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Pakistani Taliban leader Ehsanullah Ehsan 'surrenders'
Today's Headlines
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Frog Snot Gives Hope For Flu Cure
The mucus of a rare frog that lurks in the South Indian jungle could provide the basis of a powerful new class of drugs to combat influenza, scientists have said.

The bright orange tennis ball-sized Hydrophylax bahuvistara was found to contain "host defence peptides" that proved able to destroy numerous strains of human flu, whilst protecting normal cells.
Actually, any orange frog ought to do, I would think.
Researchers are excited because the peptide showed it could bind to a protein that is identical across "dozens" of strains of the disease, increasing its potential potency as a drug.

People would be advised to treat the Keralan amphibian with caution, however, as three out of four of the peptides found in the mucus were found to be toxic to humans.
So just be careful which peptide you stick in your nose. And forget what I said about any orange frog.
Scientists at Emory University named the beneficial element "Schurumin", which can be isolated, after the a sword with a flexible blade that snaps and bends like a whip, which comes from the same Indian province.

"It’s a natural innate immune mediator that all living organisms maintain," said Josh Jacob, who co-authored the study at Emory University, Georgia.

"We just happened to find one that the frog makes that just happens to be effective against the H1 influenza type."

The virus needs hemagglutinin Abedin to get inside human cells.

The peptide works by binding to the hemagglutinin, destabilizes the virus and then kills it.

"I was almost knocked off my chair," says Jacob.

"In the beginning, I thought that when you do drug discovery, you have to go through thousands of drug candidates, even a million, before you get 1 or 2 hits.

"And here we did 32 peptides, and we had 4 hits."
Posted by: gorb || 04/18/2017 16:13 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The mucus of a rare frog may cure flu? I see a showdown coming between big pharma and the animal rights activists.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/18/2017 16:46 Comments || Top||

#2  I'll stay sick, thanks.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 17:03 Comments || Top||


McStain files bill to screw over pain and cancer patients
Senators are hoping to combat the opioid addiction crisis by limiting initial pain prescriptions to just a week's worth of medicine.

The Opioid Addiction Prevention Act of 2017, introduced before the Easter recess by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.),
Why am I not surprised McStain is on this?
would amend the Controlled Substances Act to limit the quantity of prescriptions for acute pain, excluding chronic pain, end-of-life care and cancer treatment.
Great idea! Let's make it really difficult for those that have a hard time getting around and getting to the doctor!
Gillibrand argued that the change "would target one of the root causes of the opioid addiction crisis, which is the over-prescription of these powerful and addictive drugs for acute pain" like a tooth extraction or a broken bone.

To continue to remain licensed to prescribe schedule II, III, or IV controlled substances, medical professionals would have to certify to the the Drug Enforcement Agency that initial prescriptions for acute pain don't exceed a seven-day supply and don't include refills.
You already can't exceed a 30 day supply and can't have a refill. Also you can't call it in, need a paper script and have to pick it up yourself. Easy to do for those in acute pain or at end of life.
McCain cited the "over-prescription of highly addictive opioids" increasing 300 percent over the past 15 years as a root cause of the crisis.
No. A combination of government idiocy and pharmaceutical companies telling doctors to hand these out like candy, then realizing they made a mess and doing knee jerk reactions is the fucking problem.
"In fact, people who are addicted to prescription opioids are 40 times more likely to become addicted to heroin," he said in a statement. "In Arizona alone, heroin and opioid overdoses have skyrocketed, with the Arizona Department of Health Services reporting that more than 1,000 people required emergency room treatment for drug overdoses in 2014 while heroin-caused deaths increased by 44 percent between 2013 and 2014."
That is because it is so hard to find a doctor now to prescribe this stuff and it is such a pain to get that going to the local dealer for heroin and morphine is easier
McCain said the legislation "builds on the important steps taken by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey last fall to tackle a root cause of this epidemic by limiting the supply of an initial opioid prescription for acute pain to seven days."
Adding to the black market and drug trade in AZ. Well done.

As someone who has dealt with the idiocy surrounding the pain med market, having family members that needed them because they had cancer or chronic injuries, making this shit tougher to get legally isn't the answer. Those that truly needed are being fucked royally and those that want it can get it other ways (thanks Mexico!) The best way to handle it would be to allow two factor authentication so they doctors can electronically submit the script and the pharmacy has a service that can deliver it to the patient. These patients would be in a contract with the doctor and that pharmacy so any other request for that patient would immediately be detected by the electronic system and rejected.
The people that need it can get it and it reduces the fake prescription problem. This would also help stop the DEA would stop spamming doctor offices with entrapment patients to try to get the doctor to prescribe them something, which is why most doctors now don't prescribe opiates.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 15:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I had a total knee replacement exactly one year ago today. A patient can't drive for about 6 weeks or more. Mrs. JohnQC had to drive me to the doctor's office to obtain a new script for a refill of oxy. The doc basically just about amputates your leg during the TKR--it would be difficult to manage pain without the oxy. It is a crappy drug as it gives you constipation and nausea. Drugs are then prescribed to cope with these side effects. I got off of it as soon as I could because the side effects just about outweigh the pain management benefits.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/18/2017 17:24 Comments || Top||

#2  I can't wait until McStain kicks the bucket.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 04/18/2017 22:46 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Trump Congratulates Erdoğan on Sweeping New Presidential Powers
h/t Instapundit
The White House said President Trump called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to congratulate him on Sunday's referendum that ballooned the Islamist ruler's presidential powers
yea, well - as long as he doesn't sabotage fracking, I can live with him.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/18/2017 12:56 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So we still have nukes in Turkey?

Some real deep housecleaning needs to be done. I remember how the brass cried that Clark and Subic Bay were absolutely critical to our Pacific defense.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/18/2017 14:29 Comments || Top||

#2  What is Trump supposed to say? We're practically being held Hostage with our nukes there in Turkey.
Posted by: Charles || 04/18/2017 16:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Diplomacy sometimes consists of saying "nice doggie!" while reaching for your tomahawk. I wouldn't read too much in to this.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/18/2017 20:23 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Facebook shooter kills self after brief chase by PA police
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 12:53 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Glad the LEs are ok. Good job bringing this psycho down.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 12:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Good. Thanks for being on top of this for us, DarthVader.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2017 13:36 Comments || Top||

#3  This happened in my hometown. Kind of scary.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 04/18/2017 13:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Too bad they didn't blow his head off like he did the man on the street. One of the few vids I have seen that disturbed me. The fear in that mans eyes brought tears to mine.
Posted by: chris || 04/18/2017 21:15 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Three Maps That Explain North Korea's Strategy
Moved to Non-WoT, where the Communists are filed.

-- trailing wife at 2:40 p.m. EDT
[BusinessInsider] To understand North Korean strategy today, we must first understand the implications of its geography.

Korea is a peninsula jutting southward from Manchuria surrounded by the Yellow and Japan seas. It shares a 880-mile-wide border with China and has a 30-mile frontier with Russia.

Korea’s northeastern border is about 70 miles from Vladivostok, Russia’s major eastern port. The southeast corner juts to within 100 miles of Japan to its south, and the peninsula’s southwest shore angles westward only about 300 miles from Shanghai.
Loooong article at link. Do not click if your ADD is getting the better of you today.
Posted by: gorb || 04/18/2017 12:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Thanks Gorb, my AD blocker saved me.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 14:20 Comments || Top||

#2  :-)
Posted by: gorb || 04/18/2017 15:46 Comments || Top||


Iraq
This Iraqi Sniper Picks Off ISIS Fighters As They Hide Behind Human Shields
ISIS members should not be taken prisoner.
Yousef Ali peered through the scope of his Russian-made Dragunov sniper rifle. Through the small hole in the wall of an abandoned hotel, Ali saw the labyrinth of the Old City's narrow streets stretch before him.

Less than 300 yards away, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, prepared for another sneak attack, surrounded by civilian human shields. "The (ISIS fighters) are out there," said the 20-year-old Iraqi federal policeman, taking his eyes off the scope for a moment. "Just behind those buildings."

The police forces have had an important role to play since the start an offensive in October to drive the militants from Mosul, their last major stronghold in Iraq. For the past few months, they've gained a higher profile taking out ISIS positions in western Mosul while creating escape routes for trapped civilians in tight quarters.

The federal police, including their elite SWAT unit called the Emergency Response Division, are the Iraqi forces closest to the Old City. The police and SWAT unit will likely be the first to take the al-Nuri mosque, also known as the Great Mosque, whose capture would spell a symbolic victory over the Islamic State. It was there the head of the militant group declared a "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria after invading in 2014.

Federal police, many of them young and inexperienced, have taken the brunt of the casualties during the latest offensive.

Iraqi snipers

Ali said it had been his dream to become a sniper since he joined police basic training.

After 45 days of basics, he was accepted into sniper training, spending six months becoming acquainted with the specialization under Iraqi and Italian trainers in Baghdad and Fallujah. The training paid off when he was thrust into the Mosul offensive with his M-16 and Dragunov rifles, Ali said.

"Two or three days ago, (ISIS) set some fires to make a smokescreen, then some of them came at us with suicide belts," Ali said. "I killed two of them."

Ali said there is a friendly rivalry among him and his fellow snipers, who brag about how many Islamic State targets they brought down.

"We always hear everything that's going over the radio. So sometimes we'll say, 'Oh, I killed more (ISIS fighters) than you, you better try harder,'" he said. "But we all treat each other as brothers here."

Snipers are useful for more than just taking out militants from a distance. Federal police and SWAT commanders rely on them to get up-to-the-minute intelligence on enemy movements and targets for Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, said Gen. Abdul Rahman, the executive officer of the federal police.

Expanded role for Iraqi forces

In the push toward Mosul, each segment of the Iraqi forces was given a sector to capture. The federal police and SWAT positioning put them squarely on the front lines once Iraqi forces reached the western part of the city.

Unlike the army, police answer to the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. But they act like soldiers with their own fleet of dark blue Humvees, weapons ranging from machine guns to rocket launchers and military training.

There are six regular police divisions, each is comprised of 11,000 personnel. Roughly 60% engage in combat. Three of the divisions are participating in the Mosul offensive. The SWAT team, which has additional urban combat training, counts as the fourth division on the front lines and often spearheads the offensive.

Their progress slowed considerably since entering the city due to hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the urban battlefield.

"Before we came to Mosul, our plan was to liberate Mosul," said Rahman. "Now it's to keep civilians safe. Now, if we liberate just 100 yards per day, we can minimize civilian casualties, so it's better to do it like that."

The fact that the police are taking a more active role in the battle than regular Iraqi troops boosts morale of many civilians who lost faith in the army. Many regular soldiers dropped their weapons and ran away when the Islamic State swept across Iraq three years ago.

"I can't believe the army is actually helping," said Zeyad Suleiman, a resident of western Mosul. The regular army is holding the northern section, slowly taking some outlying neighborhoods.

Up close with ISIS

Unlike Ali, Muntader Khazem, a sergeant with the SWAT team, regularly has to fight up close with the Islamic State as his unit drives the militants back house by house.

"We are (often) 10 yards away, with (ISIS fighters) shooting at us," said Khazem, 22. "Sometimes we go from the corner of the occupied house. Sometimes from the front or the back. Sometimes two teams attack from two sides at once."

Like all SWAT commandos, Khazem was chosen out of the other federal police recruits and given extra urban warfare training by the U.S.-led coalition.

Close urban combat has an extremely high casualty rate, according to Swedish Army Sgt. Emil Andersson, who was trained in urban combat, now working as a volunteer medic near the front lines. Khazem said he was wounded many times.

