Hi there, !
Today Mon 05/13/2019 Sun 05/12/2019 Sat 05/11/2019 Fri 05/10/2019 Thu 05/09/2019 Wed 05/08/2019 Tue 05/07/2019 Archives
Rantburg
531691 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 69 articles and 136 comments as of 12:18.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion        Politix    Main Page
U.S. revokes citizenship of Portland mosque's imam for ties to ObL
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
09:19 6 17:25 Bob Grorong1136 [1] 
09:12 0 [1]
08:11 5 19:44 Hupailing Elmoluck5245 []
06:26 1 16:40 Bobby []
05:37 8 16:43 Skidmark []
05:23 13 17:04 Herb McCoy []
02:44 1 13:06 Texhooey []
02:10 0 [1]
01:50 4 15:00 swksvolFF [1]
01:41 2 09:55 Woodrow []
01:31 6 16:33 Skidmark []
01:11 1 08:13 JohnQC [1]
01:03 4 11:03 swksvolFF []
00:53 3 09:34 Woodrow []
00:51 16 19:19 Ebbolutch Hatrack1579 []
00:46 2 08:01 JohnQC [1]
00:45 0 []
00:45 0 [] 
00:45 0 []
00:41 6 16:51 Ebbavirt Clunk4147 []
00:27 0 []
00:27 0 []
00:27 8 18:36 Rob Crawford []
00:26 0 []
00:26 0 []
00:00 2 17:45 Woodrow []
00:00 4 16:42 Skidmark []
00:00 3 07:50 JohnQC [1]
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 0 []
00:00 1 04:07 Bright Pebbles []
00:00 4 17:34 Snavimble Bucket1794 [1]
00:00 4 16:43 trailing wife []
00:00 4 12:34 SteveS []
00:00 0 []
00:00 1 13:31 Besoeker []
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 1 17:36 Omorong Black8889 [] 
00:00 0 [2] 
00:00 2 01:48 Seeking Cure For Ignorance []
00:00 8 23:52 Omuling Darling of the Lutherans6895 [1]
00:00 1 16:52 Bobby [2]
00:00 3 11:19 Thing From Snowy Mountain []
00:00 0 [1] 
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 0 [1] 
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 0 [1] 
00:00 0 [2]
00:00 0 []
00:00 2 11:10 SteveS []
00:00 1 12:27 Sock Puppet of Doom [] 
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 0 [1]
00:00 1 10:04 Skidmark [1]
00:00 1 16:52 Skidmark [1]
00:00 0 []
00:00 0 [2]
00:00 0 [2] 
00:00 0 [] 
00:00 0 [1] 
00:00 0 [2] 
00:00 0 [1] 
00:00 0 []
00:00 3 17:49 Glenmore [1]
00:00 4 23:24 Skidmark [1]
Israel-Palestine-Jordan
The Future Is Here, and It Features Hackers Getting Bombed
[Foreign Policy] Israeli armed forces responded to a Hamas cyberattack by bombing the group’s hacking headquarters.

With an airstrike on Sunday, the Israeli military provided a glimpse of the future of warfare.

After blocking a cyberattack that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said was launched by operatives working on behalf of the militant group Hamas, the IDF carried out an airstrike in Gaza targeting the building in which the hackers worked, partially destroying it. The strike appears to be the first time that a nation’s military has responded in real time to a cyberattack with physical force.

In a tweet, the IDF declared victory, saying: "We thwarted an attempted Hamas cyber offensive against Israeli targets. Following our successful cyber defensive operation, we targeted a building where the Hamas cyber operatives work."

"HamasCyberHQ.exe has been removed," the tweet added, in what appears to have been a macabre attempt at a joke using an invented file name.

For years, countries have used policy documents and strategy white papers to warn that they reserved the right to choose the method by which they respond to cyberattacks, either in kind through cyberspace or with physical force, said Catherine Lotrionte, an expert on international law and a professor at Georgetown University. Now, Israel has made those warnings concrete.

"You’ve got a physical operation against a building that was in response to an ongoing cyberattack or at least a cyberattack that Hamas was planning‐that’s the interesting part," Lotrionte said.

Key questions remain about the Israeli operation, and IDF officials declined to answer questions from Foreign Policy about the nature of the attack launched by Hamas against Israel.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 09:19 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Wonderful idea.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 9:35 Comments || Top||

#2  After Gerald Bull's death, ME super long-range artillery manufacturing sort of fell on hard times. Perhaps vintage solutions are making a comeback.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 9:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Now if there were only a similar firing solution for robo-callers.
Posted by: Cesare || 05/10/2019 9:52 Comments || Top||

#4  As they say, "Shoot the archer, not the arrow."
Posted by: SteveS || 05/10/2019 9:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Reactive kinetic defense.
Better than Norton.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 16:30 Comments || Top||

#6  so sad to see the last few running instances of Windows 95 removed
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 || 05/10/2019 17:25 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Columbia Event ‐ A Dream for the Iranian Regime
[Clarion Project] Support for the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolution project was in full swing at Columbia University last month where Shiite extremist groups held an event titled The Marginalization of Shi’a Initiatives, sponsored by Muslims United for Justice.

From organizers to speakers to sponsors and co-sponsors, the event was a dream for the regime. (See details of each of these players below.)

For an enemy waging ideological war against the West, a college campus offers a prime venue to mobilize supporters and recruit new ones.

The Iranian regime has found Columbia University to be a hospitable ground for years. The most vivid example was the school’s widely-criticized decision in 2007 to host then-Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a guest speaker.

Columbia also accepted funding from the regime in the past. The New York Post reported that $100,000 was donated after Ahmadinejad’s event. In 2006 and 2004, the Alavi Foundation, a regime-front, donated $20,000 and $50,000, respectively.

The Post also reported the Alavi Foundation financed at least two professorships, Gary Sick of the School of International and Public Affairs and Hamid Dabashi, professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature.

Sick was known for whitewashing Ahmadinejad’s calls to destroy Israel and Dabashi gained dubious distinction for praising Iraqi, Palestinian and Hezbollah terrorists as heroes for "resisting this [American] empire."

Columbia University receives millions in federal funding a year. From that taxpayer-funded academic setting, Iran’s radicals are able to set up shop to promote their global "Islamic Revolution."

If universities and student activists are serious about countering hate, those who further the interests of terrorists and terrorist regimes, should be first on their list.

Unfortunately, up until now, the reaction to having mainstream conservative speakers like Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens has been met with more ferocity than known promoters of jihadist organizations, sharia theocracies and Islamist extremist movements.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 09:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Europe
Germany's budget black hole even bigger than feared, Merkel's government admits
[Telegraph] The economic slowdown has left an even bigger hole in Germany's budget than feared, Angela Merkel’s government admitted on Thursday.

Falling tax revenues as the economy slows have left the country facing a budget shortfall of €124.3bn (£107bn) over the next four years, finance minister Olaf Scholz announced in Berlin.

The shortfall is even worse than a figure of €100bn leaked earlier this week had suggested.

Mr Scholz tried to play down the numbers, telling a press conference: “The government does not see any signs of a crisis in the current situation. We still have economic growth.”
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/10/2019 08:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They can always print wheelbarrows full of meny
Posted by: Regular joe || 05/10/2019 13:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes--I'm sure there are some left-over printing presses down in Weimar.
Posted by: Tom || 05/10/2019 13:21 Comments || Top||

#3  Meanwhile the US is in debt for $26 trillion dollars or so, give or take.
Posted by: Texhooey || 05/10/2019 19:24 Comments || Top||

#4  US Fed prints in dollars...

imagine a US STATE say caliphornia in that much debt and fiscal strife...


oh...
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/10/2019 19:42 Comments || Top||

#5  It's expensive supporting 2 million new parasites.
Posted by: Hupailing Elmoluck5245 || 05/10/2019 19:44 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
The elite soldiers protecting the Amazon rainforest
[BBC] French Guiana, a small French overseas territory on the north-eastern coast of South America, is one of the most forested nations on the planet, but its precious ecosystem is under threat from illegal gold mining.

Sergeant Vadim raises his left hand bringing his squad to a halt. His right hand remains firmly clasped around his rifle.

"Here you can see clearly the path of gold miners," he says, whilst pointing towards a faint track covered in leaves. "They were here three or four days ago carrying heavy goods."

Sgt Vadim is part of the French Foreign Legion - an elite infantry unit of the French army made up of mostly international recruits tasked with patrolling the dense rainforest.

After further surveying the jungle, Sgt Vadim gives a short sharp whistle. Seconds later, a reply emanates from somewhere deep in the undergrowth. A second unit of men is close by.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 06:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Every country must defend its borders and stop illegal trafficking," says Capt Vianney, head of the operation and Sgt Vadim's commanding officer.

What a novel concept! I wonder if it'd work in the U.S.?
Posted by: Bobby || 05/10/2019 16:40 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Methodist Pastor and wife help home intruder Roberto Sanchez find God
[Guns America] If 24-year-old Roberto Sanchez thought hitting a pastor’s home in suburban Houston would make an easy score, he discovered his mistake far too late.

Local media reports that United Methodist Church Rev. Jeff Powers and his wife Julie were awakened just before midnight on Saturday by a loud noise coming from their back yard. Going to investigate, they noticed their gate was open and saw someone creeping through their yard.

Both husband and wife retrieved their firearms while "the suspect forced his way and gained entry into the residence," according to a police report.

That’s when the couple opened fire.

"At that point, they discharged their weapons several times at him and struck him," a homicide detective at the scene told ABC station KTRK-TV in Houston.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 05:37 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He doesn't sound like the kind of pastor that fits the Methodist model these days. How did he know that Sanches wasn't a good Queer loving, trans SJW?
Posted by: AlanC || 05/10/2019 7:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Praise the lord and pass the ammo
Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/10/2019 8:26 Comments || Top||

#3  "he was turning his life around"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/10/2019 9:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Church is the best way to find God. Trespassing is faster.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/10/2019 11:04 Comments || Top||

#5  More than one way to get that "free trip to Heaven..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 05/10/2019 12:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Repent....or else.
Posted by: Threreque Glereger1817 || 05/10/2019 12:34 Comments || Top||

#7  Seems too many people have forgotten the phrase "Don't mess with Texas" Quite a few happy endings to crime stories of late.
Posted by: Silentbrick || 05/10/2019 13:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Know Jesus, know piece.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 16:43 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Pete Buttigieg Attending Fundraiser Hosted by Film Director Who Said Every Trump Voter 'Is a low life Piece of S***'
[Daily Caller] Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg will attend a May 9 fundraiser hosted by film director Samuel Greisman, who has attacked President Donald Trump’s supporters as "illiterate" and "piece[s] of sh**."

Greisman’s fundraiser is one of several star-studded events Buttigieg is attending in a fundraising swing through California this week, CNN reports.

The film director is open in his disdain for Trump supporters.

"Trump voters should be shamed at every possible opportunity and never deserve respect," Greisman wrote in one March 2018 tweet.

"Every single person associated with or supporting Trump is a low life piece of shit on an epic scale," he wrote in another tweet a month later. (RELATED: 9 Radical Policies 2020 Democrats Are Putting On The Table)

In a January tweet, Greisman expressed his desire to see the president and his family imprisoned.

The film director said in a December 2017 tweet that Trump supporters "can burn."
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 05:23 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yes Greisman (Sally Field's son) and Buttigieg are both light in their loafers.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 5:30 Comments || Top||

#2  I've always wondered about the specific people who were part of the gay mafia some years ago that successfully railroaded Brendan Eich and forced his ouster from Mozilla. Two years later he was still out of work; maybe he still is. Looks like I have a suspect right here.
Posted by: Raj || 05/10/2019 6:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Eich is writing the Brave Browser.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/10/2019 6:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Pete Buttigieg doesn't care too much about where his money comes from. Enlisting celebrities doesn't work anymore. Hollywood is disliked more than Congress and cockroaches.

Just as a rhetorical question, "Why do so many (not all) Hollywood community members appear so abysmally stupid?" And why are the remainder of the Hollywood members who are not stupid always get banned from social media?" Signed an I-Want-To-Know Smelly Wal-Mart Shopper aka JQC.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/10/2019 8:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Considering I feel the same way about Buttplugger and his film director buddies, it seems appropriate.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/10/2019 9:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Sally Field's son is a homosexual? What a surprise.

Peter's campaign slogan, "fudge packers unit" not catchy but to the needless point.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 9:45 Comments || Top||

#7  There's a campaign ad in teh making
Posted by: Frank G || 05/10/2019 9:58 Comments || Top||

#8  Sally Field's son is a homosexual?

Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 10:16 Comments || Top||

#9  film director Samuel Greisman, who has attacked President Donald Trump’s supporters as "illiterate" and "piece[s] of sh**."

I'm a programmer and not a marketeer, but this seems like horribly bad salesmanship.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/10/2019 10:34 Comments || Top||

#10  Think that is bad, check out his filmography. Article says director, so sticking with that:

Dinner with Jeffrey
After School

My local grade school K-4th Spring Concert is more distributed.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/10/2019 10:52 Comments || Top||

#11  Internet Movie Database (IMDB) page for Samuel Griesman

He seems to be in a bit of a thematic rut.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/10/2019 11:06 Comments || Top||

#12  Hollywood in general is in a bit of thematic slump.
Posted by: Cheaderhead || 05/10/2019 13:49 Comments || Top||

#13  Gay men are 2% of the population but 40% of all pedophiles.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/10/2019 17:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Arabic Death Threat Note Sent To US Gov. Against Edward Gallagher
[Jpost] There has been a death threat against Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, according to reports by the United States media. The threat, written in Arabic, came into the government.
That’s not ok.
"We are being very careful [about] ... getting information out about the location of Gallagher," said a TV news hound speaking on Good Morning San Diego.

Gallagher, who has been accused of war crimes, will go to trial in less than three weeks.

Gallagher is accused of killing a teenage 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....
fighter under his care and then holding his reenlistment ceremony with the corpse. Further, Navy prosecutors also accuse Gallagher of shooting two civilians in Iraq and opening fire on crowds.

Gallagher has pleaded not guilty
"Wudn't me."
to all the charges, and earlier this week new evidence surfaced in Gallagher’s favor.
What a happy thought. May things finally turn out as they ought.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) screened combat footage collected from a helmet camera to a group of politicians Wednesday, saying the footage exonerates Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher of one of the charges against him.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 02:44 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Death threat (written in Arabic) against Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher."
Posted by: Texhooey || 05/10/2019 13:06 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Egypt deports dozens of Sudanese migrants
[Ynet] Egypt has deported 79 Sudanese nationals who were trying to cross into Libya to head onward to Europe.

Egyptian officials at the Cairo International Airport say the Sudanese were among dozens of migrants colonists, including Egyptians and citizens of other African countries, who were detained earlier this month in the northwestern city of Marsa Matrouh. It was not clear what happened to the others.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief news hounds.

Libya became a major conduit for African migrants colonists and refugees fleeing to Europe
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
after the uprising that toppled and killed Muammar Qadaffy
...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards, and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland...
in 2011. Thousands have perished while making the perilous sea crossing to Europe while others have been detained and abused in Libya by smugglers and gangs.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 02:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
US Rep. Ilhan Omar Blasts Israel For Refusing Palestine's Generous Gift Of Rockets
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C.‐In a hearing Thursday, Representative Ilhan Omar slammed the country of Israel for refusing to accept the generous gift of rockets from Palestine.

She pointed out that Hamas terrorists picked out the gifts with care. They spent lots of time and money and put a lot of thought into them. All of that work, and Israel refused to accept the freely offered gift, according to Omar.

"The Palestinian people made a generous peace offering of hundreds of rockets, and Israel slapped them in the face," she said. "They wouldn't even open their presents, callously rejecting them while they were still en route."

"It is obvious Israel does not want peace in the region if they can't humble themselves and accept such a dynamite gift," she added.

When it was pointed out that Israel returned the favor, Omar slammed them for that, too.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 01:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A double-header today. Thanks for the chuckles "B.".
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/10/2019 8:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh geez B, there goes my coffee.

Does sound like Ilhan Omar though.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 9:48 Comments || Top||

#3  I believed both Babylon Bee headlines today. I think I need another nap.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 12:55 Comments || Top||

#4  See, islam contributes to the exploration of space.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/10/2019 15:00 Comments || Top||


Government
Did Robert Mueller Tap Fusion GPS And Christopher Steele To Assist His Anti-Trump Investigation?
[The Federalist] Special Counsel Robert Mueller spent more than $732,000 on outside contractors, including private investigators and researchers, records show, but his office refuses to say who they were. While it’s not unusual for special government offices to outsource for services such as computer support, Mueller also hired contractors to compile "investigative reports" and other "information."

The arrangement has led congressional investigators, government watchdog groups and others to speculate that the private investigators and researchers who worked for the special counsel’s office might have included Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS, the private research firm that hired Steele to produce the Russia collusion dossier for the Clinton campaign.

They suspect the dossier creators may have been involved in Mueller’s operation, and even had a hand in his final report, because the special counsel sent his team to London to meet with Steele within a few months of taking over the Russia collusion investigation in 2017. Also, Mueller’s lead prosecutor, Andrew Weissmann, had shared information he received from Fusion with the media.

Raising additional suspicions, Mueller’s report recycles the general allegations leveled in the dossier. And taking a page from earlier surveillance-warrant applications in the Russia investigation, it cites as supporting evidence several articles‐including one by Yahoo! News‐that used Steele and Fusion as sources.

Mueller even kept alive one of the dossier’s most obscene accusations‐that Moscow had "compromising tapes" of Trump with Russian hookers‐by slipping into a footnote an October 2016 text Trump lawyer Michael Cohen received from a "Russian businessman," who cryptically intimated, "Stopped flow of tapes from Russia."

Lawyers for the businessman, Giorgi Rtskhiladze (who is actually a Georgian American), are demanding a retraction of the footnote, arguing Mueller omitted the part of his text where he said he did not believe the rumor about the tapes, for which no evidence has ever surfaced.

Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 01:41 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can I join the forensic audit team for this one? Oooh oooh oooh - pick me, Mr. Kotter!
Posted by: Raj || 05/10/2019 6:10 Comments || Top||

#2  Raj I have a bandsaw, can I help? Please.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 9:55 Comments || Top||


Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: Burn pits, the Agent Orange of our generation
[Washington Examiner] Marine Cpl. Nicholas James Wrobel passed away due to respiratory and cardiac failure. He was 24 years old. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jessica Sweet died of acute myelogenous leukemia. She was 30 years old and left behind a husband and three young children. Army Col. David McCracken lost his life to Glioblastoma Multiforme brain cancer at age 46, leaving behind his wife and children.

All were exposed to the toxic fumes and chemicals released by burn pits while deployed.

While over 175,000 veterans have voluntarily registered their names in the Burn Pit Registry, the Department of Veterans Affairs has admitted there are 3.7 million service members who may be eligible due to their exposure to these same toxic burn pits.

As a soldier in the Hawai’i Army National Guard, I deployed twice to the Middle East. Like everyone else in our camp, I breathed in the toxins from burn pits every single day. Many service members developed respiratory illnesses that we commonly called "the crud" ‐ a persistent hacking cough that never seemed to go away. While deployed, we dealt with the ever-present residual stench from the burn pit fires.

Burn pits have been used at U.S. military bases across the Middle East to burn trash, human waste, petroleum, rubber, and other debris, releasing hazardous smoke into the air. While initially thought of as a temporary measure until incinerators were installed, many burn pits continued to operate, with some still in use today.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 01:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If you wondered what the USG thought of you and your deployment effort, a shift in the wind direction left little doubt.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 5:05 Comments || Top||

#2  The VA has info on burn pits at its site. The VA has info on burn pits at its site. "They say: At this time, research does not show evidence of long-term health problems from exposure to burn pits. VA continues to study the health of deployed Veterans." Gabbard is one of the many Dems who have announced a run for POTUS in 2020.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/10/2019 7:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Ah Tulsi, ya cudda been a contendah.
Posted by: Threreque Glereger1817 || 05/10/2019 8:34 Comments || Top||

#4  She is right.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 9:41 Comments || Top||

#5  I have found my level of trust in the military/government reporting on things like this declining steadily for the last 50+ years.

These days its just bouncing along the bottom.
Posted by: AlanC || 05/10/2019 15:23 Comments || Top||

#6  New FEMA migrant camp locations?
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 16:33 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
The Cockroach Theory Applied to Governance
[American Thinker] A long time ago, one of my friends explained to me the Cockroach Theory: If you see one cockroach, there are one hundred cockroaches behind the wall.

Recently I came across three examples of the Cockroach Theory as it applies to local, state, and federal issues.

The April 19, 2019 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association conducted a study of workplace wellness and concluded,
Findings: In this cluster randomized trial involving 32,974 employees at a large US warehouse retail company, worksites with the wellness program had an 8.3-percentage point higher rate of employees who reported engaging in regular exercise and a 13.6-percentage point higher rate of employees who reported actively managing their weight, but there were no significant differences in other self-reported health and behaviors; clinical markers of health; health care spending or utilization; or absenteeism, tenure, or job performance after 18 months."
What does this mean to us as taxpayers? How many local taxing bodies (school districts, etc.) are wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on wellness programs that do not reduce health care spending or absenteeism? How much does Cook County spend on their "My Health Connections" program"? How much does the State of Illinois spend on their "Get HIP" program"? Add all of these "hundreds of thousands" and you quickly get to millions of dollars on a statewide basis.

Moving to the state level, the Illinois General Assembly is contemplating HB2691, The Retention of Illinois Students and Equity Act. Quoting directly from the synopsis:
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 01:11 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I thought this was going to be from the Babylon Bee and about DS bureaucratic expansion.

After reading these accounts of tortured governmental analysis and spending, my head is spinning.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/10/2019 8:13 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
STEM School students WALKED OUT of vigil after Democrats made it about gun control
[Right Scoop] Last night there was a vigil at the STEM school in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, where one student died in a school shooting this week and eight others were wounded. But students quickly walked out of the vigil when Democrats began to politicize it for the purposes of gun control:
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 01:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe some of our school systems are not failing us.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/10/2019 8:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Sounds more like their parents are not failing them.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 05/10/2019 8:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Mullah is spot on, parents.

When the black killers lives matter was at its peak the students of Forest Lake here walked out. Why? Because the city was trying to fire and replace the officers.

The adults protested for nights on a bridge crossing freeway 35.

Parents, it's all about the parents. Good on them!
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 9:53 Comments || Top||

#4  If you think that's boss, check out what they had to say when they came back in.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/10/2019 11:03 Comments || Top||


Economy
Trade war: US raises tariffs on $200bn of Chinese goods
[BBC] The US has more than doubled tariffs on $200bn (£153.7bn) worth of Chinese products, in a sharp escalation of their damaging trade war.

Tariffs on those Chinese goods have risen to 25% from 10%, and Beijing has vowed to retaliate.

China said it "deeply regrets" the move and will have to take "necessary counter-measures."

The move comes as high-level officials from both sides are attempting to salvage a trade deal in Washington.

Only recently, the US and China appeared to be close to ending months of hostilities.

"The US has raised the tariff on $200bn of Chinese exports to the United States from 10% to 25%," China's Commerce Ministry said on its website.

"It is hoped that the US and the Chinese side will work together ... to resolve existing problems through cooperation and consultation."

Chinese stock markets were little changed after the deadline passed, with the Hang Seng index trading up 0.6% and the Shanghai Composite 1.5% higher.

The market took a beating earlier this week after US President Donald Trump flagged the tariff hike on Sunday.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 00:53 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is not in the world of Chess. It is not even really in the world of games. Knock it off or sod off.
Posted by: Beau || 05/10/2019 1:30 Comments || Top||

#2  I love this guy!
Posted by: Beau || 05/10/2019 1:43 Comments || Top||

#3  The Polilicktens who live on bribes, crying in their bird nest soup.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 9:34 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
U.S. Military's New Secret Weapon: The "Flying Ginsu"
[Hot Air] Often military jargon is inscrutable to civilians, but not this time. The "flying Ginsu" is just what it sounds like: It’s a small drone-fired missile, except instead of explosives it’s equipped with ... blades. Six big farking knives shoot out the sides of this thing in the final seconds before impact, shredding everything in its path ‐ including jihadi masterminds. I almost don’t believe it’s real.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 00:51 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Does it make julienne fries?

/obscure?
Posted by: Raj || 05/10/2019 5:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Farkingnügen ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 5:58 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll bet the "blades" are to slow the munition...

