February 2010 Archives

http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/02/27/david-frum-something-s-seriously-wrong-at-york-university.aspx

Next week, York University will once again open its halls and classrooms to "Israel Apartheid Week," so-called. This year as every year, militants and activists will use the taxpayer-funded facilities of York to vilify the Jewish state.

Well, that's free speech, isn't? Everybody gets to express his or her point of view, no matter how obnoxious, right?

No, not right. Not at York. At York, speech is free -- better than free, subsidized -- for anti-Israel haters. But for those who would defend Israel, York sets very different rules.

In advance of York's annual hate-Israel week, the campus group Christians United for Israel applied to use university space to host a program of pro-Israel speakers.

The university replied that this program could only proceed on certain conditions.

It insisted on heavy security, including both campus and Toronto police -- all of those costs to be paid by the program organizers. The organizers would also have to provide an advance list of all program attendees and advance summaries of all the speeches. No advertising for the program would be permitted -- not on the York campus, not on any of the other campuses participating by remote video.

These are radically different and much harsher terms than anything required from the hate-Israel program. The hate-Israel program is not required to pay for its own security. It is free to advertise. Its speakers are not pre-screened by the university.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Canada%20pull%20troops%20across%20board%202011/2610864/story.html

The general responsible for all Canadian troops overseas was emphatic this week that his forces will not provide security for Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar City beyond next summer.

"It is cease operations across the board in July 2011," Lt.-Gen. Marc Lessard said in an interview.

"The [operational mentor and liaison team], the battle group, the PRT, helicopters. Operations cease."

However, the parliamentary order that Canada's soldiers come home next year has put diplomats and aid workers at the PRT in a quandary because Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently said that Afghanistan is to become "a strictly civilian mission" after 2011 and would continue to be a huge recipient of Canadian aid.

The difficulty with the prime minister's stance is that public servants and police that Ottawa has sent to Kandahar City to oversee aid projects and to counsel local authorities on such issues as education, medical care, water management, policing and governance are entirely dependent upon several hundred Canadian infantrymen and combat engineers for their safety and transport.

"There is a political decision that we are awaiting guidance on and when we get it, the civilians will know what they are doing," said Ben Rowswell, Canada's representative in Kandahar (RoCK), when asked about the apparent contradiction in the Harper government's positions on the withdrawal and a continuing civilian mission. The withdrawal motion passed by Parliament in 2008 made no mention of the PRT's fate, although Canada has so far channelled $500 million of its $1 billion in Afghan aid through the PRT.

With all the disasters around the world, my friend Eagle1 points out that this is a good time to prepare a disaster kit.

Ready.gov is a good basic site with good common sense, but lacks some other nice aids. Here are some sites that I prefer:

survivormall.com
lifesecure.com

http://www.ready.gov/america/getakit/index.html

You may need to survive on your own after an emergency. This means having your own food, water, and other supplies in sufficient quantity to last for at least three days. Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster, but they cannot reach everyone immediately. You could get help in hours, or it might take days. In addition, basic services such as electricity, gas, water, sewage treatment, and telephones may be cut off for days, or even a week or longer.
Recommended Items to Include in a Basic Emergency Supply Kit:

* Water, one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation
* Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
* Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both
* Flashlight and extra batteries
* First aid kit
* Whistle to signal for help
* Dust mask, to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
* Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
* Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
* Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)
* Local maps
* Cell phone with chargers

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/world/europe/28poland.html?em

When Pawel looks into the mirror, he can still sometimes see a neo-Nazi skinhead staring back, the man he was before he covered his shaved head with a skullcap, traded his fascist ideology for the Torah and renounced violence and hatred in favor of God.

"I still struggle every day to discard my past ideas," said Pawel, a 33-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jew and former truck driver, noting with little irony that he had to stop hating Jews in order to become one. "When I look at an old picture of myself as a skinhead, I feel ashamed. Every day I try and do teshuvah," he said, using the Hebrew word for repentance. "Every minute of every day. There is a lot to make up for."

Pawel, who also uses his Hebrew name Pinchas, asked that his last name not be used for fear that his old neo-Nazi friends could harm him or his family.

Twenty years after the fall of Communism, Pawel is perhaps the most unlikely example of the Jewish revival under way in Poland, of a moment in which Jewish leaders here say the country is finally showing solid signs of shedding the rabid anti-Semitism of the past.

Its global warming's fault! If humans had not messed up the atmosphere so badly, then fish would not be falling from the clouds!

http://www.news.com.au/national/its-raining-fish-in-the-northern-territory-report/story-e6frfkvr-1225835295781

The fish that reportedly fell from the sky in the Northern Territory / Christine Balmer

WHILE the Top End and Central Australia have been battered by torrential rains, a Territory town has reportedly had fish falling from the sky.

The freak phenomena happened not once, but twice, on Thursday and Friday afternoon about 6pm at Lajamanu, about 550km southwest of Katherine, The Northern Territory News reports.

Christine Balmer, who took the photos of the fish on the ground and in a bucket, said she had to pinch herself when she was told "hundreds and hundreds" of small white fish had fallen from the sky.

"It rained fish in Lajamanu on Thursday and Friday night," she said,

"They fell from the sky everywhere.

"Locals were picking them up off the footy oval and on the ground everywhere.

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2010/02/26/amputee-arrested-in-alleged-bomb-attempt-harlem-station/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NationalTerrorAlertResourceCenter+%28National+Terror+Alert+Response+Center%29

Initial reports yesterday, were that a man had attempted to ignite firecrackers in a bag at a Harlem train station. It was apparently something a little more than that.

An amputee missing both legs was arrested Thursday after police said he was wheeled into a busy New York City train station and planted a bomb.

Police found the bomb before it could detonate, but the discovery interrupted regional train lines briefly and closed the station for several hours.

The alleged device--a bag of small explosives wrapped in shotgun shells, along with bullets, glue, lug nuts, pens and a ruler--was left in a waiting area at a station in Harlem. Police later surveyed security videos to identify suspects including, Roosevelt Terry, the amputee. Police from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the Metro-North Railroad that was shut down, arrested Mr. Terry late in the afternoon.

"If the thing blew, people would have gotten hurt ... could have even gotten killed with all the stuff in there," said Bill Morange, director of security for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The incident is still under investigation.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587607,00.html

A magnitude 4.4 earthquake has hit Lincoln County, but no injuries and little property damage are reported, the U.S. Geological Survey says.

The agency said the earthquake hit about three miles east of Sparks about 4:22 p.m. Saturday. Sparks is between Chandler and Meeker.

A Lincoln County 911 dispatcher said no injuries and only minor property damage were reported.

People also reported feeling the temblor in Norman, Prague, Seminole, and as far as Tulsa.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587469,00.html?test=latestnews

Two parts of an ancient biblical manuscript separated across centuries and continents were reunited for the first time in a joint display Friday, thanks to an accidental discovery that is helping illuminate a dark period in the history of the Hebrew Bible.

The 1,300-year-old fragments, which are among only a handful of Hebrew biblical manuscripts known to have survived the era in which they were written, existed separately and with their relationship unknown, until a news photograph of one's public unveiling in 2007 caught the attention of the scholars who would eventually link them.

Together, they make up the text of the Song of the Sea, sung by jubilant Israelites after fleeing slavery in Egypt and witnessing the destruction of the pharaoh's armies in the Red Sea.

"The enemy said: 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them,'" reads the song, which appears in the Book of Exodus. "Thou didst blow thy wind, the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters."

An exhibit at Israel's national museum dedicated to the Song of the Sea is now bringing together the two long-separated pieces.

this is an excellent look at the original invasion if India by Muslims. Wow! The quotes from Islamic texts describing the slaughter and the taking of slaves is incredible! This is a great read for understanding the proven blueprint of invasion that the Islamic world is trying today. It has worked for a long time in Asia! We are next if we don't learn from it.

http://islammonitor.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3312:islams-indian-slave-trade-part-i-in-islams-genocidal-slavery-&catid=170&Itemid=67

India has a deep, long cultural history. Hinduism began there around 1,500 BC and Buddhism around the 6th century BC. This culture had evolved impressive intellectual, religious and artistic pursuits. Pre and post the early days of Islam, Indian scholars took their works in science, maths (zero, algebra, geometry, the decimal system, so-called 'Arabic' numbers are actually Hindu ones!), medicine, philosophy etc to the courts of others (including Muslims eg Baghdad).

