[Yahoo] Budapest (AFP) - The foundation run by US billionaire George Soros said Thursday that the last of its operations in Hungary would cease by August 31, with its activities being transferred to Berlin. GTFO!
The Open Society Foundations (OSF) announced in May that it was leaving Hungary, citing what it called the "repressive" policies of nationalist firebrand Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
"There are still some colleagues working here in the office, but we will have closed for good by 31 August," the OSF spokesman in Budapest Daniel Makonnen told AFP.
In an interview with the 168ora weekly, the head of OSF operations in Hungary, Katalin Koncz E., said she felt bad about the move.
"I have to put an end to 25 years' work and watch as an institution I've spent my life building becomes a desert -- everyone is clearing away their things and my colleagues are disappearing."
She indicated that she herself would stay in Budapest, adding: "I take comfort in knowing that a brilliant office and great conditions are awaiting my friends in Berlin, where they will be able to take up the work with fresh energy."
In April, Orban won a landslide victory in an election that handed him a third straight term as prime minister, and he has since indicated he wants to use this mandate to intensify his anti-migrant, nationalist and culturally conservative agenda. I'm liking this guy!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/16/2018
13:59 ||
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#6
Attached is a photo of 'persons of interest.' If you know these two men, or know there whereabouts, please contact your Boston, MA. Special Agent In Charge (SAC) immediately.
#7
They had to dig it all up. looking for evidence of Russian Collusion. Apparently, they didn't find what they were looking for.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/16/2018 16:35
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#8
Someone made the comparison recently that Manafort is facing, like, 300 years in prison for some white collar crap, and here these New Mexico scum bags are released on bail.
[SUN] Dr Kelly was found dead in 2003, just days after being unmasked as the BBC source in a report accusing Tony Blair’s government of "sexing up" the case for invading Iraq.
THE family of Iraq weapons expert Dr David Kelly doubt he killed himself, a leading medic claims.
John Scurr said they accepted he committed suicide because if they had not his civil service pension might not be paid.
[Star Tribune] Costs adding pressure to industry, coalition says. This would be the same "Journolism" that just colluded to flood the nation's newsprint with editorials against Trump. F*ck em
Amid ongoing upheaval in the media business, a group of local and regional news organizations including the Star Tribune is seeking pension fund relief from Congress.
A bill known as the Save Community Newspaper Act of 2018 was introduced last month by U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., who said it would help independent newspapers "find their financial footing." The proposal comes as newspaper companies contend with shrinking print advertising revenue and intense online competition, as well as newsprint tariffs that have increased costs.
Frank Blethen, publisher of the Seattle Times, said the Girl Scouts of the USA and other nonprofit groups received similar relief in 2014. He said the new legislation would allow newspapers to postpone millions of dollars in pension contributions over the next few years.
"I think this will literally save dozens of family-owned newspapers around the country," said Blethen, who is leading the effort. "It is very serious for us. With this pension relief, we would have a pretty clear runway to long-term survival."
Newspaper companies face a challenge in generating enough money from current operations to keep up with pension obligations that accumulated when the industry employed more people. Total employment in the industry dropped from about 400,000 in 2008 to just under 175,000 in 2018, according to the News Media Alliance, which represents 2,000 U.S. news organizations.
The Star Tribune, which employs about 900 people, provides pension benefits to 3,253 current and former employees and has never failed to meet its pension obligations. The company's pension plan was frozen in 2009.
Paul Boyle, senior vice president of public policy at the Alliance, said the pension proposal would save jobs by freeing publishers from rules that "hinder their ability to transition for the future." The bill has bipartisan support from six cosponsors from Washington, New Mexico and California.
The proposed legislation would reduce the amount of money a company would have to come up with if a pension plan fell short of various funding targets. It would extend the period for covering any funding shortfalls to 30 years, rather than the current limit of seven years.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/16/2018
09:29 ||
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#1
Why are the publicans using public money to prop up shitty and failing papers?
Ah, no. They're mostly part of some conglomerate which through creative bookkeeping keep them afloat. If they were 'independent', the market would have cleared nearly all of them out by now.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Walmart Inc (WMT.N) on Thursday said its U.S. comparable sales grew the most in a decade and its e-commerce sales grew 40 percent, higher than 33 percent growth in the previous quarter, sending its shares up nearly 11 percent in premarket trade. I can almost smell Trump voters in all of this.
#1
MFM: "You can thank Preznit Oblahblah for setting the groundwork for his economic returns"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/16/2018 10:20
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#2
Means their targeted audience has more money to spend or believes that it will with responsible expectations. Just who would that be? /rhet question
#4
the general economy is good but give corporate management some credit also, they have added many new products and, more important, they have almost completely fixed the logistics problems that was causing them to run out of stock at many stores
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/16/2018 13:36
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[Radio Free Euro] DUSHANBE -- When Gulshehra Shodmonova's wayward son used to phone home, saying he was in Russia, Kazakhstan, or even Dubai, she worried that the young man who'd turned his back on a promising education was courting trouble. He might land himself in jail, she said, for stealing to feed himself.
She never imagined he would one day be arrested as the alleged cell leader of a terrorist group that carried out the deadliest attack on Western tourists in Central Asian history.
But on those rare occasions when Hussein Abdusamadov told her he was in Dushanbe, she said, consenting only to meetings on the crowded streets of the capital, his mother would beg him for answers about his suspicious and secretive behavior.
"'Hussein, you're my son. I'd like to sit and talk with you over a cup of tea or a meal,'" she recalled pleading. "'You're behaving this way. What am I supposed to do? Tell me where you're staying so I can visit you.'" He always refused, she said.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
08/16/2018
07:55 ||
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#1
From the article:
Hussein Abdusamadov is the lone survivor of five suspects accused of running down a group Western cyclists in Tajikistan on July 29.
That poor mother. What was he connected to before he listened to the siren call of ISIS?
[DOD] WASHINGTON - Three retired soldiers were honored at the Pentagon yesterday for exceptional gallantry in action against an armed enemy while serving in Afghanistan as civilian contractors.
Retired Army Master Sgt. William Timothy Nix, retired Army Chief Warrant Officer Michael Anthony Dunne and retired Army Chief Warrant Officer Brandon Ray Seabolt received the Medal of Valor, the Defense Department’s highest civilian award for valor.
Nix was working as a civilian contractor at a coalition base in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 7, 2015, when he heard the massive boom of a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device.
"I just grabbed a weapon and ran out," Nix said.
Insurgents had breached the entrance at Camp Integrity, launching the deadly attack with a vehicle-borne IED and then using direct fire, hand grenades and suicide vests.
Nix and Dunne, a fellow contractor, rushed to the fight, teaming up with military personnel to defend the camp, suppress the enemy and evacuate the wounded.
"[The insurgents] blew the whole front of the camp. The gate came off. It collapsed the guard tower out there," Dunne said, recalling that a suicide vest exploded 30 feet away from him. He thought he would die, he said, but he kept fighting.
Nix was serving as an irregular warfare analyst for the NATO Special Operations Component Command Afghanistan in support of the Resolute Support mission. Dunne was an operations intelligence integrator there.
It's a great (IMO) series I found through Peter Grant's site.
[EcoSophis]...When the first flurry of requests for a post about what I call the Kek Wars came my way, I decided to wait a while before responding. My thought was that after a year or so, the losing side would get around to dealing with the fact that it lost, the tantrums would subside, and it would then be possible to have a reasoned conversation about what happened and why. One of the more interesting features of the 2016 election and its aftermath is that the tantrums haven’t subsided. That’s not quite unprecedented‐as we’ll see, it has some very specific and revealing precedents earlier in American history‐but it’s a good indication that something out of the ordinary is in process.
...It’s equally possible, for that matter, for a democracy to make it impossible for the majority to influence the political system or make its wants and needs felt. There are various ways of doing this, but the most popular in recent centuries was given a useful label by Margaret Thatcher’s famous slogan "There Is No Alternative." If the political establishment of a representative democracy decides that only one set of policies is thinkable, and all major parties sign on to that set of policies, it’s usually possible to shut down any discussion of alternatives even if the policies in question have disastrous consequences for most of the population.
#2
Except he apparently buys into the "Trump supporters driven by identity politics" BS. Perhaps, if you define the identity as "American", because I've never heard a Trump supporter upset that minority (ie, non-white) unemployment is at a record low. I've heard the exact opposite.
And "the interests of the American population ahead of the interests of the 'international community'" sure sounds like a viable approach to governing to me.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/16/2018 8:04
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I've long thought that Frank Fleming would do better on less caffeine. At least I hope that's the reason.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/16/2018 8:20
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#1 Is there any benefit to the west from the UN?
None whatsoever-- and there hasn't been any in many, many years.
Withdraw from the UN, expel its ambassadors, representatives and assorted flunkies, dynamite the UN headquarters building and put the real estate to some good use.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/16/2018 8:00
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Procopius2k
The vogue for hate today is for Oikophobic Socialism.
They never learn it's the socialism that's harmful.
#8
It’s only outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, a Jordanian prince. The writer at the New American is taking the Guardian’s hysteria and ramping it up by an order of magnitude or several.
#9
His Highness mistakes his culture for international law. Incitement against the media, whatever that means when it’s at home, is not a crime in America.
#10
Nary a peep about Zimbabwe, South Africa, Venezuela, or a myriad of other 3rd world sh*tholes, but here, the home of genuinely, but imperiled free speech, this sand-merchant peddles sanctimonious crap. Go home clown!
[AmericanThinker] With no platform to stand on and President Trump hitting the ball out of the economic ballpark, the left continually finds itself having to rely solely on its core strength: blatant lying and fabricating false narratives. Actually, IMO, this is their first weapon by choice
The ability to lie to promote a cause is one of the more powerful capabilities continuously utilized by the left. It's powerful in the sense that it so often works to muddy the waters. However, this does not mean that the freehanded application of lies told on the part of the left contains the energy to produce a good or positive result. More often than not, the result is devastation and misery. Just look at "African Americans"
...people of conscience sometimes struggle with deciding what is right. To struggle is to feel discomfort, something the left avoids at all cost. In the same way, the lies told by the left are free of internal struggle with conscience. They are also an escape from making tough decisions. Free education, free housing, free transportation for everyone are comfortable lies to use to win elections. However, they are told to allow leftists to avoid the hard choices of life while at the same time feeling superior to those who oppose them.
...So, in the most real sense, the political and social trials this country is facing are not between Democrat and Republican, but rather between those who struggle with a conscience who seek the good of others through telling the truth and those who avoid their conscience to avoid pain and seek power and control through the use of lies.
h/t Instapundit
[PJMedia] I've hesitated a long time in writing this post, partly because of the injunction to "never disturb the enemy when he's making a mistake."
That still operates, but honestly, we're at a transition point in history ‐ also known as the "leading to" circumstances before the map gets all arrowy and full of red and explosions ‐ when there is a high probability of confrontation and violence. Or not. We might actually slide under this and end the civil cold war as we ended the international Cold War, without a major conflagration despite several minor ones.
Note that I'm not sure that was the right way to end the international Cold War. It allowed the communists to rinse, deny the USSR, and come back again for a repeat of their craptastic act. But on the other hand, I'm not absolutely sure what would have survived the more ... "expected" end to the Cold War, nor what would have emerged after. There was a non-trivial chance we'd found ourselves in the world of Robert A. Heinlein's Farnham's Freehold.
In the similar predicament we face, where something will happen in the civil cold war and bring it to an end, I don't know precisely what form a violent confrontation would take. But I know if it does happen, it won't proceed as anyone ‐ on the Right or the Left ‐ expects. And I know what emerges afterward, both for us and for the world, would probably be very different from a constitutional republic, and therefore inevitably worse.
