[MIL.COM] The U.S. Army's top enlisted leader is trying to build momentum for an effort to create two new pay grades -- E-10 and E-11 -- to compensate senior noncommissioned officers as they take on more command responsibility. NCO's take on 'command responsibility'....WTF ?
Currently, enlisted pay grades stop at E-9, but command sergeants major typically advance from battalion level to higher command positions such as brigade-, division- and corps-level CSM without additional compensation.
Commissioned officers receive a pay increase each time they are promoted, all the way up to four-star general.
Sgt. Major of the Army Daniel Dailey discussed the effort at a recent conference in Texas but would not comment for this article.
#2
Don't know what to make of this. Currently E9's base who's senior on time in rank, and they all know who the big dog that they deal with is. They're all technically junior to a brand new butter bar, but woe to the 2nd looie that crosses a division or higher level CSM. Once sarge makes a call to placement, our gallant young officer finds himself holding an educational all expenses paid trip to Kiska or McMurdo, with plenty of time to think about things.
Evidently this is about straightening out the pecking order.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/16/2017 17:11
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#3
Trying to shoehorn an 18th Century military social structure on a 20/21st Century military. It doesn't work well. Yep, a 20 year plus senior non-com with a bachelors degree (required according to the personnel folks) taking orders from an 01-03 with far less practical experience and a similar college degree.
The magic answer is grade creep. Not. However, that's what they did on the commissioned side. Check the ratio of GOs to enlisted in WWII to today.
The last place they'll 'modernize' will be personnel. Too messy, till you really blow a big one. Then its easier to make institutional changes.
Keep dreaming, boy-toy
[NYPost] French President Emmanuel Macron says his glamorous Paris charm offensive on Donald Trump might have changed the U.S. president's mind about climate change. *snort* Obama-level influencing
Macron defended his outreach to Trump, saying in an interview Sunday in the Journal du dimanche newspaper "our countries are friends, so we should be too."
After a tense, white-knuckle handshake at their first meeting in May, Macron said they gained "better, intimate knowledge of each other" during Trump's visit last week.
Macron said "Trump listened to me" on their main point of contention ‐ Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement‐ and, "said he would try to find a solution in the coming months." "maybe later"
The French leader acknowledged Trump's visit was carefully choreographed to give Americans a "stronger image of France" after deadly Islamic extremist attacks damaged tourism.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2017
13:28 ||
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#1
That's adorable. President Macron seems to be under the impression that President Trump never travelled to France in all his years as a private businessman, and thus had not formed his own impression of the country long since.
[ABC Auz] A blow has been dealt to the prestige of Australia's special forces with in-kind damages likely to follow for the reputation of the Australian Army as a whole.
At first, it might seem tempting to think of these kinds of events as isolated incidents that do not speak to a more widespread problem within the Army's special operations community. But misconduct on the battlefield also speaks to a wayward shift in a military force's broader operating culture.
Along with the Maywand District murders and the Panjywai massacre, what these new allegations levelled against Australian soldiers in Uruzgan will come to symbolise is the ultimate failure of Western militaries to adapt to a fight where the decisive battle was the human terrain.
According to our military leaders, the reason for Australia's presence in Uruzgan province between 2001 and 2014 was to "clear, hold and build" a Taliban-free Afghanistan. Per counterinsurgency doctrine, by providing an enduring sense of physical security to local Afghans, the "hearts and minds" as well as the rifles and trigger-fingers of fighting-aged males in Uruzgan would eventually be won over.
At some point it seems that this strategic guidance either failed or was wholly ignored.
While Special Operations soldiers had earlier played a kind of "guardian angel" role in support of their regular counterparts in the Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force, as the Afghan war dragged on, that role became increasingly aggressive. "Guardian angel in spt of regulars"....WTF is the kluless author talking about.
An upsurge in "direct action" operations began to distract from efforts to secure the population. By 2010, much of the task group was solely focused on so-called "high-value targeting" -- the coalition's effort to kill or capture an ever-growing list of local Taliban "commanders".
#1
An upsurge in "direct action" operations began to distract from efforts to secure the population. By 2010, much of the task group was solely focused on so-called "high-value targeting"...
Where could they have possibly come up with that sort of strategy? 'No Vacancy' at GITMO ?
#3
Exactly! The JPEL didn't just fok'n happen, it was an orchestrated strategy initiated and score-carded by the Klingons, with responsibility for execution tasked to JSOC and associates. 'Big Army' became grounds keepers and logistics pogs assigned to meaningless sectors and AOR's while the executors of direct action (DA) missions knew no such boundaries or coordinating requirements.
Blaming the Auzzie SAS or other coalition SOF is a cheap shot. BTW, some of the coaltition SOF were NOT invited to participate and were shunted off to remote locations in support of the grounds keeping mission. I can give you Albanian SOF as a one example.
#4
A blow has been dealt to the prestige of Australia's special forces with in-kind damages likely to follow for the reputation of the Australian Army as a whole.
"Tut-Tut, I say! Harrumph! Blood bad show, what?" ...Or something like that. I doubt the author would be happy with anything the military does in armed conflict more violent than handing out lollypops and rescuing kittens from trees.
#5
the 'plan' was that the Afghan army and police would do most of the 'hold' and the Afghan govt would do most of the 'build'
it is incomprehensible that the Australian force which never got above 2000 at any one time, could have done the 'hold' and 'build' without a large and competent Afghan presence also
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/16/2017 13:24
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#6
ABC Auz is the downunder version of Al-Grauniad
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2017 13:32
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#7
it was an orchestrated strategy initiated and score-carded by the Klingons
To be fair, the bois and grrls at 1600 Penn. had a lot to do with it.
#10
Respectfully, I believe we've moved into the realm of circular logic, puppets, puppet masters, etc. Or, amirung ?
Possibly. Tinfoil hats make my head itch.
The Klingons have a long, historical habit of digging in their heels when they disagree with the occupants of the WH. Obviously they didn't from 2008-2016, for whatever reason.
So... a suggestion... an agreement... mutual benefits...
Mississippi's state auditor has demanded that a troubled electric car company founded by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe repay nearly $6.4 million in public funds after the company failed to deliver on its promises to create jobs.
State Auditor Stacey Pickering announced the formal demand to GreenTech Automotive on Wednesday, signaling a new round of problems for the venture McAuliffe left in 2012 during his second run for governor.
McAuliffe's office has said the governor has had no involvement with the company since stepping down as its chairman and divesting his financial stake. But the escalating standoff in Mississippi raises the likelihood that the business deal McAuliffe brokered could be headed toward a bitter end in court. Ending his four-year term as governor with a higher national profile and record as an exuberant pitchman for Virginia, GreenTech's unraveling could dog McAuliffe amid speculation about a 2020 presidential bid.
In the letter to GreenTech CEO Charles Wang, Pickering asked that the full sum be repaid within 30 days, and warned that failure to pay could result in the state filing a civil lawsuit against the company. The total consists of $5 million in public loans GreenTech received, plus interest and recovery costs.
Posted by: lord garth ||
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[Daily Wire] The Left has been screaming for Donald Trump Jr.'s head after it became known that he met with a Russian government attorney with the intent of obtaining opposition research on Hillary Clinton. While this was wrong (but not illegal), the Democrats aren't really in a position to lecture about Russia collusion since their party has a history of attempting to work with the Russians to swing elections.
Here are five times Democrats attempted to work with Russia to influence elections.
1. Former Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) twice reached out to the Soviet Union for election help. According to Michael Reagan, Sen. John Tunney (D-CA), at the behest of his friend Ted Kennedy, lobbied the Soviet Union "to sabotage [Jimmy] Carter's foreign policy efforts," as this was during Kennedy's primary challenge against Carter in 1980.
"One 1980 document stated that Kennedy offered to condemn President Carter’s policy toward the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in exchange for KGB help," wrote Reagan. "News accounts of that period prove that Kennedy did, in fact, openly criticize Carter's Afghanistan policy."
Additionally, in 1983 Kennedy reached out to the Soviet Union in an attempt to undermine Ronald Reagan's foreign policy and weaken his re-election prospects in 1984, even going as far as offering to set up television interviews in America in order to make the Soviets come across as more "peaceful."
2. In 2012, Barack Obama said to Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president at the time: "After my election I have more flexibility." This now-infamous quote was from a hot mic; Obama was telling Medvedev that at that time he just needed Vladimir Putin, who had won Russia's presidential election earlier that month, "to give me space" on Russia-related issues until after his election. Medvedev told Obama, "I will transmit this information to Vladimir, and I stand with you."
During one of the 2012 presidential debates, Obama snarkily said to Mitt Romney, "The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War's been over for 20 years." Obama won re-election, and Putin proceeded to take advantage of Obama's "flexibility" with his invasion of Crimea and calling the shots in Syria.
3. Jimmy Carter tried to work with the Soviets during the 1980 election to improve his chances against Ronald Reagan. Michael Reagan also noted in his column that Carter, through his political ally Armand Hammer, lobbied for the Soviet Union to let "Jewish 'refuseniks' emigrate to Israel" to strengthen Carter's standing in important states, but the Soviets rebuffed Carter.
Interestingly, Reagan biographer Craig Shirley wrote in one of his books that during the 1976 election, the Soviet Union "had made overtures to the Carter campaign," even going as far as suggesting "that they could possibly pursue policies that could affect the outcome of the election so as to favor Carter."
4. Bill Clinton pledged to support Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1996 if Yeltsin agreed "to clear up 'negative' issues." The Washington Times unearthed a confidential memo in 1996 that revealed the following:
President Clinton, in a private meeting at the recent anti-terrorism summit, promised Boris Yeltsin he would back the Russian president's re-election bid with "positive" U.S. policies toward Russia.
In exchange, Mr. Clinton asked for Mr. Yeltsin's help in clearing up "negative" issues such as the poultry dispute between the two countries, according to a classified State Department record of the meeting obtained by The Washington Times.
Mr. Clinton told Mr. Yeltsin that "this is a big issue, especially since about 40 percent of U.S. poultry is produced in Arkansas. An effort should be made to keep such things from getting out of hand," the memo said.
Bill Gertz, who reported on the memo and is now an editor for the Washington Free Beacon and a columnist for The Washington Times, explained that the memo "exposed the Bill Clinton style of leadership -- going to bat for his political donors and other vested interests in his home state of Arkansas."
5. When Tip O'Neill was Speaker of the House, he wanted the Soviets on the Democrats' side during the 1984 election. According to Michael Reagan, O'Neill told the Soviet Union's ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Dobrynin, "that it was in everyone’s best interests if the Soviets would help the Democrats keep 'that demagogue Reagan' from being re-elected."
"O'Neill warned Dobrynin that the 'primitive instincts' of this 'dangerous man' would plunge the world into war," wrote Reagan.
Each of these examples, with the possible exception of the Clinton-Yeltsin one, were easily worse than Trump Jr. agreeing to a meeting with a Russian government lawyer for dirt on Hillary Clinton. Again, this does not excuse Trump Jr's sleazy behavior, but it does show that the Democrats are more than happy to do the same thing when it helps their side.
