Dying Left And Right Now............

..................and fiddling while it all burns down.

I feel so sorry for Israel surrounded by these maniacs.

Full Story of the Atrocities HERE



At least 200 reported killed in Syrian city of Homs


DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian government forces launched a heavy assault on the city of Homs on Friday night, killing over 200 people and wounding hundreds, according to pro-democracy activists who called the hail of mortars and gunfire the bloodiest attack of the 10-month uprising.

They're ready to rock and roll in Egypt some more.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-egypt-protests-20120204,0,6231840.story

Egypt protesters battle police in Cairo streets, Tahrir Square

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/w...-iranian-missiles-might-threaten-us.html?_r=1

U.S. Plays Down Warning by Israeli Over Iran’s Missiles

JERUSALEM — A senior Israeli official said Thursday that the missile testing site near Tehran that was destroyed in a huge explosion three months ago was developing missiles with a range of about 6,000 miles that could reach the United States.
The assertion went far beyond what rocket experts have established about Iran’s missile capabilities, and American officials questioned its accuracy.
The Israeli, Moshe Yaalon, a deputy prime minister and minister for strategic affairs, said the blast at a missile base of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps hit a system “getting ready to produce a missile with a range of 10,000 kilometers.”
“That’s the Great Satan,” he said, invoking a name Iran has used for the United States. “It was aimed at America, not at us.”
Mr. Yaalon was trying to make the point that the Iranian nuclear program is a threat not only to Israel but to other nations, creating “a nightmare for the free world.” He said that it was a concern to Arab states as well as to the United States and Israel.
American officials said they believed that Mr. Yaalon’s assertions were at best premature, and at worst badly exaggerated.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity because assessments of Iran’s missiles are largely classified, the officials said that Iran might harbor the ambition of having missiles that could reach the United States, but that it was not close to achieving that goal. They declined to say what kind of work was being done at the base where the blast took place.
Today, the maximum range of Iran’s known ballistic missiles is roughly 1,200 miles, rocket experts say. That means they could reach targets in the Middle East, including Israel, as well as Turkey and parts of Eastern Europe.
Iran is known to be working on missiles with a range of 2,000 miles, which are considered medium range. The United States defines long-range or intercontinental ballistic missiles as having ranges greater than 3,400 miles.
A range of 10,000 kilometers, slightly more than 6,200 miles, would let a missile fired from Iran fly halfway around the globe to reach the United States.
Mr. Yaalon’s comments came in an address to an annual conference that examines Israel’s security challenges.
Mr. Yaalon, who was in the United States last week for talks with American officials, said that Turkey had been helping Iran circumvent international sanctions by allowing it to use its banking system. He also argued that all of Iran’s nuclear sites could be hit with Western weapons.
“We need a credible military option,” he said. “The Iranians understand the West has capabilities, but as long as the Iranians don’t think that the West has the political stomach and determination to use it, they will not stop. Currently they don’t think the world is determined.”
Earlier, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the chief of Israeli military intelligence, told the audience that he believed crippling sanctions could persuade the Iranian government to abandon what he believed was its determination to build a nuclear weapon. He said if Iran chose to build a bomb, it would take it about a year.
General Kochavi also estimated that Israel faced 200,000 missiles and rockets aimed at it from its enemies.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, speaking at a NATO meeting in Brussels, declined to comment on a column by David Ignatius in The Washington Post that reported that Mr. Panetta believed there was a “strong likelihood” that Israel would strike Iran in April, May or June.
Mr. Panetta would say only that “Israel has indicated that they’re considering this, and we have indicated our concerns.”
William J. Broad contributed reporting from New York, Elisabeth Bumiller from Brussels and David E. Sanger from Washington.

The reason is they're sick of being shoved around and told what to do.

Most people I know of don't want their government telling them everytime they turn around what the can and can't be doing. Or told by the government to pay up when they try and purchase goods and services. Maybe Putin should have told them all that he was delving out Hope and Change.

12 yrs I think I read. He was like the head of the KGB before that. He's an insider's insider there.

I kind of feel sorry for the Russian peoples. They were subverted (as well as starving and living in abject poverty) for so long that it did not occur to them until quite recently that they actually had rights.
They went from totalitarianism by Communism (USSR) to totalitarianism by Crime ( which was just the Old Government people grabbing and controlling everything as they left office,)
And of course Putin, the former head if the KGB who knew everyones secrets. What actually changed was the name, not the type of rule.
But now the people are up in arms, because they now know that the whole world is watching.

