[Army Times] Sgt. Cesilia Valdovinos was at a chapel at Fort Carson, Colorado, for a suicide prevention briefing on March 6 when she says her command sergeant major grabbed her by the arm, took her outside and made her remove her religious head covering in front of others.
The senior noncommissioned officer believed that Valdovinos, 26, who has an approved exemption from her brigade commander to wear a hijab in uniform, was wearing her hair out of regulations underneath it, she told Army Times on Tuesday.
"To me, it was the same thing as if they had asked someone to take their top off," the soldier, a member of the 704th Brigade Support Battalion, said.
[Free Beacon] Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) agreed capitalism has historically been a "force for good" during an interview Wednesday, reiterating she believes in markets that were closely watched by "a cop on the beat."
On Morning Joe, MSNBC co-host Willie Geist noted the emerging tensions between socialism and capitalism in the nascent Democratic primary fight, and he recalled how Warren, one of the top candidates in the race, called herself a capitalist "down to my bones."
"I believe in markets," Warren said. "I see the benefits that markets can produce."
Warren said Wall Street regulators in the past had allowed big banks to get wealthy on the backs of "millions of families" and crashed the economy during last decade's mortgage crisis.
"When there's a cop on the beat, those markets start to work again," she said. "Banks, in that case, are forced to develop their profit models, not on cheating people, but on actually offering a better product."
"Despite its flaws ... Do you believe capitalism over the course of history has been a force for good?" Geist asked.
#4
Ask yourself this: Who would join a p0ker game where someone else held their ch!ps, placed their b3ts and ultimately walked away with all their w!nn!ngs?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/14/2019 9:57
Comments ||
Top||
[ABC] The reputed leader of the Gambino crime family -- once headed by infamous mobster John Gotti -- was gunned down outside his home late Wednesday.
Francesco 'Franky Boy' Cali, 53, was found with multiple gunshot wounds to his body outside his home on Staten Island, according to the New York Police Department.
Paramedics transported Cali to Staten Island University North hospital after responding to the home at 9:17 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the hospital, police said.
Police said there have been no arrests and an investigation is ongoing. No gun has been found.
[Daily Caller] A Georgia lawmaker proposed a "testicular bill of rights" package Monday in response to the state’s advancement of a bill to outlaw abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
Democratic state Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick seeks to regulate male bodies in response to what she contests is the regulation of women’s wombs.
The bill would require men to ask permission from their partners before taking Viagra or erectile dysfunction medication and wait 24 hours before purchasing a sex toy. The lawmaker wants to classify sex without a condom as "aggravated assault" and ban vasectomy procedures.
Men would also be forced to begin paying child support before a woman reaches eight weeks in pregnancy.
#5
Only problem. Our balls are part of our body. A fetus isn't part of a woman's. Strange how the infanticide crowd keeps trying to avoid/deny that. It is almost like they don't want people to realize it is a separate, living thing.
#6
Kendrick has interned for Congresswomen Cynthia McKinney and Denise Majette, as well as State Representative George Maddox.Kendrick has interned for Congresswomen Cynthia McKinney and Denise Majette, as well as State Representative George Maddox.
So, a racialist idiot
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/14/2019 8:45
Comments ||
Top||
#7
#6 The norm for women these days. Especially Democrats but not all I guess. Maybe not entirely so. I think. I hope. I don't really know.
#8
If we are going to play silly games, shouldn't a woman who gets an abortion be on the hook for the federal and state tax revenue that would have been paid by the abortee?
#9
So, if a man is being responsible enough too get a vasectomy so he don't knock a bunch of women up, you wanna take that away. That makes a hell of alot of sense there. Someone should shoot that stupid cunt in the head.
Posted by: chris ||
03/14/2019 11:28
Comments ||
Top||
#10
#5 Exactly right. We have all been babies in our mothers' bodies; but we certainly know that we aren't our mothers.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/14/2019 14:44
Comments ||
Top||
[Breitbart] Authorities in a district of rural Germany covered up a long list list of asylum seeker crimes including rape, assault, and child sex abuse so as not to "stir up prejudice", it has been alleged.
Internal police figures revealed 117 criminal offences took place at refugee housing in Boostedt, northern Germany, during the last three months, and that third world migrants housed in other accommodation in the municipality were listed as suspects in a further 23 crimes.
But officers neglected to announce the incidents after orders from the Interior Ministry instructed police that "active" notifications from the force’s press office on potential migrant involvement in crimes would be "irresponsible", and likely to "stir up prejudice", local media reports.
#3
Not the first time the police — in Germany and elsewhere — have themselves leaked reports like this, frustrated and disgusted by the concealments demanded by their political masters.
#5
After awhile the politicians have trouble concealing their misdeeds. The pooh runs down their legs and it get's hard to convince the populace that they haven't shat in their pants.
[AnNahar] Niger said Wednesday it had killed 33 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... "terrorists" and seized vehicles and weapons in an operation in the Lake Chad region in the country's southeast.
"Offensive actions carried out on Tuesday inflicted heavy losses on the enemy," a defence ministry statement read on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said.
"Thirty-three hard boyz (were) killed" while there were no losses on the army's side, it said.
An "armoured vehicle" was destroyed, while two other vehicles, two cycle of violences, a 120-millimetre mortar, 10 AK-47 assault rifles, two 60mm shells and 3,736 rounds of all calibres were seized, it said.
The operation began on Saturday, it said -- a day after seven police and 38 jihadists were killed near Gueskerou in the southeastern region of Diffa, according to a government toll.
Diffa borders the birthplace of Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria and has suffered a string of cross-border raids and population displacement.
An estimated 27,000 people have been killed and two million others displaced since Boko Haram launched its insurgency in 2009.
Lake Chad, which straddles parts of Niger, Nigeria and Chad, has borne the brunt of the jihadists' hit-and-run attacks.
In November, around a dozen girls were taken in raids on several border villages, while seven local employees of a French drilling firm and a government official were killed after suspected Boko Haram button men stormed their compound.
On February 16, seven Nigerien soldiers were killed in an attack on the border village of Chetima Wangou.
A year-end government offensive, combining land and air forces, killed more than 280 bad boys, Niger's armed forces maintained on January 3.
[IsraelTimes] The remand of a minor nabbed Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! over the throwing of a Molotov cocktail at police on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City is extended until Sunday, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
The broadcaster reports that a second minor suspected of direct involvement in hurling the Molotov cocktail will be brought before the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court later today for a hearing on extending his remand as well.
Police closed the Temple Mount yesterday following the incident, drawing condemnations from Paleostinians and threatening to escalate recent tensions surrounding the flashpoint holy site.
The Temple Mount, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque, was reopened to worshipers this morning.
[AnNahar] Ottoman Turkish police have tossed in the slammer Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! a Danish woman suspected of joining 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.... in Syria, a state news agency said on Wednesday.
The woman, who is originally from Leb, was arrested in the northeastern city of Bursa, Anadolu agency said. She had been sought by Interpol.
The agency said the woman, who it only identified by the initials AAM, had crossed illegally into The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... and police found a fake passport in her home.
At the height of Islamic State's self-declared "caliphate", when the bully boy group controlled parts of Iraq and Syria, Turkey was one of the principal routes for imported muscle trying to join the jihadists.