"Mortars hit me all over my body, even near my penis," he said. "But even though I get injured, I always return to fight again."

Many others were not as lucky. Khazem said he lost 37 comrades in the fight against ISIS over the past two years.

The biggest challenge is rescuing civilians held hostage by the ISIS militants, he said.

"Our brothers and sisters are being used as human shields. We're going to defend our families," Khazem said. "We give our blood because we need to get our country back."
Posted by: gorb || 04/18/2017 12:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Guy's gotta have a hobby he loves
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2017 20:42 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Photos Of Iran's New Qaher F-313 Fighter Jet Prototype Emerges
New photos emerged Saturday of a new prototype of Iran's stealth fighter jet, previous models of which were mocked by aviation experts who predicted it "would never fly."
Maybe it could somehow taxi with the engine inlet covers on with some magical new Iranian technology, but it would never fly that way.
The updated version of Qaher F-313 stealth fighter jet was unveiled during an exhibition for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, The Aviationist editor David Cenciotti reported. The exhibition showcased the achievements made by Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan within the last two years.

The prototype had the same shape as its 2013 predecessor but featured multiple changes, including a bigger cockpit, non-plexiglass canopy, dual exhaust nozzles, dorsal antenna and FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red) turret installed to the nose of the fighter jet.

The F-313 was first unveiled in February 2013, though it was criticized for being too small. The cockpit couldn't accommodate a "normal-sized" pilot and the wings weren't big enough to get it up in the air, according to The Aviationist.

The original version also had a slew of technical errors. The engine was not properly built, putting the back of the aircraft at risk of melting from heat. The craft's air intakes seemed too small, the blog said.
Aaaaand the Iranians took all that free advice and fixed things. Next time, keep your yap shut.
Ahmad Vahidi, Iran's defense minister at the time, said Iranian aerospace experts designed the jet to fly at a low altitude, carry weapons and land on short runways, according to DailyMail.com.

Iranian news site Khouz News did publish photos of F-313 appearing to fly over mountains in 2013, but was accused of photoshopping the image, DailyMail.com reported.

It's still unclear if the new prototype would be able to fly. The jet conducted taxi tests on Saturday during the exhibition.
Not if they think there are any F-22s around, they won't.
Recent statements released said that the F-313 fighter jet will be "a light close air support aircraft," The Aviationist reported.
Not much of a plane, but I'll bet they're closer to getting their turkey to fight than we are.
Posted by: gorb || 04/18/2017 11:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  At least ours flies.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 12:09 Comments || Top||

#2  ...aerospace experts designed the jet to fly at a low altitude...

Yea, at ground level, because that's all it can do!
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 04/18/2017 14:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Photoed at max operating altitude while escorted stealthily by a "Follow Me" truck.
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 || 04/18/2017 18:26 Comments || Top||

#4  As long as there is Photoshop, the F-313 will fly like the wind, a hot wind of Islamic cut & paste justice!
Posted by: SteveS || 04/18/2017 20:17 Comments || Top||

#5  They just need to replace the skin of this thing with cell phone gorilla glass. Stealth through transparency. It works for Wonder Woman, so its a proven technology for your next prototype.
Posted by: rammer || 04/18/2017 21:58 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Russia's new Arctic Trefoil military base
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 11:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
North Korea Offers Unconditional Surrender After Mike Pence Angrily Squints at It
Moved to opinion because it's labeled as satire.

-- trailing wife at 12:10 p.m. EDT
Looks like we need some Pence images. In the meantime, this will suffice.
[NewYorker]. PYONGYANG (The Borowitz Report)--In a major foreign-policy coup for the Trump Administration, North Korea offered to unconditionally abandon its nuclear program on Monday, after Mike Pence spent several minutes angrily squinting at the nation from just across the border.

Warning North Korea that the United States had jettisoned its policy of "strategic patience" and that "all options were on the table," Pence fixed his steely glare on the isolated Communist nation and began furiously staring it down.

After Pence spent between five and six minutes demonstrating U.S. resolve by squinting indignantly, the government in Pyongyang released a statement indicating that North Korea’s nuclear ambitions were a thing of the past.

"We will henceforth abandon our nuclear program and dismantle all existing nuclear facilities," read the official statement from North Korean President Kim Jong-un. "In exchange, we request that Mike Pence stop giving us that really mean look."

Moments after the North Korean statement, Pence ordered his facial muscles to stand down, and the Vice-President’s face assumed a peacetime footing.

At the White House, press secretary Sean Spicer said that the successful U.S. action in North Korea should "send a strong message to barbaric dictators around the world that the United States stands ready to use the full force and fury of Mike Pence’s angry face."

Spicer said that, after leaving North Korea, Pence was dispatched to Mosul, Iraq, where he is scheduled to spend several minutes angrily squinting at ISIS.
Posted by: gorb || 04/18/2017 11:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Satire is funny. Speaking of funny, I thought the DMZ show was performed for a South Korean audience.
Posted by: The peanut gallery || 04/18/2017 13:16 Comments || Top||

#2  While I like VP Pence, I think SecDef Mattis would do a better job at staring down the NorKs.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 04/18/2017 13:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Maybe the Norks should be provided with some of General Mattis' more familiar quotes prior to glaring across the DMZ.

1. "The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot."

2. "I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all."

3. "Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (in American democracy) and kill every one of them until they’re so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact."

4. "Marines don't know how to spell the word defeat."

5. "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/18/2017 17:02 Comments || Top||


Economy
San Francisco's minimum wage spike is already shutting down restaurants
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 11:05 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Unexpectedly!
Posted by: Raj || 04/18/2017 11:29 Comments || Top||

#2  The natural beauty of the bay, the bridge and the area surrounding San Francisco are jaw dropping. But when you're in the city and some homeless bum is pestering you for spare change while his friends take a leak on the sidewalk, not so much. For that you'll pay through the nose for a decent hotel room and a place to park your car. The money goes to people who vote for the likes of Nancy Pelosi. I haven't been there in a few years and don't care if I never go there again.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/18/2017 12:52 Comments || Top||

#3  The liberals don't quite get cause-and-effect relationships--unintended consequences.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/18/2017 16:54 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia: Embarrassing Cold War Reminders
The government has an awkward situation in Syria. Immediately after the April 7 American cruise missile attack on a Syrian air base (in retaliation of earlier Syrian use of nerve gas) the Russian Internet lit up with embarrassing discussions about that happened to Russian boasts in late 2016 that the Russian air defense system in Syria was operational. Using these very current and high-tech air defense weapons (Tor 2, S-400 and so on) Russia controlled who could use Syrian air space. Thus the American use of 59 cruise missiles to hit that Syrian air base, destroy about 20 percent of the Syrian air force and not touch the Russian aircraft and troops there, was either done with Russian permission or these expensive new air defense systems were vulnerable to American countermeasures. That was a common source of humiliation during the Cold War when, time and time again, the West, usually the Americans, came up with some unexpected tech to neutralize Russian systems, especially air defense and aircraft electronics. The government was forced to note these embarrassing comments on Russian language Internet message boards and announced that Russian policy was not to use the air defense system against external air threats in Syria, or at least not the ones that were no threat to Russian troops. Other government officials commented that the Russian air defense systems could detect low-flying cruise missiles but not everywhere as these cruise missiles could be programmed to deliberately take advantage of terrain (hills) and also detect and avoid Russian radars. Older Russians then recalled hearing the same excuses during the Cold War. The people running Russia remember it as well and that seemed to account for the public displays (in the UN and to the international media) of anger at the Americans. It wasn’t just what the Americans did but how they did it.

Russia has more to dislike about what the U.S. is doing in Syria. For example there are the bases the Americans are building in northern (Kurd controlled) Syria. Turkey and the Assads oppose these American bases but the bases remain because the Americans, and most of the world, no longer consider the Assads legitimate rulers of Syria. The Assads and their allies Iran and Russia disagree. As long as the American bases were there to support the fight against ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) Iran and Russia did not make an issue of these bases or the thousand or so U.S. troops in Syria. But now that the U.S. has, for the first time, carried out a major military attack on the Assad forces and may continue to do so, a suitable response is necessary. There is not much the Assads can do. They have not been able to prevent regular Israeli air attacks (to prevent Iranian advanced weapons from being moved to Lebanon) and it is no secret that the U.S. and Israel are close allies. The Russians have already made it clear that they will side with the Israelis if forced to decide between the Assads and Israel. This has put Iran in a difficult position and the latest American move makes that worse. All foreign forces operating in Syria are supposed to be there to deal with ISIL but Iran and Russia only pretended and were often criticized because most of the military activity in Syria was to weaken rebels (mainly non-ISIL) fighting to overthrow the Assads.

While Russia is officially in Syria to defeat ISIL and keep the Assads in power they (semi-officially) also want to maintain good relations with Israel and Sunni Arab countries while doing it. This annoys Iran. Israel has made it clear that there can never be peace in Syria if Iran tries to establish a permanent presence there. The Iranians say they are in Syria to stay and the Russians (so far) have said they oppose that. Iran wants to stay in Syria as part of its decades old effort to destroy Israel and a centuries old effort to make the Shia form of Islam dominant in the Islamic world (that is over 80 percent non-Shia). Meanwhile Israel says it can live with the Assads as long as Iran is not maintaining a military presence in Syria. Many Turks agree with Israel on that point and newly elected U.S. government has come out strongly against any permanent Iranian presence in Syria. The Americans still want the Assads gone but despite that the U.S., Israel and Turkey agree on some key goals.

The Russian intervention appears to be permanent (as far as the Russians are concerned) and the Assads are OK with that. Turkey and Iran are not so sure and Iran is openly opposed to Turkish troops being in Syria at all. At the same time Iran is demanding the right to establish a naval base in Syria. This is not a new idea. In 2011 Iran pledged to pay for the construction of a naval base on the Syrian Mediterranean coast. That proposal was put aside as the rebellion against the Assads grew but now Iran wants some payback for playing a key role in maintaining the Assads in power. All these overlapping and often contradictory goals and alliances may seem odd to an outsider but this is the Middle East, where such complex arrangements are the old normal.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 09:29 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
The campus thought police want you to feel sorry for them.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/18/2017 08:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, I kinda do.
They're pretty much out of work.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 14:41 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Transhumanism: Facebook people, will they always be with us ?
'Uploaded' Excerpt (Guardian) What makes the transhumanist movement so seductive is that it promises to restore, through science, the transcendent hopes that science itself has obliterated. Transhumanists do not believe in the existence of a soul, but they are not strict materialists, either. Kurzweil claims he is a "patternist", characterising consciousness as the result of biological processes, "a pattern of matter and energy that persists over time". These patterns, which contain what we tend to think of as our identity, are currently running on physical hardware ‐ the body ‐ that will one day give out. But they can, at least in theory, be transferred onto supercomputers, robotic surrogates or human clones. A pattern, transhumanists would insist, is not the same as a soul. But it’s not difficult to see how it satisfies the same longing. At the very least, a pattern suggests that there is some essential core of our being that will survive and perhaps transcend the inevitable degradation of flesh.

Quiryings Stories in Stone - 'Like Me' now, 'Like Me' later.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/18/2017 07:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Somewhat related from PJ Media, 11 May, 2014:

4 Amazing Facts Suggesting the Mind Can Exist Independent of the Brain
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/18/2017 8:09 Comments || Top||

#2  You have remarkable depth Berserker.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 14:57 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
The war on drugs is racist. Donald Trump is embracing it with open arms
[Guardian] When I first read the Washington Post story that the US attorney general, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, wants to "bring back" the "war on drugs", I thought to myself: bring back? Where did it go? Is General Sessions himself on drugs? Because, despite a few modest reforms, somebody would have to be high to think the war on drugs has really gone away.

