Israel have issued similar rhetoric with regard to Iran. Don't pretend like they're innocent.

Watching them is one thing, accusing them of wanting another Holocaust is another thing entirely.

FTFY

It wouldn't be an issue if they'd shut the hell up about it. The only thing that makes Iran want to bomb Israel is Israel claiming that Iran want to bomb them every 3-4 months.

You don't know your history do you?

The only "nakba" is the million Jews who were kicked out of Arab countries post-1948. There were assaults, beatings, executions, nazi-style bans from working in certain jobs, you name it. They were nearly a million refugees, kicked out if Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen, etc, etc. That's the real nakba or whatever you want to call it. Look it up.

And the reason Iran is wanting to nuke Israel has nothing to do with Arabs.

Btw, Israel has never threatened the sovereignty of another country, while the Arabs continually call for Israel's destruction.

Another six million dead Jews would be exactly that. It doesn't matter what anti-semites think or what Netanyahu says publicly, Israel can't rely on anyone to protect them and will do all it can to protect itself. And the rest of the world can condemn them as much as they like - the risk of a nuclear, sabre-rattling Iran is too great.

Hard to make yourself look like the victim with all those nuclear warheads...unless you play the holocaust card.

Netanyahu :oops: has the biggest nuclear arsenal in the region alongside the US military and their bases....

If Israel gets nuked it will have more to do with a certain little ongoing al-Nakba than just some simplified, holocaust narrative. Even most Israelis know that...

Beat those war drums....

What's going on with all this anti-G8 rioting in London?

Israeli PM warns of another Holocaust from Iran

WARSAW, Poland — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his two-day visit to Poland, which Germany's Nazis occupied during World War II and where they committed the worst crimes ever against the Jewish people, with a stern warning about a potential Holocaust from Iran.
Netanyahu said Wednesday the upcoming "so-called" Iranian presidential election will "change nothing" in the Islamic republic's quest for nuclear weapons and that the regime will continue to pursue a bomb aimed at destroying Israel. Iran insists its uranium enrichment program has only peaceful goals.
Iran's election overseers have approved a list of would-be hopefuls, most of them loyalists favored by both the theocracy and the military, and any future president will likely side with the supreme leadership's nuclear aspirations.

"This is a regime that is building nuclear weapons with the expressed purpose to annihilate Israel's 6 million Jews," Netanyahu said, alluding to the number of Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II. "We will not allow this to happen. We will never allow another Holocaust."
Israel considers Iran its greatest threat because of its support of Islamic militant groups, its arsenal of long-range missiles and primarily its advanced nuclear program.
Netanyahu's comments in Warsaw carried added significance since they came a day before he travels to the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz in southern Poland, where he is to inaugurate a new pavilion meant to educate visitors about the Holocaust and the Nazi Germany's quest to exterminate the Jewish people.
Netanyahu, whose father was born in Warsaw, has an emotional connection to the Holocaust, although he has faced criticism for citing it frequently in the context of current events, notably regarding the potential nuclear threat from Iran. For years, Netanyahu has used his annual address on Israel's Holocaust remembrance day to caution about the danger of a nuclear Iran and vowing that "never again" will the Jews be powerless to defend themselves.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Netanyahu remained undeterred by the critics, insisting the intentions of the Iranians are just as murderous of those that existed in World War II.
"The comparison is intentional. Does Iran want to destroy the state of Israel, first and foremost its Jews? The answer is yes," he said in response to a question from The Associated Press. "Here is where the comparison diverges, since there was no state of Israel back then that could defend itself. The difference is not in the hatred of Jews and the will to destroy them. This is something that is pretty consistent in history and even modern history. The Holocaust didn't change this situation."
Netanyahu and a team of five ministers met with their Polish counterparts and discussed security in Israel's neighborhood, including the stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, the conflict in Syria and a series of bilateral issues such as Poland's possible purchase of Israeli armaments. Israel has been urging Poland, as a member of the European Union, to declare the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
Speaking alongside Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Netanyahu contrasted the painful Jewish history of the past in Poland with the current strong relations between Poland and Israel.
"The histories of our peoples are intertwined over thousands of years, in great achievement and also in great tragedy," said Netanyahu. "We are both shaped by our past and we are both focusing together on shaping our future."
Tusk concurred, saying: "We speak a common language with Israel."
The Germans carried out the Holocaust to a large extent in occupied Poland, because it had Europe's largest Jewish population and it was at the heart of a railway network that allowed the Nazis to easily transport Jews there from elsewhere in Europe. Many Israeli leaders are children of Holocaust survivors, and Israel has the world's largest population of survivors.
In recent years, Poland has become one of the friendliest states to Israel.
Auschwitz remains the most vivid symbol of the cruelty of Nazi Germany's genocide of World War II. The world marks its International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, to coincide with the date of Auschwitz's liberation in 1945. The new exhibit Netanyahu will inaugurate will, for the first time, present Auschwitz in the larger context of the Nazis' systematic attempt to exterminate Europe's Jews.
More than 1 million Jews died in Auschwitz and the adjacent Birkenau death camp in gas chambers or from starvation, disease and forced labor. Auschwitz-Birkenau was the most notorious of a system of death camps that Nazi Germany built and operated in Poland.
"We will never forget the victims of the Holocaust, we will never forget the ultimate crime against humanity," Netanyahu said Wednesday. "And we will never forget our obligation to prevent this from ever happening again."
____
Follow Heller on Twitter @aronhellerap
- See more at: http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/international/europe/2013/06/israeli_pm_warns_of_another_holocaust_from_iran?#sthash.mll9Tjzx.dpuf

