Is this crap constitutional at a state university?
[CollegeFix] Members of the campus community at Portland State better think twice about making a joke on campus ‐ it could very well lead to their names being reported to the university’s bias response team.
Two bias reports filed at the public institution last fall were against people making jokes or similar off-hand comments on campus, according to documents obtained by The College Fix through a public records act request.
Happy ending story
In a PJ Media exclusive, the Iraqi native turned Navy SEAL interpreter and bestselling author who goes by the code name "Johnny Walker" told his story and made a huge announcement: he will receive his U.S. citizenship on Wednesday morning! At that time, he will also reveal his real name. (This article will be updated with that name when it becomes public.)
"It's a big honor," Walker told PJ Media. He is looking forward to posting videos of the ceremony and predicted a beautiful moment where "people from different backgrounds and different religions" will be united by loyalty to the United States.
Walker was born and grew up in Iraq and he started working with the U.S. military after the invasion began in 2003. He worked as an interpreter ‐ called a "terp" ‐ until 2009. That year, the military finally cleared him and his family to come to America.
While he lived in Iraq, he kept his work for the U.S. military a secret. If he had been exposed, it could have cost him his life. Since he will receive his citizenship Wednesday, however, Walker and his family will finally be safe, so he can go public with his name. (The Johnny Walker code name came from the Iraqi-American's love for Johnnie Walker whiskey.)
In 2014, Johnny Walker released a bestselling book, Code Name: Johnny Walker: The Extraordinary Story of the Iraqi Who Risked Everything to Fight with the U.S. Navy SEALs.
In his interview with PJ Media on Tuesday, Walker explained how the American dream entered his imagination. When he was a kid, his parents encouraged him to play basketball to let out some of his youthful energy. "I started to love it," Walker told PJ Media. "I started watching the Harlem team [the Globetrotters], listened to Country music, watched John Wayne movies."
"It gave me the American dream in my mind, built it in my imagination," the Iraqi-American said. When the U.S. military came to Iraq in 2003, he saw Americans as a liberating force.
"The SEALS were targeting bad guys in my city I didn't know about. They came thousands of miles to clean my city and I was born in this city," Walker told PJ Media. "I was disappointed in myself."
He suggested he didn't take sides. "I didn't support American or Iraqi or anyone, I supported the good side versus the bad side," the Iraqi-American said. He saw the damage Al Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS) left behind. "They will destroy us. They are the enemy of human beings." Rest at PJ Media link
#2
Heh. Not a big Scotch guy but my daughter got me a Balvenie 17 yr old. Might have just turned me...
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/20/2019 10:50
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#3
The Iraqis love Scotch.
It is literally impossible to get anything except Scotch and Raqqa in Baghdad.
I should know my driver and I spent an afternoon looking for one bottle of bourbon.
I finally settled on a mediocre bottle of Spanish brandy.
[AmericanThinker] In the 1800s, adulterated milk was common. Milk produced by swill herds, as muckraking journalist Robert Hartley wrote in 1842, was "very thin, and of a pale bluish color," the kind nobody in their right mind would buy. So distillers added flour, starch, chalk, plaster of Paris, or anything else they could get away with to make the milk look healthy. This adulteration only increased the bacteria in milk that we today would consider undrinkable.
The common theme in adulteration is that you pay for A but they give you B. It's not what you want. Additionally, it's likely to be dangerous to your financial health, your physical health, and your mental health.
Arguably, almost everything in K-12 is the equivalent of milk laced with "flour, starch, chalk, plaster Paris, or anything else they could get away with to make the milk looked healthy." Kids can't teach themselves. And most parents are apparently too distracted to find out what's going on. Bottom line, we need to get the parents up to speed. Hello, Mr. and Mrs. America, your kids are being abused right in front of you.
During the last hundred years, Progressive education systematically tried to eliminate traditional ideas which were by and large wholesome, like milk itself. Progressive educators don't seem to care about wholesome. They want their intellectual junk food if that can help their social engineering schemes. But, on the other hand, we have record female employment in teaching
#1
The gender disparity is overwhelming! What is the professional educators program to address is social injustice? And don't give me the crock about kiddies and guys.
#4
Adulterated means stuff added. Skim milk has stuff taken out.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2019 19:16
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#5
Though, it's worth mentioning that Jack Daniels is called Sour Mash rather than bourbon because the charcoal filtering is considered adulteration, so you could call it either way.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2019 19:18
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[The Hill] President Trump has reportedly expressed skepticism on more than one occasion about the move toward self-driving cars.
Axios, citing four sources who've heard him discuss the subject, reported on Sunday that Trump doesn't see the usefulness of autonomous vehicles. He has also reportedly said that he would never let a computer-operated car drive him.
"He's definitely an automated car skeptic," one source told Axios.
Trump's concerns about autonomous vehicles are not unusual. A survey of Americans released last week by AAA found that 71 percent of respondents are afraid of riding in a driverless car.
The Axios report also says that Trump has acted out scenes of what are supposed to be frenetic autonomous vehicles to make his point that they don't make sense. He has reportedly acted out these scenes on Air Force One and in the White House.
#3
Liability will keep them from mass adoption for a long time. Scam artists will specialize in causing automated driving cars and trucks to crash into them. One multi-million dollar award can negate replacing a hundred or more semi drivers for a year.
Indeed. Last I looked, around 30,000-40,000 people died in traffic accidents. If robots can kill fewer than that, it's a win.
Two of the most common accident types are lane departures where you veer off the road into a tree or oncoming traffic, and running into a stopped car ahead of you. AI should be able to assist with both of those cases even if full self-driving autonomy is a bridge too far.
#5
It's an open question whether computers can drive cars, especially in a Kobayashi Maru scenario. And there are still some very difficult problems to solve like snow and road work.
That said, BP is right on. We know for a fact that people can't drive.
[Seattle pi] NEW YORK - Michael Cohen, meet the Triggerfish.
Search warrant documents made public Tuesday show the FBI used highly secretive and controversial cellphone sweeping technology to zero-in on President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer when agents raided his New York City home, hotel room and office last year.
Agents using a Triggerfish cell-site simulator tracked the whereabouts of Cohen's two iPhones to a pair of rooms a floor apart at the Manhattan hotel where he and his family had taken up residence while their apartment was being renovated and properly bugged, according to the documents.
The FBI said in its April 8, 2018 warrant application that it was only using the device to locate Cohen's phones, not to intercept his calls or text messages, or anything do do with money. The raid happened the next day.
Separately, the agency obtained logs of the numbers Cohen was calling and texting, and reams of location data ‐ including for the time period just before the 2016 presidential election, when he negotiated hush-money payments for women alleging they had sex with Trump. They also got permission to press Cohen's thumb to the phones or hold them up to his face to unlock them.
But it was the agency's use of cell-site technology that stood out amid nearly 900 pages of documents from the Cohen raids.
[Omaha World-Herald] Amid a chilly dampness that has become all too familiar in these parts, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a message: America is here for Nebraska.
"We’re going to stand with you and be with you until these communities come all the way back," the vice president said, shielded from rain under the wing of Air Force Two shortly after landing at Eppley Airfield Tuesday.
During a three-hour visit that included an aerial survey of floodwaters and meetings with first responders and victims, Pence said the federal government will expedite disaster relief in response to the historic flooding that has affected much of the Midwest.
#5
Governor Cat Lady of Kansas more interested in finding an alternative name for Columbus Day than lifting truck hauling restrictions and clearing a path to Nebraska.
Oh, I see, gotta prep for the Kansas National Guard parade at the Statehouse tomorrow.
#6
Well most of SAC's OFFUTT AFB is under water (You know the place with the hole to fight a nuke war from.) and there is a desperate effort to sandbag Ft. Calhon Nuke Reactor on the Missouri. Of course it's FLY OVER COUNTRY so when the spent core settling/cooling ponds are flooded to overflowing and make the Missouri River radioactive down to Kansas City neither coast nor it's Democratic population could give a damn.
Hell CNN will cheer a radioactive heartland.
#10
Becker said the water at the plant was 899.75 feet above sea level Monday morning and declining. If it reaches 901.5 feet, NPPD said it would take the station offline as a protective measure.
The 770-megawatt (MW) Cooper plant, near Brownville, Nebraska, was built at 903 feet above sea level, which is 13 feet above natural grade, NPPD said.
[Prairie Farmer] Some U.S. negotiators are concerned that China is pushing back against American demands in trade talks, according to people familiar with the negotiations, even as President Donald Trump sounded optimistic about reaching a deal that could boost his reelection chances.
Chinese officials have shifted their stance because after agreeing to changes to their intellectual-property policies, they haven’t received assurances from the Trump administration that tariffs imposed on their exports would be lifted, two of the people said on condition of anonymity.
Beijing has also stepped back from its initial promises over data protection of pharmaceuticals, didn’t offer details on plans to improve patent linkages, and refused to give ground on data-service issues, one person familiar with the U.S.’s views said. Beijing is trying to bring in wording that would ensure rules in the trade agreement have to comply with Chinese laws, the person added.
"Talks with China are going very well," Trump said in response to a shouted question at the White House where he held a joint press conference on Tuesday with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will travel to Beijing the week of March 25 for high-level talks to try to hammer out a deal, according to a senior administration official, who asked not to be identified. The men agreed to the plans in a phone call on Tuesday with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, who would then make a return visit to Washington at a date yet to be confirmed. The Wall Street Journal earlier on Tuesday reported details about the trip.
[Japan Times] BERLIN - Berlin could renege on its pledge to raise military spending, in the latest gesture of defiance by German Chancellor Angela Merkel toward U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump has repeatedly blasted NATO leaders for not meeting a target of spending 2 percent of economic output on defense. If confirmed at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, the move by Berlin would be the latest step in the gradual estrangement between the U.S. and one of its top European allies.
While the budget foresees an increase in military spending in 2020, it does not provide a plan for how to reach the 2 percent target.
The German government’s budget plan for 2020 calls for a 1.7 percent hike in spending to €362.6 billion and relies on ministries cutting costs to avoid incurring new debt given forecasts for slower economic growth, Finance Ministry sources said Monday.
The plan assumes that Europe’s largest economy will grow by 1.0 percent in 2019, down from an initially projected 1.8 percent, the sources said.
The Economy Ministry last week said the economy had a subdued start to 2019 and probably grew moderately in the first quarter, its outlook dampened by trade conflicts and sluggish demand for industrial products among other factors.
To balance the budget, government ministries will have to identify combined spending cuts of €625 million each year, with program delays and other measures to contribute additional savings, the sources said.
They said military spending would rise by €2.1 billion over a previous plan for 2020, boosting the share of defense spending to 1.37 percent of gross domestic product from 1.25 percent in 2018 and 1.3 percent this year.
"That the German government would even be considering reducing its already unacceptable commitments to military readiness is a worrisome signal to Germany’s 28 NATO allies," said U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell.
The military budget is slated to rise to €45.1 billion in 2020 from planned spending of €43.2 billion this year, a separate government source said.
