Anderson Cooper: "But did you have to be paid $675,000 [for three speeches to Goldman Sachs]?"
Hillary Clinton: "Well, I don't know. That's what they offered." What do you mean "Well, I don't know"? Like you had no choice but to accept the money?
Hillary is veering from the truth when she suggests her $225,000 per speech fee, paid three times by Goldman Sachs, was "what they offered." Why not use the word "lie"? That's twice so far you've avoided the term. Once in the title, once here.
It was not what they offered -- it was what Team Hillary demanded.
A review of her 2014 tax return posted on her website shows that $225,000 was her minimum fee.
She received $225,000 for 34 of the 41 speeches listed on her tax return. Of the remaining 7 speeches, two were for 250,000 and the others for $265,000, $275,000, $285,000, $305,000 and $400,000. In total she received $9,680,000 for these speaking engagements in 2013.
Wall Street firms funded 14 of her 41 talks. In addition to Goldman Sachs, the list includes Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Fidelity Investments UBS and Bank of America. Her benefactors also include hedge funds and private equity firms like Apollo Management and Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts.
Why did Hillary Take the Money? For the same reason she'd give US Uranium to the Russians for a healthy donation to her "foundation".
Carl Bernstein, of Watergate fame and Hillary biographer, commented on CNN that the White House is "horrified that Clinton is blowing up her own campaign." He said they can't believe she took the money and didn't see the ethical problems that would dog her. Someone must not have been forceful enough when explaining this to her.
It is not credible for her to argue that she took the money because she wasn't sure she was going to run for president or that she was "dead broke." She and Bill hauled in $139 million from 2007 to 2014. Heh. "Dead broke" doesn't mean the same to her as it does to most everyone else.
It seems enormously difficult for Hillary to explain, even to herself, why she took the money. One possibility is that she wanted to send a message that she would not use populist rage against Wall Street during her campaign. That instead she would work with Wall Street to solve financial problems for the good of the country. We will find out more when (if) her transcripts are ever found and released. 10^12 ... 10^12 - 1 ... 10^12 - 2 ...
But the broader reason may lie in the fundamental relationship between the Clintons and their wealthy friends and benefactors. Hillary, Bill and Chelsea (whose husband is a hedge fund partner) believe that Wall Street is a vital part of economy, composed mostly of very bright, honorable and talented people, like their classmates at Yale and Stanford. Sure, every now and again there are a few bad apples, but the barrel is fundamentally sound.
How could she be so politically tone deaf on this issue? Because she thinks U-Haul makes coffins?
It's because she still lives in world surrounded by so many of the best and brightest in and around Wall Street. Attacking them would be like attacking her community of friends and financial supporters. How could taking money from such decent, talented and productive people be wrong? Isn't it fair to earn a $225,000 speaking fee, given that's what Wall Street elites earn per hour?
So What's Wrong with Taking Money from Wall Street? Nothing, if it's in exchange for honest work or investmentments.
The pundits point out that she has created a actual "perceived" conflict of interest, whether real or imagined. In essence they are saying that there's nothing inherently wrong with taking the money. It's not really tainted.
Hillary states that she never changed her vote due to campaign contributions. But evidence is mounting via previous accounts by Elizabeth Warren, that Hillary may have switched her position on bankruptcy laws to please her Wall Street contributors after becoming the Senator New York. Never, eh? Because they need you divine wisdom so badly that they are willing to pay for it?
But these attacks miss the most basic question: Is money tainted? Is it blood-money? Yes.
Sanders believes it is by arguing that "the business model of Wall Street is fraud."
There is considerable data to support him.
1. Fines and Settlements:
Since 2009, Wall Street has paid $204,000,000,000 in fines and settlements. Which I'm sure came out of the executives' pockets.
This is the equivalent to writing a $640 check to every man, woman and child in America including all undocumented residents. It's hard to imagine an industry running up such a liability unless its basic business model was deeply flawed.
They violated laws by the facilitation of money laundering for drug cartels and rogue nations, illegally evicting homeowners, selling fraudulent mortgages and mortgage backed securities, manipulating vital interest rates, insider trading, and facilitating off-shore tax evasion.
The damage done to homeowners and those who lost their jobs during the Great Recession is arguable far worse than the problems caused by drug trafficking. Yet millions have been arrested, fined, convicted and jailed through the failed War on Drugs, while not one of Wall Street's top banking executives has gone to jail or even paid a fine. (Conveniently, $204 billion have been paid by the companies, not by the top executives.)
2. Profits Extracted Through Pay Day Lending Ba$tards.
Loan sharking is something from the Sopranos. But payday lending, the legalized form of loan shaking, is a mainstream Wall Street activity. An estimated 120 million payday loans are issued annually worth a total value of $42,000,000,000. One study reports:
"The average effective interest rate on a payday loan is 455% (APR). For a loan of $300, a typical borrower pays on average $775, with $475 going to pay interest and fees over an average borrowing cycle."
Large Wall Street banks provide funds for the 17 primary payday lenders. The list includes Wells Fargo, Bank of America, US Bank, JP Morgan Bank, and PNC Financial Services Group. (Bank of America paid $225,000 to for a Hillary speaking engagement on 11/13/2013.)
3. Financial Strip-mining
Perhaps the most pernicious Wall Street activity involves corporate raids and stock buy-backs. Hedge Funds, private equity firms and investment banks have bought up tens of thousands of corporations, loading them up with debt and then milking them dry.
They call it "unlocking value," but it is cold, hard financial strip-mining that adds no value at all to the target firm while squeezing the livelihoods of the average employee.
These Wall Street predators pressure corporation after corporation to use their revenues to buy back their own shares, thereby raising the share price, enriching CEOs and the largest Wall Street investors.
Before 1982 this was considered stock manipulation and deemed both illegal and dangerous to the financial system. However, a SEC rule change under the Reagan Administration, basically legalized unlimited stock buy-backs.
In 1980 2% of corporate profits went to stock buybacks. By 2007 over 70% of all corporate profits when to buy back their own shares. (For an excellent study of this financial strip mining see "Profits Without Prosperity" by William Lazonick. )
So instead of reinvesting in the companies, Wall Street financially stripped them. To fund the debt and stock buybacks, corporations were broken up, jobs shifted overseas, wages cut and benefits weakened, if not eliminated. Millions of workers have watched their incomes decline as money flows to Wall Street and their jobs shift abroad.
By 2006 40% of all corporate profits whent to Wall Street even though Wall Street accounts for only 5% of all employment. (For many more facts and figures on financial strip-mining see Runaway Inequality.)
As a result the gap between the pay of the average worker and a top 100 corporate executive rose from 45 to 1 in 1970 to an incomprehensible 844 to 1 in 2014.
Give it Back!
To the American people, it is obscene for a presidential candidate to receive $250,000 for an hour's worth of speaking . It takes the average family five years to earn that much.
Meanwhile millions of families have to figure out how to pay their underwater mortgage. They have to get by with a job that pays far less than their former job that was shipped abroad. They have to contend with piles of student loans that won't go away.
Newer home buyers, especially those of color, are still suffering from years of predatory lending which stuck them with high interest mortgages even though they qualified for lower interest conventional mortgages.
As a result, most Americans see those $225,000 fees as an affront to their basic sense of fairness and justice. Unless they want to hear what I have to think. But they couldn't afford it because they'd need the money to buy earplugs.
It will be extremely difficult for Hillary to overcome this gaping flaw. She's taking a pounding precisely because she could not understand why the rest of us detest the world Wall Street is creating. Her wealthy friends are not ours.
Hillary needs to do something very bold to prove to the American people that she can't be bought. Words will never be enough. I'm a-thinkin' it's too late for that.
Although it may be far too late, there's one remaining possibility:
Give the money back! Bwahahaha! Are we talking about the same Hillary here? The only way that's gonna happen is if she thinks she can make money by doing it.
A suspected suicide bomber who blew a hole in the fuselage of a Daallo Airlines plane last week and forced it to make an emergency landing in Mogadishu was meant to be on a Turkish Airlines flight, the Daallo chief executive said on Monday.
The bomber was sucked out of the plane through the one-metre wide hole when the blast ripped open the pressurised cabin in mid-air, officials said. The pilot landed the plane in the Somali capital, from where it had taken off.
No group has so far taken responsibility for the attack but a U.S. government source last week said the United States suspects Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which is aligned to al Qaeda, was responsible for the blast.
Mohamed Yassin, Daallo Airlines chief executive, said most of the passengers who were on the bombed flight were scheduled to fly with Turkish Airlines, but were ferried to Djibouti by one of his planes after the Turkish carrier cancelled its flight, citing bad weather.
"That particular passenger (who was behind the blast) boarded the aircraft on a Turkish Airlines boarding pass and was on the list for the Turkish Airlines manifest," Yassin told Reuters by telephone from Dubai.
Yassin said Daallo picked up the 70 stranded Turkish Airlines passengers to fly them to Djibouti, including the suicide bomber. In total, the flight had 74 passengers.
Turkish Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Somalia, mired in conflict since civil war broke out in 1991, has few air links outside East Africa. In 2012, Turkish Airlines became the first major international commercial airline to fly out of Somalia in more than two decades.
Mogadishu's heavily guarded airport, which is often compared to the Green Zone in Baghdad, has several safety perimeter fences and checkpoints. It houses a large U.N. compound along with several other Western embassies.
Somali officials said an investigation had been launched and arrests made, including airport workers.
CCTV footage released by the Somali National Intelligence Agency (NISA) appears to show two airport workers inside the terminal handing the suicide bomber a lap top stuffed with explosives, according to the government spokesman.
"Some of the people that we have arrested are co-operating," spokesman Abdisalam Aato told Reuters. He said security at the airport has been stepped up and that the government was seeking new technologies to improve screenings.
Al Shabaab, which wants to topple the government and impose a harsh version of Islamic law, has targeted the airport in the past. It has also attacked the Turkish embassy in Mogadishu.
Yassin said Daallo has been reassured by Somali officials that security was being improved, and will keep flying to Somalia. We have been there for 25 years," he said. "Our efforts to keep Somalia linked to the rest of the world will continue." Improve security? By having you promise you'll behave on the plane or something similarly draconian?
[Daily Caller] Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday proposing to force women to sign up for the draft is the result of dangerous political correctness, and if he were president, he would make sure to put a stop to it. If the 'All Volunteer Army' (VOLAR) is working so well, why is this even an issue? Rhetorical question of course.
Cruz's bold statements puts him in complete contrast to other GOP presidential candidates, The Wall Street Journal reports. At the Republican debate Saturday evening, Sen. Marco Rubio , former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stated if a military draft ever were to come into play again, women should have to sign up. I suspect 'Maggie' would agree with Ted.
#1
It's not as much PC as the long march from social contract to legal contract and the logical conclusions that are the consequences. If you shelved all the federal laws and regulations in 1950 you'd probably take up an entire aisle in a good size library. Today That would take up the whole library because the bureaucrats, lawyers and pols (yes that redundant to a large extent) want to codify every little aspect of our lives, forcing all of us into set behaviors instead of allowing the natural course of human interaction govern behaviors (ie social contract).
