Aurel

Une seule question : est-ce qu'on lui a lu ses droits avant de tirer ?

By Julianna Goldman May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan yesterday in a firefight with a team of U.S. operatives who raided the compound where he had been hiding, President Barack Obama said. “On nights like this one we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al-Qaeda’s terror: Justice has been done,” Obama said in a late-night televised address from the White House. Obama delivered the news to the nation almost 10 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, orchestrated by bin Laden, that killed almost 3,000 people at the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in suburban Washington and a field in Pennsylvania where hijacked United Flight 93 crashed. Bin Laden had eluded U.S. forces that had invaded Afghanistan following the 2001 attacks on the U.S., escaping across the mountainous border with Pakistan. After years of “painstaking” work, U.S. intelligence last August picked up his trail in Pakistan, Obama said, and after months of investigation he was tracked to a compound in a city north of Islamabad. “Finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice,” Obama said. Obama and his predecessor, former President George W. Bush, made capturing al-Qaeda leader bin Laden a key national security priority. Targeting Bin Laden Obama said that shortly after taking office in 2009, he directed Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the “top priority” in the war against al-Qaeda. In August, Obama was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden’s location, he said. The intelligence ultimately revealed that bin Laden was living in a large home in a secure compound in Abbottabad, an affluent suburb of Islamabad, according to administration officials who briefed reporters after Obama spoke. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the planning of the raid, said the compound was valued at about $1 million and was built roughly 5 years ago for the purpose of harboring bin Laden. Housed in an area with many retired military personnel and insulated from natural disasters and local terrorist attacks, the three-story compound sat on a large plot of land with residential homes nearby. Security Measures It was roughly eight times larger than other homes in the area with extraordinary security measures including walls towering 12-feet to 18-feet high and topped with barbed wire, the officials said. Access was restricted by two security gates and the compound residents burned their trash instead of leaving it out for collection like the other homes in the neighborhood. There also were no phone or internet connections, according to the officials. When they first became aware of it, intelligence officials concluded that there was a high-value al-Qaeda target being harbored and a strong probability that it was bin Laden. Their conclusions came after years of intelligence gathering, largely from detainees and specifically pursuing leads on personal couriers in bin Laden’s inner circle, officials said. Officials said they didn’t know for certain how long bin Laden had been living there. Authorizing Action The president gave the go ahead for the operation early in the morning of April 29, according to one of the officials. Officials described a helicopter raid on the compound using what they said was a small team and designed to minimize risk to non-combatants in the compound. At least two helicopters were used; one had mechanical problems. The operation at the compound lasted less than 40 minutes. Three other adult males were killed in addition to bin Laden, officials said. One woman was killed when she was used as a human shield by a male combatant, the officials said. Express 24/7, a Lahore, Pakistan-based television station, last night showed video of what it said was compound in Abbottabad in flames. Several Pakistani televisions stations broadcast what they said was a still photograph of bin Laden’s body,with his face smeared with blood and his left eye mutilated. Abbottabad, a city of about 100,000 people located in hills about 30 miles north of the capital, Islamabad, is the center of a region dominated by army facilities and weapons factories. The city, named for the British colonial officer who founded it, has avoided the terrorist attacks that have struck Lahore, Karachi and other major Pakistani cities. Intelligence Not Shared U.S. officials said they didn’t share their intelligence with any other country, including Pakistan, and only a small group of people in the government knew the plans. “Tonight we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to,” Obama, 49, said. “That is the story of our history.” Obama warned that the fight against terrorism isn’t ended with the death of bin Laden. “There’s no doubt that al-Qaeda will continue to pursue attacks against us,” he said. The State Department issued an alert to U.S. citizens traveling abroad to warn of potential anti-American violence as a result of the raid. Even before Obama spoke, a cheering, chanting crowd gathered outside the north gates of the White House as news of bin Laden’s death spread. The throng of people continued to grow after midnight along Pennsylvania Avenue. Proud “It’s been 10 years, it’s really a rallying point that we’ve been successful with what we’ve been doing abroad,” said Glen Dalakian, 21, a student at American University, who was among those gathered in front of the White House this morning. “It makes you proud to be an American waving the flag once again.” Obama called Bush to inform him about the raid. “I congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission,” the former president said in a statement. “This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001.” The administration briefed congressional officials ahead of the president’s address. ‘Great Relief’ House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said he wanted to “commend President Obama and his team, as well as President Bush, for all of their efforts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.” "The news that Osama Bin Laden is dead will bring great relief to people across the world,’’ U.K Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement congratulating Obama and the U.S. personnel who conducted the raid. “Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the worst terrorist atrocities the world has seen -- for 9/11 and for so many attacks, which have cost thousands of lives, many of them British,” Cameron said in an e-mail statement. “It is a great success that he has been found and will no longer be able to pursue his campaign of global terror.”

