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Headline Comments [Views]
10:46 3 13:58 Fat Bob Whinegum6521 [7]
09:39 1 10:34 Rex Mundi [5]
09:26 4 16:22 Crusader [10]
09:14 10 13:22 JohnQC [7]
09:12 5 13:12 Skidmark [8]
02:50 13 18:45 Procopius2k [9]
02:30 2 22:20 gorb [12]
02:20 4 20:56 Frank G [12]
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01:57 5 10:33 Abu Uluque [4]
01:38 11 19:51 Skidmark [15]
01:36 8 16:39 g(r)omgoru [9]
01:18 2 12:21 Alaska Paul [2]
00:31 1 11:26 Pappy [12] 
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00:12 19 19:26 SteveS [10]
00:01 6 10:25 ed in texas [10]
00:00 3 08:58 Rambler in Virginia [7]
00:00 13 13:08 Vast Right Wing Conspiracy [8]
00:00 3 19:14 AlmostAnonymous5839 [12]
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Mike Huckabee: "This country will have Bill O'Reilly to thank" if Kate's Law passes
[Media Matters] MIKE HUCKABEE: A five-time loser who have been deported five times kept coming back, catch and release type program and he ends up murdering a young woman filled with promise and hope on the streets of one of our sanctuary cities. That ought to be enough to churn everybody's stomach. And I pray that Kate's Law gets passed. And let me just say this, if it does, this country will have Bill O'Reilly to thank for it because he was the one who kept giving voice to it when no one else was and when people were giving up on it. And I got to give him some credit for this. If it's signed, frankly the president ought to give him one of the pens that he signs it with because that's why we will have it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 10:46 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Five lifetimes of Bill O'Reilly sanctimonious bluster totally forgiven and forever forgotten if this law becomes reality.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 11:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Bill's books are pretty good though
Posted by: 746 || 06/30/2017 13:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Sanctimonious bluster is being polite! A bit of a blow-hard. But, I agree 100%...kudos to O'Reilly if this gets passed.
Posted by: Fat Bob Whinegum6521 || 06/30/2017 13:58 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
NYT Quietly Issues Major Correction ‐ Only 4, Not 17 Intel Agencies Approved "Russia Hacking" Assessment
[Gateway Pundit] The MSM’s credibility took another hit today, as the New York Times quietly issued a correction about their claims that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies agreed that the Russians ’hacked’ the 2016 presidential election. The REAL number is only 4 agencies held such views.

The New York Times has finally admitted that one of the favorite Russia-gate canards ‐ that all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies concurred on the assessment of Russian hacking of Democratic emails ‐ is false.

In the Times’ White House Memo of June 25, correspondent Maggie Haberman mocked Trump for "still refus[ing] to acknowledge a basic fact agreed upon by 17 American intelligence agencies that he now oversees: Russia orchestrated the attacks, and did it to help get him elected."On Thursday, the Times appended a correction to a June 25 article that had repeated the false claim, which has been used by Democrats and the mainstream media for months to brush aside any doubts about the foundation of the Russia-gate scandal and portray President Trump as delusional for doubting what all 17 intelligence agencies supposedly knew to be true.

However, on Thursday, the Times ‐ while leaving most of Haberman’s ridicule of Trump in place ‐ noted in a correction that the relevant intelligence "assessment was made by four intelligence agencies -- the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency. The assessment was not approved by all 17 organizations in the American intelligence community."

The Times’ grudging correction was vindication for some Russia-gate skeptics who had questioned the claim of a full-scale intelligence assessment, which would usually take the form of a National Intelligence Estimate (or NIE), a product that seeks out the views of the entire Intelligence Community and includes dissents.

The reality of a more narrowly based Russia-gate assessment was admitted in May by President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan in sworn congressional testimony.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 09:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  17.. 4... sure, whatever
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 06/30/2017 10:34 Comments || Top||


Beyond TDR: Dem Leader Maxine Waters Wants President Trump Impeached AND Exiled
[Gateway Pundit] When impeachment is not enough.,,
Democrat leader Auntie Maxine wants Trump impeached because he posts mean tweets.

But that’s not all. Waters wants President Trump impeached and then exiled!

The reader's comments are particularly uplifting.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 09:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Between Nancy and Maxine, one begins to think they opened the asylum gates.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 11:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Just proves that criminals aren't bright; merely venal and cunning.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/30/2017 12:31 Comments || Top||


#4  Her wig must be too tight.
Posted by: Crusader || 06/30/2017 16:22 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Project Veritas 3: CNN New Day producer ranting voters are stupid as sh*t
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/30/2017 09:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Actually, the voters were tired of being spooned up the same old $hit by you morons and elected Trump.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 10:06 Comments || Top||

#2  The voters are stupid. Politicians feed them $hit and the voters put them back into office.
Posted by: gorb || 06/30/2017 10:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, they are, especially the ones who watch CNN.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/30/2017 10:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Hard to argue. After all, they put Obumble in office twice.
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/30/2017 10:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Every single time I read about someone doing something outrageous and/or stupid, the first thought that goes through my mind is -- this person can vote.
Posted by: Iblis || 06/30/2017 10:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Let's make a clarification -

CNN New Day producer ranting our voters are stupid as sh*t

Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/30/2017 10:41 Comments || Top||

#7  Thanks for being on top of this for us, DarthVader.

Fascinating, the things people say in private. Though I think those who loathe President Trump will agree with everything the gentleman said, while the Deplorables will find it is as they expected. Where minds will change is objection to harping on the subject for ratings, and what they bring out about deceptive editing from that 90 minutes of raw tape.

And it swings back to illegal voting, about which Project Veritas released a number of videos back in 2015 and 2016 -- just as President Trump's commission is gearing up to examine the evidence, This is going to be fun.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/30/2017 12:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Consider the educators.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/30/2017 12:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Consider the newly armed educators
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/30/2017 13:10 Comments || Top||

#10  The Dems and their media wanted a compliant little lap dog that wasn't too yappy. The voters wanted a junk yard dog who would speak up and fight for them. That is why Trump got elected.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 13:22 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
USMC Veteran Takes Out Three Armed Robbers, "I Opened the Door and Smoked 'em."
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/30/2017 09:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Think I saw this movie on late-night TV; Gran Torino.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 10:05 Comments || Top||

#2  They stole his cancer meds? WTF? Then what? They probably threw them away.
Posted by: gorb || 06/30/2017 10:10 Comments || Top||

#3  He did well, however, opening the door to a stranger, especially after a previous robbery could have been a dangerous or fatal event. Always something to learn from these incidents. It would have been good if he had some way to see the people on the other side of the door, without opening it, or standing behind the door in the "Fatal Funnel."
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/30/2017 12:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Cancer patients often have opioids
Posted by: Regular joe || 06/30/2017 12:35 Comments || Top||

#5  standing behind the door in the "Fatal Funnel."

Cancer patients often don't care.
Murdered in his home pays off more than dying in the hospital.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/30/2017 13:12 Comments || Top||


State officials refuse to turn over voter roll data to Trump election panel
[The Hill] State officials from Virginia, California and Kentucky said Thursday that they will refuse a request for voter roll data from President Trump's commission on election integrity.

Earlier Thursday, it was reported that the commission sent letters to all 50 states asking for voters' names, birthdays, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers and their voting history dating back to 2006.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said in a statement that he has "no intention" of fulfilling the request, defending the fairness of his state's elections. He also blasted the commission in his statement, saying it was based on the "false notion" of widespread voter fraud in the November presidential election.

"At best this commission was set up as a pretext to validate Donald Trump’s alternative election facts, and at worst is a tool to commit large-scale voter suppression," McAuliffe stated.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) also responded to the request, saying "I will not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally" in the last election.

"California’s participation would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud made by the President, Vice President, and [Kansas Secretary of State Kris] Kobach," Padilla stated.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 02:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They don't want to go to jail?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/30/2017 3:05 Comments || Top||

#2  Won't it show all the rusky hacking?!?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/30/2017 4:09 Comments || Top||

#3  "We refuse to prove to the world that your claims are false and malicious."

Because we think you just might find out your ridiculous claims are accurate.
Posted by: Bobby || 06/30/2017 7:41 Comments || Top||

#4  They just know that their voter fraud and illegal voting will be exposed on a massive scale.
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/30/2017 8:18 Comments || Top||

#5  Just don't allow their delegates into the next Electoral College.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/30/2017 10:17 Comments || Top||

#6  How many of them would have the legitimacy of their own election questioned?
Posted by: Iblis || 06/30/2017 10:22 Comments || Top||

#7  All are Democrats who are refusing to turn over voter roll data. Are they are afraid revealing Dem voter corruption? These are the same people who scream so loudly about voter ID requirements and cleaning the rolls of dead people and illegal voters.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 10:55 Comments || Top||

#8  JohnQC, actually the governor of Kentucky is a Republican.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 06/30/2017 12:14 Comments || Top||

#9  I just read to the Governor's of Connecticut and Virginia comments to the effect that voter fraud is a fantasy, and Trump is just trying to put up a smokescreen for his comment, and that the Kansas Secretary of State is an architect of voter fraud in his state. This is the first serious nationwide attempt to confirm or deny voter fraud, and coincidently, illegal alien voting. The resistance seems to be either based on protecting voter identity from the federal government, or pure politics, either a laughable contention. I suspect that the truth in California for example, will be massive fraud and illegal voting, and the perpetrators will be found to be overwhelmingly from one political party, .....not mine!
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 06/30/2017 13:55 Comments || Top||

#10  They should already be ballot measures gathering signatures for a whole sweet of election reform issues. This should be added to the list.

Denying really makes those three states look more than a little guilty.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/30/2017 15:42 Comments || Top||

#11  Having said that, I don't think they'll find much proof in California since nobody checked voters vs voter rolls at the election station, so there is really no reason why you would need to cook the books at all.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/30/2017 15:43 Comments || Top||

#12  Later in the evening, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) said she also wouldn't offer up the information requested by the panel.

Rambler of Virginia. You are correct, the current governor of Kentucky is Matt Bevin, a Pub. The Secretary of State is Alsion Lundergan Grimes (D) according to the article.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 16:10 Comments || Top||

#13  Last November was a Federal election. Guess what kiddos, it becomes subject to federal investigation. Read - obstruction. If we could get a real DoJ back, you could count on it.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/30/2017 18:45 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
U.S. plans to sell Taiwan about $1.42 billion in arms
[Reuters] The United States plans to sell Taiwan $1.42 billion in arms, the first such sale under the administration of Donald Trump and a move sure to anger China, whose help the president has been seeking to rein in North Korea.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters the administration had told Congress of the seven proposed sales on Thursday.

"It's now valued about $1.42 billion," she said.

The State Department said the package included technical support for early warning radar, high speed anti-radiation missiles, torpedoes and missile components.

Nauert said the sales showed U.S. "support for Taiwan's ability to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability," but there was no change to the United States' long-standing "one China" policy, which recognizes Beijing and not Taipei.

The United States is the sole arms supplier to Taiwan, which China deems its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring the self-ruled island under its control.

Beijing has given Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen the cold shoulder since she took power last year because she leads an independence-leaning ruling party and refuses to recognize the "one China" policy.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 02:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  China hasn't reined in their lapdog NKor so WTF do they expect?
Posted by: 3dc || 06/30/2017 8:35 Comments || Top||

#2  China better consider not trying to seize control of the area around their stupid little artificial island. There are more weapons where those came from.
Posted by: gorb || 06/30/2017 22:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Social Justice Morons Complain that 'Dunkirk' Movie is Too White [VIDEO]
[Victory Girls] I’m not a big movie fan. Typically summer blockbusters come and go, and my reaction is "meh."

However, there’s a movie coming out in July that I want to see, especially since I’m fascinated by World War II history. Besides, it’s British history, and I’m a sucker for British epics (Lawrence of Arabia, anyone?)
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 02:20 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If the focus is "too white", the SJMs are missing the point of this historic evacuation of those who would later free Europe and the world of the yoke of fascism.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 9:52 Comments || Top||

#2  I never thought of myself as sexist because I didn't want to see Fried Green Tomatoes or racist because I didn't want to see Straight out of Compton. There's no need to be racist or sexist about it. If you're not interested in a movie, don't go to see it.

IMHO, regardless of race or gender, Hollywood produces a helluva lotta schlock these days but they've finally made a movie I want to see.

I can't wait to see Dunkirk.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/30/2017 10:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Think of it as a study in white privilege SJWs; help ya get started 'White people get free cruises in yet another study of hyper-masculinity and gun culture'.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/30/2017 14:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Tell it to Chollie Rangel. The way that corrupt fat racialist fuck tells it, all front line cannon fodder are brown and black.
Posted by: Frank G || 06/30/2017 20:56 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Houston federal judge revokes sex offender's naturalized citizenship
[Houston Chron] A federal judge this week approved an order revoking the naturalized citizenship of a Harris County man convicted of a sex offense more than 20 years earlier, one of a growing number of immigrants stripped of citizenship in a push that began in the final years of the Obama administration.

