[LaunchPhotography] Falcon Heavy / Feb 6 @ 1:30pm (pad 39A):
1) If you are heading to PLAYALINDA BEACH (3.6 miles at first parking lot, closest possible spot to watch this launch): They plan to remain open, but the park reserves the right to change that, alter traffic patterns, and close beaches/areas when parking lots are filled. The beach opens at 6:00am. GET THERE EARLY AND HAVE A BACKUP PLAN. THEY MAY CLOSE UPON REACHING PARKING CAPACITY. Plan for the possibility of having to walk between one and three miles from where you park if you wish to get closer.
2) The KSCVC is also selling tickets: Saturn V Center (3.9 miles) tickets are SOLD OUT. Tickets to go to the Visitor Complex itself were still available as of Feb. 1 (7.4 miles; you will see launch and landing only in the sky; the pads are behind the trees). (They are also selling $35 tickets to watch from a location in Titusville which you can otherwise go to for free.)
3) Next best for launch only: Titusville riverfront areas (any), but especially on top of the Max Brewer Bridge (11.7 miles, Rt. 406/Garden Street).
4) Next best for launch + landings both: Port Canaveral (Rt. 401, 6.9 from landings, 13 from launch) or Jetty Park (6.0 from landings but no view of launch pad). If 401 is filled or no more parking is allowed, fall back to Rt 528/Beeline behind it.
[TheAmericanMirror] Maxine Waters now sees a Russian behind every mailbox and lamp post. Only the Republican mailboxes and lamp posts.
During an anti-Trump tirade at an urban housing event, the California congresswoman went on a stem winder about Russia and the Kremlin’s alleged love for the American president. A stem winder of the unhinged variety, that is.
At one point, the paranoid Waters declared Trump has committed "obstruction of justice," and made the case for impeachment, also citing "possible collusion" with Russia. When you're done ranting, I want to revisit the "obstruction of justice" subject, OK?
She theorized Russia wanted to elect Trump so he would lift sanctions to allow Russia to drill for oil in the Arctic. No way. To MAGA, the US needs to suck all the oil out of the North Pole, not Russia.
President Obama created the sanctions. She claimed Trump "hates" Obama. So do I. But I don't think Obama was in control of the Arctic.
"I want to tell you they absolutely hacked our Democratic National Committee‐absolutely did that," she told the audience to cheers. Not at all. Just because some Communist ideologues made the DNC look bad doesn't mean it was the Russians.
"RT, which is Russian television, absolutely interfered with a speech of mine on the floor of Congress and blocked me out for 10 minutes," she bellowed, as a woman in the audience gasped, "What?!?" Strange. I wonder where it switched over. I'll have to look very carefully.
"They don’t play. They mean business," Waters declared. Yep. The Russians mean business. The Dems are the ones at play.
She was referring to an incident last January when C-SPAN briefly showed RT on its Internet feed. The TV broadcast wasn’t affected. Yep. The TV broadcast continued to spill hateful nonsense.
C-SPAN blamed the moment on an "internal routing error." The router thought it was seeing gibberish and switched to something that made more sense.
"We don’t believe that we were hacked," the network said in a statement. Thereby leaving Maxine a little wiggle room to live out her fantasy. Well played, C-SPAN, well played.
#5
"I want to tell you they absolutely hacked our Democratic National Committee‐absolutely did that," she told the audience to cheers.
Seith Richard broke into the DNC IT server room, copied the emails to a thumb drive and then dumped them onto Wikileaks file drop. Can't hide that kind of thing.
Clapper and Brennan concocted the narrative that the Russians hacked the DNC. Can't hide that kind of thing either. Thank you, George Webb.
Since Mad Maxine is repeating a story that she knows to be false does that make her a co-conspirator? Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by: H. Snomoling3427 ||
02/01/2018 19:25
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[TheHill] Michelle Obama has a message for Americans who are frightened by the current political climate: remain hopeful. Ah yes. How'd that hopey-changey thing work out for you anyway?
"All we have is hope," the former first lady says in a preview clip from Thursday's "Ellen" show. After that dummy Trump paddled every other Republican in sight in the primaries and then the Chosen Candidate in the election, he went to work on your smart husband's legacy and has pretty much dismantled it in a year even though he's pulled several punches. Yeah, all you got left is hope. But not in your lifetime.
Obama's sit-down with host Ellen DeGeneres marks her first TV interview since leaving the White House last year.
"People are afraid, but then there are people who feel good about the direction of the country, so I mean, that’s what makes this country complicated because it’s made up of so many different people from different backgrounds," Obama tells DeGeneres, when asked what advice she'd give people who find the world to be a "scary place right now." Whatever that means.
"The thing I learned in the eight years that I was in the White House is that what we do every day in our lives, the good things that we do every day ‐ and we know we do it: we show empathy, we care for each other, you know, we do have a lot in common," says Obama. "That’s what it means to lead with hope and not fear."
"I would just encourage your viewers, the country, to do the things we do every day: to love each other, to take care of each other, to show empathy ‐ and you can’t do that only when people make you feel good or safe," the 54-year-old Obama said, without mentioning President Trump. "We’ve got to do it all across the board." Just ignore the crime and problems we've invited by bringing in MS-13 and any terrorists hiding amongst the good immigrants.
"We have to be an open-hearted nation and that’s who we are," she added. Open hearted to everyone but our own citizens because we can depend on you voting without thinking about it.
"So, let’s just keep living our lives like that every single day and forget what they’re saying in Washington. That’s not necessarily who we are. We know who we are." We are the only ones whose opinion matters, not the majority. That's who we are.
Obama also shared some lighter moments with DeGeneres as part of the daytime talk show host's 60th birthday celebration on her eponymous chatfest. Personally, I'd prefer to see the floor dropped out from under her like the contestants in that stupid game show Ellen runs.
The ex-executive mansion resident gifted DeGeneres with a few birthday goodies, including boxed wine, Metamucil, push-up handles and a Barack Obama Chia pet. Now that's just plain racist.
[LongWarJournal] The Trump Administration announced a new round of economic sanctions against terror groups in the Middle East on Wednesday, including Harakat as-Sabirin li-Nasran Filastin (The Movement of the Patient Ones for the Liberation of Palestine). As-Sabirin is an Iranian-funded splinter Shia jihadist faction that has operated in Gaza since as early as 2014. The sanctions are the latest indication that Washington is serious about going after various terror groups in the Gaza Strip.
As-Sabirin is a unique organization in Gaza in that it is overtly Shiite. The group’s leader, Hisham Salem, reportedly converted to Shiism and has instructed his followers to proselytize in the predominantly Sunni coastal enclave. Salem is a former commander in Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), another beneficiary of Iranian funds. Salem broke with PIJ with the support of Iran after Tehran had a falling out with both Hamas and PIJ as a result of the Syrian civil war. As-Sabirin first appeared in Gaza in 2014 when one of its fighters died in a mysterious explosion at a weapons production facility.
Since then, as-Sabirin has attempted to establish a presence in the West Bank and launch attacks into Israel. The State Department designation says as-Sabirin fired rockets into Israel in Sept. 2015 and detonated an explosive device that targeted the IDF in Dec. 2015. In Jan. 2016, Salem announced that as-Sabirin formed cells in the West Bank, and one month later the Palestinian Authority arrested a five-man cell in Bethlehem. Salem’s Gaza home was also targeted in a bomb attack that year. He has been the subject of repeated assassination attempts.
As-Sabirin receives approximately $10 million a year in assistance from Iran. The group was spawned by Iran as a counterpoint to Hamas at a time when Tehran and the dominant Gaza terror faction were feuding. In recent years, however, relations between Iran and Hamas have improved, with some Hamas officials remarking that Iranian assistance is at pre-fallout levels. Regardless, today’s designation makes it clear that the US government still sees a significant relationship between Iran and as-Sabirin, and that it is serious about breaking up that alliance.
[FOXNEWS] A key U.S. Senate committee overseeing the FBI is demanding that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein release newly recovered text messages between anti-Trump FBI officials Peter Strozk and Lisa Page.
“I respectfully request that the [Justice] Department produce all text messages newly recovered or received by Peter Strzok and Lisa Page for the period December 14, 2016 to May 17, 2017,” reads a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee letter dated Jan. 31.
The committee wants the information no later than Feb. 14.
The documents show more on the Democratic Party's attempt to turn the USA into a 3rd World S---hole.
h/t Gates of Vienna
[Breitbart] The unnamed Social Democrat (SPÖ) was arrested last Thursday by police in the region of Lower Austria in connection with child abuse that is said to have gone on for several years. Once police searched the man’s home, they found a number of weapons, including hand grenades, and Nazi memorabilia, including uniforms
[Essays in Idleness] "If you’ve got rats, you call the guy to come in."
I picked up this little gem of political analysis from this morning’s news-cruise on the Internet. It was on the Beeb website, of all unlikely places. Their correspondent was visiting Saginaw, Michigan, which he correctly identified as a proper noun in the lyrics of a pop song from fifty-two years ago. (BBC like to remind us how hip they are.)
Perhaps gentle reader already understands this analysis, uttered by a retired nurse, who was not the only Saginawian who helped deliver the "blue wall" state of Michigan to Mr Trump, two Novembers ago.
"You don’t care if his crack is showing, you don’t care if he swears, you don’t care if he got tobacco-stain teeth. You want the rats took out."
...The oddest thing about this story, which wanders off the Beeb’s anti-Trump narrative for a few paragraphs before returning to it, is that it tells us exactly why Mr Trump now has the Republican Party in his wee hands, and is beloved in "Middle America" ‐ including Saginaw, a failed rustbelt town, once heavily unionized and in the fief of the Democratic Party. Under their management, the population of Saginaw shrank to about half.
But it don’t belong to them any more; and what is worse (if you’re a Democrat), it is coming back to life.
This is a mystery, to the media, although not to me. Even a prominent local patch of graffiti has been altered from "Saginasty" to "Saginawesome" ‐ and little businesses are springing through the asphalt splits, including boutique shops, boutique breweries, boutique housebuilding, and boutique industrial workshops.
#1
Alexis de Tocqueville, author of "Democracy in America", toured the United States in 1831. On July 23, 1831, he took what was perhaps the first Michigan "road trip" by renting horses in Detroit and, ignoring advice from locals not to do so, traveled by Indian trails to Pontiac, Flint and Saginaw. While on the trail he wrote that he believed he was as far from modern civilization as a person could then get. His chapters about this excursion, “Two Weeks in the Wilderness,” are excluded from some abridged versions of "Democracy in America". They are well worth reading.
[Politico] Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar had planned to send a clear message to Congress and his new boss in the White House that he would not tolerate ethically questionable behavior.
That opportunity came faster than expected after POLITICO reported Tuesday that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had traded in tobacco stocks while she led the agency.
Less than 48 hours after being sworn in, Azar accepted the resignation of CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald amid questions about her judgment and conflicts of interest.
Fitzgerald’s purchase of shares in tobacco, drug and food companies while serving as the nation’s top public health official and her inability to divest other holdings kept her from working on key health issues and were exactly the kind of distractions Azar vowed to eliminate.
"Alex has a really low tolerance for drama," a person familiar with Azar’s thinking said. "He wants the president to look at HHS and say, ’This is my workhorse. This is the place where I’m getting stuff done.’"
After a meeting with the CDC’s senior leadership early Wednesday, Fitzgerald submitted her resignation, according to a source familiar with the matter. An HHS spokesman said Azar accepted it, but it is unclear whether he demanded it. Rank-and-file staffers didn’t know about the decision until after HHS issued a news release later in the morning.
#4
Funny how rooting out corruption is seen as a scandal. Puts new light on the Obama Admin was scandal-free. They never rooted it out, they just played Sergeant Schultz for 8 years.
[American Thinker] Over 50 years have passed since then Secretary of Labor Daniel Moynihan was raked over the coals for raising awareness on the alarming rise of illegitimacy in black communities. Now that the percentage of single mothers has almost tripled, even leading members of the NAACP regard the breakdown of the family as the single largest barrier to black achievement. Nevertheless, how much of the general public knows the extent of the black gender gap?
According to the Moynihan Report, black females usually outperformed their male counterparts in school and almost always greatly outnumbered black men in white-collar jobs. Data from Maryland’s 2016 PARCC exam concurs with Moynihan’s observations (Fig. 1). Based on these scores the gender gap in blacks is 69%. This far exceeds the 47% difference between black girls and their white counterparts.
Moynihan characterized this as a "matriarchal society" where men were devalued for their inability to provide for the family. He speculated that since men are poorly suited to this "reversal of roles," some black males react with "aggression... self-hatred, or crime." Data from the state of Virginia shows a strong association between single parent households and violent crime (Fig. 2). Since the Appalachian cities of Galax and Bristol are 87-90% white, this correlation applies to both races.
Monynihan's Injustices theory might have 'held water' had the phenomenon been geographically limited. He correctly identified the disease, but was a bit off on the exact causes.
h/t Instapundit
[PJMedia] Carpetbaggers ‐ as I’m sure most of you know ‐ were northerners who went south to make a fortune off the beaten populace and the despoiled land after the Civil War. With the former fighters of the region subdued and controlled by punitive laws, and with the wealth of the region destroyed, it was easy for any northerner johnny-come-lately to make money.
I’m not judging, nor do I attempt to judge the right and wrong of the American Civil War. As in most civil wars, there was no right, a whole lot of wrongs, and even if the emancipation was a good result of it, it caused suffering and injustice all the way up to the present day.
Yeah, what I’m saying is "the thing could have been better handled" but certainly not by me or anyone human, because it was one of those messes humans get into and where there’s no clean solution.
No. I just wanted to note that when the government takes sides, when the government raises some people and lowers others as a matter of being members of a group, there are going to be carpetbaggers. There’s going to be exploitation.
...So it has been with affirmative action. There are government set-asides for practically every category of humans under the sun, and more interestingly, the idea of affirmative action has percolated through the culture, even to those companies that aren’t involved with the government, and therefore don’t need to keep strict proportions amid their employees.