Ankara has since cracked down on the frontier and has stepped up arrests and expulsions of suspected foreign IS fighters.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/14/2019
00:06 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Libya Observer] Malta has seized control of the Valletta-based Libyan Islamic Center of the Islamic Dawa Community in the country as it failed to pay financial dues for over 4 years, media sources reported.
The sources added that the move of the Maltese government is prompted by the community's corrupted bodies which led to freezing its bank accounts and the delay of money transfers to its overseas offices.
The sources added that the Libyan Islamic Center in Malta is very pivotal and one of the oldest schools for Arab and Moslem communities.
The Islamic Dawa Community blamed the Libyan Foreign Bank for the seizure of its properties abroad.
It called on the Presidential Council to stop the hindering stance taken by the Libyan Foreign Bank and order it to unfreeze its assets so it doesn't lose its overseas activities.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[DailyWire] Yesterday, the U.S. Senate confirmed, by a 54-45 vote, Paul Matey to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The Third Circuit has federal appellate jurisdiction for the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. With the confirmation of Matey, the Third Circuit becomes the first of the 13 federal appellate circuits to "flip" control under President Donald Trump from majority Democratic nominees to majority Republican nominees. To give a little context, Matey is the 35th Trump nominee to be confirmed to a federal circuit court of appeals. In other words, it took 35 appointments to flip a single circuit. The 4th, 10th and 11th circuits remain heavily foobared with Obama appointees, and we are running out of vacancies.
Yes, but loading the lower courts with conservative judges means they will be the pool from which future appeals court vacancies will be filled. A march through the institution, to coin a phrase.
#1
First attorney to use the phrase "Arrgh Matey" gets a contempt citation.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/14/2019 7:22
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Look on the bright side. Had Clinton won, all the Circuit Courts would have been ineluctably left-wing for the next quarter century. Trump still has seventeen nominations to go.
There are 6 circuit judges awaiting confirmation (two on the 2nd and four on the 9th).
There are 3 more vacancies without nominees (3rd, 5th and 9th circuits).
There is one announced future vacancy on the 2nd.
That's it. There will, of course, be additional vacancies but for now that's all the action on the appeals courts. The next stage of this drama will be filling the 129 vacancies on district courts -- which is where the proposed rule change will be helpful.
#6
All lubberly lawyerly smarties
Who represent relevant parties
Will cushion me banc
Or be walkin' the plank,
And addresss me as, "Cap'n," me hearties!
Posted by: Big Fillmore7511 ||
03/14/2019 18:21
Comments ||
Top||
[ALMASDARNEWS] Students and judges continued to protest in the Algerian capital of Algiers on Tuesday, against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's the fifth.... ’s decision to delay presidential elections.
Demonstrators were happy when Bouteflika announced his intention not to seek a fifth term in office.
However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... protesters went back to the streets as Bouteflika also delayed the country’s presidential elections, slated for April 18.
Bouteflika’s announcement came following weeks of mass demonstrations against his re-election bid and alleged plans to extend his 20-year rule.
Following the announcement, some critics have expressed concerns that Bouteflika did not set a date for the delayed vote, arguing that a timeline for his departure would be needed to quench the protesters’ demands.
Many fear that Bouteflika will remain in power indefinitely unless a new date for elections is set soon.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
NEW YORK (AP) ‐ Add self-flagellation to the list of ways to get a dangerous viral blood infection.
Researchers said Wednesday that they were initially puzzled how 10 British men had become infected with a little-known virus, because the men hadn’t taken risks usually associated with the infection.
But then investigators learned they had participated in blood-shedding religious rituals ‐ cutting or whipping themselves ‐ in Iraq, Pakistan, India and the United Kingdom.
"There have been suggestions that you might spread infections through this route, but it has never been described before" in a published medical study, said Dr. Divya Dhasmana of St. Mary’s Hospital in London.
She is one of the authors of the study released Wednesday in a journal published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The men were infected with human T-cell leukemia virus type 1. Most people infected with the virus never develop symptoms, but some develop terrible illnesses, like a deadly blood cancer or a debilitating nervous system condition.
#4
Don't share needles...? Sanitize surgical instruments? Whack each other with barbed whips drawing blood...One of these doesn't match the others as a sanitary practice.
"Consenting adults and all that" so what they feel like doing is their business. Female Genital Mutilation to minors, on the other hand...
[WashingtonExaminer] More than half of the illegal immigrants colonistsjugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! last year as they traveled from Canada to the U.S. were Mexican citizens, according to newly released government data.
A total of 4,316 noncitizens were arrested at the northern U.S. border in fiscal 2018, and 2,245 of those were Mexican citizens. Mexican nationals are able to fly to Canada without a visa.
Total arrests at the northern border jumped 43 percent between 2017 and 2018, and reached the highest level in eight years. In 2017, 3,027 were arrested.
Of the eight Border Patrol sectors on the northern border, the bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit ... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang... sector saw the most arrests at 1,930. Vermont's Swanton sector finished second with more than 700 apprehensions.
[NYPOST] An Oregon woman shot her ex-boyfriend in the groin in self-defense after he forced his way into her home and threatened her, police said.
Michael L. Fouch, 32, broke into his ex-girlfriend’s home in Grants Pass early Monday, police told Oregon Live. The 31-year-old woman called police after Fouch arrived, and was on the phone with them when Fouch reportedly forced himself into her bedroom, where she had hidden with her child. She fired a shot shortly after.
When paramedics arrived, they saw Fouch maimed in the driveway. They took him to a hospital and treated him for his injuries before police booked him into the Josephine County Jail on suspicion of fourth-degree assault and menacing, officials said.
Fouch reportedly threatened his ex prior to breaking into her home. Police did not file any charges against the woman. A spokesperson from the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office was not immediately available for comment. "I can say no more!"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
...Betcha he'll remember that lesson.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/14/2019 4:28
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Needed to aim higher to prevent any recidivistic behavior.
#7
She, target acquired, was engagin'
And hit his most sensitive region.
"Hon, this one's for fun..."
"Yeah, and this one's my gun!"
It was harmful to unit cohesion.
#9
Sigh, if only she had used a shotgun and took off his testicles , cracked his pubic bone , and called him a bad name. Of course the police these day might have fined her for the microaggression of name calling.
[KhaamaPress] A member of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria Khurasan (ISIS-K) group has surrendered to Afghan forces in eastern Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... , the Afghan military said Tuesday.
According to a statement released by 201st Silab, a member of ISIS-K group identified as Hezbullah
...an odd name, to be sure...
has surrendered to Afghan forces in Manogi district.
The statement further added that Hezbullah was involved in anti-government armed insurgency in Manogi district.
The 201st Silab Corps also added that Hezbullah has also handed over a weapon to armed forces after renouncing violence.
The anti-government armed snuffies including ISIS-K sympathizers have not commented regarding the surrender of the Death Eater so far.
Kunar is among the relatively volatile provinces in East of Afghanistan where both Taliban ...Arabic for students... and ISIS-K snuffies are active in some of its districts and often to carry out attacks against the government and security institutions.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Breitbart] Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, characterized Democrats’ ongoing leftward movement as "Maoist" in its efforts to "destroy the middle class and the traditions of America."
Hanson joined Tuesday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight to discuss his latest book The Case for Trump, setting the stage for 2020’s presidential election in an interview with hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak.
[KhaamaPress] At least 31 forces of Evil of al-Qaeda Network were killed during the Arclight airstrikes in southeastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan in a statement said the airstrikes were carried out in the vicinity of Geru district of Ghazni, leaving at least 31 forces of Evil dead.
