Anthony Weiner is no longer behind bars, but the disgraced ex-U.S. Congressman still has a few months in federal custody before he's freed ... still earlier than originally expected.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Weiner's been transferred out of a Massachusetts prison and into the custody of a Bureau of Prisons residential re-entry center in New York. We're told he's either in a halfway house or home confinement.
Weiner's now in pre-release status, which inmates often get as they approach the end of their federal sentence. The purpose is to prepare them to transition back into society.
As we reported ... Weiner started serving his 21-month prison sentence in November 2017 after pleading guilty to sexting with a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. He was slated to get out August, 2019, but good behavior slashed the sentence 3 months to May 14.
We're told that is still his scheduled release date.
Weiner served his time at the Federal Medical Center in Devens, Massachusetts where they offer treatment for sex offenders. As you know ... Weiner has a long, scandalous history.
Weiner resigned from Congress after his first sexting scandal in 2011. He ran for NYC mayor but that bid was derailed in 2013 when he was found sexting Sydney Leathers under the infamous alias, "Carlos Danger."
The convicted sex offender saw his marriage fall apart the third time around. Huma Abedin filed for divorce just hours after Weiner struck a plea deal in the latest sexting scandal. Making matters worse ... Huma was a top aide to then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton when federal investigators found hundreds of thousands of Clinton's emails in Weiner's laptop ... forever changing the course of the 2016 Presidential election.
[RT] Venezuelan fitness model Michelle Lewin fell victim to a truly savage beach attack when she was bitten on her bottom by a wild pig during a bikini photo shoot in the Bahamas.
READ MORE: 'If there will be accusations of sexism again, I will be happy!’: Ice hockey presenter Ushakova
The 32-year-old fitness influencer was walking on the beach of Big Major Cay island (also known as ’Pig Beach’), an area inhabited by feral pigs, when the photo shoot went wrong.
The wild pigs, which usually swim in the waters around the island, are known for attracting hundreds of tourists wanting to take their pictures with the animals.
[Austin Bay - StrategyPage] On Feb. 11, Norway's intelligence agency severely criticized Russian jamming of GPS signals. The Norwegians said the Russian GPS signal disruption exploits that occurred last fall during NATO's Trident Juncture military exercise were not only a military concern but "also a threat to civil aviation in peacetime." Kinda like SAM missiles on civilian airlines?
Trident Juncture's scenario is useful for understanding the current political context in the Baltic region.
Bold Kremlin misinformation, apparently spread by the Russian government and its proxies through digital, broadcast and print media, confuses critics and provides the Kremlin with adequate diplomatic cover.
Up to the point that people have heard and seen enough. Finnish soldiers' training with NATO forces is diplomatic and military pushback. A substantial number of voters in Finland and Sweden favor joining NATO. In Sweden, joining NATO was once a forbidden subject. No longer.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2019
12:00 ||
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#1
Article snipped to a taste. According to Fred, Rantburg is part of Strategy Page’s raw intel feed, and they get tetchy when we post more than brief excerpts — go there to read the whole thing.
[Motley Fool] General Electric (NYSE:GE) is in the middle of a massive corporate overhaul. Investors worried about its ability to navigate that evolution successfully have pushed its share prices down some 70% from their 2016 highs to levels not seen since the Great Recession.
This is a special situation stock with huge upside potential if the turnaround effort works. But putting that "special situation" tag on GE changes the investment equation in a big way. Yes, it could be a millionaire maker stock, but only if you're willing to take on the risk that it could also flame out. Here's what you need to think about before you jump aboard here.
An iconic leader who left a mess behind him
The troubles currently facing GE can really be traced back to Jack Welch -- an assertion that to some people probably sounds like heresy. Welch was a powerful presence in the business world, often hailed as one of the greatest managers of all time. However, it was under his watch that GE allowed its finance arm to expand beyond its core purpose.
Like many industrial companies, GE has an in-house finance business that provides credit to customers so they can afford the often-huge costs of the industrial products GE makes. This is a good business practice, and not odd at all. However, the often-huge profits generated by the finance division led GE to expand its footprint into other areas, like home mortgages. When the Great Recession hit, the company's survival was threatened by the losses from its finance division. Jeff Immelt, Welch's successor, was in charge by that point, and he was forced to cut GE's dividend, take massive write offs, sell assets, and accept a government bailout.
Immelt did manage to keep GE going, however, and started to steer it in a new direction focused entirely on the industrial space. That said, his efforts, which included a couple of large acquisitions, didn't produce the results that the board was hoping to see, and they replaced him in mid-2017 with insider John Flannery. The new CEO announced write offs, asset sales, and a dividend cut, explaining to investors that things were worse than his predecessor had been letting on.
#1
Jack Welch has been gone from GE nearly 19 years. How about taking a look at Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman & CEO 2001 - 2017. Or would that be an....inconvenient exercise ?
#3
If Jack put GE on the wrong track then it was up to Immelt to change the trajectory. He had plenty of time, but he drove the company into a ditch. Compare that with UTC.
Posted by: Regular joe ||
02/17/2019 14:03
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My rule of thumb for investment 'opportunities' like this: By the time I hear about it, all the real money has been made, and they are just looking for a greater fool.
[Jpost] A very interesting phenomenon has taken place in the Idlib area of Syria: the presence of the Islamic State has almost completely disappeared.
What did ISIS do with all the quality weapons it had at its disposal, including chemical, SAM, and SSM missiles? Where are the terrorist organization’s activists now hiding out? Where else will ISIS attempt to build a Salafist caliphate? Perhaps in the Sinai or Libya?
Following extensive international media coverage, the United States recently announced it will be withdrawing its military forces from the Iraq-Syria border and from northern Syria.
[AlJazeera] Pakistain-based gang headed by Masood Azhar has been implicated in a series of suicide kabooms in Kashmire.
Formed in 2000, Jaish-e-Muhammad (JEM or Army of Muhammad) is a Pakistain-based gang that aims to undermine and overthrow Indian control over Indian-administered Kashmire through attacks on security and government targets.
The group was founded by Masood Azhar, who previously fought under the banner of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and has been linked to al-Qaeda.
Azhar founded JeM after he was released from Indian custody in 1999, in exchange for more than 150 hostages held on an Indian Airlines flight that had been hijacked and diverted to Kandahar in Afghanistan.
Azhar is said to have formed JeM with the support of then-al-Qaeda chief the late Osama bin Laden ... who used to be alive but now he's not... and the Afghan Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... , according to the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... The group is said to have actively supported the Afghan Taliban's fight against US-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... forces since 2001.
JeM has carried out several high-profile suicide and other attacks against Indian targets since its formation.
Notably, in 2001 it was implicated in attacks on the legislative assembly building in Indian-administered Kashmire and on the Indian parliament in New Delhi. More than 50 people were killed in the two attacks.
JEM OUTLAWED IN PAKISTAIN
Azhar was tossed in the clink Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! by Pak authorities for his alleged involvement in the parliament attack, but was released a year later after a court ruled authorities had presented inadequate evidence against him.
Pakistain outlawed the JeM as a "terrorist organization" in 2002, prompting the group to target Pakistain, twice unsuccessfully attempting to assassinate then-Pak President Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... in 2003.
In 2016, Pakistain once again detained Azhar, after India alleged JeM was responsible for an attack on an Indian airbase in the town of Pathankot, killing at least six people.
Later that year, JeM was linked to an attack on an Indian security forces base at Uri, killing 19 people.
On Thursday, JeM grabbed credit for a suicide attack that killed at least 42 Indian soldiers in the Indian-administered Kashmire town of Pulwama, the worst such attack on Kashmiri soil.
