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Turkey's Erdogan says Afrin city centre under 'total' control
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
15:17 7 23:23 Injun Bucket8891 [8]
15:04 4 21:48 Frank G [5]
14:47 3 20:43 Bright Pebbles [5]
13:31 7 23:16 M. Murcek [7]
11:51 5 22:46 Seeking cure for ignorance [4]
10:35 0 [4]
08:34 2 16:41 DarthVader [5]
07:35 2 10:35 M. Murcek [1]
07:17 5 22:35 Injun Bucket8891 [3]
07:06 3 14:36 rjschwarz [4]
06:52 8 17:14 Alistaire Gloluns2996 []
06:41 5 17:57 NoMoreBS [3]
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01:24 13 17:53 rjschwarz [9]
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Iraq
We Asked Gen. Petraeus Whether the Iraq War Was Really Worth It
[MIL.com] This article by Jeff Schogol originally appeared on Task & Purpose, a digital news and culture publication dedicated to military and veterans issues.

Fifteen years of war have turned Iraqi cities such as Ramadi, Fallujah, and Mosul into ruins. Iraq remains as divided as ever along sectarian lines, despite the deaths of more than 4,500 U.S. troops and untold numbers of Iraqis.

U.S. troops remain in Iraq to help advise and assist Iraqi forces as they try to prevent ISIS from launching yet another insurgency. Meanwhile, Iran has flooded the country with thousands of proxy fighters, giving it a large say in what the government of Iraq does post-ISIS.

This wasn’t the Iraq that was supposed to emerge when U.S. troops crossed the berm from Kuwait to Iraq in March 2003. Nor is this the Iraq that troops who trounced al Qaeda during the surge bled for. There are few tangible signs of success, and Iraq’s future is still unclear.

Seeing all this chaos prompts many Iraq veterans to wonder: Was what they fought for worth the sacrifices they made?

We posed that question to the Iraq War’s most influential figure, retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, who led U.S. forces in Iraq during the 2007-2008 surge in an attempt to stop a Sunni-Shiite civil war.

"I think everybody who was in Iraq, who served there, who knows the sacrifice it entails, who knows the cost in blood and in treasure... has been frustrated to see how the country slid back after we left in late 2011," Petraeus said in an exclusive interview. "But at the end of the day, I think we also have a degree of quiet pride that when our country needed us, we answered the call."

The "truly remarkable Americans" who joined the military after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks knew that their country would send them to war, said Petraeus, who added that it was an incredible privilege for him to lead U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 15:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Sorry - Saddam was no threat to US vital interests. There were "no-fly zones" in place over both northern and southern Iraq. "Liberating" Iraq was not worth the life of even one Private E2. The only thing more stupid than going back into Iraq was the insane decision to invade Afghanistan. Both operations were (and remain) total debacles.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 03/19/2018 19:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Certainly not a big fan of General Powell, but does anyone remember his 'pottery house rules' quote regarding Iraq ?

"You break it, you buy it."
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 20:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Umm, Mr L. R, do you remember Saddams minions shooting missiles at our planes in the "No Fly Zones"? No? Why not?
Posted by: Mugsy Glink || 03/19/2018 21:07 Comments || Top||

#4  The real question is where would Iraq be now if the US hadn't pulled out under Obama because things looked so quiet....

If one judged the Vietnam war prior to the US Congress betraying the Vietnamese people it looks very much like a hard fought and costly victory.

Generals need to factor in Democrat instincts to cut and run when they make war plans. Sure we can win, but if we are there too long the victory will inevitably be pissed away and all sacrifice wasted.
Posted by: ruprecht || 03/19/2018 22:08 Comments || Top||

#5  The real question is where would Iraq be now if the US hadn't pulled out under Obama because things looked so quiet....

There is the question. We had to sit on the Japanese for about a decade, but they integrated into the modern world.

Given Saddam and his hell-spawn children, I'm willing to argue the invasion was worth it if all we did was kill them sumbitches and leave the next day. The world is a better place without 'em.

The Iraqis deserved a chance to join the modern world. The fact that they fokked it up is on them as much as us.
(and before you ask, I admit the odds of overcoming their tribal culture were low)
Posted by: SteveS || 03/19/2018 22:34 Comments || Top||

#6  The entire country will pay forever for Boosh's stupidity. Very good chance we never got obutthole without all the Iraq blowback. Who knows how much lower the national debt might be today.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 22:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Hindsight is 20:20. After 9/11 we simply had no surety of knowledge he did or did not have WMD.
Let me repeat that for morons like M.Murcek:

WE DID NOT KNOW FOR SURE AND COULD NOT RISK THE CHANCE THAT SADDAM HAD WMD AND WOULD GIVE THEM TO TERRORISTS

The difference between your blind hindsight and the reality of back then, is that we had just been shown that we could and would be attacked.

So we as a nation were not willing to trust Saddam to not hit us or give weapons to others who would hit us, and the cost, based on what we knew from before, was considered to be too high to let him sit, compared to the estimated cost of taking out the Baathists. Also we had not planned on being backstabbed by Erdogan and the Turks, which allowed the North to fester.

And do not forget, the surge DID pacify Iraq. What screwed it up is that the US walked away right when what was needed was to establish a long-term stabilization force. Thats thanks to the gutless wonders in State Dept, and then that asshole Obama throwing away all the gains we had, in order to hand Iraq over to the Shia and their Iraqi masters.

ALL OF YOU need to stop with the revisionist history of "was it worth it". It was - but people like Brennan and Panetta threw it away. Let me repeat it: THEY TRHEW AWAY THE FRUTIS OF VICTORY. Had we established a permanent basing capability there to support the Iraqi military against AQI and later ISIS, things would not be seen as a waste. It would also have been a counterweight against the militias and the corrup[tocrats that State put in there to head the Iraqi govt.

It was worth it - but the US State Department and Obama threw it all away, to the cheerleading of the press and the Islamic radicals.

There are many of us here who lived thru this and know the truth. And we will not let these crappy revisionist try to rewrite things.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 03/19/2018 23:23 Comments || Top||


Economy
Volkswagen to announce $340 million Tennessee investment to build new SUV
[Reuters] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) will announce on Monday that it plans to invest $340 million to build a new sport utility vehicle at its Chattanooga, Tennessee, plant in the United States as demand surges for larger vehicles, according to a person briefed on the announcement.

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam is set to be at VW’s plant in Chattanooga for a 2:30 p.m (1800 GMT) announcement for a new project, his office said, without elaborating on what that project would be.

In 2017, VW Group of America Chief Executive Officer Hinrich Woebcken told reporters at the New York auto show that the automaker planned to build a five-seat SUV in Tennessee, but he declined to say when production would begin.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 15:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  New stupid name to be announced at ribbon cutting...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 20:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Two ümlaüts and it's a cool name - worked for Mötley Crüe!
Posted by: Raj || 03/19/2018 20:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Back in the day, Toyota made a car called the Tercel. They also made a car called the Starlet. I was waiting for them to make one called the Terlet...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 21:14 Comments || Top||

#4  I put a Chevy 350 (355 when I was done) in a '77 FJ40 Toyota. I called it a Chevota. My friends called it a Toyolet. Once.

I still have it
Posted by: Frank G || 03/19/2018 21:48 Comments || Top||


Britain
Pommie Deep State Surrenders to Brussels - Brexit Essentially Means Nothing
The United Kingdom will agree to follow all European Union rules after Brexit and keep the nation’s borders open for the duration of the transition period to 2022, with further bad news for fisheries and communities in Northern Ireland as a new agreement was reached in Brussels Monday.

The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier made the announcement in a joint press conference with Britain’s David Davis in Brussels, where the pair presented what was introduced as a "legal text which constitutes a decisive step" towards a final agreement. Revealing the enormous extent to which Theresa May’s government has sold out the Brexit-voting British public, Barnier and Davis spoke on a number of key policy areas including immigration, British control over British laws, and regaining control over British fishing waters.

Speaking first at the meeting with journalists, French politician Barnier said Britain had agreed to continue following all Brussels laws for years after the offical Brexit date of March 2019 under the guise of a transition period, but would not be able to challenge or make decisions on that law itself.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 14:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The will of the forgotten man and voter ignored. Englsh subtitles not required, we've already seen the movie.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 14:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Until 2022. And then, quietly extended....
Posted by: Iblis || 03/19/2018 16:56 Comments || Top||

#3  The Saxon is probably angry right about now.

Ignore democracy and you might find out its for the benefit of politicians...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/19/2018 20:43 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Ex-Obama Campaign Director Drops Bombshell Claim on Facebook: 'They Were on Our Side'
[IJR] A former Obama campaign official is claiming that Facebook knowingly allowed them to mine massive amounts of Facebook data ‐ more than they would’ve allowed someone else to do ‐ because they were supportive of the campaign.

In a Sunday tweet thread, Carol Davidson, former director of integration and media analytics for Obama for America, said the 2012 campaign led Facebook to "suck out the whole social graph" and target potential voters. They would then use that data to do things like append their email lists.

When Facebook found out what they were doing, they were "surprised," she said. But she also claimed they didn’t stop them once they found out:

"They came to office in the days following election recruiting & were very candid that they allowed us to do things they wouldn’t have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side," Davidson tweeted.

She added that she believes Facebook also recruits people "on the other side" too:

Davidsen began the tweet thread with a link to a Time article outlining the Obama campaign's Facebook targeting campaign, which she said was codenamed "Project Taargus":

That’s because the more than 1 million Obama backers who signed up for the [Facebook-based app] gave the campaign permission to look at their Facebook friend lists. In an instant, the campaign had a way to see the hidden young voters. Roughly 85% of those without a listed phone number could be found in the uploaded friend lists. What’s more, Facebook offered an ideal way to reach them. "People don’t trust campaigns. They don’t even trust media organizations," says Goff. "Who do they trust? Their friends."

The campaign called this effort targeted sharing. And in those final weeks of the campaign, the team blitzed the supporters who had signed up for the app with requests to share specific online content with specific friends simply by clicking a button. More than 600,000 supporters followed through with more than 5 million contacts, asking their friends to register to vote, give money, vote or look at a video designed to change their mind. A geek squad in Chicago created models from vast data sets to find the best approaches for each potential voter. "We are not just sending you a banner ad," explains Dan Wagner, the Obama campaign’s 29-year-old head of analytics, who helped oversee the project. "We are giving you relevant information from your friends."