Jose Arizmendi, a native of Mexico, failed to disclose his 1996 conviction when he applied for citizenship, according to federal prosecutors.

"The Justice Department is committed to preserving the integrity of our nation's immigration system," Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler said in a statement.

"We will aggressively pursue denaturalization in cases where individuals lie on their naturalization applications, especially in a circumstance like this one, which involved a child sex abuser. Civil denaturalization cases are an important law enforcement tool for protecting the public, including our children."

The 54-year-old Arizmendi pleaded guilty in Harris County to aggravated sexual assault of a child in April 1996, accepting 10 years of probation as part of a deferred adjudication agreement.

He applied to become a citizen later that month, and during his October 1996 immigration interview, he said "no" when asked if he'd ever been arrested or convicted of a crime more serious than a traffic violation.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 02:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
Beyond Pro-Choice: The Solution to White Supremacy is White Abortion
[Medusa Magazine] In a progressive society, it is often white families that stand in the way of equality and justice. Systemic white supremacy depends, first and foremost, on the white family unit. When white conquerors forcefully penetrated the indigenous, egalitarian homeland of the Native peoples of America, they were quick to replicate their white societies, initiating their parasitism by establishing white plantations, headed by white fathers, submissive white mothers, and, most critically, white children, with full dominion over the enslaved and oppressed people of color that were forced to uphold these micro-fiefdoms.

It is no surprise, then, that America’s fascination with the white family unit has gone hand-in-hand with the historical proliferation of white supremacy. After Bacon’s Rebellion, white micro-fieftans thought it necessary to expand the definition of white family to encompass the entirety of white society, so as to coerce the working class to fight amongst itself based on racial lines. Whites are embedded from birth with the sense of common white identity, and this identity conditions them to replicate the white family unit, thus furthering the cycle of white supremacy in America. That is why the white family unit must be destroyed.

In 1973, the Supreme Court, consisting entirely of men, eight of whom were white, ruled that the termination of pregnancy was constitutional up until the third trimester. For decades, progressives have championed this decision as a victory for the cause of women’s rights. However, it is time we challenge this problematic notion.

First of all, it is critical to understand that the appeal to abortions being "Constitutional" reinforces white supremacy. There is no way around it. The Constitution was drafted and signed by white men, for white men. Slavery was Constitutional. The "right" to terrorize citizens through the bearing of arms is Constitutional. So-called "due process," in which white juries condone the murder of innocent black men, is a Constitutional process. Being Constitutional does not make something progressive or innately valuable. In fact, Constitutionality is often synonymous with "exclusively beneficial to the white race."
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 01:57 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  IMO, any Caucasian woman influenced by this comes under the category of "evolution in action".
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/30/2017 3:29 Comments || Top||

#2  is this really not a parody?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/30/2017 4:23 Comments || Top||

#3  "egalitarian homeland of the Native peoples of America"

Mayans?

Incas?

Aztecs?

Comanches?
Posted by: Theter Jones3017 || 06/30/2017 6:02 Comments || Top||

#4  white supremacy - new code word for classical democracy. Not to be confused with "the People's Democratic Republic of.."

Remember this is the Left who in the 60s and 70s demanded Black Majority Rule in South Africa. What's wrong with the same principle applied to America? /rhet question
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/30/2017 7:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Egalitarian, huh? Lost me on that one.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/30/2017 10:33 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
New Braunfels man with history of 'deviant' sex acts with vegetables sentenced to life in prison
[MYSANANTONIO] Charles Ransier had an abnormal history with vegetables, according to authorities.

A Comal County jury sentenced the 56-year-old New Braunfels man to life in prison Wednesday on charges of drug possession and tampering with evidence after a Texas state trooper found him sitting in his truck with melted candle wax on his bare chest and a collection of meth-filled syringes, male enhancement pills, lube, children's clothing and a cooler of frozen cucumbers with him.

When the trooper found him on March 23, 2015, along Interstate 35, Ransier had a syringe in his hand and was trying to break the end off of it, according to the Comal County District Attorney's Office.

Texas man caught covered in wax with veggies used for sex, sentenced to life in prison

Ransier refused to comply with the trooper's command to stop, and a struggle ensued, a video of which was presented as evidence during Ransier's trial. The trooper eventually placed Ransier in handcuffs and recovered the broken syringe, which tested positive for methamphetamine.

But "the rest of the story" was also presented to the jury during Ransier's trial.

After Ransier was detained, troopers searched his pickup truck and found a mishmash of startling items: Barbie dolls, candy, children's clothing, balloons, baby oil, Viagra, Extenze male enhancement pills, duct tape, rope and a cooler with frozen cucumbers inside.

Further investigation revealed it was not the first time Ransier had been caught less than fully clothed with vegetables in tow.

On Nov. 10, 2012, a Comal County deputy found him naked inside his truck. Ransier admitted to the deputy he had been engaged in a "deviant sex act involving a squash," according to the district attorney's office.

On March 9, 2014, a "concerned citizen" notified a state trooper of a suspicious pickup truck at the nearby baseball fields. The trooper found Ransier engaging in a deviant sex act with a vegetable "wearing nothing but women's stockings."

State prosecutors disclosed such incidents to the jury, as well as other evidence from court records of Ransier's nine previous felony convictions. One such conviction involved the death of a reserve sergeant with the Arizona State Troopers and father of twins. Ransier was found to be high on meth when he crashed into the trooper and killed him.

The jury took less than an hour to sentence Ransier to life in prison on the charge of tampering with evidence connected to the March 23, 2015, incident. He was also sentenced to 20 years in prison on the meth possession charge and fined $10,000.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 01:38 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Was he out of his gourd?
(I know. Corner.)
Posted by: ed in texas || 06/30/2017 10:05 Comments || Top||

#2  He's going to jail. He'll have to switch to fruits.
Posted by: gorb || 06/30/2017 10:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Supreme court to release him and allow him to marry frozen cucumber.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/30/2017 10:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Lettuce pray for his soul. Should stuck with chickpeas.


http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?D=2014-01-03&ID=382869&HC=3


Posted by: Shipman || 06/30/2017 10:42 Comments || Top||

#5  The charges will be squashed.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/30/2017 12:16 Comments || Top||

#6  deviant sex act with a vegetable "wearing nothing but women's stockings"

That's just perverted. Who would put stockings on a vegetable?
Posted by: SteveS || 06/30/2017 12:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Folks around New Braunfels were confident evidence of Ransier's deviance would eventually turnup.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 12:30 Comments || Top||

#8  sitting in his truck with melted candle wax on his bare chest and a collection of meth-filled syringes, male enhancement pills, lube, children's clothing and a cooler of frozen cucumbers with him.


AKA: "Friday night"
Posted by: Frank G || 06/30/2017 14:35 Comments || Top||

#9  Something isn't right here. Isn't cucumber a fruit?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/30/2017 17:53 Comments || Top||

#10  The childrens clothes, duct-tape and rope are concerning...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/30/2017 18:24 Comments || Top||

#11  20 years, OK, but $10,000.00, that's a lot of cabbage.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/30/2017 19:51 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
GOP operative tried to get Clinton emails from hackers, claimed ties to Flynn
[NY Post] A Republican opposition researcher hunted for copies of missing emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server -- which he believed had been hacked -- before the 2016 election and implied to associates he was working with then Trump adviser Michael Flynn, according to a report.
Mike Flynn standing behind A.J. at Smith's graveside service provides additional evidence of the linkage.
The Wall Street Journal said that GOP operative Peter W. Smith was scouring the world of hackers, including Russians, to get the Clinton emails, which the former Democratic presidential candidate said were deleted because they were personal.

Smith considered Flynn -- who was at the time an advisor to President Trump’s campaign -- an ally in his search, according to emails written by Smith and obtained by the Journal.

"He said, 'If it's the last thing I do....’I’m talking to Michael Flynn about this--if you find anything, can you let me know?’" Eric York, an Atlanta computer-security expert, told the paper.

The Journal cautioned that it was unclear what role Flynn might have played in Smith’s email hack hunt -- which turned up nothing. Flynn did not respond to the paper’s requests for comment
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 01:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy the following:

The Daily Beast - NASA Denies That It’s Running a Child Slave Colony on Mars
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 1:47 Comments || Top||

#2  And Smith —who died at age 81 shortly after talking to the Journal — told the paper he knew Flynn, but he never said Flynn was involved.

Probably no chance Mr. Smith will be called to testify by Bob Mueller, or anyone else for that matter.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 5:32 Comments || Top||

#3  As we noted late last week, Benjamin Wittes, the Brookings Institution senior fellow and noted ally of former FBI Director James Comey, took to twitter to claim that another “bombshell” story, presumably related to the multiple investigations into whether the Trump camp colluded with the Russians, was in the works. However, unlike previous warnings from Wittes, this one contained a caveat: the “fuse” on the story is of an uncertain length, and that the next salvo could arrive as soon as Monday.

Zero Hedge link

Comey had an 'ally', a friend? Who knew ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 6:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Has anyone ever explained exactly to what end said collusion was initiated?

I'm looking for something beyond the dictionary "do bad things" level of specificity.

Every political campaign in the world endeavors to secretly achieve the defeat of the opponent. So, again, colluding to beat Hillary ain't gonna cut it.
Posted by: AlanC || 06/30/2017 9:02 Comments || Top||

#5  Russian hackers talked about how to get the deleted Clinton emails and hand them over to Flynn though a third party.

This shouldn't have been too difficult if this occurred during the time Hillary's home-brew server was unsecured and had the welcome mat out to anyone.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 9:16 Comments || Top||

#6  In the interview with the Journal, Mr. Smith said he and his colleagues found five groups of hackers who claimed to possess Mrs. Clinton’s deleted emails, including two groups he determined were Russians.

Who were the three non-Russian groups who claimed to have had HRC's 33,000 deleted emails?

U.S. intelligence agencies have accused the Russians of stealing emails from the Democratic National Committee and Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, and providing them to WikiLeaks last summer as part of a multifaceted operation to interfere with the election and help Mr. Trump’s campaign.

Podesta, whose emails were password-protected by the password which was "Password."

If most of the intelligence agencies were loaded with deep-state people who supported Hillary, what interest would they have in an honest investigation of Hillary's illegal server and her emails? Moreover, these same people thought Hillary would be their boss beginning in 2017.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 9:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Geez, I got cornered at an embassy source during the Paris Air Show by a Soviet Colonel who wanted to talk cars and loose women...does that mean I colluded too?

I suppose that since I voted for DJT I should expect a call from Mr. Mueller.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 06/30/2017 16:24 Comments || Top||

#8  SPOD, you been talking to me in the 'burg for years. And my maternal grandfather not only been with the Red Army from 1918 (as a tailor), he once tailored a greatcoat for Leon Trotski.* If you're lucky, Mueller will send you a subpoena - instead of sending a SWAT team.

*Lived in fear until the day Stalin died - why not, people disappeared for less.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/30/2017 16:39 Comments || Top||


Homeland Security chief says members of Congress ‘threaten' him over immigration enforcement
[WashingtonTimes] Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly said Thursday that members of Congress have tried to "threaten" him over his department’s stepped up enforcement of the immigration laws they wrote, and called for even stiffer laws to punish sanctuary cities and repeat-illegal immigrants.

Mr. Kelly said he was "offended" by those lawmakers -- who he didn’t name -- who he said "often threaten me and my officers" when they try to enforce laws that call for the deportation of illegal immigrants.

It’s the latest blunt criticism from the retired Marine general, who has previously told members of Congress to "shut up" rather than criticize him over the laws they wrote.

He appeared Thursday on Capitol Hill with Speaker Paul D. Ryan and other Republicans, hours before the House was slated to vote on two new crackdown laws.

One would increase penalties on illegal immigrants who have been deported yet snuck back into the U.S. and later committed other crimes. That bill is named Kate’s law, after Kathryn Steinle, the woman killed by an illegal immigrant two years ago while walking the San Francisco waterfront with her father.

The other new bill would punish so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to let authorities cooperate with federal immigration officers trying to deport illegal immigrants.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 01:18 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Names???
Posted by: Injun Mussolini1321 || 06/30/2017 1:26 Comments || Top||

#2  He needs to carry his little $49 lawyer (recorder) around when confronted by so called congressmen.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/30/2017 12:21 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Bahrain authorities seize explosives in raid on Shiite group
[Ynet] Authorities in Bahrain say they have seized explosives and detained several suspects as part of a raid targetting a Shiite holy warrior group in the Gulf island nation.

The Ministry of Interior announced details of the operation against the Ashtar Brigade in the northeastern village of al-Dair on Thursday.

The Ashtar Brigade has claimed a number of bombings and attacks in the Sunni-ruled country, which hosts the US Navy's 5th Fleet.

The ministry says more than 50 kilograms of high-grade explosives and other materials including bomb-making diagrams and ammunition were seized in the raid. It was not immediately clear when the arrests took place.

