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Senior IS Leader Returned to Iraq from Turkey
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Ghani Bans Pakistani Trucks From Entering Afghanistan
[Tolo] The Transport Ministry said on Sunday President Ashraf Ghani has issued a decree banning Pakistani trucks from entering Afghanistan.

The ministry said the trucks will only be allowed up to the border crossing.

According to the ministry, Pakistani trucks will have to offload their goods and transfer them to Afghan trucks.

Pakistani trucks have until now crossed into Afghanistan at Torkham and Spin Boldak borders and many transport their goods on through the borders into other Central Asian countries.

"The Afghanistan and Pakistan Trade Agreement (APTA) has expired. Before this Pakistan did now allow Afghan trucks to enter its territory. So we do the same and after this Pakistani trucks will be unloaded at borders and Afghan trucks will carry the goods to Hairatan and Shir Khan ports," transport ministry spokesman Hekmatullah Qawanch said.

Meanwhile a number of transport company officials said government should implement the decree as soon as possible. They said until now Pakistan refused to allow Afghan trucks to cross the border but the Pakistani trucks could come into Afghanistan.

"By this move lots of people will get job opportunities and the transit companies will also get work. Currently there is no work for transit companies and the drivers are at home," a director of a transport company Abdul Ghafoor Norzai said.

"Pakistani trucks go to every part of our country, but our trucks are not allowed to enter Pakistan. We want government to do the same to Pakistan and also help us to be allowed to enter neighboring countries," Abdul Rauf, the head of a transport company said.

The ministry also said they will sign transit agreements with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan soon and based on the new agreements, Afghan trucks will be allowed to enter the three countries.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 12:44 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  According to the ministry, Pakistani trucks will have to offload their goods and transfer them to Afghan trucks.

Teamsters branching out?
Posted by: Raj || 02/17/2018 15:11 Comments || Top||

#2  It was a one-way deal. Afghans are feeling the Trump effect. Better Deals™
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2018 18:40 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
4 Soldiers Injured in Roadside Bomb Detonated at Gaza Strip Border Fence
At approximately 3:40 PM on Saturday, a roadside bomb was detonated against an IDF military force moving near the border fence of the southern Gaza Strip. Two IDF soldiers were seriously injured and two others were moderately and lightly injured. The soldiers were evacuated to hospital for medical treatment.

Large IDF forces were dispatched to the scene, and shortly thereafter, the IDF attacked an Islamic Jihad post near the fence on the Gaza side, near the point where the bomb had been detonated.

The IDF clarified that the incident had taken place near the fence, so that there was no terrorist threat to Israeli settlements in the Gaza vicinity and there were no special instructions given to local residents, including the thousands of visitors who were in the area to celebrate the Red South festival.

On Friday, during an Arab riot near the border fence, which takes place almost every Friday, a terrorist force took advantage of the confusion to approach the border and bury the explosive charge right next to the fence, opposite Ein Hashlosha. The same terrorists apparently hung up a flag on the fence in order to draw IDF forces to that point and then detonated the bomb.
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2018 12:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Jihad (Palestian)


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Where Is the Democratic Outrage Over Spying on Americans?
[Townhall] Under the Constitution, there are three branches of government. The FBI is not one of them. Instead, the FBI was created to assist the president in his job to enforce laws. Members of the FBI are called "agents" because of their agency relationship with the president.
The term 'Special' Agent was added by Hoover to exempt them from the Military Draft. The Bureau's animus towards the American military continues to this day.
During World War II and then the Red Scare, the FBI's mission expanded to gather intelligence against spies. Here, too, the FBI was assisting the Commander in Chief. Even the word "intelligence" connotes this fact. The purpose was to help the president act intelligently against domestic threats.

The FBI’s domestic intelligence gathering function caused understandable discomfort on the left. In 1970s apocrypha, President Nixon couldn’t wait to get the goods on undesirables like the Smothers Brothers. Or so we were told by the Smothers Brothers, back when the FBI's mission creep cast it as the Gestapo.

In response to Nixon’s perceived overreach, liberal Idaho (before those words were an oxymoron) Senator Frank Church set up a commission to investigate domestic surveillance abuses. Technology, by then, permitted federal agencies to capture huge amounts of wire communications without disclosing their eavesdropping to Americans who were being surveilled.

Senator Church stated his concerns on an episode of Meet the Press:
"If this government ever became a tyrant, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny [against those who] combine together in resistance to the government."

The result of Senator Church’s work was the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). It provided that the FBI could not use its technological capacity to secretly gather intelligence against an American without first going to court with credible evidence that the citizen was a spy.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 07:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "If this government ever became a tyrant, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny [against those who] combine together in resistance to the government."

Unknowingly, I believe the prescient Senator Church may have described for us the Obama regime.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 7:48 Comments || Top||

#2  The Left's only interests is in power, so why shouldn't they embrace an East German system of governing?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 8:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Why would Democrats object to spying on Republicans, who they consider to be Untermenschen?
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 12:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Exactly, TW. They didn't spy on Americans, they spied on [shudder] conservatives!
Posted by: Bobby || 02/17/2018 15:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Just shut up and dribble! (LOL)
Posted by: Clem || 02/17/2018 17:03 Comments || Top||


Economy
Democrats assail $120 billion in stock buybacks in 2018 as new 'GOP tax scam'
[Washington Examiner] Senate Democrats are decrying what they say is a new "GOP tax scam" in the wake of the Republican tax law, more than $120 billion in stock buybacks in 2018 are only benefitting corporate executives and shareholders.
No, they're not "stupid." They're just hoping you are.
"This is a problem for the middle class. Members of this committee promised that middle-class paychecks would be bulging early in 2018, but instead the CEOs are funneling the tax windfall into buybacks that inflate the value of stocks held by affluent executives and wealthy shareholders," Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in the Democrats' weekly address, which features prior clips of members speaking on the tax law. "Meanwhile, recent public announcements by companies have found that the employee pay boost, touted by the Republicans, add up to $5 billion give or take."

"We don’t know where this is going to end. We do know that it’s great for big shareholders because it jacks up share prices. We also know that it’s great for CEOs whose compensation very often rides on share prices, so when they jack up their own share price with buybacks it comes right back to them in their executive compensation," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 07:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We don’t know where this is going to end. We do know that it’s great for big shareholders because it jacks up share prices

Business profits, dividends, portfolio profits, and Federal income taxes also rise on increased stock prices. Care to have a look at stock prices headed the opposite direction ?

Article's title should read:

'Democrats Assail Business Success'...or through extension, 'Democrats Assail President Trump's Success.'

Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 7:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Where were the Dems when CNN ran this headline:

Dividends, stock buybacks to hit a new high of $1 trillion in 2015

http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/27/investing/stocks-dividends-buybacks-high-2016/index.html
Posted by: Airandee || 02/17/2018 7:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Fewer stocks available in the market should decrease the supply and drive up the demand and the price/share of stocks owned by stockholders. Earnings per share should also increase as the result of stock appreciation. Should be good for "Main Street." Ordinary mom and pop investors have been hosed by hedge fund operators and institutional investors market predators.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2018 8:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Media / politician formulas:

Temperature up -> global warming!
Temperature down -> weather is not climate!
Stocks up -> The market is not the economy!
Stocks down -> The economy is broken, time for socialism!
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/17/2018 11:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Crumbs.
Posted by: ClemKadiddlehopper9000 || 02/17/2018 15:02 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Democrats have moved far to the nation's left on abortion
[Washington Examiner] As midterm election season kicks off, Democrats are out of the mainstream. They have developed a new strategy for countering popular Republican proposals: They deceive.

That’s what they did with tax reform, and that’s what they’re doing now with the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

Despite rhetoric to the contrary from Democrats, we now know American workers are receiving bigger paychecks thanks to the GOP tax bill. The Associated Press recently reported that the bill Democrats called a "middle-class con job" lead to an increase in take-home pay for American workers.

While some, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., mocked the increase as mere "crumbs," American workers told the AP they planned to use the increase to help pay for their health insurance, a Costco membership, or the arrival of a new baby.

As they had on taxes, Democrats also misled the American people about the pro-life bill.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 07:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Democrats have always been the party of "deception."
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 7:26 Comments || Top||

#2  I believe the Liberal actual position on Abortion is that a mother has the right to take out her own toddler if she wants to. Every other position (on late term abortion and such) were simply short-term lies because they know their true position is unpalatable.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/17/2018 21:11 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Townhall's George Mano: John Bolton for Special Prosecutor
[Town Hall] The revelations of the Nunes Memo have shaken our confidence in the FBI and the Justice Department. A law firm working for the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign hired a company called Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Donald Trump, the Republican Party candidate for president. Fusion GPS, then, paid a Trump-hating former British agent named Christopher Steele to produce 16 memos between June and November 2016 based on hearsay from Russian agents.

Skipping the current history of corruption. Enter Darth Bolton:

That level of corruption was unknown in America before now. No wonder the public’s confidence in the honesty, fairness, and integrity of these two institutions has been obliterated. So, unless some of these corrupt individuals end up in jail or at least lose their law licenses, most Americans will never believe in the FBI or Justice Department again.

That’s where John Bolton comes in. The only way to restore the image of those two venerable institutions is to root out the corruption and make those responsible pay the price. To do that we need another special prosecutor, one tasked specifically with cleaning up the FBI and the Justice Department and bringing criminal and ethical charges against guilty parties. Ideally, the person to do that job should be an outsider, because the FBI and Justice Department are not going to investigate themselves, but it would also have to be someone who knows how Washington works.Such a person is John Bolton, the former US Ambassador to the UN.

Although he is known as a foreign policy expert, Bolton was trained as a lawyer and currently works for a law firm. He has lots of experience in Washington. He served three Presidents‐Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43. However, he hasn’t held a government post since 2006, so he is now an outsider, and he does not have any special connections to Mueller or Comey.

Most important, Bolton is a straight-shooter and a no-nonsense guy. He says what he thinks in clear, unimpeachable words, and he seems to be immune to bribery, blackmail, and media attacks. The media have been attacking him for years and he usually just shrugs it off. That’s important, because the person who accepts this job will be the second-most-hated person in America after President Trump.

The problem is that Bolton is on record as being against the concept of Special Prosecutors. Also, there are some people, like Mark Levin and Alan Dershowitz, who say what is needed is a Presidential Commission rather than a Special Prosecutor.

Either way, we need a man like Bolton to do the job, because without the rule of law, America will be no different than any of dozens of third-world countries.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 06:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A few other names: Judge Jenine Pirro, Joe Digenova, Victoria Toensing, Glenn Reynolds. Anyone who can't be bought, is strong on law and principle and would put justice back into the system.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2018 8:30 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm waiting hopefully for the IG report to drop
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2018 8:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Yes, the IG report should be interesting. Perhaps the Mueller Russian indictments are a damage control precursor.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 8:59 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Mueller Confirms: Russia Used Anti-Trump Resistance To Stoke Division
h/t Instapundit
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russian nationals on Friday confirms Russia sought to promote anti-Trump protests after the election as a way of sowing discord in American society.

Russian operatives organized a rally titled "Trump is NOT my President" in New York City on Nov. 12, 2016, less than a week after the election, the indictment states.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/17/2018 05:53 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So, there is a collusion - just not on Trump's side.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/17/2018 5:57 Comments || Top||

#2  i would not be surprised if these Russian made this story up as well.

Posted by: Airandee || 02/17/2018 7:51 Comments || Top||

#3  LOL, Airandee
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/17/2018 8:03 Comments || Top||

#4  The usual 'useful idiots'. It's the 60s all over again!
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 8:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Where's the indictment of the ham sandwich?
Posted by: Raj || 02/17/2018 10:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Although the reports said that Russians interfered, for example, by organizing opposing party demonstrations, yesterday, I predicted this would morph into something against Trump. Here it is: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-16/u-s-charges-13-russians-3-companies-for-hacking-election
Posted by: warthogswife || 02/17/2018 13:17 Comments || Top||

#7  So Mueller is trying to turn lemons into lemonade.
Posted by: gorb || 02/17/2018 15:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Where's the indictment of the ham sandwich?

Sorry Raj, she lost the election, isn't that enough?
Posted by: AlanC || 02/17/2018 16:59 Comments || Top||

#9  The indictment of these Russians is a sham. Most of the things mentioned in the indictment are not illegal. Most of the "sowing of discord" was done from Russia. These people will not be brought from Russia to the U.S. for anything. George Soros has done far more nefarious meddling in the U.S. than anything mentioned in the indictment. Ditto that for HRC and the DNC.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2018 17:46 Comments || Top||

#10  There is no mention or citing in the indictment of the specific laws which were violated.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2018 18:00 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Morocco Acquits ex-Guantanamo Detainee
[AnNahar] Morocco has acquitted a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, held without charge by the U.S. military for over 13 years, of "undermining state security," his lawyer said Friday.

Yunis Chekkouri
...also named in DoD documents as Yunis Abdurrahman Shokuri, Yuunis Shokuri, Ahmed Abdullah Al-Wazan, and Younous Chekkouri, for reasons that no doubt made sense at the time...
was tossed in the clink
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
by Pak forces in late December 2001 with a group of several dozen alleged fighters who had fled the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan, a stronghold of the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
and its al-Qaeda allies. The following year he was flown to the Guantanamo Bay military prison, where he was locked up for over 13 years but never charged.

In September 2015, Chekkouri was released and sent back home where the authorities put him on trial for "undermining state security."

He was acquitted on Thursday of any wrongdoing, his lawyer Khalil Idrissi told AFP. The official MAP news agency confirmed, citing the court.

"The mistake has been acknowledged... the charges against him were contradictory and had no logic to them," Idrissi said.

Chekkouri, who had repeatedly denied the accusations against him, told AFP after the verdict: "The nightmare is over."

In May last year, Chekkouri, who has said he traveled to Afghanistan on a "humanitarian" mission, was sentenced to five years in prison but he appealed.

"The verdict was unfair. I knew that I would be proven innocent," he told AFP.

"I can now say I have turned the page on Guantanamo," he said, calling it a "cruel prison" where he said detainees are submitted "every day to interrogations, physical and psychological tortures."

Under former U.S. president George W. Bush, the U.S. military built a prison camp on Guantanamo Bay, located on an American naval base on the eastern tip of Cuba, in the months following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In January, U.S. President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
announced he would keep the detention facility open, breaking from his predecessor Barack Obama
I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money...
's efforts to shutter it.

Guantanamo, once home to 780 prisoners detained for their alleged links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, now holds 41 detainees.
No doubt that number will soon increase.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 01:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria Troops Find Mass Grave West of Raqa
One wonders how many tens of thousands of bodies will eventually be found.
[AnNahar] Syrian troops have uncovered a mass grave containing the remains of more than 30 people killed by the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group in Raqa province, state media reported on Friday.

It is the third such find by the army in recent months in territory formerly held by the jihadists west of their onetime bastion.

"In cooperation with specialists, an army unit came across a mass grave of civilians and combatants executed by the Islamic State group in western parts of Raqa province," state news agency SANA reported.

A member of the civil defence told the news agency that a total of 34 bodies had been exhumed from the grave near the town of Rathman. The remains were transported to the military hospital in neighbouring Aleppo province to be identified.

Government troops control the southwest of Raqa province, but the rest of it, including the historic provincial capital, is held by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who overran the jihadists' infamous bastion in October.