#2
what emerges afterward, both for us and for the world, would probably be very different from a constitutional republic This risk also applies to another Constitutional Convention, which some dream about.
h/t Instapundit
[DailyWire] Those who handle reports of campus sexual assault at colleges and universities know quite a bit about their own policies and procedures, but some of the things they believe about sexual assault should worry parents of incoming students ‐ mainly parents of incoming male students.
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire conducted a survey where they posed as students and asked campus police and Title IX offices (the offices that handle sexual assault claims) a series of questions about sexual assault. The first five questions dealt with campus procedures (e.g., where do students report sexual assault, does a report automatically trigger an investigation, etc.), but the sixth and seventh questions were designed to find out if these professionals believed "rape myths." I believe the ultimate goal is to turn higher education institution into men free
h/t Instapundit
[VictoryGirlsBlog] In spite of the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding Masterpiece Cakeshop, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission is going after Jack Phillips once again. And Phillips isn’t having any of it. He has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against the commission and Governor Hickenlooper. Why? Because of a complaint from a transgender attorney.
Interestingly, the Commission has held on to this case since June 20, 2017.
...A transgender attorney called up Masterpiece Cakeshop and requested a custom cake designed to be a transition gender reveal. Masterpiece stayed consistent and refused to make a CUSTOM cake but still offered to sell a pre-made cake or direct them to another baker. Said attorney threw a fit and filed a complaint, which you can read
[Guardian] When I saw the photograph I could scarcely believe it was the same country. A picture of Brighton beach in 1976, featured in the Guardian a few weeks ago, appeared to show an alien race. Almost everyone was slim. I mentioned it on social media, then went on holiday. When I returned, I found that people were still debating it. The heated discussion prompted me to read more. How have we grown so fat, so fast? To my astonishment, almost every explanation proposed in the thread turned out to be untrue.
Unfortunately, there is no consistent obesity data in the United Kingdom before 1988, at which point the incidence was already rising sharply. But in the United States, the figures go back further. They show that, by chance, the inflection point was more or less 1976. Suddenly, at around the time that the photograph was taken, people started becoming fatter ‐ and the trend has continued ever since.
The obvious explanation, many on social media insisted, is that we’re eating more. Several pointed out, not without justice, that food was generally disgusting in the 1970s. It was also more expensive. There were fewer fast food outlets and the shops shut earlier, ensuring that if you missed your tea, you went hungry.
So here’s the first big surprise: we ate more in 1976. According to government figures, we currently consume an average of 2,130 kilocalories a day, a figure that appears to include sweets and alcohol. But in 1976, we consumed 2,280 kcal excluding alcohol and sweets, or 2,590 kcal when they’re included. I have found no reason to disbelieve the figures.
Others insisted that the cause is a decline in manual labour. Again, this seems to make sense, but again the data doesn’t support it. A paper last year in the International Journal of Surgery states that "adults working in unskilled manual professions are over four times more likely to be classified as morbidly obese compared with those in professional employment".
So how about voluntary exercise? Plenty of people argued that, as we drive rather than walk or cycle, are stuck to our screens and order our groceries online, we exercise far less than we did. It seems to make sense ‐ so here comes the next surprise. According to a long-term study at Plymouth University, children’s physical activity is the same as it was 50 years ago. A paper in the International Journal of Epidemiology finds that, corrected for body size, there is no difference between the amount of calories burned by people in rich countries and those in poor ones, where subsistence agriculture remains the norm. It proposes that there is no relationship between physical activity and weight gain. Many other studies suggest that exercise, while crucial to other aspects of good health, is far less important than diet in regulating our weight. Some suggest it plays no role at all as the more we exercise, the hungrier we become.
#1
Warning: Monbiot, the original Moonbat. Corporations are to blame -- and he never once mentions government dietary guidelines, and *hates* the idea of personal responsibility being the origin of obesity.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/16/2018 7:03
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Government started telling us what to eat. We've been getting sicker and fatter ever since.
#5
Instead of rejoicing that for the first time in human history, famine and pestilence have been reduced, food is not only in abundance, it readily available*, these kill joys threat it as a plague.
* not to overlook man-made scarcity and famine created by central planning, socialism and corruption (though I repeat myself).
#9
I blame three things (1) Food pyramid which dumped extra carbs on American plates in exchange for farm belt votes (2) Diet sodas which seem to spur the appetite in some people. (3) There is also a genetic component folks don't talk about that ensures some folks are thin no matter what they do and others are cannot lose weight no matter the diet. I'd like to see the numbers on the two groups to see if they are inconsequential or not.
#11
Years ago people were less affluent. Years ago people worked for a living not as many ass sitting paper pushers. Years ago there was less processed food. Years ago kids played outside from morning until late evening. Years ago there were 5 tv stations nd no video games. Years ago one parent worked and 4 or more children were the norm (less food per person for same per capita income). Years ago kids often walked to school...... we live in a different world with different choices in activities, food, norms...
#12
I can remember all too well as a child when a serving of soda pop at home was an absolute treat.. and a rare one. Now, in the "go-large" era and free refills, soda pop with its sugar or high fructose corn syrup, is a virtual unlimited consumable.
[Times of Israel] Rashida Tlaib, slated to be first woman of Palestinian heritage in Congress, claims two-state solution won't work; J street says it is seeking clarification.
A Michigan Democrat who is all but certain to become a congresswoman said she would "absolutely" vote against military aid to Israel, sparking criticism from a Jewish Democratic group.
The candidate, Rashida Tlaib, also said in an interview that she favors a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as opposed to a two-state solution that would establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, recently won the Democratic nomination in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District. The Republicans are not running a candidate in the Detroit-area district.
She is one of two Muslim women likely to be the first to be elected to Congress. The other is Ilhan Omar, who handily won her Democratic primary Tuesday in a Minneapolis-area district.
[Hollywood Reporter] "Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work," observed ex-slave-turned-abolitionist Frederick Douglass. To the slave owners, singing slaves would drown out their own cruelty and oppression, clothe them in a coerced choir of decency. But it wasn't enough that the slaves had to sing, they had to sing their oppressor's feel-good songs that are summed up in the Porgy and Bess refrain of "I've got plenty of nothin'," and nothin's plenty for me."
Yay, nothin'.
Currently, the song being demanded is the national anthem during football games. But during a warm-up game on Aug. 10, despite President Trump's previous condemnation, several Eagles players kneeled during the anthem or raised their fists ‐ their way of singing their own song. For them, lyrics like "land of the free" don't accurately represent the daily reality for people of color. They love their country but want that country to recognize the suffering that occurs when it isn't living up to its constitutional promises.
Trump reacted by tweeting, "Numerous players, from different teams, wanted to show their 'outrage' at something that most of them are unable to define." Who would know better how to define their outrage: the privileged darling of white supremacists, the 94 percent-white team owners, the 75 percent-white head coaches or the 70 percent-black players who actually take the field each week?
The daily challenge for African-Americans is getting white Americans to listen to their song, especially when it isn't a grinning, grateful or pandering patriotic song. Two movies have recently been released that sing songs that define black America's continuing frustrations and outrage: Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman and Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You. Both movies are about black people finding their voices and then having the courage to use those voices to tell their truths. But will America listen to what they're singing, especially in today's post-truth and "alternative facts" environment?
#1
I don't give a rat's ass about their "song". Ever since this BS protest during MY time occurred, I've boycotted anything NFL. The only way to get rid of this odious nonsense is to affect the owners pocketbook. Whiny millionaires don't move the needle for me.
#3
They should kneel. They kneel because they are unworthy to be citizens, they are unworthy to stand up given the price that was paid to free the slaves, they should kneel in subservience to their masters in the democrat party. Free men kneel to no one. They kneel to demonstrate that the shackles of their slavery have fully bound their minds.
#5
Got to admit..I like it also..kneel you unworthy bastards. Not fit to stand with the rest of us esp. those who served not to mention those that can't because they gave "the last full measure of devotion"
#6
Go back to your 20 million dollar palace, managed, cleaned and taken care of by Mexican labor and unplug CNN....
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/16/2018 15:13
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#7
Spoiled social justice warriors. A pox on your houses.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/16/2018 17:30
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#8
Who? Seriously, though, a trip down Wiki lane just reminded me how insane he and his co-religionists were, back in the '70s. Has he ever fully repudiated that stuff? Not "no true Muslim..." or "whitey drove us crazy," but "okay, yeah, we wuz nuts." Sports fans?
[American Thinker] 2035. That’s the optimistic date for Social Security’s impending doom, after which Social Security is expected to provide only 75-80% of expected benefits to retirees. For the record, I turn 67 (full retirement age, for me) in 2047, so I, like many Americans, have been skeptical about the program for some time.
But perhaps it’s pertinent to note that when I began following this looming doomsday in earnest, it was projected at 2038. It’s been creeping forward, with some estimates placing it as early as 2034.
But there’s an interesting thing that happens when people think about Social Security, just as that same interesting thing happens when people imagine the impending doom of municipal and state pension liabilities that are now crippling governments across the country with a roughly $5 trillion hole nationally. Somehow, Americans think, the money is there if governments are capable of properly managing the inflows from workers, capitalizing upon the underlying investments, and just delivering the outflows to beneficiaries.
#2
They can't have run out of entitlement money. They still have checks.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/16/2018 8:53
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Ed in T, that brought back memories!! There was a rich girl in college and late at night a whole group decided to go out to eat as students do. I begged of saying I was broke at the moment. Rich girl looks at me and says "Don't you have a check book?" She honestly had no understanding of the connection between deposits and withdrawal. Her father deposited $500 a month in her account (this was 50 years ago). That's the mindset of today's weenies.
#4
Eliminate the cap on incomes susceptible to FICA withholding, and Social Security becomes a great deal more secure. The Pig Men will really squeal when their bonuses are tapped at the same percentage as a minimum wage worker, you can count on that. Government provided pensions (which SS is NOT) are an entirely different matter.
[American Thinker] The FBI is being held accountable for its role in spy operations against the Trump campaign. John Brennan’s CIA should be held accountable as well.
An editorial by Holman Jenkins in the Wall Street Journal on June 29, 2018 recommends an investigation of the CIA’s involvement in the 2016 election, and I agree. The WSJ’s Kimberley Strassel has commented on CIA involvement as well, as did Rudy Giuliani on August 13th.
If press reports are accurate, American spy operations targeted the Trump campaign by luring Trump associates such as George Papadopoulos to meetings in Britain. There are two key factors at work here.
The first factor is the location. The CIA is in charge of American government spy ops that occur in foreign countries, not the FBI. While an American tourist can fly to Britain to see the changing of the guard and be in front of Buckingham Palace within 24 hours, an American FBI agent can do nothing in Britain without intricate CIA approvals and supervision. If the CIA were not involved, they’d be raising hell with the FBI for doing business on their turf. Turf is everything in bureaucracy. CIA involvement is certain.
The second factor -- I do not know the people named and am basing this on press reports -- is that these ops bear the distinctive signature of being run by bureaucrats at CIA Headquarters, not by professionals in CIA field stations.
Headquarters’ spy recruitments are weak. Our full-time government employees, such as CIA officers and FBI agents, are expected to recruit part-time spies called agents, assets, sources, informants, and access agents. (Some folks don’t like the use of the word "spy," but in fact everyone involved is a spy. I was a spy.) With 17 redundant spy agencies and tens of thousands of idle employees in the Washington D.C. area, there’s a natural tendency to recruit American citizens to help spy on Americans. Such operations provide employees with opportunities to look busy and get promoted while living in the comfort of Washington.
