not WOT, yet
An active shooter has been reported at Naval Medical Center San Diego in Balboa Park.
No injuries have been reported.
Here is the tweet from Navy officials:
**!ATTENTION!** An active shooter has just been been reported in building #26 at Naval Medical Center San Diego. All occupants are advised to run, hide or fight. All non-emergency response personnel are asked to stay away from the compound, located at 34800 Bob Wilson Drive, San Diego, CA 92134.
Three schools in the vicinity have been placed into lockdown, according with Linda Zintz, director of communications at San Diego Unified School District. Zintz said that all the student and personal are safe and the measurement is just a precaution one due to the proximity of the police activity. The schools are San Diego High, Roosevelt Middle School and Garfield Elementary School.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2016
12:13 ||
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"Imagine if Hitler had liked Jews," I told an Israeli politician recently who asked me to characterize the Republican frontrunner. The comparison seems more apt every day. The title of this note refers to Bertolt Brecht's 1941 satire, "The Resistible Rise of Alfonso Ui," portraying Hitler as gangster in the mode of Al Capone.
Donald Trump has tapped an ugly mood in America's middle class, whose prospects have dimmed noticeably since the 2008 financial crisis.
...A lot of Americans are looking for someone to blame, and Trump is there to point the finger: It's Mexican illegals. It's the Chinese dumping goods on us. Deport 11 million illegals! Slap a 40% tariff on Chinese imports! Never mind that there aren't 11 million Mexican illegals in the U.S., and a trade war with China would blow the world economy to piece. Neither China nor Mexico has very much to do with America's economic woes. There are fewer illegals in America today tha in 2008 and the growth rate of Chinese imports has fallen to next to nothing.
...America's embattled middle class doesn't want charts and graphs, facts and statistics. It wants a leader who will identity culprits and take ruthless action. It's a different electorate than I remember. My business partner in the late 1980s, the supply-sider Jude Wanniski, liked to say that the American people in its wisdom wanted a nice guy as president. They knew that the American president was the most powerful man in the world, and if he acted out of rancor the consequences could be terrible. Not any more. Americans want a nasty president.
...We're a long way from Germany in the late 1920s, to be sure, but the parallels are disturbing. The Republican Establishment shouts from the rooftops that it prefers Hitl--, er, Trump to the horrible Ted Cruz. As Bob Dole put it, Trump could "probably work with Congress, because he's, you know, he's got the right personality and he's kind of a deal-maker." Robert Costa at the Washington Post, David French at National Review, Paul Mirengoff at Powerline, and other commentators too numerous to mention have weighed in on the same theme.
Why does the Establishment hate Cruz so much? He threatens their livelihood, unlike Trump, whose real estate and casino business has required friendly dealings with politicians of all stripes for half a century.
...The Amerian economy is cartelized and monopolized to an extent we haven't seen in two generations. Why is this so-called economic recovery so miserable? The entrepreneurs are gone. In all previous postwar recoveries, new businesses led employment growth.
...Without a return to entrepreneurship, America's economy will stagnate and America's middle class will continue to lose ground. Donald Trump represents the triumph of resentment over hope. I don't know what American voters will do. But I'm frightened.
Update: I'm not the only one that's frightened, though. Ted Cruz terrifies the Establishment, and we have had no better explanation for that terror than a Jan. 20 Facebook post from Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's erstwhile Labor Secretary
#2
Really another Hitler comparison. Never rabble rousers like Thomas Paine or Patrick Henry?
Donald Trump has tapped an ugly mood in America's middle class
Well, one, there seems to be a lot of blue collar working class Reagan Donks at those speeches not just white collar middle class.
Two, if you've been lied to time and time again, you get a bit agitated. That's the problem of the liars not those lied to.
As for authoritarians, we've had one for seven years ignoring the law and the Constitution. A little late now to be concerned with niceties. It was the Left that decided it was all about power. You either play their game or lose.
#3
Robert Reich's rebuttal at the end of the article is the best argument I've to vote for Ted Cruz.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/26/2016 12:26
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#4
Again with the NAZI thing. Never mind that Trump is not a socialist. If he doesn't subscribe to progressive dogma he must be the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler.
#6
Spengler, this an embarrassing misreading of what Trump has said. He is not making an economic argument about illegal immigration, he is focused on the violent crime they bring.
Comparisons with Hitler are the refuge of the most simple minded hack. Apparently it does not go without saying that there is a difference between "let's enforce our borders" and "let's kill six million citizens."
Posted by: regular joe ||
01/26/2016 13:04
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#9
I went to the article to see what Robert Reich said, and Frozen Al is spot on target - "Robert Reich's rebuttal at the end of the article is the best argument I've [seen/heard]to vote for Ted Cruz."
What's not to like about Ted?
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/26/2016 13:35
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#10
Donald Trump has tapped an ugly mood in America's middle class, whose prospects have dimmed noticeably since the 2008 financial crisis.
So, nothing else happened in 2008 that contributed to this situation?
And Reich's comments about Cruz... come up a little short.
#11
The donk's MO is to demonize opponents. Why am I not surprised that Trump is being demonized. Hilter? Please.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/26/2016 13:44
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#12
Interesting that the Establishment GOP would rather betray everything they pretend to stand for then put the graft on hold for 4 to 8 years while the country gets itself back into shape.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/26/2016 13:53
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#14
It really does read as if Robert Reich is pro Cruz. Laughably so. Cruz is smarter, stands for something, and believes in things most Republicans believe in.
Reich doesn't mention that Cruz is a Constitutionalist who knows what he can and can't change so he's unlikely to executive order Gay Marriage out of existence. A little Presidential restraint and return to the Constitution and balance of powers is something we all could use about now.
#15
The trouble with Trump, aside from the silliness of some of his statements, is that he seems to be closer in his ideas to Obama than to the Republican party, and seems also to be totally full of himself and his own ideas. The establishment press lionizes him almost every day and ignores all the other Republican candidates.
I constantly see from commentors an apparent hatred of Republicans who are said to betray and be worse than Democrats.
Actually, the country did well under Republicans, and what has been failing is the lack of success of the Democrats, who have had power for 9 years (the last two years under Bush the dems controlled Congress, and Bush refused to veto.) When opposed by congress recently Obama has acted (unconsitutionally) on his own. And the dems when in power gave unelected government agencies the right to legislate against the interests of society with no constraints other than from the Supreme Court.
Even at present with 56 Republican Senators it takes 60 to bring a bill forward in the Senate.
This has made Congress almost powerless to oppose the President.
Yet commentators blame the Republicans for the awful policies and malaise concocted by the Democrats.
The establishment in Washington are the Democrats and the Press; the Republicans have little or no part in it.
Cruz and his supporters seem to see Republicans as their enemies. This is crazy. If he cannot convince those who are close to him in politics of the value of his approach, how will he convince those who are further away? Many Democrats in the Establishment now fear jail time if the Republicans win as a result of the extravagance of their own antics when in power. They will do anything to win this election.
A candidate who can unite the Republican party and Conservatives and Libertarians is essential for the restoration of this Country.
Neither Trump nor Cruz is it. Maybe Rubio is the one to do it.
Maybe Cruz could do it, if he mended his relations to his party. The Republicans should be the party of all those interested in limiting government power, and making government employees accountable for their misdeeds, and all those who favor a strong military and a realistic foreign policy, not one built on dreams.
#16
Spengler is often brilliant. Last year he wrote an article demonizing anyone who displayed a Confederate flag. He implied, in no uncertain terms, that any American who did so was equally as despicable as as someone defending the holocaust. I don't believe he understands or likes Americans as they are. Like Obama, he imputes evil to those with whom he disagrees.
#17
Trump is a shit stirring megalomaniac .. Seems an ideal choice for POTUS, I'm mean you only need to look to the Chump to see what credentials are needed to get into the white house
#20
Even at present with 56 Republican Senators it takes 60 to bring a bill forward in the Senate.This has made Congress almost powerless to oppose the President.
Wrong.
They can't override a veto but there is a whole helluva lot they could do and there is a whole lot more they could refuse to do. Passing the latest budget is a prime example. They have a duty to resist the bankruptcy of our country but instead they acquiesced. Everything Obama wants, he gets. Everything. It's like there is no Congress, no opposition party, only a rubber stamp for the Emperor.
And before Obama, Bush wasn't much better. He did nothing about illegal immigration, he let the debt get out of control and he pretended not to see the looming mortgage meltdown.
If you're not angry, you haven't been paying attention.
#24
I just want a leader who likes his/her country, seems like a lot to ask these days from the US, Canada and EU.
Posted by: regular joe ||
01/26/2016 16:31
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#25
For Trump, rhetoric is a negotiating technique. It is geared towards shaping the battlefield. The downside is that it is difficult to intuit Donald's interests given his positions. Also, Donald counterpunches using ad hominem attacks. It is a sign of weakness because it means you can't win the argument on its merits.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/26/2016 16:46
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#26
Yah, but it's a good tactic for poaching supporters from the Camacho for President campaign.
#27
Trump in '16 = Schwarzenegger in '03. An outsider promising to clean up government with some obvious and long overdue reforms. Schwarzenegger even gave it a real effort - for the first few months. Then he cut deals and basically became exactly what he had run against in the first place.
#28
I always figure Trump running to protect the viability of his assets. Esp. the gambling ones. If the nation's currency is worthless and it's people cash poor there is nothing useful to be skimmed by gambling. So.. unless he can physically move his halls elsewhere and they culturally fit he's screwed.
It's in his interest to have a nation worth skimming.
#29
It is a sign of weakness because it means you can't win the argument on its merits.
Seems to have worked for the Left for a couple of decades. When was the last time they asked the urban community to look in the mirror for the cause of their problems rather than blame the 'man' or institutionalized bias? (See - white privilege)
#30
P2k, turnabout is fair play eh? OK, I'll buy that.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/26/2016 20:15
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#31
Sgt.D.T. I think you have Spengler read all wrong.
"... he imputes evil to those with whom he disagrees"
No, he disagrees with those who he believes are evil.
Spengler is one hard ass dude, who believes what he says. So, for him to drop the bomb on Trump is altogether the correct thing for him. And I expect nothing less from Spengler. That is why he is magnificent. If he writes, he delivers.
Spengler paints in black and white, with a few accents in blood. See what he portrays and discuss with yourself, and us, why you agree or not.
#33
Spengler views the American middle class with disdain. They don't want 'facts and statistics" they want a ruthless leader who picks scapegoats to appease them. "They want a nasty president". This middle class is too stupid to listen to his opinions and act in accord with his high standards. After all the electorate is different than he remembers it. He says the parallels to 1920's Germany aren't the same, but follows by saying "the Republican Establishment shouts from the rooftops it prefers Hitler/Trump to Cruz". Therefore he believes they evil. They are not. I have fought beside southerners who didn't like blacks or Yankees like me. They weren't evil. They fought and died in great percentages. I don't know if Spengler for America in the wars of the 20th century but I believe he is wrong to place the middle class before his literary firing squad. He does"t know them.
[BRU.direct] NEW DELHI/HONG KONG: India will set up a satellite tracking and imaging centre in southern Vietnam that will give Hanoi access to pictures from Indian earth observation satellites that cover the region, including China and the South China Sea, Indian officials said.
The move, which could irritate Beijing, deepens ties between India and Vietnam, who both have long-running territorial disputes with China.
While billed as a civilian facility - earth observation satellites have agricultural, scientific and environmental applications - security experts said improved imaging technology meant the pictures could also be used for military purposes.
Hanoi especially has been looking for advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance technologies as tensions rise with China over the disputed South China Sea, they said.
"In military terms, this move could be quite significant," said Collin Koh, a marine security expert at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. "It looks like a win-win for both sides, filling significant holes for the Vietnamese and expanding the range for the Indians."
The state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will fund and set up the satellite tracking and data reception centre in Ho Chi Minh City to monitor Indian satellite launches, the Indian officials said. Indian media put the cost at around $23 million.
India, whose 54-year-old space programme is accelerating, with one satellite launch scheduled every month, has ground stations in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, Brunei, Biak in eastern Indonesia and Mauritius that track its satellites in the initial stages of flight.
The Vietnam facility will bolster those capabilities, said Deviprasad Karnik, an ISRO spokesman. Had we not been 'leading from behind' the U.S. could have easily identified and met this need, but of course we would have greatly angered our bankers and Chinese Communist friends.
#3
LAOS is repor coming out in favor of deterring China on the SCS island issues.
AFAIK CAMBODIA has not committed, likely as due to Beijing hoping for local MilBase rights + to degrade or displace Vietnam's influence as Cambodia's partner in trade.
I've removed a few posts that were put this early this am. These are posts that might be interesting but are far enough away from our core mission.
As a reminder, I note this clip from our how-to guide:
We focus on the WoT and matters related to the WoT. That includes general thuggery around the world, such as Zim-bob-we, and the politics surrounding the WoT. The farther away it is from that, the less likely people here want to read it here on Rantburg. We assume y'all read other weblogs for the other news. Rantburg has been getting some posts that are -- frankly -- a distraction from what we want to cover. The more we get away from the WoT, the more we look just like any other blog, and that’s not the point for us. We have an eclectic readership and we want to keep it that way.We do carry a fair bit of politics (‘seedy politicians’) but even there the focus is on how that news relates to the fight against terrorism and the defense of the good.
Very simply: domestic issues in Ho’wood, surface crawlers on Mars, and the general state of Brittany Spears’ rehab shouldn't be posted here. Unless Fred does it in which case it's okay.