A senior police officer, who works with counterinsurgency department of India-administered Kashmire, said that in the last two years, the gang has suffered a setback in south Kashmire such as Pulwama and Tral due to the counterinsurgency operations.
"JeM is not only on a revival mode by carrying out such high-value attacks, but it also nurtures pan India Islamist goals," he said on condition of anonymity.
Azhar's current whereabouts remain unknown having not been formally charged by Pakistain with a crime nor making public appearances since his detention.
China, a key Pak ally, continues to block his listing on a United Nations sanctions list, a long-standing Indian request.
[AlMasdar] The Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... forces unleashed a massive missile barrage on southern 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... , today, the Yemeni group’s official media wing said in a statement.
According to the Houthi forces, their rocket battalion fired approximately ten domestically-made Zilzal-1 missiles towards the Qyis Mountains in Saudi Arabia’s Jizan province.
The Houthi forces claimed their missiles were targeting the Saudi Army’s positions at the Qyis Mountains, adding that their projectiles managed to hit their intended targets in the process.
This latest attack by the Houthi forces comes just 24 hours after they fired missiles towards the same mountains in southern Saudi Arabia.
h/t Gates of Vienna
[VoiceOfEurope] The German newspaper Hannoversche Allgemeine recently raised the question if violent crime statistics are tweaked in the country.
A state police officer is quoted saying: "There is no lying, nothing is hushed, but things are deliberately left out."
"There are orders to use our latitude of interpretation to preserve civil peace."
The journalist Dieter Wonka met with the police officer, and now he knows specifically how the statistics are tweaked.
In a short video clip he states the following: "There is no written instruction to falsify the statistics. There are certain terms, for instance honour killings or sexual offenses, that if possible should not appear in reports."
"In the case these terms do appear in police reports, from what I have understood, the police chief will make a written note on the report which says: ’Please review this’."
This is a signal to alert the police officer who wrote the report to remove certain terms which are provocative and could have a negative influence on the statistics.
In these statistics you will find the term assault instead of sexual assault without any further specification.
This means that the statistical accumulations are differently weighed and presented differently as what the clear insights in detail would reveal."
#2
I’ve complained of exactly this, though it absolutely is not unique to Germany. Scandinavia, Britain, the U.S. to a lesser extent about Blacks and Hispanics... It is compounded by more of the same by the news media.
h/t Gates of Vienna
Amnesty International is in a 'state of emergency' due to widespread bullying, sexism, racism and overworking, a damning report has revealed.
An independent review stated the charity's 'toxic work culture' threatened to seriously undermine its human rights mission across the world.
The inquiry into working conditions at the London-based organisation was launched after the suicides of two employees within the space of six weeks last summer.
Researcher Gaetan Mootoo, 65, worked for the charity for 32 years before he took his life inside its Paris office, leaving behind a note blaming pressures he felt at work.
Rosalind McGregor, 28, killed herself at home in Surrey while interning at Amnesty's office in Geneva after developing 'acute anxiety' during five months at the charity.
...The latest review, in which 475 members of staff were surveyed, found a strong 'us versus them' dynamic between employees and management.
It stated that 'many staff gave specific examples of experiencing or witnessing bullying by managers' during their time with the charity.
Many workers told of 'discrimination on the basis of race and gender and in which women, staff of colour, and LGBTQI [people] were targeted or treated unfairly'.
The report added: 'There were multiple reports of managers belittling staff in meetings, deliberately excluding certain staff from reporting, or making demeaning, menacing comments like, "You’re s***!" or, "You should quit! If you stay in this position, your life will be a misery."
'Others discussed this issue more generally, reporting that bullying and public humiliation were routinely used by management at all levels.
#3
Yea, but still - it's an organization dedicated to defending human rights & dignity. I mean, finding such things about AI is like discovering that a Catholic Church is full of ... Oooops!
#4
For the Latin-challenged - Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? is a Latin phrase found in the work of the Roman poet Juvenal from his Satires. It is literally translated as "Who will guard the guards themselves?"
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/17/2019 11:16
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[AlMasdar] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) continued their field operations against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) in central Syria on Saturday.
Led by their 3rd and 11th divisions, the Syrian Arab Army attacked several areas with an Islamic State presence in the Badiya al-Sham region near the ancient city of Palmyra (var. Tadmur).
According to a field report from this front, the Syrian Arab Army engaged in heavy festivities with the Islamic State on Saturday, resulting in a number of casualties for the terrorist group.
A significant portion of the Islamic State’s equipment southeast of Palmyra was reportedly destroyed during the operation.
The Syrian Arab Army reportedly destroyed several mortar launchers, missile-launchers, RPGs, and machine guns that belonged to the terrorist group in the area.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/17/2019
03:24 ||
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[AlMasdar] For the second time in the last 24 hours, the Salafist tough guys have targeted a Syrian government stronghold inside the northern part of the Hama Governorate.
According to a military report from the Hama Governorate, the Salafist tough guys of Jaish al-Izza launched several rockets and artillery shells towards the government strongholds of Salhab and Mhardeh.
The report said the Jaish al-Izza fighters specifically targeted the Mhardeh Powerplant and several neighborhoods inside the town of Salhab.
A number of people were reportedly maimed as a result of this Jaish al-Izza attack, prompting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to respond with a barrage of missiles on the rebel group’s positions.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/17/2019
03:17 ||
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[New York Post] Congratulations, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez! You just killed 25,000 jobs for urban Democrats in one of the most racially and ethnically diverse areas in the entire world!
Congresswoman AOC, the thought leader of the Democratic party, was the loudest and feistiest political opponent when Amazon announced it would build (half of) its second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, promising to create 25,000 jobs and generate some $27.5 billion in tax revenue over the next 25 years. Amazon employs a range of people from unskilled workers to tech geniuses and would have pumped large amounts of money into the city economy. It estimated the average salary of its New York City workforce would have been $150,000. Real-estate prices in Long Island City jumped 15 percent since Amazon’s announcement last November. "thought leader" - faint praise
But after Amazon walked away in an anti-Valentine to the city on Feb. 14, AOC bragged on Twitter that "everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world."
Huh? A Siena poll this week showed that New York City residents approved of the deal by 56 to 33 percent. Fellow Democrats Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio were pushing hard for the deal. Oh, and it need hardly be stated that Amazon is a company staffed by Democrats. Some 87 percent of its employee donations went to the Dems in the latest elections. As for "richest man in the world," Bezos started Amazon in his garage. He got rich building one of the most beloved companies on earth.
Amazon should have gone there and gotten very favorable publicity
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/17/2019 7:47
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....but where is the power in there? Then there is an issue all such corporations look at, security. Those cities that treat crime as a social illness rather than the crime for which it is seem to get more rather than less. Not very inviting for those shopping for viable locations.
#6
Amazon got a break of approx. 3 Billion in taxes from New Yawk out of 27 Billion it was expected to pay over ten years IF its new HQ was approved. IF it was NOT approved then Amazon would walk away from th deal and go to Virginia. The deal was NOT approved..SO Ocasio Cortez got absolutely ZERO..no 27 Billion in Taxes SO no 3 Billion break...but that was OK since Bezos will hardly miss it, since he won't pay any taxes anyway and he seldom does...BUT he does make enormous profits. Which is business as it should be. Try it, you'll like it.
And Ocasio Cortez is looking at NO jobs and NO taxes and the money she THOUGHT was available for anything for her district doesn't exist, let me repeat that...money from Cuomo DOESN't exist. A great Victory for the Left. Yeah, an empty bag and a dried up brain.
Ocasio Cortez gets nothing, let me repeat that...NADA, ZIP, Zilch.
