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Dozens killed in suicide bombing at Damascus "Palace of Justice" courthouse
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
4 23:21 Rex Mundi [6] 
5 23:59 Zenobia Floger6220 [7] 
10 20:57 Barbara [7] 
9 15:57 AlanC [4] 
5 12:41 NoMoreBS [9] 
5 12:32 lord garth [4] 
6 20:54 Frank G [8] 
7 19:33 Crusader [5] 
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Page 2: WoT Background
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1 05:11 g(r)omgoru [1]
3 08:31 Besoeker [5]
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Page 4: Opinion
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6 23:53 Procopius2k [6]
4 19:27 ed in texas [4]
Page 6: Politix
9 20:59 KBK [7]
10 16:04 AlanC [2]
21 19:04 The peanut gallery [4]
-Lurid Crime Tales-
Nine MSNBC personalities had tax liens filed against them
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/15/2017 12:41 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I demand they release their tax statements!
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/15/2017 12:42 Comments || Top||

#2  '1099' workers?
Posted by: Pappy || 03/15/2017 17:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Only 9?
Posted by: Barbara || 03/15/2017 20:58 Comments || Top||

#4  S*H*A*R*P*T*O*N
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 03/15/2017 23:21 Comments || Top||


Admiral, seven others charged with corruption in new ‘Fat Leonard' indictment
[MSN] The Justice Department unsealed a fresh indictment Tuesday charging eight current and former Navy officials -- including an admiral -- with corruption and other crimes in the "Fat Leonard" bribery case, escalating an epic scandal that has dogged the Navy for the past four years.

Among those charged were Rear Adm. Bruce Loveless, a senior Navy intelligence officer based at the Pentagon, several Navy captains and a retired colonel from the Marine Corps. The charges cover a period of eight years, from 2006 through 2014.
Sadly, there is much more.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/15/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...If found guilty, those O6s and 07s need to do hard time at Leavenworth, in addition to losing all the bennies. That will get people's attention.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/15/2017 4:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Regarding the Admiral, Bruce Loveless: I work with a woman who was in his class at Annapolis. She said he has been working at the Pentagon for three years WITHOUT A CLEARANCE!
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/15/2017 8:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Regarding the Admiral, Bruce Loveless: I work with a woman who was in his class at Annapolis. She said he has been working at the Pentagon for three years WITHOUT A CLEARANCE!

Which means he's been assigned to 'F Troop' (probably Pentagon off-site location in Crystal City) pending the outcome of an investigation, enjoying full pay and allowances. Obviously the investigation has been ongoing, but now culminating under a Republican administration.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/15/2017 8:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Glad to find out who "Fat Leonard" is since all those charged had some other name.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/15/2017 9:54 Comments || Top||

#5  "Yardarms" and "Keels"
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/15/2017 12:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Loveless has been working in a supervisory position in naval intel over people who are not allowed to show him things because he had his clearances pulled.
No $hit.
Posted by: ed in texas || 03/15/2017 19:22 Comments || Top||

#7  While I welcome this development, I cannot fathom how much our national security was compromised during HRC's time as SoS. It blows my mind that her mealy-mouth non-excuses have thus far allowed her and every single soul associated with that time to evade charges.
Posted by: Crusader || 03/15/2017 19:33 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Huge gas find off Egypt sign of maybe more
The times, they are a-changing.
[AlAhram] Eni expects the first gas to start flowing from Zohr by the end of 2017

A bigwig with Italia's oil and gas company Eni says the discovery of a huge natural gas deposit in Egyptian waters has boosted hopes of other such finds in the eastern Mediterranean that could help meet Europe's energy needs.

Eni Chief Exploration Officer Luca Bertelli told a gas conference Tuesday that his company's "milestone" discovery of Zohr, estimated to hold 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, has reinvigorated the interest of other major oil and gas companies in the region.

He said waters off Cyprus hold potential for new discoveries while exploration opportunities are coming up with Leb and Israel soon offering offshore areas, or blocks, to bidders for exploration licensing.

