h/t Instapundit
A recent keynote speaker at the Harvard University Art & Science Faculty Conference on Diversity told his Twitter followers in 2015 that people who base their spiritual beliefs on the Hebrew scriptures should be "locked up."
Author and speaker Tim Wise went on in that tweet, saying "people basing their beliefs on the fable of Noah and the Ark, or their interpretation of Sodom and Gomorrah ... rather than science or logic ... If you are basing your morality on a fairy tale written thousands of years ago, you deserve to be locked up ... detained for your utter inability to deal with reality ... NO, we are not obligated to indulge your irrationality in the name of your religious freedom What about Islam?
#2
So the more normative segment of the population cannot base their beliefs upon 'fables or fairy tales written thousands of years ago'. But all must bow down and upend the larger social order before the chronically DELUSIONAL who imagine they are another gender because, of what again exactly?
#3
Ain't it inneresting: The academic world's policy prescription for any form of "wrong thinking" - as defined by them - is... Jail! The academic world's policy prescription for any form of property or violent crime committed by a minority group is... No penalty!
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/08/2019 10:48
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#4
I'd love to see this wimp try and put me in jail.
#5
No one seems to be interested in reminding this ignorant arsehole that part of islamic scripture is also hebrew scripture. But to go there would be a no-no I guess for a Harvard Twit.
I'd like to see this fellow say these things to a muslim cleric.
#7
To be fair, he wouldn't say that in a reasonably orthodox church either. Maybe a Unitarian meeting hall, though. Only where he can get warm fuzzy strokes for his "courage and insight."
Posted by: james ||
05/08/2019 13:10
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#9
But is it not logical to also include followers of the koran, Bhahadvid Gita, and all other fictional stories which convey a moral or social standard, such as Siddhartha or Marvel Comics?
And if his conviction be true, then to host a building dedicated to both art and science is a fallacy and the faculties should be arrested.
Timwise is calling for the arrest of anyone who has ever wrote a poem, penned a novel, painted, filmed, or designed. In fact, the arrest of nearly everyone except the three or four people who tolerate him at cocktail parties, then likely call him creative and illogical slurs afterwards.
#10
After reading this and the article about all of them being labeled terrorists will SHE and the FBI have China make their.terrorist lists for them since they will be so enormous and time consuming to type up?
[Jpost] Pluristem Therapeutics, best known for developing novel placenta-based cell therapy products, announced May 6 that it has filed a US provisional patent application titled “Methods and Compositions for Producing Cannabinoids,” which covers the use of Pluristem’s state-of-the-art, proprietary 3-D cell culturing technology for the potential manufacturing of cannabinoid-producing cells.
Iran’s #NuclearArchives show for the first time it was developing & manufacturing a nuclear weapon subcomponent, a shock generator, which helps achieve supercritical mass for a nuclear explosion.
A suspect site at Sanjarian is shown to be where these were tested & manufactured. http://t.co/kJbKt2QNKZ
Posted by: 3dc ||
05/08/2019
06:55 ||
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#1
April 2017 report: "The unit responsible for conducting research and building a trigger for a nuclear weapon is called the Center for Research and Expansion of Technologies for Explosion and Impact (Markaz-e Tahghighat va Tose’e Fanavari-e Enfejar va Zarbeh), known by its Farsi acronym as METFAZ.
The director of this unit... has been working at the Defense Ministry since 1986 and is a high-explosive expert. At the same time, he is the chairman of the board of directors of the High-Explosive Society of Malek Ashtar University (affiliated with the Defense Ministry).[6]
In September 2009, the NCRI revealed the existence of METFAZ as well as the location of its tests in the Khojir military district in eastern Tehran.[7] The site is located in the Khojir military road leading to the Parchin military industrial site, and adjacent to Sanjarian Village. However, the most recent investigation reveals that METFAZ conducts its main activities in another location, which has thus far remained a secret and away from the IAEA."
[autoblog] It seems like yesterday that diehard pickup truck lovers and enthusiasts were detesting the arrival of slightly more fuel-efficient force-fed six-cylinder engines as a replacement for gas-guzzling V8s. But now they've seen the light, at least with Ford F-Series trucks.
The Dearborn automaker is reportedly dialing back production of its 5.0-liter V8 due to dwindling demand as buyers are opting more for the EcoBoost V6 engines. Automotive News Canada spoke with Ford Canada's spokesman Matthew Drennan-Scace and John D'Agnolo, president of Unifor Local 200, which represents workers at Ford's Windsor Engine Plant in Canada.
"We've had down shifts every week since January, and we have two down weeks in the summer, and two more down weeks scheduled in September," D'Agnolo said. "We could see that sales of the 5.0-liter were dropping."
"All employees affected by the shift reduction will have the opportunity to move to Windsor Engine Plant Annex to support 7.3-liter engine production," Drennan-Scace told Automotive News Canada in an email.
Buyers of the F-Series trucks have the option to equip a base naturally-aspirated 3.3-liter Cyclone V6, while stepping up moves to the turbocharged six-cylinder EcoBoost engines in 2.7- and 3.5-liter form. The eight-cylinder option is Ford's venerable Coyote 5.0-liter V8, which is also found in the Mustang, but in a different state of tune. There are Powerstroke diesel options available as well.
#4
Depends... I buy light trucks because crawling in and out of subcompacts is a pain without help from the Jaws of Life™. There is a market for people like me that miss the old steel battlewagons that used to be made before the CAFE Standards started downsizing everything.
#5
After totaling my Avalanche, I bought an F-150 and love it. After test driving the 5.0 V-8 and the 3.6 Turbo V-6 my decision was easy: the Turbo had better initial response and acceleration through the curve. On paper the Turbo has more HP and more torque, and in practice gets great gas mileage. I am still wistful for my '91 3/4 ton Suburban 454 cu in with fuel injection. Caught up with an offensive Camaro once on the Houston loop.
#9
Having spent my hot rod days running turbos and superchargers, I won't use one in my personal vehicles. I've seen a jillion ways for them to break.
Just bought (in March) an F150 Coyote. The mileage benefit of the 6 would've been about 2mpg. I'm currently averaging ~19 mpg on the street in Houston. And it's got no problem moving an 8k lb trailer.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/08/2019 17:58
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#10
There's also the fact that the V8 will add 2 grand to the price.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/08/2019 18:00
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SHANGHAI (AP) ‐ Patient Number One is a thin man, with a scabby face and bouncy knees. His head, shaved in preparation for surgery, is wrapped in a clean, white cloth.
Years of drug use cost him his wife, his money and his self-respect, before landing him in this drab yellow room at a Shanghai hospital, facing the surgeon who in 72 hours will drill two small holes in his skull and feed electrodes deep into his brain.
The hope is that technology will extinguish his addiction, quite literally, with the flip of a switch.
The treatment ‐ deep brain stimulation ‐ has long been used for movement disorders like Parkinson’s. Now, the first clinical trial of DBS for methamphetamine addiction is being conducted at Shanghai’s Ruijin Hospital, along with parallel trials for opioid addicts. And this troubled man is the very first patient.
The surgery involves implanting a device that acts as a kind of pacemaker for the brain, electrically stimulating targeted areas. While Western attempts to push forward with human trials of DBS for addiction have foundered, China is emerging as a hub for this research.
Scientists in Europe have struggled to recruit patients for their DBS addiction studies, and complex ethical, social and scientific questions have made it hard to push forward with this kind of work in the United States, where the devices can cost $100,000 to implant.
#3
The next study at Ruijin Neuro should be to invent an implant that shuts off any brain processing 2 to 4 quoranic verses within a few hours of each other.
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ FBI Director Chris Wray said Tuesday that he does not consider court-approved FBI surveillance to be "spying" and said he has no evidence the FBI illegally monitored President Donald Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election.
His comments at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing broke from Attorney General William Barr, who has described as "spying" FBI surveillance during its investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Barr has not said such surveillance was necessarily improper, but Trump nonetheless seized on those comments to suggest his campaign was spied on in an illegal and unprecedented act.
Asked by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., if he would say that the FBI is "spying" when it investigates suspected terrorists and mobsters while following "investigative policies and procedures," Wray replied, "Well, that’s not the term I would use."
He added: "I believe that the FBI is engaged in investigative activity, and part of investigative activity includes surveillance activity of different shapes and sizes. And to me, the key question is making sure that it’s done by the book, consistent with our lawful authorities. That’s the key question. Different people use different colloquial phrases."
#6
Remember the mantra of DRT being an "agent of the Russian gov't?"
If it comes to it (and I doubt it will) they'll be siting Para 3.5 of EO 12333. Wait and see.
Until the powerless, notional position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) was established, the Director of the CIA was 'THE' Director of Intelligence for the nation. Anyone hear from the notional DNI lately ?
#13
I think pretty much everyone outside the beltway would agree with Barr on the definition of spying (assuming the definition had no attribution so they couldn't put it through the "my team is always right" mental filter).
SAN DIEGO (AP) ‐ A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration can make asylum seekers wait in Mexico for immigration court hearings while the policy is challenged in court, handing the president a major victory, even if it only proves temporary.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ‐ a frequent target of the president’s complaints ‐ reversed a decision by a San Francisco judge that would have prevented asylum seekers from being returned to Mexico during the legal challenge.
The case must still be considered on its merits and could end up at the Supreme Court. But allowing the policy to remain in effect in the meantime lets the administration carry out an unprecedented change to U.S. asylum practices.
The administration has said it plans to rapidly expand the policy across the border, which would have far-reaching consequences for asylum seekers and Mexican border cities that host them while their cases wind through clogged U.S. immigration courts. Cases can take several years to decide.
[Reuters] LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb targeting police outside a major Sufi shrine in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday killed several people and wounded dozens, officials said.
The blast, one day after the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, took place close to the Data Darbar, one of the largest shrines in South Asia.
"It was an attack on police that left several dead and dozens of policemen and civilians injured. The target was police," said Syed Mubashir Hussain, a spokesman for the Lahore police.
The attack follows a period of relative calm in the city, where attacks were at one time common.
No casualty details were immediately available but the Dawn newspaper reported that at least three people had been killed.
"A rescue operation is under way and we have shifted 15 people to hospital," said Muhammad Farooq, a spokesman for the city’s rescue services.