In late December, Syrian troops found two mass graves in the west of the province. State media later reported that more than 150 bodies had been exhumed from them.

The Islamic State group, which proclaimed a "caliphate" over swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, has now lost almost all the land it once controlled. It has been held responsible for multiple atrocities during its reign of terror, including mass executions and decapitations.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 01:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Home Front: Culture Wars
Black Panther film fuels calls for release of jailed political activists
[The Guardian] When he was released from prison in 2014, Sekou Odinga felt like he was falling from the sky into a foreign land. After 33 years behind bars, the former Black Panther party leader was released into a United States he didn’t recognize ‐ with strange technology and grandchildren he had never hugged.

Though he celebrated with family and supporters, Odinga, 73, also remained mindful of the many other civil rights activists who weren’t so lucky: "You always feel like you don’t want to leave nobody behind."

This weekend, his advocacy group is gathering outside movie theaters across New York City to educate crowds at sold-out screenings of Black Panther about the real-life Black Panthers who fought for black liberation in the 1960s and 1970s ‐ some of whom have also been fighting for their own freedom from incarceration for decades.

The Marvel superhero film, which is already breaking records at the box office, takes place in a fictional African country and has been widely praised as a well-timed political commentary.

For some activists, however, Ryan Coogler’s film and mostly black cast is much more than a refreshing comic book story that breaks down stereotypes in an industry dominated by white film-makers.
Sadly, there is much more and yes, it includes Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 01:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wakanda! Is anything grander
Than cannily planned propaganda,
Be it white with black spots
Or all black with white plots
And demanding one not pan the Pander?
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/17/2018 9:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Alternate headline: Convicted Terrorists Love Black Panther Flic.

How boring it must be in Guardian brains, such as they are. I read that the fictional African country is a perfect alt-right dream.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 12:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Make Wakanda Great Again!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/17/2018 15:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Wakanda! Is anything grander
Than cannily planned propaganda,
Be it white with black spots
Or all black with white plots
And demanding one not pan the Pander?


A modern classic.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/17/2018 16:23 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Victor Davis Hansen - The Fifth American War
[National Review] The country is coming apart, and the advocates of radical egalitarianism are winning.

The wars between Trump, the media, the deep state, and the progressive party ‐ replete with charges and counter-charges of scandal, collusion, and corruption ‐ are merely symptoms of a much larger fundamental and growing divide between Americans that is reaching a dangerous climax.

On four prior occasions in American history the country nearly split apart, as seemingly irreconcilable cultural, economic, political, social, geographical, and demographic fault lines opened a path to hatred and violence.

During the Jacksonian Revolution of the 1830s, factions nearly ripped the country apart over whether the East Coast Founders’ establishment of a half-century would relinquish its monopoly of political power to reflect the new demographic realties of an expanding frontier ‐ and its populist champions often deemed unfit for self-governance. For the most part, the Jacksonians won.

Three decades later the nation divided over slavery, prompting the most lethal war in American history to end it and force the defeated Confederate southern states back into the Union.

The Great Depression, and the establishment’s inept responses to it, left a quarter of the country unemployed for nearly a decade ‐ hungry and desperate to expand government even if it entailed curtailing liberty in a way never envisioned by the Founders. The result was eventually the redefinition of freedom as the right of the individual to have his daily needs guaranteed by the state.

Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 01:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So many people who are attracted to progressivism or liberalism say I want to be liberal and accepting or I'm for progess in our society. Big mistake, that is not what progressivism/liberalism is about.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2018 8:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Mr. Hansen left out the first American War which was a bit of brother vs brother in the war for independence. See - King's Mountain
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 9:42 Comments || Top||

#3  The country is not coming apart. A selection of the population is having a tantrum and are becoming increasingly isolated as a result.

The left is inflicting a type of emotional terrorism upon the nation, with the hopes that folks will take their side to shut them up. This is how Peggy Noonan and others turned on their ideals during the George W. administration and why #NeverTrumpers folded immediately rather than deal with 8 years of the same.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/17/2018 11:28 Comments || Top||

#4  The average American is made of sterner stuff than the pundit or political class.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/17/2018 11:28 Comments || Top||

#5  ...which should be an indication who to bet on in the next civil war.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 17:02 Comments || Top||

#6  VDH is NOT your normal perfumed pundit.
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2018 19:23 Comments || Top||

#7  I wasn't suggesting he was. I have major respect for Dr Hansen, but I think he overdoes it when he says the country is coming apart.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/17/2018 20:53 Comments || Top||

#8  Country coming apart? I'd say those fires were stoked heavily in the last adm.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2018 21:20 Comments || Top||


Government
General Kelley Overhauls White House Security Clearance Procedure
[MIL.com] WASHINGTON ‐ Chief of staff John Kelly is ordering changes to the White House security clearance process after allegations against an ex-aide.

Kelly sent a memo Friday to top White House aides in which he proposed several changes. He acknowledged that the White House "must do better" in handing clearances.

The issue has been in the spotlight for two weeks since it was revealed that former staff secretary Rob Porter had an interim clearance that allowed him access to classified material despite allegations of spousal abuse from two ex-wives.

Kelly has come under fire since Porter's resignation.

The chief of staff also called for the FBI and Justice Department to hand-deliver completed background checks to the White House counsel office.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 00:55 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Here's a suggestion. Have the Secret Service conduct a final review of the submitted e-QIP Security Clearance Backgroud Investigation Application.

Be sure to go over the penalties for failure to report, false reporting, or deception and rigorously enforce the penalties.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 8:01 Comments || Top||

#2  The question is not why did they not have a clearance. The question is why after a year there are still staff members waiting on their clearance? Clearances can take some time in the Que. The presidents staff should go to the front of that line, not get stuck in line with every other person. This was deliberate slow rolling.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 02/17/2018 10:30 Comments || Top||

#3  This was deliberate slow rolling.

I agree. The Washington Free Beacon reported in January 2017 about revelations that the FBI had denied Ben Rhodes an interim security clearance during the 2008 Obama transition and that the House investigation leader into the subject asked, “Why was Ben Rhodes the only applicant out of 187 to be rejected for an interim security clearance?”

So the interim security clearance exists, and was applied to President Obama’s people during the transition — excepting the slimy little novelist who prided himself on creating an echo chamber around the Iran deal, and yet he was eventually was given a full fledged clearances. We are now over a year away from President Trump’s inauguration, and even farther from the transition.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 11:17 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Where were James Clapper and John Brennan when the Kremlin was meddling?
[WSJ] The Justice Department on Friday indicted three Russian companies and 13 individuals for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and the man who should be most upset is Donald J. Trump. The 37-page indictment contains no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, but it does show a systematic effort to discredit the result of the 2016 election. On the evidence so far, President Trump has been the biggest victim of that effort, and he ought to be furious at Vladimir Putin.

The indictment documents a broad social-media and propaganda campaign operating out of Russia and involving hundreds of people starting in 2014 that "had a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system." It certainly succeeded on that score, as Democrats and the media have claimed that Mr. Trump’s election is illegitimate because he conspired with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton. The charge has roiled American politics and made governing more difficult.

The good news for Mr. Trump is that the indictment reveals no evidence of collusion. The Russians "posted derogatory information about a number of candidates," the indictment says, and by 2016 "included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump" and "disparaging Hillary Clinton." But it adds that the Russians "communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign," and it offers no claims of a conspiracy.

Readers of the indictment will be amused at the comic opera details. In or around June 2016, for example, Russians posing online as Americans "communicated with a real U.S. person affiliated with a Texas-based grassroots organization." This "real U.S. person" vouchsafed the deep political secret that the Russians "should focus their activities on ’purple states like Colorado, Virginia & Florida.’" Sure enough, the Russians thereafter referred to targeting "purple states." Someone actually paid Russians to collect this insight.

The indictment also contains no evidence that Russia’s meddling changed the electoral results. A U.S. presidential campaign is a maelstrom of information, charges and counter-charges, media reports and social-media chatter. The Russian Twitter bursts became part of this din and sought to reinforce existing biases more than they sought to change minds. Their Twitter hashtags included "#Hillary4Prison," for example, which you could find at the souvenir desk at the GOP convention.

Yet none of this should let Twitter, Facebook or Google off the hook for being facilitators of this disinformation. The social-media sites and search engines clearly did far too little to police their content for malicious trolls and in the process misled millions of Americans. They need to do more to take responsibility for the content they midwife.

The indictment also makes us wonder what the Obama Administration was doing amid all of this. Where were top Obama spooks James Clapper and John Brennan ? Their outrage became public only after their candidate lost the election. If they didn’t know what was going on, why not? And if they did, why didn’t they let Americans in on the secret? President Obama sanctioned Russia for its meddling only after the election.

The indictment’s details underscore Russia’s malicious anti-American purposes. An authoritarian regime spent tens of millions of dollars to erode public trust in American democracy. As Senator Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) put it Friday, "Putin’s shadow war is aimed at undermining Americans’ trust in our institutions. We know Russia is coming back in 2018 and 2020‐we have to take the threat seriously."

All of which makes the White House reaction on Friday strangely muted. Its statement understandably focused on the lack of collusion evidence and made one reference to "the agendas of bad actors, like Russia." But given how much Russia’s meddling has damaged his first year in office, Mr. Trump should publicly declare his outrage at Russia on behalf of the American people. The Kremlin has weakened his Presidency. He should make Russia pay a price that Mr. Obama never did.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 00:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They are just chomping at the bit for a war with Russia.
Posted by: Harcourt Angoluting9366 || 02/17/2018 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  They are just chomping at the bit for a war with Russia.

Paid by China?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/17/2018 3:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Clapper was on bottom and Brennan was on top.
Posted by: Airandee || 02/17/2018 7:59 Comments || Top||

#4  All of which makes the White House reaction on Friday strangely muted.
Really? If you believe in the strawman image of Trump as an egomaniac with the impulse control of a 3 year old, then "Yes, strangely muted". What sort of "price" are these jingoistic pundits wanting... ICBM fired at Leningrad St. Petersburg?
Posted by: magpie || 02/17/2018 17:58 Comments || Top||

#5  The Russians "posted derogatory information about a number of candidates," the indictment says, and by 2016 "included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump" and "disparaging Hillary Clinton."

Most people at R-Burg have disparaged HRC and posted derogatory info about her.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2018 18:14 Comments || Top||

#6  My wife and I ate lunch at a local Wendy's today. Unfortunately, they had MSNBC on. There were numerous Democrats on who seemed to be saying that if Trump doesn't sanction Russia, it is proof that he colluded with them, and therefore must be impeached.

I couldn't wait to get out of there to get away from the noise.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 02/17/2018 18:37 Comments || Top||

#7  did you let them know? And that you won't be back?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2018 19:26 Comments || Top||

#8 
Most people at R-Burg have disparaged HRC and posted derogatory info about her.


I wasn't aware there was information about a Clinton that wasn't derogatory.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/17/2018 20:25 Comments || Top||

#9  The truth is spoken and it is reported as being derogatory.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2018 21:25 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
SC issues contempt notice to Rao Anwar for failing to show up in court
[PAKISTANTODAY.PK] The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday issued a contempt of court notice to former SSP Malir Rao Anwar over his failure to appear in court in a case pertaining to the extrajudicial murder of Naqeebullah, a young man from South Wazoo.

Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistain (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar, a three-judge bench ordered the authorities concerned to freeze the absconding officer’s bank accounts and assets.

At the start of the hearing, the CJP asked Sindh police chief Allah Dino Khowaja whether or not Rao Anwar has arrived at the court. To which, he replied that the suspended police officer has not arrived yet.

CJP Nisar observed that Rao Anwar missed a good opportunity to surrender himself despite having been granted protective bail. He noted it was the duty of the IG Sindh to find the former SSP Malir and assured that the court was ready to extend any kind of cooperation for the purpose.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


War on terror nondiscriminatory, Talal clarifies after Pashtun dress controversy
[PAKISTANTODAY.PK] Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry on Friday told the National Assembly (NA) that war on terror was not against any specific nation, a segment of society or province.

Responding to a call attention notice, he said that mock exercises are conducted in different areas to prepare and train the security personnel for operations against the terrorists.

He said thousands of combing operations have been carried out in Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

province.

He explained that the security forces are taking action without any discrimination. He said portraying in Pakhtun dress during mock exercise in Multan was not meant declaring them as terrorists.
Probably they shoulda dressed them as Ahmadis.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Top Iranians Laud Dead Hezbollah Terrorist, Call for Israel’s Destruction
[CNSNEWS] Marking the tenth anniversary of the liquidation of Hezbollah’s top terrorist, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force said Thursday the price for his blood will be the eradication of Israel.
Yeah, yeah. You and what army?
"This regime is not going to survive," Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani
said at a ceremony in Tehran. "The eradication of the child-murdering Zionist regime," he said, would be the price paid for the "martyrdom" of Imad Mughniyeh and others killed by Israel.

Soleimani in lauding Mughniyeh characterized him as an almost mythical figure, saying that "he came down on the enemy like a sword, then disappeared like a ghost."

Going further in the hagiolatry, Soleimani said although it wasn’t for him to determine the religious status of individuals, the dead Lebanese terrorist "had many features of an ayatollah, in standing up to the enemies of Allah."

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  "he came down on the enemy like a sword, then disappeared like a ghost pink mist."
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2018 9:21 Comments || Top||

#2  I really wish, sometimes, that assassination would come back in fashion.
Posted by: AlanC || 02/17/2018 16:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Iran almost became a non-player last weekend after that F-16 went down.

They do not know how close they came to it because Israel had their finger on the switch.
Posted by: newc || 02/17/2018 17:05 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Over 7 civilians killed in 41 aggression air strikes over 24 hours
[SABANEWS.NET] At least seven non-combatants were killed and three maimed in more than 41 air strikes which launched by US-backed Saudi-led aggression coalition on several provinces of Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
over the past 24 hours, medics and officials tod Sana News Agency on Saturday.

In Taiz province, six civilians, including children, were killed in an initial toll in an air strike targeted civilians’ lorry in Magbana district.

In Jawf province, three air strikes were waged on Khub-washaaf district, and an air raid on Maslub district.

In Hajjah province, the aggression warplanes launched an Arclight airstrike on Hairan district and 20 air strikes on Haradh and Medi districts.

In Saada province, the fighter jets of aggression launched two strikes on Aal-mujada area of Bagem district, three air strikes on Sawh and Farea areas of Kutaf district and an air strike hit Azhur area of Razeh district.

Also in Razeh district of Saada, an air strike was launched on Aal-ali area, damaging civilians’ properties.

Meanwhile,
...back at the saloon, Butch got the bill for the damage caused by the fist fight, the mirror broken in the shootout, and drinks for everyone......
Saudi force targeted Ghur area of Ghamer district and several areas of Munabeh border district by missiles and artillery.

In Sanaa province, six airstrikes were waged on several areas of Nehm district and there were reports of causalities.

Also in Nehm district, a civilians was killed and three were maimed in an initial toll when air strikes targeted a car on Aqran area.
In Najran border district, the warplane of aggression launched a strike on Shurfah site.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis

#1  "Over 7"?
8?
7-1/2?

Metric system math?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2018 8:36 Comments || Top||

#2  They found an extra ear, Frank.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 11:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Trying to beat Chicago this weekend?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 11:41 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hezbollah chief threatens Israel’s offshore oil in TV address
[ALMASDARNEWS] Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Hezbollah could "disable [Israel’s offshore oil installations] within hours," speaking during a televised address in Beirut on Friday.

