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Iran, Turkey criticize US plan to designate Muslim Brotherhood a terror group
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
13:07 4 20:18 Woodrow [15] 
07:17 3 23:49 Sock Puppet of Doom [17]
04:23 8 18:13 Besoeker [15]
03:45 4 13:02 Procopius2k [11]
03:22 0 [5]
01:50 4 16:48 JohnQC [16]
00:00 14 18:07 Bright Pebbles [12]
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00:00 3 14:54 Deacon Blues [10]
00:00 2 03:29 Skidmark [4]
00:00 22 16:40 trailing wife [8]
00:00 3 18:01 Sheba Peacock6889 [18]
00:00 11 20:37 Frank G [13]
00:00 5 21:06 Seeking Cure For Ignorance [13]
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Afghanistan
Task Force Odin
[FOX] Attack drones, fixed-wing surveillance aircraft and Apache helicopters continue to patrol the Afghanistan skies to find and destroy enemy targets and weapons in the austere, mountainous terrain of a war-weary country still immersed in more than 15-years of combat.

When an Apache attack helicopter 30mm Chain Gun fires on an enemy target in Afghanistan, the strike is often a result of a complex mix of interwoven variables -- to include networked drones, fixed-wing intelligence aircraft and helicopters coordinating real-time video feeds with target analysis and aircraft-mounted electro-optical sensors.

Most of these kinds of offensive military operations, still going on in Taliban-occupied areas of Afghanistan, can be attributed to a decade old elite unit referred to as Task Force ODIN -- Observe, Detect, Identify, Neutralize. ODIN is a precisely choreographed attack force combining medium and low-altitude drone sensors with fixed-wing aircraft intelligence analysis and nearby Apache helicopters. In effect, targets are found by overhead cameras and sensors, analyzed by combat engineers in the sky and sent via satellite or other networks to ground-based military commanders.....leading up to what becomes exact targeting -- and then..attack.

Despite the longevity of the Afghan war, Task Force ODIN has been extremely active and successful over the past year, according to Lt. Col. Jarred M. Lang, the A11 Task Force ODIN (Observe, Detect, Identify, and Neutralize) commander and 206th MI (Military Intelligence) Bn. Commander.

According to an April 17 report in the Fort Hood Sentinel newspaper, Lang told his unit that over the past year... "You detected and neutralized more than 700 enemy combatants in conjunction with supported units, and directly eliminated over 250 enemy combatants through organic lethal strikes."

ODIN mission successes, Lang continued, also extended to the successful destruction of enemy IEDs, explosive materials and Taliban revenue-generating narcotics. Much of this activity resulted from more than 13,000 sorties, 78,000 flight hours and 25,000 signals intelligence reports -- resulting in more than 43,000 hours of full-motion video, Lang told his soldiers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2019 13:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Any sorties with biologicals aimed at opium poppies?
Posted by: 3dc || 05/02/2019 13:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Honestly the best way to deal with drug crops like this is spray them with persistent nerve agents right before harvest. 2-3 years is likely enough to make people stop wanting to grow them.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 05/02/2019 14:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Is there a path to victory here? If so, I don't see it.

What I see is a high tech high dollar campaign of minor harassment that does little more than annoy the bastards. Let me know what victory looks like and what it will take to get there.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/02/2019 15:59 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/02/2019 20:18 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Partial Assessment of ISIS's Ramadam Campaigns
[Institute for the Study of War] Key Takeaway: ISIS has orchestrated an annual campaign of intensified attacks around the Islamic holy month of Ramadan since 2012, first in Iraq and then globally. It has sustained this recurring surge in its global operations every year despite its concurrent territorial losses in Iraq and Syria. ISIS’s latest Ramadan campaign began in late April 2019, two weeks before the start of Ramadan on May 5. ISIS has thus far declared a new province in Central Africa, conducted a devastating attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, and launched rare attacks in Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh. ISIS Emir Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi also released his first video statement since his declaration of the Caliphate in 2014, emphasizing his survival, foreshadowing upcoming campaigns, and shaping the future trajectory of ISIS. ISIS is likely to continue demonstrating its global reach by conducting additional major attacks during this upcoming Ramadan in order to offset its loss of core terrain and maintain its image as the world’s deadliest terror organization.

Read the complete assessment by ISW's Brandon Wallace and Jennifer Cafarella here.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2019 07:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Key Takeaway: ISIS has orchestrated an annual campaign of intensified attacks around the Islamic holy month of Ramadan since 2012, first in Iraq and then globally.

An important point, as I’m not good at noticing patterns over time.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 14:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Will I ever stop seeing Ramadan as Ramalama-ding-dong?
Posted by: AlanC || 05/02/2019 16:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Heck of a way to celebrate a holy month in which followers are asked to meditate and renew their relationship with "allah"...oh wait maybe this is how they are SUPPOSED to celebrate Ramadan by killing as many people they disagree with as possible...but mostly fellow moslems.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/02/2019 23:49 Comments || Top||


Government
Inside the secret world of the CIA's social media team
[The Hill] A government agency known for its secrecy is making a splash in a very public forum: Twitter.
Because our day job is so boring.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been raising eyebrows with its increasingly conversational and pop culture-filled social media presence, in recent months giving shout-outs to hit Hollywood films, game show hosts and other buzzy bits. And just last week, the agency added an Instagram account to its growing social shop.

"We’re trying to be as transparent as possible with the constraints that the CIA currently has," agency press secretary Timothy Barrett says.

Tweeting to the world isn’t exactly cloak-and-dagger, and the aim for a public face is an undertaking that has unique quirks at one of the most secure places on the planet. But when ITK wanted to know how the social media sausage was made, to our surprise, Barrett invited us to Langley, Va., to speak with the some of the secretive squad about how the CIA gets its message out online.
Leaflet drops and sound trucks are so old school.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2019 04:23 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nobody reads newspapers or watches CNN anymore. They had to modernize their disinformation venues.

Not mentioned here, but it might be instructive to remember the target audience.

Be real nifty if they'd get back to what they were hired to do, collecting foreign intelligence and conducting analysis & assessments.

Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2019 4:30 Comments || Top||

#2  Brought to you by the same people who overthrew the democratic government in Iran.

The world would be a safer place without the CIA proxy wars. Also individual freedoms would benefit from a reduced NSA spy network gathering information on millions of decent Americans and American allies. Stop bugging our allies offices and personal phones.

The American deep state has become the 1984 ministry of truth and it needs to be reduced and controlled for the sake of world freedom.

Does the United States require seventeen intelligence agencies that alone cost more than Russia spends on defence? Particularly when they have a long history of lying, incompetence and in some cases criminality (torture, murder, support of genocide, etc.).
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/02/2019 5:06 Comments || Top||

#3  What's next - a Muslim outreach program or assessing the threat of 'climate change' on national security?
Posted by: Raj || 05/02/2019 5:36 Comments || Top||

#4  What's next - a Muslim outreach program or assessing the threat of 'climate change' on national security?

Tasks already undertaken by Barry Soetoro, Val Jar, and Brennan.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2019 7:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Tasks already undertaken by Barry Soetoro, Val Jar, and Brennan.

And NASA.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/02/2019 10:16 Comments || Top||

#6  #1 Nobody reads newspapers or watches CNN anymore.

Why pay to be lied to?
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/02/2019 11:14 Comments || Top||

#7  Here We Go – FBI Admits Using Spies Against Trump Campaign…
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/02/2019 18:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Ref # 7: Obviously the group (CIA, DOJ and FBI) who constructed the political surveillance and spy operations are trying to present their side of the story, prior to investigation by AG Bill Barr and the soon-to-be-released IG report.

My take on it as well. Deep State advance damage control.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2019 18:13 Comments || Top||


Britain
The Forgotten Heroes of Empire - People & Power investigates the UK's scandalous neglect of its colonial-era African soldiers.
[Aljazeera] During World War II, Britain mobilised a huge, now-forgotten, army of African soldiers from its colonies on the continent to fight against the Axis powers (Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan) in battlefields across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
King's African Rifles War Memorial, Zomba, Malawi
But when peace came in 1945, the rapidly diminishing British Empire cynically betrayed these men, subjecting them to systematic discrimination and denying them the same post-war benefits as white soldiers.

This truly shameful episode of colonial-era disregard reverberates to this day.

Though their numbers have been whittled down by the passing years, the survivors continue to endure great poverty, hardship and alienation, in spite of having risked their lives for the Allied war effort and despite some of the best efforts of a few members of the UK military establishment who have been trying to address past wrongs.

With a cast of compelling characters, including some extraordinary veterans from Kenya and Zambia, this investigation by filmmakers Jack Losh and Alessandro Pavone finally brings this dreadful injustice to light and raises disturbing questions about the UK's attitude towards its forgotten African heroes.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2019 03:45 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See - Gurkhas
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/02/2019 5:29 Comments || Top||

#2  I think R. Kipling had something to say about this type of behavior: "It's Tommy this...." and "you're a better man than I am Gunga Din".

I've always felt that many of the trappings of the British Empire were good but the underlying core had serious rot issues.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/02/2019 7:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Great, reparations.
Now what about the current neglected soldiers?
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/02/2019 10:27 Comments || Top||

#4  BTW - our own Philippine Scouts

After Japan surrendered in August 1945, the United States granted the Republic of the Philippines full independence on July 4, 1946. At that point the ethnically Filipino Philippine Scouts held a unique status in U.S. military history: they were soldiers in the regular U.S. Army, but now they were citizens of a foreign country. To solve this dilemma, the United States offered the Filipinos in the Philippine Scouts full U.S. citizenship. Many of the surviving Scouts, perhaps around 1,000, accepted, and the Army transferred them to other units to finish their military careers.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/02/2019 13:02 Comments || Top||


Europe
Yellow vest protesters join unionists, environmentalists for May Day march in Paris
[DW] French police have clashed with protesters during the annual May Day rally in Gay Paree, organized by unions but joined by other groups. More than 7,400 officers were deployed onto the streets of the capital.

Gay Pareeian police fired tear gas and made arrests as protesters threw stones and set fires on the fringes of Wednesday's May Day rally.

Yellow vest (gilet jaune) protesters joined the ranks of the traditional march, organized by trade unions in Gay Paree and other French cities on Wednesday.
There were festivities in the Montparnasse district where hundreds of anti-capitalist "black bloc" activists pushed to the front of the crowd. Bottles and other projectiles were reported to have been hurled at police with a parked police van set alight in the street.

The demonstration came days after the anti-government movement rejected a package of tax cuts by French President Emmanuel Macron. The president's policies are widely seen as favoring big business while reducing quality of living for ordinary people.

At least 330 people had been incarcerated
You have the right to remain silent...
by the evening, according to police.

Across La Belle France, at least 164,500 people took part in the demonstrations organized by trade unions, with 28,000 of them in Gay Paree, BFMTV reported, citing the authorities. Other estimates suggested 40,000 demonstrated in the capital.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner had warned that up to 2,000 "radical activists" might try to hijack the Gay Paree event and team up with "radicalized" protesters from within the yellow vest movement
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 03:22 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Home Front: Politix
Warren makes headway in three new polls
[THEHILL] Three new polls show Sen. Elizabeth The Belle of Gitchie Goomie Warren
...Dem Senatrix from Massachussetts, who traces her noble lineage all the way back to Big Chief Spouting Bull. It has been alleged that she speaks with forked tongue but she denies that. She had a DNA test to prove her lineage and it turns out she's colorless..
's (D-Mass.) support in the Democratic primary growing, offering some new hope for her presidential campaign.

Quinnipiac University's national survey of the 2020 presidential race released Tuesday showed Warren as the top choice for 12 percent of the Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters asked.
Riggghhht - She's third in adjacent state of New Hampshire.

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 01:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A screeching leftist harpy promising billions in free shit - what's not to like?
Posted by: Raj || 05/02/2019 9:20 Comments || Top||

#2  I totally believe in the accuracy of polls and would never suspect that campaign shills and marketeers were just blowing smoke.

(the poll) showed Warren as the top choice for 12 percent of the Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters asked.

Said another way, 88% didn't want her.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/02/2019 10:12 Comments || Top||

#3  SteveS, your keen grasp of math made me laugh!
Posted by: Tom || 05/02/2019 12:11 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't think Warren has the Cherokee vote.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/02/2019 16:48 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Iran, Turkey criticize US plan to designate Muslim Brotherhood a terror group
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iran and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
have both criticized a US plan to designate the Moslem Brüderbund as a terrorist organization.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told news hounds in Doha on Wednesday that "the US is not in a position to (..) start naming others as terror organizations and we reject by any attempt by the US in this regard."

"The US is supporting the biggest terrorist in the region, that is Israel," Zarif said.

