The Good Guys Will Win Ha: 4/12/09

4.17.2009

The truth about the Somali Pirates

by Dan Eden for viewzone

How do I tell you about this?

Most of you have already heard about the Somali pirates. Just recently they captured an American cargo ship and held the captain hostage. They have done this to many other vessels from a variety of different countries. In fact, the American captain was lucky -- he escaped, with the help of some sharp-shooter Navy Seals -- but hundreds of international sailors and crew are still being held by Somali pirates who seek millions of dollars for their safe return, and the safe return of their ships.

US aircraft and elite Navy SEALS defeat three Somalis in a lifeboat

The mounting hue and cry in the US press over the menace to civilization posed by Somali "pirates" is yet another Big Lie, to justify the latest chapter in America's imperial quest for African oil and other resources. US missiles and drones in the air, and perhaps US boots on the ground are all but inevitable, ordered to kill near-defenseless African civilians, by America's First Black President.

Read more @ Black Agenda Report

Navies to guard undersea cables from Somali pirates

HAHA. Maybe they can fit an aircraft carrier down the manholes around the Bay Area to protect that fiber.

Via: Reuters:

Foreign navies have agreed to protect a vessel installing an undersea high-speed Internet cable from pirates off the coast of Somalia, a Kenyan minister said on Thursday.

Read more @ Cryptogon

Sociopathic Through Lines

I’d like to look at the continuum from imprisoned failed sociopaths to SAPs (socially adept sociopaths). Basically they are all adherents of the credo, ‘you call it cheating, I call it winning.’ The failed sociopaths have problems with the cheating part (i.e., getting caught), the SAPs can be phenomenal at it.

...

The continuum is really a scale of talent at being hypocritical. The advanced SAPs are simply magnificent hypocrites – able to bide their time, be patient, realistically assess their position in the food chain (the concept of the food chain is central to sociopathy), restrain their arrogance, desire for dominance and rudeness and wait for opportunities without consequence for indulging their sociopathic wants, etc. Hypocrisy is simply their main lifetool, as swimming is the main lifetool for a fish.

Read more @ The Path Whisperer

Nicolas Sarkozy, important psychopath, insults other important psychopaths

Nicolas Sarkozy has never been one to endear himself to his fellow heads of state. He has irritated with his boastfulness, exhausted with his hyperactivity and offended with his tendency to launch televised policy decimations and send text messages during meetings.

But, impressive though his track record is, he may now have outdone even himself. In the space of just one lunchtime, the French president has managed to belittle Barack Obama, patronise Angela Merkel and insult José Luis Zapatero by questioning his intellectual firepower.

Why a 50% drop in housing is not the bottom

The psychology behind the idea that a 50% reduction in bubble-era housing prices constitutes a "bargain" is flawed for a number of reasons.

I recently saw a few minutes of a Nightly Business Report program on PBS in which a Florida broker was observing that homes which once commanded $350,000 at the bubble top were selling briskly now at $169,000 to investors from every part of the globe.

In other words: "These homes are half off! They're screaming bargains! They can't get any cheaper than this!"

The psychology behind this euphoria is accessible to us all. It's easy to forget where housing prices were before the bubble and focus instead on how much they've dropped from the bubble peak. The same is true in any bubble, be it collectables, real estate, stocks, or tulip bulbs.

Chop Shop economics and stealth Zionism

Causing $64 trillion of liquidity to vanish from the world financial system and then manipulating the US government to reward the perpetrators with bailout money requires the presence of the “right people” in government, academia, and finance industries.

In The Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein argues that Milton Friedman or Chicago School influenced policy makers routinely used catastrophes to facilitate rewriting of national economic rules to benefit a select subset of the world’s hyperwealthy.

President Obama, whose economic background is all Chicago School, brought the Friedmanites including National Economic Council Director Larry Summers back into government.

Jim Cramer destroyed CNBC's viewers' wealth in just 4 days

CNBC’s Jim Cramer has positioned himself as yet another champion of the people against the evil government. A couple of days ago, the method-actor/ CNBC host of “Mad Money” stirred up a hullabaloo when he pretended to be angry and attacked the Obama government’s economic program as “the greatest wealth destruction I’ve seen by a president.”

Right. Let’s leave aside for a moment the fact that Cramer is a giant welfare queen whose salary is subsidized by the $139 billion taxpayer dollars to his parent company, General Electric. For now, let’s just try and answer this simple question: ”Who destroys your wealth more: Obama or Jim Cramer?”