Facebook did not immediately respond to IJR's request for comment. IJR has also reached out to Davidsen as well as current and former Mitt Romney campaign officials for comment.
I'll bet they didn't.
> Share on Facebook <
Heh. A little FB humor there, I guess.
Posted by: gorb || 03/19/2018 13:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I guess I forgot to mention that you have to click the link to see images of the tweets involved.
Posted by: gorb || 03/19/2018 13:39 Comments || Top||

#2  The Obama cwmoaign boasted in 2008 as well as in 2012 that they had help from Progressive-led internet companies like Facebook in finding and targetting various groups of potential voters, claiming that was why their turnout was so high.

Nice to see it being confirmed by those who contributed. Incidentally, oughtn’t that count as “in kind” political contributions, which very likely exceeded legal contribution limits? It would be interesting to see the IRS get involved, if so...
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 14:41 Comments || Top||

#3  My understanding is that Google did the same thing only unsolicited...to curry favor with Zero.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 03/19/2018 15:00 Comments || Top||

#4  TW - I think the IRS Manual says in-kind contributions amongst Democrats are not a high priority audit item.
Posted by: Raj || 03/19/2018 15:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Thank you for bringing your expertise to bear on my little question, Raj. ;-)

Sock Puppet of Doom, thank you for adding your memory to mine.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 15:55 Comments || Top||

#6  My business related interactions with today's generation of IT people is they are sub-par in everything. They are 180 degrees different from the pioneers of the Information Technology revolution. Poor judgment, lazy, say what you want to hear then do nothing, full of excuses why they can't accomplish anything worthwhile and conniving. Pretty much sums up our younger generation in total.
Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 03/19/2018 16:57 Comments || Top||

#7  I still get mail all the time with blank padding issues in the name and address block. I wrote code to handle that when I was 19 years old...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 23:16 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
FIU Bridge Collapse: Slo-Mo Video & Armchair Analysis
Video:


Analysis:
Posted by: gorb || 03/19/2018 11:51 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't know what happened to the embeds. They worked fine for preview, but when I checked it said "The webpage cannot be found".
Posted by: gorb || 03/19/2018 11:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Collapse link

Analysis link
Posted by: gorb || 03/19/2018 11:59 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't know what happened to the embeds.

Rantburg does that sometimes. Sometimes if a moderator goes into the Edit function without changing anything, the problem resolves itself. It looks like somebody did that.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 14:29 Comments || Top||

#4  It must be the periwinkle wand. :-)
Posted by: gorb || 03/19/2018 17:10 Comments || Top||

#5  Oooohh after a careful viewing of the video, I know exactly what caused the collapse!

If you view the top video, you see a guy on top of the bridge on the left. He was too fat and the extra weight made the bridge do a "London bridge".

All joking aside, it appear to me the left most strut broke at the base, starting a 'domino' effect. Hard to be sure as it all happened so fast. I did notice in an earlier video of the bridge being installed that base seemed rusty to me.

Guess we'll have to wait for the experts to figure it out.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 03/19/2018 22:46 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
another March Snowstorm in Britain
All of Wales and most of England is covered by the yellow Met Office warning, which is in place from Monday evening until Tuesday at 9:00 GMT.

Hundreds of schools closed in south-west England and Wales because of heavy snow.

Temperatures are expected to rise this week but the weather could turn colder again by the weekend, forecasters said.

Over 20cm (8ins) of snow has been recorded in central and southern England as temperatures fell widely below 0C overnight with lows of -5C in Scotland.

In Wales, a total of 207 schools were closed on Monday, with GCSE pupils at Brynmawr School in Blaenau Gwent being taught in a cinema instead.
Posted by: lord garth || 03/19/2018 10:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Congressman suggests Second Amendment as means of opposing Trump
[NYPost] A Democratic congressman from Long Island implied that Americans should grab weapons and oppose President Trump by force, if the commander-in-chief doesn’t follow the Constitution.

Rep. Tom Suozzi made the remark to constituents at a town hall last week, saying that folks opposed to Trump might resort to the “Second Amendment.”
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/19/2018 08:34 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, congressman, THAT is the purpose of the Second Amendment.

Of course, we have to know that the POTUS is not doing that...and if the media runs cover for the POTUS, like they did for the previous administration, you won't know the POTUS is not following the constitution until the next one arrives...if there is a next one.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 03/19/2018 15:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Considering the hysterical fear of guns on your side... I'm not to worried about an armed insurrection of the left. It would be a very short war.

So... say "When", dipshit.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/19/2018 16:41 Comments || Top||


Britain
Porton Down laboratory to get £48m boost after Skripal attack
[Financial Times] UK defence secretary Gavin Williamson will on Thursday pledge an additional £48m for Britain’s defence science and technology laboratory at Porton Down, in the wake of the poisoning of a former Russian spy with a weapons grade nerve agent.

The laboratory was instrumental in identifying Russia as the source of the nerve agent used to target Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia 10 days ago in Salisbury. The pair remain in a critical condition in hospital.

Scientists from Porton Down have also been at the centre of the clean-up operation in Salisbury following the attack, which has prompted one of the biggest crises in UK-Russian relations since the end of the cold war.

Mr Williamson will use a speech to Policy Exchange, a think-tank, to make the case for increased defence spending to meet the growing threat from Russia and other hostile state actors. The Ministry of Defence is facing a £20bn shortfall in funding over the next 10 years.

“In the face of intensifying threats, we must prioritise investment in military capabilities,” he will say. “We cannot sit back and let events overtake us.”

The attack in Salisbury has raised questions about whether the government should invest more in its programme to deal with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.

A specialist regiment focused on this area was disbanded in 2011 following deep defence cuts ordered by David Cameron’s coalition government — a move that may be reversed as part of a defence review led by Mr Williamson and due to be completed in the summer.

Senior Whitehall officials have conceded that “inadequate attention” has been paid to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats in discussions about the review so far. Mr Williamson will point to the attack in Salisbury as an example of the new threat faced by Britain and its allies.

“If we doubted the threat Russia poses to our citizens, we only have to look at the shocking example of their reckless attack in Salisbury,” he will say. “We know the chemical threat doesn’t just come from Russia but from others.”

Garth Whitty, a former British army specialist in the disposal of chemical weapons, said the Salisbury incident highlighted how unprepared the UK was for such an attack. He added that the UK’s biological and chemical warfare capabilities had inevitably fallen victim to budget cuts in recent years.

Mr Whitty, who served as a United Nations chemical weapons inspector in Iraq in the early 1990s, said that once it had become clear the Salisbury attack involved a nerve agent, a detailed response should have been followed to “identify . . . contain, detect and decontaminate”.

“This fundamental requirement to minimise contamination, the number of potential victims and potential terror/hysteria management was not followed,” he added.

But he also acknowledged a chemical weapon attack on the streets of the UK would have come some way down the UK’s list of probable threats.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 07:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A rather large and curiously timed spike in funding I'd say. Glad to see it nonetheless.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 7:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, curious timing. Cleanups are extra expensive after an "accident."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 10:35 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Anna Campbell killed assisting YPG in Syria
[Guardian] A British woman fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Afrin, northern Syria, has been killed, her Kurdish commanders have said.

Anna Campbell, from Lewes, East Sussex, was volunteering with the US-backed Kurdish Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) ‐ the all-female affiliate army of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) ‐ in the besieged city of Afrin when the convoy she was travelling in was struck by a Turkish missile on 16 March.

Sources say the 26-year-old initially travelled to Syria to join the Kurdish struggle against Islamic State, but begged her Kurdish commanders to send her to the Afrin front after Turkey launched a ground and air offensive to oust Kurdish forces from its borderlands in January.

"They refused at first, but she was adamant, and even dyed her blonde hair black so as to appear less conspicuous as a westerner," a YPJ source told the Guardian.

"Finally they gave in and let her go."

She is not only the first British woman killed fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Syria, but also the first Briton to die there since Turkey launched its incursion into Kurdish-held territory on 20 January.

In a statement to the Guardian on Sunday, YPJ commander and spokesperson Nesrin Abdullah said: "[Campbell’s] martyrdom is a great loss to us because with her international soul, her revolutionary spirit, which demonstrated the power of women, she expressed her will in all her actions ... On behalf of the Women’s Defence Units YPJ, we express our deepest condolences to [her] family and we promise to follow the path she took up. We will represent her in the entirety of our struggles."
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 07:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  It's truly sad to lose the very best for the trash in the middle east...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 8:36 Comments || Top||

#2  ...or anywhere.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/19/2018 8:40 Comments || Top||

#3  'till Valhalla sister.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/19/2018 10:02 Comments || Top||

#4  ...or anywhere.

Absolutely so. An actual savage by definition can't help himself. Pisslamists go to sleep and wake up actively deciding to be evil.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 10:51 Comments || Top||

#5  Lots of westerners helping the Kurds, in spite of our governments who are too busy kissing Iranian and Turkish ass.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 03/19/2018 22:35 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
This trap was set well before Trump won
[Wash Times] So this is the new standard for electing a president here in America, the greatest living experiment in self-governance.

A man can run the gauntlet against more than 20 professional politicians and come out victorious.

He can win more than 40 Republican primary contests and beat every professional political campaigner out there, earning the votes of more than 14 million Republicans.

He can then turn his attention to beating the most powerful, entrenched political machine America has seen in nearly a half-century. (That corrupt machine had just pulled off its most devious and dishonest scam ever ‐ rigging a presidential primary to snatch the party’s preferred Socialist candidate away from Democrat voters.)

In the end, President Trump won the presidency fair and square, earning the votes of more than 60 million Americans and ‐ crucially ‐ winning the 30 states he needed to take the White House.

These are the long-agreed-upon standards for winning the White House. This is how self-governance works.
Continues
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 07:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks like a showdown between the people who elected Trump and the Deep State who expected Shrillary.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/19/2018 7:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Hamilton and Jefferson didn't believe the common man should run his own life, but it was probably Wilson and Delano Roosevelt who got us to where we are now, deep state wise.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 7:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Since what the Deep state is doing is effectively treason perhaps some Congressmen should make that absolutely clear that anyone that continues cover ups and delays may find the harshest laws in the nation applied to their case.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/19/2018 14:36 Comments || Top||


-Obits-
Another attempt at unassisted human flight goes horribly wrong
[SUN] Yann Arnaud died from his injuries in hospital after falling onto the stage while performing a new routine in the United States.