Bertelli said Eni expects the first gas to start flowing from Zohr by the end of 2017.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/15/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  egypt consumes about 50B cft of gas/year

so this is a very big deal
Posted by: lord garth || 03/15/2017 0:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Bless Egypt.
I mean it.
Posted by: newc || 03/15/2017 2:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Who's next? Syria?
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 03/15/2017 3:58 Comments || Top||

#4  The Med near Syria is a tight box of overlapping claims with Turkey, puppet North Cyprus, Cyprus, Syria, and Lebanon. Is part of Turkey's plays in Cyprus and N. Syria to leverage a bigger slice of the offshore pie?
Posted by: magpie || 03/15/2017 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  The Zohr field is pretty far south of Cyprus and also west of the Leviathon and Tamir fields that Israel is using.

Cyprus does have interest in a field a bit north of Zohr.
Posted by: lord garth || 03/15/2017 12:32 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China's First Overseas Military Base Nearing Completion
[Defensetech] The U.S. has increasing security concerns about China’s first overseas military base close to the hub of operations for U.S. Africa Command in Djibouti, a U.S. commander told Congress Thursday.

Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of AfriCom, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he expected the Chinese base on the Horn of Africa to be operational later this summer.

Without getting specific, Waldhauser said he recently met with Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh "and expressed our concerns about some of the things that are important to us about what the Chinese should not do at that location."

The Chinese base would be about four miles from the U.S. base at Camp Lemonnier, one of the Pentagon’s largest and most important foreign military installations, where about 3,000 U.S. military personnel and contractors are assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.

Camp Lemonnier is also home to Special Operations Command (Forward) ‐ East Africa, which has carried out operations against Al Shabab militants in Somalia and the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula group in Yemen.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/15/2017 09:42 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anyone calculate the impact on PX/BX tailoring and laundry on Lemonnier ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/15/2017 9:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Think positively Besoeker: some reasonable Chinese restaurants are bound to appear in the nearest town.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/15/2017 11:43 Comments || Top||

#3  A Jew in Djibouti one Christmas,
Enjoying a new Chinese business,
Encountered his chaplain.
"Verklempt, eh?" asked Kaplan.
"No, kafir, it's just my strabismus."
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 03/15/2017 21:07 Comments || Top||

#4  *choke* I really must learn Yiddish one of these years.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/15/2017 21:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Me too. A couple of the ancestors (not Jews but sharpies from polyglot environment who picked up whatever they heard) spoke some, but I rarely saw them. Pidgin German and old records usually gets me the gist, but yeah, it'd be fun to do it for real. The catch has always been that crazy alphabet. And laziness. Maybe it's time.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 03/15/2017 23:59 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
New APP Lets You Find Strangers on FACEBOOK just by snapping their pic
[MAXIM] Next time you pass by a sexy stranger, rather than imagining her identity or fanciful ideas of your future life together, simply snap her photo and track down her Facebook. Hey, it's not creepy or invasive at all!
Requires annual (15 April) updating. Use Form 4868 if an extension is required.
A new app developed by British entrepreneur Jack Kenyon called "Facezam" is seeking to become the Shazam of faces. While the latter lets you identify music you like through audio recognition, Facezam matches your photos of strangers with their Facebook accounts.

It works scanning billions of Facebook profile shots by second and can reportedly match up with the right out in just 10 seconds and with 70 percent accuracy.

"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead." Revelation 13:16
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/15/2017 07:57 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Telegraph:

The technology could help reduce crime by making everyone identifiable, Kenyon had claimed, adding that the public implications of the app couldn't be predicted. "There may be a mix of positives and negatives," he said.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/15/2017 8:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Voluntary BAT's and HIIDES, who knew ?

The Biometric Automated Toolset (BAT) and the Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment (HIIDE) system also are used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Link
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/15/2017 9:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Time to buy that paste on groucho mustache and ugly pair of sun glasses...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/15/2017 9:17 Comments || Top||

#4  We come in friendship for the children.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/15/2017 9:25 Comments || Top||

#5  It is creepy and invasive and borders on or is stalking. "You don't know me but I took your picture in a crowd, looked you up on Facebook, and tracked you down. Do you want to go out?"
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/15/2017 9:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Tech, not UV, forcing the adoption of veils(noqab).
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/15/2017 10:42 Comments || Top||

#7  That's why I'm not on facebook.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/15/2017 11:44 Comments || Top||

#8  Me neither.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 03/15/2017 13:20 Comments || Top||

#9  #3 Time to buy that paste on groucho mustache and ugly pair of sun glasses...

