal crisis, Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalifeh said on Hizbullah ‘s Al-Manar TV.

Hizbullah members are expected to be indicted by the Hariri tribunal, which will hand over its findings within “hours or days,” according to a Wednesday report in Lebanese newspaper An Nahar.

Hizbullah has denounced the tribunal as an “Israeli project” and urged Hariri to reject any findings by the court, which has not yet announced any indictments.

Saad’s father, Rafiq Hariri, was assassinated in 2005. He was also prime minister.

More details as this story breaks ...
CAUTION: THIS MAY ONLY BE RUMOR! But it does seem to be the case that the government in Lebanon is falling.

Lebanon’s national unity government has collapsed after Hezbollah ministers and their allies resigned over a U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The state-run National News Agency announced Wednesday that 11 ministers were stepping down from the 30-member Cabinet headed by Western-backed Saad Hariri, the slain prime minister’s son.

Hezbollah needed the backing of more than a third of the ministers to bring down the government.

SOURCE AT FOX NEWS

Posted by Drew458     on 01/12/2011 at 10:56 AM   
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   Thursday - April 29, 2010

Jumpin’ Jack Flash

Egypt denies claims it gassed terrorists in border tunnels

An Egyptian intelligence official on Thursday denied allegations leveled by Hamas that Egypt pumped gas into a cross-border tunnel used to smuggle goods into the Gaza Strip, killing four Palestinians.

Egypt has been under pressure to shut down the hundreds of tunnels that are a key economic lifeline for the blockaded Palestinian territory but which are also used to bring in weapons for the Islamic militant group.

The intelligence official confirmed that Egyptian security forces destroyed the entrances to several tunnels this week, but said that no gas was used in the operations. He said that Egypt routinely blows up the mouths to the tunnels to seal them off, and that the blast and an ensuing fire could quickly use up all the oxygen in the confined space, causing people caught inside to suffocate.

Egypt’s denial comes a day after Hamas accused Egyptian forces of killing four Palestinians by pumping gas into a smuggling tunnel. The Hamas Interior Ministry said in a statement late Wednesday that the gas used to try to clear the tunnel was poisonous. It said six people were also injured.

It was not immediately clear what evidence Hamas was basing its allegations on.

Palestinian officials in Rafah say Egypt has stepped up a crackdown on smuggling in recent months, blowing up numerous tunnel entrances on its side of the border, setting up checkpoints in the area and confiscating contraband. Since December, Egypt has also been building an underground steel wall to block the tunnels.

Rafah officials have said about four miles (six kilometers) of that barrier — covering roughly half of the border area — is already complete.

Gee, I wonder if Egypt has access to thermobaric explosives? That way both sides could be right, as I’m certain that breathing any of the unexploded gases is not good for your health. And they do tend to use up all the available oxygen, in less than a few milliseconds. FOOM.

Or this could be more BS from Hamas, which is always a good bet. Secret tunnels don’t have much ventilation, and too many rats in one at a given time will use up all the air. It’s also possible that something being smuggled blew up, in typical splodeydope fashion.

Bottom line is 4 terrorists are dead and another 6 wounded. It’s a start.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/29/2010 at 02:27 PM   
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   Friday - April 23, 2010

International BMEWS

Good heavens, we have a reader on right now from Susah Tunisia. And another one from Egypt.

Love it. I hope these folks can read English, because this site isn’t done in Arabic.

Well, a big friendly howdy to y’all if you come here in peace. And an even bigger go fuck yourself with an angry cobra if you’re just trolling this blog looking for something to get uppity about. Yeah, we’re against all forms of militant jihad here. And we’re against any form of religion that calls for violence or limits certain people’s rights. Deal with it. On the other hand, if you happen to be one of those mythical moderates our media is always alluding to, and you want a place to publish an essay about tolerance and peace, then you are welcome to sign on and I WILL publish what you write.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/23/2010 at 11:51 AM   
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   Sunday - April 04, 2010

Cannibal Jews and Stayin’ Alive

I really don’t know where to start, so I’ll just present this as found. No, I didn’t inhale.

