October 2009 Archives

Who wants to have a party? We can drink and sing loud songs at the top of our lungs. Nice ones about breakfast meats!

http://gothamist.com/2009/10/28/muslims_request_to_move_bar_laughed.php

The lovely-looking restaurant and bar The Breslin begins lunch service tomorrow, and co-owner Ken Friedman (The Spotted Pig) is planning on serving alcohol despite objections from the Masjid Ar-Rahman mosque across the street. Earlier this month the mosque's leaders called a meeting with Friedman at The Ace Hotel, where The Breslin is located, and asked, "Can you move the bar?" Friedman's response makes us want to hurry over to The Breslin right now for a dram of Laphroaig to show our support (and drown out the voices):

I laughed. And the guy said, "Oh, you think that's funny?" And I said, "Yeah, that is funny, that is really funny, because we're not going to move the bar just because you discovered we're serving booze." Can you name one restaurant in New York that doesn't serve booze? I said, "This is the United States of America and we'll do whatever the fuck we want." He said the mosque had suggested it couldn't control the behavior of "a few bad eggs"; i.e., we could get a brick through our window.

Friedman notified police of the threat, but just to show he's not a hard-hearted man, that it's not all dollars and cents, he agreed to put a curtain over the windows so devout Muslims wouldn't be corrupted by the sight of infidel inebriation. But the curtain hasn't arrived yet, so over the weekend he actually taped paper over the windows to hide a gay wedding. A volunteer at the mosque says city law forbids serving liquor within 200 feet of a place of worship and that "not more than 200 feet is between the mosque and the bar."

But Ace Hotel developer Andrew Zobler tells The Observer, "The law is clear that in order for that to apply it has to be an exclusively dedicated house of worship, and at their space they have both residences and a restaurant, so basically, because of those uses the law allowed there to be a bar within 200 feet. Everyone was aware of that when the liquor license was granted." And Friedman adds, "They can threaten, but they can't really stop us." Yeah, heh, what are these devout, pissed-off Muslims gonna do?

What a crock. Obama has not met a dictator that he does not love. Just like Carter. Too bad neither likes democratic governments.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/10/30/zelaya-returned-to-power/

Zelaya returned to power
posted at 8:48 am on October 30, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

Now we know why John Kerry demanded that the Law Library of Congress withdraw its report declaring the removal of Manuel Zelaya from the Honduran presidency legal, weeks after the issuance of the report. Honduras, under new pressure from the US, has agreed to allow Zelaya to return as president to the Central American nation under an agreement announced this morning. However, there is one piece of good news, assuming Zelaya keeps his word:

The interim government of Honduras has yielded to international pressure and agreed to allow the return to power of Manuel Zelaya, the ousted President who was toppled in a military coup four months ago.

The breakthrough came after renewed pressure from senior US officials who travelled to Honduras this week for a last-ditch effort to end the crisis.

"It is a triumph for Honduran democracy," said Mr Zelaya after the rival sides agreed to a deal under which he may be reinstated as President within days.

Well, no, it's actually not a triumph for Honduran democracy. The parliament in Tegulcigapa had voted unanimously for his removal after Zelaya attempted to violate the nation's constitution and fake a referendum vote, for which ample evidence existed. It's actually a triumph for American interventionalism, which this administration pretended to eschew. So much for a humble foreign policy

I said that Obama needed to do this. I guess he does have a good adviser some place. But why isn't he getting one? That would prove that it is safe and good for everyone.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091027/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_daughters_swine_flu_2

President Barack Obama's daughters, Malia and Sasha, have received their swine flu shots.

The White House announced on its Web site Tuesday that Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, got the shots from a White House doctor last week.

The doctor, who was not identified, applied for and received the vaccine from the city's health department "using the same process as every other vaccination site in the District" of Columbia, said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for first lady Michelle Obama.

McCormick Lelyveld said the president and Mrs. Obama would wait to get their shots until after people in priority groups, such as children, young adults and pregnant women, have been vaccinated against the strain of flu known as H1N1.

News that the Obama sisters have received their swine flu shots was likely to raise questions about whether they had been given preferential treatment. It also could anger parents who are having difficulty getting shots for their own children because of shortages in the promised vaccine production and the way the vaccine that is available is being distributed.

At the same time, Obama has been urged to vaccinate the girls to encourage parents skeptical about the vaccine's safety to do the same.

Obama last week declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency, and gave his health secretary power to let hospitals move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment and protect patients not infected with the virus.

I would not normally worry to much about a race in New York, but this guy sounds like a real conservative as well as a Conservative. He is picking up some good endorsements, too!

This endorsement is what has finally turned the tide for him and shot down the efforts of the Establishment parties to keep this seat. Congratulations Mr Hoffman!

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2009/10/iowahawk-endorses.html

Unless the candidate is me, I have made it a practice to abstain from issuing formal endorsements for political races. In the case of Douglas Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate for the US Congress in New York's 23rd district, I will make a happy exception.

Canuck reader Maryann Crabtree forwards this photo of the candidate posing proudly in front of his Two Lane Blacktop - worthy 1955 Chevy 210 2-door sedan. Note missing rear bumper. Note radiused rear wheel well. Note nose-up gasser stance. Note the all-bidness custom paint, which appears to be a blend of Hugger Orange and Riverside Red. An educated guess tells me that lurking under the hood is a high winding destroked 301 small block, mating a small journal 327 block with a 283 crank, with a set of Doug Thorley or Hooker headers huffing through glass packs. White ball Hurst shifter atop a Muncie 4-speed, natch. Visual cues indicate this photo was taken circa 1969; thus, while his Congressional cohort was tripping on brown acid in the mud at Max Yasgur's farm, Mr. Hoffman was gearslamming down the quarter mile at Fulton Speedway.

Yessirree bob, this photo tells me everything I need to know about Mr. Hoffman, and I enthusiastically give him my full support. As it turns out Mr. Hoffman still loves cars, and his family is still involved in the classic car restoration business. This, I have learned, is now the basis of attack ads from his Democrat and Republican foes in the race.

Which tells me everything I need to know about them.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htiw/articles/20091026.aspx

October 26, 2009: As with Iraq, the troops in Afghanistan (no matter what country they are from) know, from their own experience, that their service there matters. Many of their countrymen back home do not, and the media does little to change this opinion. The main reason given by the media is that the soldiers just don't understand what they are experiencing, and fail to see the "big picture."

http://soldiersangels.org/index.php?page=join-marines-team

Saw this and had to share! Enjoy it, ya'll

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTs6a0ORdQU

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2009/10/exposing-goldstone/index.shtml

1. The Goldstone report draws its conclusions on the basis of 36 incidents it says it investigated. The report says that incidents are illustrative and therefore justify the broader conclusions made by the report. But Goldstone admits that the report lied in saying that the incidents are "illustrative" and in saying that the Mission worked according to its self-described neutral mandate rather than the official biased one. Goldstone says "We chose those 36 because they seemed to be, to represent the most serious, the highest death toll, the highest injury toll. And they appear to represent situations where there was little or no military justification for what happened." In other words, the Mission chose incidents that were seen as NOT ILLUSTRATIVE, and, rather, most likely to support a finding of war crimes.

2. Goldstone repeatedly misstates the law in the interview.

1. Goldstone implicitly misstates the rule of distinction. Goldstone rightly says that the rule of distinction requires combatants to distinguish between "combatants and innocent civilians." But then, he "pro

See? This is why everyone hates the Joos!! The Jews are actively working to help humanity! How horrible!

So wonder so many people hate them.

Of course, logical people love them for this. If this vaccine will keep me from getting the flu again, I want it! For me, my wife, my kids, my family... Even my pets. And most of my friends. Yes, some of you could use a good case of the flu.

http://www.thejidf.org/2009/10/israeli-company-says-it-developed-super.html

Israeli Company Says it Developed Super-Vaccine for Flu

(IsraelNN.com) BiondVaxm, an Israeli company located in Rehovot, says it has developed a vaccine that can treat all forms of flu - including swine flu and bird flu - and does not require annual inoculations to renew the vaccinations. According to a report Sunday, a number of studies have taken place over the past 20 years at the Weizmann Institute, which show extremely positive results.

A new series of tests have been authorized by the Health Ministry, and if these are successful as well, the company is likely to get a green light for production of the vaccine.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/21/cbsnews_investigates/main5404829.shtml?tag=cbsnewsMainColumnArea

If you've been diagnosed "probable" or "presumed" 2009 H1N1 or "swine flu" in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn't have H1N1 flu.

In fact, you probably didn't have flu at all. That's according to state-by-state test results obtained in a three-month-long CBS News investigation.

The ramifications of this finding are important. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Britain's National Health Service, once you have H1N1 flu, you're immune from future outbreaks of the same virus. Those who think they've had H1N1 flu -- but haven't -- might mistakenly presume they're immune. As a result, they might skip taking a vaccine that could help them, and expose themselves to others with H1N1 flu under the mistaken belief they won't catch it. Parents might not keep sick children home from school, mistakenly believing they've already had H1N1 flu.

