The Burg was done for a few hours this morning. Apparently the chipmunks at the server went on strike. TW waved the lavender clue bat at them and they're back to spinning the wheel.
This, by the way, is a shameless yet opportune time for me to remind y'all to hit the Paypal or Amazon link. Those chipmunks need to be fed...
Actually, I messaged badanov and Fred. After a bit something happened. Heartfelt thanks, Fred.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2016
12:45 ||
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#1
Done.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/27/2016 13:53
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So you waved the lavender Cluebat at BadMan? Bet he never saw that in Arma.
[USA Today] WASHINGTON -- Imagine yourself in the most dangerous, dire circumstance -- held hostage, say, by the Taliban. You’d want a guy just like Edward Byers looking for you.
No nonsense, humble, focused, Byers on Monday will receive the military’s highest award -- the Medal of Honor -- for helping rescue an American doctor in Afghanistan in 2012.
He’ll shake President Obama’s hand and acknowledge the loss of a treasured colleague. Later, Senior Chief Byers -- the sixth Navy SEAL to receive the award and the first living one since 1998 -- will gladly slip back into the shadows, and the exquisitely dangerous, secretive work that has become his life’s calling.
"As you get older, of course your body starts to break down a little bit," Byers, 36, told USA TODAY in an interview at the Pentagon. "Still fit enough to keep going."
No doubt about that. Byers, blue-eyed, baby-faced and bearing a black silicone wedding band (easy to wear during workouts), intends to keep serving for as long as he can. He talked about what inspired him to enlist, why he keeps serving and the importance of saying as little about that action as possible.
#8
I ran PR for the US EMB Kabul in 2014/15. The file on this case was required reading for our group. Most of the details won't see the light of day and I'm sure the command wants it that way. Amazing bravery - I think the Senior Chief drew the winning straw of 3 or 4 others that could have been nominated for the MOH. As I recall - all bad guys toe tagged that day.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
02/27/2016 18:14
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[Guardian] Chris Christie on Friday became the first governor to endorse Donald Trump, giving the Republican frontrunner a shot in the arm after a disappointing debate performance on Thursday night.
The New Jersey governor told reporters in Fort Worth, Texas: "I will lend my support in every way between now and November for Donald to help in everything he needs."
Christie dropped out of the Republican primary earlier in February after a disappointing sixth-place finish in New Hampshire. He was long an establishment favorite and was considered an early frontrunner for the nomination, but his campaign never recovered from the damage caused by the "Bridgegate" scandal over the closure of lanes to the George Washington Bridge between New York and New Jersey, allegedly for political reasons.
Christie praised Trump for "leaving the private sector and seeing the need for strong leadership in this country".
Jokes aside, unless Trump wins the presidency Cris Cristy's political carreer (as a republican) is over.
Bernie Sanders may be right that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about Hillary Clinton's scandals. I think the same is true about Chris Christy. But that does not mean by any measure that we have forgotten or forgiven either one of them.
If Trump looses the nomination/election I will be waiting for both Trump and Christy to announce that have left the Republican Party and officially joined the Democrats. (Where in my opinion they have both always belonged anyway.)
#4
I don't think Trump will lose either the Nomination or General. The US just isn't intellectually interested in politics the way it used to be.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/27/2016 16:43
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Loud-mouthed liberal Yankees...that is just what we need...the whole lot of 'em. Trump, Christie, Hillary and Bernie.
If those are my choices...I will stay at home in November. The Trump followers have no idea the level of hatred toward him that he has cultivated in the true conservative movement. He will rightly own that hatred in November. Vanity and arrogance are fatal sins.
We NEED a war president and this set of quislings and circus clowns are what the masses want... Blood will be on their hands.
#6
Trump will win the nomination.
* The Trump University scandal will hit in early summer. He'll settle out of court to make that go away but we'll hear about it all summer.
* He'll crush Hillary because she's the only politician more unlikeable than Trump and folks know the economy needs to be fixed and Foreign policy is in tatters despite what Democrats are saying.
* Republicans and Democrats in the Congress will take their job seriously when it comes to the Constitution and balancing the power of the executive branch.
* Trump will back off in the middle east and let Russia do what they want. I don't really know how that plays out.
* Trump will start a trade war with China over currency manipulation. Chinese economy plumes and takes the world economy with it. I don't know how that plays out but it doesn't sound good.
* Republicans seriously challenge Trump in the primaries but I think the Democrats win in 2020.
[Wash Times] Rick Tyler, the former Ted Cruz campaign spokesman who was fired this week for circulating a fake story about Marco Rubio, announced Friday that he has been hired as a contributor for MSNBC.
Mr. Tyler will make his first appearance Friday at 5 p.m. ET on "Meet the Press Daily," Mediaite reported.
"[I]’ll be on Meet the Press Daily with @chucktodd for the first time as an @MSNBC contributor. I hope you’ll watch," he tweeted Friday afternoon. His Twitter profile description now reads, "MSNBC Contributor."
Mr. Cruz firedMr. Tyler on Monday after he shared a false story about Mr. Rubio supposedly insulting the Bible.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/27/2016 13:20
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Gee, you don't thinkaybe he was a liberal all along, treading a delicate line between sabotaging the campaign while appearing just incompetent instead of obvious?
[Daily Caller] Sen. Marco Rubio told an audience at a rally in Dallas Friday that Donald Trump had a "meltdown" twice backstage during Thursday night’s debate and might have "wet his pants."
Rubio was reading out tweets to the crowd from Trump, one of them said, "Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night. The problem is, he is a choker, and once a choker, always a chocker! Mr. Meltdown."
"Let me tell you something. Last night in the debate during one of the breaks, two of the breaks, he went backstage, he was having a meltdown," said Rubio.
He continued, "First, he had this little makeup thing applying like makeup around his mustache, cause he one of those sweat mustaches. Then, then he asked for a full length mirror...maybe to make sure his pants weren’t wet."
#3
Before this all started, we already knew both Shillery and Trump could well be SOBs. We've seen their personalities for years. Can't really dent them for their performance on the national stage. Now when these other pretenders shift from the homogenized operative cookie cutter Mr.Nice Guy to SOB its not going to play the same, nor are the consequences.
#8
It takes a "junk yard dog" to beat a junk yard dog--not another Boy Scout. The Pub candidate has to remember that Shrillary will stoop to anything to win and satisfy her power lust. You'd better show up to a gun fight with a gun; not a knife or the Marquess of Queensbury Rules.
#9
The real question is, does Cubio pee sitting down?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/27/2016 15:59
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#10
This is what our election process has devolved to. Not because of the candidates, but because of the voters wanting a reality show.
I weep for our country.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/27/2016 16:46
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#11
It's not about liking.
I've cared enough to read Trump's positions and they are just empty lame "I am the greatest and I make America great again". Nothing of substance.
His tax cuts (as much as I like tax cuts) are absurd. Just not possible.
Rubio and Cruz are a bit more polished, but just about as empty.
With the most stupid primaries in history, the Republicans have made it possible that the most hated candidate (Hillary) will probably elected president.
And with their idiotic, non-strategic behavior about not even talking to a Supreme Court candidate, they will even lose the Senate.
It's absolutely crazy that the most decent candidate is an (ex?) Commie.
America has 320 million people. This is the best you can come up with?
Sorry for venting.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/27/2016 16:59
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#10 This is what our election process has devolved to. Not because of the candidates, but because of the voters wanting a reality show.
Charles, there is a interesting article by Peggy Noonan that speaks to this issue. She claims the voters are tired of being raped by the elites of both parties in Washington. The Trump voters are trying to find a champion who will give them a voice. I'm also of the opinion that many of the Trump voters spoke at the polls in 2012 and again in 2014 and D.C. did not listen. They want to really send the message this time with a little punishment to go with it. Noonan, rise of the unprotected>
#13
I'm not a Peggy fan - she supported Obama, remember, but I think she's right on this. It's like a nationwide "tea-party" but right and left (and middle) disappointed in our "elites"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/27/2016 19:55
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#14
If Trump controls the border, both people and trade, then I'm willing to forgive just about anything. Including him standing on 5th Avenue and shooting the first passerby.
h/t Instapundit
Night after night I watch my World War One and World War Two documentaries. I just finished the BBC’s The World at War, 30 hours or so on WWII, surely as fine a piece of work on film as there has ever been. The writers got the Battle of Midway totally confused with the Marianas Turkey Shoot and got quite a bit wrong about Leningrad. But the series in general is magnificent. Laurence Olivier’s narration is subtle beyond belief. His command of the material is stupefyingly potent.
...As my pal Phil says, if you told Europeans in 1910 what the next 35 years held for them they would have thought you insane. Serene France and Belgium turned into slaughterhouses. The Tsar and his family shot down and their bodies so battered as to be unrecognizable. Forty thousand British men murdered by machine gun fire at the Somme in little more than 24 hours.
Horror upon horror and then the second act, in which industrial methods were used to kill civilians deemed by a sick "science" to be unworthy of life, in which 80,000 Germans were incinerated in hours in what was, undoubtedly, a good cause.
...As I watched, I used my trusty Google to endlessly study one of my obsessions: why our nonwhite young men relatively are so violent and undisciplined and commit so many crimes and do so badly in school when the ones I meet and work with are smart and pleasant and hard working.
The answer I came up with was this:
Our country needs a great many things. More stealth bombers. More Marines. More medical care for Veterans and their families. More good teachers. But our most urgent need is for more fathers.
#1
For the Left the route to power was included the 'Women's Movement' which declared a women needed a man like a fish needed a bicycle. They substituted Big Brother for a father. How did that all work out for you? Who needs real history when the Marxist fantasy is the goal even if it means destroying the civilization and institutions around you as artificial constructs rather than the successful adaptations of groups of humans to not only survive but to flourish.
[AnNahar] Mohamad Abdullah, 31, who arrived in Sweden in July 2015, admitted to being a member of the regime in his home country, but not a fighter. The case against Abdullah, who was arrested on Tuesday, was based on photographs and other information that appeared on social media, Reena Devgun, a prosecutor with the Swedish International Public Prosecution Office, told AFP after the closed-door hearing.
