h/t Gates of Vienna
President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan early this morning where they laughed off the conspiracy theories about collusion and electoral interference while addressing reporters.
"Don’t meddle in our election, please," Trump said to Putin. He then repeated himself while wagging his finger toward the Russian leader.
h/t Instapundit
...Augsburg University, a private Christian school, is inviting only racial minority students to participate in the program, which consists of workshops held every Tuesday from June 4 through July 20. Eligible students will receive a stipend of up to $600.
"Bring more diversity to STEM" Tweet This
Students wishing to participate in the summer enrichment program titled Empowering Underrepresented Students in STEM at Augsburg must meet a number of criteria, the first of which is that they must either be African American or black, Native American, Hispanic, Native Pacific Islanders, or Alaska natives. Participants must also be sophomores during their fall 2019 semester and be pursuing a STEM degree.
#5
Grom, probably the same thing that had French engineers up in arms at CERN--Russian engineers could be hired for 1/3 the cost of the French ones, and quite a few groups were doing just that.
Posted by: james ||
06/29/2019 23:09
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h/t Instapundit
The fight against restrictive college speech codes might have received new ammunition from an unlikely pair: trademark law and fashion.
The Supreme Court struck down the U.S Patent and Trademark Office’s prohibition of "immoral or scandalous" names in trademarks. The 6-3 majority opinion by Justice Elena Kagan took issue with the Lanham Act for making viewpoint-based determinations, and thus infringing on First Amendment rights.
A law professor and civil-liberties group separately told The College Fix that the decision in favor of fashion company FUCT is a boon for lawsuits against campus speech codes, bias response teams and other college policies that punish the content of speech.
#1
The Supreme Court’s ruling is “directly contrary” to the purpose of speech codes, which is to “try to shield people from anything that some protected group might find offensive.”
I was a bit confused which side SCOTUS came down on this time.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/29/2019 12:39
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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ‐ A federal judge on Friday prohibited President Donald Trump from tapping $2.5 billion in military funding to build high-priority segments of his prized border wall in California, Arizona and New Mexico.
Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. in Oakland acted in two lawsuits filed by California and by activists who contended that the money transfer was unlawful and that building the wall would pose environmental threats.
"All President Trump has succeeded in building is a constitutional crisis, threatening immediate harm to our state," said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who led a 20-state coalition of attorneys general in one lawsuit.
Speaking Saturday at a press conference marking the end of the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Trump called the decision "a disgrace."
"So we're immediately appealing it and we think we'll win the appeal," he went on to say. "There was no reason that that should have happened. And a lot of wall is being built."
The decisions are in line with Gilliam's ruling last month that blocked work from beginning on two of the highest-priority projects ‐ one spanning 46 miles (74 kilometers) in New Mexico and another covering 5 miles (8 kilometers) in Yuma, Arizona.
But the fight is far from over. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to take up the same issue of using military money next week.
At issue is President Donald Trump's February declaration of a national emergency so that he could divert $6.7 billion from military and other sources to begin construction of the wall, which could have begun as early as Monday.
Trump declared the emergency after losing a fight with the Democratic-led House that led to a 35-day government shutdown.
The president identified $3.6 billion from military construction funds, $2.5 billion from Defense Department counterdrug activities and $600 million from the Treasury Department's asset forfeiture fund.
#2
Build it from the Mexican side. Use secret Klingon/USAID funding to purchase firearms pay off Mex POLS, hire Mex contractors, contract security, shadowy American advisers, materials, and construction equipment.
#5
How does this judge have a ny jurisdiction how military funds are spent?
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/29/2019 15:01
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#6
My question exactly. I don't remember anything in the Constitution about giving judges the power of the purse. Thought that all started in the House and then went to the Senate.
Posted by: Tom ||
06/29/2019 15:40
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[Breitbart] The bishop of El Paso, Texas, personally escorted a group of seven Latin American migrants who had previously been denied asylum in the United States across the border into the U.S. on Thursday, reports say.
Bishop Mark Seitz accompanied a Cuban, a young man from El Salvador, and a family of five back across the bridge from Ciudad Juarez to the United States.
Seitz told the online Catholic site Crux that the 9-year-old daughter of the family took his hand as they crossed the bridge, where these individuals "who never should have been returned in the first place" were met by border officials.
Despite an exchange of "tense" words, the migrants were eventually all allowed entry back into the United States.
Before embarking on the walk across the bridge from Mexico, Bishop Seitz offered an impassioned denunciation of the U.S. government’s immigration policies.
"A government and society which view fleeing children and families as threats; a government which treats children in U.S. custody worse than animals; a government and society who turn their backs on pregnant mothers, babies and families and make them wait in Ciudad Juarez without a thought to the crushing consequences on this challenged city ... This government and this society are not well," Seitz told the crowd that had gathered.
TACOTALPA, Mexico (AP) ‐ An engineer shouted for the young migrant woman to hurry up and climb aboard the freight train or she’d be left behind. In her bright red tennis shoes, she quickened her pace and was the last to get on when it pulled out near Salto de Agua in Mexico’s southernmost state of Chiapas.
Hours later and about 27 miles (43 kilometers) to the west, the train stopped near the Tabasco state town of Tacotalpa and the woman hopped off to buy some cheese-stuffed rolls. When the train crowded with migrants began to move again, she hustled to clamber back aboard. But the train suddenly stopped and rolled back. She lost her grip and fell beneath its wheels. It dragged her 100 yards before jerking forward again in a thunder of shuddering steel.
"The people were screaming there. They yelled at those in front to stop, to the engine, but the engine accelerated," said Catalina Leon Muñoz who lives alongside the tracks.
Frank Manuel Murillo, a 27-year-old Honduran who spent half his life in Houston before being deported a year ago, had also gotten off the train to buy some water. "When I turned around she was hanging from those wagons on the train," he said Wednesday. "The train was running back, it hit so hard and she fell on the rails and then it cut her in half."
[Epoch Times] The FBI released redacted documents this week on the cult community known as "Twelve Tribes," revealing numerous allegations against the group including child sexual abuse, drug trafficking, ritual abuse, and forced labor.
The 61-page document‐released by the bureau’s Vault library on June 25‐included separate complaints detailing the alleged crimes, mostly against children. The cult has communes all over the United States including Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Florida, California, Tennessee, and more.
In 2013, a preliminary investigation was conducted by the FBI based on a complaint the bureau received from the Alexander County Sheriff’s Office that children were being "sexually exploited" at a Twelve Tribes compound at Hiddenite, North Carolina. The case was closed in the same year.
Twelve Tribes has communes around the world, with the Hiddenite location being one of its training centers.
Documents showed that drugs were used at the commune and placed into "ritual" bread‐usually LSD and hallucinogenic plants as well as heroin and meth. There were also ritual ceremonies once a month that involved the bread being broken and gang rapes.
Punishment within the cult involved being beaten with a rod and having the wife or children of the accused being sexually assaulted by other cult members. The sheriff’s office had been aware of the Hiddenite location since 2006 and that much of the land in the area was owned by the cult since families who joined had to turn over their property.
Members of the Hiddenite compound also allegedly were forced to go to a location and work all night and day for "three straight days" in what was known as a "push" that involved three or six members. Those working were allowed to drink coffee that may have had something added to it to keep them awake.
[Right Scoop] DHS Chief McAleenan is now predicting a drop in the migrant surge and he’s saying it’s not just because of the weather:
NBC NEWS ‐ Border Patrol agents are on track to apprehend up to 25 percent fewer undocumented immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in June compared to May, acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said at a press conference Friday.
In May, more than 144,000 immigrants were stopped crossing the border, including some presenting themselves legally at points of entry, the highest monthly total in 13 years.
The number of immigrants crossing into the Southwest United States typically drops off as temperatures heat up in the summer, but McAleenan said the decline was more than just seasonal.
McAleenan said new agreements with Mexico, including increased interdictions of Central Americans crossing through that country to the U.S. and a policy of holding asylum-seekers in Mexico until their hearings in the U.S., contributed to the decrease.
The agreements with Mexico are working, which is fantastic. This is the first good news I’ve heard on the border all year.
McAleenan also hit back on reports about children being held in "terrible conditions" at a border station in Texas. He said it’s not true:
OSAKA, Japan (AP) - President Donald Trump declared relations with China were "right back on track" after he and President Xi Jinping sought Saturday to de-escalate a prolonged trade war between the economic powerhouses despite doubts about either’s willingness to compromise on a long term solution.
Xinhua, the Chinese state-run news agency, said the leaders had agreed to a new cease-fire in a yearlong trade war, adding that stalled trade talks would resume and the U.S. would hold off on threatened additional tariffs on Chinese goods.
The apparent truce marks a pattern for talks between Trump and Xi, who have professed their friendship with each other and hit the pause button on protectionist measures after their conversations, only to see negotiations later break down over the contentious details.
White House officials declined immediate comment. But President Donald Trump said earlier Saturday that he would make an announcement on the results of his talks with Xi during a news conference later in the day.
Taking place on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Japan, the meeting with Xi marked the centerpiece of four days of diplomacy for Trump, whose re-election chances have been put at risk by the trade war that has hurt American farmers and battered global markets. Tensions rose in recent weeks after negotiations collapsed last month.
For that matter, will there be enough corn to meet the ethanol blending mandate in our domestic gasoline next year? Worse, can you imagine the sort of "solutions" the beltway crowd will come up with if there isn't?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2019 7:05
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#4
We are in the middle of wheat harvest, yields per acre very high, moisture low, and protein high, unfortunately price is low.
[Babylon Bee] MIAMI, FL‐Experts around the country and numerous poll results revealed Wednesday evening that the decisive loser in the Democratic debate was the American people.
A poll found that an overwhelming majority of respondents believed that America lost the debates by a wide margin, with 5% of Americans believing Americans won last night and a whopping 62% stating that "oh my gosh America is doomed." 33% elected to turn off the TV and just watch neighborhood cats fight instead of watching the debate once it became clear that America was going to get decimated.
"America really needed a win out there tonight, but only fell further behind," said one commentator, adding that he didn't have "high hopes" for the country's chances moving forward. "Things are not looking good for America's prospects in the 2020 campaign at this point. If America doesn't pull out a win tonight, we can only expect America to drop out of the race entirely."
"It's not looking good. Honestly, I don't know if I can watch."
#1
Besoeker you were right about these so-called debates--you weren't going to waste your time. I wasted 10-15 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. In fact, I went in the hole and I lost IQ points for that brief exposure. I guess I'll take a nap and see if there is any recovery.
[American Thinker] The first two Democrat debates were the height of farce. They featured hilarious, inconsequential, and pure bilge being passed off as serious political worldviews.
What characterizes a farce? A farce is a literary piece that "contains highly improbable situations, stereotyped characters, violent horseplay, extravagant exaggeration." Collinsdictionary.com suggests that "[i]f you describe a situation or event as a farce, you mean that it is so disorganized or ridiculous that you cannot take it seriously."
Skipping down to the bottom line:
It is hilarious to hear 20 persons boasting "I am the best" when their tirades and self-aggrandizement lacks substance and evidence. While laughing uproariously, we can reject them all.
[NYT] Libyan government fighters discovered a cache of powerful American missiles, usually sold only to close American allies, at a captured rebel base in the mountains south of Tripoli this week.
The four Javelin anti-tank missiles, which cost more than $170,000 each, had ended up bolstering the arsenal of Gen. Khalifa Hifter, whose forces are waging a military campaign to take over Libya and overthrow a government the United States supports.
Markings on the missiles indicate that they were originally sold to the United Arab Emirates, an important American partner, in 2008.
If the Emirates transferred the weapons to General Hifter, it would likely violate the sales agreement with the United States as well as a United Nations arms embargo.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2019 8:09
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#2
Of course they did. The serials are traceable, so we can find out exactly how they got there.
But of course we won't, because that would result in State and Defense department officials going to prison for illegal arms transfers.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
06/29/2019 12:39
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#3
Obviously, if you connect the dots from everything posted here on Rantburg since Ambassador Stephens was murdered in Benghazi, you will know these came from the CIA.
#7
These are missiles supplied to our guy in Libya, General Haftar, probably by us, using the UAE as a cutout. For some reason, he's not making short work of the Turkish- and UN-backed Islamist government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalifa_Haftar
Haftar is US-, Russia- and Arab-backed. Given that we're not backing him with on-call air strikes, the way we did when we took out Gaddafi, it's somewhat understandable that he's making slow progress.