Why the uncertainty about who has and who hasn't had H1N1 flu?

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/199350.php

President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency and empowered his health secretary to suspend federal requirements and speed treatment for thousands of infected people.

The declaration that Obama signed late Friday authorized Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to bypass federal rules so health officials can respond more quickly to the outbreak, which has killed more than 1,000 people in the United States.

The goal is to remove bureaucratic roadblocks and make it easier for sick people to seek treatment and medical providers to provide it immediately. That could mean fewer hurdles involving Medicare, Medicaid or health privacy regulations.

http://www.examiner.com/x-2879-Austin-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m10d21-Selfdefense-and-911-reality

Jorge Guzman locked himself in his bedroom, called 911, and waited for help while a home invader prowled around in his home. Armed with his handgun, the emergency operator told him repeatedly that help was on the way. As the minutes dragged on like hours to a frightened Guzman, he was told to put down his gun because the next person he saw would be a deputy. He almost complied, which may have drastically changed the outcome.

KHOU carries the entire 911 recording. A frightened Guzman is speaking so quietly-the intruder is already inside-that the operate asks him to repeat himself many times.
After 90 seconds, she transfers him to a dispatcher, who asks him to describe his property and where he is in the house. The dispatcher then asks the same questions as the operator. Four minutes and 45 seconds into the tape, the dispatcher finally tells him help is on the way.
In the next minute, she tells him 6 times that deputies are "right down the street." At this point, Guzman tells her the invader is trying to open his bedroom door. Nearly 7 minutes into the tape, she tells him "they [deputies] are right outside" and to put his gun down.
Thirty seconds later, she assures him: "If you hear something outside, it's gonna be the deputy." At eight minutes, she tells him there are "four deputies outside your house" and assures him a second time they are outside.
Nine minutes into the tape, she assures him again deputies are outside and are looking at his house. About 15-20 seconds later, you hear the bedroom door being broken down, then Guzman shoots the intruder as he enters the bedroom. After that, Guzman's voice gets louder and clearer, now that he sees the wounded intruder run away.

http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2009/10/apostate-girls-father-lied-repeatedly.html

This could result in her being able to get asylum in the U.S. -- or it could end up causing her to be sent back to Sri Lanka, where she could be murdered or institutionalized.

Rifqa Bary Update: "Rifqa Bary's Family Risks Deportation," by Pamela Geller for Newsmax, October 19:

Last Tuesday there was yet another hearing for Rifqa Bary, the girl who converted from Islam to Christianity and fled to Florida from her family in Ohio after saying that her father threatened her life.

It was agreed that Ohio has jurisdiction in her case. That means Rifqa is ultimately to be returned to Ohio, but not so fast: the Florida court maintains emergency jurisdiction.

And Florida Judge Daniel Dawson is firm: Rifqa will not be returned to Ohio until the family's immigration status is cleared up.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/10/another_former_gitmo.php

On Oct. 13, a former Guantanamo detainee named Yousef Mohammed al Shihri was killed in a shootout at a checkpoint along the Saudi-Yemeni border. Al Shihri and his accomplices were stopped by Saudi security forces after their suspicious behavior drew attention.

Two of the travelers, including al Shihri, were reportedly dressed as women. Saudi security personnel decided to search the al Qaeda car and its passengers, but al Shihri and the others opened fire. Al Shihri and one other al Qaeda member were killed in the shootout, while a third was arrested. One Saudi security officer was also killed.

Al Shihri's death comes just weeks after one of his al Qaeda colleagues, Fahd Saleh Suleiman al Jutayli , was similarly killed in a shootout between the Yemeni Army and Houthi rebels in northern Yemen. Shortly thereafter, Al Shihri called his family in Saudi Arabia to tell them of al Jutayli's death and to ask them to inform al Jutayli's family.

The Saudi security personnel who searched al Shihri's car reportedly found a small cache of arms, including suicide explosive belts. According to a spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry:

An initial inspection showed two of them wearing explosive belts ready to be detonated, besides a number of hand grenades. A number of other grenades and automatic weapons as well as materials suspected of being for use to manufacture and prepare explosives were also found inside the car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh-0_Brl5P0&feature=player_embedded

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/20/obama-ridicules-olympic-criticism-fundraiser/?test=health

President Obama singled out critics of the push for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympics Tuesday night in New York City, saying it's a sad thing when Americans can't cheer their own country.

Obama, in New York for a series of fundraisers, told a friendly audience that he doesn't understand how anybody could root against health care reform, and even more egregious, root against the Olympics.

"What I reject is when some people sit on the sidelines and root for failure on health care, or they root for failure on reforming our energy system, or they root for failure on getting the Olympics," Obama said. "I mean, who's against the Olympics? What's up with that? You know it's a sad thing, isn't it? I mean, I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican, you know. It's the Olympics, come on!"

Obama took heat from Republicans when he flew to Copenhagen in the beginning of October to help the United States Olympic Committee try to win the 2016 games for the city of Chicago.

The president was on the ground in Denmark for about four hours, but Chicago was shut out of contention in the first round of voting, receiving only 19 votes. Rio de Janeiro won the bid.

The loss and the cost of the trip, almost $900,000, led many to say the voyage was not worth the president's time and not worth the money.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/199313.php

More "Asian Youths"

Via Daily Mail:

A white pupil was battered with a hammer at a school where politically correct teachers were afraid to deal with racial tensions, the High Court heard yesterday.

Henry Webster, 15, suffered a fractured skull and brain damage after being set upon by a gang of Asian youths.

...The family's lawyers told the court a 'culture of racist bullying and harassment' built up around a 30-strong gang called the 'Asian Invasion'.

Teachers were too anxious about being seen as bigoted to intervene, but white pupils were branded 'racist' by the acting headmaster and given harsher punishments.

Only two of the attackers were identified in the story they are:

Wasif Khan, 18, and Amjad Qazi, 19.

Why is it that opposing racism against whites has suddenly become racist?

On the news this morning Hampton's Homecoming queen had backed off her statements, I wondered why.

Why is it expected and excused for people of color to behave in a racist manner while whites are expected to always be color blind? As American Thinker points out, Nikole Churchill is actually Asian-Italian not Caucasian.

Go figure.

">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/07/iran-usa

Iran today accused the US of being behind the disappearance of an one of its nuclear scientists in Saudi Arabia and called into question a uranium deal agreed in principle in Geneva last week.

Shahram Amiri vanished during a religious pilgrimage to the Saudi kingdom in May. Tehran has previously complained to the Saudi authorities but not commented on Amiri's profession.

Iranian media said he was an expert on radioactive isotopes for medical uses at Malek Ashtar University, in Tehran. "We've obtained documents about the US involvement in Shahram Amiri's disappearance," Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. "We hold Saudi Arabia responsible for Shahram Amiri's situation and consider the US to be involved in his arrest."

The Iranian foreign ministry also complained about the extradition of an Iranian "merchant" referred to as Mr Ardebili, from Georgia to the US a few weeks ago.

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/10/jewish-cancer-victims-foundation-sponsors-judenrein-conference-no-jews-allowed-do-not-give-to-the-su.html

Groundbreaking Middle East - North Africa Conference Advances Breast Cancer Awareness

Susan G. Komen was Jewish. Her young boy is rotting in an early grave while her foundation (founded by her sister) is supporting and glorifying Jewish hatred and the annihilation of Jews. Do you think she would, in her wildest imagination, have thought that her death would be used as a propaganda tool for Islamic jihad? Shame on these distressingly stupid tools.

Is it not ironic that the Susan G. Komen conference is sanctioning the Jew hatred in the Islamic world by holding a conference where no Jews are allowed? How disgusting. Every Jewish researcher, doctor, scientist and medical professional should pull their research from Komen's foundation.

Considering the fact that over 95% of the girls/women have had clitorectomies in Egypt, perhaps a Susan G. Komen Restore The Clitoris Foundation might do more good. They will continue with their Jew banned conference because they want "to end suffering". Well then, how 'bout a Susan G. Komen Stop Honorcide and Gender Apartheid Foundation?

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10638

NASA's seems to beat the drum only when the news on global warming is bad, and remains mute when it is good. And, for that matter, so is that of the environmental journalism community, apparently incapable of filing an original story about an article from a refereed scientific journal that flies in the face of previous reportage on climate change.

Let me get this straight - Fox News is the only Media not controlled by the Left. This means that, because Fox does fact checking, Fox is no longer a News outlet. News outlets are the ones who report what the Left tell them. Reporting facts that do not fit the Leftist dogma is a sign of treason.