Recruitments of sources are important to the CIA, but if you try to recruit a terrorist in Syria, you might get a bullet in the head. North Korea and Iran are far away, out of sight and out of mind. Why not recruit an American college professor instead? Assign him a secret code name and he comes to look like a real spy. Most Americans are happy to help out, so there’s no fear of embarrassing rejection.
There’s only one thing easier for Headquarters employees than recruiting an American college professor, and that is recruiting an American college professor who has already been recruited by other U.S. spy agencies. This appears to have been the case in these operations. Key takeaway at para 4.
[PJ] An Iraqi national who entered the U.S. as a refugee was arrested this afternoon on charges he participated in ISIS killings in Iraq in 2014.
The arrest of Omar Abdulsattar Ameen comes after an arrest warrant was issued by an Iraqi court in May.
According to the Justice Department press release, Ameen is accused of involvement in ISIS killings in Anbar province, Iraq:
The Iraqi arrest warrant and extradition request allege that after the town of Rawah, Iraq fell to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) on June 21, 2014, Ameen entered the town with a caravan of ISIS vehicles and drove to the house of the victim, who had served as an officer in the Rawah Police Department. On the evening of June 22, 2014, after the caravan arrived at the victim’s house, Ameen and other members of the convoy allegedly opened fire on the victim. Ameen then allegedly fired his weapon at the victim while the victim was on the ground, killing him.
Ameen, originally of Rawah, in the Anbar province of Iraq, fled Iraq following the alleged murder, and later settled in Sacramento as a purported refugee. It is alleged that Ameen’s family supported and assisted the installation of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in Rawah, and that Ameen was a member of AQI and ISIS. It is also alleged that he participated in various activities in support of those terrorist organizations, including helping to plant improvised explosive devices, and committing the murder that is the subject of the extradition request. Ameen concealed his membership in those terrorist groups when he applied for refugee status, and later when he applied for a green card in the United States.
A detention memo filed in the case states that the FBI has been investigating the case since 2016:
Evidence gathered in a Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") investigation of Ameen, ongoing since 2016, corroborates Ameen's membership in and actions on behalf of AQI and ISIS, including the murder.
News outlets in the Sacramento area reported on FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force activity earlier in the day:
Posted by: Besoeker ||
08/16/2018
01:27 ||
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[8 views]
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[Daily Caller] One of the suspects arrested at a suspected Muslim "extremist" compound in New Mexico is a longtime illegal immigrant from Haiti who overstayed a visitor visa, immigration authorities said Wednesday.
Jany Leveille, 35, was arrested along with four other people on Aug. 4 when state and local police raided the makeshift compound in rural Amalia, New Mexico. Police officers discovered a total of two men, three women and 11 children living in squalid conditions and allegedly training for some kind of mass shooting, according to New Mexico state prosecutors.
On Tuesday morning, Leveille was transferred to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pursuant to an Aug. 8 immigration detention request, said ICE spokesperson Leticia Zamarripa.
"ICE issued her a notice to appear before a federal immigration judge, and she remains in ICE custody pending resolution of her immigration proceedings," Zamarripa told The Daily Caller News Foundation. "Leveille has been unlawfully present in the U.S. for more than 20 years after overstaying the validity of her non-immigrant visitor visa."
Posted by: Besoeker ||
08/16/2018
01:19 ||
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#3
She let a pack of mooks who starved a child to death walk free. She needs to expect negative reactions to decisions like that.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/16/2018 6:57
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#4
These people are connected at the very least to the Muslim Brotherhood through Siraj Ibn Wahhaj‘s father, the famously connected New York City imam. I look forward to discovering where else this group of lone wolves has ties.
[Chicago Sun Times] SUPERIOR, Ariz.‐ A former police commander using a department body camera filmed himself having sex in his office and stored pornography on a work computer, according to court and investigative records that portray a law-enforcement agency dominated by officers previously fired or suspended from other departments.
The ex-commander, Anthony Doran, was the target of a Pinal County Sheriff’s Office administrative probe in March. A report from that investigation, obtained by The Arizona Republic, alleges a Superior police secretary discovered the sex video while conducting official business on Doran’s computer.
The video, dated April 2017, apparently was stored on a jump drive that resembled a police radio and was attached to Doran’s computer. The sheriff’s report describes a nearly 4-minute video showing Doran, then the agency’s second in command, wearing a uniform shirt with the Superior police insignia but no pants or underwear.
"Anthony is sitting in an office chair and straddling him is a naked adult female (who is not a police employee)," the report states.
When confronted about the body-cam video, Doran said he did not deserve termination.
"I’ll admit to that (violation) and take my 40," he said in the report, apparently referring to a one-week suspension.
A sheriff’s deputy further examined the computer’s hard drive and discovered a folder titled "fun times" containing more than 36 gigabytes of images, including pornography, pictures of Doran’s penis and images of a naked girl about age 5.
The personnel inquiry was then halted, and the case was referred for criminal investigation. But no charges were filed.
Doran, whom the Superior Town Council terminated in March, said via email that the video and pornography were stored on a personal flash drive that "had nothing to do with work." He also denied he was on duty when the video was filmed.
He said he lived at the police station in a room adjacent to the office and worked flexible hours. At times, he said he would list himself as working even though he was not officially on duty.
[Breitbart] The Philadelphia mom who gave her son a $25,000 African-themed prom party replete with camels has been accused of illegally taking tens of thousands in disability payments.
Saudia Shuler, 44, made news last week for throwing the lavish prom party, which included camels, a black panther, and costumed characters from the Marvel superhero film Black Panther.
But after her notoriety, city officials began looking into Shuler’s finances and are now charging her with defrauding the city of tens of thousands in disability payments, according to ABC 6.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney for Philadelphia charged Shuler with wire fraud, theft of government funds, and Social Security fraud.
Prosecutors said Shuler signed up for disability benefits saying she is unable to work, even though she is not disabled. They also noted that she has been working in a fast food business during the time she said she could not work and that she took at least $36,000 in disability payments.
"There’s evidence she defrauded the government, and no matter who you are the government brings charges," Beth Leahy, deputy chief of Health Care Fraud, told the media.
I got hired to work for SSA 44 years ago when SSI was first implemented. A whole lot of us young'uns were needed to handle the grand-fathered population of NYC.
Within a week of the office opening there was a table in the lobby by some welfare scam group telling folks how to game the system.
The 3 reasons for SSI are blind, elderly and disabled. The first two are hard to fake, that last one though....... it got more sophisticated but in the beginning there were the 3 As. Angina, Arthritis, Asthma that were used as excuses for not working. To top it all off, the NYC welfare dept. made every client they had apply for SSI or they would get cut off.
I've got lots of stories about that time but they're too long to go into.
(Natural News) In a moment of amazing candor, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper openly, frankly, and pointedly laid the ’credit’ for the entire Russian collusion witch hunt at the feet of his former boss, President Barack Obama, on Saturday.
During an appearance on CNN, where he’s been an analyst since leaving the White House in January 2017 at the start of the POTUS Trump administration, Clapper said that the former president actually tasked the intelligence community, the Justice Department and the FBI with launching a ’counterintelligence’ probe against a rival presidential campaign, the first time in the history of our republic anything even remotely close to that has happened.
"If it weren’t for President Obama we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set up a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today including Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation," Clapper said, as reported by The Gateway Pundit. "President Obama is responsible for that. It was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place."
While Clapper might have thought he was giving Obama credit for the operation, what he really did is implicate his former boss as being the mastermind behind the scandalous "investigation" which, by the way, has yet to turn up even a scintilla of evidence there was ’collusion’ between the Russian government and members of the Trump campaign.
Should we have seen this coming? Should we have known all along that Obama was at the center of this sham?
#3
I have long believed that Senator John McCain was a only a notional presidential candidate and that Soetoro was the deep state groomed candidate of choice.
#4
I respectfully digress. The two reasons McCain lost - him briefly suspending his campaign and, more importantly, the Lehman / stock market collapse in early-mid September of that year. If the stock market didn't collapse, McCain wins.
#6
Also Raj, it was Chuck Schumer that bottomed out the market with his congressional rhetoric about the agencies freedie mac and fannie may which he made. Sounds like a horror flick.
They are the masters and commanders of ALL of this bullshit.
#9
McCain lost because he was an old white male who tried to be a Rep-lite "My friendshhshh" who also didn't want to fight to win. Old corrupt bastard wanted lefty respect more than the job
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/16/2018 9:06
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#10
McCain was the darling of the bow-tie conservatives like Will.
It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game that matters to them. Tut, tut, too bad old bean, over port in the library, you lost.
#12
McCain lost because every 8 years the US gets tired of the Republicans and their crap. Then they give the Democrats 8 years to do better before they get tried of their crap. Repeat.
It is rare to break the cycle, at least during our life times it has happened only once with the Carter single term followed by the Reagan three terms.
[IsraelTimes] Since this morning, firefighters have worked to extinguish one blaze caused by an incendiary balloon that fell near Kibbutz Alumim adjacent to the Gazoo Strip, a front man for the Israel Fire and Rescue Services says.
The balloon appears to be the first incendiary airborne device to spark a fire in Israeli territory since restrictions were lifted earlier today on the entry of goods to Gazoo through the Kerem Shalom Crossing. Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman attributed the decision to the relative calm on the border in recent days.
[IsraelTimes] Two IDF troops stationed at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron were hurt after Paleostinians hurled stones in their direction, the army says.
The soldiers were lightly injured and have been transferred to a nearby hospital for further treatment.
[IsraelTimes] Following the reopening of the Kerem Shalom Crossing this morning, the Defense Ministry says 700 trucks carrying goods entered the Gazoo Strip throughout the day.
Of the trucks that entered Gazoo 185 carried building materials, 88 food, 82 cement, 67 textiles and 48 wheat, among others.
During the over month-long restrictions on the entry of goods through the crossing, which were imposed in response to violence emanating from Gazoo, an average of 100-150 trucks entered the Strip each day.
[Ynet] Latest round of talks with Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", in Cairo indicates that a proposal has already been accepted by Hamas and the meetings in the Egyptian capital are just a formality; However, some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... negotiations can stop at any moment, so both sides prepare for a large-scale military operation.
In the Middle East, nothing is incidental. If a prominent Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri is in Cairo for a second time in two weeks, if all senior members of Paleostinian factions in Gazoo left in a rush for the Egyptian capital on Tuesday, if hours before their arrival the defense minister decided to reopen the kerem Shalom border crossing, if a number of incendiary balloons launched into Israel is close to zero, then it can be assumed with a certain degree of certainty that, besides the threats being issued by both sides, something concrete is happening.
Continued on Page 49
[James Fetzer - Dec 20-12, 2016] There is a reason why Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan has done everything possible to interfere with President-elect Donald Trump taking the reins of the presidency on January 20, 2017. As a mole for the Saudi royal family and a convert to Wahhabist Islam, Brennan has no desire to see certain individuals, who are well aware of his Islamist beliefs, ascend to positions of power in the U.S. intelligence community. The greatest threat to Brennan comes from retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, tapped by Trump to become the National Security Adviser.
BRENNAN THE SAUDI MOLE
High-level moles are the bane of every intelligence agency. There is still a reason to believe that the American spy for Israel, Jonathan Pollard, reported to a higher-level Israeli intelligence mole within the Reagan administration. Britain's MI-5 Security Service remains plagued to this day over evidence that its Cold War-era director, Roger Hollis, was the "Fifth Man" in the "Cambridge Five" Soviet spy ring.