Less KE, less collateral damage
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/10/2019 6:53 Comments || Top||

#4  sometimes we want to kill a terrorist but don't want to kill the terrorist's assistant who is standing nearby because the assistant is the intel asset who got the terrorist's location for us
Posted by: lord garth || 05/10/2019 8:23 Comments || Top||

#5  OK, Besoeker, even Duck-duck-go doesn't know what you're talking about.
Posted by: Threreque Glereger1817 || 05/10/2019 8:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeah, yeah. We've had that, like, forever.

Posted by: China || 05/10/2019 9:30 Comments || Top||

#7  Are they talking about the AeroVironment Switchblade UAV (and getting it spectacularly Wrong in typical journo fashion)? The Switchblade is a disposable drone that can be equipped with a small grenade-sized warhead and flown into the targets shown by its sensors ... an aerial kamikaze.
Posted by: magpie || 05/10/2019 10:52 Comments || Top||

#8  A spear?
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/10/2019 11:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Oh, and ,thereque, that was a play on an old VW ad slogan, farfignugen.
Posted by: ed in texas || 05/10/2019 11:59 Comments || Top||

#10  It’s spelt fahrvergnügen. The ad can be watched here. I suspect Besoeker is making a pun of some sort that I’m not clever enough to pick up on.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 13:09 Comments || Top||

#11  I suspect Besoeker is making a pun of some sort that I’m not clever enough to pick up on.

fahrvergnügen + Six big farking knives shoot out = Farkingnügen

We'll go to our rooms now.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/10/2019 14:17 Comments || Top||

#12  Thank you, SteveS. I expect you and Mr. Besoeker will spend your times out creating new brain exercises for the rest of us.

In the meantime, I found this, from the article, very satisfying:

The Wall Street Journal was able to confirm two specific strikes in which it was used, one by the Defense Department and one by the CIA.

In January 2019, Jamal al-Badawi, accused of being behind the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 in a Yemeni port, killing 17 American sailors, was killed by an R9X fired by the Pentagon. The Pentagon has acknowledged the strike, which occurred in Yemen, though not the specific munition involved.

In February 2017, Ahmad Hasan Abu Khayr al-Masri, an Egyptian national who served as al Qaeda’s No. 2, was killed in Syria’s Idlib Province by an R9X fired by a U.S. aircraft operated by the CIA. The CIA doesn’t acknowledge airstrikes it carries out…

Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 15:45 Comments || Top||

#13  Sooo...can it be launched horizontally down a street for crowd control?
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 16:45 Comments || Top||

#14  For perspective, Krull had only 5 blades.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/10/2019 16:57 Comments || Top||

#15 

The DOD should definitely get their act together and weaponize the Bass o Matic!

Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 17:48 Comments || Top||

#16  Unfortunately probably not as intelligent as the knife middles in the Culture novels
Posted by: Ebbolutch Hatrack1579 || 05/10/2019 19:19 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
DOJ IG To FBI: Why Did You Cite Christopher Steele As Credible In Spy Warrant Application For Trump Campaign Official
[Townhall] The Department of Justice inspector general is about to drop their report on alleged FISA abuses in June. IG Michael Horowitz has been doing a thorough review of the allegations that the FBI used an unverified piece of political propaganda to obtain a FISA spy warrant against former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page in 2016. It was reauthorized three more times into 2017. The main body of evidence allegedly is the so-called Trump dossier compiled by former MI6 spook Christopher Steele, which was funded by the Democrats, specifically the DNC and the Clinton campaign. It was an opposition research file aimed at getting dirt on Trump. Steele used former and current sources within the Kremlin. Yeah, some could call this Clinton-Russia collusion, but that’s a tale for another time.

It’s a document that’s virtually unverified. It remains that way to this day, which is why most news organizations didn’t post the full document. BuzzFeed decided to be that guy in the room. It’s trash. And it was probably part of a Russian disinformation campaign. That allegation is going to be investigated by the DOJ on order of Attorney General William Barr.

Fired Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe refused to answer questions during congressional testimony about whether the bureau verified the document before allegedly using it obtain a spy warrant against an American citizen who has not been charged or proven to have committed any crime. He now says that applications for the FISA warrants were "adequate." The report filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on the Trump-Russia collusion myth proved definitively that no such operation occurred. The Trump team and the Kremlin did not collude. So, what’s the deal with this document? The DOJ IG has been reportedly asking the FBI multiple times why they continued to cite Christopher Steele as a credible source when it came to these spy warrant applications. Well, we all know what the answer: they didn’t really verify anything. And let’s just say there were some interesting rendezvous between DNC lawyers and the FBI before that FISA warrant was doled out. And it’s not like no one spoke up about the integrity of this document. (via WSJ) [emphasis mine]:
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 00:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Vespa was developed to get people from point A to point B. The same applies to the Steele dossier. It was simply a vehicle.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 1:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Somehow, Nadler and Pelosi missed this "Constitutional Crisis." Maybe it's like when Feinstein feigned indignation when Brennan spied on the Senate way back in the Obean admin. Spook hijinks. A heartfelt apology smoothed over ruffled feathers.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/10/2019 8:01 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea Fires Projectiles, South Says
[AnNahar] North Korea fired a number of unidentified projectiles Thursday, the South's military said, as a U.S. envoy visited Seoul for discussions on how to break the nuclear deadlock.

"North Korea fired unidentified projectiles eastward" from Sino-ri in North Pyongan province, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:45 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies


Africa North
Three killed in suspected Islamic State attack on southern Libya-official
[Ynet] Three people were killed on Thursday in a suspected hit-and-run attack by Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
bandidos turbans on a town in southern Libya, residents and a military official said, the second such attack within days.

Gunmen stormed the town of Ghadwa, opened fire before retreating back into the desert, residents said.

The attack came after nine soldiers were killed on Saturday in an attack claimed by Islamic State on a training camp belonging to the eastern Libyan forces of 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...
.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:45 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Europe
Palestinians Beat Israeli Musician In Berlin For Defending Israel
You can take the boy out of the Palestinian Territories, but sometimes...
[Jpost] The YouTube video caption reads: "Germany: Man attacked at Paleostinian event for allegedly yelling 'Israel.'"

German Paleostinians violently attacked the Israeli clarinetist Daniel Gurfinkel in Berlin in the first week of May, according to a YouTube video that surfaced on Thursday.

According to a report on by the German news hound Ulrich W. Sahm on the website of Audiator, "A dozen hateful Paleostinians can be seen beating up Daniel Gurfinkel at an event on a large square."

Gurfinkel said in a statement: "I walked through Hermann square and saw that there was a demonstration against Israel. I am a resident of the State of Israel. The attack began immediately when I began to support my country with a single word. I've been struck on the head and I'm in pain so far. I was in total shock. "
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:45 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Trump's top intelligence and military advisers held unusual meeting at CIA on Iran, officials say
[NBC] WASHINGTON ‐ In a highly unusual move, national security adviser John Bolton convened a meeting at CIA headquarters last week with the Trump administration's top intelligence, diplomatic and military advisers to discuss Iran, according to six current U.S. officials.

The meeting was held at 7 a.m. on Monday, April 29, and included CIA Director Gina Haspel, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, five of the officials said.

National security meetings are typically held in the White House Situation Room. The six current officials, as well as multiple former officials, said it is extremely rare for senior White House officials or Cabinet members to attend a meeting at CIA headquarters.

The officials said the discussion was not about the intelligence that led to the decision in the following days to send a carrier strike group and bomber task force to the Middle East, but did not describe what the meeting covered.

Five former CIA operations officers and military officials said that in the past, such meetings have been held at CIA headquarters to brief top officials on highly sensitive covert actions, either the results of existing operations or options for new ones.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 00:41 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Possibility #9:

Meeting was held at the CIA since their cell suppression tech would prevent the admin's leakers from calling their favorite media clown during the meeting.
Posted by: Threreque Glereger1817 || 05/10/2019 8:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Poss#3
Live secure video with assets regarding new actionable intel.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 9:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not believe there is a helicopter landing pad at the State Department. When the Secy of State leaves he does so by vehicle convoy which allows those who are interested to trace the Secy's movements.
Posted by: Chereting Pelosi1889 || 05/10/2019 10:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Sounds like Darth Bolton senses a deep leak at the White House Secure Comms. Could the prior tenure of ValJar and 8 years of tick burrowing by her countrymen have left something and or someone friendly behind?
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 05/10/2019 13:19 Comments || Top||

#5  a deep leak at the White House Secure Comms

Some 'air-gap' channels may not be available to the WH secure comms.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 16:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Stratafortresses can carry nukes. They can also carry enough non nuke payload to wipe out Iran's Arak uranium facility that can quickly provide Iran with 90% grade uraniun for a nuke in response to recent crippling sanctions against Iran. Yesterday Iran announced moves toward that effort as the intel community expected they would do. Israel will not allow this.
Posted by: Ebbavirt Clunk4147 || 05/10/2019 16:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Trump says John Kerry telling Iranians not to call him
[IsraelTimes] US President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
says he is open to holding negotiations with Iran and accuses former secretary of state John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, unsuccessful presidential candidate, and utterly failed Secretary of State...
of telling Iranian leaders not to speak with him.

Speaking at the White House, Trump is asked about his decision to speedup the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf.

"We have information that you don’t want to know about. They were very threatening," Trump says.

"What I’d like to see with Iran, I’d like to see them call me," he adds.

Trump claims Kerry, who was America’s top diplomat when the 2015 deal curbing Iran’s nuclear deal was finalized, is in frequent contact with the Iranians.

"You know John Kerry speaks to them a lot. John Kerry tells them not to call. That is a violation of the Logan Act and frankly he should be prosecuted on that," Trump says, referring to a rarely enforced US law barring unauthorized persons from conducting foreign policy.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  A POS his whole life.
Posted by: 3dc || 05/10/2019 1:36 Comments || Top||

#2  no one has been prosecuted under the Logan Act since the 1850s

the Act itself has enough ambiguous language that makes it pretty difficult to enforce since all Americans, including John Kerry, have 1st amendment rights
Posted by: lord garth || 05/10/2019 8:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Questing, forget Logan, has Lurch been actively been committing treason?
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 9:38 Comments || Top||

#4  treason is another charge that is difficult to make stick because you have to 'adhere' to the enemy as well as giving them 'aid and comfort'

there haven't been any prosecutions for treason from the Korean War, Vietnam War, Cold War or Long War

Manning and Snowden for example were charged under the espionage act, not for treason
Posted by: lord garth || 05/10/2019 11:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Kerry is the voice of the Deep State.

"Just wait until Trump's out, things will be back to normal" he says.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/10/2019 17:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Reports to ValJar who to Obi1.
Posted by: Ebbavirt Clunk4147 || 05/10/2019 17:12 Comments || Top||

#7  treason is another charge that is difficult to make stick because you have to 'adhere' to the enemy as well as giving them 'aid and comfort'

That describes Kerry's actions. Regardless of the treason charge not being used, it's hell time they did.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 17:44 Comments || Top||

#8 
there haven't been any prosecutions for treason from the Korean War, Vietnam War, Cold War or Long War


Not because there haven't been traitors, but because federal prosecutors are too often fellow travelers. Kerry's actions after Vietnam and Jane Fonda are the two that come immediately to mind.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 05/10/2019 18:36 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Egyptian delegation said to arrive in Gaza for talks on Israel agreement
[IsraelTimes] A delegation of Egyptian intelligence officials has entered the Gazoo Strip through the Erez border crossing for talks with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, leaders on an agreement with Israel to prevent renewed fighting in the Paleostinian enclave, according to the Ynet news site.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Thousands of Arab Israelis march in north to mark Nakba
[IsraelTimes] Thousands of Arab Israelis take part in the annual "March of Return" to mark the Nakba (Arabic for "catastrophe") of Israel’s founding.

Participants wave Paleostinian flags during the march in northern Israel and call for the return of lands that Paleostinians fled or were expelled from during the War of Independence.

A number of politicians attend the march, including MKs Ahmad Tibi and Ofer Kassif of the majority Arab Hadash-Ta’al faction.

"We stress our right to the homeland and are against the Nation-State Law, which treats the Arab public as visitors. But we’re the owners of the place and are fighting to be equal citizens in our homeland," says Tibi in a video from the event.

Tibi was referring to legislation last year putting into law Israel’s status as the nation state of the Jewish people. Critics of the law have said it discriminates against the country’s non-Jewish citizens, while proponents say it is necessary to guarantee Israel’s Jewish character and does not diminish the status of existing legislation guaranteeing equality.
Ynet has more.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:27 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Africa North
Building Sinai
Suggesting that the Morsi/Moslem Brotherhood interlude may turn out to have been a trigger for better things.
[AlAhram] The inauguration of a dozen projects in Ismailia and Sinai heralds a new development era for the peninsula.

