h/t instapundit
...In 2007, The Quad (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue), at the behest of Japan, held its first informal meeting. The Quad's membership roll sends a diplomatic message: Japan, Australia, America and India. Japan pointed out all four nations regarded China as disruptive actor in the Indo-Pacific; they had common interests. Delhi downplayed the meeting, attempting to avoid the appearance of actively "countering China."
No more. The Quad nations now conduct naval exercises and sometimes include a quint, Singapore.
#1
Under the proposal written by Draper, “Cal” would consist of a much smaller area of land comprising densely packed areas including Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey and San Benito counties.
Of all those counties, the only one that is densely packed is Los Angeles and it would dominate the hell out of the others. Mrs. Uluque and I love to visit the wineries in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and I get the distinct impression the majority of those people would hate their association with LA.
SoCal looks good though. Anything that gets me out from under Moonbeam, Newsome, Pelosi, Feinstein, Villaraigosa, Cedillo and all those other jackasses would be a wonderful thing.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/13/2018 12:05
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#2
I think the best thing to do with Los Angeles County would be to let it become its own little state. Same thing for the Bay Area. Without those two you might find the rest of the state to be a lot more reasonable.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/13/2018 12:09
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#3
...sort of like Melilla and Ceuta or Lichtenstein and San Marino. We could deal with that.
#5
be nice to split Washington State in Half too, or just King, Pierce, Snohomish and Thurston counties. might have to make San Juan its wn mini archipelego Nation too, half Canuk and half whatever they call themselves.....
#10
NY should split from the 5 boroughs. There are lots of areas that are ripe for a peaceful division. Get the contractors out, the Senate is gonna need more seats.
[Federalist] President Trump nominated Wendy Vitter for a lifetime appointed position as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Her Senate confirmation hearings included questioning about statements she made in 2013 at a pro-life rally. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) repeatedly asked whether she still believes that Planned Parenthood kills more than 150,000 females a year.
According to the Clarion Herald, a New Orleans-based newspaper, her original words were: "Planned Parenthood says they promote women’s health. It is the saddest of ironies that they kill over 150,000 females a year. The first step in promoting women’s health is to let them live."
Outlets such as HuffPo called these "pretty strong comments" and implied they should therefore cast doubt on her nomination. But they’re accurate. If anything, in fact, Vitter underestimated Planned Parenthood’s annual female death toll.
Planned Parenthood’s 2016-2017 report lists 321,384 abortions performed in 2016. Slightly more boys are born than girls (51.2 percent), although it’s impossible to tell if that ratio matches conception ratios of boys and girls, given miscarriages and sex-selective abortions, where women have an abortion (or are pushed into one) solely or largely because of the child’s sex.
Planned Parenthood either doesn’t track or release sex-selective abortion numbers, but polls and abortion rates from other countries indicate that people tend to prefer boys over girls. In countries with high sex-selective abortions, such as China and India, girls are much more likely to be aborted than boys. When Americans were polled about sex-selective abortion and preferences for sexes of their babies, 40 percent preferred boys and 28 percent preferred girls.
#1
When Americans were polled about sex-selective abortion and preferences for sexes of their babies, 40 percent preferred boys and 28 percent preferred girls.
#2
Wendy Vitter is the wife of former Louisiana Senator David Vitter - we rebelled against royalty yet never seem to get beyond a few family dynasties.
The Clarion Herald is the New Orleans Diocese Catholic newspaper.
I haven't been around for the past week due to my first heart attack. I went to my barber and immediately went into cardiac arrest. Fortunately there's a fire station a few hundred feet away and the EMT's were there in a few minutes. According to them I was dead for three minutes. Spent a week at the South Shore Hospital (Mass. has great hospitals) where the staff and my roomie in the hospital room could not have been nicer and very professional. The only bad thing - I now have a defibrillator in my upper chest. I'll take that over being dead at 53.
Lessons to be learned - it's all about diet and not smoking cigs all the time, which was interesting because I stopped four months ago, and I've so far resisted the usual tax season pack of smokes a day.
Fortunately, news of my death was greatly exaggerated!
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/13/2018 8:59
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#2
Thanks for the update. Been wondering if you were on holiday.
....could not have been nicer
Strange isn't it, as we approach the long journey, people decide to... 'be nice?' Tell me they're not concerned about what we'll say of them when we reach the other side, just tell me.
#5
Glad to hear you are not pining for the fijords, Raj. I lived in Woburn for 2 years and found the people to be very nice. Loved my stay working for Badger Engineers.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/13/2018 9:44
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#6
According to them I was dead for three minutes
And voted Democrat twice in those three minutes? Welcome back, Raj
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2018 10:21
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#7
Raj, glad you are O.K. and not dead. Your insightful and pithy comments are enlightening. Tax season puts many people in their grave. Keep on keepin on.
#8
Keep on living, bro. Good to have you back.
By the way, don't let the Dims find out you were dead or they'll be sending write in votes in your name![sarc off]
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/13/2018 15:29
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#13
Raj, we are beings of habits. If you drop the smokes replace them with a nearby 25 pound bar bell sometimes and a walk around the block the next time. Just dropping something doesn't work. You have to replace a bad habit with a good habit, a bad item on the menu with a good item on the menu. Theres a thousand better options to replace a bad habit with.
[GatestoneInstitute] ...Last week it was reported in the Catholic Herald that a nun who was driven out of the town of Qaraqosh, on the Nineveh plains in Iraq, has been forbidden to visit her ill sister in the United Kingdom. Sister Ban Madleen was among those Christians who were forced to flee the largest Christian town in the area when ISIS entered it in 2014. She was among the thousands of Christians who fled the approaching jihadists and found refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan. There, she set up kindergartens to look after the children of other refugees who had also sought sanctuary in the Kurdish areas. A letter, seen by the Catholic Herald, from the UK Visa and Immigration division at the UK Home Office, stated that Sister Ban had not given evidence of her earnings as a kindergarten principal or shown enough evidence that her order of nuns would fund her visit.
...Perhaps Sister Ban made an elementary mistake. Instead of the nun telling the UK authorities that she had fled ISIS and been looking after refugees since her last visit to Britain she should have told the UK authorities that she had spent the interim period joining ISIS, being trained by them to kill, and that she had also learned how to hate Britain. If she had done this, then perhaps she would now be settling into life in the UK.
After all that is what Ahmed Hassan told the UK authorities after he entered the country illegally in 2015. When the same Home Office that forbade Sister Ban even to enter the country discovered that the young male Iraqi was in the UK, he explained clearly that he had been trained by ISIS. He told the Home Office officials that the group had trained him to kill. The Home Office promptly found him a place to live and study, and treated him as the minor he said he was but most likely was not. He subsequently told a teacher that he had "a duty to hate Britain". Last September, he stepped onto the District line and planted a bomb that failed to detonate fully, but which -- if it had gone off -- would have killed many dozens of commuters (including children) on the London Underground.
[DAVID WARRENonline] A journalist hiding behind a "Premium" pay wall, one Margi Murphy of the London Telegraph, noticed something I did, too, during my brief video reconnoitre of yesterday’s congressional hearings. It was about this Zuckerberg fellow who, with friends who have since been suing him, launched the appalling Facebook social media site, from his Harvard dorm room in 2004.
Did I mention that the whole idea of the thing is appalling? Or that it should be eliminated for reasons of good taste? Or that the "softball" questions the lad is being asked by the Merican Senators should be supplemented with spinballs, knuckleballs, spitballs, rocks, and the occasional guided missile? No? Well, sometimes I run over my self-imposed space allowance, in my tireless efforts to be "fair and balanced."
What this Murphy lady noticed, with the help of some "body-language expert" ‐ and I could spot without ‐ was that young Zuckerberg is a computer animation. My words, not theirs, but they flagged the robotic delivery of prepared answers to prepared questions, and the facial gestures corresponding to the keystrokes in an emoji chart.
Now that we have seen him in action, an inquiry should be called to establish whether Zuckerberg actually exists. In his Wicked Paedia entry, for instance, his pre-college claim to know French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek is stated. Surely that is a giveaway. Many questions need answering, for instance: Was his height-enhancing seat-cushion real? Or was it part of the holographic projection? How many of the Senators were real? And how do we know the camera slips were genuine?
...The human mind seeks order. Even hallucinations serve this quest. Placed in an environment where nothing is intelligible, quite wonderful things will be imagined. Notwithstanding, I am struck by a horrible thought. What if Zuckerberg is real?
[Conversations About the Obvious] The Big Gay Lie that leftists and the media have been pushing for decades is that people who suffer from same sex attraction and act on that are just like heterosexuals.
The reality is that the gay lifestyle is massively promiscuous and is based on the total objectification of people. Gays have far more sexual partners than the vast majority of heterosexuals.
Gay "marriage" in Europe has been anything but marriage. They tend to last about 2 years and in each month of that time each "spouse" has sex with, on average, on person other than their spouse.
Gays have a wide spectrum of diseases; it's safer to smoke than to live the gay lifestyle.
Pro-gay researchers have established over and over that there are no long term gay monogamous relationships. In fact the less faithful two gays are to each other the longer their relationship lasts.
God loves gays and we should too. But enabling a horribly exploitive lifestyle with monstrous health implications is not love.
It's time that we start exposing the truth about the gay lifestyle rather than pretending that they're just like everyone else. To continue to lie about them does them a great disservice.
#2
I had a namesake in high school who's now married to another man. I asked him - 'given the high divorce rates with hetero married couples, why would you want to be part of that mess?' I can't remember exactly what he said but it was along the lines of 'we want to be treated like everybody else'.. Me - 'who's the husband and who's the spouse in this situation?' He hasn't talked to me since.
#4
...or who's the pitcher, who's the catcher? - The Ren & Stimpy Show
For those too young to remember or know, back during the big AIDS epidemic in the 80s, those 'big' mags like Time and Newsweak touted the coming Hetro AIDS Pan-epidemic that was about to be upon us. Never developed. Seems the mass of deplorables didn't actually practice the behaviors other groups did in sharing precious bodily fluids.
#5
Raj,
There's a big difference in status between "tops" and "bottoms" in the gay world. No one wants to admit being a "bottom."
P.S. Back in the 80's San Francisco steam baths were considered the main transmitters of AIDS. A study revealed the average visitor had sex 6 times with 4 different partners. That's a level of promiscuity that's hard to match.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
04/13/2018 12:57
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Frozen Al, in the show Shameless that issue came up but both characters were bottoms. I think that stigma might have gone away with a lot of others.
