Freedom Friday: Through The Eyes Of A Paratrooper

Rapid Trident 20111 involved approximately 1,600 personnel and consisted of multi-national airborne operations, situational training exercise lanes and a field training exercise. In addition to U.S. Army Europe, the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team and Ukraine, participants included: Latvia, Belarus, Moldova, Slovenia, Canada, Poland, Serbia, the UK, Lithuania, Estonia, California and Utah National Guard and U.S. Air Force Europe.


Below is a video of what a paratrooper sees during a parachute jump:





Courtesy: U.S. Army Europe Public Affairs Video: Staff Sgt. Travis Surber


Staff Sgt. Travis Surber, a native of Franklin County, VA and a paratrooper with the 173rd Brigade Combat Team's Battle Company of the 2nd Battalion 503rd Infantry Regiment parachutes out of a C-130 Hercules Transport Aircraft and into the Ukraine sky. This marks the first time the "Sky Soldiers" of the 173rd have jumped in Ukraine and they'll be training and conducting multinational airborne operations, a situational training exercise and a field training exercise here from through 5 Aug. as part of Rapid Trident 2011.


Rapid Trident 2011 is a U.S. Army Europe led, multi-national exercise taking place at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center in Yavoriv, Ukraine. It is designed to promote regional stability and security, strengthen international military partnering and foster trust while improving interoperability between participating nations. Rapid Trident 2011 involves approximately 1,600 personnel. In addition to the U.S. Army Europe and Ukraine, participants include: Latvia, Belarus, Moldova, Slovenia, Canada, Poland, Serbia, the UK, Lithuania, Estonia, California and Utah National Guard and U.S. Air Force Europe. Rapid Trident supports interoperability among Ukraine, the United States, NATO and Partnership for Peace member nations. This exercise will help prepare participants to operate successfully in a joint, multinational, integrated environment with host- nation support from civil and governmental agencies. Rapid Trident is a part of U.S. European Command's Joint Training and Exercise Program, designed to enhance joint combined interoperability with allied and partner nations. The exercise also supports Ukraine's Annual National Program to achieve interoperability with NATO and commitments made in the annual NATO-Ukraine work plan. The 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team is one of the U.S. Army's most highly decorated units having particularly distinguished itself during the Vietnam War and having produced fifteen Congressional Medal of Honor recipients including Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.



See more online regarding Rapid Trident 2011:


See video from the opening ceremonies. Article on the end of the exercise.
Flickr photoset
US Army Online article
Rapid Trident Homepage


US Army Europe Social Media pages:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Flickr

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ESA 2011 Preview Shows Planned European Advancements in Space

It looks to be a big year for the European Space Agency while NASA continues to spin its wheels as each new Presidential Administration plays spin the bottle with America's future in space. The details:



After a busy 2010, the upcoming year will also be interesting for space activities. Indeed 2011 will mark the anniversary of the first human spaceflight: it will be 50 years since Yuri Gagarin made his historic flight around our planet. Now cosmonauts and astronauts are living together on the International Space Station. Among them is Paolo Nespoli from ESA, due to return in May from the third European long-duration stay. He will be joined by Roberto Vittori, who will visit the ISS on one of the last Shuttle missions. Another important ESA mission in 2011 is the second ATV cargo ferry, planned for launch by Ariane 5 in February. Later, Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana will see the inaugural launches of both Soyuz and Vega, complementing the performance of Ariane and reinforcing Europe's independent access to space. ESA is also expecting interesting results from its Earth Explorer satellites.


Links to more information on the programs detailed in the video:


Mars 500


ATV Kepler Automated Transfer Vehicle 


STS-134 Space Shuttle Mission


Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle physics experiment


Ariane 5 Heavy Lift Vehicle

Soyuz Medium Launch Vehicle

Vega Light Duty Launch Vehicle

Galileo Satellite Navigation System


Planck Astronomy Mission


Earth Explorer Missions

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70 Years Ago Today: Hitler Invades France

"A Frenchman weeps as German soldiers march into the French capital, Paris, on June 14, 1940, after the Allied armies had been driven back across France."


