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Kurds preparing to liberate Raqqa
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Growing Concern About FBI Sniper Actions In Oregon Standoff
[Breitbart] The two-month standoff between Oregon militia members and police came to a violent end in January, with the shooting of militia leader Robert "LaVoy" Finicum by Oregon state troopers.

But now the Washington Post reports "new details have emerged" about the controversial conduct of FBI Hostage Rescue Team snipers.

The Post article portrays the current state of the investigation as considerably messier than readers casually following the story might have suspected.

The FBI team has been accused of firing at Finicum’s truck, failing to report their shots as required, and actually taking steps to cover their tracks by collecting their spent shell casings:
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/18/2016 02:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Feds have a very poor track record with these sort of encounters. Interesting how the FBI tends to shy away from violence such as that which took place in Ferguson, Missouri in August of 2014. I reckon it's more convenient to investigate and find fault with local law enforcement, after the fact.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/18/2016 2:46 Comments || Top||

#2  A video was released last week taken by the occupants of the truck. Judging from the second video, i would say that the FBI has a lot of explaining to do. Sadly, since the current admin in Washington hates far right white people there will be the standard cover up of Finicum's murder.
This of course will lead to future conflicts with the Federal Law Enforcement Agencies and the western ranchers/militants.
No doubt the locals know who pulled the trigger. Time will tell how this plays out.
Posted by: jvalentour || 03/18/2016 8:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Did anyone expect anything different?
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/18/2016 9:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Not really Skid. I expect the next standoff to end in more blood because of this.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/18/2016 11:50 Comments || Top||

#5  It was an ambush...They were looking for a particular outcome, and I think that they got it.

To what end? What is the benefit of a dead Finnicum ? It would seem from a PR perspective, anyway, the Feds would have preferred quite the opposite. Afterall, look how some folks are trying to portray this misguided fellow as some kind of martyr executed by the jackbooted american gestapo.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/18/2016 11:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Skid. I know your comment was a snark. So this is not about you. But he'll yes I expect something different. I expect my government to act according to the law. After watching all the videos. I do believe these FBI agents were looking for a fight, not an arrest. I believe he was murdered, I'm the same manner as randy weavers wife and child. The FBI is not competent to do anything they are doing out there. Using an HRT to take down a guy in a pickup truck is like killin a spider with a flamethrower. It will work, but the damage will be triple. The HRT is a hostage reacue team, not designed for simple arrests. You think they would have learned from the branch Dravidian fiasco. But they did not. We all ignore this as an isolated event against some right winged extremist. The USG took their property rights away. They passed an arbitrRy law, without the states concent and then unforced this law without any oversight or integrity. This type event is happening more and more often and to the point where it is getting violent. The sheep in the big cities and inside the beltway could fucking care less about the flyover states. It evident in the fed land grab and the total lack of acting responsive about our southern border. Which, by the way, the only people that think it's no problem live over 1000 miles away. Our government must learn to act in a responsible manner to all its citizens, not just the beltway fools. If not this type of violence , the FBI murders will be met with retaliation. Remember all the farmers were armed to the teeth, and they acted in a responsible manner. Time for the Fed to follow along.
Posted by: 49 pan || 03/18/2016 11:59 Comments || Top||

#7  Sorry for the spelling errors.
Posted by: 49 pan || 03/18/2016 12:01 Comments || Top||

#8  He was murdered by some jackbooted American gestapo.

Posted by: jvalentour || 03/18/2016 12:12 Comments || Top||

#9  re: #8.

Please enlighten. What is the benifit of dead Finnicum as opposed to a live Finnicum?
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/18/2016 12:19 Comments || Top||

#10  That's what jackbooted means.
Posted by: gorb || 03/18/2016 13:26 Comments || Top||

#11  #9 Will all due respect. It wasn't suicide by cop. Look up jackboot on your own.
Posted by: jvalentour || 03/18/2016 14:04 Comments || Top||

#12  Depot__ to answer your question:

pour encourager les autres
Posted by: Kofi Big Foot7134 || 03/18/2016 14:11 Comments || Top||

#13  I'm not trying to be a contrarian A-Hole here. I'm asking a simple question. What could possibly be the motivation for the Feds to intentionally execute a man that most people consider either irrational or self-serving. And a man many people believe whose actions precipitated his own death. Now, there's a number of reasonable reasons why the Feds would have preferred the 180 degree opposite outcome. You know, like photos of a burning Waco compound, comparisons to Ruby Ridge, predictions of bloody retribution - things like that.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/18/2016 14:17 Comments || Top||

#14  It's payback for the Bundy Ranch
Posted by: Silentbrick || 03/18/2016 14:28 Comments || Top||

#15  ....there's a number of reasonable reasons why the Feds would have preferred the 180 degree opposite outcome. You know, like photos of a burning Waco compound, comparisons to Ruby Ridge, predictions of bloody retribution - things like that.