A bomb targeting Pak police outside a major Sufi shrine in the city of Lahore on Wednesday killed at least 10 people and maimed more than 20, officials said.
The blast, a day after the beginning of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan, went off at a police checkpoint near the Data Darbar, one of the largest Moslem shrines in South Asia, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors a year.
The attack was claimed by the Hizbul Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pak Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... , a movement that has been fighting the government for years. In a statement, the group said the attack targeted police and had been timed to avoid civilian casualties.
Sufis, who follow a mystical form of Islam that has been practised in South Asia for centuries, have been regularly attacked by hardline Sunni Moslemturbans in the past.
In 2010, two jacket wallahs struck the Data Darbar shrine killing 42 people and wounding 175, in an attack officials said was carried out by the Pak Taliban.
Militant violence has since declined sharply in Pakistain after a sustained crackdown following the country's deadliest attack in 2014, which killed more than 150 people, many children, at a school in the western city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. Since an attack in a Lahore park targeting Christians celebrating Easter in 2016 killed more than 70 people, Pakistain's second largest city has been largely quiet although an attack last year killed nine people.
Police said a general security alert was in force but there had been no specific warning about a threat to the Data Darbar, which protected by heavy layers of security.
The complex contains the shrine of Syed Ali bin-Osman al-Hajvery, widely known as Data Ganj Bakhsh, an 11th century Sufi preacher originally from Ghazni in what is now Afghanistan.
They are still fighting over who should succeed him almost 1200 years after his death.
But then some scholars say that Mohammed is an invention, especially when you consider the four oldest copies of the koran, in Egypt, and Yemen have been carbon dated to 200 years prior to the traditional date of his birth
#4
See the update, above. They’re Sufis, not Shiites, which is just as bad to the Pakistani Taliban. The divide between Sunni mystics and non-mystics is only about a thousand years old instead of the 1300 between Sunnis and Shiites.
Predate? I didn’t realize that, Sock Puppet of Doom. Do you have a link?
#5
True, Sock Puppet. In fact around the time of the second Umayad ruler, there were as many mohameds as there are second comings in the third world running around.
#6
You have to be careful about carbon-dating early manuscripts. Old parchments (or vellum) pages were 'scraped' for reuse. Cloth pages were boiled to remove the ink, too.
Although it would not surprise me that there weren't multiple Mo's kicking about. And a bunch of flying horses, too.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/08/2019 16:58
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#7
It wouldn't be Ramadan without a bunch of people dying.
Although it would not surprise me that there weren't multiple Mo's kicking about
It'd be funny if Mo was actually a common name way back when. Kinda like how every landscaping crew in California has at least one guy name Jesus.
[Red State] New information has come out related to how Christopher Steele was presented to the FISA court and it’s not good for the FBI.
This relates to the warrants sought against Carter Page, who turned out to be absolutely none of the things he was accused of being. As we now know, the majority of the evidence presented in those warrants was based on the dumpster fire that is the Steele dossier, which was full of unverified nonsense. It’s actually easier to say what’s true in the dossier than to point out all the falsities. You end up talking a lot less that way. There was no justification for using such a garbage piece of raw intelligence to pursue a FISA warrant against a U.S. citizen.
The Hill has the details of how Steele was falsely described to the FISA judge. This was just given to the DOJ Inspector General this week and more is likely to emerge.
Moving down to the the Wray coverup:
Meanwhile, current FBI Director Christopher Wray classified the majority of the document that revealed this information just two weeks ago.
Nonetheless, the FBI is doing its best to keep much of Kavalec’s information secret by retroactively claiming it is classified, even though it was originally marked unclassified in 2016...
...Everything else in the memo was redacted. The FOIA notes contain this explanation for the redactions: "Classified by FBI on 4/25/2019 ‐ Class: SECRET."
In other words, the FBI under Director Christopher Wray classified the document as "secret" just a few days ago. To add injury to insult, the FBI added this hopeful note: "Declassify on 12/31/2041." That would be 25 years after the 2016 election.
Now, why would he do that?
Last I checked, lying to a FISA court is a crime. It’s time for the people that perpetrated this to pay the piper.
#1
Believe it when I see it. Somehow I think there is more to the story (Obama). Expect some Arkancides over this..Hope Barr has competent Secret Service protection.
[Sri Lankan Guardian] The most sophisticated coordinated terror attack in the history of Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday kills over 250 unarmed innocents while leaving hundreds more of people with life-changing wounds. This was the first assault on the nation by the Islamic Terrorism. The so-called Islamic State has taken the responsibility of the heinous crimes while local as well as foreign intelligence agencies warned further attack by the members of Islamic extremism.
Lawrence Sellin who is a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel with branch qualifications and assignments in Special Forces, Infantry, Chemical and Medical Services talked with Nilantha Ilangamuwa in an exclusive interview on prevailing threats by the extremists and Easter Sunday attack in Sri Lanka.
Col. Sellin served in Afghanistan and Iraq and participated in a humanitarian mission to West Africa. Sellin holds a Master’s Degree in Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College and received training in Arabic, Kurdish and French from the Defense Language Institute. He has a distinguished civilian career in medical research and international business after completing a Ph.D. in physiology.
Excerpts;
Posted by: Besoeker ||
05/08/2019
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#4
The headline results from this particular Q and A:
Q. In your recent article about Jihad’s infiltration to South Asia, you have discussed Easter Sunday Bombings in Sri Lanka. That was paradigm shift in the Island nation. Do you think Sri Lanka’s War on Drugs caused this move of Islamic Extremists who are getting large funds out of selling drugs?
A. There is no doubt that Islamic extremists use drug trafficking and other criminal activities to support their violent operations. It is a means to an end. The Easter Sunday attack was ideological, not a response to Sri Lanka’s actions to prevent illicit drug sales. If anything, the bombings should motivate the Sri Lankan authorities to undertake greater efforts to block that source of terrorist financing.
[Daily Caller] WASHINGTON, D.C.‐Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos told Tucker Carlson on Tuesday that he suspects the Obama administration spied on other 2016 presidential primary campaigns.
Papadopoulos, whose meeting with Australian diplomat Alexander Downer was used to open the FBI’s July 31, 2016 counterintelligence probe, says he believes he was being monitored long before he joined the Trump campaign.
"In November of 2015, upon the same month that I was going to the Ben Carson campaign‐because people forget that I was on Carson’s campaign before I joined Trump’s campaign‐I was living in London and I had been approached by high-level State Department officials and even the CIA in London," Papadopoulos said. (RELATED: Stefan Halper’s ’Assistant’ In Papadopoulos Spy Operation Has Been Outed)
He continued, "They invited me to the U.S. embassy to meet with me and to basically probe me and to get to know why I’m joining the Ben Carson campaign and what the Ben Carson campaign was really all about. And the man who invited me was David Kovatch, who still works at the U.S. embassy in London. I think he’s directing the Energy Department over there. So clearly, by November 2015, I don’t think that Trump’s campaign was the only one that was under surveillance, quite frankly."
[Jpost] Some 100 housing units were destroyed during Israeli military strikes in the Gazoo Strip during the last round of fighting, a bigwig in the Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,-ruled coastal enclave said on Tuesday.
Naji Sarhan, deputy of the Ministry of Works, announced that each family whose house was destroyed will receive $1,000 in urgent financial aid. The aid will be provided through charitable institutions in the Gazoo Strip, he said during a presser.
Sarhan said that an additional 30 housing units were partially damaged by IAF strikes on the Gazoo Strip earlier this week.
Israel "destroyed dozens of installations, workshops, shops and media offices, in addition to agricultural fields and greenhouses," he added.
He also claimed that the Israeli military strikes destroyed vehicles and ambulances, as well as electricity networks supplying power to the Strip.
The official said that the ministry has begun removing the rubble and opening streets that were closed during the two days of fighting between Israel and the Gazoo-based terror groups.
The financial aid, Sarhan said, also includes providing rental fees to the families that lost their homes.
Meanwhile, ...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase... Hamas and Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... (PIJ) leaders were expected to leave Cairo late Tuesday after holding Gazoo truce talks with Egyptian intelligence officials ‐ and after 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... earlier in the day allocated $48 million for the Paleostinians.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhala .... born in Gaza in 1953, the longtime Paleostinian Islamic Jhad Number Two was called back from the organization’s base in Damascus in 2018 to take over the top spot until bossman Ramadan Shalah recovers from a coma... h were summoned to Cairo over the weekend for urgent talks on ways of restoring the ceasefire understandings that were reached with Israel earlier this year.
Those understandings broke down over the weekend, with Hamas and PIJ firing close to 700 rockets at southern Israel, killing four civilians. The IDF launched retaliatory strikes against 350 Gazoo military targets, killing 30 Paleostinians.
A new Egyptian-mediated truce understanding was reached late Sunday night, that reportedly included the transfer of $30m. in Qatari funds to the cash strapped Hamas regime.
Paleostinian sources said that senior members of the two groups’ military wings, Izaddin al-Qassam (Hamas) and al-Quds Brigades (PIJ), participated in the discussions with Egyptian intelligence officials. The discussions, the sources said, resulted in the latest ceasefire understandings that were announced on Monday morning.
[The Federalist] Diagnosed during pregnancy with spina bifida, chromosomal abnormalities, and hydrocephalus, young Noah Wall has defied predictions from the British medical community.
Roughly midway through pregnancy, during a 20-week scan, Shelly and Rob Wall of Cumbria, England, were told that their son Noah had spina bifida, a birth defect in which the spinal cord doesn’t fully close. Damage to the spinal cord and nerves can result. While health outcomes vary depending on the type and severity of the condition, physical and intellectual disabilities can vary from mild to severe and include paralysis of the legs.
Noah’s parents were later informed that he had hydrocephalus, a condition involving an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. On five separate occasions during the pregnancy, doctors advised Shelly and Rob to terminate their son, Noah. The Walls say their doctors projected that their son would be severely disabled both mentally and physically and potentially unable to see, hear, and speak.
When Shelly went in for Noah’s birth, the hospital placed a non-resuscitation order on him. She says it "was an amazing day" and "we waited with bated breath." Noah gave a loud and strong cry announcing his birth. An initial scan showed Noah’s brain was at 2 percent of a newborn’s brain. His latest scan at age three astoundingly reflects 80 percent of a child’s brain.