The states rejected ratification of the Equal Rights Amendments with arguments about 'same sex bathrooms' and the 'draft of women' - social contract. Regardless, the oligarchs as manifested in SCOTUS have systematically imposed by interpretation 'legal' contract of that failed amendment. You're going to get it whether the people consent or not! Gee, and those same social arguments against it are now coming to pass.
The 'classical' liberal position was 'equal opportunity' allowing merit to sort things out. The socialist position is 'equal outcome' regardless of merit. America has made choices, now they shall bear the consequences.
#3
And all the way includes the ladies. No reason we can't get them working in soup kitchens or retirement homes or the VA hospital, they don't have to serve in the military.
Article I, Section 8 - The Congress shall have Power...
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
They did that with the Militia Act of 1792, now manifested in Title X USC para 3.1.1. Militia.
It is not an alternate job program. There is no alternative service because it immediate runs roughshod against the 13th Amendment and involuntary servitude (though the Donks, now socialist, have always loved involuntary servitude). It was in the beginning having skin the game of the old republic. You get this 'democracy' but you have to protect it.
As for the draft, those of us who went through the early and late seventies with lots of desertions, drugs, race riots, loads of UCMJ actions, et al, remember the remnants of that last draft army. Better to have 8 men of a 12 man squad who are motivated than have to spend 80 percent of your time dealing with distractions of 4 malcontents.
#10
@European Conservative, glad to hear my info is old. My ex-step father used to talk about his time, but that was during the cold war when a case for the service was a lot easier to justify.
#11
To paraph CNN AM + BERNIE SANDERS' SEL-PROCLAIMED NEW "POLITICAL REVOLUTION" IN AMERICA ...
* LUCIANNE > [American Thinker] NO MORE ROOM FOR COMPROMISE WID SOCIALIST AGENDA OF DEMOCRATS.
* CNN_MONEY@TWITTER > UNDER [POTUS?] SANDERS, INCOMES AND JOBS WILL SOAR, ECONOMISTS SAY.
HOOORRAAY, boy o' boy, iff this is Sanderian Democratic Socialism in America, it should be even better under COMMUNISM = SOVIETISM!
D *** NG IT, MARXISM-TOTALITARIANISM FOREVER!
* FREEREPUBLIC > [CNBC] MEXICO "WON'T PAY A SINGLE CENT FOR [POTUS?] TRUMP'S STUPID [+ Useless, Crazy = Failed-Even-Before-It-was-Built] WALL"!
Former Mexico President Felipe Calderon.
YOKAY, I'LL BITE, I THOUGHT WE WERE ALL SUPPOSED TO BE MEXICANS + CANADIANS + GREENLANDERS NOW UNDER OWG + NAU + RELATED + GLOBALISM + "DIVERSITY" - I thought the "American Dream" was now the "North American/Amerikan Dream"???
Well, I'm certainly confused.
SInce the focii of US Immigration is allegedly no longer the Tex-Mex Border, WILL MAHICO PAY FOR A WALL ON ITS BORDERS WID THE LOWER AMERICAS???
OR DOES OWG AMERIKA NEED NICARAGUA TO OFFSET MEXICO???
#12
Kinda sorta like NYC's future WTC being targeted for attack-n-destruction by Osama Bin Laden + State Sponsors even while it was being built starting back in 1969.
[Breitbart] A Chicago teenager has been arrested and accused of torturing an animal after he posted a video on Facebook showing him allegedly pouring boiling water on a cat.
After the video went viral on Tuesday, February 2, Chicago Police arrested Leon Teague charging him with a felony count of animal torture and a misdemeanor count of depicting animal cruelty (the video).
In a statement, Chicago Police said Teague, 18, was identified as the person who "deliberately scalded a cat with a hot liquid." Proving once again that urban gang violence and shootings are a 'gateway' to more heinous criminal activity.
Hundreds of Labor Party activists voted Sunday to endorse party leader Isaac Herzog's plan to separate from the Palestinians at a convention at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds.
The plan passed with little opposition at the event, in which Herzog was welcomed warmly and not heckled, as he was at a party event in Holon last week.
"The two-state vision did not die, but it will not happen tomorrow," Herzog told the crowd. "What can be achieved today is security for the citizens of Israel and separation between us and the Palestinians, with actions, not mere words."
[CT Magazine] The Counter Terrorist Magazine America's premier informational journal for law enforcement, intelligence and special operations professionals; is looking for writers. Our mission is to provide operators relevant information in order to combat terrorism at home and abroad.
This is a peer to peer journal that is read by an estimated 25,000 professionals in the US and abroad. An e-zine version is published in Singapore reaching another 68,000 professionals. We would be honored to hear from you about your experiences.
The interested contributors are highly encouraged to submit their papers to the editor via e-mail GarretMachine@gmail.com.
Please include all references sited, and a short author bio. Articles are to be 2000 words in length, approximately and include high-resolution photos or tables suitable for printing. Issues are published every two months and distribution. Contributors will receive a copies of the magazine when printed.
Garret Machine, CPP.
Editor-in-Chief
The Counter Terrorist Magazine
www.thecounterterroristmag.com
Looks like the Communist in Chief is doing the best he can to screw this country into the ground by all means possible.
The Pentagon is ordering the top brass to incorporate climate change into virtually everything they do, from testing weapons to training troops to war planning to joint exercises with allies.
A new directive's theme: The U.S. Armed Forces must show "resilience" and beat back the threat based on "actionable science."
It says the military will not be able to maintain effectiveness unless the directive is followed. It orders the establishment of a new layer of bureaucracy -- a wide array of "climate change boards, councils and working groups" to infuse climate change into "programs, plans and policies."
The Pentagon defines resilience to climate change as: "Ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions."
To four-star generals and admirals, among them the regional combatant commanders who plan and fight the nation's wars, the directive tells them: "Incorporate climate change impacts into plans and operations and integrate DoD guidance and analysis in Combatant Command planning to address climate change-related risks and opportunities across the full range of military operations, including steady-state campaign planning and operations and contingency planning."
The directive, "Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience," is in line with President Obama's view that global warming is the country's foremost national security threat, or close to it. Mr. Obama says there is no debate on the existence of man-made global warming and its ensuing climate change. Supporters of this viewpoint label as "deniers" any scientists who disagree.
But there are stubborn doubters. A climate center in Colorado has said its researchers looked at decades of weather reports and concluded there has been no uptick in storms. The United Nations came to a similar finding, saying there is not enough evidence to confirm an increase in droughts and floods.
A previous Pentagon report on climate change attributed Super Storm Sandy to climate change.
Dakota Wood, a retired Marine Corps officer and U.S. Central Command planner, said the Pentagon is introducing climate change, right down to military tactics level.
"By equating tactical actions of immediate or short-term utility with large-scale, strategic-level issues of profound importance, the issue of climate change and its potential impact on national security interests is undermined," he said. "People tend to dismiss the whole, what might be truly important, because of all the little silly distractions that are included along the way."
He said climate change is typically measured in long stretches of time.
"The climate does change over great periods of time, typically measured in millennia, though sometimes in centuries," he said. "But the document mentions accounting for such down to the level of changes in 'tactics, techniques and procedures' as if reviewing how a squad conducts a patrol should be accorded the same level of importance and attention as determining whether the naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, might have to be relocated as sea levels rise over the next 100 years."
Multipoint strategy
The directive originated in the office of Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. Final approval came from Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work.
The directive is loaded with orders to civilian leaders and officers on specifically how counter-climate change strategy is to permeate planning.
"This involves deliberate preparation, close cooperation, and coordinated planing by DoD to provide for the continuity of DoD operations, services and programs," it states.
"The DoD must be able to adapt current and future operations to address the impacts of climate change in order to maintain an effective and efficient U.S. military," it adds. "Mission planning and execution must include anticipating and managing any risks that develop as a result of climate change to build resilience."
Climate change must be integrated in:
⢠Weapons buying and testing "across the life cycle of weapons systems, platforms and equipment."
⢠Training ranges and capabilities.
⢠Defense intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance.
⢠Defense education and training.
⢠Combatant commander joint training with allies to "assess the risks to U.S. security interests posed by climate change."
⢠Joint Chiefs of Staff collaboration "with allies and partners to optimize joint exercises and war games including factors contributing to geopolitical and socioeconomic instability."
Mr. Wood, now a military analyst at The Heritage Foundation, said the directive is muddled.
"I understand the motivation behind and intent for such guidance," he said. "The problem is that it includes such a wide variety of issues with no explication or context that enables the offices mentioned to differentiate and prioritize activities and efforts across time or intensity."
'A lack of evidence'
The Department of Defense last issued a broad directive on climate change in July. It declared climate change an "urgent and growing threat to our national security" and blamed it for "increased natural disasters."
The report also told commanders there are "more frequent and/or severe extreme weather events that may require substantial involvement of DoD units, personnel and assets in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief
This assertion is not supported by the U.N.'s most recent global warming predictions.
Roger Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the Center for Science and Technology Police Research at the University of Colorado, also has come to conclusions at odds with the Obama administration. He has testified on Capitol Hill, clashing with liberals who say his data are wrong.
"Current datasets indicate no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency over the past century," he wrote in 2013. "No robust trends in annual numbers of tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes counts have been identified over the past 100 years in the North Atlantic basin.
"In summary, there continues to be a lack of evidence and thus low confidence regarding the sign of trend in the magnitude and/or frequency of floods on a global scale."
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona Democrat, tried to silence Mr. Pielke by unleashing allegations and starting an investigation.
Fellow scientists have come to Mr. Pielke's defense and accused Democrats of violating academic freedom.
"Congressman Grijalva doesn't have any evidence of any wrongdoing on my part, either ethical or legal, because there is none," Mr. Pielke wrote on a blog. "He simply disagrees with the substance of my testimony -- which is based on peer-reviewed research funded by the U.S. taxpayer, and which also happens to be the consensus of the IPCC."
The IPCC is the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"I have no funding, declared or undeclared, with any fossil fuel company or interest. I never have. Rep. Grijalva knows this too, because when I have testified before the U.S. Congress, I have disclosed my funding and possible conflicts of interest," Mr. Pielke said. "So I know with complete certainty that this investigation is a politically motivated 'witch hunt' designed to intimidate me [and others] and to smear my name."
#2
1960's-1970's = 2016 Guam Taotamonas on the mark again.
Truth be told, even naval ship designs must change ala Anti-Solar/GWCC. Iff Americans ever thought the LCS' final design was weird, they taint seen nuthin yet.
#4
Incorporating "Energy Conservation" into US military planning(including garrison operations) has been a requirement since the start of the 1980's.
"Climate change" is a scam and a waste of time. But all levels of the military should just dust off their energy conservation plans, edit a bit to turn them into "climate change abatement" plans (or whatever they will call it), and joke about it at the O-Club.
Hopefully, all they have to do is wait eleven months until someone with a clue takes over the Oval Office, and starts shit-canning all the progressive time-waster requirements,
#5
It orders the establishment of a new layer of bureaucracy -- a wide array of "climate change boards, councils and working groups" to infuse climate change into "programs, plans and policies."
Power and control are the objectives. 'Climate change' little more than the spanner.