The statement further added that 9 jacket wallahs were also among those killed in the airstrikes.
The airstrikes targeted a compound of al-Qaeda Network in the Indian subcontinent which was led by Qari Arif, the Ministry of said, adding that the gunnies were targeted while they were attempting to transfer gunnies from the compound.
The Ministry of defense also added that several vehicles were also destroyed during the airstrikes.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent
[Ynet] Israeli military detained early Wednesday 29 Paleostinians in the West Bank suspected of involvement in terrorist activities and violent disturbances.
The security forces seized weapons and hundreds of thousands of shekels during the arrest operation.
[Ynet] Israeli military enjugged Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! overnight Tuesday Muhammad Hassan Abu Tir, a Paleostinian parliament member representing Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw,. Abu Tir has been arrested several times in recent years and was incarcerated in an Israeli prison.
[IsraelTimes] Officials head to Geneva to rebut allegations by UN Human Rights Council that IDF soldiers committed war crimes.
A senior Israeli official said the army has opened criminal investigations into the deaths of 11 Paleostinians killed by Israeli fire during protests along the Israel-Gazoo border over the past year.
Israeli officials briefed journalists in Geneva on Wednesday to rebut allegations made in a UN Human Rights Council report last week that claims soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces unjustifiably fired on civilians and may have committed crimes against humanity in responding to violent protests along the Gazoo border.
Continued on Page 49
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) ‐Iraqi authorities announced on Wednesday the capture of nine 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.... turbans in different parts of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , the group’s previously-proclaimed capital.
"Acting up a tip-off, Nineveh police tossed in the clink Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! nine turbans of Islamic State bad boy group, for whom arrest warrants were issued for fighting security forces and targeting citizens," Baghdad Today quoted Spokesman for the Interior Ministry Saad Maan as saying in a statement.
"The arrests were made in different parts of Mosul’s eastern and western sides," the statement read.
Iraqi authorities regularly announce the capture of Islamic State Death Eaters across the country since the collapse of the group’s territorial influence in December 2017.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[ALMASDARNEWS] Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham announced on Wednesday that their forces had dismantled two boom-mobiles inside Idlib city.
In a statement, the jihadist group accused the spies from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Russian military of planting these boom-mobiles inside of Idlib this week.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham said these spies were receiving orders from the Russian military at the Hmeimim Airport in the southwestern part of the Latakia Governorate.
The Syrian Arab Army has often released footage of their spies operating behind enemy lines in the Idlib Governorates.
These spy videos have played an integral role in the Syrian Arab Army’s psychological war against Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and their allies.
[AlAhram] Russian warplanes carried out a strike co-ordinated with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... on a bad boy weapons store in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province on Wednesday, the defence ministry said, according to RIA news agency.
The strike targeted the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) bad boy group's store of drones and other weapons that it planned to use in an attack on the Russian air base at Hmeimim in western Syria, RIA cited the defence ministry as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under: al-Nusra
[DAWN] China on Wednesday put on hold a request by Britannia, La Belle France and the United States to add Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... (JeM) leader Masood Azhar to the UN terror blacklist, diplomats said.
It was the third time that the UN Security Council was considering a resolution to put Azhar on the UN sanctions blacklist, which would subject him to a global travel ban and assets freeze.
China has twice blocked -- in 2016 and 2017 -- attempts to impose sanctions on the JeM chief. The group itself was added to the terror list in 2001.
In a note sent to the council, China said it needed more time to examine the sanctions request targeting Azhar, diplomats said.
India claims that JeM has claimed the credit for the February 14 attack in Indian-Indian Kashmiree that killed 40 Indian troops.
But Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi also recently denied in a television interview that JeM had grabbed credit for the suicide kaboom.
India and Pakistain carried out air raids last month on their disputed Kashmire frontier in festivities that sent tensions soaring between the nuclear-armed countries.
India on February 26 claimed to have staged an air strike on a camp inside Pakistain that it said belonged to JeM, but Islamabad denied that any such facility had been targeted. A day later, Pakistain shot down two Indian aircraft for violating its airspace and captured an Indian pilot, who was released two days later in a peace gesture.
The government had announced last week that more than 100 members of banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organizations, including the son and brother of Azhar, including many from JeM, were tossed into the calaboose in a crackdown.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[21 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies
[Jpost] The Hezbollah terrorist organization has begun an attempt to establish and entrench a covert force in the Syrian Golan Heights.
The Lebanese Shi’ite terror group Hezbollah is building a new and dangerous terror network in Syria’s Golan Heights without the knowledge of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... , the IDF has revealed.
"The Hezbollah terrorist organization has begun an attempt to establish and entrench a covert force in the Syrian Golan Heights that is designed to act against Israel when given the order," the IDF said on Tuesday.
According to the IDF, the network ‐ called "The Golan Project" ‐ is currently in its initial stages of establishment and recruitment and is not yet operational.
It is led by senior Hezbollah commander Ali Mussa Daqduq, who spent five years in an Iraqi prison for a 2007 attack that killed five American soldiers in the Karbala Governorate. He was released in 2012, went back to Leb and was sent to Syria this past summer to establish the Golan terror network.
Other senior Hezbollah operatives involved in the clandestine project have been identified by the IDF as Bashar and Ismail Mustafa, Talal Hassoun and Fahim Abu Qais.
According to senior intelligence officers in the IDF’s Northern Command, Hezbollah’s Golan Project began in the summer following the reconquering of the Syrian Golan by regime troops.
All actions of operatives are compartmentalized and kept secret from each other and the local population to advance their project without the regime knowing.
"Hezbollah is taking advantage of the fact that Assad is busy in the north of the country and that villagers in the Syrian Golan need the money," the senior officers said, stressing that "if Assad is serious then he has to have full control and know what is happening in his territory."
The Hezbollah forces of Evil are currently focusing on familiarizing themselves with the Syrian Golan Heights and on gathering intelligence on Israel and the border area. They are also working to establish intelligence gathering capabilities against Israel, operating from civilian observation posts and regime military positions near the border.
The Golan Project has its headquarters in Damascus and the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and there are tens of operatives operating in the Syrian towns of Hader, Quneitra and Erneh who collect intelligence on Israel and military movement on the Israeli Golan Heights.
"The proximity of these communities to Israel is what allows the operatives to conduct observations continuously and without revealing their true goal ‐ to convey information about the regular activities of our forces to Hezbollah and the leaders of the network," the military said.
According to the senior officers, the operatives have weaponry available from the civil war and if needed, will receive additional weaponry from Leb or existing arsenals kept by Hezbollah and Iran in Syria.
While some of the operatives have taken part in attacks against Israel in the past, other local Syrian villagers joined for financial reasons. A portion of the operatives have undergone training by Hezbollah in sabotage, sharpshooting and firing Grad rockets ...Soviet-developed 122-mm rockets, usually launched from trucks. Newer versions are reported to have a range of up to 30 km.... "The Northern Command and the 210th Division have identified the enemy’s movements and are acting to strengthen the security response at the border by strengthening intelligence gathering capabilities, fire capabilities and are defending the sector with increased forces," said Brig.-Gen. Amit Fisher, Commander of the 210th Division.
According to Fisher, IDF troops "are operating overtly and covertly to locate the enemy, force them away from the border and ensure security near the border."