Developing Sinai is essential for the security and stability of Egypt, says Nagui Shohoud of the Higher Nasser Military Academy. In the past there have been several attempts to alter the character of the peninsula, beginning with the Tripartite Aggression in 1956 and including the 1967 War between Egypt and Israel and subsequent attempts by the then Israel defence minister Moshe Dayan to secure the allegiance of Sinai’s Bedouins, and machinations by the Moslem Brüderbund to turn Sinai into 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....
While Egypt had intended to develop the peninsula since its full liberation in April 1982 somehow the plans were never implemented.

Now, almost four decades on, and following the attempt to create an Islamic state in Sinai, development is finally being accorded the priority it deserves. "Gradually," says Shohoud, "Sinai’s isolation will end and it will be merged with the rest of Egypt’s governorates."

According to Shohoud, it is essential the peninsula builds a comprehensive, functioning economy. "Egypt is in dire need of Sinai’s wealth of mineral deposits and crops," he says, and the tunnels are essential to developing these resources.

The development process has been lent additional urgency by the ongoing Comprehensive Operation Sinai, the counter-terrorism campaign launched in 2018 targeting Islamist snuffies and criminal activity that undermine national security and stability.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
More than 500 Foreign IS Members Convicted in Iraq
[AnNahar] The Iraqi judiciary has tried and sentenced more than 500 foreigners since the start of 2018 for joining 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, the country's Supreme Court announced on Wednesday.

It said "514 verdicts were issued, for both men and women, while another 202 accused are still being interrogated and 44 are still being tried."

Another 11 were acquitted and released, it said.

The statement referred to "different nationalities" but did not list any specific countries.

It said interrogations were taking about six months for those simply accused of IS membership, but anyone accused of actively taking part in the jihadist group's operations could be questioned for up to a year.

Iraq declared victory over IS in late 2017 and began trying foreigners accused of joining the jihadist faction the following year.

It has condemned many to life in prison, including 58-year-old Frenchie Lahcen Ammar Gueboudj and two other Frenchies.

It has also issued death sentences for other foreign IS members, although they have not yet been carried out.

Among those awaiting trial in Baghdad are 12 accused French IS members, who were caught in Syria and transferred to Iraqi custody in February.

Government source have told AFP that Baghdad would be willing to try all foreigners currently held in Kurdish detention in northeast Syria for a price.

Around 1,000 suspected foreign IS fighters are in detention in northeast Syria, in addition to around 9,000 foreign women and kiddies in camps there.

Rights groups including Human Rights Watch have criticised the trials, which they say often rely on circumstantial evidence or confessions obtained under torture.

Wednesday's statement by the court "urged all trials of foreign holy warriors to be moved to Baghdad, as most of the embassies are in the capital and so embassy representatives from the terrorists' countries can attend the sessions."

Iraq has also already tried thousands of its own nationals locked away
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
on home soil for joining IS, including women.

It has begun trial proceedings for nearly 900 Iraqis repatriated from Syria and sentenced four to death last month under its counter-terrorism law.

The country remains in the top five "executioner" nations in the world, according to an Amnesia Amnesty International report released last month.

The number of death sentences issued by Iraqi courts more than quadrupled from 65 in 2017 to at least 271 last year.

But fewer were actually carried out, according to Amnesty, with 52 executions in 2018 compared to 125 in 2017.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Jihadist and Turkish-backed rebels merge to form new coalition to fight the Syrian Army
[MOBILE.ALMASDARNEWS] A new group comprised of several rebel factions calling themselves "Fatah Dimashq" has been formed in northwestern Syria this week.

The group, which is comprised of both jihadist and Ottoman Turkish-backed rebel groups, announced their formation on Thursday after they lost several areas to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the northwestern region of Syria.

According to reports, the group will consist of over 20 rebel groups, including Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham
, Hurras al-Deen Group, the Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
, and Harakat Ahrar al-Sham
...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014...
It is worth noting that the Hurras al-Deen Group is comprised of many foreign jihadists that have participated in many battles against the Syrian Arab Army in the past.

This coalition will also mark the first time that Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and the National Liberation Front
...the Turkic paramilitaries intended to replace with their native jihadi ferocity all the highly trained Turkish soldiers Sultan Erdogan I the much beloved has jailed in the last few years for not worshipping the ground he walks upon. The Uighurs and so forth who did not join Al Nusra or ISIS seem to have ended up here...
groups have joined together to take on the Syrian military.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Iraq
Coalition helicopter sets fire in Camp Speicher
Adventures in air forcing, involving someone who did not grow up in fire season country. C’mon, dude, you're blowing our reputation for perfect soldiering.
Salahuddin (IraqiNews) Salahuddin Operations Command announced, on Thursday, that a fire broke out in the vicinity of Camp Speicher in Salahuddin Province. The fire broke out after a helicopter belonging to the US-led international coalition fired flares on the dry grass.

The Command said in a press statement that the Civil Defense vehicles of Salahuddin Province, backed by the Command’s forces, managed to put out the fire that broke out in the dry bushes, in Martyr Majid Tamimi Airbase (Camp Speicher).

"The flames spread due to wind power and reached the nearby farms," the Command added. "The fire was caused by the firing of heat flares on the dry grass by a US-led coalition helicopter."

It is noteworthy that Camp Speicher is an air installation near Tikrit in northern Iraq. The United States Army captured the base from the Iraqi Army during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prior to the 2003 invasion, the installation was the main base of the Iraqi Air Force Air Academy.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Title line and photo in the article are a little deceiving. No pine trees or sloping hills on Speicher, unless there's been some sort of significant tectonic plate shifting since the 2008 time frame.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 13:31 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
13 Taliban militants killed in Special Forces operations in Farah city, Kandahar province
[KhaamaPress] At least 13 Talibs were killed in separate operations of the Afghan Special Forces which were conducted in Farah city in the West and Shahwali Kot district of Kandahar in the South.

"Afghan special forces conducted an operation in Kanahgan and Raj villages of Farah city in Farah province killing 7 Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
fighters, including a commander, and maimed 8," informed military sources said Thursday.

The sources further added that the Afghan Special Forces conducted a similar raid on Taliban leadership in Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province killing 6 Taliban fighters and detaining 2 others.

The anti-government armed bully boyz including Taliban have not commented regarding the operations so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


India-Pakistan
Police arrest man in Muzaffargarh suspected of setting girl on fire for rejecting marriage proposal
[DAWN] Police on Thursday incarcerated
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
the key suspect in an attempted murder case, who, along with his unidentified companion, allegedly set a girl on fire in Muzaffargarh for refusing his marriage proposal.
Can't imagine what concerns she might've had? I'm stumped
A first information report (FIR) was registered by the mother of the teenage girl, aged 15 or 16 years, under Sections 324 (attempted murder), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) of the Pakistain Penal Code.

Police said that the victim, whose suffered burn injuries on her face, body and arms, was shifted to Muzzafargarh District Headquarters hospital. According to police, her condition is stable.

According to the FIR, the victim's mother woke up at around 1.30am during the night when she heard her daughter screaming. She said two men were running away after pouring oil on her daughter and setting her on fire.

Other relatives also came to their house and helped put out the fire. She said that they also found a purse with a photo, some money and a chit with two mobile numbers on it.

According to the victim's mother, the suspect and his unidentified companion had set her daughter on fire in an attempt to kill her and bravely ran away from the site of the incident.

She said that the suspect's parents had asked for her daughter's hand in marriage but they had rejected the proposal, alleging it was due to this the suspect and his lover companion had entered her house and set her daughter on fire.

Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Guess she wouldn't sing.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 10:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
U.S. revokes citizenship of Portland mosque's imam for ties to ObL
[OregonLive] The U.S. government has revoked the U.S. citizenship of the former imam of Portland’s largest mosque after he arrived in Somaliland last week.

Mohamed Sheikh Abdirahman Kariye
...who appears in our archives here...
is on the government’s no-fly list, but the government arranged for him to travel back to his homeland after reaching a settlement with Kariye in January.

Under the deal, Kariye agreed not to challenge an order revoking his citizenship and acknowledged having provided false information to immigration officials in July 1997 when he had applied for U.S. naturalization.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  From the picture, I take it his other job's at a pizza shop, right?
Posted by: Raj || 05/10/2019 5:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Fine. Now hang him.
Posted by: Threreque Glereger1817 || 05/10/2019 8:41 Comments || Top||

#3  Kind of reminds me of Michele.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 9:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Now bulldoze the mosk.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 16:42 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Homeless Man Accused Of Openly Pleasuring Himself In Downtown Sacramento
I don’t think this would be tolerated in Cincinnati.
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ‐ People living in downtown Sacramento say they don't feel comfortable in their own home. Some are even moving, all because of a homeless man.

"Pants pulled down to the ankles pleasuring himself like he was at an amusement park," said Robert Ellis.

Robert says he looked out his bedroom window to see a homeless man, with his pants down, surrounded by pornographic magazines.

"I did a triple take and that's when I noticed an obscene act taking place in front of my eyes," said Robert.

"It was horrifying in broad daylight with pornographic material strewed all around him and not a care in the world," said Andrea Michon, a concerned parent.

To make matters worse, it happened less than a mile from an elementary and middle school.

"As parents, this is exactly our worst nightmare," Andrea said.

Robert called the police, and the man was arrested, but since this is a misdemeanor crime, he was released a few hours later.

"That's very frustrating. Very concerning. But that's sad because he needs help obviously and I'm sure he didn't get help in 12 hours," said a neighbor.

Knowing the man is back in the neighborhood has people feeling helpless and resorting to options they never thought they would.

"It's gotten me to the point where I think I'm going to have to sell my house now. I don't want to be here anymore," Robert said.

Kids in the neighborhood are being told to play just in the backyard, for now.

Posted by: Beavis || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So? What do you think the CA Legislature is doing just around the corner?
Posted by: Threreque Glereger1817 || 05/10/2019 8:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Hey, I thought Sacramento was a sanctuary city for pleasuring oneself.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/10/2019 9:17 Comments || Top||

#3  It reminded me of a Seinfeld
Posted by: Beavis || 05/10/2019 9:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Omar must be visiting Sacramento.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 9:29 Comments || Top||

#5  Performance Street Art.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 10:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Just doing in public what the State legislature does in chambers
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/10/2019 18:27 Comments || Top||

#7  Hmm. Just spent a solid minute pondering the DIM of Eastwood's Gauntlet. Ouch. Possibly not the master's greatest work.
Posted by: Omuling Darling of the Lutherans6895 || 05/10/2019 23:42 Comments || Top||

#8  Huh. Seems Frank Frazetta, who did the poster for aforementioned cinematic triumph, died This Day in History, 2010. Turning into be a big day for HS flashbacks chez moi.
Posted by: Omuling Darling of the Lutherans6895 || 05/10/2019 23:52 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Woman among 5 arrested as police busts dangerous gang of armed robbers in Kabul city
[KhaamaPress] At least five people including a woman were tossed in the clink
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
on charges of armed robberies during an operation of the Afghan police forces in Kabul city.

The Kabul Police Headquarters in a statement said the police forces have busted a dangerous gang of armed robbers led by Mukhtar alias Be-dandan.

The statement further added that the other members of the gang, Fatima, Abdul Saboor, Noorullah, and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman were also arrested during the same operation.

The Kabul Police also added that the members of the gang were involved in armed robberies in Sarak-e-Silo, Karte Parwan, Salim Karwan road, Qala-e-Fatullah, and Taimani areas of the city.

The members of the gang were also robbing the citizens of the city with the support of its female member, Fatima in Qargha, mainly during Thursdays and Fridays, the Kabul Police said, adding that Fatima used to stand on the roadside and was asking for a left from car drivers to lure them into their trap and rob their vehicles either by drugging, beating, or intimidation by use of arms.

According to Kabul Police, the gang was busted during an operation which was conducted in 5th district of the city last week.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


18 rockets, 38 IEDs, large quantity of explosives destroyed in Farah airstrike
[KhaamaPress] At least 18 rockts, 38 Improvised Explossive Devices, and a large quanity of explosives were destroyed during the Arclight airstrikes which were conducted in western Farah province.

The 207th Zafar Corps in a statement said the airstrikes were carried out by the Afghan Air Force in Khak-e-Safid district.

The statement further added that the airstrikes also destroyed 21 sacks of explosives and 4 remote-controlled mines.