As a special reminder, we do NOT accept posts that have origins in WND, ZeroHedge, and (most especially) InfoWars. Anything from them just gets deleted. We don't trust them.
Thank you for all your support.
AoS
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/26/2016
08:34 ||
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[New York Post] The FBI is investigating whether members of Hillary Clinton's inner circle "cut and pasted" material from the government's classified network so that it could be sent to her private email address, former State Department security officials say. Investigating cut and paste? Aside from the paranormal, I'm not certain there's any other way it could have been done.
Clinton and her top aides had access to a Pentagon-run classified network that goes up to the Secret level, as well as a separate system used for Top Secret communications.
The two systems -- the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet) and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS) -- are not connected to the unclassified system, known as the Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNet). You cannot email from one system to the other, though you can use NIPRNet to send Âemails outside the government.
Somehow, highly classified information from SIPRNet, as well as even the super-secure JWICS, jumped from those closed systems to the open system and turned up in at least 1,340 of Clinton's home emails -- including several the CIA earlier this month flagged as containing ultra-secret Sensitive Compartmented Information and Special Access Programs, a subset of SCI.
#1
Huma, Cheryl Mills, and Jake Sullivan are now the prey. They'll never rat on Hilkdabeest, but taking them down is doable and does implicate her in a Felony conspiracy and a Felony crime
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/26/2016 14:13
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#2
This cannot be done without intent to violate the law. If my boss asked me to do this I would be compelled to report her.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/26/2016 17:02
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#3
Sven, you wouldn't report her if she was Hillary Clinton.
1.) You might suddenly get very depressed and get Vince Fostered.
2) You are probably more loyal to her than to your country or the rule of law.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/26/2016 18:30
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#4
There is always an idepedent security officer. I have quit jobs over less. Re: 1, I would hope to take at least one with me.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/26/2016 20:11
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[HotAir] The latest tempest in a teapot controversy is over a lack of black nominees for this year's Academy Awards in Hollywood.
The assumption seems to be that different groups would be proportionally represented if somebody were not doing somebody else wrong. That assumption carries great weight in far more important things than Academy Awards and in places more important than Hollywood, including the Supreme Court of the United States.
In an earlier era, the groupthink assumption was that groups that did not succeed as often, or as well, were genetically inferior. But is our current groupthink assumption based on any more hard evidence?
Having spent decades researching racial and ethnic groups around the world, I have never yet found a country in which all groups -- or even most groups -- are even roughly equally represented in most endeavors.
Nor have I been the only one with that experience. The great French historian Fernand Braudel said, "In no society have all regions and all parts of the population developed equally." A study of military forces around the world failed to find a single one in which in which the ethnic makeup of the military was the same as that of the society.
My own favorite example of unrepresentativeness, however, is right at home. Having watched National Football League games for more than 50 years, I have seen hundreds of black players score touchdowns, but I have never seen one black player kick the extra point.
What are we to conclude from this? Do those who believe in genetics think that blacks are just genetically incapable of kicking a football?
#1
Obviously French historian Fernand Braudel has observed the British model. Auzzie Lieutenants Harry Morant and Peter Handcock were unavailable for comment.
[HotAir] "For years, I've watched governments take control of our lives. Their argument is always the same: 'Fewer costs, greater efficiency.' But the result is the same, too. Less control by the people, more control by the State -- until the individual's anguishes count for nothing. That is what I consider my duty to resist."
#1
The background of the Dowager's comment comes from her dispute regarding the take over of the village hospital by a larger hospital syndicate in York. A subtle indictment, but not very.
Bemoaning the ills of modern [1926] society, other snarky predictions from the Dowager included a "female Field Marshall" and a "female Pope." The more I see and hear of her, the more I enjoy.
#2
...until the individual's anguishes count for nothing.
The National Health Service in a nutshell, as they delay testing and treatment until people die of it, and choose others to be withheld food, water, and bedpans while they die in agony on a hospital bed in their own filth, because odds are they're going to die soon enough anyway.
Lurch wrote an editorial exclusively for the Dallas Morning News, which appeared Saturday. That seems to have been the extent of its publication.
BLUF: If we all just work together and provide adequate funding, we can solve the problems of Central America and then we won't need to build a fence.
I can't seem to copy more than about 12 words from the site. How clever of them. I did piece together the conclusion:
The U.S. and Central America have a common interest in creating a future in which the people of the region can find safety, security and prosperity in their own homes. To achieve that, we need a true and sustained partnership, backed by adequate resources and political will on all sides, to implement reforms, improve governance, combat crime and expand opportunity. Maybe we could work on that in our own country, Mr. Secretary? Count your blessings: as long as Jahwn is focused on Central America he isn't making a mess of the Middle East...
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/26/2016
07:52 ||
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#1
we can solve the problems of Central America
Maybe reducing GDP dependence on a single labor-intensive export product that is not demand priced at the point of origin would be a start.
#4
The US has become more and more like Central America lately in that the most important crimes that need fighting are those perpetrated from within the regime, clique, cabal, bureaucracy, administration of the moment.
#7
First questions come first - IFF MEXICO IS SUBORNED UNDER OWG NORTH AMERICAN UNION [NAU] + RELATED ALONG WID THE US, CANADA, + GREENLAND, WHAT NATION-STATE = US-STYLE/PAR "CO-SUPERPOWER" OR "GREAT POWER" IS INTENDED TO LEAD OR DOMINATE OWG CENTRAL AMERICAN UNION + LINKED???
[Guardian] In a surprise move, a Texas grand jury investigating Planned Parenthood wrapped up on Monday by issuing several indictments not to the women's healthcare provider, but to two of the anti-abortion activists who had prompted the investigation.
The grand jury, convened by the Harris County district attorney's office, indicted David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt for tampering with a governmental record, the DA's office announced. Daleiden received a second indictment under a law prohibiting the purchase and sale of human organs.
Daleiden is the founder of the group, the Center for Medical Progress, that filmed and released a series of sting videos edited so they appeared to show Planned Parenthood employees selling fetal tissue in violation of federal law.
#3
The Mandarinate is dedicated to the smooth running of the country---on behalf of the People, of course. Anybody who interferes with this smooth running, is the Enemy of the People.
[Daily Caller] Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister would neither confirm nor deny the potential purchase of a nuclear weapon from Pakistan recently, leaving one of the Middle East's greatest security questions unanswered. "The atom bomb will never determine who is right — only who is left."
Author unknown.
Foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir remained coy Thursday when a CNN reporter asked him if his country had plans to buy a nuclear weapon from Pakistan. Speculation as to whether or not Saudi Arabia would purchase a nuclear weapon from fellow Sunni Muslim ally Pakistan has been rampant since the negotiations, and eventual agreement, on Iran's nuclear program occurred in 2015.
"I am not going to get into details of discussions we have with foreign governments, and certainly not allied governments. I'm sure you understand," said Jubeir in response to the question Thursday, "I would not discuss these things in a public forum, certainly not on television." It's almost as if the man understands how things work...
Jubeir's response follows Tuesday remarks made by Secretary of State John Kerry that any purchase of a nuclear weapon from Pakistan by Saudi Arabia would have "all kinds of [Non-proliferation treaty] consequences. I mean, there are huge implications of that."
#3
Battlefield + SRBM Nukes is repor the Saudi focii, which IMO reflects the broad OWG Globalist penchant for any Mil Conflicts to be LIMITED WARS, BE IT LIMITED CONVENTIONAL ANDOR LIMITED NUCLEAR WAR INCLUD BUT NOT LIMITED TO TACNUKES.
LIMITED CONVENTIONAL-NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION.
Ditto as per any major or significant mil conflicts invol OWG "Par" Co-Superpowers USA versus RUSSIA, CHINA, + IRAN, OTHER(S)-TO-COME.
#4
How would SA deliver the bomb? If it is a single stage device it could take out 10 city blocks. A thermal nuclear bomb could create a crater 10 miles in diameter.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/26/2016 20:21
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#5
Sven,
The Saudis have had Chinese-built IRBMs for decades. It has always been assumed that they could bolt nuclear warheads on pretty quickly, and this may be the two-minute warning.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/26/2016 20:45
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[Daily Caller] Chairman of the Benghazi Select Committee Trey Gowdy says the results of the Committee will be "eye-opening" and "surprising."
Appearing on the Hugh Hewitt Show on Monday, Hewiit asked Gowdy, "Do you believe the question has been asked and answered adequately, yet, as to whether or not assets were proximate and available that night to come to the assistance to the people under attack in Benghazi?"
"Hugh, I will tell you this. When we issue our report, and hopefully, it is coming sooner rather than later, I think that part of our investigation is going to be the most eye-opening, the most surprising, and frankly, will dwarf the other two tranches of Benghazi in terms of what we have been able to find," Gowdy claimed. Faster please, with much more enthusiasm.
#5
The FBI cannot indict anyone. They can only recommend an indictment; Justice has to bring forward an indictment. The pressure will be on Loretta Lynch after FBI is done with its investigation. Popcorn, anyone?
[Rooters] President Barack Obama praised Hillary Clinton's political experience, a boost to her campaign as she battles an insurgent Bernie Sanders a week before the Democratic presidential nominating process kicks off.
Obama's kind words for his former secretary of state, in a Politico interview published on Monday, will help Clinton as she tries to link her campaign more closely with the president and so draw in more support from his backers.
While never explicitly criticizing Sanders, a senator from Vermont whose campaign is focused on pledges to redress social inequality and contain Wall Street excesses, Obama praised Clinton's experience and suggested several times that Clinton's messages are grounded in realism.
"(S)he's extraordinarily experienced -- and, you know, wicked smart and knows every policy inside and out -- (and) sometimes (that) could make her more cautious, and her campaign more prose than poetry," Obama said.
#1
"(S)he's extraordinarily experienced -- and, you know, wicked smart and knows every policy inside and out -- (and) sometimes (that) could make her more cautious, and her campaign more prose than poetry," Obama said
[Breitbart] One of Hillary Clinton's defensive tactics is to insist that none of the emails on her unsecure private server were "marked classified," even though over a thousand emails containing classified material have now been discovered, including several Top Secret and beyond Top Secret documents.
Of course, Clinton leaves out the fact that those emails weren't "marked classified" is that her staff stripped the markings away (as one of her emails appears to show her ordering a staffer to do.) The New York Post reports the FBI is investigating another possibility: Clinton's aides manually cut-and-pasted the classified material out of secure systems, into messages destined for the Secretary of State's private server.
What the Post discusses is a process alluded to long ago, by intelligence veterans who noted that classified material cannot simply be forwarded to unsecure systems, as ordinary email users might click the "Forward" button in applications like Gmail or Microsoft Outlook to pass a message along to friends or co-workers. The secure systems can't directly communicate with unsecure email networks, such as the notorious ClintonEmail.com server.
#2
I wonder if someone brought an electronic device with "Dragon" style voice recognition software and read the classified traffic aloud to capture the verbatim reporting. Either that, or there is someone in the inner circle with high quality typing skills, or eidetic memory. In any event, the list has to be comparatively small, and from my SSO days, I suspect the culprit will be easy to trace and turn, providing they aren't certain they are above trial.
The larger question, the essential question, is are they? Has Hillary enough dirt/juice/allies to compel Champ and ValJar to pull the DoJ leash on what the FBI is going to refer. Or, can they convince the person(s) who committed the transcription felonies that they will be protected or pardoned?
Finally, I think the PLan B has always been Uncle Joe and Fauxcahontus, ready in the wings if the FBI can't be stopped, with a willingness to pardon everyone if Hilda and the Clinton Criminal Foundation bows out. Biden to the rescue, saving the country from the Bernie/Donald choice, and promising that Warren gets the Presidency after his one term, in which the cleanup on aisle six and the massive evidence of public corruption of the past 8 years is carefully put away. The Democrat Party, showing how far corruption has evolved in suffering America.
Gathering for the first time after their epoch-ending decision to raise interest rates in December, the backdrop couldn't be more different for Federal Reserve policy officials.
The long-awaited rate increase went smoothly, but simmering concerns over China, the global economy as a whole, deflating commodities and financial market valuations have since risen to the fore. Even fund managers that were relaxed about slightly tighter monetary policy last month are now wondering whether that was complacent.
"It is reasonable for investors to wonder whether Fed's December rate hike was a policy error," admits Bob Michele, chief investment officer of JPMorgan Asset Management. "Historically the Fed has raised rates because either growth or inflation was uncomfortably high. This time is different -- growth is slow; wage growth is limited; deflation is being imported." I never wondered for a second. I knew then and know now it was just a lame attempt to try to suggest to the average idiot that things were getting better.
Perhaps most of all, many investors now fret that they are operating without a safety net they had grown attached to during the post-financial crisis era.
Markets have been buffeted by powerful headwinds since 2008-09, ranging from predictable Middle East strife to the spectre of the disintegration of the European common currency. But central banks have been a constant source of comfort in hard times, suppressing interest rates and market volatility, thereby reinforcing the view among investors of a 'central bank put', or downside protection.
Such an assurance now appears less certain given the recent approach from central banks.
The Bank of Japan has failed to expand its quantitative easing programme as expected; the European Central Bank dashed unrealistically high hopes of more eurozone QE in December; the People's Bank of China has failed to calm concerns over China through aggressive action; and the Fed has started tightening monetary policy.
As a result, the "era of asset price reflation, fuelled by both post-crisis undervaluation and aggressive central bank easing, is over", according to Jeffrey Knight, global head of asset allocation at Columbia Threadneedle.
