[Salon] It’s one of the enduring mysteries of Barack Obama’s presidency, as it sinks toward the sunset: How did this suave and intelligent guy, with the cosmopolitan demeanor, the sardonic sense of humor and the instinct for an irresistible photo-op, end up running the most hidden, most clandestine and most secrecy-obsessed administration in American history? And what does the fact that nobody in the 2016 campaign -- not Bernie Sanders, not Hillary Clinton, not anybody -- ever talks about this mean for the future? The answer to the second question is easy: Nothing good. The answer to the first one might be that those things are unrelated: Personality doesn’t tell us anything about policy, and our superficial judgments about political leaders are often meaningless.
Bill Moyers warned me about this some years ago, when I asked him how he evaluated George W. Bush as a person. He wasn’t much interested in character or personality in politics, he said. Lyndon Johnson had been one of the most difficult people he’d ever known, and Moyers had never liked him, but Johnson was an extraordinarily effective politician. I wasn’t sharp enough to ask the obvious follow-up question, which was whether Johnson’s personal flaws had fed into his disastrous policy errors in Vietnam.
Bill Moyers has forgotten more about politics than I will ever know, but the thing is, I do perceive a relationship between surface and substance, and I believe we learn something important about people almost right away. George W. Bush was profoundly incurious about the world, and insulated by layers of smarter people and money. Richard Nixon was always a creep. Bill Clinton wanted to make you cry and get your panties off. Ronald Reagan never had any idea what day it was. Barack Obama seems like a smart, funny, cool guy, and maybe he’s too much of all those things for his own good. Maybe we will look back decades from now and perceive the Obama paradox -- the baffling relationship between his appealing persona and his abysmal record on surveillance, government secrecy and national security -- in a different light. For one thing, whatever they told him between November of 2008 and January of 2009 must have been really scary.
I called up John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent who spent 23 months in federal prison thinking this stuff over, to see if he could help. Kiriakou is one of the nine government leakers or whistleblowers that the Obama White House and/or the Justice Department has sought to prosecute under the Espionage Act, a law passed under Woodrow Wilson during World War I that was meant to target double agents working for foreign governments. (Among the other eight actual or prospective defendants are Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.) Under all previous presidents, incurious George included, the Espionage Act was used for that purpose exactly three times. If you’re keeping score, that’s nine attempted prosecutions in seven years, versus three in 91 years.
h/t Instapundit
Tony Blair presided over a silent conspiracy to change the face of Britain for ever with mass immigration, an explosive book reveals.
...The main aim of allowing in millions of people was to make the country ‘see the benefit of a multicultural society’. The Blair government did not see its job as being to ‘control immigration’. The policy is revealed today in a Daily Mail serialisation of an authoritative biography of the former prime minister by Tom Bower, an internationally-acclaimed investigative journalist.
...Based on interviews with more than 200 senior civil servants, ex-ministers and other insiders, the book shows Mr Blair did not want the public to know his true plans on immigration. He is said to have told ministers and officials: "Don't mention the advantages of immigration in public because they won't even want that."
h/t Instapundit
With state funding cut off due to the ongoing budget impasse, Chicago State University has announced all 900 employees, including the university president, are receiving layoff notices. So, how's affirmative action in both the student- & the faculty tenure track admissions is working out for you fellows?
#2
No real loss here, however, having exhausted the trivial cases, the profligate spenders legislature will move on to shutting down public sanitation and public safety. You can try it for yourself in SimCity...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/28/2016 7:14
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#3
Missing that old Magic Money Tree(tm).
Wizard of Oz: Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have. But they have one thing you haven't got: a diploma.
#10
should our statehouse fail to fund us, and put us in a position where we have to be compromised, we would need to have the flexibility and the legal position such that a reduction in force could take place,”
tl;dr: Some political gamesmanship. They are not in financial trouble yet, but a mass layoff sounds scary.
#11
"...should our statehouse fail to fund us, refuse to meet our demands and put us in a position where we have to be compromised, we would need to have the flexibility and the legal position such that a reduction in force could take place,”
Fixed that.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/28/2016 16:48
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#12
They'll shut down police & fire depts. in order to fund it.
Jewish organizations and Holocaust historians have long complained that many countries of the former Soviet Union have failed to come to terms with the complicity of many of their leading nationalist figures.
Nowhere does this hold more true than Lithuania, which has been a frequent target of Jewish outrage since the fall of Communism.
In the latest scrap over historical memory, the small town of Moletai has come under fire for its announcement that it intends to name a street after Jonas Zvinys, a local priest accused of organizing a gang that murdered the city’s Jews in 1941. "It's that damn priest again." These are good people who fight for freedom against evil Putin.
#1
Lithuanian writer Ruta Vanagaite launched an investigation into Zvinys at the behest of Simon Wiesenthal Center Nazi hunter Dr. Efraim Zuroff, with whom she recently co-authored a book on Lithuanians and the Holocaust.
That's the ticket! It's a scant 75 or 80 years? Keep it stirred up, even beyond rigor mortis. They're nearly all gone you see. He was obviously a Christian and it's their turn in front of the klieg lights. Death really is the last taboo. I recommend exhumation, a speedy trial, and if he can hold together, the block. He's certainly no flight risk. Book sales will likely benefit as well. Hat tip to the sleuths at the SWC.
#4
Mr. B., for dawg's sake let it go. All is good, they English didn't only kill the boors, hell they killed everyone. It is all good. Now have a toke, it's spSunday and this is a good bong. :)
#6
"Speaking with The Jerusalem Post from Vilnius on Thursday, Vanagaite said that after searching through KGB archives she discovered that the priest indeed set up the gang in question, one of whose leaders was his own brother, who would later confess to his role in the massacre."
We have KGB archives, we have a confession in Stalin's time...
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/28/2016 18:50
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#7
There seems to be some disagreement in Wikipedia, Mercutio:
When California came under the control of the United States following the Mexican-American War, the street now called Grant was named Dupont Street, in honor of a Naval admiral from the USS Portsmouth (Portsmouth Square, located one block east, was named after that ship). In the following years, Dupont Street became the location for various opium dens, brothels, and Tong wars.[citation needed]
When San Francisco was rebuilt after being leveled in the 1906 earthquake, Dupont Street was upgraded and given a new name: Grant Avenue, after President Ulysses S. Grant.
"Because he was part of resistance against the soviets. The alleged involvment in the killings of jews was not known until now. If true, his place will be in the historical dumpster, not on the street names."
If true, a note to that effect should have appeared in the article.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani earned an emphatic vote of confidence and reformist partners secured surprise gains in parliament in early results from elections that could accelerate the Islamic Republic's emergence from years of isolation.
While gains by moderates and reformists in Friday's polls were most evident in the capital, Tehran, the sheer scale of the advances there suggests a legislature more friendly to the pragmatist Rouhani has emerged as a distinct possibility.
A loosening of control by the anti-Western hardliners who currently dominate the 290-seat parliament could strengthen his hand to open Iran further to foreign trade and investment following last year's breakthrough nuclear deal.
"The people showed their power once again and gave more credibility and strength to their elected government," Rouhani said, adding he would work with anyone who won election to build a future for the industrialized, oil-exporting country.
The polls were seen by analysts as a potential turning point for Iran, where nearly 60 percent of its 80 million population is under 30 and eager to engage with the world following the lifting of most sanctions.
Millions crowded polling stations on Friday to vote for parliament and the Assembly of Experts, which selects the country's highest authority, the supreme leader. Both bodies have been in the hands of hardliners for years.
Supporters of Rouhani, who promoted the nuclear deal, were pitted against hardliners close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who are wary of detente with Western countries.
ACUMEN
Rouhani and key ally and former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani were leading the race for the Assembly of Experts with most votes counted, and appeared to be sure of winning seats, early results released on Saturday showed.
Until now, the contest for this seat of clerical power was an unremarkable event, but not this time. Because of Khamenei’s health and age, 76, the new assembly members who serve eight-year terms are likely to choose his successor. The next leader could well be among those elected this week.
Rafsanjani is among the founders of the Islamic Republic and was its president from 1989-1997. Nearly always at the center of Iran's intricate webs of power, the arch-fixer is famous for his pragmatism and political acumen.
Two prominent hardliners were on course to be elected with lesser scores in the experts assembly race: Ahmad Jannati was in 11th place and the assembly's current chairman, Mohammad Yazdi, was 15th. Arch-conservative Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi appeared unlikely to win a seat, according to partial results.
The results were initially announced as final in an official statement. A later statement said the results were partial and a final tally would be announced in due course.
INFLUENCE
A Reuters tally, based on official results published so far, suggested the pro-Rouhani camp and allied independents were leading in the parliamentary vote. Some moderate conservatives, including current speaker Ali Larijani, support Rouhani.
A breakdown of the results had independents on 44, reformists on 79, and hardliners on 106, the tally showed. A number of seats will be decided in run-offs in late April because no candidate won the required 25 percent of votes cast. Eight of the initial winners were women.
Analyst say the large number of independents may be significant as they could cooperate across ideological lines with Rouhani's government.
Whatever the outcome, Iran's political system places much power in the hands of the conservative Islamic establishment including the Guardian Council, which vets all laws passed by parliament.
#3
Yes, "reformers" and "moderates" - at least to the Western elites.
The key words are "most evident in the capital, Tehran." The mullahs' power is in the smaller cities and the rural areas. It'll end up being Green Revolution II, in any case.
#4
When the Democrat Super-Delegates are counted, it's back to Ayatollah Machine Tyranny™
ValJar is pleased
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/28/2016 13:58
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#5
"Moderates" in Iran mean bad cop/junkyard dawg cop.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/28/2016 15:03
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#6
"Moderates" and "Reformers" handpicked by the head cheese. The terms may be to placate the long suffering Iranian people who have had to live under the theocracy.
Posted by: Sven the pelter ||
02/28/2016 15:27
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In describing how little room the Pentagon has to extend the life of its decades-old nuclear forces, the top U.S. nuclear war-fighting commander, Navy Adm. Cecil Haney, says "we're at the brick wall stage."
Time to begin modernizing the country's nuclear weapons is running short, he and other Pentagon leaders say. They contend the force is still in fighting shape -- "safe, reliable and effective" is the official mantra. But they also argue the time has come to begin modernizing the force or risk eroding its credibility as a deterrent to attack by others.
They don't face brick wall-like resistance in Congress, but the debate over spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build and field a new generation of nuclear-capable bombers, submarines and land-based missiles is just beginning.
Critics say full-scale modernization is neither affordable nor necessary.
The debate is influenced not only by the perceived need to fully replace aging weapons but also by worries about North Korea's nuclear ambitions and concern over what Defense Secretary Ash Carter calls Russia's "nuclear sabre-rattling."
Robert Work, the deputy secretary of defense, said the Pentagon will need an estimated $18 billion a year between 2021 and 2035 to modernize the three "legs" of the U.S. nuclear triad -- weapons capable of being launched from land, sea and air.
"We need to replace these," Work said. "We can't delay this anymore."
The enormous sums needed are at risk of getting squeezed by high-priority requirements for non-nuclear, conventional weapons. And Work's numbers don't include the billions that would be needed to modernize the nuclear warheads on the business end of missiles and bombs.
"Modernization now is not an option" -- it must happen, Haney, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, said in an interview on Friday, just hours after watching a test launch of an unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM. The Minuteman, which has been on constant 24-hour alert since 1970, has long surpassed its 10-year life expectancy.
Haney said the U.S. stockpile of nuclear warheads is the oldest it has ever been. As head of Strategic Command he is the military's top nuclear war-fighter.
"We have to realize we can't extend things forever," Haney said, noting that the Navy is planning to replace its aging Ohio-class ballistic nuclear missile submarines, while the Air Force intends to build a new nuclear-capable bomber to replace the B-52.
Work said that although the Pentagon is closely monitoring Russia's nuclear modernization, which includes development of new versions of its ICBMs, those moves are not driving U.S. decisions about how quickly and broadly it should modernize its nuclear forces.
Some private analysts, however, see the U.S. and Russia entering a new arms competition.
"It's disturbing how quickly both the United States and Russia are sliding back toward the Cold War, both rhetorically and operationally," said Stephen Schwartz, an independent nuclear policy analyst and author.
"Worse still, both the United States and Russia are now using each other's nuclear programs and military activities to justify and rationalize their own," he added.
Haney and Work both were present Thursday night for the Minuteman 3 test launch, which was the second such test of the year. Work said Friday that the test was successful, with the missile's payload landing within a targeted area of water near Kwajalein Atoll in the south Pacific. He said it was the eighth consecutive successful Minuteman test launch, which would mean the last unsuccessful test was in December 2013, according to a chronology provided by the Air Force.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter has made it official: ISIS has saved one of its deadliest enemies, the U.S. Air Force's A-10 Thunderbolt.
The inelegant but well-armed and well-armored ground-attack jet, nicknamed the "Warthog," was facing quick retirement after the Air Force said it needed the money and crews being used to keep the A-10s flying for the brand-new F-35s and other missions.
"We're pushing off the A-10's final retirement until 2022 so we can keep more aircraft that can drop smart bombs on ISIL," Carter told the committee.