[Guardian] James Mattis, the US defense secretary, has said Washington is still looking for evidence on who carried out Saturday’s chemical weapons attack in Damascus and that his main concern about a military response was how to stop it "escalating out of control".
h/t Instapundit
[BearingArms] Imagine, if you will, what the news would have looked like if all the authorities who had seen the red flags had acted prior to the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. What would the political landscape look like today?
Well, we don’t have to imagine. We don’t have to imagine because we have a real-life example.
Gardena police found several guns and a cache of ammunition at the home of a high school student who threatened campus violence in two social media posts this week, authorities said.
The investigation began Thursday when police received a call regarding a threat to Serra High School, according to the Gardena Police Department. Investigators identified a student who posted a threatening message earlier this week.
The teen posted a more specific threat Thursday, saying that violence would take place on campus. Detectives arrested the teen, who was not named, on suspicion of making criminal threats and possessing a firearm as a juvenile.
In other words, the teen made a threat, the police acted, and no one is dead.
That’s what should have happened in Parkland, but didn’t. In Gardena ‐ a mass shooting no one will ever hear about because it was prevented ‐ the efficiency of the local authorities saved countless lives. Why? Because they acted.
h/t instapundit
There are currently two worlds: one for the rich, leftists, and the Deep State actors, and one for the average American. Here are some of the differences:
BLUF:
[PJ] What makes this so interesting is that Palantir was founded by Peter Thiel, who is also a board member and early investor in Facebook. What does this mean? A Facebook board member was possibly connected to the harvesting of Facebook data that created a huge privacy breach.
On Tuesday, Christopher Wylie, a data expert and Cambridge Analytica co-founder, testified to British lawmakers that "there were senior Palantir employees that were also working on the Facebook data."
According to an article in Mashable, "Thiel donated $1,000,000 in October of 2016 to the Super PAC Make America Number 1 ‐ an organization that paid Cambridge Analytica $231,352 toward the end of the same year, an FEC filing shows."
"In other words, a portion of Thiel's wealth ‐ some of which was derived from his early investment in Facebook ‐ likely made its way into the coffers of Cambridge Analytica via Make America Number 1. "
Do you see the connection here? A Facebook board member appears to be involved in the data loss scandal that’s created Facebook’s biggest crisis yet, but Zuckerberg claims he’s unaware of the connection. He’s either not telling all he knows or he’s terribly naïve and being taken advantage of by his board member.
#1
Campaign contributions are the sitting squirrel. The issue to make note of here is Palantir, a highly effective intelligence community social network tool.
Forget the political contribs, it's the end user we should be concerned about. Yes of course, Zuck made his tens of billions via advertising. 'My Pillow' teevee adds, that sort of thing. A farthing here, a farthing there. Took him several decades but it all adds up.
#3
Peter Thiel is a silicon valley venture cap that invests in everything. Tesla, SpaceX, Google, Facebook .... on and on.
It's like saying GE has a lot of biz arms they are an arm of Satan. They might be losing stock value but they are still the biggest firm on the planet because that's what they grew into.
#7
Remember next time you use PayPal that Peter was one of the founders.
So he knows when I contribute to Rantburg.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/13/2018 11:48
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#8
It is a big stretch to say an early investor in a company, one that became rich from that company, is connected with day to day operations years later.
[news.au.com] DISTRACTION is one of the leading causes of fatal road crashes in Australia but new hi-tech cameras that detect drivers using their mobile phones without them even knowing could soon change everything.
A New South Wales Police spokesman told news.com.au that officers currently "use a variety of methods to detect drivers using their phones while driving".
"Line-of-site, by trained officers is the primary method of detection, however, long-ranged cameras have been used with success, and helmet cameras in motorcycle police continue to be used," the spokesman said.
But that technology could soon be replaced by stationary cameras that automatically issue an infringement notice without the driver even realising they’ve been sprung.
NSW Police Highway Patrol boss, Assistant Commissioner Mick Corboy, told the Nine News there were "emerging technologies coming out".
"So the way we are going to defeat this is by video evidence, by photographic evidence and we are looking at everything possible around the world at the moment and we think we’ll get something in place fairly quickly," Mr Corboy said.
His comments came after NSW Minister for Roads Melinda Pavey put out a call on Tuesday for potential providers to present "practical, technology-based solutions to address the problem" of mobile phone use in cars.
#1
Should produce a windfall of hundreds of millions in fines if implemented in Georgia. Two or more cell phone moving violations should result in a automatic doubling of insurance premiums.
#3
In the U.S. red-light cameras, a similar technology, have become cash cows and tick everyone off. It may be that red-light cameras also increase the incidence of rear-end collisions.
#6
They can tell when a vehicle is moving and when a phone is in use, then fine both the vehicle and phone owners, regardless of whether the driver is the one using the phone. Sort of like gun control law logic.
#7
This work if you are using the wireless earpiece or the Bluetooth connected car speakerphone? No? Then why worry? Stop being a troglodyte and step in to the 21st if you want to talk on your mobile whilst driving.
[Breitbart] Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) on Thursday made news after repeatedly demanding to know CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s views on gay sex at his confirmation hearing to become Secretary of State.
Booker cited a speech Pompeo gave as a congressman in 2015 at a church, in which he quoted words a pastor had once delivered before the Kansas State Legislature.
"America had worshipped other Gods and called it multiculturalism. We’d endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle," Pompeo had said.
Booker then repeatedly asked Pompeo: "Is being gay a perversion?"
Pompeo responded that as a politician he had a "very clear view" on whether it was appropriate for two same sex persons to get married. "I stand by that," he said.
"So you do not think it is appropriate for two gay people to marry?" Booker said.
Pompeo responded, "Senator, I continue to hold that view."
#1
Methinks Booker's interested in some gay sex on his own. I stole a tube of Vaseline from the South Shore Hospital yesterday; maybe I'll mail it to him!
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Four paramilitary personnel were wounded in an attack by Islamic State members against a training facility, south of Tikrit, a security source from Salahuddin province was quoted saying.
Speaking to AlSumaria News, the source said on Wednesday, “Islamic State members attacked, in the evening, a training facility of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces), located in Balad town, south of Tikrit, leaving four personnel wounded.”
“The attack was launched from the western al-Hudeira region, located behind the facility, which is a liberated area,” the source, who asked to remain anonymous, added. “Military deployments arrived in the wake of the attack.”
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Eight people were killed and injured as Islamic State militants attacked a village, northeast of Salahuddin, a security source said on Thursday.
“Islamic State members attacked Asdeira village, leaving four people killed and four others wounded,” the source told Baghdad Today website.
[PRESSTV] At least 16 people have bit the dust in a kaboom during a funeral procession for Iraqi fighters, who were killed by the ISISTakfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... terrorist group, in the north-central province of Salahuddin.
Salaheddin Shaalan, mayor of Asdira village near the Iraqi town of Shirqat, told AFP that the bombing took place in the village on Thursday.
He noted that most of the 14 people maimed in the attack were in "critical condition."
Shirqat's leader Ali Dowdah said the funeral was held for three Iraqi fighters who had been killed on Wednesday.
Thursday's casualties, he said, came after bombs, which had been planted at the grave site by Takfiri holy warriors, went off.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/13/2018
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[Politico] A day after Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, threatened the impeachment of FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the Justice Department on Wednesday turned over the document that launched the bureau’s Russia investigation in 2016, cooling the latest confrontation between House Republicans and intelligence community leaders. Still some redactions.
Nunes, a California Republican, had demanded an unredacted version of the document by Wednesday afternoon, and the Justice Department provided one with a few redactions that it deemed necessary for national security. Nunes praised the cooperation and said the document would aid his committee’s "ongoing investigation" of the department and the FBI. I want to know who the contact was and what country.
"I’d like to thank Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein for his partial cooperation today," he said.
Partial cooperation.
Nunes had threatened late Tuesday to seek the impeachment of Wray and Rosenstein if they failed to meet his demands, an extraordinary escalation of tensions that underscored eroding relations between the House Intelligence Committee and the Justice Department.
"We’re not going to just hold in contempt," Nunes said on Fox News. "We will have a plan to hold in contempt and impeach." Hold their feet to the fire.
Nunes has been furious with the agencies over attempts to obtain the two-page document that the FBI used to initiate its investigation of the Trump campaign’s Russia contacts. That document, which The New York Times reported on in December, revealed that the inquiry was launched because of an intelligence tip that George Papadopoulos, a campaign foreign policy aide, had revealed to an Australian diplomat indicating that Russia had obtained negative material about Hillary Clinton.
The revelation undercut claims that the investigation had been launched as a result of a disputed so-called dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British spy, whose work was funded indirectly by the Clinton campaign and which President Donald Trump has dismissed as fiction. A formerly classified memo released in February by the House intelligence panel, with Trump’s approval, later confirmed that the FBI began its Russia inquiry because of the information from Papadopoulos.
But Nunes says the FBI had refused to turn over an unredacted version of the Papadopoulos document, despite a subpoena and demands dating back to August. He set a new deadline for Wednesday, and told the Fox News host Laura Ingraham that the decision on contempt and impeachment would depend on whether Wray and Rosenstein met the new deadline.
A Justice Department official said the document it submitted to Congress contained just a handful of redactions intended to mask the name of a foreign country and a foreign agent.
"These words must remain redacted after determining that revealing the words could harm the national security of the American people by undermining the trust we have with this foreign nation," the official said.
The official said that through the document, plus the provision of 1,000 pages of additional classified material, the Justice Department had "substantially satisfied Chairman Nunes’ August subpoena in an appropriate fashion."
In his statement, Nunes noted that that subpoena remained in effect.
A move to impeach two top officials at the Justice Department ‐ both appointed by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate ‐ would have been an extraordinary confrontation between Congress and federal law enforcement. Several of Nunes’ colleagues had endorsed holding Rosenstein and Wray in contempt of Congress.
Democrats contend that there was a darker element to Nunes’ aggressive posture toward Rosenstein and Wray: giving Trump a rationale for removing them.
"Chairman Nunes’ threat of contempt proceedings, and of impeachment, serves insidious purposes: to intimidate DOJ and FBI, to provide the president with a pretext to fire Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and FBI Director Wray, and to undermine special counsel [Robert] Mueller’s investigation," said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "The chairman’s rhetoric is a shocking and irresponsible escalation of the GOP’s attacks on the FBI and DOJ."
Schiff said the Justice Department had already shared ample information, including sensitive material connected to the Russia investigation, that Republicans subsequently released through an unprecedented process that included a move by Trump to declassify information over the FBI’s objections. I think this is misdirection. We were told earlier that the Steele dossier was used.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/13/2018
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#1
Appears they've once again, successfully masked foreign intelligence service involvement. Nothing from Admiral Rogers at NSA? I thought not.
