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Today: 64 articles and 239 comments as of 14:42.
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IS attacks at Brussels airport, metro, at least 34 dead, 200 injured
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Bangladesh central bank weighs lawsuit against NY Fed over cyber heist
Bangladesh's central bank has hired a lawyer in the United States for a potential lawsuit against the New York Federal Reserve after unknown hackers stole $81 million from its account with the U.S. bank, an internal report said.

In one of the largest cyber heists in history, the hackers breached the computer systems of Bangladesh Bank (BB) in early February and succeeded in issuing instructions to the New York Fed to transfer $81 million to accounts in the Philippines.

The hackers also tried to move $20 million to an obscure non-profit entity based in Sri Lanka but that transaction was halted because they misspelt the recipient's name.

The heist has prompted the resignation of Bangladesh's central bank governor, Atiur Rahman, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is now helping the country to track down the cyber crooks.

BB said in an incident report dated March 13 that it had been the subject of a sophisticated cyber-attack in which 35 payment instructions were issued to the New York Fed. Of those the U.S. bank blocked 30 while allowing the rest to go through.

"We view this as a major lapse on the part of FRB NY," BB said in the report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

It said the bank was considering "preparing the ground to make a legitimate claim for the loss of funds against the FRB NY through a legal process".

A source at the central bank confirmed the authenticity of the report.

The New York Fed has said it followed normal procedures in allowing the transfer of the funds and that there was no evidence that its own systems had been compromised.

Bangladesh police are still collecting information from the central bank's computer systems to determine who was behind the heist. In its report, BB said it was pursuing all avenues to recover the money.

In Sri Lanka, a court has imposed a travel ban on six directors of the Shalika Foundation to which the hackers transferred money, a lawyer said on Tuesday.

The transfer of $20 million, ostensibly for a rural electrification project, was held up because the hackers had spelt the entity as Shalika "Fandation".

Shalika, based near the capital Colombo, is headed by Hagoda Gamage Shalika Perera and her residential address was also given as the firm's address. Calls to her and another director went unanswered.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/22/2016 14:39 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Will Hillary get charged, or what ?
No. Next question.
I'd go with "What."
[New York Post] FBI chief James Comey and his investigators are increasingly certain that presidential nominee Hillary Clinton violated laws in handling classified government information through her private email server, career agents say.

Some expect him to push for charges, but he faces a formidable obstacle: the political types in the Obama White House who view a Clinton presidency as a third Obama term.

With that, agents have been spreading the word, largely through associates in the private sector, that their boss is getting stonewalled, despite uncovering compelling evidence that Clinton broke the law.

Exactly what that evidence is -- and how and when it was uncovered during Comey’s months-long inquiry -- has not been disclosed. For the record, the FBI had no comment on the matter, and government sources say no final decision has been made.

Clinton denies she did anything wrong, claiming she had no idea she was getting classified information (a violation of federal law) on her private server during her years as Obama’s secretary of state because the documents she received contained no such headings.

And as FBI director, Comey can only recommend charges to the hacks in the Obama Justice Department. Indeed, many law enforcement officials who know the FBI chief and the bureau’s inner workings believe the evidence would have to be overwhelming for Comey to even recommend charges, much less for DOJ to pursue them.

Still, some FBI staffers suggest the probe's at a point where Comey might quit in protest if Justice ignores a recommendation to pursue a criminal case against Clinton.

Just how close Comey is to any recommendation -- whether to indict or exonerate Clinton -- is difficult to know. But agents believe the probe is nearing an end. A State Department staffer who set up Clinton’s email server, for instance, was recently granted immunity from prosecution to provide Comey’s team with evidence.

"You don't start granting people close to Clinton immunity unless you are seriously looking at charges against your target," one former official told me.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/22/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Here is link to an excellent 45 minute video about the corrupt failure of the DOJ to prosecute any of the arch criminals at Goldman Sachs, following that bank's ruthless plundering of it client's funds, during the period leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.

http://youtu.be/eHgbRYgpGGs

The way that this ties in to Hillary's Treasongate situation is in how the video details the DOJ's use of the illegitimate concept of avoiding "potential consequential collateral damage" (to ostensibly "innocent" parties) as a basis to decline to prosecute blatant crimes.

The video basically demonstrates how the DOJ avoids prosecuting its crony associates by claiming that it is necessary to overlook blatant and serious crimes, in the interests of the "greater good" - because even investigating such crimes might potentially cause market or social disruptions.

This approach is tailor made for allowing the sneering Hilligula to escape justice.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 03/22/2016 2:32 Comments || Top||

#2  If she is charged and still elected, can she pardon herself?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/22/2016 3:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Investors Daily just ran this short editorial:

Clinton Email Scandal: It’s Time Hillary Suspended Her Campaign
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/22/2016 4:01 Comments || Top||

#4  It’s time she did what a decent person would do — temporarily shelve her presidential campaign.