Do I get this right, Mr President?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/19/white-house-official-says-obama-team-controlled-media-coverage-campaign/

The Obama campaign's press strategy leading up to his election last November focused on "making" the media cover what the campaign wanted and on exercising absolute "control" over coverage, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told an overseas crowd early this year.

In a video of the event, Dunn is seen describing in detail the media strategy used by then-Sen. Barack Obama's highly disciplined presidential campaign. The video is footage from a Jan. 12 forum hosted by the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development in the Dominican Republic.

"Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control," Dunn said, admitting that the strategy "did not always make us popular in the press."

The video drew attention after Dunn kicked off a war of words with Fox News last Sunday, calling the network "opinion journalism masquerading as news." The White House stopped providing guests to "Fox News Sunday" in August after host Chris Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Dunn complained about the fact-checking last Sunday. In the January forum, she provided details about the lengths to which the Obama campaign went to control the media message.

The UN is now saying that the need to preserve the rights of transvestites to keep their winkies hidden from security is out weighing the need to search for hidden weapons on flights.

I say that we discriminate. Put hippies, lawyers and bureaucrats on the same planes as the possible terrorists and don't screen. If the trannies prefer to fly the unscreened flight, then they can die like the rest. of the worthless types.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/55739

A report by U.N. Special Rapporteur Martin Scheinin that is awaiting approval by the United Nations General Assembly says that security measures taken to detect terrorists "risk unduly penalizing transgender persons whose personal appearance and data are subject to change."

The report, which was issued August 3, places emphasis on "persons of diverse sexual orientation and gender identities" and recommends that counterterrorism operations be more sensitive to gender issues.

On page 19 the report says: "Enhanced immigration controls that focus attention on male bombers who may be dressing as females to avoid scrutiny make transgender persons susceptible to increased harassment and suspicion."

Just a few sentences later, Scheinin writes that "counter-terrorism measures that involve increased travel document security, such as stricter procedures for issuing, changing and verifying identity documents, risk unduly penalizing transgender persons whose personal appearance and data are subject to change."

"This," he claims, "jeopardizes the right of persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities to recognition before the law"

This is a story about a twisted sick bunch of people who are more concerned with not profiling violent Islamists as misogynist thugs and terrorists, then with praising America for letting them have to freedom to slander the freedoms they abuse.

It is a good read. Enjoy it if you can.

http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/2009/10/18/killing-jews-in-oregon-embracing-terorists-off-broadway/

Some readers have asked why I didn't jump right in and show that audience "what for." For years now, I have had to explain to people that I don't fight at the dinner table but only on the battlefield; don't become part of the story that I'm covering. "Sounding off" is not my style. I am old-fashioned that way. I take something in, think, then write about it. Had I jumped in, it would have changed the dynamics. The audience's views were of interest to me. Mine are contained in this blog.

Trust me: I had no idea what I'd be getting myself into when I accepted this invitation to the theatre. The description of the play was an existentially interesting one about lost souls or about people who do not feel they belong where they live. There was no hint of Iran, terrorism, the war of ideas, the mighty clash of civilizations. I was lured in-as were others, I presume.

Might I suggest that the theatre is not the proper forum for a streetcorner shouting match nor should the audience become a key Actor. Finally, using art to bludgeon people into agreeing with a particular political vision or to accomplish a specific political purpose is dangerous. The Nazis and the Communists did just this.

If a Lefty tells a stupid lie, it is called 'mis-speaking'. If anyone else misspeaks, it is considered a slanderous lie and the speaker must be punished for years.

Clinton lying? Really? How can you tell if she is NOT lying?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6880006.ece

Hillary Clinton has been caught out "mis-speaking" again in a manner that suggests that she hasn't learnt from past experiences of her globe-trotting, "lily-gilding" speeches.

The US Secretary of State was exposed during her battle with Barack Obama to become the Democratic presidential nominee over her claims to have landed in Bosnia under sniper fire.

She was even described as "a wee bit silly" for claiming greater credit than was her due for the Irish peace process, having made several visits to Northern Ireland as First Lady.

In Somalia, they are enforcing Sharia. In California, they are teaching Sharia in the schools.

Will the feminists complain? NO! They are rejoicing that Christianity is being replaced with a more tolerant religion.

Leftist morons are in over their heads and enjoying it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1220864/Whipped-wearing-deceptive-bra-Hardline-Islamists-Somalia-publicly-flog-women-sharia-crackdown.html#ixzz0U7mrBcUR

A hardline Islamist group in Somalia has begun publicly whipping women for wearing bras that they claim violate Islam as they are 'deceptive'.

The insurgent group Al Shabaab has sent gunmen into the streets of Mogadishu to round up any women who appear to have a firm bust, residents claimed yesterday.

The women are then inspected to see if the firmness is natural, or if it is the result of wearing a bra.

If they are found wearing a bra, they are ordered to remove it and shake their breasts, residents said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/16/senators-raid-troop-funding-pet-projects-watchdog-groups-say/

Data compiled by the organizations show that senators attached 778 earmarks worth nearly $2.7 billion to the 2010 defense appropriations bill.

They range from a $25 million earmark for a World War II museum in New Orleans to a $20 million earmark for an institute named after the late Sen. Edward Kennedy in Boston.

"The (Defense) Department cannot tolerate earmarking funds that are more urgently needed to support our troops in the field," four watchdog groups wrote Wednesday in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, urging him to object to the congressional earmarks in the "strongest possible terms."

President Obama and Gates have tried to keep excess spending out of the $626 billion defense bill. But the bill passed by the Senate last week included several items the Pentagon did not request -- including $2.5 billion for 10 C-17 cargo planes and $512 million for nine more F-18 Navy fighters than requested.

The Center for Defense Information, National Taxpayers Union, Project on Government Oversight and Taxpayers for Common Sense expressed concerns about such spending -- but wrote that combined with the earmarks, the bill "will reduce already insufficient funds for troops in the field."

The groups are concerned the money is being drawn from the accounts for operations and maintenance, which provides funding for training, maintenance and equipment parts.

"It's outrageous," said Winslow Wheeler, a long-time Senate staff member who now works with the Center for Defense Information.

He claimed Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Defense Subcommittee, teamed up with ranking Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and other lawmakers to cut more than $3 billion from the bill to make room for the earmarks.

"This is how they pay for the pork," he said. "I worked there for 30 years. I know how the operation's done."

But Inouye spokesman John Bray said the charge is false. He said the committee determined that the Pentagon's operations and maintenance request was "outdated," and that the panel provided funding "at an appropriate level that meets the critical needs of our men and women in uniform."

http://muqata.blogspot.com/2009/10/meet-mobb-mother-of-all-bunker-busters.html

While US Administration officials hope their amicable diplomacy will convince Iran's mad leader Ahmadinijad to stop his country's quest for nuclear weapons, the Pentagon is already preparing military options.

Last week, the Pentagon requested from Congress (and received approval) to redirect $52 million dollars for the acceleration of purchasing 4 MOP bombs -- Massive Ordnance Penetrators. This 30,000 pound weapon is approximately 31.5 inches in diameter and 20.5 feet long, with about the same amount of explosives inside as Wallis' Tallboy (5,300 pounds).

This is why the US needs to drop the missile shield. Why should we interfere with Soviet aspirations to dominate the world?

Lets surrender now and be good little socialists.

http://www.homeland1.com/homeland-security-products/weapons-of-mass-destruction--counter-measures-wmd/articles/597749-report-russia-to-allow-pre-emptive-nukes/

A top Russian security official says Moscow reserves the right to conduct pre-emptive nuclear strikes to safeguard the country against aggression on both a large and a local scale, according to a newspaper interview published Wednesday.

Presidential Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev also singled out the U.S. and NATO, saying Moscow's Cold War foes still pose potential threats to Russia despite what he called a global trend toward local conflicts.

The interview appeared in the daily Izvestia during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, as U.S. and Russian negotiators try to hammer out a nuclear arms reduction treaty by December. It also came amid grumbling in Moscow over U.S. moves to modify plans for a missile shield near Russia's borders rather than ditch the idea outright.

Patrushev said a sweeping document on military policy including a passage on preventative nuclear force will be handed to President Dmitry Medvedev by the end of the year, according to Izvestia.

Officials are examining "a variety of possibilities for using nuclear force, depending on the situation and the intentions of the possible opponent," Patrushev was quoted as saying. "In situations critical to national security, options including a preventative nuclear strike on the aggressor are not excluded."

The proposed doctrine would allow for the use of nuclear weapons "to repel an aggression with the use of conventional weapons not only in a large-scale but also in a regional and even local war," Patrushev was quoted as saying. He said a government analysis of the threat of conflict in the world showed "a shift from large-scale conflicts to local wars and armed conflicts."