"In the battle for oil and gas, the only power you have, you the Lebanese people, is the resistance, because the Lebanese army is not allowed to own missiles," Nasrallah began.

"If you prevent us, we prevent you; if you open fire at us, we will open fire," he said in a ceremony commemorating Imad Mughniyeh, the party’s former military commander who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.

Nasrallah’s comments came amid rising tensions between Israel and Leb over maritime border and Leb’s alleged excavation attempts in Block 9 which Israel regards as part of its own territory.

The Hezbollah leader would then criticize the US, calling them dishonest mediators on behalf of Israel.

"The Americans are not honest mediators, especially when the other party is the Israeli entity," he concluded.
Let me think. The oil/gas field deposit is in the economic seas of Israel and Cyprus. Now Turkey tries to block Cyprus and Hezbollah wants to block Israel. Are Turkey and Hezbollah working together on this?

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Copycats: Teen arrested over Snapchat post threatening ‘Round 2 of Florida’
[RT] A ninth-grader was arrested after threatening students and staff at a school in eastern Spartanburg County, South Carolina with "Round 2 of Florida tomorrow" via Snapchat, according to the local sheriff’s office.

The minor, whose name cannot be revealed due to his age, was charged with disturbing schools, and was transported to the Department of Juvenile Justice facility in Greenville.

Lieutenant Kevin Bobo of the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office said another student had showed their father a Snapchat picture of a Broome High School freshman wearing a mask and holding what appeared to be an assault rifle, WSPA reported.

Girl, 11, is arrested by Florida police for threatening to shoot up a middle school

[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] She claimed in a written confession that she was made to put the note under the door by another girl, who said she would get her friend to fight her if she did not.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  transported to the Department of Juvenile Justice facility in Greenville.


Scared straight?
Posted by: AlanC || 02/17/2018 7:44 Comments || Top||

#2  A five minute bare arse walloping with a razor strap might do wonders for his memory.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 7:50 Comments || Top||


Indian woman arrested after posing as man & marrying 2 females for dowries
[RT] A woman in India has been locked away
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
after posing as a man and marrying two females for their dowries, allegedly abusing one of them to get her hands on the loot.

The bizarre scam apparently began when 26-year-old Sweety Sen from the state of Uttar Pradesh created a fake Facebook profile under the name Krishna Sen in 2013. She then uploaded photos of herself wearing men's clothing and used the account to get in touch with women, according to Senior Superintendent of Police Janmejay Khanduri, as cited by Indian Express.

In 2014, Sen and members of her family traveled to the town of Kathgodam to meet a 22-year-old woman that she had got in touch with on Facebook.

"Sen had convinced her that she [Sen] was a man," Khanduri said. The two were married the same year and began living together in a rented house. However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome...
the perceived marital bliss ended when Sen began assaulting the woman for her dowry, police allege.

Later, in 2016, Sen married a 20-year-old woman and rented an apartment with her. Sen never allowed either woman to see her body, and used sex toys to maintain the illusion of being male, according to authorities.

In October 2017, Sen's first wife filed a police complaint, charging Sen with dowry theft and domestic violence. She alleged that Sen took $850,000 rupees (US$13,243) from her family, claiming she needed the money for a factory she owned in Hardwar. "We got married in 2014. She used to behave like a man, used to drink, smoke and also abuse. She used to threaten to kill me after she married another woman. It got confirmed after medical examination that she was a woman and not a man," the first wife told ANI news agency.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Couldn't afford to relocate to California?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 8:13 Comments || Top||

#2  Ouch. Lol!
Posted by: gorb || 02/17/2018 15:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, with some women posing as husbands it could be hard to tell. And with some women posing as wives it could be hard to ever come up.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/17/2018 17:39 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Somali Troops Recapture Town From Al-Shabaab
[RADIOSHABELLE] Somali government forces retook control of the key town of Toratorow which lies in the southern Lower Shabelle region, officials said Friday.

The Somali National Army [SNA] troops backed by foreign soldiers thought to be Americans seized the town following the withdrawal of al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
Lion of Islams.

The allied forces who were reported to have moved from Balli-Doogle airbase are now in full control of the town and expected to expand their operation to the nearby areas controlled by Al-Shabaab.

Toratorow has been the scene of series of US Arclight airstrikes in the past few months as the town was the main bastion housing Al-Shabaab high-ranking commanders.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)


Suspected Al-Shabaab Militants Kill 3 In Kenyan School Attack
[RADIOSHABELLE] Suspected al-Shabaab
... the personification of Somali state failure...
Death Eaters killed three Kenyan teachers and injured one other in an attack Friday on a school in the country’s northeastern county of Wajir, officials said.

The Death Eaters in early morning attacked the Qarsa primary school near the borders with Somalia and Æthiopia, in a town about 70 km from Wajir town, the capital of the county, killing three non-local teachers, said Mohamud Saleh, coordinator of Kenya’s northeastern region.

Authorities have been working to find another teacher who was allegedly shot in the hand and escaped with injuries.

Saleh said that ongoing efforts have been made to trace the killers, who escaped soon after the incident.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
ISIS scores big advance in Yarmouk Camp, entire district nearly captured
[ALMASDARNEWS] For the second time this week, the so-called Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) has scored a big advance in the Yarmouk Camp District, seizing several areas from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham
.

According to the terrorist group’s official media wing, their forces began the day by attack HTS’ positions at the al-Malyoun and al-Mashrou’ neighborhoods of the Yarmouk Camp.

The Islamic State would ultimately infiltrate HTS’ lines in al-Malyoun and al-Mashrou’, forcing the latter to retreat further north in order to avoid being overrun by the terrorist group.

ISIS claimed at least five HTS fighters killed during the battle, including two HTS field commander.

As a result of Friday’s advance, the Islamic State is now on the verge of seizing the entire Yarmouk Camp District.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Afghanistan
Local Taliban leader among 6 killed in US airstrike in Uruzgan
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A local leader of the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
group was killed in an Arclight airstrike conducted by the US forces in southen Uruzgan province of Afghanistan.

According to the local security officials, the airstrike was carried out late on Wednesday in the outskirts of Tarinkot city, the quiet provincial capital of Uruzgan.

A local police official confirmed that six Taliban Lions of Islam including one of their local leaders Mullah Ghazi were killed and four others were maimed.

The source further added that a hideout of the Taliban group was eliminated in the airstrike in Garam Aab area.

Several weapons, ammunition, and explosives belonging to the Taliban group were destroyed in the airstrike, the police official added.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Arabia
Yemeni Red Crescent organizes Cholera's training course
[SABANEWS.NET] The Yemeni Red Islamic Thingy Society organized on Monday an awareness training course on Cholera epidemic in Hodeidah province.

The two-day course included 30 volunteers to provide a knowledge on protection instruction from the epidemic.

The course was funded by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in coordination with the state Health Office in the province.
Rantburg's free cholera training course:

Step 1: Poop in the water.

Step 2: Drink it.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


The Grand Turk
Tillerson says US-Turkish relations at 'crisis point'
[Al Jazeera] The US secretary of state has acknowledged that his country's relationship with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
is "at a bit of a crisis point", as his Ottoman Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, demanded that the United States "turn words into actions" to resolve their differences in dealing with the Syrian crisis.

At a joint presser in Ankara on Friday, Rex Tillerson said the US-Turkey alliance "is too valuable" for the two countries not to take action together, particularly on their dispute over the US' support of the armed Syrian Kurdish YPG, considered a "terrorist group" by the Ottoman Turkish government.

"Ours is not an alliance of convenience or of temporary interest. It is a time-tested alliance built on common interest and mutual respect," Tillerson said.

"Our two countries share the same objectives in Syria."

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  "Mevlut Cavusoglu, demanded that the United States "turn words into actions""

Be careful what you wish for,,,
Posted by: Mercutio || 02/17/2018 8:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Hi, Mercutio! :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 11:45 Comments || Top||

#3  yup, TW, still kickin'
Posted by: Mercutio || 02/17/2018 12:07 Comments || Top||

#4  "Ours is not an alliance of convenience or of temporary interest. It is a time-tested alliance built on common interest and mutual respect," Tillerson said.
It is amazing what sort of things a professional diplomat is paid to say in public, isn't it?
Posted by: magpie || 02/17/2018 13:01 Comments || Top||

#5  Nothing has changed then. It's just become obvious.
Posted by: gorb || 02/17/2018 15:22 Comments || Top||

#6  "Ours is not an alliance of convenience or of temporary interest. It is a time-tested alliance built on common interest and mutual respect,"

It is an 'alliance' built on hostage taking too.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 || 02/17/2018 20:38 Comments || Top||


US considers sanctioning Turkey over latest disputes: State Dept.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The U.S. is considering the possibility of sanctioning The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire....
over their ongoing disputes in Syria, Heather Nauert, the U.S. State Department Spokesperson, stated on Friday.

"Yeah, we certainly do have issues in dispute. As you know, the Secretary is on the ground there, so I’m not going to detail too much about what we may or may not do," the Spokesperson began.

"But sanctions are always on the table with regard to different nations and areas that we may have difficulties with, but you also know we don’t preview sanctions," Naeurt added.

Turkey and the U.S. have been at odds for months over the latter’s decision to aid the Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria.

This dispute has resulted in Turkey threatening to invade the the city of Menbeij, which is located in northeast Aleppo.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  President Trump appoints Fetullah Gullen UN Special Ambassador for Kurdish relief ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 8:35 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Operation Sinai 2018, Day 7: Egyptian army kills 3 'takfiris', arrests 224 'criminal elements'
[AlAhram] Three "takfiri
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
s" were killed by the Egyptian armed forces in northern and central Sinai on Friday, the army said in a statement.

Military front man Tamer El-Rifai said forces also incarcerated
I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece!
224 "wanted criminal elements", destroyed 10 4x4 vehicles and 68 weapons caches, and detonated 28 IEDs planted in the field of operations on Friday.

El-Rifai’s statement about the seventh day of Operation Sinai 2018, the military’s new counter-terrorism operation, is the eighth military communique on the operation since it began last week.

The operation involves land, naval and air operations. Land, sea and air forces have carried out security patrols to combat attempts to smuggle arms or infiltrate through southern and western borders, El-Rifai added.

Forces involved in the operation have also destroyed nine farms used to grow illegal narcotics and seized large amounts of drugs and communication facilities, he said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)


Iraq
Iraq jails Turkish woman, Syrian for life over IS ties
[AlAhram] An Iraqi court on Monday sentenced a Ottoman Turkish woman and a Syrian man to life in jail over ties to the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group, a judicial front man said.

The woman was accused of "hiding the actions of a terrorist group to which her husband belonged", Supreme Judicial Council front man Abdel Sattar Bayraqdar said, referring to IS.

"The court condemned another Syrian terrorist to life in prison for belonging to IS and for taking part in attacks against Iraqi soldiers," he said.

Iraq in December declared victory against IS after a years-long battle to retake large swathes of territory the jihadists had seized in 2014. Several hundred foreigners, both men and women, are thought to have been detained in the fighting.

An Iraqi court last month condemned to death by hanging a German woman of Moroccan origin after finding her guilty of belonging to the jihadist group. She is believed to be the first European woman to be sentenced to death in Iraq in relation to IS.

In September last year, Iraq sentenced to death by hanging a Russian man who was captured in second city djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
and found guilty of fighting for the group.

In December, a Swede of Iraqi origin was among 38 people executed after being convicted of "terrorism".

Three French women awaiting trial in Baghdad could face the death penalty
for joining IS, sources with knowledge their cases told AFP last month.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Home Front: WoT
3 men accused of trying to export drone parts to Hezbollah
[Ynet] A federal grand jury in Minnesota indicted three people on charges that they conspired to export drone parts and technology from the US to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Leb, authorities announced Friday.

The US Attorney's office for Minnesota said two of the suspects‐brothers Osama Hamade and Issam Hamade ‐ are now in jug in South Africa, while the third, Samir "Tony" Berro, remains on the lam. All three are Lebanese citizens. Osama "Prince Sam" Hamade also has South African citizenship, while Berro and Issam Hamade are also UK citizens.

The US considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The Shiite bad boy group has used drones at least since 2004. The indictment alleges the conspiracy operated from 2009 through December 2013. It says the equipment included electronics that can be used in drone guidance systems, one jet engine and 20 piston engines that can be used in drones, and a pair of digital video recording binoculars.
The DoJ press release, naming the men as Usama Darwich Hamade, 53, Samir Ahmed Berro, 64, and Issam Darwich Hamade, 55, can be read here.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah

#1  Seeker flying over Cape Town Stadium. Denel guarding it's market share.

I have not problem with that.

The Seeker looks a bit like our Tiger Shark, or the IDF Black Star... or vise versa.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 1:32 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Top ISIS commander eliminated by Syrian airstrike in rural Hama
[ALMASDARNEWS] Information has just begun to surface that the Syrian Air Force killed a high-ranking ISIS commander during a strike against positions of the terrorist group in northeast Hama province well over a week ago.

The slain bad boy commander has been identified as Gazook Paleostinian Abu Abdullah al-Ghazzawi (picture below).
They do get around, those Palestinians. The West Bankers tend to make themselves useful in Saudi factories and such, where their Israel-supported educations make them useful; the Gazans have lately been going in for leadership among the jihadis. Perhaps they’re frustrated with Hamas’ impotence with regard to Israel in recent years.
He led forces of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
affiliate militia Jund al-Aqsa (technically defunct since February 2017).

Abu Abdullah al-Ghazzawi joined the ranks of ISIS in Syria at some point during 2013. Prior to that he was an active member of the Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", rebel group in Gazoo.

Reports also mention that twenty days prior to being killed by Syrian airpower in rural Hama, Abu Abdullah al-Ghazzawi had been maimed, losing one of his hands (apparently so badly injured that it had to be amputated).

The Syrian Army successful concluded its operations against ISIS in northwest Syria well over one week ago, and no specific date as to when the ISIS commander was killed has yet been provided.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Reports also mention that twenty days prior to being killed by Syrian airpower in rural Hama, Abu Abdullah al-Ghazzawi had been maimed, losing one of his hands (apparently so badly injured that it had to be amputated).

I like it - killing him a bit at a time
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2018 8:58 Comments || Top||


Turkish-backed rebels expand control over southern Afrin, Kurds invite Assad to join the fun
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Ottoman Turkish-backed rebels continued their advance in the Afrin region of Aleppo this week, capturing several sites from the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) at the Jandaris axis.

Led by the Faylaq al-Sham faction of the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
(FSA), the Ottoman Turkish-backed rebels managed to capture the town of Daywan Fouqani in southern Afrin on Thursday after a fierce battle with the the YPG forces in the area.

As a result of this advance, the Ottoman Turkish-backed rebels were able to expand their buffer-zone around the Jandaris axis.

Syrian Army can be present in any part of Afrin: YPG media adviser
[ALMASDARNEWS] The media adviser of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), Rizan Haddou, told al-Mayadeen TV on Friday that the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) can be present in any part of the Afrin region.

Haddou told the Lebanese channel that the YPG applauded the Syrian Army for downing the Israeli F-16 last week and added that he hopes they shoot down a Ottoman Turkish warplane too.