However, the share of military spending would drop back to 1.25 percent in 2023, with any further spending increases to be negotiated year by year, the sources said. "We’re taking it one step at a time," said one of the sources.
That leaves Germany well below the 2 percent target set by NATO members for 2024, and below the 1.5 percent share that Germany has pledged to meet by that date.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/20/2019 10:48
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#13
They just regard free American security as a birthright, don't they?
The ingratitude is astounding. Asked not to give extra, but just to meet a base minimum, they flat-out refuse. They fundamentally do not understand why they should pay anything. And who can blame them? Wouldn't you want an idiot to pay for all your expensive shit?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
03/20/2019 11:45
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#14
Never should have allowed Germany to reunite. They have been subsumed by the East.
Posted by: Regular joe ||
03/20/2019 12:58
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#15
Raise the damn tariffs and be done with it. Keep another $60 billion/year in the US employing Americans.
#17
Ease back on NATO, close the border, vastly increase our focus on this hemisphere and the Pacific. Watch Europe return to the chaos of the 30's while we regrow the depth of our prosperity. The balance of trade will shift favorable when the Euro's have to increase domestic defense spending or face the consequences of being a part of either the global caliphate of the new USSR. Time to be a hegemonic power and own our hemisphere again.
[Washington Examiner] On June 3, 1969, Steve Kraus was a 22-year-old signalman of the watch on board the USS Frank E. Evans in the South China Sea. It was 3:05 a.m. when he saw that the destroyer was on a collision course with an Australian aircraft carrier. He ran into the signal shop shouting that the ship was about to be hit.
"Three minutes later the forward section of our ship had sunk into the ocean, taking 74 of our sailors with it," Kraus told the Washington Examiner. Nearly 50 years later, Kraus has another mission ‐ to ensure that those 74 names are added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C.
Pentagon red tape stating that the disaster occurred outside the official Vietnam combat zone means none of the names of the "Lost 74" appear on the Vietnam wall. The ship sank just over one hundred miles outside the official Vietnam War theater.
"These guys died in support of their country," said Kraus. "We trained, we went over, we knew the purpose of this assignment was to participate in the Vietnam War, but now the Pentagon wants to discount it. Drawing an arbitrary line in the sand, or in the water in this case, is ludicrous. These men deserve the ultimate recognition of being on that wall with their fellow servicemen."
Kraus was one of the 199 survivors and today is the president of the USS Frank E. Evans Association. For nearly three decades, the group has battled with the Pentagon. As the 50th anniversary approaches this year, the idea is gaining support in Congress, with a liberal Democrat running for the White House and a pro-Trump Republican from the red state of Montana joining forces to lead the way.
[Babylon Bee] SANTA CLARA, CUBA‐Is Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara too moderate for a 2020 run as a Democrat?
That's the question the left is asking after Guevara was resurrected by a leftist political action committee, Marxists for Equality, Socialism, and Stalinism. MESS activists arrived in Santa Clara earlier this week and summoned Guevara's spirit back from the dead using dark, demonic rituals, which are well-known to many Democrats. MESS then hastily photoshopped a birth certificate for Zombie Guevara so he would be eligible to run for president of the United States.
Guevara announced his run but was quickly denounced by many of his fellow candidates and other prominent Democrats.
"I'm just not sure Guevara is far enough left to be a viable Democratic candidate this election," said one political pundit on CNN. "He's really a centrist in the midst of this field of radical leftists, and we just don't think he's going to stand out this time."
Democrats pointed out that while Guevara was a mass murderer, he really needs to specifically come out as allowing murder up to and including the moment of birth if he's going to be accepted as a mainstream Democratic candidate. They also demonstrated that his brand of totalitarianist terror was a fine starting point, but he needs to show his willingness to silence anyone who even seems to slightly disagree with the left if he's going to get any traction.
"I just looked up the Wikipedia article on Che," Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted while she was supposed to be working. "I don't see anything about him addressing climate change and wanting to destroy an entire economy based on wild-eyed apocalyptic predictions. I might have to throw away my Guevara T-shirts, to be honest."
Reached for comment on Guevara's official run, Bernie Sanders simply began ranting incoherently about how many flavors of Doritos there are at his local grocery store.
[Aljazeera] Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in two separate incidents on Tuesday night, Palestinian health ministry and emergency services said.
Omar Abu Leila, 19, was suspected of carrying out a deadly stabbing-and-shooting attack in the occupied West Bank two days earlier.
Abu Leila, who was on the run, was found in a house in the village of Abwein, north of Ramallah. He was killed after he opened fire at Israeli forces who had come to arrest him, the Israeli Shin Bet security service said. The Palestinian health ministry confirmed a person had been killed in the clash, but provided no further details.
Protests in the village then broke out between Palestinian youth and the army. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, nine men were injured, including two with live ammunition.
In a separate incident, the Palestinian health ministry said two more Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.
Raed Hamdan, 21, and Zaid Nouri, 20, died after being shot late Tuesday by Israeli troops near the Joseph Tomb's religious site close to the Palestinian city of Nablus, it said.
As the Lion Air crew fought to control their diving Boeing Co. 737 Max 8, they got help from an unexpected source: an off-duty pilot who happened to be riding in the cockpit.
That extra pilot, who was seated in the cockpit jumpseat, correctly diagnosed the problem and told the crew how to disable a malfunctioning flight-control system and save the plane, according to two people familiar with Indonesia’s investigation.
The next day, under command of a different crew facing what investigators said was an identical malfunction, the jetliner crashed into the Java Sea killing all 189 aboard.
#3
Pretty much across the board. Have you ever used every feature of your phone? Every feature of MS Word? Quickbooks? Of course none of them can kill ya...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2019 10:38
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#4
What kind of autonomous safety system puts the plane in crash mode? I don't get it.
#7
It seems the developer never thought the sensor might be in error!?!?
If something goes wrong, you just turn off the autopilot. It's super easy, barely an inconvenience. Just flip thru the flight manual to the appropriate page and run through the checklist. You turn off this switch here, flip those two switches over there, adjust the trim and the throttles and BLAM!, you're back in control of the plane.
... all while fighting with the autopilot that wants to kill you, with loud annoying warning sirens going off in your ear. Hey, maybe they need a Big Red Button - Give me control of the plane now now now.
#10
Nowhere in here is there a software problem. The computers & software performed their jobs according to spec without error. The specification was just shitty.
Now that's some serious blame dodging... Not sure smash into the ground at high speed was in the spec.
I'm a software guy too and if you were my employee and tried that bullshit you'd be getting a walk home or a serious one-on-one "chat" about attitude to quality.
#13
Well, these engineering "teams" are committees. The purpose of a committee is to diffuse accountability. We probably will not ever hear if some of the "questionable choices" were made by affirmative action or H1B hires and quietly agreed to by people who said "that's fucking nuts, but I retire in 18 months..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2019 20:58
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[The Hill] Prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller's team on Tuesday asked a judge to extend a deadline for them to respond in court to a request brought by The Washington Post, citing the "press of other work."
"Counsel responsible for preparing the response face the press of other work and require additional time to consult within the government," Deputy Solicitor General Michael R. Dreeben and prosecutor Adam C. Jed wrote in a filing, according to the Post.
The newspaper is seeking to unseal records in the criminal case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
A response from the special counsel, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, is due March 21. The special counsel is now asking a judge to push that deadline to April 1. According to the Post, the newspaper's attorneys did not oppose the special counsel's request for an extension.
In asking for records in Manafort's case to be unsealed, the Post in a previous court filing cited "the profound public interest in these proceedings."
#2
It will be "rabbit out of a hat" time. A dead milkman (no not a member of the band) will be posthumously indicted for leaving an extra dozen eggs at Trump's father's residence at no charge back in the late 1930s...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2019 6:16
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#3
The bureaucratic version of "The Dog Ate My Homework, Teacher. Honestly!". We won't have time to comply until we fill like making time to do so...
[Breitbart] Earlier this month during a discussion with Marvin Kalb at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Ted Koppel, the former ABC’s "Nightline," acknowledged the media were out to get President Donald Trump, saying Trump wasn’t "mistaken" in holding the belief.
According to Koppel, some so-called media organizations made the decision Trump was "bad" for the country.
"I turned to my wife, and I said [The New York Times] is absolutely committed to making sure that this guy does not get elected. So his perception that the establishment press is out to get him doesn’t mean that great journalism is not being done. It is. But the notion that most of us look upon Donald Trump as being an absolute fiasco ‐ he’s not mistaken in that perception, and he’s not mistaken when so many of the liberal media, for example, described themselves as belonging to the Resistance."
"We’re talking about organizations that I believe have, in fact, decided as organizations that Donald J. Trump is bad for the United States," Koppel added.
#2
However they get their collective underwear in a twist when he mocks them as 'enemies of the people' (as in 'We the people..').
If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast. - William Tecumseh Sherman
#3
Ted Koppel, the former ABC’s "Nightline," acknowledged the media were out to get President Donald Trump, saying Trump wasn’t "mistaken" in holding the belief.
This is simply shocking (sarc). Good that it is coming from a MSM guy (Koppel). It might have a chance of surfacing in the MSM.
[Breitbart] A U.S. Marine veteran won a 20-year fight against his homeowners’ association (HOA) to fly an American flag on his property.
Richard Oulton, a Vietnam veteran of the U.S. Marines who resides in Virginia, began his legal fight against his HOA in 1999, when the HOA told him he had to take down his flagpole because neighbors said his flag caused a disturbance to the community.
The Marine veteran took his case to court and lost his case the first time around. He took Old Glory down in 2003, but he continued to fight for his right to honor his fellow Vietnam veterans.
[Deseret News Utah] SALT LAKE CITY ‐ Sen. Mitt Romney chastised President Donald Trump on Tuesday for the latest denigrating remarks he made about the late Arizona Sen. John McCain.
"I can’t understand why the President would, once again, disparage a man as exemplary as my friend John McCain: heroic, courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God," the Utah Republican tweeted.
During an Oval Office meeting with Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday, Trump was asked about his recent tweets about McCain. The president responded that he's "very unhappy" that McCain voted against repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act in 2017.
"I was never a fan of John McCain, and I never will be," Trump told reporters.
In a series of tweets over the weekend, Trump hit McCain for his handling of a dossier compiled by a former British spy on Trump's relationship with Russia leading up to the 2016 election.
"So it was indeed (just proven in court papers) 'last in his class' (Annapolis) John McCain that sent the Fake Dossier to the FBI and Media hoping to have it printed BEFORE the Election," Trump tweeted on Sunday. "He & the Dems, working together, failed (as usual). Even the Fake News refused this garbage!"
Romney posted a nearly 500-word essay about his one-time political rival on his Senate campaign website after McCain died last August.
#6
Let me go on record as chastising Mitt Romney for disparaging the sitting president of his own party when he should be helping him build the wall insead.