It matters not that the Cold War is over when suspecting there are senior level intelligence moles in American espionage agencies. Brennan, in almost every counter-intelligence sense, fits the bill as a mole.
In 2014, Flynn was fired as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) by President Obama. Obama was advised by Brennan to dump Flynn because the DIA director was producing intelligence policy documents showing that it was a mistake and against U.S. security interests to support Syrian jihadists who were trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. For Brennan's Saudi and Wahhabist controllers, this was tantamount to blasphemy.
[DAWN] British media is reporting that the suspect in the Houses of Parliament crash ‐ that is being treated as a terrorist incident ‐ is a 29-year old British citizen of Sudanese origin named Salih Khater.
The suspect is in police custody after his arrest on suspicion of preparing an act of terror.
Press Association reported on Wednesday that a Facebook page for a man of the same name says he lives in Birmingham, works as a shop manager, and has studied at Sudan University of Science and Technology.
Police flooded central London and cordoned off the city's government district on Tuesday after a speeding car ploughed into cyclists and crashed outside the Houses of Parliament.
Counter-terror detectives are working to uncover the motive behind what they suspect is the fourth vehicle attack in Britannia in 18 months.
The same area was the site of a terror attack in March 2017 when Khalid Masood ploughed a car into crowds on Westminster Bridge, killing four people. Masood abandoned his car and then stabbed and killed a police officer before being rubbed out in a courtyard outside Parliament.
Less than three months later, a van rammed into pedestrians on London Bridge before three men abandoned the vehicle and attacked weekend revellers in the nearby Borough Market. Eight people were killed and 48 injured in the attack.
On June 19, 2017, a man drove a van into a crowd of worshippers leaving a mosque in north London, killing one man and injuring eight others.
[DailyMail] The Sudanese immigrant accused of trying to kill pedestrians in Parliament Square hails from a Midlands suburb considered a terror hotspot because of the extraordinary number of jihadis who have lived there.
Salih Khater, 29, a British citizen who moved to the UK from Sudan five years ago, lived in a flat in Sparkhill, an area of south Birmingham home to one in 10 UK forces of Evil locked away Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! over Islamic terrorist plots.
His council flat is also just ten minutes from the former home of Khalid Masood, whose murderous rampage 17 months ago appears to have inspired Khater's own carborne attack yesterday.
Last year it was reported that one in ten convicted Islamic bully boyz come from the tiny area of Birmingham, south-east of the city centre.
Most recently a group of forces of Evil from the area who called themselves the 'Three Musketeers' were locked away Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! for life last year.
Sparkhill neighbours Naweed Ali, 29, Khobaib Hussain, 25 and Mohibur Rahman, 33, planned to launch murder on Britannia's streets using a car before attacking people with meat cleavers etched with 'Kafir' and setting off a pipe bomb.
Belgian jihadi Mohammed Abrini, better known as the 'man in the hat', collected £3,000 to fund his terrorism during a secret handover in Sparkhill's nearest park months before criminal masterminding terror attacks in Gay Paree and Brussels in 2015.
Abrini later became one of the world's most desperados after 130 people died in ISIS attacks on Gay Paree in 2015 - and was jugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! after he accompanied jacket wallahs into Brussels Airport where 33 died but he fled.
And last year a British-based imam accused of recruiting Jihadists to fight for ISIS is being extradited to Spain to face terror charges.
Tarik Chadlioui, 43, allegedly tried to recruit and radicalise fighters for ISIS as part of a terror cell from his home in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham.
Sparkbrook contains five highly concentrated Moslem council wards, occupying a few square miles, which have produced 26 of the country’s 269 known jihadis, according to analysis of terrorism in the UK last year.
The Birmingham wards of Springfield, Sparkhill, Hall Green and Hodge Hill in particular have been home to a high proportion of convicted terrorists.
It was one of the main conclusions of a 1,000-page report to be published by think tank the Henry Jackson society in Parliament in March last year.
The overall number of Islamic bully boyz revealed to have had a Birmingham address down the years is even higher: 39 in total. This figure is more than for the whole of West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Lancashire put together.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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[CanadaFreePress] Jordan’s decision to resurrect its long-dormant claims after 30 years of studied silence and subservience to PLO posturing should be welcomed by all who want to see the Jewish-Arab conflict ended.
Jordan-Israel negotiations on Trump peace plan set to bypass PLO Jordan-Israel negotiations based on President Trump’s long-awaited peace plan seem increasingly likely to happen - following retired Jordanian Ambassador and former editor of the Jordan Times ‐ Walid Sadi ‐ flagging Jordan’s legal and illusory sovereignty claims in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and East Jerusalem ("disputed territories").
Sadi - in an op-ed article in the Jordan Times on 12 August - has forcefully argued that Jordan’s decision to cut off all legal and administrative relations with the disputed territories in July 1988 did not amount to Jordan ceding its claims to illusory sovereignty for the following reasons:
"First of all, the unity of the West Bank with the East Bank was officially and constitutionally adopted on 24 of April 1950. No one disputes this fact. The Constitution of the country at the time was the 1952 Constitution, which stipulated in no uncertain terms that no part of the Kingdom shall be ceded, period. This provision makes the 1988 decision to cut off all legal and administrative relations between the two banks stopping short of ceding the West Bank to any side whatsoever. Any other interpretation of the 1988 political decision is absolutely untenable constitutionally."
The Jordan Times is published by the Jordan Press Foundation ‐ in which the government-owned Social Security Investment Fund has a majority stake. Wadi’s politically-charged and highly-significant article could only have been published with the knowledge and approval of Jordan’s King Abdullah.
Jordan’s claims are far superior to those of the Paleostine Liberation Organisation (PLO) ‐ Jordan being the last Arab state to occupy and claim illusory sovereignty (albeit illegally) in the disputed territories from 1948 until their loss to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
Indeed the 1964 PLO Charter made no claim to illusory sovereignty in the disputed territories ‐completely negating any claimed ancient and long-standing rights accruing to its Arab populations which would outweigh the claims by Jordan to these areas - where illusory sovereignty still remains undetermined between Arabs and Jews.
Jordan’s pivotal role in bringing Trump’s peace proposals to a successful conclusion are grounded in the following salient facts:
West Bank and East Jerusalem Arabs voted to unify these areas with Transjordan in 1950 and rename the unified entity - "Jordan"
West Bank Arabs were citizens of Jordan possessing Jordanian passports between 1950 and 1988.
Half the members of the Jordanian Parliament were elected from the West Bank Arab population between 1950 and 1967.
Jordan’s population is overwhelmingly comprised of Arabs born east or west of the Jordan River.
Jordan itself comprises 78% of the territory of former Paleostine
Jordan and Israel are the two successor states to the League of Nations Mandate for Paleostine already exercising between them mutually-agreed illusory sovereignty in 95% of former Paleostine
Jordanian custodianship of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem is guaranteed under the 1994 Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty.
Reunifying into one territorial unit the East Bank with areas of the West Bank allocated to Jordan only requires Israel and Jordan to redraw their already existing internationally-recognised border.
Israeli and Jordanian negotiators ‐ armed only with pencils, sharpeners and erasers - can achieve this new dividing line between their respective states within a relatively short time.
The PLO has made it clear it wants no part in negotiating Trump’s proposals. It ‐ and Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", - will be left to cool their heels and contemplate the many squandered opportunities to create an additional state between Israel and Jordan since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.
Jordan’s decision to resurrect its long-dormant claims after 30 years of studied silence and subservience to PLO posturing should be welcomed by all who want to see the Jewish-Arab conflict ended.
[PJ] Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) "drew gasps from the crowd" on Wednesday when he belittled America in response to President Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan.
"We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great," Cuomo said during a speech in New York. He went on to argue that only when Democrat priorities like women's rights are realized will this dark, oppressive dystopia known as the U.S.A. ever become great.
"We have not reached greatness, we will reach greatness when every American is fully engaged, we will reach greatness when discrimination and stereotyping against women, 51 percent of our population, is gone and every woman’s full potential is realized and unleashed and every woman is making her full contribution," he said.
Cuomo, the son of former New York governor Mario Cuomo and older brother of CNN Anchor Chris "Fredo" Cuomo, is widely believed to be a contender for the Democratic nomination for the White House in 2020.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro called on Cuomo to apologize, saying, America "with its imperfections, has always been great."
#2
My guess would be that Andrew just set a new record for shortest time from original speech to Republican campaign ad. Sadly, it probably won't make much difference in this deep blue state.
#5
we will reach greatness when discrimination and stereotyping against women, 51 percent of our population, is gone and every woman’s full potential is realized and unleashed and every woman is making her full contribution,
There's a surefire winner (sarc on). Cuomo is such a loser--a part of the I hate America movement. Maybe, he'll come up with his next slogan as "Make New York Suck Some More."
#9
I've read articles that talk about folks leaving NY because Trumps tax cuts (and the bit that disallowed deducting your massive state taxes as a from federal taxes have really thrown a light on how highly taxed certain states are. NY is heading for a downward spiral if their leaders can't come up with more than blaming Trump.
[DAWN] Afghan forces appeared to have finally pushed Taliban ...Arabic for students... fighters from the strategic city of Ghazni on Wednesday, as shopkeepers and residents warily returned to the streets after days of intense ground fighting and United States (US) Arclight airstrikes.
Security forces were on patrol and no gunnies were in sight in the centre of the shattered city, with fighting seeming to have ceased.
But even as shopkeepers swept away ashes and began repairing their burned stores, warnings that the holy warriors still lurked nearby stoked fears that the battle could flare again.
An AFP news hound saw Taliban forces in at least one village on the outskirts of the city, and residents said they had been told by security forces that the gunnies remained uncomfortably close.
"The city smelled of blood," shopkeeper Basir Ahmad told AFP after fleeing to Kabul on Wednesday. "People were fearful that the fighting could start again anytime."
Afghan troops backed by US air support have struggled to push the holy warriors from Ghazni, which lies just two hours south of Kabul by road, since the assault began late on Thursday.
Authorities have maintained that the city remained in government hands, but the status of the clearance operation was unclear on Wednesday.
As they emerged onto Ghazni's streets, residents told AFP how they hid in basements during the campaign.
"My house was just near the front line, the Taliban would force people to bring them food and tea," said Hassan Safari.
"The fighting was intense. For two days we had no water and no food. My children would cry when they heard booms and sounds of firing by Taliban from behind our wall."
Ghazni lies along the major Kabul-Kandahar highway, effectively serving as a gateway between Kabul and the bully boy strongholds in the south.
The assault on the city has been the largest tactical onslaught since an unprecedented truce in June brought fighting between the Taliban and security forces to a temporary halt, providing war-weary Afghans some relief.
But the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... (UN) warned of "extreme human suffering" caused by the latest fighting.
"Reports indicate that the casualty toll in Ghazni is immense," the UN's special representative in Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto said on Wednesday.
"Unconfirmed estimates range from 110 to 150 civilian casualties. Reliable information indicates that the Ghazni Public Hospital is overwhelmed by a continuous influx of injured government forces, Taliban fighters and civilians."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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[WarOnTheRocks] The nearly successful drone assassination attempt on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month highlighted yet again a persistent worry for U.S. defense planners: the possibility that a swarm of cheap drone-borne bombs might overwhelm the sophisticated defenses a U.S. base or ship. While the defense industry has seized upon this concern and is currently at work developing new high-tech solutions to this problem, the Department of Defense can’t rely on those alone. It makes sense to develop such solutions, but the Department of Defense procurement process is long and the threat is now. With a little ingenuity, there is much that can be done with existing technology to defend effectively against drone threats. Accordingly, this article focuses on the measures the Department of Defense can employ now, with existing technology, to mitigate the threat of drone swarms.