Or emboldened, as none of those responsible or in question have ever been brought to justice. Going into 'name tag defilade' ...yet another indicator of nefarious intent.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/18/2016 14:31 Comments || Top||

#16  So I agree with your question depot guy. Why would anyone think burning down the Dravidian compound or sniping a woman with a baby in her arms is good either. Both were done by the FBI These guys should have never gunned him down. They should have never tampered with the evidence and the HRT should have never been involved in the arrest.
The calling the rancher self serving in another comment is pr slander. When the government takes your rights away and you protest you are demAnding your rights, self serving to a definition. Remember this is the same FBi that came in to "run" the kidnapping return of Martin and grace burnham. They paid 300k ransoms and got taken, thus funding the hostage takers for almost eight more months. They have more power than training, a piss poor leadership structure during a crisis, and no real ROE for domestic issues. If they did this kind of murder would not take place.
Posted by: 49 pan || 03/18/2016 14:50 Comments || Top||

#17  To what end? That question presumes that there was a particular ending mindt. It could easily be that a young HRT sniper, all psyched-up and ready to put-down one of these troublesome rustics decided to go all Horiuchi and kill him.
Posted by: Sgt.D.T. || 03/18/2016 15:03 Comments || Top||

#18  That question presumes that there was a particular ending in mind.

My original question was in response to the kin of Finnicum's presumption "they were looking for a particular outcome". (see ital quote in #5) I agree it's more possible the shots resulted from an overzealous agent. I'm less likely to believe it was a coordinated execution by a sinister element embedded in federal LE. I do know one thing though. If your a known armed fugitive that's on record saying your willing to die for your cause, run through a road block, exit the vehicle, and make furtive gestures it's likely LE is going to employ deadly force.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 03/18/2016 15:42 Comments || Top||

#19  The consistency I see with all three of these events, branch Dravidian, randy weaver and this event, is the agents seem to have little leadership forcing decisions. The weaver sniper was not over zealous. He questioned his order to shoot and his leadership confirmed the order. So what roe allows a sniper to shoot a woman in plain view, with a baby in her arms. What roe allows the fire at the Dravidian compound, and now this. The Fbi comes to the event looking for a fight, not to diffuse and control. That's an issue to me. It's all leadership training and leadership Disapline. He ran a road block. Yes. He got out of the truck with his hands in the air, every video shows it. He only dropped his hands when the first shot entered his back. Again well documented. Thank god this guy was not black or they would have burned down our cities.
Posted by: 49 pan || 03/18/2016 16:14 Comments || Top||

#20  DepotGuy, you really need to look at the video that was taken from inside the truck when it happened. They were shooting at him before he even left the truck with no weapon in hand. They wanted to kill him. Multiple shots from multiple angles. There is also some drone footage that is either incompetent or intentionally grainy that shows how things went. I read something that the drone footage shows lots of lasers and gunshots from before the truck even ran into the snowbank, but until I see more of it I'm going to ignore it. Also, a LEO placed himself in harms way either intentionally or because he is an idiot, which conveniently gives LE cover for opening fire.

The trap could have been laid entirely differently with non-lethal results. I could have done it, and I'm not an expert. There were women in the back of the truck, and I think some adolescent(s).

What both sides did was wrong, but what LE did was highly risky to all, and resulted in death.

Unless folks like Finnicum stand up to this BS from "our" government, it will never stop.
Posted by: gorb || 03/18/2016 16:19 Comments || Top||

#21  Ask yourself what actions Law Enforcement would have taken had Black Lives Matter activists been in the truck.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/18/2016 16:24 Comments || Top||

#22  Police escort to the Super Bowl.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/18/2016 18:40 Comments || Top||

#23  The first of these such events I can recall was Wounded Knee in 1973. The FBI intervened in the resolution of public elections of a 'sovereign' nation. The direction at the time was to end the unified defiance but it took some 5 bodies to close the action by the time the bureaucrats could come to a consensus.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/18/2016 23:54 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
EPA Air Pollution Rules Slackened (?) Lawsuit Ensues
Groups opposed to the state's $1.2 billion expansion of Interstate 70 in northeast Denver have joined the Sierra Club in a federal lawsuit to attempt to scuttle the project.