The YPG media adviser stated that Afrin is Syrian land and part of Syria, so the SAA is welcome to enter this region at any juncture.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


India-Pakistan
Islam and Modernity in Pakistan-II
[PAKISTANTODAY.PK] Is it Islam that obstructs democracy in Pakistain or is it illiteracy, ignorance and economic depravity? Is it not feudalism and its pernicious effects that impede social justice and an egalitarian society in Pakistan?
Perhaps the two are connected? I'd say the question is whether they're inextricably connected.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
‘New dawn’ for South Africa, says new president Ramaphosa
[BRECORDER] Good luck widdat, comrade.
I hope and pray it all works out. Lots at stake here.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He's so crooked he'll make the sun come up in the West.
Posted by: Classer || 02/17/2018 4:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Not Boer nor Zulu nor Xhosa;
Not fishy nor foul, Ramaphosa.
Part shark and part owl
And a third Thurston Howell...
And he don't even know Omarosa!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/17/2018 8:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, when you keep tearing it down, you do have to start building it up over again at some point.
Posted by: ed in texas || 02/17/2018 8:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Can he make it rain?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2018 8:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Similar to Trump following Obama, after 'Shower-Head' Zuma, the bar is fairly low.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 9:02 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Man who killed wife with acid sentenced to death in UAE
[PAKISTANTODAY.PK] An Emirati husband who allegedly killed his wife by throwing acid on her after she demanded divorce has been sentenced to death.

After being released from jail in February 2016, the man had accused his wife of extra-marital relations but couldn’t substantiate his claim. Subsequently, he threw acid on his wife in front of three of their children.

Prior to the incident, the mother of six had also filed for divorce after learning that her husband had married for a second time, as revealed in the court documents.
The eldest son of the couple, now 17, and his younger brother also suffered burns while trying to rescue their mother. The children did manage to call the ambulance.

The woman was admitted to Al Mafraq hospital before getting treatment by a burn expert in Germany. However,
alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk...
she died due to injuries of second and third degree burns over 70 per cent of her body.

The woman’s family refused to pardon the killer in exchange for blood money and demanded death penalty
for the man. The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court of First Instance then issued the said verdict.

The family of the victim demanded Dh200,000 by filing a temporary civil compensation suit against the suspect because of the woman’s death and burns suffered by the children.

Authorities stated that the man attempted to commit suicide twice at Al Wathba jail. The death sentence can be appealed within 14 days after the issuance of the ruling.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Executed by acid, hopefully.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 1:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Feet first would seem reasonable.
Posted by: Classer || 02/17/2018 4:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Where's Saddam's wood-chipper when you need it?
Posted by: AlanC || 02/17/2018 11:55 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Indian troops kill two Kashmiri people in Poonch
[PAKISTANTODAY.PK] Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism
... any action taken by a non-Moslem state that constrains the violent impulses of Moslems or their allies ...
martyred two young people in Poonch district of the Indian-held Kashmire (IHK).

The troops killed the young people during a violent military operation in Balakote area of the district. On the other hand, demonstrations erupted in Palhallan area of the Baramulla district after the Indian troops launched a cordon and search operation.

The local police and the Indian troops used brute force to disperse the protesters, triggering festivities between the government forces and the demonstrators. The local media reported that the festivities were continuing in the area after the start of the operation.

The authorities have suspended mobile internet service in the district while all entry and exit routes to Palhallan have been sealed by the Indian forces. Clashes were also witnessed between the troops and the protesters in Arwini area of Bijbehara during the operation last evening.

In another development, unidentified button men attacked the camp of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Panzgam Awantipora area of the Pulwama district.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies


Iraq
Islamic State doctor arrested in an offensive, northwest Mosul: Military intelligence
[Iraq News] The military intelligence department have tossed in the clink
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
a doctor who treats 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....
members who were maimed during djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
liberation battles in an offensive in northwest of the city.

In a statement, the department said, "said the military intelligence arrested a terrorist in Zumar, northeast of Mosul."

The Death Eater, according to the statement, "used to work as a doctor who was in charge of the treating other holy warriors who got maimed during liberation offensives." He was one of those wanted by Zumar court.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Paramilitaries kill Islamic State members attempting attack against borders from Syria
[Iraq News] The pro-government paramilitary forces have killed 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....
Death Eaters as they attempted attacking the troops on the Iraqi-Syrian borders, the media service of the troops reported on Thursday.

In a statement, the media service of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said, "the first brigade blew up a vehicle of Islamic State members and killed those on board, south of Tal Sufuk border crossing."

"IS members were on board a vehicle coming from Syria in attempt to attack PMFs," the statement added.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Africa Horn
Radical Imam's Widow Jailed over Kenyan Attack
[AnNahar] A Kenyan court on Friday sentenced the widow of a radical imam to 10 years in prison for her role in a failed attack on a cop shoppe in the port city Mombasa.

Haniya Said was found guilty of conspiracy for supporting an attack in which three women fire-bombed the city's main cop shoppe on September 11, 2016, wielding knives and stabbing an officer.

All three attackers were rubbed out.

"Guilty of the offense of conspiracy," said magistrate Diana Mochache. "I hereby sentence you to 10 years in prison."

The attackers were said to be supporters of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group.

Said is the widow of Aboud Rogo Mohammed,
... who until his death was very busy in the jihad biz, and who set the pattern for his successors to die violently in turn ...
a holy man killed in Mombasa in August 2012 who was until his death the main preacher at the city's Musa mosque, seen as the heart of radical Islam in Kenya.

The imam was accused of recruiting young Kenyans to fight in neighboring Somalia with Shabaab, East Africa's long-time branch of al-Qaeda, Islamic State's rivals.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Europe
Germany to US: we’ll spend more on defence, you stay involved
[PAKISTANTODAY.PK] Germany’s defence minister pledged to spend more on its military and the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
, but she called in return for other countries not to turn away from mulitlateralism.

Ursula von der Leyen’s remarks came days after US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis reiterated President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
’s demand that European countries spend more on their militaries.

In a speech on Friday to the Munich Security Conference, von der Leyen said Germany was prepared to play a bigger international role, by increasing its military spending and its contributions to the United Nations. But she urged the United States to stick to a multilateral path.

"We are concerned when we see that some partners keep cutting funds for diplomacy, development cooperation and the United Nations," she said. The US State Department has been subject to deep cuts under Trump’s presidency.

German military short on tanks for NATO mission

[DW] The German military is under-equipped to take on its upcoming role as leader of NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
's anti-Russian defense force, a leaked document shows. Opposition politicians say the defense minister is to blame.

The German military has secretly admitted that it can't fulfill its promises to NATO, according to documents leaked to Die Welt newspaper on Thursday.

The Bundeswehr is due to take over leadership of NATO's multinational Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) at the start of next year, but doesn't have enough tanks, the Defense Ministry document said.

Specifically, the Bundeswehr's ninth tank brigade in Munster only has nine operational Leopard 2 tanks ‐ even though it promised to have 44 ready for the VJTF ‐ and only three of the promised 14 Marder armored infantry vehicles.

The paper also revealed the reason for this shortfall: a lack of spare parts and the high cost and time needed to maintain the vehicles. It added that it was also lacking night-vision equipment, automatic grenade launchers, winter clothing and body armor.

The German air force is also struggling to cover its NATO duties, the document revealed. The Luftwaffe's main forces, the Eurofighter and Tornado fighter jets and its CH-53 transport helicopters, are only available for use an average of four months a year ‐ the rest of the time the aircraft are grounded for repairs and rearmament.

"The state for all part-time forces are similarly worrying," Hans-Peter Bartels, parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, told Die Welt. Opposition politicians blamed Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen for allowing the military to deteriorate.

According to the leaked document, the army would now be trying to cover its "capacity-relevant deficits out of the stocks of other units" ‐ even though that would impact training and exercises elsewhere.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "ran an dein feind!"
Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 02/17/2018 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah they're not going to spend the money. Liars.
Posted by: Harcourt Angoluting9366 || 02/17/2018 0:51 Comments || Top||

#3  You will spend more on Defense or Russia will get involved. Look at Latvia.

And that STATSI Merkel invaded Europe with an army not quite her own, that evil naif.

You have ruined Europe two too many times, Germany.
And I AM furious over this Immigration racket.

To Live or not to Live, that is the question.
Nut up or nut out.
Posted by: newc || 02/17/2018 2:16 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm not interested in the US military being the world's police or some other countries mercenary army.
Posted by: jvalentour || 02/17/2018 8:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Another Lucy Van Pelt moment.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 8:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Top German diplomat: 'We no longer recognize our America'
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/17/2018 11:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Maybe Frau von der Leyen should look for a way to convert Korans to munitions?
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 02/17/2018 19:18 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkey: Six journalists given life sentences over coup
[Al Jazeera] A Ottoman Turkish court has sentenced six journalists to life in prison in relation to a failed coup attempt in 2016, state media reported.

The six journalists received aggravated life sentences for "attempting to overthrow the constitutional order", an unnamed judicial source told Anadolu news agency on Friday.

The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
has accused the journalists of having links to a movement headed by exiled Moslem scholar Fethullah Gülen
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
, who Ankara alleges was behind a deadly failed putsch in July 2016. Gulen, who is based in the United States, denies the accusation.

The individuals sentenced on Friday in the Istanbul court include Ahmet Altan, the former editor-in-chief of Taraf newspaper, his brother, journalist and academic Mehmet Altan, and prominent Ottoman Turkish journalist Nazli Ilicak.

The journalists, who were tossed into the calaboose for about a year, can appeal the ruling all the way up to the Ottoman Turkish Supreme Court, Al Jazeera's Sinem Koseoglu reported from Istanbul.

"Aggravated life sentence means if prisoners are granted immunity by any other future government or any other judiciary, these people cannot benefit from that," Koseoglu said.

Turkey Frees German-Turkish Journalist after Year in Jail

[AnNahar] Turkey on Friday freed a German-Ottoman Turkish journalist held for more than a year in jail without facing trial, in a surprise move which may help repair severely eroded ties between Ankara and Berlin.

Deniz Yucel, 44, the The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
correspondent of Die Welt newspaper, had been held since February 14, 2017 on accusations of supporting terror groups.

In a fast-moving day of events, he was released after prosecutors finally unveiled an indictment detailing the charges against him and requesting that he be nabbed
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
for 18 years.

But critically, the court also ordered that he be allowed to go free after the issuing of the indictment, potentially drawing the curtain on the biggest bone of contention in a major crisis between the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
allies.

Prosecutors charged Yucel with "making terror propaganda" and "inciting public hatred and hostility", state-run news agency
...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
Anadolu reported.

However,
denial ain't just a river in Egypt...
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that the court-ordered release was "unconditional."

"We presume that he will be allowed to leave the country," he added.

An AFP journalist saw Yucel -- looking tired but happy -- return to his apartment in the Istanbul district of Besiktas. Gabriel later said Yucel was heading to the airport. Leaving the country would allow him to be tried in absentia and thus not face any jail time even if convicted.

- #FreeDeniz campaign -
The incarceration of the German-Ottoman Turkish correspondent has been the biggest stumbling block to rebuilding badly damaged ties between the governments of Chancellor Angela Merkel
...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom. Now they make faces at her for inundating the country with Moslems ..
and President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
Erdogan had repeatedly personally described Yucel as a "terror agent", causing consternation in Germany.

Merkel said that she welcomed the release and thanked "all those" who had worked to free Yucel.

Adding a note of caution, she added: "I know there are other people, perhaps less well known, who are in prison in Turkey and we hope their legal proceedings will be resolved quickly."

Also detained were a number of German citizens or dual nationals whom Berlin considered political hostages. Relations have recently started to recover from their deep crisis after Turkey released several German citizens.

Merkel had on Thursday told Turkey's visiting Prime Minister Binali Yildirim that Yucel's detention stood in the way of efforts on both sides to improve "clouded" relations and marked a continuing "burden."

She reiterated German concerns about the rule of law in Turkey, where the authorities had suspended tens of thousands of people after the failed coup.

Yildirim also cautiously welcomed the release, saying "some of the issues causing some problems in Germany-Turkey relations in the past period seem to be resolved today."

"God willing it will be better," Yildirim said
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


-Land of the Free
Jeff Sessions: We Are Ending ‘Executive Branch Legal Activism’
[BREITBART] Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Thursday that the Department of Justice was ending the "executive branch legal activism" of the previous administration, while also fighting the judicial activism of liberal judges.

"I think the department did become too political" under President Barack Obama
I inhaled. That was the point...
, Sessions said. "Essentially, it was executive branch legal activism. They would take cases or regulations or statutes and expand or redefine the meaning of words in them to advance the agenda that they thought ought to be advanced ‐ an agenda that often had zero chance of passing Congress, where the elected representatives sit.

"So you have an agenda, and you can’t get Congress to pass it, so you use unelected regulatory officials and lawyers to draft regulations and enforcement policies that carry out a political agenda that the people don’t favor.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thank you Sessions.
Posted by: newc || 02/17/2018 0:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Well perhaps he hasn't been snoozing.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 1:16 Comments || Top||

#3  the Department of Justice was ending

Let see some results
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/17/2018 3:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Now on to judicial branch legal activism.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/17/2018 11:05 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Man kills wife, her ‘lover’ for honour in Dera Murad Jamali
[TRIBUNE.PK] A man killed his wife and her alleged lover in the name of honour in district Dera Murad Jamali, Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
on Friday.

Police officials said the incident occurred in Goth Abdul Aziz area under the jurisdiction of Saddar Police Station, where Faiq Ali killed his wife, Z* and her alleged lover Sadiq Ali.

Police party rushed to the spot soon after the incident and shifted the bodies to district headquarter hospital for postmortem. The bodies were handed over to the victims’ families after the legal formalities.
A case has been lodged and search operation was underway to catch the suspect.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Monsters Inc
[PAKISTANTODAY.PK] In the last few months, there have been many heinous crimes reported that suggest that our society has become a factory of producing monsters. We may have forgotten but there was a lynching of two innocent brothers by a mob in Sialkot wrongfully blaming them as thieves. There was burning of a newlywed Christian couple in a brick kiln allegedly for committing blasphemy which later turned out to be false allegations. There was broad daylight murder of 34 innocent people that belonged to Ismaili Shia community in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
. There were reports of a child pornography ring in Kasur abusing small children. There was the lynching of a young curious and inquisitive student of Mardan University; Mashaal Khan who was blamed for committing blasphemy which turned out to be a false charge while his real mistake was to raise questions about his professors and university administration. There were rape and murder of eight small girls in Kasur and the criminal was finally apprehended through DNA sampling after intense public pressure. Two girls named Asma were murdered in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. One was a small girl that became a victim of a juvenile cousin and the other to male chauvinism when she refused a marriage proposal. There was a murder of a young ambitious young man Naseebullah Mehsud in a fake police encounter. There was the corporal punishment of little children by their teachers so much that one child lost his life. There was an incident of a child cutting his hand because the madrassah teacher told him that a hand raised to ask a question about a religious matter should be cut off.

