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Locked on 08/01/2006 10:01:47 PM PDT by Religion Moderator, reason:
New thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1676188/posts |
Posted on 07/01/2006 1:15:53 PM PDT by nwctwx
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Thanks to TigerLikesRooster for this translation and thread.
The following post is a quote:
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1666138/posts
China Drowning In 'A Swamp Called N. Korea'
Munhwa Ilbo ^ | 07/14/06
Posted on 07/15/2006 2:25:30 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
China Drowning In A 'Swamp Called N. Korea'
/begin my translation
China Drowning In A 'Swamp Called N. Korea'
Huh Min
"This is really depressing," deplores a reputable ethnic Korean professor teaching political science at a prestigious educational institution in Beijing, China, when he met the reporter on July 13. The comment reflects the sense of resignation that China has tried everything to defuse N. Korean missile crisis as if its life depended on it, but failed in the end, rendering all possible means useless. His comment was full of disappointment at N. Korea, his grandfather's country, and Kim Jong-il regime.
Truly, the dismay and embarrassment Chinese authorities felt in last several days is indescribable. Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei went to Pyongyang to persuade N. Korea, Foreign Minister Li Zhao-xing has met Christopher Hill, the Assistant Secretary of State, two times in a single week, and pleaded not to abandon diplomatic efforts. China has vigorously opposed the draft of sanction on N. Korea, proposed at UN Security Council.
Still, N. Korea refused to heed China's advice that it should return to 6-party talks. China, the closest ally and the biggest aid donor, and the unconditional supporter (of N. Korea,) lost face badly. One diplomatic observer in Beijing commented, "China is drowning in a swamp called N. Korea. I wonder if N. Korea, which spurned China's desperate plea, even retains any trace of sound judgement and rationality."
If things remain this way, China cannot help but accommodate mood of international community. South China Morning Post of Hong Kong reported in its July 13th issue, "All attention will be paid to Chinese President Hu Jintao at G-8 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, held between July 15th and 17th."
If 6-party talk is stalled in an extended period of time, while U.S. and Japan keep up pressure, China would be cornered to make a forced diplomatic choice. Negotiation phase is already over, sanction phase has begun, and China is on board for such action, albeit marginally. I wonder how soon China could get out of N. Korea swamp.
Huh Min / Beijing correspondent
/end my translation
Smiling at you.
Note; The following text is a quote:
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http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/060714philadelphia.htm
July 14, 2006
Philadelphia money remitter pleads guilty to money laundering charges
Plea is latest in series of ICE actions against unscrupulous remitters in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA, PA. - John Kelleghan, the acting Special Agent-in-Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Philadelphia, today announced that the owner and in-house compliance officer of a north Philadelphia money remitting agency has pleaded guilty to 15 counts of money laundering and one count of criminal forfeiture in connection with a scheme to send to the Dominican Republic more than $92,000 that he believed to be narcotics proceeds.
Juan Maria, a 47-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in the Dominican Republic, is the owner and anti-money laundering compliance officer of Genoveba Communications, Inc. (GCI). GCI is a licensed money remitting agency for BHD Corporation, Vigo Remittance, and Merchant's Express Money Order Company.
Maria entered his guilty plea yesterday in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. As part of the plea, Maria forfeited $20,265 in cash that was previously seized by ICE agents during the execution of a search warrant at GCI. According to the guilty plea, Maria faces a maximum potential sentence of 300 years and a fine of $7.5 million. Maria is scheduled to be sentenced on September 18, 2006.
Maria's guilty plea was based upon charges contained in a criminal information filed on May 30, 2006 which alleged that he laundered approximately $92,750 in funds to the Dominican Republic and exchanged cash for international money orders with funds that he believed to be narcotics proceeds. Specifically, Maria conducted 28 international wire transfers under various false names and structured the sale of money orders in an attempt to conceal and disguise the nature, location, source, ownership and control of what he believed to be the proceeds of narcotics trafficking.
“Money remitters who are willing to move illicit proceeds overseas pose significant homeland security threats. They serve as magnets for criminal organizations and even terrorist groups looking to wire transfer their dirty money abroad with no questions asked. Closing down this vulnerability is a priority for ICE,” said Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Kelleghan.
Maria's guilty plea is the latest in a series of ICE enforcement actions against Philadelphia money remitters involved in illegal activity. In May of this year, a Philadelphia money remitter pleaded guilty to criminal charges of loan fraud, structuring financial transactions, and operating an illegal money transmittal business. The same month, another local money remitter was sentenced to 30 months incarceration for laundering money that he believed to be drug proceeds.
