PFLP strongly denounces criminal killings of Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai

PFLP strongly denounces criminal killings of Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai
Aug 052012

Commenting on the criminal assault on Egyptian soldiers in Sinai this evening, Sunday August 5, 2012, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and its armed wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, expressed their strongest condemnation of this heinous crime, which killed at least 13 and wounded a number of Egyptian soldiers. The Front emphasized that Egyptian Arab blood is precious and that the Palestinian people will never forget the thousands of Egyptian martyrs who gave their lives for the Arab cause and Palestinian liberation, whose blood mixed with the martyrs of the Palestinian people.

The Front emphasized that this action is unacceptable to all Palestinians and all Palestinian forces, urging all parties to be accurate in reporting the details of this criminal operation, as the Palestinian people and their struggle will never be involved in such an act. The Front also warned that the only beneficiary of such an action is the state of Israel and its plans for hegemony and control over Sinai, all of Palestine, and the Arab world, and that the Zionist state has as a strong goal undermining any and all relations – particularly improved relations – between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Palestinian people, and fraying the deep ties between the Egyptian and the Palestinian people.

The Front expressed its condolences to the families of the martyrs, the Egyptian people and leadership, and the entire Arab nation for the loss of these martyrs of the Egyptian people.

PFLP leaders: Sinai attacks fit into the Zionist plan

Aug 122012

 Comrade Rabah Muhanna, member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP, said that the criminal attacks against the Egyptian soldiers in Sinai fit into the Zionist plan, aimed at straining the relationship between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Palestinian people at a memoriaal service for the Egyptian martyrs organized by Palestinian factions in Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians attended the memorial, held at the Red Crescent hall in Gaza City, to express solidarity with the Egyptian people.

Comrade Jamil Mizher, member of the Central Committee of the PFLP, said that the heinous crime committed against Egyptian soldiers in Sinai bears the hallmarks of Zionism and an attempt to disrupt the relationship between the Egyptian and Palestinian people, considering that Egyptians have always stood beside the Palestinian people and supported by all means. Mizher emphasized in an interview with Voice of the People radio that the information and warnings distributed by the Zionist occupation prior to the incident do not indicate that it is innocent, especially as it is always trying to tamper with Arab countries and their relations, and is always trying in every way to place a wedge in Egyptian-Palestinian relations, particularly following the Egyptian revolution and changes that have been to the benefit of the Palestinian people and their cause.

Mizher emphasized that Zionist forces always try to download upon the Palestinian people and the Gaza Strip the responsibility for everything that goes on in the region. He said that the fingers of Zionist intelligence and the Mossad are not far from this terrorist operation, which seeks to drive a wedge, damage relations, and tighten the grip of the siege on our people, and undermine all attempts from Egyptian leadership to lift the siege on the Palestinian people.

He noted that the occupation wants, at this moment, at which time the progress in Egypt promises to lift the siege, to scramble the cards and disrupt progess. He said that a message must be delivered to the Zionist occupation, that the Palestinian people will not be harmed in the Gaza Strip, and the Zionist occupation will not maintain the unjust siege imposed on Gaza by such actions. He expressed his condolences on behalf of the Popular Front to the Egyptian people, leadership and army, noting the great sacrifices made over history by Egyptians for the Palestinian cause.

Asked about the closure of tunnels in Rafah, Mizher pointed out that the reason for the tunnels is to lift the siege on Gaza, saying that our people don’t seek to continue the use of tunnels indefinitely, but that it is an important factor in supporting the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in light of the lack of basic materials in the Strip. The alternative, he pointed out, is to open the Rafah crossing for people and goods, emphasizing that the Egyptian and Palestinian people can work together to end the siege – and then we will not need the tunnels.

இன மதச் சிறுபான்மை மக்களுக்கு எதிராக மேலை நாடுகளில் ஏவப்படும் பாசிசத் தாக்குதல்கள் -1

அமெரிக்கா: சீக்கிய ஆலயப் படுகொலை ஓகஸ்ட் 5 2012



 

Sikh temple shooter was Army veteran: Pentagon AP | 6th August, 2012

WASHINGTON: The gunman who killed six people inside a Sikh temple in the US and was killed in a police shootout was a 40-year-old Army veteran, officials said Monday, and a civil rights group identified him as a “frustrated neo-Nazi” who led a white supremacist band.