Was playing the other day with a neural network to recognize images. Got me wondering about using bold streaks of face paint to defeat facial recognition. Rather like dazzle camouflage for ships back before radar became The Next Big Thing.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/15/2017 15:29 Comments || Top||

#10  In order for it to work, ya' gotta have your picture on Fazebook first.
Posted by: Barbara || 03/15/2017 20:57 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Indonesia transfers US citizen to 'execution island'
Indonesia has transferred a convicted US citizen to its so-called execution island, prompting fears among rights organisations that the government may be preparing another round of firing squads.

Human Rights Watch said Frank Amado, who faces the death penalty for drug trafficking, had been moved to facilities on Nusa Kambangan island, the site of previous recent executions.
It's not how I'd handle drug traffickers but how many such folk don't understand how serious Indonesia (and Singapore) is?
Indonesian press is reporting six other foreign nationals on death row may have moved along with him, including Chen Weibiao, Xiao Jin Zeng and Lo Tin Yau, from China; Malaysian citizen E Wee Hock; Frank Nwaomeka from Nigeria; and Lai Siu Cheung Anika, from Hong Kong.

No US citizen has ever been executed by the Indonesian government.

“This is a worrying development. But we can’t be entirely certain if these transfers are part of preparations for new executions, due to the lack of transparency that is just one of many problems with Indonesia’s penal system,” said Ricky Gunawan, director of the Community Legal Aid Institute, an organisation in Jakarta that has worked with Human Rights Watch to monitor Amado’s case.

“The most recent executions were preceded by transfers to Nusa Kambangan, which is often called execution island here, but the government also sometimes moves prisoners there for other reasons.

“There are serious irregularities in Indonesia’s death penalty system and we call for a halt to this round of executions with a view to implementing a new moratorium and then abolition.”

After a halt on executions between 2009 and 2012, Indonesia has carried out three rounds of executions, the last of which took place in July 2016. Four of 14 death row prisoners were executed, and legal experts in the country are still unsure why the other 10 had their deaths postponed.

Human Rights Watch and Gunawan say Amado technically has one more appeal round available to him, but that in the past the Indonesian government has carried out the death sentence in similar situations.

These two groups are not working closely with the other death row prisoners reportedly transferred recently, but like many international organisations they call for a stop to all executions in the country.

Amado has said in previous interviews that he was involved in the storing of shabu, a local name for a drug similar to crystal meth, but that since his arrest in 2009, he has seen that the Indonesian justice system is marked by abuse and corruption.

In 2011, US government representatives said they would not intervene in the case.

Neither the US embassy in Jakarta nor the Indonesian attorney general’s office immediately responded to requests for comment.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/15/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Narcos

#1  Does a US Citizenship exempt one from the laws of a sovereign nation? I think not.

Little different than the AFG sex trafficers in the UK. Hang'em high.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/15/2017 0:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Not surprised the State Department washed their hands of him. Doesn't matter if he's innocent, they HATE dealing with American citizens abroad. Hate our guts.
Posted by: Harcourt Angoluting9366 || 03/15/2017 1:10 Comments || Top||

#3  It's not how I'd handle drug traffickers but how many such folk don't understand how serious Indonesia (and Singapore) is?

Nasty old no-talent Charlie Daniels cheer-leads for exactly this approach. Lots of his fans nod their heads in agreement in between binges on granmama's oxy pills...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/15/2017 17:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Frank Amado's case will make a very good episode on "Locked Up Abroad" on NatGeo. No happy endings for this one.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/15/2017 17:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Cry me a river.
Posted by: Jack Salami || 03/15/2017 20:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Not all "Franks" are great guys....

ask my ex
Posted by: Frank G || 03/15/2017 20:54 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
NYT Predicted The ‘End Of Snow' In 2014
h/t Instapundit
As the northeastern U.S. gets pummeled by Winter Storm Stella, it’s worth remembering The New York Times published an op-ed predicting the "end of snow" more than three years ago.
Newspaper of Record
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/15/2017 05:30 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Anything bad in the weather is global man-made climate whatever. Anything else is Trump's fault. Or Bush, if it pre-dates The Donald.
Posted by: Bobby || 03/15/2017 7:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Has anyone seen Al Gore around there lately?
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/15/2017 9:10 Comments || Top||

#3  O.K. then the NYT is going to forever put GW to rest and quit bothering us with fake weather forecasts?
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/15/2017 9:44 Comments || Top||

#4  That's why they now call it "climate change" instead of the old "global warming". C'mon, you guys. Try to keep up.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 03/15/2017 12:52 Comments || Top||