The suit challenges new EPA Clean Air Act requirements. The Colorado Department of Transportation are using those new standards to claim that increased emissions from traffic on the expanded I-70 would not violate national air quality standards, according to the suit.
So the NEW standard allows a big construction project, but the OLD standard would not?
Under the EPA's earlier Clean Air Act, the I-70 project could not qualify for federal funds because it would cause particulate pollution to violate the air standards on high pollution days, say opponents. Under the new guidelines, multiple high pollution days would not be counted against the standard, allowing the project to get federal funds.

The Sierra Club, Citizens for Greater Denver, Elyria and Swansea Neighborhood Association and the Cross Community Coalition are listed as plaintiffs. The EPA and its administrator, Gina McCarthy, are listed as defendants.
So improve the I-70 connections to the city streets, and give really long green lights to the parallel streets, so the locals can enjoy the fruits of their opposition.
I suggest a plethora of traffic lights and red-light cameras all around the homes and neighborhoods of the Sierra Club leadership...
Posted by: Bobby || 03/18/2016 13:53 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Colorado's population is swelling because of legal dope. Time to declare dope smokers to be 3/5 of a voter...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/18/2016 17:46 Comments || Top||


Stabbing Surge Stumps NYC Police, Sows Fear Among Residents
I'd like to say that after the guns, they would come for the knives. But since knives aren't really a threat to a police state, that won't really happen. In the meantime, the useful fools who might actually care will have to be the facade for higher levels of power, who really don't care.
New York City has seen a 20 percent increase in stabbings this year compared with last, and police say they don't understand why it's happening or what to do about it.
Surely the laws convinced criminals to toss their handguns. Or maybe you just don't really get in trouble for carrying a knife if you haven't used it. Or that more hotheads have started carrying knives for defense because law and order is being attacked. Or people are following the example set by Islam. Or maybe it's hard to carry. Or maybe if you carry a gun it's because you plan on committing a crime. Or maybe there are so many softer targets of opportunity than there were before compared to the number of criminals on the streets. Or maybe there are just more criminals on the streets, foreign and/or domestic. Or all of the above because Blasio is an idiot.
While most of the attacks are part of domestic disputes in homes, random assaults without apparent motives are on the rise. As of March 13, police recorded 809 incidents, up from 673 last year. So far there have been 20 attacks in the subways -- nine more than last year -- including a fatal encounter Wednesday in an East Harlem station.

Kitchen knives, screw drivers, box cutters and machetes are among the weapons used. The stabbings have overshadowed a promising crime trend showing a 30 percent decline in homicides so far this year from last and a 19 percent drop in shootings. Tabloid headlines reporting a stabbing almost every day in the most populous U.S. city have heightened the police departments concern about their impact on the public.

"The numbers are relatively very small, but stabbings are occurring all over the city," Robert Boyce, the department's chief of detectives, said in a telephone interview. "The random nature of some of these crimes affect everyone because it's disturbing when it happens to just regular folks."

No Warning

In January, a surveillance camera captured video of a man striding beside a 24-year-old woman on a sidewalk in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood and, without warning, slicing her face twice. In another attack that month, a 71-year-old woman required 30 stitches after a man with a razor opened a four-inch gash on her left cheek as she sat on a subway train in lower Manhattan. On March 10, a man rushed up from behind and slashed a 53-year-old woman's neck on a residential street in Brooklyn.

Thursday, police searched for a suspect who stabbed to death a 53-year-old man in the East Harlem subway station the day before who was illegally selling MetroCard swipes for access to the trains.

News coverage of the spate of stabbings was a factor in leading the department this year to change its record-keeping to list each attack's circumstances and attempt to ascribe a suspect's motive or mental state, Boyce said.

Crime Areas

The records reveal the attacks are most frequent in parts of the Bronx and Queens. That information isn't very helpful because these areas show higher-than-average incidences of all crimes, Boyce said. And the unpredictability of most of the attacks make them much more difficult to police than a knife-wielding repeat offender, for whom investigators could begin to see patterns of behavior, he added.

