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Alarm Clock

Iran Ups Military Production by 21%


Fars News Agency
Tue, 21 Aug 2012 04:50 UTC
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© Fars News AgencyIranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi announced on Tuesday that the number of military products manufactured by the Iranian Defense Ministry has witnessed a 21% growth this year.

Addressing a ceremony on the occasion of the National Day of the Defense Industry today, Vahidi said that defense products in Iran are unique in terms of quantity and variety, irrespective of all the pressures and restrictions imposed against Iran in the global market.

"We in Iran's defense industry have 1,436 different products with an almost limited market and that means we have been able to commercialize through indigenization," the minister underlined.

He announced that the defense ministry produced 192 products in the last Iranian year (ended on March 19), and added, "We at the defense ministry had a 21% growth in production, 178% increase in technology and inventions, 286% growth in academic projects and a 138% boost in the number of the industrial projects which have been accomplished."
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MIB

German spies active off Syria coast: report


Agence France-Presse
Tue, 21 Aug 2012 18:14 UTC
German spies are stationed off the Syrian coast and are passing on information designed to help rebels in their fight against President Bashar al-Assad, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Agents from Germany's foreign intelligence service (BND) are operating on ships off the coast with technology allowing them to observe troop movements 600 kilometres (400 miles) inside the country, said the Bild am Sonntag weekly.

Comment: See:

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Airplane

Top US General Dempsey Leaves Damaged Plane, Escapes Afghanistan


Fars News Agency
Tue, 21 Aug 2012 03:14 UTC
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© Fars News AgencyChairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey left Afghanistan shortly after two rockets damaged his plane in Bagram airbase.

Two rockets hit Dempsey's plane when it was parked at Bagram Airbase, north of Kabul, late on Monday night and slightly wounded two ground staff. They also damaged a nearby helicopter.

Dempsey, who had been in the country for talks with NATO and Afghan commanders on a string of recent shootings, left the country on another aircraft.

Before leaving Afghanistan, Dempsey met his Afghan counterpart General Sher Mohammad Karimi, who raised the issue of insider attacks by local forces that have killed 10 American occupiers in the past two weeks.

Following the meeting with General Karimi, Dempsey told reporters "this time, without prompting, when I met General Karimi, he started with a conversation about insider attacks - and, importantly, insider attacks not just against us, but insider attacks against the Afghans, too".

The US top army general escaped the rocket attack unharmed as he was not aboard the plane when it was hit by the [alleged] insurgents.

"He was nowhere near the aircraft. We think it was a lucky shot," NATO senior spokesman Colonel Thomas Collins said.
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Top Secret

CIA spies 'smuggle 14 Stinger missiles into Syria so rebels can take out regime warplanes'


Mirror
Tue, 21 Aug 2012 17:48 UTC
The ground-to-air weapons have been delivered across the Turkish border and were partly paid for by Saudi Arabia

stinger missile
© APWhat a Stinger missile looks like
CIA spies have smuggled up to 14 Stinger missiles into Syria so rebels can defend themselves from air strikes.

The ground-to-air weapons have been delivered across the Turkish border to the Free Syrian Army and were partly paid for by Saudi Arabia, a security source claimed.

Comment: See:

History Repeats: Citing phantom WMDs, Barack Obama threatens full-scale US military engagement in Syria
It's official: British and US intelligence is directing al-Qaeda operations in Syria
State-Sponsored Terrorism - Western Journalists Embedded With 'al-Qaeda' in Syria

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Chess

Australian Minister downplays preparations for Julian Assange's extradition to U.S.


The Australian
Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:17 UTC
Ecuadorian Embassy
© Getty ImagesA protester holds a placard depicting Julian Assange outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Australia confirmed that its diplomatic post in Washington had been preparing for Julian Assange's possible extradition to the US but played it down as "contingency planning".

Trade Minister Craig Emerson said that the Australian embassy in Washington had been "getting prepared for the possibility of an extradition'' but stressed that there was nothing unusual in diplomats bracing for all eventualities.

"The embassy is doing its job, just to be in a position to advise the government if it believed that an extradition effort was imminent. There is no evidence of such an extradition effort,'' Emerson told ABC television.
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Heart - Black

Former Governor Mike Huckabee Speaks of His Positive Outlook on Rape

James Rainey
Los Angeles Times
Mon, 20 Aug 2012 16:15 UTC
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© J. Scott Applewhite / Associated PressFormer Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, seen in a file photo, spoke Monday in defense of Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), saying that "horrible" rapes can result in the births of admirable human beings.
The man trying to provide Rep. Todd Akin the softest possible landing after the congressman's foolish comments about pregnancy and rape was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a strong supporter of Akin during his run to represent Missouri in the U.S. Senate.