And yes, if anyone wonders, this idea of the government saying you have to have x number of this type of humans and y number of this type of humans is a very bad one.
It is bad for the companies because sometimes the best-qualified applicant isn’t the one you have to hire. More importantly, though, it is very bad for the people thus singled out, and hired, and thus consigned to a special category. And have you seen that it done to K-12, not to mention universities?
...I don’t know if it’s worse or just tragically comic that this has now started generating (heck, has probably always generated) carpetbaggers, willing to get rich off the conquered territory and willing to lie and scheme their way to power and prominence.
Rachel Dolezal, Shaun King, and yeah, Ward Churchill and Elizabeth Warren are such carpetbaggers, and you know where they get prominent there are hundreds more hiding in the weave of society, pretending to be something they’re not, to take advantage of those who have to hand them something for nothing (and their chicks for free) for the sake of their claiming "minority" and "victim."
...In fact, it corrupts all fields and all enterprises. People elevated beyond their achievements are resentful and think they’re being deliberately being kept down ‐ see Michelle Obama’s reaction to Harvard ‐ while those around them feel put upon and not a little angry.
Progressives complain of the president being "divisive." But their policies of giving unearned benefits to people, on the basis of presumed past discrimination against long-dead ancestors, are what in fact do cause divisiveness and hatred.
It creates social justice carpetbaggers, multiplying like maggots on the body politic. And it makes a mockery of our land’s idea of equal rights before the law -- be they to liberty or to the pursuit of happiness.
[Townhall] One would think that condemning an extremely violent international gang like MS-13 would be an innocuous thing for an American president to do, but alas, in today’s broken political discourse, Trump’s State of the Union spotlighting of the infamous Salvadoran criminal enterprise was met with screeches of indignation from anti-Trump politicians and media figures alike.
Much of the outrage over Trump’s choice to highlight the tragic murders of teenage friends Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas was centered around criticizing the President for suggesting a linkage between immigrants and MS-13. The following comments from Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) on MSNBC were representative of this line of argument:
#2
When a cop beats up or shoots a black man its 24/7 coverage. When illegals commit hideous crimes, its buried, buried, buried (as usually are the victims).
#3
It's so easy to poke holes in their arguments that it's pathetic, and yet the media never does.
OK, for one thing Trump did not mean all immigrants or even all illegal immigrants. He was talking about a handful of illegal immigrants who also happen to be hardcore violent criminals. But loonies like Kamala Harris ignore that little detail and make it sound like Trump was talking about all immigrants, legal or otherwise, and therefore he is a racist. This is a very basic flaw in her reasoning that anyone should be able to see.
But Harris is not that stupid. She knows better so when she misrepresents what Trump said she is in fact lying. Why? Why won't she tell us what she really wants? Why can't she be honest? Is it because the vast majority of the American people would recoil at such malevolence?
Loonies like Harris will never admit that United States citizens deserver to be protected from criminals who enter our country illegally.
Why not, Kamala? Is it because the best way to protect our own citizens from criminals like MS-13 entering our country is to secure our border? Does that mean Harris believes that anybody from anywhere in the whole wide world should be allowed to walk right into our country, no questions asked? That they should be allowed free education in our schools, free health care? EBT cards? Free housing? Free money? Who's gonna pay?
Why can't you tell us, Kamala? Stop lying and tell us what your really want.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/01/2018 11:34
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#4
Liberals Condemn Trump For winning elections against their candidate. Because all power belongs to the People, and they are the only ones who know what's good for the People.
#5
All those tatooed gangsters riding on the trains into this place illegally with your CACA DACA you piece of shit democrats.
You are all Traitors and I wish you would just leave.
You hate this place and have no business running it no matter how looney your idiot base is.
I hate the democrat party more than anything on this entire planet right now.
I would kick you all down the Temple stairs you arrogant heathen.
[The Hill] Defense Secretary James Mattis is reportedly weighing a ban on allowing civilian employees at the Pentagon to bring their personal cellphones to work.
The deliberations come as the Defense Department reviews its policy on wearable electronics after reports suggested that a fitness-tracking app could put military personnel at risk.
The issue is still being reviewed and no decision has been made regarding the possible cellphone ban, CNN reported Wednesday.
"We take threats to security seriously and are always looking into any potential additional measures to further enhance the security of our of Department of Defense personnel," Maj. Audricia Harris, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon, told CNN.
The White House implemented a ban on personal cellphones in the West Wing earlier this month. That ban was put in place to "protect White House information technology infrastructure from compromise and sensitive or classified information from unauthorized access or dissemination," according to a memo obtained by Politico.
According to CNN, the current review of the Pentagon's cellphone policy was prompted by a small number of cases in which employees brought their personal phones into classified areas.
#2
According to CNN, the current review of the Pentagon's cellphone policy was prompted by a small number of cases in which employees brought their personal phones into classified areas.
Which could easily be resolved by an immediate suspension of security clearance and access to the classified area! Word will get around fairly quickly.
I believe an active security clearance is a generally a "condition of employment."
#6
Cell jammers were a quite popular accessory in hardline SCIFs for a while. Easier than policy and physical monitoring.
Posted by: Skidmark.
If you experience intense, high-pitched, pulsing, ringing noise, "like a mass of crickets" or a whine that "seems to undulate, even writhe," like nails on a chalkboard, leave the SCIF and contact your physician at once.
#10
Add the tracking part. You don't want folks tracked into and out of the Pentagon. It's no different than that exercise tracker.
What restaurants, bars, hotels are attractive to this group? Why ISIS can bomb them.
#11
That would include the cellphones you might not be aware of built into your car and the id pressure transducers Al the Gore insisted being in all tires constantly broadcasting pressure, id, where bought, serial # and maybe even your credit card #. May the CALEA driving, Global Worming, EPA policeman be bowed down to.
#16
Always had a cellphone/electronics device ban in any SCIF I ever saw. It might actually increase productivity and job focus to ban cellphones while on duty there, including DoD civilians.
[Daily Caller] California Rep. Devin Nunes released a statement Wednesday on the FBI and Justice Department’s objections to releasing a classified memo detailing alleged surveillance abuse.
"Having stonewalled Congress’ demands for information for nearly a year, it’s no surprise to see the FBI and DOJ issue spurious objections to allowing the American people to see information related to surveillance abuses at these agencies," the statement said.
"The FBI is intimately familiar with ’material omissions’ with respect to their presentations to both Congress and the courts, and they are welcome to make public, to the greatest extent possible, all the information they have on these abuses."
The statement continued, "Regardless, it’s clear that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counter-intelligence investigation during an American political campaign. Once the truth gets out, we can begin taking steps to ensure our intelligence agencies and courts are never misused like this again."
#2
...Man, given the screaming that's come from the other side of the aisle over this, I'm starting to believe that it's going to be really, really bad.
Add to the memo kerfluffle that a record number of Congresscritters have decided 'to spend more time with their families' and I'm beginning to suspect that we're about to be living in those interesting times the old Chinese curse mentions.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/01/2018 6:16
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#3
Domino effect.
FISA, Clinton emails and off-site servers, Wasserman-Schultz and her DNC's IT people, Huma, Lynch, Valjar, Comey, McCabe, Brennan, Slick Willie, and Soetoro.... all dominos.
The left and many others in the Swamp have much to lose.
#6
They don't fear the 4 page report. They fear the appointment of a Special Counsel, the legitimate investigation demanded by the Forgotten Man, and the indictments.
#7
I believe this is all a scrimmage before the DoJ IG report is released...that is when the screaming starts...the critters in the DoJ and FBI will want the IG report classified and prevent its release.
#8
As to the "changes" Adam Schiff is claiming were done in secret Byron York tweets this, "Just talked with House Intel source. Said total changes to memo were: A) Unknown number of 'grammatical and clarifying' fixes. B) One change requested by FBI due to sources & methods concerns. C) One two-word change requested by Democrats for accuracy."
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/01/2018 10:33
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#9
Release the damn memo. We've got 2018 midterm elections to soon vote in. We need the info.
#10
I have serious doubts about the memo as well. It's a Republican written memo, not some clue found at the scene of the crime. It likely connects dots we at Rantburg already know about.
#12
If Brennan and the Klingons out-sourced the signals collection effort on Trump Towers to the British Intelligence, it sure would be of interest. Perhaps that's what everyone keeps referring to as 'sources and methods.'
[Breitbart] Following President Donald Trump’s delivery of the State of the Union address on Tuesday, CNN host Jake Tapper said Trump did not "understand" how offensive it was to Democrats for him to state that "Americans are DREAMers, too."
According to Tapper, Trump did not understand that Democrats were going to be offended by the phrase "Americans are DREAMers, too" and other language used by Trump on immigration.
"[B]y the same token, I think President Trump doesn’t actually necessarily understand just how offensive many Democrats in that chamber are going to find some of the things he proposed and some of the things he said in terms of, there are Americans who are DREAMers, too, etc., some of the things he said about immigration that are going to turn off a lot of people in that chamber," Tapper said.
Network political analyst Gloria Borger followed by saying that she agreed with Tapper’s assessment of Trump’s language.
#2
According to Tapper, Trump did not understand that Democrats were going to be offended by the phrase "Americans are DREAMers, too" and other language used by Trump on immigration.
Still stuck on stupid - Trump knows all to well who would be 'offended' (fake offended, but still) and you took the bait again, CNN.
[Breitbart] Legal and illegal immigrants wired almost $140 billion from the United States back to their home countries and foreign relatives in 2016.
The huge loss of domestic spending by of immigrants’ remittances is spotlighted in a new report by the Pew Research Center, which also noted that $6.5 billion was sent back to the United States by foreign-based U.S. workers. That is a 21-fold difference and is enough money to support 2.6 million additional $50,000 jobs in the United States.
The remittance number is based on calculations by the World Bank.
#4
These are only the 'legal', auditable paths.
The web delivers much more offshore via online gaming and gambling, pay-for-prawn sites and religious donations for example.
[FoxNews] A test of an American missile defense system failed early Wednesday morning in Hawaii, two U.S. defense officials tell Fox News. It’s the same type of antiballistic infrastructure the Pentagon depends on to shoot down intermediate-range North Korean ballistic missiles.
It was the second failure of an SM-3 antiballistic missile interceptor since June.
“We’re now one for three,” a U.S. official with knowledge of the test told Fox News. The official was not authorized to speak to the media, and requested anonymity.
In February, an SM-3 missile launched from the USS John Paul Jones, a guided-missile destroyer, successfully shot down an intermediate-range ballistic missile target dropped from a cargo plane. The same type of scripted test was performed Wednesday, resulting in the miss. The test was performed from a land-based missile defense system using the same type of missile in Hawaii.
The Pentagon declined to comment.
A spokesman from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency only would acknowledge a test took place, but refused to reveal the results.
"The Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy sailors manning the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Test Complex (AAMDTC) conducted a live-fire missile flight test using a Standard-Missile (SM)-3 Block IIA missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii, Wednesday morning,” said Mark Wright, a Missile Defense Agency spokesman.
#1
SM-3 missiles destroy incoming ballistic missile threats in space using nothing more than “sheer impact,” like hitting a 10-ton truck traveling at 600 mph, according to Raytheon Co., who makes the missile.
The system currently is deployed in Romania, and is “on track” to be deployed on U.S. warships and at military bases this year, according to the company’s website.
They don't work, but will be deployed, and Raytheon gets paid.
[IsraelTimes] Erel Margalit notes German shipyard that is building vessels for Israel was owned by family of Leb’s former defense minister
A former Knesset member claimed Wednesday that blueprints for submarines that were being built for the Israeli military were stolen in a cyberattack on a German shipyard.
In December 2016, heavy industry giant ThyssenKrupp said it fell victim to a hacking attack in which the perpetrators sought to steal company secrets, but there was no indication at the time that the plans for the Israeli submarines had been taken.
"When Israel is ordering strategic submarines from Germany, a hacker... gets into ThyssenkKrupp and is able to steal the secrets and blueprints of the submarines that were developed in Germany for Israeli use," high-tech entrepreneur Erel Margalit, a former MK, said at a cybersecurity conference in Tel Aviv.
Margalit noted that the shipyard in Kiel, Germany, that is building the ships for the Israel Navy was owned by the family of Samir Moqbel, who was Leb’s defense minister.
"We know that the boats, the Corvettes that Israel is buying to protect... its waters... are bought from a shipyard that is owned by a Lebanese family, one of which was the Lebanese defense minister, who has intimate dealings with Iran," he said. "And so you are asking yourself whether the new blueprint of Israel’s boats is in the hands of Iran."
In announcing the attack in 2016, a ThyssenKrupp front man said hackers believed to be from Southeast Asia were trying to obtain "technological know-how and research results" from the steel conglomerate. He said that the attack was over and had been repelled.
ThyssenKrupp also made headlines in Israel after it was revealed that the Iran Foreign Investment Company held a 4.5 percent stake in the Germany conglomerate.
At the Tel Aviv conference, Margalit also cautioned that "while the world is trying to delay and prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, Tehran has already become a cyberpower, with attacks against Israel, the US, 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 others."
In any future confrontation with Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, he said, Israel will have to contend with Iranian capabilities "that we have not yet encountered in the cyber arena, especially in light of the lack of protection for civilian infrastructure in Israel."
[ToloNews] Residents of Qala-e-Wahid in Kabul on Wednesday blasted security agencies and said they need to step up efforts to prevent turbans from infiltrating the city.
This comes a day after the National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) raided a ISIS house in the area.
"Property agents renting houses must take warranties from those who want to pay rent for houses and they should keep a copy of their identity documents.
It should be clear who is renting a house and who lives there," said Gulzaman, a resident of Qala-e-Wahid, where the ISIS house was found.
"Security agencies have no surveillance in this area. We don’t often see police force members here," Mohammad Ismail, a resident of the area said.
Some residents said they were shocked when they heard about the ISIS house in their area.
"Those who were in the house were speaking Farsi. One of them left the house in the morning while another went out in the evening," Zuhoorullah, a resident of the area said.