All these crimes suggest one thing that all segments of our society have lost the ethical, moral, humanistic, and religious bearing. These crimes are committed by people that belong to educated as well as uneducated classes. Some criminals are from poor segments of the society while others are from well to do. Some crimes are committed in rural settings while others in urban areas. It is about time we realise that we have become a sick society and if we did not find solutions to reform then we are heading towards a total collapse with far graver consequences. It is important that social scientists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and writers come together to identify causes of this crisis of the society and develop solutions. I will only share my observations about the causes of this situation which may not necessarily be scientific but at least it may help further the discussion.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  The islam ensures that all people are mentally ill.
Posted by: newc || 02/17/2018 0:51 Comments || Top||

#2  That’s scary but very well written.
Posted by: Steven. || 02/17/2018 1:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Much of this has been known for a very long time: the snake-charmer must refrain from touching the snake in front of his small boy, because he knows that the boy imagines he is like his father and will imitate him, and must even caution the boy by himself showing caution in front of him
Al-Ghazzali, 1115 AD
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 02/17/2018 9:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Al-Qaida fighter, absent from court, gets life in prison
[AnNahar] While on the run, Harun later criminal masterminded a failed plot to bomb a U.S. embassy in Nigeria, the government said.

A self-described al-Qaeda "warrior" who was in a firefight in Afghanistan that left two U.S. servicemen dead refused to attend his sentencing Friday, when a judge ordered him to serve life in prison.

"I can’t think of a more serious crime," U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan said as he announced the sentence for Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Harun
...who is in our archives as Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun...
in a Brooklyn courtroom where a monitor showing the entrance to Harun’s cell rested near his lawyers. Harun also had refused to attend his trial last year.

The judge rejected Harun’s claim that he was more a soldier than a terrorist, saying Harun wanted to kill "dozens or maybe hundreds of Americans" and those from other nationalities, as well.

"I’m confident the defendant doesn’t differentiate whether they are civilians or soldiers," Cogan said.

A jury last March convicted Harun after prosecutors said he confessed while in Italian custody that he threw a grenade and shot at an American military unit in a 2003 ambush that killed Army Pvt. Jerod Dennis, of Antlers, Oklahoma, and Air Force Airman Ray Losano, of Del Rio, Texas.

While on the run, Harun later criminal masterminded a failed plot to bomb a U.S. embassy in Nigeria, the government said. He was under the direct supervision of al-Qaeda higher-ups, including some still held at Guantanamo Bay, it said.

The Saudi-born defendant who claims Niger citizenship had insisted he was a "warrior" who should face a military tribunal rather than a civilian court prosecution.

Cogan said soldiers in wartime don’t target "embassies" in third-world countries.

Harun, 47, was extradited from Italia to the United States in 2012.

The judge said Harun told prison officials Friday: "This is not my court. That is not my judge."

Cogan called Harun "self-absorbed," noting that he was willing to speak to the judge and his lawyers as long as he thought he was going to get his way.

"If this man ever walks the streets again, the first thing he will do is try to kill Americans," Cogan said. "He has one gear. That’s to kill Americans."

"There is not an ounce of remorse, not a smidgeon of self-doubt," the judge added.

He said he knew the life sentence would not end terrorism, but hoped it would work "best at the margins," where one potential terrorist might decide a life behind bars was not worth killing.

He also refused to recommend Harun serve his sentence at a particular facility.

The judge said the Federal Bureau of Prisons "is going to have its hands full with this violent and uncooperative defendant."

And though he said he suspected Harun was not listening to the court’s video feed, Cogan instructed him that he could appeal.
This article starring:
Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Home Front: Politix
Republican Mitt Romney announces US Senate bid
[PAKISTANTODAY.PK] Whoa! Who the hell saw that one coming?
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Announced from his La Jolla, CA home?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2018 7:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Paid for with options profits from trying to savage Western Digital by his pet firm Bain Capital?
Posted by: 3dc || 02/17/2018 10:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Keeping the Utah seat RINO.
Posted by: Iblis || 02/17/2018 11:47 Comments || Top||

#4  We have to wait for Mia Love to be ready to move up.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 12:33 Comments || Top||

#5  What's the point?
Posted by: newc || 02/17/2018 17:37 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Gang leader eliminated, 1 officer killed in anti-terrorist op in southern Russia
[RT] A local gang leader has been neutralized after exchanging gunfire with security forces during a counter-terrorist operation in the Republic of Dagestan
...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca...
. A dramatic standoff left one special operative dead and several injured.

A shootout unfolded in the North Caucasus region Thursday afternoon, when law enforcement officers cornered an armed bad boy in the "mountain-wooded area" near the village of Harachi, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAK) confirmed.

Although the bad boy was given a chance to lay down his arms and surrender, he began shooting at security forces squad and was bumped off. As a result, one special forces officer was killed, and several others were maimed. No civilian casualties have been reported.

The officers found a grenade, a rifle and ammunition at the site.

The gang leader has been wanted since 2011 in Russia. According to NAK information, the bad boy used to head the local so-called Harachinckaya gang and was a skilled demolitionist. "The neutralized [gang] leader was linked to a series of terrorist activities, including kaboom of convoy of Interior Ministry forces in December 2013," the NAK statement read.

The committee, along with Dagestan’s Federal Security Service
... the successor to the KGB...
(FSB), promptly declared a counter-terrorist operation in the territory at 11:50 local time after receiving information on the bad boy’s whereabouts.

While the authorities have not identified the slain bad boy, Russian media reported he was a 57-year-old Kuramagomed Asadulayev, nicknamed ’Sniper’.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Emirate of Caucasus


Africa Horn
Roadside Bomb Blast Kills Puntland Soldiers In Galgala Mountains
[RADIOSHABELLE] At least two Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
soldiers were killed on Friday in a roadside kaboom blast in Galgala Mountains of Bari region, Al-Shabaab
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
media outlet reported.

Al-Shabaab said in a statement posted on its affiliated website that the soldiers died after the roadside kaboom struck the military vehicle on the outskirts of the Galgala Mountains.

At least two soldiers were killed and one was also maimed in the blast, according to Al-Shabaab. There were no independent sources confirming the casualty figures.

Puntland soldiers are battling bully boyz from al-Shabaab in Galgala Mountains.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Currency devaluation against US dollar rattles Iran
[Al Jazeera] Iran has introduced new monetary measures to halt the devaluation of the country's currency, a move seen as a setback to President Hassan Rouhani's efforts to bring investment and create more jobs following a 2015 nuclear deal.

The rial has been on a downward spiral, falling to an all-time low against the US dollar on Wednesday, when it traded for 50,000 rials, 30 percent higher than its value in August 2017.

But the rial posted a slight rebound later in the day, when police jugged
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
black-market currency dealers, shut down a number of exchange offices and blocked hundreds of bank accounts owned by major currency traders, local media reported.

According to the Arman-e Emrooz newspaper, 755 bank accounts were also blocked as part of the police operation.

For many Iranians, the dollar-to-rial exchange rate is an indicator of the country's overall economic climate.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Home Front: Culture Wars
Told Ya So - Too weak to throw a 1 pound hand grenade (redux)
[RACONTEUR REPORT]
I guess that makes changing a truck tire completely out of the question.
Posted by: newc || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The article brought back memories.
Posted by: newc || 02/17/2018 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  In other news: Marine Corps Quietly Drops Major Obstacle to Female Infantry Officers
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 0:51 Comments || Top||

#3  But they're wizards at clicking the mouse.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/17/2018 3:31 Comments || Top||

#4  so why are the US army throwing their hand grenades in metric? Isnt the rest of the country still in the dark ages using the imperial measure. Perhaps the recruits thought it was millimetres.
Posted by: Classer || 02/17/2018 5:08 Comments || Top||

#5  So they can carry the grenade to the target instead?
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/17/2018 9:44 Comments || Top||

#6  I understood that thy changed the size/wieght of grenades from the WW2 era pinapple to a more baseball size because Americans were used to throwing baseballs.

Perhaps now they should consider the size-weight of a frisbee or hacky-sack.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/17/2018 11:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Or a Furby or hissy fit?
Posted by: Tiny Stalin4599 || 02/17/2018 11:52 Comments || Top||

#8  Throwing hand grenades is a prime display of toxic masculinity. We need to make close-quarters combat a more collaborative endeavor.
Posted by: Matt || 02/17/2018 12:00 Comments || Top||

#9  Like I posted - remove the protection and pits. Make it Go/No Go training. You can't throw it far enough, pull the shrapnel out of your butt or legs.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 17:01 Comments || Top||

#10  Another one:

QED - Marine Commandant Surrenders, Slits Corps' Throat
Posted by: newc || 02/17/2018 17:21 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Soros Backed Pro-Mass Migration NGO Has Funds Frozen Amidst Sex Abuse, Fraud Claims
[BREITBART] The International Rescue Committee (IRC), an open borders-backing NGO fronted by former Labour Foreign Secretary David Miliband has been accused of "hushing up" allegations of more than 30 crimes.

UK government ministers froze funds to the NGO, which is a major partner of globalist billionaire George Soros
...either Ernst Stavro Blofeld or Auric Goldfinger come true...
, "based on direct reporting of sexual harassment and fraud", it was reported this week.

With nearly five and a half million pounds of taxpayer cash at stake, a team from the IRC was sent to look into claims made over the body’s behaviour in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
Regarding Congo, don't forget the lithium that makes computers and cellphone batteries and the cobalt needed for modern magnets in motors used in electronics and electric cars. Those 2 chemicals plus chrome pretty much pay for the endless war.
But according to The Sun, when an IRC team was sent to Africa to look into 24 cases where the scandal was first reported, it found a further 13 ethics breaches.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Egypt halts deliveries of diesel into Gaza
[Ynet] Fuel shortage is latest of Gazoo's many woes; Paleostinian PM Hamdallah meets with COGAT Mordechai, UN Envoy Mladenov to discuss easing plight of Gazook citizens; Israel insists on any solution addressing issue of missing POWs, MIAs.

Egypt stopped allowing diesel shipments to enter the Gazoo Strip Wednesday, causing the strip's power station to cease operations. As a result, residents have been limited to three hours of electricity a day.

A meeting was thus called by Paleostinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in light of the dire situation, attended by the United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
(UN) Envoy to the Mideast Nickolay Mladenov and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Major General Yoav Mordechai.
At said meeting everyone expressed concern, repeated previous positions, and agreed that Hamas needed to be closely supervised — which will apparently will take place in the dark.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


-Land of the Free
This Week in Guns, February 17th, 2018


By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

I don't want to comment about the Florida massacre at the moment. A lot we still don't know.

A discussion on Facebook took place between Gideon Imunim, front man for Cherev Gidon and another individual about concealed carry, surrounding whether it is best to concealed carry with a round in the chamber.

The argument for carrying with a round in the chamber is the less than two seconds' time it would take to draw, chamber a round, cock the pistol and fire; too much time would elapse.

My argument has always been that by the time the threat becomes apparent, the extra seconds aren't going to make much difference. I have seen plenty of live action videos where a concealed carrier has drawn, cocked and fired before the Bad Guy has a chance to return fire. The argument for carrying a round in the chamber, however, makes some sense since it doesn't take much time for the odds to survive a shooting to shift away from you and in favor of your target.

The main thing is that if you are face to face with a violent opponent then it makes sense to have a round ready to go. But how many gunfire exchanges take place in which that extra two seconds, at the most, would matter?

For example, in a convenience store when a Bad Guy walks in, draws and orders everyone to the ground. His gun is pointed at you and everyone else, so in order for the chambered round to work in your favor, some outside incident or distraction has to take place sufficient for you to draw and fire safely.

Another example is in a mall. Much less constrictive place. Fields of fire are seemingly wider and longer, except that in a crowded mall they are the same with others milling around. There is an element of unpredictability present when a shooter draws and fires, and the crowd scatters. You can't always predict if the crowd will scatter in such a way that gives you a clear shot. Depending on where you are, as a private citizen you have to make a quick decision whether to draw and fire. If the shooter is pointing his firearm straight at you, does that quick draw really matter?

Tactical encounters such as the two described are like football games. Every game is different: the shooter, the concealed carrier, fields of fire, lighting and sound conditions, the presence of other shooters and other concealed carriers and so on.

The empty chamber method is called Israeli carry.

Imunim said:

The Israeli way is by far the safest and most professional way to carry on a day to day basis. The fact is, the Israeli special forces have been utilizing that method for decades and there are very few accidental discharges with highly effective results in gun fights with the enemy.

I'd be lying if I said I never did it ;) but stateside (outside of a full scale riot or being already in the midst of a violent situation), it's totally unnecessary and recklessly dangerous.

Your results and comfort level will differ.

I don't own a pistol, so this ain't my fight.

Loads.

Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:

Pistol ammunition prices were mostly steady. Rifle ammunition prices were mostly steady.

Prices for used pistols were mixed. Prices for used rifles were mostly higher.

It should be noted that nationwide AK prices have jumped, due to fewer available rifles on the open market. And for the second week in a row, AR-15 prices have remained at the $440 level.

New Lows:

None

Pistol Ammunition

.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Red River Reloading, Silver Bear, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: East Carolina Trading, Own brand, FMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .20 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks))

.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: East Carolina Trading, Own Brand, CRN, Brass Casing, Reloads, .17 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks))

9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: -.02 Each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo King, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing .13 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Fedarm, Own Brand, RN, Brass Casing, Reloads .14 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))

.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017))

.38 Special, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Highland Lakes Ammo, Own Brand, FN, Brass Casing, Reloads .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 500 rounds: Ammo Valley, Own brand, FP, Brass Casing, Reloads, .24 per round (From Last Week: +.04 Each After Unchanged (4 Weeks)

Rifle Ammunition

.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Able's, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4Q, 2017))

.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .31 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (5 Weeks))

7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Red River Reloading, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: True Shot Gun Club, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .19 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (3Q, 2017))

.30-06 Springfield 145 Grain. From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Target Sports USA, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .60 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: United Nations Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .53 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (4Q, 2017))

.300 Winchester Magnum 150 Grain, From Last Week: -.06 Each After Unchanged (4Q, 2017)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Selway Armory, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, SP, .75 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Target Sports USA, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, SP, .85 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged 4Q, 2017)

.338 Lapua Magnum 250 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Ten Ring, Brass Casing, SP, 2.15 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 200 rounds: Cabelas, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, HPBT, 2.80 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (9 Weeks))

.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammo King, Aguila, RNL, .04 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 5,000 rounds: Ammo King, Aguila, RNL, .04 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2017))

Guns for Private Sale
Rifles


.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $440 Last Week Avg: $440(=) ($616 (2Q, 2015), $387 (24 Weeks))
Arizona (201, 3Q, 2017(+3))(114, 117): Mixed Build: $500 ($740 (8 Weeks), $300 (23 Weeks))
Texas (484, 3Q, 2017(+3))(354, 337): Unknown Brand: $450 ($700 (1Q, 2015), $350 (2Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (249, 3Q, 2017(+6))(156, 150): Mixed Build: $450 ($700 (2Q, 2015), $300 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (282, 3Q, 2017)(250, 233): Anderson: $450 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $300 (12 Weeks))
Florida (679, 3Q, 2017)(474, 477): American Tactical Imports: $350 ($650 (2Q, 2015), $350 (2 Weeks))

.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $870 Last Week Avg: $820(+) ($1,359 (2Q, 2015), $766 (36 Weeks))
Arizona (49, 3Q, 2017(+6))(39, 46): Aero Precision: $1,000 ($2,300 (36 Weeks), $500 (19 Weeks))
Texas (178, 3Q, 2017)(87, 91): DPMS: $750 ($1,500 (4Q, 2014), $600 (2 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (54, 3Q, 2017)(34, 28): Core Rifle Systems: $1,100 ($1,600 (4Q, 2016), $700 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (86, 3Q, 2017)(62, 62): Bushmaster ORC: $850 ($2,750 (1Q, 2016), $675 (15 Weeks))
Florida (128, 3Q, 2017(+3))(66, 58): DPMS: $650 ($1,950 (2Q, 1016), $500 (3Q, 2015))