So many cool new toys coming out!
This sounds like something I should have in my house. I do seem to have irritated a few Muslims by quoting the Koran at them.

http://www.military.com/news/article/marine-corps-news/iii-mef-get-new-m50-gas-masks.html?ESRC=marine-a.nl

The M50 JSGPM's features include: lighter weight, larger field of vision, 24 hours of chemical and biological agents protection, self-sealing valve for filter exchange in a contaminated environment, breathing resistance reduction, modular lightweight load-carrying equipment compatible carrier and a service life indicator.

The new mask will also have improved speech capabilities. It is adaptable for use in air traffic control and combat vehicles. When used with combat vehicle attachments, the M50 becomes the M51.

Some of the additional authorized list items for the mask include: carrier extension strap, sunlight/laser outsert with outsert pouch, vision correction assembly, audio frequency amplifier and individual equipment carrier components.

This is too long to clip even a good quote from without detracting the other great points.

Read it and enjoy it! Tell your Pinko friends that they were misled and lied to by their Commie buddies in the Media.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/10/85000-civilians-were-killed-during-iraq.html

Good ideas. Even better, this is from the private sector and lower governments. Building ideas from the base is what is good for America and brings more innovation.

http://www.homeland1.com/business-continuity/articles/597378-La-to-build-islands-for-hurricane-protection/

This skinny spit of land at the southern tip of Louisiana -- one blacktop road leading in, another out -- seems an unlikely place for cutting-edge scientific innovation.

But it's here that Plaquemines Parish leaders have developed a novel way to protect the area from storms: by usurping federal plans and barricading the region with barrier islands, marshes and cypress trees. That approach could change the way coastal experts and engineers strategize hurricane protection.

Coastal restoration and hurricane protection remain enormous challenges for Louisiana's coastal communities and could be key topics of conversation when President Obama visits the area Thursday. Local leaders hope the Plaquemines plan -- which promises to do things cheaper, faster and more effectively than the Army Corps of Engineers -- gains Obama's attention.

"They're demonstrating how this could effectively be done," said Garret Graves, director of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's Office of Coastal Activities.

Known as the "speed bump" for storms rolling off the Gulf of Mexico and into Louisiana, Plaquemines Parish has been punished repeatedly by hurricanes, said P.J. Hahn, Plaquemines' coastal management director. In 2005, a 20-foot storm surge from Hurricane Katrina ravaged the southern half of the parish, causing $450 million in damage. Last year, Hurricane Ike, which made landfall 300 miles away in Galveston, Texas, again flooded the parish and drew millions in disaster dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Since Katrina, parish leaders have scrambled to prevent a repeat battering and protect the parish's 22,000 residents, oil refineries, fisheries and orange groves. Around 5% of the nation's oil and gas and half of its domestic seafood come from Plaquemines (PLACK-uh-minz), Hahn said.

Last summer, parish leaders ran 38 projects planned for the parish through computer simulations at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Miss. That's the research and development arm of the Corps of Engineers. The results, Hahn said, were stunning: The projects would lower storm surge by only less than a half-foot in most places, leaving the parish vulnerable to storms.

"That's when we regrouped," he said.

Those dangerous Mormons. Well known for irrational behavior, riots and bombings. They are very dangerous!

Some crackpots do rely upon religion, so I can see this happening. I can also see some Leftist crackpots blowing this out of proportion to be able to say that Christians are as dangerous as Muslims.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,565582,00.html?test=latestnews

A Delta airliner en route from Seattle to Atlanta has made an unscheduled stop in Nashville after a disturbance on board. No one was hurt.

Nashville International Airport spokeswoman Emily Richard says passenger Paul Marchuk III was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest by airport police.

WSMV-TV in Nashville reported that a passenger had to be subdued by other passengers after he began quoting Bible passages. Richard said she had no information about that.

Delta spokesman Anthony Black in Atlanta said a passenger became unruly Tuesday afternoon and was removed by local police, but he had no further specifics about the disturbance.

The Boeing 757 with 178 passengers and a six-person crew flew on to Atlanta where it landed some 1 1/2 hours late.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,565640,00.html

A Delaware first-grader who faced a lengthy punishment for bringing his favorite utensil to school -- a combination folding knife, fork and spoon -- has gotten a reprieve.

The school board made a hasty change to its strict code of conduct Tuesday night.

The seven-member board voted unanimously to reduce the punishment for kindergartners and first-graders who bring weapons to school or commit other violent offenses to a suspension ranging from three to five days.

Zachary Christie, 6, had faced 45 days in an alternative school for troublemakers after he brought the utensil to school with the intent of using it to eat his lunch.

The punishment is one of several in recent years that has sparked national debate on whether school systems have gone too far with zero tolerance policies.

Zachary's mother, Debbie Christie, attended the meeting to appealing her son's suspension at the school board meeting

In an interview on CBS' "Early Show" on Tuesday, Zachary said weapons don't belong in school, but the punishment shouldn't be so bad.

At least one school board member agreed.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,654596,00.html

US troops boarded a German-owned freighter in early October and found eight containers full of ammunition, allegedly headed to Syria from Iran. The shipment is in violation of a UN weapons embargo and has become a source of chagrin in Berlin.

An "embarrassing affair," is how one German diplomat described it. The official could also have added: potentially damaging to trans-Atlantic relations.

In an operation reported on by SPIEGEL over the weekend, US soldiers entered the freighter Hansa India in the Gulf of Suez at the beginning of October and discovered seven containers full of 7.62 millimeter ammunition suitable for Kalashnikov rifles. An eighth container was full of cartridges suitable for the manufacture of additional rounds. The incident is particularly awkward for Berlin as the Hansa India is registered to the Hamburg-based shipping company Leonhardt & Blumberg.

Investigators suspect that the arms were part of an Iranian shipment bound for either the Syrian army or for Hezbollah, the militant Islamist group. US officials have pointed out that the delivery is in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1747, which prohibits arms shipments either into or out of Iran.

According to Leonhardt & Blumberg, the 243-meter-long (297-foot-long) ship has for years been under charter to the state-owned shipping company Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. Two US warships halted the Hansa India after receiving a tip-off from intelligence services.

http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/Taliban-Threaten-Arizona-and-Nevada-10-2-2009.asp

Taliban Threaten Arizona and Nevada
by James Dunnigan
October 2, 2009

The U.S. Air Force fears that the Taliban may attempt a terror attack against the U.S. bases (in Nevada and Arizona), where the operators control (via satellite link) Predator and Reaper UAVs flying over Pakistan. These UAVs have killed dozens of Taliban and al Qaeda leaders in the past year. The terrorists have fired mortars at the Pakistani Air Force bases that the UAVs operate from, but these attacks have been too limited to do much damage, much less interfere with flight operations. The Taliban are getting desperate.

It's unlikely that the Taliban could carry out an attack on the well-guarded bases, in the United States, containing the UAV operators. But the terrorist chatter (electronic, and on the ground) is getting increasingly nasty and strident.

Dozens of civilians in Taliban controlled tribal territory have been accused of being spies (providing location data for the UAV attacks), and executed. Most of these victims are believed to be innocent, as the Taliban have been unable to produce any concrete evidence that the U.S. is relying that heavily, on informants, to provide target locations. Meanwhile, no matter what the Taliban and al Qaeda do, the Hellfire missiles continue to find their targets. Thus carrying out an attack on the UAV operators, in the United States, has become a popular subject of conversation. At least enough for air force security officials to take notice.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,564605,00.html

Six-year-old Zachary Christie was so excited to become a Cub Scout that he brought his camping utensil to school. The tool serves as a spoon, a fork and a knife, and Zachary wanted to use it at lunch.

What Zachary didn't know was that the gizmo violated his school's zero-tolerance policy on weapons. And now the Christina School District in Newark, Del., has suspended the first grader and ordered him to attend the district's reform school for 45 days.

Zachary's parents insist their son did not intend to hurt anyone, and they are fighting to overturn the ruling.

"Zachary wears a suit and tie some days to school by his own choice because he takes school so seriously," Zachary's mother, Debbie Christie, told the New York Times. "He is not some sort of threat to his classmates."

The school district, in a statement, said rules are rules and defended its decision to suspend the boy.

"At this time, the Student Code of Conduct does not take into consideration a child's age in a Level three offense," the statement read.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/199169.php

Al-Shabaab plot to blow up US buildings, World Cup events in South Africa thwarted

Rahm at Terror Free Somalia gives word that the South Africans have busted up a plot to bomb US buildings and possibly World Cup events while Obama would be visiting the opening games. The discovery of this plot prompted the US to temporarily close all of its offices in South Africa recently.

From the Cape Argus:

Tired of fighting, and largely losing, against the US in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia, a group of Somali terrorists devised a strategy to take on the superpower in South Africa.

The Sunday Tribune can reveal that the US's closure of its offices in the country was because of intercepted cellphone communication detailing planned attacks on American interests here. It is unclear whether American interests necessarily include a possible visit by US President Barack Obama for the official opening of the World Cup.

Intelligence officers, according to two sources, intercepted a call made in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, to a group based in Somalia, and the conversation confirmed a plot to blow up American interests in South Africa last month.