The defense chief said plans are to keep the A-10 in the Air Force inventory until 2022.
"As 2022 approaches, A-10s will be replaced by F-35s only on a squadron-by-squadron basis as they come online, ensuring that all units have sufficient backfill and that we retain enough aircraft needed to fight today's conflicts," Carter said.
The plan to keep the A-10s flying was in the Pentagon's budget that was released earlier this month. What was new Thursday was the Obama administration's top defense official linking that plan to ISIS.
Republican senators like Arizona's John McCain and New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte had been pushing the Defense Department for months to hang on to the A-10s.
"As ISIS has learned firsthand, the A-10 represents our nation's most effective and lethal close air support aircraft," Ayotte said in a statement earlier this month.
"I look forward to seeing our A-10 pilots continue to make important advances in the fight against ISIL in the Middle East, boosting NATO's efforts to deter Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, and supporting vital missions for U.S. national security wherever they are needed," a statement from McCain .
The A-10's role in the fight against ISIS was highlighted in Operation Tidal Wave II in November, when A-10s combined with AC-130 gunships to destroy 116 ISIS fuel tanker trucks.
Unlike the multirole F-35s that are slated to replace them, the A-10s are the only airplanes in the Air Force specifically designed for close air support, a mission that has become urgent in the fight against ISIS.
Able to circle over a target for long periods, the straight-winged Warthog is supremely maneuverable at low speeds and altitudes. So when ground troops find themselves in trouble -- and too close to the enemy for fighter jets to drop bombs without risking friendly fire casualties -- A-10 pilots can skim hillsides day and night, under any type of weather, and accurately and punishingly engage ground targets with the aircraft's powerful 30 mm, seven-barrel Gatling gun, which fires depleted uranium bullets at 3,900 rounds per minute.
Then came Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led coalition's campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
"I saw some of the A-10s that are flying bombing missions against ISIL (the Pentagon's term for ISIS) when I was at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey last December, and we need the additional payload capacity they can bring to the fight," Carter said in testimony on the Pentagon's Fiscal Year 2017 budget before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday.
#1
1) damn i phone stutters
2) Carter's key statement was the one about replasing the A-10 with the F-35 on a squadron by squadron basis as they come on line. So the USAF stills gets their way and this hack only restated theobvious.
Posted by: Matt ||
02/28/2016 14:29
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#6
Photon Torpedos
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/28/2016 15:08
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#7
This battle between the AF and the A-10 has been going on since John Boyd's tenure in the Pentagon, 40 years ago. This has been a multi-generational program by Pentagon bosses to kill the A-10. "It works, therefore we don't want it. [not sexy enough]"
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/28/2016 15:14
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[4NBC Washington] Police say a fugitive from Tampa, Florida, who didn't want to be identified by his fingerprints during a traffic stop in northeast Ohio chewed off his fingertips. Don't cuff him, can't you see he's hungry ?
Kirk Kelly has been jailed on felony counts of evidence tampering and obstructing official business and misdemeanor charges of falsification and resisting arrest. A message left for his attorney after business hours Friday hasn't been returned.
Police in Tallmadge, Ohio, say Kelly and several other people were put into a cruiser without handcuffs after their vehicle was stopped last weekend and officers thought they smelled drugs. Don't bother Kirk, e's having his tips.
Police say Kelly gave false names as they tried to identify him. They say they figured out who he is after photos of his tattoos were provided by police in Florida, where he's wanted on firearms and drug charges. Nice tats! Johnson, call Tampa Metro, see what they've got.
North Korea is expected to respond forcefully to a resolution set to pass at the United Nations Security Council, and to the upcoming U.S.-South Korea joint military drills.
Pyongyang has already issued televised warnings against South Korean President Park Geun-hye and the "ruling anti-unification reactionaries" after the shutdown of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a jointly operated factory park.
The North's condemnations of the United States and South Korea are expected to crescendo -- the latest round of sanctions that could hit the country are powerful and comprehensive, and designed to encircle its army, navy and air force in a multilateral blockade.
North Korea could also come under another source of undue pressure, when the United States and South Korea start the joint annual military exercise known as Key Resolve on March 7. The exercise is to include more than 90,000 South Korean and 15,000 U.S. troops.
North Korea's state-controlled channel KCTV has previously said the exercises are the "most cruel and evil act" which aims to "destroy North Korean homes and lives." Its enemies would pay a price, the North has said. It's a good thing we aren't going to actually invade North Korea.
Pyongyang's retaliation could come in the form of maritime incursions across the disputed Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea, or increased cyberattacks, Yonhap reported. Those are some nice mid-century relics of submarines you have there. It would be a shame if something were to happen to them.
North Korea could also test a fifth nuclear weapon, or announce plans to test-launch a submarine-launched ballistic missile, or SLBM. Tell me again, how many nuclear bombs would it take to destroy Pyongyang?
The country is already preparing for the Seventh Congress of its ruling Workers' Party, and according to KCNA, the Party's Central Military Commission and other task forces have declared a 70-day "battle" or mass rally across the country.
Large groups of state workers, students, farmers, and government officers are expected to be participating, South Korean news service CBS No Cut News reported.
[World Post] The birthday of the world's oldest president had more than a touch of the tragic and the absurd.
President Robert Mugabe turned 92 years old last Sunday, but the festivities continued well into Saturday for the leader, who has ruled Zimbabwe since the southern African country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1980 -- and presided over brutal crackdowns and economic collapse. Now, the country is contending with its worst drought in over two decades. Zimbabwean officials said this month that some 3 million people -- nearly a quarter of the population -- lack access to sufficient food.
But the president and his friends were not going hungry.
A lavish banquet was held in Mugabe's honor. His office threw him a "surprise" birthday party (he said he wasn't surprised). The state-run newspaper compared the aging leader's birthday to that of Jesus Christ.
On Saturday, in one of Zimbabwe's most stricken provinces for drought and hunger, Mugabe staged his biggest birthday celebration yet this week.
At the $800,000 celebration in Fort Victoria Masvingo, southeastern Zimbabwe, Mugabe listened to speeches and songs in his praise, before cutting a giant cake in the shape of the ancient ruins that the country was named after. The cake, per tradition, reportedly weighed 92 kg (more than 200 pounds), one kilogram for each of his 92 years of age. Ninety-two balloons were released into the air.
The motives behind the highly publicized execution of Jang Sung Taek, the uncle of current North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, have been open to question, but a South Korean analyst said Jang's ambition to restore an old power structure could have played a role in his death sentence. Could have. And monkeys shooting bottle rockets could come flying out of my a$$, too.
Ko Soo-suk, a senior researcher at the Unification Research Institute of JoongAng Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, wrote Jang was seeking the role of prime minister in the North Korean Cabinet. OK, here's a possible element of truth on which we can hinge the rest of the assumptions that can be found in this story.
According to Ko, a North Korean document on the judgment of death penalty for Jang, included a passage on Jang's crimes against the state. Ooh, an official document!
"Jang had a foolish dream, and he took the first step to seize the position and status of prime minister," the document read.
Unlike China, where the prime minister is an influential player in economic policy, North Korea's prime minister plays a largely ceremonial role and has low impact in governance, Ko wrote.
Economic planning is the task of a department in the Korean Workers' Party, and the prime minister follows instructions from the Party.
Jang, who was a prominent figure under former leader Kim Jong Il, often traveled to China and even to South Korea to learn about economic policy and planning. Jang has often been associated with economic reform, but in December 2013 was executed on charges of treason and of being a "counterrevolutionary."
The prime minister position Jang could have had in mind was the more influential version in place under North Korea founder Kim Il Sung. Prime ministers under the late Kim were in charge of economic policy and Jang would have been well-suited for a bigger role involving growth and development.
Ko also stated in his analysis that members of North Korea's core leadership, rather than Kim Jong Un, could have thwarted Jang's ambition. Core leadership officials foiled attempts by Jang to procure a meeting with Kim, who was away on a field guidance trip at a critical time. While Kim was away, Ko wrote, core members could have been able to enforce an order of execution for Jang. "OK, he's dead! There's one detail left to take care of, so let's draw lots to decide who gets to tell Pudgy!"
Three young Muslim men were found shot to death in Fort Wayne, Indiana, this week in an "execution-style" slaying, reported WANE-TV.
Authorities say they found the bodies of Fort Wayne residents Mohamedtaha Omar, 23, Adam K. Mekki, 20, and Muhannad A. Tairab, 17, inside a local home on Wednesday. Whoever killed them shot each man multiple times. What?! No beheadings?
NBC affiliate 21Alive further reported the home had become a known spot where young members of the local African diaspora gathered to party due to an "absentee ownership situation," though WANE wrote police do not believe the hangout spot is connected to gangs or crime. Of course.
Police currently do not believe the three deaths were related to the men's nationality or religion, according to the News-Sentinel, but each was a Sunni Muslim from Chad or Sudan. Nope. Totally unconnected.
But amid a growing wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S., including numerous acts of violence directed against Muslim Americans, that the slayings were a hate crime remains a disquieting possibility. Don't forget to check to see if there's a Shiite within 100 miles.
In February 2015, a man named Craig Stephen Hicks was arrested for the alleged murder of three Muslim students at the University of North Carolina's Chapel Hill campus. One of the victim's families later launched an educational campaign to promote equitable treatment of Muslims in the U.S. Yep. How could anyone deny the connection here.
In the months following an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria terrorist attack in Paris in November 2015, numerous reports of violence and intimidation directed against Muslims sprung up across the U.S. They ranged from shots fired at the home of Amir Elmasri in Orange County, Florida, to a xenophobic meltdown at a planning meeting in Spotsylvania, Virginia, over a proposed mosque extension. For every genuine case of xenophobia I'll bet we could come up with five cases of Muslim-on-Muslim violence framed to look like xenophobia. But obviously that couldn't be the case here.
On Twitter, several people noted the violence was greeted with little coverage by the national media -- yet another sign Muslim-Americans in the U.S. often have few allies in their corner when confronted with bigotry. Which suggests people are tired of the Muslims who cry wolf. And tired of Muslims.
#1
....the home had become a known spot where young members of the local African diaspora gathered to party due to an "absentee ownership situation,"
Some played cribbage, others watched football on the tele, while still others engaged in book club discussions. No one saw anything or really knows what took place.
Tehran is spending billions under the Iran nuclear deal to buy arms, including advanced Russian fighters. The U.S. has a weapon -- our U.N. veto -- but Eunuch Secretary of State John Kerry won't use it.
When the United Nations endorsed President Obama's Iran nuclear pact last year, it refuted the charge that Tehran would use the tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief to dominate the Mideast militarily by requiring U.N. Security Council approval for some conventional arms sales to Iran. And like everything the Security Council does, the U.S. enjoys veto power over such approval.
But what use is a veto if we won't use it?
During testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry was asked the following by House Democrat Brad Sherman of California: "Under the U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, Russia can't sell fighter planes to Iran unless the Security Council specifically approves that. I'll ask you, will we use our veto to prevent fighter planes from being sold to Iran from Russia?"
Kerry's answer was a continuation of the appeasement of the world's foremost terrorist state that is a hallmark of the Obama administration.
"Well, I don't think you have to use a veto," Kerry answered, adding that "there's a committee" it will go through. When Sherman pressed, "And would we use our veto if necessary to prevent the sale?" Kerry responded, "I haven't looked at the specifics of the transaction," but "in principle, we are very concerned about the transfer of weapons" and "would approach it with great skepticism ... (if) the committee signs off on it, I assure you. We'll stay in touch with you."
The fighters in question are fourth-generation Su-30SM warplanes, which are highly-maneuverable multi-role fighters, "capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground strikes and can be equipped with a wide variety of precision munitions." As the IsraelMatzav blog points out, after news of the proposed sale first broke earlier this month, the Obama administration first "flat out denied that it had the ability to block weapons sales," then "wasn't sure if the U.S. could veto," then finally "acknowledged the sale is illegal and falls under" Security Council Resolution 2231.
It comes on the heels of Moscow selling the long-range S-300 air defense system to Tehran. Both the advanced fighter and the sophisticated surface-to-air missiles, which can destroy both manned bombers and cruise missiles, will make it much more difficult for the U.S. and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear manufacturing facilities, should they choose to do so.
Iran will also likely be getting Russia's most advanced T-90 tanks in its multibillion-dollar "Putin-Mart" shopping spree, just the latest in its long-standing alliance with the former Soviet Union, a partnership based on the two powers' anti-American interests.
The Washington Times' Jed Babbin last week noted that "Russia has been building Iran's nuclear power plants for about two decades," and Russian ruler Vladimir Putin "has been working to reduce Western sanctions on Iran and lessen pressures on its nuclear weapons program for at least a decade." And Babbin warned that Putin could secretly sell Iran its Nudol anti-satellite missile "or the technology behind it" and "could be helping Iran develop its cyberwar capabilities with our satellites in mind. And that's only a couple of the many weapon systems and technologies that Russia could, and likely will, sell to Iran in secret."
Far from reining in Islamofascist Iran, what Obama and Kerry's nuclear deal is doing is massively arming Iran with conventional weapons, as it lets it keep the ability to construct nuclear arms tomorrow -- by which time it may already militarily dominate the Middle East.