While the news coverage may have increased the department's focus on the stabbings, the stories, which have sometimes appeared on the front pages, may have encouraged others to commit such acts, said David Kennedy, a criminologist who specializes in violence and gang behavior at City University of New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

"There's been a lot of examples of mini-epidemics of so-called copycat behavior, where press attention makes incidents like suicides and school and spree shootings contagious," Kennedy said. "As I watch the coverage unfold my hope is this attention isn't causing more of them."

The stabbings may be symptomatic of a breakdown in civility in areas of the city where police have scaled down their enforcement of minor offenses, said Heather Mac Donald, a research fellow specializing in crime at the Manhattan Institute, a policy research organization that has been critical of Mayor Bill de Blasio's initiatives to reduce police stop-and-frisk tactics in minority neighborhoods.

"The same strategies aimed at getting guns off the streets, including stop-and-frisk, should apply to knives," she said. "The public feels like the streets are getting out of control, and it's hard to talk to anyone in the city who doesn't feel there's been an increase in street homelessness, litter and a general sense of order breaking down."

Scary Part

Unlike guns, which must be registered and may be traced through ballistics evidence, knives can be household items and are legal to carry, with the exception of knives longer than four inches, or gravity-opened weapons such as switchblades.

"These things are unfortunate, they occur, but the actual reality is that crime is continuing to go down in the city," Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said during a Feb. 18 interview on WOR radio.

Such gains have made residents throughout the city feel safer, yet the stabbings are reminiscent of the sixties, seventies and eighties -- decades when residents considered some streets dangerous at night, said Alvin Berk, chairman of the local community board in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where the 53-year-old woman was stabbed in the neck as she walked down the street while talking on her mobile phone.

"The scariest part of this is its apparent random quality; the unpredictability of it," Berk said. "It's a lot easier to handle something like this when there's an explanation for it, and you can understand it."

Of the hundreds of knife attacks this year, police consider less than 20 unprovoked, Boyce said. Of them, as many as five may have involved gangs, two were robberies and 11 were spats that escalated into violence.

"Someone bumps up against another in a crowded subway, or someone gives another an unfriendly stare," Boyce said. "Eye contact is bad on the subway. Try to avoid it and just go about your business."
Posted by: gorb || 03/18/2016 13:05 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
"Someone bumps up against another in a crowded subway, or someone gives another an unfriendly stare," Boyce said. "Eye contact is bad on the subway. Try to avoid it and just go about your business."

Yet the left insists that we proles should all live in cities and take public transportation.
Posted by: JHH || 03/18/2016 13:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Welcome the 21st century. Coming soon, to your town.
Posted by: Bobby || 03/18/2016 13:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Rapiers or gladius hispaniensis, what will the spring fashion be? A good gentleman of Verona New York City will not be caught dead with his favorite steel at his side.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/18/2016 17:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Sounds like the latest Palestinian fad.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/18/2016 23:58 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Protests in Brazil after Release of Rousseff-Lula Recording
[ALMANAR.LB] Outraged Brazilians protested in Brasilia and Sao Paulo late Wednesday following the release of a taped phone call between President Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

During the call, recorded earlier Wednesday by police and released by a federal judge, Rousseff called Lula on his bugged phone to tell him she would be sending him the official decree nominating him as her chief of staff so that he could make use of it "if necessary."
I'm betting even Hillary isn't this clumsy, but I'd like to be wrong...
That extract was largely seen as confirmation that an aim of Lula's nomination to the post Wednesday was to spare him possible arrest for corruption. Cabinet ministers can only be tried before the Supreme Court in Brazil and ministerial immunity will now protect Lula from prosecution in criminal court.

The recording was made public by federal judge Sergio Moro, who is heading a probe into Brazil's biggest ever corruption scandal.

Lula vigorously denies involvement in the scandal, in which Sherlocks say construction companies conspired with Petrobras executives to overbill the oil giant to the tune of $2 billion, paying huge bribes to politicians and parties along the way.

The release of the recording caused an uproar in Congress, where furious opposition politicians shouted "Resign! Resign!"

Some 2,000 people spontaneously gathered in the capital Brasilia demanding that Lula step down and Rousseff leave office and to show their support Moro.
As night fell, another protest began in Sao Paulo, according to an AFP photographer.