#7
Trump didn't call him NoName. Trump's got good reasons for his disgust--how about NoName's complicity in the dirty faked dossier, Hillary and the DNC cooked up to get rid of Trump. Treasonous. The Pubs got rid of Flake and Corker and got Romney. A lose-lose deal. With Pubs like this who needs Dems?
I dunno. I wasn't there. But some of the things I read are not good.
And now it seems that Romney wants to take the Maverick mantle upon himself. But all that means is , when the vote is really important, you can count on Romney to screw it up the same way that McCain always did.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/20/2019 12:26
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#14
So the facts are showing he WAS responsible for a part of the fake dossier event. Dead or alive, he cause millions in wasted dollars and criminal disruption to our constitutional electoral process. A traitor is a traitor, dead or alive.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/20/2019 12:35
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#15
Romney you are a worthless turd. Please resign and demand an actual human be appointed in your place.
#16
Willard Mittens, McFail, Flake, Corker - all worthless
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/20/2019 14:55
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#17
my friend John McCain: heroic courageous, patriotic, honorable, self-effacing, self-sacrificing, empathetic, and driven by duty to family, country, and God,, petulant man-child
[IsraelTimes] Paperwork to be filed in an Iranian court; sanctions reimposed by Trump condemned as ’crime against humanity’.
Tehran is preparing a lawsuit in Iran against US individuals involved with economic sanctions imposed by Washington, President Hassan Rouhani said Monday.
Rouhani said the presidency’s legal affairs office as well as the justice and foreign ministers have been tasked with "drawing up a lawsuit against all those within America involved with designing and executing these sanctions."
The case would be lodged in a "competent court inside Iran," he said, quoted by state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
Speaking after the last cabinet meeting of Iran’s calendar year which ends on March 20, Rouhani condemned the sanctions as a "crime against humanity" that was hitting ordinary Iranians.
"The world should know that what America has done was not against the Iranian state, it was not against Iran’s nuclear program, it was against the well being of the Iranian people," he said.
Rouhani said the sanctions targeted "the normal life of the people... the food supply... the medical supply of the people."
Last May, 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... withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
The renewal of American sanctions, which had been eased in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear program, sent shockwaves through Iran’s economy.
The IMF reported that the Iranian economy slumped into recession in 2018 and has forecast a 3.6 percent decline in GDP for 2019.
The sanctions have indirectly impacted medical and food supplies and a steep decline in the value of the rial has pushed up prices of basic goods.
In October, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the United States to lift sanctions affecting imports of "humanitarian" goods to Iran.
The court said sanctions "may have a serious detrimental impact on the health and lives of individuals on the territory of Iran."
[EN.YNA.CO.KR] The U.S. intelligence chief is in South Korea, a government source said Wednesday, on a visit seen as aimed at sharing information and assessment of North Korea following the breakdown of last month's summit between the two countries.
Earlier, a local newspaper reported that U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats arrived at a U.S airbase in Osan, south of Seoul, Tuesday night for a three-day stay. The government source confirmed his arrival but declined to elaborate further.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2019
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#1
With folks flying into Osan rather than Seoul, I expect the 'merchandisers' of Itaewon lose a lot of business.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Elite Republican Guard, along with the Air Force Intelligence, arrived in Daraa city on Tuesday after receiving the green light to launch a large-scale operation against the rebel sleeper cells inside the governorate.
A source in Damascus told al-Masdar this afternoon that the Syrian military has deployed to the Daraa al-Balad axis in the scenic provincial capital and to the outskirts of Tafas.
The source says the Syrian military deployed to these axes after receiving intel from locals and spies about the whereabouts of the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... sleeper cells and their storages.
Since the start of the new year, the Free Syrian Army sleeper cells in southern Syria have wreaked havoc on the Syrian Arab Army and their allies in the al-Quneitra and Daraa governorates.
Using roadside kabooms and heavy machine guns, the Free Syrian Army has managed to kill several Syrian Arab Army personnel and disrupt their movements in southern Syria.
As a result, the Syrian Arab Army has made the decision to mass deploy to the reconciled towns in order to clear out these sleeper cells.
It is worth noting that while many towns have reconciled with the government, they are still under the authority of local rebels that handed over their heavy weapons last summer.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2019
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[ALMASDARNEWS] On Tuesday, the Ottoman Turkish military conducted their 5th patrol of the year across the demilitarized zone in southern Idlib and northern Hama.
According to reports, the Ottoman Turkish military patrolled from the town of Morek in northern Hama to the large city of Ma’arat al-Nu’man in southern Idlib.
The Ottoman Turkish military was reportedly escorted by members of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham , who is the largest jihadist group currently operating inside of northern Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2019
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The U.S. military conducted a night time operation against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) terror organization in eastern Syria on Sunday evening, local rustics reported via social media on Monday.
According to the reports, U.S. paratroopers landed in the Shaytat area
...where the anti-ISIS Arab Shaytat tribe lives (and fights)...
of the Deir Ezzor Governorate, where they later raided a suspected Islamic State sleeper cell.
The reports said the U.S. paratroopers were transported to the Shaytat area by three army helicopters.
The U.S. military later jugged I ain't sayin' nuttin' widdout me mout'piece! three suspected Islamic State members before leaving the area via helicopter.
This is not the first time that locals have reported U.S. special operations taking place at night; however since the Islamic State lost al-Raqqa, these types of operations have become more prevalent.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2019
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#1
No local caped crusader to complain about night operations? Jawn Kerry in the wrong time zone to weigh in?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2019 6:27
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#2
When you have night vision gear, that's when you work.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/20/2019 7:36
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#3
Own the night...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2019 7:52
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#4
Raiding a sleeping cell at night...how low can you go!
[THEMOSCOWTIMES] When approached by a wild moose, one local resident of Russia's republic of Bashkortostan took the only reasonable course of action: flinging the nearest available cat to scare it off.
In a video widely shared on the Russian internet, the woman, a resident of the town of Oktyabrsky, is seen hurling a cat at the moose. The unsuspecting moose appeared surprised by such unorthodox measures.
Fortunately for the (presumably) equally surprised cat, it missed the larger mammal on its impressive trajectory through the air. The elk is seen running away after the near collision.
There were no reports on the cat's condition following the close encounter — but it’s likely that the feline landed on all four feet.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2019
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#5
Boris and Natashya have certainly changed over the years. Maybe Fearless Leader should look into it.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/20/2019 7:40
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#6
They can be a supreme pain in the a$$ during the rut. They become hyper territorial and will attack anything, logging trucks, trains, and everything in between. Wonderful to eat however.
[IsraelTimes] Three diplomats to be stationed in new mission, which is billed as a ’branch’ of country’s embassy.
"We have always fought for a fair and balanced approach on behalf of the international community towards Israel," Szijjártó said. "I have to underline here once again that we reject to combine restrictive economic and commercial measures with political issues," he added, reiterating his government’s opposition to the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... ’s directive to label Israeli goods produced in settlements.
"We will not apply the decision of the European Commission on labeling. We do not support the list of companies in the settlements to be announced by the high representative of Human Rights of the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... and we urge for a tighter, better and more dynamic cooperation between Israel and the European Union," he said.
Earlier on Sunday, Szijjártó hailed the fact that 200 Israeli companies operate in Hungary, providing 5,000 jobs. In 2018, bilateral trade exceeded $525 million, he noted.
"Cooperation with Israel is gaining increasing importance during the Hungarian economy’s period of dimensional transition," he said. "Hungary continues to play an important role in the business strategies of Israeli enterprises; they are maintaining their presence in Hungary, and will be expanding their activities practically without exception," he told Hungarian journalists during a phone briefing from Jerusalem.
[DAWN] Protests flared in parts of Indian-Indian Kashmiree on Tuesday after police said a man being questioned in connection with a security investigation had died in jug, the latest disturbance in one of the world's most militarised regions.
The 28-year-old man, Rizwan Asad, died in police custody late on Monday, his family confirmed on Tuesday. The young teacher was a chemistry graduate who taught at a private school, his family said.
Protesters threw stones at police in several parts of the region following news of the man's death, with shops shutting in parts of the main city of Srinagar. Police responded with tear gas.
The government also shut down the Islamic University in Awantipora where Asad was a guest lecturer.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Iraqi authorities announced on Tuesday the capture of three 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.... forces of Evil in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... city, the latest in a series of arrests and detentions that target the group’s dormant cells in the country.
In a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Alghad Press, the Iraqi National Security Service said that its forces "in Nineveh, acting on intelligence information, managed to arrest three IS members, for whom arrest warrants were issued."
"The trio were members of the group’s self-proclaimed Islamic Police Diwan," read the statement, adding that they were handed over to the competent authorities for interrogation.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/20/2019
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[DAWN] A sessions court in Faisalabad ...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after... on Tuesday sentenced a man to death for the rape and murder of a minor girl.
The convict, identified as Abdul Razzak, was found guilty of abducting the 8-year-old girl on July 2, 2018, subjecting her to rape, and dumping her body in the Razabad neighbourhood of Faisalabad.
Police had enjugged Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! the convict while he was trying to flee the country at Lahore airport.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Inam Elahi today handed death sentence to Razzak on three counts and also fined him Rs3.5 million.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2019
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[DAWN] Some 40 people were preventively evacuated from a building near the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... headquarters in Brussels after a bomb threat was sent to a company linked to the EU.
Police spokeswoman Ilse Van de Keere said a "telephone bomb threat" was made on Tuesday morning to a consulting office linked to the EU's executive commission and that it has been taken seriously.
Part of the street has been sealed off and sniffer dogs have been sent to the scene.
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[DAWN] Twenty-five men, women and kiddies allegedly held in bonded labour were rescued by a team of the Pangrio police in Badin district on a court order on Monday.
The team, led by SHO Ashiq Ali Loond carried out a raid on a brick kiln near the Hayat Pitafi area at around dawn and took into custody several families comprising 25 persons.
The raid was conducted in compliance with an order issued to the police by the Badin district and sessions court on an application filed by Walji Kolhi.
The applicant had prayed for court’s help stating that his family and other relatives had been held in bonded labour at the brick kiln owned by Inyatullah Chauhan.
The rescued persons ‐ eight men, 11 women and six children ‐ were produced in the court of the first additional judge, who set them free after recording statements of the family heads.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[REUTERS] The United States imposed sanctions on Tuesday against Venezuela’s state-run gold mining company Minerven and its president, Adrian Perdomo, accusing them of illicit operations and propping up the government of President Nicolas Maduro Venezuela's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy... The announcement comes days after Uganda said it was investigating its biggest gold refinery for importing Venezuelan gold. Washington has imposed half a dozen rounds of sanctions against Maduro and senior Venezuelan officials as it tries to choke off funding to the government. It has warned gold traders not to deal in Venezuelan gold or oil.
"Treasury is targeting gold processor Minerven and its president for propping up the inner circle of the corrupt Maduro regime," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Two Iraqi children were killed Tuesday in a kaboom in southern Diyala province, a security source was quoted as saying.
