"See, I will send venomous snakes among you,vipers that cannot be charmed,
and they will bite you," declares the LORD.
~Jeremiah 8:17
I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.
Therefore be as shrewd as snakes
and as innocent as doves.
~ Matthew 10:16
As well they should be!
US: Parade of officials to Israel coincidental
It is to laugh.
US Provides $200 Million in Aid to Palestinians
The United States has announced a financial aid package to the Palestinian Authority. The announcement was made as a senior U.S. official prepares to hold talks with Syria. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the $200 million is to help the Palestinian Authority improve the lives of people in the region. And she said the United States will continue to be a partner with the Palestinian people.The President Takes a Hard Line on Israel
"I call on all nations that wish to see a strong, viable Palestinian state, living in peace and security with its neighbors to join us in supporting the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority has proven to be a reliable partner for peace," she said.
Genesis 12:3 ~ I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse...
Gird up, Oymerika!
Syria to Welcome Mitchell as 'First Step of Dialogue'
Hizbullah and Syria
In the worst case scenario, Syria will help Lebanon politically, while in terms of relief, it stands with Hizbullah, whose arsenal of rockets and weapons is sufficient to let it hold on and inflict fierce damage on Israel. If Israel decides to wage war and decides not to give up on the idea, then Syria will play a role in causing this policy’s failure. Earlier, Syria helped Hizbullah gain what it wanted; the fierceness of the enemy will be a reason for doing this. As for Syria’s policy in Lebanon, the party has nothing to worry about, due to the west’s openness to Syria and its monitoring of the situation in Lebanon, in parallel.Hamas sponsors mass wedding in Syria
The militant Palestinian group Hamas sponsored a mass wedding of 382 Palestinian couples in a refugee camp in the Syrian capital of Damascus.British talks with Syria offer hope of reconciliation
How jolly rotten.
Western overtures to Hamas
Oh beat me like the whore that I am, Achmed!
~ The West
UN denies Hamas influences aid
Hamas has already taken control of millions transferred by the Palestinian Authority to rebuild Gaza.So what's 200 million more? ~ Clinton
UNRWA denies report that agency head left Gaza following Hamas threats
He Wants To Go Kaboom KaboomA New York man who pleaded guilty in January to charges of aiding al Qaeda was ready to be a suicide bomber for the organization, but was told he needed more religious instruction, according to a document obtained by CNN on Thursday.Pakistan: Christian Shot Eight Times For Refusing to Pay Jizya
CNPC, not BP, to take majority of Iraq field
Iran says will strike Israel's atomic sites if attacked
I have no idea what atomic sight he speaks of, all we have here is very large factory for shoes.
Plane Accident in Iran Kills at Least 17
A passenger plane skidded off a runway and caught fire during an emergency landing in the northern Iranian city of Mashhad on Friday, killing at least 17 people, the Iranian state news agency reported. It was the second fatal jetliner accident in Iran this month.Moallem: Syria can play role in solving Iranian nuke dispute
Iran's Caspian offshore oil fields found
China Raises Strategic Ties In Russia Market RowChina has complained to Russia about the abrupt closure of a vast market in Moscow used by tens of thousands of Chinese merchants, and asked Moscow to take into account the two neighbours' strategic partnership.Beijing sent Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng to Moscow this week for talks on the impact of the market's June 29 closure, which followed complaints about its operations by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "In light of the development of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership, China urges the Russian side to take a historical perspective, legally resolve the situation and protect Chinese merchants' legal rights," Gao said in a statement.China, Russia satisfied with joint anti-terror military exercise
Vigil for Russia activist ends in clashes, arrest
A vigil to mourn the murder of Russian activist Natalia Estemirova ended in a clash with police and its 70-year-old organizer was detained. Following Russian Orthodox tradition, the vigil was held nine days after Estimorova's murder, bringing around 150 people on to Moscow's Pushkin Square Thursday evening, several times more than city officials had allowed. When all but 20 of the mourners had dispersed, about a dozen police officers moved in to arrest Viktor Sotirko, the Memorial activist who had organized the event, according to a Reuters witness. "I asked them: 'Why? When our activist has died, when the government has been accused, why aggravate the situation with arrests?'"Russia must to punish firms that arm Georgia
Russia will impose sanctions on US firms or any others that provide weapons to Georgia, Moscow's NATO envoy said Friday, after Washington reaffirmed its military support for the ex-Soviet republic."We have a presidential decree that has come out saying that Russia will impose sanctions on those foreign enterprises which continue to participate in the militarisation of Georgia," envoy Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with Echo of Moscow radio.Russian cargo ship blasts off for International Space Station
"This decree has no exceptions, and if it is proven that some manufacturer, whether in the Arctic or in America, is involved in the supply of offensive arms, this decree will apply to them."Rogozin did not specify which document he was referring to. Last January however, President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree ordering the Russian government to take "special economic measures" against foreign firms delivering arms to Georgia.