Very informative video at link. 42 mins.
[EpochTimes] In the US China trade war, what's behind the Chinese communist party's (CCP's) strategy, with Liu He walking away from the trade talks at the last minute? What's the real relationship between Chinese telecom giant Huawei, and the CCP's quest for global 5G dominance? And how is this all a much, much bigger issue than just trade?
Today we sit down with General Robert Spalding, who was a Brigadier General in the US Air Force, chief China strategist for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, and a Senior Strategic Planner for the White House, at the National Security Council. Now, he's a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
#1
General Spalding was referred to Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology, the world's largest cyber camera company 27:49
If you have their equipment installed... well, you decide.
We are currently pulling all our chicom cameras. After traceroute back door IPs. Scary shit.
Great post. The far reaching extent of global Chinese spying systems.
(Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is shifting manufacturing of its new Mac Pro desktop computer to China from the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The move comes at a time when the Trump administration has threatened to impose new levies to cover nearly all imports from China and pressured Apple and other manufacturers to make their products in the United States if they want to avoid tariffs.
Last week, Apple asked its major suppliers to assess the cost implications of moving 15% to 30% of their production capacity from China to Southeast Asia, according to a Nikkei report.
"If true, suggests to me that Apple has tremendous confidence that the U.S. and China will be able to solve their trade dispute and do so in the near-future," D.A. Davidson analyst Tom Forte said in an email.
China is a key market for Apple as well as a major production center for its devices. The company got nearly 18% of its total revenue from Greater China in the quarter ended March.
“Like all of our products, the new Mac Pro is designed and engineered in California and includes components from several countries including the United States,” an Apple spokesman said. “Final assembly is only one part of the manufacturing process.”
Apple’s decision coincides with the end of tax subsidies that it got for making the desktop in a plant in Texas run by contract manufacturer Flex Ltd, according to the Journal.
#5
Apple’s decision coincides with the end of tax subsidies
Saw this all the time back in PeeAye. The state gave Chrysler huge tax breaks to build a car assembly plant in Westmoreland County. When Chrysler nearly went belly up, the plant closed (even tho federal tax dollars then bailed out Chrysler) Then the state gave Volkswagen huge tax breaks to take over the plant. Tax breaks ran out, VW left. Then the state gave huge tax breaks to Sony to make TVs there. Then the tax breaks ran out...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2019 9:29
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[Hot Air] I’ve written a lot about homelessness on the west coast and the property crime that tends to go with it. This story from Garden Grove in Orange County is happening just about five miles from my house. Homeless people have set up a camp of sorts in the parking lot of a local Walmart. There are complaints about harassment of shoppers, break-ins and vandalism of parked cars, and shoplifting from the store itself. And yet, not much is happening to change it.
A nearby store has hired security guards to patrol the lot as well as maintenance people to clean up the trash left behind by the homeless but that doesn’t solve the crime or other problems. According to KCAL 9, the Walmart where this homeless camp is being set up has refused to ask people to leave and local police say there’s not much they can do.
"There’s just a lot of homeless, a lot, asking for money," said one shopper who was there with a child. "I don’t come after it’s dark."
And when area cops are called out to the scene, their hands are tied.
"Many times they sit there and say, ’Can’t you just arrest them?" But it doesn’t work that way," Brian Meers, a Garden Grove police officer assigned to the homelessness problem, said. "Most of the violations in the state are misdemeanor crimes now and they get out in six hours, and the reality of it is that they’re going to go right back to doing what they were doing before."
This is exactly the same problem that is happening in places like Seattle and Portland. In February, a report commissioned by area business leaders revealed that the 100 most prolific homeless offenders in the area were responsible for 3,500 criminal cases. The homeless are stealing from stores like Walmart, sometimes using a shopping list of items provided to them by a ringleader. The vast majority of the time these thefts aren’t caught, but even when they are caught and police are called, the thieves are back on the street in a day or less. It eats up an enormous amount of police time but nothing really changes.
You might be thinking that the obvious solution here is to enforce the law and make people pay an actual price for theft, harassment, and vandalism but that’s not a very popular notion in a lot of liberal big cities. In fact, there’s a coalition of activists in Los Angeles working this week to reduce police impact on the homeless. From the LA Times:
#4
So paying shoppers stay away and this Walmart goes out of business.
Not necessarily. Right now you can place your order online an pick it up without getting out of your car. I doubt the law, as it is currently constituted, would prevent them from fencing their lot and only allowing people who went online and made an "appointment" to shop on the premises.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2019 6:53
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#5
Cadaverine. Just sayin'. They will leave on their own.
Posted by: Black Charlie Cheper6841 ||
06/29/2019 7:10
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#6
If the Walmart clientele are anything like those in Georgia, the KOA-Lite people are probably more upscale than the shoppers.
Could be a lucrative HUD contract in there somewhere.
#9
My understanding from listening to John and Ken on LA radio station KFI is that Proposition 47 is to blame.
California Proposition 47, the Reduced Penalties for Some Crimes Initiative, was on the November 4, 2014 ballot in California as an initiated state statute. The measure was approved.
HIGHLIGHTS
Nonviolent, nonserious crimes were reduced to misdemeanors.
As jail population numbers fell, estimated state savings grew by millions. Multiple court challenges stemmed from the initiative's passage.
As the Garden Grove police officer says, homeless individuals bums who are arrested on misdemeanors are quickly released due to jail overcrowding.
But I don't believe we need expensive jails for these people. Tent cities in the desert surrounded by concertina wire would suffice. Hell, they can even bring their own tents. RV bums could bring their own RVs!
Once incarcerated, give them food and water and nothing else. No alcohol, drugs or tobacco. If they're uncomfortable, so much the better, as long as they're not on the streets of our cities.
We need to stop coddling the homeless individuals bums. If they refuse to live like human beings then they have forfeited their human rights. Put them out it the boondocks with the coyotes and jackrabbits. We need to break the mindset they seem to have that this type of behavior is somehow acceptable. It isn't. Maybe this sounds harsh, but when these people die on the streets of disease, drug overdose or misadventure that's pretty damn harsh as well.
But I'm afraid it won't happen and the problem will only get worse until we end up looking, not like Mexico, but more like India with bums, trash, shit and flies all over the place. My biggest fear is that California Democrats want to turn this state into a Third World hell hole. They have no opposition and it looks like they are well on the way to success.
As for Walmart, if they can't provide a clean and safe environment for shoppers then screw 'em. And I don't want to order online. When I want to buy something, I want to look at it, feel it, check the label to make sure it isn't Made in China. Then, if I still want to buy it, I want it right now and not a week or two later when it arrives in the mail.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/29/2019 12:31
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#10
..maybe it's not a 'crime' except that Walmart is zoned for commercial not residential. Send in the zoning police and issue tickets to those violating the statutes which is not Walmart in this case.
#13
My guess is that this is the Walmart by Beach Blvd. and the Garden Grove Freeway. Cops won't do anything. About 15 years ago, the homeless set up a community in the parking lot of the Orange County Superior Court Courthouse! They held the county hostage for the better part of a year. Courts don't care either!
[Task & Purpose] Army Sgt. Benjamin Cleland is officially one of the most badass shooters in America.
The Fort Benning soldier and member of the Army Marksmanship Unit's Service Rifle Team set a national record with the first-ever perfect score on a National Rifle Association high-power rifle course in Oak Ridge, Tennessee earlier this month, the Army announced.
The NRA's 80-Shot Regional High-Power Rifle Course's includes four separate matches, each with slow fire and rapid-fire elements. According to the Army, those matches include:
Two sighting shots and 20 standing, slow-fire record shots at 200 yards and within 20 minutes
Two sighting shots and 20 sitting/kneeling, rapid-fire records shots at 200 yards within 2 minutes
Two sighting shots and 20 prone, rapid-fire record shots at 300 yards within 2 minutes and 20 seconds
Two sighting shots and 20 prone, slow-fire record shots at 600 yards within 20 minutes and 20 seconds
Rocking a M16A2 rifle, the Ohio native nailed the 10-ring on all 80 shots. That's a target that's just 7 inches at both 200 and 300 yards and 12 inches at 600 yards.
#4
And a perfect example of how an AR platform (modern sporting rifle) is not "just for killing" as the gun grabbers like to say. It's not just good enough for competition, it's perfect for it. Which means it's not just good enough, it's perfect for many if not all hunting situations as well...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2019 9:19
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#5
I hit submit too soon. Meant to finish by saying that Sgt. Cleland's accomplishment is all his, but the rifle certainly didn't hold him back.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2019 9:20
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#6
Article doesn't mention what power scope he was using. Idon't think I could even hit the target at 200 yards with iron sites.
[IsraelTimes] Assault that crippled Revolutionary Guard missile system result of massive investment in cyber warfare by American military, likely took months or years of preparation.
A cyber attack on Iranian missile systems, claimed by the US last week, would have had to exploit a flaw in the heavily-guarded network, experts said.
Citing US official sources, American media last week reported that the Army Cyber Command had crippled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s air defense units that shot down a sophisticated drone on June 20.
Military computing security is usually "hardened" to defend against attack but highly-skilled computer scientists in cyber units of modern armies are always working to find a way in.
"The simplest way would be for a special forces member to plug in a USB (carrying a virus) to the right place," Loic Guezo of the French Information Security Club told AFP.
This is almost certainly how the well-known US-Israeli Stuxnet virus was introduced in 2010, into the computers of Iran’s nuclear complex, according to experts.
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... at the time accused the US and Israel of using the virus to target its centrifuges used for uranium enrichment.
The Revolutionary Guards are believed to have since bolstered precautionary measures in a bid to isolate their military computer networks from the internet.
However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... according to a military expert who requested anonymity, an "anti-aircraft defense system requires radars, control and command centers and ground-to-air missile sites to be inter-connected."
Those components are connected by intranet networks that "at one time or another" must be connected to the internet.
"In the past, there was no way to connect to a weapon system," said Guezo.
Today, however, he said most computer operating systems are commercial and vulnerable to attacks even if "everything is done to make them impenetrable."
"Nothing is impenetrable," said Guezo.
Modern cyber crime units, especially American and Israeli, have massive resources at their disposal and recruit high-level experts.
The Cyber Command became a fully-fledged combat unit within the US army in May with a budget running into billions of dollars.
In Israel, its renowned 8200 electronic warfare unit attracts the country’s best talent.
When cyber attackers "have identified an entry point," they "intrude the network with messages carrying hyper-aggressive malware which will at least partially cripple the air defense network," said an anonymous military specialist.
In March 2017, researcher Remy Hemez of the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) told of how the Israeli army had used a program called SUTER in 2007 to temporarily blind Syrian air defense radars.
Operation Orchard, according to Hemez, showed how cyber weapons can successfully be used in battle.
Israeli fighter jets had penetrated deep into Syrian air space to destroy a suspected nuclear facility after having disabled Syrian air defenses.
Last week’s US claim of an attack on Iranian missile launching systems would have required months or even years of preparation, said Guezo.
"You have to study the architecture of the equipment and then create attack plans," Guezo said.
#1
Most of Iran's cyber security is designed piecemeal and haphazard by their independent contractors who also run their cyber offensive proxy programs. The IRGC has relied on semi-professional hackers and moderately trained personnel for both security and mundane administrative networks since 2012, when they began absorbing the hackers into service as consultants, directors and trainers. These are not soldiers trained as cyber specialists but nerds and delinquents with a relgio-patriotic streak.
#3
Tied into S-300 and S-400 deployment, but....sshhhhh. Don't tell anybody. It's a secret
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2019 8:08
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#4
TW I don't know what Dron's sources are. But I do remember when Iran was using pirated Windows OS systems that could not install updated security patches. Thus compromised digital certificates belonging to Realtek Semiconductor, Siemens component monitors and JMicron Technology.
That included open firewall holes. Not something that your run-of-the-mill hacker can pull off. The Iran's Bushehr reactor, a possible end target, but there could easily be other facilities such as refineries, chemical plants or factories were wide open exploited.
Example: Stuxnet finally identifies its target, it makes changes to a piece of Siemens code called Organizational Block 35. This Siemens component monitors critical factory operations, things that need a response within 100 milliseconds. By messing with Operational Block 35.
So as far as Dron's aforementioned nerds and delinquents, I don't know where that came from. The layer depths are not what an amature relgio-patriotic squad would have coded out.