If laughter prolongs your life, you just gave me a decade, besoeker.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/22/2016 4:51 Comments || Top||

#5  If the market reacts to a criminal managed company by dumping their stock price that's a GAIN for society.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/22/2016 5:13 Comments || Top||

#6  Something 'decent' for you g(r)om.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/22/2016 5:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Hmmm... time to send some pizzas to IDF
Posted by: European Conservative || 03/22/2016 5:20 Comments || Top||

#8  No.

Too many people in five huge industries - entertainment, education, finance/banking, IT, and public employment - have given money to her as a mercenary to enforce a certain quid pro quo for a) guarantees that their income will never cease and/or b) indulgences from the regulatory leviathan of the federal government.

These industries alone have spent nearly a billion dollars through various channels to see her elected president. DOJ employees are part of one of those industries.

So no, there will be no charges.

Nothing personal, just business.
Posted by: no mo uro || 03/22/2016 6:17 Comments || Top||

#9  I agree. She will not be charged. Prepare for letdown.
Posted by: Dale || 03/22/2016 6:38 Comments || Top||

#10 
Posted by: Beldar Glomose5585 || 03/22/2016 8:20 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm gonna knock off the local bank then I immunize myself by running for mayor.
Posted by: Jack salami || 03/22/2016 9:30 Comments || Top||

#12  Jack there's bound to be somebody among 'burg regulars who's in law enforcement.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/22/2016 9:56 Comments || Top||

#13  There are indeed a number of law enforcement officers here, g(r)omgoru.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/22/2016 11:37 Comments || Top||

#14  Dunno; he may live somewhere a convicted criminal has a better shot of becoming mayor.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 03/22/2016 11:46 Comments || Top||

#15  How about a leak?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/22/2016 12:10 Comments || Top||

#16  Jack might be among them TW...
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 03/22/2016 12:45 Comments || Top||

#17  :-) I was under the impression that he was a businessman of some sort. But I'm often wrong about such things, and some of you never say.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/22/2016 12:51 Comments || Top||

#18  So no, there will be no charges.
And no changes, either. Champ's third term.

Maybe part of the deal when she took the Secretary of State position. For a dollar and other valuable considerations.
Posted by: Bobby || 03/22/2016 12:57 Comments || Top||

#19  As am I (retired LE)
Posted by: Jack salami || 03/22/2016 13:02 Comments || Top||

#20  What stops Comey from going to the Manhattan District Attorney?
.
Posted by: OregonGuy || 03/22/2016 13:15 Comments || Top||

#21  I'm expecting a medical/health announcement and withdrawal/party-substitution.
Posted by: WarDoof || 03/22/2016 15:12 Comments || Top||

#22  I am still hoping that Kim Dotcom's prediction comes true.
Posted by: dk70 the scantily clad || 03/22/2016 17:41 Comments || Top||

#23  The Human Costume Fail?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/22/2016 19:35 Comments || Top||

#24  Jack, go to work for the Veterans Administration and you are good to go.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/22/2016 19:50 Comments || Top||

#25  I guess I should be more liberal with the sarc button since a few thought I was contemplating a crime.
Posted by: Jack salami || 03/22/2016 20:57 Comments || Top||

#26  But if you use the sarc button it would deny us the opportunity to take your comments out of context.
Posted by: gorb || 03/22/2016 21:50 Comments || Top||

#27  This marks the open criminalization of the ruling class. If they cannot prosecute such a screamingly obvious violation of the law, then there is little that can and will be done to anyone in the power circles there.

... until those so-called ruling class elites are removed from power. Forcibly removed is becoming more and more likely. Continues flouting and disrespect for the law will eventually result in it being ignored and violence will follow. Targeting politicians and their sycophants in business, academia and press. And this isn't "chain myself to a truck door" symbolic stuff, I'm talking about nasty, real violence, bodies hanging from lamp-posts type of violence.

Posted by: Whuger Dingle9191 || 03/22/2016 22:49 Comments || Top||

#28  Conspiracy Theory: Hillary is there to lock up the Dem nomination away from Bernie and the socialists. Once that is accomplished, she withdraws and the Obama clique, as they secretly planned with her, get to appoint the Dem candidate. Hillary gets a "compassion" pardon by Obama on the way out the door, Dems get their establishment hack/puppet/figurehead that can challenge whoever the GOP throws up there, and they remain in power.

We are living in a really really bad political fiction novel right now.
Posted by: Threamp Flack4233 || 03/22/2016 22:58 Comments || Top||

#29  Hill and Bill get permanent victim card status from the Conspiracy, and can continue to rake in money from the marks like a good carney
Posted by: Woodrow Borgia3397 || 03/22/2016 23:00 Comments || Top||

#30  Hillary's biggest electoral problem is that Mainstream Americans still don't trust her due to the malices aforethought she allegedly committed in order to keep hubby Bill from formal imprisonment + impeachment, etc. TOO MANY AMERICANS SEE HER AS A PARTNER TO BILL'S CRIMES OR ACTIONS, NOT AS A LOYAL, STOIC, LONG- SUFFERING WIFE.