Seventy years ago today, Hitler's armies began the invasion of France and the Low Countries.







It seems to me that people never learn from history. When are people going to learn that an isolationist foreign policy can do nothing but breed murder of civilians on an industrial scale? I see parallels today in the demographic invasion of Europe by Muslims that can only lead to the deaths of millions when the decision is made to fight back.

In World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and many French soldiers were evacuated from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo. In the second operation, Fall Rot(Case Red), executed from 5 June, German forces outflanked the Maginot Line to attack the greater French territory. Italy declared war on France on 10 June. The French government fled to the city of Bordeaux, and France's main city of Paris was occupied by the GermanWehrmacht on 14 June. On the 17 June, Pétain publicly announced France would ask for an armistice. On 22 June, an armistice was signed between France and Germany, going into effect on 25 June. For the Axis Powers, the campaign was a spectacular victory.^[9]

France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north and west, a small Italian occupation zone in the southeast, and an unoccupied zone, the zone libre, in the south. A rump state, Vichy France, administered all three zones according to the terms laid out in the armistice. In November 1942, the Axis forces also occupied the zone libre, and metropolitan France remained under Axis occupation until after the Allied landings in 1944; while the Low Countries remained under German occupation until 1944 and 1945.

Source: Wikipedia 


If I find my World War II audio files from the invasion of France, I'll embed those later. 


**8.26am** I found some of them! Here is part of Prime Minister Neville "Peace in our time" Chamberlain speech announcing his resignation and the selection of Winston Churchill as his successor.

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Walking in Gijón

View on ExposureRoom

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Danish Police Shoot Ax Wielding Somali Muslim on Cartoon Jihad

COPENHAGEN — Police shot a Somali man wielding an ax and a knife as he tried to break into the home of an artist whose cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban outraged the Muslim world, the head of Denmark's intelligence agency said Saturday.

Scharf said without elaborating that the man is suspected of having been involved in terror-related activities in east Africa. He had been under PET's surveillance but not in connection with Westergaard, he said
The man, who had a permit to stay in Denmark, was to be charged Saturday with attempted murder for trying to kill Westergaard and the police officer, Scharf said.
It was unclear whether the suspect actually managed to get inside the home of the 75-year-old cartoonist in Denmark's second largest city, 125 miles (200 kilometers) northwest of Copenhagen.
Westergaard could not be reached for comment. However, he told his employer, the Jyllands-Posten daily, that the assailant shouted "revenge" and "blood" as he tried to enter the bathroom where Westergaard and the child had sought shelter.

Source: Center Daily News

Yet another example of "The Religion of Peace" in action. Happy New Year.

Reminds me of the old stereotype (now out of bounds because of PC censorship) of the sword or ax-wielding Muslim of the Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Seems that the old stereotype wasn't that far off the mark...

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Earthquake Strikes Central Italy

At least 27 people have been killed in a powerful earthquake that struck central Italy, Italian officials say.
Five children are said to be among the dead and at least 30 people remain unaccounted for as a massive search for the trapped is under way.
The 6.3-magnitude quake struck at 0330 (0130 GMT) close to L'Aquila city, 95km (60 miles) north-east of Rome.
A civil protection official said 3,000 to 10,000 buildings in the medieval city may have been damaged.                                                                            

"This means that the we'll have several thousand people to assist over the next few weeks and months," Agostino Miozzo told Sky Italia.
"Our goal is to give shelter to all by tonight."
Source: BBC News

Here is a record of the recent shakes in Italy:

05:15:28.0 42.48 N 13.36 E 3.1 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 04:47:54.9 42.33 N 13.29 E 3.9 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 04:16:40.0 42.39 N 13.32 E 3.2 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 04:08:45.0 42.38 N 13.36 E 3.0 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 03:56:48.1 42.38 N 13.34 E 4.5 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 03:43:16.0 42.33 N 13.37 E 3.1 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 03:33:40.5 44.28 N 11.97 E 3.4 NORTHERN ITALY 2009-04-06 03:30:59.0 42.34 N 13.39 E 2.8 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 03:23:10.0 42.33 N 13.33 E 2.8 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 03:16:04.0 42.31 N 13.38 E 2.8 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 02:55:38.9 42.58 N 13.61 E 3.3 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 02:44:32.0 42.30 N 13.35 E 3.2 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 02:37:05.2 42.40 N 13.31 E 5.1 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 02:31:33.0 42.41 N 13.39 E 3.4 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 02:27:48.2 42.37 N 13.23 E 4.3 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 02:25:45.0 42.43 N 13.36 E 3.3 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-06 01:32:41.4 42.38 N 13.32 E 6.3 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-05 22:39:42.8 42.33 N 13.34 E 3.5 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-05 21:31:22.9 44.30 N 12.01 E 2.5 NORTHERN ITALY 2009-04-05 20:48:56.4 42.36 N 13.37 E 4.0 CENTRAL ITALY 2009-04-05 20:20:52.4 44.33 N 11.98 E 4.8 NORTHERN ITALY
Source: European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre

There is a place on the website for witness reports, and here are a couple:

Witness location : Chieti (69 km from epicenter)
"My family was allerted and in a few seconds we mouved in a safe place of the house. I aspected it and commented with people in the previous days as there were several foreshocks."

Witness location : 116km NE Acquaviva Picena (187 km from epicenter)
"the apartment shook for about 40 seconds and gradually got stronger and stronger, outside I could hear things crackling and falling from the nearby buildings. I expected aftershocks and they sure enough they came about 40 minutes later. "

And here is a brief report from Europe:

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Hugo Chavez: "Capitalism Needs to go Down"

TEHRAN, Iran – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ridiculed the G-20 summit's attempts to deal with the global financial meltdown, saying that the "values of capitalism are in crisis" and capitalism "has to end."

Speaking to Venezuelan state television late Thursday, Chavez said the United States and Britain are "the most guilty" for the financial crisis sweeping the globe because of the financial model "they've been imposing for years."

"It's impossible that capitalism can regulate the monster that is the world financial system, it's impossible," Chavez said. "Capitalism needs to go down. It has to end. And we must take a transitional road to a new model that we call socialism."

The Venezuelan leader's comments came during a trip to Iran. In recent years, Chavez and Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — both well-known for their anti-U.S. rhetoric — have boosted economic and political ties.

Source: Yahoo! News

Hat Tip: Drudge Report

Sounds like the leaders of Venezuela and Iran are are lockstep with the lefties in Europe who are protesting the G20 Summit, as demonstrated in this video:



And we need to consider that even if the progressives in America bristle at being called socialist...they have certainly allied themselves with the socialists in Europe:

The Global Progressive Forum (GPF) is a common initiative of the Party of European Socialists along with its political group in the European Parliament, and the Socialists International. The GPF sprang up from the success of the first World Social Forum held in January 2001 in Porto Alegre, in Brazil. The Global Progressive Forum aims to bring together a diversity of peoples from Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, India, and Latin America to discuss and propose alternatives to the negative aspects of the current globalization process which specifically affects the developing world.
As the G-20 wraps up in London, another global forum is about to get underway in Brussels. The Global Progressive Forum (GPF) will bring together progressive politicians, trade unionists, NGOs, academics and figures from major international institutions from five continents to develop a new vision of a globalized world which benefits all of humanity not just a select few. The GPF will take place in the European Parliament and will be opened by former US President Bill Clinton.

The Global Progressive Forum will feature debates and discussions on the issues of global governance, trade, financial markets, fair labour markets, migration and climate change, all aimed at coordinating global answers to the multitude of global crises that we face.