Sikh temple holds 1st Sunday service since attack 

Associated Press 12:53 p.m. CDT, August 12, 2012

OAK CREEK, Wis. -- More than 100 people gathered in suburban Milwaukee for the first Sunday prayer service at a Sikh temple since a white supremacist shot and killed six people there before fatally shooting himself.

Women sang hymns as a group lowered a flag pole outside the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin. A group of about 50 men and boys unwrapped the orange cloth covering the pole, washed the pole with water and milk and then rewrapped it with a fresh cloth. The group then planned to go inside the temple for more prayers and hymns.

Army veteran Wade Michael Page used a 9 mm pistol Aug. 5 to kill five men, one woman and wound three other people, including a police officer, in an ambush on the temple that took place shortly before a service was to begin. He took his own life after exchanging gunfire with officers, including one he shot nine times.

Indian Sikh men hold placards and shout slogans during a protest against the deadly shooting attack at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, in Jammu, Monday, Aug. 6, 2012.—AP Photo

Page was a 40-year-old Army veteran with a record of minor alcohol-related crimes and spotty employment history. He had performed with several so-called hate rock bands associated with white supremacists and neo-Nazi groups.

Although investigators have interviewed more than 100 people, combed through Page's email and recovered hundreds of pieces of evidence from his home and the temple, they say they may never know for certain what prompted the attack on the temple.

Members began returning Thursday, after the FBI completed its onsite investigation. They replaced carpets and repaired walls damaged by gunfire. A dime-sized, waist-high bullet hole in a door jamb near the main prayer room was left unrepaired as a memorial to those killed. They included three priests and the temple president, president Satwant Singh Kaleka, 65, who was shot as he tried to fend off Page with a small knife.

Hundreds more visitors showed up Friday after a memorial service at a nearby high school. They brought flowers and offered their support.

Gunman Kills 6 at a Sikh Temple Near Milwaukee

Allen Fredrickson/Reuters

A vigil in downtown Milwaukee for the dead and the wounded. “Everyone here is thinking this is a hate crime for sure,” said Manjit Singh, who goes to a different temple in the region. “People think we are Muslims.” 

By STEVEN YACCINO, MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ and MARC SANTORA

Published: August 5, 2012 NYTimes

OAK CREEK, Wis. — The priests had gathered in the lobby of the sprawling Sikh temple here in suburban Milwaukee, and lunch was being prepared as congregants were arriving for Sunday services.

Instead of worshipers, though, an armed man stepped through the door and started firing.

In an attack that the police said they were treating as “a domestic terrorist-type incident,” the gunman stalked through the temple around 10:30 a.m. Congregants ran for shelter and barricaded themselves in bathrooms and prayer halls, where they made desperate phone calls and sent anguished texts pleading for help as confusion and fear took hold. Witnesses described a scene of chaos and carnage.

Jatinder Mangat, 40, who was on his way to the temple when he heard reports about the shooting, said he had tried to call his uncle, the temple’s president, but reached the head priest, Gurmail Singh, instead. “He was crying. Everyone was screaming,” Mr. Mangat said. “He said that my uncle was shot and was lying on the floor and asked why you guys are not sending an ambulance and police.”

Mr. Singh, he said, had locked himself in a bathroom with four other people, including two children.

Six people were killed and three others were wounded on Sunday at the 17,000-square-foot Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, a city of about 35,000 just south of Milwaukee, officials said.

The gunman’s rampage ended when one of the first police officers to arrive shot and killed him. Another police officer, who tried to aid a victim, was ambushed by the gunman and shot multiple times. He was in critical condition but was expected to survive, the authorities said.

The police did not release any details about the gunman or a possible motive for the shooting, beyond raising the prospect of terrorism. Thomas Ahern, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the killer was a 40-year-old white man.

John Edwards, the police chief in Oak Creek, said at a news conference that weapons had been found at the scene. He said the F.B.I. would lead the investigation.

“This remains an active investigation in its early stages,” Teresa Carlson, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Milwaukee division, said in a statement. “While the F.B.I. is investigating whether this matter might be an act of domestic terrorism, no motive has been determined at this time.”

The shootings reverberated from this small community to Washington and beyond, including India, where the religion was founded and many of the congregants have family ties.

President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, released statements on Sunday expressing sorrow.