Celebrating his seventh birthday this March, Noah continues to spread hope with his effusive joy. He visits and takes gifts to children in the hospital where he stayed and updates his former doctors. His parents share their story of enduring love and perseverance against pressures to end Noah’s life.
#1
A story of modern medicine diagnostic failure.
A telling argument against post-birth abortion.
A popularization of perpetuating gene pool corruption.
[Free Beacon] New Jersey senator Cory Booker (D.) announced a slate of new gun bans and gun-control measures on Monday in his race to win the Democratic presidential nomination for 2020.
In what amounts to a collection of the strictest gun-control policies instituted in deep blue states over the past several decades, Booker's proposals span from outright bans on certain guns to requiring the implementation of theoretical technology. He wants to require federal licensing of all gun owners, limit how many firearms Americans can buy, and direct the IRS to investigate the National Rifle Association.
"Cory's plan is the most sweeping gun violence prevention proposal ever advanced by a presidential candidate. To make justice a reality for all, we have to end the epidemic of gun violence and invest in communities that have been shattered by the trauma left in its wake. To do that, we need to adopt a plan that introduces aggressive gun safety measures ‐ the most forward-leaning this country has ever seen," a release from Booker's campaign said. "Cory's plan would: Keep guns out of the wrong hands. Hold gun manufacturers accountable. Bring the fight to the NRA."
#8
Latest school shooting narrative goes off the rails...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/08/2019 13:12
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#9
Sure thing snortacus.
Yeah, usually everyone and the food channel weigh in after a shooting at a school, wondered why I didn't hear anything about it until late last night, and then at the water hole and not from the tv.
#10
I hate these silly headlines. It makes it sound like he has already banned guns and introduced gun control measures. Nope. He has announced that he intends to once (if, very much if) he becomes president. Headlines do matter. A lot of people only scan the articles at best, then move on.
[Free Beacon] The violent spasm from Hamas-run Gaza isn't just another episode in the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict or merely another incident in a cycle of violence in which the Palestinians are given no agency. It is a significant escalation that tests the prevailing rules of the game with Israel where Iran is demonstrating its ability to intensify the conflict by meddling in Palestinian affairs.
Despite the ceasefire previously hammered out by Egypt, a sniper from Iran's proxy‐the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)‐opened fire across the Gaza fence wounding an Israeli officer and soldier on Friday. The attack is all the more brazen as it took place as Hamas and PIJ leaders were in Cairo finishing an agreement to ease the tensions in Gaza and Israel's south. The IDF responded to the initial incident by targeting a Hamas outpost, killing three Hamas terrorists.
Beginning around 10 a.m. the next morning, the first of hundreds of rockets were fired by Hamas and PIJ into Israel, with around 700 launched toward Israeli homes and infrastructure by Sunday evening, killing four civilians and injuring dozens. Hamas-affiliated Shehab News Agency posted video of a salvo of rockets fired from Gaza.
This latest escalation is significant for several reasons. First is the deliberate increase in range in the rockets fired from Gaza. Hamas and PIJ began by targeting Israeli communities in the Strip's periphery, such as Sderot and Ashkelon. According to the IDF, after the Home Front Command instructed residents living within 40 km of the Gaza Strip to consult with local authorities and remain near protected spaces, the terrorist groups turned to rockets with increased ranges of up to 70 km. By Sunday, several longer-range projectiles were fired, growing to encompass Ashdod further north. On Sunday, city officials opened bomb shelters as far up the coast as Netanya, which lies north of Tel Aviv.
#1
The othre day I wondered how many Gazan rockets landed in Gaza. This article answers that and much else:
Of the 700 or so rockets fired from Gaza through Sunday, most landed in open fields, 90 failed to make it out of the strip, and Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted more than 170 with a success rate of over 80 percent.
The IDF targeted approximately 320 terror sites in Gaza, including observation control rooms, underground offensive terror tunnels underground infrastructure, weapon storage facilities, military compounds, launch sites, weapons factories, and observation posts. They also targeted an underground Hamas rocket manufacturing site, weapons manufacturing facilities inside a Hamas battalion HQ, and Hamas military intelligence and security offices. Israel's navy also struck several targets.
More significant is that Israel targeted dozens of private homes belonging to Hamas and PIJ commanders, including the office of Hamas' interior minister and head of Hamas security services, Twafiq Abu Naim. Moreover, Israel returned to its policy of targeted assassinations as confirmed by the IDF Spokesman. Its first targeted assassination carried out since 2014 struck a vehicle and killed 39-year-old Hamed Ahmed Abed Khudari who was in charge of large-scale money transfers from Iran to terror groups in Gaza.
While Israel's usual response was to target terrorist infrastructure and assets in the economy section, these latter targets suggest an upgrade.
[Breitbart] Red counties that voted for GOP President Donald Trump are booming more economically under his presidency than blue counties that voted for his Democrat opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a new report from the liberal Brookings Institution shows.
Brookings’ Mark Muro and Jason Whiton wrote on Tuesday:
As the 2020 conversations ramp up, the "red and blue" economic growth patterns in the U.S. continue to be an enormous focal point. Now, as new data comes out on the years 2017 to 2018 and the president crows, it’s clear that counties that voted for President Trump have been ’winning’ a little‐or at least winning a little more than they were. Specifically, the geography of growth has changed somewhat‐at least for the moment: Counties that voted for Donald Trump are seeing a bit faster employment growth than they were in the Obama years and are now adding jobs a little faster than are counties that voted for Hillary Clinton.
These red counties that voted for Trump over Clinton delivered him 306 electoral votes and victories in 30 and a half states, while Clinton won the popular vote but failed to win even 20 states, finishing with just 19 and a half states plus the District of Columbia for just 227 electoral votes. The bet on Trump seems to be paying off, as under the Trump administration these counties are outpacing the blue Clinton counties in growth trajectory.
#1
Government regulatory spending goes mainly to blue areas while the costs are born mainly in red areas so the decrease in regulation shifts economic benefit from blue to red areas.
#2
Unexpectedly, the title of the Brookings article contains a hint of doom - Trump counties may be winning a bit more, but their prognosis remains dim
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/08/2019 9:59
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[DAWN] A two-member bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday directed the counsel of Pir Afzal Qadri ‐ former leader of Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistain (TLP) who is currently facing a treason case ‐ to submit a detailed apology for incendiary remarks made by him during a protest against the Supreme Court's acquittal of Asia Bibi.
The fire brand holy man was booked under sedition and terrorism charges in Gujrat and taken into "protective custody" by the state during a crackdown in November 2018 after the TLP announced it would observe deaders’ day on Nov 25, 2018.
During today's hearing of a bail plea filed by Qadri and TLP chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi ‐ whose earlier applications were rejected by an anti-terrorism court ‐ Justice Qasim Ali Khan directed his counsel, Hafeezur Rehman Chaudhry, to submit the attested apology letter by Wednesday.
On the onset of the hearing, the court rejected the counsel's plea to not highlight the apology letter and directed the counsel to read it out in the court. "He [Qadri] should have thought about it when he was using the mic," Justice Khan added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2019
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[DAWN] Two Rooters journalists placed in durance vile You have the right to remain silent... in Myanmar after they were convicted of breaking the Official Secrets Act walked free from a prison on the outskirts of Yangon on Tuesday after spending more than 500 days behind bars.
The two news hounds, Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, had been convicted in September and sentenced to seven years in jail, in a case that raised questions about Myanmar's progress toward democracy and sparked an outcry from diplomats and human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... advocates.
President Win Myint has pardoned thousands of other prisoners in mass amnesties since last month. It is customary in Myanmar for authorities to free prisoners across the country around the time of the traditional New Year, which began on April 17.
Rooters has said the two men did not commit any crime and had called for their release.
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[CNBC] Stocks fell sharply on Tuesday after a top U.S. trade official indicated that higher tariffs on Chinese goods are coming later this week, disappointing traders who hoped President Donald Trump’s weekend tweet threat was just a negotiation tactic. Traders who, apparently, have not been "following" President Trump, and may be confusing "threat" with "promise," or, possibly, "bluff." See also "gambit."
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told reporters that the U.S. will increase levies on Chinese imports on Friday. Why Friday, I wonder.
Oh, right.
If nothing else, politics, at all levels, has become more interesting since President Trump took the helm.
For those who would listen, the United States of America is getting real and frequent lessons in horse-trading.
The Chinese economy is hurting from several sources and they are vulnerable on the export side, the domestic consumption side, the imports needed for manufacturing and the finance side.
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/08/2019 8:02
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#3
ZH headline: Why Investors Aren't Panicking (Yet): Here Are The Four Possible Scenarios For Friday
1) Rabbit out of a hat deal (25%);
2) Delay of tariff imposition because talks are making ‘progress’ (50%);
3) Limited tariff imposition (10%),
4) Full tariff imposition and breakdown of talks (15%).
Here comes #Starlink - #SpaceX's space-based internet. First launch is 15 May at 22:30 EDT (16 May at 0230 UTC) from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station! It will be an ASDS sea landing/recovery for the #Falcon9 first stage. http://t.co/Jodwx5hSAt
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, said the launch will carry “dozens of satellites,” adding more prototypes to the two currently in low Earth orbit.
“This next batch of satellites will really be a demonstration set for us to see the deployment scheme and start putting our network together,” she said at the Satellite 2019 conference here. “We start launching satellites for actual service later this year.”
[KhaamaPress] At least 19 Talibs were killed in separate Arclight airstrikes which were conducted by coalition forces in South-eastern parts of the country.
The 203rd Thunder Corps in a statement said at least 5 Talibs were killed in an airstrike conducted in Syedabad district of Maidan Wardak province.
The statement further added that the coalition forces carried out a similar airstrike in Qarabagh district of Ghazni province leaving 3 gunnies dead.
Similar airstrike was also carried out in Zurmat district of Paktia province leaving 11 gunnies dead, the 203rd Thunder Corps added.
The anti-government armed gunnies including Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... have not commented regarding the airstrikes so far.
