North west Arizona police are warning all shoppers and store owners to watch for counterfit money.
no details, other than it is being found.
There was a fire last night, started in a storeroom of a home, believed started by 2 puppies.
It is thought, that the puppies knocked something against the hot water heater, which started the fire.
Putting the pups in the store room, is exactly what I might have done, so am passing on the warning.
As we are passing on warnings about hot water heaters, many of the mobile homes have the hot water heater in a bedroom closet and are gas or butane.
A few years ago, I had one, my grandaughter was living with me and sleeping in that room.
Everytime I went down the hall, I got a whiff of a bad smell, for several days.....
Then I asked what stinks in your room and she didn't know.
It was the butane from the water heater, a rubber gasket had given way and broken the seal, allowing gas to escape where it went into the heater/burner.
God was not ready for us, it is a miracle that it did not explode, as both of us smoked and the furnace was 3 foot away in the hallway, also gas.
You asked this morning who was in charge, read this thread and you will know why you did not know John Negroponte, it is shameful, the games being played......granny
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1534324/posts
Bush's new intel pick stalled in Senate
UPI ^ | 12/5/05 | SHAUN WATERMAN
Posted on 12/05/2005 9:23:01 AM PST by Valin
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- The nation's new intelligence chief has told congressional leaders that he is "deeply troubled" by the delay in winning Senate confirmation for a key aide. Delays in staffing up his office, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte wrote to the leaders of the Senate, "are hampering my ability to carry out my critical responsibilities."
Negroponte, who began work in April setting up his newly created office as head of the nation's fractious gaggle of intelligence agencies, singled out the stalled nomination of his general counsel, Benjamin Powell, as "especially serious." "I am deeply troubled that the (Office of the Director of National Intelligence) is forced to function without the general counsel position ... I am being denied my chief legal officer during a critical standup phase of a new office," Negroponte wrote to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn, and Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Continued, oh boy, it is full of facts)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1534320/posts
1999 VIDEO: ABC News Report Linking Saddam Hussein And Osama Bin Laden
http://www.mediaresearch.org/rm/cyber/2004/binladen061704/segment1.ram ^ | 1999
Posted on 12/05/2005 9:15:04 AM PST by Laissez-faire capitalist
A 1999 Video by ABC News linking Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.
Note: post #27, is a transcript of the program.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1534370/posts
Bomb Scare New York Macy's [not yet confirmed]
Posted on 12/05/2005 10:35:25 AM PST by varyouga
I'm getting reports from friends and family of a bomb scare in the Macy's on 34th street. People running in the streets and heavy police activity.
No reports yet on the MSM. Let's hope it's not real this time.
This is just posted and not much info as yet.
There are hidden links in this report, for the websites..
There may be other interesting reports here.
granny
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2413
PolicyWatch #1057
Europe’s Terror Problem: PKK Fronts Inside the EU
By Soner Cagaptay and Fikret Cem S.
December 2, 2005
Since summer 2005, Turkish casualties resulting from attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been mounting at a rate close to that experienced by U.S. forces in Iraq. Between July 1 and July 16, for example, when U.S. troops suffered nineteen deaths in Iraq, eleven Turks were killed by the PKK. The bloodshed is creating a nationalist backlash in Turkey, and because most Turks blame Washington for renewed PKK violence emanating from northern Iraq, it is also harming U.S.-Turkish relations. Given U.S. preoccupation with the Iraqi insurgency, a full-scale U.S campaign against the PKK in northern Iraq seems unlikely in the short term.
But northern Iraq is not the only front on which the PKK is active; it also maintains a working infrastructure in Europe. The continuing PKK presence on the Continent angers Turkey. On November 16, Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan walked out of a joint press conference with Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen because Danish authorities would not remove representatives of the PKK’s Roj TV propaganda arm from the meeting hall.
The PKK’s Image in Europe: From Freedom Fighters to Terrorists
The PKK wreaked havoc in Turkey in the 1980s and 1990s, committing a wide range of violent atrocities, including attacks against Kurdish civilians. In June 1987, the PKK slaughtered the entire population of Pinarcik, a Kurdish village unsympathetic to its cause, in order to coerce nearby villages into submission. For a long time, most European governments adopted a sympathetic position toward the group, whose members they regarded as “freedom fighters.” A desire to avoid the organization’s wrath also played a role in shaping European attitudes towards the PKK.