Turkey, meanwhile, said on Tuesday that if the United States designated the Moslem Brüderbund a foreign terrorist organization, it would hamper democratization efforts in the Middle East and serve murderous Moslem groups like ISIS.

Omer Celik, the front man for Ottoman Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party, said such a decision by the US would "undoubtedly yield extremely wrong results regarding stability, human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
, basic rights and freedoms in countries of the Islamic world", he said.

"At the same time, (Trump’s move) is the biggest support that can be given to the propaganda of ISIS," he said, referring to ISIS.

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...
is working to designate the Moslem Brüderbund as a foreign terrorist organization, the White House said on Tuesday, which would lead to sanctions against Egypt’s oldest Islamist movement.

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood

#1  It's nice you have something to say, and nicer still because of the US constitutional disposition that you can say it without repercussions. Don't expect it to carry more weight than a gnat fart though.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/02/2019 3:14 Comments || Top||

#2  The reactions of Erdogan and the Ayatollahs to listing the Moslem Brotherhood as a terrorist organization is enough in itself to justify doing that very thing.
Posted by: Daniel || 05/02/2019 11:31 Comments || Top||

#3  As if I wasn't already totally on board.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/02/2019 11:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Huge change since the traitor n thief was in the White House.

Muslim Brotherhood Leader Meets Obama in White House
Azeez’s bio also reveals him as a founding member the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Dallas/Fort Worth Chapter. CAIR has also allegedly funneled money to Palestinian terror groups and was also started by members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/02/2019 12:15 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Katyusha rockets attack on Taji Military Base thwarted
Photos at the link.
Salahuddin (IraqiNews) An official source informed that security forces thwarted an attempt to shell al-Taji Military Base with Katyusha rockets, Alsumaria News reported on Wednesday.

The source said that security forces seized a number of Katyusha rockets, which were ready to be launched, in Taji District, north of Baghdad. The rockets were set to be launched toward Taji Military Base, he added.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Three selfie-crazy Indian teens crushed by train
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Three teenagers were killed while taking selfies on a railway track in India, the country which researchers say has the worst record for selfie-related deaths.
"Aaaiiieee! We are undone!"
A fourth youth managed to jump to safety before the accident in Panipat city in the northern state of Haryana, a police officer told AFP Wednesday.
"Whoa That was a close one!"
“The victims were busy taking selfies and when they saw a train approaching they jumped to a second track without realizing another train was coming on that,” M. S. Dabas told AFP.
"The train! The train!"
"The other train! [CRUSH!]"

The group had come to Panipat to attend a wedding. Two of those killed were 19 years old and the third was 18.
"Ayup. Struck down before they even reached their prime, they wuz!"
Experts warn that youngsters obsessed with social media are going to extreme lengths in order to post selfies seen as daring and risky.
That's why we have experts, to tell us things like that.
A study last year by researchers from the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences said 259 people across the world had died while taking selfies between 2011 and 2017.
Across the world? Over six years! An average of 43 and a sixth people a year, out of a world population of seven and a half billion... Shucks, that's one out of every 172,000,000 people, which is probably about the same odds as dying of lobster bites.
The highest number of incidents and selfie deaths were reported in India followed by Russia, United States, and Pakistan, the study said.
Odd. China's not on the list, despite their high population.
In 2017 three students were killed on a railway track in southern Karnataka state, while a man died in Odisha after an elephant wrapped its trunk around the man and crushed him to death as he tried to take a selfie with the animal.
Important safety tip there.
Last year Railways Minister Piyush Goyal took to Twitter to warn people against risking their life for the sake of photographs.
If you gotta be warned, the warning probably isn't gonna do any good.
"Here, hold my methyl-alcohol-adulturated illegal hooch"
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Odd. China's not on the list, despite their high population.

They don't selfie in China.
Chinese selfie on the south rim of the Grand Canyon.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/02/2019 3:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Delightful commentary. You still got it, Fred!
Posted by: SteveS || 05/02/2019 9:17 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israeli F-16’s in skies above Gaza City continuing strikes now
[TWITTER]
Two rockets fired into Israel from Gaza after IAF strikes Hamas targets

[IsraelTimes] No injuries in attack; IDF raids came in response to wave of arson balloons that sparked brushfires in Eshkol region.

Paleostinian snuffies in the Gazoo Strip launched at least two rockets into southern Israel early Thursday, the military said. The projectiles fell in an open area, and no injuries were reported.

The rocket fire came after Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", base in the northern Gazoo Strip around 3:30 a.m. Thursday in retaliation for a wave of balloon-borne incendiary devices that were launched into Israel from the Strip the day before, which sparked at least two fires.

"Earlier today, explosive and arson balloons were launched from the Gazoo Strip," the army said. "In response, overnight, an IDF fighter jet and an IDF aircraft struck a number of terror targets in a Hamas military compound in the northern Gazoo Strip."

The Israel Defense Forces said it held Hamas, the de facto ruler of Gazoo, responsible for all violence emanating from the Strip.

There were no immediate reports of Paleostinian injuries.

At 5:37 a.m., warning sirens sounded in the communities of Alumim and Nahal Oz in the Sha’ar Hanegev region. The IDF said it had detected at least two launches into Israel. A spokesperson for the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council said the rockets apparently landed in open fields and caused no injuries.

The Israeli Air Force strikes came after two brushfires broke out in the southern Eshkol region on Wednesday night, caused by an incendiary device from the Gazoo Strip, the fire department said.

The arson attacks came amid heightened tensions between Israel and terror groups in the Strip, after a rocket was launched from the coastal enclave, landing several kilometers off shore on Monday night.

Throughout the day, Paleostinians launched dozens of incendiary devices, carried by balloons, into southern Israel from the Gazoo Strip.

On Tuesday, a fire broke out near Kibbutz Nahal Oz in the Sha’ar Hanegev region. That blaze was caused by a balloon-borne incendiary device launched into Israel from Gazoo.

Also Tuesday, the Israeli military deployed Iron Dome missile defense batteries throughout the country, following a rocket attack from Gazoo the previous night and ahead of what is expected to be a sensitive next few weeks.

The military expects the coming days to be particularly tense, as they will see the start of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan, the international Eurovision song competition in Tel Aviv, Israel’s Memorial and Independence days, and the first anniversary of the opening of the contentious US embassy in Jerusalem.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
ISIS claims deadly ambushes on Syrian troops in Palmyra, Homs deserts
[Rudaw] Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS) forces of Evil on Tuesday grabbed credit for two ambushes on Syrian forces in the desert regions of Palmyra and Homs, the latest in a string of jihadist attacks which have killed up to 70 regime troops in the last month alone.

Despite its territorial defeat in Baghouz, Deir ez-Zor province on March 23, ISIS still maintains a significant presence in Syria’s central deserts, spanning an area of some 4,000 square kilometers, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Damascus has boosted its troop presence in the region to counter the ISIS threat.

However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them...
on April 30, ISIS announced on its Telegram channel it had killed six regime troops and injured four more in two separate ambushes in Palmyra and Homs.

The first took place on the Oweiridh road in Palmyra on April 29. In the ensuing festivities, three Syrian soldiers were killed and two injured. There are no reports of jihadist casualties.

The second took place on the road leading to the al-Aatshana barracks in the desert hinterlands of Homs. There, ISIS says it targeted a vehicle transporting Syrian troops, killing three and injuring two.

ISIS attacks in the area have surged in recent weeks, according to SOHR and pro-regime media.

"Military situation in central Syria is not good. ISIS is carrying out ambushes nearly every night. ISIS killed over 70 soldiers in the month of April alone. This is the highest total of any month this year," Leith Aboufadel, founder of the pro-Damascus al-Masdar news agency, tweeted Wednesday.

Al-Masdar reported Tuesday that ISIS had killed at least 10 Syrian troops in an ambush in the eastern countryside of Homs near the town of al-Sukhnah, where the group has a large presence.

Eight more soldiers were captured alive but later executed, al-Masdar reported, and as many as 40 troops have been killed since April 19 alone.

Attacks are concentrated along the highway between Palmyra and al-Sukhnah, two desert cities.

The ancient city of Palmyra was retaken from ISIS by regime forces and their Russian backers in 2016 ‐ but not before several of its archeological treasures were destroyed.

From March 24 to April 20, no less than 69 Syrian soldiers and pro-Damascus bandidos turbans have been killed, according to SOHR.

On April 21, ISIS seized the mountain town of al-Kawm in Raqqa governorate, killing 15 Syrian soldiers, al-Masdar reported, corroborated by SOHR.

Raqqa was the de facto capital of the so-called ISIS caliphate before it was retaken in a coalition backed operation in 2017.

The group’s return to insurgency tactics has also been observed in Iraq, where the group was declared territorially defeated in December 2017.

ISIS forces of Evil have taken shelter in the demarcation line between the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces in the disputed territories. Here too it has resorted to hit-and-run attacks, liquidations, and the execution of alleged informants.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


All US Troops in the MidEast are now Terrorists. Shiite Ayatollah
[Twitter]


Posted by: 3dc || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  I think he defines terrorist as "folks I don't like".
Posted by: rschwarz || 05/02/2019 15:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Enough of calling each other names when is this shit ever going to get resolved?
Posted by: jpal || 05/02/2019 15:57 Comments || Top||

#3  If they ever do become terrorists, you'll know it.
Posted by: Sheba Peacock6889 || 05/02/2019 18:01 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Landmine kills at least 15 police in western India
[DAWN] Suspected leftist turbans killed at least 15 police and a civilian driver in a landmine attack on two security vehicles on Wednesday in the western state of Maharashtra in India, police said, as the state celebrated its foundation day.

The Maoist Death Eaters, known as Naxals, have battled the state for decades, saying they are fighting for people left out of a long economic boom in Asia’s third-largest economy.

Security forces killed at least 37 Maoist gunnies last year in Gadchiroli, the same district where Wednesday’s attack took place.

In a post shared on Twitter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the attack.


Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Fifth Column
Ralph Peters Says Mueller Report Is Not the End: Why Is Trump ‘So Slavishly Subordinate' to Putin?
[Mediaite] RUSH EXCERPT:

PETERSless: "Obstruction of justice. And as far as the Russian contacts go, there's some things the Mueller report didn't cover, because they were just outside of his lane. The fundamental question for me remains, why the the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, so slavishly subordinate to Vladimir Putin? Why will he do his best to block congressionally mandated sanctions. Why did the platform change in 2016 to hurt Ukraine and help Russia. Why does he have to meet behind doors with Vladimir Putin, so on and so on. The report is not the end. It's a milestone, but there's much more to come."
Derangement, CNN style.

Ralph Peters (born April 19, 1952) is a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel and author. Peters appeared frequently as an analyst on Fox News until March 2018 when he resigned, calling the network a "propaganda machine" for the Trump administration and accused the network of "wittingly harming our system of government for profit.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bug eyed Ralph...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/02/2019 2:35 Comments || Top||

#2  ...I am wondering exactly what planet LTC Peters is on.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/02/2019 4:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Donald Trump. Slavishly subordinate? To anyone?That's some lefty wishful thinking ... they are just pissed he is not subordinate to them (nor, apparently, is his new AG).
Posted by: Beau || 05/02/2019 6:18 Comments || Top||

#4  I would think the last thing Putin wants is a strong American economy and an America that becomes the worlds largest oil producer. Trump has delivered both.
Posted by: Airandee || 05/02/2019 6:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Peters jumped on the Never-Trumper bandwagon and is now relegated to the lowest-rated airport monitor Cable News Network
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2019 7:38 Comments || Top||

#6  Brilliant mind, author, speaker, nearly on a level of VDH. I'm withholding judgement on this one. I think he must of snapped.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2019 7:42 Comments || Top||

#7  .....hmmmmmmm.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/02/2019 7:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Peters doesn't have the courage to say, I just hate Trump?
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/02/2019 8:43 Comments || Top||

#9  GIGO... It does seem like a case where one, or several, flawed premises can cause an entirely logical framework to wander off into La-La Land. Ralph Peters seems to be acting like a computer trying to "divide by zero" over and over again hoping to get a rational answer this time.
Posted by: magpie || 05/02/2019 10:24 Comments || Top||

#10  I still remember his book Red Army fondly. But now that I recall he had the Soviets win the war for Europe (as opposed to Team Yankee and Red Storm Rising). Ralph has always sided with the losers it seems.
Posted by: rschwarz || 05/02/2019 10:49 Comments || Top||

#11  I vote for / second "snapped". A shame.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 05/02/2019 11:51 Comments || Top||

#12  From Woodrow’s second link, the key bit, I think, from Colonel Peters’ letter to his colleagues explaining why he left Fox:

And by the way: As an intelligence professional, I can tell you that the Steele dossier rings true--that's how the Russians do things.

