COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, February 18, 2013

Obama’s war on Libya, What we did to them and how it is working out.




Libya Braces for Unrest on Anniversary of Qaddafi Revolt
By Brigitte Scheffer & Christopher Stephen - Feb 14, 2013 5:01 PM ET BLOOMBERG

Long lines of foreigners massed over the past couple of weeks at Tripoli International Airport looking to secure a flight out. Across town, Libya’s parliament meets in a tent.

As Libya gears up for the second anniversary of the revolution that ousted Muammar Qaddafi, the euphoria from his toppling and death after more than 40 years has given way to violence and political gridlock.

“Most people have taken the sensible decision, foreigners in particular, not to be around, it could be a celebration or a civil war,” said John Hamilton, of Cross Border Information, a U.K.-based consultancy. “It’s hard to imagine any politician from any country being able to tackle these challenges.”

The test may come today, when protests are expected in Benghazi, the birthplace of the uprising, raising the possibility of violence. Official commemorations are on Feb. 17.

The protests, in part, are against the militias and Islamists who are blamed for the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that left the American ambassador, Chris Stevens, dead. The Islamists argue the protests are an attempt by pro-Qaddafi elements to undermine the revolution, said Firas Abi Ali, head of Middle East and North Africa Forecasting with Exclusive Analysis, a political risk consultancy.
“If fighting leads to tens or hundreds of casualties, there would be a severe risk that rival militias would attempt to seize key government buildings and infrastructure, including refineries, state energy firms’ offices and airports,” he said in an e-mailed note.

Security Boosted

The authorities have boosted security and temporarily shuttered the land borders with Egypt and Tunisia before the anniversary. Officials said 1,400 roadblocks are being set up by government security forces and allied militias.
While Prime Minister Ali Zaidan appealed last week for calm, the call has not impressed Libyans like 22-year-old Hani Al Aswad, who says the government, like its post-Qaddafi predecessor, has done nothing.
“We were all expecting so much, for it to be better, and there’s nothing,” the unemployed 22-year-old said in a recent interview in Tripoli. “Nobody gets a job, and look, there is rubbish everywhere.”

Unlike other nations that saw leaders ousted in the Arab Spring uprisings, Libya has no external financing needs because of its oil wealth. The country’s gross domestic product, which contracted 60 percent in 2011, is expected to grow by 17 percent in 2013 and average 7 percent for the period between 2014 and 2017, assuming an improvement in the domestic security situation, the International Monetary Fund said in November.

Islamist Militias

Zaidan, who assumed his post on Oct. 31, inherited a nation saddled with a dilapidated infrastructure, few functioning state institutions and an upsurge in Islamist militia activity. In addition, there are regional grievances, including unresolved demands for local autonomy in the east and south.

A declaration issued earlier this month by several political parties in Benghazi blamed the government for “leading the country into an abyss of extremism and anarchy.” Other groups and militias billed today as a “Day of Rage,” and are calling for protests.

Such warnings may have helped prompt a temporary suspension in flights to the country by Germany’s Lufthansa and Austrian Airways. Last month, the British Embassy advised its citizens to evacuate Benghazi -- a warning that came two weeks after the Italian consul-general’s car was shot at.

‘Significant Deterrents’

Attacks on foreign diplomats and the “enduring security concerns remain significant deterrents to foreign investment,” Torbjorn Soltvedt, senior analyst at U.K. risk consultancy Maplecroft, said in e-mailed comments.

Libya and the nations that supported the uprising against Qaddafi met on Feb. 12 in Paris, with the focus on border security. The issue gained importance after the widened conflict in Mali and the fatal attack by militants on an Algerian natural gas facility last month that left 38 foreigners dead. Algerian authorities say the attackers crossed through Libya as they made their way into the country.

The attack signaled increased risk for international oil company executives in Libya, many of whom work in desolate desert regions where security has been organized by the Libyan military and a new Oil Ministry security force.

Reviving investor confidence in Libya has also been made harder by a still-incomplete legal reform.