Read more @ The Exiled

A 'copper standard' for the world's currency system?

China's State Reserves Bureau (SRB) has instead been buying copper and other industrial metals over recent months on a scale that appears to go beyond the usual rebuilding of stocks for commercial reasons.

Nobu Su, head of Taiwan's TMT group, which ships commodities to China, said Beijing is trying to extricate itself from dollar dependency as fast as it can.

4.16.2009

The Hegelian Dialectic in Action

Problem: Somali pirates

Reaction: Shippers face higher insurance as pirates run amok. This is a COSTLY PROBLEM, that is your take-away. Very, very costly. "Something Must Be Done"

Shipping companies already smarting from the global downturn are forced to pony up extra cash for steeper premiums to cover multimillion-dollar ransoms or take the long way around the African continent in the hope of dodging hijackers.

"The pirates were the only people who had a good year in 2008," said Crispian Cuss, a security consultant with the Dubai-based Olive Group. [I beg to differ!!!!]

The Gulf of Aden, which connects the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, is one of the busiest and most dangerous waterways in the world.

As pirates become more aggressive, the cost of insuring ships climbs.

Some companies are spending more time training their crews, others are avoiding the area altogether - taking long trips around Africa's southern tip that can potentially add millions to the cost of each journey.

Will Israel attack Iran?

By Roane Carey

13 April, 2009
TomDispatch.com

JERUSALEM -- Israel has been steadily ratcheting up pressure on the United States concerning the grave threat allegedly posed by Iran, which seems poised to master the nuclear fuel cycle, and thus the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. The new Israeli prime minister, Likud Party hawk Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned President Barack Obama that if Washington does not quickly find a way to shut down Iran's nuclear program, Israel will.

Some analysts argue that this is manufactured hysteria, not so much a reflection of genuine Israeli fears as a purposeful diversion from other looming difficulties. The Netanyahu government is filled with hardliners adamantly opposed to withdrawal from, or even a temporary freeze on, settlements in the occupied territories, not to mention to any acceptance of Palestinian statehood. On his first day as foreign minister, extremist demagogue Avigdor Lieberman, with characteristic bluster, announced that Israel was no longer bound by the 2007 Annapolis agreements brokered by Washington, which called for accelerated negotiations toward a two-state settlement.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "We are neither obstinate nor gullible."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke with Spiegel about what he expects from US President Barack Obama, why America's new Afghanistan strategy is wrong and why Iran should have a spot on the UN Security Council.

Spiegel: Mr. President, so far you have traveled to the United States four times to attend the General Assembly of the United Nations. What is your impression of America and the Americans?

Ahmadinejad: In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate, I am pleased to be able to welcome you to Tehran once again, after our extensive conversation almost three years ago. Now on the USA: Of course, one cannot get to know a country like the United States in short visits, but my speech and the discussions at Columbia University were very special to me. I am quite aware that a distinction must be drawn between the American government and the American people. We do not hold Americans accountable for the faulty decisions of the Bush administration. They want to live in peace, like we all do.

Read more @ SOTT

Conflicting reports on sale of S-300 to Iran

There are no obstacles to the delivery of Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Tehran, Iran's deputy foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"There are no problems with this [S-300] contract," Mehdi Safari said at the end of his visit to Moscow.

He offered no specifics about the contract's implementation, but dismissed concerns voiced by a number of countries over possible S-300 deliveries to Iran.

"After all, these are purely defensive weapons, and any country has the right to buy them. I believe this could only worry those states that have plans to attack others," he said.

Read more @ The Truth Seeker

Israel will not cooperate with UN Gaza inquiry

JERUSALEM, April 15 (Reuters) - Israel does not plan to cooperate with a U.N. agency's investigation into alleged war crimes by Israeli troops and Hamas militants during fighting in Gaza, an Israeli government official said on Wednesday.

[snip]

The Israeli government official said a letter was sent to Goldstone, a South African judge, through the Israeli embassy in Geneva informing him and the council that Israel believed it was "impossible to cooperate with the committee" in its inquiry.

Read more @ Reuters

Foreclosed owners should squat in their own homes

If you’re poor and the bank is coming for your home, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur has a plan for you. Just squat, she says.

Yes, this Ohio Democrat is actually encouraging her financially distressed constituents whose homes have been foreclosed upon to simply stay put.

