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New Year's Eve terror attack thwarted in NY
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
11:49 2 15:28 Shipman [4]
11:46 3 16:36 gorb [9] 
10:33 4 16:09 Iblis [5]
10:24 4 19:58 Barbara [10]
09:55 13 20:04 JosephMendiola [8]
09:45 2 20:08 JosephMendiola [11]
09:06 7 17:37 Dale [9]
08:44 5 18:46 P2Kontheroad [5]
08:32 3 20:44 anon1 [11]
08:13 4 20:41 anon1 [9]
03:59 4 20:06 Alaska Paul [13]
03:48 4 10:51 JohnQC [2]
01:37 2 11:33 Pappy [2] 
00:00:00 1 04:02 g(r)omgoru [7] 
00:00 2 14:37 Nguard [7]
00:00 1 11:26 Skidmark [5]
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00:00 7 17:56 Zenobia Floger6220 [8]
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00:00 3 12:09 Bill Clinton [8]
00:00 3 14:48 Frank G [5]
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Caribbean-Latin America
Venezuela Supreme Court blocks opposition's parliamentary super-majority in 'judicial coup'

Looks like it's gonna have to get violent
Venezuela's Supreme Court has blocked the parliamentary super-majority won by the opposition in December's landmark elections, in a move denounced by opposition leaders as a "judicial coup" by President Nicolas Maduro.

The court - which critics complain is stacked with pro-government judges - granted a request from Mr Maduro to suspend three opposition parliamentarians who were due to take office on Tuesday. It will now consider a legal challenge filed by the Socialist government, which has alleged a "criminal" vote buying plot and other electoral fraud on the part of the opposition. One Socialist parliamentarian has also been suspended.

But the opposition insisted the elected parliamentarians would turn up to be sworn in on Tuesday, setting the stage for a tense political standoff and a possible repeat of the civil unrest which paralysed parts of the country throughout much of 2014.
Will be interesting how long before Maduro calls in the Cubans
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 11:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Any bets on whom Obumble supports in this?
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/01/2016 14:02 Comments || Top||

#2  It's going to come down to the FAN boyz. Always does. Thinking the FAN is going to allow a 3/5 majority which is enough to free prisoners,nand maybe just, maybe allow the Bol to float and end free oil to Cuber. We will see. If you got 'em pray 'em.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/01/2016 15:28 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Two dead, eight wounded in shooting on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv
Two people were killed and eight others were wounded in a shooting attack which took place on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon. According to MDA spokesman Zaki Heller, the shooting took place near a bar located on Dizengoff 130.

Four victims remain in serious condition, three are in moderate condition, and one was lightly injured.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/01/2016 11:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the guy had a koran in his backpack

apparently a muslim from near haifa
Posted by: lord garth || 01/01/2016 13:31 Comments || Top||

#2  But his motives are "undetermined at this time..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/01/2016 13:43 Comments || Top||

#3  No, that's something we do here in Amerika. Israel doesn't have that problem.
Posted by: gorb || 01/01/2016 16:36 Comments || Top||


Economy
Oil will blow past $80 a barrel in 2016
[Rooters] The next big move in the price of oil will be up. For now, OPEC producers are flooding the market with cheap crude. But low-cost OPEC producers will win the hydrocarbon price war because they can fight harder for longer. And when they win, the price of oil will rise.

Brent crude has fallen about 40 percent over the last year to less than $40 a barrel as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has sought to defend its market share by pumping record volumes of oil and driving profit out of higher-cost production. Shale oil drillers in America and offshore operators in areas such as the UK's North Sea are among the most vulnerable. Improving wellhead efficiency has softened the blows thus far. But these gains will be harder to repeat in 2016.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects shale oil production in the United States to shrink by more than 600,000 barrels per day next year if current low oil prices persist. At that rate, daily U.S. shale production would soon fall below 5 million barrels per day.

Lower prices will accelerate shutdowns in areas like the North Sea too. Energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie reckons that over a third of the area's 330 fields could be threatened by early closure if prices remain below $85 per barrel for an extended period.

Like shale, the North Sea was once seen as a serious rival to OPEC's cheap oil but now it looks like its first victim. Wood Mackenzie reckons that at least 1.5 million barrels of daily global production are uneconomic at $40. Those volumes make up no more than a couple of percent of supply. But the global oil market is finely balanced. Small changes can lead to big shifts.

As more high-cost production is either shut down or slowed down, OPEC's pricing power will come to the fore. The IEA says oil prices will swill around the bottom of the barrel until 2018. If demand for oil rises with a global economic growth spurt -- fuelled perhaps by the low cost of energy -- the oil prices will move up sooner than that.

The precise price to be seen at any moment in 2016 is unpredictable. But elemental oil market forces suggest that a barrel of black stuff will revert back towards its 10-year mean above $80.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 10:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bernie Sanders-level Economics knowledge. When the price rises, higher-cost production becomes profitable, make supply expand, lowering prices again. It's almost like there's a supply/demand thing going on, but we know that can't be right...
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 10:40 Comments || Top||

#2  CONUS is about 3% of the world's land area and we have seen the results of fracking there. Wait till it gets going in the rest of the world.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/01/2016 13:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Ya right, just like global warming, speculating on oil is never right.
Posted by: 49 pan || 01/01/2016 15:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Wishful thinking from a cesspool of lefty horseshit.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/01/2016 16:09 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Hillary Clinton Is Not a Feminist

Since Hillary announced that her husband would be joining her on the campaign trail, people have been debating whether or not it's fair for the GOP to attack Bill's sexual misdeeds in order to indirectly attack her.

This makes sense. After all, we're talking about a guy who has been accused of the sexual assault of more than ten women. Think about it: How is her appointing him really any different than if she'd appointed Bill Cosby? But here's the thing: The real issue isn't whether or not to attack Bill to indirectly attack Hillary ‐ it's about directly attacking Hillary for how she herself treated the women involved.
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 10:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is she even human?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/01/2016 12:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Is she even a carbon-based life form?
Posted by: Matt || 01/01/2016 14:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Let's leave the dehumanisng of our opponents to the left. That love that sort of thing.

Hillary is all too human and fully capable of doing some truly evil things song the lines of Pol-Pot, Stalin, Hitler, and all the way back to the Prophet Mohammand himself.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/01/2016 19:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Gee, CF, don't hold back.

Tell us how you really feel.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/01/2016 19:58 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
'Trapper John' gone at 82.
Wayne Rogers, who played a sardonic, martini-drinking surgeon on the beloved comedy sitcom “M*A*S*H,” has died. He was 82. Rogers played Dr. Trapper John McIntyre on “M*A*S*H,” one of the most popular television shows of the 1970s and a send-up of America’s foray into Vietnam. He was partnered with Hawkeye Pierce, played by Alan Alda, and the two would trade barbed remarks throughout surgery in an unnamed tropical war zone.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 09:55 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ah shit, I am officially old.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/01/2016 10:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Un named tropical war zone? WTF? Now Ima not sure he's dead.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/01/2016 10:08 Comments || Top||

#3  he was also Gambler in Cool Hand Luke ("My Lucille"). Good panelist on Fox's Cashin In
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 10:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Korea is now an unnamed tropical war zone. Ima blame Glowball Warmening
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 10:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Wayne Rogers was in an episode of Gunsmoke. Feeling old all of a sudden.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/01/2016 10:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Wasn't MASH set in the Korean War?

What the heck does 'send up' mean here?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/01/2016 10:36 Comments || Top||

#7  Korea is now an unnamed tropical war zone

Those who forget history...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/01/2016 10:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Anyone remember when it was referred to as a "Police Action?"
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 10:40 Comments || Top||

#9  Slightly [well perhaps more than slightly] off topic:

Why did we lose so many planes?

Even after all these years this is still disgusting to hear. No wonder so many people (including me) so despise our political leadership. I shall send this on. Vietnam - Why were so many planes shot down? Ever wondered why so many of our aviators in Vietnam got shot down?

"The Secret War and Other Conflicts" (Published 2014 by GENERAL PETE PIOTROWSKI ISBN 978-1-4931-6187-4 (Hardcover)) Following is a quote of much interest, from pages 246/247:

"Nearly twenty years later, former Secretary of State Dean Rusk being interviewed by Peter Arnett on a CBC documentary called, "The Ten Thousand Day War". Mr Arnett asked, "It has
been rumored that the United States provided the North Vietnamese government the names of the targets that would be bombed the following
day. Is there any truth to that allegation?" To everyone's astonishment and absolute disgust, the former Secretary responded, "Yes. We didn't
want to harm the North Vietnamese people, so we passed the targets to the Swiss embassy in Washington with instructions to pass them to the NVN government through their embassy in Hanoi." As we watched in horror, Secretary Rusk went on to say, "All we wanted to do is demonstrate to the North Vietnamese leadership that we could strike targets at will, but we didn't want to kill innocent people. By giving the North Vietnamese advanced warning of the targets to be attacked, we thought they would tell the workers to stay home." No wonder all the targets were so heavily defended day after day! The NVN obviously moved as many
guns as they could overnight to better defend each target they knew was going to be attacked. Clearly, many brave American Air Force and Navy
fliers died or spent years in NVN prison camps as a direct result of being intentionally betrayed by Secretary Rusk and Secretary McNamara,
and perhaps, President Johnson himself. I cannot think of a more
duplicitous and treacherous act of American government officials. Dean Rusk served as Secretary of State from January 21, 1961, through to January 20, 1969, under President John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Mr. Peter Arnett opined that "this would be a treasonous act by anyone else." A very sad revelation.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 11:08 Comments || Top||

#10  LBJ was slime and McNamara should have been tried for treason.

Saw Wayne Rogers tee off at the first hole of La Costa Country Club way back in the mid-1970s just after he quit MASH, which turned out not to be the smartest career move unless he just got sick of it and couldn't do it anymore. Anyway, he had a big smile on his face.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/01/2016 13:06 Comments || Top||

#11  Rodgers knew more about stocks than me and you AU.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/01/2016 15:22 Comments || Top||

#12  A LOT more than almost all of us, #11 Ship.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/01/2016 16:02 Comments || Top||

#13  The great NATALIE COLE has also passed on, seemingly from long-standing congestive heart failure + other helth issues.

I met Wayne Rogers in NYC back in the early 1990's while he was speaking at a political affairs event, and was deeply impressed wid his Conservative views - HE COULD'VE BEEN A GREAT POLITICIAN IN WASHINGTON.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/01/2016 20:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
The doctor fired for telling the truth.
[WND] BLUF: Can your physician, without fear for his career, tell you the truth about the risks of your behavior? Only if it involves smoking or drug use or something other than sex. Doctors are supposed to affirm the notion that the only problems facing LGBT patients are caused by societal disapproval. This gag on physicians must be enforced by totalitarian methods because reality is so hard to deny.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 09:45 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You'd think lying was de rigueur these days.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/01/2016 10:39 Comments || Top||

#2  So not unlike the War on Moms, where Mom needs the Govt's permission to raise and teach, etc. her own kids, ditto now as per MD'S giving their patients the Govt-n-Only-The-Govt's official byline = diagnosis + solutions???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/01/2016 20:08 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Part of Trump's Base and Left's Worst Nightmare: Disaffected Democrats
[PJ Media] Donald Trump holds a dominant position in national polls in no small part because he is extremely strong among people on the periphery of the Republican coalition.

He is strongest among Republicans who are less affluent, less educated and less likely to turn out to vote. His very best voters are self-identified Republicans who nonetheless are registered as Democrats. It's a coalition that's concentrated in the South, Appalachia and the industrial North, according to data provided to The Upshot by Civis Analytics, a Democratic data firm.

Mr. Trump's huge advantage among these groups poses a challenge for his campaign, because it may not have the turnout operation necessary to mobilize irregular voters.

But it is just as big a challenge for the Republican Party, which has maintained its competitiveness in spite of losses among nonwhite and young voters by adding older and white voters, many from the South. These gains have helped the party retake the House, the Senate and many state governments. But these same voters may now be making it harder for the party to broaden its appeal to nonwhite and younger people -- perhaps even by helping to nominate Mr. Trump.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 09:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I suspect most out of work coal miners will back Trump over any democrat or any republican establishment candidate.
Posted by: Airandee || 01/01/2016 9:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Do ya think people are just tired of the same old tired B.S. and lies coming from Washington?
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/01/2016 10:26 Comments || Top||

#3  I suspect most out of work coal miners will back Trump
auto workers
software engineers
communication workers
manufacturing workers
defense workers
farm workers
X-military
police

Generally NOT coastals.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 11:16 Comments || Top||

#4  And all the Felns,
Illegal Aliens,
Refugee / Terrorists,
Dead,
Cartoon characters,
and Imaginary Friends and Enemies
will vote for. Hillary.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/01/2016 12:51 Comments || Top||

#5  ...and members of the FSA (Free Shit Army).
Posted by: Raj || 01/01/2016 13:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Blue dogs...
Posted by: 49 pan || 01/01/2016 15:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Any person who addresses the America that has been ignored for far too long will draw from many people. The media and self appointed elites Have never understood the hatred towards them. The suggestion they will not vote is another lie they hope to propagate. As usual they haven't a clue. The suggestion they are less educated is another smear.
Posted by: Dale || 01/01/2016 17:37 Comments || Top||


Feral Khan on Trump: The 'Comb Over' wars
[Breitbart] Thursday, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan posted a video on his Facebook page from "The Cliff Kelley Show" on WVON from earlier this month in which he warned Americans about a Donald Trump presidency

Farrakhan said, "Mr. Trump is tearing away the skin of the onion of white civility and the more he pulls the skin of that onion back, he's beginning to show something in the character of the whites that follow him, that they don't care what he says. He could say one thing this minute, another thing the next minute and you can see that the man has a little problem. A little problem. But he is exacerbating the race situation in America."

He continued, "I guarantee you if he becomes president--if he becomes president he'll take America exactly where America is heading. He'll take you there on a rocket ship. How can a man say he is not a thug--he's a diplomat--he's a president. 'We'll go into Iraq and just take the oil out.' See? That's the thug coming out. That's the part of the nature of the beast that's manifesting. Well If he becomes your president, you'll be just like him."
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 08:44 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Calypso Louie criticizes Trump for exacerbating the race situation in America? This race-baiting POS calls the kettle white?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 9:03 Comments || Top||

#2  The Dems are mobilizing the fringe to reach their base. Their worst fears are disaffected democrats voting for Trump Republicans. If Trump's poll numbers hold, we'll be seeing more of this heading up to the election.