A source said US intelligence agents, South Africa's National Intelligence Agency and SAPS Crime Intelligence operatives launched a surveillance operation on the Cape-based group, gathering crucial information before the operation was thrown into disarray.

Note to our Homeland Security officials: this is a serious problem. Wake the f**k up.

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/10/brrrr-antarctic-ice-melt-at-lowest.html

Brrrr... Antarctic Ice Melt at Lowest Level in Recorded History
As Obama and democrats continue to push their massive cap-and-tax monstrosity that will cost American households around $1,761 a year a new report revealed that ice melt in Antarctica was at the lowest level in recorded history this past year.

World Climate Report revealed this week that the ice melt during the Antarctic summer of 2008-2009 was the lowest ever recorded in the satellite history.

A 30-year minimum Antarctic snowmelt record occurred during austral summer 2008-2009 according to spaceborne microwave observations for 1980-2009. Strong positive phases of both the El-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode (SAM) were recorded during the months leading up to and including the 2008-2009 melt season.

More... The BBC admitted today that the warmest year on record was 1998- not 2007 or 2008.

http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD259009

Hizbullah-Affiliated Businessman's Ponzi Scheme Causes Upheaval in Lebanon

Hizbullah-affiliated Shi'ite Lebanese businessman Salah 'Izz Al-Din, suspected of running a $2 billion Ponzi scheme, was arrested in Lebanon in early September 2009 after declaring bankruptcy. [1]

Several days after the scandal hit the headlines, the Lebanese daily Al-Safir reported that thousands of Lebanese and other nationals had lost money in 'Izz Al-Din's scheme, and that the investigation was being closely monitored by Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, and prominent Lebanese Shi'ite leader Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadhlallah. [2] It was also reported that many senior Hizbullah officials had invested money with 'Izz Al-Din and suffered financial losses. [3] Fuad Al-Hashem, columnist for the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan,claimed that the Hizbullah organization had likewise lost $683 million in investments with 'Izz Al-Din. [4]

In the aftermath of the scandal, numerous articles appeared in the Lebanese media criticizing Hizbullah and holding it responsible for the fraud, because of 'Izz Al-Din's affiliation with it. Hizbullah was blamed for encouraging the public to trust 'Izz Al-Din and to invest with him, and some even demanded that it compensate those who sustained losses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHjI6mj1jOA&feature=player_embedded#

http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/exclusive-apache-pilots-shocked-size-attack-camp-keating/story?id=8785878

The remote U.S. outpost near the Pakistan border that was nearly overrun by insurgents last weekend has been abandoned and destroyed by American troops, military officials announced today.
Photo: Camp Keating
A Chinook helicopter lands at Camp Keating, Afghanistan, in this March 2007, file photo. The pilot... Expand
A Chinook helicopter lands at Camp Keating, Afghanistan, in this March 2007, file photo. The pilot of an Apache gunship, who flew to the rescue of U.S. soldiers nearly overrun at the remote Afghan outpost last weekend, told ABC News today that he'd "never seen that large of a force" on the attack. Collapse
(Sgt. Amber Robinson/U.S. Army)

Americans demolished the base, dubbed Combat Outpost Keating, just days after an all-day fight last Saturday in which eight American soldiers were killed and 24 wounded. U.S. military officials estimate that as many as 100 of the attackers were also killed in the battle, which was the bloodiest in Afghanistan in the past year.

Keating was destroyed so it could not be used by insurgents.

Keating and a second base, Combat Outpost Fritsche, were abandoned this week as part of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's new strategy to pull back from unpopulated areas and concentrate on defending population centers.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/10/08/health-care-speechwriter-for-edwards-obama-and-clinton-doesnt/

What my story does is serve as a cautious reminder that we need to get this right, not right away. A rushed bill will have consequences. Reforms will not be cheap and some people may be priced out.

How could all of these weeks and months go by and no one is examining and talking about what has worked and what hasn't worked in Massachusetts?

Who remembers when France banned the burka in France and all the riots in the Islamic parts of the world? I do!

Will this happen in this case?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091008/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_veil_ban_1

Egypt's top Islamic cleric said Thursday that students and teachers will not be allowed to wear face veils in classrooms and dormitories of Sunni Islam's premier institute of learning, al-Azhar, part of a government effort to curb radical Islamic practices.

The decision announced by Sheik of al-Azhar Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi came days after he said the face veil, or niqab, "has nothing to do with Islam." His comments and actions have sparked an outcry from Islamists who see them as an attack on their religion and some rights organizations who believe banning the niqab violates constitutional freedom.

The explosive issue of how much of a Muslim woman's body should be covered remains contested among Islamic scholars.

The majority of scholars say the face veil is not required but is merely a custom that dates back to tribal, nomadic societies living in the Arabian desert before Islam began.

While a vast majority of Egyptian women wear headscarves, few wear the niqab, which is common in Saudi Arabia where the more conservative form of Wahhabi Islam is practiced. The trend seems to be gaining ground in Egypt, leading to government attempts to ban the face veil from public institutions.

Tantawi, who was appointed by the Egyptian government, first attacked the niqab Sunday during a field visit to a middle school where he asked a student to remove her face veil, according to local media.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/08/cbc-efforts-oust-rangel-tax-writing-post-partisan-attempts/

The House Ethics Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to expand its probe of Rep. Charlie Rangel, D.-N.Y., chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee who is at the center of an investigation into a long and stinging list of alleged wrongdoing.

The committee said Thursday that it has reviewed more than 12,000 pages in documents, conducted 34 interviews and held 30 hearings into Rangel's alleged misdeeds, which include failure to pay taxes and disclose income -- as much as $1.3 million -- he earned from multiple properties. But the committee did not specify how the investigation would change.

A day after Democrats shot down a measure to remove Rangel from his powerful post as chairman of tax-writing committee, the Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemning what it called "partisan attempts to ignore the well-established, bipartisan congressional ethics process."

Republicans in the House failed, by a 243-156 vote, to pass a resolution on Wednesday to oust Rangel from his chairmanship pending an Ethics Committee investigation into alleged tax evasion.

On Thursday, the CBC wrote a letter to Pelosi blasting the Republican-backed resolution as politically motivated, and said Rangel, a founding member of the CBC who represents New York's Harlem district, has been "subjected to repeated attacks based on allegations that he committed errors in complex financial disclosure and tax filings."

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/10159/get-ready-for-periods-pregnancies-on-navy-submarines/

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus says allowing women to serve on submarines is an idea whose time has come.

And, he says, he sees no major hurdles from the Obama administration implementing the policy change.

Mabus gave no timeline for when the change would take effect. He says officials first must come up with a plan for how to do it, notify Congress of the plan and then the women must complete training to serve.

Mabus says women should have the ability to serve throughout the Navy and the proposed change would be in keeping with that. His comments came Thursday during a visit to Northrop Grumman Corp.'s shipbuilding yard in Pascagoula.

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20091005_two_leaks_and_deepening_iran_crisis

Two major leaks occurred this weekend over the Iran matter.

In the first, The New York Times published an article reporting that staff at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear oversight group, had produced an unreleased report saying that Iran was much more advanced in its nuclear program than the IAEA had thought previously. According to the report, Iran now has all the data needed to design a nuclear weapon. The New York Times article added that U.S. intelligence was re-examining the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of 2007, which had stated that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon.

The second leak occurred in the British paper The Sunday Times, which reported that the purpose of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's highly publicized secret visit to Moscow on Sept. 7 was to provide the Russians with a list of Russian scientists and engineers working on Iran's nuclear weapons program.

The second revelation was directly tied to the first. There were many, including STRATFOR, who felt that Iran did not have the non-nuclear disciplines needed for rapid progress toward a nuclear device. Putting the two pieces together, the presence of Russian personnel in Iran would mean that the Iranians had obtained the needed expertise from the Russians. It would also mean that the Russians were not merely a factor in whether there would be effective sanctions but also in whether and when the Iranians would obtain a nuclear weapon.

We would guess that the leak to The New York Times came from U.S. government sources, because that seems to be a prime vector of leaks from the Obama administration and because the article contained information on the NIE review. Given that National Security Adviser James Jones tended to dismiss the report on Sunday television, we would guess the report leaked from elsewhere in the administration. The Sunday Times leak could have come from multiple sources, but we have noted a tendency of the Israelis to leak through the British daily on national security issues. (The article contained substantial details on the visit and appeared written from the Israeli point of view.) Neither leak can be taken at face value, of course. But it is clear that these were deliberate leaks -- people rarely risk felony charges leaking such highly classified material -- and even if they were not coordinated, they delivered the same message, true or not.

http://www.conservativeforchange.com/2009/10/white-house-invitations-and-slandering.html

I draw the reader's attention to the below lines from that article:

"Others Jarrett's office asked to help shape the administration's agenda shared Van Jones' conspiratorial outlook on the world. The OPE invited Judith F. Baca, who once noted some of her Los Angeles-area public murals "were about drug abuse, including the government-supported influx of drugs into the communities, including the Las Tres issue in Los Angeles, where three people were imprisoned for shooting a narcotics agent who was bringing narcotics into the community." (Baca's words)

Though not personally involved in the Los Tres incident, which occurred in 1971 in Los Angeles, I do have some knowledge of the incident.