"It was fun while it lasted, as the recovery of financial asset prices from the nadir of the great financial crisis has been dramatic, one of history's most fruitful periods for investors. But 2015 returns were rather different, and the early experiences of 2016 only reinforce the likelihood of a new investment climate," he wrote in a note.
Indeed, Stephen Jen, a hedge fund manager, argues that this year's sudden bout of concern over China has merely been the trigger for a broader reappraisal of central banking puts and omniscience by investors.
"My guess is that the new strike prices for these central bank puts are probably 10 to 20 per cent below where the markets are now," he recently told clients. "It is the presence of this 'air pocket' that was the main trigger for the equity sell-off at the start of the year, in my humble opinion."
The danger is that turbulent financial markets become a self-fulfilling prophecy by undermining confidence and weakening the global economy. That could trigger a feedback loop where turmoil hurts growth, which in turn fuels more choppiness.
Most economists maintain the risk of a US recession this year are slim, but markets are now pricing roughly even odds of one, and that in itself has consequences. As Larry Fink, the head of BlackRock, said last week, the ferocity of the stock market rout "puts a negativity across the economy, a negativity to every CEO looking at his or her stock price, a negativity about business".
Should financial turbulence infect the real economy, the US central bank's plan to raise rates another four times this year becomes extremely challenging. Investors have long doubted this rate path, but now they are virtually laughing at it.
The interest rate futures market indicates the Fed may only raise rates one more time this year, and not until well into the second half of 2016. The "yield curve" -- the slope derived from various bond maturities -- has flattened sharply this year, as the likelihood of tighter monetary policy has receded.
Nonetheless, investors should be careful not to throw in the towel and plough their money into guns, gold and agrarian land, assuming that the era of the central banking put is dead.
As the ECB showed in timely fashion last week, central banks are still able to calm nerves when needed. While Mario Draghi did not produce any more monetary easing his hints of action to come in March were strong enough to trigger a relief rally on Thursday and Friday, which could receive some more fuel this week.
In addition to the Federal Reserve's meeting, the Bank of Japan's policymakers will get together on Thursday and Friday. Even if there is little concrete action on the monetary front, most analysts expect clear signals that central banks remain on guard.
Jordi Visser, chief investment officer of Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers, a hedge fund, says: "I don't expect any sign from the Fed this month, but I expect a gradual shift in the tone if financial conditions continue to weakenâ.â.â.âIf fear gets to a high enough level to affect financial stability I think the Fed would still step in to calm things down."
The FBI is ready to indict Hillary Clinton and if its recommendation isn't followed by the U.S. attorney general, the agency's investigators plan to blow the whistle and go public with their findings, former U.S. House Majority leader Tom DeLay tells Newsmax TV. It's going to be interesting to watch the mental gymnastics they'll have to go through when deciding if/how to squash the whistleblowers. Good luck with that!
"I have friends that are in the FBI and they tell me they're ready to indict," DeLay said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
"They're ready to recommend an indictment and they also say that if the attorney general does not indict, they're going public." You mean this is blackmail quality material?
Clinton is under FBI investigation for her use of a private server to conduct confidential government business while she was secretary of state. But some Republicans fear any FBI recommendation that hurts Clinton will be squashed by the Obama administration.
DeLay, a Texas Republican and Washington Times radio host, said:
"One way or another either she's going to be indicted and that process begins, or we try her in the public eye with her campaign. One way or another she's going to have to face these charges." Sure. For a little while. Then it will magically turn out that her "not a stroke" was actually a stroke and she'll have to bow out of the race and then be pardoned on "humanitarian" grounds, or she'll be pardoned because she's sucking up too much of 0bean's time. Either way, she's a goner politically.
Last week, Clinton's press secretary Brian Fallon accused intelligence Inspector General Charles McCullough of colluding with Republicans to damage Clinton's campaign for president. No collusion necessary. She did it to herself. With a little help from Bill. But her saying that suggests we both agree that were the charges true, it would be bad.
The charge came after a report that McCullough sent a letter to two GOP lawmakers that some of Clinton's emails sent from her private server when she was secretary of state should have been marked with classifications even higher than "top secret."
#1
As long as she's a goner politically, I'll be pleased. To make me happy, just to clarify, she'd have to be tried, convicted, and expire in prison - an 'apparent' suicide.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/26/2016 8:13
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#2
Does that make me a bad person?
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/26/2016 8:14
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#3
Only if you fail to include my name on the card, flowers, etc.
#4
The FBI can't indict anyone, only collect evidence and recommend indictment. This administration is willing to gamble nothing will happen when Lynch refuses to indict Hillary. Nothing happened when she refused to indict Humanity Abadi after the I. G. Recommended it. Nothing will happen now.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/26/2016 8:20
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#5
Nothing will happen now.
That might depend on just how "fundamentally transformed" the administration believes the US to be. Enough to elect Bernie comfortably? If so the Hildebeeste will definitely wind up in prison.
But I'm not holding my breath regardless of what DeLay says. Obama's association with the likes of Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright should have been enough to keep him out of the White House but it didn't. The MSM is still very powerful. A couple of rogue, ex-FBI agents hold a press conference and it'll get buried.
#8
Throw her in jail and have Warren be the VP candidate for Sanders to pick up the lady vote. In one sweep the Democrats remove the most visibly corrupt and go full Socialist.
Unless heads roll, they're not serious. Did heads roll last time? If someone digs into it, they're probably "still investigating".
Passengers arriving at Kennedy Airport on an international flight were allowed to exit the busy hub without going through Customs -- for at least the second time in recent months, the Daily News has learned.
Bumbling airline and security officials let travelers on American Airlines Flight 1223 from Cancun, Mexico, out of the airport on Monday morning without having their passports or bags checked, sources told The News.
The security lapse mirrored a similar incident involving another American Airlines flight in November.
A 34-year-old man who had been in Cancun to attend three Phish concerts told The News he was able to glide from the plane to the baggage claim area without having to endure the usual maze of Customs and Border Protection security checks.
"It's absolutely absurd," the business adviser said. "To think that anyone could be walking off of that plane and just get right into the city. It could be terrorists, El Chapo's henchmen, anyone."
The jam band fan said he even approached a Transportation Security Administration agent near the exit, but was told he was free to go.
"I told them what happened and asked them what should I do," the passenger said. "They said to me 'That's fine, you're OK. Go ahead.' " BTW: Please refer to the use of the word "inadvertently" later in the article. I don't think it means what they think it means.
Several other concertgoers who were on the flight were already outside at the curbside cab line when he exited the airport.
Neither the TSA, which screens passengers before they fly, nor the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security, responded to a request for comment.
It was unclear how many of the passengers from the flight were able to skip the security checkpoints. I'll bet somebody knows.
Hours after the plane landed, American Airline officials pleaded with the Manhattan man -- and presumably other passengers -- to return to Kennedy and complete the customs process.
"I apologize for any inconvenience this may be for you; however it is a Customs requirement that every passenger entering the United States must clear Customs," the airline wrote in an email sent to passengers. Well in that case you can pay for a limousine to come pick me up, my dinner while I wait to be checked, and for the limousine to return me home. And $100/hour for my time.
"You could tell that they knew they screwed up and were desperate to get me to come," the passenger added.
The oversight sparked fears that terrorists could easily slip into the country without having to pass through any checkpoints.
"New York remains the number one target for terrorists and it just made me think of Paris and how easy it would be for them to get in," he said. "It's incompetence like this that could lead to another attack."
A nearly identical incident involving another American Airlines flight from Cancun unfolded in November, just two days after ISIS released a video threatening New York City with a terrorist attack, The News reported.
American Airlines admitted to the latest security snafu in a statement, but declined to say what they were doing about it.
"We take the safety and security of our customers, employees and operation very seriously," the company said. "Some passengers on flight 1223 did not complete immigration and customs process upon arrival when they were inadvertently directed to the domestic terminal." "Some" ==> "All".
After the November incident, a Customs spokesman told The News that the agency was "aware of and looking into the incident and is working with our counterparts to resolve it." I wonder how long that would take if they were actually looking into it.
#2
They should be held responsible for any crimes committed by travelers from that flight. Thinking about being tried an accomplice if one of these international passengers commits a terrorist act might wake a few TSA agents up.
[Dawn] THE attack on the air force base in Pathankot, India, came at a critical juncture in the relationship between India and Pakistain. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surprise visit to Pakistain a few weeks prior had indicated a thaw in ties between the two countries, a welcome development considering a series of LoC conflagrations and India's tense rhetoric in the preceding year.
However, death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... while combating regional terrorism is a point of convergence for both India and Pakistain and would certainly help strengthen ties, the unique circumstances of the Pathankot attacks call for a more nuanced approach. While it may be sensationalising for the Indian media to raise unsubstantiated claims vis-à-vis the Pak military and the country's security establishment, such xenophobia not only harms relations between the two states, it also complicates an already complex situation.
Continued on Page 49
[DeutscheWelle] Thousands of PEGIDA demonstrators have once again protested in the eastern German city of Dresden. Local media have reported that 10 cars, thought to belong to PEGIDA supporters, were set alight.
Dresden police reported late on Monday that 10 cars had been set alight during the protest. The vehicles were in a parking lot under the city's Marienbrucke bridge where many PEGIDA supporters usually leave their cars while attending the weekly demonstration.
It was not immediately clear if members of the anti-PEGIDA movement were responsible for fires.
According to student initiative "Durchgezählt," between 250 and 350 people turned out to demonstrate against the xenophobic movement on Monday. Counter-demonstrators attacked some of the PEGIDA members with smoke bombs, but the situation was quickly brought under control by police.
'Fortress of Europe'
Taking to the stage on Theaterplatz, in front of Dresden's Semperoper, PEGIDA frontwoman Tatjana Festerling was met with a sea of banners from 3,000-4,000 PEGIDA supporters, many sharing common slogans such as "Merkel must go!" and "Resistance!"
PEGIDA supporters from 14 different countries gathered in the Czech capital on Saturday under the slogan "Fortress of Europe," where they declared their "holy right" as Europeans to defend themselves.
The offices of the district attorney in both Dresden and the nearby city of Leipzig are currently investigating Festerling on suspicion of sedition.
Europe-wide protest in February
Speaking as a guest at Monday's rally, a Danish PEGIDA supporter named Tanja described Europe's unprecedented influx of refugees as a "tsunami of mostly well-fed migrants, full of greed for our countries, our prosperity and our women."
PEGIDA founder Lutz Bachmann confirmed that the movement's usual weekly protest wouldn't take place next week. Instead, the group plans to hold a Europe-wide demonstration on February 6, with protesters due to meet in a host of European cities including Warsaw, Tallinn, Prague, Bratislava, Amsterdam and Birmingham.
#2
One side demonstrates, the other uses firebombs and smoke bombs.
The press will condemn the first and report the second as "mostly peaceful".
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
01/26/2016 10:05
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#3
The Euroestblishment just doesn't get it. The EU was set up to end war and stuff (as Arlo Guthry would put it.) It ended up strengthening the traditional powers (France and Germany, Italy to a lesser extent) plus Belgium.
In the face of invasion by alien civilizations groups like PEGIDA and UKIP and and "Fortress Europe" rise naturally. They're no more Nazi organizations than Lions' Club or Rotary international. The thing they actually are is European.
Jan Sobieski was neither a Nazi nor, strictly speaking was he Lithuanian or Polish in 1683. He was European.
I think he would also spit on the current set of Eurodictators.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2016 11:35
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#4
Progressives, liberals or whatever they want to call themselves have redefined the term NAZI. They ignore the original meaning of national socialist and the fact that they are the ones with the socialist tendencies. These days they use the term to denigrate anyone who hasn't drunk their koolaid.
[DAWN] Iranian President Hassan Rouhani flew to Italia on Monday at the start of his first official visit to Europe, looking to sign multi-billion dollar contracts to help to modernise Iran's economy after years of crippling financial sanctions.
Heading a 120-strong delegation of Iranian business leaders and ministers, Mr Rouhani will spend two days in Rome before flying to La Belle France.
While diplomacy will figure high on his agenda, trade ties are likely to dominate the headlines, with Iran announcing plans to buy more than 160 European planes, mainly from Airbus, on the eve of President Rouhani's departure.
Officials here said Italian companies were poised to sign deals worth up to $18.4 billion over the next two days, including in the energy and steel sectors.
The deals will give a boost to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who is struggling to revive Italia's underperforming economy.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/26/2016
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[Dawn] THE Bacha Khan University attack forced us to relive the horrors of APS. The punditry following the attack tells me that it may have come as an even bigger shock than APS to most. The state's consistently positive readouts on Zarb-e-Azb ..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)... and the improvement in the overall security situation over the past year seemed to have convinced people that the Taliban were no longer in a position to pull off something like this again. This is perplexing.
On the one hand, the palatable feeling among commentators that Charsadda must necessarily cast doubt over the efficacy of the military's anti-TTP efforts points to little more than a case of unrealistic expectations. If you look at contemporary insurgencies around the world, one common trend is immediately apparent: holy warrior groups manage to retain the capacity to attack state interests long after they have passed their peak.
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[Dawn] WASHINGTON: Terrorists are targeting educational institutions because they are against knowledge and critical thinking, says US Special Representative for Muslims, Shaarik H. Zafar.
Mr Zafar, a Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... -born Muslim, is responsible for arranging Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... 's engagement with Muslim communities around the world on issues of mutual interest.
In an interview with Dawn, he addressed the issue of terrorism from the perspective of a person who has been tasked to convince the Muslims that America is not their enemy.
Talking about last week's terrorist attack at a university in Charsadda, he said there was a purpose behind this madness and it was to discourage knowledge and critical thinking.