#15
That would put a crimp into night operations but worth it to fight climate change.~
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/08/2016 12:28
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#16
Well, the "Pentagon" can not order anything... But, liberal hacks like Frank Kendall (Deputy something or other from AT&L) can issue meaningless directives. Good old Frank, do-gooder atty from Amnesty Intl first told us how wrong we are in GTMO, now is trying to save our Military from climate change. He has no real accomplishments...and is a failure as a liberal good idea fairy - boot his ass outta office on day one of the coming Republican Admin. What a fool.
#17
The new president will have to do a major purge of the upper ranks of the military. Obumble has done his best to transform them into worthless yes men and destroy our military.
#18
Start by politely asking general McChrystal if he would consider coming back as Chairman JCS. The new president is going to need the best advice possible.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/08/2016 12:56
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#19
McChrystal was an Obama suck...and it didn't work out for him. He is the last guy we need back. We need GEN Mattis or ADM McRaven.
#23
Great! So we can nuke every jihadi hotbed from Marrakesh to Islamabad, kick up a big ass nuclear winter, and take a chunk out of Islamofascism all at the same time? Sounds like a win-win!
#3
Assumes the US Military controls the airspace and can react to the correct axis of attack. Also assumes advancing enemy scouts or infantry don't discover these systems first. I loved watching the thing retrieving it's own parachute canopy. I had to wonder if it repacked the chute as well.
#4
And then the video ends it up with ads from RT (Russia Today) networks.
Not holding my breath.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/08/2016 10:02
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#5
2 problems with the concept as shown on the video:
1)The video shows the shells blasting straight through the reactive armor. Not clear that is going to happen.
2)The Armata has a defensive system specifically designed to shoot down/destroy any projectile approaching too quickly. Our only protection against the Armata is it's too complicated to build in large numbers.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/08/2016 13:01
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#6
re RT - perhaps Russian engines in everything? Paging ULA and Lockmart on the courtesy phone.
#8
All those rocket systems would need to be communicating with each other and the overhead drone. Even if you can't crack the encryption, you will know they are there.
[BALTIMORESUN] Harford County's school system has banned field trips to Baltimore indefinitely, citing safety concerns following the unrest over the death of Freddie Gray and the subsequent trials of coppers charged in his death. So much for the National Aquarium. Do they still have the one in the basement at the Commerce Department building in DC?
City leaders called the decision misguided and ill-informed, saying it denies Harford schoolchildren cultural, educational and recreational opportunities and reinforces negative stereotypes about the city. "Tut tut! We got lotsa white children come here. Most of 'em don't get shot up, no matter how great their privilege!"
"When I heard about this continuing ban on school travel to Baltimore, I was, frankly, totally flummoxed. It seems so outrageous as to be actually sad," said Del. Brooke Lierman, a Baltimore Democrat. A Democrat. In Bladymore. Feature that!
"Harford County Public Schools is doing an enormous disservice to its students and families with this bizarre policy." Harford County, like most non-urban areas of Maryland, is mostly populated by whats known within Baldymore as "crackas."
Harford school administrators had extended their initial spring suspension of school trips and made it indefinite on Jan. 11. City leaders scoffed at the idea that Baltimore isn't safe for children to visit. "Tut tut, m'good man! Tell them to come and to bring money!"
"We are afraid the lesson being taught to the children of Harford County is to fear the city, and that is disappointing," said Howard Libit, a front man for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/08/2016
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[3 views]
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#1
"Harford County Public Schools is doing an enormous disservice to its students and families with this bizarre policy."
There's an entire nation worth of students not even near Baltimore who'll never get a school trip into the city. I doubt they're suffering a disservice by that non-existant opportunity.
"We are afraid the lesson being taught to the children of Harford County is to fear the city, and that is disappointing,"
Fear is a basic human instinct when founded upon rational circumstances provides for longer life and reproduction of the species.
Spanish police arrested seven people with suspected links to Islamist militant groups on Sunday (Feb. 7) in a dawn raid in the Mediterranean regions of Alicante and Valencia and in Spain's north African enclave Ceuta, the Interior Ministry said.
It said those arrested were suspected of operating a supply network for Islamist fighters in Syria and Iraq, sending money, guns, computer equipment and material for making explosives in sealed containers under the guise of humanitarian relief.
Five of the suspects were Spaniards of Syrian, Jordanian and Moroccan descent
So they were "Spaniards"...
and the remaining two were a Syrian and a Moroccan, the ministry said in a statement. Police searched homes, businesses and warehouses as part of the operation.
Sunday's swoop was the result of two years of investigation into the ring by authorities. The arrested people had carried out their activities in other European countries before settling in Spain, the ministry said.
Spain arrested 102 people with suspected links to Islamist militants last year, more than twice the number arrested in the previous year as police stepped up security measures following attacks in Paris in January 2015.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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#1
Five of the suspects were Spaniards of Syrian, Jordanian and Moroccan descent and the remaining two were a Syrian and a Moroccan
and a Moroccan...and a Syrian
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/08/2016 10:07
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#2
Non-spaniard Moroccan or Syrian?
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/08/2016 10:28
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After Egypt President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi apologised for not finishing the reconstruction work of Christian properties damaged in the aftermath of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster in 2013, the engineering unit of the Armed Forces immediately started cooperating with Coptic authorities to wrap up the pending renovations, religious Coptic figures said.
While visiting Cairo's St. Mark Cathedral on Christmas Eve, El-Sisi apologised to the country's Christians over the delay in the completion of renovations, which he says will be done by the end of 2016.
The churches undergoing renovation were attacked in August 2013 on the day of the dispersals of pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo, with the ensuing hours seeing sectarian attacks against Christians in Upper Egypt, where the Coptic population is relatively large. El-Sisi, who was defence minister at the time, immediately announced that the Armed Forces would pay the costs of renovating and rebuilding all churches damaged in the attacks, which lasted over 12 hours.
In October 2013, the Egyptian Family House called for an initiative to renovate the damaged houses of worship and opened a bank account to receive donations. The Family House is an authority launched by Egypt's Al-Azhar – the country's highest Muslim Sunni authority – and all Egyptian churches immediately after the deadly 2011 bombing of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria, one of the most infamous attacks on churches in the country's modern history. The Family House's mission is to unite Muslim and Christian Egyptians to ease sectarian strife.
Safwat El-Bayadi, the former head of Egypt's Evangelical Church and a member of the Family House, told Ahram Online that "unfortunately, we only received EGP 9 million and $8,000 since the initiative started, which is a very small amount of money in relation to the damages."
Restoration work sponsored by the Armed Forces will cost some EGP 200 million ($25.5 million).
"I appreciate so much the president's promise to continue the restoration process this year," said Bishop Macarius of Minya in a phone call with Ahram Online.
"14 August 2013 marks the worst attacks in the Church's modern history, as all Christian lives were threatened," Macarius added. "They lost their properties in seconds, but thank God despite all the sectarian incidents and discrimination, Christianity in Egypt not only remains, but flourishes."
Although Christians only make up roughly 10 percent of the Egypt’s 90 million people, many Islamists blamed Copts for the massive, nationwide protests that preceded Morsi’s ouster on 3 July 2013.
The attacks following the dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins targeted churches and Christian religious institutions, as well as Coptic-owned properties including six Christian schools, 60 houses, 85 shops, three hotels and 80 vehicles. A number of Christians were also killed in the attacks.
According to a report issued by Coptic rights group Maspero Youth Union (MYU), supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which Morsi hails, destroyed and set fire to around 65 Churches. Some these churches, according to the report, dated as far back as the fourth century.
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Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Sunday expressed optimism over the outcome of the third Quadrilateral Group Meeting between senior officials from Afghanistan-Pakistan-US-China in Islamabad, and hoped for a date to be set within three weeks for direct peace negotiations with the insurgent Taliban.
Because that was the key ingredient missing here, a roadmap...
According to MOFA officials, in the meeting, the Afghan and Pakistani officials have committed to talk with force with the groups which do not endorse a peaceful settlement - a move which has been widely welcomed by the US and Chinese officials.
"An agreement was also made that the four member countries of the QCG will continue their efforts for setting out a date for direct negotiations between the authorized representatives of the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban group. The date can be finalized by the end of February 2016," Ahmad Shekib Mustaghni, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
"As far as the issue of the groups which do not endorse peace talks is concerned, Afghanistan and Pakistan have committed and agreed to deal with them with all available resources and continue their strong struggle against them," he said.
It seems that Washington and Beijing have been pushing Islamabad to cooperate with Afghanistan at brokering groundbreaking peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban aimed at curbing violence and restoring peace and stability in the war hit nation.
This comes at a time that former president Hamid Karzai in an interview with Fars News Agency stressed the need for a role by Russia, Iran and India in the peace process of Afghanistan.
"My dear brother Taliban stop your wrongdoing and avoid harming your country and the people, return to your country and support peace in your motherland," Karzai said.
As hopes for the initiation of purposeful peace talks with the Taliban gather momentum, the insurgents continue their violent acts across the nation aimed at proving its strong existence and to score points in the talks.
"Negotiations will not yield an outcome unless there is a ceasefire, direct negotiations and replacing the military strategy with a political strategy. The analysis doesn't accept whether this team belongs to Akhter Mansour or Mullah Rasoul," a member of the high peace council Mohammad Amin Weqad said.
Afghanistan meanwhile hopes that the efforts lead to an outcome before the start of the so-called war season. The fourth round of the QCG is scheduled in the Afghan capital Kabul on 19 February.
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ALEPPO – Clashes broke out on Sunday between rebel fighters and Syrian regime’s army in the northern countryside of Aleppo, military sources reported Sunday.
Fighters of the Levant Front and Nusra Front bombed headquarters of pro-Assad forces in the Ratyan town in the northern Aleppo province.
Subsequent to the attack, fierce clashes took place between the Islamist rebel factions and regime’s army –backed by Hezbollah militia– in the vicinity of Ratyan, where heavy machine guns were used.
“At least 12 pro-Assad fighters were killed and a dozen more wounded in the clashes,” the Levant Front’s spokesman Saleh Zein told ARA News in Aleppo.
The source added that three rebel fighters were killed in Sunday’s clashes.
This comes just few days after pro-Assad troops and allied militias reported advance against rebel factions in northern Aleppo with support of a Russian air cover.
“The rebels are trying to impose a siege on Ratyan town in order to cut off the regime’s supply route and regain the town, which has been taken as a military base by pro-Assad militias after forcing the residents to escape their homes,” Zein said.
Also on Sunday, rebel fighters of the Levant Front and Ahrar al-Sham launched a joint attack on Syrian army’s command centers in the towns of Hardanten, Nubul and Zahra, bombing army buildings with dozens of mortar shells.
The attack has reportedly caused large losses in the ranks of the pro-Assad troops centered in the targeted towns. It was not immediately clear how many casualties fell under rebels’ bombardment.
In the meantime, Russian warplanes backed pro-Assad forces by bombing rebel fighting positions with several airstrikes across Aleppo province, forcing the rebel factions to halt their attacks and retreat.
The recent developments in Aleppo countryside have caused the displacement of thousands of civilians. More than 15,000 people crossed into Turkey on Friday subsequent to heavy airstrikes by Russian fighter jets.