Last week, Syrian media reported that the IDF shelled Hader, and a similar incident occurred on February 11 with local Syrian media reporting that the IDF shelled a position in the city of Quneitra.
Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later admitted that the IDF had struck positions in Syria’s Quneitra district in February, stating that Israel is "operating every day, including yesterday, against Iran and its attempts to establish its presence in the area."
Senior officials later admitted that the shelling targeted Iranian-backed Shi’ite bandidosturbans who were trying to set up a base of operations near the Israeli Golan Heights.
Israel captured the Golan Heights, some 1,200 square kilometers, from Syria during the Six Day War in 1967 and unilaterally annexed it in 1981. The 1974 ceasefire accord signed following the Yom Kippur War the previous year established a buffer zone between the two enemy countries. It was patrolled by UN troops until peacekeepers were kidnapped by Syrian rebels 2014.
Syrian troops recaptured southern Syria seven years after losing the area to rebel groups and returned to its positions along with Hezbollah operatives. Both UN peacekeepers and Russian military police have been deployed along the Golan Heights border.
"We hold the Syrian Regime as the sovereign its territory and expect it to honor the terms of the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement," the military said on Tuesday, adding that "we expect it to prevent any hostile elements, including Hezbollah, from operating out of its territory. The IDF will not allow any attempt by Hezbollah to entrench itself near the border and we will act with all our might to force this terrorist organization out of the Golan Heights and ensure the stability of the region."
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning to Iran and Hezbollah that "Israel knows what you’re doing, Israel knows where you’re doing it," hours after Israel announced it had uncovered a terror cell in the Syrian Golan Heights.
The Hezbollah cell is "just the tip of the iceberg," Netanyahu, who also serves as defense minister, said on Wednesday.
"This morning Israel exposed a Hezbollah terror network on the Golan Heights. Hezbollah is a terror organization. It’s a proxy of Iran. It does Iran’s bidding and this terror network is part of Iran’s aggression against Israel," Netanyahu said in a video statement.
"So I have a clear message for Iran and for Hezbollah," he added. "Israel knows what you’re doing, Israel knows where you’re doing it. What we’ve uncovered today is just the tip of the iceberg. We know a lot more."
He warned: “Israel will continue to do all that’s necessary to defend itself. We will continue to use all means, overt and covert, to block Iran’s effort to use Syria, Lebanon and Gaza as forward bases for attacking Israel.”
[Ynet] Georgia said on Wednesday it had detained two people for handling and trying to sell $2.8 million worth of radioactive uranium-238, which can be developed into nuclear bomb material.
Western leaders have been concerned about the security of Soviet nuclear weapon materials since the 1991 break-up of the Communist colossus. Ex-Soviet Georgia has since foiled several attempts to sell uranium or other radioactive materials.
Uranium-238 is the least radioactive uranium isotope and makes up more than 99 percent of natural uranium. It cannot be used to produce the chain reaction needed for nuclear weapons, which uranium-235 is suitable for.
In disclosing the arrests in the Georgian Black Sea town of Kobuleti, the state security service did not say whether the two, whom it said were part of a criminal gang, had a buyer for the uranium-238 or where they had acquired it.
#3
Extracting U235 from U238 is done now with centrifuges. You still will need a lot of U238 for feed stock.
U238 to Pu239 will need a reactor, PLUS a really nasty multi-step chemical extraction of Pu239. It is a radioactive and toxic process. Done by remote control. More involved than a m3th lab.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/14/2019 19:03
Comments ||
Top||
#4
NOT with magick Djinn Technology!
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/14/2019 20:49
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Alaska Paul not so tricky if you don't care if those processing survive...
LOS ANGELES (AP) ‐ Colleges and companies moved swiftly to distance themselves from employees swept up in a nationwide college admissions scheme, many of them coaches accused of taking bribes and others prominent parents accused of angling to get their children into top schools by portraying them as recruited athletes.
That celebrities were among the accused parents ‐ actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman headline the list ‐ created much buzz, but other parents charged included people prominent in law, finance, fashion, manufacturing and other fields ‐ people who could afford the steep price.
At least nine athletic coaches and 33 parents were among those charged. Some parents spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, as much as $6.5 million, to guarantee their children’s admission, officials said.
#7
The whole thing is scummy but I think its worse that they are plastering the face of one of the kids on the papers and trying to maker her the face of entitlement. Maybe the kids forced the parents into breaking the law but the parents are still adults and should be take the heat alone.
[DAWN] A high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems... on Wednesday decided to amend the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Act, 2010, with stricter punishments to be imposed in an effort to bring individuals involved in money laundering to book.
The meeting discussed the legal and administrative steps taken for prevention of money laundering and the achievements so far in that regard.
Law Minister Farogh Naseem briefed the meeting about the amendments made in the Foreign Exchange Regulations Act (FERA), 1947, AML Act, 2010, and the ATA, 1997, to make money laundering laws more effective.
As per the amendment proposed for the AML Act, the punishment for money laundering crimes will be increased to up to 10 years' imprisonment while the fine will be increased to Rs5 million.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[22 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[KhaamaPress] An Arclight airstrike was carried out on a convoy of Talibs in northern Kunduz province leaving at least seven Lions of Islam dead, the Afghan military said Wednesday.
According to a statement released by 209th Shaheen Corps, the airstrike was carried out in the vicinity of Khanabad district of Kunduz.
The statement further added that the airstrike was carried out at around 12:30am on Wednesday as a Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... commander identified as Mullah Alauddin alias Wasiq was travelling to Khwajah Pesta area with his six fighters.
The convoy was identified during a surveillance mission and was subsequently targeted leaving Mullah Alauddin and his fighters dead, the 209th Shaheen Corps said, addign that the vehicles and all weapons belonging to Taliban were destroyed.
The statement by 209th Shaheen Corps also added that Mullah Alauddin was one of the key commanders of Taliban in Khanabad district and was involved in major attacks in this province.
[La Prensa] European Parliament adopted on Wednesday a report calling for the suspension of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... ''s accession process to the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... (EU), by 370 votes in favour, 109 against and 143 abstentions.
The document, drawn up by the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, highlighted Turkey's poor record in defending human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... , the rule of law, freedom of the media and the fight against corruption.
For these reasons the approved motion recommended that EU accession negotiations with Turkey be formally suspended and that relations between the two sides be redefined in terms of an effective partnership, diverting the funds still available to Ottoman Turkish civil society and not to the Ankara government.
The decision taken is of an advisory and non-binding nature, and the next steps on Turkey will be announced by the European Commission on May 29.
A draft report was released in February and harshly criticised by the Ankara authorities as biased and prejudiced against Turkey, while announcing their intention to achieve its amendment and continue EU accession talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
The EUSSR censored another country alleging "poor record in defending human rights, the rule of law, freedom of the media and the fight against corruption"??
[RADIOSHABELLE] At least five people were killed and more than 50 others were maimed in 4 landmine blasts in Goof-Gaduud, 30-Km west of Baidoa, the interim capital of the southwest state.
The regional state’s front man, Nuradin Yusuf told Radio Shabelle via phone that the kabooms resulted from IEDs planted inside a busy livestock market in the small town.
The blasts occurred as livestock traders gathered for the weekly transaction. The injured were rushed to nearby health centres in Baidoa for further treatment.
The deadly attack comes as Southwest state president, Abdiasis Hassan Mohammed Lafta Gareen is paying his first visit to Diinsoor town in Bay region.