"An explosive charge went off Tuesday afternoon in al-Tarfaya village, 35 km south of Baqubah, leaving two children dead," the source told Baghdad Today website.
"The two bodies were moved to the forensic medicine department," added the source.
No group has so far grabbed credit for the attack, but the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) murderous Moslem group, in most cases, is responsible for attacks targeting crowded areas, including markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/20/2019
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[Rudaw] Two artillery shells landed in Kani Masi town centre, causing material damage, the mayor stated.
The shells struck at midday, Mayor Sarbast Sabri Akraye confirmed to Rudaw, blaming The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the most dubious NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... ally.... Three houses were damaged, one of them severely, Akraye added. The three homes all belonged to Christians.
There was nobody at home when the houses were hit and there were no injuries, the official stated.
Kani Masi is located in the Amedi region of Duhok province, near the border with Turkey.
Ottoman Turkish forces frequently target alleged PKK positions in the Kurdistan Region’s mountains. The PKK has its headquarters in the Qandil district near the borders with Iran and Turkey.
Ottoman TurkishArclight airstrikes targeting the PKK sometimes result in civilian casualties.
At least two Ottoman Turkish soldiers were killed in a skirmish with the PKK on Saturday.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/20/2019
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[Rudaw] Iran's Mahan Air has been forced to cancel its Gay Paree flights over "sanctions", its customer services team said Tuesday weeks after Germany banned the airline.
"We have been told that (flights to La Belle France) have been cancelled... as of the first of April," an operator at the airline's office in Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport told AFP.
The Gay Paree schedule will be scrapped "because of sanctions" by the French, the source said by phone without elaborating.
Two of the airline's French customers in Iran were notified by email that their flights booked for next month were cancelled.
Mahan, the Islamic republic's second-largest carrier after Iran Air, flies up to four services a week between Tehran and Gay Paree.
Germany imposed a ban on Mahan in January, which the foreign ministry said was necessary to protect Berlin's "foreign and security policy interests".
That decision came amid broader sanctions adopted by the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... against Tehran over attacks on opponents in the bloc.
Iran has denied any involvement in the alleged plots and described Germany's move as "hasty and unjustifiable."
Mahan Air was blacklisted by the US in 2011, as Washington said the carrier was providing technical and material support to an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards known as the Quds Force.
[KhaamaPress] At least 35 Talibs were killed and a large cache of weapons was destroyed during the operations of Afghan Special Forces and Arclight airstrikes in northern Kunduz province.
According to informed military sources, Afghan Special Forces conducted a raid in Chahar Darah district killing 27 Taliban ...Arabic for students... fighters.
The sources further added that a large weapons cache, 38 pressure-plate IEDs and 40 pounds of homemade explosives were destroyed.
"Several self-defense air strikes in Chahar Darah district killed another 8 Taliban fighters," the sources added.
The anti-government armed murderous Moslems including Taliban have not commented regarding the operations so far.
Kunduz is among the relatively volatile provinces in North Afghanistan where Talibs have presence in some of its districts and often attempt to carry out attacks against the government and security institutions.
[KhaamaPress] The U.S. Embassy in Kabul has warned of possible attacks by Death Eaters during the Afghan New Year which will be observed on 21st of March.
"As of mid-March 2019, the U.S. Embassy has received increased reports regarding possible attacks coinciding with the Afghan New Year holiday that will be observed on March 21," the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said in a statement.
The statement further added that Death Eaters continue to plan attacks against a variety of targets in Kabul, including Afghan, U.S., and other foreign government offices and facilities.
"Additionally, forces of Evil have threatened other facilities around the country where foreign citizens may gather, including Jalalabad Airport 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.. province, schools, hotels, and housing compounds. There also may be demonstrations and large gatherings, and celebratory gunfire," the statement added.
[ELUNIVERSAL] Colombian authorities confiscated 16 properties from the guerrilla group Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) in different areas of the country, including real estate that it allegedly acquired with money from illicit activities, such as drug trafficking and illegal mining.
The Attorney General's Office said in a statement that the assets have a value of more than two million dollars and that they were located with the support of the Colombian army and after eight months of intelligence, AP reported.
The assets were in the name of "alleged front men of the ELN" and the extinction of ownership was applied, a legal figure by which the government takes control of belongings considered to be products of illicit activities.
The properties were located in rural and urban areas, some in commercial activities, and belonged to the finance network of the ELN's Domingo Laín Front, which according to the government operates with more than 500 men in an area near the border with Venezuela.
The authorities said there were no catches. The illicit properties are located in five municipalities of Arauca, in the east of the country and Risaralda, in the center-west of the country. Most of the properties were rented as homes, although others functioned as ice cream parlors or food stalls.
Since July of last year, the ELN has carried out several attacks, especially against the military and police, as well as kidnappings and attacks against the oil infrastructure in different parts of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2019
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[IsraelTimes] Beirut says unnamed 40-year-old Canadian-Lebanese citizen confessed to being recruited in 2013 to gather info about Hezbollah, whereabouts of Ron Arad.
Lebanese intelligence said Tuesday a Lebanese-Canadian dual national had been locked away Book 'im, Mahmoud! on suspicion of spying for Israel.
"In the framework of pursuing operations to combat Israeli espionage... the directorate of General Security arrested a Lebanese-Canadian," the General Security service said in a statement.
There were no details on exactly when or where the individual was detained.
The statement said the 40-year-old man confessed to being recruited in 2013 by a Lebanese runaway it said belongs to an Israeli spying network described as "unit 504."
He was ordered to recruit Lebanese agents to spy on Hezbollah and collect information on missing Israeli airman Ron Arad, a navigator whose plane was shot down over Leb in 1986 and was thought to have been handed over to the Shiite group, the statement said.
Leb and Israel remain technically in a state of war, with occasional skirmishes along their shared border.
Between April 2009 and 2014, Lebanese authorities detained more than 100 people accused of spying for Israel, most of them members of the military or telecom employees.
[IsraelTimes] The David’s Sling interceptor is designed to deal with missiles coming from between 40 kilometers (24.85 miles) to 300 kilometers (186.41 miles) away, making up the middle tier of Israel’s advanced air defense array.
The system is aimed to protect the country against missiles like the Iranian Fateh 110 and its Syrian equivalent, the M600, both of which have seen extensive use in the Syrian civil war and are known to be in the Hezbollah terrorist group’s arsenal.
Israel also has the Iron Dome system for short range projectiles, and the Arrow 3, which is designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Another Hezbollah fighter has been killed in eastern Syria this year after coming under attack from the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) near the Iraqi border.
According to Hezbollah’s media activists, Mohammad Masarah was reported killed-in-action (KIA) after his unit came under attack near the border city of Albukamal in eastern Deir Ezzor.
No further details have been released.
Hezbollah officially joined the Syrian conflict in April 2013, when their troops helped retake the key border city of al-Qusayr.
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03/20/2019
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[DAWN] One of the world's biggest aluminium producers, Norway's Norsk Hydro, on Tuesday said it had been hit by a cyber-attack of unknown origin.
"Hydro became victim of an extensive cyberattack in the early hours of Tuesday, impacting operations in several of the company's business areas," the energy group said in a statement.
Spokesman Halvor Molland said it was too early to determine the full extent of the attack, or its origin.
"Our IT department is working to contain the impact" of the attack, he told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2019
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#1
Source of Nazi heavy water back in the day...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2019 6:54
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#2
Chinese posing as Russians
Posted by: Shamble Scourge of the Visigoths4461 ||
03/20/2019 17:15
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[Rudaw] Clashes continued between Iraqi soldiers and a Yezidi gang in western Shingal on Tuesday after a failed attempt Curses! Foiled again! to mediate tensions following a deadly skirmish on Sunday.
At least one Iraqi soldier was injured and there are unconfirmed reports that a second was killed.
Vehicles belonging to forces on both sides were burnt, Rudaw’s Tahsin Qasim reported from Shingal.
Tensions are high between the Iraqi Army and the Shingal Protection Units (YBS), a Yezidi force with ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The two sides clashed on Sunday night with each blaming the other for instigating the incident.
Representatives from the Iraqi Army and the YBS met in Hasawik village with the Iraqis telling the YBS to leave because they are an illegal armed force. The YBS refused and accused the army of hampering free movement between the Shingal area and Rojava, the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Syria.
The new clash erupted after their meeting failed. There are three Iraqi Army divisions stationed in the Shingal area, raising fears among the local population that the army is planning some activity.
Sherwan Dubardani, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament from djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , told Rudaw that smuggling of weapons, oil, and cigarettes in the Shingal region was adding to insecurity. He accused the PKK of being involved.
Haydar Shasho commands the Ezidikhan Protection Force and is not aligned with the Iraqi forces or the YBS. He confirmed the festivities to Rudaw English on Tuesday, but he could not provide casualty figures.
"The situation varies from place to place and village by village," Shasho added, explaining that they all have different disputes and grievances.
He claimed that 80 percent of the people in Shingal don’t want a PKK or PKK-affiliated presence in Shingal.
"We understand that the situation in Shingal ends when the PKK leaves," Shasho said.
He underscored that his forces are not involved in the recent events.
"Ezidikhan forces have not been involved in the festivities over the past days," he said.
The YBS used to be on good terms with the Iraqi government who was paying salaries of their fighters in Shingal throughout part of the conflict with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS). That ended last year and previous Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called on all imported muscle to leave the country.
In Shingal various armed factions operate including the YBS, Hashd al-Shaabi, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Peshmerga, local police and security, federal police, and provincial authorities.
Shingal is a disputed or Kurdistani are that is claimed by Erbil and Baghdad. Since the events of September 2017, Shingal officially has been in the security portfolio of the Iraq.
[Rudaw] Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have taken control of the ISIS tent camp in Baghouz, but they caution there is no victory yet.
Mustafa Bali, head of SDF’s press office, made the announcement on Twitter, saying their forces are in control of the encampment ISIS had been corralled into on the shores of the Euphrates River near Baghouz.
"This is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight against ISIS," he said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
"Clashes are continuing as a group of ISIS gunnies who are confined into a tiny area still fight back," he added.
The Lions of Islam are stretched out along a sliver of territory on the banks of the river, a stone’s throw from the border with Iraq.
The SDF have transferred hundreds of sick and injured Lions of Islam to hospital, Bali added.
SDF special forces captured 157 of the holy warriors, "mostly foreign nationals," in an operation, Bali tweeted earlier on Tuesday.
US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have been seen celebrating 'victory' after seizing key ISIS encampment
SDF say some hardened jihadists were using their children as human shields as they defended slither of land
It comes as the SDF said it had arrested alleged terrorists over a suicide bomb that left four Americans dead in the Syrian town of Manbij in January
SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said the SDF had captured a group of alleged terrorists suspected of being behind a suicide attack in northern Syria that left four Americans dead earlier this year. Bali said the suspects were captured following technical surveillance. He did not elaborate on the number of suspects or when they were captured.