#4
Seriously, the article mentions swarming a base or a ship. how much explosive power could a single drone small enough to be part of a drone actually carry? Sounds great for an assassination but I suspect that a horde of small drones attacking a naval vessel would be far less successful than imagined.
#7
Cole was a rules of engagement issue, not a swarm attack. You are probably thinking of the Vincennes which was swarmed by Iranian small boats which led to the mistake that took down an airliner.
[KCRA] Omar Ameen to be extradited on premeditated murder charges in Iraq, documents show
FBI agents searched a Sacramento apartment unit Wednesday, where a suspected ISIS member was living and was wanted in connection with the killing of an Iraqi police officer, according to court documents.
Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, 45, was tossed in the clink Book 'im, Mahmoud! Wednesday and is being held without bail in Sacramento County Jail. He had settled in Sacramento as a purported refugee and attempted to gain legal status in the United States, according to the Department of Justice.
FBI agents began showing up about 8 a.m. at the Eastern Villa Apartments on Eastern Avenue, and agents cleared the scene at about 1:30 p.m.
FBI agents, along with Sacramento County sheriff's deputies and Metro Fire personnel, were seen going in and out of apartment No. 26 and searched several vehicles at the complex.
Agents were wearing jackets with the words "Joint Terrorism Task Force" in yellow letters on the back.
An arrest warrant was issued for Ameen on May 16 by the Baghdad Federal al-Karkh Appellate Court after he was charged with premeditated murder, court documents show.
ISIS entered the Rawah District of al-Anbar Province in Iraq and seized control of the district on June 21, 2014, preventing citizens from entering or exiting the district.
The following day, a four-vehicle ISIS convoy carrying several people, including Ameen, stopped at the family home of an Iraqi police officer and opened fire, documents said.
Ameen fired his weapon at the officer while the victim was on the ground, hitting him in the chest, according to court records.
Soon after, a post appeared on social media celebrating the killing: "[Today] is the day to eliminate some rotten heads. Now in Rawah, the criminal Ihsan [Adbulhafiz] has been eliminated at the hands of Mujahidin."
The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has been investigating Ameen since 2016 for suspected violations, including fraud and misuse of visa, permits and other documents.
In accordance with a 1934 treaty, Iraq has requested Ameen be extradited.
According to court documents, Ameen has been a member of Al Qaeda and then ISIS since 2004. He was not known to have renounced membership in either group.
Ameen has reportedly undertaken numerous acts of violence on behalf of the terrorist organizations -- everything from murder to planting IEDs, records show.
The FBI talked to Ameen, his father, brother and cousins, and they said he was a member of ISIS. They said it is common knowledge that Ameen was a main local figure in ISIS and was said to be one of five native Rawah families that helped found Al Quaeda in the region, according to the documents.
Documents from the government of Iraq list a myriad of other offenses against Ameen: He became a financial officer for Al Qaeda in al-Anbar and took control over the military leadership in all Western areas of al-Qa'im and Rawah.
In 2006, Ameen launched an attack against he army headquarters in the Al Karabilah area, where he took soldiers as prisoners and executed them at the same time, the government document shows.
In his immigration application, Ameen said he was a trader in vegetables and was a truck driver in Iraq. He arrived in the U.S. in November 2014.
Ameen concealed his membership in terrorist groups when he applied for refugee status in the U.S. and later when he applied for a green card in the U.S., according to the Department of Justice.
Ameen stated in a 2014 refugee interview with U.S. Customs and Immigration Services in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... that he had returned to Iraq many times. He also had a resume that said he worked in Turkey through May 2014.
According to Ameen's resume prepared in 2018, Ameen listed that he was an auto mechanic in Sacramento from February 2016 until February 2018 after he worked for six months in Salt Lake City as a laborer and truck loader.
Before that, Ameen's resume listed that he worked in Turkey as a "house man" and construction laborer, and as a truck driver in Baghdad from 1996 to 2006.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/16/2018
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#1
Hope justice is slow, painful, and fatal
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/16/2018 8:28
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#2
Guy sounds good Kalifornia breeding stock. Turn him loose on bail who cares if never shows up in court?
[KhaamaPress] At least thirty militants have been killed as clearance operations continue in Ghazni city, the provincial capital of southeastern Ghazni province.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said at least 30 militants were killed during the airstrikes conducted in the vicinity of Ghazni city and the main route to Ghazni passing through Salar area of Midan Wardak province.
According to a statement released the defense ministry, at least two militants were also arrested during the same operations.
The statement further added that the clearance operations have concluded in Hyderabad, Hassanabad, Maghlan, and Nawabad areas of Ghazni city and five police stations have reopened.
The defense ministry also added that the militants have set on fire almost all public welfare institutions and compounds during the attack in Ghazni city.
The NATO-led Resolute Support Mission also released some pictures of the city on Tuesday and confirmed that the clearance operations are underway by the Afghan forces forces in the city.
This comes as sporadic clashes continued in Ghazni for several days after the Taliban attack on the city in the early hours of Friday morning.
[KhaamaPress] The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto has said the Taliban attack on Ghazni city has caused terrirble suffering to the civilians.
Quoting unconfirmed reports in his statement, Mr. Yamamoto said the civilian casualties as a result of the attack range from 110 to 150 people.
Yamamoto further added that reliable information indicates that the Ghazni Public Hospital is overwhelmed by a continuous influx of injured government forces, Taliban fighters and civilians.
He said reports also indicate that the situation in Ghazni for non-combatants remains particularly grim, as the fighting has led to electricity outages along with water and food shortages. Communication networks and media outlets have been shuttered, and roads remain blocked, preventing freedom of movement for families seeking safety.
“The extreme human suffering caused by the fighting in Ghazni highlights the urgent need for the war in Afghanistan to end,” he said, adding that the United Nations continues to maintain that there can be no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.
According to Yamamoto, the Afghan Government has extended an unprecedented overture to talk with the Taliban rather than to fight.” The most recent Eid ceasefire on 15-17 June illustrated to all Afghans, especially those too young to have known anything but war, what peace looks like. It is therefore vital for this war to come to an end through an Afghan-led negotiated settlement,” he said.
He also added that the fighting in Ghazni must stop and the fighting in Afghanistan must stop. Confidence-building steps that immediately reduce violence are crucial, and talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban are necessary to identify and expand common ground. The United Nations stands ready to support any endeavours that would advance peace in Afghanistan.
[KhaamaPress] The coalition forces officials in Afghanistan are saying that more than 220 militants were killed in the airstrikes conducted by the US forces during the Taliban attack on Ghazni city.
Resolute Support spokesman Army Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell in a statement has said “From a U.S. Forces-Afghanistan perspective, U.S. airpower has killed more than 220 Taliban since August 10.”
According to O’Donnell, the U.S. conducted an initial strike on Friday, and conducted five strikes on Saturday, 16 strikes on Sunday, and ten on Monday.
He said U.S. Army Apache helicopters from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Combat Aviation Brigade provided close-air support on Friday, Sunday, and Monday.
“In terms of Resolute Support assistance to the Afghan-led clearance operation, Task Force-Southeast, U.S. Special Forces and 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade advisors are providing advice on things such as clearance operations and combined-arms integration,” O’Donnell added.
This comes as the Taliban group launched a coordinated attack on Ghazni city in the early hours of Friday morning, sparking clashes that continued until late on Monday.
According to reports, the local residents have also sustained heavy casualties apart from the casualties inflicted on Taliban and security forces.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Four krazed killers, including a suicide kaboomer, were killed in an operation in Samarra, Salahuddin province, the Security Media Center said on Wednesday.
In a statement, Brig. Gen. Yahia Rasool, spokesperson for the center, said Samarra Operations Command "managed to besiege three terrorists, while the fourth, who was a suicide attacker, was killed after being shot."
Moreover, "a suicide attacker was killed, while another one was injured," Rasool said adding that the arms and explosives were found in al-Sayfouna region, east of Samarra.
"Wide-scale operation was carried out in al-Koush region, Um Khoyout and other regions in Samarra," Rasool added.
Idlib (Syria News) Hayat Tahrir al-Sham captured a number of persons, on Wednesday, on charges of helping the regime forces and promoting its activities, in the southern countryside of Idlib.
Enab Baladi news reported that Tahrir al-Sham militia has started a search campaign in the early morning hours, today, in the towns of Ma’ra Harma and al-Nakeer, in the southern countryside of Idlib.
It also pointed out that the militia has captured nine persons in Ma’ra Harma and four persons in al-Nakeer ares.
[CNN] An Abu Sayyaf subgroup leader was slain five other rebels surrendered to the military in two separate incidents in Sulu on Wednesday.
Reports from the Western Mindanao Command said Absulajim Abdulgani, also known as Suraka Ingog, was killed in a joint police and military operation in Patikul town's Kalimayahan Village. Recovered from the body of Abdulgani — an alleged Abu Sayyaf subgroup leader and bomb expert — were a .45-caliber pistol with magazine, ammunition, and ₱2,421 in cash.
In a separate incident, another listed Abu Sayyaf subgroup leader and four of his followers surrendered to troops Wednesday morning. Leader Ali Hassan and militants Omar Innol, Simal Alam, Kimbo Alam, and Hayudini Amil yielded to the Joint Task Force Sulu.
Posted by: ryuge ||
08/16/2018
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[Al Jazeera] New Zealand has rolled out legislation banning foreigners from buying existing homes in the country amid an ongoing housing crisis which has left tens of thousands of people homeless.
The Overseas Investment Amendment Bill, passed by parliament on Wednesday, is aimed at making housing more affordable for residents, particularly first-time buyers.
"This government believes that New Zealanders should not be outbid by wealthier foreign buyers," Associate Finance Minister David Parker, of the ruling Labour Party, said in a statement.
"Whether it's a beautiful lakeside or ocean-front estate, or a modest suburban house, this law ensures that the market for our homes is set in New Zealand, not on the international market," he added.
Foreigners who already own homes in the country will not be affected by the legislation, which also exempts Australian and Singapore nationals because of bilateral free-trade agreements.
International buyers will still be permitted to buy new properties and land to be used for house building projects.
About three percent of houses bought in the first three months of this year were purchased by foreign nationals, according to government statistics, with Chinese, Australian and UK citizens accounting for the largest contingent of international buyers.
In Auckland, the country's most populous city, foreign buyers accounted for almost six percent of all house purchases made during the same period.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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#4
No, humans are intrinsically territorial. Back then, there was only one rule of warfare, win or die. That quickly sorts out those who can versus those who talk. Nature solved the issue of who fights best, by weeding out those who were less capable of performing the function.
[IsraelTimes] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... ’s trade minister says increased tariffs have been imposed on 22 types of produce and goods imported from the United States, amounting to $533 million of extra duties.
Turkey announces Wednesday increased duties on US products including cars, tobacco and alcohol in retaliation to US sanctions and tariffs on Turkey in an on-going feud over the detention of an American pastor.
State-run Anadolu Agency quotes Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan as saying: "We have responded to the sanctions with $533 million dollars of extra tax."
She says: "The United States is an important trading partner, but it is not our only partner. We have other partners and alternative markets."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/16/2018
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#1
The way the Turkish lira's losing value, that $533M' in purchasing power will evaporate in two or three weeks. Nice try, Gollum!
[Al Jazeera] At least 22 children have drowned in Sudan when their boat sank in the Nile while they were on their way to school, according to official media.