But the framing of an impetus to "bring back" the drug war is the same as Donald Trump’s fantasy of making America "great again" and must be understood for exactly what it is: a white power grab to control black and brown people couched in the restoration of past glory.

Drugs have long been used to scapegoat black and Latino people, even as study after study finds that white youth use drugs more than their non-white peers and white people are the more likely to have contraband on them when stopped by police. As Trump plans a "deportation force", a war on drugs amped up on raids will help create darker-skinned scapegoats as he rips immigrant communities apart.

General Sessions will lead this war for Trump. Standing on the US-Mexico border, General Sessions mischaracterized immigration as consisting of "criminal organizations that turn cities and suburbs into warzones, that rape and kill innocent citizens". Evoking the same racialized sexual fear to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment that his boss did when he began his campaign by calling Mexican rapists, Sessions ignored that immigrants commit fewer crimes as he defiantly took a "stand against this filth".

The war on drugs is itself a kind of opiate of the white masses, hustled and imbibed to stoke white people’s fear about people of color ‐ even as there already about 1.5 million black men already disappeared from US society by early death or incarceration.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/18/2017 07:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Calling other people racist. It is truly evergreen.
Posted by: Herb McCoy7309 || 04/18/2017 9:15 Comments || Top||

#2  About the writer:

Steven W Thrasher is writer-at-large for Guardian US. He was named Journalist of the Year 2012 by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, BuzzFeed, the Advocate and more.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2017 10:26 Comments || Top||

#3  And I suppose he considers himself a nationalist gentleman-of-color as well but that does nothing to correct his 'near vision'. He writes about "criminal organizations that turn cities and suburbs into warzones" with a projection across The Pond. That desperate focus denies Europe's own 'no go' neighborhoods populated by "non-founders". His venom paints him as another prejudiced leftist word hack bashing Trump. I wonder what unoriginal content he has for May?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 15:12 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
MIT expert claims latest chemical weapons attack in Syria was staged
h/t Jerry Pournelle
...Theodore Postol, a professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), issued a series of three reports in response to the White House's finding that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad perpetrated the attack on 4 April.

He concluded that the US government's report does not provide any "concrete" evidence that Assad was responsible, adding it was more likely that the attack was perpetrated by players on the ground.

Postol said: "I have reviewed the [White House's] document carefully, and I believe it can be shown, without doubt, that the document does not provide any evidence whatsoever that the US government has concrete knowledge that the government of Syria was the source of the chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria at roughly 6am to 7am on 4 April, 2017.

"In fact, a main piece of evidence that is cited in the document point to an attack that was executed by individuals on the ground, not from an aircraft, on the morning of 4 April.

...The image Postol refers to is that of a crater containing a shell inside, which is said to have contained the sarin gas.

His analysis of the shell suggests that it could not have been dropped from an airplane as the damage of the casing is inconsistent from an aerial explosion. Instead, Postol said it was more likely that an explosive charge was laid upon the shell containing sarin, before being detonated.

...The implication of Postol's analysis is that it was carried out by anti-government insurgents as Khan Sheikhoun is in militant-controlled territory of Syria.

Postol, formerly a scientific advisor at the Department of Defense (DoD), has previously outlined similar inconsistencies with US intelligence reports. Following the 2013 chemical weapons attack in eastern Ghouta, Postol again said the evidence did not suggest Assad was responsible ‐ a finding that was later corroborated by the United Nations.

...Postol said: "No competent analyst would miss the fact that the alleged sarin canister was forcefully crushed from above, rather than exploded by a munition within it.

"All of these highly amateurish mistakes indicate that this White House report, like the earlier Obama White House Report [from Ghouta in 2013], was not properly vetted by the intelligence community as claimed.

"I have worked with the intelligence community in the past, and I have grave concerns about the politicisation of intelligence that seems to be occurring with more frequency in recent times ‐ but I know that the intelligence community has highly capable analysts in it.

"And if those analysts were properly consulted about the claims in the White House document they would have not approved the document going forward."
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/18/2017 04:33 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Donor to Jahn Fn Kerry and John Tierney = Democrat
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2017 7:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Following the 2013 chemical weapons attack in eastern Ghouta, Postol again said the evidence did not suggest Assad was responsible

Old fashioned one?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/18/2017 7:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Seems like most of this paper is guessing, wishing, without any real evidence either.

More fake news from the demoncrats.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 8:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Go back to being a self described expert at MIT. Those who can do, those who cant .....
Posted by: 49 Pan || 04/18/2017 10:38 Comments || Top||

#5  The question then becomes, where did the Sarin come from? It's not something you can brew up in your kitchen.

Either the regime, in which case they violate their agreement to get rid of CW, or a third party, and that could only be Turkey.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/18/2017 15:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Kim, there are tons of Sarin & staff around ME.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/18/2017 16:12 Comments || Top||

#7  Not after Hilda was SoS and cleaned it all up during the Arab Spring....she was huge success and brought peace to the region. Her Book said so...
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 04/18/2017 18:44 Comments || Top||


Syrian defector: Of course Assad kept hundreds of tons of chemical weapons
[Hot Air] Get ready for more red-lining from Bashar al-Assad. Despite claims from Russia and the Syrian dictator himself that he fully disarmed his chemical-weapons program, a high-ranking defector tells the UK Telegraph that Assad still has hundreds of tons of those munitions stockpiled for use by his military. General Zaher al-Sakat says that includes sarin gas, the munitions used against a village in Idlib province that provoked a military strike from the US in reprisal (via Guy Benson):

President Bashar al-Assad continues to retain hundreds of tonnes of his country’s chemical stockpile after deceiving United Nations inspectors sent in to dismantle it, according to Syria’s former chemical weapons research chief and other experts.

Brigadier-General Zaher al-Sakat ‐ who served as head of chemical warfare in the powerful 5th Division of the military until he defected in 2013 ‐ told The Telegraph that Assad’s regime failed to declare large amounts of sarin and its precursor chemicals. ...

"They [the regime] admitted only to 1,300 tonnes, but we knew in reality they had nearly double that," said Brig Gen Sakat, who was one of the most senior figures in the country’s chemical programme. "They had at least 2,000 tonnes. At least."

How does Sakat know this? As one of Assad’s brigadier generals, he received orders to carry out these attacks. He claims that he ordered the deadly chemicals replaced with harmless substances, and then defected over the genocidal nature of the regime:

Sakat has said in the past that he himself was ordered to carry out chemical strikes on three different occasions before he defected. In those instances he switched out the deadly agents in the bombs for harmless chemicals.

"I couldn’t believe at the beginning that Assad would use these weapons on his people," he said. "I could not stand and watch the genocide. I couldn’t hurt my own people."
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/18/2017 03:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  on his people

And there we have the root problem with the fascist, socialist, communist, progressive left philosophy.

They are NOT his people. Until the individual reigns supreme and the government works for the people in the ideal as expressed in the US is supposed to work tyrants will continue to commit these crimes.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/18/2017 8:30 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
The MOAB Hit Afghanistan So Hard It Cracked Buildings In Neighboring Pakistan
[Daily Caller] The U.S. military’s non-nuclear "mother of all bombs" (MOAB) hit the Islamic State in Afghanistan so hard that it cracked buildings in neighboring Pakistan.

Villagers complained to Dawn, a newspaper in Pakistan, that the bomb cracked numerous houses and a mosque in Malana village located in the foothills of the White Mountain, which serves as a border between the two countries.

The MOAB hit an ISIS base last Thursday in the foothills of the White Mountain on exactly the other side of the border in the Afghan province of Nangarhar, leaving 90 dead, though initial death tolls placed the number at only 36. Green Beret Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar died of small arms fire in early April in the same province.

"We felt light shocks, but did not realise it was because of a bomb," said Muhammad Hassan, one of the Malana villagers who spoke with Dawn.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/18/2017 03:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looking for damage reparations are they?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2017 7:10 Comments || Top||

#2  ...would make good 'Free Stuff' Democrats.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/18/2017 8:16 Comments || Top||

#3  And there is more where that came from, bucko
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 9:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Come to think of it, I think I got some very expensive cracks that showed up in my foundation after that bomb hit . . . .

Either way, if true, it gives me even more confidence that the thing did its job.
Posted by: gorb || 04/18/2017 10:17 Comments || Top||

#5  Not that there's any connection between an al-Qaeda/ISIS tunnel complex in Afghanistan and numerous houses and a mosque across the border in Pakistain.

Nope.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 10:38 Comments || Top||

#6  It'll buff right out...
Posted by: Raj || 04/18/2017 11:22 Comments || Top||

#7  Time to upgrade those Paki building codes.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/18/2017 12:02 Comments || Top||

#8  Frackers!
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 12:07 Comments || Top||

#9  Talk about sending a message.
Posted by: newc || 04/18/2017 13:04 Comments || Top||

#10  I guess we know where the other ends of those tunnels are - err, were - now.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/18/2017 13:19 Comments || Top||

#11  Any additional tremors are earth quakes, courtesy of the US MOAB,creating new fault lines near your Mosque.
Posted by: Nero White 3083 || 04/18/2017 14:43 Comments || Top||

#12  Reports of terrorist attack in Fresno. Several deaths.
Posted by: Nero White 3083 || 04/18/2017 16:55 Comments || Top||

#13  The MOAB is real ball buster. I heard today there is one non-nuclear bomb that is even larger.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/18/2017 17:32 Comments || Top||

#14  Glenmore I was wondering that too; wonder if someone had the wide angle looking for little puffs of dirt.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/18/2017 19:26 Comments || Top||

#15  "I'll smack you so hard they'll feel it in Pakistan!"
Posted by: SteveS || 04/18/2017 19:58 Comments || Top||

#16  What Did I Tell You? Even More MOAB Madness
Posted by: newc || 04/18/2017 20:58 Comments || Top||


Economy
Toshiba's survival in doubt amid Westinghouse troubles
[Wash Times] TOKYO (AP) - Toshiba Corp., whose U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse Electric Co. has filed for bankruptcy protection, raised doubts Tuesday about its ability to survive as a company.

In an unaudited financial report, Toshiba projected a 1.01 trillion yen ($9.2 billion) loss for the fiscal year that ended in March, a figure that ballooned from the 390 billion yen loss forecast in February because of the troubles at Westinghouse . Four nuclear reactors Westinghouse is helping to build in South Carolina and Georgia are behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.

Toshiba said its recent financial losses have reduced its assets, resulting in downgrades by credit rating agencies and a breach in the terms of some loans. In addition, the Tokyo company said it counts on a special construction business license from the Japanese government and warned that a renewal after this year depends on meeting certain financial criteria.

Thus, Toshiba said, "there are material events and conditions that raise the substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern ."
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/18/2017 03:09 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We have been building nuclear reactors for 70 years. It shouldn't be a high risk activity. I assume the problem is constantly changing regulations.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/18/2017 3:54 Comments || Top||

#2  The regulation aspect had been resolved, and was one of the factors that *encouraged* the building of these units in Georgia (not South Carolina): the Licensing process was changed to guarantee that if you are preapproved for a license to operate it before you build it, AND you build it according to specifications, you can operate it.

My job allows me to know the exact reason for the problems at the site in question, but contractual and federal regulations require that I not discuss it.
Posted by: ptah || 04/18/2017 12:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Correction: there ARE two units in South Carolina, but they were in the planning stages with no ground broken. The units having issues in Georgia are Vogtle 3 and 4
Posted by: ptah || 04/18/2017 13:04 Comments || Top||

#4  contractual and federal regulations require that I not discuss it.

