Posted on 03/03/2008 10:30:39 AM PST by Bahbah
Good morning, everybody!!
Bahbah — thanks for the new ‘Ol’ Homethread’ — gonna take a bit to get used to the freshly painted walls and the new carpet.. ;~)
(It’s a good thing you picked a darker-colored carpet this time — it won’t show the coffee spills as much...) ;~)
Speaking of coffee — mine’s ready....
Good morning Uncle Ike.
Lots going on this morning.
Israel is using excessive force against the Palestinians in Gaza; this must stop,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Tuesday.
“Israel is bombarding civilians without distinction,” he said during a joint press conference in Cairo with his American counterpart Condoleezza Rice, who is expected to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
—
While all the while Hamas shoots rockets into Israel- killing and maiming who? Civilians, without distinction.
The mind boggles.
Yep - Israel is trying its best to survive and Hamas and the "Palestinians" are playing to the UN/world big difference. If the UN/world pulls support, Israel could just go in and wipe them out properly - I could support that ;)
” Lots going on this morning. “
Yep — and not all of it big and splashy and involving explosives....
(Iranian) Vice president to visit Syria on Wednesday: SANA report
Tehran Times ^ | March 3, 2008 | staff
Posted on 03/03/2008 10:39:18 PM CST by Perdogg
First Vice President Parviz Davudi is scheduled to visit Syria on Wednesday, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on Sunday.
Davudi’s trip follows an invitation by Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Utri.
Davudi will head the Iranian delegation in a meeting of the Syrian-Iranian Joint High Committee, which will be held on March 5-6 in Damascus.
During the visit the vice president will also meet Syrian officials to discuss mutual ties in various areas.
Iranian Deputy Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Musa Barzegari, and Syrian director of premier office Taysser al-Zu’bi started the preparatory meetings of Syrian-Iranian High Committee on Saturday
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980012/posts
” The mind boggles. “
I guess I’ve been watching this stuff for too long — not sure my mind is capabable of ‘boggling’ anymore... ;~)
Good morning, Mom.....
In case there’s anybody out there in the big wide world who still cares —
UN approves fresh sanctions against Iran
Telegraph UK ^ | 2:39am GMT 04/03/2008 | David Blair, Diplomatic Editor
Posted on 03/03/2008 11:06:28 PM CST by fishhound
The United Nations has escalated the pressure over Iran’s nuclear programme by imposing more economic sanctions on Teheran.
The Resolution, passed by 14 votes to nil in the Security Council with one abstention, was the culmination of months of diplomatic effort by America and Britain.
The UN Security Council, which approved fresh sanctions against Iran The UN Security Council imposed the new sanctions because Iran has continued to enrich uranium
This was the third round of UN sanctions to be imposed on Iran.
The Resolution places travel bans and asset freezes on 12 Iranian individuals and 13 companies linked to the nuclear programme.
It also introduces monitoring of two state-owned banks, Melli and Saderat.
The Security Council took this step because Iran has continued to enrich uranium in breach of three earlier Resolutions.
This procedure could be used to make weapons-grade uranium, the essential material for a nuclear weapon.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said the Resolution should send a “very clear message” that the “world community is not turning its back on Iran”. advertisement
If Teheran stopped enriching uranium, there was “economic, scientific, technological cooperation on offer, on the table, ready to deliver benefit for the Iranian people,” he said.
Mr Miliband added: “There are those who said the international community would fracture or blink. In fact it hasn’t because everyone’s very worried about the prospect of this issue continuing to haunt the Middle East.”
But opposition from China and Russia, who both have close commercial links with Iran, delayed this Resolution for months.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980018/posts
Another ‘Catch-and-Release’ exercise in the Kingdom...
28 Al-Qaeda Militants Arrested in Kingdom
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News
JEDDAH, 4 March 2008 — Saudi Security forces have arrested 28 militants, who were involved in rebuilding the Al-Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia to launch another campaign of terror across the Kingdom, an Interior Ministry spokesman said in a statement.
The militants had been collecting funds on the pretext of supporting the needy in Pakistan and Afghanistan — money that was, in fact, being used “to finance their criminal activities,” said the spokesman.
One of those arrested was carrying a recorded message of Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahri on the memory card of a cell phone. “The bearer of this message is one of our trusted brothers, therefore, please give him your donations to help hundreds of families of captives and martyrs in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Al-Zawahri said in the audio recording aired by the Kingdom’s state television.
The Interior Ministry spokesman added that a person visiting Makkah had brought the recording to the Kingdom.
56 Arrests Since December
The latest arrests bring the total number of militants detained by Saudi authorities since December 2007 — when 28 people were arrested over alleged plans to attack sites outside the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah during the Haj season — to 56.