Reporting by: Taim Khalil
Source: ARA News
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#1
Iran's footpads in Yemen have SRBMs. It would only be fair play to return the favor in Syria. That Russian air base would be a tempting target....
Just saying.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/08/2016 10:38
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Iran PressTV in case you can't tell
The Syrian army and its allied forces are pushing ahead with a major offensive against a militant-held town in the northern province of Aleppo near the Turkish border.
The government troops are just seven kilometers away from the town of Tal Rifaat, which is located around 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the Turkish frontier, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Sunday. Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the SOHR, said that the Syrian government troops intend to push north to the border with Turkey to stop the flow of militant recruits and weapons into the Arab country.
The strategic town is considered the last militant stronghold in the volatile border region. Syria’s Arabic-language newspaper al-Watan has said that the recapture of Tal Rifaat would be a major blow to the militants.
Meanwhile, the Syrian army backed by allied forces also took full control of a strategic hilltop in the Eastern countryside of Aleppo. The Barlaheen hilltop came under army control after daylong clashes with the terrorists.
Syrian fighter jets bombed militant hideouts in the Rasm al-Alam and al-Sin villages in the troubled region over the past hours.
The Syrian military backed by volunteer forces has recently inflicted heavy losses on foreign-backed militants during mop-up operations on different fronts. Over the past few weeks, the Syrian forces have also gained more ground against militants north of Latakia.
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[WASHINGTONPOST] A member of a British cohort within 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.... that oversaw the brutal detention and beheading of Western hostages in Syria has been identified as Alexanda Kotey, a 32-year-old convert to Islam who grew up in West London.
Kotey is the second holy warrior among the group of Islamic State jailers to be named following the unmasking last year by The Washington Post of "Jihadi John" as Mohammed Emwazi -- the infamous masked man, also a West Londoner, who beheaded American, British and Japanese hostages on video as he taunted Western leaders.
Emwazi, 27, was killed in a drone strike in November in Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria, along with another unidentified man. It is unclear whether that second man was also one of the four guards who watched over and tortured Western hostages and were nicknamed the "Beatles" by their prisoners because of their English accents.
Kotey, of Ghanaian and Greek Cypriot background, was identified through a joint Post and BuzzFeed News investigation. His name was confirmed by a U.S. intelligence official and other people familiar with British nationals in Syria, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Kotey’s family in London declined to comment, as did British security officials.
It’s not clear whether Kotey was the guard known as “Ringo” or “George.” A fourth, Paul, played a smaller role in the group and did not appear until later in the detention of some of those held by the Islamic State. Kotey’s current whereabouts are unknown.
European hostages who were released after their governments paid ransom said the four Britons always wore masks in their presence. Of all the guards, the Britons were the cruelest, former hostages said, subjecting the prisoners to regular beatings, waterboarding and mock executions.
A Danish hostage, Daniel Rye, who was released in June 2014, recounted in a memoir how Ringo viciously kicked him 25 times in his ribs on his 25th birthday. His captors said it was a gift. George, according to Rye, was the most violent and unpredictable and also dominated the group of jailers.
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Turkish police raided three factories in the western province of Izmir producing unlicensed and faulty dinghies sold to refugees trying to sail to Greek Islands, state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Saturday.
Some 49 faulty dinghies were seized in the operation, the agency said. Video released by police showed the interior of a factory where poor-quality boats were produced. Mattresses were also seen stacked against the wall for use in the boats.
So the factory hadn't seen an OSHA inspector in quite a while...
The number of refugees braving the seas seeking sanctuary in Europe dipped towards the end of last year coinciding with colder weather, but the total figure still reached one million in 2015, nearly five times more than in the previous year.
In a deal struck at the end of November, Turkey promised to help prevent refugees from heading to Europe in return for cash, visas and renewed talks on joining the EU.
Turkey is host to 2.5 million Syrians and has spent around $8.5 billion on feeding and housing them since the start of the civil war nearly five years ago, but it has been criticized for lacking a longer term integration strategy to give Syrians a future there.
In Izmir, a cemetery has been established for unidentified refugees who have drowned at sea as they try to make the dangerous journey. Izmir's rundown Basmane neighborhood hosts thousands of Syrians who work in temporary jobs and buy cheap life jackets and buoys as they wait for the right time to sail to Greek islands.
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Russian and Syrian government forces intensified an assault on rebel-held areas around the Syrian city of Aleppo on Saturday (Feb. 6), prompting tens of thousands to flee to the Turkish border to seek refuge. The local governor of Kilis, Suleyman Tapsiz, said around 35,000 Syrians had reached Oncupinar in the space of 48 hours.
"We have established living conditions (on the Syrian side of the border) for 30-35 thousand of people who fled there. Therefore, for the moment, there is no need to take them to Turkey but if there will be an extraordinary crisis, both my office as the governor and the Turkish government has made all the necessary preparations in the past two years. But there is no need for the time being. We have provided them with everything they need to live there," Tapsiz said.
Mevlut Cavusoglu, Foreign Minister of Turkey, which has already taken in 2.5 million Syrians, said up to 55,000 were now fleeing to the frontier.
Cavusoglu said the border was open, but at the Oncupinar crossing near the Turkish city of Kilis, which has been largely shut for nearly a year, refugees were being shepherded into camps on the Syrian side.
"We came to the camps with children, including toddlers only a month old. We are turning to Turkey where there is safety, there are no bombings and like he helped us in the beginning, Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the Syrians that he was their brother, he shouldn't desert them, he should open the doors, he should go back to helping them - all these people have nowhere to go now, where are we supposed to go? They can't go back to their homes," Syrian man, Mouhammed Idris said.
"They should start opening the doors for us to go through to Turkey because we cannot remain here. Syria is now destroyed and we can't just stay here - look at the circumstances here, war and attacks and planes over us, we can't even sleep here," Syrian woman, Dilal Cuhmani added.
There you go, Europe: you can either grab a piece of Syria, put in a force protection package, and put the refugees there, or you can settle them in Europe. Either way you're going to pay.
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The Defense Ministry said Sunday that insurgents have planted landmines in areas which lead to the embattled Dand-e-Ghori area of Baghlan province, an issue which is slowing down the military operation against the Taliban insurgents.
Dawlat Waziri, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense (MoD) confirmed that the military campaign by Afghan forces has been slowed down due to landmines planted by the Taliban, adding that the security forces have also halted their air strikes and artillery shellings in a bid to ensure the security and safety of the civilian population.
When asked about the number of militants fighting Afghan troops in Baghlan, Waziri said that insurgents have joined local militants from Takhar, Maidan Wardak, and Badakhshan provinces in their fight against the security forces in Baghlan.
"We prefer to lessen our air and artillery assaults so that civilians are not hurt. The second issue is that Taliban has planted landmines in the area," he said.
Baghlan, strategically is an important province in the northern region and is the main gateway to northern and northeastern provinces. The security forces launched their military campaign against the Taliban in the area two weeks ago.
"At the moment, the war is going on in two areas including Dand-e-Ghori and Baghlan-e-Markazi. However the enemy struggled to disperse our forces, and failed to reach their objectives," head of Baghlan security department Ewaz Mohammad Naziri said.
As the operation against the militants continues, a number of residents have criticized the security institutions for failing to eliminate the Taliban. Criticism has also been lodged over the nonparticipation of the US forces in the Baghlan operation. Dand-e-Ghori and Dand-e-Shahabuddin areas of Baghlan are two strategic locations in the province.
There are serious concerns that the Taliban will strengthen in summer if the government does not take serious action against the Taliban now and a capable Taliban means serious threats for the highway connecting Kabul to northern regions, say analysts.
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Four local people were killed this morning in three air raids on Derna. Homes as well as the local hospital were hit. The dead included a 10-year old boy and his mother, aged 39. Also killed were young men, said to be members of Derna Shoura Council, fighting Islamic State (IS) forces in the area.
The Libyan air force at Benina airbase in Benghazi has denied carrying out the operation and any knowledge as to who did it, leading to suggestions that foreign aircraft were responsible. More than one aircraft was said to be responsible for the raids which took place at dawn this morning,
Must have been the Ruritanians...
Among the places hit, in addition to ordinary homes in the town’s Bab Tobruk district, were a local armory mosque, the kidney unit at the Alwahda hospital, doctors’ accommodation, a car park where members of the Shoura Council are based, and the area south of the town knows as Kurfat Sebaa or seven curves. This refers to the seven hair-pin bends on the road leading to Fataiah, the area mainly full of farms still which is still partly controlled by IS.
A number of vehicles were also reported destroyed.
That Kurfat Sebaa was bombed suggests that forces opposed to IS were responsible for the attacks, but it is equally clear from the fact that civilian areas were hit that whoever was involved did not know Derna.
The civilian deaths are likely to reinforce public opposition to any foreign air raids in Libya, even against IS forces. There is growing belief that, however well prepared they are, there is bound to be collateral civilian damage. This, for Libyans, is unacceptable.
Everything is unacceptable to the Libyans, including taking responsibility for their own affairs...
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(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced on Sunday, that five police elements were either killed or wounded in a bomb blast targeted their patrol south of Baghdad.
The source said in a brief statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “A bomb exploded, this morning, near a police patrol while passing in Iin Arab Jabour Village south of Baghdad, killing one police personnel and wounding four others, in addition to causing material damage to their vehicle.”
The source, on condition of anonymity, added: “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment and the dead body to the forensic medicine department, while carried out a raid to search for the perpetrators of the bombing.”
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced on Sunday, that ten people had been either killed or wounded in a bomb blast south of Baghdad.
The source said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “On Thursday, a bomb exploded near a popular cafe in the neighborhood of al-Siha in al-Darwa area south of Baghdad, killing one person and injuring nine others.”
The source, on condition of anonymity, added, “A security force rushed to the area and transferred the wounded to a nearby hospital for treatment and the dead body to the forensic medicine department, while carried out a raid to search for the perpetrators of the bombing.”
QUETTA: Frontier Corps and Police personnel arrested 35 suspects and killed two suspected militants during an exchange of fire on Sunday. The law enforcement agencies (LEAs) were conducting raids in various parts of the city following yesterday's bloody suicide attack.
Four security personnel and a 13-year-old girl were among those who lost their lives in the attack targeting an FC convoy.
Frontier Corps Spokesman Khan Wasey claimed two Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan members were killed during an encounter with security forces, and 35 people were taken into custody during raids at Sariab road and in surrounding areas.
The raids come as the death toll from Saturday's TTP-claimed suicide bombing targeting FC personnel rose to 11 after a person injured in the attack died while undergoing treatment. Some 35 people, including 15 FC personnel, were injured in the attack.
Wasey said an operation has been launched against miscreants belonging to a banned outfit.
The arrested suspects will be interrogated by security personnel with regards to their alleged links to outlawed militant groups, he said. "The innocent will be freed after interrogation."
"Such cowardly incidents will not stop us from acting against terrorists," Inspector General FC Major General Sher Afgun said, referring to the suicide attack in the vicinity of the Quetta district courts.
