🚨 Unconfirmed reports that Israel Defense Forces David's Sling weapons system which also include Arrow 2, Arrow 3, Iron Dome, and Barak 8 etc.. Has been ACTIVATED! pic.twitter.com/HoXKnen5ND
#6
Twitter link
#Israel Air Force carried-out an airstrike against a rocket manufacturing workshop at Sheikh Najar industrial zone, near the #Aleppo International Airport. It is reported that #IRGC was producing Fajr-5C precision guided rockets for #Syria Arab Army there.
#8
It is known that #Israel Air Force has used both F-16D/Is and F-15Is in this airstrike and the F-16Is have used anti-radiation Delilah missiles to neutralize the SAM systems of #Syria Arab Air Defense Force in #Aleppo Intl Airport prior attacking the weapon workshops!
#9
Joint French Navy-#Israel Air Force/Navy exercise will start tomorrow in which various fighter squadrons will practice A2A & A2G missions in E. #MediterraneanSea. Also #IAF F-16D/I aircrews will practice #SEAD operation preparing for incoming Operation against #IRGC.
On June 1, 2007, Staff Sgt. Atkins was conducting route security in the town of Abu Sarnak. He and his soldiers stopped a pair of suspected insurgents and Atkins was soon engaged in hand-to-hand combat with one who was reaching for his explosive vest.
“Atkins then grabbed the suicide bomber from behind with a bear hug and slammed him onto the ground, away from his soldiers,” according to the Army News Service. “As he pinned the insurgent to the ground, the bomb detonated.
“Atkins was mortally wounded in the blast. With complete disregard for his own safety, he had used his body as a shield to protect his three fellow soldiers from injury. They were only feet away.”
The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest award for valor, and has only been awarded to 3,504 men and one woman since it was created during the Civil War. More than half since World War II have been awarded posthumously because the recipient made the ultimate sacrifice while acting to save others. The Iraq War is the only conflict in which none of its Medal of Honor recipients – Atkins is the fifth -- survived the act of valor for which they were honored.
#2
They said we were soft, that we would not fight, that we could not win. We are not a warlike nation. We do not go to war for gain or for territory; we go to war for principles, and we produce young men like these. I think I told every one of them that I would rather have that medal, the Congressional Medal of Honor, than to be President of the United States.
-Harry S Truman
[Entornointeligente.com] By Shane Harris Shane Harris Intelligence and national security reporter Email Bio Follow March 26 at 6:08 PM The Army has chosen Palantir Technologies to deploy a complex battlefield intelligence system for soldiers, according to Army documents, a significant boost for a company that has attracted a devoted following in national security circles but had struggled to win a major defense contract. Industry experts said it marked the first time that the government had tapped a Silicon Valley software company, as opposed to a traditional military contractor, to lead a defense program of record, which has a dedicated line of funding from Congress. The contract is potentially worth more than $800 million. The Army’s decision to go with Palantir, which was co-founded by Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor and sometimes adviser to President Trump, brings to a close the latest chapter in a fierce competition.
In March 2018, the Army chose Palantir and Raytheon to vie for the next phase of the Distributed Common Ground System (or DCGS-A, for Army), which lets users gather and analyze information about enemy movements, terrain and weather to create detailed maps and reports in real-time. Actually, these systems are designed to capture 'all source' intelligence data and inputs from existing diverse systems and present them to the soldier on a user friendly 'flat network' system. These are social network and battlefield surveillance analysis tools, not collectors.
The system is designed to be used by soldiers fighting in remote, harsh environments. But critics within the Army and in Congress have for years complained that DCGS-A cost too much and didn’t deliver the intelligence and capabilities that soldiers needed. Some soldiers said the system was too hard to use and searched for alternatives. Yes, "complained for years". Somewhere around 15 years now as I recall, possbily longer.
Many became backers of Palantir, which sells to governments and businesses, including in the financial and health care sectors. Palantir and its advocates argued that their software was cheaper and could meet all the Army’s requirements. But Army brass defended their decision to pay for a custom-built platform. In 2016, the Army chose Raytheon for a next phase of DCGS-A.
#2
Butcritics within the Army and in Congress have for years complained that DCGS-A cost too much and didn’t deliver the intelligence and capabilities that soldiers needed. Some soldiers said the system was too hard to use and searched for alternatives.
All of the above factual. DCGS-A was/is a proprietary system hitched to costly contractor (Lockheed Martin) soldier mentors. Unfriendly and difficult to operate is an understatement.
A non-techie can learn to use the basic Palantir tool in an afternoon of instruction. Slower non-techies may require an additional morning of instruction. No foking expensive battlefield 'right seat ride' mentors required. Savvy analysts can hop on and figure it out in 15 minutes.
#3
which lets users gather and analyze information about enemy movements, terrain and weather to create detailed maps and reports in real-time.
I am not now nor ever have been a gunt, soldier, etc. I have not even stayed in a Holiday Inn, but, that said it seems that detailed weather maps and reports are not what said grunt in the middle of a gun fight needs to help him kill bad guys.
#4
Here is an example or screen shot of a social network analysis product using the Analyst Notebook (ANB) tool. A favorite of the intelligence community.
By simply kliking on the 'face' image, a complete personalia/bio compendium and existing traffic on the subject is quickly at hand and can be printed or forwarded to an end-user.
Crude example: Akmed travels to Benzar Village on the first and third Tuesday afternoons of the month and frequents Halads tea shop. Amed also travels to Benzar and frequents Halads on the first and third Tuesday afternoons. Halads tea shop only has one table. What potential analytic conclusions might you draw ?
Of course ANB wasn't good enough for DCGS-A. They had to come up with their very own proprietary non-integrating ANB 'clone' tool.
The types of conflict, drone zapping and detention of Taliban or AQ leadership, etc, found in Iraq and AFG generally require the identification and confirmation of bad actors along with their support networks. These bad actors tend to not present themselves with bugle blasts in uniformed massive assaults as in the Korean conflict. Social Network Analysis enables this identification process.
Probably a gross over-simplification, but I hope it helps.
#6
LockMart had Congressmen in its pocket. So they steered the Dept of the Army where it would benefit the politicians, not the nation or the Army or the soldiers. We need term limits and transparency.
#7
Thanks Beso. I didn't make myself clear enough.
I understand your example and how that could be more than a trifle useful. What is confusing me is the idea that "soldiers" need to generate real time reports and maps. That might be useful for someone in operations (if I understand Tom Clancy) but ground pounders in a gun fight?
#8
All this stuff will be integrated one way or another eventually. Will it be integrated well or poorly? Time will tell. But imagine a future where a micro drone could report that the desired target was / was not at the location about to be raided as a result of good integrated intel data.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 15:17
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#9
That might be useful for someone in operations (if I understand Tom Clancy) but ground pounders in a gun fight? Posted by AlanC
There generally is no FEBA (Forward Edge of the Battlefield). Killing everyone to your immediate front and pushing the surviving forces back to an encircled Berlin as in WWII is unfortunately not an option. Iraq and AFG insurgent warfare is a can of worms. Everyone you meet, see walking along a roadway, or squatting to take care of business is a potential enemy.
In any city in the US, say a city of 250,000 people. It's generally the same 600-900 violators who cause the trouble. "The usual suspects" so to speak. Report writing and documenting potential bad actor activities (their social network) helps the troops keep track of the bad actors and their pals.
Archiving these social networks and layering them over time permits a historical record of activities, hide sites, weapons cache locations, infiltration routes from Pakiland, etc. which is useful for the next soldier coming into theater. Troop rotations are a fact of life. No sense going into an area cold.
They all look the same and will smile and wave at you, but they're not your friends.
#11
There's too ways that "too much information" presents: Your girlfriend talking incessantly about her exes is one kind. What you need to know now buried beneath everything else right behind the pony is the other kind...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 17:22
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[DW] A 42-year-old Iraqi father allegedly attempted two attacks on Germany's high-speed train lines. Police were reportedly able to track him down through vital clues he left at the scene.
Austrian police arrested a man suspected of carrying out two attempted attacks on high-speed trains in Germany.
The man, believed to be an "Islamic State" supporter, is suspected of having committed attacks on the high-speed rail line between Nuremberg and Munich in October and in Berlin in December, Bavarian State Criminal Police Office said Wednesday.
Austria's Kronen Zeitung reported that elite police raided the 42-year-old's apartment in Vienna on Monday.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 ||
03/27/2019
07:50 ||
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#1
The public prosecutor's office in Vienna identified the suspect as an Iraqi father of five, who was granted refugee status about 20 years ago.
Twenty years? There’s gratitude for you! Check the family to see if Pops radicalized the kiddos, too. If yes, send them home now — he can follow after his jail sentence is served. Good find, Elmerert Hupens2660.
#3
If refugee Muslims get pissed off
And, seething with rage, achieve lift-off,
No racism, please,
For each good German sees
Such as these could be "Johann" or "Christoph!"
[Variety] Dr. Dre’s attempt to throw shade on the recent celebrity college admissions scandals backfired after he apparently belatedly realized that he’d donated $70 million to the college his daughter, Truly, is attending.
On Saturday Dre posted a photo with the caption, "My daughter got accepted into USC all on her own. No jail time!!!" and then quickly deleted it after it was pointed about that in 2013 he and Beats by Dre cofounder Jimmy Iovine donated $70 million to the school to establish the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation.
Making matters worse, on Monday TMZ excavated a post from Truly that seems to suggest she actually didn’t want to attend USC, saying that her father was pushing her to attend the school.
None of this indicates that Truly was not accepted to USC entirely on her own merits, or that Dre’s contribution was not completely above board. However, anyone with a teenaged daughter will understand the doghouse Dre is presumably in at the moment.
The worlds of entertainment, business, sports and academia were rocked by the recent revelation that wealthy parents such as Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin allegedly paid college admissions consultant Rick Singer large sums to get their children into elite colleges. A second suit, filed on behalf of two Stanford students, claims their degree has been devalued due to the school’s association with the scandal.
#5
What does that mean, no jail time?
However, anyone with a teenaged daughter will understand the doghouse Dre is presumably in at the moment.