"Resign! Resign!" shouted several thousand protesters at the foot of a highrise housing FIESP, a powerful federation of Sao Paulo industries that was illuminated in green and yellow -- Brazil's national colors -- in addition to a large inscription that read "Impeach now."
Posted by: Fred || 03/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 

Ms Dilma is getting NAO respect.
Posted by: Ho Chi Crinens5363 || 03/18/2016 3:25 Comments || Top||

#2  With each day the US is looking more and more like a banana republic.....or in this case vice versa.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/18/2016 7:22 Comments || Top||


Dima The Schema', Lula and the Moolah, and Chaos in Brazil
[CNN] Brazil: Judge suspends swearing-in of Lula da Silva to Cabinet post
Posted by: charger || 03/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Man detained in March 12th shootout in Mukachevo
An unidentified man was detained by local police in Mukachevo in connection with a March 12th shootout, according to Russian language news accounts.

According to a news article which appeared in korrespondent.net, why the man was detained was not immediately clear. He will be charged with murder.

The March 12th incident initially involved two individuals, both of whom were shot, one fatally. The victims were shot in the Pentagon district of Mukachevo, near School No. 16, following an altercation between them and other unidentified local youths.

One victim was found dead with a unexploded hand grenade, while the other wound up in the local hospital complaining of a gunshot wound to his leg.

Mukachevo was the town where last summer four men were shot to death in a confrontation between members of a Right Sektor group and an organized crime group at a spa.

Mukachevo is located on a known smuggling route of excise goods for organized crime.

Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraine by clicking here.
Posted by: badanov || 03/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Gas revolt: the Tula OMON surrounds Gypsy camp
16 March in the village of Plekhanovo near Tula (Russia) was a conflict between local residents, authorities and residents of the Roma encampment. As a result of illegal taps in the pipeline about 400 houses in the village were left without gas. On Thursday the location of the conflict were tightened large police forces and RIOT police, several people were detained.

Experts arrived on March 16 at the place, found that the part of the pipeline filled with water and there are several dozen illegal taps, which supplied the household and the store, reports NEWSRU.com. One of these taps in the gas supply system is exposed to water. March 15, local residents have made another attempt to make illegal tie-in street underground gas pipeline, resulting in an accident.

Repair work has caused discontent of the inhabitants of the Gypsy camp. Gypsies came to the administration building and police, began to burn tires, throw stones and sticks of gas-men, policemen and journalists. The rebellion was quickly put down. Of damage to the pipeline that led to the off gas in the village was eliminated.

According to the data of IA "Tula news" on Thursday in Plekhanovo arrived about 300 law enforcement officers.

As the correspondent of Agency, early in the morning on 17 March in that part of the settlement, where the Roma Diaspora, moved by the police, which was escorted bulldozers and employees of gas service. According to the journalist, the police "seriously equipped and prepared".

Portal MySLO.ru writes about 500 police officers, stating that it is including the OMON, SOBR, the handlers and the internal troops. When I started pruning of the pipeline, the Gypsies approached the cordon. As a result, "the two most actively gesticulating citizens detained in the hard way using non-lethal weapons as batons", the report of IA "Tula news". After some time, the correspondent of the Agency, was arrested in the U.S. "most active" members of the Roma.

According to press reports, law enforcement officers on Thursday "will conduct explanatory work with the residents of the Roma settlements, which was illegally connected to the gas network". According to the report in the group of the newspaper "Sloboda" and the portal MySLO.ru "Vkontakte", the work of the gasman in the Roma settlement is more like a special operation.

More at the link
Posted by: badanov || 03/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Heh: "escorted (by) bulldozers"
Posted by: SteveS || 03/18/2016 15:55 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Top U.S. general, without citing Trump, warns on troops' morale
WASHINGTON (Rooters) - The top U.S. military officer told the Senate on Thursday that it would harm the morale of U.S. forces to order them to carry out activities such as waterboarding or targeting civilians, options previously cited by leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not comment on U.S. politics, and Trump's name did not come up in a question put to him by Senator Lindsey Graham or in Dunford's response.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 03/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Cause mandatory social justice indoctrination classes damning 'white privilege' are such a morale boost.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/18/2016 6:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Look for Dunford's retirement party January 2017.
Posted by: jvalentour || 03/18/2016 8:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Insiders claim the order stems from a physical altercation which took place immediately following his remarks at the change of command ceremony on Friday, which left a number of Marines with injuries ranging from eye gouges to one severe hematoma of the taint.