Others came to study in India's established universities. Indian children (boys and girls) were educated in the relatively widespread education system in a wide variety of subjects eg science, medicine and philosophy. India's art and architecture was magnificent. They were a prosperous people. Then came Islam - slaughter, slavery, rape, violence, pillage; destruction of religious sites, art and architecture; poverty, exploitation, humiliation, famine, forced conversion, decline in intellectual pursuits, social destruction and a worsening of social ills. To Islam, anything that is not Islamic is from a time of ignorance -Jahiliyya- and must be destroyed (or appropriated and called Islam's!). The onslaught created the Roma (gypsies), destroyed 'Hindu' Afghanistan and formed Pakistan (Kashmir) and Bangladesh .

The cost of the Muslim invasions is massive in lives, wealth and culture. Estimates suggest that 60-80 MILLION died at the hands of Muslim invaders and rulers between 1000 and 1525 alone (ie over 500 years-the population FELL). (Lal cited in Khan p 216) Impossible you think? In the war of Independence of Bangladesh, 1971, the Muslim Pakistani army killed 1.5-3 million people (mainly Muslims ...) in just 9 MONTHS. (Khan p 216). The world looked the other way--but don't we always when it's Muslims committing the violence!

Based on the figures that are available, the number of Indians enslaved is enormous!

http://theopinionator.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/02/muslim-gang-forces-3-young-boys-to-lick-our-boots.html

Muslim gang robs & forces 3 teen boys to "Lick our boots"

On the heels of yesterday's TheOPINIONATOR post comes this disgusting crime against three young boys - once again by muslim gang thugs. This latest gang also had girls along to partake in the 'fun' of humiliating and terrorising the 3 lads then robbing the them.

No surprise this latest hate crime took place on a train going into 'muslim enriched' Birmingham.

A clear sign of the cowardly nature of these Kuffarophobic muslim thugs is they only attack is when they are in much greater numbers than the victims.

"Their assailants were seen giggling and joking with each other as they left the train."

Let's hope the 'assailants' are so giggly and happy when they realise that the CCTV cameras have captured their faces and they will soon be arrested for their crimes.

"Det Con Tim Friend, from British Transport Police, described the ordeal as "degrading bullying" and appealed for help to find the culprits."

Actually, Det Con Friend, aside from the sickening "degrading bullying' - the crime of robbery was also committed. Is it "bullying" when muslims do it and race hate crime when whites bully muslims?

Hopefully the British judiciary will provide more justice to the victims of these muslim crimes than normal.

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2010/02/take-that-tojo.html

That's right, mister!

The Axis automotive powers have declared war on American motorists and our cherished union-made way of life. They've established secret assembly beach heads in so-called "right-to-work" occupied Vichy states like Alabama and Tennessee, manufacturing six sigma deathtrap jalopies with hillbilly slave dupes paid less than prevailing wages!

And now Hitler and Hirohito have opened up a second front in their crazed plan for world market share domination right here in America's auto malls. Don't let those whimsical inflatable gorillas and wind-whipped plastic pennants fool you: lurking behind every Toyota showroom lies a rat's nest of fifth columnist and Jap saboteurs scheming to get you behind the wheel of a Tokyo timebomb!

Don't let Tojo turn you into a unwitting freeway kamikaze for the "Divine Emperor"! At the U.S. Department of General Motors, our G-Men are working 'round the clock to stop Jap sneak attacks on America's publicly owned automotive industrial arsenal. But here on the home front, America's vehicular victory requires the vigilance of regular Joes and Janes like you. Together we can Shun the Huns and Nip the Nips, and send 'em packing their non-union Priuses back to Yokohama!

Here's how you can help: the next time you're shopping for a car, SUV, or truck, take a look at the lot sign. Does the brand name sound funny and foreign? Does it end in an vowel other than "e"? Is it a 2 or 3 letter acronym that isn't "GMC"? Check those car window stickers. Was the final assembly done in Dixie? Stay on your toes, Bub -- because you just stumbled on an Axis-made auto ammo dump!

Remain calm because you will soon be approached by an Axis spy dressed as a "salesman," who will try to entice you with wild promises of high MPG and resale values. Easy now... don't let on that you're wise to his treasonous two-fisted Toyota trickery. Act nonchalant, and request a test drive. When he hands you the keys, stomp that throttle and aim for the nearest telegraph pole! After the paramedics peel you out, immediately report this dangerous design defect to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and your nearest Michigan congressman.

Unfortunately, some otherwise good Americans have already been duped into buying one of Hirohito's heaps -- maybe even you. If there's a Jap junker in your garage, don't panic! Because you can still do your part. Think carefully: does that car...

* Suddenly accelerate?
* Inexplicably crash while you're texting?
* Fail to correctly steer itself on cruise control?
* Repeatedly trigger false-positive breathalyzer tests?

If you answered "no" to all of the above, stomp the throttle and aim for the nearest telegraph pole. Report all these incidents at once to your local Civil Union Defense board. You'll get a handsome certificate of appreciation from President Obama, and a $2000 rebate check good for any new patriotic GM or Chrysler car!

Come on, America -- let's all pitch in for the Jap Scrap Drive and win this thing for good ol' fashioned collective bargaining. Give our brave fightin' trial attorneys the lawsuit ammo they need to drop the Big One!

The sooner we bring 'em home the sooner we can take the fight to Ford!

BUY U.S. CAR BONDS

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1253226/Three-British-Muslims-intoxicated-terrorism-pictured-planning-jihad.html#ixzz0gSWSs06J

Brandishing machetes and guns, the young men pose for the video camera.

The three British Muslims filmed themselves as they prepared for a terrorist attack, a court was told yesterday.

They also recorded themselves crawling on their bellies through piles of leaves in a town centre park for a military-style training video, it was alleged.

Abbas Iqbal (right) with brother Ilyas

Weapons: The trio - including Abbas Iqbal (right) and brother Ilyas - are said to have called themselves 'The Blackburn Resistance'
Abbas Iqbal in another video clip shown to the jury, which was told the footage showed a group 'intoxicated by the evil of terrorism'

Abbas Iqbal in another video clip shown to the jury, which was told the footage showed a group 'intoxicated by the evil of terrorism'

The prosecution claimed that while the footage might appear 'almost comical in its amateurishness', in reality it showed a group 'intoxicated by the evil of terrorism'.

Styling themselves the Blackburn Resistance, the trio filmed themselves imitating Al Qaeda-style propaganda in broad daylight in the Lancashire town's Corporation Park.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/02/al-mabhouh_assa.html

Al-Mabhouh Assassination

The January 19th assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh reads like a very professional operation:

Security footage of the killers' movements during the afternoon, released by police in Dubai yesterday, underlines the professionalism of the operation. The group switched hotels several times and wore disguises including false beards and wigs, while surveillance teams rotated in pairs through the hotel lobby, never hanging around for too long and paying for everything in cash.

Folliard and another member of the party carrying an Irish passport in the name of Kevin Daveron were operating as spotters on the second floor of the hotel when the murder was committed. Both switched hotels that afternoon and dressed smartly to pose as hotel staff. The bald Daveron donned a dark wig and glasses, while Folliard appears to have removed a blonde wig to reveal dark hair.

Throughout the operation, none of the suspects made a direct call to any another. However, Dubai police traced a high volume of calls and text messages between three phones carried by the assassins and four numbers in Austria where a command centre had apparently been established.

To co-ordinate their movements on the ground, the team used discreet, sophisticated short-range communication devices as they tracked their victim.

And this:

The Dubai authorities claim there were two teams: one carried out surveillance of the target, while the other--which appears to be a group of younger men, at least as far as the camera shots show--carried out the killing.

Contrary to reports, the squad did not break into Mabhouh's hotel room, nor did they knock on the door. They entered the room using copies of keys they had somehow acquired.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/20100224.aspx

Nearly a thousand American troops have died in Afghanistan since U.S. forces first entered in October, 2001. Often compared to Vietnam, Afghanistan has been a much smaller operation, with ten times as many American troops serving in Vietnam. But 58 times as many American troops died in Vietnam. That means that American troops in Vietnam were nearly six times as likely to get killed than those in Afghanistan.

