h/t Instapundit
[AmGreatness] There have been so far about three general reactions to the concocted Jussie Smollett psychodrama.
One, and the most common, has been apprehension that Smollett’s lies will discredit future real incidents of hate crimes against gays and minorities. This could be a legitimate concern, given the tensions within a multiracial society.
Yet, in fact, there is no evidence in the past that false reports (some lists of such fake hate crimes put the number at around 400) have had such an effect‐either on spiking real hate crimes, suppressing reporting, discouraging police investigations, or preventing even more race-crime hoaxes.
As Heather Mac Donald has recently once again noted, the 2017 upswing in reported hate crimes from the prior year may well be largely because an additional 1,000 police agencies were for the first time reporting such crimes. Mac Donald also notes that a "hate crime"‐a micro percentage of reported violent crime‐is narrowly defined not to include general interracial violent victimization, a category in which African-Americans on average commit 85 percent of such crimes.
...A second reaction was the far more legitimate worry that thousands of hours of careful police work were squandered, as resources were diverted from real crime investigations. Although so far, the overburdened Chicago police have been careful in downplaying this redirection in limited resources, it was no doubt gargantuan.Yet Smollett’s supporters almost immediately questioned the police department’s ethics when authorities ever so cautiously hinted that the facts and Smollett’s own behavior did not line up with a racist attack.
...Yet the third, most important, and most ignored reaction was that in some sense Smollett himself was a racist and had committed a hate crime.
#2
I think we already have enough laws to cover assault, battery, arson, etc. "Hate crime" definitions only increase the tensions without a multiracial society.
#3
"Of similar crimes, why oh why must
Some victimisations be primest
Cuz... race, predilections,
And wedding cake captions?"
Inquired a hate crime hating crimist.
[Times of Israel] BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, called the self-declared interim president and opposition leader Juan Guaido “a CIA agent who serves the interests of the United States and the Zionists” in an interview with the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese media outlet, al-Mayadeen.
He added in the interview posted on Tuesday that he feels “love for the noble Palestinian cause,” and sent words of “encouragement to the Palestinian and Arab prisoners confined in Israeli jails.”
Maduro denied that there are Hezbollah operatives acting in Venezuela. And he accused the United States for trying seize the wealth and oil of Venezuela.
#6
why would this be in the interests of the Zionists?
If I were the head of Mossad... But seriously, with the Chavistas out, Venezuela could rid itself of Hezb’allah and Iran’s more direct representatives.
[Boston Globe] The home DNA kit from AncestryDNA was a gift, and it was supposed to be nice. But when Catherine St Clair sent in her sample, she instead learned a shocking truth about herself: She was not the biological child of the man she knew her entire life as "Daddy.’’
The trauma sent her to his Texas gravesite, where she lay down and sobbed. "I felt I lost him all over again," she said.
First came the home DNA kits, with their promise of light fun. Learn if your family is part Scottish! Go on a DNA-inspired globe-trotting trip! Connect with distant cousins!
Now comes the fallout: As millions upload genetic results to AncestryDNA and 23andMe and smaller firms, many are learning devastating news. They’re not their sister’s full sibling, not related by blood to anyone in their entire family, not who they thought they were.
#3
On the other hand, in the last year I gained 2 cousins, kids who were adopted out in the 1970s and who didn't know their birth parents, who had their DNA tested by the same company I used. Now they have hundreds of cousins, and in one case, a half-sister, they didn't know they had.
#4
Aren't most DNA testing labs located in China? If true, that's a lot of info I don't want China to have. I can just see some futuristic weapon that could be detrimental to some gene or another of Americans. Conspiracy? Maybe. They can sell your info to big pharma and insurance types.
Who gives a rip who you're related to or if that's your biological father or not.
The only useful bit of info I find is to discover possible medical problems to have a heads up to deal with. But IMO not at the expense of China having the info too. Besides not that sure if I want to know...
Posted by: Jan ||
02/25/2019 12:25
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#5
"Then your family all comes callin' slap you on the back and say cheeee-se... Pleeee-ase..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 12:46
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#6
Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Family Style.
And, yeah, I've got a brother I'm a little suspicious about.
#7
Who gives a rip who you're related to or if that's your biological father or not.
I know or have known many kids who were adopted. Knowledge of their birth parents usually means a hell of a lot to them. Your mileage may vary.
#10
Spousal Unit did the test, found a half sister ( dear old dad was plowing somebody else’s field), and another relative took a certain G. Washington to court over aland issue: seems George took that land also.
Kinda scary what you can find out....
[St. Louis Post Dispatch] ST. LOUIS • Beatrice Burt has a favorite memory of the home she bought for $1.
"The basement was crowded, the upstairs was crowded, the whole side of the street was lined with cars," said Burt, 71, smiling broadly as she recalled hosting a big family reunion when she was a young woman.
Burt said she was thrilled to show off her first home, a one-story brick bungalow in the Walnut Park East neighborhood.
Sold in 1978 by the city, 5506 Gilmore Avenue was move-in ready. But with the help of her father, Burt replaced the kitchen tile, bought new bathroom fixtures, did minor electrical work and decorated. In the first five years, Burt estimated she put about $10,000 worth of work into the property.
She lived in the house for 15 years, but after she became ill and then had to take care of her aging parents, she allowed relatives to stay in her home. The house has since been torn down, and a church uses the lot for parking.
Burt, who now lives in Hamilton Heights, said she still considers herself fortunate.
"It was definitely a good house, and I was a single individual so it was ample space," she said.
#6
If the land title is really worth only a dollar then that means the people around there add in total only one dollar after all those working and benefits are added...
For the maths challenged it means there's a lot of wealth damaging people nearby.
#8
A scarcely publicized ongoing scam is the sale of huge amounts of "nonperforming" mortgages by government-sponsored entities to cronies such as big banks and the well-connected. In ye olden times a non-performing mortgage was settled on the steps of the nearest courthouse at a sheriff's auction by sale to the highest bidder, in other words, liquidate the bad loan & move on from there. That is no longer the American way.
#10
Ref #9: Yes, some areas and water found out in St. Chas County have been found to be.... not so healthy. Elevated cancer rates, etc. The closer you get to the old ammo plant (Now Busch Wildlife Center), the less healthy.
[Babylon Bee] HOLLYWOOD, CA‐At the 91st Academy Awards this evening, elite celebrities flanked by bodyguards, security, metal detectors, and physical barriers like walls and fences banded together to condemn borders and walls.
The celebrities made direct attacks on the concept of a wall as a means to provide security and protection, all while surrounded by high-tech security which included surveillance, armed personnel, and curious obstructions known as "walls" that prevent "just any old non-millionaire person" from walking in and disrupting the event.
At publishing time, they had all gone to exclusive after-parties at multi-million-dollar mansions surrounded by towering brick walls.
[Aljazeera] The United Kingdom said it will add the political wing of Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah to its list of banned "terrorist" organisations, despite the role it plays in the goverment and parliament.
The move, which comes into effect on Friday, criminalises anyone who is either a member or supports the group, which is headed by Hassan Nasrallah.
Those who are associated with Hezbollah will face up to 10 years in prison.
"Hezbollah is continuing in its attempts to destabilise the fragile situation in the Middle East - and we are no longer able to distinguish between their already banned military wing and the political party," Home Secretary Sajid Javid said.
"Because of this, I have taken the decision to proscribe the group in its entirety."
BLUF:
[Politico] FDR’s court-packing battle is one of the best-known constitutional struggles in U.S. history. The story, as it’s often been told, pits an entrenched, reactionary Supreme Court, which overturned a slew of Roosevelt’s New Deal economic reforms, against a hubristic president willing to take the unprecedented step of asking Congress to appoint six new, and sympathetic, justices to the bench. Only a national outcry against this unconstitutional skulduggery, along with a newly cowed court that began upholding Roosevelt’s laws, stopped the plan.
Yet this narrative gets much of the court-packing episode wrong. New research I have conducted, forthcoming in the Journal of American History, demonstrates that Roosevelt saw his plan in the context of a long tradition of judicial reform, not as a departure from it. FDR wanted to encourage older justices to retire, not to add extra justices to the bench. He saw a recent, although now nearly forgotten, law cutting Supreme Court pensions as preventing retirements and thus appointments that were his due. The court-packing episode was partially an attempt to fix retirement issues‐not a mere presidential power grab. And at the time, at least at first, many in the press and public agreed with him.
Today, those looking to reform the Supreme Court might want to look away from court packing and instead consider the seemingly mundane issue of judicial retirement‐and how it has reshaped the court throughout its history. A new SCOTUS retirement plan might just be the best way to protect the court’s independence from the hyperpartisanship of our times.
#2
The Supreme Court had to be slapped down for calling programs in the New Deal unconstitutional, the black robed insurrectionists! The message was sent for the Court to stay out of Big Government's way and it stuck for fiftyish years.
Now every court in the land seems that they can legislate from the bench... The chaos that this is causing needs to be dealt with.
[The Federalist] In 1964, Dean Martin sang "You’re nobody ’til somebody loves you." In 2019, it seems like the opposite is true‐you’re nobody until somebody hates you and lets you know it.
At least, that seems to be the impression Jussie Smollett had when he set about devising the plan for the hoax hate crime that has dominated the news lately. In need of something to help him stand out in Hollywood where everyone is richer, more famous, better looking, and more successful, Jussie knew that finding his personal x-factor would be a task.
So he did what no right-minded person in his shoes would do and faked a racist and homophobic attack on himself, confident that his new status as victim would be his ticket to martyrdom in the political sphere as well as personal success. What could be better than railing against the evils in society while boosting your own career? Given the toxic tribalism that now defines and divides our politics and culture, his confidence was not misplaced.
Tribalism inspires us to caricature and think the worst of the people outside of our tribes, which is the main reason this story gained any traction. In his book "Them: Why We Hate Each Other ‐ and How to Heal," Ben Sasse explains that society now falls "into ’anti-tribes,’ defined by what we’re against rather than what we’re for. Hence the rise of social-media faux-communities devoted to how the other side is destroying everything good and true‐and the cable news channels on left & right that thrive on outrage."
Unsurprisingly, immediately following news of the attack, celebrities proved Sasse right when they assigned blame for what happened to Jussie. Billy Eichner tweeted, "Heartbroken and furious reading about the attack on @JussieSmollett. I want Trump and all MAGA lunatics to burn in hell."
