North Korea puts rockets on standby for US strike

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered preparations Friday for strategic rocket strikes on the US mainland and military bases after US stealth bombers flew training runs over South Korea.

The order came as US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, with tensions soaring on the Korean peninsula, said Washington would not be cowed by Pyongyang's bellicose threats and stood ready to respond to "any eventuality".

Kim directed his rocket units on standby at an overnight emergency meeting with top army commanders, hours after nuclear-capable US B-2 stealth bombers were deployed in ongoing US joint military drills with South Korea.

In the event of any "reckless" US provocation, North Korean forces should "mercilessly strike the US mainland... military bases in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea", he was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

While North Korea has no proven ability to conduct such strikes, Kim argued that the stealth bomber flights went beyond a simple demonstration of force and amounted to a US "ultimatum that they will ignite a nuclear war at any cost".

The United States rarely acknowledges B-2 flights to the Korean peninsula, which remains technically at war. The aircraft, which dodge anti-aircraft defences, bombed targets in conflicts in Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

N. Korea sharply increases flights of fighter jets

China using North Korea as a decoy for personal gains for fixing its neighbors

SEOUL,-- North Korea's air force has sharply increased jet fighter training flights in the past few days, with the number of sorties reaching as many as 700 on the day South Korea and the United States launched a joint war game earlier this week, a military source in Seoul said Wednesday.

   The North's move is seen as part of efforts to beef up combat readiness and to closely monitor joint drills in the South that began on Monday. The drill, called Key Resolve, involves about 10,000 Korean troops and 3,000 American personnel as well as military weapons and equipment, including F-22 stealth jets and B-52 bombers deployed from overseas U.S. bases.

   "Flights of North Korean air force's fighter jets and helicopters reached about 700 sorties on March 11," the source said on the condition of anonymity. "It is seen as unprecedented in scale."

   The recent sortie is nearly six times more than the maximum number of flights in a day during last year's summer training, the source said.

   The impoverished nation is known to have restricted flying time to save hard currency as its fighter jets depend on imported fuel. North Korea is believed to have accumulated about 1.5 tons of fuel for wartime use, according to military officials.

   The latest move comes as the communist nation is preparing a mass military drill along its eastern coast, and activities of submarines and warships have also increased along its east and west coasts.

   After the U.N. Security Council slapped a new round of sanctions on Pyongyang over its third nuclear test last month, the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made a series of visits to artillery troops near the western sea border urging his soldiers to be on high alert and ready for war.

   While tensions over a military conflict are rising on the Korean Peninsula, Seoul's defense ministry said on Tuesday there were no signs of an imminent attack or additional nuclear tests for the time being, but he stressed it would strike back if the North launches any provocation on the South.

North Korean Nuclear Test Imminent?

Weapons proliferated by Rogue Pakistani Nuclear Xerox Copier Scientist - Abdul Qadeer Khan will detonated to bring security(not food) to North Korea

North Korea has pulled manpower and equipment out of its nuclear test site, says a report, which cites the move as a possible sign of an imminent blast.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency says Seoul has been keeping close watch on the underground Punggye-ri nuclear test site, as no movement of manpower and equipment has been observed there since Friday.
The agency quoted an unnamed source as saying the apparent withdrawal could point to a nuclear test being carried out soon.
North Korea has warned of a third atomic test since last month, but has not specified a date.

"When manpower and equipment are withdrawn, it can be an indication that a nuclear test is imminent," the source told Yonhap, requesting anonymity.
"We're watching the developments closely to know whether a nuclear test is imminent or it's another deceptive tactic," the source added.

Another Seoul government source told Yonhap the withdrawal of manpower and equipment could be linked to the Lunar New Year holiday, which is celebrated for three days in North Korea, having started on Sunday.

Seoul has predicted Pyongyang may carry out its third nuclear test between the end of the holiday and the late leader Kim Jong-il's birthday on February 16, Yonhap said.
The withdrawal from the northeastern nuclear site comes after North Korea accused the United States and South Korea of "fussing over speculation" in Japan-based pro-North weekly magazine

Apparently ‘Pakistani’ in French means ‘terrorist’

Whatever you might call it : Failed state or failing state....rogue state or rogue army....it is a headache for the entire world

Terror, war, military coups and persecution of  non-Muslims are build in the DNA of Pakistan

http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/15875/apparently-pakistani-in-french-means-terrorist/


I experienced it again yesterday; I re-lived what it feels like to be accused – accused when you don’t even know why you are being charged. Again, I lived through the humiliation of someone pointing his finger at me and saying,

    “Hey you… You look like a terrorist.”

