World News(Stuff to Discuss) Free For All

[ThatHaole]

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Modern American is the great catchall term, although I was recently described as "Mediterranean Soul Food." Current popular items are Chanterelle Bruschetta with tallegio cheese; Seared Diver Scallops on melted leeks and crispy potato & scallion cakes with morel cream; Grilled Filet Mignon on potato & duck confit hash with red wine and foie gras sauce.

[The Godfather]

NAIROBI, Kenya ? American commandos killed one of the most wanted Islamic militants in Africa in a daylight raid in southern Somalia on Monday, according to American and Somali officials, an indication of the Obama administration?s willingness to use combat troops strategically against Al Qaeda?s growing influence in the region.

Western intelligence agents have described the militant, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, as the ringleader of a Qaeda cell in Kenya responsible for the bombing of an Israeli hotel on the Kenyan coast in 2002. Mr. Nabhan may have also played a role in the attacks on two American embassies in East Africa in 1998.

American military forces have been hunting him for years, and on Monday, around 1 p.m., villagers near the town of Baraawe said four military helicopters suddenly materialized over the horizon and shot at two trucks rumbling through the desert.

The trucks were carrying leaders of the Shabab, an Islamist extremist group fighting to overthrow Somalia?s weak but internationally recognized government. The Shabab work hand-in-hand with foreign terrorists, according to Western and Somali agents, and in the past few months, as the battle for control of Somalia has intensified, the group seems to be drawing increasingly close to Al Qaeda.

American officials on Monday provided few details, but confirmed that Special Operations forces, operating from a nearby American warship, participated in the helicopter raid.

Under the administration of President George W. Bush, the American military used long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles and AC-130 gunships to carry out strikes against terrorism suspects in Somalia. One American adviser said the decision to use commandos and not long-range missiles in this case may reflect a shift by the Obama administration to go to greater lengths to avoid civilian deaths. In the past, many Somali villagers have been killed by American missiles.

But urgency was a major, if not overriding, factor as well. A senior American military official said the Special Operations forces, who had kept Mr. Nabhan under lengthy surveillance waiting for the right moment to strike, acted quickly after tracking Mr. Nabhan to a location away from civilians on Monday. ?We have been watching him for a long, long time,? said the military official.

Despite the danger of conducting the mission during the day, the strategy ensured that the troops could more accurately identify their target, attack it and confirm the deaths afterward. ?This approach was, ?Let?s do it very quickly, very swiftly and confirm he?s gone,? ? the adviser said.

Mr. Nabhan played an increasingly important role as a senior instructor for new militant recruits, including some Americans, as well as a liaison to senior Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, the senior American adviser said.

?This is very significant because it takes away a person who?s been a main conduit between the East Africa extremists and big Al Qaeda,? said the adviser, who like several United States officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the mission.

The helicopters, with commandos firing .50-caliber machine guns and other automatic weapons, quickly disabled the trucks, according to villagers in the area, and several of the Shabab fighters tried to fire back. Shabab leaders said that six foreign fighters, including Mr. Nabhan, were quickly killed, along with three Somali Shabab. The helicopters landed, and the commandos inspected the wreckage and carried away the bodies of Mr. Nabhan and the other fighters for identification, a senior American military official said.

?We are very upset, very upset,? said a Shabab official from the town of Merka, near where the raid happened. ?This is a big loss for us.?

Mr. Nabhan, who was thought to be around 30 years old and of Yemeni descent, was born in Mombasa, on Kenya?s coast. American intelligence sources have said that he masterminded the suicide bombing of the Paradise hotel in Mombasa, which killed 11 Kenyans and 3 Israelis and wounded dozens of others.

The Paradise was a popular Israeli hangout, complete with a kosher restaurant and synagogue. That same day, Nov. 28, 2002, a group of assailants fired several missiles at an Israeli passenger jet at the Mombasa airport, narrowly missing it. Intelligence agents said Mr. Nabhan helped fire the missiles.

Mr. Nabhan was one of the handful of Qaeda terrorists hiding out in Somalia for years, taking advantage of the country?s chaos to elude agents pursuing them.

Mr. Nabhan was believed to be a close associate of Fazul Abdullah Mohamed, Al Qaeda?s East Africa operations chief, who helped organize the bombings of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, which killed more than 200 people. American military forces have tried to kill Mr. Nabhan and Mr. Mohamed with airstrikes several times in recent years.

The Baraawe area, like much of southern Somalia, is controlled by the Shabab. There is increasing evidence that foreign jihadists, like Mr. Nabhan, are leading Somali Shabab and training them in suicide bombs.

American officials said Mr. Nabhan?s death is likely to send other suspects scurrying for cover. When they resurface, there may be killings of those suspected of being informants, sowing further turmoil in their ranks, American officials said.

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Great. Real life Michael Meyers is on the loose.....


Escaped killer still at large in Washington state

(CNN) -- A legally insane killer was on the loose in the state of Washington on Saturday, two days after he escaped during a field trip to a county fair, authorities said.
Phillip Paul was able to elude a massive manhunt in Spokane County, Washington, after escaping on Thursday, a spokesman for the sheriff's department said.

Though Paul had been confined in a mental institution because of a murder confession, he was allowed to be part of a trip to a county fair Thursday.

