Anti-ceasefire republicans better-organised, say security forces as booby-trapped car kills 25-year-old Ronan Kerr Republican dissidents have perfected a new generation of weapons with which to launch a fresh terrorist offensive, senior security sources have told the Guardian. The security sources in the Irish Republic, already concerned about a renewed undercar booby-trap bomb threat, say anti-ceasefire republicans have been working on a mortar bomb device, one of which was seized recently near Dublin. In a further worrying development Irish security sources told the Guardian that a new form of TNT explosive had been discovered during a Garda raid on a republican dissident arms dump in Dunleer, Co Louth last year. Security sources in Britain have also indicated that the threat from the dissident republican terror groups has become more pronounced in recent weeks. MI5, which has overall responsibility for security in Northern Ireland, states on its website: “There have been increasing signs of co-ordination and co-operation between republican terrorist groups.” The revelations come as the investigation continues into the murder of newly qualified Catholic police officer Ronan Kerr. The 25-year-old died after a booby-trap bomb placed underneath his car parked outside his home in Omagh exploded shortly before 4pm on Saturday. Kerr had only graduated from the police training college in December and was one of a new generation of Catholic officers. At a press conference in Belfast on Sunday Chief Constable Matt Baggott said those behind the Omagh murder had “killed a peacemaker”. He branded Kerr’s killers as a “potent and dangerous minority” and added: “A mother has lost her brave son, made all the more horrific that it is Mother’s Day today.” His death provoked anger across Ireland and the world with the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, condemning those responsible. On a visit to the murdered constable’s family in Beragh, just outside Omagh, Northern Ireland’s first minister, Peter Robinson, said the attack was “despicable and evil”. The Democratic Unionist leader said he was confident that despite the targeting of the Catholic policeman more young Catholics would join the PSNI. “I know my fellow citizens and they will not be deterred from joining the police by those behind this terrible terrorist murder,” he said. Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin president, described the killing as “futile”, while unionists said it was time to clamp down on the republican dissidents. The ongoing dissident threat has made it one of the busiest years so far for bomb disposal experts, with security forces on both sides of the Irish border bracing themselves for a fresh terrorist offensive. A senior security source said the Republic’s security forces had found a sophisticated technical element to a new mortar bomb launcher which Irish police recovered during an operation on the M1 motorway linking Dublin to Belfast late last year. The device was potentially more deadly and accurate than the mortar bomb launchers used in Northern Ireland in recent times, the security source stressed. The mortar find and the explosives indicate that republican terror groups opposed to the peace process have improved their engineering techniques and secured new war material from eastern Europe. The lethal bomb blast brought back memories of the Omagh atrocity in August 1998 when 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, were killed in a Real IRA car bombing. It was the single biggest atrocity of the Ulster Troubles. Before Saturday’s murder the Real IRA and Óghlaigh na hÉireann (ONH) had resumed their bomb and hoax bomb attacks across Northern Ireland. A car bomb was left by the Real IRA outside Derry city’s courthouse last Sunday evening and put the lives of the public, including choirboys practising in the nearby Church of Ireland cathedral, at risk. Meanwhile an ONH hoax bomb caused widespread disruption in north Belfast last week. The recent upsurge in dissident republican violence followed a lull over the last few months. This was partly due to a series of intelligence successes against the anti-ceasefire republican groups, mainly by the Garda Síochána in the Republic. According to security sources there has been a slow but significant movement of former Provisional IRA individuals to the dissident groups which are now estimated to total between 700 and 800 active members. They said recruitment to the dissident groups had been encouraged by the economic climate and increasing unemployment in Ireland, and youngsters who have joined the groups have no memory of the security measures imposed during the Troubles, the sources said. In addition, the IRA and Sinn Féin no longer have the power or influence to stop attacks. Ireland Republicanism UK security and terrorism Europe Real IRA Henry McDonald Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk
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The author of a UN report on Israel’s 2008 Gaza invasion has retracted the explosive accusation that Israel deliberately targeted citizens, reports the New York Times , sending shockwaves through Israel. “Everything we said has proven to be true,” says PM Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for the report to be completely scrapped….