I understand being an upstanding professional, and therefore trusting that your colleagues in the profession are also upstanding. But really — how much of a dupe must he now feel, poor man. That's exactly how I felt when I learned that Global Warming was about manipulating science for political ends, and I had not devoted my life nor derived my identity from the thing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 13:53 Comments || Top||

#13  "Bill Kristol assured me it was all true"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2019 14:32 Comments || Top||

#14  Russia just quadrupled it's monthly borrowing to 6Billion USD.

He's not very good at being a puppet of Putin is he?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/02/2019 18:07 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Thug Russian Mafia Regime threatens the USA
[twitter]


Posted by: 3dc || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Oh boy, another new war! I can't wait to invade another sovereign country! Raytheon is going to make a mint.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/02/2019 3:26 Comments || Top||

#2  And now we have a reason to not engage in the Ukraine.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/02/2019 3:29 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
TLP patron-in-chief Pir Afzal Qadri quits party citing health issues
[DAWN] Firebrand Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistain (TLP) patron-in-chief Pir Afzal Qadri, who is currently on judicial remand pending multiple cases against him, has announced his retirement from the movement and issued an apology for incendiary remarks made by him during a protest against the Supreme Court's acquittal of Asia Bibi.

Qadri was booked under sedition and terrorism charges in Gujrat and taken into "protective custody" by the state during a crackdown in November after the TLP announced it would observe deaders’ day on Nov 25, 2018.

Currently, the Lahore High Court is hearing a bail plea filed by Qadri and TLP chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi since their earlier applications were rejected by an anti-terrorism court. In the last hearing of the case, the court had asked police to submit a record of proof that led to the arrests of Rizvi and Qadri.

Pir Afzal Qadri read out a statement announcing his retirement in a video shared with DawnNewsTV on Tuesday night. An accompanying blurb stated that the TLP patron-in-chief is sorry for "hurting the sentiments of the government, the judiciary and the chief of army staff".

"I am a patient of heart disease, paralysis, kidney disease, high blood sugar, and high blood pressure etc, and when the verdict of the Asia Masih case was pronounced, my religious sentiments got hurt and I delivered a speech. I am very sorry for hurting the sentiments of the government, the judiciary and the chief of army staff," he said.

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan


-Short Attention Span Theater-
World Nuke Stockpile according to Plowshares.
[Ploughshares org]

Graphics don't copy to the burg. Go to link.
Nine countries in the world possess a total of 13,850 nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia account for 92 percent of them. Since their peak in the mid-1980’s, global arsenals have shrunk by over three-fourths. More countries have given up weapons and programs in the past 30 years than have tried to acquire them. The direction is positive, but when you are fleeing a forest fire it is not just direction but speed that matters. Ploughshares Fund is committed to reducing nuclear threats before it is too late.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
Family of dead Palestinian accused of spying in Turkey says he was ‘executed’
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The brother of a Paleostinian man who died in a Ottoman Turkish prison on suspicion of allegedly spying is refuting claims by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the most dubious NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
ally....

that his brother did away with himself, and instead says that he was "executed."

"I have a voice recording of the lawyer who I was in contact with through Zaki Mubarak,
...also known as Zaki Hassan and Zaki Y.M. Hassan, the former Palestinian intelligence general and father of nine fled Gaza after the Hamas takeover, getting asylum in Bulgaria before settling last year in Turkey...
of reports that he was assassinated from inside the prisons of the Ottoman Turkish government," Zainuldin Mubarak told Al Arabiya.

On Monday, it was confirmed that Zaki Mubarak died while in jug, and Ottoman Turkish authorities called his death a suicide. Mubarak’s family are skeptical of the suicide scenario and called for an investigation into the matter. Ottoman Turkish authorities are yet to release the body or provide any evidence that would point to a suicide.

Mubarak was one of two suspects charged with international, political and military espionage by Turkey. The pair were incarcerated
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
on April 19 and had allegedly confessed to spying on Arab nationals, a senior Ottoman Turkish official said at the time.

But Mubarak’s brother refutes the Ottoman Turkish claims.

"We have verified information from his lawyer that there were no confessions from Zaki," Zainuldin told Al Arabiya. "There were absolutely no confessions from him as opposed to what has been promoted by global media outlets.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  who cares
Posted by: chris || 05/02/2019 5:27 Comments || Top||


Britain
UK’s May sacks Defense Minister Williamson over Huawei leak
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday sacked Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson following a probe into the leak of news that Britannia had conditionally allowed China’s Huawei to develop the UK 5G network.

"The Prime Minister has this evening asked Gavin Williamson to leave the government, having lost confidence in his ability to serve in the role of Defense Secretary and as a member of her Cabinet," said a spokeswoman from her Downing Street office.

May said in a letter to Williamson that the investigation "provides compelling evidence suggesting your responsibility for the unauthorized disclosure" from the April 23 meeting of the National Security Council.

"No other credible version of events to explain this leak has been identified," she added.

Britannia’s already splintered government was rocked by the scandal over who leaked news that May was to let Huawei develop Britannia’s 5G network.

The bitterly disputed decision was reportedly made at the April 23 meeting.

National Security Council discussions are only attended by senior ministers and security officials who first sign the Official Secrets Act that commits them to keep conversations private or risk prosecution.

But The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that May approved granting Huawei permission to build up "non-core" elements of Britannia’s next-generation telecommunications network.

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Did he get a bigger briefcase full of money from China for all that military tech than may did?
Posted by: Omorong Black8889 || 05/02/2019 6:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Huawei is connected to May&Cameron
Posted by: Phurt Grundy5275 || 05/02/2019 8:14 Comments || Top||

#3  They're trying to avoid equipment backdoored by the NSA.

Can't blame them. Frankly, the 'intelligence community' is a greater threat to the world than China will ever be.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/02/2019 8:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Equipment backdoored by the NSA? I dunno, Herb. Sounds more like Obama's NSA than Trump's. And is the NSA worse than GCHQ? Do you have any evidence to substantiate this assertion? And, if you're gonna get backdoored equipment, are you gonna chose China's? Isn't that kinda like treason?

May should get the sack for being in bed with Huawei. Williamson might have decided to take a bullet so he could let the world know.

The biggest scandal is that anybody in any western country would give a job like this to the Chinese.

Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/02/2019 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  I mean, we have private vendors like Cisco who compete with Huawei. I won't say Cisco never did any work for the NSA but if they gave NSA a backdoor then we're all backdoored and it's for damn sure that Huawei's backdoor leads directly to Beijing. If May doesn't know that she's felony stupid.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/02/2019 11:07 Comments || Top||

#6  Rumour mill says he opposed EU defence force and this was used to remove him.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/02/2019 11:31 Comments || Top||

#7  So we know for a fact that Wikileaks confirmed the NSA spies on us? Despite the NSA director testifying before Congress that they didn't? Lying is a crime, and he got away scot-free?
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/02/2019 13:51 Comments || Top||

#8  Just because they spy doesn't mean they use Cisco equipment to do it. But, yes, Rice, Clapper, Comey and Brennan should be in jail.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/02/2019 15:55 Comments || Top||

#9  And remember, they used British GCHQ to spy on Trump. Now, whose equipment GCHQ use to spy on Trump?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/02/2019 15:57 Comments || Top||

#10  May should get the sack for being in bed with Huawei.

Sack? I'm thinking blanket party.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 05/02/2019 20:07 Comments || Top||

#11  Despite the NSA director testifying before Congress that they didn't? Lying is a crime, and he got away scot-free?

If that was a crime, all of Congress would be in prison.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 05/02/2019 20:08 Comments || Top||

#12  Rumour mill says he opposed EU defence force and this was used to remove him.

Boris is a combination of clown and sackless wonder. He should have been PM.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 05/02/2019 20:11 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Biden's son got 50K/month from Ukraine oligarch?
[Twitter]
Nice "work" if you can get it. As him about the ChiCom $

Posted by: 3dc || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,

#1  BIDEN stepped down last month
To better tend to his Chinese hedge fund clients.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/02/2019 3:31 Comments || Top||

#2  $50K/month for 5 years. $600K/yr or a cool $3 mil for 5 yrs. Biden has a reputation of being creepy and too touchy-feely. The funneling of money into the family's coffers, his stoking of racial flames and division and his lying about most things for his benefit will knock him out of being a viable candidate.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/02/2019 10:06 Comments || Top||

#3  $50K/month is peanuts to the ruling class.

In an interview last month on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight, Schweizer explained, “Joe Biden was the Obama administration’s point-person on policy towards Ukraine. He steered $1.8 billion in aid to that government and while he was doing so, his son got a sweetheart deal with this energy company that — we’ve been able to trace over just a 14-month period — paid $3.1 million into an account where Hunter Biden was getting paid.”

“Suffice to say, Hunter Biden has no background in Ukraine,” Schweizer noted. “He has no background in energy policy. There’s really no legitimate explanation as to why he got this deal with this energy company, other than the fact his father was responsible for doling out money in Ukraine itself.”
Posted by: Elmeash Protector of the Ostrogoths9201 || 05/02/2019 11:57 Comments || Top||

#4  The Bidens clearly learned a lot from the Clinton crime syndicate.

Including how to leave a trail wide enough for a blind termite to follow. That excludes the Dhimmicrap media... And the Bidens are counting on the later.

I'm going out for White Castle sliders. Joe does that make me a racist?
Posted by: wHITE || 05/02/2019 12:34 Comments || Top||

#5  >He steered $1.8 billion in aid to that government

No wonder the uniparty say Trump is "mad" to lower foreign aid, it's their family retirement scheme
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/02/2019 18:06 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Escalation in Syria’s Idlib displaces nearly 140,000, says UN
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Fighting in northwestern Syria has displaced nearly 140,000 people since February, the UN said on Wednesday, as the regime and its ally Russia have stepped up their bombardment.

"Since February, over 138,500 women, children and men have been displaced from northern Hama and southern Idlib," said David Swanson of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA.

"Between 1 and 28 April, its estimated more than 32,500 individuals have moved to different communities in Aleppo, Idlib and Hama governorates," he told AFP.

Idlib has been protected from a massive regime offensive by a September deal inked by Damascus ally Russia and rebel backer The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
But the region of some three million people has come under increasing bombardment since the murderous Moslem Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
group took full control of it in January.

The escalation has killed more than 200 civilians since February, the UN said last week.

A new wave of shelling and Arclight airstrikes this week targeted schools and medical centers, according to Swanson.

"The UN is deeply concerned over the recent escalation," he said.

The attacks targeted parts of Hama and southern Idlib, including the village of al-Qasabiyah.

"The majority of the al-Qasabiyah village residents reportedly displaced to safer villages due to hostilities in the area," Swanson said.

AFP correspondents saw intense bombardment of al-Qasabiyah on Wednesday, with bombs dropped by warplanes sending huge plumes of grey smoke billowing into the sky.

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [21 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Afghanistan
22 Taliban militants killed, wounded in South of Afghanistan: 205th Atal Corps
[KhaamaPress] At least twenty two Talibs were killed or maimed during the operations of the Afghan armed forces in southern Uruzgan, Kandahar, and Zabul provinces.

The 205th Atal Corps in a statement said the operations were conducted in the framework of Khalid-98 operations.

The statement further added that 11 forces of Evil belonging to Mullah Sakhidad and Mullah Ghulam Rasool groups were killed in deh Joi Barekzai and Alizai Kali of Uruzgan district and two of their hideouts were destroyed.

At least two Talibs were killed in a separate operation conducted in Maiwand district of Kandahar province, the 205th Atal Corps said, adding that four others were also maimed.

The 205th Atal Corps also added that two forces of Evil were killed in a similar operation conducted in Chino area of Shahjoi district of Zabul province and three others were maimed.

The Afghan armed forces also discovered and defused seven improvised bombs during the same operations.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Iraq
ISIS kill PUK Asayesh member in Makhmour
[Rudaw] 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....
faceless myrmidons claimed to have killed a member of the Kurdish security forces who was one of five people seized by the jihadists near Makhmour on Saturday. The krazed killer group released a photograph on Tuesday purportedly showing Bazhdar Safar Mohammed.

Safar and four others had gone "to search for desert truffles" near Ali Rash village, close to Mount Qarachogh, Rashad Galali, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)’s office in Makhmour told Rudaw on Wednesday after he met with the four who were freed.

The five were captured by ISIS faceless myrmidons who then "took them to a nearby cave in Ali Rash village, grilling them with questions for four hours," Galali said, recalling the account of the four who had been released.

Safar was the only one of the five who had a smart phone. The faceless myrmidons checked his phone and saw photos of Safar in uniform.