Banker dies "jumping" off parking garage roof

TAMPA — One of the leading figures of the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s jumped to his death from a parking garage at Tampa International Airport last week.

Michael Wise, 64, leaped from the ninth floor of the garage in the early afternoon of April 8. The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death an apparent suicide. It's unclear why Wise jumped.

Wise came to St. Petersburg earlier this decade to get a fresh start in the mortgage business.

How Goldman posted a profitable quarter: they "skipped" December

Hey, my bank account would be looking great too if I just skipped paying my bills for a month, especially that mortgage. - Ed.

Nouriel Roubini wrote in March that Goldman Sachs was insolvent:

So for the Treasury to hide behind the "systemic risk" excuse to fork out another $30 billion to AIG is a polite way to say that without such a bailout (and another half-dozen government bailout programs such as TAF, TSLF, PDCF, TARP, TALF and a program that allowed $170 billion of additional debt borrowing by banks and other broker-dealers, with a full government guarantee), Goldman Sachs and every other broker-dealer and major U.S. bank would already be fully insolvent today.

Yet Goldman reported a $1.7 billion dollar profit for last quarter.

How did Goldman do it?

Read more @ George Washington's Blog

Is Goldman Sachs running the Plunge Protection Team?

Is the current stock market rebound based on fundamentals, or are more sinister forces at work? Tyler Durden, one of the best financial bloggers around, have found some circumstantial evidence that suggests the mysterious Plunge Protection Team (PPT) has recently been boosting the stock market. And some might say Goldman Sachs is running the show...

The Working Group on Financial Markets, known colloquially as the Plunge Protection Team (PPT), was created in 1988 by Ronald Reagan, in response to the Black Monday stock market crash in 1987. Their operations have always been shrouded in secrecy, with a Washington Post article from 1997 writing that the group aims to prevent the "smoothly running global financial machine" from locking up.

Read more @ Pimpin Turtle

NSA's intercepts exceed limits set by Congress

Careful there. Don't spew your coffee all over the keyboard when you get to the part about this being "unintentional." - Ed.

WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews.

Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in “overcollection” of domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional.

Transporting Bird Flu?

4.15.2009

News you are so very unlikely to hear on tee vee

TEHRAN, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday said that Iran would offer new proposal package to the world, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Addressing a crowd in Kerman city of Iran's southeastern Kerman Province, Ahmadinejad said that "We are developing a new package. It is prepared to be proposed to the world."

He did not, however, elaborate on the content of the package and whether it has its concern to do with the country's nuclear standoff.

"This document would be the guarantee of peace and justice in the world, of respect to the rights of the nations, and of participation of all the governments and nations to resolve the issues of the world," he added.

Israel, US to hold missile defense drill

Under the banner of 'The Iranian Threat' in the Jerusalem Post. Always with the drama. - Ed.

In the face of Iran's continued pursuit of nuclear capability, Israel and the United States will hold an unprecedented and massive exercise later this year to jointly test three different ballistic missile defense systems, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239633076339&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

h/t sis

Somali Pirates: the side you won't hear in the news

Somalia is a nation of 9.5 million people. Its location on the eastern shore of Africa has made it a strategic location for commerce and travel. The beauty of its coastline, beaches, rivers and forests has been overshadowed by images of poverty, war and strife. Somalia is now synonymous with hunger and famine. The last famine brought on by drought occurred in 1994; despite this the country has been unable to shake this image. By and large people survive well through trade and animal husbandry. Northern Somalia (aka Somaliland) is a principle source of livestock for the Middle East. There are pockets of stability and safety throughout the nation, however south-central Somalia, particularly areas surrounding the capital city of Mogadishu, have been no-go zones for the past few decades.

Read more @ muslimmatters.org
h/t usexpat

Historic Accord, or Not?

Hamas and Fatah reach 'historic accord' (h/t sis)
Damascus, 14 April (AKI) - Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and the Islamist Hamas movement have reached an historic accord for the creation of a new "confederation" with two governments to rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, sources have told Adnkronos International (AKI).

Top-level Palestinian sources told AKI that the two groups are waiting for the right moment to make an official announcement about the agreement.

Hamas rejects alternatives to forming unity government
GAZA, April 15 (Xinhua) -- A senior Islamic Hamas movement leader Wednesday said his movement rejects recent proposals related to forming a highest committee instead of forming a unity government.

Earlier reports said that rival Fatah and Hamas movements accepted the idea of forming a highest committee of coordination between Hamas government in Gaza and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank.