Source: MyDD

Related: The Global Progressive Forum

We should be cognizant of who the real enemies of freedom and capitalism are, and it is sad that many of them have been operating within our system for decades with the express goal of bringing it down. Now, many of them have the reigns of power and the damage they will do will make FDR look like a piker...

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G20: Out of Gas

The Baron at Gates of Vienna has an excellent analysis of the actions of the G20 and IMF to temporarily stave off an economic collapse and rise in inflation. I particularly like his analogy to the Firefly episode, "Out of Gas."

I wonder when, if ever, that these "leaders" will realize that they cannot help the economies of the world by standing on it's fuel line by their socialist policies that discourage economic activity in the first place.

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Idiot Protestors Attack Police Trying To Save Dying Protestor

Police were braced for another day of violence in London today after officers were pelted with bottles as they tried to save a protester dying on the street.

The man, believed to be in his 30s, had collapsed at a makeshift camp set up near the Bank of England. He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at hospital.

Protesters are already on the march in the capital again today as the G20 summit started in earnest to agree a rescue deal for the global economy.

Police have already made their first arrests this morning after demonstrators gathered outside the Stock Exchange, threatening to disrupt the financial markets.

One man was taken away by police after a brief chase and a scuffle and a second was detained for arguing with officers.

Source: Daily Mail

Commentary

This sounds about par for the course for the mindless retards protesting the G20 Summit.  I have less than zero respect for the European anarchists and lefties who are in the street in the UK.

Here is a video made by the type of people who are protesting at the G20 Summit.



Be very glad our lefties are tame, and know better than to try anything like this in our streets.

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The Worst Airline Company in the World

Michael Totten has a story about his horrible experience with the Italian Airline Alitalia, a portion of which is below:

After spending several weeks each in Iraq and Lebanon at the end of 2008, I bought a plane ticket to the U.S.from Beirut on December 22 and figured I had plenty of time to get home for Christmas. I had no idea, though, that I had purchased my ticket from the worst airline company in the world – Italy’s national carrier Alitalia – and that a two-hour layover in Rome would turn into an ordeal that lasted longer than a week.

I placed my most critical and expensive items in my carry-on bag so they wouldn’t get damaged or lost. Yet the woman at the Alitalia check-in counter in Beirut’s international airport said my bag was too large and would have to be checked. I wasn’t happy about that, but I did as I was told and surrendered my luggage. She neglected to tell me that Alitalia’s baggage handlers were on strike and that it would be a very long time before I would see my property again – if I ever would see it again.

My flight left Beirut on time, and I had no idea what I was in for in Italy.

After I landed in Rome, the Departures board said my flight to Chicago was delayed two hours. I didn’t mind. I had a 24-hour layover there, so I could wait patiently. But an angry stirring of passengers at the flight counter caught my attention.

“What’s going on?” I asked an American woman who looked concerned yet approachable.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “But somebody told me the baggage handlers on are strike and that we might not be going anywhere.”

A few moments passed before I absorbed what that meant. My laptop was in my carry-on bag that Alitalia had forced me to check. My work from Iraq and Lebanon was on that machine. My Nikon camera was in that bag. I didn’t want to hand it over, but the airline forced me to hand it over and didn’t tell me what was happening in the bowels of the company.

At least I had the presence of mind to make backup copies of my recorded interviews and place them on a flash memory stick that I carried around in my pocket. My hand-written notes and my photographs, though, were not in my pocket. Alitalia’s baggage handler’s union was holding much of my Middle East work hostage.

The man and woman working at our Alitalia flight counter wouldn’t tell us what was going on, and I assumed it was because they didn’t know. They looked slightly stressed, and I felt bad for them. They weren’t on strike, but they had to deal with the fallout. And that fallout was about to get nasty...