BTW, with FB and the POMS, why do we even need an NSA ?
#5
I want to know who the contact was and what country.
The country is Australia and I forget the name of the contact. This information has been known for quite some time. It has been discussed at length on The Conservative Treehouse.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2018 9:54
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Alexander John Gosse Downer AC (born 9 September 1951) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who is the current High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, in office since 2014. He was previously Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2007, and earlier served as leader of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 1995.
In 2005 Australian members of the spiritual group Falun Gong launched action against Downer in the ACT Supreme Court alleging that his department had unfairly limited their freedom of expression.[30][31]
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade under Downer was accused by Chinese diplomat and defector Chen Yonglin of closely collaborating with the Chinese Embassy in Canberra, even to the extent of "giving suggestions to the Chinese Government on how to handle difficult political cases." Downer was accused of pursuing an unduly strong pro-China policy and failing to address human rights violations adequately.[32]
In September 2007, on the sidelines of the 2007 APEC Conference in Sydney, Downer indicated that Australia planned to launch bilateral ministerial-level security talks with the People's Republic of China. Downer also stated, "China is a good partner of Australia. Whatever the differences there are between us in terms of our political systems, human rights issues, China is a very important part of the strategic architecture, the security architecture of the Asia-Pacific region and it's important we have good forums to discuss any issues of that kind with them.
The Australian (2011). Huawei names John Brumby, Alexander Downer board members. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
(Commie?)
[All Africa] After many months of upheaval, the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... is set for yet another year of political struggle and internal conflict. Current President Joseph Kabila remains the main cause of the unrest. He reached the end of his final term in December 2016 yet refuses to step down. His government continues to find reasons to delay elections which ought to have been held shortly after the conclusion of Kabila's term.
The latest election date has been set for December 2018, although it is doubtful that the government will hold the poll. It has already pointed to apparent logistical and financial obstacles to a December election. This has become an ongoing excuse to keep Kabila in power.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shootout, Butch cautiously raised his hat over the edge of the horse trough on the end of a stick...... DRC citizens are increasingly unsatisfied with the government. They have repeatedly taken to the streets of the capital city Kinshasa to call for elections and Kabila's resignation. Security forces continue to quell those protests and crack down on political activists. State operatives have on several occasions shut down the internet.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2018
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[Libya Herald] The official spokesperson for the Hafter-led Libyan National Army (LNA), Ahmed Mesmari, has continued to deny reports about the illness of Khalifa Hafter.
Reports on Tuesday evening, initially by Libyan media outlets, have snowballed over the last day and a half consolidated by some French media backing. The exact details are still unclear, but unconfirmed reports state that Hafter was initially taken ill to the Jordanian capital Amman and thereafter transferred to a Gay Paree clinic as his condition deteriorated.
Yesterday, the official spokesperson for the LNA, Ahmed Mesmari, tweeted on the LNA’s twitter account ’’All the news about General commander’s health are false, Marshal Hiftar is in excellent health and he is following his daily general command duties and all op rooms specially Omar Moktar ops room’’. Later on, Mesmari avoided any direct comment on the topic at a presser on Derna.
French media has failed to produce a photo of Hafter in Gay Paree. On the other hand, despite all the rumours and conflicting reports, Hafter has failed to make a personal appearance.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2018
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[FoxNews] A nun fighting Katy Perry's purchase of a former convent is fired up and reaching out to a higher authority -- Pope Francis himself -- to intervene in the case that has brought the "Roar" singer a rash of negative publicity.
"They’ll have to kill me first if they want to keep me quiet," Sister Rita Callanan, 80, told Fox News this week, referring to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which she said wrongly sold the property to Perry. "I am asking Pope Francis to intercede."
Callanan and her attorneys hope the pontiff will review the case and speak to the Signatora, the highest court in Rome. "It’s like the U.S. Supreme Court," according to Callanan.
The nun says the death last month of Sister Catherine Rose Holzman - a close friend and ally in the fight over the sale of their order’s convent on eight acres in the Los Feliz area - has motivated her to stay in the battle, despite urgings by doctors and friends to drop the matter for health reasons.
Callanan and Holzman, who was 89, vowed they would fight to the end for the property the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary owned for more than 40 years. That ended when, as the nuns tell it, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles forced them out.
Callanan said she, Holzman and other nuns who lived at the property had seen it as their "Motherhouse," where they would grow old together, and look after one another.
The letter to Pope Francis, in which Callanan also appeals for a meeting with the pontiff, says the nuns "were promised that we would always be taken care of by the archdiocese and that we would live out the rest of our lives at our convent. After we are all gone, the Archbishop would inherit our property ... Archbishop Gomez has broken these promises to us."
"He tried to sell our convent without our approval to a person whom we do not support. It is the pop star Katy Perry," the letter reads. "We do not agree with her lifestyle that has strayed far from any faith ... At the end of our lives, we find ourselves fighting for justice and for what is right."
The archdiocese sold the property to Perry for $14.5 million, but the Vatican must give its approval before the deal is considered final.
Archdiocese officials deny they broke any agreement with the nuns, and say they have acted with their best interests in mind.
"The main concern of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is and has always been the care and well-being of all the ... sisters," Adrian M. Alarcon, director of media relations for the archdiocese, told Fox News on Wednesday. Alarcon said the property has been vacant since 2011 "because it became too costly for the five remaining sisters to maintain and no longer accommodated their physical needs."
Holzman died on March 9 after collapsing in a courtroom for a hearing related to the case. She signed the letter to the pope before she died.
The two nuns had wanted a friend and entrepreneur, Dana Hollister, to buy the property instead of Perry, trusting that Hollister would honor the spirit of their former homestead. But a judge last year voided the sale to Hollister and ruled the archdiocese, and not the nuns, had the right to sell the property.
"Two days before she had this heart attack she called me and said ’You know, Rita, this stress the archbishop is putting Dana through is just killing me,’" Callanan recalled. "In court she was in front me and during recess she said ’My chest hurts,’ and she collapsed on my lap, right on my lap." Continues.
As the Holy See motto seems to be, of late, "Super omnia Politica," I doubt the "Nun" (more likely a Sister) will be persuasive. Also, if title has passed, local zoning has the ball. Historical Landmark status?
I believe Sister is the title given to nuns. The LA Times reported a few years ago that the nuns haven’t lived there since 2011, and it appears they did not act to find a buyer until some of the four or five remaining nuns decided they disliked the buyer the archdiocese had found.
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy ||
04/13/2018
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#1
Spanking has never done anything for me, in any sense, at any stage of life. However...
Ms. Perry's a nuisance. Who'll school her?
I hope you won't think me peculiar:
I'd love to see Sister
Uplifting this blister
On Main St., at noon, with a ruler.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) The U.S.-led Coalition has been heavily hovering over the border region between Iraq and Syria, a security source from the mobilization forces in Anbar province said on Wednesday.
“The coalition jets have been heavily hovering over the al-Tanf region on borders between Iraq and Syria, without clarifying reasons for that,” the source told Almaalomah website.
“Security leaders deployed in the western side of the province have no information about the operations made by the Coalition jets,” he added. “Security forces are getting ready for an operation that targets the dormant cells of Islamic State in the western desert of Anbar reaching to the Iraqi-Syrian borders.”
Earlier today, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Russia of imminent military action in Syria, lambasting Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
During a speech on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi stressed that measures have been taken to protect borders with Syria, saying that Islamic State will not be able to penetrate into Iraq once again.
The Iraqi-Syrian borders are under the control of joint troops of military and border guards.
Islamic State continues to launch sporadic attacks across Iraq against troops. Security reports indicate that the militant group still poses threat against stability in the country.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi government has stressed that all security measures are taken to face dangers that could result from the crises in Syria.
Speaking to Baghdad Today website on Thursday, Mohamed al-Bayati, head of the security committee of Nineveh provincial council, said, “Factions of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces), Iraqi army and the border troops are deployed in the regions in the province that stretch along borders with Syria. Dormant cells of Islamic State are followed on a daily basis in the desert regions.”
Bayati indicated that border areas are highly secured, saying that plans are drawn to secure al-Jazirah region, which link between three provinces. “Thus it needs more deployment, fearing what could result from the U.S. threats or Islamic State members who could sneak into Iraq.”
[IsraelTimes] Defense minister calls IDF 'the most moral army in the world,' says soldiers sometimes need to 'let out some tension'; IDF says suspect was maimed in the leg
The Israeli army on Tuesday said a soldier who shot a Paleostinian suspect near the Gazoo border in a recently circulated video behaved appropriately, but criticized the soldier who filmed and cheered the incident for violating military values.
The army said the cameraman, who was not part of the unit serving on the border, would face a disciplinary hearing. The initial result of the investigation into the video has been handed over to the Military Advocate General Corps, which will consider criminal charges.
According to the army’s initial investigation, the video was filmed on December 22 during a violent demonstration along the Gazoo border, near the Israeli community of Kibbutz Kissufim.
The army said the Paleostinian who was shot was one of the people "suspected of organizing and leading" the violence along the border, which included the throwing of rocks and Molotov cocktails.
The military maintained that the sharpshooter behaved appropriately, firing one bullet as the suspect approached the fence after ignoring warnings and calls to halt. The army also refuted a claim heard in the video that the suspect was shot in the head, saying he was maimed in the leg.
[PRESSTV] Tehran has warned Gay Paree against being influenced by the "warmongering" Saudi crown prince’s "baseless claims and lies," which are aimed at destroying the landmark nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers, including La Belle France.
Iranian Foreign Ministry front man, Bahram Qassemi, on Thursday rejected the fresh accusations against the Islamic Theocratic Republic in a joint statement issued by Gay Paree and Riyadh at the end of a visit to La Belle France by Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... as of 2016.... , the heir to the Saudi throne.
In the statement, Saudi Arabia and La Belle France "agreed on the need to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons." They also discussed steps against Iran’s national defense program as well as the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s regional role.
In response, Qassemi said La Belle France, as one of the seven signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal, should "avoid being influenced" by bin Salman’s "adventurism" and "lies."
Saudi Arabia’s "repetitive claims" against Iran are "meant to counter" the Iran deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), said Qassemi, adding that the Saudi kingdom had spend hefty amounts of money to that effect.
Under the JCPOA, which was signed in July 2015, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.
The peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program and Tehran’s commitment to its side of the JCPOA have repeatedly been confirmed in reports by the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is tasked with monitoring the technical aspect of the JCPOA implementation.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2018
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Gaza health ministry says 30 Palestinians injured, one critically
The Gazan health ministry says that 30 Palestinians have been injured during clashes with the IDF along the border with Israel.
One of the Palestinians was critically wounded, according to the ministry.
Palestinian protesters in Gaza hurled explosives and firebombs at Israeli troops manning the border, during what the Israel Defense Forces described as “several attempts” to damage the fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip and cross over into Israeli territory.
Thousands of Palestinians are taking part in violent riots in five locations along the length of the border, the army says. In addition to trying to cross the barrier, a number of attacks were carried out, with demonstrators throwing Molotov cocktails and explosives at Israeli soldiers.
The Israelis are out there with snipers, tanks, drones, and the usual riot control methods, against which the Gazans have piles of burning tires for a smoke screen, slingshots, molotov cocktails, more burning tires to send rolling against the fence, and the latest innovation: burning kites intended to set green Israeli fields aflame behind the soldiers. Given the usual Gazan ability with flying things, the odds are about half the kites will land on brown fields and trash heaps in Gaza, making the Strip even more uncomfortable than it was as of yesterday... for which Israel will of course be blamed.
Update at 9:45 a.m. EDT: The Jerusalem Post is liveblogging Gaza, too. Their latest posts:
16:36 363 wounded according to Gaza Health Ministry
363 individuals have thus far been wounded during Friday's protests on the Gaza border, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza stated. This includes injuries sustained from both live fire and tear gas.
16:31 Protesters set off explosive, try to fly kite bomb over border
The IDF spokesperson stated that the violence on the border has continued throughout the past hour. An explosive device was placed and detonated near the Karni crossing, and may have caused Palestinian casualties. A kite bomb with a Molotov cocktail attached was attempted to be sent into Israeli territory, but ended up landing within Gaza.
This is in addition to several attempts by the over 10,000 protesters throughout the last hour to breach the border between Israel and Gaza and sabotage security infrastructure.
Aaaand we have a number.
The IDF continues to use riot dispersal methods as means to control the uprisings.
#1
Cute how the newsies report "wounded" as, I suspect, anyone who got a whiff of tear gas. It would be interesting if Napoleon could introduce them to grapeshot.
[AlAhram] Syria's army has evacuated key defence buildings in Damascus following intelligence they might be targeted in a Western strike in response to an alleged chemical attack, a monitor said Wednesday.
The United States and La Belle France have warned of a strong response after an alleged deadly chemical attack by the regime on the rebel-held town of Douma on Saturday.
"The buildings of the ministry of defence and the army headquarters have been empty for two days," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
Regime forces have also evacuated military airports as well as the bases of the elite Fourth Division and Elite Republican Guard outside the capital, the Observatory said.
"The Russians told the Syrian army's leadership they had intelligence on possible US and French targets in Syria," Observatory head Abdel Rahman said.
According to the Russian intelligence, the United States is pushing for possible strikes to target the ministry of defence and army headquarters in Damascus, he said.
The intelligence indicated they were also aiming to strike military airports and bases, the Observatory said.
According to the same Russian intelligence, La Belle France would like targets to include Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Terror of Aleppo ... 's suspected chemical facilities.
These would be the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center in Jamaraya, just north of the capital, and the suspected chemical warfare headquarters in Damascus.
Gay Paree would be pushing for a strike on the Dumair military airport, which is suspected of having been the launchpad for Saturday's alleged chemical attack.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Damascus regime.
Rescuers say more than 40 people were killed in Saturday's alleged toxic gas attack.
Last year, Trump launched a cruise missile strike against a Syrian air base in retaliation for a sarin attack the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... later pinned on Assad.
[Breitbart] A female Islamic Death Eater has been caught by police in possession of a USB key that contained the identities of 2,626 intelligence officials from La Belle France’s Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence (DCRI).
The woman, identified as Mina B., was already known to the country’s intelligence services and had been placed on the terror watch list known in La Belle France as the S-File, Le Point reports.
Mina B. was questioned by French authorities back in April of last year over her involvement with another radical Islamic Death Eater named Sana O. who she was said to have helped house and finance in 2016. Sana O. had attempted to travel to Syria and join radical Islamic Death Eater groups on two occasions before having his passport revoked.
Police recently opened a second investigation into Mina B. and found she had been in contact with several Islamic Lions of Islam in the area around Magnanville.
The USB stick contained a list of the identities of 2,626 intelligence officials and was dated from 2008. Initially, the file appeared to have been deleted but Sherlocks were able to recover much of the data.
The list contained the names, numbers, and assignments of every intelligence official in the Commission National Joint Administrative Committee (CAPN).
Mina B. is now under investigation in connection to the 2016 terror attack that saw French police officer Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his wife stabbed to death by radical Islamic Death EaterLarossi Abballa though sources say the policeman’s name did not appear on the list. Mina B.’s lawyer has denied she had any contact with Abballa.
How Mina B. acquired the list is unknown, although Sherlocks say she was friends with the daughter of a policewoman and stayed at their home for a brief time, intelligence sources claim.
Radical Islamic sympathies within the French police are not unknown. Last year, Breitbart London reported that a man who was on the terror watch list managed to become a police officer despite being an S-File member.
In another case earlier this year, a policewoman who was said to show radical Islamic sympathies was nabbed Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! after she had stolen several firearms from a cop shoppe.
#1
Radical Islamic sympathies within the French police are not unknown. Last year, Breitbart London reported that a man who was on the terror watch list managed to become a police officer despite being an S-File member.
Not nearly as troubling as having one serve two terms as president.
[PRESSTV] Russian Ambassador to the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Vassily Nebenzia has called on the United States and its allies to drop plans for potential military intervention in Syria, warning he "cannot exclude" the possibility of direct military confrontation between Moscow and Washington in case the Arab country is attacked.
Speaking after a closed-door UN Security Council meeting over 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... 's threats of an imminent military action against Syria over an alleged chemical attack, Nebenzia told news hounds Thursday that the presence of Russian troops in the Middle Eastern country had made the situation even more dangerous.
"The immediate priority is to avert the danger of war," Nebenzia said. "We hope there will be no point of no return."
Asked whether by that he meant a war between Russia and the US, the Russian envoy said, "We cannot exclude any possibilities, unfortunately, because we saw messages that are coming from Washington. They were very bellicose."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#2
You already lost. Several hundred mercenaries were wasted when you attacked US forces in Syria a couple of months ago. So you took it out on civilians in the worst way possible. Loser.
#6
He is speaking to the liberal masses in the US that already hate Trump. Unfortunately the left's attempts to pressure Trump through public opinion have increased his numbers so this move is pointless.
[AlAhram] Russia's armed forces said Wednesday they would send military police into the Syrian town of Douma from Thursday to keep the peace.
"From tomorrow, for security and to ensure law and order as well as to organise help for the local population, units of Russian military police are being brought into Douma," senior Russian officer Viktor Poznikhir said at a briefing in Moscow.
"[DailyCaller] Former FBI director James Comey wrote in his new book that classified information, still unknown to the public, could have "cast serious doubt" on Loretta Lynch’s ability to investigate Hillary Clinton’s email server in 2016.
ABC News reports, "Comey writes that he felt obligated to take more of a personal role as the public face of the investigation rather than deferring to then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch ‐ in part because of something involving Lynch that he cryptically refers to as a ’development still unknown to the American public to this day.'"
The government learned of this information in 2016. The book does not reveal anything about the information.
Comey also wrote that 'the unverified material would undoubtedly have been used by political opponents to cast serious doubt on the attorney general’s independence in connection with the Clinton investigation.'"
So, Former FBI director James Comey wrote in his new book that classified information, still unknown to the public, could have "cast serious doubt" on Loretta Lynch’s ability to investigate Hillary Clinton’s email server in 2016.
ABC News reports, "Comey writes that he felt obligated to take more of a personal role as the public face of the investigation rather than deferring to then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch ‐ in part because of something involving Lynch that he cryptically refers to as a ’development still unknown to the American public to this day.'"
The government learned of this information in 2016. The book does not reveal anything about the information.
Comey also wrote that 'the unverified material would undoubtedly have been used by political opponents to cast serious doubt on the attorney general’s independence in connection with the Clinton investigation.'" In order to believe this dirtsicle dropped by Comey on Lynch, we have to suspend disbelief for the balance of the book. Clever.
#1
A law is needed. No bureaucrat or appointed official of the federal government are allowed to write a book for 10 years after their official departure, to stop people from writing a book 10 minutes after they are fired.
Nothing lately on the Clinton clandestine servers, Platte River Networks, or the Awan bros. All necessary steps. As you know, the Russians were attempting to monitor.
#7
Comey also wrote that 'the unverified material would undoubtedly have been used by political opponents to cast serious doubt on the attorney general’s independence in connection with the Clinton investigation.'"
i.e.: Photos of Bill Clinton on her jet at Phoenix
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2018 8:39
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#8
If Comey is right wouldn't proper legal procedure have been Lynch recusing herself and the official designated by law to replace the AG in case of recusal making the decision?
It looks like Comey just extralegally seized the power to decide this matter because no one objected.
#9
"A Higher Loyalty", a picaresque novel where the self-styled hero is also the author; where the hero is apotheosized to the level of a deity and a legend in his own mind.
#10
So I just asked her, there on that airplane, I said 'Darlin', how long has it been since you had a nice long roll in the hay with a guy like me who knows what for?'
Posted by: Bill ||
04/13/2018 11:37
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#11
Comey: "Not all heroes wear capes"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2018 11:39
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[ALMASDARNEWS] French President Emmanuel Macron claimed that La Belle France had "the proof" that the government of Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Leveler of Latakia... used chemical weapons "last week." Macron made the comments during an interview with TF1 in Berd’huis, Thursday.
"We have the proof that last week, almost 10 days ago now, chemical weapons were used, at least chlorine, and they were used by the regime of Bashir al-Assad," said the French leader.
"We cannot today let regimes believe they can act with impunity, especially the worst one, that contravenes international law," he added. He did not specify any possible course of action by La Belle France.
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... "under no circumstances, under any circumstances, will La Belle France allows an escalation to happen or anything that could damage the stability of the region," he stressed.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Seems to me, they treat Russia the way they used to treating Israel - fills me with happiness (Because Russia is not Israel).
#3
In Peking, they're sounding her death knell.
Miss Liberty leaves the condemned cell.
"Well, thanks for your help.
Please, a few final selfies?
I'm ready now. All's well that end's well!"
#4
China doesn't worry so much about false positives in arresting people.