I am Captain Vlad T. Most Bad! I go where no man has gone before!
Putin promises to help Russia's struggling steel makers
I am Glorious Vlad of Steel!
Russia May Restrict Internet Phone Companies
A Russian business lobby and members of Parliament are in the early stages of drafting legislation that could limit or even ban the use of voice over Internet phone companies like Skype. The measure stems from concern that landline and cellular phone companies are losing revenue to foreign operators of the Web-based services.Gazprom rides the wave
Naturally dude, there is no bigger Kahuna in whole GlowBall than Mad Vlad the Glorious Bad!
Gazprom Eurobonds net total of USD 2.4 billion
Nabucco lies
Ahhh someone in Turkey is half hip to Vlad's opera.
With the agreement, it became clear that those who give a polish to Nabucco in Turkey are spinning a yarn. Here are some particulars not covered in the intergovernmental Agreement signed last week: There are no articles about where the gas will come from...Hizb ut-Tahrir: KGB-FSB Connection?
I am not insane, most excellent Festus:
Apart from the fact that HT has adopted much of the Marxist-Leninist lexicon and dialectically synthesized an Islamo-Leninist ideology and rhetoric, there is good reason to assume that, at least in the Central Asia "republics" of the former Soviet Union, HT has been co-opted by the security services (successors of the renamed KGB) or was created outright as a "false flag" operation to provide controlled opposition.
TAJIKISTAN: ALL WORK AND NO PAYMakes Achmed an angry boy.
Three suspected islamists detained in Tajikistan
Turkmenistan to sue Azerbaijan over Caspian fields
Turkmenistan seeks international arbitration on energy dispute
Turkmenistan & USA To Create Intergovernmental Commission
The U.S. administration and the Government of Turkmenistan agreed to create a new bilateral forum or commission, so that they can meet regularly and systematically on the whole range of issues, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William J. Burns told journalists in Ashgabat. He said this can make progress in economic cooperation, in energy cooperation, and working together against the spread of narcotics and terrorism, in contribution to stability in Afghanistan and across the region, and also in creating a systematic dialogue about issues related to civil society, education, cultural exchanges and human rights.Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan Fall Off Corruption Watchdog's Blacklist
How very convenient!
“The fact that Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan were not included in the report shows that investors and other business categories are not interested in these states,” Miklos Marschall, Transparency International's regional director for Europe and Central Asia, told the Uzbek service of RFR/RL service. “That is bad news for these countries.”.US ally Kyrgyzstan holds Soviet-style election
Last year, Transparency International listed Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan among the 20 most corrupt countries in the world, which also included Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia and Zimbabwe. Local observers say that the authoritarian regimes in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan do nothing about corruption because there is no public opinion or civil society to hold them to account.