The Americans were killed in a suicide bombing in January in the town of Manbij that was claimed by ISIS. In a statement posted on Twitter on Tuesday, he said the outcome of the ongoing investigation will be shared at a later time.
The SDF captured hundreds of wounded militants when it overran the camp on Tuesday, Bali said. It also captured 157 mostly foreign fighters.
There were conflicting reports from SDF commanders on the ground about the extent of the IS surrender.
Commander Rustam Hasake told The Associated Press that SDF forces advanced on four fronts Monday night and were inside the camp when the last IS fighters surrendered at dawn. He said the last fighters were pushed out of the camp and were now in an open patch of land by the Euphrates River and were being processed and detained.
Another commander, however, said some IS militants continue to hold a tiny area in an open patch of land in the village, outside the encampment.
AP journalists in Baghouz reported sporadic gunfire echoing in Baghouz and jets circling overhead. At a command post in Baghouz, a Humvee pulled up and unloaded weapons captured from IS on Tuesday, including sniper and hunting rifles, pump action shot guns and grenades and ammunition.
Five trucks hauling 10 trailers full of people were seen coming out of Baghouz. A child could be heard wailing from inside one of them. At least 100 people, nearly all of them children, have died in the truck trips from Baghouz on the way to a camp in northern Syria, or soon after reaching it, according to the International Rescue Committee - a sign of how miserable conditions were inside Baghouz during the siege as supplies ran out.
The bombing killed Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan Farmer, Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon Kent and Scott Wirtz from the Defense Intelligence Agency.
It also killed Ghadir Taher, a naturalized US citizen working as a civilian interpreter for a US contractor.
[AlAhram] An Italian fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Syria against the Islamic State (IS) group has been killed, media reported Tuesday, citing the jihadists and his family.
"We have killed the Italian crusader", IS said in a statement released along with a photograph of Lorenzo Orsetti, 33, a former waiter and chef from Florence, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
Orsetti's father Alessandro told the daily he and his wife were "very proud" of their son. Orsetti had initially travelled to Syria in September 2017 as an observer but felt "increasingly involved", his father said.
Orsetti had left a "last testament" cited by La Stampa daily and other media.
"I have no regrets. I died doing what I believed was right, defending the weak," it read.
According to the Corriere della Sera, some 25 Italians have travelled to Syria since 2015 to fight alongside Kurdish forces. Three men and two women are still there, it said.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) is surrendering in masses at the Baghouz Camp as their last enclave in the eastern region of the Euphrates River Valley has been eliminated.
According to a report from this front, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have taken control over the Baghouz Camp after a fierce battle with the Islamic State holy warriors in this region of eastern Syria.
The Syrian Democratic Forces were able to force the Islamic State to surrender their last positions after they broke through the terrorist group’s last line of defense at the northern flank of the Baghouz Camp.
With the Islamic State’s surrender of the Baghouz Camp to the Syrian Democratic Forces, they have essentially been eliminated from eastern Syria.
#SDF is in control of Daesh encampment area in #Baghouz. This is not a victory announcement, but a significant progress in the fight against Daesh. Clashes are continuing as a group of ISIS terrorists who are confined into a tiny area still fight back.
[KhaaamaPress] A senior commander of Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... group was killed during an operation of the Special Forces of Afghan Military in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province.
Informed military sources said Tuesday "A Taliban commander and seven other combatants were killed during an Afghan Special Security Forces raid in Khugyani district, Nangarhar province, March 17, 2019."
The sources further added that the Senior Taliban commander, who went by the name Zirak Gul, was in charge of commanding and recruiting Taliban fighters to carry out attacks against innocent Afghan civilians.
"He was directly responsible for numerous attacks and abductions that have plagued innocent Afghan civilians," the sources said.
The anti-government armed gunnies including Taliban have not commented regarding the killing of Zirak Gul so far.
[ToloNews] Residents of Achin district 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.. province who survived life under ISIS almost for three years are still remembering the scars and the horror they witnessed under the turban group. When ISIS outfits initially announced their presence in mid-2014, the hardline hard boy group quickly transformed all aspects of daily life in some of Afghanistan’s remote regions in the east including Nanagarhar’s Achin district.
In this report, TOLOnews’ news hound Sharif Amiri, who recently visited the area, has reflected some of the untold stories of the residents under ISIS rule in the east.
The areas which were used by ISIS as hideouts and training centers for their new recruits have now turned into a marketplace which witnesses a large number of customers on a daily basis.
There is no sign of the black-colored flags and propaganda on the walls in Shadal Bazar, the local market in Achin. The flags have now been replaced with Afghanistan’s flag and the shops have given a colorful image to the area. The shops sell everything from vegetables, commodities, to beverages and candies which is the favorite of the Achin residents.
Ahmad 9, who at the time was only seven years old, was one of the victims of the repressive group who was kidnapped from his school and received military training for four months in a Daesh camp in the east of Afghanistan. Ahmad was ready to go for a suicide mission after being brainwashed at a Daesh training camp.
“They were also showing me videos and were saying that you should cut the heads of these infidels,” said Ahmad.
After realizing the threats facing Ahmad, his father decided to sell everything and evacuate him from Achin. But, in response, Daesh fighters destroyed his home.
But life is coming back to normal in Achin three years after the militant group invaded the area. People are impatiently waiting to relocate to their hometown.
Businesses are reopening and people are happy that Daesh has been defeated in the area.
“My son was in Daesh custody for 19 days. He was later martyred by Daesh,” said Amanullah, an Achin resident.
President Ashraf Ghani in his trip to Nangarhar on January 10 vowed to implement more development projects in Nangarhar districts while he praised the Afghan forces and the residents’ resilience in the fight against Daesh.
When reports Initially surfaced in the media about the emergence of Daesh in Afghanistan, the Afghan political and security leadership tried to play down the rumors of growing influence of the group in the country and said it did not have the capacity to infiltrate and carry out attacks in Afghanistan. But this observation was totally miscalculated as it was not based on facts or credible intelligence reports.
At first, the Afghan government claimed the rumors about Daesh fighters in Afghanistan was just propaganda. But within the span of a few months, the reality of the situation emerged when it became clear the brutal and ideologically extremist group was active in the unstable regions in eastern Afghanistan.
Daesh first appeared in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces – both of which border Pakistan – when they hanged several Taliban commanders who refused to pledge allegiance to the group.
This however was just the start of yet another issue for a nation that was still trying to rid itself of the oppression imposed by the Taliban militancy.
With the announcement of a caliphate by Daesh’s infamous leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in June 2014, the group quickly found some supporters among extremist individuals in Afghanistan. In early September 2014, reports surfaced of Daesh leaflets being distributed in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and nearby Afghan regions where some militants pledged allegiance to the group.
On January 26, 2015, Daesh announced Afghanistan-Pakistan and nearby regions as its Khorasan province with Hafiz Saeed Khan as its governor and Abdul Rauf as his deputy - after both swore an oath of allegiance to the group’s leader Baghdadi.
On February 9, 2015, Mullah Abdul Rauf was killed by a NATO airstrike, and his replacement, Hafiz Wahidi, was killed by the Afghan security forces on March 18, 2015. Hafiz Saeed Khan, the Emir of Daesh’s Khorasan Province, was reportedly killed in a US drone strike in eastern Afghanistan on July 25, 2016.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ The military chiefs-of-staff of Iraq, Iran and Syria have agreed to develop the intelligence coordination center, which groups the three Middle East countries alongside Russia, during their meeting in Damascus, an Iraqi military front man said on Tuesday.
"The tripartite meetings of the military chiefs-of-staff of Iraq, Syria and Iran were positive and very successful," Almaalomah news website quoted front man for Iraq’s Joint Operations Command Brigadier General Yahya Rasoul as saying.
He pointed out that the meetings came up with "an agreement to coordinate joint action to secure the Iraqi-Syrian border and continue intelligence exchange."
"The coming period will see an increase in coordination between the Iraqi and Syrian armies to prevent the infiltration of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... turbans," he said, noting that the military leaders agreed to develop the center of exchange intelligence between Syria, Iraq, Iran and Russia to increase coordination with regard to the anti-terror war.
[IsraelTimes] Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Islamic Theocratic Republic’s Atomic Energy Organization, says work on $8.5-billion power station project ’moving ahead in an excellent manner’.
Construction of two new nuclear plants in the southern Iranian city of Bushehr, home to the country’s only current working nuclear power station, is on schedule and going to plan, the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s atomic chief said on Monday.
Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said on Monday that the latest additions to its nuclear portfolio were "moving ahead in an excellent manner," according to Iranian media reports.
"I was in Bushehr two or three days ago and the Bushehr 2 and Bushehr 3 power plants are being constructed," Salehi reportedly said at a cabinet meeting in Tehran.
The project, which will cost more than $8.5 billion and is being built with Russian assistance, is expected to go online by 2026.
Iran’s sole operational nuclear reactor, also built with Russian assistance, currently produces 1,000 megawatts of electricity. The new plants will produce an additional 1,057 megawatts.
Western nations do not view the Bushehr plant as a proliferation risk because Russia supplies the fuel for the reactor and takes away spent fuel that could otherwise be used to make weapons-grade plutonium.
Earlier this year, Salehi said that Iran had deceived nuclear inspectors by quietly purchasing replacement parts for its Arak nuclear reactor while it was conducting negotiations for an international agreement under which it knew it would be required to destroy the original components.
Salehi recalled that during talks for the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 deal that lifted sanctions on Iran in return for it dismantling the weapons-capable parts of its nuclear program, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned his country’s negotiators that he expected Western parties to renege on the agreement.
"When our team was in the midst of the negotiations, we knew that [the Westerners] would ultimately renege on their promises," Salehi said. "The leader [Khamenei] warned us that they were violators of agreements. We had to act wisely. Not only did we avoid destroying the bridges that we had built, but we also built new bridges that would enable us to go back faster if needed."
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... pulled out of the nuclear deal in May last year but the other signatories ‐ Britannia, La Belle France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran ‐ have all agreed to try to keep the pact alive on their own. Trump insists the original agreement did not go far enough in curbing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions and wants to renegotiate the JCPOA with stricter terms. In the meantime Washington has imposed heavy sanctions on Iran that could weaken the ability of the remaining parties to maintain the deal.
Last month Salehi said Iran has begun "preliminary activities for designing" a modern process for 20-percent uranium enrichment. Restarting enrichment at that level would mean Iran had withdrawn from the 2015 nuclear deal.
Tehran has in the past warned that if the remaining parties are not able to keep up the trade and financial benefits the deal provided, it will also pull out and restart controversial parts of its nuclear program.
[IsraelTimes] No immediate reports of Paleostinian casualties in two separate raids; 11 Gazooks said injured in border festivities in northern Strip.
Israeli military aircraft fired at two groups of Paleostinians launching incendiary balloons from the Gazoo Strip, the army said on Tuesday.
The Israel Defense Forces said its aircraft shot at two separate groups launching balloons from the northern and southern Strip.
There were no immediate report of casualties in Gazoo.