Yeah, totes. Just the other week I donated $20million local police department rec center, joking that I hope they don't see my daughter doing any wrong.
NEW YORK (AP) ‐ Former Vice President Joe Biden condemned "a white man’s culture" Tuesday night as he lashed out at violence against women and, more specifically, lamented his role in the Supreme Court confirmation hearings that undermined Anita Hill’s credibility nearly three decades ago.
Biden, a Democratic presidential prospect who often highlights his white working-class roots, said Hill, who is African-American, should not have been forced to face a panel of "a bunch of white guys" about her sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas.
"To this day I regret I couldn’t come up with a way to give her the kind of hearing she deserved," he said, echoing comments he delivered last fall as the nation debated sexual misconduct allegations against Brett Kavanaugh amid his Supreme Court confirmation hearing. "I wish I could have done something."
Biden’s role in the 1991 Thomas confirmation hearings is among his many political challenges as he considers making a 2020 bid for the presidency. Should he run, he would be among a handful of white men in a Democratic presidential field that features several women and minorities.
His comments about Hill drew swift condemnation on social media, with many noting he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time of the hearing.
#4
Biden, a Democratic presidential prospect who often highlights his white working-class roots,
What a crock of shit. If I recall correctly (and that's generally the case), he never had a private sector job. Any of this 'working class hero' crap we hear about him only resulted from him once sitting next to a plumber.
[NationalReview] The most telling revelation in Attorney General William Barr’s letter about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s much-anticipated final report is that Mueller has punted on the main question he pursued for nearly two years of investigation: Did President Trump commit an obstruction offense?
The Barr letter gingerly states that, after making a "thorough factual investigation" into alleged instances of obstruction, Mueller "ultimately determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment." Since making a prosecutorial judgment was Mueller’s job, that means he defaulted. What did we need him for?
In the memo, Barr argued that the obstruction theory Mueller’s staff appeared to be pursuing was constitutionally infirm and practically unworkable. Based on statutory law, the Constitution, court precedent, and longstanding Justice Department guidelines, Barr posited that an indictment of a president for obstruction could properly be based only on plainly corrupt acts ‐ not constitutionally ordained exercises of presidential prerogative ‐ that involve tampering with evidence and witnesses.
In the end, then, Mueller had a choice to make: Either (a) accept that Barr’s interpretation of obstruction law was correct, or (b) recommend an indictment based on the more expansive interpretation of obstruction that his staff seems to have been pursuing and dare Barr to reverse him. [insert weasel graphic here]
The special counsel couldn’t bring himself to decide. In effect, he accepted Barr’s construction of the law, but he declined to admit that he was doing so. After all, if Barr was right all along, what were the last 22 months about?
"While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." That’s a political statement, not a prosecutorial statement.
Prosecutors never "exonerate" people. It is for others to say whether a person has been exonerated. All prosecutors can say is whether there is enough evidence to charge or there is not. If there is not, then you don’t file charges, period. To cite the obvious example, you didn’t hear Mueller say, "I am exonerating President Trump on the collusion claims." He simply found insufficient evidence to establish a crime under the governing legal standards, so he declined to file charges and left it to the commentariat to sort out what it all means.
On obstruction, however, Mueller declined to apply the law to the facts. That was the only job he was hired to do. Whether he thinks the Justice Department’s decision not to charge the president is an exoneration or something less is no more relevant than what you or I think about it.
What a waste.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/27/2019
04:02 ||
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#1
...Pardon me, but if no crime was committed (i.e.; collusion) what the hell could he have obstructed?
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/27/2019 4:38
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#2
Agreed Mike. No law exists that gags the President while giving others license to lie. He fights back, using their own tools, and the pathetic snowflakes can’t handle the blowback.
#6
..technically, impeachment removes the protection of office. Obean is no longer in office and no longer enjoys legal protection. What protects him is the old 'tradition' of not prosecuting former executives as Rome showed that it tended to cause leaders resisting becoming former (Caesar, Rubicon, and all that).
#7
If Mueller had the evidence he should have prosecuted. Otherwise, he should STFU...er, admit that he couldn't find anything. But I suppose after two years and $35 million he felt the need to say something, however petty and ridiculous it might be.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/27/2019 11:03
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#8
I'll always wonder though, how many politicians could undergo such scrutiny and come away from it unscathed?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/27/2019 11:12
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#9
Scrutiny 3 times: House, Senate, and Special Counsel.
THREE Times. I'd like to see Clinton Foundation and the Obama Justice Dept and DCI offices subjected to that same treatment. Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Lynch, Lerner, and maybe even Clinton and Obama, in irons.
#10
Obean is no longer in office and no longer enjoys legal protection. What protects him is the old 'tradition' of not prosecuting former executives as Rome showed that it tended to cause leaders resisting becoming former (Caesar, Rubicon, and all that).
But if it was Obama who crossed the Rubicon, refused to step down peacefully and graciously, attempted to rig an election and when that failed attempted to undermine his successor's administration, he has waived his claim to the traditional protection.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/27/2019 13:41
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#11
...If the water drowns him then he is innocent? "While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."
There is no way that anyone could prove that they had never been guilty of a "hypothetical crime". Mueller himself could not "absolutely prove" that he had never, as an example, been a sexual predator "...at some undisclosed time and in some undisclosed manner".
Mueller should be disbarred for a basic failure to understand the concept of "Presumption of Innocence" in legal matters.
#13
There is really no historic precedent to draw upon for what happened in the Obean administration. It would seem like treason is a matter to be considered. We have impeached presidents but never convicted them. This is new ground being plowed. Lindsey Graham is saying this should handled by a special counsel. I guess it is a question of optics. It should be a matter of justice. As Trump said, this should never happen again. Agreed there. Justice should be done.
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian militants fired rockets from Gaza into Israel on Tuesday, drawing retaliatory air strikes and breaking a day-long lull in cross-border fighting between Israel and Hamas that could impact an Israeli election two weeks away.
The biggest Israeli-Palestinian escalation in months, which began on Monday with the longest-range Palestinian rocket attack to cause casualties in Israel in five years, had eased after Egyptian mediation.
But even if the crisis subsides, it could shadow the impending Israeli election on April 9 in which right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has campaigned on a tough security platform.
In the wake of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes, Israel said it reserved the right to strike again and kept its troops and tanks massed at the Gaza frontier.
The border was mostly quiet on Tuesday and the military lifted its security restrictions in the area. But after darkness fell, at least two rockets launched from Gaza triggered sirens on the Israeli side of the border, the military said.
[The Register] 0.4 to 10% of corporate wage slaves could be up for the chop.
Oracle has laid off about 40 people in its Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) group in Seattle ‐ and on Friday began notifying about 250 workers at its Redwood City facility and about 100 at its Santa Clara location, both in California, that they will be let go in May.
These US-based layoffs are part of a broad round of job cuts around the globe this month, said to range from 500 to 14,000 at the database giant. The biz employs about 140,000 worldwide.
The Register spoke with an individual affected by the layoff who confirmed that about 40 people in Oracle's cloud group have been let go. The insider, who asked not to be named, recounted being summoned to an office last week with other team members, and being told to leave that afternoon.
The dismissal includes people who now face concerns over whether they can remain in the US because they're no longer employed and are here in the States on work visas. Some will have very little time to find work before having to leave the US.
It's official
Oracle on Thursday filed paperwork with California's Employment Development Department signaling its intent to terminate employees at its Redwood City and Santa Clara sites.
#1
The "rule of three" in economics states that in any given industry there are three major players and then all the rest. In cloud, the three are Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Of course that could change, in theory. In practice, not very likely.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 7:09
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#3
I should have added, the "rule of three" posits a free market framework. When was that ever true of the auto industry in this country?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 8:19
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#4
And comparing Oracle to AMC or Studebaker in the market under discussion is a bit generous.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 8:21
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#5
What hammered the Detroit Big Three was the '73 oil embargo. American's discovered the Japanese cars which not only gave great gas mileage, but were engineered for reliability (cause the domestic market couldn't afford to replace theirs every three years), quality assemblage (it worked right on delivery), and a very short invoice sticker that didn't nickel and dime you for every part of the vehicle. It took a long time for the final bite in 2008, but the writing was on the wall and corporate choose to ignore the very real need for reform rather than show.
An example of the black swan effect. Complacency creates the environment.
#6
Interestingly, the cloud providers work very hard at reliability, energy efficiency and of course features, so their black swan will have to come from another direction. Government interference in terms of privacy is a good candidate...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 8:59
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#7
Here's the part that surprised me:
Oracle on Thursday filed paperwork with California's Employment Development Department signaling its intent to terminate employees at its Redwood City and Santa Clara sites.
Then again, it's CA - maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Maybe it's a requirement for publicly traded companies but it's the first I've heard of a requirement like this.
#8
My experience with Oracle database software was always good and that's how they got to be a software giant. But many of their other products were rushed to market half-baked and it showed. If they rushed their cloud to market that way I could understand customers running back to Google. Personally, I'd rather buy the disk space and have it running at a facility that is under my control than letting the likes of folks at Google, Oracle or any of the rest of them manage it for me. Can't trust them.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/27/2019 10:57
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#9
A lot of people will always hate Oracle for buying and then killing Sun (not totally fair, I think they only killed it after they couldn't make a profit with it) and for how they have handled Java (part of the Sun acquisition) Lots of otherwise scientific minded people get really upset over these corporate soap operas...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 12:25
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#10
SUN was dead before Oracle bought it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/27/2019 13:33
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#11
If IBM f*cks up Red Hat the same way, there will be angry geeks in the corridors between the cubicles for sure...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 14:58
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#12
Oracle DB, great, especially if you dont mind typing.
#13
I worked for Sun when Oracle bought them. They were not exactly dead but had been on life support for nearly a decade. Hard to sell big Iron Unix Servers when folks can buy a dozen Linux machines for a fraction of the price. Also hard, after the dot-com bust, to compete against your own systems that are only a year or two old being resold.
[National Review] It followed the Soviet style: ’Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.’
Had Hillary Clinton just won the 2016 election, there would have been neither a Mueller investigation nor much talk of Russian collusion.