A woman also died when the vessel went down around 750km north of the capital, Khartoum, with more than 40 children on board, the SUNA news agency reported on Wednesday.
The accident occurred when the boat's engine broke down as result of heavy rains and winds in Beheir district in the Nile River state.
Civil defense forces were still searching the Nile river for the bodies of the victims.
Villagers in the region rely on wooden boats to cross the Nile.
A witness told AFP news agency by telephone that the boat had been crossing the river against the current.
"All the families [in the area] are in mourning," added the witness, who did not want to be named.
Earlier on Wednesday, Sudanese authorities ordered the closure of schools across Khartoum amid heavy torrential rains and winds that have destroyed hundreds of homes in some provinces, including North Darfur and North Kordofan.
Nearly 40 people have been killed due to heavy rains since last week, including 10 in Khartoum, according to local media.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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#1
Surprised it wasn't reported as a drone strike.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) – An Iraqi civilian was killed and two others were wounded in a bomb attack in southern Kirkuk, a security source was quoted as saying.
“An explosive charge targeted a vehicle in al-Wasti district in southern Kirkuk, leaving an employee of the Sunni Endowment Diwan killed,” the source told the Baghdad Post website.
According to the source, the explosion left two other civilians wounded.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in most cases, is responsible for attacks targeting crowded areas, including markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.
Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) – Two Iraqi policemen were killed after a bomb exploded while they were inspecting the security situation in Kirkuk, security sources were quoted as saying.
“A bomb exploded today while a police vehicle was on patrol in al-Rashad district, south of Kirkuk,” the sources told Al-Watan Newspaper Wednesday.
According to the sources, the explosion left two security personnel dead.
[KhaamaPess] The Talibs group is considering a 4-day ceasefire during Eid al-Adha due to start next week, it has been reported.
Taliban ...Arabic for students... officials privy of the development have told Rooters that the leadership of the group would decide regarding the ceasefire on Tuesday or Wednesday.
"Our friends are advising us that we should announce a four-day ceasefire for the upcoming Eid-al Azha so that the people of Afghanistan can peacefully celebrate their Eid like they did two months ago," a Taliban official has said.
The official further added "The demand is for one week but our leadership may announce four days of ceasefire to enable the Afghan people to buy sacrificial animals and celebrate Eid-ul-Azha in a peaceful environment."
This comes as President Ghani had said the government is working on a similar ceasefire during the upcoming Eid al-Adha, according to the Office of the President, ARG Palace.
He made the remarks during a meeting with the representatives of the registered political parties in Kabul last week and while pointing towards the successful experience of the ceasefire with the Taliban during Eid al-Fitr.
Presidential spokesperson, Haroon Chakhansuri had earlier said that there are chances of another ceasefire announcement with the Taliban group during Eid al-Adha.
Speaking to news hounds in Kabul nearly two weeks ago, Chakhansuri further added that signs of interests are seen on all sides, the government and Taliban, to declare another ceasefire during the upcoming.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Three convicts were sentenced to life over providing 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.... with logistics in Nineveh, the Central Criminal Court decreed on Wednesday.
In a statement, Abdul Sattar al-Bayraqdar, Spokesperson for the High Judicial Council, said the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad "reviewed cases of three holy warriors, who confessed that they provided the holy warrior group with logistic support."
One of the convicts, according to the statement, "was in charge of training holy warriors, while the other was tasked with stealing money of security personnel and handing them to the group. The third one was in charge of manufacturing the so-called booby-trapped beads."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/16/2018
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
[Al Jazeera] A court in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... has ordered the release of Taner Kilic, honorary chair of Amnesia Amnesty International's Ottoman Turkish branch, the rights group said in a statement.
Kilic had been in pre-trial detention since June 2017, when he was tossed in the clink ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... alongside 22 lawyers for allegedly having links to an outlawed group who the government blames for a failed coup attempt in July 2016.
Authorities accused Kilic of using ByLock, an encrypted communication software which the government says is used by members of the group led by Fethullah Gülen ... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world... , a self-exiled holy man based in the US. Gulen denies any involvement in the coup bid.
Amnesty has consistently denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! against Kilic, saying he had never downloaded the application.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[DAWN] The Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... 's (PTI) official Twitter account on Wednesday retweeted a video of newly-elected MPA Imran Ali Shah apologising to a man he had physically assaulted a day before.
The video, apparently posted by Shah's own account, showed him hugging a man identified as 'Dawood', and looking apologetic. In another tweet, Shah posted pictures with the man as well.
Referring to the incident, the MPA said he "never wanted to take the law in [his] hand (sic), however, it was in a spur of a moment that I momentarily lost my cool and reacted in a way that brought embarrassment to my position, my party and my supporters".
A video of Shah slapping Dawood had gone viral on social media on Tuesday, sparking outrage on social media. The party leadership had taken notice of the incident and issued a show-cause notice to the MPA-elect. Senior party leader Firdous Naqvi had also tweeted that he had launched a probe.
Shah had subsequently posted a video apologising for "hurting anyone's feelings", and insisting that he had only "pushed" the man, even though the clip circulated on the internet had showed him raising his hand and hitting the man multiple times.
Shah further said that he had stepped out of his car after he saw the man "repeatedly hitting a poor man's car" and added that he "could not stand back and watch 'injustice' take place like this".
Meanwhile, ...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard... Facebook page It's all about Pakistain posted a statement attributed to Dawood's son questioning the writ of the state.
The statement claimed that Dawood was a senior additional director of the Civil Aviation Authority and a friend of both Firdaus Naqvi and Najeeb Haroon, a PTI MNA.
Haroon and Shah were on the same PTI panel (NA-256, PS-129) in the July 25 elections.
The post questioned if Shah would have still visited Dawood and offered an apology "if he was not the friend of Firdous Shamim sahab and Najeeb Haroon sahab".
The post referred to Shah's apology video, saying that even if Dawood had "bumped into another car and that man and my father exchanged some words", he had still not launched a physical attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[AmericanThinker] As wrong and warped as most leftists' views seem today, the reality is that most people on the left fight relentlessly for their cause. Can the majority of conservatives look themselves in the mirror and honestly say they fight for their beliefs and principles to the same degree as the left does?
Our U.S. Constitution is the rock of America, the foundation for maintaining our way of life. It is the main cog within the engine of freedom. Freedom is fragile and needs to be cared for. It can be sustained only through vigilance. A secure U.S. border, a respect for law enforcement, and a belief in a strong U.S. military are some of the key conservative principles that keep all of us safe and free. Individual liberty, limited government, lower taxes, and personal responsibility are among the many fundamental concepts we as conservatives need to continue to promote when confronting leftists.
When conservatives are able to clearly communicate their logic-based beliefs and principles to others, conservatism inevitably wins. It is imperative that we highlight the huge differences between conservatism and socialism. When we are able to illustrate these differences, most people begin rejecting socialism.
Individualism and critical thinking are integral parts within a free society, as opposed to collectivism and group thought, the two main components of socialism, which stagnate a society. Diversity of thought is an important concept for people who value a free society. Education and the encouragement of diversity of thought within our schools produce critical thinkers and entrepreneurs. The use of leftist indoctrination within our public school system ultimately creates a society inhabited by human drones, most of whom find contentment in becoming the parasites of society.
#1
When conservatives are able to clearly communicate their logic-based beliefs and principles to others, conservatism inevitably wins.
I doubt that. Idiocracy is on the march.
#2
Conservative: "...and this is Why I believe this."
Listener [waking up from light trance]: "Ummm, yes, all of that sounds reasonable..."
Socialist: "Free Stuff! You deserve it! Rich people are TOO Rich!"
Listener [coming alert]: "Ooooh! Free Stuff! I love Free Stuff!"
#3
its good to try , but youre correct, they plug their ears and stick out their tounges and continue to throw the worlds longest mass temper tantrum, it would is amazing to behold if it wasnt so annoying
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) ‐ An Iraqi commander said on Wednesday that 22 members of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group were killed during a wide-scale military operation in Diyala province bordering Iran.
Al-Tahreer News quoted Commander of Diyala Military Operations Mazhar al-Azzawi as saying in a statement that "Iraqi troops managed to kill 22 IS bandidosholy warriors as part of a wide-scale military operation that was launched in Hamrin Mountains in Diyala."
"The operation also left 24 Islamic State hotbeds destroyed," added the statement.
According to al-Azzawi, most IS bandidosholy warriors in Hamrin Mountains have been completely eliminated.
Diyala (IraqiNews.com) An Islamic State leader has been arrested in Diyala, a security source from the province said on Wednesday.
Speaking to Almaalomah website, the source said, “security forces managed to arrest an Islamic State leader in al-Saadiya region in Diyala.”
Information by the intelligence enabled security services to find him inside a house, the source said, adding that he was transferred to a detention cell for investigations.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/16/2018
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[DAWN] In an apparent attempt to fulfill the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI)'s promise for the creation of a new province comprising the southern part of Punjab, a PTI politician newly elected to the Punjab 1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots.... Assembly has submitted a resolution seeking the House recommend that the federal government initiate the process for the creation of a Southern Punjab province.
"This House strongly recommends to the federal government [that it] initiate the process of creation of Southern Punjab [province] immediately," reads the resolution submitted by MPA Mohammad Mohsin Leghari.
The PTI had included the formation of a new province in south Punjab to their election manifesto in May this year while absorbing a political party calling itself the Junoobi Punjab Suba Mahaz (JPSM; the South Punjab Province Front).
The JPSM mainly comprised estranged leaders of the PML-N who had formed the platform for the single-point agenda of carving a new province from the southern parts of Punjab.
Under the PTI-JPSM deal, the PTI was to set in motion the procedures to create a new province in south Punjab within 100 days if it formed the government.
Interestingly, the PTI's bitter opponents ‐ the PPP and the PML-N ‐ had also been vocal in their support for a new province in south Punjab.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Al Jazeera] Italian emergency workers pulled more bodies out of tons of broken concrete and twisted steel on Wednesday after a highway bridge collapsed in Genoa, raising the corpse count to at least 39 people.
A 50-metre section of the Morandi Bridge - part of a toll highway and one of the main arteries into the port city - collapsed at about 12pm local time on Tuesday, taking down with it about 35 cars and three trucks that had been crossing at the time.
Huge slabs of reinforced concrete plunged onto two warehouses, train tracks and a riverbed
Civil protection authorities confirmed Wednesday that 39 people had died and 15 were maimed. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said three children were among the dead.
Three people were missing and about a dozen remained hospitalised at death's door, authorities said.
Working with heavy equipment, rescuers climbed over concrete slabs with sniffer dogs searching for survivors or bodies.
The head of Genoa's public prosecutor's office, La Belle Francesco Cozzi, said he was ready to "open a file for negligent multiple homicide and disaster", and it would be against unknown persons "because the reasons for the tragedy are still unknown".
Engineering experts, noting the bridge was 51 years old, said corrosion and weather could have been factors in its collapse.
Mehdi Kashani, an associate professor in structural mechanics at the University of Southampton in the UK, said pressure from "dynamic loads," such as heavy traffic or strong winds, could have resulted in "fatigue damage" in the bridge's parts.
Bridge operator Autostrade per l'Italia said it had carried out regular, sophisticated checks on the structure before the disaster and these had provided reassuring results.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders read a statement from the president canceling former CIA chief's security clearance
Brennan is a longtime agent who ran the Puzzle Palace under President Obama and was at the helm during the Osama bin Laden raid
He served under Republican and Democratic presidents and has become a fierce Trump critic on Twitter; was a key figure in the launch of the Russia probe
Sanders read a list of other critics whose clearances are under review
They include James Clapper, James Comey, Michael Hayden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Bruce Ohr
Brennan tweeted in July that Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin was 'treasonous'
#6
Ref #5: “It was a topic of conversation within the office,” Mr. Bigley told The Times. “What is Halper doing, and why is he being paid astronomically more than others similarly situated?”