It makes AI a lot easier in cases like this.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/13/2018 8:56
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#5
They are pretty good at this sort of thing. For years they have been working on stuff to track cars, so they generally can find out where you have been if they feel like it, and also as a result there is not much need for traffic cops: If you mess up they have it on camera. They also have some kind of RFID thing going on, but not exactly sure what that is yet, maybe just commercial vehicles. This is just the next step. It's not really a horrible idea. There is no privacy here anyway with so many people.
#9
The Future, where face recognition
Will satisfy modest ambition --
Stand out from the crowd,
But not more than allowed --
As it fixes your social position!
[All Africa] Lawmakers in Zim-bob-we are preparing to summon ex-president Bob Muggsy Mugabe Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case. Dumped in November 2017 when the Missus decided she wanted to be president, and opposed heer might against Crocodile Mnangawa Important safety tip: If your opponent goes by the name Crocodile andf your title is Shopper in Chief let him win.... to answer for his management of the diamond sector, which he nationalized in 2016.
Mugabe announced the state seizure two years ago on Zim-bob-we state TV, saying, "There has been a lot of secrecy ... and we have been blinded. We have not received much from the diamond industry at all."
Continued on Page 49
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Shia holy man and militia leader Moqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... has vowed to form a special team to arrest or assassinate former Saddam Hussein aide Ezzat al-Douri.
Answering questions by his followers on his online portal, Sadr, commenting on a recent video that purports to show a speech by Douri, Saddam’s vice president, said :" after the elections, we intend to activate a special squad to search for him again, arrest him or kill him".
Sadr referred to occasional reports about Douri’s death. "Beware so that corrupt officials do not repeat the cliche of his death, which appears later to be a lie".
On Wednesday, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s security committee, denied Douri’s existence in Iraq, deeming his lately circulated video "a declaration of bankruptcy".
Douri, speaking in the video, commemorating the establishment of the now-defunct Baath Party, which he claimed to had been from Baghdad, warned of "a popular armed revolt to eliminate the traitors". He blamed the current authorities for the death of millions of Iraqis and destruction of Iraqi cities.
Douri’s exact whereabouts have been unknown since a U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 toppled former leader Saddam Hussein. Occasional reports have been made of his death but none were confirmed.
#1
So, muzz cleric openly announces he will form a hit squad. Any western politician who says "Islam is peace" should be kicked in the crotch and then kicked out of office.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/13/2018 9:59
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#2
Any western politician who says "Islam is peace" should be kicked in the crotch and then kicked out of office.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A prominent Afghan political figure and ex-member of the parliament Mohammad Younus Qanooni reacted at the suggestions to establish safe zones for the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... group.
In his speech during a gathering organized for grinding of the peace processor, Qanooni said the establishment of safe zones for the Taliban group would mean partition of Afghanistan.
Qanooni further added that those who are making suggestions should rethink about the issue and carefully review their recommendations.
This comes as the leader of Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... emphasizes that the safe zones might encourage Taliban to accept the offer for peace talks.
Speaking during a presser in Kabul last month, the leader of Hezb-e-Islami pointed towards his recommendations for the safe zones for Taliban and said such zones should be created in a bid to help protect the Taliban group members and their families who are willing to join grinding of the peace processor.
He rejected the notion that Hezb-e-Islami supports the handover of the control of certain provinces to Taliban.
Hekmatyar has apparently made the recommendation to persuade the Taliban group leaders to participate in grinding of the peace processor.
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Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) ‐ Iraqi security forces foiled on Wednesday a plot by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) turbans to detonate an ancient citadel in Tal Afar district in Nineveh, a security official was quoted as saying.
"A force from the Nineveh Operation Command found four barrels filled with the highly explosive C4 material, 10 boom belts and 100 mortar shells placed under Tal Afar Citadel in Nineveh," Yehia Rasool, a front man for the Security Media Center, told Alforat News.
"Three other explosive barrels, two rockets and 11 landmines were also found on site," Rasool said, adding that the explosives were planned to be used by IS turbans for detonating the ancient citadel.
Tal Afar Citadel is believed to be built by the Ottoman Empire, although it contains remains dating back to the Assyrian period.
Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the citadel housed the mayoral, municipal and police headquarters of Tal Afar. It was used as a base by American forces in the Battle of Tal Afar in 2005.
After falling to the hard boy Islamic State group in June 2014, the citadel was used as a prison for women and girls who were to be forcibly married to ISIS members.
In December 2014, the IS group blew up the city’s northern and western walls, causing extensive damage. The turbans also excavated some of the ruins within the citadel, probably to look for antiquities which they could sell. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) The pro-government paramilitary troops have managed to save a family that Islamic State was going to murder, southwest of Kirkuk, the media service reported on Wednesday.
In a statement, Abu Ali al-Abadi, from the intelligence of the 11th brigade, was quoted saying that troops “were notified that Islamic State members were going to execute a whole family in al-Rashad region in Hawija town, southwest of Kirkuk.”
“The forces managed to save the family,” he added.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Four Iraqi policemen were wounded on Thursday in an attack by Islamic State militants in Kirkuk province, according to a security source.
The source told Alsumaria News that a Federal Police patrol became under fire from Islamic State militants in Theybat, al-Rashad, southwest of Kirkuk, leading to the mild injury of four personnel.
Earlier on Thursday, security sources said Islamic State militants killed a man in front of his family, torched and blew up the homes of other civilians, accusing all of collaborating with security forces.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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Mosul (IraqiNews.com) A mass grave with the remains of at least 60 Iraqi civilians was found in the former Islamic State bastion, Mosul, a police officer was quoted saying on Wednesday.
Cap. Amir Watheq, from Nineveh police force, told BasNews website that security forces found the grave at Hammam al-Alil in southern Mosul, adding that most of the remains belonged to women who attempted to flee the area during the military campaign to retake the region.
As Iraqi troops recaptured areas held by Islamic State militants since 2014, they have regularly run into mass graves of civilians and security agents executed by the militants for fleeing the group’s havens or collaborating with security forces.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi police forces arrested six Islamic State militants in the group’s former bastion, Mosul, a police official was quoted saying on Thursday.
Spokesperson of the Interior Ministry, Saad Maan, said in a statement that the six were arrested in al-Wahda neighborhood in eastern Mosul after a raid of searches, adding that those arrested had arrest warrants issued for them based on the anti-terrorism law.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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Sure, but at what cost? President Trump is no Barack Obama. Prime Minister Neranyahu is also no Barack Obama.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The representative of Iran’s supreme leader to the Quds Force ‐ a special forces unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) ‐ warned on Thursday that "Iran can destroy Israel."
The representative, holy man Ali Shirazi, also called on Israel to avoid making "stupid mistakes if it wants to continue its treacherous existence."
"If Israel wants to continue its treacherous existence... it should avoid stupid measures. If they give excuses to Iran, Tel Aviv and Haifa [two major cities in Israel] will be destroyed. Iran can destroy Israel," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative to the Quds force, holy man Ali Shirazi, told the Fars news agency on April 11.
The regional foes have repeatedly accused one another of sponsoring murderous Moslems and destabilizing the region. Two Israeli F-16 warplanes targeted the T-4 airbase in Syria’s Homs province earlier this month according to Russia’s Ministry of Defense.
Around half of the missiles fired by the combat aircraft were intercepted by Syrian air defenses before they reached their targets, but the remaining missiles killed seven Iranian military personnel, prompting condemnation from Tehran and Damascus.
Iran is one of a few remaining countries which refuse to recognize the state of Israel, and has been accused of attempting to develop nuclear weapons to threaten and potentially destroy Israel with.
The Islamic Theocratic Republic has also been criticized for providing advanced armaments to the Hezbollah resistance group in Leb, which Israel and a number of Western nations consider to be a terrorist organization.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
If they could they would've. A few years down the road, that's another story.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Lebanese President Michel ’Aoun stated during a cabinet meeting this week that Leb will not accept Israel’s unlawful use of his nation’s airspace to bomb another country.
That’s nice, dear.
"Leb considers Israel’s use of Lebanese airspace an attack on our illusory sovereignty, and we will not accept any Israeli exploitation of our airspace," Aoun said in remarks during a session for the Cabinet at Baabda palace.
"We condemn any Israeli attack on any Arab state," he continued.
Yes, yes. Your mustache is especially fierce today, too.
"Leb will file a complaint against the Israeli violation of the Lebanese illusory sovereignty before the UN Security Council," he indicated.
For his part, Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... has him bumped off, too. commented on the regional juncture, saying: "We are working on dissociating Leb from any potential problem that might erupt due to the developments."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2018
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Two suicide bombers were killed as they were attempting to attack visitors of a Shiite shrine, north of Baghdad, a commander said on Wednesday.
“In light of accurate information from intelligence department, a checkpoint was set up in al-Khadra region in Tarmiyah district, north of Baghdad. The two attackers, wearing explosive belts, approached a house, where the ambush was there,” Brig. Gen. Jalil al-Rubei’y, head of the Baghdad Operations Command, told AlSumaria News.
“The intelligence department opened fire against the bombers and killed them,” Rubei’y said adding that “hey were going to target visitors of Imam Musa al-Kadhim’s shrine.
Millions of Shiite visitors from other provinces across Iraq as well as neighboring countries flock to Kadhimiya neighborhood every year to commemorate death of the seventh imam revered in Shia Islam, amid high security measures.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) An Iraqi soldier was wounded on Thursday when an explosive device went off in northern Baghdad, a security source was quoted saying.
Baghdad Today quoted the source saying that the bomb was placed on the side of a road in Khan, Tarimiya, north of the Iraqi capital. It exploded when a Iraqi army patrol was passing by, causing injuries to one soldier.
Baghdad has witnessed almost daily bombings and armed attacks targeting civilians and security personnel since Islamic State militants took over a third of Iraqi territories in 2014 and even after the declaration of their defeat at the end of 2017. The group claimed responsibility for some of the bloodiest attacks in the Iraqi capital.
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least four snuffies affiliated with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group were blown up by own explosives in eastern Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... of Afghanistan.
The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan Military in the East said the incident took place on Wednesday in the vicinity of Chapa Dara district.
The source further added that four ISIS snuffies were blown up in Wach Nawa area while they were planting an improvised bomb on a roadside.
According to the Silab Corps, at least two of the snuffies were killed and two others were maimed after they were blown up in a premature kaboom.
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04/13/2018
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[FoxNews] President Trump on Friday announced that he has approved military strikes in Syria against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The announcement follows a suspected chemical gas attack from the Assad regime on a rebel-held town near the Syrian capital last weekend.
