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Al Jazeera: “Hundreds of prisoners are believed to have escaped from a jail in northwest Pakistan after it was attacked by anti-government fighters armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Some of those who escaped from the facility in the town of Bannu, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, early on Sunday morning were “militants”, an intelligence official told the Reuters news agency.
“Dozens of militants attacked Bannu’s Central Jail in the early hours of the morning, and more 300 prisoners have escaped,” Mir Sahib Jan, the official, said.
Not our problem? Or is it? The hawks on security and protecting America abroad should be concerned about this recent development. The Taliban, or groups loosely affiliated with them are busting their buddies out of jail using rocket propelled grenades as their calling card.
“There was intense gunfire, and rocket-propelled grenades were also used.”
Many of those who escaped following the raid were convicted Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder reported from Lahore.
A prison official in Bannu confirmed that “384 prisoners have escaped”.
A police official identified one of the inmates who escaped as a “dangerous prisoner”, who took part in one of the attempts to kill the former president, Pervez Musharraf.
The TTP, an umbrella organisation for anti-government groups that are loosely allied with the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda, took responsibility for the attack.
I predict that incidents such of these will become more common as the US army withdraws from the area. This prison break shows the capacities of the forces facing the American’s and their allies in the region. This is the sort of scenario where projecting power via drone raids/artillery strikes is ineffective. Preventing prison raids and other such low-level activities would require human intelligence assets that are simply too costly/inefficient to deploy in the region.
The planning of the raid was extremely KISS, blow up door, suppress prison guards, let bad guys out. More importantly though, it shows that this fringe group knows the lay of the land, knows its enemy well enough and of course knows how to use the element of surprise to its fullest. Tactically speaking, they could have been watching the the prison for weeks biding their time waiting for the best opportunity. It is extremely difficult to counter an enemy that exists safely within the population and has better intelligence then what you possess.
“Another Taliban spokesman told Reuters: “We have freed hundreds of our comrades in Bannu in this attack. Several of our people have reached their destinations, others are on their way.”.
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Our correspondent said the attack took place in the early morning and had resulted in an exchange of fire that had left several people wounded.
“After the attack the paramilitary and regular military forces came to that location and tried to surround the area,” he said.
“They have arrested up to a dozen men, but most of the people have indeed escaped.”
The injured were rushed to a local hospital in Bannu.
Sources told Al Jazeera that as many as 150 fighters were involved in the attack.
After blowing up the gates of the main prison at around 1:30am local time (20:30 GMT on Saturday), they entered the compound and freed the inmates, the sources said.
The attackers had arranged for the transportation of the inmates from the facility.
Well planned, well organized, well executed; an example Guerrilla warfare that the West simply does not have the capacity to deal with.
This video, like the Thunderf00t reason rally video, is about taking the superstition and religious non-sense head on.
There is no moderator, no stage just the free exchange of ideas and arguments in a public forum. AronRa does a marvellous job of handling all the ‘gotcha’ questions the deluded like to throw at atheists, and he does so with considerable aplomb.
We need more Reason Rallies, more attention and more acknowledgement of the quiet rational majority that makes civilization possible.
Nothing like a fair heaping of ridicule for the GOP to start the day off right.
Same ground base, 20 variations, 1 bar ending. The brilliance of Bach on display.
BWV 582/1: Passacaglia
The passacaglia is in 3/4 time typical of the form. Bach’s ostinato comprises eight bars, which is unusual but not unheard of: an ostinato of the same length is used, for example, in Johann Krieger‘s organ passacaglia. The opening of the piece, which consists of the ostinato stated in the pedal with no accompaniment from the manuals, is slightly more unusual, although this idea also occurs elsewhere, and may even have been used by Buxtehude.[8]
There are 20 variations in BWV 582/1. The first begins with a typical C minor affekt, “a painful longing” according to Spitta, similar to the beginning of Buxtehude’s Chaconne in C minor (BuxWV 159).[9] Numerous attempts have been made to figure out an overarching symmetrical structure of the work, but scholars have yet to agree on a single interpretation.[10] Particularly important attempts were made by Christoph Wolff and Siegfried Vogelsänder.[11] Some scholars have speculated that there is a symbolic component to the structure of the work: for instance, Martin Radulescu argues that BWV 582/1 is “in the form of a cross”.[12]
There is agreement among most scholars that the Passacaglia builds up until its climax in variation twelve.This is followed by three quiet variations, forming a short intermezzo, and then the remaining five variations end the work.