Bahrain has been roiled by years of low-level unrest following a 2011 uprising led by its majority Shiites against the Sunni monarchy.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/30/2017 00:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies

#1  The ministry says more than 50 kilograms of high-grade explosives and other materials including bomb-making diagrams

Markings in Farsi, diagrams in Arabic?
Posted by: Pappy || 06/30/2017 11:26 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel freezes visits to Hamas prisoners amid talks over troops’ remains
[IsraelTimes] Terror group says move, demanded by politicians and relatives to up pressure as talks stall, is tantamount to declaration of war.
A war Hamas would at this time lose, so they won't do anything serious about it.
Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", on Thursday said that Israel had stopped allowing Gazook members of the terror group serving time in Israeli prisons to receive visits from family members, in a move intended to ramp up pressure amid negotiations for the return of three Israeli civilians and the bodies of two soldiers being held in the Strip.

Hamas leaders condemned the move as "the beginning of a war against the prisoners."

"We will not allow this decision to stand, whatever the price may be," they said in a statement.

An Israeli prison official refused to confirm the policy change.

Israel is holding some 150 Hamas security prisoners from Gazoo. In the past, families of Paleostinian inmates have been granted permits to cross from the Gazoo Strip into Israel to visit them.

On Tuesday, Channel 1 news reported that Israel and Hamas have been engaged in intensive indirect talks recently over the release of a number of Israeli nationals held captive by the terror group in Gazoo.

In addition to returning the missing soldiers, Israel has been seeking to reach a deal with the rulers of the Gazoo Strip to secure the release of three Israeli men who crossed into the coastal territory of their own accord: Avraham Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, as well as Juma Ibrahim Abu Ghanima, whose presence in Gazoo is unconfirmed.

The talks, which are being mediated by an unnamed third party, have gathered momentum over the past two weeks, following the return of Hamas’s leader in Gazoo, Yahya Sinwar, from a visit to Egypt earlier this month, the report said.

Hamas demands that Israel release all prisoners from the 2011 exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit who were reincarcerated
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
in 2014 when three Israeli teens were kidnapped in the West Bank (it later emerged that they had been killed almost immediately) before any advancement in negotiations between the parties can take place.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/30/2017 00:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Arabia
Blockade of Qatar starting to have a major impact on the global helium supply
+++ Side note... big users beside research are many types of rockets including SpaceX's Falcon's and Atlas +++
[GasWorld] Developments related to the Saudi Arabian-led blockade of Qatar as announced on 5th June have already begun to impact the global helium supply, says Phil Kornbluth, President of Kornbluth Helium Consulting, and editorial advisor to gasworld magazine (US Edition).

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain all united last week to sever diplomatic links, cut off air travel and close land borders with neighbouring Qatar.

It has now been five days since the blockade was announced, with early indications suggesting that it could remain in place for at least a few weeks if not longer; the Saudi-led group of countries are showing no signs of backing down and the US does not seem willing to intervene to resolve the crisis, thus far.

Kornbluth explained that whilst Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and exports is continuing without disruption, its effects are already being heavily felt in the helium supply chain.

RasGas has reportedly shut down both of its helium plants, removing roughly 2,000 containers loads per year ‐ equivalent to 32% of global demand ‐ from world markets.

Kornbluth stated, "The helium business is likely the single business most impacted by the blockade since helium may be the only commodity where Qatar production represents a large share of world supply ‐ and that supply has been totally cut-off by the blockade."

"Some of the helium containers that are within Qatar’s border, both full and empty, may be able to exit Qatar through its Hamad port in the Doha area," he continued. "Since the Hamad port has relatively infrequent sailings to a small number of destinations, this would be a lengthy, difficult and potentially risky process that would require transshipment to get containers to their ultimate destinations."

Jeopardy
It is understood that a number of full containers that had already crossed the Qatari border with Saudi Arabia were not allowed to cross the UAE border and were subsequently turned back to Qatar.

Kornbluth explained that the helium payload in these containers could be in jeopardy if the blockade lasts long enough and if the UAE ultimately refuses to allow these tanks to cross their border.

Production from helium refining facilities tied to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Pipeline & Storage System has already begun to ramp up as a result, but the organisation’s system could only partially replace the lost supply from the Middle Eastern country.

In addition, Kornbluth highlighted that those refining facilities would be limited in their ability to increase production until empty helium containers en route to Qatar could be rerouted to the US.

Major helium suppliers are now putting plans in place to reposition empty containers for filling in the US in order to minimise disruptions. But, given the time it takes to redirect empty containers to the US as well as the BLM’s inability to fully replace Qatar’s supply, Kornbluth said, "It seems inevitable that world helium markets will experience at least a temporary shortage of supply, with formal supply allocations likely if the blockade is not lifted very quickly."
Posted by: 3dc || 06/30/2017 00:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Qatar (MB)

#1  The troubles in Qatar hit almost 1/3 of the world's supply.
Posted by: 3dc || 06/30/2017 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  So, right now some frackers check if they've helium in their gas?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/30/2017 3:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Yup. Helium is a by-product of nuclear decay. Every few years the 'helium is a scarce resource that will run out' crowd floats this balloon. (unintentional pun). It is a cost of separation issue, not a 'we are using it all up, it is going to vanish, and we're all gonna die' kind of issue. Helium is undoubtably available in fracking streams (it is a btu-reducing contaminant) but I haven't noticed any frackers making mention of separating it from the main gas stream. Yet.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 06/30/2017 7:14 Comments || Top||

#4  At the time of the Hindenburg disaster (1938, and no - I was *not* there) the US had 98% of the world's helium supply and we would not sell to Hitler's Germany, so Germany had to use the much more combustible hydrogen. The rest, as they say, is history.
Posted by: Bobby || 06/30/2017 7:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Some background.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/30/2017 7:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Children and clowns hardest hit.
Posted by: Chesney Prince of the Visigoths3595 || 06/30/2017 9:26 Comments || Top||

#7  Just hook Nancy Pelosi up to the pipeline and our problems should be solved.
Posted by: gorb || 06/30/2017 10:05 Comments || Top||

#8  Children and clowns hardest hit

That and Fiber Optics production, cooling for MRI and other radiology equipment, cooling for nuke plants, high-temperature welding, combining with oxygen for the treatment of asthma, emphysema, and other respiratory problems, detecting leaks in the hulls of ships and, of course, the high squeaky voice.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 06/30/2017 10:05 Comments || Top||

#9  So the second most abundant element in the universe is running out?
Posted by: Lowspark || 06/30/2017 10:48 Comments || Top||

#10  The joys of a global economy.

That why there's a US Helium Reserve, which often gets laughed at, or called a boondoggle...
Posted by: Pappy || 06/30/2017 11:41 Comments || Top||

#11  I've never made light of it.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/30/2017 12:20 Comments || Top||

#12  Ha! Until now.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/30/2017 13:01 Comments || Top||

#13  OK, periodically; thought everyone needed a lift, He He.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/30/2017 14:31 Comments || Top||

#14  gorb, I think you are confusing helium with methane.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/30/2017 15:47 Comments || Top||

#15  I'd say 'go to your room' but I've already committed the same transgression elsewhere.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/30/2017 15:47 Comments || Top||

#16  Frankie Valley is panicking.
Posted by: Shipman || 06/30/2017 17:26 Comments || Top||

#17  Already went Pappy. I'm noble like that.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 06/30/2017 17:50 Comments || Top||

#18  Let's cool down gents, there's absolutely zero reason to puff yourselves up!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 06/30/2017 19:12 Comments || Top||

#19  He He He
Posted by: SteveS || 06/30/2017 19:26 Comments || Top||


Government
Seattle commissions new minimum-wage study after dismissing first results
[FoxNews] When a University of Washington study came out this week showing Seattle's minimum wage has cost 5,000 jobs and is hurting low income workers, city leaders attacked the messenger –- a team of respected economists at Washington's premiere public university.

The researchers, led by Jacob Vigdor, were hired by the city in 2014 to study the effects of Seattle's $15 wage experiment. The contract called for five years of research. City officials stopped funding the UW team when they didn't like the results.

"The moment we saw it was based on flawed methodology and was going to be unreliable, the Vigdor study no longer speaks for City Hall," said Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant.
"Keep doing it over and over until we get the results we like!"
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 06/30/2017 00:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They know the science is settled.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/30/2017 3:10 Comments || Top||

#2  No-one should earn a below average wage!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/30/2017 8:49 Comments || Top||

#3  "Keep doing it over and over until we get the results we like!"

See Pope-Galileo. The only 'facts' the Left is interested in is Lysenkoism.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/30/2017 8:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Not really surprised. The left does not like reality. Tends to mess up their money and power flow.
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/30/2017 9:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Repeated studies are so last millennium. Get yourself a computer model and you can have whatever result you want right from the start, just like the climate change boys.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/30/2017 10:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Some twenty years ago an number of grocery chains in south Texas got together and funded a university study on roadside stands that sell raw shrimp, mostly panel truck on the side of the highway kind of things. The study was going to be the setup for starting a bill to make it illegal to sell that way.
Unfortunately, the study found that roadside stands generally had better quality, fresher, and cheaper product than the stores. Basically right off the boat. Which was what it was.
Ooops.
Posted by: ed in texas || 06/30/2017 10:25 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
US accuses UN of failing to address Iran’s ‘repeated’ flouting of nuclear deal
[IsraelTimes] In rebuke to Security Council, Ambassador Haley cites Tehran’s ’ballistic missile launches’ and ’proven arms smuggling'.
How soon until she is ready to run for president?

Posted by: trailing wife || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Europe
Berlin again denies Erdogan permission to address German Turks
[IsraelTimes] Germany’s FM says speech ’would not be appropriate given the current adversarial situation with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey’.

Germany said Thursday it had rejected a request by Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
to address ethnic Turks in Germany next week on the sidelines of a G20 summit.

Berlin-Ankara relations have badly deteriorated amid disputes over The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
’s mass arrests of alleged state enemies since a failed coup last year and a host of other rights issues.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Berlin had received a request for Erdogan to be able to address members of the three-million-strong Turkish diaspora in the EU country.

"I explained weeks ago to my Turkish colleagues that we don’t think that would be a good idea," Gabriel said during a Russia visit, pointing at stretched police resources around the July 7-8 summit G20 in Hamburg.

"I also said quite frankly that such an appearance would not be appropriate given the current adversarial situation with Turkey," he added, stressing that Erdogan would however be "received with honors" at the summit.

Gabriel said he could "understand" his Social Democratic Party’s chancellor-candidate Martin Schulz, who had said "foreign politicians who abuse our values must not be allowed to give inflammatory speeches in Germany."

"I don’t want Mr Erdogan, who is jailing members of the opposition and journalists in Turkey, to hold large-scale events in Germany," Schulz told the Bild newspaper.

Erdogan last addressed Turkish-Germans in May 2015, in the city of Karlsruhe. The large Turkish diaspora is a legacy of Germany’s massive post-war "guest worker" program of the 1960s and 1970s.

But ties have been especially strained since the July failed coup in Turkey, and tensions have worsened over multiple issues including a referendum campaign to expand Erdogan’s powers.

Turkey imprisoned Deniz Yucel, a German-Turkish journalist with Die Welt daily, on terror charges earlier this year.

And this month Germany decided to withdraw its troops who support the fight against the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group in Syria from NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
partner Turkey’s Incirlik base and move them to Jordan after German politicians were refused the right to visit the base.
Then there is the issue of Turkish spying on Gulenists and Kurds in Germany, and on German officials as well, and unsubtle threats to all three parties if Germany does not comply with Turkish requests demands.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte


Arabia
6 Soddy soldiers die in missile attack un Najran
Yemeni army soldiers, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, have conducted a fresh missile attack against a military base in Saudi Arabia’s southern Najran region, killing six Saudi soldiers.

The Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported on Thursday that the missile hit the al-Shabakah base.

Yemeni forces carried out a similar attack on the al-Farizah military base in Saudi Arabia’s southwestern Jizan region, which set the post on fire, the report added.

The Yemeni forces have recently stepped up their retaliatory assaults against Riyadh’s deadly war on the impoverished country.

Separately on Thursday, a Yemeni military source reported intense clashes between militants loyal to former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, and Houthi Ansarullah fighters in the Sirwah district of the central Ma’rib Province.

Six pro-Hadi militants and 14 Houthi fighters lost their lives in the clashes over the past 24 hours, the source added.

Yemen’s Khabar news agency said a high-ranking pro-Hadi commander was among the casualties of the Ma’rib scuffles.

Other reports said dozens of Saudi mercenaries had been killed in the clashes.

Source: Press TV
Posted by: badanov || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Home Front: WoT
House panel votes to repeal war authorization for fight against ISIS and al Qaeda
[CNN] Blindsiding leaders in both parties, a House committee on Thursday approved a repeal of the war authorization that the US military relies on to fight the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and around the globe.

The House Appropriations Committee approved by voice vote an amendment from Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California that would repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force eight months after the appropriations bill was signed into law.
The amendment is intended is to force Congress to debate and pass a new war authorization for the war against ISIS and al Qaeda. Critics like Lee argue the 2001 war authorization is overly broad and gives the president "the authority to wage war in perpetuity."