"There were three men and a woman in the house. The woman gave money to my brother to do shopping for her," a resident of Qala-e-Wahid, Rahimshah, said.
The ministry of interior meanwhile said it has started intelligence operations in all parts of Kabul.
"We have sent new forces to vulnerable areas. All the intelligence organizations continue their efforts to identify gunnies and other suspects," said Nusrat Rahimi, deputy front man for the Ministry of Interior.
The National Directorate of Security said it raided a ISIS facility in Kabul’s PD5 on Tuesday and seized a large cache of weapons and ammunition.
The NDS said the house was used in the run up to the military academy attack on Monday ‐ and was thought to have been used to plan the attack.
"There are RPGs, there is a boom jacket, each box in it has two kilograms of explosives, each of them has eight kilograms weight," said one NDS officer after the raid.
NDS said the arrest of one ISIS holy warrior during the attack on the military academy on Monday led to the discovery of the house.
Security forces have however carried out a number of operations in the same area in the past.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
And when they say "under fire" in Afghanistan, they mean mortars - at least.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Bahrain’s criminal court on Wednesday sentenced two people to death and 19 others to life imprisonment in a ruling against a cell convicted of terror attacks.
It also sentenced 17 members of the cell to 15 years in jail, nine others to 10 years, 11 to five years, and acquitted the last two defendants, Bahrain’s BNA news agency reported.
Forming terror cell
The defendants were convicted of forming a terror cell that carried out a number of attacks, killing at least two coppers and wounding several others, and of smuggling weapons by boat.
It also convicted them of attacking a prison and helping some prisoners to flee, of travelling to Iraq and Iran for military training and engaging in a shootout with police.
Large quantities of weapons including grenades and light machine-guns were seized from the group, according to the ruling. The court revoked the citizenship of 47 of the convicts.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[IsraelTimes] A Paleostinian man planning a terror attack was placed in durance vile Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! Wednesday near the West Bank settlement of Negohot holding a knife and a map of the Israeli community, security forces said.
"A short while ago, IDF troops thwarted an attempted terror attack next to the community of Negohot, southwest of Hebron," the military said in a statement.
"Soldiers apprehended a Paleostinian suspect wearing a military-style jacket near the community," the army said, adding that a knife and a map of the settlement were found in the suspect’s possession.
"The suspect and the found items were transferred to [the] security forces," the statement said.
[ConservativeTreehouse] Gotta love the professionally obtuse former DNI James Clapper.
As much as he is a stuttering doofus, and therein showcases his political value for the former administration; and to the extent that Clapper has previously stated there was no attempt by the DOJ/FBI to gain a FISA authorized approval for surveillance on any Trump campaign officials: “none that I’m aware of“; …it is always valuable to listen to Clapper because he has a tendency to, well, to let slip stuff that makes the black hats cringe.
Cue the audio visual “slippage.” Inside tonight’s interview by Jake Tapper, former DNI James Clapper now unwittingly refutes his previous assertion of “no Trump FISA warrant“, and simultaneously lets it slip out that the Clinton/Steele dossier was not used in gaining origination authority for FISA-702 surveillance, but rather for an “extension” of a previous application for FISA-702 surveillance. WATCH:
#1
Wow. This is prima facia evidence of misuse of the FISA process for political means by Comey, Clapper and others in service of Obama and Hillary Clinton against Trump. Clapper, in particular, should be charged with Perjury based on his lying to Congress. Use of that info involved a statement that they had verified the information in the dossier as credible in order to get or act upon the info in a warrant in the FISA court. They lied. Perjury. Also abuse of process. And probably Corruption changes, as well as obstruction of Justice - all this against Lynch, Comey, McCabe, and possibly Clapper.
The whole thing in Justice and the FBI is turning out to be far more rotten than most would have imagined.
#4
Clapper is to stupid to keep his stories straight. I was a bit shocked but not by much as we heard Lt ColonelAnthony Shaffer said James Clapper is an Idiot. A video well worth watching. If not just for his comedic dismissal reflection on Clapper's "eyes glaze over".
Deep State protects their own. No action against 'The Clap' is likely.
[ToloNews] The Afghan government rejected reports on Wednesday that Pakistain handed over 27 Taliban ...Arabic for students... and Haqqani network prisoners to Afghanistan last year.
"Pakistain has not handed over any members of these groups," a credible source told TOLOnews.
This comes after a front man for Pakistain’s Foreign Office Mohammad Faisal claimed on Tuesday that Pakistain handed over 27 individuals suspected of having ties to Taliban and Haqqani network to Afghan officials last year.
According to a Dawn News report, Faisal said Pakistain continues to push any suspected Afghan Taliban and Haqqani elements with a view to "prevent them from using our soil for any terrorist activity in Afghanistan."
The suspected bully boyz were handed over to Afghanistan in November 2017, he said.
Peace could not be achieved in Afghanistan in the past 17 years despite the use of all sorts of weapons and ammunition, Faisal said, adding that the Afghan conflict can only be addressed through dialogue as the military strategy has failed.
#3
If someone could explain to me what the hell is wrong with all these Never Trumpers, that would be great. For the life of me, I can’t understand what their problem is, and I have good friends who were and remain steadfastly Never Trump. It seems to boil down to Trump being “unfit” for office but I think that’s only true if you believe what the MSM wants you to believe. Which I don’t, obviously, and believe that only a fool would do so.
#4
If someone could explain to me what the hell is wrong with all these Never Trumpers, that would be great. For the life of me, I can’t understand what their problem is....
#8
Mr. Wife, who generally has a relentlessly analytical mind, loathes Donald Trump, and always has. The public persona of brash self-promotion, serial wives and girlfriends, the casino business that must have led him to a modus vivendi with mobsters, that apparently everything is transactional... Mr. Wife sees correctly that such a man would be destructive as he worked his way up in a corporate environment. He considers everything the president says a lie, and at this point is not interested in looking deeper into stories of how he acts when the cameras are off. Perhaps by 2020 the facts on the ground will keep my husband from voting for the Democrat for the second time in his life, but I have given up trying to discuss it with him. It may have something to do with the fact that despite loathing George W. Bush, too, he voted for Mr. Bush twice as the lesser evil. But he came to believe Mr. Bush did an unacceptably poor job — not that the other guys would have done any better.
They will only be persuaded when they can look back from a distance, assuming President Trump continues to deliver, like all those who eventually came round on Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. Fortunately, the ratio among the voters favours Mr. Trump and his supporters.
#9
It may have something to do with the fact that despite loathing George W. Bush, too, he voted for Mr. Bush twice as the lesser evil. But he came to believe Mr. Bush did an unacceptably poor job — not that the other guys would have done any better.
#10
like all those who eventually came round on Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.
As someone who, I'll admit it, voted for carter and was a democrat. I agree! Took me awhile to recognize that Reagan (or RayGuns as I used to refer to him as a democrat) was great president - perhaps one of the greatest. I think Trump will go down in history likewise.
Hindsight is, occasionally, 20/20
#11
#8 T.W. We all have histories of traveling down wrong paths. Sometimes we act on partial or faulty info.
Carter got elected as a response by the voters to Watergate. George W. followed the Clintons. He was the lesser of two evils (in 2000, it was Gore and in 2004, that dufuss JFnKerry). Sometimes the choices aren't good. In 2016, Trump is probably a bit of everything Mr. Wife says and yet he was by far the best choice over Hidabeast. IMHO, Obama, the Clintons and the Dems took this country to the brink of destruction. Most of us have family members like Mr. Wife whom we live with and love. Perhaps Mr. Wife will see things your way in the future--keep trying.
#12
My sympathies, TW. I'm sure many have said it better than I ever could, but my issue with the NeverTrumpers is that they thought (and still think!) that the country would be better off with Hillary (spit) and her myrmidons holding power. Whatever Trump's failings might be, they pale in comparison to her serial felonies, overt power lust, and total contempt for us Deplorables. We all know that any politically unconnected person who did half of what she's done would be permanently enjoying life in the Crossbar Hotel.
Where would we be if HRC had won? We'd have a Supreme Court tearing up the Constitution, continuing economic stagnation (with higher, not lower, taxes), and millions of illegal aliens pouring across the border.
#14
Personally I think the #NeverTrump crowd are liberals who found they could make a career out pretending to be Conservative Lite. But like all liberals they have become unhinged in the era of Trump.
#15
Never underestimate the power of ego investment and the need to see oneself as having been right all along about Trump, and thus ever so much smarter than the lumpen.
And then there those who seem to think that "true conservatism" is an aesthetic rather than an ideology or philosopy.
#16
Mr. Wife voted for George W. in the 2000 election, when I voted for Al Gore. He and I often come to different political conclusions from the same information — he being in general more conservative fiscally and more liberal socially than I. What matters is that he has a good and loving heart, and takes his responsibilities seriously.
#17
Traditionally there have been two choices for Prez. Ones that want to rule you (regulations) and the ones don't. This time we needed a really boorish one that doesn't want to rule you because DC became all about ruling you.
Posted by: Bill Cleretle2363 ||
02/01/2018 20:12
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A Paleostinian teenager from the West Bank tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! by Israel was sent to the Gazoo Strip despite never having been there in her life, an NGO said Wednesday.
Israeli rights group HaMoked said the 14-year-old girl, named only as Ghada, was arrested in Jerusalem on January 13 without a permit while visiting the Israeli-controlled city.
While she is from a-Ram a few kilometres (miles) north of Jerusalem, her father is originally from Gazoo, the Paleostinian territory about 80 kilometres (some 50 miles) away that is hermetically sealed off by Israel.
HaMoked said the girl was told she would be dropped off at a checkpoint near her home but on her release on January 16 instead was taken to the Erez crossing into Gazoo.
Abir Joubran-Dakwar, HaMoked’s lawyer dealing with the case, said they had not yet received a response from Israel about when she could return.
She said Ghada had never been in Gazoo before and did not know anyone there, though she was now staying with members of her extended family.
"No one told her anything -- they told her they would send her to Qalandia (checkpoint near her home) but they sent her to Erez."
She said Ghada has epilepsy and was concerned the stress could affect her condition.
A front man for the Israel Prison Service said they were examining the case, stressing however that according to official records the girl was a Gazoo resident.
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Kirkuk (Iraqinews.com) – Security force killed on Wednesday two Islamic State suicide bombers and arrested three others during a military operation in western Kirkuk, a security source was quoted as saying.
Speaking to Alghad Press news website, the source said, “Federal police personnel shot dead two Islamic State suicide attackers during a clampdown to track down Islamic State remnants at a village in Hawija, 45 km west of Kirkuk.”
“The troops also arrested three Islamic State militants and found a terrorist hotbed, comprising explosive materials and mobile phones,” the source added.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) A policeman was killed, while two others were wounded as a booby-trapped house exploded in west of Kirkuk, a security source from the province said on Wednesday.
“A local police personnel was killed and two others were injured as they were defusing explosives inside a booby-trapped house in al-Rashad town, southwest of Kirkuk,” the source told AlSumaria News. “Local police was clearing houses from the remnants of IS.”
“Security troops transferred the victim to forensic medicine department, while the wounded were transferred to hospital for treatment,” the source added.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Seventy percent of displaced Iraqis at Kirkuk province have returned to their home regions in the province, the migration ministry’s office there said Tuesday.
The ministry’s office chief in Kirkuk, Karmoun Ammar, told Alghad Press website that, since 2014, Kirkuk received 117 refugees from Nineveh, Anbar and Salahuddin, besides internal refugees.
He said “70% percent have returned to their regions” in the province.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[Ynet] A Ottoman Turkish court sentenced three people to multiple life sentences on Wednesday in connection with a bombing that killed 12 German tourists in Istanbul two years ago.
A jacket wallah, Saudi-born Syrian Nabil Fadli, killed the tourists when he went kaboom! in Sultanahmet, Istanbul's historic heart, on Jan. 12, 2016. Ottoman Turkish authorities blamed 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.... for the attack.
Two Syrians, Atala el-Hasan el-Mayyup and Fevzi Muhammed Ali, and a Ottoman Turkish man, Halil Dervis, were found guilty of aiding murder, trying to overthrow the government and constitution, membership of a terrorist organization and committing crimes in the name of an armed terrorist organization.
They were each given 12 aggravated life sentences, 12 terms of 16 years and 16 eight-year terms for the injuries caused. They were also given nine years for transporting explosives from Syria, for a total of 329 years each on top of the multiple life sentences
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[AlAhram] German police locked away Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! three suspects during an operation Wednesday against a group that is believed to have smuggled at least 160 migrants colonists into Germany over recent months.
Raids were staged in four German states Wednesday, federal police front man Christian Meinhold said. Two suspects were arrested in Berlin and a third in Bad Muskau, on the Polish border. Seven properties were searched.
The suspects are believed to belong to a group that smuggled migrants colonists from the Czech Republic and Poland, largely using trucks and in some cases hiding them behind goods and pallets. The people arrested are nationals of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... , Poland and Bulgaria.
The alleged smuggling took place since August, with migrants colonists largely being transported across the Balkans and then via the Czech Republic or Poland into Germany. The smugglers charged each migrant 8,000 euros (some $9,900).
In November, police in Slovakia intercepted two trucks heading for Germany with 79 migrants colonists from Iran and Iraq on board, including 32 children under the age of 7, and arrested the two Ottoman Turkish drivers.
Germany saw around 186,000 asylum-seekers arrive last year. That was much lower than the previous two years, but officials say the number is still too high and that is due in part to smugglers' activities.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An Egyptian court on Wednesday gave 15 people one-year suspended jail sentences over a December attack on an unlicensed Coptic Church in a village south of Cairo, judicial sources said.
The perpetrators were each fined 500 Egyptian pounds ($28) on charges of inciting sectarian strife, harming national unity and vandalizing private property. They can appeal.
Owner fined The Giza misdemeanor court also fined the owner of the building, a Christian man, 360,000 Egyptian pounds ($20,500) for turning his residency into a church without a license.