Les marchés aiment bien être surpris. Et tant que la musique tourne, on danse.

Un Darwin Award promet d'être descerné à ce militant italien pro-palestinien pro-Gaza pro-radicaux abattu par Al Qaïda pour emmerder le Hamas. C'est triste, mais tellement con.

Concernant la dette grecque, il est de plus en plus certain qu'elle va devoir être renégociée, (allongement à 30 ans, sans doute avec un haitcut sur le principal, revenant à faire perdre 30 à 50 % de leurs engagements aux créanciers), sur un total de 340 milliards d'euros (dont 110 de l'UE et du FMI). C'est l'Allemagne qui fixera le moment et les conditions de cette renégociation. Elle veut sans doute s'assurer que l'Espagne est sortie d'affaire avant de déclencher cette tempête financière. Car suivent l'Irlande et le Portugal. Et comme l'a dit un officiel américain : "Spain is Ireland 2 years ago, the real estate markdown hasn't happened yet…" Concernant la dette US, une bombe aujourd'hui :

Non c'est Emmanuel Martin qui anime Un Monde Libre. Habib Sayah anime "Energie Libérale" et participe à un réseau tunisien libéral.

Bienvenue sur Lib.org. Tu n'es pas seul dans cette nuance, regarde du côté du PLD.

Tout le contraire des libéraux.

LO interdisait le mariage, ainsi que d'avoir des enfants. Bref, c'!tait le parti des mal baisés de l'extrême gauche. Alors qu'au NPA…

Bienvenue à toi. Comment définis-tu ta pensée écolo, parce que c'est assez confus comme notion ?

Qui peut détailler un peu le fond de ce referendum ?

Il ferait mieux d'envoyer Edith Cresson, elle connait bien les Japonais. Une vieille (forcément) histoire d'amour, juste avant celle avec son capilliculteur.