What a victory for the Left. NOTHING. What a victory for Occasion Cortez. Let's do that again.
I just can't get over this girl's financial acumen and her sheer GENIUS.
Posted by: Bill Tojo1485 ||
02/17/2019 10:11
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#5 I look for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to be a one-term rep.
Most likely, but she is coming in and going out like a wrecking ball!
Posted by DarthVader 2019-02-17 09:52
As I recall, her district is a gentrified area of the Bronx and is as shallow as it comes. So, she's a symptom not a trend.
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 ||
02/17/2019 10:22
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I just can't get over this girl's financial acumen and her sheer GENIUS.
A bachelor's in Economics and she was working as a bartender. Seems like evidence of something.
According to a recent report, the typical Manhattan ATM is more bacteria-ridden than a wide range of other heavily used objects, including a subway pole, an NYC Wi-Fi hub and the handle of a public toilet at Penn Station.
Mike Brown of financial product marketplace LendEDU left the comfort of his Hoboken office on Jan. 4 armed with a Hygiena SystemSURE Plus ‐ a handheld testing device that measures bacteria on a given surface ‐ to test 20 different ATMs (split between Times Square and the West Village).
The keypad, touch screen and card-reader of each cash machine was tested. He also tested nine other objects and surfaces in the city to see how they compared with ATMs.
Predictably, the more heavily trafficked Midtown machines were also the dirtiest, with one Times Square ATM measuring an overall 513 RLU (relative light units), compared to a reading of 68 RLU for a subway pole, 163 RLU for the Penn Station public toilet handle and 370 RLU at a Father Demo Square park bench, with the highest numbers indicating the most bacteria. The pass limit for food-service establishments and operating rooms is 10 RLU.
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) ‐ Bulgarian nationalists have marched through Sofia, the country’s capital, to honor a World War II general known for his anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi activities.
The annual Lukov March, staged by the far-right Bulgarian National Union, attracted hundreds of dark-clad supporters who walked through downtown Sofia holding torches and Bulgarian flags and chanting nationalist slogans.
It came despite strong condemnation by human rights groups, political parties and foreign embassies. The city mayor had banned the rally but organizers won a court order overturning the ban.
A heavy police presence blocked any clashes between nationalists and their opponents.
Ahead of the march, the World Jewish Congress warned about the rise of far-right activities across Europe aimed at promoting anti-Semitism, hatred, xenophobia and Nazi glorification among young people.
"We urge governments across Europe to prioritize the introduction of administrative bans against such marches. This is not just a problem of the Jewish communities, but of European citizens and governments at large," the organization’s CEO Robert Singer said.
#1
Not strong on Bulgaria, but weren't they pretty ineffectual "Nazis" during the war? Very low casualties, percentage-wise? Saved the entire Jewish population of Bulgaria proper? Of course almost all the Jews bailed after the war, hardly a ringing endorsement of local hospitality. Seems roughly a thousand remain today, about the same number of people as participated in this Lukov thing (c. one two-thousandth of the population of Sofia). Color me skeptical, but I doubt that all participants were goosesteppers as distinct from disgruntled rightists of other stripes. And isn't Bulgaria still crawling with communists (and Turks, for that matter)? I don't think I'll be losing sleep over this. Eek. Cut-off!
#3
I'll admit I thought the story was BS from the git-go because (1) it sounded like a Hollywood script and (2) If you got loose, the first thing a normal human would do is TAKE OFF THE DAMN NOOSE, DUMMY.
#7
3 years in the clink would be about right for all the media scum, pompous celebrities, and vicious politicians (note the Oxford comma) that blew this out of all proportion. Smollet? Give him 5 to 10.
FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) ‐ A woman’s trip to Las Vegas on Valentine’s Day was cut short after she reportedly got unruly on a plane and had to be taken off.
When Valerie Gonzalez, 32, boarded JetBlue’s Flight 7 at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Wednesday night, she allegedly got upset when she found out she was seated next to a child.
"I’m not sitting next to a (expletive) three-year-old, I’ve been drinking all day," she said, according to her arrest report.
She then got up out of her seat and went to another that was not assigned to her.
Gonzalez then reportedly had a problem with the people sitting in front of her and proceeded to have loud profanity-laced outbursts.
Not accepting this type of behavior, the flight crew asked her to get off of the plane and called security.
[AnNahar] The Army Intelligence Directorate jugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! at dawn on Saturday two jihadists one of them an IS Emir in the Bekaa town of Hermel, media reports said.
After closely monitoring and tracking the suspects, the army arrested one of them in the neighborhood of al-Shawagir and the other in al-Sahl al-Sharqi.
They have trespassed into Leb through an illegal crossing a few days ago coming from Syria’s Deir Ezzour, they said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/17/2019
02:29 ||
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"Unhand me! I am an Emir!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2019 6:41
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IS Emir. Sounds like a congress critter from MN.
[AnNahar] Militiamen have kidnapped a group of Tunisian workers near the Libyan capital Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , demanding Tunis release a comrade, the foreign ministry and a rights activist said.
"The foreign ministry is following the case of the Tunisian citizens... kidnapped by armed Libyan elements near Zawiya", the ministry said on its Facebook page late Friday.
Rights activist Mustapha Abdelkebir said the gang behind Thursday's kidnappings was demanding the release of one of its members held in Tunisia.
The kidnap victims were workers at Zawiya oil refinery, Tunisian media said. A diplomatic source told AFP that 14 workers had been taken hostage.
"The minister has spoken to his Libyan counterpart to insist on the protection of the detainees, accelerate their release and ensure that they return safe and sound", the ministry said in a statement.
Tunisia reopened a consulate in Libya in 2018, after shutting it three years earlier due to the kidnapping of 10 Tunisian diplomats.
The Libyan militia which carried out the 2015 kidnapping had demanded the release of one of its leaders, Walid Glib, detained in Tunisia as part of a counter-terrorism investigation.
The diplomats were released after several days and Walid Glib was later deported to Tripoli.
Libya's Tripoli-based Government of National Accord said it had no information on Thursday's abduction and that it was looking into the matter.
The country has been mired in chaos since the fall of dictator Moamer Qadaffy in a 2011 NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... -backed uprising, as two rival administrations and numerous militias grapple for power.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/17/2019
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[AlAhram] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said U.S.-backed fighters seized the last 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.... enclave in eastern Syria on Saturday after the jihadists who were still there surrendered.
Rooters could not immediately confirm the report.
The UK-based war monitoring group said the last few hundred Islamic State turbans, many of them foreigners, had surrendered in the past two days to the Syrian Democratic Forces. It said some bully boyz may still be hiding in underground tunnels.
With the help of U.S. air strikes, the Kurdish-led SDF has battled to crush Islamic State in the shrinking Baghouz enclave east of the Euphrates river near the Iraqi border.
Though 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.... fighters still hold out in a pocket of central Syria's remote desert, and have gone underground as sleeper cells in Iraqi cities, able to launch new attacks, their territorial rule is, for now, almost over.
It ends a project launched from the great mediaeval mosque of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in northern Iraq in 2014, when His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart... seized advantage of regional chaos to proclaim himself caliph, suzerain over all Moslem people and land.
He set up a governing system with courts, a currency and flag that at its height stretched from northwest Syria almost to Baghdad, encompassing some two million inhabitants.
Footage filmed in the surroundings of the Syrian eastern village of Baghouz on Friday showed a number of civilians fleeing the last enclave of the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
The village in the eastern Deir ez-Zor region has been subjected to an offensive by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for the past week, under the cover of US-led coalition airstrikes.
Some media reports have suggested that the civilians are associated with IS members. Militants are reportedly hiding among civilians in the area that was previously evacuated via a humanitarian corridor.