"After investigation, ISIS released four of them, but they decided to keep Bazhdar Safar after checking his mobile and seeing photos of him in Asayesh [security] uniform," said Galali.

They believe Safar was killed on or near Mount Qarachogh. The body has not been recovered.

Nashir, an ISIS-linked outlet, published a photo on its Telegram account on Tuesday purportedly showing Safar just before he was killed.

Safar was a member of PUK’s Asayesh forces and a law student at Kirkuk University, according to Galali.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


India-Pakistan
JeM chief Masood Azhar added to UN terror list after China removes objections
[DAWN] The United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
’ 1267 Sanctions Committee on Wednesday placed 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...
(JeM) leader Masood Azhar on its global terror list after China removed its objection to his listing.

The committee on 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 al-Qaeda announced in a blurb the designation of Azhar over his organization's ties to al-Qaeda.

India had been seeking Azhar’s listing since 2016, but the latest push came after the Feb 14 Pulwama attack on the Central Reserve Police Force in India-held Kashmire, which was claimed by the JeM.

The Indian resolution was backed by UNSC permanent members the US, United Kingdom and La Belle France. China had been halting the process by applying technical holds.

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under: Jaish-e-Mohammad


Caribbean-Latin America
Fresh clashes between protesters and security forces have begun in #Caracas
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Iraq
Iraqi security forces foil oil smuggling op in Kirkuk
ISIS remnants, other jihadis, a criminal gang, locals taking advantage of the situation to fatten their wallets?
Kirkuk (IraqiNews) Military Intelligence Directorate announced, on Wednesday, foiling a large oil smuggling operation in Kirkuk Province.

The Directorate revealed that based on the orders of the Director of Military Intelligence to monitor the smuggling operations and prosecute smugglers, the detachments of the Military Intelligence Directorate, in cooperation with the forces of the 51th Infantry Brigade, thwarted a large oil smuggling operation.

It also added that its forces managed to arrest the smugglers and trucks in al-Zab area, in Kirkuk Province. The smugglers and trucks were sent to the relevant authorities to take the necessary legal procedures.

Earlier last month, Iraqi police forces seized two trucks which were used to smuggle crude oil from a pipeline in Kirkuk Province, where the smugglers used an extended 20-meter plastic pipe long to siphon the crude oil.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:


Security forces dismantle IED in Halfaya oilfield in Maysan
Maysan (IraqiNews) An official source informed that security forces dismantles an IED (landmine), which was emplaced in Halfaya oilfield in Maysan Province.
Maysan, near the Iranian border, is usually quiet, though they apparently have a lot of leftover mines and ordnance lying about.
The source said in a statement to Alsumaria News that security forces from the bomb squad dismantles a landmine, which was emplaced in the site if Petrogina Company in Halfaya oilfield.

The landmine was dismantled without causing any human losses, the source added on condition of anonymity.

It is noteworthy that Halfaya oilfield is located east of Amarah, in Maysan Province. According to Wikipedia, Halfaya is proven to hold 4.1 billion barrels (650,000,000 m3) of recoverable reserve and has production potential of 200,000‐535,000 barrels per day, the China National Petroleum Corporation-led group finished the first phase in June 2012 and increased production from 3,000 barrels per day (480 m3/d) to 100,000 barrels per day (16,000 m3/d) 15 months ahead of schedule.

CNPC has started preliminary work on the second phase of Halfaya, which will bring the capacity to 200,000 bpd.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:


Fifth Column
Rep. Meadows Files Criminal Referral Against Nellie Ohr After New Emails to DOJ About Russian Collusion Surface
[GatewayPundit] Nellie Ohr, wife of twice-demoted DOJ official Bruce Ohr was criminally referred to the Justice Department Wednesday by House Republicans after hundreds of new emails surfaced, contradicting her previous statements to Congress.

A series of "Hi Honey" emails from Nellie Ohr to her top DOJ husband Bruce Ohr surfaced and suggested Hillary-funded oppo research was being funneled into the DOJ during the 2016 election through a backchannel between the happily married Ohr couple.

Nellie Ohr previously told Congress that during the 2016 election, she worked for Fusion GPS to help them connect Trump and Manafort to Russian organized crime.

New Nellie Ohr emails discovered through a FOIA lawsuit show evidence to the contrary.

Via John Solomon of The Hill:

Now, 339 pages of emails from her private account to Department of Justice (DOJ) email accounts, have been released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the conservative legal group Judicial Watch. And they are raising concerns among Republicans in Congress, who filed a criminal referral with the Justice Department on Wednesday night.

They clearly show that Ohr sent reams of open-source intelligence to her husband, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, and on some occasions to at least three DOJ prosecutors: Lisa Holtyn, Ivana Nizich and Joseph Wheatley.

The contents tracked corruption developments in Russia and Ukraine, including intelligence affecting Russian figures she told Congress she had tried to connect to Trump or Manafort.

"Hi Honey, if you ever get a moment you might find the penultimate article interesting ‐ especially the summary in the final paragraph," Nellie Ohr emailed her husband on July 6, 2016, in one typical communication. The article and paragraph she flagged suggested that Trump was a Putin stooge: "If Putin wanted to concoct the ideal candidate to service his purposes, his laboratory creation would look like Donald Trump." Nellie Ohr bolded that key sentence for apparent emphasis.

Earlier Wednesday, Congressman Jim Jordan told Saagar Enjeti of The Hill that Rep. Mark Meadows was "working to finalize" a criminal referral of Nellie Ohr. "We’ll see if that happens.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Little wonder the left was going after AG Barr so vehemently yesterday. The onion is beginning to be peeled.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2019 3:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Once it gets started, the onion will peel fast. Thank goodness. I doubt the left can do much about it. There was serious pushback even before Trump was elected. All I can say is there must have been many in D.C. with their hands in the cookie jar and a lot of skeletons in their closets.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/02/2019 10:00 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Taliban militants suffer heavy casualties during a 3-hour clash in Faryab province
[KhaamaPress] The Talibs suffered heavy casualties during a three-hour clash in northern Faryab province of Afghanistan, the Afghan Military in the North said.

According to a statement released by 209th Shaheen, the clash broke out late on Monday night in the vicinity of Sherin Tagab district.

The statement further added that 8 Talibs including two of their local commanders were killed and 13 others were maimed during the clash.

The two Taliban
...Arabic for students...
commanders killed during the clash have been identified as Qari Rahmatullah and Mullah Sher mohammad, the 209th Shaheen Corps added in its statement.

The anti-government armed holy warriors including Taliban have not commented regarding the casualties inflicting on their bad boys.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [19 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  I don't understand the Afghan knack for exaggeration. Heavy casualties might or might not be 100 or more. It's definitely not a single digit number.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 05/02/2019 19:00 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
‘It’s Over... We Have to Stop Using the Criminal Justice Process as a Political Weapon’
[THEGATEWAYPUNDIT] Stolen Valor Senator Richard "Da Nang Dick" Blumenthal (D-CT) tried his hardest to intimidate Bill Barr ‐ it didn’t work.

Blumenthal, who lied about his Vietnam War service, had the gall to tell Barr "history will judge you harshly."

Bill Barr was unfazed and reminded Blumenthal that he, as the Attorney General is in charge of the Justice Department, and in no way was he going to recuse himself from any of the ongoing investigations.

At the end of the questioning from Blumenthal, Barr schooled the lying Stolen Valor Senator on the job of the DOJ, which is to establish whether there was a crime. Barr told Da Nang Dick to get over the Mueller investigation because it’s over and his department determined there was no crime.

"We have to stop using the criminal justice process as a political weapon," Barr said.

And courtesy of Phaick Uneretle6310:
Barr Fight With Senate Dims: A Highlight


Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sort of like Reid eliminating the old Senate rules to get Obama's nominees onto the courts. Now they whine and cry about the Trunks doing it. If they want to politicize DOJ as a weapon, they'll regret the day someone on the other side has no problem using it on them. They'll whine of course. However, when real truth and justice are subordinated to the pursuit of power, sow and ye shall reap.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/02/2019 5:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Using the criminal justice system as a political weapon? It was honed to a fine art during the last administration. It would seem that malfeasance of office and abuse of power are already illegal. Maybe it's just a matter of having the will to prosecute. During the last administration the AG was basically a door stop for trying to do anything. Everything was stopped there.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/02/2019 9:57 Comments || Top||

#3  DId a Democrats say this to prevent repurcussions after all the damage they've done the last two years?
Posted by: rschwarz || 05/02/2019 15:41 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Iraqi intelligence forces arrest Islamic State terrorist in Mosul
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Iraqi military intelligence forces locked away
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
on Wednesday an Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
bully boy, who was responsible for collecting information about the families fleeing the areas held by the bully boy group.

The arrestee "was behind the murder of 40 people at the hands of Islamic State jihadists after he informed the terrorist group of their location," Alghad Press website quoted the Military Intelligence Forces as saying in a press statement.

"The terrorist was arrested in the eastern side of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
," the statement read.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


-Obits-
Retired Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell dies in East Alabama tragic accident
EUFAULA, Ala. (WRBL) - Former Delta Force Commander and retired Major General Eldon A. Bargewell has died, age 72, Barbour County Coroner Chip Chapman confirmed.

Bargewell died in a lawnmower accident at his Eufaula, Ala., home on Monday.

Bargewell was pronounced dead at 9:36 p.m. CDT, following when a lawnmower rolled over an embankment behind his house on Barbour creek, said Chapman.

He was an American soldier who fought on the nation's battlefields from Vietnam to Afghanistan.\

Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Jeff Mellinger has known Bargewell for 45 years.

"I remember in 1974 as a young Ranger in the still-forming 2d Ranger Battalion at Fort Lewis seeing and meeting quite a few legendary and highly decorated officers and non commissioned officers. Among those was Lt. Eldon Bargewell," Mellinger said. "Eldon stood out even then amongst those giants, for he had earned a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in 27 September 1971 as a Staff Sergeant while serving with Command and Control (North), Studies and Observations Group, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne)."
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sad, for such an ungallant passing.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/02/2019 3:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Died active, working at a late age, improving his environment. Nothing wrong with that.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/02/2019 12:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Eufaula is a beautiful small town on Lake Eufaula. There are many old houses that could be considered small mansions built for retired sea captains, all with a Widow's walk for the retired gentlemen to walk and look out over the lake,
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/02/2019 14:54 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
US military prepping for Guaidó takeover in Venezuela
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] The commander of U.S. forces in Latin America told Congress Wednesday that the military is developing plans to be immediately ready for any contingency if Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó ousts dictator Nicolás Maduro from power.

Adm. Craig Faller, head of U.S. Southern Command, told the House Armed Services Committee he believes it is only a matter of time before Guaidó, president of the country's National Assembly, takes control. Guaidó encouraged Venezuelans to take to the streets starting Tuesday, saying that the final phase of "Operation Freedom" had begun.

"[T]here is going to be a day when the legitimate government takes over, and it's going to come when we least expect it," said Faller. "And it could be right now, so we are calling it 'day now' planning."

Faller told the committee that repairing Venezuela's dilapidated economic and energy infrastructure after years of corruption and mismanagement won't be a sample task. "[T]he magnitude of the misery is going to require every element of international unity that currently exists," he said.

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Yay, a new war! This one will cost us plenty. Good thing all our problems at home are already fixed. Yes sirree, it's time to start yet another war.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/02/2019 3:30 Comments || Top||

#2  A professional military plans "for any contingency", handwringer
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2019 9:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Not necessarily war, just preparing for "any contingency" which is his job, just in case. It can range anywhere from giving aids (food, shelter and medical assistance) to preventing spillover violence, etc..
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/02/2019 10:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Sorry Frank, I didn't see you already commented on this.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/02/2019 10:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Absolutely no problem - you expanded better
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2019 10:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Contingencies, like if the Russians were to install nukes in Venezuela, kinda like they did in Cuba.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 05/02/2019 11:18 Comments || Top||

#7  Shoot I have a plan if this spring fog turns into an ice storm - pros better have a plan.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/02/2019 12:10 Comments || Top||


Internet connectivity was restored in #Venezuela at 9:05 p.m. Tuesday, about 20 minutes before a live-streamed speech by Maduro
[TWITTER] Purely a coincidence
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Commies


-Land of the Free
Hailed as a Hero: UNC Charlotte attack
[MSN] Heroes emerged from the bursts of gunfire that killed two UNC Charlotte students and injured four others in their classroom late Tuesday afternoon, stunning a sprawling campus of nearly 30,000 students on the last day of spring classes.