Venord Multiple Services:
On May 24, Seide Venord was sentenced to 30 months in federal incarceration, ordered to make restitution of $25,140, ordered to forfeit $4,660 in cash, and ordered to pay $1,000 in court fines at sentencing in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Venord was convicted in January 2006 on 43 counts for his role in laundering roughly $267,195 in funds that he believed to be drug proceeds through his Philadelphia money remitting business to the Dominican Republic.
Venord was the owner and in-house anti-money laundering compliance officer for Venord Multiple Services. In this position, Venord was a licensed money remitter for Western Union, Vigo Remittance, and Girosol Corporation, all money remitting businesses licensed in Pennsylvania.
Venord conducted financial transactions that were represented to him to be proceeds of illegal drug trafficking. Venord arranged for the international transfers of money and exchanged blank money orders for cash. Specifically, Venord structured these transactions to evade the federal currency transaction requirements and permitted the use of false identification and fictitious names to prevent discovery of the money sender's true identity.
Medina Tax & Travel:
On May 23, Sheikh Mohammed Khurshan, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bangladesh, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to one count of operating an unlicensed money remitting business, one count of attempted loan fraud, and one count of structuring financial transactions. Khurshan was the president and owner of Medina Tax and Travel and the appointed accountant of the Majid Al-Jamia mosque in Philadelphia.
An ICE investigation revealed that Khurshan often structured deposits of cash in $9,000 increments every few days into local Philadelphia banks order to evade the federal $10,000 currency transaction requirements. When the account balance reached $20,000 to $40,000, Khurshan would conduct a large wire transfer depleting the account. Most of the funds were sent to a company in Singapore. Using these techniques, Khurshan transmitted more than $900,000 overseas, although he was not licensed in the state of Pennsylvania to operate a money transmittal business.
A federal grand jury returned a sealed indictment against Khurshan on May 26, 2005. Khurshan voluntarily surrendered to federal authorities on June 1, 2005. Khurshan is scheduled to be sentenced in August 2006. He faces a maximum sentence of 40 years incarceration; five years supervised release, a fine of $1.5 million, $400,000 in asset forfeiture, and a $300 special assessment.
For decades, money transmittal businesses (including hawalas) have proven vulnerable to criminal exploitation. The USA Patriot Act of 2001 enhanced ICE's ability to combat the international movement of illicit funds through these businesses by amending the 18 USC 1960 statute. As a result, money service businesses in the United States are required to be registered with the U.S. Treasury Department and be licensed by the appropriate state authorities.
ICE agents have used this statute to aggressively target unlicensed money transmittal businesses and underground hawalas nationwide. From 2002 through 2005, these ICE investigations resulted in the arrest of more than 155 individuals and 142 indictments, as well as the seizure of $25 million.
-- ICE --
Yep.
THANKS FOR THIS UPDATE.
Looking forward to all the updates on this one.
Note: The following text is a quote:
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http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/July/06_crm_435.html
OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2006
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
CRM
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888
Government Moves To Deport Wisconsin Man Who
Helped Carry Out 1943 Nazi Mass Murder Of Jews
WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have asked a federal immigration judge in Chicago to deport a Wisconsin man who admitted performing SS guard service during a Nazi mass killing operation in occupied Poland in 1943, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division announced today.
In a charging document filed with the immigration court, the government asserts that Josias Kumpf, 81, of Racine, Wis., served as an armed SS Death’s Head guard at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Germany; at the Trawniki SS Labor Camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, where 8,000 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered in a single day as part of a mass murder operation involving 42,000 victims at three camps; and at construction sites in France at which prisoners built launching platforms for Germany’s V-1 and V-2 missiles.
“Kumpf’s confessed role in a little-known but horrific chapter of the Holocaust – the November 1943 massacre at Trawniki, Poland – makes him ineligible for the privilege of living in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General Fisher. “We will remove him as swiftly as the legal process allows.”
Kumpf was born in the former Yugoslavia, immigrated to this country in 1956 under a program intended to benefit post-war refugees in Europe, and became a U.S. citizen in 1964. Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a district court decision revoking Kumpf’s U.S. citizenship on the basis of his wartime Nazi service. Documents filed by the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) with the immigration court state that Kumpf should be deported on the basis of the facts proved during the denaturalization case. OSI investigated Kumpf and litigated that case. In revoking Kumpf’s citizenship, the Court of Appeals quoted chilling admissions made by Kumpf to OSI in which he described his duties as a guard during the November 3, 1943, massacre at the SS labor camp at Trawniki. Kumpf explained that he “was watching them shoot some people,” that some of the victims were “still halfway alive” and “convuls[ing],” and that if a prisoner attempted escape, his instructions were to “shoot them to kill, shoot to kill.”
