[HotAir excerpt of WSJ - behind paywall, for now] A U.S. federal judge authorized the seizure of Citgo Petroleum Corp. to satisfy a Venezuelan government debt, a ruling that could set off a scramble among Venezuela's many unpaid creditors to wrest control of its only obviously seizable U.S. asset.
Judge Leonard P. Stark of the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del., issued the ruling Thursday. However, his full opinion, which could include conditions or impose further legal hurdles, was sealed. A redacted version is expected to be available at a later date.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2018
14:23 ||
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British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has denied visiting to the graves of the terrorists behind the 1972 Munich Massacre, but photos published by the Daily Mail on Saturday show him at a memorial service for members of the Black September terror organization in Tunisia in 2014.
In photos taken a year before Corbyn was elected as the leader of the Labour Party, he is seen holding a wreath over the grave of Atef Bseiso, the head of intelligence for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), who helped plan the attack at the Munich Olympics, which claimed the lives of 11 Israeli athletes.
Source close to Corbyn insisted to the Daily Mail that the 2014 service he attended commemorated the 47 Palestinians killed in an Israeli air strike on a Tunisian PLO base in 1985.
But the monument for that attack is some 14 meters (45 feet) away from where Corbyn was photographed, in a different part of the complex, according to the Daily Mail.
The photos, which were posted on the Palestinian embassy in Tunisia's Facebook page, show Corbyn also standing near the graves of Black September founder Salah Khalaf, his aide Fakhri al-Omari and PLO chief of security Hayel Abdel-Hamid.
Another photo shows Corbyn apparently joining in prayer while at the graves. An insider insisted the Labour leading was not taking part in the Islamic prayer, but merely "copying the others out of respect," according to the Daily Mail.
Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio congressman who was spotted as a star by President Trump at a rally last week, is finally getting some vindication.
Turns out that an earlier smear-attack on him, put on by the left about how he supposedly ignored sexual abuse as a coach earlier in his career, reported copiously by the press, was fake and phony all along. Just as Thomas Lifson suspected from the get-go, calling it the work of "the left's personal destruction machine." Turns out the person who leveled the original charge has since recanted. Not to mention, a middle aged doc sexually assaulting 20 year old wrestlers, is not very credible
Journalist Paul Sperry tweeted on August 5, 2018 that we should look this month for President Donald Trump to "declassify 20 redacted pages of the June 2017 FISA renewal." Sperry is referring to a Portable Document Format file released on July 21, 2018 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which contains heavily redacted versions of four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant applications to conduct surveillance of Carter Page, who had been a foreign policy adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump. Even with the redactions, the June 2017 warrant application is damning for deputy United States attorney general Rod Rosenstein.
[Wash Examiner] President Trump on Friday asked Democrats not to distance themselves from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, whom he has labeled the face of the Democratic Party.
"Democrats, please do not distance yourselves from Nancy Pelosi. She is a wonderful person whose ideas & policies may be bad, but who should definitely be given a 4th chance. She is trying very hard & has every right to take down the Democrat Party if she has veered too far left!" he tweeted.
Republicans have tried to tie Democratic candidates to Pelosi, who is seen by some in her party as standing in the way of younger leaders, in the lead up to the midterm elections in November.
Centrist and far-left Democratic candidates have spoken out against Pelosi becoming House speaker, which she has said she intends to run for, if Democrats retake majority in the fall.
#1
"OK, let's get a picture. Everybody get in close to the gibbering lady in the middle. Wait a minute, can we get Hillary in here? OK, smile and say 'loser'."
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/11/2018 8:58
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Warning. May be offensive to some
[CurmidgeonlySkeptical] A crusty old Army Sergeant Major found himself at a gala event hosted by a local liberal arts college. There was no shortage of extremely young idealistic ladies in attendance, one of whom approached the Sergeant Major for conversation.
"Excuse me, Sergeant Major, but you seem to be a very serious man. Is something bothering you?"
"Negative, ma'am. Just serious by nature."
The young lady looked at his awards and decorations and said, "It looks like you have seen a lot of action."
"Yes, ma'am, a lot of action."
The young lady, tiring of trying to start up a conversation, said, "You know, you should lighten up. Relax and enjoy yourself."
The Sergeant Major just stared at her in his serious manner.
Finally the young lady said, "You know, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but when is the last time you had sex?”
"1955, ma'am."
"Well, there you are. No wonder you're so serious. You really need to chill out! I mean, no sex since 1955! She took his hand and led him to a private room where she proceeded to "relax" him.
Afterwards, panting for breath, she leaned against his bare chest and said, "Wow, you sure didn't forget much since 1955."
The Sergeant Major said, after glancing at his watch, "I hope not; it's only 2130 now."
[FOX] In order to get Lindsey Graham’s point in this discussion with Harris Faulkner, first you’d have to know about the spy on Dianne Feinstein’s staff. Thanks to the collective silence of most media outlets, the audience for this argument might be somewhat limited ‐ but that doesn’t make it any less powerful. Graham wants to know why the FBI warned Dianne Feinstein about a suspected spy but never bothered to tell Donald Trump about their suspicions over Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.
I’m gonna send a letter to Director Wray next week and ask him what is the policy? Why didn’t you tell president Trump that you had concerns about Carter Page? Is there a double standard here?
If this was a counter-intelligence investigation and not a criminal investigation, the FBI should have told President Trump they had concerns about Papadopoulos and Page. Why didn’t they do for Trump what they did for Feinstein?
Let’s not forget that the penetration in Feinstein’s case was much more significant, too. The warning from the FBI came after the man had been in Feinstein’s employ for "two decades," as the local CBS affiliate noted last week. The FBI had evidence of direct and covert contact between the suspect and China’s intelligence operatives. Feinstein was also a high-value target as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, with access to the most sensitive information held by the US government, including from our intelligence partners around the globe. And yet, the FBI reached out to Feinstein rather than open a counter-intelligence probe with her as a potential target, even though Feinstein’s family has profited extensively through contacts with China during her tenure.
#3
They had, but if you search, it's been memory-holed: "The column revealed that the Chinese spy was Feinstein’s driver who also served as a gofer in her Bay Area office and was a liaison to the Asian-American community.
He even attended Chinese consulate functions for the senator."
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2018 10:36
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#4
"He's just a cook" (I mean driver). ref: Under Siege
#5
It does seem that the Dems want that old [money] bag Feinstein out after all of these recent hit pieces.
Reminds me a wee bit of what they did to HRC when she was running against N'Obama. And, funny, it also concerned China (IIRC, it was about some slimy Clinton donor).
And so, she was rewarded with the position of Sec. of State. A barrel of laughs there.
[Lifezette] Former DNI director says it's 'important' to recognize the former president's handprints on Russia probe.
President Barack Obama should be credited with launching "a whole sequence of events" that led to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia collusion allegations, according to former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper.
"One point I’d like to make, Anderson, that I don’t think has come up very much before ‐ and I’m alluding now to [President Donald Trump’s] criticism of President Obama for all that he did or didn’t do before he left office with respect to the Russian meddling," Clapper said Thursday on CNN’s "Anderson Cooper 360."
Clapper added that "if it weren’t for President Obama, we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set off a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today ‐ notably, special counsel Mueller’s investigation.
"President Obama is responsible for that, and it was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place. I think that’s an important point when it comes to critiquing President Obama."
Trump has rebuked his predecessor repeatedly for not "doing anything about" Russia’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, in which he defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Noting that Obama "was given information just prior to" the presidential election, Trump slammed Obama and officials in his administration, including Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan, for their failure to act adequately.
[Breitbart] Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has yet to explain how a Chinese spy came to work for her for decades, including while she was chair of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, who has written a book about the CIA and often writes about foreign policy, national security, and intelligence.
In his latest column, Thiessen writes (original links):
Imagine if it emerged that the Republican chairman of the House or Senate intelligence committee had a Russian spy working on their staff. Think it would cause a political firestorm? Well, this month we learned that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) had a Chinese spy on her staff who worked for her for about 20 years, was listed as an "office director" on payroll records and served as her driver when she was in San Francisco, all while reporting to China’s Ministry of State Security through China’s San Francisco Consulate. The reaction of the mainstream media? Barely a peep.
Feinstein acknowledged the infiltration but played down its significance. "Five years ago the FBI informed me it had concerns that an administrative member of my California staff was potentially being sought out by the Chinese government to provide information," Feinstein said in a statement ‐ which means the breach took place while Feinstein was heading the Intelligence Committee. But, Feinstein insisted, "he never had access to classified or sensitive information or legislative matters" and was immediately fired. In other words: junior staffer, no policy role, no access to secrets, quickly fired ‐ no big deal.
But it is a big deal....
Feinstein owes the country a detailed explanation of how she let a Chinese spy into her inner sanctum. And the media should give this security breach the same attention they would if it involved Russia and the Republicans.