Two students, Ellis Parlier, 19, of Midland, and Riley Howell, 21, of Waynesville, had been fatally shot. Four more were injured: Rami Alramadhan, 20, of Saihat, Saudi Arabia; Sean Dehart, 20, of Apex; Emily Houpt, 23, of Charlotte; and Drew Pescaro, 19, of Apex. Dehart has been released from the hospital and the other wounded students are expected to recover, Chancellor Phil Dubois said Wednesday.

But the toll could have been much worse, Putney said. Howell tackled the shooter and saved other lives, the chief said.
Bless him for having the courage to do what had to be done.
The athletically-built young man "took the assailant off his feet" before campus police officers arrived, Putney told reporters. Howell was apparently the second student to be fatally shot, he said.

Howell "did exactly what we train people to do you're going to run, you're going to hide and shield, or you're going to face the assailant," Putney said. "He did the latter (and) his sacrifice saved lives."
John 15:13-17 (KJV)
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Posted by: Woodrow || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Amen
Posted by: newc || 05/02/2019 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2  It's not just courage. It's processing what's going on and deciding.
Lord, give me the strength if my time comes.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 05/02/2019 5:54 Comments || Top||

#3  If Howell had lived he probably would have been expelled for "unnecessary use of force". /sarc

Brave young man.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/02/2019 7:35 Comments || Top||

#4  When will this toxic masculinity end! /sarc
Posted by: Snusoper Phons4593 || 05/02/2019 8:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Riley was a brave young man. God bless the heroes.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/02/2019 11:06 Comments || Top||

#6  UNCC is, of course, a gun-free zone. Somehow the shooter didn't choose to obey the law (surprise.)
Which just goes to show the idiocy and danger of gun-free policies.
Posted by: Tom || 05/02/2019 12:06 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
New round of US-Taliban talks to start in Doha: Taliban
[DAWN] A new round of peace talks between the Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
and the United States (US) starts on Wednesday in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, an official for the snuffies said, as the foes seek a way out of America's longest war.

The talks mark the sixth round of negotiations between the two sides in recent months, and come as pressure builds for some sort of breakthrough in Afghanistan's gruelling conflict, with Washington jostling for a resolution.

According to Taliban front man Zabiullah Mujahid, the talks "will start in Doha today".

The US embassy in Kabul did not immediately comment, but the US State Department has already said its peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad will visit Doha, the Qatari capital, this month to meet the Taliban.

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Down Under
Australian-Lebanese man found guilty in Etihad Airways bomb plot
As has been mentioned before, the typical jihadi cell is a family.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The first of two brothers charged with plotting to bring down a flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi with a crude bomb concealed in a meat grinder was found guilty on Wednesday.
The loving Khayat brothers prepared the bomb at the behest of third brother Tarek Khayat, a senior ISIS emir in Syria. They planned to give to yet another brother who was associated with the airlines — without telling him what he was carrying. Thank goodness it was too heavy to be carried on....
Australian-Lebanese brothers Khaled
...now age 51...
and Mahmoud Khayat
...now 34...
were charged in July 2017 with planning to bring down an Etihad Airways passenger jet in a plot police alleged was under the instructions of ISIS.

The improvised device, using "high military-grade explosive,"
...they mean that plastic stuff...
was due to be smuggled onto a July 15 service from Sydney, but the attempt was aborted before they reached security.

Police claimed that communications with ISIS began in April 2017, with the group sending the men components and propellants through international cargo from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the most dubious NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
ally....

Khaled’s sentencing is due July 25, while the jury is still deliberating a verdict for his brother. Both men face life sentences.

This article starring:
Mahmoud Khayat
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
The mullahs’ conundrum: Martyrdom or capitulation?
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] After US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
’s decision to end waivers on Iranian oil sales on May 2, the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s regime finds itself in more dire straits than ever before.

The Islamic Theocratic Republic’s plan to hunker down and wait for hurricane Trump to pass is falling apart. While the regime has been suffering from the resumption of sanctions increasing pressure on Iran’s currency and financial system over the past several months, this latest blow to oil exports will cripple the economy.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Reminds me of Carter, he was so week the Soviets overextended and Reagan was able to bash them.
Replace Carter with Obama, Soviets with Iranians, and Reagan with Trump and its similar on a smaller scale.
Posted by: rschwarz || 05/02/2019 15:40 Comments || Top||

#2  i suspect martyrdom, and suspect it will be involved with the ‘swarming’ of an US warship, as was described here recently.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 05/02/2019 16:44 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder if perhaps the deep-state is geared for high oil prices?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/02/2019 17:39 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
L.A. terror suspect was ousted from U.S. Army for violent offenses, source says
[LATIMES] The U.S. Army veteran charged with planning a terrorist attack in Southern Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, was kicked out of the service several years ago following a clash in Afghanistan, sources told The Times on Tuesday.

Mark Steven Domingo, a 26-year-old Reseda man who the FBI said Monday was plotting to detonate a pressure-cooker bomb at a rally in Long Beach, was discharged following the incident in 2013, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because information regarding a soldier’s discharge status is not subject to public disclosure.

One official described the incident in Afghanistan as "violent," saying it led to an accusation that Domingo violated the the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The former infantryman was demoted and eventually forced out of the Army before completing his enlistment contract, the official said. It’s unclear whether Domingo clashed with a civilian or fellow soldier. Multiple sources have told The Times that Domingo did not receive an honorable discharge from the military.

Domingo served in Afghanistan from September 2012 to January 2013, and had previously been stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, according to court documents made public Monday. He joined the military in February 2011 and left the service a month after his return from Afghanistan, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Domingo’s military discharge was part of a broader portrait emerging Tuesday of a man described by federal Sherlocks as "consumed by hate" and depicted in court documents as an erratic and violent person who sought to kill coppers and members of other religions in retribution for the killings of Moslems in other parts of the world.
What odds the gentleman will turn out to have been a gang member before he signed up, dear Reader?
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


India-Pakistan
16 Indian commandos killed in fresh election violence
More about this story from yesterday.
[AlAhram] A suspected kaboom by Maoist rebels killed 16 Indian elite commandos on Wednesday, police said, the latest incident of election-time violence in a decades-long insurgency.

"Maoists attacked a team of commandos travelling in a private vehicle to inspect an earlier attack. So far 16 men have died," an official at police headquarters in the western state of Maharashtra told AFP.

"More teams have been sent to site for rescue and combat operations," said the officer, who did not want to give his name.

India is holding elections and attacks by Maoist rebels, who are active in several states, often spike as the country goes to the polls.

A second police official put the corpse count in the latest incident in the Gadchiroli region of Maharashtra at 15.

"Maoists torched over 30 vehicles in Gadchiroli today at 12.30pm (0700 GMT). In another blast, 15 security officers were killed and rescue operations are ongoing to ascertain the damage," Gadchiroli police official Prashant Dute told AFP.

Indian forces have been fighting Maoists rebels for decades in several areas, in an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands.

The Maoists are believed to be present in at least 20 Indian states but are most active in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand -- and Maharashtra.

India's nationwide election began on April 11 and runs until May 19.

Last weekend rebels opened fire on Indian police, killing two constables and wounding a villager in the central state of Chhattisgarh, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.

One constable and an assistant constable died at the scene and the villager, shot in the chest, was taken by local residents for treatment, PTI reported.

A roadside kaboom on a political convoy in early April killed five people in Chhattisgarh, two days before the world's biggest election began.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [20 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  All our election disrupters do is slash a tire or two or stand around with billy clubs looking intimidating. We wait until after the elections to conduct lawfare against the winners.
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/02/2019 9:03 Comments || Top||


3 soldiers martyred in Afghan cross-border attack in North Waziristan
[DAWN] Three soldiers were martyred and seven others injured when a group of 60 to 70 holy warriors from bases in Afghanistan attacked Pakistain Army troops undertaking fencing efforts along the Pak-Afghan border in Alwara, North Wazoo, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.

According to a statement issued by the ISPR, the troops effectively responded and repulsed the attack, killing and injuring scores of terrorists.

The three Pakistain Army soldiers ‐ Lance Naik Ali, Lance Naik Nazeer and Sepoy Imdadullah ‐ were martyred in the exchange of fire and seven others were maimed.

"While Pakistain security forces are solidifying border security through fencing and construction of forts to deny liberty of action to the terrorists, Afghan Security Forces and the authorities need to have more effective control in [the] border region to support Pakistain’s efforts as well as deny use of Afghan soil against Pakistain," the statement read.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said that the Afghan charge d’affaires was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and "Pakistain’s strong protest was lodged" over the incident.

"The Afghan Cd’A was informed that Pakistain strongly protests such provocations which are detrimental to peace and stability along Pakistain-Afghanistan border," the spokesperson stated. "The Afghan side was urged to take immediate action against the terrorist elements on their side and ensure effective measures so that such incidents are not repeated in future."

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Opposition of anti-child marriage bill in NA disappoints Chaudhry
[DAWN] Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday expressed his disappointment at some "elected representatives and ministers' opposition" of the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill, 2018 in the National Assembly, terming it a "scary moment" for the society.

"What hopes can one really attribute to a society whose fifty elected representatives and even ministers actually voted for underage marriage?" he tweeted.

The politicians who opposed the bill also included MNAs from Chaudhry's own political party, the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf
...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations....
(PTI), most prominent of whom were Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri and State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Mohammad Khan.

Chaudhry, in his tweet today, rued that elected representatives had voted in favour of child marriage, adding that the fact alone "should be enough to give sleepless nights to the world and intelligentsia of our own".
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  OK. Just hang the 'husband/rapists'.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/02/2019 3:16 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
84 children returned to Tajikistan from Iraq
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] More than 80 children have arrived in Tajikistan from Iraq where their parents were sentenced for joining the ISIS holy warrior group and other Death Eater outfits, Tajikistan’s foreign ministry said online Wednesday.

Eighty-four children, all Tajik citizens, had been "forced to join the ranks" of the Death Eater groups after their parents were recruited, according to the statement on the ministry’s website.

They returned on a special flight from Baghdad to Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe on April 30, it added.

In February Tajikistan’s foreign ministry said it was seeking the repatriation of 75 children marooned in Iraq where 43 Tajik women are serving jail sentences for extremism-related crimes.
That’s almost two children per woman over about five years. So much for the vaunted ISIS Lion of Islam fertility...
Repatriating the tossed in the clink
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
women would be far more difficult, Tajik foreign minister Sirodjidin Mukhriddin admitted at the time.

The ISIS group seized large swathes of Iraq in a lightning 2014 offensive, before the Iraqi government dislodged the Death Eaters from urban centres and eventually declared victory in December 2017.

The fall of the ISIS’s caliphate in Iraq and Syria has left many countries grappling with what to do with the Death Eaters and their relatives who want to return.

Tajik authorities have said over 1,000 citizens left the country to fight on the side of Death Eater groups in Iraq and Syria after 2011, some after stints working abroad in Russia.

The most famous ISIS recruit from Tajikistan was Gulmurod Halimov, who headed the interior ministry’s special forces unit before sensationally announcing his defection to ISIS in a video attributed to the group in 2015.

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Arabia
Arab Coalition targets Houthi air base near Sanaa airport
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Arab Coalition confirmed it had launched air strikes targeting the al-Dulaimi air base near Sanaa's airport, sources said.

Air strikes launched at the al-Dulaimi Air Base targeted a drone maintenance site and another location in which Houthi
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...
experts and operators were present at.

According to the coalition, the Houthi militias have been using Sanaa airport to carry out terrorist and hostile operations.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Afghanistan
Deadly airstrike target fighters of Taliban’s military commission chief in Herat
[KhaamaPress] A deadly Arclight airstrike targeted the fighters of a prominent Taliban
...Arabic for students...
leader in western Herat
...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns...
province of Afghanistan leaving at least 11 dead.

The 207th Zafar Corps in a statement said the airstrike was carried out in the vicinity of Chesht district targeting the fighters of Abdul Rahman alias Maldar, the military commission chief of Taliban for the district.

The statement further added that 11 Taliban fighters including nephew of Abdul Rahman.

A Toyota Land Cruiser type vehicle was also destroyed in the airstrike, the 207th Zafar Corps added in its statement.

The anti-government armed bully boyz including Taliban have not commented regarding the airstrike so far.

Herat is among the relatively calm provinces in West of Afghanistan but Talibs are active in some of the remote districts of the province including Chest district where often attempt to carry out terrorist related activities against the government and security institutions.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [19 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Several Taliban militants detained in latest operations of the Afghan Special Forces
[KhaamaPress] At least 19 Talibs were incarcerated
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
and another turban was maimed during the operations of the Afghan Special Forces which were conducted in past 24 hours.

Informed military sources said Wednesday that the Afghan Special Forces conducted a raid in southern Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
detaining 4 Taliban
...Arabic for students...
fighters and destroying 5,000 pounds of homemade explosives and other bomb-making materials.