[AnNahar] All three men had been living and working in the North Caucasus region 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... . Two arrived on valid visas that had run out while one traveled to Russia using a relative's passport, The Civic Assistance Committee said.
Russia takes in very few refugees from any war-torn country. Last month the head of the Federal Migration Service Konstantin Romodanovsky said that 1,000 Syrians applied for temporary asylum last year and there are currently just over 7,000 Syrians living in Russia. Temporary asylum is for one year but can be extended.
#4
Putin must be enjoying Erdogan's self destruction. Sun Tzu smiling on Putin. "You have learned well, my son."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/27/2016 14:05
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As far as President Erdogan is concerned Diyarbakir is a Kurdish city, not a Turkish one, and it is in the process of being taught its place -- that place not being the capitol of the future Kurd-inhabited Turkey with a dying minority of childless Turks.
[AlAhram] Three residential buildings in Giza were evacuated early on Friday after security forces received reports of explosives in the area and defused bombs in two nearby cars, security sources told Al-Ahram Arabic news website.
The two cars were primed to explode by a road in the Faisal area, the sources said.
Major General Ahmed Aboul-Enein, an expert at the explosives department, said that the two devices had been connected using an electric heater.
Bombs and armed attacks on security personnel and sites have been common since the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in summer 2013. Only some attacks have targeted civilians.
[AlAhram] An Egyptian policeman was killed on Friday in Egypt's Giza governorate at a railway crossing by unknown assailants, according to Al-Ahram's Arabic site. The attackers are still on the lam, and it was not immediately clear how the policeman was killed.
Video can be seen at the link. The translated subtitles are below.
[Rudaw] This is the newest pictures from inside djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... that has been under ISIS control for more than a year and a half.
There can be seen little movement around town. The Rudaw camera zoomed in the city. It appears the ISIS Lions of Islam have withdrawn further into town.
An offensive against Mosul is a hot topic these days. The Peshmerga and their guns are ready for that day. A Peshmerga commander based just a few kilometers from Mosul says it is not going to be a very difficult battle.
ISIS has abandoned some towns and villages near Mosul. This is the town of Bartila. It is a big town and close to Mosul, but it appears deserted.
It is estimated that the battle for Mosul will require 60,000 men. 25-30,000 will have a direct participation. The battle will take place on several fronts: Gwer, Mount Zartik, Nawaran, Talafar, Shingal and Baghdad direction.
A Kurdish Peshmerga official says the Kurds will take part but the numbers and type of guns aren’t clear yet. At the moment the Kurds, Iraq and coalition have a joint operations command to draw the plans for control of Mosul. They aim to retake the city with the least casualties and shortest time. To get the Mosul population on board Iraqi planes have dropped leaflets on the city several times and asked them for cooperation.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/27/2016
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#1
As long as the Mosul Dam doesn't collapse first.
[Rudaw] Authorities in the Kurdistan said on Friday, according to Rooters, that they are investigating another suspected gas attack 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.... (ISIS) against the Kurdish Peshmerga.
Civilians and Peshmerga alike in the Sinjar area are being treated for nausea and vomiting after ISIS rockets containing a chemical substance were fired at them on Thursday, the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) said on its Twitter page.
"If confirmed this will be the eight ISIL weaponized chemical attack against Peshmerga. ISIL tactics continue to become more sophisticated," warned the council. The KRSC said the American-led anti-ISIS coalition is helping them with the investigation.
This attack comes the same week that a source within the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said that mustard gas was used against the Peshmerga in August of last year, making 35 of them ill.
This latest attack however appears to have used chlorine gas, a type of gas that is often used in the Syrian conflict. Chlorine gas is a choking agent and nausea and vomiting are telltale signs one has been exposed to it.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/27/2016
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#1
So what happened to that international agreement about chemical warfare?
Isn't it about time the UN said something?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/27/2016 12:35
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"Nice city ya got here. Be a shame if something happened to it," he screeched urbanely.
A brief video of the large crowd can be seen here. The thought occurs: how many are there willingly?
[Rudaw] BAGHDAD, Iraq--Nearly one million Iraqis erupted into the streets of Baghdad Friday morning to protest against corruption and the government’s backtracking on reform plans, as called by Shiite holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... . Gathering in Baghdad’s central Tahrir square the protestors shouted and waved posters of ‘no to corruption and corrupts,"
Sadr who gave Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi an ultimatum last month to carry out his reform plans or face mass demonstrations, delivered a speech to the protesters in which he blamed the government for the current financial crisis.
"This demonstration is the voice of the displaced people and the oppressed Sunnis," he said over loud speakers. "We disown any corrupt party or personality,"
The holy man said that the current government was not a true representative of his party or people.
In his warning message earlier this month Sadr, whose party has 34 seats in parliament, said that the former government of Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014... was responsible for the fall of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... and Abadi’s cabinet must hold them to account.
"Abadi must carry out grassroots reform," Sadr said in front of the protesters. "Raise your voice and shout so the corrupt get scared of you," he encouraged the people.
Riyadh Ghali Miftin, a Sadrist MP told Rudaw that the protests were to bring the country back on the right track and the right direction.
According to Rudaw news hounds in Baghdad Sadr instructed his followers and protesters not to wave or sing flags of his party or family name and keep the protests nonpartisan.
Tens of thousands of Moqtada Tater al-Sadr's supporters gathered in central Baghdad Friday for a rally during which the Iraqi holy man demanded that the government carry out serious reforms.
The Shiite holy man, who has repeatedly announced he was quitting politics or threatened to do so over the years, controls a large militia group called Saraya al-Salam.
[Rudaw] ERBIL, Kurdistan Region--A picture of a diminished 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) in Iraq is emerging from recent reports and statistics.
As Peshmerga and Iraqi troops prepare for a major offensive to retake djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... and loosen ISIS’ grip in Iraq, indications are that the terrorist group have all but conceded defeat.
In the last week alone, ISIS has suffered mass desertion and executed dissenters while a captured bully boy described the group as "weakened." Experts believe that many of the leadership have relocated to Libya, leaving dwindling numbers in Iraq and Syria.
United States defense statistics released earlier this month indicate that the number of ISIS bully boyz in Iraq and Syria had fallen to between 19,000 and 25,000, down from earlier estimates of up to more than 30,000 fighters.
It is suspected that ISIS, commanders especially, are seeking safety in Libya.
"Some of their members, especially those with long-term importance to ISIS, are taking refuge here [in Libya]", intelligence chief of Misrata, Ismail Shukri, told the BBC. "They view Libya as a safe haven."
Those bully boyz left behind appear to be unskilled and afraid.
A volunteer bomb diffuser with the Peshmerga, Dr. Sulaiman Saeed, has observed a decrease in the quality of ISIS’ bombs. "A year ago, their bombs were being made by specialists," he said. "But those we saw in [the recent liberation campaign in] Shingal have not been made by specialists. I guess the professionals are dead in ISIS, and those who work for them now are their third generation."
An ISIS bully boy, Saad Sulaiman Ali, captured by Kirkuk security forces last week confirmed that the terrorist group is a shadow of what it was. "Everything is different from what it used to be," he stated. "They are weakened now." Ali also noted that ISIS is lacking in weapons, ammunition and explosives.
The remaining bully boyz may have seen the writing on the wall and are willing to risk the threat of execution by deserting their posts instead of facing near certain defeat.
At least 100 bully boyz fled Mosul on Sunday according to Saeed Mamuzini, who led the office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Mosul before the city was overrun by ISIS. "ISIS morale is at an all time low. People are scared," Mamuzini reported. "ISIS bully boyz too."
Mamuzini indicated that among those who abandoned their posts were seven commanders. The desertion of commanding officers brings a more serious problem for the ISIS leadership. A rudderless band of bully boyz will be unable to offer little resistance to the forthcoming liberation offensive that Peshmerga and Iraqi troops are gearing up for.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/27/2016
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#1
How many articles like this have we seen here in the last 10 - 12 years?
#2
Moreso in the past 5-6 years. But your point is noted.
As I said repeatedly, the IS eastern front is being run by ex-Saddam Baathists with troops of local Arabs and volunteers rejected by leadership on the IS western front.
The question is: where are the Chechens/Caucasians going?
#3
I think the Syrian thing has bled off a lot of ISIS assets and the Russian involvement has seriously damaged their logistics.
I think the movement into Libya is ISIS doing a reset on the Caliphate, trying to set one up in Libya. It appears Iraq, now that Maliki is gone, has grown to the situation and is no longer easy pickings. The Peshmerga, the tribal militias, and the NPS are all much better now.
Of course, our leadership will never admit to how much deep involvement our "special" people have had in this change of events. Nor that of the various shadow organizations of the British, the French and others in Iraq.
Hopefully, someone will find and pot Baghdadi and his deputies. But in the end, those who flock to ISIS will just move on to some other movement that espouses the same violence...Islam has a problem and Islam is the problem. Some how the Islamic leadership has to either put an end to this by declaring all of these groups Apostates or they have to quit kidding us and admit they actually support this madness...
Something tells me we are on the verge of a holy war between the forces of light and the forces of the darkness that is Islam.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/27/2016 12:54
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[IsraelTimes] PA officials say 17-year-old was a resident of West Bank village close to area of attempted stabbing
A Paleostinian teenager who was rubbed out Friday afternoon as he tried to stab IDF soldiers in the West Bank had American citizenship, Paleostinian sources said.
The Paleostinian Authority Health Ministry named the 17-year-old as Mahmoud Muhammad Shaalan, a resident of the village of Deir Daboun, north of Ramallah, the Hebrew-language Haaretz daily reported.
The youth was rubbed out as he pulled a knife on troops at a checkpoint close to the Beit El settlement, also in the Ramallah area. There were no other casualties in the incident.
In the wake of the attempted attack, security forces launched a search of the area of the fence around Beit El in order to rule out an infiltration into the settlement.