[Reuters] JERUSALEM - Israeli forces killed a suspected Palestinian militant they were seeking to arrest after he shot at them in the occupied West Bank, police and the military said.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man was suspected of carrying out two shooting attacks in the West Bank on Saturday and opened fire at soldiers and policemen who had tracked him down.
"The terrorist was found and surrounded, he pulled out his weapons at them, and in response, the terrorist was killed," Rosenfeld said. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.
The incident took place before dawn in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near the city of Ramallah, and no Israeli casualties were reported. One man was lightly wounded in the Saturday shooting, the Israeli military said.
The army said the suspect — identified by police as Amar Ahmad Halil, 34, of Nabi Saleh — was behind a drive-by shooting attack on Saturday near the West Bank settlement of Ateret that left a Palestinian driver lightly hurt.
An IDF post near Nabi Saleh was also targeted by gunfire on Saturday by the suspect, the army said. There were no injuries. Soldiers later uncovered two bullet casings in the area.
[Townhall] A palate cleanser with some conservative appeal from an unlikely source in Vox. Relocating federal agencies to middle America has some support, unsurprisingly, among Democrats from middle America but it’s also gotten a thumbs up from at least one big-name Republican. In January, House Oversight Committee chair Jason Chaffetz called for draining the swamp by dispersing key parts of it around the country:
"I do believe conceptually in my heart that if you want a government that is reflective of the people, they need to be closer to the people," he said during the hearing. "What would it look like if the Department of Agriculture was maybe based in Oklahoma?" he said. "What if we had a Department of the Interior that was based in Utah or Colorado? What if the Department of Transportation was based in Los Angeles, for instance?"...
While it makes sense for security agencies, including the Pentagon and the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, to remain in the District, rank-and-file bureaucrats do not need to live in the nation’s capitol, Chaffetz said.
If you worry that the feds are too disconnected from "real America," there’s a solution: Pack ’em up and move ’em to real America. Key agencies that need regular contact with the president and Congress would stay put, everyone else could be scattered to the winds. We live in a glorious age of ubiquitous webcams and smartphones. Virtual meetings shouldn’t be hard to arrange among far-flung bureaucrats. Lots of benefits to this idea -- a less myopic federal government, a shot in the arm economically for middle-American cities that are struggling, and a body blow to the D.C. region that’s grown scandalously rich off of its proximity to Uncle Sam.
#3
Poor New Mexico, always the dumping spot for NIMBY projects. Want to test your first nuke, let's go to NM. Want to store your nuclear waste, just drop it off in NM. Want air space to practice supersonic training, just make time in NM. If it wasn't for all the stuff other people don't want, we'd always be at the bottom of states in income. Although, moving the big boys here will raise the price of graft. As a poor state, politicians have been rather amazingly cheap.
[BusinessInsider] In a surprisingly frank outburst, Fox News anchor Shep Smith tore into the Trump administration on Friday for its lack of transparency on the unfolding Russia scandal.
"Why is it lie after lie after lie?" Smith said to fellow anchor Chris Wallace. "The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling."
In a surprisingly frank outburst, Fox News anchor Shep Smith tore into the Trump administration on Friday for its lack of transparency on the unfolding Russia scandal.
"Why is it lie after lie after lie?" Smith said to fellow anchor Chris Wallace. "The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling."
#4
Shemp Smith is reliably Centrist-Left at best, but if the subject is Big Business then he goes full-on Left. During the Gulf Oil Spill he reached the barking mad stage. Stopped listening to his segments at that point -- if I wanted a sermon there is a church nearby.
#8
Tucker remains the single thing of significant value for Fox. Bret a second, and Hannity is predictable and sadly, not a deep thinker. Marie Harf is proof the Murdoch kids wives have taken control....
[Hot Air] That really sounds like something out of The Onion, doesn’t it? I mean, a headline like that one has to be satire. And yet it’s a very real story brought to us by The Daily Caller this week. Their title, while a bit more direct, has the same impact. "Shortage Of Foreign Labor Forces Maine Businesses To Hire Local Workers." The location is Bar Harbor, Maine, and yes, my friends... the struggle is real.
Businesses in Bar Harbor, Maine are turning to locals to make up for a shortage of foreign guest workers that normally fill summer jobs in the bustling seaside resort town.
Because the H-2B visa program has already reached its annual quota, Bar Harbor’s hotels, restaurants and shops can’t bring in any more foreign workers for the rest of the busy summer tourist season. Like hundreds of similar coastal resort towns, Bar Harbor has for many years depended on the H-2B visas for temporary workers. The program allows non-agricultural companies to bring in foreign labor if they are unable to find suitable employees domestically.
Now they are coming up with creative ways to attract local labor, reports the Bangor Daily News.
The use of temporary "guest worker" programs is problematic to begin with (at least for some of us) but at least on paper these jobs seem to qualify. If you look at the qualifying conditions for the program, so-called "seasonal work" is a valid reason to seek out H-2B visa holders. Still, in a capitalist society, it rings a bit of a sour note when you see a system which is actively built on using foreign workers before exhausting all possible hires of citizens.
#1
I am seeing a lot more young African American kids in fast food uniforms working along side older managers. They look and act very professional and I feel sense of pride when I see them. I give them as much respect as I can when doing business with them.
#3
If you look at the qualifying conditions for the program, so-called "seasonal work" is a valid reason to seek out H-2B visa holders.
Nope. Just adjust the school year to match the seasonal work. Suddenly, you have an available workforce. However, you are lockstep in thinking, its beyond your ability to adapt.
#4
The main reason for there being summer vacations was to get the kids out of school to help with the harvest.
Seems like the only thing that benefits from the current are teachers unions and politicians campaign funds. Get rid of a whole lot of excesss vacations and voila more kids in need of jobs. College students already get out in, what, mid-April now?
#5
The main reason for there being summer vacations was to get the kids out of school to help with the harvest.
Since then it has morphed into a well-established perk for the educators -- a three month vacation every year and you still keep your job. Knew someone that chose teaching over moving up in a company (He could sell ice cubes to polar bears and the company owner wanted him!) for that reason -- he could take the summer off and do archeology.
#6
Isn't it funny how the same people who foam at the mouth about slavery (extinct in the US since 1864, except in some middle eastern diplomat and entrepreneur households) don't have a problem with "guest workers," who are essentially indentured servants if they are lucky and slaves if they are not?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/16/2017 17:17
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#7
Effective Jan. 18, 2017, nationals from the following countries are eligible to participate in the H-2B program:
Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark,Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kiribati, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu
I'm more inclined to think the hiring is from Canada, the Auld Sod, or UK.
[NationalInterest] The Russian Navy will repair its sole aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, but the massive vessel will not be upgraded or modernized in any meaningful way. Instead, Russia will focus on getting the carrier back into the fleet as soon as possible when the ship goes into overhaul next year in 2018. Seems like the ships that don't get modernized end up at the bottom of the sea.
Just sayin'....
"It is a ship repair with replacement of some equipment." Sergei Vlasov, director general of Nevsky PKB told the TASS news agency.
"Essentially, there is no modernization."
It will take the shipyard between two to three years to repair Kuznetsov depending on the scope of the work.
Vlasov noted that while the shipyard has completed technical plans to perform the repairs, there is no timeline in place to implement those fixes because a contract has yet to be signed with the Russian Defense Ministry.
One of the reasons that the Kremlin is not authorizing a much more extensive modernization of Russia's sole aircraft carrier is because the ship needs to be back in the fleet quickly. A deep modernization might drag on for more than ten years given the state of Russian shipyards. Why don't you just build a new one while you wait? Oh... no money. Energy prices fucking you over? Gee... so sad.
Hug a Fracker today
Russia cannot afford to be without Kuznetsov in the fleet for that long because it would lose expertise in other related areas such as carrier operations at sea‐highlighting one of the problems of owning only one vessel of a type.
"It's clear why, because modernization risks dragging on for 10 years and costing a lot of money," researcher Mikhail Barabanov, editor of the Moscow Defense Brief‐published by the Centre for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST)‐told The National Interest.
"Since Kuznetsov is not so much a combat platform as a training platform, deep modernization for her is an obvious excess." Translation: "We don't expect her to last 30 seconds in a shooting war... so we train pilots with it."
Vasily Kashin, a senior fellow at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at Moscow's Higher School of Economics, agreed.
"Because a real modernization is likely to take much longer and the ship may be needed," Kashin told The National Interest.
Kuznetsov is an old design that dates back to the late Soviet-era and at some point she will have to be replaced. However, a new Russian carrier is mostly a theoretical discussion at this point because Moscow currently lacks the resources to build such vessels until at least 2025. Given the state of Russian facilities, I would put that at 2125
"Currently it is obvious that Russia is unlikely to start building a second carrier before 2025 and that means that it is not likely to be operational before the early 2030s," Kashin said.
"The situation is a bit like in the Soviet Union of the early period. The USSR did not really have the resources for an ocean going navy before the late 1960s, because of other challenges that were more important. As a result, the old battleships of the Russian Imperial Navy‐the two of them which survived WWI and WWII‐served until 1956."
Indeed, during the early part of the Cold War, the Soviet Union‐still rebuilding from the immense destruction inflicted upon her by Nazi Germany‐retained a host of Imperial-era surface combatants well into the 1950s. "Some of the old cruisers and destroyers were used until late 1940s and early 1950s‐30-40 years after the revolution," Kashin said.
In any case, it is hard to say what the outlook might be for a future Russian aircraft carrier even post-2025.
"I think before 2025 this issue will be purely theoretical," Barabanov said.
"In 2025 it is not known what will happen, so you cannot predict anything. But I think that for Russia, strategic forces, space capabilities or anti-missile defense are more important than aircraft carriers from a resource point of view."
Indeed, conceptual designs from the Krylov State Research Center such as the much-vaunted Project 23000E Storm are mostly industry attempts at lobbying the Kremlin to fund their program‐the Russian term for which is samopiar or "self-PR". It is very similar to how U.S. industry will dream up a new project and then convince the Pentagon to fund the development of the new product‐examples include EA-18G Growler, which originated as a Boeing concept.
"I think that currently they have these designs, but we do not know which trends will prevail in such distant future," Kashin said.
"It is quite possible carriers will be considered obsolete by that time or the requirements will change." Only manned ones. The drone carriers will be kicking a lot of butt at that time.
Thus, Kuznetsov will remain Russia's sole carrier for the foreseeable future. And a short future it will be
[Wash Times] Americans are peeking at their 401(k) plans and investments, and daring to think that maybe, just maybe, America is getting great again. Numbers suggest this may be true.
"The Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its 23rd all-time high of 2017 on Wednesday, closing at 21,532," writes Gateway Pundit contributor and economic analyst Joe Hoft, who found that the market is up 9 percent since President Trump’s inauguration, and 17 percent since the Nov. 8 election -- closing at record highs "an amazing 40 times" since that day.