The temperature in Lille was cold; six degrees below the freezing point, to be exact. The behaviour of the four men around me was colder.

I had noticed them the moment I had gotten off the train that had brought me back to Lille from Paris. I thought that I was being over imaginative when I saw the men following me. I entered the small souvenir shop on the platform to look for some fridge magnets. I did not find anything worth buying, so I turned back and came out of the shop and that was when I was stopped by four armed men in uniform who spoke to me in loud French.

I had no idea what they were saying.

    “I have no idea what you are saying,” I tried to cooperate. “I don’t understand French.”

And then I heard the dreaded words.

    “Pakistani?” said the short man, while the tall one standing next to me put his hand on my camera bag.

    “Yes,” I replied as calmly as I could. “I am from Pakistan.”

    “What are you doing here?”

    “Just visiting,” I said.

It was a dumb question.

    “What do you have in the bag?”

    “It’s a camera.”

Meanwhile, the tall man had already taken the camera off my back and was opening it. A crowd of more than a dozen people had gathered and was looking at the scene. Their English was limited. They were continuously asking me questions in French which I was unable to answer. I shrugged my shoulder in helplessness because that conversation was going nowhere.

At that very moment, a girl, probably in her mid-twenties, stepped towards us despite the risk that I could have blown up everyone with the ‘bomb’ attached to my body.

    “They are asking you to open your jacket,” she translated for me.

    “Oh, okay.”

I opened the zip. I was wearing a sweater underneath and a thermal shirt under the sweater. My fault, I feel cold at times.

The man said something again.

    “He is asking why you had closed the jacket from the front.” The girl translated, and for the remaining conversation she was my voice to them and their voice to me.

    “Because it’s cold,” I said.

That, too, was a dumb question.

    “Where did you get this camera?”

    “I got the camera from Pakistan and the lenses from Thailand and the UAE.”

    “When did you get it?”

    “I don’t know. Around three years ago, I guess.”

    “Cash or credit?”

    “I don’t know. I don’t recall. Credit card probably. How is that relevant?”

    “Do you have an ID?”

I opened my wallet and took out all the cards I had – My emirates ID, business card, National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) and health insurance.

The armed men said something to the girl and returned my camera bag to me. The girl said something to them in return. They walked away. The crowd started to disperse.

    “They were asking me if I was with you,” The girl told me. “I told them I was just helping; they told me to tell you to carry your passport in your pocket all the time.”

    “Thank you for your help,” I was genuinely thankful to her. “If you weren’t here, I would have had to spend the night in the lock-up, or probably worse. Merci (thank you).”

    “It’s okay,” She smiled. “I don’t like them.”

I put on my gloves, my cap, zipped my jacket again and started walking towards the exit.

It is partly my fault too. When I travel, I usually don’t shave and end up growing thick stubble, despite knowing how I was treated by the Greek embassy in 2010 for having a beard and ‘looking like a terrorist’. Partly that, and partly because when I am a Pakistani, I am answerable to any first world father of my leaders, even if they want to know whether I paid for my camera with a credit card or by cash.

But I am not exactly certain about what infuriated me.

Was I humiliated because I was ‘randomly’ chosen for that interrogation?

Or was it because it was embarrassing to face this on a crowded platform?

Was I hurt because they were rude?

No.

What stung the worst was that it all started with ‘Pakistani’?

Lille is a beautiful city, but sadly, I will always remember it with a bitter taste in my mouth.

Encouraged by China, North Korea vows to conduct nuclear test aimed at the U.S.

All the countries allying with China are becoming failed or failing state while only China prospers at their cost.

Chinese made missiles being paraded in Pyongyang

Read my earlier post

asian-defence-news.blogspot.com/2012/04/chinese-firm-hubei-sanjiang-accused-of.html

North Korea’s top governing body warned Thursday that the regime will conduct its third nuclear test in defiance of UN punishment, and made clear that its long-range rockets are designed to carry not only satellites but also warheads aimed at striking the United States.

The National Defence Commission, headed by the country’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, denounced Tuesday’s UN Security Council resolution condemning North Korea’s long-range rocket launch in December as a banned missile activity and expanding sanctions against the regime. The commission reaffirmed in its declaration that the launch was a peaceful bid to send a satellite into space, but also clearly indicated the country’s rocket launches have a military purpose: to strike and attack the United States.
While experts say North Korea doesn’t have the capability to hit the U.S. with its missiles, recent tests and rhetoric indicate the country is feverishly working toward that goal.

he commission pledged to keep launching satellites and rockets and to conduct a nuclear test as part of a “new phase” of combat with the United States, which it blames for leading the UN bid to punish Pyongyang. It said a nuclear test was part of “upcoming” action but did not say exactly when or where it would take place.