#2
Tribes tend to do poorly when confronted by the non tribal world. They have their Little Big Horn moments but the long haul is never kind to them.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 8:40
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#3
Re the Ben Sasse panty twister book: I had a cartoon on my desk for years, two guys in suits walking down the street. One guy says "I don't want to manage my anger, I want to franchise it."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 8:43
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#4
Seen on Twitter: If Jussie Smollet wanted so badly to be the victim of a hate crime, why didn't he just put on a #MAGA hat?
[American Thinker] Later this year, the U.S. Supreme Court is going to decide on the constitutionality of President Trump's request that a citizenship question be placed in the 2020 U.S. Census.
Democrats know that the 2020 Census citizenship question likely passes constitutional muster; like everything else constitutional, that's why they fiercely object to it, citing "privacy" concerns ‐ a concern a federal judge, earlier this month, rejected.
So what's the real reason they're opposed to a citizenship question?
Democrats know that states are blue or purple; they want to pad the stat sheet in the swing states. States' electoral votes, as well as future federal funding, are determined by their population totals. Having illegals and non-citizens counted in our Census means that swing states' electoral votes will increase, as they did for several swing states between the 2000 and 2010 Censuses.
THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE
"The issue is never the issue," as Rules for Radicals author Saul Alinsky once remarked, and the Census, illegal immigration, and non-citizen unholy trinity is not at all different.
After the 2010 Census, Texas gained four U.S. House of Representatives seats. It's worth noting that Texas has had gains after every Census since it joined the Union in 1845. Florida, after the 2010 Census, gained two seats; like Texas, Florida was admitted into the Union in 1845 and has also seen its electoral votes increase after every Census.
Reliably Democrat states such as Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Jersey each lost a seat following the 2010 Census, and New York lost two. Undoubtedly, Democrats, usually guaranteed those states' electoral votes, would like to see gains there after the 2020 Census.
Electoral vote allocations from the 2010 Census expire after the 2020 elections; 2020 data will determine electoral votes from 2022 to 2032.
[Right Scoop] Kaitlin Bennett is quickly becoming the latest online right-wing personality to try to cash in on people retweeting a blonde with a gun, BUT she also pulled a rather funny gag on liberal students at UCLA.
She dressed up like an insane feminist and asked them to sign a petition to send conservatives and Trump supporters to re-education camps, AND OF COURSE THEY SIGNED IT.
Bernie tweeted
[Twitch] The people of Venezuela are enduring a serious humanitarian crisis. The Maduro government must put the needs of its people first, allow humanitarian aid into the country, and refrain from violence against protesters. 1:47 PM - Feb 23, 2019 then Roger Waters tweeted
Bernie, are you f-ing kidding me! if you buy the Trump, Bolton, Abrams, Rubio line, "humanitarian intervention" and collude in the destruction of Venezuela, you cannot be credible candidate for President of the USA. Or, maybe you can, maybe you're the perfect stooge for the 1 %. 5:27 PM - Feb 23, 2019 from there, others tweeted back to Roger
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/25/2019
08:03 ||
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#1
Schnork!
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 8:17
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#2
It's fun to go over to ZeroHedge and write "F*ck communists" in the comments and get 12 downvotes immediately...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 8:19
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#3
So Waters advocates the Joe Stalin approach to political dissent?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/25/2019 12:11
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#4
Waters makes the word vile a compliment...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 12:43
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#5
The irony is an Vermont Socialist calling for other peoples money and products be made available for the victims of a Venezuelan Socialist.
A companion to my previous post in opinion
[Townhall] While the unkillable ideological cockroach that is socialism seems to be enjoying a resurgence primarily among stupid and/or evil millennials, there are three key groups who will oppose any such transition here in America. There are ex-military folks like me who served in the ruins of socialist countries and saw the way they poison a culture (and literally the land too ‐ socialism is always an environmental atrocity). There are folks, like my wife, who escaped from murderous socialist hellholes ‐ wear your scummy Che t-shirt around her and she’ll cut you. And then there are the rest of the Normal Americans who are both aware of socialism’s 100 million corpse tally and who don’t particularly want a bunch of aspiring campus Castros taking power and telling bossing them around for eternity.
... first we need to define "socialism," because there seems to be a lot of confusion about what socialism is among the young people supporting it. "Socialism" is defined as "socialism." You have probably seen on social media where smug dorks in knit caps post memes about how, "If you support having roads and armies, you support socialism!" Okay, if every kind of government has roads and armies, then roads and armies are not an attribute of a socialist government in particular but of government in general. This kind of soft thinking is the sad result of too many years spent watching The Daily Show, which offers its audience such pseudo-smart insights designed to blow the minds of credulous sophomores. Personally I believe that enchantment with Marxism among "cognitive elites" is due to the fact that these people were educated beyond their innate ability - on the principle "if you try teaching calculus to a dog, you'll drive it mad". Now I wonder, could you say the same thing about Marx?
...Understand that the real motivation behind "socialism," as they use the term, is to shift power and resources from people like you into the hands of the unaccomplished losers who make up the Democrat Party. In terms of specific policies, socialism, as imagined by our useless millennials, seems to be less about Marxist doctrine than about just stealing things that millennials really want from you ‐ that is, your money and your power. It’s an attempt to create a moral, cultural and political framework to justify making you an impoverished subject toiling for, and obedient to, the kind of hipster geebos who inhabit Brooklyn and Santa Monica.
#6
Proof that stereotypes are a bad way to go. Thanks, g...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 8:00
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#7
Skinny jeans and the sport coat or suit jacket that appears to be at least 3 sizes too small. I often wondered if the goal of this type of wear is simply arse exposure. Does anyone here know ?
#9
Probably because their moms don't help them buy their clothes anymore, B.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/25/2019 8:13
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#10
I wear jeans (definitely not skinny) and a black t-shirt most of the time. I'm invisible...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 8:15
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#11
Among young people socialism seems to be 'everything I like' and capitalism is 'everything I don't like'. There isn't much thought beyond that. They use Democratic socialism to dodge the inevitable history but don't think deeply on how different socialists (Chavez, Mudara, Hitler) were elected before they shut down democratic apparatus.
#12
Historically, the US is run by old men who talk left but govern right-center. As long as I can have 20 more years of that I really don't care what they do to themselves after that. Just don't do it to me. Selfish? You bet.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 10:39
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#13
...but don't think deeply on how different socialists (Chavez, Mudara, Hitler) were elected before they shut down democratic apparatus.
#14
What #11 (rjschwartz) said ^ !!
The lack of intellectual rigor is mind boggling. They hate Big Business™ but have no clue that replacing it with an all powerful state monopoly simply removes any freedom of choice that they have... Fascism was Good for Italy, it will be Good For America! (/sarc, if it's needed!)
#15
"cognitive elites" is due to the fact that these people were educated beyond their innate ability Self-styled "elites" all have a sense of self-importance that vastly exceeds their native ability. Education only made that misapprehension worse.
h/t Instapundit
[TennesseeStar] If somebody wanted to fundamentally transform society to its roots, where would he or she start?
The most logical starting point would be education. And if there were one part of the educational system that would produce this transformation most broadly, effectively, and efficiently, it would most likely be at our schools of education that train teachers for the K-12 classroom. That’s where ideas from the rest of academia are inserted into the curriculum for elementary and high school students, and where politically unsophisticated young people are turned into classroom teachers. Control the schools of education, and the education system will eventually be yours to forward your political agenda.
Remarkably, that is just what has happened in this country. Over 100 years ago, when our education schools were just starting up or growing from two-year normal schools to university status, Progressive educators set out to transform the nation into one that was based on social science theories, collectivism, and central planning.
How successful were they? Several years ago, I started an investigation into how politicized education schools have become. Today, the Martin Center is releasing the results of that investigation in a new report, titled "The Politicization of University Schools of Education."
The report’s main conclusion? That schools of education may very well be radicalized beyond anything imagined by the early Progressives.
The way I came to that conclusion was through two methods. One was an empirical examination of the syllabi of three major education schools, the Universities of Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina. I looked at 290 total syllabi from the three education schools and tabulated the most frequently assigned authors. Rather than basing popularity on the number of times an author’s works were assigned, I used the number of classes in which their works were assigned; counting every time a book or article is assigned can skew the results if a professor assigns multiple works by the same author. I also counted every author for each article.
In the other method, I identified the major strains of radical K-12 education‐Progressive, critical pedagogy, and multicultural education‐and followed their increasing influence in academia.
The overall results of the main empirical investigation are in Table 1 below.
...So, who are these authors and what ideas are they promoting?
First of all, they are not fringe players, but key members of the education establishment. Most of them have held prestigious positions in the world of education.
...Secondly, every person on my Top Ten list is highly political and holds beliefs far to the left of ordinary liberals.
...My findings were strongly corroborated by the two other studies I found that explore the same topic. Both were conducted by political moderates: Frederick Hess, who is the lead educational expert at the American Enterprise Institute, and David Steiner, the director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy (hardly a hotbed of conservatism). Steiner summarized his findings:
In the domain of foundations of education, the books most often required by the programs we reviewed were authored by Anita Woolfolk, Jonathan Kozol, Henry Giroux, Paulo Freire, Joel Spring, Howard Gardner, and John Dewey . . . The rest are well-known works that embrace a constructivist and/or progressive standpoint. Conspicuously absent from almost all such syllabi were works that took a very different approach to teaching, such as those by E. D. Hirsch or Diane Ravitch. I might add that, in my - fairly extensive - experience (in Israel, not USA - our monkeys always imitate yours), the main damage due to these politically indoctrinated teachers is not due to political indoctrination of students but to sheer professional incompetence. That is, math & science teachers who learned their subjects by sheer rote memorization, have no basic understanding and reward their own kind of rote memorizers with top grades while punishing students who ask "awkward" questions. To see how it ends, one only has to look through professional scientific journals
#1
Depends on a few things. Smart kinds are bored sh*tless in pubic school.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 6:59
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#2
When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school,
It's a wonder I can thing at all.
And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none,
I can read the writing on the wall.
- Paul Simon
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 7:01
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#3
Smart kinds are bored sh*tless in pubic school.
Gosh, does that mean I'm smart? I can't think of a time in my life when I was so badly, desperately bored as when I was in high school.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/25/2019 12:03
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#4
Gosh, does that mean I'm smart? Yes, relatively speaking. You were "smarter" than your environment allowed for. As we are learning, that is not saying much.
#7
Smart kinds are bored sh*tless in pubic school.