PC World had an interesting piece including Ralph Langner's take on the hacks.
#6
TW, it's more likely that the CIA and friendlies have actively followed the progression of the Iranian cyber-security apparatus and has been branching and dynamically adjusting their own research to their evolution of threats and counterbalances. And coupled with field assist from friendlies, they could compromise existing systems when presented with a chance. In hacking, I believe knowing what the target is using and possessing the code for certain platforms is the key. But then, I'm a dunce.
What I do know :
Iran’s cyber activities are overseen by the IRGC. In 2012, they were composed of a handful of independent contractors who handled everything from interior security work, criminal fraud, some research and software development. They contracted hackers from overseas for offensive capabilities and for training their own IRGC personnel. By 2016, some of the contractors had diversified into their own criminal enterprises. Some of the individuals herein were also part of the APT39 group. Though some defense 'specialists' speculate that Iran's cyber offense capabilities may be superior because of support from Russian or Korean help, so far the sophistication seen has been of an amateur level. One IRGC affiliated group labeled 'Rocket Kitten' called Iran’s premiere threat, then faded into quiescence, eclipsed by the player 'Oilrig' compromised IT personnel had enabled the destruction of data on computers maintained by Saudi Aramco. Defacement of Voice of America’s websites by the Iranian Cyber Army, one of the first disruptive attacks by Iran against the United States, was accomplished again through compromised networks. Operation Ababil was one of the largest DDoS attacks back in 2012. Perpetrated by a few young Iranian nerds, breaching thousands of websites that were running vulnerable software, to pool enough bandwidth to overwhelm the infrastructure of banks. From 2012 onward the IRGC's reliance on semi-professional independent hacking groups within Iran's 'patriotic hacker-space' led to many compromises in their own cyber shield, and many unreported or suppressed incidents with their own sponsored cyber criminals attacking their own systems.
Post stuxnet they have even tried to switch to some Debian-based Linux platform for their Transport and Energy sectors, but the transition hasn't happened because of contractual disagreements. Malware agents known as Wiper and Flame, successors to Stuxnet, had been discovered when Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum and the National Iranian Oil Company computers were disabled, their hard drives overwritten in a unilateral operation reportedly conducted by Israel in 2012.
The transition of amateur hackers into contractors for state security agencies was actively monitored by certain mid-east agencies since then. In fact the individuals are known to some degree by these agencies. The suppression of internal rebellion like the Green Movement was also their brief. The tactics, tools, and threat actors that arose during this domestic challenge shaped the cyber defense of Iran. A recurrent theme since the outset of Iran’s cyber operations is that Iranian campaigns do not maintain clear boundaries between operations directed against its internal opposition and those directed against foreign adversaries. The same infrastructure and tools used by Iranian threat actors for campaigns against the American defense industry are also used to target Persian-language women’s development programs; the same malware used in destructive attacks against Saudi government institutions had been previously used for surveillance against members of the Green Movement opposition. The same contractors that enabled The Iranian Cyber Army to attack corporations and governments the world over, oversee and administer their 'sustainable cyber defense' initiative. Their present security apparatus has grown rather organically, piecemeal. Iran has often emphasized its defensive capabilities, announcing in 2015 that its Cyber Attacks Emergency Center had successfully managed to thwart U.S. cyber attacks against the country’s industrial infrastructure. Iranian military touts its domestic contractors as the best in the business, their products unassailable, like the antivirus Padvish. While technical sophistication does not impede Iranians from conducting successful cyber operations, those actions reflect a disorganization and lack of professionalism that runs contrary to what would be expected of a state actor and limits their capabilities. Add to that the sanctions that impede them from acquiring updated tech and support.
The preparation for Operation Olympic Games was substantial. US and Israeli intelligence obtained confidential information about the specific configuration of the centrifuge controllers in Natanz, built a test environment based on comparable hardware seized from Libya, and then deployed the malware agent through human assets inside Iran to reach computers disconnected from the internet. These operations were sustained over years. Later versions of Stuxnet exploited several previously unknown vulnerabilities and sought to strategically infect other computers in Iran in the event that they were connected to the Natanz systems. The agencies never stopped playing. They shall continue to evolve threats and groom on-site agents traitors.
[IsraelTimes] Corbyn ally Chris Williamson loses whip while new decision on ban pending; senior members of UK opposition party decry ’offensive and reputationally damaging’ decision to reinstate. "What part of 'keep it on the downlow' did you not understand?"
The UK Labour Party on Friday reportedly reimposed the suspension of an MP two days after it was lifted, amid an ongoing furore over the party’s handling of complaints of anti-Semitism.
Chris Williamson, a Corbyn ally, was filmed in February telling a meeting that the party was "too apologetic" and had "given too much ground" in its response to anti-Semitism allegations.
He was reinstated Wednesday after being suspended pending an ethics review.
However a member of the panel which allowed Williamson’s return to the party, Keith Vaz MP, said he felt the decision should be reconsidered.
Following Vaz’s comments, the Labour general secretary, Jennie Formby, told the party’s national executive that Williamson’s case would be on the agenda for the next meeting of its disputes committee, the Guardian reported.
"Subsequently, the whip is not restored as the decision is still pending," a source told the BBC.
Some 90 senior members of the Labour Party have urged its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to expel Williamson.
[Town Hall] Former President Jimmy Carter dove off the conspiracy theory deep end on Friday morning and claimed President Trump didn't actually win the White House in 2016.
"If fully investigated, it would show that Trump didn't actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election and he was put in office because the Russians interfered on his behalf," Carter said.
First of all, President Trump won the 2016 election fair and square. Second, did Carter completely miss two years of Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation? And hours of endless media coverage about the investigation?
In fact, the 400-page Mueller report states the following: "[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."
"The Special Counsel's investigation determined that there were two main Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. The first involved attempts by a Russian organization, the Internet Research Agency (IRA), to conduct disinformation and social media operations in the United States designed to sow social discord, eventually with the aim of interfering with the election," the Department of Justice stated about Mueller's findings. "As noted above, the Special Counsel did not find that any U.S. person or Trump campaign official or associate conspired or knowingly coordinated with the IRA in its efforts, although the Special Counsel brought criminal charges against a number of Russian nationals and entities in connection with these activities."
With 19 attorneys, Mueller issued more than 2000 subpoenas and carried out 500 search warrants over a two year period. They interviewed hundreds of people. That's a full and thorough investigation.
#5
Hasn't Jimmuah made a career out of rubber stamping left wing stolen elections in Latin America?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2019 7:00
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#6
...This from a man who spent most of his time in office kissing Soviet a$$ in the name of 'peace', and who didn't 'stand up' to them until he realized Ronald Reagan was going to clean his clock in the next election if he didn't.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/29/2019 7:14
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#7
He's 94, and been wrong most all his life so there's that
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2019 7:30
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#8
In a way I'm fine with this bullshit because I can't wait until Trump's second term is over and keeps tweeting about and insulting all the Dem losers in office until he's 120 years old.
#10
Just when you think Carter may have not been all that bad (in retrospect) given the current Dem cast of characters, he has to open his gob and comfort us once again that he only served one term as US president.
#11
"If fully investigated, it would show that Trump didn't actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election and he was put in office because the Russians interfered on his behalf," Carter said.
Just when I was beginning to think Jimmy was better than this, he proves me wrong.
#12
So when the 'full investigation' shows you're correct, Jimmy, what do you propose to do then? Install Queen Hillary? Armed insurrection? Move to Canada?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/29/2019 12:29
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#13
He's been off the conspiracy theory deep end for a very long time about a lot of things.
Nothing to see here, he was an idiot when he was my boss and he's still an idiot.
#14
We're all so very fortunate that, after four years of malaise from 1977 to 1980, jimmuh failed to win reelection in 1980. If he had, the Soviet Union would still be in business.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/29/2019 13:36
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#15
President Carter did not just fail to win re-election — he was rejected by everyone, resulting in Ronald Reagan winning by a landslide: Reagan took the Electoral College 489 to 49. Carter won in six states and Washington, DC. It was my first election; up until then I assumed I would always vote liberal Democrat, but I was part of the everyone who decided it was better to take a risk on Ronald Reagan.
Looking back on that election is part of the reason I don’t worry about violent revolution in America. The common folk of the electorate easily replaced one of the worst presidents of modern history with a man lambasted by the Democrats and the media as a stupid, ignorant, radical rightwing, warmongering, Israel-loving tool of the Evangelicals — and within a few years he had reversed almost all of the policies his predecessor had put into place. And now President Trump is doing the same, mostly quietly behind the scenes while triggering his opponents into shrieking about his tweets instead of paying attention to what’s important.
#16
I see how you mean now. Well, God is with him. I think when that's the case, we only jump the gun while He works with his chosen servants quietly and openly while the enemy blunders about missing the point.
#17
The first, First President I had the dis-pleasure of voting against. When he became involved in low-cost Habitats for Humanity™ homes my feelings softened on him and then he went on his I Heart Left-Wing Dictator Tour™... *Spit!* Go Way, Jimmie, just shut up and go away.
#18
Only Dem that I ever voted for. He was touting zero based budgeting and that appealed to me and the 'pubs were nothing to cheer about. But it didn't take long to recognize my mistake and vote for "Ronaldus Magnus" in '84. I've spent most of my life voting against people, not for.
#22
Carter's total failure led to Soviet over-extension during the time. His ineptitude followed by Reagan probably cut the Cold war by a decade or two.
[IsraelTimes] Dozens hurt day after officers kill 20-year-old who launched fireworks at them in Issawiya neighborhood; court rejects request to release his body for funeral.
Dozens of Paleostinians were maimed in festivities with Israeli security forces in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya on Friday, after police potted a man who launched fireworks at them in the area on Thursday.
At least 80 protesters suffered light injuries in the Friday night violence, the Ynet news site reported.
Earlier in the day, around 30 rioters threw stones at police, who responded with stun grenades. Later, demonstrators were again launching fireworks at officers in the restive neighborhood.
Security forces killed 20-year-old Mohammad Samir Obeid on Thursday during a skirmish between police and Paleostinians in the neighborhood. Police said Obeid launched fireworks at them from a close range, "endangering the lives" of officers.
Issawiya residents have been clashing with security forces since the shooting. Overnight, a community center in the neighborhood that often coordinates with Israeli authorities was burned down in an apparent protest. THAT'LL teach em!
A Jerusalem court on Friday reportedly rejected a request to release Obeid’s body to his family for burial.
During the Friday hearing, police recommended to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court that his body not be released, as a public funeral might ignite further violent festivities in the area, the Haaretz daily reported.
The court accepted the position, but gave police two days to announce when they would release Obeid’s body, which is being held at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv.
Police in recent weeks have reportedly been entering Issawiya on a nightly basis in a bid to track down members of a Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine terror cell believed to be on the lam in the neighborhood. The police operations have led to regular festivities with local residents.
[IsraelTimes] Several of the suspects allegedly involved in attack on migrant group in Chemnitz; authorities say men indicted on suspicion of forming a terrorist organization.
German authorities have indicted eight far-right holy warriors on suspicion they planned to start a violent uprising.
Federal prosecutors said Friday that they have formally indicted the German men, aged 21 to 31, on suspicion of forming a terrorist organization.
The suspects were arrested last year in eastern Germany’s Chemnitz area. They are alleged to have formed a group calling itself "Revolution Chemnitz."
Several of the suspects are alleged to have been involved in an attack on a group of migrants colonists in Chemnitz on Sept. 14.
Authorities intercepted communication between the men indicating that they were trying to obtain firearms.
German officials have warned that far-right holy warriors pose a serious threat to the country, after a violent neo-Nazi ...adherents of a philosophy that was seen even at the time as pure evil, which makes them either consciously and purely evil, or attention-seeking ratbags. Pick one, or both.... was arrested recently on suspicion of killing a pro-migrant politician.
Walter Luebcke, who led the Kassel regional administration in central Germany, was fatally shot in the head at his home on June 2. A 45-year-old German man with a string of convictions for violent anti-migrant crime, Stephan Ernst, was later arrested as the alleged killer.
The state of Saxony, where Chemnitz is located, has been a center for resentful opposition against Chancellor Angela Merkel ...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom. Now they make faces at her for inundating the country with Moslem colonists... and her 2015 decision to keep open German borders to a mass influx of migrants colonists and refugees.