The incident came on the heels of a brutal hatchet attack on an unarmed Israeli security guard in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim overnight. Police said that attack was terrorism, as doctors fought for the victim’s life at a Jerusalem hospital.
The 48-year-old security guard was attacked inside the town’s mall. He was struck multiple times in his upper body. The terrorist expeditiously departed at a goodly pace.
A manhunt for the assailant was still underway late Friday.
[AlAhram] Two members of the Moslem Brüderbund were killed on Friday in a firefight with security forces in Damietta, an official source at the interior ministry told MENA agency.
The official said that two copperswere maimed in the festivities in the Nile Delta city.
According to investigations, police forces discovered that a group of armed members of the outlawed Brotherhood were staying near Damietta cop shoppe.
As forces went to arrest them they starting shooting at the police, the security source told MENA.
Security forces intensified their presence following the festivities in the area.
Damietta was one of the strongholds of the Moslem Brüderbund group, from which hails ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/27/2016
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[NYTimes] Police in the northern German city of Kiel say they have detained four people after a group of men of foreign origin harassed three teenage girls at a shopping mall.
Police say Thursday's incident started with two Afghan men following the girls, aged 15 to 17, then photographing and filming them with their cellphones. The girls saw the men apparently sending the files to other people, and shortly afterward a group of between 20 and 30 men gathered and pestered them.
Authorities said Friday the girls weren't physically assaulted. They shook off the group, except the two Afghans. Mall security staff alerted police.
Police say four suspects were detained after they resisted and threatened officers. The two Afghans were taken into custody and the other two were released.
#3
German police are helpless. They are being told not to arrest the perps and not to report the incidents. When they do make an arrest the perp is back on the street in hours. It is a horrifying combination of political indifference, incompetence and lies. God help us all. Remember what happened last time.
Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, who witnessed the launch, said the U.S. tests, conducted at least 15 times since January 2011, send a message to strategic rivals like Russia, China and North Korea that Washington has an effective nuclear arsenal.
"That's exactly why we do this," Work told reporters before the launch.
"We and the Russians and the Chinese routinely do test shots to prove that the operational missiles that we have are reliable. And that is a signal ... And, in case the message was ambiguous,
that we are prepared to use nuclear weapons in defense of our country if necessary."
Demonstrating the reliability of the nuclear force has taken on additional importance recently because the U.S. arsenal is near the end of its useful life and a spate of scandals in the nuclear force two years ago raised readiness questions.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
02/27/2016
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[TheDailyBeast] LONDON -- At the end of our torment, the girl two seats down leaned toward her friend and asked: 'Any idea what it was about?'
There was no answer.
The previous hour and 40 minutes were dominated by mutilation, castration, electrocution, two counts of rape, psychological torture, the cutting out of a tongue, and a fatal injection into somebody’s eyeball. It was hard to discern a narrative through the carnage. Coming soon to an "avant-garde" theater near you.
Feb 26 Venezuela's international reserves fell to a 17-year low of $13.5 billion on Friday after the government paid in full its $1.5 billion Global 2016 bond , according to central bank data. The $1.543 billion decline in reserves matched the interest and principal paid on the 2016 bond.
"The government once again manifests it willingness and capacity to honor its financial commitments in a timely manner, demonstrating its solvency in international markets," the finance ministry said in a statement on its website confirming the payment.
The previous low for the South American country's international reserves was in March of 1999.
Investors had assumed President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government would pay the debt. But many still worry it may not have the funds to meet heavier payments due for bonds of state oil company PDVSA later in the year. Venezuela's total debt burden for 2016 is around $10 billion, of which more than $4 billion - mainly bonds of state oil company PDVSA - must be paid in October and November.
Plus the debt service for all the stuff the country needs to import, capital outflows, and to maintain the declining oil fields. All that at $30 a barrel, or less, for oil. Venezuela is almost as boned as California and Illinois.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2016
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#1
Keep in mind they've probably got a lot more debt-off-the-books, and a lot of their production is pre-sold to China at prices that are lower than today's market prices... even when they were sold a couple years ago.
#2
Excellent point -- they aren't even getting $30 a barrel. And of course they have debt off the books -- they're socialists.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2016 12:47
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#3
Happens when the Magic Money Tree(tm) dies. See - Ant and Grasshopper, Aesop circa 500 BC
[But we're so smart, urban, and modern. Those are just children tales. No, sunshine, they're observations of basic human behavior that haven't changed in two and a half millenniums.]
[Dhaka Tribune] Police claim to have nabbed Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! three members of banned bully boy outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh including the criminal mastermind of the killing of a Hindu priest in Panchagarh on February 21.
The trio -- all suspected members of JMB that eyes establishing Shariah law in the country -- were arrested in separate drives conducted in Panchagarh and Nilphamari early yesterday, Humayun Kabir, DIG of Rangpur range police, told news hounds at Debiganj cop shoppe. He did not disclose their identities.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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The confessions of the new Islamic State leaders for Sabratha who were arrested in Tripoli yesterday has provided some further insight into the organisation.
According to the Special Deterrence Force (Rada) which captured them in the capital’s eastern suburb of Tajoura, Mohamed Saad Tajuri (alias “Abu Suliman”), the new leader in Sabratha, is from Derna. He says he went to Iraq in 2003. When he returned to Libya he was arrested and jailed in Tripoli by Qaddafi regime for almost seven years until freed in August 2011. He returned to Derna for a while and then he went to Sirte when IS started growing in strength there. He remained, pledging loyalty to the IS. There he met its ”emir” of Tripoli region, Ahmed Saleh Al-Hamali (alias “Abu Abdullah”), “who assigned me to be governor of Sabratha”.
Salem Abdulsalam Ammari, who was supposed to be the deputy IS governmor of Sabratha, says he was born in 1986 in Sirte. He is joined the IS organisation in the middle of 2014. He did not do have much to do apart from some minor responsibilities until Al-Hamali apponted him as deputy leader in Sabratha. His job there was to manage the administration. He confirmed that main IS figure in Sirte and the representative of the organsiation’s “caliph”, Abubakr Al-Baghdadi, was Abu Amer Al-Jazrawi, from Saudi Arabia. “I just met him one and he was covering his face.
Both they said that they headed to Bani Walid and stayed there for almost two weeks. They named a number of peoplewho hosted them there, mentioning names such as Mousa Al-Magherbi and Khaled Al-Shalafti
The third man arrested with them, driver Ahmed Akhim, is from from Tajura. Aged 39 years old, his alias is Abu Hamza. He went to Syria at the end of 2012 and returned to Libya in 2014 and then stayed in Sirte.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/27/2016
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Did any of them confess that dressing like women was a turn on for them?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/27/2016 15:39
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Some days you get the bear. Some days the bear gets you.
A woman in Baghlan province on Thursday night killed an insurgent commander and wounded another, officials said.
The woman and her husband were both wounded in the attack and admitted to hospital.
The woman said they held off the gunmen through the night.
"Men came to our house and they said we are from NDS and when we refused to let them in they started shooting at us. We fired back and the battle carried on until morning," said the wounded woman.
Baghlan police chief Awaz Mohammad Nazari confirmed the incident and said that on Thursday two insurgents attacked a civilian house in Khowaja Alwan area of the province. He said the occupants of the house fought them off and eventually killed the commander and wounded one other.
"The woman was couragious and a hero. She killed one armed opposition and wounded another one. When police heard about the incident they went to assist them and transferred the woman and her husband to hospital," said Awaz Mohammad Nazari provincial police chief.
Baghlan is one of the most insecure provinces in the country.
#1
Well we....
Fired our gunz and the wallahs kept a coming,
But they weren't as many as there wuz awhile ago,
Fired once moar and they commenced to running
As fast as their curly tied slippers let them go!
Oh they ran thru the mosques and ran thru the souks
Ran so fast an A-10 couldn't spot em,
Along the the ocean till a British Liner comes.
Daesh fighters in Achin district of eastern Nangarhar province are allegedly training local children to become terrorists.
A number of children have said that Daesh militants were encouraging them to go to their training centers.
Most areas of Achin district have now been cleared of Daesh insurgents but reports have emerged that they are allegedly training children to use rifles and carry out suicide attacks. "They [Daesh fighters] were telling us that they are going to build us schools, where their teachers will be teaching us how to use weapons," said one child from the area.
Another child said that Daesh rebels warned him not to go to school, nor to watch TV anymore.
"They [Daesh rebels] were asking us to learn how to fire a gun and they were telling us not to mention the name of Afghan security forces before them," said another child.
Meanwhile, a number of Daesh rebels, who have recently renounced violence, confirmed that Daesh fighters are giving military training to children.
"They were playing war movies to children to encourage them," said Arabistan, a former Daesh commander.
Zaiton another former Daesh commander said: "They [Daesh fighters] where teaching children how to use weapons and were giving them practical training."
Human rights protection organizations and civil society activists strongly condemned militant groups for using children in wars and say it as a clear violation of human rights.
It is said that Daesh has started military training for children in some parts of eastern Kunar province as well.
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02/27/2016
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[ALMANAR.LB] The Yemeni army and popular forces continued to inflict heavy losses on the Saudi army by destroying their military equipment and hardware and shot down another military helicopter in the province of Shabwah, FNA reported.
"The Yemeni forces hit an Apache helicopter in Azan region in Shabwah province," the Arabic-language media outlets quoted informed Yemeni sources as saying on Friday.
The Yemeni army and the popular forces have intensified their attacks against the Saudi forces and their military positions in recent week by destroying their warships and helicopters.
In a relevant development on Wednesday, Yemeni forces killed at least 54 Saudi troops, including commanders, in a ballistic missile attack in the Northern Jawf province, said the country’s Defense Ministry.
The Yemeni Army, backed by Popular Committees loyal to the Ansarullah movement, targeted a Saudi military installation in Beir al-Maraziq region with a Qaher-1 ballistic missile in the early hours of Wednesday.
A large number of Saudi forces also sustained injuries in the attack.
