screenshot from youtube video by RustyNell2009 TSA detained a 12-year-old wheelchair-bound girl for nearly an hour at the DFW Internati
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onal Airport after they found explosive residue on her hands. TSA left the mortified girl in tears, but refused to let her mother get close enough to comfort her.Shelbi Walser was traveling to Florida with her mother, Tammy Daniels, to receive treatment for a bone disorder that keeps her in a wheelchair. The 12-year-old girl is forced to make this trip every 4-6 months for treatment and never had any problems with the Transportation Security Administration before.But while going through security at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport last week, TSA swabbed the girl’s hands and found that she tested positive for explosive residue. Walser was detained for nearly an hour in front of hundreds of travelers, while TSA called in a bomb specialist.“There were people saying, ‘Really? You’re going to do this to her? Y’all have to take her somewhere private where she’s not out in the public and everyone can see her,’” the girl’s mother told Fox.Daniels believes the agents lacked common sense in their treatment of this incident. Wheelchairs pick up dirt, residue and anything they roll through. The 12-year-old girl rolled her own wheelchair, making it possible for her to pick up residue from the wheels.But TSA never tested the girl’s wheelchair to see if this might have been the case. The bomb specialist and the agents began talking on their cell phones, while other airport passengers watched in disbelief as the crying girl continued to be detained.“Through all of this, no common sense ever kicked in. No one ever tested her wheelchair,” Daniels told CBS. “If it was all about safety, why didn’t they remove her from her wheelchair and start testing the seat?”While the distraught girl was crying, TSA refused to let her mother get close enough to comfort her. Daniels says she never lost her temper and was respectful at all times, but a TSA agent made a call and referred to her as being “aggressive”.The girl said she was afraid the TSA agents would take her away from her mother.After the hour-long detainment TSA agents suddenly told Daniels and her daughter that they were free to leave, without offering any sort of explanation about the incident.“It was a little much. I don’t know what to learn from this one. Somebody, they need to go back to the drawing board on this one,” Daniels said.After reporters contacted TSA, the agency refused to discuss the incident and simply provided a general statement about TSA’s mission.“[We] will address any alleged issued directly with the passenger and not through the news media,” TSA wrote in a statement to CBS News.But this isn’t the first time the agency took their screening procedures too far with wheelchair-bound children. Earlier this year, a YouTube video was released showing a TSA agent giving a pat-down to a 3-year-old boy who was wearing a body cast and bound to a wheelchair, while letting the boy’s family continue through security. The boy was on his way to Disney World but was detained by TSA on the way. With a look of terror on his face, he was subjected to a screening that outraged many of the video’s viewers and caused it to go viral.In 2011, two other wheelchair users were forced out of their wheelchairs and allegedly groped by agents at the Greater Rochester International Airport. That same year, a six-year-old girl also received an intense patdown at the New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International Airport, prompting Rep. Jason Chaffetz to introduce legislation prohibiting patdown searches of minors without parental consent.Despite constant complaints against TSA agents for their treatment of children and wheelchair-bound passengers, new incidents are constantly arising as passengers contact the news med
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ia about inappropriate treatment. … Read More
TSA calls bomb specialist on wheelchair-bound 12-year-old girl
Turkey scrambles jets as Syrian warplanes bomb border region
A Turkish Air Force F16 jet fighter (Reuters/Umit Bektas)
The Turkish Air Force scrambled F-16 jets fighter jets along its border with Syria after Syrian warplanes attacked rebel positions on their side of the border.
The Syrian forces were targeting the rebel-controlled town of Ras al-Ain, reports the Lebanese newspaper Daily Star, citing Turkish security sources. The rebels captured the locations about a month ago.
The source said the Turkish planes came from the base in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
As the battle at the Syrian town continued, some stray shells landed on the Turkish territory. Residents of the affected town of Ceylanpinar, which abuts Ras al-Ain, panicked after hearing the explosions.
The sources said it was not clear whether the shells came from governmental forces or the rebels.
The incident came as NATO countries are considering deploying Patriot SAMs in
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the Turkish territory on Ankara’s request. Turkey says it needs the defensive systems along the border region to protect its national security.
Ankara has been a vocal supporter of the Syrian rebels for a better part of the 20-month-long armed conflict.
Damascus accuses Turkey of facilitating arms smuggling to the rebels and allowing them to use refugee camps in its territory as bases of recruiting and operation.