The reasons for all this are pretty simple. It's a combination of better equipment, tactics, weapons, leadership and training than in the past. With an all-volunteer force, the troops are smarter and more physically fit. Many of the life-saving innovations U.S. troops have come up with in the past eight years have not gotten much publicity. Good news doesn't sell, but in this case, it has definitely saved lives.

http://www.takresponse.com/index/special-ops_news/special-ops_news_1.html

The November 2008 attack in Mumbai, India, should get everyone's attention. It was a well planned, tightly coordinated, extremely violent attack on the center of India's financial and entertainment industry. Ten terrorists, operating in small teams of two to four men, entered the city using a small boat and unleashed 3 days of hell. The small group caused massive chaos, killed over 130 people, and added fuel to an already volatile situation between two neighboring countries. Their tactics were similar to a military operation - hence the description as a "commando style" attack.

Let's first make a few points about the attack itself, then the response, then look at some considerations were it to happen in the US.

While my first reaction to this is "ABC has a news reporter?", I do have to admit that I have other thoughts.

This is funny! I want to listen in on some of this, just for kicks. Good taunts are always fun to listen to.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/trust-politics-religion-afghan-war/story?id=9935912

It's a remarkable combination of psychological warfare, political roundtable and trash-talking. Afghan soldiers and Taliban fighters taunt each other, debate each other and try to persuade each other almost daily over their radios, at times while even shooting at each other.
ABC's Miguel Marquez was just a few feet away from the explosion.

I came across the astonishing facet of the Afghan War while spending time with the 302nd kandak, or battalion, of the Afghan National Army. The foes chatter with each other over their Vietnam-era, two-way radio system. It's such an antiquated system that the Taliban and the Afghan forces share radio frequencies, and verbal barbs, as they try to kill or capture one another.

I asked Maj. Said Rahim Hakmal what they talk about. Politics, he said. "The Taliban will say things like why do you side with the Americans? Why do you sell out your country? You love Obama more than Afghanistan."

Hakmal said the standard response goes something like, "The Americans are here to help our country function again. They don't want to stay. They want to help, then leave. You should help, too."

Then the shooting starts.

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2010/02/i-believe-this-is-the-foreign-affairs-ve/index.shtml

In his posting from Monday, Smear Intifada, Martin Kramer describes a scurrilous attack on his left flank by many of the usual suspects, beginning with Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada, and supported by MJ Rosenberg, and Juan Cole to name two. It looks like Kramer is attracting all the right opponents.

Kramer is...wait for it...being accused of advocating "genocide" in his Herzliya Conference speech. I kid you not. Cue Greg Gutfeld's standard tongue-in-cheek Gregalogue conclusion, "And if you disagree with me, you must be a racist." I believe falsely accusing someone of advocating genocide must be the International Relations (Foreign Affairs?) version of calling someone a racist in other contexts. Of course, there are people in Middle East openly advocating genocide, it's just that Martin Kramer isn't one of them. (In Abunimah's case the accusation is pure projection. Someone should inform he and his supporters that the "one-state solution" actually does fit the legal definition of advocating for genocide.) Click the link above to go to Kramer's full explanation, but here's the quote that's getting attention:

http://www.debka.com/article/8609/

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after again warning Iran's allies this week that Israel is poised to attack them, finds them less inclined to act as Tehran's surrogates in a potential conflict and more insistent on equality as partners.
Thursday, Feb. 25, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drops in on President Bashar Assad in Damascus for what their spokesmen have called coordination talks attesting to the strong relations between their two governments. According to debkafile's Iranian and military sources, their conversation will focus on how to implement the secret military pact their two governments signed in December 2009, which commits each, as well as co-signatories Hizballah of Lebanon and the Palestinian Hamas, to come to the other's aid if any is attacked by the United States or Israel.
debkafile's sources in Damascus report that Ahmadinejad put in three phone calls to President Assad, Lebanese President General Michel Suleiman and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah to warn them that "Iran has reliable information (...) that the Zionist regime is after finding a way to compensate for the ridiculous defeats it suffered by the people of Gaza and Lebanon's Hizballah." He added: "Should the Zionist regime repeat its mistakes and initiate a military operation, then it must be resisted with full force to put an end to it once and for all."

He promised Iran would come to Syria and Hizballah's aid, should they come under Israeli attack, but left them with the impression that Tehran placed the onus of bringing about Israel's downfall "once and for all" squarely on the shoulders of Syria and Hizballah. Iran would not necessarily fight alongside them.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=125970

Planned Parenthood has been caught covering up child-sex abuse during an undercover sting - for the 10th time.

Newly released video footage reveals staff members at a Milwaukee, Wis., Planned Parenthood abortion clinic counseling a woman who posed as a 14-year-old statutory rape victim not to tell anyone about her 31-year-old boyfriend.

They also coached her on how to obtain an abortion without her parents' knowledge or approval, according to student-led nonprofit Live Action, a group that filmed the incident.

Lila Rose, a 21-year-old UCLA student and Live Action's president, went undercover at the Milwaukee business and told a counselor she was 14, pregnant by her "31-year-old boyfriend," and she couldn't let her parents know.

According to Wisconsin law, sex between an adult and a child younger than 16 years old is a felony, and health professionals are required to report cases of sexual abuse to authorities. However, counselors at the abortion clinic indicated that they would not report the abuse.

http://www.wptv.com/content/news/martin/stuart/story/rare-bacterial-infection-us-GI-leptospirosis/cNEkVIgU80yIRKo3qNYxkA.cspx

U.S. Army Warrant Officer Chris Lust of Stuart is recovering from a rare bacterial infection which he contracted while helping with the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.

Lust says he was helping distribute food to earthquake victims in Port-au-Prince when he became ill.

"Real bad body aches...right before I experienced spiking temperatures, from 103-105....I was getting real cold...cold sweats...and I get so cold I started shaking," said Lust, speaking from his hospital bed at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa.

He says he was flown to the U.S. Navy ship Comfort, anchored off the coast of Port-au-Prince, for treatment.

At first he was told he suffered from dengue fever, or possibly malaria. But when he arrived at the VA hospital in Tampa, doctors changed the diagnosis to leptospirosis, he said.

According to the U.S. Army, four soldiers became ill and had to be evacuated for treatment while serving in Haiti. A spokesman would not elaborate on the type of illness those soldiers contracted, or if any of them are sick with leptospirosis, like Lust.

According to the World Health Organization leptospirosis is a rare and severe bacterial infection that is endemic in Haiti. The WHO reports infection in humans may occur when the bacteria come into contact with the skin, typically through contact with unclean water that has been infected by animals.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587300,00.html

Benke, a 6-foot-5 former college basketball player who oversees the school's track team, was monitoring the parking lot in the afternoon when he heard what he thought was a firecracker and began walking toward the noise.

"At first when I was walking over there, it was kind of what a teacher does," Benke said, still shaken hours after the shooting. "`Hey kid, what are you doing,' you know that kind of thing."

He said another teacher was quickly on the scene and both of them pinned the gunman to the ground. Eastwood was armed with a bolt-action rifle.

"I basically have my arms and legs wrapped around him, (the other teacher) has his forearm around his front and we were basically trying to get the guy to quit struggling."

"I talked to him while we were on the ground," Benke added. "I was underneath him and his face was pretty close to mine. I asked him, `Why did you do this? Were you a student here?'

"He either didn't respond or his responses didn't make a whole lot of sense," Benke said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587323,00.html?test=latestnews

The life-saving skills of a black Labrador have earned him a top medal in the British Army, Sky News reported Wednesday.

Nine-year-old Treo's job is to sniff out roadside bombs in Afghanistan for soldiers, and he has proved rather good at it.

In August, 2008, while working as a forward detection dog in Sangin, Treo found a "daisy chain" improvised explosive device (IED) - made of two or more explosives wired together - that had been carefully modified and concealed by the Taliban at the side of a path.

A month later, his actions saved another platoon from guaranteed casualties, again by finding a daisy chain IED.

Now he is being rewarded with the Dickin Medal - the animal equivalent of a Victoria Cross - the highest accolade for a military animal.

Treo retired and is now enjoying life with handler Sergeant Dave Heyhoe back at 104 Military Working Dogs Support Unit, in North Luffenham, Rutland.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704751304575079741450028512.html?mod=WSJ-World-LEFTSecondNews

Last year, U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top allied commander in Afghanistan, issued a directive restricting air attacks on homes, making the strategic call that it's better to let a few insurgents escape than alienate the Afghan public by inflicting civilian casualties.

That makes for a delicate mission for young officers such as Capt. Zinni, who daily must make instantaneous decisions between action that could save the lives of their fellow Marines and inaction that could save the lives of Afghan civilians. Between winning the battle and losing the war.