According to local sources, around 1,000 civilians, including children remained in the village, and militants of the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) are thought to be using them as human shields.
[AlMasdar] The remaining militants from the Daesh terrorist group* are entrenched in a small area of Baghouz, the last terrorists-held village in Syria, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF) Media Center Mustafa Bali told Sputnik on Saturday.
A number of media outlets reported earlier in the day that the SDF had taken control of all of Baghouz.
“The Baghouz area has surrendered in military terms but the liberation [operation] is not over yet. Militants have entrenched themselves in the 700 meters [2,296 feet] long and [700 meters] wide territory, they continue using civilians as human shields. There are thousands of captives in that area,” Bali said.
The spokesman also denied media reports claiming that the SDF was negotiating with Daesh.
As the US-backed Kurdish forces noted, quoted by VOA, the terrorists had blocked the road leading to the SDF to prevent civilians from leaving the area. As one of SDF fighters reportedly stated, families of Daesh militants are among fleeing civilians.
[AlMasdar] The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) seized a massive weapons cache that was abandoned by the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS/Daesh) in the eastern region of the Euphrates River Valley.
According to the official media wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces, their troops uncovered this large weapons cache while combing through the recently captured town of Baghouz in the eastern countryside of the Deir Ezzor Governorate.
The Syrian Democratic Forces reportedly captured hundreds of assault rifles, a Metis ATGM launcher, missiles, and ammunition that were all left behind by the Islamic State this week.
Below is the video of the weapons cache that was seized by the Syrian Democratic Forces this weekend:
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/17/2019
02:20 ||
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[AlAhram] Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... on Saturday suggested the mosque in Athens should open with minarets if the Greek premier wants to reopen a seminary in Istanbul.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... this month and visited the disputed landmarks of Hagia Sophia and the now-closed Greek Orthodox Halki seminary.
Tsipras said during the visit to the seminary located on Heybeli island off Istanbul on February 6 he hoped to reopen the school next time with Erdogan.
Future priests of the Constantinople diocese had been trained at the seminary, which was closed in 1971 after tensions between Ankara and Athens over Cyprus.
Erdogan on Saturday complained that the Fethiye Mosque in Athens had no minarets despite Greek insistence that it would open.
The mosque was built in 1458 during the Ottoman occupation of Greece but has not been used as a mosque since 1821.
"Look you want something from us, you want the Halki seminary. And I tell you (Greece), come, let's open the Fethiye Mosque," Erdogan said during a rally in the northwestern province of Edirne ahead of local elections on March 31.
"They said, 'we are opening the mosque' but I said, why isn't there a minaret? Can a church be a church without a bell tower?" he said, describing his talks with Tsipras.
"We say, you want to build a bell tower? Come and do it... But what is an essential part of our mosques? The minarets," the Ottoman Turkish president added.
Erdogan said Tsipras told him he was wary of criticism from the Greek opposition.
After the independence war against Ottomans began in 1821, the minaret is believed by some to have been destroyed because it was a symbol of the Ottoman occupation.
Ankara had returned land taken from the seminary in 1943 but there is still international pressure on Turkey to reopen it.
Erdogan has previously said that its reopening is dependent on reciprocal steps from Greece to enhance the rights of the Ottoman Turkish minority.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/17/2019
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Looks like we may need a new acting U.S. Defense Secretary
ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (Reuters) - Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Saturday he had not yet determined whether a border wall with Mexico was a military necessity or how much Pentagon money would be used.
President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency in a bid to fund his promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border without congressional approval.
A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Shanahan was likely to approve the $3.6 billion being redirected from the military construction budget.
By declaring a national emergency, Trump can use certain Department of Defense funding to build the wall.
According to the law, the defense secretary has to decide whether the wall is militarily necessary before money from the military construction budget can be used.
"We always anticipated that this would create a lot of attention and since moneys potentially could be redirected, you can imagine the concern this generates," Shanahan told reporters traveling back with him from his trip to Afghanistan, the Middle East and Europe.
#4
Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Saturday he had not yet determined whether a border wall with Mexico was a military necessity or how much Pentagon money would be used.
#7
Yes - the next quote is: “Very deliberately, we have not made any decisions, we have identified the steps we would take to make those decisions,” Shanahan said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2019 12:26
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[Ynet] The leader of Leb's hard boy Hezbollah group has denied U.S. assertions that it has cells in Venezuela saying the Latin American nation "does not need them."
Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech Saturday that his Iran-backed group is in "solidarity with the politicianship and state of Venezuela against the American aggression."
Nasrallah added that his group does not have influence in Venezuela nor does it have cells operating there.
[Daily Caller] The implementation of driverless trucks will lead to suicides and "an outbreak of violence," according to Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
Yang said he thinks it’s inevitable that some of America’s 3.5 million truck drivers will react violently to being replaced by driverless trucks.
"There’s going to be a lot of passion, a lot of resistance to this. Anyone who thinks truck drivers are just going to shrug and say, ’Alright, I had a good run. I’ll just go home and figure it out’ ‐ that’s not going to be their response," Yang said Tuesday in an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan.
#3
The average age of serious truckers is over 50 I think. The rest come and go. This won't be a problem if managed properly. But the trucking companies won't, so it might need to be legislated.
#4
The vulnerability of trucks on the highway is immense. Consider someone sending out a driverless car to cut off a driverless truck carrying hazardous materials at key points in the road grid...
#5
Unattended cargo just sitting out there waiting to be hijacked. You think the robots are going to look out for other robots? Send one of those into the inner city for a delivery, don't expect it to return. Remember those who rule those places just treat it like a property crime. Meh.
#6
The lower level, but skilled, workers are always the first hardest hit by new technology because replacing those workers gets the biggest bang for the buck. See also machinists being replaced by CNC machines.
#7
I don't think driverless does 'defensive driving' very well. Can the AI anticipate the kid chasing the ball into the street, a texting clown missing the stop sign, sense the backup lights might mean somebody's gonna back out into your path?
Intelligent human drivers have enough trouble with chaos.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/17/2019 11:26
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#8
Those people who pulled ploughs waved their fists at cart horses.
#9
I have had two cousins who were killed by a semi, ne was a vet and the other was a doctor. The trucker was a Seikh. One of my adopted grandchild’s brothers was killed by a trucker who was Mexican. My car was severely damaged by a semi-driver who exited an expressway and cut it too sharp. My wife was sitting in the back holding our new grandchild. When I asked to see his license and registration, he gave me a Mexican drivers license. He was Mexican driving for a well known company and pulling a well know product in his trailer. I am not special so I believe this happens a lot. Make employers hire qualified people or take their business! If I were still driving long distances I would like a driverless vehicle that would navigate the distance between major metropolitan areas.
#10
Artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics should tackle dangerous jobs or really monotonous jobs first with limited risk to humans. Examples would include bomb disposal, mining, nuclear disaster work, driving from the oil sands pit, airport shuttle from parking lot to terminal.....
[IsraelTimes] Riyadh responds to outcry as attempt to politicize Absher service, after US Senator joins calls for Apple and Google to remove it from stores.
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... on Saturday defended a mobile app that allows men in the kingdom to track female relatives after rights groups and a US politician criticized tech giants for offering it.
The Absher app provides services for "all members of the society... including women, the elderly, and people with special needs," the interior ministry said.
The free app is available on Android and Apple smartphones and allows users to renew passports, visas and eases a variety of other electronic services.
But critics have said the app enables abuse against women and girls by allowing men to track their movements.
Apple CEO Tim Cook told US National Public Radio earlier this week he had not heard of the app, but would "take a look at it."
US Senator Ron Wyden has called on both Apple and Google to remove the app, arguing on Twitter that it promotes "abusive practices against women."