If the pub leadership were smart [which they are not], they'd be getting behind Trump with everything they have.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 9:13 Comments || Top||

#3  If the pub leadership were smart...

The pub leadership are really democrats pretending to be pubs.
Posted by: Squinty McCoy2119 || 01/01/2016 12:01 Comments || Top||

#4  The pub leadership are really democrats pretending to be pubs.

Establishment Republicans have always been "just a bit to the right" of Democrats.

But considering the Democrats have sailed further and further left since the late 1960s, where do you think moderate and conservative Democrats would have gone?
Posted by: Pappy || 01/01/2016 12:07 Comments || Top||

#5  K Street?
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 01/01/2016 18:46 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Racial Aikido, Multiracial Aikido, Examining White Privilege in a Multicult World
[Oregon State Univ] Social Justice Retreats. The following retreats are being offered in support of social justice work on the Oregon State University campus: Racial Aikido, Multiracial Aikido, Examining White Identity in a Multicultural World, and Examining White Identity for Faculty and Staff. These weekend long retreats were created to promote a campus dialogue about race and racism. They engage in the active exploration of the concept of race and how race impacts our lived experiences and interactions.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 08:32 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Retrievers and White men. Pets or Gun Enablers?
Tiny Print and Onion Skin the White Bible Conspiracy
Hell Cats, why do they puuuuuursist on sitting on white men's laps?
William Faulkner: American Jooo with Retrievers
Guns and Ammo: American Ink Fascists
Mark Twain: Thank Gaia he's Dead and why you should be happy.

Posted by: Shipman || 01/01/2016 10:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Nice sized clusters for study group trials of the Portable Linear Accelerator prototype.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 10:22 Comments || Top||

#3  if you want to start a race war and make racism a thing then sure, go ahead, treat people differently and make them focus on those differences

stupid idea

how about one law for all, and all are equal before it.

no more special privelidges on the basis of race, because it is unfair and divisive

how about equality of opportunity not equality of outcome

if you are too dumb to get to uni then you do not get affirmative action help to get there

tough titties, clear the slate and make it fair and equal
Posted by: anon1 || 01/01/2016 20:44 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Global Warming Is Not the Problem. Global Governance Is.
[Breitbart] BLUF One World Government in the name of "global environmental security". And it's happening across the world right now. Never mind the facts that COP21 was a bit of a flop and that the Pope's encyclical on the environment was widely ridiculed. The great global governance caravan is trundling on regardless: it's now a business, remember, worth $1.5 trillion a year. There are an awful lot of snouts stuck in that trough and they're not about to leave it any time soon.

Yet it's something that is almost never mentioned in the mainstream media. How many times have you read or heard, anywhere in the MSM, about Agenda 21? It has been the guiding force behind most environmental policy across the world since it was born at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit (established by Maurice Strong) which in turn spawned all the big eco conferences we've had since, such as the recent COP21 in Paris. But no one ever talks about it. It just sounds like too much of a crazy right-wing conspiracy theory.

And that, I'm afraid, is also part of The Plan. Anyone who dares question the "consensus" on global warming -- see Media Matters above -- is dismissed as a fruitcake: journalists are marginalised, scientists lose tenure or funding, politicians are denied preferment, businesses lose contracts. Speaking out against climate change is the modern equivalent of being Galileo before the Inquisition...

So that's going to be one of my jobs in 2016 -- telling it like it is, regardless of what the bastards say.

I consider it both a pleasure and privilege.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 08:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OWG is one of those agenda items of the left. The only problem is that they want to be in charge.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/01/2016 10:28 Comments || Top||

#2  I shouldn't imply that "The only problem is that they want to be in charge". I don't want anyone in charge of such a dangerous, destructive notion.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/01/2016 10:31 Comments || Top||

#3  It has said that America can only be defeated from within.

AFAIC 9-11 was the Pan/Global Socialist equivalent of 1917 + the Bolshevik Revolution in Tsarist Russia soon-to-be-the-Stalinist-USSR - YOU KNOW, THE USSA - as much as anything else.

Agenda 21, the "SIRIUS" Event, Illuminati, + the Battle or Struggle between the New World-vs-Old-World/Americas-vs-Eurasia to be MACKINDERS TRUE ALL-DOMINATING "WORLD ISLAND".

DID NO ONE IN THE FBI-CIA + INTEL-PYWAR WATCH THE END SCENE FROM "STAR WARS" THE FORCE AWAKENS"???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/01/2016 20:29 Comments || Top||

#4  true dat

global warming industry has a lot more to do with governance and bossing people around and taking their money off them in extra taxes than it ever had to do with the environment

in fact it has zero to do with the environment as carbon does not drive carbon change and human beings cannot stop it or affect it in any meaningful way

the climate always changes and we cannot alter it we can only adapt to it
Posted by: anon1 || 01/01/2016 20:41 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
White House delays imposing new sanctions on Iran
The White House has delayed imposing new financial sanctions on Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Journal, citing US officials, reported that the Obama administration was preparing to sanction nearly a dozen companies and individuals in Iran, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates for their role in developing Iran's ballistic-missile program.
Unexpectedly
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/01/2016 03:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  but he can get those Executive Orders rolling Monday
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 10:06 Comments || Top||

#2  ValJar is still running things you know.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 01/01/2016 10:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Perhaps the delay is due to waiting for the $4B impounded money from 1979 to be redeposited in Tehran banks.
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 01/01/2016 11:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Yeah, real throwaway meaningless sanctions. Just for show.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/01/2016 20:06 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
The Israelis have spoken
Russian President Vladimir Putin is Israelis' person of the year, according to a Panels Research poll taken for The Jerusalem Post and its Hebrew sister publication Ma'ariv Sof Hashavua.

The poll of 527 respondents representing a statistical sample of the Jewish adult population, was taken Tuesday and has an error margin of Âą4.3 percent.

Twenty-nine percent of respondents chose Putin as their person of the year, 16% picked German Chancellor Angela Merkel, 15% Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 3% Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, 2% Pope Francis, 2% US President Barack Obama and 33% said they did not know.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/01/2016 03:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Champ's 2% appears dreadfully inflated.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 5:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Merkel? WTF?
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 01/01/2016 9:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Merkel is draining Serbs out of Lebanon.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 9:44 Comments || Top||

#4  If the poll has an error margin of + 4.3%, it is doubtful that percentages as low as 2% or 3% can be measured with any accuracy, precision or significance. al-Baghdadi and Obama seem to be in the same ball park. What is surprising as has been said is that they would be rated this high in an Israel poll. What does "person of the year" mean? Of course Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin also were named "person of the year" in the past.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/01/2016 10:51 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt launches airstrikes on IS affiliate in Sinai, killing 15
[IsraelTimes] Fighter jets enter Gazoo airspace in attacks on jihadists; shell fired by snuffies kills family of 5

The Egyptian air force began intensive Arclight airstrikes on Thursday morning against a local branch 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....
group in Egyptian Rafah, near the border with the Gazoo Strip, local media reported.

Paleostinian sources were quoted by the Walla news site as saying that Egyptian fighter jets were entering Gazoo's airspace in their attacks on the Wilayat Sinaa group (formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis
...Supporters of Jerusalem, the current pen name of al-Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula...
), which has grabbed credit for numerous deadly attacks on Egyptian soldiers and civilians over the last two years.

Sky News Arabia reported that 15 people had been killed in the Arclight airstrikes.

Egyptian officials said Thursday that gunnies in the restive northern Sinai had shelled a home near a security checkpoint in Rafah, killing an entire family of five and wounding a teenage neighbor.

Medical and security officials said that one of the victims, a five-year-old girl, remains buried under the rubble of the demolished home. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to news hounds.

No one immediately grabbed credit for the attack.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/01/2016 01:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)

#1  getting serious?
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 9:19 Comments || Top||

#2  That'll be when they start bombing Gaza, instead of merely flying over it.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/01/2016 11:33 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
4 Arab Israelis arrested for arms dealing, rioting
[IsraelTimes] Residents of central Israeli town of Jaljulia plotted shooting or Molotov cocktailing attack, later dropped plan

Israeli security forces in November placed in durance vile
Please don't kill me!
four Arab Israelis on suspicion of illegal arms dealing and taking part in riots, the Shin Bet domestic security service said Thursday.

The operation was carried out jointly by the Shin Bet and police special forces, the security service said.

The detainees were named as Yahya Farid Ibrahim Abu Hajlah, 22; Firas Ismail Muhammad Faki, 18; Muhammad Taysir Atman Fiyumi, 22; and Uday Kaid Hassan Kharbosh, 21. All four are residents of the central Israeli town of Jaljulia, near Kfar Saba.

According to the Shin Bet, the operation began with a joint investigation with the IDF, which led to the arrest of Fiyumi as he returned from the West Bank city of Nablus following a meeting with weapons sellers to discuss the purchase of a gun.

The remainder of the detainees were arrested in the wake of Fiyumi's investigation, during which it emerged that he was both an arms dealer and a supporter of the Paleostinian terror group Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,.

The investigation also revealed that Abu Hajlah was involved in various forms of weapons trafficking.

Furthermore, the Shin Bet said, the investigation showed that in October, at the height of festivities at the flashpoint Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the four had considered a shooting attack on a police car or Molotov cocktailing the local cop shoppe in Jaljulia. Ultimately, the security service said, the four dropped the idea for fear of being caught.

Abu Hajlah, Faki and Kharbosh were also involved in rioting, burning tires and throwing stones at coppers during festivities in October, the Shin Bet said, adding that the arrests most likely stopped the four from engaging in more serious acts of terrorism.

Fiyumi and Abu Hajlah have been indicted in Lod District Court for arms dealing, while Faki and Kharbosh were charged in Lod Magistrate's Court with causing a disturbance.

The announcement came hours after two Arab Israeli citizens from Jerusalem were indicted for planning to plant explosives at the Rio Hotel in Eilat several weeks ago.

Last month, six Arab Israelis from Jaljulia were arrested for preparing 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....
, after a seventh man successfully joined the organization by hang gliding into Syria from the Golan Heights.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/01/2016 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  We should follow Sharia and cut their arms off.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/01/2016 4:02 Comments || Top||


Europe
Hollande invokes French terrorism threat, defends passport-stripping
[REUTERS] President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist...
said on Thursday La Belle France was "not finished with terrorism" and used a new year's message to defend controversial plans to strip citizenship from those convicted of terrorism offences.

"The threat is still there," he said in a televised address. "It remains in fact at its highest level, and we are regularly disrupting planned attacks."

The French leader defended proposed constitutional changes to support a crackdown on gunnies following November's deadly Islamist attacks in Gay Paree, which killed 130 people.

Under the plans, French-born dual passport holders could be stripped of their nationality - a sanction currently applicable only to naturalized citizens.

The proposals, yet to go before the French National Assembly and Senate, have divided Hollande's ruling Socialists and drawn veiled criticism from his own justice minister, Christine Taubira.

"I made a choice in good conscience that was proportionate to what La Belle France has suffered," Hollande said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perhaps if they would deny benefits and open travel too...
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 10:16 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Hundreds of new laws in California
[LATIMES] Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,ns face new restrictions on carrying guns, protections from warrantless searches of their emails, immunity from city fines for installing artificial turf and higher pay if they earn minimum wage under laws that take effect with the new year.

Many of the 807 bills signed into law touch on broad aspects of California residents' everyday lives or address major issues like voter participation, and life and death.

Gov. Jerry Governor Moonbeam Brown
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'm outta here.

Fuck you California
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/01/2016 1:14 Comments || Top||

#2  "The new year also requires law enforcement agencies to obtain a search warrant before looking at private emails, text messages and GPS data stored in smartphones, laptops and the cloud."

That is a good one.
Posted by: Lionel Thoth9784 || 01/01/2016 9:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Me thinks California just nailed a big bull's eye on the back of the University system with the banning of all weapons from campus.

Any bets on how long it takes a shooter or three to cause mass blood shed on a California campus?

Remember it was a student with a handgun that stopped the Virginia Tech shooter.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 01/01/2016 12:05 Comments || Top||

#4  Any bets on how long it takes a shooter or three to cause mass blood shed on a California campus?

Three months - give me the under.
Posted by: Raj || 01/01/2016 13:38 Comments || Top||


Europe
Munich train stations evacuated over concerns of possible terror plans
[CNN] Two train stations in Munich, Germany, were evacuated and train service stopped on New Year's Eve, a front man for the Munich police said, citing concerns of a possible terror plot.

Police have received "concrete information that strongly indicates that there are possible plans for terror attacks in Munich, specifically against the main train station and the railway station in (the western district of) Pasing."

Munich police said officials had deemed the information about the threat of an attack on New Year's Eve as serious and credible.

Authorities told the public additional officers were being called in to find possible suspects.

Police are also asking the public to stay away from large gatherings.
According to The Times of Israel, it may have been French intelligence which passed on the warning that five to seven ISIS suicide bombers planned to attack the train stations, and that 550 police officers were guarding the train stations and searching for the miscreants.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Happy New Year from Munich!
Posted by: European Conservative || 01/01/2016 13:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Attributable to a shortage of halal marzipan rations for New Years, no doubt...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/01/2016 13:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Ein gutes neues Jahr, EC.
Posted by: Matt || 01/01/2016 13:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Vielen Dank!
Posted by: European Conservative || 01/01/2016 14:18 Comments || Top||

#5  And good luck with that neues Jahr, EC.

The way things are going, you (and we) will need it. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara || 01/01/2016 15:13 Comments || Top||

#6  I see they have issues with bitter clinger Republicans too
Posted by: regular joe || 01/01/2016 15:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Don't worry Barbara. We'll just close the border (to Prussia).
Posted by: European Conservative || 01/01/2016 15:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Yeah, that'll work, EC. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara || 01/01/2016 16:03 Comments || Top||

#9  The problem is, the Prussians are already here...
Posted by: European Conservative || 01/01/2016 16:24 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghan intelligence rescue 10 civilians taken hostage by terrorists in Zabul
Afghan intelligence operatives conducted a successful operation in southern Zabul province of Afghanistan and rescued at least ten civilians taken hostage by terrorist groups.

The National Directorate of Security (NDS) said the civilians were abducted by the militants earlier and were safely rescued by the intelligence operatives.

No further details were given regarding the exact location where the operation was conducted and the group which held the civilians as captives.

However, the anti-government armed militant groups, mainly belonging to Taliban group are actively operating in parts of Zabul province.