Some are. I loved my schools and my teachers, and mostly was well challenged, even if it meant I was in a reading group of one reading books the teacher had put aside for the purpose. And at home my mother encouraged us to use her university text books as research materials for our homework. Trailng daughter #1 was like me; trailing daughter #2 was bored to tears at being forced to waste so much time. The two fosterlings were also one of each, though since they pushed hard to graduate early with high honours, they were going faster than normal anyway.
h/t Instapundit
[NewsAdvance] Embattled Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax compared himself to Jim Crow-era lynching victims in a surprise speech Sunday, as he resists widespread calls to resign prompted by allegations of sexual assault.
...When he finished his five-minute impromptu speech, stunned senators sat in awkward silence.
Fairfax, who is black, has been accused by two women of sexual assault. Both of the alleged victims are African American. And if he also raped Caucasian women - in the current climate, one's gotta be really dumb to complain
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s presidential office said on Monday the United States and North Korea could agree to declare the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War in a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the Yonhap news agency reported.
"The possibility is there," presidential office spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told a press briefing in Seoul when asked if an end-of-war declaration was on the summit agenda, according to Yonhap.
The two leaders will meet in Hanoi on Wednesday and Thursday, eight months after their historic summit in Singapore, the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader, where they pledged to work toward the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
[Wash Times] America’s elite special operations forces are getting new marching orders as the Pentagon moves away from its post-9/11 focus on radical terrorist groups and trains its eye on big-power rivals such as China and Russia.
In a major shift of mission, officials at U.S. Special Operations Command are drafting new guidance to reorient its cadre of top-tier military units to fight the expanding armies and navies of what U.S. strategists call "near-peer" powers.
Under the guidance, which is still pending approval by command chief Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III, U.S. special operations fighters will be taking a larger role in cyberwarfare, information and "influence" ‐ digital age propaganda ‐ operations, sources say, as well as training allies in the new skills.
"It is fair to say you will see a rebranding of special operations forces," Andrew Knaggs, deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and combating terrorism, said earlier this month. "Our problems will not be addressed through conventional deterrence alone."
[BREITBART] Andrew McCabe, the disgraced former acting FBI director, conceded in his new book that James Comey’s infamous decision to hold a presser to announce no charges against 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... in her email case worked to "erode the credibility of the FBI."
Perhaps unwittingly lending weight to some of President Trump’s own arguments for ultimately firing Comey, McCabe blasted Comey’s unprecedented presser as possibly doing "long-term damage" to the FBI.
On July 5, 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, Comey held a notorious presser during which he bypassed Justice Department tradition by unilaterally declaring that "no charges are appropriate" in the case of Clinton’s private email server. It is not the role of the FBI to make such pronouncements.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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Nah. Rilly?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 0:14
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[ElNacional] Hasta el momento, Migración Colombia ha atendido a un poco más de cien miembros de las Fuerzas Armadas de Venezuela, que han salido de su país, escapando de la dictadura de Maduro", indicó Migración Colombia en un comunicado. translation
So far, Migración Colombia has served a little over one hundred members of the Armed Forces of Venezuela, who have left their country, escaping from the Maduro dictatorship, "said Migración Colombia in a statement.
Christian Kruger, director de la autoridad migratoria colombiana, explicó que los desertores reciben un salvoconducto temporal, mientras se estudia caso por caso "quién es la persona y cuál es el argumento que está dando para la concesión del refugio". translation
Christian Kruger, director of the Colombian immigration authority, explained that deserters receive a temporary safe-conduct, while studying individuals on a case by case basis "identifying the person and their reason for asking for refuge.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/25/2019
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Hyperinflation plus rampant corruption. I wonder when was the last time those soldiers were properly fed, much less paid a meaningful salary?
[IsraelTimes] Michael White, 46, was locked away Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! last July after traveling to Iran to visit a woman he met online.
Iran says an American detained last July is not being held on security-related charges.
Michael White, 46, was arrested after traveling to Iran to visit a woman he met online. His family says he was arbitrarily detained. Iranian officials say he was detained in connection with a private complaint.
Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Panahiazar told the semi-official ISNA news agency Saturday that "there is no security or espionage issue on the table."
White is the first American to be detained in Iran since US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... took office. He worked as a cook in the US Navy and left the service about a decade ago.
Iran has detained a number of dual citizens from Western countries on security charges, using them as leverage in negotiations.
Iranian-American Siamak Namazi and his 82-year-old father Baquer are both serving 10-year sentences on espionage charges. Iranian-American art dealer Karan Vafadari and his Iranian wife, Afarin Neyssari, received 27-year and 16-year prison sentences, respectively. Chinese-American graduate student Xiyue Wang was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly "infiltrating" the country while doing doctoral research on Iran’s Qajar dynasty.
Iranian-American Robin Shahini was released on bail in 2017 after staging a hunger strike while serving an 18-year prison sentence for "collaboration with a hostile government." Shahini is believed to still be in Iran.
Also in an Iranian prison is Nizar Zakka, a US permanent resident from Leb who advocated for internet freedom and has done work for the US government. He was sentenced to 10 years on espionage-related charges.
Former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission, remains missing as well. Iran says that Levinson is not in the country and that it has no further information about him, but his family holds Tehran responsible for his disappearance.
No worries — they’ve got plenty more hostages in storage against future need. It’s a tradition.
[IsraelTimes] Iran’s official IRNA news agency is saying that the country has released a French businesswoman detained for nearly four months.
The report quotes the front man for the Iranian foreign ministry, Bahram Ghasemi, as saying Iran has released Nelly Erin-Cambervelle, a 59-year-old businesswoman from Martinique, who was in jail for entering the country illegally.
Ghasemi says the French national was released "in recent days," according to the report, which did not elaborate.
Last week, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said La Belle France was in touch with Iran to improve conditions for Erin-Cambervelle, who was tossed in the clink I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! in October on the Iranian Persian Gulf island of Kish.
La Belle France co-signed the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and is working to keep it alive despite the US withdrawal in 2018.
[Rudaw] Iraq’s Directorate of Military Intelligence announced Sunday the capture of two senior ISIS members, one of them the so-called "Emir of Battles" and the other an official of the group’s putative Islamic Police.
In a readout posted on its Facebook page, the directorate announced intelligence officers of Division 15 had captured "a dangerous terrorist" who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Abdalaziz.
According to the post, Abo Abdalaziz worked as an official in the "Islamic Police", which imposed the group’s strict religious code.
He was captured "in an ambush set up for him in the al-Iiyadhiyah sub-district in the Tel-Afar district of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... ," it said.
Abo Abdalaziz had fled Iraq when Iraqi, US-led coalition, and Peshmerga forces advanced on the group’s strongholds, but recently returned through the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province, it said.
The other ISIS member tossed in the slammer You have the right to remain silent... was the so-called "Emir of Battles", the statement said, without providing his name. He had participated in several battles against Iraqi forces in Anbar province, it said.
"He was captured after he had crossed the border and sneaked in from Syria ... escaping from our heroic forces during the liberation operations," the statement said.
He returned to Iraq and was arrested in Naaim village in Mosul’s Rabiyah sub-district.
He is one of the most dangerous holy warriors to have participated in a number of battles against our security forces," the statement added.
The unnamed jihadist participated in the long battle of Beiji refinery in 2014, two battles in Area 600 in Beiji district, a battle in Shirqat district, and in the Fosfat area in Anbar’s al-Hasiba, the statement said, adding he has four brothers, all members of ISIS, in Syria and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... Although the final territorial defeat of ISIS in Syria is about to be announced by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the US-led coalition, ISIS is returning to its earlier insurgency tactics in both Iraq and Syria.
According to US military officials who spoke to CNN last week, thousands of ISIS fighters have slipped into Iraq in recent months.
Now they are terrorizing villages, ambushing security forces, and roaming freely in the night around the mountain ranges in Hamrin, Qarachogh, and Makhoul. They have resorted to killing and kidnapping in a bid to increase their funds and force the population not to cooperate with Iraqi security forces.
Most of these areas fall in the disputed territories between Iraqi and Peshmerga lines.
Kurdish officials warned that Iraq’s offensive into the disputed territories in October 2017 and the resulting Peshmerga withdrawal would give ISIS breathing space to regroup.
Peshmerga and Iraqi forces are now in talks to form a joint operations room. However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... UN officials and other experts have warned that completely defeating ISIS will take many years, and the grievances that allowed it to take root have not be resolved.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/25/2019
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[DAWN] A flight bound for Dubai from Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, made an emergency landing on Sunday in Chittagong, Bangladesh, after a man attempted to hijack the plane, officials said.
The suspect, a Bangladeshi, asked to speak to the country's prime minister before dying from injuries in an exchange of gunfire with military commandos, officials said.
The flight, operated by state-run Biman Bangladesh Airlines, took off from Dhaka at 4:35pm for the trip to Dubai via Chittagong.
The pilot made the emergency landing in Chittagong about 40 minutes later, after a crew member reported "suspicious behaviour" by the man, said Rezaul Karim, an official with the Bangladeshi military's inter-service public affairs office.
All 143 passengers and seven crew members aboard the Boeing 737-800 were safely evacuated, Air Vice Marshal Mofidur Rahman said at a news conference broadcast live on Somoy TV.
The commandos fired at the suspect after he shot at them when they asked him to surrender, army Maj Gen Motiur Rahman told news hounds, according to ATN TV news. He said that the suspect was carrying a pistol, but did not say where the shooting took place.
The army official said the suspect, whose name has not been released, asked to speak to his wife and to Prime Minister the loathesome Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums.. . The suspect died before reaching the hospital, he said.
The suspect appeared to be "mentally imbalanced", said Air Vice Marshal M. Naim Hassan, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority. "I am saying this because of his behaviour. He wanted to talk to the prime minister."
The Daily Mail says he is 25. Perhaps one day this nutter will grow a name.
Update from the Daily Mail at noon ET:
A 25-year-old man who was shot dead when trying to hijack a Bangladesh Airlines flight using a toy gun, had been having 'troubles with his wife', police say.
The man, named only as Mahadi, used the gun to take a crew member hostage while also demanding to speak with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina.
Bangladesh’s elite police unit, the Rapid Action Battalion, meanwhile identified the suspect as Mohammad Polash Ahmed from Narayanganj, just outside the capital Dhaka.
"His details matched a criminal on our database," the RAB says in a statement, adding he was tossed in the calaboose Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in 2012 over an abduction case and served 20 days in prison. Now he's really dead, beyond all cares and woe.