#2
Militarily dominating the ME, + LIKELY SAFE TO SAY PERIPHERALS, is what the Anti-US OWG Globalists desire or intend vee "US-style/par" CO-SUPERPOWER IRAN.
The Post-WW2/Cold War/9-11 Global Superpower USA, soon to besuborned under Anti-sovereign OWG + NAU + Related, must unilaterally or "asymetrically" retreat, pull out, or otherwise reduce its power-n-influence, etc. so that its OWG Co-Superpower siblings RUSSIA, CHINA, + IRAN, OTHER? CAN RISE TO MILPOL OR GEOPOL [Rough?]PARITY = EQUALITY WID THE US, NOT INFERIORITY.
RUSSIA, CHINA, + IRAN, ETAL. TO COME ARE RISING BECAUSE ANTI-US US OWG GLOBALIST POTUS OBAMA IS INTENTIONALLY HELPING OR ALLOWING THEM TO.
IRAN WAS + IS GETTING ITS NUKES, ETC. BECAUSE IT NEEDS NUKES TO BE "PAR" WID THE US, NOT INFERIOR OR DOMINATED BY THE US.
GIVING UP THE ME TO IRAN = GVING UP THE CRIMEA + OTHER TO PUTIN = GIVING UP 1/2 OF THE PACIFIC? HAWAII? [1990'S] 1/2 OF CONUS-NORAM TO CHINA? = GIVING UP 1/2 OF THE ATLANTIC TO THE UK-LED-VS-NOT-UK-LED EU???
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? besides MSM-Net Perts-Bloggers including UOG Guam Professors arguing that the US can not or will not remain a SUPERPOWER under such conditions???
#4
O and Co have created the environment to enable Iran to get nukes. Once Iran gets nukes, they will threaten some nation and then Iran will get nuked, taking a significant portion of their 81 million population to their deaths. Nice legacy for the Dynamit Nobel Piece Prize.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/28/2016 21:18
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[IsraelTimes] Vice President Shahindokht Molaverdi doesn’t identify community in volatile Sistan and Baluchistan province.
Iran executed the entire male population of a village for drug trafficking, a senior Iranian cabinet minister said in a recent Persian-language interview published Tuesday. None'ayaz is going to talk eh? No problem.
In her interview with the semi-official Mehr news agency.Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Shahindokht Molaverdi didn’t mention the name of the village, or elaborate on when the executions were carried out -- or whether it was all at once or spread over time.
"We have a village in Sistan and 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... province where every single man has been executed," she said, according to a translation of her remarks by The Guardian.
She warned that as a result, violence there could increase. "Their children are potential narcos as they would want to seek Dire Revenge and provide money for their families. There is no support for these people."
Iran is one of the world’s largest users of the death penalty, ranking second behind China in 2014, according to the most recent figures from Amnesty. Most executions overall in Iran are carried out for drug smuggling.
The country straddles a major narcotics trafficking route linking opium-producing fields in Afghanistan to Europe. Sistan and Balochistan province, where the executions in question took place, borders Afghanistan and Pakistain and has been the scene of fighting between smugglers and police.
"If we do not act against these people, crime will return," Euronews quoted Molaverdi saying. "Society is responsible for the families of those executed. Although the family support program was neglected for several years, it has now been relaunched as part of the sixth national development plan."
In late October, the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... ’ special investigator on the human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... situation in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, warned that executions in Iran have risen at an "exponential rate" since 2005 and could top 1,000 in 2015. He said Iran puts more people to death per capita than any other country, adding that the majority of executions do not conform to international laws banning the death penalty for juveniles and non-violent offenders.
Shaheed said 69 percent of the executions during the first six months of 2015 were reportedly for drug-related offenses, reflecting the increasing influx of drugs and rising drug abuse in the country.
Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday killing 48 militants in latest operations across the country.
A statement released by the ministry states that the operations were conducted in Farah, Baghlan, Kabul, Nooristan, Jawzjan, Ghazni, Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Kundoz and Urozgan province.
According to the statement, nine militants were killed and two wounded in Pusht Rud district of Farah, 10 killed and as many others wounded in Dand-e-Ghori district of Baghlan, six killed and one wounded in Sarubi district of Kabul, three killed and four wounded in Kamdish district of Nooristan, six killed and one wounded in Qara Bagh district of Ghazni, one killed and two arrested in Nadir Shah Kot district of Khost, six killed and two wounded in Zurmat district of Paktia, four killed and as many others wounded in Imam Sahib district of Kundoz, three killed in Gomal district of Paktika, one killed and another wounded in Dehrawoud district of Urozgan province.
The statement further states that 15 militants were also arrested from Khwaja Sabj Posh district of Jawzjan province with a number of heavy and light weapons.
Three Army personnel embraced martyrdom during these operations, the press release adds.
Taiz- Ali al-Moa’amari, Mayor of Taiz, said that many international relief organizations are being misguided by regional groups. In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, al-Moa’amari said that the organizations are influenced by the pro-insurgency clusters. The reports show some employee accomplices helping with deceiving humanitarian organizations.
Al-Moa’amari requested that all humanitarian organizations to work on delivering aid via governmental routes in Aden and Taiz. Moreover, the Taiz Mayor praised the humanitarian efforts spent by the Arab coalition and Saudi Arabia. King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aids is pretty much the only orientation that helped break-off the barricade on Taiz effectively.
The Mayor clarified that the militias in the war they waged on Taiz, have taken in the help of experts from the Republican Guard and combatants trained by Hezbollah and Iran. Al-Moa’amari revealed that three brigades are being prepared for the comprehensive freeing of Taiz, and stressed that the governorate’s importance lies in the fact that it represents the northern city gate to the temporary capital Aden and southern governorates.
Settling the battle in Taiz interprets the virtual death of the insurgency in Yemen, and the failing of the militia’s mission. Houthi and ousted President Saleh’s supporters believe that should they win over Taiz, they would have gained massive political and military advantages, which is exactly why their campaign is being re-directed to the governorate on a large scale.
When asked on recent developments, Al-Moa’amari said that Taiz witnesses now a broad battle to extinguish militants. Confrontations are ongoing on a daily basis and undertake several battlefronts. Over 15 fronts are established, which expanded to include regions out of the city, after militias had failed to take over the center city Taiz. Militants have rendered defeated and disappointed, the National Army men and the Popular Resistance record triumph persistently. With the Popular Resistance’s backing the National Army was able to secure Al Misrakh district.
[Tim Harford] It is intriguing to contemplate some of the less obvious effects [of cheap oil] . Charles Courtemanche, a health economist at Georgia State University, has found a correlation between low gasoline prices and high obesity rates in the United States. That is partly because, when oil prices are high, people may get out of their cars and walk, cycle or get public transport. Cheap gasoline, on the other hand, puts disposable income into the pockets of families who are likely to spend it on eating out. Low oil prices may make us fat.
The good professor has it backwards. Lower oil prices should impact prices across the board, leaving the poor with considerably more discretionary income than they've been accustomed to in recent years. Feeling more wealthy, they are likely to engage in the spending patterns of the middle class, patterns which on the whole result in a slimmer, healthier profile. Thus, while lower oil prices will enable more driving and shopping, rather than sitting on the front stoop in the 'hood, the driving is likely to be to the mall, where extended bouts of healthful walking occur, while the eating there is more likely to be nice meals that include a salad instead of the lettuce, tomato, and pickle on a McDonald's hamburger. Q.E.D.
#2
engage in the spending patterns of the middle class,
Sorry, it won't work that way. See Reynold's Law. (ht Insty) The people in question don't have the cultural traits of the middle class to support such activities.
Of more moment is the effect on the price of drugs.
TEL ABYAD – With the start of a U.N.-sponsored two-week ceasefire in Syria, militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) launched a fierce offensive on areas held by Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) on the border with Turkey, military sources reported on Saturday.
ISIS militants attacked Kurdish positions in the vicinity of Tel Abyad city north of Raqqa province, using car bombs and mortar fire.
“The terror group attacked YPG headquarters in Tel Abyad from two directions. The offensive started in the midnight on Saturday where ISIS launched mortar shells from its strongholds in Raqqa on the Kurdish positions in Tel Abyad, while several car bombs hit the YPG checkpoints in eastern Tel Abyad coming from the Turkish border-line,” the YPG leadership said in a statement.
Speaking to ARA News in Tel Abyad, YPG spokesman Hebun Osman said that scores of Kurdish fighters were killed and injured during the attacks.
The source confirmed that the ISIS-led offensive hit YPG security checkpoints and headquarters in Tel Abyad and five nearby villages, including Sharghrat, Kantari, Nastleh, Ghuwera and Qantrah.
“Daesh terrorists have taken advantage of the current ceasefire in Syria and attacked our headquarters in this area,” Osman said, using an acronym for ISIS. “Our forces were eventually able to repel the attack on Tel Abyad after clashes with the militants.”
However, ISIS fighters captured main parts of the villages of Hamam al-Turkman and Mastal near Tel Abyad city after Saturday’s offensive, the YPG official said.
The Kurdish YPG forces had recaptured the strategic city of Tel Abyad on the border with Turkey in June, subsequent to fierce battles against ISIS militants. Liberating Tel Abyad and its countryside caused a state of alert among ISIS militants, especially for its location in northern Raqqa –the group’s de facto capital in Syria.
Cessation of Hostilities in Syria
A cessation of hostilities in Syria came into effect at the agreed time of midnight on Saturday, under a U.S.-Russian plan whichwarring sides in the five-year conflict have said would to commit to.
Syria’s government and insurgents have said they would respect the halt to fighting.
The UN Security Council threw its weight Friday behind a ceasefire agreement for Syria and demanded that it be upheld.
The council unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by Russia and the United States that endorses the ceasefire deal and “demands that the cessation of hostilities to begin at midnight (Damascus time)”.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said Friday Syria’s government and rebels will re-start peace talks on March 7 if a ceasefire holds and more aid is delivered.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/28/2016
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#1
Well then, breakfast Tea and a Kipper or two to celebrate the good news?
[Bangkok Post] Seven policemen and a female civilian were wounded by a car bomb that exploded near a Border Patrol Police base in Pattani province on Saturday afternoon. The blast at the BPP base in Muang district sent thick black smoke into the sky, forcing security forces to seal off the area.
Provincial police commander Pol Maj Gen Thanongsak Wangsupa said, "The bomb was put in a Honda Jazz, which was stolen from a nearby village [on Saturday] morning."
Earlier in the day, a civil engineer was wounded by several gunshots as he was driving to his garage in the same district. An unknown number of gunmen shot Somsak Dussadeepiriya and fled with his car.
It was supposed to be a US-led naval training maneuver off the coast of west Africa when real-life drama intervened, with pirates taking over an oil tanker and turning the exercise into a rescue mission.
Navies from the United States, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria tracked the hijacked tanker through waters off five countries before Nigerian naval forces stormed aboard on 20 February amid a shootout that killed one of the pirates.
It was the first big success in international maritime cooperation in the pirate-ridden Gulf of Guinea, the commodore in charge of US operations in Africa and Europe told the Associated Press.
Capt Heidi Agle, the commodore, had been directing a training exercise against piracy with maritime agencies of Ghana when the hijacking provided a real-life lesson, she said in a telephone interview on Friday from her base in Italy.
First word came from the French embassy, which sent information to Agle’s USNS Spearhead via Ghanaian officials and US diplomats of a possible pirate ship loitering off Abidjan, Ivory Coast. There, pirates seized the Dubai-owned MT Maximus, on lease to a South Korean company and carrying 4,700 tons of diesel fuel, on 11 February.
The Spearhead tracked down the hijacked Maximus, identified it and then monitored its progress for two days as it sailed from Ivorian waters into Ghanaian territory. Then Agle handed over to Ghana’s navy, which continued to shadow the ship until it entered the waters of Togo, when that country’s navy took over.
As the pirates steamed across the gulf toward the tiny island nation of São Tomé and Principe, officials there contacted the Nigerian government for help.
The tanker had sailed nearly 800 miles (1,280km) before the Nigerians made the assault.
Dirk Steffen, maritime security director of Denmark-based Risk Intelligence, agreed the operation was “the first anti-piracy success in the region of this scale”.
“Never has a west African navy carried out an opposed boarding before,” he said.
Agle called it “a coordinated effort and the biggest piece in progress in the region” since the US began training with African nations in the Gulf of Guinea in 2009.
The rescue was directed by Rear Admiral Henry Babalola of Nigeria, who told the AP that it was made possible by a maritime agreement allowing Nigeria to patrol São Tomé’s waters.
“When we challenged them [the pirates], they said that they were in international waters” with the law of the sea on their side. But the agreement allowed the Nigerians to storm the ship after eight hours of attempted negotiations.
“International cooperation is the new mantra for maritime security,” Babalola said. “We cannot go it alone.”
Six pirates were captured and 18 crew members freed. Several pirates escaped with two crew members who remain hostages, Steffen said.
Babalola stressed the economic impact of piracy, pushing up the price of maritime insurance with costs ultimately passed on to consumers. One-fifth of all maritime crime in the world is committed in the Gulf of Guinea, but that is only the tip of the iceberg since an estimated two-thirds of piracy acts there are never reported, according to Ocean Beyond Piracy, a private, Colorado-based organization.