Are you serial? There's a massive shit-fight over there at the moment because government organisations have a few photos of people's backyards. Imagine if that was legitimate surveillance how much shit would hit the fan!

Or do nothing and let more people die.

IMO not too many Americans will be upset at FBI doing massive surveillance on gangs and their members. Which I'm sure is being done anyway. It's more a case of being brave enough to take the gangs on by acting on the information.

Yeah, do all kinds of Orwellian invasive reports and surveillance and watch the population turn against you for invading their privacy.

Edited by afromanGT: 11/6/2013 03:33:10 PM

You and I aren't experts in this field but clearly what you describe is a good start. Yeah, do all kinds of reports and surveillance and then hit the gangs very hard.

Y'know what makes gang violence so hard to stop? How easy it is to appear like a member of th e"innocent civilian population". So unless you've got yourself a Minority Report machine that's going to tell you the who, what, when and were of a crime you're going to have a hard time doing battle on this front.

Yep, that's EXACTLY what I think they've been doing. It's a whole lot easier to take guns off the innocent, civilian population than off the gangs, which cause over 70% of America's gun deaths.

The whole gun publicity thing is just for show - some kid will go nuts with a gun and kill people and the next day it'll be all "ban the guns".

Except a gun ban won't stop the crims from using them. Only a concerted war on guns, targeting the gangs, will improve the situation.

For so long as the American people feel unsafe, they will find ways to purchase guns for what they erronously perceive to be self-defence.

Taking guns off the innocent gun owners will only band-aid the problem.

What do you think they're doing? Twiddling their thumbs?

If they target gangs and crims and take guns away from THEM, innocent people will be less likely to want to keep a weapon in the home.

I'm dead against guns (pardon the pun) but when the majority of gun deaths in the US is gang/crime related, clearly they are going for the soft target rather than doing anything concrete.

Should be charged with 2996 counts of conspiracy to commit murder.

As strange as this sounds, I think it's a good initiative. People are going to own guns, and after shootings they're going to go out and panic buy. This way they're ensuring that they're properly trained to use the weapon.

Free gun initiative begins in Houston neighborhood

Houston’s Oak Forest neighborhood is the first in the country being trained and equipped by the Armed Citizen Project, a nonprofit that is giving away shotguns to single women and residents of neighborhoods with high crime rates.

By JUAN A. LOZANO
The Associated Press

HOUSTON — Houston resident Cheryl Strain’s inexperience with guns was apparent as she struggled to load shells into a 20-gauge shotgun.

Over the piercing blasts of gunfire in the shooting range, Strain’s instructor, Dan Blackford, patiently directed her on how to use her thumb to shove a shell all the way inside the barrel and feel it click.

“Now we got a round in the chamber ready to go,” Blackford said as he positioned her body the right way to hold the shotgun. “Look down your sight, put that BB right in the middle of your target and press the trigger.”

Strain’s northwest Houston community of Oak Forest is the first neighborhood in the country being trained and equipped by the Armed Citizen Project, a Houston nonprofit that is giving away shotguns to single women and residents of neighborhoods with high crime rates.

While many cities have tried gun buybacks and other tactics in the national debate on gun control, the nonprofit and its supporters say gun giveaways to responsible owners are a better way to deter crime. The organization, which plans to offer classes in Dallas, San Antonio, and Tucson, Ariz., in the next few weeks, is working to expand its giveaways to 15 cities by the end of the year, including Chicago and New York.

Others in Houston, while expressing support for Second Amendment rights, question whether more guns will result in more gun-related deaths rather than less crime.