A losing Donald Trump would have slunk off to left-wing and Never-Trump ridicule and condemnation ‐ and no investigation about collusion. On the other hand ...
Of course, a President Hillary Clinton herself may well have faced some Russian blackmail attempts. Kremlin fixers would have likely threatened to go public that their planted lies to Christopher Steele were gobbled up by President Clinton’s own private Fusion GPS hit team. In essence, the Russians would have claimed that they had fueled the dossier that wounded the Trump campaign ‐ and expected some sort of quid pro quo, perhaps in Uranium One fashion.
Obama-administration bureaucrats ‐ Attorney General Loretta Lynch, subordinate attorneys general such as Bruce Ohr and Rod Rosenstein, FBI grandees such as James Baker, James Comey, and Andrew McCabe, intelligence kingpins such as John Brennan and James Clapper, and national-security officials turned intelligence sleuths such as Susan Rice and Samantha Power ‐ would all have been competing on the basis of service beyond the call of duty for top jobs in the Clinton administration.
Among their swamp talking points would have been rival obsequious claims to have squashed Trump. Clinton-administration transition officials would have had to parcel out patronage by judging the relative help of people who had seeded Hillary’s Steele dossier around the government and the media, or fooled a FISA court to monitor Carter Page and thereby generated leaks that the Trump campaign was "under investigation," or obstructed the Clinton email investigation, or placed an informant in Trump’s campaign, or unmasked the contents of surveilled conversations and leaked them to the press.
Translated, that means the hysteria that helped prompt the Mueller investigation was in part whipped up by those who had knowingly acted unethically or illegally during and also after the 2016 campaign. These Obama officials bet on the sure-thing but wrong horse and suddenly, after Nov. 8, 2016, feared that they were soon to be subject to lots of criminal exposure.
Assume that both the ruse of "collusion" and James Comey’s leaking gambit to prompt a special counsel’s investigation were thus the preemptive defenses of an assortment of crimes by Obama-era officials, such as lying to federal officials, conspiracy to obstruct justice, illegally leaking confidential or classified documents to the media, deceiving a FISA court, and myriad conflicts of interest. In other words, there were never any evidentiary reasons to appoint a special counsel other than to divert attention away from an array of wrongdoing. After 22 months, that fact finally became clear even to a largely partisan group of attorneys, once eager to become folk heroes by aborting the Trump presidency.
Let us hope both that Attorney General Barr can now turn to the real illegal behavior of an entire array of Obama-administration officials, and that the public at last can have access to unredacted documents that record their frenzied and illegal efforts. Oh, DO read the whole thing! Take the time to look up a few obscure references. Classic Victor Davis Hanson!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/27/2019
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Mueller's investigation delaying tactic and harassment and cover-up operation. FIFY
[Babylon Bee] CHICAGO, IL‐All charges against Jussie Smollett for faking a hate crime against himself have been dropped after the Empire actor and well-respected employer of Nigerians used the "I have a lot of money" defense in court.
Smollett's legal team argued that while his alleged crimes were bad, on the other hand, he has a lot of money. The legal strategy is known as the "Chicago Special" to locals. It's a standard procedure used in Cook County.
"Yes, Mr. Smollett's behavior does seem to warrant punishment," his attorney said in a special hearing before a judge. "But you also have to consider the fact that he's rich. Furthermore, he has money. And also, did I mention that he is absolutely loaded with cold, hard cash?"
"This concludes my arguments," she said.
The attorney then pulled out a bag of money and tossed it in the general direction of Chicago's finest judges and prosecutors, who made a mad dive for the cash while Smollett walked out a free man.
"We investigated the Jussie case and all we could find was these bags of cash," a prosecutor on the case said, shrugging. "That's enough exonerating evidence for us."
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2019 9:52
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#5
"Affluenza powder..I'd bet my life on it."
Posted by: Prince Humperdinck ||
03/27/2019 10:29
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#6
White Black Privilege has arrived.
Posted by: Neville Dark Lord of the Wee Folk7365 ||
03/27/2019 11:40
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#7
The tinfoil hat version is that the whole thing was scripted by people who obviously don't want the exposure (cough), hence the quick under the rug sweep.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 12:42
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#8
I'll take #7's 'tinfoil hat version for $600. Alex
[Breitbart] Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) told Breitbart News that Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) call for transparency is ironic given he used his chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee to "deceive the American people."
"Rep. Adam Schiff wants to talk transparency, so let’s see him present the evidence he has on Trump/Russia collusion," Crenshaw said. "He can’t do it because he doesn’t have it." A flawed Klingon congressional outreach program? Who knew ?
"He needs to admit that he lied and knowingly used his position on the Intel Committee to deceive the American people," Crenshaw said.
On Sunday, Attorney General William Barr delivered a letter to Congress summarizing the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller following a more than two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and any role President Donald Trump and his campaign played in that interference.
The letter cleared Trump of collusion and, accordingly, found no case for obstruction of justice.
Crenshaw tweeted about his belief that Schiff repeatedly lied to the American people about the president in his role as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
#1
Hey, it got them through the 2018 election with a motivated base. Any means necessary!
You really think it took Mueller all the time from last September to determine that there wasn't any Russian collusion? I have a bridge in San Francisco I'd like to sell you.
[Ynet] Violent disturbances have broken out along the Gazoo border with Paleostinians rioters hurling stones and the sound of kabooms heard in several locations.
[Ynet] Officials at a Paleostinian university in the West Bank say undercover Israeli forces have raided the campus and tossed in the calaboose Please don't kill me! three students.
Lubna Abdelhadi, a spokeswoman for the Bir Zeit University, says the armed commandos, disguised as locals, entered the campus early on Tuesday and grabbed the students, believed to be Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, activists, while they were sleeping.
The students were apparently hiding on campus to try and avoid arrest.
Israeli forces had previously raided the university in 2017 and ransacked the student council, confiscating materials used by political groups.
The Israeli military said it tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! nine Paleostinian suspects in routine overnight West Bank raids, but would not specify further.
As of midnight Israel Time. Photos of the aftermath can be enjoyed here.
[IsraelTimes] Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", sites around Khan Younis bombed; alarms triggered twice in Ashkelon industrial zone; fresh exchange comes day after major flareup as both sides threaten to escalate attacks.
Israel Defense Forces said its strikes were in response not only to the rocket fired at the Eshkol region, but also to the launching of several airborne incendiary devices earlier in the day and a cross-border arson attack in which several Paleostinian breached the Gazoo security fence and set fire to an abandoned Israeli sniper’s nest.
The Israeli Air Force launched renewed strikes in the Gazoo Strip on Tuesday night and early Wednesday in response to rocket attacks, amid growing concerns of war in the coastal enclave.
Shortly after the start of the Israeli bombing raids, a rocket was fired from Gazoo at an industrial park south of the city of Ashkelon, the army said. A spokesperson for the city said the rocket had been intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system west of Ashkelon. No injuries or damage were reported.
Continued on Page 49
[DAWN] The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday, while hearing a petition filed by two Ghotki sisters who were allegedly forcibly converted from Hindusim and married to Moslem men, ordered the state to take over custody of the girls and ensure their safety till their case is decided.
The petition, filed by the girls and their spouses Safdar Ali and Barkat Ali, has sought protection from adverse action. It states that the girls left their home on March 20. On March 22, after announcing that they had willingly converted, the girls sought legal help.
According to the petition, the two girls were born in a Hindu family and converted because they were "impressed by Islamic teachings". It claimed that they did not inform their family because of threats to their lives.
They claimed that MNA Ramesh Kumar Vankwani and Hari Lal from the Hindu Council had concocted "a false and fabricated story" about their forceful conversion.
The petitioners subsequently left their native town of Ghotki in Sindh and travelled to Khanpur in Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab. They travelled to Islamabad after learning that the inspector general of Sindh and Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... were planning an operation in Khanpur against them and, the petition claimed, feared that the police may kill them if they are apprehended to show "progress" to the governing party.
They asked the court to restrain the respondent authorities ─ the state minister for interior, Sindh chief minister, inspectors general of Sindh, Punjab and Islamabad police, MNA Vankwani and the Pakistain Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) ─ from "harassing" and "threatening" them, as well as requesting that Pemra be asked to refrain from "promoting propaganda" against the petitioners.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the petition in Courtroom 1, where both girls and their alleged spouses were also present. Representatives of the federal government, Islamabad administration, and Sindh police, and the director general Human Rights were all present in court today.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019
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[KhaamaPress] At least 87 faceless myrmidons affiliated with the offshoot 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.... of Iraq and Syria, ISIS Khurasan, have been killed during the operations of Afghan Special Forces 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.
According to informed military sources, the faceless myrmidons were killed in the restive Achin district of Nangarhar province.
In the meantime, the Afghan Military in the East has announced that three other ISIS Khurasan faceless myrmidons were killed in a dronezap in Haska Mina district.
The 201st Silab Corps in a statement said the coalition forces carried out Arclight airstrikes in Haska Mina district on Monday leaving at least 3 faceless myrmidons of ISIS Khurasan dead.
The statement further added that some weapons and munitions belonging to ISIS Khurasan were also destroyed in the airstrikes.
The anti-government armed faceless myrmidons including ISIS sympathizers have not commented regarding the operations and airstrikes so far.
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03/27/2019
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[YNETNEWS] A year has passed since the start of March of Return campaign and Gazoo's rulers have nothing to show for it, leading them to make desperate decisions because now it's a matter of political survival
It must have been inevitable. Monday’s pre-dawn rocket fire on central Israel occurred just hours before Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, leader in Gazoo, Yahya Sinwar, was to deliver a speech, marking a year since the start of the March of Return demonstrations. Although the campaign’s goals were always a little less grandiose than actually returning to pre-Israel Paleostine, they were no less ambitious - trying to lift the blockade on Gazoo.
A year has passed and Sinwar doesn’t really have anything to say, neither to the ordinary residents of the Strip nor to the loyal Hamas supporters who have demonstrated tirelessly week after week over the past year along the security fence. The economic situation has not improved and the millions in Qatar
Continued on Page 49
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[Rudaw] A Ottoman Turkish employee of the US Consulate in Istanbul appeared in court Tuesday charged with espionage and attempting to overthrow the Ottoman Turkish government in a case that further frayed ties between the two NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... allies.