“We do not hide that a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the DPRK one after another and a nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out by it in the upcoming all-out action, a new phase of the anti-U.S. struggle that has lasted century after century, will target against the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people,” the commission said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“Settling accounts with the U.S. needs to be done with force, not with words, as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival,” the commission said.

It was a rare declaration by the powerful commission once led by late leader Kim Jong-il and now commanded by his son. The statement made clear Kim Jong-un’s commitment to continue developing the country’s nuclear and missile programs in defiance of the Security Council, even at risk of further international isolation.

 On another note...

The seemingly pregnant belly sported by the wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in mid-December appeared to be gone by New Year’s Day

That’s sent South Korean media into a frenzy of speculation that there’s a new baby in the ruling Kim dynasty. Video broadcast Dec. 17 showed Ri Sol Ju wearing a billowing black dress that covered what appeared to be a swollen belly.

Rumours swept Seoul and Pyongyang that she was pregnant, although it was difficult to tell for sure from the images. There has been no official word from Pyongyang.

But Ri was shown by state TV at a New Year’s concert wearing a tighter dress and looking noticeably slimmer. That’s causing more speculation in Seoul that she may have given birth.

Afghans say total U.S. pullout would trigger disaster abetted by rogue neighboring country

 Rogue Pakistan Army and ISI would step into the vacuum and cause civil war

Govt collapsed after Soviet pullout in 1989


KABUL, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Afghan lawmakers said on Wednesday disaster and civil war would follow if Washington pushed ahead with a suggestion to withdraw all its troops from the country after 2014.

The White House said a day earlier it was considering the so-called "zero option" of a complete pullout - despite earlier recommendations from the top military commander in Afghanistan to keep soldiers there to help the government.

That option and the angry reaction from Afghan officials are likely to dominate talks between U.S. President Barack Obaba and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in Washington on Friday.

The meeting was already likely to be tense, given ongoing strains in their relationship over the war.

"If Americans pull out all of their troops without a plan, the civil war of the 1990s would repeat itself," said Naeem Lalai, an outspoken lawmaker from volatile Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban.

"It (full withdrawal) will pave the way for the Taliban to take over militarily," Lalai told Reuters.

When the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989 after a decade-long war, financial aid dried up and the Afghan communist government collapsed, leading to infighting between warlords. A civil war paved the way for the Taliban's rise to power.

The United States has about 68,000 troops there and that number was already expected to reduce sharply ahead of Dec. 31 2014 - the official end of the NATO-led combat mission in the country.

NATO and its partners are racing against the clock to train up Afghanistan's 350,000-strong security forces though questions remain over how they well they will be able to tackle insurgents in the face of intensifying violence.

Many leading Afghan officials had assumed some U.S. troops would stay.

"If American forces leave Afghanistan without properly training the Afghan security forces, and equipping them, it would be a disaster," said influential member of parliament Mirwais Yasini.

Member of parliament Shukria Barekzai said a total withdrawal after 2014 would be equivalent to the United States "accepting defeat".

The Taliban said it was still considering whether to respond to the White House statement when contacted by Reuters on Wednesday.

"It's very speculative and we are not commenting for now," said its spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

On Saturday the group reiterated its call for the immediate removal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan.

U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said the complete withdrawal was "an option that we would consider" on Tuesday.

He made clear that a decision on post-2014 troop levels is not expected for months and will be made based on two U.S. security objectives in Afghanistan - denying a safe haven to al Qaeda and ensuring Afghan forces are trained and equipped so that they, and not foreign forces, can secure the nation.

Washington officials have privately said the White House is seeking a post-2014 presence of between 3,000 and 9,000 troops, which is significantly less than the 6,000 to 15,000 number given by the top commander, U.S. General John Allen.

Peshawar, Pakistan airport attacker’s had demonic unfinished tattoos - Pakistan Conspiracy theories reach new heights of madness

Pakistanis with their unique fondness to kite flying are speculating that the terrorists killed in Peshawar airport attack were US marines ;)
See images below....  Conspiristan ehh ...

Maybe a shared tattoo template 

I thought this was Marine Tattoo

The Pakistani conspiracy theorists also check whether the terrorists were circumcised or not to check whether the terrorists were true Muslims or Takfiri or Khajirites