“To be fair, Rome wasn’t built in a day,” said John Brooke, an attorney with international law firm Clyde and Co, referring to a review of contracts by the government signed during the Qaddafi era. “The government is being sensibly cautious, but it’s reaching a stage where sensible caution is starting to look indecisive.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Brigitte Scheffer in Tripoli at bscheffer@bloomberg.net; Christopher Stephen in Tripoli at cstephen9@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net

WHAT DID RON  PAUL PREDICT?

56 comments:

  1. ABC News’ Luis Martinez (@LMartinezABC) reports: The cost of U.S. military intervention in Libya has cost American taxpayers an estimated $896 million through July 31, the Pentagon said today.
    The price tag includes the amounts for daily military operations, munitions used in the operation and humanitarian assistance for the Libyan people.

    The U.S. has also promised $25 million in non-lethal aid to the Libyan Transitional National Council, half of which the Defense Department has already on MRE’s (military lingo for Meals, Ready to Eat).

    The military delivered 120,000 Halal MRE’s to Benghazi in May and a second shipment that included medical supplies, boots, tents, uniforms, and personal protective gear in June.

    While Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appears on the way out, NATO says flight missions over Tripoli will continue, with the U.S. playing a role in helping to keep a tight window over the area that’s been in effect for weeks.

    Over the past 12 days, U.S. planes have flown 391 sorties for a total of 5,316 since April 1, according to figures provided by the Defense Department. That total includes 1,210 airstrike missions over the same three and a half month period. The U.S. has also conducted 101 Predator drone strike missions in Libya.

    A U.S. official credited NATO flight cover over the past many months with allowing the Libyan rebels enough time to eventually regroup and begin their pushes.

    One significant offset to the cost of U.S. involvement in the flights worth noting is the sale of military equipment to allies also involved in the cause. Pentagon officials say the sale of ammunition, replacement parts, fuel, and technical assistance to allies since March has totaled $221.9 million.

    ReplyDelete
  2. (Reuters) - An Islamist militia linked to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and kicked out of the city by locals is back openly manning checkpoints and building up support promising much-needed security.

    Heavily bearded youths from Ansar al-Sharia control the western entrance into Libya's second biggest metropolis, patrol a hospital and check cars and trucks passing through another checkpoint in the south.

    Witnesses say the group's members were at the scene of the September 11 attack that killed the U.S. ambassador, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans - though Ansar al-Sharia denied any involvement.

    Days after the assault, outraged residents drove the group out of its bases in the city in a "Rescue Benghazi" protest.

    The group's highly visible return, five months on, underlines the complex security situation on the ground two years after the start of the revolt that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

    Many in the West see Islamist militants as the biggest threat to the security of the oil-producing country and the region - and accuse them of carrying out a string of attacks on police and foreigners in the city in recent months.

    ReplyDelete
  3. And here we are today:

    TRIPOLI

    In the 15 months since NATO ended its intervention in Libya, little has been accomplished to secure the hard-won gains of the war, and trends are headed in the wrong direction. It’s time to go back, lest Libya’s post-war transition run off the rails.

    Today, as Libyans mark the second anniversary of the start of the revolution that ousted Muammar Qaddafi from power, security conditions here are bad and getting worse. There is violence in the South, major towns have been at war with each other in retribution for past deeds, and Islamic extremists are making inroads in the eastern province of Cyrenaica. Crime is on the rise. The post-revolutionary street is armed and restive.

    The elected government is extremely disorganized and has no reliable security forces to address these problems. As it stumbles along trying to accomplish its state-building tasks, time is running out. Islamic militants, who do not represent the majority of the population, are taking advantage of the situation to increase their strength in the East. Violence and crime can easily spread. Stability would then erode and the gains won in the 2011 intervention could be wiped out.

    Clearly, the last thing Libya needs is an Iraq-type occupation by outside powers. This would be unnecessary and counterproductive, not to mention unrealistic given the current mood in Washington and other NATO capitals.