Witnesses to the incident say the new Commandant was being congratulated by various well wishers when he reportedly smacked a Master Gunnery Sgt. after he was addressed with “Ooh-rah sir.”

“Shut your filthy sewer, pogue,” growled the general as he struck the senior SNCO in the mouth with an open hand. “That expression is a weak affectation and I won’t stand for it.”

The commandant then turned and kicked the Color Sergeant of the Marine Corps in the groin. Marine officials claim Dunford was enraged that one member of the color guard fell out during the ceremony. A number of aides were also assaulted when they attempted to physically restrain the general and remove him from the scene.

“That’s what happens when we appoint an air winger as Commandant,” Dunford said, as he was finally escorted from the parade deck. “I will not allow this pernicious weakness to further infect my Corps.”


Read more: http://www.duffelblog.com/2014/10/general-dunford-oohrah-ban/#ixzz43GBmwjUr
Posted by: Fat Bob Jort1982 || 03/18/2016 9:31 Comments || Top||

#4  The announcement of his afternoon would be absolutely splendid.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/18/2016 9:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Unless this is one of the generals who survived 0bean's purges, I don't really care what he has to say.
Posted by: gorb || 03/18/2016 11:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Isn't Duffleblog a humour site, a military version of The Onion (back when that was funny)?
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/18/2016 14:04 Comments || Top||

#7  tw, yes, the DuffelBlog is a military satire site.

The sad thing is that some of the stories, when quoted out of context, seem real.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/18/2016 14:38 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Move to amend women protection bill: Civil society rejects religious parties drive
[DAWN] LAHORE: The Women Action Forum (WAF) expressed shock and outrage at the way the Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

government has allegedly succumbed to pressure from the religious lobby and put the Women Protection Bill on hold.

According to a blurb issued by the WAF on Wednesday, the reaction of religious parties was not surprising.

"As a political strategy, the Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
and other parties of the religious right had always played the ‘Islam is in danger’ card to gain public visibility. What is shocking and unacceptable is the elected government’s response to this blackmail. In succumbing to this pressure not only is the elected government undermining its own legitimacy, it is also raising serious doubts about its sincerity and commitment to women’s right to life and safety," the forum stated.

It said it wanted to remind the Punjab government that domestic violence bills had already been passed by the Sindh and Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
assemblies without any backlash from the religious lobby.

In its March 8 statement, the WAF had welcomed the Women Protection Bill as a step in the right direction, while stating the bill itself needed strengthening in line with similar bills passed by Sindh and Balochistan. The WAF demanded any amendments to the bill must make it more effective in providing protection to women rather than diluting its effect.

It also said as such amendments should be made in consultation with women, who across class were the most vulnerable to domestic violence and not under pressure from a lobby that had "consistently promoted its own political agendas by misusing religion to endanger women and undermine their position and status in society".
Posted by: Fred || 03/18/2016 00:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Man divorces wife for filing torture complaint
[DAWN] VEHARI: A man divorced his wife after she got him placed in durance vile
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
for subjecting her to torture at Lakha Luddan village.

Nasim Bibi, a resident of mauza Lakha Luddan, filed a complaint two days ago with Luddan police against her husband, Khadim Husain, for subjecting her to physical torture.

The police booked Husain under Section 107/151 of the PPC.

On Tuesday, after securing a bail from a local court, Khadim Husain divorced Nasim Bibi.

Denying the torture allegation, he claimed that he had only admonished his wife for "misuse" of mobile phone.

Though Husain was booked under PPC sections, SHO Rana Khalid claimed police were bound to take action on torture complaints after enactment of women’s protection law.
Posted by: Fred || 03/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Southeast Asia
Vietnam asks US Army to return
Posted by: Frozen Al || 03/18/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  YES, I have heard that the Vietnamese like Americans. China however is disliked. China is a bad neighbor. Clothing shipped in from China has been said to burn outlines of garments on people wearing them. A fellow who had escaped said this. Got out with some money with a sister but other sister was killed. When taken over money was confiscated from the banks. Property also I would imagine.
Posted by: Dale || 03/18/2016 7:03 Comments || Top||

#2  As the Lefties gear up to stop Trump, I doubt their attention will ever turn back to what they did to these people and the joke is on the Left. Irony is not an export of Duluth.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/18/2016 7:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Given the way I hear Duluth votes, I suspect it is, they just don't realize it.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 03/18/2016 10:48 Comments || Top||

#4  They finally figured out that it pays better to let the Americans stay.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/18/2016 13:40 Comments || Top||

#5  Fine! We'll be happy to return. Sorry the Chinese thing hasn't worked out.