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[AlAhram] Iranian-aligned Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... forces have agreed to draw back from two Yemeni ports on Monday while withdrawal from the main Hodeidah port will occur later alongside a retreat by coalition-backed forces massed outside the city, U.N. and Yemeni sources said.
Houthi forces will withdraw 5 km (3 miles) from the ports of Saleef, used for grain, and Ras Isa, an oil terminal, as a first step agreed with the internationally recognized government, three sources said.
The Houthi withdrawal from Hodeidah port and the pull-back by coalition forces 1 km away from the city’s "Kilo 7" eastern suburb would take place as a second step, they said.
An orderly troop withdrawal from Hodeidah, now a focus of an almost four-year war, is key to U.N.-led efforts to avert a full-scale assault on the port and pave the way for political negotiations.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed 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... to the brink of famine.
The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... has been trying to salvage a truce deal agreed at peace talks in December between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government. That process has stalled over who would control of Hodeidah, a Red Sea port used to feed Yemen’s 30 million people.
Hodeidah is held by the Houthis while other Yemeni forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition loyal to ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi are positioned on the edges of the city.
Hadi’s top negotiator, Foreign Minister Khalid al-Yamani, said the initial Houthi redeployment must be verified before further progress can be made and humanitarian corridors reopened.
"This is what was agreed by the Yemeni government: we verify the first step before implementing the second," he told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published on Sunday.
A small team of U.N. observers arrived in Hodeidah after the ceasefire went into effect on Dec. 18 to oversee troop redeployments by both sides.
The deal calls for local authorities to assume control of Hodeidah but did not detail the process, leaving it open to interpretation.
The Western-backed Sunni Moslem coalition led by Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and the United Arab Emirates intervened in Yemen in 2015 to try to restore Hadi’s government after it was ousted from power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014.
The conflict, widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has been locked in military stalemate.
The Houthis, who say their revolution is against corruption, control most urban centers including Sanaa. Hadi’s government holds the southern port of Aden and a string of coastal towns.
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan forces have repulsed two separate attacks by Talibs on security outposts in eastern Laghman ...It has a population of about 445,600, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. During the invasions of Alexander the Great, the area was known as Lampaka, wich is apparently Olde Macedonian for Laghman.The city of Mihtarlam serves as the bucolic capital of the province. The population is half Pashtun, the remainder Tadjik and Pashai. It had a repution for great wealth until it was conquered in the tenth century by Abu Mansur Sabuktigin.
He conquered it and set fire to the places in its vicinity which were inhabited by infidels, and demolishing the idol-temples, he established Islam in them, He marched and captured other cities and killed the polluted wretches, destroying the idolatrous and gratifying the Musulmans. After wounding and killing beyond all measure, his hands and those of his friends became cold in counting the value of the plundered property.
After that it was mostly notable for the production of dirt, rocks, and holy men. and Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. provinces.
The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan Military in the East in a statement said the Talibs launched attacks on security outposts in Alisheng district of Laghman province on Saturday night which was repulsed by the security forces.
The statement further added one Taliban ...Arabic for students... bully boy was killed and two others were maimed during the festivities with the security forces.
The Talibs launched similar attacks on security outposts in Durbaba district of Nangarhar province which was also repulsed by the security forces, the 201st Silab Corps added.
According to the statement by 201st Silab Corps, at least three Talibs were maimed during the clash with the security forces in Durbaba district.
The anti-government armed murderous Moslems including Taliban have not commented regarding the festivities so far.
[ToloNews] A new UN report reveals that more non-combatants were killed in the Afghan conflict last year than anytime since records have been kept.
The report documented 3,804 civilian deaths, including 927 children, in 2018.
In total, UNAMA documented 10,993 civilian casualties (3,804 deaths and 7,189) maimed), representing a five percent increase in overall civilian casualties and an 11 percent increase in civilian deaths compared with 2017.
In this report, UNAMA attributes the majority of civilian casualties ‐ 63 percent ‐ to anti-government elements (37 percent to Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... , 20 percent to ISIS, and 6 percent to undetermined anti-government elements).
According to the report, pro-government forces caused 24 percent civilian deaths (14 percent by Afghan national security forces, six percent by international military forces, and four percent by other pro-government gangs and forces).
The report says that key factors contributing to the significant increase in civilian casualties were a spike in suicide kabooms by anti-government elements, mainly ISIS, as well as increased harm to civilians from aerial and search operations by pro-government forces.
The report says that 2018 witnessed the highest number of civilian casualties ever recorded from suicide attacks and aerial operations.
"The report’s rigorously researched findings show that the level of harm and suffering inflicted on civilians in Afghanistan is deeply disturbing and wholly unacceptable," said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan. "All parties need to take immediate and additional concrete steps to stop a further escalation in the number of civilians harmed and lives destroyed."
He said that this is the UN’s 10th report documenting the plight of civilians in the Afghan conflict.
According to him, more than 32,000 non-combatants were killed and around 60,000 injured in a decade.
The said that the best way to halt the killings and maiming of civilians is to stop the fighting.
"I urge all parties to seize every opportunity to do so," the UN envoy said.
The report shows that anti-government elements were responsible for 6,980 civilian casualties (2,243 deaths and 4,737 injured), a three percent increase to 2017, which mainly resulted from indiscriminate use of suicide improvised bombs (IEDs) and the deliberate targeting of civilians with these devices.
The report says Taliban caused 4,072 civilian casualties (1,348 deaths and 2,724 injured), seven percent down on 2017, while ISIS caused 2,181 civilian casualties (681 deaths and 1,500 injured), an increase of 118 percent.
UNAMA attributed a further 678 civilian casualties (196 deaths and 482 injured) to undetermined anti-government elements.
#3
Clear indication that the Afghans are doing more of the serious fighting. They don't care what some mealy mouth bureaucrat or NGO says or thinks when the bad boys use human shields. They're out to kill the Tellibunnies. Hang wringing pols and JAGs who can't read the UCMJ are not in place to obstruct military operations.
#4
3804 civilian deaths in Afghanistan in 2018 is tragic but for comparison there were 17,700+ civilian deaths at the peak of the Syrian conflict in 2014. In the peak years of ISIS's occupation of Iraq (2013-2015) there were about 9,000 civilians killed per year.
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/25/2019 7:04
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#5
The irony here is, the UN doesn't track it's own casualties. Nor does it often memorialize or discuss them. Anyone remember the late Vieira de Mello and the 21 other UN personnel who perished with him ?
This is the country that puts religion on its passport.
[DAWN] Who would have thought that an agriculture university situated in the leafy, quiet and serene environs of Tando Jam, just outside Hyderabad, Sindh, is doling out degrees with the religion of the holder mentioned on the uppermost section of the document?
Can someone explain what could be the logic behind such obvious chauvinism? This is a country where 98 per cent of the population adheres to one religion. Why then should there be any reason to wear our faith on our sleeve? And this too in a province where most of the Paks practising the Hindu faith reside. As if attacking their places of worship and kidnapping and forcibly converting their girls were not enough, we also want to stamp their religion on their academic degrees? Unlike our Christian brothers and sisters who sometimes take up Moslem names ‐ not that it saves them from any form of discrimination ‐ Paks of Hindu faith usually don’t even do that and their names are sure giveaways for any type of bias that the society wants to mete out to them. It becomes all the more pertinent to ask, why then this need to put a scholar’s religion on her degree? Why?
Pakistain enjoys a unique feature. It is perhaps the first country in human history to have been created on the basis of a religious identity. The other such example is Israel. Surrounded by even more real, imagined or provoked-into-enmity foes than Pakistain, does the ’Zionist entity’ go to the extent of putting religion on the degrees its academic institutions give out? At least an internet-based search did not throw up anything to suggest that. What about Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... ? There has been a systematic attempt by certain quarters in our country to emulate the kingdom in as many ways as possible. Does Saudi Arabia put religion on the certificates it bestows upon students successfully completing their degree courses? Again, at least a web search does not suggest so. The same goes for Iran, which does not display religion on academic degrees.
Why should this hang around our necks like an albatross? One does not want to judge anyone too harshly. Everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt. Let us assume that the Tando Jam University is guilty only of neglect and not of premeditated malice. Maybe it’s just an oversight, the oft-cited ’holy manal error’ that has gone under the radar so far. If that be the case, it should not be so difficult to correct the mistake and erase this embarrassment for the land whose inhabitants are the heirs of Bhitai and Sachal. After all, it is the riot of colour in the patchwork of rilli that makes it beautiful.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Because plants give a $hit...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 0:19
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#2
Tando Jam University is guilty only of neglect and not of premeditated malice. Somebody or somebodies there are guilty of cunningly concealed malevolence for sure. No way is that mere neglect.
[Libya Observer] The Head of the UNSMIL Ghassan Salame said military operations are not a solution for the Libyan crisis, but rather the solution is the building of a sovereign state based on legitimacy that comes from the constitution and elections and inclusive of all parties.
Speaking to pro-Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... al-Hadath TV Channel, Salame said the UNSMIL is with any operation that aims to fight terrorism, but is against any operation that violates the rights of Libyans, especially in the south.
"The international community is only with the political settlement among all parties. When I talked at the UN Security Council about the Libyan crisis, especially with the US, Russian and German officials, I sensed their support for Libya - the US in particular." Salame added.
He also said that the international community vowed to support his action plan in the latest Munich Security Conference, adding that they wish to have the plan implemented by Libyans themselves.
"My position on Libyan elections has been retreating due to the obstacles such as the funding of the electoral commission which has moved to the new building give just days ago, let one the lack of an elections law. Libyans are hindering their country's elections as some political parties are benefiting from the challenges facing elections. I have told the UN Security Council all this information." Salame explained.
He also told the channel that countries usually resort to the Supreme Court to resolve deadlocks, saying he is sorry that Libya is the first emerging Arab country that has no judiciary.
"A historical settlement is needed to bring all Libyan parties together." He remarked, adding that the UNSMIL is going to select a location for the National Conference to pave the way for elections.
Meanwhile, ...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... Salame also talked about the recent festivities of Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , saying when he threatened to name those who attacked Mitiga airport, the parties whose names would be publicized decided to commit to the truce and thus he didn't name them.
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[Al Jazeera] Polls have closed in Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... and ballots are being counted after millions took part in the West African country's presidential election.
Long queues formed early Sunday morning outside polling stations in the capital, Dakar - home to more than 1.6 million of 6.6 million registered voters.