Halper's 'job' was very likely a cover for action (vehicle for payment) for other services not mentioned.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
08/16/2018 9:04
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#9
That MESH link is great. Nausea-inducing, but great. I get the feeling I am looking at an op, but not a home-grown op.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
08/16/2018 9:59
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#10
I don't like MI-6, Russians and Ukrainians all over the MESH op. I suspect Brennan and O and Hill are owned by those 3. Clinton's old witch All-Dim is all through the conspiracy too.
#11
MESH - sounds like a bunch of low level crooks, hacks, sleazoids, frauds, bullshit artists and con artists got together and call themselves a "high–level source network with a sophisticated investigative capability".
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/16/2018 11:44
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#12
Why did he still have a clearance? You leave the job, you get read off, and thats it, no more need to know = no more clerance. Thats how it worked after leaving the service, thats how it worked after leaving a contract job that required an SSBI type clearance. Why should he retain a clearance when he has NO NEED TO KNOW?
Posted by: Boss Spoper5850 ||
08/16/2018 13:15
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#16
But upon separation of federal service (retired big shots aside such as flag officers), your clearance is still "in scope" for two years if the investigation anniversary date has not passed. Two years ought to give people enough time to find a Beltway Bandit job.
#17
Pretty obviously this asshole will NOT be consulted in the future by this Admin. He's a treasonous cancer with known Islamic/Commie links. Why ANYONE thought he should be in intel is beyond me
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/16/2018 18:55
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[KhaamaPress] The 203rd Thunder Corps of the Afghan Military in the Southeast said a clash broke out between the Afghan forces and snuffies in Lwari area of Jani Khel district in Paktia province.
A statement by Thunder Corps stated that 17 snuffies were killed and at least 15 others sustained injuries during the same festivities.
Paktia has been among the relatively calm provinces in Southeastern parts of the country but the security situation has tanked comparatively during the recent months.
Talibs often carry out attacks against the security forces and government in some parts of the province
[KhaamaPress] The Afghan National Defense and security Forces foiled a plot by the anti-government armed militants to carry out a deadly attack in Gardez city by using a truck packed with explosives.
The provincial security chief of Paktia Dadullah Hotak said a truck packed with explosives was seized in Gardez city before the militants managed to use it in a deadly truck bombing.
He said the truck was sent from Miranshah in Pakistan and was confiscated during an operation this morning.
The security commandment of Paktia in a statement said the truck was confiscated from Banozai area of the city based on an intelligence tip off.
The statement further added that a large amount of explosives have been discovered from the truck after it was defused by the engineering team of the Afghan army.
According to the provincial security commandment, the militants wanted to detonate the truck bomb in an unknown location in Garde city.
The statement also added that an investigation is underway regarding the bombing plot but no suspect has been arrested so far.
[KhaamaPress] A key Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... commander'>Taliban Überstürmbannführer was killed with his harem of boy toys five comrades during an operation of the Afghan intelligence operatives in eastern Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan.
The provincial government in a statement said the bandidosbandidos bad boys were killed late on Monday night in Ghani Khel district after being ambushed by the National Directorate of Security ...the Afghan national intel agency... operatives.
The statement further added that the Taliban Überstürmbannführer killed during the operation has been identified as Aimal.
The bandidosbandidos bad boys were looking to carry out attacks on the district administrative compound of Ghani Khel and security outposts on the highway, the statement added.
According to the provincial government, the bandidosbandidos bad boys were attempting to flee the area when spotted by the security forces.
The other bandidosbandidos bad boys killed during the operation have been identified as Almas Afridi, Edris Afridi, Hamza Afridi, Abdullah, and Tufan, the provincial government said.
The statement also added that a hatchback vehicle and some weapons and munitions were also destroyed during the operation.
The weapons and munitions destroyed during the operation included a PKM machine gun, two rocket launchers and four Ak-47 assault rifles.
[KhaamaPress] At least 45 security personnel belonging to army and the Afghan Local Police (ALP) forces have bit the dust in the attack by the Death Eaters in Baghlan province.
Informed sources speaking on the condition of anonymity said the attack was carried out late on Tuesday night in Baghlan Markazi area.
The sources further added that a large number of Talibs attacked the Alauddin base, claiming the lives of 30 soldiers and 10 ALP forces.
According to the officials, the Talibs also sustained casualties during the festivities with the security forces. However, a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... there are no reports available regarding the casualties of the Death Eaters during the festivities.
Baghlan has been among the relatively calm provinces in the North but the security situation of the province has tanked during the recent years.
The Talibs often carry out coordinated attacks and other types of terrorist related activities in some remote parts of the province.
[DAWN] HERE’S the good news: the elections in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... may have been stolen by local strongmen from ostensibly establishment-backed religious groups. The bad news: the Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistain (TLP), a right-wing Barelvi group, may have legitimately won seats in Karachi.
The 2018 election witnessed the rise of the TLP, which has enabled the creation of powerful narratives about the legitimacy of bad boy thought among Pakistain’s voters. Experts claim the party has tapped into widely held beliefs, even in a relatively liberal and religiously diverse city like Karachi. On the other hand, the TLP may have also been part of an attempt to rig the polls against incumbents PML-N, PPP and MQM.
For perhaps the first time in Karachi’s history, it is possible to examine the legitimacy of these results. Thanks to the delimitation efforts of the Pakistain Bureau of Statistics and their census unit, each National Assembly seat in Karachi encapsulates at least one, if not two, complete provincial assembly constituency. For example, voters from PS-107 and PS-108 will only cast votes for NA-246 ‐ previously, provincial seats regularly intersected national seats.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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[DAWN] Local elders in Diamer on Wednesday handed over to security forces 15 suspects who allegedly facilitated those involved in the torching of schools in Diamer earlier this month, police said.
Diamer Superintendent Police (SP) Muhammad Ajmal said the suspects were wanted for their involvement in terrorist activities, including the burning of schools, and had facilitated other incidents.
The suspects had surrendered themselves to the elders and police during a joint search operation in the mountains of Diamer, the SP said.
He added that the search operation would remain ongoing until more suspects were locked away You have the right to remain silent... Strict legal action will be taken against them, SP Ajmal said.
On the night of August 2, more than a dozen schools ‐ half of which were girls-only centres ‐ had been burned down in Diamer by person or persons unknown.
According to an initial report of the incident, the "miscreants" carried out the attacks in an "organised manner". The assailants first vandalised the buildings and then set them on fire, said the report.
The report also claimed that the investigation uncovered "important evidence" that suggested that foreigners and some local controllers were involved in the incident.
A grand operation was launched in the area to trace and arrest the culprits following the decision of a meeting attended by bigwigs of security forces, law enforcement agencies, civil administration as well as locals. Later a police official was martyred and another official was maimed in an exchange of fire with gunnies during a raid on a house in Tanger tehsil.
On August 5, a judge going to attend the martyred police constable's funeral had escaped unhurt in a gun attack. However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... the gunnies who were hiding in the mountains continued to attack police and other government vehicles to stop them from using the roads leading to Tanger and Darel tehsils of Diamer district. Even locals faced difficulties in passing through the area.
Police said the prime suspect allegedly involved in the torching of girls schools, Shafiq, was killed in Tanger on August 5. However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... sources earlier told Dawn that the suspect was killed allegedly by the relatives of the policeman who had been attacked during the raid on a house on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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The world buys our cultural products because they like them, then there are complaints about cultural hegemony. Will this be complained about, too?
[The Guardian] Sperm from the US and Denmark dominate the market because those countries currently have the most supply, experts say.
lla Rasmussen’s doctors started to prod her about children when she turned 30. She was single, suffered from endometriosis, and contemplated a hysterectomy. After several years, the nudges took hold. Because she wasn’t a good candidate to freeze only her eggs, she was advised to undergo IVF and freeze fertilized embryos.
In 2016 Rasmussen, then living in Queensland in Australia, decided to take the plunge. A friend offered his services, but she worried that if she knew the father, but he wasn’t involved, she or her child could feel hurt. If she wanted sperm, she’d have to buy it.
For Rasmussen, a striking brunette of multi-ethnic background, looks or an attraction to the donor weren’t a factor. Neither was race; it would be difficult to match what she knew of her own ethnic background anyway. She wanted someone who might fit her family personality-wise. That included a love of music and a sense of humor.
In Australia, Rasmussen found fewer than 10 potential local donors. Her doctor told her that “because there’s such a small number of male sperm donors in Queensland, the quality isn’t very high, particularly as these particular men have been donating sperm for some time, and they are older generally”.
Her doctor made a recommendation: go American.
Her fertility center gave her the password to a protected site – the catalogue. It contained a mix of Australian and American men. “Go and have fun with it,” the andrologist suggested. “Invite your girlfriends around, have some wine and cheese, and choose a donor.”
Rasmussen didn’t like that idea. Instead, in the midst of the most modern method of starting a family, she embarked on the most old-fashioned: she let her father choose.
“My dating life has been kind of a running joke in the family. At that point I didn’t want to make a decision alone. I also thought it would be kind of nice to involve my father,” she said.
“He took my laptop and he logged in and he sat there looking very serious for about 45 minutes, and then he handed it back to me and said, ‘There’s only one.’” He wouldn’t tell her which, she recalled, laughing. “So I went through myself and had a look and in the end I came to exactly the same conclusion. I said the code number, and he’s like, ‘Yup.’”
For both father and daughter, the 23-year old, dark-haired American with a touch of acne was a clear-cut, one-in-20 standout.
[KhaamaPress] The 203rd Thunder Corps of the Afghan Military in the Southeast said at least 3 forces of Evil were killed during an Arclight airstrike conducted by the US forces in Khost province ... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name... According to Thunder Corps, the airstrike was carried out in the vicinity of Swi area of Shah Wali kot district.
[Al Jazeera] Thousands have taken to the streets of the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, to demand the release of hundreds tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! during nearly four months of anti-government protests in the country.
"Freedom, freedom!" demonstrators chanted as they marched on Wednesday, some carrying signs that read "justice and freedom" for those arrested.
According to the Civic Alliance, an organization representing the protesters, about 400 people who have been arrested since the protests began in mid-April remain in detention. Nearly 140 have been charged with crimes, including terrorism and organised crime, the organization said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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#1
I can't tell - I'm still dead from the repeal of 'net neutrality'. Funny how certain websites are completely silent on this matter after spending years telling us how fucking wonderful it was going to be.
[Twitter] Mohamed A. El-Erian
Verified account @elerianm
#Bloomberg reporting #Qatar pledged $15 billion "in direct investments in #Turkey."
This is part of the #Turkish government's strategy to avoid the #IMF by finding alternative external support.
To be a sustainable stabilizer, funding needs to be larger and reach the central bank Qatar has about $250B in their Sovereign wealth fund. Perhaps 10-20% of that is sufficiently liquid to prop up Erdogan for the next 6 months or so. Personally I won't shed a tear if Qatar takes a massive loss on this.
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/16/2018
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Three people were maimed Wednesday in a kaboom near a football pitch in Baghdad, a security source was quoted as saying.
Speaking to Baghdad Today website, the source said that "an explosive charge went off later today near a pitch in Abu Ghraib district in western Baghdad, leaving three people maimed."
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that ambulances took the injured into a nearby hospital for treatment.