Early life
Kevin Leon was born in Los Angeles to Andrés Leon and Carmen Osorio, of Guatemalan, Mexican, descent.[3] He grew up in the Logan Heights neighborhood in San Diego with his mother.[4] Both parents had separate families of their own when he was born. He also spent part of his youth in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.[4]
The first in his family to graduate from high school, he briefly attended the University of California, Santa Barbara before dropping out. He later earned a bachelor's degree from Pitzer College in 2003.[5]
While attending UC Santa Barbara, he began going by Kevin de León; but has not legally changed his name and so it's still Leon not de Leon.[6]
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2018 9:15
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#6
Yes, Frank, from your stand point and mine "de Leon" will be no better. But I think Democrats have concluded that Feinstein has become expendable.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/11/2018 10:17
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[ABC] An empty Horizon Airlines plane has crashed after it was stolen by a ground employee from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday around 8 p.m., according to local authorities and a senior federal aviation source.
North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled fighter jets to accompany the plane, which was steered away from Seattle and Tacoma by air traffic control, on its hour-long flight, according to the source. The Pierce County Sheriff's Department said the two F-15s were not involved in the crash.
The crash happened on Ketron Island, which is southwest of Tacoma, in south Puget Sound. The small island has only about 20 year-round residents.
The employee who stole the plane was 29 years old, from Pierce County and called "suicidal" by the sheriff's department. Horizon Air COO Constance von Muehlen confirmed the man was an employee of the company.
The sheriff said this was not a terrorist incident.
"Most terrorists don't do loops over the water," Sheriff Paul Pastor said. "This might have been a joyride gone terribly wrong."
The Pierce County Sheriff's Department has a number of vessels on scene, while the U.S. Coast Guard is on scene as well.
The Pierce County Sheriff tweeted, "Stolen horizon airplane crashed into Ketron island. Preliminary info is that a mechanic from unknown airlines stole plane. Was doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills caused crash into Island."
Alaska Airlines tweeted about an incident involving an "unauthorized take-off of a Horizon Air Q400. They said there were no passengers on board. Horizon Air is operated by Alaska Air Group.
#5
Noticed that the gear was retracted in the pix's accompanying the various stories. I suspect "Rick" had some chair-flying as well as taxi-observing experience.
[Breitbart] Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) told the Call Your Girlfriend podcast in an interview released Friday that serving on various congressional committees is her biggest "win." Awkwardly, Harris struggled to name a specific legislative accomplishment the 2020 hopeful was a part of.Transcript is as follows:
AMINATOU SOW: In the grand scheme of the Senate, you are relatively new to the job.
KAMALA HARRIS: Yeah, I am‐
SOW: And‐
HARRIS: 18 months.
SOW: Yeah, and we’re wondering, maybe, if you could talk about what at this point you could consider your biggest win or the thing that you’re like "Woah, when I look back at those 18 months this is the thing I want at the top of the resume."
HARRIS: I’ll tell you. Umm. One of the things that I think, for me, is most important is the role that I serve on that various committees that I’m on ‐ umm ‐ which are oversight committees. Let’s be clear. Those committees exist to watch and question what is going on with our government, the United States government. So, I’m on Senate Intelligence, I’m on Homeland Security, I’m on Judiciary and the accomplishment then is for me is a function of what I think my role should be. Often, especially in the last 18 months, has been to try and get at the truth. And so, the accomplishment is, and the goal is to always make sure that we are being, and the system is being, as transparent as possible and that, frankly, the American public has the answers and that we’re being told the truth. When that happens, I feel a sense of accomplishment and when it doesn’t I feel a sense of frustration.
#1
"...'Legislative Accomplishments'? Have you lost your ever lovin' mind? I'm an empowered African American Woman Democrat, THAT'S why I'm supposed to be elected!"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/11/2018 8:06
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#2
"I had a Post Office renamed in Che Guevara's honor"?
oops, not even that
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2018 8:09
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#3
Akin to the guy that stole the plane at Sea-Tac, sometimes not crashing and burning has to be counted as an accomplishment.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/11/2018 8:32
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#4
Well, Hillary served in the Senate for several years and never had any legislative accomplishments, yet she was super qualified to run for president.
In fact she LIVED for many years and never had any accomplishments, other than she was one of the only women Bill Clinton public admitted having sex with.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/11/2018 9:21
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#5
and he was probably lying about that too, see: "Webb Hubbell" and "Turkey Baster"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2018 9:31
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HARRIS: I’ll tell you. .... a sense of frustration.
Eight sentences, 164 words and I still have no idea what she does. Someone once said that if you can't describe what you do in a single, short declarative sentence, you don't have a real job. Here's a fine example.
[Dhaka Tribune] Three people, including two siblings died having inhaled toxic gas after falling into a septic tank in Chittagong on Friday. One word: Ew!
The incident happened around 4:30pm in the Jhautala Diesel Colony Masjid area under the Khulshi police station.
The deceased have been identified as Sifat, 12, Imran Hossain, 25 and his younger brother Rubel, 18, confirmed Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) police outpost Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Alauddin Talukdar to the Dhaka Tribune.
ASI Alauddin said: "They were playing in a playground behind the Masjid when their football fell into an abandoned septic tank. Imran and his brother were trying to rescue Sifat who got trapped inside the tank trying to pick the ball. They all died from inhaling the toxic gas that emanated from the tank.”
“Fire fighters found the trio in unconscious state and took them to the CMCH, where the on-duty doctor pronounced them dead,” said Assistant Deputy Director of Fire Service and Civil Defense of Chittagong Jashim Uddin.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2018
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#1
Who hasn't dipped their little brother in a septic tank?
[The Hill] Several trailers filled with donations for Hurricane Maria victims were found rotting at a state elections office in Puerto Rico this week.
The New York Times reported Friday that at least 10 trailers full of food, water and baby supplies were broken open and overrun with rats.
The Times noted that local radio station, Radio Isla, published a video showing cases of items such as beans, Tylenol and water covered in rat and lizard droppings.
According to the Times, the Puerto Rico elections commission offices were used as a collection center for donations from private entities and nonprofit groups after the island was ravaged by Hurricane Maria last year. Once they were collected, the donations were then distributed by the National Guard.
As the severity of the crisis diminished, the donations were then reportedly stored in trailers in the parking lot of the election bureau’s San Juan offices, where they remained despite continued problems in the region.
#3
But Democrat San Juan Whore Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz blamed Trump. She had the t-shirt and all that shit printed up during the hurricane
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2018 8:28
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#4
The above referenced politician has not shown up in the news lately. Could be it was decided (in whatever smoke filled back rooms such stuff gets decided) that her political "rock star" trajectory was probably not happening.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/11/2018 8:53
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#5
There seem to be certain... inefficiencies... in their form of social organization. Whatever could be the cause?
The same game they played on private Christian groups.
[IsraelTimes] Protest comes as faith groups that were largely tolerated in the past have seen their freedoms shrink
Thousands of Moslems gathered at a mosque in northwestern China on Friday to protest its planned demolition in a rare, public pushback to the government’s efforts to rewrite how religions are practiced in the country.
A large crowd of Hui people, a Moslem ethnic minority, began congregating at the towering Grand Mosque in the town of Weizhou on Thursday, local Hui residents told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named by phone.
Continued on Page 49
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Five snuffies were killed, while two others were locked away You have the right to remain silent... while attempting to infiltrate near the Iraqi-Syrian borders, the Security Media Center said on Friday.
In a statement, Brig. Gen. Yahia Rasool, spokesperson for the center, said "border guards managed to kill five snuffies and arrest two others as they were trying to sneak through north of Qaim town, near the Iraqi-Syrian borders."
Troops from al-Jazira Operations Command and the military, backed by army jets, started an operation to secure the region, the statement added.
[FOX] The U.S. Army wants an airborne microwave canon that can take down drones.
The Army is planning to purchase a Counter Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) from Lockheed Martin with the goal to “field UASs with payloads capable of negating adversary UAS,” the Army said in its solicitation notice.
In other words, the Army wants to disable or destroy a drone with an airborne microwave beam.
[Express] The US Navy P-8A Poseidon jet was flying at 16,500 feet to get a view of low-lying coral reefs that have been turned into garrisons with five-storey buildings, large radar installations, power plants and runways sturdy enough to carry large military aircraft.
During the flight that was giving journalists from CNN a rare look at the islands, the crew was warned six times by the Chinese military to get out of their territory.
A voice said: "US military aircraft, this is China ... leave immediately and keep out to avoid any misunderstanding."
Each time the aircraft was challenged by the Chinese military, the US Navy crew's response was the same.
The response was: "I am a sovereign immune United States naval aircraft conducting lawful military activities beyond the national airspace of any coastal state.
"In exercising these rights as guaranteed by international law, I am operating with due regard for the rights and duties of all states."
CNN was granted the chance to see how the Chinese government is rapidly expanding its militarisation efforts from a US reconnaissance plane when the harsh threat was issued.
The US Navy jet had flown over four key artificial islands in the Spratly chain where China has built up fortifications: Subi Reef, Fiery Cross Reef, Johnson Reef and Mischief Reef.