Trump's announcement immediately preceded reports of loud explosions lighting up the sky in Damascus.
Assad's actions, Trump said, "are not the actions of a man," but "are the crimes of a monster instead."
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2018
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#1
Britain and France participating from Cyprus and Jordan(?)
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2018 22:03
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#2
We knew when we hired Donald Trump that we were in for interesting times. I’m praying hard that he called this one correctly. I assume this is aimed at much at Iran and North Korea —see what we do when you make The Donald angry? Please stop making him angry! — as it is at President Assad.
#3
I wonder what brought the French onboard? If it were just Trump I'd wonder if this were just policy momentum, but the French have their own interests.
Posted by: james ||
04/13/2018 22:26
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#4
Macron claimed to have proof that Assad dunnit, james.
France has been attacked by Islamic radicals far too many times. Turkey, a facilitator of Islamic radicals, is a friend of Russia, who is a friend of Pencil Neck, all who have no problem with chemical weapons being used against innocent civilians.
#7
I hope we're blasting the shit out of some Iranians. Those mofos have had a black eye coming since 1979. The Russians I'd prefer we give a wide berth...
Posted by: Jack Bonaparte7513 ||
04/13/2018 23:09
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#8
Various sites noted Douma is newly liberated from ISIS, leaving behind many widows, spawn, and traumatized hostages. France and the UK don't want their insurgents' dependents returning to Europe. Staging a chemical attack to take care of social problems + draw Trump into conflict with Russia, and nixing any peace progress with Assad. Removing Assad in another regime change destabilizes the region. Testing positive for chemicals doesn't prove who delivered them. Further comments said gas canisters marked nitrous oxide for NGO 'Operation Smile' were delivered to the White Helmets, with same caught staging and filming with corpses....Smile is Nordic Ice Princess Cindy McCain's pet project, and her hubby is pictured smiling with all the key jihadists. A Deep State conspiracy makes more sense to me than trusting Brit intel right now.
[HotAir] When Mick Mulvaney served in the House, he tried to warn colleagues that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was too independent of Congress. Now that he’s running the CFPB, Mulvaney wants to demonstrate just how correct he was. For the second straight day, the acting director has told a congressional panel that he can just sit in front of them all day and ignore their questions, and there’s nothing they can do about it: Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), told a Senate panel on Thursday that he’s not legally bound to answer lawmakers’ questions, only to appear before them, in comments meant to stress his agency’s independence. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!
"While I have to be here by statute, I don’t think I have to answer your questions," Mulvaney told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. "If you take a look at the actual statute that requires me to be here, it says that I ’shall appear’ before the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs of the Senate. And I’m here and I’m happy to do it." He tried to tell them, but noooo.
Mulvaney delivered the same message to the House yesterday. In testimony before the Financial Services committee, Mulvaney pointed out that the enabling statute for the CFPB only required him to show up when asked. Otherwise, he could just as well twiddle his thumbs or answer e-mails rather than answering any questions from Congress:
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/13/2018
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#1
He schooled Maxine "Impeach 45!" Waters but she was too stupid to know it
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2018 7:06
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[TheDrive] The Joint Program Office has been watering down the software requirements for years already, too, securing an interim, limited capability Block 3i software suite to meet some early test objectives and avoid even more embarrassing delays. Before that, the baseline Block 3 was supposed to represent a fully functional package, a requirement the initial iterations of the supposedly "final" Block 3F code failed to meet, as well.
It could also otherwise impede the ability of the aircraft’s various complex systems to properly share and display information to the pilot, other F-35s and different aircraft, or throughout ground-based networks. There are other ongoing occupational hazards, as well, including worrying reports of incidents of hypoxia-like symptoms among pilots flying Air Force F-35As.
Marine and Navy F-35 pilots have reported a "green glow" in their helmet’s display that can dangerously obscure their vision at night, especially during attempts to land on aircraft carriers and amphibious ships, as well. Lockheed Martin has only recently begun to implement fixes for that problem across the B and C model fleets.
#1
It will take Skynet to actually fly this thing in combat: ...It could also otherwise impede the ability of the aircraft’s various complex systems to properly share and display information to the pilot, other F-35s and different aircraft, or throughout ground-based networks.
So in a future battlefield you want a Network-Centric device that can be hacked by some Cyberwarfare nerd on the other side of the planet. Idiocy on steroids.
Why have an onboard pilot? Just make it a drone and fly it from a base in the continental US if you are going to try and make it a single-seat aircraft that will bury the pilot in an information overload. *Madness*
#4
#3 Ever lowered standards to pass. -AlanC
Exactly. Soon this plane will take to the sky and defeat all comers with its groundbreaking WiFI HotSpot-ness. Beware our L33t Skill5 !!
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Houthi forces released several photos from their large-scale missile attack on the Saudi capital of Riyadh this week. They show the missiles'launch, but not any impact on their targets. Antimissile technology is expensive and not 100 percent effective, but I think it renders the Houthis' missiles nothing more than a tool for harassment. Even in pre-Patriot days, HE-payload short and intermediate range missiles weren't much more than that. Chem warfare (and bio warfare to a lesser extent) has been only minimally more effective -- terror weapons, rather than legitimate tactical or theater level weapons.
Houthi forces’ rocket battalion utilized Badr-1 and Burkan ballistic missiles to target the Saudi capital from their positions in northern Yemen.
Yesterday’s attack by the Houthi forces marked the third time this week that they have targeted a site inside Saudi Arabia.
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[Bangkok Post] A top Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) insurgent was gunned down during a standoff with Thai security forces in Pattani province. The death of Sobueri Jehe was confirmed Wednesday by military spokesman Thanavee Suvannarat.
Thanavee said eight police officers were on patrol in two trucks in Yarang district when three men having a conversation on the side of the road raised their suspicion on Tuesday. He said one policeman approached the men and asked to check their identities. Two of them opened fire and ran off into a rubber plantation while the other fled on a motorbike. The patrol pursued the two who opened fire that led to a firefight which ended with three policemen wounded and both suspects dead.
Thanavee said one of the dead men was later identified as Sobueri, a leading figure in the RKK. The other dead suspect, Yusoh Jehlong, had three arrest warrants out against him.
According to Thanavee, the provincial court had approved 18 separate arrests warrants for Sobueri, who had been detained four times previously for violence in the province. He did not say why Sobueri had been freed each time.
Footage from CCTV cameras had earlier proved that Sobueri was behind the gruesome murder of Sunisa Boonyen, a teacher who was gunned down in her car on Oct 28, 2016. The attack also wounded her friend.
[ALMASDARNEWS] According to a new statement from Downing Street, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister and top-level advisers "agreed on the need to take action to alleviate humanitarian distress and to deter the further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime."
"Following a discussion in which every member present made a contribution, Cabinet agreed it was vital that the use of chemical weapons did not go unchallenged," the UK Cabinet said Thursday.
Previously, Theresa May said that if it’s proven the Syrian government was behind the Douma chemical weapons, she will order the British military’s use of force in Syria.
The U.K. cabinet’s approval comes just hours after French President Emmanuel Macron stayed that his regime had proof the Syrian government was behind the chemical weapons attack in Douma.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Assad has moved his moved his military aircraft to Russian air bases in Syria.
#2
Say nothing more to the media, but forget Syria and the Russians for now. Dust off the target folders for Bomab, Ramsar, Parchin, Fordo, Arak, Isfahan, Natanz, and Bushehr.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Syrian Arab Army’s elite Tiger Forces have received orders to redeploy from the East Ghouta region to southern Damascus, a military source told al-Masdar News this afternoon.
Following their victory in the East Ghouta, the Syrian Arab Army’s High Command made the decision to send the Tiger Forces to the Yarmouk Camp and al-Qadam districts in order to halt 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.... ’s (ISIS) advance in the area.
ISIS was recently able to seize more than 90 percent of the al-Qadam District after a swift offensive against the Syrian Arab Army late last month.
The Tiger Forces will be leading this offensive alongside their allies from the Elite Republican Guard and several Paleostinian paramilitary groups.
Among the Paleostinian paramilitary groups participating in this offensive will be the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine-General Command (PFLP-GC), Liwaa al-Quds ...the Jerusalem Brigade is a Paleostinian-Syrian pro-Government group that operates in Aleppo, formed in 2013. The group is composed of predominately Sunni Paleostinians from the al-Nayrab district as well as the former refugee camp Handarat. It is believed to be the largest Assadist auxilliary force operating in storied Aleppo... , Qawat al-Jaleel, and Fatah al-Intifada.
The Syrian Army and their Paleostinian allies have finished their preparations and should be launching this offensive in the coming hours.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Anbar (Iraqinews.com) – Two civilians were injured Wednesday in a car bomb attack in Ramadi city as the country still suffers from almost daily bombings believed to be launched by the Islamic State group.
“An explosive charge fixed into a car went off near a branch of Rafidain Bank in Ramadi, leaving two civilians wounded,” a security source told Baghdad Today.
“Ambulances rushed to the blast site and carried the injured to a nearby hospital for treatment,” the source said, adding that security forces also opened a probe into the incident.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) A mass grave containing human remains of burnt bodies has been found, north of Ramadi, Anbar Operations Command announced on Thursday.
“Troops of the army’s tenth division, affiliated to Anbar Operations Command, ran into a mass grave containing remains of unidentified burnt bodies inside a house in al-Tarabisha region, north of Ramadi,” a senior source from the command told AlSumaria News.
“The bodies have not been recognized yet; whether they are civilians or members of the Islamic State militant group,” the source, who preferred anonymity, added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[Al Jazeera] Syrian government forces have retaken the town of Douma, thus gaining full control of the former rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, according to a Russian military official.
Syrian troops pushed the last rebel fighters out of Douma on Thursday, Major-General Yury Yevtushenko, head of Russia's Centre for Syrian Reconciliation, told local news media.
"Today, a landmark event in the history of the Syrian Arab Republic took place," he was quoted as saying by the Russian agency Sputnik.
"The state flag flown over a building ... in the city of Douma marked the regained control over this settlement, and consequently over entire Eastern Ghouta."
There has been no official statement from the Syrian government so far.
Russian military police have been deployed on the ground to take over Douma's security, Russian news agency RIA reported.
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Diyala (Iraqinews.com) ‐ Two Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (IS) Death Eaters were killed and their cycle of violence was destroyed Wednesday in an ambush set by paramilitary troops in Diyala province, in eastern Iraq.