"Americans are benefitting greatly in their 401k’s from the recent change in administrations. When compared to President Obama, the current president is smashing it. In Obama’s entire first term, the U.S. stock market never reached a new closing high," Mr. Hoft notes.
America is getting some nice reviews elsewhere.
"The prevailing view among publics around the world is that the United States remains the top global economic power, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. "Across 38 nations polled, a median of 42 percent say the U.S. is the world’s leading economy, while 32 percent name China. In all of the countries surveyed in Latin America, as well as most in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, publics tend to believe the U.S. is the top economy. And by a 51 percent to 35 percent margin, Americans name their own country rather than China."
#1
A healthy stock market and economy, a conservative Supreme Court, and a declining illegal alien population all spell DOOM to a Democratic 'poverty pimp' political party.
#3
I actually thought the stock market rise was an example of the 'greater fool' theory in use.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
07/16/2017 17:19
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#4
The Democratic party is no more. This party is now a collection of misfits. Each going in their own direction. Each group with no money to put into the game.
I envy Trump. Stands his ground and leads as leaders do. The media would have us believe every mans hand is against him. Yet there he stands unwavering and resolute. The longer he stands the more pathetic his opposition will become. He has accomplished many things already. Then still he marches on. This is history in the making. I can understand why a fellow like Dwain Johnson would want to step into the ring. Come on in the waters fine. Winning is a contagious thing. The dead wood of the swamp will drift away. Not accustomed to challenges. Not accustomed to working.It is happening now and quickly. Watch the wealthy areas around DC. Soon properties for sale. Soon budgets will get mighty lean.
So now they want press conferences every day, is it?. Good, bring in his media to balance things. I'm, enjoying this more and more.
BLUF:
(LI) "I don’t think we need to go full conspiracy theory, but there’s something very unusual about this whole thing. There’s something that is very odd about this woman coming in on, I think they called it a visa amnesty or parole, or something like that. A very special category that I think had to be approved at the higher, or highest, levels of the Department of Justice. And she overstays the visa, and no one notices?
Something’s very strange here. And then she arranges a meeting with the inner circle, or through somebody the inner circle of the Trump campaign. Something is just not sitting right here. And then it turns out that she may have some connection to oppo researchers for the Clinton campaign or the Democrats who were trying to get dirt on Trump. Something just doesn’t seem right here, and I think it’s worth asking a lot of questions because this doesn’t just happen.
Somebody with her connections doesn’t just happen to show up at the doorstep of the campaign of one of the two major parties, who just secured enough delegates to win the nomination. It’s just very, very strange, and given her background and given what DOJ knew about her, something’s not adding up here."
#1
Where would this Russian narrative, wild-eyed claims of treason, and demands for impeachment be today if the Veselnitskaya meeting had never taken place ?
When it became clear that Veselnitskaya possessed no 'opposition research' on the Clinton campaign and the discussion switched to the 'child adoptions' cover for action, bells and whistles should have gone off.
The absence of intelligence community or law enforcement warnings to the Trump campaign is also telling.
No stranger than "fast and furious", 2012 elections, NSA surveillance, the meeting between Lynch and Bill Clinton. The treaty with Iran, and a thousand other things happening during the Afro-EUropean presidency.
Senator Grassley, in a press release outlining his potential questions to former FBI Director James Comey, notes that the FBI planned "to hire former British spy Christopher Steele to investigate Donald Trump during the presidential campaign, even though the FBI was aware that he was being paid by Democrat political operatives to conduct opposition research on Trump." Steele, you see, helped Fusion GPS compile the dossier on Donald Trump.
It could just be a coincidence that the Obama Administration let Natalia Veselnitskaya enter the United States to meet with Donald Trump, Jr. It could also be a coincidence that her client, Prevezon, hired Fusion GPS to help Russia at the same time Fusion GPS was compiling a dossier on Donald Trump claiming Trump was working with the Russians. And it could be a coincidence that the FBI considered hiring the man who helped Fusion GPS compile that dossier.
It could all be a coincidence, or it could start to paint a new picture. The Russians could have been masterfully playing both sides so that whoever won, Russia came out on top. Mrs. Clinton, after all, claims she reset the relationship with Russia.
Link to recent Erickson story at 'Live Wire' story
#4
And, how or why did she show up before anyone took Trump seriously? She got her "visa" in Oct. '15 only 4 months after Trump declared, long before the primaries or anyone was taking Trump seriously.
This makes the skunk that visited my yard last night smell like roses.
[PAGESIX] The Democrats’ "Great Freshman Hope," Sen. Kamala Harris, is heading to the Hamptons to meet with Hillary Clinton’s ... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, sometimes described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as a crook... biggest backers. Ah, yes. The Great Freshman Hope, meeting the elites in the Hamptons. How jolly!
The Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, senator is being fêted in Bridgehampton on Saturday at the home of MWWPR guru Michael Kempner, a staunch Clinton supporter who was one of her national-finance co-chairs and a led fund-raiser for her 2008 bid for the presidency. He was also listed as one of the top "bundlers" for Barack Obama’s Because I won... 2012 re-election campaign, having raised $3 million.
Guests there to greet Harris are expected to include Margo Alexander, a member of Clinton’s inner circle; Dennis Mehiel, a Democratic donor who is the chairman of the Battery Park City Authority, even though he lives between a sprawling Westchester estate and an Upper East Side pad; designer Steven Gambrel and Democratic National Committee member Robert Zimmerman.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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#3
She's an idiot who got her start below Willie Brown's belt
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2017 8:29
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#4
The Dems are going to try to score another coup as they did in 2008 with another ghost freshman Senator. If you want to find out more about Harris, watch the Senate hearings when she waterboards Jeff Sessions. She is a rude bytch.
[AlAhram] Egyptian police potted four murderous Moslems on Saturday in a shootout while conducting a raid in Ismailia governorate, al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.
Security forces received a tip that murderous Moslems involved in killing the leader of a local tribe were hiding in a deserted house in Ismailia's Galbana area.
The police found no identification documents on the suspects, who were in possession of four firearms.
On Thursday, unknown assailants rubbed out Attalah Hamada Ouda at his house east of Ismailia and stole his car. Ouda, 61, was the leader of a North Sinai tribe.
[AlAhram] Two assailants believed to be behind Friday’s attack on a Giza security checkpoint were killed on Saturday by Egyptian security forces, a security directorate source told al-Ahram Arabic news website.
The source said the suspects were killed in a desert area near the attack scene.
On Friday, gunnies attacked a checkpoint in the Giza town of El-Badrashein, killing two coppers and three conscripts.
[ARA News] Army General Joseph Votel, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said on Friday that the battle for Raqqa ‐ISIS’s de facto capital in Syria‐ will take months.
"We are not going to make any time estimates on this. You just watched what took place in (djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... ), a city of 1.6 million, 1.7 million people. It took nine months. Raqqa is probably 300,000 to 400,000 people, but it’s in an area that again has had a long time to prepare and the forces we are operating in Syria are different than the forces we are operating with in Iraq," he said.
"We’re not talking about the Iraqi army that has ministries to lead it. Now we are talking about a much more indigenous force made up largely of Syrian Arabs and Kurds -- and Kurds are part of that indigenous force. They don’t have all the trappings of a big army, so I think it is important for people to understand the context of what we are doing here," Gen. Votel said in an interview with Tampa Bay Times.
"A large city, an indigenous force, a well-prepared enemy. And by the way, an enemy now that has suffered a significant defeat, so they are running out of space there. We would expect they are going to fight harder, and more aggressively than they are and a large part of that is going to be exploited again. So I think it is going to be a challenging fight and it will take months," he stated.
Also, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told news hounds on Friday that Raqqa will be a difficult fight.
"It’s going to be a tough fight, and -- granted, we’ve made more progress than some of you forecast months ago," he said.
"You know, in the press they were talking about how long it would take us to get there, and we wouldn’t have much progress if we got there, if we didn’t have enough of the opposition. But we’ve made progress," he said. "But believe me, this is a very tough fight."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/16/2017
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#1
Gen Votel mentioned
Arabs
Kurds
didn't mention:
Turks
Russians
Persians
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/16/2017 10:44
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[ARA News] A senior Russian official on Saturday said Kurds should be included in the intra-Syrian peace talks that will resume in Geneva in September this year.
The Kurds need to be incorporated in the Syrian opposition delegation at the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva as an important political and military force, as well as a part of the Syrian society, Russian Ambassador to the UN Office in Geneva Alexey Borodavkin said.
"Our position from the outset of these negotiations was that we want inclusive opposition delegations. Even now some prominent opposition leaders are not included in the delegation, and it is not normal. Kurds is a very striking example. They should be incorporated in the opposition delegation," Borodavkin said.
Borodavkin stressed that the ethnic minority had a lawful right to be engaged in a decision-making process on Syria being an influential military force.
"First, they are Syrian citizens, they have a legitimate right to participate in decision-making on the future of Syria... Second, they are a political force... Third, they are very influential militarily, as you know, they are fighting now to liberate Raqqa," Borodavkin added.
The statement comes amidst improvement in relations between Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... . Turkey is opposed to any participation of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) to the peace talks. As a result, the PYD was not invited to the peace talks the last few years. This while, the Barzani-backed Kurdish National Council (KNC), which is part of the Syrian opposition delegation, did participate in the talks.
Last week, 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... envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said that Syrian Kurds should not be ignored in the ongoing peace talks and efforts to find a solution to the 6-year-old crisis in Syria. The UN Special Envoy stressed that Kurdish representatives "must be allowed to take part in drafting Syria’s new constitution."
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/16/2017 1:28
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#2
In 1947 Stalin wanted to stick it to the British - and so the State of Israel got approved by the UN and got Czech weapons*. Methinks, Kurds may benefit from the same source.
*The "funny" thing about it, Stalin was preparing to make Russia Judenfrei at the same time.
[DAWN] An antiterrorism court on Friday sentenced three bandidosDeath Eaters to a collective 21 years in prison in cases pertaining to possession of explosives and illicit weapons.
The court found Qari Obaid, Ikramullah and Shahzad, said to be associated with the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... Pakistain (TTP), guilty of carrying kaboom and unlicensed weapons last year.
An ATC judge, who conducted the trial inside the Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... Central Prison, handed down I4-year imprisonment to the convicts in explosives case and seven-year imprisonment for keeping illicit weapons.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... both the sentences would run concurrently.
According to the prosecution, the Counter Terrorism Department had jugged Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! the accused and alleged that they were affiliated with the proscribed TTP and planning to carry out terrorist attacks in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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[Inquirer] Philippine troops continued to meet resistance as they pushed deeper into four villages with holdouts of Maute militants who wanted to turn Marawi into an Islamic State vassal. Ground troops, backed by helicopters and bombers, pushed farther inward into areas of the city where the rebel remnants are holed up.