C'mon ptah, how you gonna make your fame and fortune from Soros funded proggies and the Russians with that kind of attitude? ;^)
Posted by: AlanC || 04/18/2017 14:30 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm still boycotting Toshiba after they sold US sub secrets to the Soviets.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/18/2017 14:34 Comments || Top||

#6  "there are material events and conditions that raise the substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern ."

Accountant speak for 'We're toast!'
Posted by: Raj || 04/18/2017 17:31 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Gov't turns 'blind eye' to Obama pardons and commutations convicts
[Breitbart] The Department of Justice should keep the public informed about the results of former President Barack Obama’s decision to grant early releases to 1,715 convicts, says a former federal prosecutor.

"What [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions Justice Department needs to do now is track the hundreds of fellows who got these pardons and commutations," said former federal prosecutor Bill Otis. "With overall recidivism rates for drug offenses already being 77 percent, I think we have a pretty good idea, but [the public] should get specifics: How many of these guys re-offend; what’s the nature of the new crime; were there related violent crimes in the mix as well; and how many victims (including but not limited to addicts and overdose victims) were there?"

But only the Department of Justice has the manpower and access to raw data needed to detail and analyze Obama’s last-minute, closed-door process which released a record 1,715 convicts back into Americans’ neighborhoods. At least one other group has tried to gauge the impact of President George W. Bush’s pardons--but that group had to hire three researchers to assemble only some of the data that the federal government has at its fingertips but does not share.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/18/2017 02:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Three wounded in explosion southeast of Baghdad
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Three civilians were maimed Monday when an bomb went kaboom! in southeastern Baghdad, security sources were quoted saying.

Alghad Press quoted the sources saying that an bomb went off in Jisr Diyala (bridge) district, southeast of the capital, wounding three people.

The United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) has said that violence in the country lef 1115 casualties, excluding security members, during March. Baghdad was the second most affected province with 84 deaths and 246 injuries, according to the organization’s monthly casualty count.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2017 02:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Tales of ISIS in Tal Afar, west of Mosul
Detained IS dissidents set free in mysterious attack west of Mosul

Tal Afar (IraqiNews.com) Attackers invaded a prison west of Mosul where the Islamic State holds dissident members, killing three of its guards, according to a local source in Nineveh.

Seven inmates were set free from the prison which held between 15 and 20 detainees arrested by the group over the past few months for declaring dissent, Alsumaria News quoted the source saying Monday.

IS members raised alert and launched searches in the region to catch the fugitive detainees.

IS on alert after top Baghdadi aide assassinated west of Mosul

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State members raised alert in their stronghold town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, after a senior aide to supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was assassinated.

A local source in Nineveh told Alsumaria News that unknown gunmen killed Hassab-Allah al-Qawqazi near his home in central Tal Afar. According to the source, Qawqazi’s dwelling originally belonged to a security officer, and was seized after IS took over Tal Afar in 2014.

Qawqazi kept a low profile most of the time, and his assassination prompted wide-scale searches across the region for perpetrators.

Tal Afar had previously seen assassinations of senior IS members, with recurrent reports denoting growing divisions and conflicts within the extremist group’s ranks as Baghdadi’s whereabouts or survival remain matters of controversy. IS has lost several senior commanders over the past few weeks in central Mosul since an offensive was launched in February to retake the western side of the city.

Pro-Iraqi government paramilitary troops, al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units), have been active around Tal Afar, recapturing several nearby villages and towns since a U.S.-backed offensive was launched in October to retake Mosul, Islamic State’s largest bastion in Iraq.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2017 02:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Western Mosul Offensive News

Police: 60 Islamic State members, including senior member, killed in western Mosul

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi police said they killed 60 Islamic State militants on Monday during incursions in western Mosul, including a senior member.

Federal Police chief, Lt. Gen Shaker Jawdat, said his forces killed 60 IS members while advancing in al-Farouq, a district near the Old City’s Nuri al-Kabir Mosque. He said the incursion was backed by fighter jets from the U.S.-led coalition and artillery strikes.

Those killed included Aziz Fares al-Anzi, the group’s former chief vigilante for southern Mosul’s town of Qayyara, according to Jawdat.

He added that 13 booby-trapped vehicles were destroyed while booby-traps in houses were deactivated.

Two army soldiers killed during clashes with IS in western Mosul

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Two elite fighters from the Iraqi army were killed Monday during encounters with Islamic State militants in western Mosul, according to officers.

Cap. Jabbar Hassan, from the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service, told Anadolu Agency that two members from the force were killed during clashes that broke out late Sunday and extended through Monday morning at the Tenek and Thawra districts.

Hassan predicted that security troops would fully take over Tenek on Monday. Meanwhile, security sources were quoted saying Iraqi troops recaptured a third of al-Thawra, which troops invaded Sunday.

Coalition strikes kill IS drone experts, destroy factory in Mosul

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Airstrikes by the U.S.-led international military coalition killed Islamic State foreign drone experts and destroyed a drones factory in western Mosul on Monday.

The Iraqi military intelligence service said in a statement the strikes targeted a drones factory belonging to the group in Islah al-Zerai district.

Islamic State militants have largely relied on bomb-supplied drones in targeting Iraqi security forces and civilians in both western and eastern Mosul. Some of those attacks targeted areas recaptured by Iraqi security in the eastern side, leaving some civilians and security members dead.

Flooding cuts off aid supplies, escape route from west Mosul

[IraqiNews] Flooding has made all bridges across the Tigris in and out of western Mosul impassable, cutting off aid supplies and escape routes for people fleeing the Islamic State-held part of the Iraqi city.

With the bridges down, hundreds of civilians crossed the surging river on small wooden boats on Sunday, some carrying babies and all carting suitcases or bags full of clothes.

They were some of the around 400,000 people still in western Mosul where Iraqi military forces are trying to dislodge IS from the Old City.

Mosul’s permanent bridges over the Tigris river have been destroyed during the fighting, but the army had built two pontoon bridges which had allowed people to flee to safety in the east, and aid to get through to a camp for the displaced on the western side of the river.

But since the bridges were closed on Friday, no aid convoy has reached the Hammam al-Alil camp, southwest of Mosul, the main arrival point for displaced fleeing the fighting, a camp and a U.N. official said.

It was unlcear whether the bridges had become submerged or damaged by the floods, but soldiers blocking the approach roads said they were unusable.

The camp, like other facilities in western Mosul, is supplied by road from Erbil, some 80 km (50 miles) to the east, in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region where aid agencies are based.

Issam al-Jibouri, a displaced resident who went by boat to western Mosul to take supplies to needy relatives, said: “We urge more efforts to reconstruct the bridges or bring larger boats.”

Like others, he had to pay 1,000 Iraqi dinars ($1) for the brief trip.

Iraqi forces control 75% of western Mosul: municipal official

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi government forces have become in control over 75 percent of the western side of Mosul as battles continue with Islamic State militants, according to a local official.

Hossam al-Abbar, a member of the Nineveh province council, said in statements Monday that security troops were controlling 75 percent of the western side. He said battles are currently concentrated around the Grand Nuri al-Kabir Mosque in the Old City, where troops prepare to storm the area with snipers, hand grenades and assault rifles, excluding artillery and aircraft to prevent civilian casualties.

Government troops, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, recaptured eastern Mosul in January after three months of battles. They charged at the western side in February.

The Joint Operations Command said earlier this week its forces were controlling 60 percent of western Mosul. Police forces said Sunday they fully besieged the strategic Old City, home of the mosque where IS first declared the establishment of its rule in Iraq and neighboring Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2017 02:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Afghanistan
Karzai calls Ghani a traitor
[DAWN] Former Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, 12th President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in an attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
said on Sunday that his successor Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
was a traitor because he allowed the United States to drop the largest non-nuclear bomb on Afghanistan’s soil.

He also pledged to oust US forces from Afghanistan.

In a series of interviews to US and international media outlets, Mr Karzai said that dropping the bomb was a "brutal act against innocent people" and was also a threat to Afghan illusory sovereignty.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Like Obama calling Trump b..., um, well maybe saying Trump does bad things and should be replaced.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 14:27 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Nugal administration bans Al-Sadi’un Bil-Haq group from its territory
[GOOBJOOG] The local administration of Nugal region has banned al-Sadi’un Bil-Haq group, following the faction’s support by individuals in several towns in Somalia.

The Governor of Nugal region, Omar Abdulahi Faraweyne has announced the ban on the group in Puntland
...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion...
regions and order the closure of all the centers linked to the al-Sadi’un Bil-Haq group.

" Puntland has been engaging fighting against ISIS and al-Shabaab
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
bully boys, now we declare war against this new group, we call upon the public to collaborate with the security agencies in order to annihilate the group and its secret cells," said Faraweyne.

He said that government has instructed the security forces to arrest any member linked to the group.

The new group which its name roughly translated "proclaimers of the truth" was declared early this month in Egypt by an Egyptian citizen named Mostafa Kamel Mohammed.

Several groups in Puntland, Somaliland and other parts of Somalia have pledged allegiance to the group and announced establishment of the group in their respective constituencies.

Somali holy mans earlier denounced the group describing it as "an anti-Islamic group" and urged the public to stay alert from accepting its holy warrior ideology to apostatize other people.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Hafter aide claims LNA has military links with Misratans
[Libya Herald] There are many social and military contacts between Misrata and tribal elders in the east as well as with the Libyan National Army (LNA) a close aide to armed forces commander-in-chief Khalifa Hafter has claimed.

Abdelbasset al-Badri has told the Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram al-Arabi that Misrata had an important and active role in Libya and could not be ignored.

"We have contacts with many of the sons of Misrata" he said, "and they are the sons of Libya like all other Libyans."

Badri said that more and more Misratans were "listening to the language of reason". He insisted that he did not "fully blame" the city of Misrata for supporting terrorist groups inside Benghazi, where there were "radical Islamic currents". He said there were similar currents in Misrata but added that these were not shared throughout the city.

Badri said thon the lam amounts of money had been paid by the Benghazi Defence Brigades to young men, including secondary school students, who had been "tricked" into going in to battle against the LNA .

Badri gave no details of the military links he claimed between Misrata and the LNA but said that the sheikhs elders in the city were in contract with their counterparts in the east.

Badri’s comments may cause increased tension in Misrata where the military council is endeavouring to oust the elected municipal council, most recently bricking up the council offices. In the recent past Badri has been used by Hafter as a personal envoy. Last month he was in Moscow
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Caribbean-Latin America
Army Declares Loyalty to Maduro as Venezuela Braces for 'Mother of All Protests'
[An Nahar] Venezuela's defense minister on Monday declared the army's loyalty to President Nicolas Maduro, who ordered troops into the streets ahead of a major protest by opponents trying to oust him.

Venezuela is bracing for what Maduro's opponents vow will be the "mother of all protests" Wednesday, after two weeks of violent demos against moves by the leftist leader and his allies to tighten their grip on power.

The center-right opposition has called on the military -- a pillar of Maduro's power -- to turn on the president amid an economic and political crisis that has triggered severe food shortages, riots and looting.

But Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said the army "confirms its unconditional loyalty to the president."

He made the comment before thousands of pro-Maduro militia members at a rally outside the presidential palace, where the president thanked the army and the civilian militia for their support.

"Loyalty is repaid with loyalty," the president said.

The rally came hours after Maduro ordered the military into the streets to defend the leftist "Bolivarian revolution" launched by his late mentor Hugo Chavez in 1999.