The report said the proposal was to form a highest committee that acts as a government of confederacy for both Gaza and the West Bank, as an alternative to forming a national unity government.

Gaza Hamas leader Ismail Radwan told reporters that Hamas movement did not accept such a proposal, adding "Hamas wants the dialogue to lead to a national unity and not to search for alternatives that keep the current rift."

The Bush Six to be indicted in Spain

Spanish prosecutors will seek criminal charges against Alberto Gonzales and five high-ranking Bush administration officials for sanctioning torture at Guantánamo.

Read more @ The Daily Beast

Moody's downgrades the whole country

The Federal government is still AAA, but every municipal debt issuer is now suspect and shaky according to Moody's.

For the first time ever, the ratings agency placed all munis on negative outlook, a precursor to potential downgrades. Historically, the agency looked at munis individually and considered them to be too diverse to make blanket statements about.

Man who says he is former AIPAC member puts up billboards decrying Gaza as monstrous inhumanity

I keep braying that Gaza is a watershed moment in American political life and American Jewish life. The billboard is one of ten being put up in New Mexico by an Albuquerque-based grassroots org (the Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel). Here is their press release. The group looks to be multicultural, and led by two Jews, Lori Rudolph and Rich Forer. Forer says that he is a former member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) who has been shaken from ideological slumbers in the last couple of years by the Israeli New Historians.

Read more @ Mondoweiss
h/t Greg Bacon

Gilad Atzmon deconstructs some Ziocons

Last Wednesday, I participated in a panel that could have been a breakthrough debate on issues having to do with ‘Antisemitism’. The event was part of The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival and it took place at Oxford University. The discussion was moderated by the legendary BBC reporter Martin Bell. On the panel we had Nick Cohen and David Aaronovitch. They were there to elaborate on the case of ‘new antisemitism’. Interestingly enough, Aaronovitch and Cohen were the prominent advocates of the illegal war in Iraq through the British press. They are also notoriously famous for their Islamophobic ranting, as if this is not enough, they were also caught supporting the latest Israeli deadly campaign in Gaza. I was there to argue that antisemitism is a spin, it is a myth, I was there to deliver a very simple message: there is no such a thing as antisemitism.

Read more @ Palestine Think Tank

The messy future of memory-editing drugs

The development of a drug that controls a chemical used to form memories sparked heady scientific and philosophical speculation this week.

Granted, the drug has only been tested in rats, but other memory-blunting drugs are being tried in soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. It might not be long before memories are pharmaceutically targeted, just as moods are now.

Some think this represents an opportunity to eliminate the crippling psychic effects of past trauma. Others see an ill-advised chemical intrusion into an essential human facility that threatens to replace our ability to understand and cope with life's inevitabilities.

The microchip

Excerpt:

Microchips in pills could soon allow doctors to find out whether a patient has taken their medication.

What other implications are there? Can you see the the importance of finding out? Or don’t you even notice you are talking about transmitters which could be activated inside the body?

The ‘intelligent’ medicine works by activating a harmless electric charge when drugs are digested by the stomach.

Come and get your harmless medication! Free microchip with every pill!

4.14.2009

On the Evil in This World

On The Evil In This World.

I have to note first that in the following essay I have used masculine pronouns throughout. I have often wondered what it would be like for a woman to read about somone she is supposed to, or wants to, identify with only to be faced with “He” and “His” all the time. I have tried it by reversing it and it feels very exclusionary. Our language doesn't seem to have an answer to this problem. It is particularly unfortunate, in this instance, because I will be talking about victims and women, as a group, suffer much more from victimisation than men do. Also, of all the brave people I personally know, all bar one of them are women. In my defence, I can only point out that all the abusers and exploiters mentioned are also exclusively male. Never-the-less, women readers have my apologies in advance.

Go forward in fearlessness

There is a nagging question which crosses your mind from time to time. And no wonder, because it is perhaps the biggest question of all:

Why am I here on Planet Earth?

Contrary to what you may think, or what you may have been told, the answer is not out of your reach. Far from it.

In fact the answer is both simple and heart warming, as you will see during the course of this two-part presentation. Answers to other big questions will also be revealed, including:

- What is life?

- What are our true origins as human beings?

- Why is there suffering?

- Who or what is God?

- What does our future hold for us?

They did not teach you the answers to these questions at school!