“Michelle and I were deeply saddened to learn of the shooting that tragically took so many lives in Wisconsin,” the president said. “At this difficult time, the people of Oak Creek must know that the American people have them in our thoughts and prayers, and our hearts go out to the families and friends of those who were killed and wounded.”

Mr. Romney called the shootings “a senseless act of violence and a tragedy” that he said should never befall any house of worship.

“Our hearts are with the victims, their families and the entire Oak Creek Sikh community,” Mr. Romney said. “We join Americans everywhere in mourning those who lost their lives and in prayer for healing in the difficult days ahead.”

Many members of the close-knit Sikh community here said the attack had shattered their sense of security.

“Everyone here is thinking this is a hate crime for sure,” said Manjit Singh, who goes to a different temple in the region. “People think we are Muslims.”

Though violence against Sikhs in Wisconsin was unheard of before the shooting, many in this community said they had sensed a rise in antipathy since the attacks on Sept. 11 and suspected it was because people mistake them for Muslims. Followers of Sikhism, or Gurmat, a monotheistic faith founded in the 15th century in South Asia, typically do not cut their hair, and men often wear colorful turbans and refrain from cutting their beards.

 

“Most people are so ignorant they don’t know the difference between religions,” said Ravi Chawla, 65, a businesswoman who moved to the region from Pakistan in the 1970s. “Just because they see the turban they think you’re Taliban.”

There are around 314,000 Sikhs in the United States, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives. The temple in Oak Creek, one of two large congregations in the Milwaukee area, was founded in 1997 and has about 400 worshipers.

Threats against Sikh-Americans have become acute enough that in April, Representative Joseph Crowley, Democrat of New York and co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Indians and Indian-Americans, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. urging the F.B.I. to collect data on hate crimes committed against them. In the previous year alone, he said in the letter, two Sikh men in a Sacramento suburb were slain, a Sikh temple in Michigan was vandalized, and a Sikh man was beaten in New York.

“The more information our law enforcement agencies have on violence against Sikh-Americans, the more they can do to help prevent these crimes and bring those who commit them to justice,” Mr. Crowley said in a statement at the time.

By Sunday evening, the F.B.I. had cordoned off a street in Cudahy, a town about five miles from the temple, where it was executing a search warrant related to the shooting, Ms. Carlson said at a news conference. “It’s going to be a long night,” she said, declining to give further details. A law enforcement official said some residents on the street had been ordered to leave their homes.

At a news conference, Chief Edwards described a dramatic scene when officers arrived at the temple soon after the first 911 call. After the gunman ambushed the first officer, Chief Edwards said, another police officer exchanged fire with the gunman, bringing him down.

Bradley Wentlandt, the chief of police in nearby Greenfield, said the wounded officer was a 20-year veteran whose actions probably saved many lives.

Four bodies were found inside the temple and three outside, including that of the gunman, Chief Wentlandt said.

Three men with gunshot wounds were admitted to Froedtert Hospital, the Milwaukee region’s main trauma center, said Nalissa Wienke, a spokeswoman for the hospital. One victim had been shot in the head and extremities and another in the abdomen. The third was described as having neck wounds.

There were initially conflicting reports about whether there was more than one gunman and whether hostages had been taken inside the temple. Local news agencies, citing text messages from people inside, reported that two or more gunmen could have been involved.

“The best information is that there was only one gunman,” Chief Edwards said at a news conference.

The shooting came about two weeks after a gunman killed 12 people and wounded nearly 60 in an attack at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.

In response to the shooting on Sunday, the police in New York said security was being increased at Sikh temples in the city. “There is no known threat against Sikh temples in New York City; however, the coverage is being put in place out of an abundance of caution,” the New York police said in a statement.

Outside the temple here, friends and relatives were struggling to understand what had happened. Many in the community had contacted friends and family who were in the temple when the violence broke out.

Harpreet Singh, a nephew of the temple president, said his aunt, the president’s wife, was in the kitchen with other women preparing food for services when they heard gunshots.

“She said they heard a bang, bang, bang,” Mr. Singh, 36, said in a telephone interview from the basement of a bowling alley near from the temple, where the police and F.B.I. agents were interviewing survivors.

Mr. Singh, recounting the shooting as told to him by his aunt Satpal Kaleka, said the women had hidden in a nearby pantry. The women escaped, witnessing the gunman’s carnage along the way, he said.