The Yemeni surface-to-surface missile also destroyed a number of military equipment of the installation and inflicted heavy damage on its infrastructure.
The Yemeni forces have fired tens of missiles on the military positions and gathering centers of Saudi-led coalition so far, killing hundreds of Saudi forces and injuring many more.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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#1
As per FARSNEWS, have also sunk their 10th Saudi warship.
[ALMANAR.LB] Shortly after the 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... halted what it called "grant" for the Lebanese army and security forces, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hussein Jaberi Ansari, said that the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran "is ready to provide Leb with the military support in case the latter asks for it."
The Iranian position is not new, but rather a renewal of the previous intentions expressed by Tehran's officials to offer every kind of support to the Lebanese Republic and to its army and security institutions, including military aid and power plants logistics. All what is required from Leb is to enlist its needs to be rapidly fulfilled by Iranian competent services.
In this regard, Leb's Defense Minister and Deputy PM, Samir Moqbil, visited Tehran in October 2014 to learn about the military and combat production of Iran, and held several meetings with Iranian officials to discuss how could Leb take advantage of it.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... the Iranian "grant" stopped at the gates of the Lebanese cabinet due to the opposition of Future Movement and 14 March bloc.
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02/27/2016
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[An Nahar] The Spanish government on Friday approved the extradition to the United States of an alleged jihadist wanted by Washington for conspiring with a woman known as "Jihad Jane" to recruit people online for attacks in Europe and south Asia.
Ali Charaf Damache, who holds both Algerian and Irish nationality, was detained in December in Barcelona.
U.S. officials say Damache worked with Colleen LaRose -- a Pennsylvania woman who converted to Islam and took the name Jihad Jane -- and others to create a "violent jihad organization" with men and women from Europe and the United States.
LaRose herself was jailed for 10 years in 2014 for plotting attacks, including the murder of Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has survived several death threats since penning a cartoon portraying the Prophet Mohammed as a dog.
U.S. authorities say Damache and others recruited men online "to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe" as well as women with passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of their plots.
Spain's cabinet approved his extradition during its regular cabinet meeting on Friday.
Damache had refused to be extradited to the United States, where he faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted.
He had initially been detained in Ireland where he was living, but a court there refused a U.S. request to extradite him and he walked free.
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02/27/2016
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
[An Nahar] Pop star turned runaway Fadel Shaker was sentenced on Friday to five years in prison on charges of sectarian incitement, reported the National News Agency.
He was also charged with "harming Leb's ties with a fraternal Arab country" during an interview he conducted in the past few years.
[An Nahar] A senior Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... military commander has been killed in battles in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, media reports said on Friday.
Ali Fayyad, aka "Alaa of Bosnia", has been killed in the ongoing festivities with Syrian rebels on the Athrayya-Khanasser road in rural Aleppo, the reports said.
Fayyad was known to have "planned, overseen and led" a key part of the siege that is imposed on the rebels in Damascus' Eastern Ghouta region, according to the reports.
He also played a key role in the capture of the strategic Syrian town of Shebaa that lies on the road to the Damascus international airport.
"Fayyad also led a military operation to besiege the Syrian rebel groups and isolate them in the south of the Syrian capital after having pushed them away from the area of the Sayyida Zeinab (Shiite) shrine," the reports said.
His military tactics also played an important role in "halting the Syrian rebels' advance towards the Syrian coast."
Hizbullah has deployed at least 6,000 snuffies to fight alongside Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... 's forces against Islamist-led rebels and jihadists and around 1,000 Hizbullah members have been killed in Syria since the start of the conflict.
The party argues that its intervention, which is controversial in Leb, was necessary to protect the country from holy warrior groups and to prevent the fall of Syria into the hands of hostile forces.
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[An Nahar] The United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... has called for continued support by the international community for the Lebanese army and security forces following a Saudi decision to cut off billions of dollars of aid.
"It is important that there be continued international support for the Lebanese Armed Forces and for the stability of Leb, as stated by the Security Council," said U.N. front man Stephane Dujarric.
"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... is free to do what it wants with its money, but we hope that others will step in and help fund and support the Lebanese Armed Forces to ensure the political stability in Leb," he told news hounds in his briefing on Thursday.
Dujarric said the U.N. has been "following very closely the current tensions that exist between Leb and a number of the Gulf countries."
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Egypt's Interior Ministry says security forces have clashed with Islamist Moslem Brüderbund protesters in northern Egypt, killing two of them and arresting six.
In a statement Friday, the ministry said that the killed men were part of a group trying to stage a demonstration and carry out attacks against security forces in the northern city of Damietta.
Authorities banned the Moslem Brüderbund group following the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Mursi in 2013. Thousands of the group's members have been killed or locked away Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! over the past two years.
The Interior Ministry says those tossed in the clink Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! were wanted for a previous attack on a gas pipeline.
The Moslem Brüderbund's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, say in a statement that the men were killed protesting the military overthrow and price hikes.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Two loud kabooms rocked the center of Mogadishu on Friday followed by automatic gunfire, police and an AFP correspondent said, with Somalia’s Shabaab Islamists claiming they had attacked a hotel.
"We heard a loud kaboom near the SYL hotel," police official Mohamad Adan told AFP, saying there was also gunfire.
The first blast took place at 7:45 pm (1645 GMT), with a second erupting shortly afterwards in an attack which was claimed by the Al-Qaeda linked Shabaab movement.
"Members of the mujahedeen have carried out an attack on the SYL hotel near the presidential palace. The attack began with a suicide kaboom followed by gunfire," the group said in a brief statement on its official Instagram account.
A car bomb was set off near SYL – Somali youth league hotel next to Villa Somalia, the heavily fortified presidential palace of Somalia, killing more than 20 people, including soldiers and civilians.
Minutes later, a second car bomb exploded at the peace garden, not far from the SYL hotel compound, where the most casualties happened, according to the security officials.
Al shabaab claimed responsibility for the both attacks, saying it targeted the areas, where are frequented by senior Somali government officials, business people, Journalists and diaspora.
Medical sources say at least twenty other people were wounded in Tonight’s twin car bombs in the horn of Africa capital.
Thunderous explosions have rocked Mogadishu’s SYL hotel, just a few meters away from Villa Somalia presidential compound on Friday, Garowe Online reports. Gunfire could be heard around the area where suspected Al Shabaab militants targeted with what seems to be apparently coordinated terror attack. The car bomb attack occurred near an entertainment facility called ‘Peace Square’.
Five intelligence officers and four attackers have been reported killed in a gun-battle ensued after car bombing.
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02/27/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] At least four members of security forces loyal to Libya's recognized government were killed Friday in a boom-mobileing in the city of Benghazi, the military said, in an attack claimed by ISIS.
Military front man Colonel Abdullah al-Shahaafi told AFP that the blast went off in the Hawari district of the city.
ISIS claimed the attack in a statement posted on Islamist websites, saying more than 25 were killed and that it targeted forces of General Khalifa Haftar ... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... , the recognised government's chief of staff.
Haftar's forces on Tuesday recaptured a jihadist stronghold in the Mediterranean city.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 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... has designated four companies and three Lebanese men as having links to the Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.
"The kingdom will continue its fight against the terrorist activities of the so-called Hezbollah in all available means," the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.
Saudi Arabia last week suspended aid worth $3 billion to the Lebanese army over the Beirut government's failure to sign up to statements condemning attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.
The ministry identified the four companies as Vatech SARL, Le-Hua Electronics Field Co. Limited, Aero Skyone Co. Limited and Labico SAL Offshore, and the men as Fadi Hussein Serhan, Adel Mohamad Cherri and Ali Zeaiter.
The statement did not elaborate. It was not known what effect Riyadh's blacklisting had on the companies' activities or whether they had business in the kingdom. Saudi officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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[DAWN] The ongoing military operation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) forced the Haqqani network to relocate, said US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... while defending the B.O. regime’s decision to sell eight F-16 aircraft to Pakistain.
The network’s presence in Fata was used as the main argument against the proposed sale during a congressional hearing on Tuesday.
"They continue to support the Taliban, the Haqqani network and to give safe haven to Al Qaeda," said Senator Bob Corker while opposing the proposed sale.
"They drove the Haqqani network into new locations. And it’s an ongoing process," said Secretary Kerry while rejecting the senator’s argument. But he acknowledged that some "entities" were still there, "complicat(ing) our efforts very significantly."
Mr Kerry appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday to defend the administration’s budget for 2017, which provides $50.1 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of State and the US Agency for International Aid.
"We are helping Afghanistan and Pakistain to counter violent extremism," Secretary Kerry told the politicians while explaining why the administration was seeking $742 million for Pakistain as well. The hearing turned into a mini-debate on America’s ‘complicated’ relations with Pakistain.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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Gonna try to remember to have this for Friday.
[Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide] Today, Thursday, February 25 2016, the Baltic Dry Index climbed by 3 points, reaching 325 points.
Baltic Dry Index is compiled by the London-based Baltic Exchange and covers prices for transported cargo such as coal, grain and iron ore. The index is based on a daily survey of agents all over the world. Baltic Dry hit a temporary peak on May 20, 2008, when the index hit 11,793. The lowest level ever reached was on on Wednesday, 10 2016, when the index dropped to 290 points.
[Bangla Daily Star] Four suspected robbers were hit by bullets during a "shootout" with a team of Detective Branch of police in Gazipur city's Kodda Islampur area early yesterday.
Whew! Now that, my dears, is reportorial efficiency. Catch your breath a moment before going on.
The injured are Sultan Uddin, 42,
Lucky him! Remember how when you were a kid, you wished people would call you a cool name like Duke or King or Chip? Sultan Uddin has got you all beat... though he spells it Sultanuddin, with accents on the second and fourth syllabbabbles.
Salam, 40, Hamidul, 30, and Mamun, 25.
All poor one-namers, who nonetheless are of an age when they should be mature householders, rather than rousting about robbing those who might have slightly more than they.