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In Case You Missed It of the Day: Last night, LCD Soundsystem concluded their short but storied contribution to music with a comprehensive 230-minute set at Madison Square Garden. Jeremy Larson described the final show thus : “[T]his concert should be documented as an exploration how one band compiled every good sound from every band that came before them and turned it into a four hour sound orgasm.”… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Daily What Discovery Date : 03/04/2011 18:24 Number of articles : 3
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It’s not comfortable or sexy but there are times when sticking some thread up your bum is just good manners! Shouldn’t we just embrace the visible panty line and be done with it? The 70s seem to be bang on trend and that’s what ladies used to sport then. Cecilia Rivers, by email Cecilia, your devotion to the cause is impressive, if misguidedly fanatical. You see, when fashion people say that a decade is – as you say, and get you with the lingo –”bang on trend”, they do not mean this literally, but more half-heartedly. Your mistake in assuming that the rehash of the 70s should usher in a return of the visible panty line (VPL) is similar to that of religious zealots who mistake what was once merely hygienic guidance in the pre-refrigeration era for solemn words of God. In other words, you’re being too kosher. When designers resurrect a decade, they don’t gobble it up, they cherry pick: they choose the elements that worked, and learn from their elders’ mistakes about what didn’t. This means in the specific case of the return of the 70s, long skirts, yes; men with perms, no; gold detailing and blouses, yes; espadrilles and VPL, no. No, no, no. Look, I am no G-string fascist (and considering the image my mind conjures up of a “G-string fascist” is that of Michelle “Bombshell” McGee – Jesse James’s former mistress, whose hobbies included sporting Nazi paraphernalia and posing for allegedly erotic photos, often at the same time – I’m now 200% sure I’m not one.) I
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Exclusive: Air chief marshal says it can cope with planned six months in Libya but extra cash required in 2014-15 review The head of the RAF has issued a blunt warning that the service will need “genuine increases” in its budget over the coming years if it is to continue running the range of operations ministers demand. In an interview with the Guardian, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton said he was trying to protect the core of the RAF during a turbulent period of spending cuts and redundancies, but insisted ministers would have to sanction proper reinvestment. With the RAF playing an important role in Libya, where bombers, fighter jets and surveillance aircraft have all been involved over the past fortnight, he admitted the service was now stretched to the limit. Dalton, 57, said the RAF was planning to continue operations over Libya for at least six months. His assumption is that planes will be needed “for a number of months rather than a number of days or weeks”. His warning comes amid renewed signs that key figures in Muammar Gaddafi’s regime are seeking an end to the crisis. The country’s deputy foreign minister, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, flew to Greece on Sunday using the same route out of Libya as his former boss, Moussa Koussa. It was suggested he was in Athens to bring new proposals for a ceasefire or discuss the terms of Gaddafi’s departure. Even as the Libyan conflict continues, the financial difficulties faced by all three British armed services will be underlined on Monday when the army and the Royal Navy set out their redundancy programmes, despite calls from former service chiefs and Labour that the schemes should be shelved because of ongoing operations in north Africa and Afghanistan. Dalton accepted the need for reform, but made clear that the RAF would need an “uplift” in spending. “The key factor is that if we are to meet the requirements laid upon us, there is no question that more investment will be needed to achieve that. What I am seeking to do is maintain core competencies and bricks on which we can then build the future.” Dalton said extra cash was needed long before 2020, which is the target set by government for a wholesale revamping of UK defence strategy, and he claimed prime minister David Cameron had acknowledged this requirement. “It needs to happen from the next comprehensive spending review, 2014-15. If at that point the economy has recovered as the government is predicting it should, they can then start to reinvest in some of the future capabilities we will need,” said Dalton. Without “genuine increases”, the RAF would find it “very difficult to maintain levels of capability”. “On current planning, we can continue in Afghanistan, the Falklands and Libya with what we have got. But that does bring you nearer the point that you have just about exhausted the bag. It’s a heck of a lot to be doing at one time,” Dalton said. The first of the service chiefs to speak out about the current funding crisis, Dalton dismissed outright any suggestion that the RAF might be merged with the army or the navy to save money and said it was inconceivable that the RAF would ever want to scale back and lose its global reach. He also acknowledged that morale had been affected by a massive reduction in the Ministry of Defence’s budget – 8% in real terms. “People