The fanatics loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group are also reportedly operating in Zabul.

Meanwhile, NDS said the civilians rescued during the operation are in good health condition and will join their families soon.

This comes as reports emerged from Zabul province late last month suggesting that 20 civilians were abducted by unknown gunmen from Shahjoi district.

The incident last month took place almost two weeks after a group of civilians were beheaded by the militants apparently belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group.

The seven civilians were kidnapped from Gilan District of southeastern Ghazni province and their dead bodies were recovered from Khak-e-Afghan District of southern Zabul province.
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
'Young people easy prey to radicals'
[Dhaka Tribune] A trial court judge has observed that the meritorious young generation is going astray as they are loosing morality nowadays. As a result, they are being motivated by others towards the wrong path.

Dhaka's Special Trial Tribunal 3 Judge Sayeed Ahmed made the observation while delivering judgement in secular blogger Ahmed Rajeeb Haider murder case. Seven expelled students of North South University and a religious scholar were given punishment on various terms in the case.

The judge urged parents, students, law enforcers and people from all walks of life to prevent a situation that may create chaos in the society.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Ansarullah Bangla Team

#1  Young people easy prey to radicals? Hasn't that always been the case? It's not old people who are getting radicalized.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/01/2016 10:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Prey to radicals and the machines:

Teen deaths from texting and driving have outnumbered those from drunk driving. A study conducted by the Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Hyde, New York, revealed that over 3,000 teens deaths per year are associated with texting while driving.

In comparison, researchers found that around 2,700 teens died in accidents attributed to driving drunk. The discrepancy may have something to do with ease of access.

Dr. Andrew Adesman of the Cohen Children’s Center points out that while teens may not drink on a daily basis, they always carry their cell phones. Constant access may make it difficult for teens to ignore text messages and phone calls.
As reported by CBS News, despite education about the dangers, over 50 percent of teens admit texting while driving. Additionally, researchers found that laws against texting while driving have little impact. Fifty-seven percent of the teens surveyed admitted texting and driving, even in states where it is against the law.
The US Department of Transportation and the National Highways Traffic Safety Administration have partnered to present Distraction.gov. The website offers facts and statistics, along with real stories of lives shattered due to driving while texting or distracted.


Link
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 10:45 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Freed Afghan village reveals key to Taliban 'success'
[DAWN] QARA GHOILY: Flanked by shaggy-haired gunnies, commander Ghulam Farooq peered out from a hilltop at the biggest military prize of his storied career as a warlord -- a mud-walled Afghan village captured after five years of Taliban control.

The village of Qara Ghoily in the remote northwestern badlands bordering Turkmenistan offers a rare glimpse into life under Taliban rule and encapsulates governance failures that have helped the bully boyz gain ground against NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
-backed Afghan forces.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Arabia
Senior army commander survives bombing
A senior pro-government Yemeni army commander survived a car bombing in second city Aden on Thursday that left one of his bodyguards dead, a military official told AFP.

General Ahmed Saif Al Yafie, commander of the Fourth Military Region, escaped unharmed when an explosive device planted in his vehicle blew up killing a bodyguard, the source said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack and the military official did not blame any group for the bombing.

Aden was rocked by months of fighting this year between pro-government forces and Iran-backed rebels who seized the capital Sanaa in September 2014 before expanding south.
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Concerns Rise Over Drug Production, Trafficking
The Counter Criminal Narcotics Justice Task Force (CJTF) officials said on Wednesday that the increase in drug production and trafficking in Afghanistan during 2015 is a matter of serious concern for the Afghan government.

According to the CJTF, at least 473 incidents related to drug trafficking and production have been registered by the organization and 598 suspects have been arrested in connection with these cases during 2015.

"Nearly 4.5 tons of heroin, 16 kilograms of morphine, 24.5 tons of opium, over 158 tons of hashish, 13,107 litters of alcoholic beverages, 136 light and heavy weapons and 275 vehicles were confiscated in nine months of this year," said Ahmad Khalid Moahid, a spokesman for CJTF.

According to the CJTF, Logar, Nangarhar, Kandahar, Nimroz, Kabul, Helmand and Badakhshan are among the top provinces where drugs are produced and smuggled.

Meanwhile, Daikundi, Khost, Kapisa, Bamiyan and Panjsher are the provinces where no incidents related to drugs production and trafficking were reported during the nine months of 2015.

The CJTF officials meanwhile called on the international community to help Afghanistan overcome the drugs problem.

"Drug [trafficking and production] poses a similar threat as terrorism. International institutions should help Afghanistan to overcome this problem," they added.

A number of analysts meanwhile believe that the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan has affected the Afghan government's counternarcotic campaign during the past year.
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can you locate a terrorist organization that does not deal drugs?
Posted by: Clyde Bucket1605 || 01/01/2016 12:37 Comments || Top||


NDS prevents suicide bombing in Laghman
The National Directorate of Security (NDS) – Afghanistan’s intelligence agency has prevented a suicide bombing in the capital of eastern Laghman province.

A statement released by NDS on Thursday states that Ihasanullah S/O Zabihullah was assigned by the militant commander Samarqand to carry out attack in a crowded area of Mehtarlam city but he was arrested before he could reach to his target.

NDS has confiscated the suicide vest Ihsanullah had with him at the time of the raid in Chehalmati village.

Meanwhile, six insurgents have been killed in joint security operation conducted by Afghan commandoes and police in Alingar District.

Sarhadi Zwak, spokesperson for the governor of Laghman province said the operation started in Salingar, Haidar Ghar and Qasaba areas early on Wednesday morning and continued till late evening in which five militants have been killed and another wounded.

Zwak added that one of the militants killed was a senior commander of the group.

Governor’s spokesperson identified the militant commander killed as Mohammad Nasir alias Abdul Rahman.
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
27 ISIS Bad Guys die in Hawija
(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – On Wednesday, a security source in Kirkuk Province announced, that a joint force from the Anti-Terrorism forces and the American tactical forces had carried out an air landing operation in central Hawija west of Kirkuk (250 km north of Baghdad), while pointed out that 27 elements of ISIS were killed and eight other elements including prominent leaders were arrested.

The source said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “A joint force from the Anti-Terrorism forces and the American tactical forces had carried out an air landing on a house behind the Technical Institute in Hawija District (55 west km Kirkuk), killing 27 elements of ISIS and arresting eight others including foreign leaders.”

The source added, “The operation was carried out based on accurate information,” pointing out that, “The joint force managed to withdraw without any losses.”
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Uh, uh, HAWAII???

How did Hard Boyz get into PACOM???

gut nuthin.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/01/2016 19:57 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US preparing sanctions on Iran over ballistic missile program -sources
[Daily Excelsior] President Barack Obama’s administration is preparing new sanctions on international companies and individuals over Iran’s ballistic missile program, sources familiar with the situation said.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the potential sanctions would target about 12 companies and individuals in Iran, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates for their suspected role in developing Iran’s ballistic-missile program.

US officials have said the Treasury Department retains a right under July’s landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers including Washington to blacklist Iranian entities suspected of involvement in missile development, the Journal said.

Iranian officials have said the country’s supreme leader would view such penalties as violating the nuclear accord.

A team of UN sanctions monitors said in a confidential report seen by Reuters on Dec.

15 that a medium-range Emad rocket that Iran tested on October 10 was a ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, making it a violation of a UN Security Council resolution.

Diplomats have said it was possible for the sanctions committee to blacklist additional Iranian individuals or entities over the missile launch.

But they said Russia and China, which have opposed the sanctions on Iran’s missile program, might block any such actions.

Tehran has disputed the Western assessment that the Emad missile was capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

The Journal said the planned Treasury Department sanctions concerned two Iran-linked networks involved in developing the country’s missile program and include many of the people involved.

The sanctions would prohibit US or foreign nationals from conducting business with the companies.

US banks would also be required to freeze any assets the companies or individuals hold inside the American financial system.

Among those targeted would be UAE-based Mabrooka Trading Co LLC and its founder, Hossein Pournaghshband, for aiding Iranian state companies in acquiring carbon fiber for Iran’s missile program, the newspaper said, citing a Treasury statement.

The Treasury is also preparing to sanction five Iranian officials at the country’s defense ministry and its subsidiaries for work on the ballistic-missile program, according to the newspaper.

The Journal said reasons for the potential sanctions included ties the Treasury is alleging between Iran and North Korea on missile development.

Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


India-Pakistan
Man jailed for 14 years in Saudi consulate attack case
[DAWN] KARACHI: An antiterrorism court sentenced on Wednesday a man to 14 years in prison in a case pertaining to a grenade attack on the consulate of Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
Zaki Kazmi was found guilty of carrying out the attack with his now dead accomplice at the consulate in the Defence Housing Authority in May 2011.

ATC-VI judge Abdul Naeem Memon, who conducted the trial inside the central prison, read out the conviction order after recording evidence of witnesses and concluding arguments from both sides. The court also ordered confiscation of the convict's property.

According to the prosecution, two grenades were hurled at the Saudi consulate on May 11, 2011, which damaged some windowpanes of a mosque inside the consulate, but did not cause any causality.

The police placed in durance vile
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
the accused in November 2011 in the Eidgah cop shoppe jurisdiction and claimed that he was affiliated with the 'Mehdi Force'.

The prosecution further said that acting on information of the detained accused, the police had raided a residential complex, Rabia City, in Gulistan-e-Jauhar to arrest the alleged criminal mastermind of the grenade attack, Syed Tabish Hussain, alias Asif Manu, but he put up resistance and was killed in a shootout.

Paperwork was started but nothing else was done under Section ¾ of the Explosive Substances Act, 1908 read with Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act, 1997 at the Gizri cop shoppe.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Soldier injured in suspected West Bank car ramming attack
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian driver plows into troops at junction south of Nablus, is rubbed out

An Israeli soldier was injured Thursday in a suspected car-ramming attack near the West Bank settlement of Tapuah south of Nablus, the army said.

The attack took place at the Betot Junction between Tapuah and the Paleostinian town of Hawara.

The soldier was lightly injured in the attack. He received treatment on scene from IDF medics before being evacuated to Petach Tikva's Belinson hospital with wounds to his extremities, the Magen David Adom first-aid service said.

The army confirmed that the victim is a soldier.

The soldiers were on patrol in the area when a Paleostinian rammed his car into the troops.The driver was rubbed out on the scene, the army confirmed.

The attacker was named as Hassan Bazur, 22, from the village of Raba, outside Jenin.

On Saturday afternoon, another Israeli soldier was lightly hurt in a car-ramming attack in Hawara. The Paleostinian village, located near the city of Nablus, has been the site of a number of stabbings and car ramming attacks against Israeli soldiers, while the Tapuah Junction, just a few miles away, has been a focal point of attacks against Israeli civilians for years.
Al Manar adds:
According to the UnitedNations 170 Paleostinians have been martyred, while the operations against the Zionist occupiers killed 26 Israelis since the start of the year and until December 28 in attacks and festivities.

During that same period more than 15,000 Paleostinians and 350 Israelis were maimed, the UN said on Wednesday.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Taliban leader treated at cancer hospital in Pakistan's Lahore city
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A leader of Afghan Taliban has received medical treatment at Pakistain's largest research-oriented cancer specialized hospital and radiation oncology centre located in Lahore city, Geo News reported on Thursday.

Chairman of Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI) Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
who heads Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (SKMCH&RC) has told Geo's Hamid Mir during its program 'Capital Talk' that he was unaware of it until he received an appreciation letter from Taliban.

Imran Khan has not revealed name of the Taliban leader.

SKMCH&RC was formed by the cricketer-turned politician after his mother died fighting cancer.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


-Land of the Free
Why Would Anyone Want a Firearm?
[NATIONALREVIEW] Of all the ill-considered tropes that are trotted out in anger during our ongoing debate over gun control, perhaps the most irritating is the claim that the Constitution may indeed protect firearms, but it says “nothing at all about bullets.” On its face, this is flatly incorrect.

Quite deliberately, the Bill of Rights is worded so as to shield categories and not specifics, which is why the First Amendment protects the “press” and not “ink”; why the Fourth covers “papers” and “effects” instead of listing every item that might be worn about one’s person; and why the Fifth insists broadly that one may not be deprived of “life, liberty, or property” and leaves the language there.

The “right of the people” that is mentioned in the Second Amendment is not “to keep and bear guns” or “to keep and bear ammunition” but “to keep and bear arms,” which, per Black’s Law Dictionary, was understood in the 18th century to include the “musket and bayonet”; “sabre, holster pistols, and carbine”; an array of “side arms”; and any accoutrements necessary for their operation.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 5:20 Comments || Top||

#2  "Mom?"
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 11:33 Comments || Top||

#3  And she knows how to use it.
Posted by: Bill Clinton || 01/01/2016 12:09 Comments || Top||


Iraq
ISIS executes 3 Kurds
[ARA] ERBIL – The Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group executed three Kurdish men in Iraq’s northwestern province of Nineveh on charges of spying for the Peshmerga forces, local sources reported on Thursday.

The victims were arrested last week in Mosul. The ISIS-led Sharia Court issued a statement saying: “Based on interrogations, the men were convicted of spying for the Peshmerga.”

The Sharia Court order the militants to execute the three Kurdish men in public.

“They were shot dead in front of dozens of people after a member of the Sharia Court read the statement, threatening the Kurdish Peshmerga forces of facing defeat in case they try to invade Mosul,” a local activist and eyewitness told ARA News.

The Peshmerga army and Iraqi government forces, backed by the western coalition, have been preparing for a large military operation aimed at regaining Mosul city from ISIS militants.

This comes only two days after the radical group burned 20 media activists to death in Mosul city. The victims, who have been arrested in separate raids earlier this month, were executed on charges of leaking security information to “hostile parties”.
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Olde Tyme Religion
Priest suspended for riding a hoverboard during Christmas Eve Mass
[USATODAY] A priest in the Philippines was suspended on Tuesday for riding a hoverboard up an aisle during Christmas Eve Mass.

One of the priests at the Diocese of San Pablo sang a Christmas song, while going up and down the aisles of the church on a hoverboard, as a way to greet the congregation on Dec. 24, The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Pablo said in a statement.

Members of the congregation took a handful of videos of the incident, many of which have thousands of views on YouTube. In the videos, people in the congregation appear to clap as the priest begins his journey down the aisle.

While the congregation may have thought the priest’s jaunt on this Christmas’ hottest toy was amusing, the Diocese of San Pablo did not.