Dozens of Moslems from the village of Kafr al-Waslin attacked the church after Friday prayers on Dec. 22, smashing windows and breaking everything inside.
The Archdiocese of Atfih had applied to legalize the church, which housed worshippers for 15 years after a church building law was passed in 2016.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Al Jazeera] The government of Kenya has called a symbolic swearing in of opposition leader Raila Odinga a "well-choreographed attempt to subvert or overthrow" the government of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the interior ministry also said that it would keep three independent TV stations, which had planned to broadcast the event, off air pending investigation.
They said that broadcasting the event amounted to a "serious breach of security".
Citizen, NTV and KTN TV were taken off the air by authorities on Tuesday over plans to cover the ceremony at Nairobi's Uhuru Park.
Also on Wednesday, local media reported that an opposition politician who had presided over the swearing-in had been locked away Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! TJ Kajwang was said to have been taken to the headquarters of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Nairobi.
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[Townhall] MSNBC host Joy Reid is known for her outlandish and ugly statements full of factual errors, but last night during the State of the Union she took things to another level.
During President Trump's speech, Reid said American institutions like church, police, the military and the National Anthem are all from a bygone era that should be forgotten.
Church, family, police, military and the National Anthem are hardly part of a bygone era, but instead represent the best of what America has to offer. In fact, we saw examples last night during President Trump's address.
First, Trump told the story of 27-year-old police officer Albuquerque Police Officer Ryan Holets and is wife Rebecca.
"Last year, Ryan was on duty when he saw a pregnant, homeless woman preparing to inject heroin. When Ryan told her she was going to harm her unborn child, she began to weep. She told him she did not know where to turn, but badly wanted a safe home for her baby," Trump said. "In that moment, Ryan said he felt God speak to him: 'You will do it -- because you can.' He took out a picture of his wife and their four kids. Then, he went home to tell his wife Rebecca. In an instant, she agreed to adopt. The Holets named their new daughter Hope."
#4
Dear Joy - may I call you Joy? Thank you, so much:
Up yours, lady. My faith, my service, and my nation will be here long after you've made your last hateful little rant. As a matter of fact, those things will be what rescues your backside someday.
Not that I think you'll be grateful for it.
Sincerely,
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/01/2018 6:07
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#5
In ref to #3, ethnic diversification in the media is based upon viewership, not actual population figures or percentages.
If you suspect there might be something behind the constant bombardment of snake oil pain killer meds on teevee, you might be right. Viewership is money.
#12
The world is turning its back on internationalism. Tough times for progressives who all think of themselves as above national borders and such. Perhaps they should all get residency in Antarctica.
#17
Nationalism is like an extended family -- you may not like or approve of relatives but when trouble comes you protect each other. Internationalists seem to, as the saying goes, "Love humanity but hate and despise every human being they encounter".
[AnNahar] The Algerian army has killed a bigwig of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in an operation in the northeast of the country, officials said Wednesday.
Adel Seghiri -- also known as Abu Ruwaha al-Qasantini -- was among those running the group's al-Andalus media wing responsible for putting out videos and statements.
The army said it killed "two dangerous terrorists" in the Jijel region, 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of the capital Algiers.
The defense ministry and security sources said the propaganda boss -- reportedly among the 40 most wanted "terrorists" in Algeria -- was one of those killed.
On Tuesday, death announcements for the "martyr Abu Ruwaha al-Qasantini" were posted on jihadist websites, U.S. monitor SITE Intelligence Group said.
The propagandist was an active member of jihadist groups since Algeria's "black decade" of conflict between the government and Islamists in the 1990s.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has staged kidnappings and attacks across Africa's Sahel and Maghreb regions.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[Al Jazeera] The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... has announced a new funding package of 42.5 million euros (nearly $53m) to help the Paleostinians build their new state.
The announcement on Wednesday came as Brussels urged the US to not go it alone in any effort to make peace between Israel and the Paleostinians.
The EU warned that doing so would end in failure.
"Any framework for negotiations must be multilateral and must involve all players - all partners - that are essential to this process. A process without one or the other would simply not work, would simply not be realistic," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said.
"Nothing without the United States, nothing with the United States alone," Mogherini told news hounds in Brussels.
Her comments came at an emergency meeting of an international committee coordinating Paleostinian development aid. Government ministers from Israel and Egypt, as well as the Paleostinian prime minister and a US bigwig attended the talks.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The headquarters of the 22nd Brigade in the city of Taiz on Wednesday declared several areas of the north and east of the city as military zones warning citizens not to approach, as fighting continues on several fronts.
This comes after the National Army announced a large-scale military operation to liberate the province of Taiz from the occupation of the Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militia.
The leadership of "Brigade Mika 22" in Taiz called upon the fighters of the Houthi militia to surrender themselves as a last chance to prevent spilling of blood.
During the last few days many areas have been liberated including the Sarmin, Ab’ar, Adnah, Luzam, Laseb, al-Karifaat, and parts of the Taba al-Ja’isahaa, in addition to a number of sites in the northern front.
This progress happened in coordination with the Arab coalition air strikes and logistical support, which have had a very significant impact on victories achieved in Taiz.
Yemeni government front man Rajih Badee denied that the militia is trapping the President and members of the Yemeni government within the presidential compound in Aden, stressing that the palace and its surroundings are under the protection of Brigade one, the presidential security unit.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An Iranian-American dual citizen and his wife have been sentenced to 27 and 16 years in jail respectively, the husband said in a letter from prison published on human rights websites.
“It means my wife and me, and every one of you dual national Zoroastrians who returned to your country to invest in the homeland you love, are always going to be in danger of losing your assets and being forced to leave the country.”
Karan Vafadari, a US citizen, and Afarin Neyssari, a US permanent resident, were arrested in July 2016. They own an art gallery, and they were first accused of hosting mixed-gender parties for foreign diplomats and possessing alcoholic drinks at home.
However, they later faced more serious charges, including “espionage”, “attempt to overthrow the regime” and “conferring to conspire against national security”, their family said in a petition in 2017.
Accusations dropped
In a letter from Evin Prison published on Tuesday by the Center for Human Rights in Iran, Vafadari said the couple were sentenced last week by a Revolutionary Court in Tehran, but the “baseless security accusations” had been dropped. He called the verdict “unjust and tyrannical.”
It was not clear what charges the couple were convicted of. Iran’s judiciary was not immediately available for comment. The couple will have 21 days to appeal the verdict.
Vafadari belongs to the Zoroastrian faith, a religious minority in Iran whose members are allowed to drink liquor discreetly in the privacy of their homes.
Targeted
Vafadari said he has been targeted by the Revolutionary Guards intelligence agency for his “international activities” in the art world, and his dual nationality.
“It means my wife and me, and every one of you dual national Zoroastrians who returned to your country to invest in the homeland you love, are always going to be in danger of losing your assets and being forced to leave the country.”
Iran does not recognize dual nationality, a position that prevents Western embassy officials from visiting such detainees. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have arrested at least 30 dual nationals since 2015, mostly on spying charges, Reuters reported in November.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A team of female Egyptian researchers achieved a scientific breakthrough at the Mansoura University in northern Egypt with an important discovery which sparked global interest. Not just scientists, but female scientists! Kathleen Kenyon's probably really impressed.
The research team, headed by Dr. Hisham Salam, Director of the Excavation Center at Mansoura University, managed to discover a huge dinosaur fossil in the Dakhla Oasis in the New Valley Governorate in the Western Desert of Egypt, with a long neck and four legs aging 80 million years.
"The dinosaur is an herbivore and belong to the Cretaceous era and a group called Tyrannosaurus," said Dr. Hisham Salam, director of the excavation center and head of the research "the group included the largest wild animals that lived on the earth now known as the Mansourasaurus shahinae or the Mansoura lizard in reference to where it was discovered. It is 10 meters long and weighs 5.5 tons."
Salam revealed that the dinosaur lived near the shore of an ancient ocean that existed well before the Mediterranean Sea, and is among the few species of dinosaurs that lived during the last 15 million years.
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#5
Play, gentleman dinos audacious,
Magnolias, and ladies flirtatious!
Live fervently, y'all,
For a terrible fall
Will lay waste to your gracious Cretaceous.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The UAE-backed Southern Resistance forces continued their operations against the Saudi-backed regime of ’Abd Rubbah Mansour Hadi, Wednesday, targeting another town under the control of the latter’s loyalists in southern Yemen.
According to Yemeni activists, the Southern Resistance forces managed to capture the town of ’Ataq in the Shabwa Governorate after a short exchange of hostilities with the Hadi loyalists in the area.
As a result of this advance, the Southern Resistance forces have now taken hold of two important areas in southern Yemen.
The Southern Resistance forces previously demanded the Yemeni President reshuffle his cabinet in order to avoid hostilities; however, Hadi failed to do so, which prompted the UAE-backed forces to launch their assault in southern Yemen.
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[MoroccoWorldNews] After several decades of extremely dry weather, residents in southern regions of Morocco finally woke up this morning to an unusual snowfall that currently impacted Ouarzazate, Taroudant and even Zagora, which has not experienced snowfall for fifty years. Lots of videos at the link.
fyi - Zagora, Morocco is at about 30N latitude which is about the same as New Orleans or Houston -- the difference is that Morocco has the Atlantic Ocean to their west and the prevailing winds are from that direction so getting snow requires a long fetch of winds from the north over several days plus some upper air support
Posted by: lord garth ||
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#1
That whopper we had last week still had a load to dump.
[IsraelTimes] A member of the Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, terror group was killed while working on a tunnel in the Gazoo Strip, the organization said Wednesday.
The group said Mahmoud Hay al-Safadi, 31, died while at work on a "resistance tunnel." It did not say how he was killed or where the tunnel was located.
Safadi, from Gazoo City, was a member of the group’s armed Qassam brigades wing. Hamas is the de facto ruler of Gazoo.
Hamas did not blame Israel for the death, indicating Safadi may have been killed in some sort of underground accident. No other injuries were reported, and there was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi forces found a grave containing the relics of eight people executed by Islamic State militants in Mosul, a security source was quoted saying on Wednesday.
The Iraqi Media News Agency quoted the source saying that the Federal Police troops found the grave in al-Tayaran district in western Mosul.
He said the grave contained the relics of eight young people executed by the militants with shots in the head. Most of the bodies were decomposed, according to the source.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi forces arrested an individual in the city of Mosul for colluding with Islamic State militants, a security source was quoted saying on Wednesday as troops continue the hunt for sleeper cells after the group’s defeat.
Iraqi Almaalomah website quoted the source as saying that the individual was arrested in Sumer district in eastern Mosul and was transferred to a security quarter for interrogation. The source said troops reached him after obtaining information from citizens
Nineveh (Iraqinews.com) – An Iraqi couple was wounded Wednesday in a house bomb explosion in Mosul city, a security source was quoted as saying.
“An explosive charge planted by Islamic State militants inside a house in the Old City of Mosul went off, injuring a man and his wife, who arrived at the city earlier to inspect their home,” the source told Knooz Media.
“A security force rushed to the blast site and carried the couple to a nearby hospital for treatment,” the source said, stressing that thousands of landmines planted by Islamic State militants in the Old City are still posing a threat to residents.
The al-Jizz/Dem view.
[Al Jazeera] In his first State of the Union address, President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... offered a combative world view, claimed success in the war on 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.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, also known as ISIS), boasted about recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and outlined a nakedly nationalistic American economic and foreign policy.
"As we strengthen friendships around the world, we are also restoring clarity about our adversaries," Trump said, naming Iran a "corrupt dictatorship" and attacking North Korea, which he characterised as a "cruel dictatorship" in "reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles."
The speech displayed an American president clearly comfortable with raising tensions around the world with allies and adversaries alike in pursuit of an "America First" agenda.
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[Al Jazeera] A Ottoman Turkish court has ordered the release of Taner Kilic, chair of the Ottoman Turkish chapter of Amnesia Amnesty International.
Kilic had been in prison since June 2017, when he was jugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! for allegedly having links to a group accused of being behind the 2016 attempted coup.
"It's a great victory for the human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... movement in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... and it's gonna give us more strength to go on and campaign for the acquittal of everyone in this case," Andrew Gardner, senior adviser on Turkey for Amnesia Amnesty International told Al Jazeera.
"We're all incredibly happy. This is what we campaigned for, for the last eight months."
Family members and colleagues were on the way to Izmir, the city where Kilic was being held.
Authorities say Kilic was using ByLock, an encrypted communication software which the government says is used by members of a group led by Fethullah Gülen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... , a US-based, self-exiled religious leader who the government blames for last year's coup attempt.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Saudi women may be able to drive taxicabs from June when women in the Kingdom are officially allowed to drive cars, chairman of the Public Transport Authority (PTA) Rumaih al-Rumaih has said.
The PTA is currently making rules and regulations to enable Saudi women to drive taxicabs that will transport female passengers only, al-Rumaih told Okaz/Saudi Gazette in an interview.
Ride-hailing app companies Uber and Careem have already announced plans to hire female Saudi drivers.
Careem plans to hire more than 10,000 female captains (drivers) by June 2018, Abdullah Elyas, co-founder and chief privacy officer at Careem, was quoted as saying by CNN. "Female captains will help us provide a better service to many women who want to travel but refuse to be driven by men," he said.
Careem has already received thousands of applications from Saudi women interested in becoming drivers, Elyas said.
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[The Mail] The snap, crackle, and pop of bacon cooking can put people right to sleep.
A YouTube video of bacon cooking posted by TechHighDef, a channel dedicated to videos that can help people snooze, has gone viral.
The smell of the salt-cured pork is associated with waking up in the morning, but the viral video suggests the sound of it cooking can lull people to sleep too.
Studies have shown nature sounds, like rain and thunder, can soothe people to sleep, but experts say the sound of meat cooking could have a similar effect.
Within minutes of President Donald Trump's first State of the Union speech, CBS News revealed their YouGov poll approval ratings on it.
Unsurprisingly, 97% of Republican speech watchers liked it.