These elements attack schools where Pakistain is building a new generation of talent. "I don't think that's a coincidence. Knowledge, intellect, critical thinking, these are things gunnies are against," he said.
Mr Zafar believes that there's no single silver bullet for fighting terrorism. Instead, he offered a multi-faceted approach, which includes both military and socio-economic components.
Drying out the financial resources that gunnies use for funding their activities was also important, he said.
Another important measure, he said, would be to prevent Muslims and others living in the West from joining jihadi groups.
"There is this myth of a so-called caliphate, when in reality imported muscle are often cannon fodder. This is a critical component," he said.
"We also need to address the humanitarian crisis: the men, women, and children that are starving and fleeing (from places like Syria)."
Another important part of the strategy to counter terrorism, he said, was to realise that the military option alone would not work. "We're not going to bomb our way out of this situation; it takes preventing radicalisation from happening in the first place," he said. "The last category is the hardest, but frankly the most important: be preventative."
The National Directorate of Security (NDS) – Afghanistan’s inelegance agency has raided three weapon depots of the terrorist group of the Islamic State (IS) in Azra District of central Logar province.
A statement released by NDS on Monday states that the depots belonged to Mohammad Ali Amarati who was previously a commander of Taliban group but now part of Daesh.
Different types of weapons including Kalashnikovs, hundreds of rounds of weapons and bombs were recovered from the depots.
Military equipment, propaganda pamphlets, 1070 kilograms of drugs and two vehicles were also confiscated during the raids.
According to the statement, terrorists had intended to carry out coordinated attacks in parts of Logar province but NDS along with army and police foiled their plans.
Seven terrorists were detained in separate raids, the statement adds.
NDS statements usually do not contain exact date of the achievements but they come after recent activities.
(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – On Monday, a source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced, that 15 members of the so-called the Islamic state in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had been either killed or wounded in an armed attack targeted their checkpoint north of Tikrit (170 km north of Baghdad).
The source said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “This morning, youth of Sharqat District who are also known as ‘Sharqat Falcons’ carried out an armed attack on a checkpoint belonging to ISIS in the district, killing five ISIS members and injuring ten others,” adding that, “The youth of Sharqat District have written (long live Sharqat Falcons) on the walls.”
Noteworthy, joint forces recently managed to free Baiji (40 km north of Tikrit), in addition to the strategic oil refinery.
Posted by: badanov ||
01/26/2016
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(IraqiNews.com) Babel – Babel Operations Command announced on Monday the arrest of two ISIS elements, including the so-called ISIS Mufti in the area of Jurf al-Nasr (formerly known as Jurf al-Sakhr) located in northern Babel.
The commander of Babel Operations, Maj. Gen. Riyad al-Khaikani, said in a press statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The Intelligence and Anti-Terrorism Directorate in Babel had detained the so-called Fadel al-Junabi, the ISIS Mufti in Jurf al-Sakhr,” noting that, “Junabi was arrested in Erbil province.”
Khaikani added, “Babel Intelligence also detained the bomber that is responsible for detonating Fadeliyah Bridge in Jurf al-Sakhr before liberating it,” pointing out that, “Babel Operations Command is participating with three brigades in the liberation operations of Anbar.”
Posted by: badanov ||
01/26/2016
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#1
Put him in the general population and I'll bet he ends up being a bottom dog.
[IsraelTimes] One victim at death's door; two murderous Moslems attack grocery store in Beit Horon; local man blocks them from store with shopping trolley
Two Israeli women were maimed, one critically, in a stabbing attack at the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Beit Horon on Monday evening.
The pair were attacked by two Paleostinian assailants near the community's grocery store, just off the Route 443 highway between Jerusalem and Modiin, northwest of the capital.
The woman at death's door, who is 23, was re-designated as being at death's door later Monday.
The two murderous Moslems who carried out the attack were shot and killed by a security guard after a short chase, police said.
The two terrorists, clad in black, attempted to enter the grocery store, but were fought off by a local man, Mordechai Shalem, who blocked the entry with a shopping cart. Security footage showed the two, brandishing knives, failing to get into the store, as Shalem wielded the cart to block the entrance.
"I don't know where I got the courage," Shalem told Channel 2 on Monday night. "But there were children in the store, women. Someone called out 'terrorists'"
Added Shalem: "I saw them with their knives raised. I saw the hatred in their eyes. I knew I had to stop them from getting in... They screamed Allahu Akbar. I screamed back at them, get out of here, you dogs."
During a sweep of the surrounding area, coppers found three "suspicious objects," which they feared could be pipe bombs, a police spokesperson said. A sapper was called to the scene to determine if the objects were indeed improvised bombs, and disarm them if need be, the official said. Officials said later that the devices were improvised bombs, pointing to a well-planned attack.
The two attackers apparently slipped into the settlement by jumping over a fence, police said later.
The market, located near the entrance of the settlement and just a few feet from a guard booth, is bounded by two fences, one well guarded barrier alongside a patrol road and a second mostly untended fence next to a wadi.
The two murderous Moslems were named as Ibrahim Al'an, 23, from the West Bank Paleostinian village of Beit Ur al-Tahta, and Hassin Abu Gush, 17, from the Qalandiya refugee camp near Jerusalem.
The settlement, home to some 300 families, is situated alongside Route 443, a major highway leading to Jerusalem, and has been mostly immune to other violence that has rocked parts of the West Bank in the last five months. A Border Police base is located next to the entrance of the settlement.
The terror attack is the third in just over a week to take place inside a settlement.
[IsraelTimes] Netanyahu directs army to prepare widespread program to protect West Bank communities following three attacks in eight days
January 17, a terrorist infiltrated the settlement of Otniel in the southern West Bank, stabbing mother-of-six Dafna Meir to death. A day later, a terrorist sneaked into the settlement of Tekoa, south of Jerusalem, and knifed a pregnant woman, Michal Froman, moderately wounding her.
Following the attack in Tekoa, the army banned all Paleostinian laborers from entering West Bank settlements, keeping tens of thousands from jobs mostly in construction, manufacturing and agriculture.
The ban, imposed by the IDF's West Bank division, Brig. Gen. Lior Carmeli, was gradually loosened and now remains in only Otniel.
#2
"Shlomit was loved and known, during her national service she served as a youth group leader for the Bnei Akiva branch in Beit Horon.
I don't wonder how the terrorists spent their spare time. I doubt they did anything worthwhile. At least in the eyes of a Westerner.
As for that shopping trolley, it probably has the lower deck right above the wheels, and if he rammed their shins with it, it would hurt like a m*therfuc&er. Good choice of weapons!
[Rudaw] Iraqi Sunni leaders have called for international protection against violence perpetrated against their community by Shiite militia groups.
Parliamentarians from the Sunni Coalition have submitted a request to the United Nations in which they decry the persecution of the Sunni population by members of the Shiite militia (Hashd al-Shabi) particularly in the provinces of Diyala and Salahaddin.
The MPs have called for pressure to be put on the Iraqi government to end its legal prosecution and court cases against Sunni politicians in Baghdad.
The call highlights among crimes committed against the Sunnis a most recent series of attacks targeting the Sunnis in the town of Muqdadya in Diyala province following a car bomb attack on a group of Shiite militias at a café.
The group of Sunni MPs say in a letter released to the media that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi must be impeached by parliament to answer for the actions of the Shiite militia as the commander in chief of the group.
[AlAhram] An imam accused of seeking to recruit young men to join the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group was rubbed out in the Rwandan capital Saturday night while trying to escape from a police escort, police said in a statement Monday.
Muhammad Mugemangango, deputy imam of the Kimiromko mosque in the capital Kigali, was rubbed out as he sought to escape police custody during an escorted visit to his home, they said.
"He was under investigations for mentoring Rwandan youths into Jihad and recruiting them to join Islamic State in Syria," the police statement said.
Police said Mugemangango were tossed into the calaboose "on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities" but tried to run away after he accompanied police to his home to conduct a search.
On the way back, he jumped off the vehicle and was shot, they said.
Rwanda's Muslim community is tiny -- accounting for just two percent of the population -- and maintains a low profile. There is no history of radicalisation and no known cases of Rwandans joining ISIS.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the police statement said it believed the "formation of terror networks" was underway.
It gave no further details except to add that, "we will do our best to unmask the network and deal with them in accordance with the law."
According to Wikipedia, 4.6% of the Rwandan population is Muslim, equally divided between Hutus and Tutsis, the rest of the population being Catholic. Given the history of both Hutus and Tutsis, engaging in the hard jihad of the sword seems more than a tad suicidal.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/26/2016
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Religions: Roman Catholic 49.5%, Protestant 39.4% (includes Adventist 12.2% and other Protestant 27.2%), other Christian 4.5%, Muslim 1.8%, animist 0.1%, other 0.6%, none 3.6% (2001), unspecified 0.5% (2002 est.)
17 loyalists of the terrorist group the Islamic State (IS) which also goes by its Arabic name Daesh have been killed in newest drone strikes in eastern Nangarhar province, Ministry of Defense announced on Monday.
A statement released by the ministry states that the air strikes were carried out on positions of Daesh in Deh Bala and Achin districts on Sunday.
According to the statement, 13 militants of the group were killed in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) strike in Gurguri area of Deh Bala District and four others in Bandar Khwar village of Achin District.
This comes a day after a commander of the group was killed along with five of his men in a similar attack in Achin District. The commander was identified as Maiwand.
UAVs are being used by NATO forces under its Support Resolute mission to assist Afghanistan in counter-terrorism operations.
Kenya has sent more Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers to Somalia in its continuing search, rescue and recovery operation, according to a communication from Chief of Defence Forces General Samson Mwathethe. The troops from various KDF divisions across the country were assembled and sent to the war-torn country to conduct operations in Al Shabaab bases at El Adde and other towns in the Gedo region.
The key mission for the forces is to annihilate Al Shabaab militants and recover or destroy military hardware that Al Shabaab insurgents looted from KDF camps during last week’s attack in El Adde.
“The latest ground troops from the infantry units, whose sole purpose is to fight and win land battles, are on their way to El Adde to reinforce several other soldiers currently engaging the militants in their hideouts near Gedo towns as fighter jets and attack helicopters continue to bombard the militants targets in Gedo and Baay regions,” said Mwathethe.
Military sources privy to the ongoing operation in Gedo region have confirmed that Al Shabaab militants had suffered heavy casualties after KDF F-5 fighter jets and Z-9 gunship attack helicopters from the 50th Air-Cavalry battalion bombed their bases in five towns near El Adde and Gedo town.
The developments come just two days after KDF said they believe they had killed the commander of the El Adde attack in two waves of air strikes conducted last Sunday.
In his press briefing on Thursday, General Mwathethe said hundreds of Al Shabaab militants had also been killed in the air strikes.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/26/2016
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#1
From an article linked by the above article:
Kenyan defense forces (KDF) serving as part of African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM) have withdrawn from El Addde base, residents confirmed to Radio Shabelle.
KDF pulled out of the base after suspecting the area water wells being poisoned by Al shabaab, the Al Qaeda-linked militants who attacked Kenyan army base El Adde in January 15, 2016.
Meanwhile, Kenya Army spokesperson Colonel David Obonyo told the BBC that the withdrawal of El Adde base was part of normal military movements.
Military spokesman David Obonyo responded to latest claims by Governor Nur Burale of Garbaharey Town in Gedo region who said 200 Kenyan soldiers died in the dawn attack.
“That is propaganda. The figure is way beyond the number expected in a company which has 120 people. There are many soldiers who survived. Some were airlifted to Nairobi while others are in Wajir awaiting deployment,” he said.
Col Obonyo, however, declined to give the death toll or the number of survivors and missing soldiers.
With the shocking impressions of the effects of terrorism on their own front porch still freshly in mind, the leaders of the African Union member states yesterday met in Kampala, to discuss the and agree on the future face of the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
The meeting in the Ugandan capital, which was rocked by two bomb attacks carried out by al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants and leaving more than 70 people dead, led to the decision to send 2,000 additional soldiers to Mogadishu.
All the talk lately about "how much" Somalia has "improved": so, why the need for more troops?
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(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – The Kurdistan Democratic Party in Nineveh Province announced on Sunday, that the Peshmerga forces shelled a number of hideouts belonging to ISIS north of Mosul, while indicated to the death of seven ISIS members and the destruction of their vehicles.
The Spokesman of Kurdistan Democratic Party in Mosul Saeed Mamouzini said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The artillery of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces bombarded two ISIS vehicles in Barimh village in Bashiqa area north of Mosul.”
Mamousini added, “The bombardment resulted in the killing of seven ISIS members, while destroyed two vehicles belonging to them.”
Posted by: badanov ||
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(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – A security source in Kirkuk province stated on Monday, that about ten elements of the ISIS had been killed during an aerial bombardment southwest of the province.
The source said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The Iraqi Army Aviation conducted, this evening, an air raid that targeted a convey of tanks for ISIS heading from al-Riyad District to al-Hawija District (55 km southwest of Kirkuk), resulting in the death of about ten ISIS elements and the complete destruction of the convey.”
The source, who requested to remain anonymous, added: “The tanks were determined to head to Nineveh Province after arriving in Hawija.”
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(IraqiNews.com) Diyala – On Monday, a local source in Diyala Province revealed, that the bomb squad dismantled an improvised explosive device emplaced outside the house of the Vice-Chairman of Mandali Council east of Baquba.
The source said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “Diyala Police bomb squad managed to dismantle an improvised explosive device emplaced outside the house of the Vice-Chairman of Mandali Council Raed Khalil, without causing any losses.”