The anti-government armed gunnies including Taliban
...Arabic for students...
have not commented regarding the airstrikes so far.

Farah is among the relatively volatile provinces in West of Afghanistan. Talibs are active in some of the restive districts of the province they often attempt to carry out terrorist related activities against the government and security institutions.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


China-Japan-Koreas
U.S. seizes North Korean ship suspected of violating U.N. sanctions
[NBCNEWS] The U.S. has seized a North Korean freighter that was caught shipping coal in violation of U.N. sanctions, the Justice Department revealed Thursday.

The 17,000-ton cargo ship, called the Wise Honest, was stopped in Indonesia last year after it was found to be carrying coal. The ship's captain was charged with violating Indonesian law, and last July, the U.S. filed an action to seize the ship, according to court papers.

Federal prosecutors said the seizure marks the first time the U.S. has taken possession of a North Korean ship for violating international sanctions.

"This sanctions-busting ship is now out of service," said John Demers, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's National Security Division.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Maybe we could trade it for the Pueblo?
Posted by: Bobby || 05/10/2019 16:52 Comments || Top||


Trump administration forces China to sell the Port of Long Beach
[AmericanThinker] The Trump Administration's Department of Homeland Security has forced China's state-owned Cosco* to sell the Port of Long Beach over security concerns.

China's Cosco Shipping Holdings, which bought out its 75 percent‐owned Hong Kong‐based Orient Overseas International (OOCL), was forced to sell its Port of Long Beach Container Terminal ownership to Macquarie Infrastructure Partners for $1.78 billion.

The B.O. regime had no problems with OOCL signing a 40-year lease with the City of Long Beach in 2012 for control of America's second largest and most automated container handling operation. The sweetheart deal was part of the "Middle Harbor Redevelopment Program" to fund a $1.5-billion expansion through 2020.

But one of the first major actions of the Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security in March 2017 was issuing a "Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S." national security hold on Cosco's acquisition of a former U.S. Navy port facility.

China operates six of the world's ten busiest container ports. The Chinese government has also funded the construction and operations of 43 ports in 35 countries under its "One Belt and One Road" (OBOR) initiative launched five years ago, according to China's Ministry of Transport.

As part of its efforts to gain asset dominance, China has directed its state-owned companies to exclusively buy products and services from other Chinese state-owned enterprises. As a result, China International Marine Containers Group has become the world's largest maker of shipping containers and Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries has gained a 70 percent international market share for port cranes, and now exports to 300 ports in 100 countries.

Under the Macquarie acquisition terms, Orient Overseas International will pocket a $1.29 billion profit and still control vessel and rail traffic at the container facilities for the next twenty years.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  The Obama administration had no problems with OOCL signing a 40-year lease with the City of Long Beach in 2012 for control of America's second largest and most automated container handling operation. Large security issues were/are associated with this Obean decision. As I recall, this issue came up before under George W. with Dubai.


Obean/HRC also had no problem selling much of our uranium supply to Russia. I thought uranium was considered a "critical asset" and a part of our critical infrastructure under Homeland Security? When will we see U1 properly addressed?
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/10/2019 9:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Fantastic points John. But which is worse, China running the port or California.

Snark off.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 9:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Macquarie appears to be an international Australian financial investment and physical asset management company well able to handle the port.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 12:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Macquarie appears to be an international Australian financial investment and physical asset management company

From talking with Ozzie pals, Australia also seems to be having some concerns about China buying up facilities and resources there.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/10/2019 12:34 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Wounded ISIS group member arrested in Nangarhar province
[KhaamaPress] A maimed member 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....
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group was tossed in the clink
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
following a brief clash in eastern Nangarhar
The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country..
province.

The 201st Silab Corps of the Afghan Military in a statement said a group of ISIS Lions of Islam were attempting to shift one of their maimed members to a health facility in Wazir Tangi area of Khogyani district when they were ambushed by security forces.

The statement further added that the ISIS Lions of Islam were forced to retreat and flee the area after a brief clash leaving behind their maimed comrade.

The maimed ISIS member was arrested a horse was confiscated followign the clash, the 201st Silab Corps said, adding that the detained IS member is currently in security forces custody.

The anti-government armed Lions of Islam including ISIS sympathizers have not commented regarding the arrest of their comrade so far.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Africa Horn
Sudanese forces seize 241 kg gold from plane
[AlAhram] Sudanese Rapid Support Forces seized 241 kilograms of gold from a plane that landed in Khartoum on Thursday in an investigation into possible smuggling.
The plane had departed from Nile River state, the RSF said.

General Othman Mohammed of the RSF said that only 93 of the 241 kilograms had been cleared for export. The status of the remaining quantity was unclear.

"Our duty is now to bring this large quantity to the Sudanese central bank so that it can complete the necessary legal measures," he said.

He did not give the name of the Moroccan company exporting the gold, or provide any further details beyond saying it was legally registered to operate in Sudan.

Gold mining is one of the main sources of foreign currency in the country, which produces around 100 tonnes of the metal a year.

Some 70 percent of output is estimated to be smuggled abroad as producers try to evade regulations requiring them to sell gold to the central bank in local currency at a price far below the black market rate.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Our duty is now to bring this large quantity to the Sudanese central bank so that it can complete the necessary legal measures," he said.


...after which point they'll be returned to their rightful owners after we've pulled the ol' 'lead bars in gold paint' switcheroo!
Posted by: Raj || 05/10/2019 5:56 Comments || Top||

#2  A more lucrative and less dangerous scam than trying to scoop up spilled fuel from an overturned tank truck.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/10/2019 11:10 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Baghdad suicide bomber kills several civilians: Iraqi military, jacket wallah kabooms 23 in possibly the same act
Article published at 20:52 local times.
[AlAhram] A jacket wallah killed several people in a marketplace in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, the Iraqi military said on Thursday. It did not provide precise casualty figures.

The bomber was surrounded by security forces before detonating an boom belt, the Baghdad Operations Command said in a statement.

At least 8 dead in Baghdad suicide bombing: security official

[Rudaw] At least eight people were killed and 15 maimed in a suicide kaboom at a market in eastern Baghdad on Thursday, a security official said. It was later 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....
(ISIS).
"A jacket wallah wearing an boom belt went kaboom! close to stalls at the crowded Jamila market," said the senior police officer, who asked not to be named.

ISIS, through one of its mouthpieces on Telegram grabbed credit a few hours after the attack.

A medical source confirmed that the nearby Al Kindi hospital had received eight bodies.

The attack took place at around 9 p.m. (1800 GMT), at a time when many Iraqis have broken their Ramadan fast and take to the streets.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Nothing quite says Ramadan like a splodeydope killing fellow muslins
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 05/10/2019 12:27 Comments || Top||


Gunmen kill 5, wound 2 including Mukhtar in unstable Mosul, turbans kill 8 more
[Rudaw] With the security situation deteriorating in northern areas of Iraq, seven family members of a mukhtar in Nineveh province were targeted early on Thursday with five being killed and two maimed.

"In a shameful crime, and during the days of holy Ramadhan, terrorist elements staged an attack on the house of the mukhtar of al-Lazaka village in the Hamam al-Alil district in the Nineveh province..." read a statement from Iraq’s Security Media Cell afternoon.

Seven people were targeted in the attack that was not immediately claimed by Islamic State
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


The Grand Turk
Opposition calls for ‘revoking Erdogan’s mandate’
[DAWN] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor....
’s main opposition party said on Wednesday it had formally requested the annulment of President Tayyip Erdogan’s mandate because the same flaws his AK Party alleged in the city’s March 31 mayoral vote occurred in last year’s national elections.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) also said votes for Istanbul officials and councils, submitted in the same envelopes as the mayoral election, should be cancelled if the mayoral vote is re-run. The AK Party (AKP) won a majority in the councils.

After weeks of appeals by the AKP and their nationalist MHP allies, Turkey’s High Election Board (YSK) ruled on Monday for a re-run of the Istanbul mayoral election, which was dramatically won by the CHP’s Ekrem Imamoglu with a razor-thin majority.

It was the first time in 25 years that the AKP or its Islamist predecessors had failed to win control of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city with a budget of close to $4 billion. Erdogan launched his own political career as Istanbul mayor.

In its ruling, which also annulled Imamoglu’s mandate, the YSK cited irregularities in the appointment of polling station officials. Erdogan’s party said the fact that individuals who were not public servants had been appointed to the polling stations amounted to organised crime.

However,
it was a brave man who first ate an oyster...
the YSK left results for district administrators, municipal councils and local officials unchanged, a decision which the CHP said was nonsense because all four votes were cast in the same envelopes and counted by the same polling officials.

"If you’re revoking Ekrem Imamoglu’s mandate ... then you must also annul President Erdogan’s mandate because the same laws, same regulations, same applications, same polling stations and conditions were present in both elections," CHP Deputy Chairman Muharrem Erkek told news hounds.

"Why are you not cancelling the results that came out of the same envelopes," he said.

In his first comments after the YSK’s decision, Erdogan said on Tuesday that the elections had been marred by "organised irregularity". Asked about the ruling, Imamoglu said democracy was the victim.

Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
More evidence emerges of Iran-Al Qaeda ties
[FoxNews] As the Trump administration doubles down on the contention that Tehran is cooperating with Al Qaeda, another former Iranian commander has reportedly come forward with allegations about an Iran-Al Qaeda link.

Said Qasemi, a now-retired spokesperson for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), told Al Arabiya that IRGC deployed undercover soldiers to Bosnia-Herzegovina during its conflict in the 1990s under the pretense that they were members of Tehran’s state-endorsed Red Islamic Thingy.

This is alleged to have been in cooperation with an Al Qaeda unit operating in the region, as confirmed by another IRGC official, whereby the two groups were able to engage in joint weapons training.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda


Home Front: Culture Wars
Seattle elites attack rape victim, defend white male rapist
[CityJournal] A year ago, in Seattle, a man living in a city-funded homeless encampment raped a woman in the bathroom of a Volkswagen dealership in the city’s Ballard neighborhood. Christopher Teel had arrived from Texas as a transient and was evading multiple warrants, but the city-sanctioned encampment welcomed him without conducting a criminal-background check.

The story caused a sensation, with wide media coverage and public demands for increased security measures, but the crime victim remained silent and her identity was kept secret. Nearly a year later, the victim, Lindsey, contacted me. After being raped, she had approached city leaders and met with the sitting councilman for nearly an hour but was received, she says, with dismissiveness. Teel’s crime against her did not fit the preferred narrative of compassion for the homeless, so the political class downplayed it. By the time Lindsey reached out to me, she was ready to speak out.

Lindsey asked me to create a short documentary so that she could tell her story in her own words. I’ve worked for more than a decade as a documentary filmmaker, but my interview with Lindsey was one of the most wrenching I’ve ever done. She walked me through the details of the attack and her deep frustrations with the political leadership that created the conditions for the crime to occur and then resisted making changes even after her story broke.


We edited the film together and posted it to Facebook on April 22. That evening, it was the lead story on all four local Seattle news networks and had reached more than 35,000 people on social media. The public renewed its call for warrant checks at city-sanctioned encampments. Seattle mayor Jenny Durkan condemned the assault and commended "the courage of a survivor of sexual violence to speak out."

Then came the backlash. Progressive activists launched a counterattack against Lindsey on social media. Local journalist Erica Barnett claimed that the story drew attention because Lindsey is an "attractive blonde woman" and dismissed the victim’s "many tears" as theatrics serving a false narrative that the homeless represent a danger to the community. She demanded that the media temper its reporting and be mindful that "graphic descriptions of violent rape may be triggering for survivors." Barnett’s message was amplified on left-wing Twitter; Councilwoman Lorena Gonzalez claimed that Lindsey’s story would create fear and cause harm to communities "that may already be triggered."

The reality: city-sanctioned encampments in Seattle have become magnets for crime and violence. According to the Seattle Times, when the city opened a low-barrier encampment in Licton Springs, the police recorded a 221 percent increase in reported crimes and public disturbances. Neighbors witnessed a dramatic rise in property destruction, violence, prostitution, and drug dealing in the area. According to King County Jail statistics, homeless individuals are 38 times more likely to commit crimes than the average citizen (the homeless represented 0.5 percent of the population but 19 percent of jail bookings last year).

Seattle’s activist class seems, then, to have more compassion for transient criminals than for the victims of their crimes. Lindsey’s story should be a clarion call for everyone who cares about violence against women. But in the tortured logic of intersectionality, the story of a homeless rapist demands "context," while the white, blonde, middle-class target of his assault is an unsympathetic victim.