Source: Michael Totten (it got very nasty, indeed...sounds likea story out of Africa or Latin America instead of Europe)

Commentary

Socialism at its very best. Unions as they were designed to function.

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The Hidden Army of Islam in Bosnia

Thanks for nothing, President Bill Clinton! 

I hope President Barack Hussein Obama doesn't make a worse mistake...

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The Battisti asylum in Brazil: 15 Minutes on Latin America

Italy recalled its Ambassador to Brazil yesterday after Brazil granted political asylum to Cesare Battisti, a terrorist who was convicted in absentia by Italy for murders committed in the 1970s. The Lula government refused to extradite Battisti to Italy, and a Brazilian court has revised its prior decision. What does this mean for the Hemisphere? Read More>>

Show begins at 11am and will be archived for replay shortly afterward.

Listen in the chatroom.

Fausta's blog

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Operation Cast Lead Update for January 6, 2009

The sentiment of anti-Semitism in the wake of Operation Cast Lead has led to a terrorist attack in France, as a burning car was rammed into a Toulouse synagogue:

A burning car was rammed into a synagogue door in southwest France as the interior minister convened Muslims, Jews and police in Paris to warn against contagion from the Gaza conflict.

Damage to the synagogue in a Toulouse neighborhood was limited to a blackened door, and there were no injuries even though a rabbi was giving a course to adults inside, said an official of the regional prefecture, Anne-Gaelle Baudouin.

Police called to the scene found remnants of a Molotov cocktail in the car and a car nearby with three unlighted Molotov cocktails, Baudouin said.

Source: |Ynet News|, in Burning car rams synagogue door in France


Here are the two bloggers who have been live-blogging Operation Cast Lead:

The Muqata, with Day 11 of the War, Tuesday January 6, 2009


Israelly Cool, with Operation Cast Lead Tues Jan 6th, 2009


And here are others who have been covering it with numerous posts full of information and rich with links to other sources of information:

Mere Rhetoric (a new discovery!)
Israel Matzav
IsraPundit
YID With LID
Elder of Ziyon


And here are some more traditional news outlets:


Al Jazeera
Arutz Sheva
BBC Middle East
DEBKAfile
Ha'aretz
IDF Spokesperson
Internet Haganah
One Jerusalem
Israel Politik
Jerusalem Post
UK Telegraph Israel
Yahoo! News: Middle East Conflict
YNET NEWS



Here is my roundup of events relating to Operation Cast Lead on January 6, 2009...


Michael Bloomberg to CNN: Check your Facts:





Does Hamas have a surprise?

Dozens of missiles - some scoring direct hits - have been indiscriminately launched at Israeli civilians in the last 24 hours. Hamas's mid level soldiers are bragging about how they have even bigger rockets and other "tools" that they haven't used yet. The good news: given that the IDF's Gaza intel was top-notch and that they've already captured some Hamas operatives, Israel might well know what's coming. The bad news: Israel might well know what's coming

Source: |Mere Rhetoric|, in HAMAS BOMBS ANOTHER ISRAELI SCHOOL (PLUS: WHAT'S THEIR NEXT "SURPRISE"?)



Here we have a reminder that Israel is fighting a war against terrorists; A Hamas leader has threatened the lives of Jewish children around the world...just classy enough to earn the love of lefties everywhere!

"They have legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine," said Mahmoud Zahar, in a televised broadcast recorded at a secret location. "They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people." Mr Zahar, a hard-line political leader, made his first appearance since Israeli launched its offensive against his organisation.

Source: ||, in Hamas leader: Revenge for Israel's Gaza assault will be murder of Jewish children across the world




Here is speculation about Israel possibly re-occupying the Gaza strip:

The way events played out yesterday did not stir the political leadership into thinking of stopping the ground offensive and moving toward a cease-fire. On the contrary, Israel is moving toward a decision to occupy the whole Gaza Strip.