7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $728 Last Week Avg: $650(+) ($728 CA:($668 (3Q, 2016), $450 (3Q, 2015)))
Arizona (34, 3Q, 2017(+3))(33, 30): East German: $950 (CA:$925 (35 Weeks), $400 (40 Weeks))
Texas (141, 3Q, 2017)(67, 66): Zastava M70AB2: $1,000 ($1,000 (CA: $900 (1 Weeks)), $350 (3Q, 2014))
Pennsylvania (75, 3Q, 2017)(54, 57): WASR: $550 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $375 (1Q, 2015))
Virginia (72, 3Q, 2017)(53, 54): RAS-47: $540 ($700 (2Q, 2016), $300 (15 Weeks))
Florida (146, 3Q, 2017)(141, 131): Feg AMD 65: $600 ($700 (1Q, 2016), $300 (4Q, 2014))

30-30 Winchester Lever Action Average Price: $475 Last Week Avg: $424(+) ($495 (4Q, 2016), $296 (3Q, 2015))
Arizona (14, 3Q, 2017)(4, 5): Marlin XLR: $800 ($800 CA:($595 (2 Weeks), $200 (39 Weeks)))
Texas (35, 3Q, 2017(+2))(25, 25): Mossberg 464: $375 ($550 (1Q, 2015), $295 (38 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (23, 3Q, 2017)(16, 12): Winchester 94: $400 ($450 (1Q, 2015), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Virginia (19, 3Q, 2017(+3))(7, 8): Marlin 336W: $400 ($670 (2Q, 2016), $250 (4Q, 2015))
Florida (34, 3Q, 2017)(22, 24): Winchester 94: $400 ($500 (1Q, 2015), $250 (2Q, 2015))

Pistols

.45 caliber ACP (M1911 Pattern Semiautomatic Pistol) Average Price: 473 Last Week Avg: $435(+) ($525 (3Q, 2016), $350 (4Q, 2015))
Arizona (134, 3Q, 2017(+5))(89, 94): Taurus: $515 ($700 (40 Weeks), $325 (26 Weeks))
Texas (361, 3Q, 2017 (+3))(273, 271): Remington R1: $500 ($600 (4Q, 2014), $300 (4Q, 2016))
Pennsylvania (178, 3Q, 2017)(176, 171): Remington R1: $425 ($600 (28 Weeks), $300 (2Q, 2015))
Virginia (204, 3Q, 2017(+3))(169, 170): Taurus PT 1911: $500 ($775 (28 Weeks), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Florida (440, 3Q, 2017)(308, 312): Remington R1: $425 ($500 (1Q, 2016), $250 (1Q, 2015))

9mm (Beretta 92FS or other Semiautomatic) Average Price: $275 Last Week Avg: $260(+) ($358 (1Q, 2016), $207 (40 Weeks))
Arizona (238, 3Q, 2017)(181, 173): Smith & Wesson: $250 ($400 (47 Weeks), $180 (15 Weeks))
Texas (586, 3Q, 2017(+3))(488, 485): Smith & Wesson SD9VE: $250 ($355 (1Q, 2015), $180 (17 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (368, 3Q, 2017)(346, 352): Kel Tec P-11: $250 ($350 (4Q 2014), $150 (1Q, 2017))
Virginia (365, 3Q, 2017(+6))(321, 321): Ruger SR9: $350 ($425 (4Q, 2016), $189 (2Q, 2016))
Florida (827, 3Q, 2017)(717, 687): Smith & Wesson SW9VE: $275 ($400 (1Q, 2016), $160 (41 Weeks))

.40 caliber S&W (Glock or other semiautomatic) Average Price: $317 Last Week Avg: $336(-) ($399 (1Q, 2016), $262 (2Q, 2016))
Arizona (77, 3Q, 2017(+2))(44, 44): Smith & Wesson: $350 ($500 (1Q, 2017), $195 (37 Weeks))
Texas (156, 3Q, 2017(+2))(130, 132): Smith & Wesson: $280 ($425 (4Q, 2014), $180 (10 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (115, 3Q, 2017(+5))(93, 92): Ruger SR40C: $325 ($450 (2Q, 2016), $200 (3Q, 2016))
Virginia (109, 3Q, 2017(+4))(94, 95): Smith & Wesson SD40VE: $350 ($450 (2Q, 2015), $220 (6 Weeks))
Florida (193, 3Q, 2017(+3))(164, 147): Smith & Wesson SD40VE: $280 ($400 (1Q, 2015), $199 (4Q, 2015))

Used Gun of the Week: (Washington)
Mixed Build semiautomatic rifle chambered in 6.8mm SPCII
Posted by: badanov || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If it’s on the shelf, the magazine is out and the chamber is empty. If it’s on me, both are full.

“The empty chamber method is called Israeli carry.”
Fewer accidental discharges, more stabbing of armed soldiers.
Posted by: Skidmark || 02/17/2018 7:39 Comments || Top||

#2  The "carry" to certainly avoid is the 'Mexican carry.' (firearm stuck in pants, no holster)
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 7:44 Comments || Top||

#3  If it’s on the shelf, the magazine is out and the chamber is empty. If it’s on me, both are full.

“The empty chamber method is called Israeli carry.”
Fewer accidental discharges, more stabbing of armed soldiers.


In the Facebook discussion thread Imunim said that the Israeli army requires its soldiers to draw and fire a semiautomatic pistol within 1.2 seconds of start in order to qualify. That means an armed attacker with an edged weapon, for example, would have to be no closer than about six feet for the shooter to draw and fire before the attacker can come into range of his weapon.
Posted by: badanov || 02/17/2018 9:25 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
USS Ford: Sigh...
[US Naval Institute Blog] If you can’t launch your airwing, you don’t have a carrier.

You need to read the whole thing to appreciate the challenges ahead, but for this post, let’s look just at EMALS.

Progress has been made, but there are still some items that in the 1QCY18 should give everyone pause.

EMALS testing in 2015 discovered excessive airframe stress during launches of F/A-18E/F and EA-18G with wing-mounted 480-gallon EFTs. The Navy discovered similar problems with 330-gallon EFTs on the F/A-18A-D. Additionally, end-of-stroke dynamics with heavy wing stores were discovered for the F/A-18E/F and EA-18G, which would limit maximum launch speed.

• CVN 78 includes several systems that are new to aircraft carriers; four of these systems stand out as being critical to flight operations: EMALS, AAG, DBR, and AWEs. Overall, the poor reliability demonstrated by AAG and EMALS and the uncertain reliability of DBR and AWEs pose the most significant risk to CVN 78 IOT&E. The Navy is testing all four of these systems for the first time in their shipboard configurations aboard CVN 78.

EMALS testing to date has demonstrated that EMALS should be able to launch aircraft planned for the CVN 78 air wing. However, the system demonstrated poor reliability during developmental testing suggesting operational difficulties lie ahead for meeting requirements and in achieving success in combat.

• In its current design, EMALS is unlikely to support high-intensity operations expected in combat.

At the current reliability, EMALS has a 9 percent chance of completing the 4-day surge and a 70 percent chance of completing a day of sustained operations as defined in the design reference mission without a critical failure.

• The reliability concerns are exacerbated by the fact that the crew cannot readily electrically isolate EMALS components during flight operations.

Based on current reliability estimates, CVN 78 is unlikely to be able to conduct the type of high-intensity flight operations expected during wartime.

• CVN 78 is unlikely to achieve its Sortie Generation Rate (SGR) (number of aircraft sorties per day) requirement. The threshold requirement is based on unrealistic assumptions including fair weather and unlimited visibility, and that aircraft emergencies, failures of shipboard equipment, ship maneuvers, and manning shortfalls will not affect flight operations.

The Navy analysis indicates the ship is sensitive to manpower fluctuations. Workload estimates for the many new technologies such as catapults, arresting gear, radar, and weapons and aircraft elevators are not well understood. Some of these concerns have required redesignation of some berthing areas and may require altering standard manpower strategies to achieve mission accomplishment.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You may as well remove it from your defense posture review along with the ship stuck in the ice and the two others that got rammed by commercial cargo.

You may as well remove the LCS as well. Ohh and the F-35 too.

The 110th Congress was the end of the military - topped by the fucking obama.
Posted by: newc || 02/17/2018 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  just because you can doesn’t mean you should. along with this mess is the DDG-1000 reduced manning because sensors will alert if there are issues. sorry but Windows 10 cant shore up a bulkhead or man a firehose.....
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 02/17/2018 8:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Hey, they wanted a railgun. They got a railgun.
(It just fires F18's rather than shells.)
Posted by: ed in texas || 02/17/2018 9:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Where are the Patriots? Back when I was doing this stuff we would move heaven and earth to make sure that the product worked.
Posted by: C. Galeazzo Lover of the Boskonians2597 || 02/17/2018 9:10 Comments || Top||

#5  So, sort of like its namesake?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 9:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Technological Arrogance is not new. In the Spanish American War the US Navy fielded the USS Vesuvius, a dynamite gun cruiser with three 15-inch pneumatic cannons (!). At least it kinda sorta worked in action -- supposedly.
Does the LCS have any, ANY working modules? The modules are the whole reason for the class as is a working catapult for an aircraft carrier.
Posted by: magpie || 02/17/2018 11:18 Comments || Top||

#7  So Trump was right. Again.
Posted by: gorb || 02/17/2018 15:30 Comments || Top||

#8  Being a shipbuilder I will make my comments brief. The manner in which the customer oversees every facet makes the task extremely difficult. We know what we are doing let us do it. We take pride in our work when we are allowed to do it.
Posted by: Claique and Company3404 || 02/17/2018 18:45 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Rantburg Exclusive: 2/16/2018 SDF Battlefield Combat Report Afrin, Syria
1-Afrin: Sterk village which is followed directly to Afrin city, was a target of heavy weapons by the Turkish army and its Jihadist factions.The indiscriminate shelling started since last night until midnight, causing damages to the civilian homes.while the Turkish warplanes were roaming over the city center of Afrin last night.

Last night Juqeh and Ster villages were shelled by Turkish artillery at 3:30 PM, where 4 shells landed Juqeh village and three other shells landed on Ster village.

2- Jinderes: Yesterday at 3:30 PM, our forces observed 4 Turkish military vehicles in the vicinity Dewa village. Our forces targeted the four vehicles by rockets and completely destroyed them (videotaped)



After that, a photographs emerged from the vicinity of the village showing the Turkish invasion army and the terrorists of Daesh and Al-Nusra front, using the children as human shields during their invasion on Afrin. The pictures showed a group of children surrounded by military vehicles loaded with Doshka and the gunner on it, shelling Jenderes the whole Last night.

The Turkish recconnaisance aircrafts roamed over Jinderes since the early morning.

Also Sindianka village was exposed to a heavy shelling since 1 pm this afternoon until writing this report.

In another scene showing the Turkish brutality and its Daesh and Al-Nusra factions, they shelled Abdul Rahman shrine, which proves that the invaders targets even our graves and monuments after destroying our villages, cities, infrastructure and the populated areas.

During afternoon hours, the Turkish invasion army and Al-Nusra/Daesh terrorists tried to advance towards Muhamadiyah village, accordingly, our forces engaged with them and pushed them back after heavy losses. The terrorists left their corpses behind them and fled. Our forces are still pursuing them until writing this report.

3-Sherra: last night at 9 PM, Baflun village was exposed to airstrikes by the Turkish invasion army. The raids targeted civilian homes.

4- Raju: our forces bombed a Turkish armored last night in Kaniyah Batmaneh.

This afternoon, Kharab Sorek village was exposed to a heavy shelling by Daesh and Al-Nusra terrorists causing heavy damages to civilian homes and the mosque.

The Turkish invasion army and its allies of Daesh and Al-Nusra terrorists shelled heavily Haj Khalil village and Mira mount. The shelling started at 1 pm this afternoon until writing this report.

In Shadiyah village, our forces carried out an ambush against the Turkish invasion army and Daesh/ Al-Nusra terrorists. As a result for the ambush, our forces could destroy a tank and a four-wheel-drive vehicle killing everybody inside.

5- Shiyah ( Shaik Hadid), our forces observed movements for the Turkish army and its terrorists in Chaqalah village and carried out an ambush for them last night. Accordingly, our forces destroyed a four-wheel-drive vehicle and killed everybody inside.

In a blatant challenge to the world, the Turkish state no longer conceals its public alliance with Al-Nusra and Daesh terrorists, where a lot of footage emerged showing this alliance. Today, another scene emerged showing some of Al-Nusra terrorists seeking wounded Turkish soldiers during their engagement with our forces in Jinderes.


SDF MEDIA CENTER
16-FEB-2018

Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  In addition to the above Syrian Defense Forces report there are numerous reports coming out that on this day civilians areas were exposed to chlorine gas attacks by the Turks which has caused severe lung problems for the victim, reminiscent of the Saddam atrocities executed against the Iraqi Kurds of his day.

Speaking of retro-active times, German defense contractor Rheinmetall has inked a deal to retrofit Turkeys German built Leopard II Panzers for an undetermined amount of blood money.
Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 02/17/2018 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  And blood money it is, just like the dual purpose and not dual purpose war materiel German, French, and Russian companies sell to Iran.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 0:26 Comments || Top||

#3  This is a WAR CRIME: "the Turkish invasion army and the terrorists of Daesh and Al-Nusra front, using the children as human shields during their invasion on Afrin. The pictures showed a group of children surrounded by military vehicles loaded with Doshka and the gunner on it, shelling Jenderes the whole Last night."
Posted by: 3dc || 02/17/2018 1:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Folks were put to death in Nuremberg trials for actions like that. This should be pointed out to the Turkish Fools.
Posted by: 3dc || 02/17/2018 1:36 Comments || Top||

#5  This should be pointed out to Rex Tillerson.
Posted by: Clurong Peacock9529 || 02/17/2018 9:19 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Senior IS Leader Returned to Iraq from Turkey
[AnNahar] Iraqi authorities said Thursday they have managed for the first time to have a top leader of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group extradited from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
Ismail Alwan Salman al-Ithawi, 55, was tracked to Turkey's Sakarya region, detained and returned through cooperation between Ottoman Turkish, Iraqi and U.S. intelligence agencies, a bigwig in the interior ministry's Falcons unit hunting IS members told AFP.

The break came after his unit had "infiltrated the highest levels" of the jihadist group, he said.

A native of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, Ithawi was the group's "minister" in charge of religious edicts and headed a IS committee that decided on senior appointments, according to the official.

He had fled the group's now-shattered "caliphate" in Syria and was living under his brother's name in northern Turkey.

"We asked our ambassador in Ankara to intervene with the Ottoman Turkish authorities by providing the arrest warrant issued by Iraqi courts and recent photos of Ismail," the official said.

IS swept across Syria and northern Iraq in a lightning advance in 2014, unleashing a reign of terror across a vast swathe of territory that lasted some three years. The group's territory has now been wiped out in Iraq and reduced to a small foothold in Syria by a series of punishing assaults in both countries.