The Gulf of Guinea is primed for economic growth, a major route for oil supplies shipped around the world with a mild climate that is ideal for commerce, docking and fishing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2016
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The head of the Libyan armed forces, General Khalifa Hafter, has offered remaining militant fighters in Benghazi deal under which they will be assured a fair trial if they hand in their weapons and surrender.
The offer was one of two announcements made today in his name. In the other, Statement No. 2, he warned that anyone in the armed forces or pretending to be in the armed forces who took the law into his own hands and attacked the homes of families of militants or suspected militants would be severely punished.
The surrender offer, Statement No. 3, is a clear attempt to bring the the offensive against the so-called Islamic State (IS) and its allies to a rapid conclusion. It is not thought, however, that there will be many takers, at least not among IS fighters.
The warning not to attack militants or their homes is directed at those who have had members of their families murdered by terrorists or suffered from them in other ways and want to take revenge.
With the militants apparently collapsing in Benghazi, the aim is to prevent the pendulum swinging the other way and city descending into a fresh round of violence.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/28/2016
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#3
S-o-o-o-o we're not talking about VPOTUS HUCKABEE???
D *** NG, TO BE SO CLOSE BUT YET SO FAR!
["DRAGNET" THEME here].
I'm still of the opinion or belief that Mike Huck was notsomuch running or campaigning for POTUS, but instead for VPOTUS or some other Top Cabinet position in a POTUS Trump Admin, as based on how he always seemed to be turning or looking gaga-eyed at "THE DONUUULD". NO SURPRISE TO ME THAT HUCK'S DAUGHTER CAME OUT IN SUPPORT OF TRUMP.
Security forces have launched operation against militants in Atghar District of southern Zabul which according to officials has been successfully going on.
Deputy Police Chief of the province told reporters on Friday that security forces killed the so-called governor of Taliban for Atghar district and his body guard during a three hour clash in Zeyarat village last night.
Colonel Ghulam Jailani identified the Taliban shadow governor as Mullah Nasir.
He said Taliban left the dead bodies of their colleagues on the battle field.
Col. Jailani added that the operation would continue until security is maintained in the area.
QUETTA: Frontier Corps (FC) detained three alleged militants in Wahdat Colony area of provincial capital on Saturday and recovered arms from them.
According to FC spokesman, FC personnel carried a search operation in the area and arrested three alleged militants. Arms including nine pistols, thee shotguns, two rifles were also recovered. Further investigation was underway.
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – On Saturday, a local source in Nineveh Province revealed, that the explosives official in the so-called ISIS had been killed in a shelling conducted by the international coalition aviation in Mosul, along with four of his assistants.
The source said in a press statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “Today the international coalition aviation shelled ISIS headquarters in the industrial area in the right coast, as well as another hideout in Nineveh municipality cars headquarters that was used by ISIS to make car bombs, destructing it completely.”
The source added, “Intelligence information indicated that the shelling resulted in the killing of ISIS explosives official who was known as Abu Hamza al-Tunisi, along with four of his assistants.”
Posted by: badanov ||
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Advisor to Yemeni Army Chief of Staff and spokesperson of the Army, Brigadier Samir Al Haj, called upon all officers and personnel of the army and security forces, who are still members of the rebel militias to rejoin the legitimate government forces to defend all of Yemen which he described as "home for all its people".
He demanded the soldiers to take sides with the legitimate government fighting against rebel Houthi militia and the remnants of the forces loyal to now-ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
"After the recent victories made by the legitimate forces and the Yemeni National Opposition, Yemeni soldiers have no reason to remain neutral. Everything is clear and rejoining the legitimate army is a duty dictated by the country's interests where all can take part in the liberation and reject the coup carried out by the Houthis," Al Haj said.
Al Haj noted that the "opportunity for all to prove their complete allegiance to Allah and the country" should not be wasted, in particular because "victory is approaching where the coup and its disastrous impact on the country will be removed."
(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – A security source in Salahuddin Province revealed, that dozens of ISIS members fled from al-Sharqat District after the approach of the security forces and al-Hashd al-Shaabi fighters, while pointed out to the killing of two ISIS members in an armed attack on a check point belonging to ISIS in northern Salahuddin.
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “Today, dozens of ISIS members left their hideouts and fled from al-Sharqat District toward Hawija District, due to the intensified air strikes carried out by the Iraqi Army Aviation.”
The source added on condition of anonymity, “The security forces and al-Hashd al-Shaabi fighters cut ISIS supply lines, while ISIS ranks collapsed after shrinking the salaries of its fighters from 459 thousand dinars to 100 thousand dinars.”
“Two ISIS members were killed in an armed attack on a check point belonging to ISIS near Saylo District, while the attackers managed to escape to unknown destination,” the source continued.
(IraqiNews.com) Salahuddin – A local source in Salahuddin province said on Saturday, that the commander of the ISIS battalion known as “the red streaks” had been killed along with one of his aides during an armed attack north of the province.
The source, who requested anonymity, reported for IraqiNews.com, “The commander of the red streaks battalion known as Abu Hafsa al-Ansari had been killed along with one of his aides during an armed attack that was carried out by some of the residents opposing ISIS in the district of al-Sharqat north of Salahuddin.”
The source also added, “ISIS imposed a curfew amid a large spread of armed elements in the main roads, while raid operations began in search of the perpetrators.”
Posted by: badanov ||
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#1
the commander of the ISIS battalion known as “the red streaks” had been killed
[CHICAGO.SUNTIMES] Yemeni security officials say Saudi-led Arclight airstrikes targeting Iranian catspaws have killed at least 30 people, mostly civilians, in a district outside the capital, Sanaa.
They say the Saturday raid hit a popular market area in the Nihm district, killing at least 22 civilians and leaving burned bodies strewn over the area. The officials, who are neutral in a conflict that has split the armed forces, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief news hounds.
The strike comes a day after aid and rights groups urged Western countries to stop selling arms to 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... , which is striking the Iran-backed rebels to support forces loyal to the internationally recognized government.
Posted by: Fred ||
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UCH SHARIF: At least three robbers were killed in an alleged shootout in the Uch Sharif area, Bahawalpur on Saturday.
According to the police, three robbers were fleeing the scene after snatching a motorcycle from a citizen when they were cornered by the police. The robbers opened fire at policemen which was retaliated by police, resulting in the killing of the three robbers.
The police claimed to have recovered weapons and the stolen bike from the robbers, whose identity could not be ascertained immediately. The bodies were shifted to the Rural Health Complex for autopsy.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Suicide attack on leader of anti-Taliban militia leaves over 50 killed, maimed in Kunar
Suicide attack on a leader of anti-Taliban militia has left over 50 people killed and maimed in Asadabad, the bustling provincial capital of eastern Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... The jacket wallah reportedly detonated his explosives near the governor house this morning.
Eyewitnesses say the suicide bomber who was riding on a cycle of violence targeted Haji Khan Jan who was leader of the uprising forces in Dangam District.
Officials at the Public Health Directorate of Kunar province says their record shows the incident has left 11 people killed and 40 others maimed.
However, man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... the casualty toll can possibly rise since the victims have been taken to different hospitals by locals and provincial administration said a complete report would be released later.
Some of those critically maimed have been shifted to 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.. Regional Hospital which has better arrangements for emergency situations compared to the medical facilities in Kunar.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2016
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[AnNahar] Increasingly targeted by jihadist fighters roaming its remote northern desert, and Nigeria's feared Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... turbans on its southern flank, Niger fears the emergence of its own brand of home-grown Islamist trouble.
In recent years foreign-funded aid groups and social media have brought ideas peddled by Wahhabism -- an ultraconservative form of Islam -- to more and more of Niger's 19 million people, one of the planet's poorest nations.
Continued on Page 49
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least three holy warriors affiliated with the Al-Qaeda terrorist network were killed in a drone strike in eastern Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... province of Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the Arclight airstrike was carried out by the coalition forces in Gomal district targeting the holy warriors in Dadul village on Friday.
The Afghan Special Operations Forces Operational Coordination Command said two cycle of violences belonging to the holy warriors were also destroyed in the air raid.
The anti-government armed Lion of Islam groups have not commented regarding the report so far.
Paktika is among the relatively volatile provinces in eastern Afghanistan where anti-government armed Lion of Islam groups, including the Talibs and Al-Qaeda linked Haqqani network are actively operating.
At least six people were killed and eleven others were maimed after the bombexploded inside the bakery shop in Yahya Khel district earlier this month.
The National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) said the two suspects were jugged Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! during a special military operation in connection to the incident who have confessed that they placed an bomb inside the bakery shop afer receiving instructions from the Taliban group.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Huffpoo] This is the wrong type of carry-on luggage. Customs officials have arrested a 24-year-old woman they said tried to smuggle a half-pound of cocaine in her vagina.
Shekira Thompson was arrested last Sunday at Kennedy Airport after she got off a plane from Kingston, Jamaica, according to NJ.com.
Thompson presented herself for inspection after getting off the plane. Officials then took her to a private search, according to a release from the U.S. Customs Dept.
Investigators said when they questions Thompson, she admitted to inserting a foreign object into her body.
A short time later, officers found an egg-shaped container they said contained a white powdery substance that tested positive for cocaine.
The weight of the powder was about a half-pound and had an estimated street value of $10,000, according to the release.
[Straits Times] Philippine security forces have killed dozens of Muslim militants and captured at least two camps in a nearly month-long offensive against insurgents in Mindanao.
Army spokesman Filemon Tan said that 42 militants from a group with ties to the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah were killed in clashes that began last Saturday. One of the rebe; bastions in Butig town in Lanao del Sur province fell on Thursday. Three soldiers were killed and 11 injured.
Last Saturday evening, about 80 militants led by brothers Omar and Abdullah Maute, said to be former associates of an Indonesian JI operative known only as Sanusi, who was killed in 2012, attacked a detachment of the 51st Infantry Battalion in Butig. Troops drove the rebels back, and the army counter-attacked with howitzers, bombers, helicopters and armored vehicles.
The Lanao del Sur clashes broke out just as the army was wrapping up a 24-day offensive against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in neighboring Maguindanao province. A BIFF camp in Datu Salibo town fell on Sunday after intense battles that began on February 5.
Lieutenant-Colonel Ambrosio Rustia, head of the Army 57th Infantry Battalion, said hundreds of BIFF militants who held the camp had fled with their casualties deep into marshlands bordering Maguindanao and North Cotabato provinces. The army reported that it lost three soldiers, one during operations to clear the BIFF camp of landmines.
[RFE/RL] Moscow-backed Chechen chief Ramzan Kadyrov has said he is ready to resign. Kadyrov's current term of office is due to end in early April.
"My time has passed," Kadyrov said in an interview with government-allied NTV television. He said, "There are lots of successors on our team. We've got very good specialists."
The announcement comes on the one-year anniversary of the murder of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov. Many in the opposition have accused Kadyrov of playing a role in Nemtsov's murder.
Kadyrov told NTV, "Nemtsov did not bother me at all, in fact. That's because he is not my level. The nation's leadership needs to find another person so that my name isn't used against my people."
Dmitry Gudkov, one of only a handful of opposition lawmakers left in the State Duma, said, "I know that, after the killing of Boris Nemtsov, the relationships between the federal government and Chechnya's leadership have worsened considerably. This explains Ramzan Kadyrov's recent hysteria toward the opposition."
Earlier this week, opposition leader Ilya Yashin released a report accusing Kadyrov of involvement in Nemtsov's killing and calling for his resignation. All five suspects arrested for the crime have ties to Chechnya and the North Caucasus.
[AP] MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Saturday joined his predecessor in office in unloading on Donald Trump, calling the Republican front-runner's campaign racist and saying his discourse on immigration is fueling anti-American sentiment around the world.
Calderon, a conservative who was president of Mexico from 2006 to 2012, even said he thought Trump was trying to exploit the same social feelings and resentments as did Adolf Hitler.
"I think his logic of exalting white supremacy isn't even acting against immigration -- Donald Trump is the descendant of migrants -- it is acting and speaking against immigrants who have a different skin color than him, which is frankly racist and is a bit like the exploitation of sensitive fibers that Hitler did in his day," Calderon told reporters after a meeting of the National Action Party, or PAN, in Mexico City.
Calderon's comments parallel those made earlier by former President Vicente Fox, who preceded Calderon in office and also belonged to the PAN party.
In interviews with Univision and Mexican media, Fox called Trump "crazy," a "false prophet" and an embarrassment to his party. When asked about Trump's assertion that he was going to get Mexico to pay for his proposed border wall, Fox used an explicative to make his point the country would never do so.
Trump said Fox ought to be "ashamed of himself" for his vulgarity and demanded an apology.
Trump has angered many Mexicans for his campaign rhetoric denigrating some immigrants as "rapists" who bring crime and drugs to the United States. Threats of mass deportations of Mexicans and other migrants illegally in the country, along with his promise to build a wall separating the nations, have added to the bad feelings.
Calderon said Trump's discourse is "sowing hate" against the United States around the world and this is not is Washington's interest.
During a visit to Mexico's capital, Vice President Joe Biden apologized for the inflammatory rhetoric about Mexico in the U.S. presidential campaign.