Enjoy.

H/T The Jawa Report.

Posted by Christopher     on 04/04/2010 at 04:17 PM   
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   Sunday - March 28, 2010

He’s only running for Congress… sad

Col. Allen West is running for Congress down in Florida. Here’s an example of his views:

Needless to say, this view interested me. I’ve been saying this since 9/11. This man knows his history. So I checked out his website. I specifically read his ‘Issues’ page.

I have only one question: Why is this man only running for Congress? President West sounds good to me.

H/T Vilmar

Posted by Christopher     on 03/28/2010 at 07:29 AM   
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   Saturday - February 27, 2010

Gaddafi calls for jihad against Switzerland. The idiot is very serious. Lets hope it comes to naught

This is not exactly how I planned to start the day of posts but, events or in this case that and articles like this one decide for me.

My guess is you may have already heard this on your nightly news. ? 

While I think we all agree and hope it comes to nothing, nothing is certain about ‘those people’ except that they will embrace any excuse to the west harm.

This guy truly is a number one grade ‘A’ wack job of the first order.  He and his chest full of funny looking medals. Phony looking more like.
The guy has no class, he is beneath contempt and I can’t find the words I need to describe the rest.  He’s also very cunning but still manages to be a total jerk.
Take a look.

World powers react with outrage? Uh huh. And what else?  Rhetoric. That’s the ticket. Words and all empty like the threats to do what exactly? Yeah. Like words won the last major war in the 40s.

World powers have reacted with outrage to a call by Colonel Gaddafi of Libya for holy war on the “obscene, infidel” state of Switzerland.

Col Gaddafi took a long-running and personal feud with the historically neutral European country to new heights with a speech in which he attacked the ban on new minarets on mosques approved by a Swiss referendum last year.

“Those who destroy God’s mosques deserve to be attacked through jihad, and if Switzerland was on our borders, we would fight it,” he said. “Jihad against Switzerland, against Zionism, against foreign aggression is not terrorism.”

He called for a boycott of Switzerland by the Islamic world. “Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against Mohammad, God and the Koran,” he said.

“The masses of Muslims must go to all airports in the Islamic world and prevent any Swiss plane landing, to all harbours and prevent any Swiss ships docking, inspect all shops and markets to stop any Swiss goods being sold.”

SOURCE AND MORE

“Those who destroy God’s mosques”
Just shows he’s only looking for an excuse to attack the Swiss someway, somehow.  If he’s really any kinda serious and honest muslim which I doubt, he’d know those minarets are not a religious icon and aren’t even in his koran, according to islamic specialists. Another case of another muddled , mudhead looking for trouble.

Posted by peiper     on 02/27/2010 at 06:35 AM   
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   Tuesday - January 12, 2010

A MOST EXPENSIVE PARTY LAUNCH. BUT THE PARTY’S OVER.

I don’t suppose many of you have followed this story much if at all.  Being somewhat closer to this, Dubai has figured in the news here quite often since this SPECTACULAR opening of the resort for billionaires.  We’ve been buried in beautiful photos of the place and at the beginning there were all these very positive comments and promises for the bright future ahead.
Well, Aladdin’s lamp has gone darkish as the place has all but gone bust.  Empty and decaying (already) apt. complexes, restaurants that either never opened as scheduled or if they did have now closed.  Nowadays the photos we see of this grandiose dream are sadly not so forward looking and the future does indeed look grim.  The developers had hoped that one of the rich Arab countries might shovel in some needed cash, and they did indeed get some from one of the Arab states.  I forgot which one.