According to the Ynet news site, some festivities between Paleostinian protesters and Israeli troops were also reported near the border in northern Gazoo.
At least 11 Gazooks were maimed in the border demonstrations on Tuesday, according to Paleostinian sources.
A protest flotilla was also makings its way toward the maritime border with Israel in the north of the Strip.
Earlier Tuesday, the IDF Spokesperson stated that soldiers identified three suspects crossing the border fence In the southern Gaza Strip, placed a flag on it and returned immediately to the Strip.
The @IDF stated Tuesday they attacked a group launching incendiary and explosive balloons. Here is the drone-strike that occured near them. Notice the logo on the tank? It's similar to the logo of the PRC, its armed wing the Nasser Brigades and Hezbollah. #Israel#Gazapic.twitter.com/t3bhhvJLaO
[IsraelTimes] Military operation aimed at PKK bases near border shared by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... , Iraq and Iran
Iran has denied a claim by the Ottoman Turkish interior minister that it took part in a joint operation on Monday targeting Kurdish rebels in the border area.
In recent weeks, Ankara has talked up the prospects of joint military action with Tehran against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its allies but Monday marked the first time it had spoken of a joint operation being carried out.
"Iran’s armed forces have no role in this operation," the official IRNA news agency quoted an "informed source" in the general staff as saying on Monday evening.
However Iran "will forcefully confront any group that seeks to create unrest on our country’s soil," the source added.
Earlier on Monday, Ottoman Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said: "We started staging a joint operation with Iran against the PKK on our eastern border as of 8 am (0500 GMT)."
Soylu did not specify where the joint operation was taking place, but 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... has said previously that joint military action would focus on PKK rear bases in Iraq near where the three countries’ borders meet.
The Ottoman Turkish military has carried out repeated bombing campaigns against PKK targets in Iraq’s northern mountains during its more than three-decade campaign to crush the rebels’ campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey.
In recent years, Tehran too has carried out operations in northern Iraq against suspected rear bases of the PKK’s Iran-focused ally, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK).
PJAK is one of a number of Kurdish rebel groups that have fought the Iranian security forces in ethnic Kurdish districts along the border.
Another PKK ally, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), is the main Kurdish gang in Syria where, to the fury of Ankara, it has been a key ally in the US-led campaign against the jihadists of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group which is now drawing to a close.
[The National Interest] The Army National Guard is bringing in around $35 million worth of equipment for its new fitness test, and they really need you to be ready for it. Vintage graphic depicts the NCO supervised Physical Training (PT) program and the push up, much like the program which enabled our troops to defeat the Axis powers in WWII. Note the absence of costly gym equipment.
Cost of wooden demonstrator podium seen at the front of the PT formation, about $ 9.00. Today's cost $119.
Only equipment necessary for the fitness test will be purchased. One lane of equipment will include:
-One 10-pound medicine ball for the standing power throw event
-Pull-up bars for the leg tuck event
-A deadlift bar and weight up to 340 pounds for the max deadlift event
-Two 40-pound kettlebells for the sprint-drag-carry event
-A sled with 90 pounds of weight
Over 5,000 soldiers and non-commissioned officers will be trained to administer the new fitness test, which will become common practice across the Army on October 1, 2020, according to Chief of Special Projects for the Army National Guard Training and Readiness Division, Lt. Col. Brian Dean.
A full lane of equipment is estimated to cost around $2,375.00, and the number of lanes a unit receives depends on its size, Army National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Wes Parmer told Task & Purpose; the lane costs could vary given that some units may not require each piece of equipment listed above. Dean said there are 15,846 lanes total being purchased.
Army National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. John Sampa is taking the test himself this month in California, he told Task & Purpose, and he's ready for it.
"I'm the Command Sergeant Major," Sampa said. "I lead out front! I'm highly motivated, excited about it...I feel like it's going to be a positive for the Army National Guard."
He said the focus is on the overall health of each soldier not just for the test but for their everyday lives, meaning proper diet, rest, physical therapy, and fitness.
That overall approach is echoed by the Maryland Army National Guard's 629th Military Intelligence Battalion, which is participating in a program called Fit to Serve in preparation for the new test. The program teaches soldiers about nutrition and fitness, while emphasizing "overall health wellness and resiliency."
Army Maj. Michael Bryant, commander of the 629th Military Intelligence Battalion, told Task & Purpose in a statement that around 50 soldiers are going through the Fit to Serve program, which has "led to a total weight loss of about 210 pounds lost since mid-January."
When you stop considering the troop as something you can expect to expend (under liabilities) and instead think of them as a investment (as in asset), you might want to protect it better. The attitude concerning (expendability) death of your cannon fodder fundamental workforce has changed a lot since WWII. It takes about 2 years to make a good infantryman. Shorter if they have live fire go-no go training interspersed in the calendar.
When they finally activated the Georgia NG round out brigade in the first Gulf War, they failed their first rotation through the NTC (a pre-deployment requirement). 25+ year olds doing one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer were not in the same physical condition 18+ year olds who do PT every week day. Mother nature doesn't care what your mobilization plans are. They were more fit to complete the second run through, just in time to be deployment ready when the war ended.
[THEMOSCOWTIMES] Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev ...has served as the President of Kazakhstan since the Fall of the Soviet Union and the nation's independence in 1991. Contrary to commonly held belief, there is a difference between Kazakhs and Cossacks: Kazakhs have mustaches. Or maybe it's the other way around... unexpectedly resigned on Tuesday after three decades in power, saying his oil-rich Central Asian nation now needed "a new generation of leaders."
Nazarbayev, 78, the last Soviet-era leader still in charge of his country, said he would retain key security council and party leader positions while handing over the presidency to a loyal ally for the rest of his term, which ends in April 2020.
"I have taken a decision, which was not easy for me, to resign as president," Nazarbayev said in a televised address before signing a decree terminating his powers from March 20.
"As the founder of the independent Kazakh state I see my task now in facilitating the rise of a new generation of leaders who will continue the reforms that are under way in the country."
His decision hit the price of Kazakh bonds and even appeared to weigh on the Russian ruble. Moscow is Kazakhstan's main trade partner and Nazarbayev has enjoyed close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. 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 him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... Kremlin front man Dmitry Peskov told TASS news agency that Putin and Nazarbayev had spoken by telephone on Tuesday afternoon, but added that the press service did not have information about the content of the conversation.
"The Kremlin press service will not be commenting on it now," Peskov said.
Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament and a close Putin ally, said Nazarbayev's resignation was unexpected and very serious, RIA news agency reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2019
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#1
The thrill is gone. Also the money.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/20/2019 7:41
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[ALMASDARNEWS] A fierce battle broke out between two large rebel factions loyal to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the most dubious NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... ally.... , today, resulting in a number of casualties for both sides involved.
According to reports from northern Syria, Harakat 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... and the Free Syrian Police clashed on Tuesday after members from the former assaulted a traffic officer inside the border city of Jarabulus.
Following the assault, the Free Syrian Police sent reinforcements to the area and the festivities intensified, with at three fighters reportedly maimed.
In response to the infighting, the Ottoman Turkish military sent a convoy to Jarabulus in an attempt to deter both sides from engaging in further hostilities around the city.
Today’s festivities mark the second time in the last 48 hours that Harakat Ahrar al-Sham has been involved in some kind of infighting with another rebel group.
The city of Jarabulus is located in the northeastern part of the Aleppo Governorate; it was previously under the control of the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) after they expelled the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) from the area.
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[ELUNIVERSAL] Juan Carlos Valera, Panamanian head of state, said that through this type of actions "a peaceful and democratic solution" is being sought for the Venezuelan crisis
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[ELUNIVERSAL] In Caracas, several sectors of the east suffered an interruption in the electric service that affected the underground transport system. Several areas of the country remain without light
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Several areas of the country remain without light and others unenlightened.
#2
It was "all fixed" just the other day. Damn that fake news...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2019 6:52
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"After the national outage of 7 March which affected water and electric services for more that 100 hours, electrical failures have persisted throughout the nation's various zones."
[IsraelTimes] Reports had previously suggested tram shooting was a family feud; Utrecht police arrest two in addition to suspected gunman.
Dutch prosecutors and police said Tuesday that they were "seriously" investigating a terrorist motive for the Utrecht tram attack because of evidence including a letter found in the main suspect’s getaway car.
"So far, a terrorist motive is seriously being taken into account. This is based on a letter found in the getaway car among other things and the nature of the facts," they said in a joint statement.
Dutch police said late on Monday that they had tossed in the slammer Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! two people in connection with the rampage, in addition to the Ottoman Turkish-born main suspect in the rampage, but gave no further details about them. All three were questioned Tuesday by police.
Gokmen Tanis, 37, was arrested after a massive eight-hour manhunt on Monday following the shooting in which three people were killed and five others injured.
Police found a red Renault Clio after Monday’s attack which they said Tanis had used to flee.
The three people who died in the shooting were a 19-year-old woman from Vianen, which is near Utrecht, and two men aged 28 and 49 from Utrecht itself, the statement said.
"So far our investigation has established no link between the main suspect and the victims," police and prosecutors added.
Dutch and Ottoman Turkish media reports had previously reported that a family dispute may have been the motive for the shooting.
However the police and prosecutors said that "other motives are not excluded, they are also being investigated."
Armed police arrested Tanis in Utrecht after a huge manhunt on Monday during which police released his picture on social media.
"A firearm was found during his arrest," the statement added.
Dutch media have reported that Tanis had a long criminal background and was only released from jail two weeks ago on a number of charges.
Broadcaster NOS reported that some members of his families had links to fundamentalist Islamic groups, but also that he was known for unstable behavior after divorcing his wife two years ago.
The Dutch tram attack suspect has the 'IQ of a shrimp' as those who knew him say he had gone mad on heroin and had countless legal troubles, as police investigate a terror motive.
Ottoman Turkish-born Gökmen Tanis, 37, had been out of jail for two weeks on a rape case when he allegedly opened fire on a tram in Utrecht on Monday morning, killing three people - including a teenager and a father-of-three - and injuring five others.
Tanis was described as having a 'rap sheet from here to Tokyo,' including weapons charges, and one of his neighbours said the suspect spiralled into madness on heroin and that Tanis 'has the IQ of a shrimp.'
But another described the alleged killer as 'nice,' as the authorities try to piece together his motives.
Dutch media reports today that he could finally be caught after logging on to his internet banking account via an unknown mobile phone number. Police traced the mobile phone, and were able to arrest Tanis.
Two other arrests were also made by police probing the attacks, and two unnamed men from Utrecht aged 23 and 27 remain in jug. Reports said the two other suspects were brothers but unrelated to Tanis.
This comes as the three victims of yesterday's shooting have been revealed as a 19-year-old woman from the nearby city of Vianen, a 28-year-old man from the same neighbourhood as Tanis and a 49-year-old married father-of-three.
Roos Verschuur, 19, worked as a waitress in a snack bar in the suburb of Vianen and was caught up in the attack travelling through the city on her day off.