The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... which is fighting to topple internationally backed government still controls some areas mainly in the south despite losing large ground.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)
#1
the kabooms resulted from IEDs planted inside a busy livestock market in the small town or methane.
Macdonald, while eating cold pottage:
"Aye, wheel-walking cows were high wattage,
And pressurised farts
Fueled the hearth, bless their... hearts,
Till it blasted the thatch off my cottage."
[DAWN] A Chinese official accused "anti-China forces" in the West of using Christianity to subvert the country’s political power and said worshippers must follow a Chinese form of religion.
China’s officially atheist government, which oversees religious groups through state-sponsored institutions, has tightened its grip on all faiths in recent years.
"Anti-China forces in the West are attempting to continue to influence the social stability of our country through Christianity, and even subvert the political power of our country," Xu Xiaohong, chairman of the state-backed National Three-Self Patriotic Movement Committee, which oversees the Protestant churches, said on Monday.
Speaking at the annual gathering of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a largely ceremonial advisory body, Xu described the introduction of Christianity in China as "accompanying the intense colonial aggression by the West".
Only by incorporating Chinese culture into Christianity would the religion become something Chinese people could identify with, said Xu.
For those who "subvert national security in the name of Christianity, we support the country in bringing them to justice," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
Now the Chinese are going to play the 'cultural appropriation' game too?
#7
The "colonized" Christian was vexed
By Chairman Xu's very short text
In characters two
With no "How do you do?"
Or "Your old comrade, Xu," just, "You're next."
[DAWN] Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... police on Tuesday dismissed four coppers from service for harassing and manhandling a couple at Karachi's Sea View, said SSP South Pir Mohammed Shah.
A policeman in uniform can be seen in a video ‐ available with the media and shared on social media ‐ while manhandling a woman and trying to snatch a cell phone from the man who was recording the video. "I was standing with my wife when they [coppers] came and demanded money while pointing guns [at us]," the man can be heard saying in the video.
SSP Shah said that the incident took place on Sunday morning. He said that three policeman were found directly involved in the incident, adding that few coppers bring a bad name to the entire force.
He said that ASI Zulfiqar Ali came to Sea View while abandoning his duty. The ASI and coppers Ahmed Khan, Zahid and Qurban have been dismissed from service.
"The fourth coppers, Qurban, was not on the spot but is hand in gloves with the rest of three," said the SSP.
"Initial investigation reveals that the four coppers used to work as a gang to harass and extort couples."
He also asked people who experienced such "unfortunate behaviour" by the police to come forward and report their ordeal. He assured that strict action would be taken against those involved. He mentioned that earlier four personnel of the Police Qaumi Razakars (PQR) force were nabbed Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! and later punished for extorting money from couples at Sea View.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[22 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Libya Observer] For the second time in less than a month, the UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame met with the commander of the self-styled army in eastern Libya Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... and discussed the latest developments in the country, Haftar's general command media office reported.
Local media outlets loyal to Haftar said the visit of Salame to Rajma came upon the invitation of Haftar.
On February 18, Haftar and Salame met and discussed the situation in southern Libya, Derna, and the preparations for the Libyan National Conference.
During a meeting for Salame with EU ambassadors in Libya, they expressed support for the UNSMIL efforts for political solution in Libya.
Two days ago, Salame said the National Conference would be held in less than a month, while a Libyan official cited Presidential Council sources as saying that the conference will be held in Ghadames city on March 24, adding that it could adopt the agreements made at the UAE meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[ELUNIVERSAL] On Tuesday, a strong explosion occurred in the electric substation west of Maracaibo, after having remained five days without electricity due to the fault in the Guri.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
You might have asked "where the heck is Zulia?" From wiki:
Zulia State ; Spanish: Estado Zulia, is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Maracaibo. As of the 2011 census, it has a population of 3,704,404, the largest population among Venezuela's states. It is also one of the few states (if not the only one) in Venezuela in which voseo (the use of vos as a second person singular pronoun) is widely used.
Zulia State is in northwestern Venezuela, bordering Lake Maracaibo, the largest body of water of its kind in Latin America. Its basin covers one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere.
Zulia is economically important to the country from its oil and mineral exploitation, but it is also one of the major agricultural areas of Venezuela, highlighting the region's contribution in areas such as livestock, bananas, fruits, meat, and milk.
The state is coterminous with the eponymous region of Zulia."
A land of plenty where people are starving thanks to socialism (sarc). Statism/central control and redistribution of wealth don't work except for the few elites at the top of government.
[ELUNIVERSAL] The spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Lu Kang, said that "China hopes that Venezuela can quickly find the causes of this accident and restore electricity and social order"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#2
"China hopes that Venezuela can quickly find the causes of this accident and restore electricity and social order" Accident? China expanding its model in Africa? China is resource hungry.
[Rudaw] BAGHOUZ, Syria - Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group fighters launched suicide kabooms Wednesday at US-backed Syrian forces in a desperate bid to defend their last scrap of territory after 3,000 of their fellow jihadists surrendered.
Despite the counterpunch the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said ISIS is living its "final moments" after three nights of thunderous shelling on its final holdout in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border. AFP correspondents heard air strikes and artillery fire near the frontline after night fall Wednesday, on a fourth night of bombardment.
Supported by air strikes by the US-led coalition, the SDF resumed shelling on Sunday. They unleashed a deluge of fire on jihadist outposts for three nights in a row, engulfing their makeshift encampment in a ravaging blaze.
"ISIS's final moments have started," SDF official Jiaker Amed told AFP Wednesday.
Clashes flared as the SDF worked to thwart any ISIS fightback.
Jihadists "launched two counterattacks today -- one in the morning and another in the afternoon," an SDF official told AFP.
"The second one was much stronger" and was launched under the cover of smoke caused by bombing, he said.
The official said jihadists were using jacket wallahs but his force intercepted them before they reached their target. The jihadists "made no progress and they were stopped," he said.
- 'FINAL HOUR' -
Inside Baghouz, the crackle and thud of gunfire and shelling rang out from the encampment as plumes of thick black smoke rose over the bombed-out ISIS bastion. Amid the rubble, three SDF fighters lobbed a salvo of mortar shells towards the ISIS pocket, hours after the first attempted counterattack at daybreak under the cover of a dust storm.
On a rooftop near the front line, an AFP correspondent saw a warplane fire two missiles at ISIS positions.
Delil, an SDF fighter, said: "Today, the sandstorm is to their benefit but all coming days are ours."
Outside the village, dozens of evacuees sat in clusters on a field dotted with yellow flowers, a day after thousands of the last survivors of the "caliphate" handed themselves over to US-backed forces.
After a night of heavy bombardment on Tuesday, SDF front man Mustafa Bali said about 3,000 jihadists had handed themselves over to the SDF in the past 24 hours.
"The battle is ongoing and the final hour is now closer than ever," he said on Twitter.
But an SDF official said on Wednesday that "it appears as though many fighters remain inside" the last pocket.
Near the front line on Tuesday night, AFP correspondents saw bright, long streaks of light in the night sky as US-backed forces bombed jihadist outposts. Explosions shook the ISIS pocket as large fires tore through a cluster of tents and buildings.
- 'NO FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT' -
Coalition front man Sean Ryan on Wednesday said ISIS has no room to manoeuvre.
"There is no freedom of movement at night for the enemy," he told AFP.