The focus has since switched to tracking down the group's big shotship and the thousands of imported muscle who once flocked to its banner.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Hope it's painful
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2018 7:51 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
USA should accept Taliban’s talks offer: JI chief
[PAKISTANTODAY.PK] Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
Ameer Senator Siraj-ul-Haq has said that the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
’s demand in an open letter to the US Congress and the US people for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and resolving issue through dialogue was right step and Washington should accept the offer.

He was addressing the participants of the JI central workshop at Mansoora on Friday. Siraj said that in human history, the decisions of the wars were made at the dialogue table. He said that the US had been fighting against the mountains of Afghanistan for the last seventeen years but to no avail. In fact, he said the US decision to attack Afghanistan with NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
force was a blunder. This was an attack on the illusory sovereignty and independence of a Moslem country and the Afghans fought for their freedom with great valour and courage.

He said that hundreds of thousands of Afghans had been martyred in the war but the Afghans had not accepted defeat. He said that even if the US continued this war for hundred years, it would not be able to defeat the Afghans.

The JI chief strongly condemned the inclusion of Pakistain in the US watch list for supporting terrorism under Indian pressure. He said that India had been carrying on worst form of terrorism in Held Kashmire for the last seventy years but Pakistain had failed to highlight this fact at the world level. On the other hand, he said the Pak Army had done commendable job in fighting terrorism which had been acknowledged by the world.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami

#1  He said that even if the US continued this war for hundred years, it would not be able to defeat the Afghans.


...No, but we can make 'em wish we had.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/17/2018 14:26 Comments || Top||


Good morning
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Two Bloids in a row? Three makes a trend...
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 8:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Yea!
Posted by: Bobby || 02/17/2018 11:21 Comments || Top||


Europe
EU must break up Google and Facebook's 'damaging' dominance over society warns George Soros
  • [Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] George Soros argues internet giants are contributing to the break-up of society

  • By influencing how people think, firms such as Google and Facebook are making their users easy to manipulate as happened during the 2016 election, he argues

  • While US regulators are not strong enough to defend people, the EU is, he says

  • Soros believes the firms should be regulated in the same way as public utilities
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Antifa

#1  That is what we are saying about you, soros.
Posted by: newc || 02/17/2018 1:46 Comments || Top||

#2  Projecting again, are we, Georgie boy?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 02/17/2018 2:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Where as if George was in charge/owned them everything would be perfect
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 02/17/2018 5:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Shoot. Now I have to rethink my dislike of Google and Facebook. Do you think that Sor-as* is desperate enough to try reverse psychology?

BTW, I am indifferent to the Boskonians if anybody was wondering.
Posted by: C. Galeazzo Lover of the Boskonians2597 || 02/17/2018 9:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Is this a 'Stalin vs Hitler' thing? And do we have to choose sides?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 9:40 Comments || Top||

#6  And do we have to choose sides?

No. But we can lay bets.

Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/17/2018 10:59 Comments || Top||

#7  He is a sick man, GOD rot his soul.
Posted by: newc || 02/17/2018 17:00 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Deputies called to suspected shooter’s home 39 times over seven years
[NYPOST] Before Nikolas Cruz carried out his mass killing at a Florida high school this week, police responded to his home 39 times over a seven-year period, according to disturbing new documents.

Details about the calls to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office ‐ obtained from police records by CNN ‐ were not immediately available and it was impossible to determine if all involved Cruz.

But the nature of the emergencies at his Parkland home included "mentally ill person," "child/elderly abuse," "domestic disturbance" and "missing person," KTLA reported.

And a schoolmate, Brody Speno, told the network that cops were called to Cruz’s home "almost every other week."

Ex-top NY cop slams FBI for missing tip-off on Florida shooter, ‘chasing Russian collusion’ instead

[RT] Controversial former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik has accused the FBI of “wasting resources chasing Russian collusion,” instead of pursuing tips about potential criminals, such as the Florida school shooter.

Kerik, who served as police commissioner during the 9/11 attacks, referred to an article on Thursday that said a YouTube user named 'Nikolas Cruz' had announced last September: “I'm going to be a professional school shooter.”

Alleged school shooter reportedly wants to plead guilty to avoid execution

[NYPost] The Florida school shooting suspect says he’ll plead guilty — so long as prosecutors promise not to seek the death penalty, according to a report.

Lawyers for Nikolas Cruz — who faces 17 counts of premeditated murder for shooting up his former high school Wednesday — told a local ABC affiliate about their proposed bargain Friday.

The state hasn’t said whether it will accept the deal, Local News 10 reports.

Cruz has confessed to police that he deliberately gunned down the students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, authorities say.

But he also claims “demon” voices told him to do it, law enforcement sources tell ABC News.
Update from the New York Post at 12:40 p.m. ET:
The younger Cruz brother was involuntarily committed to a mental health facility under Florida’s Baker Act, under which he can be held involuntarily for up to 12 hours for an involuntary psychiatric exam. It’s unclear if he’s been released.

Nikolas Cruz left Deschamps’ Lantana, FL mobile home around Thanksgiving after he and Deschamps squared off over a gun.

“He bought a gun and wanted to bring it into my house,” she said in comments that have since been wiped from her Facebook page, the paper reported.

Chad Bennett, a family friend, said Deschamps gave Cruz an ultimatum and Cruz “chose the gun and he left.” He moved in with family in northern Broward county, a Cruz family lawyer told the newspaper.
The brother was previously described as quiet and staying in the house while Nikolas was peeping in neighbours’ windows and trying to kill their pets, which suggests the younger boy might be suicidal.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Political crisis in the Maldives
[NEWAGEBD.NET] IT SEEMS as if the political temperature in the Indian Ocean region is not going to ’settle down’, as we predicted a week ago, but has already started to rise. That is demonstrated by the worsening situation in the Maldives, which is taking on the character of an internal political crisis, although in this case there has been an external element in this crisis right from the beginning.

The external element in question is the increasing competition between India and China (the two main regional powers) in the Indian Ocean region as a whole. Incidentally, ’on the horizon’ of the events in the Maldives we can also see the leading world power ‐ the USA ‐ and there is little doubt whose side it is on.

The reason the Maldives have attracted so much attention is clear. This country, which has been independent since 1965 and has a population of approximately 400, 000 and which is made up of several hundred coral islands spread out from North to South over a thousand kilometres, is located right in the path of one of the main global transport arteries.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Mueller: Russians conducted 'information warfare' against US during election
[CNBC] A federal grand jury has indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for alleged interference in the 2016 presidential elections, during which they boosted the candidacy of Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
, special counsel Robert Mueller's office said Friday.

The indictment says that a Russian organization called the Internet Research Agency sought to wage "information warfare" against the United States by using fictitious American personas and social media platforms and other Internet-based media.

While that effort was launched in 2014, by early to mid-2016 the defendants were "supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump ... and disparaging Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary Crooked Hillary Clinton,"
... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away...
the indictment charges.
I AM NOT A BOT... [BZDEEP!]... ТОЖЕ Я НЕ РУСКИЙ ШПИОН...
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the defendants created hundreds of accounts using fake personas on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to advance their scheme.

And courtesy of Frank G.:
If Mueller's Indictment Isn't a Nothingburger You Could Be Forgiven For Making That Mistake
A response to the above and this report from yesterday.
[RedState] Robert Mueller's team announced their first relevant indictment today. It involved thirteen Russian nationals and three Russian entities.
Read it
Point-by-point dissection. Well worth the read
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought we had agreed that her permanent tag line should read "well connected sadistic sociopath"

But perhaps that is too kind for such a malevolent and odious person.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/17/2018 0:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Ergo the tag line should be" well connected sadistic sociopath and a malevolent odious person "
Posted by: newc || 02/17/2018 2:04 Comments || Top||

#3  News? No, I believe I saw that movie in 1972.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 2:08 Comments || Top||

#4  No! How dare they!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/17/2018 3:42 Comments || Top||

#5  all leaks about further collusion are coming from a guy totally not named Madam Skiff
Posted by: Frank G || 02/17/2018 7:49 Comments || Top||

#6  Now about that 'information warfare' conducted by the Obama administration in the Israel election....
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 8:04 Comments || Top||

#7  ...Read "Sword and Shield" and "The World Was Going Our Way" by Professor Christoper Andrew and Vasily Mitrokhin. Mr Mitrokhin was the man who watched over the old KGB archives and defected with literal tons of information from said archives. Bottom line - the Russians have been doing this for decades, and aren't about to stop now. If any of this is a surprise to Mr. Muller and his band of merry men, then the Republic is doomed.


Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 02/17/2018 8:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Mueller's problem was how to support the narrative as the smoke disappated. All he needed was someone he could indict, and at this point I would not be suprised if he hasn't been in secret talks with some of the indictees to have them come forward with their own second hand stories about collusion.
Posted by: ed in texas || 02/17/2018 9:11 Comments || Top||

#9  So does this mean Mueller will go after Comley, Lynch, Holder, and the rest - including himself? Because they pretty much did, and are doing, the same thing.
Russians would have been more effective if they had joined simply the top levels of the FBI and DOJ.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/17/2018 9:34 Comments || Top||

#10  Could be a convenient covor the upcoming IG report release.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 9:42 Comments || Top||

#11  Over and over again we're finding that these incidents were preventable so if they're not being prevented then somebody needs to be held accountable.

No. I did not double post this comment. I just thought it applies to both stories.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/17/2018 11:05 Comments || Top||

#12  I think either (a) the Russians do this every election and the FBI knows about it and used it as a plan B if the Trump witch-hunt came up empty or (b) the Russians were simply testing this go around for future meddling and that if one compared different actions with poll effects that sort of thing might become apparent. Also that their timing was bad in that this happened to be the election Hillary couldn't lose but managed to leading to investigations.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/17/2018 11:22 Comments || Top||

#13  Option C is that Mueller and company made up this stuff as a CYA after wasting so much time on the witch-hunt. We will see what happens with the 13 Russian nationals, I suspect they'll be back in Russia within a year (if they aren't there already).
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/17/2018 11:23 Comments || Top||

#14  Over and over again we're finding that these incidents were preventable so if they're not being prevented then somebody needs to be held accountable.

But Abu Uluque, this particular event could only have been prevented by not electing Barack Obama or his opponent as president in 2008.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 11:26 Comments || Top||

#15  Why didn't the FBI or CIA find this "interference"?

Did we really need a 'Special Consul' to ....

Oh, nevermind. We all know the answer to the second question.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/17/2018 12:18 Comments || Top||

#16  This is neither new nor exclusive to The Rooskies™. Remember this?: Obama admin. sent taxpayer money to campaign to oust Netanyahu
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 02/17/2018 12:26 Comments || Top||

#17  Truly, Anomalous Sources.

My apologies:

or his opponent as president in 2008.

should be

...his opponent in the Democratic primary....

As I wrote it, it unfairly impugns Mitt Romney, whose faults lie elsewhere.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 12:31 Comments || Top||

#18  Still no word on who hacked the DNC email server. I guess all that sophisticated electronic monitoring has no chance against a disgruntled operative with a thumb drive.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/17/2018 13:02 Comments || Top||

#19  This should prevent the Russisns from cooperating with the Uranium One investigation vrry nicely.
Posted by: Omeger Gray6606 || 02/17/2018 13:02 Comments || Top||

#20  Starting to wonder what would be different if we didn't have an FBI.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/17/2018 20:52 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Al-Qaeda readies for war of revenge after assassination of commander by rival rebel faction in northwest Syria
[ALMASDARNEWS] Following the liquidation of a high-ranking commander belonging to al-Qaeda affiliate militia Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham
(formerly Jabhat al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
) by fighters of the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
-linked Harakat Noor al-Din al-Zenki group in northwest Syria, authorities from the former-mentioned faction have now called for a war of Dire Revenge.

During the late hours of Thursday night, Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham commander Abu Ayman al-Masri (an Egyptian national) and his wife were gunned-down by Noor al-Din al-Zenki bully boyz at a checkpoint in western Aleppo province (pictures here).

Since then, leading figures within Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham have called for vengeance against Noor al-Din al-Zenki, threatening the rival myrmidon group with all-out war.

Early reports state that Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham has started moving convoys of troops and heavy equipment from Idlib’s countryside towards Noor al-Din al-Zenki positions and bases in west Aleppo.

Even prior to Abu Ayman al-Masri’s liquidation of Thursday night, tensions between Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham and Noor al-Din al-Zenki had been on the rise for at least two weeks.

This latest escalation appears to almost guarantee that another inter-rebel war will erupt across northwest Syria soon ‐ the previous one taking place in mid-2017.
An Nahar adds that Abu Ayman’s wife was only wounded, and:
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Masri was in charge of education services for foreign members of the organization. He had previously served as a military trainer for new recruits.

"Abu Ayman was a member of al-Qaeda international," the Observatory said, adding that he had fought with the organization in Afghanistan.

Masri was already in Syria when al-Nusra Front began establishing itself as a major force in rebel ranks in 2014.

The Nureddine al-Zinki movement is a hardline Islamist faction with a powerful presence in western parts of Aleppo province near the border with Idlib. It formed a short-lived alliance with HTS in 2017, but has broken it off and the two groups have clashed in the past.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  I guess all the suicide bombings and slaughter of innocents in their wake doesn't count as provocation?
Posted by: gorb || 02/17/2018 15:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Popcorn. With wasabi dip.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/17/2018 15:23 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Florida governor calls for FBI director’s resignation over missed Parkland tip-off
[RT] Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) is calling for the director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, to resign in the wake of the high school shooting that killed 17 students.

Scott is responding to the revelation that the FBI did not follow proper protocol when it failed to follow up on a tip about the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, just five weeks prior to the Valentine’s Day massacre.

"The FBI’s failure to take action against this killer is unacceptable....The FBI Director needs to resign," said Scott in a statement.

“We constantly promote ‘see something, say something,’ and a courageous person did just that to the FBI. And the FBI failed to act. ‘See something, say something’ is an incredibly important tool and people must have confidence in the follow through from law enforcement. The FBI director needs to resign,” Scott added.
Pressure is building. I suspect he'll be stepping down early next week.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Proud to have served... dedicated men and women of the Bureau... spend more time with my family."
Posted by: SteveS || 02/17/2018 8:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Dammit. I'll miss those "jazz hands" (which I only noticed after someone here mentioned his BL the other day - thanks!). Too weird.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 02/17/2018 10:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Over and over again we're finding that these incidents were preventable so if they're not being prevented then somebody needs to be held accountable.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/17/2018 11:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Having served 30 yrs in the FBI I'm appalled by the chronic screw ups- Ft. Hood, Boston Marathon, Orlando disco shooting, and now Parkland. Not sure having Wray resign is the answer. Many safe guards must be implemented. Examples must be made of firings of those directly in the chain of command who failed. Have a Top Ten Billboard prominently displayed of fired employees and the reason.
Posted by: Jack Salami || 02/17/2018 12:32 Comments || Top||

#5  I worked closely with Jack Salami for years. He knows what he is talking about but
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/17/2018 12:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Thank you both for serving our communities and keeping us safe. Thank you also for your continued insights and comments here at the Burg.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 12:47 Comments || Top||

#7  No More BS and I tried very hard to insure safety measures were in place but at times the leadership employees stuck in bureaucratic bilge where the worst enemies. The PC BS didn't help. I once got terrorism tip where the caller wasn't sure she could report that the suspect looked like a Middle Eastern. I had to pry it out of her. The failures are surrounded by many factors.
Posted by: Jack Salami || 02/17/2018 13:21 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm tired of looking back Jack. We all tend to forget that 'at the time'.... we did the best job we could, honorably, and with the best of intentions. Wrestling with diperate outcomes 30 years later only make you crazier. Perhaps we saved a few lives. Who knows.