Voting centres opened at 0800GMT and closed at 1800GMT, with preliminary results out on Tuesday and the official tally out on Friday.
A candidate must secure more than 50 percent of the votes to be declared the winner.
If no contestant wins a majority, a runoff between the two leading candidates will be held on March 24.
President Macky Sall, who came to power in 2012, is widely expected to win the poll.
Sall, who is seeking a second and final term in office, became the frontrunner after two of Senegal's most well-known opposition leaders were barred from running in the election.
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[IsraelTimes] Israeli security forces arrest two Paleostinian women at a checkpoint outside Ramallah in the West Bank, according to a police statement.
A woman from Nablus aroused suspicion of guards at the Qalandia checkpoint when she approached the crossing in the vehicle lane, and refused to stop when asked, the statement says. Security forces arrest her after firing in the air.
Earlier in the day, police say a Paleostinian woman from the Ramallah area was tossed in the slammer Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! at the Qalandia crossing after Israeli security forces found a knife in her belongings.
Both women are taken for questioning by the border police.
[IsraelTimes] Israeli security forces foiled an apparent plot to smuggle 37 handguns into Israel from Jordan earlier this month, in an operation that has been kept under a gag order until today, police say.
On February 7, Border Police officers spotted the main suspect, a Paleostinian man from the Nablus area, as he attempted to cross into northern Israel from Jordan wearing a large backpack.
The border guards, assisted by the Israel Defense Forces, incarcerated Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! the man shortly after he crossed into the northern Jordan Valley and found inside his bag the 37 pistols of various types, police say.
Police arrested three other Paleostinian suspects ‐ also from the Nablus area ‐ whom they believe were planning to pick up the suspect after he crossed the border.
[KhaamaPress] At least four Talibs were killed and six others were maimed during the Arclight airstrikes of the Afghan Air Force in northeastern Takhar province of Afghanistan.
The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North in a statement said the airstrikes were carried out late on Saturday night in the vicinity of Dasht-e-Qaladistrict.
The statement further added that the hideouts of the Talibs were targeted in the airstrikes at at around 11:40pm local time leaving 4 turbans dead and six others maimed.
At least three hideouts and three fighting positions of the group were also destroyed during the same airstrikes.
The anti-government armed turbans including Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... have not commented regarding the airstrikes so far.
[DAWN] Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan on Sunday said the Pakistain Air Force (PAF) would "thwart any misadventure by the enemy" and was ready to respond to any incursion with full force as per the aspirations of the nation, according to a blurb issued by the PAF spokesperson.
While visiting the Foward Operating Airbases of the air force, Air Chief Marshal Khan said Pakistain was a "peace-loving nation" but warned that "if the war is imposed on us, we would defend the aerial frontiers of our motherland at any cost."
The air chief's statement comes amidst heightened tensions between India and Pakistain following an attack on Indian security forces in occupied Kashmire's Pulwama district.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Don't make Trump press the remote OFF button for those F-16s.
[IsraelTimes] The Revolutionary Guards accuses "enemies" of Iran of trying to sabotage the country’s missiles so that they would "explode mid-air" but says the bid was foiled.
"They tried as best as they could to sabotage a small part which we import so that our missiles would not reach their target and explode mid-air," Fars news agency reports, quoting the Guards’ aerospace commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
"But they couldn’t do a damn thing because we had seen this coming from the start and had reinforced this sector," he adds, accusing Iran’s "enemies" of sabotage without naming any specific country.
Earlier this month the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported that the administration of US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... was pushing a secret program aimed at sabotaging Iranian rockets and missiles.
It said Washington was trying to "slip faulty parts and materials into Iran’s aerospace supply chains" as part of a campaign to undercut Tehran’s military.
Iran reined in most of its nuclear program under a landmark 2015 deal with major powers in return for sanctions relief, but has continued to develop its ballistic missile technology.
[PULSE.NG] Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... , part of a joint French-led military campaign against jihadists in the Sahel, is on the frontline of the Islamist Death Eater insurgency that has gripped parts of west and central Africa.
During last week's operations, special forces, army and air force units hit murderous Moslems in Kombienbiga, Kabonga and other eastern regions between Tuesday and Wednesday, an army statement said.
"This operation has taken out 29 bandidosmurderous Moslems and recovered an important quantity of weapons and ammunition as well as destroying a large stock of food supplies," it said.
A security source said most of the murderous Moslems were killed in air strikes on their hideouts and rest in clean-up sweeps by ground forces.
Militant raids began in the north of Burkina Faso in 2015 before spreading to the east, leaving more than 300 dead so far, according to AFP estimates.
The capital Ouagadougou has been hit three times in the past three years, killing at least 60 people, including in a coordinated attack last March targeting the French embassy and the country's military headquarters.
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[KhaamaPress] More than twenty anti-government armed Death Eaters were killed during the operations conducted by the Afghan Special Forces in various provinces of the country in the past 24 hours.
According to the informed military sources, the Afghan Special Forces conducted a raid in Khogyani district of Nangarahr province killing a Taliban ...Arabic for students... commander, Shir Zaman, and one of his fighters.
The sources further added that the Afghan Special Forces conducted a multi-day operation in Qarabagh district of Ghazni province, killing 7 Taliban fighters. Over 50 Taliban fighters have been killed in Ghazni this week.
An air strike killed 1 Taliban fighter in Sayyidabad district of Wardak province, the sources said, adding that 11 fighters were killed in Wardak last week.
The sources also added that the Afghan Special Forces conducted a raid in Tarin Kot district of Uruzgan killing 3 Taliban fighters while a similar air strike in Zurmat district of Paktia province killed 4 Taliban fighters and maimed another.
The Afghan Special Forces conducted a raid in Sabari district of Khost province ... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name... killing 2 Taliban fighters while the 215th Corps Brigade is conducting a multi-day clearance operation in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... killing 3 Taliban fighters and destroying 3 roadside kabooms, the sources added.
The Afghan Special Forces also conducted a raid in Murghab district of Badghis provincekilling 3 Taliban fighters and wounding another.
[DAWN] Chief of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Maulana Fazlur Rehman Deobandi holy man, known as Mullah Diesel during the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ... has hinted at launching a protest campaign from Islamabad against the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... government.
Talking to journalists here on Saturday, the Maulana said he would consult other partners of the MMA to finalise the protest plan against the government which he claimed was leading the country to a "disastrous future" both economically and internationally.
"We can hold a protest in Islamabad and we are consulting other parties in the MMA to finalise our plan," he said.
"Only six months have passed and each and every Pak is convinced that this government is nothing but a failure. The economy is on the verge of collapse and our friends like China, Afghanistan and Iran are not happy with the country’s foreign policy."
He warned that the recognising Israel as an independent nation would be the biggest mistake of Pakistain as it would make the country surrender its claim on occupied Kashmire.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
#1
I love a good MMA fight. Will it be on Pay-Per-View?
...that would be the Ruritaneans, once again meddling, as they are so often wont to do, with such effective effect...
have launched an overnight Arclight airstrike targeting al-Shabaab ... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia... bully boyz in southern Somalia, the latest in a series of aerial bombings in the country, some claimed by the US military.
Sources said the fighter jets bombed Awdheegle and Janaale towns in Lower Shabelle region, close to the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
There was no immediate confirming of the casualties of the attack.
At least seven missiles fired by the warplanes were reported to have stricken residential areas in Awdheegle, but, details of the losses remained sketchy.
A heavy shootout erupted between bully boyz and foreign forces in the town of Janaale following the undercover raid which comes amid joint military operation by Somali and AU troops in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)
[DAWN] PAKISTAN can by no means leave the task of countering terrorism unaccomplished. For that, it will have to adopt a policy mechanism to control all shades of bad boy groups. In retrospect, Pakistain has already taken some measures that have put pressure on murderous Moslems and their supporters. This pressure should remain sustained and be expanded across the board, reflecting the state’s resolve that no bad boy group will be allowed to operate here.
First, murderous Moslems should not be allowed to hide behind the state’s religious-nationalist paradigm.
Secondly, these groups should not have any space in the political or strategic calculus of the state. As far as denying physical space to bad boy groups is concerned, implementing the National Action Plan and the National Internal Security Policy would do the trick. At times, changing the behaviour of some sectarian or bad boy groups can confuse the state’s response, especially when these groups offer complete disengagement from violence in return for entry into mainstream politics. But the leaderships of such groups cannot guarantee holding back their vulnerable mid- and low-rank cadres from committing acts of terrorism, or joining some other violent groups.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Why bother, when he is only a front man for the Mad Mullahs?
[DAWN] As Iran marked the 40th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution, a white-turbaned holy man at one commemoration targeted President Hassan Rouhani, a fellow clergyman, with this sign: "You who are the cause of inflation; we hope you won't last until spring."
Already lashed by criticism over his collapsing nuclear deal and renewed tensions with the US, the relatively moderate Rouhani faces anger from holy mans, hardline forces and an ever-growing disaffected public that now threatens his position.
Iranian presidents typically see their popularity erode during their second four-year terms, but analysts say Rouhani is particularly vulnerable because of the economic crisis assailing the country's rial currency, which has hurt ordinary Iranians and emboldened critics to openly call for his ouster.
Though such a move only has happened once in the Islamic Theocratic Republic's four-decade history, the popular discontent heard on streets throughout Iran now could make it possible.
"I don't care who is in the presidential palace: a holy man, a general or anybody else," said Qassim Abhari, who sells hats and socks on the streets of Tehran. "We need someone who creates jobs and firmly pushes the brake pedal on rising prices."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
"relatively moderate", heheheheheh, he said "relatively moderate"
[IsraelTimes] The Israel Prisons Service says it is bracing for disturbances from Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", security prisoners, after officers thwarted attempts to direct terrorist attacks by members of the Gazoo group.
An IPS statement says that personnel are preparing for various scenarios, including attacks on staff, mass insubordination, and the sabotaging prison equipment.
The statement says the additional security measures were ordered after the IPS "foiled attempts to direct terrorist attacks from inside the prisons."
"It has been made clear to the prisoners that any such actions will be met with a harsh response," the IPS says.
[IsraelTimes] More than 20 non-combatants were killed earlier today in central Syria when a landmine left behind by jihadists went kaboom! under a van, the state news agency SANA says.
The ordnance left behind 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 the town of Salamiyeh killed farmworkers who were heading to a region in the Hama province to pick truffles, SANA said, citing local police.