Although the MSM-Net wont admit to it for now, IMO the real threat to Hillary stems not from the FBI but from whom I like to label as America's "Last Anti-Commie WASP/WASC" Donald Trump, + even from Bernie Sanders vee threat of a "brokered" DNC this summer.

I've said it before - SANDERS is just the polite face or beginning of Marxism-Commie-Socialism-Govtism beoming electorally overt in the US. IFF THE US IS STILL N-O-T SUBORNED UNDER OWG + COMMIE-SOC WORLD ORDER BY 2025, EXPECT TO SEE THE HARDLINE COMMIES + ALIGNED TO COME OUT VIA BOTH THE ELECTORAL PROCESS, + ESPEC VIA VIOLENT NATIONAL MILITANCY INCLUD ARMED INSURRECTION.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/22/2016 23:43 Comments || Top||

#31  See DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS, LUCIANNE, VARIOUS > DONALD TRUMP IS RISING BECAUSE WHITE AMERICA IS DYING - HUFFINGTON POST.

Is Billary to blame, iff only in part, for the decline, demise, or final death of "White America"???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/22/2016 23:48 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Utah's Online Caucus Gives Security Experts Heart Attacks
Posted by: newc || 03/22/2016 01:03 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Betcha Trump is going to lose in this one.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/22/2016 5:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Paper ballots. I can wait for a month or more for proper tabulation. It's the friggn 24/7 news creators who are desperate for something right now.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/22/2016 9:30 Comments || Top||


#4  Voting for the American Idle.
Posted by: WarDoof || 03/22/2016 15:05 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Jean-Pierre Bemba Convicted at ICC of War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity
[NBCNEWS] A high-ranking Congolese politician was convicted unanimously Monday of war crimes and crimes against humanity in a landmark case at the Hague.

The charges against Jean-Pierre Bemba — a former rebel leader and vice president in the Democratic Republic of Congo — related to rapes, murders and pillaging allegedly carried out by his fighters.

Bemba was the highest-ranking official yet to be convicted by the court and showed no emotion as the unanimous verdict against him was read out Monday at the Hague.

His marathon trial — which began in November 2010 — was the ICC's first to focus on crimes committed in Central African Republic (CAR) and the first to recognize rape as as war crime.

Bemba faced three war-crimes charges and two counts of crimes against humanity — for allegedly commanding the MLC militia which raped, murdered and pillaged between 2002 and 2003 in neighboring CAR's civil war.

The trial focused on the question of "command responsibility" — i.e. whether Bemba should be held legally liable for alleged crimes committed by fighters under his control. It also was the first case to focus so heavily on rape as a war crime, according to the Open Society Foundations.
Posted by: Fred || 03/22/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown Africa"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/22/2016 10:56 Comments || Top||

#2  ...Big deal. He will live out his life in surprising comfort. You want to deter war crimes? Take 'em out back to the Portable Adobe Wall(TM) within ten minutes of sentencing.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/22/2016 18:26 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Castros welcome Obama to Cuba with a slap in the face
[Wash Post] President Obama went sightseeing in Old Havana, savoring the adulation of pro-regime crowds welcoming him on streets that had been whitewashed for his visit. But a few hours before his arrival, the true nature of the dictatorship he is embracing reared its ugly head, as hundreds of uniformed security personnel attacked and arrested peaceful protesters leaving Palm Sunday Mass.

A group of dissidents known as the Little Sisters of the Poor Ladies in White was met outside Havana’s Santa Rita church by an organized crowd of Castro loyalists shouting insults and revolutionary slogans. Then, The Post reports, Castro’s secret police pounced on the women and "half-dragged, half-carried them to waiting buses," while men marching with the women "were chased, thrown to the curb and handcuffed." As they were arrested, the crowd chanted "This is Fidel’s street!"

This was a slap in the face to President Obama -- a display intended to send a clear message that, despite his normalization of relations, nothing has changed in Cuba.
Take THAT! You jankee communist wanna-bees !
How little respect do the Castro brothers have for Obama? This month, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes met in Miami with Carlos Amel Oliva, head of the youth wing of a major dissident organization on the island. When Oliva returned to Cuba, he was detained by the regime for "antisocial behavior." His was just one of 526 political detentions in the first two weeks of March leading up to Obama’s trip.
But meeting with a member of the Obama regime actually is "antisocial behavior."
Obama had promised not to visit Cuba under such conditions. In 2014, Obama said he would visit Cuba only if "I with confidence can say that we’re seeing some progress in the liberty and freedom," adding: "If we’re going backwards, then there’s not much reason for me to be there. I’m not interested in just validating the status quo."
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/22/2016 06:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Obama had promised...