"From the first reveille (on Monday morning), from the first rooster crow, the Bolivarian National Armed Forces will be in the streets... saying, 'Long live the Bolivarian revolution,'" he said Sunday night in a televised address.

He denounced his opponents as "traitors" and praised the military's "unity and revolutionary commitment."

Despite his announcement, there was no sign of soldiers on patrol Monday morning in Caracas, though state TV showed images of army units marching in formation in the streets of the capital as the defense minister watched.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Til they aren't getting fed either
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2017 7:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Exactly Frank. Once the paychecks stop, they will depose him faster than you can say Utopia.

Always keep the Pretorians paid and fed.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 10:59 Comments || Top||

#3  "mother of all protests"

What's this thing with Mothers?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 12:16 Comments || Top||

#4  Must have started with a translation of Saddam Hussain's mother of all battles or something.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/18/2017 19:11 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Around 2,000 kgs of explosives seized in Kabul
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Around two thousand kilograms of explosives were seized during an operation by the Afghan forces in Kabul
...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either....
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) said the explosives were kept inside a house and the holy warriors were apparently using them in terrorist attacks.

The Ministry further added that the operation was conducted in the vicinity of Char Asiab district of Kabul which resulted into the confiscation of the explosives.

MoI also added that an investigation is underway in this regard.

The Taliban gunnies mostly use the explosives of Ammonium Nitrate type to manufacture Improvised Explosive Devices which are mainly used in roadside kaboomings.

Roadside bombings are considered as the main cause of the casualties of the security forces, babus government employees, and the ordinary civilians.

This comes as the Afghan forces on Saturday foiled a plot by the anti-government armed holy warriors to launch rockets on Kabul city.

At: least ten rockets prepared for the attack was discovered and confiscated from the Khak-e-Jabar district o Kabul before the holy warriors manage to fire them on the city.

The latest developments comes as the anti-government armed holy warriors are attempting to destabilize the key cities of the country including capital Kabul, a move which the gunnies often adopt as the weather gets warm.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  Was Kharzai there to complain?
Posted by: gorb || 04/18/2017 10:49 Comments || Top||


Taliban kill alleged adulterers and spies
[FOXNEWS] An Afghan official says that Talibs have stoned a man and a woman accused of adultery to death.

Salim Sallhe, front man for the governor of Pashtun-infested Logar province, said the incident happened on Sunday in a remote area of the Mohammad Agha district where the government does not hold authority. Sallhe says a preliminary police investigation says the stoning did not take place in public.

Elsewhere in northern Sari Pul province, officials say Talibs killed three women and a young boy who were accused of spying.

Zabiullah Amani, the front man for the provincial governor, said the victims were accused of providing the government with information from inside Taliban-held territory.

Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had no comment on the two reports.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Africa Subsaharan
Boko Haram: Troops rescue 1,623 persons, kill 21 terrorists
[THEEAGLEONLINE.NG] Troops of 3 Battalion, 22 Brigade Nigerian Army on Operation Lafiya Dole, assisted by 10 Civilian JTF based on information received, on Monday embarked on an offensive on suspected location of Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
murderous Moslems at Jarawa general area, Kala Balge Local Government Area of Borno State.

While advancing, the troops came under heavy fire at Jarawa village.

The troops responded decisively and went further to clear Deima, Artano, Saduguma, Duve, Bardo, Kala, Bok, Msherde and Ahirde settlements.

During the operation, the troops neutralized 21 Boko Haram murderous Moslems and rescued 1,623 residents of Jarawa who were held captives by the terrorists.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Boko Haram (ISIS)


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Tajikistan's Islamic State Contingent Reportedly Suffers Grave Blows
[EURASIANET.ORG] Media outlets have in recent days reported on the death of senior Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group faceless myrmidons from Tajikistan -- including US-trained former riot police commander Gulmurod Khalimov -- in what appears to amount to a devastating blow to the radical organization’s Central Asian contingent.

The Times of London cited military sources in Iraq as saying that Khalimov was killed by a missile strike on the city of djinn-infested Mosul
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


India-Pakistan
Lynching suspect gives statement: 'University administration asked me to testify against Mashal'
[DAWN] A student tossed in the calaboose
Please don't kill me!
in the Mashal Khan lynching case on Monday has said that the administration of Abdul Wali Khan University asked him to testify against the dear departed.

The accused, Wajahat, admitted that he was part of the mob which lynched the 23-year-old Mardan university student.

His statement comes hours after Abdullah, a student who survived despite being beaten violently, said he was asked to testify that Mashal had committed blasphemy -- a request which he refused.

Suspect Wajahat also claimed in his statement that on April 13 he was called to the chairman’s office by class representative Mudassir Bashir, who asked him to testify against Mashal before the university administration.

"Some 15 to 20 people, including university officials were present at the chairman's office."

"The administration had convened the meeting to decide the case of Mashal Khan and Bashir had called me to be a witness regarding the blasphemous ideas of Mashal Khan," said the accused. Despite senior police officials saying they have found no evidence to suggest Mashal had engaged in activity amounting to blasphemy, Wajahat claims Mashal 'committed blasphemy'.

He also alleged that the security in-charge of the university, Bilal Baksh, said those that step forward to protect Mashal and his supporters would be dealt with "an iron hand".

Baksh, according to Wajahat, further said that he would kill Mashal.

"Hearing this, the congress turned into a violent mob and rushed towards the hostel," said Wajahat.

In the statement, Wajahat has said that if he had known what the administration was conspiring against Mashal, he would have never come to the university on that day.

On April 13, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan student Mashal Khan, 23, was shot and beaten to death by a violent mob on university premises.

The mob had also wanted to burn his body before police intervened, a senior police official had said. He had been accused of blasphemy by fellow students.

Another student, Abdullah, was beaten bloody before police managed to rescue him from his attackers. An eyewitness said he was accused of belonging to the Ahmadi faith and forced to recite verses from the Holy Koran, then beaten savagely even though he repeatedly denied the accusation.

No case had been filed against the two students prior to the incident and police had not been investigating the two on blasphemy charges.

The mob instead seems to have been incited by rumours circulating among the university's student body.

Nonetheless, the university said it would investigate three students, including Mashal and Abdullah, for alleged blasphemous activities and ordered them rusticated and banned from the premises of all campuses of the university
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Hazing is fun until somebody gets hurt.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 14:29 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Erdogan reigns
[DAWN] RECEP Tayyip Erdogan has won a referendum which would change The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
from a parliamentary to a presidential democracy. Right? Not quite. Parliament would still have considerable powers. Nevertheless with the abolition of the post of prime minister and the authority to appoint ministers, members of the highest judiciary and to dissolve the national assembly, the powers of the president would be very significantly enhanced.

Erdogan will still need to win the 2019 elections. Given the closeness of the result this may not be a sure thing. His decision to restore the death penalty is also a clear signal that he has downgraded the priority of applying to join the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
. This may please a right-wing Europe but it will disappoint many Turks.

The margin of Erdogan’s ’yes’ vote over the ’no’ vote was around 1.3 million votes and more or less equal to the number of votes that were not stamped by the electoral authorities. This could become a problem for Erdogan similar to the one that has dogged Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
since his election in 2013. Moreover, there seem to have been a number of divides: an urban/rural divide; a borderlands/ central lands divide; a Kemalist (secular)/ conservative (Islamic) divide; a civil/military divide; and an internationalist (pro-West)/nationalist (Turkey first) divide.

Are these divides deep-rooted? Do they threaten national unity? Not necessarily. With good and inclusive governance they can be transcended and reduced to the normal range and variety of political opinions to be found in any functioning polity. But here comes another divide: does such governance need to meet Western criteria of democracy which reflect the historical development of responsible government? Or does it require a much stronger and transforming executive functioning within the parameters of the rule of law and a constitution that politically privileges and institutionalises the rights and entitlements of historically deprived segments of society -- the poor, women, minorities of all kinds, and, yes, political and non-violent dissidents?

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  And I thought "resigns", why he just got elected!
Posted by: Lampedusa Smith8745 || 04/18/2017 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Just another fraud king with a fraud base of liars.
Big Mooshkalah
Posted by: newc || 04/18/2017 0:28 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Atlanta roads, again
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Hit the road, jack."

"I did."
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 04/18/2017 15:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Stay off Sherman Boulevard.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/18/2017 19:45 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Islamic State seeking alliance with al Qaeda, Iraqi vice president says
[REUTERS] 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 talking to al Qaeda about a possible alliance as Iraqi troops close in on IS fighters in djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi said in an interview on Monday.

Allawi said he got the information on Monday from Iraqi and regional contacts knowledgeable about Iraq.

"The discussion has started now," Allawi said. "There are discussions and dialogue between messengers representing Baghdadi and representing Zawahiri
... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as the real brains of the outfit. Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodx al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra...
," referring to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and Ayman al Zawahiri, the head of al Qaeda.

Islamic State split from al Qaeda in 2014 and the two groups have since waged an acrimonious battle for recruits, funding and the mantle of global jihad. Zawahiri has publicly criticized Islamic State for its brutal methods, which have included beheadings, drownings and immolation.

It is unclear how exactly the two group may work together, Allawi said.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


-Obits-
Cascade Mall shooting: Suspected gunman found dead in prison cell
[BBC] A man accused of killing five people at a shopping mall in Washington state has been found hanging inside his prison cell, say officials.

Arcan Cetin,
...the troubled druggie, Turkish immigrant yoot who was brought to America when his mother married a nice American. Sadly, he brought his olde country attitudes with him, which did not please the local girls or the boys. He stole his step-papa's guns to shoot up the Macy's counter where his ex-girlfriend hadn't been working for ages...
20, who had been awaiting trial for the mass shooting in 2016, was found dead in the Snohomish County Jail on Sunday night.

He had been charged with five counts of aggravated murder, and could have faced the death penalty if found guilty.

Authorities have not yet determined the cause of death.

According to Sherlocks, Cetin shot five shoppers at a Macy's department store after first trying to enter through the backdoor of a nearby cinema.

The shooting spree at the Cascade shopping mall occurred less than three hours after he had sat down for dinner with his stepfather.

Surveillance footage from inside the mall shows the suspect opening fire on four woman and one man as they browsed the store.

Police say Cetin was inside the mall for less than one minute before he fled the store, leaving the .22 calibre rifle, which police say had been stolen from Cetin's stepfather, on a counter in the cosmetics department.

He was tossed in the clink
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
about 30 hours later as he walked near to his apartment in Oak Harbor, Washington, according to local media.
The Skagit Valley Herald adds:
Arcan Cetin, 20, died in an apparent suicide, Skagit County Prosecuting Attorney Rich Weyrich said Monday morning. Cetin appeared to have hanged himself.

At the request of one of his lawyers, Cetin had been held in Snohomish County for about a month, Weyrich said.

The move to Snohomish County came about because Cetin was making statements to other inmates that were "against his best interests," said Skagit County spokeswoman Bronlea Mishler.

Cetin was awaiting results of a second competency evaluation, a hearing for which had been scheduled for next week.
This article starring:
Arcan Cetin
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists

#1  Whelp, saved the taxpayers some money.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 11:44 Comments || Top||

#2  "Arcan, these 600-count thread sheets are luxurious and useful, if you know what I mean"
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2017 14:51 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
4 mine making factories destroyed in Afghan forces operation in Helmand
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least four factories producing Improvised Explosive Device (IED) were destroyed during an operation conducted by the Afghan commandos in southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
province.

Local officials said the operation was conducted on Sunday night in the vicinity of Marjah district.

At least 800 various types of Improvised Explosive Device and two vehicles were also destroyed during the operations.