“In an environment where information is closed off… a pyramid of the state corruption builds up,” commented one journalist in Uzbekistan. Nor are these governments moved by the poor ratings they get from international studies to reform their economic systems, in which corruption is endemic. Some analysts fear that the authorities in both countries will try to exploit their omission from the Transparency International report.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see an article in the official press explaining that Uzbekistan was not listed in 2009 Global Corruption Barometer because there is no corruption in the country,” said an observer in Tashkent, adding that the government may claim recent anti-corruption legislation has been effective. A media-watcher in northern Turkmenistan added, “Turkmenistan, where corruption has affected all areas of life, will not be upset, either.” He said it was common for businesses to use bribery to obtain positive decisions from government officials in Turkmenistan.
European Observers Sharply Criticize Kyrgyzstan Vote
Belarus strives for fruitful partnership with Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan-Russian command-staff exercises Air Forces
The active phase of joint Kazakhstan-Russian operational and tactical command-staff exercises Air Forces - 2009 is being carried out today at the the range Gvardeysky in the educational centre of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan, "Kazakhstan Today" agency reports citing the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan.Kazakh Uighurs React to Xinjiang Violence
According to the press service, an overall objective of the exercises Air Forces - 2009 - practical training of joint operations of Air Control and Military-Air Forces Divisions of Kazakhstan and Russia directed at maintenance of collective security in the Central-Asian region that demands from the Armed Forces of the adjoining countries of organization of high level cooperation in all directions.
During the exercises, its participants had trainings of preparation and joint application of aviation groupings of the Armed Forces of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation and joint operations of the Air Forces Divisions of the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan in the Central-Asian region of collective security. The Minister of Defense of Kazakhstan, Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, arrived at the range to supervise the course of the exercises.
Kazakh bank BTA projects big creditor losses
FACTBOX-Major loans and creditors of Kazakh bank BTA
UAE's Planet to promote travel into Uzbekistan from GCC countries
The UAE has a whole freakin' planet? WOWZA!
Zahid Khakimov, minister of tourism of the Republic of Uzbekistan, announced at the recent Arabian Travel Market in the United Arab Emirates that the UAE-based Planet Travel & Tours has been appointed as the general sales agent to promote travel into Uzbekistan from GCC countries.Uzbekistan tortured dissident poet in jail
Jumayev, also known as Juma, was sentenced to five years of domestic exile in 2008 for insulting the authorities after he had called President Islam Karimov a dictator and urged him to resign. HRW said he was then moved to a high-security prison. An Uzbek foreign ministry spokesman refused to comment.
Beware of the MACLewis testified that when BofA became aware of significant, accelerating losses at Merrill, it contemplated declaring a material adverse change....Bankrate: A New Model For Private Equity Deals
These are a form of back-door material adverse change (MAC) clauses that can substitute as a form of reverse termination fee without the fee itself..Bernanke: A Facetious Answer For A Facetious Question
Secretary Geithner's Testimony to the Financial Services Committee
Iceland to Take Step Toward EU, Edging Past Balkan Countries
President's Presser Is Deja Vou ClintonMeet the new Black White man, same as the old White Black man
Missouri: Protestors Clash Over Health Care at McCaskill's Office
Poor dude has now committed serious mind crimes and must to be listed as domestic terrorist!
Jim Botts believes public option health care will only lead to bigger government and nationalize another industry which should remain private. "I'm a small government guy and I don't like nationalization, I didn't like TARP, I didn't like the nationalization of GM and Chrysler," says Botts.Obama's Health Expert Gets Political
At a March hearing, when Mr. Grassley raised concerns about the impact of cuts, Mr. Orszag responded: "I very firmly believe that capitalism is not founded on excessively high subsidies to private firms. That is what this system delivers right now."UK: Government's Olympic security strategy launched
Sen. Grassley shot back: "Well, you're going to take half of my time lecturing me on capitalism." He later asked for extra time "because I was lectured on capitalism, and I studied that in economics." "No more lectures," Mr. Orszag promised.