More surprisingly, 72% of Independents liked it.
Staggeringly, 43% of Democrats liked it.
Overall, CBS reported that 75% of Americans approved of the speech.
For such a seriously divisive and polarising President, who is currently languishing with just 39% personal approval ratings, these were sensationally good results.
Interestingly, 8/10 Americans in the poll felt the President was trying to unite the country with his speech and two thirds of Americans said it made them feel proud.
Less than a quarter that watched said it made them feel scared or angry.
Contrast this reaction with the instant and so tediously predictable blind rage spewed by the world's liberal celebrities on social media before, during and after the address.
From my own unofficial poll ‐ i.e. my own eyes on Twitter ‐ I'd say 99% of them were so furious at the speech they could barely think straight.
'I was told darkness could not exist in the light,' tweeted Sarah Silverman. 'But here it is, for everyone to not see.'
Jim Carrey tweeted an illustration of sharks across a map of America, then another of a weeping Abraham Lincoln and the caption: 'It's my party and I'll cry if I want to.'
Andy Lassner, producer of the insufferably smug The Ellen Show sneered: 'Good luck 'Saturday Night Live' on trying to make this any more f***ing ridiculous than it already is.'
Jeffrey Wright raged: 'Can't even watch this vile, deceitful fraud and his bizarre cult of self-interested sycophants.'
Patton Oswalt seethed: 'I'm gonna fact check this speech: whatever he just said was bullsh*t.'
Jessica Chastain urged people not to watch the speech at all.
Billy Eichner fumed: 'The President is a lying, incompetent, racist, misogynist sack of sh*t.'
And George Takei spouted: 'I'm not watching some frothing orange gorilla read off a teleprompter.'
On and on it went, with these stars and many more assuming America agreed with them.
But it turned out the vast majority of Americans DIDN'T agree with them, which suggests they're no longer listening to what celebrities say about politics or Donald Trump. Continues.
One wonders how many of those erupting on Twitter and elsewhere actually watched the thing, and how many of those who did watch approved of the president before they turned it on.
#2
What is best in life?
To crush your enemies, to drive them before you, and hear their womanly tweets of lamentation.
Seriously people, get a grip. We know after every election the losing side is convinced it is the End of the World(tm), but this is becoming embarrassing.
In 3 more years, you'll get a chance to play another round of "Elect the President". Until then, suck it up. Otherwise, we'll re-elect Trump just to spite you.
#6
And I'm sick and fucking tired of this 'divisive / polarizing President' bullshit. What's divisive and polarizing is the batso apeshit adult temper tantrums constantly thrown by Democrats, leftists and poorly educated millennial douchebags (but I repeat myself) who cry like little girls when they don't get their way. They need to grow up or shut the fuck up.
#8
Liberals expected any compromise on the Dreamers to inflame the 'racist base' and yet 97% of Republican speech watchers liked it. Very bad news for the Liberals.
On the border Liberals are a bit like the Palestinians. They got 95% of what they claimed they wanted and they threw up their hands and refused the deal. Trump called their bluff and they were left looking the fool.
[PJMEDIA] Let's give them the award straight up: Worst Performance by a Minority Party at a State of the Union Address.
(Hey, it's awards season, right?)
They broke the record. They get the prize with no runner-up for years to come.
the mealy-mouthed Steny StinkyHoyer ... Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi's second banana, or plaintain, or mango, or whatever he is... and Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. Formerly Speaker of the House, but it's not her fault they lost. Really. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace... watching Trump's speech looked like a pair of sullen six-year olds on a sugar crash the day after Halloween. Bernie Sanders ...The only openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords. He ran for the 2016 nomination for president, to be cheated by Hillary, then went back to being a socialist... looked mummified. Schumer was slumped so deeply in his chair he was almost falling through the crack.
Other Democrats, even ones who should have known better or secretly felt otherwise, sat on their hands. You could see them glancing at each other, wondering whether they were allowed to applaud or stand up. What a bunch of cowards.
It was a disgraceful display of bad manners, but even more it was incredibly stupid because "the whole world was watching." The camera was getting them all in close-up.
Who are these ungrateful corpses, middle America must have been asking. Good question. (Can you imagine how much money Pelosi has made in the stock market since Trump was elected? What does she have to be so upset about?)
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#1
It was an honest response: He was beating their brains out, and they acted like he was.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/01/2018 9:07
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#2
I wonder how few times CNN & the other national media panned out the camera shot to show these long Dem faces?
(1) Isn't it weird that in America, our flag and our culture offend so many people, but our benefits don't?
(2) How can the federal government ask U.S. citizens to pay back student loans, when illegal aliens are receiving a free education?
(3) Only in America are legal citizens labeled "racists" and "Nazis," but illegal aliens are called "Dreamers”.
(4) Liberals say, "If confiscating all guns saves just one life, it's worth it". Well then, if deporting all illegals saves just one life, wouldn't that be worth it?
(5) I can't quite figure out how you can proudly wave the flag of another country, but consider it punishment to be sent back there.
6) The Constitution: It doesn't need to be rewritten, it needs to be reread.
(7) William F. Buckley said: "Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other points of view, and are then shocked and offended when they discover there are other points of view."
(8) Joseph Sobran said: "'Need' now means wanting someone else's money. 'Greed' means wanting to keep your own. 'Compassion' is when a politician arranges the transfer."
The Gutierrez snowflake moment with the USA chant really chapped my ass. Living in SoCal and watching Hispanics wave the flag of Mexico and chanting "Mexico, Mexico" at soccer games and having huge demonstrations and celebrations when Mexico knocked Team USA out of the World Cup...makes me wonder. Why is "USA, USA" oppressive and a trigger moment when "Mexico, Mexico" is not?
[SN] Virts is one of only four astronauts ever to have piloted a space shuttle, flown on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, performed space walks and commanded the International Space Station. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and served as an experimental test pilot in the F-16 combined test force.
“The kind of person who learns how to fly an airplane and drop bombs is different than one who learns to fly spaceships,” he said.
Space operations demand unique skills like understanding orbits and calibrating sensors. “It’s not flying F-16s.” This reality becomes clear during promotion boards, Virts said, “Where you see that pilots and space guys don’t understand each others’ career paths.”
The space cadre within the Air Force is sizeable, Virts noted. Many people would be surprised to know that the Air Force Space Command is three times the size of NASA. “Air Force Space command started in the early 1980s. It’s definitely mature enough to be its own force and not a subcommand within the Air Force,” he said.
These issues will be probed in an upcoming study to be overseen by the Pentagon’s interim space adviser to the defense secretary, Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan. Congress stripped that role from the secretary of the Air Force out of frustration that service leaders are not paying sufficient attention to space. The National Defense Authorization Act for 2018 directed the study — focused on how to reorganize the military space enterprise — be conducted by an independent think tank.
Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee told SpaceNews last month that the committee has not given up on the idea of a space corps. “I think logically, eventually, we will get to a space corps,” Smith said. “We will push it again.”
Defense and space analyst Todd Harrison, who oversees aerospace programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, recalled that the movement to create a space corps gained momentum with the 2001 Space Commission Report led by Donald Rumsfeld. The conclusion of that report: “Yep, we need to get on a path to transition to an independent service for space if not an independent department for space,” Harrison commented.
Notably, after Rumsfeld became secretary of defense “he kind of let it go. And it didn’t progress from there,” Harrison said. He does not believe the HASC is “going to let it die. I think they’re going to keep pushing it forward, inch by inch.”
A reasonable timeline for the transition would be about five years. “Maybe a little more, little less depending on how aggressive you want to be,” he said. “That obviously is going to require Congress to put that into law.”
The acquisition of new satellites, space sensors, launch vehicles and other complex systems requires specialized talent, Harrison said. The Air Force would be politically wise to start making some changes soon, such as creating a separate workforce within the Air Force for space acquisitions. “It’s not plausible to think that you can take any acquisition professional who’s worked on other types of systems and plop them into a space program and expect them to perform to the level that we need them to perform.”
Building a satellite has little in common with building airplanes, he added, “no more than building an Army tank has anything in common with building a fighter jet. You wouldn’t take an acquisition professional from the Army and put them in charge of the F-35 program. So why do we do that for space?”
The Air Force could start doing that now, Harrison suggested, and Congress would likely welcome the initiative.
As for “The kind of person who learns how to fly an airplane and drop bombs is different than one who learns to fly spaceships", dropping bombs from spaceships sounds like a useful job skill. Space is the ultimate high ground.
#3
United States Space Command. It existed at Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs up until 2002. It was a joint service Combined Command. Revive it, we have work for it.
[ConservativeTreehouse] Against a newly discovered likelihood the Robert Mueller investigation began under false pretenses; and against the backdrop that FBI surveillance and wiretaps were obtained through materially (intentionally) false representations to the FISA court; and against the backdrop the original Flynn plea judge (Contrereas) was also the approving FISA judge; and that judge ‘was summarily recused’ from the case; and against increasing evidence that Mike Flynn was set up by a terminal animus, and politically-motivated investigative rogue unit, operating within the FBI; and against surfacing IG Horowitz evidence that FBI investigators manipulated (lied on) their FD-302 interrogation documents; and understanding those falsified 302’s were used in the Mueller/Flynn charging document…
…Special Counsel Robert Mueller now asks for postponement of sentencing: Link to image
Both parties did not ‘request‘ a postponement; both parties ‘agreed‘ to a postponement. The motive for the request is entirely divergent from, yet complimentary to, the motive to agree to the request.
This is all beginning to go backwards.
It is not coincidental that Brandon L Van Grack is the signatory to the delay request by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s request to the new Judge, Emmet G Sullivan.
If, as has been reported, Inspector General Michael Horowitz now has evidence the FBI manipulated their FD-302 (interrogation and questioning) documents, as also admitted by FBI agent Peter Strzok in related matters regarding Clinton…
…. and those manipulated or falsified FBI 302’s (containing FBI investigative notes of Michael Flynn’s questioning during the January 2017 interview), were used in the actual Flynn charging documents.
Well, then the underlying evidence presented to the initial judge, Ruben Contreras, in the December 1st plea hearing, were materially misrepresented.
With the IG exposing falsified and manipulative investigative practices by the FBI, Mueller would have no alternative but to throw the brakes on. This whole thing is turning into a sh*t-show of epic proportions. EARLIER WE DISCUSSED
The Robert Mueller lawyer, the Special Counsel attorney that signed General Flynn’s Statement of Offense filed in U.S, District Court 12/1/2017 was “Brandon L Van Grack”. [See page #5]
#6
If the source of the evidence or evidence itself is tainted, then anything gained from it is tainted as well. And the source for Mueller is looking less and less credible and more tainted every day.
Think of it this way: As the FBI/Justice/FISA fiasco comes unwound, Flynn case will come unwound as well - and with that, away goes anything Mueller has for a credible case against anyone.
#11
There is a flight to Mars Orbit by FH on next Tuesday. There is a perfectly fine used Tesla on that rocket with nobody in the seats. Perhaps some of the coup plotters need a ride out of town?
#14
Martha Stewart Redux... Mueller couldn't get Flynn to roll over (evidently) and now it looks like he is hoping that if he just agrees not to charge the whole thing will go away.
My hope is that they can track the slime trail all the way back to Mueller and arrest him and his buddies. Karma and worth an extra big bowl of popcorn.
#16
Besoeker,
I have to agree that the reason the minions went after Flynn first was that he knew too much about what Zero and Shillary and Lynch and Comey were up to in the run up to the election...after all he was the head guy at NIA for a while and would have seen some juicy stuff with NSA vacuuming up everyone's cellphones and texting.
Yep, I bet somewhere in all of the witch hunt involving Flynn is a gag order on Flynn. To keep him from talking.
#18
Rogue government operatives CAN be jointly and severally liable for their actions against a citizen. McCabe's pension and Strzok's home equity would be a good start to providing a cure for Flynn
#19
They 'took out' Petraeus and they took out Flynn. No general officer, aging Vermont socialist, or anyone else was going to compete with or impede the campaign of the Hildebeest.
Unfortunate circumstances always seem to befall those who might represent a threat to the Clinton's.
#21
I'm surprised the Dems have not called for the Special Council to be dissolved at this point. All it's accomplished has been to turn the spotlight on Dem criminality.
Since the Special Council was formed as the result of surveillance of Trump and team based on unmasking and a fake dossier to obtain a FISA warrant, the investigation ought to be tossed and anything coming from it (Flynn and others)--fruit of the poisoned tree.
#22
#15 Key here is, Flynn was no pal of Soetoro and the Klingon Deep State puppet masters. He knew far too much. Posted by Besoeker
Not sure why so many on here support Flynn. Flynn was in order:
1. An democrat Obama sycophant
2. Self promoter at the DIA...a place with so many wonderful tools that produces so little.
3. Remained a self promoter with the Flynn Group...who on here believes any retired three star is worth $500K for one consulting gig?
4. A leech opportunist sycophant that latched onto Trump's leg and started humping at the first opportunity. Eureka - Flynn is a Republican for the first time in his life!
5. A liar. Got fired for lying to the VP and prosecuted for lying to the FBI.
Flynn is an arrogant loser that lied to the command team when they needed the truth...he played the stoopid game and won his stoopid prize.
I am open for counter opinions...maybe I missed something somewhere where Flynn transformed into a martyr for the conservative cause...
#25
If Mueller conducted his investigation based upon data that was willfully distorted for what ever reason, and in the course of his investigated he convicted a man on a process crime based on that data, whether he knew about it or not,, that is a severe miscarriage of justice.
Like him or hate him, Flynn does not deserve to be convicted of a crime based on an investigation of a crime that the investigators knew was no crime at all.
#26
"I am open for counter opinions...maybe I missed something somewhere where Flynn transformed into a martyr for the conservative cause..."
The conservative cause is a Man and his Family should not be wiped out by the Federal Government under abuse of power and false accusations or entrapment.
This is where you get the Bundy thing and 45% of property confiscation cases in the US.