The sources further added a similar was conducted in Mohamad Agha district of Pashtun-infested Logar province during which 7 Taliban fighters were arrested.

The Afghan Special Forces conducted a raid in Pul-e Alam district of Pashtun-infested Logar province wounding 1 Taliban fighter and detaining 2 others.

The Afghan Special Forces conducted another raid in Zanakhan district of Ghazni destroying 10 kg of Hashish, 4 remote controlled IEDs and a small weapons cache, the sources said, adding that 6 Taliban fighters were detained in another operqation conducted in Bak district of Khost province
... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name...
and a small weapons cache was destroyed.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Home Front: Culture Wars
SICK! Dem Lawmaker on Abortion: "Some Kids Are Unwanted So You Kill Them Now or Kill Them Later" (VIDEO)
[GP] Gross. The Democrat Party has lost its mind.

They’ve gone from promoting abortion to killing kids?

This week Alabama State Rep. John Rogers (D-Birmingham) argued in support of abortion saying,

"Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them now or you kill them later. You bring them in the world unwanted, unloved, you send them to the electric chair. So, you kill them now or you kill them later."

This is barbaric. What the hell happened to this crazed party?
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And this isn't the Bee.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 05/02/2019 9:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes, he's black.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2019 9:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Hi, Mom! Whatcha doing?
I'm filling out Government Form HUD-2274/J Pregnancy Termination Request. Your father and I have decided to have you terminated.
What? Mom, I'm 17!
I know, dear. But it's just not working out. Sorry.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/02/2019 10:23 Comments || Top||

#4  he's black

Jeez, nuthin gets past the Burg! ;-) Looks like he's also Catholic educated, maybe even Catholic. Saints preserve us!

Montgomery elected John Rogers
When Robinson played for the Dodgers.
His district is nervous...
"Constituent service
Means murderin' kiddies and codgers."
Posted by: Whock Sforza5262 || 05/02/2019 10:45 Comments || Top||

#5  Margaret Sanger couldn't have accomplished her goals without help
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2019 10:56 Comments || Top||

#6  "We Columbian Knights of the Sea,
Or, as y'all maybe say, K of C,
Got a King Mackerel-Snapper,
A dapper old scrapper
Whose rap flows a little too free."
Posted by: Alistaire Elminetle5411 || 05/02/2019 11:11 Comments || Top||

#7  The Democratic Party has lost its collective mind and morality.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/02/2019 11:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Let's be honest. It's simply human sacrifice.

Sick minds. Evil.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/02/2019 12:27 Comments || Top||

#9  I think this fool is trying to be ironic.
Posted by: Secret Master || 05/02/2019 14:55 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
NASA Says Metals Fraud Caused $700 Million Satellite Failure
[Bloomberg] A metals manufacturer faked test results and provided faulty materials to NASA, causing more than $700 million in losses and two failed satellite launch missions, according to an investigation by the U.S. space agency.

The fraud involved an Oregon company called Sapa Profiles Inc., which falsified thousands of certifications for aluminum parts over 19 years for hundreds of customers, including NASA.

The bad parts were used in the making of Taurus XL, a rocket that was supposed to deliver satellites studying the Earth’s climate during missions carried out in 2009 and 2011. The launch vehicle’s fairing, a clamshell structure that carries the satellite as it travels through the atmosphere, didn’t fully open, causing the unsuccessful launch, according to a statement from NASA.

“When testing results are altered and certifications are provided falsely, missions fail,” said Jim Norman, director for launch services at NASA in Washington. He added that years of scientific work were lost because of the fraud.

FAKE TESTS
News of the satellite failures comes a week after Norsk Hydro ASA, the current parent company of Sapa, agreed to pay $46 million to NASA, the Department of Defense and others to resolve criminal charges and civil claims related to the fraud, which took place from 1996 to 2015.

The company admitted that employees had faked test results related to the metal’s strength and reliability under pressure. Sapa Profiles, now known as Hydro Extrusion Portland Inc., also agreed to plead guilty to one count of mail fraud and is barred from U.S. federal government contracting.

“Corporate and personal greed perpetuated this fraud against the government and other private customers, and this resolution holds these companies accountable for the harm caused by their scheme,” said Brian Benczkowski, assistant attorney general of the criminal division at the Department of Justice, in an April 23 statement.

A spokesman for Norsk Hydro said the case has been settled. Last week, it said it has invested “significant time and resources to completely overhaul our quality and compliance organizations.”

Posted by: 3dc || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,

#1  Jail
Posted by: Slats B. Hayes1535 || 05/02/2019 0:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Greed suggests top management, not some schuck in quality assurance.
Posted by: gorb || 05/02/2019 6:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Jail
Posted by: Uleck Spererong9442 || 05/02/2019 7:18 Comments || Top||

#4  ...falsified thousands of certifications for aluminum parts over 19 years for hundreds of customers, including NASA.
RICO. Followed by jail time for the entire management team, present and retired. We are talking about aircraft grade aluminum parts which are installed in aircraft. Hang these people by their ankles from the nearest bridge!
Posted by: magpie || 05/02/2019 9:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Apparently, according to Bloomberg, Norsk Hydro ASA (parent company of Sapa Profiles Inc. which is now called Hydro Extrusion Portland) already settled this by agreeing to pay $46 million to the federal government and other customers.

The original article where I found most of the information, with links to other news articles on this subject: newser.com

So far no one went to jail despite causing more than $700 millions in damage and lost productivity.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/02/2019 9:37 Comments || Top||

#6  The NASA report on the failure (PDF)
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/02/2019 9:58 Comments || Top||

#7  Near as I can figure, the settlement was made in 2015-2016, during the Obama administration.

Interesting Wikipedia information on the parent company, Norsk Hydro, note no mention made of the fraud!
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/02/2019 10:20 Comments || Top||

#8  No criminal charges?
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/02/2019 12:23 Comments || Top||

#9  Must be too big to fail, right? Or maybe something else?
Posted by: gorb || 05/02/2019 12:37 Comments || Top||

#10 
Jail, indeed. This was a corporate decision. And it went on for 19 years! No accident there.

Posted by: Roger Smith || 05/02/2019 19:28 Comments || Top||

#11  AMEN
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2019 20:37 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
A Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism

[NYTIMES] This is also a period of rising criticism of Israel, much of it directed at the rightward drift of its own government and some of it even questioning Israel’s very foundation as a Jewish state. We have been and remain stalwart supporters of Israel, and believe that good-faith criticism should work to strengthen it over the long term by helping it stay true to its democratic values. But anti-Zionism can clearly serve as a cover for anti-Semitism — and some criticism of Israel, as the cartoon demonstrated, is couched openly in anti-Semitic terms.

The responsibility for acts of hatred rests on the shoulders of the proponents and perpetrators. But history teaches that the rise of extremism requires the acquiescence of broader society.

As anti-Semitism has surged from the internet into the streets, President Trump has done too little to rouse the national conscience against it. Though he condemned the cartoon in The Times, he has failed to speak out against anti-Semitic groups like the white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” He has practiced a politics of intolerance for diversity, and attacks on some minority groups threaten the safety of every minority group. The gunman who attacked the synagogue in San Diego claimed responsibility for setting a fire at a nearby mosque, and wrote that he was inspired by the deadly attack on mosques in New Zealand last month.

A particularly frightening, and also historically resonant, aspect of the rise of anti-Semitism in recent years is that it has come from both the right and left sides of the political spectrum. Both right-wing and left-wing politicians have traded in incendiary tropes, like the ideas that Jews secretly control the financial system or politicians.

The recent attacks on Jews in the United States have been carried out by men who identify as white supremacists, including the killing of 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue last year. But the A.D.L. reports that most anti-Semitic assaults, and incidents of harassment and the vandalism of Jewish community buildings and cemeteries, are not carried out by the members of extremist groups. Instead, the perpetrators are hate-filled individuals.

In the 1930s and the 1940s, The Times was largely silent as anti-Semitism rose up and bathed the world in blood. That failure still haunts this newspaper. Now, rightly, The Times has declared itself “deeply sorry” for the cartoon and called it “unacceptable.” Apologies are important, but the deeper obligation of The Times is to focus on leading through unblinking journalism and the clear editorial expression of its values. Society in recent years has shown healthy signs of increased sensitivity to other forms of bigotry, yet somehow anti-Semitism can often still be dismissed as a disease gnawing only at the fringes of society. That is a dangerous mistake. As recent events have shown, it is a very mainstream problem.

As the world once again contends with this age-old enemy, it is not enough to refrain from empowering it. It is necessary to stand in opposition.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The NYT publishes an openly antisemitic cartoon and it's Trump's fault for not doing enough. The man who is the greatest friend Israel ever had. His fault. Yup.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/02/2019 3:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Apparently the New York Times has come to understand their mea culpa - but whaddabout Trump! is not enough:

New York Times to discipline editor who okayed anti-Semitic cartoon

In note sent to staff, publisher A.G. Sulzberger also says paper will update ’unconscious bias training’ to include anti-Semitism.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 7:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Worst.Hitler.Ever.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2019 8:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
'Democracy Dollars': Gillibrand's plan to give every voter $600 to donate to campaigns
[NBCNEWS] Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., unveiled a plan on Wednesday to give every voter up to $600 in what she calls "Democracy Dollars" that they can donate to federal candidates for office.
Free money! Hooray!
In an exclusive interview with NBC News to discuss the roll out of her first major 2020 policy initiative, Gillibrand said her "Clean Elections Plan" would help reduce the influence of big money in politics.

"If you want to accomplish anything that the American people want us to accomplish ‐ whether it's healthcare as a right, better public schools, better economy ‐ you have to take on the greed and corruption that determine everything in Washington," she said.

Under Gillibrand's plan, every eligible voter could register for vouchers to donate up to $100 in a primary election and $100 in a general election each cycle, either all at once or in $10 increments to one or more candidates over time. Each participant would get a separate $200 pool for House, Senate and presidential contests for a total maximum donation of $600 for those federal offices.

There would be strings attached for both donors and candidates. The money could go only to elections in the donor's state, although they could be used for House candidates outside the voter's district.

Politicians would face much tighter limits on donations. To be eligible to receive "Democracy Dollars," a candidate would have to voluntarily agree to forgo any contributions larger than $200 per donor. That’s a big drop from the current maximum of $2,800 per primary cycle and $2,800 for the general election.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bribery
Posted by: newc || 05/02/2019 0:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Posturing for the rubes. As a Senate Democrat her proposal probably won’t make it onto the committee agenda, never mind win a floor vote.

You lost. Get over it.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 1:29 Comments || Top||

#3  and er where's this 600 dollars going to come from???
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/02/2019 4:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Only $600, Kirsten? That barely gets you to corporal in today's Free Shit Army.
Posted by: Raj || 05/02/2019 5:28 Comments || Top||

#5  ...and er where's this 600 dollars going to come from???

From the 6000 plus in taxes she'll hike. It's the old game of the mafia. Borrow a hundred today, be on the payback forever.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/02/2019 5:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Every voter, huh? Well I guess that's another way to fund the illegals you're counting on for votes huh?

I'm wondering what the proximate cause of the civil war will be this time. I figure the first shots will be fired shortly after Trump leaves the WH.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/02/2019 8:14 Comments || Top||

#7  She's flailing because she isn't within margin of error of 1%
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2019 8:35 Comments || Top||

#8  How does she feel about donating these Democracy Dollars to Trump's 2020 campaign?
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/02/2019 8:45 Comments || Top||

#9  Corporate Welfare for the MSM?
Posted by: magpie || 05/02/2019 10:17 Comments || Top||

#10  Don't forget the army of thousands necessary to administer this program.
Posted by: Bobby || 05/02/2019 10:55 Comments || Top||

#11  And by clean elections, she means money laundering.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/02/2019 12:13 Comments || Top||

#12  What, no free beer?
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/02/2019 12:29 Comments || Top||

#13  Sex is a human need and the BP party will give everyone 2000 dollars to get a hooker for the night.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/02/2019 13:00 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Algeria army chief calls for ‘dialogue’ with protesters
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Algeria’s army chief called on Wednesday for dialogue between protesters and state institutions, a day after pushing back against demonstrators’ demands for top politicians to quit.

"I remain entirely convinced that adopting constructive dialogue with the institutions of the state, is the only way to exit from the crisis," General Ahmed Gaid Salah said in a statement published by the defense ministry.

This is "the wisest way to present constructive proposals, bring points of view closer and reach a consensus around the available solutions," he added.

Salah was for years an ardent supporter of president Abdelaziz Bouteflika
... 10th president-for-life of Algeria. He was elected in 1999 and is currently on his third or fourth term. Maybe it's the fifth....
, until demanding on April 2 that impeachment proceedings be launched against the ailing leader -- who stepped down the same day.