The PROTECT programme: Designed to deliver protective measures for people, venues and infrastructure involved in the Games.UK: Police given powers to enter homes and tear down anti-Olympics posters during 2012 Games
The PREPARE programme: Preparation will ensure that capabilities and contingencies are in place to manage events which may “significantly disrupt or compromise the safety and security of the Games”.
The IDENTIFY and DISRUPT programme: Any threats to the Games must be quickly and effectively identified and, where possible, disrupted. This programme will fulfill this through the “proportionate and lawful” use of overt and covert law enforcement and security and intelligence agency resources.
The COMMAND, CONTROL, PLAN and RESOURCE programme: This will ensure sufficient resources are available, including delivering any necessary training.
The ENGAGE programme: Linking up with the Prevent strand of the counter-terrorism strategy CONTEST, the objective of this is to deter communities from supporting or participating in terrorism.
Nice fuckin' strategy ya got there...
Police have been handed 'Chinese-style' powers to enter private homes and seize political posters during the London 2012 Olympics.Little-noticed measures passed by the Government will allow officers and Olympics officials to enter homes and shops near official venues to confiscate any protest material.Breaking the rules could land offenders with a fine of up to £20,000.Civil liberties groups compared the powers to those used by the Communist Chinese government to stop political protest during the 2008 Beijing Games.Havana puts on new face for pope
Castro just hearts Comrade Popeski to death. All pope protesting has been banned.
NSA Names Its First Director of ComplianceHis job is to direct you to comply, tovarich!
The director of the National Security Agency, the country's largest intelligence body, has for the first time named a director of compliance to monitor adherence to rules governing the surveillance of phone calls and e-mails, as well as other agency activities. Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander named John DeLong to the position created this month.Independent commission plans second report on cybersecurity
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg joins CubicThe commission that provided the Obama administration with widely lauded recommendations for cybersecurity policies will develop recommendations for how the government can address possible issues such as privacy protection that could hinder the implementation of a plan to protect federal computer networks, commission members and industry representatives said on Thursday.
The Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency submitted 25 recommendations to the White House in December for improving protection of federal networks, many of which were included in the White House's cybersecurity plan announced May 29.
The commission, which was created by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in October 2007, plans to develop a second set of recommendations by the end of the year to guide implementation of the cybersecurity plan, the commission's four co-chairs told the press and Hill representatives.
Cubic offers a wide array of training and simulation equipment and services, such as combat training centers, tactical engagement simulation equipment, virtual small arms trainers, and weapon and urban warfare simulations.Miscrosoft/ESRI app boosts GIS data sharing at Mass. fusion center
DHS consolidates software licensesThe Homeland Security Department launched a project to help state and local organization develop fusion centers, designed to let organizations share information within their jurisdictions and with the federal government. The “Fusion Center Guidelines,” developed by DHS and the Justice Department, define a fusion center as “a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise, and/or information to the center with the goal of maximizing the ability to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity.”
As of early this year, there were 58 fusion centers across the country, 27 of them connected to the Homeland Security Data Network, which allows the federal government and states to share data at the Secret level, DHS has said. But fusion centers have also run into problems and, at times, drawn criticism from Congress. A Congressional Research Service report two years ago concluded that centers weren’t coming up with enough useful information, at least partly because of technical problems.
One problem they’ve faced is how to create a system that correlates data from geographic information systems, analyzes it and gets it into the hands of those who need to take action.
“We tried a year and a half ago to integrate ArcGIS with Microsoft SharePoint but failed,” said Brian Egnitz, GIS program manager for the Massachusetts State Police, which hosts Massachusetts' Commonwealth Fusion Center.
The Homeland Security Department is moving to enterprisewide software licenses for Microsoft Office and Oracle, and expects to save millions of dollars over the next few years. DHS today announces it will consolidate 487,000 licenses for Microsoft software and support under one contract, which could help the department avoid paying more than $87 million over the next six years. One component, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement directorate, changed its agreement with Oracle for its software. ICE now will have unlimited access instead of paying for 200 licenses each year. ICE expects to see about $1.5 million in cost avoidance of the next year.