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) The Diyala Operations Command has announced killing three 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.... members in operations, northeast of the province.
Speaking to Baghdad Today website, Maj. Gen. Mazhar al-Azzawi, the commander, said "joint security forces, backed by the army jet, managed to during operations to follow Islamic State holy warriors in Hamreen and al-Nada basin to kill three holy warriors and destroy 20 rest houses that contained explosives."
Earlier today, Azzawi announced carrying out two operations there to follow the myrmidons.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/11/2018
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djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... (IraqiNews.com) An Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... member, who planted a bomb, which killed an explosive expert from Nineveh police, has been killed in west of Mosul, the Security Media Center said on Thursday.
In a statement, the center said the troops of the Interior Ministry, backed by Nineveh police, "managed to kill an Islamic State member who took part, along with two other Death Eaters, in planting a bomb to target the mayor of al-Quds district, west of Mosul. The bomb killed an explosive expert from Nineveh police. The two other Lions of Islam were killed few days ago."
The Death Eater, according to the statement, "was killed after besieging him. Two bombs and a hand grenade were found in his possession in west of Mosul."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/11/2018
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[10 views]
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[KhaamaPress] A former General of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) has been killed in an attack by unknown armed men in capital Kabul.
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) officials confirmed that the former General of the Ministry Zalmay Wardak was killed on Thursday night.
Deputy MoI spokesman Nusrat Rahimi confirmed that the incident took place in the vicinity of the 2nd police district of the city.
He said unknown attacked Mr. Wardak in Karte Parwan area of the city, leaving him dead.
According to Rahimi, an investigation has been launched in connection to the incident and efforts are underway for the arrest of the culprits.
In the meantime, a spokesman for the Kabul police commandment, Hashmat Stanikzai, says Gen. Wardak has been stabbed to death and his driver has been arrested.
No individual or group has so far claimed responsibility behind the attack.
However, the anti-government armed militants have stepped up their attacks against the former and current government and security officials in the key provinces and cities of the country.
Several similar attacks including magnetic bombings have been carried out against the officials in Kabul city during the recent months.
Zalmay Wardak, a former Afghan national army general, a military analyst and possible candidate for upcoming parliamentary elections, was mysteriously murdered at his residence in Kabul on Thursday night.
Kabul police said the cause of the murder seems to be personal enmity and that police have arrested his driver in connection to the incident.
In another incident, dead body of a 15-year-old boy was found in PD6 area in Kabul. Residents said the victim had been killed by his parents.
Statistcs by Kabul police show that 15 cases of murder and 10 IED blasts were reported in Kabul over last month.
Threats to international shipping may present Israel with the chance to tighten ranks with Saudi Arabia.
The Israeli Prime Minister, not known for his subtlety, threatened that “if Iran tries to block the strait of Bab el-Mandeb, I am certain that it will find itself confronting an international coalition that will be determined to prevent this, and this coalition will also include all of Israel’s military branches.”
Protecting trade with China is the reason.
China is already the main source of Israeli imports and will soon surpass the United States as the main single nation market for its exports.
[Libya Herald] The Tuareg House of Representatives member Saleh Hammah (Bakada) said that his people will not be used by Siaf al-Islam Qadaffy as a means to political ends.
Speaking today exclusively to Libya Herald by phone, Hammah, was responding to an alleged attack on the Tuareg people by Saif Qadaffy in a recording widely circulated on social media. In the audio recording purporting to be of Saif Qadaffy, Saif accused the Tuaregs, according to Hammah, of ’’treason’’ against the Libyan cause and of being in contact with ’’foreign agents’’.
Hammah is a leading representative of the Libyan Tuareg ethnic minority, being a member of the House of Representatives (HoR) and of the 2015 Skhirat negotiation committee. He does not deny his former friendship with Saif nor the allegiance of his Tuareg people with the former regime. Indeed, he openly admitted that the Tuareg had initially stood by the former regime in opposition to the NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... attack.
However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... he now believes that there is no way back for the former regime ‐ through the use of force ‐ and sees dialogue and reconciliation as the only viable political tool for Libya’s future.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2018
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[12 views]
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[DAWN] Several bodies of Afghan soldiers have been found in a military base that Talibs stormed last week in the embattled southern province of Uruzgan, officials said on Thursday.
The attack in Chinartu district last Friday underlined the ferocity of fighting in many areas of Afghanistan even as speculation has increased about a possible ceasefire during Eid holiday this month.
"We have discovered and transported 40 bodies from the area, so far," district governor Faiz Mohammad said, adding that a number of members of the security forces were still missing.
News of the attack only began filtering out over the past two days. Muhammad Radmanish, a front man for the ministry of defence, said 27 Afghan soldiers were killed and five maimed.
The base was back under control of security forces, said Radmanish but the attack has caused significant damage and weapons losses.
Amir Muhammad Barekzai, a member of the provincial council, said some soldiers appeared to have been shot after they were captured but it was not possible to obtain independent confirmation.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a front man for the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... said 46 members of the Afghan cops were killed in the Uruzgan festivities.
"Afghan soldiers were not killed in Taliban detention centres," he said.
The attack underlines the heavy losses being suffered by security forces as they fight the Taliban.
A US Congressional watchdog, SIGAR, said in a report last year the losses were "shockingly high" but Afghan authorities no longer release overall casualty data.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2018
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Golly. So many possibiliites, a complete dearth of evidence.
[IsraelTimes] Syria’s air defense systems were activated overnight Friday-Saturday against a "hostile target" that penetrated the Syrian airspace west of Damascus, the country’s official news agency reported.
The report did not state if a strike on the capital had actually taken place.
The incident came eight days after Syria said its air defenses destroyed an unspecified enemy target during an attempted Arclight airstrike west of Damascus, as residents reported a series of loud kabooms around the Syrian capital.
The pro-government al-Masdar news service said August 2 that air defenses fired several missiles to fend off an attack near the el-Kisweh region and that it was not clear if the Syrian missiles were fired at an aircraft, drone or incoming rockets.
Israel has been blamed for previous attacks on a suspected Iranian military base in the el-Kisweh area. An attack in May killed at least nine Iranians.
[News24] US First lady Melania Trump's parents have been sworn in as US citizens.
A lawyer for Viktor and Amalija Knavs says the Slovenian couple took the citizenship oath on Thursday in New York City. They had been living in the US as permanent residents.
The Knavses raised Melania in the rural industrial town of Sevnica while Slovenia was under Communist rule. Viktor was a car dealer. Amalija worked in a textile factory.
They came and went from the ceremony at a Manhattan federal building flanked by Homeland Security police.
Viktor is 74, two years older than President Donald Trump. Amalija is 73. The first lady, born Melanija, changed her name to Melania Knauss when she started modelling. She settled in New York in 1996 and met Trump two years later.
[WASHINGTONTIMES] Two Democratic candidates are each poised to become the first Native American woman elected to Congress, according to the media consensus, which has prompted the question: What about Sen. Elizabeth Fauxchahontas Warren ...Dem Senatrix from Massachussetts, who traces her noble lineage all the way back to Big Chief Spouting Bull. It has been alleged that she speaks with forked tongue but she denies that... Democrat Sharice Davids, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, won her House primary race Tuesday in Kansas, prompting the Kansas City Star and others to report that she would be "the first Native American woman elected to Congress" if she prevails in November.
The same has been said of Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, who captured in June the Democratic nomination for the New Mexico congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who’s running for governor.
Not mentioned in the post-primary news coverage was the senior senator from Massachusetts, an omission not lost on social media, where references to her dubious claims of Cherokee ancestry are flying thick and fast.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2018
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#1
It's not so mach 'snubbed' as they're not going to talk about it.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/11/2018 8:30
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#2
Does anyone actually think Warren is part Indian?
#5
Smallpox blankets all around... (Yes, I know it's a lie)
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/11/2018 12:00
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#6
The problem with claiming Cherokee ancestry is that even if you are successful you'll run into a problem with the tribes actions during the US Civil War. They were on the side of the South and they kept slaves. Given the nature of the progressives some lawyer will want them to pay "reparations"
The agent, Derek Maltz, detailed to Levin how illicit American businesses were funneling money to terrorist organizations, and that his suspicion was Ohr either sidelined or ignored his responsibility to track these businesses in order to pursue a political agenda against the Donald Trump campaign.
Maltz called into Levin’s show and explained to the radio host he was the head of his division when there was an initiative against Hezbollah in their cocaine and money laundering activities.
"Major cocaine loads leaving Colombia South America going into West Africa. Cocaine is sold millions and millions of dollars are collected Middle Eastern couriers transporting the cash back to Beiruit, Lebanon. Hezbollah militants protecting the money going into the banks. Money transfers back to America. Going into bank accounts," Maltz said.
He went on to say, "Middle Eastern used car businesses taking cash out‐ buying cars at auto auctions‐ sending the cars back down to West Africa to resell for like 20, 25 percent profit, and monies were going right back to Hezbollah to support their overall worldwide initiative."