Mr. Singh was on his way to services with his wife, his two children and his parents when the police stopped them outside the parking lot. “There were police cars running into the complex,” he said. “A couple of weeks ago, some kid had set off a fire alarm, so we thought something like that had happened.”

People begin gathering at the temple as early as 6:30 a.m. on Sundays, but most arrive around 10:30 or 11 for services, Mr. Singh said. He believed about 30 to 35 people were inside when the shooting began, but had the gunman arrived just 15 minutes later, Mr. Singh said, 100 to 150 people would have been inside. Steven Yaccino reported from Oak Creek, and Michael Schwirtz and Marc Santora from New York. Ray Rivera and Jack Begg contributed reporting from New York.

மக்கள் அஞ்சலி! மத ஆராதனை!! விடை பெற்றான் மரியதாஸ் டெல்றொக்சன்!!!

மக்கள் அஞ்சலி! மத ஆராதனை!! விடை பெற்றான் மரியதாஸ் டெல்றொக்சன்!!!

வவுனியா சிறைச்சாலையில் சிங்களச் சிப்பாய்களின் கொலைவெறித் தாக்குதலில் படுகாயமடைந்து மகர சிறைக்கு மாற்றப்பட்டு கோமா நிலையில் உயிரிழந்த, தமிழ் அரசியல் கைதியான மரியதாஸ் டெல்றொக்சனின் இறுதிக் கிரியைகளும், இறுதி வணக்க நிகழ்வுகளும் இன்று மதியம் இடம்பெற்றன.

இறுதி வணக்க நிகழ்வில்  மக்கள் கலந்து கொண்டு அஞ்சலி செலுத்தினர்.

இவ் வணக்க நிகழ்வில் கலந்து கொண்டு உரையாற்றிய நாடாளுமன்ற வாதிகள்,  இது திட்டமிடப்பட்ட கொலையே, உரிய நீதி கிடைக்க வேண்டும். என உரையாற்றினர். எனினும் திட்டமிட்டது யாரென்றோ, உரிய நீதி என்னவென்றோ அவர்கள் எதுவும் உரைக்கவில்லை. இது பாதிக்கப்பட்ட மக்களை மேலும் பாதித்தது.

அதன்பின்னர் சமய முறைப்படி பாசையூர் புனித அந்தோனியார் தேவாலயத்திற்கு உடல் எடுத்துச் செல்லப்பட்டு, இறுதி ஆராதனை நடத்திய பின்னர், கொஞ்செஞ்சி மாதா சேமக்காலையில் டெல்றொக்சனின் உடல் நல்லடக்கம் செய்யப்பட்டது.

சமரன்: இந்தியாவின் அனைத்துத் துறைகளையும் அமெரிக்கக் கம்பெனிகளுக்கு திறந்துவிட நிர்ப்பந்திக்கும் ஒபாமாவின் ஆணையை முறியடிப்போம்!

சமரன்: இந்தியாவின் அனைத்துத் துறைகளையும் அமெரிக்கக் கம்பெ...:

இந்தியாவின் அனைத்துத் துறைகளையும் அமெரிக்கக் கம்பெனிகளுக்கு திறந்துவிட நிர்ப்பந்திக்கும் ஒபாமாவின் ஆணையை முறியடிப்போம்!  

மக்கள் ஜனநாயக இளைஞர் கழகம்



புதிய ஈழம்: நாடாளுமன்ற முறை குறித்த பாட்டாளிவர்க்கக் கட்சியின்...

புதிய ஈழம்: நாடாளுமன்ற முறை குறித்த பாட்டாளிவர்க்கக் கட்சியின்...:   நாடாளுமன்ற முறை குறித்த பாட்டாளிவர்க்கக் கட்சியின் போர்த்தந்திரமும், செயல்தந்திரங்களும். சமரன் - ஜனவரி, 1989

''தற்காலிகப் புரட்சி அரசாங்கத்தில் ஒரு பாட்டாளி வர்க்கக்கட்சி பங்குகொள்வது என்பதும் தற்போதைய நிலையிலுள்ள தரகு முதலாளித்துவ,
நிலப்பிரபுத்துவ கூட்டுச் சர்வாதிகார அரசில் உள்ள பாராளுமன்ற முறையிலான அரசாங்கங்களில் பங்கு கொள்வது என்பதும் ஒன்றல்ல. இரண்டும் வெவ்வேறானது. முன்னால் கூறப்படுவது லெனினியக் கோட்பாடு வழியில் அமைந்த ஒரு சரியான பாட்டாளிவர்க்கச் செயல்தந்திரமாகும். இரண்டாவது வகைப்பட்டது இந்நாட்டில் வலது, இடது போலிக் கம்யூனிஸ்டுகள் பயன்படுத்தும் சீர்திருத்தச் செயல் தந்திரங்கள் ஆகும். '' சமரன்

One of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover

Curiosity's Surroundings

This is one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars on the morning of Aug. 6, 2012.

