Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalHeat-Seeking Missiles in Syria: The SA-7 in Action with Rebels
By C. J. CHIVERS
Throughout this year, as fighting intensified in Syria and antigovernment fighters grew in numbers and in strength, it had seemed inevitable that they would acquire heat-seeking shoulder-fired missiles and turn them against the Syrian military aircraft.
This blog had documented the part-by-part appearance in rebel hands of one old heat-seeking system, known as the SA-7. Since midsummer there have been occasional sightings of full systems but none, as far as we know, showing the system in actual use.
Two videos recently posted on YouTube suggest that what had been expected is now occurring.
The first video, embedded below and posted today, shows what would appear to be a two-man hunter-killer team with an SA-7, waiting for an aircraft from hiding behind a building. Matthew Schroeder, an analyst who covers missile proliferation and the arms trade at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, noted “the glint of the missile’s seeker head, so the missile is in the tube.” This, along with the visible battery and grip stock, indicates that the system is complete.The man with the SA-7 does not loiter; he is soon picked up by another man on a light motorcycle.
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http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/heat-seeking-missiles-in-syria-the-sa-7-in-action-with-rebels/
US Homebuilder Confidence At 6-Year High
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Confidence among U.S. homebuilders remains at its highest level in six years, reflecting improved optimism over the strengthening housing market this year and a pickup in visits by prospective buyers to builders' communities.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index released Tuesday rose to 41 this month, up from 40 in September. That's the highest reading since June 2006, just before the housing bubble burst.
Any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the housing market. The index hasn't been above 50 since April 2006, the peak of the housing boom.
The gauge of current sales and builders' outlook on sales over the next six months remained unchanged from September's reading. But a measure of traffic by prospective buyers rose 5 points to 35, the highest level since April 2006.
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BUILDER_SENTIMENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-10-16-11-45-09
POSTER COMMENT: I would have preferred to post this in the BN forum however I'm sick and tired of having fresh, breaking news 'locked' in that forum.
That said, I will post this good, positive article where it can soon be forgotten.
Putin Loyalists Win Russian Local Elections
By MAX SEDDON, Associated Press – 1 day ago
MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin's loyalists swept to victory in most local election races held across Russia, preliminary results showed Monday, while independent observers said the vote was openly rigged. The independent monitoring organization Golos estimated that as many as half of the votes for the Kremlin party in one Siberian city may have been falsified.
The Central Election Commission's results showed Kremlin-backed candidates and incumbent governors won all five gubernatorial races held Sunday. The Kremlin party, United Russia, also dominated mayoral races and those for local legislatures held in 77 of Russia's 83 regions.
Observers from Golos recorded more than 1,000 violations nationwide, including voter roll irregularities and multiple voting.
"No one is ashamed of anything anymore," Golos deputy head Grigory Melkonyants said. "We have open and transparent violations of the law, and nobody in government is doing anything about it."
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gfqtk1a-EPZVPdurbPJX4vh4pENw?docId=49fa889ad24b4bcf8ee72270e2e429b3
Social Security Beneficiaries in U.S. to Receive 1.7% Increase
Source: Bloomberg
More than 56 million Social Security beneficiaries will receive a 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment for 2013, the U.S. government said today.
The increase, which will begin in January, will be less than half the size of the 3.6 percent increase recipients received this year. Benefits are automatically adjusted each year for inflation so that recipients don’t fall behind as prices rise.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-16/social-security-beneficiaries-in-u-s-to-receive-1-7-increase.html
Romney Aide Dan Senor On How GOP Nominee Would Confront Iran
A President Mitt Romney would make the "military option" a credible threat in the effort to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons by repeatedly saying that it "remains on the table, that it is real" and by making sure that senior officials don't imply otherwise, a top foreign policy adviser to the 2012 Republican presidential nominee tells Morning Edition.
Dan Senor, who was spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq during the early years of the war there, says in a conversation with Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep that the Obama administration has made a mistake by saying that a military strike remains an option but then having Defense Secretary Leon Panetta talk in public about the problems associated with taking such action.
"If you want to talk to our allies" about the difficulties involved, Senor says, "do it behind closed doors. By broadcasting it in public the way the administration has done, it has sent one message to Tehran — which is that we are absolutely not serious, that the credibility of the threat is not there — and it has sent the exact same message to our allies."
Senor's comments on just what the Romney campaign thinks the Obama administration has done wrong concerning the "military option" are a bit more specific than those laid out last week by GOP vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan during his debate with Vice President Biden.
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http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/10/15/162954100/debate-preview-romney-aide-on-how-gop-nominee-would-confront-iran
Zionist U.S. College Students Are Favoring Romney
By: Jonathan Asher Pressman
Published: October 15th, 2012
The 2012 presidential debates are underway, and the race for the 45th president of the United States is in full swing. On university campuses around the country, students are gearing up for the elections, getting informed, and deciding which presidential candidate will best suit their needs.