In a statement, a copy of which was obtained by Alghad Press, the 110th brigade of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) said its troops, alongside forces of the 23rd brigade, set an ambush in northeastern Diyala to target Islamic State Death Eaters planning to carry out terrorist attacks against civilians and security forces in the province."
"The troops managed to kill two IS Death Eaters and destroyed their motorbike during the operation," according to the statement.
On Tuesday, the security committee of Diyala provincial council warned against growing movements by Islamic State remnants in many uninhabited villages on the borders between Diyala and Salahuddin provinces.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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What’s the over/under on the next big attack, dear Reader?
[AlAhram] Egyptian authorities will open Sinai’s Rafah border crossing with Gazoo for three days starting Thursday, according to the embassy of Paleostine in Cairo, official Paleostinian news agency WAFA announced on Wednesday.
The crossing will be open in both directions from 12 to 14 April.
WAFA quoted Paleostine's ambassador to Cairo and its permanent representative to the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... Diab al-Louhah as thanking Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and the Egyptian authorities for their support of the Paleostinian people and their cause.
[ALMASDARNEWS] US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress on Thursday that the US military does not have evidence that either chlorine or sarin were used in an alleged chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma, adding that the Pentagon’s only proof that such an incident occurred has come from social media and media reports.
"There have been a number of these attacks. In many cases, you know we don’t have troops, we’re not engaged on the ground there, so I cannot tell you that we had evidence, even though we had a lot of media and social media indicators that either chlorine or sarin were used," Mattis said, speaking to members of the House Armed Services Committee.
The defense secretary said that he believed that a chemical attack took place, "and we are looking for the actual evidence."
Warning that he was concerned that a US military strike might lead to an "out of control" escalation in the Syrian war, Mattis said that Washington was "committed to ending that war through the Geneva process through the UN orchestrated effort."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
only proof that such an incident occurred has come from social media and media reports
#4
Mattis is wrong on this one. France has hard evidence. So do US persons not currently affiliated with the DoD. Perhaps CIA is holding out on Matis, or else he is being less than truthful for his own purposes.
[IsraelTimes] Witnesses say Abdullah al-Shehri was throwing stones at soldiers; IDF insists it is unaware of the incident
Need one actually say, “Don’t bring stones to a gunfight”?
A 28-year-old Paleostinian man was shot and killed by Israeli fire at a Gazoo border protest campsite Thursday, the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-run Paleostinian health ministry said. Witnesses told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named that Abdullah al-Shehri, 28, was throwing stones at soldiers stationed behind the fence with Israel.
However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... the IDF insisted that it was unaware of any such incident.
Shehri would be the 34th Paleostinians killed by Israeli fire over the past two weeks, according to Paleostinian tallies. At least 26 were killed during protests.
The Hamas terror group, which rules Gazoo, has called for a mass rally Friday at the border as part of a weeks-long campaign of protests against a decade-old blockade of the territory.
If trends continue, a mere 5,000 will gather at key points along the border. Some will jump up and down while screaming mustache curses, others will sling rocks at the Israelis, still others will set piles of tires on fire or roll them against the fence, all to camouflage a few members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighting wings who will try to cut through the fence for the mass breakout... or at least to set up bombs intended to blow up Israelis later. How many will discover to their sorrow that they had a date with an Israeli sniper’s bullet remains to be seen.
[IsraelTimes] Israel says the men were denied permission to transfer to Ramallah hospital because their injuries resulted from participation in violent demonstrations.
Leftwing NGOs Adalah and Al Mezan said Yusef Karnaz, 20, and Mohammad al-Ajouri, 17, were both shot and maimed when tens of thousands of Gazooks converged near the border with Israel on March 30 for the first in a series of planned protests that led to bloody confrontations.
My apologies — I misremembered the progression. It was not 20,000 the first Friday followed by 10,000 last Friday. The actual numbers were 30,000 the first Friday and 20,000 last Friday, so somewhere between 10,000 (down by 10,000) and 13,300 (down by a third) today... or not.
[PRESSTV] At least two people have bit the dust in a Saudi air raid on western 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... targeting the set of a TV series for the al-Masirah channel that is run by 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 ... Ansarullah movement.
The Arclight airstrike hit the Marawi'ah district in the Yemeni province of Hudaydah on Thursday during the filming of the TV series for the fasting month of Ramadan.
A Yemeni photographer said the victims were the series' set designer and finance director. Multiple military vehicles, including two tanks, were at the site of the attack, informed sources told AFP.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Alamo, Davy was counting their remaining cannon balls and not liking the results... a security source said Thursday's attack was one of a string of the Saudi strikes on Hudaydah.
Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and its allies launched the war in March 2015 in support of Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly government and against the Houthis, who are currently running state affairs.
The military campaign has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, according to the latest figures released by the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights.
Several Western countries, the US and the UK in particular, are accused of being complicit in the aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment.
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Caught here
[Haaretz] Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday, and the Russian leader urged Israel not to take action in Syria and to threaten its security. Israeli officials confirmed the call took place and said that Netanyahu told Putin that Israel will not permit Iran to set up a military presence in Syria.
The news of the telephone call between Netanyahu and Putin appeared as Netanyahu took the stage in Israel's main Holocaust memorial event and issued a threat to Iran not to "test Israel's resolve." The Russians announced the call in statement on the website of the Kremlin, which specified that Putin insisted it is "important" to maintain Syria's sovereignty.
Israel is on high alert for any Iranian retaliation after Tehran's direct threat Tuesday, as well as any possible U.S. strike against Syria's Assad regime in retaliation to the chemical attack at Douma.
Netanyahu lashed out at Iran during his Holocaust memorial speech, saying it was still intent on destroying Israel. Netanyahu also ripped into the landmark nuclear accord reached between Teheran and world powers and said: "I have a message for the leaders of Iran: Don't test Israel's resolve."
Netanyahu also took the opportunity to condemn the Syrian regime and the recent chemical attack in Syria, saying that "murderous evil that is not stood up against spreads rapidly." And must be removed early enough.
Posted by: Frank G ||
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[IsraelTimes] Violent attacks on Jews worldwide dropped in 2017 despite a rise in other forms of anti-Semitism, researchers report , in a year characterized by normalization and mainstreaming of anti-Semitism not seen in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... since World War II.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University say assaults specifically targeting Jews fell 9 percent last year. They record 327 cases compared to 361 in 2016, which had already been the lowest number in a decade.
But they note attacks were far more brazen. Most dramatic were a pair of cases in La Belle France, where a Jewish woman was thrown to her death out of her apartment window and a Holocaust survivor was stabbed and burned to death in her Gay Paree home.
Threats, harassment and insults have also driven thousands of French Jews to relocate.
Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry releases the report every year on the eve of Israel’s Holocaust memorial day, which began Wednesday at sundown.
Increased security measures are credited with reducing violence, but it may be masking a trend of anti-Semitism becoming more mainstream and acceptable, particularly in European politics. The report describes a toxic triangle made up of the rise of the extreme right, radical Islamism and a heated anti-Zionist discourse on the left accompanied by anti-Semitic expressions.
Not just in Europe, of course. A good deal more on the subject, including the American situation, can be read at:
[IsraelTimes] Ahead of Arab summit, fatwa is seen as warning to Arab leaders against supporting Trump's decisions and peace plan
Jerusalem's Mufti Mohammed Hussein posing in front of the Dome of the Rock at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
The Paleostinian mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, on Thursday published a fatwa, or Islamic religious decree, banning anyone "from giving up, or selling Jerusalem and the land of Paleostine to the enemy" ‐ a reference to Israelis.
The fatwa was issued on the eve of the Arab summit that is scheduled to convene in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... next week to discuss a number of issues, including 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... ’s yet-to-be-announced peace plan and his decision, announced in December, to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the embassy there from Tel Aviv.
The fatwa is seen as a warning to the heads of Arab states against supporting Trump’s decisions and peace plan, which the Paleostinians have denounced as a "conspiracy aimed at liquidating the Paleostinian cause and national rights."
On Wednesday, Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... reiterated his rejection of the Trump plan, calling it a "big conspiracy."
"Paleostine, which includes Jerusalem, is Waqf (Islamic trust) land, and it is religiously forbidden to give it up or facilitate the transfer of its ownership to the enemy," Hussein said in his fatwa. "Paleostine is part of the Islamic public properties."
It was the second fatwa of its kind since 2014, when Hussein reminded Moslems that it was forbidden to sell their property to Israelis after it transpired that Jewish families had purchased homes from Arabs in Silwan, outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Several Paleostinians suspected of selling property to Israelis have been killed, while others have been sentenced to prison by Paleostinian Authority courts.
Hussein said the transfer of ownership of Moslem-owned property to the "enemy" was illegal and "considered treason."
Any Paleostinian who sells his land to his enemy is a sinner," the mufti ruled.
He also ruled that it was forbidden for a Paleostinian to accept compensation for his or her property from the "enemy" because this would mean assisting in the "eviction" of Moslems from their homes.
The fatwa said that Jerusalem was the "eternal capital of Paleostine." Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was illegitimate and null, it added.
Hussein said in his fatwa: "Jerusalem and Al Aqsa Mosque are Islamic waqf until doomsday. They can’t be sold or given as gifts or passed on by inheritance. No one is entitled to give them up, or to give up Jerusalem or any part of it, or any part of Al Aqsa Mosque, to the enemy."
Israel, he charged in his decree, "usurped Paleostine, expelled its people, stole their money and committed the most horrific crimes against houses of worship, all this with the help of the colonialist countries that continue to help it with its wicked aggression."
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinians say Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, man killed in strike; Israel earlier targeted a Hamas facility after Paleostinians detonated bomb near military bulldozer
Israeli Air Force aircraft bombed a team of Paleostinian button men early Thursday, after they directed machine gun fire at an IAF aircraft. The gunfire missed the plane, but set off rocket sirens in Israeli communities near Gazoo, the army said.
One of the Hamas operatives was killed in the strike, and another was seriously maimed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave. The terrorist group said the dead man was one of its fighters manning an observation point east of Gazoo City, in the north of the Strip.
The Hamas button men’s attack on the aircraft came shortly after IAF fighter jets conducted an Arclight airstrike against one of the terrorist group’s positions in northern Gazoo late Wednesday night, in retaliation for a bomb detonated by Paleostinians against an Israeli bulldozer in the northern Gazoo Strip earlier in the day, which had caused neither injury nor damage, the army said.
The Israeli aircraft was not hit by the gunfire and sustained no damage.
Some of the bullets fired by the Hamas button men at the plane struck a house in the Sha’ar Hanegev region when they fell back to earth, causing light damage but no injury.