Sub-inspector Ikbal Hossain of Gazipur DB
Only the police this time, dear Reader, but Sgt. Siddique has been reading to them from The RAB Way in 90 Days...
said suspected robber Mizanur Rahman a few days ago managed a job at Ocean Garment Limited as a security guard.
Ooooh... clever!
On Thursday evening, he fed sedative-heavy cakes to his colleagues, leaving all of them in deep sleep.
"Mmmmm, cake! Thanks, Mizmy, old pal -- I love " *SNORE*
*Snore*
*snooooor GAK snooooor* *plop*
Around 2:30am yesterday, some 15 accomplices of Mizanur reached the factory by a microbus and started looting goods, said the SI.
An upgrade on the usual dacoitery, to be sure.
Acting on a tip-off,
How on earth does Mahmoud the Weasel always know?
the DB team launched a drive to foil the robbery. When the law enforcers reached the factory, robbers opened fire on the cops, he added.
Bad move, guys. Now the cops will be forced to return the favour.
The law enforcers fired retaliatory shots,
See?
leaving the four bullet-hit. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... the other members of the gang managed to flee.
...as if they had never been.
The DB team later recovered some looted goods from a covered van near the factory and sent the four injured to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital, said Ikbal.
"Four more for you, Doc."
"Don't want 'em, Jim -- they're still wriggling. Park 'em in the hall for another hour."
Abdus Salam, resident medical officer at the hospital, said the four injured were brought to the hospital around 5:30am. They were given primary treatment before being referred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
Sources at the DMCH said all the four, receiving treatment under police custody, were hit by bullets in their knee.
"All of you -after that gang!"
"But Sarge, what about these four?"
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
"AIEEEEE!"
"They're not going anywhere."
SI Atiqur Rahman of Joydebpur Police Station said the factory authorities were preparing a case in this connection.
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Voting has ended at the parliamentary and the Assembly of Experts elections in Iran.
The mad ayatollahs, of course, know the outcome already...
Iranians started voting to elect 290 members of the parliament and 88 members of the Assembly of Experts at 08:00 Feb. 26.
Some 4,844 candidates were running for the seats at the parliament and the Assembly of Experts. Each candidate is required to get at least 25 percent of votes in his constituency, otherwise a second round of elections is held a month after the results of the first round.
[IsraelTimes] Massive lines form at polls in Tehran, state TV shows similar scenes in other cities, amid talk of high turnout likely to benefit reformers
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Sources at Aden International Airport have rejected as baseless and incorrect reports circulated by some news websites and media outlets about the withdrawal of UAE forces stationed at the airport.
"Shifting heavy military ware and equipment from one place to another inside the airport is meant to allow rehabilitation work at the airport, which is coming to an end," the sources reaffirmed.
The move, according to the sources, was aimed at creating suitable environment within the limits of the airport as it will help travellers feel safe with no military armament inside as well as on tarmac.
"The UAE forces are still stationed at many places of the airport, the sources said and asked media outlets to exercise care while handling these news as they reflect negatively on the credibility of media as well as the public security in the country. - news@khaleejtimes.com
[ALMANAR.LB] The Israeli occupation army clashed on Friday with the Palestinians at Gaza Strip's border, injuring eight of them. In a different incident, a Palestinian was shot dead on Friday at a checkpoint near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank after trying to stab Israeli soldiers.
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[DAWN] PESHAWAR: Two new cases of polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... virus have been confirmed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province on Friday, raising this year’s national tally to five.
According to the Chief Minister's Polio Control Cell in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, polio virus was detected in a seven month old girl, Naureen Ajab Khan of Kohat district and 21 months old Jareer Waliullah, belonging to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. With the two new cases reported today, the total number of polio cases reported this year in the province have reached three.
This year's first case was confirmed on February 6 in 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 a 34-month old Pakhtun child was positively diagnosed with the crippling virus.The second case was confirmed in KP's Nowshehra district in a 19- month old child, Abdullah Jehad Khan while the third case was reported from Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... on Tuesday.
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02/27/2016
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#6
It was worth it at the time gents. There is something about hard hats and Spurs at that age. That and the free Hedgehogs. It was a long time ago, things were different then, life was easier and smelled better, beer was cheap and cigarettes were okay if you went outside. The cars sucked of course, they had the bad malaise. The dawg's made up for it tho, it was an era of good dawg's. I usually had around five, it was a long time ago, things were different then, Americans went into space and had 17 carriers, hard to believe yes, but then again, it was a long time ago, things were different then, there were blondes you see and easy money (and easy blondes) good times, there was a Lotus Super 7 and an Irish Setter in the mix....
Is it just me or is there a lost Victor Hugo novel here?
The short guy, third from the left in the bottom row, is Jean-Pierre, the runaway son of the fabulously wealthy Comte de Somme-Huere. The big guy in the top row, third from right, Jean-Louis, is the poor but honest fugitive from the galleys, who was set up to take the rap for Jean-Claude, second from the left in the bottom row. The lawyer Jean-Jean, third from the right in the bottom row, is the comic relief, assuming there is comic relief in a Victor Hugo novel (this ain't Dumas, y'know.)
Jean-Pierre, Jean-Louis, Jean-Claude, and Jean-Jean are all in love with the virtuous Marie la Tarte, in the bottom row, right hand corner, holding the life preserver. After about nine hundred pages of exposition, all of them are auxed behind the barricades, besieged by the Forces of Oppression. The heroic Jean-Luc, second from the right in the bottom row, sacrifices himself to save the lives of all of them by head butting a cannonball in flight.
Jean-Claude, his nerve giving out at the sight of Jean-Luc's remaining remains, tries to betray the commune, to be done in by Jean-Louis in a sword fight, in which both parties end up with three feet of steel through the lungs. Two hundred pages later, most of it dialogue between Jean-Louis and Jean-Pierre and Marie la Tarte, Jean-Louis finally pegs out. (If it was three of them talking, would that make it "trialogue?")
Jean-Pierre and Marie la Tarte declare their love. If this was an opera they'd sing a duet, but it's not, so they don't. Jean-Claude's lackey, the slow-witted Jean-Paul, then opens the back gate to put the garbage out.
The Forces of Opression, who've been patiently waiting for Jean-Claude to let them in, surge through the gate and kill the lot of them, which is how they ended up having their portraits taken in those cheap coffins.
fin
Are four number threes the same as one number twelve? Add the ten and you've got twenty-two. That means they went bust...
No, no -- it's division, not multiplication. Thusly: four number twelves to one number three, and God help them if their uniforms aren't clean and properly buttoned.
Osman Abdullah Hajji, a top Somali military commander in Gedo confirmed the killing of senior Al shabaab leaders in latest airstrike by Kenyan air forces in the region.
Hajji said at least ten Al shabaab members, including four middle-ranking commanders died in the KDF airstrike targeted a base for Al shabaab in the remote village of Tulo-Barwaqo in Gedo. Two of the slain commanders were identified as Abdullah Ali and Luqman who have been in attendance at a meeting by Al shabaab leaders in the area at the time of the aerial bombing.
Tulo Barwaqo lies close to SNA controlled Garbaharey town. Al shabaab did not comment on the airstrike by Kenyan jets on Tulo Barwaqo.
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] In their brotherly relations, Gulf countries have asked nothing from Leb but unity of Arab opinion and positions while confronting the many challenges facing the Arab world. The biggest challenge is Israel. During all the times it attacked Leb, only Arab countries - such as 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... , Kuwait, Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates... and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - stood by us to rebuild what was destroyed.
Iran also helped with reconstruction, but its efforts came late and were limited to areas that benefit its allies, connecting Shiite towns to one another to allow Hezbollah more freedom of movement and to transfer weapons.
Economic interests link Leb to Gulf countries, not to Iran. Thousands of Lebanese have been working in the Gulf since the 1960s, transferring billions of dollars that contribute to developing Leb’s economy. Leb has no interest in being hostile to Arab countries, as this would weaken and harm it.
Accountability
We cannot hold accountable any country that has decided to review its relations with Leb, but we can hold ourselves accountable, correct our mistakes and make up for our dereliction. We must not do so according to the logic of humiliation and submission, as some think, but according to the national spirit that maintains Lebanese interests.
Doing otherwise would be to submit to schemes that serve the interests of the Iranian and Syrian regimes, not those of Leb. Such plans are obstructing presidential elections, ruining relations with brotherly countries, and pushing Leb to collapse.
Correcting an error is a virtue. If Hezbollah abides by the orders of Iran, which has pushed it into the Syrian swamp and prevented it from facilitating the process of electing a president in Leb, does Christian leader Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... accept to share responsibility with Hezbollah for harming Lebanese interests and livelihoods? Does he bear responsibility for Christians’ decision not to return to Leb if they are expelled from the Gulf?
The solution lies in Hezbollah returning to its senses and proving it is Lebanese, as it claims, in Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil’s resignation, and in decisive action by the prime minister, even if it leads to the cabinet’s resignation.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
Original by Andrey Rezchikov published by Vzglyad; translation by J.Hawk
A video surfaced in the internet of a missile attack on a T-90 tank on Syria's territory. The tank survived a hit by a US-made anti-tank missile. According to the specialists, the incident suggests the T-90s advantages over Western tanks.
The video shows the moment in which a US-made TOW ATGM strikes the T-90. The incident took place west of Aleppo, in rural areas where the SAA has been actively fighting against the Islamic State. The missile was fired by some "Desert Hawk brigade which apparently is part of the "moderate opposition" or, more specifically, to the Free Syrian Army.
"If that missile penetrated the armor, nobody inside the tank would have survived."
Experts agree that the incident showcases the T-90's advantages over Western tanks.
"The missile simply went off to the side"
The deputy director of Uralvagonzavod which manufactures the T-90, Vyacheslav Khalitov, notes that the video is too blurry so that it's difficult to determine what vehicle it is, but it "closely resembles the T-90." According to Khalitov, the video must have been composed of two parts. The first suggests that the Shtora optronic suppression system was effective because the missile "simply went off to the side."
"Shtora is part of T-90s multi-layer protection. It is a subsystem designed to protect the vehicle against flare-tracked ATGMs," Khalitov told Vzglyad.