This is believed to be the first time a congressional panel has voted to repeal the 2001 AUMF, setting the stage for a rare House floor debate and potential vote on an issue that lawmakers in both parties have been reluctant to take up, still wary of the consequences for Hillary Clinton and others after the 2002 Iraq War vote.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
The Beatings Will Continue: Iraqi and Syria Editions


ISIS mufti executed in Mosul

Tal Afar (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants have executed a top legislator for plotting armed dissent against the group at a major stronghold west of Mosul, a local source in Nineveh province said Thursday.

ِThe source told Alsumaria News that Abu Zakaria, the first “mufti” to be appointed by the group in 2014 in the town of Tal Afar, was executed after he had been jailed for more than four months over accusations of plotting an armed dissent against the group there.

Abu Zakaria, in his 50s, is a resident of Mosul, the source revealed.

Islamic State have been holding Tal Afar since 2014, with the area becoming one of its most significant bastions in Nineveh province.

ISIS recruits new leader in Daraa

Daraa (Syria News) The self-proclaimed Islamic State group has assigned a new Emir, on Wednesday, after the killing of the first line leaders by a U.S. air strike in Jillen Town, west of Daraa.

Qasioun News reported on Thursday that the Islamic State militants have pledged allegiance to Wael Fa’our al-Eid, also known as Abu Taim Inkhil, as the General Emir in al-Yarmouk Basin, after serving as the military Emir in the same area.

The 40-year-old new Emir was the security operations and assassinations official in the so-called Jaysh al-Jihad (Jihad army) in the area, especially in Inkhil Town.

It is noteworthy that the international coalition bombarded, yesterday, headquarters of the Islamic State’s Jaysh Khalid Brigade, west of Daraa, and killed the General Emir of the group in the area.
Posted by: badanov || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Kurdish Sniper Smiles After Dodging Death [VIDEO]
[Daily Caller] A Kurdish sniper narrowly escaped with her life after a bullet whizzed past her head and struck the wall behind her.

Video of the incident began making its way round the Internet late Tuesday.

The female sniper, dressed in a military uniform, was shooting from cover with what appears to be a Soviet produced Dragunov SVD rifle.

After firing a shot of her own, the bullet flies past her head and crashes into the wall she was standing up against, which was already peppered with bullet holes.

She immediately dropped down for more cover after dodging the bullet, and couldn’t help smiling after the close call that would have almost certainly ended her life.

The Kurdish soldier was accompanied by at least two others who can be heard speaking to her just after the bullet struck. Although we can’t make out what they’re saying, it’s likely one of them told her she’s lucky to be alive.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nice big blue headscarf target with red spots and awfully clean cammies. Possibly 'Kurdish girl snipers' calendar shot.

Just a little too calm. No second shot report, almost like a ricochet.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/30/2017 10:30 Comments || Top||

#2  It was be a waste of a pretty young sniper if she were zapped. She might consider giving a little more attention to her sniper hide and get rid of the bright blue head covering for something a little less conspicuous.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 10:30 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Somalia hit by internet outage after fibre optic cables are cut by ship
[AFRICANEWS] A major internet outage has hit Somalia with people in the capital Mogadishu not having access for five straight days as at Wednesday June 28, 2017.

A Voice of America (VOA) journalist, Harun Maruf, said according to sources the cause of the outage was because undersea cables had been cut by a large ship. Among the worse affected are the media, businesses and government offices.

A Somali news portal quoted a senior director of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Ahmed Haji Ali, as confirming the outage which he said started shortly on Monday after suspected commercial ship hit the fibre optic internet cable in the Indian Ocean.

Reports indicate that many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country rely on the affected cable line resulting in internet and fixed voice service providers to go down.

The journalist reported that engineers had been dispatched from Oman to repair the cables but did not state when connection will be restored. It is also said to have affected money transfer transactions especially coming during the end of Ramadan period.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like a good cut to me. One way to stop money transfers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/30/2017 12:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Damned anchor draggers!
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/30/2017 13:06 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Tribal elders reject PM's compensation package for Parachinar bombing victims
[DAWN] Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
on Thursday announced Rs1 million as compensation for each family of the victims of the recent Parachinar bombing attack, which claimed at least 72 lives.

The prime minister also announced Rs0.5 million for each person injured in the blasts, according to a statement issued from the Prime Minister House. The premier has already issued directions to Governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
Zafar Iqbal Jhagra in this regard, read the statement.

However,
denial ain't just a river in Egypt...
protesting tribal elders have rejected the offered compensation, saying that they need to be recognised as human beings first. The compensation was announced six days after the bombing.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Africa North
3 LNA soldiers die in Banghazi
Benghazi, 28 June 2017:

In Benghazi’s Sabri district today, there has been more heavy fighting in which at least three Libyan National Army (LNA) soldiers have died and a significant number have been injured. The LNA has not issued official casualty figures but there has been a steady flow of ambulances taking the wounded away from the frontline.

Armed forces commander in chief Khalifa Hafter used a broadcast to praise the efforts of the soldiers and to tell them that the end of the Benghazi battle against the militants was in sight.

As with the final stages in the fight to take Ganfouda, it appears that the militants are putting up a ferocious defence. At least two soldiers were shot dead by a sniper, who LNA sources say, was then himself shot and killed by an LNA marksman.

In their slow advance today, soldiers reportedly took control of the Al-Thadi football club and surrounding buildings. A single shell fired from inside Sabri landed in the Salmani district on the Shamal football ground, damaging shops but causing no casualties.

Troops today discovered the body of a soldier who went missing two years ago. Mohammed Al-Barghthi disappeared in 2015 during one of the LNA’s first operations against Suq Al-Hout. It is unclear how he died or how his corpse was discovered and identified.

Posted by: badanov || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russian court convicts five of murdering Boris Nemtsov
[Al Jazeera] A Russian jury has found five men guilty of organising and carrying out the contract killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov two years ago, after a trial his allies say failed to unmask the masterminds.

Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and fierce Kremlin critic, was gunned down in central Moscow as he walked home with his girlfriend late in the evening of February 27, 2015.

The murder just steps from the Kremlin in the Russian capital was the most high-profile political killing in the capital since President Vladimir Putin rose to power some 17 years ago.

The 12-person jury ruled after the third day of deliberations that defendants Zaur Dadayev, Shadid and Anzor Gubashev, Temirlan Eskerkhanov and Khamzat Bakhayev - all ethnic Chechens from Russia's volatile North Caucasus - carried out the hit as part of an organised gang.
Murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov remembered at rally

Dadayev, a former officer in an interior ministry battalion in Chechnya, was found guilty of firing the four fatal shots.

The Gubashev brothers, Eskerkhanov and Bakhayev were found guilty of helping to organise and carry out the killing.

The jury's decision was reached by majority vote after they first failed to come to unanimous decisions on the long list of charges against the defendants at the end of ten months of hearings.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
I had no idea Chelsea was Muslim
[PatriotRetort] Oh, brother. Has Chelsea never heard the old saying, "’Tis better to be thought a fool, than to tweet out 140 characters and remove all doubt."

I’m telling you, Chelsea’s twitter feed is the gift that keeps on giving.

So desperate is she to glom on to the Victim Group du Jour that Chelsea has to rewrite her own family history.

But there are some glaring problems with Chelsea’s moronic argument.
Continues...
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No way she's Slick Willy's get.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/30/2017 5:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Do you seriously believe that Bill ever had sex with Hillary, grom?
Posted by: whitecollar redneck || 06/30/2017 7:43 Comments || Top||

#3  So desperate is she to glom on to the Victim Group du Jour that Chelsea has to rewrite her own family history.

Cultural appropriation. Seems to be a phenomena of the open-borders, "we are all one" wacky left. Kumbaya. See Elizabeth Warren.

HRC came to the Rose Law Firm where Webb and Vince were partners. IMO she was a career climber or user some might say. Anything is possible.


Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 8:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Whitecolor, on him I'd believe sex with female killer whale.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/30/2017 9:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Who knows who her daddy is... Really. Bill never tagged her mom. There are rumors of some desperate dem party dude, and rumors of her paying for men. Any one of them could be her dad....
Posted by: 49 Pan || 06/30/2017 10:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Do you seriously believe that Bill ever had sex with Hillary, grom?

Just thinking about it makes me wanna puke.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 06/30/2017 10:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Every tweet can and will be used against her if she ever runs for office.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/30/2017 12:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Correct me if I'm wrong, but the whole "relationship" thing was cooked up by our legal betters (stop laughing!) and was *not* part of Trump's executive order.
Posted by: SteveS || 06/30/2017 16:47 Comments || Top||

#9  "I had no idea Chelsea was Muslim"
Now, see, here and I thought that she was just a dipshit, but I guess she decided to go all in.
(They do need to give her her paper bag back, though... you know, over the head.)
Posted by: ed in texas || 06/30/2017 20:53 Comments || Top||

#10  Every Father's Day she sends a card to Webb's syringe
Posted by: Frank G || 06/30/2017 21:30 Comments || Top||

#11  Every Father's Day she sends a card to Webb's syringe turkey baster.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/30/2017 22:00 Comments || Top||


Europe
Gas canister with likely ‘ignition device’ found in Berlin McDonald’s
[RT] McDonald’s customers hoping to treat themselves to an Egg McMuffin were instead startled to find a gas canister at the fast food chain. The restaurant was evacuated following the discovery, which police say likely contained an "ignition device."

Customers found the gas canister at a McDonald’s in Berlin’s Kreuzberg neighborhood at around 9am local time on Thursday. It was connected to a cable.

Customers were quickly evacuated while explosives experts were called in to examine the device.

Two hours later, at around 11am, police tweeted that specialists had disarmed the device. Fire services also ventilated the restaurant "due to the high concentration of gas there."

Police also tweeted that Sherlocks believe the canister was armed with an "ignition device."

Bild reported that the cable attached to the canister had been reeled out to the parking lot behind the restaurant.

"A signal would have been enough to blow the whole restaurant into the air. We assume this was an attempt at an attack," a police source told the German tabloid, as quoted by The Local.

State security authorities have now taken over the investigation, according to Spiegel.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Muzzies or haute cuisine fanatics?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/30/2017 2:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Welcome to Mickey D,s would you like to become a happy meal or hamburger ?
Posted by: Snilet Hatrack8707 || 06/30/2017 7:23 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Palestinian with knife stopped at Hebron checkpoint
[IsraelTimes] Soldiers detain man after he tries to hide blade, in second such incident of the day in the West Bank city.

A Paleostinian man was jugged
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
on Thursday at a checkpoint in Hebron
...Hamas Central in the West Bank, and the site of the oldest Jewish community in the world. It was here that Abraham purchased a field to bury his wife, Sarah, where David was anointed king of Israel and ruled until he moved to Jerusalem, and where Jews lived continuously until driven out by the Arab pogrom of 1929. They moved back in 1967....
after he was found to be carrying a knife, police said, in the second such incident of the day in the flashpoint West Bank city.

Security forces outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs asked the suspect, a 20-year-old resident of the area, to place his personal belongings on a table, police said.

After they noticed him trying to hide a knife, they detained him for questioning.

Earlier Thursday, a Paleostinian man was arrested approaching a Border Police roadblock at an entrance to the city with a concealed knife, police said in a statement. When officers called on the man to stop for a security check, he discarded the knife, which he had been carrying in his sock, Israel Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. The suspect, a resident of a nearby Paleostinian village said to be in his 30s, was taken in for questioning.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


The Grand Turk
Contract with Turkey on S-400 missile systems ‘agreed upon’ -- Putin aide
[RT] A contract with Ankara to deliver cutting-edge Russian anti-aircraft S-400 missile systems has been “agreed upon,” but the consultations on financial aspects of the planned deal are still being discussed.

“The contract is agreed upon, everything is clear, the issue of a loan has not been resolved yet,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aide on military-technical cooperation, Vladimir Kozhin, said at the 7th International Maritime Defense Show in St. Petersburg on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Sublime Porte

#1  So IIUC Russia is selling advanced air defense missiles to NATO.

This does not compute. Something is seriously wrong here.
Posted by: AlanC || 06/30/2017 8:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Either Russia is really hard up for cash, or they know Turkey will be leaving the NATO orbit soon.

Either way, it makes it a lot easier to steal specs and performance data on the S-400.
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/30/2017 10:26 Comments || Top||

#3  The S-600 will be in Russian service before the S-400's are finally shipped to Turkey? Remember the Russian aircraft carrier transactions?
Posted by: magie || 06/30/2017 17:27 Comments || Top||


Government
House passes bills to crack down on ‘sanctuary cities’
[WASHINGTONPOST] The House on Thursday passed two hard-line immigration bills that would penalize illegal immigrants colonists who commit crimes and local jurisdictions that refuse to work with federal authorities to deport them.

Both bills, Kate’s Law and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, passed on largely party-line votes amid heavy promotion from Republicans, starting with President Trump.

"MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!" Trump tweeted as the House debated the bills Thursday, one of five tweets he pushed out to his 35 million followers highlighting the legislation.

Before the vote, Trump urged politicians to pass the bill during remarks at the Department of Energy, calling them "vital to public safety and national security."

Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly appeared on Capitol Hill ahead of the vote Thursday with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) and other Republican leaders to promote the bills.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now if we can only find non Dem Judges that recognize US law.
Posted by: Injun Mussolini1321 || 06/30/2017 1:11 Comments || Top||

#2  It's all Kabuki theater. Don't pass bills like this, just impeach about a dozen fed judges and suddenly, the laws will be enforced. It's called - Checks and Balances.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/30/2017 7:31 Comments || Top||

#3  The black robed tyrants of the left will just start issuing orders to block this if it passes.

I'm kinda beyond impeaching them at this point P2K. Dragging them into the street, ripping their robes from them and pelting them with rotten fruit and sewage as they are forced to run out of town is more of what I'm thinking.
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/30/2017 9:03 Comments || Top||

#4  What's wrong with a good old fashioned tar and feathering?

Agree with the impeacment. Start doing that and break up the 9th circus court for a start.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/30/2017 9:06 Comments || Top||


USS Fitzgerald: When A Big Ocean Gets Small
[US Naval Institute] It is a big ocean. Until you have been far into it, it is really hard to appreciate just how big. Bringing a ship back from Japan to Hawaii, I once went ten days without seeing another ship, either by eye or radar. That is a long time to be alone in the world, especially if you are moving in a straight line and at good speed.

On the other hand, you would be surprised at how crowded the ocean can get in certain places. The Strait of Malacca, for instance, divides the island of Sumatra from Malaysia. Not only is Singapore at the southern end--one of the great maritime ports of the world--but most of the shipping moving between Asia and Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, travels through this increasingly narrow, 600 mile-long passage. Every year, 100,000 ships transit this strait. By the way, these confined waters are infested with pirates and literally thousands of fishing boats. While a chart may make the strait seem wide, the passable channel for big ships is only a couple of miles wide.

Challenging By Day, Frightening at Night.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Somebody must have mentioned keelhauling. Just, you know, casually, as a sort of historical note or something.
Because I haven't seen a single report claiming to be sourced to the boys and girls on the Fitz.
Posted by: Richard Aubrey || 06/30/2017 6:34 Comments || Top||

#2  No leaks in the US Navy?
Posted by: Bobby || 06/30/2017 7:30 Comments || Top||

#3  Bobby, if you're in the military, the people above you have more powers than in the civilian world.

I saw an email from some admiral telling people NOT to openly speculate about the collision while the investigation is underway. Looks like people are listening.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 06/30/2017 8:58 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
US to resume Black Hawk sales to Thailand
[Bangkok Post] The U.S. has agreed to sell four more Black Hawk helicopters to the army, reversing an earlier decision not to sell the aircraft after the 2014 coup. Gen. Chalermchai Sitthisat said Thursday that the sale would proceed under the U.S. Department of Defense's Foreign Military Sales program.

The army already has 12 multirole Black Hawk helicopters and the four new ones would increase the number to 16, completing the fleet that the army wants, he said.

Speculation that Thailand might purchase military equipment from the U.S. was high after Defense Ministry spokesman Kongcheep Tantravanich said on Monday the armed forces were being asked to compile information about American-made weapons ahead of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's planned trip to the U.S. next month.
Posted by: ryuge || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan
Nato says to send more forces to Afghan war
[DAWN] NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
allies agreed on Thursday to send more troops to Afghanistan, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, adding that the alliance would also increase its focus on supporting Afghan special operations forces.

Stoltenberg, who was speaking after a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels, also said sanctuaries used by turbans across the border in Pakistain had "to be addressed as part of the solution to the conflict".

'US, allies withdrew from Afghanistan too fast'
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said the United States and its NATO allies likely drew down its big troop presence too quickly from Afghanistan, but he vowed to stick with the war, refusing to put a date on when it might end.

"Looking back on it, it's pretty much a consensus that we may have pulled our troops out too rapidly, reduced the numbers a little too rapidly," Mattis told a news conference following a meeting of NATO defence ministers to discuss Afghanistan.

US forces in Afghanistan are below their peak of more than 100,000 troops in 2011, when Washington was under huge domestic political pressure to draw down the costly operation.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Taliban

#1  2011, when Washington was under huge domestic political pressure to draw down the costly operation, for the election.

Posted by: Skidmark || 06/30/2017 13:04 Comments || Top||


Bid to kidnap Afghan army officer turns deadly for militants in Logar
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A bid to abduct an officer of the Afghan national army in central Pashtun-infested Logar province, close to capital Kabul, turned deadly for the hard boyz in this province as the holy warrior appointed for the task was brutally rubbed out by the army officer.

The bid turned deadly for the hard boyz after the army officer whipped out his rod and plugged the driver of the vehicle.
According to local government officials in Logar, the incident took place early on Wednesday in Khosh district.

The provincial government media office in a statement also confirmed the report and said the hard boy given the task for the abduction of the army officer faced an unexpected reaction as he was trying to kidnap the army officer.

The statement further added that the incident took place in the vicinity of Qala-e-Safid area of Khosha district on Wednesday morning as the army officer was travelling in a vehicle and the snuffies were attempting to kidnap him.

However,
alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk...
the bid turned deadly for the hard boyz after the army officer used the opportunity to take out the gun and instantly kill the driver of the vehicle, apparently a member of the hard boyz group, who was attempting to take him to the custody of the holy warriors.

According to the local officials, the dead body of the hard boy was taken to the historic provincial capital and the army officer was also shifted to a secure place after the incident.

The anti-government armed holy warrior groups including the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
hard boyz have not commented regarding the incident so far.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


Arabia
Qataris hire Swiss lawyers to sue Gulf ‘siege’ states
[DAWN] A top Qatari
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates...
human rights
...not to be confused with individual rights, mind you...
group said on Wednesday it will employ Swiss lawyers to seek compensation for those impacted by the decision of Gulf countries to cut ties with the emirate.

Ali bin Smaikh al-Marri, chairman of Qatar’s National Human Rights Commission, said his group would take action against 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...
, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which cut ties with Qatar this month.

"We’ll be coordinating to start legal action with those affected by these sanctions," Marri told a news conference. "The three countries are responsible to compensate those affected," he said, adding many Qataris qualified for compensation."Some cases will be filed in courts in those three countries and in some courts that have international jurisdictions, like in Europe, related to compensation."

Marri refused to say which Swiss firm would be employed, but said a statement would be released in the near future.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Qatar (MB)


Africa North
Gunmen open fire on U.N. convoy in Libya
[AFRICANEWS] Gunmen opened fired on a United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
convoy on a coastal road west of the Libyan capital, Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, on Wednesday, an incident that could complicate the gradual return of diplomatic and other international staff to Libya.

"The U.N. Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) confirms that a U.N. convoy was hit today travelling between Surman and Tripoli," a statement from the mission said, adding there were no reports of casualties among U.N. staff.

A member of parliament for Zawiya, Abdallah Alafi, said five male U.N. staff and two female staff had been held briefly and then released and would be transferred to Tripoli.

It was not clear why the convoy was hit and whether the staff were tossed into the calaboose or held for their own protection.

A picture circulating on social media showed an unmarked white vehicle of the kind used by U.N. staff in Libya apparently immobilised on the edge of a road, with the front wheel casing badly damaged and shatter marks on two of the windows.

"UNSMIL thanks the Government of National Accord, House of Representative Members from Zawiya and local authorities for their help in ensuring the safety of U.N. staff and is looking forward to their safe return to Tripoli," the U.N. statement said.

Surman is just west of the city of Zawiya. A number of militias have a presence in the area and the road is often closed because of local disputes. Kidnappings are common.

UNSMIL along with most diplomatic missions evacuated from Tripoli to neighbouring Tunisia in 2014 as rival factions battled for control of the Libyan capital.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: Arab Spring


Africa Subsaharan
Nigeria's kidnapping don files suit over illegal detention and media trial
[AFRICANEWS] Chukwudubem Onwuamadike popularly known as Evans, a notorious kidnapper in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, has dragged the country’s police chief and three government agencies to court over his continued detention without charge.

In court documents filed on June 28, 2017; at the Federal High Court in Lagos, Evans said he had been held since his arrest for close to three weeks and detained without a court order. He also accused the security services of subjecting him to a media trial.

Due to his detention, the suit was deposed to by one Stephen Onwuamadike, a businessman and farmer ‐ who happens to be Evans’ father. ’’The applicant has a constitutional right to be arraigned and charged before a court of competent jurisdiction for any offence or crime allegedly committed by the applicant,’’ it read in parts.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Kill him. The suits go away
Posted by: Frank G || 06/30/2017 20:48 Comments || Top||


Arabia
20 die in fighting in Marib
ADEN: Six soldiers were killed in Yemen on Thursday, a military source said, as government forces seek to cement their control over Marib province, east of the rebel-held capital.

The source said 14 rebels were also killed over the past 24 hours in intense fighting for Sarwah, the last district in the mainly Sunni province still held by the rebels.

The government has been battling since last year to retake the mountainous district, which commands the main road to the capital Sanaa.

Despite the military intervention of a coalition in March 2015, the government’s writ is still largely confined to the south and areas along the Saudi border.

The government announced a shake-up of its military command on Wednesday. It also named new governors for three of the six provinces largely under its control — Hadramawt, Shabwa and the far-flung island of Socotra.

Both Hadramawt and Shabwa have seen significant activity by Al-Qaeda, which has taken advantage of the conflict between the government and the rebels to expand its presence.

The World Health Organization estimates that more than 8,000 people have been killed in the conflict, most of them civilians.

The country has also been hit by a deadly cholera outbreak and faces the risk of famine.
No one could have known war is hell.
Posted by: badanov || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under: Houthis


Government
Obamacare Process ‘Was All Very Transparent,' ‘Open and Honest'
[Breitbart] Thursday on a Facebook live event on the Democratic Party Facebook page, former White House senior advisor to President Barack Obama Valerie Jarrett said the legislative process to pass the Affordable Care Act in 2010 was "very transparent."

Jarrett said, "I mean we had hundreds of meetings. We made hundreds of amendments. It was all very transparent. The President had a great meeting where we invited in the Republicans for an open press session to answer all of their questions. It was a collaborative effort. The intent was to make it bipartisan, and the intent was to be open and honest with the American people. Our scoring was put out for everybody to see because we wanted people to understand before the decision was made what was at stake and what we were trying to accomplish."

"Right now, everyone was scurrying around this week to read a very long and complicated bill, and the question you have to say was, ’If they’re proud of it, why were they hiding it behind closed doors?'" she continued. "And my real hot button is, why were 13 men in a room deciding about health care that impacts my life? You have 21 women in the Senate. They couldn’t have picked one of those women to be there?"
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...And by the way, we have always been at war with Eastasia."

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 06/30/2017 7:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Pelosi - We have to pass this bill to find out what's in it
Posted by: Bobby || 06/30/2017 7:57 Comments || Top||

#3  "If you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." BHO. STFU and accept Obamacare, we won. We don't need no stinking Pub input either was the message when this turkey was forced upon us.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 8:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Jarrett said, "I mean we had hundreds of meetings. We made hundreds of amendments.

And the H.R. 3962 was thousands of pages in length but that didn't matter, it still failed. Aside from that, whe is it necessary that we hear from Valerie Jarrett on foking anything ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 9:00 Comments || Top||

#5  why is it necessary that we hear from Valerie Jarrett on foking anything

Because they're in deep sh*t and she was the brains behind it. Everyone else is bailing on her.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 06/30/2017 10:12 Comments || Top||

#6  I seem to remember having less than three days to read and interpret this monstrosity before it was voted on. I seem to remember lots of backroom deals to buy various Dems' votes, some in the hundreds of millions of dollars. I seem to remember Obumhole supposedly "fooling" a bunch of Right-to-Life Dems about the abortion aspects of the bill.

Yeah, right. Very transparent.
Posted by: gorb || 06/30/2017 10:29 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
'Israel, UAE, Egypt plan to install Dahlan Gaza leader'
Ooooooohhhh, a nefarious plot! Hold me, George, I feel faint.
[Al Jazeera] An editorial board member of Israel's Haaretz newspaper has said Israel, Egypt and the UAE are planning to install Mohammed Dahlan, the 55-year-old exiled former Fatah official, as Gazoo's leader.

Zvi Barel said in an opinion piece published on Thursday that the plan also aimed to see Dahlan replace the Paleostinian Authority's the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
and the Fatah movement - the ruling party in the occupied West Bank - and the Paleostinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).

He said it was "too early to assess whether this plan will be fully implemented" as the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement, which rules Gazoo, could reject Dahlan, who used to head the PA's security services in Gazoo.

But if successful, according to Barel, Egypt would ease the siege of Gazoo by opening the Rafah border crossing and the UAE would fund a power station on the Egyptian side of the border.

A "state of Gazoo" could become a reality with Dahlan at its head, something that, for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is "the plan's key", he said.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under: PLO

#1  opinion

not news
Posted by: lord garth || 06/30/2017 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  To Ha'aretz it was an opinion, lord garth -- they're only halfway round the bend. To Al Jazeera it's news.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/30/2017 0:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Ha'aretz they're only halfway round the bend

Sez you.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/30/2017 2:54 Comments || Top||


PLO to UN: 'Hamas and PFLP are not terrorist organizations'
[JPOST] “Hamas and the PFLP are not terrorist organizations,” Saeb Erekat, secretary- general of the PLO, said on Thursday at the “UN Forum Marking 50 Years of Occupation.”