Erbil, Kurdistan -- Like many morning radio personalities, Noor Matti pokes fun at people in the headlines. But unlike the Detroit disc jockeys he grew up listening to, he knows his on-air antics could get him killed.
Matti, a Chaldean, often uses his time on the air to needle Islamic extremists ‐ a dangerous proposition since his station is in Iraq, less than 50 miles from Mosul, the capital of the Islamic State group, often referred to as IS or ISIS.
"Music is a big middle finger to ISIS," said Matti, who hosts "The Breakfast Club," a Detroit-themed show that airs from 8-10 a.m.
"With music, you can talk about love, or whatever else is on your mind, and you can do it free of being threatened. And ISIS hates that. When ISIS invaded Mosul (in June 2014), they took all the musical instruments into the city center and burned them. Every piano; every guitar; every drum set. Every CD.
"That, of course, is the core of their principle: believing people don't have the right to express themselves. The Islamic State expresses everything for you."
"Our signal reaches them. They hear us. I wouldn't say I'm scared, although I know the threat is there. I know someone is probably planning to come get me. I don't think about it. If something's going to happen, it's going to happen."
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 ||
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Aden- The leader and spokesman of Popular Resistance in Sana’a, Abdullah al-Shandaqi, said yesterday that the Houthis and their ally, the ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have closed all the doors and obstructed all the initiatives that aimed at reaching peaceful solutions to stop the ongoing war for nearly a year now as a result of a coup against the constitutional legitimacy and outputs of the national dialogue, which was agreed on by the Yemenis.
Al-Shandaqi confirmed that both the popular resistance and the national army have no other choice than the military option to spare the blood of the two parties.
Abdullah al-Shandaqi added to his statements for Asharq Al-Awsat saying: “sparing the blood depends on how quick we arrive to Sana’a since the more
the National Army and the Resistance are late in reaching Sana’a, the more both parties will have victims and casualties.” He added: “Thus, the military option is the only choice to save our people”.
He pointed to the existing arrangements that aim to speed the work of local authorities in the liberated areas, and that as soon as Nihm District is completely freed, the local authority (Municipal Council) will start practicing its work meeting the needs of the citizens.
Confrontations in Maswara of Nihm district between the national army and popular resistance, in one hand, have continued yesterday against the Houthi militias and forces loyal to ousted Ali Abdullah Saleh, on the other hand.
A field source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the military backups are still arriving to the sites, which have become under the control of the legitimate forces.
The field source added that the reinforcements are modern and sophisticated military vehicles in addition to human reinforcements, who were composed of military battalions who are highly trained and qualified to deal with modern military equipment.
According to the field source, there are major collapses among the militia forces in war zones, east of Sanaa. He called the tribal people to spare the blood of their children from their involvement, by the militias, in the midst of an armed conflict, which will be “lost by Houthis soon”, he said.
(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – Salahuddin Province Administration announced on Friday, that 30 fighters of the so called ISIS were killed in clashes with the security forces near Alas and Ajil oil fields east of Tikrit, while denied any reports about ISIS progress in the battles against the security forces.
The governor of Salahuddin Raed Ibrahim al-Jubouri said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces and al-Hashed al-Shaabi fighters repulsed ISIS attack on Ajil and Alas oil fields east of Tikrit,” pointing out that, “The Federal Police forces and the army’s 5th brigade managed to kill 30 members belonging to ISIS, as well as burning five vehicles and a booby-trapped excavator.”
Jubouri also denied the advance of ISIS toward Alas and Ajil oil fields and added, “The local government is in direct contact with the security services and military leaders.”
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Faryab police rescue abducted passengersThe Afghan National Police (ANP) forces have managed to rescue 80 passengers abducted by the Taliban militants in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan.
The provincial police commandment in a statement said the abducted passengers were rescued during a military operation. The statement further added that the passengers were kidnapped by Taliban militants around 5:00 pm local time from Maimana-Andkhoi highway in Qaramqol district.
The passengers were travelling in two buses when the Taliban militants stopped their buses and kidnapped the civilians, the statement said, adding that the police forces immediately launched the operation following the incident.
Provincial police chief Syed Aqa Andarabi said the Taliban militants managed to take six passengers with them but four of them were released later, however two others are still kept by the militants.
The Taliban militants group has not commented regarding the report so far.
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(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – A local source in Nineveh Province said on Sunday, that the so-called military commander of Wilayat Nineveh and eight leaders of ISIS had been killed in an airstrike by the international coalition aviation south of the province.
The source said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “In the late hours of yesterday, the international coalition aviation bombarded a headquarters belonging to ISIS in the district of Hamam al-Alil (35 km south of Nineveh),” pointing out that, “The bombing resulted in the death of the military commander of Wilayat Nineveh Abu Majd al-Kanani, who was a Saudi national, along with eight leaders, most of whom were Saudis.”
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(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – On Sunday, al-Hashd al-Shaabi media official Mahmoud al-Sourji announced, that the so-called ISIS executed more than 300 persons in Mosul, while pointed out that the executed people were police and army personnel, as well as civil activists.
Sourji said in a brief statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “ISIS executed more than 300 police and army personnel, in addition to civil activists by firing squad in Mosul.”
Noteworthy, Mosul is suffering from major security and humanitarian crisis due to ISIS control on the city.
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#1
But we won't bomb a cluster of militants for fear of killing a civilian or two.
South Korea and the United States have agreed to begin negotiations for the deployment of an advanced American air defense system on South Korean soil, officials said Sunday, despite opposition from China and Russia.
Allow your client state to fire off long-range missiles and this is the response, China...
The announcement on the controversial defense system, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, was given just hours after North Korea launched a long-range missile as part of the continual push of its intercontinental ballistic missile tests.
"The U.S. and South Korea have decided to start official discussion on the possibility of U.S. Forces Korea's deployment of THAAD as part of measures to upgrade the South Korea-U.S. alliance's missile defense posture against North Korea's advancing threats," Yoo Jeh-seung, deputy minister for policy, said in a joint briefing with Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal, the commander of USFK's Eighth Army.
Vandal said the decision was made upon USFK Commander Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti's recommendation, adding that "it is time to move forward on the issue."
Ted Cruz, in the Saturday debate, noted that a Nork 'satellite' with a nuclear warhead would make a dandy EMP. As usual, we're doing nothing about it.
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#1
I think deploying (launching) MIRVs might be more effective.
#5
The US Navy has MIRV but has a putz disregarding its use. I think the ROK should be interested in their own future, not one relying upon someone elected as "American Idol" in Washington.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/08/2016 13:53
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#7
"Less than a year and then a new CNC" > FYI #6 a good number of Guam Locals + Netters still have doubts about that one, i.e. something(s) bad will occur which will cause the Bammer + Congress to PCorrectly unilaterally suspend the Constitution + Habeas Corpus + lead to a Bammer 3rd [4th, etc] POTUS Term???
As perhaps best illustrated this week by 2016 Dem POTUS Candidate BERNIE SANDERS's proclamation that his election as POTUS will signal or herald a new, decisive "Political Revolution" in America, THE OWG GLOBALISTS + ALIGNED MARXISTS-COMMIES-SOCIALISTS HAVE GIVEN THE US UNTIL YEAR 2025 TO BE FORMALLY SUBORNED UNDER OWG + GLOBAL SOCIALIST ORDER - IFF NOT, THEY RESERVE THEIR RIGHT TO USE "ANY MEANS NECESSARY" TO ACHIEVE SAME INCLUD BUT NOT LIMITED TO DE FACTO ARMED/VIOLENT DOMESTIC MILITANCY + REVOLUTION, ETC.
Perhaps its Dubya + Jeb Brother NEIL BUSH that should've run for POTUS this year - LEST WE FERGIT, NEIL IS THE BUSH RELATION THAT IS ALLEGEDLY OR REPOR A DE FACTO REGISTERED MEMBER OF BOTH THE US + INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST + COMMUNIST PARTIES.
As things will likely get worse before they get better, I suspect any continuation of US-World woes will Post-Sanders lead to a Hardline, Not-Yet-Full-Stalinist-Marxist-Leninist Commie(s) openly running for POTUS after 2020.
* REUTERS > NORTH KOREA ROCKET LAUNCH MAY SPUR BUILDUP OF US MISSLE DEFENSE SYSTEMS IN ASIA.
Lest we fergit, US-led GMD-TMD "SHARING" WID REGIONAL ALLIES IN EAST ASIA BY 2018 OR ASAP AFTER.
* HERITAGE FOUNDATION > DAILY SIGNAL: NORTH KOREA MISSLE LAUNCH SHOWS [NoKor] COULD TARGET US HOMELAND [CONUS, + Guam-CNMI, Hawaii, Alaska], NORTH KORE EXTENDS MISSLE RANGE TO COVER CONTINENTAL US.
* WORLD NEWS > [Star-N-Stripes] GAME-CHANGING US MISSLES [ABM-BMD = THAAD] MAY ALTER NORTH ASIAN GEOPOLITICS.
Perhaps, IMO, as Pudgy = NOKOR's KJU may had ulteriorily intended.
Again, NOKOR desires to formally reunify wid SOKOR ASAP AMAP ALAP, but China = CCP/CPC in Beijing is highly unlikely to agree to such unless China first gets back de facto sovereign control of TAIWAN.
Pudgy knows that China will take over NOKOR in case of wartime or econ collapse - as China is already overwhelmingly NOKOR's main = one-n-only real trading partner, widout regular or routine trade wid the US-Allies/West NOKOR faces so-called "CREEPING SINO-IZATION/SINIZATION"
= TAKEOVER BY CHINA ANYWAY.
TO SAVE HIS COUNTRY FROM CHINESE TAKEOVER FOR ANY REASON, I HAVE NO DOUBTS THAT PUDGY = KJU WILL FIND A WAY TO UNILATERALLY OR ASYMETRICALLY START A MAJOR US-CHINA WAR IN NE ASIA ANDOR EAST ASIA + INDUCE US-LED MIL INVASION OF NOKOR. IMO PUDGY + REGIME INTENDS FOR NOKOR TO DESTROY ITSELF RATHER THAN SEE CHINA = BEIJING TAKEOVER ANOTHER PIECE OF THE ANCIENT KOREAN HOMELAND.
* RELATED SAME > [Zee News] CHINA'S OPPOSITION TO US MISSLE SHIELD MAY AFFECT HANDLING OF NORTH KOREA.
* DAILY BEAST > NORTH KOREAN NUKE-CAPABLE MISSLE COULD HIT US AND BE SOLD TO IRAN.
The "Franchise" venture is successful???
As per the MSM-Net, since Iranian scientists, along wid Pakistani + Chinese, etal. repor are among those whom helped NOKOR dev its successful LR Rocket, I suspect IRAN ALREADY HAS THE TECH.
'TIS ONLY A QUESTION AS TO "WHEN" IRAN'S GOVT. WILL PUBLICLY ADMIT TO IT.
A senior official in the United Arab Emirates says the Persian Gulf state is ready to send troops to Syria to join a US-led campaign allegedly fighting Takfiri Daesh group. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said at a press conference in Abu Dhabi that "this has been our position throughout" as the UAE has been “frustrated at the slow pace .... of confronting Daesh."