Lindsey’s story reveals a fault line opening between elite opinion and public opinion. Most private citizens praised Lindsey as a heroic survivor and echoed her call for greater safety at homeless encampments. They should reflect on the likelihood that their leaders’ contempt for her extends to them, too. The more Seattleites who come to that conclusion, the more likely we are to see change.
Posted by: Herb McCoy || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's Seattle...'nuff said.
Posted by: Warthog || 05/10/2019 8:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Typical.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 17:45 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran May Expel Afghan Refugees As US Tightens Sanctions
[ToloNews] A bigwig from Iran's Foreign Ministry has said millions of Afghan refugees will be expelled from Iran if the sanctions on Tehran are increased.

According to Iranian officials, more than three million Afghan refugees are living in Iran with over two million of them working in that country.

In an interview with Iran’s IRNA news agency, the Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Sayed Abbas Araghchi said Iran would ask the Afghan refugees to go home if sanctions are increased, adding that the migrants colonists annually send three to five billion Euros to Afghanistan.

Araghchi said: "468,000 Afghan students are getting education freely in Iranian schools and every student costs 600 Euros on an average basis."

He said that 23,000 Afghan students are enrolled in Iranian universities and Iran invests nearly 15,000 Euros for them annually.

"When the US sanctions leave impacts and Iran’s financial resources are reduced and the sale of oil reaches to zero, when our oil revenues are decreased, however they (US) will not succeed to reach our oil imports to zero. They must know that in that case, Iran will be compelled to take fresh policies for its economy. There is possibility that one day we get to the point that we are no longer able to complete the expenditures and then it is possible that we request our Afghan brothers and sisters to leave to their own country," said Araghchi.

The Iranian official said that Iran is not interested in resorting such measure on the humanitarian basis, but if Iran becomes compel to do so, then the responsibility will go to the US.

Araghchi said that Iran has been the victim of conflict in Afghanistan.

"We are victim of the conflict in Afghanistan. Those who created the conflict in Afghanistan and created the Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
and other terrorist groups and funded them and brought this catastrophe on the Afghan people, they should tolerate the expenses, not Iran," he said.

Araghchi’s comments have sparked some reaction in Afghanistan.

"We are confident that the government of Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran as a good friend of Afghanistan takes responsible action towards the refugees," said Sibghat Ahmadi, front man for Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This comes a day after Trump on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on Iran, targeting revenue from its exports of industrial metals, the latest salvo in tensions between Washington and Tehran over a 2015 international accord officially known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) based on which, Iran committed to curb its nuclear program.

"I am not fully aware of the comments made by the officials of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran. First, we have to analyze their comments to find out what they really have said. If such comments were made, the relations between the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Afghanistan and the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran are very deep and we need to invest more in these brotherly relations as neighbors. There is no doubt that various countries in the world have their own separate tensions, but the two neighboring countries need to focus as much as they can on their ties and invest more in this area," said Mahmoud Saikal, former Afghan permanent representative to the UN.

"No doubt, Iran uses Afghan refugees as a political tool," said Jawed Ludin, former Deputy Minister of Interior.

Two Afghan critics said the Afghan refugees in any country need a dignified repatriation to the country which should be facilitated by the government.

"A dignified repatriation of Afghan refugees is part of our national interest and ensures our national pride," said university lecturer Massoud Tarishtwal.

"Iran wants to tell the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
that if you do not want to take practical steps against the US sanctions on Iran, we are compelled to open the way of floods of refugees and drugs to Europe," said political analyst Ahmad Saeedi.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


Iraq
Convicted ISIS member who killed 5 Iraqi forces sentenced to death
[Rudaw] A court in Nineveh province sentenced to death 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....
(ISIS) member convicted of killing five Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and raping an Yezidi woman on Thursday.

Iraq’s High Judicial Council, announced the decision in a statement.

"The terrorist was wearing Afghani clothes and carrying a weapon, and he also worked as an intelligence member within the terrorist organization to report on people," read the statement.

The readout didn’t provide the nationality of the convict nor did it provide details of his arrest, his case, or identifying details such as name, age, or place of birth.

The man had participated in the battle of Zummar and had allegedly killed five ISF members and raped a Yezidi woman, according to the council.

"He was sentenced to death based on his honest and clear confession in front of the court and the statements of witnesses based on Article Four of Anti-Terror Law number 13 of the year 2005," the statement added.

Iraq’s courts heavily depend on confessions as definitive evidence against alleged ISIS members. Human rights organizations including Amnesia Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned Iraq’s fast-track courts, claiming they fail to exercise due process and extract forced confessions.

Iraq has also offered to put on trial foreign members of ISIS whose home countries don’t want to take back due to lack of evidence or perceived security threats.

According to Issue 43 of May 2019 of al-Qadha, the official gazette of the judicial council, Iraqi courts have undertaken measures against 810 "terrorists."

The court undertook many of these measures starting with former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last year prior to the provincial election and has continued under new premier Adil Abdul-Mahdi. Of the convicted, 514 have been slapped with different sentences, while the cases of 202 are still under investigation.

The court trials of 44 individuals are ongoing, while 11 have been released due to lack of evidence, the gazette adds.

Iraq is among the world’s top five executioners, according to a recent Amnesty report.

Activists have argued the hasty trials allow evidence of ISIS crimes to be lost, thus depriving the victims of justice and closure.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Migration ministry post no longer important for Kurds: Former minister
[Rudaw] Former Iraqi Minister of Displacement and Migration Darbaz Mohammed in an interview with Rudaw on May 5 says that post is no longer of "great importance" for Kurds, because a large number of the IDPs have now returned. Additionally, many of IDPs who took shelter in Kirkuk during the ISIS conflict also have returned and conditions in Shingal are not suitable for IDPs to return because of the presence of several armed militias.

Rudaw, Nawzad Mahmoud: Kurds did not retain the post of the minister of displacement and migration in the new Iraqi cabinet, yet there are a large number of IDPs sheltered in the Kurdistan Region. Do you think it was important for Kurds to keep the post?

Darbaz Mohammed:
All the ministries the Kurds received are more important than the migration ministry. This is particularly now so that half of the IDPs have returned home. The Ministry of Displacement and Migration is no longer of great importance for Kurds. Besides, the good relations we forged with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are maintained by the current team [in Baghdad].

During the ISIS conflict, you were criticized for the lack of help in assisting Iraqi IDPs sheltering in the Kurdistan Region.

The complaints had two sides. Sometimes it was political, in the sense that we had only relied on ourselves to take care of the IDPs and Baghdad had not assisted us. The other point of view was that there was not much understanding about our limited resources. For example, if you have 200,000 IDPs, you cannot build 200,000 residence units. Having one million displaced persons in Kurdistan was a heavy burden. What we offered was the best we managed to do.

What did you do?

In the beginning when we assumed the post, we started to build camps. Within the first two months of our work, we built 20 residential units in Duhok. We later handled djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
affairs too, in coordination with the Kurdistan Region and the Iraqi government. We were working hard and I remember, even [US President Barack] Obama at the time, was asking what had been done for Mosul as everyone had been talking about the process of the liberation of Mosul from ISIS. Even the United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
informed us that if we had managed to shelter half a million IDPs from Mosul, then we would score a huge success. Yet, they were adamant we would not be able to do it. But we proved that we sheltered even more than that number.

Did they talk about the financial burdens of the IDPs?

No. The funding responsibilities were not on the KRG's shoulders. The pressure [on the KRG] was only on health and electricity. The Iraqi government and organizations were funding and paying cash.

Is it an easy task to help the people of Shingal return home?

With the current situation on the ground, no. The matter is not just vested in the KRG. The PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] and their affiliate groups are another problem.

You once said that more than 500,000 Arab IDPs had fled to Kirkuk. Do you know whether or not they have returned to their areas?

Correct. A large number of IDPs had fled to Kirkuk from Anbar, Mosul, and Hawija. A large number of them have already returned. Maybe some of them have opted to stay. On the issue of demography, they will not become a threat as their food ration cards are not from Kirkuk.

Some of the ISIS families displaced to Syria were from Iraq.

We returned around 30,000 Iraqis from Syria. There is an abundant number still lingering there. They are the children and families of ISIS.

The repatriation of them is problematic because how can you protect them? You cannot put a child behind bars just because his father was an ISIS member. What is his crime because his father was ISIS?
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq


India-Pakistan
Officials see TTP offshoots behind Data Darbar blast
[DAWN] With the corpse count in Wednesday’s Data Darbar shrine blast rising to 11 on Thursday, law enforcement agencies shifted focus to three major terrorist networks of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban
...Arabic for students...
Pakistain (TTP) in Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

to lay their hands on handlers/controllers.

Among the four critically maimed, Elite Force man Saddam Hussain departed this vale of tears at the Mayo Hospital, though he underwent complicated surgeries.

Saddam, a resident of Kasur, had sustained multiple head and chest injuries in the suicide kaboom carried out on Wednesday morning at the gate of Hazrat Ali Hajveri shrine.

Other three critically injured at the Intensive Care Unit of the teaching hospital were not yet out of danger.

Talking about investigation into the suicide blast, a police brass hat told Dawn that two high-profile teams of the law enforcement agencies had been assigned the task to go after three offshoots of the TTP and their controllers.

Particularly, he said, the major focus was on Hizbul Ahrar which grabbed credit of sending the teenage jacket wallah to hit the target at Data Darbar on Wednesday.

He said the law enforcement agencies were using available resources to track down handlers who dropped the boy (suicide bomber) at the shrine.

The official said the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Punjab, had examined the record of the three terror groups, including the Ghaiz Force and Jamatul Ahrar.

He said the Hizbul Ahrar, which grabbed credit for the attack, was the splinter group of Jamaatul Ahrar
...A Pak Taliban splinter group that split off from the Mullah Fazlullah faction because it wasn't violent enough...
headed by hard boy Muqarram Shah from Afghanistan.

Hizbul Ahrar had separated from Jamaatul Ahrar due to some internal rifts. It started operating separately to target primarily the law enforcement agencies in various parts of Pakistain.

In addition to that, the CTD, which was leading the entire investigation process, was also following other leads like the possibility of involvement of ISIS as well, he said.

The official further said the probe was being conducted on the pattern of the 2017 Mall Road blast investigation in which the LEAs had incarcerated
Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'!
the controller who had dropped the suicide bomber near the target site a few minutes before the blast.

As many as 14 people, including two DIGs and other personnel of the police, had embraced martyrdom when the suicide bomber went kaboom! on The Mall in February 2017 when the officials were holding a dialogue with protesting traders.

The official said some 93 privately installed CCTV cameras in addition to those of the Safe City Authority had led the Sherlocks to the handler, Anwarul Haq, who had dropped the suicide bomber on The Mall. He was arrested from a rented house in R.A. Bazaar of Lahore within 72 hours of the Mall Road blast.

The LEAs later arrested 13 more controllers of Jamatul Ahrar and dismantled the group’s network after it grabbed credit for The Mall attack. He further said the notorious group Hizbul Ahrar, which grabbed credit for the Data Darbar blast, had last carried out a gun-and- kaboom on a bus carrying personnel of a security agency in Attock in May 2018.

As many as six of them, including the controllers, were arrested later in a marathon intelligence-based operation by the LEAs, he said.

The CTD officials would also grill the Death Eaters of Hizbul Ahrar arrested in the Attock case in connection with the Data Darbar blast.

Sources said the Punjab government was also discussing a proposal to form a joint investigation team.

Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: TTP


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
New Study: The Tropical Atlantic Was 7.5°C Warmer Than Now While CO2 Was 220 ppm
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mammoths farting?
Posted by: Beau || 05/10/2019 5:39 Comments || Top||

#2  I don't remember it as being that noticeable.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/10/2019 6:01 Comments || Top||

#3  I attribute that warmer period as well as this cooler period to "Climate Change (sarc)". I like being right all the time.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/10/2019 7:50 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Venezuelan embassy goes dark as standoff intensifies on streets of Washington
[LMTONLINE] The sun had just dipped below the horizon Wednesday evening when the lights flicked off inside the Venezuelan embassy in Washington.

Waves of cheers rolled up and down the ordinarily quiet street in the elite Georgetown neighborhood at the center of an intensifying standoff between backers of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó and left-wing activists who oppose U.S. intervention and support President Nicolás Maduro.