It was taken through a fisheye wide-angle lens on the left "eye" of a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance cameras on the left-rear side of the rover. The image is one-half of full resolution. The clear dust cover that protected the camera during landing has been sprung open. Part of the spring that released the dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the rover's wheel.
On the top left, part of the rover's power supply is visible.

Some dust appears on the lens even with the dust cover off.

The cameras are looking directly into the sun, so the top of the image is saturated. Looking straight into the sun does not harm the cameras. The lines across the top are an artifact called "blooming" that occurs in the camera's detector because of the saturation.

As planned, the rover's early engineering images are lower resolution. Larger color images from other cameras are expected later in the week when the rover's mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Source: NASA Web
=======================================================
Dwayne Brown     
Headquarters, Washington  
202-358-1726 dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov
 
Guy Webster / D.C. Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278 / 818-393-9011 guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov  / agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Aug. 06, 2012 RELEASE : 12-269

NASA's Curiosity Rover Caught in the Act of Landing  
PASADENA, Calif. -- An image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured the Curiosity rover still connected to its 51-foot (almost 16 meter)-wide parachute as it descended toward its landing site at Gale Crater Sunday.

"If HiRISE took the image one second before or one second after, we probably would be looking at an empty Martian landscape," said Sarah Milkovich, HiRISE investigation scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "When you consider that we have been working on this sequence since March and had to upload commands to the spacecraft about 72 hours prior to the image being taken, you begin to realize how challenging this picture was to obtain."
The image of Curiosity on its parachute can be found at:

http://go.nasa.gov/NeQyBW

The image was taken while MRO was 211 miles (340 kilometers) away from the parachuting rover. Curiosity and its rocket-propelled backpack, contained within the conical-shaped back shell, had not deployed yet. At the time, Curiosity was about two miles (three kilometers) above the Martian surface.

"Guess you could consider us the closest thing to paparazzi on Mars," said Milkovich. "We definitely caught NASA's newest celebrity in the act."
Curiosity, NASA's latest contribution to the Martian landscape, landed at 10:32 p.m. PDT Aug. 5 (1:32 a.m. EDT Aug. 6) near the foot of a three-mile tall mountain inside Gale Crater, which is 96 miles in diameter.

In other Curiosity news, one part of the rover team at JPL continues to review the data from Sunday night's landing while another continues to prepare the 1-ton mobile laboratory for its future explorations of Gale Crater. One key assignment given to Curiosity for its first full day on Mars is to raise its high-gain antenna. Using this antenna will increase the data rate the rover can communicate directly with Earth. The mission will use relays to orbiters as the primary method for sending data home because that method is much more energy efficient for the rover.

Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some of the tools, such as a laser-firing instrument for checking rocks' elemental composition from a distance, are the first of their kind on Mars. Curiosity will use a drill and scoop which is located at the end of its robotic arm to gather soil and powdered samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into the rover's analytical laboratory instruments.

To handle this science toolkit, Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. The Gale Crater landing site places the rover within driving distance of layers of the crater's interior mountain. Observations from orbit have identified clay and sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history.

The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. For more information on the mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mars
and
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl
Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:
http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity
and
http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona in Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Exploration Rover projects are managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, built the orbiter.
For more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mro

- end -

What to Expect When Curiosity Starts Snapping Pictures

This graphic shows the locations of the cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover. The rover's mast features seven cameras: the Remote Micro Imager, part of the Chemistry and Camera suite; four black-and-white Navigation Cameras (two on the left and two on the right) and two color Mast Cameras (Mastcams). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

If a group of tourists piled out of a transport vehicle onto the surface of Mars, they'd no doubt start snapping pictures wildly. NASA's Curiosity rover, set to touch down on the Red Planet the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (early morning EDT), will take a more careful approach to capturing its first scenic views.