Oak Forest residents say their neighborhood, made up of older one-story houses and a growing number of new town homes, has experienced a recent rash of driveway robberies and home burglaries. On a recent Sunday afternoon, a group of 10 residents, including Strain, went through training at Shiloh Shooting.

Mixed feelings

Kyle Coplen, 29, the project’s founder, said his group expects to train at least 50 Oak Forest residents and put up signs saying the neighborhood is armed.

“When we have a crime wave, we don’t just say, let’s just increase police and that’s all we do. We do multiple things. I see this as one aspect of what we can do,” said Coplen, who graduated from the University of Houston with a master’s degree in public administration.

It costs the organization about $300 to arm and train an individual and about $20,000 for a neighborhood. All costs are paid through donations, said Coplen, though he declined to say how much his organization has raised.

While some residents in the neighborhood are supportive, several officials expressed mixed feelings about it.

Sandra Keller, Strain’s neighbor, said she is participating, in part because of the helplessness she felt after her furniture store was robbed a few years ago.

“If you don’t have a gun, you’re just a walking victim. You’re just waiting for somebody to take advantage of you and your property,” said Keller, 64, after practicing at the shooting range.

Houston City Councilwoman Ellen Cohen, who represents Oak Forest, said: “I have serious concerns about more guns in homes.”

Cohen said she supports Second Amendment rights and thinks that such a responsibility should include proper training and background checks.

David Hemenway, a professor of health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health who has written about firearms and health, said studies suggesting gun ownership deters crime have been contradicted by many others that say the opposite.

“Mostly what guns seem to do is make situations more lethal because most crime has nothing to do with guns,” he said. “When there is a gun in the mix, there is much more likely to be somebody dying or somebody incredibly hurt.”

Backers’ argument

Proponents of increased gun ownership point to a variety of statistics to support their argument, including ones showing that some cities with strict gun-control laws, such as Chicago, still have high homicide rates.

Blackford, the firearm instructor, said the group is teaching residents how to handle and store a weapon and when to use deadly force.

“The sad part is most people think if you’re pro-gun, that you’ve got this gunslinger attitude, that you are walking around looking for a gunfight to get into — and that is so far from the truth,” said Blackford, a former Secret Service agent.

Harris County Precinct One Constable Alan Rosen, whose deputies patrol Oak Forest, said that while he thinks the best deterrent to crime is effective neighborhood-watch programs, he says people should have the right to protect themselves.

“In terms of having a shotgun, after you’ve been properly trained on it, to have that in your home to protect your home, I’m for it,” he said.

Strain, 46, a single mother who has never owned a gun, said she was nervous firing the shotgun but thought that more training will help. She also had her son Rory, 12, practice firing the shotgun so “if God forbid something happens, he could be prepared as well.”

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2021149040_freegunsxml.html?

Will be a very sad day when he goes, which could be very soon :cry:

The poor bloke can't have long on this coil left.

Nelson Mandela hospitalised, in serious condition

June 8, 2013 - 4:19PM

Former South African president Nelson Mandela, 94, has been readmitted to hospital with a renewed lung infection and is in ‘‘serious but stable’’ condition, the presidency said.

‘‘This morning at about 1:30am (9:30am Saturday AEST) his condition deteriorated and he was transferred to a Pretoria hospital. He remains in a serious but stable condition,’’ President Jacob Zuma’s office said in a statement.

It marks the second hospitalisation for the ailing anti-apartheid hero in two months.

On April 6 he was released from hospital after being treated for pneumonia during a 10-day stay.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/nelson-mandela-hospitalised-in-serious-condition-20130608-2nwol.html#ixzz2VbY81xl8

There's intelligence suggesting that NoKo have restored their nuclear reactor to working capacity.

North Korea vows to boost "nuclear deterrence" after fresh rebuke, new sanctions from U.N. Security Council
:shock:
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA North Korea swiftly lashed out against the U.N. Security Council's condemnation of its December launch of a long-range rocket, saying Wednesday that it will strengthen its military defenses — including its nuclear weaponry — in response.

The defiant statement from North Korea's Foreign Ministry was issued hours after the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Pyongyang's Dec. 12 rocket launch as a violation of a ban against nuclear and missile activity. The resolution, which won approval from Pyongyang's ally and protector China after drawn-out discussions, also expanded sanctions against the North.

In Pyongyang, the Foreign Ministry maintained that the launch was a peaceful bid to send a satellite into space, not a test of long-range missile technology. But now, North Korea will "counter the U.S. hostile policy with strength, not with words," the ministry said, ominously warning that North Korea will "bolster the military capabilities for self-defense including the nuclear deterrence."