Under Saudi law, women must have consent from a husband or immediate male relative to renew passports or leave the country.
The ministry criticized what it called a "systematic campaign aimed at questioning the purpose of the services."
It rejected what it described as "attempts to politicize" the tool.
[NRA Shooting Illustrated] This article, "Out of Range?" appeared originally as a Shotguns column in the April 2017 issue of Shooting Illustrated. To subscribe to Shooting Illustrated, visit the NRA membership page here and select Shooting Illustrated as your member magazine.
Do an online search, and you’ll find piles of information about the maximum range of slugs and buckshot. Most base conclusions upon mathematical data, not the real world. Of course, in most in-the-home scenarios, the type of shell used matters little‐provided you can deliver it accurately before your attacker does. But, it is wise to know your limitations.
Fact is, your load’s maximum range alone is worthless. What is important is your maximum practical range (MPR). Your MPR is the maximum distance at which your specific setup‐shotgun, choke, load, sights and your ability‐will stop a threat every time. It includes three factors: Your gun and load’s terminal ballistic performance, the target’s mental and physical makeup and your ability to hit that target.
What nonsense! You hit some perp center mass with a 12 gauge slug or full load of buck shot from #4 thru 0000, and they’re going down and staying down.
[IsraelTimes] Video shows group on fringe of demonstration shouting anti-Jewish insults at Alain Finkielkraut in Gay Paree, week after wave of anti-Semitic vandalism linked to movement.
Demonstrators taking part in a yellow vest protest in Gay Paree shouted anti-Semitic insults at a leading French Jewish intellectual Saturday, drawing an outcry days after the movement was blamed for a spike in anti-Jewish incidents. The abuse, directed at philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, 69, came as tens of thousands of protesters marched across La Belle France, marking three months since the movement began.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the incident and called it "the absolute negation of what we are and what makes us a great nation."
Continued on Page 49
[WashingtonExaminer] Pope Francis has defrocked former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after Vatican officials found him guilty of soliciting for sex while hearing confession and sexual crimes against minors and adults, the Holy See said Saturday.
The punishment for the once-powerful prelate, who had served as the archbishop of Washington and had been an influential fundraiser for the church, was announced five days before Francis is set to lead an extraordinary gathering of bishops from around the world to help the church grapple with the crisis of sex abuse by clergy and systematic cover-ups by church hierarchy. The decades-long scandals have shaken the faith of many Catholics and threatened Francis' papacy.
Defrocking means McCarrick, 88, who now lives in a friary in Kansas after he lost his title of cardinal last year, can no longer celebrate Mass or other sacraments, wear clerical vestments or be addressed by any religious title.
#8
The sad thing is Francis coddled this guy and only dumped him because he was forced into a corner that even a progressive liberal like him could not climb out of.
Pope Frankie is a disaster
Posted by: Boss Spoper5850 ||
02/17/2019 16:20
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#9
I call him Pope Karl Vladimir, which somehow fails to amuse my Catholic friends.
#10
THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE "CATHOLICS" IS NOW IN QUESTION
So nearly two millenia of philosophical and religious striving to be better people in the world and when facing God is wiped out by the vile misbehaviour of a a small proportion during a relatively brief period of time? I disagree. And much as I dislike this particular pope in so very many ways, at least he is no longer sweeping this growing problem under the rug.
[IsraelTmes] Robert-Willem van Norren mocked by pro-Israel activists for holding anti-Israel protests while sitting on a scooter assembled on a kibbutz.
Regardless of where one stands on the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict, there’s no denying the devotion of some of the activists involved in the cause.
Take Robert-Willem van Norren: He’s a middle-aged Dutch supporter of the boycott against Israel movement, and he regularly braves all kinds of weather, as well as his own disability, to promote his cause. He sits for hours on end in his mobility scooter on Amsterdam’s Dam Square, waving Paleostinian flags and anti-Israel posters three times a week.
There’s just one problem with that picture, though: His scooter was made in Israel.
More precisely, it is the Breeze S3 model of the Kalnoit brand, designed and assembled in Kibbutz Afikim in Israel’s Jordan Valley, which began its existence as a military base during Israel’s war of independence in 1948.
Van Norren, who is one of the Netherlands’ best-known anti-Israel activists and who enjoys displaying a poster of the Israeli flag with a cockroach or a swastika over the Star of David symbol, was pictured in July using a different scooter with a retro design resembling a Harley Davidson. But he has since switched to the slicker Israel-made scooter, which he has decorated with Paleostinian flags and a sticker reading "free Paleostine, boycott Israel."
He did not reply to questions on the issue.
Michael Jacobs, a pro-Israel activist who regularly faces off with van Norren and other anti-Israel activists on the Dam, was the one to make the discovery. He said his claim was confirmed by the importer of the Kalnoit mobility scooters to the Netherlands.
Pro-Israel activists in Holland have rejoiced over the origin of the scooter.
Hidde J. van Koningsveld, who heads the CiJo pro-Israel group, called it a "fun fact" and a "#BDSFail" on Twitter.
He also noted that van Norren’s fellow anti-Israel activist, Simon Vrouwe, was recently photographed taking a break from his own Israel protesting to grab a bite at the Maoz falafel shop near the Dam, which is part of a chain started by the Israel-born Dutch businessman Dov Melo.
Vrouwe was wearing a vest reading "boycott Israel" while piling on the Israel-made pickles that Maoz is known for.
"Van Norren is in good company: his fellow professional demonstrator Simon Vrouwe was recently spotted in the Israeli falafel tent Maoz," van Koningsveld said.
#4
But they write their philippics on a laptop full of chips created by Intel Israel.
And talk on cell phones made possible by technology developed at a Motorola R&D center in Israel. That's right, Swampy! Your cell phone has Juice cooties.
[Washington Examiner] President Trump's national emergency declaration to build hundreds more miles of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border was short on specifics about where the steel structures would go.
Trump's emergency order faces opposition in Congress. And even the president, in announcing the emergency declaration Friday, admitted it could bogged down in court fights for some time to come.
In the meantime, though, Trump administration officials are looking to Homeland Security experts for guidance about where along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border it makes sense to add steel wall structures.
"So it actually ends up being a complicated question," one official said Friday. "The men and women of the Border Patrol each year put together a border security improvement plan, which looks at all of the areas on the 2,000-mile border by risk. It takes into consideration smuggling routes, violent gangs, humanitarian issues, different types of terrain, and figures out where we need physical barriers the most. Based on that list, that is what we build against."
The Department of Homeland Security is working on projects from money they were given in 2017 and 2018 appropriations. They will decide on where to spend Trump's $8 billion after Customs and Border Protection's annual report on the 2018 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30, 2018, is released.
[The Hill] State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert withdrew her name from consideration for the nomination of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations on Saturday.
The State Department made the announcement in a release.
"I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary Pompeo for the trust they have placed in me for considering me for the position of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations," Nauert wrote Saturday. "However, the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration."
It wasn't clear from the release whether Nauert would continue on serving as the State Department's spokeswoman.
"Heather Nauert has performed her duties as a senior member of my team with unequalled [sic] excellence," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added in the press release.
A State Department spokesperson said the department had nothing more to add about future personnel changes, and referred back to the the statement released by the agency.
#1
Extremely cute and probably as dumb as they come. This ambassadorship is a huge launching pad for mediocrities. The horrendous Nikki Haley comes to mind.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/17/2019 1:52
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[Breitbart] Veteran pollster Pat Caddell passed away Saturday at his home in Charleston, SC, at the age of 68.