do feel concerned. Of course they feel concerned, they have a professional pride in what they do. They don’t join the RAF as if they are joining a bank or an insurance company. They join the RAF because they want to be part of something that does something much bigger and better and, most importantly, has some meaning and value for everyone,” Dalton said. “So of course they are concerned. The world has become a very much more unstable place and again we have seen that in the last few days. “They also think there is a need to make sure the government, the public, understands what they do, and understands that they are prepared to do these things provided what they do is recognised.” Dalton was appointed chief of the air staff in July 2009 and is overseeing one of the most radical overhauls in the history of the service. In last year’s strategic defence and security review, ministers set out proposals to cut 17,000 jobs from the armed forces – 7,000 from the army and 5,000 each from the RAF and the navy. The MoD believes a 6,000 cut can be achieved by not replacing people who have left, but that still leaves another 11,000 jobs to axe. The RAF set out its redundancy programme last month. It is to close its base at Kinloss in Scotland and withdraw two squadrons of Tornados in the summer. The remains of the Tornado fleet was thought to be vulnerable as the MoD has a £1bn overspend to cover from last year’s budget alone. But it is now assumed that the Treasury would not dare push for the rapid withdrawal of the ground attack aircraft because they have been so instrumental in the campaign against Gaddafi. Eight Tornados and 10 Typhoons are currently in Italy, helping to secure the no-fly zone. Dalton said the Nimrod R1, which was due to be scrapped, had been reprieved for as long as it was needed in Libya. Military Defence policy Spending review 2010 Tax and spending Nick Hopkins guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) said Sunday that the GOP 2012 budget will exceed even the $4 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade recommended by President Barack Obama’s debt commission. But Ryan wouldn’t commit that his new budget would follow the debt commission’s lead and cut corporate welfare for oil and gas companies. “Widely reported that your budget will cut spending by $2 trillion over the next decade. True?” Fox News Chris Wallace asked Ryan during their Sunday interview. “Well, it’s more than that,” Ryan said. “Quite a bit more than that.” “$4 trillion?” Wallace wondered. “Looking at more than that right now. We’re fine-tuning the numbers. Congressional Budget Office literally today, over the weekend. We’ll cut more than that,” Ryan explained. “We will be exceeding the goals that were put out in the president’s debt commission,” he added. “You talk about the president’s debt commission. They got $1 trillion from closing a lot of tax loopholes, ending a lot of tax deductions. Do you do that?” Wallace asked. “Not only do we want to cut spending, not only do we want to reform government spending, we want economic growth. We want job creation. Pro-growth tax reform is a key ingredient to getting this economy working again, getting the economy growing again. The way to do that — and we agree with the direction of the fiscal commission — lower tax rate and broaden the tax base. And those are the things we’ll be proposing.” “Democrats are already saying, even before they’ve seen your budget, you do all this balancing of the budget on the spending side and unlike the president’s debt commission, you don’t do it on the revenue side,” Wallace noted. “Do you eliminate tax breaks and bring in new revenue by eliminating tax breaks for oil companies, for instance?” “We don’t have a tax problem,” Ryan declared. “The problem with our deficit is not because Americans are taxed too little… and so we’re not going to go down the path of raising taxes on people and raising taxes on the economy.” “Does it mean you won’t eliminate tax breaks for big oil and gas?” Wallace pressed. “Those are the kinds of details that you’ll come out later with, that the Ways and Means Committee will work on. We don’t go into the detail of which tax expenditure goes or stays. We’re going to lower tax rates and broaden base. You’ll see more details Tuesday.” “We are giving [Democrats] a political weapon to go against us,” Ryan later admitted. “But they will have to lie and demagogue to make that a political weapon.” ADDENDUM : (Nicole) Of course, it’s so typically Republican to put the burden of their years of reckless spending on the backs of seniors and protect oil companies. The DCCC put out a fact sheet on Ryan’s draconian plans: “Paul Ryan made clear that the Republican budget will protect Big Oil companies subsidies over seniors health care,” said Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “It’s already becoming clear who will be the priority in the House Republican budget – special interests, not middle class families. Background No Ending Subsidies. When challenged by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace about whether his budget will include reductions in Oil and Gas subsidies like the Presidents Fiscal Commission did, Ryan responded that “we don’t have a tax problem”. [Fox News Sunday, 4/3/11] House Republicans Cutting Medicare and Medicaid. Chuck Loveless of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said anything approaching a $1 trillion cut over 10 years would have “devastating consequences for the