The source added, “The security forces have opened an investigation into the circumstances of the incident.”
Kandahar police department confirmed late Monday that a group of five attackers stormed a security check post of the Afghan border police, killing two security officers.
The attack happened in Spin Boldak district of the province, the heartland of the militants in the south.
Security sources including police in the province have confirmed that the security forces gunned down the attackers in less than 30 minutes.
According to provincial police commander general Abdul Raziq, the armed confrontation left two Afghan security personnel dead and seven others wounded.
No civilians were hurt in the battle.
Equipped with suicide vests and automatic weapons, five attackers stormed the 4th unit of border police in the area. One of the attackers detonated his vest in front of the gate to open the way for others.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack
[AnNahar] At least 23 people, most of them from the Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... rebel group, were killed by a truck jacket wallah in Syria's Aleppo city on Monday, a monitor said.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 fighters from the group and four non-combatants were killed in the blast in the Sukari district of the city.
At this point they might as well throw up their hands and either join one of the big groups or go home to protect their families.
[AlAhram] Two "members of a terrorist group" were killed in an exchange of fire with police in 6 October city on the outskirts of Cairo on Monday, a security source told MENA.
The security source said that the pair possessed weapons and ammunition inside their apartment.
Police have also recently carried out random searches of apartments in downtown Cairo, according to reports by residents.
Security forces intensified their presence at key facilities on Monday, which marks the fifth anniversary of the January 25 Revolution.
"The plot thickens! Watson, fetch my hat and pipe, if you please -- the game's afoot!"
[AlAhram] Egyptian police said on Monday that explosives found during a Sunday raid on an apartment in Giza's Kerdasa were the same type used in a bomb that killed eight coppers and three civilians during another raid in Haram on Thursday.
The interior ministry said the Kerdasa raid was conducted after authorities received a tip that the apartment was being used to store explosives.
Mohammed Abdel-Hamid Abdel-Aziz, who authorities say was a member of the banned Moslem Brüderbund, was killed during the raid in a shootout with police, who say they were met with gunfire upon their arrival.
"The interior ministry will continue to chase the members of the [Moslem Brüderbund] terrorist movement and dry up the logistic support given to its members...without upsetting stability and security in the country," the ministry said.
On Friday, two holy warrior groups -- the ISIS-affiliated Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis and a group called Revolutionary Punishment -- each grabbed credit for the Haram bombing, which took place days before the fifth anniversary of the 25 January revolution.
Authorities have not commented on the identity of those behind the Haram bombing.
This second report defines American strategic objectives in Iraq and Syria, identify the minimum necessary conditions for ending the conflicts there, and compare U.S. objectives with those of Iran, Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia in order to understand actual convergences and divergences. The differences mean that the U.S. cannot rely heavily on international partners to achieve its objectives. Subsequent reports will provide a detailed assessment of the situation on the ground in Syria and present the planning group's evaluation of several courses of action.
The key findings of this second report are:
The U.S. must accomplish four strategic objectives in Iraq and Syria to achieve vital national interests and secure its people: 1) destroy enemy groups; 2) end the communal, sectarian civil wars; Good luck with that
3) set conditions to prevent the reconstitution of enemy groups; and 4) extricate Iraq and Syria from regional and global conflicts.
Any American strategy must take urgent measures to strengthen Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi and prepare contingency efforts for his fall. The collapse of the Abadi government and return of his predecessor Nuri al Maliki would be disastrous for the fight against ISIS. Need the Sunni tribes, check
Ongoing international negotiations within the Vienna Framework are bypassing essential requirements for long-term success in Syria. Re-establishing a stable, unitary Syrian state that secures American interests requires the U.S. and its partners to 1) destroy ISIS, Jabhat al Nusra, and foreign Salafi-jihadi groups in Syria; 2) identify and strengthen interlocutors representing the Syrian opposition; 3) facilitate a negotiated settlement between the Syrian regime and opposition; 4) obtain regional acceptance of that settlement; 5) establish peace-enforcement mechanisms; and 6) reconstruct state institutions. I.e. the un-Obama strategy.
The Salafi-jihadi militant base in Syria poses a threat to the U.S., but the U.S. must not simply attack it because that would put the U.S. at war with many Sunnis who must be incorporated into a future, post-Assad inclusive government. Iran?
The U.S. must separate reconcilable from irreconcilable elements. And now for my next magic trick
These other Salafi-jihadi groups must meet the following conditions essential for core U.S. security objectives in order to participate: break with Jabhat al Nusra and ISIS; accept the principle of a future pluralistic and unitary Syrian state; reject violent jihad; commit to disarming to a policing and defensive level; and commit to the elimination of the current shari'a court system and the establishment of political institution-based governance.
The superficial convergence of Iranian, Russian, Turkish, and Saudi strategic objectives with those of the U.S. on ISIS as a threat masks significant divergences that will undermine U.S. security requirements. Iran , Obama
and Russia both seek to reduce and eliminate U.S. influence in the Middle East and are not pursuing strategies that will ultimately defeat al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria or Iraq. Turkey's support for the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups, some linked to al Qaeda, stem from the ruling party's intent to reestablish itself as an independent, Muslim, regional power. Finally, Saudi Arabia's objectives remain shaped by perceived existential threats from Iran and a growing succession crisis, causing key divergences, especially over support to Salafi-jihadi groups. The U.S. must lead efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria and cannot outsource them to partners.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/26/2016
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#1
Is it just me, or the more USA interferes the worse things become?
[Inquirer] Philippine president Aquino was infuriated: Abu Sayyaf terrorists had detonated a car bomb in the heart of Zamboanga City on Jan. 23, 2015, and had managed to smuggle firearms into the city jail. A ranking Malacañang official said last week, "The President was really pissed off that time," adding that he wanted to go to the city to check the security situation there for himself.
Aquino's whereabouts in Zamboanga City have been questioned in light of renewed calls in the Senate to look into his role in the Special Action Force operation to capture wanted Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, which led to the death of 44 police commandos.
Other sources said that Aquino was to fly to Zamboanga on January 25, the birthday of his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino.
The ASG planned to spring out of jail Benzar Indama, who is the brother of Abu Sayyaf leader Puruji Indama, and 56 other members. It had been less than two years since the bloody Zamboanga siege, where a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front led by Nur Misuari, tried to take over the city. The 2013 battle claimed the lives of nine civilians, 18 soldiers, five policemen and some 100 MNLF fighters.
The January 23 car bombing killed two people and wounded more than 50. That day, two government agents had been monitoring the movements of at least two suspected Abu Sayyaf militants, and had even followed them into an alley, not knowing that a homemade bomb had been planted inside the car parked in front of a bus terminal.
Posted by: ryuge ||
01/26/2016
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[RFE/RL] Vladimir Putin has criticized Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, accusing him of placing a "time bomb" under the country, and sharply denouncing brutal repression by the Bolshevik government. Putin was particularly critical of what he said was Lenin's belief that Soviet republics should be equal and have the right to secede, suggesting it strongly contributed to the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Putin's criticism could be part of his attempts to justify the Kremlin's policy in the Ukraine. It also may reflect Moscow's concern about separatist sentiment in Russian territory.
[Rakyat Post] The Royal Malaysian Police have foiled six terrorist plots since last December.
Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said police uncovered the plots in a series of counter-terror operations. Following some arrests since last December, it was discovered that several terrorists in the country had begun collecting chemical substances which could be made into bombs, he told reporters after attending the International Conference on Deradicalization and Countering Violent Extremism today.
When asked about the video threat by the Daesh titled "Public Message for Malaysia", Ayob said the two men in the video had been confirmed to be Malaysian citizens who were now in Syria. He said that the individuals, known as Abdul Halid and Mohd Nizam, warned authorities against making more arrests and to release Daesh detainees.
According to reports, the Malaysian-Indonesian faction of Daesh, called Katibah Nusantara, exclaimed, "We will never bow down to the democratic system of governance as we will only follow Allah’s rules."
Ayob said this was the first time such a video had been released in Malay, featuring the Daesh logo, and this was evidence that the regional militants had joined forces and had direct links with Daesh. He said, "There is definitely a link, in fact the eight people we arrested earlier had links with our people there (in Syria)… and links with Bahrum Naim (founder of the Katibah Nusantara). There is a link. This is not a new thing. Since the Jemaah Islamiyah, there were links between regional and global (groups), which could be said to be organized. This is their way of expanding their network."
Posted by: ryuge ||
01/26/2016
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A Paleostinian shot up Israeli troops early Monday morning during an operation in the Jenin refugee camp, the IDF said.
Three Paleostinians were arrested during the IDF operation there, and there were no reports of injuries.
Soldiers recovered a rifle, pipe bombs and other munitions in Jenin, the army said in a statement.
"Overnight, during routine activities to recover concealed weapons in the Jenin refugee camp, a suspect attacked the forces and fired at them," an IDF spokesperson said.
"Following the attack, the forces searched the scene and identified multiple bullet shell casings," she added.
In all, eight Paleostinians were arrested during IDF activities in the West Bank overnight, the statement said.
[RFE/RL] Tajik authorities say up to 1,000 nationals have joined Daesh militants in Syria and Iraq, doubling the figure that officials previously provided.
Interior Minister Ramazon Rahimzoda said that 61 Tajiks had returned from Syria and Iraq, while 148 had been killed in fighting there. Earlier, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon said 21 college students were among Tajik nationals who joined Daesh. Rahmon said mosques and other Islamic institutions both at home and abroad play a role in recruiting people to extremist groups.
Rahimzoda also said Tajik Colonel Gulmurod Halimov, who had joined the Daesh last year, has since been seriously wounded twice.
A shame his injuries weren't serious enough the first time.
Third time's the charm...
The minister claimed Daesh was now paying Halimov $100 a month as a "pension."
Halimov, former commander of the Interior Ministry's special forces had confirmed in a video that he joined the militant group.
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[CNBC] China is strengthening economic ties with Iran a week after international sanctions were lifted against the country, but does so at the risk of infuriating Saudi Arabia.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first international leader to visit Iran after the trade restrictions were removed, capped his visit to Tehran with 17 agreements for cooperation in areas including energy, trade, and industry. The two countries also agreed to increase bilateral trade more than 10-fold in the next decade as China pursues its One Belt One Road project, an ambitious network of road, rail and port routes that will connect China to Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
With Iran at the end of the Asian road before it heads into Turkey and Europe, China is likely targeting to build numerous infrastructure facilities in Iran, said .
But the warmer ties will irritate oil giant Saudi Arabia whose already fraught relationship with Iran has worsened after Saudi Arabia executed a well-known Shiite cleric earlier this month. Xi visited Riyadh and Egypt before heading to Tehran.
Jean-Francois Seznec, a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said, "China loves Saudi Arabia as far as the oil is concerned because they love Saudi Aramaco as a very reliable supplier, but otherwise from a political standpoint, Iran is going to be the favorite child of China in that region."
As for Iran, various factions in the country are likely to be more united in accepting China over the U.S. or Europe as a partner, said Seznec.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with Xi on Saturday where he expressed the Iranian government's distrust of the United States and Europe. He said, "The government and nation of Iran have always been and [still] are looking for the expansion of relations with independent and reliable countries like China and on this basis, the agreement between the presidents of Iran and China for [promotion of] 25-year strategic relations is totally correct and endowed with wisdom. The Western [governments] have never been able to win the Iranian nation's trust."
[AlAhram] Authorities say the fire which resulted from the blast has been contained and an investigation into its cause is underway
A blast hit a gas pipeline in the coastal governorate of Damietta in Egypt on Sunday, causing a massive fire but leaving no casualties.
The pipeline connects Damietta, which is around 180km north of Cairo, and the nearby coastal city of Port Said.
The blast left no casualties, Damietta's governor Ismail Abdel-Hamid said.
Witnesses said plumes of smoke could be seen some 15km away from the scene of the kaboom.
Officials said it was not immediately clear if the blast was caused by a technical failure or a terror attack.
Islamist Militants have repeatedly targeted gas pipelines in Sinai dozens of times since Egypt's 2011 revolution, often forcing a halt in gas supplies to Jordan and earlier to Israel.
Provincial security chief Faysal Dewidar said the kaboom had not affected the gas supply to homes in the area.
He added that forensic examinations were underway to identify the cause of the fire.
The kaboom took place late on Sunday night, several hours before the fifth anniversary of the 2011 revolution.
China conducted six successful tests of a new high-speed hypersonic glide vehicle, the most recent in November, and also recently tested an anti-satellite missile, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command said Friday.
Adm. Cecil D. Haney, the commander in charge of nuclear forces, said the tests are part of a worrying military buildup by China, which also includes China's aggressive activities in the South China Sea.
"China continues to make significant military investments in their nuclear and conventional capabilities, with their stated goal being that of defending Chinese sovereignty," Haney said during a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Continued on Page 49
#1
In yet another dispute with the ground forces the air forces now proposes to retire half the EC-130H fleet in order to provide more money for F-35s and the new heavy bomber.
Proving once again that the F-35 may as well have been designed by our worst enemy.
#3
I am confused about the terms they use. To me, nothing that is unpowered can "glide" faster than the terminal velocity of a falling object - which is effectively "gliding" straight down.
The exception is a "projectile" - but we do not say that a bullet "glides" to its target.
#5
How fast do you think the business end of a Minuteman III reenters the atmosphere?
How hard do you think it is to put moveable fins on a reentry vehicle? "Add a couple states to the Kalman filter Scotty!"