On July 22, 1971, Robert Canales, an undercover agent for the then-Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs was working undercover in East Los Angeles negotiating a drug purchase from three suspects. In an attempt to rob the UC agent of the buy money, the three ambushed the agent and shot him leaving him permanently crippled. Yet, once they were arrested, the leftist activist community and the LA media took up the cause of "Los Tres" (The Three) and the urban myth was propagated that these three punks were only protecting their (Mexican-American) community from drug agents "who were bringing in drugs". It was a shameful episode. (The three were convicted and sentenced to prison.)

Canales, though crippled for life, was able to continue his career as a supervisor in the LA office. In 1974-75, while stationed in the LA office of DEA(the successor agency to BNDD), I was privileged to work under this brave agent who was unfairly maligned by the local activists and the local media on behalf of three low-life criminals.

To be exact, Mr Johnson took the above quote from a 1994 book by Maxine Schwarz Seller, entitled: "Immigrant Women", State University Press of New York, 1994. There is a section on Baca, and Baca's quote appears on page 214. (This can be found under Google Books.)

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/7/worldupdates/2009-10-07T191635Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-429852-1&sec=Worldupdates

A mysterious haemorrhagic disease suspected to be Ebola has killed at least 23 people and infected dozens more in Sudan's under-developed south, a southern Sudanese army official said on Wednesday.

The World Health Organisation says Ebola, one of the most virulent viral diseases known to mankind, was discovered in south Sudan and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976. Some strains have a death rate of 25 to 90 percent.

Kuol Diem Kuol, spokesman for the south Sudan army (SPLA) said blood samples had been sent to laboratories for testing but that doctors suspected it was Ebola.

"So far from the SPLA there are 20 killed and three wives (of soldiers) also died," he told Reuters.

"There is a huge number of the population affected that we don't have the (exact) number of," he added.

A U.N. official in the south said they had attempted an assessment but needed more information from local government to be able to assess the situation.

Kuol said symptoms included vomiting blood and bleeding from the ears and nose, adding it was very widespread in the Western Bahr al-Ghazal state.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,561641,00.html?test=latestnews

Somali pirates in two skiffs fired on a French navy vessel early Wednesday after apparently mistaking it for a commercial boat, the French military said. The French ship gave chase and captured five suspected pirates.

No one was wounded by the volleys from the Kalashnikov rifles directed at La Somme, a 3,800-ton refueling ship, said Rear Admiral Christophe Prazuck, a military spokesman.

La Somme "was probably taken for a commercial ship by the two small skiffs" some 250 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, said Prazuck.

"They understood their mistake too late," Prazuck said.

One skiff fled, and La Somme pursued the second one in an hour-long chase.

"There were five suspected pirates on board. No arms, no water, no food," Prazuck said.

France is a key member of the European Union's naval mission, Operation Atalanta, fighting Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. It has aggressively tracked and caught suspected pirates and handed over at least 22 to Kenya. An additional 15 suspects were brought to France for prosecution after allegedly seizing French nationals' boats.

President Nicolas Sarkozy called for tougher action against piracy last year after dozens of attacks.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/10/05/rough-men-who-stand-ready-wounded-troops-refused-to-leave-afghanistan-firefight/

An incredible account from ABC News reporter Karen Russo, who notes that wounded troops refused to leave the battlefield this weekend during the deadly siege at Kamdeysh:

Flying into the besieged Afghan base during a nighttime firefight this weekend is a harrowing mix of overwhelming noise, stomach dropping maneuvers and shadows hurrying through the gloom.

When the chopper lifted off moments later with three wounded soldiers, it left behind others who were wounded but refused to be MEDEVACED out of the combat zone so they could return to fight with their buddies.

As fighting at two U.S. outposts raged on the ground this weekend, the MEDEVAC team at a nearby base waited - with both patience and frustration.

MEDEVAC teams are known for flying into some of the most deadly areas in the world to rescue injured soldiers. MEDEVAC helicopters are unarmed so they often need supporting aircraft to protect them, and sometimes the cover of darkness is their only defense.

On Saturday night, the team finally received the go-ahead as the sun set. Within moments of receiving the call, we rushed to the helicopter and quickly sped to the outposts.

As we were flying into the attack space, the MEDEVAC team with one medic and a doctor were preparing for the oncoming patients, setting up IV's, pulling out medical equipment and making other last minute preparations...

The eight American troops killed in the battle were all from Fort Carson in Colorado Springs:

http://www.homeland1.com/transportation-border-security/articles/595560-Arrests-of-Chinese-surge-at-U-S-Mexico-border/

Amid an overall drop in arrests of illegal crossers at the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities report an almost ten-fold spike in arrests of clandestine migrants from China in the southern Arizona desert.

The Border Patrol in the Tucson sector -- the busiest smuggling corridor on the international line -- has caught at least 261 Chinese crossers this year, compared with an average of 32 during the past four years, officials say.

"Lately we have been catching more Chinese than Central Americans in Nogales," said Agent Juventino Pacheco of the U.S. Customs' international liaison unit in Nogales.

The increase remains but a fraction of the overall activity at the Nogales station. This year, the Tucson sector that encompasses the Nogales station recorded 226,000 apprehensions -- a 24 percent decline that reflects the impact of the U.S. economic crisis and tougher enforcement, officials say. The majority of those arrested were Mexicans.

In the lexicon of the Border Patrol, Chinese immigrants belong to a rarefied category known as OTMs: Other than Mexicans. Although just a small percentage of border crossers, OTMs are big business for smuggling gangs that overlap increasingly with Mexico's violent drug mafias.

Compared with the approximately $1,500 in smuggling fees paid by Mexicans, fees for Central Americans and South Americans reach $6,000 for the trek across the dangerous, sun-seared landscape. A group of bewildered Haitians intercepted in Tucson after three nights hiking in circles in a canyon had coughed up $10,000, with another $10,000 due on arrival in the Chicago area.

Chinese pay the most of all. They often work off fees said to be between $30,000 and $70,000 over the course of several years as indentured servants in the sweat shops and kitchens of New York and other cities.

Enforcement officials say the reason behind the increase is not clear. At the border, facts are elusive. Statistical barometers are imperfect. Differing interpretations, political spin and the mysteries of the criminal underworld complicate the picture.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574438900830760842.html

When we think about the pace of change in technology, it's usually to marvel at how computing power has become cheaper and faster or how many new digital ways we have to communicate. Unfortunately, this pace of change is increasingly clashing with some of the slower-moving parts of our culture.

Technology moves so quickly we can barely keep up, and our legal system moves so slowly it can't keep up with itself. By design, the law is built up over time by court decisions, statutes and regulations. Sometimes even criminal laws are left vague, to be defined case by case. Technology exacerbates the problem of laws so open and vague that they are hard to abide by, to the point that we have all become potential criminals.

Boston civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate calls his new book "Three Felonies a Day," referring to the number of crimes he estimates the average American now unwittingly commits because of vague laws. New technology adds its own complexity, making innocent activity potentially criminal.

Mr. Silverglate describes several cases in which prosecutors didn't understand or didn't want to understand technology. This problem is compounded by a trend that has accelerated since the 1980s for prosecutors to abandon the principle that there can't be a crime without criminal intent.

View Full Image
Crovitz
Associated Press

Boston civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate
Crovitz
Crovitz

In 2001, a man named Bradford Councilman was charged in Massachusetts with violating the wiretap laws. He worked at a company that offered an online book-listing service and also acted as an Internet service provider to book dealers. As an ISP, the company routinely intercepted and copied emails as part of the process of shuttling them through the Web to recipients.

The federal wiretap laws, Mr. Silverglate writes, were "written before the dawn of the Internet, often amended, not always clear, and frequently lagging behind the whipcrack speed of technological change." Prosecutors chose to interpret the ISP role of momentarily copying messages as they made their way through the system as akin to impermissibly listening in on communications. The case went through several rounds of litigation, with no judge making the obvious point that this is how ISPs operate. After six years, a jury found Mr. Councilman not guilty.