The city was been convulsed by violent far-right, anti-immigration demonstrations last year after the killing of a German man, allegedly by asylum-seekers.
Saxony state capital Dresden has long been an iconic city for German neo-Nazis embittered by the Allies’ aerial bombing of the Baroque city center in World War II.
The city in recent years became the birthplace of the so-called PEGIDA movement, short for "Patriotic Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... ans Against the Islamization of the Occident."
Small towns such as Heidenau and Freital have earned nationwide notoriety as neo-Nazis and angry residents have hurled abuse at people fleeing war and misery ‐ and rocks at police sent to protect those seeking a safe haven.
Masked assailants hurled rocks and bottles at a Jewish restaurant, injuring the owner, in an apparently anti-Semitic attack last year on the sidelines of a wave of neo-Nazi protests in Chemnitz.
[IsraelTimes] Social media platform says moderators of popular ’The Donald’ subreddit failed to take down posts calling to shoot Oregon police and politicians embroiled in climate change showdown.
With nearly 770,00 subscribers, the subreddit is the largest pro-Trump community online.
Reddit is the sixth most visited website in the United States and the 21st most visited in the world. The hugely popular platform operates like an online bulletin board, allowing users to anonymously form or join communities around shared interests, such as a sports team or hobby.
Reddit uses quarantines to restrict forums that, while not prohibited, have been classified as offensive or disturbing. Other political subreddits that have been quarantined include ones called "Debate the Alt Right" and "Full Communism."
A quarantine does not block or delete the forum from the site, but requires visitors to see a warning message and to explicitly opt-in to view it.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Hundreds gathered at Istanbul's main court on Friday to support an opposition politician who faces 17 years in prison for a series of tweets criticizing the government.
Canan Kaftancioglu, who heads the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP)’s Istanbul branch, is accused of "insulting" President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... and the Ottoman Turkish state in tweets posted between 2012 and 2017.
The supporters gathered outside the court chanted "Down with fascism ...a political system developed in Italy, symbolized by the Roman fasces -- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. Its distinguishing philosophical feature is the Corporate State. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about... " and held signs reading "We are thirsty for justice".
Kaftancioglu’s tweets include an insult directed at Erdogan, and criticism of the death of a 14-year-old boy, who was hit by a tear gas grenade during the mass "Gezi Park" protests of 2013.
She is also accused of "terrorist propaganda" for quoting a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has been fighting a bloody insurgency against the state since 1983.
Her supporters say another tweet, in which she appeared to deny the Armenian genocide, was fake and had been created to smear her. "This trial, as everyone knows, is a political trial," said a lawyer for the CHP outside the court.
"We are once again before the court for a case that is unjust, outside of the law and without any foundation."
Kaftancioglu was a key figure in the campaign to elect Ekrem Imamoglu, the new CHP mayor of Istanbul ‐ whose landslide victory this week marked the first significant defeat for Erdogan since he took power in 2003.
There was little progress in the trial itself on Friday, with the case quickly adjourned until July 18.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2019
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#1
I'd love to have this power in the US...as long as I get to decide what's insulting.
A trustworthy source confirms M. Murcek’s Friday afternoon news dump from Zero Hedge:
[Jpost] Britannia, La Belle France and Germany have a special trade channel up and running with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... that aims to circumvent U.S. economic sanctions, the EU said in a statement.
"La Belle France, Germany and the United Kingdom informed participants that INSTEX had been made operational and available to all EU Member States and that the first transactions are being processed," the EU said in a statement, referring to the channel's formal name.
Iran has also established an entity to trade with Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... , while some more EU countries are joining INSTEX as shareholders, the statement said, following talks between the remaining signatories to the Iran nuclear deal - Russia, China, Britannia, La Belle France and Germany - after the United States pulled out.
[Jpost] The U.S. Senate on Friday defeated legislation that would have barred President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... from launching an attack on Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... without first obtaining the approval of Congress, except in self-defense.
The measure was defeated 50 to 40, ensuring that the measure would not get the 60 needed to pass the Republican-majority Senate as an amendment to an annual defense policy bill.
Ten senators did not vote.
The bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, passed the Senate on Thursday, but Senate leaders made the unusual decision to allow the amendment vote on Friday after a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in calling for debate on the matter.
They also agreed that the voting, which began at 5 a.m. EDT, would last through most of the day to allow Democrats running for president to return from a debate in Miami. The vote concluded 10 hours later, at 3 p.m. EDT.
Republican opponents of the legislation argued it would impose unnecessary restrictions on Trump if he faced a threat from Iran.
Supporters said it was necessary to ensure that Congress retains its constitutional right to authorize the use of military force and to lessen the chance of a miscalculation that could plunge the country into prolonged conflict.
#1
Oh, yeah, like I feel real threatened by Iran. I'm just waiting for their naval infantry to storm the shores of the Atlantic and come right to my house and ask for a cup of sugar.
#2
Oh God no, we can't have the people's will being represented in government. Starting wars is the neocon specialty and they know quite well nobody outside of DC supports them.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
06/29/2019 12:28
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#3
It’s not their naval infantry we need to worry about. It’s their perfectly legal residents and dual citizens (both Iranian a d Lebanese Shiites) who have been undergoing skills training while visiting the cousins back in the Olde Country and casing America for targets for two generations that is the very real concern. The Tsarnaev brothers were amateurs; these people are professionals.
We’ve arrested two of them recently. You both may recall reading about it here at Rantburg.
[ToloNews] At least nine key commanders of the Taliban ...Arabic for students... were killed in Afghan forces Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in the central province of Pashtun-infested Logar on Thursday night, a front man for Ministry of Defense (MoD), Rohullah Ahmadzai, said on Friday.
Among those killed are Haji Lala, Taliban’s designated governor for Pashtun-infested Logar and his two deputies, Taliban’s designated head of intelligence for Ghazni, Pashtun-infested Logar, Khost, Paktia and Kabul provinces, Mawlawi Shams-ur-Rahman, he said.
Four other Taliban commanders, including foreign citizens, were also killed in the airstrikes, Ahmadzai said.
He said that 12 Taliban fighters were maimed in the airstrikes.
The Ministry of Defense said Friday that the Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... was carried out in Charkh district of logar.
The statement further added that the airstrike killed Mawlavi Shams-ur-Rehman, the shadow spy chief of Taliban for Ghazni, Pashtun-infested Logar, Khost, Paktiya and Kabul.
Furthermore, the airstrike killed Hekmatyar, Shuja and Rauf, the three foreign comrades of Mawlavi Rehman.
Meanwhile, ...back at the shootout, Butch clutched at his other leg...... the defense ministry said the airsrike also killed Ahrar adn Bilal, two other commanders of Taliban.
[IsraelTimes] Ottoman Turkish citizen who translated for American drug enforcement agency accused of links to alleged criminal mastermind of failed 2016 coup attempt.
A Ottoman Turkish court rejected an appeal on Friday to free a US consular staffer on bail during an espionage trial that has deepened tensions between Washington and Ankara.
Prosecutors argued that Metin Topuz, a Ottoman Turkish citizen and liaison for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), was a flight risk and must remain in jug in Istanbul.
His next hearing was set for September 18.
Topuz was arrested in 2017 and accused of contacts with police. A prosecutor also suspected of ties to US-based Moslem preacher Fethullah Gülen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world. Gülen and Erdogan used to be really good friends, but only one of them could be sultan, and Gülen lost... , who Ankara says ordered an attempted coup in 2016.
"All my contacts with those in high-ranking positions of the state at the time were entirely part of my work as a translator and assistant liaison officer at the DEA. I am innocent," Topuz said during his last court appearance in May.
The US embassy says there is no credible evidence against him.
Topuz faces a separate investigation on charges of seeking to "overthrow the constitutional order."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
06/29/2019
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[KhaamaPress] The police forces arrested a notorious irresponsible armed commander Aalim alias ’The Sledgehammer’ in Kabul.
Nasrat Rahimi, a front man for the Ministry of Interior said the police forces on Thursday arrested Aalim in Kabul.
Rahimi further added that Aalim alias Martol ’The Sledgehammer’ is accused of murder, inflicting injuries, banditry and land grabbing.
He also added that Aalim had recently attacked and maimed the director of Criminal Investigation Department of Bagrami and two other security personnel.
The security forces have killed or arrested several notorious crime kingpins in Kabul city and other parts of Kabul province during the recent months.
Reportedly, violent crime has recently become quite a problem in Kabul.
The security forces on Wednesday arrested a notorious crime kingpin Abid alias Beni during a similar operation in Kabul city
The police forces also killed a notorious crime kingpin Nabi Kohbandi during an encounter in Kabul on 15th of June.
[NEWS5CLEVELAND] Dr. Heather Judkins just made history. Squid history.
Aboard a NOAA research vessel, The USF St. Petersburg professor and a team of explorers sent a deepwater submersible camera named Medusa deep into the Gulf of Mexico.
The cephalopod expert was asleep when the camera captured video of a marine creature that had never been seen alive in U.S. waters.
Only a handful of scientists have seen the animal alive anywhere in the world.
"I was woken up from a nap," Judkins said. "There's a knock on the door. 'Heather! Heather!' I was thinking, 'if they're waking me up for a pod of dolphins, I might not be happy right now.'"
It wasn't dolphins some 750 meters below the surface.
The Medusa captured the last of the great sea monsters: the giant squid.
About a 10- to 12-foot-long giant squid was lured by a ring of pulsating lights on the submersible.
"We're looking at the footage," Judkins said. "Inside my head, I'm thinking, 'this is it.' But the skeptical scientist in me said let's rule everything else out."
Judkins was only 75 percent sure. So she called colleagues. They confirmed she had just made history ‐ the first live giant squid seen in U.S. waters.
So, as somebody who enjoys good calamari I NEED to ask: Is it an edible species? Does it taste good? What recipe is best for this species?
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2019
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#2
To answer the Moderators question; no one has ever eaten one. Actual specimens were all found dead, or died shortly after capture. Capture has generally been accidental and by fishing trawlers. I've heard that the species has a strong ammonia smell. My information is all from second and third hand sources, I have no actual experience with the species.
Posted by: Black Charlie Cheper6841 ||
06/29/2019 7:03
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#3
Kind of. This could be an Architeuthis.
Not to be compared to the badass unknown squids (as reported from 16th & 17th century ship logs) could have been a hundred feet long. Not the "43' (females)" currently being estimated.
Colossal squids, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, which may have a mantle nearly twice as long. Several extinct cephalopods, such as the Cretaceous vampyromorphid Tusoteuthis, the Cretaceous coleoid Yezoteuthis, and the Ordovician nautiloid Cameroceras may have grown even larger.
[Jpost] According to the Gazeta Express, a Kosovo news portal, Kosovo's government adopted the EU ban on Hezbollah's so-called military arm.
The US, Canada, the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... , Israel, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have already designated Hezbollah's entire movement a terrorist entity. The EU and Germany have merely outlawed Hezbollah's so-called military wing.
Hezbollah's "political wing" operates in the EU and Germany. Hezbollah's leadership considers its organization to be a unified movement without political and military wings.
According to a Post review of an intelligence report from the German state of Lower Saxony, 1,050 Hezbollah operates are in the federal republic. Hezbollah members and supporters raise funds, recruit new members and spread antisemitic and jihadist ideologies. Germany is currently experiencing a huge spike in antisemitism, according to statistics and media reports.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... said on Friday it had formally filed a complaint to the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... against the United States over the violation of its airspace with an unmanned drone shot down by Tehran earlier this month, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
"The complaint was filed to the UN Security Council over the aggression against our airspace by the American drone ... the complaint states that Tehran reserves the right to respond firmly if the US repeats the violation," Tasnim quoted deputy Foreign Minister Gholamhossein Dehghani as saying.
Tensions spiked between Tehran and Washington after Iran downed a US military drone on June 20 that it said was flying over one of its southern provinces on the Gulf.
Washington said the drone was shot down over international waters.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2019
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[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Air Force conducted 22 Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s to support the ground forces during operations.
The Ministry of Defense in a statement said the airstrikes were carried out in the past 24 hours.
The statement further added that security forces conducted 13 joint and 77 special operations during the period to suppress the Death Eater groups.
The statement also added that the security forces conducted the operations in Takhar, Patkiya, Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , Faryab, 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... , Uruzgan, Farah, Balkh, Baghlan, Ghazni, Kunar, Nimroz and Badakhshan provinces.