With no electricity, the activists who have been living inside the building adjusted to the latest challenge in their month-long occupation of the embassy. Organizers with Code Pink
... a U.S. anti-war group. The group describes itself as a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities. It was founded in 2002 by Jodie Evans, Medea Benjamin and of the other usual antiwar suspects. Its website lists hysterical allegations of US war crimes, and states that thousands of civilians were killed in Fallujah in 2004. Maybe it was millions. Benjamin was a 2000 candidate for the U.S. Senate on the Green Party ticket. She lost...
, a left-leaning organization known for its theatrical and provocative protests, said the utility bills had been paid in full by the building's owners: the Maduro-led Venezuelan government.

The group has been inside the embassy since April 10 at the invitation of Maduro government officials. About two weeks into Code Pink's residency, Venezuelan and Venezuelan-American protesters began to gather outside. They have not left since.

The embassy, a four-story brick building on a quiet side street near the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, has become the site of a proxy power struggle that mirrors the international fight over the future of Venezuela.

Activists inside the building Thursday said they had no running water or electricity, although a front man for D.C. Water said water had not been shut off to the property. The utility Pepco declined to comment on why the electricity apparently was cut.

"Out of respect for customer privacy and public safety and in accordance with Public Service Commission regulations, Pepco does not discuss the status of individual customer accounts or service to individual properties," the company said in a statement. "This privacy protocol covers all Pepco customers including residential, commercial and industrial and government segments."
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Water shut off too? Must be to comfort the homesick staff.

Code Pink, they don't wash anyways. Wonder who is funding them.
Posted by: Woodrow || 05/10/2019 9:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Now if they can just starve and get untreatable diseases, they'd have the full "Bolivarian Experience"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/10/2019 10:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Bunch of Slavic Supremacists don't want the brown people getting uppity and tossing out Putin's Foreman.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 05/10/2019 11:19 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
While Cracking Down On Fringe Conspiracy Theorists, Facebook Accidentally Bans CNN
[BabylonBee]
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I would have gone with Not Bee.
Posted by: SteveS || 05/10/2019 0:37 Comments || Top||

#2  I could see this happening. Clever devils.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/10/2019 7:41 Comments || Top||

#3  It was the word 'Accidentally' which tricked me.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/10/2019 14:58 Comments || Top||

#4  You can tell how bad things are getting when your mind pauses at a parody site, Thinking , " Am I sure this is from the Bee ?"
Posted by: Snavimble Bucket1794 || 05/10/2019 17:34 Comments || Top||


Arabia
U.S. Secures Access to Oman's Crowded Ports
[Stratfor]
Posted by: 3dc || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Hungary Forces 11 Afghan Asylum-Seekers Into Serbia
[ToloNews] Hungary forced 11 Afghan nationals to cross into Serbia after rejecting their asylum requests, a rights advocate said on Wednesday, and deported a 12th convicted of people smuggling back to Kabul.

The deportation of a further five Afghans, all members of the same family, was temporarily suspended following an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
group.

The United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
refugee agency (UNHCR) said Hungary’s action to force the two families to leave the country was "a flagrant violation of international and EU law".

Under Hungarian law, the claims of asylum-seekers arriving from a country that Hungary deems safe are rejected, the agency said in a statement, adding that the case highlighted "deep concerns" over that practice.

The Hungarian Immigration and Asylum Office (IAO) said the measures were part of a joint operation with European border and coasties agency Frontex, in which 39 people were flown to Afghanistan altogether.

The Helsinki Committee said the Hungarian operation targeted three Afghan families. Two families, including a pregnant woman, were moved to Serbia overnight.

"These people were put in an impossible situation," said Andras Lederer, a Helsinki information and advocacy officer. "... Either (to) return to Kabul or cross over into Serbia in the middle of nowhere late at night."

The IAO said 11 people choose to go to Serbia. The Serbian authorities had given the families accommodation in a reception center, the UNHCR said.

An interior ministry media officer said the single Afghan deportee had been convicted of people smuggling.

Lederer said the family of five was being held at a border transit zone while their case was pending. The European Court of Human Rights did not immediately respond to emailed questions for comment.

The IAO said before arriving to Hungary, the asylum-seekers had passed through several countries, including an EU member state, where they had access to medical and other assistance.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban leads a nationalist government with a strongly anti-immigrant platform, which is a key plank of the ruling Fidesz party’s campaign for the European Parliament elections on May 23-26.

The UNHCR has advised Frontex to refrain from supporting Hungary in the enforcement of return decisions which are not in line with international and EU law, the refugee agency said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Escalation expected in Palestine
[AlAhram] Paleostinian analysts believe Israel’s recent escalation and the response of the resistance was a natural and expected outcome of Israel’s policy of intentional killing.
The view from Egypt.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  I looked but couldn't find Palestine on any vetted maps, can any one tell me where Palestine is located?
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/10/2019 1:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Texas, apparently. How strange
Posted by: Frank G || 05/10/2019 10:20 Comments || Top||

#3  It’s pronounced Palesteen in Texas .
Posted by: Glenmore || 05/10/2019 17:49 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Aasia’s departure
[DAWN] FINALLY, a shameful chapter in this country’s history has drawn to a close. It emerged on Wednesday that Aasia Bibi ‐ in protective custody at an unknown location since being acquitted of blasphemy by the Supreme Court last year ‐ has left Pakistain for Canada, which has offered her asylum along with her family. She had spent eight years in prison for a crime she did not commit. The case, which burst into public view in 2009, catapulted one among millions of anonymous farmhands toiling on fields across the country into an enduring object of hate for the ultra right. The ripples extended well beyond the immediate circumstances: the liquidation in January 2011 of then Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....

governor Salmaan Taseer at the hands of his own police guard was a direct consequence. Six months later, minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti who, like Taseer, had expressed support for Aasia Bibi and demanded changes to the blasphemy law to prevent its abuse, was also bumped off. Mercifully though, unlike the acquittal that sparked rioting in various parts of the country, her departure for foreign shores played out quietly.

Aasia Bibi’s ordeal took on a heightened significance from the outset. This was perhaps because there was a woman at the centre of it, that too a Christian woman ‐ in a patriarchal society where the minorities are already vulnerable to discrimination, even persecution. Pressure from around the world also meant that the Pak government had a stake in at least ensuring Aasia Bibi’s physical safety during her years of incarceration, even as the trial process dragged on. However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow...
there are many forgotten blasphemy accused whose cases have faded from public memory; the demand for their fair treatment comes only from their hapless families. Take Junaid Hafeez, for example. Mr Hafeez was a visiting faculty member at a leading Multan
Home of the Multan Sultans...
university when he was accused of committing blasphemy by some students and placed in durance vile
You have the right to remain silent...
in March 2013. His case illustrates the extent to which the cancer of extremism has spread in this society. Rashid Rehman, the lawyer defending Mr Hafeez, was threatened by no less than some of his fellow advocates who evidently believed there are exceptions to the fundamental right of due process. On May 7, 2014, Mr Rehman was rubbed out in his office; his murder remains unsolved. The Pak state must not continue to abjure its duty to those victimised by the blasphemy law.

Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Iraq
Fears of new jihadist 'academies' as Iraqi jails fill up
[Rudaw] As Iraq tries thousands of locals and foreigners accused of joining 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, experts warn its jails could once again become "academies" for jihadists.

Prison was a pivotal moment for many prominent jihadists -- not least of them His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is that what all the buildings turning into schools in Philadelphia are wow!
Posted by: Omorong Black8889 || 05/10/2019 17:36 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Three Convicted Of Terrorism Over Australian Mosque Arson Attack
Hang on, dear Reader — it’s not what you think.
[Jpost] An Australian jury on Thursday found three men guilty of terrorism after they set fire to a mosque in the southern state of Victoria in December 2016.

Sunni Moslems Ahmed Mohammed, Abdullah Chaarani and Hatim Moukhaiber set fire to a Shi'ite mosque in a suburb of Melbourne.
Surprise!
Two had plotted an attack in central Melbourne just weeks later and were convicted of conspiring to plan a terrorist attack last year.
Busy little miscreants, to be sure. So much for idle hands being the Devil’s playground.
They had bought machetes and explosives and tried to get a gun license before they were tossed in the slammer
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
, according to media reports.

The three have yet to be sentenced.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists


India-Pakistan
Women trafficking: how the gang started operation in Faisalabad
[DAWN] A Chinese man, who came to Pakistain in connection with the execution of a power project in Haveli Bahadar Shah in Jhang, allegedly established a gang for smuggling Pak Christian girls to China against Rs1.8 million to Rs3.5 million per girl.

During the last few days, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) raided various locations 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...
, Lahore and Rawalpindi and tossed in the clink
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Convert 30000 Indian Rupee (INR) to US Dollar (USD)

Rs1.8m~$30k
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 16:52 Comments || Top||


Trafficking ring: 11 Chinese suspects remanded into FIA custody
[DAWN] A Lahore court on Thursday remanded 11 Chinese nationals and two locals into the Federal Investigation Agency's custody for a probe into a transnational gang allegedly involved in prostitution and the illegal organ trade.

Judicial Magistrate Amir Raza directed FIA officials to complete their investigation within two days and produce the suspects in court on May 11.

An FIA blurb issued today detailed how the agency came to know about the the suspected ring, which involves large sums of money changing hands for the contracting of fake marriages between vulnerable Pak women and Chinese men. The women are allegedly trafficked into prostitution in China.

According to the FIA, a woman from Lahore was married off to a Chinese national after her father was approached by an 'agent' claiming to run a marriage bureau.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under:


Government
Dupe entry: Update on Trump Judicial Appointments
This week the Senate confirmed 2 Trump nominees to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Judges Joseph F. Bianco and Michael H. Park bring the 2nd Circuit to near parity (6 R appointees to 7 D appointees). Two additional 2nd Circuit Judges (Dennis Jacobs and Christopher Droney) have announced that will be taking senior status in the coming months. Jacobs was appointed by G.H.W. Bush, so this seat is a wash. Jacobs, however, was appointed by Obama. His replacement by Trump would represent the second circuit court flip during Trump's presidency (the first was the Third Circuit which flipped in March with the confirmation of Paul Matey).

The Senate has now confirmed a total of 39 Trump appointees to the Federal Courts of Appeals. By comparison, Obama appointed 55 Appeals Court Judges in his 8 years. There are currently an additional 8 Appeals Court vacancies for which Trump has made 4 pending nominations. Four of these vacancies, including 3 for which there are pending nominations, are to the notorious 9th Circuit. If Trump is able to fill all 4 slots, he will bring the 9th Circuit to near parity (16 D to 13 R). The Senate has scheduled a vote next week on Kenneth Kiyul Lee's nomination to the 9th Circuit, along with votes on additional District Court nominations.

All of this is, of course, good news for those of us who believe in the rule of law. The only disappointment is that we are running out of vacancies on the Courts of Appeals (thanks to historic Democrat obstruction, there are currently more District Court vacancies – 121 - than when Trump first took office). Over time there will be additional retirements, but for the time being the action will move to the District Courts.
Posted by: Iblis || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Iblis dear, you forgot the URL. And since you didn’t name the source in square brackets, we had no clue where it came from.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 1:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Pick whichever catch your fancy:

duckduckgo.com
Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance || 05/10/2019 1:48 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Taliban militants suffer heavy casualties in self defense strikes of Afghan Special Forces in Faryab
[KhaamaPress] The Talibs suffered heavy casualties in self defense strikes of the Afghan Special Forces in northern Faryab province, the military sources said Thursday.

The sources further added that the Afghan Special Forces carried out the self defense in Andkhoy district of the province.

"Self-defense strikes by Afghan Special Forces in Andkhoy district killed 33 Taliban
...Arabic for students...
fighters and maimed two," the sources said.

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

Faryab is among the relatively volatile provinces in North of Afghanistan. Talibs are active in some of the restive districts of the province where often attempt to carry out terrorist related activities against the government and security institutions.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Death toll rises to 9 in Kabul attack, at least 20 more wounded: MoI
[KhaamaPress] The Ministry of Interior has confirmed that the casualties toll from yesterday’s attack in Kabul city has climbed to 29 dead or maimed.

Interior ministry front man Nasrat Rahimi said Thursday that 9 people including a special forces soldier, 4 public protection forces personnel, 1 security guard of Counterpart International and 3 civilians bit the dust in the attack.

Rahimi further added that 20 civilians have also sustained injuries.

The attack on Counterpart International was launched at around 11:40 am on Wednesday in the 10th police district of the city when a group of forces of Evil armed with suicide kaboom vests and weapons detonated an exploding car near the office of Counterpart International.