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/headlineblog/archives/2009/10/john-bolton-irans-big-victory/index.shtml

John Bolton: Iran's Big Victory in Geneva, We are now even further from eliminating Tehran's threat - 'The most widely touted outcome of last week's Geneva talks with Iran was the "agreement in principle" to send approximately one nuclear-weapon's worth of Iran's low enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia for enrichment to 19.75% and fabrication into fuel rods for Tehran's research reactor. President Barack Obama says the deal represents progress, a significant confidence-building measure. In fact, the agreement constitutes another in the long string of Iranian negotiating victories over the West. Any momentum toward stricter sanctions has been dissipated, and Iran's fraudulent, repressive regime again hobnobs with the U.N. Security Council's permanent members...' [Delat, delay, delay]

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2009/10/british-army-chief-speaks-truth-on-astan.html

Sir David has issued his unprecedented warning because he believed the public and even members of the government had not "woken up" to the "enormous risks" which would result if the war was lost.

He said: "Failure would have a catalytic effect on militant Islam around the world and in the region because the message would be that al-Qaeda and the Taliban have defeated the US and the British and Nato, the most powerful alliance in the world. So why wouldn't that have an intoxicating effect on militants everywhere? The geo-strategic implications would be immense."

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1234912263171084410#

Documentary "Animated Soviet Propaganda" (The quality on Google video is better as they allow for bigger longer files to be uploaded) From 1924 to perestroika the USSR produced more than 4 dozen animated propaganda films. They weren't for export. Their target was the new nation and their goal was to win over the hearts and minds of the Soviet people. Anti-American, Anti-British, Anti-German, Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Fascist, some of these films are as artistically beautiful as the great political posters made after the 1917 revolution which inspired Soviet animation. A unique series. With a unique perspective. Includes interviews with the directors of the animated films which are still alive and commentary by a leading Soviet film scholar. Two hours of documentary and six hours of animated films

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20091004/ap_on_hi_te/us_kidnapped_girl_tracking_children

With a computer or cell phone and an electronic tracking device, you can locate a missing pet, follow the path of a stolen car, find a skier buried in an avalanche and rescue a hiker lost in the woods.

So what about a child snatched by a stranger?

About 800,000 children are reported missing in the U.S. each year. The vast majority are runaways, followed by parental abductions, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. About 58,000 children are kidnapped by strangers, and 99 percent of those come home fairly quickly, often victims of sexual abuse.

Then there are the approximately 115 children a year like Jaycee Dugard, who are snatched then murdered, ransomed or kept for several years.

Ever since Dugard's recovery in August after nearly two decades of allegedly being held in a Northern California backyard, parents and others have written on blogs and commented online to articles about ways to protect kids.

There are technological tools that give parents some peace of mind, from clip-on alarms to GPS locators that can be dropped in a backpack or stuffed in a teddy bear, but experts caution that the gadgets are not without their limitations and can even raise safety concerns of their own.

"Tracking devices can be useful to parents," said Allen. "Our concern is that they will be viewed as more than they are."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091005/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

Hundreds of insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistan border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and capturing more than 20 Afghan security troops in the deadliest assault against U.S. forces in more than a year, military officials said.

The fierce gunbattle, which erupted at dawn Saturday in the Kamdesh district of mountainous Nuristan province and raged throughout the day, is likely to fuel the debate in Washington over the direction of the troubled eight-year war.

It was the heaviest U.S. loss of life in a single battle since July 2008, when nine American soldiers were killed in a raid on an outpost in Wanat in the same province.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, plans to shift U.S. troops away from remote outposts that are difficult to defend and move them into more heavily populated areas as part of his new strategy to focus on protecting Afghan civilians.

U.S. troops used artillery, helicopter gunships and airstrikes Saturday to repel the attackers, inflicting "heavy enemy casualties," according to a NATO statement. Fighting persisted in the area Sunday, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay said the assailants included a mix of "tribal militias," Taliban and fighters loyal to Sirajudin Haqqani, an al-Qaida-linked militant based in sanctuaries in the tribal areas of Pakistan near the Afghan border.

Afghan authorities said the hostile force included fighters who had been driven out of the Swat Valley of neighboring Pakistan after a Pakistani military offensive there last spring.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/04/obamas-adviser-afghanistan-imminent-danger-falling-taliban/

Afghanistan is not in imminent danger of falling to the Taliban, President Obama's national security adviser said Sunday as he downplayed worries that the insurgency could set up a renewed sanctuary for Al Qaeda.

Retired Gen. James Jones made the comments after eight U.S. soldiers were killed near the Pakistan border and as many as seven Afghan forces in one of the fiercest battles of the eight-year war. On Saturday morning, several hundred militant fighters streamed from an Afghan village and a mosque and attacked a pair of remote outposts.

Jones said the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai must improve and give hope to the people of Afghanistan. He added that he believes the government has a chance to succeed, with the aid of a strong effort by the U.S. to train the Afghan army and police.

"I don't foresee the return of the Taliban. Afghanistan is not in imminent danger of falling," Jones said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"The Al Qaeda presence is very diminished," he said. "The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies."

Jones' view differs from that of the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal has called for an infusion of thousands more U.S. troops, saying that insurgents are gaining strength in Afghanistan and that the U.S. is in danger of failing if more forces are not sent to the fight.

http://www.homeland1.com/IT-security/articles/595194-DHS-to-hire-up-to-1-000-cybersecurity-experts/

The Department of Homeland Security will hire up to 1,000 cybersecurity experts over the next three years to help protect U.S. computer networks, an Obama administration official said.

"Cybersecurity is one of our most urgent priorities," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in making the announcement Thursday.

She unveiled the plans at an event marking the beginning of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

"This new hiring authority will enable DHS to recruit the best cyberanalysts, developers and engineers in the world to serve their country by leading the nation's defenses against cyberthreats," according to Napolitano.

U.S. officials are mindful that both government and private sector computer sites have been targeted, and consequences can be dire. The Internet, Napolitano said, is "a critical part of our everyday lives and how our society and our economy operate."

She added, "We rely on cybernetworks to control and manage transportation, electricity, banking."

Department officials could not say precisely how many cyberexperts now work at DHS and its various component agencies such as the Secret Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Napolitano said she doubts it will be necessary to fill all 1,000 of the authorized positions, but she is focused on making DHS a "world-class cyberorganization."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,559560,00.html

WASHINGTON -- A store clerk's curiosity about why Najibullah Zazi was buying large quantities of beauty supply products indicated that something about the transaction wasn't quite right -- and it's an example of the kind of citizen vigilance that can combat terror, a police commander said Saturday.

Los Angeles police Cmdr. Joan McNamara cited this summer's incident as police chiefs meeting in Denver adopted a model for a nationwide community watch program that teaches people what behavior is truly suspicious and encourages them to report it to police.

Federal authorities allege Zazi, 24, tried to make a homemade explosive using ingredients from beauty supplies purchased at Denver-area stores. He has been jailed in New York on charges of conspiracy to detonate a weapon of mass destruction in a plot that may have targeted New York City. Zazi has denied the charges.

Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton, who developed the iWatch program with McNamara, called it the 21st century version of Neighborhood Watch.

The Major Cities Chiefs Association, headed by Bratton and composed of the chiefs of the 63 largest police departments in the U.S. and Canada, endorsed iWATCH Saturday at its conference in Denver.

iWATCH would have provided a way for that Colorado store clerk and others to report suspicious activity to police and possibly launch an investigation earlier, McNamara said.

"That clerk had a gut instinct that something wasn't right," he said.

Using brochures, public service announcements and meetings with community groups, iWATCH is designed to deliver concrete advice on how the public can follow the oft-repeated post-Sept. 11 recommendation, "If you see something, say something."

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13475253

Rick Glen Strandlof, a former mental patient who posed as a wounded Marine captain to found a statewide veterans group and campaign for political candidates, is being prosecuted under the Stolen Valor Act for making claims he received a Purple Heart.

A federal arrest warrant was issued Thursday evening for Strandlof, who used the alias Rick Duncan when he was acting as a spokesman for veterans issues.

Strandlof will be charged with one count of making false claims about receipt of military decorations or medals, a misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail and a $250,000 fine.

Strandlof, 32, had not been arrested as of Friday evening.

Jeffrey Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Colorado, would not say whether authorities know his whereabouts. Dorschner said only that Strandlof will be brought to Denver to appear before a federal magistrate after he is arrested.

Strandlof is the first person to be charged in Colorado under the Stolen Valor Act. The act, passed in 2006, made it possible to prosecute military fakers who make only verbal claims about earning military medals. Prior to the act, phony veterans had to be caught wearing the medals to be prosecuted.

"A lot of people wonder about the seriousness of this," said Pam Sterner, the Pueblo woman who wrote the Stolen Valor Act for a political science class. "What they don't understand is that to misrepresent yourself as someone who has earned a Purple Heart and to claim you are in the same league as someone who has sacrificed their life or lost a limb or something, that is uncalled for."

Suspicions aroused

Strandlof was exposed in May after members of the group he founded, the Colorado Veterans Alliance, became suspicious of claims that he had served three tours in Iraq, survived the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the Pentagon, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and suffered a brain injury during the battle for the city of
Rick Glen Strandlof founded a veterans group in Colorado.
Fallujah.