15:41 16Mar11 RTRS-WITNESS-Ukrainians recall Chernobyl sacrifice, applaud Japan * Chernobyl 'liquidators' tackled disaster "out of duty" * Few of those first on spot survived * Survivor applauds Japanese By Pavel Polityuk KIEV, March 16 (Reuters) - If there is one person outside Japan who knows what the crisis workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant are going through now it is 64-year-old Andriy Chudinov. One of the first Chernobyl trouble-shooters to get to the disaster site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986 and a rarity in that he survived, Chudinov looks back on those traumatic events with calmness, sadness and resignation. He generously applauds the workers who are fighting to bring Japan's quake-damaged nuclear reactors under control. "These are good guys. After all, they have had it even worse than we did. They had a tsunami first and now there are several reactors with problems. That's a nightmare for any atomic worker," he told Reuters on Wednesday. It remains to be seen whether the Japanese drama will take on the proportions of Chernobyl, when tonnes of nuclear material were spewed across Europe after an explosion and fire at the plant's No. 4 reactor. The world was different then. It was the Cold War when Ukraine was part of the secretive Soviet Union and Moscow withheld the truth about the disaster for three days. Chudinov was one of a huge army of workers -- many of them soldiers -- whom Soviet authorities sent in to tackle the Chernobyl disaster which resulted from a test of cooling systems at the plant. The experiment, which involved demobilising safety systems, went horribly wrong and a series of explosions in the early hours of April 26, 1986, blew the concrete roof off the reactor and sent radioactivity billowing across Europe. Those drafted in to handle the crisis at risk to their own lives became known as the "liquidators". Chudinov was a senior operator at reactor No. 3 -- next to the stricken reactor -- at the plant at Prypyat on Ukraine's northern border with Belarus. "We got to the plant in the morning after the explosion. The unit (No. 4) was destroyed and burning. But there was no reason not to go," he said in a telephone interview. "We did basically the same as the Japanese are doing now. We tried to stop the reactors. If the fire had spread, the plant would have been uncontrollable," he said. "From my shift there was not one of my friends who refused to go. It was a question of duty. We knew it was dangerous but we were brought up differently and we didn't even think of not going," Chudinov added. Back then, there was little protective clothing to hand to shield against radiation. "We wore normal clothes and a face respirator. As we went in to the reactor we were given an iodine preparation which was normally the first emergency aid," he said. BLOOD ILLNESS The official short-term death toll from the accident was 31 but many more people died of radiation-related sicknesses such as cancer. The total death toll and long-term health effects remain a subject of intense debate even 25 years after the disaster though a U.N. 2008 report concluded that only a few thousand people had died as a result. On pension now and suffering from a blood condition which he attributes to radiation effects, Chudinov says: "I lost many, very many, friends. I haven't counted but an awful lot of them are no longer here. I don't know why I survived. Radiation reacts differently on different people," he said. Nadezhda Mironenko's husband, Valentin, was then a 38-year-old carpenter whose firm worked at the Chernobyl plant. He went to the plant to help in the clear-up operation a month after the explosion and remained working in what is now a 30 km (18 miles) exclusion zone around the site until 1992. He died 5 years later of brain cancer at the age of 49. "I knew when I accompanied him to work that there was no alternative. One had to go and do one's job. We had that expression -- duty to the Motherland," Mironenko, 62, who now lives on pension in Kiev, told Reuters. Chernobyl 'liquidators' and their families have benefitted from tax breaks, cheap re-housing, enhanced pensions and other privileges over the years. But the Japanese drama, evoking memories of 1986, brought 200 or so Chernobyl protesters out in Kiev on Wednesday to complain about government neglect. Mikola, 64, was a Soviet army officer drafted in with his unit to help the Chernobyl clean-up and was one of a group of protesters outside the Ukrainian government building. "The general came and said: 'I would rather have 2,000 poisoned (with radiation) if it allows 200 million people to live. We have been sent to work at the reactor'," he said recalling the day he learned he was being sent to the Chernobyl plant. Half of his military unit died from the consequences, Mikola said. Another protester, Vladimir Danilenko, 65, who worked as a fireman at the stricken plant, complained bitterly about the government. "They cancelled our free treatment. They cancelled our free medicine. They have thrown us aside and don't care. That's the big difference between us and Japan." (Additional reporting by Sergiy Karazy) (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Writing by Richard Balmforth; editing by Janet McBride) ======================================================== En complément, le rapport de l'ONU a été contesté par Greenpeace, mais il évalue à 4.000 les décès directs : Death toll from Chernobyl was over-estimated: report Only 56 people have died as a direct result of radiation released in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, and the final death toll could be thousands fewer than originally feared, the UN nuclear watchdog said today. However, anxiety caused by fear of death and illness from radiation poisoning is causing major mental health problems among the affected population and such worries "show no signs of diminishing and may even be spreading," the agency said, citing a new report compiled by 100 scientists. The final death toll attributed to radiation could reach 4,000, said the report, compiled on behalf of the Chernobyl Forum. The Chernobyl Forum includes the International Atomic Energy Agency, based in Vienna, as well as seven other UN agencies and the governments of Ukraine, where Chernobyl is located, neighbouring Belarus and Russia. Ukraine has previously said it had already registered 4,400 deaths related to the accident, and early speculation following the radiation release predicted tens of thousands would die. But Dr Burton Bennett, the chairman of the forum, said that previous death tolls had been inflated, perhaps "to attract attention to the accident, to attract sympathy". The report and a two-day scientific meeting to discuss it, which starts tomorrow, aim to "reach a consensus on the various issues so that we can go forward in a more positive way," Dr Bennett told a news conference. Environmental organization Greenpeace condemned the report and accused the forum of "whitewashing" the impacts of the accident. "Denying the real implications is not only insulting the thousands of victims, who are told to be sick because of stress and irrational fear, but it also leads to dangerous recommendations, to relocate people in contaminated areas," said Jan Vande Putte, Greenpeace International nuclear campaigner. The 600-page UN report says a lack of accurate information about the accident’s consequences has made the mental health impact "the largest public health problem created by the accident." "These problems manifest as negative self-assessments of health, belief in a shortened life expectancy, lack of initiative and dependency on assistance from the state," the agency said in a statement. "Persistent myths and misperceptions about the threat of radiation have resulted in ’paralyzing fatalism’ among residents of affected areas." Teachers and others with influence must receive better information so they can counter false fears by replacing mythology with facts, said Kalman Mizsei of the UN Development Programme. "The health and environmental effects … have been relatively and surprisingly minor," Mr Mizsei said. Residents in the region had received no understandable information about the accident’s effects, and "people still don’t know what the effect is". Mr Mizsei advocated that support programmes to Chernobyl victims should be altered to concentrate only on the groups affected by high levels of radiation. As of now, 5 million to 7 million people receive benefits and support, while only 200,000 people were exposed to higher levels of radiation. Belarus in 1991 spent 22 percent of its national budget on Chernobyl-related expenses, but the figure has since fallen to 6 percent, according to UNDP statistics. Ukraine spends 5 percent to 7 percent of its budget on costs related to the accident. "Pushing millions of people into this dependency is not helpful," Mr Mizsei said. By moving away from the illusion that the accident still had a ruinous effect, people could begin improving their lives. The report also says there is no evidence of decreased fertility following the accident, nor of any increase in congenital malformations. The survival rate of the about 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer caused by the accident has been almost 99 percent, the report said. Nine of the 56 deaths recorded so far were children who succumbed to thyroid cancer. Thyroid cancer patients and thousands of workers exposed to high levels of radiation in the days following the accident suffered "major health consequences", Dr Bennett said. "The majority of workers and population received fairly low doses." Lung cancer caused by smoking was expected to kill three times as many as Chernobyl-related cancers, he added. Among other findings was that poverty, "lifestyle diseases" such as illnesses caused by smoking, drinking and stress "pose a far greater threat to local communities than does radiation exposure," the statement said. Dr Fred Mettler, one of the scientists behind the report, said that the report offered lessons for any future cases - including any potential radiation release by terrorists - by emphasising issues such as the need for early and accurate information. "It’s a timely document for learning lessons to apply to other areas," he said.