Both the Afghan and coalition forces have stepped counter-terrorism operations in the restive parts of the country to suppress the anti-government armed gunnies and force them to participate in peace talks.
[DAWN] Sri Lankan authorities have either killed or locked away Please don't kill me! all the gunnies responsible for the Easter Sunday bombings that left 257 people dead, police chief Chandana Wickramaratne said on Tuesday.
Police have accounted for every individual involved in the April 21 attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels, Wickramaratne said in an audio statement.
"All those who organised and carried out the suicide kaboom have died or is in our custody," he said.
"The two bomb experts of the group have been killed. We have seized the explosives they had stored for future attacks."
Wickramaratne, who was named acting police chief last week after President Maithripala Sirisena suspended his predecessor over his failure to act on warnings about the attacks, said public life was slowly returning to normal with the lifting of curfews imposed after the bombs.
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[DAWN] A gunman took four hostages in a convenience store on the outskirts of the southern French city of Toulouse ...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France... on Tuesday, police said.
Authorities weren't certain of the hostage-taker's identity or what he is demanding. No injuries have been reported.
The man seized the hostages at 4:20pm (1420 GMT) Tuesday in the town of Blagnac, near Toulouse airport, according to a national police spokeswoman.
Local state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe? La Belle France 3 reported that the hostage-taker fired three shots in the air, is wearing a helmet fitted with a camera and demanded to speak with a negotiator.
Police locked down the neighbourhood, evacuating some buildings and ordering other residents to stay inside, according to neighbour Robert Texier. A police helicopter circled overhead.
The police spokeswoman and a security official said it was too early to rule out terrorism without knowing the hostage-taker's demands. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorised to be publicly named. The national terrorism prosecutor's office said it is following the situation.
"It's worrying. It all happened so quickly," said Texier, who expressed surprise at the incident in what he described as a quiet neighbourhood on the banks of the Garonne River. He said the convenience store has been run for decades by a woman and her daughter who live in the adjacent building.
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The teen, 'who is nearly 18, has a police record for incidents of violence, notably against police officers, for robbery, and also for participating in December in a "yellow vest" (anti-government) protest during which he was arrested,' Toulouse chief prosecutor Dominique Alzeari earlier told a news conference.
He left a letter at his home 'in which he seemed fairly depressive, or at least worried about his state of health, and he made mention of the 'yellow vest' movement but stating that the act he was about to commit would not go beyond what turned out to be not so impressive,' he said.
[IsraelTimes] The understandings that ended this flareup are precisely the understandings that held before it started. The border protests won’t stop, and neither will the incendiary balloons.
At some point on Sunday evening, the Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, leadership began to realize that it should seek a ceasefire with Israel.
It may be that Israel’s massive bombardments made the difference ‐ the strikes on Hamas ammunition stores; the targeted liquidation of Hamed Hamdan al-Khodari, the man responsible for channeling funds from Iran (according to the IDF and the Shin Bet); the destruction of several multi-story buildings in the heart of Gazoo. All of this gradually prompted the organization’s heads to internalize the repercussions of continuing the fighting, and all this at a time when Hamas’s Gazoo chief, Yihya Sinwar, was in Cairo, disconnected from the Strip.
Continued on Page 49
[TheLocal-Spain] Spanish police have smashed a Bangladeshi-run ring which smiggled mre than 350 migrants colonists from the Indian subcontinent into the country andgave them fake passports.
The migrants colonists allegedly paid the ring between €14,000-20,000 ($15,500-$22,000) for the journey, police said, adding that 11 people had been jugged ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in Barcelona where the group was based.
The migrants colonists were flown to Algeria, from where they crossed into neighbouring Morocco by foot and were then taken by motorboat across the Mediterranean into Spain, the police said in a statement issued on Friday.
At least 350 people from Bangladesh, India, Pakistain and Sri Lanka were smuggled in by the group, the statement added.
The ring comprised several cells. One was charged with recruiting migrants colonists, another organised their stay in transit countries while a third arranged the Mediterranean Sea crossing.
The gang fraudulently obtained Algerian entry visas for the migrants colonists in India.
Once the migrants colonists were in Spain, they were provided with fake passports or fake Bangladeshi police certificates stating they had no criminal records which they used to obtain Spanish residency permits.
Spain is the main entry point for migrants colonists seeking a better life in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... after Greece.
Over 7,800 migrants colonists have entered Spain since the start of the year, mostly by boat from Morocco, according to the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... ' International Organization for Migration (IOM). The vast majority were from Africa.
277 pages of newly released FBI files related to Hillary Clinton hit the Internet on Tuesday, although the Bureau hasn't placed the file on its FOIA page yet
The IT expert who set up Clinton's private email server told the FBI that supposedly 'secure' rooms in the Clintons' homes were sometimes left open
He said the same was true about safes inside the facilities, which are intended to be hardened against unwanted visitors and electronic signals
The files reveal that Clinton's aides at one point 'lost most of' the emails related to her private server as she transitioned out of the State Department
Server contained hundreds of classified documents and was a regular target for foreign hackers; Huma Abedin emailed an 'omg' at news of one of them in 2011
Files also reveal that the FBI lost its notes of a 2015 meeting with the Intelligence Community Inspector General on an unspecified Clinton-linked topic
#3
Files also reveal that the FBI lost its notes of a 2015 meeting...
"At what point did you actively decide to subvert the FOIA Act? Or is your defense that you are too incompetent to have ever worked in the government?"
[KhaamaPress] Dozens of snuffies were killed in latest raids targeting the facilitation networks, staging areas, and compounds of the leadership of group across the country.
Informed military sources said Tuesday that a raid was conducted in Dilah district of Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... to target Taliban ...Arabic for students... facilitation networks which resulted in killing of 3 Taliban fighters killed while three others were detained.
The sources further added that Afghan Special Forces conducted a raid to disrupt Taliban staging areas in Zurmat district of Paktiya leaving 11 Taliban fighters dead.
The Afghan Special Forces conducted a similar raid in Nad Ali district of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... targeting Taliban leadership which left 4 Taliban fighters dead, the sources said.
The military sources also added that the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces operations over the last 48 hours in Loy Kandahar resulted into the killing of 29 Taliban fighters while 36 others were maimed.
[AlAhram] Indonesian anti-terrorism police have rubbed out one Islamist bad boy and detained six suspected of planning attacks on officers with firearms or suicide kabooms under the cover of rallies tied to recent elections, a police front man said.
The suspects were detained after weekend raids in Bekasi in West Java and one died after being shot when he threw a bomb at police, national police front man Dedi Prasetyo said.
"They were planning to take police firearms and use them to commit terrorism, whether by becoming jacket wallahs or performing other attacks that could be fatal for protesters," Prasetyo said, adding that explosives had also been seized.
President Joko Widodo declared victory after the April 17 election based on unofficial results from private pollsters, but his challenger, former general Prabowo Subianto, has complained of widespread cheating and insists he won.
Prabowo has said that if his complaints were not addressed and an official count due by May 22 confirmed his loss, it could trigger "people power" style protests.
Prasetyo said the suspected bandidossnuffies were linked to 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.... -inspired Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) group, the largest Islamic State-linked group in Indonesia, which was legally disbanded last year for "conducting terrorism" and affiliating itself with the foreign bad boy group.
He said the suspects intended to use explosives and firearms to imitate the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which bandidossnuffies carried out a series of attacks and bombings across India's financial capital.
Indonesian police have had considerable success in stopping major attacks since the deadly 2002 Bali bombings, though analysts warn against complacency.
"Indonesia has been lucky thus far that its Lions of Islam generally have had too little experience to think big," analyst Sidney Jones from the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict said in a recent report.
"With a little imagination and better leadership, these pro-ISIS cells could do far greater damage," said Jones.
In March, the wife and son of a suspected bad boy blew themselves up in their home on the island of Sumatra after hours of tense negotiations with counter-terrorism officers.
Indonesia also saw a series of gruesome attacks in the city of Surabaya a year ago, when whole families, including children as young as nine, strapped on explosive vests and blew themselves up at churches and cop shoppes, killing more than 30 people.
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The Russian S-400s Iraq is said to be negotiating to purchase might be the leading edge of Iran’s defense against Israeli bombers, but surely these things won’t attempt to face Israeli F35s.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ The Iraqi military said on Tuesday that a new batch of South Korean KAI T-50 Golden Eagle supersonic advanced trainers and light combat aircraft will arrive in Iraq this month.
The Iraqi Air Force, in a statement released on Tuesday, announced that four T-50 trainer jets have been already shipped over from South Korea and will arrive in Iraq later this month.
The Iraqi army received in March 2017 the first batch of the South Korean combat aircraft.
The second shipment was delivered in May 2018.
In December 2013, Iraq signed a contract for 24 South Korean T-50 fighter jets, plus additional equipment and pilot training over the next 20 years.
The contract was initially estimated at $1.1 billion, but the manufacturer Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) later put the figure beyond $2 billion.The KAI T-50 Golden Eagle’s maiden flight occurred in 2002.
The aircraft entered active service with the Republic of Korea Air Force in 2005.
"I'm outta here!"
"Curly-toed slippers, don't fail me now!"
[DAWN] The owner and chairperson of Darul Sehat Hospital, Amir Chishti, and vice-chairperson Syed Ali Farhan beat feet from court on Tuesday after their bail applications in the Nashwa death case were dismissed by an additional district and sessions court in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Judicial staff and other witnesses said Chishti and Farhan left the courtroom soon after the judge announced the verdict, dismissing their applications seeking pre-arrest bail. Both of them had approached the court to seek bail in an attempt to avoid their arrest in the case.
"They easily escaped [from the premises of the City Courts] since the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case Sub-Inspector Mohammad Saleem Khan, who was also present in the court, did not make any attempt to take them into custody," alleged Advocate Muneer Ahmed Gilal, the counsel for the dear departed child's father.
Nine-month-old Nashwa was allegedly given improper treatment at the Darul Sehat Hospital on April 7 that paralysed her and led to her death.
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[DAWN] Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts... ‐ whose six-week bail in the al-Azizia Steel Mills case expired on Tuesday ‐ reached Kot Lakhpat Jail a little after midnight on Wednesday after travelling to the prison as part of a convoy comprising hundreds of PML-N supporters and party leaders.