The trial against Metin Topuz, a translator and assistant for the Drug Enforcement Agency at the consulate, opened in Istanbul nearly a year and a half after his arrest in October 2017. He has been held in pre-trial detention since then.
Continued on Page 49
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03/27/2019
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[RT] Massachusetts’ Amherst College has drawn criticism for publishing a ‘language guide’ to the latest social justice buzzwords. The ensuing fiasco is the latest battle in the neverending war over free speech on America’s campuses.
The college’s Office of Diversity circulated a ‘Common Language Guide’ last week. Flicking through its pages, the guide is an exhaustive list of the latest, politically correct, university-approved terms to describe pretty much everything.
Predictably, much of the guide’s pages are devoted to issues of class, race, gender, and sexuality, all covered from the furthest left position possible. From ‘Cultural Appropriation’ to ‘Biological Determinism,’ every social justice box is ticked. Did you know that “women cannot be ‘just as sexist as men,’” because ‘Reverse Oppression’ is not real? And when LGBT people’s achievements in the military are celebrated, that’s a blatant case of ‘Homonationalism.’
The list goes into minute detail. A “masculine-presenting queer black women whose gender presentation can be more fluid and/or androgynous than completely masculine” should simply be referred to as ‘boi,’ for instance. A ‘packer’ is a “phallic object worn in the underwear to give the appearance of having a penis.” The special underwear a packer sits into, by the way, is called a ‘gaff.’
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019
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#1
I would suggest that school be struck with a very small tactical nuke when everyone is on vacation except for the people who wrote that trash.
#2
masculine-presenting queer black women whose gender presentation can be more fluid and/or androgynous than completely masculine” should simply be referred to as ‘boi,’ for instance Calling a black person boi? How stupid can you be???
[ToloNews] At least five civilians, including four women and one child, bit the dust in an operation by Afghan forces supported by foreign troops in Surobi district in Kabul on Monday, the Resolute Support confirmed on Tuesday.
"Last night, Afghan cops and a small contingent of US advisors conducted a raid in Surobi district, Kabul province," the Resolute Support front man Debra Richardson said.
"During the operation, Arclight airstrikes were used after Taliban
Continued on Page 49
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) ‐ An 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.... sniper has rubbed out an Iraqi soldier in the province of Diyala, a security source said as the country still seeks to recover from destruction caused by the holy warrior group.
"An army soldier was killed after an Islamic State sniper shot up him while on duty on the outskirts of Qarah Tapah district in Baqubah," the source told al-IKH News on Tuesday.
A manhunt was launched for the sniper, who expeditiously departed at a goodly pace after the shooting incident, the source added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/27/2019
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[DAWN] Two suspects were tossed in the slammer Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! by police on Tuesday in connection with the suicide earlier this month of a teenage boy from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Battagram district.
District Police Officer Abdul Rauf Baber Qaiserani told Dawn that the 15-year-old boy had been an orphan and a resident of Battagram's Shingli Bala area. He did away with himself on March 14, which was confirmed by the hospital after an autopsy.
Police had subsequently initiated an inquiry under Section 174 (Investigation over unnatural death) of the Criminal Procedures Code. The investigation revealed that two suspects had allegedly raped the boy six months ago and filmed the assault. Afterwards, they blackmailed the boy to "carry on the relationship" or risk having the video released.
Police believe that it was under this pressure that the boy decided to take his life.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAWN] The Levies and Khasadar personnel in several tribal districts boycotted duty during the anti-polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... campaign on Monday.
They vowed to continue the boycott till acceptance of their demands. The Levies and Khasadar personnel in the merged districts anonymously announced to boycott security duty during the anti-polio drive. The decision was made in a meeting of core committee of both the forces in all merged district. The Khasadar and Levies personnel have presented 22-point charter of demands to government.
The boycott forced the health department to postpone the scheduled three-day campaign against polio in several areas of Bajaur tribal district.
Sources said that bigwigs of local administration and health department earlier did not take the decision regarding boycott by personnel of both the forces seriously and termed pressure tactics for acceptance of their demands.
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#6
One of these days the IDF’s engineers will penetrate the tunnels under Gaza City’s main hospital without having to come in through the top, and that’ll put an end to a great many little projects.
#7
the IDF’s engineers will penetrate the tunnels under Gaza City’s main hospital
Like with a autonomous spider-bot using the underground location and mapping tech from article the the other day? Cute lil' thing creeps along, finding it's way, when it's happy with it's location, it self-destructs with an Earth-shattering KABOOM! Like that?
#8
I agree that getting explosives into the Hamas tunnels would be a game changer. Hamas keeps both troops and missiles in its tunnels as well as other military equipment.
Apparently, the technical difficulty is considerable or the IDF would have done it by now.
on a lighter note, Ismail Haniyah came out of his tunnel shelter near the remnants of his former office and proclaimed victory
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/27/2019 17:13
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#9
on a lighter note, Ismail Haniyah came out of his tunnel shelter near the remnants of his former office and proclaimed victory
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Iraqi Armed Forces scored another major victory 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) this week, as their troops eliminated a group of hard boyz that launched a big attack in the Salaheddine.
According to a military communique from Baghdad, the Iraqi Armed Forces came under a heavy attack from an Islamic State group at the Alas Oilfield on Sunday evening.
The Iraqi Armed Forces engaged in fierce combat for a number of hours with the terrorist combatants at the Alas Oilfield before they were able to eliminate many of the Islamic State fighters.
"They retreated to an unknown place taking back the maimed with them," the North Oil Police forces said in a statement on Monday.
The attack by the Islamic State reportedly came from one of their sleeper cells that is currently active inside the Salaheddine Governorate.
In 2017, the Iraqi Armed Forces declared that the Salaheddine Governorate was liberated after a long battle with the Islamic State hard boyz near the Baiji Refinery.
However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... these Islamic State sleeper cells have since emerged in the Salaheddine Governorate after their defeat at the hands of the Iraqi Armed Forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] The Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces moved their troops to the front-lines with the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Aleppo on Monday, a local source near the town of Tal Rifa’at told al-Masdar.
According to the source, the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... (FSA) and their allies were replaced by the Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces, who later took up positions near the YPG’s lines.
The source said this move comes as the Ottoman Turkish and Russian armed forces prepare to reopen the Aleppo-Gaziantep Highway.
This highway is a major roadway in northern Syria that was once the most important trade route between The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... and the Aleppo Governorate.
The Russian and Ottoman Turkish armed forces will be present along this highway in order to maintain the security of all travelers.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
The Islamic State of Turdkey appears to be ready to launch?
[ALMASDARNEWS] Thousands of people rallied in central Sana’a on Tuesday to mark the fourth anniversary of the onset of the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
Protesters held pictures of those killed in the conflict. One of the demonstrators said: "This year will be the year of victory and the year of legendary steadfastness."
The Saudi-led war in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... was launched in 2015 as an attempt to crush the Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... movement in the region and reinstate former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and left the country’s economy in tatters. According to recent UN reports, almost 80 percent of the Yemeni population ‐ some 24 million people ‐ are in need of assistance and protection, with millions facing the plight of starvation.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] A diplomatic source from Caracas previously told Sputnik that a group of Russian military personnel had arrived in the Venezuelan capital to take part in consultations with the country’s officials on defence industry cooperation.
The planes arrived in the Venezuelan capital on Saturday. Media earlier reported that an estimated 99 Russian military staff had arrived in Caracas on board two planes, which also delivered 35 tonnes of cargo. After the arrival of Russian Defence Ministry officials in Caracas, media reported that Venezuela had deployed S-300 air defence missile systems.
The source said that Russia and Venezuela had not recently signed contracts for the supply of the S-300 systems to Caracas, noting that the systems had been delivered to Venezuela in 2013.
The source highlighted that the visit had nothing to do with the ongoing political crisis in the country, as it had been scheduled long before the trouble erupted.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while reacting to the Russian visit, said Monday that “the United States and regional countries will not stand idly by as Russia exacerbates tensions in Venezuela”.
Pompeo accused Russia of “continued insertion … to support the illegitimate regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela [which] risks prolonging the suffering of the Venezuelan people who overwhelmingly support interim President Juan Guaido”.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Hostile? Seems more like the Repro-man showing up to collect on a bad debt.
You know there is a point to the action when you park a permanent military mission on someone's border (see-Poland) and then act really upset when that someone else posts something similar near you. Didn't say I like it, but just pointing out tit for tat. If we had left NATO when the wall came down and they played this I'd be far more concerned. Instead we keep playing stupid entanglement games cause the Beltway still thinks this is the 20th Century.
#3
BP - true that. There should be repercussions. Threats to break off intel exchanges if persons X, Y, and Z are not canned and banned (actually, unlike Mifsud, Steele, ...) and permanently denied visas
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2019 19:19
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[lgbtqnation] Brunei will soon allow for stoning to be used as punishment for sodomy...."The decision to implement the (penal code) is not for fun but is to obey Allah's command as written in the Quran," Sultan and Prime Minister Hassanal Bolkiah said in 2014 when the changes started to go into effect, adding that the changes to the penal code as a "great achievement."...
Several updates to the penal code that were approved in 2013 will go into effect on April 3, according to a notice published on the government’s website. "I am extremely concerned by this move," said Matthew Woolfe of the human rights organization The Brunei Project told Gay Star News. "Some of the laws that we are about to see implemented are horrendous and unjustifiable."
Currently ten countries punish homosexuality and have the potential to use the death penalty. Several of them, including Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Mauritania, specify that stoning can be used as a punishment. of special interest here is that a gay rights org put out a call out without using the jargon of intersectionality
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/27/2019
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at least Amnesty Intl and Human Rights Watch seem to be condemning the Brunei policy (although no UN related interest that I can find nor anything from the many US based human and civil rights orgs)
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/27/2019 14:17
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#7
Watch the UN hypocrites unite to condemn a few raghead pansies being stoned, while these islamist nations have continually treated women the same way for hundreds of years without much intervention from anybody.