    But a smaller-scale training mission to help the Libyan government build reliable forces that will answer to the country’s elected leadership would do much to help the Libyan state get control over its own territory. It would also demonstrate continued Western commitment and help increase US leverage with the Libyan government, which currently runs close to zero.

    A training mission could begin on a relatively small scale. The footprint should be overt and large enough both to be meaningful to the Libyan government and protect itself from any threats. Ideally, this would be a NATO mission, given NATO’s role in freeing Libya from Qaddafi. It could also be a US mission if NATO lacks the will to get involved.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The above from:

    Opinion
    NATO, US must shore up Libya

    Today, as Libyans mark the second anniversary of the revolution that ousted Muammar Qaddafi, security conditions are bad and getting worse. Libya needs help training its security forces. Ideally, this would be a NATO mission. It could also be a US mission if NATO lacks the will.


    By Christopher Chivvis / February 15, 2013

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  5. .

    From the WaPo,

    Barack Obama will receive one of Israel's most prestigious honours during his upcoming visit to the Middle East. On Monday, the office of the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, announced that Obama will be given the presidential medal of distinction in March.

    A statement said that the honour recognised Obama's "unique and significant contribution to strengthening the State of Israel and the security of its citizens".


    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right, Shimon Peres sucking up.

      Delete
    2. Presidential Medal of Distinction. : )

      Delete
    3. .

      I posted wrong. It was from the Guardian not the WaPo.

      Netanyahu will be presenting the medal.

      Only appropriate, the Big O did win the Nobel Peace Prize.

      .

      Delete
  6. I don't see what the point of all this is. The anti-Qducky people begged the west to come in, we did, led by France wasn't it, initially, and the war is over. Without, it might still be going on.

    From the beginning of the intervention, the initial coalition of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Qatar, Spain, UK and US[271][272][273][274][275] expanded to seventeen states, with newer states mostly enforcing the no-fly zone and naval blockade or providing military logistical assistance. The effort was initially largely led by the United States.[266] NATO took control of the arms embargo on 23 March, named Operation Unified Protector. An attempt to unify the military command of the air campaign (whilst keeping political and strategic control with a small group), first failed over objections by the French, German, and Turkish governments.[276][277] On 24 March, NATO agreed to take control of the no-fly zone, while command of targeting ground units remains with coalition forces.[278]

    Who made the first propaganda video? I thought I saw RT flash on the screen.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. hey hey what to say
      how many kids has
      Qducky killed today?

      War might still be going on.

      (I realize there is still some shooting around)

      Delete
    2. And some of those explosions don't look like drone strikes. Too powerful.

      Delete
    3. .

      The bombing raids killed more kids than Quadaffi did, the irony of our 'humanitarian' intervention.

      War might still be going on.

      :)

      You are something.

      .

      Delete
    4. Whatever Russia’s hypocrisy and own evils they are dead right on NATO’s abuse and the Neocon lies .

      Delete
  7. The question to be asked should be: were, (and are) more lives being saved by the intervention or more lives lost because of it.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. .

      More lost because of it. No doubt.

      .

      Delete
    2. Doubt. Qducky was mowing them down. And might still be doing so.

      Delete
    3. .

      Your credulity amazes me.

      Mowing them down. How do you know that? Because Hillary told you so? Where did she get that 10,000 number? Did anyone even bother to ask? Is anyone asking now after at least that many have died.

      Universal human rights? Who chooses which side has those universal human rights? Who decided that in order to save Benghazi we would destroy Sirte?

      When the war started, the US didn't even know who the resistance was. The fact that many were al Quaeda and were killing women and children themselves was evidently besides the point.

      Might be a close call.

      Luckily, we have people like Hillary and you to make it for us.

      .

      Delete
    4. Because I saw it on TV of course, just like you, you idiot.

      :)

      Delete
    5. Don’t pick on Bottomo. We imagine that policies and results are orchestrated from above, and our politicians claim the credit for everything good that happens. But it's mostly an illusion. It's really a bottom-up world we live in.