"We are not talking about thousands of troops but we are talking about troops on the ground that will lead the way ... that will support ... and I think our position remains the same and we will have to see how this progresses," he said, noting that the “US leadership” of the campaign is the UAE’s prerequisite.
The announcement came after Saudi Arabia said on February 4 that it was ready to participate in any ground operations in Syria if the US-led coalition decides to start such operations. US State Department spokesman John Kirby welcomed the Saudi decision.
Syrian Foreign Ministry Walid al-Muallem has said that any “ground intervention on Syrian territory without government authorization would amount to an aggression that must be resisted.”
He has also warned that potential aggressors would return home in a “wooden coffin.”
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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#1
Both the UAE + KSA have now repor offered to send SPECOP units into Syria, as opposed to sending in massive ground or conventional forces in general or all-out mil intervention.
The US is giving the KSA kudos for their new SPECOPS offer, + likely will do same to the UAE.
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The Commander of Anbar Operations Ismail Mahalawi revealed on Sunday, that ISIS executed a number of civilians including women and children east of Ramadi.
Mahalawi said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Today, ISIS executed a number of civilians including women and children by firing squad in Juwiba east of Ramadi,” adding that, “The civilians were executed after trying to escape from ISIS.”
Noteworthy the security forces managed to retake Sijariya area east of Ramadi, while advanced to liberate Juwiba and Husaiba east of the city.
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – The security forces evacuated 71 civilians, mostly women and children, that were blockaded by ISIS militants west of the city of Ramadi.
The commander of Jazeera Operations Ali Ibrahim Daboun said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces managed to evacuate 71 civilians, mostly women and children, that were blockaded by ISIS in the district of Heet (70 km west of Ramadi) as well as the modern village of the district,” pointing out that, “The civilians were placed under scrutiny and had been evacuated.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The Commander of Anbar Operations Ismail al-Mahalawi announced on Sunday, that the security forces killed 44 fighters of the so-called ISIS, while detonated seven booby-trapped vehicles north of Ramadi.
Mahalawi said in a brief statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The army’s 10th brigade backed by al-Hashd al-Shaabi fighters and the international coalition aviation managed to repulse different ISIS attacks on the northern axis in Ramadi.”
Mahalawi added, “The security forces killed 44 ISIS fighters during the attack, while detonated seven booby-trapped vehicles.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The official journalists with the Ministry of Defense announced on Friday, that the security forces managed to liberate al-Sijariya area east of Ramadi, while raised the Iraqi flag over its buildings.
The official journalists with the Ministry of Defense said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The Anti-Terrorism forces managed to liberate al-Sijariya District (17 km east of Ramadi), and raised the Iraqi flag over its buildings.”
The statement added, “The operation resulted in the killing of a large number of ISIS fighters, as well as dismantling of dozens of improvised explosive devices that had been planted by ISIS to hinder the progress of security forces.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – A security source in Anbar Province announced on Friday, that the security forces killed eight suicide bombers who tried to sneak into Baghdadi District west of Ramadi (110 km west of Baghdad).
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “A force from the army’s 7th brigade killed eight suicide bombers who tried to sneak into the defense line of al-Joba in Baghdadi west of Ramadi.”
The source added, “The security forces destroyed a vehicle and killed its occupants in al-Barazariya area.”
Noteworthy, most of Anbar Province’s cities were controlled by the so-called ISIS, while the security forces began wide cleansing battles and managed to retake the majority of Ramadi areas after fierce battles.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/08/2016
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KIRKUK – At least 150 people escaped from Islamic State-held Hawija district to Peshmerga bases in Kirkuk late Saturday before being settled in Ala Gherin village.
NRT correspondent in Kirkuk, Rokan Jaff, said Peshmerga commanders would not allow the group to enter Kirkuk city, the eponymous provincial capital.Commanders cited security concerns and said they feared militants could be among the group, which also included women, children and elderly people.
The group was taken to an area near Ala Gherin, west of Kirkuk city where three existing camps for displaced Iraqis have been established.
Hawija district lies 30 miles south of Kirkuk, and has been a militant stronghold since Islamic State overran large areas of northern and western Iraq in 2014.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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The U.N. Security Council decided to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss North Korea's long-range rocket launch, officials said.
Pudgy's quivering in his Guccis...
The meeting was scheduled after South Korea's mission to the U.N. sent a letter requesting an emergency meeting to the council president, Venezuela's U.N. Ambassador Rafael Dario Ramirez Carreno, officials said. The United States and Japan also requested an emergency meeting, they said.
Following the North's Jan. 6 nuclear test, the 15-member council also held an emergency meeting and strongly condemned the test.
Worked well, didn't it. Quite the deterrent...
The North fired the rocket from its northwest Dongchang-ri launch site at 9:30 a.m. (Korean time), one month after its fourth nuclear test, sending the already-high tensions on the Korean Peninsula soaring higher. The launch, which is banned under U.N. resolutions,
Banned? And they did it anyway? They defied the U.N.? How could that happen...
came as the U.N. Security Council has been working on a new resolution imposing sanctions on Pyongyang for the nuclear test and is sure to spark stronger calls to punish the communist nation.
North Korea says its rocket launches are aimed at putting satellites into orbit, claiming it has the right to the peaceful use of space. But Pyongyang is banned from such launches under U.N. Security Council resolutions as it has been correctly accused of using them as a cover for testing intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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The United States and its allies targeted Islamic State (ISIS) group militants with 10 strikes in Iraq on Saturday and seven strikes in Syria, the US military said on Sunday.
In Iraq, there were three strikes apiece near Mosul and Ramadi to destroy ISIS fighting positions and weapons caches. Near Sinjar, two strikes struck two separate tactical units. There were also single strikes near Kirkuk and Qayyarah.
The strikes in Syria took place near Ayn Isa, Mar'a and Manbij. They destroyed three ISIS buildings and also struck a large tactical unit and anti-air artillery position, the US military said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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[Examiner] Criminal networks with Latin American roots, such as MS-13 and the 18th Street gang, are using the administration's open-door policy at the border to slip in recruits that are causing a huge spike in murder and violence throughout the nation, according to an immigration expert.
Testifying Thursday at a House hearing on the border surge of young Latinos, the expert said, "Established gangs have been able to transfer an unknown number of experienced foot soldiers from Central America to help colonize new criminal territory in the United States."
Jessica M. Vaughan, the policy director for the Center for Immigration Studies, told the House Judiciary Committee's Immigration and Border Security subcommittee that "the tide of new young people, many of whom have already been exposed or involved in street gangs at home, has provided a huge pool of new recruits for the gangs here. Gangs such as MS-13 and 18th Street are enjoying a brutal revival in certain parts of the country and are establishing themselves in new places."
The Taliban stopped three passenger buses in Daulatabad district of Faryab province and after interrogating about 100 people they took two passengers hostage. The incident took place on Saturday night and the fate of the two passengers is still unclear.
So the bodies have yet to be recovered...
"Individuals wearing masks stopped our vehicle and forced off four people from our bus and three to four people from other busses. They asked all passengers to get off the buses and then they picked a number of them and told others to leave," said Abdul Hadi, a passenger.
Police in the province confirmed the incident.
"They forced off a large number of people and they took away six civilians with them and fortunately four of them were later released but two of them are still with the armed men," said Sayed Aqa Andarabi, Faryab police commander.
Meanwhile, drivers of passenger buses in the north of Afghanistan, expressed their deep concerns over insecurity on highways.
"The highway to the north was very good before. However, now the situation is very bad. It is not clear who is involved in highway robberies, Taliban, police or others," said Sayed Ghulam, a bus driver.
Nabi, another driver, said that thieves rob their buses in areas close to police checkpoints and police are doing nothing. "The robbers come by motorcycles and they either take money or behead people," he added.
Lawmakers from the province accuse security forces of negligence in this regard.
"When we talk to authorities about insecurity and kidnappings, they are more unhappy with the central government than us," said Bashir Ahmad Tayanj, a lawmaker from Faryab.
Kabul-Mazar-e-Sharif highway that connects the capital with northern Afghanistan was until recently one of the safe highways. However, recently it has become dangerous to travel along this route. The Taliban sometimes blocks Baghlan-Kunduz highway and openly interrogate passengers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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37 militants have been killed in newest security operations in different parts of the country, the Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday morning.
According to a statement issued by the ministry, six of the terrorists killed were number three's commanders of Taliban group. They include Qari Bashir and Haji Khalid who were collecting intelligence information for Taliban in Dand-e-Ghori District. Other important members of Taliban killed during these operations include Mullah Ismail, Mullah Mutahid, Haji Mullah and Mutaqi, the group’s commanders for Nad Ali and Marjah districts of Helmand District.
Ministry of Defense press release adds that 21 other insurgents from Taliban and 14 from Daesh have been wounded in these operations.
The operations were carried out in Kot District of Nangarhar, Guzara District of Herat, Dand-e-Ghori District of Baghlan, in Suzma Kala of Sar-e-Pul, Ali Abad of Kundoz, Nad Ali and Marjah districts of Helmand province.
Four suspects were also reluctantly detained by security forces during these operations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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In one of his strongest remarks to date, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has lambasted the US after a senior official's visit last week to the northern Syrian town of Kobani, which is under the control of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), and called on Washington to choose either Turkey or "terrorists in Kobani" as a partner.
Boy howdy, there's a tough call...
Erdoğan directed severe criticism at the visit to the town by Brett McGurk, US President Barack Obama's special envoy for the anti-Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) coalition. The visit came at a time where Geneva peace talks were taking place, and the Turkish president declared that the US should make a choice between the PYD and Turkey.
Erdoğan has called on the US and the European Union to list the major Syrian Kurdish political party and its armed wing as terrorist organizations over their affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is fighting against the Turkish state and which is regarded as a terrorist group by Washington and Brussels.
"You accept the PKK as a terrorist organization? Then why don't you list the PYD and [People's Protection Units] YPG as terrorist organizations, too?"
This is not the first time Erdoğan has made such a call. His and other senior Turkish leaders' calls reflect a split between Ankara and its allies over how to treat the Syrian Kurdish party and its armed faction.
The Kurdish militia the YPG has been a reliable ally in the fight against ISIL on the ground and has benefited from the US arms supply on several occasions.
While the US and EU share Turkey's view toward the PKK and sees it as a terrorist organization, they differ in their views regarding the PYD and YPG.
During his visit, McGurk met with senior PYD and YPG officials and pledged further support for Syrian Kurds. He also visited a cemetery and paid his respects to YPG fighters killed during a months-long battle with ISIL in Kobani. It was the first time a top US official has visited the YPG-controlled town, reflecting the type of relationship the US and the PYD enjoy. The US airdropped weapons and munitions during the siege of Kobani.
"We discovered advanced Russian, US and European weapons in PKK cells during military operations in southeastern Turkey. Where do these weapons come from?" the Turkish president asked, revealing Turkey's growing anxiety that some of the weapons provided by the US and EU to the YPG end up in PKK hands.
"The PKK is a terrorist organization and the YPG is too. The PYD is what the PKK is. [US Vice President] Joe Biden came with an official. A national security official [Obama's envoy]. He visits Kobani at the time of the Geneva talks and is awarded a plaque by a so-called YPG general. How can we trust [you]?" Erdoğan said, expressing his dismay over McGurk's visit.