Artillery fire targeted Maute positions in the villages of Marianut, Lilod, Raya Madaya and Bangolo as security forces tried to complete their mission to retake the city.
In a statement on Saturday, Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said the government had lost 93 men in its war on Maute militants as of Friday. The figure included policemen and soldiers killed in two cases of “friendly fire". He said more areas are being cleared and the number of insurgents killed has reached 399.
Joint Task Force Marawi spokesperson Jo-ar Herrera said on Saturday that soldiers are continuing efforts to rescue civilians still trapped in the battle zone. At least 2,000 civilians were believed to have been trapped in the main zone of fighting since May 23. Herrera said at least 1,723 had already been rescued as of Friday.
Posted by: ryuge ||
07/16/2017
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[WASHINGTONTIMES] The White House would be required to hold at least a couple on-camera press briefings each week if a Democratic politician musters support for a House bill being offered.
Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut introduced the Free Press Act on Thursday, a legislative proposal that aims to increase transparency within the Trump administration by mandating two on-camera press briefings per week.
"The White House has begun to dramatically, and in an historically unprecedented way, reduce the media and therefore the American people’s access to the thinking of the president," Mr. Himes said in a statement. "And that’s not healthy."
"This simple bill achieves two important goals," he added. "First, it ensures that the press briefings will continue on a regular schedule. Second, it guarantees the American people have access to the proceedings first hand."
The current White House has hosted an average of 2.7 press briefings per week since President Trump took office in January, according to the congressman, on- and off-camera alike. The Trump administration ranks last place in terms of average briefings when compared to the previous three presidents, however, and each of the last nine weeks has witnessed either one or no televised press briefings, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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#1
Why? What good would it do other than to spew out the crap they release in paper form?
The White House has begun to dramatically, and in an historically unprecedented way, reduce the media...
Oh... CNN and the rest of the demoncrat propagandists get cut out and start crying.
Dunno... seems pretty healthy to me to let the competition flourish.
#2
I get my news directly from the White House. Since I subscribe to the White House 1600 Daily I get a long list of what everyone there is doing each day. They also send me surveys asking me directly for my input on a lot of issues every week or two.
The BS Media does not provide that service to me. Therefore, screw em.
#7
To fight the deficit, I propose that media organizations pay a entry fee, on a 'progressive' sliding scale and similarly a query fee if they wish to ask a question. Consider it the FOIA charge for time and labor.
#8
And if they are caught 'reporting' the news in ways that are easily proven wrong with 5 minutes on google or an actual lie, fine the news agency 10 million per incident, the reporter gets 1 million fine and 10 years in jail. 2nd offense is death. Anything reported as actual news must be pure unvarnished fact. Zero opinions. Any opinion piece must be so labeled and include the disclaimer that the author may be lying, misleading and an enemy of the country.
#11
Simple. Have it 5 days a week. Require live network coverage. Don't allow questions from non-press participants (non-press includes CNN,MSNBC, etc...). And if you don't go to one you are banned for 2 weeks.
#12
Just get a big fat guy to come out every day and moon the press pool for 1/2 hour. As the lefty media loves Shakespeare murder in the park, performance art spraying of HIV positive blood and all antifa activities, they will be unable to complain in a credible fashion...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/16/2017 18:42
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#13
What I was thinking, have a half-hour comedy hour.
Lucky they don't hire me, I'd have mocking Mondays where the whole show was devoted to Obama gaffs. Stuff like, how to make waffles, geography and battle history of the US in Vietnam and proper pronunciation. The history of the umbrella. Hard to the corp. Interesting Italians through history. Funeral etiquette.
If you like that, you will love Thirsty Thursdays, where I showcase a mixed drink and explore the history of pub games (including cards and dominoes). Random guest/assistant.
What else...Wacky Wednesdays - nothing but Gary Larson slides.
Travel Tuesdays - 30 minute highlight of US Historical and Beautiful View Points: Custer's Last Stand, Devil's Tower, The Hornets' Nest, Alabastar Caverns.
Sunday Saunter - Live Stream of driver going across I-70 in Kansas.
[AlAhram] New images of North Korea's main nuclear facility show that the isolated regime has apparently produced more plutonium for its weapons programme than previously thought, a US monitor said, as tensions soar over Pyongyang's ambitions.
The respected 38 North website, a monitoring project linked to Johns Hopkins university, said Friday that thermal imagery of the Yongbyon nuclear complex appeared to show that Pyongyang had reprocessed spent fuel rods at least twice between last September and June this year.
"The Radiochemical Laboratory operated intermittently and there have apparently been at least two unreported reprocessing campaigns to produce an undetermined amount of plutonium that can further increase North Korea's nuclear weapons stockpile," it said.
North Korea deactivated the Yongbyon reactor in 2007 under an aid-for-disarmament accord, but began renovating it after Pyongyang's third nuclear test in 2013.
Increased thermal activity was also noted at Yongbyon's uranium enrichment facility but it was unclear whether this indicated a push to increase supplies, possibly for weapons, or if it was part of maintenance operations, the website said.
The researchers also said that analysis of thermal patterns from a probable isotope/tritium production facility at the site suggested that the plant was likely not producing tritium.
Tritium is a key component used for making sophisticated thermonuclear weapons with far greater yields than those made only of plutonium and uranium.
North Korea has conducted five underground nuclear tests since 2006, and carried out its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile last week.
#3
...Or - and hold onto your hats for this one, it comes completely out of left field - the Obama Administration wasn't being totally forthcoming and/or honest about what they knew.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/16/2017 9:11
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#4
^ No waaaayyyy
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2017 10:33
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[BREITBART] Twenty-four Republicans banded together on Thursday to defeat an amendment which would have ended former President Barack Obama They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them... ’s 2016 policy of funding "gender-reassignment" surgery for soldiers who want to live as members of the opposite sex.
The amendment to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act was offered by Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R, Mo.). It would have prohibited the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for the non-military medical task of converting healthy soldiers into "transgender" soldiers who face lifelong dependence on hormones and surgery.
The July 13 vote saw Democrats vote in lockstep to defeat the amendment, despite the national unpopularity of the transgender ideology. They were joined by 24 Republicans who broke with their party to assist the Democrats to defeat the amendment, without any visible objections by the GOP’s business-focused leadership.
The offer of free medical care to gender-confused soldiers is part of the broader effort by Obama to have the Pentagon affirm and implement the transgender ideology, which says that people can have a "gender" different from their biological sex. The ideology also says that a person’s legal sex is defined by their self-assessed gender -- not by their biology -- and that other Americans must agree with people who say they are a member of the opposite sex.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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#1
Here is the list of Republicans who voted for you to pay for these kinds of medical treatments:
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/16/2017 15:21
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#5
To receive the mutilation, one must first be probed, prodded, psyched, and approved. This process, and the configurations of the knotholes incorporated, ultimately controls the expenditures.
The narrative does not end with the approval of funding that may or may not be spent.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... -led Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan rejected the claims by the Taliban ...Arabic for students... group regarding the Arclight airstrikes by the US forces on a school in northern Kunduz province.
A front man for the alliance, Capt. William K. Salvin, said "Taliban allegations of US Arclight airstrikes on a school in Kunduz province are false."
Salvin further added "While US forces conducted Arclight airstrikes in Kunduz last night, according to Afghan officials the damage to the school was caused by a kitchen fire."
According to Salvin, a review of the gun camera footage confirms the area where the strikes occurred was clear of civilians at the time.
He also added that the strikes destroyed Taliban fighting positions and emplaced IEDs.
The Taliban front man Zabiullah Mujahid had earlier claimed that the school building was totally destroyed in the Arclight airstrike by the US forces on Friday night.
Mujahid also claimed that several people bit the dust while others were maimed in the Arclight airstrikes.
Some provincial education officials had earlier said that the school compound located in east of the city was damaged along with some homes located in the vicinity of the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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#1
Cuz the Talibs just love schools
when they're not burning or blowing them up
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2017 10:39
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[DAWN] Police on Friday tossed in the clink Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! a Christian man hailing from Kharian tehsil after registering a case against him on a blasphemy charge.
They moved the suspect to another place instead of keeping him in the lock-up after rumours started to circulate that religious groups intended to attack the cop shoppe.
Nadeem Ahmed, owner of an electric shop in Dinga town, lodged a complaint with police that his friend Ishtiaq Ahmed Jalali had told him on Thursday that a sweeper working at a private hospital had allegedly uttered provocative remarks about the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).
Nadeem claimed that when he spoke to the sweeper to verify the allegation, the latter repeated the remarks. Gujrat SP Maaz Zafar rushed to Dinga after police received the complaint. He told Dawn that the situation was under control and police contingents were patrolling the town.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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[Al Jazeera] The US Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to block a judge's ruling that prevented President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's Moslem ban from being applied to grandparents of US citizens and refugees already being processed by resettlement agencies.
In a court filing on Friday, the administration asked the justices to overturn Thursday's decision by a US district judge in Hawaii, which limited the scope of the administration's temporary ban on refugees and travellers from six Moslem countries.
The latest round in the fight over Trump's March 6 executive order, which he says is needed for national security reasons, came after the Supreme Court intervened last month to partially revive the two bans, which were blocked by lower courts.
The Supreme Court said then that the ban could take effect, but that people with a "bona fide relationship" to a US person or entity could not be barred.
The administration had narrowly interpreted that language, saying the ban would apply to grandparents and other family members, prompting the state of Hawaii to ask Hawaii-based US District Judge Derrick Watson to expand the definition of who could be admitted.
He ruled for the state late on Thursday.
"Common sense, for instance, dictates that close family members be defined to include grandparents," US District Judge Derrick Watson said in his ruling.
"Indeed, grandparents are the epitome of close family members."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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#1
...Sadly, nobody has the stones to do the one thing that might get Some People's Attention on this: Start an impeachment investigation on every single Federal judge who tries to block any aspect of the travel order that has already been cleared by the Supreme Court.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/16/2017 10:31
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#2
It's not a Muslim ban
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2017 10:58
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#4
Dump them all in the racist environs of Hawaii. They have a stranglehold on the state so it sounds like a match made in heaven and it'll make them easy to contain. And if it gets out of hand, we can always nuke the site from orbit:p
#5
as discussed yesterday, this is not the big deal it seems
even if the Judge Watson's bizarre order stands (I doubt it will), the various parts of the Homeland Security Administration may keep individuals out of the US or delay their entry through administrative means
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/16/2017 15:00
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#6
"Your appointment is set for July 32nd"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/16/2017 15:18
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[DAWN] Social media giant Facebook has refused to comply with Pakistain's request to link all Facebook accounts with phone numbers, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Saturday.
Pakistain had made the request when Facebook Vice President Joel Kaplan met with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ...Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle Fester Sharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture... last week. The purpose of the request was to curb the usage of fake profiles to post blasphemous content and make it easy for authorities to trace users.