disabled, the working poor and children” as well as seniors who rely on long-term care. “It shines a bright light, we think, on what the House Republican leaders are attempting to do in these various budget discussions as we go forward. They’re seeking to savage the safety net for the most vulnerable in our society and a time when corporations are enjoying record profits.” [POLITICO, 3/31/11 ] The largest oil companies have made $485 billion in profits. The Democratic Steering & Policy Committee held a hearing on the issue of Oil and Gas subsidies and noted that from 2005 to 2009, the largest oil companies have made $485 billion in profits. [climateprogress.org, 3/01/11 ] Obama’s budget plan targets oil, gas tax breaks. “President Obama’s proposed 2010 budget takes pointed aim at oil and gas companies, eliminating myriad tax breaks and proposing new fees on the providers. The plan put out Thursday would repeal tax breaks intended to spur oil and gas exploration and penalize companies that don’t develop wells on land leased from the government. It could raise tens of billions of dollars the next decade.” [USA Today, 2/27/11 ] Last month, House Republicans opposed a measure that would ensure no “tax benefit” could go to a “major integrated oil company.” [HJ Res 44, Vote #153 , 3/01/11]
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Politico's Roger Simon said Sunday Barack Obama is the greatest orator of modern times. Chatting with Howard Kurtz on CNN's “Reliable Sources,” Simon also said journalists are just now looking beyond the President's speaking skills and analyzing what he's actually saying (video follows with transcript and commentary): HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: So is the press starting to sour on the stalemate in Libya? Joining us now here in Washington, Roger Simon, chief political columnist for Politico; Dana Milbank, columnist for “The Washington Post,” and in San Francisco, Debra Saunders, a columnist for “The San Francisco Chronicle.” Roger Simon, are the journalists and the anchors we just saw now aggressively challenging and acting openly skeptical about the Obama policy in Libya? ROGER SIMON, CHIEF POLITICAL COLUMNIST, POLITICO: Yes, and that's a good thing. We're supposed to be openly skeptical. The bloom isn't entirely off the rose between Obama and the press, but reporters are starting to concentrate more than ever on what he says rather than how he says it. We will stipulate that he's the greatest orator of modern times, but now we're looking beyond that in every speech for what he's actually telling us. “We will stipulate that he's the greatest orator of modern times…” Really? Better than Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt? “…but now we're looking beyond that in every speech for what he's actually telling us.” “We're” just starting to do that now? Shouldn't that have begun in February 2007 when the junior senator from Illinois first threw his hat in the presidential ring? Obama's been president for 26 months in the midst of what many claim was the worst recession since the depression and journalists are just now getting beyond his oratory to actually analyze what the most powerful man in the world is saying. Gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling, doesn't it? Of course this isn't at all surprising for if they had done that 48 months ago, Obama would never have become the Democrat nominee let alone America's chief executive. As such, the only things shocking in Simon's revelation was that these shills have actually started doing their jobs as it pertains to the object of their affection and someone on the left finally admitted what most of us on the right have known for years. I'd give kudos to Simon for his honesty but it wouldn't be in order given its tardiness.
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How to jailbreak iOS 4.3.1 on your iPhone, iPod Touch, and … How to jailbreak iOS 4.3.1 on your iPhone, iPod Touch, New iOS 4.3.1 Update Released! Jailbreak + Info Download iOS 4.3.1 Untethered Jailbreak [Password Protected] It is expected that soon it will be released for both Mac OS X and Windows. You can download the password protected zip file of iOS 4.3.1 untethered jailbreak from here. Filed in: Technology Tags: Download, iOS 4.3.1, Jailbreak … Untethered iOS 4.3.1 Jailbreak will be released today by the … As per tradition of the Dev-Team, which has the slogan Sunday is Funday , and according to some recent tweets posted by Stefan Esser(i0n1c), the hacker who provided the untethered exploit to MuscleNerd which will be based on new … iOS 4.3.1 Untethered Jailbreak Will Be Released When … Related Topics. DevTeam, iOS 4.3.1, Jailbreak , PwnageTool, RedSn0w, Untethered. Related Posts. i0n1c Teases Untethered Jailbreak for iOS 4.3.1, Confirms Dev Team Will Release with RedSn0w · iPhone Jailbreak for 4.3.1 is Getting Closer … iOS 4.3.1 Jailbreak ..soon? | TechUnwrapped Looks like we’ll finally have an untethered jailbreak for iOS 4.3.1, via Pwnage Tool 4.3, and Redsn0w 0.9.8, sometime this week. It’s currently going through. Download Untethered iOS 4.3.1 Jailbreak ( Password Protected) I0n1c has released the untethered jailbreaking tool for idevice running on iOS 4.3.1.To use the jailbreak tool you will have to crack the password of Zip file.Download now. iBattaglia says: RT @iOSModifier : If you want a untethered 4.3.1 jailbreak , we need to get #sundayisfunday trending. Hint hint.
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