Iran Launches New Military Exercises

Iran began ground military exercises Saturday and defiantly warned that it could cut off oil exports to "hostile" European nations as tensions rise over suggestions that military strikes are an increasing possibility if sanctions fail to rein in the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
Tehran has stepped up its rhetoric as international pressure mounts over allegations that it is seeking to develop atomic weapons, a charge it denies.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued stern warnings against any possible U.S. or Israeli attacks against Tehran's nuclear facilities. Western forces also have boosted their naval presence in the Gulf led by the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
The new military maneuvers came weeks after Iran rolled out its troops and arsenals in an unprecedented display of military readiness, with 10 days of naval maneuvers that included the first threats to block Gulf oil tankers in early January. Ground forces also were sent on winter war games — against what a Tehran military spokesman called a "hypothetical enemy" — with U.S. forces just over the border in Afghanistan.
Plans for new Iranian naval games in the Persian Gulf off the country's southern coast have been in the works for weeks.

Iranian state media reported the ground maneuvers of the elite Revolutionary Guard started Saturday near Jiroft, 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran. No more details were available, but it appeared that they were small-scale exercises and not linked to the planned major naval maneuvers near the Strait of Hormuz, the route for one-fifth of the world's crude oil.
Iranian officials and lawmakers repeatedly have threatened to close the strait, which funnels down to a waterway no wider than 30 miles (50 kilometers) at the mouth of the Gulf, in retaliation for sanctions that affect Iran's oil exports. But they have as yet made no attempts to disrupt shipping through the waterway, and the U.S. and other Western powers have warned they would respond swiftly to any attempts at a blockade.
Washington and its allies fear Iran could use its uranium enrichment labs — which make nuclear fuel — to eventually produce weapons-grade material. Tehran insists it only seeks reactors for energy and medical research.
So far, the West is relying primarily on the threat of economic sanctions to pressure Iran over its nuclear program.
Tehran has claimed that the most recent move — EU sanctions approved on Jan. 23, which include an oil embargo and the freezing of central bank assets — will be ineffective, while members of Iran's parliament say they have drafted a bill which would cut off the flow to Europe early, before it can find alternative suppliers.
Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi also said Saturday the Islamic Republic would "definitely" cut off oil to "hostile" European countries, without specifying which ones they were.
However, he said Iran is moving toward reducing reliance on oil revenues, a hint that Tehran is preparing for the worst. Oil sales account for about 80 percent of Iran's foreign revenues.
Qassemi, the oil minister, reiterated Iran's argument that the EU oil embargo will not cripple Iran's economy, claiming that the country already has identified new customers to replace the loss in European sales that accounted for about 18 percent of Iran's exports.

U.N. resolution fails as violence in Syria worsens

BEIRUT (AP) – Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution backing calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, despite international outrage Saturday over a devastating bombardment of the city of Homs by his regime's forces. Activists said more than 200 were killed in the bloodiest episode of the nearly 11-month uprising. Kuwaiti citizens and Syrians resident in Kuwait protest Saturday in front of the Syrian Embassy in Mishref, Kuwait City on Saturday,Ads by