Le dessinateur fait un boulot extra. Bravo à toute l'équipe.

Il semble tout de même que les expatriés paniquent à Tokyo, et commencent à se rapatrier dans l'urgence, sans prévenir. Ce "manque de civisme" désorganise les entreprises et choque beaucoup les Japonais.

Ce chantage opportuniste des verts est indécent. Il faudrait rappeler qu'aucune énergie est exempte de risques. Aujourd'hui, l'Arabie Saoudite envoie son armée (financée par les US et l'occident) au Bahrein et se prépare à un conflit armée contre la majorité chiite bahreini, et sa propre minorité chiite. Si un conflit régional a lieu, on risque fort de regretter le nucléaire.

Je pense que la pub serait une source de financement intéressante. Je suis certain que plusieurs organisations seraient intéressées de contribuer pour avoir une bannière avec des liens.

Les Freedom Nannies, pas mal. Si TODA parvient à créer un réseau de volontaires motivées, c'est une piste prometteuse.

je te taquinais

Bon, alors tout va bien. Et n'oublie pas que les 500 signatures doivent être recueillies dans au moins 30 départements différents. Ce n'était peut-être pas prévu dans le DaiShidoRon. Qu'en penserait le Sensei ?

Oh non, aucun découragement. Mais en revanche, je n'ai aucune illusion sur ce type de proposition. Ma priorité, c'est de construire une structure pour optimiser la performance de nos actions sous la marque PLD. Plus cette marque sera connue, plus ceux qui souhaitent défendre leurs valeurs efficacement se joindront au mouvement pour profiter de nos atouts et gagner en audience. C'est un travail gigantesque qui exige des centaines de militants sur le terrain pendant des mois. Y penser à un an du scrutin, c'est une blague. Surtout de la part des libéraux.