Caddell was a Breitbart News contributor and regular guest on Breitbart’s SiriusXM radio programs. His willingness to challenge conventional political wisdom ‐ combined with his decades of campaign experience ‐ set him apart as a strategist who got things right when so many others got them wrong. This was strikingly obvious in 2016, when Caddell was the sole pollster to understand Donald Trump’s voters and the New York builder’s path to victory.
Long before Trump threw his hat in the political ring, Caddell became famous for helping elect another outsider. The self-taught pollster and native of South Carolina was instrumental in getting the nationally unknown governor of Georgia elected president in 1976.
Caddell’s insightful analysis of the changing political landscape of the American South helped steer Jimmy Carter’s campaign to victory by latching onto broad themes and focusing resources into key states. His role was so crucial to Carter’s success that after Carter won the Democratic Party’s nomination in the summer of 1976, his campaign manager, Hamilton Jordan, told a reporter: "You know why Jimmy Carter is going to be president? Because of Pat Caddell ‐ it’s all because of Pat Caddell."
#3
I always liked Caddell, in the "worthy adversary" sense. He never struck me as a mindless ideologue, unlike most of the lefty talking heads. And it's clear that in recent years he was dismayed by his party's descent into madness. RIP.
#4
^ Absolutely. He was a blue dog Dem but with common sense and a desire for real American success. Unlike the current batch of socialist pigs who would cancel a Citizen's vote with an Illegal in a NY Minute
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2019 13:09
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[EPOCH Times] Events in the 2016 elections were unprecedented. Top FBI officials knowingly used information paid for by the campaign of Hillary Clinton to obtain a FISA spy warrant on a member of the Trump campaign. Meanwhile, top Obama administration officials also spied on the campaign, using so-called unmasking requests.
Those same FBI agents, however, chose to look the other way when it came to the risks posed by Clinton’s use of a private email server. We now know that emails she send as Secretary of State through that server were automatically copied to an unknown foreign entity.
Looking ahead of the 2020 elections, the question is whether the FBI has been reformed enough to make sure political bias don’t influence investigations.
Today we sit down with Tony Shaffer, acting president of the London Center for Policy Research. He served as a Lieutenant Colonel in U.S. Army, where he was a senior intelligence officer. Today he’s also an advising producer for National Geographic and a member of the Trump 2020 advisory board.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/17/2019 7:23
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#3
Prosecutions of crimes committed by those in the cabal would help to restore the rule of law and the tarnished reputations of the DOJ and FBI. However, there are other agencies that also need a healthy look and clean-up. Enough of the "shadow government" crap by unelected, self-important bureaucrats (read as conspirators).
#4
Although this may be small potatoes relatively, it's worth noting the opportunity cost of this foolishness. We're up to our teeth in cybercrime, both domestic and foreign, and chasing cybercrimes down is resource-intensive. But apparently "we've" decided that extensively interviewing Trump's second cousin twice removed is a better use of DOJ/FBI resources. And the interviewers are our "top men", at least in the Indiana Jones sense of the term.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/17/2019 14:01
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#5
The joke from the get go was that China, Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Turkey and all kinds of other bad actors have been conducting cyberwarfare activities for the past few decades ever since the Internet was invented. Baraq had eight long years to do something about it and yet he did nothing except to falsely accuse Trump of hacking the DNC email server and phishing John Podesta. Podesta, BTW, is so stupid that he deserved to get phished.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/17/2019 14:33
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#6
Podesta, BTW, is so stupid that he deserved to get phished.
Podesta, the guy that used "Password" for his password. No one will think of that (sarc).
#7
Do you want to restore the FBI to health? Start by jailing McCabe and Comey, and prosecuting Rosenswine, and firing those who botched and covered for Clinton's crimes. Show the rank and file that integrity matters.
Posted by: Boss Spoper5850 ||
02/17/2019 16:22
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[ToloNews] A key Taliban Überstürmbannführer, Mullah Hamdullah, was killed in Afghan forces Arclight airstrike in Uruzgan province on Saturday morning, provincial Police Chief Gen. Mohammad Azim Hashimi said.
Hashimi the airstrike was conducted on the outskirts of Tarinkot city, the capital city of Uruzgan province on Saturday morning.
He said 22 other bandidosbully boyz were also killed in the airstrike.
The Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said in a statement that at least 10 bandidosbully boyz were killed in Afghan forces airstrikes in Sayyad district in Sar-e-Pul ...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and Hazara ...a grouping of Dari-speaking people of Sino-Tibetan descent inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistain. They are predominantly Shia Moslems and not particularly warlike, which makes them favored targets... communities, of which the Hazaras mostly don't bother anyone... province, in the north of Afghanistan.
Taliban ...Arabic for students... has not commented on the airstrikes so far.
[KhaamaPress] A shadow judge of the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... group was killed in Arclight airstrikes carried out by the coalition forces in eastern Laghman ...It has a population of about 445,600, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. During the invasions of Alexander the Great, the area was known as Lampaka, wich is apparently Olde Macedonian for Laghman.The city of Mihtarlam serves as the bucolic capital of the province. The population is half Pashtun, the remainder Tadjik and Pashai. It had a repution for great wealth until it was conquered in the tenth century by Abu Mansur Sabuktigin.
He conquered it and set fire to the places in its vicinity which were inhabited by infidels, and demolishing the idol-temples, he established Islam in them, He marched and captured other cities and killed the polluted wretches, destroying the idolatrous and gratifying the Musulmans. After wounding and killing beyond all measure, his hands and those of his friends became cold in counting the value of the plundered property.
After that it was mostly notable for the production of dirt, rocks, and holy men. province of Afghanistan.
The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan Military in the East in a statement said the airstrikes were carried out in Mar Sangi area of Badpakh district on Friday.
The statement further added that the shadow judge of Taliban Mawlavi Lal Mohammad was killed along with four other forces of Evil in the airstrikes.
The other forces of Evil who were killed in the airstrikes have been identified as Taliban Überstürmbannführer Mawlavi Fazaluddin, Abdul Ahmad, Mawlavi Nsir, and Abdullah.
The anti-government armed murderous Moslem groups including Taliban have not commented regarding the deaths of the group’s forces of Evil so far.
Laghman is among the relatively calm provinces in the East but the anti-government armed forces of Evil are attempting to expand their foothold in some of the districts of the province.
[KhaamaPress] At least 22 Talibs have been killed during the Arclight airstrikes which have been conducted in southern Uruzgan and southeastern Ghazni provinces.
According to the informed military sources, at least 21 Talibs were killed in an airstrike which was conducted in Tarinkot city, the scenic provincial capital of Uruzgan.
The sources further added that Afghan Special Forces conducted a raid in Jaji district of Paktia province and destroyed 30 tons of marijuana and 2.5 tons of Hashish.
An air strike in Qara Bagh district of Ghazni provinces also killed one Taliban ...Arabic for students... fighter, the sources added.
The anti-government armed hard boy groups including Taliban have not commented regarding the casualties inflicted on them in the past 24 hours.
This comes as the Afghan and coalition forces have stepped up airstrikes and ground operations to suppress the snuffies in the restive provinces of the country.
[Rudaw] An elderly couple in Afrin claim Ottoman Turkish-backed Syrian rebels stormed into their home on Friday night, bound and beat them, and looted their belongings.
In footage seen by Rudaw, the Kurdish couple ‐ both in their eighties ‐ stand in a room which appears to have been trashed, with clothes and household objects scattered across the floor.
During the short video, which could not be independently verified, they accuse members of the militia group Ahrar al-Sharqiya of storming into their home in the village of Kuran, Rajo, in the canton of Afrin, northwest Syria.
Omer Arus and his wife, both aged 85, claim the Death Eaters bound their limbs for several hours and beat them.