View Full Image
AirStrike.3-Jp
Michael M. Phillips/The Wall Street Journal

Marine Cpl. Niles Shilts during a firefight.
AirStrike.3-Jp
AirStrike.3-Jp

When Capt. Zinni spotted the four men planting the booby trap on the afternoon of Feb. 17, the first thing he did was call his lawyer.

"Judge!" he yelled.

Capt. Matthew Andrew, judge advocate for 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, advises the battalion about when it is legal to order the airstrikes. He examined the figures on the video feed closely. "I think you got it," Capt. Andrew said, giving the OK for the strike.

I need one! Not sure what I would do with it, but this is cool!

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htarm/articles/20100221.aspx

An Indian firm (Metaltech) has created what amounts to an armored golf cart for protecting facilities and chasing down terrorists. The ATAC (Anti-Terrorist Assault Cart) looks like an enclosed golf cart, and it is armored (in addition to some large bulletproof windows) to protect the two people inside from bullets and grenade fragments. ATAC has firing ports so the crew can shoot back. The $45,000 vehicle is battery powered, and can operate for six hours between recharges. Top speed for the half ton vehicle is 25 kilometers an hour and it is small enough to move around inside buildings and use most elevators.

Metaltech developed the vehicle in the wake of the November, 2008 terror attack in Mumbai, where terrorists went around shooting people and burning buildings. Police arrived without much protection from the assault rifles the terrorists were using. But long term, ATAC seems more likely to be purchased to defend high security facilities.

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htterr/articles/20100219.aspx

Risk management (measuring and dealing with various risks) has become a major industry in the last half century. Most of the work is not very newsworthy, so the general public knows little of it. But one aspect of Risk Management, the lists of the most risky countries, does have popular appeal. One Risk Management firm (Maplecroft Risk Consultancy) issues some of their lists to the media, and their take on terrorism risk, says much about the state of terrorism worldwide.

The top ten nations (in terms of their "Terrorism Risk") should not be a surprise. These are; Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Lebanon, India, Algeria, Colombia, and Thailand. The major factor for the ranking is the amount of terrorism mayhem going on in the nation. Iraq, despite the 90 percent reduction in terror deaths in the last two years, still suffered nearly 5,000 such deaths last year. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia suffered terrorist deaths in the same range (totaling over 10,000 between the three countries last year.) Lebanon didn't suffer that many deaths, but it's potential for large scale terrorism grew because of the thousands of rockets, and other weapons, Iran has shipped in to its proxy; Hezbollah. India has several terrorist groups operating, most of them non-Moslem, but causing several thousand deaths last year. Then again, that's in a nation of over a billion people (Iraq has 25 million). Algeria, Colombia and Thailand will probably slip in the standings next year, because the terrorist violence in all three has been declining.

http://www.conservativecrusader.com/articles/muslim-terrorists-in-south-america-join-forces-with-drug-cartels

During the Bush Administration, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine General Peter Pace warned members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that members of radical Islamic groups were active in South America recruiting and training terrorists. Yet, the Democrat-controlled Senate ignored Gen. Pace's warning.

Today, Terrorist-sponsoring nation Iran is increasing its presence in Latin America, and Hezbollah, a terrorist organization it sponsors, is making inroads in drug trafficking in Colombia, according to American Forces Press Service's spokesperson Donna Miles in a press statement to Chief of Police Magazine, a publication of the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

Navy Admiral James G. Stavridis told the House Armed Services Committee that he shares the concerns of Defense Secretary Robert Gates about Iranian activity in Central and South America.

Iran has opened six embassies in the region during the past five years and is promoting Islamic activities in the region, according to Miles.

"That is of concern, principally because of the connection between the government of Iran, which is a state sponsor of terrorism, and Hezbollah," Stavridis told Congressman.

"We see a great deal of Hezbollah activity throughout South America, in particular," he said.

Finally, we get a great example to show to our political masters. Not that they will listen. Forward this to them all anyway.

http://www.victoryinstitute.net/blogs/utb/2010/02/victory-defined/

Can we achieve victory in our current conflict? Although our president won't use the term "victory," we at least owe it to our troops to remember what it means and to keep charging forward. Victor Davis Hanson illustrates:

Victory has usually been defined throughout the ages as forcing the enemy to accept certain political objectives. "Forcing" usually meant killing, capturing, or wounding men at arms. In today's polite and politically correct society we seem to have forgotten that nasty but eternal truth in the confusing struggle to defeat radical Islamic terrorism.

Humans have been fighting wars since before Moses was a corporal - and always will - because it's basic human nature for one group to want something they don't have, or want to eradicate people they don't like. And while we would prefer that wars could be executed with technology, non-lethal ammunition, and negotiations, the truth is that war will always be decided by soldiers and Marines with guns.

http://michellemalkin.com/2010/02/22/biggest-sign-that-white-house-deficit-panel-is-a-joke-o-wants-to-appoint-andy-stern/

Eclectic trio of candidates considered for Obama deficit panel:

Republican David M. Cote, the chief executive of Honeywell International, has emerged as a top contender for a slot on President Obama's commission to bring the nation's soaring debt under control, a senior administration official said Saturday.

The White House is also considering appointing two Democrats: Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, and Alice M. Rivlin, a budget expert and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve who recently launched a separate, independent effort to draft a bipartisan plan to stabilize government borrowing...

...Stern and Rivlin are well-known in Washington. Stern is president of the 2.2 million-member SEIU and an ardent supporter of Obama's health initiative.

Reminder: The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C. is probing the SEIU for possible violations of the Lobbying Disclosure Act for Stern's frequent visits to the White House and with members of Congress in 2009.

Reminder: As head of the SEIU, Stern has groomed his own den of labor management thieves tangled in embezzelement/fiscal abuse across the country:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100222/wl_time/08599196688000

... a rising chorus of voices across Mexico is complaining that the military approach to Mexico's crime problem is not bearing fruit. Leftists and human-rights groups have slammed the central role of the army and paramilitary police since President Felipe CalderÓn took office in 2006 and ordered 50,000 troops to fight the drug gangs. But in recent weeks, critics have been joined by some of the government's key allies, including members of CalderÓn's conservative National Action Party, regional business lobbies and the Roman Catholic Church. Such pressure could affect how the President sees through the drug war during the second half of his term, which ends in 2012. (See the siege of Ciudad Juarez.)

Most criticism centers on the relentless gang-related violence, which has only worsened, even as thousands of traffickers are jailed or extradited to the U.S. In total, there have been more than 16,000 murders that appear to be drug related since CalderÓn kicked off the crackdown, with this January being the bloodiest month yet. Doubters now say soldiers may be inflaming the gang killings rather than diminishing them. "Security is not directly or principally related to the ability to use force, the number of police officers, the degree of militarization or the purchasing of weapons," the Mexican bishops conference said in a Feb. 15 letter to the government. "With the passage of time, the participation of the armed forces in the fight against organized crime has provoked uncertainty in the population."

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=125390

"You produce food for human consumption," an agent stated, according to the report. "You have cows. You cannot be consuming all the milk you produce. If you get a milk truck in to move all this milk you sell milk to the public, therefore we have jurisdiction."

After Allgyer said, "This is a private farm, I do not sell anything to the public," the agents accused him of refusing an inspection.

A spokeswoman for the FDA's Philadelphia office, which has jurisdiction over the region, confirmed the incident occurred, although she did not have details.

"An attempt of an inspection was made, and he refused to allow the inspection to take place," she told WND.

A spokeswoman for NICFA told WND she documented the situation when she spoke with Allgyer shortly after the Feb. 4 encounter.

The FDA spokeswoman said she did not know if there had been an attempt at a followup inspection or if anything further had developed in the case.

I love Islam! Even the kids want to slaughter as many people as they can while they die. Yet, they are called the "Religion of Peace" and say that the followers of Christ are the evil and violent ones.

Could you imagine if this was preached by Oral Roberts? Or some other Christian? The outcry would be horrifying!

If this kid and family want to die for Allah, I can volunteer to send them. Sick freaks.

http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3975.htm

In a recent TV children's show, aired on the Egyptian Al-Rahma TV, a child preacher, Abd Al-Fattah Marwan, recites the legend of Abu Qudama and the young boy, who died a martyr on the battlefield in the early days of Islam. In the legend, which glorifies Jihad and martyrdom, the boy, Muhammad, is said to have beseeched Abu Qudama to let him join the Jihad against the infidels despite his young age. After shooting three arrows, which killed "three Byzantine soldiers," he died a martyr's death and went to Paradise. There he met his wife-to-be, whose face radiated blinding light and whose beauty was maddening.