"Some of the rhetoric coming from some of the presidential candidates on the other team are I think dangerous, damaging and incredibly ill-advised," Biden said on Thursday. "But here's what I'm here to tell you: They do not, they do not, they do not represent the view of the vast majority of the American people."
#1
I think mexico has bigger problems on hand than the trumpster.
Now if trump starts making noises about "Picking up where we left off in 1848" and "Bringing El Norte to you" then the mexicans have grounds for complaint.
#3
#1 - might as well get the resources if we're going to get stuck with the population. And you can shrink the length of the border the further south you go. The wall just got smaller.
#7
...we already have that with a wishy washy Trunk controlled Congress which by the way is suppose to control the purse strings and in doing so corral most of that. However, they seemed happy passing the Pelosi-Reid sponsored omnibus funding that covered all that for another year plus of operation. Then they make a theater of proposed restrictions which are of course subject to executive veto. They know that. They're just trying to make it look good.
Early results indicate that the reformist candidates are leading the race for parliamentary seats in capital city of Tehran.
So-called reformists. Remember, they were approved for the election by the mad ayatollahs. There's only so much 'reform' that's allowed...
According to Iran's Elections Headquarters, 1.293 million votes have been counted so far, the state-run IRINN TV reported Feb. 27.
Mohammad Reza Aref, a former vice president, stands in first place in the Tehran ballot with 587,100 votes. Ali Motahari, a conservative MP who took place in the reformists’ list was in the second place with 515,650 votes.
The head of the conservative list, Gholamali Hadad Adel, a former parliament speaker, is the only candidate outside the reformists’ list who takes place among the top 30 positions that would earn seats in parliament. He was placed seventh with 435,900 votes.
Almost 2.9-3 million people have participated in the election in Tehran, while some 6.6 million were eligible for voting, Iran’s interior minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said, estimating that the voter turnout at Tehran city reaches 42 percent.
Elections were held for the tenth round of parliament and fifth round of the Assembly of Experts on Feb. 26. Iranians went to the polls in over 1,063 constituencies.
Currently, the Parliament has 290 representatives fourteen of whom represent the non-Muslim religious minorities. Women constitute about eight percent of the Parliament members in Iran.
A total of 4,844 hopefuls, including about 500 women, who were qualified among 12,000 registered candidates by the Guardian Council, were taking part in the race to take the parliamentary seats. The elected candidates will serve from May 3, 2016 for a four-year term.
The Assembly of Experts will also see its 88 members elected by the people for another eight-year term.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2016
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PESHAWAR: Police and law enforcement agencies on Saturday apprehended a wanted terrorist among 60 suspects during search operations in different areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to police, the law enforcement agencies carried out targeted search operations in Muslim Town, Khushhal Colony and Hakimabad area of Nowshera district.
At least 20 suspects including 11 Afghan nationals were taken into custody. The suspects were shifted to unknown location for interrogation. Similarly, Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) also arrested a suspected terrorist from Mingora area of Swat.
The suspect is accused of remote control bomb attack on security forces in Sarband area in 2008. In another operation in Peshawar, the police and officials of the law enforcing agencies arrested 45 suspects including Afghan nationals from different areas of the provincial capital. Police carried out search operations in Faqirabad, Pathang Chowk and Ring Road area.
At least 45 suspects including five Afghans were arrested during the search operations. The police also recovered weapons and drugs from some of the suspects.
PESHAWAR: The military’s media wing claimed on Saturday that at least 19 suspected militants were killed in Shawal area near the Pak-Afghan border, four security personnel also lost their lives.
In a statement the Inter-Services Public Relations said that ground forces surrounded a group of alleged terrorists in Mangroti area near the Pak-Afghan border.
At least 19 suspected terrorists were killed and several injured in the exchange of fire which also resulted in the death of four military men, the ISPR stated.
However, this information could not be independently verified as journalists have limited access to the war-torn region.
The ISPR said that the deceased security personnel have been identified as Capt Umair, Havaldar Hakim and Sepoy Hameed and Sepoy Rashid.
15 'terrorists' killed in North Waziristan
At least 15 suspected militants were killed during air strikes conducted by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter jets in the Maisar area of Dattakhel Tehsil in South Waziristan Agency.
Officials told Dawn.com that at least 15 suspected militants were killed after jets targeted four positions in the restive agency's Dattakhel area.
According to official statements, over 3,500 militants have been killed in operation Zarb-i-Azb, while the offensive forced over a million civilians to vacate their homes and move to settled areas of the country.
Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif ordered troops on Wednesday to march on the last bastion of terrorists in Shawal valley of North Waziristan to take operation Zarb-i-Azb to its logical end.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan intelligence operatives conducted a special military operation in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province of Afghanistan to rescue two hostages from a gang of kidnappers.
The National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS) said the raid was conducted in Lashkargah, the bustling provincial capital of Helmand province.
A statement by NDS said one of the hostages were a 2-year-old child and teenage boy who were kidnapped by the gang from Qala-e-Boost and Safian areas of the city.
The statement further added that the kidnappers were demanding a large ransom from the families of the hostages, forcing the intelligence operatives to intervene and secure their release.
At least four kidnappers were jugged You have the right to remain silent... by the intelligence operatives during the raid, NDS said, adding that the suspects have been identified as Abdul Razaq son of Mohammad Agha, Mohammad Nadir son of Mohammad Jan, Hamidullah son of Lal Mohammad and Khan Wali son of Mohammad Ibrahim.
This comes as the Afghan intelligence operatives rescued a hostage from the kidnappers in central Maidan Wardak province of Afghanistan as the kidnappers were demanding a ransom of $1 millio for his release.
Kidnap for ransom cases still continue in parts of the country despite the Afghan intelligence nabbed two MAFIA bosses involved in major kidnappings who were later executed by the government.
The two top MAFIA leaders, Habib Istalif and Raees Khudaidad, were executed late in 2014 and early in 2015 after they were arrested by intelligence operatives.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2016
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum ...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier... has vowed to avenge the brutal murder of two Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers by anti-government armed murderous Moslems.
He was speaking to news hounds and local residents following his arrival to northern Faryab province to lead counter-terrorism clearance operations.
Gen. Dostum said the gunnies beheaded the two soldiers after capturing them in Faryab province, calling the murderers of the two soldiers as ‘butchers’.
He said the gunnies involved in the brutal killing of the soldiers will soon be placed in durance vile Please don't kill me! by the security forces.
Gen. Dostum further added that twenty villages have been cleared from the gunnies presence since the clearance operations were launched.
He also added that 120 murderous Moslems, including foreign gunnies have surrendered to the security forces in Khwajah Sabs Posh district.
The First Vice President joined the Afghan cops to lead counter-terrorism operations in northern Jawzjan province and arrived to Faryab province after supervising operations in Qosh Tapa and Darzab districts.
Gen. Dostum has said he will travel to northern Sar-e-Pul, Takhar and Kunduz provinces once the operations are concluded in Faryab province.
his is the third time Gen. Dostum is joining the Afghan forces to clear parts of northern provinces from the gunnies presence.
Gen. Dostum first joined the Afghan cops in the frontline in northern Faryab province earlier in the month of August last where he survived at least two liquidation plots by the anti-government armed murderous Moslem groups while he was leading counter-terrorism operations.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2016
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#1
The container has arrive siruah.
How about the kit?
The Happy Prisoner Kits?
Yes, those.
Indeed 12 arrived with the mustache wax.
Only twelve?
Siruah, the locals...
Indeed, the locals, Hummm. Do we have at least one Die Hard?
In prisoner? The movie?
No the battery
No, but we have an AC Delco, very similar, almost as good and yet more expensive.
Will it hold a charge?
Inshallah General, the green light she is lit.
Good, let's roll.
Mon General, the battery, she belong to Mahmoud.
The Weasel?
Self-same
Ah hell wit it, bring around the T-54, no use trying to to be fancy.
#3
Well then.
Maurice, the Triumph, fetch it.
Twice around the walls of Brooding Castle Rantburg we go
Maurice, the Popatus remains zu hause copy?
Yes, we will stop at St. Alfonos on the way back
Don't forget Your runcible,
SAPB is notorious for lack of spoonery as well as maaarjureRine..
[AlAhram] US-led coalition carried out 10 air strikes on Saturday to try to repel an assault 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) group turbans on the Syrian town of Tel Abyad on the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
It said at least 45 ISIS turbans and 20 Kurdish militia fighters had been killed in the ongoing attack.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/28/2016
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ERBIL – Extremists of the Islamic State (ISIS) confiscated dozens of houses in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province, local sources reported on Saturday. The ISIS-led Islamic Police drove dozens of Syrian families from their homes in Deir ez-Zor and confiscated their property.
“The group has confiscated more than 30 buildings to house its foreign jihadis with their families,” local media activist Yasser al-Khalifah told ARA News on Saturday.
This comes after ISIS lost ground to the western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Hasakah province.
“ISIS has evacuated locals from their houses to replace them with militants and their families who arrived in Deir ez-Zor after escaping Shaddadi city in Hasakah province,” al-Khalifah said.
Syrian families who lost their houses have been transferred to villages in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor, eyewitnesses told ARA News.
In the meantime, ISIS military leadership has started arming local young men in Deir ez-Zor to join the group’s ranks in the battle against rival troops.
“Pro-ISIS Arab tribal leaders in the province have received rifles and ammunitions to distribute them to the youth in order to join the battlefront in Deir ez-Zor,” Khalifah reported.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/28/2016
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[AlAhram] United States and its allies targeted Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) group in Iraq with 14 strikes on Friday and also hit the Death Eater group with eight strikes in Syria on the same day, the US military said on Saturday.
Seven of the strikes in Iraq were near djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... in the north, hitting two IS tactical units and five fighting positions, the military said.
Five of the strikes in Syria destroyed two IS buildings near Al Hawl.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
This is probably the only time the Obama administration has run a surplus.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A kaboom has killed one person and maimed five others in Khogyani 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.
Local officials say the bomb was planted on a road side in Kaga Bazaar area and that all of the victims of the incident are civilians.
Two victims with minor injuries were treated at the medical facility in the district but three others who sustained life threatening injuries were shifted to Nangarhar Regional Hospital in Jalalabad.
No group has so far grabbed credit for Friday’s kaboom but security agencies have launched an investigation into the incident.
Talibs who plant IEDs on road sides as one of their tools in their fight have a strong presence in this district .
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2016
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The Afghan armed forces thwarted an attack plot by anti-government armed militants involving Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Kabul province.
According to 111th Division of the Afghan National Army (ANA) forces in Kabul, the militants had planted two Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on a roadside in Moosahi district of Kabul.
A statement by 111th ANA division in Kabul said the two IEDs were discovered and defused while the Afghan army forces were patrolling in the area.
No further details were given if any suspect was arrested in connection to the attack plot with the anti-government armed militant groups yet to comment regarding the report.
Taliban militants group and insurgents belonging to the other militant groups frequently use Improvised Explosive Device (IED) as the weapon of their choice to target the security forces but the ordinary civilians are targeted in majority of such attacks.
A civilian was killed and five others were wounded in an explosion involving Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.
According to the latest UN report on civilian casualties, the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) remaied one of the top causes of civilian deaths in the country during the year 2015, which saw 3,545 deaths and 7,457 casualties.
HAMA – Militant fighters of the Islamic State (ISIS) have made new gains near the city of Salamiya in Syria’s western Hama province. ISIS militants have captured several villages in the countryside of Salamiya–main bastion for Syria’s Ismaili minority group.
“Subsequent to clashes with Syrian army troops, ISIS fighters took control of a number of villages in the area, including Taiba and Salm,” rights activist Edib Barazi told ARA News in Hama.
“The recent progress by ISIS militants has raised concerns among members of the Ismaili minority in Salamiya,” Barazi said. “People are afraid of facing a similar fate as Yezidi Kurds of Iraq if ISIS takes over Salamiya city.”
ISIS leadership issued a statement on Saturday, warning the Ismailis to surrender “or face the justice of Allah”.
The extremist group considers religious minorities like the Ismailis, Yezidis and Druzes as apostates.
Speaking to ARA News in Salamiya, Ismaili cleric Haidar al-Saleh said: “We are a peaceful minority and we had taken a neutral position towards the ongoing conflict in Syria.”
“The Ismailis try to avoid clashes with any armed group,” he said. “We are aware of the ongoing progress by ISIS in the countryside of Salamiya, and our community is highly concerned about its fate in case this radical group took over the city.”
The Ismaili cleric appealed to the international community to intervene and protect his community against possible atrocities by ISIS.
“With ISIS advance in Hama province, local minorities remember images from the ISIS atrocities against the Yezidi Kurds. We hope this nightmare won’t come true,” al-Saleh told ARA News.
In August 2014, ISIS extremists had taken control of the Yezidi Shingal district in northern Iraq, causing a mass displacement of nearly 400,000 people. Tens of thousands of Yezidi Kurds remained trapped in Mount Sinjar, suffering mass killings, kidnappings and rape at the hands of ISIS militants. Also, more than 3000 Yezidi girls have been taken by the radical group as sex slaves. The Kurdish Peshmerga troops regained control of the Yezidi Shingal region in November of 2015, after fierce battles against ISIS. The Kurdish forces have recently discovered more than five mass graves in the Yezidi region, where hundreds of Yezidi civilians have been summarily executed and buried by ISIS jihadis.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/28/2016
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[Ynet] Algerian authorities have nabbed You have the right to remain silent... a man with dual Algerian and Belgian citizenship for links with the ringleader of the Gay Paree attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a court statement said on Saturday.