The destruction of the four factories will have a positive impact to reduce the deadly roadside kaboomings which is one of the main tactics of the turbans to attack the government and security officials that also leads to civilian casualties.

According to the officials, the Afghan cops are currently busy in a counter-terrorism operation in various parts of Helmand, including Nawa and Marjah.

The operations were launched several days ago as the security officials are saying that the clearance operations are being conducted as part of the Khalid operations.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


India-Pakistan
Hate speech probe opens against two clerics in Mashal case
[DAWN] Police on Sunday opened a hate speech investigation involving two holy mans in connection with the killing of a university student over allegations he committed blasphemy.

The holy mans are accused of attempting to disrupt the funeral of Mashal Khan, who was beaten to death by fellow students after a dormitory debate was followed by accusations of blasphemy being spread across the Abdul Wali Khan University campus in Mardan.

University officials had issued a public notification hours before the murder naming three students being investigated for "blasphemous activities".

Mardan police chief Alam Shinwari said 20 people had been identified as culpable in the killing on the basis of videos taken during the attack, adding that the suspects would be tried by anti-terrorism courts.

Police say they are also investigating the holy mans in Mashal Khan’s hometown of Swabi for attempting to disrupt funeral proceedings and instigate hatred against his family.

"The two holy mans [used]... the mosque loudspeaker for hate speech against the slain student and his family and ... created hurdles for the people and another holy man to participate in the funeral," said a senior Swabi police official. He spoke with Rooters on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by hardliners.

A local imam had refused to lead Khan’s funeral prayers on Friday, according to Swabi resident Salman Ahmed. A technician who was asked to do so in the holy man’s place was confronted by several people afterwards.

Meanwhile,
...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase...
a large number of men and women erupted into the streets in the Zaida town, chanting slogans "Be Gunah, Be Gunah (innocent), Mashal Khan Be Gunah." Relatives and friends, political workers and representatives of civil society groups and the general public participated in the march.

It was probably for the first time in the area that a large number of women, with their heads covered, took part in a mourning procession that turned into a public meeting at a square in the town.

Floral wreaths were placed on the grave of Mashal Khan. People thronged the Hujra of the dear departed, offered Fateha and expressed solidarity with the grieving family.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Europe
Thousands of migrants rescued in 3 days in Mediterranean
[Ynet] About 8,300 migrants colonists have been rescued from unseaworthy smugglers boats over Easter weekend in the Mediterranean.

A UN refugee agency spokeswoman, Carlotta Sami, tweeted on Monday that "rescuers worked incessantly" over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, to save them. Eight migrants colonists died, including a pregnant woman.
So much easier and much less risky than the land route, or going across the sea from Turkey to Greece.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
13 Palestinians said wounded in clashes with Israeli forces over prison hunger strike
[IsraelTimes] At least 5 reported hurt from live fire during riot outside of Ofer Prison, festivities also reported in Bethlehem.

Israeli forces reportedly used live fire to disperse protests outside the Ofer Prison in the West Bank on Monday wounding at least five people, while seven others were hurt in a series of demonstrations in support of hunger-striking Paleostinian prisoners.

At the Ofer Prison near Ramallah a total of 11 protesters were maimed, including the five by live fire, Israel’s Channel 10 reported.

Two other Paleostinians were also reportedly injured by rubber bullets fired by Israeli soldiers in Bethlehem, according to Channel 2. Their condition was not immediately clear.

A violent demonstration also took place in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, according to Channel 10. There were no immediate reports of injuries there.

Elsewhere in the West Bank and Gazoo Strip on Monday, thousands of Paleostinians participated in rallies showing solidarity with the prisoners, including in the West Bank cities of Hebron, Bethlehem and Nablus.

Barghouti called for the strike to send a message to the Fatah leadership and Abbas, who excluded Barghouti’s people from a recent Central Committee meeting and didn’t give Barghouti the position of deputy chair to the PA.
Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
on Monday called on the international community to "intervene quickly to save the lives" of the hundreds of Paleostinian prisoners who earlier in the day launched a mass hunger strike to protest their conditions of imprisonment.

At a rally marking the annual Paleostinian "Prisoner’s Day" in the West Bank, Abbas sent his support to the hunger-strikers and said Israel was being "stubborn" for refusing to "accept the just humanitarian demands of the prisoners."
Running as fast as he can to get in front of the crowd...
According to the Ynet news website, Abbas made no mention of the strike’s initiator and leader Marwan Barghouti.

Some Paleostinian officials have attributed Barghouti’s call for the strike to an attempt to send a message to the Fatah leadership and Abbas, who excluded Barghouti’s people from a recent Central Committee meeting and didn’t give Barghouti the position of deputy chair to the PA.

Among the demands from Barghouti and the prisoners are the resumption of a second monthly visit by family members (a benefit that was cancelled by the International Committee of the Red Thingy due to budget cuts), the prevention of family meetings being cancelled for security reasons, and the restoration of academic studies and matriculation exams to prisoners. Other demands include more television channels being available in cells and cell phones in security wings.

An Israeli prison spokesman said around 1,100 Paleostinian prisoners launched the mass hunger strike.
Paleostinian officials said 1,300 Paleostinians launched the mass hunger strike to protest the conditions in Israeli prisons. Israeli prison service front man Assaf Librati put the number at around 1,100.

Barghouti is currently serving five life sentences for his role in murderous terror attacks during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. He is a popular figure among Paleostinians, with polls suggesting he could win the vote for president of the Paleostinian Authority.

Barghouti put in solitary, moved to new prison over hunger strike
Consequences.
[IsraelTimes] Israel Prisons Service also transfers dozens of other inmates in bid to foil protest, determined not to give in to their demands.

The punitive move also came after Barghouti, who is serving five life terms for murder, published an opinion piece in The New York Times to explain the hunger strike launched Monday by Palestinian security prisoners.

The Walla news site said that placing Barghouti in solitary confinement was a punishment for the op-ed. This was not officially confirmed.

Israel Prisons Service officials are also investigating whether the article was smuggled out of prison by Barghouti’s lawyers or his wife, the Hebrew-language Ynet news site reported.

Barghouti is the former leader of the Tanzim armed wing of Fatah and the founder of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a Fatah terror group. He was convicted on five counts of murder and one attempted murder, and was implicated in and held responsible for four other terror attacks. He is serving five life terms for the murders, and an additional 40 years for attempted murder.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mmmmm these Kabobs are delicious
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2017 7:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Fuel situation must be pretty desperate if they are fighting to get INTO prison.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 14:15 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Arkansas bars judge from death penalty cases after he protests executions at rally
[RT] The Arkansas Supreme Court is barring a judge from future death penalty cases for participating in an anti-death penalty protest where he appeared to mimic an inmate strapped to a gurney.

Justices from the state's top court on Monday reassigned the cases from Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen.

The court also referred Griffen to the state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission to consider whether he violated the code of conduct for judges.

The move comes as Griffen prohibited the state from using a lethal injection drug a supplier said was misleadingly obtained.

Giffen participated in an anti-death penalty demonstration before and after issuing the ruling Friday.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Did they test him on other subjects: whites vs blacks, males vs females?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/18/2017 5:04 Comments || Top||

#2  ...I've asked this question about other idiots, but it applies: What's scarier - the fact that he did it, or the fact that he thought he could get away with it?

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 04/18/2017 5:07 Comments || Top||

#3  What's scarier is that this judge has not been removed from office.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/18/2017 9:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Remember the prosecutor in FLA? This may not stand.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 15:24 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
‘We hoped Pak would understand’: US denounces Islamabad’s support for terror proxies
[HINDUSTANTIMES] In the sharpest denouncement yet of Pakistain’s support for terrorism by the 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...
administration, United States national security adviser HR McMaster expressed frustration on Sunday with Islamabad’s continued use of "proxies that engage in violence".

"As all of us have hoped for many, many years -- we have hoped that Pak leaders will understand that it is in their interest to go after these groups less selectively than they have in the past," he told ToloNews, an Afghan TV channel.

"The best way to pursue their interests in Afghanistan and elsewhere is through the use of diplomacy, and not through the use of proxies that engage in violence," the national security adviser added in the interview during a visit to Afghanistan.

That "elsewhere" was interpreted among India watchers in the US as the Trump administration’s nod to New Delhi’s concerns about terrorist strikes carried out in India by outfits based in Pakistain such as Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
and Jaish-e-Mohammad
...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat...
McMaster goes next to Pakistain and India in the midst of a review of the new administration’s policy for the region that is being closely watched on the subcontinent and among South Asia policy experts and pundits in DC.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Dark web drug bust: Yemeni defendant pleads guilty to dealing heroin, cocaine
[RT] The second co-conspirator in a ’dark web’ plot to deal heroin and cocaine in the US has pleaded guilty to distribution charges, following a multi-agency investigation and sting operation in 2016.

Using the code names ’Area51’ and ’DarkApollo,’ two men with residence in Brooklyn, New York, were found to be large-scale distributors of the drugs on the dark web marketplace known as AlphaBay.

Abudullah Almashwali, 31, originally from Yemen, pleaded guilty to distribution of heroin and cocaine and conspiracy charges on Friday, according to a blurb from the US Attorney’s Office. The other conspirator, Chaudhry Ahmad Farooq, 24, is originally from Pakistain.
Clearly both are the kind of immigrant we don't want. Fortunately, that's easily enough remedied under President Trump.
Dark web marketplaces are notoriously difficult to investigate and disrupt as both operators and users employ technology which masks their IP addresses.

In addition, most deal exclusively through digital or cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin which do not require third-party payment processors, avoiding the need to create a digital ’paper trail.’

In combination, these security elements make the process of identifying potential suspects an extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive job for law enforcement.

According to the criminal complaint, the two conspirators accepted orders via AlphaBay, took payment via Bitcoin and then mailed physical parcels of the narcotics through multiple post offices in New York.

In an undercover sting operation, authorities in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, bought heroin from ’Area51.’ Postal records subsequently revealed that Almashwali paid for postage of these two packages, while Farooq had been responsible for sending other narcotics deliveries.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Narcos


China-Japan-Koreas
Russia Warns US against ‘Unilateral Action’ on North Korea
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Russia warned the United States against any "unilateral action" against North Korea, saying any response to Pyongyang’s nuclear activities should not violate "international law," amid reports of potential military confrontation between North Korea and the US.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the remarks at a news conference in Moscow on Monday, a few hours after US Vice President Mike Pence said the era of "strategic patience" with the North was over, warning Pyongyang not to test 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 resolve over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

"This is a very risky path. We do not accept the reckless nuclear missile actions of Pyongyang that breach UN resolutions, but that does not mean that you can break international law," Lavrov said, adding that he hoped there would not be any "unilateral actions like the one we saw recently in Syria."

The top Russian diplomat was referring to the recent US attack on Shayrat Airfield in Syria’s Homs Province with a barrage of 59 Tomahawk missiles, fired from two warships in the Mediterranean Sea, which caused some 15 fatalities, including civilians.

On Sunday, US and South Korean military officials reported that Pyongyang’s latest missile test had failed earlier in the day, with the projectile exploding almost immediately after the launch.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  They keep referring to 'international laws'. My question is what international laws?
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 04/18/2017 1:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Given that Kimmy withdrew from the armistice in 2013, the state of conflict returns, which is war. However, nothing like invading sovereign countries without real provocation ie Georgia and Ukraine.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 04/18/2017 8:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah? What ya gonna do about it?
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 9:29 Comments || Top||

#4  They should give a stirring speech at the UN if it bothers them so much. That would surely lead to some sort of solution to the problem, right?
Posted by: Crusader || 04/18/2017 10:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Yes, yes Sergei. Of course. That's right. Thank you very much for your input.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/18/2017 13:15 Comments || Top||

#6  Well it probably helped that our Carrier group went to the wrong damn ocean.
Posted by: Charles || 04/18/2017 16:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Is it unilateral action if China does it, or just if the US does it? Or what if the two powers are working together?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/18/2017 17:50 Comments || Top||

#8  China and the US make it a joint venture, so it is not unilateral.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 04/18/2017 19:08 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Turns Out Obama Was the Real Russian Stooge
[Fox] The circumstantial evidence is mounting that the Kremlin succeeded in infiltrating the US government at the highest levels.