Just saying.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/26/2016 6:46
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#6
I tend to ask questions; sorry. RVs have a high orbital velocity so they reenter at hypersonic speeds. It takes development work to put moveable fins on a RV but conceptually it is not difficult. Kalman filters are used by tracking radars to predict where to put the next track pulse, and BTW, the interceptor.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/26/2016 8:01
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MOGADISHU -- Political talks in Mogadishu have not led to any breakthrough as differences are still looming larger over electoral transition, Garowe Online reports.
Puntland Environment Minister Ali Abdullahi Warsame has confirmed that deliberations ended in failure after President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud came up with unilateral stance.
Mohamud said, Lower House would have representatives on the basis of 4.5 power sharing formula while Upper House would be evenly distributed to Federal Member States and interim administrations, with additional three seats being allotted for Puntland and Somaliland.
However, the suggestion culminated in disagreement following Galmudug President, Abdikarin Hussein Gulled’s objection to any concessions to be made in favor of Puntland and Somaliland.
International community representatives have told disputing Somali leaders to narrow differences over 48 hours.
Somalia which declared its independence from the rest of the country as a defacto sovereign state in 1991 has not been officially represented in long dragging National Consultative Forum (NCF). Puntland wants that district-based and region-based models be adopted for Lower House and Upper House respectively.
Earlier in January, Somali leaders failed to agreeon a political roadmap ahead of benchmark due date.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/26/2016
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ISLAMABAD: District Court Islamabad on Monday issued arrest warrants of eight accused including two former senator Abdul Rasheed and National Assembly member Haroon Rasheed in appointment of Afghan national in NADRA case.
Senior Civil Judge Abdul Ghafoor Kakar on Monday conducted the hearing of the case.
During the course of the hearing, FIA prayed for extension of the physical remand of the FIA Deputy Director Auliddin, which was rejected by the court and sent him in the judicial lock up.
It is worth mentioning that the accused Auliddin had recruited Rohiullah, a Afghan national in NADRA without verification.
Rohiullah has been accused of issuing CNICs to his two real brothers Jaffar and Razzaq Rohiullah had served in NADRA for one year without appointment. As many as eight names including former parliamentarians have been included in FIR, which verified the domicile of Afghan national.
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi police said on Monday, that two soldiers had been killed and four others were injured in a bomb blast that took place in southern Baghdad.
The source reported for IraqiNews.com, “This evening, an explosive device that was emplaced in al-Zambraniyah area in the district of al-Rashid in southern Baghdad had gone off while a joint patrol was passing in the area, resulting in the death of two soldiers from the Iraqi army and wounding four others.”
“The elements of the patrol transferred the injured to a nearby hospital for treatment and the two bodies of the dead to the forensic medicine department,” the source added.
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – On Monday, a police source revealed, that Baghdad police has arrested two men on charges of terrorism in northern Baghdad.
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “This morning, a police force has carried out a raid operation in al-Azamiya area in northern Baghdad and arrested one man on charges of terrorism.”
The source added, “Another police force carried an operation in al-Taji area in northern Baghdad and arrested another man also on charges of terrorism,” pointing out that, “The two operations were carried out based on judicial orders.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – On Monday, a source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced, that nine people had been either killed or wounded in a bomb blast south-west of Baghdad.
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “This afternoon, a bomb exploded in the area of Euphrates neighborhood south-west of Baghdad, killing two people and injuring seven others.”
The source added, “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital to receive treatment and the dead bodies to the forensic medicine department, while carried out a raid operation to search for the perpetrators of the bombing.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – Baghdad Operations Command announced on Monday, that the security forces had managed to kill 42 terrorists and dismantle 73 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) during the last 24 hours in Baghdad province.
The command said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Security forces belonging to Baghdad Operations continued advancing in the terrorists’ areas, resulting in the death of 42 terrorists and wounding 3 others, in addition to detonating 3 vehicles and dismantling 61 explosive devices in the areas of Albu Shajal, Naimiyah, Karma and Nazim Taqseem in western Baghdad.”
The statement added, “A force from the army’s 22nd brigade was able to dismantle 5 explosive devices in the area of Dawood al-Hasan in northern Baghdad,” pointing out that, “Another force from the army’s 44th brigade was able to seize and dismantle 6 explosive devices, equipment and explosive materials in the area of Saba Qusor in Baghdad, in addition to dismantling an explosive device by the army’s 45 brigade in the area of al-Wehda in southern Baghdad.”
Posted by: badanov ||
01/26/2016
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[Rudaw] Russian soldiers in Syria are searching for Alparslan Celik, a Turkish citizen who claims to have shot a Russian pilot, when he ejected after his warplane was shot down by the Turkish air force over the Syrian-Turkish frontier in November.
The Russians, according to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's Hurriyet Daily News, believe that Celik and his group were in the town of Rabia in western Latakia province, which they successfully captured in a campaign with allied Syrian soldiers and Hezbollah gunnies on Sunday.
They are reportedly looking to "take Dire Revenge" on the alleged killer of the pilot, Oleg Peshkov. Moscow had previously called on Ankara to find and apprehend Celik for the murder of Peshkov.
Celik had claimed credit in a video last year for the killing, saying the pilot deserved to die since he had dropped bombs on his fellow Turkmen.
"That pilot bombed us five minutes (before Turkey shot him down) and our brothers were killed or maimed by these bombs. There is no place for a person who has bombed civilian Turkmens every day in my conscious. Reprisal is the most natural right. There is life in reprisal," he said in the video.
The Russians are now making it clear they are going to avenge the murder by either capturing or killing Celik.
#5
AFAIAC, any terrorist entity who claims credit is equally liable. Maybe it would keep these groups from claiming credit and thereby reduce enlistment.
The Yemeni Army and popular committees launched a wide scale attack on al-Khawba city in KSA's Jizan, controlling all military posts and killing scores of Saudi soldiers.
The Soddy army attempted to send reinforcements to the scene of the confrontation; however, the Yemeni forces exploded bombs, destroying a number of vehicles and claiming most of the soldiers on board.
The Soddy air force also tried to support the ground troops, yet all its raids were fruitless.
#2
Great piece by COL(Ret) Kurt Schlichter. It was clearly a 'cut and paste' effort by the Beest's staffers. Breitbart has more here.
As said here many, many times, classified info simply does not jump from SIPR or JWICS onto an UNCLAS network. There has to be a man in the loop. Whomever the staffers [or other DoS employees] were that did it, they had SIPR and JWICS accounts and probably figured they'd be protected by the Hildebeest.
Anyone besides me think the cough is a preliminary move for admission to Bethesda Naval Hospital and a 'back door' out of the race? Days remaining predictions ?
#3
Hillary has already fleeced hundreds of millions just this year and almost certainly over a billion counting the past three decades. The victims were Democrat donors and corporate cronies.
Personally, I hope she stays active in the primary season and gets nominated.
Having Hil do the perp walk post nomination would be a thrill.
Posted by: lord garth ||
01/26/2016 5:57
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#4
There are a number of scenarios which could lead to her not running. Without exception, I would happily applaud them all.
#5
She'll neve be charged. Lynch will see to that. She has too much dirt on everybody. The I. G. recommended cares of embezzlement be brought against Humanity Abedin and Lynch did nothing. We have two different sets of laws now.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/26/2016 8:11
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#6
She has too much dirt on everybody.
Perhaps she's been Litveneko'd. Go ahead, try to tell me that you don't think Champ would go there. After all he is, "... pretty good at killing people."
[Dawn] An activist of the banned outfit Hizbut Tahrir ...an al-Qaeda recruiting organization banned in most countries. It calls for the reestablishment of the Caliphate... (HuT) was incarcerated Book 'im, Mahmoud! from the capital on Monday and anti-Pakistain and anti-army literature was recovered from him, police said.
Paperwork was started but nothing else was done against him at the Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Company Police Station on the complaint of Station House Officer (SHO) Inspector Mubarak Ali under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) section 11-F for membership, support and meetings related to a proscribed organization.
The arrest was made when the police intercepted a Khyber car in G-9 sector and found two packets of anti-Pakistain literature, including 40 pamphlets and 464 copies of other reading material, in the rear seat of the car.
SHO Inspector Mubarak Ali said that after preliminary interrogation, the accused was presented before a court and was taken to jail on judicial remand.
The arrested man is a software engineer and is employed at a company, the SHO said, adding that he holds two masters degrees from the International Islamic University Islamabad.
During interrogation, it was found that HuT members communicate with each other via the internet and that literature, like that found with the arrested man, was also sent online and printed for distribution.
Security agencies had been asked last December to keep an eye out for possible activities by the banned HuT, a police officer told Dawn.
The officer said that reports had indicated that the banned outfit will be distributing reading material at worship places.
"It was suspected the outfit will do this after Friday prayers or after Isha prayers. Police were deployed at worship places on Friday and were directed to remain on duty there till the last worshiper had left," he added.
He said some buildings and areas, including E-11, I-9, I-10, Super Market and Jinnah Super were routinely patrolled as HuT had been active there in the past.
After a year of being inactive in the city, HuT had spurred into action in August of last year and had pasted and distributed pamphlets in I-8 and F-10 inviting residents to join the outfit for bringing a caliphate in the country, a police official said.
The organization had also sought help from the people to get rid of democracy and enforce Sharia, he added.
HuT is an international organization, formed in 1953 in Jerusalem by a Paleostinian scholar, that aims for all Muslim countries to come together and form an Islamic state or a caliphate that will be ruled with Islamic law.
It was banned in Pakistain in 2004 and the majority of its activists are from the upper class and are well educated professionals.
Head of the Penal Department in the Court of Sanaa, Judge Yahya Robeidh, was martyred on Monday along with all his family members, during a strike of Soddy airstrike that targeted his home in Al-Nahdha neighborhood in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, Al-Manar Website correspondent reported.
Al-Manar sources revealed that Judge Robeidh was reviewing the ongoing trial of resigned and fugitive President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi and some of his aides on charges of high treason.
[Rudaw] The Czech Republic is sending thousands more assault rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition to the Kurdistan's Peshmerga forces, Czech media reports said.
They quoted Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka saying at a meeting with top Czech officials on Monday that his country will be sending more military aid to the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces to battle the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) group.
Sobotka said "six and a half thousand assault rifles and more than seven million rounds of ammunition to support the Iraqi army and the Kurds in their struggle" against ISIS will be supplied through the United States.
"This is about our support for the Iraqi army and the Kurds in the fight against so-called Islamic state," Sobotka explained.
Jordan will also receive more military support from the Czech Republic, the prime minister said.
"During last year's visit to Jordan, I promised more help in the fight against ISIL (ISIS), now it is time to fulfill the commitment," said Sobotka, who called Jordan a "stable partner" and an Island of "relative calm" in the Middle East.
The Czech Republic has donated large numbers of machine guns, assault rifles, 5,000 hand grenades and 5,000 rounds of ammunition to the Iraqis and Kurds.
#2
The first shipment of two hundred rifles, forty MG-34 machine guns, and bullets, secretly landed during the night of 31 March–1 April at a makeshift airfield at Beit Daras in a chartered American Skymaster cargo plane.
The above from g(r)om's memory hole. Underlining added.
Aden- Informed sources have revealed for Asharq Al-Awsat that there is a joint network for the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthi rebels with al-Qaeda, which controls the coast of Hadhramaut province east Yemen. The sources said that the network is engaged in smuggling and trading in arms and explosives and in planting and moving the sleeping cells over a wide area covering a number of provinces.
Wow: you mean the underlings of a double-dealing, back-stabbing, thuggish kleptocrat are somewhat dishonest themselves?
Private sources have indicated that, within the activities of this network is recruiting young people to join organizations affiliated with extremist groups. They also added that recruitments are not limited to young Yemenis only, but also include African citizens,
...the Somali cousins, one assumes...
who head, everyday, to the coasts of Shabwah Governorate.
The sources also said that the network includes senior officers from the Yemeni Republican Guard, formerly led by the son of the ousted president, Brigadier General Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, and are associated with extensive contacts with similar officers in a number of southern and eastern provinces.
Furthermore, the sources also indicated that a large part of the military weapons belonging to brigades, which were in Aden, Lahij, Abyan and in other southern provinces, were being smuggled through the network form those provinces to private sites in the desert to be sold for weapon dealers; in addition to the arms reaching the coast via fishing boats.
In a common matter, tribal sources in Shabwah Governorate told Asharq Al-Awsat that the coalition forces have tightened the noose on the smuggling of weapons and oil products that arrive to the Houthi rebels.
Moreover, Apache helicopters flew yesterday at low altitude over Beer Ali Port in Yemen’s Shabwah Governorate and directed verbal warnings to the boats that are trying to land at port. These boats are not licensed by the Arab Coalition to reach the Yemeni coast.
[ARA News] DEIR EZZOR – Militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) attacked regime-held districts in Syria’s eastern province of Deir ez-Zor with dozens of mortar shells, causing a number of casualties among civilians, activists reported on Monday.
“At least six civilians were killed and a dozen more wounded in the ISIS-led attack,” media activist Shaheen Shdoud told ARA News in Deir ez-Zor.
The source added that ISIS has mainly targeted civilian’s houses in Monday’s bombardment.
“Civil defense teams are still looking for victims, as many others could be stranded under the rubble,” Shdoud reported.
This comes just a week after ISIS militants stormed regime-held neighborhoods of Ayash and Begayliya in Deir ez-Zor, and beheaded more than 150 people, including Syrian army soldiers and their families.