Nawaz had left his Jati Umra residence in Lahore for the jail with a procession of PML-N workers led by Maryam Nawaz around 8:30pm.
Although the PML-N supremo was meant to reach the prison before midnight, his motorcade progressed slowly due to the traffic jam caused by the supporters. He eventually reached the jail around 12:15am. A heavy contingent of police was deployed on the road adjoining the jail.
"Took us four hours to reach Kotlakhpat from Raiwind which is hardly 30 mins drive [...] Now at the entrance. Thank you Lahore," tweeted Maryam.
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[KhaamaPress] The Special Forces of the Afghan Intelligence stormed a compound of a commander of the Red Unit of Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... in southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province leaving at least four faceless myrmidons dead.
The Afghan Intelligence, National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... (NDS), in a statement said the raid was conducted on compound of Ataullah, one of the commanders of the Red Unit of Taliban in Marjah district.
The statement further added that four members of the Taliban group were killed in the raid and six weapons, two hand grenades, a radio communication set, three vehicles, and some propaganda papers were confiscated.
The anti-government armed faceless myrmidons including Taliban have not commented regarding the operation so far.
Helmand is among the relatively volatile provinces in South of Afghanistan. Talibs are active in some of the restive districts of the province where they often attempt to carry out terrorist related activities against the government and security institutions.
Someone needs to be broken into pieces so small they can’t be put back together again.
[IsraelTimes] Organization’s chief Ziad al-Nakhaleh says his group and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, coordinated latest round of violence while in Egypt for truce talks.
Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... ’s Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhaleh said Tuesday that he expected war with Israel in the coming months, and that his group and Hamas coordinated the outbreak of the most recent round of fighting.
"The last escalation was only a live fire drill in preparation for the major campaign that is coming," Nakhaleh said during an interview with the Hezbollah-linked al-Mayadeen news outlet, according to Hebrew media reports.
Nakhaleh said that Islamic Jihad and Hamas, a jihadist terror organization sworn to Israel’s destruction, decided to spark the last round of fighting with the Israel Defense Forces while the two groups were in Egypt to discuss a truce with Israel. Egypt has long acted as a broker between Israel and Paleostinian terror groups in Gazoo.
"We decided to fire at an IDF officer and a female soldier last Friday in cooperation with Hamas to respond to the killing of protesters at the March of Return," Nakhaleh said, according to Channel 13 news. "This was decided while we were in Cairo. The Egyptians didn’t like the fact that this happened while we were in Cairo. Myself and Yahya Sinwar decided to continue the escalation," he said, referring to Hamas’s Gazoo chief.
Between us and Hamas there is agreement on everything," Nakhaleh said.
Nakhaleh, who was named the Islamic Jihad chief in September 2018, also claimed that if the last outbreak had continued for a few more hours, "it would have been possible to bombard Tel Aviv."
The comments came less than 48 hours after the end of two days of intense fighting between Israel and Gazoo-based snuffies that saw nearly 700 rockets and mortars fired at Israel and four Israeli civilians killed.
In response to the onslaught, the Israel Defense Forces conducted over 300 strikes from the air and land, including a rare liquidation of a terrorist operative whom the IDF said funneled money from Iran to terror groups in the Strip.
Gazoo’s Hamas-run health ministry said 29 Paleostinians were killed by Israeli strikes, including two pregnant women and a baby. Israel said one of the women and the baby were killed in a failed rocket launch inside Gazoo and not as a result of IDF actions.
[DAWN] A suspect tossed in the calaboose Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! by the law-enforcement agencies in connection with a recent shootout in Hayatabad Township has disclosed that the alleged Lions of Islam killed in the encounter belonged to the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... Pakistain and had also planned to kill provincial ministers Shahram Tarakai and Atif Khan through a jacket wallah.
The disclosure was made by Yasir Shams in the confessional statement recorded with senior civil judge (judicial) Nasrullah Khan on May 4.
The suspect claimed that the alleged terrorists, including Tariq, Murad, Amjad, Irfan, Saeed and Feroze Shah, were known to him and were also involved in the attempt on the life of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. High Court judge Ayub Khan, who was critically injured in an attack in Hayatabad Township on Feb 28.
In the confessional statement, the suspect didn’t say that he was part of the TTP but insisted that he was aware of the activities of terrorists.
The alleged terrorists, including Murad, Tariq, Amjad and Feroze Shah, along with an Afghan citizen,
Imran Mohmand, were killed in the encounter, which began on the night of Apr 15 and ended the next day leaving a police officer and an army man martyred.
Suspect Saeed, who was reportedly arrested after the encounter injured, is in the police’s custody.
The suspect, a computer operator at a local company, claimed that he was present in a gathering a day before attack on Justice Ayub when Tariq, Amjad, Feroze Shah, Irfan and Saeed had finalised the liquidation plan.
He added that Saeed had been working on that plan for many months.
The suspect gave an interesting motive behind the attack on Justice Ayub claiming that the people wanted to kill the judge for acquitting Dr Shakil Afridi, who later went to the US, though the agency surgeon has never been acquitted and he continues to be behind bars.
The suspect said Tariq, Murad and Feroze Shah rode a cycle of violence carrying an automatic gun and pistols, whereas he (Yasir Shams) was in a car with the accused Irfan waiting at a distance from the place of attack.
He claimed that after firing at the vehicle of Justice Ayub, the three attackers approached them and Murad and Feroze Shah also boarded the car.
In the confessional statement, the suspect gave another interesting account of the botched attempt to kill Shahram Tarakai and Atif Khan.
"An event was organised by the ISF (Insaf Students Federation) of the PTI in Baghe Naran, where the PTI’s key leaders were invited. Amjad and Tariq had prepared an Afghan boy as a suicide bomber to target the event," he said.
The suspect said an explosive-laden cycle of violence was to be used by the suicide bomber for the terrorist activity but he met an accident on his way and thus, failing to reach the target.
"I and Saeed were walking around when we saw the suicide bomber with the cycle of violence," he said, adding that the bomber told them that he got scared after the cycle of violence hit a car.
"Those riding that car slapped the bomber after which he started pushing the cycle of violence instead of riding it and approaching the target," he said.
The suspect said the alleged Lions of Islam went to the Hayatabad Phase 7 house, which was destroyed by security forces after the encounter.
He said after reaching the house, the Lions of Islam abused each other.
The suspect said he repented his unlawful activities and sought forgiveness.
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[TheLocal-La Belle France] The anti-government demonstrators will be banned from disrupting "solemn ceremonies" to take place at the Arc de Triomphe and along the avenue, which is near the French presidential palace, the police said in a statement.
French authorities have been taking a harder line against the "yellow vest" protests since the last Gay Paree police chief was sacked three weeks ago for failing to counter a stone-throwing and fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... rampage along the Champs-Elysees.
The new police chief who succeeded him, Didier Lallement, noted that the protests - which began in November over fuel tax increases and swelled into an anti-government movement - regularly saw coppers targeted by "a radical splinter group of demonstrators".
The protests usually take place in Gay Paree on Saturdays, but officials feared they could happen on Wednesday this week, which is a public holiday in La Belle France.
During Wednesday's commemorations celebrating Victory in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... Day - Nazi Germany's surrender to the Allies on May 8, 1945 - French President Emmanuel Macron is leave his palace and go up the Champs-Elysees with an honour guard to lay a wreath under the Arc de Triomphe.
That famous monument has been repaired in time for the occasion, after "yellow vest" protesters vandalised it in a December demonstration.
They sprayed graffiti, smashed sculptures and stole commemorative medals and snuffed out an eternal flame that burns atop a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, causing €1.2 million in damage.
[IsraelTimes] A Philadelphia city commission said Monday it’s investigating an event last month at which Moslem children were captured on video speaking in Arabic about beheadings and the liberation of Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site.
The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations launched a probe into the April 17 gathering at the Moslem American Society’s Philadelphia chapter. A video uploaded to the chapter’s Facebook page shows children moving to a revolutionary anthem often used by Islamist groups, with mentions of "deaders," "traitors" and violent rebellion. Two maiden of tender yearss read from a prepared text. One says, "We will chop off their heads, and we will liberate the sorrowful and exalted al-Aqsa Mosque."
The Moslem American Society took the video down ‐ calling the video "disturbing" and condemning the words used in it ‐ and said a school that rented space in the building was responsible for the program. It said the person in charge of the event had been dismissed.
The society also called the school, which it did not name, a "separate entity." But old Facebook posts that have since been taken down show that a school called MAS Leaders Academy operates at the Moslem American Society’s Philadelphia location. Moslem American Society officials did not return phone calls and email messages seeking comment Monday on the relationship between the Philadelphia chapter and the school.
"Unfortunately, the video from the school was uploaded to the chapter’s Facebook page without verifying the content of the video for appropriateness and making sure it conforms to our hate-free policy and values. The chapter will take further steps in assuring strict adherence to publishing and posting policies," according to a weekend statement from the society’s national headquarters.
The Moslem American Society also shares space with the al-Hidaya mosque, which serves a large number of Paleostinian immigrants colonists, according to Jacob Bender, executive director of the Council on Islamic American Relations’ Philadelphia chapter.
He said Monday that the mosque has asked the council to hold a "workshop on diversity and religious tolerance" to help "members of the immigrant Moslem community have a better understanding of Jewish sensitivities and anti-Semitism, so that events like this don’t repeat themselves."
Bender, who is Jewish, also said the incident "was not an example of radicalization," noting the mosque has good relations with Philadelphia city officials.
"This was a stupid decision by an untrained pedagogue and volunteer teacher," he said.
The city’s human relations commission, meanwhile, said it is gathering information about the April 17 "Ummah Day" event at the center of the controversy. The commission works to mediate conflict among groups, among other things.
"The city of Philadelphia condemns bigotry in all its forms," Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement Monday. "Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection. For this moniker to ring true, all our brothers and sisters ‐ regardless of their background ‐ must feel safe and welcome. We are committed to working together with partners representing all our communities to make this happen."
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#1
Looking to caught and incarcerate the bastard who made it public?
Yes, you read the title correctly. More beefsteak on the hoof. If implemented over half the arid land in the world, this holistic approach could return CO2 levels to pre-industrial levels. Keep your gas-guzzler!