Rinke Terpstra, 49, worked in IT for the Dutch rail network management company ProRail, and coached several youth football teams with the Utrecth club C.O.V. DESTO in his spare time.
Dutch authorities today revealed that the three people seriously injured are a 20-year-old woman from Utrecht, a 74-year-old man from the nearby village of De Meern and a 21-year-old woman from Nieuwegein, north of Utrecht.
Tanis was originally locked away Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! in 2017, accused of sexually assaulting a 47-year-old woman, then released from pre-trial detention, before being taken back into custody when he breached his bail conditions, the central Netherlands district court said. He was freed again at the start of March.
In 2014, he was also convicted of 'illegal possession of weapons' and attempted theft but acquitted of attempted manslaughter. He was also convicted in recent months for shoplifting and burglary, but was appealing these rulings.
Far-right politician Geert Wilders has demanded that Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus resign after the revelations about Tanis' criminal past, saying he was responsible for the suspect being able to roam the streets.
'You are politically responsible for this,' Wilders, the leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom, said in the Dutch parliament in The Hague. 'You have to resign, get out of here.'
Earlier today, the alleged victim of the 2017 sexual assault said she feared the suspect was going to be 'coming after her next' when his photograph was shared online.
'I was terrified, I thought: he is coming to see me,' the woman, named only as Angelique, 47, told Algemeen Dagblad, but added that she did not believe Tanis was a terrorist, saying 'his act has nothing to do with faith'.
'He's just crazy, a drug user, you name it. I have warned police so often [about him] before. He is not a terrorist, but a psychopath. If only they had listened to me.'
The Netherlands has been largely spared the kind of attacks which have rocked its closest European neighbours in the past few years, but there has been a series of recent scares.
In August, a 19-year-old Afghan with a German residence permit stabbed and injured two American tourists at Amsterdam's busy Central Station before being shot and maimed.
In September, Dutch Sherlocks said they had arrested seven people and foiled a 'major attack' on civilians at a major event in the Netherlands. They said they had found a large quantity of bomb-making materials including fertiliser likely to be used in a boom-mobile. The men were arrested in the cities of Arnhem and Weert.
In June, two terror suspects were arrested while close to carrying out attacks including at an iconic bridge in Rotterdam and in La Belle France, prosecutors said. The men aged 22 and 28, who were of Moroccan origin, made a film at the Erasmus bridge in which they sang a martyrdom song, they said.
[IsraelTimes] After two-day manhunt, Israeli troops circle building to arrest Paleostinian attacker, fatally shoot him after he opens fire on security forces.
A Paleostinian teen who killed an IDF soldier and Israeli civilian in a terror attack on Sunday was rubbed out in a firefight with Israeli forces near Ramallah, following a two-day manhunt, Israeli officials said Tuesday.
Israeli troops surrounded a building in Abwein on Tuesday night where Omar Abu Laila, 18, was hiding out, according to the Shin Bet security service and police.
As they circled the structure "the perpetrator shot up our forces and was killed in the exchange of fire," an official statement from Israeli authorities said.
There were no Israeli injuries.
Troops have been carrying out intensive searches for Abu Laila since Sunday, after he fled into a Paleostinian town after fatally stabbing a soldier, stealing his gun and opening fire on passing vehicles, killing a rabbi and wounding a soldier.
Clashes were reported between Israeli troops and local Paleostinians during and after the operation.
The official PA news site Wafa said earlier that a Paleostinian was maimed by Israeli fire during the festivities that broke out in Abwein. The news site said he was transported to a hospital in Ramallah for treatment.
According to Wafa, Israeli security forces circled the home after cutting its power lines and calling on a person inside through megaphones to surrender.
Ma’an, a Bethlehem-based Paleostinian news outlet, said two Paleostinians were maimed in Abwein during "violent festivities" with Israeli security forces. Ma’an also said troops shot up the building, after calling on the suspect to turn himself in and threatening to demolish the structure.
Videos posted on social media purporting to be from the scene showed heavy fighting.
According to Israeli authorities, Abu Laila fatally stabbed Sgt. Gal Keidan at the Ariel junction, grabbed the soldier’s gun and shot up passing vehicles, hitting Rabbi Ettinger, before stealing a vehicle and fleeing the scene. The terrorist then drove to the nearby Gitai junction, where he opened fire again, wounding soldier Alexander Dvorsky. He then fled on foot into the nearby village of Burqin.
Ettinger, a father of 12, departed this vale of tears Monday morning.
Authorities have already ordered work be started to demolish Abu Laila’s family home, a controversial tactic Israel defends as a deterrent against future attacks.
Overnight, forces combed the suspect’s home village of Zawiya near the West Bank city of Ariel, where the attack took place.
On Tuesday morning, Israel Radio reported that the manhunt was shifting to intelligence gathering under the assumption that Abu Laila was holed up in a secure hideout.
It was not immediately clear how Abu Laila managed to move from Burqin, in the northern West Bank, to the Ramallah area, some 60 kilometers (35 miles) south.
It is still unknown if the terrorist acted alone before, during or after the attack. Because he appeared to know what he was doing with the weapon, he might have had military training, defense officials said.
#BREAKING: IDF Special Forces have eliminated the terrorist who killed two Israelis (including an IDF soldier) & wounded another soldier 2 days ago. They launched anti-tank guided missiles at his home in the village of Abuyan in the West Bank, heavy gunfire also reported
#UPDATE: USAF U2 spy plane spotted tracking over South Korea right now likely snooping on NoKo, a USAF RC-135W SIGINT platform is also airborne in the area & a few hours ago an ROK E737 Peace Eye Airborne Early Warning & Control platform was also up https://t.co/qJHrKw9hg4
#3
U2's (or TR1's, or whatever you want to call them) are all over the place. They're slow, not dramatic, and somewhat low maintenance, so most people don't even realize they're around. Tend to come and go in the early morning hours. The RC135 Rivet Joint is more of an indicator of interest in the area.
BTW, the SR71 wasn't pushed out for cause. What basically killed it was the way it tied up tanker assets, a problem that the AF still hasn't fixed.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/20/2019 7:52
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#4
a problem that the AF still hasn't fixed
Yesssssch. From the grave John McScccccchtain holds the US's defensive and intel capabilities back with his long war against Boeing. Wunnerful...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2019 7:57
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#6
They've been making incremental improvements on the U-2 over the years. The engine can operate at a higher altitude, is more fuel efficient, and other tweaks. I suspect it has a more modern version of the Iron Ball coating also?
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ An Iraqi soldier was killed and two others were maimed Tuesday in an armed attack by unidentified button men in northern Baghdad, a security source was quoted as saying.
Speaking to Al Madar News, the source said that "the Iraqi army launched a military operation in al-Tarmia district in northern Baghdad, during which the troops came under fire from unidentified button men.
"The shooting left a soldier dead and two others maimed," added the source, without giving further details about the perpetrators of the attack.
One does hope this is a rinse’n’repeat kill box, rather than the Kenyans having to rconquer the same poor village repeatedly.
[RsdioShabelle] Heavily armed fighters from al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... were reported to have retaken full control of a small town in Gedo region, southwest of Somalia, residents said Tuesday.
The bandidosturbans in fighting vehicles rolled into Busar, located about 40 Km South of El-Wak town situated near Somalia’s mostly non-existent border with Kenya.
The takeover came following the withdrawal of Kenyan forces who have been in control of the town since 2012, according to a local resident, who spoke to Radio Shabelle over the phone.
Al-Shabaab fighters retook the area in Gedo region without a battle and announced their come-back in a public square where krazed killer commanders lectured the villagers.
#3
For comparison, Fat Man produced an explosion of about 21 kilotons. The B83? 1.2 megatons, equaling 1,200,000 tons of TNT, making it 80 times more powerful than the Little Boy. The largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, the Tsar Bomba, set off by the USSR (in 1961), produced a 50-megaton blast.
[RadioShabelle] Somali forces on Monday night killed two al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... forces of Evil during a confrontation in the southern region of Middle Shabelle, officials said on Tuesday.
A police officer who declined to be named told Xinhua that the forces of Evil attacked Bal’ad town which was 30 km north of the Somali capital Mogadishu, but were overpowered.
"They (al-Shabaab) attacked our bases in the town but our forces have managed to foil their attempt and inflicted them heavy casualties killing two of them during the fighting," the officer said.
He added that Somali forces are in full control of Bal’ad denying the claims of al-Shabaab that they took over the town.
Residents reported sporadic fighting amid sustained gunfire. "We woke up with the sound of gunfire, we were in fear and panic the whole night," Idman Aways, a local resident told Xinhua by phone.
The incident comes a day after al-Shabaab forces of Evil captured Dhanane town along the coast road in Lower Shabelle region after the government forces withdrew for the unpaid salary of two months.
Al-Qaeda allied group al-Shabaab claimed that they had launched an overnight attack on Bal’ad, capturing the town for a while before setting combat vehicles on fire.
[ALMASDARNEWS] After nearly half a year of silence, ISISfront man Abu Hassan al-Mujahir posted a new message on social media Monday calling for Moslems to "take vengeance for their religion" in response to the terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 50 Moslems last Friday.
A 44-minute recorded message was posted on Telegram Monday from the ISIS spokesperson, who had been presumed dead, the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported. In the recording, Mujahir called for Dire Revenge killings in retaliation for the Christchurch attack on two mosques by a 28-year-old Australian gunman who himself claimed to be killing in Dire Revenge for Moslem terror attacks on Europeans.
"This slaughter in those two mosques is no more than another tragedy among past and coming tragedies, which will be followed by scenes of force that reach all who were tricked to living among the polytheist," Mujahir said, the UK Independent reported.
"The scenes of death in the two mosques are enough to wake the sleep and incite the supporters of the caliphate who live there, to take vengeance for their religion and for sons of their Ummah, who are killed everywhere in the world."
It’s long been the political line of ISIS that Moslems and non-Moslems cannot live side by side, so events like that in Christchurch are grist to their bad boy mill.
Since the Friday attack, New Zealand’s government has raised the national security threat level, and bigwigs have had national security crisis meetings, the New Zealand Herald reported. The Independent noted they’re preparing for "domino effect" atrocities.
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03/20/2019
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[ELUNIVERSAL] The citizens gathered in the place; at the height of Los Mecedores and prevented the passage for more than 3 hours, they claim they have a month without receiving potable water
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2019
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[IsraelTimes] From midnight Wednesday to midnight Sunday, only those granted humanitarian-related exceptions will be permitted to enter Israel, as is customary during festivals throughout year.
[FoxNews] John Walker Lindh, a former American Taliban militant convicted in 2002 for supporting the terrorist organization, is due to be freed in May.
The former Islamist fighter, dubbed “Detainee 001 in the war on terror,” was arrested in 2001, just months after the Sept. 11 attacks and the start of the war in Afghanistan. Then just 20 years old, he was among a group of Taliban fighters who were captured by U.S. forces.
