This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Breaking News

  • Haiti Police “It’s every man for himself!”

    The police of Hatai are now telling the population that they are better off at it themselves then rely on the police. Not only that but actively encouraging them to shot and kill criminals.

    “If you don’t kill the criminals, they will all come back,” a Haitian police officer shouts over a loudspeaker in the country’s most notorious slum, imploring citizens to take justice into their own hands.

    Yep you read that right, how often do you hear something like that today?

    The call for vigilantes comes as influential gang leaders who escaped from a heavily damaged prison during the country’s killer earthquake are taking advantage of a void left by police and peacekeepers focused on disaster relief.

    “Even as we are digging bodies out of buildings, they are trying to attack our officers,” Cite Soleil police inspector Aristide Rosemond said, surrounded by officers wielding automatic weapons.

    I know we have not had anything on this scale, but what where to happen if there was a major disaster that really causes things to get blown wide open.

    But don’t worry the the UN is on it, sorta.

    The Brazilian peacekeeping unit assigned to Cite Soleil lost 18 of its 145 soldiers in the earthquake. Ten perished when the “Blue House” — a landmark concrete tower converted into a U.N. post near the slum’s entrance — collapsed, leaving weapons and equipment readily available to fast-acting looters.

    The U.N. peacekeeping mission also lost its chief, deputy chief and acting police commander.

    The police lost an uncounted number of personnel and equipment, leaving a group of officers who in large part are just recently recruited and trained.

    So I would really like to see a reply on what would happen able to hand a situation like this if full gun control would be in place? I mean this is not just a hypothetical one, this is happening today, now as we speak.

  • Tale of two Baghdads?

    For those that have not heard yet there was a large attack planned on the Iraqi Government in Baghdad. The Iraqi police and local law enforcement where able to prevent the attack in several raids across the city.

    During raids on houses and warehouses in Baghdad that lasted throughout the day, the authorities arrested 25 people and recovered more than 440 pounds each of TNT and C4, about 66 gallons of ammonium nitrate solution and 60 mortar shells, according to a statement from Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command, which is responsible for security in Baghdad, the capital.

    To me this is a example that Iraq can function on it’s own given the chance, training and time. but the
    stories from theNew York Times against the Los Angles Times differ to the point where I wonder if there are talking about the same place. For example.

    NY Times

    A wide-ranging plot to bomb government ministries and other public places, to be followed by a wave of political assassinations, was uncovered by Iraqi officials, who responded Tuesday by bringing much of Baghdad to a virtual standstill while security forces conducted raids that netted large quantities of explosives, officials said.

    LA Times

    When Baghdadis awoke this morning to find their streets sealed off and the city under virtual lockdown, the rumors began to fly.

    Army officers had staged a coup in the Green Zone, one version said. No, it was Baathists loyal to the former regime who had taken over, according to another.

    Mostly, the rumors concerned the Sunni lawmaker Saleh Mutlak, who has been recommended for disbarment from the upcoming March elections by the former De-Baathification Committee, now known as the Accountability and Justice Committee.

    It may be just me, but one seems to try to keep the rumors down while the other is all about spreading them.

    Speaking of rumors, there seem to be plenty coming out of Afghanistan from destroying Korans to killing protesters by US/NATO forces.

    Haji Abdul Manan, one of the protesters, told the German Press Agency, DPA: “The people came out of their homes today to protest this action of foreign forces in a peaceful way, but the Afghan and international forces opened fire on us.”

    Covered by none other then al jazeera, but I am sure that there is not shock there.

  • Slovakia Travel Warning

    WARNING WARNING WARNING

    Slovakian airport security is so boneheaded incompetent lax that they actually put explosives in your luggage. 

    “Following contact … from the Slovakian authorities with the Airport Police at Dublin Airport, members of the Garda Síochána (Irish National Police) have recovered a small quantity of explosive material from the luggage of a passenger who had flown into Dublin from that country on Saturday last,” a statement from the Department of Justice said.

    Okay, so it only took them four days, but the stuff was recovered.  Nevermind that it was enough to bring down the plane.  But, no harm done.  The Times of London has a slightly different story.

    They immediately raided the man’s flat in an apartment block in central Dublin, the area was sealed off and residents and businesses were evacuated. The Slovak, who was still unaware of what was hidden in his luggage, was arrested and charged under the anti-terrorist Offences Against the State Act. The electrician’s own Government was eventually able to persuade the Irish authorities that his protestations of innocence were genuine.

    Well thank God Slovakian Diplomats are more effective than Slovakian Airport Security.  The Times piece also has this gem:

    Eight pieces of contraband were planted … in the baggage of innocent passengers … Seven were detected, but the eighth — 90 grams (3oz) of the plastic explosive RDX hidden among the Slovak’s personal effects — was not.