McGurk was given a plaque by YPG official Polat Can, a former PKK member. It sparked a harsh reaction from Ankara as Erdoğan called on the US to choose, saying, “Am I your ally or are the ‘terrorists' in Kobani?”
Erdoğan also repeated his criticism of Russian air strikes in Syria. The Turkish president said on Friday that Russia must be held accountable for the people it has killed in Syria, arguing that Moscow and Damascus were together responsible for 400,000 deaths there.
Erdoğan also dismissed a Russian statement that Turkey was preparing for an incursion in Syria, saying he is “laughing” at the claim. Ankara has dismissed this as propaganda intended to conceal Russia's own "crimes."
Erdoğan said Russia was engaged in an invasion of Syria and accused it of trying to set up a "boutique state" for its longtime ally President Bashar al-Assad.
"Russia must be held accountable for the people it has killed within Syria's borders," the Doğan news agency quoted him as saying. "By cooperating with the regime, the number of people they have killed has reached 400,000."
His comments are likely to further anger Moscow. Relations between Turkey, a NATO member, and Russia hit their worst low in recent memory last November after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane Ankara said had violated Turkish airspace from Syria.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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Really like you fucking stood with the US when you refused to let the 4th ID cross into Iraq?
[WASHINGTONPOST] The Serbian pilot who landed a jetliner in Somalia with a three-foot hole in its fuselage said Sunday that he never doubted it was caused by a bomb and described the security surrounding the airplane at Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu as "zero."
A jacket wallah is suspected to have set off the explosive inside the plane, Somali officials said Saturday. The blast sucked a male passenger out of the plane and forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing Tuesday in Somalia's capital, they said.
The kaboom happened about 15 minutes after the plane, with 74 passengers on board, took off from the airport and was at 11,000 feet ascending toward 30,000 feet.
"If we were higher, the whole plane could have disintegrated after the kaboom," said the pilot, Vlatko Vodopivec.
At a higher altitude, the hole in the fuselage might have caused more severe structural damage, he said.
Because the plane was at a lower altitude, he was able to land it safely, Vodopivec said. "The plane acted normally, and we virtually returned normally. Engines and hydraulics worked normally."
A front man for the Somali government said that closed-circuit footage at the Mogadishu airport shows two men handing what looks like a laptop computer to the suspected suicide bomber after he passed through the security checkpoint.
Spokesman Abdisalam Atto said that at least one of the men delivering the computer was an airport employee and that 20 people, including airport employees, have been locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! It is believed the laptop-like device was the bomb that caused the kaboom.
The kaboom killed one passenger, Abdullahi Abdisalam Borle, according to Somali officials who did not give more details. A man's body was found in the town of Balad, about 18 miles north of Mogadishu, according to police officials, who said he might have been blown from the plane.
Borle is suspected to have been the suicide bomber, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named was told by a senior Somali civil aviation official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/08/2016
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#1
"If we were higher, the whole plane could have disintegrated after the kaboom," said the pilot, Vlatko Vodopivec.
Jacket wallahs everywhere thank you for the feedback.
#2
Either normal air, plane turbulence set it off, or in alternate the Bomber(s) failed their math quiz + miscalcalated the required bomb/explosive yield???
A group of unidentified gunmen have killed three health workers in Ghazi Abad District of eastern Kunar province.
Officials say the health workers were kidnapped from Sira Gul area of the same district a few days before and gunned down last night. Motive behind the incident is unknown but police say they have launched investigation into the case.
Kunar which shares a long border with Pakistan is comparatively one of the restive provinces of Afghanistan where on several occasions efforts have been made for disrupting the medical and educational systems.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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BENGHAZI: An airstrike hit a hospital in Derna in eastern Libya on Sunday, killing four people including a woman and her child and two anti-government fighters, a doctor said.
“There are four dead — a nurse, her 10-year-old son and two members of the Shoura Council,” radiologist Dr. Mohamad Al-Jeddayimi at Al-Wehda hospital told AFP.
In its own statement, the Mujahedeen Shoura Council said the attack was in the area of the Faculty of Medical Technology Science in the Bab Tobruk district of eastern Derna came at 0400 GMT.
#3
Look again: Merkel was recorded talking to Zuckerberg about suppressing "anti-immigrant" postings. No idea what she would have done if he had said "No, go jump in a lake.", but he showed he had zero courage.
Weimar Germany -- to give just one example -- was replete with hate-speech laws intended to limit speech the state did not like. These laws did nothing whatsoever to limit the rise of extremism; it only made martyrs out of those it pursued, and persuaded an even larger number of people that the time for talking was over.
The sinister reality of a society in which the expression of majority opinion is being turned into a crime has already been seen across Europe. Just last week, reports from the Netherlands told of Dutch citizens being visited by the police and warned about posting anti-mass-immigration sentiments on Twitter and other social media.
Keep in mind the Fascist model (which the Germans perfected to a fine art): private companies own the means of production (the media equipment and what is said on it), but the government tells the private companies what to ban and what to allow to say. Voila! No violation of the First Amendment because the private companies did it "voluntarily"! Besides, its regulating companies, not "free" people. In Facebook's case, quite willingly. (And technically, if the government bans the sale of bullets to private individuals, then a "literal" reading of the Second Amendment would allow the ban since bullets are not "Arms". Clinton-style vocabulary definition-alteration.
The thing to do now is not talk about the "immigrant" invaders, but about the ban on talking about the "immigrant" invaders. When they ban talk about the ban, talk about the ban of taling about the ban on talk about the "immigrant" invaders.
#5
About 3 weeks ago, Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) established a Facebook page. I simply put up a post on my profile pointing that out..no editorializing or anything of the sort. Just a friendly "welcome to FB" soo yeah some snark. Later that same day AQIS page was taken down along with my post. I received no notification from FB support. Someone there just decided to take it upon themselves to do it
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/08/2016 11:47
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The antidote to bad speech is more good speech. Banning speech is counter productive and violates personnel liberty.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/08/2016 12:25
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The 'private company' is but a sock puppet.
The censorship regime was imposed by the government threatening the private actors with the application of the government's monopoly on power.
The censors are de facto government agents who are backed by the government's armed force. Yet they're pretending to be mere private citizens, free to act arbitrarily and capriciously.
Thus it is the the government that can apply power arbitrarily and capriciously and cannot be held accountable.
This state of affairs is alien to the principles of Western Democracy.
#8
I'm as free speech as they come. But some comments on Facebook are truly sickening.
Try reporting a posting that recommends the reopening of gas chambers to solve the refugee crisis, and you get a standard reply from FB that this posting doesn't violate the standards of FB.
Report a bare female breast and it will be gone within one hour.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/08/2016 17:27
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#9
EU - perhaps you need to revisit your Friends list. They seem like regular folk.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
02/08/2016 19:45
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A Saudi soldier and a civilian have been killed in cross-border shelling from rebel-controlled northern Yemen, authorities said late on Saturday.
A Saudi patrol was hit on Saturday morning in the southwestern region of Assir, killing the soldier, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA. Later in the day, the southwestern city of Najran was struck, leaving dead a foreign resident, a civil defence spokesman said in a statement on SPA.
About 90 civilians and soldiers have died from shelling and skirmishes along the border since March, when a Saudi-led military coalition began air and ground action in Yemen.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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[BALTIMORESUN] Three men were shot inside a bar and a 27-year-old bystander was seriously injured in a hit-and-run in two separate, unrelated incidents that occured overnight in Fells Point, the Baltimore Police Department said Saturday. They're unrelated in the sense that the car wasn't the getaway car from the restaurant shootings. Fells Point is a trendè neighborhood located near the water. You probably can't afford to live there.
The events — one of which was captured on a gruesome video that circulated widely on social media — left the historic neighborhood, known for its shopping, restaurants and bars, and nightlife, in shock over the level of violence that occured within blocks of each other and less than an hour apart. That happens when you've got a city administration oozing utter contempt for the police.
"It's horrifying. You never would imagine something like this happening," said Kelley Heuisler, who owns a boutique in Fells Point near where the hit-and-run occurred. That's because you're a silly woman who expects city services in a predominantly white area. Police spokesman TJ Smith said officers have arrested the man suspected of being the driver in the hit-and-run, which occurred about 2:15 a.m. and was captured in what Smith described as "an absolutely horrific and disgusting video." Back in the old days there probably wouldn't have been a video, no matter how horrific and disgusting, unless there'd been a TV crew on site, and it probably wouldn't have run if there had been.
The video shows a minivan in the 700 block of South Broadway trying to flee two assailants by ramming into nearby cars and reversing wildly onto a sidewalk. The assailants opened the doors of the van and tried to get inside to get to him. I'da probably made the same sort of departure.
Video has emerged from a wild crash scene in Fells Point from some time early Saturday on Broadway near Fleet Street. Police said it is unrelated to a triple shooting at a nearby restaurant. "Nope. Nope. Mere coincidence. We got lotsa thuggery and none of it's related."
The van struck a 27-year-old woman who had just left a nearby bar, which police did not identify. She is in the hospital with serious injuries, including broken ribs and skull fractures, Smith said. "Minivan, don't fail me now! [CRUNCH!] Oops sorry, lady! Get outta my car! [THUMP!] [REVERSE!] [CRUNCH!] Oops! Sorry again!... [THUMP!]... Get outta my car!... [SCREECH!]"
Officers arrested Orlando Redd, 37, of Parkville, "Stick 'em up, Orlando of Parkville!"
a few blocks away, Smith said. Redd, who police was under the influence of alcohol at the time, was charged with assault, malicious destruction of property and counts of endangerment, and was issued numerous traffic citations, police said. "Ummm... That pile of citations is a foot and a half high!"
"Shuddup, Orlando!... 'Leavin' the scene of an accident...'"
"They were tryin' to kill me! They were in my car!"
"Shuddup, Orlando. The Baldymore Po-lice have you in its clutches, not them!"
"Go catch 'em! Put 'em in the paddy wagon!"
Police are working to determine if additional charges are warranted "...mopery... dopery... slopery..."
"With intent, sergeant. With intent."
and are seeking information about the assailants. "Really we are."
They do not know what started the incident, Smith said. He said no other serious injuries have been reported, calling that a "blessing." I have never in my life heard a police officer call something a "blessing."
"You see that chaotic scene play out and you just hold your breath," he said. "We're fortunate that we're not talking about a much larger tragedy as a result of these reckless acts." Wow. Tut-tuttery in blue!
On Saturday morning, parts of Dogwatch Tavern — in the path of the van when it jumped a curb in reverse — were boarded up, as passersby peered at the remnants of the crash. "Look at dat!... Yow! Look out!"
Police are also looking for information connected to the violence that happened blocks away inside the Santa Clara bar and restaurant, in which two men opened fire, shooting three people — two in the head. "Oh, yeah. Dat, too."
Homicide detectives were investigating Saturday morning. On Saturday afternoon, two of the men who were shot in the head remained in the hospital, one with life-threatening injuries, the other in stable condition. The third, who was shot in the foot, declined treament. "I got nuttin' to say!"