Dubai is a place where a person goes to jail for an offense like a bounced check. They are very serious about that.
Photos we see now show expensive cars simply left in the street to collect dust as the owners have walked away, broke. They have left homes and apts the same way.  Simply abandoned and very many have had to sneak out of the country. Not that they were involved in any criminal activity mind you.  But they found the bubble had burst and their funds were either non existent or near to being so.  They could no longer pay the staggering bills and faced jail, and so left.  Many others have stayed trying as best they can to salvage something.  The people one really has to feel sorry for, are the many who were recruited to work there as waiters and maids and low level jobs, who came from foreign countries and are now at the mercy of ppl who don’t have a large supply of that.  While the money wasn’t huge by our standards, it was by the standards of the countries they were recruited from. 

Until today, I hadn’t seen this 2008 video.  In ‘08 I was busy 27/7 helping the wife with a bed ridden elderly mother and I guess I missed a lot.
Better late then never though because this really is a sight to see.  Notice the cost of the party.  They didn’t.

Dubai resort The Atlantis stages most expensive launch party ever
The global recession may be biting, but try telling that to the Hollywood celebrities and billionaire business moguls who attended the opening of Dubai’s latest luxury resort, The Atlantis.

By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor
Published: 4:07PM GMT 20 Nov 2008

More than 2,000 guests attended the event on the man-made Palm Jumeirah island in the Persian Gulf. Robert De Niro, Janet Jackson, Denzel Washington and Lindsay Lohan were among them, while the British contingent included the Duchess of York, Sir Richard Branson, Dame Shirley Bassey, retail boss Sir Philip Green, television presenter Trinny Woodall and the singer Lily Allen.

They feasted on lobster and Middle Eastern mezze and the Veuve Clicquot champagne flowed freely, although the presence of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, and a sizeable number of other Muslim guests ensured that the drinks bill was relatively modest.

Security at the party was so tight that a two-mile exclusion zone was thrown around the island.

Kylie Minogue performed on stage for a reported £1.5 million fee but the real entertainment of the night was provided by the pyrotechnics. One million fireworks – almost 10 times the scale of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony – lit up the Palm, with the organisers claiming the display was visible from space.

Even in Dubai, a part of the world renowned for excess, there had never been a party like it.

“We built something that’s quite extraordinary. We’ve got to tell the world about it,” said Sol Kerzner, the South African billionaire hotelier and casino tycoon.

The 1,539-room Atlantis took two years to build and cost £1 billion. Mr Kerzner admitted that the global economic downturn would have an effect on business.

“We are in a challenging time. The economy is basically in a recession and we have to adjust to the changing circumstances. We have to be careful with our cost levels” he said, although he did not believe he had splashed out too much on his guests: “I didn’t lay on private jets. They either came in their own private jets or by regular airline.”

Colin Cowie, the party planner, likened the logistics of organising the beachside party to the Normandy landings. He added: “People say, ‘How do you have a party like this in these economic times?’ But the funds were allocated a year ago, and you have to dream big to get a big result.”

THE PARTY’S OVER

From The Times
November 28, 2009

The spectre of “Financial Crisis 2” continued to loom over global markets yesterday after Dubai’s revelation that it may not be able to meet its debt obligations.

Stock markets in Asia and the United States fell sharply while the dollar and Japanese yen rose as investors shifted their money to their perceived safety.

UK banks were also revealed to be the biggest lenders to the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, with more than $50 billion owed by the Gulf state’s residents.

In another blow to the beleaguered UK banking sector, the Royal Bank of Scotland emerged as the largest single loan-arranger to Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate that sparked this latest financial crisis when it sought a standstill on its debt repayments on Wednesday.
Related Links

RBS, which is owned by British taxpayers, has arranged loans worth up to $2.3 billion to Dubai World.

The Financial Services Authority, the regulator, is understood to have sought assurances from banks that their exposure to Dubai will not threaten their financial strength. The FSA said it would continue to keep a close eye on the situation.