In 2011, Ohr was head of the Department of Justice’s transnational organized crime strategy. The purpose of the strategy, according to Maltz, was to unite the U.S. government agencies to work against the biggest threats to the United States.
Here’s where he suggests that Ohr was likely too busy with his political agenda against Trump to do his job: Used cars? I believe the Awan brothers had a used car business in Falls Church VA. I wonder ?
#1
Levin had a caller Months ago who was watching, in fact a Lead on this very case. The corruption involved made him run as fast as he could for the exit.
#2
And this is that Man. He and Levin should probably make Congress draft a Subpoena in order to protect his whistleblower status and enshrining his immunity right away. He may need some financial help as well but I pray maybe Legal Landmark will do him a solid.
[IsraelTimes] US officials say Fateh-110 was fired during a military exercise last weekend, held as Trump reintroduced economic sanctions on Tehran
Iran carried out a ballistic missile test last week for the first time in 2018, US officials were quoted saying late on Friday.
The test of the Iranian Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missile was carried out at the Strait of Hormuz during a naval exercise in which at least 50 small ships took part, Fox News reported. According to the report, the missiles flew "shore to shore" for more than 160 kilometers (100 miles) over the Strait of Hormuz to a site in the desert.
While the US military knew of Iran’s naval activity in the region, the missile test detected by US spy satellites had not been previously reported.
The missile launch test is the first known test of the Fateh-110 in over a year. Last time such a missile was launched by Iran was in March, 2017.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps announced last weekend it had completed a "successful" naval exercise in the Persian Gulf, which was seen in the West as a provocation in response to the US reimposition of sanctions on Tehran.
The timing was unusual, as the exercise appeared to be similar in scale and nature to an annual drill that ordinarily takes places later in the year, in the autumn.
The vessels taking part in the exercise were mostly small attack boats, and there were no interactions reported with US ships in the strait, one of the world’s most important oil shipping lanes.
In a statement regarding the drill, Captain Bill Urban, the US military’s Central Command front man, said the US was "aware of an increase" in Iranian naval operations in the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman.
"We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways," Urban said.
The Fateh-110 test launch came in the same week as US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... signed an executive order to restore nuclear-related sanctions on Tehran, increasing economic pressure on the country. Trump withdrew from the landmark P5+1 nuclear agreement with Iran in May, paving the way for sanctions to be reimposed.
Other signatories of the 2015 JCPOA opposed the America withdrawal from the landmark pact, and Russia and China criticized the reimposition of nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, arguing that Tehran had kept its part of the very bad deal.
Iranian leaders have threatened several times in recent weeks to close the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the renewal of sanctions.
US officials in recent years have accused both the regular Iranian navy and the IRGC of routinely harassing American warships in the Gulf.
But so far this year, there have been no such incidents.
The IRGC is a paramilitary force that answers directly to the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In January 2016, the Iranians briefly captured the crew of two small US patrol boats that strayed into Iranian waters.
[Daily Caller] The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is moving two agencies and roughly 700 federal employees out of Washington, D.C., to save money and improve the department’s service to taxpayers.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Thursday that the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) will be fully moved out of the nation’s capital by 2020, according to the USDA. A location hasn’t been picked yet.
"It’s been our goal to make USDA the most effective, efficient, and customer-focused department in the entire federal government," Perdue said in a statement. "In our Administration, we have looked critically at the way we do business, with the ultimate goal of ensuring the best service possible for our customers, and for the taxpayers of the United States."
"In some cases, this has meant realigning some of our offices and functions, or even relocating them, in order to make more logical sense or provide more streamlined and efficient services," Perdue said.
As part of the reorganization, Perdue is also moving the Economic Research Service (ERS) out from under the USDA’s Research, Education, and Economics branch. The ERS will be placed back in the Office of the Chief Economist under the authority of the Office of the Secretary.
Roughly 700 USDA employees could be moved, E&E News reports.
Yes, but to where? We can’t enjoy proper schadenfreude unless we know whether it’s to be Bismark, North Dakota, somewhere deep in Oklahoma, or a small farm community even less appealing to the DC crowd.
#1
Bureaucrats are going to be pissed. No more first class DC public schools. They're going to have to rub elbows with the deplorables.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
08/11/2018 0:47
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#2
Since they're virtually un-fire-able, I've always thought that a good way to get rid of the army of pr0n watchers and solitaire players would be to declare that their jobs were moving to Point Barrow. "Your tent city awaits!"
#3
It's the Department of friggin' Agriculture! Makes sense to move where the agriculture is. Out there amongst the cornfields and deplorables, away from the groupthink. It'll be good for 'em.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2018 8:11
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#7
Should have set this in motion the first week. Most of the dept of agriculture should be moved to farm states. This gets them out of the swamp and closer to those they are responsible for. It will also be cheaper rent and encourage a large number of folks to reaign.
#9
...BLM is already scheduled to move - I'm starting to see a pattern here, and one that hasn't really been noticed amidst all the "DOWN WITH KAVANAUGH" wharrgarbl....
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/11/2018 9:31
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#10
#8 - you want them to screw up Hatch Chilis?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2018 9:32
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[AnNahar] Heavy bombardment killed nearly 30 civilians across northern Syria on Friday, a monitor said, in some of the fiercest shelling of rebel-held areas there in months.
The air strikes and barrel bombs targeted the key opposition-held province of Idlib in Syria's northwest and a rebel town in the adjacent province of Aleppo.
Idlib is the largest chunk of territory still in rebel hands, and Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... has warned it would be his next target.
The province's southwest was shelled heavily on Thursday and the bombing the next day "moved further east," leaving 11 civilians dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"Air strikes by Russian warplanes and barrel bombs from Syrian helicopters hit southern parts of Idlib province today in very heavy shelling," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said Friday.
"It's the most intense bombing since Idlib was declared a de-escalation zone last year," he told AFP.
The shelling left eight civilians dead in the main town of Khan Sheikhun, and another three including a child died in nearby al-Tah.
The White Helmets, a rescue force operating in opposition-held areas of Syria, said its volunteers were responding to a bombing blitz on both Khan Sheikhun and al-Tah.
A White Helmets rescuer in Khan Sheikhun told AFP that residential districts had been hit.
Hours later, air strikes pummeled the main rebel town of Orum al-Kubra in the neighbouring province of Aleppo, the Observatory said, without being able to immediately identify if they were Syrian or Russian.
"The corpse count is now at 18 civilians including three children, and dozens of people injured," said Abdel Rahman.
Rebels have lost swathes of the territory they once controlled in Syria to regime forces over the last few months, including three areas that had been designated as "de-escalation zones" last year.
Assad's troops now appear to have set their sights on the last such area, Idlib.
The Britannia-based Observatory said regime reinforcements, including troops and equipment, had been amassing around the southwestern part of Idlib for several days.
But a full-fledged assault would be devastating for the estimated 2.5 million people living in Idlib, many of them rebels and civilians bused out of other areas that came back under regime control.
The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... appealed Thursday for talks to avert "a civilian bloodbath" in the province, which borders The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... "The war cannot be allowed to go to Idlib," said Jan Egeland, head of the U.N.'s humanitarian taskforce for Syria.
Around 60 percent of Idlib is held by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is led by al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate.
Rival factions control most of the rest, but Syrian troops have carved out a small southeastern part.
Government helicopters on Thursday dropped leaflets over towns in Idlib's eastern countryside urging people to surrender.
Small satellites that have propulsion systems, but don’t have encrypted commanding systems, pose a small but real threat of being hacked and endangering other satellites, according to a new study.
That research by a team of graduate students, presented at the AIAA/Utah State University Conference on Small Satellites here Aug. 9, recommended the space industry take steps to prevent the launch of such satellites to avoid an incident that could lead to a “regulatory overreaction” by government agencies.
“We would propose as a policy that, for those cubesats and smallsats that have propulsion, that the industry adopt a ‘no encryption, no fly’ rule,” said Andrew Kurzrok of Yale University.
That recommendation comes as cubesat developers, who once had few, if any, options for onboard propulsion, are now looking to make use of more advanced chemical and electric propulsion systems. Some of those technologies can provide smallsats with large changes in velocity, which can enable major orbital changes.
Kurzrok and colleagues at Stanford University and the University of Colorado modeled several different propulsion systems on a notional 10-kilogram nanosatellite, assuming the spacecraft was in a 300-kilometer orbit and that the propulsion systems accounted for half the spacecraft’s mass. The results ranged from the satellite reaching medium Earth orbit altitudes within two hours when using chemical propulsion to passing geostationary orbit in about a year with an electric propulsion system.
The scenario involving the nanosatellite with chemical propulsion is particularly troubling, he said. “What are the abilities within two hours to track that something isn’t where it’s supposed to be and then warn or take some sort of secondary action?” he said, concluding that the satellite reaching GEO in a year is a much less plausible threat.