The wording "considerably and strongly hints at the possibility of a nuclear test," analyst Hong Hyun-ik at the private Sejong Institute think tank near Seoul said Wednesday.

A nuclear test would fit into a familiar pattern of defiance in Pyongyang. In 2006 and 2009, North Korea followed up rocket launches just weeks later by testing atomic devices, which experts say is necessary for development of nuclear warheads.

However, North Korea has a new leader, Kim Jong Un, who took over in December 2011 following the death of father Kim Jong Il. How he will handle the standoff with the international community remains unclear.

There was no indication Wednesday of an imminent nuclear test. However, satellite photos taken last month at North Korea's underground nuclear test site in Punggye-ri in the far northeast showed continued activity that suggested a state of readiness even in winter, according to analysis by 38 North, a North Korea website affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.

Last month's rocket launch has been celebrated as a success in North Korea, and the scientists involved treated like heroes. Kim Jong Un cited the launch in his New Year's Day speech laying out North Korea's main policies and goals for the upcoming year, and banners hailing the launch are posted on buildings across the capital.

Washington and its allies consider the long-range rocket launch a covert test of ballistic missile technology, and suspect Pyongyang is working toward mounting a nuclear warhead on a missile capable of striking the U.S.

North Korea claims the right to build nuclear weapons as a defense against the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea. The foes fought in the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953 and left the Korean Peninsula divided at the 38th parallel.

Six-nation disarmament negotiations, hosted by China and aimed at offering North Korea much-needed food and fuel in return for dismantling its nuclear program, have been stalled since North Korea walked away from the talks following U.N. punishment for its 2009 rocket launch.


Since then, Pyongyang had indicated its readiness to resume discussing disarmament, and in February 2012 negotiated a deal with Washington to place a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests in exchange for food aid.

That deal fell apart when North Korea unsuccessfully launched a long-range rocket in April. In July, North Korea's Foreign Ministry issued a memorandum declaring that it felt forced to "completely re-examine the nuclear issue due to the continued U.S. hostile policy" toward Pyongyang.

Following Tuesday's Security Council resolution, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said it would rebuff any attempts to engage Pyongyang in disarmament negotiations.

"There can be talks for peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the region in the future, but no talks for the denuclearization of the peninsula," it said.

The Security Council demanded that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons program in a "complete, verifiable and irreversible manner," and ordered the regime to cease rocket launches.

"Today's resolution also makes clear that if North Korea chooses again to defy the international community, such as by conducting another launch or a nuclear test, then the (Security) Council will take significant action," U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said.

The binding resolution is the first in four years to expand sanctions against Pyongyang. It ordered the freeze of more North Korean assets, including the space agency, and imposed a travel ban on four more officials — limited sanctions that target individuals and specific companies.

"We believe that action taken by the Council should be prudent, measured, proportionate and conducive to stability," Chinese Ambassador Li Baodong said after the vote.

The decision by China, North Korea's biggest ally and economic supporter, to approve the U.N. resolution — including sanctions — may reflect frustration on Beijing's part toward its neighbor, analysts said. In the past, China has vetoed applying sanctions for past provocations.

"China has limited influence with North Korea," Zhang Liangui, a researcher with the ruling Communist Party's main research and training institute, said in Beijing. "Beijing disapproves of any nuclear test or new missile launch, but there's not a lot it can do."

China's support for the resolution, with targeted sanctions, signals that it agrees that North Korea's launch was a test of its ballistic missile technology, but it is still trying to protect the ally.

"China is striking a balance here. It wants to punish North Korea for the latest launch and tell it not to undertake a new ballistic missile launch. But it doesn't want to put unbearable pressure on Pyongyang," said Shen Dingli, a regional security expert and director of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57565318/north-korea-vows-to-boost-nuclear-deterrence-after-fresh-rebuke-new-sanctions-from-u.n-security-council/?

Edited by Joffa: 8/6/2013 02:59:07 AM

Illegal ivory trade 'funding Lord's Resistance Army rebels'

PATIENCE AKUMU FRIDAY 07 JUNE 2013


The Lord's Resistance Army has resorted to elephant poaching in order to fund its activities, according to human rights organisations.

Human rights activists and conservationists warn that "poaching and its potential linkages to other criminal, even terrorist, activities constitute a grave menace to sustainable peace and security in Central Africa."

The LRA leader, Joseph Kony, tops the wanted list of the International Criminal Court. Together with three other leaders, Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen, and Vincent Otti, Kony has been indicted for crimes against humanity. Atrocities in Northern Uganda including murders, mutilations, rape, abductions, lootings and displacement of communities have all been attributed to the LRA.