When you're down in it crumbing the ditch, it's hard to see beyond the spoil.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 14:44 Comments || Top||

#9  Boeseker- Yes, for sure lives were saved by our collective efforts. I recall getting some very obscure and tenuous leads that turned out very well. One notable (non-security related) was a "shotgun all-Agent lead" from another squad member asking to display a photo of an arsonist fugitive to logical sources. Every member of my FCI squad passed on it. I didn't and arrested the fugitive the same day. Of course the source turned me onto the fellow under a new ID and his newly acquired shop funded by the fire insurance pay-off. In security cases, if more would merely consider that perhaps their own family members might be harmed, it could go a long way.
Posted by: Jack Salami || 02/17/2018 16:01 Comments || Top||

#10  Besoeker, Salami, and NoMoBS. It sounds like you all have years of line experience and have most likely been in harm's way to uphold the law. Thanks so much for your service.

I have to ask tho, how has the culture of the FBI become so tarnished lately in such a relatively short time? It is sad to see. Trust for the FBI has been sorely damaged and it will be hard to get back.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2018 18:30 Comments || Top||

#11 
I have to ask tho, how has the culture of the FBI become so tarnished lately in such a relatively short time?


So short time? We've had 17 years of "religion of peace" BS putting out the message that politics is more important than truth.

(Hell, why didn't the FBI step in when the BATF turned to gun-running with "Fast and Furious"?)
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/17/2018 20:22 Comments || Top||

#12  Short time? About 3 decades in my thinking.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2018 21:17 Comments || Top||

#13  the Boston based FBI actually enabled hits during the Bulger days, and they all got their gold plated pensions. The list of bungles has grown exponentially since then. And now they're dabbling in treason with a duly elected president.

Isn't anyone accountable in that rotten organization?

Fire them and take away their pensions.
Posted by: Regular joe || 02/17/2018 22:15 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Govt to punish accusers who falsely allege blasphemy, IHC told
[PAKISTANTODAY.PK] The Interior Ministry on Friday submitted in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) a draft of proposed amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016 which seek to equate punishments for a false accusation of blasphemy to the punishment for actually committing blasphemy.

The punishment for blasphemy in Pakistain ranges from several years in prison to a death sentence. Under existing laws, a person making a false accusation can only face proceedings under Section 182 of the PPC, which entails a maximum punishment of six months, or a mere Rs1,000 fine.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the IHC had asked for the draft in connection with an order he had passed in a case pertaining to the circulation of sacrilegious content on social media.

The new draft was presented after the court had rejected an earlier draft while pointing out multiple shortcomings in it, including the omission of a punishment for those who falsely accuse others of blasphemy.

On being shown the new draft, Justice Siddiqui remarked that the law finally seemed to hold false accusers of blasphemy accountable, adding that it was "once again the courts which had to get it done."

The Pakistain Telecommunication Authority (PTA) separately presented to him a report on blasphemous and pornographic content on the internet. The report said that the authority had so far blocked 550 blasphemous websites.

It added that 763,000 links to pornographic content have been blocked, of which 279,000 were blocked following court orders.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Britain
Briton arrested on terrorism charges... because he fought against ISIS
[RT] A British man will be charged with terrorism offences for fighting against Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(IS, formerly ISIS) holy warriors in Syria.

Merseyside man Aidan James was tossed in the slammer
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
at Liverpool Airport after returning to the country on February 14. The 27-year-old from Formby is being charged with one count of the preparation of acts of terrorism and two counts of attendance at a place used for terrorist training.

James will be charged for fighting with Kurdish forces in Syria, which the Home Office deems it a possible breach of UK terrorism laws. The Merseyside man is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court later.

Pictures of James show the father-of-one wearing military fatigues adorned with the insignia of the majority Syrian Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Units (YPG). The YPG have been one of the most effective ground forces against IS, contributing to the retaking of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
last summer.
Mr. James appears to be the second Brit this week to be charged with terrorism for fighting with the Kurds in Syria. Former soldier James Matthews was reportedly hauled into the dock a few days ago.
Interesting, the magistrate, Emma Arbuthnot is the same one that keeps trying to get Julian Assange.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is ISIS a 5eyes swamp plot
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/17/2018 14:58 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
ISIS is almost gone but the fighting continues: Who’s still in Syria?
[RT] Remaining terror groups included are Islamic State and al-Nusra, nothing about allied Moslem Brotherhood groups..
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Saudi Arabia, along with its Gulf partners, has been a major financier and arms supplier for various rebel groups in Syria, some of which have been accused of having ties to Al-Nusra Front, an internationally-recognized terrorist organization.

Riyadh, a major rival to Iran, views Assad’s relationship with Tehran as unacceptable. Like their American partners, the Saudis have repeatedly called for Assad’s removal. The Sunni kingdom has clashed with Shia Iran for decades...According to Assad, Saudi Arabia even offered to fight alongside – and not against – Damascus if it severed its ties with Tehran.

And the Nobel Peace Prize winner chose to fund Al-Nusra....

Posted by: Jeremiah Gleretle3997 || 02/17/2018 11:48 Comments || Top||

#2  And gave Tehran billions in cash to stoke the nuclear fire.
Posted by: Jeremiah Gleretle3997 || 02/17/2018 11:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Article also forgot to mention Russian mercenaries, Wagner.
Posted by: Jeremiah Gleretle3997 || 02/17/2018 11:58 Comments || Top||

#4  Given that it’s a Russia Today article, missing the Russian mercenaries was probably deliberate.

As I recall, someone on the Nobel committee stated that the choice of barely-president Barack Obama was intended as a poke in George W. Bush’s eye, confirming everyone’s previous beliefs about the non-monetary value of the thing, and of the committee.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 12:27 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Police: Momena was in contact with foreign fighters in Syria
[Dhaka Tribune] Momena Shoma, the woman who was tossed in the calaboose
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
in Australia last week after stabbing a man, had been in contact with several Bangladeshi Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
fighters in Syria, says Counter-terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit chief Monirul Islam.

Monirul said Shoma had applied for a Ottoman Turkish visa after securing admission at a Ottoman Turkish university, but it had been denied by the embassy in Dhaka. At the time, many Bangladeshis were being denied visas to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
for fear they would seek entry to the Syrian battlefield, as thousands of IS supporters had done.

Then she went to Australia securing a scholarship from a university and launched an IS inspired "lone wolf" attack in Melbourne.

Monirul Islam said Shoma had struck up a relationship with Nazibullah Ansari, a Bangladeshi national fighting in Syria. Shoma wanted to marry Nazibullah, but her family refused to allow the two to marry.

The information came forth during the interrogation of Momena’s younger sister Asmaul Hosna Sumona and their father, Monirul said.

In 2016, law enforcement agencies had included Nazibullah’s name on the first list of the 10 missing youths suspected to be involved with militancy.

A CTTC official said Momena also had contact with another Bangladeshi holy warrior, Gazi Sohan.

Gazi introduced her to Nazibullah in 2014, when she was studying English language and Literature at North South University (NSU).

Gazi Sohan went to Syria to fight for Islamic State murderous Moslems on December 11, 2014 but came back to Dhaka on May next year. He has been held in the custody since his return.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US aims to separate part of Syria to create Kurdish-dominated autonomy -- Lavrov
[ALMASDARNEWS] Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has commented on the situation in the war-plagued Syria, including the issue of US military presence in the country and its support of Kurdish factions.

"It is clear that the United States has some strategy which I believe entails staying in Syria forever with its armed forces... They are gearing up for separating a huge part of Syria from the rest of the country, violating Syria’s illusory sovereignty of territorial integrity. There they will create quasi-local authorities, will try to create autonomy based on the Kurds," Lavrov told Euronews in an interview.

The Russian Foreign Minister has stressed that Washington has deployed its forces in the war-torn country without a sanction from the United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
of a request from the legitimate Syrian government in Damascus.

She also stressed that the US military "entered into a virtually open confrontation with the Syrian army" by openly supporting allied Kurdish turban groups.

Brett McGurk, US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter IS, said in the end of 2017 that Washington would maintain a military presence at the al-Tanf garrison and other areas of Syria to prevent ISIS Lions of Islam from returning o liberated parts of the country. The Russian military, in turn, noted that the al-Rubkan refugee camp was located 11 miles south of al-Tanf, stressing that the US presence could hamper the delivery of the humanitarian aid to the refugees.

The US has been conducting Arclight airstrikes in Syria as part of the international coalition’s campaign to eradicate ISIS in the country. The US military coalition that consists of over 70 members has neither been authorized by the Syrian government nor the UN Security Council.

Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  And this would be a bad idea, how?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 8:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Some reasonable accommodation can surely be made? Perhaps a 99 year lease for the Russian naval base at Tartus. Families of support personnel can continue to live on base. PX/BX and airstrip remain open, that sort of thing.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/17/2018 8:17 Comments || Top||


Desperate to Come Home, Syrians Brave IS Mines in Raqa
[AnNahar] The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces ousted IS from Raqa in October, then handed the city over to the Raqa Civil Council.

But Raqa natives are complaining that demining firms hired by the RCC are taking too long, and have taken matters into their own hands. Young men are charging up to $100 to search and clear homes of mines -- a small fortune for war-weary Syrians.

"It's becoming a lucrative business. The officials are ignoring it, and we don't have the means," said resident Hamed Saleh, 28.

A large part of his home in Raqa is inaccessible because of mines.

According to Human Rights Watch, local officials were receiving about 10 requests for house inspections for a single neighbourhood, every day. But they were only able to clear about 10 cases per week across the entire city, the New York-based rights group said this week. It documented at least 491 people, including 157 children, maimed in mine blasts, many of whom died.

Goh Mayama of the aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said his clinic receives an average of six mine blast casualties a day on average in Raqa, about a quarter of whom die.

- 'A view to kill' -
Demining operations in Raqa have been supported by the US-led coalition that backed the SDF's drive against IS. In December, the SDF said it had demined half the city.

"The hospitals, public institutions, schools, power stations and bakeries are all demined," said SDF official Lokman Khalil.

"Raqa's a big city. There's a huge number of mines and it'll take time," he told AFP.

He said the SDF had tried to keep civilians away, but Raqa natives eager to leave displacement camps and come home had ramped up the pressure.

Now, the city's main streets have been cleared for traffic, though mounds of debris still line the sidewalks. Outside one damaged building, a group of children in oversized sweaters rummage through a pile of twisted metal and corrugated iron. Men with picks and shovels poke through the ruins, emerging occasionally with an unwent kaboom! mine.

"We're paying people out of our own pockets to clear our streets and houses," said Abu Mohammed, a resident in his forties. The four-storey apartment building he owns has been completely destroyed, but he cannot begin rebuilding because of mines inside.

"I have three kids. I keep them locked at home so that mines don't go off as they walk in the streets," he said.

According to the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
, some 60,000 people have returned to Raqa despite warnings of the danger.

"The number of unwent kaboom! ordnance in Raqa is something that we have never seen before. It's extreme," said Panos Moumtzis, the UN regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria.

Between 50 and 70 people were being maimed or killed every week because of mines in the city.

"Just to give you a point of comparison, it's the number that takes place in Afghanistan in a year," Moumtzis said. "It's planted with a view to kill."
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Home Front: Politix
DNC Fundraises Off Florida Shooting
[DAILYCALLER] The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is using Wednesday’s mass shooting that left 17 people dead to ask for campaign donations.

The DNC on Thursday sent out an emotional email, signed by DNC chair Tom Perez, asking supporters to sign a petition telling Congress that "it’s past time to take action to address our country’s gun violence epidemic."

Anyone who signs the petition, which requires giving the DNC your email address and zip code, is re-directed to a donation page asking for money to "help Democrats take on the gun lobby."
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  New version of ambulance chasers

Given who leads in lawfare rather than representative government, not surprising
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/17/2018 8:02 Comments || Top||

#2  They'd sell their mothers for a buck.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/17/2018 8:34 Comments || Top||

#3  "it’s past time to take action to address our country’s gun violence epidemic."
Agreed - let's figure out the cause and fix it - and guns are NOT the cause.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/17/2018 9:55 Comments || Top||

#4  At least Ghouls would wait until the bodies are buried. Not so the DNC.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/17/2018 9:56 Comments || Top||

#5  You gotta strike while the iron is hot.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 02/17/2018 11:12 Comments || Top||



Bangladesh
Four arrested with 25 firearms in Bandarban
[NEWAGEBD.NET] A joint force of Rapid Action Battalion and Bangladesh Army tossed in the clink
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
four suspected ’miscreants’ on early Friday and seized 25 firearms and 2,037 rounds of bullets during a raid at Bonpur Rajapara hill area under Lama upazila in Bardanban district.

The arrestees are Tuisa Mong, 35, Oikya Marma, 39, Mifong Marma, 45, Chainung Marma, 36, all residents of village Trideba under Lama upazila, said a RAB blurb.

RAB said the joint force carried out the raid at remote Bonpur Rajapara hill area after they were tipped off that a group of miscreants had gathered a huge amount of illegal firearms and ammunition to commit terrorist activities.
Posted by: Fred || 02/17/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)



Who's in the News
30[untagged]
10Islamic State
5Sublime Porte
4Govt of Pakistan
3al-Shabaab (AQ)
3Hezbollah
2al-Qaeda
2Houthis
1Hamas
1Islamic Emirate of Caucasus
1Islamic Jihad (Palestian)
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (IS)
1Taliban
1al-Nusra
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)
1Antifa
1Commies
1Govt of Iran
1Govt of Pakistain Proxies
1Govt of Syria

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
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tu3031
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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2018-02-17
  Senior IS Leader Returned to Iraq from Turkey
Fri 2018-02-16
  Syria's Idlib IS-Free after 'Surrender' Tuesday
Thu 2018-02-15
  Rebels strike western Syria’s primary power grid to leave millions without electricity
Wed 2018-02-14
  'White powder' sent to Pres.Obama's DC office just 24 hours after Don & Vanessa Trump got similar package
Tue 2018-02-13
  Drone strike kills six Al Qaeda suspects in Yemen
Mon 2018-02-12
  Sword-wielding man injures 4 worshipers at Indonesian church
Sun 2018-02-11
  Jaish-e-Mohammad targets sleeping families at Sunjuwan Army camp, kills two soldiers
Sat 2018-02-10
  TTP splinter group chief Khan Said ‘Sajna’ reported killed in US drone strike in Afghanistan
Fri 2018-02-09
  Houthi leader killed in precision strike along with 35 others
Thu 2018-02-08
  US kills more than 100 Assad regime fighters in largest deliberate strike against Syrian government forces
Wed 2018-02-07
  Israelis kill Ahmad Nasser Jarrar, terrorist behind murder of Rabbi Raziel Shevah
Tue 2018-02-06
  Chlorine gas dropped in rebel-held territory of Idlib, Syria
Mon 2018-02-05
  Russian, Syrian warplanes unleash all-out attack on ISIS in northeast Hama as army prepares to eliminate pocket
Sun 2018-02-04
  Bomb blast kills top military commander in S. Yemen Zoom
Sat 2018-02-03
  Ahrar Al-Sham’s top commander in northern Idlib has been assassinated

Better than the average link...



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