The concern, then is a scenario where hackers are able to take control of a satellite and redirect it quickly. Government satellites, as well as many commercial ones, have security measures like encryption that make it unlikely they could be hacked. However, many satellites run by academic institutions don’t have such security, often because of funding or technical limitations.
There’s been no known case where a smallsat with propulsion has been hacked, but Kurzrok suggested it may be only a matter of time. “If something can be hacked, eventually it will be hacked,” he said, based on cybersecurity experiences in other industries. That has serious implications, even in the scenario where the hacking event does no damage to the satellite or other space objects. “The reputational costs to the industry could be significant.”
That led to his recommendation that small satellites with propulsion be required to have encrypted command systems. That could be done through industry self-regulation, with launch providers ensuring that the satellites they launch comply with this rule, or provisions in contracts by satellite propulsion providers requiring their systems only be used on satellites with encrypted communications systems.
“This is actually a situation that is ripe for industry self-regulation,” he said. “It’s not worth one risky launch that will risk the rest of your manifest if there is a regulatory overreaction if something goes wrong.”
[Tolo] The US forces in Afghanistan confirm that there were attacks on multiple government centers in Ghazni City on Thursday night.
“We can confirm that there were attacks last night on multiple government centers in Ghazni City, Ghazni province,” Lt. Col. Martin L. O’Donnell, a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, told TOLOnews.
He said fighting has since ceased (at around 8am Kabul time).
The spokesman said the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces held their ground and maintain control of all government centers.
“US forces responded with close-air support (US attack helicopters) and conducted one strike (drone). In addition, US aircraft conducted a show of presence,” Mr. O’Donnell told TOLOnews.
Initial reports indicate minimal Afghan security force casualties, he said in a statement on Friday.
“This is yet another failed Taliban attempt to seize terrain, which will result in yet another eye-catching, but strategically inconsequential headline,” he said.
Taliban stormed Ghazni City – in the center of Afghanistan – 148 kilometers southwest of Kabul, at around 2am Kabul time on Friday. Taliban has said in a statement that the group stormed Ghazni City from different sides.
Ghazni police said Kabul-Ghazni Highway has been closed to traffic following heavy fighting between government forces and Taliban.
Hamidullah Nawrozi, member of Ghazni Provincial Council, told TOLOnews that "Ghazni city will fall to the Taliban if reinforcements were not sent".
Meanwhile, Ghazni Police Chief Farid Ahmad Mashal said the Ghazni City is under the control of government forces as he talked to TOLOnews at around 8:30am Kabul time. He rejected the claims that Taliban has entered the city. The police chief said clashes are ongoing in Khogyani, Khwaja Omari and Zanakhan areas on the outskirts of Ghazni City.
Recently, insecurity has increased in Ghazni province. The increasing insecurity has resulted in a decision by the Independent Election Commission to delay the upcoming parliamentary election in the province.
[Tolo] Taliban insurgents on Friday blocked Kabul-Kandahar Highway that connects Afghanistan’s capital Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar after the group launched an overnight attack on Ghazni City.
Taliban’s attack on Ghazni, about 180 kilometers southwest of Kabul, is the latest series of attacks by the resurgent group on provincial centers.
Afghan security officials in Maidan Wardak province said Taliban launched an attack on Salar area at midnight on Thursday and then engaged in a fierce battle with government forces in the area.
Passengers who stranded on the strategically important high said Taliban fighters have visible presence in some parts of Kabul-Kandahar Highway.
“They (Taliban) targeted the vehicles. Landmines were planted, bridges were destroyed, they also opened fire on us. Many drivers had been hit,” said Abdulhai, a driver.
“We stranded for two hours in Sayed Abad district. Clashws were ongoing in Chashm-e-Salar, so we returned,” said Mohammad Zia, a driver.
The US army in Afghanistan however has said that a series of air strikes were carried out on the Taliban in the area and that the group’s attempt to seize Ghazni City has failed.
“We can confirm that there were attacks last night on multiple government centers in Ghazni City, Ghazni province,” Lt. Col. Martin L. O’Donnell, a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, told TOLOnews.
TOLOnews reporter Gulabuddin Ghubar who visited Maidan Wardak said government forces were trying to send reinforcements to the area to repel further advance of the group.
Soldiers describes the warfronts
“We checked the route and defused the mines. We also escorted the convoy towards Durani bazar and took the martyrs there,” said Mohammad Sediq, a soldier.
“We walked through Dasht-e-Top area. Taliban militants are fighting on multiple fronts. They cannot engage in direct battles,” said Emal Ibrahimi, a soldier.
“People have suffered from this war. The road is blocked. People are stranded on both sides,” said Sharifullah Hotak, member of Maidan Wardak Provincial Council.
[KhaamaPress] The Ministry of Interior (MoI) officials are saying that the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) have full grip over the security of Ghazni city, the provincial capital of Ghazni province.
MoI deputy spokesman Nursrat Rahimi told reporters in Kabul that the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces are in full lead of the security of Ghazni city.
He said the Taliban militants have sustained heavy casualties during the attack on Ghazni city and in clashes with the security forces but added that no specific information is available regarding the exact toll.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense Gen. Mohammad Radmanish said the attack was carried out jointly by the militants from Maidan Wardak, Paktia, and Zabul provinces.
Provincial security Chief Farid Ahmad Mashal says the dead bodies of at least 39 militants are left in the eastern parts of the city.
Provincial public health directorate officials had earlier said the bodies of at least 16 people including two civilians have been shifted to the hospital along with at least 30 others who have sustained injuries.
According to the officials, at least 26 security personnel are among those wounded during the clashes.
The provincial governor’s spokesman Mohammad Arif Noori had earlier said at least seven security personnel have sustained injuries during the attack.
Officials said Afghan special forces were also eing deployed to the southeastern city of Ghazni after the latest attempt by the Taliban to capture an urban centre, with the assault coming as pressure builds on the insurgents to enter peace talks.
At least one Afghan soldier has been killed and seven others wounded in the fighting, provincial governor spokesman Arif Noori said.
Civilian houses and army checkpoints have come under mortar attack and the bodies of dozens of Taliban fighters are in the streets, he added.
Rudaw adds still more details. At some point the fog of war will clear, and we’ll have at least a better idea of how many people belonging to which groups were killed:
Taliban fighters tried to overrun a provincial capital in Afghanistan early on Friday, hiding inside homes before slipping into city streets in the night to attack security forces and killing at least 14 policemen before being pushed back, officials said.
The overnight attack in the southeastern city of Ghazni, the capital of a province with the same name, also wounded at least 20 members of the security forces, said Baz Mohammad Hemat, the administrator of the Ghazni city hospital.
Another Taliban attack, this one on Thursday night in western Herat province, left six policemen dead in the district of Obe, according to the governor’s spokesman there, Gelani Farhad.
In Ghazni, the attack began around 2 a.m. with intense gunbattles raging and fires burning in several shops in the city’s residential areas, provincial police chief Farid Ahmad Mashal told The Associated Press.
After repulsing the daring assault, police conducted house-to-house searches for any remaining Taliban fighters. An investigation was also underway on how the insurgents had managed to infiltrate so deep into the city, barely 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of the Afghan capital of Kabul.
Mashal said there were more than 100 other casualties but he could not give a breakdown of the dead and wounded. Most of the casualties were Taliban, he said.
Several bodies of dead Taliban fighters remained on the street after government forced pushed the insurgents from Ghazni, the police chief said. Bodies of 39 Taliban fighters were recovered from under a bridge on the southern edge of the city.
Airstrikes called in to quash the offensive also killed dozens of Taliban, Mashal said. Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish said the army had helped the police and that the city was brought under control of government forces.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed parts of Ghazni had been seized and scores of people killed.
By mid-morning, sporadic gunfire could still be heard in city, some residents said. There were still Taliban fighters who had hunkered down in elevated positions from which they were still shooting, the residents said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear for their safety.
The Taliban have so far not confirmed being behind the earlier attack in Herat in which at least six policemen were killed at a district checkpoint.
At this point it’s no longer an emergency, but just their chronic condition.
Tradition
[AlAhram] A heat wave in North Korea has led to rice, maize and other crops withering in the fields, "with potentially catastrophic effects", the International Federation of Red Thingy and Red Islamic Thingy Societies (IFRC) said on Friday.
The world's largest disaster relief network warned of a risk of a "full-blown food security crisis" in the isolated country, where a famine in the mid-1990s killed up to three million people.
It said the worrying situation had been exacerbated by international sanctions imposed due to North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.
In a statement issued in Geneva, the IFRC said there had been no rainfall since early July as temperatures soared to an average 39 Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) across the country, whose official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The next rain was expected in mid-August.
The population of 25 million is already stressed and vulnerable with malnutrition among children that could worsen, stunting their growth, it said.
"This is not yet classified as a drought, but rice, maize and other crops are already withering in the fields, with potentially catastrophic effects for the people of DPRK," said Joseph Muyamboit, the IFRC's programme manager in Pyongyang.