Dozens reported dead and wounded in car bomb blast in Homs, Syria
Dozens reported dead and wounded in car bomb blast in Homs, SyriaGet short URLLink copied to clipboardemail story to a friendprint versionPublished: 02 December, 2012, 15:52
Image from twitter user@ agrisarahAround 40 people are reported to be dead and injured in an explosion that rocked the Hamra district of Homs, Syria. The blasts happened near the Mosque of Omar and a nearby stadium.”);
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An activist has told Al Arabiya that there were two separate car bomb attacks.Ambulances are heading towards the scene of the blast, witnesses reported.There may have been refugee camps in the area, according to reports.Image from twitter user@alSibaai … Read More
32 killed, some 100 wounded in Iraqi bomb attacks
32 killed, some 100 wounded in Iraqi bomb attacksGet short URLLink copied to clipboardemail story to a friendprint versionPublished: 29 November, 2012, 12:29
Edited: 29 November, 2012, 17:01
TAGS:Health,
Religion,
Terrorism,
Vehicles,
Iraq,
Blast
A man inspects at the site of a car bomb attack in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, November 29, 2012 (Reuters / Mushtaq Muhammed)A car bomb and two roadside bombs in Iraq killed at least 32 and wounded dozens more on Thursday. All the blasts were targeting Shiite-populated areas south of Baghdad.Residents gather at the site of a bomb attack in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, November 29, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer Iraq)Residents inspect the site of a bomb attack in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, November 29, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer Iraq)”);
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Two roadside bombs in the city of Hilla blew up a group of Shiite pilgrims, leaving at least 26 people dead and several dozen wounded. The bombs struck a commercial area of the city during a busy period.Another attack happened in the shrine city of Karbala, 90 kilometers to the south of Baghdad. A car bomb killed 6 civilians and wounded 20, some of them police officers.A police spokesman said all roads to Karbala are closed and police are searching the city for another car bomb.Every year millions of pilgrims visit the city of Karbala for Ashura commemorations, marking Hussein’s death in 680 AD. This year commemorations fell on November 25. Ashura commemorations are followed by a 40-day mourning period which also attracts thousands of pilgrims to Karbala.The majority of the Iraqi population are Shiite Muslims. Insurgents from the Sunni minority are regularly targeting Shiites in terror attacks.On Tuesday three car bombs, targeting Shiite places of worship and a funeral in the Shuala district of Baghdad, killed 23 civilians.Municipality workers clean debris at the site of a bomb attack in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, November 29, 2012 (Reuters / Mushtaq Muhammed)R
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esidents gather at the site of a bomb attack in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, November 29, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer Iraq)Residents inspect the site of a bomb attack in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, November 29, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer Iraq) … Read More
Drop a Nuke on Afghan-Pakistan Border, Member of House of Lords Suggests
As
noted on Reason 24/7 this morning, in defense of a
nuclear-armed world in the House of Lords, John Gilbert suggested
threatening to drop a neutron bomb on the Afghan-Pakistan border to
stop insurgents from crossing. “I am absolutely delighted that
nuclear weapons were invented when they were,” Lord Gilbert said
according to the Huffington Post UK. Gilbert claimed only goat
herders occupied the area and that a good nuking would create a
“cordons sanitaire,” or “quarantine zone.”
The former minister of state for defense in Tony Blair’s
government apparently does not think the concept of
mutually-assured destruction applies to Pakistan’s conventional
nuclear weaponry, which likely can’t reach Britain, or any
speculative dirty bomb detonation it might facilitate. Since
Pakistan announced it had developed a nuclear weapon in 1998, there
have been no large-scale wars between India and Pakistan. There
were three major conflicts between the two countries before India
tested a “peaceful” nuclear
device in 1974, and countless border incursions and skirmishes
since, but few in the last decade. Perhaps Lord Gilbert should have
suggested offering Afghanistan nuclear weapons instead. Let’s hope
Iran doesn’t blow it out of proportion.
Nuke ‘em for Peace! UK lord suggests neutron bomb on Afghan-Pakistan border
http://www.youtube.com/v/Bf-4X5WToVw?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Source article: Nuke ‘em for Peace! UK lord suggests neutron bomb on Afghan-Pakistan border
Bomb ‘em into peace! British lord suggests dropping neutron bomb on Afghan-Pakistani border
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Turkish soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) (R) inspects a crater after airstrike near a guesthouse in Kabul (AFP Photo / Shah Marai)(24.8Mb)embed videoBritish ex-Defense Minister, Lord Gilbert, has threatened militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan with a neutron bomb. The UK could create “cordons sanitaire along various borders where people are causing trouble”, he said.
“Your Lordships may say that this is impractical, but nobody lives up in the mountains on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan except for a few goats and a handful of people herding them,” Lord Gilbert said unveiling his plan to the House of Lords. “If you told them that some ERRB warheads were going to be dropped there and that it would be a very unpleasant place to go, they would not go there,” he added. “You would greatly reduce your problem of protecting those borders from infiltration from one side or another.”The remarks came in the midst of a Thursday debate over eliminating nukes across the world. Enhanced Radiation Reduced Blast (ERRB) warheads, or as simply put neutron bombs are a type of a weapon that kill people while leaving buildings intact. Lord Gilbert said he did not fancy a nuclear-free world. “I am absolutely delighted that nuclear weapons were invented when they were and I am delighted that, with our help, it was the Americans who invented them,” he observed.Gilbert was roundly criticized for his comment by fellow parliament members. Responding for the government Lord Wallace said the coalition did not share the “rumbustious views” of Gilbert.John William Gilbert, or Baron Gilbert, twice gained the seat of the defense minister, first in the Labor government of James Callaghan and then in the Tony Blair’s first PM term. Gilbert also was a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee while he was an MP.Pakistan and Afghanistan are believed to host many training camps affiliated with al-Qaeda, Taliban, Haqqani and other terror groups. The US has carried out hundreds of drone attacks in Pakistan targeting militants since 2004. The attacks taking lives of around 2,000 people have resulted in deaths of many civilians and a considerable cooling down in Washington-Islamabad relations.The UK has also around 9,500 troops in Afghanistan as a part of the NATO mission there, according to the ISAF official website. Britain was one of the countries behind the US-lead Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2001. The ISAF is planning to hand over power
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to the Afghan government and pull out by mid-2013 … Read More