For many years, European governments and the EU avoided confronting the PKK. In 1998, after Turkey convinced Syria to expel PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan—he had enjoyed safe haven in Damascus since the 1980s—Greece and Italy provided Ocalan with refuge. At the time, Ocalan traveled on a Greek-Cypriot passport. Though Ocalan was the subject of an Interpol Red Notice, based on an arrest warrant in Germany, the Italian government refused to honor the notice. The EU designated the PKK as a terror group only in May 2002, a month after the group no longer formally existed, having changed its name to the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK). Accordingly, in the 1990s, thanks to European pusillanimity, the PKK developed a sophisticated infrastructure for fundraising, propaganda, and recruitment in Europe.
Only since they were forced to face a terrorism problem at home have European states taken genuine steps against the PKK. Turkey’s improved prospects for EU accession and the fact that the PKK is intent on using violence to sabotage that process have also helped convince some European countries that should they not delay action against the PKK. In April 2004, the EU designated as a terrorist group the Kurdistan Society Congress (Kongra-Gel), the new name KADEK (the earlier PKK) had adopted in May 2003. In November 2004, Dutch security forces shut down a PKK training camp in Liempde, Netherlands, arresting twenty-nine people who were, according to Dutch authorities, “training to prepare for the armed struggle of the PKK in Turkey by committing terrorist attacks.”
On September 5, 2005, the German Interior Ministry shut down E. Xani Presse und Verlags, publisher of the pro-PKK Ozgur Politika newspaper. On September 19, the German authorities shut down Welat Press Verlag, operator of the Mezopotamia-Nachrichtenagentur news agency (MHA) and of the web sites of Roj Online. However, on October 20, Germany’s Federal Administrative Court overturned the Interior Ministry’s decision to shutter Ozgur Politika.
PKK Fronts and Sympathizing Organizations in Europe Despite these steps, a number of organizations in Europe bear close examination to see if they are in effect PKK fronts or otherwise close to the PKK.
Kurdishinfo.com: This website, hosted in Brussels, belongs to the MHA news service, which has its headquarters at Carl Ulrich Str. 13, 63263, Neu Isenburg, Germany. Counterterrorism experts consider this agency to be one of the most effective pro-PKK organizations in Europe.
Kurdistan Youth Freedom Movement (TECAK): This group’s website is hosted in Denmark. TECAK is extremely violent. According to information posted on its website, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a TECAK spinoff, has carried out a number of attacks in Turkey, including four bombings in Istanbul between October 6 and October 15. On July 16, TAK bombed a bus in the Turkish resort city of Kusadasi. The attack killed five people, including one Briton and one Irish citizen.
Kongra-Gel: A website belonging to this PKK alias and a mirror site are hosted in Dusseldorf, Germany.
Kurdistan Italia: The website for the Rome-based PKK information bureau is hosted in Arezzo, Italy. The website solicits donations to be sent to UIKI-Onlus, with contact information listed as an address at Via Gregorio VII 278, int.18, 00165, Rome, Italy; a telephone number of +39 0663 6892; a fax number of +39 0639 380273; and an e-mail address of uili.onlus@fastwebnet.it.
Roj TV: The Danish-based television broadcaster is headquartered at H. C. Andersens Boulevard 39, DK-1553, Copenhagen. The network, which also operates a website, broadcasts pro-PKK news and propaganda, including interviews with PKK leaders and calls for violent action against Turkey.
Sardasht TV: This Kurdish music broadcaster operates online and links to Roj TV. Its website is hosted in Osthammars, Sweden.
Freedom for Ocalan: Based in Cologne, Germany, the organization refers to itself as the “International Initiative Freedom for Ocalan—Peace in Kurdistan” campaign. It aims to push Turkey to free Ocalan, who is currently in prison in Turkey for his role in unleashing a terror campaign that has caused more than 30,000 deaths. Freedom for Ocalan’s website is hosted in Cologne, Germany. Freedom for Ocalan lists its contact information as addresses at PO Box 100511, D-50445 and Hohenstaufening 13, D-50674, both in Cologne, Germany; a telephone number of +49 2211 301559; a fax number of +49 2211 393071; and an e-mail address of info@freedom-for-ocalan.com.
Denge-Mezopotamya: This is a Kurdish website with links to many PKK-affiliated sites, including those mentioned above. The website is hosted in Berlin.
The U.S. Role in Facilitating European Action against the PKK
The PKK machinery remains strong in Europe. Though some EU countries, such as Britain, have banned the PKK and its reincarnations, the organization remains free in a few EU countries, such as Greece. PKK fronts and sympathetic organizations thrive in most EU member states. However, with fresh European willingness to combat terrorism—the EU agreed on November 29 with its Arab Mediterranean neighbors and Israel on a joint code of conduct to fight terrorism—further U.S.-European cooperation against PKK front organizations in Europe might be productive.