It was the second such incident since February 8 when a landmine that had been planted by IS in rural Hama went kaboom! killing seven civilians, SANA says.
IS had a presence in Hama’s countryside before the Syrian army drove the jihadists from the area in 2017.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
A cute little video of the planned maneuvers can be seen at the link.
[IsraelTimes] Israel’s first lunar-bound spacecraft successfully completes its first maneuver after its first orbit around the earth, according to the team behind the privately funded Beresheet project.
According to a joint statement from IAI and SpaceIL, the 30-second maneuver, made 69,400 kilometers from earth, enabled the spacecraft to edge closer to the moon, where it will eventually be captured in lunar orbit.
The maneuver "will increase the spacecraft’s closest point of approach to Earth to a distance of 600 kilometers," the statement sayd.
"This is the first time Beresheet’s main engine was activated ‐ the maneuver was completed successfully!" it adds.
The next maneuver is scheduled for tomorrow night.
Beresheet, which means "Genesis" in Hebrew, lifted from Cape Canaveral in Florida early Friday morning atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the private US-based SpaceX company of entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The Israeli craft was placed in Earth orbit, from where it will use its own engine to undertake a seven-week trip to reach the Moon and touch down on April 11 in a large plain.
If successful, Beresheet will make history twice: as the first private-sector landing on the Moon, and the first from the Jewish state.
[IsraelTimes] Reported negotiations for a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw, have failed, a source from the Gazoo ruling group tells The Independent’s Arabic-language news site.
The unnamed official says the talks broke down due after Hamas increased its demands to include the release of 1,500 security prisoners held by Israel. The report says that Israel considers at least 500 of them to have "blood on their hands," meaning they are serving long sentences for their direct involvement in carrying out attacks against Israelis.
The 1,500 included all the Paleostinians who have been rejugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! since they were freed in 2011 as part of a deal in which Israel exchanged 1,027 forces of Evil for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured and held by Hamas in the Gazoo Strip or five years.
The report says Israeli officials rejected the demands as too high for the return of two Israeli civilians and the remains of two IDF soliders killed in Gazoo in 2014 war that are being held by Hamas.
Last month, the London-based al-Araby al-Jadeed newspaper quoted a Hamas source who said Israel was looking to complete a prisoner swap deal before national elections on April 9.
The official said indirect talks with Israel had been renewed "amid a strong willingness to reach a deal ahead of the elections, in light of the drop in support of [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu in the polls."
[Rudaw] Yezidi children rescued from the last ISIS hold-outs in eastern Syria this weekend say they were trained by the jihadists to fire heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades.
Abducted by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) holy warriors in 2014 when the group rampaged through Shingal, northern Iraq, the children say they also witnessed beheadings while held in captivity.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[PULSE.NG] US-backed Syrian forces warned Sunday they were struggling to cope with an outpouring of foreigners from 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's imploding "caliphate", urging governments to take responsibility for their citizens.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have evacuated nearly 5,000 men, women and kiddies from the jihadist redoubt since Wednesday, moving closer to retaking the last sliver of territory under IS control.
"The numbers of imported muscle and their relatives that we are holding is increasing drastically," Kurdish foreign affairs official Abdel Karim Omar told AFP.
"Our current infrastructure can't handle the mass influx", he said.
Syria's Kurds have repeatedly called on foreign countries to repatriate their citizens, but most have been reluctant to allow battle-hardened jihadists and their relatives back home due to security concerns.
At the height of its rule, IS imposed its brutal interpretation of Islamic law across territory straddling Syria and Iraq that was roughly the size of the United Kingdom.
But more than four years after IS declared a cross-border "caliphate", the jihadists have lost all but a tiny patch of land in the village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border.
After years of fighting IS, Syria's Kurds say they hold hundreds of suspected IS fighters and their relatives.
"As thousands of foreigners flee ISIS's crumbling caliphate, the burden which is already too heavy for us to handle is getting even heavier," SDF front man Mustefa Bali said on Twitter late Saturday, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
"This will remain as the biggest challenge awaiting us unless governments take action and fulfil their responsibilities for their citizens," he said.
No evacuations were reported from the enclave on Saturday, but the two batches that left on Wednesday and Friday included Europeans, Iraqis and nationals of former Soviet countries, according to the SDF.
CRAMMED PRISONS
Around 46,000 people, including a large number of foreigners, have streamed out of IS's shrinking territory since early December, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based war monitor.
While civilians are trucked north to Kurdish-run camps for the displaced, suspected jihadists are sent to SDF-controlled prisons.
Omar said SDF "detention centres can't accommodate all the fighters" coming out of the last IS pocket.
The evacuation of men, women and kiddies has put a strain on Kurdish-run camps for the displaced, especially the Al Hol camp, which now shelters more than 40,000 people.
"There is a lot of pressure on us, especially in Al Hol, where in addition to the relatives of IS fighters you have a large displaced population," Omar said.
On Thursday, nearly 2,500 evacuees arrived at Al Hol, compounding already dire conditions inside the crammed settlement, the UN's humanitarian coordination office OCHA said.
"Thousands more are expected in coming hours/days at al-Hol camp, putting a further strain on basic services," it tweeted Friday.
"This sudden influx presents huge challenges to the response -- additional tents, non-food items, water and sanitation and health supplies are urgently needed."
The International Rescue Committee on Friday said 69 people, mostly children, had died on the way to al-Hol, or shortly after arriving in past weeks.
SECURITY CONCERNS
The battle for Baghouz is now the only live front in Syria's war, which has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since 2011.
The SDF say they are trying to evacuate remaining civilians through a corridor before pressing on with a battle to crush the jihadists unless holdout fighters surrender.
[DAWN] BAHAWALPUR: In pursuance of the federal government’s announcement following a decision made by the National Security Committee, the Bahawalpur district administration, after taking over the control of a seminary and a mosque said to be associated with the leadership of the proscribed organization Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... (JeM), appointed administrators on Saturday to look after the two institutions.
According to the district administration, Mohammad Ali, district Auqaf administrator, and Ghulam Abbas, regional Auqaf administrator, have been assigned the duty to supervise the administrative affairs of Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah and Madressah al-Sabir, respectively.
Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah is located in the thickly populated area of the industrial area in Model Town-B of Bahawalpur while Madressah al-Sabir is situated on Bahawalpur-Ahmed East highway on the outskirts of the city.
Deputy Commissioner of Bahawalpur Shozeb Saeed, accompanied by other government officials, on Friday night visited the two institutions linked with Maulana Masood Azhar ...One of the major players in Pak terrorism. In early 1994, India incarcerated him for his terrorist activities. In 1995, foreign tourists were kidnapped in Jammu and Kashmir. The kidnappers included the release of Masood Azhar among their demands. One of the hostages managed to escape but the rest were eventually killed. In 1999, he was freed by the Indian government in exchange for passengers on hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 that had been diverted to Kandahar. The hijackers were led by Masood Azhar's brother, Ibrahim Athar. Once he was handed over to the hijackers, they fled to Pak territory despite the fact that Islamabad had earlier stated that any of the hijackers would be jugged at the border. The Pak government had also previously indicated that Azhar would be allowed to return home since he did not face any charges there. Shortly after his release, he made a public address to an estimated 10,000 people in Karachi, firing up the rubes against America and India... , who led the JeM which was banned by the government in 2002.
Since then, special branch of police, Counter-Terrorism Department and other law enforcement agencies have regularly been monitoring the mosque and the madressah, particularly after introduction of the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism in 2015.
Maulana Azhar hit the headlines when he was released from an Indian jail in exchange of the passengers of a hijacked plane of the Indian Airlines in 1999.
The district administration on Saturday arranged a visit to Madressah al-Sabir by an electronic media team which found no evidence that the seminary was involved in terrorist activities, as claimed by Indian media. The media team was told that over 600 students were being imparted religious education by about 70 teachers at the seminary.
A contingent of personnel of law-enforcement agencies has been deployed at the seminary.
An interior ministry front man has said the takeover of the two institutions was aimed at expediting the implementation of the NAP. He denied Indian media reports that the seminary was involved in terrorist activities.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: Jaish-e-Mohammad
[PULSE.NG] Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey... sharply criticised his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sissi after the recent execution of nine people in Egypt, saying he refused to talk to "someone like him".
"They killed nine young people recently. This is not something we can accept," Erdogan said Saturday in an interview with Ottoman Turkish TV channels CNN-Turk and Kanal D, referring to the execution Wednesday of nine men sentenced for the murder of the Egyptian prosecutor general in 2015.
"Of course, we are going to be told that it is a decision of the judiciary, but there, justice, elections, all that, are codswallop. There is an authoritarian system, even totalitarian," Erdogan added.
"Now, I am answering those who wonder why Tayyip Erdogan does not speak to Sisi, because there are mediators who come here sometimes, but I will never talk to someone like him," he said.
Relations between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... and Egypt have been virtually non-existent since the Egyptian military, then led by Sisi, in 2013 ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, a close ally of Erdogan.
Morsi's Islamist Moslem Brüderbund is outlawed in Egypt but members of the group have sought refuge in Turkey.
Erdogan, who denounced Morsi's ouster, sometimes draws a parallel with the failed coup against himself in 2016.
The Ottoman Turkish president also called for the release of Moslem Brüderbund prisoners in Egypt.
"First of all, he should release all those imprisoned with a general amnesty. As long as these people have not been released, we will not be able to talk with Sisi," he said.
Erdogan also attacked Western countries which, according to him, "roll out the red carpet" for Sisi and turn a blind eye to the latest executions in Egypt.
"Where are the Westerners? Have you heard their voices?" he said.
"On the other hand, when it comes to people imprisoned in our country (Turkey), they scream bloody murder."
Amnesia Amnesty International condemned the executions of the men, who it said were convicted in trials marred by torture allegations.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
Erdogan really thinks he is a big boy in the scheme of things doesn't he.
Posted by: chris ||
02/25/2019 7:34
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#2
It's a case of whose ox (camel?) is getting gored. Wanna bet who's supporting the MB in Egypt?
Their headline. The poor woman wasn't retarded, she was just dumb.
[The News (Pak)] A 22-year-old Pak woman who was shot by the Indian Border Security Force personnel died at a hospital in Amritsar, media reports said on Saturday. "Oh! I feel dead! Am I dead yet?"
Gulshan Bibi, suffering from a psychological disorder, was the resident of Narowal. She mistakenly crossed the Pakistain-India border and was killed by the Indian armed forces which declared her a terrorist. "She ain't no terrorist!"