The false rocket sirens that were set off by the gunfire in the Sha’ar Hanegev and Sdot Negev regional councils bordering the Gazoo Strip sent thousands of Israelis scrambling to bomb shelters in the middle of the night.
A similar false alarm occurred last month, with machine gun fire from Gazoo triggering not only sirens, but also the anti-rocket Iron Dome missile defense battery due to the system’s "oversensitivity," the army said at the time.
The target of Wednesday’s initial airstrike was a military site belonging to Hamas in the northern Gazoo Strip. Paleostinian media later identified it as the "Abu Jarad" base south of Gazoo City.
"The IDF views the Hamas terrorist organization as responsible for all incidents that take place in the Strip or coming from it and will not allow a terrorist group to turn the border area to into a combat zone," the army said in a statement.
[PRESSTV] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, says the interception of the Israeli jets during the latest bombardment of its positions in the besieged Gazoo Strip is a convincing proof that fighters from the Paleostinian resistance movement are on full alert to fight off any act of aggression by the Tel Aviv regime.
Hamas Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, in a statement released on Thursday, hailed the efforts made by Mohammed Hajeila, the slain member of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades -- the military wing of Hamas -- and his comrades to intercept Israeli military aircraft striking the Gazoo Strip, stressing that his movement stood with any anti-Israel faction, and would use its munitions at the proper time to target the right place.
He noted that Israeli aerial assaults would only increase the resilience and determination of the Paleostinian nation, and spark more anti-Israel protests.
Earlier on Thursday, the Qassam Brigades stated that 31-year-old Hajeila had lost his life overnight after an Israeli fighter jet struck an observation site belonging to the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades in the eastern Shuja'iyyah neighborhood of the Gazoo City.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2018 6:54
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#2
with machine gun fire from Gazoo triggering not only sirens, but also the anti-rocket Iron Dome missile defense battery due to the system’s "oversensitivity,"
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A senior government official was killed in a coordinated attack by the Talibs in southeastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan.
The provincial police commandment in a statement confirmed that the district administrative governor of Khwaja Omar district Ali Shams Dost was killed in the attack last night.
The statement further added that the Talibs launched a coordinated attack on the district compound and security posts late on Wednesday night.
At least twenty seven Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... Death Eaters were also killed during the festivities and Arclight airstrikes launched in response to the attack, the statement added.
In the meantime, the provincial police commandment said at least seven security personnel also bit the dust in the attack and at least nine others were maimed.
According to the police commandment of Ghazni, the district administrative compound of Khwaja Omar also sustained damages and was partially burnt during the attack.
The Taliban group claims that the fighters of the group have taken control of the district and have inflicted heavy casualties on government and security personnel.
However, there's more than one way to stuff a chicken... the provincial government commandment rejects the Taliban claims although conflicting reports exist regarding the fall of the district into the hands of Taliban.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan armed forces launched heavy Arclight airstrikes and ground operations to pound the Taliban ...Arabic for students... targets in response to a coordinated attack the group launched on Khwaja Omari district last night.
Provincial governor’s front man Mohammad Arif Noori said the air and ground offensive was launched earlier today in response to last night’s attack.
He said at least 38 Death Eaters were killed and more than 30 others were maimed after their positions came under heavy airstrikes as well as ground operations.
Noori further added that the members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces have not suffered any casualty during the operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2018
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[Israel.Times] Airfields, weapons factory among reported targets; Trump says decision on response to gas attack to come 'fairly soon'
The White House is considering eight potential Syrian targets in retaliation for a chemical weapons assault, a US official told CNBC Thursday. The targets included two airfields and a chemical weapons facility, according to the source, who requested anonymity.
The report came hours after 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... , who this week threatened to attack Syria, told news hounds that a decision on the matter would be made "fairly soon." That assertion from Trump, who huddled with top national security advisers Thursday, came a day after he tweeted that a US retaliatory attack could be "very soon or not so soon at all!"
Moscow, for its part, stonewalled diplomatic efforts at the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... "It’s too bad that the world puts us in a position like that," said Trump, as Defense Secretary James Mattis headed to the West Wing to present options for a retaliatory strike.
"We’re having a number of meetings today, we’ll see what happens, we’re obviously looking at that very closely," he told politicians and governors in the Cabinet Room. "Now we have to make some further decisions, so they will be made fairly soon."
NBC News cited two US officials as asserting that Washington has blood and urine samples from last Saturday’s attack that tested positive for both chlorine and an unspecified nerve agent.
Bashir al-Assad’s regime has been known to employ a mix of chlorine and gases against its own citizens, according to US officials.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday that the use of chemical weapons in Syria is "simply inexcusable."
"Some things are simply inexcusable, beyond the pale, and in the worst interest of not just the chemical weapons convention but of civilization itself," Mattis told the House Armed Services Committee.
He said a chemical attack had likely occurred and hoped inspectors would be in place within a week to prove it.
"I believe there was a chemical attack and we are looking for the actual evidence," Mattis said.
Military buildup
Since Saturday, when images of ashen toddlers struggling for breath emerged from Douma ‐ the main city in the Eastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus that has been a crucible of revolt against Assad’s regime ‐ there has been a sustained military buildup in the eastern Mediterranean.
A French frigate, UK Royal Navy submarines laden with cruise missiles, and the USS Donald Cook, an American destroyer equipped with Tomahawk land attack missiles have all moved into range of Syria’s sun-bleached coast.
The Cook ‐ named after a Marine Colonel who suffered deprivation and starvation as a Vietnam prisoner of war ‐ has past experience tangling with the Russian military, having been deployed to the Black Sea during the recent crisis in Crimea.
Half a world away in New York, Russia’s UN ambassador warned that the priority in Syria was to avert US-led strikes that could lead to a dangerous confrontation between the world’s two preeminent nuclear powers.
US officials have refused to rule out direct military engagement with Russia, with the White House saying "all options are on the table."
But a special hotline for the US and Russian militaries to communicate about operations in Syria is active and being used by both sides, Moscow said Thursday.
Rebels give up Ghouta
On the ground in Syria, rebels in Eastern Ghouta surrendered their heavy weapons and their leader left the enclave, signalling the end of one of the bloodiest assaults of the seven-year war and a major win for the Assad regime.
A top leader of Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... , a group that controlled Douma for years, told AFP it was Saturday’s attack that forced them to accept a Russian-brokered deal and evacuate.
The UN Security Council, tasked with maintaining international peace and security, has been riven, with Moscow virulently denying the Douma attack took place, or postulating that it was carried out by rebels.
The council has already failed to agree on a response to the attack in three votes and has been deadlocked throughout the Syrian civil war.
But across Western capitals opposition to military action also grew. US politicians questioned whether Trump has the legal authority to order strikes without Congressional approval and opposition parties voiced concern.
National security experts worried about whether strikes would actually serve to deter Assad. In April last year Trump ordered Tomahawk strikes on the Shayrat Airbase in response to a similar chemical weapons attack on rebel-held Khan Sheikhun. But the pinpoint strike did not deter Assad, and US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... , have since investigated as many as 10 suspected chemical attacks.
The same officials say Syria has continued to produce or procure chlorine, which also has industrial and agricultural uses.
Syria, which denies carrying out the latest attack, said it had invited the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which has blamed the regime for previous such incidents, to visit Douma. The OPCW, which works to rid the world of chemical arms stockpiles, said its experts were on their way to Syria and will start their work on Saturday.
[AP]A Hungarian magazine published Thursday the names of more than 200 people it claimed Prime Minister Viktor Orban had in mind when he alleged U.S.-Hungarian billionaire George Soros paid “mercenaries” to topple the government and open the country to immigrants.
#2
In my ideal world the nations would use assassins to take out each others leaders and stop having their people fight on their behalf.
Such a scenario has two advantages: (1) Democracies have a big advantage as they have a system for replacing leaders peacefully while authoritarian nations often fall into infighting (2) Democracies would see less opportunists moving into positions of power and if they did they'd avoid wars like the plague.
[IsraelTimes] Images claim to show destroyed hangars and equipment at T-4 site near Palmyra
Iranian media on Wednesday published photos purporting to show damage at an airbase in Syria that was allegedly bombed by Israel earlier this week.
The images showed what appeared to be destroyed equipment inside a bomb-shattered hangar where at least 14 people, including seven Iranian military personnel, were killed.
Russia, Syria, Iran and the United States have all said Israel carried out the predawn Monday missile barrage on the T-4 Air Base near Palmyra in central Syria. Israeli officials refused to comment on the strike.
Israel is believed to have carried out numerous raids inside Syria since 2013, targeting the regime and the Leb-based terror group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.
Israel has vowed to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining advanced weapons and missiles, fearing they would be used against the Jewish state.
A Tuesday report from Israel’s Hadashot TV news, quoting what it said were numerous foreign reports, stressed that the target of the attack was not a missile shipment but, rather, some type of "advanced system" that could have complicated or undermined Israeli air superiority in the skies of Leb and Syria.
Channel 10 television reported that the Iranian corpse count of seven may not be final.
It said Iran had lost "a significant asset" and perhaps "even an entire system" in the strike.
In a highly unusual move, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency has acknowledged that "Iranian military advisers" were killed in Monday’s attack on the military airfield.
The Tasnim media outlet, which has been affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, specified that seven IRGC members were killed in the strike, including one high-ranking officer, Col. Mehdi Dehghan, who reportedly served in one of the group’s drone units.
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.
[Federalist] President Trump nominated Wendy Vitter for a lifetime appointed position as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Her Senate confirmation hearings included questioning about statements she made in 2013 at a pro-life rally. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) repeatedly asked whether she still believes that Planned Parenthood kills more than 150,000 females a year.
[Conversations About the Obvious] The Big Gay Lie that leftists and the media have been pushing for decades is that people who suffer from same sex attraction and act on that are just like heterosexuals.
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Eight people were killed and injured as Islamic State militants attacked a village, northeast of Salahuddin, a security source said on Thursday.
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka 
Crown Prince of 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Moqtada 
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if 
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least four 
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Houthi forces released several photos from their large-scale missile attack on the Saudi capital of Riyadh this week.
[Bangkok Post] A top Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) insurgent was gunned down during a standoff with Thai security forces in Pattani province. The death of Sobueri Jehe was confirmed Wednesday by military spokesman Thanavee Suvannarat. 
...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...
Netanyahu lashed out at Iran during his Holocaust memorial speech, saying it was still intent on destroying Israel. Netanyahu also ripped into the landmark nuclear accord reached between Teheran and world powers and said: "I have a message for the leaders of Iran: Don't test Israel's resolve."
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