The 38-year-old suffered the fatal injuries during a show with VOLTA in Florida and was rushed to Tampa General Hospital.

Hours before the performance he had posted about the new act he was due to debut.

He wrote: "After so much work and training and staging, our straps duo act is finally in the show tonight. It's time to go for it."

The shocking footage shows Yann spinning with fellow aerial artist Pawel Walczewski and moving out of shot.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 06:52 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gravity often intervenes in human flight.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/19/2018 7:56 Comments || Top||

#2  https://www.amazon.com/Gravity-Just-Good-Idea-Shirt/dp/B00CD81E5W
Posted by: Alistaire Gloluns2996 || 03/19/2018 8:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Gravity always wins the argument.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/19/2018 10:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Gravity is sorta grave...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 10:57 Comments || Top||

#5  And I still like this bumper sticker: "186,000 miles per second. It's not just a good idea, it's the law"
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 10:58 Comments || Top||

#6  In this case, "32.3 feet per second per second."
Posted by: Bobby || 03/19/2018 16:01 Comments || Top||

#7  Bobby, not to be pedantic, but 32.3 f/sec/sec is only true near the surface of the earth. Whereas, 186000 miles/sec is the law EVERYWHERE!
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 03/19/2018 16:33 Comments || Top||

#8  #7

Well, inside a medium (e.g. atmosphere, glass prism) it is slightly less. See StackExchangePhysics.

What you said is true for a vacuum. Not that I am throwing stones; my house has plenty of glass!
Posted by: Alistaire Gloluns2996 || 03/19/2018 17:14 Comments || Top||


Government
Howie Carr Book Review: 'Chappaquiddick: Power, Privilege, and the Ted Kennedy Cover-up'
[Townhall] If anyone ever truly deserved a Profiles in Courage Award, it was the late Leo Damore, the author of this book.

Of course, the awards are handed out by the Kennedy family, and they are all about, not courage, but Political Correctness. But no one can dispute the fact that Damore put himself and his career on the line to write this book, and that one way or another, he paid the ultimate price‐as a suicide, in 1995, at the age of 65.

Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Cover-Up was a New York Times best seller in 1988. It sold more than a million copies. Damore’s volume established a previously obscure publishing house, Regnery, as a major force in the book trade. Its success also disproved what New York publishers had long believed, or perhaps just hoped, that there was no real market out there for books that spoke, really spoke, truth to liberal power.

If you are just now discovering Senatorial Privilege, you may not be aware of the controversy that surrounded its initial publication. Damore seemed a most unlikely person to blow the lid off the Chappaquiddick cover up. Born in Ontario, he was a reporter for the Cape Cod Times. His first book, in 1967, had been a standard post-JFK assassination hagiography, The Cape Cod Years of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 06:41 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Power and Privilege'... little appears to have changed in nearly 50 years.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 6:49 Comments || Top||

#2  This is easily solved. All political privilege stops at the border of the District. Not going to happen, I know, but it's nice to dream...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 8:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Which family has left more dead bodies in their wake - the Kennedys or the Clintons?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 03/19/2018 11:28 Comments || Top||

#4  ...the known unknows?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/19/2018 13:10 Comments || Top||

#5  At the time, a huge DC rumor was that the delay in going back to the scene, goin notifying the police, was caused by two key factors, one that Teddy was very drunk, and secondly, that he didn't know that Mary Jo was in the car, in the back seat, passed out. Yo see, he was taking the route to the beach to have sex with the OTHER girl that was in the car, and when he went off the bridge, they both got out, and she was quickly spirited away and paid off. Mary Jo had gotten into the back seat of Teddy's car merely to sleep it off so the rumor went.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 03/19/2018 17:57 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Reward for Austin Bomber Climbs to $115K as Cops Plead for Info
[Breitbart] Police in Texas increased the reward being offered for information leading to the arrest of the Austin package bomber. Since March 2, the bomber or bombers killed two people and injured two others in three separate attacks.

Austin Interim Police Chief Brian Manley announced the reward being offered increased from $65,000 to $115,000 on Sunday. "We need your help!," Chief Manley tweeted on Sunday.

Austin 4th bombing and possible trip-wire update
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 06:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sanctuary city per the efforts of the Latino Sheriff (leftist politician not law enforcement type, good luck with that).
Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 03/19/2018 11:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Is Ted Kaczynski still incarcerated?
Posted by: Bobby || 03/19/2018 11:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Either ex-military or a fairly smart guy like the Unabomber. Cakewalk for ex-military with normal IQ. Civilian would need to be smarter than the average bear. Experimenting with explosives and detonation mechanisms without formal training is likely to be a little nerve-racking. Meticulousness and the ability to figure out worst case scenarios, while planning ahead to avoid the consequences, are key. Hence, a pretty smart civilian, but seriously whacked to be attacking random victims.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/19/2018 18:52 Comments || Top||

#4  First name Mohammed.
Posted by: Anguper Angearong6845 || 03/19/2018 19:17 Comments || Top||

#5  First name Mohammed.

Unlikely. Most not smart enough to avoid work accidents. Besides, for most jihadists, the point is self-immolation. This is more Unabomber than jihadist.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 03/19/2018 19:55 Comments || Top||

#6  #enoughisenough. Ban all tripwires!
Posted by: Airandee || 03/19/2018 21:16 Comments || Top||

#7  This one feels different. Some itchy spot on the back of my neck says "team" or "can you believe it, a girl..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 22:55 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
D.C. lawmaker says recent snowfall caused by ‘Rothschilds controlling the climate'
h/t Instapundit
A D.C. lawmaker responded to a brief snowfall Friday by publishing a video in which he espoused a conspiracy theory that Jewish financiers control the weather.

D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) posted the video to his official Facebook page at 7:21 a.m. as snow flurries were hitting the nation’s capital. The video, shot through the windshield of a car driving west on Interstate 695 through downtown Washington, shows snowy skies while White narrates.

"Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation," he says. "And D.C. keep talking about, ’We a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2018 01:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the lower end of the bell curve is a flat line where Trayon falls
Posted by: Frank G || 03/19/2018 7:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Nobel Prize for 'Science and Stuff' coming soon?
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 03/19/2018 8:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Smoking pot and then posting on Facebook is never a good idea.
Posted by: Alistaire Gloluns2996 || 03/19/2018 8:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Who the hell is this guy, anyway-- Sheila Jackson Lee's illegitimate love child? He's certainly got her IQ...
Posted by: Dave D. || 03/19/2018 8:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Rothschilds? I bet he's a commenter at Zero Hedge.
Posted by: Raj || 03/19/2018 8:57 Comments || Top||

#6  Remember this is from the political spectrum that wants us to use xis and cis et al so as not to offend other people.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/19/2018 9:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Tray-on, Tray-off new product from Blammo Corp. You lay your head down when having to listen to room temp IQ ramblings. He's just 1 "v" short looking like one of Champs sons.
Posted by: Warthog || 03/19/2018 9:20 Comments || Top||

#8  But just remember kids, it is only whites and conservatives that are racist!!!
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/19/2018 12:14 Comments || Top||

#9  Bet he still has faith that Anthropomorphic CO2 causes measurable temp changes.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/19/2018 13:26 Comments || Top||

#10  One of the great thing about the interwebs is it gives you insight into just how many stupid people there are and to the depths of their moronitude (yes, that's a word).

But suppose this guy is on to something. I've long suspected this Islam thing is actually a plot by the Juice to keep the Arabs backwards and stupid. It seems to be working since I can't think of a single productive thing that has come out of the Arab world in the last millennium or so.

Now suppose that the weather *is* being controlled by the Juice using a vast system of underground machines. This explains why they are so diligent about destroying the tunnels being dug towards Israel by the Mole People Paleostinians lest their secret be discovered.

The existence of these weather modifying machines also explains why our most advanced climate models are not worth the electricity to boot up the computers they run on. It's all starting to make sense. (man, I love conspiracy theories!)
Posted by: SteveS || 03/19/2018 14:12 Comments || Top||

#11  councilman White apologized late yesterday

although he doesn't really seem to understand either why his comment is anti Semitic or why his comment is stark raving crazy
Posted by: lord garth || 03/19/2018 14:43 Comments || Top||

#12  Remember:

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits"....Albert Einstein
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 03/19/2018 15:04 Comments || Top||

#13  Jews are stopping global warming with their machines?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/19/2018 17:53 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Army, allies endure their worst day of ISIS attacks in east Syria since start of 2018
[ALMASDARNEWS] Amid an ongoing 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....
offensive in the east Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Army and allied paramilitary forces have endured their worst day of festivities with the terrorist group throughout the region since the start of 2018.

ISIS launched it offensive on the night of Saturday to Sunday, at first targeting the strategic T-2 military airport. This was latter followed up with attacks on and between the government-controlled Euphrates cities of al-Mayadeen and Abu Kamal.

Within the first several hours of battle, both sides endured dozens killed ‐ almost to the effect of 100 dead in total. By now, the combined corpse count has undoubtedly increased to beyond one hundred and perhaps now closer to 200.

At the present time its appears that Islamic State forces have not been able overrun either the T-2 military airport or any key positions around the cities of al-Mayadeen and Abu Kamal.

The terrorist offensive has been launched out of a vast area of uncleared desert countryside in western Deir Ezzor province thought initially to only have 200 fighters inside it; now it is clear that closer to one thousand faceless myrmidons would be a better guess.

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Coincidence that the Turks are pushing further into Syria and providing support to various anti-government pro-Islamist factions?

I think not.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 03/19/2018 22:31 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Anbar Antics: 2 turbans bound, 45 innocent casualties in recent months

IS bombs left 45 civilians killed, injured in past few months – Fallujah mayor

Anbar (Iraqinews.com) – Over 15 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed while 30 others injured in the Iraqi city of Fallujah over the past few months as bombs left by Islamic State (IS) militants went off in different parts in the city, a well-placed official was quoted as saying Sunday.