Kony, originally based in South Sudan from where his militants terrorised Northern Uganda, has not attacked Uganda since 2006. However, the group reportedly continues to attack and displace people in the Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo.

These places are also bases for their illegal trade and, human rights activists say, they are threatening the existence of elephants in Africa. The UN estimates that the elephant population in DRC and CRA could have already declined by 90 per cent.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon warned: "Wildlife crime has become a serious threat to the security, political stability, economy, natural resources and cultural heritage of many countries.

"The extent of the response required to effectively address this threat are often beyond the sole remit of environmental or wildlife law enforcement agencies, or of one country or region alone."

The LRA joins other rebel groups like Janjaweed in Cameroon and CRA, who have for long relied on illegal ivory trade to fund their operations.

"The spread of cross-border poaching in Central Africa and its links to sophisticated armed groups is alarming. We have seen the devastating impact of this crime in too many countries," said Jim Leape, International Director General of international conservation group WWF.

The report, Kony's Ivory: How Elephant Poaching in Congo Helps Support the Lord's Resistance Army, was authored by Invisible Children, an American charity organisation dedicated to exposing the atrocities of the LRA.

One of Invisible Children's most popular videos Kony 2012, while controversial, enlightened a mostly oblivious world about the extent of LRA atrocities. Critics however say the film simplified the LRA war and ignored the atrocities equally perpetuated by the Ugandan army. Following Kony 2012, the U.S sent troops to reinforce the UPDF's efforts in fighting the LRA.

In this latest report, Invisible Children, together with co-authors Enough Project and the Satellite Sentinel Project, say that the resources gained from the illegal trade of ivory undercut the efforts of the African Union Regional Task Force soldiers to combat the LRA and undermine the mission of US military advisers to assist their work.

The biggest market for ivory is china. The country is under pressure from international community that wants it to stop the trade in ivory to help conservation and, now, security efforts.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/illegal-ivory-trade-funding-lords-resistance-army-rebels-8650065.html

Probably proportionate to the number of people who have any kind of vested interest in what's going on. There's going to be more jewish/israeli immigrants here than Syrians.

There's also the fact that the details coming out of Syria are sketchy at best for many of the major news outlets. The confirmation that chemical weapons had been used was a three paragraph article published by AFP. If the quality of article isn't there, they're not going to publish it. And yeah, I know that hasn't stopped the Herald Sun before, but most HS readers would rather read about Dayne Swan's new sweat socks than chemical warfare in Syria.

By Dylan Welch and Mirwais Harooni, Reuters

KABUL -- A suicide bomber detonated a small truck loaded with explosives in southern Afghanistan, killing seven Georgian soldiers, NATO and Georgian officials said on Friday, and the Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility.

The attack happened on Thursday evening in Nawzad district in the battlefield province of Helmand, officials said. On May 13, three soldiers from the ex-Soviet state were killed in a similar attack in the same province.

The explosives were detonated outside a Georgian military base in Nawzad, said chief of the Georgian army joint staff, General Irakli Dzneladze.
Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

More than 10 years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

"I offer my deepest condolences to the families of our fallen heroes and to all of Georgia," Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said in a televised address. "Our duty to their memory is to continue our path towards NATO membership."

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message sent to reporters, saying a "truck bombing inside a U.S.-NATO base has killed 20 foreign invaders and wounded dozens."

The Afghan Taliban, seeking to expel foreign forces and impose Islamist rule after they were ousted in 2001, routinely overstate casualties in their attacks.

The blast brings to 30 the death toll of Georgian soldiers serving in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

With over 1,500 soldiers serving in Helmand province, Georgia has the largest non-NATO combat troop commitment in Afghanistan.

Georgian troops have been in Afghanistan since 2004, a commitment that underscores Tbilisi's ambition to join NATO, despite fierce opposition from neighboring Russia, with which it fought a brief war in 2008.

Last month proved particularly bloody for members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is preparing to withdraw most combat troops by the end of next year.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/07/18823506-7-georgian-soldiers-killed-in-afghanistan-suicide-bomb-attack?

Financial elite at 'secretive' annual meeting

Politicians, business leaders and royalty meet near London for Bilderberg Group's shadowy three-day event.

Last Modified: 07 Jun 2013 04:58

Politicians, business leaders and royalty from Europe and the US are meeting near London for a secretive three-day event to discuss global policy.

Known as the Bilderberg Group, their annual conferences are not recorded, nor do they produce any statements.

The lack of transparency often fuels theories that they are the secret rulers of the world.

Al Jazeera's Charlie Angela reports from London.

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/europe/2013/06/201367034958894.html?

Edited by Joffa: 7/6/2013 06:21:19 PM