The car-size rover's very first images will come from the one-megapixel Hazard-Avoidance cameras (Hazcams) attached to the body of the rover. Once engineers have determined that it is safe to deploy the rover's Remote Sensing Mast and its high-tech cameras, a process that may take several days, Curiosity will begin to survey its exotic surroundings.

"A set of low-resolution gray scale Hazcam images will be acquired within minutes of landing on the surface," said Justin Maki of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Once all of the critical systems have been checked out by the engineering team and the mast is deployed, the rover will image the landing site with higher-resolution cameras."

Maki led the development of Curiosity's 12 engineering cameras -- eight Hazcams at the front and back of the rover, and four Navigation cameras (Navcams) at the top of the rover's "look-out" mast. All the engineering cameras acquire black-and-white pictures from left and right stereo "eyes," which are merged to provide three-dimensional information. Half of the cameras are backups, meaning there's one set for each of the rover’s A- and B-side redundant computers.

The very first images are likely to arrive more than two hours after landing, due to the timing of NASA's signal-relaying Odyssey orbiter. They will be captured with the left and right Hazcams at the back and front of the rover, and they will not yet be full-resolution (the two images arriving on Earth first are "thumbnail" copies, which are 64 by 64 pixels in size). The Hazcams are equipped with very wide-angle, fisheye lenses, initially capped with clear dust covers. The covers are designed to protect the cameras from dust that may be kicked up during landing; they are clear just in case they don't pop off as expected.

These first views will give engineers a good idea of what surrounds Curiosity, as well as its location and tilt. "Ensuring that the rover is on stable ground is important before raising the rover's mast," said Mission Manager Jennifer Trosper at JPL. "We are using an entirely new landing system on this mission, so we are proceeding with caution."

Color pictures from the rover's Mars Descent Imager, or MARDI, acquired as the rover descends to the Martian surface, will help pinpoint the rover's location. Initial images from MARDI are expected to be released Aug. 6, the day after landing. These will also be in the form of thumbnails (in the case of the science cameras, thumbnails can vary in size, with the largest being 192 pixels wide by 144 pixels high). One full-resolution image may also be returned at this time.

Additional color views of the planet's surface are expected the morning of Aug. 7 from the Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI, one of five devices on the rover's Inspector Gadget-like arm. The camera is designed to take close-up pictures of rocks and soil, but can also take images out to the horizon. When Curiosity lands and its arm is still stowed, the instrument will be pointed to the side, allowing it to capture an initial color view of the Gale Crater area.

Once Curiosity's mast is standing tall, the Navcams will begin taking one-megapixel stereo pictures 360 degrees around the rover as well as images of the rover deck. These cameras have medium-angle, 45-degree fields of views and could resolve the equivalent of a golf ball lying 82 feet (25 meters) away. They are designed to survey the landscape fairly quickly, and, not only can they look all around but also up and down. Navigation camera pictures are expected to begin arriving on Earth about three days after landing if the mast is deployed on schedule.

Like the Hazcams, Navcam images are used to obtain three-dimensional information about the Martian terrain. Together, they help the scientists and engineers make decisions about where and how to drive the rover and which rocks to examine with instruments that identify chemical ingredients. "A large part of the surface mission is conducted using the images returned from the cameras," said Maki.

Also, about three days after landing, the narrower field-of-view Mast Cameras (Mastcams) are expected to start snapping their first shots. These two-megapixel color cameras will reveal the rover's new home in exquisite detail. Small thumbnail versions of the pictures will be sent down first with an initial high-resolution panorama expected more than a week later.

The camera of the Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument will provide a telescopic view of targets at a distance.

As the mission progresses, the entire suite of cameras and science instruments will work together to hunt for clues to the mystery of Mars and help answer the long-standing puzzle of whether our next-door-neighbor planet has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory and its Curiosity rover are a project of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Curiosity was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

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To view Curiosity's latest images, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/gallery-indexEvents.html . Raw images will appear when available at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/ .

For information about NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission and its Curiosity rover, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mars and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ . You can follow the mission on Facebook and on Twitter at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

 

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

2012-226

Source: NASA Web

இன்றைய காணொளி

Syrian Rebels Execute Tribal Leaders in Aleppo

அல் ஜசீராவும் அமெரிக்காவும் சிரியாவில் உருவாக்கும் ஜனநாயகம்!