Speaking to Basnews website, Fallujah’s Mayor Issa al-Sayer said “IS militants have left many explosive charges and booby-trapped houses at al-Shohada and al-Nuaimiya districts in southern Fallujah after Iraqi troops forced them out of the city in June 2016.”

Sayer warned that the IS bombs “mainly target civilians, who return to their homes in southern Fallujah following the country’s victory over the militant group last year.”

The mayor called on the Iraqi government to step up efforts to eliminate all war leftovers in Iraq and provide additional equipment to detect bombs to prevent the fall of more victims.

Iraqi intelligence arrest two terrorists, seize explosives in Anbar

Anbar (Iraqinews.com) – Iraqi intelligence agencies arrested on Sunday two terrorists and seized a large cache of explosives and missile launchers in Anbar province.

In a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Knooz Media, the Directorate of Military Intelligence said that its officers arrested two terrorists during a military operation in Fallujah and Saqlawiyah cities in Anbar.

“The two were found to have links to terrorism-related offences,” the statement read.

Furthermore, intelligence troops also seized a large cache of explosive materials and missile launchers in al-Karmah district in the province, according to the statement.

The explosives were successfully detonated at site by the troops, the statement concluded

Islamic State members arrested as Iraqi troops launch airstrike, west of Anbar

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Several Islamic State members were arrested as an airstrike was carried out, west of Anbar, a security source was quoted saying on Sunday.

Speaking to AlSumaria News, the source said, “troops of the Counter-Terrorism Service carried out an airstrike in the desert, southeast of Rutba, in coordination with Anbar Operations Command and the first brigade.”

The troops, according to the source, who asked to remain anonymous, “managed to arrest group of terrorists.”
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Africa Subsaharan
'It Was Me Who Urged Mugabe to Resign,' Says Wife Grace
[All Africa] Former first lady Grace Mugabe says she convinced her husband to stand down after last year's military takeover when he was determined not to, it has emerged.

Grace Mugabe made the claim during a surprise presser her husband gave at the couple's Harare mansion this week.

'It was me who urged him to resign'
"Baba (father) did not want to put pen to paper, in fact it was me who urged him to resign for the sake of peace because Baba did not want to," Grace Mugabe said, in comments carried by the private NewsDay.

Mugabe confirmed his wife's role in helping to persuade him. "Under the circumstances I didn't want to step down because I felt it was not proper and I insisted that everything was done unconstitutionally," the 94-year-old said.

'Anarchy and bloodshed'
He said he was willing to face impeachment proceedings by MPs from his party and the main opposition but his wife had convinced him that "the process would take long and in between, the country could plunge into anarchy and bloodshed."

Mugabe told news hounds that last November's takeover was a "military coup" - a phrase his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa has done everything to avoid.
Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...Smart move, Gracie.

Mind you, I don't believe a word of it.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/19/2018 4:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Going to disconnect from Bob, now is as good a time as any. Wonder if she get's half his pension when he kicks, SBP ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 6:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Every investment advisor should have to study how dictators and their kin "diversify their portfolios." I'm sure Grace will land on her feet, the interesting detail will be who takes her in...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 8:56 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
French consulate employee said arrested by Israel for smuggling weapons
[IsraelTimes] Authorities suspect French national, who acted as driver, engaged in regular trips between Jerusalem and Gazoo

An employee at the French consulate in Jerusalem was tossed in the slammer
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
a few weeks ago by Israeli authorities, and will appear in court for a "security" issue, sources close to the case said.

The French national, a man in his 20s, is due to appear before a court in southern Israel on Monday, they said.

The judge is expected to spell out the charges against him, the sources said, adding that they were "serious."

Israeli authorities suspect him of arms trafficking, one of the sources said.

The man was arrested as he crossed the border between Israel and the Gazoo Strip, which is ruled by the Paleostinian Islamist movement Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", that Israel considers a terrorist organization.

He held a series of roles for the French consulate, including that of driver, carrying out regular trips between Jerusalem and Gazoo.

"We take this case very seriously and are in close contact with the Israeli authorities," said a front man for the French Embassy in Tel Aviv.

"He has benefited and continues to enjoy the consular protection" provided to Frenchies, said the front man, without providing more details on the case.

The Israeli foreign ministry, justice ministry, intelligence agency and police declined to comment.

In 2013, a French consulate employee was detained after attempting to use an official vehicle to smuggle a large amount of gold, tobacco and checks into Israel from Jordan.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Actually, the young man was very lucky. He could just as easily been rear-ended by a speeding Merkova at a stop sign. But then of course, he could not have divulged his network of buyers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 1:03 Comments || Top||

#2  No name? No picture?
Posted by: gorb || 03/19/2018 2:11 Comments || Top||

#3  The lack of identity makes me think his name isn't Pierre.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 03/19/2018 6:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Could be Austin, Angus, or Lionel. Just thinking out loud.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 6:50 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm placing my bets on it being one of the thousand variants of Mohammed.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 03/19/2018 7:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Consulate employee. Jawn Kerry is jealous...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 14:47 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
India is busy in fomenting unrest through terrorism using Afghan soil: DG ISPR
[DAWN] Major General Asif Ghafoor, the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), in an interview with Gulf News expressed confidence that the Pak Army has eliminated all terrorist havens from its soil.

The spokesperson of the army's media wing pointed out that the "well-planned and executed military campaign" to rid the country of the menace of terrorism did not come cheap.

"All this has come at a huge price. Besides cost in blood of over 750,000 Paks, there has been a loss of more than $123 billion to the national exchequer," the interview, published on Sunday, quoted him as saying.

"Pakistain has fought a successful war against terrorism ‐ a war which entered Pakistain through the 2,611-km scantily manned Pak-Afghan border when US-led coalition forces started military operations in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda," he told the publication, reiterating, "There are no more organised sanctuaries; for elimination of remaining disorganised scanty residual presence of turbans, Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad, a largely intelligence-based operation, is in progress."

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Anti-polio drive extended after refusals rise in Rawalpindi
[DAWN] RAW
... India's Research and Analysis Wing, Pakistain's equivalent of the Boogie Man...
ALPINDI: The District Health Authority had to extend the anti-polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
campaign by two days as refusal cases increased after a video claiming the death of children after receiving the polio vaccine went viral on social media.

The refusal cases increased in most parts of the city and union councils having a large population of people from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

Most of these people did not allow the health workers to administer drops to their children.
Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Putin Wins 4th Term with 73.9% of Vote
[AnNahar] Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
won Russia's presidential election on Sunday with almost 74 percent of the vote, according to an official exit poll, with the opposition reporting ballot stuffing and other cases of alleged fraud.

Putin, who has ruled Russia for almost two decades, stood against seven other candidates, but his most vocal critic Alexei Navalny was barred from the ballot for legal reasons and the final outcome was never in doubt.

The Kremlin was hoping for high voter numbers to give greater legitimacy to Putin's historic fourth term as Russia faces increasing isolation on the world stage over a spy poisoning in Britannia and a fresh round of U.S. sanctions.

About 107 million Russians were eligible to cast ballots and the central election commission said turnout was 60 percent, after the authorities used both the carrot and the stick to boost participation.

Selfie competitions, giveaways, food festivals and children's entertainers were laid on at polling booths in a bid to create a festive atmosphere around the election.

But employees of state and private companies reported coming under pressure to vote, while students were threatened with problems in their exams or even expulsion if they did not take part, according to the opposition-leaning Novaya Gazeta newspaper.

The exit poll by state-owned pollster VTsIOM at 1,200 voting stations around Russia projected that Putin had won 73.9 percent of the vote, up from 64 percent six years ago.

Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin performed better than expected, with 11.2 percent according to the exit poll, but the results of all other candidates including former reality TV host Ksenia Sobchak were forecast to be in single figures.

- 'Unprecedented violations' -
Navalny -- who called on his supporters to boycott the "fake" vote and sent over 33,000 observers across the country to see how official turnout figures differed from those of monitors -- said there had been "unprecedented violations."

His lawyer Ivan Zhdanov said the actual national turnout at 1700 GMT, when polls closed in Moscow, was 55 percent, according to data collected by monitors.

Navalny's opposition movement and the non-governmental election monitor Golos reported ballot stuffing, repeat voting and Putin supporters being bussed into polling stations en masse.

One election commission worker in the republic of Dagestan
...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republic currently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca...
, which traditionally registers extremely high official turnout figures, told AFP around 50 men entered the station where he was working and physically assaulted an observer before stuffing a ballot box.

But the electoral commission dismissed most concerns, saying monitors sometimes misinterpret what they see.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Piker...
Posted by: F. Castro || 03/19/2018 22:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Lightweight...
Posted by: D. Ortega || 03/19/2018 22:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Weak...
Posted by: M. Barry || 03/19/2018 23:00 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
10 injured in cross-LoC Indian shelling
[DAWN] Ten people, including two minor girls, were maimed in heavy shelling by Indian troops in Azad Jammu and Kashmire's Nakyal sector on Sunday, an official said.

"Indian troops started heavy mortar shelling at about 7am in the morning, targeting civilian populations in almost all villages along the Line of Control (LoC)," said Nakyal Assistant Commissioner Waleed Anwar.

According to the assistant commissioner the shelling finally ceased at noon.

A shell went kaboom! on the roof of the house of one Haji Aslam in Palani village, critically injuring three of his daughters, he said. The victims were identified as Musarrat, 22, Nargis, 25, and Samra, 15.

Elsewhere, in the same sector, 11-year-old Aleeba Majeed and 35-year-old Muhammad Zahoor Mughal were maimed in Jair Merg and Dharoti Naari villages respectively, Anwar said.

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
PM thanks European countries for financial contributions at Kuwait conf.
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi thanked on Sunday European countries for their financial contributions to Iraq at the international conference hosted by Kuwait last month for the reconstruction of the country.

Abadi made the remarks during a meeting with a group of European ambassadors to Iraq, his media office said in a statement, a copy of which was obtained by the Independent Press Agency Sunday.

“The three-day gathering sent a message that the world countries support Iraq’s reconstruction and stability following the great victory the country achieved over terrorism,” Abadi noted.

The premier stressed that the Iraqi government is determined to “go on with its development plan aimed at providing job opportunities for youth in partnership with the private sector.”