Paul, 47, escaped from the fair around noon, which launched the massive manhunt and brought criticism from many, including state government officials. Sheriff's officials told CNN affiliate KREM-TV that Paul also escaped briefly in 1991 and assaulted a law enforcement officer.

A review has been launched on the incident along with the policy that allows patients to take trips, said Susan Dreyfus, secretary of the state's Department of Social and Health Services.

Dreyfus said she was concerned about Paul's escape and another recent brief escape by a patient at a different local mental facility.

"These incidents, separate and coincidental, have raised serious questions about the security readiness of our two state psychiatric hospitals," Dreyfus said.

Paul was committed to Eastern State Hospital after admitting he strangled and slit the throat of community activist Ruth Motley in 1987, KREM-TV reported. According to court documents obtained by KREM, Paul believed Motley was a witch and killed her in response to voices in his head.

He subsequently burned a deer carcass as a sacrifice, according the documents.

The extent of Paul's illness was disturbing even to mental health professionals, KREM reported.

"He's the only paranoid schizophrenic -- I've seen hundreds, maybe thousands of them -- that frightened me," Dr. Frank Hardy, a licensed psychiatrist, says in one of the documents, according to KREM. "The first time I took one look at him -- and I've never done this before or since -- I asked the jailer to remain in the room while I examined him.

"I believe he would respond to his delusions and his voices again" if released, Hardy wrote.

But Paul "Coyote" Neumann, a disc jockey at Spokane radio station Kix 96-FM, has an entirely different view of the escapee. Neumann has known Paul for 12 years through volunteering at the hospital and correspondence by mail.

Paul is a talented artist, Neumann told KREM-TV.

"I was just amazed by his ability. I always took him as a savant," Neumann said. "I never knew that he had murdered somebody until three or four or five years later."

Neumann described Paul as a "gentle soul."

"I've never seen him raise his voice; I've never seen him get frustrated; I've never seen nothing but kindness from him," he told KREM.

"I get mixed emotions because I do see the sweet, softer side of this individual, but I've never seen him unsupervised, I've never seen him not medicated," Neumann said. "But that's not to say in another 12, 15, 20 hours without those medications that he doesn't revert to those demons."

Dr. Sam Loomis: I met him, fifteen years ago. I was told there was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face and, the blackest eyes... the *devil's* eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... *evil*.

[Trips]

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I don't know what any of that means. But I read cheese, scallops and filet mignon. Delicious!

[maxbailey]

Duo admit 70-mile golf buggy bid


Two men have been fined for taking a golf buggy onto the A75 road in a bid to make the 70-mile journey home from Portpatrick to Dumfries.

They travelled on the road for about an hour at a top speed of 15mph before being stopped by police.

Stranraer Sheriff Court was told the two men from Dumfries had committed an "extremely foolish offence".

A police spokesman said the possibility of a crash between the buggy and a lorry did "not bear thinking about".

Robert Watt, 21, and Mark Gillespie, 25, both from Dumfries, were spotted at about 2335 BST on 10 June in the buggy on the A77 near Portpatrick, in south west Scotland.


Police were contacted and the pair were eventually stopped about an hour later on the A75, having travelled about 15 miles to Dervaird near Glenluce.

Gillespie was driving the buggy and was almost three times over the drink limit.

The vehicle had also been travelling without using lights.

Watt admitted stealing the buggy from Lagganmore Golf Club while Gillespie pled guilty to dangerous driving, drink driving and driving without a licence and insurance.

Defending Gillespie, lawyer Arnold Brazenall said that although it was an "amusing episode" his client now accepted that the consequences could have been very serious.

Paul Feeney, representing Watt, said the pair had been working in the Portpatrick area and needed to get back to Dumfries.

Watt had devised the scheme to get home but in the cold light of day it was "beyond them" how they had expected it to succeed.

Sheriff David Hall said that it was an extremely foolish offence where drink had clearly played a part.

Gillespie was fined a total of ?525, banned from driving for three years and ordered to sit an extended re-test.

Watt was fined ?150 for the theft of the buggy.

Commenting on the case, a spokesman for Lagganmore Golf Club said: "The maximum speed of the golf buggy would have been about 15mph.

"What they did was absolute lunacy and they are lucky that they were not killed.

"I think they were like ET, just trying to get home."

Sgt Paul Dodds, of the Galloway Roads Policing Unit, said it was "one of the most unusual incidents" he had ever dealt with.

"I am sure everyone who saw it struggled to believe their eyes when they saw a golf buggy being driven on the main A75 roadway," he said.

He said their incredulity must have been increased "as it was being driven at night with no lights on and being passed by large goods vehicles".

He added: "What is more concerning is the fact that those involved were drunk and it is clear that they showed no consideration for the safety of others or themselves.

"An accident between a golf buggy and an articulated lorry does not bear thinking about."

[MrGoutHimself]

Watch this video that was recorded at a school in New Jersey and tell me it doesn't frighten you. The Hip Hip Hooray at the end looks an awful lot like the sig heil move even... frightening...

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-SRD

Randy Quaid & wife arrested.....

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[Its Just Ol' Red]

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ummmmm..... wtf?!? are we kidding here?

"we honor you today, for all your great accomplishments we all say hooray"

this country is fucked severely...

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whats worse, is that song they are "singing" is actually a childrens christian song. theyve changed some of the words, and are using obamas name instead of jesus'

"“Red and yellow, black and white/They are precious in His sight/Jesus Loves the little children of the World”