"Well. I'm scared of her!"
"Me, too!"
"So am I!"
"You're her Mom!"
"She still gives me the willies!" "I'm dead now, ain't I?"
"No, when you're dead you won't feel like that."
"What will I feel like?"
"Dead."
Indian media outlets quoted their army as saying she was mentally fit. "Yep. Had a mind like a steel trap, she did."
"Whut kinda steel trap?"
"A sink trap."
The BSF took her to the Guru Nanak Civil Hospital where she succumbed to her wounds. "Look, am I dead yet? Cause if not, I'm goin' for a cuppa coffee."
"Any time now."
"I hope it's soon. I really need the money."
"You need what money?"
"The life insurance, you know."
"What are you gonna buy with it?"
"I've always wanted a golf cart."
"You play golf?"
"Dunno. Never had a cart."
Gulshan Bibi's family has appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight... to have her body returned to Pakistain. Her uncle told a private television channel on Saturday that she had left their house at night three days ago and crossed the border near a check-post. You guys mind if I shortcut through here?"
"You'd have to be a retard to do somethin' like that."
He asked the premier for help in bringing the body back so her funeral rites could take place. "Will I be dead by then?"
"If you ain't, don't let on. Otherwise they'll drone on for hours."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
With so much inbreeding going on for centuries , wouldn't a large portion of the population be considered retarded?
Posted by: chris ||
02/25/2019 7:31
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#3
In awe, as always. Totally OT, for SM (and the ancestor's interest in the RK arts thing), from the Greeting Card Division...
A sketch, problematic, discarded;
Apprentices, smart and retarded:
One saw a disaster;
The other surpassed her,
Wrapped up what their master had started.
[JPOST] Former head of Venezuela’s intelligence services Hugo Carvajal revealed powerful ties between the administration of President Nicolás Maduro and the Hezbollah terrorist group, as well as wide-spread corruption and drug activity, the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported on Thursday.
The nefarious activities were directed by Maduro himself as well as Interior Minister Néstor Reverol and former vice-president Tareck El Aissami.
Allegedly, those who were meant to combat drugs were engaged in trafficking them, Carvajal said.
El Aissami was not only a drug kingpin, said Carvajal, but also had connections to Hezbollah, and attempted to arrange Hezbollah holy warriors to work with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a drug cartel based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and donations. It has lately begun calling itself Bolivarian and is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border. [FARC] through Venezuela.
In a meeting that took place in 2009 Hezbollah holy warriors met El Aissami and Carvajal in Syria and gave the two Venezuelan state representatives three assault rifles as gifts.
The meeting involved Venezuelan diplomat Ghazi Nasr al-Din, who was stationed in Syria at the time.
Labeled "a Hezbollah supporter" by the department of Treasury, Nasr al-Din is wanted by the FBI.
Carvajal said that Maduro did not heed his warnings to have Hezbollah forces of Evil visit Venezuela, an allegation Maduro denies.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
El Aissami sure does sound like a middle eastern name.
Posted by: chris ||
02/25/2019 7:36
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#2
this has been known for many years
People who have emigrated from Venezuela have reported it multiple times
and Pompeo publicly addressed this in 2017
Posted by: lord garth ||
02/25/2019 8:20
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#3
If it was reported it didn't reach outside the conservative media-ghetto.
So maybe repeat it again as if it'll do something about it.
[DAWN] THE sharp tone and unusual specificity of the remarks made by the Financial Action Task Force about Pakistain after the Gay Paree meetings should be taken seriously by the government. Much of the language in the blurb following the meetings is routine ‐ listing the 10 areas in which outcomes are required, as well as pointing to the specific risks that Pakistain’s financial system faces. But in significant measures, there is new language in the public remarks that points towards a hardening of the stance taken by the global watchdog. In one place, for example, the remarks say that Pakistain "does not demonstrate a proper understanding of the TF [terror financing] risks posed by Da’esh, AQ, JuD, FiF, LeT, JeM, HQN and persons affiliated with the Taliban ...Arabic for students... ". This is a striking sentence because it goes far beyond the language of the October 2018 meetings in clearly saying that the country "does not understand" the hazards it is facing, and goes on to make a long list of terrorist entities that present such a terror-financing risk.
The remarks end by pointing out the "limited progress" that has been made thus far, and "urges Pakistain to swiftly complete its action plan, particularly those with timelines of May 2019". This language takes the message from FATF far beyond what was said in October, and even implies that further action could be taken as early as June if strong material progress is not made on the plan by May. There is little doubt that FATF is ratcheting up the pressure on Pakistain, and the focus is entirely on terror financing. Naming specific groups means action needs to be taken against them, and not of the sort we have seen over the years, which appears to be more cosmetic in nature and easily reversible.
Previous governments have struggled with the question of acting against those entities named by FATF and listed under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 as terrorist entities. Announcing a ban on a group is only the first step; this needs to be followed up with asset seizures and travel bans. This is the point at which genuine compliance can be said to begin. For the moment though, the government is struggling with the very first step of notifying a ban, let alone following it up with concrete steps to separate the leadership of these groups from their operations and assets. In the meantime, the country’s financial system faces further action from FATF, a step that would bring significant costs for the economy at a time when it is already gasping for air. It is surprising that, over the years, hardly any seriousness of purpose has been in evidence when it comes to curtailing the terror-financing risks in Pakistain. But that attitude cannot continue any longer. The time to take forceful action has arrived.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[PULSE.NG] Pyongyang's state media on Sunday slammed US critics of the planned meeting between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un a day after the North Korean leader boarded an armoured train en route to the summit venue in Vietnam.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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[Rudaw] Moscow could deploy military police to patrol a proposed ’buffer zone’ between Syria and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the most dubious NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... ally.... , Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday, according to Russian news agencies.
"We have experience in combining ceasefire agreements, safety measures and the creation of de-escalation zones with the roll-out of Russian military police," Lavrov was cited as saying, according to Rooters.
"Such a possibility is being kept open for this buffer zone."
Lavrov was referring to a joint Russian-Ottoman Turkish buffer zone around opposition-held Idlib, where Turkey has forces stationed. The zone was put in place last October to stave off a regime offensive, which international observers feared would lead to a bloodbath.
It is unclear whether Moscow could persuade Ankara to establish a similar buffer along the Turkey-Syria border.
Although Trump seems to have backpedaled on a full withdrawal, suggesting the US presence could instead be reduced to "hundreds", the drawdown has spooked SDF commanders who fear a threatened Ottoman Turkish invasion of the Syrian territories under Kurdish control after a US withdrawal.
Ankara has told the US it is willing to administer the buffer zone. The Syrian regime in Damascus, however, says Ottoman Turkish troops in northern Syria are occupiers and has repeatedly demanded their withdrawal.
Russia was invited to intervene in support of the Syrian regime in 2015. Moscow launched Arclight airstrikes and deployed troops to fight the armed opposition and jihadists trying to unseat Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... Eager to prevent a new Ottoman Turkish operation in northern Syria, like the one which forced the YPG out of Afrin in Syria’s north west in March 2018, the SDF and its political wing, the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), have voiced their readiness to negotiate a possible settlement with the regime.
Under any such deal, the Kurdish provinces of northern Syria ‐ also known as Rojava ‐ would like greater autonomy under a new Syrian constitution, and protections for their cultural and political rights. They would also like to maintain their own forces on the frontier.
Russian military police already have a presence in Manbij.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[ELUNIVERSAL] Michelle Bachelet, high commissioner for Human Rights, said that the action of security forces and pro-government groups have left at least four dead and more than 300 injured
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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#1
Michelle, ma belle, must not have read the morning brief - everyone at the UN knows it's Trump's fault.
[VictoryGirlsBlog] Thirteen former military commanders and other "elites" have signed a letter to the House of Representatives demanding "universal background checks" for all gun sales in the United States. The baker’s dozen of constitutionally illiterate military advisers and former "combat leaders" are putting their weight behind HR 8 ‐ a bill that violates your right to dispose of your own property as you see fit, as well as makes tools of self-defense much more inaccessible to We the People.
"A prohibited person with dangerous intent can easily buy a gun over the internet or in a parking lot with no questions asked," the military advisers wrote to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer."For those of us with extensive firearms training, who have seen the damage inflicted by a powerful weapon in the wrong hands, this is simply unfathomable," they wrote.
"For those of us with extensive firearms training..."
Ya know, I remember pretty vividly an MRX in Hohenfels, Germany, during which I had to show a rather chunky Air Force Colonel how to lock his bolt to the rear on his rifle, so forgive me if I’m not impressed by the claims of people like Wesley Clark and Mark Hertling who signed on to a letter generated by Gabrielle Giffords’ gun control organization, urging legislators to relieve you of your rights.
"Each of us has, at some point in our lives, made the choice to risk our lives for our fellow citizens and place ourselves in harm’s way. We were trained, we were coached, and we were prepared for the dangers that we chose to face," says the "Veterans’ Coalition" to Shred the Constitution ‐ retired senior officers who flog their credibility as people who risk their lives to defend our nation, but who seem to have forgotten that they also took an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic ‐ the same Constitution that says the people’s right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Translation: Don’t you know who I am? Look at my uniform! Continues..with names and comments.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 0:15
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#2
Idiots all
Making Criminals of people who would not otherwise be.
And DO NOT ACT like you are Military going against MY CONSTITUTION you worthless idiots. I would rip that rank off your collar in a heartbeat you traitors.
Democrats are all the same, all the time.
Always worthless, always imposing.
Shame on all you phony troops here.
Also dumbshits like that idiot Wesley Clark never had business being in the military at all. What use was he ever other than WWIII?
Idiots, never turn on me this way traitors.
Or better said - democrats.
Shame on you pimping your Service to remove MY rights you worthless idiots.
Democrats make horrible Troops usually by the way. Been there, seen it.
#8
Never served in the military, so I have nothing to say about whether these mokes violated their oaths or not, however, I do reserve the right to lump them with the other socialists pigF***ers like Schumer & Pelosi. You get the same respect and just deserts as they do.
Posted by: Glinesing Smiter of the Leprechauns9160 ||
02/25/2019 8:35
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#9
People are shot by criminals in every totalitarian society on the planet. Making our society totalitarian will not bring that nobody ever gets shot by a criminal goodness.