Bach performer and scholar Marie-Claire Alain suggested that the 21 variations are broken down into 7 groups of 3 similar variations, each opening with a quotation from a Lutheran chorale, treated similarly to the Orgel-Buchlein written at a similar time:[13]
- Bars 8-12, the top part spells out the opening notes of “Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland”
- Bars 24-48, a cantilena spells out “Von Gott will ich nicht lassen”
- Bars 49-72, the scales are a reference to “Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schar”
- Bars 72-96, recalling the “star” motif from “Herr Christ, der Ein’ge Gottes-Sohn”
- Bars 96-120, ornamented figure similar to that in “Christ lag in Todesbanden” accompanies theme in the soprano then moving successively to alto and bass
- Bars 144-168 “Ascending intervals in bass recall the Easter chorale “Erstanden ist der heil’ge Christ”.
Alain also points out that the numbers (21 repetitions of the Passacaglia ground and 12 statements of the fugue subjects) are inversions.
BWV 582/2: Fugue
The passacaglia is followed, without break, by a double fugue. The first half of the passacaglia ostinato is used as the first subject; a transformed version of the second half is used as the second subject.[14] Both are heard simultaneously in the beginning of the fugue. A countersubject enters immediately afterwards and is then used throughout the piece. When the three subjects appear simultaneously, they never do so in the same combination of voices twice; this therefore is a permutation fugue, possibly inspired by Johann Adam Reincken‘s works.[15]
As the fugue progresses, Bach ventures into major keys (Eb and Bb) and the time between the statements increases from 1-3 bars to 7-13. This expansion culminates in a Neapolitan sixth chord that leads into the 8 bar coda.
There seems to be a lot of chatter in the blogosphere about abortion lately. I’m thinking it could possibly maybe be about CPC MP’s motion to discuss when life starts. This motion is, without a doubt, no matter what the detractors say, a backdoor attempt to try and take away Canadian women’s hard won human right to their own body. Attempts to paint this as anything but that are either disingenuous or misinformed. The only result of Woodworth managing to redefine when life begins at anything before birth is for him to carry on and propose a bill to then introduce limitations on abortion. Supporting this discussion is to support the attack on women’s reproductive freedom.
I bring this up because of what I’ve been seeing on other blogs I frequent, namely Dammit Janet and Unrepentant Old Hippie. They’ve both left progressive bloggers because it seems that suggesting that human rights, in particular a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, is not up for debate is worthy of calling said people idiots and shrill.
My response to said “progressives” is simple.
It’s regressive to think debating the merits of a particular group’s human rights is a good idea.
Stop playing Woodworth’s game.
It makes you a bad person.
Stop it.
Trust Women.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation provides a great window into Canadian culture (as it is) and gives Canadians a platform to interact with each other to express and share their views. The CBC also provides news and commentary that is not vetted by commercial interests before going to air as it is a publicly funded broadcaster. Being publicly funded allows the CBC to promote a more diverse set of opinions that more accurately reflect the diverse nature of our country.
Dissident views and public oversight/scrutiny are two qualities Harper’s Conservatives despise. Hence, under the guise of “austerity” and “economic necessity” they are doing their insipid best to ruin the CBC for all Canadians.
“Lacroix said the Corporation expects to eliminate 650 jobs over three years, including 475 this fiscal year. He said 60 per cent of the budget goes toward salary and that it would be impossible to take a hit of this magnitude and not affect jobs. Nearly 10,000 people are currently employed full time at the CBC.
Kirstine Stewart, executive vice-president, English Services, said $43 million worth of programming will have to be cut out of the English Services budget, meaning that some current shows in prime time will have to be cancelled and that viewers can expect more repeats.”
You know how much the CBC costs each Canadian? $34 dollars. That friends, for the service provided is a fantastic deal. Carol Maszur beautifully articulates what this means to her and Canadians –
“The billion plus the Government spends on the CBC, on our behalf, is some of the best money ever spent. We get terrific value for that money, world-class journalism, world news coverage, unparallelled coverage of Canadian news national, regional and local, strong promotion of Canadian culture (Canada Reads, Canadian musicians, authors), thorough coverage of pressing issues in Canada and abroad, unbiased, non-commercially influenced material. CBC belongs to the Canadian people and has lasted for over three quarters of a century . It is as relevant now as it was when it was first established. We need the CBC more than ever, with the blurring of countries and cultures. This venerable institution is not to be tinkered with but supported and celebrated.”
Well said Carol. Let’s not destroy the CBC as it is one of Canada’s most important institutions.
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