The court in the Algerian city of Bejaia said 29-year-old Zahir Mehdaoui, a resident of Brussels, had been charged with belonging to a terrorist group active overseas. The court provided no further details and it was not clear when Mehdaoui was tossed in the slammer Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
Another one? It was bad, but it clearly was intended to be much, much worse.
North Korean leader Pudgy Kim Jong-un has observed the test-fire of a new anti-tank guided weapon, the North's state media reported Saturday.
Fat Boy Kim claimed the portable anti-tank laser-guided rocket has the longest firing-range in the world and its rate of hits is "as accurate as a sniper's rifle firing" as well as its armor penetrating capability and destructive power are marvelous.
"He noted with great satisfaction that even the special armored tanks and cars of the enemies, which boast their high maneuverability and striking power, are no more than a boiled pumpkin before the anti-tank guided weapon," of North Korea, the Korean Central News Agency said in an English-language dispatch, without elaborating on date of his inspection.
Boiled pumpkin? That's funny and I don't even know what that means...
The corpulent Kim also called for quickly starting massive production of the weapons and deploying them at frontline military units and coastal units.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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SERE KANIYE – A car bomb attack hit Saturday a Kurdish security checkpoint for the People’s Protection Units (YPG) near the town of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province.
Al least two Kurdish YPG members were killed and four more injured in the attack, that took place in the Ajila village in Sere Kaniye countryside on Saturday midnight.
“A car loaded with explosives hit a YPG security checkpoint in Ajila village of Sere Kaniye countryside in Hasakah. The terror attack was aimed at terrorizing the villagers, but our forces are determined to eliminate terrorism from the region and protect the civilians at any cost,” the Kurdish leadership said in a statement.
“Such cowardly attacks won’t impede our progress against terrorists of ISIS and al-Qaeda in northern Syria,” it stressed.
The Kurdish forces blamed the Islamic State (ISIS) radical group for the attack. However, ISIS hasn’t yet claimed responsibility for the operation.
This comes just hours after a western-backed two-week ceasefire came into effect between the armed groups in Syria.
Afghan Security Forces - in an operation on the outskirts of Maimana, the center of Faryab province - destroyed the main hideouts of the Taliban and 120 rebels surrendered, officials said Saturday.
The Vice President, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is leading the operation, said that the Taliban wanted to control Maimana.
Bomb building and storage centers of the Taliban were also destroyed
Jamaica's opposition narrowly won a general election on Thursday, with its message of deep tax cuts and massive job creation winning over voters weary of years of tough IMF-mandated austerity measures.
The Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) led by Andrew Holness had won 33 of the 63 seats with almost all votes counted, according to the electoral council website. Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller's party took 30 seats.
The sound of airhorns filled the JLP's headquarters in Kingston as a jubilant crowd of supporters in the party's signature green waved flags and partied to dancehall music, including a song called "Bye bye Portia, bye bye".
"We will grow the Jamaican economy. We will create jobs. We will give you an accountable and responsive government," said Holness, 43, adding that his government would address a laundry list of issues from water to housing and healthcare.
"Our mission is to move Jamaica from poverty to prosperity," he said as supporters rang bells, a party symbol.
Simpson-Miller conceded defeat to a crowd of somber voters.
Holness, who is likely to be the Caribbean nation's next prime minister, has promised to create 250,000 jobs on the island of 2.7 million people and do away with income tax for many wage earners, a move critics say will tear into the budget.
Opinion polls before the election forecast victory for Simpson-Miller after she returned the heavily indebted economy to growth and low inflation. Despite her People's National Party's socialist past, she embraced spending cuts, wage freezes and harsh fiscal discipline as part of a $1.27 billion IMF bailout that has lowered the still daunting debt burden of more than 130 percent of GDP.
Simpson-Miller, 70, is Jamaica's first female head of state. Inflation hit a 48-year low during her tenure. Falling oil prices freed up government funds in the import-dependent country and the island's GDP grew 1.3 percent last year, according to the World Bank.
However, unemployment is high at around 13 percent overall, and a whopping 38 percent for the young. While Simpson-Miller is credited with bringing stability, Holness' optimistic message was more popular in the end.
"The country wanted to exhale," one Holness supporter told local television, her name drowned out by the celebrations.
Holness criticized the government's adherence to austerity but refrained from sharp rhetoric against the IMF plan on the campaign trail. Holness briefly served as prime minister in 2011 after unrest due to a U.S. attempt to extradite drug kingpin Christopher "Dudus" Coke forced his predecessor to resign.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2016
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#1
What does "Jamaica conservative party" stands for?
Posted by: ryuge ||
02/28/2016
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#1
Bashar Assad is a bad man, but whoever replaces him will very likely do nothing to protect the remaining one million Christians there from a possible genocide
IMO, Bashar Assad problem is that, unlike his father, he wasn't bad enough
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Anbar Operations Command announced on Friday the killing of 27 ISIS members in the cleansing battles southeast of Fallujah (62 km west of Baghdad), while indicated to the destruction of three vehicles carrying automatic weapons.
The commander of the 1st regiment of Karmat Fallujah brigade in l-Hashed al-Shaabi, Colonel Mahmoud Mardi Jumaili, said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces carried out a large-scale military operation targeting ISIS gatherings in Nuaimiya area (18 km south-east of Fallujah), killing 27 fighters belonging to ISIS and destructing three vehicles carrying weapons.”
Jumaili added, “The security forces advanced significantly in the areas of Nuaimiya that witnessed a number of cleansing battles since Thursday,” pointing out that, “Large areas of Nuaimiya had been liberated.”
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – The head of the security committee in al-Wafa District Council, Hussein Kassar, announced on Saturday, that the Iraqi security forces had managed to foil a suicide attack by ISIS militants west of Ramadi.
Kassar said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “Security forces foiled a a massive suicide attack by ISIS on a security headquarters in the area of the 18th Kilometer on the international highway road west of Ramadi, resulting in the destruction of three booby-trapped vehicles and killing a suicide bomber that had worn an explosive device.”
“The suicide attack was accompanied by shelling on the district of al-Wafa (35 km west of Ramadi) by three mortar shells that resulted in wounding a child,” he also added.
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The commander of Anbar tribal fighters in the northern sector of Ramdi Ghassan Eithawi announced, that 40 fighters of the so-called ISIS were killed in a military operation north of Ramadi.
Eithawi said in a press statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces from the army, police and tribal fighters carried out a large-scale military operation targeting ISIS gatherings in the areas of Albu Bali and Albu Obaid (19 km north of Ramdi), killing 40 members belonging to ISIS and cutting their financial support lines in these areas.”
Eithawi added, “Intelligence information indicated to the presence of 70 ISIS fighters in the areas of Albu Obeid and Albu Bali, as well as 170 families used by ISIS as human shields, mostly children and women.”
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – Media officials with the Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday the killing of the ISIS military commander of Albu Daeig area south of Fallujah.
The officials said in a press statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The Eighth Division’s troops managed to kill the [ISIS] military commander in Albu Daeig south of Fallujah, known as Hussein Alawi,” noting that, “This terrorist was nicknamed as Abu Walid.”
The statement added, “The killing of Abu Walid was based on accurate intelligence.”
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – A local source in Nineveh Province announced on Saturday, that the so-called ISIS executed 12 of its fighters who fled from the battles in Anbar Province south of Mosul (405 km north of Baghdad).
The source said in a brief statement received by IraqiNews.com, “Today, ISIS executed 12 of its militants in al-Hidr District (80 km south of Mosul), after fleeing from the battlefield in Anbar Province.”
The source, who asked anonymity, added, “The execution was carried out by firing squad in a public square in the center of the district.”
Noteworthy, ISIS took over the city of Mosul in Nineveh province (405 km north of Baghdad) in the tenth of June 2014, while extended its terrorist activities to many other areas of Iraq.
600 ISIS troops leave Fallujah Never let a truce go to waste
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The leadership of al-Hashed al-Shaabi in Anbar Province announced on Saturday the escape of 600 members belonging to the so-called ISIS from the city of Fallujah (62 km west of Baghdad) to the city of Mosul in Nineveh Province (405 km north of Baghdad).
The commander of l-Hashed al-Shaabi in Karmat Fallujah brigade, Colonel Juma Fazaa Jumaili, said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The intelligence information pointed out to the escape of 600 ISIS fighters from Fallujah to Mosul.”
Jumaili added, “ISIS called its elements in Fallujah to be prepared to leave to Mosul with their families by orders of the second man in ISIS Ayad Hamid,” noting that, “Few members of ISIS remained in the city of Fallujah.”
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Anbar Provincial Council announced on Saturday the killing of 15 members of the Iraqi army and police during the dismantling of improvised explosive devices and booby-trapped houses in Ramadi (110 km west of Baghdad).
Anbar Provincial Council member Farhan Mohammed said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The dismantling of explosive devices and booby-trapped houses in the city of Ramadi that started two months ago, resulted in the killing of 15 members of the army and police.”
Mohammed added, “Thousands of improvised explosive devices still exist in Ramadi, especially in the booby-trapped homes,” pointing out that, “ISIS planted dozens of improvised explosive devices in one place.”
(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – A security source in Anbar province said Saturday, that 11 ISIS elements were killed in an aerial strike by the international coalition west of Ramadi.
The source said in a statement followed by IraqiNews.com, “The international coalition aviation targeted a gathering for ISIS in the modern village east of the city of Heet (70 km west of Ramadi), resulting in the death of all [ISIS] elements inside it,” adding that, “The coalition’s aviaition was also able to bombard a gathering for [ISIS] elements northeast of al-Baghdadi District (90 km west of Ramadi), resulting in the death of 11 elements.”
Posted by: badanov ||
02/28/2016
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GUJRANWALA: The Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) claimed to have arrested four suspected terrorists and recovered arms and ammunitions from them during a raid at their hideout in Gujranwala on Saturday.
As per details, CTD raided a hideout in the Bhagbanpura area and arrested three suspected terrorist and their facilitator. The CTD claimed to have recovered a locally-made bomb, three hand grenades, maps of key locations and heavy quantity of explosives them.
Sources said that the suspects had rented a house and they were planning to carry out a sabotage act in the city. The identity of the suspects was not disclosed. The police shifted the accused to Lahore for further investigation.
#2
The draft-dodging Bill and the lying Hillary have always hated the Military. Having never served,they do not understand the Military. The same goes for Obama.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/28/2016 11:02
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(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – A source within the police force in Baghdad province said on Saturday, that unidentified gunmen wearing military uniforms raided a house and stole 250 million dinars east of Baghdad.
The source said in a brief statement received by IraqiNews.com, “This evening, gunmen wearing military uniforms broke into a house in the area of al-Nahrawan east of Baghdad and stole 250 million dinars at gunpoint,” pointing out that, “Security forces cordoned off the area and opened a preliminary investigation into the causes of the incident.”
Aden- United States Secretary of State John Kerry , on Feb.26, announced that Iran, in Yemen, continues to support Houthi militias and the ousted President Saleh supporters . Iranian support is helping the insurgency against the legitimate administration of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. Kerry added that a cargo jam-packed with artillery was stopped en route from Iran to Yemen. The apprehended shipment proves Iran’s continuation to aid certain groups. The Saudi-led Arab coalition in Yemen had already arrested a shipment carrying relief and sustenance aid in which among were hidden developed communication devices. The EU, on Friday, expressed its disappointment regarding Yemeni peace talks going on hiatus, and called on the deliberations to be appealed under U.N. sponsorship as soon as possible.
Catherine Ray, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy Chief Federica Mogherini, said at a press conference that the solution in Yemen should be political based and instigative to negotiations. All parties are called on for participating at a negotiation session sponsored by the U.N. as soon as possible, Ray added.
Ray confirmed that the E.U. had set out the initiative of all the conflicting parties in Yemen to respect international humanitarian law and to abstain from targeting city infrastructure.
Amnesty International had accused Houthi militias and pro-Saleh militants of using brutal force against civilian protestors, in addition to kidnapping activists.
In its annual report Amnesty International mentioned that Houthi and pro-Saleh militias have reportedly killed at least 10 protestors in Sana’a, Taiz, and Ibb. According to the report, militia members have also wounded hundreds, and randomly arrested governmental supporters, journalists, and humanitarian rights’ defenders.
Moreover, the report shed light on Houthi militias tightening their grip around the freedom of forming associations and the public joining them. They have shut-down over 27 NGO’s and threatened their administrations and employees.
Medical facilities and their staff are being attacked by Houthi militants and pro-Saleh insurgents that have struck both medical team employees and patients. The attacks gravely endangered patients by turning medical facilities into battlefields in which bullets are exchanged. Facilities near Aden and Taiz have specifically suffered the humanitarian law disrespect of the insurgent Houthis and pro-Saleh fighters.