And I'm f*cking sick and tired of hearing that curtailment of my law-abiding citizen rights will solve a problem I'm not causing.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/25/2019 9:08
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#10
While I hate to recycle assessments, Wesley Clark was and remains a leg humping stooge. An utter stonad of the 1st magnitude who can claim the singular honor of having been the highest ranking officer to be relieved of command since the Civil War. Oh, and that was for 'questions of personal integrity' or more colloquially LYING.
#8
Everybody got a participation trophy, so it's cool.
Posted by: regular joe ||
02/25/2019 13:21
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#9
This would seem the nonsensical way to end Title 9 Nonsense™ ... Unisex Sports for Everyone. Or was ending fun things like sports their real objective...?
[DAWN] One person was killed and nine others injured in an kaboom in 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... 's Dera Murad Jamali city on Sunday.
An improvised bomb planted in a cycle of violence parked outside a shop in the Mazdoor Chowk area detonated, leaving one person dead and nine others injured, police officer Hyder Shah told DawnNewsTV.
All the victims are civilians. Police were not able to immediately ascertain the intended target of the blast.
The maimed have been transported to a hospital for medical treatment.
A total of 119 people ‐ including 15 police personnel ‐ were killed and 114 injured in terrorism-related incidents in Balochistan during 2018. Twenty-five murderous Moslems were also killed in encounters and 55 jugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! in 1,245 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) in the province.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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[DAWN] Police on Sunday started the paperwork but haven't done much else against four suspected robbers for the murder of a 20-year-old medical student 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... who was killed in crossfire between police and the 'robbers' on Friday night.
The first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with DawnNewsTV was filed against the suspected robbers under sections pertaining to police encounter, murder, attempted murder and terrorism.
The FIR was registered at the Sir Syed cop shoppe on the complaint of policeman Adnan who serves at the Noorjahan cop shoppe.
According to the report, Constable Adnan was patrolling near Farooq Azam Masjid in K Sector of North Nazimabad with other coppers when he first encountered the suspects and cautioned them to stop. The suspects, however, responded by opening fire and attempted to flee.
Subsequently, the coppers chased the four suspects who were riding two motorcyles. One of the two bikes managed to escape due to traffic near the Sakhi Hassan round. The second bike turned to the Anda Mor area where another encounter took place.
According to the FIR, both the suspected robbers were maimed during the encounter. Later, one of the two succumbed to his wounds. Police also recovered two pistols from the possession of the two suspects.
The FIR stated that police later discovered a girl was fatally injured during the crossfire.
Although police claim that Nimra Baig, 20, was killed by firing by the 'robbers' on Friday night, a post-mortem examination carried out at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre revealed that the bullet that hit her was fired by a "high-speed velocity weapon", which apparently refers to sub-machine guns in the use of police. Pistols commonly used by robbers do not qualify as high-speed velocity weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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[12 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
So given the frequency of "robber" shootouts, I have to assume "robber" is a euphemism or term or art for something else - any ideas?
Posted by: Herb Grundy4403 ||
02/25/2019 8:24
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[DAWN] Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. , facing deadly protests, on Friday declared a state of emergency for a year, disbanded the federal government and replaced all state governors with senior army officers.
Al-Bashir who seized power in a 1989 coup also said that he will postpone pushing for constitutional amendments that would allow him to seek a third term in office.
Facing genocide charges, al-Bashir’s rule has been rocked by civil wars and increasing street demonstrations. A heavy security crackdown has left scores of protesters dead. At least 57 people have been killed since December.
"Our country is passing through a difficult and complicated phase in our national history," al-Bashir said in a speech aired live from the presidential palace in Khartoum. "We will get out of it stronger and more united and determined."
In a rare acknowledgement, al-Bashir described the demands of the protesters as "legitimate" but said there are attempts to exploit the youth protests "to take the country to the unknown." The state of emergency will give the security forces a free hand in cracking down on protesters and carrying out detentions, and places heavier restrictions on the press and opposition parties.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
[IsraelTimes] IDF troops tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! two unarmed Paleostinians who crossed into Israeli territory from the northern Gazoo Strip, the army says.
The suspects were picked up shortly after they breached the security fence. They were handed over to the Shin Bet security service for questioning.
[Al Jazeera] At least five people have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmire as a shootout erupted between two Indian soldiers and three rebels in volatile Kulgam district in southern part of the region.
Dilbagh Singh, the state police chief, told Al Jazeera that the violence came after Indian security forces launched an operation against the rebels in Kulgam's Turigam village on Sunday afternoon.
"In the operation, we lost a police officer, Aman Thakur and one army soldier, who was injured and departed this vale of tears. The shootout is almost over," he said.
Singh also said that the rebels killed in the incident belonged to Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), a Pak gang.
"Two of them are foreigners, according to our preliminary information, and the identity of the third is not known yet," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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[19 views]
Top|| File under: Jaish-e-Mohammad
[RADIOSHABELLE] Somali police have said the law enforcement agencies successfully detained two men in connection with the killing of a federal politician in Mogadishu on Saturday evening.
Gen. Abdullahi Hassan Barisse, a police commissioner said the police captured the car suspected to have been used for the attack.
Gen. Barisse noted that the forces conducted thorough operations to hunt down the perpetrators of the attack.
"The police locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! two suspects and a car which is thought to have been used to carry out the attack," he said.
The commissioner called on the public to work with the security forces to enhance the security of the city.
Two young men armed with pistols have assassinated a veteran MP, Osman Elmi Boqorre.
The killing of MP Boqorre was claimed by al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... saying their fighters had executed the liquidation of the veteran politician.
"Members of our Mujahidiin shot and killed the longest-serving member of the parliament of the apostate government," the statement reads in part.
Late Boqorre was a former deputy speaker of parliament and oldest member of the current house of the people.
He was a major in the Somali army who fought in Somalia-Æthiopia war of the 1970s.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/25/2019
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[10 views]
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Always a good idea for a small people in the midst of rapacious enemies, no matter the circumstances.
[Rudaw] The tour of the US by Ilham Ahmed, a senior Syrian Kurdish politician, may not have succeeded in persuading 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... to reverse his Syria military-withdrawal plan. But it is just the kind of public diplomacy Kurds of the Middle East need to engage in if they are to secure their interests in an uncertain time and avoid being forced to link their political fortunes to those of their regional adversaries.
The latest decision by the White House regarding Syria - that the US will keep "about 200" troops in the country "for a period of time" - is no doubt an improvement on the original call for immediate withdrawal. But as with so many Trump administration orders, this one too could prove to be not worth the paper it is written on. In any case, the consultations with high-level Ottoman Turkish government officials that preceded the White House announcement mean the worries and fears of the Pentagon's Kurdish allies are unlikely to be allayed.
Continued on Page 49
[KhaamaPress] The shadow district chief of Taliban ...Arabic for students... for Lalpur district of eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province has been killed during a raid conducted by the Special Forces of the National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... The provincial government media office in a statement said Sunday that the shadow district chief of Taliban for Lalpur district Sher Zaman was killed during a raid of the NDS Special Forces on Saturday night.
The statement further added that another comrade of Sher Zaman was also killed during the operation and two others were placed in durance vile Please don't kill me! The NDS Special Forces also confiscated some weapons, munitions, and drugs during the operation, the provincial government said in its statement.
The anti-government armed forces of Evil including Taliban have not commented regarding the report so far.
#1
You can knock the Taliban (TaliPak? PakiBan?) all you want, but you have to admit there's plenty of opportunity for advancement in the organization.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[St. Louis Post Dispatch] ST. LOUIS • Beatrice Burt has a favorite memory of the home she bought for $1.
[Babylon Bee] HOLLYWOOD, CA‐At the 91st Academy Awards this evening, elite celebrities flanked by bodyguards, security, metal detectors, and physical barriers like walls and fences banded together to condemn borders and walls.
[Aljazeera] The United Kingdom said it will add the political wing of Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah to its list of banned "terrorist" organisations, despite the role it plays in the goverment and parliament.
Perennial Presidential Campaigner Hillary 
[IsraelTimes] Michael White, 46, was 
[Rudaw] Iraq’s Directorate of Military Intelligence announced Sunday the capture of two senior ISIS members, one of them the so-called "Emir of Battles" and the other an official of the group’s putative Islamic Police.
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as 
...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...
...It has a population of about 445,600, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. During the invasions of Alexander the Great, the area was known as Lampaka, wich is apparently Olde Macedonian for 
[ToloNews] A new UN report reveals that more 
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
[Al Jazeera] Polls have closed in 
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[DAWN] Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan on Sunday said the Pakistain Air Force (PAF) would "thwart any misadventure by the enemy" and was ready to respond to any incursion with full force as per the aspirations of the nation, according to a 
[PULSE.NG] 
[KhaamaPress] More than twenty anti-government armed 
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia...
[DAWN] PAKISTAN can by no means leave the task of countering terrorism unaccomplished. For that, it will have to adopt a policy mechanism to control all shades of
[Rudaw] Yezidi children rescued from the last ISIS hold-outs in eastern Syria this weekend say they were trained by the jihadists to fire heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. 
[DAWN] BAHAWALPUR: In pursuance of the federal government’s announcement following a decision made by the National Security Committee, the Bahawalpur district administration, after taking over the control of a seminary and a mosque said to be associated with the leadership of the proscribed organization 
...One of the major players in Pak terrorism. In early 1994, India incarcerated him for his terrorist activities. In 1995, foreign tourists were kidnapped in Jammu and Kashmir. The kidnappers included the release of Masood Azhar among their demands. One of the hostages managed to escape but the rest were eventually killed. In 1999, he was freed by the Indian government in exchange for passengers on hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 that had been diverted to Kandahar. The hijackers were led by Masood Azhar's brother, Ibrahim Athar. Once he was handed over to the hijackers, they fled to Pak territory despite the fact that Islamabad had earlier stated that any of the hijackers would be jugged at the border. The Pak government had also previously indicated that Azhar would be allowed to return home since he did not face any charges there. Shortly after his release, he made a public address to an estimated 10,000 people in Karachi, firing up the rubes against America and India...
... 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...
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
[DAWN] THE sharp tone and unusual specificity of the remarks made by the Financial Action Task Force about Pakistain after the 
[Rudaw] Moscow could deploy military police to patrol a proposed ’buffer zone’ between Syria and 
[PULSE.NG] 35 people may have been killed during Nigeria's Feb 23 general elections, according to civil society organisations
[DAWN] Police on Sunday 
the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
[KhaamaPress] The shadow district chief of 