[ENGLISH.DONGA] South Korea and the U.S. military authorities are intensively monitoring North Korea after detecting communication signals that show activities related to solid-fuel missiles designed to attack the U.S. and the South in Shinheung, South Hamgyong province. The North previously showed missile provocation activities in Dongchang-li and Sanum-dong.
According to multiple government sources, military authorities of the two countries detected occasional transmission of communication signals related to missile activities in Shinheung from Monday to Tuesday and upgraded their surveillance of North Korea. The signals were detected through reconnaissance assets such as reconnaissance plane RC-136, which are dispatched to monitor signals of North Korea’s provocation.
Shinheung is an area where a launch site for Musudan missiles ‐ medium range ballistic missiles and liquid-fuel missiles ‐ used to be. The Shinheung area is now known to be using the site for a solid-fuel missile assembly factory and a base for other missiles instead of Musudan that failed in test launches multiple times.
Liquid-fuel missiles require more than 30 minutes to inject fuel and oxidizer, which allows the U.S. and South Korea to detect the activities and launch a preemptive strike. Solid-fuel missiles, however, are more fit for surprise attacks as they are injected with fuel and oxidizer in advance and can be launched in an instant. Because of this, South Korea and the U.S. were concerned when the North secured solid-fuel missiles starting with the test launch of submarine launched ballistic missile Polaris-1 in 2016 and medium range ballistic missile Polaris-2 upbuilt as a ground-based missile in 2017.
Some analyze that the signals come from telemetry, which is on-site remote measuring equipment operated during the preparations for missile launches. "North Korea is sending out a warning message that it could launch solid-fuel missiles if the Trump administration keeps the North Korea sanctions unlifted," a diplomatic source said.
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(IraqiNews.com) ‐ The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) placed in durance vile Please don't kill me! on Tuesday 22 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, including three Iraqis, in the Syrian town of Baghuz, an Iraqi security source said.
Speaking to Baghdad Today news website, the source said that the Kurdish-led forces raided several Islamic State tunnels in al-Mozarea region in al-Baghuz after receiving information on the presence of a number of hard boyz there.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that the forces managed to arrest 22 IS hard boyz during the operation, including three Iraqis.
The SDF alliance on Saturday announced the defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria and raised victory flags in Baghuz, the last stronghold of the jihadist group.
The White House released a statement, in which U.S. 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... described IS’s loss of territory as "evidence of its false narrative", adding: "They have lost all prestige and power."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[KhaamaPress] Two senior Taliban ...Arabic for students... commanders were tossed in the calaboose Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! and two others were killed during separate operations which were conducted in the outskirts of Kunduz city.
The 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan Military in the North said two senior Taliban commanders identified as Saif Ur Rehman alias Gul Ur Rehman who is a senior commander of Malang Jan Group was arrested together with Syed Khan, the shadow military chief of the group for Aliabad district.
According to a statement released by 209th Shaheen, the two senior commanders were arrested at around 10:40am local time on Monday in a checkpoint located in Kata Khel area in the 9th police district of Kunduz city.
The statement further added that the two Taliban commanders were involved in planning and conducting terrorist attacks in Aliabad district of Kunduz.
In the meantime, another Taliban commander identified as Qari Faizullah who was member of Qari Bilal Group was killed along with the brohter of Qari Bilal in an Arclight airstrike which was conducted at around 11:10am on Monday in Buz Kandahari area located in the 6th police district of the city.
The anti-government armed bandidossnuffies including Taliban have not commented in this regard so far.
[KhaamaPress] The Talibs suffered heavy casualties during the operations of Afghan Special Force which were conducted in four different provinces in past 24 hours.
According to informed military sources, an Afghan Special Forces raid in Tarin Kot district of Uruzgan province killed 7 Taliban ...Arabic for students... fighters and maimed another bully boy.
The sources further added that the Special Forces conducted similar operations in in Nahr-e-Saraj and Sangin districts, leaving 9 gunnies dead while 2 suspects were detained and a fighting position of Taliban was destroyed.
In the meantime, the sources said the ANA 205th Corps artillery fire left 5 Taliban fighters dead and 2 fighting positions of the group were destroyed in Kandahar province.
The Afghan Special Forces conducted raid to disrupt Taliban safe havens in Sherzad district of 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 which left 6 Taliban fighters dead while 5 others were detained.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"Run awaaayyy"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2019 13:22
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#2
A nice opportunity to tidy up some infrastructure without messy 'civilian' casualties. Also, a lot of scurrying to take note of, destinations and whatnot. Like traffic analysis, but with real traffic!
It’s beginning to look like heading north to the gold-strewn streets of Europe is not a wise choice.
[DW] An increasing number of refugees are being tortured and raped in Libya, a new study has found. The perpetrators, motivated by greed, sadism and the desire for power, include local European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... partners.
It is a cycle of captivity and exploitation, violence and abuse from which there seems to be no escape. That's according to the latest study on refugees in Libya by the international nongovernmental organization Women's Refugee Commission. The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that there are around 670,000 migrants colonists in the North African country. It is believed that between 5,000 to 6,000 people are being held in camps there.
Employees of the Women's Refugee Commission interviewed survivors in Italia and, among other sources, spoke with rescue ships crews. "On their journey through the desert, many refugees are kidnapped by human traffickers and gangs or taken to official prisons," Sarah Chynoweth, the study's author, told DW. She explained that violence, including sexual torture, is common in these camps: "It is filmed in order to put pressure on families to send money for their relatives' release. Those who cannot pay are resold or murdered."
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[RT] Netizens were up in arms this week grilling CNN boss Jeff Zucker who awkwardly defended his network’s coverage of the Mueller probe, saying their job was to report facts "as we know them," rather than, you know, investigating.
"We are not Sherlocks. We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did," Zucker said in light of the fact that the Robert Mueller investigation which CNN had harped on for the last two years found no evidence that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
"A sitting president’s own Justice Department investigated his campaign for collusion with a hostile nation," Zucker added in an apparent reference to Moscow. "That’s not enormous because the media says so. That’s enormous because it’s unprecedented," he continued, seemingly moving back the network’s goalposts with any hope of an actual conviction smashed.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Then why do you call your hit pieces "Investgative reporting'?
#3
We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did,
Rumors are not facts. Opinions are not facts. Your wishes are not facts. 'The Dossier' was not facts. Simply reading the Donk Socialists' daily talking points are not facts. Fake News! Now they are artifacts of your destructive behavior towards the institutions of the republic.
#11
These are infomercials without a product to sell.
I'd argue that that they are selling to people who already bought the product and want more - more validation that they're the kool kids, more buzz about new features. Like Apple fan-bois, they've bought the brand and want to have their status confirmed and hear about the latest product release. It's new, it's thinner, it's sleeker, with even less headphone jacks. Woo Woo!
In this case, the product is TrumpHitler/NeverTrump - Now with Moar Mueller. Oops, that was yesterday's product. Tune in next week for Impeachment 2.0!
#12
They need to be careful. They said yesterday that the majority were not news but commentary shows, so they cant be held liable for content. OK, but then the narrative, buzz words, and language across the networks were identical. This take them from commentary to propagandists. Creating propaganda on our media, across the networks in an effort to change an election or sway the public politically is a RICO event.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/27/2019 17:28
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#13
The Classic Colbert/Maher Defense™: "Take me seriously at all times except when I could be sued for libel and slanderous statements --- that's (quote) humor (un-quote)!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2019 19:12
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#16
"I received my exam results the other day; I missed more correct answers than I have ever received. I was feeling bad until I watched some CNN. Now I feel better about my results."
#17
"On the first leg of my flight I became violently airsick. I didn't know how I would complete my trip. After a layover at the lounge with CNN on, I was ready to get back on a plane!"
[Rudaw] The United States placed financial sanctions on more than two dozen Ottoman Turkish, Emirati, and Iranian nationals and businesses for transferring "over a billion dollars and euros" to Iranian defense institutions, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
"Central to this network and sanctioned today pursuant to our counterterrorism authority is Iran's IRGC-controlled Ansar Bank and its currency exchange arm, Ansar Exchange, both of which used layers of intermediary entities to exchange devalued Iranian rial ultimately for dollars and euros to line the pockets of the IRGC and MODAFL [Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics]," read a statement from the US treasury department.
The US claims Iran is using intermediaries to try to bypass trade, energy, and weapons sanctions. The action forbids individuals and businesses from having financial interactions with the sanctioned entities.
"Today’s action exposes an extensive sanctions evasion network established by the Iranian regime, which it increasingly relies on as the United States’ maximum pressure campaign severely constricts the regime’s sources of revenue," the statement added.
A diagram of the layout can be seen at the link.
Since leaving the Iranian nuclear deal (JCPOA) last year, the administration of US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... has continuously levelled sanctions against the Iranian government.
"We are targeting a vast network of front companies and individuals located in Iran, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor.... , and the UAE to disrupt a scheme the Iranian regime has used to illicitly move more than a billion dollars in funds," said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin
Washington again claimed the regime in Iran "funds terrorism and other destabilizing activities across the region."
Mnuchin described Ansar Bank and Ansar exchange as under control of the IRGC.
A wide array of regional front companies is used by Ansar, according to Washington.
"In just the last year-and-a-half, four front companies: UAE-based Sakan General Trading, Lebra Moon General Trading, and Naria General Trading, as well as Iran-based Hital Exchange, all designated today ‐ provided the equivalent of approximately $800 million in funds to Ansar Exchange.," the statement detailed.
There was no mention of Iraqi institutions being involved in the scheme. Earlier this month, Washington granted Baghdad another three-month waiver on the sanctions.
Baghdad repeatedly says it wants to abide by the US sanctions, but doing so is practically impossible as they share such a large border, close relations, and Iran is war-ravaged Iraq's largest trade partner.
On March 21, Iran's supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called "the economy is the country's urgent problem."