All this turds promises come with expiration dates...some longer than others. This one was about 24 seconds.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/22/2016 7:42 Comments || Top||

#2  It's no slap in the face; Obama is in Cuba to get lessons on governing & this was just a little demonstration.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/22/2016 8:00 Comments || Top||

#3  "Castros welcome Obama to Cuba with a slap in the face" - and all parties enjoyed it.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 03/22/2016 8:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Obama's major accomplishments (lifting sanctions for Cuba and Iran) were never promised in his campaigning. And were conveniently made during his second term.
Posted by: airandee || 03/22/2016 8:45 Comments || Top||

#5  "I see nothing wrong here," he giggled.
Posted by: Elmart Lumplump8470 || 03/22/2016 9:16 Comments || Top||

#6  Sounds like a good and appropriate place for his Presidential Library.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/22/2016 9:32 Comments || Top||

#7  I expect no end to O's shenanigans in the last year of his presidency. Nothing to hide now.

Every tenant of his actual belief system will come to the fore. You'll see who we actually voted for (well 'collectively' anyway).
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 03/22/2016 9:58 Comments || Top||

#8  Every tenant of his actual belief system will come to the fore.

Michelin neckties in the Rose Garden ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/22/2016 10:01 Comments || Top||

#9  Potensieel.....
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 03/22/2016 10:24 Comments || Top||

#10  Mootch won't let them happen near their vegetable garden on the South Lawn, though.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 03/22/2016 10:33 Comments || Top||

#11  I suppose the surprise meter would have been a good choice too...
Posted by: james || 03/22/2016 10:48 Comments || Top||

#12  The demonstrations would have embarrassed Obama. Castro is just being a good host.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/22/2016 12:17 Comments || Top||

#13  Castro slapped the US in the face. Zero eas just the facilitator of the event.
Posted by: Unelet Protector of the Sith2424 || 03/22/2016 13:20 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Separatists, Ukrainians continue to exchange gunfire


For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately.

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Separatist forces in Donetsk and Lugansk fired on Ukrainian forces 32 times over a 24 hour period, charged Ukrainian military officials, according to Russian language news accounts.

Meanwhile, rebel military officials say that Ukrainian forces have hit their positions 43 times over a 24 hour peroid.

According to a news account which appeared in korrespondent.net, rebel forces in Donetsk fired on Ukrainian positions in Avdievka, Opytnoye, Peski and Marinka, all near western districts of Donetsk city. Weapons used by rebel forces included 125mm tank guns, grenade launchers, sniper and machine gun fire.

In Lugansk, Ukrainian military officials said that rebels fired on Svetlodarsk, Trehizbenki and at Novotroitskoye using 82mm mortar fire, grenade launchers and small arms fire.

According to official rebel news accounts, Ukrainian forces hammered rebel positions at the Donetsk airport and at Spartak using 120mm and 82mm mortars fire.

A separate rebel news release said that Ukrainians also hit rebel targets in western districts of Donetsk city including Petrovsky district and at Trudovskoy.

Further west, Ukrainian artillery hit rebel targets near Peski, Opytnoye and at Marinka.

Continuing fighting at Yasinovataya

According to a news account by a Donetsk separatist fighter identified as Ruslan Lyapin, fighting continues near Yasinovataya, the battle now entering its third week.

According to Lyapin, Ukrainian forces are hitting dug in rebel troops with everything they have, including 122mm artillery grenade launchers, mortars and 30mm autocannon fire trying to overrun those positions, only to be driven back.

Rebel media refuses to discuss their casualties in the battle and Ukrainian media barely acknowledges fighting near Yasinovataya. Other news reports say Ukrainian forces have lost seven effectives and 14 wounded in the fighting over the last three days, which is a number this writer has read on other publications as well.

Lugansk

According to a news report which appeared in regnum.ru, Ukrainian artillery struck at rebel positions in Slavyanoserbsk and Krasny Liman.

According to Lugansk official Andrei Marochko, forces belonging to the Ukrainian 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade near Boguslavsky Popasnyansky, were reinforced with six tanks and eight infantry fighting vehicles.

Donetsk military officials claim that the Right Sektor staffed Azov Regiment recently moved a motorized rifle company out of Mariupol in southern Donetsk to Vinogradoye, including 10 to 12 armored personnel carriers.

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 || 03/22/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Ruling Party Seals Expected Victory in Kazakhstan Vote
But I think we all saw this coming...
The ruling party of energy-rich Kazakhstan's ageing autocrat President Nursultan Nazarbayev
...has served as the President of Kazakhstan since the Fall of the Soviet Union and the nation's independence in 1991. Contrary to commonly held belief, there is a difference between Kazakhs and Cossacks: Kazakhs have mustaches. Or maybe it's the other way around...
secured a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, results showed Monday, a poll OSCE observers said failed to meet international democratic standards.