“The November 1943 Nazi massacres at Trawniki and other camps – carried out under the macabre code-name ‘Operation Harvest Festival’ – were among the most barbaric crimes of the Holocaust,” said OSI Director Eli M. Rosenbaum. “No one who participated in those atrocities has the slightest right to remain in this country.”
The government’s case against Kumpf is a result of OSI’s ongoing efforts to identify, investigate, and take legal action against former participants in Nazi persecution who reside in the United States. Since OSI began operations in 1979, it has won cases against 101 individuals who assisted in Nazi crimes of persecution. In addition, over 170 individuals who sought to enter the United States in recent years have been blocked from doing so as a result of OSI’s “Watchlist” program, which is enforced in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security.
The removal case is being litigated by trial attorneys Stephen Paskey and Adam S. Fels of the Criminal Division’s Office of Special Investigations.
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06-435
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July 14, 2006
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275801,00.html
"1,500 Palestinians storm Gaza from Egypt"
"Gunmen blow a hole in wall on Gaza-Egypt border, allowing Palestinians to enter Strip "
Ali Waked and AFP
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Palestinian gunmen have blown a hole in a wall on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, allowing 1500 people to cross into the Palestinian territory.
Gunmen, believed to be from the armed wing of the governing Palestinian movement Hamas, blew a hole in the wall around 70 meters from the Rafah border terminal, witnesses said."
(07.14.06, 22:43)
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The question is, "Are they for us or against us?"
http://www.truthusa.com/AgainstUSorForUS.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Juggalo_Attacks.html
Friday, July 14, 2006 · Last updated 10:47 p.m. PT
"Five fans of group Insane Clown Posse charged in park attacks"
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "TACOMA, Wash. -- Five young people, apparently fans of the rap/hip-hop group Insane Clown Posse, face felony charges in a series of violent attacks at Fort Steilacoom Park, and police in suburban Lakewood have warrants for several more people, the prosecutor in the case said Friday."
ARTICLE SNIPPET #2: "Insane Clown Posse jewelry features a laughing clown with a meat cleaver. The group's albums include "Carnival of Carnage" and "Terror Wheel."
The attackers, carrying hatchets and machetes, beat and robbed people in the park on the nights of June 19 and June 20 and threatened some with decapitation, according to court records.
They sent some victims to the hospital, with injuries that include "at least one broken jaw, one broken nose and a broken face. One girl was apparently ordered to take her pants off but she managed to escape. ... They're very aggressive," Sorenson said."
I see my long-held distrust of clowns is well-justified...
Praying that your co-worker stays safe! I saw a quick story about students who are being sheltered at American University in Beirut. There are still some Americans and others from all over the world. I believe that most of the Israeli airstrikes are only against the terroists. I also saw a story that Israel had dropped leaflets last week to warn about the current situation...so hopefully many people heeded that warning and sought shelter.
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- The United States is working on a plan to evacuate American citizens from Lebanon to the neighboring island of Cyprus, the U.S. Embassy said Saturday.
"We are looking at how we might transport Americans to Cyprus. Once in Cyprus, Americans can then board commercial aircraft for onward travel," an embassy statement said.
The State Department said Friday that Americans in Lebanon should consider leaving when it is safe to do so, and officials made contingency plans for the evacuation of people who cannot leave on their own....
Hizbulla Anti-Naval Capability and Iranian Supplied Toys
Much is still unclear regarding the exact nature and extent of the attack that crippled an Israeli Corvette yesterday. The known facts include:
1. Ship was struck in the stern helipad area taking the ship out of action. This is the first time an Israeli vessel has had that happen to it IIRC.
2. Hizbulla success and timing matched the leader's audio announcement.
Initial thought was that a UAV loaded with explosives (about 100-180 lbs) was able to strike the ship. This theory was adjusted later with the rumor that the UAV was equiped with a Raad anti-tank missile (not to be confused with the Raad used against Haifa). This is a set-up similar to our Predator drones using Hellfire missiles.
More reports suggest that it was an Iranian variant of the Silkworm anti-ship missile (C-802). This alledgedly was launched with Iranian military at the controls.
What are the possible answers?
A loaded UAV would be questionable because the AA guns of the Corvette should have been able to take it out, but the reported extent of destruction is comptable.
A standoff shot using anti-tank missiles could better account for the two rocket report, the first missing, second hitting. This would be a huge technological advance for Hizbolla/Iran to control such a sophicated weapons platform. Major question would be could the UAV carry the weight of the rockets and supporting equipment? Again, extent of damages is what would have been expected.