A 22 minute TED Talk, from 2013.
Mmmmmmm...Steak!
Posted by: Bobby ||
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#1
He accepts global warming as a given, but says turning grassland into desert may be a bigger contributor than CO2. Can't tax grassland you are 'saving' by removing the nasty cows.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/08/2019 11:12
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[DAWN] Seven more people ─ including three Chinese nationals ─ were tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! on Tuesday as the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) continues its crackdown on a gang allegedly involved in the trafficking of women to China for prostitution.
The FIA identified the arrested suspects as Song Chuaoyang (ring leader), Rafique Hussain (translator and manager), Sajid (controller), Guyong Da, Saima Mustafa, Fusing Bu and Saba Jahangir.
The raid ‐ which was conducted under the supervision of FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Cell Rawalpindi's Deputy Director Kamran Ali ‐ took place after two women, Taiba Gul and Beenish Rasheed, appeared before the director general of FIA to tip the agency off regarding the gang's activities.
The arrests come a week after Human Rights Watch said Pakistain should be alarmed by recent reports of trafficking of women and girls to China. It said the allegations were disturbingly similar to the pattern of trafficking of "brides" to China from at least five other Asian countries.
The Chinese embassy in Islamabad has also raised the alarm over illegal, cross-border matchmaking services that are often a front for human trafficking. Last month, it issued a statement condemning reports of the existence of bureaus orchestrating illegal marriages. "China is working together with the Pak government and law enforcement agencies to track these illegal marriage centres," the statement said.
The embassy has denied reports that the women were being trafficked for the sale of their organs as "misleading and groundless".
Jameel Ahmad, a top FIA official, told Rooters that the agency had busted the gang after it received information about the increasing smuggling of Pak woman to China where they are thrown into prostitution. He said several gangs were believed to be operating, mainly targeting members of the Christian community.
Ahmad said the police raid he led on a wedding ceremony last week in Faisalabad ...formerly known as Lyallpur, the third largest metropolis in Pakistain, the second largest in Punjab after Lahore. It is named after some Arab because the Paks didn't have anybody notable of their own to name it after... was a major breakthrough in the investigation. He said a man and a woman from China and a fake priest were arrested at the ceremony where a Christian girl was to be married.
"The gang members confessed that they have sent at least 36 Pak girls to China where they are being used for prostitution," he said. The majority were Christians from different districts in Punjab, he said.
The Times of Israel thought the story is about a marriage market, not prostitution:
In China, demand for foreign brides has mounted, a legacy of the one-child policy that skewed the country’s gender balance toward males. Brides initially came largely from Vietnam, Laos and North Korea. Now men are looking further afield, said Mimi Vu, director of advocacy at Pacific Links, which helps trafficked Vietnamese women.
"It’s purely supply and demand," she said. "It used to be, ’Is she light-skinned?’ Now it’s like, ’Is she female?'"
With no prospects for a Chinese bride, and greater competition for the girls of the near abroad, those lower on the totem pole have to look even farther afield.
Pakistain seems to have come onto marriage brokers’ radar late last year.
Saleem Iqbal, a Christian activist, said he first began to see significant numbers of marriage to Chinese men in October. Since then, an estimated 750 to 1,000 girls have been married off, he said.
Some of the grooms are from among the tens of thousands of Chinese in Pakistain working on infrastructure projects under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, a project that has further boosted ties between the two countries in recent years.
Other grooms search directly from China through networks. They present themselves as Christian converts, but pastors complicit in the deals don’t ask for any documentation.
They pay on average $3,500 to $5,000, including payments to parents, pastors and a broker, said Iqbal, who is also a journalist with a small Christian station, Isaak TV. Iqbal has gone to court to stop marriages and sheltered runaway brides, some as young as 13.
Dozens of priests are paid by brokers to find brides for Chinese men, said Augustine, the provincial minorities minister, who is Christian. Many are from the small evangelical churches that have proliferated in Pakistain.
Gujranwala, a city north of Lahore, has been a particular target of brokers, with more than 100 local Christian women and girls married off to Chinese in recent months, according to Iqbal.
The city has several mainly Christian neighborhoods, largely dirt poor with open sewers running along narrow slum streets. Tucked away in the alleys are numerous evangelical churches, small cement structures unrecognizable except for small crosses outside.
Brokers also troll brick kilns, where the poorest work essentially as slaves to pay off debts, and offer to pay off their workers’ debts in exchange for daughters as brides.
...which explains why miscreants wanted on twelve systems were forever meeting at brick factories in Bangladesh before being encountered in a crossfire with the RAB. So glad to have that mystery cleared up.
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[Rudaw] KAFR NABL, Syria - Air strikes and shelling killed 13 civilians in northwestern Syria on Tuesday, a monitor said, in the latest escalation to rattle a months-old truce and spark displacement.
At least 53 fighters have also been killed since Monday, in one of the deadliest flare-ups since a demilitarised zone around the Idlib region was agreed in September last year, the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Several deadly skirmishes have occurred since the deal was reached between regime ally Russia and rebel backer The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
Continued on Page 49
[AlAhram] A suspected US dronezap killed four alleged al-Qaeda jihadists in central Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... on Tuesday, a security official in the area said.
The strike targeted the men's vehicle as they were heading to a farm in Marib province, according to the official, who did not want to be named.
The United States considers Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... (AQAP) to be the radical group's most dangerous branch.
A long-running US drone war against AQAP has intensified since 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... took office in January 2017.
AQAP and other jihadist groups have flourished in the chaos of the country's civil war, which pits the government -- backed by a Saudi-led military coalition -- against Shiite Houthis.
On Sunday, four suspected al-Qaeda members were killed in a suicide kaboom claimed by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in Bayda province, a local official told AFP.
The more than four-year conflict in Yemen has killed tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, relief agencies say.
The fighting has triggered what the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with 3.3 million people still displaced and 24.1 million -- more than two-thirds of the population -- in need of aid.
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[AlAhram] The Libyan National Army (LNA), led by commander 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... , said it shot down a 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... government warplane purportedly flown by a foreign mercenary south of the Libyan capital on Tuesday.
The LNA media unit released photographs of what it said was the pilot receiving medical treatment while seated on a chair. One showed an LNA commander, Abdulsalam al-Hassi, standing behind him.
Video posted on social media, which an LNA source said was authentic, showed the pilot, looking groggy and wearing a blood-soaked T-shirt and khaki jacket, being questioned in English.
Asked his name, he said what sounded to be Jimmy Rees but his answer was not clear. He gave his age as 29 and said he was "from Portugal".
Asked what he was doing in Libya, he said: "I was requested to destroy roads and bridges". Asked who sent him, he said it was a civilian contract with someone called Hadi but he did not know his full name.
In Lisbon, the Portuguese Defence Ministry and they could not confirm the pilot's nationality.
"For now the only thing we can say is that he is not a Portuguese soldier," a ministry spokeswoman told Rooters.
Rooters correspondents in Lisbon said the man did not sound Portuguese.
A front man for forces aligned with the internationally recognised government which is based in Tripoli had no immediate comment on the incident.
Residents of Gharyan, about 80 km (50 miles) south of Tripoli, said that when the plane was heard overhead, anti-aircraft fire opened up. There was an kaboom as it was hit.
"The jet was shot down in al-Hira town (10 km from Gharyan) and I saw LNA troops capturing the pilot," a Gharyan resident told Rooters.
The eastern-based LNA, led by Haftar, began an offensive against Tripoli in early April but its advance has been blocked by forces loyal to Tripoli on the city's southern outskirts.
The escalation is a setback for efforts by the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... and Western states to end the chaos and political division in Libya eight years after a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... -backed uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Qadaffy ...a proud Arab institution for 42 years, now among the dear departed, though not the dearest... .
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#1
Portuguese guy being interrogated by Arab in English. Admittedly, our planetary language is English, but somehow this sounds a bit sketchy.
#6
One of the BBC nature shows showed a shark trying to dig an octopus out of a rocky shelter. The smart creature wriggled their tentacles into the sharks gills, suffocating it. The fish let go, and the octopus stayed in the shelter.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/08/2019 8:55
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#7
The real question is why are you holding something with living suction cups to your face?
[DAWN] THERE is nothing surprising about a government minister for science and technology proposing a scientific solution to the old issue of how to determine the lunar calendar. There are many in the country who would believe that the clergy could have summoned science to their side over the matter a long time ago. In this respect, Minister Fawad Chaudhry’s step to end decades of lunar uncertainty is to be commended and would have earned him greater praise, had it not been overshadowed by an unfortunate slip of the tongue when he recently credited Suparco with sending the Hubble telescope into space. In the making for decades and launched into orbit in 1990, this solar-powered telescope has brought the universe to our doorstep through its spectacular images of distant galaxies, collapsing suns, and stars leaping into life. It has both captured the timelessness of space and contributed to scientists’ understanding of its origins. Tragically, the credit for this explorer of the skies must go to Nasa, as Suparco is still some light years away from unlocking the secrets of the universe.
But, there is always a silver lining ‐ just as there are genuine mistakes. Clearly, all the energy that Mr Chaudhry devoted to the ministry of information before being shown the door by an unappreciative government can now be concentrated ‐ sensibly ‐ on his new responsibilities. His task is a difficult one: not only has he to improve the state of science and technology in the country, he must also lead the way in promoting respect for the subject and building an environment where it can thrive in educational institutes. He has already tried to assert his ideas undaunted by a powerful clergy that has been irked by his practical suggestion about moon-sighting. However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... there is a need to consult senior experts and collaborate closely with the education authorities to encourage scientific knowledge in general. After all, the PTI’s promise to this country was rooted in the idea of change.
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#5
and here i sitting at work when just outside in the parking lot, my flivver awaits with an untapped quart of apple pie.....
gotta be quitting time somewhere
Guessing (since they have a major fortified launch base there) of a placement at Abu Musa island and ranging for the Persian Gulf missile's listed range of 300km pic.twitter.com/AXBeenQO9w
[AlAhram] Egypt's top appeals court upheld on Tuesday death sentences against 13 members of the terrorist group Ajnad Misr,
... after breaking off from Ansar Bayt al Maqdis, which was then still linked to Al Qaeda, they possibly allied with the Muslim Brotherhood after the Egyptian army evicted the MB from the government. But at any rate they ranked #12 on the UAE terror blacklist. They mostly blew up Cairo policemen with IEDs they made themselves...
who were convicted on charges including murder.