"Combined with the SDF ground movement against the final enclave, progress is being made and their capabilities are being severely destroyed."
Since December, about 60,000 people have left the last ISIS redoubt, according to the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around a tenth of them suspected jihadists.
The counterattack began from the west of a riverside pocket in the Syrian village of Baghouz where the Islamic State group has been making its last stand, said a commander with the U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.
Clashes were underway as the Kurdish-led forces tried to repel the IS attack, he said, adding they were also fighting to secure an area taken late on Tuesday. Another commander said at least four SDF fighters were killed in the fighting since early in the morning. Both commanders spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
A third commander, Dilbrin Nargiz, said the IS counterattack began just before dawn. IS faceless myrmidons usually operate in daylight as they lack night vision weapons and goggles.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[NYPOST] NASA’s top official says the space agency’s new rocket won’t be ready for a moon shot next year.
Administrator Jim Bridenstine told a Senate committee Wednesday he’s considering switching to commercial rockets to preserve the June 2020 launch date.
Bridenstine says two commercial rockets would be needed, one to launch the Orion capsule and its European-built service module, the other to launch an upper stage. Orion would have to dock with the upper stage in orbit around Earth, before heading to the moon.
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket could do everything in one fell swoop. "For sure is cheaper in PX, GI, but PX no have!"
Bridenstine says NASA will decide in the next couple weeks whether to stick with its rocket and delay ‐ or go commercial for this one test flight.
Heh, Discussions here and many other places. To me the most interesting one was a two Falcon Heavy launch. The first launches the Orion space ship with the European attached unit to low earth orbit. The second launches an empty Falcon Heavy. The second stage would use almost no fuel in that scenario and have 80 to 90 tons of fuel available to it as there is no payload. It docks with the Orion EU unit and drives it to the moon. If the margins on the first launch are too tight for NASA do the EU unit as a third Falcon Heavy launch. A FH launch is $90 million so three launches would be $270 million. A Delta 4 Heavy launch is about 495 million and the SLS launch that is not happening as it is not on schedule is over $1 billion. So 3 FH's at $270 million is a massive cost savings. This is an un-crewed launch to test the Orion around the moon and it's heat shield for high speed re-entry from earth so it's a good cost savings plan.
For a 2 FH launch SpaceX might want to replace their strongback at Vandenberg with a new one able to support a FH. That would let them have two FH on the pad at the same time. 3 FH would require a delay so another rocket could be readied on a pad. The 2nd pad in Florida is not capable of launching FH rockets without modifications to it's flame trench that would put it out of service for a long time and disrupt lots of other launches.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Orion would have to dock with the upper stage in orbit around Earth, before heading to the moon.
Wernher von Braun would say "I told you so!"
#7
manned spaceflight seems to be the republican's panem et circensus
Other than people from certain congressional districts and employees of certain organizations, I really don't think many people who are haphazardly labelled "republicans" give much of a sh*t.
There is a blogger who you are not allowed to criticize by name around here who has a case of chronic priapism where anything involving a rocket with a person on top is concerned. That colors some people's thoughts on the matter.
Waste. Of. Money. Time. Resources.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/14/2019 15:37
Comments ||
Top||
#8
I don't know, there's lots of congress critters I'd be happy to launch into space. We could build a giant railgun next to Hoover Dam and use it's power to charge it up. Then put the congress critters into metal cans and fire them into the sun.
Oh totally agree. Moon landings messed up US economy for ages. USSR would have failed many years earlier if they did moon shot, rather than US wasting 5%GDP.
[DAWN] US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad announced on Tuesday that he has completed a marathon round of talks with the Taliban ...Arabic for students... in Doha and is now heading to Washington for consultations.
Apparently, disagreements on a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops and counter-terrorism measures are preventing the two sides from reaching a final agreement. The Taliban are also refusing to hold face-to-face talks with the US-backed government in Kabul.
The fifth round of US-Taliban talks began in Doha, Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... , on Feb 24 but were paused for two days on Feb 27 to give both sides time for consultations on issues relevant to the negotiations.
"Just finished a marathon round of talks with the Taliban in Doha. The conditions for peace have improved. It’s clear all sides want to end the war. Despite ups and downs, we kept things on track and made real strides," Ambassador Khalilzad wrote.
In a series of tweets on Tuesday, the veteran diplomat, who is heading Washington’s efforts for reconciliation in Afghanistan, also underlined the issues that are preventing the two sides from concluding a final deal.
"Peace requires agreement on four issues: counter-terrorism assurances, troop withdrawal, intra-Afghan dialogue, and a comprehensive ceasefire," he wrote.
Mr Khalilzad recalled that in January the US and Taliban delegates had "agreed in principle" on these four elements. "We’re now ’agreed in draft’ on the first two," he added.
"When the agreement in draft about a withdrawal timeline and effective counter-terrorism measures is finalised, the Taliban and other Afghans, including the government, will begin intra-Afghan negotiations on a political settlement and comprehensive ceasefire," he wrote.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I guess.... I find it interesting that for the last two years Boeing has been taking Airbus market away with the 737, to the point Airbus has closed production. The minute this accident happened the EU, which owns Airbus, banned the aircraft from flying. No data, no facts, just political hysteria claiming it was just like the last crash. Gee, if that's the truth then they should have stopped flying anything Lufthansa was working on because the crash was attributed to poor maintenance by Lufthansa. Even more questionable is the data recorder is being sent to the EU, not to the FAA and Boeing. Who in the EEU will review the data and intellectual data for the EU? It will be Boeing competitor, Airbus. There is a lot at play here, unfortunately its more political than factual.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/14/2019 16:48
Comments ||
Top||
#2
That is incredibly useful background, 49 Pan. Thank you.
#4
I just hope that the truth is not buried. Airbus has had software problems, too. This investigation should go beyond market competition. The truth is often surrounded by a body guard of bull sh*t, to roughly paraphrase Churchill (Winston, not Ward).
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/14/2019 19:07
Comments ||
Top||
[Libya Observer] The Presidential Council's member Abdelsalam Kajman has met with the Deputy Head for political affairs of the UNSMIL Stephanie Williams and urged to separate any upcoming political agreement from the stability and security of the Libyan people, calling for having all parties participate in this line of policy.
Kajman said in the Tuesday meeting that the Presidential Council supports the UNSMIL's efforts to find a political solution to the crisis.
Williams told Kajman of the details leading to the UAE meeting between Fayez al-Sirraj and Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... , saying it had paved the way for the upcoming Libyan National Conference.
The two also discussed the current state of affairs in the south and the repercussions of the latest military escalation.
Many Libyan observers say the latest meetings of Ghassan Salame and Williams aim to sell what was agreed on in the UAE.
They also fear that that the meeting was a way to share power which could trigger a civil war as many western gangs reject Haftar.
The member of the High Council of State Abdelrahman al-Shater said he was disappointed by the meeting with EU ambassadors on Tuesday, saying on Twitter that they had rejected to reveal any of the UAE meeting's details and that their message was "you must agree on the UAE meeting's outcome."
"I call on al-Sirraj to tell the Libyan people what happened in the UAE meeting." He added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[Ynet] Images analyzed by Israeli intelligence firm ISI seem to indicate that Iran is constructing an advanced missiles factory in Syria; site shows pattern similar to other missile sites.
Labelled satellite images can be seen at the link.