At the end of the conference, Iraq had acquired nearly USD30 billion, much less than a previously projected USD100 billion.
The meeting also tackled means of boosting cooperation between Iraq and the European Union, as well as contributions that could be made by the West in support of Iraq’s reconstruction.

Kuwait hosted an international donors conference for the reconstruction of Iraq after the damage sustained during the war against Islamic State militants since 2014. At the end of the conference, Iraq had acquired nearly USD30 billion, much less than a previously projected USD100 billion.

The war against IS had displaced nearly five million people both inside and outside the country, and dealt a severe damage to the country’s infrastructure.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq

#1  "With enough money, we will be just like you."

promise...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 8:50 Comments || Top||


Science
SpaceX has a larger effective budget for Human Space Flight than NASA does!
[Forum.NASAspaceflight] SpaceX has an income of some 3 billion, counting various NASA contracts, rockets at higher than list price, ...

NASA has a budget of some 4 billion for development of HSF, mostly going to Orion and SLS.

SpaceX may have a 'profit' of some $1B, right now, or in the very near future(*) that it is investing in future HSF relevant items. (BFR/Mars)

It only takes the assumption of SpaceX being three times or so more efficient to put their HSF development program budget over NASAs.

This doesn't even require any future profits from Starlink or other customers.

* (part of the current budget is going into not-very-relevant going forward architecture such as Dragon, that may be systematically less efficient than a program with reduced oversight).

Once StarLink has 800+ satellites it goes commercial, very likely bringing in several $billion more even before peaking with full deployment.

Their revenue estimates, printed by WSJ, put StarLink's revenues at about $30 billion by the mid-2020's. Given anchor tenants (local/municipal ISP's, govt agencies, DoD*...) and hosted sensors on their satellites, this could be quite conservative.

If SpaceX 'only' has $1B profit available per year, they already have more human space flight money than NASA because they get 10x more out of each development dollar[1]. Look at what they've spent and created over last ten years compared to what NASA has spent and created...

And they are just hitting their stride -- BFR isn't their first launch vehicle, Raptor not their first engine, Boca Chica isn't their first pad.
Posted by: 3dc || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yeah, OK. But how's their Department of Muslim Outreach?
Posted by: SteveS || 03/19/2018 0:21 Comments || Top||

#2  The key word here is 'Effective'. They are a business, not a make work program for aerospace engineers.
Posted by: Nguard || 03/19/2018 0:22 Comments || Top||

#3  The whims of congressional budgeting and federal employment dysfunction have finally been overcome.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 0:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Calling D. D. Harriman.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2018 0:57 Comments || Top||

#5  NASA should have had a zero budget since the end of Apollo.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 8:29 Comments || Top||

#6  NASA has to spread out it's expenditures and hiring in such a way as to make congresscritters happy. SpaceX not so much.
Any function run by the government will eventually turn into a jobs program. Doing the work well is not good enough; you have to generate votes.
Posted by: ed in texas || 03/19/2018 8:31 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Mnangagwa Says Willing to Meet Mugabe
[All Africa] President Emmerson Mnangagwa says he is willing to meet his predecessor Bob Muggsy Mugabe
Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win....
who has demanded a meeting with him.

The two have not formally met since November last year and have been communicating over the phone.

Mugabe, on Thursday, told journalists in his first press briefing since he was forced out of power in November last year on the back of a military coup, that he wants to "help" Mnangagwa "return to legitimacy".

Mnangagwa became President during the coup.

Mugabe, whose forced resignation ended a 37 year rule, said as much as he would want to work with President, the incumbent must be legal in is post.

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Muslim clerics in Rwanda vow to appeal loudspeaker ban
[AFRICANEWS] Rwanda’s Moslem leaders have said they will appeal the government’s decision to ban the use of loudspeakers for the call to prayer (Adhan), arguing that the ban infringes on their rights of worship.

Sheikh Suleiman Mbarushimana, an adviser to Mufti of Rwanda told regional newspaper, The EastAfrican, the ban violates Islamic liturgical practices.

"Stopping Adhan is inappropriate, instead we would seek to do it in a way that doesn’t hurt anyone like agreeing on sound levels not to exceed," he said.

The Moslem holy mans believe they should have been consulted before such drastic action could be taken by the authorities.

"The government needs to carefully approach this as it could affect its image in terms of granting freedom of worship. Of course we are not saying we should be allowed to infringe on others’ rights in the name of religious freedom," said Sheikh Said Mukhtaar Mbabajende.

The ban was issued on Wednesday this week, directing mosques in Nyarugenge sector in the capital to stop using loudspeakers and find alternative ways for the call to prayers.

The ban comes a few weeks after the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), which regulates faith-based organizations, closed more than 700 churches and one mosque over building safety and hygiene and noise pollution.

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


Afghanistan
5 Afghan policemen killed in Taliban attack
[DAWN] An Afghan official says the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
have attacked security positions northwest of Kabul, killing at least five police.

Mohammed Zaman, the provincial police chief for Ghazni province, says the attack late on Saturday set off a two-hour gunbattle.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks across Afghanistan since the United States and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure....
formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014.

In the western Ghor province, meanwhile, a roadside kaboom killed a young shepherd and maimed five others.

Police Spokesman Iqbal Nizami says the Taliban planted the bomb in order to target security forces.

In the eastern Khost province
... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name...
, Police Spokesman Basir Bina says a roadside kaboom killed two children and maimed another nine. Both bombs went off on Saturday.

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


India-Pakistan
Iranian forces fire mortar shells into Panjgur
[DAWN] Iranian forces fired about half a dozen mortar shells into Pak territory near the Panjgur border in Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
on Saturday, according to official sources.

The shells were fired by Iranian border guards without provocation. The shells landed and went kaboom! in an open space in the Parako area, a small village in Panjgur district.

Security officials said that mortar shells were fired in the early hours of the day, adding that no casualty was reported.

However,
a hangover is the wrath of grapes...
panic gripped the people of the area when they woke up to loud kabooms.

Levies and Frontier Corps
...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and a..the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...nti-smuggling operations....
personnel rushed to the site where the shells had landed to collect evidence. The Panjgur deputy commissioner informed the officials concerned in Quetta about the incident.

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian rebels shoot down fighter jet in East Qalamoun
[ALMASDARNEWS] Islamist bully boyz positioned in the East Qalamoun mountains have reportedly shot down a fighter jet for the Syrian Air Force.

Footage published by pro-rebel accounts on social media shows a Syrian SU-24 attack aircraft being shot down by anti-aircraft machineguns.

The destiny of the pilot is not yet known, but reports had it that the jet fell on Syrian Army-controlled territories.

A rebel alliance called Jaish Tahrir al-Sham
declared a fresh offensive against the Syrian Army in the besieged East Qalamoun pocket.

The alliance is made up of Jaish al-Islam
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
, Osoud al-Sharqiyah and Ahmad al-Abdo Brigades.
Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Jaish al-Islam (MB)


Iraq
Five civilians killed in armed attack, west of Kirkuk: Source
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Five civilians, including a woman, were killed in an armed attack, west of Kirkuk, a local source said on Sunday.

“A group of gunmen, believed to be members of Islamic State, attacked a village in al-Riyad town in Hawija, leaving five civilians, including a woman, killed,” the source told AlSumaria News.

“Security troops transferred the victims to forensic medicine department,” the source, who preferred anonymity, added without giving further details
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


India-Pakistan
Man kills wife, minor son in Kohat
[DAWN] A man allegedly killed his wife and minor son over a family dispute in Darwazai Banda area of Shakardarra town in the wee hours on Saturday.

SHO Azfal Awan told Dawn on contact that Zafranullah killed his wife and then cut into pieces his one-month-old son. Then he bundled the minor in a bag and threw him in the Darwazai Dam, he added.

Later, the accused created hue and cry and gathered the neighbours and told them that three dacoits had entered his house and killed his family and fled away.

Ibraheem, the father of the dear departed woman, told the police in the hospital during autopsy of her body that his son-in-law was lying, and in fact he had killed his wife and minor son.

He said Zafranullah had divorced his wife on two occasions
Is that even possible?
and that his wife had filed a case in court that her husband did not give her expenses and tortured her.

The police incarcerated
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
the accused, who admitted to having killed his wife and minor son. A pistol used in the crime was also recovered from his house.

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:


Bilawal says PPP stopped Nawaz's 'Zia alliance' in Senate elections
[DAWN] PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto, while addressing a rally in Kotli Sattian tehsil on Sunday, gloated over PML-N's loss in the Senate elections, saying the opposition had defeated the ruling party's "Zia alliance" in the upper house.

"You [PML-N leadership] used to say 'rok sako to rok lo' (stop us if you can)," recalled Bilawal. "Look, we have stopped you."

He berated Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts...
for terming PML-N's defeat in the Senate elections as a "defeat for democracy", saying that the former prime minister had tied democracy with his own victory and defeat.

Referring to Sharif's statement that came right after Sadiq Sanjarani defeated PML-N's Raja Zafarul Haq in the elections for Senate chairman ‐ where he referred to the opposition parties as "wound-up toys" ‐ Bilawal said that the former premier himself was the "toy". He claimed that Sharif's entire politics was based on using power to his advantage.

The PPP chairman said that the 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...
Assembly had passed a no-confidence motion against PML-N's government because of lack of development in Balochistan under the ruling party's administration.

"Were they wound-up toys too?" he asked.

In his tirade, Bilawal also targeted Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
's Chairman Imran Khan
... aka Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
, saying that the former cricketer had "given nothing to the country except curse words and taken nothing but U-turns".

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
Ninevah nastiness: big turban bound, 7 turbans permanently unwound

Islamic State senior leader arrested in operation, north of Mosul

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi military intelligence has announced arresting Islamic State’s head of Nineveh police in an operation, north of Mosul.

In a statement on Saturday, the department said security troops managed to arrest one of IS prominent leaders, who used to be the police chief of the so-called Nineveh State. He was in charge of collecting the revenues of the militants. He was also famous for planting bombs.

The leader, according to the statement, has been hiding in Badush mountains since the liberations of Mosul. Troops then managed to arrest him at al-Shaiqara village, north of Mosul.

Iraqi troops kill seven Islamic State militants in Nineveh province

Nineveh (Iraqinews.com) – Iraqi troops killed on Sunday seven Islamic State (IS) militants while trying to infiltrate into al-Ba’aj district in Nineveh province, a military spokesman was quoted as saying.