#5  If you make enough outlandish predictions, you will eventually get one right and can tell everyone "I told you so!". For sufficiently large values of 'eventually.
Posted by: SteveS || 03/15/2017 13:11 Comments || Top||

#6  I recall in the 1970's that the so called 'climatologists' were screaming and hollering about how "we're all gonna freeze!" due to temperature dropping world wide.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 03/15/2017 14:59 Comments || Top||

#7  I liked polywater the best.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/15/2017 15:05 Comments || Top||

#8  If you freeze polywater, does it turn into ice-9?
Posted by: SteveS || 03/15/2017 15:16 Comments || Top||

#9  g(r)om, your link led me to the perfect descriptor for climate science: Pathological science

Perfect for pathological proggies!!
Posted by: AlanC || 03/15/2017 15:57 Comments || Top||


Government
Congress Demands Investigation into Obama Admin Meddling in Foreign Affairs
[Free Beacon] A group of leading senators is calling on newly installed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to immediately launch an investigation into efforts by the Obama administration to sway foreign elections by sending taxpayer funds to "extreme and sometimes violent political activists" that promote leftist causes, according to a copy of the letter.

The lawmakers disclosed multiple conversations with foreign diplomats who outlined active political meddling by the Obama administration's State Department, including the use of taxpayer funds to support leftist causes in Macedonia, Albania, Latin America, and Africa.

A portion of this State Department funding appears to have gone to organizations supported by the controversial liberal billionaire George Soros, according to the letter, which was authored by Republican Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), Jim Inhofe (Okla.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Ted Cruz (Texas), David Perdue (Ga.), and Bill Cassidy (La.).

The senators are asking Tillerson to launch a full-scale investigation into these funding efforts in order to determine how exactly the Obama administration sought to promote left-leaning causes and political parties across the globe.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/15/2017 04:59 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the use of taxpayer funds to support leftist causes in Macedonia, Albania, Latin America, and Africa

Not to mention you know who.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/15/2017 5:13 Comments || Top||

#2  you mean Britain?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/15/2017 5:15 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm not saying our favorite POTUS didn't interfere in Britain. But, my concerns are closer to home.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/15/2017 5:21 Comments || Top||

#4  A portion of this State Department funding appears to have gone to organizations supported by the controversial liberal billionaire George Soros....

Or was it.... the other way around ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/15/2017 5:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Can it be the first sign of ValJar's fingerprints begin to emerge? Consider each issue in light of how it affects Iran's needs and influence, not American interests.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 03/15/2017 12:41 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
22[untagged]
6Islamic State
3Taliban
3Moslem Colonists
1Commies
1Govt of Iraq
1Govt of Syria
1Hamas
1Hezbollah
1Houthis
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)
1al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
1Narcos
1Palestinian Authority
1Pirates
1Sublime Porte
1Arab Spring

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2017-03-15
  Dozens killed in suicide bombing at Damascus "Palace of Justice" courthouse
Tue 2017-03-14
  Suspected ISIS gas attack hits Iraqi forces in west Mosul
Mon 2017-03-13
  Kenyan police nab 6 terror suspects in coastal town
Sun 2017-03-12
  Double suicide attack kills 40 in Damascus
Sat 2017-03-11
  Syrian force a ‘few weeks’ from Raqqa, U.S. Marines deployed
Fri 2017-03-10
   Ax attacker at Düsseldorf main train station arrested
Thu 2017-03-09
  Baghdadi abandons Mosul fight to field commanders
Wed 2017-03-08
  IS gunmen dressed as medics kill 30 at Kabul military hospital
Tue 2017-03-07
  Mufti Hannan jailbreak attempt fails
Mon 2017-03-06
  New wave of US air raids on Qaeda in Yemen
Sun 2017-03-05
  Jordan hangs 15 death row prisoners at dawn in further break from moratorium on executions
Sat 2017-03-04
  Kurdish YPG fighters repel treacherous Turkish attack near Syria’s Afrin
Fri 2017-03-03
  Syrian Army recaptures Palmyra, aided by Russian Air Force: Kremlin
Thu 2017-03-02
  Islamic State supreme leader’s speech admits defeat in Mosul
Wed 2017-03-01
  Two women in nerve agent attack on Kim Jong-nam charged with murder
Tue 2017-02-28
  Islamic State claims attempted bombing in Algeria -AMAQ


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