Satellite images taken by Israeli intelligence firm ISI on Tuesday seem to confirm suspicions that a missile factory is being constructed in the Syrian town of Safita, east of Tartus on the Mediterranean coast.
The images show a secured site surrounded by a fence, vehicles, three hangars and a newly built water tower. "The building components and patterns of activity in and around the compound strengthen the probability that this is a missile manufacturing plant," ISI's intelligence report said. It is however not possible to determine with certainty whether this is an Iranian site.
According to the report, buses and private vehicles were identified in recent months at the entrance to the suspect site, east of the port city of Tartus. The workers at the site come and go in patters consistent with military installations. The water tower, clearly discernible in the images, indicates that it was built only recently.
These findings prove that the compound is already active and is in development stages. However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... it appears that the site does not produce missile engines and warheads, since no protected structures were identified in the compound. The same building patterns seen at the site, according to the report, are also seen in other sites with an identical purpose, such as the missile manufacturing plant in the city of Khojir in Iran.
The compound contains three main hangars, which resemble large industrial structures. It is possible that two of them are used for production lines and the third is intended for the assembly of the missiles.
In a dirt area about 500 meters from the site, ISI intelligence personnel identified marks on the ground, apparently created by heavy vehicles. "In our assessment, the tire prints are not related to the activity of quarries operating in the area," it says.
Fox News reported in October that western intelligence agencies believe that Iran transferred to Hezbollah technology to improve the precision of missiles, a matter which Israel views gravely.
The factory is being built in the town of Safita, some eight kilometers from the border with Leb in an area controlled by the Syrian regime and in the vicinity of Russian SAM (surface-to-air missile) deployment.
According to ISI, the compound is similar to a factory used for producing surface-to-surface missiles (SSMs) in Iran's Khojir.
"The construction patterns, the compound location and the activity signs at the compound and its region, increase the probability that this is a missile manufacturing site," (ISI) said, adding that "if this site is indeed related to SSM manufacturing it is possible that the two hangers include production line and the third is for manufacture or assembly."
The firm identified marks some 500 meters from the site, "probably created by the activity of heavy vehicles such as SSM launchers," ISI said.
Last month, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Iran was operating a precision missile factory built on the outskirts of Latakia near the Russian Khmeimim Air Force base with the help of the Syrian government and Hezbollah. ISI said that it could not confirm the report.
In late August, satellite images taken by ISI of an area of northwestern Syria revealed the establishment of another Iranian SSM factory, which may house weapons capable of striking Israel.
The images purportedly show evidence which suggest that Iran is continuing to build various facilities related to the development and production of SSMs in the area of Wadi Jahannam near Baniyas.
[Jpost] Hezbollah’s role in Syria is part of larger network of Iranian-backed groups seeking to threaten Israel and to create a corridor of Iranian influence across Iraq and Syria.
The threat posed by Hezbollah and Ali Musa Daqduq, a senior operative in Hezbollah, was unmasked by Israel on Wednesday.
Daqduq was responsible for the "abduction and execution of five American servicemen in Iraq in 2007," the IDF said. The role of Hezbollah members in neighboring states is an illustration of how groups allied with Iran are continuing to build a web linking Tehran to Beirut via a "road to the sea" that transits Iraq and Syria.
Continued on Page 49
#1
So the solution to this is, let me guess: continued war by America, we get to pay for it all.
Sickening.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
03/14/2019 4:04
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Hysteria Macro, Herb. Save you the repeat comment typing
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/14/2019 6:56
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Eh? Israel has been handling a quiet destruction campaign against the arming of Hizb’allah on her own for years without asking for help, Herb. America certainly hasn’t been doing anything against Iran-linked groups in Iraq, to my knowledge, even as they’ve been killing American troops since 2003. Do you know anything different?
#8
Herb either knows and is complicit, or is a hysterical anti-interventionist who'll claim ignorance when SHTF here. Dishonest or Ignorant. Why not both?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/14/2019 21:30
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Why on Earth are we trying to destroy Iran?
If we meant to destroy Iran, the rubble would still be settling in key spots around the country, Mr. McCoy. Current maneuvers are merely intended to bruise them a bit so that they calm down from their current overexcited state.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Police clashed with participants of a protest called by the opposition to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro near the El Guarataro neighbourhood in western Caracas on Tuesday.
The protests were called by President of the National Assembly and self-proclaimed “Interim President” Juan Guaido, who recently embarked on a trip outside the country to strengthen alliances abroad.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
[ELUNIVERSAL] Two people opened fire on Wednesday in a school in the Brazilian city of Suzano, in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, killing at least ten people, before committing suicide.
The Military Police (PM) indicated that the attack, which occurred at 0930 local time, also left 10 injured. A spokeswoman for the Military Police told AFP that two of the dead died on arrival at the hospital, AFP reported.
The entrance to the public school Raul Brazil was at the end of the morning crowded with anguished relatives and members of the fire brigade and security forces.
The governor of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria, appeared at the scene and indicated that among the people killed were two officials of the establishment. "It's the saddest scene I've seen in my life," he said.
Colonel Marcelo Sales, general commander of the PM, indicated that the two attackers, before entering the school, "shot at the owner of a car wash," who was injured and was receiving hospital care.
This type of attack is exceptional in Brazil, despite being one of the most violent countries in the world. In April 2011, a former student killed 12 students and maimed 20 before committing suicide in the town of Realengo, in Rio de Janeiro.
The killing on Wednesday came after the country faced a controversy over the flexibilization of the possession of weapons promoted by the president of far right Jair Bolsonaro and the security caucus in Congress.
Colonel Sales indicated that the aggressors used "a 38-caliber revolver and a medieval weapon similar to a bow with arrows", without specifying whether there were victims caused by this instrument.
The attack took place at the time of the recess of the students of average cycle. After shooting those who were in the courtyard, the attackers "went to the language center" where several students had taken refuge "and did away with himself in a corridor," said Sales.
According to witnesses cited on television, the two attackers wore skull masks. The Globonews television showed images of neighborhood security cameras in which students were seen jumping over one of the walls of the school and running scared.
"I found out when my daughter called me, she said: 'Mom, come quickly, there are gunshots, there are maimed, there are dead people,' said Rosa, the mother of a student, at the entrance of the school.
Education Minister Ricardo Velez issued a statement to offer condolences. "The Ministry sympathizes with parents, relatives and school officials in this moment of shock, mourning and pain."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
38-cal pistol and bow and arrows and 10 people were killed?
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Neomi Rao, President Trump’s regulatory czar, to succeed Justice Brett Kavanaugh on a powerful federal appeals court viewed as a springboard to the Supreme Court.
The 53-46 vote to put Rao on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit split Republicans and Democrats as expected, as many Democrats were upset with her academic writings.
Rao was scrutinized for op-eds she wrote while an undergraduate at Yale University about date rape and sexual assault. She also came under fire for arguing against a ban on dwarf-tossing.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[21 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That was easy.
And screw the liberals, I think we should keep the ban on dwarf-tossing.
#2
I wonder if Rao argued that dwarf-tossing was an expression of free speech since she was opposed to the ban at Yale. That argument opens all kinds of possibilities, e.g. Donk-tossing...
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/14/2019 18:39
Comments ||
Top||
#4
A wise little person of size
Advises your eyes that they lies:
"Why can't I win the prize?"
This humongous guy cries
To the skies as he fleetingly flies!