"We cannot and must not let this situation become a full-blown food security crisis. We know that previous serious dry spells have disrupted the food supply to a point where it has caused serious health problems and malnutrition across the country."
North Korea called last week for an "all-out battle" against the record temperatures threatening crops, referring to an "unprecedented natural disaster".
Drought and floods have long been a seasonal threat in North Korea, which lacks irrigation systems and other infrastructure to ward off natural disasters.
In Seoul, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it had no specific information on the situation in the north, but that the Red Thingy had notified them of the heat wave last week.
The IFRC was helping the national Red Thingy to support 13,700 of the most vulnerable people at risk, in South Hamgyong and South Pyongan provinces. It had deployed emergency response teams and 20 water pumps to irrigate fields in the hardest-hit areas, it said.
David Beasley, the head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), visited North Korea in May to look into boosting food distributions to hungry women and kiddies, in the latest sign of an opening.
About 70 percent of North Koreans are "food insecure", meaning they struggle to avoid hunger, and one in four children under five is stunted from chronic malnutrition, the WFP said at the time. A 2015 drought worsened the situation, it said.
#3
Well the US could benefit by delivering food but not through those pro-commie NGO's. Instead air drop it with a Grown In the US or purchased by S.Korea labels. Really make them sweat by labeling them from China .
One wonders what effect dropping seawater on the crowds from firefighting airplanes would have...
[IsraelTimes] Two Paleostinians said killed, over 100 hurt as thousands rally at border, hurl rocks, Molotov cocktails, try to breach fence; at least 6 fires reported in Israel due to airborne arson
Israeli tanks struck two Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, posts in the Gazoo Strip Friday evening after a grenade was hurled at troops and amid intense violence during mass riots in several locations along the border.
The strike came as Hadashot TV news reported that Israel is denying it ever agreed to a ceasefire with Hamas.
Around 9,000 Paleostinians were participating in weekly border protests. Some protesters were rioting near the fence, throwing makeshift bombs, Molotov cocktails and rocks at Israeli soldiers and burning tires to create a smokescreen. In one incident a grenade was thrown towards Israeli troops, but caused no casualties. Several attempts were made to breach the security fence.
The Hamas-run Gazoo health ministry reported that two Paleostinians were killed in the riots: 25-year-old medic Abdullah al-Qatati and 55-year-old protester Ali al-Alul. It said over 100 people were hurt, of which 25 were shot by Israeli troops.
Some rioters flew incendiary kites and balloons into Israel. Israeli officials said at least six fires had broken out in Israeli territory since the morning due to airborne arson attacks.
Hamas had earlier said the so-called "March of Return" border demonstrations would continue unimpeded, despite its announcement of cessation of hostilities with Israel the night before.
A senior Israeli diplomatic official insisted to Hadashot that Hamas’s announcement that Jerusalem had agreed to a truce was a lie. A senior defense official backed up the claim, and added that the army did not see the confrontation as over.
The implication was that Israel had ceased its attacks in the Strip because Hamas had halted rocket attacks on Israeli communities, but did not see itself obligated to a truce.
Hamas’s announcement of a truce came after a 12-hour lull in fighting, following two days that saw the heaviest exchange of Paleostinian rocket fire and reprisal Israeli Arclight airstrikes since the 2014 Gazoo war.
Hamas said a ceasefire had been reached "on the basis of mutual calm" and went into effect at midnight. It said the deal was mediated by Egypt and other regional players. Israel denied there was a truce, but a senior Israeli official told Israel Radio that "quiet would be met with quiet." There were no instances of violence reported along the border overnight.
On Friday evening the Israeli air force said it had completed deployment of Iron Dome missile defense batteries in central Israel, preparing for the possibility of further escalation.
Earlier on Friday Hamas front manSami Abu Zuhri ...a senior spokesman for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gaza. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest... celebrated Hamas’s supposed achievements during the last round of conflict, saying it "proves Israel can be defeated."
[WASHINGTONTIMES] A judge late Wednesday signed off on the settlement between the IRS ...the Internal Revenue Service; that office of the United States government that collects taxes and persecutes the regime's political enemies... and hundreds of tea party groups, closing out the last major legal battle over what all sides now agree was unwarranted and illegal targeting for political purposes.
The IRS agreed to pay $3.5 million to groups that were wronged by the intrusive inspections, and insists it’s made changes so that political targeting can’t occur in the future.
A few issues are still being fought over in the courts ‐ including whether former IRS senior executive Lois G. Lerner will be allowed to forever shield her deposition explaining her behavior from public view, and whether the IRS should pay attorney fees ‐ but this week’s decision closes out five years of litigation over the targeting itself.
"It shows that when a government agency desires to target citizens based on their viewpoints, a price will be paid," said Edward Greim, the lawyer who led the class action case in federal court in Cincinnati.
The $3.5 million closely approximates the fines the IRS would have had to pay in damages for each intrusive scrutiny of tea party groups, had the agency been found in violation of the law. The money will be split with half going to the lawyers who argued the case and the other half to more than 100 tea party groups, which will get a cut of about $17,000 each. So the taxpayer foots the bill and the crooked SOB's that did the deed (Lois Lerner, the evil Koskinen and friends) still keep their cushy jobs, annual bonuses, and pensions. Nice, real fok'n nice !
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2018
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#1
Remove their 'limited liability' for intentional deprivation of civil rights.
#2
The IRS agreed to pay $3.5 million to groups that were wronged by the intrusive inspections, and insists it’s made changes so that political targeting can’t occur in the future.
I just might believe that if it's ever reflected in the Internal Revenue Manual. Probably not even then.
[AnNahar] The EU said Friday it will give Bosnia 6 million euros to cope with an influx of migrants colonists crossing the country in hope of reaching Western Europe.
The aid, which comes on top of 1.5 million euros already granted in June, is aimed at helping the poor Balkan country provide housing and other basic services to the thousands of refugees and migrants colonists inside its borders.
The new fund should also help Bosnian authorities to boost efforts against human trafficking and strengthen border control, the EU's delegation in the country said in a statement.
More than 10,000 migrants colonists have entered Bosnia illegally since January, according to the latest government figures, carving a new route through the Balkans.
"About 60 percent of these people, or a little more, have emerged" and crossed into Crotia, an EU member state, said Bosnia's Minister of Security Dragan Mektic.
The rest remain stuck in two northwestern Bosnian towns near the border, with little to no support from the government.
Many have been camping out in parks or abandoned buildings, while the Red Thingy and local volunteers have been providing meals and other basic services.
Anger has been mounting in Bihac, one of the main hubs, over the government's poor management of the influx.
Many of the migrants colonists are young men, hailing from Iran and Pakistain.
So far the influx does not compare with the hundreds of thousands of migrants colonists who arrived in Europe ...also known as Moslem Lebensraum... via the 'Balkans Route' in 2015-16, fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
That trail, which mostly avoided Bosnia's mountainous terrain, was closed in March 2016.
Yet smaller numbers of people, seeking alternative ways, still cross the region to reach the EU.
In June Bosnia's Mektic accused the EU of refusing to finance a reception center in Bosnia's northwest because it was too close to their border.
But on Tuesday he said the bloc had agreed to "temporarily" fund a center until a better location could be found.
Another reception facility is being planned in a former military barracks in Hadzici, near Sarajevo, with support from The Council of Europe Development Bank.
The Czech Republic said on Tuesday it would provide an additional one million euros to help Bosnian police better patrol their borders.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Two 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.... members, one of whom was a suicide kaboomer, were killed, while tunnels used by the bully boyz were confiscated, southwest of Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... the Iraqi Federal Police Command said on Thursday.
In a statement, the command said troops "managed to kill two Islamic State members, one of whom was a suicide attacker, in a military operation in a village in Hawija town."
Troops also found several tunnels used by the bully boyz as well as four explosives, the statement added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/11/2018
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[IsraelTimes] Former Shiite militia leader gets the go-ahead to form a government after a manual recount, three months after the elections
Nationalist Shiite holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... ’s alliance won Iraq’s legislative election in May according to a manual recount, the electoral commission said Friday, paving the way for a government to be formed nearly three months after the polls.
Allegations of fraud prompted the supreme court to order a partial manual recount, but Sadr’s joint list with communists will retain all 54 seats it won to become the biggest bloc in Iraq’s 329-seat parliament.
The only change resulting from the recount will be an extra seat for the Conquest Alliance of pro-Iranian former paramilitary fighters at the expense of a local Baghdad list.
Conquest Alliance remains in second place but will have 48 seats instead of 47, Iraq’s nine-member electoral commission said.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s bloc remains in third with just 42 seats.
After the supreme court officially announces the final results, the outgoing president has 15 days to convene the parliament, which must then elect a new head of state and begin the process for forming a coalition government.