Furthermore, the defense ministry said the security forces killed 37 bully boyz and maimed 24 others during the same operations.
The security forces also arrested 3 suspected bully boyz during the operations, the Ministry of Defense added.
Meanwhile, ...back at the palazzo, Don Smilzo looked for an avenue of escape. The only window opened a hundred feet above the moat. The nearest of the hired assassins hold a bloody axe.
The window was looking better all the time.... the Ministry of Defense said the coalition forces also provided support to the Afghan cops during the operations.
The anti-government armed elements have not commented regarding the operations so far.
The intelligence report continued, “From these points of view, it is essentially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea [North Korea] and the Syrian Arab Republic that need to be mentioned. The intelligence services of these countries, in many ways, are involved in unlawful procurement activities in the field of proliferation, using globally oriented, conspiratorial business and commercial structures.”
[Jpost] Germany’s federal intelligence said on Thursday in its new report on security threats that Iran’s regime worked to obtain equipment for its nuclear program that could be used for weapons of mass destruction.
According to the 388 report reviewed by The Jerusalem Post, which covers a range of security threats to Germany’s democracy, the intelligence document said the agency "was only able to identify isolated indications of Iran's proliferation-related procurement attempts for its nuclear program compared with the previous year.
"Such indications emerge when the methodological approach to the procurement of goods, their possible use also in a nuclear program and / or existing findings on the final recipient or the requesting body point to a potential proliferation-relevant procurement background."
Continued on Page 49
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An Indian mother and her daughter were beaten and had their heads shaved by a group of men after they resisted a gang rape attempt, police said on Friday, in the latest attack to highlight the dangers facing women in the country.
Seven men, including a local government official, barged into the women’s home late on Wednesday in northeastern Bihar with the intent of raping the teenage daughter, senior police officer Sanjay Kumar said.
"When the mother and daughter protested, the men got angry and called a local barber, who shaved their heads," Kumar told the Thomson Rooters Foundation by telephone.
He said the men then assaulted the mother and daughter with sticks and paraded them around the village before neighbors started to protest against their treatment. "We have arrested two men and are searching for the other five," he said, adding that the criminal investigation was ongoing.
India has a grim record of sexual violence against women despite legal reforms after the gang rape of a Delhi student on a bus in December 2012, which triggered global outrage. India registered nearly 40,000 rapes in 2016 or an average of about 100 cases each day, according to the latest government data.
Earlier this week, a man in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh ran over and killed two women with his car after they protested against his attempt to molest one of their daughters. Four men attacked a girl with acid in Bihar in April after she tried to fight off their gang rape attempt.
In 2014, village elders in Bihar shaved the head of an orphan girl, blackened her face with ash, and paraded her through their neighborhood as punishment for talking to her boyfriend in a public place.
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India registered nearly 40,000 rapes in 2016
What an encouraging number! Apparently only one Indian female in 15,000 experiences something more or less like rape in any given year. Pffft.
#2
This news is from Bihar, a mostly leftist state - hotbed of marxist violence and communal, minority appeasement. Local politician, councilor Mohommad Khurshid (yupp !) forcibly entered the women's home in the eastern state of Bihar on wednesday with other moslemsmen and allegedly attempted to rape the newly married 19-year-old daughter, police say. The poor women sustain themselves by begging. This is the kind of politicians the state of Bihar appeases. It was not even 'mob action', it was actually a kangaroo court held by village idiotselders, the 'order' to shave their heads was stamped and dated too ! Kangaroo courts were outlawed by the central Govt. in 2018.
#4
It was a village panchayat decision, Woodrow. The panchayat is like a lesser district court, a jury of elected village heads and a sitting village idiot elder as judge. They are all put in the registers and stamped with fancy clan standards by the idiots. A panchayat has to record why it was called and keep minutes.
All I know from local journos is that an official sitting was called and a judgement reached, that the poor woman and the girl are prostitutes, and must be shamed. So it has to have a record.
[AnNahar] An attack on a special Philippine army counter-terrorism unit left three soldiers dead and nine others maimed in the southern Philippines on Friday, military spokesmen and witnesses told AFP.
Unknown suspects targeted the unit's temporary headquarters on the island of Jolo, a stronghold of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... -linked Abu Sayyaf ...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder... turbans.
"It was a bomb and a firefight," army front man Colonel Ramon Zagala told AFP, adding the attackers' identities were not immediately known.
An AFP news hound on the scene saw a blood-soaked man slumped on a tricycle on a street also stained with blood in front of the temporary headquarters of the army's 1,500-member First Brigade Combat team.
The Philippines has renewed its campaign against the Death Eaters in Jolo this year after at least one suspected jacket wallah attacked the island's Roman Catholic cathedral, killing 21 people.
Major Arvin Arcinas, the region's military front man, said three army members were killed in Friday's attack, with nine other soldiers were maimed.
He said he could not confirm if there were civilian casualties and could not say what kind of explosives were used.
Jolo and other remote areas of the southern Philippines are home to numerous gangs including the Abu Sayyaf, which is notorious for kidnappings and bombings.
The turbans, who demand large ransoms and have beheaded several hostages, have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
The army deployed the specially trained unit in the Jolo town of Indanan four weeks ago.
In the same week, a Dutch birdwatcher held for years by the Abu Sayyaf was killed in Jolo during a firefight between his kidnappers and soldiers sent to rescue him.
[Reuters via Task & Purpose] An explosion at a military base in the restive southern Philippines on Friday killed five people, including three soldiers, and wounded nine others in what Islamic State said was an attack by its suicide bombers.
The military said the blast occurred at around noon at a base on Jolo island, a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, a splintered militant network notorious for kidnapping and piracy and for its pledge of allegiance to Islamic State.
Islamic State said via its Amaq news agency that its fighters had infiltrated the base strapped with explosives and killed or wounded 100 soldiers. It posted an image of two young men standing beside a black Islamic State flag, wearing what appeared to be vests designed to hold explosives.
Neither the claim nor the authenticity of the photograph could be immediately verified.
The incident will be a major setback for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's goal of wiping out Abu Sayyaf, for which he has created a special infantry division on Jolo to be comprised of 4,500 troops by 2022.
There was no immediate comment from Duterte's office.
[THEWEEK] Former Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ...The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... gave perhaps the most disastrous performance by a frontrunner in the history of presidential primary debates on Thursday night. Throughout the evening, Biden sounded aloof and evasive. There was not a single moment when his words or behavior suggested the ease and confidence of someone in control of his political destiny. He was not even in control of his own limbs. I cannot remember ever seeing anything more strange in a political debate than the weird spasmodic gestures he made in response to the questions candidates were supposed to answer by raising or not raising their hands.
Asked to name the first thing he would try to do after being elected president, Biden said that he would "defeat Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... ." Did he mean in battle? (To be fair, idiots in the audience applauded him for this anyway). Nor did he seem to realize that there was any contradiction between his insistence that the Affordable Care Act was more or less the last word in Democratic health-care policy and his support for giving health care to illegal immigrants colonists, which ObamaCare does not cover. He seemed genuinely proud of the compromise he helped to negotiate that made the Bush tax cuts permanent. Worst of all, though, was his confused and confusing response to Sen. Kámala Harris Former Oakland mayor Willie Brown's former mistress, now a senatrix from California and 2020 Dem presidential hopeful, indistinguishable from the others... ' (D-Calif.) criticism of his nostalgia for the good old days of cutting back-room deals with segregationists and principled opposition to federal busing. Biden looked utterly lost.
This was not just my impression. The post-debate headlines for Biden were uniformly terrible. Already there are reports that he is not cooperating with his handlers during debate preparation, that he is "set in his ways," and that members of his staff are "freaking out," though a spokeswoman for the campaign has, naturally, denied this. But I hope for Biden's sake she's fibbing. It would be a gross dereliction of duty for anyone close to the former vice president not to be panicking after his first debate performance.
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#1
Like Hillary, Biden believes all he has to do is show up. Unlike Hillary, showing up at all is disastrous for him. His biggest donor just rang off "for now." I anticipate a popcorn shortage so stock up now.
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06/29/2019 6:44
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Rather amusing that we are now hearing that Uncle Joe is a creepy, awful person. But not a word about any of his previous associations when he was running for Vice Prez.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Brent crude oil held near $67 a barrel on Friday ahead of talks over the trade dispute between the US and Chinese presidents this weekend and on production cuts from OPEC on Monday.
Brent crude futures were up 5 cents at $66.60 a barrel by 1350 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 22 cents at $59.21 a barrel.
Brent was on course for a gain of around 25 percent in the first half of 2019 and WTI for a 30 percent gain.
The leaders of the G20 countries meet on Friday and Saturday in Osaka, Japan, but the most anticipated meeting is between 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... and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday.
A trade war between the world’s two biggest economies has weighed on prices, fanning fears that slowing economic growth could dent demand for oil.
Trump said on Wednesday a trade deal with Chinese President Xi was possible this weekend but he is prepared to impose US tariffs on most remaining Chinese imports should the two countries disagree.
"The next few days will provide a much-needed dose of clarity for the oil balance over the coming months," PVM’s Stephen Brennock said in a note.
"Market bulls will be (hoping) that the G20 summit will provide a trade breakthrough ... All the while, the supply side of the oil coin continues to display bullish signals," he added.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and some non-members including Russia, known as OPEC+, will hold meetings on July 1-2 in Vienna to decide whether to extend their supply cuts.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The new mayor of Istanbul said on Friday he is ready to work with Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... but that he was also preparing to deal with any attempts by the government to restrict his powers.
Speaking to international media in Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu said the government had already put into practice new regulations to bypass the mayor in appointments to municipal companies and to give authority to municipal assemblies where Erdogan’s party has a majority. The mayor said such measures were against the current laws governing local government.
"We are prepared even for the most risky situations," said Imamoglu, who won last weekend’s rerun definitively. "Right now I am the Metropolitan Mayor of Istanbul and Mr. Erdogan is President. I think we can contribute great things to this country and the city by coming to an agreement."
Imamoglu was elected mayor for a second time on Sunday after The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor... ’s electoral board annulled the results of the March 31 polls in Turkey’s largest city. He beat his opponent, the government candidate Binali Yildirim, with more than 806,000 votes.
Days before the election’s re-run, Erdogan hinted that the judiciary could investigate Imamoglu, who represents the opposition Republican People’s Party, for insulting a public official.
Since his stunning victory, which represented a major setback for Erdogan, the president quickly congratulated the mayor. And in a speech on Thursday in Japan where he is attending the Group of 20 leaders’ summit, Erdogan struck a somewhat conciliatory tone in, saying his party would support "realistic projects to the benefit of Istanbul."
"But we will never support unacceptable projects for the benefit of Istanbul."
Earlier on Friday, the leader of Imamoglu’s party in Istanbul went on trial on numerous charges, including insulting the country’s president and allegations of terror propaganda, with sentences up to 17 years in prison.
Canan Kaftancioglu has called the trial, which was adjourned until July 18, "politically motivated."
Imamoglu echoed her position and said he stands with Kaftancioglu "until the very end."
The mayor has been busy since his victory, outlining plans to combat Istanbul’s paralyzing traffic and citywide poverty. He is also looking to address the issues of refugees living in Istanbul.
Over half a millions Syrian refugees live in the city.
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[Jpost] A May 14 attack on Saudi oil facilities may have been carried out from Iraq, not Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... as originally suspected, increasing the spotlight on Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and threats to Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... A Wall Street Journal report on Friday reported that "US officials have concluded that drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry in May were launched from Iraq." The attack on May 14 followed US warnings on May 5 about Iranian threats, which set in motion the last month and a half of tensions between the US and Iran. The US has warned Iran
Continued on Page 49
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Amnesia Amnesty International said Friday that Sudanese military rulers must guarantee the safety of protesters ahead of planned mass rallies over the weekend calling for civilian rule and following a deadly military crackdown that has left more than 100 dead since early June.
Sudan’s pro-democracy movement said they would proceed in their demonstrations despite intensified efforts by the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... and Æthiopia to end the political impasse and bring protest leaders and the ruling military council back to the negotiating table. The rallies are planned nationwide, with a focus on Khartoum.
"The horrific unprovoked use of lethal and unnecessary force against peaceful protesters as witnessed on June 3 must not be repeated this Sunday, or ever again," said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty’s secretary general.