According to Khalitov, the T-90 also has another protective system which detects an approaching missile by detecting the illuminating laser beam, and then launches a metallic aerosol grenade which disperses the laser beam thus depriving the enemy of the ability to guide the missile or estimate range using a laser rangefinder.
Khalitov also said that the second part of the video differs from the first oneâthe tank's Shtora was not switched on which allowed the missile to strike its target but "then the reactive armor suite was activated which prevented the tank from suffering serious damage and the crew was able to leave it."
"The tank remained operational after the missile hit. Reactive armor tiles destroy munitions striking the tank before they are able to penetrate the basic armor," Khalitov noted.
He emphasized that the T-90 is a survivable machine, which is confirmed both by testing and actual combat operations. "As long as the tank is provided with reactive armor tiles and not empty boxes, as has been known to happen, if all the defensive systems are functional and switched on, the vehicle is very survivable. Statistics of their use in combat has shown they are highly reliable and survivable, more so than their Western counterparts," Khalitov claims.
Of course, one does have to qualify his statement by adding that a representative of the tank's manufacturer could have hardly said anything else.
Strong armor
Colonel General Anatoliy Sitnov, Deputy Minister of Defense for Armaments, also says that the T-90s reactive armor allowed the crew to survive. "The crew survived. It means that the reactive armor worked. Had the armor been penetrated, nobody would have survived inside," Sitnov told Vzglyad.
The modernized T-90MS tank was demonstrated three years ago. It contains a number of improvements "to satisfy potential customers." It has a more powerful engine, a new air conditioner, thicker engine compartment armor, and a 12.7mm machine-gun in a remote-control turret mount.
Russia has been promoting that vehicle throughout the Middle East. Iran expressed interest in the T-90.
The T-90 was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It entered service in 1992. It was one of the best-selling tanks between 2001 and 2010, mainly thanks to the contract with India.
After the Russian campaign in Syria began, Syrian militants obtained over a hundred ATGMs, which caused the attacking Syrian forces lose up to 10 armored vehicles a day. Videos published in October 2015 showed the rebels use US-made TOW ATGMs.
In early February, photographs appeared on the internet showing Syrian vehicles equipped with new, possibly developed with Russian assistance, defensive systems intended to protect against TOW missiles.
J.Hawk's Comment: The T-90 in question most likely survived the attack, though one of its crewmembers, likely a Syrian army tanker who still has memories of operating early-model T-72s with thinner armor protection and often no reactive armor, likely instinctively jumped out of the tank fearing that the missile hit had scored a lethal hit which would soon result in a fire. The video also shows the Syrian tank crew in question is lacking in trainingâno matter how survivable the tank is, it is generally a bad idea to sit still in an exposed firing location for such a long period of time, because no tank completely invulnerable.
#1
As long as the tank is provided with reactive armor tiles and not empty boxes, as has been known to happen. If all the defensive systems are functional and switched on, the vehicle is very survivable.
That's a lot of "ifs."
Also, this TOW did not have a tandem warhead nor does this show how it would have done vs. a depleted uranium round.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/27/2016 11:57
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Cameroon’s army has killed 92 members of the Islamist militant group Boko Haram and freed 850 villagers in a joint operation with Nigerian forces, the country’s government has said. The operation in the Nigerian village of Kumshe, close to the border with Cameroon, was conducted under the auspices of a multinational force fighting Boko Haram, according to the statement from Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon’s communications minister.
“Two Cameroonian soldiers were killed [during the operation] by an accidental mine explosion. Five other soldiers were wounded,” Bakary said, adding that the army captured weapons and ammunition and found a centre for production of homemade mines.
There was no immediate comment from Nigeria or independent confirmation of the operation or death toll.
Boko Haram is seeking to carve out an emirate in north-eastern Nigeria and has staged a campaign of suicide and other attacks in Cameroon, Chad and Niger over the past year, including killing as many as 1,000 in Cameroon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2016
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Top|| File under: Boko Haram
[An Nahar] Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem ... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies... hit back at 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 Friday, saying it must "apologize to Leb" over the events of last week.
"Some were surprised when Saudi Arabia decided to call off the several billions' (military) grant to Leb, but in fact it was a chance for them (Saudis) to attack Leb and Hizbullah," said Qassem during a memorial service in Ghobeiri.
"Let it be known: for us Leb is the country of freedoms and it will remain so and it will never be subservient to any country on the face of Earth," he stressed.
"As Lebanese citizens, we want Leb for all the Lebanese and we want them to remain free with their heads held up high, not followers of any state. Leb will never become a Saudi emirate or an emirate for any country," Qassem underlined.
Earlier in the day, Saudi Arabia extended sanctions on Hizbullah, freezing the assets of three Lebanese nationals and four companies over alleged ties to the party.
Riyadh has taken a series of measures against in recent days in response to verbal attacks from Hizbullah over the wars in Syria and Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... as well as recent diplomatic stances by Leb's foreign ministry.
The measures started last Friday when the Saudi foreign ministry announced that the kingdom was halting around $4 billion in military aid to the Lebanese army and security forces.
On Tuesday, the kingdom advised its citizens against travel to Leb and urged those already in the country to leave it, citing "safety" concerns. And on Thursday, media reports said around 90 Lebanese citizens have been fired from their jobs in Saudi Arabia.
Announcing the Saudi aid halt on Friday, an official said the kingdom had noticed "hostile Lebanese positions resulting from the stranglehold of Hizbullah on the state," while also accusing the party of "terrorist acts against Arab and Muslim nations."
"Thank God we have enough wisdom, strength, resistance, respect and vision that make others respect our will in being independent, not followers," said Qassem on Friday.
"We will express this stance no matter what the price might be, because we are defending righteousness and because those who want freedom and dignity do not accept any injustice," Hizbullah number two added.
"What happened during the last week requires Saudi Arabia to apologize to Leb, because it has insulted the Lebanese and those who exerted strenuous efforts to liberate their land and achieve their independence," Qassem went on to say.
The Saudi measures have sparked a storm of criticism in Leb against Hizbullah and its allies, amid demands for an apology from the Lebanese government. But Qassem emphasized Friday that "it was Saudi Arabia that aggressed against us."
"We did not aggress against it and we did not do anything that violates logic and the freedom of expression," Qassem added.
"All we did was that we described Saudi Arabia's actions. What can we say about Yemen? Are we supposed to say that the Saudi warplanes are firing missiles in order to feed the infants in their homes? Are we supposed to say that the artillery shells are entering hospitals to give oxygen to the patients?" Qassem wondered.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
OPEC oil basket’s price stood at $29.19 per barrel on Feb. 25, or $0.89 more than on Feb. 24, the cartel told Trend Feb. 26. There was a positive dynamics in oil prices on Feb. 26 as well.
The price of April futures for North Sea Brent crude oil mix increased by 0.43 percent and stood at $35.44 per barrel on Feb. 26 morning. The price of April futures for WTI oil increased by 0.79 percent and reached $33.33 per barrel.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/27/2016
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Top|| File under:
An error from yesterday concerning the shooting in Wichita: the video that I contended was of the shooter practicing with his trusty rusty AK, which appeared to be on automatic fire, was in fact a semiautomatic being bump fired.
Reading the news coverage from Friday, local Wichita news said he had an "extensive criminal background". But none of his crimes were violent, although they may have been felonies.
Later I read there was a protective order out on him, which would prevent him from obtaining a semiautomatic over the counter or through the FFL system.
So, that leaves a kit build or a private gun sale as a means of obtaining the AK. According to US statues, however, if he obtained a kit and induced someone to build the rifle, whoever built it for him would be involved in an illegal transfer. That person is criminally liable. Not the shooter.
As I have said before, the issue is not if he has the right to own a firearm. I contend but for the criminal justice system imposing restrictions on him carrying a firearm, he does have that right. The issue, legally speaking, is the transfer.
If it was a private gun sale, then the only legal problem would be whether the seller knew Ford was a "prohibited person", according to our own Orwellian firearms laws.
Separately, a video posted on Facebook a few days ago showed a fella (he didn't identify himself in the presentation) from YouTube's Military Arms Channel testing how a set of five rifles, four 5.56x45mm and one AK, performed when left out in 10F degree weather after being sprayed with a water mist. The fella doing the testing loaded them all before conducting his test.
If you guessed one of the ARs, then you were wrong. The AK had the first two rounds misfire. When the host attempted to clear the malfunction by slamming a Magpul M4 style butt stock into the ground, the butt stock broke. Eventually, he cleared the jam and the weapon did fire.
The whole time watching the video, all I could think was, "Why would someone install a plastic butt stock on a rifle when plenty of other, far more durable butt stocks are available?"
Two years ago during the Bundy Ranch standoff, one of the major problems was the issue of firearms handling in an environment where everyone was armed. Mike Vanderboegh remarked at the time, along with his Oathkeeper hosts at the ranch, about issues such as muzzle sweeping, and how widespread problems were with firearms handling.
Prices for pistol ammunition were mostly higher, while prices for rifle ammunition were mixed.
Prices for used pistols were mostly lower, while prices for used rifles were mixed.
New Lows:
None
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: +.02 Each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel, .26 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: SG Ammo, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Cased, .25 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (3 Weeks))
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: +.02 Each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Freedom Munitions, Store brand, FNFP, Reloads, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Freedom Munitions, Store brand, FNFP, Reloads, .22 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks))
9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: +.02 Each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Selway Armory, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Cased, .16 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Rush Creek Ammo, Store brand, FMJ, Reloads, .17 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (3 Weeks))
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Freedom Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel cased, .26 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: J&G Sales, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel cased, .25 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2015))
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: +.02 Each
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Midsouth Shooters Supply, Tulammo, steel cased, FMJ, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: J&G Sales, Tulammo, steel cased, FMJ,, .23 per round (From Last Week: +.02 Each
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2015)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, steel cased, FMJ, .37 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, steel cased, FMJ, .37 per round (From Last Week: -.03 Each After Unchanged (5 Weeks))
7.62x39 AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Munire USA, Wolf WPA, steel case, FMJ, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Ammo Fast, Wolf WPA, steel case, FMJ, .23 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each)
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: -.01 Each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammoman, CCI, RNL .07 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 325 rounds: Cabelas, Federal, RNL, .07 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (4 Weeks))
Here's another way to think of it. Think of being utterly destitute. No money at all. Flat broke - penniless, with your pockets turned inside out. Most of us would feel pretty bad about being in that situation.