Amnesty International stated that Houthi militants are using real bullets against unarmed protestors in the Ibb governorate on Feb. 16, and thus resulted in wounding a fair number of civilian protestors. On Feb.21, the militants also resorted to shooting at protestors killing one of them, Nasr al-Shoja’a. Rolling down the list, Houthis used cruel violence against any of those who went out on a peaceful protest namely employing tear gas and live bullet rounds to separate a gathering in Taiz. At least 8 protestors were killed there, and over 30 were injured. 300 protestors later-on needed medical attention after they inhaled tear gas.
Posted by: badanov ||
02/28/2016
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#1
Today Trump has been called a Frankenstein, The day before a new Hitler. Today a comic has him bald. Witch is it too much hair or not enough. The media smear and Republicans are doing an number on him. The Democrats just sit back and enjoy. Among the working people(men) I have found tremendous support for him. This smear campaign has no effect on them. They know how this works in this country. They have been handed the hind end and smeared themselves for too long. The women refer to his being married four times. That's all it takes for some women.
#2
Smear? Its not a smear to tell the truth about an egomaniacal, progressive, a fraudster (trial ongoing), a gangster-associate guy, rich boy who would shred the constitution (see hsi staements on libel that would tear up part of the first amendment), who lies outright, who brought in illegals to do work, and who has never been challenged by the press on his lies. On top of that he has an authoritarian streak a mile whide. This morning he retweeted uncritically a Mussolini quote.
In my opinion, and the face of the facts, anyone supporting him is either uninformed or delusional.
Time for those people to wake up - Trump is not your savior, or your friend. He is a con man pulling a con job, and is not to be trusted with the Presidency.
Plus he is the ONLY GOP candidate who consistently loses polls to Bernie and Hillary.
Donald Trump for the GOP means Hillary is the president, and with tons of conservatives staying hoime, there goes the Senate - and the Supreme court. OPEN YOUR EYES
#3
You forgot to add all those KKK supporters (Including David Duke), antisemitic groups, and Neo-Nazis, white supremacists who support Trump. David Duke said to go to volunteer to help Trump campaign because "you’re gonna meet people who are going to have the same kind of mindset that you have" and "“Voting for these people, voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your heritage"
"The white race is dying out in America and Europe" William Johnson, the leader of the white nationalist American Freedom Party "Don’t vote for a Cuban. Vote for Donald Trump."
You are known by the company you keep.
Yes we need a wall and borders kept safe - but at the cost of the republic? No thanks, there are better alternatives for anyone willing to look. Open your eyes and look, Trump is the wrong person and he is not who you think he is.
Imagine how Hillary Clinton will be using this kind of crap.
And this is not even tip of the iceberg.
This is obviously a stunt man but people actually think this stuff is for real.
Watch the videos and then watch the campaign debates again.
I have videos of Trump saying the exact same thing on the campaign stump as he says in the wrestling ring.
#8
It is obvious people have their own opinions. Any strong independent thinking leader is attacked on the Republican side. I get this garbage from my left leaning Obama friends. Go your own way as the media and elites do. The silent majority is ruling the day. Watch and gnash your teeth at their stupidity. Soon your only selection will be the RINO Rubio or Romney. Then watch the voters stay home. That's what the establishment wants. That has been the plan all along.
#9
Maine Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican known for his outspoken opinions and war against political correctness, became the second sitting governor to endorse the billionaire media mogul.
The republic is dead save rituals and ceremonies, just like old Rome. Too much power and money has been concentrated and those holding them are not going to give them up politely. You have an oligarchy. You lie to yourselves like the Left who believe that Socialism is economically viable.
Can I say too -
"In my opinion, and the face of the facts, anyone supporting him who thinks otherwise is either uninformed or delusional."
You have your choice - Caesar, Pompey, or Crassus.
Big choice, a egotistical, opportunistic, boorish, crony capitalist who is pro-American or a power hungry anti-American socialist.
#11
"Donald Trump’s son, Eric, said something remarkable about his father’s run for president.
“For him, it’s actually a very selfless thing, if you think about it,” Eric remarked.
He meant that it was very selfless for Trump to put aside his multi-billion-dollar business enterprise to run for office and “get shot at by every media outlet in the world.” From Conservative Tribune
#12
Dale, you keep on ignroing the facts and drinking the Strong Leader koolaide. Thats what gets you an Obama. Or in this case, a Hillary. Trump is not going to win the general, and the fact is 2/3 of the party so far has voted for someone other than him. If you think you can get elected wioth this mystical "silent majority" of KKKlansmen, white supremacists and people who are duped by a fraud-prone liar, and win by alienating conservatives completely with this Planned Parenthood and Obamacare praising cronyist tool? You are gravely mistaken. And people will demand you publicly apologize and grovel for your role in the destruction of the country.
Way to go, you've screwed us all. Wake up before its too late.
#15
Maine Gov. Paul LePage, and Sessions today and Christie Friday. I guess everyone is wrong.
Mitt Romney has five sons who essentially said the same thing, as Eric Trump, about their wealthy father.
Mitt Romney had the endorsement of more than a hundred sitting Senators and Representatives (including Jeff Session)s. Not to mention hundreds of former congressmen.
Mitt Romney had the endorsement of 28 sitting Governors (including both Paul LePage, and Chris Christie).
One Virginia police officer has died, and two others were hurt, after they were shot while responding to the scene of a Prince William County domestic-related shooting, police said.
The police officer who died was Officer Ashley Guindon, Prince William County Police tweeted. An officer with the same name had just been sworn in and started her job Friday.
Police said the shooter was in custody.
Friends and families of the officers had gathered at the hospital Saturday night, News4's Julie Carey reported, as they waited for word on the officers' conditions.
The shooting happened in the 13000 block of Lashmere Court in Woodbridge, Virginia. Several roads are blocked in the area of Quate Lane at Delaney Road during the investigation.
(The Loadstar) – The Panama and Suez canals could be the next institutions to be affected by the ongoing crisis in the container shipping industry, according to new analysis from Africa ports analyst and monitoring service portoverview.com
The twin factors of cellular overcapacity and rock-bottom bunker costs have, over the past year, led carriers to divert multiple sailings away from the world’s two principal trade arteries and reroute vessels around the southern African cape.
Its six-month report for the second half of 2015 quoted analysis from SeaIntel (portoverviw.com co-owner), which showed that since the end of October 2015, 115 vessels deployed on Asia-USEC and Asia-North Europe services have made the back-haul trip to Asia by sailing round the Cape of Good Hope rather than through the canals despite using them on the headhaul legs.
Three of these vessels were deployed on Asia-North Europe services, while the remaining 112 were returning to Asia from the US east coast.
“Normally, 78 of those voyages would have gone through the Suez Canal, and as 53 of the voyages were in 2015, it would have meant that the number of container vessel passing the Suez Canal in 2015 would ‘only’ have decreased by 1.9% year-on-year, instead of the reported 2.8%. The other 37 vessels would normally have passed through the Panama Canal,” portoverview.com said.
“SeaIntel concludes that both the canals face a significant challenge in the current low bunker price, as it means that for many services it is cheaper to sail south of Africa on the backhaul than to use the canal routings,” it added.
“The canals have a particular disadvantage in regard to the USEC-Asia services, where it is currently economically viable for 14 out of 22 services to sail south of Africa on the backhaul, and it would probably be viable for almost all of them if intermediate port calls were dropped.”
It is even viable for sailings from North Europe to Asia to route via South Africa, “if the intermediate calls were dropped or switched to other services”, it said.
“Currently, the carriers are only using the south of Africa routing on the backhaul legs and retaining the transit time, but considering the financial situation of most carriers, and keeping in mind the relative ‘ease’ with which the carriers implemented both slow-steaming and super slow-steaming, going south of Africa on the head-haul is going to look very alluring for some carriers, if indeed they can re-route the cargo from the intermediate port calls.”
There is a further, compelling, reason for carriers to route via South Africa: in addition to avoiding canal transit fees, the elongated sailing route, which adds another week to transit times, could potentially “soak up” between 60-80 vessels, of which half would be ultra-large container vessels, and take out some of the industry overcapacity which is causing freight rate volatility.
The Loadstar is fast becoming known at the highest levels of logistics and supply chain management as one of the best sources of influential analysis and commentary.
Check them out at TheLoadstar.co.uk, or find them on Facebook and Twitter.
#3
Item 1: During the time frame in question, both canals were undergoing expansion projects that created delays.
Item 2: Earlier this month the Panama Canal experienced a traffic jam of epic proportions. Almost a week with over 100 vessels waiting for transit at any one time.
Go read GCaptain for info on commercial shipping.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/28/2016 9:31
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#4
I remember whe Flight Sim 10 came out, you could see the New excavation of the big new locks. Started by ' mericans of course in 1939. Excavation mostly complete, built to allow (in theory) The passage of the then planned Montana Class BBz. Coral Sea and Midway could have made passage as well, but they were unknown and unplanned.
We are fast approaching the 74th Anniversary of the carrier engagements at Coral Sea and Midway. Dawg bless you Wade McClusky where-ever you are.
#5
The rates Panama will charge on very large container ships will be $450k for a transit through the canal. This will be a major influence on whether the ship goes through the canal or around the Cape of Good Hope; even when bunker fuel prices rise back up.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/28/2016 13:51
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#6
Here is a screen shot of the Panama Canal traffic I took on February 11 using the MarineTraffic app. The ship icons are ones moving and the diamonds are anchored ships. Backlog for transit at that time was at least one week, unless one was willing to pay higher transit fees to cut in line.
The new locks that will double traffic were scheduled to be opened in April, but are not to be opened to June, due to cold concrete joints and major water leaks on the base of one of the new locks.
I wonder how the upgrades in both the Suez and Panama Canals will be utilized when the canal authorities raise their transit fees to what they think that the market will bear. Shades of Nassar.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/28/2016 14:12
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#7
2013 information about transiting the Panama Canal I found on the web.
"Cargo ships are billed $82 per full container, $74 for an empty one. (So you really don’t want to have a lot of empties.) Then in a system that seems like it was copied from U.S. airlines, there are lots of extra fees on top of that. The ship passing by in the photo above was loaded with 3,800 containers, so here’s what the captain paid:
– $321,446 for the containers
– $11,445 for the work of 7 tugboats
– $4,745 for ground assistants
– $3,600 for ground wires
When they exit the other side of the canal, that transit alone will have added 1/3 of a $million to the cost of the goods on the ship. So if you’re in Boston getting coffee from Sumatra or a car from Korea, keep this in mind when you look at the price."
LINK
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/28/2016 14:52
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#8
AP: a standard shipping container can carry about 50,000/pounds of material.
Retail, coffee costs about 8.00 a pound. I don't have a bag handy, I will estimate the dimensions as about 3" x 5" x 10", or 150 cubic inches.
The standard TEU has a weight capacity of about 47,600 (I forgot about the container itself), and a cubic capacity of 1360 cubic feet.
So if my guesstimate is right, I wind up with
(/ (* 1360 12 12 12) 150.0) which evaluates to 15667.2 pounds, which retails for $ 125,000, of which the 82.00 fee per TEU is .06 %, or .0006.
Assuming, of course, you're shipping the coffee in vacuum packed bags in a TEU.
#9
You're right Snowy. Calculating costs is a complicated affair. It is a big equation that both sides (canals and ship owners) play to maximize profits. A miscalculation on the part of a canal will lose traffic even though it costs the ship owners more time. With the Baltic dry index so low, ship profits are really squeezed.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/28/2016 17:27
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#10
Sniff, sniff, IS THERE NO LOVE FOR THE NICARAGUA CANAL, THE ONE AFGAIK THAT CONTRACTOR CHINA HAS YET TO START BUILDING???
Iff-n-when Beijing does start contruction of same, IMO 'tis all the more reason again for the US to dredge to RIO GRANDE from TX side to Baja, CA or Baja Peninsula-Sea.
#11
Hello, Joe in Guam. I have thought of that idea but the length and the topo would make it cost prohibitive. Instead of a wall one could build a moat, heh, with Mexico.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/28/2016 21:14
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[Gateway Pundit] Today Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio responded to Fox's profanity.
"If he's gonna use that word he should use it against all the dope peddlers and illegals coming into our country... At least he said one thing, they're not going to pay for the wall, but he didn't say there shouldn't be a wall. If they don't want to pay for it then take away a little foreign aid that we pay Mexico."
An explosion occurred near the entrance gate of the Defense Ministry at around 3:30pm in Kabul on Saturday, killing 9 people and wounding 13 others, Kabul police department said.
Four women were among those killed in the attack while eight civilians were reportedly among the wounded.
Security officials told TOLOnews that the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber.
An ANA soldier at the scene said the suicide bomber had been dressed in military uniform.
"He was in a military uniform, I was 15 meters away when the explosion happened. He hid the bomb under his clothes and blew himself up while among the people," Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said.
For the fifth day today, there were clashes in Sabratha as local militias and armed residents, with support from neighbouring towns, continued combing the area for fighters from the so-called Islamic State (IS) hiding after last week’s air attack by the Americans.
Sources in the town say that since the action started on Tuesday, 47 militiamen and armed supporters had been killed, all from Sabratha. Another 101 had been wounded, 83 from Sabratha, 14 from Ajilat, two from Zintan and one each from Jmail and Sorman.