A Drone Strike for Asad - the weekly Standard

The White House has used drone strikes to target al Qaeda regulars and those affiliated with the group throughout the greater Middle East and North Africa (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia)—a “kill list” that the president personally oversees. For many reasons, not least to compel more defections from the regime, Bashar al-Assad should be on that list.

A Drone Strike for Assad
There is another reason for more robust U.S. action to topple Assad.
11:53 AM, Jul 16, 2012 • By LEE SMITH

Advocates of robust American action in Syria to help remove Bashar al-Assad from power have typically made two arguments. One is the humanitarian case, urging the Obama administration to prevent further bloodshed in what is now turning into a campaign of sectarian cleansing against Syria’s Sunni Arab majority. The other is the strategic case, which argues that by bringing down Assad the White House can set back the Iran-led resistance bloc. But now it’s clear there’s a third rationale for America to help get rid of Assad as quickly as possible: The Assad regime is closely allied with al Qaeda.

In an interview in the Sunday Telegraph, the most recent defector from Assad’s regime explains how Syrian security services use al Qaeda to advance regime interests. Nawaf Fares, formerly the Syrian ambassador to Iraq, contends that the regime was behind the May al Qaeda attacks outside a military intelligence building in the al-Qazzaz suburb of Damascus, which killed 55 people and injured 370.

“I know for certain that not a single serving intelligence official was harmed during that explosion, as the whole office had been evacuated 15 minutes beforehand,” Fares said. “All the victims were passers by instead. All these major explosions have been have been perpetrated by al-Qaeda through cooperation with the security forces.”

Fares’s revelations should come as something of an embarrassment to the U.S. intelligence community. James Clapper and other intelligence officials have repeatedly attributed various attacks in Syria to al Qaeda, without any caveats qualifying their assessments, even though it is common knowledge that the regime has made a habit of working with al Qaeda and other Salafi jihadist organizations.

The issue of course is that the White House is so eager for the whole Syria mess to just disappear that it seems to be shaping intelligence assessments. It appears that the administration’s intended message was, if we help the opposition bring down Bashar, then we are aiding al Qaeda—see, they’re already active in Syria, bombing regime installations. The Fares interview argues otherwise—that the regime itself controls al Qaeda operations in Syria.

As analyst Jonathan Spyer writes in the Jerusalem Post, “A degree of scepticism is useful, of course, in evaluating Fares’s statement. He is a newly minted enemy of the regime, and has an interest in blackening its name. But while the cynicism that would enable a regime to deliberately target its own population may seem shocking, it is in fact entirely in accord with the past practice of the Assad regime. Indeed, the skillful use of jihadi organizations as tools of policy is one of the hallmarks of the Syrian dictatorship.”

As Spyer notes, the Syrians used an al Qaeda affiliate, Fatah Islam, to try to destabilize Lebanon in 2007. However, the Assad regime’s most significant joint operation with al Qaeda was run against American forces in Iraq. According to the Telegraph interview, Fares played an important role in that campaign. Fares, the Telegraph explains, is “a senior member of the Oqaydat tribe, a highly powerful clan whose population straddles the Syrian-Iraq border. Following the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, their territory became part of the conduit used by Syria to smuggle jihadi volunteers into Iraq.”

“After the invasion of Iraq in 2003,” says Fares, “the regime in Syria began to feel danger, and began planning to disrupt the US forces inside Iraq, so it formed an alliance with al-Qaeda," he said. "All Arabs and other foreigners were encouraged to go to Iraq via Syria, and their movements were facilitated by the Syrian government. As a governor at the time, I was given verbal commandments that any civil servant that wanted to go would have his trip facilitated, and that his absence would not be noted. I believe the Syrian regime has blood on its hands, it should bare (sic) responsibility for many of the deaths in Iraq.”

That is to say, the regime is responsible for many American deaths in Iraq. There is no reason to assume that the regime in Damascus won’t again use al Qaeda to target Americans, if it suits regime interests, as it did in Iraq.

The White House has used drone strikes to target al Qaeda regulars and those affiliated with the group throughout the greater Middle East and North Africa (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia)—a “kill list” that the president personally oversees. For many reasons, not least to compel more defections from the regime, Bashar al-Assad should be on that list.