Speaking to the Kuwaiti al-Watan newspaper, spokesman for the Nineveh Operations Command Brigadier-General Mohamed al-Jabouri said, “A group of IS militants tried to sneak into al-Ba’aj district, 120 km northwest of Mosul, but security forces stationed there managed to foil their scheme and killed seven of them.”

“The IS insurgents sought to infiltrate into al-Ba’aj district to carry out terrorist attacks against security forces and citizens,” Jabouri said, adding that the troops seized all weapons from the terrorists.

Jabouri pointed out the security forces will continue to hunt for Islamic State infiltrators across the province.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Nusra flings huge car bomb at Syrian Army as militants attempt to reclaim lost distinct in east Damascus
[ALMASDARNEWS] On Sunday, al-Qaeda affiliate militia Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham
(better known by its former name, Jabhat al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
) conducted a car kaboom against Syrian Army positions in the now government-controlled East Ghouta district of Jisreen.

At the present time little information is available on the result of the attack, specifically whether or not it was successful and, if so, how many losses were endured to the ranks of Syrian government forces.

At face value, the kaboom appears to have taken out an entire residential building block.

Some sources state that the car kaboom was followed up with a general storming of Syrian Army positions aimed at retaking the district of Jisreen, but that the assault was ultimately repelled by Elite Republican Guard units.

Ha’yat Tahrir al-Sham is the second biggest group after ISIS to conduct suicide car kabooms on enemy forces ‐ even so, it ranks second place by a very large margin, perhaps to a factor of about 10.

Syria’s Assad shows up in East Ghouta frontlines

[ALMASDARNEWS] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
paid a daring and unexpected visit to one of the recently-liberated Eastern Ghouta towns.

Photos published by the Syrian Presidency shows Assad amid a group of the soldiers who are battling against Islamist bully boyz in the area.

Nearly a month ago, the government forces launched an onslaught against the murderous Moslem of East Ghouta. Ever since, up to 80% of the longtime rebel-held enclave.

Syrian Army issues final warning for jihadists as it readies to storm key district in east Damascus

[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Ministry of Defence has issued a final warning to jihadist fighters of Moslem Brüderbund affiliate militia Ahrar al-Sham
...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014...
holding out in the besieged district of Harasta.

Syrian military authorities are pressuring Ahrar al-Sham rebels to keep good on their semi-official promise to either completely evacuate Harasta for northwest Syria or to reconcile with the government in the coming days.

According to al-Masdar News journalist Ibrahim Joudeh, the Syrian Army is looking for an official acknowledgement from the holy warrior group’s leaders in the district that they will in fact abide by the preliminary evacuation-reconciliation deal.

The Syrian Army has threatened to storm Harasta and drive out jihadist faceless myrmidons at gunpoint if they lax on the set arrangement.
Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  McShhhhhhhtainsssssch friendscccccccchhh getting more desccccccccchhhhperate as he gets to sccccccchhhhhick to deliver.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 12:07 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Army carries heavy losses in enemy ranks, it's mercenaries
[SABANEWS.NET] The heroes of the army and popular committees, carried out an offensive operations toward the Saudi soldiers and it's mercenaries, bumped off six soldiers, as well as broke large infiltration attempts, while the missile and artillery force targeted their gatherings over the past 24 hours resulted in huge losses in their ranks, a military official told Saba.

In Jizan, dozens of Saudi soldiers killed and injured in an offensive operation on al- al-Lahaj and the neighboring hills in Qais mountain, six Saudi soldiers were bumped off in Jadhea Namir and Qewa village and site of al- Hasskol, the military official said.

In Najran, the missile force launched scores of Katyusha rockets gathered of Saudi soldiers in leadership of Selah, while an artillery shells targeted Saudi soldier's mercenaries troops in al-Khadhraa crossing and al-Firas hill in al- Ajasher desret.

The artillery bombard of the army hit the gathering of the Saudi soldiers and their mercenaries in Qilal al-Shaibani and in front of Alb border crossing in Asir, as well similar shelling targeted mercenaries troops beyond Alb crossing, and bumped off one of the mercenaries in front of the border crossing.

Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch shot Black Bart's gun out of his hand......
the heroes of the army also broke large infiltrations for the mercenaries toward Natia district in al- Bayda province, continued from the morning until 6 pm, accompanied by the aggression Arclight airstrikes on the area.

Casualties of mercenaries fell, including leaders during the repelled to the infiltrations and destructed a supplies vehicle with a 23-caliber machine gun guided missile.

The death of the mercenary commander Taqi Abdul-Rab al-Amri, "battalion of al- Shaddadi" and five others and wounding ten mercenaries by the fire of the army and the Popular Committees in the front of Nata.

The missile force of the army and the Popular Committees fired Zilzal 1 on the gatherings of mercenaries aggression in the area of al- Hawl in Nehm district, indicating that five of Saudi-paid mercenaries were bumped off in different areas of the West Coast Front in Taiz province.
Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Africa Subsaharan
Zimbabwe Crowns First 'Miss Albino' in Bid to Tackle Stigma
[All Africa] Sithembiso Mutukura beat 12 other contestants to claim the crown at Zim-bob-we's first-ever Miss Albinism beauty contest -- an achievement she hopes will inspire others living with the rare disorder.

"We must continue to advocate for our rights and I hope my win will empower the girl child," the 22-year-old social work student said.

"I have gone through a lot, but I want people living with albinism to be brave and persevere in life."

During the event in Harare on Friday night, the contestants had to respond to questions on stage and model a range of gowns and traditional African robes. Mutukura was awarded US$85 (almost €70) in prize money after being named winner.

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That is just...weird.
Posted by: jvalentour || 03/19/2018 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  The murdering and harvsting of Ambino body parts for sale to the the Sangoma (witch doctor) is quite common throughout southern Africa. Our own Planned Parenthood has added a more inclusive, western twist....parts sales, anti-aging body creams, etc.

More western media scrutiny is given the slaughter of elephants for their ivory tusks and harvesting of Rhino horns however. New people are produced at a much higher rate.

Somewhat related but similarly disgusting.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 1:18 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt's Court of Cassation issues final acquittal for Mubarak-era culture minister Hosni
[AlAhram] Egypt's Court of Cassation issued on Sunday a final acquittal for Mubarak-era culture minister Farouk Hosni, who was tried for profiteering while serving as minister.

The court rejected on Sunday an appeal by the prosecution against an acquittal order by a criminal court in January 2013.

In 2013, Hosni was found not guilty of making illicit gains and profiteering from October 1987 to January 2011.

The January decision came several months after a Cairo administrative court reversed a verdict freezing Hosni's assets worth EGP 9 million (around $512,000).

Last week, a Cairo criminal court dismissed a corruption case against Mubarak-era steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz and the former head of the Industrial Development Authority Amr Assal, removing their names from a travel ban list after the pair reached a financial settlement with the state.

Ezz will pay EGP 1.7 billion as part of a reconciliation deal with the Egyptian government, according to Egypt's prosecutor-general Nabil Sadek.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel nabs terror suspect wanted for stabbing West Bank rabbi to death
[IsraelTimes] Following month-long manhunt, security forces catch Arab Israeli Abed al-Karim Assi in West Bank city of Nablus

Israeli forces on Sunday, after an extensive manhunt, tossed in the calaboose
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
a suspected terrorist who is believed to have stabbed to death Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal near Ariel in February, the Shin Bet security service said.

On February 5, 19-year-old Abed al-Karim Assi, an Israeli citizen, is believed to have attacked Ben-Gal, 29, at a bus stop outside Ariel, a West Bank settlement.

Assi expeditiously departed at a goodly pace, leading security forces on a month-long manhunt that ended with his arrest in the predawn hours of Sunday in the West Bank city of Nablus, the Shin Bet said.

The security service said he was found inside a house in the city.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, Assi was injured during the early morning arrest raid and received treatment from army medics. The military would not elaborate on how he sustained his wounds.

"The arrest was carried out by the Shin Bet, Israel Police Special Patrol Unit and Israel Defense Forces. It was the culmination of extensive efforts since the terror attack, during which a number of accomplices, who are suspected of either helping [Assi] or knowing his whereabouts, were interrogated," the Shin Bet said in a statement.

In addition to Assi, a number of people who were with him at the time of his arrest were also taken into custody, the service said.

Assi had been thought to have been hiding out in Nablus, where his father lives, since the attack. Before the attack he had used his Israeli citizenship to spend time on both sides of the Green Line, including with his mother, who lives in Haifa.

He had received social service assistance from Israeli authorities, including at the Shanti Home in Tel Aviv for at-risk youth.

The facility’s coordinator, Hilit Levy, told Channel 10 that she was "shocked" to hear he was suspected in the stabbing attack last month. She said that Assi had decided to leave the home in November 2016 after staff told him he could no longer continue making weekly visits to his family in Nablus.

"He came from a broken family that did not support him," Levy added.

The Welfare Ministry released a statement after the attack saying Assi "was known to social services."

"Over the years, attempts were made to help the young man who was abandoned by his parents," the statement said, adding that the 19-year-old had more than once left the housing and rehabilitation programming in which he had been participating.

Footage from the scene of the attack showed Assi crossing a road toward Ben-Gal, who was standing in front of a bus stop, and stabbing him. Ben-Gal then fled across the street with the stabber in pursuit.

Medics tried to resuscitate Ben-Gal, who was stabbed three times in the chest. He was taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah, but succumbed to his wounds.

He was laid to rest in a cemetery in the Har Bracha settlement where he lived with his family. He is survived by his wife and four children.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Turkey's Erdogan says Afrin city centre under 'total' control
[DAWN] Ottoman Turkish-backed Syrian rebels have taken "total" control of the centre of Afrin, a Kurdish-majority city in northern Syria, President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
said on Sunday.

"Units of the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
, which are backed by Ottoman Turkish armed forces, took control of the centre of Afrin this morning at 8:30 am (0530 GMT)," Erdogan said, adding that de-mining operations were under way.

Taking Afrin has been the main objective of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's operation Olive Branch, a deadly ground and air offensive launched on January 20 with the aim of ousting the People's Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia group.

Erdogan said a "large number" of Kurdish fighters had "fled with their tails between their legs". He added Ottoman Turkish special forces had deployed in the city.