According to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party won 82 percent of votes in Sunday's election and will share parliament with the pro-government People's Communist Party and Ak Zhol, who each secured just over seven percent of the vote.

The vote -- which saw little real opposition to Nazarbayev -- came as the ex-Soviet country sees its once-booming economy slump on the back of falling oil prices and an economic crisis in northern neighbor Russia, but the strongman's grip on power appears as firm as ever.

Celebrating the victory with supporters on Monday, Nazarbayev -- who during the poll warned outsiders "not to rush" Kazakhstan towards democracy -- said he was in a "joyful state" following the announcement of the results.

"Our party has won. The 77 percent turnout is a record and 82 percent of votes received for Nur Otan -- a record!" he said.

"We demonstrated to the whole world open, direct voting on a competitive basis in the presence of thousands of international observers and journalists."

But an international vote monitor mission headed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Monday that "genuine political choice" was "insufficient" in the vote and that the country "still has a considerable way to go" in meeting international standards for democratic votes.
Posted by: Fred || 03/22/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Seals are into politics in Kazakhstan?
Posted by: Grunter || 03/22/2016 10:53 Comments || Top||


Another Cossack formation commander detained in Lugansk


For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately.

By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Another Cossack military formation commander for the separatists of Lugansk was detained by Lugansk authorities several days ago to face charges including robbery, rape, kidnapping and murder, according to Russian language news accounts.

Vladimir Timofeev appeared to the prosecutor's office in Lugansk last Friday. He was immediately detained, and is currently held in prison in Lugansk.

Russian journalist Boris Rozhin, in noting the arrest said that four other formation commanders were detained the following day, but they were identified only by their Russian call signs: Sumpak, Tema, Son, Ytsyk and Malenkiy.
Those are call signs? Whatever happened to Berezka and Tyagach and Snegopad?
Give 'em a break. They're new.
According to Rozhin, their arrests were in connection with an incident involving members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

According to Rozhin, Ukrainian forces fired on members of the OSCE, which destroyed the two vehicles they were riding in. Timofeev, and presumably the four other commanders were charged with firing on the vehicles.

According to an news article which appeared in unian.net, Lugansk attorney general Leonid Tkachenko charged Timofeev with rape and murder in and around Stkhanov in northern Lugansk. A total of 20 reports had been received by authorities.

Several news site say that Timofeev was in Lugansk because he also was wanted in Russia for serious crimes.

Although Timofeev's ethnicity is unclear from news releases, Lugansk officials are sensitive to charges about Cossack formation commanders disappearing or being murdered. An unusually large number of them were either ambushed well behind the line of contact since December, 2014, or were detained and their formations disbanded or turned over to new commanders who were more cooperative to Lugansk officials.

It is an unlikely testament to Russian and Ukrainian language blogging in this region of the world that officials are so sensitive to charges they have repeatedly denied. Not even the accounts by friendly news outlets can cover up the stink.

The last Cossack commander to be killed, Colonel Pavel Dremov, was awarded an honorific for his regimental unit and was lavished with praise and medals until he was killed in an ambush between Pervomaisk and Stakhanov on December 12th, 2015. Dremov immediately after being rewarded the honorific was recorded in a Belorusian newspaper severely criticizing the Lugansk civilian leadership for hiding the fact that Debaltsevo was such a bloodbath for the rebels. Those criticisms came even after, Dremov claimed, he and other commanders had warned the civilian leadership about the attack on Debaltsevo.

Seven others besides Dremov have died or have disappeared in the preceding year, with charges leveled at Lugansk authorities for their alleged role in those commanders' demises.

According to a news report in ytro.ru, Tkachenko was quoted as saying, "I draw your attention to the fact that such actions of law enforcement bodies of the republic are not an attempt to discredit or eliminate" undesirable "people who position themselves as" defenders "of [Lugansk], but persons who commit crimes against their citizens. They are not advocates, they are common criminals," said Tkachenko.

Other reports say that Timofeev and the other detainees were involved in marijuana dealing around Stakhanov.

Rozhin, on his blog, made mention of the issue of smuggling, some of the routes of which go through Stakhanov, hinting Timofeev's unit may have objected to smuggling to Ukraine, including drugs and excise goods.

Several Cossack commanders, including Col. Dremov had openly objected to business dealings between Lugansk government officials and Ukrainians in coal sales.

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 || 03/22/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So eastern Ukraine is going to heat up again?

First, Putin reduces Syria from hot to simmer.

Now he purges incompetent/corrupt separatist officers in east Ukraine.

Curiouser and curiouser.
Posted by: Chuck || 03/22/2016 3:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Russians are chess players.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/22/2016 3:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Putin is a perfectionist. Do it properly or not at all.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/22/2016 7:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Chess fanatics with industrial strength livers. A dangerous, tragic and often hilarious combination.