Pour 2012, c'est mort. En revanche, 2017 se prépare maintenant. Ce n'est pas gagné, surtout tant que nous (et je me mets dedans) ne serons pas meilleurs pour attirer davantage de libéraux dans nos rangs. Les bricolages en 15 jours, les coups qui finissent souvent dans l'eau, je m'en méfie plus que tout. L'esprit de rassemblement n'existe tout simplement pas chez les libéraux aujourd'hui : beaucoup de gros ego et peu de perspectives. D'ailleurs depuis 2003, j'entends les mêmes libéraux en vue répéter "je ne suis pas prêt à attendre 10 ans, il faut aller vite". 8 ans se sont écoulés et rien n'a vraiment changé. RECETTE D'UN ECHEC ASSURE : COUP FARFELU - DISPERSION - LASSITUDE LC est au point mort, AL est proche de la fin et ne tient qu'à un petit noyau sympathique mais ingérable de jeunes exaltés. Quelques initiatives perdurent, comme les journées de la Liberté du Cercle Bastiat, qui invite les mêmes têtes et reçoit les mêmes participants depuis des années. Et lorsqu'un projet prend forme comme contrepoints, on continue voir des idées farfelues envoyées en l'air pour mobiliser alors que les projets sérieux sont fragiles et manquent de ressources pour se péréniser. CHACUN POUR SOI ET DIEU POUR TOUS Restent l'ALEPS dans sa haute tour d'ivoire, sa branche IREF redynamisée par Lecaussin, Molinari très intello, l'Ifrap, tenu par Zimmern qui a fait le choix de l'entrisme à l'UMP et ne cible que les élus, pas la piétaille; Contribuables, prioritairement intéressés par les élus UMP mais qui donnent un petit coup de main de temps à autre. Ils nous fournissent en idées, mais rien de plus. Nous ne les intéressons pas, car je rappelle que nous cumulons tous les handicaps au PLD : - nous sommes des politiques, donc sales, dégradants et opportunistes - nous n'avons pas d'élus, donc pas les petits fours et la notoriété à la hauteur de leurs exigences - nous ne sommes pas assez nombreux, donc dérisoires à leurs yeux pour le moment Cela dit, je continue à inviter les responsables de ces organisations qui sont heureuses de venir exposer leurs idées, c'est plutôt sympa de leur part. Mais l'entraide s'arrête là. Notre priorité est double : l'action militante et la participation aux élections. Les think tanks ne sont pas franchement orientés action, ce n'est pas dans leur nature. Chacun sa mission. Et faire des programmes pour la présidentielle, j'ai aussi donné.

Si l'achat est un investissement comme les butres, pourquoi ne pas lui appliquer une taxe sur les plus-values, lorsqu'elles ont lieu, au titre d'une flat tax sur tous les produits de capitaux ? Quitte, en échange, à supprimer les droits de mutation (pour ne garder que les frais notariés pour conserver la preuve de l'acquisition).

Mais les gens comme toi ne dépouillent pas. L'idée est bonne pour le buzz, mais je ne consacrerais pas trop de ressources à ce coup. A force de se disperser, nous peinons à nous concentrer sur des projets performants comme contrepoints.org (qui a bien besoin de nouveaux soutiens), le développement de la blogosphère libérale. Liberté Chérie est quasiment au point mort en France, et chaque fois l'emballement pour une nouvelle idée sert un peu de prétexte pour oublier ces échecs passés…et les renouveler. A force de stagner de petits coups en petits coups hyper ciblés, certains sont gagnés par la lassitude, alors que rien ne motive plus qu'un projet collectif qui marche et se développe dans la durée. Ensuite, Bastiat concerne le petit réseaux de libéraux orthodoxes (qui ne cesse pour autant de se chamailler), il peut susciter l'intérêt d'étudiants qui aiment lire tout ce qui passe devant eux. Mais je ne vois pas un gros potentiel au-delà. La majorité de ceux qui aiment nos propositions et nos idées, ainsi que les "libéraux qui s'ignorent", pour en fréquenter un certain nombre, s'intéressent surtout à l'actu, à l'avenir et aux sujets bien concrets. Alors que les libéraux gardent une solide réputation d'illuminés incapables de s'organiser et d'agir, ne craignez-vous pas que ce buzz sur un fabuleux auteur mort il y a 150 ans renforce ce sentiment chez leurs sympathisants potentiels ?

La "droite libre" n'est pas franchement axée sur les propositions libérales, mais surtout sur la lutte contre l'islam et l'immigration d'Afrique du Nord. Mais Stéphane nous parlera peut-être du PLD un jour ?