As our story unfolds, many of your preconceptions about life could be shattered (the truth really is stranger than fiction). But remember: you have chosen to find this presentation now for a reason, whatever that reason may be.

Nothing happens by accident.

The truth is going to empower you, and ultimately it will set you free. Do you want to be free? Do you want to see your world - our world - for what it really is?

Seeing is believing. So open your eyes.

Read more @ Homo Veritas

Untold stories about Somalia pirates - European ships dumped NUCLEAR WASTE into Somalia Ocean

In 1991, the government of Somalia - in the Horn of Africa - collapsed. Its 9 million people have been teetering on starvation ever since - and many of the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country’s food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.

Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.

Surge in first time deliquent tax payers

As a deep recession strips Americans of their jobs, homes and investments, the 2009 U.S. tax season promises to see a large uptick in first-time delinquent income taxpayers.

“Our calls are up 280 percent,” said Richard Boggs, founder and chief executive of Los Angeles-based Nationwide Tax Relief, a firm that helps delinquent taxpayers resolve tax issues.

“We’ve seen a huge rise in what we call the rookie delinquent taxpayer,” he said. “They are incredibly scared, and they have no idea what’s going to happen to them because, God bless them, they’ve never owed before.”

Read more @ Cryptogon

Hip Hop & Freemasonry: Culture Creation & The Shape of Things to Come

This excellent video takes a critical look at hip-hop music and culture, and the Masonic influences found in the lyrics, fashion and hand signs, proving that hip-hop culture, like all cultures, is administered from on high, for a purpose far different than most of its followers believe.

Read more @ Dissecting the New Age

Is Sachs manipulating the stock market? It sure looks like it.

There was a very interesting article on Zero Hedge the other day. In the data provided, I noticed that Goldman Sachs traded more for their Principal account than the next 14 firms COMBINED. And the next 14 were no slouches . . . Citi, JP Morgan UBS, Credit Suisse, Merrill, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, etc.

I mention this because it seems a bit coincidental that the markets have skyrocket during this very same period, and Goldman Sachs' stock price has jumped more than 70% to just about back to where our dear friend Warren Buffet bought in. Their stock prices has more than doubled the performace of any of the US markets!

It's also interesting that this 74% meteoric rise comes when Goldman Sachs has decided to sell stock to pay back the TARP dollars . . . even though they told us they didn't need the money. Obviously, Lord Blankfein, you needed the money because you don't have it to pay back . . . and you don't even have the billions you got from AIG.

Read more @ Goldman Sachs Info, Comments, Opinions and Facts

Is TARP investigator on collision course with Treasury on bank assets?

This could get interesting. The Financial Times tells us that Neil Barofsky, the special investigator general for the TARP, is looking whether banks cooked their books by overvaluing assets to qualify for TARP funding, Remember, bank had to fall into this funny construct of being sick enough to need help, but not so sick as to be terminal.

And since we are widely reading reports of banks carrying lots of mortgage paper at higher than 80 cents on the dollar (we've even seen reports of over 90 cents on the dollar being common) it would appear that Barofsky's suspicions are well founded.

Read more @ naked capitalism

Some banks should stay under the TARP (FT)

Banks are racing to repay government funds handed to them under the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, but shareholders may want them to hold onto that money for a while.

The rationale for repaying the TARP money quickly is obvious: Banks want to get regulators and legislators off their backs and get out from under the pay restrictions TARP participation mandates.

Goldman using share sale to return bailout funds

Six months after accepting a financial lifeline from Washington, a newly profitable Goldman Sachs is pushing to return the billions of taxpayer dollars that it received in an effort to extricate itself from heightened government control.

Read more @ NYT

Whistleblower on Downing Street?

Dear Gus,

The emails sent by Damian McBride raise serious concerns about the operation of 10 Downing Street, and the degree to which the rules about the role of special advisers are being enforced.

Mr McBride was hardly a peripheral figure. He was personally appointed by the Prime Minister and directly responsible to him. He worked alongside the Minister for the Civil Service, Tom Watson, at the heart of the Prime Minister's office.

4.13.2009

Declassified CIA documents show mind control projects created super spies, terrorists, assassins

Part 1 of series. The astonishing quotes from CIA documents below reveal detailed, successful experiments in highly secret, government-sponsored mind control programs. Through hypnosis, drugs, and electric shock, CIA clinicians fractured personalities and induced multiple personality disorder (MPD). These top secret programs were successful in creating Manchurian Candidates or super spies programmed to carry out sexual favors, assassination, and other terrorist acts without any conscious knowledge of what they were doing.