Their headline, not mine:Raytheon's rise in profits reflects new world order
Reports on second-quarter earnings reveal defense contractors that are focused heavily on high-tech capabilities needed for fighting insurgencies are doing better than those more heavily invested in conventional warfare. Raytheon Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. reported divergent earnings for the second quarter this week, a development that reflects key changes in the Defense Department’s weapons buying strategies, report Stephen Manning and Stephen Singer of the Associated Press. Raytheon’s second-quarter earnings rose 15 percent, while Northrop Grumman’s quarterly profits dropped 20 percent.Open Government — or 'Transparency Theater'?
Two events in particular have struck advocates of more open government as disingenuous. The first was Obama’s refusal to release records of White House visits this spring by coal industry executives — the same position Bush took on records about visits by energy industry lobbyists at the outset of his administration.
The second was Obama’s threat that he would veto a bill reauthorizing U.S. intelligence-gathering activities if it set any curbs on the sort of limited, cryptic congressional briefings on intelligence matters that the Bush administration favored. Obama said he wouldn’t accept the bill if it required his administration to brief the full membership of the House and Senate Select Intelligence committees instead of just the so-called Gang of Eight — the chairmen and ranking minority members of the Intelligence panels and the top Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate.
“There is no question that there has been a very disturbing trend of adopting many of the same anti-transparency policies of the Bush administration,” said Anne L. Weismann, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which promotes government openness. “The president’s statements all would suggest that they would be transparent in a number of ways that they are refusing to be.”
David Sobel, senior counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which studies and advocates on electronic privacy issues, says he has been struck by how closely Obama is hewing to Bush-era objections to increased disclosure.
Victory – An Obsolete Concept?by Daniel Pipes
Actually, it did not end any of that, as is evidenced all around us. But Pipes is still right."Victory" has nearly dropped out of the minds and vocabularies of modern Westerners, replaced by compromise, mediation, and slogans such as "There is no military solution" and "War never solved anything." In contrast, I agree with that bracing t-shirt counter-slogan, "Except for ending slavery, Fascism, Nazism, Communism and Baathism, war has never solved anything."
US Senate Nunn-Lugar amendment included in Defense authorization bill
The two whoremen of the Putinpocalypse ride again:
“Over the last 16 years, Nunn-Lugar has made tremendous progress on the destruction and dismantlement of massive Soviet weapons systems and the facilities that developed them. In the future, the program will be asked to address much more complex and diverse security threats in a larger number of countries,” Lugar said.McCain to consider support of nuclear test ban
Well koom bah yah, mah lawd. Koom bah yah!
BEWARE THE C-SMURF:
Response Force a 'serious Capability' in a Crisis
... consequence-management response force (CCMRF) or "C-Smurf" would be called in to assist civil authorities, DoD officials said today. ...
Tanzania to develop uranium deposits'Time out” taken on new uranium mining at Grand Canyon
Huge telescope opens in Spain's Canary Islands
Expats describe 'volcano of fire'
Hundreds of British expatriates have been evacuated from homes and hotels in south-east Spain as wildfires cut a swathe through the countryside.US man dies on Japan's Mt Fuji, second body found
Tokyo-based Yu and a work colleague, 27-year old Takeshi Nakamura, went missing near the summit Sunday after starting the climb overnight. Police said Friday they found a second man, his heart stopped and his face to the ground, several hundred metres downhill from Yu, but they could not immediately confirm his identity.Calif. Cops Destroy Over 40,000 Pot Plants
NOOOooOOOooo! Rat Bastids! Free the Holy Leaf!
Amazon CEO apologizes for deleting Orwell books
Bill Maher Punks Out, Gives Janet Napolitano a Free Ride on Real Time
6.2-magnitude earthquake strikes off Papua New Guinea
He led you through the vast and dreadful desert,
that thirsty and waterless land,
with its venomous snakes and scorpions.
He brought you water out of hard rock.
~ Deuteronomy 8:15