Now, think of a stack of crisp new US $100 bills. Create a stack that totals US $100,000. That stack is 4.3 inches tall.
Now, think of the total US national debt = 19 trillion dollars (and that is probably only 10% of the REAL amount, including unfunded FEDERAL liabilities). A stack of US $100 bills totaling US $19 trillion would be 12,894 MILES tall. That's over 1/20 of the distance to the moon.
That's the stack of US $100 bills that you would need to bring the Unite States UP to being totally, utterly broke, penniless, and starving - in any rational world.
#2
The only saving grace is that the rest of the world is even more screwed taking in account, no matter how much they spend, they can not buy the security of the old Pax Americana now gone. When their money becomes worthless as old Russian Czar bonds, even an inflated American dollar will have value. We're screwed, but so is the rest of the world. Remember, you don't have to be faster than the bear, just anyone else in the group.
[An Nahar] The head of Syria's powerful Al-Qaeda branch on Friday urged opponents of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... to reject a ceasefire due to begin at midnight and instead intensify attacks on the regime.
"Beware of this trick from the West and America because everyone is pushing you to go back under the thumb of the oppressive regime," Mohammad al-Jolani, the head of Al-Nusra Front, said in an audio message.
"Fighters in Syria, willingly arm yourselves, intensify your attacks and have no fear of their troops and their aircraft," Jolani added.
Describing the truce as "shameful", the jihadist chief said that "negotiations are the ones conducted on the battlefield".
The ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia and the United States marks the biggest diplomatic push yet to help end Syria's violence, but has been plagued by doubts after the failure of previous peace efforts.
Parties to the deal -- which allows fighting to continue against jihadists -- will have to deal with the complexity of Syria's battlefields where moderate and Islamist rebel forces often fight alongside murderous Moslems groups such as Al-Nusra.
Russia carried out intense raids on rebel bastions across Syria Friday just hours before the truce was due to take effect, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Syria's army said this week it would exclude Daraya, an important rebel town near Damascus from the cessation of hostilities because forces there including Al-Nusra fighters.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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Top|| File under: al-Nusra
[DAWN] Undeterred by scuttling of its previous attempt to get Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... chief Masood Azhar banned by the United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... , India will again move the world body with the demand, according to its external affairs ministry.
"We will be moving the 1267 Sanctions Committee to also include the name of Masood Azhar on the sanctions list. It is a great anomaly that the organization Jaish-e-Mohammad is listed, but not its leader," ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.
He also noted that India had already submitted to the UN’s Sanction Committee a fresh list of what he called 11 gunnies from Pakistain-based groups affiliated to Al Qaeda, Taliban and other outfits responsible for terrorism in the country.
On February 18, a list of 11 individuals and one organization "linked to terrorism in India", was submitted to the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (the myrmidonIslamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group) and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee.
The UN banned JeM in 2001 but India’s efforts to get restrictions imposed on Azhar after the Mumbai attacks did not bear fruit because China didn’t allow them to be imposed.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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Top|| File under: Jaish-e-Mohammad
[Daily Excelsior] Security forces today tossed in the clink Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! two persons and recovered German made high grade explosives packet from them.
Police and 46 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) recovered 1.5 kilogramme of RDX from 2 persons when they stopped a car after receiving specific information about their movement in the outskirts of Baramulla town.
Sources said that it is high grade German made explosive with a shelf life of 20 years which was recovered from two youth of Sopore town.
Security forces brought sniffer dogs who detected the explosives and now it has been sent to forensic laboratory to ascertain the chemical composition of the substance.
An FIR has been lodged and police have started investigations. Police is questioning them.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Analysts cast doubt on the possibility of a war between Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Israel this year, citing political changes since their last war in 2014. However, you can observe a lot just by watching... the reasons cited are the same ones that make another conflict highly likely. It was said in 2014 that neither side wanted a war due to certain political hindrances, but Israel launched Operation Protective Edge anyway.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened a harsher response than in 2014 days after Hamas admitted rebuilding tunnels in preparation for a future conflict. Each side is waiting for the other to begin military action.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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[20 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
I predict if no rockets or bullets or knives exit Gaza to damage Israel then Israel will not attack.
#5
At some point, Israel is going to have to acknowledge that the problem with Gaza is Gaza, and eliminate it. The same goes with the "west bank". The world will scream, but Israel has no choice if it wants to survive.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/27/2016 18:28
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[Daily Excelsior] Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today declared that India will not vacate the Icy heights of Siachen Glacier in Ladakh sector of Jammu and Kashmire as there were apprehension that Pakistain could occupy them even as he announced comprehensive steps to prevent hacking of internet system of the defence forces that included establishment of Cyber Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) to check any such threats.
Replying to two separate questions by Harish Chandra alias Harish Dwivedi and Vasanthi M in Lok Sabha today, Parrikar declared that India will never vacate Siachen Glacier, where recently 10 Indian soldiers were killed in snow avalanche including Hanumanthapa, who survived for nearly a week, as Pakistain can occupy the strategic icy heights in absence of the Indian troops.
"We will not vacate the Siachen Glacier as once vacated, there were apprehensions that Pakistain could occupy them,’’ the Defence Minister said, adding that Pakistain can’t be trusted on this.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
The hunt for members of IS in and around Sabratha continued today with an unknown number of suspected terrorists reportedly being cornered and killed.
Among the bodies pictured on social media was one said to resemble closely Noureddine Chouchane, the Tunisian, also known as Sabir, who the Pentagon said was the prime target of their air strike a week ago. The dead man is shown wearing ammunition pouch webbing and the long black top and foreshortened trousers favoured by IS in Sirte.
Early this morning, three armed locals died when a house in the Masalama part of the town was stormed. Seven male occupants of the building were killed along with three women while two men and two women were arrested. Caches of weapons and explosive were said to have been found inside. Zuwara hospital has reported that it has admitted 13 injured from Sabratha but has not said if they are locals or IS.
The hunt for IS terrorists, whose presence in the town was so long denied by town mayor Hussein Dawadi and the Tripoli authorities, appeared to have been intensified today. The Sabratha media centre called on all residents to report any suspicious people. It has warned that with many of their vehicles destroyed, the terrorists had been seeking to slip out of the town on foot. There are unconfirmed reports that a local family known to have rented to IS one of the buildings in the town, has been seeking to obstruct searches in the area it controls.
Among the pictures of alleged IS fighters is one of three young men in casual dress looking extremely frightened in the enclosed back on a pick-up truck.
Sources have told this newspaper that Abdullah Dabbashi, a Sabrathan alleged to be an IS supporter, was not killed yesterday as earlier reported but was wounded and has been taken to Zawia hospital for treatment. Dabbashi, from a prominent local family, is reportedly being guarded by members of Farouq Brigade, led by Abu Obeida Al-Zawi, one Libya Dawn’s more radical commanders.
Meanwhile it is being said that some Zawia residents have started turning Tunisians out of the town.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/27/2016
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[ARA News] HASAKAH – After expelling ISIS militants from the strategic Shaddadi city in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province, western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) started dismantling explosives left by the radical group in a step to cleanse the area completely from ISIS.
“More than 275 ISIS militants were killed and 33 ISIS vehicles were destroyed at the hands of the SDF fighters in the battle for Shaddadi,” the SDF leadership said in a statement on Friday.
SDF spokesman Talal Silo told ARA News that their special teams have dismantled land-mines and removed a large deal of explosives in Shaddadi that have been left behind by ISIS extremists.
“ISIS terrorists had planted explosives and mines in an attempt to hinder movements of the Kurdish-Arab alliance of the SDF in the area. But our teams have dismantled those explosives after days of intensive work,” Silo said.
The official source confirmed that their units have cleansed Shaddadi and its surroundings and that the SDF is now in control of the whole area.
The SDF had announced last week its control over Shaddadi; however, sporadic clashes continued between their fighters and ISIS sleeper cells in the area which has used car bombs to hit the SDF ranks.
“Today we announce Shaddadi free of ISIS and its remnants,” the spokesman said.
Western-backed SDF units are currently preparing to fight ISIS in the key town of Margada south of Hasakah.
“Our next target is Margada. Our operations will continue until we regain the entire region from ISIS,” Silo concluded.
ISIS militants have evacuated their headquarters in Shaddadi under heavy bombardment by the Kurdish-Arab alliance of the SDF.
This progress came after the SDF units cut off a main supply route for the ISIS radical group near Syria’s northeastern border with Iraq.
“SDF units have closed a strategic supply route near Shaddadi in Hasakah province after fierce clashes with ISIS militants,” the SDF leadership said last Friday, adding that ISIS movement was paralyzed subsequent to losing its main supply line with Iraq’s Mosul.
Furthermore, the SDF alliance had seized control of a key gas facility and main financial resource for the Islamic State (ISIS) radical group in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province last week. The western-backed forces regained control of the Jibisa gas facility, located about 12km east of Shaddadi city in southern Hasakah.
The facility had been used by ISIS for nearly two years as a source to fund its operations. Informed sources told ARA News that ISIS used to produce 5,000 gas cylinders a day in Jibisa to be sold at the black-market. Local sources reported that ISIS has been coordinating with the Syrian regime to sell the gas it used to extract from Jibisa fields, and that the regime’s employees have been working in the facility even during ISIS control.
Jibisa gas facility is considered one of the main gas facilities in northern Syria for its huge production that has been feeding power stations in central Syria. The facility was run by some 500 workers, including specialized engineers, technicians and workers.