In the program, Abd Al-Fattah Marwan - himself a child - recounts that the boy smiled in his sleep when he dreamt that he would be martyred the next day. "My father was martyred last year, and my brother and uncle the year before that," he says. This year, "my mother has presented me as a gift to Allah." Paradise is described in endearing terms, as full of "a scented bouquet of black-eyed virgins" of indescribable beauty.

The mother, upon hearing the news of her son's martyrdom and when her daughter drops dead from shock, praises Allah, "who did not send any offspring of mine to the Hellfire."

http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2010/02/13/allen-west-knows-jihad%e2%80%94the-enemy-ideology/

Col. West explained that we are,

"...fighting a theo-political belief system that has been doing this since 622 A.D.--1388 years.

Furthermore, to understand this uniquely Islamic ideology and its historical consequences, past and present, he states plainly:

"You want to dig up Charles Martel and ask him why him why he was fighting the Muslim army at the Battle of Tours in 732? You want to ask the Venetian fleet at Lepanto why they were fighting a Muslim fleet in 1571? You want to ask...the Germanic and Austrian knights why they were fighting at the gates of Vienna in 1683? You want to ask people what happened at Constantinople and why today it is called Istanbul because they lost that fight in 1453?

You need to get into the Koran...and understand their precepts. This is not a perversion. They are doing exactly what this book says."

While this is horrible, weather is also a horrible thing to travel through. It seems that a lack of communication hampered the emergency response almost as much as the weather and that needs to be addressed, but the main issue was the weather.

Could the response have been better? Maybe. But how? How could the ambulance have made it over the snow covered bridge? Things to think about.

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/10048/1036403-53.stm

"I sat up here with him, watching him die," Ms. Edge said Tuesday, after city officials apologized to her and pledged immediate changes in emergency response after Mr. Mitchell's death on Feb. 7. "They didn't do their jobs like they were supposed to."

Snow-covered roads, poor communication and a 911 center deluged with more than double the average number of calls during last week's crippling snowstorms combined to cause Mr. Mitchell's long wait, city officials said.

Ambulances were dispatched three times on Saturday, Feb. 6, to the couple's home in the 5100 block of narrow Chaplain Way, but couldn't get there because of the snow. Paramedics twice asked whether Mr. Mitchell could walk to an intersection, even after he told them that he could not because he was in too much pain.

Emergency vehicles were within blocks of his home three times -- once so close Ms. Edge could see the ambulance lights from her porch -- but did not make contact with him. They finally reached the home on Sunday morning, Feb. 7, but Mr. Mitchell was already dead.

"We should have gotten there," Public Safety Director Michael Huss said. "It's that simple."

http://www.homeland1.com/crisis-management/articles/759617-Trying-to-control-the-response-to-a-catastrophe/

Convergence gets a name
We all know now that what happened in Halifax was not unusual.

In 1957, Charles Fritz and J.H. Mathewson labelled this phenomenon "convergence." They said that in the wake of a disaster, one could expect three types of convergence: too many people, too many supplies and too many messages.

They assumed that official convergence was all right; it was volunteers that were the problem. If media reports were blacked out, things would be sorted out before the unwanted arrivals showed up.

In a monograph published for the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder, however, I suggested that even official convergence can be overwhelming. I documented the response to a tire fire in Southern Ontario where there were at least 400 responders, not including the media; and showed that this response was not triggered by news reports.

Of course, given today's technology, the idea of a media blackout seems absurd.

The problem of uncontrolled response was obvious after Hurricane Katrina, when there were so many responses that the U.S. Air Force had to take control of the airspace over and near New Orleans.

It's reassuring to know that everyone wants to help, but it's an enormous problem if everyone does.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703562404575067550355712126.html?mod=WSJ-hpp-MIDDLETopStories

It is hard to know whether Monday was a very bad day or a very good day for Lance Cpl. Andrew Koenig.

On the one hand, he was shot in the head. On the other, the bullet bounced off him.

In one of those rare battlefield miracles, an insurgent sniper hit Lance Cpl. Koenig dead on in the front of his helmet, and he walked away from it with a smile on his face.

View Full Image
BULLET
Bryan Denton for the Wall Street Journal

Lance Cpl. Andrew Koenig shows the spot on his helmet where a Taliban bullet struck, almost centered, between the eyes.
BULLET
BULLET

"I don't think I could be any luckier than this," Lance Cpl. Koenig said two hours after the shooting.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586061,00.html

The Taliban's top military commander was captured in a joint operation by U.S. and Pakistani forces in Karachi and is being questioned in the same city, sources confirmed to Fox News late Monday.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is the most important Taliban figured to be caught since the war in Afghanistan began. He is close to the Islamic group's spiritual leader Mullah Muhammad Omar and to Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden.

SLIDESHOW: U.S.-Led Attack in Helmand Province

News of his capture, several days ago, came as American, British and Afghan forces continue a massive push against the Taliban in Afghanistan, called Operation Mushtarak.

i can't wait to find out more on this! Or is this a purposeful over reaction to prove that this Administration is tough on potential terrorists.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/7241168/Transatlantic-British-Airways-flight-turned-back-amid-terror-scare.html

"BA flight 243 returned to Heathrow on Friday afternoon due to a data discrepancy with a US citizen. The passenger was asked to leave, which he duly did, and collected his bags," the spokesman told The Sun.

A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed that a 55-year-old man had been stopped under the Terrorism Act 2000 at Heathrow Airport but said he had not been arrested.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "There has been no breach of security at Heathrow as a result of this incident."

This is why I am a strong advocte of taking my handgun to church. I do not think the freaks will attack if there is a chance of return fire.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585882,00.html?test=latestnews

RICHMOND, Calif. -- A man wearing a hooded sweatshirt walked into a San Francisco Bay area church and opened fire during a Sunday service, wounding two teenagers, police said.

Two other men -- also wearing hooded sweatshirts -- were with the gunman when the shooting took place at about 12:30 p.m. in front of about 100 people at New Gethsemane Church in Christ in Richmond, police Sgt. Bisa French said.

A 14-year-old boy was hit in the shoulder and a 19-year-old man was struck in the leg, she said. Both victims, whose name haven't been released, were hospitalized and were expected to survive. There were no other injuries.

The three men fled and no suspects have been arrested, French said.

Investigators believe the gunmen were targeting someone in the church but don't know if the two who were hit were the intended targets, French said.

"If it wasn't the victims that were hit, it was somebody near them," she said.

Richmond is an East Bay city of about 100,000 people north of Oakland and Berkeley. No one answered Sunday afternoon at a telephone number listed for the church.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585807,00.html?test=latestnews

Gun rights advocates have a California police detective in their crosshairs after he apparently posted comments on Facebook advocating that "open carry" supporters should be shot.

East Palo Alto Police Det. Rod Tuason apparently posted the remarks on his Facebook page in response to a friend's status update, which suggested that gun advocates who carry unloaded weapons openly -- which is legal in California -- should do so in places like "Oakland, Richmond and East Palo Alto" and not just in "hoity toity" cities.

"Haha we had one guy last week try to do it!" Tuason replied. "He got proned out [laid face-down on the ground] and reminded where he was at and that turds will jack him for his gun in a heartbeat!"

Several comments later, the detective suggested shooting the gun rights advocates, some of whom have carried firearms openly in recent weeks in California's Bay Area, particularly at Starbucks locations.

"Sounds like you had someone practicing their 2nd amendment rights last night!" Tuason wrote. "Should've pulled the AR out and prone them all out! And if one of them makes a furtive movement ... 2 weeks off!!!" -- referring to the modified duty, commonly known as desk duty, that typically follows any instance in which an officer is investigated for firing his weapon.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/201008.php

Infidelaphobia

Mixed in a novelette-long complaint to the Anti-Discrimination Commission, a Muslim man, Omar Hassan, reveals:

He expressed his disgust at being "forced to look at the backside of a woman who bends over in front of me in supermarket to pick an item off a bottom shelf". It is a health hazard, he says.

"Non-Muslim women do not use water to clean themselves when they go to the toilet." Thus, bending over in a supermarket could cause serious health risks.

Frankly, I've occasionally been an accidental observer of female bottom-shelf events and it's never resulted in thoughts of infidel hygiene and public health risks. In fact, I usually think of something entirely different.

Therefore, I'd suggest that Mr. Hassan's contention is unsupportable. It's probably a religion of peace and tolerance thing.