The defendants were first handed the death penalty by a lower criminal court in December 2017 before they later appealed the sentences.
They were convicted on the murder of security personnel, attempted murder, joining an outlawed group, and possessing firearms, in association with events that took place between 2013 and mid-2015.
Tuesday's rulings by the Court of Cassation, the country's highest court, are final and cannot be appealed.
Whew! I’m sure all involved are glad that’s over, even those not keen on their personal outcomes.
Ajnad Misr, or Soldiers of Egypt, emerged in early 2014 and grabbed credit for a number of attacks on security forces, mainly in the Egyptian capital. The group was designated a terrorist organization by the Egyptian government in the same year.
Its leader was killed by security forces in 2015,
... that would be Hammam Mohammed Attia the bomb maker, formerly of Ansar Bayt al Maqdis back when it was Al Qaeda in the Sinai, who died in his beloved Giza at the age of 33. At the time of his death he was in possession of an automatic firearm, a pistol, four bombs including one with a magnet so that it could be attached to a car, 18 incomplete bombs, materials used to make bombs and over EGP 76,000...
and many of its members are in jail.
The court also upheld life sentences for 17 defendants, 15-year prison terms for two others and five-year terms for seven.
The government in February 2018 launched a large-scale military operation against IS in the Sinai Peninsula of eastern Egypt. Around 600 suspected murderous Moslems and 40 soldiers have been killed so far, according to official figures.
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[TheLocal-La Belle France] French police arrest a 16-year old in the eastern city of Strasbourg on Tuesday as part of an investigation into a suspected plot to attack security forces and possibly the presidential Elysee Palace, a judicial source told AFP.
His arrest comes after three adults and another teenager were incarcerated Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! on April 26 over plans to carry out what Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said would have been an "extremely violent terror attack".
We had the story here, and a very frustrating story it was, missing as it was all the details that would be useful to a reader interested to know anything about the miscreants.
The attack was allegedly planned to coincide with the start of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan, which began in La Belle France on Monday, with officials saying the suspects had scouted out areas near the Elysee and a cop shoppe in the Gay Pareeian suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois.
La Belle France's TF1 television said the fifth suspect was a high school student of Chechen origin who was arrested at his parents' home.
One is Chechen? Then it is likely the others are at least from the former Soviet Union, if not also Chechen.
"Intelligence services suspect he was supposed to publish a video claiming allegiance to ISIS on the group's behalf," TF1 reported, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, a claim confirmed by the judicial source.
"Several projects were envisioned, all against security forces," including those stationed outside the Elysee, the source said.
Of the four arrested initially, one is a 17-year-old who served a year in prison after being convicted of trying to join jihadist fighters in Syria in
2017.
The three others, aged 26, 38 and 39, were previously known to police, but only for petty crimes.
La Belle France remains on high alert since a wave of domestic jihadist attacks in 2015 which have killed more than 250 people.
At the end of March, two men were indicted in Gay Paree on suspicion of planning an attack on a school or a cop shoppe.
[TheHill] James Comey’s planet is getting noticeably warmer. Attorney General William Barr’s emissions are the suspected cause.
Barr has made plain that he intends to examine carefully how and why Comey, as FBI director, decided that the bureau should investigate two presidential campaigns and if, in so doing, any rules or laws were broken.
Comey will claim that everything he did in the FBI was by the book. But after the investigations by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz and U.S. Attorney John Huber, along with Barr’s promised examination, are completed, Comey’s mishandling of the FBI and legal processes likely will be fully exposed.
Ideally, Barr’s examination will aggregate information that addresses three primary streams.
The first will be whether the investigations into both presidential nominees and the Trump campaign were adequately, in Barr’s words, “predicated.” This means he will examine whether there was sufficient justification under existing guidelines for the FBI to have started an investigation in the first place.
The second will be whether Comey’s team obeyed long-established investigative guidelines while conducting the investigations and, specifically, if there was sufficient, truthful justification to lawfully conduct electronic surveillance of an American citizen.
The third will be an examination of whether Comey was unduly influenced by political agendas emanating from the previous White House and its director of national intelligence, CIA director and attorney general. This, above all, is what’s causing the 360-degree head spins.
Kevin R. Brock, former assistant director of intelligence for the FBI, was an FBI special agent for 24 years and principal deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). He is a founder and principal of NewStreet Global Solutions, which consults with private companies and public-safety agencies on strategic mission technologies.
#1
....whether Comey was unduly influenced by political agendas emanating from the previous White House and its director of national intelligence, CIA director and attorney general.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an unannounced trip to Iraq on Tuesday to meet with the Iraqi prime minister and other bigwigs, citing US concern over Iraqi illusory sovereignty due to increasing Iranian activity in the region.
Pompeo had been on his way to Germany where he was due to meet both Chancellor Angela Merkel ...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom. Now they make faces at her for inundating the country with Moslems .. and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, but suddenly canceled the trip due to "pressing issues," the State Department initially said, without elaborating where he was going.
"I wanted to go to Baghdad to speak with the leadership there, to assure them that we stood ready to continue to ensure that Iraq is a sovereign, independent nation," Pompeo told news hounds.
IRAQ TO PROTECT US INTERESTS
Following the meetings, Pompeo said that Baghdad had promised to protect US interests, the French news agency AFP reported.
"We talked to them about the importance of Iraq ensuring that it's able to adequately protect Americans in their country," Pompeo said of his discussions with President Barham Saleh and Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi. "They both provided assurances that they understood that was their responsibility."
Pompeo said he made the trip to Iraq because Iranian forces are "escalating their activity" and the threat of attacks were "very specific."
"These were attacks that were imminent," Pompeo said without discussing the intelligence in detail.
"We wanted to let them know about the increased threat stream that we had seen and give them a little bit more background on that so they could ensure that they were doing all they could to provide protection for our team," he added.
After assuring #Iraq government the US stands ready to protect its sovereignty against #Iran, @SecPompeo departs Baghdad.
Many of the articles today are linked together. This trip links with the reports of Iran wanting to attack US troops in Iraq/Syria and sink the USS Teddy R.
That ties into the missile barrage back and forth between Israel and Gaza as Israel was supposed to be tied down and unable to work with the US. I would not be surprised to find out that NKor misbehavior and Venezuela situations are tied into it with some orchestra direction from the Kremlin.
The game is still in the early stages. Iran has been moving IRBMs to islands in the Persian Gulf and to Yemen in hopes of killing a carrier. The Houthis have also shelled a major southwestern Saudi port (Jazan? - sorry I forget) with IRBMs, and UAVs supplied by Iran.
The ____ is literally hitting the fan with regards to Iran.
Oh and the controlling clergy in Iran can't get the teaching clerics in Qom to agree with them so they are forming their own theological seminary to train the next generations of ruling clerics. (As compared to regular clerics.) Much murkiness is evident.
Besides the TR armada some Barksdale AFB B-52s are now moved to bases somewhere in the Gulf.
[Rudaw] Seven Swedish children, whose parents were members of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) and were killed in Syria, are on their way back to Sweden. They are currently in Erbil, in the Kurdistan Region and have been united with their grandfather.
A delegation from Sweden traveled to northern Syria on May 7 where they met with the foreign relations department of the Kurdish administration, ANHA news first reported.
Continued on Page 49
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[CNN] Intelligence showing that Iran is likely moving short-range ballistic missiles aboard boats in the Persian Gulf was one of the critical reasons the US decided to move an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers into the region, according to several US officials with direct knowledge of the situation.
The concerns over the movement of the missiles was one of multiple threads of intelligence from various sources that led the US to believe Iran had a capability and intention to launch strikes against US targets.
On Tuesday US Central Command spokesperson Capt. Bill Urban said they had seen "indications that Iranian and Iranian proxy forces were making preparations to possibly attack US forces in the region."
It's not clear if the Iran could launch the missiles from the boats or if they are transporting them to be used by Iranian forces on land.
The Pentagon is considering sending additional firepower to the region including anti-missile defense systems, the officials said.
The US could send Patriot missile batteries back to the region months after the US had brought some back home. No final decision on additional deployments have been made but the officials made clear if the Iranians were to pull back, the batteries might not be needed.
The Pentagon currently believes Iran's actions could put US and coalition forces at risk in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. US military and intelligence officials are monitoring the movement of the Iranian missiles around the clock but have yet to see a pullback.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Thirteen ISIS (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.... ) Lions of Islam were killed in a raid by Iraqi army aviation and encounters with rustics province of Anbar, west of the country.
A statement by the ministry of defense, quoted by local media, said one warplane was targeted with gunfire during a backup mission for Iraqi forces in the city of Qaem, a former Islamic State stronghold near the Syrian borders.
The plane responded to the source of the firing, killing five ISIS (Islamic State) murderous Moslems, and destroyed their truck besides a booby-trapped vehicle, according to the ministry.
Meanwhile, ...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last. They discussed the officers's efficiency rating system... Russi Today quoted a tribal source in Anbar saying that a force of rustics in Anbar killed eight ISIS members who were camping in al-Jazirah desert are, upon a tip from civilians.
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Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) – Three Iraqi policemen were killed late on Monday as unidentified gunmen opened fire at them while on duty in Kirkuk province, a security source was quoted as saying.
Another policeman was wounded in the assault, which took place near a security checkpoint in Altun Kupri town on the border area between Kirkuk and Erbil provinces, the source added.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in most cases, is responsible for attacks targeting policemen and citizens across Iraq.
In what's being described as a "terrorist" attack on a Iraqi Federal Police guard post on the primary Erbil-Kirkuk road, three officers were killed late Monday.
The incident occurred at a guard post south of the Altun Kupri (Pirde) checkpoint, the Iraqi Security Media Center announced in a statement that confirmed the casualties.
The Iraqi authorities said they would later release more information.
Speaking to two villagers and a federal police officer stationed in the area, Rudaw’s correspondent in Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... Hardi Mohammed, reported the attack occurred at 10:22 p.m. near Kalwor village.