If he was not a Republican then, he may be now and he did chew through a bunch of Doctrine and did some solids for me in the past. Some of it right and wrong but he helped me through an Adjudication or two.
I do not want anyone on the Cross that does not belong there and he does not.
#27
Like him or hate him, Flynn does not deserve to be convicted of a crime based on an investigation of a crime that the investigators knew was no crime at all. Posted by badanov
If he was not a Republican then, he may be now and he did chew through a bunch of Doctrine and did some solids for me in the past. Some of it right and wrong but he helped me through an Adjudication or two. Posted by: newc
Badanov has a valid point, although if Flynn would have just told the truth he would have kept his job and avoided the hot seat.
newc, while Flynn may be competent, if you can't trust him or his motives then disaster will soon follow...and it did. I don't think he is one of us...he is/was for Flynn
#28
"newc, while Flynn may be competent, if you can't trust him or his motives then disaster will soon follow...and it did. I don't think he is one of us...he is/was for Flynn"
Point taken.
I'm still not happy with the fake investigation tho.
#29
I dont trust Flynn. But, even you can agree there is an issue here bigger than that:
Its exceedingly wrong for Flynn or ANYONE to get railroaded by an out of control prosecutor who proceeded to try to "flip" him into another perjury (in order to "get" dirt on the Trump campaign) based on tainted "evidence" obtained in an unconstitutional politically partisan search abuse of the FISA system. Further worsening it, the basis report was apparently based on a political tissue of lies hatchet-job that was bought and paid for by the Clintons/DNC, which was used to trigger an investigation of their opponent, including the aforementioned (now revealed to be likely illegal) surveillance.
Doesnt matter who the victim is - its the seriousness and magnitude of this corruption that should be important to anyone that loves this country.
#33
Both Flynn and his deputy at DIA stayed in a static pi**ing contest with the DNI and Klingons over HUMINT collection in support of what used to be called the GWOT. I don't know the specifics of his credibility lag with the VP, or the details of his guilty plea.
Water under the bridge now, but had the administration kept the Flynn issue 'close hold,' we might be in a better position today.
#35
I don't have a firm opinion about Flynn one way or the other, and even if he's a lifelong Democrat, I do not necessarily agree with financially ruining someone based on trumped up charges. However, to the extent that the left has done that over the past decade or so to cake bakers and folks like Brendan Eich, do it to twice as many on their side until I see them fly a white flag of surrender.
#36
Looking at the photo charts in the article... I can't help but thinking that IRS former head Lois Lerner was a resource for all of these and should be on the chart.
#38
Its exceedingly wrong for Flynn or ANYONE to get railroaded by an out of control prosecutor who proceeded to try to "flip" him into another perjury (in order to "get" dirt on the Trump campaign) based on tainted "evidence" obtained in an unconstitutional politically partisan search abuse of the FISA system. Posted by Injun Bucket8891
#39
There was an article on one of the political blogs last week or the week before in which it was stated that Flynn's "interview" by the FBI, Strzok and another agent, was an ambush. They appeared at the White House, unannounced, without an appointment and did not state to Flynn what the interview was about. He thought it was so innocuous that he did not legal counsel present, although it appears the White House counsel joined at some point.
Combine that with the revelation that the 302's were falsified and misrepresented the statements that Flynn made, shows that the entire episode was a hit job on Flynn and entrapment.
I still believe that the FBI did not want to have someone in the White House with knowledge of that the Zero regime was up to with regard to intel gathering...and who they were gathering it on.
Of course the phone call to the Russian Ambassador was completely legit because it was AFTER the election and technically part of the transition of power, not BEFORE as often miss-stated, deliberately by the leftist media.
#40
Also. All that russian hacking BS happeneed under obama and he promptly ignored it untill Hillary mad the clame after the election was won by T-Rump.
[World Affairs] On January 20, Turkey invaded the Kurdish region of northwestern Syria to destroy what it calls a terrorist army. No, it is not fighting ISIS. It is, quite the contrary, fighting the American-backed militia that effectively destroyed ISIS and helped liberate the city of Raqqa last October.
*sigh* This was going to be the panic after comtrails precipitating clouds to reduce the sunlight reaching the surface, but global warming had a scarier emotional hook. It looks like someone thinks we’ve passed peak climate change, and decided to dust off this old chestnut.
[DAILYSTAR.CO.UK]
Scientists have estimated the magnetic field that protects the Earth and is key to life has weakened by about 15% in the past 200 years.
The field has flipped many times in the Earth's history. A flip is several thousand years overdue, however, we are talking geologic time not human time. I wouldn't loose any sleep over it unless you still have a magnetic compass or are a migratory bird.
As long as we have satellite-guided GPS, we won’t need need magnetic compasses to navigate, right? And migratory birds must have handled pole flips somehow — those flying descendants of dinosaurs have been around a long time.
And they have suggested this could be a sign the Earth’s magnetic poles could be about to completely flip.
Our planet is a molten core that generates a huge magnetic field capable of defending it from solar storms coming the Sun.
This field extends thousands of miles into space and has a key role in every part of life on Earth, and our technology such as global communications and power networks.
Experts have warned of the danger in a new book called "The Spinning Magnet: The Electromagnetic Force that Created the Modern World and Could Destroy It".
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#1
Our planet is a molten core that generates a huge magnetic field
So, like, won't the magnets pull the satellites down?
#2
Whoever wrote this is scientifically illiterate. It is like letting Jim Carey and Jenny McCarthy write an article of immunology. Unless this is the equivalent of the Weekly World News or National Enquirer "Bat Boy Alien" reports, they should be ashamed.
#13
The history of tracking pole shift began I think in the late 1700's by British ships noting compass changes in the south Atlantic. Then someone discovered some snails who's shells grow clockwise to counterclockwise depending on pole shift.
And when the field flips it also tends to become very weak and so does Earth's protection from solar radiation.
At one point the South Pole was over Africa. And the planet is still standing. Semirelated. Mars magnetic field shut off billions of years ago.
#15
Don't forget that the Earth, and the solar system itself is circling the center of the galaxy at several hundred miles-per-hour. Such a reckless speed! We are bound to hit something!
We need a Galactic Rotational Speed Tax immediately!
And of course if you don't support this settled science then... you just want people to die you racist!
Meanwhile, the Dems will be claiming this is racist, dividing, xenophobic, islamaphobic, homophobic, anti-transgender, anti-womyn, anti-Hispanic, anti-immigration and DACA, environment-destroying...and it's all Trump's and the Pubs' fault.
[IsraelTimes] Devices were apparently intended for use against IDF vehicles; families demand Abbas's security forces stop cooperating with Israel
Paleostinian Authority security forces have enjugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! seven Paleostinians in connection with the bombs that were discovered last week near the West Bank city of Tulkarem, Paleostinian sources disclosed on Wednesday.
The roadside kabooms were discovered after a Paleostinian driver who spotted suspicious objects on a road between the villages of Ilar and Saidah, north of Tulkarem, alerted PA security forces.
PA sappers safely dismantled 12 improvised bombs, each weighing between 20 and 30 kilograms. The roadside kabooms were apparently intended for use against IDF military vehicles passing the area.
...on a road primarily used by the local Palestinians, but never mind that.
The sources identified the detainees as Mujahed Shadid, As’ad Shadid, Sara’ Raddad, Ahmed al-Haj, Fadi Raddad, Amer Abdel Ghani and Mohammed Yunis.
The sources said that the suspects are affiliated with Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, and some had previously been arrested or interrogated by the PA security forces.
The family of Sara’ Raddad said that PA security officers raided their home shortly after midnight Monday. After conducting a thorough search of the house, the officers arrested Raddad without offering an explanation, according to a family member.
"We haven’t been allowed to visit him in prison," the family complained. "We don’t know anything about the circumstances surrounding his arrest."
According to the relative, Raddad had previously spent eight months in PA detention for "security-related" offenses. "The arrest of our son is a disgrace for the Paleostinian Authority," he added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shootout, Butch clutched at his leg. Son of a Breech! he exclaimed with feeling...... a committee consisting of families of Paleostinians held in PA prisons has launched a campaign to demand the release of the seven men.
The Committee of the Families of Political Detainees in the West Bank said in a statement: "The Occupation is the only party that benefits from such arrests." The committee repeated its demand that the PA halt security coordination with Israel.
Fathi al-Qarawi, a Hamas politician from Tulkarem, called on the PA to release the detained men immediately. The arrest of the seven men endangers their lives because they will now be targeted by Israeli authorities, al-Qarawi argued.
"Arbitrary arrests by the Paleostinian Authority add to the suffering of the Paleostinian people and serve only the interests of the occupation," he said.
A PA security official refused to comment on the arrests.
[AnNahar] Grieving parents testified Tuesday at the first trial stemming from the 2015 Gay Paree attacks, moving the two defendants to tears as they described losing their children to bombs and bullets.
Among them were relatives of the 90 people massacred at the Bataclan concert hall in the attacks that also targeted the national stadium, bars and restaurants.
Jawad Bendaoud and Mohammed Soumah, accused of harboring jihadists in the aftermath of the carnage that left 130 people dead, wept as a mother spoke of her pain.
"Every time I talk about my son, the tears start flowing," said a woman named Iordanka, who like others testifying requested to be identified by only her first name.
"My life is hard now," she said, describing how her 37-year-old son was shot seven times.
And she said the two suspects -- along with a third defendant on trial for failing to report the jihadists -- deserved to be "punished severely."
"It's not them who killed my son, but they more or less contributed to it," she said.
- 'Street performance' -
The court has been packed since the trial opened Wednesday, with La Belle France closely watching the proceedings as the only survivor among the 10 attackers, Salah Abdeslam, prepares to go on trial in Belgium on Monday.
Bendaoud, a 31-year-old drug pusher, is accused of renting his apartment to senior 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.... jihadist Abdelhamid Abaaoud -- the suspected coordinator of the attacks -- and his accomplice Chakib Akrouh.
Anti-terror police potted Abaaoud, Akrouh and Abaaoud's cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen in a ferocious assault on Bendaoud's flat in Saint-Denis north of Gay Paree on November 18, five days after the attacks.
Bendaoud became a national laughing stock after a now-notorious television interview outside the apartment in which he insisted, "I didn't know they were terrorists."
His apparent lack of curiosity about the men, at a time when the country was on lockdown in the hunt for runaway jihadists, spawned endless jokes and internet memes.
He again told the court Monday that he did not know the men's identity, and that he would not have hosted turbans "even for 150,000 euros" ($190,000).
Bendaoud, who has a long criminal record, said he had previously rented the grubby flat to Eastern European gangsters without asking questions.
Parents expressed anger over Bendaoud's behavior during the trial, which has in recent days seemed more like a sketch show due to his theatrical antics.
On Friday he complained that most men forced to stay in their cell for as long as him would "cut off their testicles", and accused one of the lawyers of being "psychologically unhinged."
"What shocks me is the lack of seriousness with which Mr Bendaoud and Mr Soumah are taking this trial," said a man called Abdallah, who lost both of his sisters.
"Behind those who are on trial today there are families that have been obliterated."
A father called Patrick said Bendaoud was making a mockery of the trial, transforming it into a "street performance."
"I was outraged to hear laughter during these debates," he said. "I'm not laughing. I'm not here to see a show."
Co-defendant Soumah apologized to the victims last week, but Bendaoud has yet to follow suit.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
I keep picking up suppressed stories about the 90 people massacred at Bataclan, having been tortured & essentially dissected alive by the terrorists. This goes way, way beyond "losing their children to bombs & bullets". But let us not go there.
#6
As I recall they did much the same about Beslan Russia attack. First calling them 'gangsters' and 'hostage takers' and all sorts of twisted names - but never, ever, ever, Islamic. And never mention the rapes and bayonetted babies.
Least it hurt someone's feelings and incite someone who already earnestly wants us dead to want us dead.
And lets not mention the video of 9/11 victims jumping out of windows.
It will make Egypt less dependent on Gulf oil and IMF money for a while, until the birthrate once again overwhelms the country's resources.
[AnNahar] Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi on Wednesday inaugurated the offshore Zohr gas field, aimed at making the Arab world's most populous country self-sufficient in natural gas by the end of 2018.
"We are now entering into the self-sufficiency stage... and, God willing, by the end of the year we will have reached self-sufficiency," Petroleum Minister Tarek al-Molla said at a ceremony in the northern city of Port Said, broadcast live on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
In December, the oil ministry said it was starting production from the field discovered in 2015 by Italian energy giant Eni with an initial 350 million cubic feet (10 million cubic meters) a day.
Molla, at the ceremony attended by Sisi, said Egypt expects it "will be able to stop importing liquefied natural gas... and therefore save what we import which is $230 million per month, or $2.8 billion annually."
The Egyptian government is trying to roll back the impact of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... and led to years of political, security and economic turmoil.
[AlAhram] The US State Department placed on Wednesday two Egyptian terrorist groups, Hasm and Lewaa al-Thawra ...The Revolution Brigade, which along with Hasm (Decisiveness or Determination) is one of the fighting arms of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, established to fight back against the overthrow of President Morsi... , on its terror list, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement.
The US also put the head of the Paleostinian Islamist movement Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",, Ismail Haniya, on its terror blacklist and has hit him with sanctions.
The US government also placed sanctions on Harakat al-Sabireen, a small Iran-affiliated holy warrior group that splintered from the Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... and operates in Gazoo, according to the US Secretary of State.
Goodness, that’s four branches of the Muslim Brotherhood getting sanctions all at once. Someone appears to be reading the same sources we are.
"These designations target key terrorist groups and leaders ‐ including two sponsored and directed by Iran ‐ who are threatening the stability of the Middle East, undermining the grinding of the peace processor, and attacking our allies Egypt and Israel," Tillerson said in a statement.
The Egyptian government has linked Hasm and Lewaa al-Thawra with the Moslem Brüderbund group, which is banned and designated a terrorist organization in Egypt.
Hasm and Lewaa al-Thawra have grabbed credit for several terrorist attacks in Egypt that have killed dozens of police and army personnel.