The Iranian people are feeling the brunt of the building sanctions. Since the US government withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, the value of the Iranian currency, the rial, has been on a steep curve losing more than 60 per cent of its value.
you misspelled "Farce" [ALMASDARNEWS] The F-5 itself may be an aging design, but for the purposes of regional air defense and training (or in Syria offense) it may be good enough.
If Iran has managed to integrate newer avionics and radar systems, the F-5 knock-off could be a threat to be wary of. And Iran begins to produce the fighter in numbers, their aerospace manufacturing base will only improve.
Iran has touted its allegedly homegrown ’Kowsar’ jet fighter, finally unveiled to the public on Tuesday, as a new contender in the arena of air-to-air combat. But the new aircraft was immediately met with wave of criticism from defense industry observers who saw the aircraft as a mere copy of the venerable F-5 which, although a sturdy airframe still in use by the United States military, is considered an antiquated product of the age of slide rules and hand drawings.
After all, boasting about a broadsword in the age of the machine gun is simply an invitation for ridicule.
However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... behind the veil of Iran’s geopolitical misdirection and copyright ignorance sits a prime example of the industry that Tehran has managed to foster despite decades of sanctions ‐ and a vision of a homegrown aviation industry to come.
This is not the first time Iran has shown off a new weapon for propaganda purposes. The roundly-mocked Qahar stealth fighter model presented as the real deal in 2013 was an embarrassing unforced error by the Iranian military-industrial complex, one originally presented to show the Iranian people that their government could defend them against the best in the world, even if it really can’t.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019
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#1
So.. curious.. did they changes the parts to metric ones for metric tools ?
[DAWN] The 500-year-old wounds of the Spanish conquest were ripped open afresh on Monday when Mexico's president urged Spain and the Vatican to apologise for their "abuses" ‐ a request Madrid said it "firmly rejects."
Spain's centuries of dominance in the New World, backed by the Catholic Church, leapt from the history books to the headlines when Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called on Spanish King Felipe VI and Pope Francis to apologise for the conquest and the rights violations committed in its aftermath.
"I have sent a letter to the king of Spain and another to the pope, calling for a full account of the abuses and urging them to apologise to the indigenous peoples (of Mexico) for the violations of what we now call their human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... ," Lopez Obrador said.
He made the remarks in a video, filmed at the ruins of the indigenous city of Comalcalco and posted on Facebook and Twitter.
"There were massacres and oppression. The so-called conquest was waged with the sword and the cross. They built their churches on top of the (indigenous) temples," added the anti-establishment leftist.
"The time has come to reconcile. But let us ask forgiveness first."
Spain's rejection was immediate and blunt.
"The government of Spain deeply regrets that the letter the Mexican president sent to his majesty the king, whose contents we firmly reject, has been made public," it said in a statement.
"The arrival, 500 years ago, of Spaniards to present Mexican territory cannot be judged in the light of contemporary considerations," it said.
"Our two brother nations have always known how to read our shared past without anger and with a constructive perspective."
Posted by: Fred ||
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My understanding, perhaps wrong was that when presented with a long list of Spanish demands including religious conversion and supplying troops the Tlaxcalans had only one question, 'Do we get to kill Aztecs?'. A simple Yes was all that was required to seal the deal.
#6
Is Mexico going to apologize for all the modern technology they use? If Spain hadn't invaded, the would probably still be using stone tools.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/27/2019 10:59
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I'd aways understood that the bulk of Modern Mexican citizens were of Spanish descent and their own indigenous peoples are fairly ill treated so it's pretty bold to be making claims of Spain and pretending to be victims.
[Rudaw] The US-led international coalition pummeled 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) assets and facilities in the two weeks leading up to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declaring the end of the group's so-called territorial caliphate.
The US-led operation "conducted 250 strikes consisting of 398 engagements against ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq," according to a statement it released to media on Tuesday.
That figure includes strikes in both Syria and Iraq from March 10-23. The final ISIS bastion was in al-Baghouz, Syria, and the group tried to use tunnels and other methods to try to cross the mostly non-existent border into Iraq.
The joint military operation "detected 72 strikes from other actors that crossed the Euphrates River Valley" without providing details. Iraqi forces and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) counterterrorism units were involved in the operation in cooperation with the SDF.
"In Syria, CJTF-OIR conducted 193 strikes consisting of 338 engagements," the statement added.
The coalition in Syria conducted strikes against "346 ISIS tactical units" and "destroyed 104 vehicles." Additionally, supply routes, fighting positions, 31 vehicle-borne improvised bombs (VBIEDs), among other ISIS targets were struck.
In comparison the US-led joint operation said it conducted 99 strikes and 139 engagements from February 24-March 9.
Engagements can include strike windows which last hours, days or weeks. The report also does not include ongoing engagements which haven't closed.
"[A]ll strikes [were] conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing, or remotely piloted aircraft, rocket propelled artillery and ground-based tactical artillery," revealed the statement.
The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force detailed in separate statement that it struck "terrorist positions" on March 12, destroyed two ISIS buildings on March 17, and killed two ISIS fighters and struck four other ISIS positions on March 18.
In 2014, ISIS controlled nearly one-third of Syria and much of northwestern and central Iraq, including djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... . It threatened to take over the Kurdistan Regional capital of Erbil and Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
"CJTFOIR and its GoI and ISF partners have liberated 4.5M civilians and 55,670 SQ KM of land," tweeted the US military on Tuesday.
The SDF declared the "total elimination of so-called caliphate and 100 percent territorial defeat of ISIS" on Saturday.
While pundits debate the future of ISIS and what it means for Iraqis and Syrians, the SDF and coalition role in Syria also remains in question.
Following the defeat of ISIS, the US-led joint operation stated ISIS was "seeking to re-establish themselves to conduct a deadly resurgence."
"The Coalition remains steadfast in its assistance to the Iraqi Security Forces as they interdict the ISIS network," UK Maj. Gen. Ghika, Deputy Commander ‐ Strategy and Information, CJTF-OIR, said in a statement released on Monday.
"The Iraqis and the Coalition will ensure the forces of Evil learn that nowhere in Iraq is safe for them."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/27/2019
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Our airforce just struck several Hamas terror targets in Gaza.
If Hamas think that we’ll sit idly by as their rocket fire, explosives, and breaches of Israel’s border fence threaten the lives of Israeli civilians - they’re wrong.
Washington (IraqiNews.com) ‐ U.S. envoy for Syria Jim Jeffrey has said that the whereabouts 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.... leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart... are unknown.
Speaking to a briefing at the State Department, Jeffrey said the U.S.-led coalition fight against Islamic State in Syria is not over, despite the terrorist group’s loss of its last territorial stronghold in the Arab country over the weekend.
"This is not the end of the fight against ISIS (an acronym for the Islamic State terror group). That will go on, but it will be a different kind of fight," The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... quoted Jeffrey as telling news hounds.
"ISIS has lost much of its capability to project terrorist power and to have a recruiting base in an area that it controls. So it’s a very, very important development," he added.
He said most of the prisoners captured by the U.S.-based Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were Iraqis and Syrians. Those, he said, would be returned to their communities for "deradicalization", reintegration, and in some cases, punishment.
He dismissed reports that the U.S.-coalition was considering an international tribunal to try the prisoners. "We’re not looking at that right now," he said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#UPDATE: More pictures tonight of IDF howitzers (part of the artillery battalion mobilised and ordered to Gaza earlier tonight by the IDF Chief of Staff) heading south https://t.co/vTGT4KND0M
[DAWN] At least four suspected jacket wallahs blew themselves up during a raid conducted by security forces in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... 's Loralai area on Tuesday.
The Counter-Terrorism Department and other security agencies conducted the raid in Nasirabad, Loralai, on the basis of intelligence reports, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Attau Rehman said.
At least four security personnel were maimed during the raid and taken to Loralai hospital, he added.
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations, the suspected Lions of Islam were responsible for recent terrorist activities in Balochistan and martyrdom of six Levis personnel on March 20 at Sanjwai, Ziarat.
The area surrounding the compound was sealed off as a combing operation went underway in the area following the raid.
An intelligence officer who declined to be named told DawnNewsTV that a criminal mastermind of attacks on levies personnel was also among the suspects who blew themselves up.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Rudaw] Seven fighters of the Manbij Military Council were killed in a midnight "terror attack" on a checkpoint in the city, the force announced Tuesday morning.
"A terrorist attack was staged on one of the checkpoints inside the city of Manbij at midnight and as a result seven fighters on guard duty were martyred," the Manbij Military Council said in a statement.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights described it as a "bloody attack" staged by a suspected 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) sleeper cell.
Later on Tuesday, ISIS grabbed credit for the attack, AFP reported.
The target was a checkpoint of the self-defence forces on the Manbij-Aleppo road, the Observatory stated.
A number of other fighters were also injured, some critically, so the corpse count may rise.
Manbij is in a state of alert while forces look for the perpetrators of the attack, according to the Observatory, noting the attack came a few days after the arrests of more than 100 people suspected of belonging to ISIS or associated with Ottoman Turkish-backed forces.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declared the end of the so-called ISIS caliphate in a ceremony in eastern Deir ez-Zor province on March 23. At the ceremony, co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), Ilham Ahmed, said the next stage of the fight against ISIS is to eliminate sleeper cells and then combat the group’s ideology.
Manbij, located at a crossroads in northern Syria, was once an ISIS hub. It was liberated from the group in August 2016 by the SDF, led by the local Manbij Military Council and backed by the global coalition against ISIS.
The multi-ethnic city has remained a flashpoint, however, with 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.... repeatedly threatening a military operation to remove Kurdish forces from the city. The United States reached a deal with Turkey that has seen their two militaries conduct joint patrols in the Manbij area.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[AmericanThinker] Exactly 233 years ago this week, two of America’s founding fathers documented their first exposure to Islamic jihad in a letter to Congress; like many Americans today, they too were shocked at what they learned.