“The Eucharist demands utmost respect and reverence. It is the Memorial of the Lord’s Sacrifice,” the diocese said. “It is the source and summit of Christian life. It is the Church’s highest form of worship.”

The diocese said the priest’s actions made the service about him instead of Christ. “It is not a personal celebration where one can capriciously introduce something to get the attention of the people,” the statement said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Forwarding to Fr. Ted.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/01/2016 5:07 Comments || Top||

#2  The Eucharist demands utmost respect and reverence.
The open-carry Baptist revivalists in the tent down the street are gonna get excited about this.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 11:04 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Court orders Mustafa Kanju's arrest in illegal arms case
[DAWN] LAHORE: A district and sessions court has ordered the arrest of Mustafa Kanju, son of former Minister of Foreign Affairs Siddique Kanju, in a case relating to possession of illegal arms, DawnNews reported on Thursday.

Kanju, who was the primary accused in the killing of 16-year-old orphan Zain in Lahore, was acquitted for the murder by an anti-terrorism court along with his four security guards for lack of evidence.

But police had also started the paperwork but haven't done much else against him for possessing unlicensed arms -- including AK-47s. Since being released by police after his acquittal in the Zain murder case, Kanju has been absent from hearings of the illegal arms case.

A judicial magistrate then issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for him, ordering police to present him in court on Jan 5, 2016.

Zain murder case
Mustafa Kanju was incarcerated
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
in April this year and put on trial under section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and section 302 of the Pakistain Penal Code for killing 16-year-old Zain and injuring Husain, 18, in Cavalry Ground area of Lahore.

As per the prosecution, Kanju was allegedly drunk when his luxury car hit another car driven by a woman, who was never identified by the Sherlocks. It said Kanju got infuriated and shot up his opponent party. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
the woman had already driven away from the scene and Zain and Husain, the passers-by, were hit by the firing. Zain departed this vale of tears at a local hospital. Kanju had beat feet from the scene and later was arrested from Khushab.

The trial court had indicted Kanju and his four guards for the murder but the suspects filed an acquittal application under Section 265-K of CrPC after complainant of the case and all prosecution witnesses did not testify against them.

On Oct 27, an ATC acquitted the suspects after several key witnesses retracted their statements. The prosecutor said the complainant and the witnesses were persuaded to retract their statements and had urged the court to dismiss the acquittal application of the suspects.

The Supreme Court then took up the case on a suo motu
...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means I saw what you did, you bastard...
notice, later referring it to the Lahore High Court and directed the prosecution to file an appeal against the acquittal.

After a DNA report submitted to a Lahore High Court division bench showed the bloodstains on Kanju's guard's clothes matched the victim's blood sample, the bench admitted the prosecution's appeal and issued notices to Kanju and the other suspects.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
Senior foreign ministry official killed by IS
The head of security at the foreign ministry, Jamal Musa, is said to have been shot dead by Islamic State (IS) gunmen at one of their checkpoints near Nufliya, east of Sirte. His brother was also killed in the incident and his brother’s wife seriously wounded.

The killings took place yesterday when Musa and his brother were travelling back to Beida from their father’s funeral at Brak Al-Shatti. It is reported that they tried to speed through the IS checkpoint but were caught in a hail of gunfire.

The Deputy foreign minister, Hassan Saghir, has sent the government’s condolences to the family
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Home Front: Politix
Foggy Bottom again defies federal judge on Hilarity emails
The State Department broke a judge’s order on the number of former Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails it was supposed to release Thursday, blaming a dog for eating the homework the holiday season for throwing it off track.

The department promised another release of emails next week to make up for its breach, and said even the emails it was releasing Thursday will not be fully processed and won’t be able to be sorted by senders or recipients in the department’s computer system.

“We have worked diligently to come as close to the goal as possible, but with the large number of documents involved and the holiday schedule we have not met the goal this month. To narrow that gap, the State Department will make another production of former Secretary Clinton’s email sometime next week,” the department said in a statement.
I have read that when a party at a court hearing upsets a judge enough that party can be jailed for "contempt of court". However, I've never seen it applied. Is what I've read correct or should I confine myself to more reliable sources like Soldier of Fortune?
It’s the latest embarrassment for the department, which has supposedly repeatedly struggled to handle the more than 30,000 emails Mrs. Clinton returned to the government nearly two years after she left office.

The department is under a federal court order to release emails every month since the summer, but broke the order by missing the first deadline under that order. It had caught up, but has now fallen behind again.

All told, some 5,500 pages of documents will be released later Thursday. It’s not clear yet how many actual individual emails that works out to, since many of them span multiple pages. Under the court order, the government is supposed to release 4,800 full emails this month. The final 5,400 emails are to be released near the end of next month — just days before Iowa voters hold the caucuses that kick off the primary season, deciding whether Mrs. Clinton will be Democrats’ presidential nominee.

She belatedly returned her emails after the Obama administration, prodded by Congress’s probe into the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack, realized she had taken all of her messages with her when she left office. The administration then publicly revealed that Mrs. Clinton had refused to use a regular account on the State.gov email server, instead creating an account on a server she kept at her home in New York.

Hundreds of the messages she returned contain information that has now been deemed classified — though Mrs. Clinton insists it was not secret at the time she sent it. She says she didn’t break any laws in keeping her own account.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Key here is, no one has been indicted of jailed. In all of this, not ONE !

The 'rule of law' means nothing when edicts from the King to his Department of Justice direct otherwise. Nothing heard from the Beltway Party as the trail would undoubtedly lead to them as well.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 5:31 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought the judge in this case had a spine. Guess I was wrong.
Posted by: jvalentour || 01/01/2016 9:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Time is long overdue to jug her.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/01/2016 10:18 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
ISIS claims responsibility for attack on tourists at ancient fortress in Russia's Dagestan
More on this from yesterday.
[RT] 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....
has grabbed credit for Tuesday's attack on a group of tourists visiting a fortress in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan
...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca...
, the US-based SITE Intelligence Group reported. Police have not confirmed there is a link to ISIS.

The attack in Derbent left one person dead and 10 injured Tuesday night.

The attack occurred when as many as 20 tourists were on a panoramic terrace of the ancient Naryn-Kala fortress, which houses Russia's oldest mosque and madrasa (Islamic religious school).

The person killed was a warrant officer with the FSB (the Russian Federal Security Service
... the successor to the KGB...
). One of those injured was a member of the Russian border service from the city of Bryansk.

According to the message, attributed to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group and made public by SITE, a group monitoring jihadist threat and propaganda, the hard boyz boasted about being able to attack Russian security service employees.

A front man for Dagestan's Investigative Committee, Rasul Temirbekov, declined to confirm an ISIS connection in the attack when asked to comment by RT, but said that according to one of the most likely theories, the violence was committed by "militants, some of whom had been allegedly fighting in Syria."

Police found 67 cartridges of various caliber bullets at the scene of the attack. According to Sherlocks, the assailants fired from a nearby forest.

The security agencies have uncovered the identity of those wanted in connection with the shooting.

"According to initial reports, three gunnies from a Derbent group were responsible, including its leader Abutdin Khanmagomedov. This is the same group that in the middle of December shot at fire trucks, when three members of the emergency services were shot at," a local security officer told RIA.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Who, in their right mind, would be vacationing in this hellhole? Was this part of the Grozny to Dagestan travel package?
Posted by: Snaique B. Hayes4104 || 01/01/2016 17:07 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Terror bombing at Eilat hotel thwarted
[Ynet] Two Israeli Arabs from Jerusalem plotted to plant explosives at Be Center hotel in the southern resort city, targeting religious Jews staying there; vigilant hotel employees reported their suspicious activity, leading to their arrest.

Two Israeli Arabs were indicted on Thursday for attempting to commit a terror attack at the Be Center hotel in the southern resort city of Eilat. The attack was thwarted thanks to the vigilance of hotel employees, who reported the suspicious behavior of one of the defendants.

The two Jerusalem residents, Khaleel Nimri and Ashraf Salaymeh, were charged with conspiring to aid the enemy in a time of war.

The two defendants have no prior record of security-related offenses and do not belong to any organization. Their plans were foiled in the initial stages, before they had the chance to obtain explosives or other arms.

The two, security officials claim, were influenced by the incitement on Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, websites, but if the attack had gone ahead, it would not have been directly sanctioned by Hamas.

Nimri and Salaymeh met while they were working and living in Eilat. Two months ago, in the midst of the escalating tensions, the two decided to commit a terror attack against Jews, out of the desire to take Dire Revenge against the State of Israel, the indictment states.

Nimri also sought to avenge the death of his childhood friend Fadi Alloun, who was killed while committing a stabbing attack in Jerusalem in October.

According to the indictment, Nimri first suggested to commit a stabbing attack and kill a religious Jew. Salaymeh refused, claiming that they could get caught committing such an attack, which will make the effort meaningless in his eyes.

Salaymeh then suggested to plant explosives in one of the hotels in the city, a plan Khaleel agreed to. The two settled on Eilat's Be Center since it was a relatively small hotel with few people and a low level of security.

The two conducted surveillance of the Be Center hotel (also known as the Rio hotel) from the outside, monitoring a group of religious Jews staying there. One of the defendants even searched online for tutorial videos on how to build bombs.

Salaymeh also arrived at the hotel on November 30 in order to gather intelligence ahead of the attack. He pretended to be interested in renting out a room at the hotel for a long period of time, and on this pretense asked to see different rooms. One of the rooms that caught his eye, according to the indictment, was one located under the dining room.

Salaymeh asked the receptionist and the manager many questions that arose their suspicion, including how many entrances does the hotel have, what is the hotel's capacity, whether a group of religious Jews are expected at the hotel, ect.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:


Economy
CAIR Negotiating on Behalf of Muslim Workers Fired from Meat Plant Over Prayer Dispute
[BREITBART] About 190 workers, most of them Muslim immigrants from Somalia, were fired from their jobs at a meat packing and distribution plant in Colorado this week for walking off the job to protest a workplace prayer dispute.

Approximately 200 workers reportedly walked off of their jobs at Cargill Meat Solutions in Fort Morgan earlier this month to protest what they allege were changes made in times allowed for them to take breaks in order to participate in Islamic prayer.

According to the Denver Post, some workers later returned and were able to keep their jobs, but the majority stayed away in hopes of swaying management to reinstate a prayer schedule as representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ...
(CAIR)--an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the Holy Land Foundation trial, which concerned fundraising for the Paleostinian terror organization Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,--negotiated on their behalf.

CAIR is also helping the aunt of a seven-month-old child left orphaned by radical jihadist couple who massacred 14 people and maimed 22 others in a terrorist attack in San Bernardino this month gain jug of the infant.

"They feel missing their prayer is worse than losing their job," Jaylani Hussein, a front man and executive director of CAIR said. "It's like losing a blessing from God."

Salat is the obligatory Muslim prayer and the second Pillar of Islam, which is required to be performed five times a day by observant Muslims. Hussein reportedly said that the Muslims workers CAIR was negotiating on behalf of would pray at the plant multiple times a day in five-t0-10 minute blocks of time and alleged that the plant decided to change the practice. The Post notes that the time was carved out of a 15-minute break period or from the workers' unpaid 30-minute lunch breaks.

"At no time did Cargill prevent people from prayer at Fort Morgan," director of communications for Cargill, Mike Martin reportedly said. "Nor have we changed policies related to religious accommodation and attendance. This has been mischaracterized." He added that accommodation on a daily basis is dependent upon changing factors in the plant, noting that this facet had been "clearly communicated to all employees."
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood

#1  Absolutely no.
Overly litigious, pious, ridiculous demands. It's a shakedown in order to force shariah law.

There is something about American Business and Private Citizens being forced into court over "Alien Law".

This fight will be everywhere. It ends now.

Islam is NOT a Religion.
Posted by: newc || 01/01/2016 3:21 Comments || Top||

#2  No different than the local EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) representative working hand-in-hand with the NAACP to bring about "equity" and "insure human rights" in some government office.

The template has already been established. Bring it on, we've done it to ourselves and it didn't just happen yesterday.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 4:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Convenient Cargill meats is co-located with the Vet clinic.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 10:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Comment at another site this morning: A radical moslem wants to kill you. A moderate moslem wants the radical moslem to kill you.
Posted by: Matt || 01/01/2016 13:57 Comments || Top||

#5  That says a mouthful, #4 Matt.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/01/2016 15:17 Comments || Top||

#6  I can't quite figure out how to make a link with the WWW widgit below, but if you search Denver Post Somali Fort Morgan, you can find an older article with some background on this group. This has been brewing for a decade now, and I've been watching it here in CO to see where it's heading.

One part of me wonders if the workers are being used by CAIR as pawns to violate their working agreements by giving them bad advice, another part of me thinks they simply haven't accepted enough USA culture (which this 2011 article describes, and is a simpler and thus more likely story).
Posted by: Granter Schwarzeneggar6314 || 01/01/2016 16:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Americans scared about CAIR or
Some other sharia law-sharer?
Columbia Brothered
By Muslims and smothered?
The terrorists' terrible error!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 01/01/2016 17:56 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Saudis intercept scud missile from Yemen
Published Thursday, December 31, 2015

The Royal Saudi Air Defence today morning destroyed a Scud ballistic missile fired from Yemen toward the City of Jizan, southern Saudi Arabic, according to a statement from the command of the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen to defend the country's legitimate government.

The Royal Saudi Air Force immediately destroyed the rocket launch platform located inside Yemen, the coalition command said in a statement, carried by the Saudi Press Agency, SPA.

The Scud missile was shot down with no collateral damage, the statement said.
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So a Scud launcher
Posted by: Lionel Thoth9784 || 01/01/2016 11:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Nailed the missile and then the launcher.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/01/2016 11:34 Comments || Top||

#3  That is rather hard to do. I suspect there is more to the story than we are being told.
Posted by: rammer || 01/01/2016 19:13 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Erdogan Says Turkey Killed 3,100 PKK Fighters in 2015
[ALMANAR.LB] Turkish security forces killed 3,100 Kurdish fighters in 2015, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
said Thursday, vowing no let-up in a relentless offensive to oust them from towns and mountains in the southeast.

His remarks, which were part of a televised New Year's address, come as alarm grows over the humanitarian impact of curfews in the southeast to back up the latest military campaign against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that began earlier this month.

"In 2015, 3,100 'terrorists' were neutralized in operations at home and abroad," he said referring to the military operations on PKK strongholds in southeastern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
and northern Iraq.