The SDF, which includes Kurdish, Arab and Christian units, had earlier liberated more than 240 towns and villages from ISIS militants on the border with Iraq.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/27/2016
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[ARA News] ERBIL – The Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group executed Friday one of its own jihadis in Syria’s eastern city of Deir ez-Zor.
A Belgian member of ISIS was convicted of ‘high treason’ for attempting dissidence and trying to escape the group’s territory without permission.
In front of hundreds of people, the Belgian jihadi was beheaded in central Deir ez-Zor on Friday evening.
An activist from the campaign “Deir ez-Zor Is Being Slaughtered Silently”, which documents daily incidents in the ISIS-held eastern Syrian province, told ARA News that the man was arrested last week while trying to escape Deir ez-Zor.
“After interrogations, ISIS accused the Belgian man of attempting dissidence and convicted him of high treason,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The group beheaded him after a Sharia official read a statement to the public, explaining the background of his case and how he tried to escape his duty of fighting the enemies of the Caliphate,” the local activist told ARA News.
More than 180 Belgian nationals are believed to have joined the ranks of ISIS in Syria and Iraq over the past two years.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/27/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A cessation of hostilities in Syria came into effect at the agreed time of midnight on Saturday (2200 GMT Friday), under a U.S.-Russian plan whichwarring sides in the five-year conflict have said would to commit to.
Syria's government and bully boyz warring against it have said they would respect the halt to fighting.
The truce does not apply to ISIS and al Qaeda affiliate the Nusra Front, and the Syrian government and Moscow have said they will not halt combat against those Death Eaters.
The UN Security Council threw its weight Friday behind a ceasefire agreement for Syria and demanded that it be upheld.
The council unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by Russia and the United States that endorses the ceasefire deal and "demands that the cessation of hostilities to begin at midnight (Damascus time)" (2200 GMT).
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said Friday Syria's government and rebels will re-start peace talks on March 7 if a ceasefire holds and more aid is delivered.
Barely two hours before the Syria ceasefire was due to go into effect, the United States warned Russia that it was time to "put up or shut up."
State Department deputy front man Mark Toner said Washington had received assurances from Moscow that it would not bomb the "moderate opposition" after the truce.
"I don't know how to put it any better than saying: 'It's put up or shut up time,'" Toner told news hounds.
"It is time for them to show through action rather than words that they are serious about what they profess to be serious about, which is a ceasefire, a cessation of hostilities and a political process that leads to a transition."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Saudi and UAE military aircraft have arrived at the Incirlik airbase in southern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... . Turkish authorities announced Thursday that Saudi warplanes set to be used in the fight against ISIS would shortly arrive in the country.
The planes are to be stationed at the Incirlik base, which is already hosting US, British and French war planes taking part in the strikes against IS fighters in Syria.
Earlier, private NTV television said four Saudi F-15 jets would arrive at Incirlik on Friday. It said that 30 ground personnel and equipment had already arrived aboard C-130 Hercules military transport planes on Tuesday.
Ankara has said it is in favour of a ground operation in Syria, but only if it is conducted in coordination with 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... and other Western and Gulf members of the anti-ISIS coalition.
"We have since the beginning argued for the necessity of ground operations and all kinds of strategic moves to be carried out in addition to the air campaign," Turkish foreign minister said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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#1
Of course, if Turkey goes into Syria, they'll immediately go after the Kurds and anyone else fighting the Islamic militias
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
02/27/2016 13:00
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[An Nahar] Security measures were beefed up on Friday at the entrances of Beirut's southern suburbs after reports said a booby-trapped car may have entered the area.
"Strict security measures have been taken at the checkpoints on Dahieh's entrances amid suspicions that a black bomb-laden Mercedes might have entered the region," state-run National News Agency reported.
It said the measures have created a severe traffic jam.
Earlier in the day, MTV said security forces were searching for "a black booby-trapped Mercedes that was in Brital and is suspected of having entered Beirut's southern suburbs."
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, the spittle had reached unprecedented levels... security sources dismissed the reports as "rumors" in remarks to al-Jadeed television, noting that "there is no need for panic."
The southern suburbs are a Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... stronghold and several deadly bombings claimed by Lion of Islam groups have rocked the region in recent years.
A twin suicide kaboom claimed by 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 killed 44 people and maimed around 240 others in Bourj al-Barajneh in November 2015.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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[DAWN] A former Afghan governor kidnapped nearly two weeks ago in Islamabad was freed Friday after a shootout with police in Mardan, he told AFP, saying he could not identify the men who kidnapped him.
Wahidi, who served as governor of Afghanistan's Kunar and Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... provinces, said he was blindfolded and being transported by his kidnappers when they were stopped at a police checkpoint in Mardan.
Gunfire rang out, he said, and the three men holding him at the time bravely ran away.
Speaking from the Afghan consulate in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. , he said he did not know who snatched him from an Islamabad neighbourhood on Feb 12.
"The kidnappers did not talk about their demands and they did not put me in contact with my family," he told AFP.
He said they had treated him well, adding they had not tortured him and fed him regularly.
Wahidi said he plans to fly to Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... later Friday.
Wahidi was taken to various places after his abduction, Afghan Consul General Dr Abdullah Waheed Pohan said.
The consul general said he received a call from Mardan police early Friday and was informed that Wahidi had been recovered in the area after an encounter.
Wahidi was taken to the Afghan consulate in Peshawar at 4am.
"He is fine physically but has been mentally disturbed," Pohan said of the ex-governor.
A senior local police official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed police had secured Wahidi's release early Friday, but said he could give no further details about the kidnappers' identity or whether a ransom was paid.
A senior diplomat in the Afghan consulate in Peshawar, Muhammad Wali Sultani, also confirmed Wahidi was handed over to them early Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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[DAWN] Police on Friday detained two drivers from President Mamnoon Hussain’s convoy at Lahore’s Church Chowk and moved them to an unknown location for interrogation, an official confirmed.
The president, who is on a one-day visit to Punjab’s capital, was on his way back after attending a ceremony at the Pearl Continental Hotel when his convoy was stopped at Church Chowk in the city’s Cantonment area, CCPO Lahore Ameen Wains told Dawn.
He said two cars part of the motorcade were moving "slower than they were supposed to," adding that both drivers had been picked up for questioning.
DIG Haider Ashraf told Dawn that security in the lovely provincial capital was on high alert and special check posts were established due to the president's visit.
"There was a general hold up on Friday for two hours," said the DIG.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/27/2016
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Chris Hughes, the owner of The New Republic, said on Friday that he had sold the magazine to Win McCormack, a publisher and editor based in New York and Portland, Ore., who founded the literary quarterly Tin House.
Mr. McCormack will appoint Hamilton Fish, the publisher of The Washington Spectator and a former publisher of The Nation, to be publisher and editorial director, The New Republic said.
Mr. Hughes, a Facebook founder whose tenure at the magazine was marked by turmoil, including the resignations of multiple employees protesting his decision to replace its top editor, signaled an intention to sell last month. Mr. McCormack’s and Mr. Fish’s backgrounds in journalism and progressive politics, he said, “make them uniquely qualified to lead such a historic institution. I look forward to watching their progress over the years to come.”
Libya’s internationally recognized government denied reports that French Special Forces had been fighting the Islamic State group in the troubled country, after the rival administration in Tripoli confirmed them.
The recognized government “didn’t allow and won’t allow any foreign forces to enter Libyan territories”, spokesman Hatem el-Ouraybi told official news agency LANA.
“Our brave soldiers in the Arab Libyan Armed Forces are the ones who freed Benghazi from the hand of terror without any support from the international community,” he said.
France’s Le Monde newspaper on Wednesday said special forces and members of the DGSE external security service were present in Libya for “clandestine operations” against ISIS, thought to number several thousand.
It also claimed that an air strike in November that killed the top ISIS leader in the country, Abu Nabil, was “initiated by Paris”.
The article triggered an official probe in France into a possible leak of classified information.
“This is not true. We deny these reports,” El-Ouraybi told AFP on Thursday night after being asked to comment on Le Monde article.
LANA also quoted Wanis Bukhamada, Special Forces commander in the recognized government army, as saying that “only Libyans are the ones who fought terrorism in Benghazi”.
However, the previous day the government in Tripoli, which is not recognized by the international community, said French Special Forces “were leading the fight in Benghazi”.
Libya has had rival administrations since the summer of 2014 when the recognized government fled Tripoli after the Fajr Libya militia alliance overran the capital.
A power vacuum since the 2011 toppling of Muammar Qaddafi has fostered the rise of ISIS in the country.
The group is currently headquartered in Qaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, but control of Benghazi remains divided between a collection of militias.
France and other Western countries have agreed that military action is needed to dislodge IS in Libya, but it wants a national unity government in place to request assistance before making a formal intervention.
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.
[Daily Caller] Sen. Marco Rubio told an audience at a rally in Dallas Friday that Donald Trump had a "meltdown" twice backstage during Thursday night’s debate and might have "wet his pants."
Frankly, I don't like any of them. Please delete these primaries and start new ones with decent candidates.
Moqtada 
Nouri al-Maliki
Feb 26 Venezuela's international reserves fell to a 17-year low of $13.5 billion on Friday after the government paid in full its $1.5 billion Global 2016 bond , according to central bank data. The $1.543 billion decline in reserves matched the interest and principal paid on the 2016 bond.
[An Nahar] The Spanish government on Friday approved the extradition to the United States of an alleged jihadist wanted by Washington for conspiring with a woman known as "Jihad Jane" to recruit people online for attacks in Europe and south Asia.
Ali Fayyad, aka "Alaa of Bosnia", has been killed in the ongoing 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[Bangla Daily Star] Four suspected robbers were hit by bullets during a "
Michel Aoun
Describing the truce as "shameful", the jihadist chief said that "negotiations are the ones conducted on the battlefield".
[DAWN] Undeterred by scuttling of its previous attempt to get 
[An Nahar] Security measures were beefed up on Friday at the entrances of Beirut's southern suburbs after reports said a booby-trapped car may have entered the area.