A silkworm variant is very scary. Normal Silkworms deployed by Iran in the Persian Gulf area are pretty fixed facilities with a definite footprint that is detectable from the air. The system here, if used, appears to be a more portable, truck mounted one, with perhaps a slightly smaller missile. The reports associated with this system indicated that the Corvette would have been sunk but for the actions of the 4 missing crewmen. Reports have two of these missiles being launched, one on a high transjectory, the second on a sea skimming route. The high missile missed, the second didn't. If this report is correct, then Iran has provided a significantly advanced weapon for Hizbolla to use and the people to run it. This brings greater concern in regards to Hizbolla warnings that they have more "surprizes" instore for Israel. Syria has access to the WMD transferred there by Iraq by Saddam. If Hizbolla has gotten their hands on it, it could get really messy really fast.
Of the three options, the one closest to Hizbolla technological capabilities is the HE loaded UAV. However, in light of the evidence of other direct Iranian involvement, the C-802 scares the heck out of me. Being mobile, it could have escaped Israeli detection. It would also play into the Hizbolla PR as a Corvette has limited defense against such a significant weapon.
Pocket knife found on plane delays Japan-bound Chicago flight
Chicago, July 15: A United Airlines flight to Japan was delayed nearly four-and-a-half hours at O'hare International Airport after a pocket-knife was found on board the plane, the airline said.
The pocket-knife was found after the flight's 322 passengers had boarded the plane and it pulled away from the gate yesterday, said united spokesman Brandon Borrman. He did not have details about who found the pocket-knife or where it was located.
Borrman said officials decided to bring the plane back to the gate, have the passengers deboard and re-screen them all.
The flight, which was scheduled to leave Chicago at 12:03 pm local time (2233 IST), took off for Japan at 4:27 pm (0257 IST), Borrman said.
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=309205&sid=WOR
Shaping of the battlefield
Israel is using their airforce to isloate the battlefield and take out key facilities. This is allowing the called up groundforces time to assemble and deploy to assembly areas in N. Israel in preparation for the impending ground assault.
The initial shock and success of the Hizbolla rocket attacks have significantly declined. Since these are unguided rockets, the initial launching points were carefully selected and targets calculated for high success rate. However, Israeli counter battery fire appears to be removing these sites from use, as well as attriting fireing crews. Rocket attacks overnight appear to have a wider degree of missing their intended targets, indicating that they are trying to shoot from non-planned locations to prevent preemptive strikes by the Israelies.
Once the battlefield has been adequately shaped by the IAF, I expect Israel to launch a two pronged attack. The first would be a fast mechanized/armor sweep to the north and then sweeping to the east and west, setting up blocking positions to prevent reinforcement from the north and east as well as prevent escape to those directions. The second prong will be the main ground assault to crush Hizbolla units trapped by the other forces.
The start of the ground campaign will be dangerous. IF Hizbolla has its hands on chemical munitions, I would expect them to use them here to stall the Israeli assault. This provides the greatest distance between Hizbolla and Israeli forces provided Hizbolla does not have protective gear (kinda hard to seal a mask with that radical beard). Hizbolla/Iranian longer range assets, such as the Raad rockets could be used to send chemicals deep into Israel. Note yesterday's concerns that Iranian rocket assets that could reach to Tel Aviv. If these are equiped with chemical munitions, the gloves come off.
Syrian / Iranian involvement
Right now, apart from setting Hizbolla up with some nasty toys, has been only cheering from the sidelines. The arab world is cold to lukewarm in their support. Syria doesn't appear to be postured to exploit the situation militarily at the moment (judging from their suprise to the IAF buzz of Damascus last week). Iran is using Syria as a shield and playing their puppet game with Hizbolla. That Iranian military is present alongside Hizbolla indicates that Iran is calling the shots, much to the dismay of Syria who may catch the brunt of any Israeli reprisals.
Should any chemical munitions be used by Hizbolla, Syria will be hit hard. if they can be linked more closely to Iran, or if Iran begins to actively threathen the Gulf, this may be America's cue and excuse to hit Iran - since they supplied the chemicals to their proxy - Hizbolla. If Syrian forces are still in garrison, the strikes by Israel will be substantially more effective.
What I'm watching out for -
Deeper rocket strikes into Israel
Use of chemical munitions
Deployment / dispersal of Syrian ground units.
Redeployments of the 3 - 4 US carrier battle groups from the Pacific towards the Persian Gulf
Start of the Israeli ground offensive.
Yep, you never know what lurks behind that clown face.
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Good.
I hope and pray they get out safely.
THANK YOU all4one.
Thank you Godzilla for the update and info.
I appreciate it.
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