      Events are mostly dictated to the people running things. You can resist the trend for a while, but in the end, you either flow with the trends or end up on the ash heap or God forbid the EB at 2:00 AM.

      Delete
  8. If the concern is children dying, an argument can be made for intervening in Syria, R to P.

    Might save thousands and thousands overall. 60,000, we are told, have died already.

    A hard calculation to make.

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    1. .

      Intervention?

      Intervene for who? Assad? Iran? The Islamists? The Jihadists? The Muslim Brotherhood? Hezbollah? The Alawis? The Syrian Girl Scouts? We haven't a clue who the 'good' guys are or even if there are any. It's just as it was/is in Libya.

      Lord, Bob, you hear the word democracy or humanitarian and you feel that tingle running up your leg. Grow up.

      .

      Delete
    2. Hey, I'm the guy that thinks we ought to be dividing these idiot countries up into parts. I wouldn't intervene to 'save the country', I'd intervene to enforce an amicable divorce, if there is to be an intervention.

      Although I probably wouldn't intervene at all as long as they were doing a good job of killing each other.

      My sympathies are with the Christians. If I were to intervene to save a group, it would be for them.

      Delete
    3. .

      What egotistic pomposity. The John McCain/Joe Biden of Idaho.

      What is this the white man's burden, we are ordained by god to bring civilization to the ME and North Africa?

      What gives you or us the right to go in and impose partition on these countries? Is it because the boys in D.C. are so clever they are bound to have a plan on how to do it right? Is it because god is on our side? Is it because we ought to be doing 'something' despite the problems we have here at home? Or is it because of the success we have had when we have tried it before?

      And what makes you think any intervention would be amicable? Thousands of people would have to be relocated and then you merely have multiple sectarian conclaves set up at each other’s throats.

      Any of these plans for intervention are merely the wet dreams of neocons and nitwits who haven't a clue. And they do it on borrowed money with a hired army, free and sanitized. What could be better than that? Like playing chess on a big board, bringing enlightenment to the world albeit with a large portion of blood.

      And when it’s all over and once again we’ve screwed the pooch, we sooth our conscious with “Well, at least we tried.”

      .

      Delete
  9. Propaganda. RT Flash on the screen. No CBS, ABC or CNN? Of course not.

    I am sure that in the day you were all gungho for William Calley and incensed about his trial and the propaganda in the press. Calley’s original defense that the death of 500 villagers in My Lai was the result of an accidental helicopter or aerial airstrikes (collateral damage). Calley was charged with the murder of 104 woman and children and was convicted. In his new defense, Calley claimed he was following the orders of his immediate superior, Captain Ernest Medina.

    Many in America were like you, outraged by Calley’s conviction ; Jimmy Carter started “American Fighting Man’s Day” and asked Georgians to drive for a week with their lights on. Indiana’s governor asked all state flags to be flown at half-staff for Calley, and Utah's and Mississippi's governors also disagreed with the verdict. The Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, New Jersey, and South Carolina legislatures requested clemency for Calley. Alabama’s governor George Wallace visited Calley in the stockade and requested that Nixon pardon him.

    Real Americans, like the good people in Idaho no doubt, supported Calley 100 to 1 and he basically got a slap on the wrist and walked. The trouble for all of Calley’s apologists and supporters is that Calley On August 19, 2009, while speaking to the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus, Calley apologized for his role in the My Lai massacre.

    Calley said:
    There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry....If you are asking why I did not stand up to them when I was given the orders, I will have to say that I was a 2nd Lieutenant getting orders from my commander and I followed them—foolishly, I guess.

    Calley disgusted me then and the unbridled shameful militarism of US foreign policy disgusts me now. We will pay the price and those responsible for wasting the lives of innocent will not. That is the way of the world and all the great killers and murderers, they always find support from good religious people until they don’t. Just following orders.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. You really got that one wrong. By that time I had read my Vietnamese history and thought we had no business there. And still do think that.