Erekat made the comment in response to a question from The Jerusalem Post regarding recent Israeli allegations that some of the organizations participating in the event were linked to the two groups.

Earlier during the forum, he called Hamas a “Palestinian political party.”

“We are a people who strive to achieve our independence, and our choice in the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, is to achieve peace peacefully through negotiations,” he added.

Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon released a statement on Wednesday saying that according to intelligence, the group Al-Haq, whose representative was to speak at the event, collaborates with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, known as the PFLP. Earlier this month, the PFLP claimed responsibility for the murder of policewoman Hadas Malka, killed in a June 16 stabbing attack just outside Jerusalem’s Old City.

In addition, the Israeli mission said information it had received showed that the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, another group at the conference, works regularly with Hamas.

Both Hamas and the PFLP have been on the US State Department’s list of terrorist organizations since 1997. The European Union, too, recognizes them as such.

“They have no shame,” Danon said.

“These are lies and incitement from those who are paying terrorists to kill innocent Israelis. These obsessive attempts to besmirch our good name will not change the fact that the Palestinian leadership refuses to end their support for terror.”

As part of his address to the forum, Erekat also accused Israel’s prime minister of promoting apartheid.

“The Israeli government headed by Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu,” he said, “is trying to replace the two-state solution with one state/two systems: apartheid. Ignoring facts does not mean they don’t exist.”
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: PLO

#1  Why is Erekat still alive?
Posted by: Frank G || 06/30/2017 11:21 Comments || Top||

#2  I guess the fact that the PLFP trained every lunatic fringe terrorist group from Red Army Faction and Black September to the IRA and the Basques doesn't make them a terrorist group.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 06/30/2017 16:18 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
CBO Cooked the Books on Senate Healthcare Plan
[Forbes] But a cursory look at the CBO's own data raises serious questions about its headline conclusion and should make many in Congress ask CBO some tough questions.

CBO's projected Medicaid losses have their own problems. For example, 5 million are projected to "lose" Medicaid expansion coverage in states that never expanded Medicaid in the first place. Another 7 million are projected to "lose" Medicaid coverage because the individual mandate goes away, even though the individual mandate does not apply to almost all of those currently on or eligible for Medicaid.

But CBO's projections for the individual market are perhaps the most bizarre. According to the CBO, roughly 19 million Americans are expected to buy insurance in the individual market in 2018 if the BCRA becomes law.

CBO states that BCRA is responsible for a 7 million person reduction from what would happen under current law (the Affordable Care Act), based on CBO's 2016 baseline estimates.

The only trouble? CBO updated its baseline estimates in January 2017 to account for how much lower the actual Obamacare exchange enrollment has been, much lower than it previously anticipated as recently as last year.
Posted by: Beavis || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The CBO says "5 million are projected to "lose" Medicaid expansion coverage in states that never expanded The CBO says Medicaid in the first place. Another 7 million are projected to "lose" Medicaid coverage because the individual mandate goes away, even though the individual mandate does not apply to almost all of those currently on or eligible for Medicaid."


I thought SCOTUS decided to scrap the individual mandate for the ACA. It was never a part of Medicaid as stated above.

If you are suspicious of the CBO projections, here some more of which to be suspicious. CBO Projections for Healthcare Plans.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 8:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Can't they just do some kind of crowdsourcing on the assumptions?
Posted by: gorb || 06/30/2017 10:30 Comments || Top||


Africa North
80 cops hurt in Morocco unrest
[DAWN] Nearly 80 police officers were injured in two days of clashes with protesters in Morocco’s restive Rif region, an official said on Wednesday, although the number of demonstrators hurt was unknown.

The Rif region has been rocked by unrest since a fishmonger was crushed to death in a rubbish truck in October as he tried to retrieve swordfish confiscated for being caught out of season.
Around 50 members of the security forces were hurt on Monday in the northern city of Al Hoceima, most of them struck by stones, a high-ranking interior ministry official said. On Tuesday, 29 police officers were injured during fresh clashes in the neighbouring town of Imzouren, the same source said, adding that they were all later released from hospital.

The Rif region has been rocked by unrest since a fishmonger was crushed to death in a rubbish truck in October as he tried to retrieve swordfish confiscated for being caught out of season.

In the eight months since then, demands for justice and anger over the region’s perceived marginalisation snowballed into a grass-roots movement centred on Al Hoceima.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Iraqi military claims capturing iconic mosque
[DAWN] The Iraqi military on Thursday announced the recapture of the iconic djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
mosque where Death Eater IS chief His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
made his only public appearance, calling on Moslems to obey him.

The announcement of the recapture of the mosque -- which the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group blew up last week as Iraqi forces closed in -- comes three years to the day after the faceless myrmidons declared a 'caliphate' straddling Iraq and Syria.

"Counter-Terrorism Service forces control the Nuri mosque and al-Hadba (minaret)," the Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

After a senior special forces commander said the mosque had not in fact been retaken, the operations command clarified that it meant Iraqi forces had isolated the area and were "advancing toward the completion of the goals."

The mosque and its famed al-Hadba (hunchback) leaning minaret were Mosul landmarks and also held major significance in the history of IS rule in Iraq.

Iraqiya state TV carried a banner on Thursday announcing the "fall of the mythical state" -- a play in Arabic on the IS title "state of the caliphate." Baghdadi appeared at Friday prayers at the Nuri mosque in 2014, soon after IS seized Iraq's second city, calling on Moslems to obey him.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  Of course thats the most important thing, you know capturing a blown up mosque. These people are a whole nother level of fuckin stupid.
Posted by: chris || 06/30/2017 9:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder how much money is gonna be spent to recreate the Leaning Minaret?
Posted by: Pappy || 06/30/2017 11:30 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder how much money is gonna be spent to recreate the Leaning Minaret?

How about if they just build a new minaret, and one of us goes over there and figures out a way to make it lean. Or fall over.
Posted by: gorb || 06/30/2017 22:15 Comments || Top||


Government
Declassified CIA Document: Use of Staples
Can't reproduce it here.
Gotta' hit the link. Sorry


I didn't see a classification on it.

In 1963 offices relied on file clerks and stenographers, a different world entirely. Still, after 54 years, the internal office guidance does look quaint.
Posted by: Anomalous Sources || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Staples show commitment, paper clips not so much.
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/30/2017 13:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Agreed, Skidmark.

My model 3786x never leaves me frustrated or confused.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 06/30/2017 15:49 Comments || Top||

#3  Anybody seen my red Swingline?
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 06/30/2017 19:14 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pakistan bans TAJK backed by Hafiz Saeed
[The Hindu] Tehrik-e-Azaadi Jammu and Kashmire (TAJK), which India claims to be a front for Hafiz Saeed
...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat...
’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
(JuD), has been banned by Pakistain after India raised the issue at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-financial terror body, in February this year.

According to the website of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NCTA) under Pakistain’s Interior Ministry, TAJK was placed on the list of "proscribed organizations" on June 8. There are 64 other outfits in the list, which includes Jaish-e-Mohammad
...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat...
, Al Qaeda, Tehrik-e-Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
and Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
Liberation Army among others.

On January 14, days before JuD chief Hafiz Saeed was put under "house arrest" in Pakistain, he appeared at a presser held by TAJK chairman Ghulam Mohammad Safi. In the video available with The Hindu, Safi said, "I congratulate Hafiz Saeed that he has declared 2017 as the year of Kashmire and that he has agreed to run his programme under the banner of TAJK." The video was put out by the JuD’s cyber cell and also sports the JuD logo. While the JuD is not banned in Pakistain, it was placed under the category of "organizations under watch" on January 27. Three days later, Saeed was placed in detention under pressure from the United States.

India first raised the activities of TAJK at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary at Gay Paree in February.

"This the first time, Pakistain has banned an outfit on the basis of representations submitted by India to an international body," said a senior government official.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba

#1  Bans Supports
Posted by: Frank G || 06/30/2017 20:42 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
DRC demands 40% of gross revenue from mining operators
[AFRICANEWS] Copper and cobalt alone account for nearly eighty percent of the democratic republic of Congo’s revenue. With the slump in global mineral prices and a stagnant economic growth, the government has directed all mining operators to repatriate forty percent of their gross revenue.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why not auction the extraction rights based on how much of the product they dig up?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/30/2017 4:11 Comments || Top||

#2  looks like a play right out of Veneuzela
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 06/30/2017 9:36 Comments || Top||

#3  The DRC still lags behind the our own Federal Corporate income tax of 35% and 15% to 20% tax on investment 'Capital Gains.'

Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 9:54 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
UN agrees to cut down Darfur peacekeeping force
[Al Jazeera] UN Security Council has agreed to a major reduction of peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region after US pressure led to a $600m cut in the UN budget for peace operations.

The council on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by the UK that will cut the number of troops and police serving in the joint African Union-UN mission known as UNAMID by at least 30 percent.
An Nahar adds:
Under the deal reached by a General Assembly budget committee, the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
will spend $7.3 billion on peacekeeping in the coming year, down from the current $7.87 billion -- roughly a seven percent cut -- according to diplomats familiar with the negotiations.

The United States, the biggest financial contributor to peacekeeping, had sought a nearly $1 billion cut to the bill and the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
had also pushed for savings to bring costs down to $7.3 billion.

The United Nations will spend $7.3 billion on peacekeeping in the coming year, down from the current $7.87 billion -- roughly a seven percent cut.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley
...first woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley is the youngest current governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems...
claimed victory in a statement, saying "just five months into our time here, we've already been able to cut over half a billion dollars from the UN peacekeeping budget and we're only getting started."

Hardest hit by the cuts will be the UN missions in Sudan's troubled region of Darfur and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
, the two costliest operations with budgets that run over $1 billion. The United Nations has shut down its mission in Ivory Coast and is planning to pull its peacekeepers out of Haiti in the coming months.

A Security Council diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said however there will be "cuts across the board" in the 13 peacekeeping missions as a result of US pressure.

Washington pays 28.5 percent of the peacekeeping budget and 22 percent of the UN's core budget of $5.4 billion.

The deal falls short of the request from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who had asked for $7.97 billion for the annual budget which runs from July 1 to June 30 of next year.

The deal is expected to be approved by the UN General Assembly on Friday.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan


Afghanistan
2 Afghan Kops die in bombing in Farah
At least two policemen were killed in a roadside mine blast in western Farah province on Wednesday, local officials said. In addition, two other policemen were wounded.

The blast happened in the center of Farah city after a police vehicle struck a roadside mine, a spokesman for the provincial governor, Iqbal Bahir said. “The wounded policemen were taken to a nearby hospital in the city and they are in a stable condition,” Bahir said.

However, he did not provide more details about the blast. No group including the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the blast.
Posted by: badanov || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
Brazil arrests dozens of 'rotten' police officers
[Al Jazeera] Authorities launch drive against military police accused of selling arms and being part of drug trafficking.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  More importantly both municipal and military police enrich themselves on bribes in exchange from favela gang members in exchange for non arrest.

The military and municipal police work side by side but they are not always cooperative with each other. The military does thrive on a certain degree of discipline. I saw a Military Sargent standing over a private who was pulling grass from cracks in a sidewalk in a major Brazilian city as some sort of public humiliation punishment.
Posted by: Injun Mussolini1321 || 06/30/2017 1:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe both sides can share lessons learned with their respective counterparts in Mexico.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/30/2017 7:24 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
NYTimes editors and reporters stage a walkout
Sadly, absolutely nobody cares but their significant others, for those among them who have such things.
[MarketWatch] After a pair of letters sent to Executive Editor Dean Baquet and Managing Editor Joseph Kahn by Times reporters and copy editors, the New York Times editorial staff walk[ed] out of the newsroom on Thursday as a demonstration of solidarity as management threatens jobs.
Good idea. Somebody sez you might get fired, walk out. That'll secure yer cubby hole.
In the copy editors' letter to Baquet and Kahn, they say they feel betrayed and disrespected in the newsroom, and ask that management reconsider staffing cuts that are expected as the paper plans to restructure.
Posted by: lord garth || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The "walkout" lasted 20 minutes. A headline at rightwing news site Breitbart.com is calling it a "coffee break".
Posted by: Spusogum Thineting5549 || 06/30/2017 0:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Revolution consumes it's own?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/30/2017 2:59 Comments || Top||

#3  20 minutes?

Fake walkout at a Fake News agency.