Protest leader Sherif Osman, from The Forces for Decoration of Freedom and Change, which represents the protesters, told news hounds in a news conference in Khartoum that the "peaceful" marches planned for Sunday could only be called off "if the military council handed over power to civilians."
The demonstrations are planned to mark the 30th anniversary of the Islamist-backed coup that brought Omar al-Bashir Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it. to power in 1989, toppling Sudan’s last elected government.
Amnesty warned the military council of repeating the June 3 crackdown, when security forces led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces violently broke up a protest sit-in outside the military’s headquarters, dealing a massive blow to the protest movement.
The break-up of the sit-in and ensuing clampdown has killed at least 128 people cross the country, according to protest organizers. Authorities say the toll is at 61, including three security forces.
The military took over the country after protests drove al-Bashir from power in April. Negotiations with protesters over the transfer of power to civilians reached a deadlock following the clampdown on their sit-in.
In recent weeks, Æthiopia and the AU have been mediating between the two sides. On Thursday, they presented a proposal to resume talks after the military refused to accept an Æthiopian initiative, which had been approved by the protesters.
The military council did not comment on the joint proposal and a front man for the council did not answer phone calls seeking comment.
The Æthiopian proposal also stipulates that the military would chair the council in the first 18 months, and the FDFC the second half of the transition.
Syrian government forces and bully boyz fought fierce battles that left dozens dead in the country’s northwest as troops tried to regain control of two villages they lost earlier this month.
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[NYPOST] A herd of elephants flipped out on two cars in Mohan, India. Watch the intense road-rage moment as a pack of pachyderms push a tourist’s vehicle off the road outside the Brys Caves hotel near Jim Corbett National Park.
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[NYPOST] Before former WWE star Ashley Massaro tragically took her own life in May, she agreed to appear in a video for a song about suicide prevention written by her colleague at a Long Island radio station. That worked well.
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[KhaamaPress] An Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... killed the shadow governor of Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... for Pashtun-infested Logar and his two deputies, the Ministry of Defense said Friday.
The defense ministry said the airstrike was carried out in Charkh district of Pashtun-infested Logar.
The statement further added that the airstrike killed Haji Lala, the shadow governor of Taliban group for Pashtun-infested Logar province.
The Ministry of Defense also added that the airstrike also killed Baryalai and Faridoon, the shadow deputy governors of Taliban for Pashtun-infested Logar.
The Taliban group has not commented regarding the airstrike so far.
The security situation in Pashtun-infested Logar province has tanked during the recent months.
Talibs are active in some districts of the province and often conduct terrorist related activities.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A viral video has turned a young man into the hero of the hour in Istanbul after he was seen catching a toddler as she plummeted from a second-floor window.
Fawzi Zabaat, a 17-year-old Algerian, was walking in the working-class district of Fatih when he saw the two-year-old Syrian girl playing near the open window of her apartment last week.
On the video, released this week, he is seen trying to alert those around him, before stepping in to catch her as she hurtles towards the pavement.
The teenager has remained modest when interviewed on Wednesday by the Dogan news agency, which published the images.
"I was just walking on the road when I saw the little girl at the window. She fell, and thanks to God, I caught her before she hit the ground," he said.
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[HOTAIR] Quick version: The House passed a bill to provide humanitarian aid to the border, then the Senate killed it and passed its own humanitarian bill with heavy bipartisan support. House progressives wanted to balk because the Senate bill didn’t include certain provisions they were demanding, like a 90-day limit to holding migrant children. But the moderates in the Dem caucus rebelled, opposing language in the House bill that would have reduced funding for ICE to fight human trafficking and insisting that the Senate bill ‐ which drew dozens of Democratic votes in the upper chamber ‐ would do just fine. Facing defeat on the floor and worried that further congressional inaction on immigration would hurt Dems in purple districts, Pelosi caved and called a vote on the Senate bill. It passed with more than 300 votes, including 129 Democrats.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Wasn’t the border situation a manufactured crisis a few weeks ago?
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Drone attacks on Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... ’s oil industry in May originated in Iraq, not Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... , US officials have concluded, drawing questions from Iraqi officials who have asked Washington for more information supporting the claim, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
US officials familiar with the intelligence on the May drone attacks say they originated in southern Iraq, the Journal reported, saying that most likely pointed a finger at Iran-backed militias in that region.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s said they carried out the dronezaps against the East-West pipeline.
The drone attack happened two days after four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, were damaged by sabotage off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.
The attacks took place against a backdrop of US-Iranian tension following Washington’s move last month to try to cut Tehran’s oil exports to zero and beef up its military presence in the Gulf in response to what it called Iranian threats.
The State Department declined to comment on the report.
On May 14, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid al-Falih said that two oil-pumping stations for the East-West pipeline had been hit by explosive-laden drones, calling the attack "an act of terrorism" that targeted global oil supplies.
At a weekly news conference on Tuesday, Iraq’s prime minister denied allegations that drones which targeted Saudi oil pipelines last month could have taken off from Iraq, rather than Yemen.
"All of our intelligence services and our air force denied these reports because the air space is known," Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said. "As far as we are concerned, we have no proof and we have no evidence in this matter."
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[WASHINGTONPOST] The the Socialist paradise of San Francisco ...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964... Board of Education voted Tuesday to paint over a mural depicting scenes in the life of George Washington at a high school bearing his name after an advisory board said the artwork doesn’t represent the school’s values.
Preservationists have argued for months with those offended by the New Deal-era mural. The artwork at George Washington High School shows the nation’s first president standing over a dead Native American man and also includes an image of an enslaved African American person. Good idea. Let's all pretend there was never any slavery in North America. All those black people are descended from people who immigrated to have better lives than they had in Upper Volta or the Belgian Congo. Remember the Ellis Island scene in The Godfather? The Good Injun's an obvious allegory for the French and Indian War, Why not just hire someone to paint over the dead Algonquin with a Frenchman? And the Upper Voltans with indentured Brits?
Painted in 1936 by Victor Arnautoff, a native of Russia and protege of muralist Diego Rivera, the mural at the 2,000-student public school was commissioned by the Federal Art Project ‐ a New Deal program to fund visual arts.
Parts of Arnautoff’s 13-panel mural, such as an image of Washington standing over a dead Native American as he directs white frontiersmen, seem critical of U.S. imperialism and capitalism.
Arnautoff, a Communist Party member in the 1930s who was interrogated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, returned to the Soviet Union before his death in 1979.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... after an advisory group recommended the mural be removed in February, the school board unanimously approved a motion Tuesday to paint over it or "develop a project that removes the mural from public view using solid panels or equivalent material."
Board Vice President Mark Sanchez, who brought the motion, said removing the mural from view, no matter what the artist’s intentions, would serve as a "fresh start." We're all so much more virtuous now than President Washington ever was.
Posted by: Fred ||
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I think a good push back against this would be for conservatives to start saying slavery may not be discussed at all as it is too "triggering." That'll cross 'em up.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2019 6:58
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The mural has historic value in itself. Alinsky these assholes. Sue them for destroying history
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2019 7:50
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Well, we know someone who's not in historical preservation. I have plan. (do I need to put a /sarc on that?)
[NYPOST] Presidential contender Andrew Yang ...2020 Democratic presidential candidate. Unlike most other Dem 2020 candidates, he has actually done things besides politix in his adult life. He worked in startups and early-stage growth companies as a founder or executive from 2000 to 2009. After he founded Venture for America, the Obama administration selected him in 2012 as a Champion of Change and in 2015 as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship. His signature campaign policy is what he calls the Freedom Dividend, a form of Universal Basic Income for every American over 18. Yang believes UBI is a necessary response to the rapid development of automation that is leading to workforce challenges. The other two central elements of Yang's platform are Medicare for All and Human-Centered Capitalism.... , who barely chimed in during Thursday night’s debate, had an even better excuse ‐ saying his mic was "not on" when he tried to speak.
"There were also a few times, FYI, where I just started talking, be debating like, ’Hey, I want to add something there,’ and my mic was not on," Yang told supporters after the Miami debate.
"And it’s this sort of thing where, it’s not like if you started talking, it takes over the [conversation]. It’s like I was talking, but nothing was happening. And it was like, ’Oh f‐.’ So that happened a bit, too," he added.
An NBC front man told the The Post in a statement: "At no point during the debate was any candidate’s microphone turned off or muted."
Yang, who has run on a platform of giving every American a guaranteed $1,000 a month, had a mere 2 minutes and 58 seconds of speaking time ‐ the least amount of all 20 candidates who took part in two debates, according to The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... .
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"... and I had the mic, I was talking and the thoughts were forming but nothing was coming out... the others were going on, and I wanted to go on too and I thought ohh ! I just didn't think it would be like this ! And before I new it, it was over...."
#2
If an employee is in a position where he or she (or them, or whatever...) must deal with the public, there may well be some informal discrimination on the part of the public. Businesses that employ these individuals may suffer. You can enact all the well meaning legislation you want but you cannot escape reality.
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General Haftar’s LNA is angry at Turkey because allegedly Ankara had provided air cover to UN-backed Tripoli government to re-take key town Gharyan this week.
Last week Erdogan acknowledged selling weapons to UN-backed Tripoli gov, he didn’t specify the equipment
BREAKING: OAS report shows that Venezuelan exodus could reach 8 million people by the end of next year, making it by far the largest migration crisis in the world, topping the Syrian crisis with 6.7 million people over 8 years pic.twitter.com/xpUCUZN3hB
[IsraelTimes] Hours after unofficial truce takes effect, 50 Paleostinians said maimed as 7,000 protest on Gazoo border against US-led economic conference in Bahrain; no reported Israeli injuries.
That hudna didn’t last long. A short video can be seen at the link of shrieking protestors near the border fence, a few woman and many male children among them. Also a photo of a Hamasnik blowing up balloons that will carry the incendiaries.
Incendiary balloons launched from Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... sparked 14 fires in southern Israel on Friday, Fire and Rescue Services said, hours after Paleostinian media outlets reported that Israel agreed to a number of economic concessions for the Strip in exchange for an end to arson attacks and other violence along the border.
There were no reports of injuries caused by the blazes. The fire department said that as of Friday evening three large blazes were still raging in the Eshkol Regional Council.
Gaza health officials said Israeli security forces shot and injured 50 Paleostinians at the border Friday afternoon during riots and mass demonstrations involving some 7,000 protesters, which also saw an IDF jeep set ablaze by an bomb thrown by protesters.
There were no reported Israeli injuries.
The Hamas, a regional Iranian catspaw,-run health ministry said 19 Paleostinians were maimed by live fire, and said Israeli troops also injured eight paramedic volunteers and one journalist. It was unclear how the remainder for the reported 50 individuals injured sustained their wounds.
Splinters, stubbed toes, and one case of heat prostration from running around all day long without a hat. Also, one pretty BMO (black moving object) had her feelings hurt when the Israelis paid no attention to her mustache cursing.
Reports in Hebrew-language media said thousands of Paleostinians took part in the weekly border protests and riots Friday afternoon, with hundreds launching incendiary balloons and throwing rocks at Israeli troops, who responded with tear gas and occasional live fire.
The IDF said soldiers also identified an attempt to breach the border fence in northern Gaza earlier on Friday.
According to reports, organizers of the weekly "March of Return" protests called for Gazooks to protest the unveiling of the Trump administration’s economic stimulus package for the Paleostinian economy. The $50 billion proposal unveiled in the Bahraini capital of Manama earlier this week was widely criticized by Paleostinians.
Paleostinians erupted into the streets in Gaza and the West Bank this week to protest the Bahrain workshop, burning US and Israelis flags, as well as pictures of US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...... Earlier on Friday, an unnamed Israeli official confirmed that Israel had resumed fuel deliveries that were cut off earlier this week, and extended the fishing zone up to 15 nautical miles from 10 nautical miles. The official said that in return, Hamas "promised to halt the attacks on Israel," a reference to incendiary balloons launched from the enclave.
Israel does not officially recognize ceasefire deals or negotiations with Hamas, an Islamist terror group which rules Gaza and seeks to destroy Israel.
Incendiary balloons were launched into Israel in the face of Israel expanding the Gazoo fishing zone up to 15 nautical miles starting at 10am and agreed to return 60 boats that had been confiscated from Gazooks. Israel also agreed to resume fuel delivery, with a reported four trucks with over 150 thousand liters of fuel entering into the blockaded Strip.