An interim president has been put in place and elections set for July 4, but protests which pushed Bouteflika from power have not abated.

On Wednesday hundreds of people rallied outside the General Workers’ Union in the capital Algiers, marking May Day, where they clutched Algerians flags and shouted slogans against the "system."

Police prevented them from joining other protesters gathered outside the city’s iconic post office, the focal point of demonstrations which began in February and have regularly drawn vast crowds.

Salah on Tuesday rebuffed calls by demonstrators for interim leader Abdelkader Bensalah, the former upper house speaker, and Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui to step down.

In a speech, the army chief said the upcoming polls -- which fall within the timeframe allowed by the constitution -- amount to "the ideal solution to end the crisis."

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Caribbean-Latin America
La Carlota Air Base, National Guard troops crackdown on the protesters
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Home Front: WoT
White House wants $4.5 billion in emergency border funding
[DAWN] The Trump administration is asking Congress for an additional $4.5 billion in emergency spending for border security as the administration contends with a surge of Central American migrants colonists at the southern border.

That's according to two people familiar with the request who spoke to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly before a formal announcement.

A summary of the request obtained by the AP says the White House wants $3.3 billion for humanitarian aid to increase shelter capacity for unaccompanied migrant children and the feeding and care of families.

An additional $1.1 billion would go toward operational support, including personnel expenses, detention beds, transportation and investigative work on smuggling. And the final $178 million would be used for mission support, including technology upgrades.

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
BTRs have been deployed in Bolivar state#Venezuela
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Looks like the right flag in the background, but the formation looks like parade parking - flags are limp, exhaust straight up, crews posing.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/02/2019 12:24 Comments || Top||


Code Pink protecting the Venezuelan Embassy. Hmm.
Just think about that for a min...
Posted by: 3dc || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  There would be some real irony if someone ran them over with an armored vehicle
Posted by: Airandee || 05/02/2019 6:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Cross the line and you'll get slapped!
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/02/2019 10:29 Comments || Top||

#3  They have been at it for a while now; at least a month.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/02/2019 11:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Could there be any surprise that they are supporting/protecting a socialist dictator?
Posted by: Alistaire Untervehr8459 || 05/02/2019 14:54 Comments || Top||

#5  I noticed a lot of "males" at the protest! I'm thinking those "beta males" are hoping to get laid mainly because they can't get laid the normal way.
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/02/2019 21:06 Comments || Top||


Manuel Cristopher Figueroa, SEBIN director until today, flipped and now supports Guaid
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Commies


#Brazil's President @jairbolsonaro says he has information there are dissidents in the Venezuelan army and the govt could "collapse"
[TWITTER]

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  That man isn't the president and Reuters is parroting propaganda. Disgraceful.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/02/2019 5:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Genuflect before your Commie Dictator. Blame America. Macro that shit, Herb, it'll save you carpal tunnel
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2019 7:33 Comments || Top||

#3  "Herb McCoy", with your head up your ass you didn't notice dozens of Venezuelan military personnel storming the Brazilian Embassy in Caracas the past few days asking for assylum did you, and indeed a direct source of such information for the Brazilian Ambassador in return for protection.
Posted by: Ebbavirt Clunk4147 || 05/02/2019 11:16 Comments || Top||

#4  https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2019/05/01/report-venezuelan-soldiers-storm-brazilian-embassy-asking-for-asylum/
Posted by: Ebbavirt Clunk4147 || 05/02/2019 11:22 Comments || Top||

#5  I read it as Venezuela's president. My mistake.

I can't help but notice the increasingly deranged tone of spittle-flecked invective. "Genuflect before your Commie Dictator."?
Look, our CIA are evil incarnate and are attempting to invade and conquer a country that's done nothing. Rantburg never used to be like this. What happened to the collegial days of Rantburg U?

Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/02/2019 13:46 Comments || Top||

#6  I read it as Venezuela's president. My mistake.

An easy mistake to make, what with these foreigners all having funny names.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/02/2019 14:00 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Border security should top Egypt priorities following Sudan, Libya turmoil
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Following the eruption of protests in Sudan and the military offensive in Libya, apprehensions of insecurity on Egypt’s western and southern borders have started growing. It was no coincidence that both ousted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
and commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
visited Cairo as tensions reached their peak back home, in a demonstration of where Egypt’s bets were placed at the time.

It is difficult to predict at this point how susceptible Egypt is to a spillover of unrest. It is equally difficult to measure the sustainability of Egypt’s current alliances with both Sudan and Libya.

Egypt’s support for Haftar is not a surprise as, since launching Operation Dignity in 2014 in Benghazi, he has posed as the archenemy of Islamist militias and the only one capable of curtailing the growing influence of ISIS and similar groups. In fact, the kidnapping and beheading by ISIS of 21 Coptic Egyptian workers in Libya in 2015 was seen by many as retaliation for Egypt’s support for Haftar. Meanwhile,
...back at the revival hall, the congregants were being herded into the paddy wagon...
the executive authority in Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, which sees Haftar’s offensive as a "coup," as Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj put it, is recognized by the UN.

As a military strongman and commander of an army that has received the financial and logistical support of several allies, Haftar is the only hope Egypt has to secure its western border, which has been quite porous lately.

Egypt’s stance on Haftar can be compared to that of La Belle France, which reportedly backs him in the hope that his victory will achieve the kind of stability that would curb the influx of immigrants colonists toward the Northern Mediterranean. Egypt fears a threat to its national security if Haftar fails to eradicate Islamist militias, as operatives would continue entering through the western desert.

With Sudan, the situation is a little different. Bashir and Egypt have not exactly been on the best terms for several reasons, including the dispute over the Halayeb Triangle, Sudan’s support for Æthiopia’s construction of the Renaissance Dam, and Sudan’s close ties with Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor....
. Bashir’s government also sympathized with Islamists and provided refuge to several Moslem Brüderbund members who fled from Egypt following the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi.

But the protests seem to have brought the two countries closer. Egypt has openly declared that it prioritizes Sudan’s stability and supports the will of the Sudanese people.

For Egypt, it makes no difference who is in charge, whether Defense Minister and former Vice President Awad Ibn Auf, who toppled Bashir, or Bashir’s de facto successor Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Bourhan. Either way, having the military in power is in Egypt’s best interests. Not only will the southern border be secured, and the threat of immigrants colonists flocking northwards in case of civil strife eliminated, but bilateral relations will also take a different turn.

Earlier reports of the expulsion of Moslem Brüderbund members from Sudan under Bashir had already signaled a possible rapprochement with Egypt, which can now make its backing of the post-Bashir government contingent upon an official anti-Islamist stance and a dissociation from countries that support the Moslem Brüderbund.

Haftar is expected to be a much closer ally to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. If he emerges victorious, both would work together to clamp down on weapons smuggling and Death Eater gunnies crossing to either side. Every chance Haftar stands to stabilize Libya is also a chance for Egypt to protect itself against terrorist threats.

Through Libya, Egypt can seal off a vital passageway for gangs. Through Sudan, which saw Bashir’s now disbanded National Congress Party as the last standing Islamist stronghold in the region, it can deal a blow to Bashir’s allies Qatar and Turkey.

If its southern and western neighbors embrace the same view of stability and adopt the same approach to national security, the Egyptian government can rest assured that neither protests nor armed struggles will be exported to its turf.

Egypt’s formula of eliminating Islamists and putting the military in charge, however, is not easily applicable in Sudan and Libya. The political complexity and number of warring factions in both countries make the situation there entirely different.

The parties that have stakes in the Sudanese political scene are too ferocious to promise a smooth transition. There is no guarantee that some parties will reach a peaceful understanding as far as the division of power is concerned. The situation is similarly intricate in Libya, as the fall of Tripoli to Haftar’s troops will neither give him legitimacy nor secure a final victory against Islamist militias.

It is hard to predict, therefore, if either country will achieve full stability in the near future, keeping Egypt’s borders fully secured.

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka names Easter suicide bombers, security stepped up for May Day
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Sri Lanka’s police Wednesday named nine people who staged Easter Sunday suicide kabooms that killed 253 people, and said the attackers’ assets will be confiscated in line with anti-terror laws.

Police front man Ruwan Gunasekera confirmed that two of the luxury hotels were bombed by two brothers from a wealthy Colombo family involved in spice exports.

The group of murderous Moslems had used one bomber at each of the locations hit on Easter Sunday, except at Shangri-La hotel where there were two suicide kabooms.

One of the Shangri-La bombers was Zahran Hashim, the leader of the local Death Eater group responsible for the audacious attacks that were claimed by ISIS.

Hashim headed the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) which has since been banned. He attacked the Shangri-La in the company of fellow Death Eater Ilham Ahmed Mohammed Ibrahim.

Ilham’s elder brother Inshaf Ahmed was the man who bombed the nearby Cinnamon Grand hotel.

The third hotel to be targeted, the Kingsbury, was bombed by a man identified as Mohammed Azzam Mubarak Mohammed. His wife was now in police custody, Gunasekera said.

The St. Anthony’s Church was targeted by a local resident named Ahmed Muaz. His brother has been incarcerated
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
. The St. Sebastian bomber was Mohammed Hasthun, a resident from the island’s east where Hashim was based.

The Christian Zion church in the eastern district of Batticaloa was hit by a local resident, Mohammed Nasser Mohammed Asad.

Another man who failed to set a bomb off at a de luxe hotel, but blasted his explosives at a guest house near the capital. He was identified as Abdul Latheef
...known more fully as Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, he’s the gent who studied engineering in England and was mentored by ISIS execution cell leader Jihadi John...
who had studied both in Britannia and Australia.

Shortly after the hotel kabooms, Fathima Ilham, the wife of the younger of the two brothers, blasted explosives strapped to herself, killing her two children and three coppers who rushed to the family home in Colombo.

"We are going to use prevention of terrorist financing laws to confiscate their property," Gunasekera said.

Sri Lanka steps up security for low-key May day

[AlAhram] Sri Lanka stepped up security Wednesday as political parties staged low-key May Day commemorations after calling off scheduled rallies following fears of Islamist kabooms.

Officials said more police were deployed for cordon-and-search operations in many parts of the country, while the military also re-inforced road blocks and patrols.

Several roads in the capital were closed Wednesday as President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe attended a tightly guarded public ceremony marking the 26th anniversary of president Ranasinghe Premadasa liquidation.

Officials said police used extraordinary security measures for Sirisena's public appearance to commemorate Premadasa, who was killed by a jacket wallah during a May Day rally in 1993.

"His security used three identical convoys to bring the president to the commemoration," a police official at the function told AFP. "This was to make sure that no-one has advance warning about the vehicles used by the president."

Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) cancelled its May Day celebrations and instead was holding a closed-door meeting with senior stalwarts later in the day, officials said.

Former president and current leader of the opposition, Mahinda Rajapakse -- who leads a breakaway faction of the SLFP -- also cancelled his May Day event, and was attending a low-key meeting just outside Colombo.

The country has been under a state of emergency since Easter Sunday attacks killed 253 people at three churches and three luxury hotels.

The emergency gives sweeping powers to police and the military to arrest and detain suspects for long periods.

Police say they have placed in durance vile
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
over 150 people suspected of links to jihadists who carried out the bombings.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said Tuesday that some suspects remained on the lam.

"A few more people involved in the attacks are out there and we hope to arrest them soon," Wickremesinghe said. "Even if we arrest all of them, the threat will not disappear."

He said Sri Lanka will have to work closely with international partners to neutralise 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....
, which grabbed credit for the audacious bombings -- the worst single-day attack against civilians on the island.

Sri Lanka blamed the local National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ) for the bombings. The group had pledged an oath of allegiance to IS leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...the head of ISIS, or what remains of it, and a veteran of the Abu Graib jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us. So far he has been killed at least four times, though not yet by a stake through the heart...
, who in a recent audio message praised the Sri Lanka attacks.

Schools were due to open on Monday, but authorities put it off by a week. The Roman Catholic church cancelled its Sunday services fearing a repeat of Easter bombings, but announced Tuesday that they will resume May 5.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Africa North
Algeria and Sudan can learn from the political transitions of 2011
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] As unrest sweeps away long-tenured rulers in Algeria and Sudan, there are lessons the new political generations there can draw from other transitions in the region since 2011.