      Delete
    2. “Thanks for your non-service." ;-)

      Delete
    3. Well, see there, I can't win. One day I'm called a draft dodger, the next a supporter of Calley, the next Neo-Con fatcat, the next a Christian Liberationist.

      Ah have listened to all you've said
      And considered it well
      And fuck you just the same



      Delete
  10. Believe what you are told. Deny what you need to deny. You are in fine company.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Ah have listened to all you've said
      And considered it well
      And fuck you just the same

      Delete
  11. Shortly before his untimely death, former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told the House of Commons that “Al Qaeda” is not really a terrorist group but a database of international mujaheddin and arms smugglers used by the CIA and Saudis to funnel guerrillas, arms, and money into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. Courtesy of World Affairs, a journal based in New Delhi, WMR can bring you an important excerpt from an Apr.-Jun. 2004 article by Pierre-Henry Bunel, a former agent for French military intelligence.

    “I first heard about Al-Qaida while I was attending the Command and Staff course in Jordan. I was a French officer at that time and the French Armed Forces had close contacts and cooperation with Jordan . . .

    “Two of my Jordanian colleagues were experts in computers. They were air defense officers. Using computer science slang, they introduced a series of jokes about students’ punishment.

    “For example, when one of us was late at the bus stop to leave the Staff College, the two officers used to tell us: ‘You’ll be noted in ‘Q eidat il-Maaloomaat’ which meant ‘You’ll be logged in the information database.’ Meaning ‘You will receive a warning . . .’ If the case was more severe, they would used to talk about ‘Q eidat i-Taaleemaat.’ Meaning ‘the decision database.’ It meant ‘you will be punished.’ For the worst cases they used to speak of logging in ‘Al Qaida.’

    “In the early 1980s the Islamic Bank for Development, which is located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, like the Permanent Secretariat of the Islamic Conference Organization, bought a new computerized system to cope with its accounting and communication requirements. At the time the system was more sophisticated than necessary for their actual needs.

    “It was decided to use a part of the system’s memory to host the Islamic Conference’s database. It was possible for the countries attending to access the database by telephone: an Intranet, in modern language. The governments of the member-countries as well as some of their embassies in the world were connected to that network.

    “[According to a Pakistani major] the database was divided into two parts, the information file where the participants in the meetings could pick up and send information they needed, and the decision file where the decisions made during the previous sessions were recorded and stored. In Arabic, the files were called, ‘Q eidat il-Maaloomaat’ and ‘Q eidat i-Taaleemaat.’ Those two files were kept in one file called in Arabic ‘Q eidat ilmu’ti’aat’ which is the exact translation of the English word database. But the Arabs commonly used the short word Al Qaida which is the Arabic word for “base.” The military air base of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is called ‘q eidat ‘riyadh al ‘askariya.’ Q eida means “a base” and “Al Qaida” means “the base.”

    “In the mid-1980s, Al Qaida was a database located in computer and dedicated to the communications of the Islamic Conference’s secretariat.


    {…}

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  12. {…} “In the early 1990s, I was a military intelligence officer in the Headquarters of the French Rapid Action Force. Because of my skills in Arabic my job was also to translate a lot of faxes and letters seized or intercepted by our intelligence services . . . We often got intercepted material sent by Islamic networks operating from the UK or from Belgium.

    “These documents contained directions sent to Islamic armed groups in Algeria or in France. The messages quoted the sources of statements to be exploited in the redaction of the tracts or leaflets, or to be introduced in video or tapes to be sent to the media. The most commonly quoted sources were the United Nations, the non-aligned countries, the UNHCR and . . . Al Qaida.

    “Al Qaida remained the data base of the Islamic Conference. Not all member countries of the Islamic Conference are ‘rogue states’ and many Islamic groups could pick up information from the databases. It was but natural for Osama Bin Laden to be connected to this network. He is a member of an important family in the banking and business world.