One hopes that all has been stopped as a result of the day’s adventures.
[Ynet] Israel gave Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbung millipede, 24 hours to implement the arrangement between the two sides reached on Friday, said a report; next week an Egyptian intelligence delegation is expected t arrive in Israel and the Gazoo Strip in order to discuss the details of the arrangement.
Despite the deal, Paleostinians protesters hurled stones and Molotov cocktails at the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Friday afternoon, and several airborne incendiary devices were launched from the Strip into Israeli territory.
[Rudaw] The US-led coalition said Thursday it had unintentionally killed at least 1,319 civilians in strikes during its fight against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in Iraq and Syria since 2014.
In five years? Five goes into 13 twice, carry the three... that’s 263 plus someone not completely dead each year — pretty good for an active war in two countries with millions of people wandering through the battlefields...
How many did the Islamic State kill?
The figure is far lower than the corpse counts given by groups that have monitored the conflict in the two countries.
"The coalition conducted 34,514 strikes between August 2014 and the end of May 2019," it said in a statement.
...or four hundredths of a person per airstrike. There must be lots of civilians wandering around missing a big toe or their left earlobe after our lot came thundering overhead.
During this period, it "assesses at least 1,319 civilians have been unintentionally killed by coalition strikes."
The coalition, which has repeatedly insisted it does all it can to avoid civilian deaths, said it was still assessing 159 additional reports of civilian casualties.
Airwars, an NGO that monitors civilian casualties from air strikes worldwide, estimates more than 8,000 civilians have been killed in coalition raids.
In a report released in late April, Amnesia Amnesty International and Airwars found that coalition air and artillery strikes killed more than 1,600 civilians just in the four-months blitz to oust IS from the Syrian city of Raqqa.
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06/29/2019
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[AlAhram] The Trump administration turned up the pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ...Commie el presidente para la vida of Venezuela, successor to Hugo Chavez. Nick is his country's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy, except that even though his country's sitting on an enormous puddle of oil, he can't manage to get it out of the ground... on Friday by targeting his son Nicolas "Nicolasito" Maduro with sanctions, the U.S. Treasury Department said.
Maduro's son has been involved in propaganda and censorship, has profited from Venezuelan mines, and helped pressure the military to keep humanitarian aid out of the country, the Treasury Department said.
The new sanctions are the latest twist in six months of efforts to oust Maduro, whose 2018 re-election was deigned as illegitimate by the United States and most Western nations.
"Maduro relies on his son Nicolasito and others close to his authoritarian regime to maintain a stranglehold on the economy and suppress the people of Venezuela," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
"Treasury will continue to target complicit relatives of illegitimate regime insiders profiting off of Maduro’s corruption," Mnuchin said.
President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... has thrown his support behind opposition leader Juan Guaidó ...Venezuelan politician, a member of the social-democratic Popular Will party, and serves as a federal deputy to the National Assembly representing the state of Vargas. In 2019 he was appointed by the Popular Will party to become the president of the National Assembly, after which he declared he was acting president of the country, challenging Nicolás Maduro's presidency and starting the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis.... of the country's National Assembly, who invoked Venezuela's constitution in January to declare himself interim president.
Maduro, who is backed by China, Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... , has retained the support of the country's military and other institutions, and calls Guaido a Washington puppet.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... "tried to revive the illusion of the Ottoman Empire and the aspirations of this colonial empire have been abandoned and will not return," Syria’s Ambassador to the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... , Dr. Bashar al-Ja’afari, stated during a U.N. Security Council session on Thursday.
Dr. Ja’afari stated that Erdogan had visions of "reviving the caliphate", which could only be done by overthrowing the governments of several Arab countries.
The Syrian Ambassador accused Erdogan of being involved in a massive terrorist plot that was aimed at destroying Syria. He said that Erdogan’s plan was to facilitate the entry of Death Eaters into Syria by leaving the Ottoman Turkish border open and setting up training camps for them with all kinds of weapons. .
Dr. Ja’afari added that Erdogan turned to reestablishing this empire after the Europe ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... an Union rejected The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... ’s bid to join the organization.
The Syrian government has repeatedly accused the Ottoman Turkish President of being sympathetic to the Moslem Brüderbund, which is outlawed inside Syria and much of the Arab world.
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06/29/2019
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#1
oddly, Jaafari who represents one of the most blood soaked dictators on the planet is mostly correct on these statement
Posted by: lord garth ||
06/29/2019 15:43
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Over million barrels of oil are set to be unloaded in Syria’s Tartous Governorate in the coming days, the al-Watan publication reported on Thursday.
Citing an official from the Ministry of Oil, the petrol is set to be unloaded once the Baniyas Refinery completes its maintenance and the pipelines in the eastern Mediterranean are repaired.
The official added that once the Baniyas Refinery completes its maintenance, there will be enough oil to meet the demand inside of Syria.
At the same time, the Arabic language version of Russia Today reported via naval tracking website that prior to the attack on the Syrian pipelines on Tuesday, two Iranian tankers were spotted off the coast of Syria.
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... is Syria’s biggest supplier of oil and the Levantine country’s strongest ally in the Middle East. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... since the Trump administration imposed sanctions on both Syria and Iran, the transportation of oil from the Persian Gulf to the eastern Mediterranean has proven very difficult.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2019
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[WASHINGTONPOST] Nearly two years after James A. Fields Jr. rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white-supremacist rally here, the avowed neo-Nazi ...adherents of a philosophy that was seen even at the time as pure evil, which makes them either consciously and purely evil, or attention-seeking ratbags. Pick one, or both.... and convicted murderer apologized in court Friday as a judge sentenced him to life in prison for 29 federal hate crimes.
He’ll fit in nicely on the psych floor with the rest of the schizophrenics.
"Every day I think about how things could have gone differently, and how I regret my actions," he said in a packed courtroom. "I am sorry."
Fields, 22, whose vehicular attack killed one woman and injured 35 other people, pleaded guilty to the 29 counts in April in a deal with prosecutors, who agreed to drop an additional charge that carries a possible death sentence ...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead... . In a separate case stemming from the deadly incident, Fields was convicted of first-degree murder and other crimes in December by a Virginia jury that voted for a life term plus 419 years in state prison.
His sentence in the state case is due to be imposed July 15, meaning Friday’s sentencing in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville was the first for Fields, an Ohio native with a years-long history of espousing racist and anti-Semitic views.
At the "Unite the Right" rally on Aug. 12, 2017, crowds of white supremacists chanting angry slogans clashed violently with counterprotesters for hours. Photos and video of the mayhem, including images of broken bodies propelled in the air by Fields’s speeding Dodge Challenger, were viewed worldwide, galvanizing public attention on emboldened ethno-fascist ...anybody who's not a leftist... s in the early months of the Trump administration.
"I would like to apologize for the hurt and loss I have caused," Fields said in court, adding, "I apologize to my mother for putting her through all this."
Fields’ attorneys highlighted his difficult upbringing and history of mental illness, but many of the details were redacted from public viewing. He was raised by a paraplegic single mother and suffered "trauma" by growing up knowing that his Jewish grandfather had murdered his grandmother before committing suicide, his lawyers said.
When asked by a U.S. District Court judge whether he had ever been treated for mental illness, Fields said he had been treated for depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and ADHD, The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported.
Derek Weimer, a high school teacher of Fields’, had said that Fields was diagnosed with schizophrenia and had been on anti-psychotic medication, Richmond.com reported.
James Fields was briefly on active duty status with the Army, but only from August 18, 2015 to December 11, 2015. His mother had posted on Facebook about her son going to boot camp and being really happy about it. An Army front man told CNN that Fields didn’t meet the training standards and was never awarded a military occupational skill or assigned a unit outside of basic training.
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[DAWN] Refusals and misconceptions have been hampering the polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain... eradication drive in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as five more cases have been reported from various parts of the province.
The cournty-wide tally for the first six months of the year 2019 has reached 32 as compared to 12 cases in 2018 and only eight in year 2017.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa alone has recorded 26 cases so far, mostly from the highly-infected Bannu division. Bannu has 11 cases and North Wazoo six, followed by Torghar with three and one each from D.I. Khan, Hangu, Lakki Marwat, Shangla, Bajaur and Khyber Agency ... the place to go if you've got an Indiana Jones hat and whip. Chock full of high adventure and treacherous Pathans. You should really train up to it, though... An official of the Polio Virology Laboratory at the National Institute of Health (NIH), requesting anonymity, said that two cases each had been reported from Bannu and Torghar and one from North Waziristan.
"An eight-month-old boy from Takhti Khel Union Council and a 10-month-old boy from Kotka Gul Adat Khan village of Bannu district were diagnosed with the crippling virus," he said.
"Of the two cases reported from Torghar, the first one is a 48-month-old girl who belongs to Gaeito village and the other is a 24-month-old boy from Harnail Union Council. From North Waziristan’s Zeraki village, an 11-month-old girl has been infected," he said.
When contacted, retired captain Kamran Ahmad Afridi, KP Emergency Operations Centre coordinator, said: "The propaganda against polio vaccine and increase in number of refusal cases is a major cause behind the spike in cases in the province."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I'm told one can lead a horse to water but not make it think.
Posted by: Roger Smith ||
06/29/2019 12:17
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Authorities in Æthiopia arrested on Friday the front man of a political party which promotes the interests of the Amhara ethnic group, the party president said.
His detention comes a day after state media announced the detentions of around 250 people in the wake of a failed regional coup attempt in Amhara.
Christian Tadele was arrested in his home region of Amhara, party president Desalegn Chane told Rooters.
"Our front man is arrested along with the other three members of the party," he said. "We are trying to communicate with the regional officials asking for their release."
[IsraelTimes] Signal that has been interfering with airplanes in Israeli airspace is detectable from space, appears to come from new deployment of Moscow’s electronic warfare systems.
The signal that has been disrupting satellite navigation for planes flying through Israeli airspace in recent weeks originates inside a Russian air base inside Syria, according to data collected by a US-based researcher.
This interference to the Global Positioning System (GPS) reception does not appear to be specifically directed at Israel, but rather the Jewish state is likely collateral damage in an effort by Moscow both to protect its troops from drone attacks and to assert its dominance in the field of electronic warfare, Todd Humphreys, a professor at the University of Texas, told The Times of Israel this week.
Continued on Page 49
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Syrian government forces and snuffies fought fierce battles that left dozens dead in the country’s northwest on Friday as troops tried to regain control of two villages they lost earlier this month, state media and an opposition war monitor said.
Syrian state news agency SANA said the army carried out "intense rocket and artillery strikes" on murderous Moslem positions on the front line in the central province of Hama and nearby Idlib that is the last major rebel stronghold in Syria’s civil war, now In its ninth year.
SANA said the aim of the bombing is to destroy fortifications built by murderous Moslems, many of them members of the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... , or HTS. It said the strikes were mostly near the villages of Jubayn and Tel Milh adding that they inflicted many casualties among the murderous Moslems.
The Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said troops were trying to capture the villages of Jubayn and Tel Milh launching an offensive around dawn on Friday. The group said during Friday’s fighting alone, 51 troops and pro-government button men were killed as well as 45 murderous Moslems.
Syrian government forces launched an offensive against the rebel-held territory in late April, leading to the collapse of a cease-fire negotiated by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... and Russia last year.
The violence has forced an estimated 330,000 people to flee their homes since late April, moving toward the Ottoman Turkish border, according to the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... . Several health facilities were targeted in the violence.
More than 2,000 people including 532 civilians have been killed on both sides since the offensive began on April 30, according to the Observatory.
On Thursday, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said a Ottoman Turkish soldier was killed in an artillery strike by Syrian government forces in northwestern Idlib province.
The strike hit a Ottoman Turkish observation post. The attack marked the first Ottoman Turkish death in a Syrian government attack since it launched an offensive to retake Idlib two months ago.
The ministry said late on Thursday that three soldiers were maimed in the attack and have been evacuated from Syria. It said Ankara warned Turkey would respond with "heaviest punishment."
Ottoman Turkish troops man 12 observation posts in Idlib as part of a de-escalation agreement struck with Russia and Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... in September 2017.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called on Washington to destroy its chemical arsenal, saying the only way toward a world without weapons of mass destruction would be to "completely destroy the chemical weapons arsenal of the US as the only owner of such weapons in the world."