The first lesson is that, despite regional ramifications of upheaval in any Arab country, the politics of unrest are essentially local. It might be tempting to see a domino effect in the pattern leading to the fall of the long-time leaders in Algiers and Khartoum. But Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
and Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Arabia
Qatar says tightening Iran sanctions harms oil-consuming nations

Looks like he carries a switchblade and gives cut-rate tango lessons on the side. He might be a movie star though. I think I saw him in one, wearing nothing but a domino mask and a pair of black socks with garters.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
has spoken out against Washington’s decision to block all exports of Iranian oil, saying unilateral sanctions were "unwise because they hurt the countries that rely on the supplies."
That’s ok — America will be happy to frack more.
The United States has demanded that buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May 1 or face the prospect of sanctions, ending six months of waivers that had allowed Iran’s eight biggest customers, mostly in Asia, to import limited volumes.

"The sanctions should not be extended because they have an adverse impact on countries benefiting from Iranian oil," Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Wednesday.

"In Qatar, we do not believe unilateral sanctions bring positive effects for crises which must be solved through dialogue and dialogue only," he told a news conference following a meeting of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue in Qatar’s capital Doha, which was attended by his Iranian counterpart.

Qatar is at odds with other Gulf Arab states who are strong supporters of tighter US sanctions on Iran.

The White House has said it is working with Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
and the United Arab Emirates to ensure oil markets, which have already tightened this year due to supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), were "adequately supplied."

Qatar, which despite its large gas exports sells comparatively little oil, quit OPEC in December.

Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [24 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Qatar (MB)

#1  "The sanctions should not be extended because they have an adverse impact on countries terrorists benefiting from Iranian oil,"

Ok do what you want, but don't dictate what the US economic policies should be.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/02/2019 3:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Qatar is a major league bomb thrower, between its support for the Muslim Brotherhood, possibly al Qaeda, as well as Iran. Regime change might be indicated here. The problem, as usual, is you can't replace something with nothing.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 05/02/2019 19:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Not to worry, the trumpster will figure out a way to off set this with a nice outpouring of sweet West Texas Crude....
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/02/2019 23:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Major Kong say, "Though not so specific
(or, pace Lao Tzu, too terrific),
At end of the day
Wise man know, if not say,
Desolation profoundly pacific."
Posted by: Bubba Smith3828 || 05/02/2019 23:53 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Ilhan Omar: ‘This Is Not Going to Be the Country of White People’
[BREITBART] Black Lives Matter and other anti-Trump groups held a rally on the grounds of the Capitol on Tuesday to call for 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...
to be censured for what he said about Rep. Ilhan Omar
Somali-American Dem representative from Minnesota. She is apparently married to her brother and may be her own grandmaw...
’s (D-MN) controversial statement that "somebody did something" on 9-11.

People chanted ’"Hands off Ilhan" and in a series of speeches blamed the president and Republicans for the rise of "white supremacy masked as white nationalism."

Omar spoke at the event in praise of her homeland of Somalia and said the president and his Party are responsible for recent attacks on synagogues and mosques.

"At this moment, the occupant of the White House and his allies are doing everything that they can to distance themselves and misinform the public from the monsters that they created that is [sic] terrorizing the Jewish community and the Moslem community," Omar said.

Omar said she is criticized because she is a Moslem woman.

"I also happen to be a refugee and immigrant from what they call one of the shithole countries," Omar said, mocking the president for his alleged comments about war-torn countries like Somalia that drive their people out.

"The reality is that shithole country raised a very proud, dignified person," Omar said. "Our circumstances may not always be perfect but that doesn’t lessen our humanity and I am not in the business of defending mine."

Omar was not as complimentary of the United States.

"This is not going to be the country of the xenophobics," Omar said. "This is not going to be the country of white people."

"This is not going to be the country of the few," Omar said. "This is the country of the many."

"This is the country that was founded on the history of Native American genocide, on the backs of black slaves but also by immigrants colonists," Omar said.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood

#1  Further and further left they go.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/02/2019 3:28 Comments || Top||

#2  It seems the racists are on the left.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/02/2019 4:45 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm starting to get the impression that she really doesn't like this country.
Posted by: Raj || 05/02/2019 5:25 Comments || Top||

#4  The reality is that shithole country raised a very proud, dignified person,


Well, if it's so great WTF are you doing here?

As far as I can tell you're a traitorous scum sucker who wants to be the dictator, like all your leftist scum friends.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/02/2019 10:29 Comments || Top||

#5  What she doesn't understand (or does but lies) is that is not the color of the skin folks are fighting for but the culture. The culture(s) she stands for leads to oppression. The culture Trump is fighting for leads to lifting poor out of poverty and increased freedoms.
Posted by: rschwarz || 05/02/2019 10:48 Comments || Top||

#6  Spoken by a black Somali. America's new Commanches.
Posted by: Ebbavirt Clunk4147 || 05/02/2019 11:37 Comments || Top||

#7  OK then. Cowboys and Somalis it is.
Posted by: Elmeash Protector of the Ostrogoths9201 || 05/02/2019 12:00 Comments || Top||

#8  Ain't she just a button.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/02/2019 12:21 Comments || Top||

#9  This is no country of allah. Well maybe Iowa. Lots of mosques pig farms there.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/02/2019 12:25 Comments || Top||

#10  Ok then also, Pig Farmers vs Somalis, too.
Posted by: Ebbavirt Clunk4147 || 05/02/2019 13:27 Comments || Top||

#11  My money's on the pig farmers, lol.
Posted by: BA || 05/02/2019 14:52 Comments || Top||

#12  Dunno, Sweets, keep marrying your brothers andthe gene pool for y'all is gonna get fairly toxic
Posted by: Gerthudion Snaviting7498 || 05/02/2019 18:00 Comments || Top||

#13  i just have to know: what is the brand of frosting she uses to keep that big-ass layer cake glued on-her head? i never had any betty crocker stuff harden up like that..
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 05/02/2019 18:58 Comments || Top||

#14  Amen rschwarz re #5
Posted by: warthogswife || 05/02/2019 19:57 Comments || Top||

#15  Ok then also, Pig Farmers vs Somalis, too.

Sounds like we got the makings there for one fine-ass video game. Have your people call my people!

And yeah, what rschwarz said in #5. It's all about culture.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/02/2019 21:53 Comments || Top||


Britain
WikiLeaks' Assange gets 50 weeks in prison for bail breach
[DAWN] A British judge on Wednesday sentenced WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to 50 weeks in prison for skipping bail seven years ago and holing up in the Ecuadorian embassy.

Judge Deborah Taylor said it was hard to imagine a more serious version of the offense as she gave the 47-year-old hacker a sentence close to the maximum of a year in custody.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
New game in Venezuela Military - points for shooting reporters.
[twitter]


Posted by: 3dc || 05/02/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Well...yeah.
Posted by: Hupinetle Dribble8709 || 05/02/2019 1:18 Comments || Top||

#2  How does one score this game?
Do miss, wing, hit, kill take different point values? Are the points accumulated per firing or can you kill one and wing another and get the points for both with the same round?
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/02/2019 3:24 Comments || Top||

#3  So we are just posting pro-coup propaganda now?
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/02/2019 5:03 Comments || Top||

#4  ...no just posting another example of Freudian Projection of the Left. Scroll today to see who the real racist, anti-semite, et al are. The Left here denounces Trump for inciting violence against the Legacy Infotainment Enterprises. In reality, its their own that shoots first those that don't carry the party narrative.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/02/2019 5:23 Comments || Top||

#5  can we bring that game here
Posted by: chris || 05/02/2019 5:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Herb seems to have gone pro driving APCs over civilians now.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/02/2019 5:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Look, the media and US intelligence community are trying to topple a government right now. Crap like this just plays into their hands. "They're killing journalists, OMG it's an emergency, we have to invade them or we'll lose!"

So are there a lot of neo-cons on Rantburg? Do you people actually support overthrowing foreign governments that never attacked us?
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/02/2019 6:30 Comments || Top||

#8  Herb is pretty obviously a commie symp
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2019 7:28 Comments || Top||

#9  Neo-Cons *Snicker* wrong - decade, tool. Guaido was elected. Maduro was faked into the position, but you know and disregard that. That makes you a commie symp.
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2019 7:29 Comments || Top||

#10  We should not send the military, we should pass out popcorn and watch. These people need to fix their own problems. Then they can't whine about it that we didn't fix it right when they line up behind a new dictator.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 05/02/2019 8:10 Comments || Top||

#11  I would strongly support a global approach to #10.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2019 8:54 Comments || Top||

#12  Punt like an Oakland Raiders kicker on this one - it's their problem, not ours.

Of course, the Great Satan (us) is going to get blamed regardless of what we do or don't do.
Posted by: Raj || 05/02/2019 9:10 Comments || Top||

#13  Well - that didn't take long...
Posted by: Raj || 05/02/2019 9:38 Comments || Top||

#14  Do you people actually support overthrowing foreign governments that never attacked us?

2010 Venezuela Seizes Oil Rigs Owned by US Company

2017 Venezuela seizes GM plant as crisis escalates

This has been a long time coming, Erb.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/02/2019 10:26 Comments || Top||

#15  So are there a lot of neo-cons on Rantburg?

Nah, we're more like Ghengis-cons. Death to our enemies, both foreign and bureaucratic! America, F**K YEAH!
(sorry. I get carried away)

Look, Venezuela is going down whether we do anything or not. And I doubt we are, given that our Intel Community seems too preoccupied with overthrowing Trump to get involved elsewhere. Plus, they seem to be ineffective wankers.

Anyone familiar with the history of Central/South America has seen this movie:
Commie Strongman takes over "For The People!!"
Strongman gives out free stuff, messes up the economy.
Everyone unhappy except Strongman & cronies who get rich.
Anti-commie Strongman takes over, free helicopter rides, better economy.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/02/2019 10:44 Comments || Top||

#16  In Maduro Venezuela, panning shoots you.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/02/2019 12:14 Comments || Top||

#17  So we're going to invade Venezuela to protect the interests of US corporations? Is this some kind of bad left-wing joke out of the 1960s?

Jesus Christ I'm no friend of socialists. But fuck, what the intelligence community is doing in Venezuela is wrong, wrong, wrong. Stay the hell out of their business. America first.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/02/2019 13:49 Comments || Top||

#18  I will agree to one reason for us to invade Venezuela. IF and ONLY IF we are to invade, they must become a US territory with an American governor and in no less than 30 years, they must hold a vote to become a full US state or be totally cut free.

Those are the only conditions we should invade someone who has not directly attacked us. And no, I'm not a Neo-Con. I'm the sole member of the Imperialist Warmonger Party and I believe we should conquer the world, using this process. You want the big US Daddy to save you, you gotta pay the price.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 05/02/2019 13:58 Comments || Top||

#19  As for those who attack us. Their country needs to look like the surface of the moon, patrolled by flamethrower and autocannon armed autonomous death machines.

Posted by: Silentbrick || 05/02/2019 14:02 Comments || Top||

#20  You can't sit on the fence when Russia is digging in your backyard.
Posted by: European Conservative || 05/02/2019 16:18 Comments || Top||

#21  Of course digging in Russia's backyard gets yours dug over as well.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/02/2019 16:21 Comments || Top||

#22  You can't sit on the fence when Russia is digging in your backyard.

Succinctly said, European Conservative. It is being said that President Maduro was ready to leave the country the other day, airplane on the tarmac, when the Russians told him to stay.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2019 16:40 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
20[untagged]
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8Islamic State
5Taliban
3Arab Spring
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2Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,
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1TTP
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1Govt of Pakistan
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1Hamas
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On Sale now!


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

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

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2019-05-02
  Iran, Turkey criticize US plan to designate Muslim Brotherhood a terror group
Wed 2019-05-01
  Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated businessman Malek sentenced to 25 years in prison
Tue 2019-04-30
  Gunmen kill pastor, worshippers in Burkina Faso church
Mon 2019-04-29
  Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seen in new video for first time in five years
Sun 2019-04-28
  Father, brothers of alleged Sri Lanka bombing mastermind killed
Sat 2019-04-27
  Sri Lanka - Inside help?
Fri 2019-04-26
  Jihadists 'blow themselves up' as soldiers raid suicide vest factory in Sri Lanka
Thu 2019-04-25
  Trump says sending ‘armed soldiers’ to US-Mexico border
Wed 2019-04-24
  Saudi Arabia beheads 37 for terrorism crimes, most of them minority Shiites
Tue 2019-04-23
  IS claims Sri Lanka blasts
Mon 2019-04-22
  Sri Lanka explosions, 24 arrested, 290+ dead, 8 kabooms
Sun 2019-04-21
  3 churches bombed at Easter services in Sri Lanka 262 Dead
Sat 2019-04-20
  Woman killed after shots fired during violent riots in Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Fri 2019-04-19
  Islamic State Declared A New Wilaya In Africa
Thu 2019-04-18
  German Police Arrest Man Suspected Of Recruiting ISIS Members To Syria

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