In the copy editors' letter to Baquet and Kahn, they say they feel betrayed and disrespected in the newsroom

Come to flyover country to get a real perspective about the disrespect people have for you and your ink.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 06/30/2017 7:21 Comments || Top||

#4  What if there was a strike and nobody cared?
Posted by: DarthVader || 06/30/2017 8:19 Comments || Top||

#5  And while they were standing around at Starbuck's, the company went bankrupt.
Posted by: ed in texas || 06/30/2017 10:10 Comments || Top||

#6  They are not a fake news company. They are not a news company. After they released their editing staff it made the shift complete. They are now a marketing and propaganda company.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 06/30/2017 10:23 Comments || Top||

#7  I hadn't noticed until now.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 10:38 Comments || Top||

#8  Quick, nail the doors shut!
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/30/2017 10:39 Comments || Top||

#9  After they go back in, Skid.
Posted by: Charles || 06/30/2017 10:41 Comments || Top||

#10  Turn off power and water. That will drive the scum out. That's the ticket.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 06/30/2017 12:13 Comments || Top||

#11  If it had been a real strike, the participants were just self identifying as candidates for the next round of layoffs.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 06/30/2017 12:17 Comments || Top||

#12  As long as the anonymous sources are still working hard the NY Times can keep up the same old quality.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 06/30/2017 12:29 Comments || Top||

#13 
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy || 06/30/2017 13:08 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Cameroon forces hundreds more refugees back to Nigeria, UN says
[AlAhram] Cameroon
...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there...
authorities forced nearly 900 refugees back to northern Nigeria against their will this week, violating an agreement between the two countries to shield thousands from Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
violence, the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
said on Thursday.

The Cameroonian government denied force had been used to send refugees home and said repatriation had taken place with the refugees' consent.

About 887 Nigerians, most of them children, were ferried across the border on Tuesday night in trucks provided by the Nigerian military and Cameroonian police, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said.

"The involuntary return of refugees must be avoided under any circumstances," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a statement. "Returns to Nigeria put a strain on the few existing services and are not sustainable at this time."

If done forcibly, the move counters an agreement signed by Nigeria, Cameroon and the UNHCR in March stating that Nigerian refugees in Cameroon will not be forced back to a remote region ripped apart by violence and where humanitarian efforts are severely stretched.

"There was no forced repatriation of 887 Nigerian refugees from Banki to Borno State in Nigeria. It happened with their consent," said Cameroon's government front man Issa Tchiroma Bakary. "Cameroon respects the law and its international commitments."

The Nigerian official responsible for humanitarian activities in the Boko Haram-affected northeast was not immediately available for comment.
"I can say no more!"
Boko Haram has forced more than two million people to flee during its seven-year campaign to create an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria
... a particularly crimson stretch of Islam's bloody border...
. More than 85,000 Nigerian refugees reside in Cameroon's Far North region.

Over 11,000 have returned to Nigeria this year as camps in Cameroon struggle to accommodate them. It is unclear how many of these have been forced to leave, but the U.N. has warned against repeated attempts to send refugees home against their will.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Paris man attempts to ram car into crowd outside mosque in Creteil suburb
One incident is merely that. Two incidents suggest concern. Three incidents show a trend. We are now at two.
[DW] Gay Paree police have said that no one was hurt in the attempted attack and that the man were tossed into the calaboose. Reports indicate that the perpetrator had wanted to avenge attacks linked to the so-called "Islamic State."

Gay Paree police have said that no one was hurt in the attempted attack and that the man were tossed into the calaboose. Reports indicate that the perpetrator had wanted to avenge attacks linked to the so-called "Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
French authorities on Thursday night said that the attacker had failed to run his car into a crowd outside a mosque in the Gay Pareeian suburb of Creteil because of barriers set up in front of the religious site.

The driver reportedly tried to repeatedly break through the barrier, but expeditiously departed at a goodly pace after realizing he couldn't go further. He was later incarcerated
... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not...
in his home.

Local media reported that the man had wanted to avenge attacks carried out by the so-called "Islamic State" jihadist group, which over the past years have killed dozens of people in the French capital. French news agency Agence La Belle France Presse (AFP) said the man had made "confused remarks" about the jihadist attacks carried out in La Belle France in recent years.

Unconfirmed reports suggest the perpetrator was a 43-year-old Armenian.

The incident mirrors last week's attack outside a mosque in the Finsbury Park area of north London, when a man plowed a van into a crowd of worshippers, killing one and injuring about a dozen peope. The perpetrator, identified as 48-year-old Darren O., was detained soon after and charged with terrorism-related murder and attempted murder.

"What has happened in Creteil seems to justify the fears I expressed following the attack by the Finsbury Park mosque in London," Abdallah Zekri of the French Council of the Moslem Faith told AFP.

However,
Switzerland makes more than cheese...
French authorities said that an investigation into Thursday's failed attack would continue to be carried out by regular police, rather than by an anti-terrorism unit. Police said they would first determine whether the perpetrator was sane and could be held accountable for his actions.
What's the French word for "intifada?"
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State

#1  What's the French word for "intifada?"

Jacquerie.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/30/2017 2:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Using the tactics of the Islamacists against them? People getting fed up with jihadists attacks. First London and now Paris.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 10:36 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Mosul Offensive News


Iraqi forces capture symbolic mosque in Mosul

(Reuters) Iraqi forces captured on Thursday the wrecked historic mosque of Mosul in which Islamic State proclaimed its self-styled “caliphate” three years ago, an Iraqi military statement said.

Taking the Grand al-Nuri Mosque hands a symbolic victory to the Iraqi forces which have been battling for more than eight month to capture Mosul, the northern city that served as Islamic State’s de facto capital in Iraq.

The insurgents blew up the medieval mosque and its landmark leaning minaret a week ago, as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces started a push in its direction. Their black flag had been floating on al-Hadba, the ”hunchback” minaret, since June 2014.

Iraqi forces capture another mosque, church

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi government troops resumed advances against Islamic State militants in western Mosul’s Old City on Thursday, recapturing another mosque and a medieval church.

The Federal Police’s media office said forces took over al-Saa’a Church and Omar al-Aswad mosque in Bab Jadid neighborhood in the Old City.

The centuries-old church had been ransacked by Islamic State militants in 2015 and was turned into a reservoir for items looted by the group from security agents’ homes, according to Sputnik.

The statement also said 20 children were rescued from the neighboring al-Shifa district where troops took over a few medical facilities and an orphanage.

The development comes a few hours after the Iraqi army said it took over the Grand Nuri Mosque, the birthplace of the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed “caliphate”, marking a symbolic collapse of the group’s rule in Iraq.

Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and allied paramilitary troops, took over eastern Mosul in January, and aimed at the western side of the city starting mid February.

There are a few hundred militants believed to be in the Old City, holding at least 50.000 civilians captives.

Meanwhile, DPA quoted an Iraqi medical source saying that more than 204 civilians, including children below 13 years, died by Islamic State and security forces fires over the past week.

Saadullah al-Khaffaf, a field doctor escorting Iraqi forces, told the agency that those had been killed while escaping the Old City, adding that the number is prone to increasing as there are hundreds othes stranded at areas still under the militants’ control. He said the number does not include those bombed while at home.

600 Bad Guys die in final push for Mosul

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) More than 600 Islamic State fighters had been killed and 900 families were set free from western Mosul’s Old City as Iraqi forces took over the group’s birthplace mosque on Thursday.

Abdul-Ghani al-Assadi, commander of the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service, was quoted by Rudaw network saying Iraqi forces killed more than 600 Islamic State militants as they took over Nuri al-Kabir mosque, the place where the group’s founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared the establishment of the group’s rule in 2014. “Daesh (Islamic State) fighters are fighting ferociously, but have failed to stop advances by Iraqi troops,” he said.

According to Assadi, IS is still in control over al-Maydan, Serjkhana and Ras al-Khour, all areas in the Old City, and forces are attempting to drive them out of those areas. His remarks came at odds with a statement by the Defense Ministry confirming that no areas were under IS control anymore in western Mosul.

Sabah al-Noaman, a spokesperson of the CTS, also said only a few groups of IS were hiding at some areas of the Old City while trying to find a way out. He said forces freed more than 900 families from the district.

“The return of al-Nuri Mosque and al-Hadba minaret to the fold of the nation marks the end of the Daesh state of falsehood,” Iraqi premier Haider al-Abadi said in a statement earlier on Thursday.
Posted by: badanov || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


-Lurid Crime Tales-
All suspects in French Quarter attack in custody

Rashaad Piper
[FOX8LIVE] The third and fourth suspects in a violent attack on two tourists in the French Quarter are in jug.
As seen on CCTV.
Rashaad Piper, 20, was booked into the Orleans Parish Jail around 4 a.m. Wednesday. Nicholas Pogozelski, 18, was also taken into custody shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday and also booked on a charge of second-degree robbery. Piper is charged with second-degree robbery in connection with a violent Saturday night attack on two tourists in the 200 block of Bienville Street.
Smile, boyz. You were on Candid Camera!
Pogozelski's mother spoke to the media for the first time Wednesday. She said her son was a smart boy who left home late last month after he began stealing. She said he knows better. She asked that we not show her face or use her name.
Apparently Nicky's not as brilliant as Mom thinks.
"He needs to be held accountable for what he's done," she said. "I'm not going to condone violence, but I will keep up what's going on with him just to make sure his legal rights are violated and that he's not gonna get messed over I will make sure of that, but I'm not going to condone violence, and he won't get any bail money from me. I'm not going to support him, I'm just not gonna do it."
The tone of voice suggests Mom mighta gotten him out of a few scrapes before.
The first two suspects to be tossed in the clink
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
by the NOPD were 21-year-old DeJuan Paul, who police say was the main aggressor and 18-year-old Joshua Simmons.
"Here, Josh! Hand me ma club!"
"Which one, DeJuan?"
"The one with the spike stickin' out!"

"We told you all along we knew their names, we knew who they were, and last night Joshua Simmons was arrested with the help of a citizen who alerted us to his location," said New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Michael Harrison.
"Hello? Is this the cops? Look, this is Mrs. Simmons..."
Paul and Simmons both face a charge of second-degree robbery, but prosecutors say that could be upgraded to homicide.
It's a homicide if there's a corpse involved.
"I think that's a starting point for the D.A.'s office. I think they're also going to be charged with possibly attempted murder and possibly first-degree murder, unfortunately, if this gentleman doesn't pull through so there's just so many ways the D.A. can go with this charge. That that's the starting point, but it won't be the ending point," said Fox 8 legal analyst, Joe Raspanti.
Depends on whether the poor guy pegs out.
Dejuan Paul, 21, and 18-year-old Joshua Simmons, both former residents of reform school juvie Covenant House, are already in jug. They sat side-by-side in magistrate court as a judge ordered them held without bond until another hearing on Friday, a move supported by Harrison.
"DeJuan! This is really different from juvie!"
Prosecutors argued that tourist Tim Byrne, who was hit in the back of the head by attackers Saturday night, was in extremely critical condition, but the chief said there has been some physical improvement.
"He ain't dead yet."
"He has somewhat improved, off the ventilator and breathing on his own, but he can't fully engage as we need. He's improved but still critical," said Harrison.
"'Can't engage?'"
"Doesn't know where he is, who he is, what he is."

Harrison did not have an update on the victim's condition during a Wednesday morning presser.
"He's there, but he ain't there, y'know?"
Paul turned himself in after visiting a pastor at Mount Kingdom Missionary Baptist Church Monday night. When he was arrested, he had two bags of a powdery white substance in his pocket and he also faces drug charges. Paul had an outstanding warrant for an out-of-state crime.
"What this stuff, DeJuan?"
"Tooth powder."
"Tastes like heroin!"
"Heroin-flavored tooth powder!"

In a statement, Covenant House Director Jim Kelly said: "Covenant House cares for runaways and homeless youth-- many of whom are troubled and suffer from mental illness. We are deeply saddened by the incident and are praying for the victims and their families."
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Apparently Nicky's not as brilliant as Mom thinks.

Whaddaya expect from a polack?

From the Advocate (in case anyone else is wondering about that moniker):

A relative who asked not to be identified said Pogozelski was raised in Florida by adoptive parents, had been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder at an early age and had acted violently toward family members on numerous occasions.

That person said Pogozelski's biological mother is from New Orleans and he recently tried unsuccessfully to join the U.S. Army, something the Army said it could not comment on.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 06/30/2017 9:33 Comments || Top||

#2  People who go party in NawLins don't generally understand that the third word is only about half a block away.
Posted by: ed in texas || 06/30/2017 10:16 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't understand it. Mitch Landrieu assured me that this kind of thing would stop happening if we took down the Confederate statues.
Posted by: Matt || 06/30/2017 12:57 Comments || Top||

#4  People who go party in NawLins don't generally understand that the third word is only about half a block away

That part of Bienville borders a couple large parking lots used primarily by tourists (read - 'easy target areas for picking up quick funding and making a hasty getaway').

The 'victims' were probably drunk and therefor forgot to heed your wisdom, Ed.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 06/30/2017 15:46 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Ohio man pleads guilty to joining Al-Qaeda in Syria
[RT] A Somali-born resident of Columbus, Ohio, has admitted to training and fighting alongside the al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. He also admitted to planning an attack in the US upon his return from Syria.

Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, 25, is a Somali-born naturalized citizen of the US. In 2014, he traveled to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
where he crossed the border into Syria, court documents show.