Dubai World, which owns a range of assets including the Turnberry golf club in southwest Scotland, sparked panic when it asked for the debt standstill. The company has liabilities of $60 billion and its Nakheel property division, which built the Palm Jumeirah development where the footballers David Beckham and Michael Owen own houses, was due to repay a $3.5 billion bond next month.

The standstill has raised the prospect that Dubai World and, by extension, the government of Dubai might default on their debt.

TIMES

Here’s a link for a lot of other links on the subject.  Makes for some fascinating reading.

BYE-BYE-DUBAI

notice the dates on these two stories. didn’t take long.

Posted by peiper     on 01/12/2010 at 11:03 AM   
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   Thursday - November 05, 2009

Smoke and Mirrors and Bombs

The pointy end of the stick, where diplomacy fails and government statements try to hide the truth.

Israel’s navy has seized a container ship originating in Iran and loaded with arms, including rockets, destined for Syria and Lebanon’s Shia group Hizbollah, the Israeli military said on Wednesday.

The pre-dawn interception was used by Israeli government officials to underscore their argument that their arch-foe was supplying weapons to militant groups targeting the Jewish state. Israel has warned that Hizbollah has been rearming since the group launched more than 4,000 rockets into its territory during a 34-day war in mid-2006.

Israel’s military said a navy force boarded the ship, which was flying the flag of Antigua, about 100 miles west of Israel’s coast. Following an inspection that showed the ship carried a variety of weapons hidden behind what appeared to be civilian cargo, it was towed to an Israeli port.

Shimon Peres, Israel’s president, said during a visit to a military base: “The army successfully captured a ship that seems to have come from Iran and was heading to Syria and to Hizbollah. . .  Iran and Syria are arming terror organisations, especially Hizbollah and Hamas, and are clearly acting to undermine peace in the Middle East.”

JERUSALEM – Israeli commandos seized a ship Wednesday that defense officials said was carrying hundreds of tons of weapons from Iran bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas – the largest arms shipment Israel has ever commandeered.

The Israeli military said an Iranian document was found on board, showing that the arms shipment originated from Iran, although the paper was not shown to reporters.

“We found dozens of containers, with hundreds of tonnes of arms bound for Hezbollah from Iran,” deputy naval commander Rani Ben Yehuda told reporters.

At Ashdod port, soldiers pulled hundreds of olive-green ammunition crates from the shipping containers, many of them surrounded by sacks of cement meant to disguise the contents. They were then divided into huge stacks of rockets of various sizes, mortar shells, hand grenades and ammunition for AK-47 rifles. Many of the weapons crates had inscriptions in Spanish, Chinese and English.
No anti-aircraft or anti-tank missiles have been found on the ship, Ben-Yehuda said, but he added that soldiers were still unpacking containers.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that the ship set out from Iran and later docked in Yemen and Sudan before passing through the Suez Canal en route to either Syria or Lebanon.

Stopped in Sudan and Yemen first? Supplying the rebels in both places? Sounds like a floating arms bazaar! Oh, if only International Law could close that bothersome Arms Ship Loophole!

Was Not!!

In Tehran, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem dismissed the Israeli allegations that the ship carried arms. His remarks were carried by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV station and other Lebanese local stations.

“Unfortunately, some official pirates in the seas, sometimes in the name of the navy, sometimes in the name of inspection, obstruct trade movement between Syria and Iran,” al-Moallem said at a joint news conference with his Iranian counterpart.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Wednesday that the cargo ship seized by Israel was not carrying weapons, the official IRNA news agency reported. Mottaki made the remarks in a joint press conference with his visiting Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem on Wednesday.

Asked about the reports over the seizure of an Iranian cargo ship on the coasts of Israel, Muallem said, “Such a thing is not correct and the ship was moving from Syria to Iran and was not carrying any weapons nor the equipment to construct weapons.”

“Since the Israeli leadership and society are not ready for peace, they are using any pretext to shun peace obligations, and one is the issue of the Iranian shipment,” said Ghassan Khatib, a spokesman for the West Bank-based Palestinian government.