Arus says they stole all the money they had.
"As soon as they broke in, they attacked us and laid us down, tying up our hands and legs," he said.
"They took all the money we had amounting to $450 as well as 25,000 Syrian [lira]," Arus added.
Neither Ahrar al-Sharqiya nor Ottoman Turkish forces in Afrin have commented on the alleged incident. It is unclear why the elderly couple’s home was targeted.
The Kurdish province of Afrin fell to Ottoman Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies in mid-March 2018 after intense fighting with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Thousands of Kurds were displaced from their homes and have not been able to return.
Although Rudaw has been unable to corroborate the Kuran incident, there have been several reports of Syrian snuffies looting Kurdish homes and abusing residents. The UN has raised concerns with Ottoman Turkish authorities about allegations of abuse and ethnic cleansing.
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Anbar (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Two Iraqi shepherds were killed Saturday when a landmine went kaboom! in the western province of Anbar, a security source was quoted as saying.
Speaking to Alforat News TV channel, the source said that a landmine left by 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.... murderous Moslems went off while three shepherds were guarding their sheep in al-Nassaf area, near Fallujah, ... the City of Mosques, which might have somthing to do with why it's not called Center of Prosperity or a really nice place to raise your kids... in Anbar province.
The kaboom left two shepherds dead and a third maimed, the source added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/17/2019
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[AlAhram] Egypt's military spokesperson Tamer El-Refai said that seven bandidosforces of Evil were killed in a clash in North Sinai on Saturday morning.
"Terrorist elements attacked one of the security checkpoints in North Sinai," he said in a statement.
"The pursuit and elimination of the terrorist elements in the area where the incident took place is still ongoing."
El-Refai said that one officer was killed and 14 others were maimed during the shootout.
Medical sources in North Sinai told AFP that 11 soldiers were killed in the attack.
Egypt’s army launched an offensive a year ago dubbed "Sinai 2018" on the orders of President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, after a jihadist attack in North Sinai killed more than 300 people at a mosque.
The army says that more than 550 suspected jihadists have been killed in the offensive ‐ which has also targeted gunnies elsewhere in Egypt ‐ at the cost of more than 30 soldiers.
But no independent statistics are available and the North Sinai is largely cut off to media and foreigners.
[Ynet] Islamic state has grabbed credit for an attack in North Sinai on Saturday which it said killed 20 Egyptian military troops, the group's AMAQ news agency said.
The group gave no evidence for its claim.
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[Jpost] In a notable display of synchronized moral meltdown, both America’s Democrats and Britannia’s Labour Party have been struggling to manage their shocking eruptions of antisemitism.
Both will fail.
In America, there has been outrage over remarks by Democrat congresswoman Ilhan Omar
Continued on Page 49
#1
We all know the real answer, they are Nazi's. They were Nazi's before the German party existed. They can call it what they want, but in their minds they are the plantation owners and everyone else is their slave. Some are more unruly than others and must be brought to heel.
Which is why my answer to them is reduced to just one, FOAD. There is no compromise with pure flaming evil.
#2
The left by many names. Powerful centralized government that controls every aspect of your daily life and issues diktats of who, what or whatever is approved or disapproved, often driven by envy and hate. It is in its very nature. They are their own god.
That's why the founders sought distribution and decentralization of power. They understood the fallen nature of man seeks power.
[AlAhram] Islamist faceless myrmidons are increasing their activity in West Africa despite the establishment of a regional force to combat them in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... , and they are now threatening coastal countries, Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... 's foreign minister said on Saturday.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Minister Alpha Barry gave a bleak outlook of the situation more than six years after French troops intervened in Mali to stop Islamist faceless myrmidons advancing on the capital Bamako.
The Sahel region has since suffered violence from krazed killer groups linked to al Qaeda and 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.... , trafficking and the emergence of gangs in one of the world's poorest regions.
The northern region of Burkina Faso, bordering Mali and Niger, has over the last 12 months been especially hard hit, leaving the government struggling to assert its authority since President Blaise Compaore was ousted in 2014 in a popular uprising.
"This threat is gaining ground. Yesterday four customs' officers were killed in south Burkina Faso on the border with Togo," Barry said.
A Spanish priest was also killed in the incident, which Burkinabe authorities blamed on Islamist krazed killers.
"We've also seen attacks on the border with Benin, Ivory Coast and Ghana. It's no longer just the Sahel, it's coastal West Africa and the risk of spreading regionally."
La Belle France, the former colonial power in the region, has kept about 4,500 troops in the region and pushed for the creation of a force made up of soldiers from Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mauritania to combat jihadists.
But the so-called G5 force has been hobbled by delays in disbursing money and poor coordination between the five countries while insecurity has escalated.
Barry said just a fraction of more than 415 million euros ($468 million) promised for the force a year ago had been disbursed, meaning that it had only been able to carry out sporadic operations.
While there have been some operational successes with the help of French troops especially in central Mali, instability has also spread to Niger and Chad, which Gay Paree considers as its most crucial ally in tackling Islamist krazed killers.
This month La Belle France sent warplanes to support Chadian President Idriss Deby against a group of rebels, saying it was preventing a coup d'etat.
"The glass is half full," French Defence Minister Florence Parly said. "It's complex and we have a lot to do, but I'm convinced we are on the right track."
[CBSNews] The two Nigerian brothers arrested in connection with the assault on "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett are no longer suspects in the attack. They're now cooperating with police.
A source close to the investigation confirms to CBS News the brothers told detectives Smollett paid them to participate in the alleged attack on January 29 and that they purchased the rope ‐ which was found around Smollett's neck ‐ at a nearby hardware store. The source said detectives have evidence to corroborate the sale, something the men's attorney alluded to Friday night.
"New evidence that was brought to their attention, obviously I had it, my clients had it," said Gloria Schmidt, the brothers' attorney.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/17/2019
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#1
The black Hans and Franz are here to Pump. You. Up!
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/17/2019 1:07
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#2
Obviously Smollette is not a very good casting director either.
Posted by: Neville Dark Lord of the Wee Folk7365 ||
02/17/2019 1:28
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#3
As people, actors are easy liars. It’s understandable because if you spend your life mouthing other people’s words, then truth isn’t really foremost – just that other people believe what you say. After a while they believe it themselves.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/17/2019 7:13
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#5
Jussie is not through with his 15 minutes below is a statement he released through his attorneys
“As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with,” said defense lawyers Todd S. Pugh and Victor P. Henderson in a statement obtained by Deadline.
He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack,” the Chicago-based attorneys add of the supposed assault in the early hours of January 29. “Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying.”
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/17/2019 7:36
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#6
Hope Jussie wasn't dumb enough to scratch a check to the Nigerians when he paid them off to rig this whole thing.
#13
Are these the same Nigerian princes who have been emailing me all these years?
Posted by: Matt ||
02/17/2019 13:08
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#14
They now know how much was paid, where the goods were purchased and the date they practiced it. He's TOAST
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2019 14:09
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#15
Bet big money. Smollett and Kaepernick will have a Netflix show before the year is out.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/17/2019 14:44
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#16
From some guy's twitter feed:
@HappyHectares
The cognitive chasm between those who recognized the Jussie Smollett hoax in about a millisecond & those who have yet to recognize it is vast. This is not politics, it's basic consciousness & shoe-tying ability.
[IsraelTimes] Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif confirmed that Tehran attempted a second satellite launch earlier this month despite US criticism that its space program is helping to develop ballistic missiles.
In an interview with NBC news screened Friday, Zarif said it was "quite possible" the United States was sabotaging the Iranian space program.
"We don’t know yet," he said. "We need to look into it very carefully."