The key is to line the stomach with a fat, butter is good, lard will do along with bread. Then steady boy, steady. Winston never had a problem with this aspect.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/22/2016 19:39 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Vessel Carrying Plutonium Departs Japan Port for US
I sure hope that this ship is fully escorted. I would imagine that they would do a circuitous route around the Cape of Good Hope. Certainly not through the Panama Canal. It would be good to avoid the Straits of Malacca, too.
A nuclear transport vessel carrying a huge cache of plutonium -- enough to produce 50 nuclear bombs -- to be returned to the US left a Japanese port on Tuesday afternoon.

The stockpile, provided by the United States, Britain and France decades ago for research purposes, is being shipped to the US as part of a bilateral storage deal.

Television footage by national broadcaster NHK showed containers being loaded on to the Britain-registered ship at a port in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, close to where the highly-toxic substance has been stored, and the ship leaving the port.

The vessel carrying the 331 kilogrammes (730 pounds) of plutonium departed at about 3 pm (0600 GMT) under tight security guarded by patrol boats of the Japan Coast Guard, according to NHK.

The government "cannot reveal" the vessel's itinerary or any other details, an official told AFP, but anti-nuclear campaign groups said it will take two months for the ship to arrive at a nuclear facility in South Carolina.

A Japanese official told AFP last week that the material will be disposed of in the US.

Five anti-nuclear groups, including Greenpeace, said in a joint statement on Tuesday released ahead of the vessel's departure that the shipment "exposes the failure of global plutonium reprocessing programmes and the threat from current Japanese nuclear policy."

The stockpile has caused disquiet among anti-nuclear campaigners and neighbouring countries given Japan has the know-how to produce a nuclear weapon -- even as it adamantly chooses not to.

The shipment comes ahead of a nuclear security summit in Washington from late this month, and is meant to underscore both countries' commitment to nuclear non-proliferation.

But anti-nuclear campaigners including Greenpeace last week condemned the shipment as a "dangerous distraction" from what they said is a far larger cache of roughly 10 tonnes of plutonium in the country.
It's called, "insurance."
In Beijing, China's foreign ministry on Tuesday called on Japan to take further steps to reduce its stockpiles.
Beijing naturally would want Japan to be non-nuclear. I would imagine that Beijing would reciprocate.
"In addition, it should return large quantities of other materials, including weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium," ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters.

"This is indeed a concern of the international community."

Japan traditionally has relied heavily on nuclear technology for its energy needs, though the aftermath of the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster led to all of the country's reactors being shut down, with only a few coming back on line so far.
I will bet that you won't see this ship on the Marine Traffic app, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/22/2016 15:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If one could build an explosive shell around a 730 pound plutonium core how big could the bang be?
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/22/2016 16:10 Comments || Top||

#2  You will never get a 730 lb plutonium core because it would be critical before you assemble it. Better to have the classic fission booster, followed by a can made of plutonium, with a center cylinder of plutonium, filled with lithium deuteride (the classic spark plug for fusion).
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/22/2016 17:33 Comments || Top||

#3  OK, but what if you made the Plutonium subcritical pieces 3-D spherical pie shapes to slam together - could that make a big boom?
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/22/2016 19:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Liberian Flag? Philipino/Indonesian crew?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/22/2016 19:49 Comments || Top||

#5  The Nagasaki bomb converted about 1 gram of the plutonium to energy. The spontaneous fission depends on how much plutonium 240 is in with the plutonium 239 as 240 is very unstable. The Nagasaki plutonium core weighed 6.2 kilograms. The reason for the low effectiveness is the speed at which the reaction occurs blows apart most of the fissible material before it can react. The effectiveness has increased since WWII, It is still only about 1 in 3000. The uranium bomb dropped on Hiroshima was a bit less than 2% efficient, in other words 2% of the uranium was converted to energy.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/22/2016 20:11 Comments || Top||

#6  Gee, remember that missing NKor mini-sub?
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/22/2016 21:26 Comments || Top||


Lessons on how to be a big bully.
The incident happened Saturday as Indonesian surveillance vessels tried to detain the trawler suspected of operating illegally near Indonesian islands in the South China Sea.

After stopping the boat and removing eight crew members, the Indonesians were towing the vessel to shore when the Chinese coastguard appeared and rammed into the detained boat, helping to release it.

However, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying insisted Monday that the area near Indonesia's Natuna Islands was a "traditional Chinese fishing ground", and that the Chinese boat had to be rescued by coastguards after facing harassment from an Indonesian vessel.

Indonesia does not have overlapping territorial claims with China in the South China Sea, unlike other Asian nations. But it objects to China's "nine-dash line" defining its claims since this overlaps Indonesia's exclusive economic zone around the Natunas.

The Natunas are a string of islands rich in fish on the far northwest fringe of the archipelago.

Indonesia in 2014 launched a tough crackdown on illegal fishing which involves sinking foreign vessels caught fishing without a permit after impounding the boats and removing the crews.