Hezbollah on Thursday denied the weapons were for them. There was no comment from Lebanese officials.

“Hezbollah categorically denies it has any connection with the weapons which the Zionist enemy claims it seized aboard the Francop ship,” Hezbollah said in a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Beirut.

The Bigger Picture

The arms shipment underscored the dangerous tensions between Israel and the Islamic Republic. Israel considers Iran a strategic threat because of its nuclear program and long-range missile development, and says Tehran is lying when it denies it is building atomic arms.

Iran has never acknowledged giving weapons to Hezbollah, which fought a monthlong war with Israel in 2006. Proof of large-scale Iranian weapons shipments to its proxy forces on Israel’s borders could reinforce Israeli demands for tough action — possibly even a pre-emptive strike — against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Israeli defense officials said the weapons haul consisted of arms already in Hezbollah’s possession [ huh? WTF? translation error? ], and would have given the Lebanese guerrilla group the ability to fight a full month longer in the event of a clash with Israel on the scale of the 2006 war.

The defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the military has yet to formally comment on the potential value of the shipment’s contents to militants.

The presence of Iranian proxies in the Mideast, combined with worries over Tehran’s nuclear program and arsenal of long-range missiles, have made Iran the Jewish state’s most formidable foe.

Neutralizing Iran’s bomb-making ability remains Netanyahu’s top priority — and Israel has not ruled out a military strike against Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/05/2009 at 11:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Israel • Middle-East • Terrorists •  
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   Monday - June 08, 2009

Plenty of Sand, No Surf

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – Some 7,000 of the new U.S. troops ordered to Afghanistan are fanning out across the dangerous south on a mission to defeat the Taliban insurgency and to change the course of a war claiming American lives at a record pace.

The Marines represent the first wave of 21,000 troops ordered to Afghanistan this summer by President Barack Obama. Most of the Marine buildup will occur in Helmand, the world’s largest opium poppy-growing region and Afghanistan’s most violent province. Helmand borders Pakistan, where the Taliban’s top leadership is believed to be based.

“This is where the fight is, in Afghanistan,” said 1st Sgt. Christopher Watson, who like many here has also served in Iraq. “We are here to get the job done.”

Some 7,000 Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, are now in the country, Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Abe Sipe said. The forces have brought fighter aircraft, transport helicopters, artillery and the infrastructure needed to support what will ultimately be a force of around 11,000.

Most of the newly arrived Marines are now stationed at Camp Leatherneck, a small base in the center of Helmand expanding by the hour as workers build permanent structures. Some Marines have moved out to smaller outposts and are patrolling Helmand’s deserts under a harsh summer sun.

Commanders warn that U.S. deaths are likely to increase this summer, the traditional fighting season in Afghanistan.

Assuming Obama lets them, these guys are there to do what Marines do: go to some God Awful place to do some God Awful job with the least possible resources, only to be ignored or vilified by the press or forgotten about by most citizens.

The deserts of Afghanistan in summer. To root out the Talies and the druggies, who don’t even need to change their clothes to hid amongst the civilians. This is the new theater in the ongoing fight.

You do know that the AnySoldier.com program has an AnyMarine.com branch? Aside from cards and letters, these folks need all sorts of hot weather items, plus the usual baby wipes, snacks, magazines, paperback books, AA & AAA batteries, beef jerky, and so forth. Let us not forget those who still serve.

Click this for more information

... you know, I’m thinking back to when Kim DuToit and everybody did that Walter-Adam project for the Deuce Four in Mosul ... 

Posted by Drew458     on 06/08/2009 at 09:24 AM   
Filed Under: • Middle-East • Military •  
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   Friday - February 06, 2009

Hamas raids aid trucks, sells supplies. meanwhile, President has authorized use of $20.3 million

Middle East
Documents & Texts from the Department of State
30 January 2009
United States Humanitarian Support to Palestinians

Media Note
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
January 30, 2009

President Barack Obama has authorized the use of $20.3 million from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance (ERMA) Fund to address critical post-conflict humanitarian needs in Gaza. U.S. Government support for humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees and conflict victims now totals nearly $120 million in FY 2009, including nearly $60 million in Gaza.