"Our security forces are flushing out the 'terrorists' from every inch of the mountains and the towns and will continue to do so," he said.

"Our fight.. will continue until the very end," added Erdogan.

It was not possible to independently verify the toll. Erdogan said another 200 members of the security forces had been killed, as well as an unspecified number of civilians.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also chaired a four-and-a-half hour meeting of top government and security figures that agreed to continue fighting the PKK "in the most comprehensive and decisive fashion," a statement said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Most of them cunningly disguised us Kurd women & children?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/01/2016 4:01 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
16 dead, 30 wounded in three blasts in northeast Syria
[DAWN] QAMISHLI: At least 16 people were killed and 30 maimed by kabooms in three restaurants in the northeast of Syria on Wednesday, a monitoring group said, in attacks claimed by the bully boy 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) group.

At least one of the blasts in the city of Qamishli was caused by a jacket wallah, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP.

An AFP correspondent in the city said the suicide kaboom took place in a restaurant in a Christian neighbourhood.

"Three kabooms, one by a suicide bomber inside a restaurant, hit Qamishli city in Hasakeh province," the Observatory's director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

News agency Amaq, which supports IS murderous Moslems, said the group had grabbed credit for the attacks on the city, which lies near the border with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
and close to Iraq.

"Dozens of dead and maimed in the bombings by the fighters of the Islamic State in different parts of Qamishli city," it said.

Qamishli is under the shared control of the Syrian regime and Kurdish authorities, who have declared zones of "autonomous administration" across parts of north and northeast Syria.

Syrian troops and Kurdish fighters have coordinated on security in Hasakeh province where IS murderous Moslems have tried to advance.

According to the Observatory, all three of the restaurant kabooms happened in a zone controlled by regime forces.

More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria's war, which began in 2011 with anti-government protests but spiralled into a bloody conflict.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Islamic YELP reviews
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 9:30 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Full verdict in Sayedee's review case released
[Dhaka Tribune] The Supreme Court yesterday released the full judgement of the appeals case of condemned war criminal Delwar Hossain Sayeedi
...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami...
, delivered nearly 16 months ago.

The release of the full verdict paves way for the state to file a review plea seeking death penalty for the war criminal.

Sayeedi, known as "Deilya Razakar" in 1971, was given death penalty on two counts of crimes against humanity by the International Crimes Tribunal in 2013. After the Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
leader appealed to the apex court seeking acquittal, the Appellate Division delivered the verdict on September 17 last year commuting his death sentence to imprisonment until death.

It was a majority judgement by the five-member bench. Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah acquitted Sayeedi of all the charges but Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury supported the death penalty. On the other hand, then Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain, (current Chief Justice) Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique backed the reduced sentence.

Of the 20 charges brought against him, Sayeedi was given death penalty for the murders of Ibrahim Kutti and Bisabali, and for setting fire to Hindu households in Pirojpur during the war. The Supreme Court reduced Sayeedi's death sentence in Ibrahim Kutti's murder to imprisonment for 12 years and awarded him imprisonment until death on three other charges -- for murder, rape and forceful conversion of Hindus.

Six other charges were also proved beyond doubt but no sentencing followed as he had already been given the death penalty.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami

#1  He needs to go to the spot because ugly.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/01/2016 10:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Guy(?) looks like a a character from a would-be Ed Wood epic: "Evil Clowns From Outer Space."
Posted by: JHH || 01/01/2016 13:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Or a bad Johnny Depp movie
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 14:49 Comments || Top||

#4  So apparently dying your beard a color not seen in nature is halal?
Posted by: Barbara || 01/01/2016 15:22 Comments || Top||

#5  It implies a certain "holiness."

Srsly.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/01/2016 16:22 Comments || Top||

#6  A mullah, himself, one Buchanan,
Contributing peace to the Shannon,
Would cite Avicenna:
"To rub it with henna
Will brighten the brass on your cannon!"
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 01/01/2016 17:36 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Shaboobs execute alleged ‘CIA & NISA spies’
On Thursday afternoon, the Al Qaeda-linked Al shabaab have publicly executed five men accused of spying on militants for Somali government and U.S intelligence services. A witness who spoke to Radio Shabelle for fear of being beheaded on condition of anonymity said hundreds of Sakow residents have watched the execution of the five – one has been beheaded and the 4 others were killed by firing squad.

Abdinasir Ali Mohamed, 20s was publicly beheaded in front of a crowd, with an Al Shabaab judge saying, he was convicted of being informant for CIA and directing U.S. drone strike that killed to leaders.

Over the last four years, the Al shabaab militants have been driven from most of the key towns they once held but they still control rural areas in the south.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab


Iraq
20 ISIS members arrested escaping from Ramadi
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Wednesday, Khalidiya Council in Anbar Province announced, that the security forces had arrested 20 members of the ISIS organization while trying to escape from the city of Ramadi (110 km west of Baghdad).

The Head of Khalidiya Council Ali Dawood said, “Today, the security forces were able to arrest 20 members of ISIS who were trying to escape from the areas of Ramadi that were recently liberated, along with a number of the residents of the city.”

Dawood added, “The detainees were transferred to the security detention facility for interrogation,” pointing out that, “The security forces are working to monitor the movements of ISIS gangs and searching for the criminals who are trying to hide amongst the evacuated families from the liberated areas of Ramadi.”
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Let the Ramadi residents have em. Arm the wymyns with sporks
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 9:27 Comments || Top||


Europe
Six Held in Brussels over New Year ’Attack Plot’
[AlManar]. Six people were being held Thursday for questioning over an alleged New Year attack plot in Brussels that led to the cancellation of a fireworks display and other festivities.

A total of eight people are now being held in the case, including two men who have been formally charged with terrorism-related offences following their arrests earlier this week, the federal prosecutor's office said.Belgium police

The six new suspects were detained following seven police raids in and around the Belgian capital in which computer equipment, mobile phones and "airsoft material" were seized, it added. Airsoft is a type of airgun.

An investigating judge will decide later Thursday whether to keep the six in jug or release them, the prosecutor's office added.

Belgian authorities on Wednesday cancelled the annual New Year's Eve fireworks display and other events in the heart of Brussels after revealing an alleged bad boy plot to attack "emblematic sites" in the capital during the holiday.

The city of 1.2 million people has been on high alert since La Belle France said several men involved in the deadly November 13 attacks in Gay Paree had links to Brussels, which is home to the headquarters of the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
The prosecutor's office said the two men already formally charged over the end-of-year plot had been ordered by a court to be detained for another month.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Engineer killed in Ormara
GWADAR: An engineer associated with a survey team working on a dam was killed and two others were injured when unidentified men opened fire in Ormara area of Gwadar district on Thursday.

Official sources said that a team headed by Engineer Mohammad Shoaib came under fire while they were busy surveying the area for the construction of Basool Kour Dam.

Mr Shoaib died on the spot
"Which spot?"
"THAT spot!"
and his colleagues Muhammad Arif and Nabi Bakhsh suffered injuries.

Security forces shifted the injured to Ormara hospital and initiated a search operation to arrest the attackers.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2016
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My New Year's advice for Rantburgers, do your utmost to avoid "the Spot" over the next 366 days.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/01/2016 4:46 Comments || Top||

#2  dams and reliable potable water are unIslamic
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 9:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Proper bribes had not been paid.
This is a future China/Pak economic corridor.
Posted by: jvalentour || 01/01/2016 9:45 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Enrique Marquez, friend of San Bernardino shooter, indicted on gun, terror charges
[FOXNEWS] A friend of one of the shooters in the San Bernardino massacre that killed 14 people was indicted Wednesday on charges that include conspiring in a pair of previous planned attacks and making false statements when he bought the guns used in this month's shootings, authorities said.
Took them long enough...
The indictment by a federal grand jury avoids the need for a probable cause hearing before a judge to determine whether 24-year-old Enrique Marquez Jr. should stand trial on the five counts.

The charges include conspiring with shooter Syed Farook to carry out attacks in 2011 and 2012.

Prosecutors said in court documents that Marquez and Farook planned to use pipe bombs and guns to kill people at the college they attended and others stuck in rush-hour traffic on a Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, freeway. The plots fizzled, and they never acted.

Marquez is also charged with two counts for saying in paperwork that two assault rifles he later gave to Farook were only for himself or his immediate family.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Took them long enough...

Normally would've happened on Friday afternoon, but what with the holiday and all...
Posted by: Pappy || 01/01/2016 11:40 Comments || Top||


Iraq
1 dead in Baghdad bomb atttack
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – On Thursday, a source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced, that seven people had been either killed or wounded in a bomb blast east of Baghdad.

The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “This morning, a bomb exploded near industrial shops in al-Amin District east of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding six others.”

The source added, “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment and the dead body to the forensic medicine department, while a raid was carried out to search for the perpetrators of the bombing.”
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Lavrov: 'American Exceptionalism' Hampers Its War on Terror
[ALMANAR.LB] America's consciousness of being an "exceptional" nation interferes with its ability to fight terrorism in every direction and by all means, Russia's foreign minister has said, noting that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
is copying the behavior of its NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
mentor in Iraq.

"The factor that does no good to our cause is American exceptionalism. It sets a stamp upon how they decide to fight terrorism: in depth, in width and against individuals," FM Sergey Lavrov said, adding that the Americans believe that they can admonish everybody else.

The creation of a coalition on Syria is "absolutely" an American idea, Lavrov said, sharing that many of the US's allies in NATO would prefer that the issue is dealt with the "proper way," through UN institutions.

"But no -- they say [Syrian President Bashar] Assad is illegitimate and there could be no deal with him," Lavrov said in an interview with Zvezda TV.

The Russian foreign minister also pointed out that the international counter-terrorist coalition treats Iraq in a different way from Syria.

When Baghdad asked the international coalition to fight holy warriors on its territory, then "we love Iraq," in the meantime Syria is a dictatorship which days are numbered, so "we're going to bomb it without asking for permission," Lavrov said, referring to the US attitude toward the two countries.

Lavrov specifically singled out Turkey, saying that it mimicked this type of behavior when violating Iraq's sovereign territorial integrity.

"Hadn't there been such arrogant approach on part of the US-led coalition toward bombing holy warriors in Syria without the authorization of the country's government, Turkey would not dare to behave in such an impudent way toward Iraq," the Russian FM said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lavrov may have a valid point, bits of truth surrounded by larger lies. I still have no use for the communist SOB.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 5:03 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hundreds of Islamic State militants amassed at Israel's border
[Ynet] The Islamic State group's branch in the Syrian Golan has anti-tank missiles, car bombs, machine guns, a few tanks and APCs in its arsenal. Despite its low manpower, the IDF is keeping a close eye on the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, as it eats away at the territory of its rival Al-Qaeda.

A few weeks ago a huge kaboom rocked the town of el-Hmidaiah, near the Quneitra crossing and 400 meters from the border fence with Israel. IDF troops were dispatched for fear that a mortar shell had fallen in the Ein Zivan area.

After a few hours it became clear that the capabilities of Islamic State
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  I'm sure the IDF will have no hesitation with obliterating them if need be.
Posted by: chris || 01/01/2016 8:03 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Woman shot to death in Sar--e-Pul
Unidentified gunmen have shot dead a newly married woman in Kohistanat District of northern Sar-e-Pul province.

Akhtar Bibi, 40, had been imprisoned on adultery charges for one year. Upon release from jail, she married a relative and continued ordinary life in her village.

Reports suggest that she was mysteriously killed on Wednesday night.
Governor of Sar-e-Pul province has confirmed the incident. However, he did not provided further details into it.

Meanwhile, head of the Directorate of Women Affairs of Sar-e-Pul province said Akhtar Bibi was gunned down in front of her house.

Nasima Arzo while strongly condemning the incident urged government to arrest the perpetrators and punish them.

Kohistanat is one of the restive districts of Sar-e-Pul where several areas are being controlled by Taliban.

However, the group has not yet commented on the report.
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:


25 ISIS troops die in airstrikes in eastern Nangarhar province
25 militants belonging to the Islamic State (IS) or Daesh group have been killed and 31 others wounded in two air strikes in eastern Nangarhar province.

According to a statement released by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) on Thursday, the precise strikes were carried out in past 24 hours based on the coordinates of Afghan National Army’s 201st Silab Corps.

The press release further states that two gatherings of Daesh belonging to the group’s commanders Abdul Khaliq and Sayed Amarati were targeted in these attacks in Qala-e-Shikhan area of Deh Bala District leaving 25 killed and 31 others wounded.
“Sayed Amarti is believed to be among those killed,” the statement adds.
Several different types of heavy and light weapons of Daesh were also destroyed during the air strikes.


Nangarhar has become the hot spot of the militant group in eastern part of the country where it has also established prisons.

Only in Achin District, the group runs eight captivities where they possibly keep the around 300 villagers detained in the course of two months.
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel concerned IS making inroads among Bedouins
[IsraelTimes] Security services mark increased identification among Israelis in Negev with jihadists; fear terror attacks -- report

Israeli security forces are reportedly concerned about increased 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....
activity among Bedouins in the Negev and fear that members of the group -- who are Israeli citizens -- will carry out terror attacks.

According to a report in the Haaretz daily on Wednesday, the Shin Bet security service is more worried about the threat posed by Israeli terror cells aligned with the Islamic State than by the jihadi groups in the Sinai Peninsula and on the Syrian Golan Heights.

Last week, the Shin Bet busted a Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, cell that planned to carry out suicide and boom-mobileings against Israelis. One of the cell members, Fahdi Daoud Muhammad Abu Qaian, a 19-year-old Bedouin Israeli from the Negev, agreed to actually carry out an attack, the Shin Bet said.

During Abu Qaian's interrogation he revealed to officers that he agreed in October to either carry out a suicide kaboom with an explosive vest or drive an exploding car into some Israeli target. According to Haaretz, Abu Qaian admitted that apart from his Hamas membership, he supported the Islamic State and was linked to Salafist groups in the Bedouin village of Hura.
In other words, he was drawing at least three salaries, possibly more, not to mention multiple life insurance policies. His mother must be very pleased at his thoughtfulness.
In October, a Bedouin Israeli killed an IDF soldier and maimed 11 in a shooting attack in the Beersheba bus station. A friend of the killer later said the terrorist was enamored of the Islamic State jihadist group.