The Ministry of Interior had earlier confirmed that four civilians including a woman bit the dust in the attack along with a policeman who was involved in the rescue operation.

The Taliban
...Arabic for students...
group grabbed credit for the attack.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Make way for Comey: Former US intelligence analyst charged with leaks to media
[BBC] A former US government intelligence analyst has been charged with leaking classified national security information to a reporter.

Daniel Everette Hale, 31, of Nashville, Tennessee, was arrested after allegedly providing at least 17 top secret documents to an unnamed journalist. According to the indictment, the files related to counterterrorism and were published in whole or in part.

He is expected to make his first court appearance in Nashville on Thursday.

After enlisting with the US Air Force in 2009, Mr Hale went on to work as an analyst with the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), court documents say. In these roles, Mr Hale gained top secret security clearance and had access to classified defence information, according to authorities.

In April 2013, court documents allege, while assigned to the NSA, Mr Hale began communicating with the reporter, speaking in person and using encrypted messaging tools.

According to prosecutors, in February 2014 Mr Hale printed 36 documents from his "Top Secret computer", providing at least 17 to the journalist.

The files included a memo outlining a military campaign against al-Qaeda and a top secret intelligence report on an operative for the extremist group, the indictment said.

Mr Hale also allegedly had a thumb drive with software recommended by the reporter's online news outlet in an article on how to anonymously leak documents.

The indictment details extensive communication between Mr Hale and the journalist, and cites a text message between Mr Hale and a friend saying the reporter "wants me to tell my story about working with drones".

While the outlet is not named in court documents, it is reported to be the Intercept, an online news publication.

In October 2015, the Intercept published "The Drone Papers", which used "a cache of secret documents detailing the inner workings of the US military's assassination program", that was provided to one of its journalists "by a whistleblower".

The Intercept has made no comment on Mr Hale's arrest.

This would be the third time someone has been charged with leaking sensitive information to the media outlet.

Mr Hale is charged under the Espionage Act with five crimes related to stealing and disclosing national defence information.

He faces a maximum of 50 years in prison.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So how come what the unnamed journalist did isn't getting him the same treatment as Assange?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/10/2019 6:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Comey was not at the DOJ retirement party for R. Rosenstein.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/10/2019 7:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Treat him as a traitor and hang him and prosecute those the published it as well and put them in jail. If there is no punishment treason will continue.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 05/10/2019 7:48 Comments || Top||

#4  The Washington Examiner has lots more about that reporter:

The reporter that Hale leaked this information to is not named in the indictment, but the charging document identifies him as Jeremy Scahill of the Intercept, an outspoken critic of America’s military activities overseas.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 16:43 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Multiple clashes reported among Afghan forces and Taliban in Herat
[KhaamaPress] At least 15 Talibs were killed and 8 others were maimed during the festivities with the Afghan armed forces in western Herat
...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns...
province of Afghanistan, the military sources said Thursday.

The sources further added that the festivities took place in Farsi district of the province.

"In Farsi district, multiple festivities occurred between Afghan and Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
forces. ANDSF actions resulted in 15 Taliban fighters killed and 8 maimed," the sources said.

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

Herat is among the relatively calm provinces in West of Afghanistan but the Talibs have recently increased their insurgency activities in some of its remote districts where they often attempt to carry out terrorist related activities against the government and security institutions.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russian strikes collapse jihadist lines in northwestern Hama
[ALMASDARNEWS] The jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham
were expected to fiercely resist the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) troops that were attempting to advance in northwestern Hama; however, the snuffies haven’t had much of an opportunity to engage in long battles with the government forces, thanks in large part to the Russian Arclight airstrikes that have relentlessly hit their positions.

According to a military source in the town of Mhardeh, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham snuffies are struggling to resupply and reinforce their lines in northwestern Hama because the Russian airstrikes have repeatedly struck all of their convoys.

Prior to the short battle at Qal’at al-Madiq, the Russian airstrikes had battered the jihadist defenses so badly that many chose to withdraw from the historical before the Syrian Arab Army and their allies began their new attack to capture the area.

The Russian airstrikes are still ongoing across northwestern Syria this evening, with a high concentration of these attacks focused on the jihadist-held areas in the northeastern countryside of the Latakia Governorate.

The Russian airstrikes on northeastern Latakia are meant to weaken the jihadist defenses at the key town of Kabani, which sits atop of the al-Zuwayqat Mountains.

The Syrian Arab Army is expected to storm Kabani in the coming days as they look to eliminate the last jihadists in the northeastern Latakia

Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Syrian Army reportedly captures last strategic town in northwestern Hama
[ALMASDARNEWS] The last strategic town under the control of the bully boy forces in northwestern Hama has been reportedly captured by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and their allies.

According to reports, the Syrian Arab Army captured the key town of Qal’at al-Madiq after the jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham
and their allies withdrew from the area.

Al-Masdar has reached out to a Syrian Army source to confirm the report; however, they said there has been no confirmation from their end, despite claims by pro-opposition media about the loss of the historical town.

If Qal’at al-Madiq is indeed captured by the Syrian Arab Army, this would be a major blow to the opposition forces, as this historical town gave them the territorial advantage in northwestern Hama.

Lastly, the loss of Qal’at al-Madiq for the rebels will only open a pathway to the bully boy-held areas in the al-Ghaab Plain.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Jihadist defenses collapse in northwestern Hama as Syrian troops seize several areas
[ALMASDARNEWS] It has been a fought day for the jihadist rebels in northwestern Hama as their forces have conceded several areas to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in a short period of time.

Led by their Tiger Forces, the Syrian Arab Army kicked off the day by overwhelming the jihadist defenses near the historical town of Qal’at al-Madiq: this would pave the way for their eventual advance into this jihadist stronghold.

The Syrian Arab Army would then bypass the jihadist defenses at Qal’at al-Madiq and impose full control over the town later this morning.

According to a military source near the front-lines, the Syrian Arab Army captured the towns of Tal Hawash, al-Kurkat, Qal’at al-Madiq, and al-Tuwanah in northwestern Hama.

The source added that the Syrian Army is now pushing to capture the key hilltop of Tal Sakher and its nearby town of al-Hobeit. Once these areas are captured, the first phase of the Syrian Army offensive will have concluded.

For the jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham
, they are likely to send their remaining reinforcements to the large town of Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib, as this could be a future target for the Syrian Arab Army and their allies.

Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra


Home Front: WoT
Pompeo cuts short European visit to return early to Washington: US State Department
[AlAhram] U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has postponed his visit to Greenland because he needs to return to Washington, the State Department said on Thursday.

"Secretary Pompeo must postpone his visit to Greenland due to a need for the secretary to be in Washington, D.C., today," spokeswoman Mortgan Ortagus said.

Pompeo had been due to visit Greenland on Thursday, but left London bound for Washington instead.

U.S. President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on Iran, targeting revenue from its exports of industrial metals, the latest salvo in tensions between Washington and Tehran over a 2015 international accord curbing the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s nuclear programme.

Pompeo told Britannia on Wednesday it needed to change its attitude towards China and telecoms company Huawei, casting the world’s second largest economy as a threat to the West similar to that once posed by the Soviet Union.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russian special forces in action against ISIS in eastern Syria
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Russian special forces were filmed carrying out an attack against the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS/ISIS/IS/ISIS) terrorist organization in eastern Syria recently.

According to reports, the Russian special forces attacked the Islamic State snuffies in the western desert of the Deir Ezzor Governorate.

The Russian special forces have been entrenched with the Syrian Army for nearly two years at this front; they often provide support in an advisory role to the government troops.

While U.S. President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
declared victory against the terrorist group, they continue to carry out attacks against both the Syrian Army and Syrian Democratic Forces.
Posted by: Fred || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Global Law: Montana men who killed mountain lion at Yellowstone sentenced to 3-year worldwide hunting ban
[FoxNews] Three men in Montana have been sentenced for illegally hunting a mountain lion at Yellowstone National Park.

Austin Peterson, 20, Trey Juhnke, 20, and Corbin Simmons, 19, had each previously admitted to shooting the mountain lion in a clearly marked area of the park on Dec. 12, 2018, before bringing the lion back over the park’s border and into their truck, per a Yellowstone news release.

Simmons later changed his tune and claimed he harvested the lion outside park boundaries.

The men’s actions were found to be in violation of the Lacey Act of 1894, per the National Park Service (NPS), which prohibits the taking, selling or purchasing of wildlife from protected areas.

On May 3, a federal court sentenced Peterson to fines of approximately $1,700, as well as a three-year probation, throughout which he is banned from hunting, fishing and trapping worldwide. Juhnke and Simmons reportedly received equally harsh sentences at previous hearings in April; a representative for NPS was not immediately available to confirm whether those sentences were identical.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  worldwide?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 05/10/2019 4:07 Comments || Top||


Africa North
US aircraft carrier Lincoln passes through Egypt's Suez Canal amid Iran tensions
The pieces move into place ...
[AlAhram] The Egyptian cabinet said in a statement on Thursday that American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has passed through Egypt's Suez Canal; the White House said earlier this week that the deployment is in response to troubling "indications and warnings" from Iran.

The movement of the warship was observed by US Major General Ralph Groover, Senior Defense Official and Defense Attaché at the US embassy in Cairo, "who came specially to check up on the safe passage" of the US carrier, the cabinet said.

US National Security Adviser John Bolton said the move aimed to send a "clear and unmistakable message" that the US will retaliate with "unrelenting force" to any attack.

Groover met with Mohab Mamish, head of the Suez Canal Authority, and praised Egypt's "efficient security procedures" to ensure the safe passage of ships through the canal, the cabinet's statement quoted him as saying.

The deployment of the carrier comes amid claims of a possible attack on US forces stationed in the region, unnamed US officials were quoted as saying.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [1 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  There has been a drought in Panama recently. An article I read somewhere says there is only 40 feet depth in the locks in the canal. I guess that's enough for a carrier to pass through.
Posted by: Texhooey || 05/10/2019 13:14 Comments || Top||

#2  But everyone knows American aircraft carriers make their own water, Texhooey. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/10/2019 15:59 Comments || Top||

#3  The USS Lincoln is a Nimitz class carrier, these ships cannot use the Panama Canal. Even with the larger locks.
Posted by: Bigfoot Elmerenter4120 || 05/10/2019 21:29 Comments || Top||

#4  But everyone knows American aircraft carriers make their own water, Texhooey. ;-)

I expect a number of folks at their destination are also making water.
Posted by: Skidmark || 05/10/2019 23:24 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
31[untagged]
7Islamic State
5Govt of Iran
5Taliban
5Moslem Colonists
4al-Nusra
4Commies
3Hamas
1TTP
1al-Qaeda
1Govt of Iraq
1Govt of Pakistan
1Sublime Porte

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
Comments Spam
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
RSS Links
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio
Sink Trap

Alzheimer's Association
Day by Day
Counterterrorism
Hair Through the Ages







On Sale now!


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

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

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

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

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2019-05-10
  U.S. revokes citizenship of Portland mosque's imam for ties to ObL
Thu 2019-05-09
  Rotherham abuse scandal: 40 arrests made in last two months
Wed 2019-05-08
  Pompeo suddenly in Iraq
Tue 2019-05-07
  400-strong Christian mob attacks Muslim shops in Sri Lankan town hit by Easter bomb
Mon 2019-05-06
  19 killed in Gaza, four in Israel in Sunday’s escalation, say officials
Sun 2019-05-05
  Iran money man zapped in Gaza
Sat 2019-05-04
  Israel strikes Gaza targets in response to heavy rocket fire Saturday
Fri 2019-05-03
  Taliban militants blow up one of the oldest shrines of Ghazni city
Thu 2019-05-02
  Iran, Turkey criticize US plan to designate Muslim Brotherhood a terror group
Wed 2019-05-01
  Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated businessman Malek sentenced to 25 years in prison
Tue 2019-04-30
  Gunmen kill pastor, worshippers in Burkina Faso church
Mon 2019-04-29
  Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seen in new video for first time in five years
Sun 2019-04-28
  Father, brothers of alleged Sri Lanka bombing mastermind killed
Sat 2019-04-27
  Sri Lanka - Inside help?
Fri 2019-04-26
  Jihadists 'blow themselves up' as soldiers raid suicide vest factory in Sri Lanka

Better than the average link...



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.
3.88.114.76
Paypal:
WoT Background (21)    Non-WoT (17)    Opinion (10)    (0)    Politix (3)