Zarif said Tehran was already investigating the failed satellite launches in January and February, but was now "looking into the specifics" of a sabotage campaign following a report in The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... this week.
Current and former US officials told the Times the Trump administration had accelerated a George W. Bush-era program to sabotage Iran’s development of rockets and missiles.
Last week, images released by Colorado-based company DigitalGlobe showed that rockets previously spotted at the Imam Khomeini Space Center were gone, with what appeared to be burn marks on its launch pad.
The US alleges such launches defy a UN Security Council resolution prohibiting Iran from engaging in activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads.
Iran maintains its satellite launches and rocket tests do not have a military component. Tehran also says they don’t violate a United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... resolution that only "called upon" it not to conduct such tests.
Over the past decade, Iran has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit and in 2013 launched a monkey into space.
Iran usually displays space achievements in February during the anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the revolution amid Iran facing increasing pressure from the administration of US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... , which has adopted a hawkish policy toward the Islamic republic.
This week, US Vice President Mike Pence demanded America’s European 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... allies drop the nuclear deal with Iran and join it in seeking to cripple the regime. The EU rejected the demand on Friday.
At a US-led conference on the Middle East hosted by Poland, Pence accused Iran of plotting a "new Holocaust" with its opposition to Israel and regional ambitions in Syria, Leb, Iraq and Yemen.
In the interview aired Friday, Zarif said the "same gang" that was behind the 2003 Iraq War were "at it again" by pushing for war with Iran.
“I’m not saying President Trump’s administration, I’m saying people in President Trump’s administration are trying to create the same eventuality and I believe they will fail,” Zarif told NBC.
Though Zarif expressed hope that “some sense will prevail,” he warned that “people will find out that it’s suicidal to engage in a war with Iran.”
#4
Iran maintains its satellite launches and rocket tests do not have a military component.
Nah, we bolt that stuff on later... if we can ever get the accursed things to work right. Hey, you don't think there is anything to this sabotage story, do ya?
[Rudaw] The imminent fall 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.... ’s caliphate in Iraq and Syria has left many countries grappling with what to do with jihadists who want to return.
Several hundred foreign jihadists are being detained by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the main fighters on the ground combating the Islamic State. Added to them are women who have not taken part in the fighting and children.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/17/2019
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#1
These disgusting pieces of shit
I thought I told you to kill them all on the battlefield after they burned everyone alive in cages and raped everyone. Someone find out what to do with these thousands of devils before I make an F-35 training mission out of these worthless and evil people.
Do you want to make an example out of them? I clearly have no focus on them but Prayer and Vengeance. So step in before I call for creativity.
Do not make the Kurds keep them. You know what these pieces of shit did to the Kurds.
#7
The issue is how many of these guys will wind up in Congress.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/17/2019 14:20
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#8
Re #1: You said "Do not make the Kurds keep them. You know what these pieces of shit did to the Kurds."
I say "Let the Kurds keep them. The Kurds remember what was done to them"
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
02/17/2019 14:29
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#9
^ AMEN
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/17/2019 15:22
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Baqubah (IraqiNews.com) An Iraqi officer was killed and another was maimed while confronting an attempted terrorist attack in Diyala province, media said on Wednesday.
Iraqi Alforatnews website quoted a security source saying that a special forces officer was killed while another one was maimed when they held off terrorist attackers in Maqdadiah, without giving further details.
No official confirmation was made from Iraqi security media.
[WSJ] Relocation seeks to disband group of some 1,400 Central American asylum seekers.
Hundreds of Central American migrants colonists encamped in Mexico’s border city of Piedras Negras, across from Eagle Pass, Texas, are being relocated to other cities after a group of migrants colonists rioted earlier this week and attempted to leave an abandoned factory where they were being held.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/17/2019
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[AAWSAT] What do scoundrels do, when caught red handed in their shenanigans? According to an old proverb they warp themselves in a flag and seek refuge in patriotism.
Something close to that seems to be happening to the Khomeinists dominating Iran thanks to their control of the nation’s finances and monopoly on guns. As it marked its fourth decade in power, the regime implicitly admitted the bankruptcy of its narrative, according to which the 1979 revolution was prompted by a desire to "revive Islam" which, after the death of the Prophet, with the exception of the brief caliphate of Ali ibn Abi-Taleb, had been in agony. Thus, Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini was given the title of "Ihyagar" or "Reviver" of Islam.
Last Monday, however Hojat al-Islam wa al-Moslemeen Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran, told a different story to marchers in Tehran marking the 40th anniversary of the mullahs’ seizure of power.
Continued on Page 49
[AlAhram] Despite seeing its hegemonic dreams fall in tatters following the ouster of the Moslem Brüderbund in Egypt, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... under Erdogan continues to prop up Islamist militias where it can.
Last week, Libyan customs authorities in the Khums seaport seized another cargo of illicit arms and military hardware from Turkey. In a statement released 5 February, the customs authorities said the shipment included nine Toyota Sierra Leone 4X4 armoured assault vehicles and Ottoman Turkish-made combat tanks.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/17/2019
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Diyala (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Four members of 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) were killed Saturday in an Arclight airstrike that targeted a terrorist hotbed in the Iraqi province of Diyala, a security source was quoted as saying.
Speaking to Baghdad Today news website, the source said that the Iraqi Air Force targeted a hotbed of Islamic State on the outskirts of al-Waqf basin, northeast of Baqubah, leaving four IS bandidosbandidos bully boys killed.
The source added that the air raid is the third to be launched against Islamic State snuffies in al-Waqf basin since the start of 2019.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/17/2019
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[12 views]
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[Rudaw] DEIR EZ-ZOR, Syria ‐ As civilians flee last enclave in eastern Syria, a mixed bag of characters is getting them to safety.
Some include Western volunteers as well as local truck drivers.
Close to 40,000 people recently have fled from ISIS's last bastion in the Euphrates Valley.
They are driven about 6 hours north to the al-Hol displacement camp under the protection of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
They get 75,000 Syrian pounds ($150) for each two-day, 600-kilometer round trip.
"We leave for the Omar base in the evening, with trucks in front and behind, and we go together as a convoy. When we arrive at the al-Hol camp, they get off trucks and enter the camp. If there are injured, doctors treat them," explained driver Farhan al-Ali.
Some truckers rely on stimulants to stay awake.
"I take a pill and I can stay awake for 24 hours straight [to drive]," said another driver, Ibrahim.
The United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... has called on authorities to provide more suitable transportation like buses.
The SDF said on Saturday it will soon make an announcement regarding good news about ISIS.
The krazed killer group is cornered into a half square-kilometer area.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/17/2019
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[23 views]
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Motley Fool] General Electric (NYSE:GE) is in the middle of a massive corporate overhaul. Investors worried about its ability to navigate that evolution successfully have pushed its share prices down some 70% from their 2016 highs to levels not seen since the Great Recession.
Pervez 
[New York Post] Congratulations, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez! You just killed 25,000 jobs for urban Democrats in one of the most racially and ethnically diverse areas in the entire world!
...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart...
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
[Daily Caller] The implementation of driverless trucks will lead to suicides and "an outbreak of violence," according to Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
[Breitbart] Veteran pollster Pat Caddell passed away Saturday at his home in Charleston, SC, at the age of 68.
...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and 
...It has a population of about 445,600, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. During the invasions of Alexander the Great, the area was known as Lampaka, wich is apparently Olde Macedonian for 
... 
[Jpost] In a notable display of synchronized moral meltdown, both America’s Democrats and 
[CBSNews] The two Nigerian brothers arrested in connection with the assault on "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett are no longer suspects in the attack. They're now cooperating with police.