Money and human capital are the two essential ingredients for any terror group. Severing the PKK’s financial and recruiting arms in Europe would help demobilize the threat the group poses to the U.S.-Turkish relationship and to Turkey’s EU accession. In this regard, Washington, Brussels, and Ankara may find it useful to coordinate their efforts within the European Counter Terrorism Group, a body composed of all twenty-five EU member states as well as Norway and Switzerland. Such steps would help alleviate Europe’s major counterterrorism problem, which one Interpol analyst describes as a “failure to achieve robust multilateral capabilities in the financial and law-enforcement areas due to lack of political will.”
Soner Cagaptay is a senior fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute. Fikret Cem S. was a summer research intern at the Institute.
© 2005 The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=144&NrSection=3&NrArticle=15295
TRANSITIONS ONLINE: Kosovo: Virtual Rebels
by Alma Lama
5 December 2005
A new armed group threatens violence if Kosovo does not become independent – but are they for real?
PRISTINA, Kosovo | N.K. is a 32-year-old from Decani in western Kosovo who describes himself as being “close” to the masked gunmen of the self-styled Kosovo Independence Army, or UPK. He doesn’t want to see his full name in print.
Pristina media have widely reported that black-clad and masked UPK fighters appeared on some roads in the Peja region, which includes Decani, erecting roadblocks to search cars and check passengers.
As the international community gears to start direct talks between Pristina and Belgrade on the status of the province, the security situation for Kosovo’s minorities remains volatile. Just this past weekend, a bus on its way from southern Kosovo to Belgrade was attacked by someone with a grenade launcher. Luckily, the grenades pierced the bus but did not explode. The incident prompted Kosovo’s UN administration (UNMIK) to raise security measures once again.
OUR FRIENDS FROM THE UPK
N.K., himself a former member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), smiles and says the UPK “are our friends.” He says they are former UCK members who now feel abandoned by the politicians, including former UCK leaders, amid a very difficult economic situation.
But is the UPK for real? It emerges rather like a ghost from the tales of people with “contacts” to the rebels and investigations by the local police and the NATO-led peacekeepers (KFOR).
Even N.K. thinks the Pristina media are exaggerating a bit when covering his buddies of the UPK. “Decani is a small town, less than five thousand inhabitants, and we know each other very well,” he says, implying that the locals would have a pretty good idea of who’s a member and who’s not.
N.K is unable to say how many people might belong to the UPK, but there seem to be a sufficient number of them to have disturbed the peacekeeping forces in Kosovo. After international forces started overflights with helicopters and unmanned aircraft in the region around Decani and Peja, where some of the fiercest fighting against Serbian forces took place in 1998-1999, the gunmen disappeared from the streets and have since switched to communications through the Internet.
But just because they’ve gone virtual hasn’t made them any less threatening.
On 9 November, the UPK threatened the international community with “events a hundred times more dramatic than those of last March [2004],” when thousands of Serbian houses and historical and religious monuments were destroyed by mobs.
In one of their media statements, the UPK called on the Kosovo assembly to declare independence, or else deputies would have “a hard time in future days.”
On 16 November, they threatened to launch a military operation on Pristina if independence was not declared immediately. They then seemed to have accepted a resolution passed by the Kosovo parliament the next day which, although it did not declare independence, made clear that independence was the only acceptable outcome of status talks.
The UPK has used similar, though rather less subtle, language with people they stopped on the road.
“We’ll kill all the traitors of the nation and the members of the Kosovo negotiation team if they won’t behave in the right way,” two people wearing military-style uniforms with UPK insignia and black facemasks told D.S., a man from the village of Rogova in Rahovec municipality. The "team" is the Kosovo delegation to the talks on the province’s final status that are about to get under way.
Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who is the UN's envoy to the status talks, said last week he hoped direct negotiations can begin early in the New Year.
D.S. said the gunmen stopped him and his nephew in Rogova and forced them to show identity papers. He too doesn’t want his name used because he’s afraid for his safety. “I don’t want any problem with them,” he said.
ONLINE ONLY?
Another source interviewed by TOL had asked a UPK gunman for an interview but was told that the group weren’t interested in giving statements other than those they disseminated on the Internet.
There are good reasons to suspect that the UPK is more of a virtual group than a military formation.
Two years ago, another force called the Albanian National Army also sent threatening communications to politicians via the Internet. But after a short burst of activity the organization seems to have died out.