How else to explain a newly elected president looking the other way after an act of Russian aggression? Agreeing to a farcically one-sided nuclear deal? Mercilessly mocking the idea that Russia represents our foremost geo-political foe?

Accommodating the illicit nuclear ambitions of a Russian ally? Welcoming a Russian foothold in the Middle East? Refusing to provide arms to a sovereign country invaded by Russia? Diminishing our defenses and pursuing a Moscow-friendly policy of hostility to fossil fuels?

All of these items, of course, refer to things said or done by President Barack Obama.

Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why infiltrate?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/18/2017 5:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Ah yes, recall back in 2012 prior to the election, the statement where Obama tells Medvedev "he'll have 'more flexibility' after election."
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/18/2017 8:46 Comments || Top||

#3  I have never seen the word 'Russian' used as an adjective......
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 04/18/2017 15:14 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
HeckofaSlice: Black Hawk helicopter crashes on Maryland golf course
Posted by: Throger Hupotle7320 || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rough landing.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 04/18/2017 9:37 Comments || Top||

#2  HAahahahhhh...gasp...snort!
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 14:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Eagle, Birdie, Par, Bogey, Double-Bogey, Blackhawk, Harrison Ford
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/18/2017 19:44 Comments || Top||


Britain
At least 12 suffer burns following acid attack at London nightclub
[RT] British police have launched an investigation and a manhunt after a suspected "noxious substance" caused at least 12 revelers to suffer burns at Mangle E8 nightclub in Dalston, East London. Hundreds were evacuated from the bar following the incident.
Acid attacks are a South Asian thing, kinda...
Two men, both in their 20s, remain in serious but stable condition in hospital. Ten others were treated for minor injuries, according to Metropolitan Police.

"We sent multiple resources to the scene including paramedics in cars, ambulance crews, a number of officers, an advanced paramedic and our hazardous area resource team," the London Ambulance Service said.

"Police were called to a licensed premises in Sidworth Street, Dalston, at approximately 1:10am on 17 April, after members of the public complained of a noxious substance," an official statement from a police spokesperson said.

A Metropolitan Police front man also told The Express that the substance has not been identified.

"The only information that we have is that it was an unknown corrosive substance thrown within the nightclub," a London Fire Brigade spokeswoman said.

"It was identified by a PH paper test as a strong acidic substance."

An escalated dispute between two groups reportedly prompted a male suspect to spray the "noxious substance" directly at two victims, according to the Metropolitan Police. The incident is not "gang-related," police said in a statement.

Around 600 people were at the scene at the time of the incident, with 200 leaving the premises immediately, and 400 evacuated by the police.

An investigation is currently underway. No arrests have so far been made, but a manhunt is underway.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Government
Supreme Court won't hear case challenging government's expedited removal of undocumented immigrants
[CNN] The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a lower court opinion rejecting claims by undocumented Central American women and kiddies -- who were apprehended immediately after arriving in the country without authorization -- seeking asylum.

Lawyers for the families sought to challenge their expedited removal proceedings in federal court arguing they face gender-based violence at home, but a Philadelphia-based federal appeals court held that they have no right to judicial review of such claims.

The court's action means the government can continue to deny asylum seekers placed in expedited removal a chance to have their cases heard by federal court.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, Bye
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2017 7:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Excellent
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/18/2017 8:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Adios.
Posted by: JohnQC || 04/18/2017 8:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Did this one sit around until there was a ninth justice?
Posted by: Iblis || 04/18/2017 10:37 Comments || Top||

#5  They lost Congress, lost the White House and now they've lost SCOTUS. Cool.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 04/18/2017 12:57 Comments || Top||

#6  Careful all.
The case may have been untouched because of the Central American gender focus. Just as the immigration rules should be applied equally to all applicants, those they exclude should reflect a composition of all applicants with no gender, age, or sexual orientation specificity.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 15:22 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea 'will test missiles weekly', senior official tells BBC
[BBC] North Korea will continue to test missiles, a bigwig has told the BBC in Pyongyang, despite international condemnation and growing military tensions with the US.

"We'll be conducting more missile tests on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis," Vice-Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol told the BBC's John Sudworth.

He said that an "all-out war" would result if the US took military action.

Earlier, US Vice-President Mike Pence warned North Korea not to test the US.

He said his country's "era of strategic patience" with North Korea was over.

Mr Pence arrived in Seoul on Sunday hours after North Korea carried out a failed missile launch.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Test missiles weekly or weakly test missiles or test weak missiles?
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/18/2017 11:14 Comments || Top||


Britain
‘Terrorist’ 3-month-old baby interviewed at US embassy in London
[RT] A three-month old British ’terrorist’ baby was summoned to the US embassy for an interview, after his grandfather accidentally ticked the wrong box on a visa form.

Paul Kenyon was filling out his grandson’s visa waiver form before the family went to Orlando, Florida when he accidentally ticked yes for the question, "Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or genocide?"

Kenyon only realized his mistake when the baby was refused a visa.

"I couldn’t believe that they couldn’t see it was a genuine mistake and that a three-month-old baby would be no harm to anyone," Kenyon was quoted as saying.

The baby was brought to the London embassy to meet with officials. The round trip from Cheshire to London and back took about 10 hours, longer than the flight to Florida
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  to meet with officials.

Did the officials change his diaper? The lowest depths of bureaucratic madness still remain unplumbed, but they're getting there.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/18/2017 8:15 Comments || Top||

#2  "Your three-month old grandson has a beard!"

"It's a hormone problem."
Posted by: Pappy || 04/18/2017 13:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Given the age we live in, I can't help but wonder if grandpa thought he was being cute when he filled out the form. Stupid Americans, ha ha ha, and all that.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/18/2017 19:13 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Turkish opposition calls for referendum result to be annulled over unstamped ballots
[RT] Turkish opposition figures have called for the results of Sunday’s referendum granting new presidential powers to be annulled, citing unstamped ballots given to voters. The electoral board insists the referendum result is valid, however.

Bulent Tezcan, deputy chairman of the main opposition Republican Peoples' Party (CHP), said Monday that the "only one way to end the discussions about the vote's legitimacy and to put the people at ease... is for the Supreme Electoral Board to cancel the vote."
He who counts the votes...
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas operative killed in Gaza tunnel collapse
[IsraelTimes] Member of terror group dies in cave-in, a common occurrence during digging and repair work in underground smuggling and attack shafts.

A member of the Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, terror group was killed Sunday night in a tunnel collapse in the Gazoo Strip, the organization said.

It was not immediately clear whether the tunnel was one used for smuggling goods over the Egyptian border or a shaft intended for infiltration and attacks against Israel.

Tunnel deaths have been a common occurrence in the Strip.

In February three Paleostinians died in a smuggling tunnel between Gazoo and the Sinai Peninsula after inhaling toxic gas while conducting repair work. Several Hamas members have been killed in collapses since the beginning of the year.

Last year, 22 members of Hamas’s armed wing were killed while "preparing equipment," the group has said, the majority in a string of tunnel collapses.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Hamas' Burial Plan- low premiums, guaranteed
Posted by: Frank G || 04/18/2017 7:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Wonder if the Israelis could use MOABs as an anti-subsidence measure for their West Bank settlements?
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 14:18 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Nanjing: Robot helps bust thief who stole it
[RT] A robot stolen in the city of Nanjing, eastern China, has helped police track down its thief, local media reported.

According to the Yangtse Evening Post, the suspect, identified as Zhao, left his apartment in early March on the day his lease expired, taking 9,000 yuan (US$1,300) worth of property from his former roommate Tian with him, including a laptop, mobile phone, two hard drives, a wallet and the robot.

Tian, who lived in the apartment with Zhao and six other people, immediately reported the theft. But police could not find the thief until April 12, when he tried to turn on the stolen bot.

Activating the robot required putting in a phone number, so Zhao typed in his own. The machine then alerted Tian, who then in turn told the police. Officers tracked down Zhao to the nearby city of Xuzhou, where he was arrested on Thursday.

“I had been eyeing that robot for a long time, and stole it since my lease was just about to end,” Zhao told the police, the Yangtse Evening Post reported.

Crime-busting robots have been involved in a number of high-profile cases in the last few years, mostly in situations such as bomb disposals that would be too dangerous for humans.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Al-Qaeda faction thwarts first Syrian Army assault on Taibat Al-Imam in rural Hama
[ALMASDARNEWS] Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) retained full control over Taibat al-Imam on Monday as a Syrian Arab Army (SAA) assault earlier in the day proved to be mostly probing attacks which revealed a high number of jihadist bully boyz to be entrenched inside the town ahead of the anticipated government offensive.

Subsequently, commander-in-chief Suheil al-Hassan requested the Russian Air Force to intensify its sorties on the Islamist stronghold as little to no civilians are believed to be inside Taibat al-Imam with most fleeing the volatile battlefield in advance.

Nevertheless, the Tiger Forces ‐ assisted by the 47th and 87th brigade of the SAA’s 11th Division ‐ managed to keep control of the al-Qitban checkpoint that will now be used as a launching pad for renewed assaults on Taibat al-Imam.

The Tiger Forces often deploy diversionary attacks before unleashing the bulk of its assault troops on jihadist belligerents, causing great distress for enemy combattants of Suheil al-Hassan. The Major General is now drawing up plans for the decisive assault on Taibat al-Imam while Russian sorties do the dirty work in the meantime.

While the SAA neutralized dozens of HTS bully boyz in the battle for Souran yesterday, the Tiger Forces also captured a handful of HTS bully boyz from Turkistan.

HTS is considered a tacit al-Qaeda group and is considered a terrorist organization by most countries worldwide, including the United States and Russia.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Arabia
Saudi Arabia to shelve infrastructure projects costing billions as cheap oil bites
[RT] The oil-rich kingdom 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...
has been forced to cancel or restructure economic and infrastructure projects worth billions of dollars, according to a Rooters report, which refers to sources in the government.

The Saudi government has ordered ministries and organizations to review the projects to either scrap or make them more efficient.

Most of the projects go back to the era of lavish government spending buoyed by crude oil prices above $100 per barrel. However,
alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk...
as current prices are below $55, they are no longer cost-efficient.

Riyadh's Bureau of Capital and Operational Spending Rationalization is now assessing the projects that are under 25 percent complete, the sources told Rooters.

"Some projects could be retendered so they can be executed in partnership with the private sector, possibly through build-operate-transfer (BOT) contracts," one source familiar with the plan told the agency.

Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia

#1  I can't wait to see how low oil prices hose screw over impact Qatar's ability to finish their soccer stadiums for the 2022 World Cup.
Posted by: Raj || 04/18/2017 11:28 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Clashes erupt between tribes and IS group in Sinai
[IsraelTimes] Egyptian officials say three people injured as terror group launches RPG attacks in response to kidnapping of three of its members

Egyptian security officials say three people have been injured in festivities between Death Eaters and local tribes in the Sinai peninsula.

The officials told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named Monday that members of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group launched RPG attacks Sunday in response to the kidnapping of three of its members by local tribes.