They searched military records and contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation after determining he had never served in the military. The FBI began investigating Strandlof and arrested him in May on an outstanding El Paso County traffic warrant.

In interviews with the FBI and local and national media outlets, Strandlof admitted making up the stories. He said he suffered from mental illness. He had previously been hospitalized in a mental institution in Nevada.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-spine/accusing-judge-goldstone-the-accuser-facially-disfigured-gynecologist-ashkelon

The U.N. Human Rights Council plenary witnessed a dramatic face-off today when the head of its controversial "fact-finding" mission on Gaza -- in which Israel was declared guilty from the start -- was unexpectedly confronted by one of his own witnesses.

In a surprise appearance arranged by the Geneva human rights organization UN Watch, Dr. Mirela Siderer -- an Israeli doctor who was brutally disfigured in 2008 by a rocket attack fired from Gaza into her Ashkelon medical clinic -- pointedly accused Goldstone of ignoring her July oral testimony in his report, and of failing to disclose material information concerning the prior statements of the Human Rights Council and panel members declaring Israel guilty in advance. (RealPlayer Download file--Click for video). The speech was published in full today by Canada's National Post, and covered widely in Switzerland, Israel and worldwide.

Sitting on the dais, Goldstone was visibly shaken by Dr. Siderer's challenge and scrambled for a copy of her speech. His response to the plenary ignored 7 of her questions, and inadequately responded to the 8th. See full text and video below. For UN Watch's play-by-play Twitter of today's heated debate, click here.

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/10/open-season-on-jews-european-govts-fund-ngo-attempts-to-arrest-israel-defense-minister-barak.html

European Govts Fund NGO 'Lawfare' vs. Minister Barak NGO Monitor (hat tip rut)

(Jerusalem) - NGO Monitor today revealed that the Palestinian NGO Al-Mezan, behind the effort to arrest Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, is funded by a number of European governments. Although the UK authorities rejected the attempt, NGO Monitor notes that Al-Mezan's role is another example of the abuse of European taxpayer funding in the anti-Israel 'lawfare' campaign.

* Al-Mezan's core donors include the Norwegian government and a joint framework including Sweden, Switzerland, Holland and Denmark known as NDC. Additional project donors to Al-Mezan include the European Commission, Ford Foundation, Diakonia (Sweden) and Trocaire (Ireland)
* Al-Mezan's activities reflect a consistent anti-Israel agenda and demonization, including claims of Israeli 'apartheid'.
* This case is the latest stage in the NGO-led 'lawfare' campaign. Under the façade of judicial processes, NGOs utilize universal jurisdiction provisions to promote and justify the isolation and boycotts of Israel and its leaders.
* UK courts have rejected all previous NGO cases against Israeli leaders, showing the emphasis on publicity. Previous UK cases include those against Doron Almog and Shaul Mofaz, involving Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). In November 2008 and July 2009, the UK Court of Appeal dismissed cases brought by Al Haq against the UK government to end export licenses to Israel.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/09/former_gitmo_detaine.php

A former Guantanamo detainee has reportedly been killed in a shootout between the Yemeni Army and Houthi rebels in northern Yemen. The former detainee, Fahd Saleh Suleiman al Jutayli, was captured in Pakistan after fleeing the Tora Bora Mountains in 2001. He was repatriated to his native Saudi Arabia in May 2006.

According to the Yemen Post, two other former Gitmo detainees - Yusuf al Shehri and Othman al Ghamdi - called their families to tell them Jutayli had been killed in the fighting and asked them to inform Jutayli's family.

Earlier this year, the Saudi government included all three of these former Guantanamo detainees - Jutayli, Shehri, and Ghamdi - on a list of the Kingdom's 85 most wanted terrorists. After being released from Guantanamo, the three graduated from Saudi Arabia's rehabilitation program and joined eight other former Gitmo detainees in fleeing south to Yemen. All eleven joined al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htwin/articles/20090928.aspx

Afghans Protest New Rules of Engagement

September 28, 2009: The U.S. is increasingly encountering angry Afghan civilians, who demand that the Americans act more decisively in pursuing and killing Taliban gunman. Even if it puts Afghan civilians at risk. This is an unexpected side effect of a change, three months ago, of the U.S. rules of engagement (ROE) in Afghanistan. This was in response to popular (or at least media) anger at civilians killed by American smart bombs. As a result of the new ROE, it became much more difficult to get permission drop a smart bomb when there might be civilians nearby. Now American commanders have to decide who they shall respond too; Afghan civilians asking for relief from Taliban oppression, or Taliban influenced media condemning the U.S. for any Afghan civilians killed, or thought to be killed, by American firepower. What to do?

Taliban propaganda, and the enthusiasm of the media for jumping on real, or imagined, civilian deaths caused by foreign troops, made people forget that far more civilians (about four times as many) had been killed by the Taliban. But because Afghans have been conditioned to expect more civilized behavior from the foreign troops, much less media attention is paid to the civilians killed by the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Of course, Afghan civilians are aware of who is killing most of the civilians, and that's why the Taliban and al Qaeda are moving down in the opinion polls. But the media, hammering foreign troops get every time they kill a civilian, or are simply (often falsely) accused of doing so, led to the ROE becoming far more strict than it ever was in Iraq. Thus one Taliban victory you don't hear much about is how they turned their use of human shields into a powerful, and very successful, propaganda weapon against NATO and U.S. troops, and an excellent way to avoid getting attacked.

Under the new ROE, you must, in effect, do a casualty analysis and consult a lawyer, before a deliberate missile or smart bomb attack is made on the Taliban. To their credit, the U.S. Air Force targeting specialists (who do most of this) can carry out the analysis quickly (often within minutes). Even the lawyers have gotten quick at the decision making game. The bad news is that attacks are often called off just because there's some small risk of harming civilians.

The Taliban are aware of the ROE, and take advantage of it. The Taliban try to live among civilians as much as possible. But the Taliban and al Qaeda do have to move around, and the ability of NATO and U.S. ground forces, aircraft and UAVs to keep eyes on a Taliban leader for weeks at a time, has led to the deaths of many smug guys who thought they had beat the system.

The U.S. Air Force has managed to reduce civilian casualties, from deliberate air attack, to near zero. Most of the Afghan civilian casualties occur when airpower is called in to help NATO and U.S. troops under attack. In these conditions, the ROE is much more flexible, but now Taliban use of civilians as human shields can sometimes be allowed to get friendly troops killed. The tactics used by foreign troops will change to adapt to this, and there may be tense situations where Afghan troops are getting hammered, calling for a smart bomb, and told that they can't have it because of the risk of civilian casualties. Another risk is the possibility of the Taliban dragging some women and kids along with them when they move, simply to exploit the ROE and avoid getting hit with a smart bomb.

The new restrictions on the use of air power, and the greater Taliban use of civilians as human shields, has enabled the Taliban to avoid a lot of situations where they would otherwise get killed. When they are out in the open, the Taliban still get toasted regularly by foreign troops (with or without the use of smart bombs). The new ROE is based on the fact that the Taliban are increasingly openly hated by Afghan civilians. This has led to more tribes getting angry enough to fight the Taliban. This is why outside of Pushtun areas (most of southern Afghanistan), you see very few Taliban. The Taliban are basically a Pushtun thing, and non-Pushtun people are violently opposed to any Taliban moving into their territory. The new American ROE is hoping to exploit that growing hatred of the Taliban in the south. But in some areas of the south, particularly Helmand province (where most of the worlds heroin comes from), where the Taliban and locals are in the drug business together, there are still fans of the Taliban. Moreover, the Taliban recruits heavily in Helmand, and adjacent provinces. This is where the Taliban came from (initially as refugees living in Pakistan.) Helmand has always been ground zero in the fight against the Taliban, and now the fight has gotten harder, and more dangerous.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/199037.php

Farmer's Daughter PWNS LeT Terrorist

Just goes to show you, don't mess with girls from down on the farm.

Via The Telegraph: An Indian farmer's daughter disarmed a terrorist leader who broke into her home, attacked him with an axe and shot him dead with his own gun.

Rukhsana Kausar, 21, was with her parents and brother in Jammu and Kashmir when three gunmen, believed to be Pakistani militants, forced their way in and demanded food and beds for the night.

...When they forced their way into Miss Kausar's home, her father Noor Mohammad refused their demands and was attacked.

His daughter was hiding under a bed when she heard him crying as the gunmen thrashed him with sticks. According to police, she ran towards her father's attacker and struck him with an axe. As he collapsed, she snatched his AK47 and shot him dead.

She also shot and wounded another militant as he made his escape.

Police have hailed the woman's bravery.

They said she would be nominated for the president's gallantry award.

She may also receive a £4,000 reward if, as police believe, the dead terrorist is confirmed as Uzafa Shah, a wanted Pakistani LeT commander who had been active in the area for the past four years.