We'll be sending you an invoice for expenses and services provided during the period 1964-1975, plus accrued interest at a nominal rate.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/18/2016 14:01 Comments || Top||

#6  VN = PH = militaries have too much catching up to do before they could even hope to confront China + PLA on their own. To do so in their present condition would be suicidal, which goes to explaining why both nations have developed
"people's war" defensive strategies where the PLA would be allowed to de facto enter or invade their countries only to find themselves mired in violent or deadly guerilla warfare agz both local armed forces + populations.

In the interim, building alliance wid the US, EU, RUSSIA, INDIA, + even JAPAN is their best chance for deterring or stopping China.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/18/2016 20:29 Comments || Top||

#7  the PLA would be allowed to de facto enter or invade their countries only to find themselves mired in violent or deadly guerilla warfare agz both local armed forces + populations.

Considering how many of their own folks they killed in the Cultural Revolution, there may not be much of a population left to revolt. And being the nice little racists the Han can be, not much of any restraint will be found either.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/18/2016 21:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Its not clear yet iff the PLA will need all of the PH, as opposed to only developed Luzon wid its major air-sea hubs, for ASBM Arty staging areas, Subs, + LR PLAAF Bombers agz incoming US intervention forces. IMO WHAT IS CLEAR IS THAT CHINA + PLA HAS NO REASON TO LIMIT ITSELF TO JUST THE SCS ANDOR ECS IFF IT DOES NOT ALSO INTEND TO ATTACK + RE-TAKE TAIWAN AT SAME TIME.

And to bomb or possibly nuke Japan in order to end Japan's challenge to Beijing's "sole" leadership in East Asia-WESTPAC. TAIWAN RECOVERY = CHINA'S ULTIMATE FOCII = "CROWN JEWEL".

* SPUTNIK NEWS > WILL THIS TRIGGER WORLD WAR III? US ARMY STOCKPILING MUNITIONS NEAR CHINA.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > CHINA BUILDS [Building]NAVAL BASES AT [Spratly's] SCARBOROUGH SHOAL!NEW CHINESE SHIP ACTIVITY SPOTTED AT DISPUTED SOUTH CHINA SEA SHOAL | THE GUARDIAN.UK.

DEFENCE.PK/FORUM BLOGGER-POSTER = argued its clear that CHINA IS NOW INTENT ON "IGNORING" POTUS OBAMA FOR THE REMAINDER OF HIS PREDIENCY IN 2016. ANY HOPE OF CHINA-US RECONCILIATION, IFF ANY, WILL HAVE TO BE OR OCCUR WID THE BAMMER'S POST-JAN. 2017 SUCCESSOR.

* THE DIPLOMAT > DID CHINA JUST BREAK ITS "DIPLOMATIC TRUCE" WID TAIWAN?, via its diplomatic recognition of Pro-"One-China" Taiwan ally GAMBIA in Africa???

* WASHINGTON FREE BEACON > US ARMY OFFICIAL: US COULD BE OUTNUMBERED, OUTGUNNED IN FUTURE CONFLICTS.

* RELATED WAFF > THE TOP US ARMY GENERAL WARNS US NOT BE AS CAPABLE AS IT USED TO BE AGZ RUSSIA |[ABC News] TOP GENERAL SAYS US ARMY AT HIGH RISK IN WAR AGZ CHINA, RUSSIA [+ Iran, DPRK/NOKOR = "Great Power" Mil Conflicts].

US Army Chief Gen. Mark Milley.

Apparently IRAN + NOKOR = "GREAT POWERS" NOW.

* WAPO@TWITTER > OBAMA FACING ANOTHER "RED LINE" MOMENT, THIS ONE IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA!?

Yeah, but again Beijing's real foci or target is getting back TAIWAN.

JAPAN MUST ACCEPT VASSALAGE TO OWG CO-SUPERPOWER CHINA, OR JAPAN WILL BE NUKED.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/18/2016 23:24 Comments || Top||



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