The overnight onslaught on restive neighborhoods in Homs, Syria's third largest city, signaled a willingness by Assad's regime to bring a new level of violence to stamp out an opposition that has grown increasingly bold and armed.
Its timing, hours before a planned vote on the U.N. resolution, suggested Assad was confident of his ally Russia's protection on the world stage.
Residents of Homs on Saturday described a night of ceaseless bombardment by mortars and rockets that lasted until dawn, sending them fleeing to lower floors and basements. When daylight came, dozens of buildings were left punctured by shells, facades collapsed, and some streets were stained with blood.
Thousands gathered for a funeral ceremony for some of the victims in the worst hit neighborhood, Khaldiyeh, where more than 60 coffins and bodies in white shrouds were lined up in a park, according to footage of the scene.
"A few more nights like this one and Homs will be erased from the map," Ammar, a resident, said, speaking on condition that only his first name be used for fear he and his family could be targeted. "We are being massacred."
Activists' reports of the death toll could not be independently confirmed, and the counts varied due to the confusion of tracking the dead.
The Syrian government denied any bombardment took place at all, saying the high death tolls were opposition propaganda aimed at pressuring the United Nations and the bodies were those of people who had been kidnapped previously by "terrorists."
The bloodshed added heat to negotiations that have been going on for days, as Western and Arab nations tried to overcome Russia's opposition to the resolution. The measure would have backed an Arab call for Assad to hand over his powers to his vice president and allow formation of a unity government.
"The Assad regime must come to an end," President Obama said in a statement Saturday before the vote, calling on the Security Council to "stand against the Assad regime's relentless brutality."
But Russia demanded further changes be made, saying the draft did not make enough demands on the armed opposition in Syria and calls for Assad to step aside could wreck chances for a negotiated solution to the country's upheaval. In the end, the resolution's proponents pushed ahead with a vote, challenging Moscow to veto or back down.
After the veto, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said her country was "disgusted" by the vote.
"It is a sad day for this council, a sad day for Syrians and a sad day for all friends of democracy," French Ambassador Gerard Araud said. He said Russia and China had "made themselves complicit in a policy of repression carried out by the Assad regime."
Syria has been a key Russian ally since Soviet times and Moscow has opposed any U.N. call that could be interpreted as advocating military intervention or regime change. Russia and China also used their veto powers as permanent council members in October to block a previous Western attempt to condemn the violence in Syria.
Assad has seen the Russian backing as crucial as he wages a crackdown that has killed well over 5,400 people since March, according to a U.N. estimate.
In a sign of Assad's thinking, a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician who met with the Syrian leader last week told a Lebanese newspaper that Assad was "confident in the Russian position."
Wiam Wahhab said Assad told him that the time had come to decisively put an end to the uprising. "The price of chaos is worse than the price of decisiveness," he quoted Assad as telling him.
The regime has appeared more determined to crush army defectors who have joined the uprising and grown increasingly bold, trying to overtly establish control of pro-opposition cities and neighborhoods. Last week, regime forces carried out a heavy offensive to crush defectors who held sway in suburbs of Damascus, bringing them to the doorstep of the capital.
There were signs that the bombardment in Homs was in response to moves by army defectors to solidify control in several neighborhoods.
Residents reported that defectors set up new checkpoints in several areas, and two Homs activists said defectors attacked a military checkpoint in the Khaldiyeh district Thursday night, capturing 17 soldiers. The activists spoke on condition of anonymity to protect themselves from retaliation.
On Saturday, thousands protested across Syria in solidarity with the beleaguered city. "Homs, your blood will not go in vain," read a banner held by a protester a Damascus suburb.
At least 21 people were killed in violence outside Homs on Saturday, including 12 shot when security forces opened fire on a funeral procession for victims of a shooting in the Damascus suburb of Daraya a day earlier, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Tunisia decided to expel Syria's ambassador and end its recognition of Assad's regime in response to what it called a "bloody massacre" in Homs. Angry Syrians stormed their embassies in Berlin, London, Athens, Cairo and Kuwait, clashing with guards and police and — in Cairo — setting fire to part of the embassy.
In Khaldiyeh, an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim district of Homs, residents checked on relatives after a night spent in hiding and cleaned streets of shattered glass, debris and bloodstains. As many as 30 buildings were left uninhabitable by the extent of the damage, said local activist Majd Amer.
Mohammad, a Khaldiyeh resident who like most in Homs declined to be further identified, said the shelling started shortly before midnight and lasted until early Saturday.
"We were sitting at home and the mortars just started slamming into buildings around us," he said by telephone. "There was nothing that prompted it, not even protests … people are terrified today."
"It's a catastrophe, no other way to describe it," he said.
Online video by activists taken during the onslaught showed chaotic scenes in a makeshift clinic set up in what appeared to be a Khaldiyeh mosque, the room filled with wounded men with gashes and broken limbs being bandaged as well as several dead bodies. In another video, fire ravaged a house that had been shelled, as people poured water on the blaze.
The videos could not be independently verified.
The Syrian Observatory said the death toll in Homs was at least 217, counting victims whose names it had collected. About 140 of the deaths were in Khaldiyeh, it said. The Syrian National Council, one of the main opposition groups, put the toll at more than 220.
"This is the worst attack of the uprising, since the uprising began in March until now," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Observatory, which tracks violence through contacts on the ground.
The group's figures could not be independently verified.
Residents said most shelling came from a military installation west of Khaldiyeh and Alawite-dominated neighborhoods to the east. Syria's Alawite minority, which belongs to an offshoot of Shiite Islam, forms the backbone of Assad's regime and the military leadership.
Homs has been one of the biggest centers of anti-regime protests since March and has seen increasingly large numbers of army defectors. It has been hit by near daily regime raids and fighting. It has also seen bloody bouts of tit-for-tat killings between its Alawite and Sunni communities, a harbinger of what many Syrians fear could happen if the country descends into an outright confrontation of armed forces.
Syria's uprising began with peaceful protests around the country. But in the face of the regime's withering crackdown, the opposition has increasingly taken up arms. Military and security forces have responded with progressively greater force.

Just something to keep in mind. The Middle east was the birth place of civilization,
and well may become the cemetery of civilization as well!

Probably eventually. It's working on being the cesspool of civilization currently.

I suppose we'll have to bomb the whole place.

More than likely. I'd say the chances are 50/50 or better wouldn't you say?

Once again the fallacy of killing an idea with a bullet or a bomb.
The only true way to kill an idea is with a better idea!

THINK ABOUT IT!

Think so? remember there are more of them than there are of us.
We found that out in Korea, Nam, and other such shit holes didn't we?
The world isn't like it used to be now is it?
Hell are own people are willing to sell this country down the drain for
a few damn dollars, or their name in the papers.

Ah "Christ" I'd best get off my soap box before I get LindaK in here!

The world may change, but people don't.

There in lays the problem now doesn't it?