Sadr has already signed a coalition agreement with Shiite Ammar al-Hakim’s al-Hikma list, which will stay on 19 seats after the recount, and the secular outgoing vice-president Iyad Allawi ... Iraqi politician, interim Prime Minister prior to Iraq's 2005 legislative elections. A former Ba'athist, Allawi helped found the Iraqi National Accord, which today is an active political party. He survived assassination attempts in 1978, in 2004, and on April 20, 2005. One of these days he won't... , whose list was comprised largely of Sunnis and secured 21 seats.
The May 12 election saw a record low turnout of 44.5 percent, with long-time political figures pushed out by voters seeking change in a country mired in conflict and corruption.
The recount results come after deadly protests broke out earlier in the summer, with demonstrators angry at water shortages, unemployment and the dire state of public services.
Regular power cuts mean there has been little respite from sweltering summer temperatures and with the national grid providing just a few hours of electricity per day, many Iraqis are forced to pay to use generators through the private sector.
Graft is also seen as a huge problem in a country where citizens argue they fail to benefit from the country’s oil wealth.
Officially $40 billion (34 billion euros) has been allocated to the power sector over the past 15 years, but a substantial slice has been siphoned off by corrupt politicians and businessmen who have fronted fake contracts.
In an attempt to quell public anger after more than a month of protests, Abadi sacked four directors in the electricity ministry on Tuesday and moved a number of others.
The decision followed the dismissal last month of electricity minister Qassem al-Fahdawi "because of the deterioration in the electricity sector," the premier’s office said at the time.
[Rudaw] The independent electoral body for Iraq revealed on Thursday that it found no differences in the number of seats for the top lists in the May 12th parliamentary election, including for all Kurdistani parties.
In Kirkuk, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) secured 6 seats, the Arab Alliance 3, and the Turkmen lists 3, thus no changes from the commission's preliminary figures released in May.
Similarily in Erbil, the Kurdistan Democratic Party won 8 seats, PUK 2, New Generation 2, and 1 each for the Coalition for Democracy and Justice, the Change Movement (Gorran), and the Kurdistan Islamic League (Komal).
The Christian quota seat in Duhok went to Al Rafidain; other parties remain unchanged: KDP won 10 seats and the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) 1.
Sulaimani was also unchanged. The PUK secured 8 seats, Gorran 4, New Generation 2, KIU 1, KDP 1, CDJ 1, and Komal 1.
In Nineveh, the KDP kept its 6 seats. In Saladin and Diyala, the PUK also kept its 1 seat in each respective province.
Muqtada al-Sadr's winning Sayirun Alliance kept its 54 seats. Other top politicians kept their seat totals. Hadi al-Amiri secured 47 on Fatih; Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi won 42 on Nasr, while former PM Nouri al-Maliki took 26 seats as head of the State of Law Coalition.
As the manual recount has been completed, a round of political party appeals will follow. The final and official results will pend a ruling from Iraq’s federal court.
Iraq held a parliamentary on May 12. Many parties disputed the results and the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) began a manual recount of ballots.
[AnNahar] Two coppers were among four people killed Friday in a shooting in eastern Canada and a suspect has been locked away Please don't kill me! , authorities said.
Authorities in the city of Fredericton urged people in the Brookside neighborhood, where residents reported waking to the sounds of dozens of shots, to remain in their homes, describing it as an "active incident" on Twitter.
Around an hour after giving first word of the killings, a second message from police said: "At this time, we can confirm that we have one suspect in jug."
"Police continue to have the Brookside area contained for the foreseeable future as the investigation is ongoing," police added.
Then came word from police that "of the four people killed in this morning's shootings on Brookside Drive, two were Fredericton coppers."
The circumstances of the shooting in the capital of New Brunswick province, home to about 60,000 people, were not immediately clear.
Canadian public broadcaster CBC said that the shooting happened in a residential area of the city north of downtown, and that heavily armed police, paramedics and firefighters were on the scene.
Witnesses described to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation seeing the barrel of a rifle or shotgun poking out from the window of a low-rise apartment and shots being fired into its courtyard.
The CBC quoted Robert DiDiodato, who lives in the area, as saying he heard a series of "firecracker" sounds around 7 am.
"With the tempo, it might've been a gunshot," he said. "It was sort of like a pop, pop, pop, pop."
He said that about five minutes later he could hear similar sounds near his home.
"Doors are locked and everybody's inside," he said, according to CBC.
Another resident, who gave his name only as Justin, told the broadcaster: "I woke up and I heard gunshots and I looked outside my window.
"The cops were trying to put one of the officers in their vehicle to take them out to safety," he said.
During the fracas some residents could be seen being escorted by police out of their homes, while a nearby daycare, coffee shop and other businesses were on lockdown.
CBC adds a great deal of local detail, particularly this:
Suspect is a 48-year-old Fredericton man who was placed in durance vile ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in an apartment in the 200 block of Brookside Drive. He is being treated in hospital for serious injuries sustained in shooting.
Gaudet said the coppers who died were the first on the scene. They saw a man and woman lying on the ground ‐ the two civilians who were killed ‐ and were shot as they approached.
I would not normally post this kind of story, but one of the commenters at An Nahar wrote the following:
Sources close to the Fredericton Police Department revealed to Vivian Trudeau, AFP resident correspondent in Fredericton, the apprehended assailant is a Lebanese Shia who hails from the town of Brital in Lebanon's Eastern mountain range. Brital is home to iranian backed hezbollah's drug and crime operations and is out of reach to the central authorities in Beirut.
The assailant goes by the nom de guerre of Abal Abbas, a reference to a shia martyr from the middle ages.
The assailant confessed without further delay he acted upon orders of the terrorist group's leader to express dismay at Canada's inaction regarding Saudi Arabia's continued deadly air campaign in Yemen.
Hezbollah is an internationally renowned terrorist group with confirmed links to terrorism, money laundering, human and drug trafficking and child abuse with operations spanning the four corners of the globe.
Source: Agence France Presse
I have not been able to find the referenced AFP article, so cannot say whether or not it is true. If it is true, this becomes a WoT story tagged Moslem Colonists.
It is important to remember that even as much of the news article features quotes from the British military, it was still assembled and checked by journalists, who if they have a basic knowledge of firearms, it is likely because they were shot to death by one. I trust the Telegraph to deliver factual information the same way I expect Media Matters for America to deliver the truth.
Loads.
Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:
Pistol ammunition prices were mixed. Rifle ammunition prices were steady.
Prices for used pistols were mostly lower. Prices for used rifles were mixed.
(August 11th, 2018) For the 13th week running, used AR-15 prices have averaged below $500.
New Lows:
None
Pistol Ammunition
.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Carolina Munitions, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .21 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: FedArm, Own Brand, FMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .20 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: +.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Carolina Munitions, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .19 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: East Carolina Trading, Own Brand, TPMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .19 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks)
9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Carolina Munitions, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .13 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: FedArm, Own brand, FMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads .14 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (1Q, 2018))
.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2018)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .23 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 500 rounds: FedArm, Own Brand, TMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .22 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each After Unchanged (2 Weeks))
.38 Special, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, CCI, RNL, Aluminum Casing, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: Ammunition Depot, Fiocci, FMJ, Brass Casing, .23 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks))
Rifle Ammunition
.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Carolina Munitions, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .19 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks))
.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (7 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .32 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: SG Ammo, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .30 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2018))
7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2Q, 2018)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .20 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: True Shot Gun Club, Wolf WPA, FMJ, Steel Casing, .19 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks))
.30-06 Springfield 145 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (4 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .54 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: United Nations Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Casing, FMJ, .53 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (4Q, 2017))
.300 Winchester Magnum 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (1Q, 2018)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: LAX Ammunition, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, SP, .81 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Target Sports USA, Prvi Partizan, Brass Casing, SP, .85 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (1Q, 2018))
.338 Lapua Magnum 250 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (7 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: LAX Ammunition, ARM, SP, Brass Casing, 2.15 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 240 rounds: Ammo Board, ARM, SP, Brass Casing, 2.36 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged 6 Weeks))
.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (8 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Ammomen, Federal, RNL, Brass Casing, .03 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Carolina Munitions, Federal, RNL, Brass Casing, .04 per round (From Last Week: +.01 Each)
#1
Savage 110 bolt action rifle chambered in .338 Lapua Magnum
Man, you could go deer hunting in the next county over with that.
As for "I trust the Telegraph to deliver factual information the same way I expect Media Matters for America to deliver the truth.", don't be too hard on 'em. Their Mamas let them grow up to be journalists. Poor sumbitches. It's not like they've ever done anything.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/11/2018
00:00 ||
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[14 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
[Bloomberg] Erdogan Defiant as Turkey Slides Toward Financial Crisis
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is showing no signs of backing down in a standoff with the U.S. that rattled markets. As investors worry about Turkey sliding toward a full-blown financial crisis, the big question now is how far the pain may spread.
“I call out to those in the United States. It is a shame. You are trading a worthless backstabbing strategic NATO ally for a pastor,” Erdogan said Saturday during a rally in the Black Sea port of Ordu, referring to the U.S. decision to sanction Turkey for its imprisonment of an American priest. “You cannot tame our people with threats.”