The message yesterday from Jerusalem was that it is impossible to end Operation Cast Lead without an achievement, and if in the next two days there is no satisfactory diplomatic solution, Israel will have to broaden the operation.

“Broadening the operation” could mean moving from house to house as in Operating Defensive Shield in 2002 in the West Bank, aiming to kill or capture as many Hamas fighters as possible. Or it could mean surrounding Gaza City, similar to the way the Egyptian Third Army was cut off in 1973, or like the siege of Beirut in 1982, until Hamas’ leaders emerge from their hideouts with their hands up. This could take several weeks.

Source: |IsraPundit|, in ANALYSIS / Israel is on its way to reoccupying all of the Gaza Strip
...which leads me to ask, "If Israel occupies Gaza as part of a war, doesn't that mean Israel can officially annex the Gaza Strip into Israel?" The only problem I see with that is that Israel would give these idiots the right to vote in Israeli elections, where they could do more harm than any number of terror attacks.


This from Al Jazeera:

The Israeli military appears to be broadening its assault on the Gaza Strip as heavy artillery fire is reported from the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli tanks have moved into Khan Younis, the second biggest urban area in the Strip after Gaza City, in what seems to be an attempt to isolate it from Rafah.

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza, said Khan Younis is strategically significant on several levels - including that Palestinian fighters can fire missiles into Israeli territory from there.

He stressed reporting teams cannot confirm the reports as they are unable to reach the south from Gaza City in the north because the Strip has been effectively dissected by a column of Israel troops.

Source: |Al Jazeera|, in



Jewish homes attacked, firebombed in Europe:

In the course of the day [Sunday January 4] it became known that in the night from Saturday to Sunday a fire bomb was thrown at a house in Antwerp. The house belongs to a Jewish family. As if by a miracle the fire extinguished itself. The consequences could otherwise have been disastrous because at the time of the attack 12 children were sleeping in the house.

The targeted house is located in the Oedenkovenstraat in Borgerhout, within walking distance of the Turnhoutsebaan. The Turnhoutsebaan was in 2002 the location of serious riots after an AEL [Arabisch Europese Liga, “Arabic European Legue”] demonstration went out of control.

UPDATE: There were rags with fire accelerators stuffed in the letter box and then set on fire. The public prosecutor takes the matter very seriously. Mayor Janssens [SP.A, Socialist Party] said that the Police continue to conduct surveillance to protect the Jewish community.

More details about the attempted arson are not known and/or not yet released. However, it is known that several people from the Jewish community have received serious death threats.

Source: |Atlas Shrugs|, in JEWISH HOME FIREBOMBED IN BELGIUM



This note from Hamas:

Gaza, 5 Jan. (AKI) - Despite Israel's continuing military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the ruling Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned on Monday it had "thousands of fighters" ready to fight and would finally be victorious in the conflict.

"We are sure of victory and we have bombed Israeli cities with hundreds of missiles," brigades spokesman, Abu Obeida, told the Arab network, al-Aqsa.

"We have prepared thousands of brave fighters who are waiting for you in each corner of the street and will welcome you with fire," he said.

"As long as the aggression intensifies, your losses will increase."

Israeli troops, backed by aerial and naval firepower, were reported to have surrounded Gaza City on Monday after 10 days of aerial bombardment.

Soldiers were also reported to be positioned on the north-south road at Netzarim, effectively splitting the besieged territory in two and blocking Palestinian supply lines.

"Israel has only killed innocent civilians and this proves the failure of its military action," he said.

He claimed that that his group was about to launch Qassam rockets and for the first time a new type of missile that was only the beginning.

"We want to experiment with other arms and bombs against you," he warned Israel.

Source: |ADN Kronos|, in Middle East: Hamas fighters 'waiting' to strike Israel



And this shocker of a story that Mubarak (Egyptian President) wants Israel to win against Hamas:

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stunned visiting foreign ministers Monday when he said he wanted Israel to emerge as the winner in the current conflict in Gaza.