In the furor over Akin's remarks and increasing pressure for him to drop out of his race against Sen. Claire McCaskill, Huckabee used his syndicated radio program Monday to give the embattled candidate a safe venue to express remorse and his determination to remain in the race. Huckabee also took the opportunity to cast the best possible light on Akin's awkward position. The former Arkansas governor and onetime GOP presidential contender suggested a couple of cases in which he suggested that rapes, though "horrible tragedies," had produced admirable human beings.

"Ethel Waters, for example, was the result of a forcible rape," Huckabee said of the late American gospel singer. One-time presidential candidate Huckabee added: "I used to work for James Robison back in the 1970s, he leads a large Christian organization. He, himself, was the result of a forcible rape. And so I know it happens, and yet even from those horrible, horrible tragedies of rape, which are inexcusable and indefensible, life has come and sometimes, you know, those people are able to do extraordinary things."
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Sheriff

US in pursuit of Assange, Australian diplomatic cables confirm

Philip Dorling
The Age
Sat, 18 Aug 2012 16:07 UTC
Julian Assange
© ReutersWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Australian diplomats have no doubt the United States is still gunning for Julian Assange, according to Foreign Affairs Department documents obtained by The Saturday Age.

The Australian embassy in Washington has been tracking a US espionage investigation targeting the WikiLeaks publisher for more than 18 months.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Photo: Reuters

The declassified diplomatic cables, released under freedom of information laws, show Australia's diplomatic service takes seriously the likelihood that Assange will eventually be extradited to the US on charges arising from WikiLeaks obtaining leaked US military and diplomatic documents.

This view is at odds with Foreign Minister Bob Carr's repeated dismissal of such a prospect.
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Heart - Black

Rep. Steve King: I've Never Heard Of A Girl Getting Pregnant From Statutory Rape Or Incest

Evan McMorris-Santoro
TPM
Tue, 21 Aug 2012 13:59 UTC
Rep. Steve King
Rep. Steve King, one of the most staunchly conservative members of the House, was one of the few Republicans who did not strongly condemn Rep. Todd Akin Monday for his remarks regarding pregnancy and rape. King also signaled why - he might agree with parts of Akin's assertion.

King told an Iowa reporter he's never heard of a child getting pregnant from statutory rape or incest.

"Well I just haven't heard of that being a circumstance that's been brought to me in any personal way," King told KMEG-TV Monday, "and I'd be open to discussion about that subject matter."

A Democratic source flagged King's praise of Akin in the KMEG interview to TPM. But potentially more controversial for King is his suggestion that pregnancies from statutory rape or incest don't exist or happen rarely. A 1996 review by the Guttmacher Institute found "at least half of all babies born to minor women are fathered by adult men."

Contacted by TPM, King's office said that King didn't mean he had never heard of pregnancy resulting from statutory rape or incest but that he had no direct, personal knowledge of such instances. "What he was saying was, he personally does not know a girl who was raped," Brittany Lesser, a spokesperson for King said. "He never says, 'I've never heard of that.' There's a fine line between 'I've never heard of that' and 'I don't know personally anybody who's been raped. There's a difference. There is a difference."
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Heart - Black

'Gorgeous' George Galloway makes ugly comments about rape on allegations against Julian Assange

Tom Chivers
The Telegraph
Tue, 21 Aug 2012 11:52 UTC

There are some things in life you never want to know. I was going to write a list of them, but most of them are sordid and unpleasant and since by their nature you don't want to know about them, I thought I'd leave it. But very, very high on such a list would be George Galloway's views on sex. Unfortunately, the MP for Bradford West has been holding forth on precisely such matters.

If it were merely a matter of him telling us his peccadilloes, that would be one thing. But no: Gorgeous George has gone further, and decided to tell us what is, and what is not, rape.
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Vader

History Repeats: Citing phantom WMDs, Barack Obama threatens full-scale US military engagement in Syria


The Guardian
Tue, 21 Aug 2012 02:16 UTC
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US President George Bu... er, Barack Obama, wants to invade Syria to protect the world from Assad's WMDs.
US president Barack Obama bluntly warned Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Monday not to cross a "red line" by using chemical or biological weapons in his country's bloody conflict and suggested that such action would prompt the United States to consider a military response.

Pointing out that he had refrained "at this point" from ordering US military engagement in Syria, Obama said that there would be "enormous consequences" if Assad failed to safeguard his weapons of mass destruction.

It was Obama's strongest language to date on the issue, and he warned Syria not only against using its unconventional weapons, but against moving them in a threatening fashion.

"We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised," Obama said. "That would change my calculus."

"We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people," Obama told an impromptu White House news conference. He acknowledged he was not "absolutely confident" the stockpile was secure.
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