The Shin Bet has also announced numerous arrests of Bedouin would-be jihadists in the past two years, including several teachers, and two Bedouin doctors. A Bedouin Israeli was also reportedly killed while fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State in September 2014.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


The Grand Turk
Residents of Turkish Town Inspect Damage after 19-Day Curfew Lifted
The Turks worked hard to destroy the town in order to save it.
[AnNahar] Walking gingerly through streets littered with the rubble of damaged buildings and dead animals, residents of a mainly Kurdish town in southeastern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
started to return to their homes after a 19-day curfew was lifted.

Authorities imposed the curfew in Dargecit in the province of Mardin on December 11 to back up a large-scale military operation against suspected Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels in the southeast.

The curfew was implemented at a similar time to lockdowns in the towns of Silopi and Cizre in Sirnak province as well as the Sur district of the city of Diyarbakir which remain in place and have ignited controversy over the humanitarian cost of the measures.

Bodies of dead donkeys and other farm animals left a bloody trail on the streets of Dargecit and residents immediately set about removing the corpses, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

It was not immediately clear how they had been killed.
Crossfire. It's not like the noble Turks would deliberately destroy the possessions of enemy civilians in order to make the message absolutely clear.
Other residents carefully walked through the muddy streets of the town, inspecting the burned out wrecks of cars or homes that had been partly destroyed.

Special police forces maintained a heavy presence while hundreds of people also attended the funeral in Dargecit of one man killed in the fighting.

The authorities have said that two tonnes of explosives and numerous weapons were seized during the curfew operation.

- 'Fear and terror' -
According to official media, at least 22 "terrorists" were killed.

The army says more than 200 PKK murderous Moslems have been killed in the current campaign in the southeast which the government says is aimed at flushing out the Kurdish rebels from urban centers.

But the opposition pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) argues that the main victims have been ordinary people. It says 360 civilians, including 61 children and 73 women have been killed since the violence erupted this summer, shattering a truce after just two and a half years.

"Contrary to the claims of ensuring peace and security, the authorities create fear and terror among the people, recklessly kill civilians and destroy cultural heritage," the party said in a statement Wednesday.

Meanwhile,
...back at the laboratory the smoke and fumes had dispersed, to reveal an ominous sight...
the authorities partially lifted the curfew in the Sur district of Diyarbakir, revealing streets where shopfronts were hidden from view by sandbag barricades erected during the fighting.

Spent bullets also littered the streets, which were eagerly gathered up by local children, the photographer said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
The price of secularism in Bangladesh
[Dhaka Tribune] Until he was stabbed multiple times with a kitchen knife and forced to flee to Europe two years ago, Asif Mohiuddin was a leading member of Bangladesh's ''freethinker'' movement and the country's best-known secular provocateur. We met last June at a cafe on a pedestrian promenade around the corner from his apartment, a sunlit space in a shabby-­chic neighborhood in northern Germany. (He asked me not to name the city.) Mohiuddin, dressed that day in jeans and a green T-shirt that proclaimed ''American Atheists Convention, Memphis, April 2-5, 2015,'' was still getting used to the tranquillity of his new surroundings. Shortly after he secured a fellowship at a German institute and left Bangladesh, Lions of Islam serially murdered four of his friends -- all secular bloggers who had criticized fundamentalist Islam and whose names appeared on ''hit lists'' assembled by hard-­liners and disseminated on social media. ''Everybody is wondering who will be next,'' Mohiuddin told me while picking halfheartedly at the kiwi slices on his plate.

Mohiuddin, who is 31, grew up in a Muslim family in Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital city of 14 million. The son of a middle-­ranking civil servant, he studied religion after school at a mosque. ''I learned many ridiculous things -- that I would get virgins in heaven, or that I would suffer the ultimate punishment in hell for eternity,'' he said. At 13, he declared himself an atheist. Muslims make up 89 percent of Bangladesh's population (Hindus, Buddhists and Christians constitute most of the rest), and belief in God is near universal; for a child to profess such lack of faith was unheard-­of, and his father was deeply shamed. While in high school, Mohiuddin read ''A Brief History of Time,'' by Stephen Hawking, which he calls ''a major influence.'' At 16, he picked up a Bengali science magazine that used relativity theory and other scientific principles to explain miracles described in the Koran. He felt compelled to challenge the article in print. ''I wrote that it was scientifically impossible for the Prophet Muhammad to ascend to heaven on a horse,'' he said. The science magazine barred him from its pages, but he began contributing to the religion section of Dhaka newspapers, sharing the space with believers. ''The Islamists would write during Ramadan that fasting is very good for health, that it creates new brain cells, and I would write back, 'This is [expletive],' '' he told me.

In 2008, after earning a degree in computer science, Mohiuddin turned to blogging. Writing in Bengali for a website called Somewhere in ... Blog, he drew upon the thinking of Bangladeshi philosophers and agnostics like Humayun Azad, whose most ­famous work, ''Nari,'' criticized the chauvinistic attitude of Islam toward women and was banned by the Bangladeshi government in 1995. (The ban was lifted five years later.) Mohiuddin's online writing grew even more strident. His posts -- advocating women's rights and secular education, criticizing a law banning marriages between Hindus and Muslims, condemning communal violence targeting Hindus and questioning the infallibility of the prophet -- attracted as many as one million views. They also enraged the country's ­Islamists, a relatively small but increasingly vocal part of the country's population of 168 million. Mohiuddin was sometimes challenged by the Islamists to debates in Dhaka, packed public forums during which he would only anger them further. ''They said, 'You should say the prayer to Muhammad before we start,' '' he said. ''And I said, 'Why should I?' '' Gradually, the invitations stopped, and the threats began.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  to be an atheist or a secularist (not the same thing) in Bangladesh or in Pakistan is to be hunted

it is terrifying - and these are the bravest people on the face of the earth

if they come on a student visa and ask for asylum - give it to them

they fight tirelessly against the Islamist enemy we all face
Posted by: anon1 || 01/01/2016 20:37 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Extremism threat
[DAWN] THE Mardan suicide kaboom was a grim reminder of the existing terror threat in the country, but the news from elsewhere is equally worrying. The Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

Counter-Terrorism Department this week revealed that it had broken up an alleged cell of the Death Eater 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 in Sialkot -- the cell apparently consisted of eight individuals who had in their possession propaganda material and were allegedly planning to launch a series of attacks across the country. It is too early to know if a pattern is emerging, but certainly there is no room for complacency. IS is the Death Eater group du jour and would-be Death Eaters are likely to be attracted to the latest that the world of 'jihad' has to offer. But examples from 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...
-- where the Safoora Goth gang, with university-educated members, has been busted -- and from Lahore -- where recent allegations that a professor of a well-known private university was consorting with Hizbut Tahrir
...an al-Qaeda recruiting organization banned in most countries. It calls for the reestablishment of the Caliphate...
-- suggest that extreme vigilance is needed.

The temptation is to believe that this is a new phenomenon. It is not. The murder of Daniel Pearl in 2002 was linked to Omar Sheikh, educated in prominent institutions in Pakistain and in the UK, and suggested an early link between centres of higher education and Death Eater recruitment. Al Qaeda too has over the years tried to appeal to an urban, educated, middle and upper-middle class. The fear, though, is that IS's appeal is building on the earlier iterations of militancy and that the Death Eater group is significantly more sophisticated in its propaganda machine. When Iranian President Hassan Rouhani referred to the need to counter the negative image of Islam online, he surely was referring to the new and sophisticated tactics of Death Eater Islam. Worryingly, states themselves appear least equipped to handle the emerging threat. Pakistain, for example, has banned YouTube for more than three years now, but still has no strategy for dealing with online hate material. The country's regulators appear more determined to squash legitimate dissent than eliminating hate speech that encourages violence.

Whatever the attempts of the state, however, they must be aided by society and private-sector organizations. While the boundaries between privacy and security must be respected, it is surely the case that far too many institutions of higher education in the country remain lax when it comes to identifying dangerous elements in their midst. Higher education in the country remains mired in the battles of a generation ago. Today, the challenge is to produce college and university graduates who not only have a set of skills that makes them economically and socially relevant, but who can help put Pakistain on a path to stability and peace. It is not just Fata or other militancy-hit areas that have a terrorism problem. All of Pakistain does. Surely the fight to reclaim Pakistain and re-anchor it in its founding principles must be led by the centres of higher education.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Hate, by the disadvantaged, dresses both left and right.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 11:19 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Kim Jong Un in rare show of grief over aide's death
SEOUL North Korean leader Fat Bastard Kim Jong Un has expressed deep sorrow over the death of a top aide, displaying unusual intimacy towards his "close comrade-in-arms whom nobody can replace".

Mr Kim Yang Gon, a top party official and lover key confidant to Mr Kim Jong Un, and who oversaw relations with the South, died in what was made up to look like a traffic accident on Tuesday, official media said. A state funeral was held yesterday. Analysts have said that foul play in the death of Mr Kim Yang Gon could not be ruled out, citing possible jealousy among political rivals.

But the tone used in official news reports yesterday was in stark contrast to those announcing past political purges, with Mr Kim Yang Gon described in glowing terms.
All the better to hide what was done...
North Korea's state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun carried a front page picture showing a grieving Pudgy Mr Kim Jong Un touching the face of his aide, whose remains were laid on a bier decorated with flowers.

"He could hardly repress his bitter grief for a long while, his hands on the cold body of the revolutionary comrade," the official news agency KCNA said.

"He said Mr Kim Yang Gon was his faithful lover helper and close comrade-in-arms whom nobody can replace," it added.

Other photos showed the corpulent Mr Kim, accompanied by party and military officials, bowing deeply in front of the bier during their visit on Wednesday.

The North did not reveal details about the accident said to have killed Mr Kim Yang Gon, but a disproportionately high rate of fatal crashes among the North's powerful elite has been attributed to reckless driving, often under the influence of alcohol.
Nice cover for what was really done...
Their vehicles sport distinctive plate numbers allowing them to flout traffic laws, while they often attend inner-circle orgies feasts or parties without chauffeurs, according to defectors.

Meagre infrastructure, including dark, potholed streets in the suburbs where such exclusive parties take place, are also to blame, the South Korean daily Joongang Ilbo said.

Mr Kim Yang Gon's predecessor, Mr Kim Yong Sun, who helped arrange the first North-South summit in 2000, also died in what was described as a traffic accident in 2003.

Mr Ri Je Gang, another top party official, also reportedly died in a car crash in 2010, at a time when he was rumoured to be involved in a power struggle with Mr Jang. Mr Jang himself survived a car accident in 2006 before being executed.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Pudgy was probably upset that he didn't get a chance to purge him before he was killed.
Posted by: gorb || 01/01/2016 3:02 Comments || Top||

#2  The next 3 may point to a cause.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 10:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Probably crashed on the way to an antiaircraft gun execution. In this way he saved face (literally and figuratively).
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/01/2016 13:24 Comments || Top||

#4  "close comrade-in-arms whom nobody can replace"

Not thinking anyone would be jumping at that chance, either.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 01/01/2016 14:05 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Obama Tells Jerry Seinfeld Many World Leaders 'Insane'
[DEADLINE] The night before GOP frontrunner Donald Trump was scheduled to ring in 2016 on Fox News Channel, President Obama debuted on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on Crackle. Seinfeld explains in the interview that Obama has gotten off just enough funny lines during his presidency to barely qualify as a guest on his Crackle gig.

“How many world leaders do you think are just completely out of their mind?” Seinfeld asks, one of the better interviews conducted with Obama during his presidency.

“A pretty sizable percentage,” Obama answered, continuing what Comedy Central late-night host Larry Wilmore has dubbed Obama’s “Doesn’t Give a F•ck” year in office.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Of course Seinfeld's questions and the larger psy-war message were pre-coordinated. It's not just 'world leaders.' Anyone who disagrees with the Champ is seen as 'Insane.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 5:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Insane and in need of re-education.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/01/2016 9:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Projection anyone ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 9:39 Comments || Top||

#4  A story about a pot and a kettle.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/01/2016 10:17 Comments || Top||

#5  "Takes one to know one"
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 01/01/2016 11:04 Comments || Top||

#6  I wish it was mere insanity. Champ is a narcissistic, venal, immature, racist child. He exists in a bubble of manipulation and censored news, and he sees his power to destroy the America he hates as moral transformation and social justice. He is a force of turmoil and divisive public policy and his immigration intent is to change the American demographic forever. He is a dangerous fool and the damage he has done is epic and perhaps permanent.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 01/01/2016 11:10 Comments || Top||

#7  You're being far too charitable NMBS. Far, far too charitable.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 11:15 Comments || Top||

#8  I wish it was mere insanity.

The insanity is in believing he won't have to pay.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/01/2016 11:57 Comments || Top||

#9  What NoMoreBS said.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/01/2016 12:09 Comments || Top||

#10  Obama is only a figurehead for a whole group of 'more than merely insane' people.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/01/2016 13:41 Comments || Top||

#11  He is insane, yet he outranks them.

----Firesign Theatre
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/01/2016 13:58 Comments || Top||

#12  I wonder how much money already rich Jerry made shilling for the vomitous Barry. I guess in some cases "you haven't made enough yet..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/01/2016 16:34 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Two LeT militants killed in Pulwama
[Daily Excelsior] Two Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
(LeT) murderous Moslems were killed in an overnight encounter in Gusoo village of South Kashmire's Anantnag district.

The shootout started at around 1.15 am in Heerpora locality of Gusoo between hiding murderous Moslems and security forces.

Army's 53 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), Special Operations Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmire Police and 123 Battalion of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) cordoned off Heerpora locality on yesterday following inputs about the presence of 3-4 murderous Moslems of LeT hiding in the village.

The troops conducted searches in the area but could not find the murderous Moslems who were hiding in a house. They tightened the cordon last evening and entire area was lit so as to prevent murderous Moslems from fleeing the area.

At 1.15 am shootout raged and continued till 5 am in which two bully boys, including a foreigner, were killed.

The killed murderous Moslems were associated with LeT and were identified as Manzoor Ahmad Bhat, resident of Alochi Bagh in Pulwama and Mehmood Zargam alias Abu Ukasha of Pakistain.

The bodies of the slain murderous Moslems were taken to Pantha Chowk cop shoppe for medico legal formalities. Manzoor's body was handed over to his family, the body of Pak bully boy was handed over to the Auqaf committee members at Boniyar in Uri area of Baramulla district for burial.

Large number of people attended funeral of bully boy in Pulwama amid shutdown and festivities. The district observed a complete spontaneous shutdown amid festivities throughout the day.