Context: in 1785, Muslim pirates from North Africa, or "Barbary," had captured two American ships, the Maria and Dauphin, and enslaved their crews. In an effort to ransom the enslaved Americans and establish peaceful relations, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams -- then ambassadors to France and England respectively -- met with Tripoli’s ambassador to Britain, Abdul Rahman Adja. Following this diplomatic exchange, they laid out the source of the Barbary States’ hitherto inexplicable animosity to American vessels in a letter to Congress dated March 28, 1786:
We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the grounds of their [Barbary’s] pretentions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise
One need not conjecture what the American ambassadors -- who years earlier had asserted that all men were "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights" -- thought of their Muslim counterpart’s answer. Suffice to say, because the ransom demanded was over fifteen times greater than what Congress had approved, little came of the meeting. Continues.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
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#1
And thus the US Navy was created to defeat the Barbary Pirates.
#4
Which is why Jefferson had a copy of the koran. "Tom what the hell is going on with these muslims"?
Sadly 233 years later we refuse to condemn a murderous death cult founded by a pedophile caravan robber. The story of his child sex trades and slaughter in Medina should have been enough.
#5
The Revolutionary War Navy was before the US Government was official and the colonies were not occupied by British forces, of which George Washington would become the first US President, and who would then form the official US Navy as described below www.History.Navy.Mil.
Naval History and Heritage Command
Some three months before President Washington signed the Naval Act of 1794 into law ─ the act authorizing the construction of the Navy’s first six frigates ─ Congress passed a resolution to establish with haste a national navy that could protect U.S. commercial vessels from attacks by Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean and nearby Atlantic waters.
The resolution passed narrowly ─ 46 to 44 ─ and resulted in the creation of a nine-man committee to study issues of naval buildup, especially cost and size. On 6 February 1794, the committee recommended four 44-gun ships and two 20-gun ships.
Congressional debate on whether to act on the committee’s recommendation lasted until 10 March and built on years of indecision and ambivalence on the issue of a national navy. While everyone agreed that the British were behind the Barbary attacks and were otherwise imperiling United States trade in the West Indies and elsewhere, there were sharp differences of opinion on whether the establishment of a navy might help or hurt Americans’ chances of maintaining neutrality in this most dangerous moment...
Posted by: Neville Dark Lord of the Wee Folk7365 ||
03/27/2019 10:18
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#6
They were men of the Enlightenment, and sadly, the Enlightenment has no idea how to permanently deal with Dark Age savagery.
So we have temporary expediences and "shock and awe" and then we get bored and frustrated and hope the problem goes away or can be sufficiently mitigated to be forgotten or ignored.
And then it starts all over again.
Something tells me that Locke and Hume and Voltaire and Montesquieu ain't gonna be the answer,
[DAWN] A teenage Hindu girl was allegedly kidnapped from her residence in Sindh's Badin district by gunnies earlier this month, her father said on Tuesday, but a man came forward with the claim that she was now his wife after converting to Islam.
A first information report (FIR) of the case was registered at Badin's Pangrio cop shoppe on Tuesday after the girl's father filed a complaint claiming that his 14-year-old daughter was kidnapped from their house by four gunnies ‐ three of whom were unknown ‐ on March 17.
The complainant, a member of the Hindu community in Jam Khan Pitafi village, stated that his daughter's life was in great danger and demanded of the authorities to take immediate action to recover the "kidnapped" girl.
However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... one of the four suspects, who purported to be the girl's husband, sent documents to local journalists to show that he had married the girl after she allegedly embraced Islam at the hands of Pir Jan Agha Khan Sarhandi on March 17 at his seminary in Samaro town. Denying her father's claim that she was a minor, the man puporting to be her husband claimed that the girl was 19 years old.
The man, who hails from Pithoro town of Umerkot district, also said that his alleged wife and himself had submitted an application seeking protection to a court in Sanghar.
An official at the Pangrio cop shoppe, Kando Rebari, told DawnNewsTV that after registering the case on kidnapping charges, police had started an investigation into the matter.
Commenting on the case, rights activist Mukesh Meghwar alleged that Hindu girls were being kidnapped and forced to convert under a "deep-seated" conspiracy. He demanded early recovery of the girl allegedly kidnapped in Badin as well as other girls in similar situations.
The case has emerged days after the federal government took notice of the alleged forced conversion and underage marriages of two teenage girls in Ghotki, after two separate videos started doing rounds on social media. The father and brother of the girls in videos circulating on social media said that the two sisters were kidnapped and forced into changing their religion from Hinduism to Islam. However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... a separate video of the girls went viral, in which they said that they accepted Islam of their own free will.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Hundreds of people gathered for an anti-NATO protest in Belgrade on Sunday, as the country marked the 20th anniversary of the NATO-led bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999. The demonstrators held banners with slogans such as “Never in NATO,” “NATO, get out of here” and “Stop NATO fascism.”
Posted by: Fred ||
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[TMZ] State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office says, "After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollett's volunteer service in the community [evidence of this is not readily available]
and agreement to forfeit his bond to the City of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case."
The statement is consistent with what our sources said about Jussie only getting community service if he'd been convicted. The decision is NOT sitting well with Chicago PD.
Posted by: lord garth ||
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The real comedic drama was the faux disgust and outrage displayed by the mayor and police chief. These two should be on SNL.
#14
If you are a very suspicious person, and you know of the Obama canal deep links in every part of Chicago politics, and the importance of the gay and minority political sects in the Democrat coalition, you note how damaging a highly visible fake hate crimes trial would be, and you desperately want to get the Mueller report off the public’s screens, you then might appreciate the telegenic drama displayed by the Mayor and Police Superintendent. The public has a terribly short and shallow attention span and this is so much more like real TV shows.... are BHO and ValJar’s fingers up Rhams ass again?
#16
the Cook County Clerk said that there was never a motion by Juzzie's lawyers or by the prosecutors to void the charges
it just happened
The Chicago Way
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/27/2019 16:18
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#17
Just showing us their ass now. Just lazy; no show trial, no oops prosecutor fumbled evidence, just eh let him go. Not even a shut up about it. Not even a courtesy reach-around.
#18
Let them enjoy their influence while it still means something. Five years from now their friendship will be worth less than Chelsea Clinton’s, and dear little Malia won’t have ever had any at all.
#19
Okay, if there was never a motion to void, then nothing happened. Maybe they are testing us. No motion, no record, no dismissal. If it wasn’t written down, if it wasn’t documented, then it never happened.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/27/2019 17:46
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#20
Cook County officials may be penalized for legal irregularities but the voiding of the indictments can't be undone.
Of course there is still the issue of the death threat letter that Juzzie presumably sent to himself. If there is enough evidence that one would be a Federal charge.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/27/2019 20:04
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[RT] Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recalled its ambassador from Pakistain in the aftermath of comments from Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan ... aka Taliban Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... which suggested that Kabul should establish an interim government.
On Monday, Khan told news hounds that free and transparent elections need to be held in Afghanistan and an interim government must be installed in order resolve the impasse in the Afghan grinding of the peace processor, The Express Tribune reports. He claimed that the current government was impeding the grinding of the peace processor by insisting on direct talks with Taliban ...Arabic for students... leaders.
The comments have not been well received in Kabul, which has recalled its ambassador from Islamabad and also summoned the Pak ambassador to explain the assertions.
In a strongly worded statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its "grave objection" to Khan’s "reckless" remarks. It labeled the Khan’s words an "obvious example of Pakistain’s interventional policy and disrespect to the national illusory sovereignty and determination of the people of Afghanistan."
Posted by: Fred ||
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[DAWN] THE Christchurch tragedy represents the union of two bully boy tendencies ‐ white supremacy and Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... . White supremacy says that whites are superior to other races and hence must dominate them. It targets Moslems, but also blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Jews. Islamophobia represents prejudice and hate against Moslems in Western and Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish societies.
Both are old views. White supremacy was the official view in the West for centuries and spawned great evils like colonialism, slavery, genocide and Nazism. It was gradually displaced to the fringes over the last century. But only the overt use of force against other races has declined. Non-violent racial dominance via socioeconomic policies continues, eg in the US under conservatives. So there is class-based economic exploitation at work via the unfair division of profits between capital and labour. Then there is social discrimination at and beyond work against weaker races and ethnicities of all classes. The two combine to privilege rich whites.
Continued on Page 49
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Government is just another word for how we can fuck shit up together.
[NakedSecurity] Losing your home in a hurricane or wildfire is bad enough, but to add insult to injury, the US agency that helps survivors get temporary housing set millions of them up for identity theft and fraud by needlessly sharing their personal data with a contractor.
The Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General (DHS OIG), which administers FEMA, said in a management alert dated 15 March that the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spilled highly sensitive personal data belonging to 2.3 million people who needed hotel lodging because of the 2017 wildfires in California and because of that year’s trio of hurricanes: Harvey, Irma and Maria.
In order for the contractor to administer FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program, there are 13 types of Personal Identifying Information (PII) it needs, and there are these six types of Sensitive PII (SPII) that it doesn’t need but which FEMA gave it anyway: street address, city name, postal code, the name of the applicant’s financial institution, applicants’ electronic funds transfer numbers, and their bank transit numbers.
SPII is defined as a subset of PII which if lost, compromised, or disclosed without authorization could result in what the DHS OIG called "substantial harm, embarrassment, inconvenience, or unfairness to an individual." SPII, which includes the financial information that FEMA fumbled, requires stricter handling guidelines because if it’s compromised, it can bring serious hurt to people.
On Friday, FEMA called the data disclosure a "major privacy incident" in a press release.
Press secretary Lizzie Litzow said in the release that FEMA has taken "aggressive measures" to close the leak and that the agency is no longer sharing unnecessary data with the contractor.
FEMA has also conducted a "detailed review" of the contractor's information system, she said. As of Friday, FEMA hadn't found evidence that the survivors' data had been compromised… although a lack of evidence doesn't mean that it didn't happen, as an anonymous DHS official told the Washington Post.
FEMA has also worked with the contractor to scrub the sensitive data off its system and has updated its contract to ensure compliance with DHS cybersecurity and information-sharing standards, Litzow said. Also, FEMA has told the contractor to complete additional DHS privacy training for its staff.
The DHS official told the Post that of the 2.3 million survivors affected, 1.8 million had both their banking information and addresses revealed, while about 725,000 people had just their addresses shared – a total that's slightly more than that mentioned in the OIG's report.