News of Afrin's capture was also confirmed by the Ottoman Turkish military, which released a statement saying the city centre was "under control".

"Search operations to locate mines and other explosives are under way," it said.

On Twitter, the military posted a video of a soldier putting a Ottoman Turkish flag on a balcony.

"Now the Ottoman Turkish flag will fly over there! The flag of the Free Syrian Army will fly over there!" said Erdogan who was speaking at a ceremony marking the battle to open the Dardanelles during World War I.

As the Ottoman Turkish operation intensified, more than 200,000 civilians fled the Kurdish-majority city in less than three days and dozens have been killed in the area, according to the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Turkish-backed rebels loot Afrin city

[ALMASDARNEWS] According to reports, units of the so-called Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
(FSA), the Ottoman Turkish-backed rebel organization that fights both the Syrian government and Kurdish militias alike, has went on a rampage of plundering in recently conquered areas of Afrin.

The FSA reportedly has started looting all across the city of Afrin after asserting full control over the city on Sunday, plundering civilian residences belonging to people who fled from the violence.

Reports also have it that different groups within the FSA have violently clashed with one another, either over disapproval of the plundering or due to disagreements on how the spoils of plunder should be divided amongst the rebel forces.

The FSA was one of the earliers Syrian rebel organizations, founded in 2011, but quickly lost relevance in the ensuing conflict. It subsequently all but disappeared to the background until 2016, when the FSA was chosen as The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
’s strategical ally in the Euphrates Shield campaign, and later in the Ottoman Turkish invasion of the Afrin district.
Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  YPG announced today they are in all districts of Afrin Canton as guerilla units.

35 Turk and FSA jihadists destroyed in the main city of Afrin via an explosion detonated by the YPG.

Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 03/19/2018 8:13 Comments || Top||

#2  YPG publishes video of taking out Turk armor in Bilbil district today near the Turk border.

Link to strike.
Posted by: Ulaigum Ebbineng7056 || 03/19/2018 8:22 Comments || Top||

#3  question for Erdogan is will Turkey keep their military in Afrin for months or years

if they do this they will be losing men, equipment and money each month

but if they don't, the Kurds will drive their puppets out pretty fast
Posted by: lord garth || 03/19/2018 10:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Lord Garth - almost as if he needs a final solution or sumpthin'
Posted by: Frank G || 03/19/2018 13:42 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
US says it’s prepared to stop attacks on its troops in Afghanistan
[DAWN] Hours after the meeting between Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and US Vice President Mike Pence on Friday, the United States reminded Pakistain that it was prepared to take necessary steps to protect its personnel in Afghanistan if Islamabad did not stop cross-border attacks.

The warning, given at a special news briefing on Friday afternoon, followed the unscheduled Abbasi-Pence meeting at the US Naval Observatory, the vice president’s official residence.

Sources briefed on this one-on-one meeting told news hounds that Mr Pence also focused on this issue [Afghan policy] in the 30 minutes that he spent with the Pak leader.

At 3pm ‐ almost four and a half hours after the meeting ‐ senior Trump administration officials held a special briefing for Washington-based journalists to convey their dissatisfaction with Pakistain’s Afghan policy.

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies

#1  Is that like 17 years of intense study and hearts and minds and algorithms talking or what!😵
Posted by: Slomorong Slosh5885 || 03/19/2018 17:55 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
What does Turkey’s seizure of Afrin mean for Syria war?
[IsraelTimes] Ankara may move refugee populations back over border after taking control of Kurdish area, enlarging its territory

The capture of Afrin from the Kurds by Ottoman Turkish-led fighters on Sunday could have major repercussions for Syria’s protracted war.

Here we look at what it means for The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


India-Pakistan
FC soldier martyred, another injured in Mohmand gun attack
[DAWN] A Frontier Constabulary (FC) soldier was martyred and another injured when person or persons unknown shot up their vehicle in Mohmand Agency
... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in 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..
and Kunar...

's Safi tehsil on Sunday.

The attack comes hours after two polio
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
workers were killed, while three others were kidnapped in the same area last night.

Sources in the political administration said the assailants managed to escape after the attack. The site of the attack has been cordoned off.

Security officials in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas are made the target of myrmidon attacks. At least 11 security officials were martyred when a jacket wallah went kaboom! near a Pakistain Army camp in Kabal area of Swat
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
last month.

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Caribbean-Latin America
Argentine government admits that doomed submarine was SPYING on the Falkland Islands when it vanished with 44 people on board
[DailyMail]
  • ARA San Juan disappeared with 44 crew members on board in November 2017

  • Argentina's Navy has always claimed it was carrying out training exercises

  • But government now says it was ordered to the Falkland Islands to identify 'ships and aircraft'
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Karma, bitches
Posted by: Frank G || 03/19/2018 7:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Counting the number of sheep?
Posted by: Alistaire Gloluns2996 || 03/19/2018 8:23 Comments || Top||

#3  This is by definition what submarines do. The run under the surface where they can't be seen (stealth) and look at stuff that doesn't know it's being looked at (spying).
It's the getting away with it part that's hard.
Posted by: ed in texas || 03/19/2018 8:24 Comments || Top||

#4  I was going to make a quip about that Argentine submarine identifying a Britsh anti-submarine helicopter but someone beat me to it.
Posted by: Alistaire Gloluns2996 || 03/19/2018 8:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Oburble could have told them they were half a world away...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 11:45 Comments || Top||

#6  I was going to make a quip about that Argentine submarine identifying a Britsh anti-submarine helicopter but someone beat me to it.

I'd sure like to know how the sub sent out that report.
Posted by: gorb || 03/19/2018 14:24 Comments || Top||

#7  Wouldn't an occasional flyover provide the same info? You can't exactly hide ships and aircraft on a barren island with one landing field.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 03/19/2018 14:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Re: #6

1. Surface
2. Open hatch
3. Release homing pigeon

Of course, following the steps in order is important. :-)
Posted by: Alistaire Gloluns2996 || 03/19/2018 16:16 Comments || Top||

#9  Poorly chartered waters and unplanned high speed encounters? Remember the USS San Francisco (SSN-711) back in 2005? Luckily our ship made it home -- their's did not.
Posted by: magpie || 03/19/2018 17:40 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Trudeau Sending Peacekeepers To Mali Despite Red Flag From Military
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Mali/Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen

#1  Will he let them have bullets?
Posted by: AlanC || 03/19/2018 8:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Will he make them dress funny?
Posted by: Raj || 03/19/2018 8:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Jeez but this is so embarrassing.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 03/19/2018 20:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Send the 22d Regiment, French-speaking Francophone troops to a former French colony, what?
Posted by: magpie || 03/19/2018 20:36 Comments || Top||


Europe
Spanish police arrest Chinese-led human trafficking gang which offered to smuggle migrants to the UK for £18,000
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Trump instructed CIA not to interfere in Russian presidential elections
[ALMASDARNEWS] Former CIA employee and current whistle blower "Jeffrey Sterling" announced that US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
had ordered former CIA chief Mike Pompeo to stop taking any sensitive action in the upcoming Russian presidential election.

"In return for this order, Trump asked the Russians to end the tensions between the two countries and to not interfere in the next US elections."_ Sterling added.

It is noteworthy that the authorities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have taken a decision to prevent such incidents from occurring in the wake of speculation over Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election.

Pompeo also said at a meeting of the Senate select committee on intelligence on February 13 that Russia could intervene in the congressional mid-term elections in November.

On the other hand, at the Dartmouth Summit held in September 2017 between US and Russian security officials, the level of pessimism between the two countries was reduced and it was decided to find a solution for the challenges between the two countries at the next meeting. The next meeting was held at the Russian security officials visit to Washington in mid-February, and the meeting was held secretly, the result of which was Russia’s guarantee of non-interference in the Senate’s mid-term elections, against US not meddling in the Russian presidential election.

Trump’s encounter with the Russians has been a weak one is precedent, he offered cyber assistance to President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
at the first meeting with the Russian leader, which was heavily criticized by some American politicians.

Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As if it would have had any effect at all. That's throwing money down a rat hole, better spent elsewhere, so good call for Trump.
Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 || 03/19/2018 22:33 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Dem Lawmaker Calls For Removal Of ‘Offensive' Joseph Hooker Sign
A Democratic politician in Massachusetts wants to remove a sign at the State House honoring General Joseph Hooker because she believes the sign is "offensive" to women.

State Representative Michelle DuBois says it is time to get rid of the "General Hooker Entrance" at the Massachusetts State House because she believes the sign is a "double entendre" posing as respect for a Civil War hero.

The sign is allegedly an assault on "women’s dignity" because the general’s name happens to double as an insulting word about female hookers.

Related at Victory Girls with cool graphic.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There are no such things as dirty words, only dirty minds.
-Lenny Bruce
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/19/2018 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Lets rename it "Chancellorsville" entrance.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 03/19/2018 1:04 Comments || Top||

#3  A fishwife inexpertly angled
And in her own line got entangled:
As Masshole Cassandra
Cast ("Double entendre!"),
Above her, the Sacred Cod dangled.

Meh. Spoiling good material, my speci'ality.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 03/19/2018 5:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Lenny Bruce

How to Talk Dirty and Influence People is still one of my favorite books...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 8:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Don't they have something better to do in Massachusetts? Maybe a special counsel should be appointed to look into this. Better yet, use the one we have in D.C.--we just need to claim the Russians were involved.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/19/2018 8:02 Comments || Top||

#6  OK, change it to "Special Hookers Happy Portal".
There. Fixed.
Posted by: ed in texas || 03/19/2018 8:35 Comments || Top||

#7  Apparently history knowledge is a lost skill in Taxaschusetts.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/19/2018 9:34 Comments || Top||

#8  Always liked the situation where the general said to the female reporter, "Well, you are equipped to be a prostitute, but whether you are or not is up to you..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 03/19/2018 10:39 Comments || Top||

#9  If it'll take the focus from California for a few minutes I'm good with it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 03/19/2018 11:02 Comments || Top||

#10  Given the amount of corruption that goes on through those doors, the name is far more fitting.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/19/2018 11:28 Comments || Top||

#11  Guilty conscience?
Posted by: gorb || 03/19/2018 12:10 Comments || Top||

#12  Given the amount of corruption that goes on through those doors, the name is far more fitting.