Speaking to ARA News, a civil rights activist said last week that ISIS militants first targeted Ayash and Begayliya with several car bomb attacks, before storming the two neighborhoods. “Dozens of women and children were brutally beheaded,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “ISIS is punishing families of pro-regime soldiers after the group lost the battle for Deir ez-Zor’s military airport.”
The province of Deir ez-Zor is deemed strategic for ISIS as it links the group’s de facto capital of Raqqa with Iraqi territory controlled by the radical group.
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Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
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#1
In yet another dispute with the ground forces the air forces now proposes to retire half the EC-130H fleet in order to provide more money for F-35s and the new heavy bomber.
Proving once again that the F-35 may as well have been designed by our worse enemy.
#3
In yet another dispute with the ground forces the air forces now proposes to retire half the EC-130H fleet in order to provide more money for F-35s and the new heavy bomber.
#4
"In yet another dispute with the ground forces the air forces now proposes to retire half the EC-130H fleet in order to provide more money for F-35s and the new heavy bomber."
If it works, get rid of it.
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – A security source in Anbar province said on Monday, that Anbar Police had found a mass grave in central Ramadi, while pointed out that the grave contains the remains of civilians and security elements.
The source said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “A force from Anbar police managed to find a mass grave containing the remains of 40 civilians and representatives of the security forces during the cleansing operations in the are of al-Jumaiya in central Ramadi,” noting that, “ISIS executed them after it had controlled Ramadi.”
The source, who requested anonymity, added, “The remains, which belong to civilians and representatives of the security forces, have shown signs of gunshots in different parts of the body.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Monday, a source in al-Jazeera and al-Badiya Operations Command in Anbar Province announced the death of nine members of the so called the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in a security operation west of Ramadi (110 km west of Baghdad).
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces carried out a military operation on ISIS headquarters in Horan Valley near Haditha District (170 km west of Ramadi), killing nine ISIS members and destructing three vehicles belonging to them.”
The source, on condition of anonymity, added, “The security operation also destructed a missile launch pad and a fuel depot used by ISIS, as well as their headquarters completely.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Monday, Commander of Anbar operations Major General Ismail al-Mahalawi announced, that eight fighters of the so-called the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have been killed in a rocket strike in Husaiba area east of Ramadi.
Mahalawi said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The Rabid Intervention Brigade’s rockets battalion bombarded two hideouts for ISIS in Husaiba area (7km east of Ramadi), killing eight members of ISIS and inflicting heavy human and material losses on them.”
Mahalawi added, “The security forces continue their liberation operations in east of Ramadi areas including Sijariya, Juwaiba and Husaiba, after the total collapse of ISIS in these areas.”
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[FrontPageMagazine] This is an excerpt from a larger Asra Nomani piece on honor killings in the Wall Street Journal. It's quite a dark look at what life under Islamic mores is like for women.
In one particularly poignant chapter, Ms. Zoepf steps through the doors of a girls' prison in Syria, where 16-year-old Zahra al-Azzo was jailed for being raped. (That's right, they jailed her.)
The prison is a sort of holding facility for girls like Zahra who are at risk of being murdered by their families in a so-called honor killing. Yet there is little to protect the young women once they leave.
"One of the girls came to me, crying, the other day," the head social worker tells Ms. Zoepf. "She wanted to go home and it's an honor crime situation. I told her, 'Try to relax here for a while because they're going to kill you anyway when you're released.' It sounds cruel, but I needed to calm her down, to get her to behave sensibly.'"
Expecting a culture where you throw a party for murdering your own daughter who had been raped to treat us better than they have, let alone to understand that killing is wrong, is just unrealistic.
Zahra was eventually freed from the prison in order to marry a cousin. Shortly thereafter, she was hacked to death in her apartment by her own brother--with the blessing of their parents. Zahra's crime: "losing her virginity out of wedlock." Her brother believed he was "washing away the shame" to the family.
The day of her murder, Ms. Zoepf chronicles, the girl's family threw a party.
When you consider the problem of terrorism, it's important to remember that we are dealing with societies where dehumanization and murder of even one's own closest relatives is not an aberration. Expecting a culture where you throw a party for murdering your own daughter who had been raped to treat us better than they have, let alone to understand that killing is wrong, is just unrealistic.
Ms. Zoepf gingerly traces the roots of twisted practices, such as honor killings, to Islamic concepts such as fitna, or the "chaos" that is often connected to "temptation of a sexual nature."
That accusation, incidentally, has also been directed from the Muslim world at the entire West.
#2
This is called an honor killing but it is really revenge for depriving the family of her bride price.
Unlike most societies in which the bridegroom's family pays dowry to the bride, the Arab tradition is that the groom's family pays a bride price to the bride's family.
This money is needed by the brother to pay as bride price so that he can marry. He is outraged at the loss of this which may make it impossible for him to marry. He has counted on this money all his life.
If his sister ran off with some guy, the problem would be much less, because it might be possible for that guy's family to come up with some money to pay off her family. In the case of rape, that is hopeless. So she must pay with her life, for stealing this money from her brother.
It should be called a mercenary crime, which to us is a crime of dishonor. The brother dishonors the family by his selfishness more than she dishonored it, in the eyes of the civilized world.
[IsraelTimes] Alexandra Mezher, 22, herself of Lebanese origin, allegedly stabbed to death by 15-year-old refugee as country reels from migrant influx
A Swedish refugee shelter worker, 22, was stabbed to death Monday by a teenage male asylum seeker in the western Swedish coastal town of Molndal, near Gothenburg, authorities said.
According to the Daily Mail, a UK daily, the teenage boy allegedly stabbed Alexandra Mezher Monday at about 8 a.m. local time at a shelter for unaccompanied teenage migrant minors. She succumbed to her injuries in hospital.
The incident marks the latest in a string of high-profile attacks, including sexual assaults, that authorities in Stockholm and elsewhere in the country have ascribed to asylum-seeking young men from Middle Eastern countries.
There was no immediate indication of the suspect's motive. Police would not say his precise age or nationality, but said he had been incarcerated Book 'im, Mahmoud! for murder. Swedish news agency TT said he was 15 years old.
Employees at the shelter reportedly held the boy down until police showed up.
A cousin of Mezher, herself from a Lebanese family, told Swedish media she was "a person who wanted to do good, who wanted to be good. And then he murdered her when she was doing her job. We have cried a lot. She was such a nice person, warm and happy."
In an indication at growing tensions over the unprecedented influx of Muslim-world migrants to the continent, the cousin is quoted as saying "it is the Swedish politicians' fault that she is dead."
Official Swedish government figures show the number of violent incidents at refugee shelters rose from 148 in 2014 to 322 in 2015, while attacks against shelters spiked as well, with at least two-dozen facilities for migrants being targeted for arson attacks in 2015.
Like the rest of Europe, Sweden has been struggling with the continent's biggest migration crisis since World War II. A country of 9.8 million, Sweden took in more than 160,000 asylum seekers in 2015, putting it among the EU states with the highest proportion of refugees per capita.
It has since tightened its asylum rules to curb the migrant flow.
"These kinds of calls are becoming more and more common. We're dealing with more incidents like these since the arrival of so many more refugees from abroad," police front man Thomas Fuxborg said Monday.
Police have asked the government for 4,100 more officers and staff to deal with the migrants and the increased threat of terrorism generally across the continent.
"We are forced to respond to many disturbances in asylum reception centers. In some places, this takes significant police resources. This was not the case six months ago and it means that we won't be able to respond as effectively in other areas," National Police Commissioner Dan Eliasson was quoted as saying.
[AnNahar] At least 11 Islamist fighters and five non-combatants were killed as a ballistic missile struck a building in northwest Syria during a meeting between rebel groups, a monitor said Monday.
How odd. Who has ballistic missiles in that part of the world?
"Eleven fighters from (Al-Qaeda affiliate) Al-Nusra Front and other Islamist groups were killed on Sunday, along with five civilians, when a ballistic missile hit a cop shoppe being used as a court in Salqin" in Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britannia-based monitoring group said it was unclear if the missile was fired by Russian or Syrian forces.
Ask and ye shall be answered. :-)
The monitor said the toll could rise further because a number of people had been seriously maimed in the strike.
How lovely! More, please.
The missile struck during a reconciliation meeting between members of Al-Nusra and the conservative Islamist murderous Moslem group Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... , who had exchanged fire in the town earlier the same day.
So much for that hudna.
The two groups are leading members of the Army of Conquest alliance, a powerful coalition that took control of Idlib province last year.
Under the circumstances, houldn't alliance be in scare quotes?
Staunch regime ally Russia began an aerial campaign in Syria last September after a string of government losses, including in Idlib, and has since helped reverse some opposition momentum.
Moscow says its strikes target the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) jihadist group and other "terrorists," but activists and opposition forces accuse it of targeting other rebels and often killing civilians.
Earlier in January, Russian raids in Idlib province, which borders The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , killed at least 81 people, including 23 Al-Nusra fighters but also 52 civilians and prisoners.
...a.k.a. human shields, which makes their deaths Al Nusra's fault, in accordance with international law.
According to the Observatory, more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in Russian strikes since they were launched on September 30.
The raids have also killed nearly 900 IS fighters, and more than 1,100 Death Eaters from other opposition groups, including Al-Nusra.
A very good thing, indeed, though their descent into Hell will make repentence an interesting activity for all involved.
Moscow has dismissed claims of civilians deaths in its operations as "absurd".
[IsraelTimes] One 18-year-old learned how to make explosives from online videos, second helped hide them in their house, Shin Bet says
Pictures of the twins and their products can be seen at the link.
Israeli security forces enjugged Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! 18-year-old bomb-making twin sisters from Shwaika, outside the Paleostinian city of Tulkarem in the West Bank last month, the Shin Bet security service announced Monday.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Shin Bet officers discovered pipe bombs and other kabooms in the home of Diana and Nadia Hawila in late December 2015, officials said.
In addition, they found knives, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, headbands and "equipment for riots," the Shin Bet said in a statement, though it did not claim that the twins were, in fact, Hamas members.
"This investigation again shows the motivation to carry out terror attacks, especially among those who are not a part of terrorist organizations, including women," the Shin Bet said.
In interrogation, Diana Hawila admitted that she had purchased the fertilizer and other chemicals necessary to create the explosives.
She learned how to create bombs by watching instructional videos online, according to the Shin Bet.
Women's liberation, jihadi style.
Diana also watched Islamic holy warrior videos that encouraged women to take part in terror attacks against Israelis and Jews, which "strengthened her decision to act," the Shin Bet said.
"There is a significant increase in the use of the Internet in order to create weapons for use in terror attacks and the spreading of inciting messages," the security service said in a statement.
Diana planned to use her homemade bombs against Israeli citizens and soldiers, the Shin Bet added.
Nadia Hawila helped her sister hide the pipe bombs in the home that the two shared, the security service said.
This week the two were indicted in a military court in the Samaria region of the West Bank. Diana Hawila has been accused of creating bombs and for the sale of war materials. Nadia Hawila has been charged with the sale of war materials.
On Sunday, the Shin Bet revealed they had captured two young men also in the Tulkarem area who are believed to have shot and injured an IDF soldier.
It was not immediately clear if the pair were associated with any larger terror organizations, or if they had acted independently.
#1
According to European notions, Arabs, since they are inferior beings, can attack Jews or any other Israeli's without criticism or notice. Israeli's, on the other hand, being human, must pay a price for chasing attackers down and shooting them.
Israel needs to regularize their recent behavior by instituting the death penalty for terrorist attacks, and for incitement to commit them.
Right now Palestinians risk their lives, and their families lives if they even say that they oppose terrorism. If you want to stop terror you must stop incitement to terror. The only way to do that is to punish it severely.
[Rudaw] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... has detained 10 people suspected of being members of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) and recruiting new members for the group.
According to Turkey's Anadolu Agency Turkish counter-terrorism police carried out an operation early on Monday against the suspects who they had under surveillance for some time.
They were rounded up and incarcerated Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! Found in their possession were unlicensed guns and documents which may indict them.
These arrests come a mere two days after another 23 individuals suspected of being members of the ISIS group, along with 21 children, were also detained when trying to cross from Syria into southeastern Turkey and one day after another two suspected ISIS members, along with two children, tried to cross the Syrian border into the Turkish province of Kilis.
At least four terrorist attacks since last June were believed to be the work of either ISIS or their sympathizers. On June 2015 four members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) were killed in the city of Diyarbakir. Over 30 primarily Kurdish activists in the Turkish-Syrian border-town of Suruc were blown up by a jacket wallah last July and last October over 100 people attending a HDP peace rally in Ankara were blown-up. An attack in the center of Turkey's capital which was the deadliest in the country's history. More recently ten tourists were slayed in a suicide kaboom in Istanbul.
These acts have propelled Turkey to take action. And while it hasn't completely closed off its border with Syria it has certainly been more vigorously clamping down on ISIS.
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[ARA News] URFA – The extremist group of Islamic State (ISIS) on Monday beheaded a Syrian man in the northeastern province of Raqqa for refusing to pray at the mosque, eyewitnesses told ARA News.
Faisal Nayif al-Hilal, 39, was arrested in the town of Tabqa in Raqqa province on charges of insulting the ISIS self-declared Caliphate.
The Sharia Court issued a decision to behead al-Hilal in public to terrorize Syrians who oppose ISIS’s orders.
“Al-Hilal was captured by ISIS militants in Tabqa town for refusing to pray at the mosque, telling the militants that he should be free to pray at home,” a local media activist told ARA News, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The Sharia Court considered al-Hilal’s behavior as an insulting act to the Caliphate,” the source reported.