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Next step: a stiff diplomatic note on stiff notepaper, written with the black ink, not the blue.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview Wednesday that he would have a "real problem" with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s intervention against a Kurdish militia in Syria if it turned into an outright "invasion".
"If the operation became more than fighting a potential terrorist threat on the Ottoman Turkish border and turns out to be an invasion operation, we would have a real problem with that," Macron told Le Figaro daily.
The US and La Belle France have repeatedly expressed concern over Turkey’s 12-day cross-border offensive against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... last week threatened to expand.
Terror organization Ankara views the YPG as a terror organization allied to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) inside Turkey but the US has been backing it as an ally in the fight against ISIS.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that if the operation turned into an "occupation" of parts of Syria, it would be "totally reprehensible".
His remarks came after Erdogan threatened to push further east along the Syrian-Ottoman Turkish border, until there was "no terrorist on our border leading to Iraq". He also vowed to "clean up" the YPG-held city of Manbij east of Afrin, where the US has troops.
Macron said Turkey’s operation required Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and its allies to "have discussions and take decisions", without specifying what they might be.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Several hundred people, including civilians, have been killed during The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... ’s military operation in Syria’s Afrin, Interfax news agency cited Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on Wednesday.
Rockets fired from northern Syria into a Ottoman Turkish border town killed a teenage girl and maimed another person on Wednesday, Turkey’s state-run news agency ...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?... reported amid Ankara’s intensifying offensive on a Syrian Kurdish-controlled enclave.
It was the latest in a string of rocket attacks on the border towns of Reyhanli and Kilis since Jan. 20, when Turkey’s military launched a cross-border operation to drive out the Syrian Kurdish militia from the northern enclave of Afrin. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, an extension of the outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting an insurgency inside Turkey.
Rockets fired in Afrin
Earlier today, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency said Syrian Kurdish fighters in Afrin fired two rockets Wednesday, hitting a house and a garden wall in Reyhanli.
Two people were hospitalized after the attack and one, 17-year-old Fatma Avlar, died from her wounds, the agency said. The attacks inside Turkey have so far killed four people, including Avlar. Two of the victims were Syrian refugees.
The Kurdish militia, meanwhile, accused Turkey of firing Katyusha rockets into Afrin, and reported that at least 12 people were maimed from the shelling that targeted the neighborhood of Ashrafieh. The maimed were brought to Afrin hospital.
As Turkey’s military operation in Syria continues, officials in the US-led international coalition against ISIS have warned the offensive could destabilize recent gains against ISIS along the Iraq-Syria border in the Euphrates River valley.
The top US general in Iraq said Tuesday, after a visit to a coalition outpost near the Iraq-Syrian border town of Qaim, that he is "very much concerned" the fight in Afrin could remove pressure on pockets of ISIS fighters in other parts of Syria.
Al Ahram adds Agence France Presse’s take on events:
Clashes raged between Ottoman Turkish-backed forces and Kurdish militia in Syria's Afrin region on Wednesday, as maimed civilians fled intense Ottoman Turkish air strikes.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... and allied Syrian rebels have pressed on with Operation Olive Branch in the Kurdish-controlled Afrin enclave despite mounting international concern and reports of rising civilian casualties.
An AFP correspondent in Afrin heard warplanes flying overhead, and Kurdish officials said rocket fire on the town maimed 12 civilians.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said heavy bombardment and Ottoman Turkish air strikes were accompanying ground fighting around Jandairis and Rajo, two areas to the west of Afrin near the Ottoman Turkish border.
The Britannia-based war monitor reported that Ottoman Turkish-backed forces had seized control of the border village of Shinkal to the northwest.
"Ottoman Turkish forces dispatched new military reinforcements overnight, including fighters and equipment, to Shinkal in an attempt to consolidate their control over several points and support attacking forces," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Turkey and its Syria rebel allies launched Operation Olive Branch against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), on January 20.
On Wednesday, the Ottoman Turkish army said it destroyed 22 YPG targets overnight.
Ankara has denied hitting civilians in its military operations, but hospitals in Afrin say they are receiving civilian casualties on a daily basis.
The Observatory says the Ottoman Turkish operation has left 67 civilians dead so far, 20 of them children.
Ottoman Turkish Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli insisted on Tuesday that Ankara's forces and its rebel allies "have not harmed any civilian" during the operation.
Since launching the assault, Turkey and rebel allies have captured 11 villages and the strategic Barsaya hill, according to the Observatory.
Barsaya overlooks both the rebel-held Syrian town of Azaz, and Kilis across the border in Turkey.
Advancing fighters were facing "fierce resistance from YPG fighters holed up in the mountains, in spite of Turkey's massive firepower," said Abdel Rahman.
The Observatory said that 91 YPG fighters and 85 pro-Ankara rebels had been killed in the fighting so far.
Turkey says seven of its soldiers have been killed.
No doubt that is completely true. The other dead Turkish soldiers and paramilitaries were carefully not mentioned, thuogh their families will eventually notice.
On Wednesday, rockets launched from Syria killed a 17-year-old girl and maimed another resident of a Ottoman Turkish border town, officials said.
Erdogan has vowed to "clean up" the YPG-held city of Manbij east of Afrin, where the US has troops as part of its operations against IS.
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#1
Sounds like Vlad may have had enough of Erdogan's encroachment on Russia's buddy, Syria. Maybe finally realizing that Erdogan is a threat to destabilize the entire area, but not in a manner that Russia can leverage.
Being on the bad side of Putin's Russia, especially now that they don't have NATO and the US to fall back on, is a dangerous place for Turkey to be. I wonder if Putin has sent a note to Erdogan recommending he keep his life insurance paid up?
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] In Europe, some have speculated, specifically those in agreement with Iran, that the Khomeini regime has survived the public’s recent protest storm, which sparked anger among the regime and its followers in Iraq, Syria, Leb and Yemen.
The Khomeini regime suffers from an infrastructural problem. It has lost its connection with the Iranians, mainly the youth, which make up the largest demographic bloc in the population. The issue is not a conspiracy from the Saudis or the Americans as Iranian propaganda like to claim, but indeed a flaw in the regime and those in charge of it.
These are not my own words, but those of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in his indirect response to the Supreme Guide Khamenei’s statements made days after the protests ‐ a time when he felt that his Revolutionary Guards will suppress the angry protesters.
It wasn’t Rouhani alone who said this, with pride and modesty that is, but also other symbolic figures who had served the regime or the "Khomeini Revolution" from its beginnings. It also included those who led the Green Revolution in 2009, Mousavi, Karroubi and others.
This revolution that erupted from within the regime, but soon died out after Barack Obama I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money... failed it, with his political pessimism and strategic patience. We later understood that the Green Movement’s failure in Iran and for the Syrians was a bribe to those who "serve" Khomeini regime in order to pass Obama’s deal with them.
System flaws Flaws in the system will not be cured by Obama’s previous gifts, nor with his "White heirs" in Europe, because there’s a deep disease from the core.
Mehdi Karroubi, the former president of the Iranian parliament and a leader of the Green Movement, a man who has been under house arrest for seven years, has openly attacked Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a letter blaming him for the situation in Iran. This is because he has been at the core of Iranian responsibility, since the beginning of the Khomeini Revolution, occupying the posts of minister, president and a guide. The letter was published on Iranian news website "Saham News" affiliated with Etemad Meli or the National Trust Party, headed by Karroubi.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] While Moscow is trying to race against time to achieve an "appropriate" peace deal in Syria, Assad’s forces launched 93 raids on Idlib’s countryside, including on civilian neighborhoods. Meanwhile, ...back at the shootout, Butch clutched at his shoulder. Ow! he exclaimed, with feeling...... the Lebanese party Hezbollah shelled the Damascus suburb of Ghouta where 400,000 are besieged.
How is this happening when negotiators are discussing a draft peace? Why do the Iranians, Russians and others think negotiators on behalf of the Syrian opposition dare accept any solution when the message conveyed to the Syrian people is murder, destruction and displacement?
Negotiators at Sochi may think that military escalation is part of the tools to pressure the opposition to force it to accept the deal. They may think that this is what usually happens in wars! However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... this is not true in the Syrian case. First of all, fighting will not finalize zones of influence now. Second of all, negotiators cannot sign any deal without local approvals and without the support of regional countries and other major countries. Shelling Syrian cities and towns ruins the Sochi negotiations and does not help them at all.
A surrender agreement What’s worse than intensifying military operations is the leaked information on the negotiations’ draft. What has been leaked so far is disappointing as it did not include anything that convinces the Syrian people and the world of the seriousness of peace in Sochi. What’s being proposed on the opposition merely imposes a fait accompli that maintains the political regime and the government’s entity. Therefore, it’s merely a surrender agreement. Some may in fact say it is a draft that imposes the fait accompli. We’d respond to that by stating that forcing the Syrians to accept it will prolong the fighting for years and the Syrian regime will lose everything which the Russians and Iranians fought for and gained on its behalf during the past three years.
Despite our disagreements with the Russians regarding details on Syria, we cannot ignore the significance of the Sochi negotiations and the significance of peace which can be achieved if proposed in a reasonable formula. It’s in the interest of all the Syrian people to end the war and meet their fair and reasonable demands which meet the opposition’s expectations to participate in higher sovereign institutions, secure the region by expelling all Iranian militias and other militias and secure Syria’s independence and illusory sovereignty.
Sochi’s failure means the Russians’ failure. The conflict will further expand because of it. This conflict has actually become more complicated after The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... got involved in the war ‐ a move that sparked different stances. This is in addition to the dispute with the US which, like Russia and Iran, has become militarily active in Syria’s war.
We know that the Russians have important cards to play, such as their ability to pressure the Syrian regime and Iran, to impose a reasonable solution that’s better than the one currently put on the negotiations’ table.
We’re afraid all signs indicate failure as Damascus’ allies insist on imposing a surrender rather than a peace deal. Delegations will pack their bags and go to Vienna and endeavor on a new peace journey which luck may not be any better than the Sochi conference and previous Geneva meetings.
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[Breaking Defense] WASHINGTON: Perhaps the most damning thing a director of Operational Test and Evaluation can say about a weapon is that it is not "operationally suitable."
Here’s what the new DOTE, Robert Behler, says about the F-35 Joint Strike fighter in his office’s latest annual report:
The operational suitability of the F-35 fleet remains below requirements and is dependent on work-arounds that would not meet Service expectations in combat situations (emphasis added). Over the previous year, most suitability metrics have remained nearly the same, or have moved only within narrow bands which are insufficient to characterize a change in performance.
Overall fleet-wide monthly availability rates remain around 50 percent, a condition that has existed with no significant improvement since October 2014, despite the increasing number of new aircraft. One notable trend is an increase in the percentage of the fleet that cannot fly while awaiting replacement parts ‐ indicated by the Not Mission Capable due to Supply rate.
Reliability growth has stagnated. It is unlikely that the program will achieve the JSF ORD (Operational Requirements Document) threshold requirements at maturity for the majority of reliability metrics. Most notably, the program is not likely to achieve the Mean Flight Hours Between Critical Failures threshold without redesigning aircraft components (emphasis added).
While the majority of the testing done occurred before Behler was approved by the Senate, he says in his introduction to the annual report that he reviewed the contents ‐ and you can be sure he reviewed the F-35 information especially closely.
#3
Is the F-35 turning into the aerial version of the Gama Goat? An innovative concept that proved to be a nightmare in real life: ...complex articulated drivetrain made maintenance difficult (the lubrication order alone took around six hours).
#7
Like I have said all along, the guys running this program were like kids in a candy store with all of the shiny things and really neat techie things they decided they had to have on this aircraft.
Its a flying iPhone and no one is talking about this computerized "wonder" being vulnerable to EMI jamming of critical components...how do you fly by wire when your flight control computer has been hacked or targeted by an EMI burst from a weaponized microwave oven or a satellite dish.
I hope Mattis gives the bum's rush to these idiots who completely forgot what they were supposed to be providing to the military...an aircraft that shoots down the enemy and strafes ground targets...
Oh lord, I can remember when I was called on the red carpet for having a low operational readiness for parts...command thought there was some issue with the lack of command supervision of how the equipment was used...oh come on man, those are freaking tanks and they are supposed to be able to take rough use...
I think we need to dissolve these high ranking program offices and put together a bunch of pilots to design the next aircraft...isn't that how the F-18 was developed...after the Air Force said they didn't need guns on their new planes?
#11
Anecdotal information states the YF-23 was a superior aircraft to the F-22. So much so that they have permanently classified its top speed, which according to its program manager was "extremely fast."
I'd vote for dusting off the YF-23 and then investing in an upgrade to the F-18.
[Free Beacon] The National Institutes of Health is spending over $300,000 performing "in-home semen testing," which will pay men $20 for their samples as part of a study hoping to fight infertility.
Boston University is conducting the "Feasibility of In-Home Semen Testing" project, which was awarded on Dec. 1. Ok, so this is our last session here at the center. Has everyone got the website and test kits ?
"The prevalence of impaired fecundity has been increasing over the last decade and few modifiable risk factors for infertility have been identified," according to the grant for the project. "Male factor contributes to 50 [percent] of all infertility."
The researchers said they want to broaden the pool of semen testing, which they said normally only takes place in fertility treatment centers, "thereby limiting generalizability."
"The enrollment of large numbers of men from the general population prior to conception represents a unique opportunity to assess the feasibility of in-home semen testing," the grant states.
The NIH previously awarded the researchers $337,483 for a study that recruited couples wanting to conceive online and tracked how long it took them to get pregnant. Now, taking from a group of over 1,200 recruited men from the previous project, the researchers will pay men $20 to have their sperm tested at home.
The home kits will allow for "repeated measures of sperm concentration, sperm motility, and semen volume."
"Subjects will send test results back to investigators via a secure smartphone application," the grant states.
Sales of used smartphones just nose-dived on e-bay
The project has received $302,331 in taxpayer-funding so far. Research will continue through November 2019. In all, 300 men will provide "semen data." The researchers will "compare the distributions of semen parameters with data from the Stanford infertility clinic and the World Health Organization."