According to another former UCK rebel from Decani, what is happening in this area is a form of blackmail. “It’s a hidden political issue, nothing else,” he said. “Everything depends on the status of Kosovo; if independence will not be given, the problem [of armed bands] will spread and become very serious,” he said, pointing to what he described as an increasing number of extremists in Kosovo.
KFOR confirmed that armed individuals had been spotted in the Peja region but excluded the possibility they might be part of an organized military group.
The Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti on 27 October accused Ramush Haradinaj, the former UCK commander of the region and a former Kosovo prime minister currently facing charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, of being behind the mysterious paramilitary UPK, calling him "the sponsor and main ideologue of this terrorist army."
Haradinaj stands accused of crimes against Serbian civilians during the ethnic Albanian rebellion against Belgrade’s rule in 1998-1999. He was released by the ICTY last June, pending trial.
But according to a TOL source in Decani, the armed men in the area are very angry at Haradinaj because he failed to help them after the war.
The UPK appeared on the scene just a few days after an article in the Kosovo daily Koha ditore, in which Mikan Velinovic, a former wrestler and writer of aphorisms, claimed to be the commander of the Serbian Antiterrorist Liberation Movement, or SOAP, a group he claimed had 7,500 members that were unarmed but ready to act if necessary. “Every Serb is a member of this organization, because we are threatened by terrorists,” the paper quoted Velinovic as saying.
Fears are flying high that the opening of status talks will provide incentives for extremists on both sides to make trouble.
Ramadan Qehaja, a security adviser to Prime Minister Bajram Kosumi, is concerned that the situation might be exacerbated by foreign secret services present in Kosovo, especially from Serbia. “Elements of the Serbian Interior Ministry are active in Kosovo, especially in the northern part,” he told TOL, saying that the fact that Kosovo did not have a regular secret service made it very difficult to monitor the presence of other secret services.
Political analyst Shkelzen Maliqi also told TOL that the threat of extremism was a convenient pretext that the sides could use to their advantage, but that the threat by these groups was real. “I fear the organized groups of Serbs and Albanians that are out of control. Serbs especially, because they have much more motivation and discontent. But Albanians at the same time may be determined to get their revenge if there’s a domino effect.”
For UNMIK spokesman Neeraj Singh, messages, real or fake, like that the UPK delivered to Kosovo's status negotiators are to be expected given what’s at stake in the status talks.
“Despite the comments in the media, the threats, electronic messages, and other forms of pressure, the status of Kosovo will not be decided on the street or through the Internet, neither from Pristina nor from Belgrade,” Singh told a press conference in remarks that were echoed by KFOR commander Giuseppe Valotto.
Alma Lama is a journalist for the public Radio Television of Kosovo and a correspondent for Osservatorio sui Balcani.
Help me Davey, I am lost in google........laughing.
http://www.google.com/search?client=googlet&q=criminal%20activity%20in%20South%20America%20that%20includes%20Russian%20and%20Asian%20gangs
Am I the only one who had not found this before?
http://www.google.com/search?client=googlet&q=The%20Black%20Market%20Peso%20Exchange%20
5 blasts on Madrid Highway, no word as yet on casualities.
New Video on al Jazerra TV, of American Hostage, with his photo ID.
Fox newa radio above.
KDWN: man shot and killed in a canyon , near Lake Mead, he kidnapped a woman in Las Vegas, no details, first that I had heard this report, happened yesterday.
News copter, took photos of a body coming out of the canyon.
above in the last 3 minutes ago reports.
This is from the Madrid thread in our post 3964, interesting thought.
granny
Also the moon is in configuration with mars as it is on the islamic flag, the crescent/'star' near conjunction.
53 posted on 12/06/2005 7:53:14 AM PST by txflake
I turned the computer on
and this was that instant posted, will catch up in a bit.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1535421/posts
LA Authorities Warn Of More Booby-Trapped Pens
The Guardian (UK) ^ | 12-7-2005 | Dan Glaister
Posted on 12/06/2005 8:19:16 PM PST by blam
LA authorities warn of more booby-trapped pens
Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Wednesday December 7, 2005
The Guardian (UK)
The authorities in Los Angeles have issued a warning to pupils after the discovery of three exploding pens. The latest booby-trapped device went off on Friday morning when a pupil picked up a marker pen lying on the floor in the boys' toilets. It went off in his hands. In August two other devices went off at El Monte district schools, injuring two others. The victims suffered minor burns and scratches on their hands and faces.
Article continues
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...