The Interior Ministry statement added that the 56 men were of different nationalities and included the head of the group. The men had reportedly been close to establishing hide-outs for their cells, forging travel documents and launching a media campaign through the Internet to spread their deviant ideology.
The spokesman said investigations proved that the newly detained militants belonged to Al-Qaeda and had been in contact with its leadership abroad. Those arrested were also recruiting young men and sending them to different regions of the Kingdom to participate in activities that undermine the security of Saudi Arabia.
Clampdown on Al-Qaeda
The latest arrests indicate that Al-Qaeda and other terrorist and extremist organizations are still trying to destabilize the Kingdom, the world’s largest oil supplier. A major sweep last April netted 172 militants, including pilots trained to carry out attacks on oil refineries using civilian planes.
The Kingdom has orchestrated a heavy crackdown on Al-Qaeda since 2003. It has also been building a 35,000-strong rapid reaction force to protect oil installations after a failed Al-Qaeda attack in 2006 on the world’s largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq in the Eastern Province.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has stressed that Saudi Arabia will root out terrorists from the country and has praised security forces for their work against militants.
Interior Minister Prince Naif said his forces had foiled 95 percent of attacks and that 58 police officers have so far died in anti-terror operations
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980042/posts
I wonder who is actually providing the people for this as I didn't know the Saudis performed actual labor.
I know that South America isn’t technically in our geographical area of interest — but the fact that Hugo spent a great part of last year shuttling between Teheran and Damascus and Moscow keeps preying on my mind...
(And, in my more tinfoil moments, I find the timing of Hugo’s latest Hijinks to be vaguely suspicious....)
Colombia says FARC wanted to make radioactive bomb
Reuters ^
Posted on 03/04/2008 5:56:54 AM CST by maquiladora
Colombia’s FARC guerrilla movement was trying to get hold of radioactive material to make a “dirty bomb,” Colombian Vice-President Francisco Santos said on Tuesday.
Santos told the United Nations Conference on Disarmament that materials found on computers of Raul Reyes, the deputy commander of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), showed the group was in negotiations to get hold of radioactive matter for a bomb. (Reuters)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980067/posts
I’ve been keeping half an eye on that little bugger - I predict a bug smashing soon, don’t know if it will be from within or out.
” I predict a bug smashing soon “
This particular bug can do quite a bit of mischief before the much-anticipated smashing....
F’rinstance, how about diverting our attention - and possibly a portion of our combat power - while simultaneous pushes go on in Lebanon/Israel and/or Serbia/Kosovo?
I’ve long been out on a very slender limb with my speculation that Ahmanutjob and Putin and Hugo have a global strategic plan in place — that limb isn’t feeling quite as flimsy this morning.....
LOL! It was just SUCH a blatant mischaraterization I couldn’t help but boggle:)
Perhaps Ike.
I hope our attention span is broad enough to cover him - hope don’t smash bugs though :)
” I hope our attention span is broad enough to cover him “
What attention span??
In case you haven’t noticed, virtually *NOBODY* is paying attention...
Even here on FR - the sharpest, most astute and aware group of people I’ve ever encountered - there aren’t more than a dozen or so of us that actually follow these events closely....
(And we have to work our butts off to get the necessary information)
Evil deeds are afoot......
Actually, I kind of think it is now. Iran is involved. Hezbollah may be. Crazy Hugo we know supports terrorists. Definitely an area to keep one's eye on.
ok Ike - I’m convinced.
I now have Columbia, Venezuela and Ecuador new site bookmarked and will keep the other half an eye on it.
ok - here is the real deal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Colombia Files Show Chavez Funded FARC, Rebels Sought Uranium
By Helen Murphy
March 3 (Bloomberg) — Colombia’s police chief Oscar Naranjo said documents from the computer of a guerrilla leader killed last weekend in Ecuador show links to Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez.
The documents on the computer of Raul Reyes, the second in command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, indicate that Venezuela provided the guerrillas with at least $300 million and would help Chavez in the event of a U.S. attack on Venezuela.
Naranjo said the FARC, as the group is known, was seeking to buy 50 kilos of uranium for bomb making with aim of getting involved in international terrorism.
To contact the reporter on this story: Helen Murphy in Bogota at Hmurphy1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: March 3, 2008 13:36 EST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aMPbNS8tsmVo&refer=latin_america
I just checked CNBC, and oil is holding above $103 and rising — up some $2 since Hugo started playing games...
Another of my flimsy limbs has been the assertion that, while armies and terror attacks get the headlines, it’s *oil* that is the weapon our enemies will use to bring us down.....
What the “NO BLOOD FOR OIL” crowd is gonna find out too late is that we’re being led blindly down the path to losing both......
Hiya, Bahbah!!
Thanks again for all your work at setting up the new thread....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.