Semen quality will be evaluated in relation to obesity, stress, and depression.
#6
I still think all the unfiltered female hormones from birth control going into our water supply these past decades has something to do with it. I'm nuts I know. And antibiotics.
Posted by Clem Kadiddlehopper9000
You are NOT nuts. We may also be experiencing the long-term impact of the pill on our offspring.
[Blogs.ScientificAmerican] Tonight, Bill Nye "The Science Guy" will accompany Republican Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), Trump’s nominee for NASA Administrator, to the State of the Union address. Nye has said that he’s accompanying the Congressman to help promote space exploration, since, he asserts, "NASA is the best brand the United States has" and that his attendance "should not be ... seen as an acceptance of the recent attacks on science and the scientific community." 500 Harpies in Lab-coats can't be wrong...). But by attending the SOTU as Rep. Bridenstine’s guest, Nye has tacitly endorsed those very policies, and put his own personal brand over the interests of the scientific community at large. Rep. Bridenstine is a controversial nominee who refuses to state that climate change is driven by human activity, and even introduced legislation to remove Earth sciences from NASA’s scientific mission. Further, he’s worked to undermine civil rights, including pushing for crackdowns on immigrants, a ban on gay marriage, and abolishing the Department of Education.
As scientists, we cannot stand by while Nye lends our community’s credibility to a man who would undermine the United States’ most prominent science agency. And we cannot stand by while Nye uses his public persona as a science entertainer to support an administration that is expressly xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, ableist, and anti-science. More blather at link (although the "science entertainer" tag is kind of fun.).
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
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#1
xenophobic, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, ableist, and anti-science
The BS is strong with this one...
#3
Funny, but not that long ago your kind were the only people telling all the rest of us that Bill Nye was the acknowledged font and source of ALL science. Glad those people had a moment of clarity, maybe it will spread.
#3
Don't worry Injun, there's a lot of Potemkin villages in and among the Beltway. You would be amazed how many Unit Readiness Reports changed when Bush (the First) said we were going to the Gulf (or how many senior officers got relieved/retired).
#10
If Jews are controlling the world, someone forgot to tell me where the meeting is being held.
We all have free will, even those who don’t believe in it. I think that, like climate, what we see is the emergent behaviour that is the sum of individual choices. Or Adam Smith’s dead hand, if the reader prefers.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Saudi General Directorate of Passports has said that it was surprised to receive 107,000 job applications from female nationals in one week.
There are only 140 available positions.
The directorate had placed the job offerings on its website last week which included positions at airport immigration or the kingdom’s air, land and sea ports. The jobs target female Saudi nationals holding a high school degree or its equivalence.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
GOD Bless you Kingdom of Saud for making sure at least some positions are filled by Competent Employees instead of hiding them from the rest of the world.
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – A civilian was killed and two others were wounded Wednesday in a bomb blast in northern the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a security source was quoted as saying.
Speaking to Alghad Press news website, the source said: “A bomb exploded Wednesday near a popular market at al-Taji neighborhood, north of Baghdad, leaving one person dead and two others injured.”
“A security force rushed to the blast site and carried the body to the forensic medicine department, while the injured were moved to a nearby hospital for treatment,” the source added.
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – Four people were wounded Wednesday in a bomb blast in southern the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a security source was quoted as saying.
“A bomb placed near a busy street market went off at al-Yusufiyah neighborhood in southern Baghdad,” the source told Baghdad Today news website.
“The bomb attack left four people wounded,” the source said, pointing out that a security force rushed to the blast site and carried the injured to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – Four people were killed and injured Tuesday in two bomb blasts in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a security source was quoted as saying.
The source told Baghdad Today news website that a bomb exploded on Tuesday afternoon at al-Rashidiya neighborhood, north of Baghdad, leaving one person dead and two others injured.
“Also, a member of Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) breathed his last after a bomb fixed to his car exploded in Bismayah city in southern Baghdad,” the source said.
He added that ambulances rushed to the blast sites and carried the bodies to the forensic medicine department, and the injured to hospital for treatment.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A civilian was killed, while a police conscript was wounded in two armed attacks in Baghdad, security sources were quoted saying on Tuesday.
Speaking to Baghdad Today website, a source said, “unidentified gunmen opened fire against a civilian in Shohadaa al-Bayaa region, south of Baghdad, which left him immediately killed.”
Moreover, another source said “gunmen on a motorbike opened fire against a police conscript in a district in northeast of Baghdad, leaving him seriously wounded.”
The attackers, according to the source, “stole his salary before running away.”
The victim was transferred to forensic medicine department, while the wounded was transferred to hospital, the sources added.
[Al Jazeera] French police have questioned prominent Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan over allegations over rape and sexual assault.
Two women filed complaints against Ramadan for an alleged rape in 2009 and an alleged sexual assault in 2012.
Ramadan, a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Oxford, has denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! One of the women claims she was abused by the scholar in a hotel in 2012. The woman, Henda Ayari, said she described parts of the assault in a book published in 2016. Back then, she did not reveal the identity of her assailant, but in the wake of the MeToo-movement Ayari said the encounter involved Ramadan.
Ayari then filed a formal complaint with police in Rouen.
Shorlty after, a second woman came forward who said she had gone through a similar experience with Ramadan in 2009.
Following the allegations, French police started a preliminary investigation.
After the accusations became public, Ramadan filed a complaint against Ayari for slander.
He also took a leave of absence from the University of Oxford.
A joint statement from Ramadan and the university said the leave would allow him to face the "extremely serious allegations made against him".
This article starring:
Tariq Ramadan
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Nothing will come of it. He might even win his slander suit and get an apology for disturbing his studies,
(WaPo) The FBI, the White House, and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee were embroiled in a public standoff Wednesday over the expected release of a Republican memo criticizing the bureau's use of secret surveillance orders.
In a highly unusual move, the FBI issued a statement challenging the classified memo's anticipated release, saying: "IWe have grave concerns about the material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact its accuracy." I am absolutely positive that the FBI has grave concerns but not about any omissions of fact.
The FBI's statement followed remarks made by President Trump on Tuesday night indicating he wanted the document to be made public.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the Intelligence Committee chair, fired back at FBI officials, calling their objections to the memo's release "spurious." Ya think?
"It's clear," Nunes said in a statement of his own, "that top officials used unverified information in a court document to fuel a counter-intelligence investigation during an American political campaign. Once the truth gets out, we can begin taking steps to ensure our intelligence agencies and courts are never misused like this again."
Posted by: B. Gonque7561 ||
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#1
Why didn't Nunes just say, "When the truth gets out, heads will roll."
#3
Yes, we're now at the...'discredit the memo' stage. Next will come the hospitalization of the Hildebeest, the McCain memorial, or some other media cloud or heard of squirrels.
[Al Jazeera] The United States has designated Ismail Haniya, the senior political leader of Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede,, as a "global terrorist".
The US State Department issued a blurb on Wednesday saying that Haniya "has close links with Hamas' military wing" and "has been a proponent of armed struggle, including against civilians".
Haniya's placement on the "terror list" means that there will be a travel ban on him, and that any US-based financial assets he may have will be frozen.
There will also be a ban on any US citizen or company from doing business with him.
[Al Jazeera] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, has rejected a United States decision to place the group's political chief, Ismail Haniya, on its global "terror list", calling the move a "dangerous development".
In a statement released on Wednesday, Hamas said the US State Department's decision is a "violation of international law, which has given the Paleostinian people a right to defend themselves against [Israeli] occupation, and to choose their leaders.
"This decision demonstrates the full American bias in favour of the Israeli occupation, and provides an official cover for Israeli crimes against the Paleostinian people," the statement added.
Hamas, the Paleostinian political movement that governs the Israeli-occupied Gazoo Strip, said it calls on the US administration to "reverse" this decision and to stop its "hostile policies.
Diyala (Iraqinews.com) – The Iraqi army destroyed on Wednesday two Islamic State hotbeds during a military operation in Diyala, the Military Intelligence Directorate was quoted as saying.
In a press release, a copy of which was obtained by Baghdad Today, the directorate said its troops destroyed two terrorist hideouts and an explosive-laden vehicle owned by Islamic State during a military operation in al-Nada area, in northeastern Diyala.
“The troops also destroyed a booby-trapped motorbike and found an RBG7 launcher, as well as a number grenades and rockets that were planned to be used by Islamic State militants,” the statement read.
Diyala (Iraqinews.com) – Security forces dismantled on Tuesday four explosive devices and destroyed a booby-trapped motorbike for Islamic State in al-Nada area in northeastern Diyala.
In a press release, a copy of which was obtained by Alghad Press, the Diyala Police Directorate said its security forces carried out a military operation targeting Islamic State remnants in several villages in al-Nada area, in northeastern Diyala.
“The troops defused four bombs and destroyed a booby-trapped motorbike that was used by Islamic State militants for moving within al-Nada area,” the statement read.
“Iraqi security forces will continue to assume their duties on a daily basis to track down Islamic State terrorists and purge all Iraqi territories from their war leftovers,” the statement concluded.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/01/2018
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Kurds are joining their Syrian peers in their fight against Ottoman Turkish troops in Syria’s Afrin district, a newspaper has claimed, quoting an Islamist politician in Iraqi Kurdistan.
London-based The New Arab quoted an official at Iraqi Kurdistan’s Islamic Group saying that tens of young people headed to Afrin to fight as volunteers on the side of Kurdish troops there, adding that some have already been killed in battles.
"Kurdish youths sneaked through the borders with Syria from Dahuk...to areas controlled by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), then to Afrin...the region’s government has to stop that," the politician was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
"The volunteering wave is supported by nationalist and communist societies in the region," he added
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02/01/2018
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[Khaama Press] A key local commander of the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... group has been placed in durance vile I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! during an operation of the Afghan national defense and security forces in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province.
According to the local officials, the Taliban local leader was arrested during an operation of the Afghan police forces in Chaparhar district.
The provincial police commandment in a statement confirmed the arrest of the local Taliban Überstürmbannführer saying the detained individual has been identified as Bismillah also famous as Ayoubi.
The statement further added that Bismillah was in charge of a group of at least twenty Taliban fighters and actively involved in major terrorist related activities in Chaparhar and other parts of the province.
Bismillah was operating under the leadership of the Taliban group leader Ghazi Mansoor, the police commandment said, adding that he has confessed to his crimes and regrets for the killing the civilians and having role in other destructive activities.
The anti-government armed turban groups including the Taliban bully boyz have not commented regarding the report so far.
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.
[TheAmericanMirror] Maxine Waters now sees a Russian behind every mailbox and lamp post.
[TheHill] Michelle Obama has a message for Americans who are frightened by the current political climate: remain hopeful.
[FOXNEWS] A key U.S. Senate committee overseeing the FBI is demanding that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein release newly recovered text messages between anti-Trump FBI officials Peter Strozk and Lisa Page.
[American Thinker] Over 50 years have passed since then Secretary of Labor Daniel Moynihan was raked over the coals for raising awareness on the alarming rise of illegitimacy in black communities. Now that the percentage of single mothers has almost tripled, even leading members of the NAACP regard the breakdown of the family as the single largest barrier to black achievement. Nevertheless, how much of the general public knows the extent of the black gender gap?
[Townhall] One would think that condemning an extremely violent international gang like MS-13 would be an innocuous thing for an American president to do, but alas, in today’s broken political discourse, Trump’s State of the Union spotlighting of the infamous Salvadoran criminal enterprise was met with screeches of indignation from anti-Trump politicians and media figures alike.
[Breitbart] Following President Donald Trump’s delivery of the State of the Union address on Tuesday, CNN host Jake Tapper said Trump did not "understand" how offensive it was to Democrats for him to state that "Americans are DREAMers, too."
[FoxNews] A test of an American missile defense system failed early Wednesday morning in Hawaii, two U.S. defense officials tell Fox News. It’s the same type of antiballistic infrastructure the Pentagon depends on to shoot down intermediate-range North Korean ballistic missiles.
[AlAhram] German police 
[Townhall] MSNBC host Joy Reid is known for her outlandish and ugly statements full of factual errors, but last night during the State of the Union she took things to another level. 
North Korea
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
[PJMEDIA] Let's give them the award straight up: Worst Performance by a Minority Party at a State of the Union Address.
...The only openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords. He ran for the 2016 nomination for president, to be cheated by Hillary, then went back to being a socialist...
[SN] Virts is one of only four astronauts ever to have piloted a space shuttle, flown on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, performed space walks and commanded the International Space Station. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School and served as an experimental test pilot in the F-16 combined test force.
Scientists have estimated the magnetic field that protects the Earth and is key to life has weakened by about 15% in the past 200 years.
[AnNahar] Grieving parents testified Tuesday at the first trial stemming from the 2015 
...The Revolution Brigade, which along with Hasm (Decisiveness or Determination) is one of the fighting arms of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, established to fight back against the overthrow of President Morsi...
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[Free Beacon] The National Institutes of Health is spending over $300,000 performing "in-home semen testing," which will pay men $20 for their samples as part of a study hoping to fight infertility.
But by attending the SOTU as Rep. Bridenstine’s guest, Nye has tacitly endorsed those very policies, and put his own personal brand over the interests of the scientific community at large. Rep. Bridenstine is a controversial nominee who refuses to state that climate change is driven by human activity, and even introduced legislation to remove Earth sciences from NASA’s scientific mission. Further, he’s worked to undermine civil rights, including pushing for crackdowns on immigrants, a ban on gay marriage, and abolishing the Department of Education.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Saudi General Directorate of Passports has said that it was surprised to receive 107,000 job applications from female nationals in one week.
(WaPo) The FBI, the White House, and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee were embroiled in a public standoff Wednesday over the expected release of a Republican memo criticizing the bureau's use of secret surveillance orders.
[Al Jazeera] The United States has designated Ismail Haniya, the senior political leader of 
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Kurds are joining their Syrian peers in their fight against 