    “Because of the presence of ‘rogue states,’ it became easy for terrorist groups to use the email of the database. Hence, the email of Al Qaida was used, with some interface system, providing secrecy, for the families of the mujaheddin to keep links with their children undergoing training in Afghanistan, or in Libya or in the Beqaa valley, Lebanon. Or in action anywhere in the battlefields where the extremists sponsored by all the ‘rogue states’ used to fight. And the ‘rogue states’ included Saudi Arabia. When Osama bin Laden was an American agent in Afghanistan, the Al Qaida Intranet was a good communication system through coded or covert messages.


    {…}

    ReplyDelete
  13. {…} Meet “Al Qaeda”

    “Al Qaida was neither a terrorist group nor Osama bin Laden’s personal property . . . The terrorist actions in Turkey in 2003 were carried out by Turks and the motives were local and not international, unified, or joint. These crimes put the Turkish government in a difficult position vis-a-vis the British and the Israelis. But the attacks certainly intended to ‘punish’ Prime Minister Erdogan for being a ‘toot tepid’ Islamic politician.

    ” . . . In the Third World the general opinion is that the countries using weapons of mass destruction for economic purposes in the service of imperialism are in fact ‘rogue states,” specially the US and other NATO countries.

    ” Some Islamic economic lobbies are conducting a war against the ‘liberal” economic lobbies. They use local terrorist groups claiming to act on behalf of Al Qaida. On the other hand, national armies invade independent countries under the aegis of the UN Security Council and carry out pre-emptive wars. And the real sponsors of these wars are not governments but the lobbies concealed behind them.

    “The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the ‘TV watcher’ to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money.”

    In yet another example of what happens to those who challenge the system, in December 2001, Maj. Pierre-Henri Bunel was convicted by a secret French military court of passing classified documents that identified potential NATO bombing targets in Serbia to a Serbian agent during the Kosovo war in 1998. Bunel’s case was transferred from a civilian court to keep the details of the case classified. Bunel’s character witnesses and psychologists notwithstanding, the system “got him” for telling the truth about Al Qaeda and who has actually been behind the terrorist attacks commonly blamed on that group.

    It is noteworthy that that Yugoslav government, the government with whom Bunel was asserted by the French government to have shared information, claimed that Albanian and Bosnian guerrillas in the Balkans were being backed by elements of “Al Qaeda.” We now know that these guerrillas were being backed by money provided by the Bosnian Defense Fund, an entity established as a special fund at Bush-influenced Riggs Bank and directed by Richard Perle and Douglas Feith.

    French officer Maj. Pierre-Henri Bunel, who knew the truth about “Al Qaeda” — Another target of the neo-cons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. there is no.... terrorist group called Al Qaida

      What's in a name? that which we call dog fennel
      By any other name would smell as foul

      Well, I, personally, don't think the Jews brought down the Trade Center.


      In yet another example of what happens to those who challenge the system, in December 2001, Maj. Pierre-Henri Bunel was convicted by a secret French military court of passing classified documents that identified potential NATO bombing targets in Serbia to a Serbian agent during the Kosovo war in 1998. Bunel’s case was transferred from a civilian court to keep the details of the case classified. Bunel’s character witnesses and psychologists notwithstanding, the system “got him” for telling the truth about Al Qaeda and who has actually been behind the terrorist attacks commonly blamed on that group.

      Where in hell do you get this stuff?

      Delete
  14. Most will not read the three posts above, but they should.

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    1. They wouldn't miss much even if they did.

      Delete
  15. Here is what outrages and interests real Americans in 2013:

    Kim Kardashian looks to have left her underwear at home as she heads out for an early dinner with boyfriend Kanye West in Miami. As Kim checked out her outfit in the reflection of her car, it became apparent that the reality star was not wearing any underwear as she showed off her see-through grey skirt.

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    1. fucking eh! right on!!. We need more of that kind of stuff.

      Delete
  16. Britain is trying to boost defence equipment sales to Libya by sending a Royal Navy warship to Tripoli to act as a floating shop window for security firms, amid concern in Whitehall that France and Italy are cashing in on the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

    But the trip, planned for April, has raised concerns among Libyan politicians and arms control campaigners who have demanded to know which companies will be on board and what kind of equipment they will be attempting to sell.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I think you've lost your mind of late. Your sources seem mostly to come from somewhere on the other side of The Seven Sisters.