In a written address cited by Mehr News dedicated to the commemoration of the 1987 chemical attack on Sardasht, which occurred during the Iran-Iraq War and killed over 1,000 people and left 8,000 more seriously injured, Zarif reiterated that "Iran, once more, emphasises its principal policy of condemning the use of chemical weapons anywhere, anytime and under any circumstances."
The US, the foreign minister alleged, was "addicted to using inhumane tools of economic sanctions and terrorism" against Iran, with the restrictions imposed by Washington said to have made providing the Sardasht attack’s victims with medication significantly more difficult.
Zarif also blasted many countries’ "intentional negligence and ignorance" in the face of US actions, saying such behaviour was "deeply regrettable" and similar to "their silence thirty-one years ago toward the savage attack of the Ba’ath dictator [Saddam Hussein], backed by the US, against the defenceless civilians in Sardasht."
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... suffered up to 100,000 civilian and military casualties at the hands of chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988, and was one of the first countries to sign and ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in the 1990s. Iran did not retaliate in kind to the estimated 350+ large-scale gas attacks by Iraqi forces despite having the legal right to do so under existing treaties. The country reported the complete elimination of its chemical weapons stocks at the moment it ratified the CWC in 1997.
CDC.gov and US disposal of chem weapons All weapons are destroyed at 6 sites.
The last 2 sites are awaiting completion of destruction to EPA mandated standards. The two sites are: Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, Richmond, Kentucky and Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant, Pueblo, Colorado. Blue Grass is destroying 523 tons of mustard and nerve gas while Pueblo is destroying 2600 tons of mustard gas. Safely doing so takes care and time.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2019
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[ToloNews] The federal government has decided to extend the stay of registered Afghan refugees living in Pakistain till June 30 next year, the Express Tribune reported on Friday.
The decision, notified by the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON), comes during Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money... ’s ongoing visit to Pakistain and days before the current extension ends on June 30, 2019.
"In pursuance of approval of the Federal Cabinet conveyed vide Cabinet Division’s Memorandum No.550(S)/Rule-19/2019-Cab, dated 27 June, 2019, the Government of Pakistain is pleased to extend the Validity in respect of Tripartite Agreement, Proof of Registration (PoR) Cards till 30-06-2020," read the notification, quoted by the Express Tribune.
The ministry also announced an extension in the validity of Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) till October 31, 2019.
Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan ... aka The Great Khan, who ain't the brightest knife in the national drawer... also informed the Afghan president about the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) government’s decision, the report says.
Figures by United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... High Commissioner for Refugees show that there are 1,405,715 registered Afghan refugees and 210,465 Afghan families in Pakistain as of June 3, 2019.
Statistics by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) indicate that 10,720 Afghans have returned home from Pakistain since the beginning of this year. Of the total figure, 8,421 have returned spontaneously, while 2,299 others were deported.
The UN refugee agency defines registered Afghans as those who have valid Proof of Registration cards issued by the Pak government, the report said.
The data shows the agency facilitated voluntary repatriation of 4,374,208 Afghan refugees from 2002 till December 4, 2018.
This year ‐ till June 24, 2019 ‐ UNHCR has facilitated the voluntary repatriation of 2,036 Afghan refugees, the Express Tribune says in the report.
At the UNHCR hosted and chaired 30th Tripartite Commission Meeting in Islamabad on June 18, Pakistain, Afghanistan and the refugee agency reaffirmed their commitment to upholding the principle of voluntary repatriation ‐ in safety and dignity ‐ under the Tripartite Agreement.
They called for enhanced efforts to create an environment conducive to voluntary return and sustainable reintegration in Afghanistan and vowed to continue supporting the host communities in Pakistain, within the framework of the Solutions Strategy for Afghan Refugees (SSAR).
All three stakeholders also expressed concern at the decrease in the voluntary repatriation grant provided to Afghan refugees and encouraged the international community to increase the cash grant to its previous level of approximately $400 per individual, the report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2019
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#1
Michael B Jordan doesn't mind playing Superman. Maybe Halle Berry will be Lois Lane. Only, Lex Luthor will have to be white.
Who wants to bet the next Bond is gay ? And Moneypenny a needlessly sashaying crossdresser.
OK, Bond, a muslim convert ? He doesn't drink and takes time out to pray four times a day and punctuates every one liner with shit like 'inshallah' and 'mashaalah'.
"Into world where his paper bring pain
For reader who fail to abstain
Hop young Shaolin priest
Singing, 'News from back East!'
In hot horse opera, Citizen Caine."
Posted by: Herman Clains9053 ||
06/29/2019 7:18
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#6
Well, if one actor could pull off the black James Bond, it'd be this guy.
Certainly true, but why take an established, well-loved character from literature and film and re-imagine him as a black guy? Other than "because we can. Neener neener neener!" Bond wasn't the only British secret agent. You're writers, dammit! Show some imagination.
#7
Bond's getting old, right? I've been hearing that for... decades, I guess. And everyone's oh-so-fatigued with everything white, right? Fine. Let's have a black James Bond. Big frickin' deal. But let it be a black James Bond, carrying on in the current Bond "reality," not some smarmy shithead of the moment playing himself and running his woke minstrelsy checklist. Bond's game... Bond's horrible vengeance on Laser Louise... Bond's endzone dance... all that crap. No. Let the brother play James Bond as James Bond. Time for a brain transplant. And an actual actor. Elba'd probably be fine.
Posted by: Pearl Protector of the Slytherins4761 ||
06/29/2019 10:13
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#8
James Bond is a Timelord, and regenerates into a new body every so often.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
06/29/2019 11:19
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#9
Bonus Retro Rehash points for brain-swap: Former Bond (doesn't matter which, all except Connery looking more or less alike) can play wacky West Indian body-donor sidekick to new Bond. Hijinks galore!
Posted by: Pearl Protector of the Slytherins4761 ||
06/29/2019 11:59
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Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/29/2019 13:42
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#12
Oh well, I got to where I couldn't watch James Bond as portrayed by Pierce Brosnan either. So, if they dumb him down again, I just won't go to see it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/29/2019 13:45
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#1
When my dad was in a memory care facility in AZ a few years ago, the ambulance service was billing his insurance $9,000 a pop for a less than two mile ride on a routine transfer.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2019 6:46
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#2
"When the ACA was enacted, policymakers may not have had sufficient guardrails in place with regards to emergency care or ambulance utilization," says Friedson
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/29/2019 9:03
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#3
Sorta like what happened to college tuition when the gummint got involved, huh?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/29/2019 11:28
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[Jpost] Albakr then said "Riecher has no one. We have the right to take the money away from him," according to Ahmad.
The previous episode of this nasty little tale can be seen here.
The Syrian refugee Mohammed Omran Albakr
...he arrived in Germany in 2015 and was praised in print as a model refuge a year later. Eventually he and his wife moved in with the victim’s parents...
persuaded his Paleostinian accomplice Iyad Bayatneh to murder a German millionaire because he allegedly was a Jew.
The dramatic development was reported on Thursday by the local newspaper Schwarzwälder Bote.
The 57-year-old victim Michael Riecher, a real estate investor who was not Jewish, was found strangled in his home in November.
According to the report, the 28-year-old Albakr told a number of acquaintances that he was looking for help to rob Riecher, who reportedly had gold and 250,000 Euro in a safe.
Piffle. Nobody keeps that much money at home when there are trustworthy banks nearby. Unless they are mafioso, I suppose...
A Lebanese-born Paleostinian named Haitham Ahmad provided the eye-popping testimony about Albakr and the 31-year-old Bayatneh. Ahmad, who is a barber, said he recommended Bayatneh as an accomplice to Albakr because Bayatneh has a "strong heart."
According to Ahmad, who used an alias during his testimony,
...clearly to no avail. One hopes he profits from this lesson...
he said Albakr said to Bayatneh that "the man who will be attacked is a Jew." Bayatneh responded: "The Jews destroyed my country." Albakr then said "Riecher has no one. We have the right to take the money away from him," according to Ahmad.
Exactly the kind of upright replacement citizen one would want giving one sponge baths in one’s twilight years, instead of the grandchildren one neglected to have...
The news hound Jurgen Luck, who broke the story about the role of deadly antisemitism as a motive for the murder of Riecher, wrote that a antisemitism watchdog organization Recherchestelle Antisemitismus contacted him on Thursday.
After reports in the Schwarzwälder Bote and The Jerusalem Post , Germany’s top-selling paper Bild titled its Friday story:
"Millionaire murdered because perpetrator considered him Jew?" The next court session is in early July.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ‐ A federal judge on Friday prohibited President Donald Trump from tapping $2.5 billion in military funding to build high-priority segments of his prized border wall in California, Arizona and New Mexico.
TACOTALPA, Mexico (AP) ‐ An engineer shouted for the young migrant woman to hurry up and climb aboard the freight train or she’d be left behind. In her bright red tennis shoes, she quickened her pace and was the last to get on when it pulled out near Salto de Agua in Mexico’s southernmost state of Chiapas.
[Right Scoop] DHS Chief McAleenan is now predicting a drop in the migrant surge and he’s saying it’s not just because of the weather:
[Babylon Bee] MIAMI, FL‐Experts around the country and numerous poll results revealed Wednesday evening that the decisive loser in the Democratic debate was the American people.
[NYT] Libyan government fighters discovered a cache of powerful American missiles, usually sold only to close American allies, at a captured rebel base in the mountains south of Tripoli this week.
[Hot Air] I’ve written a lot about homelessness on the west coast and the property crime that tends to go with it. This story from Garden Grove in Orange County is happening just about five miles from my house. Homeless people have set up a camp of sorts in the parking lot of a local Walmart. There are complaints about harassment of shoppers, break-ins and vandalism of parked cars, and shoplifting from the store itself. And yet, not much is happening to change it.
[IsraelTimes] Assault that crippled Revolutionary Guard missile system result of massive investment in cyber warfare by American military, likely took months or years of preparation.
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
[IsraelTimes] Dozens hurt day after officers kill 20-year-old who launched fireworks at them in Issawiya neighborhood; court rejects request to release his body for funeral.
[IsraelTimes] Several of the suspects allegedly involved in attack on migrant group in Chemnitz; authorities say men indicted on suspicion of forming a terrorist organization.
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
She is also accused of "terrorist propaganda" for quoting a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has been fighting a bloody insurgency against the state since 1983.
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world. Gülen and Erdogan used to be really good friends, but only one of them could be sultan, and Gülen lost...
[NEWS5CLEVELAND] Dr. Heather Judkins just made history. Squid history.
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] An Indian mother and her daughter were beaten and had their heads shaved by a group of men after they resisted a gang rape attempt, police said on Friday, in the latest attack to highlight the dangers facing women in the country.
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
[THEWEEK] Former Vice President 
Former Oakland mayor Willie Brown's former mistress, now a senatrix from California and 2020 Dem presidential hopeful, indistinguishable from the others...
...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...
...Qatar's colony in Asia Minor...
[Jpost] A May 14 attack on Saudi oil facilities may have been carried out from Iraq, not 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] 
[NYPOST] A herd of elephants flipped out on two cars in Mohan, India. Watch the intense road-rage moment as a pack of pachyderms push a tourist’s vehicle off the road outside the Brys Caves hotel near Jim Corbett National Park.
...
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
[WASHINGTONPOST] The 
Arnautoff, a Communist Party member in the 1930s who was interrogated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, returned to the Soviet Union before his death in 1979.
...2020 Democratic presidential candidate. Unlike most other Dem 2020 candidates, he has actually done things besides politix in his adult life. He worked in startups and early-stage growth companies as a founder or executive from 2000 to 2009. After he founded Venture for America, the Obama administration selected him in 2012 as a 
[HOTAIR] 
[IsraelTimes] Hours after unofficial truce takes effect, 50 Paleostinians said 
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...Venezuelan politician, a member of the social-democratic Popular Will party, and serves as a federal deputy to the National Assembly representing the state of Vargas. In 2019 he was appointed by the Popular Will party to become the president of the National Assembly, after which he declared he was acting president of the country, challenging Nicolás Maduro's presidency and starting the 2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis....
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead....jpg "polio")
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain...
... the place to go if you've got an Indiana Jones hat and whip. Chock full of high adventure and treacherous Pathans. You should really train up to it, though...
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money...
[IMAGES.DAWN] 
[Jpost] Albakr then said "Riecher has no one. We have the right to take the money away from him," according to Ahmad.