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20100213_afghanistan_marjah_update

The U.S. Marine-led assault on the Taliban stronghold on Marjah in Helmand province continues. The long-anticipated Operation Moshtarak (Together) involves some 6,000 U.S. Marines, soldiers and Afghan National Army troops, and began about 2200 GMT on Feb. 13 local time. There has been significant progress in its first 18 hours.

Initially, special forces (reportedly U.S. Navy SEALs and possibly British Special Air Service units) were inserted by helicopter from the south, likely to take out key leadership or strongpoints. Forces were moved toward the village rapidly by CH-47 Chinook and CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters. Some 60 helicopters are reportedly dedicated to the operation.

Kilo company, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines was inserted to the north at landing zones Falcon, Hawk and Eagle near the intersection of roads 605 and 608 (at this point, STRATFOR cannot pinpoint those roads, but they reportedly meet at the town's northern edge). In the initial wave, two platoons reportedly secured the area while a third moved into a nearby compound of houses.

Marines from First Battalion, Sixth Marines approached from the south, moving toward the town's main bazaar and the defunct government's center.

Troops were equipped with metal detectors to sweep for improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Marjah Map, Feb. 13, 2010
(click here to enlarge image)

*tactical plot is incomplete and based on available, rapidly evolving information. STRATFOR will update as appropriate

Most U.S. statements about the assault so far have indicated little resistance and significant progress. STRATFOR sources in the area report scattered, short but sometimes intense firefights and harassing fire. As many as 20 fighters have reportedly been killed, and another 11 arrested. Resistance has reportedly fallen back deeper in the farming community.

The enormous number of IEDs, which the Taliban laced the area with in preparation for the long-anticipated assault, are slowing movement. Company-grade officers have characterized mining in Nad Ali and Marjah as extensive. Even after the U.S.-led forces take control of key areas, sweeping the entire area will take a considerable time. Ground units moving towards the town are being led by heavy Assault Breacher Vehicles designed to clear the route.

Two NATO troops of unspecified nationality have been killed in the assault, one by an IED and the other by small arms fire.

http://www.4shared.com/file/220186947/93a8237b/Coexist.html

Coexistence. It isn't for everyone. Who's not playing nice?

Coexist.pdf

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2010/02/dexter-van-zile-galloway-is-not-really-a/index.shtml

Judging from last week's coverage of George Galloway's recent appearance at the Palestinian Cultural Center in Allston, it appears the British Member of Parliament successfully portrayed himself as a peace-loving truth-teller intent on alleviating the suffering of people in the Middle East.

It's an amazing feat for an apologist for murderers and dictators in the region.

Galloway has praised the leaders of both Hezbollah and Hamas, and has praised and defended Tariq Aziz, an official in Saddam Hussein's government convicted of crimes against humanity for his part in the summary executions of 42 merchants in Baghdad in and for his role in the displacement of the Kurds.

Galloway has mocked the reformist movement in Iran, stating the protesters were in the streets because the "cookie crumbled the wrong way" in the election that kept Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in office. These protesters are being murdered in the street by a tyrannical regime that by most accounts stole an election to stay in power, and yet Galloway mocks them, going so far as to suggest that "foreign hands" were responsible for the protests in Tehran.

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/obesity-threatens-national-security-294187.html

When first lady Michelle Obama launches her campaign to reduce child obesity today, many Americans will be cheering her on -- including parents, teachers, doctors, business leaders ... and retired generals and admirals such as me. Generals and admirals?

Yes, child obesity has become so serious in this country that military leaders are viewing the epidemic as a potential threat to our national security.

Obesity, it turns out, is the No. 1 reason why applicants fail to qualify for military service, and it is posing serious health problems within the services. The issue is causing heartbreak among some military families that have always had a son or daughter in the service. Today, otherwise excellent recruit prospects, with generations of military service in their family history, are being turned away because they are just too heavy.

http://news.ebrandz.com/google/2010/3124-google-earth-demonstrates-historical-aerial-images-of-world-war-ii.html

Interestingly enough, Google Earth is a great tool to explore places around the globe you may not be able to get to otherwise. But it does not ends just there, it takes you back in time. Google Earth has now made available historical aerial images taken during the Second World War depicting the extent of the devastation in several European Cities caused by bombing raids during World War II.

The Google Earth mapping software has been uploaded with the wartime images from 35 European cities and towns such as Berlin, Bordeaux, Hamburg, Cologne and Dresden, showing the effect of the extensive bombing campaigns on the old continent. These images clearly display the destruction of allied bombing raids, then offers current satellite photos for comparison.

In announcing the feature, Ed Parsons, Google's Geospatial Technologist, said, "Many of us have heard stories, read books and watched films which show the many impacts of WWII across the world. Now we are offering you another way to understand this period in time -- by exploring a new set of historical aerial images, taken over European cities during World War II. We hope that this World War II imagery will enable all of us to understand our shared history in a new way and to learn more about the impact of the war on the development of our cities."

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20100210_yemen_hezbollah_withdrawal

According to several STRATFOR sources, Hezbollah, upon orders from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, allegedly has withdrawn the remainder of its 400-strong contingent from Yemen. According to one source, the remaining Hezbollah operatives currently are in Khartoum, Sudan, and are awaiting flights to Beirut. They are expected to return to Beirut in small groups on Sudanese airlines.

This information -- particularly the claim that Hezbollah had 400 men in Yemen -- has not been verified. It must be noted that Iran and Hezbollah have an interest in playing up their involvement in Yemen as a way to amplify Iran's militant threat against the United States and its Arab allies. STRATFOR therefore is deeply skeptical about the claims that Hezbollah sent 400 fighters to Yemen, where allegedly 70 of its operatives were killed and 90 wounded in Saudi aerial bombardments. The sheer logistical challenge of moving 400 armed men behind enemy lines, supplying them and then dealing with a high number of casualties is highly daunting, especially with U.S. intelligence helping with surveillance in the area.

However, the report of Iran downsizing Hezbollah's (however limited) presence in Yemen tracks with information STRATFOR has received in recent weeks. The report also follows a decision by Yemen's al-Houthi leadership to negotiate a cease-fire with Saudi Arabia.

STRATFOR first reported in September 2008 that Hezbollah operatives had perished in fighting alongside al-Houthi rebels in Yemen's northern mountainous region. The al-Houthi insurgency escalated from a domestic conflict in Yemen to a proxy battle between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the summer of 2008, when Iran began increasing financial and military support for the rebels as a way to emphasize its possession of another lever that could be used against U.S.-allied Arab Gulf states in the event of a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. Iran's push to send Hezbollah operatives to Yemen reportedly caused a major split within Hezbollah's senior ranks over whether the militant group should be expending assets on Iran's proxy project in the Arabian Peninsula.

Iran had hoped to use its operations in Yemen as additional leverage in its nuclear negotiations, but Washington was careful to avoid being publicly drawn into the fray by acknowledging Iran's role in the conflict. STRATFOR received indications in January that Iran, frustrated by its inability to exploit the al-Houthi rebellion in its dealings with the United States, had begun selectively supporting elements of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). STRATFOR does not believe such support has reached a significant level, but the AQAP threat is of far greater concern to the United States, particularly following the Christmas Day 2009 failed AQAP attack on a U.S. airliner. If Iran has indeed decided to withdraw its Hezbollah assets from Yemen, particular attention must be paid to Iran's AQAP connection. Though these links are not yet critical, AQAP is unlikely to turn down support from Iran, even if the group considers Iran an ideological foe.

http://www.drudgereport.com/


BLIZZARD POUNDS NEW YORK, MID-ATLANTIC...
NEW BLAST: DC COULD GET ANOTHER FOOT!
25% of plows broken...
New Jersey road crews running out of salt...
Up to 22 in Philadelphia...
Watches/Warnings...
RADAR...
Snowstorm shatters local records in Chicago...
It's official: Baltimore Snow Record!
BIG CITIES SHUT...
Senate global warming hearing cancelled...
Legislation buried under record snowfall in capital...
Feds Warn: Snow Costs Taxpayers $100 Million A Day...
Washington Builds a Snow Mountain...

This is why I love teaching about emergency management! I now get to use this to discuss earthquakes in non-traditional areas. What could have happened?

If anyone who felt this wants to tell me more, please post it here.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585337,00.html?test=latestnews

A small pre-dawn earthquake has hit northern Illinois, startling residents as far away as Michigan and Iowa, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the 3.8-magnitude earthquake hit about 45 miles northwest of Chicago at 4 a.m. Wednesday. Scientists say the epicenter was southwest of the village of Gilberts in Kane County.