[IsraelTimes] Paleostinian from southern Leb who moved to Belgium is accused of receiving military training from Hezbollah, transferring 'terror funds' to operatives in Europe
Israel tossed in the slammer Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! a Belgian national suspected of belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine, when he attempted to enter the country through the Allenby Crossing from Jordan last month, the Shin Bet security service said Wednesday.
Mustafa Haled Awad, 36, was born in a Paleostinian refugee camp in southern Leb and later moved to Belgium and received citizenship there. According to the Shin Bet, Awad joined the PFLP in 2010 and served the organization from Europe, maintaining contacts with operatives in Leb, Syria, Jordan and the West Bank.
"The investigation also found that Mustafa helped transfer terror funds from the ’Popular Front’ in Syria and Leb to operatives in Europe," the Shin Bet said.
According to the security service, Awad also trained with members of the Hezbollah terrorist group in Leb in 2015.
Awad was arrested when he tried to enter Israel from Jordan on July 19, but details of the case were kept under a court-issued gag order until now. The investigation into Awad was led by the Shin Bet and the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 unit.
The Central District Attorney’s Office is expected to file an indictment against the Belgian national for his activities with the terror group in the coming days, the Shin Bet said.
The announcement came as the Shin Bet faced renewed public scrutiny over its policies regarding interrogating foreign visitors to Israel at the airport and other border crossings.
"The investigation proves the threat posed by terror groups that bring in to their ranks people with foreign passports, which allows them to enter the State of Israel," the Shin Bet said.
The Marxist PFLP group has conducted a number of terror attacks against Israel and Israeli citizens since it was formed in 1967, including the liquidation of then-tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001.
In recent years, the PFLP has also been linked to Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis Iran.
"The Shin Bet will continue determinedly to thwart the threats posed by terror groups operating abroad against the State of Israel," the security service said.
[Al Jazeera] Since the conflict in Syria began in 2011, the government has been accused of "forcibly disappearing" tens of thousands of people, many of them peaceful protesters who later died or were killed in detention.
Armed opposition groups have also been responsible for the disappearance of activists in areas they control, but on a much smaller scale.
Among them was rights activist Razan Zaitouneh - one of the faces of the uprising against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... Zaitouneh, who founded the Violation Documentation Centre, was wanted by the Syrian government for her role in peaceful protests calling for its downfall.
Her centre kept track of atrocities and abuses committed not just by the government but the armed opposition, too.
In December 2013, Zaitouneh, along with three of her colleagues, including her husband, disappeared after being taken at gunpoint from their office in Douma.
Back then, the town on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, was surrounded by government forces but it was under the control of the opposition.
Fellow activists say Jaish al-Islam ...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful... (Army of Islam), arguably the most powerful group at the time, saw 36-year-old Zaitouneh as a threat. She promoted a civil administration and a secular state which were not in line with the group's ideology.
"We, the Violations Documentation Centre in Syria, are sure the Army of Islam kidnapped them," said Mazen Darwish, a Europe-based Syrian lawyer and a colleague of Zaitouneh.
"We have proof that Razan was in their jails and under their direct supervision. This was until the beginning of 2017 as we were able to trace her movements. Regrettably after the beginning of 2017, information was cut and we have no knowledge about Razan."
Jaish al-Islam, however, denied any involvement or knowledge of the kidnap.
"Jaish al-Islam was not the only faction in Douma at the time," Hamza Bayraqdar, a spokesperson for the group said.
"There was in the entire region forces from the Martyrs of Douma, forces of the Ghouta rising, the Islamic Union of the Levant and even the Nusra Front were present."
Earlier this year, Jaish al-Islam was forced to surrender besieged Douma to government forces.
Before leaving the area, Jaish al-Islam began releasing detainees from the Tawbeh prison. Witnesses say Razan and her colleagues were held there.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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[BBC] A mysterious Russian satellite displaying "very abnormal behaviour" has raised alarm in the US, according to a State Department official. "We don't know for certain what it is and there is no way to verify it," said assistant secretary Yleem Poblete at a conference in Switzerland on 14 August. She voiced fears that it was impossible to say if the object may be a weapon.
Russia has dismissed the comments as "unfounded, slanderous accusations based on suspicions".
The satellite in question was launched in October last year.
"[The satellite's] behaviour on-orbit was inconsistent with anything seen before from on-orbit inspection or space situational awareness capabilities, including other Russian inspection satellite activities," Ms Poblete told the conference on disarmament in Switzerland. "Russian intentions with respect to this satellite are unclear and are obviously a very troubling development," she added, citing recent comments made by the commander of Russia's Space Forces, who said adopting "new prototypes of weapons" was a key objective for the force. Ms Poblete said that the US had "serious concerns" that Russia was developing anti-satellite weapons.
Space weapons may be designed to cause damage in more subtle ways than traditional weapons like guns, which could cause a lot of debris in orbit, explained Alexandra Stickings, a research analyst at the Royal United Services Institute. "[Such weapons may include] lasers or microwave frequencies that could just stop [a satellite] working for a time, either disable it permanently without destroying it or disrupt it via jamming," she said.
But it was difficult to know what technology is available because so much information on space-based capabilities is classified, she added. She also said it would be very difficult to prove that any event causing interference in space was an intentional, hostile action by a specific nation state.
#1
Bet the Russians would love to have a nice long peek into the innards of the USAF's X-37B -and- whatever Top Secret payloads it has been hauling to orbit and back.
#6
I've read several of what are evidently retreads of this same article and I have a question. Just what is this 'abnormal behavior' in question. Does it tap dance, or sit around and make paper airplanes?
Remember, the basic trick of misdirection is to give you something to look at while keeping you from looking at something else.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/16/2018 8:34
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#7
ed in texas, it is a certainty that to describe that with an specificity would expose 'means and methods' since the article rules out such easily observable behaviors as orbit changes
#8
I'm sure it's a means to further control Trumpian collusion with Mother Russia.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/16/2018 10:29
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#9
Mr. President, in October of last year the Russian Ministry of Defense deployed a space object they claimed was a “space apparatus inspector.” But its behavior on-orbit was inconsistent with anything seen before from on-orbit inspection or space situational awareness capabilities, including other Russian inspection satellite activities. We are concerned with what appears to be very abnormal behavior by a declared “space apparatus inspector.”
[Al Jazeera] At least 48 people have been killed in a suicide kaboom in front of an education centre in the west of the Afghan capital, Kabul, according to the health ministry.
Wednesday's attack in the Shia neighbourhood of Dasht-e-Barchi left dozens more injured, Waheed Majrooh, a front man for Afghanistan's ministry of public health, told Al Jazeera.
The kaboom initially set off gunfire from Afghan guards in the area, leading to assumptions that there were more attackers involved, but officials later said all indications were that there was only one bomber.
"We can confirm the attack was caused by a jacket wallah on foot. The bomber let 'er rip inside the education centre," said Hashmat Stanikzai, police front man.
Abdul Hossain Hossainzada, a Shia community leader in the neighbourhood in western Kabul, said the bomber apparently targeted the course, which had young men and women studying together.
Ministry of Public Health officials added at least 67 people who have sustained injuries in the attack, have also been shifted to the hospitals for the treatment.
No individual or group has so far grabbed credit behind the attack so far.
The Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... group had earlier issued a statement confirming that the fighters of the group have no links with today’s attack in Dasht Barchi.
A jacket wallah struck a private education center in a Shiite neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday where high school graduates were preparing for university entrance exams, killing 48 young men and women and leaving behind a scene of devastation and tragedy.
The bombing, blamed on the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group, was the latest assault on Afghanistan's Shiite community, which has increasingly been targeted by Sunni gunnies who consider Shiites to be heretics.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2018
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[Bangkok Post] A woman and her teen daughter were gunned down in a drive-by shooting before assailants fled with their motorcycle in Narathiwat province last Saturday morning.
The fatal attack took place in Bacho district. Police, soldiers and rescue workers who rushed to the scene found the bodies of the two victims in a pool of blood on the road. Nittaya Kaenruang sustained two gunshot wounds to the right ear and chest. Her daughter, Atchariya Kaenruang was shot near the right ear and in the back.
A police investigation found that Ms Nittaya was riding a motorcycle from a local market to her home, with her daughter riding pillion. On the way, two men on a motorcycle followed them. At the scene, the pillion gunman opened fire at them, causing Ms Nittaya to lose control of her bike, which plunged into a ditch. The gunman then walked towards the two victims and fired more shots at them. He then fled on the victims’ motorcycle.
Police manning road checkpoints along the escape routes were asked to block the stolen motorcycle and the suspects fearing the stolen vehicle would be used in a motorcycle bomb.
Like I was saying a few days ago.
[Universal Hub] - A Suffolk Superior Court jury today convicted Rogelio Alvarado, 23, of two counts of assault and battery by discharging a firearm and two gun charges for a 2016 attack at the Maverick T stop that sent two men to the hospital - only one of them the rival gang member he was aiming for - the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports. A good boy, just turning his life around...
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.
[Yahoo] Budapest (AFP) - The foundation run by US billionaire George Soros said Thursday that the last of its operations in Hungary would cease by August 31, with its activities being transferred to Berlin.
[Star Tribune] Costs adding pressure to industry, coalition says. 
[Guardian] When I saw the photograph I could scarcely believe it was the same country. A picture of Brighton beach in 1976, featured in the Guardian a few weeks ago, appeared to show an alien race. Almost everyone was slim. I mentioned it on social media, then went on holiday. When I returned, I found that people were still debating it. The heated discussion prompted me to read more. How have we grown so fat, so fast? To my astonishment, almost every explanation proposed in the thread turned out to be untrue.
[Times of Israel] Rashida Tlaib, slated to be first woman of Palestinian heritage in Congress, claims two-state solution won't work; J street says it is seeking clarification.
[PJ] An Iraqi national who entered the U.S. as a refugee was arrested this afternoon on charges he participated in ISIS killings in Iraq in 2014.
[Daily Caller] One of the suspects arrested at a suspected Muslim "extremist" compound in New Mexico is a longtime illegal immigrant from Haiti who overstayed a visitor visa, immigration authorities said Wednesday.
[PJ] Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) "drew gasps from the crowd" on Wednesday when he belittled America in response to President Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan.
[KhaamaPress] The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto has said the Taliban attack on Ghazni city has caused terrirble suffering to the civilians.
[KhaamaPress] The coalition forces officials in Afghanistan are saying that more than 220 militants were killed in the airstrikes conducted by the US forces during the Taliban attack on Ghazni city.
[CNN] An Abu Sayyaf subgroup leader was slain five other rebels surrendered to the military in two separate incidents in Sulu on Wednesday.
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world...
lla Rasmussen’s doctors started to prod her about children when she turned 30. She was single, suffered from endometriosis, and contemplated a hysterectomy. After several years, the nudges took hold. Because she wasn’t a good candidate to freeze only her eggs, she was advised to undergo IVF and freeze fertilized embryos.
[Twitter] Mohamed A. El-Erian
Apelbaum: The Mechanics of Deception.
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...
[BBC] A mysterious Russian satellite displaying "very abnormal behaviour" has raised alarm in the US, according to a State Department official. "We don't know for certain what it is and there is no way to verify it," said assistant secretary Yleem Poblete at a conference in Switzerland on 14 August. She voiced fears that it was impossible to say if the object may be a weapon.
[Al Jazeera] At least 48 people have been killed in a suicide 
[Bangkok Post] A woman and her teen daughter were gunned down in a drive-by shooting before assailants fled with their motorcycle in Narathiwat province last Saturday morning. 