    Well, I guess seven out of eight ain’t bad. What’s a little terrorist activity between friends right?

  • The system worked AGAIN!

    The Washington Times reports that a homeless man in Frederick, Maryland tried to steal an airplane – but once again, the system worked!

    A homeless man stole a small plane Monday morning from a suburban D.C. airport but crashed before getting airborne, according to law enforcement officials.

    As long as the homeless people continue to comply with the Laws of Gravity, we’ll remain safe from their attacks.

    Good job, Janet!

  • Oliver North hospitalized

    Ollie North

    TSO just sent a link to a Politico article that Oliver North has been hospitalized;

    Oliver L. North, host of FOX News Channel’s documentary series “War Stories,” is temporarily off the air while he undergoes treatment for prostate cancer, POLITICO has learned.

    North’s prognosis is excellent, according to sources.

    North, the Iran-contra figure, became a popular conservative radio host and U.S. Senate candidate in Virginia in 1994. “War Stories” bills itself as profiling “the wars and warriors that shaped American military history.”

    When he visits military bases, soldiers and Marines scramble for the autograph of the man they call “Colonel North” but who introduces himself with a breezy, “Ollie North.”

    I met him several years ago when I was a DC gadfly in the early Bush years. We wish you well, Colonel North.

  • Chicagoans charged in foreign terrorist plots

    I saw it on Fox News Channel, but no links yet. However, there’s a short AP article;

    Tahawwur Hussain Rana and David Coleman Headley were charged in October with plotting an attack on the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten out of revenge for a dozen cartoons printed in 2005 depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

    Authorities have unsealed new charges saying Headley conspired to bomb public places in India. They also say he is cooperating with investigators in both the Danish and Indian plots since his arrest.

    Of course, if this were the Bush Administration, I’d say they were charged to take our mind off of something and scare us, but that’s not the case here, is it?

  • Breaking: Cop Killer dead

    mauriceclemmons_reuters_slideshow_604x500

    Maurice Clemmons, that criminal in Seattle who murdered four cops in a coffee shop Sunday was shot dead by police according to Fox News Channel. No links yet.

    ADDED: Link at Associated Press.

  • Making excuses

    So now we’re left to clean up behind Nidal Hasan – and everybody wants to be an expert. He did it because he is an Arab, he did it because the Army trained him to do it, he did it because of his long hours of listening to disturbing stories from his patients, he did it because George Bush destroyed the military, he did it because Barack Obama destroyed the military.

    The Washington Post calls him a devout Muslim.

    He prayed every day at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, a devout Muslim who, despite asking to be discharged from the U.S. Army, was on the eve of his first deployment to war.

    His aunt told the Post that he was picked upon by his peers for his ethnicity;

    In an interview, his aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, said he had endured name-calling and harassment about his Muslim faith for years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and had sought for several years to be discharged from the military.

    CAIR rushed out a statement that they condemn Hasan’s crime;

    A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy group tonight condemned an attack on Fort Hood military base in Texas that left at least 12 people dead.

    In a statement, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said:

    “We condemn this cowardly attack in the strongest terms possible and ask that the perpetrators be punished to the full extent of the law. No religious or political ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence. The attack was particularly heinous in that it targeted the all-volunteer army that protects our nation. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens in offering both prayers for the victims and sincere condolences to the families of those killed or injured.”

    Veterans with PTSD are more than willing to use this case to prove their own short fuses and the media is more than willing to make it about Hasan being a veteran – more than they’re willing to make it about him being a Muslim (Thanks to Just A Grunt for the video);

    ADDED: One of those studs at Fort Bragg sent us a link to the transcript if you can’t watch the video.

    The IVAW offers “heartfelt condolences” even though until just a few weeks ago, they harbored members who publicly encouraged these types of attacks (Carl Webb). Doug Zachary, a VVAW/VFP member says those murdered soldiers had it coming and that Hasan didn’t kill enough of his fellow soldiers. Dahr Jamail blames the military itself.

    Here’s a theory I have, that won’t be very popular; Hasan was/is a cheesy pogue pussy. He liked the amenities of being stationed near his home and living in the big city with a Major’s salary and suddenly he found himself at nasty-ass Fort Hood (I spent two years there and every minute trying to leave) looking at a deployment to a nastier place.

    I don’t think he did it because of his faith (but he’ll use it as an excuse), or because of PTSD (ditto). The Army doesn’t train their psychiatrists to shoot rooms full of people, so it’s not the Army’s fault. It’s this spoiled little rich kid (by the way, he ignored his father’s advice when he joined the Army – listen to your father), who couldn’t stand the thought of being uncomfortable.

    What? Too simple? No room for anyone to use him as their poster boy?

    Exactly.