Posted by: 3dc || 03/22/2016 12:35 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sink the boat next time, don't tow it in.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/22/2016 13:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Sink it with the crew chained to the mast.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/22/2016 14:03 Comments || Top||

#3  "Ramming speeeeed!"
Posted by: D-Day || 03/22/2016 14:29 Comments || Top||

#4  2nd inident this week - Argentina deep-sixed a "fishing boat" a few days ago
Posted by: Whert Unerenter4345 || 03/22/2016 14:33 Comments || Top||

#5  O&Co's policy is to project US weakness, hence the Spratley Island "bases," intimidating the Philipines, Vietnam, etc. China sees this as a go-ahead to fill the vacuum.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/22/2016 15:07 Comments || Top||

#6  After stopping the boat and removing eight crew members, the Indonesians were towing the vessel to shore when the Chinese coastguard appeared and rammed into the detained boat, helping to release it.

Hmm. Methinks I smell a rat . . . .
Posted by: gorb || 03/22/2016 15:51 Comments || Top||


Europe
The Norwegian TV series that’s enraged the Kremlin
Okkupert (“Occupied”), the most expensive Norwegian television show in history, never mentions the word “quisling.” And yet its premise — a Russian occupation of Norway — evokes Vidkun Quisling’s Nazi collaborationist government and is permeated with the still unshakable trauma of that era.

Between 1942 and 1945, Quisling’s puppet regime revoked the authority of the Norwegian King (exiled to Great Britain after refusing German demands to abdicate), banned the entry of Jews fleeing Nazi terror, and fruitlessly committed Norwegian soldiers to the Eastern Front. At the end of the war, Quisling was executed and his name now dubiously lives on as an eponym for “traitor.”

Okkupert wrestles with a modern version of Quisling’s devastating legacy — and the shameful blot it left on the country’s history. The show is set in the near future, where a Green party government comes to power in Oslo on the heels of a hugely damaging global warming-related hurricane. Promising to unveil a revolutionary new form of nuclear energy powered by the chemical element thorium, Prime Minister Jesper Berg strikes a very Scandinavian pose by announcing that Norway will lead by example and immediately shut down its considerable gas and oil production.

This upsets the European Union, of which Norway is not a member. In cahoots with Moscow, Brussels secretly threatens Berg with a full-scale Russian invasion unless he commits to maintaining Norway’s fossil fuel extraction under Moscow’s supervision. (The United States, having recently achieved energy independence, has withdrawn from NATO and sits disinterestedly aside.) Berg reluctantly agrees to this scheme, promising his people that the insertion of Russian worker crews to restart Norway’s energy industry will be temporary.
Much more at the link
Posted by: badanov || 03/22/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Great story for a Netflix binge.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/22/2016 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Mad because the series omitted to show that Norwegians invited the Russians after failing to cope with "Norwegian" Muslims?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/22/2016 4:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Er so the greens make Norway so poor it cannot afford to defend itself, and then someone moves in and takes it...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/22/2016 5:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Good series. At one point the Russians are shown to have weaponized immigration. Very topical.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 03/22/2016 8:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Don't shift the blame from idjits who, dogmatically, refuse to accept what Islam (and Muslims) is.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/22/2016 10:34 Comments || Top||

#6  The Americans show their true colors.
Of course, its fiction.
Posted by: WarDoof || 03/22/2016 15:14 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
LEAD ORGANIZER Who Shut Down Hwy to TRUMP RALLY Is "Soros Fellow" from New Orleans
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/22/2016 10:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sue him and go for Soros in a RICO trial.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/22/2016 10:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Actually, it's her, and she has gazongas...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/22/2016 11:03 Comments || Top||

#3  She is a Mexican national. Not an American. She works for soros. Makes her a mercinary. Hope her nice tits are enjoying the tent city. Fucking foreigner meddling in American political processes. Funded by a nazi foreigner. Good lord. Us white middle class Americans are sure tolerant. Any other country and the both of them would be dead.
Posted by: 49 pan || 03/22/2016 12:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Sue her and her gazongas too!
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 03/22/2016 12:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Funny how they want to control the roads to prevent non-criminals freely travelling, yet criminals crossing the border is not a problem.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/22/2016 13:00 Comments || Top||

#6  So she is from another nation, funded to cause harm in a state she or the company she works for subsides. This is begging for Rico. Wines sherriff Joe only arrested the three leaders I expect some great charges to be filed. Hope she enjoys the American prison system.
Posted by: 49 pan || 03/22/2016 13:24 Comments || Top||

#7  Chained her neck to a pickup. So what, put the thing in neutral and push the vehicle off the road.