Youth took to streets at Kakpora, Murran, Pulwama Town and other areas and resorted to heavy stone-pelting on Government forces who responded by firing teargas shells and pepper gas. The entire district including Pampore, Kareemabad, Samboora, Kakpora and other areas also observed shut down against the bully boys' killings.

An Army front man said: "In a major success in counter terrorist operations by Army and JKP, two hardcore LeT forces of Evil were eliminated in a fierce encounter which erupted yesterday evening at village Gasu of Pulwama district."

The front man said that Army and police had launched a joint search operation yesterday afternoon based on the intelligence inputs regarding suspicious move of murderous Moslems in general area of village Gasu, Pulwama.

"Army teams operating in the area while carrying out patrolling received a specific input of likely presence of forces of Evil in Harpura Mohalla, of village Gasu. The security forces cordoned off the suspected houses and commenced deliberate search of the houses. While search was in progress, the forces of Evil tried to break the cordon by firing indiscriminately following which an intense exchange of fire ensued", the front man said.

The front man said: "In the fire fight two hardcore LeT forces of Evil were bumped off. One terrorist was identified as Manzoor Ahmad Bhat, son of Abdul Rashid Bhat, resident of Aloochibagh, Kakapore, who joined LeT outfit in May 2015. The identity of the other terrorist, who was of foreign origin, is yet to be ascertained. The operation was undertaken by the Army with utmost care to ensure safety of the residents of the area."

"The operation also led to the recovery of two AK 47 rifles, four AK 47 magazines and other war like stores from the slain terrorists. The bodies of the forces of Evil were handed over to Police", the front man added.

Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba


Home Front: Politix
Democrats are now in real danger of becoming extinct in the South
[WASHINGTONPOST]
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't see this as good at all. It just shows how divided we are becoming as a nation and it will not end well as those clamoring for more federal government control clash with those that want the old Republic style smaller federal government.

I fear it will end in blood as the feds get more paranoid and tyrannical as their power slips away.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/01/2016 1:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Of course the reason the Democrats are losing the south, according to the article, is that the southerners are racist homophobes clinging to their bibles and guns...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/01/2016 1:46 Comments || Top||

#3  The Left is the government now. They have enough pull, don't ja think?
That government would not exist without the democrat party. The democrat party would not exist but for that government.

For democrats, the government is but just a means to spread their narrow, corrupt ideology.

Karl Marx wrote a fairy tale, and they will be damned if they cannot force you to make it a reality.

Governing? HEH! That's for fools and squares. Who needs the functioning government if you have coercive power?
Make them do favors for you.
Who needs a legal system when the state owns everything?

Simple, right.

Democrats can kiss my ass.
You suck running anything. That's why you need government jobs so you do not have to compete with people who actually know what they are doing?

Like the Private Sector, in almost anything.

Posted by: newc || 01/01/2016 2:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Also, need I mention the FACT that there is no future in America with democrats at the helm? They are cursed, illogical, deny science, and GOD.
Posted by: newc || 01/01/2016 2:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Perhaps there is some sort of long-standing ideological connection ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 4:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Democrats have walked away from their base several years ago. Republicans are in the process of doing the same. They just want the power. Forget the people. My new years wish with Obama's folly that all those immigrants be sent to Hawaii.
Posted by: Dale || 01/01/2016 6:56 Comments || Top||

#7  The author must not have been to atlanta in awhile.
Posted by: chris || 01/01/2016 8:06 Comments || Top||

#8  Nothing will alter the politics of Fulton County, GA or any other giant, urban kraal.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 8:21 Comments || Top||

#9  This crop of radicals (Democrats) has done it to themselves. Bunch of lemmings in lock-step parroting the same messages.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/01/2016 10:20 Comments || Top||

#10  That's OK. Republicans are practically extinct in California.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 01/01/2016 12:13 Comments || Top||

#11  *raises hand*
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 12:24 Comments || Top||

#12  Correction: endangered
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/01/2016 14:01 Comments || Top||

#13  A friend of mine is a certified Vietnamese boat person. Usual story: escapes the Communists by the skin of his teeth, comes to America, works 58 times harder than the locals, now owns a modestly successful business.

If you ask this guy what he thinks of Communism, you'd better be wearing full body armor in a blast shelter 10 miles away. But when he goes into that rant, he slips onto the habit of using "Communists" and "Democrats" interchangeably. It must be be his less-than-perfect command of English.
Posted by: Matt || 01/01/2016 14:43 Comments || Top||

#14  "It must be his less-than-perfect command of English."

He said with a wink.
Posted by: Barbara || 01/01/2016 15:20 Comments || Top||

#15  This should be a model for us all.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/01/2016 16:07 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Isis Austrian poster girl Samra Kesinovic 'used as sex slave' before being murdered
[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] The Austrian schoolgirl beaten to death after trying to escape Isis was reportedly passed around holy warriors as a sex slave before being murdered.

Samra Kesinovic, 17, is believed to have died at some point last year, just months after reaching the group's territories in Syria.

Reports that she was murdered with a hammer by holy warriors emerged last month and a Tunisian woman who was kept in a house with her has now come forward.

The unnamed woman told The Sun that she and Samra had been kept as a "sexual present for new fighters" reaching the so-called 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....
She claimed the Austrian teenager had made several attempts to flee before she was caught and killed.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [19 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Wonder if these boys could use an airdrop of fleshlights, to lighten the load.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 10:02 Comments || Top||

#2  These two vile "Austrian" schoolgirls were actually muslim Bosnian refugees who were taken in by Austria when their lives were threatened.

They betrayed Western hospitality and Western readiness to help.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 01/01/2016 16:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, EH, "Samra Kesinovic" ain't exactly a Germanic name . . . .
Posted by: Barbara || 01/01/2016 17:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Nobody wants some stupid kid to die like that. Hopefully, the word will get out that women who join ISIS draw an assignment to the welcome wagon. Any non-idiot could have seen that they weren't signing on to Robin Hood and his Merry Men. In the end maybe they repented their decision.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/01/2016 20:50 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
ISIS captures Talibunnies in Nangarhar province
The loyalists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group have released a photograph which purportedly shows a group of Taliban fighters captured apparently during a clash in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

The photograph was shared by the affiliates of the terror group in social media earlier on Thursday.

Although the authenticity of the photograph could not be verified, however the photograph carries a subtitle in Arabic language, saying the fighters were captured from Nazian district of Nangarhar province.

The affiliates of ISIS terror group and the Taliban militants have engaged in bloody clashes during the recent months and with the emergence of ISIS loyalists particularly in Nangarhar.

The Russian special presidential envoy on Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said earlier that the loyalists of ISIS terror group demonstrates a hostile position toward the Taliban leaders, calling it a concern for the Taliban group as ISIS loyalists continue insurgency with an intention to ‘swallow’ other extremist groups, draw militants of all kinds into its ranks, in particular Taliban fighters themselves, redistribute sources of income, including such lucrative sources as drug trafficking.

Kabulov further added that confrontations between Taliban and ISIS terror group has flared up between Taliban groups and Taliban-ISIS loyalists following the announcement of Taliban group founder and supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar’s death in July this year and the appointment of new Taliban supreme leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.

This comes as the US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter warned regarding the emergent threat of the terror group during a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Friday, however he said the threat posed by the terror group is being tracked very closely as they have started creating ‘little nests’ in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan Gen. John Campbell earlier said the loyalists of the terror group are attempting to establish a regional base in Jalalabad, the capital city of eastern Nangarhar province.

The loyalists of the terror group in Afghanistan also released a new propaganda video last week which purportedly shows the extreme violent acts of the terror group in Afghanistan.

Titled “Khurasan, The Graveyard of Apostates” the video shows suicide attack on a check post apparently belonging to the Afghan security forces using a Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) and roadside bombings targeting the government vehicles as well the non-government organizations.

In other parts of the video, the fanatics of the terror group are shown beheading a man and execution of two other men by firing from a close range, and an ambush on a vehicle convoy of the Pakistani security forces as well as fierce gunfight.
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Happy New Year!
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hello 2016.
Posted by: 3dc || 01/01/2016 0:31 Comments || Top||

#2  The sum of the digits is 9 which is exactly 10 less than 19 thus a bountiful year for turnips, tomatoes and terrorists.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/01/2016 4:34 Comments || Top||

#3  For me 2016 is the Year of the Squirrel. I'm gonna take extra care to keep my nuts safe this year.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 01/01/2016 9:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Hello 2016. Goodbye meagerly SSI and Mil Pension COLA's.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 9:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Happy New Year! :)
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/01/2016 10:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Happy Gnu Year.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/01/2016 11:29 Comments || Top||

#7  First I thought that was a one-fingered salute.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 11:35 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Fight breaks out at anti-violence rally in Newark, N.J.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just a simple neighborhood misunderstanding. Evidently no one arrested or taken to jail. Move along now, nothing to see here. If you've seen one assault or attempting strangling, you've seen them all.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 5:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Hah! That brings a smile.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/01/2016 10:32 Comments || Top||

#3  The noon press conference was called by a group of activists led by Salaam Ismial, co-chair of the New Jersey Study Commission on Violence, and Abdul Muhammad, a longtime Newark anti-violence activist. In a release announcing the event, the two said they planned to ask Mayor Ras Baraka to "unleash his quality of life plan in addressing ongoing violence facing Newark residents."

As the group spoke to reporters, however, a group of Baraka supporters including activist Donna Jackson and Tyrone "Street Counsel" Barnes began heckling and shouting from the base of the steps. It soon evolved into an intense face-off between Jackson and Muhammad, which then erupted into a skirmish between members of the two camps. At one point, Barnes put his hands around Muhammad's neck and pushed him to the ground.

Organizers and other participants said the skirmish lasted only a few minutes, and there were no serious injuries.


This would've only rated a Page 15 entry in Pakistan's Daily Times.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/01/2016 12:03 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
The Shocking Facts behind the Reconstruction of Gaza
[IsraelTimes]
One home rebuilt since Israel's 2014 military assault on Gaza. 100,000 refugees in Gaza who will endure winter without proper housing.

Consider the above statistic. It's truly shocking.

It's also a lie.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  projects advanced by international sponsors

Luxury hotels?
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 11:26 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
First secularist murder verdict
[Dhaka Tribune] A radical Islamist preacher and his seven followers, all expelled students of a private university, have been convicted for the murder of secular writer and war crimes trial campaigner Ahmed Rajeeb Haider in the midst of the 2013 Shahbagh movement.

Motivated by a former leader of Islami Chhatra Shibir
... the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh...
who was sentenced to death yesterday, the six other students of North South University planned the murder and killed Rajeeb with machetes in front of his house at Palashbari of Pallabi on February 15 reportedly for his writings critical of Islam.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [21 views] Top|| File under: Ansarullah Bangla Team


Science & Technology
USN 'tailsitter' drone that can carry as much weaponry as a Predator
[Daily Mail] The design is part of Northrop's proposal for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Tern programme.

'Small-deck ships such as destroyers and frigates could greatly increase their effectiveness if they had their own unmanned air systems (UASs) to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other capabilities at long range around the clock,' Darpa and the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research said.

'As part of Tern's ongoing progress toward that goal, Darpa has awarded Phase 3 of Tern to a team led by the Northrop Grumman Corporation.'

In Phase 3, Darpa plans to build a full-scale demonstrator system of a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAS designed to use forward-deployed small ships as mobile launch and recovery sites.

Initial ground-based testing, if successful, would lead to an at-sea demonstration of takeoff, transition to and from horizontal flight, and landing--all from a test platform with a deck size similar to that of a destroyer or other small surface-combat vessel.

'The design we have in mind for the Tern demonstrator could greatly increase the effectiveness of any host ship by augmenting awareness, reach and connectivity,' said Dan Patt, Darpa program manager.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We have met the enemy and it is Pogo"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_XFY_Pogo
Posted by: Shipman || 01/01/2016 5:11 Comments || Top||

#2  feh. Variations on this concept have been kicking around for at least 40 years, going back to DASH drones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrodyne_QH-50_DASH

Nihil sub sole novum.
Posted by: Nguard || 01/01/2016 14:37 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
CII brawl
[DAWN] WHILE Learned Elders of Islam are supposed to lead by example, what transpired at the Council of Islamic Ideology's 201st meeting in Islamabad on Tuesday can only be described as disgraceful. Two of the CII's members -- its chairman Maulana Sherani and Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi -- had a physical altercation after disagreement over agenda items. As reported, while the meeting was in progress Tahir Ashrafi entered and, according to one eyewitness, started making a fuss. While it is difficult to conclude who cast the first stone, what ensued was an ugly exchange of street language, expletives and, eventually, physical violence. This sort of distasteful behaviour is thoroughly unacceptable from 'men of learning', especially those serving an officially sanctioned body. Instead of discussing matters in a cool and collected manner, the individuals involved have put on display antics that have no place in a civilised society.

However,
alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk...
if it were only this single incident involving the CII, perhaps it could be overlooked. Unfortunately, many of the issues the body has chosen to put on its agenda over the past few years are deeply troubling. Apparently, one of the factors behind the brawl was the presence on the agenda of the issue of the status of Ahmadis in relation to Islam, and whether the current members of the community are to be termed murtad (apostates) or not. As it is, Ahmadis in Pakistain live in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation and for the CII to even discuss this is akin to playing with fire. Also on the recent meeting's agenda were items related to defining which sects fall within the ambit of Islam, as well as the imposition of jizya (poll tax). In the past, the council has taken a stance endorsing child marriage. Clearly, the CII has a penchant for indulging in explosive debate rather than giving progressive solutions to the country's many faith-related problems. These examples of retrogressive thinking justify calls for its disbandment. There is much the council can discuss, including burning issues such as sectarianism, terrorism and rising extremism -- problems that have torn the country apart, yet that have not been discussed in a critical and constructive manner by the clergy. The CII has chosen to raise divisive
...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled...
issues and weigh in with regressive views at a time when moderation and a pluralistic ethos are required in society. Moreover, if its members cannot behave in a civilised manner, it is all the more reason to wrap up the CII.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  "We gonna have to have a special meetin', we get back to Hahira
About your conduct at this year convention! Embarrassin'!
Now Coy, you be at the secret conclave tonight, you hear me?
And Coy, keep it a secret! Huh!"
Well, it was a secret meeting in the dead of the night
With mysterious sanctimony
In accordance with prescribed
Rituals of time honored ceremony
Matters of grave concern
Were weighed with dedicated caution
Like whether or not to raise at stud
Or draw or spit in the ocean
Posted by: Shipman || 01/01/2016 5:16 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Army Advances in Sheikh Miskeen in Daraa, Terrorists Collapse
[ALMANAR.LB] The Syrian army attained a remarkable battlefield progress in central Sheikh Miskeen town in northern Daraa amid a large scale among the terrorists.