Young people, (ages 18-29) account for 21 percent of the voting population entitled to vote, according to civicyouth.org. According to yda.org, in the 2008 elections, 62 percent of youth enrolled in college cast their votes, in contrast with the 36 percent of youth who voted, but did not attend college.
For Zionist students, foreign policy, and particularly the candidates’ positions on Israel and the Middle East, play a pivotal role when choosing their candidate. For many of these students, Israel is ultimately the deciding factor in determining for which candidate they will cast their vote.
American University junior and Voorhees, New Jersey resident Gabe Duec told The Jewish Press that the only thing standing in the way of his voting for Obama are the current President’s positions regarding foreign policy.
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http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/zionist-u-s-college-students-are-favoring-romney/2012/10/15/
Corn Belt Shifts North With Climate as Kansas Crop Dies
Joe Waldman is saying goodbye to corn after yet another hot and dry summer convinced the Kansas farmer that rainfall won’t be there when he needs it anymore.
“I finally just said uncle,” said Waldman, 52, surveying his stunted crop about 100 miles north of Dodge City. Instead, he will expand sorghum, which requires less rain, let some fields remain fallow and restrict corn to irrigated fields.
While farmers nationwide planted the most corn this year since 1937, growers in Kansas sowed the fewest acres in three years, instead turning to less-thirsty crops such as wheat, sorghum and even triticale, a wheat-rye mix popular in Poland. Meanwhile, corn acreage in Manitoba, a Canadian province about 700 miles north of Kansas, has nearly doubled over the past decade due to weather changes and higher prices.
Shifts such as these reflect a view among food producers that this summer’s drought in the U.S. -- the worst in half a century -- isn’t a random disaster. It’s a glimpse of a future altered by climate change that will affect worldwide production.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-15/corn-belt-shifts-north-with-climate-as-kansas-crop-dies.html
Russia Seeks to Rebuild Influence in Iraq
MOSCOW —
Almost one decade after American troops overthrew Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the Kremlin is seeking to regain some of the influence it enjoyed in the country during the near quarter century of Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Russia’s president and prime minister rolled out the red carpet last week for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who came to Moscow with his defense and trade ministers and a large group of business leaders. The first priority was negotiating a $4 billion weapons deal, and Russian President Vladimir Putin got straight to the point.
“Iraqi specialists are familiar with our weapons systems, which are highly recommended,” Mr. Putin told the visiting Iraqi leader. “And I'm confident that we'll find a mutual understanding in these important directions, which will unquestionably increase not only returns in economic trade, but will also increase trust between the two governments.”
Alexander Golts, a military analyst, said that under Saddam Hussein, 90 percent of Iraq’s arms came from Russia, or from its predecessor state, the Soviet Union. The new weapons package is to include air cargo planes and anti-aircraft guns.
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http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-seeks-to-rebuild-influence-in-iraq/1526771.html
Iran's Secret Plan to Contaminate the Strait of Hormuz
If there is a man who brings together all the fears of the West, it is General Mohammed Ali Jafari, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Hardened by torture in the prisons of the former Shah, Jafari was among the students who stormed the US Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. He later fought in the Iran-Iraq War, and in 2007 Jafari, who has a degree in architecture, assumed command of the Revolutionary Guards, also known as the Pasdaran. The group, founded by revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khamenei to defend the Islamic regime, has since developed into a state within the state.
Today the Pasdaran control several companies and are likely a more effective military force than the regular army. Of the 21 ministers in the Iranian cabinet, 13 have completed Pasdaran training. Within this group of hardliners, Jafari, 55, is seen being particularly unyielding. In 2009, for example, he declared that Iran would fire missiles at Israel's nuclear research center in Dimona if the Israelis attacked Iran's nuclear facilities -- knowing full well that such an attack would result in several thousand deaths on both sides.
Now Jafari and his supporters are allegedly preparing new potential horrors. Western intelligence agencies have acquired a plan marked "top secret" and code-named "Murky Water." Together with Ali Fadawi, an admiral in the Pasdaran, Jafari is thought to have proposed a senseless act of sabotage: to intentionally cause an environmental catastrophe in the Strait of Hormuz.
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http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/iranians-planning-to-create-environmental-catastrophe-in-hormuz-strait-a-861343.html
FDA: Docs Should Check On Patients Who Got Other Drugs Made By Pharmacy In Meningitis Outbreak
Source: Associated Press
NEW YORK - Health officials have broadened their warning to doctors about other medicines made by a specialty pharmacy linked to a meningitis outbreak.
The Food and Drug Administration took the step Monday because of reports of new illnesses that may be tied to other products made by the same company, the New England Compounding Center of Framingham, Mass.
Now health officials want doctors to contact patients who got any injection made by the company and warn them of the risk of infection.
Read more: http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/174243841.html?refer=y
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