There are no figures of IS casualties. However, for the first time, there are also reports of women IS fighters, at least three of whom are said have been killed.
Continued on Page 49
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02/28/2016
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At least four members of security forces loyal to Libya's recognized government were killed Friday in a car bombing in the city of Benghazi, the military said, in an attack claimed by ISIS.
Military spokesman Colonel Abdullah al-Shahaafi told AFP that the blast went off in the Hawari district of the city.
ISIS claimed the attack in a statement posted on Islamist websites, saying more than 25 were killed and that it targeted forces of General Khalifa Haftar, the recognised government's chief of staff.
Haftar's forces on Tuesday recaptured a jihadist stronghold in the Mediterranean city.
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02/28/2016
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[Bangkok Post] Thai security authorities quickly dismissed a claim by former prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh that a Daesh cell was active in southern Thailand. Chavalit said he wondered if the government was aware that a group calling itself "Black Swan" which, according to him, is a Daesh affiliate, was establishing a presence in the far South. He was responding to a question about security matters during a meeting Thursday with reporters.
Gen. Chavalit urged the government to launch a probe into the Black Swan group, saying the conflict in the southern Thailand has changed. Fourth Army commander, Wiwat Pathomphak, said he has not heard of the Black Swan group and there has not been any recent intelligence reports about it. Wiwat said security forces were monitoring reports about Daesh although there has not been any sign of Daesh activity in Thailand so far, said Lt Gen Wiwat.
Jeh-aming Totayong, a former Democrat Party MP for Narathiwat, challenged Gen Chavalit to prove his claim about Daesh-linked activities in the in the far Suoth. Mr Jeh-aming said the former prime minister should not resort to spreading rumors to frighten the Thaksin Shinawatra camp who were lining up to discredit Thailand. He accused Chavalit of attempting to link the insurgency as part of a political agenda similar to the way Thaksin was now renewing his attempts to discredit Thailand from overseas where he is in exile.
Meanwhile, one security source said both the National Intelligence Agency and the Immigration Bureau told a previous meeting of security agencies they had been alerted by their counterparts in other nations that one or two Syrian nationals, who are members of Daesh, had traveled to Thailand on tourist visas. According to the source, the two Syrian nationals had gone to Thailand's far South. This led to a search for the pair and a security alert both in the deep South and Bangkok, said the source.
Three Egyptian army officers have been prosecuted and handed prison sentences ranging from 5 years to life in prison for plotting to overthrow President al-Sisi. The three officers, a naval Colonel and two infantrymen, were found guilty of plot against President al-Sisi by an Egyptian military court.
London-based Qatari media The New Arab reports that two of the officers were sentenced to life in prison while the third received a five-year term in prison.
This is the fourth case of an alleged military coup against President al-Sisi since he came to power in 2013.
Last year in October, 26 army officers were handed sentences ranging from five years to life in prison for disclosing military secretes and attempting to overthrow the regime. Also in December, three army officers were sentenced to death for planning to assassinate the Egyptian President. Prominent Egyptian investigative journalist and right activist Hossam Bahgat was detained for several days over publication of a report covering the secret trial of the 26 officers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2016
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#1
Practically from the creation of the Muslim Brotherhood there has followed its attempt to infiltrate the Egyptian military. It even had its own fighting unit in the early months of the war with Israel. Perhaps the most significant military man to join the Muslim Brotherhood was Anwar Sadat. He did so in his youth and remained a fellow-traveller until his death by, ironically, former Muslim Brothers.
Pirates don't get the protection of the law. That's been established law for a couple thousand years...
US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Wednesday that a Somali man convicted of piracy cannot withdraw his plea deal.
Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse was the sole surviving pirate suspect from the hostage-taking of commercial ship captain Richard Phillips from the Maersk Alabama. Muse was prosecuted as an adult after the lower court determined he was at least 18 years old during the 2009 hijacking. Muse is currently sentenced to over 30 years in federal prison.
A number of countries around the world have taken actions in the attempt to solve the problem of maritime piracy. In 2014 security forces arrested Somali pirate Mohamed Garfanji, then second-in-command of Somalia’s pirate industry.
In 2013 a judge for the US District Court Eastern District of Virginia sentenced Somali pirates Abukar Osman Beyle and Shani Nurani Shiekh Abrar to 21 life sentences for their roles in the killing of four Americans aboard a yacht off the Horn of Africa in February 2011.
Also that year three Somali pirates accused of hijacking a private yacht off the coast of Somalia in 2009 faced trial in France. In February 2013 the Abu Dhabi Federal Appeal Court upheld the sentences of 10 Somali pirates convicted of highjacking a UAE-owned bulk-carrier ship in April 2011.
In October 2012 the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court of Hamburg issued sentences for 10 Somalis who were involved in the hijacking the German freighter MS Taipan off the coast of Somalia two years ago.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2016
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#1
Hanseatic Higher Regional Court?
Who knew?
Punished by:
Death by Herring
Or Hot Beeswax down the gullet
Forcefully changing his name to Amber Muse.
At least two Egyptian police officers have been killed and two others injured when a roadside bomb explosion struck their armored vehicle in the country’s volatile Sinai Peninsula, security and medical sources say, Press TV reported.
About time to close the border crossing at Rafah again, isn't it...
They've been flowing out through the few remaining tunnels to join Ansar Bayt al Maqdis, including Hamasniks. Several thousand recently, as I recall.
In that case, start up the sea water pumps...
The sources said an explosive device targeted the policemen’s car south of the border town of Rafah, located 340 kilometers (211 miles) east of the capital, Cairo, on Saturday.
No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the act of violence yet. Security forces have launched an investigation into the attack.
The attack came only three days after at least 12 members of the Takfiri Velayat Sinai terrorist group were killed and 10 others injured during counter-terrorism operations south of Rafah. Egyptian troopers also clashed with the extremists south of the town of Sheikh Zuweid, situated 334 kilometers (214 miles) northeast of the capital, and detained 38 of them.
Terrorists Militants from the Takfiri Velayat Sinai group, previously known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, have claimed responsibility for most of the attacks, mainly targeting the army and police. In November 2014, the group pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is mainly wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/28/2016
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The Afghan National Army (ANA) forces released a group of thirty five civilians imprisoned by Taliban during a night raid in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the raid was conducted by the Special Operations Forces of the Afghan National Army (ANA) in Nad-e-Ali district.
A statement by MoD said the group of thirty civilians included five women, five men and twenty five children who were kept in a cell run by the Taliban militants.
The statement further added that seven Taliban militants were also arrested during the operation.
The Taliban militants group has not commented regarding the report so far which comes as the Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant in this province during the recent weeks.
The deteriorating security situation in Helmand forced the Afghan army to retreat from three bases last week with the Afghan defense officials saying the step was taken in a bid to help the resources for the improvement of security in other parts of the province.
The bases were located in the restive Musa Qala and Nawzad districts where around 400 security personnel were stationed.
Helmand has been witnessing constant fighting since the combat mission by the coalition security forces formally concluded by the end of 2014.
[IsraelTimes] Security forces located and jugged ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... three unarmed Paleostinians who illegally crossed the Gazoo Strip border fence into Israeli territory Saturday.
Residents of the Eshkol Region were previously instructed to stay indoors, Channel 10 reported, while the IDF combed the area for the infiltrators.
The manhunt was launched after a possible breach was reported at the Gazoo Strip security fence. The three Paleostinians were taken into a nearby security facility for questioning.
[LA Times] Three people were stabbed, including one who was critically wounded, and several others were arrested when a Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim erupted in violence Saturday, police said.
A small group of people representing the Klan had announced that it would hold a rally at Pearson Park at 1:30 p.m., police said. By 11 a.m., several dozen protesters showed up at the park to confront the Klan.
Two groups of fools looking for a fight, which they found...
About an hour later, several men in black garb with Confederate flag patches arrived and were escorted by police around the edge of the park.
Violence erupted and some of the protesters could be seen kicking a man whose shirt read "Grand Dragon." At some point, a protester collapsed on the ground bleeding, crying that he had been stabbed.
Nationwide, the number of active KKK groups increased to 190 in 2015 after falling in 2013 and 2014, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
I would assume most of the groups are in the 5-15 person range if we include significant others and some dogs, which means on the order of 1,000-3,000 members nationwide, up by 15-30 from the 2014 level -- if the increase were significant, the reporter would have said so in disapproving tones.
Then again, the data are from the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the more vicious, nasty, disreputable progressive groups on the planet. If they told me that the sun rose in the east, I'd be outside the next morning with a compass.
26/02/2016 – The Netherlands – Mosques receive menacing letters
Dozens of mosques in Holland have reportedly received letters claiming that Muslims are devil worshippers. The leaflet expressed that the Mosques in question could expect to receive important visitors, pigs, reports DutchNews.
Dutch Labour member of parliament Ahmed Marcouch has called on the government to give Mosques protection and has asked ministers to make statements on the letters.
26/02/2016 – VIENNA, Austria – Migrants stabbing attack at shopping centre
Five Afghan youths aged between 15 and 25 years old were responsible for a “bloody and exceedingly brutal” stabbing attack at ‘The Mall’ shopping centre in Vienna on Wednesday. Four men, two of whom were Iranian migrants, were attacked and injured, and eyewitnesses claimed a gun was discharged during the altercation, reports Kronen Zeitung.
The men were later arrested by police and a pistol found on one of the perpetrators was reported by police to be a “toy” — possibly a blank firing pistol.
26/02/2016 – FULDA, Germany – Migrant charged with 200 crimes set free
A migrant caught by police masturbating on an intercity train has been released despite boasting an impressive rap sheet. The 22 year old Eritrean migrant has been charged with 189 complaints of fraud, 40 thefts and charges for trespass and criminal damage yet walked free after caught pleasuring himself on a train in Fulda.
26/02/2016 – BUDAPEST, Hungary – Hungary could vote on EU in 150 days
REUTERS — Hungary could hold a referendum on European Union-mandated migrant resettlement quotas in 150 days at the earliest as the government’s referendum question makes its way through the legal system, the justice minister said on Friday.
“The earliest possible time is 150 days, while the latest is 250 days,” Laszlo Trocsanyi told a news conference.
Hungary has been at odds with the European Commission and some fellow EU countries over how to handle a migrant influx into the bloc. Prime Minister Viktor Orban proposed a referendum on Wednesday to see whether Hungarians accepted the quotas, something his government opposes.
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.
In describing how little room the Pentagon has to extend the life of its decades-old nuclear forces, the top U.S. nuclear war-fighting commander, Navy Adm. Cecil Haney, says "we're at the brick wall stage."
Defense Secretary Ash Carter has made it official: ISIS has saved one of its deadliest enemies, the U.S. Air Force's A-10 Thunderbolt.
North Korea is expected to respond forcefully to a resolution set to pass at the United Nations Security Council, and to the upcoming U.S.-South Korea joint military drills.
[World Post] The birthday of the world's oldest president had more than a touch of the tragic and the absurd. 
The motives behind the highly publicized execution of Jang Sung Taek, the uncle of current North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, have been open to question, but a South Korean analyst said Jang's ambition to restore an old power structure could have played a role in his death sentence.
Three young Muslim men were found shot to death in Fort Wayne, Indiana, this week in an "execution-style" slaying, reported WANE-TV.
Tehran is spending billions under the Iran nuclear deal to buy arms, including advanced Russian fighters. The U.S. has a weapon -- our U.N. veto -- but 
[Tim Harford] It is intriguing to contemplate some of the less obvious effects [of cheap oil] . Charles Courtemanche, a health economist at Georgia State University, has found a correlation between low gasoline prices and high obesity rates in the United States. That is partly because, when oil prices are high, people may get out of their cars and walk, cycle or get public transport. Cheap gasoline, on the other hand, puts disposable income into the pockets of families who are likely to spend it on eating out. Low oil prices may make us fat.
[Bangkok Post] Seven policemen and a female civilian were wounded by a car bomb that exploded near a Border Patrol Police base in Pattani province on Saturday afternoon. The blast at the BPP base in Muang district sent thick black smoke into the sky, forcing security forces to seal off the area.
The head of the Libyan armed forces, General Khalifa Hafter, has offered remaining militant fighters in Benghazi deal under which they will be assured a fair trial if they hand in their weapons and surrender.
Security forces have launched operation against militants in Atghar District of southern Zabul which according to officials has been successfully going on.
[CHICAGO.SUNTIMES] Yemeni security officials say Saudi-led 
UCH SHARIF: At least three robbers were killed in an alleged shootout in the Uch Sharif area, Bahawalpur on Saturday.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least three 
[RFE/RL] Moscow-backed Chechen chief Ramzan Kadyrov has said he is ready to resign. Kadyrov's current term of office is due to end in early April.
At least four members of security forces loyal to Libya's recognized government were killed Friday in a car bombing in the city of Benghazi, the military said, in an attack claimed by ISIS.
Three Egyptian army officers have been prosecuted and handed prison sentences ranging from 5 years to life in prison for plotting to overthrow President al-Sisi. The three officers, a naval Colonel and two infantrymen, were found guilty of plot against President al-Sisi by an Egyptian military court.