Within a year, Walker Lindh was convicted of supporting the Taliban and sentenced to 20 years in prison -- even as some hardliners urged authorities to consider treason charges that could have resulted in the death penalty.
Walker Lindh’s release later this year is likely to be met with headaches for security services across the globe, especially since he has since acquired Irish citizenship and plans to move there -- even though he hasn’t denounced radical Islamic ideology and has even made pro-Isis comments to the media.
The National Counterterrorism Center penned a document dated Jan. 24, 2017 claiming the former Taliban fighter remains as radicalized now as he was in 2001.
“As of May 2016, John Walker Lindh (USPER) — who is scheduled to be released in May 2019 after being convicted of supporting the Taliban — continued to advocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent extremist texts,” the Foreign Policy magazine reported.
The report added Walker Lindh told “a television news producer that he would continue to spread violent extremist Islam upon his release.”
It appears, however, that the Irish government won’t follow the example of the British government -- which rescinded a Jihadi bride’s British citizenship -- and won’t stop Walker Lindh from entering the country.
Walker Lindh confirmed his plans to head to Ireland after his release in remarks he made to CAGE, a London-based organization focused on supporting people impacted by the War on Terror.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/20/2019 5:53
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#2
Jonathon Pollard, pled guilty to Espionage and served March 4, 1987 until his pardon on November 20, 2015 on a lifetime sentence for espionage.
This worm got a sweeter plea bargain deal because...? Throw him back behind bars and let his disappear from sight.
[ToloNews] The Afghan National Army’s 209 Shaheen Corps has conducted 88 military operations during the last one year, inflicting 3,771 losses to Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... and other holy warrior groups, the Deputy Commander of the Shaheen Corps, Gen. Adam Khan Matin, said.
Officials from 209 Shaheen Military Corps in north said in the security and defense forces operations, around 3,771 faceless myrmidons were killed of whom 64 of them were imported muscle.
Around 64 of the 3,771 faceless myrmidons killed in the operations were foreign nationals.
"In total, we launched 88 operations under Operation Walid 97," Matin said. "The operations were carried out to support rule of law, security and people’s safety. Around 64 of the 3,771 faceless myrmidons killed in the operations were foreign nationals."
Sources said that security forces also suffered heavy causalities during this year in the north and north-eastern parts of the country, but Matin rejected the claims.
"No security outpost of Afghan forces is under siege in the north and northeastern provinces of the country," Matin added.
Operation Walid 40 in Balkh, operation Toofan 25 in Kunduz and Operation Shaheen 1 in Baghlan are ongoing against holy warriors, he said.
Army soldiers in the north said they are ready to defend the country and the people to the last drop of their blood.
"We do not lack anything in terms of equipment and we are ready to stand against the enemy in any situation," said Zamir Sayedkhaili, a security force member in Balk.
"We are ready to defend our soil and our country. We will not allow anyone to destabilize the country," said Toi Mohammad, an Afghan soldier.
The remarks come as that according to local officials who talked to TOLOnews, Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... at district in Sar-e-Pul ...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and Hazara ...a grouping of Dari-speaking people of Sino-Tibetan descent inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistain. They are predominantly Shia Moslems and not particularly warlike, which makes them favored targets... communities, of which the Hazaras mostly don't bother anyone... , Darzab district in Jawzjan and some other parts of the northern provinces are under the control of Taliban.
Military analysts said the battles will increase with the arrival of the new war season.
[AlAhram] Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... Death Eaters have attacked a town in northeast Nigeria ... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border... , killing three, and robbing and burning a bank, residents said on Tuesday, in the latest violence in the restive region.
Jihadist fighters arriving aboard vehicles and cycle of violences stormed Michika in Adamawa state near the border with neighbouring Borno at about 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) on Monday, firing guns and forcing some residents to flee the town.
Others were said to have locked themselves in their homes.
"They attacked a commercial bus driving through the town and killed three people inside. They overpowered soldiers in the town and forced them to withdraw," resident Saleh Abbare told AFP.
He said the gunnies also broke into a commercial bank, carted away money and set the building on fire.
"The bank was recently renovated and banking activities resumed since 2014 after it was destroyed by the same Boko Haram when they took over the town," he said.
Another resident, Daniel Bature, said the jihadists were pushed out after the arrival of troops from Gulak, the headquarters of nearby Madagali district.
"The Death Eaters were pushed out and they drove towards Lassa on their way back to the Sambisa Forest (in Borno)," said Bature, who gave a similar account.
"Soldiers pursued them while vigilantes in Lassa laid in wait for them. They suffered a lot of casualties from the two fronts," he said.
The Nigerian Army confirmed the attack and said the Death Eaters "met their Waterloo and suffered heavy casualties". But it made no mention of civilian deaths.
Spokesman Sagir Musa said the gunnies "were completely routed by the troops, neutralising many of them, while others fled in disarray due to superior firepower".
Boko Haram's decade-long insurgency has killed some 27,000 people and forced almost two million others to flee their homes, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis in the region.
#9
Sounds like his job was to defend the indefensible. That must get tedious. My sympathies to his family.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/20/2019 12:35
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#10
Guilt.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/20/2019 12:41
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#11
from the article: He was known as an expert on the labor market who argued that raising minimum wage did not slow hiring
That seems a bit counter-intuitive. Generally, when you make something more expensive, you get less of it. Makes me wonder if there is some journalistic spin in "did not slow hiring" - for example, it didn't slow hiring, but a lot of people got laid off or had their hours cut.
And while I'm generally suspicious of statistical arguments, shouldn't we be accustomed by now to people around the Clintons being found unexpectedly dead?
#13
He was known as an expert on the labor market who argued that raising minimum wage did not slow hiring
A counterintuitive but arguable claim until the experiment was run in, I think, Seattle, and currently in New York City. In both cases not only has hiring in the lower wage groups dropped, but the number of those employed in minimum wage jobs was actively reduced following the increase in the minimum wage. In brief, they fired ‘em and didn’t hire replacements.
#14
the article and various other new summaries do not do a good job of discussing Krueger's work on the minimum wage
he was studying what could be called marginal increases, say from $7 to $7.5 and not the increases from 10 to 15
these have some different dynamics because in the .50 cent increases, the businesses have the slack to raise prices a few cents and cut back on fancy napkins, etc. while in the case of the $5 increase, the business require major restructuring of their cash outlays
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/20/2019 19:03
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#15
He was known as an expert on the road speeds who argued that raising the speeding fine did not slow driving
[RadioShabelle] al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... fighters have last night attacked government military bases in Bal’ad town which lies 30 KM north of the Somali capital Mogadishu.
The local residents said the ambush attack prompted hours of heavy fighting between the Somali army and heavily armed al-Shabaab fighters.
There are a variety of casualties on both sides, although it is unclear exactly what the official casualties are.
Residents reported they heard loud kabooms and gunshots as al-Shabaab fighters attacked a military base in the town.
Al-Shabaab has claimed it seized briefly parts of the town and burnt down several battle wagons.
The group is carrying out hit and run attacks in major towns under government and deadly kabooms in the capital Mogadishu.
[RadioShabelle] Residents in Somalia’s southern Lower Shabelle region say unknown fighter jets have bombed an Arclight airstrike in a small village called Adow-Dibille.
Reports indicated that the warplanes targeted a convoy reportedly carrying snuffies travelling in the volatile region, which has been a hotspot for attacks and warfare.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the airstrike.
On the other hand, al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... has refuted claims of an airstrike on their convoy, saying a passenger vehicle was hit by the missiles that inflicted losses on the civilians.
It is unclear which country belongs to the fighter jets conducted the air raid, but, the U.S. military has been carrying out such attacks in the past few years.
An air strike near the Somalian town of Afgoye has killed four people, a relative of one of the victims told Rooters on Tuesday.
Abdiqadir Nur, an employee of telecommunications company Hormuud Telecom, and three others died at around 01:30 GMT as they drove through the village of Laanta Buuro in the country's southwestern Lower Shabelle region, about 45km (28 miles) from the capital Mogadishu.
"Nur and three others went titzup. His brother Mahad Nur is totally burnt," Nur's cousin Abdullahi Ali said.
[FOX] Former Obama White House Counsel and Clinton-linked attorney Greg Craig may soon be charged by the Justice Department for engaging in illegal unregistered overseas lobbying, in a case initially probed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller -- a development that would make him the first Democrat to face prosecution amid the long-running Russia investigation.
The case centers on lobbying work that Craig performed in 2012 for the Russian-backed president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, while Craig was a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Craig allegedly never registered as a foreign agent under a U.S. law known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, which requires lobbyists to declare publicly if they represent foreign leaders, governments or their political parties.
FARA violations were only rarely prosecuted until Mueller took aim at Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, for his lobbying work in Ukraine. Manafort, who connected Craig with Yanukovych, has been convicted on numerous bank and tax fraud charges, and was separately accused of FARA violations as well. He was sentenced earlier this month to approximately seven years in prison.
Craig left Skadden last year as his work with Manafort became public. In January, Skadden agreed to cooperate with the DOJ's registration requirements and paid $4.6 million in a settlement to avoid a criminal prosecution. "We have learned much from this incident and are taking steps to prevent anything similar from happening again," the firm said in a statement at the time.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Japan Times] BERLIN - Berlin could renege on its pledge to raise military spending, in the latest gesture of defiance by German Chancellor Angela Merkel toward U.S. President Donald Trump.
[Washington Examiner] On June 3, 1969, Steve Kraus was a 22-year-old signalman of the watch on board the USS Frank E. Evans in the South China Sea. It was 3:05 a.m. when he saw that the destroyer was on a collision course with an Australian aircraft carrier. He ran into the signal shop shouting that the ship was about to be hit.
[Babylon Bee] SANTA CLARA, CUBA‐Is Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara too moderate for a 2020 run as a Democrat?
[Breitbart] Earlier this month during a discussion with Marvin Kalb at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Ted Koppel, the former ABC’s "Nightline," acknowledged the media were out to get President Donald Trump, saying Trump wasn’t "mistaken" in holding the belief.
[Deseret News Utah] SALT LAKE CITY ‐ Sen. Mitt Romney chastised President Donald Trump on Tuesday for the latest denigrating remarks he made about the late Arizona Sen. John McCain.
[THEMOSCOWTIMES] When approached by a wild moose, one local resident of Russia's republic of Bashkortostan took the only reasonable course of action: flinging the nearest available cat to scare it off.
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[DAWN] Protests flared in parts of Indian-Indian 
[DAWN] A sessions court in 
Venezuela's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy...
[IsraelTimes] Ali Akbar Salehi, head of 
... 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...
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. 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 him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
[IsraelTimes] Reports had previously suggested tram shooting was a family feud; Utrecht police arrest two in addition to suspected gunman.
the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
the personification of Somali state failure...
[FoxNews] John Walker Lindh, a former American Taliban militant convicted in 2002 for supporting the terrorist organization, is due to be freed in May.
...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and 
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