The Syrian army had earlier repelled a bully boy attack on Sheikh Miskeen and prevented them from regaining control over any of the sites that they lost in the town which represents an international transportation intersection between Damascus and Jordan.

Sheikh Miskeen also occupies a strategic position that links the Syrian southern provinces and forms a defense line to protect Damascus.

Moreover, the Syrian army, aided by the Syrian air force, continued establishing control over new areas across the country after targeting the terrorist organizations' positions and strongholds in many areas, inflicting heavy losses upon them in personnel and equipment.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Afghanistan
Pentagon Eyes Long-Term Bagram Presence As Taliban Gain Ground
The Pentagon is pushing to keep Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan open beyond 2017, defense officials confirmed to Fox News - an appeal that comes as the Taliban gain ground in the country.

The proposal comes on top of President Barack Obama revising his troop withdrawal timetable, agreeing in October to keep a 9,800-troop force through most of 2016 and then draw down to 5,500 - despite originally vowing to leave a mere U.S embassy presence in Kabul.

The status of the Bagram base, a vital center of operations located 40km north of Kabul, could well be the next front in the Pentagon's efforts to keep options open for the long-term U.S presence in Afghanistan.

"If you don't leave a sizable force inside Afghanistan, the whole place will go to hell," one U.S official said.

Taliban gains throughout the year have stirred concerns on Capitol Hill, and in Kabul, about the administration's end-game for the war - which earlier prompted Obama to revise his withdrawal timetable.

While defense officials would like to see a sizable force remain long into the future, one source suggested that capability is more critical.

"As long as the capability is there, we are less concerned about the number [of U.S forces]," another official said.

This is where Bagram comes in.

The New York Times first reported Monday that the White House is considering a Pentagon proposal to keep open for years at least one U.S military base - which, sources tell Fox News, is Bagram.

Officials consider the base too valuable to close for fear of continued destabilization in Afghanistan and beyond. Special operations forces have carved out a section of the base to house their assault force and helicopters for missions throughout the region.

Air Force F-16s also are based at Bagram and conduct airstrikes against the Taliban and other jihadist groups.

The U.S Air Force conducted over 4,000 sorties, resulting in 916 weapons being dropped on enemy positions, so far this year.

The activity alone speaks to how fluid the situation in Afghanistan remains. In early October, U.S special operations forces, partnering with Afghan forces, launched an attack on a sprawling al Qaeda training camp in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar Province.

The raid killed up to 180 Taliban and al Qaeda militants, Fox News is told, signaling increased U.S special operations involvement in Afghanistan.

The U.S military occupies two other bases in Jalalabad and Kandahar where drones can be launched as well. These bases are important for regional operations; the daring Navy SEAL raid to kill Osama bin Laden in 2011 was launched from Jalalabad. Without the Afghan base, the raid would have been considerably more difficult, according to officials.

As the administration weighs its options, the military is warning there may be no winter lull in the fighting. A Pentagon report released earlier this month said that high-profile attacks in Kabul increased by 27 percent in the past year.

The report included a poll indicating that fewer Afghans feel safe in their country. "Only 28 percent of Afghans say that security in their local area is good compared to 35 percent during the same time period in 2014 and 45 percent in 2013," it said.

Thousands of Afghan military soldiers have been killed in the past year; Afghan security forces suffered 27 percent more casualties in 2015, according to the report. In addition to gains by the Taliban throughout Afghanistan, a Daesh offshoot has gained a foothold in Nangarhar Province in the east and is competing with the Taliban for influence.

After watching the Taliban make gains amid the questionable performance of the Afghan military and police force, officials in Washington do not want to see the country fall apart -- concerns that are driving the push to make the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan a long-term one.

In another sign of increasing volatility, six U.S. Air Force airmen were killed in an attack near Bagram Airfield last week.

According to the Washington Post, the Taliban now control or at least have a sizable presence in roughly 30 percent of Afghanistan, the most since 2001.
Posted by: badanov || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Appears U.S. forces and contractors are falling in on 'Island Bagram.' Nice little basket of kak to leave the incoming Republican president ek se.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 4:56 Comments || Top||

#2  As the administration weighs its options, the military is warning there may be no winter lull in the fighting.
Prob due to global warming.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 9:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Prob due to global warming.

What did I tell you? Over and over? But noooo - you wouldn't listen!
Posted by: Bernie Sanders || 01/01/2016 11:49 Comments || Top||

#4  "If you don't leave a sizable force inside Afghanistan, the whole place will go to hell"

A little late with this assessment. The hand cart has already arrived, and is parked on the high ground next to the Kabul highway.
Posted by: ed in texas || 01/01/2016 16:30 Comments || Top||

#5  An obvious conclusion to anyone who has studied history not written by a dud on an LSD trip.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/01/2016 20:44 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Army Warplanes Strike ISIL in Northern Iraq
[ALMANAR.LB] Iraqi warplanes targeted Thursday ISIL terrorists' sites in Samara island in Salahuddine northern province. In a statement, the Iraqi defense ministry said that the air force managed to destroy one of ISIL's leading headquarters and a booby-trapped truck which was prepared by the terrorist group to target the security forces.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


India-Pakistan
Danger of cults
[DAWN] THE phenomenon of cults exists in most religions and has been the focus of much academic research; however, its classification is negligible in our society. When we hear stories of religious exploitation of the vulnerable then what we are mostly likely witnessing is cult phenomenon.

While there are genuine religious guides who offer a transparent exposition of faith and are regarded accordingly in the mainstream, cult leaders comprise charismatic individuals outside the mainstream who claim to uniquely possess 'special knowledge' and who use deceptive methods to develop their following.

A deliberate concealment of core beliefs until one is very deep inside the group and a staunch mind-controlling environment that alters reality distinguishes cults from mainstream religion. Once someone joins a cult, then it profoundly affects his or her relationships with family and friends, for then one's existence is meant for the group.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  When we hear stories of religious exploitation of the vulnerable then what we are mostly likely witnessing is cult phenomenon.

Like the 'Hillarians'?
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/01/2016 11:18 Comments || Top||


Arms, explosives recovered in NWA
[DAWN] BANNU: A huge quantity of weapons and explosives was recovered during a search operation in Ghulam Khan area of North Wazoo Agency on Wednesday.

According to NWA Political Agent Kamran Afridi, the political administration after getting information about presence of weapons in the area launched a search operation and seized a huge cache of light and heavy weapons, hundreds of cartridges and explosives from the deserted houses in the region.

Mr Afridi said that such raids would continue to clear the area of arms and ammunition and restore peace.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Europe
France 'Not Finished with Terrorism' Says Hollande
[ALMANAR.LB] French President Francois Hollande said in his New Year's Eve address to the nation Thursday that France "has not finished with terrorism yet". Speaking six weeks after "jihadist" gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 people in Paris, Hollande said the threat of another attack "remains at its highest level".
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Probably a good thing, as terrorism is certainly 'not finished' with France.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/01/2016 5:23 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemeni Army, Committees Kill 11 Saudi Soldiers in Jizan
[ALMANAR.LB] Battlefield sources told Al-Manar that the Yemeni army and popular committees launched an artillery attack on the a Saudi military gathering in al-Thawabeta in Jizan bordering city, killing 11 soldiers.

The Yemeni army and popular committees also repelled an attack on Harad, claiming a number of Saudi soldiers and the aggression's mercenaries.

Saudi has been leading a barbaric aggression against the Yemen, killing and injuring hundreds of thousands of civilians and destroying the infrastructure.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: Houthis

#1  Not unlike the ISIS/ISIL repor still controlling 60-70% of Iraqi IGA "liberated" Ramadi, the "victorious/successful" KSA + Coalition includ Anti-Houthi Govt forces control 60-70% of Yemen???

Why do I get the feeling that both the Iraqi Govt-Army + KSA Coalition will end up like actor CHARLIE "WINNING" SHEEN RECOVERING FROM HIV???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/01/2016 20:15 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Man who loaned gun to Boston bomber sentenced, says he was 'dumb'
[FOXNEWS] A man who loaned a gun used by the Boston Marathon bombers to kill a police officer has been sentenced to the 17 months he has already served and apologized, saying his actions were "dumb."

Stephen Silva told a judge Tuesday in U.S. District Court that he was "young, dumb, and thought I could outsmart everyone." He had pleaded guilty to gun and drug charges.

Silva testified during the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that he let Tsarnaev borrow a Ruger 9mm handgun two months before the bombings.

He says he didn't know about the bombers' plan and had no idea the gun would be used to kill an officer.

Prosecutors sought leniency, saying Silva's cooperation and testimony was critical in convicting Tsarnaev, who was sentenced to death.
Posted by: Fred || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just a guess, but I think he's probably still dumb.
Posted by: gorb || 01/01/2016 2:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Depraved indifference
Posted by: newc || 01/01/2016 3:28 Comments || Top||

#3  "Look at my client, yer Honor. He's an idiot"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/01/2016 14:48 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
High Rise Hotel In Dubai On Fire
Dramatic pictures! But all was well in the end:
UAE Civil Defence controls fire at 'The Address'; 17 injured
Posted by: Grunter || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "They said we can't build the barbecue pit in the hall, so we moved it to the balcony."
Posted by: Grunter || 01/01/2016 8:53 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
New Year's Eve terror attack thwarted in NY
[Ynet] The US Justice Department arrest a man who planned to attack a restaurant in upstate Western New York on New Year's Eve; he is charged with providing material support to ISIS.

A 25-year-old man who planned to attack a restaurant in upstate Western New York on New Year's Eve has been tossed in the calaboose
You have the right to remain silent...
and charged with attempting to provide material support to 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....
, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.

Emanuel L. Lutchman, "claiming to receive direction from an overseas ISIS member, planned to commit an armed attack against civilians at a restaurant/bar located in the Rochester, New York, area today," the department said in a statement.
Seeing the below, one wonders if the director exists on the same physical plane as the rest of us...
A criminal complaint against Lutchman, who appeared in US District Court for the Western District of New York on Thursday, described him as a "self-professed Muslim convert with a criminal history dating back to approximately 2006... as well as previous state mental hygiene arrests."
Goodness, he has been busy, poor man.
It said Lutchman expressed support for Islamic State in telephone conversations with a paid informant in November and December. It said that this month he was in contact with someone who identified himself as a member of the Death Eater group in Syria.

On Tuesday, he went to a Walmart store in Rochester with another informant and bought two black ski masks, zip-ties, two knives, a machete, duct tape, ammonia and latex gloves for the planned attack, the complaint said. He had no money, and the confidential source paid about $40 for the supplies, it said.
The Times of Israel adds the following, without mentioning the hospital stays:
Prosecutors announced Thursday that 25-year-old Emanuel Lutchman has been charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists. He was snared in an FBI sting, the prosecutors said.

The FBI said Lutchman had an accomplice who was actually working for the agency. It said they bought knives and a machete for the attack.

According to the International Business Times, court documents claim that Lutchman had been in contact with an IS member abroad, who had urged him to "do operations and kill some kuffar" -- a plural term for non-Muslims.

The report said that Lutchman told his interlocutor that he hated the US and and was prepared to "give everything up" for the Islamic State. He reportedly recruited two friends to help him carry out the attacks. One of the two reportedly dropped out; the other was cooperating with the FBI, unbeknownst to Lutchman.

The report said the two allegedly considered placing a bomb inside the location and kidnapping and killing people, and urged wearing masks to avoid identification. According to the report, the pair purchased masks, gloves, zip ties, knives, duct tape, a machete and ammonia at a Walmart store on Tuesday night.

The report said that on Wednesday, the day of his arrest, Lutchman made a video on his phone swearing loyalty to IS chief His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Terror Networks
US, allies conduct 24 strikes against Islamic State
[Ynet] The US-led coalition carried out 24 strikes against 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....
gunnies on Wednesday, putting pressure on the group around Ramadi and djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
in Iraq and along the Mar'a line in Syria, the US military said in a statement on Thursday.

Warplanes carried out nine air strikes near Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, which fell to Islamic State fighters in 2014. The coalition has stepped up strikes around Mosul over the past two weeks, hitting it more than 90 times, a pace three times that of the previous two-week period.

Coalition aircraft also continued to pound the Ramadi area as Iraqi troops worked to secure the city after recapturing it from the gunnies in recent days. Warplanes carried out five strikes around Ramadi on Wednesday and also conducted four against the group in Mar'a in western Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/01/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State



Who's in the News
42[untagged]
13Islamic State
5Govt of Pakistan
3Taliban
2Hamas
2Ansarullah Bangla Team
2Commies
1Govt of Syria
1Govt of Iran
1Houthis
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Muslim Brotherhood
1al-Shabaab
1TTP

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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
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trailing wife
Gloria
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2016-01-01
  New Year's Eve terror attack thwarted in NY
Thu 2015-12-31
  ISIS executes 40 civilians in Ramadi
Wed 2015-12-30
  Blue on Blue: 38 Bad Guys die in bombing attack in Nangarhar
Tue 2015-12-29
  North African al-Qaeda says top figure killed in ambush
Mon 2015-12-28
  Iraqi airstrike kills ISIS Top Dawgs
Sun 2015-12-27
  Syrian Rebels Mourn Loss of Leader, Name Replacement
Sat 2015-12-26
  One Killed as Bomb Blast Rocks Ahmadi Mosque in Bangladesh
Fri 2015-12-25
  30 ISIS Bad Guys die in Fallujah
Thu 2015-12-24
  ISIS troops forced out of Ramadi
Wed 2015-12-23
  Driver Shouting 'Allahu Akbar!' Runs Down 11 French Pedestrians
Tue 2015-12-22
  Tunisia dismantles cell recruiting women for Islamist militant
Mon 2015-12-21
  Afghanistan: Taliban 'take centre of Helmand district'
Sun 2015-12-20
  Terrorist and Hezbollah commander Samir Kuntar... Tango Uniform
Sat 2015-12-19
  Yemen Government Forces Capture Capital of al-Jawf Province as Peace Talks Go on
Fri 2015-12-18
  Over 800 migrants try to storm Channel Tunnel in France: Official

Better than the average link...



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