Read more @ Pimpin Turtle

Latest from Christopher Story

OBAMA PREFERS 'TRASHETS' TO THE DEBT-FREE SOLUTION

STABILISATION WITHOUT DEBT TO BE HANDLED FROM LONDON

US shipped 989 munitions containers to Israel week before Gaza invasion

In the dying days of the Bush administration, and a week before Israel launched an aerial bombing campaign, followed by a land invasion of the Gaza Strip, the U.S. military shipped 989 containers of munitions to Israel.

Each container was 20-feet long with a total estimated net weight of 14,000 tonnes. The shipment reportedly reached Israel last month at Ashod, 40 kiometres north of Gaza. The huge arsenal of munitions will replenish those expended in the Gaza War.

According to Amnesty International in the UK, the shipment included white phosphorous.

Read more @ Australian Herald

New bird flu cases SUGGEST (wink wink) the danger of pandemic is rising

First the good news: bird flu is becoming less deadly. Now the bad: scientists fear that this is the very thing that could make the virus more able to cause a pandemic that would kill hundreds of millions of people.

This paradox – emerging from Egypt, the most recent epicentre of the disease – threatens to increase the disease's ability to spread from person to person by helping it achieve the crucial mutation in the virus which could turn it into the greatest plague to hit Britain since the Black Death. Last year the Government identified the bird-flu virus, codenamed H5N1, as the biggest threat facing the country – with the potential to kill up to 750,000 Britons.

Peres on Ahmadinejad: We'll strike him

Israel 'will' launch its much-predicted military strike against Iran, should Washington's overture to Tehran prove to be of no avail.

In an interview with Kol Hai Radio, Israeli President Shimon Peres launched into a tirade against Iran and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warning him about his stance.

Referring to President Obama's promise to soften the Bush administration's line against talking to Iran, Peres said he hoped that such talks would "bear fruit."

He, however, went on to warn that if such talks do not soften the Iranian president's approach "we'll strike him."

President Barack Obama's administration has pledged to lean towards making a major diplomatic overture to Iran -- one that is expected to end 30 years of diplomatic animosity between the two countries as well as resolving Iran's nuclear dispute.

Peres refused to reveal details of the military plan to take out Iran's nuclear infrastructure, but confirmed that Israel would not launch a unilateral strike against Iran.

"We certainly cannot go it alone, without the US, and we definitely can't go against the US. This would be unnecessary," Peres explained.

Read more @ Press TV

US captain's rescue raises stakes in piracy ops

Of course it does. Wasn't that the WHOLE POINT???? - Ed.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The killing of three Somali pirates in the dramatic U.S. Navy rescue of a cargo ship captain has sparked concern for other hostages and fears that the stakes have been raised for future hijackings in the busy Indian Ocean shipping lane.

Read more @ AP

Praise for Captain after kidnapping

WASHINGTON - After days of tense negotiations, the Navy rescue of an American sea captain came in a matter of seconds Sunday when a few sniper bullets killed three Somali pirates who authorities feared were about to kill him.

The commanding officer of the guided-missile destroyer Bainbridge had already received approval from President Barack Obama to attempt a rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips by force if the seafarer's life appeared to be in imminent danger after five days of captivity off the coast of Somalia.

Read more @ Baltimore Sun

Hijacked Italian, Egyptian vessels taken to Northern Somalia

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Pirates have taken an Italian tugboat and two Egyptian ships close to a fishing village near a disputed area of northern Somalia, officials and residents said on Monday.

Separate assaults on hijacked boats by French and U.S. special forces have raised fears of more bloodshed off Somalia's coast, but a maritime group said the tugboat was unlikely to be a target of retribution by gangs in the former Italian colony.

Explosive-laden boat blows up off Gaza: Israel

Explosive, inflammatory language-laden report starts here: - Ed.

JERUSALEM (AFP) — A Palestinian fishing boat laden with explosives blew up on Monday off the coast of the Islamist Hamas-run Gaza Strip, but no casualties were reported, the Israeli army said.

"A suspicious Palestinian fishing boat that was off the coast of Gaza City and laden with explosives blew up," a military spokesman said.

Earlier the army said that it had blown up the suspect vessel, but the spokesman said that version of events was incorrect, and "there was no fire against the boat."

Peeps Diorama Contest

And I thought I had too much time on my hands...
many more here.