The USGS initially reported the magnitude as 4.3 but later downgraded it. USGS geophysicist Amy Vaughan says such quakes are rare in northern Illinois.

She says residents in Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan also reported feeling the quake.

In Kane County, sheriff's dispatchers were overwhelmed with calls, and several residential and business alarms were triggered. But spokesman Lt. Pat Gengler says no injuries or damage have been reported.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=124553

At a pro-homosexual website called change.org, signatures are being gathered for a letter to the district opposing the free speech of PFOX officials.

"Handing out these [flyers] to students is damaging. In the first place it tells LGBT students that they should desire to change their sexual orientation. In the second place, it reaffirms for many the stereotypes that being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender is unnatural, or something that can be easily changed or manipulated," the letter states.

"There's no place for these [flyers] in Montgomery County Public Schools, or in any public schools. I would like ... a statement that your school district will pledge to institute a process whereby [flyers] that are not based on facts - in this case scientific facts about sexual orientation - won't be handed out to students," the letter said.

At the web page's forum, contributors were nearly unanimous in condemning PFOX's brochure:

* People die as a result of these (ex-"gay") programs. They are a threat to public health.

* This is why you cant (sic) give religious people even a nanometer because they take a friggen Astronomical Unit.

* Whenever any young gay/lesbian decides to end their lives via suicide - groups like this need to know that they have blood on their hands!!

* The county has one of the most comprehensive non-discrimination and anti-hate speech policies in the country. You'd think telling gay teenagers they can magically turn straight would fall under that.

* Free speech does not mean that groups such as PFOX should be permitted to distribute incorrect and demeaning information like this to high school students.

* There is no excuse for this. There should be an ethical policy your school can use to stop these flyers. ... Telling people they can change something (sic) cannot, that uses guilt, shame, and fear, IS hate speech.

I thought the Iranians were going to be nice and kind now that the Appointed One is in office here. Maybe He is not healing all the world's woes after all.

http://www.debka.com/article/8598/">http://www.debka.com/article/8598/

In a well-coordinated offensive, pro-government Basijj militiamen in civilian dress hurled rocks and eggs at the Italian and French embassies in Tehran Tuesday, Feb. 9, shouting death to their respective leaders. Some reports say the Dutch embassy was also targeted. debkafile's Iranian sources report the attacks appear to have kicked off the campaign for "stunning" the West - as threatened by spiritual ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or "crushing" the West - in president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's words this week.
Our sources expect the government-instigated violence to escalate up to and including Thursday, Feb. 1, the start of anniversary events marking Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. They are designed to raise international tensions around Iran to fever pitch to deter opposition leaders from staging their planned mass protest demonstrations lest they be accused of treason and collaborating with the Islamic republic's foreign foes.
The Iranian regime has a long score to settle with French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his ministers. They are the most outspoken of any Western critics of Iran, often citing intelligence input to prove Iran is running a military nuclear program and building a nuclear bomb.
Sarkozy also warns that Israel will not stand by and let this happen without resorting to a military offensive that will generate a major war drawing Middle Eastern and other nations into the conflict
Tehran's grievance against The Hague stems from the suspicion that the Dutch BVD national security service maintains the farthest-flung network of agents inside Iran of any other agency and the high quality of its intelligence on happenings inside the Islamic republic:

This woman is an obvious threat to National Security. We should deport her and others like her and allow more Yemenis in.

This sounds like an open and shut case. Holding her accountable for a mistake made by a guy about 20 years ago is ridiculous to the point of stupidity. The State Department should be able to fix this situation in 20 minutes, so why don't they? Could it be that they are uncaring bureaucrats? Interesting. I can see why Liberals want to turn their health care over to the government!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585152,00.html

Angela Boneva is living in limbo.

For years she, and the U.S. government, thought the Bulgarian-born 34-year-old was an American citizen. But, when she went to renew her passport in 2003, the State Department reportedly told her something terribly different.

Boneva's father was born in Indiana, and the consulate in Bulgaria gave her U.S. citizenship while she was growing up in the country in 1981. She was able to visit relatives in Chicago and eventually move to the area in 1997, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Then in 2003, the married mother of a now 7-year-old U.S.-born boy received a letter from the U.S. State Department saying there was a mistake and she wasn't an American citizen, according to the Tribune.

"I thought it was some kind of joke," she told the Tribune. "I grew up believing I'm an American, and now they want to take that away? This is like a bad dream."

The State Department said in the letter that an employee at the consulate broke a rule that required her father to have lived in the U.S. for 10 years before she was born, the Tribune reported. Her father had only lived in the U.S. for six years before moving to Bulgaria.

http://www.officer.com/web/online/POSA/Self-Rescue-Kits/30$50565

A down-and-dirty kit can be assembled with a sanitary pad, a tourniquet made from a length of webbing and FasTex buckles, and a package of clotting agent. Carried in a zip-lock bag, this home-made kit will do the job. A better kit can include professionally designed tourniquets and bandages, such as the H-bandage and the TK-4L tourniquet from H&H Associates. The H-bandage can be applied and secured with one hand, and doesn't require cumbersome wrapping of the limb. The TK-4L tourniquet fared very well in Navy tests and can also be applied one-handed. Going one step further, the relatively new Blackhawk Integrated Tourniquet System incorporates tourniquets directly into their tactical apparel.

Predominant clotting agents on the market today are QuikClot, Trauma-dex, Celox and ActCel. QuikClot has been reformulated so that it is no longer thermogenic (heat producing), and its newest version is QuickClot Combat Gauze: essentially a roll of gauze impregnated with the new inorganic QuickClot formulation that can be used as regular gauze (with hemostatic qualities), or the entire roll can be inserted into a large wound to stem the blood loss. ActCel, the newcomer (distributed by Royal Arms), is made entirely from cellulose and is non-thermogenic and hypo-allergenic (people with fish allergies should not use shellfish-based hemostatic clotting agents.) When it comes in contact with blood, ActCel expands to 3-4 times its original size, promoting clotting, and then converts to a gel that dissolves into glucose and saline over a 1-2 week period. Because of its purity and the fact that it simply degrades to these end products, ActCel does not cause delayed healing. The life-saving value of all of these clotting agents has been proved many times over in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Today, no matter what your budget, you can afford to have a self-rescue kit, and you definitely can't afford to be without one!

This is a great example of why people in these critical jobs need to have training. All my friends tend to agree.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/He-Messed-With-the-Wrong-Flight-Attendant--83757722.html

But soon enough, the passenger became aggressive, Gorman says. "He's banging around, screaming in the back bathroom, he's opened all the compartments," the attendant remembers.

According to a criminal complaint, Chan walked out of the bathroom with his pants down.

"I said, 'You need to sit down now'," Gorman said.

He did not. "He went like that with his elbow," Gorman said, bracing her wrist as she threw an elbow at shoulder height. "Well, what I did, I just put him in an arm lock. To get his other arm, I had to jump up on the seat ... He was resisting. He was stiff. At that point, I just put him into a choke hold."

The plane was diverted to Pittsburgh where Chan was arrested. He told police he'd taken a double dose of his medicinal marijuana, eating two pot cookies before the flight.

"After 911, I took special training with my grand master to learn how to deal with small spaces and also what to look for in passengers," Gorman said. "I'm glad I was there."

http://www.homeland1.com/homeland-security-products/communications-interoperability/articles/756609-virtual-hq-using-web-networks-to-organize-disaster-response/

"With mounting environmental catastrophes, it is essential that we begin to think many steps ahead," said Todd Khozein, a consultant at Second Muse, a strategic think tank.

For instance, if the Internet infrastructure goes down during a disaster, local wireless hardware may still be useful. One RHoK proposal would allow wireless laptops, routers and mobile devices to dynamically create a mesh network so that critical information can still be shared.

Each node in a mesh network acts as an independent router, regardless of whether it is connected to another network. This allows continuous connections and reconfiguration around broken or blocked paths by hopping from node to node until the destination is reached. Such a network could host applications such as Sahana, an open-source disaster management system.