However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... in an e-mail to VOA, Facebook has confirmed that it has decided to not comply with the request to continue protecting its customers' rights. The policy for creating new accounts would remain unchanged, Facebook added. It also confirmed that the request had been made by Pak authorities to deal with the menace of fake profiles.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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[DAWN] The Anti-terrorism Court (ATC) Quetta-1 on Saturday rejected bail application of 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... MPA Majeed Khan Achakzai in the case pertaining to the killing of a traffic sergeant in a vehicular accident.
Traffic sergeant Haji Attaullah had been run over by the provincial politician in the month of June. Police had initially registered a first investigation report (FIR) against an 'unknown' accused.
Achakzai was only tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! after a video of the hit-and-run was shared widely on social media, prompting the authorities to take action against the politician.
The counsel for Achakzai had submitted the bail application before ATC Judge Dawood Khan Nasar, who rejected it on Saturday morning.
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... Achakzai was granted bail by Quetta District and Sessions Judge Rashid Mehmood in a murder case from 1992. Civil Lines Police had nominated Achakzai in the murder of a person on Quetta's Jinnah Road that year. The judge set the bail at Rs300,000 and ordered the police to set him free. Advocate Naseebullah Tareen had represented the politician in the court.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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[DAWN] Saudi police have killed a wanted "terrorist" in the Shia-majority eastern district of Qatif, which has seen a string of attacks on security forces, newspapers said Saturday.
Jaafar al-Mobireek was killed late Friday in an operation in the city of Saihat, in Eastern Province, al-Jazirah newspaper reported, adding that he was a member of a "Qatif cell".
The suspect was one of nine people wanted by the interior ministry and had been involved in targeting people and security forces and "vandalising public, security and economic installations," the paper said.
The district has been rocked by unrest since 2011, when protests by the Shia community erupted to demand equality in the Gulf kingdom. Authorities have blamed the violence on "terrorists" and narcos.
Home to a significant number of the kingdom's minority Shias -- who have traditionally complained of marginalisation -- Qatif has recently seen mounting attacks on police.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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[ALMASDARNEWS] For the last three weeks, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Salafist tough guys of Faylaq al-Rahman have been engaged in a fierce battle for the eastern Damascus suburbs of Jobar and ’Ayn Tarma.
With much on the line, the battle for east Damascus has turned into a blood bath for all parties involved in this fight at the outskirts of the Syrian capital.
Despite possessing an air force and advanced weaponry, the Syrian Arab Army does not have the advantage on this battlefield, as Faylaq al-Rahman’s multitude of snipers and tunnels force the government units to cautiously attack.
However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... despite the disadvantage on the battlefield, the Syrian Arab Army’s 105th Brigade of the Elite Republican Guard is battle-hardened in this kind of environment.
In the coming weeks, the battle for east Damascus is expected to intensify as battalions from the Syrian Arab Army’s elite Ghiath Forces (42nd Brigade) descend on ’Ayn Tarma and Jobar to help their comrades from the 105th Brigade.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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[ALMASDARNEWS] A military source in the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has provided al-Masdar News all full list of details covering confirmed human and material losses inflicted upon Failaq al-Rahman and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in the two neighbouring suburbs of Ayn Tarma and Jobar.
During the past 25 days of counterinsurgency operations led by two brigades of the Elite Republican Guard, some 400 FSA and HTS fighters have been neutralized. Six reinforcement convoys coming from East Ghouta were targeted from the air, thereby piling up the murderous Moslemcorpse count.
Additionally, one BMP infantry fighting vehicle, a T-52 tank and two bulldozers were knocked out by the SAA.
Also worth noting, 8 American-made TOW rocket launchers were destroyed in addition to 10 machine-gun positions.
During the SAA’s campaign to secure its capital, three strategic points have been liberated thus far: the al-Manara driving school, Ayn Tarma’s butcher house and most importantly, the Zamalka conjunction.
An astonishing 7 field hospitals have been overwhelmed and wrecked along with the main Failaq al-Rahman media center. In total, 37 trenches and tunnels have been captured so far by SAA units that are still inching their way forward.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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[ALMASDARNEWS] Four settlements in northwestern Syria’s Idlib Governorate have joined ceasefire over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said in its bulletin on Saturday.
"Within last 24 hours, four ceasefire agreements have been signed with representatives of Baraghita, al-Wasita, Rajal, and Tal al-Agar in the Idlib Governorate. Total number of inhabited areas, the leaders of which have signed reconciliation agreements has reached 2,015," the bulletin said.
The number of armed formations, which have claimed to observe the ceasefire, is 153. Some 65 armed formations of the Syrian opposition have joined the ceasefire since the truce entered into force on December 30, 2016.
Talks on joining the ceasefire continue with field commanders of the armed opposition in the Aleppo, Damascus, Homs, Hama, Homs, and al-Quneitra Governorates.
Within last 24 hours, the Russian party of the Russia-The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... Commission on violations of the Joint Agreement has registered nine cases in the Damascus and Latakia Governorates. The Ottoman Turkish party has registered eight cases of ceasefire violations in the Damascus and Daraa Governorates.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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[ALMASDARNEWS] 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.... ’s (ISIS) oil trade is in trouble after a series of gains by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the southern countryside of al-Raqqa.
Led by their elite Tiger Forces, the Syrian Arab Army liberated a half dozen oil fields from the Islamic State murderous Moslems this morning, resulting in another big loss for the aforementioned terrorist group.
Making matters worse for the Islamic State, the Tiger Forces are pushing much further southeast in al-Raqqa, as they enter more oil rich areas between these province and nearby Homs.
The Syrian Arab Army will likely continue to push south of al-Raqqa in the coming days, which will further endanger ISIS’s oil trade and bastion in the central Syria.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/16/2017
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A civilian was killed, while seven others were wounded in a bomb blast in east of Baghdad, a police source has said.
“The blast caused by a booby-trapped vehicle in al-Mashtal region in eastern Baghdad left one person killed and seven others wounded,” the source told AlSumaria News.
Earlier on the day, a civilian was killed as bomb, placed under his vehicle, exploded while passing at al-Thaaliba region, northern Baghdad, causing immediate death of the driver.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Dozens of Islamic State militants were killed, headquarters were destroyed in airstrike targeting western Anbar.
In a statement on Saturday, the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said,”army jets launched airstrikes that destroyed four weapon stashes and killed dozens of militants in Qaim town, western Anbar.
In related news, a military source from Anbar Operations Command said army troops destroyed a fuel tank and two trucks loaded with gas bottles that were going to be smuggled into the province.
Army troops, according to the source, destroyed suicide belts and explosives in the desert, south of the 160 KM region,in west of Ramadi.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source told AlSumaria News that troops “exploded two trucks loaded with gas bottles ahead of being smuggled to the 160 KM region.”
“The U.S.-led coalition jets destroyed a fuel tank in the desert in western Anbar,” the source said.
Iraqi troops were able to return life back to normal in the biggest cities of Anbar including Fallujah, Ramadi and others after recapturing them. However, Anbar’s western cities of Annah, Qaim and Rawa are still held by the extremist group since 2014, when it emerged to proclaim a self-styled Islamic Caliphate. There has not been an officially-declared military campaign to free those regions, but the province’s military command launched a brief assault early January that managed to recapture some western villages before stopping again.
Anbar (IraqiNews.com) Two Islamic State suicide bombers were killed in Anbar province, tribal mobilization forces commander said.
“Joint troops of army, police and tribal mobilization fighters killed two IS suicide attackers in al-BuKhalifa region, in al-Karma town, east of Ramadi,” Col. Khamis Bahr told AlSumaria News on Saturday.
The attackers were killed after residents of the town reported about them, Bahr added. “Other attackers are being searched for in the town.”
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Qayyarah (IraqiNews.com) Eighteen Islamic State militants were killed in an airstrike launched by the international coalition in southern Nineveh, a local source said.
“The U.S.-led coalition jets shelled sites at Imam Gharbi village in Qayyarah town, south of Mosul city, which left eighteen IS fighters killed,” the source told AlSumaria News on Saturday.
“Iraqi troops seek retaking the village, of which some parts are still held by IS after the militants sneaked into it last week,” the source, who preferred anonymity, added.
Earlier this month, two Iraqi journalists and a policeman were killed in an attack by IS against the village, whiletwenty-five tribal forces personnel were killed and injured in a previous attack by the militants after infiltration from Shirqat town, in north of Salahuddin province.
Iraqi troops had liberated Qayyarh in August.
Security source said later that joint military units have managed to liberate 40%, while the remaining 60 percent are still held by IS.
Last week, another source said the militants stormed a number of houses in the village and arrested a number of civilians on charges of cooperation with government troops. The group also executed three fighters of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) in front of their families.
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BLUF:
[RedState] The four-star who has convening authority for courts-martial disapproved the recommendation for a Special Court and ordered that Bergdahl stand trial on [one count of desertion and one count of misbehavior before the enemy] and face a General Court Martial which can impose any sentence up to and including death.
Another hearing was held in June before a military judge to decide if the charges were supported by the record or if they should be modified. Bergdahl’s team was really aiming to have the “misbehavior before the enemy” charge reduced or dropped altogether. If Bergdahl is tried on the misbehavior charge, whether or not he’s convicted of it, the evidence given to support that charge will ensure a court martial panel returns a really stiff sentence for desertion.
Last week, the military judge overseeing the trial rendered two adverse decisions. First, he decided that Bergdahl will stand trial on all charges. Most damaging, though, was his decision that if Bergdahl is convicted that the jury would be allowed to hear about the injuries suffered by an Navy SEAL and an Army NCO while specifically searching for Bergdahl.
I suspect we are heading for a guilty plea and Bergdahl taking his chances with a military judge. Any court-martial panel Bergdahl draws will be composed of officers with combat tours. Bergdahl can demand that a third of his jury be composed of noncommissioned officers senior in rank to him–but he’d have to have a profoundly incompetent defense team for them to think that senior NCOs are going to be very sympathetic to his case.
Bergdahl can demand that a third of his jury be composed of noncommissioned officers senior in rank to him–but he’d have to have a profoundly incompetent defense team for them to think that senior NCOs are going to be very sympathetic to his case.
#3
I stand corrected. They clarified later, not in the sentence cited. No however, not a but in the cited sentence.
That portion of enlisted must include similar in rank. That means they all won't just be E8s and E7, but someone of comparative rank. Been there, seen it, done it. Probably less sympathetic than an O6 (at least in my experience), along the lines, he won't have my back.
This is the court that has stalled all death penalty cases. Given that, on the battlefield which is why they exist, soldiers face the death penalty, it's hard to reconcile it being 'cruel and unusual'.
I was curious about who's the convening authority. It has to be in the chain of command of the accused. They elevated it to Army Forces Command which does away with the clutter of the event occurring in Afghanistan in a unit that rotates between theater and home station, switching operational commands in the process. That means the pool will likely be personnel at the location of FORSCOM, Fort Bragg.
#6
I'm very surprised the Bergdahl issue has already gone this far. I would have thought it was dead due to the shady prisoner swap orchestrated by the man some call Soetoro. Perhaps more trial work and digging will produce additional information on that disgusting chapter.