    And whether you've noticed or not, the only thing I've ever argued for is stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons. It is a legitimate argument, and people disagree. You are going to get your way anyway, so I don't worry about it.

    Everything you post of late seems incredibly unbalanced.

    out

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    1. This is the kind of article you won't find here -


      Supporters of bloody Islamic Republic of Iran mullahcracy brought Chuck Hagel to Rutgers University for 2007 speech

      There is no doubt as to which side Hagel is on -- and by extension, Obama. He should not be confirmed, but given the utter fecklessness of the Republican leadership, he most likely will be. "Supporter of Iranian dictatorship brought Chuck Hagel to Rutgers University for 2007 speech," by Charles C. Johnson for the Daily Caller, February 18:

      A pro-Hezbollah, pro-Hamas candidate for the Iranian presidency, a man linked to Iranian-controlled front groups, brought former Republican Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel to speak at Rutgers University in 2007, according to another professor on campus.


      http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/02/supporters-of-bloody-islamic-republic-of-iran-mullahcracy-brought-chuck-hagel-to-rutgers-university.html

      I can't understand it. Hagel was a Senator. And we know that the Senators are all in the pocket of the Israel Lobby. It doesn't make any sense.

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    2. .

      Doesn't make any sense?

      Any one of them would travel half way around the world to speak if the money was right. And of course, if they were flown first class and provided with drinks and cheetos.

      .

      Delete
    3. Bob, the "American Thinker" Boobie, is concerned about sources - that's rich!

      Delete
    4. See here, smart aleck -


      Shimon Peres to present Obama with Israel’s Presidential Medal of Distinction for some reason
      posted at 10:41 am on February 19, 2013 by Allahpundit



      In the business of presidential medals, reciprocity is the name of the game.

      President Shimon Peres will honor US President Barack Obama with Israel’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Distinction, just as Obama conferred the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award, on Peres at a presidential dinner in Washington in June…

      It was more or less on the cards that, if and when Obama visited the country during his second term, Israel would find a way of showing its appreciation for his contribution to the Jewish state’s national security. This sentiment will be emphasized in the citation accompanying the medal.


      http://hotair.com/archives/2013/02/19/shimon-peres-to-present-obama-with-israels-presidential-medal-of-distinction-for-some-reason/


      It's all about the shiny medals. Some people swoon over shiny medals. One can't have too many.

      Delete
    5. Quirk is just projecting his own sense of values, folks.

      Delete
    6. How to deal with a narcissist: pin a medal on his chest. Maybe Shimon is just playing that game.

      Delete
  18. Times change. You are half-right, you won’t find me posting an article like that; You just did.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Pulled off with Quirk-like timeing -

    The raid at Zaventem international airport is one of the biggest diamond robberies in history. It took a highly-trained professional gang just three minutes to hold up a Swiss passenger jet before escaping into the night.

    Belgian police were baffled by a robbery that took place with precision, military timing and apparent insider knowledge, allowing the gang to aim for the delivery of a diamond consignment within a 15-minute time window.

    Wearing masks, hooded police anoraks and armed with machine guns equipped with laser sights, the robbers struck at 7.47pm local time on Monday night, just before the aircraft they sought was cleared for take-off.


    Armed robbers snatch $50m in uncut diamonds from Brussels airport
    Police forces in Europe were hunting for a £32million ($50million) stash of diamonds stolen by eight armed robbers disguised as police officers in an overnight raid at Brussels airport.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/9879331/Armed-robbers-snatch-50m-in-uncut-diamonds-from-Brussels-airport.html

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    Replies
    1. I know you are joking, Bob, but they don't.

      Hamdoon

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  20. Libya: it's all about the petro dollar.

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  21. It's quite simple really, once your remove all the hubris, Obama's drone warfare on foreign soil amounts to nothing more than invasion, assassination and terrorism.

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