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20100203_afghanistan_impending_assault_marjah

Afghanistan: The Impending Assault on Marjah
Stratfor Today » February 4, 2010 | 1349 GMT

photo -- U.S. Marines patrolling through Now Zad in Afghanistan's Helmand province
John Moore/Getty Images
U.S. Marines move into the town of Now Zad in Helmand province
Summary

U.S. Marines, British troops and Afghanistan's national army are making preparations for assaulting the town of Marjah in Helmand province. The town is a key Taliban stronghold and logistical hub; and because it lies at the center of a provincial breadbasket, it also is populated and surrounded by open terrain. Indeed, there is probably no better ground in Helmand on which to fight a defensive battle than the Marjah area.
Analysis
Special Topic Page

* Obama's Afghanistan Challenge

Related Links

* Pakistan: The Emergence of a New Approach to Afghanistan
* Obama's Plan and the Key Battleground
* Afghanistan: Status Update
* Afghanistan: The Nature of the Insurgency
* Afghanistan, Pakistan: The Battlespace of the Border
* Strategic Divergence: The War Against the Taliban and the War Against Al Qaeda

The U.S. Marine-led effort in Afghanistan's Helmand province is about to get more kinetic. Marines, along with British troops and units of the Afghan national army, are preparing to begin a major assault on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, which is touted as the "last holdout" of the Mullah Omar-led Quetta Shura Council in the province and is known to be a major logistical hub that the Taliban have controlled for years.

With British, Canadian and Dutch forces seeing some of the toughest fighting in Afghanistan in Regional Command South, which encompasses the southwestern quadrant of the country, the United States began surging troops into the region in 2008 with the deployment of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. More Marines have poured in (the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force is now in place), and NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is now trying to hold key population centers in the Helmand River valley.

Most recently, U.S. Marines assaulted the town of Now Zad as part of Operation Cobra's Anger, an ongoing attempt to disrupt Taliban logistics. Perhaps even more central to breaking the group's hold on the province is Marjah, but the impending assault is no secret -- and Taliban fighters have been preparing.

The town is at the center of a large irrigation project built by the United States in the 1950s, leaving large swaths of open terrain and clear fields of fire that assaulting elements will have to traverse. The irrigation canals also will be difficult to maneuver across and may channelize assaulting forces, though some breaching efforts can be expected. The town is at the center of a key breadbasket for the province, so the area is also populated, which could compound the challenges of the assault. In short, there is probably no better ground in Helmand on which to fight a defensive battle than the Marjah area.
map--Marjah, Helmand province, Afghanistan

And though the Taliban have begun to shy away from large, direct-fire engagements like the one against a small outpost in Wanat in Nuristan province in 2008, their use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) has increased dramatically in recent years; and there is little doubt that the approaches to the town and the town itself are laced with mines and IEDs. Resistance is expected to be considerably heavier than it was in Now Zad, but the forces the Taliban are dedicating to the town's defense remain to be seen. Estimates have varied from 400 fighters to 1,000 or more -- perhaps as much as two battalions.
The U.S. Marine Corps' Assault Breacher Vehicle
LANCE CPL. WALTER MARINO/U.S. Marine Corps
The U.S. Marine Corps' Assault Breacher Vehicle

While Marjah offers good defensive ground, the assault is likely to include cordoning off of the area, so many of the fighters dedicated to its defense will probably be forced to fight to the death or surrender. If they choose to stay and fight in numbers, the Taliban could try and exact a heavy cost on the assaulting force, but they likely would lose those fighters in the process. And lately, the Taliban have shown a proclivity for attacks that are low-risk and likely to preserve the forces committed.

The Marines already have brought in new, heavy Assault Breaching Vehicles for use in Now Zad, and they have no illusions about the Taliban's heavy preparations in Marjah. With assaults on Fallujah and Ramadi in Iraq under their belts, the Marines are experienced with this sort of urban assault. The extent to which IEDs can be managed and the number of Taliban forces dedicated to the town's defense will be pivotal to the battle's outcome.

Things are getting hot for Israel again. When will Obama and his Iranian friends attack and kill the Jews? Not sure, yet. Probably in a few months is the betting.

http://www.debka.com/article/8575/

Jones was not talking out of the top of his head, but on the strength of solid US intelligence gathered over months on detailed war plans Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas have drawn up to send five Hizballah brigades sweeping across the border to seize five sectors of Galilee, while also organizing a massive Israeli-Arab uprising against the Jewish state.
Hamas would open a second front in the south and in the east. Syria is expected to step in at some stage.
This plan with attached special map was first published exclusively by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 430 on Jan. 22, 2010. Key excerpts appear here.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards instructors at especially established training facilities near Tehran are already well advanced in training a cadre of 5,000 Hizballah fighters in special operations and urban combat tactics to standards equivalent to those current in similar US and Israeli military forces.

At the outset of the course, the group was split up into five battalions, each given a specific northern Israeli sector for capture with details of its topography and population for close study.
(See attached map).

http://www.homeland1.com/homeland-security-products/emergency-preparedness-response/articles/755544-food-convoy-attacked-as-un-warns-of-volatility-in-haiti/

Twenty armed men blocked a road and tried to hijack a convoy of food for earthquake victims, but were driven off by police gunfire, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

The attack on the convoy as it carried supplies from an airport in the southern town of Jeremie underscored what the United Nations calls a "potentially volatile" security situation as frustration has grown at the slow pace of aid since the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Most quake victims are still living outside in squalid tents of sheets and sticks and aid officials acknowedge they have not yet gotten food to the majority of those in need. Mobs have stolen food and looted goods from their neighbors in the camps, prompting many to band together or stay awake at night to prevent raids.

About 20 armed men blockaded a street Saturday and attacked a convoy carrying food from the airport in Jeremie, according to UN spokesman Vicenzo Pugliese. U.N. and Haitian officers fired warning gunshots and the men fled the scene, Pugliese said. No injuries were reported and no one was hurt.

Haitian police have increased their own patrols and are accompanying UN police guarding aid distribution.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/troops-in-astan-will-see-through-walls-in-2010/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WiredDangerRoom+%28Blog+-+Danger+Room%29

Later this year, American troops fighting in Afghanistan will begin to get gadgets designed to peer inside buildings and detect the heartbeat of people buried under rubble. It's not exactly Superman's x-ray vision. But it's not that far way from it, either.

These Eagle handheld scanners, which look "like a cross between a video game controller and an oversized cell phone," according to Defense News, work by sending out low-power, wideband radio-frequency signals toward a target, and measuring how the signals bounce back. A signal coming from a person will return differently than one from dirt or concrete, which will return differently than a signal bouncing off of concrete a few feet further away.

The handheld receiver decodes these signals, and displays the image it saw on the screen of the device, creating a picture of what's happening on the other side of the wall, or 10 feet underground. The device also has a wireless connection to a computer, so it can immediately send the image for processing and analysis.

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/200802.php

Erik Erickson makes an unsettling discovery in the Obama Budget Proposal on page 9:

All told, as of the end of November 2009, about 50 percent of Recovery Act funds--or $395 billion--has been either obligated or is providing assistance directly to Americans in the form of tax relief. BY DESIGN, the bulk of the remaining 50 percent of Recovery Act funds will be deployed in the coming months of 2010 and during the beginning of 2011 to support additional job creation when our economy continues to need a boost. Many of the programs slated to receive additional funding in the near future are those with significant promise of job creation. These include more than $7 billion in broadband expansion, approximately $8 billion in funds to lay the foundation for a high-speed rail network, and continued funding for other transportation projects. All told, the Recovery Act is on track to meet the goal of disbursing 70 percent of its funds in the first 18 months of its life.

http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/Protecting-Against-Lone-Wolf-at-Super-Bowl/1$50460

"We collect intelligence from all over the world and then we disseminate it, so that everyone knows what's going on," said William Maddalena, a top Miami FBI official in charge of special events. "We'll have daily briefings to put out the latest information we have."

But all that intelligence-gathering may not uncover a single person acting alone who wants to attack or disrupt the game or surrounding events. James Loftus, interim director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, said that's what keeps Super Bowl security planners awake at night.

Gillies of the FBI agreed.

"The biggest problem that we have is the lone wolf. They operate by themselves. They operate in seclusion. They don't discuss their plans or potential threats to anyone else," Gillies said.

"We have trained for a number of scenarios and combined scenarios. There are other assets that will be deployed that may not have been shared with the public."

Coast Guard Rear Admiral Steven Branham, the federal coordinator for Super Bowl security, said the stadium and environs will be thoroughly screened for bombs and other threats well before anyone is allowed inside. He said a robust and thorough screening procedure will be used for people entering the stadium, and he said fans can play a role as well.

"Be mindful of your surroundings. Speak up. Report things that look funny to you, so they can be dealt with appropriately," Branham said.