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#1
That's going about it all wrong. The message should be, "Do business with whoever you want. Just don't be surprised if that doesn't turn out so well..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 16:34
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Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem : “The resistance will use its right to self defence in order to defend its people from the attacks of the enemy “#Israel#Gaza
[DAWN] The US space agency NASA scrapped Monday a planned historic spacewalk by two women astronauts, citing a lack of available spacesuits that would fit them at the International Space Station.
Christina Koch will now perform tasks in space Friday with fellow American Nick Hague ‐ instead of Anne McClain as originally planned.
Had Koch and McClain done their spacewalk together, it would have been the first ever by two women astronauts.
Until now, male-only or mixed male-female teams had conducted spacewalk since the space station was assembled in 1998 ‐ 214 spacewalks until now.
McClain worked outside the station last week ‐ with Hague ‐ when she realised that a "medium"-sized upper half of her spacesuit fit her better.
"Because only one medium-size torso can be made ready by Friday, March 29, Koch will wear it," NASA explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
"I can't go on a space walk! I don't have anything to wear."
Sad, really. Not only can NASA no longer put a man on the Moon, they can't even put a woman in vacuum. Kudos to the geniuses who decided to make a routine event into one giant step for woman-kind... and then punted.
#5
Report No. IG-17-018
Beginning with the Gemini 4 mission in June 1965, NASA astronauts have ventured outside their spacecraft hundreds of times wearing specialized suits that protect them from the harsh environments of space and provide the oxygen and temperature control necessary to preserve life. The spacesuits NASA astronauts currently use on the International Space Station (ISS or Station) – known as Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMU) – were developed more than 40 years ago and have far outlasted their original 15-year design life.
While maintaining the existing fleet of EMUs for use on the ISS, the Agency has also spent almost $200 million on three spacesuit development efforts to enable human exploration in deep space, including missions to Mars: the Constellation Space Suit System ($135.6 million), Advanced Space Suit Project ($51.6 million), and Orion Crew Survival System ($12 million). A key part of these development efforts will be testing the next-generation spacesuit technologies on the ISS prior to its scheduled retirement in 2024.
In this audit, we examined NASA’s efforts to maintain its existing spacesuits and its plans for and progress in developing its next-generation spacesuits. To complete this work, we interviewed Agency and other relevant officials; analyzed cost, schedule, and performance data; and reviewed relevant reports, documents, and presentations.
#6
NASA continues to manage an array of design and health risks associated with the EMUs used by ISS crew. In addition, only 11 of the 18 original EMU Primary Life Support System units – a backpack-like structure that performs a variety of functions required to keep an astronaut alive during a spacewalk – are still in use, raising concerns that the inventory may not be adequate to last through the planned retirement of the ISS. Given these issues, NASA will be challenged to
continue to support ISS needs with the current fleet of EMUs through 2024, a challenge that will escalate significantly if Station operations are extended to 2028.
Despite spending nearly $200 million on NASA’s next-generation spacesuit technologies, the Agency remains years away from having a flight-ready spacesuit capable of replacing the EMU or suitable for use on future exploration missions. As different missions require different designs, the lack of a formal plan and specific destinations for future missions has
complicated spacesuit development. Moreover, the Agency has reduced the funding dedicated to spacesuit
development in favor of other priorities such as an in-space habitat.
After examining these spacesuit development efforts, we question NASA’s decision to continue funding a contract associated with the Constellation Program after cancellation of that Program and a recommendation made by Johnson Space Center officials in 2011 to cancel the contract. Rather than terminate the contract, NASA paid the contractor
$80.8 million between 2011 and 2016 for spacesuit technology development, despite parallel development activities being conducted within NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems Division. Moreover, given the current development schedule, a significant risk exists that a next-generation spacesuit prototype will not be sufficiently mature in time to test it on the ISS prior to 2024. Finally, little schedule margin exists between anticipated delivery of the Orion Crew Survival System spacesuit in March 2021 and NASA’s current internal launch date of August 2021 for its first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit.
#9
NASA's astronaut program is a complete dumpster fire.
Their planet exploration arm is good, as they contract it out and just set the goals, run the high level stuff and let the contractors do the rest. Maybe they should take that approach with their other programs. Clearly their current management is about as effective as the ones in Office Space.
#15
AlmostAnonymous5839 - Much Much More than 5 billion.
Last I saw closer to 20 billion and climbing with not one rocket to show for it.
BTW SpaceX has now launched almost 70 rockets and their total cost is much less then what NASA has spent on the Senate Launch System Turkey.
#20
Why are there no muzz on Star Trek? Because it's the future...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/27/2019 15:11
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#21
Today's NASA's extracurricular
Careers outshine extravehicular:
"Let's stick to our knitting:
New suits, more form-fitting,
Less spacious enclosures testicular!"
Or "gaffs," was it?
Posted by: Bob Angosh7198 ||
03/27/2019 15:48
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[RT] Algeria’s army chief has called for long-term leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika ... 10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's the fifth.... to be declared unfit to rule. The statement comes after weeks of massive protests against the extension of the president’s fourth term.
"We must find a way out of this crisis immediately, within the constitutional framework," Lt Gen Ahmed Gaed Salah said in a televised speech.
Upper house chairman Abdelkader Bensalah will reportedly be caretaker president for 45 days.
Salah referred to Article 102 of the Algerian constitution which provides for the appointment of the parliament chairman as interim head of state, and organization of a snap election in the event that the president’s health prevents him from properly executing his duties.
Since suffering a severe stroke in 2013, President Bouteflika only moves around in a wheelchair, barely speaks and avoids public appearances.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019
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Top|| File under: Arab Spring
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) conducted a sweeping 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) in the eastern countryside of the al-Sweida Governorate this week.
According to a military report from al-Sweida, the Syrian Arab Army identified and stormed an Islamic State hideout near the town of Kara in the Badiya al-Sham region of southeast Syria.
The report said the Syrian Arab Army engaged the Islamic State in a brief battle at a cave near Kara before killing one fighter and arresting two others that were present in the area on Monday.
Video footage showing the aftermath of the operation was released by the Syrian Ministry of Defense on Monday:
Many Islamic State turbans are still believed to be hiding in the caves of the Badiya al-Sham region; this has prompted the Syrian Arab Army and their allies to step up their operations inside this area.
Previously, a captured Islamic State member told the Syrian Army that there is an estimated 200 turbans still hiding out in the al-Sweida countryside.
A source from the Syrian military said that the captured Islamic State fighter’s testimony was likely accurate given their previous attacks against the government forces in the al-Sweida Governorate.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2019
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
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.
[Variety] Dr. Dre’s attempt to throw shade on the recent celebrity college admissions scandals backfired after he apparently belatedly realized that he’d donated $70 million to the college his daughter, Truly, is attending.
[NationalReview] The most telling revelation in Attorney General William Barr’s letter about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s much-anticipated final report is that Mueller has punted on the main question he pursued for nearly two years of investigation: Did President Trump commit an obstruction offense?
In the end, then, Mueller had a choice to make: Either (a) accept that Barr’s interpretation of obstruction law was correct, or (b) recommend an indictment based on the more expansive interpretation of obstruction that his staff seems to have been pursuing and dare Barr to reverse him. 
[The Register] 0.4 to 10% of corporate wage slaves could be up for the chop.
Translated, that means the hysteria that helped prompt the Mueller investigation was in part whipped up by those who had knowingly acted unethically or illegally during and also after the 2016 campaign. These Obama officials bet on the sure-thing but wrong horse and suddenly, after Nov. 8, 2016, feared that they were soon to be subject to lots of criminal exposure.
[Babylon Bee] CHICAGO, IL‐All charges against Jussie Smollett for faking a hate crime against himself have been dropped after the Empire actor and well-respected employer of Nigerians used the "I have a lot of money" defense in court.
[Breitbart] Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) told Breitbart News that Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) call for transparency is ironic given he used his chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee to "deceive the American people."
[YNETNEWS] A year has passed since the start of March of Return campaign and 
[RT] Massachusetts’ Amherst College has drawn criticism for publishing a ‘language guide’ to the latest social justice buzzwords. The ensuing fiasco is the latest battle in the neverending war over free speech on America’s campuses.
[DAWN] Two suspects were 
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Iraqi Armed Forces scored another major victory against the 
[ALMASDARNEWS] The 
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
[ALMASDARNEWS] A diplomatic source from Caracas previously told Sputnik that a group of Russian military personnel had arrived in the Venezuelan capital to take part in consultations with the country’s officials on defence industry cooperation.
North Korea
[RT] Netizens were up in arms this week grilling CNN boss Jeff Zucker who awkwardly defended his network’s coverage of the Mueller probe, saying their job was to report facts "as we know them," rather than, you know, investigating.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The F-5 itself may be an aging design, but for the purposes of regional air defense and training (or in Syria offense) it may be good enough.
[DAWN] The 500-year-old wounds of the Spanish conquest were ripped open afresh on Monday when Mexico's president urged Spain and the Vatican to apologise for their "abuses" ‐ a request Madrid said it "firmly rejects."
...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart...
Context: in 1785, Muslim pirates from North Africa, or "Barbary," had captured two American ships, the Maria and Dauphin, and enslaved their crews. In an effort to ransom the enslaved Americans and establish peaceful relations, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams -- then ambassadors to France and England respectively -- met with Tripoli’s ambassador to Britain, Abdul Rahman Adja. Following this diplomatic exchange, they laid out the source of the Barbary States’ hitherto inexplicable animosity to American vessels in a letter to Congress dated March 28, 1786:
[ALMASDARNEWS] Hundreds of people gathered for an anti-NATO protest in Belgrade on Sunday, as the country marked the 20th anniversary of the NATO-led bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999. The demonstrators held banners with slogans such as “Never in NATO,” “NATO, get out of here” and “Stop NATO fascism.”
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
[DAWN] The US space agency NASA scrapped Monday a planned historic spacewalk by two women astronauts, citing a lack of available spacesuits that would fit them at the International Space Station.
Bouteflika
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) conducted a sweeping operation against the 