"But..."
"Talk to da foot!"
Police did not identify anyone involved in the incident, which occurred about 1:30 a.m. inside the restaurant, located at Fleet and Bond streets. Police said they did not have information about the motives of the shooters, who fled in a dark-colored vehicle. "Into da car!"
"To da mattresses!"
"To Greenmount Avenue!"
The Santa Clara bar and restaurant was open Saturday, but those inside said they weren't there when the incident unfolded. The owner was not available for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/08/2016
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#1
Orlando Redd: Employee of the Month, Harford County School District, Bus Driver.
Posted by: regular joe ||
02/08/2016 12:35
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#2
Ever noticed that these kinds of things never happen in Little Italy?
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/08/2016 12:42
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#3
We have reached a point where I cannot automatically tell if regular joe's comment is real or snarking on the Harford County Cancels Bus Trips topic.
Police have arrested 18 foreigners in Maua town in Meru County on Saturday as they were boarding a Nairobi-bound matatu.
A 'matatu' is a minibus. How you do get 18 Somalis into a minibus? Ask the 18 already in the minibus to move over...
Officers said the foreigners, suspected to be Somalia nationals, had travelled from Dadaab in a lorry. The migrants are being held at Maua Police Station for further questioning together with the person who was facilitating their transportation.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he would not meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi unless the death sentences of ousted President Mohammad Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood members are revised and lifted, Turkish media reports said.
Answering a question from reporters on any development in relationships between Egypt and Turkey, Erdoğan said his stance on the issue was clear. Saying that ministers could hold meetings with their Egyptian counterparts, Erdoğan stated that he, however, would not welcome the Turkish prime minister having meetings with Egyptian officials.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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No doubt President el-Sisi is not devastated. The more so as he clearly sees himself as analogous to those generations of Turkish generals who prevented the civilians from sliding back into a religious morass, and so must be displeased with the treatment of the current generation, ordered into jails and courtrooms.
KISMAYO, Somalia-A barrage of mortar rounds dropped on a university compound in the southern port city of Kismayo on Saturday, Garowe Online reports.
Kismayo has a University? What's the team mascot?
The shells struck Kismayo University where Somali government forces and African Union peacekeepers are co-located shortly after a military retreat from Bulo Gadud village, some 30km off Kismayo.
Jubaland forces and Ethiopian-AMISOM troops have mobilized themselves for recapture of Bulo Gadud.
The fresh military endeavor in the region has come after Jubaland President Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Madobe) unveiled anti-militant push that could see areas remaining under the control of Al Shabaab liberated over coming weeks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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The United Nations Mine Action Center for Afghanistan UNMACA has raised deep concerns over a surge in civilian casualties caused by landmine explosions in Afghanistan, calling on the warring sides to ensure the safety of civilians. According to UNMACA, up to 500,000 square kilometers of land is covered with landmines and other explosive devices which are causing serious threats to the lives of the people.
The statistics revealed by UNMACA shows that on average every month up to 100 people are killed or wounded as a result of landmine explosions and explosions caused by explosive materials.
"Overall we registered at least 100 people who are killed or wounded every month," Mohammad Wakil, deputy head of UNMACA said.
"In 2015, at least 47 of our personnel were killed or wounded. Ten of them killed and 37 others were wounded," he added.
He said that landmines and other explosive devices still threaten the lives of people in 33 provinces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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Afghanistan’s intelligence agency has arrested five agents of Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in northeastern Afghanistan.
Caught on the wrong side of the border, were they...
Security officials in Badakhshan province say the arrested ISI agents include two men and three women who had covered themselves as health workers in Baharak and Kisham districts. Public Health Directorate of Badakhshan province says the arrested suspects do not have any documents to indicate that they are doctors or have received medical training.
Ask them how they'd treat blunt force trauma...
Earlier, residents of Wardooj District of Badakhshan province complained that a number of Pakistani generals have entered into their district and met Taliban commanders.
Badakhshan was comparatively a peaceful province of Afghanistan but it has been witnessing its worst security since last year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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How did they determine that they were ISI? Were they carrying ISI secret decoder rings?
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/08/2016 10:50
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Long piece with lots of links, but perhaps the best analysis I've seen so far. His take is similar to that of the Burg: North Korea is a client state of China. It does little that China doesn't want it to do. The quickest way to control the Norks is to lean on China. China controls most of N. Korea's trade and finance, particularly oil and banking.
Why hasn't the U.S. leaned on China successfully? Because our current administration (and the last three) didn't want to. Simple as that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/08/2016
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#1
The "status quo" in NE Asia may be changing sooner than anybody thinks.
As I've said or argued times before NOKOR desires to reunify wid SOKOR but China likely won't allow it until it first gets back de facto sovereign control over TAIWAN, i.e. China's future "US-style" CENTCOM into the far Pacific, + likely also de facto sovereign control of the presently Japanese-controlled Senkakus + Okinawa Archipelago to protect the Air-Sea, etc. approaches to, from Taiwan.
As a OWG Globalist, "US-style", "Co-Superpower" IN PAR NOT INFERIORITY TO THE US, CHINA WANTS "SOLE" OVERSEAS MILBASING RIGHTS FOR THE PLA VEE THE MOSTLY PRO-US "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN" INCLUDING CHINA SEAS + IOR BUT ISN'T GETTING IT.
There is little to no sign that China is amending or giving up its national or geopol agenda, hence the only way to get its "sole" overseas milbase rights + facilities is via UNILATERAL OR ASYMMETRIC MILPOL "CONFRONTATIONISM" + POTEN NOT WORSE/HIGHER-THAN-LIMITED-WAR, CONVENTIONAL ANDOR LIMITED NUCLEAR, AGZ US REGIONAL ALLIES + EVEN AGZ THE US ITSELF IN EAST ASIA-PACIFIC OR WESTPAC.
Anti-US US OWG Globalist POTUS Obama has PCorrectly-Deniably all but given China what it wanted in the South China Sea vee the Philippines, VN, + Indonesia, SO NOW CHINA HAS BEGUNS ASSERTING ITSELF AGZ US ALLIES JAPAN + SOKOR + TAIWAN IN NE ASIA. It strongly appears that China does not intend to attack Taiwan widout first isolating it as a Battlefield or Mil Theater-Front from Japan + SOKOR, ala the movement of "dual-use", Military-usable [staffed?] Oil-Gas Rigs on both sides of Taiwan + demanding that Japan give up all claims to the Senkaku + Okinawa islands.
NEITHER JAPAN NOR SOKOR IS "BUDGING", THUS THE LIKELIHOOD OF A CHINA OR PLA-LED MILITARY CLASH BETWEEN US REGIONAL ALLIES + ULTIMATELY AGZ THE US ITSELF IS STEADILY + EXPONENTIALLY RISING.
Again, it behooves China to make its moves in East Asia-Pacific/WESTPAC while POTUS Obama, aka the Pert, MSM-net verified weakest or worst US POTUS since Jimmy Carter or in US History, still occupies the Oval Office + sits atop the US National Command Authority. POTUS OBAMA WILL STILL BE IN OFFICE BETWEEN NOW THRU JAN. 2017.
Finally, after the so-called "FONOPS" by both the USS "Lassen" + the USS "Curtis Wilbur" DDGS in the SCS, PLA LEADERS ARE REPOR CALLING FOR A MUCH TOUGHER RESPONSE BY THE CPC/CCP IN BEIJING AGZ THE US "FONOP" INCURSIONS, OSTENSIBLY IN DEFENSE OF SOVEREIGN CHINESE TERRITORY + CHINESE NATIONAL, GEOPOL INTERESTS IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA.
Is it a mere coincidence that NOKOR's rocket [China-ordered, NOKOR-fired?] flew over or near to the Yellow Sea, ECS, Okinawa, + Northern Philippines - I DON'T THINK SO.
(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – A security source in Kirkuk Province announced on Sunday, that unidentified gunmen stole 8 million dinars from a house in eastern Kirkuk.
The source said in a press statement received by IraqiNews.com, “This morning, unidentified gunmen stole eight million dinars from a house in al-Qadesiya neighborhood in eastern Kirkuk.”
The source added, “The police opened an investigation into the incident and carried out a raid to search for the robbers.”
Some 16 rockets were fired at north east Benghazi’s Hay Salam district this evening, locals have told the Libya Herald. They said they came from the direction of Hawari. smome is in Hawari, witnesses
The district was reported be on the verge of being fully liberated by the Libya National Army some weeks ago, but militants still control areas, particularly around the cement works.
“They were trying to hit the power station,” one Hay Salam resident suggested. The Benghazi North Power station is nearby.
There are no reports of anyone being injured in the attacks.
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.
Anderson Cooper: "But did you have to be paid $675,000 [for three speeches to Goldman Sachs]?" 
A suspected suicide bomber who blew a hole in the fuselage of a Daallo Airlines plane last week and forced it to make an emergency landing in Mogadishu was meant to be on a Turkish Airlines flight, the Daallo chief executive said on Monday.
[Daily Caller] Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz said Sunday proposing to force women to sign up for the draft is the result of dangerous political correctness, and if he were president, he would make sure to put a stop to it.
[CT Magazine] The Counter Terrorist Magazine America's premier informational journal for law enforcement, intelligence and special operations professionals; is looking for writers. Our mission is to provide operators relevant information in order to combat terrorism at home and abroad.
Spanish police arrested seven people with suspected links to Islamist militant groups on Sunday (Feb. 7) in a dawn raid in the Mediterranean regions of Alicante and Valencia and in Spain's north African enclave Ceuta, the Interior Ministry said.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Sunday expressed optimism over the outcome of the third Quadrilateral Group Meeting between senior officials from Afghanistan-Pakistan-US-China in Islamabad, and hoped for a date to be set within three weeks for direct peace negotiations with the insurgent Taliban.
Turkish police raided three factories in the western province of Izmir producing unlicensed and faulty dinghies sold to refugees trying to sail to Greek Islands, state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Saturday.
KIRKUK – At least 150 people escaped from Islamic State-held Hawija district to Peshmerga bases in Kirkuk late Saturday before being settled in Ala Gherin village.
[Examiner] Criminal networks with Latin American roots, such as MS-13 and the 18th Street gang, are using the administration's open-door policy at the border to slip in recruits that are causing a huge spike in murder and violence throughout the nation, according to an immigration expert.
37 militants have been killed in newest security operations in different parts of the country, the Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday morning.
[BALTIMORESUN] Three men were shot inside a bar and a 27-year-old bystander was seriously injured in a hit-and-run in two separate, unrelated incidents that occured overnight in Fells Point, the Baltimore Police Department said Saturday.
Police spokesman TJ Smith said officers have arrested the man suspected of being the driver in the hit-and-run, which occurred about 2:15 a.m. and was captured in what Smith described as "an absolutely horrific and disgusting video."
The United Nations Mine Action Center for Afghanistan UNMACA has raised deep concerns over a surge in civilian casualties caused by landmine explosions in Afghanistan, calling on the warring sides to ensure the safety of civilians. According to UNMACA, up to 500,000 square kilometers of land is covered with landmines and other explosive devices which are causing serious threats to the lives of the people.