[IsraelTimes]. Netanyahu says opening will be gradual with new security measures; Arab-Israeli gunnies who rubbed out two coppers on Friday said to have stored weapons at compound days earlier.
Israel will gradually reopen the Temple Mount compound to Moslem worshippers on Sunday, having closed the site for the first time since 1969 after three Arab-Israelis rubbed out two Israeli coppers there on Friday morning.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the decision to reopen the site following a telephone conversation Saturday evening with the heads of the police, the Shin Bet, and Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan.
Continued on Page 49
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[Ynet] US authorities should search through any intercepted communications of Fethullah Gulen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... to seek evidence backing The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... 's accusation that the US-based Moslemholy man orchestrated last year's failed coup, Turkey's envoy to Washington said on Friday.
In an interview with Rooters almost a year after the coup attempt, Ambassador Serdar Kilic expressed frustration over the halting US response to its request for Gulen's extradition and urged Washington to use its data-collection capabilities to help prove Ankara's accusations against him.
"They should help us in this regard. We don't have national intelligence authority in the United States," he said at the Ottoman Turkish embassy.
President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... 's administration is taking Turkey's extradition request “more seriously†than Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama I am not a dictator!... , Kilic told a news conference later on Friday, but he did not elaborate.
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HuffPost -- calling it by its old name, Huffington Post, is transbrandingophobic -- sent some of its staff to visit people in America who live outside of Manhattan and the D.C. area.
So far they are off to a good start. Just this morning they visited a diner on Route 66.
HuffPoser 1: Good morning, person west of civilization. How was your sleep phase?
HuffPoser 2: Yes, restaurant cleric. We would like to order nourishment for our first partaking of the day: shredded swine flesh, fried chicken embryos, and extract of citrus!
HuffPoser 1: Please, Earthling, um, person with a rouge connection between head and torso, interact with me verbally so that I may better acquaint myself with your ignorance, cultural depravity, and your political superstitions.
HuffPoser 2: We are just like you. We are parental units to several progeny.
HuffPoser 1: I am not condescending or sarcastic. Your positive perception of me is vital to my existence.
HuffPoser 2: We are just like you. We consume mass quantities of liquids containing fermented sugars derived from cereal grain starches.
[Reuters] Iran on Saturday blamed what it called Donald Trump's "arbitrary and conflicting policies" for global security threats, rejecting the U.S. president's description of Tehran as a rogue state. Tensions between Iran and the United States have heightened since the election of Trump, who has often singled out Tehran as a key backer of militant groups.
"(Trump) ought to seek the reason for subversion and rebellion in his own arbitrary and conflicting policies and actions, as well as those of his arrogant, aggressive and occupying allies in the region," said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi, quoted by Iran's state news agency IRNA.
President Trump said on Thursday that new threats were emerging from "rogue regimes like North Korea, Iran and Syria and the governments that finance and support them".
Senior Iranian officials have blamed U.S-allied Saudi Arabia, Iran's Sunni Muslim regional rival, for instability and attacks in the Middle East, including last month's assaults that killed 18 people in Tehran. Saudi Arabia has denied involvement in the attacks which were claimed by Islamic state.
While Trump has kept up his criticism of Tehran, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday that the president was "very likely" to state that Iran is adhering to its nuclear agreement with world powers although he continues to have reservations about it.
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Bangkok Post] Two Thai policemen and a woman were wounded when a motorcycle bomb went off on a bridge in Narathiwat province on Saturday morning. The explosion went off as a team of 11 policemen aboard two motorcycles and a patrol vehicle drove across a bridge in Sungai Kolok district.
Police, soldiers and and forensic officials found pieces of the motorcycle used in the attack with Narathiwat licence plates and debris from the bomb scattered over the area. The bomb, stuffed in a 10-kilogram gas cylinder that had been halved, was detonated by a communication radio.
Pol Lt Prapas said his patrol team spotted the suspicious motorbike abandoned on the bridge when they arrived at the scene. They drove past it and later stopped to take a closer look. Suddenly, the bomb was detonated. The force of the blast wounded him, his fellow officer and the woman riding her bike.
Authorities said the licence plates on the motorcycle did not match with the engine registration number. A further police investigation found the bike was reported stolen in Tak Bai district last September and it carried fake license plates.
Authorities believe the attack was the work of southern insurgents seeking to target security officers.
#1
Now there's a case of real "collusion" (more like treason. The double standard the Dems have for themselves and the different one they have for the Pubs gets to be a real pain in the arse.
[Rappler] In a span of 3 days, government forces in Mindanao “neutralized” two Abu Sayyaf militants.
Joint Task Force Tawi-Tawi and provincial police gunned down Ibno Moro, an Abu Sayyaf rebel and kidnapper, on Saturday morning. According to the Western Mindanao Command, Moro is a former member of the late Abu Sayyaf sub-leader Jul Asman Sawadjaan. He had a standing arrest warrant for murder.
Moro was on the Tawi-Tawi most-wanted police list. He was wanted for a 1989 massacre in Bongao, the 2004 kidnapping of Sibuto Mayor Kuyoh Pajiji, the kidnapping of Alvin Chua in 2002, and the 2004 murder of Rodrigo Alejandro Sr and his son in Panglima Sugala.
Days earlier, Joint Task Force Zamboanga and Zamboanga City police arrested Abu Sayyaf militant Abdulmubin Kudalat Salamuddin, alias “Mubin”, during an operation in Barangay Guiwan, Zamboanga City the evening of July 13. Salamuddin was suspected in the 2002 Sidapan kidnapping and was a follower of Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron. He was also supposedly trained by Jema'ah Islamiyah member Amin Bacho to create improvised explosive devices and landmines.
According to Joint Task Force Zamboanga commander Colonel Leonel Nicolas, Salamuddin was working as a security guard in a mall in the city at the time of his arrest.
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[Ynet] Hundreds of thousands of Turks rallied to mark the anniversary of last year's failed coup on Saturday, in an outpouring of mass support for President Tayyip Erdogan that lay bare the divisions of a society riven by widespread purges.
A sea of rapturous, flag-waving crowds gathered in Istanbul to listen as a defiant Erdogan promised to punish his enemies and praised the unarmed civilians who last year stood up to the rogue soldiers and their tanks.
"They showed no mercy when they pointed their guns at my people," Erdogan said. "What did my people have? They had their flags--just as they do today--and something much more important: They had their faith."
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#1
This is just Tayyip's preface for further repressions.
'Reichstag Fire-like' coup attempt
'Night of the Long Knives' elimination of opponents
Book burnings
'Nuremburg Laws' passed
'Kristallnacht' in some caliphate form
'Anschluss' of surrounding Turkman areas
Occupation of eastern Syria, Armenia and northern Iraq
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#2
'Anschluss' of surrounding Turkman areas...
And also they will have to 'defend' themselves by 'pacifying' bordering Kurdish regions so the northern thirds of Syria and Iraq are next.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The Intelligence Forces of Iran’s Kerman province confiscated several weapons from a house belonging to a suspected terrorist, the Chairman of the General Court Hossein Salami stated this morning.
According to the public relations office of Narmashir General Court, intelligence forces have tossed in the slammer Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! two people involved in buying and selling weapons in eastern Kerman.
Six side arms, three hunting rifles, and some cartridges were discovered and confiscated in the operation, Salami said.
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[DAWN] LANDI KOTAL: Border forces in the Jarrobi area of Khyber tribal region foiled two suicide kabooms on their camp on Friday, security officials said.
One of the jacket wallahs was bumped off while the other detonated his boom jacket when challenged by the Frontier Corps ...a provincial paramilitary force. Total manpower is about 80,000. They are tasked to help local law enforcement in the maintenance of law and order, and to carry out border patrol and a..the Antwerp-based Salafist organization that had campaigned to introduce Sharia law to Belgium before single-handedly making Belgium the highest per capita supplier of jihadis to Syria in Europe. There was a big trial in Antwerp in 2015, but most of those convicted were in absentia...nti-smuggling operations.... soldiers manning the Mashtari camp near the Afghan border.
The officials said that two FC personnel, Wajid and Yahya, suffered injuries in the aborted twin blasts. The attackers could have caused devastation had they succeeded in entering the camp, officials said.
The injured were shifted to the Combined Military Hospital in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. by an army helicopter while security around the camp and border areas was further tightened.
Military helicopters conducted the shelling of the surrounding areas soon after the incident. Jarrobi is close to the Afghan border in the Bazaar Zakhakhel area of Landi Kotal tehsil.
The Jamaatul Ahrar ...A Pak Taliban splinter group that split off from the Mullah Fazlullah faction because it wasn't violent enough... faction of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban ...Arabic for students... Pakistain grabbed credit for the attempted attack.
Later, Inspector General of Frontier Corps Maj Gen Mazhar Shaheen Khattak visited the area where he was given a detailed briefing about border security. He remained there with the FC soldiers for some time before flying back to Peshawar.
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[DAWN] The Sharif family has not submitted any objections before the Supreme Court (SC) to the Panamagate joint investigation team's (JIT) damning report on their murky financial history, DawnNews reported on Saturday.
Sources said the family's legal team is waiting for reports on the credibility of the forensic and financial experts engaged by the JIT, and hopes to come armed to the Monday hearing with that information.
A three-member bench of the SC headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal is set to hear the Panamagate implementation case in the light of JIT report on Monday. The court, on July 10, had ordered the parties to submit their replies by July 17 after reviewing copies of the JIT report.
The SC had also sought transcripts of speeches made by PML-N leaders Saad Rafique, Talal Chaudhry and Asif Kirmani, which were submitted by the attorney general's office before the day's closing.
Transcripts of 15 speeches of the three leaders comprised a total of 106 pages.
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[Al Jazeera] Survivors of acid attacks in the UK have raised a call for tougher laws against perpetrators and demanded stricter measures for the purchasing of corrosive substances after a spate of assaults in recent weeks.
Sulphuric acid in drain cleaners, bleaches and corrosive alkalis in battery fluid can be easily bought in shops across the UK at a low price.
Resham Khan, who was recently attacked in east London, launched a petition as she recovers from serious burns from her hospital bed.
Hundreds of thousands of Britons supported the campaign on Friday, the same day two teenage boys earlier threw acid at five people in east London - leaving one victim with life-changing injuries.
"An attack like this could happen to anyone," said Khan's change.org petition, which is titled to "prohibit the purchase of acid to those without a licence". "It is about time that the law changes for the purchase of corrosive substances - right now you can buy it easily from any hardware store if you are 18 and over.
"Corrosive acids like sulphuric acid are very lethal and life damaging substances. You should only be allowed to purchase corrosive substances with a licence to buy. The person purchasing should go through checks so their details are held on a database or hold a licence."
By early Saturday, almost 400,000 people had signed the 21-year-old's bid.
As Khan celebrated her birthday on June 21 with her cousin Jameel Mukhtar, chief suspect John Tomlin threw a substance through their car window.