According to tribal sources, the unrest started when IS Death Eaters shot at a truck smuggling cigarettes into the area, where they impose a strict version of Islamic law that prohibits the sale of tobacco. The area around the city of Rafah is at the heart of an ongoing battle between Death Eaters and security forces.

The official sources spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media. The tribal sources requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)


Terror Networks
Lawyer who provided legal assistance to the alleged 9/11 mastermind says even al Qaeda operatives are 'disturbed' by ISIS
[BUSINESSINSIDER] An attorney who represents some of the biggest names in the al Qaeda terror group has revealed that even they are uncomfortable with the rise of the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
and are "disturbed" by the group's behavior.

In an interview with West Point's Combating Terrorism Center, Bernard Kleinman talked at length about his time representing clients such as Ramzi Yusef, one of the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Wadih el-Hage, who helped with the 1998 East Africa bombings.

Kleinman has also assisted the defense team of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged criminal mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

According to Kleinman, the al Qaeda operatives he has spoken with believe that ISIS has been corrupting Islam, an interesting claim given that many moderate Moslems would likely level that same charge at al Qaeda. Founded by the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse...
, the terror group has carried out liquidations, bombings in Africa, and the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, that have resulted in the death of thousands of innocent people.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


-Land of the Free
YouTube Clip: Maine Democrats Share a Hearty Chuckle Over White Male Suicide
Posted by: charger || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Yeah. There'll be some laughter when I check out.
Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 15:26 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistani Taliban leader Ehsanullah Ehsan 'surrenders'
[Al Jazeera] A prominent leader of the Pak Taliban's Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (JuA) faction, Ehsanullah Ehsan
...formerly the front man for the Pak Taliban, now the lips and tongue of the Jamaatul Ahrar splinter group in Mohmand Agency...
, has surrendered to security forces, the military said.

The announcement was made on Monday by Asif Ghafoor, Pakistain's military front man, at a press briefing in Rawalpindi, near capital Islamabad.

Ghafoor offered no further details on the arrest, including when and where it took place.

"The people, the state and the institutions of Pakistain have made considerable progress in the betterment of the country's security situation," said Ghafoor.

"We have progressed to the point that the people who've been planning attacks on Pakistain's soil from across the border have started to see that the situation has changed.

"In this regard, I would like to share with you that the banned Jamaat-ur-Ahrar and Tehrik e-Taliban [TTP] spokesperon Ehsanullah Ehsan has surrendered himself to security forces."

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the capture, but Ehsan had been conspicuously absent from his prominent role in liaising with journalists since late 2016.

"If a person who is doing the wrong thing feels that they are on the wrong side and that they should come back towards good, then I don't think there can be a bigger success of the state than this," Ghafoor added.

JuA did not immediately offer a comment on the security forces' claim. If true, it would mark the highest-profile surrender by a Pak Taliban capo in years.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat ul-Ahrar

#1  Threat of MOABite bomb ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/18/2017 7:23 Comments || Top||

#2  ISI offered a lucrative consulting contract.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/18/2017 13:16 Comments || Top||


The Grand Turk
Changes in voting procedure against law: International observers
[Hurriyet Daily News] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
’s Supreme Election Board’s (YSK) decision to deem unsealed ballots valid in the referendum had lifted significant assurances and that it was against the law, according to international observers.

Head of the delegations from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) held a presser in Ankara on April 17 to brife their observesations about the referendum process.

"Late changes in counting procedures removed an important safeguard," said Cezar Florin Preda, the head of the PACE delegation, referring to a move by the election authorities to allow voting documents without an official stamp.

"The legal framework... remained inadequate for the holding of a genuinely democratic referendum," the delegations said in a a joint statement.

OSCE/ODIHR Delegation Chair Tana de Zulueta said changes in the vote-counting procedure had lifted significant assurances and that it was against the law.

Some of the OSCE observers were not allowed to invigilate the vote-counting process, the observer said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Turkish foreign ministry slams observer report
[Hurriyet Daily News] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
slammed a recent report by international observers on the April 16 constitutional referendum, calling it "biased" and "unacceptable" on April 17.

"The initial findings in question are a reflection of a biased and prejudiced approach," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement, referring to the observations made by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) monitors.

The foreign ministry said it was "unacceptable" to state that the poll fell short of international standards.
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1 

the poll fell short of international standards

Posted by: Skidmark || 04/18/2017 14:34 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
St Petersburg attack: 'Man who trained bomber' arrested near Moscow
[BBC] A suspect accused of helping to prepare the St Petersburg metro bombing has been detained near Moscow, Russian security officials say.

Abror Azimov, who was born in 1990 and is from Central Asia, was held in Odintsovo district west of the capital.

He is the ninth person to be detained in connection with the attack, which killed 14 and maimed more than 50 earlier this month.

It was carried out by Kyrgyz-born Russian Akbarzhon Jalilov, 22.

Abror Azimov is believed to have trained Jalilov ahead of the suicide kaboom, Russia's Tass news agency reported.

He was carrying a pistol and a package containing two smartphones at the time of his arrest, reports said.
Smartphones? More arrests to come, then.
The other eight people detained in connection with the attack - six in St Petersburg and two in Moscow - are also from Central Asia.
This article starring:
St Petersburg
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


The Grand Turk
Main opposition leader describes referendum results as ‘democratic victory’ of ‘no’ camp
[Hurriyet Daily News] The 24 million Turkish citizens who voted against the constitutional changes have scored a "democratic victory" even though they failed to halt the government’s project, the main opposition leader has said, warning that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
will be ungovernable with the constitution.

"Despite all the bureaucratic pressure of the state, despite all the state’s financial and bureaucratic resources [used by the government] and despite the ongoing state of emergency, the naysayers claimed a victory for democracy, no matter what they say," Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), said in a phone interview with daily Hurriyet on April 17.

The "no" camp scored 48.6 of the votes while the "yes" side scored 51.4 percent, although the result was marked by controversy.

"Why is it a democratic victory? I will give you an example from our history. We experienced similar conditions before the voting on the Sept. 12 constitution which was drafted by the military junta [in the early 1980s].
Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  "Why is it a democratic victory?

'cause it's just like HRC.
Posted by: AlanC || 04/18/2017 8:10 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian Army Advances in Central Hama Province
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Syrian army forces and their allies advanced on Monday in the central province of Hama under the cover of intense Arclight airstrikes, approaching the outskirts of a terrorist-held town a day after capturing a strategic town from murderous Moslems.

The push toward the town of Tibet al-Imam came a day after troops and allied forces captured the town of Soran, a month after Soran was lost in a terrorist offensive.

The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian air force jets had conducted nearly 25 Arclight airstrikes on Tibet al-Imam and nearby villages since midnight.

Syrian state news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying that troops are now at the eastern entrance of Tibet al-Imam after capturing nearby hills under the cover of intense bombardment.

SANA’s correspondent in Hama said that an army unit, in cooperation with supporting forces, repelled an attack by hard boyz from al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
on al-Satehiyat village in the western countryside of Salamiya area in Hama province.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria


India-Pakistan
8 Pak army jawans killed amid heavy shelling on LoC
[Daily Excelsior] Eight Mighty Pak Army jawans were reported killed when troops from this side retaliated to unprovoked heavy shelling and firing from across the Line of Control (LoC) in several areas of Nowshera sector in Rajouri district today.

Reports said eight Pakistain troopers were killed after their post was hit by a mortar shell across Nowshera sector this morning. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
there was no official confirmation of the Pak casualties.

Two Army jawans on this side sustained minor injuries.

Official sources said all schools along LoC in Nowshera sector were closed down this morning as soon as Pakistain army resorted to heavy mortar shelling and firing at Lam, Jhanghar, Kalsian and Kallal sectors of Nowshera tehsil in Rajouri district at 8 am today.

Troops from this side retaliated effectively, leading to heavy exchanges. Both sides used 82mm mortars, automatic and semi-automatic weapons in shelling and firing. Pakistain army targeted several civilian areas in the shelling.

Sources said there were reports of some cattle having perished in the shelling and damage to many houses. However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
they couldn’t be corroborated as official teams were yet to reach the spot in view of shelling that continued throughout the day today.

"The official teams were expected to reach the forward villages tomorrow morning to assess the damages caused by shelling and firing," sources said.

They added that several mortar shells landed in the civilian areas but there were no casualties on the Indian side. The panic-stricken civilians remained confined to their houses throughout the day in view of intense shelling.

According to sources, intensity of mortar shelling and firing with automatic weapons was very high from 8 am to 3 pm after which it came down to intermittent till 5.30 pm. The shelling and firing stopped in the night.

Describing Pakistain shelling and firing as unprovoked, sources said Pakistain was trying to create trouble on the LoC by repeatedly targeting forward Indian posts and civilian areas in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch.

This is the sixth ceasefire violation this month.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Three killed in shootout during tribal jirga
[DAWN] At least three rustics were killed and six others injured when an armed clash broke out between two groups during a jirga in Gulistan area of Qila Abdullah district on Sunday.

A bigwig of the Levies Force said the two sides had organised the jirga to resolve a murder dispute between them.

Sources said a tribal elder, Lala Khan Badaizai, had gone to the Gulistan area, along with some other elders, to attend the jirga held at the residence of his cousin Niaz Badaizai, who had a murder dispute with a rival group.

During the proceedings of the jirga some harsh words were excha­nged by the two groups. As a result, a clash broke out, which claimed the lives of three people on the spot.

The dead included the young son of Lala Khan Badaizai and his gunman.

The Levies official confirmed that three people had been killed in the shootout, adding that six other persons were maimed.

Personnel of the Frontier Corps
...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and a..the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...nti-smuggling operations....
(FC) and Levies Force shifted the bodies and the injured to hospital, said the sources.

The condition of three of the injured people was said to be serious.

Posted by: Fred || 04/18/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
30[untagged]
6Islamic State
5Commies
5Sublime Porte
4Govt of Pakistan
3Taliban
2Moslem Colonists
1Arab Spring
1Govt of Saudi Arabia
1Govt of Syria
1Hamas
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)
1Jamaat ul-Ahrar
1Narcos
1al-Qaeda
1Boko Haram (ISIS)
1al-Nusra

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Hair Through the Ages







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

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

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2017-04-18
  Pakistani Taliban leader Ehsanullah Ehsan 'surrenders'
Mon 2017-04-17
  Pirates killed while trying to hijack ship near Somalia
Sun 2017-04-16
  At least 43 killed as car bomb hits Syria evacuees
Sat 2017-04-15
  Islamic State mufti killed in Mosul air strike, Iraqi forces say
Fri 2017-04-14
  Iraqi command says controls 60% of western Mosul
Thu 2017-04-13
  US drops MOAB on ISIS tunnel complex in Afghanistan
Wed 2017-04-12
  Bomb attack on Dortmund team bus
Tue 2017-04-11
  ISIS shells east of Mosul with chlorine gas, 10 casualties
Mon 2017-04-10
  Man steers car into town hall in Germany, fire breaks out
Sun 2017-04-09
  Church bombing north of Egypt's capital kills 26
Sat 2017-04-08
  Iranian brigadier general killed by jihadist militants in northern Hama
Fri 2017-04-07
  U.S. launches cruise missiles against Assad's forces
Thu 2017-04-06
  Al-Qaeda assassinates prominent Free Syrian Army commander in Idlib
Wed 2017-04-05
  Global outcry over suspected Syria chemical attack
Tue 2017-04-04
  ISIS raid in Yemen leaves scores of Houthi troops dead on the battlefield

Better than the average link...



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