Otherwise get some freon and freeze the lock and shatter it.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/22/2016 13:31 Comments || Top||

#8  If it's her truck remove the door.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/22/2016 13:32 Comments || Top||

#9  Just heard reports the black guy at the trump rally that beat down the protester in a clan hood is active duty Air Force. My opinion of the Air Force just went up a notch.
Posted by: 49 pan || 03/22/2016 13:53 Comments || Top||

#10  Still... Exceptions can be made. I see potential. Call me a RINO, but I know a good immigrant when I see two.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/22/2016 20:04 Comments || Top||

#11  Soros? It seems like whenever you see western rot, Soros money is behind it.
Posted by: Vernal Oppressor of the Chinese8749 || 03/22/2016 22:33 Comments || Top||

#12  Jacinta loves teasing the gringo
("That plastic flamingo and bingo!"),
So don't tell Gonzales
Her Mexico's lawless
And speaks in a whole other lingo.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 03/22/2016 23:53 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Dem says Russian subs 'dangerously close' to U.S.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is deploying nuclear-armed submarines "dangerously close" to the United States and European allies, a Senate Democrat said following a trip to the Arctic Circle.

"No one is suggesting that Putin is contemplating a nuclear launch against a NATO country, but it's not clear how tethered to reality Putin is," Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters Monday. "And it should make us nervous that many of his submarines are starting to get dangerously close to the U.S. and our allies."
Well Senator, you make a nice case to the press. How about making one to your leadership? Perhaps the Senate Minority Leader, Sec DoD, and President should hear what you're saying...
It' prob'ly because the evil Pubs cut military funding, damn them.
Murphy made the comments while arguing that the Navy needs to pursue an aggressive plan to replace aging American submarines, which can thwart rival countries from gathering intelligence and maintain the security of global shipping lanes.

In recent years, Putin's navy has pursued a more aggressive strategy even than during the Cold War, according to Murphy. "Russian submarines have been pushing out to the very precipice of NATO-ally waters," he said. "We have seen Russian boats coming closer to the U.S. and to our European partner ports than ever before, in immensely provocative ways — in ways that were rare even during the days of the Cold War."

Pentagon officials currently plan to scale back production of modern attack submarines in order to preserve funding for the Ohio-class submarines that carry nuclear weapons. "You're going have to look at this program with a national lens because if you drop this into the middle of a Navy shipbuilding budget it will just gut Navy shipbuilding for decades to come," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told a House panel last week.

Murphy wants the Navy to build those Ohio-class submarines without cutting production of other modern attack submarines. "We've got to find a way to do both," he said. "If you look at the pace of Russian and Chinese building programs, we can't afford to drop Virginia-class production back to one for more than a year."
How many Ohio boats do we need? I'd think the attack subs are more useful right now...
Posted by: Steve White || 03/22/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yokay fine, but FYI as a Madonna fan I have to tell the truth + say that God + My Ancestors' Ghosts-Spirits were far more concerned about the CHINA-VS-US over Guam + Pacific Islands, etc. than Russia's = Vlad/VladVedev Subs.

Back in the day, many decades ago.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/22/2016 2:02 Comments || Top||

#2  A distraction?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/22/2016 5:09 Comments || Top||

#3  "it's not clear how tethered to reality Putin is"

He seems to be achieving much more foreign-policy wise than Teh Zero is doing...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/22/2016 5:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Russians don't shit without a plan, son...
Posted by: Raj || 03/22/2016 10:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Sub-builder General Dynamics is in Murphy's back yard.
Posted by: Pappy || 03/22/2016 11:01 Comments || Top||

#6  Maybe Ramius is planning to defect.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/22/2016 11:19 Comments || Top||

#7  "Bush backed the land forces!"
Posted by: WarDoof || 03/22/2016 15:08 Comments || Top||

#8  Scoop Jackson, where are you?
Posted by: Spomock Gurly-Brown7353 || 03/22/2016 22:41 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
China & Russia alarmed about secondary sanctions, because sanctions never work.
Posted by: newc || 03/22/2016 00:36 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See also WORLD NEWS > [Stars-N-Stripes] AS NORTH KOREA FLEXES ITS MUSCLES, SOME IN SOUTH WANT NUKES, TOO.

I've said it times before - iff INTER-KOREAN REUNIFICATION BETWEEN NOKOR + SOKOR IS TOO DE FACTO TAKE PLACE, IT JUST BE THAT NOKOR MAY HAVE TO HAVE NUKES, + THAT THE US-WEST/ALLIES WILL
SSSSSHHHHH ..... CCCCCCCC WANT NOKOR TO HAVE NUKES.

As long as Mainland China fails to get back sovereign control of Taiwan, the only thing the peoples of the Two Koreas can look forward to is Chinese takeover of NOKOR under any scenario, to include formal annexation of same as China's newest province.

CHINA ALREADY HAS SUCH SIGNIFICANT PLA FORCES INSIDE NOKOR THAT IT CAN TAKE OVER NOKOR FROM THE KIM REGIME WHETHER THE REGIME ANDOR NOKOR STATE IS IN COLLAPSE OR NOT.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/22/2016 1:49 Comments || Top||



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