The European foreign ministers, headed by Karel Schwarzenberg of the Czech Republic, whose country currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency, met with Mubarak in Cairo before travelling on to Jerusalem.

The ministers met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni after arriving in Jerusalem and briefed her on their discussions with the Egyptian president.

It was at that meeting that ministers confided that Mubarak had told them 'Hamas must not be allowed to emerge from the fighting with the upper hand.'

Source: |The Irish Sun|, in Egyptian President Mubarak says he wants an Israeli victory in Gaza

That is all I have time for right now. Maybe I will put up more later.

My prayers are with the brave soldiers of Israel and the people of Israel.

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A Chistmas Eve Blogburst

I enjoy putting together blogbursts, it's a shame I don't do it more often.

This time around, I'll divide things by geographic region...

EUROPE

From The Gates of Vienna comes an excellent article on The Islamization of the Netherlands.

In Sweden, violent Muslim riots have spread to Stockholm as that nation continues to be under seige from gangs of marauding Muslimgangs,

At the EU Referendum, Richard bemoans the sad state of what passes for journalism. Richard, we have the same problem over here.

Christofer Booker reports on the appeasement of Iran by the naming of an Iranian opposition group a terrorist entity by the cowards in Brussels.

France is looking at becoming Sharia-compliant in it's financial affairs to ease the way for their newest overlords.

In EuropeNews comes the report of two Somali Muslims beating another Somali Muslim to death with baseball bats in a Liverpool park over a disagreement concerning whether Muslims can drink alcohol. Apparrently their religious ferfor allows them to beat to death someone who disagrees with them. It is a good thing that Islam has been hailed by all the Politically correct as "The religion of Peace" or we might think this sort of thing was common.

The Russian Foreign Ministry is urging the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) to accept the "New Reality" in Russian-occupied Georgia and the Russian energy giant Gazprom tightens it's screws on the Ukraine. Meet the New Russia, like the Old Soviet Union, only without the Communism...and with even more nuclear missiles.



LATIN AMERICA

One of the writers at Babalu Blog spends Christmas with Che.

Venezeula News & Views notes that a lot of support for the Chavez government comes from those who do not even live in Venezuela, and further notes that a majority of Voters have expressed their desire to see him gone from power.

ASIA

In Indonesia, the central bank will continue to promote a Sharia-based economic system, and farmers are protesting the scarcity of fertilizer.

The NWFP PA Assembly is suing for peace with the Taliban, and has asked the national Pakistani government to negotiate with the Taliban and demand Sharia Enforcement. In other parts of Pakistan, the Taliban are enforcing Sharia Law.

China is cracking down on low-brow Jerry Springer type of entertainment shows and in Harbin, a 525 foot-long Santa has been built out of ice.

And, in Australia, an emu has been stabbed to death in a zoo by overnight intruders. No motive is known.

MIDDLE EAST

The Gulf Daily News is reporting that a former US Marine is suing the US government for its involvement in a Sharia-compliant subsidiary in Bahrain, which he claims is an "unconstitutional government infringement on religion".

An eight year-old girl must wait until puberty to get divorced from her 50 year-old husband according to a Saudi Judge. Why are we friends with this nation of pedophiles? Oh yes, it is because we have been held hostage to them by lefty environuts who refuse to let us develop our own fuel resources.

AFRICA

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is upset with South Africa because it has failed to stand up to the darling of the Left, Robert Mugabe. Oh Tutu, where were you a decade ago as Mugabe began his murderous rampage? You were telling people to leave him alone.

And AfriGadget celebrates an enterpreneur of dumpster-diving in Cape Town.

In an African cliche, the military has taken over the government of Guinea after the death of President Conte. They have dissolved the government and suspended the constitution, just like unhinged lefties and Ron Paul Supporters claim President Bush wants to do.

That is all I have time for right now. I think that in the new year, I should do this more often.

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