A plunge in the lira on Friday sent tremors through global markets as tensions flared between the NATO allies. At one point, the currency fell as much as 17 percent against the dollar, fanning fears that the financial tumult could infect Europe and faraway emerging markets.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2018 14:13
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#2
You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. Etc., etc.
Posted by: Tom ||
08/11/2018 17:23
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#3
You would think, living next door to wonderful lands of comity, Syria and Iraq something would shine with the glare of a missile flare or burp of machine gun fire that .. that certain paths were... just not wise to travel...
[Victory Girls] Liberal website Vox says that the Trump administration is all wrong about MS-13. Why, the average MS-13 gang member is just your kid next door. He probably lives with his parents, loves social media, and even has an after-school job.
Oh, and one more thing. MS-13 is really an American creation, you blackhearted conservative racists. Own it.
Here’s the video that Hannah Drier and Dara Lind from Vox assembled. They insist that Trump and (conservative) media have told us lies about this gang:
#1
Actually, Vox people, I hope they are your kids next door.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/11/2018 9:02
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#2
Would be nice if Hannah and Dara embedded themselves for a month or two
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2018 9:27
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#3
They insist that Trump and (conservative) media have told us lies about this gang. Yeah, just dreamers. Hannah and Dara should talk to police gang units about MS-13.
#5
Cried Hannah to Dara, "A dare?
Ride naked through Maverick Square?"
"What wonderful fun'll
Be had in the tunnel
Recounting what's done to us there!"
"And the unicorns we rode in on!"
"They'll be, like, green with envy on the Green Line."
"I know, and blush bright red on the, uh, Red, right?"
Seriously, is it that bad? Right in the square, I mean?
#6
Seriously, is it that bad? Right in the square, I mean?
Yup - pretty heavy MS-13 membership in East Boston. I've read a couple of incidents over the past couple of months which makes it look like a lot of dealing & pimping in the area. Take over a few bars, and there you have it.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A local official has been injured in a kaboom, west of Baghdad, a security source said on Thursday.
Speaking to Baghdad Today, the source said, "a bomb, placed on the side of the road, went off, as a vehicle, with a member of the municipal council on board, was passing in Abu Ghraib region, west of Baghdad, causing him serious wounds."
Ambulance, according to the source, "rushed to the blast spot and transferred the official to hospital for treatment."
Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin: “Our response has to be a proliferated space sensor layer, possibly based off commercial space developments."
The Pentagon admittedly is already five to 10 years behind in the development of an anti-missile system to thwart advanced hypersonic weapons that are now being tested by China and Russia.
The good news for the Defense Department is that the commercial space technology boom that is fueling the development of mega-constellations could help the military reach that goal. The Pentagon is studying options to build a space-based surveillance network to fill blind spots in the nation’s current defenses — which were designed to counter ballistic missiles that fly on a predictable arch-shaped pattern.
To detect and track hypersonic weapons — which fly into space at supersonic speeds and then descend back down to Earth directly on top of targets — the answer is a large constellation of small satellites.
“Our response has to be a proliferated space sensor layer, possibly based off commercial space developments,” said Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin.
The hypersonic threat brings a “new urgency” that the United States has not seen since the Cold War and that demands a different type of thinking about the architecture, Griffin told reporters on Wednesday at the Space & Missile Defense Symposium. The only way to provide global coverage and not go bankrupt installing radars on the ground is to go to space.
Griffin cautioned that the traditional approach to developing “exquisite” military satellites is not going to work in this case. The Pentagon already has a sophisticated network of early warning satellites that detect missile launches. Another layer of sensors will be needed in the future for “persistent, timely global, low-latency surveillance to track and provide fire control for hypersonic threats.”
Details such as how many satellites, in what orbits, at what altitudes have yet to be worked out. The Missile Defense Agency, which Griffin oversees, was designated the Pentagon’s “executive agent” for hypersonic defense.
Griffin said the United States for decades has conducted its own hypersonic weapons development but chose to not weaponize the technology. “Our enemies have, so we have to respond,” he said. “The first step in that response absolutely has to be a sensor layer from space.”
There are no alternatives, “unless you plan to wallpaper the Earth with radars,” he said. This is not a mission that can be done realistically from the ground or the oceans. “You would need a lot of radars that are very expensive and themselves become targets,” Griffin said. “That’s not an acceptable defensive posture. The only way to see these things coming is from space.”
The military’s early warning satellites in geosynchronous earth orbit cannot do this mission. “Hypersonic vehicles are hard to see from high orbit because they are not as bright. They’re a factor of 10 or more dimmer than strategic missiles. So we have to get closer to see them and track them.”
#3
You mean the answer is spending huge sums of money on new, untested solutions that will fail and make the defense industries rich? Wow, what an unusual conclusion.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
08/11/2018 1:04
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#4
Or you can go after the manufacturing and launch points.
#5
re: "new, untested solutions", not necessarily. There's been a lot of discussion between US officials and commercial microsat companies on this, emergency GPS backup and other missions.
#6
If only we had a third leg of nuke deterrence, like, say, a submarine or three, Loaded with nuclear tipped missiles. Off their coast?
Nahhhhh
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/11/2018 7:56
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#7
The Pentagon admittedly is already five to 10 years two Obama terms
behind in the development of an anti-missile
system to thwart advanced hypersonic weapons
#9
All I can say is turnabout is fair play - I trust one of our 3-letter agencies is working day/night to steal the shit out of their plans and nullify their '10-year' lead. I know they're also supposedly leading in quantum encryption. We better be stealing that shit too.
Posted by: Jack Bonaparte7513 ||
08/11/2018 11:42
Comments ||
Top||
#10
The senior management of those alphabet soup agencies has been focused on diversity and correct thinking for the past decade. Counting on them to do the messy work of spying against China would be hard since it would be “racist “...after all, China is full of Asians.
[AsiaTimes]With help from Beijing, Erdogan is hoping to find an alternative to IMF loans, one that could turn Turkey into 'an economic satrapy of China'.
Like the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Turkey’s present financial collapse has been expected for years. The sloth of credit rating agencies and the laziness of bank credit committees allowed Turkey to struggle on a year or two longer than it should have, but the collapse of the Turkish lira this week after a long, sickening decline surprised no-one.
Turkey’s volatile president Recep Tayyip Erdogan might have put off the crisis, but instead decided to butt heads with US President Trump over the arrest of an American Protestant minister for alleged terrorism.
Continued on Page 49
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A Baghdad court has sentenced two 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.... members to death and a third bad boy to life over carrying out terrorist operations and attacking security troops.
In a statement on Thursday, Abdul-Sattar al-Bayraqdar, a spokesperson of the High Judicial Council, said "Karkh Criminal Court reviewed cases of suspects who were convicted for joining Islamic State. They were sentenced to death over carrying out terrorist operations."
The convicts, according to the statement, "took part in fighting against security and military troops in Nineveh and Anbar. They fled then to Syria after the two provinces were liberated, before being locked away Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! by Syrian forces and turned in to Iraq."
The court also "sentenced another bad boy to life. He was arrested in Kirkuk and convicted for taking part in terrorist operations," the statement added.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/11/2018
00:00 ||
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[10 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Bangkok Post] A Thai villager was gunned down and a defense volunteer was wounded by gunmen in Mayo and Kapho districts late Wednesday night.
In Mayo, Doha Jeha was shot in front of a grocery in Ban Balatae village of tambon La Nga. In Kapho, defense volunteer Lukman Mawaecha was shot in the thigh. Mr Lukman was on leave and was riding his motorcycle back home after sending off a friend. He was shot with a pistol.
On Tuesday, defense volunteers Muhammad Hafisi Muelee and Jehyunai Jehbueheng were gunned down on a road in tambon Toh Deng in Sungai Padi district of Narathiwat. They normally stood guard at a local school. About 100 spent shells were found at the scene. Police assumed at least six gunmen attacked them.
Local security officials believe it was an act of militants led by Toyeb Maekalong and Yaswan Ayee. They were active in tambon Riko and tambon Toh Deng of Sungai Padi district and have hidden on a mountain range.
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.
[Lifezette] Former DNI director says it's 'important' to recognize the former president's handprints on Russia probe.
[Breitbart] Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has yet to explain how a Chinese spy came to work for her for decades, including while she was chair of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Bring it you commi bastids. Island hoping, James Mattis style. 
...Dem Senatrix from Massachussetts, who traces her noble lineage all the way back to Big Chief Spouting Bull. It has been alleged that she speaks with forked tongue but she denies that...
[Mark Levin] Here’s more from the Daily Caller:
"It’s been our goal to make USDA the most effective, efficient, and customer-focused department in the entire federal government," Perdue said in a statement. "In our Administration, we have looked critically at the way we do business, with the ultimate goal of ensuring the best service possible for our customers, and for the taxpayers of the United States."
North Korea
[WASHINGTONTIMES] A judge late Wednesday signed off on the settlement between the 
...also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
Moqtada 