[Free Beacon] The Air Force sent two nuclear-capable bombers over the South China Sea on Wednesday in a show of force challenging China's expansive maritime claims.
"Two B-52H Stratofortress bombers took off from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and conducted routine training in the vicinity of the South China Sea March 13, before returning to base," Air Force Capt. Victoria Hight, a Pacific Air Forces spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Hight said U.S. aircraft conduct routine operations in the South China Sea to support "allies, partners, and a free and open Indo-Pacific."
"U.S. Pacific Air Forces bombers have flown from Guam for more than a decade as part of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s continuous bomber presence operations," she added.
[YouTube] Many games have tried to do Strategy and RTS this way but few if any have succeeded, Radio Commander takes an under used Vietnam war setting and combines it with a genuinely interesting and tense command style!
You captained a Space navy ship and had subordinate captains, with personalities no less!, that you could *radio* orders to. It was more WW2 in Spaaace! than anything else. Fun Times! Fun Time when the game was more important than the (crappy) graphics.
#4
The second game is definitely a lot bigger weighing in at over 7 megs whereas the first game was less than 3.
Smiled a bit there. Haven't played RoE, feel like I missed a good one, but the description reminds me a bit of Silent Service with the different stations and navy combat, though Silent Service was WWII pacific submarine on C64.
Daughter got into dungeon crawl games, and we played a few. Pretty, but no Champions of Krynn.
Interesting idea, hope it makes it. I thought maybe the player talked into a mic like in SOCOM Navy Seals...then I remembered the times I would order a breach but teammate would toss a frag right in the middle of the group instead of kicking the door...or really any other command seemed to get me fragged. I am told our regional accent does not pair well with voice recognition recorders so maybe command clicks is the way to go.
[NYPOST] Capt. Matthew Hoshor, pilot on a Mesa Airlines flight operated by United Express did his best to put wind back in his passengers’ sails after a delay of more than two hours at Tulsa International Airport on Monday, buying lunch for each flier at a nearby burger joint.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm guessing that then they had to wait for their burgers.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/14/2019 11:10
Comments ||
Top||
[DAWN] MULTAN: An anti-terrorism court here on Tuesday sentenced Ghulam Rasool Chhotu, the ringleader of notorious Chhotu Gang, and his 19 accomplices to death on 18 counts, besides slapping Rs6.2 million fine on them.
The judgment was pronounced by the ATC No 1 (camped at New Central Jail) Judge Malik Khalid Mehmood.
Two minor convicts, Qasim and Samad, have been handed down life terms on 19 counts each.
Each of the 22 convicts will also have to pay Rs6.2 million fine.
The court also directed to forfeit the properties of the convicts.
The court stated that "the case property shall be kept intact till the decision of appeal or revision, if any".
The convicts have been given the benefit of section 382-B of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and all the sentences of imprisonment will run concurrently.
The convicts can file appeals in the Lahore High Court within 15 days as enshrined under section 3 of the Section 25 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.
The judge, issuing their perpetual non-bailable arrest warrants, ordered the station house officer (SHO) concerned to arrest and present them before the court for their trial.
Challans of the cases were submitted in 2016 and total 56 witnesses recorded their statements.
Nine cases were filed against Chhotu Gang in Rahim Yar Khan.
Police backed by military helicopters had raided the gang’s hideouts. Help of army was sought after police lost six personnel in an operation against the gang.
Finally, the ringleader and his gang members had surrendered unconditionally to the army in an operation titled Zarb-e-Ahan in which 24 coppers who had been taken hostage were also rescued.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under:
[IsraelTimes] As war of words escalates, Turkish president warns ‘we have not oppressed any of the Jews in this country,’ and cautions, ‘Don’t provoke us’; Netanyahu calls criticism ‘a joke’.
All the tit-for-tatting can be read at the link, for those interested.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/14/2019
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[Jpost] The US State Department has erased the word "occupation" from its description of the Golan Heights and the Paleostinian territories in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which it published on Wednesday.
Last year, it referred to the areas as "occupied" by Israel; now, it speaks of them as under Israeli "control."
The change began gradually two years ago, when the State Department replaced the country designation of "Israel and the occupied territories" with "Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank and Gazoo."
Within the 2017 report itself, however, the State Department last year still used the word "occupation" but much more sparingly. In 2016, the report referred to the occupied territories, and in 2017 it spoke of the Paleostinian territories.
This year, the 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices made no mention of the word "occupation" at all.
At a Wednesday State Department presser in Washington about the report, Michael Kozak from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor downplayed the move.
"My understanding is that there is no change in our outlook or our policy vis-à-vis the territories and the need for a negotiated settlement there," Kozak said.
A news hound pressed him on the point: "You no longer consider the West Bank to be occupied?"
"No. I said that our policy on the status has not changed. That is my understanding. We decided not to use the term in the reports because it is not a human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... term and it was distracting," Kozak said.
The linguistic change was made by the regional bureau of the Office of the Legal Adviser, Kozak said.
"What we’re trying to do is report on the human rights situation in those territories.... You’re just trying to find a way of describing the place that you are reporting on. ’Occupied territory’ has a legal meaning to it. What they tried to do was shift more to just a geographic description. So we said Israel, Golan, West Bank, Gazoo and Jerusalem."
"It’s a complicated report because there are sometimes multiple authorities who have authority over people in particular parts of that territory. So it’s a very complicated one to write," Kozak said.
Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, director of international law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum said, "This is a massive change in how America relates to the conflict. It is coming to understand that while Israel and the Paleostinians have a dispute, international law does not provide the answers to that dispute. The report, also for the first time, expresses skepticism at the claims and submissions of anti-Israel groups, whose poorly documented allegations have previously been accepted as gospel."
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.
[ABC] The reputed leader of the Gambino crime family -- once headed by infamous mobster John Gotti -- was gunned down outside his home late Wednesday.
... 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...
Bouteflika
[NYPOST] An Oregon woman shot her ex-boyfriend in the groin in self-defense after he forced his way into her home and threatened her, police said.
[Breitbart] Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, characterized Democrats’ ongoing leftward movement as "Maoist" in its efforts to "destroy the middle class and the traditions of America."
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) ‐Iraqi authorities announced on Wednesday the capture of nine 
Mehmood 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
LOS ANGELES (AP) ‐ Colleges and companies moved swiftly to distance themselves from employees swept up in a nationwide college admissions scheme, many of them coaches accused of taking bribes and others prominent parents accused of angling to get their children into top schools by portraying them as recruited athletes.
Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/how-to-use-a-squat-toilet-in-china-1495435_FINAL2-5c09549646e0fb00014c54a8.png)
[NYPOST] NASA’s top official says the space agency’s new rocket won’t be ready for a moon shot next year.
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
[Jpost] Hezbollah’s role in Syria is part of larger network of Iranian-backed groups seeking to threaten Israel and to create a corridor of Iranian influence across Iraq and Syria.
[ELUNIVERSAL] Two people opened fire on Wednesday in a school in the Brazilian city of Suzano, in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, killing at least ten people, before committing suicide.
[Free Beacon] The Air Force sent two nuclear-capable bombers over the South China Sea on Wednesday in a show of force challenging China's expansive maritime claims.
[DAWN] MULTAN: An anti-terrorism court here on Tuesday sentenced Ghulam Rasool Chhotu, the ringleader of notorious Chhotu Gang, and his 19 accomplices to death on 18 counts, besides slapping Rs6.2 million fine on them.