Eyewitnesses said that the 39-year-old man was brutally beheaded in front of dozens of people in Raqqa’s central square on Monday evening.
Posted by: badanov ||
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#1
Slow day?
Posted by: chris ||
01/26/2016 0:28
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#2
Re: #1, my thought exactly. Running out of civilians?
HYDERABAD: The Jamshoro police claimed to have arrested a suspected terrorist of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in a raid at an under construction petrol pump on the Super Highway near Nooriabad.
SSP Tariq Wilayat during a press conference in Kotri Town of Jamshoro district on Monday said that the suspected terrorist was identified as Qamar Zaman Mehsud who hails from North Waziristan. He informed that Mehsud was arrested in a raid of Kotri police.
The police recovered 10 kilogrammes of explosive material, a bundle of wire, three hand grenades and an automatic rifle with 50 rounds from the his possession. “He shifted along with his family to a place in Kotri after the military operation began in North Waziristan back in 2014,” SSP claimed adding that Mehsud later shifted Karachi where he allegedly collected extortion and was also involved in killing of the policemen.
According to the SSP, Mehsud recently shifted to Nooriabad where he was hiding in a petrol pump. He claimed that two of his associates had escaped to Tank in the tribal areas while one has been killed in Karachi and another is in the custody of the law enforcement agencies. The SSP told that Mehsud would be booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
According to the information collected by the police, he said, the suspect served as a TTP commander based in Badar Tiarazah village of South Wazoo until 2014 and moved to Jamshoro along with his family some seven/eight months ago during the military operation, Zarb-e-Azb ..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)... . "His family is currently staying with his brother in Jamshoro," the SSP said. The police officer said that the suspect was working as a watchman at the CNG station from where he was picked up.
The suspect, he said, named Maharban, Jehangir Khan, Abdul Rehman aka Master and Syed Badshah as his associates. "Abdul Rehman and Jehangir Khan were perhaps killed by law enforcers in 2015 while Maharban and Syed Badshah have fled to Tank," the SSP quoted the suspect as telling the police.
"[Qamar] Mehsud, admitting that he is associated with the TTP Shaharyar group, has disclosed to us that Syed Badshah had in the past served as TTP leader Baitullah Mehsud's driver," the SSP said.
[AnNahar] Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Islamists killed a civilian and torched his house during a raid on a village in the northeastern Nigerian state of Yobe, a police front man said on Monday.
Traveling in all-terrain vans, they raided Babban Gida village around 01:00 am (GMT) Sunday and fought a gunbattle with soldiers.
The Death Eaters stole two police vehicles but were eventually driven out, Toyin Gbadegesin, Yobe state police front man told AFP.
"The bully boyz initially rubbed out a man and burnt his thatched hut on the outskirts of the village," Gbadegesin said.
"They attacked the cop shoppe where troops engaged them in a fight which forced them to retreat".
Babban Gida, which lies 50 kilometers from the state capital Damaturu, has been repeatedly targeted by Boko Haram myrmidons, whose six-year insurgency has claimed over 17,000 lives and displaced 2.6 million from their homes.
The Nigerian government claims Boko Haram had been "technically" defeated but despite a sustained military offensive the Islamist group still carries out sporadic raids on towns and villages in the northeast.
The military operations have reclaimed swathes of territory seized by the Death Eaters in their quest to establish an Islamic caliphate, pushing Boko Haram out of its Sambisa forest stronghold to remote islets on Lake Chad straddling Nigeria and its three neighbors - Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... , Niger and Chad.
Security analysts believe sporadic Boko Haram raids were mainly for food and petrol following disruptions of their supply routes by the military campaign.
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[AnNahar] Russia's defense ministry on Monday denied reports that it is building a new military base in Syria, where it has pursued a bombing campaign for the past four months.
"There are no new airbases or additional aerodromes for Russian warplanes in the Syrian Arab Republic, and no plans to create any," defense ministry front man Igor Konashenkov told Russian news agencies.
Western media outlets have reported that both Moscow and Washington are establishing covert military bases near Syria's border with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... The reports followed a claim by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him... that up to 200 Russian soldiers were working on a runway at an airbase in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on the Turkish border.
Konashenkov on Monday said only "absolute morons" could seriously discuss alleged Russian activity in Qamishli, saying the reports were an attempt to "cover up the build-up of a large Turkish military force" at the Syrian border.
Britannia-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights alleged that Russia had sent a number of engineers to the border town to strengthen the runway and increase the capacity of the airport there.
But Konashenkov on Monday said only "absolute morons" could seriously discuss alleged Russian activity in Qamishli, saying the reports were an attempt to "cover up the build-up of a large Turkish military force" at the Syrian border.
Reports of Russia's alleged move into Qamishli came as Ankara and Moscow are embroiled in their worst diplomatic crisis in years after Turkey shot down a Russian war plane on November 24.
Russia officially operates a naval facility in the Syrian port city of Tartus, as well as an airbase on the outskirts of the coastal city of Latakia.
Moscow launched a bombing campaign in war-torn Syria at the request of long-time ally Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... on September 30.
The defense ministry said Monday that Russian jets had bombed 484 "terrorist infrastructure" targets in 169 combat sorties between January 22 and January 24.
The latest strikes, according to the Russian military, had helped Syrian armed forces in the Latakia region "liberate more than 92 square kilometers of territory and 28 communities from terrorists" in the past 24 hours.
The Russian defense ministry says its strikes are targeting the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group and other hard boy organizations, but the West has accused Moscow of targeting more moderate groups that oppose the Assad regime.
[AnNahar] A former Guantanamo inmate resettled in Uruguay has been issued a restraining order for allegedly assaulting his wife, a local woman who converted to Islam to marry him, media reported Sunday.
Syrian national Abdelhadi Faraj, who spent 12 years at the U.S. military prison before being sent to Uruguay in 2014, is under investigation for physically abusing his wife of seven months, who accuses him of treating her like a Guantanamo inmate, according to newspaper La Republica. The couple testified Sunday before a special domestic violence court, where the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to jail Faraj but ordered further investigations, said reports. Authorities issued Faraj with a four-month restraining order pending further investigations.
The woman, Fatima Posadas, said Faraj had kept her "locked up" after they married in June.
"I lived through the worst nightmare. I experienced the 'One Thousand and One Nights' with this person. Ugly things. I was the Guantanamo prisoner and he was the free man," she told La Republica.
Faraj, 39, was one of six Guantanamo inmates resettled in Uruguay in December 2014, part of U.S. President Barack Obama I bowled a 129. It’s like — it was like Special Olympics, or something... 's push to close the prison set up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
The men -- four Syrians, a Paleostinian and a Tunisian -- were never charged or tried, and had been cleared for release but could not be sent to their home countries because of unrest there.
Former Uruguayan president Jose Mujica agreed to take them as refugees -- a status Faraj could reportedly lose if convicted.
"If he goes on trial and is convicted, we would have to analyze whether he keeps his refugee status. At this time he hasn't lost it," Christian Mirza, a Uruguayan government liaison with the former prisoners, told La Republica.
The former inmates have had a rocky transition to Uruguay, whose government they accused of breaking its promises to them.
Other than the chance to breathe freely, food and shelter, what were they promised?
In May they camped outside the U.S. embassy in Montevideo for three weeks in protest.
Mediators from the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... refugee agency finally brokered a deal in which the men agreed to end the protest in return for increased living allowances.
Faraj is known for publishing an open letter in newspaper El Pais when he arrived in Uruguay. He said he was already a fan of Uruguay's beloved football team and thanked the country for taking him in.
"If it hadn't been for Uruguay I would still be in that black hole," he wrote, via his lawyers.
How poetic. If they decide to throw him back for abusing one of the nation's daughters, where will he land?
[ARA News] KOBANE – Kurdish forces of the people’s Protection Units (YPG) hit the ISIS-held Syrian border city of Jarablus with artillery shells and mortar fire, causing losses in the group’s ranks, military sources reported on Monday.
Jarablus, located on the Syria-Turkey border, is deemed strategic for the radical group of Islamic State (ISIS) as it served for long as a passage point for foreigner jihadis who joined the ranks of ISIS.
The Kurdish forces launched the anti-ISIS attack from their headquarters in the western countryside of Kobane.
Speaking to ARA News, YPG spokesman Nuraddin Gaban said that Monday’s operation hit an ISIS security center, a Sharia Court and several military vehicles in Jarablus, killing a number of jihadis.
“We bombed several military vehicles for ISIS, a Sharia Court and a security center for the terror group. At least 21 terrorists were killed on Monday,” the source said, adding: “We have intensified our military campaign against the terror group in the northern countryside of Aleppo in coordination with the U.S.-led coalition.”
“Jarablus is one of our main targets at the moment,” the YPG spokesman told ARA News. . If we retake it, we would be blocking one of the main routes in the face of foreign terrorists who continue to cross from Turkey into Syria in order to join their alleged Caliphate.”
Posted by: badanov ||
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#1
Kurds use WWII era Soviet artillery. It was pretty effective back then too.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
01/26/2016 7:20
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[AnNahar] Gunmen believed to be ethnic Fulani herders have killed a policeman and 19 civilians and torched homes in Nigeria's northeastern Adamawa state in a spat over grazing rights, the police said Monday.
They said it appeared to be Dire Revenge attacks following a row over destroyed crops.
"We lost a DPO (Divisional Police Officer) and 19 civilians in his area of jurisdiction when they came under attack by Fulani herdsmen in Girei district," police front man Othman Abubakar told AFP.
The senior police officer with his team were "responding to a distress call from the communities under attack to restore calm following an invasion by the armed herdsmen", he said.
Local media reports gave a much higher corpse count of 30, including the police officer following the raids on Sunday morning.
The herders attacked the farming hamlets of Demsare, Wunamokoh, Dikajam and Taboungo following a feud between some herders and farmers over destruction of farm crops, Abubakar said.
The villages are in Girei municipality, less than 20 kilometers (12 miles) from state capital Yola.
The raiders looted food supplies and set fire to homes before fleeing, Abubakar said. One suspect was jugged Please don't kill me! and an investigation has been launched, he added.
Adamawa is one of three states in the northeast apart from Borno and Yobe worst hit by attacks from Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Islamists whose insurgency has claimed more than 17,000 lives and displaced more than 2.6 million since 2009.
The state which borders Borno, Boko Haram's spiritual home and stronghold, has seen a drastic drop in Boko Haram attacks in recent months after sustained military campaigns against the group.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the raids on the four communities had nothing to do with Boko Haram insurgency, the police front man said.
"This is purely a communal unrest between farmers and herdsmen," he said.
Disputes between nomads and farmers over grazing and watering rights are common in northern and central Nigeria leading to frequent deadly flare-ups.
The problem has persisted despite interventions by state governments and community leaders who tried to broker truce between the two sides and ending the cycle of deadly attacks and reprisals.
I read the Wikipedia article on the Fulani herdsmen of Nigeria, and ended up confused. But here's what I think I know: the Fulani are the world's largest population of nomadic herdsmen, wandering over seven African countries from West Africa to Egypt. About half of them became settled farmers over the past half millenium, the farmers having retained the old religion whle the herders converted to Islam. Naturally the farmers and herdsmen clash over grazing and water rights, no doubt abetted by religious imperatives. If only global warming had continued with its concommitent increased rain and improved plant growth, but alas, it was not to be.
[Dawn] DOUALA: Suicide bombers targeting a town in northern Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... killed 28 people and maimed 65 on Monday, one of the worst attacks yet in the Central African nation as it struggles to contain an overflow of violence blamed on Nigeria's Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... State-owned radio and local officials said four kabooms struck a busy market and entrances to the town of Bodo, which borders the insurgency's strongholds in northeastern Nigeria.
"The new toll is 28 dead and 65 maimed. Currently the situation is stable. Our security forces are in place," said one official, who asked not to be named.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, northern Cameroon has become the scene of increasingly frequent suicide kabooms as Boko Haram has stepped up cross-border violence that has also spread into Chad and Niger.
Twelve people were killed in an attack on Jan. 13 at a mosque in the town of Kouyape.
Bodo, separated from Nigeria by only a small border river, was previously targeted at the end of December when twojacket wallah'> exploding trollop female suicide bombers blew themselves up at the town entrance.
Regional armies mounted an offensive against the holy warriors last year that ousted them from many positions in northern Nigeria.
In the wake of that operation, Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin pledged to set up a 8,700-strong regional force tasked with wiping out Boko Haram. The United States has also sent troops to supply intelligence and other assistance.
The establishment of the force has been plagued by delays, however, and joint operations have yet to begin, leaving it up to national armies to tackle Boko Haram individually.
In the absence of effective coordination, security sources have warned this can often mean that soldiers just drive the hard boyz across each other's borders.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/26/2016
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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.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Rooters] President Barack Obama praised Hillary Clinton's political experience, a boost to her campaign as she battles an insurgent Bernie Sanders a week before the Democratic presidential nominating process kicks off.
This second report defines American strategic objectives in Iraq and Syria, identify the minimum necessary conditions for ending the conflicts there, and compare U.S. objectives with those of Iran, Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia in order to understand actual convergences and divergences. The differences mean that the U.S. cannot rely heavily on international partners to achieve its objectives. Subsequent reports will provide a detailed assessment of the situation on the ground in Syria and present the planning group's evaluation of several courses of action.
[RFE/RL] Vladimir Putin has criticized Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, accusing him of placing a "time bomb" under the country, and sharply denouncing brutal repression by the Bolshevik government. Putin was particularly critical of what he said was Lenin's belief that Soviet republics should be equal and have the right to secede, suggesting it strongly contributed to the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Wazoo
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