The guard post is 100 meters away from the critical road and it is near the former Erbil-Kirkuk customs point.
A group of gunnies descended from the nearby Kani Domalan mountain range and attacked the federal police, locals detailed. Gunshots were heard by the local villagers for 30-40 minutes. Light weapons were said to be used. They then retreated via the same route.
The villagers of Kalwor said they were told by Iraqi forces not to leave their homes due to the precarious situation. Other forces have gone to the mountain range to chase the assailants, the local correspondent added.
Iraq's elite US-trained Counterterrorism Services (ICTS) have been conducting anti-ISIS operations in the province over the past month.
Yahya Rasul, the spokesperson for Iraq’s Ministry of Defense, announced the results of “clearing operations” in Saladin and al-Jazira operations on Monday.
He tweeted that 13 ISIS members have been killed, 18 “dens’ have been destroyed, and five vehicles have been destroyed.
The Islamic State (ISIS) hasn’t claimed the responsibility for the attack on the Erbil-Kirkuk road. Its media did claim an IED attack on a federal police officer on Monday in Abdulkarim Nassir village in the central province of Diyala.
The Erbil-Kirkuk road is a critical transportation lane that links the Kurdistan Region to central Iraq and parts of Iran. It is also used to transport goods coming mainly from the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing with Turkey.
The Erbil-Kirkuk-Sulaimani road is the most direct and up-to-date.
djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Iraqi military intelligence forces nabbed Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! on Tuesday 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.... terrorist at a camp of the displaced people in Mosul city.
"Acting on intelligence information, troops of the Military Intelligence Directorate arrested an Islamic State terrorist while hiding among the displaced families at al-Jadaa camp in Mosul," Iraqi news website Alghad Press quoted the directorate as saying in a press statement.
"The terrorist is wanted by Iraqi judiciary on terror charges pursuant to article no. 4 of the anti-terrorism law," added the statement.
Al-Jadaa camp is home to 18,000 people displaced by several months of warfare in and around Mosul between IS and Iraqi security forces.
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[IsraelTimes] A Jewish advocacy group in London has accused the Labour Party of "endemic anti-Jewish behavior" and asked the government to investigate.
The report by the Labour Against Antisemitism group contains "15,000 screenshots taken from hundreds of Labour members ’and officials’ promoting anti-Semitic views." It was was submitted to the British Equality and Human Rights Commission and seeks a "full-scale antisemitism probe."
Jewish groups have accused the party’s leftist leader, Jeremy Corbyn, of overseeing a massive surge in anti-Semitism within the party once considered the natural home of British Jewry.
Labour Against Antisemitism front man Euan Philipps said in a statement that a team of volunteers over the last two years "has systematically collected and detailed evidence of Labour Party members promoting antisemitic views and tropes across a range of social media platforms."
"This has all been reported to the party’s compliance team, in a format suggested by them and including a significant level of detail," he said.
Philipps said Labour took little effort to deal with the problem.
"Most distressing of all, reports containing the most appalling levels of racism have been given only the lightest reprimand," he contended. "The message again and again has been the same: we don’t care about this issue," Philipps said.
Nine politicians have quit the party over anti-Semitism in its ranks.
According to The Jewish Chronicle, over 85 percent of British Jews believe that Corbyn is an anti-Semite. He has called Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, and Hezbollah his friends, defended an anti-Semitic mural and laid flowers on the graves of Paleostinian terrorists. Corbyn has called to boycott Israel and applauded a speaker who called for its destruction.
[NPR] 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.... may be on the ropes, but is certainly not defeated. In an exceedingly rare video that came to light this week, its 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... , shows his face and renews his call for jihad against the terrorist group's adversaries by calling for, among other efforts, a "battle of attrition."
Continued on Page 49
#1
Because the U.S. has shown itself willing to expend essentially infinite resources on warring with these terrorist groups.
Yup, fell right into Bin Laden's plan. His plan was to bankrupt the USA by bogging it down in endless foreign wars. It's working well. We spent over $6 trillion since 9/11.
Just imagine that money spent on ourselves instead. The entire USA would be a sparkling park. We'd have high speed rail, bridges, roads without potholes, ports, subways, and probably flying cars too. But no. What did we get for it instead? Thousands of dead (working-class) Americans, thousands more with limbs blown off or PTSD, and a mountain of skulls of innocent people. And some dead terrorists. Yay?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
05/08/2019 1:22
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#2
If we spent it all on ourselves that would just have created new targets.
#3
First define "Lose". Then define "Winning".
The idea of the Caliphate is practically unkillable as long as the Koran remains sancrosanct to its worshipers. ISIS can be destroyed as an organized force in the same way as the Thuggees of India were obliterated...
#4
Because the US. has shown itself willing to expend essentially infinite resources on warring playing dumb PC games with these terrorist groups Islam
#5
Because the US. has shown itself willing to expend essentially infinite resources on warring playing dumb PC games with these terrorist groups Islam
We don't use bulldozers. If we used bulldozers, we'd be winning.
#7
Herb McCoy, how would we spend it on ourselves?
I agree the wars could have been fought cheaper and better but thinking the money would have somehow been used better with our current politicians is naive.
#8
Assuming (yes, yes, it's a purely utopian exercise) that we didn't have to spend a single dime on defense, we have between $25-400 trillion in debt to pay down before a single additional shiny thingee is bought. Just sayin'...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/08/2019 11:30
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[NJ2AS] The Attorney General of New Jersey responded to the United States Supreme Court's demand to provide a response justifying New Jersey's draconian "justifiable need" requirement. NJ responded to the Supreme Court on the last day of the deadline about why they should not strike down New Jersey's may-issue laws. So far it is a hoot. Apparently NJ doesn’t completely ban carry because police officers and military members are allowed to carry WHILE ON DUTY.
According to Attorney General Grewal the "justifiable need" standard does not violate the Constitution because government agents are allowed to carry firearms while on duty and it is hypothetically possible for someone to get a carry permit so it is ok. New Jersey has a population of 9,000,000 and issued approximately 1,200 permits in 2017. Our undercover investigations exposed that every single police department we visited turned us down when we attempted to apply for a conceal carry permit because it is only available to armed guards, judges, politicians, and their friends. Do not believe us? Watch our video series below:
#1
The entire intent of the 2nd amendment is for people to be armed so they can fight the government if they get out of control. This reads like only the government can carry while on duty. This is the polar opposite of the intent of the second amendment....
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/08/2019 10:09
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[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Special Forces killed 13 Talibs in Pul-e-Khumri city, the thriving provincial capital of northern Baghlan province.
The raid was conducted a day after a coordinated attack hit the police headquarters of Baghlan in the city.
"In a raid by Afghan Special Forces to disrupt the Taliban ...Arabic for students... ’s ability to mass combat power in Pul-e Khumri, 13 Taliban fighters were killed and a large weapons cache was destroyed," informed military sources said Tuesday.
This comes as a group of murderous Moslems launched a coordinated attack on Baghlan police headquarters on Sunday afternoon leaving at least 13 coppers dead and 55 others maimed including 20 civilians.
The Talibs group had grabbed credit for the attack.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
SHANGHAI (AP) ‐ Patient Number One is a thin man, with a scabby face and bouncy knees. His head, shaved in preparation for surgery, is wrapped in a clean, white cloth.
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ FBI Director Chris Wray said Tuesday that he does not consider court-approved FBI surveillance to be "spying" and said he has no evidence the FBI illegally monitored President Donald Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election.
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
[Red State] New information has come out related to how Christopher Steele was presented to the FISA court and it’s not good for the FBI.
...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...
[DAWN] Sri Lankan authorities have either killed or 
[DAWN] A gunman took four hostages in a convenience store on the outskirts of the southern French city of 
[IsraelTimes] The understandings that ended this flareup are precisely the understandings that held before it started. The border protests won’t stop, and neither will the incendiary balloons.
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
[KhaamaPress] Dozens of 
[AlAhram] Indonesian anti-terrorism police have 
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts...
[TheLocal-
[IsraelTimes] A Philadelphia city commission said Monday it’s investigating an event last month at which 
[Rudaw] KAFR NABL, Syria - Air strikes and shelling killed 13 civilians in northwestern Syria on Tuesday, a monitor said, in the latest escalation to rattle a months-old truce and spark displacement.
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
...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...
[DAWN] THERE is nothing surprising about a government minister for science and technology proposing a scientific solution to the old issue of how to determine the lunar calendar. There are many in the country who would believe that the clergy could have summoned science to their side over the matter a long time ago. In this respect, Minister Fawad Chaudhry’s step to end decades of lunar uncertainty is to be commended and would have earned him greater praise, had it not been overshadowed by an unfortunate slip of the tongue when he recently credited Suparco with sending the Hubble telescope into space. In the making for decades and launched into orbit in 1990, this solar-powered telescope has brought the universe to our doorstep through its spectacular images of distant galaxies, collapsing suns, and stars leaping into life. It has both captured the timelessness of space and contributed to scientists’ understanding of its origins. Tragically, the credit for this explorer of the skies must go to Nasa, as Suparco is still some light years away from unlocking the secrets of the universe.
[TheLocal-
The USA put fear in the hearts of some of the players that one could see on Twitter with panic over the number and ranges of the SkyKing messages. 
[Rudaw] Seven Swedish children, whose parents were members of the 
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Thirteen 
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) – Three Iraqi policemen were killed late on Monday as unidentified gunmen opened fire at them while on duty in Kirkuk province, a security source was quoted as saying.
The villagers of Kalwor said they were told by Iraqi forces not to leave their homes due to the precarious situation. Other forces have gone to the mountain range to chase the assailants, the local correspondent added.
[IsraelTimes] A Jewish advocacy group in London has accused the Labour Party of "endemic anti-Jewish behavior" and asked the government to investigate.
...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...
[NJ2AS] The Attorney General of New Jersey responded to the United States Supreme Court's demand to provide a response justifying New Jersey's draconian "justifiable need" requirement. NJ responded to the Supreme Court on the last day of the deadline about why they should not strike down New Jersey's may-issue laws. So far it is a hoot. Apparently NJ doesn’t completely ban carry because police officers and military members are allowed to carry WHILE ON DUTY.