Maybe a flashing neon sign saying "Whores-R-Us"
Posted by: SteveS || 03/19/2018 22:59 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Army loses a dozen tanks as persistent Islamist militants cling-on to stronghold town in east Damascus
[ALMASDARNEWS] Despite earlier reports that the Syrian Army had imposed full control over the town of Ar-Rayhan in Damascus’ East Ghouta region, the reality stands that rebel fighters remain in partial control of what still appears to be a standing stronghold for them.

Even more, it has become apparent that the Syrian Army has endured major losses to its armored forces in the ongoing festivities for Ar-Rayhan and its surrounding countryside (still heavily littered with undiscovered tunnels and trenches).

A video (shown below) released very recently by the Jaish al-Islam
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
Lion of Islam faction suggests that as many as a dozen Syrian Army tanks have been knock-out by various means available to local bad boys.

By far, Ar-Rayhan has proven to be the most persistent bad boy stronghold encountered by the Syrian Army; even before the latest Damascus offensive, the town had withstood dozens of attacks by government forces.
Posted by: Fred || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


Government
Lockheed Martin Wins Air Force Special Ops Training Contract
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Where they the same people who trained and commanded that Jimmy Carter special force Iran mission?

I have a bad feeling about this.
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 03/19/2018 2:05 Comments || Top||

#2  #1 Where they the same people who trained and commanded that Jimmy Carter special force Iran mission?

...Fortunately, no. The training and leadership for that mission were absolutely first rate. The problem was that you had several highly secret organizations that weren't talking to one another, an overly complex plan (that probably shouldn't have been executed in the first place, but Carter was desperate and the military couldn't say no), and the planners just kept hoping that nothing could go wrong.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/19/2018 5:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Ref #1: Huge push at the time to operate in the new... mix & match "Joint environment." Second big push - make the POW political pain somehow go away. Upshot, many 'Lessons Learned' gains, but both challenges still linger.

Wasn't there, sleeping in my own bunk at the time. Just my opinion.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/19/2018 6:22 Comments || Top||

#4  Too many joints in RDJTF.
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/19/2018 8:51 Comments || Top||

#5  The key lessons learned from asymmetrical conflicts is to not take prisoners and if you do for intel purposes don't keep after their expiration date.

HRW and the ACLU can make your life miserable.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 03/19/2018 15:09 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Man stabbed in Jerusalem terror attack succumbs to wounds, stabber was killed at the scene
[Ynet] After hours of attempts to stabilize the victim's condition, who was said to be in life-threatening danger after being stabbed multiple times in the Old City by a terrorist, victim, identified as Adiel Coleman‐father of 4‐dies in hospital; terrorist, 28, from village near Nablus, was a Paleostinian who was granted permit to look for work in Israel.

A 32-year-old man succumbed to his wounds Sunday evening after being stabbed in Jerusalem's Old City multiple times in a terror attack.

The victim was evacuated to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem where he was said to be in life-threatening danger. Doctors battled for hours to stabilize what was described as an "extremely seriously" condition and despite being operated on, the hospital was forced to pronounce his death.

He was identified as Adiel Coleman, a resident of Kokhav HaShahar in the West Bank, who was born in the Keshet community in the Golan Heights and who was a married father of four.

The 28-year-old terrorist, Abd al-Rahman Bani Fadel, who was later confirmed to be a Paleostinian from the village of Aqraba near Nablus, was was rubbed out by a police officer at the scene on HaGai Street where he carried out his attack.

Fadel, a father of two, had a temporary permit for a week that allowed him to enter Israel to search for employment. He had already received such permits in the past, as there was no indication of his terrorist intentions.

"He was fully conscious and didn’t answer any questions when we got to him. He had suffered from serious wounds to his chest and stomach," said one MDA paramedic.

Commander of the area, David Shmueli later said that security forces were still trying to figure out how the terrorist managed to carry out the attack. "We are still looking into how he got here and where he entered from. We are assessing all the possibilities in order to understand what happened here after a long period of comparative quiet in Jerusalem," he said.

Shmueli also added that in light of a number of warnings of future attacks, police were preparing for a beefed-up deployment ahead of, and during, the upcoming festival of Passover.

"We are taking everything into account. There are multiple alerts unfortunately and we are obviously augmenting the forces accordingly."
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  stabber was killed at the scene

Oh no! Now we'll never understand his motive!
Posted by: gorb || 03/19/2018 12:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe he was upset with the Juice-controlled weather
Posted by: Frank G || 03/19/2018 13:52 Comments || Top||

#3  The more reading I do about Vlad the Impaler, the more respect I have for his methods of encouraging "the Others" concerning his seriousness.
Posted by: Canuckistan sniper || 03/19/2018 19:55 Comments || Top||


IDF floods terror tunnel Hamas tried to rebuild, bombs second tunnel
More on this report from yesterday.
[Ynet] Tunnel running from Rafah to Eshkol was originally destroyed during Protective Edge; another tunnel was bombed in the central Gazoo Strip overnight; Lieberman: 'Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, should invest the money in welfare of the Gazoo residents, because by the end of the year its tunnel project will be eliminated.'

The IDF destroyed for the second time on Sunday a terror tunnel initially demolished during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge, which Hamas has tried to rebuild.

The tunnel, which runs from Rafah in the southern Gazoo Strip to the Eshkol Regional Council inside Israel, was flooded with materials rendering the whole network unusable.

"Overnight, IDF forces operated against underground infrastructure in the Rafah area," the IDF Spokesman's Office said.

"For several weeks now, we've been identifying Hamas activity, as they have been trying to rebuild underground infrastructure that was active during Protective Edge. We've been following this activity and decided to take this action to thwart it before Hamas could reconnect the tunnel to the old infrastructure and before the tunnel crossed into our territory. It did not pose a threat," the IDF continued.

Another Hamas tunnel was bombed by the Israel Air Force overnight Saturday in the central Gazoo Strip. The IAF also attacked other Hamas targets in retaliation for several IEDs that have been planted along the strip's border.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman recommended to Hamas "to invest the money in the welfare of the Gazoo residents, because by the end of the year its tunnel project will be eliminated."
Paleostinian sources reported the targets included farmland east of the Zaytun Quarter in Gazoo City and two Hamas military posts. There have been no reports of injuries or damage in Gazoo.

The Military Police closed off some areas of the Eshkol Regional Council as IDF forces were working to neutralize the tunnel. The Paleostinians reported IDF engineering forces were operating on the southern Gazoo border.

"There's no developing security incident on the Gazoo border and the roadblocks are just part of routine activity," the IDF Spokesman's Office said.

Over the past six months, the IDF has exposed and neutralized three border-crossing terror tunnels in Israeli territory‐two in the Kissufim and Ein HaShlosha area and another under the Kerem Shalom border crossing, which also branched out into Egypt. The tunnels were uncovered thanks to new technology to detect underground activity.

Also over the past six months, the IAF attacked two terror tunnels inside the Gazoo Strip, one of them a month ago in the Zaytun Quarter in response to an explosive that went off on the border near Khan Yunis, leaving four IDF soldiers maimed.

"We've been operating in recent months using an ability that to our understanding will not allow re-using old tunnels dealt with during Protective Edge," the IDF said. "Hamas is trying to use what it has to repurpose old tunnels by trying to reconnect what's left of the tunnel tunnels. Hamas is once again investing its money in the underground project that is going down the drain thanks to our operations. We have a pretty good knowledge of the locations where it is possible to repurpose tunnels."

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman recommended to Hamas "to invest the money in the welfare of the Gazoo residents, because by the end of the year its tunnel project will be eliminated."

"Systematically, based on quality intelligence and groundbreaking technology, Israel is destroying Hamas's tunnels one by one. Those who think they can hurt us from below ground will come across an iron wall," Lieberman added.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that "Our policy is to take determined action against any attempt to attack us and to systematically eliminate the infrastructure of terrorist tunnels and thus we will continue. The time has come for the international community to realize that the assistance funds to Gazoo are being buried underground."
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/19/2018 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  "We'vebeen operating in recent months using an ability that to our understanding will not allow re-using old tunnels dealt with during Protective Edge,"

Did they place strips of bacon every ten feet along the floor of the tunnel?
Posted by: gorb || 03/19/2018 12:47 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
25[untagged]
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4Islamic State
3Sublime Porte
2Hamas
1Govt of Iran
1Govt of Iraq
1Govt of Pakistain Proxies
1Govt of Syria
1Houthis
1Jaish al-Islam (MB)
1Moslem Colonists
1Taliban
1TTP
1al-Nusra
1al-Qaeda in Mali/Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen
1Arab Spring
1Commies

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

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

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2018-03-19
  Turkey's Erdogan says Afrin city centre under 'total' control
Sun 2018-03-18
  KP government seals offices of Hafiz Saeed's JuD, FIF; seizes mosques, seminaries
Sat 2018-03-17
  Greek court rejects Turkey’s request for extradition of eight soldiers
Fri 2018-03-16
  German prosecutors indict Syrian migrant over alleged bomb plot
Thu 2018-03-15
  Anbar antics: 7 turbans permanently unwound, tribal types get frisky
Wed 2018-03-14
  Al-Qaeda operative born in Texas sentenced to 45 years for conspiring to murder Americans, supporting terrorism
Tue 2018-03-13
  Trump fires Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and replaces him with CIA boss Mike Pompeo
Mon 2018-03-12
  Syrian Army surrounds Jaysh Al-Islam stronghold in East Ghouta
Sun 2018-03-11
  First group of militants surrender arms & leave East Ghouta after Russia-brokered talks
Sat 2018-03-10
   Tuareg militias again clash with Islamic State-loyal militants in northern Mali
Fri 2018-03-09
  Mullah Fazlullah's kid killed in drone strike in Afghanistan
Thu 2018-03-08
  Accomplice of Paris attacks mastermind held in Poland
Wed 2018-03-07
  Kirkuk Klean up: 33 turbans permanently unwound
Tue 2018-03-06
  Paramilitary troops repulsed Islamic State suicide attack, north of Babel
Mon 2018-03-05
  20 Islamic State militants killed in clashes with Iraqi forces in Hawija
Sun 2018-03-04
  Teacher found guilty of grooming children to launch terror attacks in London

Better than the average link...



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