Tomlin, who is white, then expeditiously departed at a goodly pace after attacking the pair, who are of South Asian descent, but eventually turned himself in. Police described the attack as a hate crime.
Mukhtar has said he believes they were targeted because of their Islamic faith.
"Although I will send this letter directly to numerous members of parliament and retailers of corrosive substances, I also extend this letter to the public," said Khan.
"My plans are in pieces; my pain is unbearable, and I write this letter in hospital whilst I patiently wait for the return of my face ... Why did this attack happen? What led to the event? But more importantly: Why is acid, or corrosive substances, so easy to obtain and be used as a weapon?"
Update at 11:30 a.m. EDT -- not all recent acid attacks are related to religion:
The youngster is facing 15 counts including GBH with intent and robbery
It comes after five people were left injured in a 90-minute moped acid spree
He has been remanded in custody to appear at Stratford Youth Court on Monday
Acid is becoming the weapon of choice for many criminals
Acid attacks more than doubled since 2012, from 183 to 504 through March 2017, the majority in east London
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#1
Re: "Boy, 16, is charged with fifteen offences after 90-minute moped acid attack spree injures five people in east London," assuming mooselem, a sharia-style punishment is probably in order.
#2
The English have an acid-throwing tradition of their own, going back to the Victorian era; according to things I've read -- whose accuracy is unknown -- it was mostly the tool of the jealous among the lower classes, aimed at romantic rivals and uninterested objects of affection.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) continue to find all sorts of hidden surprises as they scout out and secure every corner of post-ISIS djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... . Today, ISF troops found a massive ISIS base for the production of vehicle-borne improvised bombs (VBIED). Most alarmingly, Iraqi troops discovered literally dozens of ready-made armored VBIEDs which, had the battle for Mosul city lingered on any longer, would have undoubtedly have been used against them.
Despite the fact that the VBIEDs were found neatly lined up in an almost production line-like fashion, one crucial element was ‐ to the fortune of ISF ordinance disposal teams ‐ found to be missing from the vehicles: explosives.
The VBIEDs seized by the ISF appear to be of the latest generation design used by ISIS. The boom-mobiles have welded-on armor plating that shields the vehicle ‐ as much as possible ‐ from incoming fire, giving a would-be jihadist suicide driver a better chance of reaching their target.
In most cases, the armored VBIEDs built by ISIS are generally given just enough shielding as to not over-stress the engine of the vehicle used but to still offer decent protection from a range of smalls arms, including heavy machine guns. Often anti-ISIS forces have to employ anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM), RPGs, field guns and tank cannons in order to destroy the armored boom-mobile.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army has found a foreign wounded child under debris of a house in Mosul’s Old City.
A statement by the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell on Saturday said “the army’s 16th division found a Chechen national child while combing al-Shahwaniya region in the Old City.”
The child, who suffered burns, couldn’t speak Arabic well as she was born for Chechen parents. However, she said very few words that indicated her father was killed in an airstrike in the Old City, while the mother blew herself up while the region was combed, the statement added.
The child was taken to hospital for treatment, it added.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived in Mosul and congratulated Iraqi forces and citizens on the victory over IS militants who had held the second largest Iraqi city since 2014.
The victory in Mosul comes after eight months of fighting by Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, against IS militants.
On Saturday, Iraqi Joint Operations Command’s spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yahia Rasoul, was quoted as saying forces took control over the Old City.
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[AlAhram] Clashes have broken out in northwestern Syria between two of the most powerful Lion of Islam groups there raising fears of widespread violence in the rebel-held province of Idlib, the groups and an opposition monitor said Saturday.
The fighting between the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... and the al-Qaeda-linked Hay'at Tahrir al Sham -- Arabic for Levant Liberation Committee -- that is also known as HTS, are the first serious acts of violence since both sides reached a truce in February. Wider festivities between the two former allies could affect their fight against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Continued on Page 49
[Al Jazeera] Indonesia is blocking web versions of the encrypted Telegram instant messaging app and will ban the app completely if it continues to be a forum for propaganda and calls for violence, officials said.
In a statement on Friday evening, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said it has asked internet companies to block access to 11 addresses that the web version is available through.
"This has to be done because there are many channels on this service that are full of radical and terrorist propaganda, hatred, ways to make bombs, how to carry out attacks, disturbing images, which are all in conflict with Indonesian law," the ministry said in a statement on its website.
Samuel Pangerapan, the director general of informatics applications at the ministry, said they are preparing for the complete closure of Telegram in Indonesia if it does not develop procedures to block unlawful content.
The move comes amid heightened concerns over the growing presence and influence of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Levant (ISIS, also known as ISIS) in Southeast Asia.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Moslem nation, has seen a resurgence in attacks, inspired in large part by ISIS; a twin suicide kaboom at a Jakarta bus station in May killed three coppers and maimed several others.
Public outcry
The partial block has sparked public outcry in Indonesia, with Twitter and Facebook exploding with negative comments and some people reporting they were unable to access the web.telegram.org domain.
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[IsraelTimes] Jihadist who stabbed to death two German women said to confess to sharing the ideology of the Islamic State
Police on Saturday questioned the suspected jihadist who stabbed to death two German women and maimed four others at a Red Sea beach resort, adding to the woes of Egypt’s hobbled tourism industry.
Judicial sources said the man who had swum ashore from a public beach in Hurghada to carry out Friday’s attack confessed to sharing the ideology of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadist group, although there was no IS claim of responsibility.
The sources said the suspect, a 28-year-old from Kafr al-Sheikh province in the Nile Delta, north of Cairo, has been transferred to the capital for questioning.
At the same time, the prosecution, said in a statement that it had not yet confirmed the assailant’s motives and urged the media "to stop resorting to speculation or getting ahead of the investigation".
The streets of Hurghada were being heavily patrolled and security was stepped up outside hotels on Saturday.
It was not the first attack in Hurghada. In January 2016, three tourists were maimed in a stabbing assault in the resort by two assailants with apparent IS sympathies.
In Tunisia, IS claimed a beach attack in June 2015 when a student armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and grenades went on a rampage near the Mediterranean resort of Sousse killing 38 holidaymakers, 30 of them Britons, before being rubbed out by police.
Hurghada is one of Egypt’s most popular beach resorts, especially with Ukrainians and other European tourists.
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[Al Jazeera] Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte made another joke about rape, condemning the crime while saying he would congratulate a rapist who could carry out his crime on an international pageant winner, even knowing that he could be executed later.
Duterte made the joke in a speech to Filipino diplomats in his southern home town of Davao, as he defended his war on drugs, which has left thousands dead since he took office last year.
"What I don't like are kids (being raped.) You can mess with, maybe Miss Universe. Maybe I will even congratulate you for having the balls to rape somebody when you know you are going to die," for your crime, he said on Friday, implying the rapist would be lynched.
It was the latest in a series of off-colour jokes by Duterte who openly boasts of having mistresses and often makes sexual remarks about women.
In May, he joked that soldiers, who are involved in an ongoing operation in the southern city of Marawi, could rape up to three women.
During his campaign for president in 2016, he was also criticised for joking about an Australian missionary worker, who was raped and later killed in Davao in 1989, while he was mayor of the city.
"I was angry that she was raped. But she was so beautiful. The mayor should have been the first. What a waste," he was quoted as saying in Filipino.
'Duterte's glaring incompetencies'
Ana Santos, a Manila-based international journalist and women's rights advocate, said Duterte's repeated jokes on rape "have reached a point of maddening frustration".
"Scarier and more upsetting for me is that people still laugh at them," she said in a statement to Al Jazeera.
"I think the challenge for us now is to not get used to it. The first thing we need to do is to stop laughing at these rape jokes because they are not funny."
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A senior Mighty Pak Army general has claimed that the Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW ... India's Research and Analysis Wing, Pakistain's equivalent of the Boogie Man... ), is being operated against Pakistain from the Afghan soil.
General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee of Pakistain, made the remarks during a ceremony on Friday.
Insisting that peace and tranquility in Afghanistan is key for security in the region, Gen. Hayat claimed that RAW wanted to create instability in 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... He also alleged that the Indian intelligence wanted to target the major regional projects, including the China and Pakistain Economic Corridor.
The latest allegations by Gen. Hayat came as the Afghan officials have long been rejecting to allow its soil to be used against the other nations, insisting on generous contributions by the regional countries to eliminate the menace of terrorism threatening the region.
The Afghan officials are saying that the Haqqani terrorist network and the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... group are having safe havens in Pakistain from where they carry out deadly attacks in Afghanistan, a claim which has also been confirmed by the United States on several occasions.
The US Department of Defense in its report also said last month that "Afghan oriented holy warrior groups, including the Taliban and Haqqani Network, retain freedom of action inside Pak territory and benefit from support from elements of the Pak Government."
The report further added "Although Pak military operations have disrupted some holy warrior sanctuaries, certain murderous Moslem groups--such as the Taliban and the Haqqani Network--were able to relocate and continue to operate in and from Pakistain. The United States continues to convey to Pakistain at all levels the importance of taking action against all terrorist and murderous Moslem groups.
The Ministry of Defense spokesman General Dawlat Waziri made the remarks during a press conference in Kabul.
Apparently gesturing towards the remarks of a top Pakistani general regarding the India intelligence being operated from Afghanistan, Gen. Waziri said “The government will never allow Afghanistan to be used as the centers of terrorism against the other countries.”
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan security forces foiled a deadly suicide attack plot by the anti-government armed militant groups in southeastern Paktia province.
According to the local security officials, two suicide bombers who were looking to carry out suicide attacks in the provincial capital Gardez city, were shot dead by the security forces before they manage to reach their target.
Provincial police spokesman Sardar Mohammad Tabasum confirmed that the two suicide bombers were killed on Friday in Kabul Lane area.
He said the two suicide bombers were shot dead as they were attempting to escape from a police check post.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Ynet] A resident of the Paleostinian village of Beitin was very lightly maimed Saturday morning from a drive-by shooting at his own vehicle, while driving between the Paleostinian village of Um Safa and settlement of Ateret, near Ramallah.
The driver, a Brazilian married to a Paleostinian, alerted IDF forces in charge of the Binyamin region. The DF issued a statement, saying they were sweeping the area in search of the suspects. The man injured was treated by the IDF and did not need to be taken to the hospital.
Korean defense company Hanwha Systems unveiled its first prototype of an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system for the country’s self-developed next-generation fighter jet that will replace the F-16 and F-15.
That was reported by Yonhap.
The first prototype, comprised of an antenna and power supply, has been produced to verify whether or not the nation is able to go forward with the development of active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar with domestic technology, according to the Agency for Defense Development (ADD).
The development of AESA radar is part of the 8.5 trillion won ($7.5 billion) KF-X project to build 4.5-generation indigenous fighters by 2026 to replace the Air Force’s aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s. The government will invest an additional 10 trillion won ($8.8 billion) to produce 120 aircraft by 2032. The F4 Phantom is one of the great combat aircraft of her era.