Of the $20.3 million in new ERMA funds, $13.5 million will go to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), $6 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and $800,000 to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). These organizations are distributing emergency food assistance, providing medical assistance and temporary shelter, creating temporary employment, and restoring access to electricity and potable water to the people of Gaza.

Today’s contribution to UNRWA augments the $85 million the United States contributed in December 2008 toward UNRWA’s 2009 appeals. Of that amount, $25 million supported UNRWA emergency operations in West Bank and Gaza. The remaining $60 million supported UNRWA’s services for 4.6 million Palestinian refugees in the region, including Gaza. UNRWA is the largest provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza, providing 70 percent of the population with emergency food assistance, essential healthcare, and primary education. We are working to develop a longer-term reconstruction/development effort with international partners.

MORE OF THIS STORY

PRETTY NEAT HUH FOLKS?  HEY, ARE WE GENEROUS ER WHAT?  NOT THAT I PERSONALLY WANNA BE.
I THINK YOU PEOPLE READING THIS MAY HAVE ALREADY KNOWN.  I POSTED IT FOR THE USUAL REASON BUT MOSTLY I THOUGH IT TIED IN WELL WITH THE FOLLOWING.  HAVE YOU SEEN THIS ONE BELOW ALREADY?

Hamas on Monday raided some 100 aid trucks that Israel had allowed into Gaza, stole their contents and sold them to the highest bidders.

Gaza op, Day 17 The IDF said that since terminal activity is coordinated with UNRWA and the Red Cross, Israel could do nothing to prevent such raids, Israel Radio reported.

Between 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the army had ceased all military activity in Gaza and once again established a “humanitarian corridor” to help facilitate the transfer of the supplies.

The Kerem Shalom and Karni crossings had been opened to allow in the aid trucks.

Security officials at Kerem Shalom thwarted an attempt to smuggle electrical goods, disguised as humanitarian supplies, into Gaza. The electrical goods included computers, infra-red cameras, ovens, microwaves and other electronic equipment.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has forbidden the entry of electronics to Gaza since the goods do not fall under the category of humanitarian aid. Some electronic equipment has been let in as per an official Palestinian request, such as equipment used to repair the damaged electrical grid in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israel is considering establishing a field hospital in the Gaza Strip to treat Palestinian civilians wounded in fighting between the IDF and Hamas.

The plan would be to establish the field hospital outside the Gaza Strip, but the IDF is also considering the possibility of erecting the hospital inside the Palestinian territory so it will be more accessible to the Palestinian population. It would be run by the IDF Medical Corps.

Also Monday, in an effort to promote Israeli humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip, the Defense Ministry launched a new Web site that provides a live video feed of the Kerem Shalom cargo crossing, through which international organizations have been transferring basic foods and medical supplies to Gaza.

Since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, the IDF has facilitated the transfer of close to 900 trucks into the Gaza Strip with over 20,000 tons of basic foods and medical supplies.

According to an army estimate on Monday, slightly over 900 Palestinians have been killed since Operation Cast Lead began in December 2008. Based on intelligence and information obtained by the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration, the IDF has determined that at least 400 of those killed are known Hamas operatives. The IDF further believes that among the remaining 500, a significant number are also Hamas operatives.

JERUSALEM POST

I have heard no words of outrage with regard to this last article. Heard a UN rep. on the radio and that was the first I knew about it. Don’t see any anti Hamas demonstrations in the streets however.

Posted by peiper     on 02/06/2009 at 10:53 AM   
Filed Under: • Middle-East • Miscellaneous • Terrorists •  
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