While in Syria, Mohamud received training from the al-Nusra Front, a terrorist organization affiliated with al-Qaeda, prosecutors said.

"After returning to the US, Mohamud planned to obtain weapons in order to kill military officers or other babus government employees or people in uniform. Evidence seized by the FBI indicates that Mohamud researched places in the US to carry out such plans," the Justice Department said in a statement.

He was jugged
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
in the US in 2015.

Mohamud’s brother also fought with al-Nusra,
...that would be Abdifatah Aden, who with only two names clearly was not the favourite son...
and he was killed in Syria, according to US prosecutors.
Mr. Mohamud returned to America two days after his brother's death in June, 2014, carrying his marching orders in his head.
Two years ago, a federal grand jury charged Mohamud with one count of attempting to provide and providing material support to terrorists, one count of attempting to provide and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization ‐ namely, the al-Nusra Front ‐ and one count of making false statements to the FBI involving international terrorism. He pleaded guilty to all charges brought against him.
Ynet adds:
Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud pleaded guilty two years ago to terrorism charges, according to court documents unsealed Thursday.

Federal prosecutors said Mohamud researched places to carry out the attacks and had booked a flight to Texas.

It's unclear why almost two years have passed since his guilty plea and the unsealing of the documents. The Department of Justice said the plea was sealed because of an ongoing investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under: al-Nusra

#1  It's unclear why almost two years have passed since his guilty plea and the unsealing of the documents.

Who was President two years ago?
Posted by: Pappy || 06/30/2017 7:36 Comments || Top||

#2  He was being considered for a Cabinet-level post?
Posted by: Frank G || 06/30/2017 20:42 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian rebel forces continue to push into Raqqa, Raqqa now fully encircled
Raqqa (Syria News) The Syrian Democratic forces (SDF) have advanced deeper, on Thursday, into the neighborhoods, south of Raqqa, while fierce clashes renewed with the Islamic State group.

Qasioun News reported that the Syrian Democratic Forces advanced, this morning, into the village of Kasret Affan, south of Raqqa, after violent battles with the Islamic State group.

Furthermore, four members of the Islamic State group were killed during the clashes that took place in the village, south of Raqqa, while the Syrian Democratic Forces was trying to impose their control on al-Bayrouni School, east of Raqqa.

Meanwhile, the SDF shelled the vicinity of the Pullman Garage and al-Taj Hall, south of Raqqa, using heavy artillery, while the army aviation bombarded ferried in the Euphrates River in the city.

It is noteworthy that the Syrian Democratic Forces continue advancing in several neighborhoods of the city of Raqqa, against the Islamic State group, in order to retake the remaining occupied areas in the city.

US-backed forces encircle Raqqa after closing last route into city: Monitor

[AlAhram] US-backed forces on Thursday fully encircled the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
-held city of Raqqa after closing the bad boys' last way out from the south, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters that launched a long-anticipated assault on the Islamists' de facto Syrian capital this month, had earlier said they were on the point of cutting off Raqqa's last exit.
Posted by: badanov || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under: Islamic State


Arabia
Qatar 'ready to discuss, won't compromise sovereignty'
[Al Jazeera] Foreign minister describes remarks by Saudi counterpart that Arab countries' demands are non-negotiable as unhelpful.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [2 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Qatar (MB)


Africa Subsaharan
Police officer killed in fresh jail raid in DR Congo
[AFRICANEWS] Unknown attackers killed a police officer during a raid on a jail in Democratic Republic of the Congo
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material...
’s capital Kinshasa on Thursday, police and diplomatic sources told Rooters.

The raid took place just hours after the government said it had cancelled a major independence day military parade for security reasons.

It was not clear how the officer died, but gunfire was heard at the jail in the Matonge neighbourhood and dozens of heavily-armed police and soldiers were deployed to the area. Security was also reinforced around the state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
building several kilometres away.

Sources were unable to say if any prisoners escaped. Government and local officials were not immediately available for comment.

"There was gunfire. I saw a woman maimed in her leg by a bullet," said one witness who asked not to be named.

Thousands of inmates have beat feet from jails this year in Congo, including about 4,000 from the capital Kinshasa’s main high-security prison last month, stoking fears that the security situation is deteriorating amid a growing political crisis.

President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, refused to step down
...Hell no! The money's too good!...
at the end of his mandate in December, raising fears of a return to the civil wars of the turn of the century that killed millions.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:


Government
Senator Grassley Demands Answers On Acting FBI Director's ‘Apparent' Conflicts Of Interest
[Daily Caller] WASHINGTON -- Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley fired off a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Wednesday questioning numerous probes into acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and asking whether investigators have found any political conflicts from these inquiries.

In his letter to Rosenstein, Grassley reminded him that he already asked about McCabe’s apparent conflict of interests due to his close relationship with Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, among other issues, and then pointed out that McCabe appears to be the focus of three separate pending investigations.

"First, the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General is examining his failure to recuse himself from the Clinton investigation due to his political relationship with McAuliffe. Second, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is investigating allegations that he violated the Hatch Act by engaging in political campaign activities," Grassley wrote.

"Third, he is also reportedly the subject of a pending Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint by a female FBI agent for sex discrimination, who alleges she was targeted for retaliation because of her complaint," he added.

Chairman Grassley cited a new report by Circa News that says former Trump National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was the subject of retaliation from the FBI for supporting the female FBI agent through an official letter during the case.

Related: RedState - Senate Judiciary Chairman: Acting FBI Director Has Lots Of Conflicts Of Interest
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rosenstein, McCabe, Comey, and Mueller are all conflicted and compromised. They need to all step away or be excluded; otherwise there will always be the taint of a witch hunt.
Posted by: JohnQC || 06/30/2017 8:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Problem is, everybody in DOJ management for the last 20 years is tainted. That was the whole point. I don't tell on you and you don't tell on me.
Posted by: ed in texas || 06/30/2017 10:30 Comments || Top||

#3  "I'm looking for a honest lawyer. Really - Socrates was happy to find one honest man!"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 06/30/2017 10:42 Comments || Top||

#4  The apparatchiks hired under the Clinton Administration have had enough time and seniority to burrow their way to the top. The previous cohort from the Cold War Era at least had an external foe to encourage them to display some impartiality.
Posted by: magie || 06/30/2017 13:53 Comments || Top||

#5  That remark by g(r)omgoru kinda remined me of the following:

An engineer dies . . . and goes to Hell. Dissatisfied with the level of comfort, he starts designing and building improvements. After a while, Hell has air conditioning, flush toilets and escalators.

The engineer is a pretty popular guy.

One day God calls and asks Satan, "So, how's it going down there?"

Satan says, "Hey things are going great. We've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there's no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next."

God is horrified. "What? You've got an engineer? That's a mistake - he should never have gone down there! You know all engineers go to Heaven. Send him up here! "

Satan says, "No way. I like having an engineer on staff. I'm keeping him."

God says, "Send him back up here or I'll sue."

"Yeah, right," Satan laughs, "and where are you going to get a lawyer?"

Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 06/30/2017 13:57 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
US set to seize NYC skyscraper whose owner violated Iran sanctions
[IsraelTimes] US attorney says the 36-story office tower ’gave the Iranian government a critical foothold in the very heart of Manhattan’.

The US government said it’s ready to seize a Manhattan skyscraper from an Iranian-American charity after a jury found Thursday that the charity’s majority ownership was derived from financial dealings that violated sanctions against Iran.

Acting US Attorney Joon H. Kim said the owners of the office tower near Rockefeller Center "gave the Iranian government a critical foothold in the very heart of Manhattan through which Iran successfully circumvented US economic sanctions."

"For over a decade, hiding in plain sight, this 36-story Manhattan office tower secretly served as a front for the Iranian government and as a gateway for millions of dollars to be funneled to Iran in clear violation of US sanctions laws," Kim said in a statement. "In this trial, 650 Fifth Avenue’s secret was laid bare for all to see, and today’s jury verdict affirms what we have been alleging since 2008."
Oh dear. To lose such a rich cash flow at the same time as the price of oil seems to have found such a low ceiling. And just when the Ayatollahs have so many different wars, both overt and covert, to fund! If one didn't know better, one would think Allah has it in for the only Shiite state.
The verdict in the civil case was sure to be appealed. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals had earlier ordered the case to go to trial after US District Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled in favor of the United States.

Over the last month, lawyers for the Alavi Foundation argued that the charity was unaware if Iran was secretly benefiting from a partner who owned 40 percent of the building. The Alavi Foundation owns 60 percent.

Kim said the building was worth at least a half billion dollars, though some estimates put its worth closer to a billion dollars.

Kim said the sale of the building, combined with several other properties around the country, would represent the largest terrorism-related civil forfeiture in US history.

The prosecutor said the verdict "allows for substantial recovery for victims of Iran-sponsored terrorism."

The government is seeking to turn over proceeds of a sale to holders of over $5 billion in terrorism-related judgments against the government of Iran, including claims brought by the estates of victims killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Defense lawyers didn’t immediately comment.

It was unclear what effect the verdict will have on the Alavi Foundation, which supports a Queens school among other charity works.

The verdict seemed to spare a Catharpin, Virginia, property after jurors concluded its funds did not violate sanctions and were not used in money laundering activities. The government said the verdict should allow it to seize properties in Houston; Carmichael, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,; and Rockville, Maryland.

The Fifth Avenue building was erected in the 1970s on property acquired by the not-for-profit corporation. It was valued at $83 million in 1989 and has steadily risen in value.

Government lawyers said Iran has secretly controlled the building for years as millions of dollars in rent payments are funneled to it from a partnership made up of Alavi and a shell company fronting for a secret interest held by the state-owned bank of Iran, Bank Melli.
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  The UN building?
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/30/2017 10:33 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Forest fire rages in Chernobyl exclusion zone
[RT] A forest fire has erupted in the Chernobyl exclusion zone forests during tree cutting works, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. While a helicopter and two planes were dispatched to the site, the fire is still ongoing.

“At 12:35pm [local time] during technological tree cutting works in the exclusion and obligatory evacuation zone at the territory of Lubyanskoye Forestry, tree residue and the forest bed have caught fire. The fire spread out to an area of some 20 hectares,” the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds like a job for Smokeski the giant mutant bear/ firefighter/ gypsy dancer.
Posted by: ed in texas || 06/30/2017 10:27 Comments || Top||

#2  Drifting radioactive ash?
Posted by: Skidmark || 06/30/2017 10:38 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tunisia dismantles terror cell
[AAWSAT] Tunisian security forces arrested on Thursday 13 members of a network that works on financing terrorists in Syria.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that the cell transferred the funds to Syria through Tunisia, Libya and Turkey.

The members of the network hail from various countries and include two women.

The operatives transferred vast sums of money to Turkey, where a Turkish member of the network, sent them to Syria.

Eleven members of the network were arrested in the city of Ben Guerdan in southern Tunisia.

Most of them “launder money earned in trafficking foreign currencies by buying gold and real estate and funding their trade activities,” the Interior Ministry explained according to Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP).

During a raid on the suspects’ location, authorities seized 3 million dinars (1.2 million dollars), gold and foreign currencies, as well as shotguns and two cars that were used in their operations.

The detainees face charges of money laundering and collecting funds for individuals, organizations and operations linked to terrorist crimes.
Perhaps at some point we will learn whether the recipients were ISIS, Al Nusra, or one or more of the many other jihadi groups running around the Syrian landscape.
Posted by: badanov || 06/30/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [3 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
39[untagged]
5Islamic State
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2PLO
2Sublime Porte
1al-Nusra
1Arab Spring
1Govt of Pakistan
1Govt of Iran Proxies
1Govt of Sudan
1Lashkar e-Taiba

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

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

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2017-06-30
  Raqqa fully encircled
Thu 2017-06-29
   ISIS Number 4 and human shield deaths west of Mosul
Wed 2017-06-28
  Ottoman Turkish artillery opens fire on Kurdish forces across entire frontier in northern Aleppo
Tue 2017-06-27
  IS suicide bomber’s belt explodes, kills 12 well-wishing comrades in Diyala
Mon 2017-06-26
  High Court reinstates Trump travel ban, will hear arguments
Sun 2017-06-25
  Evolution theory to be scrapped from Turkish schoolbooks
Sat 2017-06-24
  Jihadist who threw grenade in French kosher shop gets 28 years
Fri 2017-06-23
  Philippine military: Omar Maute likely dead
Thu 2017-06-22
  BIFF Bravely Takes Hostages at Philippine School
Wed 2017-06-21
  ISIS Lord High Holy Man, al-Baghdadi confidant, killed by US-led coalition forces
Tue 2017-06-20
  Afghan forces clear strategic Tora Bora of ISIS militants: Gen. Waziri
Mon 2017-06-19
  IRGC completely dismantles terrorist group in southeast Iran: Commander
Sun 2017-06-18
  Afghan forces recapture Tora Bora in Nangarhar
Sat 2017-06-17
  Taliban rejects report on Kandahar bombing that killed UAE ambassador, diplomats
Fri 2017-06-16
  Army takes over Mosul’s Old City entrance, IS trapped

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