The ADD is supervising the development of the radar, essential equipment that helps a pilot identify friend or foe in battle and finds targets on the ground.
The company showed the prototype to journalists at its research center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, during which it gave a demonstration of a transmitting electric wave.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Several turbans including foreign nationals were killed in a series of Arclight airstrikes targeting Taliban ...Arabic for students... and ISIS Lions of Islam in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan.
The provincial government in a statement said at least seven Taliban turbans including their commander Khayesta Khan were killed and another Death Eatermaimed in a dronezap in Bati Kot district on Friday.
The statement further added that a vehicle belonging to the turbans was also destroyed but no losses or casualties were incurred to the civilians.
In a separate statement, the provincial government said at least nine ISIS turbans were killed and five others were maimed during the air and ground operations in Pacher Agam district.
According to the provincial government, several foreigners, including Pak nationals and citizens of Uzbekistan were among those killed.
The local officials are saying that the civilians and security personnel did not suffer any casualties during the operations.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[NationalInterest.org] In 2014, when waves of refugees began flooding into western Europe, citizens and officials alike responded with generosity and openness. Exhausted refugees spilled out of trains and buses to be met by crowds bearing gifts of clothing and food, and holding up placards that read "Welcome Refugees."
But there was one development that had not been expected, and was not tolerable: the large and growing incidence of sexual assaults committed by refugees against local women. These were not of the cultural-misunderstanding-date-rape sort, but were vicious, no-preamble attacks on random girls and women, often committed by gangs or packs of young men. At first, the incidents were downplayed or hushed up--no one wanted to provide the right wing with fodder for nationalist agitation, and the hope was that these were isolated instances caused by a small problem group of outliers. As the incidents increased, and because many of them took place in public or because the public became involved either in stopping the attack or in aiding the victim afterwards, and because the courts began issuing sentences as the cases came to trial, the matter could no longer be swept under the carpet of political correctness. And with the official acknowledgment and public reporting, a weird and puzzling footnote emerged. Most of the assaults were being committed by refugees of one particular nationality: by Afghans.
Actually Afghans should not even have been part of the refugee tide, at least not in significant numbers. It was the Syrians who were expected. Afghanistan, a place of lingering and chronic conflict, is no longer on the official refugee roster--that’s reserved for acute political and military emergencies. Still, European authorities and the public were sympathetic, and could understand why Afghans would want to leave a country rife with suicide kabooms and empty of opportunity. Also, Europeans held a baseline positive sentiment towards Afghanistan. Many baby-boomer Europeans had, in their hippie days of yore, traversed that country in the legendary VW buses, and retained fond memories of friendly, hospitable people. Later everyone had mourned the loss of the Bamiyan
Continued on Page 49
[AlAhram] A cholera epidemic in Yemen, which has infected more than 332,000 people, could spread during the annual haj pilgrimage in 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... in September, although Saudi authorities are well prepared, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
The pilgrimage draws 2-4 million Moslems every year, including 1.5-2 million foreigners, raising the risk from diseases such as dengue, yellow fever, Zika virus and meningococcal disease as well as cholera, the WHO said.
"The current highly spreading outbreak of cholera in Yemen, as well as in some African countries, may represent a serious risk to all pilgrims during the (haj) days and even after returning to their countries," a WHO bulletin said.
Dominique Legros, a WHO cholera expert, said Saudi Arabia had not had a cholera outbreak in many years thanks to reinforced surveillance and rapid tests to detect cases early.
"Don’t forget that today we are speaking of Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... but they are receiving pilgrims from a lot of endemic countries, and they managed not to have an outbreak, essentially by making sure that living conditions, access to water in particular, hygienic conditions, are in place," he told a regular U.N. briefing. "They are well-prepared in my view."
The incubation period of the disease, which spreads through ingestion of faecal matter and causes acute watery diarrhoea, is a matter of hours. Once symptoms start, cholera can kill within hours if the patient does not get treatment.
But people with symptoms are just the tip of the iceberg because 80 percent of patients show no symptoms, Legros said.
"That’s why we advise countries against airport screening for patients. The Saudis don’t do that. It's useless, technically speaking."
The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... has blamed the warring sides in Yemen and their international allies, including Saudi Arabia, for fuelling the 11-week cholera outbreak, driving millions of people closer to famine, and for hindering aid access.
The WHO has rolled out an emergency treatment programme, based on the vestiges of Yemen's shattered health system, to try and catch new cases early and stop the explosive spread of the disease.
The number of new cases has continued to grow by about 6,000 per day, but the number of deaths appears to have slowed dramatically, according to Rooters analysis of WHO data.
Death rates have slumped from 20-40 in recent weeks to an average of nine per day over the past six days.
#3
...I wonder how much it cost WHO to give the Saudis that endorsement.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/16/2017 9:00
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#4
Malaysia Airlines is converting its Airbus A380 fleet into Hav-haulers:~800 pax; looks like that will be an ideal breeding ground for disease. suspect the lavatories will be beyond gross.
#6
#5 I wonder how much it cost WHO to give the Saudis that endorsement
Don't you mean "how much it cost the Saudis"?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-07-16 10:55
g(r)om,
A thousand pardons, that's what happens when I try posting before coffee.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
07/16/2017 11:45
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#7
I'd forgotten, when I posted the article, that serious health risks are standard operating procedure for the haj. We haven't had any articles about Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) since 2015, but at the same time that the camel-transmitted coronavirus was slaying hundreds of Saudis they were also keeping a sharp eye out for Ebola infections. link
[IsraelTimes] Police suspect Facebook post by resident praising ’deaders’ who carried out Friday’s terror attack may have led to incident
Unidentified assailants hurled a stun grenade Friday at a mosque in the northern town of Maghar, the home of one of the coppers killed in the Jerusalem terror attack earlier in the day.
No one was hurt in the attack, and police were investigating whether it was connected to the death of officer Haiel Sitawe.
Maghar is a town with a mixed population of Druze, Moslems and Christians. Police suspected that a Facebook post by a female Moslem resident praising the "deaders" who carried out the terror attack may have led to the incident.
Speaking at Sitawe’s funeral Friday, Police Chief Roni Alsheich called for restraint on all sides, urging "all leaderships of all sectors, communities and ethnic groups not to allow any extreme ideology, any movement or group to disturb the peace." He added that bully boyz "will be dealt with severely, as is appropriate for the war on terror. We will not allow them any achievement."
Sitawe, 30, was buried in Maghar Friday afternoon. The second victim of the attack, Sergeant Master Kamil Shnaan, 22, was laid to rest in the Druze village of Hurfeish, also in northern Israel.
Sitawe joined the Border Police as part of his mandatory national service. He joined the Israel Police in 2012 and had served in the unit responsible for securing the Temple Mount ever since. He leaves behind a wife, Irin, a three-week-old son, his parents and three brothers.
Shnaan joined the police directly after high school. He decided to stay on the police force seven months ago, signing on as a career officer. He was the youngest son of a former Labor Party Knesset member, Shachiv Shnaan. His engagement party to his girlfriend was to be held next week.
Shnaan leaves behind his parents, one brother and three sisters.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[ABC Auz] A blow has been dealt to the prestige of Australia's special forces with in-kind damages likely to follow for the reputation of the Australian Army as a whole.
[Townhall] A palate cleanser with some conservative appeal from an unlikely source in Vox. Relocating federal agencies to middle America has some support, unsurprisingly, among Democrats from middle America but it’s also gotten a thumbs up from at least one big-name Republican. In January, House Oversight Committee chair Jason Chaffetz called for draining the swamp by dispersing key parts of it around the country:
[BusinessInsider] In a surprisingly frank outburst, Fox News anchor Shep Smith tore into the Trump administration on Friday for its lack of transparency on the unfolding Russia scandal. 
[Hot Air] That really sounds like something out of The Onion, doesn’t it? I mean, a headline like that one has to be satire. And yet it’s a very real story brought to us by The Daily Caller this week. Their title, while a bit more direct, has the same impact. "Shortage Of Foreign Labor Forces Maine Businesses To Hire Local Workers." The location is Bar Harbor, Maine, and yes, my friends... the struggle is real.
[NationalInterest] The Russian Navy will repair its sole aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, but the massive vessel will not be upgraded or modernized in any meaningful way. Instead, Russia will focus on getting the carrier back into the fleet as soon as possible when the ship goes into overhaul next year in 2018.
[Wash Times] Americans are peeking at their 401(k) plans and investments, and daring to think that maybe, just maybe, America is getting great again. Numbers suggest this may be true.
Hillary Clinton’s
[AlAhram] Egyptian 
[AlAhram] Two assailants believed to be behind Friday’s attack on a Giza security checkpoint were killed on Saturday by Egyptian security forces, a security directorate source told al-Ahram Arabic news website.
[Inquirer] Philippine troops continued to meet resistance as they pushed deeper into four villages with holdouts of Maute militants who wanted to turn Marawi into an Islamic State vassal. Ground troops, backed by helicopters and bombers, pushed farther inward into areas of the city where the rebel remnants are holed up.
North Korea
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The 
[DAWN] Police on Friday 
Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz 
[DAWN] Saudi police have killed a wanted "terrorist" in the Shia-majority eastern district of Qatif, which has seen a string of attacks on security forces, newspapers said Saturday.
[ALMASDARNEWS] The 
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A civilian was killed, while seven others were wounded in a bomb blast in east of Baghdad, a police source has said.
Qayyarah (IraqiNews.com) Eighteen Islamic State militants were killed in an airstrike launched by the international coalition in southern Nineveh, a local source said.
[Ynet] US authorities should search through any intercepted communications of 
HuffPost -- calling it by its old name, Huffington Post, is transbrandingophobic -- sent some of its staff to visit people in America who live outside of Manhattan and the D.C. area.
[Bangkok Post] Two Thai policemen and a woman were wounded when a motorcycle bomb went off on a bridge in Narathiwat province on Saturday morning. The explosion went off as a team of 11 policemen aboard two motorcycles and a patrol vehicle drove across a bridge in Sungai Kolok district.
[ALMASDARNEWS] Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) continue to find all sorts of hidden surprises as they scout out and secure every corner of post-ISIS 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
[IsraelTimes] Jihadist who stabbed to death two German women said to confess to sharing the ideology of the Islamic State
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Afghan security forces foiled a deadly suicide attack plot by the anti-government armed militant groups in southeastern Paktia province.
[Ynet] A resident of the Paleostinian village of Beitin was very lightly 
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] Several 
[NationalInterest.org] In 2014, when waves of refugees began flooding into western Europe, citizens and officials alike responded with generosity and openness. Exhausted refugees spilled out of trains and buses to be met by crowds bearing gifts of clothing and food, and holding up placards that read "Welcome Refugees."
[AlAhram] A cholera epidemic in Yemen, which has infected more than 332,000 people, could spread during the annual haj pilgrimage in 
[IsraelTimes] Police suspect Facebook post by resident praising ’
